Cassius Lange

Punish the System - 13

Connor had never trusted Maths.

He’d been good at it once, back when numbers meant actual things. Apples in a basket. Change from a fiver. The number of blows it took to break a padlock. Back in Year Five, he’d even won a laminated certificate with a cartoon owl on it that said “NUMBERS WIZARD.” He’d stuck it in his bedroom window until the sun faded the ink and some local kid told him wizards weren’t real.

But then the syllabus changed. He mastered addition and subtra...

Punish the System - 12

"I'm going to need you to carefully run me through what happened here," the Dane said, selecting the least blood-smeared of the barbershop’s remaining furniture and lowering himself onto it with the resignation of a man already drafting his apology to Oversight. "I don’t need what you say to be the unvarnished truth. I don’t even need it to be especially credible. But as my next phone call is going to be with a very annoyed Second Desk, I need it not to sound like a fairy tale. Thus, wi...

Punish the System - 11

“You're honestly telling this face - this face - that you don’t know who’s supplying you?” Jaz said. “What? Did you just wake up one morning and there were suddenly two keys of gear in your toilet cistern? Tell you what, mate, you must be the single luckiest drug dealer in the whole of Aston! Visited by the Heroin Fairy in the middle of the night with goodness and wonder? Fair play to you!”

“I swear!” the man whined. He was stocky, sweat-drenched, and had a mass...

Punish the System - 10

“So, were you really shot?” Jaz asked, not looking up from the glovebox as she rummaged through the mess of someone else’s receipts, breath mints, and spare mags.

“I’m sensing some scepticism,” Connor said. “Not sure I like it.”

“Well, yeah. To hear the boss tell it, you were plugged but good and died on the table shortly thereafter. Now we’re what, three days later? And you’re back at work and surreptitiously trying to look down my top.”

“I am abso...

Punish the System - 9

The air in the converted warehouse stank of stale coffee, whiteboard ink, and an aggressive sort of sweat. In fact, it smelled like the building itself had been panicking overnight and still hadn’t settled down from its nightmare. A dozen mismatched chairs formed a loose semi-circle in the middle of the space, their cushions sagging under the weight of men and women who didn’t look like they sat much.

At the far end, a battered projector beamed a flickering map of Birmingham onto a ...

Punish the System - 8

Despite his interdimensional exhaustion, Connor got off the bus three stops early. He didn’t glance back. You never, ever glance back. That was how you gave the game away.

Instead, he strolled into Mr Habib’s corner shop, bought a bottle of Lucozade he didn’t want, paid in change to drag the moment out, and stood beneath the convex bubble of the ceiling mirror, sipping idly while his eyes did slow laps.

He spotted one pensioner with a tartan trolley moving at glacial pace. A...

Punish the System - 7

Once Connor put one foot in the Dungeon, everything shifted.

His spine snapped into alignment with a whispering click, like a safe being unlocked. His breath steadied and the buzz behind his eyes, the nag of old injuries, the dull knot in his knee from too many nights on concrete floors was gone. Not numbed. Gone. Like they’d never had the audacity to exist. Inside this Dungeon, it was like he’d become the best physical version of himself he could be. No pain. No confusion. No drag ...

Punish the System - 6

Connor didn't even get to see the creature emerge through the wall. 

One moment there was nothing, and then the next… there was. It was like the shining area of the wall sneezed and a growling wet shape instantly stood in front of it, hunched and jittering, like something that had been dragged from the underworld and then left to rot. 

The creature’s skin was like unbaked clay, all grey and sagging, and its mouth was both far too wide and at the same time, entirely t...

Punish the System - 5

The Dane had been sitting next to Connor’s bed for sometime, one hand resting lightly on a folder he hadn’t yet opened. In his other was a pen he hadn’t used at all. You didn’t get to the boss’s position in life and do stupid things like actually write stuff down.

“I’m sorry, but can we just go over it all again?” he said, his accent not softened at all by twenty years of His Majesty’s security clearances. “We’ve reviewed the various feeds from Grand Central, Steph...

Punish the System - 4

“Babes, listen. Listen! I know I said I’d come straight home, and when I said it, I meant it, I did. From the deepest bit of my soul. But the lads’ve had a shocker of a week. Gav’s just crawled off the night shift smelling like diesel, Dean’s nan’s back in hospital with that thing they still haven’t named, and Keith, well, Keith’s divorce lawyer says he needs to build a ‘support network.’ Which is legalese for ‘either go to the pub or have a quiet breakdown in the car pa...

Punish the System - 3

Connor realised he’d not been listening to the enthusiastically wittering voice for quite some time.

Not out of rudeness, though that was a tempting option at this stage of proceedings, but rather because he’d been trying to determine quite how much trouble he was actually in.

He’d read about things like this happening. One minute, you were finishing a job, then you were getting shot in the head, and then the next moment you woke up and you were… wrong. And not just injure...

Punish the System - 2

“—through and through, right upper chest. No lung collapse but he's hypotensive, pressure's crashing. He's lost over a litre, someone get that O-negative up here now!"

A hand slapped his skin. Velcro tore and pain erupted in his skull.

"—exit wound’s clean, but he’s bradycardic. Pupils—Christ, look at his pupils—"

Everything slipped. Like a floor washing out beneath him. Connor could feel the motion but he didn’t know where he was. There was...

Punish the System - 1

“... and I’m halfway through peeling off her onesie, right, when she looks me dead in the eye and says, ‘Do you want to see my collection?’ No context. That’s all there was. Like she was casting a spell or something.”

The massively oversized man in the Hawaiian shirt paused as his story elicited whoops and cackles from the small crowd lounging around him.

“So I go, ‘What do you mean a ‘collection’, my love?’ And she just points behind me, re...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 34

“Arclight, stop!” I shouted, hauling Eryn to her feet. I grabbed and pulled her back toward the others as the two Primal Forms tumbled from the dissipating black smoke in a blur of golden fur and dark purple scales.

They were a chaotic vortex of teeth and claws, rolling across the scorched earth in a tangle of limbs, kicking up clouds of dust and stone. The crackle of lightning, sound of claws on scaled hide, and roars of pure, unrestrained fury was horrifying,

“I taunt?” ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 33

The world swam back into focus as the mattress moved beneath me. I blinked, my mind still foggy with sleep, seeing Eryn nearly bouncing up and down as she got dressed in her adventuring kit. 

“Slept well?” I murmured, my tongue fat.

She turned with a smile so bright it outshone the early morning sun and popped a Mind Gem into her mouth.

“Barely a wink!” she said, her voice buzzing with energy. “I’m too excited to see if Arclight gets a Primal Form like Roq. ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 32

Over the next few days we settled into a rhythm of stability, one I hadn’t known for a long time. While Dawnwatch buzzed with the frantic energy of repairs and reinforcements, our small circle turned inward, focusing on improving ourselves.

With their soul weapons at breakthrough, Eryn had convinced Lan to join her in picking up shifts at Sentinel Station, competing to see who could slay more monsters during the waves.

Sparks flew as I brought my warhammer down, not on a monster...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 31

I smiled at Eryn where she sat across from me at the dining room table, nursing a mug with both hands as if it was the only thing keeping her alive. I’d never seen her hair this wild before. It looked like the weeds tumbling past outside Dawnwatch, and I loved how she let me see her this way. The shadows under her eyes and the redness of not quite healed burns finished the story of too much ale, too tall flames, and too little sleep. 

She took a slow, careful sip of her tea and w...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 45

Fey stomped her foot angrily. I looked to Ragul for help but interestingly enough, the vampire seemed to be on her side for once.

“You haven’t shaved, and you stink,” she claimed. “Didn’t you say you took a bath this morning? What were you doing?”

“I—I bathed,” I lied. “Yesterday.”

“In orc sweat, no less,” Tyfus said and chuckled together with Arstemion.

I shot the demon a tired look. He had made the Midnight Bounties his new home and wasn’t...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 30

Knut’s room was crowded. 

Nabeeh lay strapped to the reinforced bed, a forced, brittle smile on her face. Eryn held her hand tied down, while Knut stood guard by the door like a mountain. Katherine was preparing to heal, a focused, professional calm about her. Mara stood in the corner, an intimidating observer, and Lan lingered awkwardly near the window.

“So, a Fire Mage, a Hammerlord, and a Stormwarden walk into a bar…” Nabeeh began, her voice a little too loud.

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 44

My head hurt even more than the wound in my ribs. And it wasn’t just the hangover either. I was in the throne room sitting next to Seldon with Stein standing to my left looking at the crowded chamber of the dead king. Would this never end? Was I ever going to have another day for myself?

The questions roamed through my mind as I gazed over the noble men and women who heroically abandoned us in our greatest time of need. They made haste to return as soon as the portals opened, and they...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 29

It was afternoon by the time I re

turned home. Sitting cross-legged on my bed, Roq rested across my lap. The house was quiet. Knut was out escorting Katherine to lunch before her big assist with Nabeeh’s breakthrough, Lan was…somewhere, while Eryn and Nabeeh were outside practicing with Eryn’s new skill.

Pa and Torsten had started working on the normal Emmets we’d brought back, twenty three of which had gems in them, according to Roq and Arclight.

And it was the hunt...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 43

“Ragul,” I said. “The usual, please.” I looked over to my side where Arstemion was burning a hole into my chair at the bar. I didn’t want to say anything. I’d make new chairs. I had time now.

Nobody even gave the demon general a look. As his legions chased the Quinta north, Sankta Varathians returned to what they did best, celebrate, drink, and cheat each other out of paying for said drinks.

The drow vampire poured me a whiskey, and I gestured for the demon general to ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 28

The last of the stew was scraped from our bowls and Ma’s lemon pie had been utterly vanquished by a king who had, for a brief period, been more than just a warhammer. He’d been a part of the family, eating, rather messily perhaps, but eating with us nonetheless. 

Roq was back in his normal form now, leaning against my chair, likely digesting in whatever way an ancient king, turned into a soul-forged weapon, digested pie and stew.

With a sigh, I let the warmth of the meal ...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 42

Targa grabbed a golden soldier by the throat and raised him to eyesight. He smacked his twitching body into the ground, growled pulling his axe back, and then split the Quinta’s skull.

The large angry orc glanced at me as I stepped through the portal and into the Ashpit. The leader of the Loco Bruego was covered in blood and much of it was his own. He grinned then shot the next enemy a terrifying look. The sword wielder took a frightened step back, Targa threw his axe into his chest, ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 27

The officials and Harold left, leaving me to stand with Pa, Ma, and Edwin on the plot of land behind the smithy.

The commander clapped a hand on my shoulder.

“You’re not wrong, Ash,” Edwin said, his voice low enough that only I could hear. “About going on the offensive. At least, not in my view. But Central Command… they see a much larger map than we do. Not saying they are right, but maybe there’s a piece of it we’re missing.” He sighed, the sound of a man caught ...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 41

Towers of smoke rose from the Temple District. The ancient grounds of worship were now a stronghold for the north men. Except for Morgefah’s temple and a bit of collateral damage on the others, the Quinta left most of it intact. I couldn’t tell whether it was out of respect for the Gods or simply for practical reasons, but either way the home of Sankta Varathian Gods was lost to the enemy.

            “Fuck the Gods,” I hiss...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 26

“…and then the Emmets chased us for a long time. By the time we closed on the Ironclad Ravine, we had finally outrun them.”

I didn’t mention how Roq had carried Knut and I, while the girls all held onto him, running alongside. It had given us enough distance that by the time I ran out of mana and he turned back into a warhammer, Eryn helped me store him, and he used Blood Forge to cure me of the toxin. Then I carried Knut until he could move, while the girls killed ants while we...

Midnight Bounties 4 - Chapter 40

I never thought I’d see such a dawn. It felt like the sun itself served the Emperor and his fanatics by shedding its rays over the shining army to blind us. Shimmering, sparkling streams of Quinta funneled through our streets like molten gold through a webbed canyon. Pillars of smoke billowed as tall and thick banners with the five-pointed star flapped in the hot air.

Cunts.

Not that I still wondered what the point of it all was. From what I had seen of the Quinta, war ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 25

The tunnel was one giant, muddy throat, and we were being swallowed.

I’d been carving a path through the tunnel for what felt like an hour, but probably was only several minutes. Each step was a battle, one where monsters from the darkness threatened to take someone from me. Eryn kept our back clear, clogging up the path with dead carcasses, forcing the ants to waste precious time in clearing away more of their own just to keep up.

With the strap, I braced my shield against the ...

Riftside 3 - Chapter 24

The world became a churning, muddy, watery hell.

I was thrown end over end, the thick, soupy brown water a suffocating blanket. The gritty taste of mud and the foul stench of crushed eggs and rot filled my senses anytime my head made it up out of the water. All the while, my ill-fitting armor felt like a cage designed to drown me.

I slammed into something hard.

A wall.

I used the momentary purchase to kick away, fighting for a sense of direction in the chaos, ...