Immortal Swordslinger 3

by Dante King

  I got back to my feet, ready to take on the next golem, but the fight was over. Kegohr and Vesma stood over the remains of the three they had killed between them, while Kumi applauded from the road.

  We dug through the remains of the ruined golems and pulled out their cores, the shining slivers of Vigor that lay at the heart of such magical beasts and that gave Augmenters access to new powers. They wouldn’t be of any use to Vesma and Kegohr, who only used fire magic, and I would have to wait for a good opportunity to absorb them and potentially unleash my new powers. So, for now, they went into a bag alongside our food.

  We arrived at the village as dusk approached, the sun kissing the horizon in a burst of glorious red light that gave the sands around us a rosy glow. One of the less sand-engulfed buildings provided us shelter—an ancient shrine with an altar dedicated to earth gods. Even in there, the floor was half-buried beneath the sand, right up to the altar’s base.

  We sat at the clearer side of the room and ate a dinner of smoked fish. Kumi, attuned to the ways of water, found an old well and coaxed out what little dampness remained in its depths. It was enough water to slake our thirsts after a long day of walking and fighting.

  “I don’t know how often that well will provide,” she said. “We should be careful with our water.”

  “You’re a water Augmenter,” I said. “Can’t you just create it whenever you need it?”

  “Unfortunately, no. I am a Wild.”

  “But Kegohr is a Wild, and he can create fire without needing any other source except Vigor along his fire channels.” I smiled. “I’m not trying to ask stupid questions. I genuinely want to know.”

  Kumi sighed. “I wasn’t trained in a guild, so my understanding of Augmentation is completely natural. I haven’t tried to absorb cores before, nor have I ever defeated the water spirit. I’ve been able to use the Song of the Sea since I was only a little girl.”

  “That makes sense. Kegohr can use more than just his Spirit of the Wildfire because he must have defeated the fire spirit and trained with Radiant Dragon.”

  “I assume so, yes.”

  “Well, water won’t be a problem while I’m around.”

  “True,” she said. “But even your Vigor has limits.”

  “I’ve yet to find them,” I said with a smile.

  The atmosphere became more somber as we looked out into the night.

  “This place really has fallen into ruin,” I said.

  “The wheel of life carries all around,” Vesma said. “Even the mightiest civilization crumbles in time, and a new one rises with the wheel.”

  I smiled at her. “You sound very philosophical.”

  She shrugged. “I was quoting a poem I read.”

  “The words ring true,” Kumi said. “From what you said of the Wysaro Clan and now this cult, it seems like many are defying the Emperor’s will. Are we seeing the end of this empire?”

  “Not if I’ve got anything to do with it.” Kegohr stretched out on a blanket with his hands behind his head. “Or you, I reckon.”

  With dinner done, Kumi said that she wanted to check on the well again. I walked out with her into the twilight.

  “How are you doing?” I asked as we stood by the well.

  “Not so great,” she admitted. “I’ve never been away from the Diamond Coast like this. I’d miss my father and my people even if I wasn’t missing water too.”

  “Do you wish you hadn’t come?”

  “Of course not.” She laid a hand on my chest and moved in close. “It’s all worthwhile to be with you.”

  “And sharing me with Vesma and Faryn?” The elvish Wood Augmenter had returned to the Radiant Dragon Guild, but she was still very much on my mind. She’d mentioned something about being my wife before we’d parted, and I couldn’t help wondering whether I was now married to three women.

  “My idea, remember?” Kumi said. “I know the Swordslinger’s appetites have to be met, and I’m more than happy to help.” Her hand crept around my back. “Speaking of which…”

  She stretched up and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her tight, crushing our bodies together.

  “Let’s find somewhere a bit more comfortable,” I said.

  I led her to a house I’d spotted while we walked, a little away from the shrine and with all its walls intact. The sand went a quarter of the way to the ceiling, so we only had to crouch a little to get inside.

  We found a hardened patch of sand and knelt together before we exchanged a deep, passionate kiss. Our hands roamed over each other’s bodies, toying and teasing, making my heart beat faster and the blood race in my veins. Her every touch was electrifying, her kisses as sweet and refreshing as spring water.

  I unfastened my outer robe and laid it down on the sand. Kumi discarded her top and then her skirt before laying back on the impromptu bed. In the red dusk light spilling in through the window, I gazed at her wonderful curves and smooth skin, drinking in the marvel that was the princess of the Qihin.

  I cast off my other clothes and knelt by her feet. Slowly, taking care over every inch, I kissed my way up her legs. My hand ran ahead of me, up her belly, and across the mounds of her breasts. As my lips reached the softness between her legs, she gasped in pleasure, and I set to work dispelling thoughts of homesickness. I lingered there, enjoying the taste of her and the joy of her as she writhed in pleasure.

  “Oh, yes,” she moaned. “My Swordslinger.”

  She reached down to brush my face.

  “Come closer,” she whispered.

  I kissed my way up her belly and across her breasts, until we were face to face. Then our lips met, at first in brief, brushing, teasing touches, then descending into a deep, passionate kiss. I slid closer, and our bodies joined with a shared moment of joy. She wrapped her legs around me and pulled me in harder, deeper, faster.

  I tangled my hands through her hair and tipped her head back so that I could kiss her neck. She sighed and arched her back, ran her fingers up my spine and then back down. My flesh tingled, and I grabbed her more tightly, losing myself in the softness of her skin and her sweet smell.

  She drew me in with arms and legs, pulling me tight as we gave in to the urgency of our passion. Lingering kisses and low moans gave way to the desperate drive of desire as our excitement mounted.

  Kumi pressed her hands against my chest and pushed me off and onto my back. Then, she was straddling me, a huge grin on her face as she sank onto me and I into her. I ran my hands over her curves and down to her hips, felt the wetness of her as she rose up and down, at first slowly, then faster and faster.

  “My hero,” she whispered. “My champion. My betrothed. My glorious, Immortal Swordslinger.”

  My whole body thrummed with pleasure, a blissful moment in which there was no quest, no desert, no Gonki province, just me and Kumi and the last rays of sunset illuminating the curves of her chest. She flung her head back as she shuddered in joy, and I felt myself hit the crest of that wonderful wave, in which there was only the two of us, briefly and brilliantly become one.

  Afterward, we lay for a while in that sand-swept house while the sky outside faded from red to steel gray.

  “We should get back to the others,” I said.

  At last, she sighed, rolled off me, and reached for her skirt. “I suppose so,” she agreed.

  In the confines of the house, I found my pants and tunic and started getting dressed.

  Suddenly, a strange noise came from outside, a drawn out rasping hiss.

  “What’s that?” I pulled on my robe and went to look out the door.

  A figure was standing in the village. He was humanoid, around five feet nine inches tall, dressed in pale robes. His skin was scaly, and horned ridges ran along the sides of his head.

  “Hey there!” I called out. “Can I help you?”

  The creature turned to look our way, revealing a lizard’s face. He seemed to smile at me, a twinkle in his eyes, then darted off between the buildings.


  “Nice to meet you, yes,” he hissed. “Must be going now.”

  “Hey, wait!” I shouted.

  Kumi and I ran after the lizardman, who was heading straight for the shrine.

  “Kegohr, Vesma, we’ve got company!” I shouted.

  They came running out of the shrine, weapons raised. The lizardman, less than six feet from them, suddenly vanished in a swirl of sand.

  “What the fuck?” I exclaimed.

  “Oh, yes, yes!” came his hissing voice from inside the shrine. “Such lovely, tasty things.”

  We ran in to see him standing behind the altar, one of our haversacks in one hand, rummaging through it with the other.

  “Tasty, tasty fishies!” He pulled out a fish and waved it around.

  “That’s ours,” Kegohr said and grabbed at him.

  There was another swirl of sand, and the lizardman vanished into the ground.

  We looked around as we scoured the room for any sign of him.

  “Not done yet,” came the hissing voice from outside. “Time for bold adventurers to come out and play.”

  Suddenly, the sand was swirling all around us. Not a focused funnel, like the ones the lizardman had vanished into, but a roaring, chaotic maelstrom, a magical sandstorm that scratched at our skin.

  “Out!” I shouted, struggling not to rub the sand deeper into my stinging eyes. “Before this thing shreds us.”

  Together, we stumbled from our shelter into the night.

  Chapter Four

  As sand swirled around me, I snatched my weapons and followed the others out of the shrine. In the open air, the maelstrom receded, and the sand fell to the ground, leaving us dusty but unharmed.

  I blinked to clear my watering eyes. Kegohr was cursing the grit while Vesma and Kumi dealt with it in silence.

  Once my view was clear enough, I looked around the open space in front of the shrine for the lizardman who’d stolen our food and attacked us with the sandstorm. With darkness falling, it was hard to make out what was happening, but I caught movement between a pair of buildings opposite us.

  A pile of dried-out wood sat off to one side, whether the remains of a fallen building or something that had been gathered for firewood, I couldn’t tell. Either way, it would serve its purpose to illuminate the darkness. It would also be dry thanks to the heat and the arid desert environment.

  I launched an Untamed Torch to set fire to the wood. As flames started to creep up one side, I used Flame Empowerment to strengthen them. The fire rapidly spread across the heap of wood. Within seconds, it was a blazing inferno.

  The flames cast the sand-sunken village in an entirely new light. The houses became square faces against the blackness of the desert night, their windows and doorways gaping eyes and mouths. Some of them had wooden framed roofs instead of the flat adobe we’d seen at the city, their style imitating the pagoda roofs I’d seen in other provinces. Traces of ancient carvings, mostly worn away by the sands of time, were exaggerated by the play of light and shadow, making them suddenly visible once more. I saw serpents writhing through forests, humans and horses striding across open planes in vignettes immortalizing the Gonki Valley that had been lost.

  Also illuminated was our attacker. He stood between two of the houses, a fanged and mischievous smile on his face. His skin was covered in sandy yellow and orange scales, a forked tongue flickered from between his lips, and his slitted eyes were turned away from us.

  “Such power!” he said. “Summoning a raging inferno just to see little me. Heroes of great Vigor, aren’t you? And heroes with great gifts.”

  He dipped a scaled hand inside the haversack again. This time, he pulled out a ring of dried apple. He tossed it into the air, opened his mouth wide, and shot out his tongue like a frog to catch the fruit as it fell.

  “Good and sweet,” he said. “So long since sweet things grew in poor Gonki.”

  “That’s ours,” I said. “Eat another one, and I’ll cut off your hand.”

  “Oooh, that’s a little extreme, isn’t it?” He held out the bag. “Since you ask so nicely.”

  Vesma strode toward him across the open ground.

  “Actually…” The lizardman snatched the bag back at the last moment. “I think I’ll keep this. Just too tasty to let go.”

  Vesma grabbed for the bag, but it was gone. The lizardman whirled around her in a shower of sand and hit her in the side with the bag. The blow clearly caused far more shock than anything else, and Vesma stood dumbfounded as the lizardman walked away, calling back over his shoulder.

  “You’ll have to do better than that, won’t you?”

  He walked easily across the soft sand, his bare feet splayed wide. Pale blue robes swayed around him. They had a gap on the back, in the middle of his right shoulder, revealing a shape marked out in the scales there. A Wild mark, like every Wild had, including Kumi and Kegohr. While most Wilds concealed them, I had seen Wilds around Qihin wear their clothes like this, the mark proudly and defiantly on display.

  Vesma rushed at the lizardman. Without turning to look, he sidestepped to avoid her charge. But Vesma was used to such tactics; they were among her own favorites. She sidestepped with him and grabbed for his shoulders. One hand took hold, but the other missed as he spun around, grabbed her wrist, and swept her feet out from under her with a kick. Vesma hit the ground with a grunt of pain. The lizardman twisted her arm a little further, until something clicked, and then let it go.

  “Give the lady a hand!” he exclaimed.

  By now, the rest of us were running in. Kegohr was the first to the fight, determined to protect his old friend. The lizardman easily sidestepped the thunderous approach of the half-ogre and shoved him in the side as he passed. Kegohr stumbled but kept his feet, turned, and swung a punch at the space where the lizardman had been. Instead of hitting scales, he was left grasping at a swirl of sand.

  “Where’d he go?” Kegohr growled.

  “Here!” The lizardman burst out of the sand behind Kumi.

  She swayed away from him and then back in, following the flowing, wave-like martial arts of her people. As the lizardman flung a punch at her head, she flowed around it and grabbed hold of his arm. She wrenched it down and around, a move that should have thrown him off balance, but he went with and through the movement, throwing himself into a lunge that broke Kumi’s hold. He struck her in the side with the edge of his hand, and she fell gasping to the ground while he disappeared into the sand once more, leaving some of it swirling the air behind him.

  “How’s he doing that shit?” Kegohr pointed at the ground where the lizardman had vanished.

  “Vigor,” I said. “He’s clearly an earth Augmenter, and he’s using it against us.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah? Well, I’ve got Augmenting too, and I’m gonna show him how we work with fire.”

  Flames sprang from Kegohr’s hand.

  “Really?” a voice said behind him.

  Kegohr spun around, but the lizardman was on the move once more. He ducked and wove around Kegohr, forcing the half-ogre to keep turning to follow him. Kegohr kept swinging at him with his fists, his mounting rage forcing me to stay back in case I got too close. When Kegohr started to stumble dizzily, the lizardman shot out a hand and hit him square in the middle of the chest. Kegohr let out a shocked gasp and fell on his back.

  “The bigger they come, the more they can hurt you,” the lizardman said. “No, wait, that’s not it at all!” He held up the bag he’d stolen. “Still after this, yes? Want to beat me up for hurting your friends? Well, come on then.” He held his arms wide.

  Anger simmered in my stomach, but I forced my mind to let the emotion pass. I didn’t go in fighting without thinking, like my friends had done, because I wanted to study our opponent. He didn’t seem as if he wanted to actually harm us; he just wanted to show off his skills.

  If I was going to catch this guy then I needed to take away his advantage, maybe even beat him at his own game. Instead of charging straight at him,
I took a moment to call forth the power of ash inside me. An Ash Cloud billowed from my skin to fill the space around us. With my movements concealed by the mist, I rushed at the lizardman.

  “Nicely done,” said a voice over to my left. “But you think I can’t sense you coming just because I can’t see you? Tut tut tut, boy, I’m not some guardsman on his first watch.”

  I dispersed the mist and looked around. The lizardman stood in front of the shrine again, the bag still in his hand. He tossed another apple ring into the air and caught it in his mouth.

  “You didn’t need these, did you?” he asked.

  This time, I summoned another Ash Cloud, but this one was much thicker, more acrid, and focused around the lizardman’s head. When I heard him rasp and wheeze, I charged, but the ground beneath him shifted. Before I could grab him, he vanished into the sand, leaving the ash hanging uselessly in the air.

  “Over here!” he shouted from the doorway of a half-buried house.

  I ran at him and used Stinging Palm to shoot thorns into the ground at his feet. I was hoping the thorns would make the sand beneath him too dangerous to disappear into. In response, he changed up his own tactics. Sand swirled around him again, but instead of vanishing into it, he sent it blasting out from his body. I hardened my forearm with Compress Ash and raised it just in time to avoid having my face sandblasted. The sand attack had eaten away at the ash covering my arm, and the exposed skin was left raw and stinging.

  “So close,” the lizardman said, again from a totally different direction. “Should I give you more of a head-start?”

  He was standing in the darkness at the edge of the village, where the flames of the fire barely illuminated him. He rummaged in the bag again and pulled out a flatbread.