Primal Dawn

“Group Four, Group Four!” Peter repeated. Neither the leader of Group Three nor the rest of Zilas’s crew gave him trouble yesterday. Erst was given up quite easily. Either nobody saw Peter’s actions as a threat yet, or the worst was yet to come. After a few minutes of fruitless shouting in the hopes others might join him, Peter grabbed Erst and their group set out. An hour later, they arrived before the portal to the fourth dungeon.

Just as they were about to enter, Peter paused. “Something wrong?” Erst asked.

“Maybe, I just… remembered something. Fira, stay outside and… defend the portal. Patrol in a wide circle around the clearing surrounding it.”

“Okay?” Fira replied, confused. The remainder of the group quickly stepped through the portal, soon arriving inside the Dungeon.

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” Peter arrived to the sound of Kaze’s shouting from the corner, numerous ferals spread out all around him. “Worthless whores!” He screamed as he beat his pummel into a feral repeatedly.

With each swing she let out a cry, her body briefly spasming. Kaze was hitting her back as she lay prone on the ground. Her fingers clawed at the ground until they became bloody, desperately trying to pull herself out from beneath his foot planted below her neck.

“WHERE IS IT?!” He shouted. “I’VE COMPLETED SO MANY. AND KILLED SO MUCH MORE. WHY ARE YOUR DROPS SO BAD?” Whack. Cry. Whack. Cry. “WHY?!”

Peter watched Kaze beat the helpless feral. He could barely manage to turn his attention away from the feral he was torturing. And the moment he had, some part of him wished he kept watching. Ferals were laying all around the room. Beaten. Bruised. But still unfortunately alive, else they would have disappeared. 

“Kaze…?”

Kaze instantly turned in his direction, a whirlwind of fear causing Peter to slightly jump. “YOU!”

“Ah…” A mistake. It was a mistake. Having his things stolen before seemed trivial compared to speaking Kaze’s name just now.

“Think me weak? Thought your slut was stronger? You’re all nothing compared to me!” he shouted while waving his sword. As he stepped by a feral, he slashed, splitting her from butt to brains, leaving a clear blue trail smoking between two fading halves. “Ferals, Primals, you’re just another number on my bar!”

“Peter, run,” Kalista said firmly while drawing her sword.

Peter’s brows shot up. “No. No!” Peter shouted. His legs were stiff. So hard. Harder than any sword. Any armor. Any feral. He couldn’t tell what it was that held him in this room, not fleeing into the portal. Was it fear, or courage?

“Peter!” Gaia shouted, shaking Peter.

He turned slightly to look towards her before returning his gaze to Kaze. “She can’t-”

Peter wasn’t able to finish his sentence as Gaia shoved him towards the portal. Spinning and screaming. Kalista. Kalista. He could only repeat her name in his mind as he traveled between locations. 

He flew out of the portal and onto the ground in the forest. Fira rushed over. “That was quick. What-”

“Away!” Peter ordered, standing up just in time for Gaia to fall through and on top of him, sending him back to the ground. “Why?!” he shouted, angry tears in his eyes. “Why? Why? Why?”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” Gaia yelled into Peter’s face as he struggled against her grasp, Erst arriving soon afterwards.

“Grab him! Kaze’s gone mad, we have to get out of here!” Gaia shouted towards Fira. 

“No! Let go!” Peter roared, now thrashing and raging. His arm glowed and Gaia abruptly dropped him, a startled Fira released him as well. “No one gets left behind!”

As if on cue, his primal materialized from the portal. Deep carves lining her armor. Leaning on her sword, she looked at Gaia and the others. "He was aiming to slip past me. Why are you still here? Run to Shantee, I’ll hold him as best as I can!"

Peter clenched his teeth. “No.” 

“Peter, if you don’t-” Kalista started. 

“Out of the way!” Peter roared while swiping his glowing hand through the air. Kalista nearly flew off to the side of the portal. “Erst! Your Arachnid! Cover the ground in front of the portal with a web, now!”

“On it!”

"The hero? You don't seriously intend to…" Fira started to say.

“Keep some distance!” he roared. “We’ll trap him at the portal!” Peter pointed at Erst. “Have your Trickster ready!”

“Elshee, use Net!” Erst commanded. A silken web shot out and landed beneath the portal. “Come on out, Silly!” Erst’s Trickster appeared next to him.

“Gaia, Nature’s Beauty!” Peter pointed towards the portal. His hand glowed. Even if Gaia hadn’t wanted to, she used the ability.

“You’re really going to try to take a hero on?!” Fira asked, panicking. “Have you lost your mind?!” Fira glanced back and forth between the portal and the forest.

“There’s no escape! He’ll just outrun you!” Fira looked at Peter with terror. “Consider this part of that favor I owe you!”

“But!” Just as the dust near the portal was beginning to rise, Kaze arrived. He tried to take a step but quickly stumbled face first into the web.

"Fira!"

"Flamethrower!"

Peter was already sweating even before the fire flew by him. Just as the torrent of flame was about to reach Kaze, "Wind Guard!" A wall of wind stretched out in front of him, the flames greedily consuming it and lifting upwards, a small explosion ringing out from the addition of dust.

“Ahahaha!” Kaze made a disgusting laugh as he rose to his feet. “A fucking camper. Without a tent! Rather than explain why your pathetic strategy didn’t work, I'll let you experience the difference between a bunch of animals and a true warrior! Apoth-e-osis!"

A miniature cyclone began to rapidly form beneath Kaze's feet. As it grew in intensity it lifted him into the air, his body now floating on ferocious winds. 

"Witness true power!" Whatever leaves remained on the trees nearby slowly began to be swept off their branches. As Kaze became less visible at the center of the storm, Peter could swear he began to see after-images of him swinging along the edges. The terrifying hybrid of wind and blade started to advance on them.

More sweat, remnants of the passing heat as well as the situation at hand. Peter’s eyes widened. “The wind,” he muttered. "Even if it doesn’t hit him… Fira!" He shouted as he turned towards her, staring in awe. “Keep a stream of fire going towards him!” 

“But-!”

“Just do it! Gaia, keep using your Nature’s Beauty on him! Erst, I hope your Trickster knows Fireball! And all of us need to keep pacing backwards, keep whatever distance you can!”

“Flamethrower!” 

“Nature’s Beauty!”

“Fireball!”

The trail of fire and dust caused small explosions to continuously coat the wall of wind protecting Kaze. The air began to blur from the heat, but the storm continued. It was rapidly closing in on them.

“Peter, just stop this and run!” Kalista begged.

“Fira! If you have anything stronger, now would be the time to use it!”

“I won’t be able to move afterwards, though!”

“If he reaches you there won’t be anything left to move!”

“...Then stand clear!” Fira took a wide stance and struck a pose, resembling a person flexing with their arms pointed down, her hands curled into fists. Gradually, they, along with her mouth, began to glow. With the ferocious winds nearby, and the sound of some of the dust Gaia threw still exploding, Peter nearly missed the single word that Fira muttered as she lifted her palms. “Annihilation.” 

An explosion of fire born of her mouth and hands raced towards Kaze. Just standing next to her, Peter thought the heat would cause his blood to boil.

Either oblivious or overconfident, Kaze didn't move out of the way, same as how he reacted to their previous attacks. He pressed onward, the storm against the inferno.

Very rapidly, the cyclone of wind quickly merged with the mass of fire and formed a flaming tornado. For a moment, Peter’s heart sank. Kaze’s path of destruction would now cut and cauterize in the same instant. Even more dangerous than before. That was what he feared, before the screaming began.

Kaze cried and howled enough to make the roar of fire seem quiet. The whirling flame began to float up in the air, no longer touching the ground as steam began to permeate. Slowly, the flames' spin began to slow as it reached higher and higher. Finally, the destructive construct dissipated and dropped Kaze, who plummeted over thirty feet to the ground, landing with a giant thud.

Fira collapsed, panting and exhausted.

Everyone remained silent for a moment having witnessed what just happened. Kalista suddenly began to run towards Kaze’s body, just as his mix of bubbly and charred arm twisted and reached toward his lower back.

With a swing of her weapon, the arm came clear off and landed a few feet away, holding an empty vial. It was now clear that he had reached into a pouch kept hidden beneath what was once his cloak. The white fabric was gone and the gold embroidery melted into the cloth container.

"Aaah." Peter could tell he was trying to scream, but the sound came out coarse and dry. "It hurts. It hurts so bad." Besides Kalista, who’d entered a stance in preparation of execution, no one moved a muscle. “Peter? Are you there?”

“...Yes.”

“Help me. Peter, please. I’m sorry. I…” Kaze lifted his head slightly off the ground. There was no longer a face. Like two eggs cracked open across a charred and sunken bread roll. “I was angry. It’s so hard… being a hero. So… lonely.”

“Kaze,” Peter paused. “You tried to kill us.”

“Please… the potion. Hurry.”

Although Kaze could not see him, Peter shook his head. “Sorry.” He looked towards Kalista, and if asked, would rather say he flinched than nodded.

Crunch.

Kaze's scorched head rolled away, exposing the insides of his neck.

Cooked. Peter could tell that Kaze had essentially been cooked, based on the colored rings of flesh now clearly visible. The fact that he had not been screaming in pain this whole time was nothing short of incredible.

And now he was dead.

"H-holy shit, man," Erst said. "You killed him."

Killed. He killed him. Kaze. He wasn’t all that nice. But dead. A human. Not a primal, not a feral, but human.

Peter let out a gasp. Choked. Breathed. He had nearly forgotten to.

"Yes. He's… dead. Kaze's dead."

Erst paused. "That means… that means the dungeon's all yours, right?!"

"Y-yeah. Yeah? Yeah…” Peter’s mind continued to race. Could he say that Kaze had attacked them? Would anyone even believe him? “Nobody can know that we… killed him, understand?"

Erst nodded. "Nobody would even care. Except Rand. Maybe. But he was the one who told Kaze to stay outside the fort in the first place."

Inspecting the corpse, Peter looked for anything valuable. For better or worse, Kaze had been so thoroughly scorched that there was almost nothing left to take.

One item was what Peter now realized was a Bag of Holding. They were one of the rare items which could be found in the chests at the end of Dungeons. They were coveted for two reasons. First, their magical interior allowed one to store many objects in a small space. So long as it could fit through the opening, anything could be stored inside, and the weight of the bag never changes.

The second reason, which now felt like a detriment, was that only the person who stored the item inside could retrieve it. This wasn't completely true as a primal could grab items their tamer stored, but in general, it was the rule. 

So all of Kaze's possessions kept inside were now lost. Peter had hoped that he could at least retrieve the catalog of primals, but that wasn't possible it seemed. It was a miracle that the bag survived so much damage.

As he picked it up, the bottom fell out, and the whole thing seemed to disintegrate into strands of string. 

No miracles allowed it seemed.

There was a second possession which Peter nearly overlooked. At Kaze's side was a sheath. The only thing extraordinary about its appearance was the fact that it was completely intact after the beating.

"This must have held his sword," Peter muttered aloud as he removed it. Instantly, it grew bright for a moment before reshaping and growing wider, and a crimson blade appeared within it. "No… was the real sacred item the sheath?"

He pulled out the sword and inspected it. It looked exactly as it did when Kaze last handed him the weapon.

Gaia approached him nervously, carrying the vial while avoiding his gaze. Upon a closer look, he saw that it was in fact full. The solution inside was so clear, it was nearly impossible to tell it held anything at all. Only jostling it around exposed the weight of liquid shaking around inside.

Peter looked towards Kaze’s corpse. If he had been prepared to drink this in such a state, it must have been some kind of healing potion. The idea that something could heal such injuries was as terrifying as impressive. "What a way to go," Peter muttered.

"What do we do with the body?" Erst asked.

Peter glanced at the portal.

Piece by piece. Crumb by crumb. They tossed the charred remains into the portal. The surrounding area was burned, and the trees a little more barren than they should be, but there was nothing to be done for that.

They stepped through the mystical entrance, and arrived inside the Dungeon just in time to see the black bits swallowed by the ground. Observing the space, Peter saw that a few of the ferals must have succumbed to their injuries, but others still remained.

They were enemies, but did not deserve to die like this.

Erst summoned his two primals which began to move between the ferals, finishing them off. Kalista did the same while Gaia and Fira watched. Peter began to wander around the room. The doorways were no longer producing ferals. It seemed this wave had been finished when Kaze had lost his mind. For how long had he tortured these ferals?

A bump against his foot returned his attention, and he became aware of soft sobbing. Daurus. Where a soft velvety tail would normally be was now a stub. Bloody ear on one side missing its match on the other. He looked around but none of their group’s primals were directly nearby. The soft scratching of fingers against the floor could only be interpreted as begging.

Hand around the hilt trembled slightly, but shaking did not prevent him from drawing the sword. The weapon was paradoxal. Light to hold, yet somehow seeing the Daurus, now heavy.

The crimson blade looks bloody without having even touched anything yet. Is this what Kalista always sees? The emotions swelling within him… what she feels? As he recalled her expression, he realized Kalista always had a blank, perhaps slightly serious stare.

Was she not bothered by death?

Something compelled Peter to turn around. Across the room while the others scattered, Kalista peered in his direction. Upon noticing him noticing her noticing him, she gave a short nod.

Peter stared back for a moment before returning his focus to the Daurus. Trying to recall the stance Kalista often took, he pointed the weapon downwards and focused on the neck.

Shnk.

Like a hot knife through butter. It passed through flesh with little resistance. All the twitching and clawing stopped. The Daurus was still, and soon began her transformation into fleeting blue sparkles.

Her clean death had nothing to do with any swordsmanship on his part. Were he holding any other sword, he was certain he’d have chipped her neck at best. The weapon was simply that powerful. How Kalista had managed to even step out of the portal alive having fought Kaze for even a second, Peter was not sure.

Click- The pedestal in the center. The red button reared its head.