Mana was the life blood of everything that existed. It was the very foundation of matter itself and a mage’s power was in the ability to manipulate it in all its various facets to create powers capable of bringing their enemies to their knees.
And a mage was strongest where their preferred mana type was most dominant.
Lady Long Leg’s preferred mana type wasn’t working in spades here but she had enough lava mana stored in her core to go into Overdrive and the sudden death of ...
2023-10-05 11:05:02 +0000 UTC
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Timi stood behind him as he cut into it and it hissed in uncontrolled pain, the lower part of its body writhing as if dowsed in flames. He dug around in its large body, seeking out its heart, the action made more tasking by the pain from their battle.
When he didn’t find it, he moved on and cut again. Each time the snake hissed and cried. Each time a notification he ignored came alive.
[You Have Been Poisoned.]
Hands covered in blood, he cut into the snake...
2023-10-05 11:01:41 +0000 UTC
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Nelxit bar was popular for its mead, a special selection said to have been learned by the bar keep during one of his trips to the north. The soldiers visited it more often than not, as it was the closest bar to the tower. Ezril and his brothers, however, visited it less frequently than the full moon did the night sky. Although, it was never certain if it was because of their mild reluctance to be present among the citizens or the choice of not disrupting the fun of the soldiers.
Ezril s...
2023-10-05 10:59:35 +0000 UTC
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Alanna scoffed visibly, drawing their attention.
“I expect this from Father Thrysis and Father Olufemi,” she said to Ezril. “But not from you, Father Ezril.”
Ezril smiled at her. Though his strength grew, it still waned significantly. It proved to be a while before he would carry himself with ease. “I would apologize, Sister Alanna,” he began, switching to the realm tongue. “But there are things my brothers would rather no one else heard.”
She fixed him with ...
2023-10-03 09:10:32 +0000 UTC
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Seth’s body didn’t obey him as quickly as he hoped but it obeyed nonetheless. He snatched up his dropped sword and charged the snake.
His body responded slower and he sheathed both swords as he ran. He only had one shot at this. One chance to take the snake’s attention from his brother. The snake was already crowding Timi with strikes, all of which the boy parried with his broadsword. But as much as he seemed to stand his ground, it was clear he was on the back foot. Seth feared t...
2023-10-03 08:56:06 +0000 UTC
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Festus frowned as he deflected an earth attack with a force spell. The air shimmered at the flick of his wrist and the stone spike rising from the ground in its adornment of soft glowing flowers shattered against it on impact.
At knight rank he was vastly superior to most of the enemies he’d come across, but he felt himself on the verge of struggling with the two monsters. Worse, he could feel them growing as they fought, evolving.
They were Bishop ranked but they fought with th...
2023-10-03 08:52:58 +0000 UTC
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The snake was ready for him as he forged into the battle. It swiped at him with its tail while it kept its attention on Timi and he ducked down, slid along the snow and through the space between its massive bulk and the floor. He came to a turning stop beside Timi and pushed off the floor with a single hand. His shoulder still burned but it was lesser. The small spots on his face, however, flared with the manic enthusiasm of fire in the presence of sufficient fuel.
He stepped forward an...
2023-10-02 06:55:20 +0000 UTC
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Seth tried his hand at playful banter as he and Timi walked. He joked about flying birds and digging squirrels. About dug out ruts and two men walking into a bar. It would amaze most to know the kinds of jokes one could spin from anything. Or at least that was the impression he’d gotten from the flock of girls that laughed at all of Derek’s jokes back home.
He ceased his attempts at the third joke when Timi gave another half-hidden smile in response. His brother was nice enough to f...
2023-10-02 06:53:29 +0000 UTC
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The first face Ezril saw was Darvi’s. With it came a sense of relief. He had believed Alanna when she’d spoken of his brother’s recovery, but seeing it made it real, not something he was simply told. It was fact, not Credo. This was a line of thinking he knew Salem would be proud of.
Darvi stood in a conversation with a man Ezril couldn’t recognize. His uniform placed him as a man of import, and not one of the King’s guard. Perhaps a new commander. Ezril was under no illusion ...
2023-10-02 06:37:24 +0000 UTC
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Ezril’s thoughts were duly and properly broken. He narrowed his gaze, squinting at the rush of light flooding his vision, and knew he was elsewhere.
Ezril blinked against the brightness. The action was slow, bereft of enthusiasm. He laid on a soft cushion, a bed unlike the one he had placed his head on the past few months.
Turning his head, he surveyed his environment. It smelled of herbs, reminding him of Father Yesuan and the priest’s room in the seminary. This room, however...
2023-10-02 06:30:22 +0000 UTC
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Zed heaved, sucking in deep breaths. He stumbling away from a tree he was resting on as a creature spat at him. Its spittle was a large blob as fat as his face and he barely escaped it. The green goop smacked into the tree and let out a sizzling sound. He’d been struck by it once before and it had cost him what was left of his shirt.
His response to it was a quickly cast rune. A bright orange rune lit up and a rune-spell consumed the creature in sparks of fire.
· You have cast ...
2023-10-02 06:23:31 +0000 UTC
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“Daniel!” Ven bellowed under the weight of the monster’s scream. “We need to shut that thing up!”
He raised his gun and fired off two shots at the creature, his aim true. Two tight spheres of blue mana burst from his gun. They trailed a path towards the monster’s open maw before veering to the side.
Whatever the nature of the skill it was using was, it possessed both aura and physical attributes.
Ven’s armor blared warning sounds, red lights beeping within it. ...
2023-10-02 06:20:28 +0000 UTC
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A true silence is one thing men rarely ever experience. However, there are times in their lives when they come across it. A silence void of life. A silence that calls forth a terror within some, and a peace within fewer. This is a silence Vayla blesses her children with every so often. It is true and, sometimes, deafening.
Ezril stood, waiting. The Sunders on his back weighed little less than a new born, and his bow hung from his back, ready whenever he needed it. But his quiver was now...
2023-09-28 05:41:02 +0000 UTC
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Ven stepped out from the pathway after a much longer walk than he’d expected, and behind him the others followed.
The sight they were met with was less than he’d expected.
They stepped into a large clearing, the topography of the soil disharmonious so that it rose and fell chaotically. The plateau, if it could be called a plateau, was covered in grasses and flowering plants of countless colors and at its centre was a tree so massive it looked like a World Tree spoken off in di...
2023-09-28 05:36:03 +0000 UTC
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Seth sat against the tree for a time he could not count. His injury had stopped bleeding and the cloth wrapped around it was no longer as moist as it had once been.
In front of him Timi had not moved an inch. His hulking size was reminiscent of the tree behind him and Seth found himself wondering how much discomfort it took for the boy to get through the tree’s entrance.
It hadn’t necessarily been built for a person so tall.
It had been a while since he’d been sitting ...
2023-09-28 05:31:36 +0000 UTC
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Even his minds agreed it was a ludicrous idea. There was a reason the seminary taught different forms of combat in different situations but never how to fight against an armed opponent when unarmed: it was stupid. Even Domitia for all his adeptness had said it.
“If you find yourself without a weapon and your opponent has one, run. There is no better way to say or put it. Just run.”
“Does this apply to a souled?” Borriovani had asked.
“No, it does not.”
Seth...
2023-09-26 05:11:24 +0000 UTC
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“W…why?” Ezril croaked, his attention on Loren. His throat was dry, like a pipe clogged with sand. It made the words come out hoarse. With them came the taste of blood.
“Because your trust was the easiest to gain,” was all she said. Then she came at him with the ferocity of an intoxicated animal.
She stopped short suddenly and her eyes turned wary.
Ezril’s hand felt heavier now, strained. When he moved it, it weighed much more than he remembered. His fingers twit...
2023-09-26 05:07:22 +0000 UTC
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Zed frowned as he read the notification again.
· You have defeated [Rolling armadillo (Beta, category 3)].
· You have gained +41 [Exp].
All the monsters he had fought alongside Ash were Beta ranked, category three at that, and they had given him Exp that didn’t count up to fifty, individually. That was madness. They usually gave him numbers in the fifties or higher.
Was this the consequence of evolving to category two? What would happen once he got to category thre...
2023-09-26 05:01:09 +0000 UTC
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Ven dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. He felt the floor depress slightly under the weight of his suit. If his control was any better, he would’ve qualified for a better suit than the one he wore but his mind wasn’t dwelling on that topic. Something else held his attention.
He stared at the carnage in front of him while Shanine struggled to climb down from his shoulders. He lowered himself to let her down gently but his eyes never left the scene he was met with.
Before h...
2023-09-25 05:23:59 +0000 UTC
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Ezril studied the cassock on his bed. He had a decision to make. Wear the black cotton shirt and leather trouser he always wore beneath his cloak or honor the Lord Commander’s dinner with his cassock.
It is not a dinner deserving of any honor, he told himself.
He returned the cassock to the wardrobe present at the corner of his room and shrugged into a leather trouser and strapped on his boots. He covered his torso in a grey cotton shirt, concealing the few scars on his...
2023-09-25 05:14:17 +0000 UTC
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Seth stared with an open mouth.
Bonus Quest: [The Hunter and The Hunted].
Your missing brother has been on the run. Now you have realized there is a hunter and a hunted. Find who hunts who and render your aid as you see fit.
Objective Passed: [Find The Hunter: 1/1].
Bonus Objective: [Find The Hunted: 0/1].
Nothing of the notification changed. He had not found the hunted. But that was not importan...
2023-09-25 05:07:55 +0000 UTC
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The pale light of the moon gave way to the mooring of the morning. The sky was lit blue and was cloudy. It ensured the new dawn light remained a bright blue. Where the moon light blue had been pale, this one was simply blue.
His exit from the shelter was bristled with anger. The possibility of Timi being the one in trouble coursed through his veins and pushed him to the edge of vexation. Timi was his one real friend in the seminary. The only one he could truly call brother. That someone...
2023-09-22 05:33:55 +0000 UTC
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Battle is nothing like the glories boys fantasize as they grow. There is no glory to it, just blood, and gore, and screams, and pain. The king rewards men who return from it, and shrouds them in false glory. This glory sends boys of all ages into a wanderlust for it. This glory is as real as it is tangible.
Ezril spun on his foot, his Sunders outstretched. He cut down two Merdendis closing in on him. Their blood splashed, staining his cloak. He ignored it, and pushed forward, cutting do...
2023-09-22 05:31:51 +0000 UTC
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Zed stared at the lineup of fallen trees with a frown on his face, Festus’ book of runes forgotten in his hand.
“Am I the only one who thinks this looks kinda very intentional?” he asked, worried.
“No,” Kid answered.
Zed wasn’t entirely sure when they’d started calling this part of the forest the path of fallen trees but seeing it now it was quite aptly named. In front of them was a rise of trees stacked on top of each other, countless until they rose at least ...
2023-09-22 05:25:38 +0000 UTC
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At the foot of the tower, and the grounds of the fort, were smaller buildings where the soldiers lived. Ezril walked the fort grounds, returning nods and greetings from various soldiers. They may not like him and his brothers but they had gone on enough expeditions hunting down the Merdendi hordes together to build a minute form of comradery. In these expeditions they had shown the soldiers that their skills were completely beyond theirs. Ezril’s skill with the bow had served to marvel.
...
2023-09-21 05:49:37 +0000 UTC
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Seth’s hunt for his brother was long and annoying. He stumbled a few more times from nothing and his breathing never subsided. He had no worry for the cold, the heat of his poisoning still running through his bones, muscles, and skin. The fur coat he had taken off the dead caused him to sweat and he unfurled it from around himself. He held it in one hand and dragged it along the snow. It trailed a path behind him that any who searched could follow.
He didn’t care. It was better than...
2023-09-21 05:37:36 +0000 UTC
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Most people think the life of a dwarf is terrible, and if Eitri was being honest, it was. But not entirely.
The trick to it is that like those not aesthetically pleasing to the eyes—and when he said aesthetically pleasing he didn’t mean the horrendous to look at or those who looked like God’s personal affront to reality, he meant those who weren’t beautiful—all a dwarf had to do was accept that they were dwarves and there was nothing wrong with it.
For him, his acceptanc...
2023-09-21 05:32:17 +0000 UTC
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Darvi gave them his unwavering attention as Takan rehashed the tale of his experience at one of the famed taverns near the first tower of the realm.
One year, Ezril thought. The mandatory pastoral year required of all priests in their first year of priesthood, regardless of their class.
The shock had been palpable on all their faces when they had been told where they would be posted. For the past year they had lived on the outskirts of the realm in the west tower, near th...
2023-09-19 05:26:56 +0000 UTC
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Seth paused at the sight of the new quest.
“You expect me to believe none of you saw this coming?” he asked his minds.
When have we ever predicted the notifications? One of them replied sarcastically.
“So this is all a coincidence?”
Call it what you want. As long as we gut that snake, that’s all that matters.
Seth didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit. His minds were keeping secrets, playing games no one mind should play. I...
2023-09-19 05:18:28 +0000 UTC
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Zed’s back hit the tree with enough force to shake his bones as Abed shoved him into it.
“I knew we shouldn’t have listened to you,” Abed snarled, spittle flying in Zed’s face as he pinned him in place with a forearm against his neck. “You led us into an ambush!”
Jason reacted immediately and the barrel of his rune blaster shoved against the side of Abed’s head.
“Careful,” he warned. “I don’t want to pull the trigger but I will if I have to.”
...
2023-09-19 05:16:04 +0000 UTC
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