Archie’s ears rung, senses dulled, and everything felt like some sort of out-of-body experience. That’s what Archie felt for a few moments before the rush of adrenaline flowed through him once more, jolting him back to the present.

  Getting into a kneeling position, Archie grabbed his stumped shoulder and flooded it with vital energy before quickly taking out a health potion and downing it. Archie felt his health pool fill to somewhere around 75%.

  It was going to take around five minutes before his arm fully regenerated, and in a fight, five minutes is a lot. But that could easily be fixed by getting up close and personal.

  Sending a surge of nature mana into the vines wrapped around his right stump, Archie manipulated Thornscourge Expansion

  Rising from his kneeling position, Archie kept his eyes fixed on the Primalsaur as it struggled to stand. Steam hissed from its nostrils as it groaned in pain, shakily attempting to move toward him. However, the loss of its tail had thrown off its balance, causing it to stumble with each step. Archie estimated he had about a minute before the beast adjusted to its new balance and charged at him again. Taking advantage of the moment, he focused on the corded vine protruding from his stump.

  He envisioned it mirroring his left arm in every detail. Concentrating, he hardened the vines to serve as rigid bones and carefully shaped their cording to align with the pathways of his vital energy, mimicking the function of muscles.

  Just as he was about to form the fingers, he heard the Primalsaur roar in triumph as its tail that Archie had exploded was replaced with one created from stone, starting from its middle. With its balance restored, it kicked off the ground, charging toward Archie with a vengeance, its large stone jaw with dagger-like teeth gaped wide.

  "Fuck it," Archie muttered as he clenched both his vine fist and gauntlet-clad fist and charged at the Primalsaur.

  Archie dodged the lunge from the Primalsaur who then forcibly halted its charge to swack at him with its stone club-like tail. Jumping over the swipe, Archie flung both arms toward its thick, short neck with a surge of nature mana.

  Vines exploded towards the Primalsaur's neck, only able to fit two corded vines before it ran out of room.

  Both pulling and retracting the vines, Archie twisted himself, crouching his feet before he crashed onto its neck, activating Retaliation

  The blow cracked its stone-shrouded neck and tore into his hide. But before Archie could capitalize on it, he raised both his arms to defend from a swipe from its stone club-like tail.

  His Sentinel Platiniteshell heptagonal shield on his left arm and his vine arm took the brunt of the damage. His left arm's Sentinel Platiniteshell shield was covered in spiderweb-like cracks while his vine arm was shredded. But a quick surge of mana quickly started to repair them. The shield gained a second layer of coating and his vine arm surged anew from its shredded state, his right stub growing an inch from his leech kick attack.

  Righting himself mid air, Archie landed on the flower field, his heels digging backwards as he came to a stop. Archie let out an exhale as he stared at the Primalsaur that was now charging at him, its body releasing a red-hued steam.

  The distance between them was less than fifteen meters, and if Archie was being honest, this battle was taking a bit too long and he was supposed to go on a raid to destroy Oliver’s cult in less than a day.

  Archie spread his arms wide, lowered his center of gravity, and braced himself as the Primalsaur was now five meters away.

  Archie flooded his battered body with more mana and stamina, pushing Adrenaline Rush

  Within moments, Archie’s hands clamped overhead on its two jutting fangs from beneath its massive stone jaw. The Primalsaur’s immense strength surged against his own pushing him backwards with tremendous force. His feet tore into the dirt, deeper than before, carving deep trenches as he strained to hold his ground.

  His muscles quivered as more of a darker red hue of steam was being exuded from him as he flooded even more mana and stamina into his system, completely disregarding the immense pain he felt from every fracture and muscle tear he felt throughout his body as he flooded them with his vital energy at speeds, he didn’t know he possessed. As he knew that if he stopped he was going to be trampled.

  The Primalsaur’s charge started to slow, almost unnoticeably, but it had.

  But the funny thing was the wide smile splayed across Archie’s face as all this was happening. He knew that this fight was taking too long. He knew that he was prolonging the fight.

  But it was just too fun.

  The charge was now noticeably slowing down to the point where the Primalsaur’s eyes darted around in confusion but continued to charge as it still felt resistance from the weak human in front of him.

  This was one of the few fights where he truly felt joy, and was it wrong for him to try and flourish in the euphoria he felt?

  Archie filled his throat with a surge of mana and stamina, eyes closed as he relished the euphoric feelings that flowed within him.

  His head dipped down as he took a deep inhale before slowly raising his head, staring directly into the Primalsaur’s diminutive eyes with his own bloodshot eyes. Last Stand

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  A deep rumble began to rise from within Archie’s throat, growing steadily until it reached a thunderous crescendo. Archie’s smile widened into a menacing, tooth-filled grin as goosebumps covered his body.

  Archie released a thunderous guttural roar, that sent a shockwave across the flower field seemingly halting time itself around him as for but a split moment everything went still.

  He had activated Primal Roar

  The Primalsaur felt as though time had stopped for but a moment before everything turned dark and pain filled its entire being. Its eyeballs and eardrums exploded from Archie’s Primal Roar

  Archie’s mouth filled with blood as his vocal cords shredded themselves to paste, unable to handle his new skill. Pain wracked his body from the backlash of using the skill.

  Normally, a skill couldn’t harm its user due to the system’s assistance, as long as you weren’t interrupted, and everything remained regulated. However, if you push a skill beyond its limits, you risk facing backlash, as your body wouldn’t be able to handle the strain.

  A good example of this is whenever Archie uses Adrenaline RushAdrenaline Rush

  Every time he pushed on, his body grew stronger. As such, whenever he pushed past his limits, his skills would either evolve or upgrade.

  But this was not the case.

  The records from Primal Tyrannous’ legacy skill were simply too much for Archie’s body to endure at this point in time, and he knew it. That’s why he had refrained from using the skill—until now, where the timing was perfect.

  He instinctually knew that once he used this skill, he would face an insurmountable amount of pain. His throat would heal…after hours of meditation, but until then it would be impossible to use the skill or speak.

  Archie swallowed back the blood that filled his mouth and activated Relentless FlurryRetaliation

  , Archie mused as he kept smashing his fists into the Primalsaur’s face. Vital energy flooding through him with every blow, healing his ruined body with surprising speed.

  Archie felt the Primalsaur lunge at him with its ruined face once more, using all the strength that remained.

  “If you want a bite of me, then all you had to do was ask,” Archie smiled as he thrust his left fist into the open maw of the Primalsaur and activated Impact Dynamo.

  The blast of nature-attuned kinetic energy tore a two-meter wide hole clean through the Primalsaur’s body, killing it instantly. Its body stood upright before falling onto the ground with a thud and producing a pool of blood that drowned the flowers surrounding it.

  Archie’s left arm was destroyed from the elbow down and popped out of its socket. Archie exhaled as he saw the notifications that covered his vision, deactivating his skills and standing upright with shaking legs.

  *[Stonejaw Primalsaur Lv 92] has been slain – XP has been given. 1288 Tutorial Points given*

  Dungeon of the Lost Valley

  Objective: Reward:Dungeon will automatically close in 0:09:59:12

  *Your Class has reached Lv 72 – Points allocated, +4 Free Points*

  *Your Race has reached Lv 71 – Points allocated, +3 Free Points*

  Looking down at his arms, Archie found another Sigil of Challenge alongside a spherical object labeled as a Spirit Nucleus. The Spirit Nucleus was a translucent sphere with a frosted, glass-like surface, its exterior webbed with glowing cracks that pulsed softly with an inner light.

  Spirit Nucleus (Epic) - Empty:

  The origin for a spirit to physically manifest into the physical plane. The type of spirits imbued into the Spirit Nucleus, along with its environment, determines whether a spiritual entity will form. [Redacted]. [Redacted]. Currently bound to Archie Gracefield.

  Archie chuckled but immediately winced in pain. He had yet to direct his vital energy to flow into his throat to heal his shredded throat.

  Archie took out nine more pounds of frostiron and tossed them on the ground before placing the Sigil of Challenge and the Spirit Nucleus into his spatial storage.

  Archie gave another glance at the now-dead Primalsaur before slowly sitting down and activating Nature’s Meditation

  Exiting the dungeon, Archie released a sigh, but not out of relief, rather it was out of sadness.

  He wanted to try and charge up the Nucleus with the abundant Nature-Affinity spirits that filled the dungeon, but by the time he was fully healed with his right arm fully regenerated, four hours had passed. Which meant he needed to rush back to Michael’s camp as in the next couple of hours, it would be nightfall and the raid on Oliver’s cult would begin.

  The dungeon itself was pretty fun, he’d gotten a Sigil of Challenge, a way to get a spirit beast pet, and a large amount of Starforge Steel that he was going to smelt down and use as his engine.

  Was what he was going to do to the ‘miniature’ blasphemous to whoever followed Primal Tyrannous and to Primal Tyrannous himself?...Definitely, but he believed it to be payback for his mind almost shattering.

  Shouldn’t the system have protected him from such damage? Or was he so powerful that his presence alone was enough to do so as the T-Rex dragon god said so himself even with the system protecting him? Maybe the system helped to protect his mind?

  Nevertheless, the ‘miniature’ was essentially an empty hunk of Starforge Steel, so it should be fine…

  At least for now.

  Unfortunately, he did not get the Primalsaur’s core. It was destroyed by his 100% Impact Dynamo, alongside most of its body. Just the thought of not getting its core made Archie sigh once more as he wished he could have stayed in the dungeon for longer to fill the Spirit Nucleus up with the nature spirits within the dungeon…, Archie sighed.

  While it wasn’t a 100% guarantee that he would get a dino pet, the environment of the dungeon was perfect for him. If he were to have a spirit beast that was bonded to him, he’d rather have one that was the same affinity as him, to synergize when they fought together.

  It would be a while before he found another place that had an abundance of nature mana and spirits.

  Archie was pulled out of his thoughts as he heard his name being called out by a familiar voice.

  “Archie!” James shouted from atop a tree branch fifteen meters above him, waving at him. James’ face was covered in sweat and out of breath.

  Archie tensed his legs and flooded them with stamina before jumping onto the same branch James stood on. “Hi,” Archie smiled. “I assume you’re here to pick me up?”

  James nodded before looking around, his eyes lingering on the level 70s and 80s nearby. Turning back to face Archie he whispered, “We need you back at camp, we’re about to begin our raid conference.”

  Archie mused before taking out the bundle of Molten Webs.

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