Chapter 344. Armies Clash.

  “Can you take over one of those corrupted ogres?” I asked the Chixtani Infestor as we readied ourselves to receive the enemy charge. The Chixtani was still piloting a normal ogre, but the crazy looking ones moving out of the keep were probably much more powerful. Taking control of one of those would bolster our chances of victory.

  The ogre that the Chixtani was piloting nodded and gave a gap-tooth grin to indicate that was her plan all along. I had no idea how much time it took for the infestor to take control, but she seemed confident of doing it in the middle of a fight. It was odd, I was thinking of the Chixtani as a she, probably because of my interaction with Melody back at the academy.

  I was becoming distracted by trying to figure out how the creepy Chixtani worked, and instead focused myself back on the approaching enemy. Nebram and Misty had organized the naga into a shield wall, a few more had trickled in from the jungle to join us during our assault on the bridge, giving us just over thirty of the naga warriors. Backing them up were a pair of shamans standing behind the line ready to heal.

  “Silas, let my team take the brunt of the attack, they’re summoned creatures and won’t be permanently harmed,” I offered.

  “Thanks, we’ll do that, just make sure they stay well behind the blast area of these,” Silas said as he jogged ahead of our shield wall and stuck two small, rectangular objects in the ground. It took a moment for my mind to process what he was doing, but as Silas ran back to our lines unravelling a long wire attached to each object, I remembered them from my training with the military.

  “You have Claymore mines?” I said a bit shocked as Silas just gave me a devilish grin.

  “Yep, and one more toy from our world that I’ll save for whatever’s in the keep itself. They’re almost in range, here we go,” Silas said as Glurk began to pepper the approaching horde with arrows and Silas banged out single shots from his rifle. I had to admit, I was more than a bit jealous of the old soldier, and the modern weapons his class seemed to be able to use without any trouble. Hopefully, we’d have some time to talk once the battle was over.

  “I’ve got one more thing to help,” I said as the two melee goblins, Elida, and the Chixtani placed themselves ahead of the line of naga. Given their rather flimsy shields, I didn’t think the naga shield wall was going to be all that effective against the larger, corrupted ogres, but it should hold okay against the gnomes and naga that made up the bulk of the enemy forces.

  I cast Duplicate on the Chixtani controlled ogre as the enemy neared. We were outnumbered, so it was probably time to use more of my items to tip the fight in our favor. Pulling out my Teeth of the Hydra pouch, I was shocked when it didn’t activate as I pushed mana into it. A moment later, I remembered the description of the item, it needed to be cast on blood-soaked ground. Using a knife to open a gash in my arm, I let a stream of blood hit the ground in front of me.

  The item didn’t say how much blood was needed but after only a splatter had streamed down my arm and onto the ground, I noticed that my mana seemed to click into place on the item. I grabbed the teeth inside the bag, and dropped them into the blood, standing back instinctually as if the magic of the item was warning me that I was too close.

  A huge figure appeared, but the twin blasts of the mines going off drew my attention as I absently ordered the hydra to attack our foes. Where the two mines had been placed, it looked like a giant had reached down and brushed aside our foes. The enemy formation had been a bit ragged to begin with and was further disrupted by the goblin summoning ability of Glurk’s longbow occasionally popping off.

  Now, a third of their force was just gone, the steel balls hurled by the claymore had shredded the enemy. Even better, those that had been only injured by a stray ball or two seemed to still be suffering as flames licked at their wounds. Silas must have been able to infuse some kind of magic damage into his weapons, and it had done the trick. With the enemy disrupted, I ordered my team to charge, keeping up the pressure on the disorganized and dazed foe.

  The ground shook as my hydra stomped off to join the fight, thankfully avoiding any allies in its path. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew that the pouch held a full ten teeth in it when I had activated it. From the item description, the power of the summoned hydra was based on how many teeth were used.

  My hydra was the size of a small bus, and its four-legged body was like that of a giant lizard. Instead of a single head, four sprouted from the body of the monster. Each head seemed to operate independently as they locked onto different targets as it stalked toward the foe. Whatever else Bhalkur’s corruption did to the creatures that served him, it didn’t hamper their bravery, and a sizeable portion of the enemy force charged toward the biggest threat on the field, my hydra.

  Its long strides allowed the hydra to reach the enemy before the rest of my team did, and it charged straight through the corrupted gnomes and naga at the fore of the enemy formation. It stomped several foes into bloody paste and each head then lashed out, fang filled maws latching onto the larger corrupted ogres. The corrupted ogres were tough, and only one was killed instantly by the bite of the hydra, the others began to flail at the heads latched onto their bodies. My hydra lacked the strength to lift the heavy ogres, but it was chewing massive wounds into them.

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  With an arm mutated into a giant claw, one of the ogres cut himself free, severing a head from my hydra. I responded by hurling a Health Bloom over my minion and throwing my javelin at the wounded foe. My javelin pierced the ogre in its mangled chest and the burst of electrical damage from my weapon finished off the creature.

  Another head of my hydra slumped to the ground, as an ogre with tentacles for arms used the appendages to pierce deep into the hydra’s neck. It seemed that unlike the mythical creature from Earth, the system-created hydra didn’t regenerate its heads after they were destroyed. The hydra was being ground down by the bulk of the corrupted ogres, but it was doing its job and allowing my minions to deal with the smaller foes.

  Glem, Glam, Elida, the Chixtani ogre, and the ogre duplicate were tearing into the foe. If I had to guess, these corrupted creatures, other than the ogres, were quite a bit lower in tier and rank than my minions. Between Elida’s Combat Mending and a fresh Health Bloom that I cast over the group, they dominated the fight.

  Elida had also activated her aura which burned into the nearby enemy, softening them up for a killing blow that was quick to follow. Silas wasn’t content to let my minions do all the heavy lifting and had his friend Misty and the naga Nebram lead the rest of his forces into battle. I was shocked yet again as Misty began her attack.

  The cute college girl in combat armor transformed before my eyes, her body shifting and growing as she charged forward. It was like one of those CGI werewolf movies as she transformed from human into animal. Instead of a wolf, Misty had become a hulking bear that slammed into the smaller foes, her claws and teeth tearing them apart as easily as a steel blade would.

  I felt the connection to my hydra end as it was finally brought down by the enemy’s corrupted ogres. Around the mana vapor of the unsummoning hydra were the corpses of six ogres, and the surviving pair were both injured to some extent. With the hydra down, Silas shifted his fire and finished off a magazine to take one of the surviving ogres down.

  “That’s it for me, I can’t burn anymore ammo if I want to have enough to face the keep guardian,” Silas said, gesturing toward the keep in the distance. He slung his rifle and drew a pistol in case something got through our army and made a play at killing us.

  Glem, with the reach offered by his spear, moved toward the final surviving ogre. He flickered out of existence and appeared behind the ogre, his spear piercing deep into the corrupted creature’s body. To help him, I ran forward and tossed the Chains of Bal’sharuk at the ogre. The metal chains wrapped around the foe, binding the one regular arm and one tentacle this monstrosity possessed.

  My goblin minion wasted no time and began to skewer the ogre in the head and body as fast as he could. The chains lasted only a few seconds against such a powerful target, but it was enough for Glem to deal a death blow to the ogre. Around us, the sounds of battle were dying down as our forces mopped up the remaining corrupted gnomes and naga.

  Of my forces, the duplicate ogre, and Glamb were gone, brought down at some point during the fight. A few of the naga had also died, but the casualties were much lighter than they would have been if Silas’ mines and my hydra hadn’t been used. Misty, shifting back into human form, joined me and Silas at the back of the formation.

  “Did you get that system prompt too, Silas?” Misty said as she reached us.

  “Yeah, I just did. It looks like the system is only going to allow me and Misty into the keep. You, your minions, and the naga won’t be able to enter,” Silas said.

  “Wait, you have to fight a whole keep full of these corrupted things on your own?” I asked. To me that sounded like suicide. The pair would been easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of foes if substantial forces remained inside the keep. It was only with my help, and the naga army fighting with them, that they had emerged from the last fight unscathed.

  “There’s no army in there anymore. Everything but the guardian of this level is gone from the keep. Even better, I think the guardian is supposed to be weakened after we destroyed its army. I must thank you Rico, we would have been in a tough spot without your help with this. Agent Lopez wasn’t lying when he said you’d get the job done, despite being a civilian,” Silas said, offering his hand for me to shake.

  “Wait, let me see if I can help you further. Also, this is very important, you need to let Agent Lopez know that my class changed, and I can take contracts on Earth now. Tell him that if he can get someone into Somhagen, they can try to contract with me at either the brokers or maybe the Summoned Market directly,” I said, trying to get everything out quickly in case the summoning ended immediately.

  “I will, I’m not sure about all of what you just said, but I know there are summoned beings like you out there, Lopez told me at least that much about what was going on,” Silas said. He and Misty both repeated back what I’d told them, making sure that they knew the details on how to try and create a contract with me.

  “Here Silas, see if the system will let you take these with you,” I said, handing over most of my healing and mana potions. Clancy would restock me in no time back at the academy, and these two weren’t going to have a chance to go wherever it was they went to restock consumables before they faced whatever the guardian thing was.

  To my surprise, the system let me pass off the items, and I added two summoning figurines to the mix, once I confirmed that they could use them. It looked like since I was no longer a summoned being, I had a bit more leeway in my summoning contracts. The two figurines were the Gnomish war contraption and a tier one, rank five orc warrior minion figurines. As I handed them over, a system prompt appeared.

  You have exchanged the maximum value of goods allowed during a contracted summoning. Your summoning is now complete, and you will be sent to your Designated Return destination shortly.

  "I guess that’s it for me, I’m glad I was able to meet you two, maybe I’ll see you again once the integration is over and I can return home,” I said.

  “Stay safe out there, and thank you for your help,” Silas said, patting me on the back with a fatherly smile on his face.

  “Thanks Rico,” Misty said, pulling me in for a hug. Her strength was enough that my back popped, and I thought a rib or two might be bruised when she finally released me.

  I was about ask about how the world reacted to the news of the pending induction when a portal sucked me back into my room at the academy, which I’d selected as my Designated Return location.

  At least Silas would get the word out to Lopez that I could be summoned with a direct contract. If I was going to take on contracts, I’d rather they be contracts from home, where I could help the people of my world while I gained more power for the coming fight with Gary.