The beastman called Sheriff Kard was a mixture of man, lion, and goat; a leonine mane and claws, lyre-shaped horns that curved upwards and outwards from his head, cloven feet and a lion’s tail. His eyes were those of a great cat, their pupils compressed into vertical slits. Now that they stood face to face, Redmane noted Kard was roughly two heads taller than he was.
Wounds covered Kard’s body, and his breath came with a faint wheezing. He looked down at Redmane with a blend of sho...
2024-12-13 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Redmane did a quick count of heads.
Apart from the squad Sheriff Kard had just blown into incoherence with a single swing of his axe, there were five more small formations of Numantians moving to encircle him. From his vantage above it all, he could see there would be more on the way as well. The Numantians were thorough. They brought more than enough force to deal with the population here.
But not quite enough to overwhelm them completely. Perhaps they had miscalculated.
...
2024-12-12 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Praetor Jarel Craith met General Tacito Fabian at the temporary encampment of his legion, the Venturian 6th, which sprawled out under the long afternoon shadow of the towers of Taracon.
They sat at the General’s table, within the large command tent at the center of the camp.
Staring at an atlas of Volos which was in a rapid state of flux.
Again.
The General drew his bushy brows together, his mouth twisted in a frown. He had his elbow on the table with his chin resti...
2024-12-11 18:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Aric Morholt couldn’t tell how long they had been walking.
It was difficult to mark the passage of time in this unholy place. The sky never changed. There was no evidence of a world which turned, nor were there a sun or moons to observe. Only fragments of things decorated the ruddy skies, gargantuan chunks of masonry and parts of titanic beasts, which something had bitten or torn apart.
Vos, their guide, spoke little. As did Aerin, for a different reason.
Their demise at...
2024-12-10 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Redmane crouched over the carcass of the Gryphon, his teeth shearing through muscle, his jaws crunching bone, hot blood flowing down his chin. The meat was satisfying, nourishing. It tasted like its siblings, the Manticore and the Sphinx.
A flavor Redmane seemed to recall, perhaps from a previous life.
Had this happened before?
He didn’t know.
Even after learning so much, he felt there was still much to discover.
Level Up!
Level...
2024-12-09 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Hey yall, I have to take a few days off posting!
Chapter 96 will drop on MONDAY 12/9/24 at 12PM CST.
Hope the holiday season is treating you well!
2024-12-06 05:14:33 +0000 UTC
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Redmane found the Seal in the heart of the forest.
It lay at the bottom of a thickly wooded basin, perhaps a mile wide and half as deep, suggesting the place may once have been the site of a great impact. And like the Seal of the Sphinx, it was housed in an ancient building of black stone. Though this was less a building and more a complex. Perhaps it had once been an arboretum or a botanical garden. It was like a castle wall, making a ring around something in the center.
Whatev...
2024-12-05 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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At the apex of his prodigious leap, King Edd brought his sword back with both hands gripping tight on the hilt, his body arched in such a way that when he swung the weapon he would double forward, putting every ounce of force he could muster into the blow. A strike Redmane himself wouldn’t have wanted to be the target of.
Fortunately he was a spectator.
Livia, at the last instant, realized something was coming up behind her at speed. But she turned too late to do anything abou...
2024-12-04 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Redmane and Pietr rejoined each other once they had set everything into motion.
He hadn’t intended it, but this would be a splendid opportunity to observe the Imbued of other worlds in action.
Astral Stalker
[Imbued] marked as Prey
Gnosis: 1501
For a vantage point he chose the limb of a nearby tree, high enough to be out of their peripheral vision, and since there were mere moments before the battle was joined,...
2024-12-03 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
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King Edd sat upon a throne of skulls.
Mostly they were the skulls of demi-humans, though there were other kinds mixed in; cats, birds, rodents, the occasional human skull stood out because of its size. The King was himself a demi-human, with gray green skin and yellow eyes, an uncharacteristically noble set of facial features, and a crown of small skulls on his head, worn at a jaunty angle. A great steel sword, obviously forged for a human, leaned against the side of that throne.
<...
2024-12-02 18:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Redmane did not find himself immediately surrounded by Sicari.
A good sign. It meant the Castigator’s Lorica was working.
Even so, it would be wise to move with stealth. Hold on to the advantage for as long as possible.
He stared down at the encampment of the Numantian legion for a while, considering his next move.
The time for clearing Zones was past. He should claim the Seals as quickly as possible, and any Gruu burrows he came across on the w...
2024-12-01 18:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Jarel Craith watched the battle on his map screen.
The first wave of Sicari didn’t fare well. Then the second wave deployed. One by one he watched all the names on his target list wink out. Including the most important name on the list: Redmane.
His problems were over.
Or were they.
He sat in the chair which recently belonged to Mecia Porsena, staring down at the glowing map with an empty feeling in the pit of his stomach. He kept his breathing slow. His nail tapped ...
2024-11-30 18:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Redmane had never seen a Numantian city before.
Up close, the sight was breathtaking.
Lar Tathvaal said this place was called Novium. Its stone structures rose against the horizon, tall and mighty, the sheer size of the buildings and their fine workmanship a demonstration of the power and refinement of Numantia, They approached by air, Redmane floating on the silent wings of the Sphinx, Lar using some manner of Skill to fly beside him.
“That would be the Governor’s tower...
2024-11-29 18:00:18 +0000 UTC
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As Redmane shouted to call the retreat, the gleaming points of twenty seven Star-Steel arrowheads loosed from their bows.
Every last one was aimed at the same target.
Again he felt the effect of his third eye. A distortion of his perception of time.
He would not have enough time to activate a Skill before the arrows pierced his body. He had, however, alerted his comrades to the danger and they were turning to regard it with fresh expressions of shock on their faces. Redma...
2024-11-28 18:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Two straight blades pierced Redmane’s torso from the left and right.
The broad edge of an axe sank deep into his back.
A sword sliced his left arm off above the elbow. Another took his right leg just below the knee.
A pair of bladed polearms, of the kind he’d evaded a moment ago with Flicker, stabbed through his trachea from the front and his skull from the back.
The eighth, a long slender two-handed sword, pierced into him through his right armpit...
2024-11-27 18:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The bottom level of the Deepwell Monastery was a large, circular chamber, its centerpiece an immense pool of dark water.
Framing the pool was a scene etched directly into the stone; Vos, holding the God Breaker in his right hand, his left grasping a pair of chains connected to the necks of the Lord of Hunger and the Lady of Plenty.
Redmane stood with his back to this image, using the ledge of the Abyssal Well as a stage to address his allies.
Now he shared the stage with La...
2024-11-26 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
This marks the end of Book Two and the setup for Book Three, which starts tomorrow, all per my original plan.
But the ordering of chapters and books may change when I get to Amazon, on account of that fact that I'm...
Meeting with a major publisher this morning!!!
Wish me luck y'all! ;)
-- -- -- --
Between the ability to switch bodies with any of his spawn and the ability to travel the Abyss, Redmane assembled his Imbued allies...
2024-11-25 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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People had always praised Jarel Craith for his restraint.
Even when he was a boy, he waited his turn to speak. He paid careful, quiet attention to his teachers. He abided by the rules. Early on, perhaps before he could even speak, he became aware of the difference between the way things were and the way they ought to be.
And that bothered him.
He didn’t approve of disruptive children. The ones who made the instructor stop the lesson to deal with them. Little Jarel Craith ...
2024-11-24 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Redmane ate his fill of the flesh of the Sphinx, his eyes closed, absorbed in his meal.
Corpus: 28,826
And when his eyes opened, they were pools of black with points of red light for pupils.
Level Up!
Level 112 —> 113
Level 113 —> 114
Level 114 —> 115
Level 115 —> 116
Quality Points awaiting allocation: 4
2024-11-23 18:00:13 +0000 UTC
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The Sphinx approached them, walking on quiet paws, smiling as if she were enjoying a joke no one present would understand.
Phantasm
Redmane noticed a change in the air. A stillness. The red glow of the room subtly changed color, became a shade of violet and the shadows deepened and played unnaturally against the walls. The Sphinx walked to the left, and another Sphinx walked to the right. A third came forward, and a fourth sat on her haunches in the spot whence th...
2024-11-22 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
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From the summit of the ruins on the rocky hill, Redmane could see out across the rest of the island chain known as the Fangs of Frost. They stretched onward to the north for miles, most of them barren crags like the one he presently stood upon. The dark sea churned around and between them, over a maze of reefs certain to be the demise of any ship foolish enough to find itself in such a place.
He felt fortunate to possess wings.
To the north, beyond these small islands, Redmane s...
2024-11-21 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Mecia Porsena of Numantia, Colonial Governess of Taracon, leaned against the balcony rail of her bedchamber to have a look at her domain. She held a half finished glass of wine negligently in one hand, swishing its contents around, more interested in the sound of her nail tapping the glass than the flavor of the drink it contained.
Jarel Craith was about to come through her door.
Truly, she didn’t think he had it in him.
But as it ever was, junior officials had a tendency ...
2024-11-20 18:00:23 +0000 UTC
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Redmane returned home to refill his Gnosis, and this time he left with plenty.
Gnosis: 2508
He also returned Pietr to the custody of Flora, so that she could continue to learn the intricacies of the Faction menu, the Marketplace, and the Sanctuary upgrade system. She became immediately engrossed again.
But as Redmane turned to leave, she caught his wrist.
“My lord,” she said, smiling up at him. “Perchance when this be done, we might spend more ...
2024-11-19 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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When the white light faded, he found he was immense. So large it was difficult to reckon with the sheer scale of his own body.
Deep inside him existed a mortal mind, but it lay buried beneath a consciousness even more vast than his physical form. Redmane could feel that small mind struggling to find its way through the dark, to free itself, but the will of the Lord of Hunger kept him prisoner.
It did not speak, but the volume of its emotion made its intentions transparently clear....
2024-11-18 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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The Imbued of Beroh Keep had little experience in the realm of accounting or administration, as it turned out.
This would have been the sort of thing he’d ask Helmold Brecht to do, but alas, the wretched traitor was no more.
For a moment he considered opening his Soulspace and asking his divine son Vos. But after disturbing his slumber, defeating him in a duel, and consuming his storied weapon and his very soul, he imagined the self-fashioned God Emperor of the ancient world wo...
2024-11-17 18:00:14 +0000 UTC
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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
A couple of you suggested a change to Wrath of Redmane that I went ahead and made.
Here's the updated version of the Skill:
—
Skills Consumed:
Rage Fueled Might
Might of Umber
Bloodlust
New Skill Learned:
Wrath of Redmane
Primordial Skill
Passive
The wrath of Redmane is terrifying to behold.
Whenever Redma...
2024-11-16 18:00:16 +0000 UTC
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As he left Helmold Brecht to his fate, walking into the quiet night, Redmane again recalled the words of the old crone. What she said to him when they first met on the night he broke free.
A parting word of caution for thee. Not all who aid thee are thy allies, and not all who fight thee are thy foes.
He supposed this was what she meant.
It occurred to him that when he had left Beroh Keep in haste, he left a goodly number of confused people behind. Not the least of ...
2024-11-15 18:00:16 +0000 UTC
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The hound caught Helmold’s horse by the throat.
Its jaws clamped down, taking the hound, horse and rider tumbling to the ground in a pile. The horse squealed and kicked its hooves wildly in the air, eyes rolling around in panic as the hound tore out its throat, spraying fresh blood everywhere.
Helmold’s head struck the dirt, and everything went dark.
He blinked his eyes open slowly, groggily, as if waking from a long nap. The first thing he became aware of was a bloom of...
2024-11-14 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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Helmold Brecht spurred his horse from a canter to a run.
There would be time to relax later, when Aerin Morholt returned to fix this infernal situation. For now they rode hard, to make as much space as possible between themselves and the enemy.
Night had fallen, but the road was blessedly open and easy to follow in the dark. The moons peeked through the clouds, their colors blending to cast an eerie violet glow on the road ahead as they raced on, the rhythmic pounding of hooves sm...
2024-11-13 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Helmold Brecht found he liked Beroh Keep.
The housemaids and the kitchen maids and even the washerwomen were prettier. The kitchen was larger and better stocked. It had a fine library, and there were plenty of normal folk around who were impressed when he revealed his status as an Imbued. He’d even been to Taracon once, he told more than a few of them.
He hadn’t truly been to Taracon, but he knew enough about it to make it seem like he had. And the women here ate it right up.<...
2024-11-12 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
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