“Summoners have the ability to call forth minions to aid them in battle. These minions can possess a wide range of utility from fighters to tanks to supports that make Summoners excellent additions to any party. This enhanced utility does come with lower personal agency, and Summoners are reliant on their minions to do most of their dirty work. As a trade off, Summoners have access to a collection of spells and abilities their summons have access to.”— Annwyn Online Players’ Guide.
Beyond the Village of Firestone, the territories of Rielle. Day 01.
Night had fallen when Saiph, Nix, and Mikel’s contingent of guards reached the site of the goliath huntsman attack.
A large wagon lay on its side near the shore, its canopy torn open and its contents strewn all over the ground. A large trail of blood led into the nearby lake.
Mist boiled over the water like dry ice left out in the sun. Gnarled logs, uprooted and knocked over, broke the waterline like skeletal fingers grasping at the air. The stench of decaying plant matter choked the air.
There was an eerie, unnatural quietness to the scene that was broken only by the sound of distantly rolling thunder.
Sylas called out for his son and a weak groan answered. They found Tomas lying against a tree, a large piece of wood sticking through his shirt and a dark stain running down his stomach. His health points showed zero, but the man clearly wasn't dead.
“The fucking thing was massive and at least level thirty. Threw me from the carriage and it got Christopher and the horses.” Tomas grabbed Sylas' shirt with renewed, frantic strength. “Please tell me Maerie is alright!”
“She’s fine, son. She’s fine. A bit banged up, but she’s fine. Now relax, I need to get to work.” Sylas pulled a knife from its sheath on his belt and began cutting away at the bloody shirt.
Nix pulled out his summoning grimoire and began flipping through its pages. “If you pull that chunk of wood from his stomach, I can summon a life wisp to heal him.”
Sylas shook his head. “You Guardians might not have to worry about it, but healing magic performed on a wound that isn’t properly prepped can have lasting problems. We’ll have to clean it the best we can and leave it alone until he can get looked at by the surgeon.”
Sylas finished his inspection and cleaning of the wound, leaving the wood in its place to prevent any extra bleeding. Two guards placed Thomas on a litter and half their force escorted father and son back to the village.
Everyone else began to search around for the spider. It hadn’t escaped Saiph's notice that even though everyone knew the huntsman was somewhere in the water, all the guards were giving the cart a wide berth. Knowing the job fell to him to get the monster’s attention, Saiph walked towards the lake’s edge.
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There were dozens of large tracks, nearly perfect circular holes, going into the water. Saiph bent down and stuck a gauntleted hand into one of the tracks, his arm going all the way to the elbow before he felt the bottom. Goliath indeed.
A faint glint caught the corner of Saiph’s eye. A silver thread, just faintly catching the light from his lantern. It ran underneath his boot and traveled towards—
The surface of the lake broke as two large spears flew towards Saiph’s chest. He lunged backwards with all his might. Water rained down on him as he hit the ground.
A rush of energy flowed through Saiph’s body as his hit points surged upward by nearly twenty thousand. He scooted back towards the wagon and searched for the monster, but there were only the ripples of the recently disturbed lake.
A message appeared in front of Saiph’s face, indicating he was being invited to a party by Nix. He was happy to see another carryover from the game working as it had before. He accepted the invite.
“Well, I think you found our monster. You good?”
Saiph shook himself off like a dog fresh out of the bath. Putting on his helmet, he looked at the Summoner. “Yeah, wide awake now. You ready to kill this thing?”
Nix raised his staff in answer. Orange mana swirled around the green gem and a disk of orange and yellow opened on the ground in front of him. A wolf made of molten lava and flames leapt from the rend in reality and howled its arrival to this land.
Nix followed up by raising his arm and pulling up a sleeve, revealing one of the many tattoos that covered his body; the hallmark of a Runic elf. The tattoo began to glow yellow and a wave of mana traveled down his arm and into the fire elemental.
The wolf began to change. Portions of the magma hardened into rocky armor as its body grew larger, nearly tripling in size. A second head grew next to the first one and a pair of saber teeth stretched down from both their upper jaws.
This fire elemental has been evolved into a Legendary Beast.
Name: Skoll and Hati
Class: Evolved Flame Vargr, level 70
Giving a proud smile and a thumbs up, Nix said, “Now I’m ready!”
With a grin on his own face, Saiph two-handed his hammer and raised it high above his head. Activating the spell Shatter, he slammed the weapon into the ground with as much force as he could muster. The earth quaked and crumbled towards the waterline. Blue bolts of lightning arced along the trail of destruction, electrocuting the water.
A screeching sound like nails raked along a chalkboard answered Saiph's provocation.
From just beyond the edge of the lake, a mass of muck and earth the size of a school bus heaved itself from the water. The monster stood on eight spindly legs and its front most pair were two serrated knives longer than Saiph was tall. Two large fangs jutted out of a spider-like head the size of Saiph’s torso and eight rage-filled yellow eyes, the smallest pair the size of footballs, stared back at him.
Name: Goliath Nightstalker
Class: Night Spawn (Monster), level 110 (16)
Disposition: Enraged
Health Points: 69,424/74,500
Mana Points: 35,200/35,200
Stamina Points: 64,023/68,500
As Saiph read the stats of what had risen from the water, his heart didn’t so much as sink, but swan dive into the deepest pit of his stomach as he realized the calculation error he and Nix had made.
Thomas had seen a level thirty goliath huntsman because the injured man was level twenty and night spawns were always ten levels higher than whatever they were facing.
The monster before Saiph, open mouth revealing several rows of serrated shark teeth all stained with the black of blood, wasn't a level thirty goliath huntsman. Rather it was a level one hundred and ten goliath nightstalker. And he had enraged it.
Well, Saiph thought to himself as the nightstalker drew in an impossibly deep breath, fuck me.