by Eddie Patin
The Heart of a Necromancer
A Novel of the
“Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit”
Series
Book 3
EDDIE PATIN
Copyright
“The Heart of a Necromancer” is a work of fiction.
All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this book are either created by the author, used in this fictional setting, or references used within a fictional framework.
Copyright © 2018, Eddie Patin and Lost Woods Publishing LLC
EBooks are not transferable. All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission.
Published in the United States of America by Lost Woods Publishing LLC, 2018
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Table of Contents
The Heart of a Necromancer
Copyright
Table of Contents
Book Introduction by Eddie Patin
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
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So What Happens Next?
About Eddie Patin
More Books from Eddie Patin
Enjoy this Excerpt from “Portal Zero”
Author Notes & Appendix – Necromancer
Book Introduction by Eddie Patin
Explore other Universes.
Hunt Deadly Monsters.
Make a Profit.
Jason Leaper 934 is back from his survival adventure in the Wilderlands, and is about to go on his first mission with his new friends, Riley the cybernetic soldier, and Gliath the shapeshifting leopardwere.
What an amazing new life of gold, guns, glory ... and dinosaurs!
Enjoying some rest and relaxation between bounties while waiting for his new minotaur-hide jacket to be ready, Jason Leaper 934 feels like he's really getting the hang of his rifting powers. And when the Reality Rifters are at the right place at the right time, Jason earns his team an exclusive job involving a necromancer and hunting gargoyles on a world similar to his own that's been long-cast back into the dark ages.
But after a sad and shocking twist, Jason is left struggling with the meaninglessness of an infinite omniverse, and Riley's answer of "don't think about it" isn't enough for him. As the Reality Rifters delve deeper into their 'exclusive' bounty, the evil politics of a backward, brainwashed village--as well as a beautiful local girl with a dark and tragic past--tempt Jason to become involved in more than just the grisly business of monster hunting. Will guns, armor, and rifting powers be enough for the Reality Rifters when the Darkness comes...?
The Heart of a Necromancer is a fast-paced adventure story and is the third book in the "Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit" series about Jason Leaper 934 and his planeswalking Reality Rifters, Monster Hunters for hire. If you love books about guns, survival, vicious and terrible mythical monsters, cosmic horror, time travel, DINOSAURS, and exploring strange new worlds ... read this today!
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This is part of a SERIES!
This is Book 3 in the series "Monster Hunting for Fun and Profit".
If you haven't read the previous books, I'd recommend that you do so that everything makes sense. All books in this series are free with KU:
Book 1 – The Wyvern in the Wilderlands
Book 2 – The Minotaurs of Maze World
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Click Here to Download “A Bond Between Man and Monster”
Now on to the book...
Chapter 1
Jason Leaper 934 paused to lean against a pine tree. The cool wind of the Colorado morning was pleasant on his face and neck, but he panted from hiking across such tough terrain. His skin was hot and prickly under his clothes and Merc armor.
He tilted his head back onto the tree trunk and felt the scratchy bark flake off onto his short hair, but didn't care. Jason waited for his heart to slow down, tucking the buttstock of his father's .416 Rigby Magnum Mauser rifle under his arm.
Riley Wyatt was up ahead—far up ahead. The cybernetically-enhanced soldier was lean and wiry; obviously not winded at all. Riley's new silvery Gauss rifle rested playfully in his hands, and the soldier waved for Jason to catch up. Riley shouted something from far up the slope, but in Jason's damaged ears, he just heard a faint sound that he imagined was 'hurry up'.
"Goddamn it," Jason 934 muttered, reaching down to his shoulder to take a sip from his CamelBak's water bladder. He tried to slow his breathing. "We really need to do more cardio..."
His second self from a parallel world spoke up, similarly winded next to him.
"You got that right," Jason 1241 replied, hefting his own Rigby rifle. The man was a mirror image of Jason 934 down to the gear and the gun he carried. He had the same dark blonde hair that had been buzzed down all over to about an inch in length after spending two grueling weeks surviving in the Wilderlands. Jason's survival adventure had made his longer hair into a matted mess of tree sap, dirt, dead bugs, and who knows what else. The other Jason also had his same face—one that looked a little too young for their age of thirty-three—and the same friendly blue eyes. Jason 1241's eyes were a little more tired-looking, perhaps. He'd been through a rougher time lately. "Come on."
Jason 934 stood straight and waved back up to Riley, who was frantically trying to get their attention and make them hurry up. The soldier's hellhound-hide duster coat tossed in the wind near the top of the hill where the experienced mercenary crouched just below the crest to stay out of sight.
Both Jasons hustled to catch up. Jason 934's legs burned and his lungs heaved. His heartbeat was heavy in his ears. They'd been hiking hard for over three hours now: over Ridgeview's ridge behind his house, along the spine of another mountain, across a valley and quickly-moving creek, and now they were steadily and diagonally climbing the slope of Apache Peak—a freaking mountain. Jason was not in shape for this. Hell—the mountain was a thirteener, and it had been a long time since Jason had been mountain-climbing for fun.
Of course, this excursion wasn't for
fun.
There was a minotaur on the loose in Colorado, and the situation was Jason's fault.
It had been over an hour since he'd seen Gliath. The Krulax leopardwere was like a shadow in the woods; sleek and quick and difficult to see moving. Jason thought back to when he'd first seen Gliath in his black panther form; back before he was unceremoniously yanked into the Wilderlands and his life was turned upside down. He'd only caught glimpses here and there of the shadowy shapeshifter and had assumed that the big cat was someone's large dog.
Gliath was now tracking the wayward alpha minotaur, and by Riley's frantic beckoning, it looked like they'd found it.
The two Jasons, Riley, and Gliath weren't the only ones in these mountains, either. Back when they'd set out at dawn, they had to avoid animal control and the sheriff's department, who were patrolling the area around the ridge looking for what they must have assumed was an escaped and enraged bull. Now, the morning after the incident when the alpha minotaur had followed them through the rift back from Maze World—crashing through Jason's garage door and rampaging through the neighborhood—at least the police cars on Kestrel Drive were gone. Twice now, they'd seen the sheriff department's helicopter go by, but the Reality Rifters (plus one) were currently pretty far east from where everyone was looking for a bull.
Stumbling up the slope toward Riley and gasping for air, Jason 934 ducked low when the soldier glanced back and motioned for him to stay down. Jason 1241 followed suit.
Jason's heart beat madly in his ears.
"What is it?" he asked, trying to whisper loudly between heavy breaths. "You see it?!"
Riley looked down at Jason 934 and smirked, then nodded. "Gliath's up there close to him. The alpha's sitting down the ridge in between two big boulders. You see it?" Jason popped his head up to look and Riley immediately hissed and pulled him back down by his sleeve. "Stay low, dummy! That minotaur will probably see you if you make a head-sized shadow appear above the ridge. Shet..."
"Sorry," Jason muttered, then, he lay down on the crunchy, gravelly ground. There was no snow in this area, even though they'd been trudging through snowmelt for most of the morning. When Riley didn't object to his approach, Jason started to crawl up to the crest, cradling his father's old rifle in his arms.
Peeking over the edge, Jason scanned the lower area. The land dipped for a while before continuing up again toward the peak. Before long, if they kept climbing, they'd break through the tree line. A cold mountain wind whipped at Jason's face and he squinted against the occasional burst of dirt and gravel that scratched at his eyes.
Below them was just more mountainous terrain. Jason saw two big, granite boulders among several others sticking out of the mountainside, but he didn't see the minotaur in there. He didn't spot the telltale sweep of the huge monster's horns.
"It's in shadow," Riley said, crawling up next to Jason. The other Jason stayed back behind them, watching the clouds roll by. "Look for the big black spot," Riley added. "You can't miss him!"
Jason 934 peered down at the dark space between the two boulders then saw a slight movement. That wasn't shadow—it was the black fur of the beast!
"It's hard to see," he said. "You see it with heat vision or something?"
"Yeah," Riley replied with a smirk, settling in on his elbows and pushing the buttstock of his Gauss rifle against his shoulder. He scratched at his short, dark beard. "I confirmed it with thermal, but I see more clearly than you as it is."
Not subtle.
Jason scoffed and looked back down at the monster again. He scanned around the area and still had no idea where Gliath was skulking around...
"How are we gonna do this?" Jason asked. "We have to get down to it fast. As soon as we start shooting, the cops around the ridge will hear. That chopper'll probably head over here pretty quick."
"So I take it this is too far for your Rigby?"
Jason looked down. He was about 100 yards or so from the hiding minotaur but it was really hard to see the beast where he was crouched. The monster only had a few weak spots where Jason would be able to penetrate, and he couldn't tell at all what was what looking into that dark spot down there. Jason shuffled around and aimed at the alpha. He lined up his sights on the hard-to-see black blob.
"It's not too far," he said. "But I can't really see what I'm aiming at."
"Okay," Riley replied. "I'll fire several rounds from this—" He patted his Gauss rifle. "...While Gliath engages with his rail gun from his position. I reckon we'll either kill the fruker right away or ... he'll get up. When that fruker comes out of hiding and you can see his parts and pieces again, you and the other Jason take him out with your big slug guns like you did before."
"What if it gets away again? This isn't Maze World. It's Colorado! We can't—"
"Then we'll keep tracking it, Jason. Gliath can do this forever."
Both Jasons shared glances. Jason 1241 looked nowhere near as worried as Jason 934 felt.
They both sighed simultaneously.
"Okay, sounds good I guess," Jason 934 said, then shifted to look back down at his second self. "Come on, man. You heard the plan?"
Jason 1241 looked up to the sky then down at his feet. He sighed again, then turned, hefting his Rigby. "Yep." He crouched low and crawled to Riley's other side.
"You two ready?" Riley asked. He smirked, eyeing both Jasons. Then he touched his neck and muttered quietly to himself, "Gliath, engage on my shot." Jason 934 figured that he must have had some kind of throat mic.
Settling in, Jason 934 tried to get as comfortable as possible on the gravel and pokey rocks. He made sure that his muscles weren't pulling against a good prone position, then settled into his rifle, lowered his cheek onto the stock, then lined up the front and rear iron sights on the dark blob of the hiding minotaur.
"Ready," he said.
"Ready," the other Jason said, sounding like an odd echo.
"Okay, let's fix your problem," Riley said, then flicked something on his rifle, settled into his own sights, then fired a burst of Tungsten bolts. The Gauss rifle made quick, clicking mechanical sounds as it fired, along with dull, quiet puffs as the dense, metal rounds zipped out of the muzzle. Even though the rifle itself was quiet, the rounds were wildly hypersonic and cracked loudly as they flew across the space faster than any of Earth's 'slug guns'—as Riley called them—would.
Almost simultaneously, there was a loud, ear-splitting boom as Gliath fired his scoped railgun from somewhere off to their right.
Chunks of rock and dirt and dust exploded around the dark monster hiding among the boulders. The beast let out a surprised and pained grunt.
Riley popped his head up to see better and Jason 934 kept his sights on target as the monster collapsed forward from its hiding spot, tumbling down the slope below it until it sprawled—huge and ferocious with a rack of fierce black horns almost four feet wide on its head—into a dip full of dirt and shale.
Jason felt his heart jump up into his throat.
Something about this felt very wrong. It felt like ... like a sucker punch. It felt like murder...
"Nargog," he muttered to himself.
"What?" Riley asked, standing, keeping his rifle trained on the fallen beast.
Jason's ears were ringing from the railgun round's sonic boom that went off in front of them.
"That's his name," Jason said. "Nargog." Then, "Is it dead?"
Riley considered him for a moment, cocking his head. The wind tossed his short, dark hair. "Come on," he said, taking quick, nimble steps over the crest then heading down the slope. "Be ready. It might not be dead. How do you know that, Jason? Its name I mean?" he called.
Both Jasons stood and followed. If it wasn't for Jason's time in the Wilderlands and the world's healing effect, climbing to his feet like he did would have hurt like hell. Now, free of the crippling knee pain that made him feel like an old man for fifteen years, Jason followed Riley toward the sprawled minotaur, keeping his big-bore rifle trained on its head and neck.
A black shape in the corner of Jason's eye gave him a quick burst of adrenaline, but when he looked, he realized that it was only Gliath. The leopardwere appeared from hiding, tall and sleek in the sunshine. The Krulax's armor harness glided over his bipedal feline form as he took long, graceful steps toward them, his large railgun shouldered and at low ready. His long, black tail swished back and forth behind him. Gliath's pale, yellowish-green eyes were a stark contrast to his black face in the bright mountain sun.
"Athelos told me," Jason said to Riley. "It was really weird. When the tailor was fitting me for my jacket, it was like he ... it ... could read the hide. He could probably read my mind. Athelos told me that the minotaur's name is Nargog."
"Was Nargog," Riley said. "Now it's gonna be your jacket."
"And this still is Nargog," Jason said. "Maybe..."
Riley smirked and scratched his beard, his feet and reflexes quick as he stepped lightly down the shale slope. He approached the beast, which was far larger than the soldier was.
The huge, shaggy black body turned. The alpha let out a long, low grunt.
"Oh God, it's still alive!" Jason 1241 cried, almost losing his footing.
Jason 934 stopped and raised his rifle—heart suddenly pounding—and aimed at the monster's neck. That was the only place he'd be able to punch through. There was dark red blood pulsing from a wound somewhere in that thick neck, obscured by the dense, black mane and spattering out all over the dusty rocks.
Gliath dashed up quickly at Jason's side, raising his railgun to aim at the same spot.
"Well, whatever his name is," Riley said, "Now this fruker's nobody's problem anymore..."
They all aimed at it.
