Primal Dawn

The Fren growled towards Kalista, as if trying to scare her away. Kalista gritted her teeth and let out her own growl in response. Peter leaned upright, and the primal's attention snapped towards him. “Stay down!” Kalista shouted as she banged her sword against her shield, turning the Fren's focus towards her once more.

“O-okay,” Peter stammered.

The two primals seemed to be in a standoff, both emitting an intimidating aura against each other. After a few minutes, the Fren made her move. She leaped towards Kalista and attempted to swipe at her with her claws, the scraping sound of metal signaling she was able to block it with her shield.

Kalista thrust her sword forward, her blade nicking the Fren just barely. It tried to catch Kalista's outstretched wrist with its jaws in retaliation but failed. The two were locked in close combat for a while, with Kalista slowly building up a considerable amount of shallow cuts on the Fren's body. But Peter knew that shallow injuries like that wouldn't take down a primal, especially not with how spread out they were. In fact, Peter couldn't help but notice how well distributed the injuries were.

Suddenly, the Fren's skin began to grow red. “Kalista, watch out!” Peter shouted.

The primal lunged towards Kalista and attempted to take a bit out of her neck. Kalista managed to move just enough so that it ended up biting her shoulder instead.

Kalista screamed in pain as the Fren's jaws pressed in, finally tearing out flesh and part of Kalista's clothing alongside with it. Kalista began to bash the primal's face with the shield in rage, and managed to get a few hits in before pushing the primal off.

The Fren's nose seemed to be slightly crumpled and bleeding, but did not compare to Kalista's injury. The primal gave an ugly grin, and spit out a tattered piece of blood-stained white cloth. Kalista wiped the center of her shield against her blade, then shook a few drops of blood off. The primal's face contorted into a scowl and began her assault once more.

“Kalista, focus on blocking her attacks, don't swing at her!” Kalista could only nod in response. The Fren continued to scratch, claw, bite, anything it could to injure Kalista. But with her focus only on defending, she was able to block them all. Peter could see that she was beginning to grow tired, her injury not helping, but hoped for an opportunity to soon appear.

The Fren, growing impatient, tried to bite Kalista's shield bearing arm, but she pulled back just in time. “Now! Twin Cross!” The primal was at the perfect distance to be cut, Kalista's blade drew an X in her front side, the Fren howling in pain.

Her skin soon began to turn red again, and she pounced towards Kalista. “Quick! Shield Slam!” Kalista bashed the Fren with her shield mid leap, a resounding bang filling in the air from the blow to her head. Although her momentum still caused her to tackle Kalista, in her confusion she wasn't able to bite her. Kalista shoved her off, causing her to fall backwards onto the ground. Blood was now dripping profusely from her head, and the bleeding along her chest and stomach was worsening by the moment.

The Fren writhed on the floor, desperately pawing at her wounds as if trying to push the blood back inside of her. Kalista took her sword out and slowly approached the laying primal. Peter, feeling safer, stood up to get a better view of the primal's expression.

A mixture of anger and terror could be felt coming from her. The primal's eyes began to dart back and forth between Peter and Kalista. She soon began gasping.

“I don't think she will survive.” Kalista muterred.

Peter nodded. His hand rolled his summoning stone around in his palm. A mixture of emotions seemed to be running through him. All he could do was glare at the dying figure of the Fren.

“Kalista, do you remember what it was like inside the summoning stone? Or even before it?”

Kalista raised an eyebrow, but Peter paid her no attention. She thought for a moment, but shook her head. “I can't remember. Why?”

Peter grew silent amidst the choking sound the Fren began emitting. His grip loosened on the stone. “Please finish her off.”

Kalista nodded and stabbed the primal towards the heart. Her body briefly shuddered before going stiff, her gaze frozen towards Peter. Peter closed his eyes for a brief moment before using the stone. Her form soon disappeared, leaving traces of blood behind. Peter could feel a very faint energy emitting from the stone.

Kalista's hand touched his stomach. “You're hurt.”

Peter looked towards her shoulder. “Less than you. And less thanks to you.” He surveyed the area and found his discarded shirt, slightly wet from the primal's saliva. He took the clothing and wrapped it around Kalista's injury. Once satisfied, he inspected his work. Kalista made a motion of moving her arm around to show she could still fight.

Peter nodded and continued to stare at her. He hugged Kalista tightly. She wrapped his arms around his back and he began to shiver. “If you hadn't come...”

Kalista shook her head. “If I had been quicker...” She frowned and looked back towards the direction where she had arrived from the forest, while still cradling Peter. The two stayed like this for a short while, before Peter suddenly jolted.

“The others! We need to head back.” Kalista maintained her frown but nodded her head. Peter looked over himself, there was still some light bleeding and his crotch was completely exposed, but he hoped Deric and Kean could overlook that.

“This way.” Kalista pointed towards a direction. Peter began to walk with Kalista following close behind, her sword and shield ready. The pair walked silently through the forest for a while, before finally spotting the rest of their group.

Anda lay on the ground, her body heavily injured. Deep claw marks were spread all across her body. In some areas, missing spots of flesh could be seen where she had likely been bitten. Kya was hunched over her, her hands glowing as she continued to heal her. She also seemed to have a few injuries, but nowhere near to the extent of Anda.

Across from Kya was Deric, who had a ghostly look upon his face, with one hand holding Anda's. Upon feeling a new presence, he looked up for a brief moment to spot Peter and Kalista. For a moment, he seemed angry, but his expression calmed before turning his attention back to Anda.

“Kalista, can you keep a lookout for us?” Peter asked.

“Yes.” Peter spotted Kean sitting down resting against a nearby rock, and joined him. The group sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. Peter wasn't sure of what to say, so instead he anxiously kept scanning the trees in case more primals were lurking nearby.

Finally, Kya broke the silence. “She should be stable long enough for us to return,” she said between labored breaths. “Kean, I am out of energy..”

Deric squeezed Anda's hand. “We'll get you back to the guild soon.” Anda gave a light smile before Deric desummoned her. At the same time, Kean desummoned Kya as well, leaving the three men and Kalista.

“We need to head back fast.” Deric said to the others.

Peter nodded. “Kalista, can you protect us while we are running.”

“I will not fail,” Kalista said firmly.

The group headed out back towards Wildburry, maintaining a fast pace. At one point, Peter saw Kean begin to lag behind. “Deric, we need to slow down,” Peter said between pants. Deric looked back and appeared frustrated, but relented and slowed down his pace.

They soon arrived at the guild, and all three went to the medical section to have their primals healed. Peter finished first, and went to check on the others. Kya appeared close to being fully healed, and Anda seemed to have been doing much better.

Deric spotted Peter entering and plainly said “We'll meet up after tomorrow,” and turned his attention back towards Anda. Peter understood and turned to leave, with Kalista in tow.

He thought about handing in the summoning stone on his way out, but decided it was best to wait until he met up with the others.

It was late, and Peter felt incredibly tired, so he decided to head back towards the inn he was staying at.

On the way there, he and Kalista walked by a group of women. By their clothing, Peter recognized them as members of the Church of Pura. There were a few wearing robes, two distinct sets, while two were clad in heavy armor.

Peter could hear they were whispering something to each other as the two groups passed by, but couldn't make out what exactly they were saying.

“Look, sisters, at what has become of man.” Peter could hear a voice call out from behind, clearly targeted towards him. He stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around. “Rather than fornicate with his own, he would sooner strip himself of modesty, and lust over demons instead.”

Peter felt a twinge of anger and turned around. “Maybe the church would like to provide me with some clothes, then?”

A woman wearing robes laughed. “We don't waste our meager resources on corrupted men.” She turned and looked towards one of the women wearing armor who was looking towards Peter peculiarly and smiled. “A pity. Perhaps Knight Serina would offer you herself were you not busy pleasuring monsters instead.”

The one who Peter assumed to be Sister Serina tried to avert her gaze. “Perhaps,” she said, trying to sound disinterested.

Peter gritted his teeth. “I do not expose myself to entertain primals. I was assaulted and had my pants torn while fighting them. Tamers fight the same battle as-”

“So you dedicate your life to fighting demons and then go home and lay with them? Do not confuse our divine purpose with your sexual conquest. So long as foolish men like you give in to such temptations, the war against primals will never end. If you wish to truly defeat the primals, come find us once you've washed your body from their filth.”

Peter hands tightened into fists and began to tremble. Finally, he shook his head and turned to leave. Kalista lingered for a moment, angrily staring at them before running to catch up to Peter. It sounded like the women were jeering at him even as he left, but Peter drowned out their words with his anger.

When he arrived at the inn, he immediately went to his room to grab a shirt and a set of pants to change into. He then went downstairs and ordered some food for himself and Kalista to be brought to his room. Peter quickly devoured his portion and collapsed into his bed. After a short while, Kalista soon followed him under the covers, wrapped his body in a hug. It was a long time before Peter finally fell asleep.