The Primal Hunter

Caroline couldn’t even scream anymore as the metal spread from her heart until all that remained was a mannequin of iron. The low vitality and toughness of a healer became apparent, as she didn’t even have time to struggle before her death.

On the other hand, Richard was dumbfounded along with the still more than 30 elites around him. What the fuck was going on?

“Always the healer first,” William said, his voice cold, “And then you do the adds, followed by the big boss.”

With those words, metal slid up and covered his face, not even leaving any holes for air to seep through.

His spear was still stuck in Caroline’s corpse of metal as the two warriors closest to him made their move.

The first one swung down a massive heavy sword, aiming for the hand that held the spear. William didn’t even bother to dodge as the man hit his lower arm.

To the surprise of everyone but William, the arms didn’t even move. Instead, the warrior felt the impact reverberate up his arms, causing him to grunt in pain. The ground below William did sink in slightly, but otherwise, he didn’t really feel the blow very much.

Counteracting the force using metal manipulation on his armor was simplicity itself, while the enchantments Herrmann had placed on the armor nullified much of the impact. Along with that, William didn’t exactly rate the man very highly.

The other warrior simply stabbed towards William's back, his blade not finding any purchase either as it encountered the impenetrable armor.

“Boring,” a distorted voice sounded out from within the golem-like body.

Taking his spear out in a far faster motion than any of the warriors were capable of, he swung it to one side, slicing up the chest of the one with the heavy sword, while four blades seemed to emerge from the armor as they stabbed through another.

Instantly two warriors fell as Richard started to realize the gravity of the situation.

“FORMATION!” he yelled as they all shrugged off their groggy states and all retreated away from the metal caster.

The casters on Richard’s side began to condense spells, as the two archers that remained began to each channel a Powershot.

Not that William planned on letting them fire it, as more weapons emerged from his armor.

William didn’t have any spatial storage but instead used the Legacy of Herrmann Schmidt to summon his armory. It was akin to spatial storage in some ways, but in other ways, it wasn’t. The weapons didn’t physically exist but were constructed in real-time by the skill as he used them.

It allowed William to summon creations of the late smith. Swords, axes, spears, daggers, all sorts of weapons, and some pieces of armor. Though the young caster didn’t need that part of the ability, as he was more than fine when it came to his defenses.

It did cost him mana to create these weapons, but it was nothing compared to using his other metal-creation skill.

These weapons were now flying out one by one from his body as he focused his mind on controlling them. When he had first gotten the skill Metal Manipulation, he could manage only a few daggers. It rapidly progressed from three to four to five, and so on and so forth.

Now, more than twenty weapons that were far bigger than a dagger flew around him with erratic movements. Like a school of fish, they bombarded the poor warriors, who could only scream and run as the nearly two dozen weapons chased them down pointy-end first.

Seeing that this couldn’t go on, Richard charged towards William as he released a shockwave of force. While the young caster's armor gave him incredible defenses, it did have its limits as he was blasted backward, momentarily losing control of some of the flying weapons.

raised his spear and met Richard's glowing sword with it. A mighty clash of caster and warrior ended as one would expect, with William pushed back, forced to retreat

blows got faster, as William was forced to retreat as he started feeling a bit dizzy from the impacts. It was like he was stuck inside a giant bell as the man hammered it with his sword. Without the enchantments, William would, without a doubt, be spitting out blood from internal

get far as a Powershot hit him in the chest, making him nearly fall over from the impact. The arrow

in a much better state as his arm looked decrepit and weak. He looked in an even worse shape after more than twenty swords

didn’t manage to raise his shield in time. The spear

stats significantly while wielding it, and the

could turn anyone it hit into metal, it only worked on living things, which meant that William had to penetrate flesh to activate it. Something Richard currently hadn’t allowed him to do, as he either dodged or blocked every

of them was agility-focused in any way, but their speed was nevertheless impressive even to

at first, one had to consider the entire situation. Richard did manage to face him in melee combat, but this was all while William simultaneously

the warriors who managed to approach him. While he could shrug off most attacks,

side as William dodged backward frantically. Another flood

unlike what Herrmann had done to finish his armor. In return for

wind, as he with a yell, fired a torrent of flame behind him, propelling towards William. With a fright, the metal manipulator tried to get away but was blocked by Richard, who

explosion, the burning caster detonated himself like a living bomb, with William only barely managing to summon his trusty Wall of Iron in front of him to take the worst off the

washed over him as he was cooked within his armor. While the armor provided exceptional defense towards physical attacks, it was far from good against elemental ones. The pain was unbearable as he felt his arms and chest heat up and blister as he blocked the torrent

Not a single trace of the caster remained, save for the vast area

a deep breath. His stamina was getting dangerously low after

Spear of Ferroras was also nowhere to be found, as it too had been dispelled. A total of eight people and one unmoving suit of

the fight with Desmond had only worsened. One of the warriors even missed an arm as William had managed to

notification had been received which meant that the monster that dwelled

like something was wrong. Very wrong. The caster was the first one to notice as he exclaimed: “Watch out! He is doing something with

time, a figure came out of nothing. A man with only a single arm and a rapier flew past everyone as its tip found purchase in the man standing

and avoid getting hit in the heart. In the same motions, he turned and, with a swift

the moment William’s

“Vortex of Steel.”

within the armor as the ground started shaking. Small shards of unprocessed metal

had to remember exactly where they were. On a battlefield with dozens of bodies all within a few hundred meters. All of them with

was soon followed by other tools and articles of metal.

found their way towards him. An unlucky warrior also started getting sucked in as he was impacted by an object, followed

his mouth wide open as

sounded out once

out from the twister as it started expanding in scale. It carved a path through the forest, cutting up and even felling

single scream out before the torso of what had once been a heavy warrior collided with his head with the velocity of a speeding car, knocking him out instantly.

was brief but effective as it slowly died

the vortex's epicenter: the one who had summoned it and Richard. The warrior who had

Both his arms and one of his legs were completely twisted, with his shield and sword nowhere to be found - a horrendous wound seeping out blood from where the warrior stabbed him

armor slowly got up as the armor started retracting back into

was a monstrous appearance, as every area of his body had suffered severe burns. Not a single spec of hair remained, and vast parts of

looked up at the young man. He had been stupid…