by Sam Ryder
SEEKER: Monster Slayer
Book Three of the Monsterworld Saga
Sam Ryder
Copyright 2018 David Estes
Kindle Edition, License Notes
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
A sneak peek at The Fatemarked Epic, available NOW!
My name is Sam Ryder. I was abducted from Earth and brought to a planet called Tor, a world of dying goddesses and monsters. I was leveled up—thrice now—transforming me from a slightly overweight gamer into a chiseled fighter with spidey senses who gets more play with the goddesses than an Xbox.
At this point I’ve already faced two of the massive demons known as the Morgoss, the overlords responsible for the overthrow of the Three goddesses and the theft of their powerful hearts. So far, I’ve managed to kill one of the bastards with help from my allies and recover the sky goddess’s heart. Two monsters and two hearts to go.
This is the continuation of my story.
ONE
FINALLY. WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?
“Those look bad. Have you shown them to the Three?” Beat asked, gesturing to my chest with a meaty finger. I was still getting used to my best friend’s sheer size. Ever since I’d known the mighty Warrior whose real name was, wait for it, Beatrice (but don’t call her that to her face), she’d been bodybuilder muscular, but I was always bigger. Now, however, the tables had turned.
She put the power in powerful, the might in mighty, the…well, you get the picture. Leveled up to Protector, she was a woman-beast.
“These little things?” I said, glancing at the white, thread-like veins that were showing through the skin on my neck, upper chest and shoulder. “Broken capillaries. That’s all.” In truth, I was getting pretty freaked out. Ever since I was bitten by one of the scary-sexy Syrene while on a quest to recover a vial of her blood the white veins had been spreading.
Not good.
Beat wasn’t buying it either. “They look unnatural.”
I didn’t think it was necessary to remind her that everything about getting bitten by a seductress mermaid vampire was unnatural. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“You might turn into a siren,” Beat said. At least she was grinning now. Our relationship generally involved spurts of seriousness amongst long periods of absurdity. We preferred it that way.
“A sex change?” I said. “Hmm, interesting. My breasts have been looking bigger.” I used my hand to push my pecs together to create some makeshift cleavage. It felt weird. My body was so much leaner than it had been a few days ago, before the goddesses had Leveled me up to Seeker. As Protector, I’d been the Incredible Hulk’s long-lost brother, except without the green tinge and uncontrollable temper. As Seeker, I was lean and chiseled, my senses supercharged so I could see in the dark and hear footsteps sneaking up on me from a great distance away.
“You’d be a damn ugly woman,” Beat said. I was glad we were still in the joking phase of the conversation.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I would. Which is why I think I’ll stick to being a man. At least for now.”
“Sure you don’t want to try on my loin bikini?” Beat asked. “Just for fun.”
“Tempting,” I said. Given my changed shape and size, I’d had to retie my own loincloth tighter to avoid a whole lot of embarrassment. Beat’s garb, however, had needed to be readjusted the opposite way, expanded with extra rope. “We could do a photoshoot for Barbarian magazine: Spring Break edition. Loin clothes optional.”
Though I could tell Beat was amused, her expression grew serious once more. “Ryder. You should show those veins to the Three.”
“I’m pretty sure they’ve already noticed them.” They must have. Kinda hard to miss considering the, ahem, close quarters we’d been in together.
“You know how they are, all mysterious and shit. Ask them directly. Or Eve. She might know.”
Beat was right. Our Finder, Eve, knew almost everything there was to know about this place. This place being Tor, the alien planet I found myself on, a world plagued by monsters with an affinity for ripping out the hearts of goddesses. And murder. Yeah, they loved murder too. “I’ll think about it.”
“If you don’t, I will.”
“Bossy,” I said. “This whole Protector thing has really gone to your head.”
Beat smiled at me wryly. “You think I’m bad? Have you seen Lace lately?”
I groaned. I had. The ferocious cat-woman had been a major asset to me when I was Protector, even if she’d always believed it should’ve been her who got the job. Now that she’d been Leveled up…
Right on cue, her sharp voice carried over to where we were sitting by the fire. “Get off your lazy asses and fight like you’re about to be devoured by a fucking vostra!”
We watched as Lace, who was now more wolverine than cat, with long, retractable claws (thank the goddesses she’d finally figured out how to retract them or we’d all have ended up skewered) and two sets of three-inch long fangs, grabbed one of the new recruits and hauled her to her feet. The woman scowled at Lace, who promptly hissed at her. The human woman backed up a step, and I didn’t blame her. Lace looked like a hungry predator. Hot as hell, too, but with enough scary to make you cross the street to avoid her.
“Again,” Lace said. “Until you get it right.”
As tough as Lace was on the newbs, she was just as effective. They were clearly getting stronger, more capable. Not all of them had faced the Black yet, but they would be ready soon.
The Black was the short stretch of night—approximately two hours—that felt like an eternity. For most, it was a time of complete darkness, where you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face unless you were carrying a torch coated in the ever-burning blood of demons. For me, it was different now. My eyes could see in the darkest of darks, even if everything was cast in a muted gray. Still, it was better than being blind.
We watched as two of her Warriors fought. Jak, the dark Lri Ay dude with bulging biceps, and Asfandiar, the ancient human warrior Eve had brought back from Earth’s past. Jak favored a broad two-handed sword that allowed him to land mighty blow after mighty blow, while Asfandiar—whom Beat and I had nicknamed Ass-Fan—used a long, curved blade that he wielded with practiced precision.
The two men went at it like they hated each other. Which they did. Because of Lace, who they’d both had relations with. And in case you’re a bit slow and missed the innuendo, I mean they both fucked her. A lot. And Lace being Lace liked to pit them against each other at every turn. Including now. For her own amusement. Yeah, she was kind of a bitch.
“Stupid males,” Beat said. “They should throw down their weapons, beat their chests and then get out the tape measures.”
I looked at her. “Tape measures?” I said, not understanding.
“To measure their dicks?” Beat said. “That’s what this is all about. Who’s bigger and manlier.”
I snorted, but turned my attention back to the fight, which was as entertaining as an MMA fight involving two Marvel superheroes
. Ass-Fan was the quicker of the two, dodging and deflecting Jak’s powerful killing strokes. Slowly, however, he was being beaten into submission. Both men were sweating like pigs, their skin shimmering in the silver sun.
Risking a change in tactic, Jak went for Ass-Fan’s legs, but the Warrior simply leapt over the stroke, landing in a forward roll that carried him away. He regained his feet, turned, and deflected an overhead chop expertly, guiding the massive blade into the dirt. Then he slashed his own wicked blade back up.
Jak roared.
His sword fell to the ground. His hand, now severed from his arm at the wrist, still gripped the hilt.
Ass-Fan stepped back, grinning broadly, like he’d just won a plush toy playing a silly carnival game where you try to throw a ping-pong ball into a fishbowl. Not the expression one would normally have when cutting off another man’s hand. Welcome to Tor, I thought wryly.
To emphasize my point, Lace said, “Well done,” commending her Warrior for the removal of said hand from her other Warrior’s body. “Asfandiar, help Jak get that wound tied off with an ooze wrap.”
Ah, Lace, I thought. There is a method to your madness.
“She’s a psycho genius,” Beat said.
“Emphasis on psycho,” I said.
But I had to admit, it was smart. She needed these two mighty Warriors to get along well enough to fight together during the Black. They could compete during the day, but at night they needed to have each other’s backs. Being forced to care for one another when injured was a sure-fire way to earn each other’s respect.
Jak, hissing through his teeth as blood poured from his wrist, glared at Asfandiar. The ripped Warrior kept grinning. “Come with me,” he said.
When the two had slipped inside one of the huts, Lace snapped at the rest of her Warriors who’d stopped their own training to watch the drama unfold. “Fight or I’ll cut your hands off!”
“She thinks it’s a competition,” Beat said.
“What is?” I asked, watching as Lace’s Warriors ran through their paces again, fighting each other with reckless abandon, spurred on by their leader’s sharp rebukes and threats.
“Me and her. We’re both Protectors, but she thinks one of us needs to be the best Protector.”
I glanced over at where Beat’s crew of Warriors were lounging in the silver sunlight, chewing on skewers of charred leafrat. “Her squad certainly works harder than yours,” I said, already dodging before the last word crossed my lips. Beat’s punch whistled overhead and I chuckled. “Can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread ma—ow!” Her foot had been quicker than her fist, catching me in the ribcage.
“I eat gingerbread men for breakfast,” she said. “And my crew isn’t lazy. They’re conserving their energy. Balance is important. Equal periods of training and rest. The last thing I need is a bunch of exhausted fighters staggering into the Black.”
“Two paths through the same forest,” I said. “But do they both lead to the waterfall? Or will one take everyone over the edge of a cliff?”
Beat raised an eyebrow. Then we both laughed. I could be a real dumbass sometimes. Or maybe it was the boredom. As the only Seeker we had, I was no longer permitted to fight during the Black. It felt weird staying behind. You would think it would be a good thing to no longer have “Fight monsters in the dark” in my job description, but it kind of sucked.
Like now, when Beat stood up and clapped her hands. “Play time is over, kids,” she said. Her crew of Warriors groaned. But they also obeyed. Even before she’d been Leveled up, Beat was the kind of woman you respected.
I watched her go, feeling envious and alone. For the first time, I thought I understood how Eve felt. As the only Finder—and evidently there could only be one Finder—she was on an island by herself. And she’d done this for years, while I’d only been Seeker for a few days.
Being a Seeker was different than being a Warrior or Protector. I didn’t have the nightly responsibilities of protecting the ward shields. According to Eve, the goddesses would let me know when to go out on a mission.
Thus far, all I’d done was sit on my ass and wait. Twice I’d tried to go visit the Three to ask for something to do, and twice Eve had informed me they weren’t up for visitors. Normally I wasn’t the type to take no for an answer, but ever since we’d recovered the sky goddess’s heart from the Morgoss, I was reluctant to disturb them. Airiel was in a sort of coma, healing but slowly.
I found my own feet and climbed the hill. It was a steep grade that used to make my calves and thighs burn, but which now felt about the same as walking downhill. I was faster and more agile in this new body.
At the top, I grabbed one of the glowing vines and slid down. It’s a move I would’ve never attempted before, afraid of losing my grip and breaking my legs. Now it felt as easy as walking.
I landed with a soft thump.
I noticed a glowing just below my chin. Shit. Those damned white veins were glowing beneath my skin. Faintly, but still. It was weird as hell. What is happening to me? I didn’t feel any different—well aside from the changes from being Leveled up. But those changes felt more natural now, the primordial ooze (meaning goddess spittle) transforming all of us into different versions of ourselves.
The glowing veins didn’t feel natural at all.
A splash drew my attention away from my own predicament.
“Coming in?” Eve said, her head emerging from the water, which ran from her dark hair down her face, past her alluring almond eyes and perfect lips before cascading from her chin.
I felt a stirring beneath my loincloth. (Hey, don’t judge, imagine the hottest woman you’ve ever seen and multiply that by a thousand and see how your anatomy reacts.)
It didn’t help that I spotted her sexy backless black dress discarded haphazardly on the ground between me and the crystalline pond. Eve’s daily swim was a ritual I’d only witnessed once before. The last time I’d been dangling from the vines and I’d almost fallen to my death. This time I grew weak at the knees.
“Monster got your tongue?” she said, splashing water in my general direction. Playful. Flirty. The way she always was. Well, not always. She had a mean streak, too, but I hadn’t seen that side of her for a while now. Our relationship had changed ever since I’d become a leader in camp, Leveling up faster than most.
She seemed to view me as an equal now, or at least a step up from the pawn I’d been when we’d first met.
And she was still waiting for me to answer.
Which was hard considering the flashes of endless tanned body I glimpsed beneath the water as she treaded to keep herself afloat. My lizard-brain could hardly string two words together, much less a whole sentence. “Fine. I’ll come to you,” she said, starting forward toward shore.
“No,” I said, the wording coming out faster and sharper than I’d intended. If she emerged from the pond, her skin wet and glistening, I would lose all control of my actions.
Why are you resisting her? I asked myself for the millionth time. When I’d first met Eve back on Earth, I would’ve done anything she asked. For some reason resisting her temptations had become a personal test for me. It was like I was trying to prove I still had some measure of control over my libido-enhanced body. Yeah, that’s right, Leveling up also increased my sex-drive, like a jalopy rebuilt into a Ferrari. And Level 4 was proving to have a powerful engine indeed.
Since arriving on Tor, I’d had more sex in the five or so weeks than I’d had in my entire life on Earth. But never with Eve, though she had offered.
She was staring at me, her eyes narrowed. “Still playing this game?” she said. “You want me. I can see it in your eyes. Do you deny it?”
I shook my head.
“Then come to me,” she purred. “If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for me.”
My erection was like stone now. No, more like diamond, a full ten out of ten on Moh’s hardness scale.
What the hell, I thought. I didn’t need to train and the Three weren’
t exactly sending me on any missions. Plus, Eve wanted this, and if anyone deserved to get what they wanted it was her. She’d been through a lot, if I could help ease her pain, I should.
I stepped forward.
She licked her lips, her eyes roaming up and down my body.
Which made me pick up the pace, my feet splashing into the water, which was the perfect temperature, not too hot or cold. She was close now, drifting gracefully up and down as she moved her arms and legs.
The water reached my waist and I untied my loincloth, flinging the saturated leather behind me and hearing it slap onto the stone.
She moved toward me, until her feet must’ve touched the pond floor because she stopped moving her arms. As more of my body was covered by water, less of hers was.
She emerged in slivers of wet skin, piece by beautiful piece. The hollow in her neck. The elegant lines of her bronzed shoulders. Her upper arms and chest. The waterline drifted lower until I could make out her dark nipples wavering beneath the surface.
We were two waves that had been crashing toward each other for too long. This result had been inevitable, and yet I’d delayed it. In some ways that made the intensity of it all the greater.
Her dark eyes bored into my gaze, which smoldered with heat as I drank her in, her taut breasts emerging from the water, dripping.
The two waves crashed into each other and I picked her up, my hands grasping her ass, her hips, feeling every soft inch. Our lips collided with an urgency I’d never experienced before and then her tongue was in my mouth and I could taste her sweetness.
One of her hands wrapped behind my head, gripping me to her, while the other slid down my back, around my hip and then penetrating the tight space between our bodies.
She felt me and I groaned, my head naturally rolling back. She kissed my neck, nipping at my skin. She pressed my penis against her vagina, not maneuvering it inside, not yet, delaying, thrusting against me, rubbing her breasts and nipples against my chest as she continued to kiss my throat.
