Mark 2.0: Book 2: Hate

by Prax Venter

  Using only gestures, he moved the group off the fading stone path they’d been following and over to a crumbling set of grass-covered stairs ending about fifteen feet up.

  “Anyone seen the bee lately?” he whispered.

  No one had, but Abby began moving for the stairs. Mark gave her a nod, and the abyssal horror carefully climbed up to scout the area. Mark scanned the area searching for a tunnel or something they could retreat to if they needed to get away from the sky, but he had yet to see anything with an intact roof.

  The green-skinned woman in the yellow bikini came back down and only shook her head. Apparently, there hadn’t been anything worth reporting.

  Mark rubbed his chin. They could keep going deeper into the garden, or they could wait here. The thing was loud enough that they’d know basically where it was if it took off again. He ran his thumb over the rings on his left hand as he thought and remembered the protective ring from Aurum. Maybe that was why he didn’t lose his arm when trying to deflect that crown in the maze. He looked down at Cel, who seemed to be peering into the foliage. Searching for her nut, probably.

  It occurred to him that maybe he could try and use his augmented sight to find the guardian bee. If it was napping, or sipping nectar out of a giant flower and they could attack it from behind…

  “I’m going to take a look,” he whispered as he pointed to the stairs.

  Everyone nodded and then continued to watch for threats. They were ready for anything.

  Crouching as low as he could, Mark climbed up the grassy stairs and peeked out over the last crumbling step. He did not expect to see the behemoth bee silently climbing over the giant flower petals only a few yards away.

  Horror, disbelief, and awe locked Mark up as he numbly watched the fuzzy monstrosity maneuver toward him as if it were filled with helium. The creature had relatively huge multifaceted eyes on the sides of its soft head with thick droopy antennae eagerly attracted to new prey in its eternal prison.

  “It’s here!” Mark said as its eyes flashed with strange rainbow-hued light. He had a microsecond to react and popped up his magic barrier on the stairs.

  He heard a cry from Cel behind him and hoped that he didn’t hurt her too bad with the force of his ability, but the blast of pure hate-filled magic bombarding the shell would probably have erased him. The bubble’s membrane held but was full of cracks after the rainbow-hued laser attack.

  Mark shot a look back down the stairs to see Jezebel helping Cel up by a tree about thirty yards away. She looked hurt, but at least she wasn’t dead.

  Then something solid collided with his shield and pulled his attention back. The giant bumblebee had struck his magic barrier with its serrated, black stinger. Its many legs lifted as it reared back for another jab.

  The shield wasn’t going to hold for much longer, so Mark lengthened his club and tried to create a surface that intercepted the stinger. The attack came down and struck the catcher’s mitt he’d formed at the end of his ethereal pole, and the impact almost knocked him down the stairs, but the move saved the integrity of his magic bubble.

  Abby’s Mind Crush spell effect started swirling around the creature’s head on the other side of its body as both her and Sasha joined him on the stairs inside his barrier. The Destructor quickly blasted it in the stinger with an Arc Bolt, and it must have been the longest distance he’d seen her blinding forks of electric power travel.

  The mammoth bee’s wings started up, and the deep noise was almost enough to drive him insane. He could tell Sasha’s zap in the ass had convinced the creature to use its magic eye attack from a safe distance- but that would be very bad for them.

  With a spur of the moment idea and a violent force of will, Mark shaped the glove-shaped energy at the end of his ethereal pole to clamp around its deadly stinger.

  His boots slid against the stairs as the Behemoth Bumblebee tried to pull away with him attached, but the added weight was too much for it to take off.

  “Hurry!” Mark yelled, trying to keep his energy gripping tight as he fought against the magically enhanced creature. “Kill it!”

  Abby began casting her laceration spell as Sasha created a Spark Bomb in her palm. Just before she tossed it, Jezebel clomped up behind them.

  “Go for the wings!” she yelled, and Sasha angled her throw at the last minute. The sparking orb stuck right in the middle of the creature’s back and detonated, and its concussive electric blast evaporated the monster’s delicate insect wings.

  Mark decided to try and hold on as the bee went down, but its pull weight was reaching the point where that would be impossible.

  Abby’s Imaginary Laceration sliced into the creature’s back as its wings were beginning to reform, and the Behemoth Bumblebee tried fleeing the horrible pain by pushing off with its legs. Mark held tight, bracing his boots against the stairs, and a high-pitched squeal escaped the monster as half its stinger broke free from its body.

  The giant insect fell to the ground, but it wasn’t dead yet, and it looked as if the wounds were already regenerating. Mark was trying to form a plan when Jezebel leaped off the stairs and shifted mid-air before she landed on the furry monster’s black-and-yellow striped side. There, she instantly started ripping into its body with her iron-clad claws.

  With a brief glance at Sasha and Abby, Mark tossed the stinger behind him and jumped down after the shifted Druid. He summoned a long sharp blade on the way down and used his fall to drive it deep into the creature’s furry body as he landed.

  Mark kept stabbing while the roaring Bear-Jezebel moved up to maul its head, and they both hacked the island’s guardian so savagely that they were able to out-damage its regenerating ability.

  The giant insect let out a final hiss and then stopped moving. At the same time, Mark was almost knocked over by the essence pouring into him from the kill.

  “Yay!” Sasha cheered from up on top of the stone stairwell. “We did it!”

  Mark turned to see Abby, his loyal succubus, and the Kalorplast plant-woman all looking down at them from the stairs. Cel was holding her limp left arm, and Mark made a mental note to be careful with his protective barrier if they were fighting alongside others.

  Everyone met at the base of the stairs, and Mark ended her pain quickly with a tightly focused heal. The small Fighter’s body operated more like a plant, but she still had anatomy similar to bones and muscle underneath.

  Cel closed her eyes and began letting out panting whimpers as mild pain was replaced with intense rolling pleasure.

  “I’m so sorry,” Mark said. “I didn’t have time to think it through and kind of forgot that my new magic barrier aggressively pushes everyone but my Enthralled away.”

  “Mark,” she said, looking up at him with a smile and a slow head shake. “I am fine. I am beyond fine. I am now past the two major obstacles that stood between me and my dream. And by the Far-Flung Seeds, your Lover ability sure has made me-”

  “Aroused?” Abby finished. “Mark’s heals always end with sexual arousal.”

  Cel swallowed, and Mark’s True Sight unintentionally confirmed that she was a virgin.

  “Something like that,” the Kalorplast Collector said, nudging something by her foot. Her leafy brow came down as she focused on what that thing was. Mark followed her gaze and saw half of the monster’s stinger lying between the thick grass and random flowers.

  She bent down to pick up the shiny black bit of bumblebee, and he saw that the serrated barb appeared to be split right down the middle.

  Jezebel stepped forward to inspect the object.

  “Sasha’s electricity must have cooked it,” she said.

  “Anyone see the other half?” Cel asked.

  Mark was about to ask why when the cabbage-armored Fighter slashed her new weapon through the air with a savage Swift Strike.

  A smile spread across his face when he realized what that test had proven.

  “Here,” Abby said, her tentacle coiling around something by the base of
the stairs and a moment later, Cel was holding two new weapons.

  The split pieces of stinger were longer than her wooden practice axes and heavier, but they were still better than what she had.

  “I will have these balanced and filed down into blades,” she said and turned her brown eyes up to Mark’s. “This is the best day of my life.”

  “Oh sweetie,” Sasha said, her spade tail weaving hypnotically. “It’s about to get even better.”

  Mark noticed his succubus was looking at something further into the garden and turned to see that a handful of five-foot-tall golden walnuts were now sitting in the shadows around them.

  - 12 -

  Cel spun in place, her dual bee-stinger swords forgotten as her eyes danced from nut to luminous nut. Fear, hope, and excitement whirled around her as if she were in a cement mixer of anxiety set to eleven.

  “W-what do I do?” she asked.

  They all looked the same to Mark, wrinkled shells with a light sprinkling of gold glitter.

  “This is your fight,” he said. “Just go with what you feel is right.”

  Cel awkwardly pulled the wooden training axes out of her simple belt and let them clatter to the ground as she wedged the stingers in to replace them. Mark kept his eye on the nuts, thinking her panicked fiddling would cause some type of reaction, but they sat motionlessly. Beyond that, he sensed a primitive, tranquil mind resting inside each one.

  The inexperienced Kalorplast Collector shifted her gaze around the five gathered shells and decided to take a tentative step closer to the one under a violently pink flower the size of a giraffe. Daylight filtered through its enormous petals and washed everything below in vermillion-tinged shade.

  Cel took another cautious step, and then another, and the Sacred Nuts remained still. She was only a few paces from her chosen lifetime partner when they all split open, their shells shifting into many parts. Mark only got a quick glimpse of a smooth white body underneath armor before they all sprinted away in a blur of motion.

  The sound of crashing foliage spread outward until silence remained.

  Cel had reached out her arm as they fled, but let it drop to her side now.

  “He ran from me…”

  Mark shook his head. This was a huge deal to the small plant-woman, and doubt was paralyzing her. He knew that saying something encouraging it would only lay on more pressure.

  “Well,” Mark said, clapping his hands together. “I guess you tried. Got that charm ready, Jez?”

  Jezebel shot him a confused look but felt his intent through their widening bond. She began slowly patting herself down, pretending to forget where she put their one escape route.

  “Yeah, hold on…”

  “What?” Cel said, her eyes wider than he had ever seen them. “We can’t just leave!”

  Sasha crossed her arms under her heavy breasts.

  “Then why are you standing around here?”

  The Kalorplast Fighter narrowed her eyes as she turned back to the bouncing leaves where her chosen nut had dashed further into the garden. Without a word, she bent forward and pushed off the ground, sprinting after it.

  Mark exchanged a smile with his three loves before following after her. He didn’t want to get too close, so he set a pace that Abby could easily maintain. Besides, the verdant explosion of exotic plant life around them begged to be appreciated.

  “More,” Jezebel said as she trotted alongside him. When he looked between the green stems of giant blue tulips blocking the sun, Mark saw the darker shadows keeping pace with their jog.

  The scholarly plant-elf they’d escorted here told them that the Sacred Nuts were not hostile, but facts found in books could be wrong, misleading, or even change over time.

  “Let’s pick it up,” Mark said, suddenly regretting his decision to allow the new Collector out of his sight.

  Jezebel shapeshifted next to him, and Abby wordlessly vaulted up onto her back. The larger, heavily armored bear couldn’t help but tear a hole through the fantastic foliage, but it made it easier for Mark and Sasha to run side by side behind her.

  More of the nut creatures tickled his peripheral vision, but Mark tried to focus on detecting the mental state of the Collector hidden in the garden ahead of them. It wasn’t working.

  He didn’t have to try for very long because the flowers and hanging leaves parted as they all burst out into a brilliant, stone-paved clearing. At first, it was as if he were staring into the sun, but his eye adjusted, and he saw the green, leaf-armored Collector standing near a marble bench. Around her were a ring of five Sacred Nuts currently tucked into their shells.

  A quiet rustling came from behind, and Mark turned to see many more had taken a position within the shadows around them. He turned back to face Cel.

  Now that he had a reference point for size, Mark felt that these things could be a problem if they all decided to attack. Each was a foot taller than the Kalorplast Collector, and their glistening outer shell projected a vibe of unyielding hardness.

  “Watch,” Cel said and then took one slow step toward one of the stationary nuts.

  The one she moved toward opened its intricately attached shell into dozens of separate plates and then took an equally measured step backward. Mark got a better look at the wiry muscled male with a wrinkled shell on his back. The curved shell fragments on his head appeared as if he wore a motorcycle helmet with no visor. He seemed young, had pure-black eyes, and was completely naked. Then, with speed that was hard to follow, the creature sank back down into its solid nut form, its plates of armor sealing together with some type of magic.

  “Two others reacted the same way,” Cel said, looking over to Mark. After a moment she turned to the bear that was Jezebel. “Can you use your magic vines on one? Like you did on the crown that I destroyed.”

  Jezebel grunted, and after Abby hopped off, the horned grizzly lifted onto her hind legs. Mark watched as her leather-clad breasts shrank from globes larger than his head down to her normal one-and-a-half handfuls.

  “Cel,” Jezebel said, “that impatient action might not result in the outcome you desire. Trust me, you do not want to force someone to be with you if they are not ready.”

  Mark felt a dark spike from the research AI and looked away before his eye ripped out her secrets. However, he did get an unavoidable signal along their bond. The advice forced her to consider the wound in her heart and found that every moment with Mark was helping her bury it further from the surface.

  “No. She’s right,” Mark said. “Take your time and follow your heart.”

  Cel nodded and turned to the nut on her left as she considered her strategy.

  “Despite the fact that I don’t have a heart,” she said to Mark, “I’ll try and follow the light- as my people say.”

  She turned again, making a counterclockwise circuit of all five and stopped on one of the Sacred Nuts behind her.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” Cel said, holding out her hand. But after a few moments of nothing, it became clear that approach alone wasn’t going to do it.

  “Is that the bench?” Jezebel asked, pointing at the weathered piece of stone furniture in the center of the clearing. It was ahead of Cel and her circle of semi-interested nuts, and when Mark focused on it, he saw a blinding speck of a dimensional weak point. At a glance, he could tell that the universe it joined was not the Wrongside. This strange light was different. There was an indomitable pushback against the black, crackling energy in his mind, and his brain received the clear signal that this fracture was far beyond his ability to tear open.

  “I believe it is,” the Kalorplast Collector answered Jezebel with reverence. “That bench is the very place King Ghothal took his life.”

  “What- you think she should sit on it?” Sasha asked.

  Jezebel shook her head. “No- Maybe, I don’t know. I was just fascinated by the historical significance. I can feel a warmth here.”

  “It’s peaceful,” Abby added.

  Cel turned
to face them, and Mark saw movement behind her. One of the creatures in the shade outside the stone-paved circle slowly creeped toward them. The short Kalorplast Fighter turned her head to consider the bench idea, and he saw the shadowy figure zip back to its motionless nut form.

  “I’m going to try it,” Cel said, her fists clenched tight with determination. She slowly turned back and moved toward the center of the clearing. Again, the two nuts that were near that direction stood from their crouched position, their protective armor separating into intricate independent plates. It was quite the feat of coordination- as if they could reposition their outer shell in any configuration they wished. He also noticed that one was certainly female. She had full lips and gold, perky nipples on the tips of her four small breasts.

  Cel kept an even stride as she stepped up to the bench and the high-level speck of dimensional weakness. The focused plant-elf Fighter changed her mind at the last moment and decided to face away from the nut Mark witnessed in the shadows. With a hop, she slid her round cabbage-covered ass onto the stone bench and straightened her back.

  The glinting spark of brightness appeared to hover inches from her face, and there was no question that it was the exact point where this Light King had stabbed himself in the eye.

  After a few heartbeats, one of the five Sacred Nuts that had gathered near Cel stepped out of their shell and slowly crept off into the vegetation to join the others around the outer edge. Mark watched the one he’d noticed start moving again toward Cel’s back as two others slunk away from her.

  The leaf-armored Kalorplast sighed as she looked between the two remaining nuts in her original ring.

  “Do you think…” she started, but whatever she was about to say died on her forest-green lips as the final nearby pair unshelled themselves and left the leaf-covered Collector sitting alone under the bright sun.