Chapter 302. Schoolyard Challenge.
I stepped through the portal and was given the basic information regarding this summoning. It looked like this one was going to be combat related, so no more amusement park rides this time.
Your summoning parameters are as follows:
1. You are being summoned through a consumable item by the apprentice mage Nasraf.
2. Summoning tier, 2.
3. Summoning rank, 6.
4. Rewards level, moderate.
5. This summons is for the purpose of a duel; combat is highly likely. Prepare accordingly.
6. Forced compliance is active.
7. Your armory loadout has been equipped.
“Nasraf, you cheater, I said a duel between our minions, not a duel between my minion and whatever summoning figurine your family bought for you,” a young voice complained as I stepped out of the portal and into what looked like an open sports field. A large rectangular area had been painted on the well-trimmed grass, and just outside the perimeter was a horde of people in matching robes staring intently at me.
“Dag, it’s not my fault your family is poor. Just consider this duel as a further expansion of your lessons here at the academy. The sooner you realize your place in this world, the easier things will become for you,” my summoner, a young elf named Nasraf taunted.
It was hard to tell the exact age of an elf, but given the crowd of other, teenage-looking humanoids gathered around the field, I figured we were in some type of boarding school for wizards. Great, I was stuck in the system version of Hogwarts with a pair of feuding teens. Our opponent that stood angrily in front of my summoner looked like a human woman, who was angry at my appearance for their duel.
“Nasraf, you know were all only tier zero, rank five. You need to summon something directly, not use a consumable,” the young woman, Dag argued. I agreed with her, after all, what was the point of a duel with someone who had minions two tiers higher? It wasn’t exactly a test of skill, just a comparison of who had the deeper pockets.
“Dag, you’re such a whiner. My family warned me about the lesser folk and their complaints against our superiority. Nevertheless, I’ll allow you a small handicap given the inherent weaknesses of humans. Why don’t you have two of your little friends join you, they can also summon a creature to help you in the fight,” Nasraf offered.
“So, three tier zero, rank fives against a tier two, rank six summoned creature? How is that any fairer? Just summon something you can call on without resorting to consumables. If you do that, I’m sure everyone would agree it’s a fair fight,” Dag said. To their credit, the crowd did seem to murmur with approval at Dag’s suggestion.
“It isn’t about fair, my dear Dag. You’re the one that challenged me, and I accepted. I don’t recall any negotiations beforehand; you simply said you challenged me to a duel. If you win, I must leave you alone, and not bother you or your friends for the rest of our time here. If I win, you announce to the school that you acknowledge my obvious superiority,” Nasraf said with devious smile plastered on his face.
“You knew I was angry, and you know we’re not even supposed to be out here without an instructor. Either play fair, or the duel is off,” Dag said.
“Fine, I’ll make one more concession, you can bring four of your friends to summon creatures to help you,” Nasraf said. The crowd’s murmuring got louder at that point, and though I couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other, I got the distinct vibe that they considered Nasraf’s latest offer a bit more compelling.
I still felt it was unfair. If the duel kicked off, I’d just summon my minions who would tear a group of four low tier and rank opponents to pieces. It was too bad I couldn’t switch sides; I think I’d rather fight for Dag than this odious Nasraf guy. My summoner link and the forced compliance prevented me from shifting my allegiance.
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“Okay, give me five other students to help out, and we’ll accept the duel, but I have one final condition. If you win, I’ll do as you ask, but after I publicly confirm your so-called superiority, you, agree to lay off my friends,” Dag countered. A small halfling girl left the sidelines and jogged over to Dag’s side.
“No, Dag, he’ll still win even with five of us helping you. I don’t know what class his summoned warrior is, but it would probably easily handle six of our summoned creatures,” the halfling pleaded.
“It’s unfair, I know, but if we don’t take this chance, this harassment will never end. If Nasraf accepts, at least I can keep you guys from being hassled by Nasraf’s cronies,” Dag said.
“I accept, Dag, you may summon your minions when ready. Mine is ready to go,” Nasraf said, walking over to me and placing his hand on the shoulder of my body armor. While Dag gathered five of her friends and prepared to summon their minions, Nasraf looked critically at me.
“Hmm, your gear is odd, what kind of weapons do you wield?” Nasraf asked. I drew my shortsword and shield, then also summoned my sparking javelin for him to inspect. He asked directly about weapons, so I didn’t have to mention that I was a summoner. Maybe, if Nasraf neglected his due diligence, I could work around the system restrictions for this duel.
“I assume you’re skilled with those as your tier and rank would suggest?” Nasraf asked.
“I am,” I replied with confidence.
“Good, then once these weaklings summon their creatures, put your weapons to good use,” Nasraf said, patting me on the back like an old chum.
“I will obey, and engage the foes with my weapons,” I replied, trying to keep an almost robotic, even tone to my voice as I tried to set Nasraf up.
“That’s all I ask,” Nasraf confirmed, his attention diverting to the creatures being summoned to oppose me. Inadvertently, Nasraf had just given his foes a huge chance. I would follow my summoner’s command to the letter and fight to the best of my abilities with my weapons.
I’m sure that he wanted me to go all out, but I was going to try and abuse the loophole of his language as much as possible. Since this was a school, maybe he would learn an important lesson. A summoner should always ask what class their summoned minion is.
I took stock of my opponents. With five of her friends allowed to participate, Dag’s team had a total of six minions to oppose me. I’d summoned plenty of tier zero, rank five minions, both with my class skills, and through figurines. They weren’t especially powerful, but while I had solid gear, my class wasn’t set up to be a melee powerhouse.
The training with Major Finley and the soldiers had improved my skills considerably, but I lacked any of the spells or special abilities that a melee focused class would have at their disposal. One by one the opponents were summoned, and the foes were about what I expected.
It was an odd assortment of foes. The first pair I had sort of expected, a goblin and a gnoll. Humanoid minions could cover a wide gamut of tier and rank options. Giving or taking away better gear, more powerful stats, or a few abilities could customize them for the appropriate challenge.
The goblin was equipped with a leather jerkin, a spear, and not much else. For the gnoll, it had a shortsword in one hand, a rusty dagger in the other, and wore only a tunic for defense. My next three opponents were animals, one was a wolf, and another was a huge boar almost as big as the wolf. The final animal was a dire rat with mangy fur and blistered skin that looked diseased.
As the final creature was summoned, a tiny gelatinous cube, I was a bit shocked. Other than Melvin, I really hadn’t run up against that many slime type creatures. With my current gear, I didn’t think I could have handled it, but then Melvin, who was integrated into his armor form, reminded me that he could easily deal with the tiny slime.
When I tried to inform Melvin that we didn’t really want to win this one, he sent me a feeling of obligation. It seemed, as part of my gear, Melvin was ordered to fight in melee as hard as I was. The same summoner compulsion that forced me to obey also held him under its sway.
“What a sorry example of summoned creatures. Is this really the best you and your friends could come up with, Dag? You may as well concede defeat now and spare yourselves the embarrassment of losing,” Nasraf taunted.
“Quit trying to act so superior. If we forced you to summon your own creature and not use one that mommy gave you, you’d have the same tier and rank minions that we do,” Dag replied.
“Very well, if you refuse to concede, how about we get this over with. Lonnie, would you like to do the honors?” Nasraf asked. A skinny human kid that stood near Nasraf moved in between the two teams. He was apparently a toady for Nasraf, and I wondered why these arrogant rich kids always seemed to have someone like Lonnie following them around.
“You all know the drill, when I drop this handkerchief, the battle starts,” Lonnie said. He cast a spell and the red handkerchief he pulled from his pocket hovered between us. All the students retreated behind the lines in the field, which I assumed had some magical protection to keep the spectators safe.
I readied my javelin as the opening move in the fight. Hopefully, I was better at melee with all my training, but still not quite good enough to handle six vs. one.