I whipped my blade out, and once again, Dred seemed to have trouble dodging. He feinted, and as I went to block, he reversed course lashing out at me. The thing was, the movement almost seemed slow. Not enough for me to block or anything, but enough for me to dodge.
The tip of Excalibur missed me by a hair’s breadth as I executed The Wind That Flings The Sand. My elbow shot out, catching him on the side of the head, and the blow rocked him backward.
“You hit me?” he said, more shocked than anything. “How could you hit me?” His eyes narrowed as they raked over me. “You shouldn’t even be able to see me.”
“Power of Love, bitch,” I said, darting forward, and for a few seconds, I actually had him on the run. As we fought and parried, I couldn’t seem to land a blow on him, but then again, he couldn’t get me either.
The problem quickly became apparent to me. He was just way better than me, and while I was actually a touch faster than him, I couldn’t hit him. Still, the difference wasn’t enough to let him overpower me.
“It’s been a long time since someone has pushed me this far, Builder,” Dred said, and I could have sworn he sounded happy. “No wonder the Empress fears you so.”
“The Empress fears me?” As I said the words, I hesitated.
Dred’s boot caught me in the stomach, lifting me from the air and flinging me backward. I hit the far wall, slamming into it with bone-shuddering force. My teeth snapped together, and as I collapsed forward on my hands and knees, Dred rushed forward.
“No, but I thought it might shock you to hear.” Excalibur came down to end my life.
43
The clang of metal resounding off Dred’s skull as Gabriella slammed a pair of boots upside his head filled my ears an instant before the guy was flung across the room like a fucking ragdoll. He slammed into the far wall, shattering the stone and collapsing to the ground stunned.
“It’s dangerous to fight Dred as you are,” Gabriella said, offering me the boots. “Take these.”
“What the fuck?” I mumbled, and as I touched them, I realized what they were. The Uncaring Walk of Sloth. Belphegor’s armament.
Power exploded through me as the sigils emblazoned on them came to life in a flurry of emerald sparks. As Dred started to rise, I kicked off my own boots and pulled them on.
The Destroyer stood, eyes narrowed, and as he did, I threw my hand out at him. A scintillating net of sickly green light exploded from my fingertips, slamming into him as he charged at me. The magic wrapped around him, slowing him down enough for me to stand and brace myself for his attack.
I barely got my blade up in time. Excalibur slammed into my sword, throwing me back half a step, and as he tried to push me off balance, I dropped one of my hands and triggered the grappling hook on my thigh. The projectile exploded from the canister in a spray of steam, catching him in the underside of the throat before ripping out the back of his neck.
Blood sprayed over me as he looked at me wide-eyed. Choking bubbles of blood burst from his ruined throat, and as his hand fell from the hilt of his sword, and he stopped pressing down on me, I thought he was going to grip the wound.
Only, instead, he grabbed the hook, jerking it free of his flesh with one movement that drew me toward him. His knee lashed out, catching me in the gut and throwing me from my feet. I collapsed to the stone as he stood there, holding the bloody hook in his hand. As the wound closed on his throat, he jerked me toward him. I lashed out, and thanks to his decreased speed, I managed to slip Caliburn past his defenses and slam the weapon into his gut. His glowing armor turned away the blow, but it still staggered him.
Still, as I recalled the hook to the canister, he was already coming at me again. Worse, even with him slowed and with more power at my disposal than anything I’d had before, I knew I wasn’t good enough to win. Powerful enough, maybe, but skilled? No.
Then again, I didn’t have to beat him. I just had to escape. And I could hold him long enough to do that.
“Gabriella, get them to safety,” I said, right before Dred countered, slipping by my next attack and slashing at me with Excalibur. The weapon ripped by me, gouging a flurry of sparks through my ethereal armor as it scraped across my torso. Pain leapt through me like every nerve in me had been lit on fire, and as my body struggled to heal the wound, I realized it was going to take a lot longer than normal.
Worse, he was already attacking again. His knee caught me under the chin, snapping my head backward.
“I don’t know where to take them,” Gabriella said, moving toward her sisters while I stepped back, trying to ignore how my jaw felt broken while I parried his next blow. “Where is the portal?”
“The rift is just beyond the gate.” I once again used The Wind That Flings The Sand to sidestep while conjuring a palm full of Hellfire. Unfortunately, Dred seemed to expect it. He pivoted and slammed his knee into my stomach as I tried to blast him, causing my fireball to slam harmlessly into the wall behind him.
Air whooshed from my mouth, and as I staggered backward, Gabriella picked up her two sisters, throwing both Michelle and Lucifer over her shoulders.
“You’d better hurry after us!” Gabriella cried, her wings extending from her back. “Because once we leave, you’re going to lose thirty percent of your strength and speed.”
“What?” I asked as Dred came at me again, trying to capitalize on my sudden hesitation. He was slower, but almost not enough for it to matter because he was still so much better than me.
“My armament, it boosts all your abilities by ten percent for every ally within fifty or so meters.” Gabriella was lifting into the air, heading out the way I had come in.
Her words made my blood grow cold because while I’d succeeded in sidestepping his thrust, it’d been close. Too close.
Worse, Dred smiled at me. “How long do you really have, Builder?” he nodded toward Gabriella’s fleeing form. “How long?”
He renewed his attacks, coming at me even harder than before. As I fought, dodged, and parried, I knew why her Armament had made me feel so powerful. I was getting a five and a half percent boost (my legitimacy times the buff it gave me) for each of them.
Once that was gone, I’d be almost twenty percent slower. And I was barely keeping up now. Dred seemed to know that, which made sense because he wasn’t deaf. Now, he was just focused on keeping me off balance until she left.
“What’s it going to be, Arthur?” Dred asked, Excalibur flashing through the air and driving me back. “Will you turn and run, giving me your back, or will you make your allies stay and watch you die?”
“How about option B?” I asked as I realized something. I didn’t give a goddamn about Dred finding out I was here now. It was time to play my trump card.
I flung a blast of Hellfire at Dred, and instead of dodging, he tanked it, allowing it to slam into his chest and dissipate as he came at me. I didn’t try to dodge his swing as Excalibur jerked outward because I’d heal. Hopefully.
Instead, I put my hand on my shoulder and called upon Sathanus. The moment our power sparked, Dred drove his blade into my gut. As he ripped it out of me, spilling blood and thicker bits across the floor, I collapsed to my knees struggling to remember how to breathe.
“You might think you’ll heal, but how well will you do that without this?” Dred grabbed my belt and pulled me to my feet.
“By my Grandmam’s bearded beard!” Sathanus snarled, her axe lashing out in an arc that would have removed Dred’s head from his shoulder’s if she hadn’t warned him with her battle cry.
Only, as he released me and sprang back barely avoiding her glowing axe, I realized that had been the point. Distance. Space. Time.
Sathanus grabbed me with one hand as her one-handed swing ineffectually cut through the air, and then we were gone.
We reappeared beside the rift just as Gabriella stepped through it, and for a second, I thought we were home free.
That’s when I saw the force coming toward us. Ravagers, dragons, everyt
hing was converging on the rift, sure, but that wasn’t what scared me. Hell, even the battalion of kaiju I saw wasn’t what scared me. No. It was the sight of what had to be the Empress. She stood in the back of it all, impossibly huge and menacing. Her grotesque body was covered in eyes and tentacles, and that was only what I could see of her because as I craned my head toward the sky, I realized I couldn’t see past what I thought was her thigh.
“Is that who I think it is?” I asked, barely able to keep the tremor out of my voice. That thing felt impossibly strong. Like I was just a gnat buzzing around a flea on a rat clinging to a fucking planet. “How do we beat that?”
“I don’t know, but now is not the time to figure it out.” Sathanus met my eyes, and I could see the terror in them. “We should leave before she gets here. Before they all get here.”
The thing was, as I followed Sathanus through, the only thing I could think about was how hopeless our situation had become. At the end of the day, Dred was a man, and that thing? That had to be a god.
And we hadn’t been able to beat Dred.
We reappeared back in Hell, just beyond the rift gate, and as we waited for something to come through, the other assembled Archangels bound the rift shut with their magic. All of Heaven and All of Hell save Belial. It would have been awesome if I wasn’t so fucking scared.
“What do we do?” I asked, swallowing hard as I looked at everyone.
“What do you mean?” Gwen asked, coming forward to help Gabriella with the other two archangels. “You won? We have Gabriella back.”
“For now.” I swallowed, turning to look at the bound rift. The whole of the horizon at the edge of the Graveyard of Statues was Darkness, and within it lived a god who wanted nothing more than to crush us. “I mean what do we do about the Empress?” I swallowed, but I couldn’t get any moisture in my mouth. “I saw her.” I gestured at Sathanus. “She did too.”
“Arthur, you’ll figure out a way. You’re smart like that, remember?” Gabriella said, and as she hugged me, I almost believed her. Almost.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
Curious about what happens to Arthur next?
Find out in The Builder’s Throne, coming soon!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear reader, if you REALLY want to read my next Builder novel- I’ve got a bit of bad news for you.
Unfortunately, Amazon will not tell you when the next comes out.
You’ll probably never know about my next books, and you’ll be left wondering what happened to Arthur, Gwen, and the gang. That’s rather terrible.
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Want to get this FREE?
Also by J. A. Cipriano
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Thank You for reading!
Author’s Note
Litrpg
The Builder's Wrath (The Legendary Builder Book 4) Page 25