“Keep her busy, don’t let her leave!”

  “As long as we keep her here, we’re sure to win just like last time!”

  “No, watch out!”

  In a clearing, a humongous spider lifted its head as poison hissed between its fangs. Aranea’s massive purple and black summon lashed out at the smaller creatures that surrounded it. Its abdomen glowed faintly, and a burst of purplish fumes suddenly spread in every direction.

  The ring of summoned beasts that had been encircling the large spider began to fall. The poison seeped into the veins of the orcs, lizards, and wolves nearby, leaving only the rock golems still standing. Even the poisonous snakes and large insects, normally resistant to such attacks, collapsed as everyone was forced to retreat.

  “We must use inorganic summons. Quickly, make more golems and elemental constructs.”

  A member of class B2 shouted this while working to keep the spider occupied. The other students focused on replacing their creatures with rocky humanoids and constructs resembling swirling clouds of wind energy.

  Aranea sat atop her spider as if it were a mount. She was not alone. Eldric, her loyal follower, remained at her side, his snakes somehow unaffected by the poisonous mist.

  “Lady Venomridge, you need to escape. I will distract them. You should take the chance and leave.”

  “That would ruin the plan, would it not?”

  She responded with a blank expression, leaving the other student baffled.

  “Are you truly going to follow that plan? Can we really trust them?”

  “Yes. Why not?”

  Her voice carried a bored tone, as if her decision were the most obvious choice. Eldric looked troubled by the idea but eventually nodded and turned his gaze toward the six summoners surrounding them. Their monsters were not especially powerful, yet their numbers and coordinated tactics were proving effective.

  Even when they managed to defeat a few of the summoned creatures, another wave appeared almost immediately to stall for time. This was still part of the plan. Their goal was to limit the number of defenders and attackers heading for their own base. The rest was up to the others, and Eldric was far from convinced that they could accomplish their tasks.

  “If Lady Venomridge believes they can…”

  Eldric bit his lower lip. He could not bring himself to oppose Aranea. Although he had little trust in the rest of the class, he would at least place his faith in her. He soon summoned his snakes to form a protective circle around her. Even when the golems attacked, he ordered his monsters to coil around them. With enough force, the stones began to crack, and once their legs were bound, the golems toppled easily to the ground.

  The large spider remained deadly. Although the poison cloud did not affect the inorganic summons, there were other ways to harm them. The huge spider opened its mouth and released a concentrated beam of energy. The moment it struck one of the wind elementals, the creature vanished instantly. Turning to more particles of mana to fuel both sides of the conflict.

  *****

  “What are you idiots doing?”

  A furious youth shouted as he rode a bear with the head of a wolf. Behind him a group of students clustered together with their orc summons, each orc holding a large shield to block the arrows raining down from the stronghold walls.

  “We cannot get through, like this…”

  One of the students peeked out from behind a shield and was immediately struck by an arrow from above. His mana shield shattered, and a swirl of energy enveloped him as the competition removed him from the field. He would soon join the others who had already been eliminated as the event moved into its middle stages. As he was removed, several orcs that he had been controlling vanished instantly.

  “Get that thing out of my sight! I do not care how you do it!”

  Bartholomew Woodward, the top student of class B2 and its current leader, shouted in frustration while his Bear-Wolf was pushed back again. Despite its greater power and size, and despite Bartholomew’s belief that it was superior in every possible way to the flimsy living armor standing before it, the creature could not force its way through.

  Rusty proved unexpectedly agile, parrying attacks and slipping through narrow openings whenever the monster lunged with its jaws. The longer the fight went on, the more familiar he became with its rhythm. Fifteen minutes had already passed, and he had traded many blows with the beast, each exchange ending with its retreat.

  ‘I am holding out for now… but they might break through soon…’

  Rusty knew he could not last forever. The only reason he had endured this long was Bartholomew’s arrogance. The young man was convinced of his own superiority and insisted on facing Rusty alone while his companions stayed back and acted only as ranged support. They waited for him to break through the gate, yet he continued to fail.

  If they all charged together, Rusty knew the outcome would be very different. His body was durable, and none of their E-rank arrows could leave a dent. He blocked another swipe as the Bear Wolf’s claws scraped against his enchanted twilight steel. The impact cracked the ground beneath his armored boots. His body held firm, yet he could feel his opponent growing desperate.

  ‘That was stronger than before. He is pushing more mana into it.’

  Bartholomew’s jaw twitched as he forced more mana into the summoned beast he rode. The creature beneath him heaved and snarled, its breath steaming. It might have been a construct of mana, but it still followed the limits of flesh. Its stamina was failing, and constant injections of new mana would not be enough for long.

  “Enough of this charade!”

  Bartholomew shouted, his voice shaking with anger.

  “You think your trash armor puppets can stand before a true Rider?”

  Rusty did not respond. He shifted his stance and braced as the Bear-Wolf lowered its head and charged again with such force that the air boomed under the pressure. Rusty slid back a few steps, yet with the aid of weight control, he refused to be moved any farther despite his smaller size.

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  ‘Now!’

  He drove his halberd into the weakened spot he had targeted again and again. His skills and enchantments flared at once and lightning raced along the embedded weapon. The monster’s armor had cracked enough for the blade to sink deep. The surge of energy ran down the creature’s neck and even struck the rider above.

  “Gah. You dare?”

  Bartholomew screamed as the shock reached him. His eyes bulged in surprise and pain. The creature staggered back, and mana particles scattered from the wound along its neck. Even so, the young man instantly pulled out a bottle of mana to drink it and then restored his beast to full health.

  “That is it. Enough is enough. Everyone charge with me. I will open the path.”

  “But the arrows…”

  One of the students tried to warn. Their troops would be injured if they rushed in without caution, but the attempt only made Bartholomew even angrier.

  “I do not care. Use your summons as shields. Use your potions. We are getting into that stronghold, and we are doing it now!”

  Rusty did not know what they were planning, but he suddenly felt a massive surge of mana coming from his opponent. He had assumed the potion was a simple mana potion, yet the energy felt different. It reminded him of his duel with Katherine Grandwell.

  The armored Bear Wolf began to change. It grew larger, and sharp spikes erupted along its plated form. Its fangs lengthened, and its claws followed as it released a roar that shook the field. Rusty had never seen a summon transform like this. When he used his identification skill, the truth appeared before him.

  His opponent had gained a strange status that Rusty had never encountered. The creature started behaving strangely at first, as if it was enraged, before finally calming itself down. To make matters even more peculiar, Bartholomew’s eyes glowed red, and the Bear-Wolf’s eyes matched the same eerie light.

  “Lord Woodward has activated Mind Merger. Make sure you do not get in his way!”

  “What is that strange skill?”

  He had no idea what he was dealing with, but Gwen stepped in to answer.

  “Be careful Rusty. With Mind Merger, he can control his summon as if they were the same person.”

  “Oh?”

  It was similar to a fusion skill, yet the summon and its rider did not combine into a single being. They remained separate, but the boost in power was obvious. The bear’s movements became fluid and precise, almost as if the humanoid rider had taken direct command of its body. The creature suddenly moved with intelligence and strategy.

  The rider leaned forward on his monstrous mount. His breath came in short gasps that matched the rhythm of the beast beneath him. A moment later, he charged. The Bear-Wolf had grown heavier, and its momentum increased. The puppet formed from the hobgoblin knight swung its weapon in an attempt to stop it, but the blow bounced harmlessly off one of the creature’s spikes as it barreled past.

  ‘This might be dangerous.’

  Rusty knew from experience that facing the charge in his current form would end in disaster. If he could use his loadout to shift into his larger form, he might stand a chance, but as things were he could not overpower it. Even so, he could not simply allow it to break through. He raised his shield, increased his weight, and braced himself.

  The monster slammed into him a heartbeat later. His joints cracked under the pressure as he was forced back. Holding his ground was impossible, so he moved with the momentum and pushed himself to the side. As he slipped past, he swung his halberd and aimed for the creature’s unarmored eye.

  “Argh!”

  Bartholomew screamed in agony as if the pierced eye belonged to him. The summon and Rider pair did not slow as they charged through. The gate finally gave way, and Airy’s efforts to keep the shield up were for nothing. It shattered almost instantly when the massive creature barreled through, and more soon followed.

  “Get the flag!”

  Shouted the summoners from B2 class.

  “Protect the flag!”

  Shouted the ones from B1 class as all hell broke loose. The monsters on the walls leapt down and switched from bows to close-range weapons. Their summoners were now in real danger of being removed from the competition. If they fell, their creatures would vanish, and the other team would gain the advantage.

  “Rusty!”

  Gwen called to him as she found herself under attack. She and Astrella were forced to retreat since they had little power on their own. Only one Iron Armor stood between them and the enemy, and his hobgoblin knight armor soon joined the defense.

  “Stay put, Gwen!”

  Came his response. The true threat was the flag, and Bartholomew was charging straight for it. Aldric’s golems rushed to intercept him, and the plant summons hidden as traps fired thorn volleys, but every projectile bounced harmlessly off him. The first few golems were shoved aside, yet when all of them pushed together, they managed, for a few breaths, to bring his maddened charge to a halt.

  Chaos flooded their stronghold as summoned creatures clashed everywhere. Insectoids fought kobolds. Harpies tried to carry orcs into the air to drop them. Rusty pushed through the crowd of enemies, swinging his halberd and felling them in one or two strokes.

  ‘He is not quite there; I can make it.’

  Rusty thought to himself as he sprinted with all his might. A low growl rose from Bartholomew, almost like a wolf’s, as he forced the rock golems aside.

  “Out of my way! This flag is mine!”

  “I will not allow it. I must fulfill the duty Lady Aranea placed on…”

  Aldric began to launch into a monologue, but before he could finish, one of his own golems flew through the air and crashed down on top of him.

  “I do not care!”

  Bartholomew growled as the remaining golems shattered the moment their summoner fell. Rusty was surprised that the boy had been defeated so easily, yet the setback gave him just enough time to move in front of the flag.

  “It is you again. I will turn you into scrap metal!”

  Rusty planted his halberd in the ground and shifted his stance. His armor was already damaged, but Gwen continued to lend him her power and slowly restored him. The final battle had begun, and the clash between rider and monster was now unavoidable. He activated several of his skills, including Fury, Twilight Embrace, and others. His halberd crackled with lightning as he gripped it with both hands. The time for defense had passed, and he committed fully to the attack.

  Sparks flew as he traded blow after blow with the empowered bear-wolf creature. It was far stronger than before, and with the rider on its back, it carried much more mana than Rusty had expected. Even when his halberd sliced away the thorns that jutted from its armored hide, they grew back within seconds.

  Sparks crackled and danced along Rusty’s halberd as he met the beast’s onslaught head-on. Every impact strained the joints of his armor, and each exchange left a cratered mark in the ground beneath them. Bartholomew’s fused fury drove the Bear-Wolf forward without pause.

  “Break! Break already!”

  Bartholomew’s voice blended with the roar of his summon until the two sounds became impossible to tell apart. The beast lunged with its jaws wide, but Rusty pivoted aside. The creature was powerful, yet the longer the fight continued, the more accustomed Rusty became to its attacks. He was just about to drive his weapon into the creature’s open maw when something unexpected happened.

  “Hm?”

  “R-Rusty, help!”

  His body suddenly began to dissolve into particles of mana. He leapt back and turned to the side. Gwen and Astrella were being chased by several creatures, and he had moved out of range of his summoner without realizing it.

  “Ha, the flag is mine!”

  Bartholomew seized the moment and pounced on the unguarded flag.

  “I have it, victory is mine!”

  He held it high, and a few students began to cheer. The shouting stopped almost immediately, which left Bartholomew confused. Rusty reacted at once, cutting down the monsters pursuing his summoner. Then he looked up, following the direction of everyone’s gaze. If he had a human face, he would have been smiling. Someone he had expected to appear minutes earlier had finally arrived.

  ‘Better late than never, was it?’

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