Harem Assassins : King Sekton's Harem Planet, Book 2: A Space Opera Harem Adventure by Baron Sord (top inspirational books .txt) 📗

Ring, I thought, what’s down there?! I can’t see shit!

Cursing didn’t improve my view. I wasn’t sure what sort of active signaling would cut through and I didn’t have time to think of a better scanning technique. Instead, I used POSITION vectors to tear aside the big leathery leaves, ripping them from their strong stalks as I descended.

KEEEEEEEK!

Movement below.

Flapping sounds.

An explosion of black and blue as a number of Terrorsaurs burst up through the leaves, buffeting me with their wings and bursting through the leathery leaves as they hastened their escape.

I would’ve started shooting, but my ABR-17 was long gone back in the jungle, and I wouldn’t want to risk hitting Violet anyway. Of course, the Shock Knights had their weapons.

“Nobody shoot at the ground!” I shouted while I fought through the slashing claws of passing Terrorsaurs.

Ku-ku-ku-kunk!

More Terrorsaur tails whipped against me as they went, hitting my torso, ribs, sides, helmet. Dozens of strikes. In many cases, ballistics worked to my advantage, deflecting most of the tail quills. A few hammered through my armor like nails from a nail gun. A few hit my freaking head. Thankfully, I didn’t die from a nail to the brain because I was wearing a helmet, and again, ballistics. Also, none of these Terrorsaurs were as big as Crackfang.

Two seconds later, they were flapping past me and away, making their final escape.

BRAAAP!

BRAAAP!

BRAAAAAAP!

Or not.

The Shock Knights were busy blasting the fleeing Terrorsaurs.

I had no idea how many they shot or not. At close range, it would probably be impossible to hit the constantly shifting target of an undulating Terrorsaur in flight.

Me, I once again had quill spikes puncturing my armor all over, and another explosion of fiery pain surging through my body like I was being burned at the stake by quill poison.

This time, I didn’t care. Violet was right there.

She needed help.

I dropped down, tearing leaves aside to find her.

Shock Knights joined in, helping me tear through the think canopy. Branches cracked and went fluttering aside as big boughs were ripped away. There had to be an easier way down to Violet’s location, around the side perhaps, but I was too frazzled and frightened to think of one.

The quill poison was kicking in hard. A little had been bad. A lot was overwhelming. At least I still had my wind and could move my ribs to breathe normally.

Ring! I thought. Show me the quills and poison in my MRI!

I shouted over comms, “Somebody check on Violet! She’s down there somewhere! Go get her! Hurry!”

It took me another minute to consume the mass of the poison and quills. After, I felt nauseous and started dry-heaving in my helmet. I’d never retched harder. Thankfully my stomach was empty. My body was not happy and kept retching. Didn’t matter the poison was out. My guts hadn’t yet gotten the all-clear sign.

When I finally lowered to the ground, I saw the Shock Knights standing silently surrounding Violet.

“Is she okay?” I asked.

“You better not look, my king,” one of the Shock Knights said.

“What?!” I pushed past her.

“It’s bad.”

“No!” I shouted.

When I saw the bloody body lying ruptured in the red mud, I dropped to my knees and puked, gagging bile into my helmet visor.

—: Chapter 12 :—

I sat slumped on a stump overlooking the grisly scene.

There was so much blood, you’d think it had stained the jungle dirt its customary red, but I knew that was the dirt’s normal color, a byproduct of the constant, toxic red rains.

“Is that her?” Captain Theia asked, her helmet on but her visor retracted.

My visor was also open because I’d puked into it. Hardly any because it was only bile, but it stank. Your stomach was never completely empty, was it? I’d clean my visor later.

I stared at the mangled mess of bloody flesh, leaning my elbows on my knees.

“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that is. It has hooves. And fur.”

“Was she a shifter, my king?” Captain Theia asked. “This woman?”

My eyes popped in surprise and my guts spiraled into painful knots. I didn’t know if Violet was a shifter or not. She easily could have been. It would certainly explain how she survived in this deadly jungle. Maybe she was a deer or something with hooves? I had no way of knowing. If she was, she was dead now. There was no putting this bloody mess back together. The Terrorsaurs and gored her beyond recognition. Half her guts were just… gone. I grimaced in despair and disgust. At that point, my hope that Violet was safe somewhere else shattered against the sharp rocks of reality.

“My king?” Theia asked gently. “Is everything okay?”

“No,” I grunted hoarsely.

Suddenly, I hated everything about this planet.

I wanted to go back to Earth, back to working at Rolbotics, to my engineering buddies and our exosuit. And video games. Nobody really died in video games. You restarted whenever you wanted, went back to your last saved location, respawned, earned an extra life, etc., etc. Nothing was final.

This was.

Bloodily so.

“This isn’t her,” I said out loud. “It can’t be. It’s just a deer.” I was rationalizing because I couldn’t bear the thought of Violet being dead.

Theia’s kryptonite green eyes were locked on mine.

“It’s probably not even a shifter,” I said. “Just a dead deer. Wait. Can someone back at the outpost analyze the tissue? Check the DNA for shifter DNA? Confirm it’s not a shifter? Can they do that?”

“I’m sure they can,” Theia said gently.

Meanwhile, the other Shock Knights were standing mostly with their backs to me in a protective circle, watching the jungle for signs of danger. A few glanced at me over their shoulders, their expressions inscrutable behind their menacing knightly golden helmet visors.

Theia sat down on the big jungle stump beside me and retracted her helmet completely. Her hair was tied back in a regulation bun, but she was still gorgeous. She reached up to my face, then paused her hand midway and said, “Permission to touch your Royal Person?”

“Huh?”

“May