Nightmare Realm Summoner

Wess made it about five minutes away from the entrance of the dungeon before he collapsed to the grass.

A slew of pained expletives tore out from his mouth as he doubled over on himself, curling into a ball. Waves of pain racked his body, emanating out from the massive goddamn hole in the middle of his chest.

Shadows swirled at the edges of his vision and crept forward in attempt to swallow the world whole. It had taken just about every single scrap of willpower he had to keep any of the pain from showing on his features while he’d been bargaining with Hazel.

Even the slightest amount of hesitation or weakness would have landed him a far worse deal. It was a minor miracle that she’d let him get away with what he had. Realistically, that meant she’d gotten far more than what she’d let on — but at this point, he hardly cared.

“Shit,” Wess groaned, pushing the pain away as best he could. He rolled over, pushing himself up to his knees. Stopping here was too dangerous. He couldn’t let himself rest yet. Not until he was back at Mirrorwane.

The System was already working to heal him, but he wasn’t exactly the most durable of individuals. Perhaps investing a little more into defensive abilities might have been smart. But defensive abilities meant he wasn’t getting gun abilities.

And when it came to more gun or more not-gun, there was pretty much always one path that Wess was going to go with.

He pushed himself up to one knee, bracing his hand against the ground as a wave of dizziness assaulted his mind. Glint stood over him, watching silently.

“You just going to stand there and watch?” Wess hissed. “Why don’t you help me up or something?”

Glint just stared. Wess could have sworn his gaze flicked down to the jagged claws on his hands for a brief moment, but that was probably just a figment of his addled imagination.

“Goddamn useless piece of shit,” Wess muttered. He shoved himself back upright with a grunt. The motion nearly sent him crashing back to the ground. A wave of dizziness rolled over him.

He stood still until it passed. Then he blew out a heavy sigh.

“Come on,” Wess said through a sigh. “You’re horrible conversation. You know that? Horrible. I’ve gotten better talks out of prison walls. And trust me. That’s not saying much at all.”

Glint tilted his head to the side.

Then he vanished.

Wess stared at the spot where the monster had been a moment before. Then his eye twitched. Alex must have summoned him back. That or something had happened. But, somehow, he wasn’t too worried.

With one more sigh, Wess started back down the road. He crushed the cries of his body to stop and rest. A flame burned deep within him, forcing one foot to put itself in front of the other over and over.

That flame wasn’t determination to succeed, nor was it an ironclad will forged through years of experience or some bullshit like that.

He just really wanted to see the looks on everyone’s faces when he got back.

That and the absolute truckload of rewards he was going to get out of his excessively stellar performance.

After all… Wess never worked for free.

***

The Singularity Core turned over within Alex as he yanked the white chain connected to his anchor taut, tearing it free from the wall it had lodged itself in and yanking it back toward himself.

He gritted his teeth, spinning the massive weapon in a deadly arc over his head before sending it screaming back toward the River King.

Gold erupted up from the glittering piles covering the ground in a huge wave. The anchor slammed into it with a loud crash. Coins spun through the air in shimmering metal raindrops, but Alex’s attack screeched to a stop against the sea of wealth.

“You think you can just come here? After what you did? You can kill my people, carve a path through my city, and just kill me? Just like that?” the River King screamed. His words were thick with a mixture of desperation, fury, and terror. Rushing rivers of gold and riches swirled beneath the huge man, raising him into the air and surrounding him in a glistening storm. Fury creased his wide features as he swung a hand down toward them.

A tendril of gold whipped toward Alex and the others.

Hot air slammed into Alex’s back. A huge hand of magma reached over his head, its light reflecting off the coins covering the ground and dancing across the room like an inferno. It slammed into the tendril, driving it down into the ground and shattering it back into its components.

Orchid took a step forward, her eyes narrow as she held her gnarled staff before her. “I’ll focus defense. Don’t worry about his attacks. They won’t get to you.”

“You think one woman is enough to protect all of you? I’ll kill you!” the River King snarled. He thrust his hands up into the air. Every single coin in the room started to tremble. Rivers of rattling wealth lifted themselves to join him, swirling into a massive vortex. “You should have well enough alone. It might have worked out for you. But if you think you can stride into the seat of my power and—”

A thin bolt of lightning split the air. It cracked into the side of the River King’s face with a hissing pop, and his cheek flashed gold as several coins fell away from it. The large man’s jaw clenched.

“I won’t—”

Another bolt of lightning snapped into the River King’s face, sending a few more coins raining down. His eyes bulged like those of a frog. The attacks really weren’t doing much damage at all, but they were certainly pissing the man off.

“Stop that!” the River King roared. “Are your lot capable of doing anything other than being insufferable, annoying, meddlesome little—”

One more tiny shock of lightning snapped into the River King’s face. Alex couldn’t help himself. He glanced over to its source, and he wasn’t the only one. Half of the others were all doing the same thing.

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“What?” May asked as she realized everyone was looking at her. “Should I have waited for him to finish monologuing?”

“Just die!” the River King screamed. “You can’t take any more from me! This is mine!”

The iridescent storm covering the ceiling twisted together, forming into an enormous golden arm. It crashed down toward them.

Orchid’s magma hand shot up to meet it, and the two Partial Soul Manifestations clashed with a massive crash. Oppressive waves of heat rolled out through the room. Gold warped. The fingers of the River King’s summoned hand fell away to crash down to the ground as Orchid’s hand squeezed it like taffy, crushing it to nothing but glistening slag.

“What kind of idiot chooses gold to fight with?” Orchid asked.

Alex resisted the urge to laugh. He still had to focus. This wasn’t done. He could hear fighting behind them. The rest of Mirrorwane’s forces were holding up their back, making sure nobody from Blackreach could interfere in the fight until it was done.

It was tempting to just fling himself toward the River King and see how much damage he could do. But the man was a cockroach. They didn’t know just how much he’d be able to heal with the sheer amount of gold he had around him… and that meant they had to do things the smart way.

Alex pulled his anchor back and sent it flying at the River King once more, forcing the other man to summon gold before himself to block the blow. Even with his regenerative powers, there was only so much damage he could freely let himself take.

We’ll have to be fast. The only reason he’s still here is because his ego won’t let him leave and he thinks he’s safe. The moment the he thinks he’s about to lose, he’ll use that rat ability and escape to only God knows where.

And they couldn’t have that.

But that was what they’d planned for.

Alyssa waited for her moment just off to the side, her massive paintbrush at the ready and features tense. Claire stood near her, wings raised and eyes narrowed. The River King wasn’t paying them much mind. His attention was fully on Orchid and Alex.

It wasn’t like he didn’t know what Alyssa’s Partial Soul Manifestation was capable of. She could seal his Soul Manifestation for a short while. And the moment she did, he’d be gone. His escape didn’t depend on his Manifestation. There was nothing she could do to stop him from running and he knew it.

That was exactly what Alex was counting on.

“Come on!” The River King screamed, his voice breaking like a preteen’s. “Are you scared? All of you up against one self-made man? See what you can take from me! See what you can steal! I will give nothing freely! I will come back, over and over, to take back what is mine! You can’t have it!”

“Oh, shut up, would you?” Alex snarled. Then, with a thought, he summoned every single one of his monsters. The ground bubbled. Shadows bubbled as Princess pulled herself free from the ground before him.

Spark’s looming, horrifying form rose up behind Alex as Glint stepped out from a rift in reality to his side.

Ah, shit. I shouldn’t have summoned Glint. Wess was using him.

Oh well. I’m sure he’ll be fine.

“Try!” the River King screamed, eyes wide and rabid. “You will get nothing! Nothing!”

“With pleasure,” Alex replied. He pointed at the River King. “Alyssa, seal him. And everyone else — kill him.”

Glint and launched himself toward the River King. Claire’s wings snapped down with a loud crack as she shot alongside them toward the large Anomaly. Orchid’s massive magma arm rushed forward alongside them, extending toward the River King.

Alyssa drove her paintbrush down into the ground at the same time.

She clapped her hands together.

“Partial Soul Manifestation: Dream’s End.”

Then, with a snarl, she tore her brush free from the ground and sliced it through the air. A gray line blurred through the air, slamming into the River King before he could even try to dodge.

His Soul Manifestation broke.

The gold covering his wounds shattered. Blood trickled down the sides of his face, its flow no longer blocked.

Princess reached back and grabbed Alex. Then she launched him through the air toward the River King like a human missile.

Fear flashed in the River King’s eyes. All the people hurtling toward him all together were just too much. His lips pulled apart in one final, hateful sneer. But even that couldn’t hide the terror in his eyes. It was ironic. The River King was powerful. His magic was ridiculously versatile in the right hands. If he stuck around for a little longer, there was actually a very good chance he’d be able to take one of them down before he was forced to escape.

He might have even been able to wait out Alyssa’s Partial Soul Manifestation. An effect as powerful as canceling another Manifestation was incredibly difficult and almost certainly wouldn’t last for long.

But that wasn’t the kind of man the River King was.

Men like him didn’t take risks.

The River King, like the coward he was, ran. Gold poured away from his body as he started to disintegrate into coins. It was a good trick. A very effective one. But, unfortunately for him, they’d already seen it.

And the River King wasn’t the only one that had a trick or two.

Alex reached all the way down into the depths of his soul where the Singularity Core rested. His teeth bared. He drew on it with everything he had.

The Singularity Core turned over.

Alex pulled.

The gold raining pouring from the River King’s body stopped. He was nothing but a small meteor caught in the orbit of a planet — and his magic was nowhere strong enough to drag him free of it at this distance.

Coins rained away to reveal flesh once more. They peeled from the River King’s flesh. Confusion and disbelief warped his features. His mouth twisted, perhaps as if to form a question.

He didn’t get the chance.

Claire’s claws drove through his shoulder. She twisted her body, launching him down into the ground. He landed in a pile of his gold with a ringing crash, sending coins flying everywhere. Alex dropped to the ground just beside the large man, keeping his hold on the Singularity Core.

Glint was considerably less polite. The Glasmir landed directly on the River King’s sizable stomach and drove his glass blades down into the huge man’s chest.

The River King screamed, thrashing desperately, not even trying to fight back as the others grouped up all around him. He thrashed around like a beached whale, gasping and howling and screaming as he desperately tried and failed to activate his failsafe.

It didn’t work.

“No!” the River King screamed. “Stop! Stop! I give! I surrender!”

“This is kind of sad,” May said.

“Look away,” Orchid replied, her hand of magma curling into a fist behind her as disgust flared behind her eyes. “You’re only here for experience. This kind of filth is unbecoming for your eyes. It is an animal being put down, not a worthy opponent.”

“Man,” Derek said sadly. “I didn’t even get to do anything. Could I hack him up a bit? I didn’t like this guy at all. He’s an asshole.”

“Please,” the River King blubbered through his terrified sobs. “Please! I’ll give you some of my wealth! I’ll tell you where I hid it!”

Claire and Alex exchanged a glance.

“Some?” Alex asked. “Holy shit, man. You’re such a miser.”

“I can’t believe I worked for this prick,” Alyssa said in disgust. “Derek, you mind if I grab a—”

“Oh, sure.” Derek nodded. Go ahead. Take your pick.”

Alyssa snagged a sword lodged in the large man’s side and pulled it free with a grunt. She spun it around in her hand, then drove it down into the River King’s stomach.

He screamed in pain, writhing and thrashing desperately as tears of agony poured down the sides of his face.

“I — all! I’ll give you all of it! All of my wealth! Everything! Just let me go! I don’t deserve this!”

“Pathetic,” Alyssa hissed. “I’m done here.”

“You sure?” Alex asked, summoning his chainsword to his hand. The weapon whirred to life with a hungry roar. “Out of everyone here, I figure you hate him the most.”

“I’m not a monster,” Alyssa replied with a shake of her head. “Just get rid of him.”

“Wait!” The River King begged. Rivers of tears and snot ran down his face to mix with the blood covering him. “I — I know things! Important things! People! I have connections! More than just my wealth! I’ll work for you! I’ll—”

Orchid covered May’s eyes with a hand.

Alex’s chainsword fell. The final pathetic, desperate pleas of the wretch of a man beneath it went unheard, swallowed by the whirr-crunch of ravenous teeth, and then the River King spoke no more.