Summoner school 2, p.1
Summoner School 2, page 1
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Chapter 1
“Come one, come all! To Magia Schola’s annual fall festival!” a familiar voice shouted.
Everyone crowded the arched gateways into the stone stadium and jostled for the best seats. I was officially halfway through my first semester at a magical university and had managed to not only survive but thrive. The last couple of weeks had been a mixture of pats on the backs for a battle that I’d won and new challengers ready to take on the human sorcerer.
The latter came mostly from elves that wanted to prove that they were better with magic than a lowly human, but the headmaster had banned any more fights outside of the arena and then promptly told me that I’d be performing in a match for the school festival. The wizened old mage was like a mischievous Gandalf that shuffled around the school and tried to cause confusion while teaching a lesson.
I’d asked my favorite professor, Ira Lovelace, how he’d become the headmaster, but she’d just given me a pained look. The dragon-woman was more human than dragon with her curved hips and long legs, but her purple eyes and the black scales over her pale cheeks always reminded me that she wasn’t actually human. I’d already learned so much from the summoner teacher and couldn’t wait to learn more, especially since her flirtations with me had become more serious. At least, that was true whenever we were alone. Anywhere else, she was still the strict instructor I’d met on my first day.
“Why do I know that voice?” my roommate asked.
Mike was a tree-man with dark bark-like skin and black coals for eyes. His hair was made out of leaves that rustled when he was frustrated, and he was one failed experiment away from being a mad scientist with his mushroom collection. He’d turned out to be the perfect roommate, and we’d quickly become friends, but I was sure that one day I’d wake up with some kind of magical fungus growing out of my forehead.
“It does sound familiar, right?” I asked and looked around the outside wall of the stadium.
There were vendors from the town set up around the quad, and the luckier merchants had choice spots right next to the archways that served as the entryway to the stadium. The stalls were packed with games, trinkets, and even signs to wave with the names of everyone expected to fight.
I gaped at an entire stall dedicated to me, shook my head, and then turned away to try and find the mysterious voice. It was one that I’d heard more than once, but couldn’t quite place it, and I was sure that it wasn’t one of my teachers or the headmaster. Though, the old prankster might use a spell so that he didn’t sound exactly the same as he always did.
“There,” Mike said and pointed a long finger toward a man just this side of the archway. “Isn’t that…”
“The announcer from the underground ring,” I said when he trailed off. “Yeah. What the hell is he doing here?”
The short man had on a ridiculous red coat like the ringmaster at a carnival, and his too wide grin showcased the row of sharp teeth that always reminded me of a pixie. I’d learned pretty fast that his bulbous nose and sharp teeth meant that he was a gnome, but there was nothing friendly about the creepy man, and I couldn’t help but to compare him to the kind gnome merchant, Tins.
“And what do we have here?” the announcer asked from his raised wooden steps. “Is this the great and powerful human sorcerer that I’ve heard so much about?”
His pure black eyes glinted with joy as he stared at me, and I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes. He knew damn well who I was because he’d announced my name in the illegal underground ring more than once, but at least he didn’t out me and get me expelled. I forced a smile onto my face and waved at the short man.
“It is,” I said. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Of course, of course,” the announcer said. “I look forward to your fight. Make sure that you don’t disappoint.”
“Never do,” I said and continued inside with Mike.
The magical world had very strict rules about magical battles since all nine realms had signed a treaty. The only legal fights occurred in the magic battle arenas stationed throughout the different dimensions with the biggest being the one at Magia Schola. Of course, there was a healthy underground arena where the mages could practice their magic to the death and make a pretty nice sum of gold while they were at it.
Not all the fights ended with someone dead, but those of us who went were all stubborn and proud, and most of them wouldn’t tap out. There were plenty of mages that had lost their lives, but thankfully I hadn’t been the reason for it since summoners were the only ones who fought with pets. The biggest risk that I took was becoming a mummy if I used too much mana and the occasional bite or slash from my opponent’s creature.
I’d been lucky so far since most of my fights were against other low-ranking summoners, but my reputation had started to grow, and that meant my opponents would be more terrifying. My arsenal of pets would need to grow if I planned to win more money, and if I wanted to stay alive. It was a tricky balance, but it made me feel alive, and I could hardly wait until the next match.
The one for the fall festival would be fun, and great practice, but the real fights were in the illegal ring. The sanctioned battles all ended when someone tapped out or couldn’t perform magic, and there was practically an army of healers to rid us of even the smallest bruise. It did help me to rise in the ranks at school, though, and it would put me in front of potential employers for when I graduated.
“That guy is even creepier in the daylight,” Mike muttered, and a shudder made his bark-like skin creak. “What is he even doing here? Shouldn’t he be hiding in a hole somewhere?”
“Maybe this is his day job,” I said with a shrug. “Or maybe he’s here to look for new recruits. This would be the place to do it.”
“Great,” the tree-man said. “So, there’s going to be nothing but our fellow classmates at the next matches? How do they expect to keep it a secret?”
“They only ask those who are worthy to join,” Rarus snarled from behind us.
The massive minotaur towered over me, and the sun seemed to sit between his gold-tipped horns. His molten brown eyes narrowed as he glowered at me, and two new white scars stood out against his bronze skin from where my jackalope had skewered him. The marks fit in with the other long gashes and stab wounds that he’d acquired over the years, but I still winced when I saw how close one of them had been to his heart.
I’d been in the middle of a summon when the bullheaded jerk had barged into the woods and demanded a fight. He’d declared that I’d embarrassed his brother, Ramis, by beating him in the freshmen ranking system and had said that blood was the only way to satisfy it. I’d managed to stay out of the way of his beefy fists, but that had only been half of the problem.
Any time a summoner calls a creature forth they have to give it their undivided attention, or it can come out wrong. Sometimes that means it’s inside out, other times it’s not connected to the mage correctly and won’t listen to instructions, or in the worst possible outcome, it becomes a giant rage-monster ready to kill everyone it lays eyes on. The first jackalope that I ever summoned had been the latter and had almost killed Ramus, all my friends, and me before I could send it back to the abyss.
My girlfriend, Atlesia, and Mike had retrieved a healer from campus before the minotaur bled out, but it was still a sore subject. I’d skyrocketed in the ranking system since the bullheaded man was near the top, and I’d beaten him, but the time in the recovery ward had only cemented his hatred of me. It had only been a week since he’d been allowed to move around again, and Rarus had already made it his personal mission to make my life hell.
I tried to make friends with the raging bull originally, but he’d made up his mind, so I just tried to stay out of his way as much as possible to avoid another fight. It was difficult since he was my mentor in the battle magic program, but thankfully, the new teacher in charge of us had strictly forbidden mentors and mentees from fighting each other. I wouldn’t have minded too much since his magic and fists were powerful weapons that I could learn from, but it wouldn’t hurt to let him cool down just a little longer so that I could actually survive the mock battles.
“Funny,” I said with a smile that made his eyes twitch. “Then how did you get invited? I mean… sure… you’re great now… but I can’t imagine that you were much better than Ramis when you first came to the school.”
“You dare to insult my brother again?” Rarus snorted and stomped a giant hoof into the soft grass. “I should kill you right now.”
“I can defend myself,” Ramis said as he joined us.
The younger minotaur wasn’t as skilled as his older brother yet, but he’d been to the underground arena and had won a few battles of his own. I’d beaten him when we fought, but it had been close, and it was only a matter of time before the bull-man caught up to me. We were two of the three freshmen summoners, and both of us were determined to be the best.
“Of course, you can,” the older minotaur said with a shrug. “But this little human will be mine to deal with. Even if he i s a half-decent mage. I owe him.”
He ran a beefy hand over the twin scars on his chest and grimaced like they still hurt. I made a mental note to see if a summoner’s pets could inflict injuries that were harder to heal than a normal magical animal, and then lifted my chin to glare up at the angry bull-man. He lifted an eyebrow in challenge and then glanced toward the bright green field a few feet away from us before he turned back to the announcer.
“You do owe me for saving your life,” I said and ignored the implied threat. “After all, if I hadn’t banished the jackalope, then you wouldn’t have survived.”
“Although,” Mike added. “He wouldn’t have been injured in the first place if he didn’t insist on fighting you in the middle of a summon.”
“You make a great point,” I said and grinned at my roommate. “It was kind of his fault for just rushing in like a bull in a china shop.”
“You little--” Rarus started but was interrupted by a cough from behind me.
“Mr. Rarus,” Professor Lovelace said. “I believe that the headmaster has scolded you enough already about unsanctioned fights. If you want to beat Mr. Hall to a pulp, then you must do it during a legitimate battle. And Mr. Hall, shouldn’t you be preparing for your own sanctioned match? I hear that you’ll be pitted against Mr. Saloron. You’ll need to keep your wits about you if you expect to beat a djinn.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said and then turned back to the minotaurs. “See you guys at the next fight.”
“Yes, yes you will,” the older bull-man said and then spun on his hooves, stomped toward the field, and snarled at a nearby pixie.
“Good luck,” Ramis said and then turned toward the stands.
Not everyone in the battle magic program had been assigned a fight for the fall festival. The headmaster had too many events planned for there to be more than five, especially since a well-matched pair could spar for almost an hour. It had been hard on the students who weren’t chosen, but there had recently been a massive influx of sign-ups since the rumors of war had spread through the campus.
The mages council had released an official statement across the nine realms about the shadowy creatures that everyone had seen. According to them, the evil beings were nothing more than a new animal that had been hidden in the depths of the forest for who knows how long. Some people bought into the lie because it was easier to believe than the alternative, but I’d seen them at the underground fighting arena, and there was nothing innocent about them.
Each time that they appeared above the iron cage, they’d suck up the pale blue mana that came from the dead mages and then slither away. I’d tried to track their movements, but they always blended in with the darkness of the caves. There was something about their silence that made my skin crawl, and I was almost positive that they were under the control of some evil mage.
And then I’d seen someone in a hooded cloak outside of my grandparents’ old Victorian manor, but the guy had disappeared before I could get a closer look. The wards that my grandmother had put up were firmly in place, so the mysterious man and the shadow creatures hadn’t been able to pass the white picket fence, but that hadn’t stopped them from haunting my dreams. I was sure that there was a bigger plan in motion since people had started to see them throughout the dimensions, but a war with some evil mage and his pets would require much stronger animals in my corner than I currently had, and that was why I’d joined the battle mage program.
And my grandmother had been absolutely no help the last time that I’d visited her in the nursing home. The new place had better facilities, and her treatment plan seemed to have shrunk her brain tumor, but the stubborn old woman would just pretend that she couldn’t remember me whenever I asked questions about summoning stronger magical creatures. She hadn’t even told me about the magical world until the sorting ceremony when she had me retrieve the teleportation amulet without even a hint about where it would take me or what it was.
I wasn’t completely unprepared for my new life since she’d started to teach me spells when I was in elementary school, but a heads-up would’ve been nice. The old woman had just made them seem like cool puzzles with lots of different answers, and she’d never said anything about the magical world or her own part in it. I was sure that once the brain tumor was gone, she’d answer my questions, or at least, there wouldn’t be anything for her to hide behind anymore.
And her old journals had helped me to figure out more about summoning and what gems would work best, even though most of her notes were in a language that I couldn’t read. I’d pored through the books in the library to find out what it was, but not even the ancient texts had yielded anything. She was an enigma wrapped in a riddle, but the old woman wanted me to figure it out on my own, and I would.
“Mr. Hall,” a skeletal man with gray skin said. “It’s so nice of you to join us. Would you like to sit with the others so that I can brief you before the ceremony begins?”
“Yes, Professor Mortice,” I said and ignored my racing pulse.
The thin man nodded, checked that the hood of his black robes was in place, and then stepped out onto the bright field. His gray hands were shoved into pockets, and no part of him could be seen from the stands. Professor Mortice had replaced Professor Louis as the battle magic leader and had made quite a few changes.
Professor Louis had been called away to help the council clean up the shadowy creatures and move them back to wherever they supposedly came from. The vampire’s training methods had basically been to let a mentor choose us and then send us out on the field to battle it out, but Professor Mortice was a little stricter. We were encouraged to try out harder spells, but the mentors could only fight us when we’d successfully beaten everyone else on the team.
It made sense since the mentors were all seniors, but it had irritated me. I’d already beaten Rarus once with the jackalope, and our first hand-to-hand fight had ended in a draw. The new rules just meant that I had to battle against a bunch of other freshmen and sophomores who weren’t as powerful, and I was somehow expected to grow despite not really being challenged.
Still, the rumors around campus were that Professor Mortice was one of the best necromancers in the nine realms, and I hoped that he’d give us a demonstration at some point. Summoner and necromancer magic overlapped a lot because we both used parts from dead animals, but a necromancer’s creation couldn’t use magic, and a summoner’s could. A necromancer also brought the actual animal back to life while a summoner used the essence of the creature to make them out of spells, mana, and gems. It was like they were two sides of the same coin, and I was sure that a lesson in necromancy would make me better as a summoner and a mage.
I shook my head to bring myself back to the moment and looked around. Mike had already wandered off to join Atlesia and the tree-woman that he’d been talking to over the last few weeks. I waved at them and grinned as my girlfriend waved a flag with my name on it and shouted excitedly.
The lavender-haired flower nymph was like a spring morning with all the energy of a sun. Her turquoise lips were turned up into a sweet smile, and her light green skin seemed like it was dusted with glitter as it sparkled in the sunlight. She bounced up and down as she continued to wave the flag and then blew me a kiss.
I’d noticed her on my very first day in the magical dimension, and she’d picked me out of the crowd, too. It didn’t take long for her to decide that we’d be boyfriend and girlfriend, though I didn’t put up much of a fight. I was more than willing to have the sexy girl to myself, and her ability to make friends had landed us some great intel about all the rumors and possible shadow creature sightings.
My eyes fell to her thighs and the Daisy Dukes she wore, then moved up to the bright pink halter top that barely covered her breasts. I’d learned fast that flower nymphs wore as little clothing as possible, and that included a ban on any and all footwear. Still, she somehow always managed to have perfectly manicured toes and nails, even when all of her free time was spent in the on-campus greenhouse.
Atlesia had recently added thin silk armbands to her daily wear. The strips covered her thin wrists and were a handy way to carry seeds for carnivorous plants and strong flower vines with thorns that she could use if anything dangerous appeared. The battle with the jackalope had really thrown her because she hadn’t been able to help until after the creature was already dead and ready to take apart. Apparently, one of her relatives had married an elf and taught her how to skin and take apart a wild animal, though she did look miserable the entire time, and I’d promised that she wouldn’t need to do it again.
