Bonded Summoner

Book 2. Chapter 15: Blood - Champion of Eternal Night

Blood and her sister were now wrapped in chains, forced to watch the, admittedly charred, creature emerge from inside of the elf’s corpse, molting it like an old skin and growing rapidly. Blood was surprised, when a somewhat familiar figure finished emerging: an arachne. She stumbled away from Bloodberri towards the back of the room, engulfed in dark energy. She had grown greatly in size from the small elf but was still not able to see eye to eye with her from her usual posture, or even where she is chained down toward the ground.

Blood felt that the connection to their Lord Jake had been disconnected, but his empowerment remained. She had only had the bond for a few hours, and already felt the loss harsher than she had imagined. Berri was nearly distraught, worrying. They had been so close to happiness, and this Champion now stood in her way. It surprised Blood when she received a notification. She was now only barely beginning to understand the Menus of the Framework, having been added along her sister hours ago.

Enemy Champion of the Goddess of Eternal Night detected. Defeat for reward.

She waved her club with her unbound right arm, testing her range of motion. Several chains wrapped around her tail and even wrapped around and threaded through each other. She thought to the final moments of when the rest of her party, her family now, was whisked away. They had shielded each other not knowing what attack was on its way, which is logical.

She is much sturdier than the rest of them, but Jake fought furiously to do his best to protect her and her sister, to give them an edge. She heard his thoughts and felt his emotions, and knew that he had proven that he cared for her and her sister.

This was the only reason why her right arm was mostly available, and even her left arm had some range of motion as well. Her left hand entered into the pouch Jake called a ‘fanny pack,’ at her rear, and found that she could reach everything she needed to escape. Her dark magic was blocked, but her sister’s magic was somewhat available, powered by the goddess as it was.

“I can’t believe I had to waste my goddess’s energy healing myself instead of calling on her. Just how could you crush Alisara without hesitation like that? You entered this challenge knowing that I was an enemy?”

Blood gave a vicious grin. So, this woman in front of her was barely anything more than an Arachne, her Champion, or goddess energy wasted. Bloodberri would kill frenzied arachne by the dozen in the Underworld.

“Our Lord knew you were an enemy the moment you met; it was only the Framework that protected your life. I have a bone to pick with your goddess. She never returned my prayers.”

“And why would she? You are an abomination. Born of a Human Hero and a Dark Lamia, you shouldn’t have been allowed to exist. It was only because it was foreseen that you would be an excellent tool that we allowed you to live. Now that you are not our tool, you must be destroyed.”

“Hmph. You cowards have no chance of defeating me or my Lord. That you would join the outsiders only proves your weakness. I will crush you, and I will rejoin him.”

She snuck her left hand into the bag again, and she released the small machines, rolling them down the back of her tail. They latched onto the chains as she pretended to test her restraints to hide the sounds of them starting their work, and she grimaced. She could somewhat feel and imagine their disgustingly shaped legs, the shape of spiders as they walked on her tail. They immediately began their job of cutting through the chains, a sort of magical drill.

She had asked Jake to make the machines in a much more tasteful shape like a snake, and he laughed and said he’d work on it someday, but she would just have to live with these for now. This was just one thing in the long list of tools he had provided for her to use, things to cover up her weaknesses, or otherwise protect her and her sister in case Jake couldn’t.

She would normally be incensed at the idea that she needed protection, but if the outsiders used tools such as magic inhibiting chains to produce an outcome outside of expectations, how could she be against using one herself? The arachne once again spoke, “Crush me? Did you forget that you were wrapped in chains? As strong as you are, that barbaric tool will not touch me.”

The enemy champion began casting a spell, and magical spiders began swarming out of her in even greater quantities than before when they rushed out of Alisara’s body. They went all over the place, up the walls and around the room, and even some on her own body. Many headed in Bloodberri’s direction on the floor and on the ceiling besides.

Berri filled their body with holy might, and she struck out with the mace at a chain holding her left arm and a good portion of her torso. It shattered and whipped away, and her left arm and torso were now mostly free. There were still nearly a dozen chains remaining, but the spider machines would eventually clear them away. She could not continuously use [Mace of Hestia] and would have to wait a bit of time to use it again, and the arachne likely knew that.

She would be content to talk up the foolish woman and buy more time, but she was in a hurry. She guessed that she was the only one who could no longer hear their Lord, her bond lacking, and she might be needed or there may be other reasons to arrive on time.

She gave the Champion of the Eternal Night a vicious smile and said, “It will, but it doesn’t need to.” Blood retrieved a, well, for Jake, it would be a large sphere, the size of a ‘bowling ball,’ whatever that was. For her, it was somewhat light and about the size of a softball, but for a human it would be even heavier than one of those bowling balls. The outside was somewhat elastic, but it was definitely a hard object. She looked over at the enemy Champion, who now had spiders crawling all over her torso, but not over her lower spider body. She remembered how these same spiders activated a sort of magical barrier on Alisara.

She sent to her sister in her mind, “Sister, will you do the honors? Hit this bitch right in that ugly spider face.”

[I’d love to!]

The enemy champion just looked on with confusion. What was she doing with that sphere? Blood threw it up into the air, and Berri took on the stance she had done thousands of times, like she was at the baseball plate. She was restricted and not able to bring out her full power, but with such an easy to hit ball, how could she miss her target?

Her divine reinforced monstrous strength smashed their heavy giant club into the ball, and it was sent at the spider with a large crack, a sound that she and her sister absolutely loved. It moved so fast at the enemy that her expression barely had time to change from confusion to disbelief. The spiders on her torso activated a barrier, just as Blood had predicted. Instead, their ball smashed into the spider’s head on the lower body spinning at a rapid pace, flinging blood and viscera in a wide arc. Their body flew back from the force, and she slammed into the cavern wall, sending rock and dust into the air.

Many of the spiders converged on the downed arachne, and others started constructing a web. Blood reached into the bag once again and retrieved some glass vials, dumping their acidic contents on a few of the remaining chains, two having finished being cut through, with two more now being cut through by the machines. Just a little bit more, and she would be free.

The dust had cleared, and two beams of darkness struck her. Her [Armor of Faith], and Jake’s enchantments both reduced the damage, but they still stung. The enemy champion was now being dragged by more and more spiders to the web, and she couldn't help but laugh. The spider’s legs of her body were dangling limp, the spider brain necessary to move their lower body, like she had destroyed a lower spine of some kind.

“You bitch! I’ll make sure you suffer for this, abomination!”

The enemy champion once again began casting some sort of spell, and she could feel that it was empowered by the god energy, but it was a shadow of what was previously released. Berri raised her own power, filling their body with their holy energy, storing as much of it that they could.

A powerful beam of energy was sent at them, and Berri swung at it like she was striking an impossible fastball, with the [Mace of Hestia]. Blood was sure Jake would complain that this made no sense at all if he were here, but that didn’t stop what was happening. The evil energy was stopped by her holy energy, as she pushed her strength against the unstoppable beam.

The evil goddess-empowered beam eventually overcame their holy energy, but the beam that struck her was only twice as strong as the previous attacks that landed. Her skin burned, and some evil energy entered her body, but it was easily burned away by her [Purifying Flames].

“You should have run to help another champion face my sisters instead of facing me. The moment you spent your goddess’ energy on healing yourself, you had already lost. Now, your body is broken and there is no escape. You are simply too weak.”

The final chains shattered, and she was now free. She undulated towards her foe, and the arachne’s face was filled with rage. The spiders swarmed from all the walls, prepared for a moment like this. Bloodberri was sprayed and covered in webbing. Once again, she found it difficult to move. Unlike with the chains however, she could still cast spells.

Blood taunted her foe again, “What is this? Are you trying to prolong your life? I told you I was in a hurry.”

“I know that you don’t have any ranged attacks. The [Dark Lamia] from your world eventually joined us, and we know you barely know any dark magic, never learning from a proper master.”josei

“I have a proper master of magic now.”

She began to weave her runes with speeds that were still lacking compared to Lord Jake, but still respectable enough that the foolish battlegroup would gape at her capability. She had not yet learned Jake’s runes, but she could still use elvish script. While the gods and goddesses of darkness and chaos had shunned her, the moon and other elven goddesses had no problems with her desires of destroying a champion of chaos.

Her runes finished, they were made manifest into the world, changing it to her will. Jake and Ophelia were partial to the spear, but she would use her flames of darkness in a simple ball. She held them to the webbing and started their burning away from her body, and she flung it at her foe.

“Elvish script? How dare you!”

Blood gave another vicious grin, as she had found yet another way to get under the arachne’s disgusting skin. Dark elves, Dark Lamia, and their chaotic cousins of Arachnes had a hate of everything elvish, their races being forsaken by them. The Champion’s spiders formed a shield against the ball of fire and they started a spell of her own, but Bloodberri was now free as her body and armor had ripped the webbing away with the help of the flames, and she sped towards her foe. Her body whipped about left and right in the dance of a cobra, dodging the swarms of spider’s attempts to cover her in webs again until her sister filled their body with holy energy for one more [Mace of Hestia].

Her body whipped at the arachne with the speed of a viper crossing dozens of meters of the cavern in a mere instant, and this time, their mace sped for the face of their human-like body. The enemy champion could do little more than scream as it smashed into their head, their spell incomplete. The holy nova released when she struck the woman healed what little wounds Bloodberri received.

She confirmed the quest completion prompt in her [Menu]. She was probably the only one that needed to search in order to find Lord Jake, so she would need to hurry. Hopefully, this cave would lead to him in some way. She looted the enemy champion, [The Framework] processing and storing their equipment safely. She looked over to Alisara’s corpse, and repeated the process, but found that they simply disappeared into motes of light, nothing entering her bracelet. She sped towards the rear of the cavern, exiting into another.

As Berri and her sped through the caverns, she reviewed her current status and skills.

Bloodberri Status Level 16

Strength

108

Dexterity

44

Constitution

95

Intelligence

65

Wisdom

70

Charisma

53

Her strength increased as her Advanced Monstrous strength improved, the large amounts of magic from the Hearth in their Refuge, and meals filled with magic provided by her Lord. Her hearth even improved, but the biggest change in the girl’s status aside from gaining levels was the increase in the mental attributes, from Blood’s being sort of ‘added’ or ‘averaged’ together, she guessed.

Bloodberri’s Level 16 Combat Skill Sheet

Advanced Mana Control

Level 1

Holy Dark Paampu Attam

Level 2

Advanced Monstrous Strength

Level 3

Advanced Purifying Flames

Level 1

Advanced Holy Dark Priestess Magic

Level 2

Advanced Dark Magic

Level 1

Advanced Hearth Core

Level 3

Summoner's Bond

Level 4

Bloodberri’s Level 16 Spell List

Dark Holy Priestess Spells

Advanced Dark Siphon, Advanced Mace of Hestia, Advanced Armor of Faith, Divine Intervention

Dark Magic

Weakness, Absorb Strength, Life Drain

Bloodberri’s Level 16 Non-Combat Skill Sheet

Looting

Level 1

Tailoring

Level 3

Advanced Armor Crafting

Level 1

Misc Skills:

Mana Siphon, Twin-souled Twin-minded

Her Technique, Holy Dark Paampu Attam, had really made her come a long way in facing skilled enemies. She was a little unhappy she hadn’t found a foe worth using it on besides her family in practice, but she knew it allowed her to bring about destructive blows while making her difficult to hit, and weakening her foes around her. When she and Fhesiah danced, Berri and her found themselves having quite a bit of fun.

Her Dark Magic had finally advanced, along with her mana control, working together with Lord Jake. He had been more than willing to purchase skill books, or books on magic, to help their advancement. She had stolen many magic books out from under the Matriarch’s noses, and Berri plead ignorance on her behalf. Being self-taught, she was happy to learn with Jake helping guide her mana.

She kept speeding through the caverns, trying to find where the enemy Champions were. She entered an extremely large cavern, seeing the top being over a dozen stories high.

They would do what it took to find their Lord, and they would finally mate.