“He’s alive,” said Jake. “It’s not over, but… hells.”
“It might as well be,” said Mox grimly.
They watched Zane laid out there—that mighty heart still beating, caught loud and clear in the scrying, but they could hear it struggling. Zane’s regeneration came from the heart. It was the font of his Vitality, and there was just too much to heal.
Everywhere they looked, they found blackened, broken flesh, bone, and muscle. All laced with a dirty gold that sm...
2025-08-25 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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The Prince must’ve felt the massive amounts of Law hemming him in. He skidded to a halt mid-air and snarled at the nearest length of chain.
Then his eyes found Zane. Standing near the center.
And just like he’d done all fight, he lunged.
At the same time, Zane flexed.
That cage reversed direction.
From a great expansion to a great contraction. All those chains rushing for the center, the Magnetism and Gravity Laws thickening as the links grew closer, started ...
2025-08-24 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Bonus chapter! Worked hard to get this one out for y'all
Also, housekeeping note:
changed phrasing last chapter; ‘an axe loaded with every last shred of Destruction he could muster -> loaded heavy with Destruction.’ Zane only had a split-second to load that Axe so this phrasing is more accurate.
//
“Smart,” said Mox. “Stop the bleeding.”
Zane wrapped up his arms and dug in his heels. It was still no easy task to halt tha...
2025-08-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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After a few dozen exchanges, Zane felt he had a measure of the dragon.
The first thing he’d felt was the effect of his new Hide of the Ancients. That 125% Essence, Law, and Physical Resistance was most of what he relied on to halt that first charge. It’d still wiped out a good 15% Health, but he could manage that.
He took those pure gold slashes just fine on his chains. What essence got through, his regeneration patched up right away. Meeting the defense was a grueling physica...
2025-08-21 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Haxorax’s mouth was drawn like a wild animal’s, his breaths ragged.
“It’s the first look we’ve gotten at the Prince all week,” said Jake Land. “Though I’ve never seen him like this.”
“Something’s not right here—” was all Mox managed to growl.
They had no time to linger on it.
Haxorax’s head jerked up. They all saw the moment he caught sight of Zane. The way his pupils constricted and his eyes cracked with veins like a frozen lake shattered.<...
2025-08-20 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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“It’s been a testy lead-up to this point,” said Becca.
They did a quick recap of some of the drama of fight week.
First, there was a sculpture gallery opening where Reina and Princess Dya were both present—an exhibition by the Master Sculptor Sylas, whose works Reina sponsored. The papers widely covered it as a “royal scuff-up.”
There were recordings of Princess Dya walking up to Reina and saying something that, judging by her expression, couldn’t have been nic...
2025-08-19 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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One week until the fight…
Zane had one last weekend back at the World Tree. Then it was crunch time all the way up until the fight.
Most of the work had been done by this point, and the work that was left he couldn’t really rush. So he didn’t mind a little time off.
First, he spent some quality time with Reina. She gave him her last briefing on Haxorax news.
“I’m not sure why they’ve decided not to do any press,” said Reina. “Patr...
2025-08-18 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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The Patriarch stared down at him in silence.
Just when it seemed Haxorax might attack, he stumbled. Clutched at his head, teeth gritted. Lightning played around his skull in the astral plane.
“Master Lyxandor. Perhaps it is best if the Prince takes some rest,” suggested Sverrex. “Another Draught may yet serve him well...”
“No.” The Patriarch held up a fist. “Not just yet.”
He grinned and stepped onto the ledge.
“Master!” cried Sverrex.
B...
2025-08-17 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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Bonus chapter!
//
There was one thing Zane did want to ask. It’d been baffling him for a little while now.
“What’s that Patriarch fellow’s deal?”
“Lyxandor?” Noughtfire leaned back. “Where to begin… as it concerns you, disciple, he’s certainly using you as motivation for his son.”
“Yeah, I figured.” Though Zane still didn’t know why the fellow seemed so hell-bent on him. He’d never even met the guy, as far as he kne...
2025-08-14 19:53:10 +0000 UTC
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Noughtfire’s study planet was just as Zane remembered. Chill, quiet as the dawn, and blanketed in a film of fog. He always felt like he was stepping into a painting when he came here. There was something a little mystical-feeling about those distant lines of mountains and their hints of pale color.
The few times he’d tried checking them out, he never really got close. He’d Stormfire Step for a minute or two, and the horizon would seem just as far away.
This time he made his ...
2025-08-14 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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The crucial physical upgrades had been made.
He’d mainly be relying on a few physical strengths in the fight. There was his heart of the Prime Rhinoceros, granting him that +300% regen. His newly upgraded Hide of the Ancients. The Buff of Ultimate Vigor, letting him extreme Limit-Break on top of its health and regen buffs. And finally, the overall boost he’d get from a Fourth Form physique.
He figured those, with all his Destruction and some last-minute additions, ought ...
2025-08-13 01:30:00 +0000 UTC
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“That so?” said Zane. That got a grin out of him.
“Mhm.” She gave him a worried look. “I’m serious, Zane.”
“I know. It’s just now I’m wondering what he can do.”
Now she was giving him her ‘oh, Zane…’ look.
“So do we know anything, then?” he said. “Powers-wise.”
“Nothing for sure, but…” She showed him a little binder she’d compiled on the subject. “I’ve made some educated guesses.”
She said at a mini...
2025-08-12 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Evan and Avery were both quite eager to be there. Reina had a few reservations about the fight, but she was determined to be in the stands too.
In the meantime, she planned on hashing out a broadcasting deal with Elias.
The venue hadn’t even been officially announced yet. Work on the stadium had broken ground just a few days ago. It involved a team of some of the Deep Earth Hall’s Grand Architects, alongside the Steelheart Conclave’s Grand Artificers, hammering away at that ...
2025-08-11 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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A single scale on the Patriarch’s chest cracked.
That was as far as the Prince’s blow got. It shattered against the rest of the plate.
A white line scorched down the Patriarch’s chest. A line that ended on a single bloody wound.
With that, the Prince was the first creature in nearly ten thousand years to draw blood from the Lord of True Dragons.
There was a heartbeat of silence.
The Patriarch laughed.
Then he backhanded his son in the face.
No s...
2025-08-10 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Evan made tons of friends every time he saved a kingdom. His Power of Friendship boost had even skilled up. All that faith in him was giving him a pretty substantial buff. He went around with a little aura of joy in the Astral Plane.
“Hey, I also exist!” cried Avery. She waved a chicken wing. “I did stuff too!”
This was a valid point, Zane felt.
“What were you up to, dear?” said Reina. She made sure to set down her fork and give all her attention. She also bumped...
2025-08-08 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Afterward, he got the sense Reina was still more than a little embarrassed about the whole thing. She wasn’t usually one to let pride or ang
Afterward, he got the sense Reina was still more than a little embarrassed about the whole thing.
She wasn’t usually one to let pride or anger cloud her judgment. It felt a little out of character for her. When he brought it up—
“I know. I just…” She flushed even more. “It won’t happen again, Zane.”
“Alright....
2025-08-07 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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They were back on the Barbarian Sage’s home planet at last. It was an unusually chilly afternoon. The Banshee Monkeys had given it a rest do
They were back on the Barbarian Sage’s home planet at last. It was an unusually chilly afternoon. The Banshee Monkeys had given it a rest down in those mist-steeped hills. There was still a background hum of wild battle, but that was just how it went here. All was as it should be.
“Well,” said the Sage heavily. “That’s it, then....
2025-08-06 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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A/N: housekeeping note—Haxorax will be spelled with one X going forward! There were two chapters where it was spelled with two X’s by mistake, that has been changed
//
It was a technique that once belonged to a gaoler of the Superdungeon, an ancient elite Empyrean named the Faceless One. The Sage told him the legend.
The Faceless One was known for his death mask: this hulk of grotesque black steel, skull-shaped. It was said he’d once been the prince of...
2025-08-05 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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The Sage started stuffing stacks of the stuff into a saddlebag.
“I had to eat enough Divine Profound steel to bankrupt a damned Great Faction just to get through the Fourth Form!” said the Sage. He wrinkled his nose. “You don’t want that kind of grind, lad. Trust me. Never thought I could bore myself powering up, but with the steels we had back then, you had to work decades for every percent, if you can believe it.”
“That does sound a lot,” Zane agreed. There were ti...
2025-08-04 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks!
Savage 6 (Chapters 428 -> 505) just launched, which means those chapters have to come down due to Kindle Unlimited rules. I've attached a PDF here instead for folks who'd like to revisit old chapters.
2025-08-03 02:13:14 +0000 UTC
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Zane always found that post-fight haze quite rewarding. Everything just felt brighter and warmer. He felt his heart slowing down at last and knew he got all the stuff he wanted to do done. The stuff being a great deal of smashing, of course.
The bones of the Founders lay scattered at his feet, smoking gently.
They must’ve been humanity’s last line of defense, the very best the First Men had to offer, once…
It didn’t really hit him until he was standing over them just...
2025-08-03 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Bonus chapter!
//
Six Giant Skeleton hands reared out of the ground and crushed the Barbarian Sage.
They hammered one on top of another—BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
For a second the Sage’s growls could be heard through the cracks in the fingers, and some kind of Law shield—a flurry of steel—could be seen resisting.
Then the hands compacted. Making denser fists. There came a crunching. A grunt. It was hard to tell whether it was the...
2025-07-31 18:26:03 +0000 UTC
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Zane sank his gravity core deep into the formation and wrenched.
The stumble showed it worked. But it was the cracking in that shield that gave him heart, that made him take to it like a hound on a bone.
He knew he had the bite. He just had to work it through.
He gritted his teeth and threw the full heft of his soul into it, stacking his gravity as heavy as he could manage.
He managed to stumble the Founders again. That forced a second crack right at the top of the shi...
2025-07-31 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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The Thundercrest Founder was down. A few good punches had brought down the Thousand Seas Tribe Founder too. He’d had to take three ice meteo
The Thundercrest Founder was down. A few good punches had brought down the Thousand Seas Tribe Founder too. He’d had to take three ice meteors to the back to finish off the Founder of the Constellation Order, but he’d managed it.
He’d even managed an exchange with Thalgrim Titanborn. They’d traded hammer-blows. Zane’s jaw shattere...
2025-07-30 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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The Sage charged Draegmir, which left Zane to take down the Founders of the Nine Great Factions.
These were giants in the history of Dragonspire. They’d made a legacy that stretched the ages.
These were legends he was pitting himself against.
Zane had battled Thalgrim before, in a way. Back at the Festival of Might, Thalgrim had been the one Minor God he couldn’t beat on his first go-around. In Zane’s second Festival, he’d bested the fellow.
But that still mean...
2025-07-29 01:30:01 +0000 UTC
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That was the final resting place of the greatest of the First Ones.
Those knights had managed to lay some heavy damage on him. The deadliest of them wielded two hammers like meteors, trailing clouds of embers. There was a messy melee before three knights got on him at once, pinning him down for just a moment—enough for the hammer knight to line up two clean blows.
The firepower in those hammers doubled every few feet they traveled. The knight had them cocked halfway to space bef...
2025-07-28 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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They were less than half a day out from human land.
“Heads up!” roared the Sage, but Zane was already on it.
Three dozen Emberboar came charging out of the treeline.
Emberboar (Monster King)
Essence Level 699
Emberboar (Monster King)
Essence Level 699
Emberboar (Monster King)
Essence Level 699
He charged them right back.
Two hamm...
2025-07-27 01:30:03 +0000 UTC
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They floated down on clouds of silver essence.
First, a bunch of Skill tomes, as promised. They were chunk scrolls bound in hide. Rhinos tended toward scrolls instead of books, he’d noticed. Something about them being easier to roll open and shut for Rhinos.
Annihilation Charge [Common (P)]
He checked it out and found it was mostly diagrams. But each diagram was infused with a rich scene. The lines moved as he sank his mind in.
He already knew the Sk...
2025-07-24 01:30:04 +0000 UTC
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A/N: Sorry for the late chapter, folks!
//
His rewards would be decided right here.
Nic thought he was doing pretty well so far. The Rhino said he was new to this Spirit Guide thing—he’d only gotten the job a few years before the Monsters invaded. That had been a very sad day for Nic. Then it had been a few million years of nothing.
But of the six Rhinos Nic had scored, no one had gotten max scores on both trials before.
Nic gave him an encou...
2025-07-23 03:02:43 +0000 UTC
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By then, his Asura Titan’s body was on the edge of a Limit Break.
He switched out his weapons too. This time, he loaded up his hammers, stacking them heavy with Nuclear Fusion, just like he’d done with his axes.
He was eager to see how much damage a good crush could do.
He broke into an Annihilation Charge.
One step, two, three, and he was freight-training down the corridor; four steps was all he could get out before he was bearing down on The Chunk.
The mome...
2025-07-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC
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