Volume 1 - Chapter 2 Primal

The Flashing Steels target has been slain by a man that seems to be living in the jungle. In other words, the jungle ghost itself

"Huh? I can assure ya I ain't no ghost. Not that they exist anyway. I'm all flesh and bones as ya can see." Said the young man showing his body with a lot of scars.

Rednar approaches the young man with anger with a dagger in his eyes and points in the face of the young man a dagger made of fire El-ergy.

"How are you going to pay for that!"

"Pay for what?" He replied with confusion

"You used OUR weapons and broke them but not only that, you stole OUR target! You think we will let you walk away like that!"

The young man looks at his hand, still holding the handle of Quenbar's silver blade. It was completely shattered. The young man scoffed and threw it away.

"Ya can always get another one or even better ya can use this corpse to make a stronger weapon! Though I would like to have some for myself"

Rednar, frustrated by his nonchalant attitude, tries to stab him. He fails as the young man reacts fast, and counters him with a quick jab in his abdomen. Rednar not expecting this fall on his knees holding his abdomen gasping for air.

"I don't know what ya playing at but that ain't how ya show gratitude to someone who saved ya. Where y'all come from anyway. I can tell y'all not from here."

Quenbar stepped in front of him trying to intimidate him with his height.

"Excuse me jungle ghost we are f-"

"I told ya I aint no ghost! The name is Kalderic and I'm human like ya"

"You human? Don't make me laugh. This strength of yours and the lack of El-ergy coming from you makes you less than human, primate!"

"What?"

Kalderic is confused by Quenbar's statement. What about him makes him less human. He notices that Quenbar's hand was holding his last silver blade tightly. He understood that this situation wouldn't turn out great. So much for saving these people, Kalderic told himself.

"We saw the wanted posters. You are a threat to town and the residents want us to get rid of you"

"Well that's news to me. I never hurt their people. I even saved them many times."

"I don't care. My point is that you are wanted and on top of that you stole our target that we got paid for to exterminate. Stealing our joy of the hunt. You will have to give us compensation."

As Quenbar talks to him, he notices that Ferinda and Rednar were slowly taking a triangle formation, making sure he can't escape.

A smile cracked in Kalderic's face and he slowly put his guard up. Without hesitation Quenbar attempts to do a quick draw but Kalderic stops his hand. Ferinda and Rednard dash towards him from behind. With his foot, he kicked a huge amount of dust blinding the two of them which gave him a bit of time to counter attack Quenbar. He pushes him back and Quenbar quickly draws his silver blade, attempting to hit Kalderic. Unlike them, Kalderic still has a lot of energy and didn't take much damage fighting the chaos born. Quenbar's attacks were sloppy. The only thing that was making him still able to fight at this point was a pure rush of adrenaline. On top of that the man in front of him wasn't even an Elemantalist. He's a primal.

Primals are a rare race of humans on LoM. It is theorized that they are almost extinct. Unlike Elemantalist who can wield El-ergy to give a physical form to the power of elements, Primals are numb to it. Over the course of a million years of human evolution, Primals were the only race on LoM who had to protect themselves against chaos borns without El-ergy. To compensate they had an inner primitive super strength that they inherited from the first humans of LoM.

Quenbar was excited about this turn of events. He found the so-called jungle ghost and it happens to be a Primal. If he fails hunting him now, he knows where he can find him and come back another day. He was willing to do it for free.

Kalderic keeps evading Quenbar's attack effortlessly. Getting tired of this charade, he attempts to retreat deep in the jungle. But before he could even do that, an earth wall surges from the ground. Aris regained consciousness for a short moment. It seems like he acted on instinct.

The wall surprised Kalderic, which made him hesitate. Rednar took this opportunity to launch fire El-ergy daggers. Kalderic destroys the earth wall and uses the debris as projectile to counter the fiery attacks causing a smoke screen. Ferinda suddenly emerges from the smoke and almost manages to stab him. With his good reflexes he dodged the sting blade but left a small scratch on his face.

He grabs her arm and slams her on the ground, hard enough to make her lose consciousness on impact. Quenbar doesn't wait and pursue with relentless blade swing.

"STOP DODGING AND FIGHT BACK YOU PRIMATE!" Shouted Quenbar's with frustration

"Ya sure ya want that?"

With a cocky smile on his face, Kalderic makes a fist and tense up his arms muscles. In one punch he destroyed the shining silver armor and the force of it was strong enough to push him away far enough to crash on a tree.The tree fell down on impact. Rednar is the last man standing. He's shocked to see his leader, the strongest of his team getting knocked down in one punch. Kalderic is looking in his direction and by fear he raises his arms showing that he is giving up.

"Wise choice!" Said Kalderic in a mocking tone

He goes toward Quenbar who barely can keep his eyes open. He takes his silver blade. He analyzes it to see if it's still in good condition.

“Hands and feet are your best weapons but against chaos borns, one weapon or two can always be useful. I will take this as compensation for saving y'all. Ya red hair man take your friends out of the jungle. It's dangerous at night and I ain't savin y'all twice.”

He dash through the forest leaving the hunters he effortlessly defeated behind. What happens this day would hurt the Flashing Steels ego and one thing for sure, this won't be their last encounter.

***

The night settles in the jungle. The animals are sound asleep and more relaxed than usual as the threat that came in disturbing the peace has finally been vanquished.

Kalderic climbs on a tree where his hidden tree hut was located. The tree hut was covered with a lot of leafage so it wouldn't be spotted on a first glance when the locals in the town nearby make their patrol. Once inside, he puts away his new weapon that he acquired in some type of box made of wood. It had a bunch of weapons that were in bad condition but just good enough to hunt or fight back against predators in the jungle.

After a day fighting a chaos born of that size, it made Kalderic's stomach empty. He sits down in front of a hearth that he installed in front of the tree hut window. He scratched two flint stones together to start a fire and once the wood started to burn, he took a piece of the stonapia he hunted this morning and let it roast.

"With that chaos born gone, hunting should be easier. Back being the apex of the jungle!" He said with joy.

After a couple minutes he takes off the piece of meat and goes sitting on the roof to eat while enjoying the starry sky. The moon was full and the atmosphere was relaxing.

Kalderic has been hunting that gorilla chaos born for about three months now. Since he's only a Primal, there's a limit to what he could achieve with his fist and damaged weapons. Luckily, he was skilled enough to keep the beast away from him, all thanks to his grandpa.

His late grandpa taught him everything about chaos born hunting. Using the innate primitive super strength to the best of its abilities and also how to use many different weapons instead of settling for one. After all depending on the creature you are facing certain weapons would have advantages but over the years the chaos borns became stronger and evolved to adapt to the current apex of LoM which are the Elemantalist.

Elemantalist are considered to be the superior human race on LoM. They could wield different elemental powers by manifesting this form of energy from within or around them called El-ergy. Humans were not the only ones who can use it. Chaos borns and their descendants, the Darklings could use it as well. This is why in a world where most living beings can use such power, the ones who can't quickly fade out from the surface of LoM.

Since his younger days, Kalderic has always believed that he and his grandpa might be the last of their kind. Especially nowadays since his grandpa disappeared seven years ago on a night of a full moon like this one. He searched all around the jungle for his body but never found it. Maybe an animal ate it. He wonders what managed to kill him or made him disappear. Kalderic's grandpa was a strong Primal man. Strong enough to go toe to toe against a chaos born with only his raw primitive strength. He rarely used weapons as he believed the best weapon a human has is its own body. With proper training and a good diet a human can surpass any sort of weapon of LoM. This was a privilege that Primals like him and Kalderic share with their strong bodies they have from birth.

Kalderic finishes his meal and gets ready to sleep. He takes a look again at his new weapon remembering the confrontation against those Elemantalist.

"I wonder if they manage to get out of the jungle? Well if not they will feed the animals here."

He jumps on his hamac and his eyelids become heavy, falling in a deep slumber.

***

In Palmarina, at the gate leading to the jungle, the Elemental Guardians were restless. They were aware that a team of Fantasm Hunters went hunting but it's already the middle of the night and there were no signs of them coming back. One of the guards was ready to report it to the headmaster but before he could even proceed, someone rushed out of the jungle. It was the Flashing Steels. The guards were shocked by their appearance. They look defeated and barely able to walk.

"WHAT ARE YOU GAWKING AT HUH?! HELP US ALREADY!" snapped Rednar. He was dragging Aris unconscious heavy body. "This guy needs to stop eating like a damn pig!"

Ferinda who had regained consciousness after the end of their confrontation with the Primal man, was supporting Quenbar walking. She was about to fall on her knee at any moment. This was the first time in a long time in their successful Fantasm Hunter careers they have known defeat. Quenbar never felt so angry in his life. He was helpless against a chaos born, his silver armor which was a gift from a Duke was completely destroyed and his weapon got stolen by an ‘inferior’ being. All those setbacks made him see red and he only wanted one thing. Go back in the forest as soon as possible and hunt the Primal man.

They were sent to the local clinic for Fantasm Hunters, having their wounds healed by Elemantalist that could use healing El-ergy techniques. The headmaster quickly arrives at the clinic out of breath. He saw the state of the hunters and was worried that they had failed. He also noticed that their guide was nowhere to be found

"Where is the guide that was assigned to you? Please don't tell me he-"

"Squashed up like a mere insect. The chaos born attacked us by surprise and..." Rednar hesitates to continue explaining what happened in their hunt. He remembered how cocky he was toward the headmaster earlier today just to end up in this state.

"Oh...I see...I...I will prepare myself to deliver the news to his family." Said Malrick looking down with sadness.

"H-how about the chaos born? Did you guys manage to kill it?"

The room went silent. The beast was indeed dead but they couldn't claim that they were the ones who took it down. After all, an unexpected guest stole the kill. Quenbar saw an opportunity at this moment. He concocted a lie in his mind that will allow him to get his revenge. He sits down on the bed with a sinister smile on his face. To Malrick this looked like the smile of a man satisfied with his work but to Ferinda and Rednar, they knew this face was him having other plans.

"We killed the chaos born as intended but we had a ‘little’ trouble while hunting it as you can see. If you want my humble hunter opinion, this job is not done yet."

"What do you mean?" Asked Malrick

"The jungle ghost, we were fortunate to encounter IT. It is the cause of why this hunt gives us more trouble than we expected and it could be a problem for your town as well if nobody does something about it."

Malrick couldn't believe what he just said. It is the first time he heard a report about the jungle ghost being aggressive towards humans. Has it grown a taste for humans after all those years residing in the jungle? This will indeed be a big problem if it comes attacking the town while the passion festival is on going. Malrick has to make a decision but they only prepared the funds for the chaos born hunting commission. There is no way the hunters would work for free and the ones of Palmarina are not strong enough to go hunting a ghost that even B-rank hunters had trouble with.

"Fret not!" Said Quenbar. "Us, the Flashing Steels, will hunt the jungle ghost and no need to pay us extra LoiMs."

" Are you serious? Thank you sir! This will greatly help us!"

"Though we don't need extra monetary compensation, I have one condition."

"What is it?"

"As you can see, my teammates' armour and weapons are in bad condition. We would like the finest arsenal you can provide us. Free of charge of course."

"I will see what I can do."

"You WILL do it." Insisted Quenbar. "The sooner you can get us good weapons and armor the sooner we can get hunting."

Malrick shows how grateful he is towards the Flashing Steels and leaves the clinic in a hurry. Things could turn for the brighter for Palmarina. On the other hand, Ferinda wasn't satisfied with this. She wanted extra LoiMs since confronting a Primal is not a common thing to do. Matter of fact this was a man hunt so even more reason to get extra compensation. She knows better that nothing will change their leader’s mind. The two other men would probably won't complain about it either. Their pride has been hurt and they will do anything to heal it.

Men really do have fragile egos, Ferinda tells herself. The night is still young and decided there's no point in thinking about how they could get a better deal out of this extra work. She laid on her back on the clinic bed looking at the wooden ceiling until her eyes closed and fell into a deep slumber.

***

Kalderic was in a deep slumber, so deep that it felt like nothing could wake him up. That was until the ground started shaking. It didn't wake him up at first until his hamac balanced from left to right and dropped him on the thick wooden floor. Kalderic was still half asleep and he was annoyed by the earthquake. It is not the first time this happens, at least once a month. This has been bothering him for a while and he always wonders what can cause it. It didn't seem to be a natural earthquake and there's no animals or chaos borns big enough to make this kind of tremor. Also it seems like only the jungle is affected by it. The town nearby never got affected by it. He came to the conclusion there must be something underground that he is not aware of.

"Alright! That's enough! Imma find what's lurking down there tonight!" Said Kalderic to himself while stretching his arms.

He gears himself up in case he encounters something that might be too much to handle with only his fist alone. The first thing he takes from his weapons collection is the newly acquired silver blade. He looked at his reflection on the blade and played with his hair realising that maybe it would be a good idea to trim it a little so it wouldn't be in his way. His grandpa always kept his hair short and attached it with some vines he found in the jungle. He always ended up having bugs in his hair which Kalderic wasn't a fan of. After contemplating his look on the blade, he puts it on his back by attaching it with a rope, and takes some damaged daggers that he found.

He jumps down from his tree hut and tries to detect where the tremor originated from by putting his ear on the ground. It was hard to tell as the tremor was slowly getting weaker but with enough focus, Kalderic managed to notice that the sound of the tremor was slowly going towards the southwest of the jungle. He is familiar with the jungle and knows that from his position, there was an empty beach. No animals reside there, matter of fact they were scared to even go there. Even the chaos born gorilla never dared to go there. This made Kalderic even more curious. He runs through the jungle swiftly towards that direction and hopefully this wouldn't be a useless trip.

After a while, Kalderic finally arrives at the empty beach. Like he expected, there was nothing there. Just the waves crashing to the shores and like usual, far in the horizon he could see islands covered by a mysterious dark fog. He was curious about those islands as well but that wasn't tonight's goal. He takes a walk on the empty beach, paying attention to its environment. After walking for a couple minutes, he found nothing. He climbs up on a cliff that was high enough to give him a new perspective. The cliff is slippery and gives a bit of a hard time to Kalderic to climb. To avoid falling, he made sure with his finger strength to dig into the rock so he has a good grip. After reaching the top of the cliff, Kalderic walks to its edge and takes a look around. Still nothing.

"Come on! I'm sure the tremor sounds ended there!" He said with frustration.

He looked down, observing the waves hitting it. Disappointed he walked back but then, he noticed something. Just on the other side below the cliff, there is an entrance to a grotto. This was the first time Kalderic saw this and was not familiar with coastal caves.

Excited with this discovery, Kalderic jumps down thinking the water is deep enough to dive in. Upon landing he finds out that it was not deep enough making him crash on land. Luckily the body of Primal is strong enough to handle free fall from this height. Shaking his legs from the small pain of the fall, he proceeds inside the grotto entrance. It was oddly hot there which is surprising. He expected to be somewhat cold there but then he remembered something that his grandpa told him once.

Across LoM there were mysterious places such as ruins from old civilizations or caves that were affected by a high concentration of El-ergy which would create anomalies to the environment. Those zones were called dungeons. Within those resides powerful animals who wield El-ergy that even Elemantalist would have a hard time to handle.

This is going to be the first time Kalderic would step inside a dungeon. He is excited but at the same time he hesitates to go further in. Before he could make a firm decision, something dived in his direction. Kalderic steps back quickly and takes a stance ready to fight. The animal gets its head out of the water and shakes it. It had long ears, red eyes and a sharp beak with teeth. Kalderic easily identified that it was a chaos born because of the dark scales on its wings. It screeched loudly, which alerted more of its kind. About a dozen of them were flying around Kalderic and blocking the exit of the dungeon.

"Eeh? So you're a smart one ain't ya?"

The chaos borns launch coordinated diving attacks. Kalderic jumps around dodging them and manages to grab one by its beak and throw it to a bunch of them which they crash on the wall. One of them who was close to the grotto's ceiling launched a corrupted sound wave attack that blasted through the water causing a huge splash. Kalderic protects his face with his arm and has brought them down, two chaos born surge out from the water column. He pulls out from his back the silver blade and uses it to block their incoming attack, knocking him backward. Two of these creatures in the air launch another dark sound wave attack towards him which directly hits him.

Kalderic's ears were ringing and his sight was blurred. He had a hard time concentrating on the fight and standing. One of the creatures dived at high speed towards him. Since his sight was not usable, he closed his eyes and took a firm grip on his silver blade. Flexing all his muscles in both legs, he leaped through the air and cut the head of the chaos born. He was relying on his instinct. Now he's mid air, three of the chaos born take the opportunity to attack at the same time.

He throws the silver blade at one of them which pins it down on the ground. He takes out from his waist two damaged daggers to parry the beaks of the two chaos born. By parrying them he managed to flip his body mid air giving a powerful axe kick to one of them. It was powerful enough to make it crash on the ground head first. He stabbed the eye of the other one. The annoying ringing sound was slowly fading away and his vision was stabilizing. Now that his senses slowly come back to normal, without a moment of hesitation, as he lands, he dashes towards his silver blade and slits the throat of the creature with his dagger.

With no time to rest, he ran as fast as he could towards the wall while the chaos born were pursuing him. They launch multiple corrupted sound waves attacks. When he reaches the wall, he uses it as a platform to jump towards the flock and slash three of them at the same time. Just six of them left. The remaining chaos born were more wary of him.

"This is why I hate fighting flying creatures. Always making the hunt harder!" Snapped Kalderic, "Maybe I should have taken the bow and arrow lessons from grandpa more seriously..."

He always struggled using a bow and arrow but also didn't have any fun using one. He realizes there is a limitation to what a body with no wings or long limbs can do. To compensate for this weakness, Kalderic had developed this habit of throwing his weapons like boomrangs. With his strength, the weapons were flying fast enough to piece pretty much anything. His grandpa always reproached him for it since if he missed his target he would have nothing to defend himself if his fist couldn't touch his target.

Kalderic spins around with the silver blade which creates a small water tornado enveloping him. The flying chaos borns were confused. Something shiny came out of it spinning at high speed and slashed two of them. The water tornado subsided and Kalderic dash through the water using that momentum to wall run leading him up to the ceiling. With one powerful step he launches himself towards one of the chaos born and rides its back.

It struggled to get rid of him and the others were trying to stab him but Kalderic was manipulating the creature movement with his firm grip on its wings. All they were doing was stabbing their own kin.

They were losing altitude and it was bleeding from all the stabbing. Once closer to the ground, Kalderic swings the chaos born body so he can land and use it to bash the others. They take some distance in order to avoid getting hit. Since he couldn't hit them, he slams the creature on the ground which broke its neck. Witnessing that, the remaining chaos borns flew away out of the grotto.

Proud of himself he sat down on the corpse of its victim taking a breather. These chaos borns individual strength wasn't a big of a deal but as a group it was dangerous. He wonders if he should continue going deeper in the dungeon or he should go back tomorrow. Going back and sleeping in his hamac sounds like a good idea. At the same time maybe tonight might be his last chance until next month to find the cause of the tremors. After a couple of seconds of debating with himself, he stands up and picks up the silver blade.

"Whatever is causing those quakes better be there so I can pound it with my fist!" Said Kalderic with determination as he went deeper in the dungeon.

The deeper he goes, the hotter it gets. His long hair was useful for the cold nights of the jungle but with this heat, he wishes he could cut it shorter. After walking for a couple minutes he reached an area where there were multiple holes.

"Of course! Couldn't be that easy huh? But not only that..."

Something caught the attention of Kalderic. The holes were big and didn't look natural. It's as if something big made those holes

"What kind of beast lives there?"

There's nothing in Kalderic's knowledge that could help him identify the animal. He's only familiar with the animals and chaos borns in the jungle. There's only different variants of big cats and bovidaes but nothing big enough to do those holes and earthquakes. The biggest chaos born he ever encountered was the gorilla he killed today.

"Wait, maybe it's one of those things that grandpa told me about! The...phantom beast? Nah! it doesn't sound right...ugh this heat dang it! Frying my skull!"

The heat was too distracting for Kalderic to remember. Trying to not think too much about it, he chooses randomly one of the tunnels and proceeds forward. After a couple minutes of walking he ends up at the same spot with the multiple tunnels. He chooses a different one and a couple minutes later, ends up at the same place. He kept doing that multiple times and lost patience making him let out a roar out of anger. Fortunately that roar made something answer him back with a beastly roar. This was something that he never heard before. Without an ounce of hesitation he started running towards the tunnel that the roar originated from.

He felt excitement and fear at the same time. Whatever is at the end of the tunnel, it will be a big discovery for him. He reaches an area he hasn't seen before. The place was massive and it was full of treasures such as broken statues, weapons, jewelries and bones. There is also around all of that many waterfalls coming out from different holes and a pool that looks deep. He jumps down and investigates. So far no sign of the mysterious animal. He keeps his guard up, maybe the beast is lurking around and waiting for an opportunity to strike. As he investigates the large area, he hopes he could find useful weapons that he could bring back to his hut. He also wondered what type of people used to live here or what they use this place for.

As he looked around, he found something disturbing. Kalderic is not unfamiliar with corpses. He saw a multitude of those in the jungle but this corpse was one he didn't expect to find here.

"Gr-grandpa?"

He recognizes the tunic that his grandpa usually wears and the bone blades that were made with the tooth of a chaos born he once defeated. Seeing that made Kalderic fall on his knee. After eight years, this is how he found his grandpa. Tears came down from his face. The only family he had was gone. He never knew his parents and his grandpa never talked about them.

"Why...why didn't you tell me where you were going...why did you leave me alone that night...I know I wasn't that strong back then but at least I could have helped you in some way! Whatever brought you here I could ha-"

The earthquake happened once again. Kalderic stands up quickly and pulls out the silver blade ready for battle. Something let out a beastly roar and this time it was close, really close. Something huge surges out of the pool, almost hitting its head to the ceiling.

The beast had red scales, no limbs and two horns. Its tongue is similar to a snake and had sharp front teeth that could easily tear off flesh.

Kalderic feels a bit intimidated. He is trying to not get too distracted from finding the corpse of his late grandpa or else his life will end right here on the spot. This is when he realizes who might be the culprit of his death. Kalderic's sadness turned into rage. Something was burning from within and it wasn't the abnormal heat of the dungeon. The more he stared at the beast the more his mind was imagining the most atrocious death he could give to that reptile.

"Ya...will...PAY FOR THIS!" Shouted Kalderic.

He firmly grips the handle of the blade making it crack and with an explosive strength from his leg, he leaps towards the beast. The snake let out an intimidating roar and lunged towards him. It opens its giant mouth in an attempt to eat him whole but with a powerful step, Kalderic jumps high enough to avoid this deathly bite. With his blade, he does a downward slash attack right on the middle of its head. It was a clean hit, but the scales of the beast were so hard that the silver blade shattered in his hands. Kalderic is in shock. the best weapon in his arsenal just broke in an instant. Something comes out of the water swinging towards him. He barely manages to dodge that tail swing attack.

As he lands on the ground, the snake releases from his mouth a high pressure form of water El-ergy which was steaming hot. He side steps it and dash fearlessly towards the beast while pulling out two daggers. Knowing that the scales are hard as steel he decides to aim for the softer parts of the body like its eyes. One thing Kalderic learned from his grandpa is that everything has a weakness. There's no such thing as an unkillable being. It's just a matter of how you have to do it and if you are strong enough to execute it. As he gets closer to the head, the snake lifts it and charges from his mouth another high pressure water El-ergy attack. Now the side of its body not covered by the red scale is exposed. Kalderic took this opportunity to stab it with the daggers but unfortunately it shattered in contact.

"What are ya made of dang it!" He shouted with frustration.

The snake released its attack towards him and with momentum, Kalderic managed to only the side of his arm. The burning sensation was tolerable but distracting. Kalderic is thinking about the situation that he is in now. He still has a couple daggers attached to his pants but after what just happened he doubts he could make a dent to the giant snake body. He has two options. Attempt to climb on his head and stab both its eyes which will give him an opportunity to flee and fight another day. Or do it the good old Primal way, fighting the beast bare hands. Even though fighting with bare hands a snake this size sounds interesting, he knows better that it is ridiculous. On the other hand climbing its body is physically possible for him but also dangerous as the snake could move in unpredictable ways and also cost his death. While Kalderic is thinking about his options, the snake is moving around analyzing him.

He takes a deep breath, pulls out two daggers.

"I'm going for your head reptile!” He announced.

He starts running in the opposite direction of the snake body, making it chase him. As he reaches the edge of the vast zone, he jumps towards the wall and uses it to leap towards the snake's body. It rapidly fires giant high pressure water bullets towards him. He doesn't stop running over its body making all the attack miss. Even with his strong Primal body, one hit from those would hurt. The snake moves its long body making Kalderic almost lose his footing. He jumps around dodging the bullets. The snake's head was too high and so by mustering all the strength in both his legs, he jumped as high as he could, making him able to be exactly face to face with the beast. He takes aim and throws his dagger fast enough that it pierces the eye. In pain, the snake spits out a water bullet that wasn't fully charged but strong enough to make impactful damage to Kalderic. He flew away and crashed into the wall. The snake roared and moved around fast making big waves. In the wall, he attempted to get out but the crash made him break his ribs. He thought of himself lucky to still be alive.

Suddenly a huge wave of water takes him out of the wall and he gets carried away by the current. He tries his best to swim with his broken ribs but suddenly he gets hit by the beast tail that throws him out of the water. While mid air, the giant snake surges out with its mouth wide open charging water El-ergy. Point blank, Kalderic gets hit by it and goes through the ceiling. Everything went blank.

The roars of the giant snake can be heard far away. Meanwhile the sound of water droplets falling echoes. For some reason, the temperature became higher. Kalderic is slowly regaining consciousness.

He tries to move but his whole body hurts. He felt like he was getting roasted alive. As he was laying there, he remembered what his grandpa told him many years ago.

***

8 years ago...

"Grandpa! Why are we collecting all those weapons? Didn't ya say hands are the best weapon?" Asked the young Kalderic observing a knife he found.

"Hands are indeed the best weapons for us Primals but sadly the world doesn't favor us like it used to."

Kalderic looks confused. After all he saw his grandpa defeating chaos borns his bare fist. It is true he sometimes uses weapons or anything in his environment to defend himself but they always shatter in his hands.

"What do ya mean old man?"

"Lemme tell ya something kid, in LoM chaos borns are not the only threat to us Primals or should I say the human race. Even Elemantalist are in danger."

"Is there something out there that even the apex of LoM can't deal with?" Asked Kalderic with curiosity

Among the human race, Elemantalist is the human sub species that stand at the top. Over the course of human history, it's because of those humans born with an Elemental Sense ,giving them the ability to wield El-ergy that humanity still exists in the last century.

"When it comes to physical strength alone, Elemantalist don't rival us Primals. But their ability to use El-ergy while we can't put us in great disadvantages."

"So what in LoM could be stronger than them?"

"Those damn Fantasm Beasts." Said the grandpa with hatred in his voice.

His expression darkens, showing how much he despises them. Kalderic was scared it was the first time he ever saw his grandpa making such a face.

"Those things are why we Primals are almost extinct. Our brothers and sisters didn't have the means to survive unlike our counterparts the Elemantalist. Maybe it's just the natural selection"

"So those weapons are for those beasts?"

"Yes but there is one beast in particular that I'm looking for...the one who wiped our family and friends way back then.”

His grandpa looked at the full moon and raised his fist towards it.

"Listen carefully Kal, only twelve of those beasts are known to mankind, but..."

The old man paused his sentence. The hatred in his face slowly became sadness. Kalderic sitting beside him didn't know what to say to comfort his grandpa, but more than anything, he wanted to hear more.

"G-grandpa?"

"Sorry...What I was trying to say is that there are actually thirteen of those."

"This is the one ya want to hunt?"

"Yes... Promise me one thing Kal. If I don't live long enough to hunt it, train as hard as you can so one day you can avenge us, the Primal race."

"Will do old man!"

***

Kalderic was in pain. His body is burning. He mustered all the strength he has left to stand up. Now that he has no more weapons, his only option is to flee.

Fighting this eighty feet long snake bare hands is out of the question. Something was odd. Even though he got blasted away through the ceiling, he was expecting the temperature to be lower. It was even hotter than before.

“Hey...hey!...can someone hear me!"

A distant voice that sounded like an old man was calling for help. Kalderic looks around but sees no one.

"I must have hit my head pretty hard, I'm hearing voices..."

"Please!...If you can hear me, come to me!"

Something shines through the boulders behind him. Tired and in pain, he walks slowly towards it and musters his strength to break them. After a couple hits he finally found what was behind those.

It was a shiny sunset colored jewel on a crimson sword that had dark red spots all over it. Probably rust due to the temperature of the grotto. Kalderic couldn't be happier than this since he found a weapon. Before he puts his hand on it, he took the time to analyze what was in front of him. The design of that greatsword is unique. Its shape was pretty uncommon and its dark crimson color that looked like blood. His hand got closer to the greatsword handle and as he's about to touch it, it started talking.

"Finally someone found me! Please! Tell me where I am!"

The voice surprised Kalderic, making him step back. He become hesitant to pick it up.

"I definitely hit my head hard! No way this sword is talking"

"I'm not a talking sword! I'm human!" Claimed the crimson weapon.

Kalderic shakes his head and decides to not mess with it. He walks back toward the hole he came from thinking about his next move.

"Wait! wait! Don't leave me here! Take me with you! I can help you with whatever you have trouble with...I think"

"How can you help me huh? Ya just a large sword and ya will break in an instant with all that rust."

"Don't worry! This greatsword is unbreakable! And I'm not a weapon, I'm human and older than you! Respect your elders, young man."

Kalderic was ticked off by the attitude in its voice. He goes back and picks it up, looking at his reflection in the jewel with a stern expression.

"You know what? Fine! Once I swing ya, ya will break and call it a day!"

"I'm telling you it's unbreakable!"

Now Kalderic has acquired a new weapon, a talking one at that. Hopefully round two is going to be better, Kalderic told himself.