Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure Baron Sord (good books to read for adults .txt) 📖

a big jungle plant reaching for me, its green and orange-striped vegetative maw agape, I aimed carefully and squeezed off a burst from my ABR.

Chu-chu-chu-CHOOM!

It kicked hard into my shoulder and bucked as it spat out four blinding-bright rounds.

And then?

Goodbye, plant life.

The big green and orange biting maw exploded in a spray of juicy debris, splattering my armor as I passed through the misty cloud hanging in the air.

I tried not to grin.

The ABR sounded substantially more powerful than the wrist blasters I remember seeing Cygna and other Royal Guardswomen using. Those had made a Vwoop! Vwoop! sound that wasn’t nearly as badass as the ABR-17, and they weren’t automatic either. More like semi-auto compared to the ABR’s full-auto.

In my visor’s HUD, a small radar window showed Captain Theia and my Shock Knights were directly behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder and saw them whipping through the trees and blasting any carnivorous vines that attacked, firing with their own bolt rifles tucked in their shoulders.

Chu-chu-chu-CHOOM!

The jungle plants didn’t stand a chance.

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Violet.

She must’ve been moving quickly on foot because I figured we had already passed her position, but it sounded like she was still up ahead. That meant either she was sprinting for her life, or being carried away by something terrifyingly deadly.

Either option horrified me.

In my ring’s HUD, I scanned frantically for possible heat signatures ahead. A writhing, distant yellow glow was visible only intermittently through trunks and branches and the incredibly uneven terrain. I’d learned from experience that Zalaxian jungle terrain was almost never flat. A “walk” through the jungle was more mountaineering trek than it was a simple stroll. As it was, Violet’s yellow glow of motion in my HUD flickered in and out of visibility as it hopped up, down, left, right, and frequently disappeared behind the rolling terrain. I could imagine Violet vaulting over rocks, swinging from branches, and generally parkouring her way through the jungle like she was weightless. I knew from experience how incredibly athletic she was. Or she was being carried away by some equally athletic but hideous beast, something like Goldie the Gargantua, that red and gold, mutant ape-thing that had carried away Cygna only yesterday.

Gu-Gu-Gu-Gu-GOOOOCK!

The monstrous call was a spastic, screeching, guttural clucking.

Gu-Gu-Gu-Gu-GOOOOCK!

A second call answered the first. Four more followed.

Thrashing noises exploded from several different locations, as if a number of monsters were converging on a single target. A group hunt of some kind. All of them going for Violet. They had heard her fear, scented her blood, or both.

If Violet was wounded, she wouldn’t last long.

From the sound of it, those things were big and would eat her alive.

I focused on the original yellow glow that was Violet and sped toward it, swooping, arcing, and banking around trees while also climbing, diving, and spiraling around the many grabbing branches. More than a few stealthy vines lashed out at me, wrapping around an ankle or an elbow only to be ripped free by my forward speed. The vines I did see in advance paid the ultimate price, getting chewed up by bursts from my ABR.

Chu-chu-chu-CHOOM!

Violet’s yellow glow darted deeper into the jungle. She was running so fast, she must’ve been terrified for her life. She had every right.

Gu-Gu-Gu-Gu-GOOOOCK!

The lusty, guttural sounds of these monsters would terrify anyone. These beasts were high on the hunt, already drooling over their upcoming kill.

Afraid I’d arrive too late to save Violet from being torn apart by thrashing, vicious claws and jaws, I cranked up the throttle on my power armor thrusters to maximum. I quickly realized I was already running full out, but it wasn’t fast enough.

I had a fix for that.

I focused on the familiar menu in my ring’s HUD.

MASS

ENERGY

POSITION

PATTERN

TIME

Below the menu, in one corner of my HUD, was my “doughnut” fuel gauge, a purple circle with a hollow center. It was the dual fuel gauge for both rings. Empty on the gauge was straight down at 6 o’clock. The more “fuel” I had, the more the gauge circled around in clockwise fashion. Currently, my “fuel” doughnut was nearly kissing the 6 because I had used most of my available energy yesterday saving the Bombshells and my own ass after we had crashed in the Artemis, and during the endless struggles that followed. But even a sliver of energy meant my rings could do the impossible.

I focused on POSITION in my HUD menu until it flickered alight. Then I imagined a volumetric and tubular vector arrow extending ahead of me to increase my velocity in pursuit of whatever foul things had Violet in their clutches.

I shot forward with the force of acceleration, narrowly missing being chomped from the air by yet another shadowy, spiked jungle vine.

CHU-CHU-CHU-CHU-CHU-CHOOM!

I flinched in surprise because that wasn’t me firing.

This time it was Captain Theia and her Shock Knights behind me. Their armor couldn’t keep up with my ring’s vector arrow, but they could still lay down cover fire.

“Don’t go too far ahead, my king!” Captain Theia called out over comms.

“I can’t wait!” I barked. “She’s in trouble!”

EEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Every time Violet screamed, it felt like the monsters were clawing my guts out, ripping my heart from my ribcage, and guzzling it down with a bloody, guttural sound.

Gu-Gu-Gu-Gu-GOOOOCK!

When I finally saw the horrid beasts with my own eyes, I grunted in surprise.

—: Chapter 11 :—

Flying, winged velociraptors.

That was what Violet’s tormentors looked like to me.

Their feathers were blue darkening to black on the tops of their bodies, and lightening slightly to a pale lavender on their undersides. Their eyes were fiery orange. And these beasts were huge.

Utahraptor huge.

Upwards of 7 meters from tip to tail with a wingspan twice that. If I remembered correctly, Utahraptors could easily reach 500 kg in mass. I had no idea how something that large could fly, but here they were, thrashing through the air, powered by their immense wings.

One of these things could swallow Violet whole. Admittedly, that might have been an exaggeration in the heat of the moment, but one beast could easily