Bonded Summoner

Book 3. Chapter 14: Terror in the Skies

Flying through the air being carried like a ‘prince’ was a novel experience, for Jake. Still, he was amazed at how fast Ophelia was able to fly through the sky.

Using her [Technique], she was really closer to a fighter jet than she was a mount. Thanks to [Energy Sharing], she could really keep it up forever. She could dive as fast a falcon could, and during combat could achieve similar, but traveling was less than that. When she really pushed her technique and had enough time to build up her speed, Jake guessed they were traveling above a hundred miles per hour, even while carrying Jake and wearing armor.

Jake was primarily willing to travel like this in their territory. The odds of them being attacked were minimal, Tartarus unable to detect them or send creatures using its machinations easily. Jake was considering, with Ophelia’s shield, that he could always get to the ground. Perhaps, he could always travel this way?

Ophelia said, “I think Berri would be hurt if you replaced her for travel. If she’s ambushed, we have a better chance at survival and turning it around, you summoning me and Fhesiah, us taking the fight to the enemy. Her armor of faith means even some kind of assassin shouldn’t be able to land a killing blow, right? Not only that, but I have been accomplishing quite a bit with our guild back at home, you know. Blood can run things too, but she still is, even while traveling.”

“She’s running things?”

“It’s not just researching into the add-ons, but she’s been directing the guild using messages. You can queue up messages to be sent when you’re near an alliance node. She’s also been making guides, and filling out the Guild Wiki with things that she’s learned from being in our party, and even research she’s done on her own. She’s quite insightful. I’ve been adding to them, too. We should have the guild point earning thing finished up soon for you to go over.”

Jake would need to check out what she had created later, but he had been a little bit, too. Mostly the clan heads, messaging people like Rookard and the other heads of the villages being added. He had some confidence in Blood being able to guide people well enough, thanks to Jake’s party having discussed party strategy quite extensively. His party had been involved in dozens of boss battles, that included many situations. His girls were quick to adapt, knowing who is effective at handling them.

“You think that’s better than you just flying me and us taking on the rifts in less time? If we spend less time traveling, I have more time if we consider the same number of rifts completed.”

“It’s not as though you send me back or Bloodberri back with each rift, we’re usually only talking about an hour or two that we’re split up before you arrive at the first one for the day. We’re then behind enemy lines, so to speak. I might get there in an hour instead of her two hours or something like this, but that’s not that big of a deal, is it? Maybe if we know it’ll save a lot more time than that, like me flying to these cliffs for the gondolas I’ll carry you, but otherwise isn’t it fine? This makes her happy, besides.”

Jake thought with Bloodberri able to reasonably be able to handle an ambush better than Ophelia might, perhaps the extra hour was not a huge loss. Possibly, this was the most effective way to use his people, but there are a lot of other ways to look at it. It was hopefully only for a few more days, but now that he knew how to make the javelins and weapons, perhaps he could enchant some from his basket.

Because of Ophelia’s speed, they were able to build their Gondolas in no time. They each carried several storage bracelets, and Jake was able to build large stone arches using his stone conjuration. They mounted the sort of reel or spool structure on them, and Ophelia flew to the other side holding the special braided cables made of fantasy materials, connecting the two sides.

The gondola cars attached to the cable, and Jake had four of them at each that would go around a track type structure. The ‘walls’ of the cart would interlock with each other, laying flat in his storage bracelet and not taking up overly much space. They would then lock into the motor mechanism.

Some signs were placed detailing their usage, with a sort of ‘call cart’ feature on each side. Each cart could only hold about ten adults or maybe twenty children, not much larger than the containers found on some larger Ferris wheels. They had a few safety features and a sort of intelligence to stop a period of time to let people out before continuing, and to not allow the cart to be overloaded by refusing to move.

Each gondola didn’t take long for Ophelia and Jake to install, less than an hour each. A lot of that time was building the arch structure that could hold the several tons of weight. The arches were also used to help average the height of the two mountains, making the trip more of a horizontal ride rather than a steeper incline where necessary. They also had one location where it was important to improve the foundation significantly for the best path.

It was now five hours later, and they had finished installing all the gondolas. Ophelia had a wide smile on her face, having carried her prince through the sky for so long. They did encounter a large auril bird which Jake captured, him doing his best to keep this detail from Berri. That girl was simply too jealous about the idea that he might obtain another mount, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it.

The bird wasn’t too impressive for combat, and really, even with Auril, it wasn’t all that fast. But skipping over the mountains was still faster than Berri could climb them. She was fast going down the mountains, probably being able to go around half or less of her usual speed. But going down then up, even with her armor finding purchase with ease as she snaked up the mountain, was a severe disadvantage. The gondolas they just installed that travel across the gorges at about ten miles per hour might just barely beat her in a race.

Ophelia interrupted Jake’s musings, “We’ll just have to go through the jungles where needed. She traverses those faster than she has any right to. Plus, you’ll find more beasts to capture if she does that.”

Jake sighed. “I really enjoy riding her, but we’re fighting a war here. This desire to be my mount is cute, but it’s strange. Since when does a snake like being ridden so much? Anyway, she’s still much more effective than me running or using a horse, or even some giant lizard or something like this. Our mobility is still amazing, but it really feels like we won’t gain anything if we don’t move as quick as possible. I can just summon her when we get to the destination, with Ira watching over us.”

They arrived at the empty village, filled with blight. After they cleared this, they would be traveling to clear a few more rifts, moving just a little closer to their destination Alliance HQ. Part of the desire for removing the blight was that as a result of it, the conquest territory took longer to recede back from the enemy. In addition, the blight would continue to spread and harm the surrounding environment.

Jake contacted Bloodberri over their bond, “Had enough fun with the kids? I’ll call you now, are you ready?”

[The kids? Oh, yeah! Um sure, just give me a minute… I need to… Finish something real quick!]

Jake frowned in confusion. What was going on with her? Jake had felt her working with the cooks, and she did play with the kids some more. She hadn’t gotten a good chance to play baseball, for some reason, but at some point her thoughts had gotten cut off, and Jake got the feeling that she was just busy.

[Okay, we’re ready now!]

Jake summoned her, the giantess snake girl appearing in her armor. Nothing appeared to be amiss as far as he could tell. She was ready for combat and travel like usual, with her fanny pack, armor, maul, and traveling backpack– Jake’s seat, like always.

Jake then took out his epic censer. It had the maximum amount of runes he could inscribe, and a powerful focus that would be fed Tier 1 holy incense and water. Jake had wanted to see if Berri could activate it. She had only reached runic magic level…wait, level 4?

Jake asked, “Berri, when did you reach level 4 in your runic magic?”

Berri said proudly, “Just now! Blood and I have been working really hard!”

Jake looked at her suspiciously. Usually, it was Blood that was motivated to learn runes. But Berri seemed especially motivated now, for some reason. In the past, she would practice and learn rapidly, but easily get distracted, moving on to the next skills they needed to work on. Of course, her priestess magic was important too, and she was especially talented with it. They also had a lot of work to do in order to improve their dance, the two of them working in tandem. But now, there was a focus on runes. What’s going on?

She laughed nervously. “Let’s try this!”

Berri infused her holy mana into the censer. The hexagons were placed around the sphere, making it almost look like some sort of golden soccer ball with a rod crammed into it. The light brightened as the runes were filled, and smoke began to be released. But eventually, the light reached the final hexagon, and holy energy exploded in a large nova of light.

The light easily expanded past the plaza, continuing past several buildings. Smoke was carried on the edges of the light, and it continued to expand beyond where the light stopped. The smoke and light cleansed everything it touched, and Jake was somewhat reminded of using his Sanctuary spell-rod, but this was like a nova of that which cleansed in a ring, instead of shielded in a sphere.

The smoke kept expanding, and as she infused more mana, another wave was released, this time, the light reaching even further. The smoke was added to the other which was drifting into the ground, and pushed even further out this time, cleansing even more.josei

After a minute, the ten or so pulses had cleansed the entire village, but it continued out into their farms. Each pulse reached further and further, leaving the ground filled with holy light, and adding on to the previous waves.

Jake and Ophelia kept drinking mana water, and even mana potions. Jake even had to refill the holy incense contained in the censer. They kept running it, until eventually, the waves reached the rift and beyond. It took nearly 30 minutes, but the plateau was finally cleansed. Jake and Ophelia were starting to feel a bit sick after drinking all of that.

Berri said, “That was really neat! It felt good, that light and smoke being released. Should we head over to Rookard’s? I want to see the bunny girl!”

Jake shook his head. “Maybe in a few days. Enora and a few of the other goat beastkin turned out to be quite good at using the lower tier censers, adding some of their own herbal mixtures to allow their auril in and add to the effect. Rookard even took on an incursion and completed it already, apparently his ‘pack’ keeps him quite safe. We should be good to head towards the next rift.”

Berri looked positively excited. “Okay! Hang on.”

She handed Jake back the censer, and she clenched her fists, and took on a look of profound concentration. Her face then scrunched up cutely, and she started making a groaning noise. Was… Why does it look like she’s trying to…?

A ripple went through her armor, and it began to morph. Some spikes on her tail shrunk, blades lengthened and changed, while others shrunk until they disappeared. Her tail grew a fin at the back, and even on her back she grew some off at strange angles. What was going on?

“It worked! Okay, let’s go!”

Jake just stared at her. “You’re not going to tell us what that was about? Is this better, somehow?” He looked at the changes with confusion. In many ways, it wasn’t all that different. Jake thought some changes were even in the thickness of the bottom of her snake body versus the top, but it was hard to tell. But her blades, instead of looking like scythes that would cut as she moved past them, looked more like some kind of fins or wings. He supposed they still looked like they would act like a scythe, but now there was a larger surface area on them.

“Not yet! It’s a surprise! Fhesiah said you love those, that’s why she works on so many!”

Jake could just hear Fhesiah laughing in his mind. He shook his head, and leaped into his basket, as they headed to the edge of the plateau. He looked over the gorge, seeing their goal in the distance, probably a few miles away. Normally, she would practically barrel down the cliff-face rapidly, very few drops keeping her from finding a spot nearby to ‘leap’ to, or where she couldn’t just let part of her snake body down first to grab a hold.

The two girls in one body seemingly prepared for something, and Bloodberri whipped into motion, leaping off the cliff. Jake goggled at them, and started to prepare his feather falling spell he had worked on, but before he could even cast it: both girls did. One had covered the upper body and a little of their tail, and the other, covered the rest. Jake saw her snake tail undulating in a wide frequency, as she went through the air.

Jake gaped, as he was reminded of the gliding snakes of Earth, and how they would leap down from trees flying hundreds of feet. She fell down at a much more manageable speed, until she dropped the rest of the way safely. The glide took them nearly a quarter of a mile closer to their destination, even sailing over a few cliff faces she might have had to climb over or around. She then blazed through the valley with ease, just like she always did.

He was filled with amazement at what the two girls had accomplished. This would shave several minutes off of every decline, and a gorge that would require them to climb down before climbing back up, she could simply glide over. He could feel their pride over their bond, and a mental smirk coming from them.

“You two really are amazing, I’m impressed with this. There’s more?”

They were heading towards a smaller, craggy hill that was about three or four stories tall. They would normally need to go around it, but they cast the spell again, and leaped.

Bloodberri leaped much higher than Jake felt such a large creature like themselves had any business to, and used their new technique to glide once again, sailing over it. Jake could feel that their new winged blades helped produce some lift, and when the wind blew, they actually went upwards.

Using this new technique, the two barely slowed down. Ophelia easily followed, and she had a wide smile on her face.

“Jake’s right, you’re really incredible, Bloodberri,” Ophelia said.

Jake was amazed at how quickly they had progressed their runic magic. The feather fall spell was only nine runes, but the speed that they cast it, and in synchronicity, indicated they had practiced a lot. It wouldn’t be very long before they were able to cast group spells with Jake and the rest.

Their holy mana would be transformed into regular mana for the purpose of spells, though Jake imagined spells that worked well together with their attunement would be enhanced. Conversely, energy would be wasted for Blood to cast a healing spell, or Berri to cast a debuff or something of this nature.

The two suddenly stopped at the next plateau, letting Jake out. Ophelia was a bit dumbfounded as to why they stopped, too.

Berri said, “There’s one more surprise!”

She giggled, and the took out…a feathered cape? It had feathers of what looked like a golden hawk that matched the trim on his armor quite well, attached to what Jake thought was some kind of red leather on the inside.

Blood said, “We made this for you, Milord. You may be able to enchant it to make it more effective, but it goes along with our ability to glide. If you need to bail out of your basket, you should be able to swoop down or combine it with other spells. For now, put this on, and we’ll show the other component.”

Jake put on the cape, finding it had clamps that connected to his shoulder plates on his armor quite well. He grabbed some sections with clasps of the cape with his hands, and found that it could fan out quite well.

Bloodberri had four, what looked like bracelets, in her hands.

She put them on where his bracelets went, an almost rubber one, but it had magic in it, Jake could tell. They opened with a clasp, and she put them on his ankles over his boots, as well.

“Now, you should be able to infuse mana in them, and connect to the cape with a thought.”

Jake did, and the clasps connected to his bracelets. He was amazed– it was like a wing suit now. He flapped his new wings, and with his strength, he found he could actually lift himself off the ground if he used a lot of his strength. It was much closer to how a chicken could fly, though. Jake wondered if he could actually manage flight well enough with some runes and [Runebound: Unbound], perhaps, he had dismissed the possibility in his mind too soon and should have just tried it.

Jake could feel Berri’s worry at this thought about being able to fly on his own, so he pushed those thoughts aside for now.

“Thank you, Blood and Berri, this is amazing.”

Berri wrung her hands. “I just, wanted to make it up to you, even a little. I was too impulsive, and I want to be better, for you…”

Ophelia said, “This must have been a lot of work. I bet you even gave up some time with the kids for this?”

Blood smiled with pride. “She was really on task, I have never seen her so focused. I helped her, of course, but she worked hard with me on these things. We still gave out food for the day and said hello, but she went right back to work.”

Jake had only had a little over a day to think over things, but in the end, he realized he might have blown things a little out of proportion regarding Berri being impulsive. She was distraught, and it was hard for her to act rational in a time like that. He was still hurt a little that she didn’t confide in him before acting, but the two of them were only a month or so before scheming their way through life.

Regarding making the choice without him, he realized that the two of them had some assurance that he would accept this. That, and this was what they truly wanted. He certainly didn’t like the haste in which the decision was made, but he understood that this was necessary, thanks to Echidna.

He had been mad at Echidna, but he realized that he still needs to meet her and have an understanding of why she did what she did. It was manipulative, but it could have served a good purpose in the end. Perhaps that isn’t justified to people in their minds, and the ends don’t justify the means, but it does to Jake.

The gods would almost Rube-Goldberg their words to accomplish their goals, and Jake had realized that most likely, even Hestia had done this to him. She mentioned the Nordic runes and how they were powered by faith and conviction of the Nords. How they could be controlled, or their power lost by the Nordic Gods. This led him to try to find an alternative in the case of ‘evil Odin,’ but in reality, it was likely she said this to achieve the goal of Jake finding out about demonic runes sooner.

She had her reasons behind why she didn’t just tell Jake about them directly, and he guessed it was the cost of information. Every piece of information she gave had a weight and a Price to let Jake know about it. By giving an open-ended statement about the runes that he should already have mostly known, the cost was likely quite low, bringing them into his thoughts by mentioning it like it was significant.

Keeping that in mind, perhaps Echidna had her own reason for offering this bargain– Both sides had paid something, and thus some balance was maintained. He would reserve his judgement for when he spoke with Hestia. If she didn’t condone Echidna’s actions, then he would do what he could to make her pay for what she did, to make things right.

“I’m sorry too, Berri. I do forgive you. I’m so proud of how far you’ve come, overall. We should all do our best to be better. Thank you for the gift.”

Berri was filled with joy, and blurred towards him. She hugged him, even though his armor was mostly in the way. Ophelia looked on with a smile at first, but she did join in the group hug.

Jake found that the cape detached from all four bracelets with a thought, becoming a regular cape once more. He leaped back into the basket, and they continued on to the rift.

They arrived at the first rift much faster than Jake had thought, the party averaging an excellent speed. They cleared four for the day, spending several hours, and used the portal home from a nearby village that they added to their protection.

The village was actually located in the valley and filled with hunters, that had taken to using traps and the bow and javelin quite well, along with shields. They had a wide variety of beastkin, and had included many from Tanda’s flock that she had arrived with originally. They had even managed to close a rift on their own without an auril hero, Jake learned. Many were interested in joining Jake’s guild, but would wait until the HQ was taken back.

This gave Jake a lot of hope for the beastkin. The hunter’s average level was a lot higher than many of the plateau’d villages, and it showed Jake that when beastkin formed rounded parties, they were highly effective.

They headed back to the Alliance HQ, and then went to scout the lost city, which they learned was called Wildheart. They took on several more rifts, and confirmed that much of the plateau not that far from Kenwodi had become blighted. Jake would let his guild clear it in the coming days, but for now, they headed to the old city.

It was not nearly the size of Kenwodi, being much smaller and across the land bridge. When they arrived, Jake was surprised at the inhabitants: stone men, along with the undead. He thought this was actually a boon, as killing them and collecting their loot would actually allow them to more rapidly build out their wall. Jake could conjure the stone, merging it with what they obtained here.

The stone people looked like those with auril would have quite the difficulty destroying them. They were large, and threw large rocks. The stone men had crystals for organs, and Jake thought they would end up being quite valuable.

Ophelia could kill them easily by targeting their heart or a powerful blow to the head, and when Jake looted one, a majority of it entered his storage bracelet. Jake would need much more to loot these and leave nothing behind. Even the wall could probably be dismantled, saving a bit of time for Jake, if he had Bloodberri demolish it into smaller chunks to fit into storage bracelets, perhaps.

Part of Jake almost wanted to leave the city here to farm it, as the rifts nearby reinforcing it were both the undead and the stone men. He could clear the undead ones and just leave those there, but he knew this was foolish. Allowing conquest territory near his base of operations was just asking for trouble, Tartarus machinations likely to lead to a stampede of terrible creatures here or other things.

A plan formed in Jake’s mind of the next few days. They would work their way towards the Alliance HQ, clear this city and rifts nearby, train and build his guild. They would also build gondolas each day towards all the villages, forming a web where beastkin can travel and easily arrive at Kenwodi, from any direction. Furthermore, they would work on the wall.