When Nick awoke early the next morning, he found Rita’s eyes staring into his own. His mentor was standing at the foot of his bed with an inscrutable expression on her face. What the fuck? The sight shocked him back to full alertness within a handful of heartbeats. Was she watching me sleep? That is creepy as hell.
She must have read his thoughts from his expression, because she let out a wry chuckle and then stepped back to give him some space. “Don’t flatter yo...
2024-11-25 18:00:14 +0000 UTC
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Edge had no idea what would happen next. All he knew was that he had to lead the beast away from his team before it killed them all. He ran from the decimated farmstead, with the multi-ton predator hot on his heels.
He was certain that Trapper’s crew would use the distraction to get away. All he had to do was stay alive while leading the behemoth in the other direction, find a chance to break free, then circle back and rejoin the others.
It was easier said than done. The creatur...
2024-11-25 18:00:12 +0000 UTC
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Edge’s chains went surging out of his wrists like a pair of angry vipers. They crossed the open air in the blink of an eye and plunged into the gaping wound the behemoth had carved into the padamas’s body. Since the lizard was on the verge of death and still half paralyzed by intimidating roar, it wasn’t in any shape to resist the intrusion when the living links reached its core.
He found himself standing inside an immense cavern, lit up by glowing mushrooms the s...
2024-11-22 18:01:00 +0000 UTC
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By the time that his stance training session with the demonic machine was over, Nick was drenched in sweat. So weary and sore that he could barely walk. Rita slipped one arm around his waist and led him out of the workshop, over to a pipe running along the outside of the building. She had him lean against the wall, then pulled a handle as soon as he was standing beneath the spout.
To his surprise and her amusement, a stream of icy water came rushing out, drenching him in a matter of sec...
2024-11-22 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The last word of Trapper’s warning was still hanging in the air when the situation went from bad to worse in between one heartbeat and the next. Because that was when a threat appeared that made the invisible lizard stalking the party seem downright cuddly by comparison.
As it happens, in addition to their stage, the beasts of Ord can also be categorized by their size. Creatures like the jobos, which only weigh a few times what a person does, are generally referred to as big. Beasts c...
2024-11-21 18:01:02 +0000 UTC
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With a groan of tortured wood, the silo started to topple.
The tip tilted by a couple of degrees before coming to a stop again, causing Edge’s heart to jump into his throat. Come on. Fall, you stupid fucker. We can’t afford to blow this chance.
If this trap didn’t work, the team would be forced to face the angry lizard head-on. Even with [Overdrive], he wasn’t sure that they could win, let alone come out the other side without losing anyone along the way.
Bu...
2024-11-20 18:01:04 +0000 UTC
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Devin raised his two-handed axe in front of his face, just in time to keep his trainer’s weapon from rendering his nose concave. While the attack wouldn’t have killed him with the protective magic the axemaster had cast before their session began, getting his by Yoro’s strikes really fucking hurt. A truth that had been driven into Devin’s body time and time again over the last few days.
The chime of metal against metal rang out across the open air, sending him scrambling to reco...
2024-11-20 18:00:16 +0000 UTC
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Mana went streaming out of Trapper’s core, flowing through the ground until it reached the kill zone in the center of the farmyard.
Although Edge couldn’t see anything move, he knew that the pit traps and bolt throwers had armed themselves and were ready to trigger when the colossal lizard stepped on top of them. At the same time, she primed the deadfall and manually activated her oil slick, causing the devices scattered throughout the area to burst—the same rock-colored sacks she...
2024-11-19 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Edge took in the sight of his oversized foe, while waiting for the order to attack. He ran his gaze across the powerful predator, absorbing its presence. Its power. The aura of menace it exuded with every move that it made.
His mind sharpened during the final, fleeting moments before the beast knew it was in danger—thoughts honed to a razor’s edge by the maelstrom of violence that was oh so inevitably coming.
The green and yellow lizard was even bigger than he remembered. ...
2024-11-18 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Rita only laughed and refused to elaborate further. It was clear by this point that his mentor was testing his resolve, so he didn’t complain or ask any questions, which earned him a nod of respect. She led Nick over to a strange machine with a screen on one side and a bunch of crystals sticking out the other. Then she had him take off his boots and strapped him into a harness hanging from the top.
“It’s programmed to provide instruction as well as corrective feedback. Scream if y...
2024-11-18 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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By this point, Nick was wondering if he could give his reward back to the System. Maybe trade it in for a week at the beach. The fact that Rita was completely unrepentant and staring down as his bloody nose with rapt attention, like she was committing the moment to memory so that she could treasure it later, did nothing to assuage his doubts.
Her next words did manage to make him feel a little bit better. At least enough not to start running away on the spot. “That’s enough for now....
2024-11-15 18:00:09 +0000 UTC
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One adrenaline-soaked hour passed as the crew hid in the shadows, waiting for their moment to strike. Then another rolled by, followed by a third. By now, the tension was so thick that Edge could taste it in the air. Feel it on his skin, like lightning was about to strike.
Every shifting shadow, every creaking branch or animal bleating in the distance sent a fresh surge of cortisol flowing into his veins, urging him to spring into action. Skill-Eater’s gluttony only made things worse,...
2024-11-15 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
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As the sun began to set, Edge and Jumo went to join the other hunters. They were careful not to pass through the silo’s fall zone, just in case they had fucked something up.
When they arrived, they saw that the rest of the team had been busy. A massive pile of fresh produce was leaning against the wagon. The women were using it to hunt animals around the farmstead, which they planned to use as a bait trail to draw the lizard into their trap. They already had several carcasses ready to...
2024-11-14 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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The crew went to bed early and woke up before sunrise. Nothing vicious had come calling during the night, although Riller reported that a pack of scavengers had been sniffing around the perimeter. The man moved into the barn to get some sleep while the rest of the hunters went to work.
It was time to prepare the field, take out the padamas, scout the borderlands, and get the fuck out of the Breadbasket before their luck ran dry. Trapper’s alarms still had a few hours before they would...
2024-11-13 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Nick shrugged to himself then returned the bow, trying his best to clear his mind and concentrate. He was growing increasingly nervous about what was coming, but he decided against using arctic clarity to enhance his focus. He wanted Rita to evaluate his technique at a genuine baseline, without anything getting in the way.
He did, however, try to size up his opponent. To his surprise, the skill was completely silent. One of the few times that it had failed to elicit any manner of respon...
2024-11-13 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Trapper laughed at the confusion on Edge’s face—surprise that she was asking his thoughts on the matter.
“Don’t forget, as fucked up as our situation is, this is still your final exam. Normally, I’d have you set up the whole kill from start to finish, so that you can learn from the experience. We’re low on time and don’t have any room for error, so that isn’t going to happen today. But we can still go through the planning stage together and see how much of our w...
2024-11-12 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Two hours later, the crew was drawing near the final farmstead. This farm was in the northeast corner of the Breadbasket—all the way at the end of the road running through this section of the Ivory Plains.
After another twenty miles of rough terrain, the biome transitioned into a swampy jungle known as the Wetwood Marsh. It was a treacherous land, filled with powerful beasts and monsters, not to mention hazardous terrain and deadly magical weather.
The only thing that kept the m...
2024-11-11 18:00:11 +0000 UTC
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To Nick’s astonishment, what stepped past the threshold wasn’t another contestant, or a person at all for that matter. It was a magical construct. A life-sized wooden doll that looked like a marionette held up by invisible strings.
That was the best metaphor that Nick could come up with on the spot, but it didn’t do the construct justice. Although the living machine looked completely different from the gear swarm he’d faced back in the tower, she was equally complex, perhaps eve...
2024-11-11 18:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The hunters awoke with the rising sun and ate a second helping of harvest stew for breakfast. Then the crew spent a few minutes going over the map while planning out their next move.
Once they had picked their route, they loaded the wagon and started traveling east. With any luck, they would locate their quarry by the end of the day. Then it would be time to set a trap and take the big bad out before anyone else got hurt.
Although they were in the right area, a predator that size ...
2024-11-08 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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By now, the musical clang of hammer striking anvil had risen to fill the air, as Rita went to work at her forge.
It was a heavy, invigorating rhythm. A song of fire and steel that seemed to capture the urgency of battle. That adrenaline-soaked state of being, where life and death are balanced upon the edge of a blade. It got Nick’s blood pumping and filled him with energy. He threw himself into his workout with renewed vigor, moving his feet in time with the beat.
...
2024-11-08 18:00:06 +0000 UTC
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While dinner was stewing, Edge took a lap around the farm, looking for another stray monster for a different kind of meal. He didn’t find any blightlings, although he did steal two basic skills from a pair of possum-like creatures that had been scavenging from the harvest.
They weren’t anything that he wanted to keep. After some consideration, he decided to add the first skill’s experience to repel water, since it was so close to advancing that Absorbing a rank-on...
2024-11-07 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Now that Trapper had outlined their plan, the crew dispersed to complete their assignments.
Edge made his way over to an auxiliary structure that had probably been used for storage. As he walked, he took in the prolific devastation surrounding him on all sides. It was hard to imagine that this was a vibrant, bustling holding less than a week ago. A grim reminder that the Ivory Plains were growing more dangerous by the day.
At least there weren’t any bodies, though what he did fi...
2024-11-06 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Rita looked down at the weapon cradled between her hands, balancing the heavy blade on one palm with no appreciable difficulty.
Her expression seemed sad as she ran her fingertips along the pockmarked metal. She kept muttering to herself while palpating every inch of the sword. Rita began with the tip, then examined the holes in the body, ending with the shorn hilt where the pommel stone had been sheared off long before the weapon entered Nick’s possession.
As she examined the b...
2024-11-06 18:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Edge woke up early the next morning, relieved that nothing had attacked them during the night. Everyone but Trapper was fast asleep. She had given the crew an extra two hours to rest, after tending to their stings with her cleanse skill. Although they had an important mission to complete, the hunters needed to recover from their latest fight before they took on the padamas.
His body was already in peak condition thanks to regeneration, so he kept the cr...
2024-11-05 18:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Jumo saw the question on Edge’s face and explained what was happening. “The gas won’t kill them, but it burns their soft tissue. They will instinctively fall back instead of forcing their way through, since they know it will disperse soon.”
“What’s the point?” he asked. “Are we just buying time?” In response to his question, Jumo pointed. Edge realized that the gas wasn’t climbing all the way up to the crew’s location. That the swirling yellow cloud was being held ...
2024-11-04 18:01:03 +0000 UTC
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“Don’t move.” The woman reached for a slender silver sheath attached to her belt. Half a heartbeat later, she drew her sword and struck in a single motion. The blade was back at her hip before Nick even registered the meaning of her words.
Before he could ask what had just happened, a rattling clack resounded from the ground around his feet. The clatter of hundreds of stones being sliced in half, destroying the matrix binding the magic they contained without triggeri...
2024-11-04 18:00:08 +0000 UTC
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“Check your updates, everyone,” Violet called out. “That many kills should have let our core-wielders gain a few cycles.”
Sure enough, when Edge summoned his Guide, he had some updates waiting for him. He had forgotten that fighting as a crew distributed experience to the entire team, although the amount was reduced when using traps instead of prevailing in a direct confrontation.
You have accumulated sufficient experience to cycle-up your core. Your n...
2024-11-01 17:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Although Nick only had a fraction of a second to process this novel experience, he knew that his life was in danger. He reacted on instinct, understanding on a base, cellular level that he was under attack. If he had taken the time to process what was happening, the blast would have splattered his brains across the plateau, but he didn’t let the moment go to waste.
Lacking time to leap out of the way, he sent his intentions into his buckler. The vambrace snapped into its shield config...
2024-11-01 17:00:06 +0000 UTC
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While Edge stopped to catch his breath, the crew began firing at the swarm, doing their best to whittle down their numbers from range.
Their attacks were more effective than he had feared, since the hunters were skilled with their weapons of choice. Their shots landed in the gaps in the monsters’ armor, targeting joints and other weaker areas. The barrage of missiles took down a dozen blightlings as the crabs began scaling the stone rise leading to the crest.
Riller’s ...
2024-10-31 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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The moment that he was back in his own skin, Edge flung the monster to the ground. He stomped down hard, frozen shell shattering beneath the heel of his boot. As he sprinted out of the grove, his chains tossed the blightling’s skill into his mouth. Then they retracted through his wrists to slumber within his core, leaving him to chew on the run.
He found himself struggling in more ways than one. While harden couldn’t hurt him, it was incredibly tough to eat. Ov...
2024-10-30 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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