Broker

Side Story - Dominoes 2

Yet another cup smashed against the wall.

“HE DID WHAT?!”

Lady Song was on her feet, stalking back and forth. The jade sculptures lingering in the corners and on the walls shifted in response to her irritation. She reached up and tugged at her hair before turning to point a finger at her son. The brat wasn’t nearly as cowed as he usually was. Instead, he glared back at her with that same dark-red glow in his eyes that woman had. She clenched her teeth and lowered her hand, t...

Side Story - Dominoes 1

Euclidia stepped back from the ring of metal, pressing her hands together and bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. The signal had gone through, and she felt everything was in the right place. All the settings were where they needed to be. The tech that Gravy Train had helped her build simulated the gravitational fields she needed to make the whole thing work. Her portals were always temporary - constructs that had to be dismissed or she would overload herself. This combination of he...

Henchmen 275

Chapter 275

Hey Villains! Apologies for the delay on 291. I'm trying to get the releases properly synchronized forthe five-per-week release schedule. Back to normal on monday! Again, apologies!

Chapter 315

Where the hell is First Wind? Flighty bastard, he’s supposed to be hanging around me.

Sonya frowned as she leaned against the door of the limousine, staring out into the city of Shanghai. She had originally planned to have the event in Beijing, but had changed her mind after everything that had happened. Shanghai had that skyline she liked so much, and the last time she’d seen it had been her wedding in the previous timeline. A small part of her wanted to avoid it, but it w...

Villains 290, Henchmen 274

Chapter 290

Chapter 274

Chapter 314

Tok… tok… tok…

The sound of her heels were strange in her ears. An etheric echo that gave a strange solidity to the place. It had never felt this real before. Never this solid. Before, it had been something she barely visualized, and over time she saw herself more as a ghost floating through it. Now she could smell the faint scent of the iron shelves. She could hear the low creak of concrete and steel. She could feel the still air on her skin. She knew what it meant. While Regalia...

Chapter 038 - Prerequisites

Anna woke to the sound of knuckles rapping against the wall. Her eyes fluttered and she glanced around groggily at the books and notes set around her in the corner of the room. Her head was pounding again. She sighed and looked to Catherine who was standing at the base of the stairs as always. The ex-paladin looked off and it took a second for Anna’s tired mind to really pick up on it. Her face didn’t seem any different from the usual sternness but her posture was a bit less steady.

Imperious 37 updated

Added a section with Catherine's POV at the end of 37 to make the chapter feel more whole. See you tomorrow with the next one!

Villains 289, Henchmen 273

Chapter 289

Chapter 273

Chapter 313

The house was dark. The family that resided there was still away, off on some kind of business. The faint aroma of a long-extinguished scented candle clung to the walls. It was not the home of a wealthy family; perhaps just a little bit over middle-class. Signs of DIY work were scattered about - a furnishing that had been welded together rather than replaced and a light fixture that was just a tiny bit off center. In other places, there were practical signs of what little financial strength t...

Chapter 312

A thin band of light spread across the doorway leading into the old room. A pair of cameras directed at the spot fizzled before the electronics inside popped. The streak of illumination opened into a portal and Sonya stepped through, hands behind her back. She raised a hand to her lips and coughed at the dust lingering in the air. She took another step or two and slowly panned her gaze around the room. Desks, tables, an old projector screen, filing cabinets and stacks of  papers. She wal...

Villains 288, Henchmen 272

Chapter 288

Chapter 272

Chapter 037 - Engrave

“Anna, time to get up!”

Anna wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep but she was certain it was well past the right time to do so. Not that she really felt guilty about it. Diving so deeply into study like that was invigorating in a way it hadn’t quite been when she was in high school. Doing well had given her a sense of achievement and enjoyment but this was so satisfying. She rubbed her eyes when she realized that she hadn’t awoken on her own. She furrowed her brows ...

Chapter 311

“...have been asked to maintain a respectful distance,” the Nashville News Channel reporter said, turning and gesturing at the sign behind her displaying the name of the Nashville National Cemetery. “The VA passed a regulation following the Liberty War allowing Heroes belonging to state and private guilds who fell in the line of duty to be buried in VA managed cemeteries. Hero Pyrolysis, Valentino Kinton, will be laid to rest within the cemetery alongside other heroes from Kentucky who ...

Villains 287, Henchmen 271

Chapter 287

Chapter 271

Chapter 036 - Night

One notebook turned to two, then to three, ink stained her hands, her knuckles ached, and her eyes burned. She rubbed her fingertips together slowly as she looked over the latest sketch in her notebook. Her eye twitched and she scratched out a portion, looking back at the paper and writing down a few more notes. One of the first things she learned was that Arcane spells were– as the chapter indicated–basically equations with the same x value. It noted that more advanced spells may have mu...

Villains 286, Henchmen 270

Chapter 286

Chapter 270

Chapter 310

Sonya adjusted her sunglasses, taking in the view of the snowy city. A lot more of it was intact than she had expected. The monsters had clearly preferred to use the standing buildings as lairs rather than just rolling over them. She scratched her chin and sat down on the stool behind her before reaching into her warehouse. The low-tier ability to stave off variances in body temperature wasn’t overly special but it was definitely handy in this case. A minor catch from a handshake she could ...

Book 2 Opening Overhaul

Hey everybody, I've been working hard in the background to keep improving the story. With the edits in progress for Book 2 it was finally time to knock out the last chunk of modifications I wanted to make to ensure that it shined. As such, I've finally updated the beginning of the book to balance everything out and make sure that Sonya gets the focus that she deserves alongside Lillian's initial story.

I have written four new chapters that will become numbered chapters in the official ...

Chapter 309

Sonya adjusted the gloves on her hands and watched the disguised Legionnaires march their way onto the small luxury helicopter. They wore the faces of dead Pandora representatives. According to the official word, they were on their way to give their in-person testimony as to the real details of the Dharan event. Sonya smiled to herself as they boarded the helicopter and it took off, watching it go. It was headed for the UN Embassy in India, and from there they should be transported to the air...

Villains 285, Henchmen 269

Chapter 285

Chapter 269

Chapter 035 - Afternoon

Anna dabbed her lip, hissing at the pain and scowling. Her first round of matches with Catherine had been, for lack of a better word, humiliating. Every time she hit the ground came with another flare up of that white-hot anger in her veins. Over and over again, stoked until she’d made a mistake and got a wallop in the face with the hilt of Catherine’s sword for her trouble. That had been the end of the morning training session and, since Anna was still half-way through her sixth food pil...

Chapter 308

Sonya walked down the hall, checking her phone again. She frowned a little at the message on it. The last thing she wanted was a text from Qilin, but she had unfortunately been forced to share the number with the two so-called bodyguards. Up until this point, the woman had refrained from sending her any sort of messages, yet that had changed after their most recent deal. Now it was a constant stream of mostly nonsense ranging from the incomprehensible to the downright unsettling. The most rec...

Villains 284, Henchmen 268

Chapter 284

Chapter 268

Villains 283, Henchmen 267

Chapter 283

Chapter 267

Chapter 307

The moment the heroes lined up around the boss, Sonya and the others were on their feet. It took a moment for Leiandra to realize this was something clearly traditional and ceremonial and rise as well. Sonya didn’t even spare her the usual smug grin. Her eyes were on the screen. No one spoke as the first attack was unleashed and the combination of several heroes brought ruin to the Anchor Beasts’ armored hide.

What followed was not a dramatic, life-or-death battle. It was a systemic...

Chapter 034 - Morning

Out of all the things they had discovered while exploring the precinct. The barracks was Anna’s favorite part. A proper bed, even if it was a cheap government-issued mattress, was the best sleep she’d had in a long time. It was a dreamless sleep, glorious and comfortable, she wasn’t sure what it said about her that she didn’t have nightmares that night. On the other hand, she really didn’t care. The only downside was how tragically short it was. 

“Get up.”

Cathe...

Villains 282, Henchmen 266

Chapter 282

Chapter 266

Chapter 306

Nietz was standing in a tent inside of what had to be the fastest built forward combat camp ever set up. It had taken less than half an hour for the heroes gathered to organize and put everything together. Apparently, two of the forerunners in the competition were leading the charge. The first was Dragoon. Aside from her modeling career, she was apparently one of the more talented graduates of the Surrey Camp in the UK. She had even volunteered to serve during the Liberty War, but mostly on t...

Side Story - Team Crusader 3

<”LILLY! YOU NEED TO RETREAT!”>

Crusader descended. She was well aware that going one on one with a peak epic monster was inadvisable for a ‘mere’ epic tier like herself, especially after they’d been fighting all day. It didn’t matter, though. Harbinger and Snow were dealing with the remaining hounds and BLF was engaged with two brutes. If this thing jumps into the mix, we’ll have problems. I can’t let that happen! She brought her sword down and it collide...