Nightmare Realm Summoner

A howl like a plane ripping through the sound barrier sliced through the forest as Rin carved through the sky. She was nothing but a hazy blur of darkness; the Dhampir moved so quickly that Alex couldn't even try to follow her with his eyes.

His blood ran cold.

And, in that fraction of a second, he realized two things.

Claire had understated the strength of an ancient Dhampir — and the System's analysis of someone's level wasn't actually a complete representation of their strength. It was far from it.

Though I knew that already. Nothing in our levels says anything about how well made our Mind Palace is. Level is purely an analysis of how much energy someone has put into their body and nothing else.

A massive explosion ripped through the air and Alex's thoughts alike. Fire bloomed, flashing over the horizon like a detonating sun. Light and heat washed over the campsite below and he raised his hands over his face, squinting through the waves of roiling flame.

Both the Nagagaga and Rin had vanished behind the fire. The Field Boss must have tried to hit her with the fireballs it had readied before she could reach it. Alex just couldn't tell if it had succeeded.

"How can we beat something like that?" Aaron whispered, arms falling slack at his sides. The fire illuminated the horror in his features as he stared up into the burgundy sky.

A massive shadow appeared above the fire. Three long necks writhed, and brilliant flashes of fire joined by thunderous explosions ripped through the air. Wave after wave of molten heat slammed down on the camp.

The shape of the Nagagaga faded in and out of the flames like a flickering lightbulb. A pair of two loud, heavy thuds echoed out, followed a moment later by a trio of agonized screams. Despite the insane speed of the fight, no more than a few seconds had passed since Rin had launched herself from the ground.

The Field Boss' shadow enlarged rapidly. Then it punched through the coiling blanket of fire. Twisting tongues of orange wrapped around its body as it plummeted to the ground, crashing through trees and crashing to the dirt at the edge of the camp with an earthshaking crash.

Two huge wings followed suit moments behind the monster, passing through the now-fading fire in the sky to slam down alongside their owner. Rin had cut them clean off.

Holy shit. She took it out of the sky in seconds. Badass, grandma.

The Nagagaga's heads lifted into the air and let out a scream of fury. It slammed its staves down into the ground with enough force to make the ground tremble slightly. The monster rose to its feet, standing on its hind legs to loom over the camp.

"I think we're fucked," May said, just loud enough for Alex to hear her.

"Language," Aaron said, staring slack-jawed at the enormous monster. "But… you might be right."

There was no sign of Rin. She was either somewhere still in the sky, hidden behind the remains of the fading fire, or had dropped back to the ground when he'd been distracted by the falling Field Boss.

It didn't matter. He couldn't afford the distraction right now — and Rin had given them all an enormous boon.

She'd grounded the Field Boss. Alex didn't have a single good way to fight a powerful flying monster, but when it was on the ground…

He was more than happy to give it the fight that it had come for.

"Claire!" Alex yelled.

"I'm with you," she called back from where she stood several houses away, her wings snapping out to their full length as power rushed through her veins and turned them jet black. It seemed that she'd managed to get a good drink from the Nagaga she'd killed on her own.

"What do we do?" Aaron asked, clutching Claire's sword so tightly that his knuckles looked like the bones would burst free of the skin binding them.

"Against this? You stand back and watch. Fight together with the Outworlders against the weaker monsters. I won't be able to bail you out while I'm dealing with this thing."

"You can beat that?"

"I suppose we're about to find out." Alex strode forward, sending a mental command to all of his summoned monsters. They burst into a run toward him and he drew deeply on his magic, sending it flowing out in a wave as he used Rift Flood three times in rapid succession.

The bonds between Alex and his monsters intensified in a heartbeat. Their bodies warped and bulged as rift energy surged through them.

Glint's wing elongated into a cloak. He didn't quite take on the imposing look of a fallen hero that came when Alex added Qi into the mix, but that did nothing to make him any less intimidating. His sleek form blurred as he accelerated, racing across the ground like a silver blade.

Hands formed from the churning legs of a centipede erupted from Princess' back as she lurched forward, nearly twice as large as she had been. She used her hands to propel herself forward like a charging bear. The massive mound of sludge was nowhere near as fast as Glint, but there was a primal terror that came with getting run down by a monster her size.

Spark drove his hands into the shadows pooling beneath him. He pulled two black blades free from the darkness and rose, crouched like a runner at the start of a race, then burst into motion. His shadow rose up from the ground and dashed alongside him.

The campers closest to the monsters flinched back. They stared in a mixture of horror, awe, and surprise as the monstrosities that were Alex's team all converged on the enormous Field Boss.

A shrill whine filled the air as the Nagagaga lifted its staves into the air and formed a pair of spinning fireballs above them. The monsters three heads scanned the camp, instantly spotting the trio of threats running straight for it.

Instead of flinging them early, the monster held the spells at the ready, clear challenge burning in all six of its obsidian black eyes.

The monster was clearly an offense-focused one, and it had seen how fast some of them were. If it threw the spells early and missed, they'd all be on top of it in moments. But if it held the magic until there was no time to get out of the way… it could take all of them out at once.

"Get ready to dodge!" Alex yelled. He considered using Mirror Image, but the Field Boss' magic could just hit too great of an area at once. A bunch of clones weren't going to do anything when a massive fireball went off on top of his head.

Alex had absolutely no faith that Funhouse would be able to redirect a spell as large as the ones that the Nagagaga was throwing around. Betting on getting lucky enough with the relatively random direction his magic would spit the Field Boss' out was stupid at this range — but he didn't need to redirect the magic.

He just needed to redirect the Nagagaga.

Princess grabbed Alex with one of her centipede arms, lifting him into the air and whipping him forward. He tucked into a roll and drew on his magic as the world screamed past him. This wasn't a stunt he'd have ever even considered without the reinforcements advancing his Mind Palace gave his body — but after the apocalypse, he was more resilient than any normal human could have ever hoped to be.

There was no reason not to enjoy that privilege.

He hit the ground in a roll. The impact knocked the air from his lungs and Alex let out a wheeze as he tumbled to a stop, skidding the last few feet into range. He was only a few dozen feet away from the Nagagaga.

Alex allowed the warm, churning Qi within his chest to explode through his body. It raced down his arms and exploded from his fingertips in a wave of twisting Riftwarped Energy as he cast Funhouse with every scrap of magic that he could gather in the time he had.

Reality shattered. Huge cracks raced through the air all around the Nagaga even as it brought its staves down to fling the fireballs. Alex's spell swallowed the majority of the monster's body, though it wasn't nearly large enough to completely envelop the Field Boss. The Nagagaga's eyes only had an instant to widen before it found its world jerked apart.

Funhouse yanked the monster into its depths and spat it out like an unwanted vegetable from the mouth of a petulant child. It stumbled, nearly tripping over its own feet in surprise as it suddenly found itself facing toward the treeline.

The fireballs flew wide. One slammed into the trees and obliterated them with a loud crash and a fwoomp. Fragments of burning wood flew across the camp and the smell of ash intensified. The other fireball hurtled into the sky to vanish harmlessly.

Hisses of fury slipped from the Nagagaga's heads as it spun back to Alex, shaking off its disorientation. It lowered its staves at him —

A streak of silver carved through the air toward the Field Boss. It managed to twist at the last moment, crossing the huge weapons before itself a moment before Glint slammed into it. His segmented cloak-wing slammed into the wood, cutting deep into it but failing to penetrate.

The Glasmir yanked his cloak back and spun out of the way even as the Nagagaga whipped a staff down, using it like a club. The huge stick slammed into the ground where he'd been standing, leaving a massive crater in its wake.

Claire arrived an instant later. Her wings snapped and she leapt from the ground, blurring through the air and crashing into the Field Boss' shoulder. She raked her claws down, ripping a large scale away before leaping free to avoid getting crushed by its staves.

Lumbering steps marked Princess' arrival at Alex's side. She readied herself to defend him, sludge bubbling like boiling oil. Behind the Nagagaga, Alex spotted Spark's shadow getting into position.

"Oh look," Alex said, his lips pulling back in an excited grin. He couldn't help himself. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and his entire body itched from the thrill of the fight. "The cavalry is here."

The Nagagaga's tongues flicked out. It took a step back, then drove both of its staves down into the ground, impaling them into the dirt.

"Partial Soul Manifestation," the Field Boss hissed, its serpentine voice slipping from all three of its mouths in a unified, poisoned hiss. For an instant, Alex could have sworn that its thin lips pulled into cruel smiles. "Burning World."

Ah, shit.

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