Free The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) by Aleron Kong

tongue around in its horrific mouth. With a graceful step that shouldn’t have been possible in such a monstrosity, it moved more of its large body into the rocky dell. A clawed hand attached to an arm the size of an ancient oak shook the ground with an impact tremor. It brought its other arm forward, and continued making its way towards him. The head moved closer and closer. Richter looked around, but there was no escape! The four Powers still hemmed him. He drew his high steel sword, but knew it would be like attacking a bull with a toothpick! Either way, he would go down fighting! He just REALLY did NOT want to be eaten again!
    The monster’s mouth was only a dozen yards away from the tear in space now. Richter could see rotting flesh in between its fangs, and the nauseating smell of decomposing flesh washed over him with its exhale. Richter held his sword up, preparing for his pointless last stand, but all of a sudden there was a resounding boom! The portal slammed shut, and a wave of force emanated from the rapidly closed rift. It blew Richter down off of his feet. He struck his head on the ground and was momentarily dazed. When he picked his head up a few moments later, the Great Seal had returned to its previous appearance. Silence once again reigned in the chamber, but it was a natural silence, filled with tiny, almost imperceptible sounds.
    Richter’s heart was pounding wildly in his chest. As the monster had approached the portal, he had been playing out various scenarios. In the rosiest one, the dragon thing had swallowed him whole and killed him in the process. The next scenario was decided less pleasant, and it taking a big enough bite that arms or legs were left behind. He would still be alive when he was eaten, but blood loss should make his death relatively quick. The worst case is he was swallowed whole and screamed all the way down the beasts gullet just before he was digested for one thousand years in the equivalent of the pit of Sarlaac … None of those options were very attractive, but the last would most definitely not be on fleep , or whatever that stupid phrase the kids were saying these days!
    His mood wasn’t great, to say the least. He had used a massive amount of mana and almost been eaten for his trouble. And there was still no familiar! His temper was not helped by the bachelor party sized headache that was triggered by the depletion of his mana. If he wasn’t already on the floor, he would have fallen. His head felt like it was full of cotton. This was probably a good thing since it also felt like someone was hammering on the outside of his skull!
    “Futen!”
    “Yes, my Lord.”
    “What the hell?”
    “My Lord, are you all right,” a voice shouted. Randolphus was standing just inside of the doorway of the room he had been working in.
    “I’m fine Randy. The danger has passed. I’m sorry, I should have warned you I was going to cast a spell. Please go back to work.” The man stared at Richter for a few seconds before turning around. He was shaking his head as he walked back to his desk.
    Richter returned his attention to the source of his ire, “Well Futen? I’m waiting!”
    “I do not believe that was a lower plane of existence.”
    “What,” Richter asked exasperated and confused.
    “You asked what type of hell that was. It was not a hell. It was simply an alternate dimension.”
    Richter ground his teeth. The lack of idioms in this new world was going to kill him! This stupid conversation was not helping the headache that had barely started to subside. Through gritted teeth he said, “I wasn’t asking if that was a hell or an underworld. I was asking you why I was almost eaten by a dinosaur on steroids when I was trying to summon a familiar. Was that thing it?”
    “Ah, thank you for clarifying, my Lord. As you know, my memory is still fragmented, but I have no recollection of a familiar trying to eat its master. Except for perhaps a demon familiar. As we have already