Nightmare Realm Summoner

Over the course of the next ten minutes, eight more Boneraptors died under Glint and Spark's onslaught as they carved Alex a path through the city and toward the plains surrounding it.

All the monsters were around Novice 4 or 5. They posed a decent threat to many of the survivors in town, but Alex had been fighting in the Mirrorlands. He was a Novice 7 with an equal amount of energy invested into his Mind Palace, which made the threat of the Boneraptors almost nonexistent.

Even if he hadn't been as strong, the monsters in the Mirrorlands had been so much more dangerous than the lumbering hunks of bone that Alex was pretty sure he'd still have no trouble against them through sheer experience alone.

Ironically, that didn't make the challenge any easier. Monsters that were easy to kill meant that anyone who was actually competent would have a better chance of putting up a good fight — and Claire definitely wasn't the only person Alex was competing with.

Alex drew up to the edge of the town and temporarily came to a halt as he got his first look at their surroundings. Despite himself, sweat prickled at the back of his neck. Monsters were everywhere.

There must have been hundreds of Boneraptors surrounding Towntown. Many of them were locked in fights with survivors, but a number were just marching toward the town. Ben and his group had erected barricades of wood, stone, and just about anything they could manage.

Their efforts probably would have been a lot more effective if the Boneraptors hadn't also come up from the ground in the center of town. The clash of metal and roar of magic filled the air as the battle raged on, only growing in intensity.

And then there was the stench.

He'd briefly smelt something similar in the dungeon where he'd found Diego standing over the bodies of an adventuring team, but the flowers had heavily muted the thick smell of blood and viscera.

That mercy was gone. The battlefield smelled like death. Dead survivors, dead monsters. Corpses were piling at an alarming rate in every direction. Alex's stomach turned and bile welled in his throat. It was equal parts horrifying, disgusting, and just plain sad.

"Come on," Alex barked, nodding to his summoned monsters and starting toward the horde of monsters. "We need to win this. Keep fighting defensively. It's better to live than to die and land a killing blow in the process."

The moment they go down, the amount of monsters I can take out goes on a timer. I'll start running out of magic a lot quicker if I'm using Glint's abilities to kill things. For the next 24 hours, I have to optimize every single second as best I can.

A Boneraptor spotted Alex's approach and peeled away from its group to meet him. It was followed by a second Boneraptor and a spider-like monster that Alex hadn't seen yet. The creature stood at around half the Boneraptor's height. Its eight limbs a chitinous ivory and twelve glistening ruby-colored eyes lodged in the center of its head.

Clattering Bonespinner (Novice 7)

"Deal with the Boneraptors first," Alex ordered. "Spark, take the one on the left. Glint, the right. I'll keep the attention of the Bonespinner until you're both finished."

His monsters darted to follow his orders. Alex stepped up to the Bonespinner, making sure the monster's attention was on him so it couldn't gang up on one of his summons. His plan worked — possibly too well.

The huge spider chittered and advanced toward him, its legs making a rapid drumbeat against the dirt as it moved with disconcerting speed. It ground to a halt and Alex jumped back as it snapped at him with thick, thigh-sized ivory fangs.

With a hiss, the Bonespinner shot toward him again. The distance between them evaporated in less than a second. Alex dove to the ground as the monster's jaws slammed shut above him once more.

He rolled to his feet, a grin crawling across his features. The monster was a fair bit faster than he was, but every time it went to attack, it paused for a moment. Speed wasn't that much of a help if its actual attacks could never land.

Fun fight, though. It's like playing a really messed up version of tag with someone who really sucks at clutching up the last bit.

"Come on," Alex said, shifting from foot to foot. "What are you waiting for?"

The Bonespinner lurched. Alex hopped back as a pointed leg slammed into the dirt where he'd been standing a moment before. His eyes widened and he danced back, avoiding several other rapid strikes as the spider did its absolute best to skewer him.

Cold energy pressed against Alex's body and flowed into his system. It nearly made him trip over his own feet. He corrected at the last second and threw himself into a roll as pointed feet pounded through the dirt in his wake.

He scrambled to his feet just in time for a second flow of energy to roll through his mind. Bone clattered against bone as the Bonespinner lived up to its name and clicked its fangs together. The sound was loud enough to make Alex's ears throb in pain.

"Would you stop it with the loud noises?" Alex demanded.

The Bonespinner's legs bunched. For a moment, Alex thought it had suddenly gotten second thoughts about the fight.

Then it jumped.

Alex had seen spiders jump before. Everyone knew about jumping spiders. They were tiny, fuzzy, fingertip-sitting creatures that people photoshopped tiny hats onto. They were supposed to be cute.

There was absolutely nothing cute about a horse-sized spider plummeting through the air above him.

He sprinted to the side and threw himself at the last moment, hitting the grass in a roll. The ground shuddered behind him as the spider crashed down, and he heard the drumming patter of its feet as it raced after him without a moment of delay.

A pained screech split the air. Alex spun to find Glint atop the monster, his claws raking across its ruby colored eyes. Spark arrived a moment later, an armored fist slamming straight into the spider's chin.

The Bonespinner spun and jerked from side to side in an attempt to dislodge Glint. All that did was turn Glint into a little blender attached to the top of its head. Every motion caused his jagged claws to rake deeper into the monster's head, destroying any intelligence that may have been encased within it.

Spark delivered another blow to the front of the monster's face. One of its legs flitted out for the Echo Wraith, only to find nothing but smoky darkness as the monster swapped positions with its shadow.

The Bonespinner didn't get a chance to do anything else. Glint tore through the rest of its head, sending grayish-black brain matter splattering across the ground. Legs gave way and the Bonespinner crashed down, hitting the grass with a thud.

Cool energy flowed into Alex as his monsters stepped away from the corpse. It struck Alex that Glint looked more dangerous than the monsters they'd just killed did. At 5 feet tall, the gaunt monster wasn't all that much shorter than Alex.

His gangly arms hung by his sides, the long mirror shards emerging from his fingertips stained with black and blue blood. The Shardwalker's glowing yellow eyes burned into Alex like two spotlights as he waited for instruction.

I wonder what Spark will look like once I get him a little juiced up. But I shouldn't need to do that yet — not unless we aren't killing monsters fast enough. I don't want to waste the potential power I could have.

Speaking of which… I want to know where I stand in the event. Where the hell is that leaderboard we were promised?

No sooner than the thought had graced his mind did the air in front of Alex shimmer. Golden lines sprawled out and formed into a floating square as words took form within it, scrawled by an invisible pen.

Local Leaderboard — Initialization Event

Ogre (Novice 9): 19 Kills

Gentlewind (Novice 7): 13 Kills

Ash (Novice 7): 11 Kills

Fangs (Novice 6): 9 Kills

Ben-10 (Novice 5): 7 Kills

Extra Pickles (Novice 5): 5 Kills

NoIDontWantAName (Novice 4): 2 Kills

NoPickles (Novice 3): 2 Kills

Daggerman (Novice 3): 1 Kills

Joe (Novice 2): 1 Kill

…

Bricks (Novice 1): 1 Kill

Dorriv (Novice 1): 1 Kill

There were 25 total members listed on the leaderboard, but everyone below Rank 8 only had a single kill.

And that was it.

The System didn't give any other information with regard to the leaderboard. It was just a list of names and kills, without any distinction as to which monsters the kills even were.

It took Alex an embarrassing second to remember that his name for the leaderboards was Ash rather than Alex. That meant there were two people above him. Ogre and Gentlewind. As for Claire — he was just guessing, but something told him she was probably fangs.

Nobody in the village was anywhere near Novice 9, and I didn't see anyone that was Novice 7 ranked either. They could have both been just wearing an item that concealed their powers or just somewhere else, but… Novice 9 is a lot. It's difficult to get that high up. Could Ogre be —

The leaderboards flickered and updated.

Local Leaderboard — Initialization Event

Ogre (Novice 9): 25 Kills

Gentlewind (Novice 7): 14 Kills

Ash (Novice 7): 11 Kills

Fangs (Novice 6): 10 Kills

Ben-10 (Novice 5): 7 Kills

NoIDontWantAName (Novice 4): 4 Kills

NoPickles (Novice 3): 3 Kills

Daggerman (Novice 3): 3 Kills

Joe (Novice 2): 3 Kill

Dorriv (Novice 2): 2 Kills

…

Bricks (Novice 1): 1 Kill

Slicer (Novice 1): 1 Kill

"What the hell?" Alex muttered. Ogre had gone up 6 kills in mere seconds. He dismissed the leaderboard with a thought. There wasn't time to mess around and just sit staring. This was a race against time and his opponents. Sitting around was going to cost him the victory.

Glint and Spark both shot forward as his command, and the three of them sought their next target amid the sea of monsters waiting for them.

***

Alex lost count of the exact number of monsters he fought. The world was an endless blur of blood — and none of it was the right color. Glint and Spark tore through the ranks of the bonelike creatures in their path, though they kept near the edge of the horde to avoid getting completely swarmed.

Sweat soaked into his clothes and poured down the front of his forehead. Every breath he drew was labored. This was more physical exercise than he'd gotten in a long, long time. Even with the improvements his body had gotten from the System, he'd been fighting for what felt like hours.

He didn't bother checking the Leaderboard while he fought. The distraction wasn't going to help anything. All that mattered right now was putting every scrap of power he had into the fight and killing as many monsters as possible.

Alex turned to find his next target. His eyes landed on a Boneraptor near a pile of corpses, both human and monster alike. It bore down on a Novice 5 warrior, who was scrambling for safety from it. Alex lifted a hand toward the monster. "Glint, go—"

A loud crack echoed through the bloodied clearing. A head-sized rock slammed into the Boneraptor's face, shattering bone and practically ripping its head clean from its neck. Blue fluid sprayed out from its neck as the monster collapsed.

Relief washed over the survivor's face. He turned, his hand raising in appreciation — and a second crack split the air. A stone slammed into his skull. His face caved in and his body ragdolled, rolling across the ground to lie still beside the dead monster.

Alex spun toward the source of the stones. A towering man stood at the top of a hill, his pale skin dirtied. Enormous muscles bulged beneath a torn-up, blood splattered tank-top that did not fit him in the slightest.

Diego - Steel Crusher (Novice 9)