5) Light them if you got them

  To be fair, it wasn’t like I had the time to figure out any other alternatives other than summoning my Innate Totem. I could have tried to figure out how to turn at least one of the other Beast cores lying around me into a Totem and then summon up one of whatever that particular core had come from. It was even possible I could even summon more than one of whatever I would have gotten access to.

  But chances are that if I took the time to do anyone that, I would have had one or more of the Dread roaches nibbling away at me before I could accomplish anything. Other than, you know, dying while Viola watched helplessly from above, knowing she was trapped.

  And next.

  So… I had to work with what I had.

  Scuttling my Summons forward in a flop footed but quick run, I watched it stumble and fall flat as I focused entirely too much on how it was moving. What can I say? Seeing it in motion looked almost comical and trying to get a feel for how efficient its method of movement threw me completely off.

  And the dead black colored roach, with its oversized serrated mandibles held up in the air, scuttled right past the sprawled out Salamander.

  Manifestations, I realized, didn’t have Cores. Or classes, at least as far as I knew, so I guess Demons have no interest in summoned creatures as long as they don’t present themselves as obstacles.

  ...or threats. Which a fire lizard that had tripped over its own feet seemed not to be.

  Viola was yelling at the salamander about lying down on the job, so I had it scramble back to its feet by letting it do so without me trying to control its every motion and sending it off after the Dread roach without thinking about how it was moving. I instead focused on having it open its jaws and bite down on…

  No, not the body of the roach coming for me. The creature’s carapace looked pretty thick and strong, and I could see from my Core that the salamander’s teeth in its open mouth looked sharp, but they were tiny, with even its upper and lower fangs only slightly larger than the rest of its teeth.

  So I had the fire lizard go for a leg, and as it did a puff of flames came out of its mouth almost completely engulfing the roach before I finished clamping the Salamander’s mouth down on the bug’s left rear leg and had my summons use it’s grip to haul back on the roach.

  For a moment, the roach almost pulled free of the bite, then it did pull away, but it left behind the leg the salamander had clamped down on even as the bug’s severed rear limb withered away from the heat coming out from between the fire lizard’s clenched teeth.. I could even taste the acidic and bitter flavor in my Innate Summoned creature’s mouth before it burned away to a slightly burnt toast after taste as the leg crumbled away to ash.

  “Neat.”

  The roach spun around, with its now off balanced one legged rear end bumping along on the ground which slowed it down a bit as it angrily clipped its mandibles together before lunging forward at my summons.

  I tried to backslide the salamander out of the way, but the roach closed its pinching mouth parts around the fire lizard’s neck and began to squeeze.

  Even as I struggled to free the salamander from its grip while shooting another burst of flame from its mouth harmlessly into the air, the sharp tips of the roach’s mandibles met each other, and the summoned creature vanished in a poof of orangish red glowing fog that raced along the lines of chalk circle before flowing back into me.

  Well, that didn’t last long.

  The fairy begins beating her hand against the top of the table, “The others are getting in! Make another one!”

  I can do that? “Blinky, summon another Salamander.”

  A blue circle appeared around the blinking light that liked to hang out low and to the left of wherever I was focusing my attention. As I summoned the fire lizard again, nearly a tenth of it vanished from the top to the right, and a message in burning letters appeared next to it.

  [ 91 remaining magic ]

  The new manifestation appeared right behind the Dread roach as it lifted its mandibles in the air in celebration of its triumph, or to warn the two smaller Dread Roaches to keep away from its prize. This time I had the Salamander breathe its flame right underneath the Dread roach, and to keep slowly blowing out the flame.

  The roach's legs, all remaining five of them, begin to crisp and crumble away even as the flame also burns away at the roach’s underside, unseen below its thick upper shell.

  The bug wobbled in pain, trying to turn to attack my summons, and then collapsed into a smoking heap as the fire running along the Salamander’s back and tail burned low and then went out.

  [ You have defeated Rank 1 Level 7 Dread Cockroach. You have earned 70 Merit points ]

  Helpful, but not important right now blinking light. Tell me all about that later.

  Looks like I used up all of the salamander’s flame, but it can still bite, and then die. Then the next nine of them that I can summon, assuming they all stay at a cost of ten magic each, should each have a new allotment of fire of their own. Theoretically.

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I got this, I tell myself, and then saw a new pair of antennae begin to twitch below the door, as yet another Dread Roach, this one even larger than the first, tried to get under the door.

  “Viola, how many of these things typically show up.”

  The fairy’s lavender hand slowly pulled away from the edge of the desk. “Well, the word swarm comes to mind. That means a lot.”

  Sending the salamander forward to nip and bite at both of the other two roaches' legs as they closed in on me, I split my attention between keeping the two smaller roaches away and trying to do something with the other Cores all around me by keeping the fire lizard summons in constant motion. The roaches were fast, but the fire lizard had a tighter turn and could scuttle right over the roach’s backs.

  This isn’t working. “Blinky, how do I do something with these Cores?”

  [There are seven rank 1 Cores, five rank 2 Cores, and two rank 3 Cores within your Spiritual reach. You may only fully absorb rank 1 Cores and acquire rank 1 Totems. All Cores may be absorbed for Merit points regardless of rank, and rank 1 Totems may be acquired from higher ranked cores. But all Merit points above rank 1 are lost if you absorb a higher ranked Core, or convert a higher ranked Core into a Rank 1 Totem.]

  [Do you wish to absorb any or all Cores at this time?]

  One of the roaches had gotten my salamander by one of its front legs, the smaller fire lizard was dragging the roach along behind it on the summon’s other three legs to keep the roach from getting leverage for a better grip, but the other roach was taking the chance to scuttle past the battle towards my Core.

  Well if I have the option to pick and choose. “Absorb all rank one Cores as Totems!”

  [ Rank 1 Air Affinity Hawk Totem acquired ]

  [ Rank 1 Water Affinity Undine Totem acquired ]

  [ Rank 1 Earth Affinity Serpent Totem acquired ]

  [ Rank 1 Earth Affinity Spider Totem acquired ]

  [ Rank 1 Fire Affinity Snail Totem acquired ]

  [ Rank 1 Roach Totem acquired ]

  [ 6 new creatures acquired at Totems. You have earned 300 Merit points ]

  [ 4 new Elements acquired as Totems. You have earned 400 Merit points ]

  The one Dread roach had gotten close enough to my core to try to open its mandibles almost wide enough to catch me between them and was trying to tilt its head around to find an angle that would let it do so.

  Viola was screaming. So was I

  “Summon them all!”

  [85 Magic remaining]

  ... non innate summons only cost one point each? Neat.

  A small hawk appeared midair and dove down to slam against the side of the Dread roach with both sets of its talons just as the bug had started to climb up on top of my Core looking for a better angle to try to eat me.

  The bird knocked the thing over onto its back allowing a scaly little blueish green man with fins running along the edges of his forearms and lower legs, as well as along the edges of his oversized ears, to leap on top of the roach and begin pulling at its legs with both hands.

  A long gray snake slithered toward the door that the oversized fourth Dread roach was still struggling to crawl under while the smallest roach I had seen yet, a quarter the size of the first, along with a palm sized spider the same color and texture of the stone floor beneath me raced toward the Dread roach which had finally tore a leg off of my Salamander.

  Which hurt pretty bad by the way. As in it was me that felt the pain, both as the Summons, and the Core.

  But both the spider and the roach were beaten by a tiny blazing snail with a glistening ruby shell which sped past them, leaving a trail of goo burning with a low blue flame behind it, to race up the back of the fire lizard munching Dread roach all the way up to it’s head.

  Where the snail stopped and burned even brighter.

  The roach… hissed? I guessed that’s the closest it could get to screaming as the snail burned its way into the top of its head.

  A moment later the Dread roach which had been trying to squeeze under the door fled before my snake could reach it, and the other two roaches finally died.

  I knew that because…

  [ You have defeated Rank 1 Level 7 Dread Cockroach. You have earned 70 Merit points ]

  [ You have defeated a Rank 1 Level 5 Dread Cockroach. You have earned 50 Merit points ]

  [ There are 2 rank 1 cores available for absorption ]

  “I have questions. So very many questions.”