The three of them sat in the cave, waiting for the storm to pass. Wind howled by the entrance, and rain splattered over the stone. Deep in the cave, though, it remained warm and dry. The other wolf sat against the wall, head turned away from Loup and Ike. Every now and again, he sighed, but aside from that, he made no complaints. Loup shook herself off and settled down in the middle of the cave. She sprawled out across the dirt, snoozing.
Ike crouched against the wall. He watched the st...
2024-05-25 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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He dashed on, dragged over the land by his skills, shooting lightning in all directions. Overhead, clouds gathered, and rain began to fall. The more he ran, the darker the clouds grew. Flashes of light appeared in their depths, followed by dangerous rumbles. Ike cast a wary glance upward. At this rate, I’m going to get struck by lightning without ever activating Lightning Caller.
He glanced at the rooster’s corpse, then wrinkled his nose. I’ll have to come back. I can...
2024-05-24 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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“Let’s find these skills,” Ike muttered.
He started with the legs. At the thigh, a strange orb met his fingertips. He sliced it open and revealed another green skill orb. This one was clearer than any of the others, the star in its center almost as small as the one Ike had refined. He drew out his green orb and pressed the two together, almost too eager. The two skill orbs slid into one. A bright green light shone. Ike winced, looking aside. He lifted a hand to block the light.
2024-05-23 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Loup leaped into the air and dropped down on the rooster’s head. She opened her mouth. Bright white light shone in her throat. She lowered her head, and thunder boomed as white light slammed into the rooster.
The rooster stumbled. Ike sliced at its throat again, but his sword stuck once more. This time, he expected it. The blow hurt less, and he yanked the sword out easily. The rooster screeched in pain, twisting its neck, and exposed his earlier, deeper cut. Muscle glistened in the s...
2024-05-22 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Loup slunk through the forest, searching after a scent trail. Ike followed after her. By now, picking his steps through the forest came as an instinct. He couldn’t move as quietly as Loup, but he got close. They crept toward a hen from downwind. It pecked at the weeds, unaware of their presence.
Loup glanced at Ike. She jogged ahead, putting some distance between the two of them. Ike paused where he stood, slightly behind the hen. He waited, counting slowly to ten. The hen shifted sli...
2024-05-21 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The next few days blended together, each one the same as the last. In the mornings, at the crack of dawn, he and Loup rose from their slumber and took to the forest. They hunted chicken until night came, then dragged their kills home for Ike to dismantle. He couldn’t stop himself from breaking them down, even though he knew there was little chance he’d ever sell any part of them.
At least he’d obtained better storage techniques, and found uses for some of the materials. Using a bo...
2024-05-20 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Loup launched out of the forest. Ike charged at the same time, closing in on it from the front. The chicken whirled to face Loup. It leaped into the air and kicked at her face. Loup jumped back, dodging.
Ike ran at the chicken from behind, his spear high.
Again, the chicken spun. It kicked at him, forcing him to back away. He paced back evenly, keeping the spear between him and the chicken. The chicken glared at him. Hatred shone in its dark eyes, and it tensed, preparing to charg...
2024-05-19 14:14:55 +0000 UTC
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Between Ike and Loup, the two of them managed to finish the whole roast chicken in one night. Ike laid on his back under the stars, a hand on his stomach, gazing up at the sky. He let out a satisfied sigh. Beside him, Loup laid stretched out on her belly. She sighed as well, just as satisfied as Ike.
Ike glanced at her, then grinned. Yet again, the urge to scratch her behind the ears welled up, but he suppressed it. Not yet.
It was a gorgeous night. A cool breeze blew, ju...
2024-05-18 13:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Ike stared at the skill orb for a moment, struck dumb. Realizing he was just sitting there like an idiot, he wiped his mouth, stood, and walked over to pick it up, carrying the giant chicken leg with him. He turned the orb around in his hand, taking a good look at it. It glowed with a faint green light. The entire orb was translucent, but not perfectly so. In its depths, the translucence grew thicker, until the center became opaque. The thickening of the translucence wasn’t perfectly center...
2024-05-17 13:00:12 +0000 UTC
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The chicken turned slowly on a spit, roasting over a bonfire of deadwood Ike had found easily in the untouched forest. He’d crafted the spit out of the fresh green tree the chicken had downed. It had taken all his Rank 1 strength to cut the green wood apart and shape it properly, but in the end, the results were worth it. A golden-brown chicken turning on a spit, roasting in its own juices.
He turned the spit manually, but it wasn’t much effort for a Rank 1. The chicken was seasoned...
2024-05-16 13:14:41 +0000 UTC
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Hey, everyone!
Apocalypse Me book 2 is out now! Go check it out, read, review, whatever!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTPC9F2G
2024-05-16 01:54:19 +0000 UTC
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As the chicken settled down to sleep, Ike’s eyes widened. He lifted onto his toes and lunged.
Branches snapped under his feet. Leaves crackled. Vines tore. The chicken startled from its doze and jumped up, whirling to face Ike.
I could have waited until it was fully asleep, but this is a scouting run, after all. I won’t learn much if I face a helpless opponent. One that’s tired, on the other hand…I’ll take that advantage. Ike closed in on the chicken, raising hi...
2024-05-15 12:39:55 +0000 UTC
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That morning, Ike set off, following the tracks yet again. Loup woke up as he was packing up, gave a great yawn, and vanished off into the forest with no explanation. Ike watched her go, then shrugged and walked on. She would come back.
The tracks he followed were a few days old, but well-worn. The creature likely used the water hole multiple times, passing back and forth along this path. Wherever it led, was probably a common place for the creature to stay.
Or anyways, that...
2024-05-14 14:00:13 +0000 UTC
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Water splashed. Ike landed on the final step and looked back up. The waterfall towered over him, seemingly unreachably high. He saluted to it, saying farewell to his campsite. “Hopefully, I won’t be back.”
Dense, thick forest awaited him. Ike walked the edge of it, searching for tracks and markings from monsters or other animals. There were plenty. Deer hoofprints dug into the mud, alongside something with three thick, fat toes. Small paw prints, too, marked the water’s edge. Fr...
2024-05-13 12:31:53 +0000 UTC
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Days passed. Ike camped out by the edge of the waterfall, slowly recovering his mana using Rosamund’s head. The wolf came around every now and again. It kept its distance, wary of him. A few times, Ike threw it scraps of non-wolf jerky. It ignored them whenever he was around, but when he went back to check a few minutes later, the jerky was always gone. Slowly, it drew closer to him, growing less and less afraid of him.
As he waited for it to grow accustomed to him, Ike also waited fo...
2024-05-12 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The wolf squirmed in his grasp, trying to wriggle free. The thick, loose fur around its neck gave it some wiggling room, and its eyes widened. It twisted harder than before. Ike’s grasp slipped.
The wolf scrambled, but before it broke away, Ike grabbed it again. He wrestled it back under him and tightened his hold. “Hey! None of that. You break free, that’s it. You die. Become my dog instead! I’ll feed you well.”
Falling still, the wolf looked at him from the corner of i...
2024-05-11 15:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The wolf leaped toward the tent’s flaps. Ike tensed, watching it drop toward the space outside the tent. Toward his final trap.
It slammed its feet down, inches before his trap. Its paws slid through the undergrowth. Its forepaws struck the edge of the pit Ike had dug, knocking the sticks and leaves he’d set over the pit into the depths. Its back feet skidded toward the edge, front paws already falling in. Desperately, it braced its front paws against the wall and backstepped with i...
2024-05-10 15:02:34 +0000 UTC
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Ike sat at the edge of the waterfall, reading Orin’s guide for a bit. At last, he stood, brushing off his pants. Bustling around the edge of the waterfall, he set up his camp for the night. He put the side of the tent to the Abyss wall and the back to the dropoff, cutting off two ways the wolf might approach him. Looking at the tent, he nodded, then set off into the forest. Using the ruined sword, he hacked down little trees, then used his razor to whittle their ends to points. Those he pla...
2024-05-09 14:00:11 +0000 UTC
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In the end, he left the body behind, inverted and stuck between the rocks. There was no convenient way to free it from the rocks without risking serious injury, and once he did, the likelihood of luring it into another situation where he could invert it—or even getting it to follow him—was almost zero. When he had an entire Abyss to cross, assuming there was a way out, and extremely limited resources, wasting any more time or effort here was a death sentence.
“Unhand me! Filth! Pu...
2024-05-08 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Ike thought for a minute, looking at the doll body. There were three large gaps. One at the neck, where its head wasn’t. One at the stomach. One on the side of the body. Of the three gaps, he could fit his hand in her neck or stomach, whereas the gap on the side of her body was long and narrow. The stomach was closer to the fluid than the neck, but he’d have to stick his hand into the gap. The arms could easily reach him the whole time. Plus, the gap wasn’t much larger than his hand.
2024-05-07 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“Come and get them!” Ike threw his entrails into the air.
Rosamund gasped. She ran in, lifting her hands as if to catch the rain.
The second she turned away from him, Ike charged. He lifted his sword high, sending his last pulse of mana into the churning storm clouds. The clouds crackled, and then bright light flashed forth.
BOOM!
In the same moment, light and sound struck, landing squarely on Ike’s blade. The force of the blow propelled the sword forwar...
2024-05-06 14:00:09 +0000 UTC
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“Rosamund.”
He didn’t know how. He didn’t know what. He only knew that his life was in danger, and the form which that danger took. The monster. The shattered doll Rosamund had become, not the happy girl chatting with her father as he flew her away.
In the split seconds before she attacked, Ike froze. He scanned his entire camp, his eyes moving as fast as thought. His sword, lying beside the wolf meat. The pan in his hand, still dripping with the remnants of acid. The shap...
2024-05-05 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Scrrr. Like nails on a blackboard, porcelain dragged over stone.
Ike glanced back. A puddle of dark fluid remained, but no body. Ice jolted through his veins. He hobbled faster. His legs healed as he walked, but his mana drained at a proportional rate. From half to a quarter, and even then, it still vanished, drawn into his wounds. Ike breathed as deeply as he could, trying to draw in more mana, but there was none not be found. Just that strange cold energy that leaked out of h...
2024-05-04 14:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Holding onto Rosamund’s collar, Ike plummeted into the Abyss. Rosamund slapped his hand away. Ike released her, and she kicked away from him and threw her hand out. A rose appeared, but as soon as it appeared, it wilted. Again. Again. She stared at her hand, startled. “Why can’t I—?”
“Young mistress!” The short-haired handmaid jumped into the Abyss, pulling out her flying broom as she plunged.
The long-haired one lunged and caught her, yanking her back from the edge....
2024-05-03 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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The wolves leaped at Ike. Ike raised his sword. The higher wolf crashed into it nose-first and fell back, crying in pain. The lower wolf smashed into his ankles, throwing its weight against his body. He stumbled, his stance broken. Another wolf closed in, darting at his feet. Ike threw himself backward. The wolf lunged. Its blow missed him, but the two of them tangled together, stuck around Ike’s ankles. He kicked it away and jumped back again.
The wolves circled, trying to get behind...
2024-05-02 14:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Ike walked through the woods, following Orin’s directions to the Fulgur-Loups as best he could. He’d tried wearing the second toad armor backward, but the combined stiffness made it too stiff to move, so he’d put it back in his pack for now. I’ll improve the armor later. When I have the time to measure and cut it properly. Better to wait and make it properly later, than rush and make it poorly now.
I’d stop and improve it now, but…He cast a look at Rosamund...
2024-05-01 14:00:08 +0000 UTC
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The toads dangled from a tree, strung up by the back paws. Blood drained out their necks, dripping onto the ground. Ike worked to skin the toad, slicing it open with his razor.
Behind him, Rosamund wrinkled her nose. “Disgusting.”
Ike looked up at her over his shoulder. “You don’t have to watch.”
“It’s good to remind myself of the base duties of the common folk,” Rosamund replied haughtily.
Ike turned back to the toad. When am I going to learn to ig...
2024-04-30 14:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Looming large over the forest, so large it blocked out the sun, the enormous toad lifted a claw to crush Ike.
Ike turned and ran. He sprinted toward the lake, away from the toad. The huge claw slammed down. Mud flew up, splattering over the toad corpses. The toad tilted its head down, unblinking mud-colored eyes searching for Ike. With a ribbit, it flew into the air.
Sprinting faster, Ike tore off into the forest, abandoning the pond and the toads alike. The toad landed with an ea...
2024-04-29 14:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The toads leaped at Ike from all sides. Across the pond, the toads jumped at Rosamund and her handmaids. Rosamund shrieked in horror. “Get it off! Get it away from me!”
Ike put them to the back of his mind, focusing on his own battle. She said she could handle it. I’ll have to believe her. I don’t have another choice—I’m going to have my hands full with just this.
He lifted his sword as the first toad lashed out at him. A thick pink tongue shot from its mouth,...
2024-04-27 14:32:56 +0000 UTC
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They walked through the forest. Sunlight dappled the path before them, and a gentle wind blew. Ike consulted Orin’s book again and frowned. The man had a knack for giving the worst directions, and it was no less true of the route to the Giant Toad than it was of the route to Silver. Return to the boot-suckin’ swamp. Easy. He knew where that was: on the way to Silver. Hook a left. How many degrees? Left, relative to what? You’ll see a downed tree that goes uppy-down...
2024-04-25 14:00:05 +0000 UTC
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