We're on the home stretch now - or all downhill from here, depending on how you look at it. It's an interesting challenge for me to write characters that are not exceptionally clever people. Noodles in particular is... well. Let's face it. He's a four-legged himbo. He's not terribly bright, but things work out somehow.
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Angel and I found the berms easily enough - big ramps that flanked the city gates to either side. The soldiers Kab...
2024-04-22 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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The blast threw me, Lulu, Angel and Solomon away from the gatehouse and across the dirt. Lulu took the brunt of it, her high Defense the only thing that saved her from evaporating under the intense heat. The humans went flying. Even I rolled a couple of times before springing back up to my feet, shocked and panting.
The Ironwood gate had 10,000 HP. Emphasis on 'had'. It was now two burning crescent-shaped wedges hanging off red-hot hinges, which creaked as the remaining weight of the do...
2024-04-21 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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I broke into a loping spring back toward the mines. Getting there took less than five minutes at a flat sprint. It was still too long. I skidded to a stop at the edge of the quarry, looked toward the west, and saw the army marching for the gates.
There were at least five hundred Centurions. Closer to a thousand, marching in rigid columns to either side of the road behind a smaller procession. Blue and white flags snapped and fluttered on the wind. Drums pounded, torches bobbed. The ligh...
2024-04-20 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Not dead, just sick. But doing a lot better. Now with 100% less expelled blood!
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By dawn, the Centurions were massing outside the walls of Camp Ironside. But not advancing. Ten of the most resourceful rebels had teamed up with Angel to craft, dig, and plant mines non-stop for hours. The first Centurions to arrive had tried to chase the sappers back inside. They’d discovered the freshly trapped outer perimeter...
2024-04-20 01:38:47 +0000 UTC
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Ahaha... so the illness I was experiencing turned out be a kidney infection. I woke up at 5am this morning with blood coming out of places blood should ideally never be lost from. I was able to get to an urgent care and they gave me the heavy-duty antibiotics. I'll live, but I really hope I never have to experience that particular kind of pain again.
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We knew there'd be Centurions outside the mine. And when I burst i...
2024-04-15 21:22:53 +0000 UTC
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Urrgh, I got sick. Doctor tomorrow, but I'm uploading the remaining edited chapters tonight.
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“Solomon! You’re in charge of the ground forces!” Angel, still voicing, turned to me as shouts of alarm rang out from our makeshift platoon. “Noodles. Get me on that central tower.”
With a roar of defiance and encouragement to the others, I let her mount and bounded over the edge of the walkway, leaping over to the watchtower. Angel vaulted ...
2024-04-15 02:12:42 +0000 UTC
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Aethon Books has optioned I Am Legion!
To get straight to the point: Aethon, a publisher of some amazing sci-fi and LitRPG, has made an offer on I Am Legion. I'm thrilled to be working with them.
Aethon also work with Soundbooth Theatre and I'm determined to let them have a go at bringing Noodles, Angel, Lulu and the rest of the cast to life.
I may also have some other exciting news soon, though I can't say much just yet :)
Archemi #7 is my top priority for Q2 this ye...
2024-04-13 12:00:08 +0000 UTC
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For the sake of not alerting every single Centurion in the mines all at once, Angel switched her rifles for a bow. She nocked an arrow and and drew it back as I banged loudly on the door. A freckled face appeared. A teenage prison guard, maybe nineteen at the most.
I launched the points of two tentacles right into his face.
He his mouth was open to yell when the obsidian spikes punched through his skull. I used his corpse for traction as I bounded out, silent and deadly, and casua...
2024-04-11 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The process of mineshaft triangulation basically relied on smell. The land was criss-crossed with highlighted scent tracks, most of them left by the Centurions patrols who ranged these hills. But the mines themselves had a scent: the smells of beaten rocks and unwashed humans, metal slag and spent fuel.
We made a hidden camp inside of a narrow cave. Doc held the fort while Angel, Lulu and I loaded up the small arms and a couple of turrets and went to hunt a way into the mines proper. It...
2024-04-10 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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With the three of us pooling our lootboxes together, we had enough metal for a lot of weapons. A LOT of weapons. By the time we were done, we had an arsenal capable of outfitting seventy players. We had guns. We had traps. We had two brand-spanking-new [Vickers Machine Turrets] to replace the junk turret we’d lost in Karkinos’ lair. The Vickers were an advanced Schema from the Fourth Realm, normally unavailable to anyone other than Sponsoreds. It had come out of the most expensive box, se...
2024-04-09 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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I found Angel at her workbench, planing wood to make gun stocks. She was surrounded by several new material storage boxes, and looked both excited and anxious while she crafted.
“Hey… Angel.” I nearly ended the casual greeting with ‘babe’ and checked myself. “What’s cooking?”
“Starting armaments for the mine breakout,” she signed. “Take a look in those boxes. And when you get a chance, sort out any loot you have and sort it into the right co...
2024-04-08 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Clive lowered the rifle, his weathered, thin face unusually serious. When he wasn't putting on the crazed barbarian act, he had the look of an old soldier - even with the tusk piercings and face paint. "You got five minutes, Mister Reaper. Sentient or not, you're just a damn beast. I can have fifty of my men and their Legions here within five minutes."
"You'll be ninered by then. And then I'll kill them all. I’ve maxed my level and have two mandalas, and I can kill all day.”
2024-04-07 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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We all felt odd about just leaving the dead to rot. Not that they'd know if we buried them, but in a place as heartless as this one, any little human act felt more meaningful, while every act of callousness chipped away at our souls a little more. And every time you lost a piece, it was some part of you that you weren’t ever getting back.
We didn’t have time to bury them, but it didn’t take me long to pick everyone up and take them to one of the few remaining stone buildings. We c...
2024-04-06 18:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The volcano had erupted to the south-west, and the formerly lush jungle around Camp Goldrush was now a blackened hellscape. Entire roads and settlements along the warfront were drowned in creeping worms of crackling lava, heavy and unstoppable. Smoke turned the air hazy, limiting visibility. Miles of forest on the western side of the volcano were ablaze.
It was an all-day run. We camped overnight, hiding in a burned-out gully without a fire and sleeping in wary shifts, and then it was o...
2024-04-05 23:29:23 +0000 UTC
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"RRAGH!" I bellowed aloud as I kicked off from the raft with all my strength. Powerful hind legs launched us up into the air... but the combined weight of all three of us kicked the edge of the raft down into the waves once I reached the limit. I knew instinctively that it wasn't enough power, even as my feet left the ground.
"Well fuck." I had to try anyway. I spread my forepaws out like a leaping panther, and hit the side of Karkinos' body. My claws scrabbled on the hard shel...
2024-04-03 14:22:34 +0000 UTC
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"Ohhh lord. Oh fuck." For the first time since the beach, I had no idea what to do - other than try to attack. But attack WHAT? Karkinos was spraying its own body down with jets of boiling water, filling the arena with foul-smelling steam. No matter where I looked on it, every part of the creature was dangerously hot, covered in spines, submerged, or all three. Where the fuck were the weak spots? Its back?
A giant claw blurred out toward me. This time I saw it, barely. Chitin s...
2024-03-31 18:00:04 +0000 UTC
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I wasn't sure at what point I'd gone from resenting the viewers to feeling proud we had so many. Maybe it was the dopamine rush of looking into my video window and seeing all those comments and messages flying. Maybe it was the stream of goodies entering my Inventory. Or maybe it had finally sunk in that these people didn't really get that me and the girls weren’t here by our own free will. They believed - or at least chose to believe - that we were in it for the glory. I mean, it made sens...
2024-03-30 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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About twenty minutes later, we found the second [Juvenile Yeti Crab] and the second pump. There was a different, but equally nasty trap in front of the mirrored door. This crab used Earth attacks instead of Air ones, but was otherwise identical to the first. We overwhelmed it with sheer force, cracking its armor and bringing it to bay.
"Alright... second miniboss down, second pump go. I'm not convinced it's going to be as easy as switching it on and heading in to fight Karkinos, though....
2024-03-29 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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[Lulu has taken 250 damage. Your Lesser Legion has been Impaled. 50 damage every second.]
"Lulu!" I took a step forward, mouth open, but the damage was done. The Limne wriggled frantically, cloudy bursts of ichor rippling through her mass as she tore herself on the spear hafts.
"She's a liquiform! It doesn't look like they hit her core, so... tell her to calm down, relax, and try and flow around them," Angel voiced, her tone wavering with her urgency.
Lulu heard her and unde...
2024-03-28 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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I was ready to swim, but nothing could prepare me for the sheer power of the whirlpool. There was no control. My ears and nostrils sealed against the pressure as the fist of God caught my body and dragged us down in a tight, crushing spiral.
Explosions boomed distantly overhead, lighting the dark water in flashes. Angel and Lulu clung to me as we spiraled toward a black cave entry at the bottom of the lakebed. I angled toward it, streamlining myself so that I didn't catch a leg against ...
2024-03-27 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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We didn't have to wait long for our activities to bear fruit. The first cannon blasts rang out at four in the morning, a distant rolling BOOM that shook the walls of our base and sent dirt raining onto our roof. I startled up with a snerk, instantly alert. But as the rapport continued, the tension eased from my back. I grinned.
"Wha-?" Angel rolled out of bed almost as fast as I had, groping for her weapons.
"Listen. The Cents attacked Oil Town, trying to root us out....
2024-03-26 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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I ran down and shredded the first Centurion in our path. Two more charged in with spears. I nailed them with tentacles before they could close and threw them over the burning corpse of the wagon. One man crashed into one of his buddies, taking him to ground; the other ragdolled into the side of the cliff and sent a fresh cloud of toxic spores into the air. I was still laughing at him when I got tackled by the Whiphorse.
"SCREEEEEEEE!” The thing shrieked, the sound tearing over the sou...
2024-03-25 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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"Halt! You're trespassing on Iron Centurions territory!"
The voice ran out on a megaphone from the treeline as three [Warbred Raptors] came bounding out on the other side of the crevasse. The dinosaurs and their riders were armored: bronze and leather barding on the dinosaurs, full-face helmets and halfplate for the humans. IRON armor, thick enough to stop a bullet from anything smaller than the junk turret. Which we'd left behind. All three of the riders had rifles.
"Angel, get t...
2024-03-24 18:00:01 +0000 UTC
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I've been picking up drawing again, and sketched these two last night. A little bonus content :3
2024-03-24 17:54:03 +0000 UTC
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Phase Two of Noodles' Master Plan involved the hardest challenge of all - patience. The timing was important. Now that we'd struck at the Pigs, we couldn't hit the Centurions straight away. Four days passed while we watched and waited to see how the Hell Pigs would react. Fortunately for us, they acted like wasps. Once we'd kicked the nest, the results were pretty predictable.
"Wow, look at them go," Angel fingerspelled to me. She had a pair of binoculars pressed to her eyes with the ot...
2024-03-23 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Angel was still awake when I arrived back at the Crystal Cavern, writing into a journal. She glanced up as I padded in, closing the book and leaving it on her lap so she could sign. “How did the recon go?”
“So… I’ve got a theory.” I went over to the hearth and lay down in front of it, grunting with satisfaction as the heat began to bake the skin of my back. “Imperator Argent, aka Nicolai Kaban, works for a Russian organized crime outfit, right?”
...
2024-03-22 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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The Primordial Forest was downright magical at night. I surfaced into a cloud of fireflies that ghosted over the surface of the pale, glowing water. The full moon cast a soft golden glow through the lacework of branches overhead. Slowly, quietly, I moved through the cut-up patchwork of light and dark, heading toward the north-east. A map overlay hung in the corner of my HUD, but I didn't need to rely on it. Instinct and scent guided me toward the Fossil Springs.
The terrain began to cli...
2024-03-21 18:00:01 +0000 UTC
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CRRRRRACK! "Timberrrrr!”
The towering mahogany tree keeled away from us, smashing into the ferns and moss in its path. It was a good haul: Angel would be able to mill about a hundred and fifty pieces of [Shaped Lumber] from the trunk, which, if we were lucky, would be all she needed to finish our base.
“Hell yeah,” I said. “That a whole lotta wood.”
"Ooo-huu!" Lulu knew the drill. After harvesting five similar trees, we had the process do...
2024-03-20 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Despite their words, I knew Lulu and Angel were tempted to stay in Eden. It made sense. They'd been stuck in the Jungle a long time. They were both starved for sane human company. Me, though, I was pretty sure I’d never been sane to begin with. This place didn’t feel like a refuge to me. It felt like a trap waiting to close.
A weight lifted from my shoulders once we passed through the heavily guarded gates of Eden, out into the dripping, croaking jungle. Knee-high mist hung over the...
2024-03-19 18:00:02 +0000 UTC
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It stormed during the night, and the thundering of rain against the roof was like morphine. The three of us slept like the dead, and when we roused, it was to clear peach-colored skies and a field of thick ground mist blanketing Eden.
We got ourselves breakfast - beans and rice and fried eggs for Angel, meat for me and Lulu, coffee for all of us - and after that, the group sat down in a circle and discussed what Angel was going to say to Merc. Or more accurately, me and Angel figured th...
2024-03-18 18:00:03 +0000 UTC
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