Nightmare Realm Summoner

“So… what now?” Aaron asked, glancing from Alex to Claire.

Alex grinned. He rolled the Cracked Coin across his knuckles. It slipped. He cursed, fumbling with the metal disk for a second and barely keeping himself from dropping it. Alex ignored the look Claire sent him and cleared his throat as he held the coin out.

Whoops. Really shouldn’t fiddle around with fancy stuff that I can’t afford to lose. We’ve already tossed one coin over a ledge today. Don’t need to make that two.

“We use this.”

“It… lets us choose a desired target?” Aaron asked. “Like, anything?”

“Dunno,” Alex replied. “We really haven’t gotten a chance to test it all that extensively. But I think it was pretty good at sending us in the right direction the last time around. The real question is what we should be aiming for.”

“An enemy roughly similar to us in strength,” Claire said. “We don’t want to find ourselves against some monster that we have absolutely no chance of defeating. That would be… unfortunate. I think it would be good if we got something worthwhile out of the fight as well.”

“Are there guaranteed rewards for winning fights if you kill your opponent?” Aaron asked.

“No,” Claire replied. “I don’t think that’s what the Cracked Steps are about. But that doesn’t mean you can’t loot a corpse. I think that’s what the Cracked Coin is really for. It isn’t just for choosing the fight. It’s for finding something worth fighting over.”

Alex tilted his head to the side in thought. “I wonder if that means people might be less likely to search or fight with us if we don’t have anything of value.”

“That would logically make sense,” Claire said. “But I’m not sure how it works. It’s very possible there are some underlying rules to the Cracked Steps that determine who your opponent is. The Cracked Coins don’t seem to guarantee anything, after all.”

“But… technically speaking, nothing forces us to use the coin, right?” Aaron’s brow furrowed. “Doesn’t that mean someone could hypothetically use their coin to find us if we aren’t currently in a fight?”

“Yes,” Alex said.

“And according to the coin’s description, defeating someone in the Cracked Steps gives you a Cracked Coin,” Aaron continued. He scratched the back of his neck. “You’re seeing what I’m getting at here, right?”

“I think I see your point. That’s quite clever,” Claire said, her eyes lighting up. “Challenging someone spends a Cracked Coin. If you win the fight, that’s still a net zero. But if you just sit around and let others challenge you… your coin doesn’t get spent. You collect more of them.”

“You guys think we can combine the coins or something if we get enough?” Alex asked, catching on. “Kind of like the Ancestry, where saving up the rewards lets you get a better one?”

“It does kind of track, wouldn’t you say?” Claire asked.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. It seems like a pretty safe bet. It also means we’ll have a much harder time of the fights. We won’t know what we’re getting into or who might be trying to fight us. The advantage goes to the challenger rather than the challenged. Fun. I think you’re right. This totally makes sense. Nice thinking, Aaron.”

“It’s just a guess,” Aaron said. “I could be wrong.”

“Maybe,” Alex said. “But that would be kind of lame, don’t you think? This lines up perfectly. It’s exactly what the System would do. Better reward for greater challenge. That’s the name of the game, you know.”

“So we should just hold onto these for now, yes? I still have the Cracked Coin from the last time we went to the Cracked Steps,” Claire said, holding out her own coin. “Or did we want to stay a bit safer for this next fight?”

Alex arched an eyebrow.

“Hmm. I don’t know.”

Then he put his coin back into his Spatial Ring. Claire rolled her eyes before doing the same.

“I should have known,” Claire said with a small laugh. She returned her coin as well, then looked out in to the storming Mirrorlands around them for a long second. Alex and Aaron did the same. None of the other platforms had moved yet. There were no root paths reaching out to connect them with an opponent.

Alex broke the silence as he turned to Aaron. “So, what are you going to do for the next round?”

“I’m sorry?”

“You lost your coin,” Alex said. “Looked like that gave you a hell of a lot of trouble. We’ve got time right now. Do you have other games? Like a deck of cards or something?”

Aaron grimaced. “No. I really should. That was a pretty major oversight. I guess I can keep doing rock paper scissors.”

Alex sent him a sidelong look. He didn’t say anything, but he really didn’t need to.

Aaron sighed. “I know it’s kind of lame, man. I just didn’t think about it that much. It won’t happen again.”

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“Maybe you can challenge the monsters to playing chopsticks or something.”

They exchanged a glance. Aaron grimaced.

“That’s somehow even worse than rock paper scissors. It takes way too long!”

A chuckle forced its way out from Alex’s mouth.“Maybe you should start carrying around a Monopoly box. Winner takes all.”

“Now you’re just screwing with me.” Aaron ran a hand through his hair. Then the faintest smile pulled at one corner of his lips. “That would be kind of funny, though.”

“What’s Monopoly?” Claire asked.

“A very long game,” Alex replied. “Ironically enough, one that often results in the shit getting beat out of someone entirely without Aaron’s powers. The game just does that on its own.”

“It’s like Court?”

“Yeah. We’ll go with that,” Alex said, holding back another laugh. “I suppose there are a few similarities.”

“That doesn’t really help right now, though. It sounds like this Monopoly requires an item that Aaron does not have,” Claire said.

“I’m not using Monopoly to fight,” Aaron said. “That has to be illegal. Or trademarked. Or something.”

“I don’t think the US Patent Office is still around,” Alex said. “Pretty sure they didn’t survive the end of the world. Actually, that gives me an idea. I should find someone to make memory stones of all the content I remember from Earth. Bet I could sell that for a lot of money to some Outworlder interested in Earth culture or something like that.”

“That feels morally ambiguous,” Aaron said.

“You’re right,” Alex said, making a mental note to poke Finley about the possibility of committing intellectual property theft at a large scale. He had no idea if there was actually going to be any demand for that sort of thing, but checking wouldn’t hurt.

Claire rolled her eyes. “But, until you get this Monopoly—”

“I’m not fighting with Monopoly.”

“Whatever it is you’re fighting with, why don’t you take this?” Claire summoned her Cracked Coin back to her hand and held it out to Aaron. “It’s a coin, right? So you can use this for your magic.”

Aaron’s eyes widened. “I could… but isn’t that super important?”

“Do you make it a habit to drop coins off cliffs?” Alex asked. “It being magic means it’s probably even harder to damage than a normal coin. Just don’t go chucking it into the void and we should be fine.”

After a moment of hesitation, Aaron took the coin from Claire with an appreciative nod. “Thank you. I won’t lose it. I promise. That last one was… uh, like tossing a coin into the well.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Claire asked.

“I think it’s bad luck to toss more than one coin into a well. It’s like asking a genie for infinite wishes. Something’s gonna go wrong.”

Claire sent a questioning glance at Alex. He shrugged in response. There was only so much the System could do to translate idioms and references to Earth culture, and it was clear that they were pushing its limits.

“Logic seems sound to me,” Alex said. A flicker of motion in the distant storms caught his eyes. A weaving path of white roots wound toward the direction of their platform from the distance. A smile crossed his lips. “And just on time as well. Ready up. We’ve got company coming.”

Both Claire and Aaron turned to follow his gaze. Their expressions steeled as one. All three of them moved to the end of the platform opposite to the approaching roots and squinted, trying to make out any information they could about whoever was traversing the pathway.

Their efforts were futile at first. The storming Riftwarped Energy simply swallowed any hopes of identifying anything at all beyond the vague shape of the approaching roots. But as the seconds ticked by, more and more detail revealed itself.

And the very first thing Alex realized was that the form racing across the pathway reaching toward their platform was not human. It loped on four legs, each just a little too long to be natural. There seemed to be some kind of thick mat of fur covering the beast. It was some kind of bear. An elongated, lumbering ursine, like someone had stretched out a polar bear and then amped it up on meth and a copious amount of steroids.

Only after a few seconds of staring did it strike Alex just how large the monster was. It was huge, at least three times his height and considerably longer from snout to tail. The beast had large splotches of blood sprayed across its white coat, mostly concentrated around its mouth and near its front claws. He was able to make its form out from so far away that a human shouldn’t have even been properly visible, but the System had no such qualms.

Warlusted Baveroth (Adept 9)

“What the hell is that thing?” Aaron breathed, taking a step back as the massive monster drew closer and closer, the roots bearing it toward them rapidly.

“Adept 9,” Claire said, lowering her stance. “Be careful. This one isn’t going to be easy.”

“It looks rabid,” Alex said through a grimace. “Probably a good thing. Intelligent enemies are way harder to fight. But there’s only one. We should be able to handle this pretty easily as long as we play it smart. It’s just a big bear.”

“Don’t say that. You’re just tempting fate,” Aaron said. “What if it’s a genius bear?”

“Oh, relax. This’ll be fun. This is the best part of the apocalypse, you know. Just don’t overextend. We’re Adept Tiers, you know. And I’ve got all my monsters.”

“I… yeah. I guess. A stupid enemy is a lot easier than a smart one.” Aaron tightened his grip on the Cracked Coin and set his jaw. It didn’t look like he was going to be running anytime soon.

There was no time for Alex to think of a response. The monster was already upon them, but there were still several seconds left before the roots connected to their platform and gave it a chance to enter the ring.

I wonder if I could manifest my Anchor and knock it off the platform while it’s trying to get off the roots. That would probably…

Alex’s thoughts trailed off as a shadow passed over him.

The bear wasn’t on the bridge anymore.

He looked up in mute disbelief as a massive wall of fur and flesh sailed straight overhead, crashing down behind them. It landed with enough force to shake the ground, nearly knocking all three of them from their feet.

Only a second later did the roots finally connect to their proper new spots on the platform.

The Baveroth had jumped.

It looked even bigger than it had just moments ago, but that may have been attributable to the fact that the massive creature was getting bigger.

Or, more accurately… it was standing up. Huge claws scraped through the ground, digging through packed soil like it were nothing more than styrofoam.

The towering beast turned, blood and saliva dripping from a scarred, fang-filled maw as two molten red eyes passed over their group. An oppressive aura seemed to emanate from the great beast, pressing down on Alex’s chest like a tightening vice. It was sickly.

Adrenaline pumped through Alex’s veins as he reached for his magic and started to summon all of his monsters.

“Cub-men,” the huge creature snarled in a voice full of phlegm and what very well may have been the remains of its previous opponents. Malice shimmered in its beady eyes, and the blood dripping from its claws and fangs made it clear that this had not been its first fight today. “Three of them at that. The Greatfather has blessed me. Scream loudly for me, Cub-men. Scream loud enough that he can be honored by your song in the great Astral Plane.”

Huh. Genius bear. Who would have thought?

“Alex?” Aaron asked tersely. “I hate you.”

“Yeah,” Alex said with a grin. “Fair enough.”