by Dante King
Immortal Swordslinger (Book 2)
Dante King
Copyright © 2019 by Dante King
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.
v001
Contents
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
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About the Author
Chapter One
I woke with a start. It was night in the Diamond Coast, but a full moon shone down on the clearing, bathing everything in ghostly white light. Vesma stood over me and nudged me to wake up with the butt of her spear.
“What is it?” I asked, knowing she’d been on watch.
“Something is moving out there.” She gestured at the lush palms surrounding the clearing. I caught sight of a scaled figure among the greenery and immediately leaped to my feet. Instinctively, I snatched up my sword.
“Is it time to play?” Nydarth whispered from within my weapon.
Beside me, Kegohr lumbered to his feet with mace in hand. “What, what, what?” He rubbed his eyes with the back of one clawed hand.
“Can anyone else smell that?” I asked. The air was thick with the salty aroma of the nearby seashore, but it carried something more decrepit. The stench of rotting seaweed and decaying fish almost made me barf.
“Lampreys!” Vesma pointed at half a dozen creatures advancing out of the forest toward us.
The lampreys were four feet tall, bipedal, with arms like a man. Scales covered their bodies, and fins protruded from either side of their heads. Mist exuded from their backs, and the vapor clouds trailed behind them as they moved with a swaying gait. They flexed their clawed hands and hissed as they advanced. Mouths almost as large as their faces were filled with pointed teeth that gleamed in the moonlight.
“Holy fucking shit,” I said as Vesma and Kegohr stood in formation beside me. Vigor boiled from beneath their skin and cast them in a fire-red hue.
The lampreys were the first water monsters I’d seen since we’d ventured out from the Radiant Dragon Guild. The map Xilarion had given us indicated this glade was a Vigorous Zone, so I’d known we’d encounter monsters sooner or later.
“Be wary,” Vesma warned. “We should—”
“Attack!” Kegohr roared as he charged into the pack of scaled monsters.
“Fuck,” I said. We hadn’t even come up with a plan yet, and he’d decided to rush the enemy.
I couldn’t let him get all the kills himself, so I charged to join him.
“It is so pleasing to be in your hands once more,” Nydarth whispered as I swung the Sundered Heart Sword at a lamprey. The monster reared back, dodged my attack, and spouted a cloud of mist that closed around me. My lungs filled with the substance, and my chest constricted a little. My throat swelled as I gasped for air.
I hastily sheathed my sword, sucked in as much air as my tightening lungs could handle, and opened the magical channels within me. Vigor flowed along them, infused with the power of fire. I forced the magic to run along the pathway I’d shaped for Untamed Torch and brought my hands together.
Fire formed between my palms before it coalesced into a blazing sphere. I pushed the fireball forward, and it rolled straight into the mist. The vapor crackled as the flames evaporated it, but the lamprey itself was unharmed. I realized then that fire would have no effect on these beasts, so I drew my sword again and ran the scaled monster through the stomach before it could spout another cloud.
Vesma jumped beside me and crushed a lamprey’s skull with the butt of her spear. Despite how easy it was to kill the monsters, there were dozens of them flowing into the clearing. Their numbers continued to grow until all I could see was scales, claws, and razor-teeth. Mist accompanied them, and soon, the entire area was shrouded behind a thick fog the moonlight couldn’t pierce.
I could only see a few inches past my face. Unfortunately, my Augmentation training hadn’t involved learning to see with my eyes closed, so I had to scramble to block the strikes from the monster horde. I sent out Plank Pillars in a perimeter around me and heard the thuds as lampreys plowed into them.
“Fire evaporates the mist!” I yelled to my friends as I cast a one-handed Untamed Torch. It was weaker than a two-handed fireball, but it still struck the mist and produced a hissing sizzle.
Kegohr roared, and his entire body lit up. He’d activated Spirit of the Wildfire, and his scorching body caused the fog around him to fade. He was like a beacon of light, and I fought toward him as I continued to shoot fireballs at the vapor while dodging the lampreys’ vicious claws.
Vesma jumped beside me and waved her Flame Shield around to disperse the fog. A lamprey jumped through the quickly fading mist, and I kicked it directly in the chest. The monster skittered backward before pouncing forward again. While the creature was in midair, I lunged and skewered the clawed fiend.
“Ugh,” Nydarth said. “Such unsavory flesh!”
“Better get used to it,” I replied as the fog disappeared entirely. “There are a whole lot more of them.”
Kegohr swung his mace around in a sweeping arc that almost caught a lamprey, but the creature jumped back at the critical moment. The lamprey didn’t see Vesma coming as she thrust her spear at its ribs. Rather than pierce the monster’s scaled abdomen, the spearpoint glanced off.
“What the devil are these things made of?” Vesma asked as she fought off the lamprey’s counterattack.
“We’re going to have to get more creative,” I said.
“Or more brutal.” Kegohr bellowed with laughter as he swung his mace straight into the nearest lamprey. The blow sent the creature flying, its limbs flapping as it hurtled through the air. It curled them in just before it hit the ground and went rolling end over end, then sprang back to its feet with one hand clutching its chest as its viciously toothed mouth opened wide.
“How’s that thing not dead?” Kegohr growled.
“I guess they’re tougher than they look,” I replied as I drove another one back with a swipe of my sword.
I lunged at one of the creatures and caught its shoulder with the tip of my blade. Blood ran down its arm, but it kept moving, and one of its companions leaped forward so that I had to pull back or see my arm torn to shreds. I allowed the lamprey to get a little closer and struck with a backhanded slash. Its head toppled from its shoulders, and blood sprayed from its severed neck.
Fire didn’t seem to have much of an effect, so I summoned the power of wood. It ran through my body, a fresh flow of life with its own pulse running parallel to the blood in my veins. I leaped over a dead monster before I sent a volley of Stinging Palm thorns into a pack of six lampreys. Black blood sprayed as the projectiles slammed into them. The pack reduced to two, and the final pair washed the Sundered Heart in their entrails as I gutted them.
I needed some way of disabling multiple lampreys at once, and my mind settled on an idea I’d been cooking up for the past week. Kegohr and Vesma had their b
acks turned, so they wouldn’t be affected by my technique. The lampreys, hungry for my blood, would receive the full force of it. I drew the power of fire through me, channeled it into my hand, and unleashed a blast of Untamed Torch. This time, I didn’t try to focus the flames into a concentrated, destructive force. Instead, I let them flow wide in a brief flash of light a split second after I’d closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I could still see, but the lampreys were blinded. They screeched in confusion as they flailed around. I took a step forward and swept the legs out from under a lamprey. Before it could jump to its feet, I stabbed it through the gills, and blood sprayed up along my blade as the creature died.
“Surely this is the end?” Nydarth groaned. “My blade is defiled by these cretins.”
“Drink up,” I said as I carved through the blinded pack.
I joined Kegohr and Vesma in a tight formation. We continued hewing into the monsters until scaled corpses littered the ground. Every step flooded my boots with monster blood. Every time I thought I’d gained an advantage, more lampreys replaced the ones we’d killed. If one was felled, another three would leap into the clearing.
I summoned the cold, hard power of ash, the power born of wood and fire intertwined. I held out a hand toward the nearest lamprey, and an Ash Cloud formed around it. The gills on its back strained as it tried to draw breath in the choking cloud. It staggered back as its face twisted in agony. I ended its suffering with a quick slash.
I summoned an Ash Cloud around another lamprey, and it sank to its knees as the mist around it went thick with black particles. A third cloud slowed the next lamprey as it rushed at me, claws stretched wide.
Kegohr and Vesma closed in together on one of the choking lampreys. Vesma slashed at it with her spear, but the blade slid off the thick, scaled hide. A blow from Kegohr’s mace knocked the creature flat on its face, and Vesma went in again. This time, she drove her spear point straight into the gills. There was a wet sound as the blade slid through a gap between the scales and into the lamprey’s chest. The creature writhed one last time and went still.
As my friends moved on to the next choking lamprey, I turned as another of the beasts sprang forward. It leaped into the air like some kind of oversized treefrog, and I quickly summoned a Plank Pillar. It crashed into the wooden wall, and I ended its life with a quick thrust.
I opened the channels within me again and directed Vigor down through my feet and then up again as I followed the pattern of Plank Pillar technique. A cluster of planks burst from the ground in the middle of the lampreys, dividing the pack in two. As they scrambled to reorganize, I called forth two more pillars until the pack was scattered around the clearing.
Something collided with my back and almost knocked me to the ground. Slimy arms reached around my neck and started choking me while spindly legs wrapped around my waist. I reached around behind my head and pressed my hand against the creature’s shoulder, then summoned the power of wood once more. I let fly with a spray of thorns from the palm of my hand. The thorns hit the lamprey at point-blank range, and some pierced its hide, though others glanced off the scaly skin. The creature shrieked, released me, and dropped to the ground. I drove my sword into its stomach and made a satisfying twist.
“They’re trying to escape!” Vesma yelled as the survivors attempted to flee the corpse-riddled clearing.
“Should we let them go?” Kegohr asked as he finished braining an injured lamprey.
“No,” I said. “They could come and attack us later.”
I lowered my hand and pushed the power of wood down through my feet. From there, it arced through the ground and burst up in a series of Plank Pillars that walled the lampreys in on three sides. I approached on the fourth.
Stinging Palm wouldn’t penetrate their scales at anything less than point-blank range, so I went for the lampreys with my sword. I stabbed at one of them, but it flung itself back as the other slashed at my arm with its claws. I pulled back in time to avoid any damage as Kegohr appeared beside me. He drove his mace into a lamprey and pulverized it against the wooden pillar. I avoided the snapping jaws of another lamprey, and a well-aimed strike delivered death to it. Vesma jumped to my left and plunged her spear through the mouth of another. Kegohr smashed his mace down on a creature’s head, reducing it to a bloody smear of fractured skull and pulped brains.
An ear-piercing cry came from behind me, and I turned to a lamprey straggler. The monster circled around me and kept its distance so that I couldn’t strike with my sword.
“Let’s see how Ethan handles this.” Vesma put her spear over her shoulder and folded her arms.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said. “You got any more new tricks?”
“I can think of one,” I said as I raised my left palm and produced a thorn the size of a baseball. Making the technique produce such a large projectile took a lot more Vigor, but I still had a little more left in the tank.
I punched the air with an open palm, and the giant thorn flashed toward the lamprey. The monster’s attempt to jump out of the way failed as the projectile pounded into its stomach with all the force of a crossbow bolt.
Vesma walked over to the corpse and inspected the thorn protruding from its abdomen. “Impressive,” she said.
“Not bad at all,” Kegohr said. “I’d like a technique like that. Why can’t I be a bloody elementalist?”
Vesma flicked lamprey blood from her hands. “Because you weren’t born that way.”
“Seems kinda unfair,” he commented.
“It’s life,” she said. “Some people are born special; others aren’t.”
“Let’s not get into that whole philosophical debate,” I said. “Good job with your technique, Kegohr.”
“Which one?” he asked.
“Spirit of the Wildfire,” Vesma answered.
“I wasn’t even trying to be smart by using it. Those damned beasties just got me all worked up.”
Vesma laughed. “You idiot!”
Kegohr squatted over a dead lamprey and tore the skeletal corral out with his bare hands. “So, I guess Effin’s the only one who can use the cores. He’s the only elementalist.”
“If it means more power on our side,” Vesma said, “then Ethan can have every last core. They’re no use to us.”
I’d found out that my ability to use more than one element was somewhat rare in the Seven Realms. Kegohr and Vesma were fire Augmenters, so they couldn’t absorb any of the lamprey cores.
“What if something goes wrong?” Kegohr cautioned. “You had tutors to help you get started on an element before.”
“He’s the Immortal Swordslinger,” Vesma said.
I half-expected to see her smirking, but her expression was serious.
“Not just yet,” I reminded her as I grabbed my knife from my belt. I pulled a skeletal corral from inside a lamprey and pried out the core.
“Soon,” Nydarth promised. “When you obtain the other Immense Blades. Then, you can have me whenever you like. My true form would bring you to fruition with little more than a glance.”
“She’s speaking to you again?” Vesma asked.
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure how she’d known Nydarth had spoken, but I must have had some kind of tell.
“What did she say?”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kegohr said. “How about we get to work, then we can chat about spirit swords, slingers, colossal blades, and whatever else you fancy.”
Vesma sighed before we started the process of retrieving cores from the monster corpses.
One by one, we cut open the bodies of the monsters, removed the skeletal corrals that protected the cores, and extracted the glowing orbs, bright slivers of power that held magical essence.
“We should move on,” Vesma said after we’d gathered all the cores. “I don’t want to find out what carrion monsters are inside this glade.”
“They could provide interesting techniques,” I s
aid with a sly smile. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?”
“We have a mission, remember?” Kegohr spoke up. “Xilarion wants us to deliver the scroll to the Guild of Resplendent Tears. We’ve already taken a handful of detours. The Qihin Clan and the guild could have destroyed each other by now.”
“What I don’t get,” Vesma started, “is why Xilarion thinks a simple letter will make them suddenly hold hands and—”
“Sing kumbaya?” I interjected. When Vesma and Kegohr frowned at me, I burst into laughter. They didn’t understand a single reference I’d used since I met them, but that only made it all the funnier.
“Let’s move,” Vesma said. “Ethan, you lead.”
I gave her a playful slap on the ass as I walked past her, and she thumped me in the arm.
“Ow, “ I said. “You know it’s wrong to hit your boyfriend, right?”
She hurried to keep up with me. “Boyfriend? Is that what you are now?”
I shrugged. “If that’s what you’d like.”
“And Faryn?”
“I can be her boyfriend, too.” I hadn’t seen the beautiful elven tutor since I’d left Radiant Dragon, and the reminder of her made me realize how much I missed her company. I enjoyed the presence of Vesma equally, but Faryn’s mature guidance added another quality that couldn’t be replicated.
“Hmm. . . I suppose I can share you. For now.”
We crossed the palm-filled glade and paused at the shore of a small pool. Moonlight reflected off the crystalline surface, and water trickled over small stones. The sounds of insects and nightbirds assured me that we wouldn’t come upon any monsters. As much as I wanted to farm water cores, my Vigor was running low. For the last week, I’d become more skilled at meditation, and I found I could spend the still hours of the night refining the pathways within me. The more time I spent on internal meditation, the faster I could summon a martial technique during battle. These nocturnal sessions had helped me produce the bright flash version of Untamed Torch.
