The brown slis were rapidly dying. His acid was strong. Stronger than the slis’ acid. However, it was no use. All slis were advancing on him in the tunnel, and he was trapped.
He used his skill again on the white sli facing the city. My wolves with slis were in position outside the tunnel. Even if he broke through, they would shred him.
What! Soone else had shown up, killing my wolves with rock spikes shooting out of the ground. I rushed my wolves in at him. Michael couldn’t be allowed to escape. He had to pay.
The slis missed as they leapt off the wolves’ heads. The man used his sword to cut them apart, but his sword lted. Michael rushed out of the tunnel, stepping in the blue slis. Yes, suffer!
I enjoyed watching with my wolves as his feet lted. Just one bit of pain I needed to pay you back with before I finally killed you. That was when he leapt on one of my wolves. I couldn’t tell what he was saying. I winced as he crushed the wolf’s head. That had been unpleasant to experience.
That was when I began to lose control over my most distant summons. What was going on? One summon broke away completely. I looked around myself. We were making good progress across the grasslands.
I focused. The energy was denser here than in the city. My tethers to my summons were struggling to maintain themselves. Each tether was tied to the level of the monster I summoned. The weaker monsters used less energy so had thinner tethers.
The connection to more of my monsters snapped. Dammit. I had no monsters that could intercept Michael. He had escaped. At least I had critically wounded him.
“Did you get him?” Nox asked.
“No. Soone ca to his rescue.” I thought I heard her curse under her mask.
“Middle eastern, middle aged?”
“Yes.”
“Naran,” Nox hissed out. “He used to run the city of Truth as its Lord. He defected and Michael took him under his wing. But this isn’t good. Michael will be coming for us.”
“I injured him and forced him to retreat to the plaza.” He was going to get a restoration. I had lost my chance. Well, if the first ti failed, I would just have to gather up more energy and summons and try again.
“How badly? Did he lose a limb?” Nox asked.
“His feet were lted a bit.” There were other minor injuries, but that was the only serious damage I had inflicted on him.
“We should leave. You spot any pursuit?” Nox asked. I wasn’t about to reveal my limitations to her.
“No pursuit, the tunnel is still blocked off.” The level 2 white sli was still under my control. I needed to see how far the tether would extend.
“Good. If we can reach the edge of the summoner ants by tonight, then we should reach the city of New Cairo by tomorrow evening.” She glanced over at the people pulling the cart and walking with us with slis at our head. Then at sitting on the cart. I gave her a stare back daring to say anything since I had level 2 scorpion and several wolves with slis under my control around us.
A person showed up as we crossed over a hill. “Hey there. Woah, a large group. Monsters?!”
“Acid Shot.” The person died screaming. I looked at Ruth or Nox. I didn’t know she knew that skill. She had two skills. She was not to be underestimated in the slightest. I noted other people in the distance, poking out of the tall grass, quickly move away from the screams.
“Who was that?”
“A grinder clearing level 1 monsters outside the city. If we run into anymore, kill them, but we don’t have ti to chase any of them down. We have to keep moving.” I frowned, but she was right. I needed ti to prepare for when Michael got a restoration and ca after us.
“We could take them hostage,” I suggested.
“We don’t have the ti or the food for that. Let’s keep moving. We need to cover as much distance as possible. Only once we are past the summoner ants, will we have so safety.” A monster that summoned other monsters, now that was interesting. The cart pullers and the few remaining people with brown slis on their heads began moving again.
I could control the blue slis that ca from the white sli. Would I be able to summon summoner monsters and then have an exponential army? The thought made smile slightly and took away the annoyance of the tether limits I had encountered.
We quickly went through the grasslands, due East without incident. When we reached the next zone of deadlands, I felt my tether snap to my level 2 monster remaining in the city. The energy also was thicker in this zone.
I could summon a large amount of level 2 monsters and attack the city from quite a distance. I considered doing just that. Then I glanced at Nox. I couldn’t allow her to see how summoning was perford. While she was an ally, I didn’t trust in the slightest. I had no doubt she would kill if she had the chance.
Unfortunately, she was just too useful to kill, for now. She used Acid Shot and killed a giant scorpion, picking up the crystal it dropped. I considered all the crystals in the cart. She would probably want a portion, but I would keep most of it. Still, I had done all the work, what had seen done? Just complained and worried.
Once at the city I would need to control the store. From there I could send people out to kill monsters for or starve to death. Nox would be able to leave on my behalf, but everyone else there would have to obey or die. She could act as my eyes outside the city and bring information.
From there I would build up my power and slowly spread outwards. But I couldn’t do negative energy training while keeping my summons around. Perhaps forming an elite and loyal personal guard. I would need to monitor their stats carefully.
Yes, that would be ideal. They could take skills and provide another layer of defense and attack. But I would lack the control I had over my summons. If they left the city, I wouldn’t be able to keep a summon with them.
That was when I had another brilliant idea. I thought it over as Ruth kept clearing and advancing. When we reached the teleporting striped erkats, we slowed down, but we slowly made our way through them losing only two people and a couple monsters. Ruth was completely unhard when we called a stop for the night.
There were five people left, or five test subjects. Ti to run so experints. “You co here,” I pointed at one of the people. They got up from where they were sitting on the ground and ca over to the cart.
“Swallow this.” I handed them a level 1 crystal. They looked at it and then at .
“Please. Please no.”
“Swallow it or be lted.” The woman began to cry as she swallowed the crystal. Nox had stood up and was watching intently. I focused on the crystal inside the woman. I reached out and put a hand on her chest.
I focused and gave a similar push I gave for the powder process and summoning. The energy was stirring a bit, but quickly stopped. The energy was leaking out. It was why summoning required circles of powder, to reflect the energy of the crystal back on itself.
I got a flask of water and put so blood powder of the sa crystal type as the one I had fed the woman. “Drink,” I handed her the flask and she drank. I focused and felt the energy suspended in the liquid disperse into the woman. Similar to how other people reacted to the drug.
I reached out and touched her chest again. I focused and gave a push with my energy.
“AHHHH!” The woman let out a blood curdling scream.
“Dammit! That might attract sothing,” Nox said, but I didn’t pay much attention to her. I was far more fascinated by the transformation happening in front of . Physically, the woman was convulsing on the ground and screaming. What was far more interesting was how the energy was exploding inside of her and rging with her flesh.
It was like she was becoming closer and closer to what a monster ca across in my senses, a dense bundle of energy. Moving away from what a regular human ca across as, a space devoid of energy. In the city I hadn’t been able to tell the difference, but out here with these people and using Nox as a comparison, the difference was clear.
In a matter of seconds, the energy stilled. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Where there once was a woman, now there was a human shaped sli. There was a tether, but there was no energy draw. Instead, I could sense through the hybrid, and there was more.
There was pain, suffering, fear, but those feelings coming through the tether were quickly disappearing. Instead, there was nothing left behind.
“What did you do?” Nox asked in a shaky voice.
“I have created a hybrid. It is far better than just summoning a regular monster.” I began to move the hybrid about. The slosh of liquid in the human shaped sli casing was interesting. “The properties of a human and a sli.”
I couldn’t make it speak, but everything about it was so much better. It was a complete upgrade to my old summons. “You co here.” I gestured at a man.
“No! I won’t beco that!” He ran away. The brown sli engulfed his head. The gurgling screams were quickly cut off.
“You co here.” I pointed at an older man. He let out a long sigh and walked over. “Swallow and then drink.”
“From all those I may hurt, I ask forgiveness. To all who have hurt , I grant forgiveness. So, I return-AAHHHHH!” I ignored his pitiful ramblings and began to turn him into a hybrid, this ti I was using wolf crystals and powder.
How utterly brilliant of to discover this! Fur sprung up all over the old man. His legs beca digitigrade. His head turned into that of a wolves. A werewolf! I could feel the last screams of his consciousness and ignored that.
I flexed the powerful body. “Grrrr.” It couldn’t speak, but it could growl. I had the monster walk around a bit, getting used to controlling the new body. It senses were amazing. What was even better was the no energy cost. I needed to make. An army of monsters. I glanced at Nox, I wonder what would happen to soone with skills and stats.
Hmm, she still had her uses. For now. If I could use level 3 crystals on her, that would be the best. I would create an elite to always guard .
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