Of Myths and Legends (Emerilia, #9)

by Michael Chatfield

Steve, don’t Steve up too much!” “How is that a saying?” Steve asked. “’Cause you do dumb shit, you crystal blockhead,” Gurren said. “Hey, it’s fun for the entire family!” “I rest my case,” Gurren said.

We dance the blade, to gain levels and increase our strength fighting through this hell, only to step deeper and continue against the gods of Emerilia, always courting failure and instead being stripped of that power and once again having to climb higher to hopefully fend off destruction.

“Eh, gimme a list—we’ll find them.” Air waved her hand as if this were no big deal. “No kidnapping,” Bob said with a look toward Air. “Hey, they don’t know what they want to do until they’re in our care,” Air said innocently.

“But I miss axe golf!” Steve complained. “You just kept saying fore and smacking people with the side of your axe!” Lox yelled. “I know! It was great!” Steve waved his hands in the air.

“Why do you have a sequin top! How are there that many sequins in all of Emerilia!?” Gurren asked. “Fashion has no limits!” Steve replied.

Steve wore a pink hat with a rim that extended outward nearly three feet and had a bright green feather in it. He wore a sequin-covered crop top in blue and that was so shiny that Deia thought of investing in sunglasses.

I don’t want to die—no one wants to. I had Deia; imagining me leaving her behind—leaving the people I’ve met here behind and being nothing but a footnote in life—it pushed me to do things that I never thought possible.

It’s because I care for my daughter and the people around me. For them, I am willing to do horrible things so that they might live a good life,” Dave said with fire in his eyes as he drank from his beer.

“Listen up and listen good, because if you mess this up, then it’s not going to be you turning into meat paste but the man or woman beside you! And they’re a hell of a lot more useful than you!”

“If we were to hollow out an asteroid, create a separator as well as line its interior with mining drills, we could teleport other asteroids inside it, thus reducing how easy it would be for someone to see the drills and pick up on us. Also,

“Feels like a lifetime ago that we were training together in the Kufo’tel forest, with me teaching you lot the basics of scouting,” Deia said, a fond smile on her face. Lox snorted. “Fat lot of good that did. I remember Deli ripping the loudest fart on the first scouting excursion we went on!”

Dave’s armor and its gear held secrets that few others would be able to see through. This armor was not meant simply for this war—it was meant to end the wars of Emerilia and the wars of humanity and the Jukal. It was not a simple creation.

“Not as creepy as a walking, talking piece of crystal that dresses up in pink outfits,” Jekoni said under his breath. But it nonetheless reached everyone’s ear.

Dave was a Dwarven Master Smith, and he had worked for months to create soul gems and other soul capturing spells, to him the Xelur were nothing but amateurs using soul energy.