Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 23 - Reflection

One of most challenging aspects of writing B&C has been the increased focus on more mechanical problems, namely the Dungeon itself. My comfort zone has always been character interaction and dialogue, and in the past I've struggled to make fights intense while also being easy to follow. A huge benefit of this book is that it's forced me to write a series of shorter fight scenes in a row, and I honestly feel like my skills in that department have grown considerably over the course of this book.

However, now that I've established what a typical fight in the Dungeon looks like, I finally get to start skimming over some of the more mundane fights. I thought it was extremely important to show the first few fights in the Dungeon, to give a feel for how everyone acts during combat, but anything past that becomes unnecessary. Now that I've established that Kat, Alicia, Tab, and Roxy can hold their own, I only need to show the fights that are more relevant to the plot!

This also gives me a fantastic opportunity to skip forward to Alicia and Kat's next Level Up. I've been excited to share this little tidbit for a while, but it appears that Alicia's been growing as she takes more points in Health!

Now, I'll admit I don't particularly care for the idea of fame, but everyone once in a while I think of little 'what if?' scenarios in my head. For some reason, whenever I try to picture Alicia growing as she Levels Up, I'm picturing a reality where this book is crazy popular and suddenly there's a bunch of fan art poking fun at Alicia's new height. Her and her vampire girlfriend are adorable, I hope I get the money to commission some art of them at some point.

Anyways, after we take a few minutes to enjoy Alicia's little growth spurt, it's finally time to jump deeper into the Dungeon. I really enjoyed putting together the Second Floor, and hopefully I was able to nail a vibe somewhere between spooky and beautiful.

I'm happy with how unique the floor is compared to the First Floor, but I'm also happy that we're introduced to it through Kat's eyes. It's been a long time since we've really seen her wrestle with her bloodlust, and for this chapter I wanted to stress that it's not something she'd ever going to be free of. Things have certainly been better with Alicia around, but Roxy's addition to the group means that much more delicious blood just hanging around.

I'm also quite pleased with how I introduced the boss of the floor. I spent quite a bit of time trying to nail the description of the massive deer's glowing antlers, and I think I did a pretty good job. It's always fun to find a chance to describe something while also trying to hide what exactly it is.

Of course, we only get in a single fight before the party decides to bounce. A little bit of healing, a small nap, and it's time to wrap up the chapter. We're inching closer to the end of our little Dungeon adventure!

Nyx <3