Zed stared once more at the door in front of him. He wasn’t too pleased with what he could feel on the other side. Sensing another human aura was supposed to be a good thing, but there was a part of him that doubted the candor of the aura he was sensing. For one, it belonged to a human not a mage.
That’s a slippery slope, he thought. Is the argument that mages aren’t human?
He shook his own thoughts aside, ignoring the question. It wasn’t because he wasn...
2023-08-03 23:19:00 +0000 UTC
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Zed stood in an empty space of fallen trees and blood stains. The monster’s he’d fought all night were nowhere to be found and the morning light had since grown to fill the sky and illuminate the world.
Standing quietly, he stared at his personal information.
Melchizedek Nyborn
· Specie: Human (Mana blessed).
· Category: 1/3.
· Rank: Beta (category 1).
· Exp to category 2: 4833(2333)/2500.
· Maximum Exp per category approaching, advancement a...
2023-08-02 23:19:00 +0000 UTC
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For the second time within the space of a few days, Zed found himself seated in the dirt with his back against a tree. He was covered in blood, most of which was not his.
Zed came awake with a gasp. He woke like the shocked and drew all the air he could into his lungs. It scraped his throat going in like a drink of a thousand crushed gravels and he coughed it back up in blood and spittle.
Consciousness returned to Zed slowly. He stared at the rising morning veiled in the darkness ...
2023-08-02 10:38:59 +0000 UTC
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The air shook and Zed was shoved deeper into the ground as everything in front of him blew away in a massive explosion.
The force of the explosion pinned Zed down, casting its effect on the ground around him and he blacked out, slipping into momentary unconsciousness. It was a moment so short that it lasted the length of time it takes lightning to herald the madness of thunder. When he slipped back into consciousness, he was lying in a shallow crater.
Zed forced himself up, stagge...
2023-07-31 23:18:01 +0000 UTC
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Zed buckled under the weight of the monster’s blow as the space in front of him cracked like a very translucent glass struck by a large object.
· You have cast basic rune [Force shield].
· [Force shield] has applied effect [Deflect].
The monster’s arm swung back from the effect and it brought its second hand down on the shield. Not willing to test the strength of the shield, Zed rolled out from under it, severing his connection to the rune. The monster’s second blow ...
2023-07-30 23:19:00 +0000 UTC
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“I was aware of the possibility of a bad outcome,” Zed muttered, “but this is just wrong.”
Zed was seated on the floor, back rested against what was left of a broken tree. Blood flowed freely from a wound in his side, refusing to stop and his new axe was held loosely in his hand as he stared at a notification.
· [Denizen viper] has inflicted [venom] on you.
· [Venom] has applied effect [Iron stone].
· You do not have sufficient [Mana].
· [Iron stone] ...
2023-07-27 23:18:00 +0000 UTC
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Zed got to his feet slowly, and vertigo hit him. He staggered before his feet realigned beneath him and returned his balance. He looked down at them with a nod.
“I guess those still work.”
Zed looked around him at the rubble he’d been forced to crawl out of. Behind him was a mountain of destruction, ruins of concrete slabs and broken debris mounted on top of each other. It seemed he had survived that.
“I guess regeneration’s still working, too.”
The words w...
2023-07-27 00:22:59 +0000 UTC
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Abed held himself up, supporting himself by the handle of his weapon. The great cleaver was broken and barely resembled the weapon that it once was. He bled from cuts and bruises, and while he could feel his mage body healing slowly from the mana he still had in his core, it moved far too slow. That was the problem with fighting a fellow mage or monster, injuries they inflicted always seemed immune to a mage’s healing factor.
Should I use it now? He asked himself as he stared...
2023-07-26 11:19:00 +0000 UTC
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“What the hell is that thing?” Chris asked, eyes trembling.
“I don’t know, but we’ve got to go!” Imani begged through her pain.
“But Ash and Oliver aren’t here,” Jason said, voice trembling, resolve waning. “We’ve got to wait for them.”
“And if we die waiting?” Ned asked. “Do you think they’ll be happy?”
Jason shoved the car keys into the ignition with trembling hands, his mind battling between self-preservation and loyalty. Between be...
2023-07-25 10:38:01 +0000 UTC
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“What the hell do you mean he’s dead?” Jason asked Chris confused.
They were almost at the car now. Their mana reserves depleting as they continued to fend off shots and randomly cast spellforms. It was the ever growing problem with chaos; eventually, everyone would stop trying to hit their targets and start trying to hit any target.
Jason didn’t blame them even as a shot bounced of his mana shield with enough force to stagger him.
Chris moved with an eerie ...
2023-07-23 21:55:09 +0000 UTC
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Chris stared at the scene before her, stunned and confused. She watched the last shot rebound off Zed’s rune shield, holding back how impressed she was that the shield had held against so many shots.
The validity of the shield was compromised, and knowing it would not survive another shot, she drew her mana, chanted a quick spellform and sent a bolt of lightning off into the distance. It struck Zed’s assailant with enough force to knock him off his feet and the man was dead before h...
2023-07-23 21:36:45 +0000 UTC
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Ned stood idly by as Imani chatted up a mage with an eye patch and a cigar he believed was a little too big when the explosions began.
Once upon a time he would’ve found himself scurrying for shelter, hiding from the chaos of what may or may not kill him. Now, his senses sharpened and his mind assessed the situation. He had come a long way from the boy he’d been eight years ago.
Ned drew mana from his core and basked in the sense of power that came with it as his mind shuffled...
2023-07-23 21:05:14 +0000 UTC
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This was going to be a difficult problem.
“The redhead wasn’t part of the deal!” Ash snarled, calling on the mana from her core to bear and the ambient mana around her reacted to it.
If the man in front of her was bothered by it, he didn’t show it.
“Not a part of your deal,” he said. “But he was part of a deal.”
“Abed,” Ash realized, holding her composure. “Well, you’ll have to get through me to get to him.”
“As cute ...
2023-07-23 20:29:18 +0000 UTC
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Jason watched Zed flirt with the lady in red that had walked up to him as he’d approached Abed. It was the same girl Oliver had pointed out a moment ago for watching him a little too discreetly.
Jason had sent Oliver to keep an eye on the bald tank of a man while he watched Zed, slightly distracted from any other task.
In the crowd, Zed maneuvered his way quite easily, sidestepping mages too arrogant to give space for another mage, deftly moving the box in his hand like a skille...
2023-07-23 19:01:42 +0000 UTC
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“That’s a nice hair color you’ve got. Tell me, is it natural?”
Zed turned around in a gentle flourish, holding up the cardboard box like a tray with a delicate glass of wine atop it.
His new company was a lady in a beautiful red gown. Up close she wore the red dress so well it was as if it had been tailor made for her. Its material was so neat Zed found himself hard pressed to believe she’d gotten it from anywhere nearby.
“It’s a natural wig,” he answered her...
2023-07-23 18:49:37 +0000 UTC
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Hillview had five mages recognized as the powers of the rundown gathering, and four of them walked into the large auditorium under electric bulb lights and chattering mages. Most of the mages here knew them by invitation, and if it wasn’t obvious, then perhaps the silence that filled the room when they entered together was an announcement of how respected or feared they were amongst the mages that currently occupied the hall.
The one rumored to be the oldest amongst them in the town w...
2023-07-23 18:38:53 +0000 UTC
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“Why do we have to wait for them, again?” Chris asked Ash.
“Because we invited them and they were gracious enough to say yes,” Ash answered.
“But the car’s not big enough to fit both teams.”
“That’s why Jason convinced Heimdall to lend us a bigger truck and only Imani and Ned are coming.”
“And you invited them because?”
“I didn’t invite them,” Ash said. “Zed did.”
They were standing out in the open in front of Heimdall’s ...
2023-07-23 18:05:30 +0000 UTC
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Zed was standing in front of Festus’ door. It had been over two weeks since he’d last seen the mage, so when Ivan told him to hurry on over to the force mage’s house after their training session which was more of Zed getting his ass handed to him, Zed could only imagine what the hurry was about.
He knocked on the door once, his gaze moving around, taking in the night town. There were no signs of life save the little flickers of light streaming out of some house windows. The way it...
2023-07-23 07:24:56 +0000 UTC
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There were back in the residential part of town where people walked around, headed to their destination as the morning grew into afternoon. They spotted a few people out on a jog, nothing demanding like Oliver and Ash’s unhinged morning sprints. There were children out as well, playing and seeking out one level of mischief or the other. The few teenagers not yet Awakened all seemed to filter out towards one side of town.
“Where are they headed?” Zed asked, nodding at two teenagers...
2023-07-23 06:44:12 +0000 UTC
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Zed ducked out of the way, rolling in the dirt as a wave of ice froze where he’d been standing. By the time he was back to his feet Ash was already casting another spell, icicles as large as Zed’s arm gathering about her.
“You’ve got to move faster,” Oliver called from the sidelines.
Zed’s finger was already moving, drawing a rune as he watched Ash. She smirked at him, flaunting her superiority. A single icicle shot out from amongst the rest, blasting at him with a dea...
2023-07-23 06:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“Red or auburn?”
“What?” Abed stuttered.
“The mage’s hair,” the Olympian said. “Is it red or auburn?”
“What’s the difference?”
The Olympian pushed itself from the tree and took a step forward. “The difference,” it said, “is that one will get you killed, and the other will get you rewarded.”
Abed gulped visibly, and this time it showed. He’d never heard anything about auburn hair in all the rumors. Was the Olympian toying with him...
2023-07-23 05:27:03 +0000 UTC
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“Be quiet, Zed,” Ivan said blandly.
“But I’m serious,” Zed was saying. “She just jumped out of nowhere swinging some bigass club like it was a length of rope. Smacked me across the head and everything, when I came to I had a mana stone in my hand.”
“Alright,” Ivan said, placing a foot on the monster corpse. “And how’d you get it this time?”
Zed shrugged. “Same story.”
“A girl with a club.”
“Hard to believe, isn’t it,” Zed sai...
2023-07-23 05:09:58 +0000 UTC
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“Remind me why we’re out here, again?” Zed asked.
“Because I have to see you fight before I can know how to teach you to fight,” Ivan answered.
“I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t have to see me fall first,” Zed muttered.
Zed and Ivan were outside the town, far enough that there were no signs of buildings as far as Zed could see but close enough so he could always run back to town if he had to. He held his tomahawk in his hand, following behind Ivan as he...
2023-07-23 04:47:22 +0000 UTC
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Ash stared at Jason with a mild mix of anger and confusion.
“What the hell did you just say?” she asked.
The entire team was at her place except Zed, knackered from the stress of the day. They’d just returned from a particularly nasty monster hunt and had taken a break to shower and get the muck off themselves. Then they met back at her place where Jason dropped the bombshell of inhumanity.
“I said…” Jason began only to have her cut him off.
“I heard what...
2023-07-23 04:20:00 +0000 UTC
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The thud of a body hitting a hard surface echoed through an empty set of hallways as Zed hit the ground again.
Ivan stood off to the side watching him as if he hadn’t just slammed him into the ground with a shoulder throw. Zed found himself concentrating more on catching Ivan’s movement whenever the man distanced himself from him instead of learning how to properly fall, because the truth was there was no such thing as properly falling. There was just falling. But he wasn’t going ...
2023-07-23 04:19:14 +0000 UTC
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The pathway Zed walked had more sand than most of the walkways around the town. Or at least it did, but it had rained last night and so he walked with a frown, bare feet stepping on mud. It got between his toes, staining more parts of his feet than he had been willing to let it stain.
Him and Oliver had gone on their morning run alone today, and in Ash’s absence Zed realized they’d been taking it easy on him. With the speed Oliver required from him, he was knackered before his recor...
2023-07-23 03:18:38 +0000 UTC
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“Hey, isn’t that the guy with red hair?”
Zed’s steps faltered and he almost staggered. He caught his balance quickly before it became too obvious and kept walking. He didn’t know the voice and didn’t have red hair so he refused to be the one being spoken of.
“Hey!”
Okay, Zed, no need to slow down, he told himself, feet still moving. Anyone can answer to hey, doesn’t mean it has to be you.
“Hey!” someone called out again, this tim...
2023-07-23 02:59:35 +0000 UTC
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“I keep saying we find a way beyond the third line and make a run for it.”
Samantha’s words slipped through the air in a quiet whisper. She was a girl of average size compared to Shanine’s small frame and she often spoke with a loud voice, except for times like this when her skill at controlling her tone shined brightest. It was night and the girls were huddled in one of the buildings Madam Shaggy had commandeered for their housing.
“And go where?” Shanine whispered wi...
2023-07-22 02:34:54 +0000 UTC
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Zed stared in fear at the Olympian. In the dark there wasn’t much to see of it and the moonlight spared only the littlest illumination but Zed saw better than most, his hypersensitivity attribute made sure of it. To his eyes no difference existed between the Olympian here and the ones they’d been watching.
Its faceless features did nothing to assuage Zed’s fear and Zed knew if he was not a mage, he would’ve pissed himself.
“I don’t want to argue with you,” Chris said...
2023-07-22 02:33:21 +0000 UTC
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Zed squatted behind a fallen tree. There was a phantom pain in his leg he was doing his best to ignore as the others stared ahead. Beside him Oliver kept his face disciplined.
“You shouldn’t have teased her so much,” he told Zed, holding back an amused smile.
“How was I supposed to know she’d hit me?” Zed whispered back.
“I don’t know,” Oliver shrugged. “Maybe after the first and second spell missed? I could’ve sworn that was supposed to have given you ...
2023-07-22 02:32:03 +0000 UTC
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