41. Time to Die
“Jared! Watch out!”
The skeleton clumsily lurched at the cultist. Jared stepped backward, only to collide with Anne. She fell forward with a shout. “What are you—”
There was n...
2024-10-16 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
noct posts
195. After the Battle
Birds sang. Sunlight drifted down from the window, illuminating tiny motes of dust. Ike laid in his bed and dozed, enjoying the warmth. Soon, his uncle would barge in and demand he return to the pl...
2024-10-16 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post40. Wiping Out the Cultists
Levi stood, then almost fell onto his ass as the bones shifted under him. He threw out his arms and barely caught himself. Slipping and sliding, he made it to the bottom of the bone mound with a pr...
2024-10-15 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post194. I Knew Them
Ike reappeared in front of Llewyn. His whole body trembled in rage, but he held it back. Suppressing it forcefully. Holding back his wrath. He pointed at Llewyn.
“You die here. Today. Right...
2024-10-15 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post39. Beseiged
“Hey, Isa. Do you think your village still needs those two zombies?”
“Hmm? What, those? They were still animated?” she asked, startled.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Levi repl...
2024-10-14 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post193. Brute Force
Ike charged in, fist held high. He punched toward Clarissa, currently the weakest of the trio. Her eyes lit up, and the mana flowed into her body. She charged to meet him, raising a fist to meet hi...
2024-10-14 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post38. Welcoming Death
The three—no, four of them, counting the slombie, made bed in the ruined cultist camp that night. Levi snoozed in one of the nicer tents, while Isa dozed and kept an eye on the slombie. Some time...
2024-10-13 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post192. Not Getting Away
Purple lightning flashed. Ike vanished.
Llewyn jumped back. He looked around, searching for Ike.
A hand gripped the back of Llewyn’s collar and threw him to the ground. All around Lle...
2024-10-13 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post37. Aftermath
At last, the last cultist fell. Levi crouched, checking their face to be sure, then stood. “Yep, that’s the last of them. Isa, you full?”
Isa gulped noisily. A petrified cultist stood b...
2024-10-12 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post191. Rank 3, Rank 4
Llewyn charged toward Ike. Ike raised his sword and met the man’s clawed hand head-on. In that first strike, his sword shattered. It blew to pieces, the mantis’ claw burst apart.
Fare...
2024-10-12 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post36. Midnight Massacre
The cavern was broad and tall, tall enough Jon didn’t feel strange pitching a tent in it. Around him, other devotees of the Death Cult erected their tents. Someone cooked dinner over a smokeless ...
2024-10-11 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post190. STORM CLAD
A cloud pierced down from the clear sky. All at once, with a sudden vengeance, the storm reformed. It swirled and churned. White clouds darkened, to gray, then black, then purple. They surged toget...
2024-10-11 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post35. Top of the List
The doors clanged open again. A rope unspooled into the darkness. “Wait long?” Isa asked.
“Just long enough.”
The rope went taut. Isa tightened her grip on it, leaning her weigh...
2024-10-10 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post189. To Wear a Storm
Immense power rushed into him. Before, at lower Ranks, he’d been completely overwhelmed and totally unable to handle it. Now, it felt… not controllable, but handleable. Something he could manip...
2024-10-10 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post34. Corroding Beam
“Go!” Levi threw his hand out.
The green-and-black energy in his palm had grown to a fever pitch. It bubbled and boiled on his palm, barely contained. When he finally gave it permission t...
2024-10-09 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post188. Petals Fall
The man thrust his hand at Ike. Light blazed out. A brilliant swirl of purple flower petals flew at Ike. Each petal was about the size of a palm, and razor-sharp. It sliced directly through Ike’s...
2024-10-09 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post33. Foul Feeder
The slime loomed over them, dark and dangerous. Big, fat drops of acid splashed down from above. The Armalgam stood beside Levi, and the Spinal Cord lifted from his hips, swaying like a cobra. Coli...
2024-10-08 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post187. Turnabout is Fair Play
Ike and Wisp burst down from the wall. Before the mages’ failed strike, it would have been madness to leave the safety of the barrier to go on the offensive. There were far more Rank 3 mages than...
2024-10-08 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post32. Bowels of the Earth
They continued down the path. More slimes leaped out at them. Some dropped from the ceiling or crawled out of tight crevasses, but Levi quickly smashed all of them. Once, they even faced a smaller ...
2024-10-07 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post186. A Magic Circle
Mana whined, building to a fever pitch. The magic circle glowed ferociously, on the verge of erupting. Bright blue light seared out from the ground, eclipsing the black-robed mages in its brillianc...
2024-10-07 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post31. Slimin' and Grimin'
Levi closed in on the slime, his sword held high. Some of the slimes alerted, turning toward him, but the closest one, a blue slime about mid-thigh-height, didn’t react at all. He slashed through...
2024-10-06 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post185. A Shopkeep and a Salesman
“Hello! Good afternoon. How’s everyone doing, this fine day?” Llewyn flashed his salesman smile up at them.
Shopkeep, Wisp, and Ike stared down at him, silent.
“I’ll take that...
2024-10-06 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post30. Cutesy Wootsey Slimey Wimey
Monsters charged them immediately inside the doors, horrid wormlike creatures with tubular mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. Levi rushed toward one and slit it open, then whirled.
Too late. E...
2024-10-05 16:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post184. Not This Time
The voice sounded close, but it boomed from the edge of the town. Shopkeep’s head snapped up. Wisp and Ike looked up as well. From his place on the ground, Ike couldn’t see anything special. Th...
2024-10-05 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post29. Enter the Dungeon
Knell and Shaheed turned away, leading them toward carriages that awaited them at the far side of the square. Levi and the others followed Mae and her party into the same carriage. The emo-looking ...
2024-10-04 16:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post183. A House
Sitting on his doorstep, Ike checked all the skills he’d taken out of the treasury. Most of them were useless skills. Skills for counting, transferring money around, skills of that sort. The kind...
2024-10-04 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post28. I Said What
The old lady looked up. Levi spun around.
A hulking man even larger than Piri with blue-tinged skin stood over them. He had the same build as Piri, and a similar face. He crossed his arms. ...
2024-10-03 15:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post182. Recovery Efforts
When Wisp and Ike emerged once more from the treasury, burdened with almost more loot than they could carry, they found themselves standing in an entirely different place.
A stone city stood ...
2024-10-03 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post27. Infiltrating the Death Cult
A cold hand grabbed his shoulder. “Wake up.”
Levi startled awake. He drew his knife and lunged, stabbing center-of-mass.
Isa caught him by the wrist. In a flash, he extended his fre...
2024-10-02 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post181. Lightning, Called
White light. A wall of noise. For an infinite second, those were the entirety of Ike’s world.
He held his breath. His whole body screamed in pain. He couldn’t feel his fingertips, except ...
2024-10-02 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post