Matizu Writes

AW Chapter 82 - Ice Spear

“Prancer cannot get a single heal in as Veyra cancels Wisp Of Healing for a second time!” Artonis’s voice roared over the arena. “The Celestial Order are trying to deal with Veyra using minimal mana, and that’s backfiring! Miko is forced to cast Warlock’s Territory on Veyra, giving no assistance to Annath!”

Next to Anna, The group of teens that had called the match a picnic now had their eyes locked on the display above, no more funny remarks flowing. Aiden and the Swordma...

B4 Chapter 31 - Aspirations Of Godhood

“The grinder’s production has slowed due to excessive monster attacks from runaway storms.”

Letters appeared on the thick wooden board in front of Shilman Fried, a machine that its inventor had named…

What was the name again… Shilman thought. His memory hadn’t been very good lately.

Ah, right, it was the spanboard. Funny, how a scientist was allowed to come up with a name for a device that was essentially just ether and a few runes to c...

AW Chapter 81 - Win Conditions

“I’m so sorry,” Veyra said. “Really, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

The Emerald Aurora was white and green, with colors that I’d never seen on Veyra. Its silky fabric could only belong to a support mage. Veyra wasn’t in her element at all wearing it, and that showed from her uncomfortable posture.

I grabbed her into a tight hug. “How does everything you wear look so damn good?”

�...

B4 Chapter 30 - Dungeon

“Ideally, the next group of goons that visit should get knocked out silently.” Cael faced Lortel calmly. “Death also works if it’s without rips or blood on their clothes. I don’t have any qualms killing Shilman’s goons. Can you do that?”

Lortel remained hesitant. Cael tried his best to appear as neutral as possible, to not rub in the fact that he’d just proven wrong just about everything she said. People hated being proven wrong, which was why rubbing in a victory was so...

AW Chapter 80 - Wait

“Honestly, I didn’t think you were the type of person to wait like this.”

The storm clouds raged with thunder below, while the silhouettes of two dragons fought in the far distance. I’d sat next to Annath for at least five minutes now, most of that passing in silence. Miko and Prancer had stood awkwardly by the side, until they decided to sit down as well. They began playing tic-tac-toe on the ground.

Despite her kind gesture, Annath didn’t show any more emotion on her f...

B4 Chapter 29 - Kill Shot

Shilman showed up for another checkup two days later, demanding to see the finished enhancement string in action.

“Of course!” Vivi said with a smile, eager to show him all the “progress” she’d made. She picked up the enhancement string of fourteen pieces of ether roots on her table. “As mentioned, the ether root has been cut into pieces, creating a combination of runes.”

Unlike her previous showcase, this enhancement string was perfectly operational and ready to be ...

AW Interlude 2 - Mid-game Princess

Six Years Ago

“What, another fire mage?” Vasili asked with clear disapproval, his arms crossed. “Why? Who’s this little girl?”

Annath and her new guild, The Celestial Order, assembled at the entrance of the Soul Dimension, a level 151 S-ranked dungeon that Annath hoped was the final location of Archmage Malan’s questline. Every hint suggested that the final ingredient to transform him into a lich could be found in the fortress in this dungeon....

B4 Chapter 28 - Oversights

Vivi knew she could still make a case for herself. Liaf hadn’t caught her faking anything. He just didn’t know what an enhancement string was. And thus, he also wouldn’t know that Vivi was not making one.

“It would make sense you haven’t heard of it,” Vivi said, “considering I’m the one who invented it less than a month ago.”

“Interesting,” Liaf said curtly. “What does it do?”

“The simplest explanation is that it’s a method of creating great run...

AW Chapter 79 - Main Stage

I climbed out of the warm-up pod and found that the lights had been turned off, replaced with LEDs. Everyone was quiet with only four people besides us remaining. Two security guards, one for each entrance. Helena, who stood next to Veyra and Aree, and one more organizer sitting by a computer setup with a headset on.

Three minutes. All that was left now was our stage arrival.

“Ready?” Helena asked. “You’re up first.”

Veyra looked ready enough. We both nodded.

B4 Chapter 27 - Hack

For her first night in the smithy, Vivi actually crafted what she was supposed to.

Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. Vivi had no idea how she would craft something to launch a god to the sun, if that was even possible at all. But Shilman didn’t know either, and Vivi knew a lot of jargon. She could definitely create a showcase to “prove” she was making progress, just in case Shilman showed up unannounced to see what she was doing.

The end result was a pretty-looking barrel...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 78 - Dreams

The entry instructions told us to arrive at the venue an hour early. The rest of the instructions were much simpler. We weren’t given detailed routes or door numbers to enter a backstage area. The message I’d received merely told me to show up at the venue’s player reception, where I’d first received my competitor’s pass. Veyra and I would be received there personally, and an organizer would ensure we arrived where we needed to be.

This was serious stuff now. The event organiz...

B4 Chapter 26 - Pretenders

Vivi zapped awake an unknown time later inside a musty and cave-like smithy. Or more precisely, a traditional outside-carving runesmith’s workstation.

There was an L-shaped table with a sword vise, with a neat display of carving knives and conductive paste. The room reminded her of Rensfig’s workstation back in Zand—the one in Ven’s secret base, where she’d created Abyss Destroyer—with closed-in walls and barely enough space to move. All of the equipment here was pristine, h...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 77 - Memes

The night passed so insanely slowly. Not that I wasn’t accustomed to rolling around in bed, unable to sleep. I’d missed dozens of hours of sleep I should have gotten during the last few months.

Tonight in my dark hotel room was different though. Only a small part of my restlessness came from me crushing on Veyra. I was still worried about how she felt about tomorrow, but most of my nervousness came from the upcoming match itself.

We weren’t small-time assassins of the wilder...

B4 Chapter 25 - Teamwork

Questions immediately popped up in Vivi’s head. Most stemmed from her lack of knowledge. Shilman Fried studied her reaction, waiting for her to say something, while Vivi sat and thought.

She hadn’t heard of Freimar before now. Lucius hadn’t told her much about fifth elevation hunters, and she hadn’t studied, which was a mistake in retrospect. Shivenar had been a comfortable enough home that she didn’t feel the need to seek stronger hunters to sell her runeswords to. If anythin...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 76 - Gift

FireBrand was Norwegian, but he spoke English as fluently as any native speaker. Fluency with the language was common for a lot of Wonderwind players, especially for guild leaders of international guilds, of which Zenith Protocol was the most famous of all.

The other Zenith Protocol members seemed amused by the situation, while I thought of how to respond. Aurinn spoke quietly. “Boss probably has an offer. He’s not as scary as he looks. You should hear him out.”

FireBrand di...

B4 Chapter 24 - Archmage

How does he know our names? was Vivi’s first panicked thought. She was ready to open her void core if it came to a fight, but the archmage hadn’t taken a step closer, and his aura was still calm.

“I don’t know, I don’t knowIdontknow!” Lucius said in a panic. “Should we run?”

Vivi didn’t respond. Lucius wouldn’t be of much help. Shilman Fried knew a lot. He knew not only all of their names, including Lucius’s presence and Lortel’s ...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 75 - Washed-up

Even though they discussed strategies for the full five minutes, SoulShadow’s team of three assassins could, in fact, not defeat us.

They tried to dive Veyra as a team of three. She responded as we had practiced, by leaving a [Chronorift] underneath herself before simply portaling next to me. I protected her until her portal came off of cooldown.

The three assassins tried their absolute hardest to kill her in that period, only to find themselves being the ones targeted. They loo...

B4 Chapter 23 - Playing Deities

So Shilman Fried is the only potential enemy who’s strong enough to fight us, and he’s also the only one who can teleport us home.

“Most likely,” Lucius said. “But if Adalene traps us with her troops, it will also be problematic.”

The Queen’s hellish palace revealed more grand courtyards and halls with tall ceilings as they passed, none of which were their destination. They must have passed hundreds of servants by now, and even more soldier...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 74 - Back To The Top

Over the next day, we climbed all the way to the very top of the losers’ bracket, defeating Eon Covenant in the losers’ semi-finals two to one.

Eon Covenant was the first opponent to take a match from us besides Annath. I failed a perfect block in the first round, leading to me being crushed to death by their barbarian player. Veyra tried her best to salvage the fight alone, killing their assassin with a clever [Absolute Zero] trap, but she misplaced an [Elemental Barrier], leading ...

B4 Chapter 22 - Teleporter

A large gathering of knights and extravagantly dressed servants received them outside. More knights in runic armor, a few crossbow-wielding dark-skinned demons, even two robed figures with runic staves—the type Ellinoir Sylva used to shoot projectiles of concentrated ether. Vivi could have probably still defeated the whole convoy if she let her void core run loose, but the amount of opponents would have been impossible for Alda, and especially Cael, even if they were equipped with ...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 73 - Elimination Match

Henrift and his buddies showed up backstage with energy drinks in hand. He hadn’t signed up to fight with his guild, instead signing up with two friends, Serasinner and TeemoMain, both top fifty players from Syntrix. They laughed loudly at a joke, everyone in good spirits, until Henrift spotted me. He walked up.

“We’re both unlucky, eh?” he said, smiling. “Annath crushed us early on.”

“Meh, we were pretty close to winning,” I said.

Henrift snorted. “Everyon...

B4 Chapter 21 - Anger The Gods

A tall trunk of black aspen grew tall from the mountain. Many of its leafless branches had snapped, probably from Vivi hitting the levelstone just now, and the remaining twigs didn’t offer much shade. The tall sky of red stone didn’t have bright facets, nor daylight gems. Instead, streams of bright ethereal lava lit the level all the way to the sky.

Dark, imposing buildings sprawled well into the distance along the declining landscape. A hot demonic city, very similar to the hellsca...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 72 - Headpat

Author note: Merry Christmas!

The image of Annath’s face kept me annoyed for an hour, until it was time to walk back to the warm-up pods before our next match. Soon enough on the same day, I found myself backstage once again, fifteen minutes early, waiting for Veyra and our next match.

I scrolled the forums on my phone, passing time with memes, since I definitely didn’t want to see any discussions related to our earlier match right now. I sipped my col...

B4 Chapter 20 - Break

Remembering the way up to the levelstone wall was nearly impossible. Vivi tried to memorize the turns they took, following Drean, but placing anything into memory in these monotone caverns was too difficult. The spirits knew it naturally, having solidified the route in their core memories, never to be forgotten.

Their combat strategies seemed to be stored there as well. Any time a monster appeared, their response was perfectly precise—their bows flicked in the direction, and their swo...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 71 - Unlucky

I’d applied four stacks of evisceration. Not nearly enough to kill Annath, especially not if I landed my crit against her helmet. I’d need to land a vital hit on open skin if I wanted to one-shot her, which would be impossible, considering she was fully covered in metal.

I didn’t activate [Eviscerate] to kill her. I did it because Sablethorn’s defence stealing mechanic could also crit.

The dagger’s blade hit her helmet with a deep twang. The sta...

B4 Chapter 19 - Sacred World

Vivi missed runesmithing. She’d been away from her crochet hook for weeks now. Not quite as long of a break as she had when she got stuck in the blight, but she still craved to get back to her old routine of smashing her head against four-runed attempts until she slowly got closer to a successful attempt.

Shame, that she wasn’t even creating a sword today. This could very well end up being the weirdest project she’d made so far.

Many of the spirits, including Drean, watched ...

Assassinate Wonderwind Chapter 70 - The Gods

The fight started slowly, with Annath and I both slowly approaching each other. She walked with smug calmness on her face, as if she was merely putting on a show. She equipped her helmet, held her sword with two hands, and went into stance.

With a smooth hop, she activated [Sword Dance]. Her sword flowed behind her, winding up a slow attack.

Until her body suddenly burst into movement as she cast [Sword Dash] at the apex of her swing. The sword launched at me with explosive force...

B4 Chapter 18 - Create

I need to create the strongest projectile possible, Vivi thought the next morning, when the facets started were just brightening.

It didn’t need to be pretty. It didn’t need to be accurate or practical. It just needed to be dangerous enough to cause harm to an impenetrable wall. Vivi thought she had a good idea on how she’d create something dangerous enough.

We’ll need two crucibles, Vivi said. One for smelting the metals, and the other for the inside...