AN: It has been suggested that I post this here. This is not me starting a new series while the other one is still going. That's bad mojo.
However, I doubt it will shock anyone to learn that when I'm burnt-out from writing... I write other things.
It's my way of unwinding and just... having some no-pressure fun.
2023-01-31 22:37:39 +0000 UTC
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The Magistrate of Ten Huo observed the breach from atop the wall. The hole was large, certainly. Large enough that ten elephants stood abreast could easily march through.
The enemy didn’t have any elephants.
What they did have were men and cultivators in excess. Which they threw against the defenders of Ten Huo with reckless abando...
2023-01-28 09:25:57 +0000 UTC View PostJack watched on a drone’s camera feed as the shot from the nearby newly built ‘bigger’ gonne arced high into the distance and toward the hill where the ritual was taking place.
He also watched as a distant figure switched direction, away from its intended intercept course with the drone and instead shot towards the incoming shell wit...
2023-01-21 17:47:00 +0000 UTC View Post“The new catapults are down, my Herald.”
The Herald looked up from her map as her old friend seemingly materialized before her. She’d sensed her coming of course. The Shadow Step technique was formidable form of stealth, but Ki techniques were as air before Zu. Though the same was often true in reverse – if she was caught unprepare...
2023-01-15 12:02:54 +0000 UTC View PostIt had been three days since the initial attack on the wall and in that time the Instinctive hordes had learned to fear the big gonnes.
“My people have corralled a group into sector eight.” Lady Tai instructed. “You may fire now.”
Gao nodded as he frantically ran his finger over the gridded map in front of him, searching for ...
2023-01-09 06:55:36 +0000 UTC View PostIt was like a termite’s nest. It was an incongruous thought, but it was nonetheless what came to Tatar’s mind when he had first sighted the great stone edifice known as ‘Ten Huo’.
That opinion had only grown over the last day, as he watched the Domestics swarm across the city’s great walls. They were like insects, pouring from a ...
2023-01-03 06:39:20 +0000 UTC View Post“I do dare.” The Gorilla-Woman chuckled, clearly unphased by his feigned outrage. “Mother warned that I might be forced to engage in civilities with all-prey, but this…” She gestured flippantly towards him with a single massive fist, her wolf growling under her. “It is beyond the pale.”
A low grumbling of agreement ran throug...
2022-12-20 12:37:31 +0000 UTC View Post“You heard the boss – time to run through our pre-match diagnostic. Let’s make sure that Legion is ready to fight. Seren,” he added, glancing at the Ulnus. “Could you please enter the cockpit so that I can test your suit’s connection?”
“That’s not exactly how this works,” Solli interjected, Darren looking t...
2022-12-18 06:16:20 +0000 UTC View PostAs intimidating as the arrival of the Instinctive horde was, Jack couldn’t help but feel the city’s response was almost anti-climactic. As he watched the lead elements of the great mass begin to arrive and set up camp beyond the walls of the city, just outside of catapult range, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by the lack o...
2022-12-15 11:05:49 +0000 UTC View PostIn the short time they had been around, the Kang crawlers had developed something of a reputation. Gao watched as crowds thronged the sides of the route his convoy was taking towards the outer walls.
He could admit that they likely made for an awe inspiring sight. The massive crawlers pounding down the street like the mighty elephants of t...
2022-12-09 10:28:36 +0000 UTC View PostIt was an ill-hidden secret that Cultivators generally disliked loud noises. The enhancements given to them by their cultivation of ki were manyfold, but occasionally those advantages came with unexpected side effects.
Most pertinently, a keen sense of hearing, and as such, their tendency to cultivate in secluded forest clearings or desola...
2022-12-04 12:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostAs Jack stared out through the windows of his ‘penthouse suite’, he couldn’t help but note the almost frenetic energy that pervaded the city’s inhabitants as they bustled through Ten Huo’s busy streets.
Word had gotten around that war was coming to the North. In fact, the news had become common knowledge in the city within days o...
2022-11-28 05:38:53 +0000 UTC View PostJack waited patiently while Gao and his sergeants poked at and clambered all over the six-legged vehicle he’d just finished fabricating. Something that had taken a not-inconsiderable amount of time, given the sheer number of parts the thing had needed. To get it done he’d had to repurpose a number of fabricators repeatedly to get the most he...
2022-11-22 12:54:34 +0000 UTC View PostJack could fully admit that he’d had his ass kicked a lot since he’d come to this world. First by Men and then by Yin.
It had been rather disappointing honestly, given he’d expected to be a one-man wrecking crew. Instead, he’d had his pride and his suit rather systematically demolished, each time winning only by expending irreplace...
2022-11-17 12:59:19 +0000 UTC View PostJack could tell the head foreman was unimpressed with him. Clearly something of his ‘phoniness’ as a craftsman was showing through as he explained the blueprints in front of them. Fortunately, the grizzled old snake-kin was too intimidated by the sect representative watching over them and Jack’s own status as a ‘cultivator’ to say anyt...
2022-11-12 13:03:15 +0000 UTC View PostRen hadn’t truly known what she’d been expecting to see when she entered the heretofore inaccessible western wing of the Compound.
Yet more scrolls on cultivation for her to learn? Some strange new spirit beast for her to command? Her master nude, drizzled in honey and ready to be ravished?
…Admittedly, the last one had always ...
2022-11-08 07:57:29 +0000 UTC View Post“That’s a lot of fancy shit.”
Jack couldn’t find it in himself to disagree with Lin as he stared out over the massed pile of spirit coins, enchanted metals, elixirs and various other priceless items that were now strewn across his workshop floor.
Looking at it, he couldn’t help but be reminded of a dragon’s horde. Which w...
2022-11-03 10:16:36 +0000 UTC View PostUnfortunately for him, as much as it apparently steamed Ren to admit it, he couldn’t decline the Brigadier’s invitation. The one pertaining to the party at least – his political advisor had repeatedly stressed that he was under no obligation to accede to her second offer.
Perhaps, if he had been part of the local power structures, he...
2022-10-30 08:53:12 +0000 UTC View PostBrigadier Shui was a striking woman. While she wasn’t ugly by any means – Jack had yet to meet an ugly cultivator – she was certainly more handsome than conventionally beautiful. A sentiment only reinforced by the woman’s massive biceps and imposing scars. To Jack’s eyes, she looked more akin to a blacksmith than a soldier in ...
2022-10-30 08:50:42 +0000 UTC View PostAlright kids, it's looking like this is going to end up as a double chapter in length.
With that said, I can post up a 'short chapter' now and then the big ass scene that's bloating up as a second chapter later?
I'll give ya'll twenty four hours to vote on it.
(And the reason I didn't do that to beg...
The master was gone and everyone knew it.
Mostly because Lady An wouldn’t let anyone forget it. Now, Hanying was all for letting a lady bemoan the loss of her paramour, but he could have done without the tingling at the back of his neck that occurred every time the woman came within five li of him.
And I shudder to imagine what...
2022-10-22 11:31:41 +0000 UTC View PostHe smiled, though he had a feeling it was a little plastic. “Ah, you used it then?”
To be honest, he’d been expecting it would be a week or more before he had to have this conversation. Certainly, he’d made a show of giving the woman the rifle as a gift, complete with written instructions on how to use it, but given the way she’d...
2022-10-18 12:49:01 +0000 UTC View Post“What a shithole,” Jack muttered.
Oh, the compound had been beautiful once, but that was now long in the past. The magistrate of Ten Huo had not been gentle with the former holdings of the Marble Cloud Sect. While the outer walls were surprisingly intact, the interior buildings were little more than burnt out husks.
The Scandinav...
2022-10-15 09:58:02 +0000 UTC View PostJian Yang was in a foul mood, the rabbit-kin’s ears bobbing irritably in time with her stomping gait.
“Oh quit sulking Jian.” Her friend, fellow rabbit-kin and fellow sect member smirked at her as the pair and their guards made their way down the main street. “It’s not that big a deal.”
“Five copper for a mooncake, Wuyi...
2022-10-12 09:49:15 +0000 UTC View Post“He has arrived,” Lu Zhenya made no indication that she’s heard the sending from one of her acolytes. It would be considered uncouth to imply that she was listening to the thoughts of her underlings while engaged in a meeting with the Supreme Magistrate of Ten Huo.
Even if she knew all of her fellow Sect Leaders were likely receiving...
2022-09-16 12:05:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt was funny to watch, how the weight on his back disappeared as the beast atop him leapt back like a skittish animal away from what was headed towards them.
Not that I blame her, he thought as he gingerly clambered to his feet, wincing at the sparks that emitted from his suit as he did. I’d be a little worried if I saw that...
2022-09-16 12:03:26 +0000 UTC View Post
For those wondering why she lacks horns, it's the product of genetic engineering to make helmets less of a problem.
As to why I have new Nighkru concept art... well, I'll leave that as a mystery. I'd expect more of its ilk in the days to come though.
(No, it's not because I'm switching to Sexy Space Babes after this book. I'm abidi...
Kang was dying.
He reached down to where the roofing tile had punctured through his breastplate and into his chest.
He laughed and coughed, blood dribbling from his lips.
Killed by a roofing tile. What a joke.
He was choking on his own blood, surrounded by the bodies of his underlings, while a battle raged mere m...
2022-09-01 16:41:26 +0000 UTC View PostAs the smoke started to clear and the cheering started, Jack dared to hope that the job was done. That he wouldn’t need to deploy his countermeasure.
Which was good, because it wasn’t ready yet, according to the bar in the upper right of his HUD.
Sure, the whole thing had been a little anticlimactic, but that was to be expected. ...
2022-08-30 23:16:24 +0000 UTC View Post