XXII

  A Summoner's Battle

  There was another cave on the way to the third and final basin. Below me, the mountaintops were deathly quiet. From above, screams rolled over the mountainside like a river from a bursting dam.

  Finally, I took the time to browse my system notifications.

  Apprentice - lvl. 13 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 169 RP earned.

  Spearman - lvl. 12 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy.

  Blackhand - lvl 12 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy.

  ...

  Bronze Drake - lvl. 10 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 100 RP earned.

  White stalker - lvl. 10 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 100 RP earned.

  White stalker - lvl. 11 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 121 RP earned.

  White stalker - lvl. 11 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 121 RP earned.

  White stalker - lvl. 12 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 144 RP earned.

  White stalker - lvl. 12 x 1 slain. Extra experience gained for killing a higher level enemy. 144 RP earned.

  Grey Chick - lvl. 5 x 1 slain. Experience gained. 25 RP earned.

  Grey Chick - lvl. 4 x 1 slain. Experience gained. 16 RP earned.

  Grey Chick - lvl. 6 x 1 slain. Experience gained. 36 RP earned.

  ...

  Cinderwing Tree upgraded!

  Cinderwing Tree - Middle -> Cinderwing Tree - Late.

  Cinderwing skill slot unlocked. Cinderwings learn ability [Calm Mind]!

  The first row were all class names you’d expected from people, but I’d only killed a single person during the skirmish.

  ‘So you get experience for every kill but no RP.’ And no RP for those you didn’t kill personally.

  I didn’t want to question how much experience every ‘team kill’ gave exactly and whether wars were the best method of levelling quickly. So I closed my eyes instead and meditated. To reach the Middle stage of the Novice rank wasn’t anything special.

  It was but a matter of essence capacity.

  Ashenkeeper - lvl. 6 -> Ashenkeeper - lvl. 10.

  12 free stat points gained.

  Your stage has advanced to Middle Novice.

  Vitality: 10

  Strength: 13 (18)

  Dexterity: 10

  Fortitude: 18

  Perception: 10

  Arcane: 20

  Free Points: 0

  Bones grew denser, limbs lighter and heavier at the same time. The greatest change was in my core. Energy poured from the garden, and the shard grew nearly twice as dense. This new well of energy would allow me to summon Saber and Ashwing at the same time. Or two Ashwings but I didn’t have another harpy.

  A complaint about not gaining a skill option was about to leave my mouth when I noticed a new line in my status screen. I scanned my notifications again and found a message lost in the chaos.

  Class Skill recognised!

  Skill [Keeper's Prerogative (Common)] unlocked.

  Keeper's Prerogative (Common): With enough understanding, the keeper can copy a single ability from a summon she has active. Copied skills are inferior to the original. Limited to one ability at a time.

  My gaze narrowed. Finally getting a skill was a boon, but this was off. You were supposed to choose your skill from a set of options. The system also said ‘skill recognised’. That sounded as if it was acknowledging something instead of gifting it.

  Strange. All of it. But I wouldn’t turn it down.

  ‘I’ll figure it out as I go.’

  I turned my attention to my garden. The cinderwing tree had reached late already, so I redirected the excess energy it had into fuelling the growth of another harpy.

  Both it and the new Ashwing growing at the top of the tree were already at the point of hatching.

  What about their skill?

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Calm Mind (Uncommon): Your Emberwing quietly focuses its mind and calms its spirit to boost its arcane and vitality. All summoned garden entities share in some of the stat increase. Effect can stack up to three times.

  ‘Interesting.’

  My first uncommon ability. I longed to try it out, but the summon wasn’t ready yet, so I had to wait…or did I?

  I hovered a palm over the bark of the cinderwing tree. The spherical indentations of the skill orbs appeared. I tried swapping them around but couldn’t. It was only the Calm Mind skill that didn’t want to move, so I assumed it had to do with it being uncommon.

  Well, wait it is.

  The higher we ascended, the more difficult it became to breathe. The cloying feeling should’ve been a burden on my chest, yet it only honed my senses.

  Dampened light filtered through the ongoing storm as we crested the slope. Stone walls separated the rear of the flatland from a precarious drop. The walls only reached halfway around the basin, making the flatland akin to an old coliseum. In the centre was the herald. The squirming, writhing wound had grown so big it dominated most of the lower belly and part of the back.

  Just then, the beast reared its head and wailed.

  Duke shook his head. “Poor soul.”

  Terrible winds whipped past, a stray swipe of the herald’s fury. Even wounded as it was, it’d be the strongest creature I’d ever faced.

  There was a chance I wouldn’t survive this battle.

  I eyed Duke from the corner of my sight. He was still staring at the herald, his red hair tumbling.

  “Sunstrider.”

  “Sorry?” he turned towards me.

  “My last name.”

  Recognition dawned. “Ah. Well then, it’s a pleasure finally meeting you, Ashe Sunstrider.” He bowed theatrically. “Is there a reason you’re telling me this now?”

  The herald slammed the drake’s corpse repeatedly, and the dead beast’s innards and blood flew as if it was a wet towel hitting a wall.

  “You asked me why I decided to hunt it down.” I paused to search for words. “What I told you wasn’t a lie. Sunstrider is my adopted name.”

  “You’re here to look for your heritage?” He glanced down and cupped his chin. “Cultivators finding traces of lost family legacy is not unheard of. Especially not here. I’d even say it’s feasible.”

  I nodded, then stepped forwards.

  His flute raised to his hand but I stopped him. “Only aid me if you think I’m about to die.”

  He put away his instrument with a smile, summoned a chair from a ring on his finger that I only now noticed, and settled underneath a parasol. He waved at me.

  I shook my head.

  The herald kept trashing around even when I reached within thirty feet of it.

  ‘It’s seriously unwell.’

  Perhaps it wouldn’t survive the night even without my intervention. But that wouldn’t make me careless. I drew a portal. Saber and two chicks stepped out. The chicks took to the air, Saber’s fur glowed red hot.

  Finally, the herald spun towards me. Its spinel eyes flashed, the rage within palpable and suffocating.

  Red Fang pointed at the drake. “You have something that is mine.”

  Talons dug deeper into the corpse as if to taunt me. Spittle scattered in the air as the beast screeched.

  My chicks darted forwards and circled to pincer the herald. The unhinged beast barrelled through them without batting an eye. I breathed in and poured agility through my veins. Because it was arrogantly hanging onto the drake, its charge wasn’t more than a mortal athlete’s sprint. Saber and I spun out of the way, our weapons slashing through its hide as it passed. The herald’s momentum carried over the edge of the plateau into a glide.

  “Hey, keep it away from me, will you?! I’m trying to enjoy myself here.”

  I discarded Duke’s figure from my mind but angled away from him.

  The herald soared, looped around and dipped into a dive.

  ‘It cannot fly for long.’

  But that didn’t keep it from trying. The beast slammed its wing against the air. Thin air currents lashed out against the plateau like whips, carving lines in the ground. I weaved through them.

  “If that’s how you want to play it...”

  I conjured a gate. Saber and the chicks disappeared. Out came two harpies. The oversized eagles were on the herald within moments. I sheathed my blade. With one hand, I powered the first eagle’s agility. It crashed into the herald’s neck and made the white stalker scream. My other hand empowered the second summon’s flame cutter. I aimed for the open wounds.

  I felt bad for the herald as its body went limp and tumbled from the sky. But the hungry pulse of the shard within me wanted nothing more than to devour it.

  Clouds of dust kicked as the beast crashed into the rear wall of the arena. My two harpies hovered outside the cloud. Looking through their eyes showed nothing but the dense fog. The herald’s spiritual pressure hadn’t decreased in the slightest, however. On the contrary, its pressure spiked.

  A swipe of the hand moved the two harpies out of the way. Too late. The wind blade missed the first but cleaved the second in two.

  Saber and a chick took her place.

  The smell of rotting meat rode the current coursing in the wake of the herald’s attack. Its hulking shape stomped out of the mist. Still, it held onto the corpse.

  I exhaled. ‘I lack the firepower to damage it.’

  That realisation made the latest ability I gained appear like a godsend, but it didn’t exactly help me when the beast that owned it wasn’t summoned.

  ‘No matter.’

  Those attacks would’ve never killed it outright and that was fine. Raw, unadulterated strength was individual. It’d crack before superior numbers.

  The herald flapped its wing like it was going to fly again but stayed grounded. I jabbed my blade into the earth. My robe clapped in the wind, and it took all I had to keep myself from tumbling off the mountain to my death.

  Duke’s screams managed to reach me. I glanced to the side. He was similarly hanging on to his parasol, only his feet weren’t on the floor: he fluttered in the air like a flag.

  ‘Is this guy an idiot?’

  That was all the attention I spared him.

  I dashed forward the instant the gust ended. Unlike before, the herald didn’t run. From its glare, I could tell its decision to commit to a ground battle wasn’t made lightly. It hurt its pride.

  I’d hurt it more.

  Saber past me. My one chick swooped down while the harpy provided cover fire. None of them did the herald deign with a glance. Its wings spread again, intent on blowing us all away.

  “First, I’ll make you return what’s mine.”

  Claws dug into the high walls of the arena, then pounced with all their might. Saber was less than a streak as his nails dug into the thin layer of meat near the tip of the wing, which was neatly lined up now that the beast had reared. Flesh rent. Before the herald had the time to scream or even whirl around, the chick raked its talons over the beast’s eye. But the entire body of the beast was reinforced. So instead of popping it like a balloon, it only scratched the surface, leaving a streak in its sight for as long as it didn’t heal.

  Those were just the distractions. I feigned going for its right leg and sent the harpy diving for the opposite.

  My comments must’ve enraged the beast. That, or it identified me as the source of all its problems, for it didn’t hesitate in raising its head and using its beak as a spear. I jumped away and caught the explosion of debris with my face.

  ‘That’s got to be tougher than steel.’

  But with all of its attention on me and its beak stuck in the ground, it couldn’t dodge the harpy’s attack. I powered the cutter to the max. My summon’s wing seared the air before the move was even halfway to done. When it released, the sky sighed, all of its cold going up in smoke. The herald unstuck its beak and reared…only to drop to the floor.

  Its head turned towards its talon in disbelief. The giant claw was still jammed into the drake like it was its lifelong companion. But it was no longer attached to its body.

  Bolts of thunder struck and the world trembled. The spinel eyes of the herald glistened in the light.

  “I told you to let go—”

  My breath vaporised as I slammed into the wall.

  ‘What…’

  I whirled against my control and barely managed to dig my hands into the rock. I was hanging upside down. Below me, winds enveloped the herald like a tulip, spinning so fast they appeared stationary. But they whipped, alright. The energy of my summons returned to my shard all at once.

  ‘It still has this much power?!’

  Goddamned beast.

  Slowly, its head rose, the winds keeping it upright where its leg normally would’ve. These winds were not a product of the physical. They were a psychic force, induced by its natural affinity for the element.

  Something a mere human could never copy.

  “We’ll see…about that!”

  I yelled and unsheathed my blade. My fingers had been slipping when I held on with two hands, so with one hand I almost flew away immediately. Red Fang penetrated the stone. I clasped my hand around the sturdier foundation. If I could just draw the portal—

  The winds knocked all thoughts out of my head, and the world became nothing but a spinning blur.

  Before I knew it, I could see the evening sky, roaring and thundering in all its glory, from up high.

  If you want to support Ashborn, please check out my , where you can read up to 18 chapters ahead.