Bonded Summoner

The Jackal man finished his spell, and a large swarm of insects emerged. From afar, they looked like giant beetles. Jake was about to cast a wave of flames to consume them, but Ira urged him to stop. He wasn’t sure what Ira was trying to tell him, but he got the feeling that magic would be a bad idea. Strangely, the swarm did not immediately head for Jake, and kind of just buzzed in the air at the end of the room near the summoner.

“You like them? My magic-eating scarabs come from the deserts of Nabina, where they are an unstoppable plague against the inhabitants. They will burrow into your flesh and consume you while you’re still alive.”

Jake gave the guy a look of disbelief. Did he really just tell him all that about his summon rather than attacking? Jake totally got it. He loved collecting all sorts of summons, and the scarabs sounded cool. If he had the opportunity, he would definitely be interested in collecting them. But this was a life-or-death battle, with potentially hundreds or thousands of lives in the balance. Odin had mentioned something about his connection to the void being rare. Could it be that this connection meant the person would be weird, or something? Wait, wouldn’t that mean there was a problem with Jake, too?

Jake pushed these odd thoughts out of his mind, and focused on the issue at hand. While Jake didn’t know much about scarabs, he knew they were from the desert, even without the champion revealing it to him.

While Jake wasn’t entirely confident about beating a champion on his own without his girls that were a result of his entire specialization and build, he felt a lot better facing a summoner. Back in the game, he would duel many different types of summoners, and he knew all their strengths and weaknesses. He decided to taunt the enemy summoner.

“Haven’t you ever faced another summoner before? The first to summon always loses.”

What Jake said was mostly true. Counter-picking was a large portion of what it meant to be a Summoner in the first place. Of course, part of the turnaround would be utilizing special spells and abilities that make up for weaknesses of a particular creature, but the one that summoned second always had a distinct advantage.

Jake removed a spell-rod from his belt, temporarily leaning his spear up against his shield. He infused the runes of the rod and added a group of his own, doing everything he could to enhance the effect. Ira roared as they assisted, and a portal to the void was wrenched open even through the sealing stones the room was lined with. From within: a powerful stream of water gushed out. Like a massive fire hose, water sprayed with immense force out of the portal. Jake was conjuring water, and he had created this spell-rod for the purpose of filling a moat. The room started to fill with water, reaching his ankles in just a few seconds.

Jake leaped into the air, where he activated the enchantment on his shoes: a simple enchantment that created a small platform under them with his steps, allowing him to stand and run in the air. The swarm of scarabs had approached, but many had gotten sprayed by the water and knocked out of the air, where they were now having difficulty. While most insects could swim somewhat, Jake doubted the desert insect would be very good at it.

The enemy summoner now cast a necrotic beam at Jake in anger, which he countered with a runic barrier, and followed up with [Runic Magic: Field of Fog]. The room was now filled up to what would be Jake’s waist in water, and now the enemy summoner’s feet were wet up on the dais. The enemy champion scoffed as they realized this fact, and Jake leaped to the left side of the room, hidden by the fog. Ira had helped indicate that all the girls, including Bloodberri, were off in this direction. He decided he would start his escape, just in case. He released a mechanical spider from his Storage Bracelet, which latched onto the wall.

It released some pneumatic spikes to hold it in place, and Jake sighed with relief when they pierced the magically reinforced wall. If the spikes couldn’t enter, it was likely that it would have trouble drilling through in a reasonable amount of time. The goblin contraption started drilling into the wall, a mixture of mechanics and magic. Jake wasn’t sure how the strange contraption was legal within the Framework’s rules, but he had bought it on the [Multiverse Market], so it was probably fine. Perhaps it was because of its lack of effectiveness as a weapon of death that it was okay, and he had enhanced the drill himself with his own enchantments, making it just a little bit more effective.

Jake began casting a summon of his own. He could see that the enemy summoner was nearly seething now, the water now up to their knees, but the water had now stopped. Jake could see some scarabs were still flying around, looking for him and even consuming some of the fog.

“I’ll make you pay for this, Champion of Hestia! You can’t hide forever!”

Jake’s summon was completed, and a familiar figure emerged from motes of light and landed in the water: a sharkgoblin warrior. Jake cast Divine Reinforcement on them as it began to swim with great fervor. The creature’s head only reached Jake’s chest, slumped over like it was. It had a shark fin and tail on its back, while still standing on human-like legs and webbed feet. It held a trident in its webbed but mostly human-like hands and arms, and Jake immediately sent it to work: to kill the scarabs.

This creature was of a lower tier than the sharkgoblin assassin he had summoned in the raid that changed Jake’s life, so its ability to cast spells and mastery over the water was less, but it was still quite powerful in the environment that Jake had created for it. It moved through the water faster than Jake could even move on land, and it had pierced several drowning scarabs in just a few moments with its trident.

Jake summoned one more creature, using [Advanced Summon Beast]. He wasn’t sure how useful it would be with its reduced stats, but this might be the last opportunity he gets to cast spells freely. The large figure fell into the water as he added his buff once again, and he couldn’t help but feel nostalgic. While it wasn’t the same creature, it would hopefully live up to Jake’s expectations.

The enemy summoner had cast a new summon of its own: a giant crocodile. It chased after the sharkgoblin, and Jake couldn’t help but laugh. Due to the size and power of the crocodile, Jake guessed that this summoner was specialized in what he had wanted: the beast specialization. The sharkgoblin had no trouble evading the crocodile as it continued to control the water, splashing scarabs with water to knock them out of the air, and piercing them with its trident while on the run.

Jake activated Runebound: Unbound, then used his spear staff’s runes to cast a massive fire spear, shooting it at the enemy champion, and he charged, stepping on invisible platforms in the air as he approached. The jackal man blocked the spear of fire with a sickly green barrier, and he could see them grimace as the spear struck. The power of Jake’s spell must have been outside of their expectations, so Jake sent another as he approached.

Jake could tell just by looking at the summoner that he was very much not the melee type, to say the least. He would try to use his ability to melee as an advantage against them. Just as his second spear of flames was about to arrive, the crocodile whipped its tail with a wave of magical water to meet it. Jake’s attack still overcame it, but it was lessened before it struck the enemy champion’s barrier. As Jake landed 5 meters away within striking distance, the crocodile came after Jake with a roar.

The sharkgoblin harried it with some thrusts of its trident, it finally having finished off the last of the scarabs, but they were only mild annoyances for the creature that stood on all fours taller than Jake, had he not been standing in the air above the water. Given enough time, the sharkgoblin would win, but the crocodile leaped at Jake, with its jaws wide open. Jake ignored it and leaped at the enemy summoner, with a powerful thrust of his spear.

Just as Jake’s thrust was about to land, it was blocked with a barrier once again, with the jackal man giving him a vicious smile. Jake could tell that the enemy champion thought the crocodile was going to crush his bones and pierce his flesh. Instead, a large figure slammed into the crocodile from the side, knocking it off course. It was Jake’s giant turtle he had summoned with Advanced Summon Beast. While it wasn’t an amazing Asmodean Wartortle, it was still a large creature. It’s just that its offensive capabilities were quite lacking, and it even lacked most magical capabilities, barely assisting itself with movement in the water. But it still had its sizable mass, and Jake could use it as a shield.

Jake continued to harry the summoner with his spear, and the sharkgoblin continued its harassment of the crocodile. It was now riddled with bloody holes, and while the crocodile tried to ignore the two and come after Jake and save its summoner, the turtle positioned itself in the way.

The barrier was near cracking now, Jake having landed several blows onto it. He cast a makeshift [Spear of Hestia] using the divine flames in his hearth, and it shattered. He went for a thrust at the enemy champion’s chest to end the fight.

A wave of darkness slammed into Jake blasting him in the stomach like he was struck by a powerful blow, and he flew backward until his back crashed into a rocky wall. Jake just knew that his [Valkyrie’s Chosen Champion] ability had taken the edge off the attack, or he might have had broken bones. Once again, the enemy had called on their god.

While Jake could call Hestia and likely win and end the fight, he had wanted to save it for when he arrived at their destination world, they were heading off to save. Champion, or god energy at his Tier, could only be used about once per month and required that Jake store the energy and build it up. If he used it in this fight now, it wouldn’t be available to him when he arrived at the world they were trying to save. At the same time, he certainly wouldn’t let himself lose over it.

The enemy summoner then channeled the energy into a summon, and the creature manifested even faster than Jake would have expected, only being able to heal himself with [Runic Healing] once, and leap back into the air. The summon was a giant snake, Jake guessed a minor manifestation of this Apophis.

Jake’s sharkgoblin had managed to land some vicious thrusts into the crocodile’s throat, finally killing it and dispersing it into motes of light. Jake removed a spell rod from his belt, an empowered magical spear spell. He previously could only make a ball of flame spell, but his additional runes he had obtained by increasing his skill allowed him to make the spell even more powerful. He prepared his hearth-empowered runes and shot the giant magical spear of fire at the enemy summoner.

Steam rose from the water as the spear crossed the room, the power and heat of the flames shocking. But both the summoner and the snake covered themselves in dark energy, which was channeled through the summoner and into the snake, a coordinated attack, and Jake guessed that this was a type of ability Jake might have received if he had picked the Beast specialization like he had wanted. The snake fired a breath of vicious black-purple cursed flames to slam into Jake’s spell. The flames overwhelmed his spell and continued towards Jake.

A large wave of water rushed from the sharkgoblin, and Jake noticed that many of the dead scarabs were contained within, causing Jake to gape. That was incredibly smart, and if he thought to tell the sharkgoblin to do that, he would be quite proud of himself. But somehow, the creature did it on its own, defying Jake’s expectations for what a mindless summon should be able to do once again. It went on to meet the flames, but it too was overcome, turning into steam. Jake was able to quickly cast a runic barrier, and finally, stop the enemy’s spell. Jake could see the sharkgoblin grinning to itself, proud of what it had done.

The turtle had ponderously moved between Jake and the enemies as this happened, and the sharkgoblin moved to harry the snake as well, giving Jake some time to think.

Enough water had escaped the room out of the rear doorway, along with the steam from that attack that the area of the dais was no longer covered in water. Jake stood on the ground and pondered his options. Jake didn’t have a lot of mana left, but he doubted that the enemy summoner did either. He drank a mana potion, and he saw that the enemy summoner did too.

Instead of casting another spell, he activated his third covenant for his technique. [Runebound: Juggernaut]. His cost was that his ability to cast spells was removed, and even spells already cast to benefit Jake would be reduced, which was a major restriction for someone with as much mana as Jake. The bigger the restriction, the more power the ability gave him, and the more ways he could use it to diversify what he gained. This was the biggest restriction he could come up with, for him.

The spell gave him three things. First, enhanced runes on his equipment even further than the Unbound technique. His runes glowed a vibrant white, empowering the enchantments on his weapon, shield, and armor. His spear’s hexagonal prisms spun and changed to demonic runes.

Second, his physical parameters were greatly increased. While his [Runebound: Unbound] could focus on one attribute and make them up to fifty percent higher and all were increased by fifteen percent besides, Juggernaut focused on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, increasing them by over seventy-five percent each, his spellcasting stats ignored. He could even focus on a single one, increasing that even further.

Third, he was more resilient to magic. This came with the side effect of positive effects being reduced as well, so Jake wouldn’t get a lot out of buffing himself with [Einherjar] prior to activating the ability, for example; it would wear off in a mere instant. Only the divine nature of [Divine Reinforcement] allowed it to remain affecting him, otherwise, the ability would be a complete waste. While he was unable to cast new spells, he could continue running the ones he had already cast. His summons remained, and his buffs on his girls continued, as well.

Jake charged the snake and sent the turtle and the sharkgoblin after the summoner. With little water now, the turtle lumbered toward them at a pondering pace, but the shark goblin had no problem dashing rapidly. The snake returned Jake’s charge with a charge of its own and smacked into Jake’s shield. Its look of anger and hatred was replaced with one of confusion, as its giant mass had stopped completely. Jake snapped his spear forward with several vicious stabs in return, piercing deep into the middle of the snake’s body. It hissed in pain, and blood flowed from the wounds freely.contemporary romance

It was Jake’s enchantment on his shield, the inertia cancellation. With it enhanced so heavily by Juggernaut, it had now reached a nearly one hundred percent cancellation. It had limits, as his tests with Bloodberri had some close calls with many broken bones, but Jake was quite happy with the results. His spear’s demonic runes had three simple rune words: pierce, spear, and fast, which all enhanced the spear. Jake continued trying to harry the snake, positioning his shield to block the snake’s large body from knocking him about, but Jake could see from the snake’s intelligent narrowed eyes that it understood what was happening.

He had now landed a dozen blows across the snake’s body when the sharkgoblin was blasted with a necrotic beam and taken out. Jake’s giant turtle launched itself high in the air at the enemy summoner with a sort of belly-flop attack, surprising everyone in the room, but the snake snapped out of it and rammed into the turtle, keeping it from landing on the enemy summoner.

The snake then wrapped itself around the turtle ineffectually, and Jake thought for a moment the turtle almost looked smug, as their eyes met. Weren’t these creatures magical constructs with no personality? It retreated its head and legs inside its shell, and the snake hissed in anger, as it tried to crush the turtle impotently.

Jake returned his focus and charged the enemy summoner, the summoner surrounding themselves with their sickly green barrier once again. But Jake focused on improving his demonic runes and his strength, and his spear pierced through the shield, shattering it. He went once again for the enemy’s heart, but the jackal twisted their body and covered it in dark energy once again, and redirected Jake’s attack into his shoulder. Jake pulled his spear out with a shower of blood, but Jake saw that his turtle was now finished off, and the snake blurred towards him with rage.

The snake had blown dark flames into the turtle’s shell, killing it. For a beast that started at less than half of its overall capability, it definitely did its job. While Jake raised his shield to block the snake’s charge, he was surprised when instead of slamming into it, its fangs pierced into the top and bottom in a lightning-fast bite, and his shield was then wrenched away from his arm, forcing him to let go or have himself thrown with it and his arm broken.

Jake looked over his enemy with [Arcane Eye] which had remained summoned. He saw that his opponent had more than half of his mana, and while the snake was wounded, he knew that there was a good chance the enemy summoner could heal it. Also, he bet that the previous ability which overwhelmed his massive spear of flames could be used again in a short while. While Juggernaut would reduce this, he would probably be in a world of pain, and he bet Ophelia would be harmed significantly, too.

Jake didn’t like his chances of fighting without his inertia stopping capabilities, and while he had extras in his bracelet, he couldn’t access them in Juggernaut as he was. He also didn’t like his odds of being able to cancel the ability, as the nearly fifteen seconds of being restricted by the covenant but without the benefits to his capabilities would result in his death, probably. He could still summon Hestia, as praying to the goddess to use his body as a vessel was not a spell, and not restricted by his covenant.

He had sensed Ophelia’s fight through their bond, and couldn’t believe the struggle she had gone through just to make herself useful to him, in his time of need. While he appreciated her dedication, he still could have made use of her abilities if she forced him to use them earlier, even if it wasn’t optimal.

“This prince needs his knight to save him. There’s both an evil champion, and a dragon, sort of?”

“What’s the matter, champion? Are you not able to summon your god? You will suffer for all the trouble you gave me.”

“Didn’t I already say it? You are not qualified.”

A floating hearth appeared, and Jake charged at his enemies as it fired a half-dozen [Spear of Hestia]’s at both the snake and the summoner. The snake wrapped around the enemy summoner and was covered with a barrier, but this too shattered when Jake gave a powerful two-handed thrust of his spear. The snake hissed in rage, and Jake was then filled with the flames of Hestia, his armor and spear covered in fiery light from Ophelia activating her [Valkyrie Champion] ability.

Jake stabbed the snake some more, and they disappeared into motes of black light. He leaped towards the enemy champion and, just as a beam of necrotic energy was about to slam into him, Ophelia’s [Consecration] echoed out of Jake and engulfed both the beam and the enemy champion. Jake pierced their legs, causing them to fall, and they used what Jake guessed was their last blast of dark energy to quench the flames.

Jake kicked the enemy’s staff away, and Jake’s boot crushed the wound on their legs as he prepared to spear the enemy summoner. Jake deactivated Runebound, knowing that the floating hearth would be enough to protect him from the downed champion, from what he could see with [Arcane Eye]. But the enemy champion lifted their head and spoke, “I don’t know how you’re so strong, but don’t think you’ve won. There’s no way you’re getting out of here alive. You will die, and you won’t make it where your goddess wants you to go in time. Both worlds will be ours.” The man was then filled with sickly looking energy.

The mountain rumbled, and it almost knocked Jake off his feet. He was once again about to finish off the enemy champion when the wall shattered with a large crash. A large piece of rubble slammed into the enemy’s head, the sickly energy entering the rubble, and Jake’s quest finally updated to 4/4 completed, and Jake minimized the prompt of the [Fortress Assault] completion, noticing that he had actually reached level 16 as a result.

Jake just stared at the dead champion blanky. Did he just get killstolen?

“Jake!”

It was Bloodberri, the giant snake woman entering the cavern, no worse for wear. Their bond reconnected, and he could feel the elation of the two women in one body.

Berri said, “I saw water draining over there as I was looking for you, and thought I might feel you when your cute little snake appeared. So, I smashed the wall.”

Jake’s spider drill must have reached outside the sealed walls and led to a nearby cavern, which Bloodberri discovered with the help of Ira. Jake’s fifteen seconds were up, so he called Ophelia and Fhesiah to him with [Call Summon], the two girls appearing with alarm. He looted the enemy champion.

The rumbling of the mountain deepened, and Jake felt like the mountain was going to be brought down on them. Fhesiah said, “I think it’s a volcano, and it’s going to erupt! We need to get out of here!”

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