TheBipBoop2003

92. Bloody Spar

“Now… I can strangle you with your guts in peace.”

There was a passing moment of silence, only periodically broken by the distant gasp of agony I forced down with a mental command. I could command my freed limb without much difficulty with magic.

Casting a spell through it was only a more refined version of that; now, going further was the same, if harder. It was no easy trick, all things considered, and pulling it off made it only more impractical.

Frankly, it was ver...

91. Friendly Meeting

“Hm, there are quite a lot we missed with our flyers…” I noted while studying the map of Zangarmarsh given to us by Primus Msshi'fn.

A very murloc-sounding name, not surprising given that murloc language was ancient and shared roots directly with Kalimag. 

It was this old, and the fish people were likely one of the first races born of the elements, like the proto-dragons. 

The older a language was, the closer it was to the source, besides Common, which was li...

90. Backups

I waited for the fungal person to respond or react in any way other than shock at being spotted and caught immediately.

She understood Kalimag, fortunately, with her stuttered response; now, proper talking was a different beast. And I would prefer it to be without a hitch.

Being on good terms with the local population was almost always favorable, and she really didn't strike me as a warrior. She was probably a child equivalent, one too curious for her own good.

It wouldn'...

89. Mycelium Man

The Outland was a peculiar piece of land formed from floating continental plates stitched together, a patchwork in the most literal sense.

It wasn't remotely as bad as I would have imagined, to the point I could hardly believe it was the same hellhole I once played on.

The Hellfire Peninsula had life; it was no paradise, it was an arid desert, and yet there was life aplenty.

A flora and fauna of its own, one that was undoubtedly affected by Fel, but contrary to what one ...

88. Triple Entente

Putting demons back into the waiting room was therapeutic when they didn't immediately threaten to burn your family. It was funny like that.

Not that I didn't take them seriously or wasn't hating them any less. However, it was lighter on the heart, and this wasn't a full-blown invasion of the Burning Legion. Not remotely close to it.

The Dark Portal was too obvious and too limited for an army without the element of surprise; it was both better and worse, as it meant death on our...

87. Gate to Hell

Stability seemed to be a fool's errand, a toll of madness, where the closer one was to reaching it, the quicker fate reminded you of the sheer asinine nature of the act, as within a moment it vanished like sea foam in the waves.

And yet, Jaina hoped for it, working for a semblance of peace, at the very least within the Eastern Kingdoms.

There had been success, breakthroughs that even the most optimistic wouldn't have hoped for.

The high elves, now known as blood elves, o...

86. An End to the War

I studied the war plan drawn on the papyrus, and each part was calculated to the utmost of our knowledge of the foe and the varied terrains, with a healthy amount of preparation for the worst-case scenario.

My little brother was a far better strategist than I. I wasn't much of one to begin with; I was no mindless berserker nor honor-bound, but a great general I was not.

I never led any campaign for a reason, well, not alone. I would get impatient and rush halfway through if thi...

85. Cutting the Source

Brain.

Oh, what a love-hate relationship I had with them. The source of it all was how they worked; it was fundamentally impossible to tackle them repeatedly.

Well, not really, but it was mostly the case for anything important. Neuronal networks worked on patterns; they were everything to anyone with the bodily composition to possess them.

It was a subject of immense complexity. Rebuilding what once was was impossible, unless there was constant monitoring. Something that ...

84. Building Bridge

A higher viewpoint only showed Shen-zin Su's size: a Dragon Aspect was equal to a songbird, while the sea turtle was a kodo by comparison.

It was hard to even fully comprehend.

Still appreciating the marvel of biology.

I flew by beating my massive leathery wings, supporting my multi-ton bulk, with the two pandaren below toward the gargantuan chelonian.

It didn't take long to reach him; finding the landing spot was easy, thanks to the bonfire and prior instructions....

83. Big Turtle

The Pendant of Elune clicked against my chest plate, one of several magical items and artifacts placed on me. It was for my continent; the reality of the matter was I couldn't twirl my claws.

And there had been something–perhaps remnants or echoes–now thoroughly purged, but I had wounded myself in forcing my failed escape.

I was on my way to full recovery, but that left cracks in my defense. Cracks that the Void had immediately begun to exploit, no matter how swiftly they we...

82. Wandering Pandas

Li Li blinked, standing as straight as a bamboo shoot, her eyes widening as the first signs of land came into view. Rocky cliffs and trees she had never seen grew in number and size.

She recognized them from drawings and descriptions in letters she had studied, accompanied by hundreds of fantastical tales that even a teenage pandaren found hard to believe.

As an adventurous spirit, Li Li devoured such grand tales. Though she didn’t blindly believe them, she was young and hope...

81. Surfacing

I growled, claws digging into the chitinous floor as I swallowed a tooth that regrew moments later. I wasn't going to waste my biomass.

Another battle, another victory, and another drain on my resources. I never knew a few measly kilometers could feel endless. But clearly, it could.

It was not very pleasant, as one might expect.

But the higher I went, the greater the chaos. This hadn't been a single tunnel that collapsed; it was dozens, if not hundreds, utterly ravaging t...

80. Buried in Doubts

Everything that could go wrong will go wrong.

A pessimistic saying Ursol had heard his little adopted brother say, among others, in one of their numerous debates.

Those were great times that grew sparser as of late. They weren't just great for the depth of their debates, which was present, but for their sheer novelty.

Ohto's mind worked rather uniquely, and his temperament followed suit. He spoke back to the Dragon Queen with no reverence or gentleness and lived to tell ...

79. Nightmarish Fate

"I'm going to kill something," I growled, my voice a rumble muffled by the endless sound of stone falling and the quake of the earth.

I didn't know where I was, only that I fell for around half a minute. This meant a fuck huge distance. I was deep, probably one kilometer at least, to three if not more, from where I was.

I wasn't a physicist, but my estimate seemed accurate and wasn't hard to calculate.

To put it mildly, it was a problem. The landing hadn't been any bette...

78. One Wrong Move

The screeches of rage and agony of the qiraji were music to my ears as I held him high, his torso impaled on my claw was a fountain of dark green hemolymph.

Then I threw him against the cave wall with my full strength, and he was flung with such speed that the air whipped.

The motion itself crushed a silithid too close to me, its body a mess of chitin and rippling flesh, as was the insectoid warrior once he impacted the wall.

He exploded, splattering like a bug on a wind...

77. Life Crystals

I studied the slim body of the bees standing still at the tip of my snout. It was twirling on its bladed legs, its dark hue reflecting the biolight in a seizure-inducing array of colors.


Then, with a flex of my magic, it froze and began bobbing its head to an unknown rhythm. The serrated sword-like mandibles opened and closed to the same silent tempo.

Click-clack was the sound of the bee, sharp and far more powerful than anyone would ever expect.

Its reinforced, tran...

76. The Flytrap

The dry yet musty air of the qiraji tunnels was a smell Agamaggan had grown to despise. And it was merely the upper layers where the hot wind from the outside world still managed to pass through.

The deeper it went, the worse it became. It was unique in its wrongness when the physical appearance was already glaring evidence.

Stone, crystal, and mineral brutally made way for alien structures of chitinous architecture and violet flesh that was both hard and soft. This was the mùe...

75. The Might of Kalimdor

“You have asked for a meeting, and so we came, Thrall. You seek an alliance against a shared enemy, as we do; let us speak of the terms.”

At those words, the world hung silent, and the tension rose to new heights. I feasted upon it, my instincts sharpened to fine edges as I scrutinized our opposition.

There was a barely contained anger in Cairne hidden by a veil of serenity. It was surprising when it shouldn’t have been given the tension between the two elderly tauren, ev...

74. Budding Repellant

"You seem elsewhere, little brother, far more than usual. I know you have a strange saying, 'sleep is overrated,' but we are ursine. Sleep is part of our existence." The growling voice of Ursoc snapped me out of my thoughts, and I smiled faintly.

"But it is. I certainly need rest, but I can go days without it, with little adverse effect. And when I do, I can continue some of my work in the Dreaming." I said, grasping the offered honey beer of his personal stash and creation.

I t...

73. Five Headed Enigma

I stared right into the burning, smoldering red-slit eyes of Alexstrasza, the sound of shuffling and claw scraping on stone behind me from her Prime Consort indicated a degree of offense at my directness.

At least that was the case for him, but the Dragon Queen didn't appear offended.
Quite the contrary, surprise and amusement were abundantly clear in her draconic features and scent.

There were minute variations between green and red dragons, but their effects were negligibl...

72. The Red Queen

The Sholazar Basin was an utterly fascinating place in stark contrast to the rest of Northrend—a near copy of the Un'goro Crater in topography and climate, a product of titanic influence.

There were several life forms endemic to this area with qualities not seen elsewhere; the few exceptions were the wolvar and gorlocs.

The former were bipedal hybrids of mustelids, and the second, the smarter, bigger, and stronger progenitor of murlocs. And they despised each other.

Un...

71. Ruby Invitation

There was a second of silence after I spoke. The red dragon, in high elf form, blinked almost owlishly as if trying to grasp what had just happened.

"I'm Korialstrasz, Prime Consort of the Dragon Queen… and I see I wasn't lied to. Are you sure you're a full blooded furbolg?" The pale 'elf' asked with a relatively relaxed smile, though I could see the hidden tension in his muscles and body language.

This was nothing I was unfamiliar with when it came to dragons.

They we...

70. Dragonfly

"The mage is ready. My technique has gotten better, so you should be able to get more out of him faster." I rumbled, leaving the cell of Arugal for his jailers to begin the interrogation.

His vacant eyes and a dumb, open smile from which saliva dripped down his shaved chin were my last view of this worgen aficionado. It was not glamorous.

He looked like he was under the effects of multiple potent drugs, and he might as well with what I did to him.

It was why there would ...

69. Nice Drill

Monte Gazlowe furrowed his brow, the back of his pen tapping the schematic on his heavy-duty workbench to the rhythm of the distant heavy metal music from his buzzbox.

His calloused hand shifted to a small toolbox, where he took a small monkey wrench to tighten a screw on a metallic contraption. It was a small piece of a greater whole from the schematic, a much-needed redundancy to avoid a chain reaction of destruction if something goes wrong.

There was much to oversee, and sec...

68. One Last Hunt

The Alpha Prime was not pleased.

Nothing novel, Ralaar Fangfire was not known for his great boisterousness or grand festivities.

Yet, the last few weeks were different; there was a change, a shift in the pure form, unlike any other.

A plague. A mutation. A curse. Its name and classification were a secondary concern to the symptom and ultimate resolution of this affliction.

It was not fatal, but it might as well be.

It was an unorthodox infection, yet it was...

67. Canine Problem, Canine Solution

"Back to Gilneas…" I hummed as I exited the Dream Portal; the transition to the waking world was sharp.

A minor inconvenience, nothing more than a slight destabilizing factor. I felt every difference clearly; the shift was a bit violent to my magical sense.

My arrival was by all accounts equally notable; the duo of ursa totemic guards at the portal stiffened, their previously relaxed posture stiffened into perfect form.

I snorted but said nothing else as I walked forwar...

66. Duality of Duty

Coins.

Coins were great, the fuel for life's greatest pleasures and amenities, in Jarem's humble opinion.

Contradictory as it may seem for a tauren, a member of the Runetotem tribe, and a druid on top of that.

Alas, the truth was unchanged by the less glamorous morality surrounding it.

Jarem's tribe's allegiance to the Wild had changed much of their daily lives; rekindling the art of druidism was not the limit.

There were many implications for the growing ...

65. Danger Everywhere

I knew this was going to happen eventually.

This insectoid description was unmistakable. It was too distinct from anything else.

The Un'goro Crater did have large invertebrates, but they didn't grow as large as estimated in this report, nor were they adapted to a dry and hot environment. It certainly wasn't a suicidal makrusa either, too far from any water source.

And that was two of the many glaring inconsistencies. Feralas didn't sport that kind of fauna, and this wasn...

64. Growing Dread

The Worgen Curse was fascinating for many reasons. It was remote self replicating transfiguration, there was a lot to learn here.

And the study of it reminded me of when I was with Groot, distant to what it once was, having anyone close to a peer on a project had been… fulfilling.

This dark undertones aside, worgen puzzled me.

Or the pack form to be precise, every form druids or shaman leaning to Nature used was based on an existing 'blueprint.'

It could be gif...

63. Lupine Conundrum

Belysra Starbreeze breathed deeply of the cold air of the waking world, a stark contrast to the Emerald Dream where she had been moments ago.

Her fingers gripped the gnarled staff of the Scythe of Elune like iron, the ancient runes thrumming with both serenity and ferocity in a dissonant rhythm against her skin.

Daring her to call upon the immense lunar power within, the ancient priestess easily restrained herself as she found her footing on a flat tangle of artfully knotted roo...