Fury: A LitRPG Adventure (Unbound Book 4) Read online

  FURY

  Unbound Book Four

  NICOLI GONNELLA

  Copyright © 2022 by Nicoli Gonnella

  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 publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  To my mom.

  I told you I didn’t need those business courses in college.

  CONTENTS

  Newsletter

  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

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Afterword

  About Nicoli Gonnella

  About Mountaindale Press

  Mountaindale Press Titles

  NEWSLETTER

  Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Fate rushes as a river. A raging torrent that cannot be stopped…save by the boulder that refuses to be moved.

  -Lambent Rill, Naiad Augur of Estes'Muur

  SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO

  Atop the Klaven Cliffs, the City of Neer stood tall, an edifice of gray-green stone and glowing sapphires. The slums of Neer, however, draped from the fractured cliffs like the castoff rags most of their inhabitants wore. Housing was ramshackle at best, and most of the area was tacked onto the Klaven Cliffs, an unwanted, rotting appendage. Complicated knots of rope and rusted chains held the platforms relatively secure, though the sharp winds off the Darkwine Sea often set entire neighborhoods swaying. Men and women of all Races clambered across the rope bridges and slatted walkways, laboring at their many tasks while Market Day merchants rolled slowly through the elevated streets, crying out their wares.

  In the midst of all this, a woman with pale, flaxen hair and bright orange eyes was quickly saddling her mount. Beasts of burden were uncommon in the slums, but not entirely noteworthy, especially not an avum so ugly. The giant bird had a squashed face with a blunt, hooked beak and dark eyes. Its coloration was closer to mud than the sleek black or white of the noble mounts, and the docked fantail curled against its rear revealed the truth. This was a mutt, likely the unintentional brood of some noble breeder. The avum kept nibbling at the woman's skirts, searching for treats.

  "Focus, Grouse," the woman said, her smooth skin and clean robes telling against the general grime of the area. They stood in the uneven space between tenements, before a weather-worn wooden hut, a long distance from the lamps and gutters of Amaranth. She had left those duties behind, along with much of her cover once the summoning had gone out. Now she hovered on the cusp of yet another journey. "We've a long way to go."

  "Do you truly have to leave, Ana?"

  Ana glanced up, and she beheld the crooked form of an elderly woman. She was draped in a thick woolen stole, despite the warmth of the autumn morning. "Avet's eye, Mauvim, not so loud."

  The old woman didn't hear her, or at least pretended not to. "You'll take up a new Mask, then?"

  Ana paused her fingers on the bridle of Grouse's kit. She cast her senses outward, letting her Perception bathe the area for a moment. No one was listening, and the wards she'd inscribed were still empowered. "If that is what I must do. The sabotage of the summoning will have diverted the Unbound. They'll be sent far and wide instead of to Amaranth. We must be there when they arrive."

  "Unbound," scoffed Mauvim, her face crumpling in disgust. "That we have resorted to such tactics..." The woman shook herself, as if chasing off a line of thought. "I suppose it is better to have them in hand than give them to the Hierophant. She'll burn us all."

  "She'll try," Ana promised, a light in her eyes. Mauvim smiled, and it was like the sun breaking from behind a cloud. Her ancient face was transformed into a map of joy.

  "That is the fire I need to see in you, girl. The fire all Chanters need." She nodded again, which sent her jowls swinging. "The others are headed north and south, so where shall you go?"

  "West, I've a position in Haarwatch's Guild that I've neglected for far too long. The Guild will have the resources I'll need. The East holds no welcome for me, anyway, and I would be foolish to tempt fate." Ana finished cinching a buckle on Grouse's kit and walked over to her. Mauvim was the closest thing she had to family, at least one that still lived. Yet the woman's smile faded into a thunderous frown. "What is it?"

  "The West. The Song grows wild to the West, girl. It shall be dangerous."

  "As it was," Ana said softly.

  "As it ever shall be," Mauvim completed the ritual words. Their place was not to shy from the dangers of the Continent, not in this task or any other. "I am sad to see you run from this Mask, though. I've come to love your Ana. There is a Truth to it."

  The orange-eyed woman smiled sadly and shrugged. "My Truth will carry with me, Mauvim. I shall be as I am needed, and in Haarwatch, this face shall not do."

  A glimmering chime took the air, though none but they could hear it. Light and Mana shifted, so subtly and so quickly that to blink was to miss it entirely. Where once pale-haired, orange-eyed Ana stood, now there was an equally tall woman with ochre skin and sea-green hair that fell in waves beyond her shoulders.

  "A Naiad? Interesting, girl. Interesting." Mauvim's eyes were bright as she beheld her. "What's your name?"

  "Zara Cyrene," she gave a curtsy in her robes and smiled a sharp-toothed smile. "Back from an expedition, long overdue."

/>   "Ah, an old Mask. Your Truth rides along. It makes my heart happy, girl."

  Zara stooped down and hugged the old woman, careful not to bruise her ancient limbs. Endurance had never been Mauvim's point of focus. "I'll find them, Mauv. All of them. The Hierophant's council is scrambling since the sabotage. Not even they know where the Unbound will land."

  "Harmony does," Mauvim pointed out. "They aren't blind to it, much as I wish they were. Have a care in the wilds."

  "I will."

  "You’d better," she warned. What she didn't say thrummed between them, the rapid-fire impressions of their Affinity stats speaking at a level far more comprehensive than mere speech.

  Zara mounted Grouse and wheeled the big bird around. She didn't say goodbye. She didn't have to, as their Spirits communed with the Harmony around them, between them. She could feel old Mauvim's care, her worries, and beneath it all, the bedrock foundation of their order: faith.

  In people. In her.

  "Come, Grouse. We've a long way to go."

  PRESENT DAY

  Felix floated in the dark.

  No.

  Not floated. Suspended. Held.

  Tentatively, his Mind quested outward, and he felt a smooth stretch of...something attached to him in all directions. Threads? It was too dark to see color, to see anything. No solid surface was within reach, no matter how he shifted.

  Shifted.

  He could move his arms and legs, completely freely. Still, he felt...constrained. Like a huge weight was pulling at him from every side, so balanced that it wasn't tearing him apart, yet also heavier than anything he'd ever experienced.

  A chime sounded, both far away and up close, resolving as a blue window appeared before him.

  You Have Gained 8 levels!

  You—

  The edges of it flickered and spat golden sparks. It degraded completely after only a second, unable to complete the notification.

  What?

  The darkness began to waver before him, and sounds akin to an orchestra falling down a set of stairs started to fill his ears. Golden light, streaked liberally by a blue radiance, stabbed into the dark and released pure, refined notes that shook his Mind, Spirit, and Body as one. It was excruciating. A pressure built inside of him, one that began to match the forces that yanked him outwards, until Felix could no longer tell the difference between his screaming and the cacophony of music.

  Then, thankfully, someone stabbed him.

  The chaos vanished as Felix was catapulted back to his Body, and he became aware of two figures whispering harshly nearby.

  "Why'd you do that?" One of them hissed.

  "He moved!"

  "So you stabbed him? What if he woke up?" Hisser shot back. The air shifted around Felix as Hisser walked closer to his prone body.

  "You think he'd wake up now? He fell through the roof!" Stabby said.

  "And he's not dead, is he?" Hisser crept closer. Felix could practically feel him breathing on the back of his neck. "Where'd you even stab him? I don't see a—YUAHH!"

  Felix grabbed Hisser's leading leg and yanked. The man's cloth pants ripped, and he was thrown at least ten feet. Felix spun to his feet and turned on Stabby, but the other had already reacted.

  He ran.

  Taking in his surroundings, Felix leaped after him. Stabby tried dodging around some sizable fallen masonry, but Felix merely somersaulted over it and hit the jerk with the heel of his boot. Stabby dropped bonelessly to the ground.

  Felix flared his Perception, and fhis Mind began to chug along, clearing away some of the cobwebs that had built up. Around him was a large stone...basement, was the first word that came to mind. It was huge and dark, the only light coming from a set of torches these two had brought down with them, burning merrily near the center of the space. Big blocks of stone were scattered about, along with much smaller, broken pieces that had the look of bricks. Where they weren't ruined, alcoves dotted the walls, filled with small tables and a few unmarked vases.

  Above them, a hole gaped open, revealing a pitch black sky.

  Where the hell am I?

  Felix reached down, grabbed Stabby by the collar of his dark jerkin, and started towing him back toward Hisser. He could sense the man was only just rolling painfully to his feet. A Human, just like Stabby. Without even activating his Eye, Felix could tell neither of them had advanced much further than Apprentice Tier, which would explain why they were so easy to beat. Yet, when he tried to use his Voracious Eye, he felt a sharp pain in his gut, just above his navel. Like a pulled muscle that was also on fire. The sensation spread outward toward his limbs, traveling along his channels.

  Notifications flashed in the corner of his vision, but Felix suppressed them. He didn't have time for this.

  "Who are you?" Hisser asked as he straightened to find Felix stepping into the circle of firelight. "We—we just found you like that! I swear on the blackest Night we didn't do nothin' to you."

  "Where are we?" Felix growled, trying to ignore the building pressure in his core. Hisser blinked in surprise.

  "You don't know—? I mean, o'course. We're in the Cathedral of the Pathless. In Haarwatch," Hisser licked his lips nervously. "In the vault."

  Felix just stared at him, not saying anything.

  "We didn't break in! The area had already collapsed, see! We just saw an, uh, an opportunity," Hisser said.

  "We're in the basement of a cathedral?" Felix murmured and looked up again. From his newer angle, he could barely make out dark shapes looming above the hole, black against the far darker black. "Why's it so dark?"

  "Where you been—?" Hisser said before he literally bit his lip and stopped himself. "Er, it’s been like this since the fight. Ya know? The big fight?"

  "Fight?" Images flashed past Felix's inner eye, memories recalled in painful clarity. "The...dragon?"

  "Yeh. Dragon an' the Fiend fought, and the Fiend won!" The man laughed nervously, still eyeing Felix and the nearby darkness. "Clouds rolled in then and ain't left since."

  "How long?"

  "Wha? How long what?"

  "How long since the fight," Felix practically snarled through the pain. His Song of Absolution felt like it wasn't doing anything for the pain, and Felix had to blink rapidly to keep his focus on Hisser.

  "Uh, that was around sundown, so eight or nine glasses?"

  Felix felt a knot loosen in his chest. He hadn't been gone for long. An irrational part of him worried he'd been Rip Van Winkled by all the Essence he'd taken in, but thankfully not. A thought occurred to him, so suddenly he felt it like an electric jolt down his spine to accompany the fire in his blood. PIT!

  Hisser flinched, but Felix was gone before the man so much as raised his arms to shield himself.

  Felix felt their bond warm in his chest, not so much leading him as it was slowly revealing information about where Pit currently was; which was a relief, as he sensed stone and shadow in abundance. He found the tenku only a bit away, and realized why the two Humans hadn't found him: Pit's wings were pools of shadow in and of themselves, and Felix could catch only the barest amount of crimson on his pinion feathers.

  "Pit," Felix whispered, sending a pulse of inquiry through their bond. "Pit? You okay?"

  Pit grumbled a bit before letting out a series of sharp, gurgling noises. Felix felt a part of his stress fall away. He was snoring.

  "Jesus, you had me worried," Felix breathed, before berating himself. He could have just checked Pit's Status. He found the small feather icon in his vision and toggled it.

  The Chimera was hurt, but healing just fine. Felix hadn't had the presence of mind to keep track of Pit's Health during their latest struggle, but it seemed he hadn't been too terribly hurt before they'd converged. With the tenku residing in his Spirit or whatever, he suffered no damage at all; even if Felix had taken a giant lance of light to the arm and several tons of stone to the face.