《Binary Progression》Volume 8 - Chapter 10: Bees, eh?
Advertisement
When Zack opened his eyes, he found himself standing on a shabby, wooden bridge going over the recently cleared water, it was far from sanitary, but aside from fishing the corpses out and flushing all the stale water out thanks to some magic users, it was now slightly preferable to having acid running through your city.
Zack looked around; the bridge was barely illuminated by the dim glow of the moon above, the rays of light barely making it down to the surface through the dense layer of clouds which sheltered the city from pleasant weather.
After a few, silent seconds, Zack released the air he kept trapped in his lungs.
“Looks like I can still escape…” He thought.
Despite the conversation with Mr Death, Zack didn’t feel any better about his paradoxical situation; his inability to slay Jasper.
Despite his wishes to wallow at some inn, Zack knew that coping mechanism couldn’t last long on account of his inevitable capture.
“What do I do?!”
“If I can’t kill him… the least I can do is try and flee…”
The previously considered idea, which Zack disregarded as flawed slowly turned out to be the only solution he could commit himself to.
Zack’s world shattered, his muscles tightened, his pupils dilated, his breathing stopped, his body turned cold and his soul all but escaped his body as the leathery grasp of a gloved hand became glued to his shoulder.
He didn’t turn around for fear of losing any time, instead, he bolted forward.
“SHIT!”
“IF THEY LOCK ME UP, JASPER WILL BE FREE TO-…”
Zack’s pace slowed down.
“If they lock me up… Jasper will have to either give up on his revenge or come perform it in the prison!” he realized.
Uncertainty still lingered in his mind, would Jasper kill off the prisoners?
Advertisement
Considering the precautions of the jGuardians, the prison seemed pretty serious.
He sped up again.
“But what about the others!?”
“What if they send Bonifacius or some other L.F.T.O member to question me? Zack would strike straight away!”
“He always finds some way of tracking me down…”
That’s when Zack, still lost in his thoughts, bumped into another stranger.
In full damage-control mode, Zack looked down, hiding his face with faked bashfulness.
“S-Sorry about that!” he exclaimed frantically before starting to walk again.
“Zack?” questioned the vaguely familiar voice.
Fearfully, Zack looked up and saw the visibly drunk face of Malagmus.
“What the hell are you guys doing out this later?” he asked, his eyes hazy and he sipped on a famously weak beer through a twisty straw.
Judging from his tone, Malagmus must have somehow not been informed about Zack being the killer.
The two stood silently as Malagmus continued to drink the beer from his bottle until all that came out of it was the sound of his desperation for more liquid.
“Uhm… Hi…” Zack said, if he wanted to make it out, he needed to avoid looking suspicious, but he also needed to avoid talking too long for fear of whoever put their hand on his shoulder catching up.
“I’m kind of in a rush…” he replied apologetically.
“Aw, don’t be like that!” Malagmus exclaimed, his face was red from the alcohol.
He folded his arms.
“There are plenty of establishments we could visit at this hour…” he exclaimed dismissively.
“Before the curfew comes into play…”
Zack breathed a sigh.
“Come on, you know you’re too broke for that kind of thing!”
Even the likes of Zack heard Bromy and the others poke fun at Malagmus, no small part of the insults revolved about him being permanently broke.
Advertisement
Malagmus smiled.
“Actually, I’ve started making some money recently!” he explained through slurred speech.
“That would explain his booze-fund…” Zack thought.
“Anyway! I really have to go!” Zack explained.
“Nah, you guys really need to hear this - so, I’m a pretty high-level alchemist, right?” he asked.
Zack breathed a long, very evident sigh to no effect.
“So, this one guy asked me if I’m interested in making fake potions for this one scam…” he continued.
Zack sighed again, trying to shuffle away only have Malagmus place his hand on his shoulder and continue speaking.
“And like, I was like… I can just make you guys real potions - and they just made fun of me…”
“P-please let me go…” Zack pleaded to no avail.
Malagmus laughed.
“So instead of dyed water, I made the potion essentially poison,” he explained.
“...”
“You what…?” Zack asked.
“It’s cool, they’re just laxatives!” Malagmus clarified.
“THAT’S NOT BETTER!” Zack cried.
With that, Zack finally turned and left Malagmus behind.
“I REALLY IN A RUSH!” he called back before disappearing into the night.
Malagmus raised his eyebrows, watching the two leave.
“Weirdos...” he muttered before feeling a street-rat bite his angle causing his entire leg to blow up into meaty chunks, splattering blood onto everything, including the rat which was flung back by the pressure.
At no point, did Malagmus’ health drop below zero as his leg grew back without him so much as noticing the damage.
He might have kicked the rat away, but that would most likely also blow his leg away.
Earlier, his head exploded from a bed-bug in his pillow biting him.
The other day, Malagmus found a hair in his soup and found himself split in half from the jaw down after pulling it out.
He was also weak to poisons.
Speaking of which…
Malagmus bent down and proceeded to throw up all the three-percent beer he drank onto the floor, all one bottle of it.
He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and breathed a sigh.
“Now when… maybe I should buy wine next time…?” he wondered.
Meanwhile, Zack sprinted through the streets, eventually hiding in one of the alleys where he planned to stay for the night, the place was a dense maze of homes, the furthest away from where he died only minutes before.
Finding himself surrounded by nothing but the cold night air, Zack lowered his head.
He sat with his arms around his legs, his side hidden by an empty box.
“I hope it doesn’t start raining…”
He thought, looking up to see nothing but darkness.
That’s when he felt it, out of nowhere, two blankets appeared above, instinctively, he jumped to his feet, looking around, trying to decide which way he would flee.
Nothing happened.
Not words, no people.
“Hello?” Zack asked.
Nothing.
When he looked down, he noticed one of the blankets was gone, as if it became invisible.
It was as if the city itself decided to give him a yellow and black, striped blanket that resembled a bee.
“DID I PICK A HAUNTED ALLEY!?” Zack wondered.
Anxiously, Zack quietly returned to his corner and covered himself in the honey-scented blanket.
“Uhm… thanks… alley-ghost person…” he said.
After several minutes, Zack eventually passed out,
There was no rain that night.
Advertisement
Shade Touched
A monster is born in the depths of the wilds, but she isn't like her siblings. Curiosity colors her every thought, and a hunger for understanding grows within this little creature. The world is full of wonders just waiting to be discovered! She's not just hunting for her next meal, her prey is something far greater: knowledge. But as wonderful as it is, discovery alone is missing half the point. After all, what joy is there in finding the next amazing thing when there's no one to share it with? Aiming to update Monday and Friday! Cover art by the amazing Kailey!Twitter @kbearart Full-size cover here.Full banner pic here. Gore tag for some somewhat graphic fight scenes. Profanity tag because there may be some explicit language, it shouldn't be excessive.
8 252Hero Soul: Jetriser
Erin was only weeks away from finishing college and starting her life in earnest, so dying was inconvenient, to say the least. Thrust into a new life in the magical world of Jetriser, she must scramble to survive a botched reincarnation in a less than newb-friendly region. Hiatus: I'm in the process of moving and changing jobs, all of which is happening rather unexpectedly, so I'm sorry to say the story will be on hiatus until I get settled.
8 141Our New World
A superhero novel in another world. A fantasy world, of course.
8 163The 13th Loop [A Progression, GameLit, Sci-Fi Adventure]
Kyle Goldman is having a bad century, multiple of them. Kyle is immortal, destined to live the same mediocre life over and over again. Worse, he remembers each time through life. Every betrayal, every life lesson, every combat spell, he is destined to learn them all again and again. Every life he re-awakens during the Awakening Trials. Trials designed to pull out the full magical and spiritual potential of a Space Force Candidate. Depending on how well he does in these trials can change his entire career. Since this is his thirteenth time through the trials he is well aware of their importance. Even better, he knows how to cheat. Having prior knowledge of the trials and their ever increasing difficulties is the ultimate form of cheating. Especially when the rewards for completing each stage of the trial is an increased Attribute point. He's lived each life to its fullest, some dying as a famous ace pilot. Others dying as an expeditionary Marine on long range space recon. Each life ultimately leads to the same inevitable end, he makes friends, tastes happiness for a brief moment, and then is betrayed. The betrayal always changes, but always hurts the same. From there a deep spiral occurs, leading to his inevitable, but often glorious demise. This time he vows to take things differently. He still plans to ace the exams, but then he will do the unthinkable, he will resign his commission as an officer. To live as an overqualified regular citizen of the free worlds. With the knowledge of spell craft deeply ingrained in his mind from his previous lives, he is set to make try number thirteen his lucky number after all. There is only one problem. The Government saw his test scores and now they won't stop to have him in their ranks. It looks like the betrayal will come earlier than expected in this, his thirteenth try at living the same stale existence. Themes Include: GameLit Elements, Progression Fantasy, with Space Tech and interstellar battles. Schedule: Monday through Friday Cover Art: Thanks to Asviloka
8 218(pico's school) pico x Female reader (lemon?)
Hello! If you simp really hard for pico then this is for you. Enjoy! (warning lemon! (maybe)(i do not some drawings in this story!)
8 195EVERLASTING || manjiro sano
"i've known her all my life, that's why i can't get her away from me"in a time of crisis, mikey gives in and calls y/n to help him with his gang. she's known as his childhood friend, who mikey can't get away from. but everyone knows it's more than that.as takemichi returns to the present, he learns the other reason why mikey went crazy. i guess you could call their relationship.. everlasting.highest ranking#1 in manjiro sano#1 in mikey#1 in tokyo revengers#1 in text-to-speech
8 108