noct

6. To Adjourn

The next day, it wasn’t Rhys and Bast who manned the stall. Instead, the smallest, most delicate of the orphans sat behind the cloth, peddling their bags to all passerby for one silver a bag. Two of the oldest orphans stood nearby, just close enough to ward off anyone who might think about snatching a bag, or worse, the orphans’ takings. Rhys and Bast circled in the crowd, watching the orphans to make sure they didn’t undersell the wares or pocket the take, but also, to advertise their ...

5. Scalping

The two of them arrived at the arena as the first spectators arrived. Rhys threw down the red-and-white robe he’d found earlier, tucking the sleeves underneath so it appeared as nothing more than a backdrop. He and Bast quickly set up their wares atop the sheet, setting their bags to the front. Rhys reached for the potions, then hesitated. He and Bast were stronger and faster than a mortal child, but there wasn’t much else that could be said about them. Bast could probably fight an adult ...

4. Cashing In

As the first day of the tournament wound to an end, Rhys and Bast retreated, quickly making themselves scarce before any of the tournament’s organizers could corner them and ask a few pesky questions. Their gatherings were immense. In the heat of battle, no one had the time to pause and tip every last drop out of a potion bottle, and so every bottle had at least drops of potions clinging to its sides. Some bottles even had significant dregs in their bottoms, where surface tension had let a ...

3. Tournament Time

Tam and Den crawled back to the orphanage by nightfall, covered in filth and bites, and none the happier for their stint in the depths of the pit. They glared death at Rhys, and Rhys ignored them. Tam tried reporting what had happened to the matron, but she gave him as much time as she’d given Rhys, and simply clapped him on the ear for not listening to her when he wouldn’t stop whining. Injured and filthy, Tam tried to get back at Rhys in the usual petty ways. Rhys came back to a filthy ...

2. Good Time Had By All

Rhys propped the chair up on the garbage at the edge of the pit and clambered up it. It was a short walk from the pit to the town, and dark when he got there. The town had a wall, and the gates were halfway closed, but a woman was arguing with the gate guards.

She gestured at the darkness. “—still out there! He’s just a child. We can’t—”

“Ma’am, we have to close the gates. We can’t leave ‘em open because one of your orphans vanished. He probably just ran off to...

1. God of Trash

A/N: Guys, I'm... I'm so sorry. I can't live without writing two books! I tried to hide this sickness, tried to pretend it wasn't real, but--but I can't hide it any more. That's right. This foolish author isn't happy unless they write at least two books at once!

A/N: Please enjoy. I'm putting these first 20k words on both tiers so everyone can take a look and give me pointers. Heading to Royal Road goodness knows when.

Hunched over his deck, in the dark of his room, a pale man w...

274. Vi's Castle

As he’d suspected, Vi’s castle hadn’t truly fallen at all. There was no sign of damage to the walls. Instead, it appeared that Vi had simply retreated her castle back into the earth, somehow—undone whatever magic it was that had pushed it out of the earth in the first place, to return it to its safe haven underground. Her castle hadn’t fallen, it had literally dropped back into the earth. From Mag’s perspective, he could see it being the same… or maybe it was just that the bird ...

273. Go Off

Ike raced through the forest. What Scar had said kept replaying through his head. Why were they executed when the trial ended? Did the trial devour them to re-seal the monster? Or… was it simply a side effect of something more fundamental? Something like folding the realm away to seal the monster once more, but in collapsing the realm, they’d naturally die, crushed like ants in a folding tablecloth?

He wrinkled his nose. Scar was right. It wasn’t important, and he shouldn’t wast...

272. Plan D

Ike reached the castle before anyone else. He sat down in the deepest point of the rubble to meditate for the few precious moments he could. He’d used almost all his aether in that attack. He needed to recharge, even just to run around the field. There was no way he’d absorb enough mana to launch another attack at this shallow point, without access to the deep, rich energy of the mana well, not to mention he only had a few minutes, not the hours he needed, but he would at least absorb eno...

271. Punching Feet

Ike rushed toward the figure’s feet. Storm Clad lashed him with hot water, superheated from the heat the figure gave off. Lightning crackled all around him. Green energy built up around his arm as he activated Shockwave Punch. At the same time, he used the newly optimized Hammer Sword and surged his mana toward his hands, activating both his new steel palms technique and the old Lightning Grasp, or at least, the piece of Storm Clad that corresponded to Lightning Grasp. The steel palm and Li...

270. The Monster Arrives

At long last, the figure lifted a foot. Trees flew from the passing wind of its step. A shadow fell over the forest. Its foot slammed back down, and the earth jumped. Tremors reached where Ike stood, far away at the edge of the trapped zone. Looking at the figure now, with the trapped zone behind him, he felt nothing but embarrassment. They’d worked so hard on trapping an area that could barely fit one of the figure’s feet. All the traps would amount to nothing before its bulk, not even a...

269. Hand to Hand Combat

While the others fled, Ike leaped up to meet the hand. He was no larger than a wasp compared to the immensity of the hand, but he jumped up anyways. The trees shattered under the hand, brushed aside like blades of grass. Ike bounced off the falling trunks, leaping higher and higher. Every grain of the hand stood out, every whirl and swirl of the palm. The being’s body glowed through the black ash.

Putting all his aether into the strike, Ike unleashed the most powerful blow he’d ever...

268. Equilibrium

A new phase of the battle began. They still fought, but less often than before. Now, their times in battle were interspersed with long breaks, as Ike and Wisp brought centipedes out from the earth to join the fight. Ike led the expeditions; as the fastest, he was best suited to kiting the centipedes. Wisp also made a lot of sense, with her full freedom of motion and the traps she could set to close off tunnels, so she came along too. Mag remained on the surface. His wings did little in the de...

267. Centipede Charge

Ike at their head, the centipedes rushed through the castle and out onto the battlements. Wisp was gone. The Old Guard had hidden. There was only one tasty morsel ahead of them, and his name was Ike. Unhesitating, Ike leaped off the wall and down toward the battle.

The centipedes poured after him. Like a wave crashing against the shore, they slammed down on the ground outside of the castle. Scar and Rufus fled, leading their men away. One or two of the centipedes peeled off to chase, bu...

266. A Buggy Plan

The centipedes gave chase, and Ike ran. He sprinted through the halls, tracing back the path he’d taken to the center of the nest. The centipedes followed hungrily, their mandibles gnashing, hissing louder than a boiling kettle. They darted at Ike. Every stumble, every slip, they darted in, searching for that momentary trip that would let them tear into the delectable morsel that was Ike. Ike watched ahead of him, darting from stone to stone, as surefooted as a mountain goat. Of all the ign...

265. Crashing Waves

One after another, the monsters charged Ike’s castle. Like waves washing over the beach, they slammed into Ike and his defenses. He and the other defenders fought in waves to meet the monsters. Time and time again, the monsters rallied and rushed the walls. Time and time again, Ike and his men fought them back. Days ground by. Weeks. Months. Ike’s hair grew long. If not for his self-cleaning skill, he would have grown filthy as well. There was no time for anything but battle. As the fight...

264. Final Castle

Ike charged up to the battlements. A shadow loomed over the castle. Without calling Mag, he could already decode what had happened. All three streams of monsters, Scar’s, Rufus’, and Ike’s own, had reached his castle. He twisted his lips. I was expecting this, but not this early. And was it too much to hope that Vi might absorb one of the streams? Or do the monsters know where their targets go?

Mag fluttered down beside him. “The final castle has fallen. There’s no on...

263. Mana Flows

The mana flow ended at a spiderwebbed dark hole that vanished deeper into the earth—one of the centipede holes from the previous round of the trial. The mana grew even thicker beyond the hole, but Ike sat outside the hole. He had no interest in pressing his luck by stepping past the defensive spider webbing and exposing himself to the centipedes again. Just because he’d escaped that phase of the trial, didn’t mean the centipedes were gone. They were still down there, still waiting. If n...

262. Hoping and Coping

Back at the castle, Ike didn’t immediately go rest. He paced the battlements, watching the battle from close enough to jump in if he needed to. However, Scar and her men had the battle well in hand. With the tip about the fire from Wisp’s dismantled trap, the five of them managed to set a fresh fire trap to lure the monsters into. Once they had that going, the flow of the battle changed to their favor. It wasn’t like Rufus, where he barely held the ground. Scar and her men were able to ...

261. Beating Them Back

The monsters were pushing toward the walls when Ike returned. Despite the short time he was gone, Wisp’s fire trap was no more, and the fighters had fallen back, relying on the defenses Ike and the Old Guard had set before the wave kicked off. Wisp dashed from place to place, hitting the monsters, then fleeing, Rufus and his men struggled, but held the line with the support of the traps and the Old Guard manning the defenses from the wall.

Ike sprinted ahead, leaving Scar behind. “W...

260. Reinforcements, Part Two

Scar’s men jumped to the moment she gave the order. In a matter of seconds, they’d gathered everything they owned and regrouped on the battlements. Scar gave the order, and they followed Ike, all of them trooping after him. Behind them, the monsters smashed into the wall. The walls cracked, crumbling to the floor. Bare seconds later, the monsters crashed into the castle. Stone dust filled the air. The towers crumbled, smashing into one another as they slammed down.

“I really hope ...

259. Alliance!

Ike rushed toward the border between his and Scar’s castles. The trees rushed by, the monsters from his castle far behind him. Ahead, a fire raged. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky and rushed through the trees. Ike took short, quick breaths whenever the air cleared, avoiding as much of the choking smoke as he could.

The monsters loomed over the flames. Looping horns twisted into razor-sharp spines behind their heads. Their eyes glowed through the smoke and the night, and black ...

258. Metal Palms

Ike dashed toward the monsters. They stared at him, startled, but only for an instant. In the next, they rounded on him as one, swinging their axes. A wall of blades cut toward Ike, the axes all striking at the exact same time so there was no escape.

Not that Ike was going to escape.

He rushed directly toward them, swinging with all his strength. The Hungry Sword crackled with lightning. He smashed the axes without hesitation. There was a sharp snap, as if something had clacked it...

257. Sword Talking

Ike leaped forward, and this time, the sword didn’t fight him or struggle toward the axes. It obeyed his command, moving almost as neatly as his old sword had. Unlike his old sword, he felt a sense of togetherness with this sword, a real feeling of cooperation. This sword was a partner, not just a weapon.

Strangely, there was a sense of darkness to the sword. Something cold and unpleasant, that he wasn’t fond of. But then, it had been held by a rude old man until recently. Maybe it�...

256. Between a Foot and an Axe

The monster stomped down on him, while the other swung its axe. Caught in between, Ike stared between the two of them.

Uh oh.

He surged his aether to Lightning Dash and leaped backward. The monster’s foot slammed down inches in front of him, so close he felt the heat simmering off its heel. He instantly slashed at the back of its foot. The Hungry Sword tore through its charcoal flesh, half-severing the foot. The monster stumbled as its stance suddenly became uneven. The...

255. A Choice

Rufus slashed out. His blade cut into the old man’s neck. The old man startled. His eyes widened as his head flew away.

His body sagged to the ground with a thump. Rufus stood over him, breathing heavily. He stared at the old man.

“You don’t control me. No one controls me.”

Ike edged past him. “Excuse me, pardon me…” He stole the old man’s sword from his hand, then turned the body over to unbuckle the scabbard from his waist.

Panting, Rufus turned his b...

254. Duel in the Dark

The sun hadn’t yet risen. A full night had not passed, merely a few hours. Ike sprinted through the scorched woods toward the place Mag had pointed to. He didn’t try to be stealthy or subtle. No one from the castle could keep up with him, and he didn’t care if the old man knew he was coming; he’d fight him all the same, one way or the other.

He dodged through the woods, closing in on the location. A figure loomed out of the woods. The old man turned, then harrumphed when he saw ...

253. The Battle Continues

A roar broke Ike out of his meditation. He sat up, checking his aether levels. Over three-quarters full, almost completely full. Good enough. He hopped off the table and headed outside.

Mag swooped down the second he saw Ike. He landed in a bounce and walked alongside Ike, strutting a little on habit. “Didn’t see anything funny from Rufus and his bunch. But I saw that old guy, like you told me to look out for. He’s out there.” He pointed his wing at the forest. “On th...

252. Strategy Time

The round room was packed with everyone in it. Relin had started to shoo the Old Guard out, until Ike told her to let them stay. They were just as much a part of this plan as anyone else. He looked around the room. The only member missing was Rufus’ injured underling, who was resting deep in the castle’s basement.

At the start of the meeting, Relin stepped forward. “My men can fight directly in this round, if you like. Please don’t forget that.”

“I would still rather y...

251. Preconceptions

Rufus and his men stood in a line atop the battlements. Ike marched back and forth, looking them up and down. Wisp followed after him, miming his actions in some strange game of her own. He didn’t stop her, because the double-effect seemed to be intimidating Rufus’ foot soldiers. Even if Rufus wouldn’t obey him, if he could control the foot soldiers, he still controlled three-fifths of Rufus’ forces. That would be enough to give him an advantage.

Rufus had acknowledged his rule,...