Providence by Dwa-vi Deslouches (bts book recommendations .txt) 📖

again. Karin began to steel herself and took a deep breath. A wet glob hit her shoulder. She didn’t have to turn to know but she did. Karin looked death in the eye. The Stalker hung suspended by a web above her from a strand and sat placidly not two inches from her face. She heard it hiss, a combat warning, and could not even whimper in fear. Just before those massive pincers crushed her skull six small blades thudded sickly into the creatures mouth and two of its front eyes. The creature screeched and recoiled viciously legs flailing in pain. Karin was numb and stood hearing nothing but her own heartbeat and the roar of blood in her veins. Then someone was grabbing her hand and they were running. She faintly registered the person as Enoch and she wondered how he was still alive and who had saved them from the Stalker.

 

         Enoch ran with her. He ran with this girl that he barely knew and was clinging on to her as he had his own sister. He would not fail her. This time was his chance to make amends, and he would not miss it. Enoch would not let Karin die.

Chapter 3

 

       Four lesser flame demons would not be a problem for Xzander, if he weren’t in the woods. The four creatures swirled around him shooting burst of flames and leaving small flames in their wakes. Xzander ducked and rolled and evaded as best he could but he was getting tired from the rigorous day and needed to draw the fight to a close. He feigned a dive to the left before hurtling a large rock at the closest demon. The kobold-like flame creature was caught unaware by the fist-sized rock and it slammed into his head with a sickening crunch. The other three were more wary as they came in for another pass. Xzander dove to the right of the largest one swinging his two twin blades in a circle around him. The first blade caught the creature high in the shoulder and as it fell from the pain it dropped into the arc of the second blade ending its cursed life. The last two were visibly shaken and blasted away in a flaming torrent when Xzander roared a battle charge.

 

         Immediately after the battle ended Xzander dropped down kneeling and prayed to fight his curse “Our father who art in heaven. Holy be thy name. I have killed, but let my sins be washed away as I have killed those who wished to do harm to one of your loyal subjects. Brother St. Michael I claimed these two kills in the name of you and my other brothers.” He concluded with a soft “Amen” before jogging to a clearing that housed a cave he could hide in. he heard a feminine scream coming from about that direction and his blood chilled. He knew that scream. It was Karin. Xzander ran.

 

         One moment he was running and the next he was sprawled across the ground by a creature flying into the clearing he had headed for. Leaping to his feet Xzander realized it was Enoch.

 

         “Where’s Karin?” Xzander asked urgently.

Enoch couldn’t meet his gaze he muttered “In the cave. I was trying to get her back from the Gargantuan Stalker.” Xzander felt his blood snap into ice and he almost dropped his sword. Karin was deathly afraid of Stalkers as they had slaughtered her entire city in the battle of Sword Haven. He charged in leaving Enoch to stumble along behind him. Barreling into the cave he sliced apart webs with staggering speed and power, moving along like a bullet through the air. In about ten minutes he reached a cavern and what he saw made his stomach churn.

 

         Eggs, webs, bones and spiders. Lots of spiders. The cavern was a den. A nest for beasts of unimaginable horror. The entire right wall was covered in eggs and web and the left wall had animal, monster and human carcasses. Dead ahead was Karin Sitting sobbing atop of what appeared to be a throne of bones. The stalkers ranged from part scorpions to porcupine needles. Without warning huge thick sickly sweet smelling webs slammed into the opening they had traveled through and the stone itself began corroding. Xzander growled in hatred of these demented creatures. He knew he was trapped.

 

         Enoch nearly fainted. He placed his left hand on the wall to steady him and his hand went through a sticky thick membrane into a jell like substance. His fingers brushed something spindly and he recoiled in shock and disgust when he looked over and realized his hand was in a stalker egg. He recoiled, turned, retched and was sick, violently doubling over beside Xzander. Slowly he picked himself up, head swimming, and tuned into what sounded like a conversation between Xzander and the spiders.

 

         “They serve me and only me,” a voice wheezed. The sound was like a blade being drawn across gravel and it made Enoch flinch. Xzander said something in phrayan, the language of most woodland creatures that roughly translated to “I know who you serve”. Enoch, gaining his composure took stock of the situation. Ten stalkers were in the room. Two of the stalkers were like the one he had encountered already. The other six were split between spindly-legged porcupine spines and green glowing fungus pouches. A humanoid creature stood beside the throne, his hands gently caressing a terrified Karin. His face was that of a wolf and his body resembled a bear. His features were gruesome with a severe burn down his right cheek and a dark slash across his left eye and muzzle. The creature’s eyes met Enoch’s and it smiled a garish smile muscles bunching up for a dive. The creature leapt.

 

         Xzander tackled the cursed wolf-man mid air slamming him to the ground. He drew his double blades and drew his arms up for a crushing strike but was yanked off of his target by a web on his back. Spinning he sliced the web and fell onto a second stalker’s head barely balancing on it. Enoch was jolted into action as his years of training kicked in. He pulled four smoke bombs from his waist pack on his lower back and threw them around to build up a cloud. He then pulled two black soul-steel daggers from a scabbard on his leg and moved to engage a scorpion-tailed stalker.

 

         The stalker bucked and twisted but Xzander held tight to the short hairs on its head. He let go when it was coming down from a buck and slammed his two blades into the top of the creature’s head and twisted them. The stalker shuddered violently and shrieked a deafening death call and its legs began curling up as the creature doubled up on itself. The other stalkers in the room suddenly went berserk. Enoch heard the shriek as he plunged his blades into his first target for the fortieth time in his smoke cloud and the creature, bleeding profusely, was falling back. Suddenly the stalkers were on him in numbers. Three stalkers engaged Xzander and two attacked Enoch leaving two to guard Karin and two to guard the eggs.

 

         Enoch tried to dodge but his left foot was stuck to the ground by a web, which, thank goodness, had no acid. In a panic he tried to cut through it before a spiked leg protruded from his chest. At first he felt nothing but the horror of the wound. The sensation came to Enoch as a hurricane of pain and his vision blurred. His head swam and his legs buckled. ‘This is what death is like huh?’ He thought bitterly ‘To survive the things I’ve lived through and die in a cave to a bunch of freaking spiders’. In the thinning smoke Xzander saw Enoch fall and Karin… well he didn’t know what was wrong with her. Her head was lolled and her eyes were open seeing nothing. ‘She might be unconscious or…’ Xzander thought and was overwhelmed by rage and sadness. Prior to hitting the ground Enoch saw a light before he blacked out.

 

         Xzander roared a bellow of anguish and every being in the room remained still and went silent. He was shaking violently and he knew it was coming on. This hadn’t happened to him in fourteen years. On his left arm Red inscriptions in Daemon scrawled themselves up his body and on his right blue letters scrawled themselves in Angelin moving toward his chest. His body was soon covered and his eyes began transformation. In his left eye his pupil formed a golden ring and in his right eye his pupil became snakelike. His vision went sharp, senses attuned and he felt magical energy flowing into him at levels he had never wielded before. “Prepare to die!” he growled, and lunged for the nearest opponent.

Chapter 4

 

Chris shook his head in dismay. Those idiots had gone into a stalker nest and now two minutes later there were strange noises coming from inside. He sighed ruefully and dropped from his treetop hideout and ran into the cave. When he reached the main chamber he was stopped by a large web barricade. Chris put his hands forward and shouted “ Chamejante”. The webs burst into flame and he ran into the cavern. He was momentarily stunned by the scene as a creature with gray wings, blue and red runes with horns was flying around killing the stalkers. He shook himself and grabbed the boy he spotted on the ground. Upon lifting him onto his back he felt thick blood staining his clothes. Obviously the wound was grave. Looking to the throne at the back of the room Chris noted a girl, seemingly paralyzed, sitting on the seat of bones. He short range teleported down the hall and laid the boy down before returning for the girl. Before he could touch her red inscribed fist lifted him from his feet. The creature locked his gaze with its mismatched eyes and he felt its probing glare penetrate his very soul. Then abruptly it dropped him and returned to its rampage. Slinking away he grabbed the girl and teleported to tend to her and the boy.

 

         All Xzander could hear was whispers. His mind was in turmoil and it manifested in his behavior. Xzander uncaringly slaughtered the stalkers and the wolf man before encountering a strange boy. He saw a faint