《The Apex Guardian》Chapter 9
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The speakers blare with their music, "I've been here! I've made mistakes, but I'm gonna be the one to watch the world burn!"
The music and bass hault and is replaced with the cheering crowd. "This wouldn't be possible without all of you!" Jessica shouts,
"Have a good afternoon!" Riley cheers,
A large smile breaks across his face, who knew she had a good voice. The crowd is a thunder of voices releasing their battlecry of approval and enjoyment. It seems to ripple across the sky.
No way he's gonna talk to Nicole today. It's probably best anyway, he has no idea what's going on, best not to rush whatever this is. Well, the concert is over, time to see Noctus. He hurries to his car, sends a text to Noctus and narrowly misses the flooding rush of people. He drives to her apartment, he climbs out. He's surprised he didn't crash, something is happening and driving is the last thing he's thinking about. Someone killed his father for a reason, Mya, Nicole, whatever, she supposedly died. What is happening?
He walks up two flights of stairs, staring at his feet. He tries to push out the anxiety, he's going to see Noctus. His heart pounds with joy and anxiousness, he just wants to see her. After all, she is the first person he's trusted since Raegan and he hasn't seen her since.
He raises his hand and knocks on the mahogany door. It creaks as it opens a little, Asher's joy is replaced immediately, his heart pounds with suspense and fear. Asher slowly opens the door, he checks the hall to his left. The bathroom and bedroom doors open, he backs away from the doors and into the living room.
His heart drops, the room has been turned over and looks like it's exploded. Stuffing from the sofas, broken lamps, broken glass. He shakes awfully as he creeps into the kitchen and sees a similar scene. He looks around, looking for any signs. He doesn't stop, he knows her, he knows she's fine, it's Noctus, but someone's after her.
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He hurries into the bedroom and looks around the ransacked room, he opens a drawer in her dresser, specifically the bottom one. He takes out the pants and puts his hand flat on the bottom. The dresser beeps and the wooden pannel slides back. A folded piece of paper and a phone, he takes it quickly and unfolds it.
'Asher, take the phone, I'll be in touch with you. I need to figure out what's happening. I'm 'taking a vacation'. I've made arrangements for the company for now. W6.'
W6, meaning watch your 6 or watch your back. She's gone into hiding. whoever killed Asher's father is likely hunting him and obviously is hunting Noctus. But, why haven't they made the effort to attack Asher? They thought Noctus was always too big a threat maybe?
His heart beats faster and faster, Noctus just...left? Whatever this is, it's serious, perhaps Noctus is wanting to use him as bait to catch whoever did this. He thinks for a moment, but whoever did this, they were looking for something, not necessarily for Noctus. Otherwise they would have just left, not turned her place into such an apocalyptic scene. Noctus must have known what they were looking for, it must be pretty damn important.
Asher grabs the bedsheet and wipes the drawer, removing his fingerprints. He gets to his feet, feels the new phone in his pocket and hurries out of the apartment building. He hurries away and to the school, he climbs out and walks to his dorm. Asher walks in and sits on his bed. He takes his new phone out and looks at the contacts.
'9'
He decides to wait for her to call first. He breathes in slowly in attempt to calm his nerves. He's not so much worried as he is just overwhelmed. He tries to focus on anything else, anything.
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The world around him is silent, it's voiceless noise speaks like the crack of thunder. The dark of the room battles to overthrow the light coming from the tall lamp in the corner by the couch.
So many questions pound his heart and brain. The suspense is killing him, he feels like the whole world knows what's happening, except him. The phone vibrates.
'Are you there?- Noctus'
The sigh of relief is like a stone falling off his back, nevertheless, several other stones crush his shoulders.
'What happened?!'
'Someone is looking for me and for something I have. I only trust telling you in person.'
Asher's expression of desparate hope turns to desparate anger and fear. That's not Noctus. The style is wrong. Where is Noctus? What did they do to her? No, whoever this is, they are smart, they found the phone, which makes any call secured, let alone texts. Noctus wouldn't say she only trusts telling him in person. Whoever this is, it concerns Noctus enough to make her hide instead of immediately going to Asher.
'Okay, when? Where?'
Asher pulls his other phone and types in his name. He clicks on several links, just as he thought, all pictures of him are nonexistent, same for Noctus. Whoever it is, they don't know who he is. If they tried to get a vantage point on this apartment through a window, they'd be disappointed...which means they might be coming for him now! He tucks the phones away and is about to bolt but stops. Noctus taught you better, the phone vibrated the second after he picked it up. The person knows he's here...how? Thermal tech is the only thing he keeps coming back to. They are watching him likely with thermal tech. He needs a crowd. They might kidnap him, kill him, or just want to know his identity.
Vrrrt!
'Hangshire Theater, tomorrow at 5.'
'You sold yourself out when you mentioned trust.'
He walks into the hall and pulls a firealarm on the wall and startes down the stares. The alarm blares and within a minute and a half people poor out into the hall and he mixes with everyone else who has entered the stairwell. They pile outside and stare at the building, Asher's tempted, but he tries not to look around in the hopes of spotting his enemy.
After a few seconds, a man storms off, around Asher's height and build, jeez, if that isn't lucky. Asher waits for him to disappear, he waits a few more minutes and takes his chance to follow a few others away from the crowd and "vanishes" from the scene.
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Delve
Summary – Level 1: Delve is an isekai litrpg that follows an average guy who just happened to wake up in a forest one day. He wasn’t summoned to defeat the demon lord or to save the world or anything like that, at least as far as he can tell. The only creature there to greet him was a regular old squirrel. Soon enough, he meets other people, only to discover that he can’t speak the language, and that not everybody immediately trusts random pajama-wearing strangers they met in the middle of the wilderness. Things generally go downhill from there, at least until the blue boxes start appearing. Delve is a story about finding your way in a new, strange, and dangerous world. It’s about avoiding death, figuring out what the heck is going on, and trying to make some friends along the way. It’s not about getting home, so much as finding a new one. Did I mention that there will be math? Summary – Level 2: Okay, but what are you in for, really? Well, this story is supposed to be realistic, or at least, as realistic as a fantasy litrpg can be. The main character doesn’t instantly become an all-powerful god and murder-hobo his way across the universe. Delve is, at its heart, a progression fantasy, but that progression is meant to feel earned. The numbers in this story actually mean something. Everything is calculated, and if you find a rounding error, I expect you to tell me about it. That said, if math isn’t your cup of tea, there is plenty more that the story has to offer. Characters are meant to feel real, and progression isn’t only about personal power; it’s also about allies, connections, and above all, knowledge. Figuring out how the system works is a significant theme. ... What, you want more details? Okay, fine, but this is going to get a bit spoiler-y. Are you sure? Yes! Really sure? I mean, this summary is practically half as long as the first chap– Now! Okay, okay! The main character becomes a magic user, but he takes a route that is not very popular in adventurer culture, namely that of a support. There is a full magic system with various spells, skills, and abilities, but our MC decides that aura magic is the way to go, and that the only stat worth investing in is mana regeneration. Most people at the Adventurer’s Guild think that this makes him a bit of a dumbass, but he’s playing the long game. We’ll see how that works out for him, won’t we? Because of his build, the MC levels up fast, at least compared to normal people. There are no cheats, though, and he is limited in other ways. There are some clear and pretty obvious downsides to his build. That’s what makes it fun, no? Morals? Our MC has them. Again, we’ll see how that works out for him. Realism, remember? Would you be okay with killing someone and looting their body? I sure hope not. POV? The focus is on the main character, but there will be occasional varying perspectives from people around him, or involved in the events related to the main plot. It isn’t going to jump all over the place. Tech is standard medieval stasis. No smartphones, but the MC does have a technical background. Computers and their programming might be involved. There might even be a bit of uplifting down the road, who knows? Anyway, it isn’t the focus. He isn’t going to invent the gun in chapter 1 and change the face of warfare. Romance is not a major focus. Friendships are more the name of the game, though there will be some characters in romantic relationships. There is exploration, though not as much of the geographical nature as you might expect. It is more about exploration of the system and the culture. The pace is slow and detailed, sometimes verging on slice-of-life. The action is meant to be realistic and grounded in the numbers, and it is intended to have meaning beyond simply punching things until they stop moving. The general tone of the story is grey, and some parts can get quite dark. People die. Sometimes, people with names, but not anywhere near GoT level. There is plenty of light, too, though, to balance the darkness. The world is dangerous, but overcoming that danger is why we’re all here, isn’t it? Anyway, if you’ve made it this far through the summary, you clearly like words. I hope you enjoy the story! Cover by Miha Brumec Summary Updated: 2020-06-14
8 822a new world to call home, as sloths representative
"So I get 2 freebies and a curse," "Yup." "What's the world like? The one you'll be sending me to?" "So you know overlord?" "Shit." "Yeah, way harder." a girl chosen by the sin of sloth gets transported in the middle of a forest swarming with dangerous monsters. For a bet waged by the physical manifestation of the seven sins. After bearly surviving a month in the forest, she tries to find a place for herself in this mysterious world.
8 109The Isekai
This is the story of a boy that suffered a lot in his other life, he got bullied at the highschool and his father always beat him up, cut him making him suffer, and one day he died because his father killed him. After being killed he found himself reincarnated as a baby in another world with a special mission to do. Do you think that it can get any crazier than that? Wait and see. Hello, this is the first novel that I have written. I hope you enjoy it. A friend recommended me to write this because he said that it was a good idea. Let me know how I am doing if you can. The story won't bore you. The story is: Adventure, drama, fantasy LitRpg and romance. Cover made by Harumy-kyun Deviantart. Remmember this isn't real.
8 186The Kind Prince Who Became An Evil Lord of Darkness
In 17th century France, the rich nobles control the world with a magic system called "Artifacts". Prince an innocent hearted prince of the Bourbon Kingdom, one day has his life thrown into chaos by betrayal, and inherits an "Artifact" that is the ancient spirit of "The Dark King". Through misfortune after misfortune, Prince eventually loses everything and starts his life over without a royal name. Prince vows to make his way back to the top hiding amongst the everyday people of France. Prince is a Japanese style light novel based on Machiavelli’s classic "The Prince". Although this work takes influence from it, the story, quotes, and characters are all completely original. It is mostly the concept of good and evil that is borrowed from Machiavelli.
8 254Beast Dao Cultivator
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the world was at the peak of its era in the pursuit of power and knowledge. People ascended to the heavens and returned, walking amongst mortals. Great Buddhists, Evil Demons, Heavenly Celestials, Unfathomable Sages, Riders of Grand Majestic Beasts, Beloved Beings of Nature. Countless kinds of beings rose and fell. Countless kinds of method to ascend were known but a sudden change in the world changed that. Pandemonium spread throughout the world and countless grand races and even grander sects and organizations fell. The huge surge had come to an end as each race went to one place or another to hide, higher beings ran to the higher realms to hide from the destruction of the lower realm. Countless deaths in all races happened and many are said to have been pushed to extinction. Today, the world has regressed to what can be called a mediocre shadow of what was once a massive power that ruled the world. The races have each slowly crawled out of their holes and slowly spread their numbers once more, rediscovering what was once lost. New sects were born, clans spread, nations rise and war once more appeared. Still the catastrophe had not only drastically changed the world but the energy of nature. Where once all kinds of power filled the air all over the massive planet no longer did this power appear. Instead the grand energies seemed as if something had snuffed a huge amount of it, now the areas were each energy appeared each possessed different kinds of energy. One region could simply have Qi, another could have Qi where each area within a region had specific element to it, there was mana which permeated the air in other regions, Spiritual force in others, infernal energy in another and so each massive region slowly claimed their own resource and their growth slowly diverted only towards these energies. Only there was one type of being that could survive and grow in each and every kind. The most mysterious which were all called Riders. Beings who were one with their mounts born for each other and cultivated together.
8 95No Turning Back (A HTTYD Fanfiction)
Banished from Berk for befriending a Night Fury, Hiccup and Toothless leaves Berk and they are never to return. They find civilisation on another village where dragons live amongst humans known as the Island of Edon.Two years later, Hiccup and Toothless grows accustomed to their new life and explores new lands they'd never come across before. When word spread about his good deeds, Hiccup is on the run when dragon hunters wants him and Toothless.A traitor is in the midst who plans to harm those who Hiccup cared about. Secrets about the island of Edon is revealed, including the truth of the Night Furies.Date created: November 2016
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