“Ow.” Suki sat up, rubbing her lightly bleeding head. Grant knew exactly how she felt. Looking around, her eyes widened in shock and surprise. Dead, unconscious, and heavily battered people littered the ground. “What happened? I can’t have been flattened for that long.”
“When I broke the Vassal’s weapon, it exploded.” Grant winced as he finished kicking the big guy off of her. He had started by using his hand, but still managed to hurt his inju...
2022-02-24 12:00:00 +0000 UTC
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The deepening shadows were a great place for more than just Grant and Suki to blend in. Considering the proximity to the casino, far more people were milling around than in other areas of the District they had been through recently. They had to run past several beggars that looked on the edge of starvation, and Grant slowed to hand a fresh tomato from his pack to a particularly skinny little girl.
“I have to change things in this District, one way or another.” Grant’s determined t...
2022-02-23 12:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Get those hard-to-reach chapters! You may need
2022-02-22 14:56:52 +0000 UTC
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The structure turned out not to be a casino. Instead, Patty’s Perfect Palace, Poolroom, and Pavilion of Perfect-Picked Poker and Pinochle was a three-story building that took up a whole city block. They weren’t stopped from going inside by the House Friday Vassal guarding the door; the inter-house politics must have kept House Tuesday and House Saturday from easily recruiting aid from the other Noble Houses. A failing on their part for certain, but a definite boon to Grant and Su...
2022-02-22 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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“The labyrinth?” Grant had heard the word before, but he didn’t know why a hedge maze would be a difficult proposition. “If we have to go through a bunch of bushes, I can just chop them down.”
“Shh!” Suki put her finger up to her lips and dragged Grant deeper into the building. “They might still be close by. Keep your voice down.”
He ducked his head in shame, paused, and met her eyes, ready to argue against directly agreeing with her. She gave him a glance that t...
2022-02-21 11:38:38 +0000 UTC
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The next two days passed uneventfully. That was… mostly uneventfully. Suki had taken it upon herself to train Grant in the ‘Way of the Noble’. To his way of thinking, all that really meant was learning all kinds of different ways to trick people into agreeing to things they never meant to agree to do.
“So, you see? The importance of watching your tongue is no different than keeping watch for attackers, or monsters.” Suki laid a consoling hand on his shoulder, which was still s...
2022-02-18 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Grant was awakened by the sound of something frying in a pan. It was probably the most effective way to wake him up from a dead sleep, next to a giant spider attacking him.
<Move!> An orange spider dropped down from the ceiling rafters, and Grant sliced it in half by reflex using Iaijutsu. He didn’t even open his eyes, merely pulling, slicing, and putting the sword away in one smooth motion by instinct.
Prerequisite met: 10,000 successful uses of Iaijutsu!
<...
2022-02-17 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The two eventually made their way deeper into the District, allowing Grant to spend some time rethinking the events that had led him to this point in his life. The gaudy desolation of the region only drove home the importance of continuing his quest. The world needed to change, and he knew that was what February Twenty Nine represented: a way to remake everything. The fear of failure was the thing pushing down on him.
That, and the stupidly heavy monster hearts in his pack.
<I ...
2022-02-16 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“What are you doing, Suki?” The rhythmic cracking sounds of her gauntleted fists smashing the gyuki’s carapace to smithereens distracted Grant from the ridiculous system. “Why are you beating up the dead monsters?”
“Something this big has to have a unique heart inside it. We don’t have an infinite amount of coin, and I am sure someone from House Wednesday or Saturday would pay top Time for something so rare.” Suki pointed to the creature Grant had beheaded. “You get to...
2022-02-15 12:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The final version of Lady February was just sent to your Patreon email! All $5+ supporters received the ebook and all $15+ supporters received both the ebook and audiobook.
Thanks for helping to shape this book into what it is! I would love any and all reviews on Amazon and/or Audible come Wednesday. <3
<...
2022-02-14 22:28:09 +0000 UTC
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The Ushi-Oni ignored Grant’s approach, judging the gauntlet-wielding pink-haired prodigy as the greater threat. He was more than happy to teach them the error of their ways. Dropping his shoulder, Grant slammed into the nearest gyuki and planted his pauldron in its thorax, while his sword stabbed at the base of its bull ear. The impact pitched the freaky spider monster to its side, allowing his sword to slice deeply across its throat.
One-hit kill! Weapon cultivation increased by ...
2022-02-14 16:15:41 +0000 UTC
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They finished eating hastily, then started packing up without exchanging a word. Grant was even nice enough to give some broth to Fluffy Fingers, though he had to ignore the disapproval coming from both Suki and Sarge. The enemy Vassal was quiet, clearly contemplating what Suki had explained to him. It was clear the clown was conflicted about hearing that his District was fundamentally broken, but Grant didn’t have any clue about what to say to the man.
<She’s right, you know.>...
2022-02-11 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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It was a scramble to collect their gear and move off the street. The abundance of dilapidated and abandoned buildings gave them countless places to hide, and they settled on a two-story storefront with almost an inch of dust coating the floor.
“I still don’t understand why you grabbed him.” Suki kept glancing back at the prone form of Fluffy Fingers, who would have to change his name after the fight. His scepter’s explosion had done severe damage to the hand wielding it...
2022-02-10 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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2022-02-09 16:15:06 +0000 UTC
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The Vassal facing them was tall and skinny, and it appeared he was wearing stilts under his pants, bringing him up to easily nine feet tall. How the two of them hadn’t noticed his bright green hair poking up over the crowd was a mystery. The clear stone at the end of his short metal-banded wooden scepter produced a faint purple glow that seemed to pulse with his heartbeat.
The pace of the pulsing increased as Grant took a step forward to face him. The clown, and this one was certa...
2022-02-09 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The replay of the events with the rats ran through Grant’s mind. His choice to not use his lightning spell when Suki had come into the room was his biggest mistake. She had been uninjured at the time, and it would have ended with her less injured than the end result of directly fighting the swarm. As always, there were wasted movements and missed blocks his memory told him were glaring mistakes. After the necessary minute of concentration—which felt more like an hour of watching his error...
2022-02-08 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Grant and Suki were at a loss regarding what to do with Phil’s body, so they simply moved to the room across the hall to get some rest. It had been a long day, and things looked like they would only get worse. This entire District was more than either of them had been expecting. They took turns getting sleep, with only a few mild complaints from Suki about the accommodations. She was used to living in spartan conditions, after all: she had long ago given up all accoutrements of wealth willi...
2022-02-07 12:01:03 +0000 UTC
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“Grant, he’s waking up! Get in here!” Suki called from the other room. Her tone told him that he’d better hurry. The man they had saved was awake and clearly bewildered at his situation. Before he had been knocked out, he was in the market square, surrounded by angry strangers beating him to death; now he was in an abandoned building with strangers.
The now-twenty-year old could sympathize. He had been through some similar situations himself. In his mind, this guy had it easy: t...
2022-02-04 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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“What should we do?” Grant began pacing up and down the hallway of the abandoned house they had found. The lack of a roof over most of the building, due to some long-ago fire, was probably the main reason why not even the extremely destitute of the small city had moved in. “If they ask around, I’m sure House Tuesday can figure it out. They’ll be tracking us down in no time!”
“We already took the potions to hide our names. Now isn’t the time to worry about things we can...
2022-02-03 12:01:00 +0000 UTC
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The crowd surrounding the starving man had reached well over a dozen people by the time Grant got close enough to try to break things up, but by then, it was too late. Someone kicked the man in the back of the leg, dropping him to one knee. Then, in the oddest fashion Grant had ever seen, the people started beating the man.
It was like the kick was some kind of signal for the entire throng. They formed an almost perfect circle around him, taking individual turns to land a punch or kick ...
2022-02-02 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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The final book of Anything was just sent to your Patreon email! All $5+ supporters received the ebook and all $15+ supporters received both the ebook and audiobook.
You're getting this at the same time as I've opened up direct sales on my website for this series! Check it out and let me know what you think!
As always, thank you for your support, and I would greatly appreciate a review...
2022-02-02 00:07:47 +0000 UTC
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Grant and Suki stumbled through the alley and into a kaleidoscope of colorful lights that dazzled and amazed them. What Grant had thought were inns turned out to be some kind of game store emblazoned with signs declaring that ‘patrons won’t be disappointed if they try their luck’. People seemed happy, their laughter echoing about the town square and from nearly every building. As Grant followed his nose and approached the nearest food stall, he noticed a gaunt man wearing the white unif...
2022-02-01 18:20:31 +0000 UTC
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The title says it all :P
March is coming quick!
2022-01-31 16:07:24 +0000 UTC
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Prologue
A man bearing a sealed envelope with the violet-hued wax seal of House Sunday hurried down a dark hallway, his uniform a combination of garish colors and sparkling sequins. His balding head was beaded with sweat, and a look of fear crossed his features. As he opened the door to the room overlooking the main gambling floor, he had to shield his eyes from the glare of the brightly flashing lights that shone through the one-way glass. He took a deep breath to steel himself, and ...
2022-01-31 15:56:13 +0000 UTC
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A fist erupted through the baked earth, sending flakes of muck and cooked pumpkin flying away to release a *hiss* as the pressure equalized between the two spaces. An angry voice shouted, “No, no, no! Ahhh! Oh, we aren’t burning. Luke! What if it had still been on fire up there?”
“I was bored just sitting here.” Luke’s head popped out of the earth, and he craned his neck, searching for any sign of creatures still moving around. Unfortunately, the e...
2022-01-28 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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- Andre -
“You what?” Andre’s eyes welled up as Taylor went limp in his arms with a soft exhalation. “Taylor? Taylor!”
He let go of her, and she continued to float in place, connected to the Earthen Node via a tether of brown energy. He held the satchel in his hand. He looked at it, and it took everything he had not to slap it closed and throw himself into the maw of the Teeth that were closing in. He wouldn’t let Taylor’s final act be wasted like t...
2022-01-26 16:00:01 +0000 UTC
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- Taylor -
The Mage coughed up blood as Luke made his suggestion to throw away their futures in an insane, misguided, most-likely-won’t-even-work sort of way. If the blood had been from anger, she would have been impressed and asked the Murderhobo to teach her so that she could do the same to Archmage Don. But no: this was just good ol’ fashioned internal damage rearing its ugly head.
“Luke… please, no,” Taylor managed to squeeze out, even though her body protested the e...
2022-01-24 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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- Luke -
“You get in front and scatter them!” Andre shouted at Luke. The Murderhobo didn’t need to be told twice. He whooped for joy and whipped his hand at a Tooth that was slowly floating closer, sending out his bottle and drilling the beast in its head. The bottle vanished at the same time as the monster flew into the air toward the sludge creeping up toward them, but the Murderhobo had already forgotten all about that attack. He followed up by using Bum Flash to close on the a...
2022-01-21 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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- Andre -
A perfect equilateral triangle—formed of scintillating liquid energy that shifted among a trio of colors—blazed in the air, fed by nearly indistinct veins of power that vanished into the earth around them. The Earthen Node slowly rotated in place, a wellspring of power that displayed no signs of damage at all. Andre stared directly at the light, swallowing dryly and looking away only when his eyes began to hurt from the intensity of the collected power.
“Breaking t...
2022-01-19 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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“Lamprey face with teeth made of metal that spin clockwise on the outside, counter-clockwise with the inner, twelve legs that propel the creature through the water as easily as on land, the Corrupted Swamperling Tooth seeks your flesh and bone,” Zed intoned in a too-loud voice.
“Why?” Taylor sent a sharp query at Zed as she took the initiative to send a Shatter Shot at the closest Tooth. It hit the creature and blew a chunk off, but the creature merely screamed and init...
2022-01-17 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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