The portal opened near the reward chest, and I stepped through. As I looked back into my personal space, I could see Melvin disappear in a puff of mana vapor as he became the stone figurine I carried. A moment later the details of this summoning appeared.
Your summoning parameters are as follows:
1. You are being summoned by use of a magical device.
2. Summoning tier, 1.
3. Summoning rank, 3.
4. Rewards level, modest.
5. This summons is for the purpose of combat support. Prepare accordingly.
6. Forced compliance is active.
7. Your armory loadout has been equipped.
I stepped into a dark, stone room that was lit by flickering torches placed every few feet. A pair of men argued with each other, and I followed my summoner link to a middle-aged man in leather armor who held a wand. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I could see the room was a large storage area, with huge casks and boxes of provisions stacked inside.
“Caranox, you can keep sending these summoned things up into keep all day, but it’s not going to help. Not a single summoned creature has come back. In fact, I don’t think any of our people are coming back either,” A man in chainmail said with panic in his voice. Caranox, the man holding the wand that had summoned me, responded.
“Darv, if you have a better plan, I’m all ears. We can rush up there and try to make a break for it, but you know how well that went for everyone else.”
“Quiet you two, I think I hear something,” a young woman crouched with her ear to the one door leading from this room said.
The two men ceased their argument, and I took stock of the others in the room. My summoner, the man in chainmail, and the woman at the door were the only people that were armed and appeared able to defend themselves. Inside the large storage room with use were another score of people who were dressed like servants and workers from a medieval movie. All of them seemed terrified and would likely be useless in a fight.
“What do you hear?” Darv whispered.
“I could hear shouts of battle and the sound of people running. Like before, there were a lot of screams, but they seemed to be moving up into the keep,” the woman replied.
“This could be our chance, while that thing is hunting down people up in the keep, we can make for the escape tunnel,” Caraxon, my summoner, added.
“Maybe, it’s too bad that none of us know where the tunnel is. Lord Hamlan kept its exact location a closely guarded secret, even if everyone seemed to know that it exists. Despite running around blind, I don’t think we’ll get a better chance. Send your summoned creature up into the keep. Maybe it’ll help distract that thing while we work on finding the escape tunnel,” the woman ordered, clearly taking the leadership role of the group.
“Didn’t the coronation occur, isn’t he King Hamlan now?” my summoner asked.
“I don’t know, and don’t really care right now. Whatever our former lord is called, I doubt he still lives. All we can do is make our escape and hope that thing doesn’t follow.
“Roger that, Imsa,” my summoner said before turning to me. “Okay, you, leave here, head to the right and go up the stairs into the keep. Once there, try and delay whatever is attacking us,” my summoner ordered.
I moved toward the door before any compulsion could kick in. This seemed like a straightforward summoning where some kind of assassin or monster was tracking down these people. They looked scared and desperate, so maybe I could do something to buy them time to escape.
Imsa opened the door for me when I approached. Out in the hallway, I was glad to see it was dimly lit with lanterns and wasn’t completely dark. As I walked down the hall, I began to summon my team. First out was the ghoul, followed by Lillia and Rupert. I Immediately handed Rupert my old mace as we walked toward a stairwell in the distance.
It would probably be smart to hold off on summoning Melvin, but he wanted to check out the summoned life, and I had promised to let him. As he appeared, I tried to think of what to do with him. He was too slow to keep up, and I didn’t want to burden the ghoul or Lillia with carrying them, the pair of them were my best warriors. I could lug him around, but it would make using at least one of my weapons awkward.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Rupert, try to carry Melvin,” I ordered. Melvin sent a feeling of uncertainty over our connection.
“You’re the one that wanted to tag along buddy, and this is the only way I can think of getting you around. While your speed has been improving, it’s still nowhere close to ours, and I can’t have the rest of the party slow down to accommodate you,” I argued.
Melvin sent me the image of me carrying him. When I started to argue, he modified the image, showing him draped over my shoulders, like a gelatinous form of shoulder pads. From there, he could fire his ranged attacks, and then, if anything got close, he could slide forward and start to attack. It was a good call, and I gave him permission to do so as we climbed the stairs into the keep above.
At the landing, I could see a pair of bodies, both had been recently slain. One was decapitated, the head missing, and the other and been eviscerated and had giant claw marks cutting through his chainmail. The armor they wore seemed to do little against whatever had attacked them. Both men had steel longswords still grasped in their hands, but neither weapon had any blood or evidence they’d done any damage at all to their assailant.
“Keep away from there, unless you can smell what killed them,” I ordered the ghoul as he licked his lips and approached the fresh corpses. He turned and hissed at me in anger and annoyance, but followed my command, sniffing around the bodies. A scream echoing from the floor above stopped him and the ghoul turned toward the stairs leading up.
Whoever had cried out, it wasn’t in our immediate area. The stone walls of the keep and the storage area below caused sound to echo. Unfortunately, the survivors escaping from the storage room were making far too much noise for my taste. Whatever was above us, I’d rather fight it on level ground rather than on a small stairwell landing, so I pressed forward.
The ghoul was in the lead, and while he hadn’t seemed to pick up on any of the enemy’s scent from the bodies, he was our best chance at spotting a creature waiting in ambush. At the top of the stairwell, we found a long, wide hallway that had several doors leading off it. About half of the doors had been smashed open and in the center of the hall, a small knot of defenders had made their stand. Four more guards had died there, with wounds like the first pair we’d found.
At the far end of the hall were a pair of double doors that had also been torn off their hinges. Whatever had befallen these people, it was powerful enough to burst through thick wooden doors with ease. A quick check of the rooms we passed as we headed to the shattered double doors revealed either a gory end to the people seeking shelter inside, or rooms that were completely empty.
The empty rooms were all the ones with the doors intact. Whatever we were facing, it had no trouble sniffing out its victims and wasn’t into wanton destruction just for the sake of it. As we approached the shattered double doors at the end of the hall, the ghoul gave a quiet hiss and slowed his pace of advance, trying, and succeeding at being stealthy.
While the ghoul could make a quiet approach, the rest of us were not so lucky. Whatever the ghoul was trying to hide from would hear us approaching long before we spotted it. If groups of armed guards hadn’t slowed the creature down, I doubted my team would be all that effective, but I had to try.
Making my way to the end of the hall, the sounds of combat started up again and a booming laugh was heard over the din of battle. I rushed to a position near the doorway, using the wall and part of the shattered door to cover my approach. The minions stacked up behind me, except for the ghoul which was using the other side of the doorway for cover.
“You summoned me, Your Majesty, and when the time arrived to pay me for my efforts, you sought to deny me. The only one responsible for your predicament is you, and your failure to keep to the letter of our agreement,” the voice boomed.
“But, you never said that you would take them, all. You only promised to take one of my bloodline,” A weak voice replied between panting breaths.
“Our agreement stands, I was to select the soul that I wished to harvest, the choice was mine, not yours. The agreement perhaps was a bit vague, but those tiresome documents usually are. When things are left open to interpretation, I’m the sole arbiter of how the contract is to be enforced,” the booming voice taunted.
“I never saw that in the contract,” the breathless man whined.
“Ha, you never even bothered to read the whole thing, did you. No, you merely lusted after the power I would grant to you. You wanted the throne that I now sit upon. I would have allowed you to have a scribe inspect the contract, but you didn’t want our dirty little agreement to be known, did you Lord Hamlin. Wait, I suppose you were coronated, I should call you King Hamlin now. After all, the proper forms should be maintained,” the deep voice taunted.
“If I am king, you must obey me,” the man weakly offered.
“No, you may be a king and though your reign may be a very short one, your subjects are bound to obey you. Unfortunately, I am not your subject. Ha, King Hamlin, you do amuse me. I’m sure when I take your soul, it will provide me with hours of entertainment. Even though I may be entertained by your eternal torment, I think you’ll find the experience a bit less enjoyable,” the voice boomed as I peeked around the corner to see what I was dealing with.