Nightmare Realm Summoner

Princess bowled straight into the first of the Gorganaga’s heads, flinging the entire weight of her body into its long neck. The monster’s bulbous head snapped to the side like a sunflower in the wind as she swung in her best Tarzan impression in an attempt to decapitate the hydra in a single go.

The sharp, crooked fangs of the hydra vanished in a blur as its head was abruptly pulled down. Alex suppressed a wince as there was a sharp crack that likely came from somewhere within the Gorganaga’s spindly neck.

Well. That was easier than I—

The neck swung back up. Princess had slid all the way down to the monster’s head and clung to it, wrapping her sludgy body around the monster’s skull and attempting trying to crush it within her grip.

It was clear the gorgon wouldn’t be torn apart so easily. The huge monster’s body was a lot sturdier than Alex had been expecting if even such thin parts of it could withstand Princess’ weight. Its other heads darted forward, snapping at Princess and biting away large chunks of her body.

The sludge covering Princess rippled as she continuously regenerated under the hail of strikes. If every single one of the monster’s heads had turned to focus on her, there was a good chance they’d have been able to overwhelm her regenerative properties.

But the Gorganaga had more than just one issue. Claire still darted through the air before it, periodically landing on the trees beneath them before launching herself back up into the air to slash at the hydra’s heads like an annoying mosquito.

Spark and Glint were also upon it as well, drawing the attention of two heads on their own. No matter how tough the Hydra’s scales were, leaving Glint unchecked was a fast way to get deforested.

The Hydra couldn’t afford to focus completely on Princess. It only had a few heads to spare. And no matter how hideous looking they were, those heads couldn’t eat nearly as fast as Princess could regenerate.

Alex wasn’t the only one to realize that.

A high pitched whine filled the air, cutting through the constant boom of explosions echoing out all around the Gorganaga. It started off so quiet that Alex could barely even register it. But, within moments, it was so loud that he couldn’t have ignored it if he wanted to.

Where the hell is that sound coming—

Princess’s body bulged. Sludge bubbled for a brief instant like a pot just about to boil over.

Then she exploded.

A roaring wave of fire exploded out from her, sending black sludge splattering through the air in a thick rain. Alex felt her die instantly as her mask shattered into hundreds of tiny fragments. There wasn’t going to be any regenerating from that.

The Gorganaga’s head, now free from Princess’ grasp, turned to send its baleful glare at Alex. Coils of smoke twisted up from its thin lips and danced between its malformed teeth. The monster let out a clicking noise and its jaws parted.

The back of his scalp prickled as a high-pitched whine filled the air once more. A glowing red mote lit at the back of the monster’s throat, intensifying in unison with the whine. Alex’s eyes widened.

Oh, shit.

He grabbed for his magic and thrust his hands forward, casting Funhouse before diving to the side. Reality shattered before the air where he’d been. Purple crackles of Riftwarped energy danced through the fragments like electric arcs.

The loud whine reached its peak. The back of the Hydra’s throat erupted in a crimson wave. A beam of molten flame streaked out from the Hydra’s head like a laser and drove straight into the warped area.

It reflected like sunlight bouncing off a mirror and streaked down into the forest below them, obliterating several trees with a thunderous boom. A number of snake monsters were caught in the explosion, killed before they could even try to dodge.

Alex stumbled back to his feet, already feeling Princess’ energy flowing into his body as he rose. He didn’t let himself dally. There was no room to save any power against an enemy like this.

I can’t sit back while my monsters fight. Not for this fight. We need to throw everything we’ve got at the Gorganaga.

He sent his awareness deep within himself to draw on the pool of Qi that rested within his core. Alex had never tried empowering this ability with Qi before, but he had a pretty good guess as to what it was going to do.

Alex activated Armament Elegy.

Sludge poured down his arm. It bubbled and twisted around his fingers as waves of it layered into the form of a massive sword. Teeth bubbled up from within it, forming into a maw near the hilt, as pointed centipede legs crawled free along its edge.

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Unlike the normal sword that Armament Elegy created from Princess, this one was nearly as tall as Alex. Thick strands of sludge remained connected all over Alex’s arm, binding the huge weapon to his body like a symbiote. Riftwarped Qi pulsed and crackled within the blade, running to and from his body as if it were blood.

Alex hoisted the huge blade. He wouldn’t have said that it was light — the weapon clearly had an immense mass to it. Moving it around normally would have been nearly impossible — but the sword almost seemed to be helping him. It was as if it had some form of bio-mechanical servo within it that predicted his movements and aided in them.

”That’s what I’m talking about,” Alex said with a grin. ”Focus one head! Go!”

A high pitched whine filled the air, slicing through the booming explosions rolling through the air all around them. Alex charged forward with a delighted laugh, dragging the huge blade through the Hydra Gorgon’s back behind him.

The sword roared to life as it bit into the monster’s scales. The centipede legs rumbled like the blades of a chainsaw and cut a furrow into the Hydra Gorgon. Even though it couldn’t quite cut through the Region Boss’s immense defenses, it certainly made Alex’s point.

Two more of the heads turned toward him — and, in doing so, relieved some of the pressure on Glint and Spark. The two of them charged as one. They both sprinted toward the head that was looking at Alex, dodging past the other heads as they attempted to cut them off.

Alex prepared to fling himself out of the way as the whine reached its peak and crimson light lit in the back of one of the gorgon’s throats. Princess’ healing factor wasn’t going to do anything if his body got splattered in a split second.

But, before he could, a blur slammed into the monster’s neck. The Gorgon had stopped paying attention to Claire — and she hadn’t let the slight go unpunished. Its neck snapped to the side, sending the hydra’s head hurtling like one of the tetherballs chained to a pole in some schoolyards.

The beam of concentrated fire screamed out from the monster’s mouth haphazardly. It carved through the ground to leave a path of flame and destruction in its wake.

Claire tumbled across the monster’s back before launching back to her feet, driving her sword down into the scales on its back to keep herself from skidding off it. Black veins carved down her arms and reached up her neck to pump power through her body.

She didn’t waste any words on Alex. The two of them just charged.

Two more brilliant whines filled the air as the Hydra Gorgon turned more attention toward them. At the same time, one head swept out across the monster’s body like a giant jump rope.

Glint leapt over it, but Spark wasn’t quite so fortunate. He was launched like a baseball and sent hurtling through the sky in a black blur.

But, an instant later, he snapped back into his previous spot, where he’d managed to deposit his shadow a moment before he’d been struck. He and Glint both dove at the head as it rose, grabbing onto it and tearing into the Region Boss with all their might.

The Gorganaga let out a scream of fury. Its other heads turned to the monsters attacking it — including one of the ones that had been charging up a fire beam. That left only one still pointed in their direction.

”I got it!” Claire yelled, breaking away and charging toward the head with the brightening mote of light in the back of its neck. She flung herself at the monster in a dark blur, slamming into its neck and knocking its aim off target.

A molten beam carved through the air harmlessly above them — and then Alex was upon his own target.

He reared back and swung his chainsword with a roar. The blade slammed into the Gorganaga’s neck with enough force to send a shudder down Alex’s arm. Scale screeched as the hooked centipede legs dug into it, hungrily searching for the meat beneath.

The Hydra swung one of its heads at Alex like a bat. A very fast, tooth-filled bat. He dropped to the ground, letting the monster’s head hurtle harmlessly overhead. The abrupt whine above Alex’s told him things hadn’t gone exactly to plan.

He rolled to the side, only to find the monster staring straight down at him, its throat a molten red. The Gorganaga had stopped every ounce of momentum in its head to stare straight down at Alex in what felt like it should have been a herculean feat of strength.

Alex threw himself out of the way an instant before the beam of fire exploded from the monster’s mouth. It slammed into the monster’s scales — and bounced clean off to vanish into the clouds above.

”No way. It has magic-reflecting scales? Seriously?” Alex staggered back to his feet, raising his sword before him an instant before a head slammed straight into him. Even with all the power his Visualization had imbued his body with, the blow launched him straight into the air.

The world spun around Alex as he tumbled through the air. It was impossible to tell which direction the ground and the sky were — but one of them was rapidly getting closer than the other.

Sharp branches snapped against his back as he crashed through them. Alex slammed to a halt against the trunk of a tree, snapping it with a loud crack, and then fell another dozen feet to the ground, the breath knocked completely from his lungs.

He groaned into the dirt. He’d definitely broken more than a few bones. Magic flowed through his body as Princess’ powers pulled him back together — and it was joined by another flow of power moments later.

Spark had died.

Glint’s energy flowed into Alex a moment later.

Alex gritted his teeth. He forced himself to his feet and craned his neck back to look up at the Gorganaga. Despite their best attempts thus far, the monster had barely even been scratched.

Explosions continued to roll through the air above them, swallowing the sounds of the desperate fight the campers were putting up within the mist around the town.

This really is something else. Guess that’s an Adept 4 Region Boss for you.

One of the monster’s heads whipped at Claire as she tried to jump at it. It batted her clean from the sky. She streaked down to slam into the ground a few dozen feet from Alex in a sickening crash.

And, worse, another whine was filling the air. This one was louder than the last. Not because it was stronger, but because there were multiple, all overlaid over the other. The Gorganaga’s heads all turned — not toward them, but toward the direction of the mist covering Mirrorwane.

The blood drained from Alex’s face as he realized what the Region Boss was doing.

Oh, shit. It’s going to try to fry my town.