Bonded Summoner

Interlude 1 - Ophelia - Girls Day Out

Ophelia stood in a large field outside the walls of Cascadia. Tanda, Bloodberri, Jake, and Fhesiah joined her, ready to watch her activate her [Summon Mystical Steed]. She had been marked by the Qilin in some way, so they had some expectations that they would summon his daughter.

A detail that Fhesiah was beyond excited about, even if it was likely playing the long game. Ophelia couldnt help but roll her eyes at that girls desires, but she definitely welcomed another friend.

As always, Ophelia funneled her mana following the guidance of the Framework into the spell. She was shocked when not only was most of her mana expended, but much of Jakes as well.

Eventually, her mana was all released in a blast into a portal, a tear in space opening. A powerful creature stood on the other side, and magical golden hexagons of the Framework overlaid the creature, restricting it.

It was of the second Tier, and Ophelia felt a temporary connection between it to be established.

She could hardly see the creature through the portal with what the Framework was doing to it, but it looked a lot like a large horse of some kind.

The creatures mind inspected the connection to Ophelia, and found the mark the Qilin laid upon her. It hesitated, then asked a question.

[We fight?]

Ophelia was confused, the words were not quite making sense with the emotions conveyed. Its mind was a simple one, likely unable to use complete sentences.

As Ophelia responded, she did her best to convey the emotions along with her own words in hopes it understood her meaning.

We can fight if you want, but we will fight many, together. I fight a great evil every day.

It seemed to frown in thought for a moment, but eventually nodded.

It questioned again, [We help?]

Yes. We help many. Our family will always help those around us.

The creature searched the connection again, and Ophelia got the feeling it was testing her strength in some way. She felt a sort of satisfaction coming from the creature.

[We ride. Together.]

The temporary bond shifted, becoming solid and more permanent.

The mass of golden light shot through the portal, shrinking as it went and shooting into Ophelias chest. Like Jakes summons, the creature now resided within her own Hearth.

It would now rest there in the void, waiting for her to summon a sort of magical constructa sort of avatar of it, for now.

Later, shed be able to call it out more directly like Jake does for the Garuda.

Ophelia felt joy from the creature, and a desire for it to be summoned out immediately. Now that the link had been made, she triggered the next portion of the skill. Like Jakes summons, the magical construct appeared in motes of light, along with a proud whinny.

It was a yellow or golden horse covered in scales. Its muzzle certainly looked a little more draconic than a horse thanks to the scales, but otherwise looked quite similar. It had a feathery, hairy mane; almost like Tandas hair.

Its tail was the same as a horses, and it had a horn on its head much like a unicorns. It was different from the Qilin, but quite similar in numerous ways. She thought it looked like a sort of dragon horse. The creature was beautiful, and was large enough for not only Ophelia to ride, but probably at least Jake and one more if they had to.

Ophelia realized she didnt know the creatures name.

[Summon Information]

[Name: Valora]

[Race: Longma]

[Level: 27(25)]

[Age: 20]

Nice to meet you, Valora! What a pretty name!

Fhesiah was shocked. A longma? Well, I suppose I shouldnt be so surprised with the Qilin parent, but still. What a blessing! Nice to meet you, Valora. Im Fhesiah.

Jake smiled at the creature, and Tanda was quick to approach it, with her tail wagging.

Hi there, Valora! Youre so pretty! Im Tanda.

Tanda reached out her fluffy paw, and the longma leaned into it, allowing Tanda to pet her.

Berri moved closer, looking at it with narrowed eyes. She looked between it and Jake, her eyes narrowing further. However, contrary to Ophelias expectation, she gave a big smile. Welcome, Valora! Its nice to meet you. Im Berri!

Despite Valora being a decent size capable of holding Ophelia and perhaps two other riders in a pinch, Berri still towered over her. She hugged the creatures neck, and the longma chirped in happiness.

Blood said, My, youre such a strong, beautiful thing. Welcome to the family.

Ophelia felt a high level of respect and admiration coming from the creature, as she was held by Bloodberri. Perhaps, their monstrous nature endeared them to each other.

Jake added, Welcome, Valora. And patted her neck as well. Itll be great to have more help. Well, Ill need to get going. I have a few more Eternum to enchant today, and I was going to work with Amara to get the enchantments on the airships started.

Blood added, And we need to practice some more. We have what our mentor wanted, but also our magical practice.

Berri said, Bye bye, Valora! Well see you all later!

Jake and Bloodberri left, leaving just Ophelia, Tanda, Fhesiah, and Valora.

Tanda said, Well, why dont we go fly, while you go for a ride? We can show Valora around Highlands.

Fhesiah smiled. You can try out your new ability as well. Trying it in the Refuge is one thing, but trying it in combat is another. Lets go?

Ophelia looked to Valora. What do you say, partner? Want to go fight some bad guys?

She felt satisfaction and desire drift over their simple bond. Smiling, Ophelia got onto Valoras back with an easy flap of her wings. Tanda looked over with desire. Can I ride too, Valora?

Valora gave an affirmative chirp, and Tanda leaped onto Valoras back behind Ophelia. She wrapped her arms around Ophelias waist.

The longma started out at an easy trot, but then the trot started taking them into the air. It was like she walked on invisible ground, easily taking them into the air.

Fhesiah followed with easy flaps of her wings, watching the magical steeds flight with her Divine Sense. Such an interesting creature. Id like to replicate her feat with her hooves, but itll mostly be pointless by the next Tier for me.

Valora picked up speed, until eventually she was traveling at an impressive pace. Fhesiah was still able to keep up at this point. Without Ophelias technique, Fhesiah was in fact faster than Ophelia.

However, Valora kept going. Mana was hardly being expended, but she was picking up speed as she galloped across the sky. Before long, it was Fhesiah expending effort to keep up.

Tanda giggled. This is fun! Shes so fast!

After checking over their bond that she wouldnt mind, Ophelia motioned for Fhesiah to join them on Valora. She could just barely fit in front of the rear haunch. She landed on the rear, holding on behind Tanda.

Ophelia smiled as she felt Valoras pride in her speed, riding with three heroes on her back. You like to run a lot, huh Valora? Well, when you run with me as your rider, we can go even faster!

Leaning into Valora, Ophelia triggered [Ride of the Valkyries]. Her holy light energy filled herself and her mount, wings of light growing out of her. Like a rocket igniting, they began speeding up even further.

Before she knew it, they were flying hundreds of miles per hour, certainly faster than she could even go herself. Eventually, they reached a speed she thought was about twenty to thirty percent faster than she was before, and with two additional passengers!

The holy light reduced the turbulence of the winds, allowing Ophelia to even talk. Youre amazing, Valora! Theres a Rift about twenty minutes East, at this speed! Lets go!

Tanda smiled as they passed over the various Highlands landscape. This is amazing! It would only take a few hours to get to Harmony Peaks like this. Youre awesome, Valora.

Arriving near their destination, Ophelia was impressed at their pace.

Fhesiah said, It looks like some Adventurers are already near. It doesnt look like they really need help, we can head to the next one, or speed things up?

Looking down at them as they flew by, Ophelia made the quick decision to head to the next one, Valora happy to spread her legs for a bit longer.

The party did look well-rounded, and it was a smaller Rift that only had a handful of enemies nearby. Odds were, Ophelia could clear it with her new [Guardian Hearth of Hestia] alone.

It was a treant with a dryad riding on his vines, along with two beastkin and a faun, were working together. They were actually in Hearthtribe, the dryad a priestess of Brigid and the faun a druid of Lugh.

They headed to the next Rift, and landed nearby.

Tanda patted Valoras neck as she got down, preparing her bow. Thanks for the ride, Valora! That was great.

Fhesiah gave her a few pats, then floated away. You are much appreciated, Valora.

Ophelia asked, So, what do we have?

Fhesiah withdrew her Torch of Hestia from her bracelet and prepared her fan. It is a medium-sized Rift, meant for ten. It looks like some kind of evil dwarves. They have decent equipment, and their skin is red.

They would know their precise name when they got a little closer to the Rift, but their protocol was to prepare a bit away from it. Ophelia knew that any of them would be able to take the Rift on by themselves.

However, it would usually leave them with little to no resources remaining, or taking an unsafe amount of damage.

Ophelia was going to require a fair amount of practice with using her new mount, she imagined. While [Ride of the Valkyries] simulated riding an invisible mount in a lot of ways, it should be different.

Give me a minute before we go in? I want to practice with Valora for a minute here.

Tanda smiled. Go ahead! I cant wait to see you two fight!

Ophelia had Valora gallop around a few trees, as she took swings with her halberd, testing her balance as she shifted and utilized their momentum. Having Valora increase her speed, she dashed left and right, even faking one way before going another as Ophelia swung her blade left and right, and thrust her spear.

With each attack, Valora transferred her momentum with excellent timing where able, still following the path within Ophelias intentions.

The connection was better than Ophelia imagined, Valora following her intentions near perfectly.

Youre wonderful, Valora! Were going to kick some ass!

She could feel Valoras pride and excitement, as her own built. [We fight?]

Ophelia giggled. Yes! We fight!

Tanda clapped. That was neat! I could tell she was a bit slower when you attacked, but I bet your Technique will help with that too.

Fhesiah had been playing with her kitsune flames, while still in her dragoness form. Ready? Im interested to try this on our enemies.

Ophelia nodded. Lets do it!

She summoned her [Guardian Hearth of Hestia]. Her Vajrafire flames floated into the air, showing their flickering lightning running through the normal red flames of Hestia. They entered her shield, where the flame shimmered.

What looked like a spirit valkyrie was formed. Complete with wings and spear, it held the shield it was contained within.

Tanda said, Thats so cool! Its like theres two of you now.

Ophelia chuckled. Its not that strong, and it expends the flames rapidly, from my tests. Still, if Im on my mount, targets might be more likely to ignore me in favor of others. The spirit might help with taking some enemy aggression in my stead.

Fhesiah shrugged. None of us are all that squishy anyway. In Raid or Boss battles it would be useful as you say, but the mount will be unable to be used in that way as is, isnt it?

Ophelia nodded. She would need to test it, but the description made it clear that it was not meant to withstand damage and would be de-summoned.

However, she had a suspicion she could stretch this using [Ride of the Valkyries]. She would test this.

She rode Valora to the Rift, and some of these red-skinned dwarves were outside the Rift already. It was good they arrived, or this might have not been too far from becoming a Monster Den.

[Rift Information: Blood Dwarves, level 19.]

Tanda immediately shot her bow, a dwarf blocking it with its shield. But vines rapidly grew around it with [Rampant Growth] and [Plant Control], Tanda quickly wrapped the vines around the target.

The other three moved in formation with their shields out, and Fhesiah shot her cursed flames at one of the dwarves like an arrow. It moved to block with its shield, but the arrow avoided it as if alive, slamming into its chest and sending it to the ground.

Having only two targets left, her guardian went ahead, slamming its shield into the two dwarves. They dug their feet into the ground, bringing the warrior to a stop. It tried spearing one of them with an overhead thrust, but its blow was knocked away.

Then Ophelia arrived on Valora, her zigzagging to arrive at the blood dwarves left. Timing her swing perfectly with Valoras gallop to the right and shoving auril through her spike, she swung it right into its helmet.

It punctured the helmet and its skull, killing it in a single swing. She pulled the halberds spike out as Valora stepped left, then used the momentum to spin and extend the blade with her will to slice the creatures back as her mount kept her just close enough to do so.

The creature shouted in pain, lowering its guard down a fraction, for her Guardian to send a vajrafire spear into its chest. The righteous lightning and flames burned into it, and she easily finished it.

Meanwhile, Tanda and Fhesiah had easily finished off their two dwarves. The crippling vines eventually gave Tanda an easy opening with a powerful deathly blow, and Fhesiah used her draconic might to wrench the dwarfs shield away and puncture its armor before it could rise from the ground.

Tanda looted the enemy and picked up the armor. This is some decent equipment. Our armorers can learn a lot by analyzing and melting this down.

Ophelia nodded. Thats right. I will take a few for myself, but Hearthtribe has many armorers now.

Triggering the Rifts challenge, nearly twenty of the same Dwarves appeared in four battle lines of five.

Ophelia and Fhesiah were quick to form a [Group Runic Magic: Nova of Flame]. A wave of flame exploded from within them, and her Guardian flew inside and released a wave of Consecration. While it used to be just flames, it now released bolts of lightning in several directions.

Jolts of electricity echoed out among the blood dwarves, but the leader of them roared. Many of them were covered with a red barrier of energy, and their limbs strengthened and bulked up. Numerous of them leaped suddenly at Ophelia, Tanda, and Fhesiah, the three of them in different directions.

One that leaped at Tanda was met by the Guardian, the shield ramming into it. Tanda activated her new Technique, which featured sacrificial flames. Her deathly-will infused arrow slammed into the other, an explosive wolf blowing the shield away from the body and taking a bite into the dwarf at the same time.

She had chosen this Technique at Guan Yus words. She may ultimately switch to the cyclic technique but for now she would get consistent advantages in battle without complicating things. With this, she could focus more on finding her place in the party, but still increase her capability.

Fhesiahs flickering kitsune flame generated an illusion of herself, as she danced easily out of the way of the oncoming dwarves. They relied heavily on their vision and their minds were weak, so the illusion distorting the light making her appear to be standing just a few feet to the side was easily accepted.

Attacking the dragoness to the side opened their backs to the real ones claws. Her draconic flames infused her muscles and allowed her to rake both of their backs in quick succession, severing one of their spines even through their red barrier and thick armor.

Ophelia activated her [Ride of the Valkyries] and Valora easily avoided the flying dwarves. Heading toward the remaining dozen or so blood dwarves, Ophelia braced her halberd like a lance.

Despite the dwarven warrior in front blocking the spear point, the heavy longma moving with extreme speeds momentum was simply too much. Ophelia triggered [Vajra Strike], releasing a powerful burst of lightning filled with righteous might.

A cone of powerful lightning released a crack as it jolted through the near-dozen dwarves, burning through their red barriers. Several were stunned, while others charged at Ophelia.

But Ophelia riding Valora was simply too fast. Her feet took her up and over, left and right, filled with holy light as Ophelia easily swung and spun her halberd, attacking from their unprotected sides or knocking them away, sending them flying.

The dwarves were heavy and low to the ground, but despite that, Ophelias momentum from the large longma moving so rapidly and combining it with powerful swings of her weapon was just too much.

While Ophelia danced among the dwarves, Tanda and Fhesiah picked the dwarves apart with ease. The ones knocked down were struck with Tandas arrows in vital points, while Fhesiah waded through the enemies with her claws and flames. The Guardian Hearth aided them, piercing into the dwarfs sides and shoving them off the ground with the shield.

The leader dwarf filled his poleaxe with its red energy, and swung at Valora when she landed and spun. Ophelia thought shed be able to move out of the way, but she requested Valora take the blowwith [Ride of the Valkyries] protecting her.

Valoras magical wings blocked the attack, and despite the blade cutting into her somewhat, she was able to persist and remain summoned. Using [Mana Blade] in her axe blade and enhancing her muscles with auril, Ophelias counter was enhanced by her Technique and her heavy mount besides.

She cleaved into the warriors shoulder, nearly shearing off the leaders arm from its body. It hung limply, as it attempted to swing its two-handed weapon with a single hand. But Valora was still on the move, and his half-hearted retaliation was not good enough to do more than allow Ophelia to hook his weapon, and pull him off balance.

The dwarfs face met Valoras front hoof sending him flying, and the body slammed into a nearby tree. She charged with her technique activated, arriving with her lance after just a moment. The lancehead pierced the leaders heart, killing it.

[Rift Closed. 890 CP Earned.]

Fhesiah hummed as she looked at her claws. I didnt feel like wasting energy with the Hex, but being able to use my kitsune flames in this form is absurd. Only those with the strongest of minds or zero reliance on vision will be able to shake it off and be unaffected.

Tanda asked, Is there a way it could work on those without using vision?

Fhesiah shook her head. Not until the next Tier. If my Dao was related to illusions, definitely. But I am focusing on the destructive nature of the flames with my Path. If I had access to some cultivator manuals, maybe. I had shunned this path mostly in my first life, so my arts are limited.

Ophelia asked, How come you dont have much in the way of cultivator spells or arts, anyway? I thought they fought with mystic cauldrons or other weird imagery, even without their Dao. You just use flames.

Fhesiah smiled with pride. Mine is a purists path, which is common among dragons. Everything has gone into the focus of mastering my own flames, rather than reproducing someone elses mystical art. Its thanks to this, that I have progressed in the Dao so much at a young age.

Ophelia frowned. Young? She was over a hundred!

Fhesiah smirked, and responded to her thoughts, Many do not even touch the Dao until the Cultivator Core Realm, and I managed to while still in the Meridian Cleansing Realm my first time aroundits what allowed me to progress to the Nascent Soul Realm so rapidly.

Tanda said, Thats amazing! But would it really hurt if you used some other skill for guidance?

Fhesiah smiled. I have since changed my mind somewhat thanks to the New Heavens, but unfortunately our resources are limited, and Im low on options. I have been trying to both reproduce and enhance the skill I learned from that Drakan, and I am getting somewhere beyond just leaning on the Framework. Still, these things take time. It would take years without me being involved in this much conflict, or having Jakes [Divine Reinforcement] and bond.

Ophelia sighed. So now that youre willing, you just dont have access to the manuals, huh? Well, lets get these cleaned up. That was fun! This spirit guardian is pretty cool.

Fhesiah nodded over to the Guardian. A valkyrie that creates another valkyrie feels a little unfair. Still, it helped control the battlefield. I like our new allies.

Tanda pet Valoras mane. And Valora! Her kick hit that dwarf like a ton of bricks!

Valora whinnied with pride. [We great. Like fighting. Much glory.]

Ophelia chuckled at her broken speech. It was clear she enjoyed the battle against the evil enemies. Yeah! Were going to have many fights, and earn much glory, Valora.