The Inscribed Angle

by Andrew Bardsley

  The only thing now in the air was a dazed falling Freya, left with only shreds of her clothing following the explosion. For the first time in a while Freya no longer felt herself full of power. For a few brief seconds, she wondered if she would have enough magical power to prevent her death from the fall. As her speed increased and the ground rushed up toward her, she felt the power start to infuse in her again. Changing her body’s inscriptions, she started to slow her decent just in time to hit the ground as if she had jumped from the top of a first story roof. Pain shot up through her legs, which was quickly healed by the now increasing power. If Freya had felt that the power influx was a flood before, now it was like sitting under a massive waterfall of energy filling her body.

  Freya’s first action was to create her own magical field around the island. This would give her some time to deal with the heads of the Longrow Corporation before backup arrived by capturing and isolating them. As Freya started to move to the luxury resorts on the island, she felt through her magical connection to the shield, several vehicles had tried to enter or leave. All these attempts ended in explosions and falling debris. As Freya flew toward the first buildings, she increased power again to the shields. Now that she had the island isolated, her first order of business was to find some new clothing. After searching the first few buildings on the edge of the resorts, she found a baggy t-shirt and some oversized jeans. Thinking that this was just a bit better than being mostly naked, she put them on reluctantly. In the mirror, she looked like she was dressed as a sack of potatoes rather than a dangerous the combat expert she wanted to portray.

  Freya used her inscriptions to scan the resorts. Most people were collected at a large hall in the centre of the resort. Freya grinned to herself and then for dramatic effect, started walking towards the hall slowly. The dramatic effect was only slightly weakened by the lack of adequate clothing. On the way she was intercepted by magical fire teams. These were top level combatants and knew what they were doing. The tactics were clever and would have worked on any normal attacker, but Freya just overwhelmed them with powerful attacks. With her personal shield power, all the magical fire, lighting and kinetic energy attacks that rained down on her were like a light mist. Each of the team found themselves having to retreat to avoid being defeated easily by the slow walking woman.

  As Freya was on her final approach to the central hall, high energy magical attacks started to strike her shield requiring Freya to divert more power to them than before. In retaliation, Freya started to form magical spheres of plasma in the air, surrounding the central hall. As she continued forwards the spheres formed, and eventually hundreds of spheres shone white with heat and swirling plasma.

  Using a magical inscription to project her voice Freya thundered, “You can surrender now or later. Now, more of you may live another day. Later, less of you will live.”

  As she was finishing, a man mad with indignation rushed out of the central hall shouting at Freya. “Don’t you know who I am? How dare you!!!”

  Freya recognized him as the chief executive officer of the Longrow Corporation as he shot out a magical lightning attack at Freya. This was no small attack as it took a while for her shields to disperse the power. Everybody at the high echelons of society had to have a certain level of personal magical power to survive and prosper. This man was confident in this ability as the lighting struck Freya shield. In return, Freya engulfed him in one of the plasma spheres, in which he was immediately disintegrated. At that point Freya blasted half of her plasma spheres at the building containing the people. This had the dramatic effect of completely levelling the structure and blasting material into the air. When the dust settled any people still conscious in the building only saw Freya standing in preparation to finish them off with ten times more plasma spheres than before.

  A hollow silence fell over the battle field, only interrupted by the falling of odd pieces of the building to the ground. Freya stood there waiting and increasing the amount of plasma spheres hovering around her. Finally, a man shouted from the rubble. “We surrender!”

  Freya stood there silently as the first shout was joined by everybody crying desperately at once. The only answer to their pleading was silence and the ever-present magical energy of the plasma with one woman waiting.

  --

  When Jack landed with a vast armada of combat troop crafts, he found Freya sitting by herself with hundreds of people, still pleading for their lives. Some of them had passed out with the stress of the situation, but the conscious people were still in a state of panic as the plasma spheres had not stopped increasing in number.

  Freya said to Jack in a serious tone that brooked no argument, “I will have complete control and ownership of the Longrow Corporation and all the executives are to be placed into magical indentured service, if they want to live. Until this happens, tell them the plasma spheres will continue to increase in number.”

  For the next several hours, Jack worked nervously under the glare of the multiplying plasma spheres, while he sorted out the mess. When given their choices, everybody took the choice to live and soon all the assets of the Longrow Corporation were in control of the Eos Corporation. As the dust settled from the fall of the snake's head, the loose alliance fell apart and each of them came to Freya to make peace. It seemed that the most important things that the rich valued were their own life, wealth and power. Now Freya had shown them their personal vulnerability to death, this gave them little taste for war.

  --

  Freya was happily working away in one of her workshops developing more magical inscription technology. Her social life had been low to non-existent before, except for the friends she made in the past. But now that she had shown her personal power, she had two effects on people. The first was abject fear, and the second boot licking submission to ingratiate themselves to her. Neither of the two effects made her happy.

  Disturbing her sober thoughts, Jen came into the room with a farseeing pane. “Freya, you need to see this!”

  Suddenly a handsome man appeared in the mist in the farseeing pane with the world in the background. He introduced himself as Chris and spoke clearly through the screen, “I am in an orbit around our world now, we have finally travelled into the void of space. There are many inventions that I still have not released to the world.”

  “I have invented a new pillar of magic, to do with space and time called Ether. If you want to deal with me, it will be on my terms. All countries that freeze the assets or impede my company in any way, I will not have dealings with. For the countries that do not, I will be open to trade with. The choice is up to you.”

  Freya smiled with excitement, as she saw a new opportunity for adventure on the horizon.

  Additional book by Andrew Bardsley

  The First Era: The History System Chronicles

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LDZSH9Y/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

  A man is transported to a new world, given magical power, and left to survive. He has a bit of help, from a mysterious system with a none helpful personality. This book contains LitRPG based element as part of the magical system in the world.

  Following is an extract from the Book:

  They were both standing on the platform by the palisade, looking across the plains. As the light began to fade both of them could see a group of creatures walking up the hill in a disorganized crowd. It was the goblins. There seemed to be no organization and even some fighting. When the crowd was about fifty meters from the palisade, one larger goblin started to shouting and hitting others, forming them up into rough ranks. Ahava felt a cold sweat on his brow, but Olga was giving off an air of excitement.

  The large goblin signaled to some goblins with drums. The drums started the beat. “Boom, Boom, Boom...”

  The sound of the drums continued. The goblins were dressed in fur rags, each with a spear with a stone head or clubs. Some of the goblins had blood smeared across their faces in horizontal patterns. The drum sound continued to intensif
y. At a signal from the leader, the goblins roared and charged forward.

  The battle had begun. The goblins ran, some using their hands like four legs. Soon they were at the ditch with the wooden spikes. Some of them tried to leap across the ditch but fell short and were impaled on the wooden stakes. Ahava could hear the cries of the wounded. Others slowly crawled down into the ditch, avoiding the stakes. Ahava and Olga had a supply of large stones, which they started to throw onto the goblins in the ditch. A lot of the rocks hit the goblins, crushing their heads and bodies. A number of goblins reached the palisade and started to climb up. Some of them were knocked off by the stones. Ahava and Olga ran out of stones to throw.

  Ahava used his spear to stab the goblins while they were climbing up the wooden wall. Olga was moving around in a type of dance, chopping with her ax at any goblins that came over the wall. The speed of the ax was a blur of movement. Ahava saw severed heads flying in all directions from the axes Olga was wielding. There were bits of goblin all around the platform. One goblin managed to bite Ahava on the arm. Ahava pulled out his knife and stabbed the goblin in the eye. It screamed and fell back into the ditch.

  The sheer numbers of the goblins were starting to overwhelm the two on the platform. At a prearranged signal from Olga, both of them withdrew. Navigating the route between small pit traps and through a hole in the thorn wall, they retreated toward the cliffs. Ahava blocked off the hole with thorns.

  Their backs were against a large bonfire. The goblins started to run across the area with the pit traps. Many of the first ones fell into the traps and were skewered on the wooden spikes. The followers managed to avoid the pits. The goblins were now pressing against the barrier of thorns. Ahava and Olga started to throw burning wood at the goblins. This set some of the dry material that had been placed before the thorns alight. Some of the goblins burned from the fire. To Ahava’s amazement, the goblins started to climb over the thorn bushes. They seemed to be in such a rage to get at Ahava and Olga that it did not matter the pain they were in.

  Olga had ordered Ahava to not get in her way if the goblins got to the open area past the thorns. He was told to only kill any that were on the edges. As some of the goblins finished climbing over the thorn bushes, Olga attacked with her ax. To watch this was like seeing a beautiful dance, full of grace and power. Heads and pieces of the goblin's bodies went flying everywhere. Ahava used his spear to stab any goblins that tried to make a getaway from Olga’s dance of death. Soon there were no goblins left except the large one, who was the leader. He had been pushing his goblins forward with kicks and punches.

  The City god: The History System Chronicles

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PT716FY/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

  Second Book in the 'The History System Chronicles'

  This book contains LitRPG based element as part of the magical system in the world.

  Following is an extract from the Book:

  Namzu spoke urgently to the now awoken group of adventurers putting on their armor, “We’ll have to defend the cave from mountain trolls and cyclops, Istar and Etel-Pisha, go now and harass the oncoming enemy while we prepare for the attack. Hurry, you need to buy us enough time to clear the ground for our stand.”

  Istar indicated to Etel-Pisha to follow her to attack the column of monsters, before they reached the cave. They both ran for about ten minutes in the bright moon light, until they could hear the movement of the trolls and cyclops, moving along the path towards the cave. The two took up sheltered positions amongst different outcrops of rock, as soon as the first troll appeared Istar started to shoot her arrows. The first arrow flashed across the intervening distance like a bolt of light, shrieking and then thudding with the impact into the troll's chest, and out the other side. For a few seconds the large troll kept moving, as if nothing had happened, then it fell face first into the road. The troll behind it roared in anger, as moved it forward with no thought for protection. Now Etel-Pisha shot out fireballs, lighting up the area and revealing his position. The fireballs and arrows were hitting the trolls, causing damage as the trolls found themselves alight or with bloody gaping holes from where the arrow had hit. The onslaught of trolls caused the two adventures to retreat, as they could not kill enough to hold their position. Istar and Etel-Pisha ran until they could find another position to attack the oncoming column from. The process of attacking from positions along the trail continued until the two found themselves back the caves entrance. The trolls kept using the same tactic of charging at every attack, ignoring the casualties this caused in their rage. Istar had commented to Etel-Pisha that they were determined but not very bright. The slower cyclops were always behind at the back of the column, and so were not attacked by the arrows and fireball.

  The harrying had brought the required time and as they reached the cave mouth, the rest of the adventurers had formed a shield wall with a killing ground in front of it. Each of the shield men had a bundle of spears taken from the dragon's horde. As the trolls started to charge into the killing ground Namzu ordered the three shield men and one shield minotaur, to throw all at once.

  Co-ordinated, as if through years of long practice, each of them released the spears as one. The four-spears flew across the distance hitting the first four mountain trolls. Each spear impaled a troll and then rammed into the ground behind them keeping the troll bodies standing like grotesque marionettes. The process was repeated again and again as the remaining trolls charged forward. Soon the adventures could see the cyclops at the back moving towards the front. All of them stood taller than Asterion by several feet. On the side of the shield wall, Istar shot off arrows at the cyclops heads to take out their single eyes. Several cyclops were hit in the face, and the arrow ends protruded out of their cheeks, as the tough bone had prevented them entering the skull. Soon the cyclops were in range of the spear throwers, and as the spears hit their bodies, they pierced but did not stop them coming. The first slow-moving cyclops eventually reached the shield wall, spears sticking out of its body with arrows peppering its face. Using its massive club that looked to be a whole tree, the cyclops swept and crashed against Nasha’s shield. If the shield had not been strengthened and Nasha was not stronger, then he would have been thrown backwards from the strike into the cave wall. Gritting his teeth and strengthening his grip, he was able to hold his position, moving back less than a foot in total.

  Into the Ether: The Ether World Series

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MQC26LX/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

  Chris Smith, a brilliant researcher, is the first person to discover an entirely new branch of magic inscriptions. The four elemental pillars have been used since mankind learned to scribe, but the world is about to change with the realization that space-time can also be affected.

  Chris is ready to lead the charge in making the new world, operating out of a magical start-up with his closest friend. His ideas will be just the beginning. However, when Chris is betrayed, his life is sent spinning in a chaotic downward spiral, leaving him with nothing but his wits.

  Engaging and fast-paced ‘Into the Ether’ spins a story of magic, intrigue, and determination.

  Following is an Extract from the book:

  Chris delayed a few moments longer until he heard the sound of a group of charging footsteps. As Chris looked back, he saw about seven men from the Panther gang running towards the other thugs. The lead fighter of the Panther gang stopped at about two meters distance away from the five thugs and made a sudden movement with his gloved hand. Out of his hand, a bolt of electricity shot out and hit one of the five. The bolt at first, fizzed over some protective clothing without effect and then the thug who was the target started to spasm in pain. The man finally collapsed onto the ground, and the electricity stopped, as the gloved Panther made another hand gesture. With one down the four thugs were attacked using stun rods, two of the thugs that were left activated the inscriptions on their clothing to flare with the absorption of power but were ev
entually taken down by the sheer overwhelming force of all seven Panthers. All of the Panthers were well armed and protected by magical devices that glowed with use.

  The conflict between the criminal gangs, was quickly over and the leader of the Panthers pulled out a farseeing device for instruction on what to do with the other gang members. Soon a magical hovering platform arrived, and the rival gang members were loaded on to it. A large sheet was then used to cover them as they were taken away.

  The Inscribed Angle: The Ether World Series

  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NHBP8TR/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

  This is an extract from the book:

  Ross whispered to Freya roughly, “Time for us, well me at least, to start earning the money. I know that Jack has gone through this briefing already but I’m going to repeat it once. Only hit the targets that are indicated in your farseeing goggles, those are connected to the combat net with the plan uploaded into them. It is most important that you limit the effects to the designated areas, as if you injure or kill any of our people it will not go well. I’ll be keeping an eye on you to make sure nothing goes wrong. If you just do what is in the command net, everything will be okay. Got it rookie?”

  Freya gave a quick, “Yes sir,” and put on her farseeing goggles.

  As soon as she put on the goggles, the whole valley lit up, as if it were day. She could see the fire teams moving closer to the compound. As Freya, concentrated on each member, she was able to see detail of the persons health and who they were. The system also lit up the enemy combatants. For the next half an hour, Freya was able to watch the fire team move from cover to cover to the side of the compound. The movement was a fluid motion of one team's movement and the other team covering. As the fire team reached the edge of the compound, one of its members sent out a mist from his hands. This mist slowly dispersed any magical runes or alarms inscribed on the fence, where the teams would be breaching. Freya zoomed in with her goggles and watched the same man use a small flame, from his finger, to cut a hole in the wire fencing. The fire team moved through the hole and started moving toward a building at the back of the compound. In there was the figure of a woman marked in green as the target for extraction. The first fire team went in for the extraction, as the second guarded the exit route. As they went inside the building Freya started to see the enemy combatants being blasted by stun, fire, force and close combat magic. Every now and then, the mercenaries would be hit by a blast on their shield, but none of her team were down yet.