“You keep holding onto that stone you're going to wear it out.” Kean joked.

Deric frowned. Clutched within his hand was a summoning stone. It had the same shape as the ones which the guild handed out for their capture quests. But this one was special. Its color was blue, compared to the usual standard gray color. Because this one, rather than provided by the guild, was well and truly his.

Thanks to their group's efforts of catching untamed primals these past few months, both Deric and Kean had managed to purchase their own personal summoning stones.

Kean had already used his, having captured and successfully tamed a Goblin named Tin. Both he and Peter had been heckling Deric for the past week since he had purchased his stone. In part due to his looming deadline to challenge the battle center.

“I can't blame him for overthinking it, it's a pretty important decision. A tamer and their primal are both bound to each other after all.” Peter remarked. “Though there is something to be said about circumstances...”

“Hopefully if he has to challenge the battle center with just Anda one of the defender's primals suddenly goes into a sex coma, and it turns into a one on one.”

Deric groaned. “Will you two shut up? You're scaring away the primals.” A loud squish sound came from underfoot. The group stopped as Deric lifted his shoe to inspect what he had stepped in. Trace amounts of a viscous, blue liquid clung to his shoe and the ground.

“Slime...” Deric muttered.

“And here I thought someone just had a severe case of blue balls.” Peter whispered.

Both Peter and Kean did their best to suppress their laughter as Deric rolled his eyes in response. He took some slime and brought it to Anda. “Think you can track this?”

Anda gave a few short sniffs. “It would be difficult, but I will keep my senses aware.” Deric nodded, and the group began to move out once more. Peter noticed Deric had a slight smile on his face.

The group continued onward through the forest, with Anda occasionally sniffing out another splat of slime across the ground. Eventually, Anda's nose perked up. “I think she's nearby.”

“Alone?” Deric asked.

“I smell traces of Goblin as well.”

“We better hurry then, in case they're fighting.”

The group quickly followed Anda's lead, dashing between trees and bushes before spotting their target. The Slime primal was occupied finishing off the remains of a Goblin.

“Eugh.” Kean gagged.

“Kean, Peter, can you have Tin and Kalista try to wear her down?”

“I don't know, I'm not sure if I want to risk you being angry if something goes wrong,” Peter said hesitantly.

“I won't be angry. Can you see that orb looking thing floating inside her body?” Deric pointed towards the slime.

Peter squinted his eyes. “No, not really.”

“Well, Slimes have a core which is a big weakness. Just have your primals avoid damaging that too much, and it should be fine.”

Peter looked towards Kean who shrugged. “Alright. Kalista, you're up. You heard Deric, avoid the floating orb thingy. I'm guessing wailing on the rest of her body should be enough.”

Kean summoned Tin. “You too, Tin.”

Both Kalista and Tin surprised the slime and began to beat her body with their wooden weapons, Kalista's sword and shield and Tin's log. Each time they would hit the body, some slime would splatter away, yet quickly it would begin to regenerate its womanly figure.

The battle between the two sides went on for some time, until finally a heavily breathing and slime coated Kalista and Tin were triumphant. They stood above the now miniature and diminished version of the Slime primal that they had just been fighting. It lay amidst a pool of the slime which had been torn from its body.

As Peter and the others approached the primal, Peter couldn't help but think about how messy the battlefield became. Deric took out his own summoning stone and held it out towards the grounded slime. The stone glowed, and for a brief moment, it seemed nothing happened. Then, the primal as well as most of the slime surrounding it began to fade, before completely disappearing into the stone.

“Alright!” Deric said excitedly. “I caught her!”

“Woo!” Kean and Anda cheered as Peter clapped.

“Let's head back to town.” Deric said, already beginning to head in that direction.

“Someone's eager.” Kean chided.

“I've got no time to waste, Kean.” Deric remarked. “I've only a week until my deadline. If I tame her and give her today to recover, that leaves the next few days for practicing and then head straight into my first challenge.”

The group raced home to Wildburry, encountering no primals along the way. When the group arrived, Deric went straight towards the guild while Kean called it a day. Peter, who didn't want to finish so early, decided to head to the battle center.

The battle center seemed to be a bit more lively than the previous times Peter had recently gone there. A wide ranger of tamers seemed to be present that day. Peter found a tamer who had just recently completed their first challenge at the battle center, and battled his Fren with Kalista.

The fight was a long and slow one. After Kalista had saved Peter from the Fren out in the forest, he decided to use a similar defensive approach during this fight as well. Letting his opponent be aggressive, Peter limited Kalista to mainly blocking or dodging attacks, with careful selection of when to strike back. In the end, the victory was theirs.

While his opponent complained to Peter about his stalling tactics, Peter's attention lay upon a distant group having just entered the battle center. A group consisting entirely of human women.

Peter could feel his eye twitch. “What in hells blazes are they doing here,” he muttered to himself. As they walked past the different practice fields, occasionally they would begin to heckle the occupants. Peter watched as a pair splintered off from the main group, one entering the bounds of the practice field while the other waited near the sidelines. It seemed they were challenging tamers.

Peter shook his head in disbelief. “They are going to get beat up even worse than I did.”

As the group approached where he was standing, Peter crossed his arms. He recognized one of the knight looking woman. Next to her, a familiar sounding voice began to speak.

“It seems you have regained some modesty. A shame you did not heed our suggestion regarding that demon.”

“Hmph. I believe the wording used was 'wash yourself of filth.' I'll have you know we regularly bathe together.”

“I'd sooner shower beneath a latrine than soak in the broth a monster soaked in.”

“For a church whose believers claim that all primals are lustful demons, you sure seem open with your scat fetish.”

“Hmm.” The woman smiled. “If nothing else, the humor has not been sucked out of you yet. PALADIN SERINA.” She shouted.

“Yes, High Priestess Regan?” Serina answered.

“Have Priestess Asia support you and battle this man and his primal.”

“Yes, High Priestess,” she said, giving a slight nod, her blonde hair bouncing slightly.

“You mock relying on primals yet send two to fight one?” Peter asked, insultingly.

Regan smiled. “Ah, forgive me, I miscalculated. I forgot your kind sits back and lets others fight for you.” Peter glared angrily. She turned serious. “Paladin Serina will fight your primal alone. If you manage to injure Serina, Asia will heal her wounds post-battle, as the Dryad over there would attend to yours.”

Peter glanced towards Kalista, who gave a short nod. “Fine.” Peter and Kalista managed to walk a few steps towards their side of the practice field before Regan called out to them.

“Are you so steeped in primals that you will fight a lady without offering even your name?” Regan chided.

Peter frowned and faced them. “Peter.” He extended his hand towards Kalista. “Kalista.” The two then continued towards their side. “We'll fight defensive.” He whispered. “As much as I want to see you beat them senseless, I don't want 'murderer' added to their list of insults for me.” Kalista nodded.

When Kalista and Serina had taken their positions, Asia shouted “Ready?” Serina unsheathed a large sword from her back, and entered a stance holding it overhead with both hands. Peter and Serina both nodded. “Begin!”

Kalista advanced slowly with the crest of her shield pointed towards Serina. Similarly, Serina kept her stance as she approached Kalista. When the distance between their starting positions had halved, Serina suddenly shouted, “Pilgram's Charge!”

In an instant, she began to move at an incredible speed, her plated feet glowing with light. Peter felt a chill run down his spine. “Kalista, roll away!” For a moment, it appeared as if Kalista was frozen in fear to Peter. As the distance between her and Serina completely vanished, he nearly began to shout once more before Kalista rolled, barely evading a thrust from Serina's sword.

As Kalista landed, Serina in pursuit held her sword high above her head. “Judgement!” The sword began to glow as she brought it down. There was no time for Kalista to escape.

“Block it!” Peter shouted. Kalista raised her shield. A loud bang resonated throughout the practice field. The sword bounced off as Kalista's shield began to splinter, and soon fell apart. Kalista grimaced towards the handle still clutched in her palm and tossed it away. “Impossible,” Peter muttered. “How could a human be so strong?” His shock caused him to nearly forget he was in the middle of a battle. “Damn! Kalista, use Double Cross!”

The instant Peter shouted the command, both Serina and Kalista reacted. As Kalista began to prepare to swing her sword, Serina was already changing her stance to a defensive one, protecting her plated chest. Kalista's Double Cross made two loud dings as Serina parried both hits.

After the second block, Serina spun around into a heavy sweep, Kalista barely avoiding it by dodging backwards. “Pilgram's Charge!” Serina shouted. She rapidly lunged towards Kalista. Peter knew that there was no chance of dodging it. It felt like time was slowing to a crawl.

“Bl-, parry it! Deflect it!” Peter desperately shouted. Kalista placed her sword within the path of Serina's thrust and angled it away from her. With a sweeping motion she attempted to push the hit away from her. Although being skewered by Serina was avoided, Kalista was unable to perfectly deflect the attack and Serina's sword sliced through Kalista's side.

“Hck!” Peter could hear Kalista try to suppress a scream. He turns pale and opens his mouth to voice their surrender, but sees Kalista of her own initiative attempting to fight back and freezes. Serina now being next to Kalista after her charge, Kalista uses what little room the hilt of her sword has to grab it with her other hand. With all her might, she swings her sword downwards towards Serina. At this close range Serina was unable to block with her long sword and was forced to dodge.

Kalista's sword slams into Serina's shoulderplate. “Hkk.” Serina grits her teeth. The side which gripped her sword trembles slightly. From Peter's perspective, Senna raises her weapon in a weird way in reaction. The blade points behind her and is nearly resting on her shoulder, and he wonders if Kalista's swing had done more serious damage than he had understood. “Burden!” Serina shouted, the pommel of her blade now glowing brightly, she rams it forward towards Kalista's head.

“Kalista duck, then Double Cross!” Kalista ducks, but Serina abruptly changes her thrust downwards, driving the pommel into Kalista's left shoulder. Peter can hear a large crack as she screams out in pain, the force heavy enough that it caused her to fall forward in her already slightly crouched position and towards the ground. Serina spun her sword around, pointing the blade downwards.

“NOOO!” Peter shouted. He broke the perimeter of the field and began running towards Kalista. “We surrender!” At this, the nearby Dryad immediately began to run towards Kalista, her hands glowing green. “Are you alright, Kalista?!”

“Damnit,” her voice shook as she angrily muttered to herself. Her left hand trembled as it tried to form a fist. “Damnit.” She weakly pounded the dirt in dissatisfaction.

“Don't! You might injure it more.” Peter grabbed her hand and covered it with his. Kalista shook her head, rubbing her chin into the ground as she was still in her prone position. All the while, Peter whose attention had solely been focused upon Kalista, did not notice the nearby Serina staring at the pair of them.

Priestess Asia walked up behind Serina and chanted, “Heal.” A light briefly appeared before Asia and then covered Serina. When it faded, Serina made a motion of moving her shoulder around. “You did well Serina. High Priestess Regina will be pleased as always.”

Serina nodded but said nothing, instead choosing to watch the tamer and his primal before her. “We should return to the others. This one has provided enough experience for us for now.” Asia continued. She began to walk away, and after lingering for a moment longer, Serina followed her.

As the Dryad continued to heal Kalista's injuries, Peter could not help but recall what he had just witnessed. A human woman had just defeated his primal in a duel. The thought of “maybe if Kalista had used her metal weapons” crosses his mind, but somehow he feels as though it would have been Serina's win anyway.

Was there anything that he could have done better? Peter was not sure. Every move, every order that he calls out to Kalista, against an opponent like Serina is simply declaring to your opponent what you are about to do. Peter recognized that battling tamers this was somewhat true as well, but in that situation his opponent would have to react then relay an order to their primal. But Serina faced no such delay. It was a feat in and of itself that they managed to land any blows on her at all in Peter's mind.

The disappearance of the faint green glow pulled Peter out of his thoughts. “She should be alright now,” the Dryad explained. Peter helped Kalista up to her feet and thanked the Dryad.

Kalista rolled her shoulder a few times and tested her hand's grip. Peter gazed towards her side, the deep cut now having closed and vanished completely. Suddenly Kalista let out a sigh. “It was my loss.”

“It was mine too,” Peter corrected.

Kalista shook her head. “If I had just been stronger. And faster. Tsk.” Kalista clicked her tongue.

“We never saw a Paladin fight before, so we didn't know what to expect. Next time, we'll be ready. We'll beat her, together.” At this, a hint of a smile appeared on Kalista's face, and she nodded.