Arthur and Sidwig stood at opposing ends of the vast combat field, the atmospheric tension humming between them like a live wire.
"Losers first, Cole!" Sidwig shouted across the dirt, a twisted, arrogant grin plastering his face as he gestured mockingly. "Let's see that little toy of yours so my beast can properly warm up."
A dangerous grin spread across Arthur's own face.
"I'm about to flip this entire room upside down," he muttered to himself. He focused inward, tapping into the deep, rhythmic pulse of his soul rift, and held out his right hand. "Come, Lady Arne."
A radiant golden magic circle materialized on the dirt floor. From the columns of shimmering light, Lady Arne stepped forward. Her heavy, ornate longsword rested in her grip, and her massive shield gleamed under the stadium lights. Her devastatingly beautiful humanoid form radiated an aura of quiet, suffocating dignity.
An immediate wave of frantic whispering exploded across the student section. Seeing the humanoid summon for a second time didn't lessen the shock but amplified it.
Up in the stands, Christoffer leaned over to one of their cronies, his eyes glued to Arne's striking silhouette. "Man, let's just hope Sid's beast doesn't get horny and forget how to fight," he muttered, a twisted smirk on his face. "Honestly, I wouldn't even complain if I pulled a summon like that. I'd completely stay out of the dungeons and just spend my days fucking her instead."
The boy beside him blinked, looking confused. "But... weren't you just laughing at Arthur for having her?"
Christoffer went completely silent, his smirk stiffening as he realized his own hypocrisy, though he quickly snapped his eyes back to the field.
Suddenly, the arena's advanced holographic scanner flickered to life above Arne's head.
═══════════════════
Summon: UNKNOWN
Current Rank: UNKNOWN
Fortitude: UNKNOWN
Growth Potential: UNKNOWN
═══════════════════
The crowd erupted into outright confusion. A few students openly mocked it, firmly concluding that the broken reading was just the system's way of failing to register a completely useless, zero-attribute civilian-class dud.
Up on the VIP podium, however, Principal Kalik leaned forward so far his chest pressed against the railing, his eyes narrowing to slits behind his round glasses.
Arthur looked across the field, entirely unfazed by the murmurs of the crowd. He locked eyes with his opponent, his voice carrying clearly across the arena.
"Your turn, Sidwig," Arthur called out, his tone dripping with calm, lethal confidence. "Let's see what you've got."
Sidwig closed his eyes, a conceited sneer spreading across his face as he flared his mana core. "Ape!"
A massive magic circle of frosted cerulean light erupted on the dirt floor, venting a blast of sub-zero wind that made the students in the front rows cover their faces.
Emerging from the blizzard was the Frost-Fang Ape. The creature was an absolute nightmare of primal evolutionary violence, possessing dark blue-gray fur, massive muscular limbs, and oversized, clawed hands capable of tearing through solid ice and stone. Curved ivory horns rose sharply from its thick skull, while its glowing blue eyes and exposed, razor-sharp fangs gave it a savage, predatory appearance. Its upper body was blanketed in patches of thick, bone-white fur and glowing icy markings, looking like a demonic force born from the deepest frozen mountains and endless blizzards.
It stood a towering twelve feet tall, completely dwarfing Lady Arne's five-foot-seven stature. Seeing the sheer physical disparity, Sidwig's confidence inflated tenfold.
The arena scanner chimed, displaying its terrifying specs for the whole class to see:
Summon: Frost-Fang Ape (Beast-Type)
Current Rank: Gold-Tier
Fortitude: 7.4
Growth Potential: 8.9
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The crowd cheered, fully expecting a complete slaughter. But looking at the numbers, Arthur only smirked inwardly.
The brute's fortitude is 7.4. Lady Arne's fortitude is 7.8. This should be fun.
It was going to be a tight, brutal competition on paper. But Arthur had a massive, hidden ace up his sleeve. Unlike Sidwig, who had never fought a real battle in his life, Arthur and Arne had already bled and killed together inside the chaotic depths of the Trial Dungeon. They had actual, lethal synchronization.
Closing his eyes for a split second, Arthur focused on the glowing thread connecting their minds.
[You have activated the skill: Soul Link.]
Instantly, a profound mental bridge snapped into place. Unlike the other rookies who had to scream their verbal commands like generic video game characters, Arthur could now direct Arne with a mere thought, achieving flawless, instantaneous reaction times.
'Arne,' Arthur spoke into her mind, his voice calm and lethal. 'Don't show our full strength yet. Let him think he has the advantage, then break him.'
Lady Arne didn't nod or break her stance, but her grip on her longsword tightened slightly. 'As you command, My Liege.'
"Ready to get absolutely fucked, Arthur?" Sidwig roared across the field, his chest heaving as he gloated.
"Not quite," Arthur muttered under his breath, his eyes locking onto his opponent with chilling focus. "But you certainly are."
"Matches are live," Mr. Touchimani's voice boomed over the speakers, a trace of actual alertness bleeding into his usually bored tone. "Begin!"
"Pound her into dust!" Sidwig roared, pointing a trembling, overexcited finger across the field.
The Frost-Fang Ape let out a deafening, chest-beating bellow that shook the loose gravel on the arena floor. It lunged forward, its twelve-foot frame moving with terrifying, albeit clumsy, momentum. It raised its massive, muscular fists high into the air, the glowing icy markings along its shoulders flaring a brilliant blue.
'My Liege,' Lady Arne's sultry, melodic voice echoed directly inside Arthur's mind via the Soul Link, completely detached from the roaring beast charging toward her. 'The giant baboon wants to play. Shall I let him have his way with me for a little while, or do you prefer to watch me tease him?'
Arthur kept his facial expression entirely blank, though his pulse quickened. 'Play along. Let him think he's winning. Don't expose your true speed yet.'
'Oh, you love it when I play submissive, don't you?' she purred, her mental tone dripping with a dangerous, teasing sexuality that almost made Arthur fumble his composure. 'As you wish, my Liege. I'll let him make a mess of the place first.'
The Ape brought its massive fists down in a crushing double-axe handle. Lady Arne waited until the absolute last millisecond before fluidly sliding backward.
BOOM!
The beast's fists slammed into the dirt, the brute strength behind the strike cracking the reinforced ground. Ice mana swirled around its oversized hands, instantly hardening the shattered soil into concrete-hard blocks of dense earth and ice. With a grunt, the Ape scooped up the massive debris and violently hurled the earth blocks straight at her like high-velocity missiles.
'He's so aggressive, Lord Arthur... so rough,' Arne whispered in Arthur's mind, her tone a breathless, mock-seductive sigh as she moved. 'But his technique is so clumsy compared to how you command me. Watch how easily I take it.'
Instead of dodging, Arne stepped forward, her movements deliberately slowed to match a standard combat tier. Her longsword flashed in a brilliant golden arc.
Slash! Slash!
She cleanly cleaved the first two flying earth blocks in half, showering the dirt in pebbles. As the largest boulder flew toward her chest, she seamlessly transitioned, bringing her heavy shield up to absorb the impact.
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The boulder shattered against her golden guard. To the audience, it looked like the sheer force of the blow pushed her back, her boots dragging across the dirt as she simulated being overwhelmed by the Ape's monstrous Gold-tier Fortitude.
"Yeah! That's it! Keep pressing her!" Sidwig screamed from his circle, completely taking the bait. "She can't handle the power! Break her shield!"
The Ape bounded forward on all fours, closing the distance instantly, its razor-sharp fangs bared as it swung a massive, sweeping claw meant to take her head off.
'Ah... it's getting so hot out here,My Liege,' Arne murmured through the link, a faint, tantalizing hum vibrating in Arthur's consciousness as she ducked beneath the massive arm, the wind pressure ruffling her hair. 'My heart is racing... I can feel your gaze burning into my back. Tell me, Master... when I finally tear this beast apart, how are you going to reward your loyal, filthy knight tonight?'
Arthur grinned."You know how."
Back on the sides the students watched with complete owe. If it was any of their low tier summons, the fight would have been quickly over by now.
"Wasn't that thing supposed to be some bottom-tier, civilian-level joke?" Cade asked, turning his head toward the girl standing next to him, his eyes wide with disbelief.
"Yeah, that's what literally everyone thought," she replied, her gaze glued to the golden knight executing flawless parries on the field.
"Then how the hell is it keeping up with a Gold-tier apex predator?" Cade muttered, shaking his head. "She's not even breaking a sweat."
Up in the VIP box, the atmosphere had shifted from mild curiosity to intense scrutiny. Mrs. Alger broke her gaze away from the arena floor, exchanging a deeply serious look with the man sitting beside her.
"That creature is no ordinary summon," Mrs. Alger spoke first, her digital stylus completely forgotten in her hand. "The fluid combat choreography, the localized mana displacement... it's too refined."
Principal Kalik nodded slowly, his fingers interlaced over his knee as he leaned forward. "Agreed. The system scanning array glitched for a reason. Her effective combat output is easily Gold-tier... or higher. We are looking at a highly suppressed anomaly."
Down on the dirt, the Frost-Fang Ape unleashed a ferocious, overhead left hook, but Lady Arne simply pirouetted beneath the massive arm, the wind pressure violently whipping her hair as she slid into its blind spot.
'Oh, he's getting so sloppy, My Liege,' Arne purred into his mind, her telepathic voice practically dripping with dark amusement. 'I've toyed with him enough. What should I do next?'
Looking across the field at Sidwig's smug, screaming face, a purely sarcastic, intrusive thought flashed across Arthur's mind. Chop his dick off.
'With absolute pleasure...' Arne replied instantly, her golden longsword catching the sunlight as she began a lethal, upward crescent swing aimed directly between the Ape's hind legs.
Wait—what? No! No, no, no! Arthur panicked internally, his eyes widening as he realized his rogue thought had just traveled straight through the active Soul Link. Abort! No dick-chopping today, Arne! Keep it PG!
A soft, teasing chuckle echoed in his head. 'A pity. You have no sense of theatrical romance, Lord Arthur.'
Arthur quickly cleared his mind, shifting his focus inward to pull up her unlocked skill tree. His eyes skimmed the active abilities until they locked onto a specific, high-impact tactical option he had been itching to test out in a real match.
'Alright, it's time to push back,' Arthur commanded, his mental voice hardening with authority. 'The scum has had his fair share of fun. Let's show them a real baseline. Use Shield Bash!'
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https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/174916/i-summon-holy-paladins