As time passes and it comes closer and closer to battle time, eventually it becomes 11:30 and I decide to summon out Jareth to give him his equipment for the tough battle ahead. He seems to sense the tense atmosphere and becomes excited at the mere thought of a battle.

I smile at the antics of this battle maniac before reigning in my amusement and telling Jareth, "There's going to be a very dangerous war soon, when I summon you, later on, I want you to drink this potion. It will make you stronger for an hour and I want you to kill as many monsters as possible while remaining reasonably close to me. I also have a few pieces of equipment to give you as a preemptive gift for the coming fight."

I hand him a small pouch with the potion of rage inside, which he ties to the waist of his ragged pants. Luckily, it seems with his evolution his equipment that he came with advanced with him and he was no longer in his tiny scrap of cloth trying to pass for a loincloth.

Along with the 1,000 credit potion, I give him my set of tier 2 armor for additional safety, as he is the only one of my summons who could possibly wear it. His skin may protect him from most attacks from lower-tier monsters, but it won't hurt to have extra protection when there will be an insane amount of monsters to continuously battle.

I help him equip the leather armor, and aside from the sleeves being a bit short due to his lanky but impressively strong arms, the rest of it fits quite well after a few adjustments. He already was an imposing figure, but seeing him looking like a real warrior brought a shiver to my spine at the terrifying figure he made.

Along with the armor, I also handed him the gravity warhammer I had won at the international auction recently. We hadn't had a good time for him to practice with it, so I had kept it with me till now.

What was originally a two-handed weapon became an oversized one-handed weapon of destruction, Jareth was barely straining to hold it up and seemed like he would have no problem continuously fighting with it.

He now held his iron mace in his non-dominant left hand and held the warhammer in his right hand while resting it against his shoulder. He looked ready to deal some serious damage, his bloodthirsty smile, and eyes that gleaned with killing intent only served to increase that impression.

His demeanor wasn't far off from how he looked as he was practically vibrating with intent to test out his new toys on some unsuspecting monsters in a glorious show of blood.

I showed him how to activate the gravity function of the hammer, and warned him that the change would be for a very short amount of time so use it right before the weapon connects. I also cautioned him that this function would drain some energy from him to fuel the ability, so it was only to be used when absolutely necessary.

With that taken care of, I unsummon Jareth with all of his equipment remaining on him, ready to use at a moment's notice when summoned to fight.

20 minutes had passed by since summoning Jareth and there was now only 10 minutes left till the break began, with that knowledge I decided to bring out Emett to serve as my bodyguard while waiting for my turn to fight once the front line was exhausted.

I may even send him out to help other summoners or take out stray monsters that came near me, his unlimited stamina was a boon that I planned on taking full advantage of throughout this assuredly long and exhausting battle.

The summoners around me seemed to have the same idea as me and began to bring out and ready their summons for the impending fight. Those around me usually brought out only one summon to preserve their energy, but occasionally there would be a seemingly experienced or foolish summoner starting out with two summons.

With the concerns of stamina for this long battle to worry about bringing two summons while not even actively fighting yet was either extremely foolish or proved just how strong the summoners were that they could manage multiple summons for so long.

I was able to dual summon for quite some time myself, but that was due to constant practice when hunting and pushing my limits every day in order to improve my summoning energy limits. Not many summoners bothered to practice like I had, they were either lazy or saw no need to improve themselves past managing one summon at a time which is what was usually used in non-lethal battles between summoners.

I found it foolish to not train extensively and push our limits with our survival at stake, but many seemed complacent despite the constantly looming threat. They were the ones most likely to be wiped out, but that was their problem right now, and I had my own life and fights to worry about without adding the burden of my peers on top of that.

Everyone lines up in a jumbled but organized pattern with their monsters beside them, most summoners seem to be willing to sit back while their summons fight, as there is too much danger involved in fighting monsters much stronger and dangerous than them.

Summons can be revived at a cost, but once a summoner dies so do their summons. The ones that were out at the time have their bodies remaining along with their core, but the unsummoned ones in storage remain only as a core.

Noon finally comes along and a loud bell rings in the distance from atop the gate and what comes over the horizon is a horde of monsters the likes of which I had never been able to conceive of till now.

There seemed to be a never-ending tide of monsters large and small marching or running along towards the group of a few million summoners and their summons. I could feel the ground shaking and rumbling as giant monstrous bodies ambled along towards us.

The smaller and faster monsters were in the front and were the first to make contact with us. Most were usually tier 1 and 2 monsters, which by themselves weren't especially dangerous, but when in a horde of millions of said monsters they could easily pose a greater danger than the higher tier monsters.

While the monsters began their charge almost immediately after the ringing of the noon bell, the summoners didn't remain idle and began to move outwards to meet the enemy and give us more space to work in and guard.

The more room we have in between the monsters and the gate, the better, because it would be inevitable for us to give up ground at some point. Usually, later on in the monster break when the larger and more dangerous monsters made their way into battle us summoners would be forced back to make room to fight them off.

The common tactics of the monsters during these breaks from what I had been taught was for the weaker and smaller monsters to be sent out to wear down on the summoners. When those monsters were killed off, the stronger ones would step forward while the most dangerous remained behind for the end of the battle.

Their ultimate goal would be to attempt to break through the lines of summoners and make it to the gate where they would wreak havoc on the city and those within it. We had summoners who worked for the association remaining behind in the city as a precaution for any monsters that did make it through.

After the first 3 monster breaks, which were a disaster, summoners became organized enough and strong enough to ward off any monsters trying to make it through the gate. But as the monsters became more numerous and stronger with every successive monster break it became harder and harder for us to hold them back.

After the first 3 breaks where casualties were numerous, we had managed to break about even between summoners lost and new summoners being made after turning 16. A significant portion of the population in this new era was minors who hadn't been required to participate in the war and so the number of new summoners wasn't insignificant, the only problem was their lack of experience and strong summons.

This was a major flaw in the ranks of summoners fighting during the breaks, the new summoners were thrown into the figurative fire and only the smart or strong ones would remain to become the pillars of humanity.

It was harsh but necessary to ensure that those remaining had the skills to survive in this harsh world. Experienced summoners would do their best to save or help the new summoners, but there was only so much to be done without fighting for them which no one had the luxury to do.

This figurative culling also served to ensure that humanity's resources were going to those who would survive rather than be wasted on people bound to die.

Anyway, chaos ensued as soon as the monster break began with flying monsters and summons fighting in the air, with the occasional lucky monster breaking away and attacking the summons and summoners below who were often unaware of their presence until it was too late.

On the ground fighting currently were lower-tier monsters native to the beginner forest, all sorts of monsters such as; wolves, horned rabbits, boars, rats, spiderlings, giant insects, boulder ants, ember lizards, cement frogs, goblins, spike-tailed squirrels, and many others were fighting as the first wave.

Spreading out further up along with the rest of the summoners in front and beside me, I sent Emett out to back up other summons and kill off the many weaker monsters.

I gave him the order to go and fight any monsters he sees and can take on while staying in my line of sight. With him going out to help take care of the weaker but numerous first wave, I paid special attention to my surroundings as I didn't have any summons out to protect me in an emergency.

My sword was out and ready to use and had already taken care of a few of the smaller monsters that had slipped through the frontlines.

I was withholding summoning any other of my other summons to save as much energy as I could. There wasn't too much danger to me currently and I could take care of myself, but any monsters that would require a summon to take care of I could bring Brutus out or have Emett come back since he wasn't very far away from me.

It was difficult to keep track of anything going on as everyone was moving frantically around to fight off monsters or get away from them for others to take care of.

Emett seemed to be having a blast crushing and piercing anything within range of him. He was almost completely impervious to any attacks from these weak monsters, and any that managed to scratch him healed nearly immediately as he drew from the earth to fill in any missing parts.

He was a tiny little juggernaut that mowed through anything in front of him, and any monsters that managed to resist his initial strikes were run through by one of his hands molded and hardened into a spear that pierced through the body of his foe.

I seemed to be racking up quite a bit of merit point from Emett's rampage and was amused by the new appearance of my summon, he was soaked through with blood from head to non-existent toe and had a bright smile on his face from being able to let loose on the never-ending rush of monsters.

The area of space he occupied closer to the front line was littered with bodies and blood, there was an open pocket of space free from monsters that the tired summons and summoners had taken refuge in the area as no monsters had managed to make their way through him. This was due to the combination of high defense and healing ability along with endless stamina from his contact with the earth.

By the time I recalled him towards me as stronger and bigger monsters with most being around tier 2 and 3 had made their way to the front line. By the looks of the bodies surrounding the area he had been posted at, there must have been nearly 200 tier 1 and 2 monsters that he had killed.

I had managed to get 8 kills from the occasional stray monster that made their way through the frontline, I was still extremely energized and fully prepared to begin my portion of fighting during the monster break.

It had been somewhere around 2 hours into the fight when the monster tier began to change and the frontline summoners who were mostly weak or beginners made there retreat to rest and recover while the middle row where I was stationed began to step up and fight the tougher monsters on the frontline.

Seeing that everyone was beginning to move out and bring out their summons, I did the same and brought out Brutus and Jareth who was equipped with all of his new equipment.

Seeing that he was brought out to fight, Jareth followed my initial instructions and reached into the pouch at his waist and gulped down the small vial of red potion bringing him immediately into a berserker-like rage and turning his skin a faintly red hue.