Chimera King Box Set Books 1-3

by Atlas Kane

  Minda pushed back into Satemi, and she pressed against Cade. Minda’s only other response was to purr. Satemi, however, replied more directly. “We are bonded by battle now, Cade. I know from your past memories, you understand what that means. I don’t think either of us will forget it either. Thank you for voicing these thoughts.”

  Though no other words were spoken, Cade slid his hand to rest between Satemi’s breasts. It was not a sexually charged embrace, but a way to hold her even closer, to feel her heart beat in his palm.

  They lay that way as their minds slowly unwound, satisfied with the furthering of their bond.

  First Minda’s breathing fell to the steady rhythm of sleep, and then Satemi.

  When Satemi at last grew still, and he felt her chest rise and fall, he realized how tense she’d been. So much pain still tormented her, and in the half dark of the tent, Cade could see the outline of the mask she wore. How long will it be until I can coax it off of her? he wondered.

  And while his own body finally relaxed, falling in sync with his two bed partners, he made a promise to himself that not only would he protect these women, but that he would do all in his power to ease their hearts.

  And he would start with Satemi.

  19

  Between a Rock and a Grove of Goddamn Trees

  When they woke, the bluff was covered in a layer of fog so thick you couldn’t see more than ten feet in any direction.

  “We have woken up inside a cloud!” Minda exclaimed, a smile and look of wonder on her face. “Last time I was here it was hotter than a Khabdul pit at the end of harvest.”

  “Yes, we all know what a Khabdul pit is. Let’s get going, you two. No time to gawk. You gonna be able to find the way through all this?” Satemi asked, nudging Minda out of her reverie.

  “Of course. I too have a floating map in my head. We’ll be fine.”

  Skipping breakfast, the three set out, slow at first as the fog made the ground harder to see. But after an hour, the sun burned away most of it, leaving a thin haze all around. They didn’t know how long the fog would have lasted, for the trail broke again soon after. Their path plunged down into moist jungle once more, leaving the bluff behind.

  They rested at the bank of a cool stream, marveling at a school of bright pink fish that swam in lazy circles. Satemi bragged that had she a fine spear, she could easily snap one out for their meal. Something buzzed in Cade’s mind and he asked the woman a question that should have occurred to him before now. “Why didn’t you choose a spear for your soul weapon? You were… are a master, no?”

  She shook her head, the heavy mask waving side to side. “I will never wield a spear again. I failed with it once. I do not wish to do so again.”

  Cade thought to insist that she would always fail, that she was human and they all would fail over and over again. But he let it drop. There was no convincing her of anything until her heart mended some. Instead, Cade summoned a few deer steaks they ate raw.

  As he watched Minda and Satemi tear a hunk of the meat free with their bared teeth, bright blood spilling from the corners of their mouths, he couldn’t help but be both impressed and a little turned on. Something mighty fine about a sexy carnivore. Fucking dig in, girls! Dig in. He kept his thoughts to himself though, and he recalled Ketzal, the demoness who had so much joy and humor inside yet no way to express it. She would have heard his thoughts and laughed at their frank honesty.

  A lump formed in his stomach, and he broached the subject with his companions. “Someone back at the city needs our help. When we attack and take down Vormer,” he said, looking at Satemi’s mask as she stared back at him, all ears now. “I want to save someone. Ketzal. I mentioned her before. She is a good—”

  “None who choose to live in the city are good!” Satemi exploded. She pointed a finger and the sharp inhale of her breath, preparing for a rant, was audible for all.

  Cade raised his hands up. “Woah! First off, let’s keep it quiet. Who knows what might already be stalking us. And second, what if she isn’t choosing anything. I spoke with her, saw her and the way Vormer treats the woman. I don’t think there is any free will at work in Tanrial. Even the guards… it’s as if they are inhuman.”

  Minda spoke next, filling the silence that followed. “Guards gave me the creeps. I never saw one without a mask. Not once. And his Burning God nonsense. I don’t know what he means by it, but I’d prefer never to find out.”

  “I don’t think we’ll have that luxury,” Cade said, anxiety pooling in his belly. “But fuck it. We gotta keep moving. How far are we, Minda? The map shows we are close, but that could be a day or more in this forest.”

  “We should be there well before nightfall. Let’s just wash up and get moving,” the beastkin woman said, swishing her hands in the stream. As she did so, her eyes lit up in delight, then darted away into the woods. “I’ll be right back. I think I have a surprise!”

  In a few moments, she returned, whatever she’d ran after already stowed in her Inventory. When Cade gave her a quizzical look she just shook her head. “Nope. Like I said. It’s a surprise.”

  The trail wove deeper up the canyon, steep-sided bluffs to the north and south of them. The plants down here stretched at odd angles, greedy to reach whatever sunlight was given. With such extreme surroundings, this canyon must get less than six hours of direct sun, even with Antinium’s long days.

  New species of birds flew overhead, some like tiny sparks of color flitting about in bursts of motion, others hung in trees, massive and strange. One in particular gave Cade the absolute creeps. Its wings folded near its head like oversized shoulders and the thing’s beak curved up like a scimitar. It was a massive creature, the size of a small child. It stared at them as they passed below, and Cade’s skin crawled.

  Thankfully, the demon vulture didn’t attack.

  In fact, it was odd that their group didn’t encounter more animals. The beasts of this jungle were most likely avoiding them though, Cade thought. Three large primates stomping around in the forest aren’t usually something to confront.

  As if in response to his thoughts, a patch of ferns shook and squeals filled the air, and a mess of movement erupted from the foliage. Minda extended her staff and pulled her dagger out. Satemi unleashed both of her swords, the metal ringing eerily in the still air. And Cade had his axe out in his hand, about to trigger Wyrm’s Wrath. The creatures didn’t seem to care or even notice.

  A trail of pigs, fat and hairy, trotted past them. Most were small, like the one Cade had fed not so long ago, with the same bright-red Mohawk-looking hair. At their back, two larger ones followed. They were massive, one almost as tall as Cade was at the shoulder, the other just a little shorter. That was when Cade noticed the smaller of the two behemoths had three white stripes of fur over its forehead. No way! Could that be the same pig? he wondered.

  And mysteries of mysteries, the thing ran up to him and squealed, waiting for him to respond as he’d done last time.

  The two women looked at him nervously. Minda poised to pounce on the thing in a moment. Before everything exploded into a mess of tusks and blades, Cade summoned five of the Scorching Sweet Potatoes and threw them before the pig. It devoured them in a flash, only one going to its larger companion. Then it dipped its head, scratching a deep furrow in the ground with one paw, and continued on its way.

  Minda chuckled quietly. “What was that, Cade? Making friends with Brimstone Boars? Do you even know how big they get or what grows from their faces?”

  Cade watched the pack retreat, strutting as if they owned the entire forest. “I have no idea. I ran into that thing back near the village a few days ago. Gave it some sweet potatoes. I swear it’s already grown since then.”

  Minda laughed, but he saw concern in her eyes. “They get at least twice that size, and when they do, their horns develop. Not just the simple tusks of normal swine, but devilish, maniacal horns, Cade. Just avoid them if you can, okay?”

  “Yes, but wouldn’t suc
h an animal be a valuable ally? At the very least, it’s nice to know it doesn’t want to eat me.”

  “You don’t know that. The boars are omnivores, Cade,” Minda shot back. “They eat meat as quickly as they eat plants.”

  He reluctantly agreed, his brain trying to imagine how huge and ugly a pig twice the size of the one he’d just seen would be.

  Sheathing their weapons, the tension easing from the group, they continued on their way. Nothing else happened of note until they came across the yawning maw of a cave entrance. Vines hung down over the hole leading into the mountain. “Hey guys,” Cade said in a whisper. “Let’s not go in there, okay?”

  Satemi agreed with a grunt, but Minda argued. “You’d be surprised the kinds of medicine and resources that can be found in caves. I spent a night in one just like it a few weeks back. The fungus that grew there was delicious!”

  “Fungus is not a food source. Only fools would eat mushrooms when meat is plentiful,” Satemi said in a scathing tone.

  Cade just laughed to himself. These two. He had a left-leaning hippy on one side and a right-winged carnivore on the other. They would have had a lovely time pissing each other off on social media. The fresh reminder of the utter lack of technology and the politics that always went with it made Cade all the more grateful.

  He chimed in, finding a middle ground. “We will all eat mushrooms, and we’ll all eat meat. Now let’s keep moving, girls. I’d love to see our new home while it’s still daytime.”

  Slowly, the canyon floor began to slope ever upward. Hillocks formed, disrupting the easy travel, and giving them pause. Each was an ideal place for an ambush as the trail wove around or between the small hills. Staring back the way they came, Cade couldn’t help but to think it would also be an awesome place to fortify. Had they even a dozen fighters, the narrow canyon could be defended for hours against a much larger force.

  Finally, the path curved southward, a line of massive trees over a hundred feet tall spreading their boughs across the entire canyon. It was still afternoon, but below the deep shading it felt closer to nightfall.

  Minda stopped suddenly and peered around them. Cade felt it then too, a tension in the air, as if an exposed wire lay hidden in the foliage. Only the sound of insects buzzing and his own breath disturbed the silence, and he knew something was off.

  Then a stinging pain lit up the back of his neck. He winced, hissing at the unexpected sensation. Minda turned to look at him, but yelped, jumping a few feet away in a single, surprised leap. Then of course, the group looked up. All around in the tree above, where there had only been bare branches and boughs, a troop of apes sat glaring. The beasts looked like over-sized fruits, boulder-shaped and too large to dismiss casually like the little monkeys Cade had seen so far in Antinium.

  Another flash of pain made him turn, this time lighting up the back of his leg. And as he did so, he saw a small, yellow seed pod roll away. “This is a good time to keep moving,” he whispered to Minda, and he saw her nod in his periphery. They began creeping away, moving up the trail as they had been, and more of the seed pods fell, some hitting so hard they drew blood.

  Minda shouted, fear flashing in her eyes and blood flowing down her brow. “Run!”

  They fell into a sprint, the missiles coming down like hail. The end of the strange grove was in sight, and they only needed to make it another hundred feet or so. But of course, as so many shit situations do, everything hit the metaphorical ceiling fan. Five heavy apes hit the ground before them like meteors, each much larger than Cade.

  “Fuck this! Kill those assholes!” Cade screamed, brandishing his axe. His first instinct was to use Wyrm’s Wrath, but though the seed pods were small, they were causing real damage. If it increased that effect, there was no telling how long he could survive the bombardment. So instead, he used his blast staff. Selecting Slug Shot, Cade blasted the biggest of the vile things in the chest, and it crumpled over, clutching its chest. One down, he thought, switching to the axe. But then, in a terrifying display of brute strength, the ape stood back up. All it had to show for the attack was a red mark on its chest. That thing is bulletproof? Just what we need.

  And as Cade studied the animal, he could see how. Its skin was thick and covered in what looked like stone plates. Though the rest of its body was a marbled gray and black, it had pigmentation near to a human’s on its chest, somewhere between pink and brown. Even there, though, thick bony plates protected it. Should have aimed for its eye, Cade noted, counting down the recharge in his head. For now, he’d need to use his hammer.

  Minda cast a root snare on one of the apes and Satemi went still, her swords still sheathed, her posture rigid and pained. “Hold! I have this. We cannot win this fight another way!” Satemi shouted in a voice of iron. Sure enough, six more thumps sounded, more apes falling around them.

  The seedpods ceased all of a sudden, and Cade watched as the lead ape, this group’s alpha perhaps, stalked forward, chest out and proud despite the nasty bruise Cade had given it. It approached Satemi who stood like a fortress, unyielding. Okay, so now we see if that guy is tough enough to resist whatever attack that mask has? If this doesn’t work, we are gonna run faster than a backdoor man caught with his pants down.

  More apes fell from the tree, some larger than the alpha, but none with the same keen intelligence and ferocity in its eyes. They had over-hanging canines protruding over their bottom lips and faintly glowing blue eyes. Cade inspected the alpha, wanting to at least be able to put a name to this impressive creature.

  Earthen Ape Alpha

  Level 9

  Predator Fauna

  Well shit, Level 9 is way too fucking high. Come on Satemi and your creepy mask! Cade cheered on his companion, holding his weapon closely.

  Satemi’s arms began to shake, as if some inner force were being exerted. All remained quiet though, and Minda and Cade could only wait and hope. She let out a gasp, bending over at the middle, and the alpha stood taller than ever. And then she broke. A piercing cry escaped her mouth, and she fell forward, hands catching her fall. Satemi panted, obviously in pain, and the apes loomed.

  This was all going wrong. Minda threw Cade a frightened look, expecting him to think of something. I’m not a genius, and I have no magic in this world, but there’s one thing I can count on, Cade thought, his countdown ended.

  Raising his weapon in one smooth motion, Cade put a Double Tap in the alpha’s face from ten feet away. The first bullet tore through its eye, the second cracking the top of its forehead, though Cade noted the round didn’t pierce the bone. The first wound was plenty though, and soundlessly, the great ape fell to the ground, defeated.

  The rest of the apes stood frozen. Their leader had been defeated in a mysterious way and too quick to account for. Cade had won, but it was clear they weren’t ready to back down. He needed to play this up then.

  Cade snapped his finger, gesturing for Minda to help Satemi.

  Then he stood as tall and imposing as he could. Choosing another large ape at random, Cade stalked forward, lifting his axe high in the air above him for all to see, and he filled his lungs.

  The beast fidgeted slightly, though it looked prepared to attack at a moment’s notice. Ignoring the rising terror within, Cade roared. Like a lion and a bear and an unhinged vet outside the VA hospital when his prescription won’t be filled, Cade screamed in the beast’s face.

  The poor ape blinked and took a step back. Cade shot forward and shoved it with the handle of his axe, pushing it back further.

  A few of the apes around moved away, and Cade continued his ridiculous display. He flailed his arms to great effect and bellowed some more.

  After he’d done so a few more times, after his throat was raw and he was really starting to question his sanity, the apes broke apart, cleared the path and bounded away and up the nearest tree trunks. No shit! I just shouted down the bear! Or, the ape, I guess. I am Hercules!

  Minda showed as much surprise, but had Satemi up and limpin
g forward. Soon, they were walking in the sun again, all bruised and bleeding, but otherwise unharmed.

  Only Satemi seemed troubled by the exchange. She dragged her feet in exhaustion, her shoulders hunched in defeat.

  While they walked, Cade spoke to the woman. “You risked much in challenging that monster. He was Level 9! Which makes me wonder. I still haven’t found out what level you are, Satemi? Surely, you must have been close to Level 9 yourself to risk it.”

  She chuckled grimly, and responded in a gravelly voice. “Not likely. I reached my sixth level shortly before you came to us.”

  “You’re a badass, girl. I will cook you dinner for a week when we find our new home, I promise,” Cade finished, glancing at the masked woman who continued to walk despite her obvious exhaustion.

  “Not likely. Chances are, Cade, that you are a shitty cook.”

  They all laughed at that and marched onward, more closely bonded than ever.

  Thankfully, only another mile or so up the trail, the canyon opened up again and leveled out. A broad and scenic glade lay nestled against a solid cliff wall made of black stone that ran around its periphery, encircling it. It was a dead end but for a single meandering path that wound up and around the mountain leading to some distant plateau. Staring up at the cliff face that loomed ahead, Cade knew there was no scaling the thing. They’d need to be expert climbers to even try. He looked to Minda who only grinned and sped up.

  With only one other way in besides the path they trod, and that one seeming too constricted to allow easy approach, it felt as safe as anything had so far in this world.

  The beastkin woman laughed, exalting in some secret neither Satemi nor Cade knew about. “This is it! We’ve made it!” She ran ahead, Satemi well enough recovered to support herself. A flat-topped hill stood before them. Lush trees grew to either side. As Cade mounted the plateau, he saw what she did.