Jaff quivered his lip and clenched his fist as he and Lexi moved through the doors of the main building.

So what if I am a plainy. So what if I don’t have royal blood or any starting status points or even a Summon. I’ll show all of them. I’ll be the strongest Summoner that has ever existed.

“Hey Jaff, wait up!” A voice from behind shouted out.

Jaff and Lexi both turned around to see a slender boy with dark hair that covered his forehead, large rounded glasses that almost looked too big for his face and dark brown eyes. The boy was carrying a spear that had a silver dragon with no wings wrapped around its shaft expanding the full length of the spear. Jaff was struck with awe at its sight.

“Hey Ray.” Lexi said as he caught up in a puff.

Ray panted and gripped the staff with both hands as he firmly planted it on the floor to give himself support. Jaff could tell he was tired. Well, to Jaff, Ray wasn’t very fit and even small runs would have him gasping for air.

“I saw what happened. Don’t let Draco get to you.” Ray said.

“He’s right though… I’m one of the first outsiders to be given a chance at obtaining a Shard Bracelet. That has never happened… Like ever.” Jaff said as they continued to walk through the hallway dodging the other students moving between classrooms.

Jaff then stopped and looked at both Lexi and Ray. He raised his arm and clenched his fist with a determined look on his face.

“But I will be a Summoner. The best you have ever seen!” He suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs.

Shocked, Lexi stepped in and used her hand in an attempt to cover his mouth.

“Now’s not the time for one of your rants Jaff!” She said as she muffled the next set of words coming out of his mouth.

“You… Third years should be in the main hall by now.” Another voice said from behind them.

All three turned around to see an old woman, easily in her seventies with gray and white dusky hair. She wore a plain brown long sleeve dress. Her left wrist had a tightly wrapped Shard Bracelet with a full set of gleaming red summon shards.

“Sorry Professor Bluecup.” Jaff said.

“Go on then. Get going.” Professor Bluecup responded.

Professor Bluecup raised her hand to lead them towards a large entry way closer to the back of the building. The hall, made with oak walls with inscribed ancient symbols and cedar flooring, took all three levels in height of the building and was lined with forty rows of plain blue school chairs on either side. They could have done more with the chairs for such an extravagant room Jaff thought. There were no windows, only large candles that lined the perimeter, which illuminated the room. A large stone podium on raised steps sat at the back of the hall, lit up by two large candles on either side. To the left and right stood six old wooden chairs with gold trims lining the edges.

In the chair on the left, closest to the podium sat the Headmaster, Professor Madbatten, a man in his fifties with a chiseled chin, short brown hair and wearing black suit pants and jacket with a white shirt and a red tie.

In the chair on the right closest to the podium sat Professor McDonald, a fit woman in her twenties with bright blonde hair. She was wearing a blue jumpsuit and holding something in her hands, which was too difficult to see where Jaff was.

Jaff, Lexi and Ray made their way to the second row and excused themselves as they stepped over other students' legs in order to get seats where they could all sit together.

Professor Bluecup hastily continued into the hall and sat next to Professor McDonald.

Chatter from the students continued as they filled the hall and found their way to a seat.

“Hey Ray, is that your battle weapon?” Curiously asked Jaff who pointed at the staff.

“Yep, six generations of Curran have used this staff in their Summoner battles.” Ray replied.

“Cool! Think I could give it a spin later?”

“Nope, you won’t have the stats or skills to activate it. It’ll just send you flying back withering in pain.”

“Aww, that's not fair!”

“There’s a chance I won’t be able to use it yet! Guess we will find out once we are in possession of our Shard Bracelets.”

“Is your weapon named?”

“Yeah it's called Lancaster.”

“Oh cool!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Professor Madbatten used the chair’s large arms to prop himself out of the seat and walked over to the podium.

“Silence!” He said slowly through the microphone as he looked around at the students.

“Move over there Wilson and away from Godfrey. You two can’t sit together.” He commanded.

The room went silent for a brief moment until the sound of the large hall doors could be heard closing. Everyone turned to see Drake being escorted towards the seats by Professor Gibben. Professor Gibben then with a large thump every time he stepped moved to sit next to Professor BlueCup. Professor Gibben was so big that he needed to shimmy his way down onto the seat. Jaff and the other students snickered.

“You are all now third year students at this school and the time most of you have been waiting for has come. Being a Summoner is not an easy task. It is often a hard, dangerous, long and at times, a lonely road.” Said Professor Madbatten as he raised his arm in the air.

“SUMMON: AIGORIA THE ENDLESS!” Professor Madbatten shouted.

Suddenly, one of the red shards popped out of Madbatten’s Shard Bracelet with a bright glow and floated 3 meters in front of him. The blow expanded into a large circle with streams of red flowing from the inside to the outside of the circle, darker in the center and being a blinding bright red on the outside.

From the darkness, a large yellow stone creature emerged. It towered over Madbatten, almost four times his size. Its arms looked like square slabs of yellow and black rock while its fists were the size of a car wrecking ball.

“This is one of my Summons, Algoria The Endless, a Golem or defender class. This is also a unique Summon. Not all Summons have a name like his. Algoria has a special skill… ALGORIA, GIVE ME YOUR PROTECTION!”

Algoria raised a hand and pointed it to Madbatten and as he did slates of yellow stone dislodged from Algoria’s body and implanted all over Madbatten making him look like he was wearing yellow stone armor.

“Now while I have Algoria summoned I am impervious to all physical attacks. Another Summoner or Summon would have to target Algoria directly to break this buff. But that’s still no easy feat as he too holds high physical defense and I would tell him to remain passive as I attack the enemy head on… So someone tell me… What would you do to defeat me?”

The room was quiet.

“Anyone?” Professor Madbatten questioned as he looked around the room.

Jaff raised his hand.

“Stand up Mr Barker” Professor Madbatten said as he pointed at Jaff.

Jaff slowly stood up.

“You run like a plainy” A voice from the crowd shouted.

The students burst into laughter. Jaff anxiously looked around the room in embarrassment.

“Quiiiieeet!” Professor Madbatten commanded.

As he did, Algoria lifted its leg up and slammed it to the ground causing the room to violently shake. The whole room once again went quiet as Jaff turned to face Madbatten.

“Magic.” Jaff said.

“What was that?” Professor Madbatten asked.

“You said you are impervious to physical attacks… So I would use some kind of magic on you or the Golem…” Jaff responded

“It’s Algoria… But yes. Magic, Elemental Skills, Poison, Curses, Debuffs or a combination of many could all work in this fight. A Summoner battle is a game of strategy. A Summoner can have many Summons in his or her arsenal but can only have five Summons present at any given time while on earth. Also, there is a five minute cooldown after summoning a Summon to swap it with another Summon. But if you lose a Summon in battle the Shard is temporarily shattered and you will be permanently down a Summon in that battle. To win a Summoner battle one must ultimately incapacitate the Summoner. The incapacitated Summoner still loses if they have Summons on the battlefield.”

Professor Madbatten looked back at Jaff.

“Well done, take a seat Mr Barker.” Professor Madbatten requested.

As Jaff took his seat he noticed most of his cohort glaring at him with discontent on their faces. At this stage he was numb to it. They can glare all they want, he thought.

Suddenly, the Golem aggressively clenched its fists and made its way down the stairs towards the students. The Golem grabbed the first row of empty chairs and slung them across the room where they crashed onto the wall, collapsing in a piled heap. The Golem lifted one its large fists and levitated it over the students sitting in the next row. The Golem roared as its fist started soaring down, only to stop mear inches from the horrified students underneath it. The other students gasped in horror as Lexi grabbed and squeezed Jaff’s arm over the sight.

“Remember one important fact!” Professor Madbatten’s voice boomed out over the cries in horror.

“While on Earth, a person requires a Summoner Bracelet and must agree to the mock battle in order to be safe from death. A Summoner with malice can kill other humans or Summoners if they so choose to. The same is true in Estoria. Being without your Shard Bracelet means you are vulnerable to death with no means of coming back home to Earth.” Professor Madbatten continued as he raised a Shard Bracelet he had on his lap.

“Do not lose this.” He then continued.

All of the professors got up and took a step forward. Professor Gibben tapped his scepter onto the ground with the shock resonating off the hall walls. From the center of the room the floor panels gave way to a large box made of gold with two golden dragons entangled together. Professor Gibben lifted his scepter towards the box which by magic caused the two large locks holding the top to fall off. He then raised his scepter higher, which caused the box lid to levitate up, then to the side and slowly down onto the ground.

“The Shard Bracelet is a mysterious device. The moment you put one on is the moment you will possibly inherit a Summons, skills or stats that the people in your family who came before may have had. Essentially it will awaken hidden power within you. Some of you may grow exponentially powerful the moment you put it on.”

Professor Madbatten looked towards Jaff.

“Others may not grow at all.” He said as Shard Bracelets levitated out of the golden box and moved their way through the air to the front of the students sitting on the chairs.

The students held out their hands as each of the bracelets slowly lowered down into them.

“Once you put these Shard Bracelets on you will all officially have the power of a Summoner… Treat them with care and I hope they give you all great fortune!” Professor Madbatten said enthusiastically.

Jaff, with a gleam in his eyes, held his Shard Bracelet. This is it he thought in excitement. The day has finally come!