Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex took a step back, steadying himself as waves of tremors rolled through the ground beneath his feet. His mind spun in search of an idea. The exit they’d been running toward was blocked off. The chasm before it had already grown too large, and the sheer number of bright pink crystals sprouting from within it were going to seal the way off in seconds.

How do we even fight back against an entire stadium? The System hasn’t identified the monster yet. That means we haven’t seen it. So these crystals are just an affect of its magic or something?

“Glint!” Alex hissed. “What are we dealing with?”

“I don’t know,” Glint replied. “I’m not some monster dictionary. I just recognized the signs of an obvious bait. The Corrupted Scuttler was clearly meant to draw us into the center of the battle arena. I’d bet that was this thing’s mouth. While you’re whacking away at its tough exterior, the whole arena just chomps down on you. A whole fake boss fight, just to lull you into complacency for long enough that the real monster can eat you alive. Isn’t that fascinating?”

“Not right now, it isn’t!” Orchid snapped. She raised her staff as if to sent a blast of magic hurtling into the widening ravine, then thought better of it. “How do we deal with it?”

“Running might not be an option anymore,” Claire said. She coiled her whip around her hand, eyes narrowed into slits. “We’re nearly surrounded. We can try to run through the corridors, but this is the largest section that I can see in the area. We’re likely to get trapped if we move. Doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to break out through the walls, either.”

“We don’t even see the monster yet,” Alex said. “Glint, don’t you know anything about how these crystals are spreading and what’s going on? Why isn’t it attacking us?”

“Probably doesn’t need to,” Glint replied. He didn’t sound too stressed, but it wasn’t like his real body was here. “If I had to guess, I’d assume we’re only seeing the effects of its magic. Everything thus far has basically been like Orchid casting a spell… just with crystals instead of elements. There’s a chance this is its Soul Manifestation. It’s definitely pretty strong. At least, compared to the lot of you.”

“Don’t forget that if I get myself killed, your game ends,” Alex growled. “Just because you aren’t able to die here doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to lose.”

Glint paused for a brief moment. Then he cursed. “Shit! Right! But that doesn’t change anything. I want to fight the damn thing, not get crushed to paste by a bunch of glowing crystals. If I knew where it was, I’d already be attacking.”

“Maybe we should hit the crystals,” Derek suggested.

“I don’t think that’s going to make much of a difference,” Alex said. “We need to figure out where the boss is. It’s hiding inside the stadium, but it can’t literally be the stone or the crystals.”

“So where is it?” Orchid asked. “We can’t just sit around here! The crab is still behind us. Even if the big one can’t fit into the room, the smaller ones definitely can. I don’t know why they haven’t caught up to us yet. They should have.”

“The real monster probably pulled the energy out of them,” Glint supplied helpfully. “So you don’t have to worry about the bait anymore. You’ve already been hooked.”

“The hook is a hell of a lot of a bigger problem when it’s already rammed through your mouth,” Alex said. He turned in a circle, but his search didn’t turn up anything at all. The pink crystals were growing all across the walls. Most of the exits had already been sealed over. There was still absolutely no indication that their opponent was anywhere nearby.

It struck Alex as slightly odd.

Whatever they were up against was strong. It was probably huge as well, given the fact that its magic had covered an entire football stadium and spread throughout a city. Something that powerful didn’t feel like it would have been putting on such a huge show just to kill a few relatively weak opponents.

Why is the whole arena basically turning to crystal just because we triggered the boss fight?

“What kind of monster would use an ability like this?” Alex asked hurriedly.

“I already told you, I don’t know!” Glint snapped. “It could be—”

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“No. I don’t mean the literal monster. I mean the personality,” Alex replied. “Doesn’t it feel like this thing is hiding from us? Why would something strong do that?”

“Powerful beings can still be cowards,” Glint said. “This doesn’t help unless you’re just trying to feel better by insulting the monster about to grind you into paste with a bunch of crystals without so much as even showing up to the fight.”

“No. But if it’s a coward, then it’s a coward,” Alex muttered.

“I think I’m with Glint on this,” Claire said tersely. “What the does that mean, Alex? It’s like saying things die when you kill them!”

“No,” Derek said. He nodded sagely. “I’m with him. I get it. But not all people die when they are killed.”

“It’s a coward,” Alex repeated, ignoring Derek, who he was pretty sure wasn’t with him at all. “And the crab was a bait, right? But it didn’t attack before we got to it. So what if the bait goes both ways?”

Claire’s eyes widened. “It’s a strength check. You think anything strong enough to either seriously hurt or kill the crab would make the monster hide rather than attack? And since we ran—”

“It assumes we’re prey,” Orchid breathed, just barely audible over the loud cracks filling the arena. “We have to go back! If we kill the Scuttler, the real one hiding in the stadium might decide we’re too dangerous and pull back instead of trying to finish us off.”

“Well, shit,” Glint said. “This is some bet. You realize we’d be running right back into the center of the monster’s power? There’s a chance it keeps closing in, even if we kill the Scuttler. Might be smarter to try and make a break for it in search of a different exit.”

Alex exchanged a quick glance with the others. None of them said anything. They didn’t have to. They’d all turned back toward the entrance they’d just ran through. Then they set off at a dead sprint, racing back toward the center of the stadium.

“We’ll have to kill the crab fast!” Claire yelled over the noise of splitting earth and cracking gemstones as they ran. “If we take too long, this isn’t going to be convincing!”

“That’s assuming it can’t see us,” Orchid said, still getting bounced on Derek’s back with every loping step the huge man took. “But you’re right. We need to all hit it at once. Ignore everything else. If Derek can get me close, I can do a lot of damage. You just have to open up a hole for me. The crystal and carapace armor its got is going to slow me down too much. I need access to the center. If that thing is being controlled, then the brain or the heart are our target.”

“We can do that,” Alex yelled back. “Claire?”

“I’ll weaken it,” Claire confirmed, dodging out of the way as a crystal growing from the wall nearly managed to impale her. “Just give my Soul Manifestation a moment to work and keep it off my back.”

“Don’t rush too hard,” Glint warned. “That monster’s exterior was very tough. Even the claws of this monster struggled to cut it. You’ll need—”

Alex banished Glint.

His words vanished, swallowed by a stream of energy that ferried him back into Alex’s deck mid sentence. But Alex wasn’t done. He was drawing on his power again before Glint had even completely vanished. And this time, he drew deeper.

Riftwarped Qi burned through his veins and raced to buzz at his fingertips, forming into a spell. He and the others burst from the side entrance they’d taken just a few seconds ago and emerged back out into the field. The Corrupted Scuttler was still there, sitting near the center of the field like some giant crystal monolith.

Alex released the magic he’d gathered.

A crack split the air.

Fragments of shimmering glass shattered against the ground as Glint stepped back into being. But this time around, he wasn’t the same Glasmir. Riftwarped Energy seared through him. The cloak on his back had lengthened, transforming into a long, whip-like blade. At its end was the blade of an axe, cracking with Riftwarped Qi.

Delighted laughter slipped out from Glint and he hit the ground running, keeping pace with the rest of them easily. “Yes! This is it! Incredible! Give me more—”

Alex cast Rift Flood.

Power slammed into Glint in a wave of crackling purple and red sparks. His cloak-blade grew even larger as mirrored plates twisted up on his shoulders. His body strengthened, growing thicker and wider, as if he had been encased in glistening silver armor made out of the world’s clearest mirror. Alex could have made his reflection out perfectly within Glint had he had the time to waste on trying.

Sparks burst out from beneath Glint’s feet with every step he took. The Riftwarped Qi filling his body danced through his form and lit the glossy mask covering his face from behind with a haunting gaze.

The others didn’t waste any time either.

“Partial Soul Manifestation,” Claire intoned from behind Alex. “Hollow Court.”

A tolling bell cut through the air. Energy hissed at Alex’s side, but he didn’t dare turn his attention away from his target. They were all nearly upon the huge crab, and it was clearly readying itself to fight back. Even though they were angling toward it from its weak side, that didn’t mean it couldn’t turn all of them into a splatter on the ground if they didn’t play this right.

It would only take one blow.

And that was exactly how much they had to work with as well. Every instant that passed was a decrease in the probability that the enormous monster filling the stadium all around them would believe that they were too strong to deal with.

“Get Orchid in once Claire and I are done!” Alex yelled to Derek.

Then he clapped his hands together. His palms twisted, fingers hooked, and the gate within his soul slammed open.

“Partial Soul Manifestation,” Alex said between breaths, his teeth baring in a mixture of something between a snarl and a grin. “Edict of the Shattered King.”

Let’s see just how fast we can kill an Expert ranked monster. If we don’t die… the System is going to fucking love this.