Death Cultivator by eden Hudson (knowledgeable books to read .txt) 📗

arm over his shoulder. “Sometimes you’ve got to knock out a drowning man to get him to shore. Grab his other side and let’s go.”

“Meet you at the bottom,” Kest said. “I’m going to go grab my Spirit Damper and throw a couple more jar bombs. Here, take this, Hake.” She grabbed my wrist and poked the storage ring into my palm. “The chain ladder’s inside, and maybe you can stick the jerk in the ring so you guys can get him down faster.”

Her footsteps took off running back the way we’d come.

I slipped on the thin silver band. “Can you put people in storage rings?”

“Let’s find out.” Rali eased Warcry to the ground.

Death Wish

SHOGUN TAKIRU’S PRESSURE came back while we were on the ladder. We were climbing down, watching for chaos creatures, then suddenly the weight of a thousand suns was pushing down on me, and my grip on the chains slipped.

I slid-bumped down a couple rungs until I got my forearm hooked in one. I held on for dear life.

“You okay?” I yelled up to Rali, my voice cracking from the strain of holding on after almost falling to my death.

“Spirit Damper must be off,” he called back.

“He really likes that pressure trick.”

“It’s a low-level Shogun thing. They love to show off their consciousness.”

“Awesome,” I muttered.

But if the Shogun and the OSS gangsters could use Spirit again, that meant we could, too. I unclawed one hand from the ladder and dug Hungry Ghost out of my pocket. All the Spirit I got from it, I sent to strengthen my muscles. Without the little bit I kept regulating my internal alchemy, the Miasma started freezing my tissues right away, but if I made it to the bottom without dying, then I could worry about repairing them.

Rali and I inched down, slow and shaky. Sweat oozed out of me, making my grip slick. To make up for it, I hooked an arm around every rung on the way down. That wore a sore spot in the crooks of my elbows, but it was better than falling.

From up above, we could hear shouting, and then Shogun Takiru’s yellow light started getting closer and closer to the top of the ladder. I sped up as much as I could without falling. I didn’t want Rali to be stuck on this thing if they kicked the anchors down.

A head poked out over the edge of the cliff. Not Takiru, because it wasn’t glowing yellow. With the way the shadows from the Shut-Ins seemed to swallow up light, and the weird illumination battle between the Shogun’s glow and the night sun’s black rays, I couldn’t see the face, but I heard the Bailiff chuckle.

“You humans sure do love doing stuff the hard way, don’t you, Smart Boy?” He dropped a handful of pebbles on our heads. “Live the hard way, serve the hard way, die the hard way. It’d be a doozy of a laugh to hit you with a zap from the script remote right now.”

A little sizzle of fear hit me in the chest, then I realized he would’ve done it before now if he could have. Something had happened—he must have dropped it or lost it in the run or something. Whatever it was, he didn’t have the remote anymore, or I would already be a splat on the shut-in floor.

“It’s a damn waste of Mr. Champion, but even more of a waste of you. You’ve got that do-it-to-it attitude a real champ needs. With a little more polish, you could’ve won the Territorial for us. Still could. Come on back now and hand over the one-legger, and the honored Shogun’s willing to grant you forgiveness for everything you’ve done.”

Sure. I remembered how cold-blooded murderers were definitely the forgiving type.

“No, thanks,” I yelled up with all the breath I could manage.

“Oh well,” the Bailiff said. “That’s humans for you. What do you say, gents? Had we ought to hang around and watch the chaos creatures eat din-din?”

A couple guys laughed, but Shogun Takiru wasn’t one of them.

“Fugi,” Shogun Takiru’s voice filled the shut-in even though he was hardly talking at normal volume, “shoot them.”

“Yes, Shogun, sir.”

If Rali had been behind me, I might’ve tried to stop and put one of my Death Metal shields up, but even that would only be a half-solution until my Spirit ran out. Since that wasn’t an option, I grabbed onto the outer chains of the ladder and started hop-rappelling down as fast as I could. I could hear Rali doing the same.

Another head and shoulders poked out over the edge of the cliff, and I saw the hunched outline of the dude with the rifle arm aiming down at us.

“Night Target,” the gunman said.

Crap, crap, crap. I looked down to see if I could jump the rest of the way. Still at least fifty feet to go, which was a heck of a long way when you’re talking jumping off a ladder.

Then the gunman let out a wordless shout. I glanced up in time to see him just barely catch himself from going over the edge.

Chains jingled, and ceramic shattered. A loud hissing filled the air, then everybody up at the top of the Shut-Ins was choking and gagging.

Kest’s lung poison jar.

The pressure shoving us down dissipated. Another weight hit the ladder, and I felt a little of the tension in my shoulders ease out. Kest. We were all in the Shut-Ins. If we could make it to the bottom and survive until blue sunup, we were safe.

With ten feet to go, I dropped off the ladder. Rali hopped down beside me a second later.

Overhead, Kest’s movement made the chain ladder sway and slap against the rock.

“Knock it down.” Shogun Takiru’s quiet voice echoed off the rock walls. It was a little hoarse, but not as close to dead as I’d kind of hoped. “Let the chaos creatures have them.”

The ladder jangled a couple times, then suddenly went into freefall.

Out of instinct, I