I felt a burning sensation that filled my entire being, it was like a fire had been lit on a cellular level, though it eventually let up into a buzzing, numb feeling. I was wrapped in light that quickly dimmed to a lightly wooded area with a giant circle that with interesting characters written on the edges. Looking around I saw many dark robed figures that surrounded me, and this entire scene was next to some catacomb like ruins. The robed figures donned a black robe with dark violet trimmings and they each held a stance in prayer. One man had a more intricate robe than all the rest, which was decorated in heavy gold embroidery.

The man approached me with a smile on his face. “Good evening, my child, or should I say monster?” Wow, so I was summoned by a cult it seems, I guess this a break away from the usual hero summons.

“My name is Thun'xanxuhm, though my given name was Stornavius, I have renounced my name to follow in the footsteps of the great Thun'quqyg. Since you were summoned, you probably didn't know that he is immortal and that he rules over the entire Undead Quarter. In order to follow his greatness, I changed my name, like him, to a proper name of the lost Sas'yun culture.” he smiles even more, to the point it looked creepy.

“So why have I been summoned?” I asked, uncaring was the tone I went for, though deep down I was thrilled.

“Why? To help me achieve my goals. I want to lay waste to every civilized city from here, border of the Principality of Shadows and the Solaeum Kingdom, to Poison Lake, at the edge of the Undead Quarter. I am not so good with Undead Magic, but I am good at Summoning Magic as my specialty is Wind Magic.”

“Summoning Magic?”

“Yes, indeed. I am a summoner, soon to be great necromancer. Though I've never summoned a Xernuroch before, I needed the help of this ancient tome. Though I can't read it, I do know how to copy rituals, even if they are in another language the procedure is roughly the same as all the other ones.”

“What is a Xernuroch?” This guy seemed like the monologue type information dump, so I was going to take advantage of it.

“Why that would be you. You are the Demons that are they only creations the Demon Gods could make on their own, they reside in only the Plane of Chaos and the Cursed Continent. This is a strange summoning price, wait what is your price?” He demanded from me.

Before I could tell him I didn't know, my body moved and spoke on it's own. “Blood.” With the very mention of the word my body started to ache and my vision started to blur. My throat became exceedingly parched, and but what was very angering was that it was the only thing I could think about. My mind was not my own.

I notice his pulse quickened as he took several steps back, it is a possibility that my fangs and talons extended past their resting places. He quickly grabbed a robed figure and spoke in his ear frantically, “Get the other monster,” before throwing him away to do his errand.

Very quickly he ran back with a very beautiful lady in tow. I then saw the entirety of her figure. She had long, blood colored hair, with deep red scales that covered her pointed ears and cheeks. She was wearing the skins of beasts to cover herself, though her pants matched her ears in pattern and color. Hold on, those aren't pants, her lower half was snake like. A Lamia?

Though her standing height was that of just a little lower than that of the men surrounding Thun'xanxuhm, but her total length must have been slightly over fifteen feet. “There, be of use to me you useless snake. The summon contract says blood? Well here you have it.” He quickly shouts at me.

The thirst was driving me crazy, and I swear I could see every vein in her body, I wanted to rip her open and drink everything inside her. I held back my urges and I grabbed her arms and forced her closer to myself, perhaps a little too forced. Her heart beat picked up speed and volume and it was now the only thing I could hear, but I still kept some partial rational thoughts.

I tilted her chin up so I could get a good look into her scarlet eyes, “The master commands it,” is all I said before I pressed lips upon hers and bit down hard. The initial bite caused her to jump within my embrace, but she soon relaxed as I continued to drink my fill from the small veins in her soft lips.

It wasn't until I pulled away that I saw the lingering desire in her eyes or the status window that had popped up.

-Having fed on a Lamia, Viper subspecies, You have gained Poison Resistance I and Pit Vision I-

I dismissed the notice and licked the blood off her lips, sealing her wounds, before she realized what happened. This seemed to wake her from her daydreaming, she said not a word but she turned away revealing only her back to me. I presume she is rather embarrassed, but I felt the tip of her tail slowly start to coil around me. After the intake of blood my mental state cleared in just a few moments and my throat was no longer dry. Though with the clearing of my head, I also realized what I just done was absolutely not appropriate at all. It would be absolutely mortifying if this was real life. Though in knowing this was just a game, it didn't fix the oddly real feeling of tension.

“Eh, you didn't kill her? It was a very odd display, that was almost gut wrenching to behold, but we must carry on. Your contract now begins.” He seemed to just cleaned him self from vomiting. “Under the commandments of the Summoning Contract, I order you to raze the Fortified City of Solastie.”

Quest: This City Needs a Raze

Mission: You have been ordered under you Summoning Contract to raze the city of Solastie:

Either kill 75% of the citizens and 87.5% of the military personnel or have them leave the city

Optional: Burn down 30 buildings

Rewards: Human Blood, 2,000 Exp., 1 SP, -50 Admiration

I subconsciously knelt down as I spoke to him, “Master, I highly suggest we attack at-”

“We attack now, the city will be in view within fifteen minutes, we will arrive in roughly an hour and a half after it comes into view. I will send many souls to the afterlife today. After that we move to Fyritae, a small community, and wipe them out as well. Within a year or two, we should reach our destination. Until then, I order you to stay silent. Within a year I should have summoned more of you demons, or even learned how to wield Undead Magic and have a legion of undead, or even both.” He lightly tapped the tome he was carrying, the same one I think is the very one used to summon me.

I was about to make a response but I quickly found that my voice was no longer under my control either. I need to search for way out of this contract. “March!” he yelled and all of the robed figures immediately faced east and started to march, with us 'monsters' in the back. I glanced over at the last of us 'monsters', she also had the torso of a woman covered in beast skin, but she had the bottom half of a spider, a black widow to be precise. Making her to an Arachnae.

Her leg span should be about eight feet across, making her standing height well above mine. I noticed the beast skin was very different then the one that the Lamia wore. Her top half wasn't inferior to the Lamia's in any way. She had pasty white skin, much like my own, with long, raven like hair. She had small, acute features of the face, giving her a pixie like appearance.

I turned my head to look at the Lamia to compare her face but I was taken aback by how close her face was. She seemed really intent on studying my face, when I stared back at her though, she immediately hid her face. That game, huh? I felt the tip of her tail loosely coiled on my leg, though it did feel somewhat strange, it did not impede my pace in the slightest so I let it be. I also played the game of stare and hide with the Lamia, even the Arachnae seemed to be amused and even joined, much at the Lamia's discomfort.

Sure enough in fifteen minutes a small, bustling fortified city came into view. Our game came to an end with the Lamia puffing her cheeks and refusing to play any further. I decided to use the next hour and a half to figure out a way to get out of this contract. I need to see the contract and read it.

-Summons Contract-

The moment the Summoned party is summoned, the Summoner and Summoned form a temporary contract that uses this time to establish a more permanent, binding contract. Once the price is accept by the Summoned from the Summoner, both parties are bound to the contract. The Summoned heeds to every command of the Summoner, within the capabilities of, and does not directly harm, the Summoned. In any case of where the Summoner grants free will in a situation, they cannot revoke the range of free will granted until the situation is resolved. Should the Summoned be required to exert energy to complete an order by the Summoner, the Summoner will have to supply sufficient compensation. Should the Summoner not be able to provide proper compensation, this Summons Contract becomes null and void.

So it seems, I have to wait until either he gets sloppy with his commands or he forgets about compensation. I like this contract in that it leaves ways to leave if the Summoner is dimwitted, but I hate it in that I become a slave at his every beck and call. I thought about this contract and any loopholes I could think of. Before I knew it, we had arrived at the far side of the fortified town, just outside the view of the gate.

“Alright, our men stops here, and this is where the monsters do their jobs. Go do my bidding.” He smiled then immediately ignored us and started chatting with the robed men.

So, we have to scale these walls? I looked up at the wall, I guessed it was around 20 feet high, which wasn't that high for a wall, but high enough to stop a march on the location. It would rather difficult to start our task, if I hadn't observed the Arachnae building a silk and twig ladder for me to climb from her position, already atop the wall. I couldn't help but stare in awe at the sheer nimbleness her giant body can preform. I probably would've gazed a little while longer, if I didn't feel an intense gaze emanating from behind me, that I guess was the Lamia. I sighed and hoisted myself up the newly made ladder.

As I had mounted myself upon the wall, I noticed the Arachnae had disappeared and the body type of the Lamia didn't allow her to climb narrow, fragile structures like a ladder. She was going to sit this mission out it seems. Though, I don't think Mr. Thun'xanxuhm would let her off that easily, he will probably abuse her or something. This meant I had some urgency in this particular mission. Stealthily, I moved off the wall without anyone calling me out on sneaky behavior. I observed the architecture, as it was indeed a little unique.

Every building that I set my eyes upon had a stone foundation, wooden walls, and a thatch roof. It looked beautiful, but it was definitely a fire hazard. The bigger buildings shared this design, and even had their thatch roofs touch the ground. Some roofs combined and even the town hall wasn't safe from this failure of a design. Well, I know what I was going to do. I just need a distraction to keep the guards from putting out the fires. Since magic did exist, it must be relatively easy to stop fires, but not if everyone was occupied. I would have to locate the Arachnae.

After I had this thought, I heard many shouts and screams from, what I presume, the town center. The Arachnae was taking on two dozen guards and was trapping them in a ginormous web. I saw more guards rush toward the scene, one even bumped into me and kept going. It seems, I have my distraction. I just need to implement my own plan. I then rushed over to where many houses were grouped together in a rather haphazardly way, it looked poorly maintained, probably the slums.

I spotted a torch that a guard might of dropped running after the Arachnae. I quickly grabbed the abandoned torch and held it up to the nearest thatch roof. It only took seconds for the dried straw to catch ablaze, I moved on from roof to roof. Eventually, I made my way of the slums and onto the regular housing and shops. It wasn't until I lit the Town hall on fire, that people noticed the raging fires burning out of control. It caused great panic among the citizens and even trapped a few inside their own homes.

With the burning buildings, panicking civilians, and a monster catching people in the town square, the guards tried to get people to escape by opening the gate they closed off when there was a commotion in progress. A mass exodus was soon let out of the town as everything burned down inside. I meant to slip into the crowd and meet back up with my master, however I was worried about my comrade. So doubling back, I went to check on the Arachnae. I found her happily dragging corpses inside webbed cocoons with a huge smile on her face, think she would have been humming if it wasn't for her forced silence.

Seeing the Arachnae in good condition, I made my way out of the town.