“I’m sorry, but I think I’ll need that figurine back. My class lets me keep these things around for longer,” I said as the veteran skeleton and the cat both disappeared only a couple of minutes after Celeste had summoned them.

“Fine, but you owe me a replacement,” she said, patting the head of my hound as she spoke. I could tell that she wasn’t all there, but after what she’d endured over the last few months would make anyone a bit loopy.

“Take this for now, it only has six shots, but the magic missiles it fires are self-targeting, so if you can see your target, you’ll probably hit it. I will want that back after we escape,” I told Celeste as I took the figurine back from her and replaced it with the magic missile pistol that I’d received as a reward from the fight on the starship.

“Cool, this’ll work,” Celeste said, mimicking action poses as she waved the gun around dangerously.

“Woah, be careful, the trigger is a bit weird, and you don’t want to accidentally fire that thing,” I said, pushing the barrel of the weapon toward the floor as I showed Celeste how it operated.

“So, what’s our plan for getting out of here?” She asked.

“When the other folks give the signal, I’m going to summon a small army and send them up the stars. We’ll follow behind, and once out of the narrow hallway, I have a little, no, make that a big surprise for the cultists. Stay behind me, the hound will protect you. Once we’re out of the warehouse, we run south like the lady on the phone suggested,” I explained.

“Cool, but what if these other people turn out to be just as bad?” Celeste asked, mirroring my fears.

“If that’s the case, we do the same to them that we’re going to do to the cultists. I’m not going to be anyone’s sacrifice, prisoner, or lab rat,” I said with conviction.

“Me too, never again,” Celeste said with determination. I believed her.

I waited for several tense minutes as the time ticked down. With Celeste holding onto the pistol, I liberated a real gun from one of the thugs. They must not have figured they’d have to use them, as each only carried one magazine in their weapons and no spares. I wasn’t a weapons expert, but the sight of a Colt 1911 was rather iconic and while they may be crazy cultists, the thugs had good taste in weapons. The magazine only held seven rounds with another in the chamber, but I wasn’t too concerned, it was only a last resort option. My main firepower was in my summoned creatures.

“Don’t touch that. I can’t say for sure why, but something tells me that thing isn’t a normal knife. It’s evil,” Celeste warned as I made to pick up the knife that Lucinda had slashed me with. Just thinking about it made my feet throb. The cuts had finally stopped bleeding but had reopened when I put my shoes on. Each step was a painful experience, and I wasn’t exactly going to be up to my full speed when we escaped.

My plan was simple. Once I received the word to go from the other group, I’d start summoning. It was time to burn all my resources if I wanted to survive. Minutes passed and I kept waiting to hear someone open the door at the top of the stairs, but Lucinda must have ordered everyone to leave her alone as she tortured and sacrificed me.

Minutes ticked by and then my phone dinged to indicate an incoming text. A simple word, Go, was on the screen. They didn’t have to tell me twice and I began pouring mana into summoning figurines. First off were the Halfling Hit Squad. In a puff of mana, ten diminutive halflings appeared. They were all armored in darkened chainmail, with steel plates fastened over vulnerable areas for extra protection. Each held a short spear that would help give them reach over the larger humans they’d fight.

It wasn’t hard to spot the leader. He was the one encased in black plate armor with the image of a bloody spear emblazoned on the center of his chest piece. Instead of a single spear and shield, this guy had one spear in each hand. The halflings were small but vicious, and from the way they moved, these were expert fighters. To supplement them, I summoned the advanced ghoul, which hissed at everyone before waiting to hear my commands.

A goblin raiding pair, two goblins with primitive gear, joined the party. Activating the last two of my consumable figurines, I added a skeletal warrior, who was just a single skeleton in rusty chainmail with a notched sword, and the wind serpent venom spitter. The serpent was exactly as described, a five-foot-long snake with wings, that I assumed would spit venom on the foes we were about to attack.

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“You, open the door up there and then I want everyone to rush the staircase. Once up there attack any cultist you can find, and protect us as we flee,” I ordered. My minions would follow my orders to the best of their ability, though I wasn’t entirely sure how they would identify the cultists. Maybe some system trickery would work in my favor, but if not, at least they would attack anyone targeting me or Celeste.

“Celeste, when we get up there, I’m going to try this,” I said, showing her the MESS key. “I don’t know exactly what it will do, probably create a big mech that I’ll fight with. Once I activate it, use my mech suit as cover as we make our way out of here,” I said. She looked scared, and the magic missile pistol in her hand shook along with the rest of her body.

At the top of the stairs, one of the halflings threw open the door, and my menagerie of odd, summoned creatures poured out with me and Celeste hot on their heels. For a few crucial seconds nothing happened, then I started to hear shouts of warning, gunfire, and the sounds of combat. I paused at the top of the stairs and took in the chaos.

The halflings were in and amongst a large group of cultists who had gathered around one of the roll up doors leading out of the warehouse. A few bodies were already on the ground, but the cultists didn’t hesitate and charged into the fight. Most were armed only with the daggers that seemed to be the signup bonus for joining the cult. More than a few had pistols of various types, which they used to blast away at my summoned army.

I willed the MESS key to activate and in a burst of light, I was no longer standing on the floor of the warehouse. Instead, I was strapped into the pilot’s seat of one of the first generation mechs. This one was armed with one long steel spear, and a single magic missile wand launcher over the right shoulder. The mech was familiar to me, and I wasted no time in joining the fight.

Magic missiles began to cough out of the launcher as fast as I could trigger them as I stomped my way to the nearest wall. My flashy appearance had attracted more than a bit of attention, and I could hear and feel a few pistol shots pinging of the mech’s armor. It seemed the armor was holding up okay, but I angled myself to protect the cockpit as much as I could.

The mech worked great, but there was only one problem with it. My mech was powered by mana, and despite my fuel supply being deep inside the mech, our world was sucking it down quickly. My magic missile wand launcher was also affected, my firing stopped after only six shots as the rest of the mana inside the wand was ripped away.

It was fine, the mech didn’t have to get me far, just to the wall where I could make our exit. I stomped my way forward as my army held off most of the cultists. Just when I thought we had things in the bag, a door to the warehouse office opened and a pair of men wielding AK-47s joined the fray, their guns ripping out 7.62mm rounds as fast the weapons could cycle.

Half of my halflings were mowed down, but the venom spitter took out one of the shooters before being blasted away. Seeing my mech, the surviving shooter clicked in a fresh magazine and began to rip into the mech. Armor bent and cracked, it was designed to stand up to a ghoul’s claws, not full auto rifle fire. I angled my armor to put as much protection between me and the shooter.

A pair of cultists wielding knives charged toward the mech. I wasn’t sure what they thought they were going to do to me, but I wasn’t going to let it happen. With a motion I’d practiced a hundred times when fighting against the necromancer, I swept my spear forward. The blade neatly cut the cultists in half and my mech stomped over the remains as I headed toward the far wall and freedom.

The shooter with the AK began a new barrage against my mech. He was out of my line of sight, and I couldn’t target him with a Fail Weapons spell. The shooting stopped as his magazine ran dry. One of my minions must have dealt with him since the AK never started back up again.

Something in one of the mech’s legs failed as the limb gave off a horrible grinding noise. I could only drag myself slowly forward, but I was almost at the wall. With a swipe of my spear, I tore through the thin steel shell of the building, opening our escape route for us.

My mech suddenly shuddered as something critical went wrong with it and the thing started smoking. Afraid I was going to get burned alive, I hit the hatch release. The hatch was jammed, and I had a bit of trouble prying it open. With a final heave the hatch popped open, and I dropped to the ground. I gave a shout of pain as my feet hit the concrete and I could feel the damaged toes begin to soak my socks with blood.

Stumbling toward the opening in the wall, I shouted for Celeste to follow. Looking back, I could see the dog was gone, likely having been destroyed while trying to protect Celeste. It was all for naught, as the young woman lay crumpled on the cold concrete of the warehouse. A round must have ricocheted off my mech and had hit her in the face, killing the poor woman instantly. My army continued to fight the remnants of the cultists, but the battle for me was over.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Celeste,” I muttered after shuffling over to confirm she was gone. Anger flared, and I picked up the dropped magic missile pistol. My minions had pushed the enemy deeper into the warehouse and as much as I wanted to join them, throwing myself into battle wasn’t going to change what had happened.

I had wanted to protect Celeste, to let her taste freedom after being captured and held for so long by the cultists, but she was gone and there was nothing I could do to help. Tears shed for a woman I never got a chance to know rolled down my cheeks as I climbed through the opening in the wall and began to stumble my way south toward what I hoped was freedom.