cathfach

Oneshot: A Justified Revenge

We're into July, which means some new Monday chapters. Today's chapter is a short oneshot, commissioned by Nematrec. One of the characters uses formatting that patreon can't cope with, so it's attached as pdf instead.

I can't really mention the prompt, because it would kinda spoil the whole thing. Patreon doesn't have spoiler tags, either. :(

Unruly Summon Chapter 62: Procedure

When I regained consciousness, I did my very best not to show it. If that dwarf was around, there would be value in fooling him into thinking I was still asleep. I just hoped I hadn't already slipped up during the transition.

Of course, sitting unmoving and with closed eyes limited my options somewhat. I was sitting, which was an interesting point of information, but not one I could do much with. From the feel of it, a metal chair, my arms on armrests. From a feeling ...

Unruly Summon Chapter 61: Captive

"Ventus Ferrum," chanted Wendy, pointing at the bars of our prison. "Huh?"

"There's no mana in our surroundings," I said. Thankfully, that did nothing to degrade the vision spells I'd already cast, but I wouldn't be able to renew them once they wore off. Nor could we cast new spells, including grey magic such as body strengthening. It was like being back on Earth. In fact, if not for the lack of memory fading, I'd have been concerned that I was.

"No mana?! Magus Visu...

Unruly Summon Chapter 60: Trap

"Can't sleep?" whispered Eve as she climbed into my bed, guided by the flickering candlelight.

"Nope. I'm weirdly tired, and yet I just can't drop off. We should have organised a watch rotation. I'm just thankful we managed to talk them out of giving us separate rooms."

"Minoru obviously has no concerns," replied Eve. "I'm sleepy as anything, too, but it's amazing how anyone can sleep through her weird snoring."

Indeed, aside from Eve and myself, everyone else in the room wa...

Unruly Summon Chapter 59: Troubling

"Many thanks for hosting us at such short notice," said Minoru.

"It's no trouble at all. I'd already made the preparations, in case you were found out, although I must admit I never envisaged you being found out in such a troubling manner," replied Claw Bryklynt, who had a pair of tall, multi-pronged antlers. I wasn't quite sure what animal he was based on—some sort of deer was my best guess—but I did know he struggled with doorways more than the rabbit-man had done. The ceilings of...

Unruly Summon Chapter 58: Seed of Suspicion

Stone cracked and flowed under the unrelenting heat of my assault as the entire arena floor burnt. The audience members that hadn't already been rushing for an exit certainly were now, especially among the front few rows, but it wasn't the first time I'd used the spell. I knew the range. Even if the seating areas got a bit toasty, I was sure they were safe. Reasonably safe, anyway.

Safer than they were from the mindless monster the demon had become, certainly. Safer than I was, too, giv...

A Willing Victim completed

For people not following the discord, A Willing Victim has just had its final chapter posted (multiple chapters, actually, because I wrote three different endings...) so if you haven't been following but would like to binge the story in one go, now's the time.

Since I posted a bunch of chapters at once, there won't be a new Monday story starting immediately, but I'll probably start posting one of the new magical girl ones in July. Not sure which one, but atm it's between A Magical Zombi...

Unruly Summon Chapter 57: Rage

"You and Mistress Eve are looking happy today," said Mary, peering at me. "I'm glad you're both feeling better after that private talk."

Wendy stumbled as she missed a step, despite the track we were walking down being completely flat. "You poor, naïve little girl," she muttered, which I felt was undeserved. We really had only talked. There'd been a lot of air to clear after our disagreements about safety, and I was glad my freshly learnt spells had given us the oppo...

Unruly Summon Chapter 56: Discovery

Schedule for June remains unchanged, but A Willing Victim will reach its end. There may be a (SFW) replacement starting in July, depending on how much I get written.

Additionally, An Unruly Summon has made it through to the finalists of the J-Novel Club original English light novel competition. As such, I'll be scrubbing the some of the first volume from here shortly. (Not sure yet if I'll need to kill it all, or only the first few chapters that will be appearing on j-novel ...

2024-05-31 03:46:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Unruly Summon Chapter 55: Extraction

I woke up alone. Despite Minoru's thoughtfulness, Eve and I hadn't engaged in, as Wendy had called it, 'private physical training'. Eve was too pissed at me for that; she hadn't even wanted to remain in the same room. Or perhaps she was hoping that if she hid in another room, she wouldn't get summoned back to Earth with me. Logically, she could understand where I was coming from, but that just made the emotions worse.

Yes, her strength had increased a little further since the morning, b...

Unruly Summon Chapter 54: Chatting

We marched towards the next town on our itinerary, with Eve in a rather foul mood.

"Did something happen while I was napping?" asked Mary.

Eve looked at her appraisingly. In turn, I gave Eve a glare.

"... No," she admitted reluctantly.

Wendy sighed.

"Something definitely happened," pointed out Mary. "You're all being weird."

"It's not important," said Eve.

The problem was that Eve's situation wasn't clear cut. She obviously had a blessing of some sort...

Unruly Summon Chapter 53: Heroes

I woke up in a state of some confusion. No, that was underselling it. A state of immense confusion.

First question; where was I? It took a few seconds to remember that I had eyes, but once I did, opening them revealed our inn room back in some random border city of the Ti'zharr Empire. Did I ever get its name? I couldn't remember it, if so. It was likely Minoru mentioned it while I was too nervous about the arena to absorb it.

Speaking of Minoru, her distinctive...

Unruly Summon Chapter 52: Circles

The previous few minutes had involved so much activity that even the events of the arena had been pushed out of my mind. Fortunately, this latest event hadn't involved any actual danger.

Danger for the people directly involved, anyway. I imagined that if Eve's mum—Mrs Evans, who insisted on the Mrs in much the same way as Ricousian's knights insisted on armour—had poked her head into her daughter's room to see what the noise was about, she'd have had a heart attack. Thankfully, she ...

Unruly Summon Chapter 51: Aftermath

"What's that look for? Don't tell me you forgot I existed?" said the wolf-man, his amusement building. "You look like you're about to be sick. Was that your first kill? Hey, watch it!"

The bandit gracefully bent over backward, my subvocal Ventus Ferrum flying over him and brushing the tip of his nose.

"That was mean. I was talking!"

I held my tongue, having no intention of engaging in conversation. Frankly, I just wanted this to be over. Part of me was screaming to cast Parv...

Unruly Summon Chapter 50: Killing

"We have an action packed line-up for you tonight!" yelled someone. From the way the voice boomed over the entire stadium, there was obviously magical enhancement of some sort going on. "Maybe not our longest schedule, but certainly a spectacular one. Coming tonight is a rare exhibition match between B ranked slayer teams! We have members of Hraxxoth's Posse and Glynacleth here to demonstrate the heights slayers can reach, in the hopes of inspiring our younger audience members towards this da...

Unbound Soul Side Story: A Day at the Races

This is a bonus commissioned chapter, courtesy of Nematrec. It's set shortly after the epilogue.

"Hey! Hurry up!" complained Chloe, bouncing from foot to foot in her excitement. "We're going to be laaaaate!"

"No we aren't. There are still two hours until the race starts," I pointed out.

"Yes, but the garages are already open! The other competitors will already be arriving!"

"Only because most competitors don't have a dad with [Dimensional Stora...

Unruly Summon Chapter 49: Arena

"I've arranged for you to participate in tonight's melee," said Minoru. "I gave you the false name of Alex. It's a free-for-all with three other participants. Two bandits, both guilty of killing women and children, and one rapist. I thought the free-for-all would be a safer start, because if you find yourself unable to deal a finishing blow, you can get out of it by fighting defensively and letting the others kill each other."

I nodded nervously, doing my best to ignore the fact that sh...

Unruly Summon Chapter 48: Minoru

"This isn't fair. I want to see," complained Wendy, her voice slightly muffled on account of the canvas bag tied over her head.

"All you have to do is promise not to laugh," answered a deep, growling voice that I found it difficult to believe was coming from Minoru.

I could believe it was coming from the twenty foot of cat in front of me, though.

The fact that such a large feline was very obviously a scaled up house-cat—and not something like a lion or t...

Unruly Summon Chapter 47: Ti'zharr

Schedule for May will remain the same as April - A Willing Victim on Mondays on discord, and An Unruly Summon on Tuesday/Friday.

"Funny how they didn't even mention Stephanie," I said as we approached a second wall, which looked very much like the first. "If they haven't heard anything about what happened in the capital, I feel that having an enslaved princess with us should have raised a serious red flag, especially given her condition."

"It's not like ev...

Unruly Summon Chapter 46: Gate

"Is that the border?" asked Mary, gazing at the wall in front of us, stretching from horizon to horizon.

"Of course," replied Wendy, who, on top of the bags under her eyes, was still walking slightly bow-legged despite the application of judicious amounts of healing magic before we'd set off in the morning. Unsurprisingly, she'd declared her lingering afflictions totally worth it. "Why else would there be a giant wall in the middle of nowhere?"

"Well, that's why I was asking," rep...

Unruly Summon Chapter 45: Interception

We continued walking in silence for a minute. I spent it carefully watching Stephanie for any flicker of emotion, but even the long line of questioning had failed to elicit any human reaction.

"So..." I started, remembering Wendy's comment about how demons claimed their birthrate couldn't be controlled. "Should I be worried?"

Minoru sighed. "I was hoping I could hold on until we reached the Ti'zharr Empire, but apparently not. For your own safety, you'll need to restrain me tonigh...

Unruly Summon Chapter 44: Travel

"Miraculum!"

Mary—my cute and loyal maid with the dubious fashion sense—leapt about a foot into the air, jolted by the unexpected loud noise.

"What was that for?!" she exclaimed.

"We're already outside the area that my big Maius Miraculum cast purified. No point wasting mana," I lied as I glanced sideways at the real reason I was casting the spell; the former princess, Stephanie, who, in my anger, I'd reduced to a mere shell of herself. Alas, the spell o...

Unruly Summon Side Story: What if they summoned the wrong hero?

This is a crossover chapter between Unruly Summon and several of my other stories, in which they keep accidentally summoning the wrong protagonist.

"Ouch," muttered Katie, staring up at the ceiling, which seemed to have changed colour since she last opened her eyes.

"Well, that was an interesting experiment," came a voice from somewhere above her. "I can't say I was expecting the mana expenditure to increase exponentially. I look forward to writing the pap...

Unruly Summon Volume 2 Prologue

This one is very short, so posting it as an extra. Proper chapters will continue on Tuesday as normal. (Actually, Tuesday will be the single side story I wrote for volume 1 and then promptly forgot about. Volume 2 will start on Friday.)

Simon stared past the police tape that blocked off his best friend's room. The inside was neat, but still showed obvious signs of a police search. In particular, the bed had been pushed aside, revealing an intricate and highly om...

Unruly Summon Chapter 43: A New Journey

This chapter marks the end of volume 1

"I'm... surprised," I admitted. "I had expected King Edward to simply hide her from me, rather than following through. And even if he hadn't, I expected you to countermand him. And even if you didn't, isn't acclimatisation supposed to take weeks or months? It's been... what... a single week?"

"I'm not so shameless as to annul the edicts of my father for purely personal reasons. He never did anything without a rational...

Unruly Summon Chapter 42: Judgement

I opened my eyes to a rather familiar ceiling. "I thought I'd been banished from the castle?" I commented rhetorically, recognising my old room.

"Master! You're awake!" shouted a voice I recognised with even greater alacrity than the ceiling. "You've been sleeping all day!"

"I... think I did a bit too much."

"You blew up our house!"

"... Sorry."

Mary giggled while I struggled to sit up and look at her. "I don't really know what's going on, but it seems like you s...

Unruly Summon Chapter 41: Myth

It took far too long for me to locate Christine's body under the mountain of monsters. If not for my vision spells and the sensory enhancements from body strengthening, I probably never would have. Thankfully, I did have those things, so I trudged up the road alone with Wendy's corpse over one shoulder and Christine's over the other. One in perfect condition, the other torn to shreds.

I didn't have to travel far up the road before I came across bags and containers, obviously thrown from...

Unruly Summon Chapter 40: Home

"Hey, are you okay?" asked someone. "You passed out for a moment there."

"What?" I asked, feeling completely and utterly discombobulated. "Where am I?"

"Okay, that's it. I'm calling for an ambulance," replied the other voice. "First you go off on a whole spiel about sparkly purple whirlwinds, then you faint, and now you don't even remember where you are?"

"I... Simon?"

"Oh good; you recognise me. Do you remember who you are?"

"I'm... back home?...

Unruly Summon Chapter 39: Death

Big big big cliffhanger warning on this one.

"This isn't working," sighed Johanna.

"I'm starting to suspect that the trick is first-hand involvement in a highly emotional event," agreed Tony. "It's not enough to hear about how someone else triggered it. It requires someone to be there."

"Please don't say that out loud," I begged, shuddering at the thought of what the king would do if he thought emotional trauma was a required condition....

Announcements (Schedule for April, Isekai Idle, j-novel comp)

Starting with the simple one; the schedule for April is unchanged. Willing Victim on Mondays (via discord, which currently has up to chapter 16) and Unruly Summon Tuesday/Friday. I thought I'd timed Unruly Summon to finish the first volume at the end of March, but I seem to have slipped up somewhere, because I'm going to end up four chapters short.

The reason I wanted to finish volume one by the end of March is because I've entered it (along with Unborn Hero) into j-novel club's light n...