White light flashed. Ike saw nothing. Felt nothing but electricity, coursing through his entire body. When the light faded, he stood alone in the darkness, blinking away the black to call his visio...
2025-03-19 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe morning came too soon. Rhys stretched and sat up. He hadn’t made much progress in his intent skill, but he had progressed a little, enough that he needed a visit to the trash heap to repair h...
2025-03-18 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostIke charged, and the rider rushed to meet him. The beast leaped into the air, blocking out the newly-summoned sun. Sharp claws bore down at him.
“You go left,” Ike said, darting right. He...
2025-03-18 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Can I help you?” Rhys asked warily, reaching for his sword. One of the smugglers…? But no, why would he be worried with me? I’m down in this hole, far away from the stashes…
... 2025-03-17 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe ragged puppet stood in the door, body barely holding together, slender limbs draped by the same tattered cloth as ever. Ike could see light through the cracks in its limbs where its body hadn...
2025-03-17 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostRhys squinted. The rat with the quirked tail looked like the one he’d rescued. No—it was the one he’d rescued! He scanned it with his mana to be sure, and when he found no impurities, he was ...
2025-03-16 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostIke stepped through the hole they’d punched in the wall and walked into the darkness. His footsteps echoed in the still air. It was as though he walked into an empty cathedral. A vast, dark, open...
2025-03-16 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMouse quickly led them around the academy, showing them all the facilities and everything they’d need to know to thrive for their next few weeks during the tournament. From the herb fields, to th...
2025-03-15 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostKA-BAM!
Stone dust flew, clouding on the air. Sparkles from shattered crystals danced on the breeze. Ike coughed, waving his hand. Did it work?
The air cleared. A hole...
2025-03-15 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThey flew toward the side of a mountain. A dark stone castle stood atop the peak, piercing up into the sky. The roof was made of a strange purple metal that reflected the sunlight, giving the impre...
2025-03-14 14:09:01 +0000 UTC View PostLeaving the shattered puppet behind, they strode into the crystal shards. Shadow fell over them, leaving them in darkness. The crystals glimmered in the shade, gently twinkling like oversized stars...
2025-03-14 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe run over the barren lands was largely uneventful. The wind blew, dust stirred, and the three of them raced over the hard earth. Nothing attacked them, nor did anything threaten them. It was the...
2025-03-14 02:08:01 +0000 UTC View PostRhys sat on a bench, a book in his hands and a cat purring on his lap. The cat rolled over, exposing its belly to the sun pouring in the window. Across from him, a short-haired woman rested her hea...
2025-03-13 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostGriffin, as it turned out, fit none of Rhys’ expectations. As a proud graduate of Purple Dawn, he wasn’t disloyal to his academy, nor did he bear a personal grudge against Ernesto. He had a str...
2025-03-12 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThey reached the bottom of the mountain by the end of the day. The barrens stretched before them. Barely any plants grew among the cracked, dry earth, just scrubby bushes and some sparse grasses. N...
2025-03-12 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostRhys bent, extending one leg, then the other, stretching out his limbs. He bounced in place, shaking himself out. When he was good and warmed up, he knelt, then leaped off the ground. From left wal...
2025-03-11 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe stone closed in. The gap closed. Ike kicked again, with all his force this time, and drew his Hungry Sword at the same time. The gap ahead narrowed down to a pinprick, no wider than Wisp’s th...
2025-03-11 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostRhys charged toward the mounted demon as the mounted demon charged him. The demon struck down at him with all its might. Rhys activated Trash Intent as he slashed up at it. Their blades clashed. 2025-03-10 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Ike ran.
Behind him, a strange shout rang out. He whipped around, staring back. Puppets rushed the gap. For a second, he squinted, lost, and then his eyes widened. That’s right! All the...
2025-03-10 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostActivating Trash Manipulation, Rhys pulled the trash toward himself. Rather than staving it off, trying to push the trash away and reject it like any sane person would do when beset by deadly toxic...
2025-03-09 14:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostWisp jumped off the mountain’s shoulder, clutching Ike in her foreclaws. Ike barely bit back his scream, only managing to hold it in at the last second when he imagined Wisp’s smug expression. ...
2025-03-09 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe pit glowed brightly, bathing the forest in its sickly glow. The light pulsed like a bad headache, and the pit burbled and spat as if it boiled, but emitted a fierce cold instead.
C...
2025-03-08 15:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThe hand rushed down at them. Mag swept around it and flew upward, angling his claws toward the mountain’s towering eye. The further he flew, the smaller he looked against the mountain. At first,...
2025-03-08 15:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe light faded away from the robes Rhys had sewn from the piercing-resistant fabric. Once more, it had melded together, but this time, it looked far more handsome. He’d bothered to pick fabrics ...
2025-03-07 15:00:24 +0000 UTC View PostIke rushed into the deepest part of the darkness. The closer he got, the more tense Shawn became, so though he couldn’t see far himself, he could use Shawn’s body posture to guess the right dir...
2025-03-07 15:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostRhys scurried back up the mountain to the upper peak. He stopped by the trash ravine and started the process of burning the high-tier trash to make ash. He needed a new potion after he’d downed t...
2025-03-06 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe puppet plunged a blade toward Ike’s heart. Ike swept the Hungry Sword from his prone position. There was no strength in the blow—there couldn’t be, from the angle he was at—but it didn...
2025-03-06 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe tsunami of burning impurities rushed through Rhys and into Walter. They coursed through his core, surrounding the black mark of the skeleton. Rhys’ impurities scoured at the skeleton, lifting...
2025-03-05 15:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe gap widened as they drew closer—or at least, it appeared to, as the enormity of the mountains faded away into one big lump, and they no longer had a scale to compare it to. There was somethin...
2025-03-05 15:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostWalter stepped onto the field. Instantly, Rhys knew he was serious. The aura rippling off of him left no doubt of that. If there had been any true friendship to this ‘friendly duel,’ it was gon...
2025-03-04 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post