Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

The lion gave a hearty laugh. “I thought you didn’t fear me.” He stood straighter and threw off his brown robe, revealing his muscle-bound, athletic build—no shirt, but pants that reminded Jaxx of a Lanna: Thai fishermen pants, wide and loose, wrapped at the waist by a silver rope.

The lion had black chains crisscrossing his chest, knives sheathed and dangling from the chains. Bulbous, rounded glass bottles filled with a red liquid were attached to the rope around his pants, with guns slung low around his hips.

The lion threw his bamboo weapon into the air. It spun several times until he caught it and aimed toward the sky. “I never thought I’d have to come to fighting again, Jaxx. You brought us war.” He glared at Jaxx, then back up at oncoming combat-mechs descending from the sky like star crafts. “We were a peaceful lot until you showed up and opened the pyramid network. But peace on our planet? Not anymore. Not for a while.”

The lion turned, thrusting his giant weapon upward then pulled the trigger with his claw. A bright burst of purple plasma exploded from the weapon’s barrel just as a flying combat-mech came into view. The plasma bolt slammed against the mech’s hip. Shards of armor splayed outward, twisting the combat-mech around, changing its trajectory.

The lion roared. “Run!”

Whooooj! Whooooj! Whooooj!

More purple bursts shot from several different positions inside the wheat field, cracking against combat-mechs, lighting them up, but doing very little damage.

Jaxx spun on his heels, pushing at stalks, bending and breaking them to make a path as he raced away from the lion. He zig-zagged, avoiding falling debris, crashing through the grain. There was no end, no way out. Did this field go on forever?

A furry arm, yellowish-gold in color, jutted out from the stalks, close-lining him and lifting him off his feet. He came down hard, knocking the wind out of him, grain from the stalks spilling down on him like snow.

A lioness loomed. She smiled, her sharp teeth shining, her purple eyes glowing. “I hear you’re Jaxx?” She held her hand out to help Jaxx up. Her muscles were toned, though she was a few feet shorter than the other beast he’d just met. She had on the same pants and chains crisscrossed over her tan shirt. She held a bamboo rifle in her other hand.

Jaxx extended his hand, doing his best to catch his breath, his stomach and ribs tightening around his diaphragm, making it nearly impossible to suck in the planet’s rich oxygen.

He touched the lioness’s paw. It was soft, inviting, reminding him of a comfortable blanket.

She helped him to his feet, then pounded the rifle against his chest, slamming him back on the ground, the back of his head striking hard against the earth. He rubbed his occipital bone and moaned just as thunder blanketed the sky.

A black, diamond-shaped ship with heavy rockets, punched through the blue heaven above.

The lioness’s whiskers twitched. “You’ve brought the Agadon upon us.” She gnarled her face in fury. “You fool.”

She swung her bamboo stick upward, slid her claw into the trigger, and pulled. Blast after purple blast shot toward the diamond ship, evaporating against the ship’s energy shield.

She narrowed her eyes. “They bring black science, blended with Agadon magic. The inhabitants of those ships are as bad as it gets. Those AI breeds should have never been created. One wrong program glitch in their mainframe systems and these nasty Beings turned on the entire galaxy.”

Jaxx attempted to get up but was met with the lioness’s boot against his stomach, shoving him to the ground. “Stay.” She shot off another round of purple projectiles. “Can you fight?”

Jaxx nodded. “I can.”

“You will.” She unstrapped a gun from her chain and dropped it on the ground.

Jaxx grabbed the gun and she pulled him to his feet. “Follow me, peach-face. We’ve got combat-mechs to pound and an Agadon race to shove off our planet.”

2 J-Quadrant, Solar System - Flood of Dawn, Callisto

Rivkah pinched the ridge of her nose, the knot in her throat growing. She couldn’t stop thinking about Jaxx. Wishing he was here with her. She’d finally be nice. Maybe. But his presence for some odd reason gave her hope. There was something inside of him that exuded light, that gave her confidence, and allowed her to kick butt in whatever she did.

“Get over it, Riv,” she told herself as she swiped her black hair out of her eyes and walked away from a pyramid she dare not look at. It stole Jaxx from her.

She let out a gush of air. “Jaxx, I miss you.” She folded her arms over her stomach, clutching tightly. Callisto’s chill seeped deep into her bones, and each breath clouded in front of her as if she was on a snow-capped mountain in winter, less the snow.

Fox, the wide shouldered nitwit, walked away from her and toward a domed city known as Flood of Dawn. The city was born on the backs of Atlanteans that escaped Earth before the end of the last Ice Age around thirteen-thousand-years ago—before the Ice Age’s fast melt created a flood that took out Altantis and most of the major cities on Earth. A flood that Jaxx told her on countless occasions could be heard in almost all Native American traditions, read in Aztec lore, in the Bible, on the Sumerian tablets, and the list was endless.

The Atlanteans fled Earth in ships with advanced propulsion to a Jupiter moon, Callisto, where they figured their culture could forever live in peace. They figured wrong.

“Hey, Fox,” she yelled.

Fox stopped and turned, his square jaw and unshaven face curling into a scowl. He went to speak when the ground shook, and his feet and legs jostled back and forth. Mouth open, he looked down until a heavier quake made he and Rivkah lose their balance. They both met with the cold, hard ground.

“What the hell?” On her side, Rivkah twisted around and