Nightmare Realm Summoner

The air around Wess trembled as magic gathered within the massive, long-barreled gun that he had formed with his Partial Soul Manifestation. Space itself warped and bent as if it were being pulled into the huge weapon, all happening within the span of a mere instant.

Every single eye in the room turned toward Wess. The sheer magical energy pouring out of him was incredible. It was impossible to ignore such a show of strength. Impossible for every pair of eyes but one.

While the attention of everyone else in the room was pulled momentarily in Wess’ direction, Alex turned straight for the Triscorpion and burst into a run. He didn’t look back even as the scream of magic shattered the air behind him. All that mattered was closing the distance between himself and the monster as quickly as possible. He couldn’t count on his reactions being faster than everyone else in the room.

He had to strike before anyone else even thought that a killing blow was possible.

A beam of brilliant blue light sliced through the sky. It cut down like the judgement of the gods themselves, moving so fast that the projectile hidden within it was nothing more than a streak of magic.

The beam slammed into the Triscorpion’s head with a deafening crack. Chitin shattered and exploded, sending fragments of black carapace spinning in every direction alongside thick chunks of smoking flesh.

The Triscorpion lurched. It pitched to the side and started to tumble, a scream of pain rising up from its broken mandibles.

It was an inch from death. Even a blind man could have realized that. And realize they did. Every eye in the room snapped back to the plummeting monster, Wess already forgotten.

But attention was hardly enough to land a killing blow.

Alex’s lips split into a wide grin behind his mask as his feet pounded against the ground. And, as magic exploded through the room, he drank deeply on his own power. There was only going to be one shot at this.

Riftwarped Qi sparked across Alex’s fingertips. His magic wove through his veins with an expectant hiss. And then he leapt, driving his glaive forward with all the strength and power he could muster.

But even as Alex moved through the air, he felt something at his back. Despite how fast he’d moved, despite the fact that he had the jump on every single person in the room, one person had somehow reacted so quickly that their spell was going to beat him to the punch.

Magic burned against the back of his neck from the direction of the Crimson family. Out of the corner of his eye, for no more than a flicker of an instant, he spotted an arrow of crimson blood. It shot through the air toward the Triscorpion in little more than a blur, accelerating past Alex.

It was going to land before his own blow did.

No!

Alex’s teeth gritted. There wasn’t even an instant to think. His body was moving fully on instinct and intent. All he could do was pull.

And, deep within him, the Singularity Core activated.

Gravity bent. Natural order rewrote itself. And the arrow, which had been headed straight for a killing blow, was abruptly yanked off course as it passed Alex by. The magic’s direction diverted by just a few inches. But a few inches were enough.

The arrow screamed past the Triscorpion, carving three of its legs off, and slammed into an unfortunate man from the other Great Family. He exploded into a fine mist of blood, torn apart before he even had a chance to realize what was happening.

Then Alex slammed into the Triscorpion. His glaive bit deep into the hole in the monster’s skull, and he released all the magic that he had been holding.

Mirrored shards exploded down the haft of the weapon. They encased it like a mosquito in crystalline amber, racing down to the blade and exploding from its tip in a flower of razor-sharp death.

A monster this powerful probably normally wouldn’t have been much more than mildly bothered by an attack like this. But as weakened as it was, with a massive hole already in its skull, it had nothing left to stop Alex.

The glass flower bloomed straight into the Triscorpion, slicing through the soft flesh beneath its shell and screeching as it shattered against the chitin.

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Blood with nowhere to go but out splashed against Alex’s mask, painting it and his suit red in an instant. The Triscorpion screamed and thrashed, ripping the glaive from Alex’s hands in its death throes.

Magic ignited from every direction, hurtling toward Alex and the fallen monster as everyone desperately attempted to grab the final blow. But their attempts were far too little and far too late.

Even as the tsunami of magic crashed down toward Alex from every direction, golden letters were already slicing through his vision as an immense rush of freezing cold energy poured into his body.

Title Fragment Acquired.

Poacher: Granted for landing the final blow on a monster that over 100 sentient creatures were all attempting to kill.

A delighted cackle burst free from his lips. The adrenaline pounding in his veins was so intense that he couldn’t help it. They’d actually pulled it off.

And, an instant before all the magic came crashing down upon him, Alex swapped spots with his shadow.

A deafening crash tore through the room. His shadow and the Triscorpion were completely obliterated by an enormous wall of every manner of magic possible. An enormous shockwave tore through the boss room.

Before Alex could even catch his breath, something heavy suddenly materialized in his hands. A thick bronze compass had formed seemingly out of nowhere, just large enough that there was no way he possibly could have fit it into his pocket.

Even in the brief instant it took Alex to process the appearance of the strange item, the hair on the back of his neck prickled. His gaze snapped up.

While everyone else in the room was staring at the smoldering remains of the Triscorpion, even through the mess of magic and smoke and the crowd, there was one man staring straight at him with eyes of pure crimson red.

Heavy, ornately-decorated armor covered his body, and he held a huge bow nearly as large as he was in his hand — a bow that had just clearly fired an arrow.

Alex knew him. Not just because this was the man that had nearly just managed to secure the kill on the boss despite his best efforts, but because he’d seen him before. It was Brandon, the man from Crimson that he’d seen way back at the Assembly.

And the furious look on Brandon’s face made it abundantly clear he knew exactly what had happened. He roared out an order even as a blood swirled up from the ground around him to twist into the shape of another arrow. Alex didn’t hear what the order was, but he didn’t need to guess.

Time to get the hell out of—

The air exploded from Alex’s lungs in a pained wheeze as a black-haired woman suddenly materialized before him in an explosion of sparks. Her boot planted itself firmly in his stomach with enough force to launch him straight backward.

He lost his grip on the compass, skidding backward nearly ten feet before the dry wall of the room met his back with a thud. The bronze tool spun through the air and landed right in the woman’s hands.

Alex tried to move, but the world spun around him and his mind rebelled against his commands. Pain arced through his body, threatening to send him dropping to the ground. He felt Princess’ magic weaving through him, fixing a myriad of internal injuries he’d acquired in a split instant.

The woman had been strong. He was pretty sure she’d damn near knocked him out with a single strike to his stomach. And now she had what had clearly been the most important reward from the Triscorpion.

Shit!

A cold grin split her lips.

And then an axe split her head.

Derek bowled straight past her, Wess slung over one of his shoulders, and ripped his axe free of the woman in a spray of blood before she’d even finished falling. The sheer speed he was moving with made it clear that he’d died more than a few times during this fight. He slammed the axe into his own chest, burying it in place between two ribs.

The woman hit the ground with a thud. Her fingers went limp and the compass rolled free from them, coming to a stop several feet away from Alex.

He shoved himself away from the wall with a pained hiss, kicking the compass into the air and just barely managing to snag it before Derek’s large arm wound around him. Alex found himself tossed over Derek’s other shoulder, joining Wess as a sack of potatoes. The hilt of a dagger dug into Alex’s stomach as Derek accelerated, bounding away.

“Pleasure,” Wess said, somehow managing to nod to Alex while holding onto his hat with one hand. “Do this often?”

“Not really,” Alex replied, trying and failing to scan the room for any sign of Claire. He drew on his magic “You?”

“Nah,” Wess replied. “It’s a good time, though. Way better than—”

His sentence came to an abrupt halt as Derek skidded to a sharp stop. An arrow slammed into the ground right in front of them, tearing a huge gouge through the earth before slamming into the wall an instant later.

“Thieves,” Brandon snarled, another arrow forming in his grip. “I don’t care what family you’re with. Don’t think you can escape so easily after stealing from me. Especially not you, traitor. We paid for your services!”

“Not nearly enough,” Wess drawled. He didn’t sound particularly concerned about their conundrum. His eyes flicked in Alex’s direction. “But I do reckon we’re about to get shot. You got anything else in the tank, kid? Because I much prefer dealing rather than playing, if you catch my drift.”

Out of the corner of his vision, Alex finally caught a glimpse of a man near the edge of the crowd abruptly vanishing as a thorned whip wound around his neck and yanked him into the smoke before he could utter a word.

A grin crossed his lips. He drew on his magic, drawing from the dwindling reserves as he readied a spell. All he had to do was buy a little more time.

Brandon drew back on the arrow.

“Yeah,” Alex said with a grin. “I’ve got one thing left.”