Empire Builder 4: Breed, Populate, Conquer, page 1
Empire Builder 4
Breed, Populate, Conquer
Dante King
Copyright © 2023 by Dante King
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
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Immortal Swordslinger
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Chapter 1
The ground rushed toward Benjamin, the tops of the trees wild and swirling as if he were being sucked into some strange, green vortex. His bird form, which had up until then done him nothing but great service, was now working against him, his slim, aerodynamic profile causing him to fall with speed he otherwise wouldn’t have.
Focus, focus , he thought, doing his best to put aside the minor detail of being mere moments away from a bloody death, either through being impaled by the branches below or by slamming onto the forest floor with such force that he’d be reduced to pulp.
OK, check your mana. Your magic’s going to be the thing that gets you out of this. See what you’re working with.
He closed his eyes for a moment and envisioned the blue mana pool inside of him. It was low—low enough that his magical options were severely reduced. The trees were growing closer and closer, and Ben realized that he had mere moments left before a quick death, one way or another.
Something occurred to him, and his eyes flashed as realization dawned.
You’re still in your damn bird form, you idiot! Shift out of it!
He focused, turning off the animal-shifting spell. It took less than a second for his feathers to suck back into his body, his wings to turn to arms, and his claws to become feet once again. He closed his eyes and imagined the mana pool once more. A touch of relief cooled his nerves slightly as he saw that his mana pool had increased.
There wasn’t much magical power inside of him, but it was enough to work with.
The trees. Got to do something about them, first .
Using all the strength he had against the force of the wind, he brought his hands forward, touching the bottoms of his palms together and aiming his hands toward the trees. He summoned Force Wave, blasting it down and pushing open the canopy. Birds rushed toward him as the branches they’d been perched upon broke, incredible cracking noises filling the air.
But it worked, the treetops opened and revealed the brown-green of the floor below. Ben rushed through the hole he’d created and focused once more, using what little remained of his mana to summon another blast of Force Wave. He faced his palms toward the ground, his stomach tight and tense, the wind whipping his face.
Then he cast, and Force Wave shot from his hands, hitting the forest floor and creating a huge, round crater. The wave bounced back, hitting him and sending his body flying back up toward the tree branches. But his arc was slower, slow enough for him to get his bearings and reach for the nearest branch on the way down and grab hold.
He fell, the branch in both hands bending as it tried to support his weight. But it couldn’t. Instead, the strangely soft branch bent, and he went back down, down, the ground rushing toward him once again.
At the last possible moment, he used the remnants of his mana to cast Force Wave one last time. It worked, a small crater forming in front of him, the blast sending him twisting back toward the tree whose branch he’d grabbed. Ben flew toward the tree’s thick trunk, the mossy brown growing larger and larger until he slammed into it.
And then there was black.
Chapter 2
Ben noticed two things when he finally woke. The first was the throbbing pain in his face and chest and shoulders.
The second was the tugging at his body. It felt as if several tiny hands were grabbing him, pulling at his clothes and shoes and hair.
He opened his eyes slowly, and even the pain from that was almost too much to bear. The events that happened before getting knocked unconscious slowly came back to him as he lay there: the explosion in the sky, the fall, and the slam into the tree. He realized how lucky he was that he hadn’t been killed.
His eyes half-open, he groaned and swung his arm loosely, trying to swipe away whatever it was that was near him. His arm brushed against several small, feathery things, wild chittering and hooting sounding out as he did.
His curiosity finally piqued, the pain in his body faded enough for him to force his eyes open and look around. Colorful blurs ran around him skittering here and there, hooting and howling as Ben tried to swipe them away. His vision finally came back into focus, and Ben was able to see the animals around him.
They were like monkeys but different. They were small, about the size of a cat, with monkey-like faces and bodies. But instead of being covered in fur like the monkeys back on Earth, they were covered in colorful feathers, the plumage reminding Ben of birds of paradise. The feathered monkeys ran here and there, forming a circle around him and continuing to hoot and holler.
They didn’t seem to be interested in doing him any harm. If anything, they seemed curious.
One apprehensively moved toward Ben, reaching and taking a clump of his hair. Still in pain, Ben raised his hand to swat the toucan-monkey away. It let out a shriek, pulling his hair hard as it could and sending a new kind of pain, sharp and stabbing, to accompany the thunderous ache that held him in its grasp.
“You…you little shit!” Ben swiped his arm one more time, the toucan-monkey jumping back and letting out a noise that sounded almost like a mocking laugh.
Ben pushed the annoyance he felt aside, looking down at his body. He was intact, to his relief—no limbs were broken or twisted in strange directions. He moved his arms and legs, each one working and useable. His slam into the tree trunk had been all kinds of painful, but he’d managed to save his own skin during a fall that should’ve been fatal.
Now, though, he had to do something about the monkey creatures. They seemed harmless, but the hooting and chirping noises they were making risked bringing the attention of other creatures that lived in the woods—ones more dangerous than colorful monkeys.
Ben raised his palm to cast Force Wave once more. He didn’t want to hurt the monkeys—more scatter them so he could get away and have a moment to collect his thoughts and plan his next step—but when he tried to fire the spell, nothing happened.
“Shit. Am I out of mana?”
He closed his eyes and checked his supply—sure enough, the pool was empty. Not even a droplet of glowing blue remained.
Ben was totally tapped out. He didn’t even have enough mana to cast Siphon—not that the monkeys likely had any mana to take in the first place. Sure, his mana would return in time. But he needed it now—his survival in the middle of the strange, new environment in which he’d found himself depended on it.
The monkeys seemed to find the whole situation hilarious. They hooted and hopped around, letting out wild cries.
“Guys!” Ben said through gritted teeth. “You all need to shut up right now !”
As he stood there among the monkeys, who’d formed a large circle around him, he saw something strange. First, the trees around him weren’t those of a forest—they were those of a jungle. Their trunks were thick and smooth and covered in vines and flowers, their tops reaching all the way to the sky. They reminded him of trees he’d seen in rainforest documentaries he’d watched in school as a kid.
The other thing he noticed was the heat in the air, the sticky humidity that made moving his limbs feel as if he was underwater. Sweat was already forming on his brow, his clothes sticking to his body.
There was no doubt about it—he was in the new world’s equivalent of a rainforest.
Ben put that out of his mind, focusing on what he knew he needed to be thinking about—how to get out of there.
The monkeys k
Two of the monkeys caught his eye—a pair of them holding his sword, one at each end as they tried to pull it apart as if it were a hunk of meat.
Ben watched as the monkey holding the end of the sheath finally yanked it free, flying backward and landing on its behind. The monkey held the sheath with a confused expression on his face, the other monkey trying its best to hoist the long blade off the ground.
“Don’t play with that!” Ben warned as he hurried over. “It—”
A strange banging noise stopped him from speaking. He stood still, his hand stuck out toward the monkeys who were playing with his blade. And to his surprise, the monkeys stood still, too. The banging grew louder and louder, the vines hanging from the tall trees beginning to shake.
Ben had no idea what was happening, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was bad, whatever it was.
The monkeys regarded one another with fear, all standing on their hind legs and chattering quietly. Ben took advantage of the confusion to zip forward and snatch the sword from the monkey that held it. The monkey holding the sheath let out a shriek, dropping the leather thing and scurrying into the vines of the nearest tree.
Ben grabbed that, too, as the banging grew louder and louder. Soon it was so loud he could hardly think straight. When it reached its crescendo, a massive creature exploded from the greenery that surrounded them.
Ben quickly tucked the sheath onto his hip. The sword held in his hands, he turned to face whatever it was that had emerged from the jungle.
The creature was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. While the monkeys before him seemed like some strange blend of monkey and bird, the thing in front of him was like an ape combined with a rhinoceros. It was huge and hulking like a gorilla, but instead of fur, its body was covered in gray, armored plates. Horns extended from its long face, three on each side of its shark-like mouth, one from underneath the jaw, and another from between its eyes—eyes that were a deep, horrible red.
The thing struck Ben as several of Earth’s most dangerous animals combined into one. And if to prove its deadliness, the creature lunged forward and snatched up one of the monkeys with speed that an animal of that size had no right to possess. The huge animal shoved the monkey into its mouth and chomped twice, a horrible crunching filling the air before the beast swallowed the remains.
The rest of the monkeys scattered, the beast managing to grab one more and bite it in half, tossing the rest of it into its mouth once the first half was down the hatch.
And when the rest of the monkeys had fled, Ben could tell right away that the two the beast had eaten were nothing more than an appetizer for the main course— him .
The beast stood up on its hind legs. Ben guessed that it was around ten feet tall. The thing looked like it was made of solid muscle and armor. He glanced down at the slim blade of his sword, wondering how the hell he was going to be able to use that against the creature. But with no magic at his disposal, it was all he had.
The beast slammed its fists into its chest—another similarity to gorillas back on Earth. Then it bared its teeth and turned its red eyes onto Ben, saliva pouring down its lips in anticipation of what it likely hoped would be its next meal.
Ben, doing his best to fight off the panic, checked his mana pool once more. A few drops had been restored but not nearly enough to cast so much as a single gust of Force Wave, let alone enough to use Siphon and take the monster’s power. All he could do was hold his blade out and hope for a lucky blow. He scanned the monster, noting that, like human armor, his gray plates had small gaps in between them. They weren’t big at all, but they were something.
The beast roared once more, this time bursting into a run and stomping toward Ben on all fours, the ground shaking so hard he nearly lost his balance.
Aim for the gaps, he thought. Just like regular armor .
When the beast was close, Ben jumped out of the way at the last moment, and as he did, he swung his sword at the gap between the beast’s shoulder and arm plates.
His swing didn’t hit home. Ben’s blade slammed into the monster’s shoulder armor, the reverberation from the impact enough to make his teeth chatter. He stumbled backward, his vision shaking as he tried to regain his composure.
But the beast wasn’t looking to let him try another blow. It stopped in its tracks when it realized that it’d missed Ben, turning in his direction and preparing for another attack. It stomped in place, once more shaking the ground so hard that leaves fell from the trees.
Not going to get another chance to do this, he thought. Best to aim for the eye and hope for the best.
Now that the monster was closer, Ben could see bits and chunks of just-devoured monkey in his teeth. He knew that if he didn’t get his act together, he’d be joining the little creatures in the belly of the monster.
Ben pushed aside his fear, raised his blade, and prepared to fight. The beast stood up on its hind legs and banged his chest once more, ready for another charge.
Thwip .
A strange, whistling noise cut through the air. Ben stood still, trying to figure out what the hell it might’ve been.
Thwip. Thwip .
Ben stepped back. And as he did, he realized that there was something new on the beast’s face. Three slim darts made of what looked to be bone, red feathers streaming out the back, were stuck into the monster’s skin. It stood there dumbly, the rage draining from its face, its huge arms hanging limply by its sides.
The enormous creature fell forward onto its knees, then into a heap. The force from the fall was so intense that Ben had to brace himself not to fall over. He watched the animal for a moment, making sure that it wasn’t going to move. But it didn’t.
Ben stepped forward and dropped into a crouch, looking at the weapons that had done the animal in.
They were little darts, all about the size of his index finger and made of not bone but a strange ceramic. A small trickle of blood, along with a bright, yellow fluid, came down from where the darts had punctured the beast’s face. Carefully, Ben pulled one of the darts out.
He’d expected something primitive, but these were anything but. Ben looked into the dart, seeing some kind of machinal device inside that forced a plunger down into the poison. The dart was more like a syringe from a hospital back on Earth than a primitive weapon.
He tossed the dart aside, not wanting to risk getting any poison on him—not to mention the danger of who’d shot them. Ben checked his mana, seeing that a little more had appeared. With his sword in his hands, he turned in the direction that the darts had come from.
Thwip. Thwip-thwip.
Ben didn’t have time to think of a plan. Acting on pure instinct, he summoned Force Wave, channeled it into his sword, and swung the weapon in an arc in front of him. The spell worked, the red flashes of the darts’ feathers going this way and that into the jungle beyond.
“Yowch!” The shrill voice came from the jungle, followed by the thud of something small hitting the ground.
“Gah! Run for it!”
The jungle shook in three spots, and Ben wasted no time chasing after those who’d tried to kill him. His mana was empty once more, but the blade still worked just fine in cleaving through the trees. More shrill noises of surprise sounded out as Ben cut through the vines and branches, and he’d made a bit of progress before he was greeted with the body of a goblin.
It lay dead, one of the darts stuck in its neck.
Must’ve gotten a lucky ricochet with Force Blast...
He dropped to his knees in front of the goblin. In its hands wasn’t a blowgun, as he’d expected, but a weapon that looked strikingly similar to a pistol, the material the same strange ceramic as the dart. He picked up the “gun” and pressed a button, a magazine of darts sliding out of the bottom.
Might as well take this .
There was a small latch in front of the barrel that seemed to function as the safety. Once that was engaged, Ben slipped the gun into the back of his pants and hurried on into the jungle.
Got to catch one of those little shits. Only way I’m going to know where the hell I am .
