Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

feet away now, but he could hardly take another step. Every muscle in his body tried to turn him around to escape the heat.

Suddenly, the fire stopped. There was a loud hiss and a cloud of steam enveloped Uzax. Ben almost collapsed forward with the relief as the heat disappeared. He looked to his right, and saw Lulu, her hands held out, manipulating a stream of water, which she was still pouring onto Uzax’s body.

Ben lunged forward with the null lock in his hand, not wanting to wait to see if Uzax would recover. The Pyromancer was vainly trying to summon another fireball in his hand, but every spark was extinguished by the water.

Imogen ran forward and delivered a kick to Uzax’s stomach, bringing the man to his knees. She whacked him over the head with a gravel ghoul fist, knocking him unconscious. Ben snapped the null lock around his ankle.

Only one mage was left. The nymphs and Melody, and their two monster children, all gathered around.

Ben looked at them. “Lulu, you keep an eye on Uzax, douse him if he moves. Imogen, give me that null lock, I’ll try and disable Adremor.”

Imogen handed Ben the null lock, and they all took up defensive positions.

Ben watched as Sir Gallant the Elder continued to fight Adremor. Sir Gallant’s prowess with the giant blade he wielded was astonishing. He parried both of Adremor’s enchanted blades effortlessly. Ben was grateful they hadn’t faced Sir Gallant as an enemy in the dungeon. A tireless suit of armor with such formidable skill might have been the death of them.

Ben didn’t want to approach Adremor without caution, however. He didn’t know if the Force Wizard had the mental capacity to throw something at his head while still engaged in combat. He wondered if he could get Imogen to hold up a gravel ghoul and shield him.

Just as he was about to ask, however, Adremor slipped up. One of his swings went wide, and Sir Gallant lost no time taking advantage.

The giant longsword swung down clean and true, and sliced off the Force Wizard’s right hand. Adremor cried out, his voice filled with pain and rage as the stump spurted blood.

The knight spun Adremor around, getting him in a chokehold. One plated gauntlet held the Force Wizard’s neck in place, the other held the sword blade to his throat. The knight inclined his head toward Ben, waiting for instructions.

Ben was just about to step forward to cuff the mage with a null lock, when Adremor screamed in rage. “I will not be defeated by an empty suit of armor!”

The Force Wizard’s blue eyes turned yellow, beginning to glow brighter and brighter, until they were like mini suns. The floor of the tower began to shake, and burnt furniture and smashed dishes rattled.

With Adremor’s waves of magic rolling off him, Ben could not draw near enough to place a null lock around the Force Wizard’s ankle. With that option now impossible, there was no way to prevent Adremor’s magic or disable him.

“It’s a death curse!” Melody cried out. “If Adremor finishes casting it, the whole tower will come down!”

Ben looked around him to see what he could do. He couldn’t use Drain on Adremor while his magic was blocking the spell. He could use Drain on Uzax, however.

He took a step back on the trembling floor and held out his hands toward the unconscious Pyromancer, draining his magical power. The energy flooded into his body, filling him with power until it felt like he could take no more.

“Ben, you can’t do that,” Melody called to him. “Taking that much power at once will kill you.”

“I have no choice,” he yelled back. “It’s him or us. All of you have to get out of here now.”

He kept draining Uzax’s energy. His vision started to darken, and his body heated up. At last, a message appeared in his vision.

You have acquired a new spell: Fireball

Ben glanced to the side and saw the women all still rooted to the spot, watching him and watching Adremor, as they both began to glow like nuclear bombs.

“Sir Gallant the Younger,” Ben yelled at the ceiling. “Get them out of here. Take Uzax and Lexi too. This place is going to turn into an oven.”

A couple of gravel ghouls emerged from the floor. Ben didn’t know how Sir Gallant the Younger still had the mana to summon the ghouls, but he was too grateful to ask questions just now. The ghouls picked up the prone mages, then moved toward Melody and the nymphs and forcefully escorted them to the dining hall doors. The women screamed and sobbed as they were driven out, but Ben had no choice. The doors opened, and the stone giants shooed everyone out, before the doors closed again behind them. There was the sound of the door locks clicking as Sir Gallant the Younger sealed off the dining hall.

Ben turned to Adremor again, wondering how he could destroy the mage without harming Sir Gallant the Elder. This mage was clearly evil and needed to die, but he didn’t want to sacrifice his most loyal servant in the process.

Adremor flexed his arms, and energy burst from his torso, sending a force wave across the room. Ben was nearly knocked on his back. Sir Gallant the Elder was smashed to pieces. Armor went flying in all directions.

“No!” Sir Gallant the Younger’s voice sobbed through the intercom.

“Prepare to die, traitor,” Adremor growled.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Ben growled back. “Now there’s nothing stopping me from incinerating you.”

Ben poured all his energy into his outstretched hands and activated the Fireball spell. He poured every drop of mana he could muster into the spell and unleashed the fire in a gigantic blaze.

Fire flared out from his body in all directions, boiling and seething, like an exploding star. The spell blinded Ben, filling the room with the light of a star for a fraction of a second.

He heard the hiss of burning flesh and the crackle