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189 - Mirror Mirror

Exhaling, raising her gun, and leaning back at the same time, Zefaris set loose a gunshot aimed perfectly at Sigma’s stomach. Or, at least, that was it on the surface. It was no surprise to her that the golem deftly stepped aside just as the blazing spear of lead left her weapon, for she had expected the golem to be this fast.

No, her true intentions laid in hitting that coin just as it flashed the second time. When flaming lead met Fog-coated copper, she felt the world freeze for a s...

188 - Destabilized Intelligence

"They spread what they knew to the masses and even built dedicated dungeons specifically to give aspiring cultivators the opportunity to face appropriately perilous challenges in exchange for appropriately helpful rewards…”

It pointed to her bayonet, “Like unlocking the hidden potential of a weapon for clearing the first Trial of Solitude, for example. Unfortunately, the very first group to clear every dungeon had their own ambitions, and left for the west to found their own count...

187 - Cognitive Pressure

Zefaris thought of everything she’d experienced as a soldier, even the early parts - she thought of why she chose the path of a professional soldier, years before the war had started. She’d wanted to see all the new wonders of technology, wanted to wield the newest, most advanced weapons for the sake of her homeland. In a manner of speaking, she got her wish - it was just all too late, now. She was just another dead war-criminal, as far as the records knew.

Funnily enough, she didn�...

186 - Sigma

There were at least a dozen Locust Nobles here, some still clutching their ill-maintained firearms whilst others had more traditional melee weapons, like swords and polearms.

Two-thirds or so had the expected mutations - plating, mandibles, feelers, vestigial extra limbs. The rest were some strange inbetween of locust and mantis mutations, with the characteristic sacred red chitin covering vital areas. Two of them had the same demon-mask facial mutation as the Red Mantis herself, one of...

185 - Stone Exterminator

Wherever she looked she saw corpses or pieces of them, and yet she also saw more locusts than she had bullets. Some were wading over their fallen brethren, whilst others struggled to move after having had limbs ripped out of their sockets.

“What the fuck?” she muttered, utterly bewildered at the scene. So bewildered, that the first thing to come to mind was activating the Homunculus Eye, though doing as much didn’t exactly answer many questions on its own. Enterin...

184 - Strange Machinations

She flipped it up into the air, murmuring “Homunculus Eye…” as she traced its path. When the coin reached the apex of its flight it stopped dead for just a split-second longer than it should’ve, emitting a brief, just barely noticeable flash of light before it fell. On the way down it began to emit a whistle, flashing once more just before it hit the ground.

It didn’t clatter about, or just stop on impact - the coin bounced r...

183 - Spirit of Invention

Without stealth to keep up or worry for the loss of a single bullet, she pulled Pentacle and ventilated the locust where it stood. Its outlandish cannon-arm-thing burst on contact, spilling its vile contents all over its owner as the bug was slammed against the wall by the sheer force of impact, a gaping hole in its chest. It screeched as its chitin melted and all the contents of its gut spilled out within seconds of the sac bursting.

“As vile as ever,” thought Zefaris befo...

182 - Bunkerbusting

The thought of using her war-knife came to mind, but its reach really wouldn’t be much of an advantage compared to the strength enhancement of the bayonet. Pentacle was out of the question too, seeing as she didn’t have the ammo to blast through all the bugs in this chamber and have any left over… But she had grenades and CP-T.

Still inching her way forward, she cautiously retrieved a grenade and a phial of CP-T from her backpack, not having bothered to strap the phial belt on. Fa...

181 - More Than a Soldier

She took a hushed breath and scuttled towards the warrior, changing her grip on the bayonet to the upright orientation. A small hop onto its back gave her all the clearance she needed to bury her fingers in its eyes and her bayonet in its back, stabbing its spine at as many points as she could before she ripped the blade free and drove it back down into the bug’s head. Were she able, she would’ve carved it open, killed it properly, but Zefaris had neither the means nor the time to do so. ...

180 - Re: Trench

Three crunches in a row. One when it penetrated the boxer from the back, one when it came out the front, and one when it punched through the winged one’s front. Her wings began buzzing like a motor as she struggled to lift off, but Strolvath raised his leg to point the stake downward, making it act as a barb. It wouldn’t hold them long, with both of them twisting about and his own balance slipping, but it would last for long enough.

When he took a breath and resumed throat-singing, ...

179 - Beware the old soldier.

While the arena was visually unremarkable, he knew he had the advantage. It was circular with a domed ceiling, and every little sound seemed to echo a dozen times before it faded out. A smile upturned the corners of his mouth at that gift, fully aware that the dungeon was trying to help him with enhanced acoustics.

They wore tattered Pateirian uniforms, one even had a salvaged Ikesian chest-plate, dirtied and tarnished, but nearly pristine in terms of battle-damage going by the lack of ...

178 - The Failsafe

The floor did, indeed, begin to rise, but it was slow. It would take far longer to even remotely threaten her, unless it suddenly shot up all at once when the countdown hit zero. Somehow, she didn’t feel like that would happen.

Nevertheless, she pressed the button to see what happened.

The countdown reset to thirty, and the floor fell back down.

Zelsys sighed, walking over to the floor panel right in front of the door.

She took the Butcher out of its holster and held...

177 - The Countdown Trap

Straying from this line of questioning, Zelsys requested the dungeon core to, “Show me the map projection with my location highlit, please.”

A smaller version of the dungeon map showed up in the glyph projection’s upper half, small enough that there was enough space for the dungeon core’s answers. It had changed since the first time she saw it, many chambers moved about. It highlit the intermediary chamber she resided in, showing that there was only one more chamber bef...

176 - Scraps of Knowledge

Pillar after pillar, the gap became smaller, and word after word, the Sister’s spiel became more frantic. She visibly grasped for every thread of forbidden knowledge she possessed, trying to decide which revelations she had time to expose.

“The War of Fog was meant to ensure the Sage’s knowledge of the truth could never taint the status quo! If those lines on your skin mean anything, you’ve already surpassed the Azoth Stone!”

What Zelsys felt at all these revelations, at...

175 - Spiteful Revelator

Its tremendous mass shifted in her hand, the center of mass subtly moving along with her intentions. All the while, she knew exactly where every piece of the cleaver was as if it were a part of her own body. The overwhelming force of the Sister’s murder-stroke crashed down on her readied blade, so powerful it forced her to bend her knees. As she stared up into the Sister’s eyes, Zelsys willed it to come awake.

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174 - Mind Games

A/N: Seems Patreon's dumbshit bot thinks I'm promoting a raffle, so I'll just go out of my way to say I'm not.

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Instead, Zelsys just kept dodging out of the way and biding her time, giving herself fully to this dance of death. She saw the Sister adjust her hold on the blade and move her arm, giving away that she was preparing for a thrust, but something ticked her off about it.

A small shift in...

173 - Slayer's Pledge

“Why am I not surprised?” Zel sighed inwardly, turning her attention back to her opponent. She wouldn’t just end it now, that just wouldn’t do. It wouldn’t be fair. She’d wait until the Sister could move again and do it properly.

But who knew how long that would take? It would only make sense to pass the time, and what better way to pass the time than with conversation?

“You know, I would’ve been a non-factor, if you just kept your highwaymen in check,” ...

172 - The Living Storm's Fury

The distance between them was considerable, but it was close enough.

“My turn...” she said, holding up her war-knife and burning her full lung capacity to fuel Stormsurge as she slowly approached the Sister. It would be a gamble, but it was a gamble she was more than willing to make. She funneled more and more Stormsurge into the tarnished, barely-usable weapon, focusing entirely on making a light show. Pointless sparks, arcing lightning, anything. ...

171 - Clash of Wills

The Sister swiped her sword to follow. Zel jumped over it and grabbed hold of her left arm by one of the red plates that protected her elbow. Pain shot through her leg when the Sister’s vice-grip tightened around it, the Locust Noble letting out a chattering cackle as if she’d already won.

Before the Sister could make another move, Zel dug her fingers in and yanked at the plate, exhaling and forcing her arm to pull back in spite of the pain. The Sister’s cackle became an angered c...

170 - Always kill a traitor before an enemy.

The chamber was plain as can be, save for the different shape. Even the exit door opposite the entryway was triangular. Her attention quickly returned to the black-red swordswoman, though she intentionally meandered around the room before slowly re-establishing eye contact with a grin.

The Sister gave an equal grin in return, shifting from her wide-legged resting stance to one poised for combat, lifting her blade and resting it on her shoulder whilst her left hand remained free. Open. V...

169 - Synchronicity

From the floor in front of said wall protruded three altars, one taller in the center that gripped her sword and two to the side, each bearing a basin with a hole in the bottom. The central pillar had a proximity activation glyph, at the center of which sat the nozzle of a Fog-writing device.

The blazing blade hungers,

like its prey.

Feed it till it’s sated,

or nurture it to strength.

The lifeblood o...