Rebellion: Prince of Dawn

Chapter 13.2: The Chariot

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RAY VAN CAMARO

A year after we started learning jynx, my parents made a breakthrough and discovered a new category-summoning.

It worked by materializing one's mana into some sort of creature and using your mana to give it sentience. The first summoning my parents made was a rabid man with pale skin. Its skin hugged its skeletal frame and a muzzle of flesh was formed in front of its sharpened teeth. It also had a rapier on its hip.

"Isn't this cool, Ray?" Father asked. "We can summon things now."

"It's creepier than Mother's doll collection."

For some reason, Mother liked collecting all sorts of dolls. There was a wall dedicated to shelves stocked with dolls in the living room. Sometimes it felt like their eyes were following me every time I walked past them.

Father laughed. "I'm going to have to disagree with you. Your mother's collection is way creepier."

Mother responded by smacking him over the head with a thick book.

"What's its name?" I asked.

"We're still workshopping it," Mother said. "Do you want to try summoning him?"

They drew an incantation circle on the floor and had me stand on it. I had never used an incantation circle before and was surprised when all I had to do to cast a spell was direct my mana through it.

I snapped my fingers and, just a couple of feet from me, the creepy summoning materialized from the feet up and just stared.

"It feels like he and I are connected."

"Yeah, there's a string of mana going from your gates to your summoning," Mother said. "You can control him."

I had him raise a hand and then stand on one foot.

"Can I show this to Trisha and Czeslaw?"

"Sure, but only them. We'll draw the circle on your bicep, but wear this fake incantation glove. We're going to have Grandpa Orsted submit our research to the Capital first. After our name is put on it, you can teach it to them."

"What if they want to try using the glove?"

"Just say the glove only works for you. They should believe that."

When we gathered at the field the next day, I summoned one to show off. Trisha dropped to the ground and crawled backwards to the tree. Czeslaw, surprisingly, used Rock Bust successfully and managed to kill it.

I guess he can perform jynx in desperate situations.

"What the hell is that?!" Czeslaw said. "That's evil incarnate!"

"No, it's not. Just relax. I can control it."

"What if you can't and it goes berserk?! It's gonna go wild and use its sword to chop off my head. I don't want to die getting decapitated. I hear that you remain conscious for a bit after your neck's been snipped."

"First of all, the sword is a rapier and it can't cut. Two, I'm not going to lose control. If I do, I'll just unsummon him."

"Well," Trisha climbed the tree, "I'm going to stay up here just in case."

Hmm... These two were always playing pranks on me before. I wonder if this is a good time for payback.

I summoned the pale man and had it hack me with its sword. I made it miss on purpose-but barely.