M.S. Davidson

28. Compassion

The world exploded into kaleidoscope madness barely thirty seconds after the pill hit my stomach.

My mana pathways blazed turquoise—then died completely. The Bravery rune vanished like someone had ripped it from my soul. Even thinking about magic sent molten agony through my veins.

"Doesn't your family make these?" I gasped, accepting Erik's hand up. The tavern spun like a carnival ride. "This one feels like liquid fire."

"That's the ginseng." Erik's voice sounded distant,...

27. Superior Mana

The courtyard stretched before me, achingly familiar yet impossible to place—like trying to remember a song you'd only heard in passing. My mom, Jasmine, stood across from me with that broad grin I knew by heart, wearing her usual faded t-shirt and the short denim overalls she lived in during summer. She gripped a black staff in both hands, and somehow I held one too, the wood warm and smooth against my palms.

It should have been a perfect recreation of practicing Taiji Gun, straight ...

26. Training

Several days passed as I settled into a routine that left every muscle in my body screaming. Each morning, Cass and I would meet at dawn—the air still sharp with night's chill—and run for hours through the winding city streets. On the first day, she took pity on me, guiding me through familiar routes while I wheezed behind her. But once I knew the paths, she unleashed her full free-running arsenal, and I scrambled to keep up.

The more mana I stored internally, the easier it became t...

25. Barbarians [BONUS]

I nearly did shit my pants.

Two cruise-ship-sized vessels sat moored just off the coast like floating fortresses.

The vast ocean sparkled under clear skies, gentle waves rolling against the breakwalls in endless rhythm. As I stared toward the horizon, vertigo threatened to knock me sideways again. The curvature of this world felt wrong somehow—I could see too far, my mind not really equipped for a horizon so far away. It reminded me of the time my brother and I climbed onto our ...

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24. Cyrus

"What do you mean, they're all booked out?" Cassie demanded, her voice carrying an edge. "It's the day after a fucking monster attack!"

"I'm sorry, Lady Cassandra." The small Albinus Vildar behind the counter had gentle eyes that didn't quite match the apologetic wince crossing his features. This had to be Cyrus—his long brown duster was practically a mobile toolkit, bristling with writing implements, magnifying glasses, and what looked like at least three different measuring devices....

23. Karma

My eyes shot open, and I sucked in a sharp breath that felt like I'd been dunked in ice water. Ferris jerked backward, his alien features shifting into an expression that looked like surprise. Cassie looked up from a thick book with a bemused smile that suggested she'd been expecting something like this.

"Whoa," I muttered, blinking hard and looking around the room.

Everything looked like I was seeing it through a double exposure—my regular vision overlaid with something that ma...

22. Complex Universal Energy

A few years ago, my brother Danny took my parents and me to Cancun for Christmas. I remembered standing in the shadow of Chichen Itza, the last wisps of morning mist lifting around us, with nothing but ancient stone and silence pressing in from every direction. Danny was already making his mark in the world and had pulled some strings with a friend in the Mexican government, getting us access at dawn—hours before the first wave of tourists would descend with their cameras and chatter. It wa...

21. Gary

I collapsed into a heap the moment we entered the cool air of the tower—or rather; the Citadel perched on top of it, as Felix had explained while I'd arduously hauled myself up those endless stairs. Meanwhile, Cassie and Felix had casually munched watermelon they'd snagged from the courtyard like this was a pleasant afternoon stroll.

The buckets I'd been lugging—filled with heavy crab parts and, after some solid goading from Cassie, chunks of rubble she'd thrown in for good measureâ...

20. A Lot to Learn [Bonus]

The streets around Doreen's had transformed into organized chaos. Hunters and civilians worked side by side in a rhythm, loading carts with dead Carapax that formed glistening, chitin-covered trails stretching all the way to the harbor. The constant clatter of metal tools rang out against crab shells, voices blended into a low, purposeful hum, and the sharp crack of breaking carapaces echoed whenever someone's boot found the right angle.

People grabbed whatever they could find—shovels...

19. Terran

The instant I stepped into the common room, the noise hit me like a physical wall. Everyone was pounding tables, walls, chairs—whatever surface they could find—in a thunderous rhythm that seemed to shake the entire building down to its foundations. The air itself vibrated with the percussive celebration, a chaotic symphony of fists on wood that I could feel in my chest.

I froze in the doorway, stunned by the sheer volume and intensity. Every face in the room had turned toward me, be...

18. Breaker

"…only here for less than a day," a familiar male voice drifted from somewhere to my left.

A soft, persistent buzzing tugged at the edges of consciousness, but a heavy numbness—almost pleasant in its completeness—kept my eyelids sealed shut. My body felt like it was floating in a hot tub.

"Thirty-three hours," came a crisp female voice directly to my right. Definitely Diana.

"Fine, he's on Ark for thirty-three hours, Di, and you've been at this the whole time." The mal...

17. This World Sucks

The sharp voice cut through my spiral like a blade. The tone carried irritation, but underneath it was genuine concern. I looked up to see the tall, Viking-looking guy—Cassie's brother Erik—standing at the far end of the hallway. He was wearing red satin pajamas complete with a monogrammed "EW" stitched over the breast pocket, and honest-to-god matching slippers.

Under different circumstances, it would have been hilarious.

I scrambled to my feet, forcing myself to think clearl...

16. Bathroom Break

I groaned, sitting up in complete darkness, blinking hard to shake off the fog clouding my mind. My eyelids felt like they'd been glued shut, and my head throbbed with that familiar dull ache that came from sleeping too hard too fast. The kind of headache that made you wonder if you'd been hit by a truck.

Where was I? Oh right—that nightmare of a room in Doreen's place.

Shit. I need to pee.

Finally, a proper groggy awakening—one that didn't involve adrenaline—and my bl...

15. Public House

The door to Doreen's swung open inward, revealing a chaotic but undeniably homey tavern that looked like someone had raided a dozen thrift shops and called it interior design. Mismatched chairs and couches clustered around a stone fireplace like old friends sharing secrets. Various paintings—landscapes, portraits, a few that might have been abstract art or spilled paint—crowded the walls in overlapping layers. The other side featured communal tables with chairs that clearly came from diff...

14. La-Roc

As we descended, I suddenly whipped around to look back at the building we'd emerged from, expecting to see that impossible tower stretching into the sky.

Instead, I found myself staring at an imposing but entirely normal building—a centralized dome made from dark stone that looked maybe four or five stories tall. There was no tower. And it definitely wasn't large enough to house that vast jungle we'd walked through for hours.

Plus, I'd been climbing stairs almost all day, going...