Your summoning parameters are as follows:

1. You are being summoned by a magic item.

2. Summoning tier, 0.

3. Summoning rank, 5.

4. Rewards level, minimal.

5. This summons is support related. The likelihood of combat is considered high. Prepare accordingly.

6. Forced compliance is active.

7. You have chosen to automatically equip your tier 0 loadout.

I appeared somewhere different this time. When I’d been summoned from an object before, the object was usually cracked open, and I seeped out like a mist before taking my physical form. This time, I was a human-sized statue and couldn’t move. I was able to observe my surroundings but was unable to speak.

“It’s your move Orena, but I think I have you this time,” a voice called to my summoner.

I followed the link to find my summoner, and was a bit surprised to see a strange, bird-like woman, an actual harpy, hovering just a few feet overhead. We were on a nicely manicured lawn, with the grass forming oversized grids for the human-sized stone statues that were lined up on the lawn. It was like a giant chessboard of some sort, but only six squares across and six squares wide.

I was in the front row with other humanoid statues. Behind me were larger statues depicting a harpy, an eagle, two small towers, and two small flocks of birds. The statue next to me had crumbled and a merman creature now stood there. I was not a fan of those after being tortured by them, and I hoped there was a good chance I’d be able to take one on during this summoning session.

On the other side of the lawn was a row of five merman statues, matching the one living one that was standing right next to me. In the back row of the opponent’s side were statues of a giant half-woman, half-serpent creature, a big sea serpent, two manta rays, and two more mermen riding sea horses.

“Don’t be so sure, Sisat, my skills have improved since our last game,” my summoner, Orena, replied.

“Then make your move my dear,” Sisat told her opponent. Sisat sat on the far side of the lawn, just off the marked play area for our giant chess game. She was just like the largest statue on her side of the board, a half serpent-half woman creature. I think they were called naga or something, but I couldn’t be sure.

I felt magic from my summoner grabbing ahold of my statue and pushing me into the same square the merman was in. The statue crumbled away, and I was standing right in front of my foe. Somehow, I knew that I was now able to attack so I grabbed my mace and swung as hard as I could at the merman, who seemed to only be armed with a small coral knife.

Reacting slower, the merman tried to block my strike with his arm, and the mace crunched the bones beneath his soggy hide. I couldn’t help but smile at his pain. There would be no sacrificing me to his creepy god today. I followed up with another thrust to the chest, knocking him back. When he hit the edge of the square we were in, a force pushed him back. It looked like we couldn’t leave the square until one of us was defeated.

We had about a ten- or twelve-foot square to battle in, not much room, but I was a melee fighter with a mace, I wanted my foe up close and personal. Thrown off balance by hitting the barrier, the merman flailed his dagger wildly at me. I responded with an overhead, two-handed strike that crushed the merman’s skull. He disappeared in a puff of mana vapor, and I waited for what would happen next.

“You finally have a minion that’s performing well. I’ll need to take him off the board as soon as it is convenient. He’ll have to wait, though, I have another move in mind for this round,” Sisat said. Gesturing with her hand, one of the mermen riding a seahorse statue moved forward and to the side.

I wasn’t a big chess player, but I recognized that the pieces weren’t exactly moving in the same manner as the game on Earth. Too bad I didn’t get a copy of the rules downloaded into my mind before I was summoned here. My summoner responded by moving the flock of bird’s statue directly across from the seahorse.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

This went on for a few turns, each summoner trying to out position the other. Twice, mermen and humanoid statues clashed, with a win for each side. I was moved forward a square once, and I had the bad feeling I was being used as bait. Sisat didn’t take the bait and moved her seahorse onto the other human that had defeated a merfolk.

This guy was armed with a shortsword and had a small wooden shield in his other hand. He didn’t have any armor to speak of, just a pair of scratchy-looking canvas pants and a leather vest over his white shirt. The seahorse statue crumbled and inside was the gross combination of a seahorse’s lower body with the upper body of one of the merfolk. The seahorse guy had a long wooden spear with a simple iron tip that he used to prod at the human.

The tight quarters hampered the seahorse, and the human got a couple of good stabs into the seahorse’s lower body before being impaled by the spear. The seahorse was the victor, but its pair of stab wounds were still dribbling blood and merman half of the creature had a grimace of pain etched on his face. The summoned creatures weren’t being healed up after their fights, which might give me a chance against some of the more powerful pieces if they were worn down in earlier battles.

Back and forth the pieces moved, sometimes meeting for a battle. If this was chess, it was one with much more randomness given that there was a wide range of skill levels among the various pieces. Even among the humanoid side, there was me and the guy with the sword, but two other figures were unarmed people who just died quickly without doing any damage.

Maybe this Sisat had stacked the deck somehow since her statues didn’t seem to have a single dud. Each was at least competent, and all were armed with some kind of weapon, be it a handheld one, or a natural attack method. Orena had one thing going for her, the tower statue, which was finally moved to attack a merman.

As the stone of the statue crumbled away, a small, man-sized stone tower remained. The merman tried to attack it with his bone knife, but it barely chipped the surface of the tower. Inside the tower was a pair of pixies, each about two feet tall. They fired small bows at the merman, turning him into a pincushion.

When Sisat sent a serpent to attack one of the flocks of bird statues, the pixies were each allowed to fire a single shot in support. The arrows they fired were small, little more than large darts, but if they would get to shoot in support of each battle, it could prove a strong advantage since there was no healing going on between fights.

The flock of birds themselves kind of stunk, they were like ten smaller hawks that clawed and pecked at the serpent but were snatched up and eaten one by one. It looked like I was up next as Orena pushed me toward the already wounded merman/seahorse combo unit.

I walked forward, and as soon as I crossed the boundary of the seahorse’s square, I was allowed to attack. On my walk over, I hadn’t been idle. A Psionic Jolt was prepared and ready to fire as soon as I was allowed to. The magic slammed into the merman half of the seahorse, causing him to shriek in pain and flop to the ground where I wasted no time in smashing him to a pulp until he finally disappeared into mana vapor.

“That’s an annoying little piece you have there. Time to take him off the board,” Sisat said, making me a bit nervous. She moved the sea serpent over to my square, and there wasn’t much room for the two of us inside the space. As soon as it crossed the line, I hit it with a Psionic Jolt, but the creature was huge, and the damage output of my cantrip wasn’t a match for a monster that big. It did shake its head in annoyance, giving me the first shot.

My mace smashed against the serpent’s body, but its rubbery hide was somewhat resistant to crushing damage. A pair of tiny arrows from the pixies in the tower hit the monster, but it shrugged them off and snapped its oversized head down on top of me. I got a front row seat to watch how a giant serpent devoured its prey. It was like that old Anaconda movie, where the big snake swallowed people whole.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait to be suffocated or slowly digested inside. Once my whole body was completely inside the serpent, I was unsummoned.

You have been consumed by a merfolk battle serpent. Your summoning is now complete.

Your performance rating is calculated as Good.

Your rewards will reflect the summoning tier of 0, rank 5, and your performance rating of Good.

You have earned 5 experience points.

Congratulations, you have reached tier 0, rank 6.

You have earned 3 summoning points.

Your summoning points have been deducted due to an outstanding debt. Your debt balance has been satisfied and you have 1 point remaining in your account.

Prepare to return to your personal space.