Portals of Infinity
Book Seven
Kaiju
Published by John Van Stry
Copyright 2016 John Van Stry
Copyright John Van Stry 2016
Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)
No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author.
Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction created by the author and the author retains all rights to the material in this story.
License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
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Portals of Infinity Series:
Portals of Infinity: Champion for Hire
Portals of Infinity: The God Game
Portals of Infinity: Of Temples and Trials
Portals of Infinity: The Sea of Grass
Portals of Infinity: Demigod and Deities
Portals of Infinity: Reprisal
I would like to thank the following people for their support:
Sean Kennedy via Patreon
And my Beta Readers:
Eric Rice, Jennifer Toplitz, Pat Patterson, Francis Turner, Denise Howell
Also Dane at ebooklaunch.com for his wonderful covers.
Series Synopsis
There are an infinite number of worlds, or realities if you prefer, and they are all interconnected in a vast network of portals often referred to as 'The Infinite'. No one knows exactly why the portals exist, but the gods claim it is to balance the power and energies between the different realities or 'spheres'. Worlds tend to be connected to ones that are similar, but not always.
A few select people are able to perceive these portals, and travel through them. Traveling through a portal remakes you, if necessary, so that you fit in to the world you have entered. Because every world has its own rules, be they rules of physics, metaphysics, religion, or magic, and every world has its own time, history, and politics. This means that even though some may appear similar, each is unique, and some can be very different than others.
All worlds contain gods and goddesses, and they too are bound by the rules of both their realms and the Infinite, as they play their own games, for their own reasons, and seek to increase both their power, and their religions. Some of these gods have Champions, people who have sworn themselves to them, and in exchange, have gained power and powers, for as long as they stay. Some of these gods even enter into alliances with other gods, even ones in spheres beyond their own, to further their goals and gain advantage.
In the center of this is our hero William, a portal traveler from the sphere which contains the Earth, but who after a series of adventures now finds himself the Champion for the god Feliogustus, a newer upstart on the sphere of Saladin, William's new home.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
After Word
One
Hillshire
Southwest Mountains
It was mid-April and as usual for Hillshire in mid-April it was raining.
I was wearing a much better cloak now than the one I'd bought all those years ago when I'd first come here, better as in warmer and more waterproof. So I was staying relatively dry, though the horse I was riding wasn't, and I don't think it appreciated the rain anymore than I did.
Currently I was following my sister and leading a packhorse through the mountains along a very narrow trail that twisted up along the side of a rather deep ravine. We'd left Riverhead two weeks ago, after she had come to ask me for some help with a problem she was having.
We were about a half-day's ride to the south of the southern road that connected eastern and western Hillshire, not far from where it came down out of the mountains. Apparently a well-organized and possibly large bandit company had set up somewhere on the border between Hillshire and the Atolian nation to the south.
They'd tried to send in a small group of guardsmen back when they'd first realized that there was a problem, that group however had not survived. Apparently the camp was well hidden up in the mountains and rather well defended. But being in a disputed area, if either country sent in their army, it could lead to complications that could lead to war.
So this had presented King Andrew with a problem, and after considering his options, he'd approached the temple and asked if he could borrow Aryanna's champion to deal with this issue.
Nikki thought about it, then came out to Riverhead to ask if I would help, seeing as I was currently there visiting Darlene and my children for the winter. I'd agreed of course, because it made sense. If the bandits saw a single woman riding in on a horse, they would suspect Aryanna's champion, but if a man and a woman were riding in, with a packhorse, they'd suspect either hapless travelers, or more likely, a couple of criminals on the lam from the guard.
In either case, they were more likely to allow us to ride right into their camp, and then they'd deal with us there. Rather than ambush us out here in the rain and mud. After all, why spend hours getting cold, wet, and dirty, when the people you were worried about could be slaughtered in the comfort of your own bandit camp, right? Bandits were notoriously lazy by all accounts.
"So, what are your plans for the summer?" Nikki asked as we rode along. We were keeping our voices low, so they wouldn't carry.
"Rachel mostly," I replied. "Though if she or Fel don't have any pressing plans, I was thinking of taking a week to visit Mom and Dad."
"Sure that's safe?" She asked.
"Yeah, I think things have cooled down enough by now. Besides, the 'Executive Assistant Director' of the FBI is my friend now."
"Must be nice," Nikki chuckled.
"Too bad I can't ask him to fix some traffic tickets for me," I replied. "Still, it's been a couple of years now, and Rachel has been asking to me to take her flying, so I may just drag her home and introduce her."
Nikki laughed, "That would be a trip! I don't think Rachel will be able to survive without a household of servants."
"Eh, it would only be for a few days if I do. She can't be gone for too long, people would ask questions."
"So, she wants to fly, huh?"
"Yup, always been a dream of hers. When she found out about home, she made me promise to take her one day."
"And of course, you did."
"Of course I did. She's my wife. So what's with you? Any current love interests in your life?"
"A few, nobody really special though. Well, maybe Joseph a little bit."
"Joseph?" I said surprised, "You mean four-legged and furry Joseph?"
"You're rather furry yourself," Nikki chuckled again, "and he's only four-legged when he wants to be, or when he's at home."
"Wow, first Dezba, now you. Joseph obviously has something going for him." I teased.
"How often does he visit?"
"Couple times a year, seems Circe keeps him busy with little chores, so he gets around quite a bit. Still, it must be different being able to actually live with your god like that."
"As long as he's happy, that's what matters. How are things going for you and Aryanna?"
"Pretty good actually, she was right about me and this job. I love it."
The trail turned into a rather wide cleft in the rocks then, wide enough for two to easily ride abreast, so I moved my horse up next to Nikki's as we rode through the cleft.
"Well, looks like we're almost there," Nikki said.
"I wonder how far we'll get before they figure us out."
"Guess we'll see," she replied.
A minute later we rode out into a box canyon with a fairly large pond to the north, forty or so acres of pasture with dozens of horses grazing in it, and what looked like an old inn with a lot of tents and one small house scattered around it rather haphazardly.
There was a fence of sorts across the end of the cleft here, and there were a couple of men standing behind it.
"Who be you?"
"I'm Clem, this is my woman, Gail," I said looking them over.
"This ain't no homestead, what're ya' all doing up here?"
"Hiding from the guard, whadda ya' think?" I asked him. "We heard there was a group up here, might be looking for more hands. If nothin' else, we have some things we can trade to yer boss, iffen' he'll let us stay awhile."
"What's on the horse?" He asked nodding to the packhorse.
"Trade goods."
"What kind of trade goods?" He asked looking at the bundles from behind the fence.
"Armor."
He laughed, "We got plenty of that!"
"Guardsmen armor," I added, and smiled.
"Guardsmen armor? Where the devil did you steal that?"
"Offen' a dozen guards, whatca' think?" Nikki said piping up. "So, you gonna jaw, or ya' gonna let us in?"
I could feel her using some power when she said that, pushing on the guards to let us in.
"Keep an eye on them, boys, while I look," the one in charge said, and coming out the gate he walked over towards the packhorse and pulled back the covering on one of the bundles. Sure enough, there were several sets of guard's armor underneath, though a few of them were a little cut up with bloodstains on them. None of them looked new.
"Well, I'll be," he said shaking his head, "A dozen you say?"
I nodded, "Some are in worse shape than others, but most of them are good, once you clean the blood off," I laughed.
"Well, iffen you can do something like that, you just might have a place with us." He turned to one of his men, "Toby, take 'em to Jared."
Toby nodded, "Follow me," he said, so we rode through the gate and then after dismounting we led our horses towards the inn as we followed him.
"Get much visitors up here?" Nikki asked our guide as we crossed the pasture to the inn.
"Eh, a few stragglers show up now and again, not unlike you two."
"How many you got up here?"
I could feel her pushing with her power again.
"Umm," He stopped a moment, "Hunert or so I think? Course that's not counting the whores and the slaves."
"Course," Nikki agreed.
We stopped in front of the inn, and tied our horses to the rail out front. I took off my cloak and draped it behind my saddle. I was wearing a loose shirt and pants, with what looked like an ill fitted set of leather armor on top of that.
"So, introduce us to your boss," I said and we followed Toby inside.
Walking through the door, I was surprised that the place wasn't a complete sty. It was run down and a bit of a mess, but overall the place was mostly clean, and didn't smell all that much. There were a lot of tables in the room with men and even a few women sitting at them. From the way they were dressed, I guess they were members of the bandit company.
Glancing around it looked like there were about forty of them in the room, and in addition to them there were almost as many slaves, all of whom were women, and from the way they were dressed, their role was rather clear.
Toby led us up to a table by the far wall, at which a rather large man sat, with a slave to either side of him. Both were rather attractive, and both looked like they would rather be anyplace but here.
"So, you be Jared then?" I asked looking at him.
"Yes, I'm Jared, and this is my domain. Who are you and what are you doing here?" Jared said rather smoothly.
"Huh, and here I thought you'd just be some uncultured criminal slob," Nikki said walking up to stand before him.
"You had best behave yourself," He said starting to stand, "or I'll add you to my harem."
Nikki threw off her cloak, "In the name of Aryanna, you are sentenced to death!" She said and invoking her champion's aura, she ran her sword through his head without any further preamble.
I shifted into my own champion form and the ill-fitting armor now fit just right on my larger frame as I got the speed boost that all champions got during combat. Drawing my swords and turning to my left, I attacked the people sitting there, running my swords through the necks of the first two, and stabbing a third one through the heart.
The other six at that table all pushed back their chairs and started to scramble to their feet, two of them however losing their balance and falling back onto their butts on the floor.
I stabbed two more, gutted a third and jumped on a fourth, one of the ones who had fallen onto the floor, ripping his throat out with the claws on my foot as I took yet another in the head with a sword.
They were still trying to draw weapons and attack me back, it didn't help that they'd all been drinking and several of them were rather drunk.
It also didn't help them that quite a few of their slaves were now pulling the daggers off of the belt of whichever man was closest to them and stabbing him with it.
I started taking off arms and hands, stabbing whenever I could, dodging around tables and stomping on anyone who was already down but didn't look dead. While I had claws on my hands, the ones on my feet were considerably larger and I wasn't afraid to use them.
It quickly became complete bloody chaos and I was wreaking mayhem through the men and even the women bandits, while Nikki was doing the same on the other side of the room.
Eventually, they started to get coordinated, but only because it had taken us a good ten minutes to kill most of them, and all the tables, chairs, bodies, and blood on the floor was making it difficult for anyone to move around.
At that point the smart ones ran for the exit and the stupid ones charged Nikki. Everyone avoided me, or at least tried to. I guess a seven-foot tall cat-man covered in blood passed for a demon here. So I went after the ones running for the door, several of whom looked at me in complete and utter fear as I ran them down. They were so focused on trying to escape the room that I managed to cut them all down easily.
Turning around I looked at Nikki who was talking to one of the slave girls. The men who had charged her were already dead and there no longer any living bandits in the room. I could see that there were a few dead slaves as well, sadly. Spying a wounded one however, I quickly walked over her to heal them.
"I won't hurt you," I sighed as she cried out in fear and tried to move away. I guess I looked like a demon to her as well.
"Be at ease!" Nikki commanded using another cantrip, "He is one of mine, and I am Aryanna's Champion!"
They all relaxed then, and I healed her and one other that looked to be in a bad way.
"Come, Will. There are a lot more outside still."
"Lead on, Sis," I said and followed her out of the inn.
Surprisingly no one who had gotten out the front door had decided to warn the rest of the camp, they were all too busy running away.
I walked over to my horse and got my bow, I'd strung it wh
en we'd set out this morning.
"Is that Toby?" Nikki asked, and pointed at a man running for the gate.
"Probably," I said and grabbing a handful of arrows I quickly took aim and sent two in quick succession his way. Looking around there were a lot of people standing about the tents looking at us. I wasn't sure if that was because I was in my champion form covered in blood, or because I'd just killed Toby in front of them.
Probably both.
"No rest for the righteous," Nikki smiled and I noticed she had her own bow out as well.
Turning I started picking off men as fast as I could. After the second one, the others all got the idea and started to run for their tents as everyone began to yell and shout that they were being attacked.
We both mounted our horses then and drawing swords once more we started to lay into them with a will, using our height and speed advantage while attacking from horseback to ride around the tents and take them out, one at a time.
Several times a group would make a break for it, either trying to gather up their horses, or run for the gate, and one of us would ride off after them, cutting them down from behind as the other kept attacking and moving, doing their best not to let the bandits get organized.
I guess we'd taken out the leaders inside the inn, for while there were almost twice as many of them running around outside, it didn't take all that long to kill most of them as very few of them tried to fight as a group. The hardest part was going tent to tent, finding which ones had slaves in them, and which ones had cowering bandits after we'd eliminated the majority of them.
The sun had set, not that it mattered all that much, as someone had set the inn on fire and the resulting blaze shed more than enough light on everything.
"That's the last of them," Nikki sighed as she got all of the former slaves settled down on the far side of the small box canyon.
"What happens next?" I asked her.
"I'll open a portal to Aryanna in the morning and start sending them through. There's only forty-three of them, so I think I can get them all through in one shot, if they hurry."
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