Novels by Artemis

The jackals had to be at least three feet tall, with dark orange eyes that almost glowed. And those eyes were fixed on Kaiden. They didn't circle the five boys or even glance at Roden, who was whimpering loud enough for the whole pit to hear.Kaiden stepped back, then took another step to the left, away from the others. The jackals’ still stared at him, crouching and creeping forward. Then he blinked and the two jackals lit up in his vision with a thin red outline, as if someone had traced them in blood.[PASSIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: PREDATOR'S SENSE][HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED]“They're coming for you,” Garrick called out. “Yeah, I noticed.”Almost like his voice was a trigger, the red outline around the left jackal pulsed brighter. Half a second later, its haunches bunched. Kaiden threw himself sideways, and the creature hit the stone where he had been standing, claws screeching against stone.The crowd roared and cheered.Before he could rise, the second one launched at him too. Kaid

“What?” Felipe blurted. “Do not kill the beasts,” Varax repeated, shifting his gaze to Kaiden. “I doubt that you would be able to do so, anyway. But just in case any one of you gets the idea, do not.” “He’s trying to manipulate the bets in his favor,” Kaiden said to Garrick. “People would be betting that the beasts would be killed, but if we don’t kill any…”“He makes a win,” Garrick completed.“So…we just stand there…and get killed?” Tylar asked in disbelief. “Run, hide, dodge, but you will not kill the beasts.” Varax straightened, his bushy brows lifting slightly. “If you do, you will meet a terrible fate at my hands.”Roden whimpered something, and Garrick shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why not just kill us and get it over with?” Varax turned towards him, a sinister smile on his lips. “Without getting a bit of money out of it? where’s the fun in that?” He clapped his hands. Orrin and Dask returned, ordering the boys to follow them. They spent most of the afternoon doin

Kaiden stared at the panel, without blinking, until his eyes hurt. [CONGRATULATIONS, YOU COMPLETED THE EMERGENCY QUEST.THE SOVEREIGN SYSTEM HAS GRANTED YOU THE BEAST AFFINITY, LV. 3]“Garrick,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Do you see that thing? In front of my face?”Garrick looked up from his bowl. He looked at the air in front of Kaiden, then back at Kaiden himself. “See what?”“There's like…a screen…a blue screen, with writing on it.” “What?” Garrick chewed slowly. “No. What does it say?”Kaiden opened his mouth to speak, but paused. What would he say? ‘There’s a screen that only I can see, with words that only I can see, that gives me powers that I wasn't born with.’No, that was insane. Stark, raving mad. “Nothing,” he said. “Forget it. I'm just tired.”Garrick’s eyes narrowed in the dim light, but he didn't say a word and went back to his stew. Kaiden sank back against the wall, still staring at the panel. He shut his eyes and pictured the panel going out, Iike a can

Light flooded the pit all at once, torches catching with fire along the walls where unseen hands had lit them from above, and Kaiden flinched hard against the sudden brightness of it.When his eyes adjusted, he wished the place just remained dark. The Ridgeback boar lay where he'd left it, bigger than he had imagined. Its back was rigged with plates, and its hide was dark with its own blood. A few feet from it, a human body lay still, with the dampeners still around his wrists. Kaiden remembered the scream he had heard earlier, followed by the silence.‘oh gods. He's-’ Kaiden made himself look away before his mind could finish the thought.The gates swung open and two men walked in. They were not masked like the Reavers and they did not have any eye color, but they wore dirty leather aprons and looked bored with their work. Then their eyes fell on the dead boar and they looked surprised. “They actually killed it…” said the taller one. “Incredible…” “Well, Orrin, you owe me a si

They were marched through a maze of narrow passages, still chained and cuffed. Kaiden stared around, trying to remember the paths they were taking. But it was almost impossible; every turn looked the same. And it was getting darker, like wherever they were going, there was no sunlight. “Stop,” growled the flame-user. The six boys halted almost immediately . They were now in a large square, where few people moved about, wearing cloaks and dirty clothes. Here, the sunlight was completely blotted out by tarpaulin covers. “Who is that?” someone muttered to Kaiden's left. He turned, just as a man stepped out of a dark alley. He was tall and broad, like their captors, but he didn't wear a mask like them. He was bald too, and he wore good leather boots, better than anything else he wore. "Varax," the flame-user said, by way of greeting. Varax didn't answer right away. He shifted his gaze to the boys, like a man would stare at livestock, then said, “You keep bringing me skinny things.”

A voice echoed in the darkness, deep and resonant, like stone grinding against stone.“Sovereign.”Kaiden’s eyes snapped open, to a clear blue sky.He blinked for a few seconds, before the odd feeling of movement came upon him. But he wasn't moving, not exactly. He was being carried on something that was moving. The realization came when he heard rolling wheels beneath him.“Where am I?”His voice hurt when he spoke. With a groan, he tried to sit up and was rewarded with sharp pain, running up the length of his chest and trunk.“Take it easy, man,” someone said. “You've been hurt pretty bad. It's a miracle you're even alive.”Miracle? Alive?Then he remembered the shock of getting zapped with lightning, and the last feeling he had was of life leaving his body.The pain was still there, but it had grown dull, far too dull. He stared down at himself. Dried blood still stained his rags and there were holes in his shirt, but…no scars on his body. No marks to show where the lightning had h