“Yep, then the witch.”
With them were the same mythcrea that we’d faced last time.
A Level Eight banshee, nude under her flowing translucent gown; a horrifically ugly Level Fourteen witch who rode around in a mortar; a feathered serpent at Level Twelve; and two burning women, whose handles told me they were both at Level Five.
“I can't take the Pyro Afflicted,” Lady C. said suddenly.
Sun Wukong threw his head back and laughed. “Then I will take them!”
“No,” I told my Fighting Party as the crowd beat their red handkerchiefs in the air. “The first person we will take out is the necromancer. Focus all of our attacks on him, he’s a Hunter and taking him out will cut into their attack power. Then we take the witch. From there we can fan out some. Rose, take the serpent again and kill it this time.”
As you wish, she thought to me as her armored shell bristled.
“Fujin, I want you to do the same thing that you did to the banshee last time, freeze her. Lady C., after you've helped take out the Necromancer, I want you to engage the witch. Sun Wukong, you can take the devil.”
“I'll battle the devil any day of the week,” Sun Wukong said with a laugh.
“Ophelia, do something about the pyro afflicted.”
The Lich considered this for a moment as she gazed over at the two women whose bodies were raging with fire. A wicked smile formed on her face.
“We can do this, everyone,” Iris said, her voice rising. I could hear the confidence behind what she’d said, feel that she actually believed what she was saying.
“That's right, let's end this quickly!” said Aya as the fight began.
As if to prove that she meant business, Aya was the first to spring into action. The opposing team's witch lifted into the air, floating in her mortar. She cast her glass bird spell, and the terror bird lifted into the air. As soon as she saw the bird flap its wings, Aya hurled her ghost limbs forward, caught on to it, lifted into the air under it, and eventually got onto its back.
Everyone in the arena was mesmerized by what she had just done, especially after she used her weight to bring the bird crashing down, directly into the necromancer, bailing just in time.
The necromancer was dead in a flash.
“Yes, Aya!” I cried. I could barely hear my own voice; the crowd’s screams nearly tore the roof off Sagelock’s home.
My Fighting Party’s morale changed almost instantly.
The scales on her back lifting, Rose leapt into the air, hit the ground and rolled towards the feathered serpent to prevent the monster from getting to Lady C.
They collided, and Rose quickly flattened it, only to double back around and go straight for its throat, choking the feathered dragon out.
The beast managed to get one claw up and across Rose's face. Its tail looped up and around her body, grabbed the bearadillo by the neck, and pulled her off.
“Come on, Rose!” Iris shouted, a wild look in her eyes.
I turned my attention to the witch, the next enemy we needed to take out. While the devil man tried to intervene, my Fighting Party kept to the goal that I had set out for them. Aya, Lady C., Sun Wukong, Fujin, and Altsoba had surrounded the witch.
I saw then the disadvantage of having two burning zombie women on your team.
They were mindless, and rather than protect the witch, they went for Ophelia.
To the right of the witch now, the banshee moved in to attack my Fighting Party.
Her jaw opened, a circular wave of energy hit Fujin and Sun Wukong in the side, sending them sprawling. The devil cast a spell that cracked Altsoba in the back. But she got back to her feet, morphed into her stone dragon form, and took off.
Realizing that my Fighting Party was closing in on her, the witch lifted higher into the air, her hands above her head as she swirled up a terrible, frothy red magic to cast upon them.
She didn't expect for Altsoba in stone dragon form to grab onto her mortar, and bring her crashing to the ground, where she quickly met the cold steel of Aya and Lady C.’s blades.
“Finish it!” I shouted to the two Huntresses.
“Do it!” Iris called out.
As the witch died, a terrible purple mist sprayed out of her open wounds, tossing Aya and Lady C. to the side.
“No!” I watched in horror as Aya began to cough up blood.
Lady C. tried to get to her feet, fell to her knees, and cracked her head on the ground, blood seeping out of her mouth and forming a glistening puddle around her face.
Both my Huntresses were dead in seconds.
If I could have run onto that battlefield myself and taken out the other mythcrea, I would have. I tried to breach the barrier, but was stopped by an invisible force.
“We’ll win this, Chase,” Iris said, her hand on my shoulder.
“They killed Aya and Lady C.,” I said, the crowd’s cries suddenly muted by my utter anger.
“Focus, Chase, focus,” Iris said as she grabbed my cheeks and made me look directly into her eyes. “Focus…”
With both Huntresses down, my Fighting Party instantly took a cut to their attack power.
I had to take a step back to assess the situation: the opposing Alphas had two mythcrea down, and one Hunter, the necromancer. They still had two of the flaming zombies, the banshee, and the devil.
“Let me step in,” Iris said, and she stepped forward and took the leader role. “Fujin, get the banshee!”
In an instant, the Japanese wind god lifted up on a cloud, his hands at his side and cold gusts spinning around his arms and wrists.
His eyes turned neon blue as he flew towards the banshee, who was just about to blast him with another one of her ear-piercing screams.
Instead, as it had happened before, he took her down with his ice magic, her body freezing midair and sailing to the ground, where it shattered into pieces.
The banshee was dead.
“Three more!” Iris squeezed my shoulder. “We’ve got this, Chase!”
“I’m sorry…” I started to say.
“Apologize later!”
I was back in the fight, clapping my hands together, watching as Sun Wukong showed the devil his fancy footwork. The Monkey King jumped left and right, avoiding the devil man's trident and his sharp tail.
Toying with his opponent, he occasionally cracked him across the cheek with his staff, or stuck his staff in the ground and used it to give him leverage on a kick. Sun never went in for the finishing blow.
That was, until the devil tried to cast a curse on him.
Realizing that he wouldn't get a hit in, the devil pulled back, covering his face with his arm like a vampire. As soon as he moved his arm, an arc of sharp magical blades each three feet long and filled with molten lava zipped towards Sun Wukong.
The Monkey King simply turned his body invincible. He froze there, taking the brunt of the powerful attack, which clearly would have killed almost anyone the devil came into contact with.
“Qing Fish Demon!” Iris shouted.
As soon as the magic dissipated, Sun became himself again. He leaned back onto one foot, jabbed his staff into the air, and twisted it once, swirling up a great stir of multifarious magic that reminded me of an artist mixing paints.
The colors swirled together and Sun released the concentration of magic. The top of the devil’s body flew to the right, the bottom part to the left, as his torso was severed.
Red handkerchiefs began to appear in the air, more thrown by the crowd with each passing moment. There were only the two flaming zombies left, and Fujin quickly put an end to them with his Winter Gust spell.
Landing next to their frozen bodies, stone dragon Altsoba tore their heads off with her sharp claws.
The two Alphas on the sidelines screamed with anger. One of them tried to run towards us, but was blocked by the invisible barrier. He punched at the barrier, the crowd whipping into a frenzy as Sagelock descended from the rafters.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
We had do
ne it.
Lady C. jumped into my arms as soon as we respawned in the locker room. Iris was dancing, pumping her fist into the air. Aya came towards me next, and as Lady C. stepped away, she opened her arms and slammed into me for a hug.
“Don't get used to it,” she said with the slightest snarl as she pulled me in close.
“Everyone, you are all ... Just amazing out there! Sun, you did it!” I ran to him and bowed my head. “Thank you!”
“I couldn't have done it without the help that I had from Fujin and the others. I'm happy that we won, and I would like before we leave to take some more of this food,” the Monkey King said as he walked over to the refreshments table.
“Have it all!”
I was ecstatic, everything had worked out in our favor, and now ...
I looked to Iris. “What now?”
And as if he had been listening the entire time, Sagelock appeared in all his creepy cool top hatted glory. He bowed to all of us, and doffed his top hat, revealing a bald head with a circular snake tattoo on it.
“Very good job,” he said as he righted himself. The paint from his face had all but faded, and his skin had started to shrivel. He looked tired, happy but exhausted. “There were many fights today, but the fights that you and your Fighting Party participated in were exceptional. My guests absolutely adored them. They were wonderful! And I must reward you.”
He turned his palms up and two boxes appeared.
The boxes were small, wrapped with golden thread, radiating a very soft, yet visible golden magic. The box on the left had a wispy tail of magic over it which spelled the word “EverLife.” The box on the right had a green swirl over it which spelt the word “Code.”
“You have your choice now, a code, or entry to EverLife.”
I looked to Iris.
“We could sell the code.”
“Yes, you could,” Sagelock said, “and I believe it is worth a small fortune in your world.”
“Do we really need access to EverLife?” I asked everyone.
Lady C. and Aya approached me on either side. “Of course, the code is worthless compared to access to EverLife …” Aya searched her brain for the right words.
“EverLife, it is the only option,” said Ophelia, who now stood next to Magnus, hand in hand as usual.
EverLife, Rose said in my head.
I glanced to Sun Wukong. “The choice is yours,” he said as he ate more food.
“Fujin?”
The Japanese god shrugged.
“Altsoba?”
The shifter gave me a dirty look. “Do not make the wrong decision here, Chase.”
I gulped as Lady C. started speaking. “It would totally revolutionize our Dojo, our Fighting Party, and our lives; it would be like freeing us. All mythcrea want to go back to EverLife. Why do you think they allow themselves to be captured?”
“She’s right,” Magnus said. “There isn’t a mythcrea alive in your world who wouldn’t rather be in EverLife. In a way, we are lost in your world, waiting to return to our true home. The Dojo, and our time in the Fighting Party, is a comfortable purgatory.”
“Comfortable purgatory?” I asked.
Ophelia smiled. “Maybe that isn’t the best way to describe it. But if you have access to EverLife, so do we, and we can visit there freely, still calling the Dojo home.”
“How would you visit?” I asked.
“Your Dojo would become an extension of EverLife,” Sagelock explained. “Once unlocked, a path instantly becomes available connecting your Dojo to the nearest city, and adding the overall space of EverLife. At its core, EverLife could be considered a collection of Dojos that have grown into vast kingdoms, all centered around the mysterious Steeple of Litur and Industria.”
“I can’t wait to see that,” Lady C. whispered. “Please, Chase. Please.”
“So, we wouldn’t spawn there?” Iris asked. “I mean, we would port from the Dojo to EverLife?”
“Close,” the Sagelock said. “Chase’s Dojo would actually join one of these twelve kingdoms. Now, the kingdom it would join is beyond my control, but the rest of the kingdom would be accessible once you spawned at your Dojo.”
“And would Iris be able to go?” I asked. “I mean, she can also go to our Dojo, so can she then go to EverLife?”
I was still on the fence. We'd be able to easily replace all of our gear and really revamp our band with the money from selling the Monster Hunt code. But if Iris could go to EverLife…
“To visit EverLife, you must be an Alpha, a hunter, or a mythcrea,” Sagelock said solemnly.
“I just received a code,” Iris told him.
“Ah, but there is one caveat. Your Dojo must be connected to EverLife for you to visit. Do you have a Dojo?”
She shook her head. “No, I haven't actually found my Hunters yet. I postponed it once I activated the app.”
A smile formed on his weary face. “In that case, you have two options: you can start your own Dojo and find your Hunters, or you can join with Chase.”
“She can join me?” I asked.
Iris nodded. “I read about that but… I didn’t know if it was true or not.” She shook her head, clearly upset that her research had led her in the wrong direction. “I can’t believe I didn’t look deeper into that. It’s just…”
“You said it before, there’s not a lot of info out there on EverLife.”
“It is indeed true,” said Sagelock. “And those who can dive to EverLife are encouraged to keep it a secret.”
“Then we can really have two Alphas?” I asked.
“You can indeed. You fought a pair of Alphas tonight, a pair of brothers, I believe. If you go off on your own, get your own Dojo and Hunters,” he told Iris, “you will also have to get an invitation to travel to EverLife. If you become a co-Alpha, then you don’t need to start your own Dojo or get your own Hunters. And you will have access.”
“Then let's join,” Iris said to me. “It's like I'm already an Alpha alongside you anyway.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, turning to her. “I don’t want to take this chance away from you.”
“Like I said, we already operate like co-Alphas. I am sure, Chase.”
I sensed hesitation from Lady C., but none from Aya.
“Iris would be a wonderful Alpha, our wonderful Alpha,” Aya said with no hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Sagelock considered all of this for a moment. The golden boxes disappeared from his palms, and he placed his hands behind his back. “I suppose I could unite you two. Normally, there are proper channels to go through to be united, but time is of the essence here.” He turned to Aya. “Young lady, use your ghost limbs to fetch us two glasses of punch.”
Two glasses lifted from the table, dipped into the punch bowl, and were transferred over to Iris and me.
Sagelock came between us and place a hand on each glass. “Together, now, I want you both to offer each other a sip from your glass of punch. I want you to do this at the same time, locking arms in the process.”
I approached Iris, and we locked arms. I raised my glass to her lips, and she raised her glass to mine.
“Are you sure?” I asked again.
“I’ve never been as sure of something in my life.”
My Fighting Party began to clap as we drank from each other’s glasses. I looked to Lady C. to see that she too was clapping, albeit less enthusiastically.
“This is wonderful, simply wonderful!” Sagelock lifted into the air, spun twice, and dropped back down to the ground. “I must admit, I am getting a little … choked up … as I have never united two Alphas at one of my tournaments. It is a marvelous thing, and I wish we had done this in the battlefield for all to see. Two Alphas united. How glorious! Now, Chase Knowles, which box will it be?”
Sagelock turned his palms around and the boxes reappeared. I glanced from Aya to Lady C. to Iris.
Without hesitation this time, I stepped forward and placed my hand over the EverLife box.
&nbs
p; “Good choice,” Sagelock said as his form blurred into the background. The box started to unravel, a vibrant energy moving up my arm.
All of us respawned in my Dojo, and as our avatars took shape, I saw a road form in front of our mythcrea quarters, lightning crackling in the darkened sky above us.
A wooden signpost sprouted from the ground, and above it, a handle in blazing blue font appeared, pointing us in the direction of EverLife.
The end.
Reader,
Hi, I’m Harmon Cooper.
This book has been an incredible experience to write, and there’s an entirely different side to it if you listen to audiobooks (hint: background music and the songs in the book being sung by the narrators), so be sure to check out the audiobook narrated by Jeff Hays and Annie Ellicott.
Don’t wait to review this book.
If you enjoyed this, and are looking forward to the next book in the series (out in July/August) please review this book, as it allows Monster Hunt NYC to reach other like-minded readers.
Reviews are what drove you to this series, and they are what will drive others.
Further, if you are into some of the lore (such as Thuleans, Meticans, Tritania, Unigaea), you would be interested in my other series set in the Proxima Galaxy: The Feedback Loop, Fantasy Online, and The Last Warrior of Unigaea. Find the links on the following pages.
Thanks for letting more words come alive. As a former musician, working on this series has been an incredible joy for me.
Yours in sanity,
Harmon Cooper
P.S. You can find out about more Harem Lit books (like this book) on the Facebook page.
Other Books by Harmon Cooper
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My best-selling Superhero Harem Adventure about a sci-fi writer and the superpowered women who are trying to kill him. Fun content, adult read!
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Monster Hunt NYC: A Fantasy Harem Adventure Page 25