Chapter 355. Victor or Vanquished.

  I activated Fitzfazzle’s figurine, then grabbed Rodney’s Bag of Beasts. Fitzfazzle appeared next to me, dressed in leather armor, and with a huge duffel bag over his shoulder. Another infernal fire blast from Zerallia flew toward me, and I dropped the bag and raised my shield. The blast hit my shield, and I was grateful it didn’t somehow automatically fly around it.

  “Fitzfazzle, we’ve got to stop her, quick!” I shouted as my shield started to heat up and I let go of it and reached for another consumable.

  “I’m on it, Rico,” Fitzfazzle said, dropping his duffel to the ground and reaching inside. He grinned at me as a metal contraption unfolded itself from the bag and began to wrap around my gnomish friend. In only a matter of seconds, Fitzfazzle was encased in a smaller version of the MESS mech we’d piloted back on his world.

  Turning toward Zerallia, he began to stomp in her direction, already spitting out magic missiles from the weapon mount under his left arm. The right arm on his mech was an oversized claw, the bladed fingers making horrible screeching sounds as they moved. Seeing the new threat that Fitzfazzle represented, Zerallia shifted her focus to him, giving me time to retrieve the bag and pull a random animal from it.

  A weird animal that looked like a cross between a deer and a zebra emerged. The system called it an Ocapi, and I had to take the system’s word for it that this was a real animal in my world. Not looking very ferocious, the animal proved brave enough and charged toward Zerallia.

  Zerallia pulled several figurines from her belt and tossed them all in front of her. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one with consumables, an armored orc with a bloody cleaver in each hand that reminded me of Glamb was the first to appear. Hot on his heels was a brown bear that roared and charged. The final minion she summoned from her consumables was perhaps the most horrifying. Instead of a single foe, the last figurine summoned a swarm of hundreds of smaller spiders.

  The new arrivals charged my troops, which consisted of just Fitzfazzle and the weird Ocapi. That was fine, Zerallia was occupied with going through her gear, looking for anything that could help her. My supplies had been depleted, but I was willing to bet that I still had far more consumables on me than she had brought to the party.

  Next up on the agenda was my kobold warband figurine. It was another reusable one like Fitzfazzle, and was almost an army on its own. The troops it summoned were the ones from way back in my last arena challenge. There were eight kobold warriors, a sergeant, two crossbowmen, a sorcerer, and last but not least, one of the war lizards. The force charged Zerallia and her minions.

  I knew the kobolds weren’t probably the most powerful units on the field, but they would do some damage and take time to defeat. They also had the added benefit of giving me cover. With all the minions between me and Zerallia, she couldn’t effectively target me with her longer-range spells. I wasn’t done yet, and pulled out the single tooth in the Fangs of the Hydra pouch.

  The hydra was only the size of a large dog, with just a single head, but it was fierce and had a mouth full of sharp teeth. I’d chosen my class with the idea of quality over quantity, but in this fight, quantity seemed to be the only way I’d survive. Our minions clashed in the short distance that separated me from Zerallia, and I added even more reinforcements.

  Five horrible worms the size of my forearm appeared when I used the Rot Grub swarm. The creepy things had human faces that gnashed their teeth at our enemies. Not especially fast, they still wriggled their way toward the fight. A roar caught my attention as I pulled another figurine out.

  A huge, misshapen head appeared floating over the battlefield. It lashed out a long tongue that grabbed a screaming kobold warrior and reeled it into the mouth that chomped down hard, turning my minion into mana vapor. I guess that Zerallia wasn’t quite out of consumable figurines just yet.

  Glancing behind me, I could see that Felljaw had dealt with the duplicate drone, and my necromancer apprentice was out of spells, moving to engage the huge beast with only a simple dagger. One battered gnoll from the portal remained, but as I watched, Felljaw tore out its throat, leaving just the poorly armed necromancer between me and the monster.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The figurine in my hand was the crawling spines, and I summoned them between Felljaw and my position. One leg of the hellhound hung limp, and wounds covered its body to the point I knew it was almost done. Just to be sure, I added the tier one, rank seven skeletal orc battle caster, and the same tier and rank pixie archer to finish off Felljaw.

  In just the time I’d taken to deal with Felljaw, Zerallia had turned the tide of the fight against me. Most of the kobolds were down, and Fitzfazzle was also gone. On the plus side, the giant floating head wasn’t there anymore, though I don’t know if that was a fair trade with a battle suit enhanced gnome.

  A tier two, rank two war hound pack was summoned next, the three huge dogs in studded leather barding growled and charged directly at Zerallia, ignoring the two smaller hellhounds that still fought to protect her. A third hellhound appeared as Zerallia summoned it, but from the pained look she gave as the monster appeared, I was willing to bet she had reached the end of her mana reserves.

  She pulled out a potion that she quickly quaffed down as I summoned my most powerful consumable, a tier three, rank three ghoul pack. Five of the slavering undead appeared and rushed toward the feast awaiting them. Now I was the one reaching the end of my resources. All I had left were the tier three rank zero goblin mortar team, and the tier two, rank seven helpful staff.

  The staff weren’t combatants, and I was worried the goblin mortar would do more harm than good since my troops outnumbered hers. I did have two scrolls that would help, the first was Barrier which created a glowing protective layer around me. It would absorb some damage before dissipating, hopefully enough to protect me from another fire blast.

  My last scroll, other than the one Gary had given me, was Call of the Warbringer, which I activated. My surviving minions glowed as their stats got a boost. Gary’s scroll, the Eternal Suffering spell, wasn’t one I trusted, and it would stay safely in my inventory. It didn’t look like I’d need it as Zerallia pulled a curved dagger that glowed with magic from her belt. She looked like she was ready to make her last stand as the war hounds closed in.

  I was shocked when she held up her left hand, glaring at me with hatred as she sawed the dagger across her fingers. Screaming in pain, the magical dagger severed one finger after another. As the last of her digits, the thumb, was cut free, her image flickered, and an orange glowing portal swallowed her up. There were many kinds of magic out there, and I had the feeling that I’d just experienced one that I wanted no part of, a kind of magic that required you to sacrifice part of yourself to activate.

  “Hopefully that’s the last we see of her,” I muttered to myself, as the ragtag remnants of my minion army gathered around to protect me in case there was some other threat waiting for us. I waited for confirmation from the system that this summoning was complete, but so far, the system had been silent.

  As I thought about the fight, I came to the conclusion that Zerallia’s “master” she mentioned must have been Gary. This whole sneaky summoning contract ambush ahead of our fight was something right up his alley. I figured Zerallia had a 50/50 chance whether Gary would kill her for her failure. If he let her live, I was pretty sure that he’d find some way to make her appear during my final confrontation with him.

  The delay dragged on, and just when I was about to look for some other way out of this warehouse, the system responded with some interesting new prompts.

  A system intervention delay token has expired. Normal system functions in this space are now active.

  Use of such a device is forbidden at this tier and rank. Stand by for adjudication.

  System review in progress…

  The use of the system delay token has been found to be the responsibility of the being known as Zerallia. You are cleared of all wrongdoing in this instance. Separate punishment will be levied upon the party responsible.

  A summoning contract has been breached, and the offending party, the being known as Zerallia, will now be penalized for this offence.

  Please stand by as penalty calculations are made…

  For breaching of the contract guidelines, the being known as Zerallia will have 1 Rank removed. This 1 Rank will be added to the being known as Rico Kline. This rank will be in addition to any other rewards you will have received for completing this summoning contract. One random item from the equipment, consumables, or other possessions will be removed from the being known as Zerallia and added to your rewards for the completion of this contract.

  Congratulations, you have achieved Tier 3, Rank 3.

  You have gained 1 point in Mind.

  You have gained 1 point in Presence.

  You have unlocked the Equipment Bead option for your minions.

  You have been granted 1 Equipment Bead.

  Your summoning session is now considered complete.

  You have been granted 22 experience points, with an additional 8 points granted for the additional difficulty.

  Experience/experience needed for next rank: 34/50.

  Please return to the being known as Professor Dalzrin to collect the other rewards promised for this summoning contract.

  You will now be sent to your Designated Return location.