Framework of the Frontier by Sain Artwell (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📕

Rajza cursed as he submerged his hand into the lake. “Gods. I need a glove for this.”

“Get it now, cover up the eye,” Ember instructed from the bushes.

William looked warily at the lake. “Any sign of the siren?”

“Nu-uh. Not yet.”

Reassured, William knelt at the shore and reached into the water to luck some leaves to cover the eye with. When he was up to his shoulder in the cool pool, he noticed something — a long shadow distorted by the waves. It swam towards him, and swam fast.

“William! Watch out!” Ember’s arrow flew past William’s shoulder and into the water, but it missed the creature.

“I see it. It’s here. Get ready everyone!” William stood and pulled out his hammer as it shot out from underwater.

A blanket of unbroken water coated the surface of a pale slender humanoid of vaguely feminine shape, though water made it hard to see. Faintly illuminated spring-green lines covered her body in symmetric swirls beginning from the bright green eyes.

“Careful, she’s magic—”

A dull thud cut off Ember’s warning. Her eyes glazed over as she collapsed on the ground. Dread spidered up William’s spine.

The siren dipped beneath water again before jumping out onto the surface some distance from William. Water fell off of her sleek glistening skin as fins and flaps collapsed, withdrawing into her body. She held her head high and regarded them with a haughty frown as her eyes focused on Rajza, who charged at her with a sword.

William launched into a charge, snapping an irritated command at the woods. “Nevija, Raia! Come out and help!”

He repeated blessings of will, fortitude, and strength. Four left.

Rajza ducked his head in a sudden jerk. “It’s a mind blaster! Don’t let it get a lock-on—”

The miarii ragdolled on the shore, rolling down to the siren’s webbed toes. She wrinkled her nose, taking a step back before turning her wide eyes to William. A droning sound began to grow in his head, quickly intensifying, overwhelming everything else, but before it could William dropped down, ducking as Rajza had.

The sound cut off.

William swung at her head.

Her eyes darted to the hammerhead. Where it should’ve hit her, the steel instead met a pearlescent shimmering harder than even the golem — some kind of invisible wall. She looked at him.

Fuck.

William jerked his head away to escape the droning sound, rolling behind a fallen pillar. “It would be a good time to show up now Nevija!”

No answer, not from the kitties. An eerily lyrical voice of a woman spoke. “They are wise to flee. I would be much obliged if you peasant rabble would allow me to be. Begone now and I may allow you to do so with your lives.”

“They’re alive?” William spun out from under the pillar, circling the siren with hammer in hand, waiting for the droning sound. He felt the blessings flicker out, but didn’t dare to re-do them yet.

The woman regarded William with regal annoyance matching her tone. Only now did he realize that she was nude. Those glowing patterns of green had faded from her ivory white skin. It glistened, as if an oil coated her from her small perky breasts to the narrow waist and down to her womanly hips and shapely legs. A thick three foot tail drooped behind her rear and through her hair stood wide open frilled gills, which matched the red of her nipples and smooth hairless sex. Wet short hair partially concealed thin eyebrows that seemed to have been born in a sharp ‘I don’t approve of you’-angle. She was, in many ways, an absolute beauty.

Shame you gotta go down.

“They live, for now. Discard your possessions and prostrate yourself before me and you may be allowed to depart safely with them.” She tracked his movements, staying on her tiptoes. “Consider the offer carefully, surfacer.”

“Oh, I do consider it.” William swallowed.

Whenever she used her droning mind blast thingy or telekinesis to stop the hammer, it was with her eyes focusing on the target. Her power seemed to have a visual limitation. She was focusing on Rajza before attacking William. So the limit is one target at a time?

She crossed her arms. “I see you have finished considering. You may begin with the appropriate surrendering rituals now.”

He threw the hammer at her.

As expected, her eyes focused on it and the throw was blocked, but it left an opening. William tackled her on the rocks and rushed to recite the blessings of strength and will.

Slippery as she was, covered in some kind of oily mucus, her attempts to wrestle were weak. William pinned her face to the ground. Sharp fins flared out all over her body as she screeched, scratching, but causing no real pain. Snarling, she revealed sharp teeth as her gaze focused on him in another mental attack.

This time, he didn’t hear the droning.

Things simply slowed down and made less sense. The feeling of her skin and air and stone blurred with smells and smells of her and the lake and earth and those smells mixed with the blib-blub of water and the yips of monkeys. William began to taste adrenaline on his tongue and feel sweat pounding through his veins. Thoughts became harder to separate from action, and William could not understand why he was holding down a beautiful woman. Why was he fighting at all or in a fantasy world to begin with? He wasn’t—

Before the delirium could set in William pressed a hand over the girl’s eyes. His brain snapped out of it.

She made a strange undulating hiss, attempting to claw and bite at him.

William pressed her wrists against the ground and put his weight on her torso, keeping a hand on her eyes. “Can’t use your powers without seeing me, huh.”

“Insolent surface peasant, you will not have the advantage over me so easily!”