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Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 16 - An Ant Among Titans

Elijah had managed to close the wound on his back, but with the viridian monster slowly closing on him, he had other things on his mind. His core was empty, and it would take at least an hour before it recovered to full capacity. And even if he survived that long, he had no way of defeating the creature. It was too fast. Too strong. And those scales were far too durable. His only other spell, aside from Touch of Nature, had already proved insufficient.

No - he knew that, unless he manag...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 15 - Snaring Roots

Elijah sat on the boulder, the trout forgotten as he looked at the notification that had come with the jolt of power to which he’d been subjected after reaching the second level. It said:

Congratulations! You have reached level two, earning two   free attribute points. Would you like   to allocate free attribute points?

Elijah already knew what he had planned, so he slotted the two points into his Regeneration attribute. His reasoning wasn’...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 14 - Thriving

Elijah hacked at the block of wood, careful to hit it just right. Over the last couple of months, he’d had plenty of practice, but even so, losing concentration would be disastrous for the results. He spared a glance for the pile of firewood propped against one corner of his shelter and reconsidered that word. Disastrous.

For weeks after washing ashore, every action had been one of life and death. When he’d killed his first crab, when he’d made his first tools, and, finally, when ...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 13 - Safe Haven

Alyssa stood on the roof of the police station and gazed out across the parking lot. There, she saw a haggard group of people waiting in front of the crude brick wall Carmen had built. It was rough, but at almost six feet high and half as thick, it had proven to be very effective in the weeks since it had been built.

“What do you think?” asked Roman, who’d taken a position beside her.

She glanced his way. The past couple of months had been difficult for everyone, but Roman h...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 12 - An Unseen Threat

Elijah studied the results of his efforts, which had been arranged into separate piles according to their intended purpose. The first was simple enough; it was comprised of a couple of crab claws, each the size of a small animal. Beneath that chitinous exterior was at least a few pounds of white meat, which Elijah hoped would see him through until he could supplement his diet with fish. He’d considered harvesting the rest of the crab, but he’d run into two problems.

First, crab had ...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 11 - Crab

Throughout the night, Elijah kept adding fuel to the fire, so by the time morning came, he was still tired, and his meager store of firewood had been vastly depleted. But he’d managed to keep it going, so there was a chance that he wouldn’t have to go through the grueling process of creating a friction fire again. Of course, he’d have to make sure it had plenty of fuel while he went about the tasks he had planned for the day, but that was unavoidable.

There was a reason most survi...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 10 - The First Steps

Elijah ran his hand over his head, feeling a light stubble that should not have been there. After all, hair just wasn’t supposed to grow that fast, was it? When the plane had crashed and the System had descended upon Earth, he had been completely bald, his hair having been sacrificed at the altar of chemotherapy. By his count, only a couple of days had passed since then.

Except for the chrysalis.

He had no idea how long he’d been in there. It could have been days. Years. Month...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 9 - An Introduction to Cultivation

“What do I call you?” asked Elijah, still looking up at the tree creature.

“I have no name, for I am only a sapling,” it said. “Regardless, this is the last time we will speak for some time. I am nearly at the end of my available energy.”

“Oh.”

Elijah had no idea how to respond to that, so he’d decided to keep his mouth shut. As his father always said, it was better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. It had originally...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 8 - Clearing the Station

Alyssa knelt in the park across the street from the police station. Next to her was Roman, with the other three a few feet behind. She asked, “What do you think?”

“It’s not good,” he said, clutching his bow. Alyssa noticed that his knuckles were white, and if she was honest, she didn’t blame him even a little. On their way through town, they’d seen plenty of evidence that the world, as they knew it, was gone. They’d even had to fight a couple of battles, though with Alys...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 7 - Many Paths to Power

After a night filled with fitful sleep, Elijah woke to a world of pain twisting through his stomach. He clutched at his midsection and, as cramps assailed him, heaved the meager contents of his stomach onto the ground beside him. There was precious little there – mostly liquid, in fact, which gave him some clues as to what had happened. The water he’d drunk the evening before had obviously been contaminated.

“Stupid,” he muttered, thinking back to his decision to drink the water...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 6 - Magic and Danger

Elijah looked down at his ruined legs. The crabs had really done a number on them, and unless he figured out how to use his new spell, he’d be in real trouble. Even if he’d managed to overcome his cancer – which was still unsure – he still had to concern himself with immediate survival.

His legs were caked with dried blood and dirt, which didn’t bode well for staving off infection. In addition, huge chunks of muscle were missing, snipped away and eaten by the oversized crustac...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 5 - Beyond Repair

Alyssa kept her hand on her pistol as she walked down the center of the street. Behind her followed Carmen, their son Miguel, and Trish. Bringing up the rear was Roman, who was holding his bow.

With her shotgun in hand, Trish complained, “Is all this really necessary?”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” Carmen said. “But I’ve watched enough zombie movies that I’m more than willing to be overly cautious.”

“There are zombies? Cool,” said Miguel.

“I still can’t b...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 3 - Castaway

Elijah dreamed of his puppy, Fremont, nipping at his legs as he read a book. The dog was a rambunctious thing, still untrained, and full of energy and cuddly love. Slowly, his rational mind intruded on the pleasant dream, telling him that his dog hadn’t been a puppy for years, that he’d been forced to rehome him when it became clear that the cancer was incurable. Doing so had been almost as emotional as when his oncologist had informed him that the treatments weren’t working. That he on...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 4 - Necessities

“I think we have enough for a couple of weeks, so long as we ration,” said Alyssa, looking over the stacks of canned food on the table. There were other dry goods as well, but not nearly as many as she’d hoped. “Makes me wish I’d made a Costco run before, you know, the end of the world.”

Roman shook his head, saying, “I’m not that worried about food. We have the garden out back, too. What really concerns me is water.”

Alyssa looked away, then ran a hand through h...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 2 - Death of Familiarity

“What the hell is going on?” gasped Alyssa, staring at the disembodied blocks of text. It was too dark to see, but, after that brief period of nothingness, she could feel Carmen’s comfortable presence next to her in bed. “You saw it too, didn’t you?”

“I…I did,” Carmen answered, her hand finding Alyssa’s. She squeezed it tightly. “Could this be real?”

Alyssa had already gone through the tunnel of disbelief and come out the other side. No matter how she looke...

Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 1 - Waiting for the End to Come

Elijah Hart ran a hand over his hairless head as he tried to ignore the curious or disgusted glances originating with the plane’s other passengers. His lack of hair wasn’t really the issue – not by itself, at least. Instead, the real problem was the lack of eyebrows; he’d never really considered how much the presence of those two short tufts of hair affected the way someone looked. Not until he’d lost his, that is. In addition to the alien absence of hair on his brow, he was also af...

Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 2 - A Few Months Later

It can’t be overstated how jarring it is to wake up missing a bunch of parts. Even as I took shelter in the mech suit, I knew I was never going to be the same. However, the extent of the damage to my body far exceeded anything I could’ve ever anticipated. Now, I vacillate between wondering if I’m a monster and getting excited about all the possibilities my new parts represent.

Patrick Ward

I leaped, grabbing hold o...

Mistrunner 4 - Chapter 1 - An End's Beginning

When I first met Mirabelle Braddock, I knew she would be trouble. I should have killed her, there and then, but I was too selfish to see what she might become. I was too interested in winning our war.

Alistaris Kargat

I huddled in the corner of my bedroom, my knees clutched to my chest as I stared at what Patrick had become. I was grateful he was alive. Of course I was. But I couldn’t ignore the reality of his transfor...

Chapter 393 - All that Glimmers

The moment he’d chosen to climb the cyclops and kill the creature he should not have been able to kill, Zeke knew he was deviating from the dungeon’s intended script. Since the very beginning, every single obstacle had featured a clear goal and a straightforward way to progress. The same was true of the kitchen where he’d fought the ants. If he’d only looked around, he would have found the doors.

There were three of them, each embedded in the base of the cabinet and looking no d...

Chapter 392 - Small and Mighty

Zeke dug through flesh for what felt like miles until, at last, he reached a solid wall of bone. At first, he was unsure of what had stopped his progress – especially with everything coated in blood and gore – but it only took a few moments longer for him to realize that he’d reached the cyclops’ skull.

If he’d been equipped with anything more than a cursory knowledge of anatomy, he would’ve expected it. But Zeke had never paid that much attention to biology, and so, he was ...

Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 55 - A Backhanded Victory

World Killer. That is the title she would eventually earn. And seeing that first mass execution…what she did to the Pacificians opened a lot of eyes and got a lot of attention. It’s terrifying, what she can do, and the fact that we’re on the same side doesn’t do much to mitigate that fear.

Alistaris Kargat

I fell to my knees, staring at the pile of rubble that had once been Cyrilla’s workshop. The neighboring b...

Chapter 391 - The Fury of Grief

Zeke seethed, but he managed to keep his emotions under control as he climbed the giant cyclops’ neck. It swatted at him, its hand hitting with world-ending force. His body cracked under the impact, sending a cascade of rock, metal, and crystal tumbling down, and yet, Zeke persisted, relying on his enhanced endurance and strength to see him through.

Vaguely, he was aware that Eveline was trying to get through to him, her mental voice having become more of a screech. He ignored it. He ...

Chapter 390 - A Much Bigger Issue

For the first time in a long time, Zeke felt a spike of terror in his mind. It didn’t last long before he smothered it beneath a mountain of life-or-death experiences, but it didn’t really go away. It never did. Fear was just a part of life. Another obstacle to be overcome. And Zeke refused to let it dictate his actions.

So, he only let himself hesitate for the briefest of moments before he dashed away. The gargantuan foot descended with inevitable speed, but Zeke barely managed to ...

Weekly Check-In (11/5/23)

Alright, so I got some huge news this week, and I'm super excited about it.  So, I'll buck the normal formatting trend and jump straight to Path of Dragons news.  First, the big announcement: I just signed a six book deal with Podium to publish the series and produce it for audiobooks.  This was a bit unexpected (I'm contractually obligated to let them know about any new projects because they have first right of refusal), and I sort of thought it was a little early, considering...

Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 54 - Evolution

I sometimes wonder how I can be with someone who can do the things Mira has done. Aside from the morality of killing literal millions of people, I often look at her and see someone that’s so far above me – at least in terms of power – that we’re barely even the same species.

Patrick Ward

I stared at the notification, wondering how I was supposed to react. On the one hand, I was excited about the possibility of ev...

Mistrunner 3 - Chapter 53 - Round Two

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting a war. I know the cause is just. I get that. But why does it have to be us? Why can’t we just leave and let someone else shoulder the weight of resistance?

Patrick Ward

As I dropped into a slide, the android’s sword neatly severed one of my braids. I lashed out with my own blade, slashing the back of his knee before my momentum carried me out of his immediate range...