THE BUILDER’S WRATH
THE LEGENDARY BUILDER BOOK #4
J. A. CIPRIANO
Copyright © 2017 by J. A. Cipriano
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
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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
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Thank You for reading!
Author’s Note
Litrpg
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ALSO BY J. A. CIPRIANO
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The Builder’s Sword
The Builder’s Greed
The Builder’s Pride
The Builder’s Wrath
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A Ritual of Fire
A Ritual of Death
Starcrossed Dragons
Riding Lightning
Grinding Frost
Swallowing Fire
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Ring of Promise
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Kingdom of Heaven
The Skull Throne
Escape From Hell
The Thrice Cursed Mage
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Marked
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Seized
Claimed
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Pound of Flesh
Flesh and Blood
Blood and Treasure
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Planet Breaker
1
As Sathanus’s axe lashed out at me in an overhead attack that would have split my head like a casaba melon, I darted forward. We were in day six of my training so I could save Gabriella from Dred, and as I moved to counter, I was sure I’d win this time.
My left arm went up, catching the haft as it slammed into me with bone-shuddering force that rang along my entire forearm. Ignoring it, I moved forward anyway, slamming my right hand into her midsection and calling upon my magic.
The earring Sam had given me, The Cold Embrace of Death, blazed in my ear, sending off a stream of black sparks. My hand began to glow, filling with raw Hellfire moments before it slammed into her stomach, blasting her backward in a spray of white-hot heat.
Sathanus grunted, the axe slipping from her grip as she flew backward. Only instead of slamming into the ground, her wings burst from her back, catching her in midair and slowing her like a parachute as she beat them with nearly hurricane-like force.
“I got you—”
“Pathetic!” the Archangel of Wrath roared as she glared at me with so much force, I could literally feel her power trying to tear the flesh from my body against me like a desert sandstorm. “You think that’s enough?”
She came at me, her body a blur I could barely see, so I didn’t bother. Taking a half step back with my left foot, I readjusted my stance and swung her axe in an upward arc. The silvery blade flashed through the air, glowing with crimson magic as the symbol of wrath on my shoulder blazed to life, illuminating the sigils emblazoned all across the archangel’s weapon.
Her arm lashed out, smacking the blade aside and knocking it from my grip. As the axe went flying across the arena, her fist slammed into the underside of my chin.
The next thing I knew, I was on my back a hundred yards away. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and my vision was dark around the edges. I tried to shake my blurry vision back into place as she strode forward like an avenging goddess, but it was no use.
She stood over me, hands on her hips and snorted. “Pathetic.” She put one boot on my chest and looked down at me. Then she flexed like she was Hulk Hogan. “One.”
I struggled to move, to get up, but my body wouldn’t work. Worse, I could tell she’d broken my jaw with that blow, and that was in addition to all the injuries I’d sustained from smashing into the rocky earth at a billion miles an hour. I was pretty sure I’d broken my left collarbone and had a concussion. I was healing, but not quick enough.
“Two,” she snarled, glaring down at me. “What’s the matter, Arthur? Can’t get up?”
“Fuck off,” I wheezed, trying to throw her off. Her foot slipped from my chest and landed on the ground.
She smiled. “Oh, think you can get up?” She grabbed me by the hair and jerked me to my feet with one hand. Granted she had to fly a bit to do it since I was taller than her, but still. “Here I’ll help.” Then she slapped the taste out of my mouth.
I reeled backward a couple steps as my body healed itself. When I’d faced Dred a day ago, I’d used Envy’s Armament, the Remorseless Chain of Envy, to steal his ability to heal from nearly anything. Still, the ability wasn’t instant, and worse, every time I took damage, the whole of the power reoriented itself on the most devastating injury. So, for instance, if I had a cut, and my leg broke, the skill would stop healing the cut and work on my leg.
It was great when I didn’t have too many injuries, but right now, when I had many, it was almost debilitating because it kept healing one until it became less critical to another, at which point it’d switch to that one. Wrath knew that, and she was exploiting it.
“Ready or not, here I come,” Sathanus called, springing at me. I ducked her punch, catching her under the arm, and driving her into the rock with the combined strength of me mostly
just falling on top of her. As her head slammed into the ground, I took a moment to try to reorient myself.
That was when she head-butted me in the face, shattering my nose. Tears sprang to my eyes, clouding my already blurry vision. As I flopped onto the ground beside her, she sprang to her feet.
“Oh, is that how we’re gonna play it?” she asked, jumping backward a couple yards and raising one hand to her ear like she was trying to hear me better. “What’s that? I can’t hear you.”
When I didn’t respond because I was too busy trying to crawl to my feet, she launched herself forward, bounding across the earth before leaping into the air. Her leg came down hard on the back of my neck, slamming me face first into the ground.
I’d like to say I was okay, but I wasn’t because I was pretty sure she had broken my neck. As I struggled, trying to move my body as the bones in my neck struggled to pull themselves back together, Sathanus grabbed me by the ankle and snapped me outward like a whip.
Vertebrae popped as pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before lit every nerve ablaze. Worse, I could feel my body fighting against her attack, desperate to heal injuries that should have put me down.
As the Archangel of Wrath dropped me limply to the ground, she looked down at me and shook her head.
“Pathetic,” she mumbled, climbing on top of me and shaking her head. She leaned in close until her forehead was only a few inches from my face. Then she dangled a loogy from her lips.
“Sathanus, let him up. I think you’ve proven your point,” Gwen said, marching forward, hands on her hips.
The Archangel of Wrath sucked the spittle back into her mouth and smirked at me. “You’re lucky,” she whispered before hopping off of me and turning to face Gwen. “Have I, Lust?”
“I have a name,” Gwen replied, before dismissing the thought. “And yes, you have.”
The sad thing was, Gwen was right. Sathanus had proven her point, at least in so far as I still needed a lot more training. That was fine though. I’d train as hard as I could to save Gabriella.
“Good.” Sathanus gestured at me and sighed. “Much as I wanted to be wrong, I am right. Arthur is too damned weak.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “As much as I hate to admit it, I am weaker than both Lucifer and Michelle.” She nodded toward me. “If he wanted to have a chance at stopping Dred, he needs to defeat me in one punch.” She spat onto the ground. “Instead, he barely mussed my beard.” She drew her fingers down it for emphasis. “Barely.”
“As I said, I see your point.” Gwen glanced at me, and I got the impression she wanted to defend me, but couldn’t. Actions spoke louder than words, and as it stood, I wasn’t capable of fighting Dred.
I’d seen the Darkness’s champion beat Lucifer with a single punch after shattering her hammer. A single punch.
And that was after he’d stormed Heaven, having defeated the Archangel of Justice, Michelle. He was an unstoppable juggernaut of power, and I’d gotten my ass kicked by a three-foot dwarf. It pissed me off, but more than that? It made me want to win more than ever.
As the bones in my neck finished stitching themselves back together again, I punched myself into a sitting position. It was hard, and it hurt, but I knew that given two minutes or so, I’d be back at full strength. I could endure a bit of pain.
“How do I save Gabriella then? Because right now, Dred has her locked away in his castle, and I need to figure out a way to rescue her before she gives up her Mark and Armament,” I said, and even speaking hurt because my lips and tongue had been shredded into chunks of meat, and while my jaw wasn’t broken anymore, it still hurt like a son of a bitch. “How do I beat Dred?”
“You be smarter, dearie.” Sathanus glanced at me like I was the world’s dumbest puppy. “How did I beat you?”
“You just kicked my ass.” I glared at her as my eyes finally refocused and I felt the confusion of the concussion vanish. “It’s annoying.”
I touched the earring Sam had given me. It was the armament of Death, but I couldn’t get it to work as well as it should. I’d been trying, but I just couldn’t master the damned thing. Every time I tried to draw power from it, the thing seemed to fight me, and without my sword, my ability to conjure Hellfire was limited.
“That’s a fair point.” Gwen gestured at Sathanus. Her armor was scuffed from where I’d blasted her with Hellfire. “Arthur did draw first blood. If that had taken you down, it’d be over.”
“And if my grandmam had balls, she’d have been a king.” The Archangel of Wrath snorted. “Truth is, you’re right as much as you’re wrong. He should have killed me or at least taken me down with that hit, but he didn’t. That’s almost worse.” She gestured at the earring. “You need to figure that out because if you don’t, all it takes is breaking a couple knees and you’re screwed.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, getting to my feet. My body had fully healed, but it was still a bit stiff.
“You can heal an injury, but you fight like you don’t want to get hurt, and what’s more, your power is dumb.” Her boot lashed out, shattering my right knee and causing me to collapse to the ground. As I howled in pain, she kicked me hard in the ribs, breaking them.
“Sathanus!” Gwen cried, rushing forward, but the archangel held out a hand.
“This is a teachable moment.” Wrath dropped down beside me right before she punched me in the throat hard enough to break my windpipe. Agony exploded through me, and my good arm instinctively went for my throat while my lungs struggled for breath.
“How is this a teachable moment?” Gwen asked, but she hadn’t moved from her spot. She didn’t even seem worried, which was bullshit because darkness was encroaching on my vision from my lack of air.
“Notice how your knee and arm have stopped healing.” Sathanus gestured at me while meeting my eyes. “It’s because your power is focused on keeping you alive.” She grabbed my good arm and twisted, shattering my elbow and shoulder. “That isn’t healing either.”
She was right, of course, my power was focused on healing my throat.
“So what you should do when you fight Dred is give him one big injury, something his body has to heal. Then, while he’s healing, incapacitate his arms or legs or whatever.” She nodded to me. “Once you overwhelm his ability to heal through your attacks, he’ll be easier to fight.”
My throat healed, and as my ribs started to pull themselves from my punctured lung, I saw what she meant. When I’d fought Dred, sure he’d tanked my attack, but at the same time, he had stopped, concentrating on healing. I’d seen his organs reform, then his bone, muscle, whatever. In order. If I’d kept attacking, would he have been able to fight back? What if I’d blown off his leg? He might have healed it, but he’d have been hobbled.
“You’re a genius,” I squeaked even though the words felt like razor blades on my raw throat.
“You get it.” Sathanus shrugged. “You need a lot of training.” She looked at me. “You’re fast and strong. You even have good technique and reflexes, but when it comes to experience, you’re a piss poor fighter.” She nodded toward me. “I figured that out in one second of fighting you.”
“I don’t have time for that.” I knew she was right, but it didn’t matter. Dred had Gabriella, and who knew what the bastard was doing to her. “I need to leave Dagobah and go after her. I don’t have time to complete my training.”
“Dagobah?” Confusion flashed across the Archangel of Wrath’s face. “This is Hell.” She glanced around. “The Graveyard of Statues.”
“It’s a Star Wars reference.” I got to my feet once more, though I kept my wary eyes on Sathanus. “In the second movie, Luke left to save his friends before completing his training.”
“And how did that work out for Luke?” Sathanus asked, genuinely curious.
“He got his hand cut off, and his friend was frozen in Carbonite.” I waved my hand. “Carbonite is a type of stone.” I sighed. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Luke had been an idiot. If he’d sta
yed, he might have won when he faced Darth Vader, but instead? Instead he’d lost his hand, and something told me if I faced Dred unprepared again, I’d lose a lot more than my damned hand.
“Well then, Arthur.” Sathanus met my eyes. “I think I’ve made my point.”
2
“We should go again,” I said, dusting myself off. “Until I can beat you.”
The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4) Page 1
