Kat glanced uncertainly to Xander only for him to waver her inside, an unhappy expression on his face. She closed the door behind her, eyes taking in both Belle and the massive and heavily chromed bodyguard standing beside her as she took her seat next to Xander.
“Thank you for joining us Kat,” icewater trickled down her veins as Belle addressed her. There was just something off about the older woman. No matter the expression on her face, her eyes were as lifeless ...
2021-01-07 07:22:23 +0000 UTC
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“You have to focus the mana more into your arms, you know until it twangs,” Trevor said unhelpfully as he demonstrated a spear thrust in slow motion.
A ball of energy, barely visible and little more than a heat mirage, curled around the end of the speartip before bursting apart. Micah frowned at it, tapping his chin. He could see the usefulness of the wind mana shattering inside a target, but that wasn’t the issue.
“Twangs?” He asked, raising a singl...
2021-01-06 04:34:45 +0000 UTC
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“This is just coffee right?” Kat asked, glancing at the uniformed man standing behind Jasper as they sat down in the small cafe built into the college. “No strings attached?”
From the well pressed dress shirt and slacks that Jasper wore, to the perfect part of his hair, nothing about him looked casual. His eyes bored into her intensely from behind a top of the line smartpanel, a watch worth more than every item her entire family had owned before she started working f...
2021-01-04 07:45:18 +0000 UTC
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Jo’s wound knit together under Micah’s hands as Augmented Mending did its work. She squirmed slightly, setting her jaw against the pain as the mana pulled the flesh of her thigh back into place.
“I had the drop on them Micah,” she hissed, her hands opening and closing as she squirmed up against the dungeon wall. “The ember sloths were focusing on you and Trevor, they didn’t even see me coming.”
“I know they didn’t,” he replied, sighing as h...
2021-01-02 02:15:23 +0000 UTC
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“It doesn’t feel right fighting a yeti in the middle of the desert,” Kat wiped the foul grey ichor off of her knives while she stared at the hulking white-furred corpse in the center of the dungeon’s boss chamber.
“Yeti?” Kaleek asked as he used a belt knife to begin removing the monster’s pelt, his breath fogging the cold air.
“A fictional creature from Earth,” Kat sheathed her knives, finally satisfied with their cleanliness. She began walking towar...
2021-01-01 00:15:22 +0000 UTC
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“Are you sure this is a level forty dungeon?” Jo asked, staring at the red hot metal of the dead molten automaton as it slowly cooled into solidity. “That was an awfully easy fight.”
“Did you see the amount of experience we got?” Drekt responded snorting as he checked his cleaver for divots. “That monster was at least level thirty five. I could barely hold it back long enough for the Luoca to finish it off. I suspect that this battle would have gone...
2020-12-30 04:57:19 +0000 UTC
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“Here,” Xander threw Kat a package. Really nothing more than a large plastic bag taped shut. She caught it, cocking her head to the side and raising an eyebrow in an unspoken question.
“I uh,” he blushed slightly scratching the back of his neck, “promised to buy you a new winter jacket as part of that last mission you did as a runner back in Schaumburg. I guess we all got so caught up in the Haupt business that I forgot. So, happy first day of college I...
2020-12-29 02:52:07 +0000 UTC
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Kat’s throwing knife whirred through the dungeon air, burying itself up to its hilt in a fuzzy torso sized creature clinging to the wall. It fell to the ground, the force of the strike ripping its body from the sandstone that made up the boundaries of the room, the barbs attached to the bottom of its limbs tearing chunks from the soft stone.
It hit the ground, hissing angrily as it scuttled in a circle to face Kat. Mana pulsed through her body as she focused on the creatur...
2020-12-27 04:52:50 +0000 UTC
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“Seven eternal embers,” Drekt put the glass jar filled with small red gemstones, flickering with their own internal lights, down in front of Micah. “A matching number of plain lavasteel rings, and four portions of obsidian powder.”
“Good,” Micah responded, legs still crossed as he steadied his breathing, “That should be everything from town. Jo’s helped me gather the remaining reagents from the forest and nearby mountains.”
Drekt frowned slightly down...
2020-12-24 20:17:48 +0000 UTC
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The fake ‘sun’ of The Tower of Somnus beat down on Kat, its arid heat robbing her of her breath. She shielded her eyes against the light, taking in the bleached white multi-story buildings around her. All of them were made out of some sort of dried mud stabilized with reeds that looked like the intergalactic version of adobe or stucco.
She lurched forward as a large scaled arm draped itself forcefully over her shoulder. Nearby, Kat heard the air ‘whuff...
2020-12-24 07:03:06 +0000 UTC
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“We’re going to have to move on to the Cavern of Rust,” Micah watched as Trevor plucked a dove from the air with his spear.
Nearby, one of the white birds shrieked, pulsing a burst of sonic energy at Drekt. The big man stumbled, a trickle of blood trailing from his ears.
Micah began casting Heal, finishing the spell directed at the disoriented fighter just after one of Sarah’s arrows knocked the bird from the sky. Nearby, Telivern held a large tortoise...
2020-12-22 05:39:21 +0000 UTC
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“We will start the bidding at one million.” It was strange, hearing Xander’s actual voice next to her even as her smartpanel displayed a smooth metallic face repeating the same words in a heavily modulated and impossible to identify voice.
“The data is an encrypted audio and video recording of an in-person meeting between shareholders from GroCorp, NeoSyne, JB Holdings, and WMC Integrated Robotics that took place in the last ten days in St. Louis,” the dual voices contin...
2020-12-21 05:27:21 +0000 UTC
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“Erinyes!” Whippoorwill’s voice was shrill and breathy. “There are floodlights everywhere! I think they found our area of the wall by the dead cameras. I’m sure that people will be coming any second and-”
“Whip,” Kat gritted her teeth, reaching into the pouch and pulling out a vacuum sealed plastic package. “I’m going to need you to calm down and focus on my voice.”
“Given what I had to do to get here,” she popped the package open ...
2020-12-19 19:30:52 +0000 UTC
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The air whistled past Micah as he descended into the woods just outside of town. His feet touched down, twigs crackling under his boots as they sunk into the undergrowth.
He shifted Jo slightly, removing her from his shoulder and moving her to the ground next to a tall oak tree. She stirred slightly in his grasp.
“Hey there stranger,” Micah jumped slightly as she stood up, brushing the dirt off of herself and rearranging her wind tousled hair. “Usually when...
2020-12-18 05:51:40 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 4
The engines on their tiny variable thrust cargo plane screamed as they rotated in their mounts, arresting the vessel’s momentum with a lurch that threw Kat into her harness before the vessel began to lower itself onto the rooftop of a large, squat building.
St. Louis was a strange sight. Near its center, gleaming office buildings jutted up into the sky, many of them taller than the arcology she’d spent her entire life in, but outside of the c...
2020-12-17 02:50:35 +0000 UTC
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Kat stretched the clear strip of electrofilm across the keypad. A second later, her smartpanel buzzed, providing her with a predictive analysis of the possible passcode based upon the wear on the keys.
The custom program helpfully flashed in red the percentage chance of each four digit code. None of the predictions were above 15%, meaning that Kat would have had to abandon the keypad if she had any fear of an alarm.
Four combinations tapped into the keypad later, the d...
2020-12-17 02:49:47 +0000 UTC
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“Are you sure about this Kat?” Her mother, Penelope Debs, asked as she fidgeted. “I don’t want to ask where you got it, but this is a lot of money we’re talking about.”
“Yes Mom,” Kat replied, glancing around the building. Her sister, Michelle, was slouched in the chair next to her, watching the latest episode of Chrome Cowboy on her smartpanel, an omnipresent square of smartglass that almost all company employees wore about their right eyes that gave t...
2020-12-17 02:49:01 +0000 UTC
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“Let’s go over the plan one more time,” Dorrik stood next to Kat on the rock face overlooking the beach, the wind rustling the giant lizard’s crest.
She glanced at her companion. Her head only came up to the dusky scales of their upper shoulder, but the giant four-armed, muscle-bound lizard was more scholar than warrior. That didn’t mean that Dorrik couldn’t hold their own in a fight, far from it. They were one of the most adept swords-beings that Kat had e...
2020-12-17 02:47:52 +0000 UTC
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Book Two: Chiwaulkee Nights will be on Patreon. My goal is to get to 10 chapters ahead as soon as possible, but that will be a work in progress.
I will be using the existing tiers ($2 for 2 chapters, $5 up to 10 chapters). The tiers will also work for advanced chapters of Blessed Time.
As a warning, I WILL be taking patreon chapters down once Book 2 hits kindle unlimited. That's... a long way in the future right now, but be prepared. I do intend on sendin...
2020-12-17 02:41:43 +0000 UTC
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His eyes pored over the pages, struggling against the low light to make out the archaic words. For some reason every author found it necessary to write a book introducing each spell. He didn’t need to know about the blessed’s youthful vacation to the horn coast where a summer on the sun dappled beaches provided the inspiration he needed to finish the spell.
Micah skipped ahead. Now they were blathering about how their grandmother inspired them to try and reverse th...
2020-12-15 06:10:48 +0000 UTC
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“Hold up,” Jo whispered, sending a thrill through Micah as she touched his bicep. A second later, a pair of guards walked past on the compound’s walls, swords clanking at their sides.
Micah crouched next to her in the dark, Mursa’s moon lay hidden beneath a wall of clouds as they waited for the guards to walk out of sight. He shifted slightly, the branches of the bush that the two of them were hiding in clinging at his clothes.
“What if there are magical alar...
2020-12-11 05:26:05 +0000 UTC
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Micah stood back, monitoring his active spells as Trevor occupied the Cliff Guardian’s attention. The creature towered over him, four of its twelve spindly limbs clutching the nearby rock face while the others swung wildly at his brother.
Trevor danced backwards with speed borne from the haste spell Micah had cast on him as soon as the Guardian had sighted them, crawling hastily down the side of the mountain with a territorial hiss.
An air knife hit one o...
2020-12-08 05:17:08 +0000 UTC
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“I think they’re coming along nicely Micah,” Trevor was slumped slightly in his seat, the sounds of a rough night at the Jolly Porker filling the air around them.
Micah just glanced at his brother, taking note of the slight flush on the man’s cheeks. Apparently he’d snuck a drink of juusht while Micah had been using the bathroom.
“Thath Sarah girl is still a bit prickly,” Trevor slurred. Maybe it was more than just a drink. “But I’m beginning to...
2020-12-04 05:29:47 +0000 UTC
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“I swear to the Sixteen,” Sarah’s muffled voice carried through the grove as Micah on the forest floor, pressing his back into Ravi’s soft and warm fur. “If you’re just taking us out into the middle of nowhere to rape and murder us, I will come back as a ghost and I will haunt both of you.”
Micah’s mouth quirked. He’d forgotten about Sarah. Telivern shifted next to him from where it had curled its legs up under its body as Micah’s fingers found a so...
2020-12-01 04:02:21 +0000 UTC
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Micah’s finger traced over the Folio, his mouth barely moving as he tried to make sense of his notes. In front of him, on the shack’s rickety table, lay the outline of an enchantment meant for a set of boots or shoes.
He turned the page, frowning slightly before dismissing the book and tapping his chin. The half completed enchantment in front of him seemed to be mocking him. Almost but not quite complete, it would theoretically let Micah fly at will so long as he h...
2020-11-27 05:22:48 +0000 UTC
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“I am not doubting your resolve Micah,” Drekt shook his head in disbelief as the Luoca pinned one shade ogre to the dungeon floor with its barbed leg while simultaneously stabbing its tail through the chest of another. “I am doubting your sanity. You said you summoned how many of these abominations?”
“A couple?” Micah replied hesitantly, unable to take his eyes off of the Luoca as it ignored a globe of acid lobbed by an ogre shaman and just cut the creature in ha...
2020-11-24 02:16:25 +0000 UTC
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“I’m not sure how I feel about a breastplate,” Drekt frowned slightly as he stood in line outside the restaurant with Trevor and Micah. “I generally fight bare chested. It feels dishonorable and constraining to hide behind flimsy layers of steel and cloth.”
“I’ve seen how you fight,” Micah chuckled. “You’re more or less a nudist. If you had an agility based build I think I could see it, but when you get going you don’t even try and dodge. &n...
2020-11-20 02:10:51 +0000 UTC
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Micah’s arm was far too heavy. It felt like his body was covered in sandbags as he moved his hand upward at a glacial pace to point at the rastgar’s head.
Its breath, warm, moist, and infused with the foul scent of carrion washed over him as the monster’s jaws moved toward him languidly. Micah’s vision blurred, slipping into double as his hand finally reached the apex of his arc.
His wrist flicked and mana hummed through his system as an air knife slas...
2020-11-17 01:40:33 +0000 UTC
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Micah reached down pressing his fingers into the rastgar footprint. They sunk into the soil up to their first knuckle before hitting the bottom. Even the much shallower claw prints of the reptilian beast were still visible, meaning they hadn’t been exposed to the elements for long.
Their rastgar was a big boy and he’d been in the area recently. Micah stood up and clicked his tongue, drawing Ravi’s attention. She padded up to him and after a silent hand moti...
2020-11-12 23:33:42 +0000 UTC
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The Jolly Porker was more a restaurant than a bar. Maybe that was why their table was getting dirty looks as Trevor and Drekt took another shot of juusht. Of course, it could be that Trevor wasn’t quite of age to purchase the alcohol that Drekt was passing him.
It didn’t help that they were drinking heavily over lunch with an obvious youth at the table Micah thought sourly as he sliced off another chunk of ham and put it into his mouth. At least the food was good, ...
2020-11-09 23:54:24 +0000 UTC
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