“Wh-where’s Bo-te-zatu?” Reznik asked, batting away the hands of the woman with rabbit ears as she tried to unclasp a piece of his armor.
The tiny woman bounced a step back, eying him nervously for a moment before she gulped.
“He is being fetched… along with other guests, Master Reznik.” The woman informed with trepidation in her tone, bowing her head and fixing her eyes on the floor. “My mother and I were tasked with getting you ready for the banquet by ...
2024-07-24 11:08:59 +0000 UTC
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Reznik turned after Botezatu onto the long walkway that led to his home. As he walked, Reznik noted the birds in the trees - more specifically, the nests in nearly every branch. He still needed to ask Luminita how exactly her connection with them worked.
Regardless, Reznik thought it was nice.
The air here was never silent, not like the wastes. It was always full of song and life, and the amount of nests sent an odd, fleeting pang of something into his chest when he th...
2024-07-04 10:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“H-hat oh-off?” Reznik asked Botezatu as they stood in one of the private areas just for fighters and their entourages.
Little more than a stable with crown-provided chairs and tables was all it really was.
“Not until we’re back home, with food in your belly. Luminita’s told me all about how you get testy unless you’ve eaten, especially if you’ve been hurt.” Botezatu grunted from where he leaned back in his chair. “I’d like to avoid any risk of you ...
2024-07-03 10:20:00 +0000 UTC
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Death or forfeit.
Those were the only ways out of the this tournament.
Botezatu had explained that this was why there was a decidedly somber tone in the air to this tournament, as opposed to what Reznik had been told was usually a fairly lively event.
Even still, as Reznik stood on the muddy, open field between two sets of hastily constructed stands, he could feel the excitement of the many occupants of the stands. This included the non-noble class that had decided to ...
2024-06-14 11:16:14 +0000 UTC
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Ellie awaited him in the second trench, directing a throng of medics and their assistants while Mountainbreaker worked at setting up a detonator box.
As soon as Sam crossed the boundary of the connecting trench into the secondary line, Ellie nodded to Mountainbreaker, and he connected a wire.
“Brace yourself.” He warned calmly to those around him before bellowing: “EXPLOSION! EXPLOSION! EXPLOSION!”
The Dwarven sapper pushed down on the plunger, and ...
2024-06-14 11:13:28 +0000 UTC
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Sam kept low on the crest of the trench, peering out over just enough to see the sights of his rifle.
To his right was Henfri, and her booming rifle several yards away.
To his left was a crater.
Sam rested his head against the ground and took a moment to compose himself before opening his eyes again.
Upon opening them, he noticed that the small hill he rested his rifle on was not, in fact, a mud covered log, but the barrel of a water-cooled mach...
2024-05-31 00:48:48 +0000 UTC
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Something felt… wrong to Reznik.
Familiar in a way he couldn’t quite articulate.
He couldn’t help but feel that he was being sized up by a hawkish creature that was equally as dangerous as himself. Oona, Luminita’s mother, watched him from her seat at the table warily.
Meanwhile, Botezatu and Luminita brought the various dishes she’d cooked out to the table in her stead, and Reznik could see why. Apparently, at some point between now and the last ...
2024-05-15 01:02:43 +0000 UTC
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Reznik stared at the wall.
In his mind, he ran through ideas like he was chasing a herd of deer that perpetually scattered in every direction.
Zarah had been taken by the Queen and her men to some dungeon.
He needed to free her, somehow.
Reznik was sure that in the moment, he could’ve easily torn through the guards, killed the queen, and possibly escaped safely with Zarah and Luminita in tow. He had been about to, in fact, as Zarah was removed...
2024-04-30 03:30:43 +0000 UTC
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Zarah let out a long groan as she leaned over the bedpan before coughing up some more bile.
She spat once, not lifting her head where it hung loosely above the receptacle.
“Where… where are we?” Zarah questioned barely above a whisper between deep breaths.
The inn! The town of… what was this place called again?
Dalbu? Baldu?
Dalgu!
Yes.
We’re at the inn in Dalgu!
<...
2024-04-24 00:22:24 +0000 UTC
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“Excuse me?!” the necromancer shouted after Reznik as he leapt off the side of the plateau, sounding deeply offended.
He ignored it.
In fact, he was working at ignoring everything except exactly where and how he wanted to land.
Specifically, the shoulders of an armored skeleton holding a long, rusted spear just out of reach of Zarah’s saber.
As he landed, the skeleton felt like it offered zero resistance under his boots right until he land...
2024-04-16 17:53:37 +0000 UTC
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The air tasted increasingly foul as Reznik and Zarah followed the talismans beckoning trail of smoke.
Like they were getting closer to a mass grave, the sickly sweet sulfur began to permeate Reznik’s nostrils.
Then his tongue.
Memories flitted behind his eyes of days spent wandering through crumbling ruins full of shambling zombies, rattling skeletons, and ghouls that stalked the shadows.
Fuck.
I guess I really have gotten u...
2024-04-04 15:57:27 +0000 UTC
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Well over two hours had gone by with Dzvina addressing notable matters of politics, the kingdom’s finances, and mediating inter-nobility disputes peacefully, before it could result in bloodshed. Each point of order had flowed cleanly and almost artfully into one another, despite how disparate the topics seemed.
Finally, the discussion turned to war.
Dzvina read off generalized reports from the generals in the field to those gathered, assuring everyone that the matter of co...
2024-03-28 20:13:48 +0000 UTC
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“That was… an impressive fight, Reznik.” Luminita broke the silence she’d kept on the carriage ride home with a deep breath. “I… I thought for sure you were going to kill Sir Botezatu at the end, there.”
Well.
I almost did.
Apparently, even with as much control as I’ve gained over my body, the brakes still need some work.
Reznik’s replying thoughts were almost conversational, like he was speaking directly back to Lumin...
2024-03-22 18:47:02 +0000 UTC
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Botezatu stalked forward, pulling the sword’s tip free of the ground soundlessly.
“What is he, then? Some kind of Mage? A telepath friend of yours, Zarah?” the Knight demanded, glancing between Reznik and the observation box. “To merely give the facade of a trial by comb-“
“Silence, Sir Botezatu.” Prince Vezemir spoke at a volume loud enough to be heard in the arena, but without a hint of the wrath that Botezatu displayed. “Your exploits are well-known. My father s...
2024-03-06 21:11:57 +0000 UTC
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“I must say, your handmaiden’s cooking would be well at home with the royal chefs, Zarah.” Vezemir complimented as Luminita removed his now-cleaned plate. The youth was “seated” at the head of the table, where Zarah usually sat. Most likely, this was because he didn’t actually use a chair.
Instead, he merely lowered the underside of his spider part to the floor, and rested upon it, which from the other end of the table looked almost like he was seated.
But the silver a...
2024-02-26 15:22:21 +0000 UTC
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Foreword: Sorry for the gap, it was my birthday last week, as well as my my mother's birthday, so I was busy with things and didn't really find time to write - that said, here story:
------------------------------------
Reznik’s door was left ajar after dinner, and Zarah made it clear that he was allowed to wander freely around the home if he so desired. And so, Reznik took it upon himself to explore the home after the pair had finally gone to bed.
In truth, to call it ...
2024-02-18 22:39:29 +0000 UTC
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It felt like weeks that Reznik was locked in that basement.
Weeks of abject boredom and silence every hour of the day as he had nothing to do but wait. Wait and be idle, save for the few bright points where Zarah came in to “work” on him telepathically.
Each night, after light ceased streaming through the floorboards, she would join him, feed him dinner, and gently prod at his psyche.
The daily touches felt far and away less painful than that first session, but likewise ...
2024-02-05 21:21:39 +0000 UTC
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The sound of the latch being thrown broke Reznik from his imagination-filled blank stare at the nearby wall.
Turning towards the stairs as the door creaked open, Reznik was bathed in the scent of seared meats, spices, and fire.
Oh dear gods, Luminita, your cooking smells like it is fit for a king - if not the heavens themselves.
Luminita came down the steps with a large tray in hand, packed to the brim with food. She made eye contact with Reznik and watched him c...
2024-01-27 18:38:07 +0000 UTC
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Reznik felt a pain like the spike of a red-hot poker being shoved down his spine.
“Ah, good, he’s waking up.” A voice rattled through his ears and into his mind like an echo. “Rise and shine, thinker. We’re a short ride off from Bratsow, now, and I can’t have you riding through the city on the back of my horse like a corpse.”
Reznik’s eyes opened to a picturesque blue sky and white clouds wreathed with green foliage.
His entire body felt… odd.
Scratch...
2024-01-21 18:29:40 +0000 UTC
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Sam took a seat on the lounge chair that he’d dragged up the stairs over a week ago, staring through the massive hole in the wall that overlooked a large swath of the city, and the trench network beyond. The central keep had a fantastic view of the surrounding land, and the fight going on out there.
In truth, he felt far more at home in those trenches than he did playing ‘decision-man’ as he’d taken to calling his role since the bombing.
But until things got signi...
2024-01-14 21:17:29 +0000 UTC
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Preface: I do this because I got caught in writers block for Revenant's Resolve and had a wild hair. The chapters will be uploaded at irregular, unexpected intervals, based purely on my own whims and amount of writers block.
with that being said - enjoy >:)
---------------------------
“Sir, Baker company just sent a runner!”
Sam scratched his nose and glanced up at the disheveled-looking Sergeant that burst in through the doorway. He vaguely remembered the man a...
2024-01-07 19:32:54 +0000 UTC
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Days went by in a blur as Reznik dodged patrol after search party after death squad, all looking for Bessarbans.
Or at least that was what he hoped.
If these were all for him, or even searching with him as a top priority, Reznik was surely in trouble. In trouble in a meaningful and dangerous way, that left him little option to escape from without killing people he frankly didn’t want to.
Soldiers defending their home from an invasion didn’t deserve to be eaten by a monst...
2023-12-31 21:29:50 +0000 UTC
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Most of the electric mage had been consumed.
You’d think that after all these years, I’d be numb to your actions…
Reznik once again had to quell a rising sense of disgust as his body slurped down the gelatinous contents of the mage’s grey matter.
Haven’t you had enough yet, you fat fuck? Our wounds have long since healed. Our hands are even back to normal now!
We need to return to the town, and help them fight off the soldiers.
<...
2023-12-23 23:00:03 +0000 UTC
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“CHTO?!” one of the Bessarbans had just enough time to watch in abject horror as Reznik leapt from a rooftop onto his shoulders.
Tackling the man to the ground, Reznik’s body grabbed the top of the Bessarban soldier’s skull, twist, and wrench down to the man’s chest with a satisfying crunch of bone and sinew popping.
Little could be heard amongst the din of fighting around Reznik, but he could clearly see the sheer terror on the faces of the other Bessarbann fighters tha...
2023-12-21 23:03:13 +0000 UTC
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Of all the odd experiences I expected to happen upon crossing the river…
I can certainly say this wasn’t one of them!
Reznik was currently bound tight around his limbs, an obfuscatory bag over his head that prevented him from seeing anything.
Keeping his body from struggling, trying to fight, or generally do anything felt almost like continually plugging leaks in an ancient ship. An endless game of shutting down his body’s instincts before they came t...
2023-12-14 01:00:02 +0000 UTC
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-Note: I changed the name of the enemy nation from Zerbajia to Bessarba as I wrote. nothing else was really changed in the long run, just wanted to avoid confusion!
Chapter 10
Reznik took in the sight laid before him with a spine-tingling sensation.
After a long night of running through the woods, crossing over roads, and clearly doing everything in their power to avoid notice, the scouts had led him here.
On the opposite si...
2023-12-12 01:19:39 +0000 UTC
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Reznik felt frustrated with his current predicament.
On one hand, he was exceptionally used to hours on hours, on top of days of mindless tedium. Days where his body did nothing but shamble aimlessly through an empty ruin, stare hollow-eyed at a piece of glittering glass on the ground, transfixed by a sparkle, or even fight his own shifting reflection in a puddle of water.
In those times, he often checked himself out of reality and retreated deeper within himself, entertaining wha...
2023-12-01 19:13:55 +0000 UTC
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No matter how much Reznik tried to cajole his body into opening the trunks, bags, or even just searching the corpse of the lone soldier, he couldn’t manage to get his body to do anything beyond eat and wander aimlessly around the small camp.
You know, I’ll grant it to you. We’re quite effective in a fight.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t just for the sake of killing them like it was with the bandits.
Gods, I’m an idiot, believing I could somehow co...
2023-11-24 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Reznik watched the north gate from the roof of the large, central concrete structure with a frown.
Even through the rainy haze, he could see the tension on the shoulders of the increased guard detail. Now, what had once been guarded by two was guarded by four. Two wore the hodge-podge black and dark brown “uniforms” of what Reznik now understood was the town guard. The other two wore the trim, well-kept uniforms of the river guard.
The patrols inside the town had also increase...
2023-11-20 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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“…Teeth as long as my forearm!” Reznik listened from the roof of a home as the victims of the bandits were treated by the town doctor and two military medics. He knew for a fact that the man who was speaking currently had not seen him, instead having been tied up on the opposite side of a large tree during the fight. “Tore through the bandits before they even had a chance to look up.”
‘Mmmn, closer, but still a bit much…’ Reznik was enjoying his stealth...
2023-11-17 22:36:46 +0000 UTC
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