Nightmare Realm Summoner

“Splendid,” Samuel said with a wry smile. “Are you aware of how the arena works?”

“Vaguely,” Alex said. He paused for a moment. “You’re not gunning for my coin thing, are you? Because I’m not about to go betting it on a fight with someone I’ve never met.”

Samuel shook his head. “Your Denari? No. I was the one who challenged you, so it would be quite rude of me to request such a thing. But I will not be offering up one of my own, either. We can consider this fight a professional courtesy between two Evokers and nothing more.”

“Works for me,” Alex said. A part of him wondered what Teddy was up to with this. It was becoming increasingly difficult to tell if his former friend was actually on his side or not… and their chat really hadn’t changed things nearly as much as he’d hoped.

He hadn’t even had a chance to punch Teddy a second time.

“Are you familiar with the rules of the arena?” Samuel asked, looking to the entrance. “This is your first day here, yes?”

“It is,” Alex said. “And Stargazer told us the basics. Before he killed us.”

Samuel chuckled. “I see some things never change. That is a common initiation joke. The woman who brought me to Empty Court pulled it on me as well. I imagine that you’ll end up doing it to your own future recruits in due time as well. We’re a big fan of tradition here. It’s kind of like a cult in some ways.”

“Right,” Alex said slowly. “That’s not the best marketing pitch.”

“Why would I need to pitch you on anything?” Samuel’s lips curled in amusement. “You’re already here. And there’s no leaving once you join. Empty Court members are members for life.”

“What does that mean?” Claire asked. “Do you hunt down people that try to leave?”

Samuel burst into laughter. “No. But our benefits are so good that we’ve never had a member leave. Why would you? The Empty Court asks nothing except that you continue to pursue yourself. We’ve certainly expelled members before. But it’s never been their choice. I wouldn’t worry about it. The kind of people who get in here are rarely the ones that do something spineless enough to get them kicked out.”

He started toward the gate. And, after a quick glance back at Claire, Alex followed after him.

“So, how exactly do the rules work?” Alex asked as he drew up alongside Samuel.

“Verbally. It’s just a normal agreement. Nothing special needed. The arena will know,” Samuel explained. “We’ll be doing a normal fight. The victor is the one who isn’t dead at the end of it. Nothing off limits. I’ll repress my strength down to… what are you? Adept?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “You can do that?”

“Quite easily,” Samuel said with a nod. “Adept, then. We’ll go with the normal arena. Don’t want anything too fancy yet. We’ll avoid any environmental additions as well. There will be no reward to the winner. This will just be for fun. And that should handle it.”

“Huh,” Alex said. “That’s… straightforward.”

“The arena will generally default to those standards if you don’t specify otherwise,” Samuel said. “But I do recommend getting creative in the future. It’s good practice. This is the greatest tool that the Empty Court has to offer you. More than all the resources here, this is where your time will be the best spent.”

“I’ve already gathered that much,” Alex said, shaking his head in wonder. “There’s no limit to how much we can use it? It doesn’t use our real body, right? So does that mean it doesn’t drain magical energy? Could I just use this for days on end?”

“Unfortunately not,” Samuel said with a laugh. “When you use your power, you’ll find that it gets spent in your real body as well. The arena draws a price for its usage. You’ll drain yourself completely if you use it constantly. But the real barrier will be your own mind. There’s only so many times you can die painfully in a short span of time. It… starts to get to you. And there is no dampening feature in the arena.”

I mean, dying once didn’t seem that bad.

“Right. Makes sense,” Alex said with a nod. “Let’s do this, then.”

“Eager, are we?” Samuel nodded to the entrance. “Then in you go. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

And, as one, the two of them stepped into the arena.

***

The world changed in an instant. Alex’s foot hit the very same sand that he could have sworn he’d been standing on just a few minutes ago with Teddy.

It was exactly as it had been the last time he’d been here. The only ones here were him and Samuel, alone in a sea of sand surrounded by massive marble stands. None of the sound or crowd from outside the arena remained.

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Alex drew on his magic instantly. He wasn’t about to be caught by the same trick twice.

But Samuel didn’t attack him. The well-dressed man just walked over around two dozen paces before turning to look back at Alex.

“Much of the arena goes on an honor system,” Samuel said. “It is a training tool. But when there are resources on the line, you should be careful. We didn’t specify where we would start the fight. And when you don’t do that, the arena will just drop you in alongside each other. Especially for classes like ours… that’s not a very good position.”

“Good to know,” Alex said. “So you can control literally everything about the fight?”

“Everything,” Samuel confirmed. “But you’ll discover the rest of it naturally. Let’s get things started. I assume you’ve got a Soul Manifestation?”

“Partial,” Alex said.

Samuel pursed his lips. “Then I will avoid using mine. I don’t want to spoil anything else. I’ll summon my monster. You will summon yours. Then we will fight.”

Alex suppressed a frown. It felt like Samuel was looking down on him a bit too much. But he had no idea just how strong the other Evoker actually was. There was a good chance that he was getting looked down on for all the right reasons.

And there was only one way to find out.

“Let’s do it,” Alex said, calling his monsters out with a thought. “Show me what you’ve got.”

The sound of shattering class echoed through the arena. Glint stepped out from the rend in reality to stand at Alex’s side as his shadow lengthened. Spark rose up from behind him. His tall, slender form loomed well above Alex, its hands crossed before the long slit running along its chest. Blue light pulsated deep within the horrid-looking creature’s center.

They were joined a moment later by Princess, who pulled herself up from a bubbling pool of darkness before Alex. All three of his monsters turned toward Samuel. He didn’t even need to say anything to Ein’Zahl. It was pretty obvious what they were here for.

But, to Alex’s surprise, Samuel hadn’t summoned his own monster yet. There was a hint of surprise on his features.

“What manner of beings are those?” Samuel asked in awe. “I’ve never seen something so… wretched as a summon. Much less three of them.”

Though it sounded slightly rude, Samuel’s words definitely weren’t an insult. He was practically salivating.

Alex grinned in response. “Oh, you know. Here and there. But I’m not here to show them off. Let’s see yours.”

“I’m afraid I only have one,” Samuel said, raising a hand to his eyepatch. “I didn’t think you were a horde summoner. How exciting. Having multiple monsters seems far more difficult than just raising a single one. But I can see the benefits that it could reap should you manage to pull it off.”

Then he pulled his eyepatch back.

Behind it was a swirling mass of sickly red power. And, the instant his eyepatch had left its spot, the magic exploded forth in a hissing snarl. It splattered against the ground before Samuel like wet paint before spraying up in a huge arc. The energy seemed to thicken and condense as it rose into the air far above and around its summoner.

Alex’s eyes widened slightly.

His neck craned back.

And then he stared on in awe as an enormous dragon materialized before him.

The beast was the true definition of massive. It took up nearly a tenth of the entire arena entirely on its own, standing several times taller than Samuel — without counting its positively huge wingspan. The whole beast was covered with a sleek layer of black scales with rivers of reddish energy flowing beneath them. Rows of jagged red spikes ran down its back and along the tips of its wings. Its eyes were the very same burgundy, and the sound of crackling electricity buzzed intensely.

Even from where Alex stood, his hair stood on end from the static charge. The dragon’s mouth yawned open, letting out what almost sounded like a hissing laugh. An invisible pressure radiated out from the beast. Sheer magical pressure bore down into Alex, seemingly pushing him back from the enormous monster’s presence alone.

“This is my summon,” Samuel said with a proud smile. He rested a hand on the scales of the enormous monster. “The System does not properly translate his name. But I believe that, in your language, he would be known as Raijin.”

“And some people say size doesn’t matter,” Alex muttered. “Jesus.”

“Show me what you’ve got,” Samuel called, grabbing onto Raijin’s tail.

And then, as Alex watched in disbelief, the monster flicked him into the air. Samuel landed gracefully on his monster’s back, an eager grin splitting his lips as he landed between two of the spikes and settled in. Then the dragon’s wings snapped down.

It launched into the air with a shockwave that nearly knocked Alex from his feet. He, Glint, and Spark were all sent skidding a foot back as Raijin took to the sky.

“Are you kidding me?” Alex yelled. “That’s not fair!”

Samuel’s laughter echoed through the arena. “Fair. What a ridiculous concept.”

Then a shrill whine filled the air. It was followed by a deep rumble, as if a storm had arrived within the arena at Raijin’s command. Strands of red lightning slipped out from between the dragon’s maw as it spiraled in the air overhead. Then it spun around, looking straight down at Alex and his monsters as its mouth yawned open.

Oh, shit.

Alex thrust his hands forward, releasing as much power as he could whilst casting Funhouse.

Reality cracked before him in a wide expanse.

And then, with a deafening crack, a bolt of thick red lightning tore out from Raijin’s mouth.

The magic split the air in an instant. It drove right into the cracked reality and shot out to the side, connecting with one of the arena walls with a huge, booming crash. The proximity of the magic made every hair on Alex’s hand straight up in the air like he was one one of the troll dolls from the 90s.

He stood there for a moment, staring at the large patch of blackened wall on the far side of the arena. Then he looked up to Raijin as the dragon circled, preparing to take another shot at him from the skies.

Alex’s eyes narrowed.

He sent a few thoughts to his monsters. And, as he did, he stepped forward and sent his magical energy flowing into Princess, using Rift Flood.

Princess’ form bulged. Power exploded within her goopy body, but she didn’t even let the transformation finish before she burst into motion. Glint leapt into the air as Princess reached out, grabbing him and spinning once to pick up momentum.

“I hope you’ve got something that can deal with a flying opponent!” Samuel called with a cackle. “Otherwise, this fight isn’t going to last very long at all!”

“Don’t worry,” Alex called back. He cracked his neck. Then he grinned. “I’d watch your own back before worrying about mine. Now… watch this drive.”

Then, with every scrap of strength Princess had in her rapidly expanding body, she sent Glint rocketing into the sky in a blurred silver missile streaking straight for Raijin’s neck.

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