The second year students of the Tristain Magic Academy were gathered in a spacious courtyard. Each student wore a black cloak over a white blouse. For the men, they had Grey, pleated slacks that accented it. A skirt of the same color for the women.
Each student had, with them, a strange creature of some sort. Each creature was unique and different.
A balding man, a teacher of the students, stepped in front of the class.
"Has everyone performed the summoning ritual?" He asked.
"Professor Colbert!" One of the girls stepped forward "Vallière and I haven't!"
Professor Colbert looked over at the two girls who've yet to go. The one who spoke was a tall, bronze skinned girl with vibrant red hair. Colbert also mentally noted that she was quite busty and attractive for her age, not a detail he was proud of himself for noticing.
In comparison, Vallière, the other girl who'd yet to go, was short and petite. She had pink hair and flawless, white skin.
"Louise the Zero? No wonder I haven't heard an explosion, yet!" A random student interjected.
"Don't let her go! She'll blow the yard apart!" Another one added.
"No, I won't! You'll see! I'll summon a familiar that's greater than anything you guys can fathom" The Vallière girl scowled.
The bronze-skinned girl walked over to Vallière.
"Then, Go, Vallière. Let's see this amazing familiar of yours." She teased.
"Zerbst!" Vallière turned to face the girl. "You haven't summoned anything yet either, so don't go acting like you already have a better familiar!"
"Oh, I guarantee my familiar will be better." The girl, Zerbst, giggled. "We always save the best for last, which is why I've been putting off my summon until now."
"Well, you don't have to delay our disappointment because mine will be the best!" Vallière declared.
"Hm? Well, why don't we summon at the same time? Your disappointment of a familiar can serve to accentuate the greatness of mine." Zerbst purred before turning to Professor Colbert. "Mister Colbert! There's no rule against us summoning at the same time, is there?"
"Not to my knowledge, no." Colbert shrugged. "Just mind the space your familiars may take up."
"Thank you, Mister Colbert." Zerbst gave an exaggerated bow of gratitude. "Come, Vallière, let us see who's familiar is greater!"
The two got into position, a few feet from each other, and began chanting.
"Incoming!" The squad sergeant screamed before a large, crude slug pierced his gasmask, sending him sprawling to the floor of the Armored Transport.
More bullets rang the inside of the vehicle as the back hatch, leading to the Hull, began dragging on the ground. The open view revealed a torn up war zone, the vehicle bumped and rocked as the treads drove over craters and explosions rang it's sides.
"Sarge's down!" The squad medic declared.
"Gah! Aren't you veterans?" A voice came from the front of the transport. "By the Emperor, I thought you were supposed to be lucky!"
One of the soldiers, firing a hand-held flamethrower out the hatch and wielding a short sword in his offhand, scowled at the man who just spoke.
"Commissar! Right now is the time to be helping us! Not pathetically whining about our ineptitude!"
"What did you say, Guardsman?" The Commissar unsheathed his sword and held it up to the scowling soldier, a crackling energy seemed to surround the blade. "Even if you're hive scum from a pit like Armageddon, I'd still expect to receive the respect due to a praefectus such as myself!"
"Xenos! Above us!" The Medic shouted as everyone inside the transport heard the sounds of clanking and footsteps on the roof.
"Commissar, I will tolerate your hatred towards the Steel Legion for now. You can execute me later but RIGHT NOW, we should focus on the ENEMY!" The Guardsman yelled in the Commissar's face.
Before the commissar could respond, everyone in the transport was nearly thrown to the ground as the vehicle lurched in response to the driver taking a sharp turn.
"Greenskins!" The Medic pointed towards the entrance as a large, green, humanoid monster stepped off of the roof and onto the fallen hatch.
The creature gave a grim smile as it readied the Axe in its hand, pressing a trigger and revving the chain-teeth that ran along the blade.
The Medic and one other Steel Legionnaire took the Lasguns they had, each with a bayonet fixed to the end, and fired at the monster. Ignoring the pain, the Greenskin grit his teeth and charged.
"WAAAGH!" it shouted as it's Chainaxe slammed into the Medic, cutting her in two.
The other Steel Legionnaire slammed his bayonet into the side of the monster's abdomen, causing it to wince at the pain before grabbing the soldier by the head and tossing him out of the back hatch.
The Commissar finally charged and stabbed the Xeno with his Power Sword. Before the beast could even realizing it's demise, the first Guardsman lifted his hand flamer and shot a gout of fire into its face causing it to stumble backwards and out of the vehicle. The Commissar wasn't able remove his blade from the greenskin before he tumbled out with it.
The Guardsman panted in relief as he finally felt like he'd received a break. Before he could take in his short vacation, another explosion rocked the side of the transport.
Unfortunately, all of his squad, save the driver of the vehicle, had perished within the last thirty minutes. The Guardsman opened the door to the cabin.
"Where are we headed!?" He shouted.
"Felix? Thank the Emperor you're still alive!" The driver gave a disheartened chuckle.
"Where! Are! We! Going!?" Felix yelled back.
"I don't know! All I know is that we'll die if we stay here!"
Before Felix could respond, a large purple gate opened up roughly sixty feet from the transport.
"By the Emperor's Holy Codpiece! What is that!?" Felix pointed.
"I… I dunno but it's better than here, ain't it!?" The driver asked as they quickly approached it. "I'm going i-"
The driver was cut off as a slug passed by Felix and entered the back of his head, causing him to slouch over and press harder on the pedal. Two more rounds hit the wall next him.
Surprised, Felix turned back to the, still open, back hatch to see two smaller greenskins. One carrying a crudely made knife and the other, a terribly put together Pistol.
Felix readied his weapons and charged at them.
A large explosion rang through the courtyard as Vallière and Zerbst finished their summoning spell.
Smoke filled the area, obscuring everyone's view and causing the two girls to cover their faces, coughing as they did so.
When the smoke began to dissipate, Vallière saw, on her side, a young boy, about the same age as herself, sitting on the ground. He wore an assortment of blue clothing and had black hair with black eyes.
She was about to walk over to him when the smoke on Zerbst's side began to fade, revealing a large, Metallic beast of some sort.
Colbert twitched his nose at the subtle smell that he'd grown accustomed to due to his past: Blood… A lot of it…
Some grunting was heard from the inside of the Metallic beast when, on the backside of the thing, a gout of fire flew in a steady stream before fading into the air. Along with the fire, a high pitched and inhuman scream shook everyone in the courtyard.
A child-sized creature, with odd features that definitely did not look human, rolled out of the beast covered in fire before his screams dyed down and he lied still.
Immediately after, another of the childlike creatures tried to run from the beast before it was tackled by a man, wearing a mustard yellow, grime covered trench coat, who sprang forth from the same opening. He had a black helmet and some sort of mask that came to a point in the front, turning into a filter.
The mask was partially broken, the section that covered the left side of his face was clearly destroyed, revealing his emerald green eye, and his yellow trench coat had a couple holes in it with dried blood surrounding the blemishes.
The man in the trench coat slowly wrestled with the creature until he was straddled on top of it. He then readied a short sword that he had in his left hand and quickly moved it over the creature's throat.
"W-wait!" Colbert tried to protest, but it was too late.
The man slid his blade across it's throat, a streak of blood stained the grass in the direction that the blade flew.
The entire class looked, horrified, towards the man that had just shown such carnage.
With his adrenaline still in high gear, the man in the trench coat stood up, quickly, and scanned his surroundings.
Despite the mask he wore, Zerbst could still see all of the emotions he must've had through the single, green eye that nervously darted over everyone.
He was confused, he was afraid, he was angry but, most importantly, he was unpredictable. With his short sword at the ready, the man slowly stepped back to the Metallic beast, picking up some sort of object on the ground next to the charred beast and he cautiously entered back in.
Now that he wasn't immediately threatening to kill everyone, the tension began to die down just a little bit. The boy in blue, that Vallière had summoned, began screaming and yelling in a language that nobody understood. He pointed at the beast and then at the dead creatures, hyperventilating as he seemed to try and grasp the situation.
Colbert finally made his way over to Vallière and whispered something to her.
"What!? N-no! Mister Colbert! Let me try summoning again!" Vallière yelled in disbelief.
Colbert shook his head and continued talking in a low voice until Vallière finally nodded, hesitantly, to what he had said.
Vallière cautiously made her way to the boy she summoned, stealing glimpses at the Metallic beast. As she approached, the boy anxiously crawled backwards but she kept approaching until she stood in front of him. With a shiver in her voice, Vallière finished the ritual.
"M-my name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers…" She stopped and gulped before continuing. "B-bless this humble being and make him my familiar."
As she finished those words, she quickly kneeled in front of the nervous boy and kissed him on the lips.
Shock filled his face, he broke the kiss and backed away from her but suddenly stopped and screamed. His hand began to glow as runes etched themselves onto its surface. It must've been painful because he fainted shortly after.
As Vallière and a couple students got together to take care of the first boy, Zerbst slowly approached the Metallic beast.
"Miss Kirche." Colbert said from behind her.
"M-Mister Colbert!?" Zerbst jumped.
"You're not thinking of approaching this… thing… and that man by yourself, are you?" He arched an eyebrow.
"Er, I… um…" Zerbst let out a nervous chuckle. "W-Well… I mean, I did summon him… so I figured I should take responsibility…" Her gaze dropped to the ground as she spoke; An unusual bout of anxiety for the, otherwise, confident Kirche von Zerbst.
"Then allow me to make contact with him first." Colbert suggested. "I don't know what those things were… but, regardless, he killed without mercy… and, until you fulfill the familiar ritual, we might not be able to understand him."
Kirche nodded along with what he was saying.
"Did… Did I really summon a human? I… I didn't think that such a thing was possible." Kirche looked back up at Colbert.
"I'm sure it's unprecedented before you and Miss Vallière… perhaps the fact that you summoned together had something to do with it." Colbert looked back at the Metallic beast. "Now… let's deal with him, shall we?"
The two approached the machine, walking to the open side that the man used to get in. As they approached, the smell of blood grew thicker.
Colbert stood just outside the entrance and gently knocked on the frame.
The man inside spoke four words; He sounded angry but he wasn't loud. The way it ended made it sound like an inquiry, perhaps he was asking a question?
Colbert slowly peered his head inside and his mouth dropped when he looked at the interior. It was obvious from the design that the beast was meant to be like a carriage, of sorts, but that wasn't what shocked Colbert; The amount of blood strewn about and death that happened here was traumatizing.
On the ground, there were three people who wore roughly the same outfit as the man in the trench coat, perhaps a uniform? Some were missing limbs or had fist sized holes punched into their vitals. The wall was smeared in dry blood.
Sitting in one of the chairs was the man from earlier; His mask was off, revealing a relatively young face. He seemed to only be a year or so older than the rest of his students. His hair was grey, his eyes green and his skin was mottled with dirt, grime and blood. In his hands, he held a strange looking weapon with a knife attached to the end; The weapon had a barrel next to the knife and a trigger in a grip that the man was holding, much like a Musket but it was clearly different.
Colbert could tell the man was trained from the way his finger rested along the trigger guard instead of the trigger itself; He held the rifle in their general direction but the barrel was facing towards the ground. The air he gave off was threatening but he didn't seem to want a fight.
"May I enter?" Colbert asked, gesturing inside.
The man could tell from his body language what he was asking; He nodded in response.
Once Colbert sat down, Kirche hesitantly followed him in; She gulped at the gore inside the small room but tried to ignore it, she didn't want to seem weak.
Once the two were sitting across from him, Colbert began trying to speak to the man; The language barrier made communication difficult and, other than that the man wasn't rearing to kill everybody, not much was learned from their interactions.
After a short time, Kirche came up with an idea. She let out a brief sigh and pulled out her wand and a handkerchief. She gestured to the handkerchief and then to the man's dirty face; He narrowed his eyes at her but, after thinking for a moment, they softened and he gave a short nod.
She sat down next to him, on his right side, and began to wipe his face, slowly whispering the spell to finish the contract.
"I, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, call upon the Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers to bless this man and make him my familiar." She finished.
Colbert gulped and his eyes widened as he realized what Kirche was about to do. He leaned in, hoping to suggest her not do something so rash, but stopped himself.
Kirche was wiping a spot on the man's forehead, slowly bringing the rag down the left side of his face. When she reached his chin, she quickly pulled him in and planted a kiss on his lips. The man jumped in surprise and pushed her away with his rifle; He began to stand up in a combat ready stance when, just like with the boy from earlier, he suddenly fell to his knees in pain. He looked up at the girl, cursing, before his mind gave in and he fell, unconscious, to the ground.
Author's Notes:
Thanks for reading this short story! I do plan to continue this one day but, until then, I'll be working on another fic. Once I finish the other fic, I'll return to this one; I just wanted to get the idea out there so it wasn't weighing on my mind!