Jason was resting up before moving to claim one final territory. He was not far from the house containing the family he had rescued but he was giving them space to come to grips with their extraordinary circumstances. He was in the backyard of a nearby house, reclining in a cloud chair. The sky was a clear blue circle over his territory, encapsulated in a ring of endless night.
“There is something of a resemblance to your personal crest,” Shade observed.
“It kind of does,”...
2021-03-15 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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After a moment of stunned surprise, the family of celestines erupted in questions, from where they were to what had happened to them. Jason delicately used aura suppression to calm them down and fix their attention on him.
“I know you all have questions,” he told them. “I have answers but first we need to go. There are dangers here and I need to take you somewhere safe.”
The family was made up of an older couple, two young women, three young men and a pair of children. One...
2021-03-12 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Jason examined the loot from the Shadow Giant as it dissolved into rainbow smoke behind him. It was a dark sphere, just large enough to fit in one hand. It was cool and glassy to the touch.
-------
Item: [Dark Orb] (unranked, uncommon)
Contains the power to unseal the power of darkness. (consumable, awakening stone).
- Requirements: Sealed [Dark Essence] ability.
- ...
2021-03-11 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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The Bertinelli Collection in the menswear department of the department store Jason found had a very specific set of clothes. Modelled after the clothes designed for Jason by Gilbert Bertinelli in the other world, they fit like a glove. Unlike the originals, these were silver-rank, although none boasted any exceptional abilities. They were clothes, with some minor self-cleaning and self-repair functions, but mostly designed for casual wear. Gilbert’s designs and material choices made then mo...
2021-03-10 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Here is the PDF bundle for all currently available volume I chapters.
2021-03-10 06:04:34 +0000 UTC
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This is officially my least favourite post ever.
Due to contractual requirements around Kindle Unlimited, I am going to have to take down the book 1 chapters (1-113) from Patreon. This will not affect new chapter releases in any way but it will impact the availability of the PDF bundles. I intend to get a new PDF bundle for the remainder of volume 1 out today and (finally) get the cleaned-up volume 2 bundle out as quickly as I can.
I am currently in discussion wit...
2021-03-10 04:53:08 +0000 UTC
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Jason expanded his spirit domain from atop a building, covered in guns and fully prepared to leap off into a superhero landing and start mowing down anomalies. His domain expanded out, adding more cityscape to Jason’s incomplete second territory. The transformed landscape blended dark crystal construction with much brighter elements reminiscent of his cloud house. It also continued to bring more plant life into being, from rows of trees running down the streets to a garden-filled park.
<...
2021-03-09 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Book one of He Who Fights With Monsters is now available on Amazon, with a fresh spruce of editorial polish to clean up all my horrifying mistakes. Except Thadwick. He's still there.
It’s available through Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Audible here.
For Kindle Unlimited readers looking to support the story with a review, downloading the book before leaving a review will make sure the review is verified....
2021-03-09 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Jason, Chen, Guo and Gerling walked in the direction of the pagoda, through streets painted with dead anomalies.
“Just to be clear, you are renouncing any claim you might have to these bodies, outside of taking a few cores,” Jason said. His tone made it clear that it wasn’t a question.
A quirk of Jason’s looting ability was that he could only loot his own or unattended kills. It was likely that once the gold-rankers left, all the anomalies would count as unattended but he ...
2021-03-08 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Standing in the middle of the street, Jason looked at the spheres Tran was holding, still bloody from where they had been ripped out of the anomalies. Looking around, it wasn't hard to spot more given the thoroughness with which many anomalies had been dealt with. The spheres were the size of the genesis cores Jason had been using, but instead of rainbow colours, the energy swirling within was black and red. Jason suspected that the process of looting them, rather than ripping them directly o...
2021-03-05 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Sprawled on the ground, Jason was hammered by a crowd of people-shaped anomalies with planks and pipes and cricket bats. His sword had skewered one of them right through the face, and it fell on top of him. Using it as a shield, he pushed up to his feet, although the corpse made a poor barrier. Attacks continued to rain down from every direction, pummelling his head, back and arms. One of the anomalies even bit into him like a zombie.
-------
Jason looked around suspiciously at a mostly modern metropolitan street, with a few anachronistic quirks. Most of the buildings were three or four storeys high, packed close together and the ground level filled with storefronts.
“This was definitely farmland before the transformation zone appeared.”
When he had been on the roof of the hotel before its transformation, Jason hadn’t seen any of the cityscape that should have been easy to spot, even through the gloom.
Look...
2021-03-03 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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The mist produced by his cloud flask in amulet form swirled around Jason, mostly gathering around his feet as if only slightly heavier than air.
“It’s like there’s a dry ice machine hidden in my underpants.”
By concentrating, he could make the mist take various forms. A shield was easy to produce and an obvious use but he knew the defensive properties would be mediocre. He continued to experiment and established several things about his cloud flasks new abilities. He could...
2021-03-02 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jason needed to claim most, if not all of the vast extradimensional space he found himself in. If he failed, a wound would appear in the side of reality leading to the Earth’s rapid annihilation. He could bring about the transformation by expanding what his powers described as a spirit domain, something he only moderately understood. Thus far, he had managed to convert the top three floors of a dilapidated hotel, turning it into a cold place of dark crystal.
His progress was far too s...
2021-03-01 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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His silver-rank attributes placed Jason firmly in the realm of superhuman, but attributes alone were only potential. If not used to their maximum potential they were being wasted, which was what differentiated the best adventurers from the worst. This was something Rufus, Gary and Farrah had repeated over and over during his training. From the very start, they had been looking not just further ahead than Jason but even beyond their own progress at the time. Jason was now stronger and more exp...
2021-02-26 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jason was in a small room that was transforming from a dilapidated plaster box with peeling wallpaper to a stone room shaped by his own power. He had tried to open his spirit vault but instead, the space around him seemed to be turning into his spirit vault. It was more than a little disconcerting, although the benefits were obvious. One was that he may have stumbled onto the means by which he could stabilise the transformation zone before it gouged a wound in the skin of the universe.
...
2021-02-25 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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In the Slovakian city of Nitra, Gerling stepped out into the street and launched himself into the air with gold-rank strength, sailing high over the rooftops. As he reached the top of his arc, he triggered an explosion that sent him rocketing through the sky. More explosions continued to send him hurtling in the direction of the giant dome out on the plains.
***
Shade’s plane form dissolved into a cloud of shadows from which Jason dropped out. The cloud trailed him like the tail...
2021-02-24 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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As they walked through an army base in Germany, a handful of male Network troops threw up fists as they spotted the huge and hairy figure of Jack Gerling. The Germans had been avid about expelling the American Network forces from their country until the rise of the vampire lords changed everything. The powerful US forces had been critical in helping Germany deal with powerful vampires across multiple cities, leaving it as one of the least ravaged nations on the continent. In return, Germany w...
2021-02-23 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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“You want me to use this guy as a battery,” Jason said.
The cloud house had taken the appearance of an unremarkable and isolated farmhouse in the Italian countryside. The gold rank vampire they had captured was locked in a cell from which they were confident it wouldn’t escape. By silver rank, the cloud house was starting to show its diamond-rank potential as it grew more powerful and sophisticated. A single gold-ranker wasn’t powerful enough to force their way in or out.
...
2021-02-22 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Jason emerged from the water, up the ramp at the base of the cloud house that led into the ocean. The swim had been pleasant and relaxing, although his silver-rank body was far too heavy to float. He didn’t need to breathe, however, so he was as happy under the surface as on it.
Emi continued to splash about, under the supervision of her father, Ian, and discordantly youthful great grandmother, Yuri. It had taken some convincing before Erika had allowed her daughter to go swimming kil...
2021-02-19 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Farrah dragged a vampire out of the lava by the foot. He was still alive, or at least undead, due to his silver-rank fortitude. His normal vampiric healing was not kicking in, though, due to the burn damage.
“Why are you letting him out?” Night Stalker asked. “You should finish him.”
“We came to save you, not to kill the people you robbed,” Farrah said.
“What if they come after us again?” Night Stalker asked.
“Then you can lament your mediocre life ch...
2021-02-18 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Jason pushed himself to his feet with a groan, his body still tingling from the electrical attack. The magical APC, looking like something from a sci-fi movie, had left him behind and was roaring around a corner in pursuit of the others.
"It's possible that you have been looking down on Earth's essence users too much," Shade suggested.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Jason agreed. “If you would?”
Shade took the form of a motorcycle and Jason climbed aboard as Gordon...
2021-02-17 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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“This is not going to plan, Craig,” Franklin said, sitting in the front passenger seat as Vermillion was driving.
“You think?” Vermillion asked wildly as he kicked off what was left of the bullet-riddled, driver-side door.
The streets of Bankstown had been transformed into a realm of stone and fire. The buildings were made from large bricks in dark shades of brown, red and grey. The cars parked on the street had been turned into stone carriages that a team of horses would ...
2021-02-16 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Jason, Dawn and Farrah looked at the burned, drained remains of the vampire lord Willoughby.
“I still don’t like the risk you took draining him,” Farrah said. “Now that it’s done, though, at least one of us has a path to advancement.”
Since reaching silver-rank, Jason and Farrah had both reached the limits of their early-stage growth spurt. Pushing into the mid and late stages of silver rank would be difficult so long as they remained on Earth. At lower ranks, confront...
2021-02-15 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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For new readers looking to access the early chapters, here is a re-upload of volume 1 and the interval chapters leading into volume 2. The first volume 2 bundle will be coming soon.
2021-02-15 10:27:19 +0000 UTC
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Jason stood in front of the Network building, the cyclops and other Cabal members still standing in front of him. The air stank of burned flesh from the one that had tried to flee and was slain by the cyclops for making the attempt, leaving a dozen more. Jason stood flanked by Shades as he squared-off with the people in front of him.
The cyclops fired its eyebeam at Jason and one of the orbs turned into a shield to intercept it. The powerful beam swiftly annihilated the barrier but the ...
2021-02-12 22:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Jason, Farrah and Dawn were gliding through the air towards the Network building. Twenty dark forms emerged from Jason, heading towards the bottom half of the Building. Shade couldn’t easily penetrate the magically protected upper floors but his incorporeal form could easily scout out the rest. Once Shade had bodies all over the building, Jason could easily shadow jump to any of them.
The vampires had naturally good aura control, if somewhat limited in scope, with Jason himself having...
2021-02-11 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Nigel and his nine-person tactical section were retreating down a hallway on the fourth floor of the Network building. They had rushed downstairs in response to the Cabal’s attack, only to encounter the people of the lower floors coming up, transformed into ravening ghouls. Undead monstrosities with a frenzied hunger for living flesh, they poured up the corridor like a wave, ignoring the gunfire slamming into them.
Becoming the undead had turned normal people into silver-rank creature...
2021-02-10 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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In the meeting hall of his cloud palace, Jason sat across from the spectre of his friend, Greg.
“I have no idea what to say,” Jason said.
“Wow,” Greg said. “I had to die to see it happen, but at least now I know what it takes.”
“I was going to get you a greeting card but I couldn’t find one for getting you killed by a wizard with bomb fists.”
“And there he is.”
“I looked into some print shops for a custom card but with everything going on,...
2021-02-09 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Vampires were neither strictly living nor strictly dead. Most of the undead were quite explicitly deceased, rendered animate by one force or another. In the case of vampires, however, that force was life energy, rendering them, to almost any test, alive. Some even considered themselves more alive than ordinary humans and treated their induction into the ranks of undead being as born again, much like an Evangelical Christian.
Many such vampires counted their age from the moment they were...
2021-02-08 22:00:02 +0000 UTC
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