The Primal Hunter

Chapter 957: Methodologies of War Chapter 957: Methodologies of War

”Fire,” Caleb said as a string of black beams shot out, landing on the creature as it roared in anger and pain. It turned toward the position of the snipers and began charging their way as Caleb spoke again. ”Activate illusory array four.”

A second later, the entire area seemed to warp slightly. The charging Prima Guardian didn’t even look like it noticed as it kept charging… but rather than head toward the snipers, it began to slightly curve to one side, with it soon running an entirely wrong way.

The array wouldn’t last long before the Guardian noticed, but it was good enough for now. Caleb directed the thirteenth and eighteenth squads of assassins to move in while the Guardian was distracted as ten people erupted from the shadows and attacked the boss, each unleashing powerful skills right away. Caleb also took the chance to glance at the boss yet another time, noting its growing injuries while also throwing in another Identify for the heck of it… and because he wanted to make sure this one couldn’t somehow evolve mid-combat, primarily because he remembered the one on Earth having a different name.

[Honored Prima Guardian – lvl 323]

Turning to look at the people that attacked it, the Guardian was faced with only shadows as the ten assassins retreated once more. Another barrage of sniper fire hit a moment later, this time from across the valley from the exact opposite side as the first attack.

Having noticed something was wrong, the Guardian began to release pulses of mana, both analyzing and disrupting the formations and arrays they had placed down in a massive area around the Prima Vessel. The response was quick, as the mages of the Court responded by disabling some of the magic circles temporarily, fooling the Prima into thinking it had destroyed them.

This was the first planet he had gone to after leaving Earth to help the Court of Shadows, and so far, he would say things were going well. The Prima Guardian was also surprisingly weak compared to the one he had fought before, yet pretty damn strong if the planet was meant to have faced it by itself.

Then again, they weren’t meant to face it yet, but after potentially over two and a half years, during which they would wipe out most Primas, leading to a weaker Prima Guardian, too. If this wasn’t the case, Caleb would have expected the majority of planets with enlightened across the universe to be wiped out, but as things were and the current rules… the Court of Shadows intelligence network put the expected percentage of planets who would end up ”destroyed” at twenty-two percent.

It was yet undecided if the Milky Way would drag this stat up or down… but Caleb would do his utmost to ensure it would go the right way.

He continued to direct the flow of combat as more than four thousand members of the Court of Shadows participated in this Prima Guardian hunt. Many of them were supportive members, helping with the formations and arrays to control the Guardian, but there were still over five hundred melee assassins on the battlefield and about an equal number of ranged attackers.

Individually, none of them could do much to the Guardian. However, the Court of Shadows did have some unique abilities that allowed them to still participate. Out of perhaps every faction in the entire multiverse, the Court was the best at having their members be able to still deal damage to things they really shouldn’t be able to even touch.

A random newly evolved D-grade attacking someone like Jake, more likely than not, wouldn’t do any damage at all. That is to say, you could get a million of the same guy and have them all attack, and unless they used some means to combine their attacks through rituals or formations, none of them would cause any harm. Jake’s durability would simply be too high for them. It was a threshold they couldn’t pass.

The Court of Shadows had ways to circumvent this threshold. Shadows were slippery and ethereal and could penetrate even the natural defenses granted by the system, even if the damage would be incredibly minor. Even a skilled D-grade assassin could deal damage to a peak C-grade with a single sniper bullet or a stab of their dagger.

Now, the damage would be absolutely negligible. As in, perhaps not even doing one health point’s worth of damage… but just the mere fact it did any kind of damage at all was massive.

Needless to say, a bunch of mid-tier C-grades attacking a late-tier C-grade could do far more than a single health point of damage with every blow, but individually, they really were too weak to stand a chance. Yet, in this battle, they were enabled and able to fully participate. All of this was part of the core strategy the Court of Shadows often deployed to take down dangerous foes:

Isolate, harass, kite, confuse, and wear down. If a target couldn’t be killed quickly, kill them slowly in a dragged-out assassination where you controlled all factors. Use the shadows to limit their Perception and hide away, never giving them time to recover, and eventually, even someone far more powerful than the assassins would eventually fall.

target instantly, that was preferable. In most

have a good chance in a one-on-one. It

point of this, though. This Prima Guardian system event was viewed as just another training exercise in the eyes of the higher-ups of the Court of Shadows, and Caleb going around killing by himself wouldn’t really help the natives learn anything,

Helping the natives get stronger themselves would reflect

to counter this with different elemental attacks carried out primarily through formations or ritual spells cast by some of the mages. Still, the affinities used were very similar, which did result in the

been ongoing for over ten hours with the Prima Guardian just slowly running out of steam, the entire reason why they needed these kinds of training exercises was shown. While there was a certain level of leeway in their strategy and many fail-safes, it was still possible for a group to

that’s exactly what

up, with the backup casters not ready in time to react. The assassins that had just emerged to follow up the attack of a group of snipers found themselves fully exposed as the Prima Guardian turned toward them, light magic channeling as the shadows meant to

even if it would

his power a bit, lest

this and other great novels on the

before it even had time to kill the first assassin. He didn’t mask his

with lightning, dark thunderclouds gathering above. Attacking again, Caleb landed several blows with his staff before the Guardian could properly adapt to his speed, the ground below the Prima Guardian exploding once more a moment later, sending a bolt of lightning flying toward

a moment as he channeled his energies and spoke, his words echoing through

“Thunderfall of Tenlucis.”

state, it simply wasn’t able to adapt to the oppressive powers of the black lightning as its body was burned from within, and its soul

[Honored Prima Guardian – lvl 323] – Bonus experience earned for

materialized himself in front of the burnt corpse of the Prima Guardian as he infused

work from most of you, but a sloppy finale. I expect a full report from all responsible squad leaders within two hours, outlining what went wrong and how to ensure it won’t happen again. We move to the next planet in ten hours, and I expect better

the multiverse, there were many methodologies of war with

things in common despite their antagonistic relationship, one of which was their hatred of being compared and people pointing out

those participating in a fight. Many forces in the multiverse focused on elite groups, minimizing losses and only bringing those who could actually put up a proper

the Risen nor the Holy Church had this approach, though it materialized differently. The Holy Church would gladly throw entire armies at singular, powerful people, sacrificing them all through rituals to empower their elites and bring victory. This had even been shown several times on Earth, both during

Church simply wouldn’t work. It was their faith that gave the Holy Church power, even in such rituals. Across the Milky Way

even viewing it as a privilige to be allowed to die in a ritual. Of course, to be allowed to be sacrificed, you needed to no longer be deemed a talent that could grow further to a higher grade, and the ones to go first tended to be those older and those who’d exhausted their

Holy Church operated as insane or even evil when evaluated with Earth’s morals… but the numbers simply didn’t lie. A system event like this Prima Guardian one was far from the first of its kind that had happened during the integration of a new universe, and in all those prior, the Holy Church held

the Holy Church did so well, either. They were the best faction in the multiverse at making the ”useless” useful in combat. Rather than large populations merely being statistics for an event boss to wipe out, they could be converted to tangible power that could help bring down the threat. Did this mean that sometimes, the majority of