The Divine Summoner: Godson of Altima

by Antony W. F. Chow

  Luka raised his head and pulled his pets out of dimensional storage. "Bel and Gripper, please spar with those students. But make sure not to hurt them too much," he ordered.

  The two animals grinned and stretched their bodies. They sauntered over to Class J.

  A demon with blue skin and a black bandana over his bald head jeered at the newcomers. "Are you serious, Luka? That rabbit is tiny and weak. We'll turn it into rabbit stew!" he laughed.

  Suddenly, Bel's butt smashed into his mouth!

  "Ew!" the witnesses winced in disgust.

  [You deserve my patented headbutt for talking shit, peabrain!]

  The victim's nose was overwhelmed by the foul smell of Bel's ass. The demon dropped to the ground, and his mouth started foaming.

  [Who's next?] The rabbit's red eyes darted from side-to-side in search of more prey.

  "Whoa, it took out Sulrarath with one hit!" another demon exclaimed.

  The rest of the demons grabbed their fallen comrade and dragged him away from Bel.

  "Boys, there are fifty of us against two of them. Now, show some balls and fight!" Verusha screamed.

  The students reluctantly took out their practice swords and encircled Bel and Gripper.

  "Charge!" the class representative yelled and ran toward the rabbit. She slammed her wooden sword at his head!

  However, the diminutive animal yawned as Bel casually slapped it aside. Pak! Verusha suddenly became off-balance, and Bel kicked her butt and knocked her body in the path of another student. Wham!

  Other students following behind couldn't stop in time and collided, creating a domino effect. Two bodies turned into four; soon, a human pile of seven bodies laid on the ground. The remaining comrades stood apart, secretly thankful to avoid this fate.

  Gripper pounded his chest in jealousy. The gorilla held out his arms as if to embrace an attacker. His wide grin revealed big teeth.

  The students imagined Gripper biting them, and none dared to approach him.

  The gorilla snorted in derision at their cowardice.

  [Nobody wants to be near you because you stink!] Bel taunted his companion.

  Hoot! Gripper denied the accusation. He crouched and leaped, propelling his figure into the air! His hard landing created a small earthquake and knocked the nearby students to the ground! The gorilla then casually picked them up like trash and tossed the humans into the growing dogpile.

  The Elite Class students watched in shock as they witnessed how easily Luka's pets defeated a third of Class J! The observers couldn't imagine these animals being so vicious and powerful! Furthermore, the other class seriously lacked teamwork, and this deficiency contributed to their collective failure.

  Luka smiled as he watched Class J fight against his pets. Since he agreed to train these students, the instructor needed to understand their characteristics and fighting styles. So far, Luka noted that muscleheads dominated Class J. Thus, the students didn't bother to plan and coordinate with each other. Instead, each person did whatever he wished on the field.

  Even though this practice's outcome was apparent to all, Luka declined to stop in the middle of the mock fight. Instead, he allowed Bel and Gripper to rampage and abuse every individual in Class J. The demons and other fighters respected strength; therefore, Luka exploited his pets to demonstrate his prowess and enhance Luka's authority over them. Otherwise, the muscleheads wouldn't obey his instructions.

  For students who fought back, the pets threw them into the dogpile. The ones who cowered in fright received slaps on the cheek or light kicks to the gut. Bel and Gripper exerted perfect control over their bodies and dished out nominal damage to the weak-willed students.

  The Elite Class thought this was strange and couldn't understand why the two insisted on hitting even the students who couldn't fight back. Finally, Terrwyn couldn't stand it and spoke out. "Luka, make them stop! The kids lost their courage and can't fight anymore!"

  Luka turned around to address her directly. "If you're on a battlefield, will the enemies ignore you if you can't fight? No, they'll kill you instantly and continue their hostility. My companions are doing just that but gently. Anyone who steps on the field must accept that they could die."

  The class rep shook her head vehemently. "But this is only a mock battle. Surely you can cut them some slack!"

  "I refuse. These kids are in danger of dropping out of school, and their behavior must change immediately. That's why Verusha begged me to help train her class, and everyone showed up after school. I must meet their expectations by giving them proper training, and this includes forcing students to face their fears on the battlefield."

  Terrwyn stomped her foot angrily and turned away. "Let's go over there and start practicing. We're wasting time!" She led the group further into the courtyard and split the class into teams of two. They sparred for five minutes at a time before switching partners.

  Since Luka was busy training Class J, she volunteered to be the odd person out. Terrwyn spent the time watching the spars and providing tips to her classmates. The leader also glanced at Luka periodically and wished Luka would instruct his classmates, too.

  Once Class J's mock battle ended, Luka slowly helped pull the kids out of the human dogpile. He also checked their injuries and healed their wounds. Most students sustained minor scrapes and bruises, which Luka treated with a Light Cure. But several members had broken bones and other severe injuries. Luka frowned because he thought Bel and Gripper went overboard in these instances.

  However, the victims didn't mind at all. Instead, they took pride in sustaining such wounds and even boasted about them.

  Luka secretly wondered if these demons were masochists. After he finished treating them, Luka began to provide feedback on the mock battle. Class J assembled before him in five rows of ten people each. They avoided looking at Bel and Gripper, who stood behind Luka.

  "I watched your class fight for the first time, and here are my initial impressions. Your biggest weakness is a lack of teamwork. You don't know how to coordinate with other classmates and fight together as a unit. You passed the academy's entrance test to enroll in the school. That means you possess some degree of physical or magical talent or both."

  "Since the majority of this class are demonkind and beastmen, your primary advantage is physical strength and stamina. But at the same time, your magical abilities are relatively poor compared to the average class. If anyone disagrees with my assessment, please raise your hand."

  The students stared back at him, but no one disagreed.

  "The recent field trip requires the party to possess a proper balance of vanguards, midguards, and rearguards. Who possesses magic proficiency? Please raise your hand." Luka saw six hands in total. "Tell me your name and what you can do," he requested politely.

  A red-skinned, lanky-looking student took the lead to introduce himself. He possessed a smooth, pointy chin and neatly combed, night-sky hair. "I'm Malladar Perphyra from the devil race. My talent is pyrokinesis. Unfortunately, my demon cousins kept getting in my way, and I couldn't lob fireballs at our enemies during the field trip," he explained with a sigh.

  "That's a fantastic ability!" Luka exclaimed. Pyrokinesis relied on the mind to create and manipulate fire. This ability differed from using magic, which required mana to control the pre-existing fire essence within an environment. In other words, fire magic was subject to more limitations compared to pyrokinesis.

  A youthful human boy with cherubic cheeks spoke up next. "Young lord Luka, my name is Perrynn Glynxalim from the Glynxalim barony within your dukedom. I possess a minor proficiency in light magic," he revealed.

  Luka's eyes lit up with excitement. "What tier?" he asked.

  "Second," Perrynn answered in a small voice filled with disappointment.

  "I'll create a customized training schedule to help you improve rapidly," Luka promised.

  "Thank you, Your Grace." The boy bowed deeply.

  A yellow-furred beastman with thick, brown hair pounded
his broad chest. "I'm Joselion, and I have two abilities: morph and body enhancement. I can turn into a lion and increase my senses and physical abilities. My buff enhances my strength and speed."

  "A lion has incredible eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell compared to humans. You're a natural tracker for your party," Luka remarked.

  A taciturn boy with long blonde hair and an average build waved his hand. He sent a gust of wind at Luka. "I'm Lorvalor."

  Malladar chuckled. "That kid hates to talk. He probably spoke today's allotment of words just now. Don't mind Lorvalor."

  Luka nodded. He thought Lorvalor resembled an eccentric musician with those long fingers and his unusual personality. He looked at the person standing next to Lorvalor and saw a student whose head reached his classmate's midsection.

  "I'm Gimli the halfling, and I use earth magic."

  "What kind?" Luka inquired.

  Gimli's eyes darted from left to right in discomfort. "I can reshape the landscape, make walls, and also summon rock elementals."

  Luka's brows arched because he understood the difficulty of summoning elementals. They required an infusion of enormous magical energy, and the minions were notoriously difficult to control. "Did you summon an elemental during the trip?" he asked.

  The halfling shook his head and shrugged. "My classmates kept mobbing the monsters."

  "His elementals defeated some monsters on the second floor," Perrynn noted.

  "But that's after the rest of us died," Verusha groused. "Okay, I'm the last person, eh? I have several unusual abilities. First is danger sense. I possess a heightened awareness of impending danger around me."

  "If you can sense danger, then why can't you keep the class out of trouble?" Malladar chimed in.

  "I tried!" the class rep huffed. "But you idiots never listened to me!"

  "She's right," Perrynn admitted with a frown. He witnessed his classmates act like children; they recklessly ran around and ignored her instructions during the field trip. "What other abilities do you have?"

  "I can anchor my center of gravity and become unmovable," Verusha answered.

  "That's bullshit!" Joselion retorted. "Prove it right now!" His big hand grasped her left shoulder to shove her back.

  However, Verusha didn't move an inch!

  The beastman scowled and pushed with both hands. But Joselion's target remained in the same spot. After a few more shoves, he finally backed away.

  "What's your other talents?" Luka asked. He was surprised to learn her abilities.

  "I have one more. I can harden my skin to resist physical attacks," Verusha answered.

  "These abilities make you a natural tanker," Luka observed.

  "If only my classmates would obey my orders and let me serve in that role," Verusha sighed helplessly.

  [Can you ask the demonkind to stay behind? I have something to discuss with them.] Bel asked.

  Luka relayed his request to Verusha, who agreed. Luka started sending his guests back to the school campus. Only the students of the demon and devil races stayed behind.

  Bel unleashed his natural form, and a monstrous, purple-skinned demon king appeared before them!

  The students shouted in awe, "Ancestor!" They knelt and prostrated before him. Demon kings were ancient creatures that later evolved into blue-skinned demons and red-skinned devils. The students couldn't understand how Bel was alive to this day. But they felt joy in their hearts at this revelation.

  Bel chuckled in delight at their reaction. [Luka, tell them the following: if they swear allegiance to us, I will share a drop of my blood essence to each of them.]

  Luka was shocked by this offer because he understood each droplet's preciousness, which contained a sliver of his might. He relayed the request, and the students immediately agreed to this exchange.

  The demons and devils remained on their knees. Each person placed a left hand over his hand. "I pledge eternal allegiance to Bel and Luka," they said in unison.

  The demon king bit his finger and caused it to bleed. Bel smeared a droplet of his blood on each worshipper's forehead. The recipients absorbed it and felt new strength course through their veins. Their skins darkened visibly, and their muscles thickened. "Thank you, ancestor!"

  Bel waved his hand dismissively. [Luka, let's go home.] He turned back into a rabbit and entered the dimensional storage.

  Luka teleported the remaining students back to the school campus.

  Chapter 71

  Private Training (Part 2)

  The students went their separate ways, and Luka visited the library to do his homework. He declined to go back to his dorm because Luka would need to come back out to grab dinner later. Since the library building was close to the mess hall, Luka spent his time nearby until the kitchen began its dinner service.

  Thankfully, nobody recognized Luka at the library, and he finished his homework on schedule. The student checked the clock on the wall and saw that it was already six in the evening. Luka quietly packed up his books and placed them in his dimensional storage. Then the student departed the library and walked over to the cafeteria.

  Surprisingly, Matty was waiting outside the mess hall. "Yo!" the escort greeted with a grin. "Man, it must be rough being Mister Popular!" Matty joked as he followed Luka inside the building.

  Luka rolled his eyes and ignored the stupid comment.

  Bel and Gripper came out of storage and excitedly sat down at a nearby table. The two had exerted an enormous amount of energy to play around with the kids. Thus, the animals were starving.

  Luka entered the food line and quickly picked out his food from various options. As usual, he chose a hefty portion of meat (roast beef) for his companions and lighter food (boiled fish) for himself. When he returned, Matty noted Luka's picks and made the same food choices when he bought dinner.

  Soon, students approached their table. "May we join you?" someone asked.

  "Help yourself," Luka replied. He saw familiar faces from the afterschool training and recognized several people belonging to Class J.

  "I heard that you're helping to train Class J," a student said as he added ketchup to his hamburger.

  "I only agreed to train them for a week," Luka pointed out.

  "My name is Uram from Class L. We were the second-lowest scorers from the field trip. We're hoping that you would train us as well," the boy said.

  [You should accept.] Bel advised. He noticed a demon among the students sitting at the table and wished to turn him into a follower.

  "I can only train one class at a time, so you'll have to wait your turn," Luka answered.

  Uram nodded. "That's fine with us," he said with a smile.

  "I have some conditions, but we'll talk more about them next week," Luka added. He assumed that the upperclassmen would hog up space at the training grounds again. Moreover, Luka wished to avoid further conflict with the older students. Thus, he planned to make Class L swear an oath of secrecy before Luka bring them to his shadow plane.

  Uram saw his friend from Class J nod. "Okay," Uram agreed.

  Luka quickly ate his meal and waited for his pets to finish eating. Then he left the mess hall with Matty following along.

  "Do you intend to help train all the classes?" Matty asked.

  Luka shook his head. "I plan to assist the bottom half only. Your Class D did fairly well and doesn't need my assistance," he pointed out.

  "That's true," Matty chuckled. "Besides, the kids in my class are quite arrogant, and their noble pride would prevent them from seeking your help anyway."

  "Yeah, I didn't expect people to ask me to train them," Luka admitted, "because of noble pride."

  "Well, if the choice comes down to personal pride and dropping out of the academy, I think most students would swallow their pride," Matty noted.

  "Agreed."

  The group walked in silence on campus until Luka reached his residence hall. Matty bade him a "Good night!" and left with the other students.

  Luka entered the Larks
pur residence and offered Drinara a friendly wave in the front lobby.

  The dorm mother's ears twitched as she recorded the time of his return.

  Once he stepped into the staircase, the mage teleported directly into his dorm room. "Bel, why did you reveal your real form to those kids?" Luka asked.

  [You're attending this royal academy to build relationships with other students. Today, I did just that. Demonkind follows strong leaders, and they revere ancient demon kings and their bloodlines. So those demons and devils from Class J are ripe for picking and turning into our loyal followers.]

  "Well, they may be loyal to you because you're a demon king. I doubt their loyalty would extend to a human," Luka expressed his skepticism.

  Bel hopped onto Luka's head. [You will see that I'm right soon enough.]

  Luka gently pulled the rabbit off his head and laid Bel on the bed. The human then went into the washroom to clean up. He returned to the shadow realm for his evening training.

  * * *

  The next day, Luka attended his classes, ate lunch with his fan club, and then brought the Elite Class and Class J to his private shadow realm afterschool.

  The trainer split the larger class into five parties of ten members, and he made four teams fight each other. The fifth team drew the short end of the stick and battled against Bel and Gripper.

  Luka made sure to divide the headstrong demons and beastmen in Class J evenly amongst the subparties. Moreover, he appointed all the magic casters, aside from Verusha, as group leaders. Luka made this arrangement for two reasons. First, he worried that the muscleheads would continue their bad behavior and disregard teamwork.

  Second, Luka wished to elevate these five mages' standings among their classmates and demonstrate the value of a timely cast spell during combat. By turning the mages into party leaders, the groups will treat magic as an integral part of their group tactics.

  Luka took advantage of his followers' allegiance. "You must obey your group leaders," he emphasized to them, "or else Bell will punish you."