Path of Possession

by Harmon Cooper

  Way of the Immortals

  Path of Possession

  (Book Three)

  By Harmon Cooper

  Copyright © 2020 by Harmon Cooper

  Copyright © 2020 Boycott Books

  Edited by Adam Luopa

  Audiobook narrated by Neil Hellegers

  www.harmoncooper.com

  writer.harmoncooper@gmail.com

  Twitter: @_HarmonCooper

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Book Two Recap

  Warning: Contains Spoilers

  Here’s the link to Book One if you missed it: https://geni.us/Way-of-the-Immortals

  And Book Two: https://geni.us/Way-of-the-Immortals

  In Way of the Immortals Book Two, Divine Madness, Nick continues to improve his ability to control time. The Exonerated One’s monastery is attacked by Sona, Baatar the hermit is killed, and Nick and company head to higher ground to find a copy of a book that Lhandon believes will help them better understand the Immortals. Along the way, they run into Roger, who is seemingly back from the dead. Roger is with Bobby, Nick’s friend, who is suffering from a lotus addiction.

  Upon calling Saruul, Nick and company head to Dornod, the snow lion village. While Lhandon works to recodify the Path of the Divine, Nick trains with Saruul’s mother. After spending some time there, Nick, Lhandon, Tashi the fire spirt, and Roger cross the Great Plateau to reach the city of Sarpang. Nick gets lost in the desert, and his double, an ephemeral replica of him, leads Nick back to his friends. Their goal is to go to the Island Kingdom of Jonang, where there are rumors an outsider has appeared. Nick hopes this outsider is Hugo, another old friend.

  While Tashi and Roger are upstairs, Nick and Lhandon are taken prisoner by an evil monk named Gomchen, who is employed by Sona. They are tortured, and Nick sees his double again, whom he asks to go for help. Nick and Lhandon are rescued by Saruul, her mother, as well as a mysterious lion man whom Nick trained with back in Dornod.

  After a fight with the evil monk named Gomchen, they rush to the docks to escape to the Island Kingdom. In the end, Saruul ends up going with Roger, Nick and Lhandon to the Island Kingdom, while Tashi the fire spirit stays with Saruul’s mother and the mysterious lion man.

  Stages of the Path of the Divine

  Map of the Five Kingdoms

  Chapter One: Uninvited Guests

  Pirates.

  Because of course there were pirates.

  We had been on the ship all of thirty-six hours before the pirates showed up. We heard the swords, the cries above deck, the patter of feet.

  I looked to Roger and then to Saruul, who nodded, ready to launch into action.

  Lhandon, who already stood near the door, simply shook his head. “And just as I was about to start up my prostrations for the day,” the monk lamented, an icy tentacle sparking around his hand. “I’m ready.”

  “What can I say? This is always a possibility when you are on a ship,” I told him, going for my Flaming Thunderbolt.

  “You’re going to run around on the wooden deck of a wooden ship with the fire sword?” Roger asked. The tropical bird landed on my shoulder, clucking as I placed my hand on the hilt of my blade.

  “Good call,” I told him as I left my weapon sheathed. “Very good call.”

  “A snow lioness fighting pirates on a ship…” Saruul’s ears flattened.

  “I told you it would be an adventure, honey,” I said to her as I made my way out the door, through the hold, and to the nearest ladder. I glanced up and took a deep breath before placing my foot on the first rung, the sounds of more cries, weapons, and waves reaching my ears.

  “Honey? Is that what we’re calling her now?” Roger asked.

  “That’s what I’m calling her,” I said as I looked to the blue sky above, jarring when compared to the darkness of the hold. “Here we go.”

  I came up and immediately cast the rune that allowed me to absorb three strikes, Gyal-Ma. A pirate came at me with his scimitar drawn, his face a mask of hate and animosity.

  I barely managed to step aside, avoiding his strike. I threw my fist into the side of his head, a wave of energy rippling in the air around my knuckles as they connected with his temple.

  He hit the deck with a loud oomph!

  The pirates were fairly easy to separate from the Druk sailors, most notably by the fact they weren’t reptilian. They had blood-red skin and black tribal tattoos. Their ship was a lot smaller than Tsegi’s merchant vessel, a dinghy of sorts.

  And the majority of them seemed to be coming from the quarter deck.

  Saruul emerged from the hold, the beautiful lioness morphing midair as she tackled a pirate. The two slid across the deck, the lioness going to town with her sharp claws, startling a couple more pirates.

  I saw Tsegi battling a few of them using Saruul’s sword, which the lioness had traded for our safe passage to the Island Kingdom of Jonang. Tsegi was fast and fluid with her movements, true confidence in her swordplay as she cut swashbucklers down and parried any attack that came close to her.

  I still wasn’t able to draw my sword, especially with the sails whipping in the air above me. While I could be careful with my blade, if something were to happen, if I were tossed into the main mast, or somehow launched into the air, it would spell disaster for the ship.

  With this in mind, I made my way forward with my fists, starting to focus on my breath, visualizing the switch that activated my ability to slow down time.

  One of the pirates launched himself at me, his blade striking my bicep.

  I absorbed his hit, the man staring at me in utter shock as I swung my fist wide and connected with his chin. Spit, blood, and a couple teeth flew in an arc out of his mouth as he went up and back. He landed on the deck and I dropped to one knee, delivering a final chop to his throat.

  I saw a flash of blue and yellow whip by, Roger doing his best to distract some of the pirates.

  Another man lunged for me and I shoulder-tossed him overboard, which I figured would be the best place to send a pirate had it not been for the way that Tsegi turned to me, still dodging strikes, terror in her eyes.

  “What?” I started to mouth.

  Saruul tore past me, tackling a pirate to the deck and going straight for his jugular.

  I narrowly avoided another attack and brought my fist into the man’s gut, bile spraying out of the man’s mouth.

  I still couldn’t understand why Tsegi had looked at me with terror in her eyes, but she was too far away for me to ask, and there were too many pirates anyway.

  Another appeared out of nowhere swinging his scimitar, my ability yet again allowing me to absorb the attack.

  But I only had one more attack to absorb now.

  I needed to make it count.

  Moving toward the center of the main deck, I was just about to engage another pirate when the boat shook, waves rising in the air all around us as a sea dragon lifted from the water.

  The blood drained from just about everyone’s face on the ship.

  “Nick!”

  I turned to see Lhandon jumping out of the way, the sea dragon’s tail cracking into the forecastle deck and taking out a good chunk of it. The sea dragon’s tail brought down the foremast, the ropes tearing at the sails.

  The terrible beast cried out, a few of the Druk men jumping overboard.

  The monster was as large as the one that Hugo, Bobby, and I had encountered in the Sea of Lhasa, its skin glistening and mirror-like, the beast’s terrible maw filled with teeth easily six or seven feet in length.

  Its beady eyes locked onto me, at least that’s what it felt like was happen
ing as it reared its neck back and threw itself at the center of the ship.

  Saruul, still in her lion form, tackled me, both of us tossed out of the way just in time to avoid the dragon’s body.

  The sails gave way, the wood creaked and cracked and splintered, the men screamed, water sprayed into the air all around us.

  Both of us went down with the ship.

  The main mast fell, cracking against the back of my skull, and it would have killed me had I not absorbed the strike.

  I tried to grab onto something to pull myself up. Saruul clamped down onto my thigh, both her claws digging into my flesh.

  A great wave lifted us into the air, pushing Saruul and me away from the ship. Saltwater flooded into my mouth, into my nostrils. As I gasped for air, another frothy wave slapped against my face, dragging us under.

  Saruul started to morph back to her human form, still clawing her way up my body until her arms wrapped around my neck.

  “I can’t swim…” she started to say, on the verge of sobbing. “I can’t…”

  “I’ve got you,” I told her as I prepared for the next wave.

  I could no longer see the ship, nor did I hear the terrible sea dragon.

  The next wave hit us so hard that everything went black for a moment; it felt like I wasn’t going to make it.

  My lungs on the verge of exploding, I just barely made it to the surface, sucking a deep breath of air, Saruul still with her arm wrapped around my neck dragging me down.

  My next instinct was to find the hilt of my blade, even though it was all but useless in the water. My fingers grazed against it, and once I was sure nothing was missing, another wave lifted Saruul and me, both of us going under again.

  We came back up and I spit water, Saruul quivering and apologizing as I tried to get my bearings.

  “It’s fine,” I told her. “We’re safe.”

  And that’s when I felt something grab my feet from below.

  Chapter Two: Shitbirds and Other Oceanic Obstacles

  I started kicking my feet, telling Saruul to do so as well.

  Several white hands came out of the water and latched onto the lioness, trying to pull both of us down. Their hands were slick, their nails long, their skin porcelain.

  “Nick!”

  I tried to kick at their fingers, water splashing onto my face as an arm came around my neck. Saruul sank her teeth into the arm, my reaction being to go for my weapon, the only thing that was going to be able to protect me.

  And it turned out to be the right choice.

  I drew my Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom, feeling the weight of the blade underwater and noticing that… the flame was still going, illuminating the dark water and revealing a group of pale men and women, all nude, the same ones that had once tried to drag me under at the Sea of Lhasa.

  “Get back!” I shouted, mostly to give myself the courage to keep swimming, to hold on tightly to the hilt of my weapon as I tried to bat them away underwater.

  One of the braver beings came forward, and as it did, I managed to drive my sword through his chest, the blade poking out his back, the water filled with thousands of tiny orange bubbles.

  The rest of the pale underwater people fanned out as the man I’d stabbed lowered toward them. Once he was within arm’s reach, a few of them swam up to grab him.

  “We have to keep moving,” I told Saruul, still holding onto her, now swimming backward with my sword underwater, aimed at our aggressors.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry I can’t swim.”

  “I’m sure you can swim, just move your arms…”

  “We don’t really swim, snow lions,” she told me as I continued to try to paddle away from the pale underwater people.

  “There you are!”

  I looked up to see the outline of a bird, the sun causing a corona of light making me want to shield my eyes.

  “Roger,” I shouted up to him. “Damn, am I glad to see you!”

  “I haven’t located Lhandon yet,” he said, flapping in the air above us.

  Still paddling and holding onto Saruul, I glanced back down beneath the surface of the water, noticing that no one was coming after us now, that the pale people that lurked beneath the waves were gone.

  “I swear, sometimes I wish I were about a thousand times my size so I could take out one of those sea dragons,” Roger said. “Can you imagine me just flying in the air and picking one off like it was a worm? Good eating!”

  “Roger, please find land,” Saruul said. “I can’t swim.”

  “Can’t swim? Fuck that. Yes, you can,” Roger told her. “Just turn into a lion; I’m sure you will instinctively figure it out. Back at my bird school…”

  “Enough, Roger!” I said, feeling Saruul squeeze me tighter.

  “No, do it, Saruul, I know you can,” he said, lowering near her, his voice firm. “I believe all creatures can. Swim, lioness, swim like your life depends on it!”

  “Will you hold onto me?” she asked me.

  “I’m sort of holding onto a sword underwater right now and…”

  “Just do it!”

  “Okay, okay,” Saruul told Roger, furrowing her brow. “I can do this!”

  “That’s the goddamn spirit! And while I’m yelling, fuck sea dragons!”

  Saruul pressed off me, and as she did, she began to morph into her lion form, instantly sinking. She burst out of the water seconds later, her face and whiskers wet, her eyes still fearful.

  “First, we find a shore, any shore,” I told him. “And once we get there…”

  “He can’t be dead,” Roger said, not even letting me think it. “Lhandon must have survived. He is a sturdy monk, and true, he would be a pretty good afternoon snack to a shark or a sea dragon, but I don’t believe that was his fate. Plus, he can clearly float. Regardless, there were some lifeboats. I did see that, Tsegi commanding them too. I was too interested in trying to find you to dive down there and see if Lhandon was in one of them, but I’m sure he’s there. He must be.”

  “We have to be sure,” I said. “And you are our eyes in the sky.”

  “The best bird you know,” Roger said as he started to lift higher. “Just stay put. Well, don’t stay put, but stay heading in the same direction and I will see what I can find. Perhaps there will be a kind seagull that will point us in the right direction. That’s a joke. Most seagulls are shifty assholes.”

  “Just hurry,” I told him, keeping an eye on Saruul.

  She had quickly gotten the hang of swimming and was now moving even faster than me. Another wave came and lifted us, and I had the idea to follow the waves, hoping that they were rising and falling in the direction of the shoreline.

  I saw Roger in the air, the bird moving higher and higher until he was no longer visible. Some saltwater spilled into my mouth and I spit it out, suddenly feeling thirsty.

  Still continuing onward, I waved my Flaming Thunderbolt of Wisdom in a circle beneath the waves, making sure nothing was coming for me.

  As terrifying as this was, I had to believe that we were going to make it.

  What felt like an hour passed this way, my arms growing tired. I had never swum so much in my life, and I was starting to fear what would happen if we weren’t able to find land by nightfall.

  I tried to think about other things as Saruul and I continued onward, from narrowly escaping Gomchen’s evil torture chamber to crossing the Great Plateau. I knew that there were going to be obstacles in our way, but a ship attacked by pirates followed by a sea dragon was something I would have never predicted.

  But now, as I swam toward what I hoped was land, it made sense.

  Ironic sense, but sense nonetheless.

  And I had to smile. I had to stay positive, believing that Saruul and I wouldn’t drown, that there was land and that we would make it there.

  Reinvigorated by my inner monologue, I caught up to the beautiful lioness, swimming even faster than she was for a moment, ignoring the strain in my arms, the occasion
al butterflies in my stomach as I remembered that anything could be beneath me.

  Anything.

  I only hoped we were going in the right direction.

  It was at least another hour before Roger returned, the bird lowering onto Saruul’s head, much to her chagrin.

  “Relax,” he told her as she growled. “I’ve just been flying all over this godforsaken ocean looking for a place for you two to rest your feet, so let me rest my wings. Because my wings are what are actually tired. I digress. Land. I found it. Go me.”

  “Are we going in the right direction?”

  “You are,” Roger told me. “At the rate you are swimming, it will take another hour to reach there, maybe longer.”

  “So we’re close to the Island Kingdom?” I asked.

  “I can’t say for certain that it is the Island Kingdom, but I believe so, yes. I saw a seagull, and lo and behold, he was a real shitbird. I even tried to ask nicely, but no, he squawked at me and said some shit to a pelican flying by about how stupid my color was. Yeah? So I’m blue and yellow, which last I checked, is way better than being beige with a crappy attitude. I told him to get bent, and he tried to shoot me out of the air with ammo from his sphincter.”

  “His…” I shook my head, focusing on staying afloat, Roger still perched on Saruul’s head. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, like I said, a real shitbird. Why don’t you believe me when I tell you how some of these animals behave here in my world? Ever heard of projectile vomit? Some of the seagulls have the skill on the reverse, if you get my drift. It’s a defense mechanism, acidic too if it hits you. Saruul, I’m serious, try to hold steady because I don’t want to get wet. Anyway. Fuckers. It doesn’t matter now, though. I got the hell out of there. Long story short: just stay on this course, we will reach the shoreline. After that? That’s not my field of expertise, but I’m sure you and Saruul here can figure it out. Now, if you don’t mind...”

  The lioness dipped her head underwater, Roger pressing out of the waves. “Hey!”