A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

Auren stayed seated outside the tent Hanzo had fallen asleep in. The few men were drinking to the side near the fire. Mostly all nobles were asleep—leaving a few who were still talking.

Auren was pleasantly surprised to see no Thrall had yet even shown itself, not even in the dark distance. That stone was truly something. It would take a lot of gold to get it though—and the recharge took a hundred gold each time. Nothing a normal village could afford at all.

Suddenly, Auren realized the dark forest had gotten a bit too quiet. That was never a good sign. Auren got up slowly, turning his head, checking all around him. Somewhere east of him, he heard a distant sound of something moving—like slithering while pushing against the ground. Twigs breaking and birds flying in the darkness from there could be seen and heard. It was faint though, and the others barely even noticed the difference among the sound of their own voices.

Auren stayed alert for the rest of the few hours, but nothing came for them till it was dawn. Everyone slowly woke up, they had breakfast, and then the quest continued. They had already travelled some 20 kilometers—only 20 more, or even less, was required before they would see the giant Basilisk.

It didn't take that long though—just after a couple of hours of walking they found big, twisting, slithering marks of the giant spirit beast. The thing had broken whole trees while moving through the forest. It was too big—Auren had not expected the thing to be this fucking big.

While checking the deep marks left by the Basilisk, Auren's eyes met with the Banor-lord. The guy was staring at him with the arrogance of a lizard—there was nothing good in that face for him. Could the guy be planning something? He should stay prepared when they eventually found this giant king of snakes.

Following the tracks, they moved forward—the mood had shifted though. All men were alert; other than what was necessary, no one was talking or making any sound. As if even the tiniest sound would summon the Basilisk on them. Damian noted not even the two earls had those common, easy-going expressions anymore—the size of this thing was not normal at all.

"It was not this big before.." Hanzo murmured quietly beside Auren as they cautiously moved forward.

"How big was it?" Auren asked.

"Almost half the thickness.." Hanzo replied in a worried voice. Then, looking at him, he added, "Don't listen to any orders that could be life-threatening—always choose to run when things go wrong."

Auren nodded. He had no desire to fight nightmarish monsters in a forest under the teetering sun. He was not that masochistic a man yet. His pretty child face was too nice to get stained with blood.

They continued the intense move forward. The eagle of the Baron-lord, along with scout-ability-having animals, had already moved around them to get any notice of the presence of the Basilisk. Even the jaguar and wolverines were moving around, keeping a tight lookout.

In another hour and a half, they reached the valley. The height of it was over hundreds of meters. A big, fast river was flowing through it. The fall was quite steep and filled with more stone than dirt; barely some trees were growing out of it. From here, Hanzo told them they had to go along the valley—some 7–8 kilometers—and the place would come where the Basilisk had made its home.

As they moved forward, Auren felt like the land was sliding a little under their feet—even the steel valley-side seemed to release stone and dirt at regular intervals. That did not bode well with Auren, but all of them could see it, so he did not put his worst thoughts into words and mess up the mindset of everyone.

But when his eyes landed on a perfectly circular hole, Auren had the confirmation for his worst assumptions. There was something he had overlooked—this was not just a Basilisk from the movies and comics he often read. This was a spirit beast. If a jaguar had an ability to get assimilated with the shadows like it was its natural home—the Basilisk wouldn't be a normal one either. This too should have magical abilities that defied all his previous knowledge of them.

Before he could open his mouth, Auren heard Earl Cedric bellowing orders from behind:

"All who have age less than 20 shall immediately move to the back—Knights with shields make the frontline. Soldiers behind them. Half will dismount, half stay on their horse ready to make a charge."

Before Auren could say a word, Hanzo and other soldiers told him to move back immediately. Hanzo was not part of the 'Soldiers', but he was still positioned in the middle with other object summoners. All animals summoned returned to their summoners. The eagle of the Baron-lord had stopped wandering and took one fixed position above them.

They must have seen the thing or some sign of it. The Baron-lord was right beside the Earl, giving him all the information the eagle could see. Auren was disturbed in his tremor-sensing by all these changes, but now walking beside the horses of the noble children—he could sense them back. And they.. had increased.

Was the Basilisk coming their way?

Auren pulled his sword out, controlling his breathing—ignoring the chattering of the teenagers beside him. He ignored people even when they called his name. He couldn't use Unbroken Wind just yet—or the moment he needed it the most, he wouldn't be able to. But Auren didn't need that to focus—Dante had put a big emphasis on not using the Chi at all while training him. Only when his technique without the Chi had reached the doors of perfection was he allowed to add Chi in it to enhance it to levels above humanly possible.

The move forward was slow, but they all were ready to act at any moment. By the way the jaguar and the nobles were looking all around—it was clear they did not have their eyes on the beast yet. Still, the tremors were unmistakable and felt by all—Auren already suspected where it would come from, and seventy percent of his focus was on the land beneath him and their imminent surroundings.

The other 30% he had on the two Earls and Barons. Dante had told him there was a technique that Blue Crest summoners and above could use to sense the fluctuation in Chi in their surroundings. For Auren, it was simply not possible because of the amount of Chi he had in his body—the increase in amount of Chi led by the upgrade in rank of the Crest fundamentally changed a person.

And this unique change included unlocking the regions in the mind of a human that allowed them to sense the natural Chi.

Suddenly, the moment came—the tremors increased even further, and the two Earls jerked their heads downwards, below their horses. The Barons followed behind—they sensed something below them. Auren shouted for people around him to stop moving—he himself did so, even when the other teenagers moved on their horseback. Some did stop though, suddenly, after hearing his shout. Auren even took a few steps back, enhancing himself with Chi.

The two Earls suddenly looked back—there was a gap between the soldiers and knights and all of the backline where Auren was.

As if time had stopped accelerating around them—the tremors reached the utmost limit as Auren started noticing changes in the land. The bastard was indeed under them!

Auren pulled back with as much force as he had in his tiny legs. With a sound that was like an explosion of rock and debris, Auren smelled the acidic hide of the beast. But.. where was the thing?

Even the Earls were confused, looking towards them—Auren immediately looked to the side and saw the shadow of the beast incoming. The noble brats finally realized what the hell was happening and hurried their horses to move back—few of which almost crashed into Damian and others as they all rushed to get back.

The Basilisk had broken through the side and had coiled back to attack them—it knew they expected the thing to come out from below them, so it surprised them! That thing was too clever for a goddamn beast!

Auren got a glimpse of it as he quickly turned his face to take a look.

It was a long, serpentine beast with crystalized eyes, a triple-horned skull, and jaws that split vertically. Its scales shimmered like granite and metal, and its belly glowed faintly orange from inner heat.

Auren heard a deep grinding hum when its form slithered upward from the side. Many arrows landed on the rock-like scales of the thing, only to do nothing to it at all. Auren could see glimpses of the men charging forward with shields and swords—especially the nobles after seeing that the beast had its focus on Auren's group—most of all, the noble children were around him.

Suddenly, the deep hum accelerated and a giant dark green wave of weird energy expelled out of the beast's head—coming directly toward their group. Auren felt his limbs go numb—he couldn't sense his Chi, his heartbeat, or even his rising and falling chest.

In a few seconds after, all around him were completely frozen—the horses and humans alike. In another second, the ground beneath their feet split open, revealing another Basilisk—this one much shorter, but the angle it had come out spelled only doom for them all.

Along with Auren, the whole group of noble teenagers rose high up—and fell straight down the valley from the side.