The Divine Summoner: Godson of Altima

by Antony W. F. Chow

  "Thanks, Luka!" Kherherac said as the soreness in his body faded. He raised his head and stared into Wickkuil's eyes. "You should have held back," he grumbled.

  "I did," the beastman grinned and revealed his sharp teeth.

  "Take a five-minute break," Terrwyn barked.

  The students sat on the ground to rest.

  Luka roamed the floor and cast Cleanse and Light Cure to help his comrades recuperate. The healer saw several students, especially the beastmen's partners, sporting nasty cuts and bruises.

  The relieved patients thanked Luka with smiles and nods. They didn't wish to complain and antagonize their beastmen partners.

  When the short period expired, Terrwyn clapped her hands. "Get up, everyone! For our next exercise, we will fight against Bel and Gripper," she announced.

  The students turned pale at her words.

  The two animals strolled toward the center of the floor and waited enthusiastically for their victims to draw closer.

  [Come here, babies! Let papa Bel teach you how to fight.]

  Hoot!

  The reluctant teenagers drifted over and formed a circle around Bel and Gripper.

  "Begin!"

  Luka's pets separated. The rabbit took big hops toward his first victim. Splat! His smelly butt smashed into Wickkuil's face!

  The beastman's sensitive nose was overwhelmed by this noxious smell. Wickkuil dropped to the ground, and his mouth foamed.

  "Whoa! The rabbit took out Wickkuil in one shot!"

  At the same time, Gripper jumped through the air. His target? Kherherac. Splat! The unfortunate victim turned into a human pancake!

  The students immediately retaliated, but the animals moved too quickly for the human eyes to follow. Bel targeted the beastmen with his headbutts because his attack was super effective against their superior sense of smell. Gripper focused his bodyslams against the unarmored humans because they were especially vulnerable to his pancakes.

  The observers watched in horror as the two animals quickly defeated vaunted members of the Elite Class.

  Terrwyn stood far away from the action. She shot an angry look at Luka and accused him of purposely humiliating her classmates.

  The owner shrugged because Luka didn't give any instructions to his pets; they went wild independently.

  When only students wearing armors remained on the field, Bel and Gripper changed their tactics. Gripper bellowed and pounded his chest. As he lured the humans to attack the gorilla, the tiny rabbit hopped around and tripped their feet.

  The students stumbled and knocked into each other.

  Gripper threw a big uppercut and turned them into human rockets!

  "Whaaa~" The students screamed as they flew across the field. Boom! Their crash landing created small craters on the ground!

  Luka shot Gripper an angry look before the mage teleported to the crash site. The healer winced when he saw that the handful of students sustained critical injuries, including a broken back and neck, fractured skulls, punctured lungs, and heavy internal bleeding. Luka immediately went to work and healed the most severe damage first.

  Once Luka finished treating his patients, he marched over to the fearful Gripper. The owner slammed his fist on top of the gorilla's skull.

  Gripper whimpered and shrank his body.

  "You need to control your strength," Luka admonished.

  Gripper nodded his understanding.

  "As punishment, you'll skip dinner tonight."

  The animal's head dropped. He looked at Bel for help.

  [You went overboard. Now take your lump like a champ.] Bel puffed out his chest as encouragement.

  The young gorilla regained his spirit. Hoot!

  Ding! A school official rang a small bell to signal the end of their allotted practice time in the training grounds.

  "Let's leave," Terrwyn ordered.

  As the Elite Class emptied the field, the students in the stands pointed at Bel and Gripper. Their battle prowess made a strong impression on the observers, who now had to account for the two during the Battle Royale event.

  Luka smiled faintly as their frantic conversations drifted into his ears.

  Once the group stepped out of the training facility, Terrwyn turned to address them. "We got our butts kicked inside. The other classes are going to underestimate us. That's a fair price to pay for our collective humiliation. If you're feeling as angry as I am, then channel your wrath into action for the Battle Royale match! I'm canceling afternoon practice so that everyone will get plenty of rest. Dismissed!"

  Terrwyn grabbed Zivadin's arm before he left. "You will treat us to a meal after the Battle Royale match, right?"

  "Yes." He hoped the class rep forgot his promise. Unfortunately, she refused to let him off.

  Chapter 77

  Battle Royale

  The Elite Class gathered in their homeroom the next morning. After the school bell rang, Tannyll entered the room and confirmed everyone was present. "Good morning, class! Let's go to the training grounds." he chirped. The homeroom teacher led his class to the training grounds, and they lined up in front of the podium.

  The rest of the freshmen noticed their arrival. Some students threw provocative looks their way while others played it cool. They all realized the Elite Class was the biggest obstacle to attaining first place in the Battle Royale event.

  Many were unconvinced that its members deserved the top spot during the school trip to the Morninglory Dungeon. Instead, they believed that the elite students overly relied on Luka. Plus, only three Elite Class members making the top ten scorers list confirmed this belief.

  The class representatives took control and made the would-be provocateurs stop their actions. After all, teachers and administrators also sat in the audience, and they were observing the students. The student leaders worried that their members would receive suspensions for harassing other students in violation of the student handbook rules.

  When all the freshmen classes arrived for the morning assembly, Headmaster Ladis magically appeared behind the podium. "I'm happy to see everyone here on time this morning. I'm excited to see your growth since the school field trip several months ago."

  "The matches will take place on this field. A match will end when all participants from one class either concede or get knocked out. No killing is allowed, and our field judges will intervene as necessary to prevent student deaths. These officials also carry magic rings to expel disobedient students from this arena. Let's have a good, clean fight, everyone!"

  With a wave of his hand, the podium and platform entered the headmaster's magic storage. Ladis then flew into the stands and took his seat.

  The starting match involved Class E and K. The battlefield appeared crowded to the audience since one hundred participants were inside. However, the judges made each combatant wear a colored armband -- red for Class E and blue for Class K. These colored stripes allowed the field officials to determine when all contestants of one class departed the field.

  Luka took an interest in this matchup because he briefly trained Class K. The members consisted primarily of muscleheads. He spent a lot of time forcing them to listen to the class representative. The instructor was happy to see Class K enter a formation today because they were too undisciplined to do so previously.

  Luka turned his attention to their opponents and frowned. Class E contestants were mostly humans who wore expensive-looking equipment. He assumed that at least half of them were nobles. In contrast, only a handful of students in Class K came from noble backgrounds. The disparity in wealth between the two groups was evident to the audience; hence, no one expected Class K to win this battle.

  "Begin!" the head judge barked.

  "Charge!" Both sides immediately rushed to attack.

  Luka winced and looked away because he wasted a week of his life training Class K.

  Sure enough, Class E's mages gleefully threw Fireballs at the charging enemies and blew them out of the arena. Then their classmates methodically c
ut down the survivors.

  The entire battle ended in five minutes -- after several Class K participants stubbornly refused to surrender and stretched the match. But in the end, the holdouts were overwhelmed.

  The audience politely applauded. Class E won the match as expected while their opponents performed poorly.

  The fights continued running throughout the morning. Most outcomes favored teams dominated by the nobility, with one notable exception: Class J won its match against Class F. In that battle, the demons went berserk and overwhelmed their opponents with sheer strength and aggressiveness. They chased after the humans like rabbits and knocked the poor kids out of the arena.

  The demonkind's barbarity frightened Class F's participants and made the defenders lose focus. Under Verusha's guidance, Class J's mages took advantage and sent a ton of Fireballs at the enemy commanders. Once they defeated the leadership, the formerly competitive match became a complete route for Class J.

  After the battle ended, the demonic students cheered and pointed their fingers at Luka.

  The observers were shocked to discover a secret, hidden relationship between the Godson of Altima and demons! They started gossiping about Luka and what this meant for the church.

  Luka rolled his eyes at their misunderstanding. He saw the gesture as an appreciation for training Class J and helping them attain an improbable victory. Frankly, Luka didn't care what others thought, and he didn't bother to clarify his relationship with the demons.

  After a lunch break, the Battle Royale event resumed. Unfortunately, Class J's cinderella tale ended with a resounding defeat to Class B.

  During the intermission, all the competitors devoted time to thwarting the J team's rise. Their leaders met and came up with a specific strategy to defeat the usurpers: use magic to bind the demons and bypass them to go after the mages and other vulnerable students.

  When Class B drew the assignment, they executed this strategy to perfection because it carried ten magic casters. The mages harrassed Class J's demons and beastmen with spells stifling movement. The squad of forty warriors then cut down the defenseless students to end the match. Afterward, those fighters turned toward Luka and made a thumbs-down gesture. Etla shrugged apologetically.

  "Bastards!" Terrwyn blurted out in taking the bait.

  Her classmates raised their middle-fingers and verbally taunted the other class in retaliation.

  "Let's hope they meet us in the finals," Wickkuil said calmly.

  "Guys, behave!" Tannyll warned.

  The Elite Class members dropped their hands. To their disappointment, the provocateurs lost to Class A in the semi-finals. The observers jeered at the defeated team. "Get off the field, losers!" they yelled.

  "Guys, I hope you're prepared to take on Class A. They are extremely talented, and you can't take them lightly," the homeroom teacher warned.

  "We won't," Terrwyn promised.

  After a ten-minute recess, the head judge signaled for the teams to enter the field. Tannyll led the Elite Class from the stands. The elvish teacher kept a gentle facial expression as the audience stared at him. Tannyll moved at a leisurely pace as if he was browsing the shelves in a bookstore. His slow walk forced Class A to wait longer for their rivals' appearance on the field.

  Some nobles on the A team became upset because they believed that the elf was purposely delaying the start of this match.

  "Stay focused!" the class rep snarled. He couldn't believe they fell for some silly tricks! The academy required enrollees to be at least fifteen years of age (and legal adults in the Morninglory Kingdom). But sometimes, the leader felt like a nanny keeping kids out of trouble. He resisted the temptation to slap their faces publicly to avoid humiliating them right before the battle begins.

  "Remember our battle plan," the rep growled. Class A observed the Elite Class practice closely and came up with a method to deal with Bel and Gripper as their top priority. Their secondary targets were the beastmen.

  All thirty members of Class A belonged to the human race, and two-thirds came from the nobility. Furthermore, a majority of the nobles had close ties to the Divine Church of Light. They possessed conservative, if not outright hostile, attitudes toward demihumans. Thus, the nobles pushed to target the Elite Class beastmen first.

  Also, the leader received vital data on the Elite Class composition of attackers, defenders, archers, and mages courtesy of the church's information network. The class rep then split the class into subgroups to deal with each aspect of their enemies. Following this strategy, Class A changed equipment during the break.

  Soon, the two groups lined up and faced off on the ground. Terrwyn's eyes surveyed her enemies' battle formation and hid her surprise because it differed from their previous matches. The commander also noticed that Class A had changed their armaments. In particular, she witnessed several attackers carrying bolas on their belts. "I want Viggo, Gertorn, and Kherherac to keep an eye on the folks with bolas and figure out who they are targeting. Intervene as necessary to protect your teammates," Terrwyn ordered.

  "Okay." "Aye."

  "I expect Class A to use their numerical advantage in a blitzkrieg attack to end this fight early. Our tanks will have to stuff them in their tracks while our mages take them down. If we succeed in this task, we will win," she continued.

  Bang-bang-bang. The party members made noise to acknowledge her words.

  Thoma began to cast buffs on the melee fighters and emptied his magic power. He took a magic potion to recover and moved toward the back.

  The attackers felt a warm energy surge through their bodies. Wickkuil howled, and his followers joined him. The group stared at Class A with malicious intent; they imagined the carnage soon to appear.

  The head judge saw that both teams had finished their preparations. "Begin!"

  As Wickkuil's group charged at their enemies, Class A's vanguard twirled their bolas in the air. These weapons soon became airborne and entwined the beastmen's legs.

  While the bolas launched, archers sent a flurry of arrows into the sky, and the projectiles landed close to the rear section of the Elite Class formation.

  The Elite mages danced around to avoid these missiles. However, the big and clumsy Thoma tripped over his feet and fell. The next instant, an arrow pierced his left shoulder!

  When the beastmen fell to the ground, Class A ran past them instead of finishing off the immobilized enemies.

  Uhaen quickly summoned his two ogres and used them to block the enemy attackers. He felt terrible for ignoring Thoma's predicament, but the summoner couldn't spare any time to pull the arrow out.

  The Class A forward unit couldn't brake in time, and they slammed into the massive, gray hulks.

  The ogres slammed their thick clubs and launched the dazed bodies into the sky. The victims' screams of terror abruptly ended when they landed in the stands.

  Kayne huffed in anger when she saw Class A's attackers spread wide apart. Since her Fireball would catch only one enemy, the fire mage switched to casting Magic Missiles instead.

  "Kherherac, go cut those bolas!" Terrwyn commanded. She pushed the frontline forward to cover the entangled comrades.

  "Yes, boss!"

  Two enemy mages cast Firestorm at the leader.

  Evanora sensed the magic and countered with an Icestorm. Since the mage exhausted her magic to power her spell, it reduced the enemy's damage effect by two-thirds.

  Terrwyn stoically stood her ground and blocked the remaining magic with her tower shield. However, the searing heat burned her left hand and arm. Her limb became numb with pain, and her mind turned dizzy as her body entered a state of shock.

  Kherherac immediately fed her a healing potion.

  Opponents tried to take advantage of the situation and charged at Terrwyn. Their eyes danced with anticipation of glory for taking out the enemy leader. They slashed their swords at the immobile target.

  But the newly freed Wickkuil jumped in front of Terrwyn. He blocked their blades with his massiv
e weapon. The beastman used his anger as fuel to increase his strength. BAM! His overwhelming power knocked the four swordsmen on their heels. Wickkuil swung his bastard sword again and tossed their bodies into the bleachers! However, this small victory against these goons failed to lessen his humiliation of being entangled. The beastman's eyes darted across the field in search of more prey.

  Wickkuil glanced at Terrwyn before moving away. He saw that she was still on her knees and unable to fight. The beastman decided to take charge of the class. "Follow me! Push forward!" he roared.

  The Elite Class heard his cry. They saw him stand next to Terrwyn, who remained motionless and assumed the worst happened to her. The members immediately chose to follow Wickkuil's command. They formed a line with him at the center and spaced wide apart to avoid an AoE spell.

  "Target the corners!" the enemy leader yelled. Class A's rep stood in Wickkuil's path. Their eyes met, and they nodded in silent agreement. The two entered a duel and began to fight. Klang! The first clash of swords was a draw. The two powerhouses furiously hit each other repeatedly. Four hits, eight, ten. Their weapons clashed like unstoppable tidal waves!

  The other combatants stopped their activity to watch this unlikely duel. The Elite Class beastmen were shocked to see a human match Wickkuil blow for blow. Meanwhile, the noble students prayed for Altima to lend her strength to their class representative.

  The two duelists exchanged over a hundred attacks with no winner in sight. Suddenly, they heard a loud crack! The fighters realized that someone's blade was starting to break apart -- but which one? They struck with renewed fury while hoping their weapon would last to the bitter end.

  Alas, both swords broke at the same time! But some debris flew toward the human's face, and he instinctively ducked.

  Wickkuil's stoically accepted the cut to his cheek and immediately punched his opponent in the face. Pow! His victim dropped, face-first, to the ground.

  ROAR! Wickkuil declared his victory!

  His followers roared and grew even more aggressive. The beastmen wreaked havoc and knocked out the human defenders.