War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

The creature howled in pain and crashed into the stone seating. The stadium wall crumbled under its massive weight and the force of the impact. Blood was dripping down from the wound and when the creature opened its central eye again, it was bloodshot. Kyle hoped that meant he had caused internal bleeding.

Its maw opened, and it cried out, “None shall stop us. My kin will claim what is ours again.”

Kyle didn’t answer but simply stood there, legs spread, and his weapon held at the ready. Behind him he heard Marie say, “Let me handle this. I hadn’t wanted to use this, but I will.”

She held up her arm that had a silver armor piece just above the elbow. The metal slid down to her wrist and a bright red ray blasted out of it like some high-tech laser which cut through the thick carapace of the Aekor. Green blood and viscera poured out of the six-foot-long cut that opened up one side of its body.

Marie panted in obvious exhaustion. “I can only do that once or twice more. Hopefully, it is enough.”

Kyle saw the Aekor struggling back to its feet and didn’t know if it would be enough. But that was answered as its giant eye blinked and a pulse of what he could only describe as grayness settled over everything. It was like all color, sound, smell, and taste had been drained out of the world for three hundred feet in every direction of the monster.

Marie shrieked in frustration, while holding the weapon up again. Kyle looked at her and yelled, “Shoot it again. It’s getting back up.”

“I’m trying, but I can’t seem to touch my essence. The armguard, my whip, breastplate, none of them will work if I don’t have essence,” she replied.

Kyle searched inside himself. It felt different that was for sure, but he could still feel the War Essence coursing through his body. But then he realized that he couldn’t feel any Earth Essence. Whatever the Aekor did cut him off from the one but not from War Essence.

“Servant of the usurpers. I can feel their taint upon you. But you shall not prevail. I am but the first drawn to this spot by the gathering of corrupt energy here,” the Aekor bellowed.

“Stay back,” Kyle said as he charged again. He rushed in and triggered Rage Burst again. It sliced into the creature’s legs but didn’t cut all the way through the chitinous armor. So, he triggered it again and again in two more waves until it cut right through the foremost leg of the Aekor.

Its heavy orb of a body fell to the sand of the arena with two legs struggling to keep some type of balance. Kyle then flung his weapon spinning end over end until it sunk deep into the massive central eye. The creatures scream at that point was greater than anything it had made yet. But all around, the gray aura began to flicker and fade.

The tentacles atop its head all blasted at Kyle and Marie. Each was struck by multiple blasts. He didn’t know what happened to Lash but he felt deathly energy stealing the life from his body while another ray paralyzed him and a third sucked the very air out of his lungs. Blackness threatened to claim his vision, but he gathered the raw essence within him and as he drifted on the edge of consciousness called out, “Hilde.”

Interlude 1 - When Exes Meet

Kyle passed into unconsciousness and so didn’t get to see the plume of flame that erupted in the air fifty feet over his head. It shot so far up into the sky that it was visible from the city walls of Thena more than a mile away. In the air, Hilde appeared, not as a disembodied spirit in the mantle, but in the flesh, called forth by the will and power of her master.

As Hilde erupted into the sky of Verden, she reviewed the situation instantly with the skill of a seasoned tactician. The weakened enemy was identified. The potential traitor getting back up to attack again. At least it could be said about the woman that she didn’t quit. She was a hardened warrior. Of course, what else could be expected of anyone that her master had chosen and trained?

Then her eyes settled onto Krig—no, that wasn’t accurate. It wasn’t the same Krig. He had never made her feel like this one did. Kyle was something new and something old, incredibly old, all wrapped up into one. His construct was unmoving on the sand, but he was filled with essence and the stream of essence that was keeping her in this realm extended from him like a slender cord of raw energy, invisible to any but truly skilled third tier beings.

It didn’t matter that he was still alive. The fact that this monster had dared to attack him was enough to make her already fiery nature quicken even more. She held out a hand and blasted flame into the great gash that had been opened up by the magical item Krig had gifted to Marie several decades ago.

The Aekor screeched in pain and called out to her. But she had no ears for it. She didn’t know what kind of beast this was, but from inside the mantle she had sensed some of the hatred that her master had for this creature. It wasn’t a fiend, so not her enemy on sight, but she also couldn’t identify it as any natural creature. She knew a little of the glytharen, but not much.

It pleaded for mercy from her as she burnt it from the inside. It offered her power and freedom, but for the first time in her century of service, the war god’s yoke was not heavy. She wanted to serve him and hoped against hope that he would prove to be all that he claimed to be. So instead of mercy, she offered more flame.

Flame cleansed everything.

A great gout