Rise of the Weakest Summoner

“Honey?” Miria asked quietly, leaning closer to the women.

“He means power and fame in this particular scenario,” her mother clarified. “Contrary to how his impressive build might suggest, Grigorji wasn’t a born fighter. His family was loved for their incredible honey cultivation abilities. You can say he was a farm boy before bandits raided his village and murdered most residents, including his parents. He’s been on a warpath since then, until he joined our team.”

“When he gets very emotional or angry, his speech tends to subconsciously switch back to how he talked during his youth. Grig put a lot of effort into getting rid of it since he thought it made him look silly and didn’t fit a strong male such as himself,” Narmaya added and gave them a polite nod, retreating to calm down her husband.

“He’ll be back to normal in a moment.” Oria caressed Miria’s ear. “We should give them some time to process the news.”

And so, they did as she’d said. It was a bit awkward just standing there and watching as the wife and the son were attempting to soothe their husband’s and father’s rage with words and physical affection. Even more with the fifteen Molekin still observing everything from their half-burrowed positions. They hadn’t stopped keeping an eye on Ast’s group for a second. And no one blamed them for that, naturally.

“We should have culled that weed when we had the chance.” Grigorji huffed while letting himself be brought back in front of the four ladies from Ast’s side.

“You know that wasn’t our style, honey.” Narmaya kept grazing his chest with her fingers. “No one could have predicted that.”

“How?” He turned to Oria, his expression still partially enraged. “Why?”

“We don’t know anything about the latter yet, unfortunately.” She offered him a weak smile. “As for the former, he sent out a pair of Painted Dogs to smoke us out through various vile means. They found Charkes and it turns out his collection was a bit bigger than he let on. Some of it belonged to us. My lure involved a blood craze with a piece of my old suit as the catalyst. Thankfully, we figured it out before it worked.”

The Deerkin covered her mouth in shock. “He is going that far? That’s too much for petty revenge. Did anyone get hurt?”

“No, our village has strong hunters and scouts,” Zoe chimed in for the first time. “The beast attacks were getting more frequent but we had no trouble dealing with them. And we had Miria in case anything serious happened. Right?”

“Obviously!” Miria preened under the praise. “I would have come home to help our village immediately! Everyone would!”

“Nevertheless, we made the trackers fall into our trap instead and confronted them,” her mother continued. “They admitted to coming after me third, aiming for you next. We extracted as much information as we could from them and you can be sure that I didn’t hold back, even if it’s been a while since my last operation.”

“I wish I could have seen it.” The man growled lightly. “Your needles and blades always worked wonders. Especially when combined with Narmaya’s herbs and concoctions.”

“I didn’t prolong it too much so you wouldn’t get to enjoy the show anyway.” Oria smirked knowingly. “And my daughter turned the other one into mush before I could get to her, so there was that. Thankfully, we had a technique that browses the target’s memories so nothing was lost.”

The mated pair glanced at the panthergirl with an impressed glint in their eyes. Miria blushed fairly and ducked under their curious gazes. Her mom snickered silently and waved her hand.

“Why don’t you two go and get acquainted while the adults talk,” the feline lady suggested, looking between her and Ulgier. “You’ve already seen all of what we are going to mention anyway.”

“I’m an adult now too, Mom!” The panthergirl pouted while crossing her arms over her supple chest. “But I’m curious about your friends since you haven’t shared any stories with me yet so I’ll do just that.”

She smiled cheerfully at the young Bearkin man and skipped to the side so they could chat without getting in their parents’ way. He gave his family a hesitant glance and soon followed after her. Oria looked in Ast’s direction with a faint trace of worry shared through their connection, but he simply smirked back at her. He had nothing against her suggestion as Miria could always use more friends her age and from a similar background. There was no reason he would ever doubt her loyalty either so her getting friendly with others didn’t bother him as much as it would some other beastfolk.

Zoe stepped back too, falling in line with him and leaving the discussion mostly to Oria. She didn’t feel like there was a need for her to interrupt. He brought her a small confidence boost in the form of some ear scratches which she silently appreciated. Her tail was quite expressive about it, though, making the other ladies laugh sneakily.

“To think that our efforts turned out to be for naught.” Narmaya rubbed her eyes. “We were so sure this would have been enough. That even if one of us got compromised, the others would be fine. Yet, all of us somehow ended up hunted like prey.”

“We still reduced the number of casualties to a minimum, Narmaya.” Oria cupped her cheeks tenderly. “From what I know, neither Leonin nor Charkes have involved anyone in their retreat. They have no idea about our past supporters or allies. Just us. So, don’t feel regretful. Our decision saved lives.”

The big man chuckled a little. “You sound so much like Leo. It’s a surprise the two of you didn’t hit off. But well, you turned down pretty much everyone from the squad. You know, back then we were betting you would be the last in your line.”

“Grig!” His mate swatted him on the shoulder. “That’s awful! How could you guys?”

He raised his thick arms in surrender. “Hey. Don’t act like you didn’t think the same. Finding someone stronger than her would have been a miracle. My lower jaw still aches when I look at her fists. Not to mention my missing fang.”

“There is something to that.” Oria laughed cordially. “I was blinded by my ideals, limited by social rules that mean nothing in the big world. However, I don’t regret it. It’s what allowed me to find my beloved at the end of that path, who opened my eyes to the beauty of the simpler things. And made me appreciate agility way more than strength.”

Narmaya giggled with a tinge of rosiness decorating her sleek cheeks. The two exchanged knowing glances.

“Amazing!” Miria’s excited voice brought them out of their musings. “How much is that?”

Everyone turned to look at Ulgier flexing his muscular arms covered with brown fur half up his shoulder. His legs were clad in it up to the middle of his thighs too. Miria applauded him joyfully, being her usual cheerful and friendly self.

“Almost forty percent,” he replied proudly. “I’m short of making a breakthrough. I just need a little more time and practice.”

Narmaya chuckled sweetly and glanced back at Oria. “Like mother, like daughter. Looks like she inherited your taste in males. We should be careful or she might fall for our impressive boy. Though, that might actually be a good thing. A nice way to connect our families after so long.”

The panther lady snorted in amusement, shooting a quick peek Ast’s way. “I wonder who is going to fall for who.”

He chuckled too, reassuring her again that he cared not about their little flirting.

Especially since…

“That’s incredible!” Miria grinned infectiously. “I know personally how hard it is to advance in your bloodline! It took me weeks with the Elders to push up to that point!”

“Did you mean to say years?” Ulgier frowned at her.

Miria just kept grinning for a moment longer and tensed her muscles, faint growls escaping her slightly twitching lips. Her black fur crawled up and up over her limbs and body until there was no more skin visible to the world, her face gaining much more feline features and angles. Finished, she placed her furry hands on her hips and spun around while giggling adorably.

“W-What?” Ulgier took a step back and fell onto his ass.

Grigorji and Narmaya stared at her with their jaws down the farthest they could go. Their heads slowly rotated towards Oria with pure disbelief flooding their eyes, alongside a thousand questions. Oria tried not to smirk but it was extremely tough so she hid her mouth behind her fingers, involuntarily exuding an aura of pride and accomplishment.

“But that’s not all!” Miria exclaimed delightedly. “Masteeeeeeeeer! Can we do the Fire Kitty trick? Pleeeeeeeeeease?”

She leaped to Asterios so fast the others saw nothing but a black smudge crashing into his chest. He rolled his eyes and patted her charming ears.

“We are standing in the very middle of a massive gas cloud. Can we?” He raised a questioning brow at her.

She hopped off him and squirmed sheepishly, joining her hands behind her back.

“Oops.” Miria put her tongue out playfully. “Big Kitty, then? Pretty please, Master?”

He looked down into her sparkling eyes and sighed softly, giving her a small nod. She instantly rubbed their cheeks together while jumping up and down and spun around to face away, ready for the spell.

Asterios nonchalantly drew the complex sigil with his right hand and didn’t bother attaching it to his glove. He pumped it full of his mana as Miria ran forward and began her shift. The black mist grew in size as she moved, and after a few seconds, it dispersed with a building-sized panther stomping over the gravel around them, throwing the Molekin into a slight panic as they hid before she could squash them with her paws.

With his other hand, he crafted another rune, this time helping his feline mate voice her thoughts properly through the mana-sound transmission she was still practicing.

“Look at me!” She boasted as she pounced from place to place, stopping in front of the fallen Werebear. “I bet I could chomp on you whole!”

“Miria,” Asterios called after her and she trotted up to him, going through the same morphing process until she stood before him with a questioning expression, tilting her adorable face a bit. “We talked about this. It’s alright to be proud of yourself and boast a little, but there should be limits. Especially with males. Our ego can easily suffer a crushing blow, you know? You two just met each other and now look at him.”

She snuck a peek at Ulgier over her shoulder and saw the man struggling to get up on his shaky legs. He noticed and tried to smile awkwardly. Turning back to Asterios, she flushed deeply and looked down bashfully.

“I’m sorry, Master… I forgot… After he showed off, I wanted to do the same… I didn’t think it over…” she apologized sincerely and he brought her red face up, playing with her soft hair.

“He did technically have it coming for trying to hit on you, so we’ll overlook this one.” He chuckled warmly. “You don’t need to apologize. I just wanted to remind you since you asked me to let you know when you get overexcited a tad. Intimidating someone by saying you can chomp on them counts into that, I think.”

She giggled guiltily. “Definitely. But, hitting on me, Master? Do you really think so?”

Asterios sighed softly, sensing the amusement of his other mates through their bond, and ruffled through her hair.

As oblivious when it came to anyone else than him as always.

With a nod, he directed her back to her new friend and Miria quickly trotted to the Bearkin man, apologizing for going a bit too far. She also bowed politely towards the Molekin guards. In the end, it was almost impossible to be mad at the cordial and sociable panthergirl for long.

“So, where were we?” Oria said with a big smile.

“You can’t just skip past all of that!” Narmaya protested, throwing her arms into the air. “How can she fully draw out her bloodline already? And that size? Oria!”

The mature panther woman just shrugged. “The first one is her own effort and luck in finding the best possible mate for herself. The second is magic, which I promised to explain later.”

Grigorji placed his big hand on his mate’s slim shoulder. “Let’s listen to her, honey. This is just too much. I’m already sensing the headache. First things first. Is there more to your story, Oria?”

“Not much, but yes. The hunters are dead but I couldn’t be sure he won’t send or already have sent more so I wanted to warn you to stay vigilant for a while. He doesn’t seem to have received information about our hiding spots but it’s better to be cautious than caught off-guard. We know where his stronghold is so it’s just a matter of time before he goes down. You won’t have to fret for much longer. Can you promise me that?”

“Promise you?” Narmaya blinked a few times. “Wait a moment, you aren’t staying with us? Where do you think you are going?”

Oria didn’t answer, simply keeping the same soft smile on her face, which meaning was more than obvious to her old comrades.

“Hell no. You aren’t going to storm a fortress on your own, even if your daughter is a full Unlocked. With only this many random people? If it was us five back in the golden days then maybe it would have been possible, but we are down to three and out of shape,” Grigorji opposed.

“We are going with you. That’s non-negotiable. You will need as many as you can get since it’s going to be impossible to change your mind.” His wife supported him fully. “Besides, this is our fight too. You can’t deny that.”

Oria met their intense gazes for a few seconds before looking back at Asterios with an unspoken question, searching his eyes for his opinion on this.

He nodded kindly. “They are right about at least one thing. Their desire for revenge is not lesser than yours. It’s up to you, but a few more people won’t make a difference. We’ll protect them from any harm. You have my word.”

She was about to respond with words of appreciation but was interrupted by an offended shout from Grigorji.

“You are going to protect us, magician? With all those lineage-less females? I can’t even tell what most of them are save for the Spiritual Fox. Who do you think you are, boy?” The man stomped forward with heavy feet, brownish smoke starting to gather around his frame.

“Grig!” Narmaya launched herself at his burly arm, trying to slow her mate down. “Oria, make your daughter’s teacher back off! You know Grigorji never stops until—”

She paused after meeting the gaze of her old friend, stunned into a stupor. Oria’s expression was full of resigned pity. But, it wasn’t self-directed. No, it was clearly aimed at the man in Narmaya’s grasp. She looked at the furless male behind her and smiled apologetically at him.

That momentary lapse in focus resulted in Narmaya losing her grip on her mate.

“Answer me!” The man roared before dropping on all fours and shifting into a massive brown bear.

He snarled viciously and stood on his hind legs, beating his chest with powerful thuds, towering over Ast’s group. Even the Molekin slid a bit deeper into their burrows, slightly afraid of the enraged beast.

Asterios slowly swiped down his face and tapped his cheek. He had just rebuked Miria and was already going to turn into a hypocrite judging by everyone’s expectant gazes. But, no one could be perfect so he waved Oria’s apology off as unnecessary and took a step forward too.

“Who am I, you ask? Well, someone who should know better than to rise to such a simple provocation, but at the same time, someone who should be unforgivably offended by it considering his lineage,” he replied firmly, crimson-onyx mist gathering around his frame. “Today, it seems, the situation requires me to be the latter.”

The red-black dust swirled and grew, overtaking Grigorji’s particles many times. Its sheer size caused the bear man to drop back onto all fours and stare at it anxiously. And when the spiritual obstruction finally dispersed, revealing a much bigger and more majestic crimson True Dragon with hints of darkness at its edges, he jerked back, falling onto his ass just like his son had. In his case, though, the movement paired with his weight and shape tossed him onto his back as Ast’s scary-looking jaws neared him from above with a low, deep rumble rolling through the clearing.

“Still doubting my capabilities?” Asterios asked with a powerful voice.

The girls stepped forward and rounded his fierce snout. Miria was already in her fully activated form, imposing as usual. Selene brought out all eleven of her tails and rose slightly into the air, surrounding herself with orbs of spiritual energy. Tina borrowed multiple features from her familiars, turning into a winged draconic warrior woman with a huge water bow in her hands. Bryn enveloped herself in golden spiritual armor and materialized the immense projection of just as ethereal Valkyrie above her, holding a pillar-sized spear in her heavenly hand.

Everyone turned to look at Silvia with fearful but anticipatory eyes. The princess smiled delicately and spread her arms.

“I’m afraid this region would turn into one massive crater if I tried to show anything,” she said politely.

They all blanched almost completely white, clearly misinterpreting her unwillingness to display her power. But, even knowing that, she didn’t see it necessary to correct them. Information and misinformation were quite important on the battlefield and in negotiations.

Asterios roamed his glimmering draconic eyes over all the moles and stopped at the bear in front of him. Grigorji shifted back involuntarily, just as pale as the others. Ast’s intense gaze moved to the man’s son and Ulgier swallowed heavily, taking a big step to the side away from Miria. To complete the full circle, he glanced at Narmaya too, offering the woman a light nod in recognition of the attempt to stop her mate.

Then, he transformed back and the ladies toned their demonstrations down too. Walking forward, he extended a hand towards the fallen Bearkin.

“We don’t intend to steal your chance at revenge. Allow us to take care of the grunts while you focus on what matters the most, at the same time, not having to worry about scanning your surroundings all the time,” Asterios shared his thoughts. “What do you think about that?”

“S-Sounds good… Yeah…” The man laughed wryly. “We can go with your plan…”

Nodding, Asterios helped him up and left him in the hands of his beloved. Then, he turned to the ladies, receiving a few words of gratitude from Oria. He assured her that it wasn’t much and approached Zoe, who stayed a bit behind everything that had happened.

“You guys always look so cool when you get serious.” The Wolfkin’s tail kept swinging like crazy as her cheeks showed hints of pink. “I’m so glad to witness it each time, right from the first day we met when you showed Gnesh who is the boss.”

As Miria hugged her best friend excitedly, Asterios smiled at Zoe and offered her a few pats, glad she hadn’t kept herself so far away due to feeling inadequate or something like that. She’d most likely sensed it was his mates stepping forward and was content just seeing them unleash their strength.

The Roundback family, as Ast’s group had learned their actual last name, discussed their temporary leave with their Molekin hosts and there seemed to be no issue with it. Considering the fact that the moles still looked kind of frightful of Asterios, it wasn’t a surprise they didn’t want to displease him.

“We’ll just get our gear and we are good to go,” Narmaya said after they returned their attention to Oria and the others.

“What weapons did you use in the past?” Asterios asked.

“Grig favored a greataxe while I was the best with a longbow, usually covering his reckless butt,” she replied, making her mate scratch his head coyly.

With a flick of his hand, Asterios summoned a Dragon-themed double-headed greataxe and a neat, vicious longbow with a full quiver of arrows, holding them towards the pair. “You can keep these. They are made of Dragonsteel, a metal fused with my own blood, which should be one of if not the most powerful alloys in this realm. You might not even need to sharpen them ever.”

They accepted his gifts with wide eyes and he turned to look at Ulgier. “And you?”

“I’m training with a greatsword…” the younger Werebear confessed.

Therefore, Asterios presented him with just as draconic greatsword as the rest of the gear and everyone had something to fell their enemies with. In terms of protection, he was confident in Selene’s ability to shield their bodies with spiritual energy when required. At her current level, that shouldn’t be an issue with just three people.

With that out of the way, he transformed once more and invited everyone onto his back. The Roundbacks struggled a bit while climbing his scales, but managed to get up there with some assistance. Bidding temporary farewell with the Molekin, he soared into the air and followed Umbra’s directions. 

During their trip, their new traveling companions marveled over the aerial sights and chatted about their lives after the separation. Miria learned a few new stories about her mother, gaining even more respect for her than she already had, which was an achievement on its own with how much she revered Oria. Without ever forgetting about her talented father, of course.

Less than three hours later, they reached the region from the memories of the Painted Dog duo. The general appearance of the place was extremely uneven and mountainous. There was barely any grass or trees anywhere, with plenty of hills, canyons, and huge rocks wherever one looked. It appeared quite barren, but at the same time, it certainly made it easier to spot anyone approaching the stronghold.

And speaking of the stronghold, they saw it from up high, a crude log fortress built with the purpose of serving as a den for some shady rather than to defend a point from enemy attacks. The layout was chaotic and clearly meshed up together as further upgrades and changes went on. Barely anything made logical sense save for the reinforced walls, gates, and a few watchtowers.

It was pure amateur work and everyone on Ast’s back could see that.

Now, they had multiple choices there. They could easily descend upon the unsuspecting bandits from above and decimate them in minutes. Asterios could even simply breathe fire at the structure, toasting most of the defenders alive and lighting the poor construction ablaze, but they couldn’t be sure no innocents were being held somewhere in there. And, they could also approach from the front gates, dealing with enemies as they came, slowly moving deeper into the heart of the stronghold until they faced the leader.

In the end, Asterios and the girls could feel the bloodthirst emanating from the trio of former vigilantes, choosing the third strategy. That could also allow them to advance in a more controlled and systematic manner, making it easier to keep an eye on the individuals they had sworn to protect. There was no doubt at least one or two of them would get lost in their rage for a moment or two.

So, they descended to the rocky path ahead of the main gate and hopped off, Asterios turning back into a human. They had been spotted a while ago and the ramparts were full of men and women peering past the outer wall, mostly Painted Dogs. Seeing only a bunch of attackers, they snarled and yipped at the bold idiots daring to challenge them, shaking their weapons.

“Is that all these dogs amount to? Waving their arms and screeching like strangled chickens?” Miria scrunched her nose. “I guess I expected too much from a so-called bandit fortress. This is nothing like in the stories.”

Her voice echoed clearly throughout the area and the defenders grew even more animated. At one point, they seemed angry enough to judge Ast’s small group tiny enough not to warrant sitting idly atop walls and they began jumping or sliding down, charging at them without any order and formation.

“These we can take care of, right?” Asterios asked, glancing over his shoulder at Grigorji and Narmaya.

They both nodded and he summoned his Spellslinger greatsword. Deciding not to deal with the first wave with the use of his tokens and instead using his own might, he infused it with his draconic mana combined with Silvia’s energy. The blade burst into flames and they soon settled down into a familiar smooth shape with vicious tongues of fire licking at the air over its edges.

Slowly raising it above his head, he pushed more and more of their combined mana into the weapon, making it churn harder and harder, quiet popping noises coming off it as small explosions riddled its otherwise calm surface. The crimson-amber swirls made it look so mesmerizing and magical.

Then, just as the first morphed Painted Dogs drew near, he calmly shoved the blade into the rocky ground with a decisive thrust, letting go of the grip. The sword sunk halfway into the uneven stone and a two-story-high wave of fire rolled forward, completely covering their view, mercilessly rushing further and further with a loud whoosh.

Pained yips and screams of agony traveled through the air, but whatever the flaming wall touched, left nothing but ashes behind its previous existence, the fire completely erasing anything on its path. Half-melted metal gear and equipment clattered to the ground as the only sign of someone being out there in the first place.

The ruthless wave of unstoppable flames smashed into the defenses and lit up the defenders atop them, dispersing into nothingness right after. The wooden structure wasn’t affected by the fire, remaining slightly scorched on the surface, nothing more.

Asterios retrieved his greatsword and held it on the side, glancing back at the others. Ulgier gaped at him with stars filling his honey-colored eyes, holding his own weapon with way too much slack. Realizing he was staring, he hastily fixed his grip and showed readiness to follow, a resolute and eager expression taking over his face.

“Let’s go, then. Our villains won’t kindly off themselves, will they?” Asterios smirked and rested his still-fiery sword on his shoulder, starting to march forward.