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The Shatterplate War Chapter 62

“Brace!” Kay bellowed out as he thrust his arms forward, sending a wave of blood forward at the incoming wave of enemies. He made swirling whirlpools that sucked the first few beasts into the red tide, then solidified it into a crimson bulwark covered in spikes that held a few of the creatures in place.

The rest of the horde of onrushing monsters ignored the pained cries of their brethren as they clawed their way up the temporary walls. Some used the other monsters as hand-holds to ...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 61

Someone knocked on the door of his office as Kay methodically worked through the morning’s paperwork.

“Come in,” He intoned monotonously, expecting another armful of papers carried by an assistant.

The harried-looking staffer who stepped inside was exactly what he’d anticipated, but the three people that followed her in were surprises. The first was a member of the military, a scout officer based on their uniform insignia. Kay had deferred to Crucius Mapsight as commander ...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 60

“Our most vigorous and dedicated researcher-“

“Enough!” Kay interrupted Eleniah, still gasping for breath. “You have to stop so we can finish this up.”

Ahthia’s internal war was a loud one. Her obvious division between wanting to experiment with the Sublime Skill Kay had gotten from one of his tier five options battled against her obvious desire for what was the better path for both Kay and Avalon. And it was funny.

It was funny enough that Eleniah started teas...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 59

“This is tasty,” Eleniah muttered as she took another bit of her lunch. “I really like this sauce.”

“Yeah, the mustard in it is great. Did you get any with that spicy-sweet pepper?” Kay asked.

“The molchino peppers? Yeah, I put some in both.” She held up her other flatbread fish wrap she hadn’t started on yet and used it to point at the small bag of roasted peppers.

“Oh, I only put them in one.” Kay indicated his second wrap, “I like it both ways, so ...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 58

The pooled blood inside the dish sitting on Kay’s desk slowly startled to furl up like a slowly drying leaf on the ground as it began encompassing the pendant sitting in the middle. In one smooth motion, the crimson flower of blood sealed itself closed and began to shrink inward. A few moments passed as the blood seemed to vanish, seeping into the pendant.

The enchanted piece of jewelry floated a few millimeters off of the dish before it dropped down to the bottom. Kay picked it up an...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 57

Kay stared in concentration at the breastplate sitting on the training dummy, staring in concentration at it. The blood in his veins flowed smoothly through him, the power within held tightly in his grasp, waiting for the moment of release. His muscles tensed as he focused on the flow of mana through his blood. In one smooth motion, he drew together his lessons on footwork from Eleniah, his low-level Punch Daggers Skill, and the power he derived from his Blood Boost Skill and drove the small ...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 56

Edit: What is with me and misnumbering chapter titles!?

“Why is it doing push-ups?”

“Uhh…” Kay snapped out of his staring-at-the-wall trance and looked over to where Cindy was pointing at one of his simulacra, which was doing push-ups. “Oh, I was working on making giving them detailed muscles, and then I needed some way to tell that I’d done a good job without having red clones of me flexing in my face.”

“That sounds like it would be amazing.”

“Fo...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 55

“Research!” Ahthia cried as she bustled into the room excitedly, carrying a notebook and waving at them. “Isn’t this exciting?”

Kay shook his head and chuckled, “I guess making you an archivist really was a great idea.”

“I do love it,” She grinned up at him as she took a seat across from him, “So thank you. Now, let’s get researching! I’ll be making the preliminary notes now while you make Skill boost gems for people, then a group from Eleniah’s schools w...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 54

The mausoleum looked too small for the four lonely tombs that contained the first bodies of those fallen in Kay’s services as members of the Blood Guard. It also looked too small for what Kay knew would one day be rows upon rows of stone boxes covering still bodies. They would expand when it became necessary, and Kay also knew that this place would one day have some kind of somber and meaningful name, thought of to use as one single epithet to describe a place of honor and mourning. As he s...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 53

“Just to double and triple-check everything, you sure you can make that shot?” Kay asked the assembled group in front of him. He turned slightly to point down at the Ancient’s nest.

Lauren held out her hand, and blood flowed up into a bowstave. With an elegant motion, she drew back the string, drips of blood collecting at her fingertip and solidifying into a slightly translucent red arrow. She stood there, still as calm water, for a long moment. Then she nodded once, and the bow a...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 52

The Ancients sat in their massive nest in a rocky crag partway down into the enormous whirlpool that spun dizzyingly as the ocean was sucked into the pit below.

"No wonder it took us so long to find the damn thing." Tyuah muttered angrily, "I thought these weren't the fishing kind?" She shot Kay some side-eye as she lowered the spyglass.

Lauren gently thumped her on the head, "Be professional!" She hissed.

"He said we could drop the formal stuff with him!" Tyuah insisted bac...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 51

Kay walked into the Adventurer’s Guild and was quickly escorted up to the Guildmaster’s office to wait for her to be available. It only took a few minutes for someone to stick their heads out and greet him. He strode into the office, doing his best to look self-assured.

Technically I’m higher ranking than her, at least in my own damn city! But trying to look like an actual leader in front of someone who has hundreds of times the experience you do is a bit of a struggle. He thought...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 50

Three chapters in a week! Feeling nice and productive! Also, Chapter 50! Woo!

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“So,” Eleniah spoke from her seat in the dark secret lair of her publicly accessible office that everyone in the school knew the location of, “What’s your Status look like nowadays?”

“Why are the lights off?” Kay asked, “And why are you talking like that?”

“Like what?” Eleniah growled in what she probably thought was a deep and powerful voice but really just so...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 49

Already got a chapter out this week for everyone, so this one's going to be pressing how many chapters ahead the Partisan tier is. 

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Kay shifted in place on the bench in the school hallway and leaned back against the wall again after he got part of his belt to stop pinching against his leg.

“Do you think there will be that much of a change?” Lauren asked lowly from her spot next to him.

He looked up at his bodyguard and captain o...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 48

Big important stuff! In universe at least. It's a slightly meta chapter to me.

EDit: Fixed title name. Me and numbering are having a problem ig.

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“Yer saying the System is an experiment?” Quol asked a little while later in a quieter meeting room that Cindy had dragged them into.

“No, I’m saying I think that the System is doing experiments and that we either are one of them or are in one of them.” Kay corrected him.

...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 47

So, I know some people don't like the minor cliff hangers and all that, but I'm not doing a 4000 word chapter. Also, the technical gun stuff is probably not perfect, but sue me I did as much research as I thought was necessary, I'm not writing a historical paper here.

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“When it ended up getting decided that Eleniah was coming with you, we kept things mostly as they were, me in charge of the actual gun stuff and our lovely spymaster in charge of spy things.”...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 46

This was going to be one chapter, but then it got long. So now it's two. Enjoy!

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The third time they circled back past the same small restaurant, Kay finally got fed up. “What are we doing?”

Cindy shot him a look as they turned down the one street they hadn’t walked through in the same small intersection. “We’re making sure no one is following us. Weren’t you the one that was so adamant that we not let anyone find out until we’re re...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 45

“Alright.” Kay nodded to Curcius, who nodded back before sitting down. “Does anyone have any questions for Commander Mapsight before we move on to the next topics?”

Kay’s gathered advisors, who were more and more becoming a ruling council, as his “advisors” were quickly becoming ministers and government officials themselves, all shook their heads or said “no” in various ways.

“Great. Overall, before we move to the next topic: We took the port, with little damag...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 44

“I’m not a princess.” Was the first thing Lydia Icerose said to Kay after they’d sat down together at a commandeered table some of the Blood Guard had “reclaimed” from a local tavern. At least, Kay thought it was a tavern of some kind; there was enough alcohol in it for it to be one. Although, the stereotypes of pirates did lean towards excessive drinking.

“Did you hear me talking to myself earlier?” Kay asked her. He hadn’t expected her to have heard him, they’d bee...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 43

“This seems way too easy.” Kay looked around the area, frowning. With the two supposed pirate captains chased off by Eleniah, the remaining “defenders” in the port were all pretty substandard combatants that had been fairly easily crushed beneath the proverbial feet of Avalon. All that was left was to clean up any stragglers and start getting the damn collars off of the folks that had been captured by the pirates.

“Sir?”

“I know you’ve been confident that we could ...

Back in Action

I was going to do this with a chapter attached, but then I realized that would make things a little extra complicated with what I'm trying to do. I also planned to make this pretty simple, but then I realized that some people might want to read the full things, so I'll put the whole thing with a big banner for the tldr people.

To cut right into it, depression sucks. But at the end of the day, I can't let it be some kind of crutch or blockage that keeps me from progressing with both myse...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 42

This chapter didn't like me and I didn't like it. Took me forever to get it acceptable. I'm not even liking this whole scene/event in it's total form, and it's probably going to be shorter than originally planned.

Because I've been fighting with this whole scene, I've done a little work on another idea as a palate cleanser. Once I get a little bit more of that done and polished I'll put it up for Patreons to enjoy.

***

The Blood Guard spread out around him as Kay headed down...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 41

Through the lens of the spyglass, Kay saw that Darkport was much less populated than their last visit.

“Looks like a few of the ships are gone.” Lauren commented, “There’s a new one that I don’t remember from last time too, but it looks like a recent capture.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The obvious battle damage, plus they’re still unloading it.” She pulled at his arm until he could see the ship she was talking about through the glass. “That one.”

Return/Update

So, short version, I have problems with depression and anxiety. It's not fun to say that, but... yeah. When I said something about taking a short break because of burnout like two months ago or longer, part of the reason I was doing that was because I saw a stress and other things driven spiral into an anxiety and depression fueled bad mental place coming. Mostly from past experience, I realized that could happen soon, and wanted to take a little break to make sure it didn't. And then right a...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 40

"My lord!"

Kay glanced up from his thoughts in the middle of his walk. He'd taken some time off, just as a small break, and was enjoying walking around Avalon, just watching people and taking in the growth and change that had come as the town expanded again and again. Someone ran up toward him while he was stopped looking at a fountain, and his guards stepped in front of him protectively.

Stephen's head poked up over the two guards. "My lord, you need to come quick!"

Kay bru...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 39

Kay glanced up from the huddle he was in as Cindy was escorted into the room. His Ministers looked up, and all of them turned to look at her.

She took a step back with a hesitant expression, bumping into the Blood Guard behind her as she saw everyone staring at her. "Um… hi?"

Kay took a moment just looking her over. He'd been busy enough that he hadn't had much time to spend just hanging out with anyone, so he hadn't seen her or anyone else in a social setting in a while. He mai...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 38

“And that is why we shouldn’t ask the Adventurer’s Guild for assistance in this!” One of the representatives shouted, “Their attempts to get our Lord to fight their Founder’s daughter in order to create a counter to him shows that they cannot be trusted!”

“I’m not saying we ask the actual Guild for help! I’m saying we post a job with the Guild to hire independent adventurers!” The representative who had the floor insisted back, “Just because the Guild wants to cr...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 37

Thousands of miles away from Avalon, in the middle of Korthilde, the capital city of Nelam, sat a massive golden castle. Made of a golden-hued stone and massive amounts of actual gold, the castle was the highest building in the capital by leaps and bounds. The massive shining edifice dominated the landscape and the skyline, forcing everyone who saw it to feel the oppressive presence of its owner, their ruler.

His Majesty King Baldrik Glowl, King of Nelam, Duke of Somox, Duke of Locklila...

The Shatterplate War Chapter 36

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Bloody Step

- A prosthetic leg made of blood by Lord Kay, the Class Line Progenitor of Blood Manipulation and Blood Lord of Avalon, for a member of his Blood Guard. Created to replace a limb lost in duty to him, he made this personally with his own magic and will, providing a limb, a tool, a weapon, and a path to power all in one item. This item will bind itself to the person ...