Sentinel of Earth: A Science Fiction LitRPG by Ian Hawk

Author:Ian Hawk [Hawk, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Royal Guard Publishing LLC
Published: 2023-08-21T16:00:00+00:00

Agnes closed her eyes and fell silent. The quiet filled Lilly with trepidation. Had she been too honest? She couldn't tell, nor could she over-analyse the woman's likely conclusions. She was too stunned by Bill's declaration that he would be with her all the way—that she had inspired him to fight alongside her. It was the type of allegiance she'd thought only existed in fiction. Surely no one laid their life down for another in real life. But he'd said it—given himself to her cause, and the way he'd said it had left her in no doubt he meant it.

She regarded him, but he'd turned his head down, his hat's brim covering his face. Smoke curled around it, rising then gathering under the ceiling like a cloud about to rain down shit on her. She expected Agnes to turf them out, despite her saying their cause was worthy. Few taught just so their teachings could be used to kill.

The old woman opened her eyes, exhaling. A glass jar appeared in front of her, stoppered with a wooden lid. A yellow liquid filled it. Silver strips floated inside, curling like flat springs. She levered the top off, then reached under the table, pulling out a drawer. “This is magnetite—an alien metal, unstable, not dissimilar to one mined on Earth. If I recall, it was phosphorus. It has its uses as an incendiary—takes minimal coaxing to get it to burn with a scorching flame. Yet, deny it oxygen, and it is one of the stablest metals around. Imagine being the alien that flew to Earth in a craft made of the stuff. A short and painful death. Lesson one: research your targets.” She grunted, then laughed at her joke. “Hard audience?” she said when neither Lilly nor Bill laughed with her. “So, what do we need this for?” She retrieved a pair of tweezers from the drawer, dipping into the liquid and pulling out a sliver of the metal. She offered it to Bill. “Take it. Study it. Warm it enough to make it burst into flames.”

Bill reached for the tweezers, pulling the metal close and staring at it. “And just how on Mother Earth am I supposed to do that?”

“How do you make your orb?” she asked.

Lilly leaned forward. She wanted to know, too—to understand. Each attribute intrigued her. She was a cohesive—had already chosen that as her favoured attribute, but that didn't mean she wasn't interested in improving the others. Any advantage was precious.

“I—” He pushed his hat back, dropped his sunglasses revealing his eyes, expression pained. “I think of a load of things and condense them—does that make sense?”

“Things? What things?”

“Particles, I guess. Bits of dust?”

“You take the components of the surrounding air—the oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and others, compress them and release their energy.”

Bill tilted his head. “Something like that, yes,”

“Something like that,” Agnes repeated. “What if I told you what you actually do is this? You sort the oxygen and the hydrogen from all other elements, combine them, fuse them until they become water.

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