Eric’s blade was already out, adrenaline flooding his system as he drew and struck before the other side of the portal had even snapped into focus, refusing to be surprised and swarmed and nearly killed… only to find absolutely nothing waiting for him save the crushing gravity, acid drizzle, and putrid stench of before.
“Beautiful form, master! Few things look cooler than seeing your idol wave his sword around with lava lakes and obsidian mountains in the distance! And ...
2023-03-24 03:59:00 +0000 UTC
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PERCEPTION PIERCES SHADOW RAPTOR STEALTH!
YOU SENSE DEATH FROM BEHIND!
Eric wasted no time in alarm or dismay as every sense screamed to hyper alertness, time seeming to slow to a crawl as he felt the sudden surge of killing intent, perfectly mirroring the vile raptor that had nearly chomped completely through his hip.
Only that one’s intensity was nothing like the monster at his back, even now going for his—
Quickness Check made!
2023-03-22 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric raced across the flatlands as impermeable obsidian morphed into porous volcanic rock that crunched and crumbled under his reinforced boots.
Before collapsing entirely to reveal a massive sinkhole filled with vines covered in thorns and putrid green ichor now whipping through the air and slamming upon the ground where Eric had strode just seconds ago. in explosions of wickedly sharp gravel.
Eric could barely hear his own startled curse over the explosions of gravel ...
2023-03-20 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric had expected a sense of exhilaration, having completely cleared an entire territory of orange tier threats. But what he felt more than anything else was exhaustion, drained to his core.
It had been a long day. A very long day, a dozen individual battles still flashing across his mind’s eye. And for all that he wanted nothing more than to pull a blanket from storage and curl up and sleep before taking on the final task that would allow him to finally claim this territor...
2023-03-17 03:59:00 +0000 UTC
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The heavy air tingled against the back of Eric’s throat as he savored the sweet sharp tang of wild mana roiling through the air. Yet the shivers Eric felt racing down his spine at the sound of not one but dozens of roars from the toothy maws of actual dinosaurs was not dread at the thought of being snapped up and devoured in the blink of an eye… but exhilaration.
To see firsthand the magnificent plumage, brilliant colors, and powerfully muscled frame of a spinosaurian horror, comple...
2023-03-15 03:59:00 +0000 UTC
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Jinni blanched. His mother gave the tiniest of approving smiles. Because however much he played clueless upon first smacking open the door… words he had later let slip had made his secret ace all too clear. Arlen Ort had referred to Jinni’s own comments regarding how much smoother the gears of commerce would turn with Eric’s signature on sheets of fine vellum, as opposed to a single digital acknowledgment in a very exclusive Interface tab.
And the only way Arlen could know that, w...
2023-03-13 03:59:00 +0000 UTC
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His mother gripped Eric’s arm, slowly shaking her head. “He’s a Blue Corp executive, whatever else he might be. You’d be foolish to risk absolutely everything, were you to let yourself be goaded into assaulting him.” She flashed a hard smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Best let this matter be handled internally, Eric, lest he seek to play the victim card with your own interference.”
Eric clenched jaw, before finally dipping his head, unable to deny the validity of...
2023-03-10 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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“Lady Aurelia, so good to see you! Will your Contender be joining us today?”
Eric smiled politely at the rather pretty elf with only the shallowest of points to her ears, much like Caliban’s own, dressed in a distinguished looking Blue Corp uniform who greeted them after a politely dressed assistant led them through the halls of a white marble building that just screamed ‘city hall’ with its central domed rooftop and greco-roman construction.
Eric sensed that ...
2023-03-08 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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“This, my son. This is your masterpiece,” Aurelia declared, her voice hushed with odd reverence as they gloried under golden shafts of sunlight blessed with Picksonville’s Epic tier boon of perfectly balanced Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energies resulting in the most fertile conditions to be found anywhere on Terra. Eric could so clearly sense this territory’s potential to grow any crop imaginable, whether Spirit Peaches or the magical fruit to be found in both Dairyland and...
2023-03-06 03:59:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric gazed at his mother for long, thoughtful moments. “Okay, let’s cut to the chase. What do you really need from me to keep Elonia and the hundreds of way too attractive elven girls who keep giving me calf-eyed looks when they think I’m not looking, safe?”
He winced under the sudden weight of his mother’s gaze. No longer playfully sparring, now judging and measuring him with the full might and power of the Winter Queen herself.
“What I would ask of you is ...
2023-03-03 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Why? Why do you have to go back?” Annika asked, a plaintive hitch to her voice that once more masked the anxious desperation that she, and perhaps most everyone else here, now felt every day of their lives.
Eric swallowed the lump in his throat. “Friends I care about were unjustly imprisoned. I need to go back there and find out what happened… exactly what happened, and do what I can to get them safely out of there.” He took a deep ragged breath as his heart began ...
2023-03-01 04:59:00 +0000 UTC
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Eric’s eyes widened as he gazed down at his wand. He couldn’t quite hide his grin of satisfaction when he felt a sudden connection, an understanding regarding the flow of mana through his weapon now every bit as profound as what he experienced when shooting out streams of liquid flame or spears of ice, the added insights boosting his now Elemental Wand skill to Journeyman tier as his sense of the arcane continued to blossom and grow. He sensed a number of ways he could enhance ...
2023-02-27 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric couldn’t help but wake up with a smile, feeling a weight finally ease off his shoulders.
He had done it. Against overwhelming odds, and what seemed to be enemies around every corner, he had managed to crack the vise that had all but sealed his sister’s fate. And how good it had been, to see her relieved smile, to hold her close and let her know that, even now, with the world thrown into absolute chaos and madness the order of the day, he was still here for her. Still...
2023-02-24 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Elonia's POV
(Next chapter will be Eric, as per usual)
Contender Elonia Silver has entered Training Pod X03. Increased epinephrine levels detected. Elevated heart-rate detected. Opioid withdrawal detected. Countermeasures have been initiated.
Elonia bit her lip… but didn’t resist the wave of sweet relief washing over her.
“Keep infusions to a minimum,” she whispered. She couldn’t deny how much better she felt, as a thousa...
2023-02-22 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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(Elionia's POV)
“Arcane Training Pod X07, please acknowledge designated Contender Elonia Silver.”
Elonia shivered in the cool breeze as she took in the pearlescent crystalline chamber with its three cushioned sleeping pods that had become like a second home to her over the last six months, doing her best to ignore the constant brittle pain she felt in her chest she had all but learned to ignore… save when flareups hit. When she pushed herself too hard, wh...
2023-02-20 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Elonia was gazing at him with tears in her eyes. “Eric! The worth of your gift, I can’t even put into words!”
Eric grinned. “At least you now have a path forward… one that doesn’t require you destroying yourself from within to please Mother. But whether or not you want to risk it, that’s up to you.”
Elonia shook her head. “Eric, that’s not really fair.”
“Isn’t it?” Eric frowned, pinning her with his gaze. “Tell me, Sister, if this arc...
2023-02-17 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Elonia, hold on, I’m coming!” Eric screamed, suddenly before his sister in the blink of an eye.
Gazing down into lifeless eye sockets gazing at horrors he knew all too well.
No, bullshit! There’s still time, it’s been only seconds!
Eric choked back the scream in the back of his throat, letting old lessons take hold of his anxious hands, visualizing a handful of instructors and an old training dummy as if he were back in that moment, listening t...
2023-02-15 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Elonia, check this out! I did it! I fucking did it! Now any Runic Chant I infuse with the essence of Wrath, Fire, or Dominion, or the Elements of Fire, Wind, or Wood will work better than ever! And if I infuse it with my own potency…”
Yet before Eric could say another word, he found himself frozen, speechless before his sister’s hard-eyed glare. So very like their mother the Winter Queen, the odd thought escaped Eric’s wildly racing mind as life suddenly returned t...
2023-02-13 04:10:00 +0000 UTC
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Eric lurched upright in startled disbelief as his sister roaring with laughter.
“Ooh! I had you going for a quick second there, didn’t I?” Her mischievous green eyes twinkled, before flashing like rainbows to a bemused Eric’s surprise. “Sorry, I’ve got no fancy pills to offer you. Just the promise of sweet, sweet power. Now hold still, and let me get a good look at you.”
She frowned, her finger gently tracing his major meridian channels, eyes going from be...
2023-02-10 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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A bemused Eric soon found himself soaping off what felt like lifetime’s worth of blood and grime in a luxurious tub of marble and deep green jade before drying himself with a fluffy white towel as soft and fluffy as a dream, from a towel rack at least alloyed with gold.
“You’re clothes are ready, Commander,” said a voice from an adjoining room of the palatial suite his sister had led him to, giving him exactly twenty minutes to shower, shave, and dress before his twin...
2023-02-08 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Mother!” Elonia hissed, before she too fell to the ground with a soft whimper as the pitiless gaze of Winter judged them both.
Then, as if by some trick of the fading light, it was just their mother, shaking her head with a sigh of disappointment. “May the pair of you never know the pain of your own children spearing your heart with the gazes you both now inflict upon me.”
She flashed Eric an oddly forlorn smile. “Very well, my beloved ‘Free Agent’ son. I...
2023-02-06 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric couldn’t quite hold back the savage grin lighting up his features as he spun around, prepared to dodge more oncoming death being tossed his way only to find, much to his surprise, that both uninjured stone giants were racing away for all they were worth, ignoring the screaming shaman still shooting blasts of lightning from behind his ward and frying a good two dozen of Eric’s revenants with each blast.
“No! You cannot run! You must fight! Kill that damned elf! We a...
2023-02-03 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Endless moments passed in that trance-like state that ate up the miles as the ground seemed to tremble and shake with a full company of 600-pound revenants ripping through the plains in perfect lockstep. All Eric’s growing worry and anxiety was kept in check with the desperate hope that he just might be able to pull a win with the engagement to come.
Even if the shamans and soldiers he would face would be more than triple the numbers that had almost killed him less than half an hour a...
2023-02-01 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Eric, it’s good to see you!” Said none other than a relieved-looking Lord Drevyn, lips curved in a grateful smile, before he blanched and stepped back, a trace of awe slipping through his mask of geniality.
Eric took advantage of the moment to get a closer look at the elven lord dressed in a full suit of silvered mail radiating enchantments underneath a beribboned uniform that showed off his sleek, muscular form to full effect, a white gloved hand not quite hiding the tremble as ...
2023-01-30 04:00:00 +0000 UTC
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A panting Eric found himself standing in a final circle of bodies, his blade held in tierce, the tip dripping rivulets of sticky black blood as he glared out at the world.
His lips were twisted in a fierce rictus of a grin, not quite sure whether what he felt was terror, fury, or furious exultation, settling at last for a triumphant roar as he shouted the words that would bind the fallen to him til the end of time.
“Surge, centuria! Imperator imperat tibi!”
2023-01-27 04:00:00 +0000 UTC
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“There’s the mortal that would dare to defile our glorious race with his very existence. Kill him! Kill him now!”
Words echoing from a roaring shaman’s lips that caused almost 500 troops to turn around and charge right for Eric. And truly it was a sight, seeing the murderous bloodlust in their eyes as the massive eight-foot tall orcs charged full speed through the grass towards him. The stuff of nightmares that would have plagued Eric’s sleep mercilessly, just a few short mont...
2023-01-24 22:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Eric laughed with sheer exhilaration as raced across the fallow fields, delighting in the sharp clean scents of early autumn, pretty sure he was breaking 120 mph while feeling nothing but a gentle burn in his quads like he would have felt with a light jog, just half a year ago.
He frowned, pretty sure he could go even faster if he really pushed. But at his current pace, wind drag was becoming a very real thing. Contrary to popular belief, humans with their efficient two legged stride ha...
2023-01-23 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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“Eric? Eric, are you there? For fuck’s sake, please respond!”
“Elonia?”
Eric groaned, rubbing his throbbing head, gazing down at his near-naked torso and shredded pants, only now noting the angry pink scar on his chest just now beginning to fade.
He shuddered as the final moments of that desperate battle came flooding back to him, feeling like he had spent hours struggling just to infuse his cells with all the spiritual energy and essence he could, inspiring countl...
2023-01-20 04:00:01 +0000 UTC
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You have successfully dodged musket volley!
Quickness check made!
Eric raced as quick as he could along sprawling corridors that had been instantly uploaded to his interface, now displaying reds along with the passages in the right hand corner of his mind’s eye.
And before two confused-looking orcs he sprinted towards could even blink and turn to face him, he had lashed out with a furious barrage of essence-infused punches so potent that the walls behind ...
2023-01-17 22:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Congratulations! You are the third Northeast Sector Contender to ascend past 200 Vitality since System Incorporation! (System titles and boons have already been claimed!)
Congratulations! You are the fifth Northeast Sector Contender to ascend past 200 Quickness since System Incorporation! (System title and boons have already been claimed!)
“You what?”
Eric chuckled softly as he put aside the System messages he’d have to give some serious thought to la...
2023-01-15 22:00:01 +0000 UTC
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