My horde buzzed angrily around me as I fought, working their way past the criminal’s defenses, shoving themselves through open mouths and flared nostrils. Just like that, they choked and strangled, leaving the men helpless before me.
Every so often, one of the struggling men would land an off-center blow; even that was enough to break bones, fracturing my skeleton with disquieting ease. And yet, it wasn’t enough.
The pain didn’t matter. The injuries didn’t matte...
2021-03-08 20:06:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
Level 10 Reached!
Analyzing Potential Reward Choices…
Only One May Be Selected.
The thought-light disappeared for a moment before returning in all its thought-like glory.
Revealing Possible Rewards Unlocked Through Species: Snake And Its Interactions…
Size: Your body mass increases greatly, with all of the increase in strength and hea...
2021-03-08 05:15:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
If you're liking The Great Core's Paradox and haven't rated it yet on RR, I would love it if you do so! It would really help me out. Thanks!
Fire-water spilled into the cavern, running in tiny little rivers from the wall-cracks that had formed in the stone. The air shimmered around the red-orange flows, distorting with the heat that they gave off. Freed from its cage of earth, the fire-water poured onto the ground below, tracing its way down the walls in a deadly etchin...
2021-03-05 20:31:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
From my place on the female Coreless’ shoulder, I had a clear view of the ongoing battle. A clear view of the Great Core’s wisdom in binding the Coreless to its will. The male Coreless who had taken the front was a stalwart giant, holding a great piece of mana-lit ore-flesh before him, keeping the bad-things at bay. In his other hand, he held a weapon of ore-flesh - not like the fangs, claws, and needles that the other carried, but something heavier. Something crushingly powerf...
2021-03-04 17:36:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
The High Market had been thrown into disarray, despite Roy and his newfound comrades’ efforts. Admittedly, his own contributions had not been much; not when compared to the likes of Katrina, whose very image he was sure would live on in the thugs’ nightmares. Even in his own, possibly. It wasn’t every day that he witnessed a woman that had fashioned her own bone into both weapon and armor. It might have been beautiful, in some roundabout way, if the bone hadn’t also been cove...
2021-03-04 02:33:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
Kala pulled back on the draw, keeping her breathing steady and sure. The arrow’s fletching kissed her cheek as she sighted along its length, looking toward her target. Then, it was gone.
The arrow flashed off into the distance, blurring out of her sight before it sunk into a charging monster with an audible thunk. The creature staggered at the hit, momentarily losing its grip on the ceiling that it had been running across. The floating flames both illuminated and d...
2021-03-04 02:03:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
Slow-venom flowed through the hollows in my fangs, dripping into the bad-thing that grasped me. I chose not to use my original venom at the moment, not certain if it would even be useful against a bad-thing of its size.
Its claws loosened against my scale-flesh, beginning to feel the effects of the slow-venom.
Enough for me to slip free.
I fell to the stone below with an ungainly twirl, having jerked and thrashed until I spilled from its grasp. Fortunately, it lef...
2021-03-02 16:30:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
I bobbed my head up and down, hissing in delight at what the thought-light had just revealed.
Blooded Trait Upgrade Progress: 10/10
Blooded Trait Upgrade Received!
Blooded Trait: [Illusion Spark II] Increased.
[Illusion Spark III] Acquired.
Progress Towards Next Upgrade: 0/20
My scale-flesh warped, allowing even more light and he...
2021-03-02 01:39:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Valera gasped, the heat of the air straining her lungs, as the cute little snake snapped at the ball of flame. She might have made a squeal at the sight, judging from Doran’s stern glance, but what else could she do?
The thing was just so serious, but it was tiny. The combination was adorable - like watching a puffed-up toddler try to take on the bigger kids. You had to root for him, at least a little.
The little monster swallowed another ball of flame, snapp...
2021-03-01 22:51:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
The heat pressed against my scales as I slithered through another tunnel. It hadn’t been a straight route; the path had been full of twists and turns, riddled with deadends and blocked routes. If I had been alone, there would have been a number of potential options to avoid those. I could have slipped through a wall-crack, slithering my way through the fissures in the stone until I passed the obstruction. I could have pushed through a small-tunnel, braving the bad-things that som...
2021-03-01 22:29:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
“...really should just kill the thing while it’s weak, Valera.”
“Doran! How could you say that? Look at the little guy, just sleeping on Kala’s shoulder. It’s adorable.”
I twitched irritably, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep. My scale-flesh ached. My mind needed rest. The Coreless kept making noises.
“I see where he’s coming from, to be honest. He may look small and harmless now, but he is an Ascended minion created by a Cor...
2021-03-01 22:27:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
Through the eyes of my crow-self, I could see that the battle was not going well. With their numbers vastly diminished, the Spectral Guardsmen were caught flat-footed, unable to properly react to the surprise attack amidst the chaos that had engulfed the city.
The sheer strength of some of their enemies certainly didn’t help, either. Here and there, broken and battered guardsmen littered the ground, groaning in pain. A few of the Gray Woman’s men had joined them, taken ou...
2021-03-01 22:22:43 +0000 UTC
View Post
PDF/EPUB bundle of TGCP chapter 1-21. Includes Table of Contents for easier reading.
2021-03-01 02:00:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
I slithered slowly towards the overturned Aridae, savoring the moment. It twitched and turned, in much the same way that I had in my previous life. It was helpless, similar to how I had been. It would die, just as I had.
Yet, unlike me, it would stay dead.
It was a delicious thought.
My fangs sunk into its flesh. The last dregs of my slow-venom seeped out, running through the hollows in my fangs. Blood filled my mouth.
That, too, was delicious.
<...
2021-02-28 20:22:41 +0000 UTC
View Post
My mind was slow to respond, afflicted by the fire-pain of an overloaded mana core. My body was even slower, with the slow-venom that had spilled through its many wounds. Still, I had no need to be fast. Not anymore. Not unless she came.
The weight of the corpses above pressed down upon my scale-flesh, held off only slightly by the larger body of the Aridae father, under which I twirled and twined. I hadn’t defeated him - not really. Instead, I had let his children...
2021-02-27 21:55:46 +0000 UTC
View Post
Sweat ran in rivers down Valera’s skin, collecting in pools where her armor cinched. She stepped back, making some distance between herself and the Infernal Cyclops as the heat became too much to bear.
The monster bled from a mess of mangled flesh, pierced by innumerable weapons. Kala’s arrows punctured deep, creating a forest of wooden shafts that sprouted from its chest and arms. Crimson furrows cut through the meat of its thigh, dripping boiling red fluid. Yet, the most important...
2021-02-27 15:54:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
It spilled forth, flooding into the Aridae’s flesh. I was tempted to let it flow further, to release all of the slow-venom that I had stored in an attempt to ensure that the large Aridae could not harm me.
I didn’t, but it was a close decision.
Instead, I cut it off early. Its effects were too unknown. Not only had I only just received [Paralyzing Venom III], I hadn’t even been able to test it when it had still been [Paralyzin...
2021-02-26 23:30:31 +0000 UTC
View Post
The Great Core’s likeness on my head-scales began to warm with an ever-increasing intensity, until it dwarfed the searing fire-pain of my mana overuse. It destroyed all semblance of thought, leaving nothing but the flames behind. Nothing but the pain.
It pulsed, sending those flames outward. They traveled across my scale-flesh, lighting a path down my body before returning from where they came. It pulsed again, and those same flames walked across my length before returning ...
2021-02-26 21:24:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mana-water filled me, banishing the encroaching blackness in a wave of searing pain as the powerful fluid shifted and flowed into my mana core.
The pain forced a gasp from my lungs, making it even worse. My mana core filled, the now-familiar sensation of the amorphous energy forming as I continued to sink to the bottom of the pool.
Desperately, I lashed my tail, cutting through the mana-water in a frantic bid upwards for the surface. I shot into open, refreshing air, ab...
2021-02-26 18:28:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
From within my cavern of flesh, I held silent watch, swiveling my head in response to the noise around me. Blood dripped, turning me to the right. Fangs rustled, turning me to the left. A leg stepped too close. I struck.
My fangs sunk into the too-close leg, rewarding me with the now-familiar taste of Aridae and blood. Venom spilled through the hollows in my fangs, dripping down. I pulled back, waiting for my next chance to strike. As I did so, the thought-light flickered, re...
2021-02-26 04:09:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
To the sides, bundled shapes were strapped to thick tangles of fibers; I had been like them, once. I had been helpless. I had been alone. I had been dying.
The thought was enough to stoke my rage further.
As I reached the center, the network of threads widened, allowing me to slither normally - albeit somewhat precariously - rather than coiling my length along a single bundle of fibers. That was both good and extremely bad. I was faster due to the increase in space, but...
2021-02-26 02:57:22 +0000 UTC
View Post
I'm sure you've noticed that I've been posting a second story in addition to Risen - The Great Core's Paradox. That will probably start being posted on RoyalRoad this coming Monday. It's a bit of a different style, so I've been able to write chapters for it relatively quickly.
The more important announcement is this: I plan to change my tiers up this next coming month, dropping the requirement for access to all of my advanced chapters down to $5 after this month. I feel like that is a p...
2021-02-26 02:55:56 +0000 UTC
View Post
I clung to the great stone-spike, coiling around it in a winding path that led ever upwards. The stone-spike’s smooth surface was shattered and fragmented, covered in cracks and edges that gave my length purchase. The light began to dim ever so slightly, fading as the distance between myself and the ground increased.
The droning buzz in my ears had begun to fall away, filtered out by time and sheer concentration. I was coiled tightly, in mind if not in body, slithering upon...
2021-02-26 02:18:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
It hadn’t occurred to me that she would be so brazen; from what I had seen, she had been trying to keep at least some level of separation between herself and her operations, preferring to work through intermediaries beyond the occasional meeting with the troops.
Instead, she had chosen to throw the entire city into chaos, sparking a city on the edge of an explosion. Tonight would have wide-reaching consequences, I was certain. The city already suffered from a lack ...
2021-02-26 01:41:21 +0000 UTC
View Post
My scale-flesh scratched lightly against the surface of the small-tunnel as I slithered back to the mana-water cavern. I could hear the steady drip-drop of mana-water, slowly spilling down from the stone-spikes above in brilliant little beads of light. I could hear a bad-thing’s roar in a far-off tunnel, echoing off the World Dungeon’s walls. I could hear my own breath, run ragged by the remnant effects of the bad-dreams.
I could hear my fear.
Still, I slithered on.
Ther...
2021-02-25 02:19:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
I pulled myself through the wall-crack within the small-tunnel, safe at last. The war raging on in the mana-water cavern had fallen silent in my wake, the sounds muffled by the distance between us. Were I in better condition, I might still be there; it would have been nice to scavenge the dead Aridae. It would have been nice just to watch them die.
They deserved nothing less, for their insults towards the Great Core.
Instead, I coiled upon myself - wishing that I could ...
2021-02-25 02:18:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
War, I learned, had no respect for spectators.
A set of fangs sunk into my scale-flesh, dropping down onto me from above and filling my body with a wave of slow-venom. Immediately, I could feel as the slow-venom began to set in; were it not for my earlier precautions, it might have ended there. The slow-venom was stronger than that of the infant that I had first faced. It set in quicker, more abruptly. It didn’t reach the level of the Aridae mother’s venom, but it wouldn...
2021-02-25 02:16:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
The canid Risen, gathered in a cluster in their assault against the two mercenaries, scattered like dust before the Stonewolf. The massive beast pushed through them like a storm through the seas, breaking them apart with a sound akin to a deafening crack of thunder. Even from where I was, I could see its opponents bone ripple and flex, bending unnaturally until they finally cracked.
Rather than waiting to see more, I rushed in - though, with the Stonewolf protecting Hector an...
2021-02-24 01:54:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
I hissed at the thought-light. A greater being? What greater being? The flame-gaze bad-thing?
I was betrayed. Even worse, the Great Core was betrayed. I had assumed that the thought-light understood that there was no greater being than the Great Core; as the Great Core’s creation, surely I was greater than the flame-gaze bad-thing. I would need to show the thought-light that it was mistaken.
The flame-gaze bad-thing slowly pulled its giant head from the boiling water, its thirst...
2021-02-22 00:31:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
A flame-gaze bad-thing lumbered out of the tunnel. Every step that it took vibrated the stone underneath me, forcing the ground to tremble. It forced me to tremble as well; my scale-flesh shivered in fear. It was not the first time that I had seen one - I hoped that it would be the last.
The behemoth was large, dwarfing the mother Aridae entirely. It would not even have needed to notice me to crush my form to a pulp; a single one of its claws matched me in length. A single on...
2021-02-21 20:53:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
