Domr

Mage Steel Ch. 24

Twenty-Four

“She’s crazy,” Diur muttered under her breath as she looked down at the canyon filled with monsters. They were tall, weasel-esque, furred six-legged beasts filled with needle-like teeth. They scampered up and over the downed fallen trees, rotting foliage, and decaying bodies. Scores of the beasts fought and killed each other in the valley and Kon had his own apprehension about going down there. 

Alice was sitting down with her legs crossed a...

Mage Steel Ch. 23

Twenty-Three

“Hit me!” Alice’s voice cracked the silence of the early morning and Kon flew into his attack without hesitation. He kicked dirt at her eyes and then charged, intent on wrapping her up in a tackle and crashing to the ground. His toes gouged the soft earth and sent a spray toward her face, but she merely ducked down and then spun away as Kon sailed through the air she had occupied. 

Dirt filled his mouth as he slammed into the ground and he ...

Mage Steel Ch. 22

Twenty-Two

Diur and Kon stepped outside of the room a moment later, the Ulmna girl having shed silent tears as she bowed over her grandfather’s corpse. She took his fallen blade and belted it around her waist and left as Alice looked at the corpse with a grim expression. They pretended they didn’t hear the noises that came afterwards or Alice’s grisly, blood stained hand. 

“We can go back to the shelter for tonight, but I want to start moving toward t...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.31

31.

“Describe these beasts again,” Victoria ordered as they all stood in the retrofitted hangar bay. Soldiers had quickly stripped the trucks of everything they had loaded up and Rutledge was in fine form as she ranted about the lost research. Erak felt a stab of doubt in his heart as he saw the keen interest in his Queen’s eyes.

The creatures were abominations. Violent and cruel with no lingering hints of a higher intelligence. Erak was the first to suggest...

Mage Steel Ch. 21

Twenty-One 

“Help me, please,” Diur, the Ulmna girl, pleaded. Her grandfather’s unconscious body sagged in her arms and she struggled to hold him upright. Kon stepped around Alice and grabbed him by his wounded arm. The old man groaned but didn’t wake as they dragged him back into the depths of the pagoda. 

Broken down doors lined the hallway along with more corpses strewn about, but Diur never slowed as she led them towards a blank wall. She pressed her palm aga...

Mage Steel Ch. 20

Twenty

Mud squished beneath his battered boots as Kon tried to quietly walk through the trees. The terrain changed slowly as they moved closer to the other cultivators. The ground grew firmer with every step, the trees more sparse, and a series of hills rose up seemingly from nowhere. 

“How close?” Kon whispered to Alice who glided amongst the trees as quietly as a ghost. She shot him a look but shook her head slowly and shrugged her one arm. Kon tried to...

Ch. 4.15

15. 

“Mom! Mom!” Santi yelled as he walked through the house. He had no reason to yell, his mom could hear him just fine from down the block if he spoke in a whisper. There was a familiarity to yelling for her that was comforting too. The chancla that came flying from the second story to bounce harmlessly off his head was also comforting in its own way. 

Gabriella shoved her head over the balcony and glared down at him. Fruity citrus smells filled th...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.30

30.

Goblinoid lvl. 27

The horrors of dark science mixed with Essence, these hardy creatures are loathsome and violent, raging out against their own creation and the world around them.

As they cleared the line of trees in the forest, Erak saw them fully for the first time. Of average height of a mortal man, with ashen skin, long pointed ears, and hairless bulbous scalps, they were foul beasts. They ran with vigor, legs pumping as they screamed, high pitch and...

Mage Steel Ch. 19

Nineteen

The rain stopped a day later and Alice resumed Kon’s training. She hadn’t been waiting for the rain to subside but more for Kon’s legs to heal. He hadn’t torn anything but the strain of running for as long as he had had left him with a bad case of noodle legs. Alice had tried to train him the morning after, but Kon’s impression of a newborn had made her laugh too hard to be constructive. 

He spent a few hours trying to land a hit on the elu...

Mage Steel Ch. 18

Eighteen 

“Uhhh…well. I fought a monster.” Alice shrugged and had the decency to blush as Kon picked himself up from the ground and stared her in the eye. He was always reminded of the closeness in their ages when she acted like this.

“You just told me not to pick fights you can’t win,” Kon said slowly. Alice straightened up and looked indignant.

“Yes. And I won my fight. It was only a low D-Grade and I absolutely obliterated it. Had a tas...

Incursion Empire Ch. 15

A/N: This is the last chapter that I have pre-written. I'm launching next month but the chapters will be coming sporadically till then.

Fifteen

Dane Rawlings 

Lvl. 3

Race: Human

Stats

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 10

Vitality:12

Intelligence: 10

Mana Core: F-Grade

Body: F-Grade 

Bloodline: F-Grade

Class: Warlock

“When are you going to let me level up? I can’...

Ch. 4. 14

14.

Local Leaders 

• Alan Murtaugh (22)

2. Santiago Silva (21)

3. Naomi Weaver (20)

4. Chloe Smith (19)

5. Cameron Murtaugh (19)

Regional Leaders

• Alan Murtaugh (22)

• Santiago Silva (21)

• Naomi Weaver (20)

• Dillon Brook (19)

• Chloe Smith (19) 

“By one?” Santi asked in disbelief as he star...

Incursion Empire Ch. 14

Fourteen

The scout was fast. Dane leveled his tracking skill to F-2 as they followed after the Aji-Abami. Tolic’s corpse had collapsed and the spirit floated along, inane chattering flowing in an unstoppable stream. 

“So we’re robbing this stage and the owner hops out and you’re not going to believe it, it’s a woman!” Tolic continued on his story as Dane saw a scuffed piece of bark on a tree, his skill tugging at his attention. 

“Why is this surprisin...

Mage Steel Ch. 17

Seventeen

The trees bent under the deluge of water, each strike a hammer blow that hurt and bruised his skin, but Kon sat silently. Below him, hiding from the rain, was another rift. Alice said it was the last of the F-Grade rifts in the area that they could easily reach and was an appropriate level for him. 

The last ten days had been grueling. Every morning they sparred till he was ready to collapse, never once landing a clean blow on the Knight. Alice for ...

Mage Steel Ch. 16

Sixteen

“This rune is about healing muscles,” Alice carved the rune into the loamy soil and Kon leaned over to study it. It was a series of gentle, sloping lines around a circle , meeting near the middle.

“That’s just for healing muscles?” Kon said in minor disbelief. Alice hadn’t been the most adept teacher he’d ever heard of. Great with practical experience. Terrible with theory.

“I mean…no? It’s part of my Regrowth rune and it encapsul...

Mage Steel Ch. 14

Fourteen

“Faster! Faster!” Alice urged him with a laugh. Kon grit his teeth and pumped his arms as the baying of the monsters behind him sounded closer and closer with each passing moment. He risked a look backward and saw the sleek, reptilian hounds as they leapt over a fallen log. Four and a half feet long with leathery skin, red eyes, and a yellow frill that ran down the length of their spine.

Alice leapt from tree branch to tree branch above him, easily keeping pace as she...

Mage Steel Ch. 15

Fifteen

How Alice managed to make the crude leathers, Kon didn’t know. He had sat there watching her as rune after rune had lit up on her one hand, but he still didn’t understand. There was no stitches, she didn’t have thread and a needle, and she obviously hadn’t cured them, but she had handed him a vest like shirt. It had long open sleeves that could be tightened at the wrist and an overly broad torso that let it hang off of his until he tightened it along his...

Incursion Empire Ch. 13

Thirteen

For the first time he got to work his way through his stat screen and see the growth happen. Dane knew the in and outs of early leveling, the work needed to be done. His original plan had been to become a [Scout], [Skirmisher], or [Ranger]. Using skills to flesh out a survivalist build that would work well in the woods or in the future could work in cities. 

The contract had changed everything he knew. His build was now no longer plotted out with the...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.29

29.

Erak dropped into the depths without another word, his one free hand on the rungs as he jumped several at a time as he descended. Pomp flew off his shoulder and down further while Sammus followed after Erak with only slight prodding from Rutledge. His grousing was loud enough about dark dungeons and access ladders brought a smile to Erak’s face. The man did love to complain. 

Luckily this ladder didn’t lead too deep, no more than twenty feet, and Erak...

Mage Steel Ch. 13

Thirteen

“Up and at ‘em!” Alice booted him in the leg and Kon jerked upright, sputtering as he peered around himself owlishly. Alice looked stern as she stared down at him. 

“Did you fall asleep on watch duty?” she asked, her voice deadly serious. 

“Yes, ma’am,” Kon responded instantly as he jerked upright. Her tone brooked no defiance or even the most simple of the playful verbal jousting they had been enjoying before. 

...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.28

28.

Hours had passed in near silence, the whistling wind overpowering any other slight noise. Erak had managed to nap off and on, catching his sleep wherever he could, the smooth roads lulling him like a lullaby. Sammus had managed to keep his mouth shut for the most part and let Erak sleep, though Erak did catch him and Pomp as they whispered together.

The arrival to the depot was heralded by the sudden deceleration and rapid cursing of the soldiers as the truck ...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.27

27.

“Podzki, get your ass in gear before I wedge my foot in it!” Constance growled at the man as he dawdled. Weasley looking, the lean man looked toward his sergeant and squinted as he thought to the furthest extent of his abilities. 

“Your foot in my ass or in my gear?” Podzki tilted his head as Constance began to glow red, a vein throbbed in her head while there was muffled snickers all around them. 

Nevia’s command had filled up since ...

Mage Steel ch. 12

Twelve

“Now stay still, I’m not the greatest at this,” Alice said. She set her axe down on the ground and raised her hand up and over him. Runes began to appear, but not the little fragments he had seen her use before. It was dozens of twisting lines, circles, triangles, octagons, pentagrams, and more that he couldn’t identify. It spread out in front of her hand, nearly three feet wide of squiggly lines no longer than his pinky.

Then it went three dimensio...

Ch. 4.13

13.

“I’m just saying. It sounds like an excuse,” Alan said with a shrug as he lounged in a chair as he nursed a warm beer. Where he had found one, Santi didn’t know but the older man looked smug as he drank. The rest of his temporary party were sprawled out across the backyard and covered in bandages and looked exhausted. Tank was slumped against the back of the house and snored loudly.

“Sorry, I brought several hundred refugees back into our community a...

Mage Steel Ch. 11

Eleven

Kon started to curse himself a few moments later when he realized he was a giant, glowing torch that anyone could see. The heat of the half hundred balls of light was beginning to grow uncomfortable and he panted heavily as he aimed for the nearest of the abandoned hill barracks.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” Kon cursed under his breath as he rushed into the barrack, looking around frantically to see if there were any more of the bronze warriors standing ar...

Incursion Empire Ch. 12

Twelve

ARHOOOO!!!! The sound trumpeted through the forest as Dane ducked low and rolled across the forest floor as a tree exploded behind him. Chunks of wood and splinters sprayed across the area and peppered Dane as he got to his feet and looked at his newest target. It was the size of a small house, four legged with monstrous bone white antlers that had snow flurries whipping around its many points. Thick brown fur was coated in mud, slush, and bits of tree. 

Mage Steel Ch. 10

Ten

Kon watched as a hand encased in bronze reached out and wrapped six, long, skeletal, fingers around the edge of the stone sarcophagus. The lid tilted and fell with a booming crash and a head raised itself up and over the edge and Kon breathed out a sigh of relief.

Not a zombie.

“Still doesn't look very friendly.”

It had a triangular head with a thick helm of bronze that reached nearly all the way to its neck and a half mask of sculpted bronze o...

Incursion Empire Ch. 11

Eleven 

Xeroc ducked under a tentacle, the pink limb whistling above him. It hit the warrior next to him, wrapping around the woman in a blink. She barely had time to yell before  it yanked her up in the air before dragging her into the ocean. Monstrous sea-spiders were rushing out of the aquamarine water, spindly legs stretching to propel themselves toward the seawall they’d built.

It was a good idea. Couldn’t have known there would have been a damn...

Bloodsworn Ch. 2.26

26.

Sparks leapt across the air as Snowbeard’s hammer struck red hot iron. His apprentices had collapsed hours earlier as the heat and the exertion had driven them to the ground in exhaustion. The old dwarf was pale faced with a sheen of sweat, deep bags under his eyes, but his hammer struck true with every blow. 

Forge Master lvl. 26

The levels had crept up as the hours drifted by as the armor was shaped. Snowbeard was a dwarf possessed, his strength...

Mage Steel Ch. Nine

Nine 

An F-Grade rift was little more than a tear in space no larger than a doorway. Without Alice to guide him to it, Kon would have never found it. Up and over the crest of the hill and down into a small, rocky gully, the two traveled in silence. Alice had let him rest, eat and drink some water she had gathered with another rune fragment that had pulled moisture out of the air. 

He was still tired, his limbs heavy and his head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, but ...