《Briarsworn [Ancient World LitRPG]》5. The Blessing (2)
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This time Eliphaz headed in the opposite direction, out into the lower desert towards the Sea of Salt. It was a journey he remembered from childhood, evoking memories of his father and his caravan bringing game and hides to the Egyptian fortresses that lined the mountains. The strong sulfuric smell of the sea breeze had shocked him then; it was so different from the dusty mountains of Canaan or the damp groves nestled within. Now, Eliphaz’s only thought was to simply return to that strange place, and hoping perhaps that the acrid air of the dead waters would jolt him from his shameful stupor.
Other than this vague and somewhat wishful idea, Eliphaz had little forethought on his second journey. At most he guessed that he would be away for a few days, living off of the supplies he had taken from Jakob. To disappear was never his intention, but that was of course before the fateful events of the day transpired.
The heat of midday was slowly rising, and the tides of the sea were still far off, hidden behind dunes and craggy mountains that emerged gradually out of the sands. The sun played with his perception, small mirages of shadows gathering in the corners of the horizon.
Eliphaz had been lost in thought, which is why the raiders surprised him easily. With no warning, a hooked rope shot out from behind the dunes, wrapping its way around his waist. The rope grew taut, and Eliphaz felt his ribs constrict under the pressure before he was torn off his animal, falling in an unceremonious heap on the ground.
Eliphaz staggered but tried to get up, only for another tug at the rope bringing him back to his knees. His camel, distressed by the sudden action, brayed and bolted only to meet a net of tarred rope, thrown as his attackers were revealed.
They were bandits, covered in loose fitting clothes, their heads wrapped in scarves that covered their faces. The cloth they wore was the same color as the sand, a tanned brown that blended almost perfectly with the dunes, were it not for the dark ripples of shadow. The two in front of him bore thin and curved scimitars, but Eliphaz knew there was at least one more, still hidden at the other end of the grappling hook.
In the fray, his sword had been loosened, and it now lay in the sand, glinting and partially unsheathed from its pouch. Eliphaz reached for it, fighting against the rope which pulled him back. His feet dug into the sand, but the earth gave way and he fell forward, swallowing a mouthful of grit. Yet, he fell with his hand outstretched, and with his fingertips he felt the soft wood of a hilt—The Sword of Lamech. In one desperate motion, he turned onto his back and began to hack recklessly at the rope.
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In seconds the line was cut, and Eliphaz jumped to his feet, scanning his surroundings. The two attackers in front of him were still busy with his camel, trying to tie its limbs as it panicked under the net. That left the one behind him, who had abandoned his rope and now emerged from the dunes, brandishing a curved blade.
The man shouted something, but Eliphaz could not make it out. These men had attacked him in the middle of the desert and would surely kill him. His mind burned with adrenaline, following every motion of the cloaked bandit as he stepped over his now-useless rope. This was his chance.
Eliphaz screamed as he launched himself forward. The man parried his blow, but stepped back in surprise at the vicious rage of the boy.
Eliphaz was stronger than he looked. He had little experience with combat, outside of the training he had completed as a watchman of his tribe’s flocks. But he had collected an impressive amount of experience points as a hunter, following his father as they fought lions and boars and pursued wild beasts. At seventeen he was already level 10, and he was now determined to let every point of Stamina and Strength count.
Time was of essence, for Eliphaz knew the others would turn towards him as soon as the animal was secured, so he fought with little regard for his own safety. A blow to the man’s torso revealed that his body was protected by leather armor, and in return Eliphaz received a slash across his right shoulder and chest, avoiding a more serious injury by a couple of steps.
His Stamina was quickly depleting, and his strength was no match for his foe—there had to be another way. Eliphaz pushed forward with another perilous attack, and the man stepped back, placing his foot within one of the coils of slackened rope.
Eliphaz seized on the opportunity. He leapt towards the rope and pulled, watching as it wrapped around the leg of his adversary. The man let out a yelp of surprise before he tumbled to the ground, dropping his sword. Unlike the night before with Jakob, Eliphaz did not hesitate. He would make quick work of him, a blade through the throat—
The desert man raised his hand, calling forth some invisible spirit that rippled through the air with electric energy. Without warning, sand flew up from underneath the man, gales of dust assaulting Eliphaz. The dust dug into his eyes, blinding him as he brought the Sword of Lamech upon the man’s neck.
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It missed. The man screamed in pain as Eliphaz’s sword lodged into his shoulder, but the wound was non-fatal. He retaliated, having reached for his sword, and struck at Eliphaz’s side. The boy staggered back, in shock as the force reverberated in his ribs, clutching the bloody wound.
He was upon him now, Eliphaz’s sword still firmly wedged in his shoulder. Eliphaz could only make out his eyes, which were black with fury, his teeth likely clenched in pain. The next thing Eliphaz felt was a blunt force to the side of his head, the man striking him with the hilt of his sword. As he fell to the ground. Eliphaz’s mind seemed to split into pieces, the figure of his attacker duplicating—two shadows of darkness standing before the flaming heat of the desert sun.
—
Eliphaz lay there, staring up into the sun. His pulse reverberated in his eardrums, and he felt himself cough, his throat parched and thick with either phlegm or blood. He tried to roll over in order to expel the fluid, but moving only worsened the pain, so he remained on his back in the bloodied sand.
Slowly the shock of adrenaline left his mind, and Eliphaz began to hear more clearly. His captors were talking about him, speaking in a thick tongue that he could just barely make out.
“—and that filthy habiru almost had me, were it not for the blessings of Kemosh, may we thank him.”
Kemosh, patron god of sand dwellers, more devil than deity. Eliphaz deduced his attackers were most likely from Moab, the brutal kingdom that lay beyond the Sea of Salt.
“Yes, yes...alright. The boy’s goods certainly made this worth it. But what shall we do with him? His wealth points to a powerful family, and powerful gods. Can we risk bloodying our blades?”
The Moabite whom Eliphaz had nearly killed walked over. His face was uncovered now, revealing a craggy beard beneath a sneering face. He spit at the boy.
“This runt? Nothing but a spoiled child, the experience points are not worth the hassle.”
The man winced, gripping his shoulder where Eliphaz’s sword had struck. Farther off an older man, likely the leader of the bandits, nodded.
“Very well. Bind his hands and feet, and staunch his wounds. When we reach Urusalim we can sell him as a slave, and find a master who can beat some obedience into him.”
—
And so Eliphaz was bound and thrown onto the back of the Moabite’s dromedary, and given some precious drops from a waterskin before his mouth was gagged. Not that Eliphaz had considered screaming for help. The time for saving himself had passed, and Eliphaz resigned himself to his fate.
He thought that perhaps this was divine retribution, that Elohim had punished him for failing to fight for his birthright, for abandoning his father’s shameful state because he could not face his own failures. Was this perhaps a proper punishment for his cowardice? That this pointless journey, which should only have lasted a few days, would go so awry. Now he was being taken to a distant city as a slave, where his fate would be handled by the whims of the market. For all Eliphaz knew, he may be sent to the quarries of Egypt or the fields of Babylon, never to see his father and mother ever again.
Yet to think of this as divine punishment only covered up a more frightening thought. For what if no god watched over him at all? For sparing Jakob he faced neither wrath nor blessing. Instead he became an unchosen, of no concern to Elohim’s divine plan. Eliphaz feared this to be true, but dared not think it: his god had abandoned him, and so his capture by the Moabites served no purpose. His life was a speck of dust, blown into misfortune by the chance of fate. To pull any other meaning from his circumstances was pointless.
These were Eliphaz’s thoughts as he was carried through the desert, as he tried to retain some semblance of hope in the face of despair. Eventually, his mind gave way to sleep as the moon rose over the desert, bathing the dunes in bluish light that transfigured it into a frozen ocean.
It was only a half-sleep; Eliphaz continued to feel the rocking of the camel, moonlight penetrating his half lidded eyes as he felt the touch of a cool desert breeze.
There was a rustling sound. The brush of a thousand tiny fingers that lifted him into the air until he felt weightless. As he slept, Eliphaz felt himself float off the back of the camel and into the dunes, covered in sand as he was swept over by a tangle of green tendrils.
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Rough Draft for: Reborn Apocalypse - Volume 3
Volume 1. Volume 2. Stopping disasters before they happen, battling against enemies on all sides, saving the lives of millions. The burdens Micheal must bear grow ever heavier as he fights against all odds to complete his mission:Stop the Apocalypse and save the human race from ultimate destruction.
8 149The Ingress Estate
Jonathon Eucole. Soldier. Scholar. Now an Initiate, the dedication without dedication, he finds himself both prisoner and master of an arcane edifice, the Ingress Estate, which can neither be escaped, nor controlled; only diverted, maintained, and pacified. This is a gothic fantasy story, set in a world in which gods and the afterlife are not only real and known, but were both established in living memory of some of the inhabitants after millennia of arcane warfare with the being who constructed the mundane reality the humans occupy. But this isn't the story of those who colonized the afterlife at the cost of their own humanity, but a somewhat more ordinary man, in somewhat extraordinary circumstances. This is also a LitRPG-lite, which means there's a system of sorts, fragments of which can be observed through Jonathon's eyes. Don't expect level-up screens, or statistics, or indeed numbers much at all, beyond those the inhabitants of the world itself apply to understanding their own reality. It pretty much doesn't matter to the story, I mention it so those who don't want to read LitRPG at all can successfully avoid it here. I don't have any particular plan here, just some ideas inherent in the genre. This is a character concept I toyed with some years ago; an old man, bright of mind but weighed down into apathy, both by his past and his responsibilities for a terrible estate that cannot be left without stewardship. Don't expect any kind of overarching plot or story, because that's really not what this is about. Also don't expect much dialogue. Or character development. Or much of anything, really, because I've planned nothing in the way of an actual book, here. Other relevant information, if you've read this far for some reason: The MC isn't super-powerful to begin with, and probably never will be. He's a veteran with some useful skills, and the insight on how to use them, so can deal with the world's ordinary threats reasonably well, but not too much beyond that. --- Currently on hiatus, as currently the story has a rather poor ratio of effort-to-personal-payoff. I may return to this once I have a clear idea of how to get the stories where I want them. I've started a more standard LitRPG using the same system. But if you like intelligence characters who cleverly min-max their classes, it probably isn't the story for you; it's the story of a rather ordinary guy who winds up in a very similar universe.
8 132Systrem Amusments
For as long as history has been recorded, the scrolls have held power over all life on the continent. When a blight was forthcoming, the scrolls foretold it. When dangerous beasts reared their faces in civilised society, the scrolls chose the bravest and brightest to defend our way of life. It is only fair, then, that the scrolls would guide our brave adventurers through every step they should take upon \The Path/. Take heart, you intrepid four, for your scroll within your grasp connects you to the will of the world itself. Follow where it leads, and you will find your path to greatness. -Prefect Chelbun; The Initiated's Guide to Adventure Solomon always took the words of his scroll to heart. Where the scroll led, he would have his team follow. Any doubts his team may have were always dashed away by the words scrawled upon that ethereal parchment. Were that ever to fail, swift dicipline would bring his team in line. When the scroll told him to take his first retirement early, he was more than willing to return home and spend the next five years in comfort. It's such a shame, then, that Solomon's team had other plans for him. Clive was never was a fan of the rules, but he still played his part. Despite this, every moment was spent seeing how far he could strech things before he was broken back into line. Now that he was 'retired', however, he had much more room to stretch himself. Now he's got a plan, one that might just make the rules bend his way, for once. Meanwhile, some intrepid new adventurers are ready to make a name for themselves. Fresh off their initiation, they've already received their first quest, their first tale to tell around the hearth. Chances are good, however, that this story is beyond anything they were expecting. On a journey through uncharted territory, laberinthine cities, and conspiracies older than time itself, only one thing is certain. Whatever comes their way, it's sure to be an amusing tale. [Participant in the Royal Road writathon challenge]
8 137Patchwork System
Notification (cannot be ignored): For being the first being to kill another of its own species after Sublimation, Lyam Aldren is awarded the Title of Cain’s Successor. Let all fear the Kinslayer!!! Lyam Aldren, killer for hire, was just going about his business when he suddenly received a notification from something called the System. Apparently, the entirety of Earth, its denizens and its matter were transported into the world of the System, planted in 'patches' all throughout the infinite world. The world of the Patchwork System is one of challenges, where life is cheap, power is king, and Classes and levels are a thing. In a brutal world, there is perhaps room for a killer with bloodstained hands to find his own way, free of his past. However, his Title and his inherent nature plague him, his fragmented personality laid bare to those with the eyes to see, and if he doesn't become powerful enough to defeat or escape those who would use or destroy him, he will quickly be devoured by the merciless world created by the System. Compared to my previous work, this is a more 'classic' litrpg setup, with clear (if somewhat complex) progression through levels and skill gains, with a 'system apocalypse' setup. Unlike most system apocalypse story protagonists, Lyam is neither a leader nor is he particularly interested in saving his fellow Earthlings. This is a story of a man who is both endangered and set free by the destruction of his old world, as he finds both power, new discoveries, and adventure in a place where his past matters not at all and power is the only language most speak. Later in the story, there will be harem elements, but the first volume is dedicated to Lyam's first months in the System. For those who are more interested in the Heirs of the Hooded King, I am putting it on hiatus as I rework the setting and future story developments a bit.
8 171A Witch Thing | Jasper Hale x Reader
What if witches existed and no one even knew? And what if a witch finds her One, who just so happens to be one of nature's biggest regrets?This is the first installment of my series, A Witch Thing. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it!
8 183One Day [Myanmar Translation]
Original Author - PenThis webtoon is belonging to original Author.
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