Another round of loud booms echoed inside the room as the surviving goon managed to get his arm free from Rupert’s grip and began firing into the dwarf. The man then turned his weapon toward me as I pulled mana to cast Fail Weapons. My spell hit and when the man pulled the trigger, nothing happened.
He dropped the pistol and pulled a combat knife from inside his robes before approaching the table I was tied to. I wanted to summon one of my figurines, but I could only use my ability at range for my class figurines, all of which had already been used. The man raised the blade and stalked forward, madness glittering in his eyes.
“Your blood and mana will feed a god!” He shouted, only to stumble and fall, screaming in pain.
I figured my hound had finally dealt with Lucinda and joined the fight, but I could still hear him growling and tearing at the woman who was giving weak shouts of pain. The man was on the ground lying to one side of the table, the edge of which blocked my view. I was helpless, but I still had some mana to work with. My mana pool was down to 20 out of the 35 I had started with. Mana tabs were still with my other possessions, but I couldn’t get to them when I was tied down.
All at once, a skeleton with a huge sword appeared at the foot of my table. It moved with a speed and grace that I hadn’t seen an undead move with before. The heavy blade swept through the air, slicing down at the final goon who was still struggling with whatever had attacked him. A meaty squelch was heard and then the ting of the blade cutting though the man and hitting the concrete beneath him.
“If I have him cut you free, will you promise to not hurt me?” the girl asked, standing up from behind the table, holding another of my consumable figurines, the one containing the Advanced Ghoul.
“I take it you’re not part of this cult. If that’s true, set me free and we can get out of here together,” I offered.
“I’m not one of them, they just use me to find others like us. More of the cultists will check on us eventually. They’re used to noise when Lucinda is sacrificing people, but the gunfire might be more than they would expect from an interrogation and sacrifice,” the girl said as she ordered the skeleton to cut me free.
“Hey, that’s mine,” I said, pointing toward the figurine in her hands. The skeleton that was cutting me free must have been the blademaster figurine, a veteran summoned creature, and one of my more powerful items. The undead warrior cut my bonds free, and I stumbled to my feet. My head was still pounding from the stun gun and the drugs that they had pumped into me, but I was moving under my own power.
I stumbled over to the table that held my possessions. My foot flared in pain as I put pressure on my sliced toes. Ignoring the pain of my still bleeding feet, I started to pull on my clothes while holding onto the Halfling Hit Squad figurine. If anyone came through that door, or if the odd girl became hostile, I was going to fill the room with an entire squad of murder hobbits. Getting dressed under pressure was something I hadn’t had to deal with in a while, and it was almost like the first days as a summoned being again.
“Can I keep this one? He looks cool,” the girl asked, holding up the Advanced Ghoul figurine.
“You already used my skeleton and who knows what else,” I said, looking over to the final goon’s body to see what had stopped him from stabbing me. Sitting nicely on the floor grooming himself was a huge housecat, which must have been the first figurine that the girl had grabbed off the table.
“But I like this one, and I think I have enough mana to summon one more thing,” she said.
“You already got the angry housecat and a veteran skeletal warrior, which was one of my best figurines. Why are we even discussing this, we need to find a way out,” I argued as I finally finished dressing and started to gather up my figurines and other gear.
“I’ll help you get out, if I can keep it,” she offered.
“Fine, help me get out, and you can keep it. What’s your name. If we’re going to be working together, I should know who you are,” I asked.
“I’m Celeste, and you’re Rico Kline,” she said with a smirk.
“How do you know, oh, I get it, you must have figured that out when you probed my mind. Well, thanks for not spilling the beans to these wackos. Give me the rundown, where are we, and how do we get out,” I said.
“We’re in the basement of a warehouse. Above us, some of the cultists live in the actual warehouse, and others are renting a place nearby. All of them are probably armed, at least with blades, but there will be more than a few guns. Another summoned being is one of the leaders here, a guy with some kind of poison or disease type of magic,” Celeste advised.
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“How many are we talking numbers-wise?” I asked, trying to get a feel of how big this organization was, and more importantly, how many I might have to fight through in the warehouse above.
“Over a hundred, but at this time of day, probably thirty or forty are here. If they spread the alarm, others could arrive in a few minutes,” Celeste warned.
“I don’t think I can take on that many, even with all the consumables. What’s your class, can you help in a fight?” I asked.
“My class is called a Mana Seer. I specialize in finding missing things and sensing mana, unlike most other seers who try to predict the future or spy on people. These clowns caught me and made me their pet radar dish for finding other summoned beings. I’m sorry, I’ve never developed much in the way of combat skills. I have simple weapons proficiency, and a spell that can cloud someone’s mind. Other than that, not much. Most of the time when I’m summoned, I’m matched up with people needing investigations and the like,” Celeste explained.
“Anything waiting right outside the door?” I asked. Her class was interesting, and I would love to discuss it with her after we made it to safety. It seemed that the system was matching her various summonings to her class. I wondered if my summonings were the same deal.
“No, it’s just a stairway leading to the warehouse floor. There’s a door at the top of the stairs that leads out onto the warehouse floor,” Celeste said.
“Give me a moment to think this through,” I told her. The numbers were against us, and even pulling out all the stops, I wasn’t sure I could fight my way out of this. We were in a bind, and the only way I could think of getting out of it was to call in someone that I didn’t completely trust. Maybe Celeste could add some insight into who the people were that knocked on my door the other night.
“Celeste, I came across two people who tracked me by the summoning energy signature. They didn’t try to force me to do anything, or try to take me into custody, but I’m not sure they’re the good guys either. What do you know about other groups looking for summoned beings?” I asked.
“There’s a bunch. This cult is one of the larger ones, at least in this area, but there are others scattered about. The cult bashes heads with the Grimslade Group on occasion, and I think the cult has called them sworn enemies of their master. I don’t know much about Grimslade other than they’re linked to some corporate shenanigans. This group you encountered; did they give you a name of their organization?” Celeste asked.
“No, they just left a card with a number on it. From my conversation, I didn’t get the feeling that they had an army at their disposal, which is what we’d need to fight through as many cultists as there are above us,” I said.
“Well, you can call and ask. I’ve been a prisoner of these guys for over six months. I doubt that whoever the people who contacted you are, they aren’t going to sacrifice you in a ritual, or force you to watch as they torture people,” Celeste said. She began shaking and her eyes glazed over. It was like her mind slipped back into the memories of what she had experienced.
“Hey, it’s fine, let’s call them,” I said, powering up my phone and typing in the number that I had memorized from the card.
“Hello,” an elderly woman answered.
“Hi, someone visited my house in the middle of the night not too long ago. Marie and Randy, I think they were called. They said that you might be able to help me?” I asked.
“What type of help do you need?” the voice on the other end asked.
“The summoned being kind,” I replied flatly. There was no time to play games or banter back and forth with this person.
“Got it, are you in trouble right now, or do you just want to meet up and talk?” the voice asked.
“Trouble, of the cultist variety,” I said.
“I see, give me the rundown of what’s going on,” the woman said.
“I was captured after a summoning and was being interrogated when I managed to escape with the help of another summoned being. We’re trapped in a small basement under a warehouse that’s crawling with cultists,” I explained.
“Hmm, did they mention someone, or something called Bhalkur?” the woman asked.
“Yeah, that’s the thing they worship and sacrifice summoned beings to,” I said.
“We know about that group. I don’t have the manpower on hand right now to hit them head on. Do you have a combat class? Can you handle yourself in a fight?” the woman asked.
“I can handle myself, but I can’t take out thirty or more cultists on my own. The other summoned being with me has a non-combat class,” I explained.
“Got it, the best I can do on short notice is create a distraction and try to pull some of them away from the warehouse. Give me fifteen minutes, and we’ll begin. I’ll text you the word go, when you see it, make a break for it. Head south and one of our people will pick you up,” the woman promised.
“I don’t know how long we have before someone comes down here to investigate, but we’ll be ready to go in fifteen minutes,” I replied.
“Wait for my signal, then unleash everything you got on these cultists. If they captured you, I don’t need to explain that they’re evil. Fight your way out and don’t stick around any longer than you must,” the woman advised.
“I have no plans of staying here for a second longer than I have to. We’ll wait for your signal,” I replied. The woman ended the call without saying anything else.
I’d called on this mysterious group for help, and they promised to do so. Whether I was dropping out of the frying pan and into the fire remained to be seen, but if they could get me out of this bind, I’d give them a chance. Celeste was still a wild card, and I didn’t think that she was all that much of an asset in a fight. Still, she had saved my life and I owed it to her to help get her out of this hellhole.
I had the fight of my life ahead of me, a real life or death struggle. Thankfully, I had a pocket full of summoning figurines and the key to a MESS on hand. It was time to unleash a gnomish mech beatdown on these cultists.