The Monster Spawn

by Deck Davis

  Sherlock looked around, his eyes wide in alarm.

  More stones smashed to the ground. A crack appeared in the wall to his right, so big that it looked like the tunnel could cave in at any moment. The rumbling grew so loud that it was like a pneumatic drill in his head.

  “We need to get out of here, said Nathan. “Before it caves in.”

  The mountain exit was along the passageway ahead of them, just a few minutes away. They sprinted along the passageway, avoiding giant blocks of rock as they fell. The cracks in the walls widened. Behind them, one wall caved completely. The whole mountain groaned around them.

  “Quick,” said Nathan.

  His pulse pounded. He felt his energy start to drain as he ran at full sprint. A wall to his left caved in. Nathan had just enough time to grab Sherlock and pull him away, saving him from a cascade of rocks that would have buried him.

  As the mountain violently fell apart, the exit loomed in sight. Daylight shone through it. Bright. Almost too bright for Nathan’s eyes after spending so long in darkness.

  More rocks fell. One almost hit Dereck, but the cleric dived to his right. Nathan grabbed him and picked him up. The mountain whined and churned around them, its very fabric crumbling apart.

  “Come on,” he said, his breath catching in his chest.

  More cracks rippled through the walls around them. He heard a crash as the roof caved in behind him. The rumbling sound grew and grew until he thought he might not make it out in time.

  And then he felt the fresh air on his face. He’d reached the exit.

  He stopped suddenly so that he didn’t plunge out into the sharp drop in front of the opening. He breathed a sigh of relief. He’d almost come all this way, just to die by falling off the edge of a mountain.

  He took a deep breath and looked at the mountain trail to his right. For only the third time, he stepped out of the mountain and into the daylight of Adonis. He felt the sun on his face. The wind blowing on his leathery skin. He heard Dereck and Sherlock step out behind him.

  And then he took a deep breath and waited. Deep down, he expected his HP to start dropping. A few seconds passed. And then a minute.

  Nothing happened.

  “Come on,” shouted Dereck.

  Boulders were falling down the mountainside now. The rocky face of the mountain was cracking apart. The sound was deafening. Nathan concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, getting down the trail as fast as he could.

  It was heavy going. He grew hot, despite the cold air. His energy sapped. Every so often they would hear the sound of rocks tumbling. They'd glance up to see the mountain breaking apart. It made them speed up.

  “Nothing like the threat of being smashed to smithereens to light a fire up your ass,” said Nathan.

  As they reached the bottom of the mountain and stepped onto the plains of Adonis, the mountain gave one last, gigantic groan. Dozens of boulders flew off it and smashed into the ground. There was a great explosion of stone. Debris filled the air and rained down like hail.

  Nathan ran over to Dereck and Sherlock and stood over them. He felt the sharp stones pepper his back. Each one stung him, but he knew his new defence could take it.

  When the rain of debris ended and the groans of the mountain stopped, everything was silent. There were birds in the sky, but they made no noise. It was as if they had stopped to see what would happen.

  Slowly, Nathan turned around. He didn’t know what he expected to see. Maybe the mountain would just be a gigantic pile of rock and dirt. Whatever had happened when he took his full Tuphos form, it had caused the mountain to crumble.

  When he saw what was behind him, he lost his breath. His chest tightened. He couldn’t believe it.

  Where the mountain had once stood, there was now something else. It was a giant form. Some kind of creature that was forty feet tall. Its body was made of rock. It had arms and legs made of stone.

  Sitting on top of it, clinging to it, were two figures.

  “Am I seeing things?” said Dereck.

  Nathan used his senses to look closer at the figures on top of the stone creature.

  It was the Ancients. One on each shoulder of the rock giant. He saw Errelile clinging to the stone, his man’s head bobbing up and down on his lion neck. On the other side, he saw Ancient #2, the squashed-faced creature. His evil eyes peered out at the landscape beyond. Nathan couldn't help but imagine that the Ancient was looking at him and thinking 'Hey, that's Ken!'

  And then he saw something else. On the stone giant’s chest, on the left side, was something red. It was fleshy and heart shaped. Twenty feet wide, and just as long. Nathan recognized what it was.

  This was the creature’s heart, and he knew it all too well. It was the flesh-like substance that he’d slept on in the rot room.

  This was all too much to process. Thoughts swam through his head, questions that he needed answers to, but there were too many. He felt dizzy.

  And then he heard a voice behind him.

  He turned. Dereck and Sherlock did the same. There, stretched out on the plains of Adonis, his face covered in blood, was Layre Mock.

  The wizard had survived. Whether it was by a spell or something else, Nathan didn’t know, but he’d survived. He looked like a wreck of a man. Clothes torn, skin covered in cuts and gashes. Blood smeared all over him.

  “I told you there was a reason for me being here, did I not?” groaned the wizard. He coughed, and blood trickled onto his chin. His breaths were wheezy.

  Nathan walked over to him, close enough that he could finish him off when the time came.

  Layre held up his hand. “No need, monster. I’ll die soon.”

  Dereck joined him. “What the hell are you talking about?” he said. “Do you know what this…thing…is?”

  Layre nodded. Even in the throes of death, he held them all in his stern gaze.

  “I told you I was looking for something that would end respawns. That would stop players coming back after death. Something that would let us leave Adonis and see what awaits in our 2nd afterlife.

  He groaned. His body spasmed, and Layre bit his lip to bear the agony.

  “This is it. The creature you see before you. There was a reason you were sent here, monster. And this stone giant is it.”

  “What are you saying?” asked Nathan.

  “This is the beginning of the purge of Adonis,” said Layre. “You started it, monster. By freeing yourself, you let something else escape as well. And your destinies are linked.”

  Then he gave a great cough. Thick blood covered his chin. He let out a long, raspy groan. Nathan grabbed him. He shook the wizard as if that would make the answers fall out of him. But it was no use; he was dead.

  The ground started to shake. Nathan turned around, and he saw that the stone giant was leaving. The ancients straddled its shoulders and guided it away and across the plains. Nathan couldn’t help but watch as it went into the distance.

  “What does this mean?” said Dereck.

  Nathan didn’t fully understand. But as he watched the stone giant disappear into the distance, he knew one thing.

  Layre was right. Nathan had been sent here for a reason. Everything made sense but none of it did, at the same time. How the mountain had crumbled and this giant had emerged, with the ancients guiding it. How its heart was made from the fleshy floor of the rot room. The only place Nathan could sleep to replenish himself.

  He might have escaped the mountain, but he knew this wasn’t over. If this thing could stop Adonis players from respawning, then it was a threat to the entire fabric of the afterlife.

  He turned to his friends and smiled at them. The daylight felt warm on his face. He was free; he was finally in the Adonis game world. He had escaped from the mountain. Even so, he knew he wouldn’t be able to enjoy it yet.

  A quest awaited him.

  The End

  Hey, thanks for reading the Monster Spawn!

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  Thanks for reading!

  Deck

  P.S. if you want something else to read, have a look at my other LitRPG books on the next page.

  Other LitRPG novels by Deck Davis:

  Arcane Survivalist

  After experimenting with dark matter, Dr. Benny Aitken inadvertently opened a portal into another dimension. He found himself in a world called Rapto, a place where he was given magic powers, and killing stuff made him stronger.

  A dark mage guild soon discovered the portal and found a way to get through it. Dr. Benny Aitken, self-proclaimed genius, had unwittingly visited a fantasy apocalypse upon earth.

  It’s starting point? A small town called Pasture Downs.

  In a fit of desperation Benny sends blue orbs back through the portal in the hope that a few heroic residents of earth would find them and absorb their powers, granting them magical skills that they can level up by killing things.

  Who are these heroes of legend to be?

  Unfortunately, one of them is Ash Hobbes, a conman and self-confessed ass. After stumbling on an orb he becomes a blood mage. Together with a companion called FF, who lives in his head, Ash must learn to stop being such an ass and find the strength to save the world as a blood mage.

  Read it on your Kindle here - http://amzn.to/2Afqq7i

  Steele Alchemist

  When bartender Jake Steele finds a portal in an abandoned building, he does what any bored guy would do – he walks through it.

  He finds himself in a game-like world where his life is measured in stats and his violence is rewarded with experience points. Under the tutelage of an animal-butchering, whore-loving master, he learns to become an alchemist.

  He used to mix drinks, but from now on he’s going to be mixing things that are far deadlier. Over 400 pages of fantasy LitRPG adventure!

  Read it on your Kindle here - http://amzn.to/2AfS1W0