Nightmare Realm Summoner

Shadow bubbled before Alex. A large, ceramic-clawed hand burst up from within the darkness. It slammed down onto the platform with a heavy thud. The claws dug into the earth, slicing clean through it as Princess pulled herself free from the depths.

Her three-headed body bubbled and hissed as she emerged in her full glory. The huge monster rose before Alex’s group, blocking the Baveroth’s access to them.

Alex’s shadow lengthened behind her. A tall, looming form rose up from within it standing even taller than Princess. A pale blue vortex twisted in the center of its yawning chest, threads of gossamer energy weaving in and out of it like the maw of some eldritch beast. And, all things considered, that was probably exactly what it was.

The Derelict Luminary’s hands were crossed in front of its chest like an Egyptian mummy readied for burial. That did nothing at all to reduce the intimidating aura emanating from it. Even though Alex was more than aware that Spark’s new form was almost entirely aimed at fighting large groups of people and wouldn’t really do all that much against a single powerful opponent… having a terrifying monster looming over their shoulders and glaring at their enemy was never going to hurt.

Even the Baveroth seemed to lose a small fragment of its confidence. The blood-splattered bear’s beady eyes narrowed and its stance lowered back to all fours as it shifted, suddenly realizing that the prey on this platform weren’t going to be quite as easy as it had initially thought.

“Do I get to actually kill this one?” Glint asked. “Or are we going to do another bet where I can’t do anything other than sit around and watch other people fight?”

“Go wild,” Alex replied. “The only focus is killing it.”

“An evoker?” The Baveroth let out a gravelly, wet cough that might have been meant to be a laugh. “I haven’t fought one of your kind in some time. The premise is always so much more interesting than the actual result. You all share the same weakness.”

Then it charged.

The monster moved deceptively fast, streaking straight toward Princess. She lurched forward and met the Baveroth’s charge. The two monsters connected with a loud crash. Black sludge splattered across the ground as the bear tore into Princess, ripping through her body like it was wet tissue and bursting free through the other side in a blur.

And then it jerked to a halt.

The Baveroth lurched, its arms flying out slightly as all the momentum from its charge evaporated. Surprise passed through its ursine features. It twisted, looking back in surprise to find that Princess had reformed directly around its hind legs, locking it in place before it could pass through her completely.

A whipcrack split the air. It scored across the side of the Baveroth, scraping against its fur with a loud screech. Claire’s lips thinned in displeasure as she pulled her weapon back to her. She hadn’t even scratched the Baveroth.

“Its hide is really tough,” Claire said.

“We’ll see,” Glint said.

He blurred.

But the Baveroth didn’t just sit around and wait. It twisted its large body and swiped a huge paw through the air. Glint shifted to the side and deftly avoided the attack, which slammed down into the ground with a deafening crash. Frost exploded up from where it had landed.

A wave of freezing air drove into Alex and nearly ripped the air out of his lungs. He hissed, gritting his teeth and taking a step back as the hairs on his arm froze solid. The Baveroth tore itself free from Princess’ body and drove its hind leg into her chest, sending more sludge splattering across the ground.

That didn’t stop her. She lurched toward the bear in an attempt to bury it beneath her weight, but the Baveroth wasn’t getting caught by the same trick twice. It swept a massive hand through all three of her necks in a single blow that tore through all of them.

Fortunately, the attack didn’t shatter any of her masks. Princess started to reform immediately. At the same time, Glint dashed forward, his cloak flashing out in a blur of silver. The Baveroth lurched back. Somehow, it had recognized that Glint actually had a chance of cutting into it.

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Alex’s teeth gritted. He exchanged a glance with Claire, his eyes flicking to the blood matting the huge monster. He couldn’t say what he was thinking out loud. The Baveroth was intelligent. If it knew what they were going for, it could react.

But Claire shook her head. It struck Alex why a moment later.

The blood covering that thing doesn’t actually belong to the Baveroth. I don’t think it got hurt all in its previous fight. Shit. That’s not good. But it just means we’re going to have to be more creative.

Glint and Princess momentarily had the Baveroth distracted. They danced around it, trying to land a good blow to no avail. Alex couldn’t help but be impressed. The huge bear was actually keeping up with Glint. It had managed to either dodge or block every attack thus far.

The difference in their Stage definitely wasn’t helping. If Glint had also been Adept 9, Alex was confident he could have cut right through the Baveroth’s heavy claws. But hypotheticals weren’t going to be doing anyone much good in the situation — and they only had so long to find a weakness in the huge monster before it landed a single blow on anyone other than Princess.

There were still tongues of thick frost spreading across the ground from where its previous attack had hit the platform. Whatever magic the huge monster used, it was almost certainly powerful enough to kill any of them with just one blow.

“Aaron,” Alex said, his eyes narrowing. “Do something. Whatever you can. It doesn’t matter. Just don’t get too close, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Aaron replied. He ran his thumb over the Cracked Coin. “You have a plan?”

“Something like that,” Alex confirmed, sending his mental commands out to his monsters. “I’ll have your back. So will Claire.”

Aaron nodded.

Then he and Alex both darted forward.

The Baveroth noticed their approach instantly. Even though it had been mid-fight with Princess, the huge beast’s head snapped around to face them the very instant they grew near. Its bloodied mouth pulled back in a wretched mixture between a snarl and a grin as it suddenly blurred, launching itself straight toward him.

It had been waiting for one of them to step up.

Aaron raised his hand upward.

Claire’s whip snapped through the air, binding around one of the monster’s forearms, but it did nothing at all to slow the Baveroth. It was just too large and physically powerful. It slashed at Alex with one of its paws. Victory shone in its eyes in an early celebration.

It wasn’t hard to guess why. The Baveroth was as fast as Glint was. There was absolutely no way that Alex possibly could have dodged in time. There was no way for him to avoid the blow hurtling toward him at such a speed that he could barely even track it with his eyes.

Not on his own.

Fortunately, he hadn’t been planning to.

Alex’s clothes compressed. Sharp red lines appeared in crisscrossing patterns across his skin, and a powerful force yanked him backward in a blur.

The Baveroth’s hand sliced the air before Alex, its claws passing just inches away from his face. Confusion and surprise flickered through the huge bear’s beady eyes.

“Gotcha.” Alex grinned. Faint blue threads unwound from where they had cut into his flesh. Spark had used his threads to yank him backward. The sheer force had been enough to deal damage to his body even after it had been tempered in the Forsaken Grounds. Had he tried to pull this off just a few days ago, it probably just would have resulted in slicing him to pieces.

But, instead, it bought them a fraction of a second and wasted one of the bear’s attacks. That wasn’t much time at all. The Baveroth had already realized what had happened. It was midway through lurching forward, its head already blurring as it made to bite down on Alex’s neck.

Alex had already started to call on his power again. Cold power burned against his wrist, but the Baveroth was still faster than he was. A fraction of a second wasn’t nearly enough for him to cast a spell or try anything too fancy.

But it was just the amount of time needed for Aaron to finish flicking his coin into the air.

The Baveroth froze.

Then its movement slowed.

Sharply.

It wasn’t a complete halt, but it went from Glint’s speed to something far closer to Alex’s. He easily dipped out of the way of the attack. And, in the same time, a loud shriek rang through the air. Glint’s cloak carved across the Baveroth’s side with a shower of sparks.

The Baveroth snarled and lashed out at Glint, forcing the Glasmir to dance back before he could land another attack. Surprisingly, even his direct hit hadn’t managed to seriously wound the Baveroth. It had only left a ragged line in the monster’s fur. There was still no blood.

“I slowed it,” Aaron rasped, staggering beside Alex. Droplets of sweat had seemingly materialized out of nowhere on his face, and his features were tight with concentration. “But it’s not going to hold. That thing is really damn strong.”

A furious snarl tore from the Baveroth. “You think tricks and weak magic like this are enough to let you walk the Cracked Steps? You dare mock our fight? Do you think this is fun? I will—”

Then the magic that Alex had called on finished manifesting. A white manacle slammed down around his wrist.

The monster’s eyes widened, its gaze lifting slightly toward the sky. It made to dodge, but slowed by Aaron’s magic, it wasn’t anywhere near fast enough to move in time.

The Singularity Core turned over within Alex.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I do.”

Then, putting every single scrap of power he had at his disposal, Alex brought the anchor crashing down into the Baveroth’s skull.