Chapter 206 – Summoner Fusion.

“Hey, watch out!”

A voice belonging to a young man echoed from afar, but it was already too late.

“Oops…”

Gwen responded as she looked down at the ground and saw a glowing symbol.

“Not again…”

Syber, who had managed to stay composed, furrowed his brows even more than before. Gwen had stepped on one of the tiles, activating a trap that sent arrows flying in their direction.

“Airy shield!”

Astrella shouted as she ordered her fairy to create a protective barrier. Rusty lifted his shield and used his body to intercept the sharp arrows. Luckily, he was sturdy enough for them all to bounce off his frame. Syber, who had walked ahead, was not so fortunate. Some of his beasts were hit, and he was forced to dodge the attack as he kept running.

“Just leave me alone!”

He shouted as he reached the end of the trapped corridor. Gwen, unwilling to let the group split up, called back.

“No, we must stay together!”

“This would not have happened if you had stayed with us and stopped moving ahead.”

Said Astrella while laughing at Syber’s schematics. Thanks to Airy and Rusty, there was no danger from the traps, but their classmate did not see it that way.

Syber ignored her and stormed ahead through the winding tunnels. The sound of his boots echoed off the stone walls. His two tigers stalked behind him, their tails flicking as particles of mana drifted from the areas they had been struck.

“Wait! Don’t just…ugh!”

Astrella groaned and clutched her staff tighter.

“Why does every group project have to have that one guy? Can’t we just go in the opposite direction, Gwen? If he wants to get himself killed that badly, just let him.”

Rusty looked into the distance and rested his halberd to the side. They had been moving through the tunnels for a while, chasing after the young man. He seemed determined to get away from the group, though Rusty did not understand why. It did not seem that Syber was suicidal, and in some way it felt as though he was hiding his true abilities.

“I don’t see a reason to cooperate with someone like that. He might get you hurt, Gwen.”

“Not you too, Rusty? It’s better if we all work together!”

Astrella rolled her eyes, and Rusty stepped forward. With the trap already triggered, there was no danger ahead, yet he remained curious about what the young man was concealing.

“I didn’t know you were such a softy, Gwen. But fine!”

The narrow tunnels twisted endlessly, and Syber’s irritation only grew. Each step echoed sharply against the walls. The light from the crimson veins crawling along the rock pulsed steadily. His tigers padded silently beside him, their wounds mending as he shared a portion of his mana with them.

“Still no exit…”

He muttered under his breath and turned another corner, only to halt abruptly when the corridor ended. An uneven wall of stone blocked the way, covered in more glowing veins. There was no exit in sight and no branching path, only an empty chamber.

“Tch.”

Syber clicked his tongue and stepped forward. His tigers sniffed the air, searching for a hidden passage, and he did the same. Often in such cases, a secret path would appear, yet nothing revealed itself this time.

“A dead end? Did I make a mistake?”

He spoke quietly to himself and was about to turn back when he felt the mana in the area shift.

“What?”

The chamber began to rumble. At first, he expected arrows to shoot from the sides, but none came. Instead, a deep grinding sound echoed from above. When he looked up, his blood ran cold as the ceiling began to descend.

“Damn it!”

He spun around and tried to run, but the ground shook violently beneath his feet. It was another trap within a trap. The ceiling continued to fall while the trembling floor made it nearly impossible to keep his balance. Each step forward grew harder, and the situation turned desperate.

Just as all hope seemed lost, a suit of armor charged out from the corridor from which he had previously come.

“Move, you fool!”

Astrella’s voice rang out, and Gwen shouted as well.

“You need to run!”

The two cried out just as the ceiling came crashing down, but instead of being crushed, Syber found himself still breathing. To his shock, Rusty stood beneath the falling stone with both hands raised high, holding the ceiling like some kind of steel pillar.

“Gwen, I won’t be able to hold it for long.”

Even surrounded by his twilight haze and reinforced by skills such as Fortify Armor, Rusty could feel his joints waning. Syber did not have much time to escape, and it seemed he had finally chosen to reveal a glimpse of his true power.

Gritting his teeth, Syber glanced at one of his tigers. With a quick command, the creature charged forward and burst into orange particles of mana that gathered around his legs. The energy surged through him, and his limbs grew stronger, faster, and bulkier. With his agility heightened, he launched himself forward, moving with a speed that could not be underestimated.

Rusty kept his stance steady as Syber shot past him like a blur. The newly enhanced youth rushed ahead and tumbled into the corridor. Once he was safely inside, Rusty stepped back and allowed the trap to continue its descent. It slammed down with great force, crushing the summoned creature that had been left behind almost instantly.

“Are you alright?”

Gwen yelled over the rumbling and the cloud of dust that burst from the now closed entrance. Syber coughed slightly but nodded. Rusty, however, looked down at his joints and saw that one of his knees and one of his elbows were in bad shape. If it had been a second or two longer, he would have been crushed along with the tiger.

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“…You saved me.”

Syber spoke flatly, his tone missing its usual sharpness. Rusty tilted his head as he looked at the young man’s legs. Though his pants had not torn, they had ridden up enough to expose his ankles. He could sense that more mana was flowing through them, but he also noticed something else. Tiger stripes had appeared on Syber’s legs, showing that he had taken on a new, more animalistic form.

“Is that… Summon fusion?”

Astrella narrowed her eyes as she noticed the change as well. Syber seemed uncomfortable under her gaze, and now that he was safe, he released the spell he had cast earlier. The tiger that had fused with him reappeared beside him, and his legs returned to their normal shape. He seemed ashamed of what he had done and quickly pulled his pants back into place to cover the fading stripes.

“Gwen, what’s Summon fusion?”

Rusty was, of course, interested in this phenomenon since he had never seen anything like it before.

“Um, some summoners can bond directly with their summons and familiars…”

Gwen spoke out loud this time as she explained it to Rusty, but she trailed off at the end and looked instead at Astrella, who was approaching Syber. It seemed that the part-fairy had realized something that only she could truly understand.

“Is this what you were trying to hide and why you were avoiding us?”

She asked as Syber stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes.