It took two days, but neither Saki nor the beastkin found any tunnels nearby that could lead to Synkrasia. Yuriko and the others then decided that they would try to penetrate deeper into the city, but in the meantime, they relocated away from the first barracks building to a different one that wa...
2023-03-06 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Red Femorants,” Sheamus said slowly. “A common foe found in the Chaos Sea’s untamed Fysallis. And the depths of a plane.”
“You didn’t say anything before,” Yuriko said sharply.
“What’s to say?” Sheamus shrugged. “They’re pests. They may look like human insec...
2023-02-27 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostNot a dozen blocks away from the wall and the barracks, dozens of Femorants scurried down the roads and alleyways. The buildings were of varying height, but somehow, from what Yuriko could see, they progressively grew taller the closer they were to a pillar. It meant that looking from where she w...
2023-02-27 13:45:01 +0000 UTC View PostAfter gaping at the reflection of the setting sun, Yuriko’s perception aura alerted her to several disturbing things.
The tunnel they used to enter the chamber exited at roughly five paces above the cavern floor. There was a sloped pathway towards a low wall, but there was also a pit that...
2023-02-27 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA couple of days later, Yuriko and the others encountered their first anathema beast. From that first cavern, they had to travel back a couple more, since all of the branch tunnels had also collapsed under whatever it was that blocked off Synkrasia. They made a base camp on that cavern, which was...
2023-02-27 13:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe fighting had been hot and furious. Riley went through more than half of the Animus Gatherer Pack’s reserves in less than a minute, while Aidan’s plasma orbs had shrunk after colliding with dozens of Chaos dwellers.
The wounded were being carted away, mostly by the deckhands and crew...
2023-02-27 13:00:24 +0000 UTC View PostThere were two tunnels on either end of the underground chamber, and neither of them had any labels or possessed the orichalcum petals or electrum thorns. One of them headed north, while the other, southeast, and given the fact that Yuriko remembered Synkrasia to be near the centre of the plane, ...
2023-02-20 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“That wasn’t a dream, was it?” Yuriko murmured as she paced around the tower’s roof. The clouds weren’t dark today, and there was no feeling of imminent lightning strikes. Their battle hadn’t been that destructive, but she was sure she left some marks when she tempered her Anima and b...
2023-02-20 13:45:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe most intolerable thing about being a ship’s marine was that, at certain points of the action, Riley could do nothing but watch. Anything he did would result in nothing of particular note or consequence. He didn’t have the strength of Animus to destroy a squid ship with a single plasma bol...
2023-02-20 13:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post‘Damien!’ Yuriko called out, but the old man hadn’t responded after nearly ten minutes of mental yelling. Fri’Avgi didn’t have anything to add either, saying that she didn’t know what the old man meant and that she was really only concerned with defeating and devouring things to furth...
2023-02-20 13:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post“A challenger! How rare.”
Yuriko blinked at the monkey’s words, barely registering that they weren’t spoken in Verdanian, or Wojan, before it…he jumped up from his seated pose, dropped his staff behind him, and launched a flying kick at her.
The monkey’s azure robe flutter...
2023-02-20 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostSquinting, Yuriko tried to make out what was happening in the pandemonium. She could see wagons and beasts of burden on one side, then a line of men and women on the eastern side of the clearing at the end of the road. From what she could see, the obsidian tower had an opening on its southern fac...
2023-02-13 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe Sullen Striker dipped below Equilibrium as more and more of the squid ships appeared out of the nearby Waypoints. The first few that pursued them had been easy enough to defeat, but Riley’s fatigue had built up over the next thirty-six hours of constantly using his weapon. Almost as soon as...
2023-02-13 13:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post“An army? Whose?” Yuriko asked.
“It looks like a combined force from the Federation,” Saki answered. “The road stretches from north to south. I think it leads to that pillar and goes all the way to one of the cities.” She shrugged, “I’m not sure which one is to the east of t...
2023-02-13 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostMost of the elation Yuriko felt at fighting the strange, iron-furred wolves faded as soon as she saw the camp. The tension was palpable, with over three times more people on watch. They managed to push the forest back by a couple of dozen paces, had dug up a trench, and had the makings of a decen...
2023-02-13 13:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostTwin bolts of lightning, red and black, struck the ironhide wolf on either end. The red lightning struck the nose, while the black hit the rump, and a moment later, the wolf’s body spun around before it slammed into a tree trunk. The lightning tethers remained, and the direction reversed even f...
2023-02-13 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe wolf sprang for Gwendith’s throat, but she ducked and rolled underneath it. At the same time, the needle she created out of the stream water, slammed into its pelt. It shattered, failing to penetrate the metal fur, but that hadn’t been her goal in the first place. The area it hit, the rig...
2023-02-06 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe rest of the caravan was still a couple of days away, but the route to get to the ridge was pretty much secure, it was just how to get down into the valley that presented a minor challenge.
Yuriko sat on the edge, with her legs dangling over the void. The mists thickened despite the noon...
2023-02-06 13:45:00 +0000 UTC View PostMy. How luxurious.
‘Huh?’ Yuriko sent back, jolted out of her daze. She was neck-deep in the bathtub, the hot water steamed and obscured the rest of the room. It was already dark outside and the soft light from the light panels didn’t give much illumination. It was relaxing t...
2023-02-06 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Meeeeheeeeeh.”
A herd of mountain goats nibbles at the bristly shrubs along the cliffside. There were dozens of the brown-coated beasts, with dark twisty horns, and cloven hooves. The small plateau, ledge, really, was just broad enough for a dozen of them to gather. And as soon as Yuri...
2023-02-06 13:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostAs far as he could see, the man named Salter Blume was annoyingly plain. Lucian Ward, the recently returned hero of Garamus, wanted to slap the smaller man silly. There was just something off with Salter, specifically in the way Lucian’s eyes wanted to slide off the other man, or how his mind c...
2023-02-06 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAs the Sullen Striker cut through the Chaos Sea, Riley glanced fitfully at the stern, then towards the port side where the other two assault cruisers sailed. He could barely make out the nearest one’s name, printed on the side of the bow.
“The Shattering Spear?” he muttered as he squi...
2023-01-30 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Leo is nearly eighteen,” Izna Weyr said. Braden and Orrin nodded along while Yuriko poked at her dinner. “That he awakened now…” Izna stared at her and pursed his lips. “Yours?”
“By accident,” Yuriko admitted. “You saw how he was shocked…but that may only be the final...
2023-01-30 13:45:02 +0000 UTC View Post“What did you decide?” Yuriko asked curiously.
Dominic Hurin coughed and said, “Er, not me. Us.” His lips twitched into a grin. “I guess we all prefer to be with you, Lady Yuriko.”
“Oh!” Yuriko exclaimed, taken aback and exhilarated.
Then, she felt worry return a...
2023-01-30 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Welcome back, Lady Yuriko,” Dominic Hurin bowed in greeting.
“Good to be back,” Yuriko replied. She glanced around the oasis and found little to have changed except for a few plots that had been ploughed and were being readied for planting. “They’ve started already?”
Th...
2023-01-30 13:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe Knight of the Abyss stirred from his seat as he felt the broken shards of Anima return. Many still felt rage and resentment, both toward their previous lives, no matter how long it had been, and to their master who had given them glorious purpose in return for service. The Knight was ever tha...
2023-01-30 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostHeron’s collapsible spear opened with a snap. His Anima condensed into a thin film and spread over the spear and his resonating buckler. The small shield unfolded like a fan and created a circle over his wrist, a little more than ten inches across. His first Facet, the only one remaining in his...
2023-01-23 17:37:00 +0000 UTC View PostIt was still early evening by the time Yuriko, Asami, and Desire returned to their inn. The Beaver’s Largesse, as the sign said. Yuriko didn’t care to remember and only saw the sign when they returned. It wasn’t that hard to distinguish though, even if most of the buildings in this part of ...
2023-01-23 13:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post“This looks like a likely place,” Braden muttered.
Across the street was the entrance to a bustling marketplace, and even late in the afternoon, it was filled with shoppers and travellers. Beside him, Orrin shrugged, while Gwendith nodded in agreement. However, her eyes remained colder ...
2023-01-23 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostUnlike Haveena, Uaran didn’t have a wall. And unlike Kadrac, the city wasn’t one made of leather tents either. As far as Yuriko could see, Uaran was a city of large villas, much like Sorren’s Hollow within Synkrasia, except multiplied a hundred times over.
The city simply stretched ou...
2023-01-23 13:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post