Nightmare Realm Summoner

As it turned out, Glint was capable of quite a bit more than Alex had expected. The difference between letting him fight on his own and having someone who actually knew how to fight puppet the monster around was palpable. Even with just a single arm, Ein’Zahl defeated a second Fraying Mantis without taking a single blow.

“See?” Glint asked, turning to look at Alex as he scooped the defeated monster’s Soul Flame up and deposited it into a Spatial Mirror. “I am more than capable of puppeting this body around. It is already second nature.”

“Right,” Alex said as he slipped the Spatial Mirror back into the box at his side. “But you did tear your own arm off on accident.”

“An acceptable loss in exchange for victory. I have learned that this body is far less resilient than I would like. But that will be solved with time. I can adapt to this inferior form soon enough.”

“Adapting to something and having it be second nature are polar opposites,” Claire pointed out. Her gaze flicked up past Glint and into the forest. “And are you really certain you’ve mastered Glint completely?”

“Quite certain. It was a turn of phrase,” Glint replied. “Now, let me see the full potential of this form. Give it more magic. Do that, and I will show you why you have absolutely no need for any of your other monsters.”

“You’re absolutely sure you’ve completely mastered Glint up until this point?” Claire asked. “Without any shred of doubt?”

“Yes,” Glint snapped, a note of irritation entering his grating voice. “Why do you ask it like that?”

“Tell him to dodge to the right,” Claire said.

“Dodge to the right,” Alex said. At the same time, he started to draw on his magic.

“Why?” Glint asked.

A greenish-brown fist the size of a small boulder plummeted down from the twisting treeline, crashing down directly on the top of Glint’s head. There was a shattering crunch as his body crumpled like a tin can. A moment later, a shriek of anger filled the forest as the hand lurched back and a large, ape-like monster burst free from the trees with a pained snarl.

Gray liquid dripped from the monster’s fist where several large shards of glass had impaled themselves into its furred flesh. They transformed into streaks of gray energy, along with the rest of Glint, and flew to pour into Alex. The monster turned to look at Alex, its wide red eyes burning with hunger.

Frayed Ape (Adept 1)

Alex summoned Princess with a thought. Darkness spread out across the ground before him. It bubbled, forming into black sludge as a form welled within it.

Another roar split the air as the Frayed Ape leapt for Alex, bringing both of its fists crashing down toward him.

The bubbling mass in the ground erupted in a spray of black liquid. Princess’ massive hand shot up into the air, slamming into the ape and driving the huge beast to a halt. Sludge splattered across the ground from the force of the impact.

Princess drove the ape into the ground with a loud crash, then drove her sizable body into the monster before it could try and catch its balance. The ape roared, tearing into Princess’ body and ripping huge chunks of her oozing flesh free. But no matter how much damage it dealt, the wounds bubbled back as if nothing had happened just moments later.

“Better call him back,” Claire said. She lowered her stance but made no move to interfere in the fight. “He might want to see this.”

Alex nodded in agreement. He drew on his power once more, then cast Encore.

The air shattered. Claws rent through reality as Glint stepped back into being beside Alex.

“Shit,” Glint snarled. “This body’s ears are horrendous. I didn’t hear that thing at all.”

“Maybe you should focus on doing damage while you still can,” Alex said, pointing over Glint’s shoulder. “Because you’ve only got a few seconds before you vanish. This ability doesn’t last for long. You died.”

Glint spun. Princess and the ape were still interlocked, the two large monsters tearing at each other as they each tried to overpower the other. Despite Princess’ insane healing factor, the ape seemed to have the upper hand. It was slowly bearing down on her, its relentless assault starting to force her back.

Even still, Ein’Zahl lost a precious moment simply taking the fight in. Alex couldn’t even blame him. This was the first time he’d seen one of his other monsters, and Princess was definitely a sight to behold. It was only right to pay her the appropriate respect by staring in awe for a tad.

Unfortunately for Glint, this was definitely the worst possible time he could have chosen to sit around and stare. Encore wasn’t exactly an ability with a large amount of freeway built into it. It worked great when Alex’s monsters were immediately ready to get back into the fight. But when someone was actively controlling his summon and wasn’t ready to fight — well, the ability became a little less effective.

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Glint finally blurred back into motion a second later, darting across the ground in a silver streak. He brought his shimmering cloak of glass down on the ape’s shoulder. The incredibly sharp material cut deep into the monster’s flesh and continued all the way through, carving its arm off entirely.

A scream of pain tore free from the monster. It spun, moving in a blur as its hand shot toward Glint — but the Glasmir was faster. He leapt over the ape’s remaining arm, alighting on top of it. Then with a flourish, he brought his razor cloak down into the top of the ape’s skull.

There was a wet thunk.

Glint’s cloak ground to a halt about an inch into its target. And there it remained, lodged firmly in what must have been an incredibly dense chunk of bone. The surprise didn’t even have a moment to try and manifest within Glint’s features.

Tendrils of gray matter burst free from the wounds covering the wounded ape. One of them slammed into Glint, piercing through the Glasmir’s chest with a ringing crack. There was a moment of stillness broken by the sound of Princess’ porcelain claws tearing into the monkey’s chest.

Then Glint shattered apart into shards of spinning silver light that flew back to Alex, cementing his monster’s death for the second time. There weren’t any ways to summon him back anytime soon — not unless he managed to kill a bunch of other monsters and gather enough death energy to activate Exhume.

No matter. I think we’ve proven our point to Ein’Zahl by now. We don’t need him just to finish off a single, normal Adept 1 enemy.

“Shall we finish this thing off?” Claire asked. “I think it’s served its purpose.”

Alex nodded. “All yours. I’m not going to bother calling Spark for this. He’s better against groups of enemies. Want to finish it before it manages to break away from Princess? I don’t know what that gray shit is, but it kind of looks like it’s spreading.”

Claire glanced back at the monster. Then she cracked her neck. She pressed her right hand to the wrist of her left, pulling the thorned vine tattooed into her skin like she was jumping a lawnmower. Then she darted forward, sending the whip snapping out with a loud crack.

It scored past Princess and struck the ape in the face, rupturing both of the unprepared monster’s eyes in the same strike. The ape screamed in pain and twisted furiously, tearing a huge chunk of Princess’ free as it managed to wrench itself away from her grasp.

Claire wasn’t done. She tore her hand across a length of her whip, the dark thorns covering it digging deep into her palm and coating it blood red.

“Partial Soul Manifestation.” Power welled within her eyes as she bared her teeth. “Hollow Court.”

A tolling bell rolled through the Mirrorlands. Even though this was far from the first time Alex had heard Claire activate her Partial Soul Manifestation, it still made his heart skip a beat in unease.

Claire’s hair whipped around her as a translucent sheet of flat gray folded into being in the air behind her. The ancient features of a woman pressed into them as the now-familiar looming ghost manifested itself. Withered roses fluttered from the being’s dress as a torrent of petals blew free from its cupped hands.

The petals screamed as they rushed past the monkey in a thick, pink wall. They enveloped both Princess and her opponent entirely for a moment. Then, as quickly as the petals had appeared, they rushed back to flow into the ghostly woman beside Claire.

All that remained of them were a few glowing bunches that had bundled up against the monkey’s body — a body which was now teeming with thick, gray masses of tendrils. Something was happening to the Frayed Ape.

Claire’s whip cracked before Alex could get much more of a look at the monster.

A flash of bright pink and an explosion cut through the air. The ape staggered back, screaming, as large chunks of its flesh rained down to the ground to land beside smoldering patches of gray.

Princess grabbed onto the ape, not letting it get a moment to catch its balance. Claire’s whip cracked twice more. Two more explosions tore through the air as she struck the petal bundles on the monster’s body, detonating them. The smell of mold and cooked flesh formed a wretched union in the air to assault Alex’s nostrils.

He grimaced in distaste. It was almost pathetic.

But the ape didn’t have to suffer much longer. Princess’ claws tore huge furrows through the badly weakened monster. Claire struck the final patch of petals on the back of the ape’s head with her whip. One more explosion rocked the Mirrorlands.

Then the monster pitched back, landing on the ground with a crash before going still. The patches of gray that had been crawling all over its body slowed to a withered stop, denied whatever bullshit they’d been trying to prepare to pull.

A stream of magical energy trickled into Alex. It wasn’t the biggest reward he’d gotten for a fight, but there had been quite a lot of help involved in defeating the ape. He couldn’t complain too much.

Claire’s whip slithered back into its place as a tattoo on her skin. She and Alex were silent for a few moments, standing alongside Princess as they watched the remains of the dead Mirrorlands monster to make sure it wasn’t about to reanimate itself.

Only when Alex harvested the Soul Flame that appeared over its body did they allow themselves to relax — and reposition to make sure the loud fight didn’t draw anything too powerful for them to deal with.

“Not bad,” Claire said as they made their way back toward Mirrorwane. “Silver is pretty good. He’s definitely more skilled than I am. If he can move around like that in a body that isn’t even his… I’m impressed. But he’s headstrong.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “And he’s definitely arrogant. But I suppose he’s probably earned the arrogance. I’m honestly excited to see what he’s capable of when he’s using Riftwarped Glint.”

“Me too,” Claire agreed. “Even if he is a bit more like you than I’d prefer. One Alex is more than enough.”

“Hey. I’m not that arrogant, am I?”

“Not yet,” Claire replied with a sidelong look. “Take care to keep it that way.”

“Noted,” Alex said with a grin. “I’ll do my best. So… you want to hit the Cracked Steps up again once Silver gets a better grasp of actually using Glint properly? I bet we could get a lot farther than we did the last time. It would be good prep for the auction and Empty Court.”

Claire rolled eyes.

“What?” Alex asked. “Is that a no?”

“Of course not,” Claire said, laughing. “It’s been a while since we last tried our hand at it. And after putting the River King down… I think I’m actually itching for a good fight as much as you are.”