Domr

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.39

39.

Flame washed over the goblin horde and flesh crackled as screams rose to the heavens. Erak grunted as he kicked a flaming goblin in the chest, throwing it back into the tide. The chief was still out there, the flames not touching his still Essence infused body. It looked at him with wrath as more and more of the goblins came from the tress.

“Fall back! Earth, rupture!” Sammus barked out. Their earth mage screamed into the afternoon in effort as a wall of h...

Mage Steel ch. 40

Forty

Kon watched patiently as the giant bird circled slowly. The clearing in the forest was several hundred meters wide and had a series of monstrous trees that rose up far above the native metallic fauna. They were lightning scarred but a monstrous sized nest sat perched in the middle of the boughs. Made of thick woven limbs that glinted in the sunlight, the half thousand metals reflected the thin light that penetrated the thick cloud cover.

The bird that wheele...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.38

38.

“You are their leader?” The chieftain rasped, startling Erak as he thought they were little more than beasts. This one at least had a spark of intelligence. Pomp landed on his shoulder and stared down at the high level monster before speaking.

“We are. What are you?”

“I am chief.” The goblin shrugged.

“What do you wish for this parlay to relay?” Pomp rhymed, warming to his task.

“Keep to task.” Erak chided his bon...

Mage Steel Ch. 39

Thirty-Nine

“I don’t say this lightly. But, you’re terrible.” Diur pronounced her ruling with a straight face and Kon felt his spirit fall. For the last four hours they had been perched near an E-Grade rift where the ambient energy was thicker. He had been trying to make the classic cultivation method work for himself. 

It hadn’t gone well. 

“Finally found something he’s not good at!” Diur said a second later, yelling down to Alice....

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.37

37.

Red light bathed the interior of the shuttle as they rocketed toward the earth. Pale faces were coated in nervous sweat, the lines of tightly packed militia shifting nervously as they screamed downward. Two of them had already bent over and let loose the contents of their stomachs. It had hardly drawn contempt, the nervous, fearful energy so thick that all were drowning. 

Erak ran his thumb over the top of his hammer on the sturdy belt he wore. Pomp curle...

Mage Steel Ch. 38

Thirty-Eight

“Hit me!” The familiar command was a salve to Kon as he moved. Energy forced him to move, to act, to strike out. It was like an electric current buzzing in his muscles as he snapped out a punch fast enough that Alice had to throw herself backward in an uncharacteristic clumsy dodge. She cursed as she turned her awkward scramble into a smooth backflip, landing easily in a fighting stance. 

Kon didn’t give her a moment to settle in. The power...

Mage Steel Ch. 37

Thirty-Seven

A/N: My brain is super fried from a long weekend and work today. So short chapter but helps tie up this little mini arc.

Water splashed across his face, jerking him out of the drowsy sleep he had been fitfully resting in. Kon spluttered and swiped around, wiping the water from his eyes. Something foul filled his mouth, the taste of bile and rotten meat, his stomach roiled at the intrusion and he spun on his side to heave. The entirety of his body shud...

Incursion Empire ch. 19

Nineteen 

Dane flew through the air like a missile as Tolic roared so loud the world shook. For a brief moment Dane got to view the clear blue sky, the thin wispy white clouds, feel the cool wind on his face. Then he landed in a heap, bouncing through the snow in an explosion of white powder. He grunted and coughed as slush filled his mouth and he continued to slide further down the hill. 

The backside of the hill was covered in runoff from the melting s...

Mage Steel ch. 36

Thirty-Six

Heat suffused him, filling him and threatened to burst free of his skin. Kon twisted as he drifted in between consciousness and unconsciousness. Eyes flickered back and forth between tightly clenched eyelids as his chest rose and fell in fast, shallow breaths. Sweat popped free of his body, oily and filled with impurities as his body thrashed on the cold floor. 

Kon felt all of that from a distance, disconnected from his body as he felt the pain an...

Incursion Empire Ch. 18

Eighteen

“Wow. They’re just lining up like that? Are they dumb?” Tolic tried his best to whisper, but it wasn’t very good. Dane winced as the spirit’s voice echoed for a second. The squad of Aji-Abami were focused on the shambling masses of vegetation that were battling them on the edge of the hill. His arm ached and there was no way he could conjure another burst of hellflame anytime soon.

Dane and Tolic had hidden themselves on the slope of the hill on...

Mage Steel Ch 35

Thirty-Five

“How far down have we gone?” Kon asked as they trudged further and further down. A shiver racked his body as the sweat that coated the interior of the rough leathers chilled. The temperature had dropped further and further as they trekked down until it was getting to the point that Kon was cold. 

“Kilometer. Maybe two?” 

“Are rifts normally this…ummm…big?” 

“No. Be wary. This is very abnormal,” Diur said, ...

Mage Steel ch. 34

Thirty-Four

Kon dropped into the shade with a gasp of relief, letting Diur slide off of his shoulder as he slammed into the ground. Diur gave a startled gasp but twisted to land slightly more gracefully than Kon had. Her legs wobbled for a moment before folding under her and depositing on the sand covered stone. 

“We lost it,” Diur said, her eyes looking out and across the sand dune that Kon had just trekked over. The oversized snake had followed them let...

Mage Steel ch. 33

Thirty-Three 

A twelve foot long snake was draped across the thick limbs of the tree branch, eyes locked on Kon. Its scales glittered, hints of metal in the striping across its body, as it bunched up slowly. There was no warning as it burst forward in an explosion of violence and Kon was nearly too slow as he fired the laser rifle.

The snake’s mouth had opened until it was a cavernous maw, jutting fangs glistening with venom. Heat washed over him as the sna...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.36

36.

Ding! Ding! Ding! The tap of Erak’s armored finger on his new forged blade was loud in the close confines of the shuttle. A few nervous members looked over to him as he smiled in the hidden depths of his helm. Six feet of gleaming blade reflected the poor light in the shuttle, dark rippled floating down the sword. 

Bloodsworn’s Ice-Dragon Greatsword 

Rare 

A Unique Weapon with growth potential forged for Erak the Bloodsworn. Curr...

Mage Steel ch. 32

Thirty-Two

A foot nudged Kon awake and he looked up to see that the rain had finally stopped its pelting onslaught. He had grown so used to its stinging presence that he could now sleep through the discomfort. Diur looked fresh as ever as she stretched next to him and Alice stood above them, the exhaustion having disappeared. She did happen to look a bit contrite. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this look on her face before. I wish I could take a picture...

Mage Steel ch. 31

Thirty-One

They fled to the forest in the opposite direction of the battle between the Packmaster and the D-Grade best that Alice had found. It was unfortunate since the fight had taken them in the direction to the edge of the plateau, which is where they eventually wanted to go. In the meantime they ran back deeper into the forest before arcing in a roundabout way. 

“Scale the trees. Leap from branch to branch. No prints on the ground,” Alice ordered as ...

Mage Steel ch. 30

Thirty 

They traversed in near silence, Kon kept the barrel of the laser rifle pointed down the hallway, while Diur led from the front. Battle raged outside but as they worked their way further into the base, the sounds grew more muted. Every moment the stress ratcheded another level as sweat poured down Kon’s face.

“Anything?” Kon whispered without turning his head. Diur didn’t say anything, but her elbow hit his ribs and he shut up. They turned agai...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.35

35.

“They’re going to get us all killed.” Sammus leaned against a doorframe as he looked out and over the marching group. Erak grunted as he looked over the mass of militia and couldn’t help but shake his head. Pomp floated above him and Nevia stood silently just a few feet behind them. They were standing in a small, temporary training office Erak had made for him and his officers. He had refused to let the militia members leave the field. 

They campe...

Mage Steel ch. 29

Twenty-Nine 

Kon hit the ground and groaned in pain as he bounced one and then rolled to a stop as goblins surrounded him. Black boots impacted his sides, gut, arms, legs, but they kept the thick leather away from his face. Diur was in an unconscious pile to the side, her sword tossed to the corner while a pair of the mercenaries kept weapons aimed at her. 

“Enough.” The command stopped everything instantly. Kon didn’t know how long he had been get...

Ch. 4.17

17.

The first hour passed with ease as they traveled through mostly scouted territory. They didn’t try to move across the seaboard but stuck to the interior of the valley and ran quickly, using the interstate to travel. Nobody struggled at the pace they set and even the hot California sun didn’t bother them too much. Santi used his [Air Current] spell to pull air around him to cool himself and his friends. 

“I’m not going to lie. This is boring as hel...

Mage Steel Ch. 28

Twenty-Eight

“That was dumb,” Diur whispered to him as he continued to do crunches under Alice’s gleeful, malicious eyes. Kon grunted in agreement as his hand pulsed in pain, but the memory of landing a clean hit on his mentor still stood out. She’d even complimented him on his tactics before working him to the bone. With all the energy of the E-Grade beast meat being used, he could function somewhat normally now. 

Without the constant flow of energy ...

Incursion Empire Ch. 17

Seventeen

“Hold it down!” Dane struggled to line up his sacrificial dagger with the squealing monster. It thrashed back and forth in Tolic’s arms, pointed, ragged, teeth gnashing Tolic’s borrowed arm into a bloody mess. He stabbed down and the creature went still and another core was added to his growing pile of sacrifices. 

Razor-Tooth Jackalope lvl. 6

Without an identification skill set he couldn’t figure out exactly what the creature was be...

Mage Steel Ch. 27

Twenty-Seven

The dawn broke with hardly any notice at all. Constant black clouds obscured the sky even where the thick canopy allowed visibility. They had been living in a constant state of gloom since crash landing on the planet and Kon didn’t know how Alice knew when it was time to rise. A general lightening of the darkness was his best guess. Her toe to his ribs every day was how he knew when it was time to get up.

His groan preceded him as he got up, expecting aching sorenes...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.34

34.

Two days had passed and Erak watched as the reduced group of militia huddled nearby. The rise of their levels had been astronomical, but so had their casualties. He grimaced as he looked at all the missing spaces where there had once been brave, if untrained, warriors. Not all of them were dead, most weren’t actually. They filled the infirmary with a wide range of wounds but most would live to fight again. 

Twenty-seven of them stood still alive and hea...

Incursion Empire Ch. 16

Sixteen

They had only made it a few feet further when they got the next System alert and Dane froze, one foot in the air as his eyes scanned the text. He had barely finished reading the alert when there was a pop of displaced air and the demon was standing next to him again. Mel’s long seven feet towered above him and looked down at him with an imperious glare.

“You’ve read the new alert?”

“I have,” Dane said with a slow nod. Next to him, Tolic h...

Mage Steel Ch. 26

Twenty-Six

The forest was a multi-hued blur as they ran. Alice continued to urge greater and greater speed from him as Kon fought to keep his breathing steady. Diur had taken to carrying the bag of F-Grade cores while Alice kept her own bag of E-Grade on her shoulder. Neither woman seemed phased by the speed they ran at, but Kon had started struggling within an hour.

“One foot, two foot, one foot, two foot,” Kon kept repeating the mantra as he ran with everyth...

Ch 4.16

16.

“Is Daniel going to be ok?” Santi asked, as he and Hana ran back to the others. Neither was going full speed, but the ground eating pace would get them back to the staging area fast enough. Hana had been quiet so far, not really talking at all as they ran.

“Yeah. He’s tough and he’s already doing better. I think it’s good he takes a bit of a break for right now, though. He’s worked really hard and needs to take a breather,” Hana said in a rush ...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.33

33.

“Six dead,” Sammus said, his hands crossed behind his back as he reported the losses to Erak. The prince looked healthier, as if he had managed to finally get a good night's sleep and eat a meal. There was a flush to his cheeks and vigor in his eyes as he stood there reporting the grim news.

“Results?” Erak asked as he sat at a table that had become laden with paperwork overnight. Julius was crammed into a corner of the small office with his head down ...

Mage Steel Ch. 25

Twenty-Five

Kon jerked upright with a gasp as Alice’s violet aura faded away from around her. He looked around wildly and saw he was still in the bloody valley, laying flat in the muddy ground as Alice slumped a bit. She smiled at him as the faded remnants of her Regrowth rune disappeared from the air.

“How bad was I hurt?” Kon groaned as his hands wandered over his leathers. There were several noticeable rents in the rough leathers, but the skin beneath the...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.32

32. 

A/N: give me some names for what Erak's personal unit should be called!

“This is a disaster,” Sammus said as they looked over the ranks of Erak’s new fighting force. It was mainly human but there were a few small dwarves and slender elves mixed in. They stood in a motley collection of clothes with no armor and only a few weapons. A handful of people stood separate and tried to chide, cajole, and scream at people to get into formation, all without s...