A New Light (The Astral Wanderer Book 1) by D'Artagnan Rey (mystery books to read TXT) 📕

He was given a quick demonstration of how futile joining this fight would be. As the man hurled one of the axes at the terror, he leapt upward as high as he could to try to sink the other blade into its head. The monster merely growled as the thrown weapon struck its chest and sank home, but no blood followed. It seemed indifferent to both the blade and the injury and simply ignored them as it extended a long limb and snatched Zeke before he could land.

The beast’s hand almost encircled the carrier’s entire torso. He still attempted to attack the monster’s head but it responded by headbutting the ax as it descended and shattered the blade. The man cried out in pain his captor squeezed relentlessly, and his metal chest plate bent under the strain.

Zeke was thrown onto the forest floor and blood spurted from his mouth as the monster raised a leg. Devol wanted to rush forward to try to distract it, but before he could move more than a step, the creature stamped its foot down. Bones crushed and broke and after another burst of blood, the man was no more.

“We should have taken his advice,” Jazai stated and his voice cracked slightly. “We need to go!”

“But…” Asla began and her slight frame trembled. “Can we even outrun it?”

Both boys felt a new twinge of fear. She was the fastest among the three and had the best instincts for battle and reading an opponent. If she doubted they could flee, it was almost assured that they could not.

Devol drew his sword and held it out in front of him. “Even if we could, we would simply lead it to the village or get lost deeper in the forest,” he surmised. “I don’t want my last actions to be flight, especially if it is pointless.”

Although his teammates did not completely snap out of their shock, his words did reach them. Jazai held his tome up as Asla hunkered in a battle-ready stance. Both would fight alongside him for however long they could last.

The monster looked at them after it ground its foot into Zeke’s corpse again. It stepped forward and the young swordsman noticed how little its body moved—like it was not even breathing. Furiously, it pounded its chest before it crouched and prepared to attack them. They waited anxiously but instead, it slumped and uttered a gurgling noise. The three were confused but none let their guard down. About a dozen shapes glowed purple around its neck—no doubt runes of some kind.

“Now, now, let’s not get too hasty,” a familiar voice sang. The group spun toward the trees from which two figures emerged, one with snowy white shaved hair, a long dark coat, and red-lensed glasses. The other was very familiar.

“You!” Devol shouted and pointed to the second figure. “You’re the man from the alley—Koli!”

“I’m so glad you remembered,” the newcomer said with a smile and a bow. “I suppose it has only been a short time since then but I would be more saddened if you had forgotten so soon.”

“So that’s the kid you ran into?” the other man asked. “They are simply a group of brats, huh? But they all got majestics.” He smiled, slid his hand into the left sleeve of his jacket, and removed a wand made of dark-black wood that coiled around a red jewel at the top. “This could be a very productive day.”

“Calm yourself, Salvo,” Koli ordered and frowned at his partner. “We are here to test the ghoul, not indulge ourselves.”

“I think we’ve already seen what it can do.” His partner chuckled and pointed at Zeke’s corpse with his wand. “I don’t know if he was a great Magi or fighter or anything, but he was a member of the Britana Hunter’s Guild and the big guy killed him in minutes without a scratch.”

The violet-hair man sighed and pointed at the monster’s chest, where Zeke’s other ax was still implanted. “I would say that qualifies as more than a scratch.”

“Oh, yeah.” Salvo sighed. “Ah well, still no harm done. Why do you need to dodge when you can shrug a beating off, right?”

Koli frowned at his partner before he rolled his eyes. “That’s one way of looking at it, I suppose.” He focused on the three friends. “Now on to you as you can see we’ve called our little pet off.” He gestured toward the monster. “But that can change in an instant if we would like it to. While I can’t speak for my partner, I would rather spare you today.”

“Do what?” Jazai questioned.

“Yeah, Koli,” Salvo stated irritably. “We should take their majestics. Why do you want to leave them be?”

The man scanned the three and tapped a finger on his chin before he focused on Devol and licked his lips. “They have potential but they aren’t quite ripe yet.”

They were somewhat unnerved by Koli’s longing, devious stare, and his partner shook his head. “That junk again? How many times has that paid off? How many good fights have you had by letting someone live to come back for you?”

“Exactly twice out of roughly fifty-seven times,” the violet-haired man responded and his smile widened. “And both those times—even a single fight, to be honest—makes the possibility worth it.”

Salvo twirled his wand in his hand. “Damn, you are freaky, but whatever. We still need that box.”

“Quite right.” Koli nodded and ran one hand through his violet hair as he pointed at the box now attached to Devol’s belt. “My young friend, I’ll be happy to let you and your teammates leave here unscathed if you simply hand the box over with the contents inside.” He shifted his hand to indicate the monster. “Otherwise…” He flipped his hand and pressed his middle finger and thumb against one another. “Well, I think you can guess that much.”

“Take the box and run,” the young swordsman instructed his