《Uprising - the half fiends story》Chapter 19
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Mekior paced slowly through the city. His mind wandered, dwelling on Gyv, her disappointment that they had no children, the fights and arguments growing ever worse, and then her leaving to go to another city to start anew. How do I explain it to her? Can I reveal myself to her; let her know who I really am? He walked on automatic, senses seeking out the wrong, the tainted. In the five years since the refugees had arrived from weald Hall, the city of Harmony Lake had grown. The refugees quickly established themselves, gratefully accepting the assistance and rulership of the Dark Paeons. They trusted in Delire, who now sat on the ruling council, an adviser to the Master, and no one doubted the effect she had or the equality shared by all despite the bad reputation of the Dark Paeons..
His circuit took him through the great market; crowds thronging its narrow paths, a multitude of scents rising from those who sold food to those who peddled spices brought in by merchants foolish enough to travel just to earn a quick coin, and then very different scents when one ventured where the beast traders sold their wares. With all the strangers, the market was always an area of concern, an area that could all too easily hide a spy or an informer. Mekior moved through and would have exited in peace if he had not been knocked to his feet by a child darting between his legs, pursued by a man dressed simply in a leather tunic with pants of similar make. As the man passed, Mekior, even caught up in his reverie, felt a wave of nausea and he turned, sprinting after the man and boy.
"Give it back, boy." The man stood over the prostate form of the child, arms reaching out for him, the threat evident in his movements and his tone of voice.
"What has the boy taken from you, friend?" Mekior's voice penetrated the tableau, the man's head jerked around to look at the newcomer, while the boy using the distraction to scramble away, edge around the two men and run down the alleyway, leaving the two alone.
"What do you want from me? Wait, I know you, you don't rule here and I take my orders from another!" The man’s voice was kept soft, he did not want attention now, "That boy stole my seal; if it falls into the wrong hands my cover is blown!"
Mekior laughed at the man, coming forward so he stood before him, but a few feet separating the two.
"I am the wrong hands! I will find the boy after this, but first I will deal with you!" He hefted his sword, stabbing forward suddenly, aiming for the man's stomach.
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Deftly, swiftly, the man twisted, the blade passing harmlessly by. He struck back, claws growing from his hands, his whole body shifting, changing, features mutating into those of a nightmare monster.
"Renegade! I will destroy you. Your type fetches a good reward!" Its claws shot out, striking at the sword, driving it to the ground even as it leaped into the air, legs flashing around to try to rip him with their talons.Now it was Mekior's turn to duck, twist, shift his form into a scaled creature, his arms elongating with razor sharp fins, claws with metallic tips. He moved faster than the eye could follow, his hands shooting out, punching through the fiends chest, ripping out its heart, then its stomach. He stood over the stunned fiend and shifted back to his human form. Mekior knelt down, leaning close to the fiend who, while mortally wounded, remained alive, sustained by another heart that continued to pump within its body.
"Yes, I am a renegade, one of the native born, and I own allegiance to none! I am a creature of this world now. I have lived within these caverns, amongst these humans and their allies for my entire life. You have but seconds to live before I destroy you. You will not live to betray this city or myself." Mekior stood, grabbed his fallen sword, and hacked at the fallen fiend, mutilating it so badly that no evidence remained of the wounds that had led to its death. It was then that he noticed the boy. He must have sneaked back, watched the fight and seen the transformations of both fiends. Mekior walked up to him, hand open and held out.
"Give me what you took from him, boy." He looked down at the boy; saw a scruffy street urchin wearing torn and ragged clothes, a distended stomach visible through a ragged and torn shirt, feet bare on the cold cavern floor.
"Sir, I know you. You are Mekior, the famed fiend hunter! That was amazing! I couldn't believe the fiend's illusion, its ruse to try and make you look like a fiend yourself! I mean if you weren't Mekior, the Fiend Hunter, I would have thought that you might also be a fiend." Awestruck the boy walked forward and gazed at Mekior. "Here, I stole his purse. I know I shouldn't but I'm very hungry!"
Mekior took the purse from the boy's outstretched hand and smiled. Thank the Gods that this one thinks he only saw an illusion. I have become careless, and I have my answer, I cannot reveal myself to Gyv.
"Thank you, boy. Come with me, you will be well rewarded for this. Your actions revealed a traitor and a spy to us!" Mekior opened the purse, the belt pouch heavy in his hands. Inside were two handfuls of gold coins, enough to feed this boy for the next ten years, and a lead seal. Grimly he took the seal and gave the bag to the boy.
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"Did you look within this pouch, boy?" Mekior looked at the boy, trying to judge the truthfulness of his response.
"No, Sir. I know it must have lots of coins inside, it is heavy! I think at least ten copper must lie within!"
Mekior's smile broadened. A simple solution then, this boy will not want to explain to the guard how he got the pouch. "Here, take the purse and its contents as a reward. Come, boy, take your reward and then let us go to the guard. They will want to know everything you saw and heard from this man."
The boy took the purse and his eyes widened as he looked inside and saw the glint of gold. He set off with Mekior, keeping a short distance from him until they entered the marketplace. As they did so, the boy darted off, losing himself in the crowds. Mekior smiled, his secret would remain in place for a while yet. No overly inquisitive guard captain would have a chance to question the boy too closely over what he had seen.
***
Jeria looked around the room. A blazing fire warmed it from a massive hearth, large enough to hold the two carcasses of cave beasts slowly roasting over the flames that filled the room with the aroma of cooking meat. Jeria looked around, but saw no one nearby, the torches that lit as he arrived evidently reacting to his presence. He saw two comfortable, high-backed chairs set in front of the fire and tall glasses with some clear liquid and ice floating within. Little rivulets of moisture slowly ebbed down their sides, the whole scene comfortable and inviting.
"Take a seat, make yourself comfortable." The voice was urbane, cultured, as the speaker stepped into the room from a door concealed behind a hanging tapestry. The speaker was short and looked human. He was wearing an outfit that would be the envy of a merchant prince, fine cotton pants, a silk shirt with a velvet jacket, rich clothing expertly tailored to his figure. Jeria did not trust appearances; the power of the fiend responsible for bringing him to this place was beyond question. This person was at the top of the food chain, a food chain in which personal power meant as much as power mustered from supporters and factions courted.
Jeria walked to one of the seats and sat down, the plush padding melding to his body, gently massaging him. The man sat down next to him, luxuriating in the heat radiating from the fire, sipping from the glass next to his chair. Jeria followed suite, sipping the liquid and finding it to be sweet, pure, cool spring water. They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the ambience and the healthy smell of the roasting meat.
"You must be wondering who I am, what I want with you? The first question is simple; I am Secheriab, fiend of the first tier and aide to the ruler of the eighth circle. My master has sent me here for a very simple reason: to get rid of Kirest and stop the conversion of this world into a mirror of hell." He stopped, aware of the effect of his words on Jeria who sat stunned.
"I am sure you wonder why the Lord of the Eighth would want to stop this invasion. Simple, really, Kirest was one of his Dukes. The power Kirest has accumulated, the powerful fiends he has suborned into his service has caused my master great distress and concern. He does not like this expansion of realms; it brings an imbalance to a system that has been in balance for longer than the human race has existed." He swivelled his chair, looked at Jeria, and continued. "Your role is simple, put us in contact with the resisting cities. They would never accept our overtures openly and you are probably the sole half-fiend trusted enough to even get an audience with the cities' rulers."
Jeria sat still and let the information be absorbed, filter through his preconceptions and ideas about reality. He thought about how easy it would be for the fiends to have killed him, and to have destroyed the group with whom he had been travelling. This room, the power of the fiends within, his hosts comfort with dealing with him while he was still armed, and with no fear for any action he might take, were all indicative of a casual power that the wielder took for granted. He felt drowned, out of his depth, this situation needed those used to dealing with power to deal with it. He looked at Secheriab.
"What do you need me to do?"
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Beyond The Game (Abandoned)
Kaine sighed as his foe advanced once more, never letting up, barely giving him time to breathe. He pressed forward as well, excited and ready, welcoming the bloodshed that was to come. His short blade, meeting the bestial warrior's bone-made longsword. Their weapons clattering sound into each of their ears when they clashed. Kaine pushed, as did his foe, beginning the contest of strength. A dance which Kaine controlled the steps of. As their eyes met, both of them weary, but Kaine's expression was resolved...maddened almost. Whilst his foe's was fear-struck, the creature was terrified down to its core. As were its comrades which surrounded them, watching, waiting for an opening to have at Kaine themselves. Seeing many...but they faltered, as the dead had seen the same openings before. Their battered, broken and still freshly bleeding bodies laying sprawled about their surroundings. It is just one... One of them thought in shaken disbelief. Just...Just one man but he kills so many...smiling even! Glancing from the dead, and back at Kaine as he slew another. No...this is no man... Was its panicked conclusion. This one's a monster! As Kaine turned to face it, weapon ready and grinning widely throughout his approach.
8 168The Marauders
It has been thirty years since the end of the brutal Andromeda War. The Andromeda Republic was barely able to defeat the Zeta Empire, and its remnants retreated into uncharted space. At first, peace has been settled across the galaxy, but over the decades, the Andromeda Republic became more and more paranoid of the Zeta Empire returning. As a result, they slowly became tyrannical and started to use terrorist tactics to maintain control across the Andromeda Galaxy. But little did they know, the Zeta Empire has secretly been preparing and growing stronger to invade the Andromeda Republic ever since their defeat. With the republic going into turmoil, it is now the perfect opportunity for the Zeta Empire to strike. After the Zeta Empire returned from uncharted space on a full-scale assault against the galaxy, the Great Zeta War has started. Two years later, both factions were at a bitter stalemate. But the Andromeda Republic decided to hire a pair of former bounty hunters; a skilled sniper and pilot Bryce Kiness, and Agnar Reise, a heavy weapons specialist, to sneak behind enemy lines to find a way to end the war. Meanwhile, one of Zeta Empire’s flamethrower specialists, Kyle Savo, goes rogue and befriends a teenage prisoner of the empire named Arrua Veronis. After making a daring escape from the Zeta Empire, they come across the two mercenaries and decide to join forces, becoming the galaxy’s most daring group of mercenaries, the Marauders!
8 143The Grey Realm, an Erebus Story.
Written by: Staugroan and The Inklets. Edited by: Claudia Adams. In the beginning there was a god, who watched over and made one world his own. Soon after the god grew restless, but happened to stumble on a small world filled with life. This world was named Erebus by its peoples; humanity. The god was so fascinated with this new world that he started to copy it back home, creating oceans, forests, deserts, and so forth. Then the god created life and eventually his favored creations who would be immortals and be the better of mankind in every way-the elves. So often the god had traveled to Erebus that the two worlds became linked by magic and their inhabitants could cross at will. Relations between the races flourished, and a great empire was born in the Grey Realm, home of the elves. But the god once again grew restless, and set loose great beasts that stood at the top of any food chain, the apex. At first the elves met the challenge and fought them head on. But mankind was not so lucky, they died in droves to push back even a single apex. Something had to be done. Elves and man worked together to begin sealing off the worlds to protect mankind, to limit the ways in and out to better fight the apex off and keep their fellows safe. The ritual had adverse effects the likes of which neither the elves nor man could predict; the sealing of the worlds started slow, but the magic had never been done before, and in their ignorance it spread to completely cut the two worlds off from one another. It ejected the apex, and other magical being back into the Grey Realm, saving Erebus. At first the elves were content, they would find a way back once the apex were dead and gone. But the seal had done more than keep Erebus locked away. The powersource of the seal was magic itself, from both worlds, and it consumed it all greedily. The elves, weakened without their magic, crumbled into ruin, and the apex were free to hunt the other races of the Grey Realm. Two-thousand years later a strange phenomena is occurring and magic is slowly returning to the Grey Realm, and tears open that allow passage to Erebus. Thu'lain and a few elves must make the journey to fallen kingdom of the elves Anosora, in the hopes of reclaiming what was once theirs. They must face their nemesis the apex, and survive not only the species that have turned against them, but a terrible being left behind by the god to kill even the apex. Uch'l'thein, the faceless terror.
8 185Reincarnated as an Aircraft Carrier
Guns, wyverns, and aircraft carriers! Deck maintenance guy is killed in WW3 and reawakens as an aircraft carrier—just in time to serve America once more! The world's mysteries this time includes the origin of demons and woOoo ~spirit ships~ … I have decent worldbuilding skills, I swear! *** I'm not American and I initially started writing this story as a joke. The joke has spiraled too far and I won't stop now. I will make zero effort to do research and all the effort to do decently-paced updates. I'm also posting on ScribbleHub under the same username. Soft CW: Decent amount of swearing, but it's not maliciously aimed.
8 71Bloodthirsty(KNJ)
Book 1 of the Blood Series.A beautiful young detective starts working on a case that will change her life forever.ps: I don't own any of the pictures or BTS members for that matter. BigHit don't sue me I'm broke😭ps(again): I will be editing some of the chapters, just letting you know in case you get confused later when you come back to finish the book. 😉😉
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8 169