It should have bothered him more.
As Miguel looked at the shimmering wall of ethera, he reached out and touched it. The surface was permeable, but not so diffuse that it wouldn’t take significant effort to bypass. However, what should have alarmed him was that on the other side of that translucent barrier, time looked like it...
2024-09-29 15:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostSadie erupted into motion, letting out snarl as she slammed her fist into the frost-covered boulder. It cracked beneath the blow, but due to being bathed in dense ethera for months, the rock was durable enough to withstand the unwarranted attack.
“I don’t think that’s helpful,” Elijah said from his position across the c...
2024-09-28 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Attacks have increased in frequency,” said Rasana, the gnomish scout. She was one of Kurik’s team of hunters, though instead of her class coming from a Ranger archetype, she’d begun her journey as an Explorer. And while her class had given her a few combat abilities, her origin could not be ignored. Once an Explorer, a...
2024-09-28 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Uh…should we loot?” asked Ron.
“No,” Elijah said, still staring at Sadie. The woman had just displayed a terrifying amount of power, effectively forcing a powerful enemy to surrender without a fight. That, among other things, needed to be addressed. “We need some answers first. I’m not going another s...
2024-09-27 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostMiguel greeted his impending death with a snarl.
The sword fell, glinting in the faint light of a setting sun, and his stomach twisted into a thousand knots as he considered all the things he’d intended to do with his life. Now, none of that would be possible. Like his mother, he would go too soon. He only hoped t...
2024-09-27 15:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“You seem to have done pretty well for yourself,” Zeke said, leaning against the railing and trying to ignore the thousands of feet worth of open air separated him from the ground. The last time he’d been on an airship, it had crashed well before they reached their destination. Since then he’d avoided that particular mode of ...
2024-09-27 13:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post
It was only a whisper.
But in Miguel’s ears, it was as loud as any shout. He shot to his feet, a layer of dirt and dried blood cracking with his every motion as he erupted from his hiding place in the hollow beneath a huge, exposed root. His sword lashed out in a backhanded swing that met flesh after only an inst...
2024-09-26 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post“So, what do we do?” asked Dat.
“Um…we need to kill her,” Elijah said. “I think. The quest just says to illuminate the shadows, so I’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean.”
Sadie barely heard the discussion. Standing so close to her companions was a special kind of torture. Even Ron and Dat, ...
2024-09-26 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostZeke dropped to his knees, then planted his hands in the blessedly dry sand. He took a deep breath, then flopped onto his back and stared at the sun, which hung high in the sky.
“Sometimes, you forget just how amazing the sun is,” he said aloud.
“Don’t get maudlin on me,” sighed Eveline. “Nobody wants th...
2024-09-26 13:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostDarkness pressed in on Elijah, so powerful that it verged on suffocating. His pulse quickened, his skin grew clammy, and his breathing became shallow. It felt like he was on the precipice of a panic attack, though he’d never been prone to that particular problem in the past.
“We ain’t meant to be here,” Kurik said...
2024-09-25 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Wake up, bro.”
“I’m not asleep. I’m just resting my eyes,” Elijah muttered. He would have already passed out, but for the rumbling emanating in the distance. It wasn’t nearly as powerful a quake as what they’d felt in the immediate aftermath of their previous actions, but it was more than enough to distract him...
2024-09-25 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIt almost felt routine.
Until it didn’t.
They were already on the fifth temple, and Elijah had just watched his companions dismantle the latest shadespinner. He’d contributed, of course, but only in his human form, which he thought needed some work. He relied so much on his bestial forms that he often neglected his na...
2024-09-24 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post“This is unnerving,” Ron said, his eyes flicking back and forth at every hint of movement. Elijah wasn’t certain if the Healer could actually see the shadow slayers surrounding them, or if he felt them via some latent intuition. Perhaps it was like feeling someone’s eyes on you. Whatever the case, he agreed with Ron’s...
2024-09-24 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“I really don’t want to do this,” Zeke said, pacing back and forth only a couple of feet away from the permeable wall that protected the habitat from the crushing abyss on the other side.
“It’ll be fine,” Eveline said. “You’ve survived worse.”
“I’m not worried about it killing me.”
“Then wh...
2024-09-24 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostSorry this is a bit late. I accidently scheduled this for tomorrow instead of today (I hate Patreon's interface). Anyway, here's today's second chapter.
It was difficult to gauge when the sun had truly risen. Even though the pitch black of night had faded, the effect was not nearly as plain as Elijah would have normally anti...
2024-09-23 17:07:25 +0000 UTC View Post“I really don’t like this,” Elijah said, focusing on the sense granted by One with Nature. So close to the forest, he could feel its atmosphere so intensely that it verged on overwhelming. His previous supposition that the forest was in pain was only partially accurate. Nature didn’t cry out, but strangled by shadow, it...
2024-09-23 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostZeke plunged through the semi-permeable barrier and tumbled onto dry land. His titanic body was a shredded mess, resulting in a small pool of silver blood beneath him. He vomited a mixture of blood, water, and bile – along with some sort of black sludge – onto the ground.
“I hate this place,” he grunted not bother...
2024-09-23 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I remember going to an amusement park a few years before the world changed,” Ron remarked as they trekked through the jungle. “My daughter always loved roller coasters, and with everything going on, I decided to treat her. Anyway, when we got there, I saw this woman who’d attached leashes to her children. The kids kept...
2024-09-22 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe first of the stone statues – or golems, Elijah realized – was on him in less than a second. The thing moved so quickly that Elijah couldn’t even react before it slammed a fist into his chest. He flew backward, hitting another group of golems with so much force that the impact toppled the multi-ton things over. Elijah...
2024-09-22 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostElijah’s shoulders slumped in exhaustion – both mental and physical – as he took a long, deep breath. The salty air tasted almost sweet after spending so much time beneath the ocean, fighting against wave after wave of alaken. He waded forward until he reached the beach, then dropped to his knees before rolling over and collaps...
2024-09-21 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Elijah landed just outside of camp, where he found the others gathered around the fire. The only one who was missing was Sadie, but he sensed her sitting just a dozen or so yards away. Far enough that she probably wasn’t burdened by the conversation between the rest of the group, but not so distant that she couldn’t ...
2024-09-21 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostGabriel was beautiful.
His skin shimmered golden over perfectly sculpted features that would have been entirely at home on a statue of a Greek god, while his hair – which seemed like it was composed of strands of pure, white light – danced in a nonexistent wind. But his eyes, bearing incomprehensible symbols instead of irises, dr...
2024-09-20 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostSadie rammed a shoulder into a particularly large wraith, sending it stumbling backward across the ground before it hit a clump of its fellows. In the same motion, she spun, bringing her blade in a sweeping, horizontal strike that sheered through four other wraiths. That left her open to attack from another set of monsters, but even ...
2024-09-20 15:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“I don’t like them,” said Athis with a grimace. “They’re…so…accommodating.”
“You could learn a thing or two from your reptilian cousins,” Tucker remarked. “They’re –”
“They are lizards. We are dragons,” Athis reminded him, though he lacked the fire he might’ve once had when talking ...
2024-09-20 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThe first time Elijah used Lightning Rush was one of the most exhilarating things he’d ever experienced. One second, he was soaring above the jungle, and the next, he was a bolt of lightning ripping across the sky. Time seemed to slow, and even though it only lasted a couple of seconds, it felt like an hour or more. And in th...
2024-09-19 15:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs Sadie saw Elijah standing there, wearing an innocent expression on his face, she just shook her head. Even after he’d explained his theory of how the challenges work, the notion that he’d stepped into the ocean and, after less than a day, emerged having defeated one of the Trial’s challenges, marked him as an absolute monster.&nbs...
2024-09-19 15:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“You got big,” said Tucker, grinning as he clapped Pudge on the shoulder. The former dire bear was at least nine feet tall and built like a champion power lifter. The only thing that remained the same – from what Tucker remembered – was the bearkin’s head, which had retained much the same shape. He used his inspection...
2024-09-19 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostElijah didn’t bother with stealth.
It wouldn’t have done much good, given that he needed hands – or more importantly, opposable thumbs – to open the door. Besides, it wasn’t as if the royals on the other side could have missed the commotion of his previous battle. So, if the door suddenly opened and nothing stepped th...
2024-09-18 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View PostElijah was bored.
And considering he was in the middle of a challenge in the Trial of Primacy, surrounded by potential enemies that wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter him, given half a chance, he should not have been. Yet, he’d grown accustomed to a certain level of danger, and when that simply wasn’t present, he found his mind str...
2024-09-18 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostElijah floated only a few dozen feet below the surface, but his attention remained fixed on the scene below. As Lamar had described, there was a city down there, but it looked nothing like what he might have expected on the surface. Constructed of coral and decorated with various sea plants, it was unlike anything he’d ever seen.&n...
2024-09-17 15:10:01 +0000 UTC View Post