I can no longer make out my surroundings as everything around me is bathed in light.
Something grabs me from behind. It pulls me backwards and I fall.
It feels like I’m falling through a rabbit hole; my sense of space is obliterated, my spatial awareness null.
I feel Wolf tugging at my ankle.
“Wolf!” I turn and grab him by the neck, trying to pull myself up. He snaps his teeth at me as another explosion rocks the Canal District.
She’s destroying everything!
“We’ve got to stop her!” I cry out as globes of energy filter off the sphere around her body.
I pull away from Wolf as the big Tagvornin beast circles around in front of me. He collapses into my arms as if he’s playing with me, as if this is a game.
He pins me to the ground.
“Get off, Wolf!”
Rage.
No! I scream inside my head as I feel my muscles tensing. I swallow hard, try to push Wolf off again without activating my rage.
RAGE!
“No, goddammit!”
Suddenly, as if someone has sucked all the light out of the Deathdale, the energy radiating from her form filters away. Darkness accented by flickering fire returns to the room as the Solar Mage drops to the ground.
“Get off!”
I just manage to push Wolf off me when a blade of light from the sky strikes the Solar Mage, and the sphere reforms around her.
In that instant, with Wolf between us, Deathdale explodes.
I’m tossed backwards into a wall, through the wall, into the hallway, and through another wall, where I’m stopped by a bedpost.
My vision pane flashes. I can barely make out my surroundings.
Rage.
No! I scream in my head. Not now, please not now! Save it!
The words leave my lips before I can even comprehend them. “Wolf! WOLF!”
I press up, dizzy, the world spinning around me, moving from slow motion to an out of body experience and back again. I take a step towards the entrance to the room and drop my hand onto the door handle.
I turn it and shoulder the door open.
Everything in the hallway is black from the blast. The smell of smoke and seared flesh is ever-present. I move to the door of our hotel room, dragging my left leg. The door is locked, so I enter from the hole I just made.
“Wolf!” I cry out again, my throat parched, my voice hoarse as smoke hangs heavy in the air. I feel something at my feet and know instantly it’s not a dead Stater soldier.
I collapse onto Wolf’s form. “Wake up, boy!” I tell him, my hand on his jaw. I press my head into his chest, listening for a heartbeat.
Nothing.
Even with my ears ringing, even with the sound of flames still burning in the room and the cries from the street below and the smell of burning flesh all around me, I know beyond any doubt that Wolf is dead.
I press my head against his body, sobbing.
“No!” I scream, a sudden burst of strength coming to me. I bend and place both arms around Wolf’s body. A deep breath in, tears still streaming down my face, I try to lift the Tagvornin beast.
I’m able to lift him a few feet off the ground before my knees buckle.
I try again, and as I do, I hear a piercing whisper-scream at the back of my mind.
RAGE!
My muscles tense and harden, my vision pane constricts, and my veins bulge as an intense weight moves through my body, increasing my strength.
Everything is a smoky, flame-licked, blood-ridden blur as I make my way out of our hotel room, Wolf’s dead body hoisted over my shoulders.
The end.
The final book in the Last Warrior Trilogy will be released on December 15th, 2017! Grab it then.
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Back of the Book Shit
Dear Reader,
So as you likely know by now, this book is connected to my other books in the Proxima Galaxy, namely The Feedback Loop and Fantasy Online. Next year, 2018, Sam Raid will get her own series, the first book of which will be called Imperium and Beyond. It will explore her background as a Proxima smuggler (think LitRPG space opera) ten years before the Last Warrior Trilogy. That will make our timeline look like this (all links go to Amazon):
2058 – The Feedback Loop series
2058 – The Sam Raid Books (coming 2018)
2069 – The Last Warrior of Unigaea
2075 – Fantasy Online series
2083 – Life is a Beautiful Thing series
Inspired
I don’t have much to say this time around, I’m too busy trying to get the third and final book out! I will say a few things about various inspirations for this second book. For one, I’m still going for a Witcher meets Mad Max meets Punisher theme. While unintentional, I believe I almost introduced a harem in this one, and I can only blame Super Sales for Super Heroes author William Arand for that, as I was listening to his audiobook while writing this one.
Music-wise, I went with a list published by Pitchfork of the top fifty ambient albums of all time. For action scenes, I usually wrote to The Field’s odd drum and bass or the soundtrack to Nier Automata, one of the strangest RPGs I’ve played.
Of course some of my super readers including Jay, Bobby, Dave, Don, and a host of others have really kept me going with their interest in my books and their readership. I keep running into great readers. I had no idea so many existed and I’m proud to call some of them my friends.
Grassy Ass
There are loads of people to thank, including all my fine readers that continue to spread the love for the Proxima Galaxy. Our Facebook group continues to grow, and it is great getting to see some of my newer readers catch up with the various series and discover their connections. That said, a few people in particular really did me a solid on this book including Kay, my longtime beta reader, my editor Allison Wright, and Holly, who went through the text finding comma issues. Scott also found a huge mistake in his advanced copy and I was grateful that he shared it with me.
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Yours in sanity,
Harmon Cooper
Fantasy Online
Get it here!
Nineteen-year-old Ryuk Matsuzaki and his best friend Tamana decide to start over with new avatars. When Tamana is suddenly killed right in front of him in a Tokyo subway, Ryuk knows there is only one place he can search for answers –Tritania, the world’s most popular online fantasy world. Standing in his way are a mysterious guild known as the Shinigami, and his older brother, a Yakuza crime lord hell-bent on squashing his dreams.
Note: Oric and Wolf appear in Fantasy Online Book Two and continue their adventure in that series!
Join in the conversation!
Is there a place to mingle with other writers and fans of the litRPG genre? Of course there is! Check it out on Facebook here:
I also frequent the LitPRG Society. Click the picture below to join this one or search it on Facebook. This is another great place to meet other readers, authors, and find out about the genre.
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The Drachma Killers (The Last Warrior of Unigaea Book 2) Page 19