《OP without wanting to be》63. Tedious, but necessary: Dodging marriage
Advertisement
Jason sent him the image of a high five when she took the bait. As they moseyed in the direction of the center, Serafina told him about her life as the child of a prostitute. Her mother had tried to keep her away from her men, but some were very interested in her maidenhead from a young age. She would dirty herself and she always needed to have a full bladder. Several regular patrons of her mother sexually assaulted her. Soiling herself was the only defense she had. One hour passed with Serafina weeping into his shoulder, laughing at a joke and thinking about a profound truth about life.
Somehow Jason’s tactic had backfired. Res felt closer to Serafina with every passing minute, and she got more comfortable with him. She wouldn’t blush as often and show her witty side. Xenia would throw dirty looks at Serafina, but they ignored her. For some reason, they hadn’t been attacked by anyone, nor had they detected anyone. It seemed like a peaceful walk in a park, not the deadly hell he had envisioned it to be. Serafina told of how her brother died from hunger and how she was picked off the street by the royal family. The training hardened her, but in a way that broke her into million tiny little pieces. Then melted her back together into a weapon. She would live in constant fear of getting poisoned by their instructors or getting killed during sword practice.
Over a third of the potential royal bodyguard suitors didn’t even survive the first year. As a trainee, she had to watch as her friends died one by one from the training. She was the only one out of one thousand street kids to survive the training. Despite being forced into servitude, she made the best out of the situation. It struck Res how she didn’t give up as everyone she loved died. Still, she found some form of happiness. Finally, there was a contemplative silence between the two of them and Serafina said: “Tell me your story.”
Res was grateful when he felt his neck hairs stand on end. “I have a weird feeling about this part of the woods. Can you please look around with your new sight?”
Serafina frowned, but closed her eyes and then opened them again. He hoped that the light of the setting sun wouldn’t obstruct her sight. Immediately, Serafina drew her sword and whispered. “I can see the shapes of people … hundreds upon hundreds of them above the trees. Some of them are holding rectangular objects and … ”
Res realized that those must be the black-box guys and waved that away. “I knew that they had to be somewhere, they aren’t dangerous. Look around us.”
Serafina turned all the way around and gasped out something incoherent when Res felt something rushing towards them. Out of instinct, he yelled and tackled Serafina to the ground. With a loud crash, an enormous sand spike impacted the spot they had been in and cut down one of the enormous trees. Seconds after the crash, Res heard the shrill shriek of the ape-like creatures. Serafina’s eyes widened, and she flung Res away into the underbrush while rolling behind a tree into the opposite direction. Another sand lance missed Serafina by only a slim margin. The stalker-apes cried out in jubilation at the use of aether and Res could hear the rustling of leaves in the distance.
Advertisement
The voice of an acquaintance resounded through the forest. “Come out, ghost. Hiding from me is useless, I will usher you into your afterlife.”
Akeem and the princess had run away for a time and were now watching from a safe distance. A stupid plan came to him. Making eye contact with Serafina, he pointed to her fingernails and mimed climbing up a tree. She got the jest of what he tried to say. As he had thought, if she extended her nails, she turned into a perfect climber. When she looked down at him and saw him staring at her live form, she blushed, but didn’t seem affronted. She even seemed to swing her hips some more.
“Bro, I am the last one to say such a thing, but you are handling a madman. You can’t let yourself get distracted right now.”
When Serafina had reached the first branch, Res shouted: “Please don’t … ”and immediately threw himself to the side. As he had expected, another sand spike impacted the spot he had been in. He had glimpsed Adrian’s unmasked face for the first time and his suspicions were confirmed. Adrian was a young man overwhelmed with the circumstances. Res tried to speak, but another sand spike immediately landed in the spot where he had stood.
“Hey Adrian …”Res jumped to his left. “… Why don’t we …” He had to use a small bit of aether to push out of the way of a spike going for his head. “… talk?”
Adrian snarled and flung sand spikes wildly in his general direction. “You are deceit reincarnated! My ghost has told me everything. Do you think you could manipulate me into believing that there is such a thing as a balance between the living and the dead? One can uphold the resemblance of a balance for a day or two, but there will always be someone pushing for more power.”
The howls of the stalkers continued to increase in frequency. ”You lure me into trusting you by casting a mesh of dark and forbidden mind control magic. Do you think I won’t realize how unnatural it is that I like you?”
Res stepped out of the cover of a tree and raised his hands. “Let’s assume that you got me. Let’s assume that I am a ghost. Why should you kill me? I have done nothing wrong; I haven’t massacred people and instead I have helped many. Why should you kill me? Is that who you are? A mad killer?”
Adrian’s hand was trembling and sweat was running down his forehead. Adrian looked like a normal southerner: Black hair, hazel eyes, tanned skin and sharp facial features. In his hand, he held four compasses and Res pointed at them. “I know this is difficult, but try to look at your actions objectively.”
Adrian whirled around to all sides as if he could spot his non-existent spell. He pointed an accusing finger at him. ”You are doing it again.”
Res tried to object, but Adrian flung his hand outward, which made one of the enormous trees next to him turn into sand. All the sand turned into a colossal twenty-meter-tall snake. Yet, it wasn’t the hiss of the snake, but the shrieks of glee around them that made a chill spread through his bones. “Do you want to die?”
Advertisement
Res tried to point at the black shapes jumping between trees, but Adrian didn’t notice or care. The snake drew back and sprang at him like a spring. He had to use a significant amount of aether to push himself back two feet. Res felt a claw ripping at his shirt and a part of his body, which now consisted out of aether, drained away. He only glimpsed the stalker that had attacked him before he dropped back to the ground. He tried to assess his shoulder and realized that a part of his shoulder had been cut away as if it had never been there. It didn’t bleed and healthy white skin lay beneath it.
Res filed the information back for later because the enormous snake realigned itself to strike him in the air. He had to push himself back once more. A hasty look at his compass revealed that he only had a quarter of his allowance left. The landing used up even that and he was left with a small slither. The bulk of the stalkers was concentrated around a lone figure that was walking towards him. If he had used his entire allowance to escape the sand snake, he couldn’t imagine how much aether Adrian had used. In front of Adrian hovered another sand spike and he sneered at Res.
“I got …” Adrian didn’t see the shape falling down from a nearby tree with her sword gleaming in the light of the setting sun.
Before Serafina could impale Adrian, Res called out. “Don’t kill him!”
Her sword entered his right shoulder and cut a bloody path down his body. The cry of pain was mirrored by several stalkers who dropped down from the trees and approached their prey. Res called out as calmly as he could. “Are you able to carry him?”
Serafina looked at him confused, but nodded. As if Adrian wasn’t two times her body weight, she threw him over her shoulders. She began to walk backwards while hissing at the creatures who were shrieking and clawing at the air. With this primal back and forth between human and beast, Serafina reached Res. Both of them were now walking backwards while keeping an eye on the shifting stalkers in the trees. Serafina muttered: “Why are we saving him?”
“He isn’t evil, but his ghost has twisted him.”
Serafina looked at him with sudden interest. “Are you a ghost possessing a body? I wouldn’t mind.”
“No. I am instead working side by side with a ghost. His name is Jason, I will tell you the story when we get out of this mess.”
One of the more ragged stalkers shrieked and Serafina threw Adrian’s limp body at Res. It was not a moment too early, as the stalker lunged at her and she impaled his brains on her sword. The stalker wasn’t finished though and clawed at her in his death fits and Serafina only narrowly avoided a hit. Seamlessly, she started walking backwards again. “I can’t take more than one at the same time. They aren’t dangerous by themselves, but they take an awful long time to die. Touching them means you get sucked dry of aether.”
It might have been the knowledge that a misstep would kill him that made him stumble. But stumble he did. One unseen root was enough for him to lose his balance and fall on the flat of his back. Jason gave him a burst of aether though and shouted: “Push off!”
All the adrenaline he had built up made him pull in all the aether he could, harden his body and push towards Serafina. Her highly trained mind had assessed the situation as hopeless too and she immediately understood what he tried to do. Her claws dug into his flesh as she clung onto him, but he didn’t mind. Yet, an instinct told him it wouldn’t be enough before the stalkers above the trees would impact them. After the weird blackout had transformed his body, he hadn’t reassessed his reserves.
He was blinded by the accessible aether and he greedily pulled on his right arm. When no sudden burst of power racked his body, he realized with delight that he could now control how much power he drew. Despite pulling only on his thumb cap, Res was flung forwards at ridiculous speeds. Serafina’s hold was nearly broken, and Res felt how she dug her claws even deeper into him.
“BRO, this new body is fucking sick! I wish I discovered that technique in my lifetime … Wait, I have changed my mind. I can’t imagine how depressing it would be to lose your crown jewels.”
Res wasn’t up for banter as he pushed through the trees to get the stalkers of their trail. Several of them materialized in a tree above him and jumped at him with uncanny precision. Dodging the trees while also avoiding the stalkers was tantamount to suicide. It was only pure luck that he didn’t get pushed off into another direction and headbutt a tree.
With a push of aether, they burst into a small clearing. Amid which stood a small tent with the Gamemaster sitting in front smoking a cigar. Akeem and Xenia stood next to the Gamemaster, waving wildly. The wild shriek of those horrible creatures and the Gamemaster’s advice was the only reason he stopped. With a small burst of aether, Res touched down.
Advertisement
Ultra: The School for Young Assassins
When Chief Executives of the top secret agency "Ultra" get ordered to "prejudicially retire" the classified program for training child assassins to do the government's dirty work worldwide, they naturally comply by destroying the secluded Ultra Training Facility and terminating every last student, instructor, and staff member -- right down to cooks and janitors. But what will "Ultra" do about the rogue teacher and the six young assassins who managed to get away? BATTLE ROYALE-esque. Dark and violent.
8 74I Must Find Light, Or I Will F-ing Die!
A horror LitRPG story. A man awakens to a pitch-black void within a vast network of subterranean tunnels. With only a blade, a candle, and a handful of matches, he will need to travel through the passages and survive against the hellish beasts that pursue him in the dark. --------------------------------- Grimdark. Profanity and Gore are present in this story. LISTEN TO THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS IN AUDIO FORM. NARRATED BY AWARD WINNING VOICE ARTIST JACK VORACES: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpB5_AFst_M
8 164The Lord of War [Dropped]
A planet where the strong is in control. A planet where war is waged every day. A planet where the fight is between the races for domination! There is one man who will change the world forever as he wages one war after another making the people against him, submit to him using his head and brute force. He will be known as 'The Lord of War' and this is his story. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ You can also read it at https://saleban1.wordpress.com/ I will always post there first before I post it here. If you want to help me please share the story around but refrain from taking it as your own, if you want to make a fan fiction about it please make sure to talk to me first as this is my first story and work. [You can all thank Nexus Wolf for editing them, He aslo got his own fiction you can find them here http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7346 and the other story is here http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7489] Ps; Any comments are welcome and I hope you like it. If there is something you don't understand make sure to ask me about it as I will help you to the best of my ability's. [The story might be slow in the first 6 chapters but the pace and the info dump will change] Pss; the cover is not mine as I got it from google, if you can help me with a cover I will be thankful.
8 165My Girlfriend is a Demon
This story revolves around a shut-in otaku named Shiro Akashi. When he was a kid, his father disappeared. Because of that, Shiro stopped going to school. In loneliness, he devoted his life playing games and watching animes. One day, as Shiro woke up from his bed, he saw someone sitting on top of the table on the other side of the room. That person, a girl with black wings, two horns and a tail, wearing nothing but a bra and her underwear, covered in a coat, hiding her face, appeared right in front of him. This girl suddenly said that she will be Shiro's girlfriend Will this encounter bring good luck? Or will he continue to waste his time watching animes and games?
8 110Draconic Transcendence: Cinders and Ashes
In the world of Aesir, there lies magic and beasts, gods and heroes. A world amongst many. In a particular era of prosperity, there lies the Apollyn Empire, a large Empire stretching across most of the western continent, and the most powerful nation in the world. It is during an age where Humanity turns away from the Gods, turning from Faith to Science. From this viewpoint, magitech exists, miraculous inventions that make life easier than before. But the world is vast, and filled with myths. Legends point to a select few individuals, who throughout history are born from magic alone, and gifted with immense power. All are destined for tragedy, however, and to wreak chaos. With power surpassing that of the Gods and Dragons, it is they who have been behind nearly all the major calamities of the world; these are beings known as "Harbingers". In the slums of Harlup, Capital of Apollyn, a young girl is found in the ashes of a burnt building, and adopted by a homeless woman searching for something of value. Raised from the ground up, and evemtually finding her way to the Gran Sars, an organization of magicians dedicated to war magic, she will rise through the ranks with her partner, and eventually discover that she too, is destined for tragedy. Her path forced by the Gods, she must fight to save the ones she loves, and at the same time face her destiny, and surpass it. Because if she does not, the world will burn, and all she knows and loves will crumble to cinders and ashes.
8 166After Fishing For 10 Years, I Became A Saint Without Knowing How To Raise Beasts
Yu Chi transmigrated to a world covered with savage, barren lands, where more than 10,000 races fought to ascend to the top. He began his life in this world in imprisonment. While the others had completely forgotten about his existence, he took out a bamboo stick that he had been carrying with him since his previous life. The souls of ancient divine beasts could be found in various savage lands and rivers. His bamboo stick could communicate with these ancient souls. When he fished at the Death Sea of Hades, he got the voice of Naga Siren. When he fished at the Ice River of Skeletons, he received the attack power of Blobfish. When he fished at the Lake of Grotto-Heaven, he obtained the golden eyes of the Five-Talon Divine Dragon. When he fished at the Cliff of Hanging Candles, he acquired the fire of the Nine-Tailed White Fox. In the blink of an eye, millions of years had passed. Deities and pet beasts from various corners of the world came to congratulate Yu Chi on his wedding. A prominent figure couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you so terrifying?” As Yu Chi stared at his gorgeous wife, the memories of him fighting millions of devils in the Underworld flashed in his mind. He then smiled and replied, “There’s nothing I can boast about. I was just lucky.” Thank you for reading After Fishing For 10 Years, I Became A Saint Without Knowing How To Raise Beasts novel @ ReadWebNovels.net Read Daily Updated Light Novel, Web Novel, Chinese Novel, Japanese And Korean Novel Online.
8 340