Chapter 363. Kelsan’s Creatures.

  “Contestants for the first matches, please report to the designated area on the field,” the same elderly gnome woman as before announced, her voice magnified to be heard clearly by everyone near the training fields and somehow at the same, comfortable volume and not a loud shout.

  I was close to where I needed to be and felt a small amount of resistance as I passed through the barriers that protected the onlookers from the spells and weapons used on the training fields. It was still a bit unclear exactly where I was supposed to be during the actual match or how the matches would run. For my fight, an area of about a third of the total field had been set aside. The rest of the field would be used by different brackets.

  Another professor that I had only greeted in passing waited in the middle of the field as our official for the match. A strange, vaguely humanoid creature approached from the far end of the field, who I assumed was my opponent. Once again, I had to tamp down my instinctual revulsion and fear over some of the stranger-looking beings that inhabited the multiverse.

  Kelsan Spindrix walked upright, but on four, spider-like legs. His torso was normal enough, but where his clothes didn’t cover, I could see his body was an exoskeleton, not flesh. His head was oversized, with a pair of mandibles instead of a normal mouth. A half dozen eyes were placed on either side of a slit that must have been Kelsan’s nose.

  “Hi, I’m Kelsan, I’m looking forward to our match. I heard you were a rather accomplished summoner. I hope I can keep up,” Kelsan said in a friendly manner.

  “Hi, Kelsan, it’s good to meet you as well. Where do you work?” I asked, a bit curious why I had never seen him before.

  I had met most of the faculty at some time or another in the cafeteria, or when working directly with them in class. Of course, given his appearance, Kelsan might be a species that had rather unusual dining habits, like Melody. Those students and faculty had special areas outside of the cafeteria that fit their dietary needs. It was probably better not to ask too many questions about how beings that looked like Kelsan ate their supper.

  “I’m not an instructor, I work in facilities and have odd hours which is probably why we never ran into each other,” Kelsan responded. Any further chitchat was cut off by the professor in charge of administering the matches on this field.

  “Greetings to you both, I’m Professor Gelbman, and I’ll be the referee for this field today. Have either of you participated in the faculty tournament before?” Professor Gelbman asked. We both shook our heads no, and the professor was happy to fill us in on what was expected of us.

  “Before the match begins, you’ll both be placed at opposite ends of the field. When I give the order to begin, you’ll have one minute to summon your minions. I need to warn you that no enhancement spells, or consumable items may be used for the match. The only exception is if they are a necessary component to summon your minions.

  “Once you have summoned your minions and given them whatever instructions you wish, I’ll have you both step back through the barrier and stand with me to watch the match. Are there any questions?” Gelbman asked. It seemed simple enough and we both indicated that we were ready.

  “Good, Rico, you’re at that end of the field, and Kelsan, you’re at the other. As soon as you reach your end of the field, I’ll get things rolling,” Gelbman instructed. I hurried to my assigned area, which the system helpfully highlighted for me. Once there, Professor Gelbman pointed at us to confirm we were ready, then a timer appeared in the middle of the field.

  Wasting no time, I summoned the drone first, then Elida. Clancy would remain where he was, hopefully earning me more gold, and finding useful items. Once both my minions were on the field, I gave them some brief instructions. Mainly, I wanted them to stick together, if possible, and use their most powerful attacks up front to try and end the match quickly.

  Both my minions needed little direct control, they were competent fighters and had operated without my direct command in many battles. With the two of them squared away, and the instructions given, I hustled over to where Professor Gelbman was waiting just outside the protective barrier and in the middle of our section of the field.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  As I moved, I checked out what Kelsan had brought to the fight. A trio of minions waited on his end of the field, one of which was the same species as Kelsan. That one was dressed in a glimmering robe and struck me as a mage or healer of some sort. His other two minions consisted of a giant beetle the size of a truck, and an orc-like humanoid with four arms. The orc, as I decided to call him, held two longer spears in the top set of arms, and an axe and mace in the others.

  I was too far away to inspect their gear, but I thought I caught a wisp of flames coming from the orc’s axe as the minion slowly swung it side to side. As far as armor, the orc wore only light chainmail and seemed entirely focused on offense, with little regard for defense. Given Kelsan’s tier and rank, I assumed that the orc’s gear was enchanted to some degree, and the strange mage probably had a solid array of spells or magical items to use.

  My minions stood ready, and the pair were almost comical in their size difference. The drone towered above Elida, but the halfling battle mender was formidable despite her size. Professor Gelbman shouted for the fight to begin, and our minions went on the attack.

  Elida and the drone had decent ranged options that they used as the pair closed the gap between their foes. The drone wisely targeted the mage and his grenade launcher fired at a steady pace as they moved. Elida cast a spell, launching Deadly Beam at the orc. After that spell was complete, she then cast Personal Shield to bolster her defense.

  Seeming to lack any ranged attacks, the orc charged forward at surprising speed. When Elida’s beam hit him, it was absorbed by some protective magic. Either the mage had buffed his allies, or the orc had gear or abilities to protect him. In response, the orc hurled his axe, which sped across the field, only to be blocked with a loud clang by Elida’s Personal Shield. After deflecting off the shield, the axe flew back into the orc’s hand.

  A ball of black energy was cast toward Elida by the mage just before the first of the drone’s grenades landed. The energy smacked into Elida’s shield and burst apart. I was shocked to see it wasn’t just some form of mana energy, it was actually a tightly compressed ball of spiders. A good portion of the spiders were crushed by the impact with the shield, but a sizeable portion flew out of the ball and landed on Elida. They started to scurry all over her as they sought out any gaps in her armor.

  With hundreds of bites landing, Elida was getting pumped full of venom. Her reaction was to activate Gleaming Aura that quickly burned off the numerous, yet individually weak spiders. A portion of the damage delt to the spiders, in turn, healed Elida, whose health was dropping fast from the sheer volume of deadly venom pumped into her from the myriads of spider bites.

  The mage wouldn’t be a concern any longer, and didn’t get to fire another spider ball as the first grenade hit. Knocked off his feet by the blast, the mage was otherwise undamaged as several protective spells activated to mitigate the damage. Unfortunately for the mage, his protections were down, and the next two grenades blasted him into pieces.

  Another grenade landed among the mage’s remains, but the drone managed to shift fire and land his last shots near the orc. It too had magical protections, and was agile enough to avoid a direct hit. Fragmentation from the grenades peppered the orc, taking down its remaining magical defenses, leaving it with just its light chainmail armor, and ability to dodge and parry.

  I had been worried about the giant beetle, but it was struggling as the drone activated its plasma beam generator which burned right though the beetle’s carapace. It continued to melt the beetle even as the last grenade landed near the orc. Creating a pair of javelins for its smaller arms to use, the drone hurled those at the orc as it finished off the beetle with the plasma beam.

  The beetle crashed to the ground dead, and the drone shifted the beam to the orc. It missed for a good second or two before the agile orc was finally clipped by the beam. The plasma beam moved across the orc’s body, burning completely through the four-armed menace. Before it could finish the orc off, the beam ran out of power.

  Reaching the drone, the orc landed a few stabs with its spears, both of which proved to be enchanted, and able to penetrate the drone’s excellent armor. It wasn’t enough to seriously disable the drone, who whirled its bladed arms, eviscerating the orc, and dropping it to the ground.

  “We have a winner, congratulations, Adjunct Professor Kline, you’ll proceed to the next round of matches,” Professor Gelbman announced. It felt good to win and still have both my minions on their feet when I faced a foe that was a rank higher than I was.

  “Well fought, Kelsan, that mage of yours is a nasty opponent,” I said.

  “Not nasty enough, your team is impressive. I’d like a chance to spar and pick your brain a bit if you ever have some free time,” Kelsan replied, showing good sportsmanship.

  “I’d like that as well,” I replied as Kelsan gave me directions on how to leave a message for him with some times I was open for a sparring session.

  There was going to be a bit of a break before my next match, perfect for getting a peek at what the rest of the summoning faculty could do on the battlefield.