Summoner 20, page 35
My mistwolf deliberated for a moment, and then I felt an influx of loving energy. That was all it took for me to know the she-wolf would fight by my side no matter what Hunnah said or did.
“Gryff?” Braden said from behind me.
I turned around to see my teammates standing in defensive positions, and by the determined look they shared, I knew they were ready for whatever the pack was going to throw at them.
“We’ve fought them once before,” I reminded them in a voice just quiet enough for my friends to hear. “We can do this. Just keep your weapons ready and your magic focused.”
After my friends nodded in response, I turned back around to see Hunnah flash me a sickly-sweet smile.
“That’s pretty solid advice you’ve bestowed upon them, Gryff,” Hunnah called out. “But it’s bold of you to assume my monsters are your sole opponents.”
I turned back to face the Archons, and then I noticed the massive grin on Quilla’s face.
“You thought I wouldn’t bring my monsters with me as well?” The skeletal Archon gave me a wink and then snapped her fingers in the same way her sister did. A large plume of smoke rose up, and when it disappeared, dread rose up into my chest.
When I’d first fought against Carth’s herd of monsters outside of Varle, there’d been a monster that had shaken me to my core, a disgusting creature known as the regarat.
Throughout my travels as a summoner-for-hire in the Wilds, I’d heard myths and horror stories about the creature, but none of them could compare to seeing the terrifying thing in real life.
The monster was a bloated, decaying mass of thousands of rats connected and tangled together by their tails and exposed entrails. Each house-cat-sized rat was in a various stage of decomposition, with some still fresh, and others with distended bellies full of buzzing flies. Some of the rats’ gray, mangy fur were soaked with fresh scarlet blood while others had a layer of scabbed, jet-black crust that reeked of decay. Some oozed with pus while others were only one patch of skin away from being complete skeletons.
The scent that wafted off the pile of writhing rats was a cocktail of the most disgusting of smells: feces, urine, old blood, mold, and curdled cow’s milk, and the putrid odor invaded my nostrils so harshly that I could taste the pungent taste on my tongue.
The thousands of rats squeaked, hissed, and chattered at different volumes, octaves, and pitches, and the dissonant symphony made my head cry out from dizziness. My vision blurred temporarily and reminded me of the most well-heard campfire story about the monster.
It was said the regarat used its dizzying cries to hypnotize their victims and send them into a heightened madness that could never be remedied.
My attention immediately shot over to my friends, and to my horror, each of the mages and shifters had a glazed look in their eyes.
“Cover your ears!” I shouted as loud as I could, and the sudden volume made my team snap out of their hazes.
“How rude,” Quilla pouted when I turned back around, but her navy-blue eyes danced as they flickered across the clearing. “They spent hours preparing their song for you, and now you won’t even give them a proper listen?”
“She’s mental, isn’t she,” I heard Gawain whisper to Braden.
“Shh,” Braden hissed.
My eyes moved beyond the pair of goddesses, and as I studied the decaying mass that was the regarat, I reached into my consciousness and called upon Xan.
“I thought the regarat was decimated,” I said slowly once the flame-winged goddess stirred within my mind. “How is it here now?”
It’s my fault, Xanrith sighed. It wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me. I’m sorry, Gryff.
“How is it your fault?” I began to ask, and then realization dawned on me. “Your resurrection magic. You brought Quilla’s monsters back after our last battle”
She’d only brought the regarat, the flame-winged Archon corrected me. When it met its demise, my sister begged me to resurrect it for her. It’s a loathsome creature, but it is Quilla’s most important minion. She couldn’t bear to lose it.
“That thing is disgusting.” I cringed as I peered over at it. I’d used my sun giant to incinerate the monster in its last incarnation, and I had a feeling I’d have to repeat the endeavor once more.
Beside the rat were Quilla’s other two monsters, and while they were nowhere near as disgusting as the regarat, I still wasn’t familiar with them.
The one on the left is a wyvern, Xan explained. Part snake, part dragon, all deadly. It might only have two legs, but the end of its tail is tipped by a rock stronger than diamonds and sharper than most blades. It could gut you in a single slice if you weren’t careful, and then take great pleasure in cleaning your skeleton dry.
The bipedal reptilian creature’s scales were blue-black, while its underbelly was a bright teal, and true to the Archon’s description, its long, serpentine tail was tipped with what appeared to be a blue-green arrow point. Even in the lower light of the forest, the point gleamed, and its faceted edge gave an indication of its sharpness.
The creature’s forked tongue jutted out, and I was perplexed to see it was the same grayish-blue color as its slitted eyes.
“Why couldn’t Quilla have obtained cuter monsters like yours?” I sighed, and I sensed a twinge of irritation flare out from Xan.
My monsters are more than just cute, the flame-winged Archon muttered.
I chose to ignore that statement and instead shifted my attention to Quilla’s third monster.
Quilla’s final monster was less physically strange than the rest of her creatures, but it was still an odd one to say the least.
It was almost canine and around the same height as the mistwolves, but its coarse fur was a marbled mixture of tan and black. The creature had a thick tail, sort of like a raccoon, and its eyes took up nearly half of its small face. Those eyes, much like the skeletal Archon herself, were difficult to stare at, yet mesmerizing at the same time. They were jet-black, with a depth that made them appear almost endless, and the more I stared at them, the more I felt like I was about to fall asleep.
“What’s that one called?” I addressed Xan.
It’s called a hija, the Archon replied. It’s not as physically imposing as the other two, but don’t discount it. It can manipulate the sound of its calls to make you think it’s in one place when it’s actually in another. The hija does its best work in a dream or shadow setting, but it is still formidable in the physical world.
“I’m not so sure I’m liking the sound of that.” I winced. “What else can it do?”
Not only can it manipulate its voice, but it also has a mirage ability that makes it hard to corner.
“Got it.” I nodded. Of the three monsters, the hija didn’t hold as much of my attention. While teleportation and quick movements weren’t anything to turn my nose up at, I was more worried about the regarat and the deadly-tailed wyvern.
“Enough gawking at my sister’s summons,” Hunnah sneered at me. “I’m tired of waiting, Beastmaker. I’ll give you one last chance to surrender.”
“I’d never surrender to you,” I replied, and Hunnah’s lovely face grew hardened.
“So be it.”
The warrior Archon waved her hand, and the chorus of mistwolf growls crescendoed into a howl that sent a chill down my spine. Hunnah’s monsters slowly advanced forward so they stood in front of their mistress, and the copper-haired goddess gracefully swung a leg over and mounted one of the larger mistwolves in the back of her pack and then raised her sword in the air.
Beside her, Quilla climbed on the back of her wyvern, and the skeletal goddess gave us a wicked grin.
This was it. It was finally time to take the final two Archons down.
My teammates stepped forward, and when I peered around at them, each of my friends and lovers offered me the same encouraging expression.
We could do this. We had to do this.
“Let’s kick some ass,” I declared, and then the mistwolves launched themselves at us.
My heart raced as I reached into my bandolier and retrieved a handful of my essence crystals, and I threw them out in rapid succession: the roosa, the maripor, kalgori, and Dio, in addition to a few of my supplemental monsters like the bullet bass, my speed slugs, and a pair of daggerdillos. On their own, the Grade E monsters wouldn’t be able to accomplish much, but paired with my higher-grade creatures, they could really inflict some damage.
Before the wolves could get too far, I concentrated on my bullet bass and used my magic to borrow its armor ability. Within moments, an impenetrable silver coating covered my body, and once I was decked out, I imagined the armor on the rest of my teammates. Just as quickly as the coating had manifested on my limbs, the bullet bass armor soon covered my friends, and I quickly copied the process with my speed slugs.
“Thanks, Gryff!” Braden called out over the growls of the wolves, and I heard similar remarks of agreement from behind me.
The only ones I didn’t give armor to were the shapeshifters because they had yet to take their animal forms, and I didn’t want to affect their physical movement until they were in their second skins. In addition to the bullet bass armor, I reached through my bonds with my monsters and used my magic to borrow my kalgori’s razor-sharp blades. The butterfly monster’s blades appeared on the sides of my arms and legs, and combined with the armor, I was suddenly a deadly weapon.
“Everyone split up!” I commanded my team. “There’s a lot of monsters, so we need to spread out!”
“We’re on it, Gryff!” Nia confirmed, and then the rest of my teammates splintered off to take on the pack and Quilla’s three monsters.
My protective coating was immediately put to the test when I was tackled to the ground by a particularly snarly mistwolf. The iridescent monster snapped its intimidating jaw close to my face, but I managed to swing my arm in an upward motion. My kalgori’s blades swiped into the mistwolf, and the creature let out a growl of pain as it fell over. Molten silver liquid spewed from the monster, and it laid on the ground in a heap. It wasn’t dead but weakened, and I debated finishing it off, but there were many others to handle, and I couldn’t get tied up in a single monster.
Once one wolf was down, another took its place, and I fell into a rhythm of pushing and slashing. Sweat beaded across my forehead from the exertion, but I felt like a bladed machine as I fought off wolf after wolf.
I’d been terrified of the iridescent monsters in the last battle, but after going up against them before, my fears had lessened substantially. My team and I were more than capable of taking them down. Hunnah was one of the elder Archons, but our numbers were much greater than hers, and in a battle setting, that was much more important.
Dio and my own mistwolf flanked me on either side, and I equipped the pair of monsters with bullet bass armor as well so they wouldn’t fall victim to the pack’s sharpened teeth. Dio gave a repeat performance of the tactics he’d used to fight off the moose assassins, and his powerful fangs impaled the mistwolves on sight.
Take that! the tawny saber-toothed-cat declared. This is what you get for fucking with me and my master!
I fought back a chuckle as I knocked a mistwolf to the ground, and just as another one sprang up to defend its packmate, my own wolf leaped in and clenched her strong jaw around the other creature’s neck. The iridescent monster proved herself to be a powerful fighter, and I was impressed by her physical prowess as she tackled her opponents to the ground.
“Thanks!” I addressed my she-wolf as I caught my breath.
The flurry of motion and activity around me was dizzying, and I tried to stay focused despite the frantic action in the clearing. My heart pounded so hard I could feel it in my temples, and my hands shook by my sides.
An idea struck me, and once I was certain my mistwolf and Dio were fine on their own, I managed to put some distance between myself and the wolves, and then I reached into my consciousness and completely undid the wards around my Archons.
I gave the monster goddesses the order to manifest in the field, and they sprang into action immediately. My entire body felt like it’d been electrocuted as essence streamed from me, and my vision was consumed by blue-black smoke. Once it cleared, my eyes readjusted, and I took in the sight of my seven beautiful monster goddesses.
Wait, seven?
“Carth?” I asked in astonishment. “You’re here?”
The green-skinned Archon wasn’t wearing her usual sneer and instead looked eager to jump into battle.
“Did you forget I’m under your control?” Carth asked as she swept her chestnut-brown hair over one shoulder.
“No, I just… I’m surprised to see you here with everyone else.”
“Ughh,” the horned goddess sighed as she rested her hand on her cocked hip, “The fact of the matter is, Hunnah and Quilla are going to lose this battle, and I’d rather be on the winning side than the losing one. If there’s an opportunity to pay them back for their betrayal, I’m going to seize it.”
“I guess I can’t really oppose that logic,” I allowed, and a sigh escaped my chest. “Welcome to the team.”
“Team?” Carth repeated back, and she rolled her russet eyes as if she were too good for the rest of us.
I decided to ignore the Archon’s haughty attitude and instead shifted my focus to the rest of the monster goddesses.
“Now, there’s an entire team of mistwolves, not to mention Quilla’s monsters out there,” I began. “I don’t foresee this going against our favor, but we need to anticipate a challenge anyway.”
“What can we do to assist you and lead your team to victory?” Miralea purred, and the jaguar goddess took long, sensual strides as she crossed over to my side. “Name it, master, and we will obey.”
“We need to find a way to take down Hunnah’s pack,” I said. “We held them at bay before, but then they didn’t want to kill us, only keep us occupied. Today, we’re going after their mistress, so they’re going to be all in and set to destroy us limb from limb.”
“Well, they’re looking to destroy your mortal allies limb from limb,” Phi pointed out with a raised eyebrow. “Us, however--”
“I know you still don’t care for my friends, but like it or not, we’re all on the same side here,” I interjected. “We all need to work together to take down the pack. If we don’t…”
“We got it, master,” Utuni spoke up, and the snake goddess crossed her arms over her ample chest. “We need to take out the pack so you have a clear shot at Hunnah.”
“Don’t be afraid, Gryff,” Xanrith insisted, and her violet eyes were comforting as they bored into mine. “You’ve done this before, and once Hunnah and Quilla are yours--”
“I get to go home,” I said, and that was all it took to center me again. Xan was right. I could sit here and sweat it out, or I could go all in and finally take down the goddesses who’d given me so much trouble recently.
“So, you’ve sent in my sisters to help!” Hunnah shouted from atop her mistwolf, and the warrior Archon’s sword glinted as she pointed it in our direction. “Is that meant to intimidate me?”
“You should be intimidated,” Phi snapped. “You should give up now, Hunnah. We are going to decimate your pack and Quilla’s pets.”
“Are you now?” Hunnah fired back. “I’d love to see you try.”
“We’ll work on taking down the pack,” Sera addressed me in a decisive tone. “Go around and help your friends. We’ll start whittling this group down.”
“While we’re going that, focus on Quilla’s monsters,” Xan suggested, and her azure wings crackled behind her. “Hunnah’s going to be hard to break, but Quilla… once her monsters are defeated, she’ll be easy to capture.”
“Noted,” I replied as I thought about my next move.
There was so much movement in the clearing it was hard to focus on a single area, but the regarat was so physically impressive that my eyes shot straight to it. I would need to start with the terrifying rat monster and work my way down to the others. Normally, I would’ve done the opposite, but if I began with the toughest of her monsters, the rest would feel like nothing.
Hop aboard, master, Dio declared as he returned to my side. My saber-toothed-cat summons bent down so I could mount him, so I swung my leg over his back and settled on top of him without hesitation.
“Go get them, Gryff.” Miralea smiled at me with cute fanged teeth. “We’ve got this under control.”
I gave my Archons a brief nod and then commanded Dio to take me in the direction of the regarat. My monster goddesses were no strangers to war and battle. If they thought they had things under control, I wasn’t going to fight them on it.
Mistwolves wove their sleek bodies in between and around Dio’s legs, and my familiar let out an agitated roar as he kicked them aside. The mistwolves flew as if they weighed nothing, and pride swelled in my chest as my familiar knocked through them.
“We need to get over to the regarat, and then from there, maybe take on the hija, and Quilla’s wyvern,” I reiterated to Dio as he hauled us closer to the rat pile.
It looks like Braden has the hija under control, Dio assessed, and I followed the cat monster’s gaze to the other side of the clearing where Braden and his chimera were battling the canine-like monster.
Braden’s ice variant creature stood alongside my former roommate’s king gryphon, and the closely-related monsters appeared to be the perfect team. I watched in awe as the hija teleported around the clearing, but the chimera didn’t seem phased by the creature’s trickery. She was no-nonsense, and her talons managed to graze the side of the hija’s black and tan abdomen. The hija let out a yip of pain and fell to the ground, and before it could get up, the chimera pumped her wings, flew up, and then tossed her weight down on top of Quilla’s summons.
The maneuver reminded me of Freya’s body bomb technique, and my lips curled up into a smile. With how strong Braden’s monsters were, it didn’t seem like I needed to do much more, but I still reached through my magical bonds until I connected with my maripor.
