Lester Yong & Rosa Fontelera-Yong

CoESC Book 15-3.3: The Grind

Michael Stonereiz, college sophomore on the Battle Ball Varsity team, chugged along as he did his laps around the track oval. He went at a brisk clip, something he could keep up for a couple of hours and come out of it moderately tired rather than completely wiped out. It was needed since Battle ...

CoESC Book 15-3.2: The Grind

Yuriko walked behind the crowd, eyes focused on the two brawlers. One had black hair cut in the military style, while the other had golden hair in a style called a mullet. The golden mullet man was attired in a military dress uniform, complete with medals, while the brunette wore tight-fitting re...

CoESC Book 15-3.1: The Grind

Scarlett’s eyes were just a couple of inches from Yuriko, and the petite girl had her forehead and nose scrunched up.

“You’ve changed,” Scarlett repeated as she drew back, her expression flickering.

“In what way?” Yuriko asked casually, feigning innocence.

Scarlet...

CoESC Book 15-2.3: Altered

Yuriko stood in front of the mirror with her lips pursed. It was just about dawn, and she was ready to head over to the university campus, though she was early by an hour. In the wardrobe, she found five sets of near identical outfits and with a little prodding, ‘remembered’ that those were u...

CoESC Book 15-2.2: Altered

A desperate and possibly in leave of their senses, teenager, is who would be foolish enough to rob a grocery store.

The building wasn’t even that big, and there were only a couple of checkout lanes. The robber had a balaclava on his head, obstructing everything but his eyes, mouth, and no...

CoESC Book 15-2.1: Altered

The experience of being kissed and groped by someone other than her chosen lovers was more than unpleasant. It felt like a violation of her body and mind, so Yuriko reacted with predictable violence.

She shoved the man off her with her right hand, her left grabbed his wrist, wrenched it of...

CoESC Book 15-1.3: I, Yuriko

To her relief, the warm rays of the Radiant Sun slowly refilled her Radiant energy as she walked down the street. Lilibeth had more clothes than Yuriko expected, with a hanging closet, several drawers, and even a few boxes scattered around the bedroom and living room. The brasserie fitted oddly n...

CoESC Book 15-1.2: I, Yuriko

Yuriko stared at the skyline for a long while, muttering to herself. The buildings weren’t the fat but tall kind that dominated Dragon Fall City, but the thin, graceful needles that were more reminiscent of the glass buildings in the Uaran plane, back at the Empire. The building outlines were l...

CoESC Book 15-1.1: I, Yuriko

The experience of having an incarnation had not been all that much different from Yuriko’s normal. At least, at first. When the portal opened and took part of her with it, she had been frightened of losing part of herself. That she only felt the cold of the void around the little bit of her tha...

Posting Break Alert!

With the closing of Book 14, we'll be taking a break to gather whatever thoughts and wherewithal we can and, of course, prepare for Book 15!

Posting will resume on October 14.

Any guesses which direction Yuriko's development will go?

• L&R

CoESC Book 14-23.3: Aggressive Conflict Resolution

Authority detected.

Divine Shard absent.

Analysing connection. 

Incomplete Authority, missing Divine Shard. Path analysis.

Determination: Paragon. Exalt. 

Yuriko blinked a...

CoESC Book 14-23.2: Aggressive Conflict Resolution

Johann yelped as soon as the tide of Anima spread out from Yuriko. The woman had touched the portal plinth, froze, then spread her Anima. He felt it wash over him at its fullness. Not the shallow touch that was often used to scout, but the full weight one used when one fought. Or used in displays...

CoESC Book 14-23.1: Aggressive Conflict Resolution

A layer of frostscales shattered, but thankfully, Gwendith had three layers protecting her body at all times. While each scale was roughly an inch wide, it was barely hair-thin. They still mitigated kinetic force, and the first layer was designed to ablate so that excess force didn’t transfer b...

CoESC Book 14-22.3: Dragon Heart

Johann led Yuriko into a parlour that was quite out of place within the bowels of the mountain. It was in one of the buildings just a couple of dozen paces from the wall. It was two storeys tall and the upper floor was where the two of them sat. Inside, the house was decorated with a mishmash of ...

CoESC Book 14-22.2: Dragon Heart

Gwendith was somewhat bored. Living off the grid, away from the apartment and the amenities inside the mega buildings, needed a bit of adjustment. She and the others had only been in Dragon Fall City for a little while, a couple of weeks or so, but already, the place kinda grew on them.

2024-09-30 13:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post

CoESC Book 14-22.1: Dragon Heart

Johann struggled to close his eyes. The vision of beauty was too much. Many Ancients were gorgeous, especially those who progressed into Actualisation. Even he was better looking than when he was still in the Second Growth Stage. Actualisation allowed one to reach one’s ideal state, and most pe...

CoESC Book 14-21.3: Complications

The chain guns fired in a continuous whirl straight down the tunnel and into the swarming antibodies. The bullets left an afterimage—a line of yellow fire across the air—and Johann couldn't help but whistle at the technological marvel as it decimated the horde. The munitions were thermal roun...

CoESC Book 14-21.2: Complications

Yuriko was once again back in the fray. She switched out her longsword for a couple of short swords, each one only had twelve inches of blade. Unlike the longsword, the shortsword was meant to stab more than cut. It still had an edge on either side of the blade, however, so that was fine with reg...

CoESC Book 14-21.1: Complications

Gwendith’s Anima reach had grown to ten and a half paces, but she could hardly quantify it like that. Her Anima was so flexible that she hardly saw any point to keeping its shape into a perfect sphere, even if that had been possible. Unlike Yuriko, her perception aura, and her Anima really, had...

CoESC Book 14-20.3: Scramble

Cut.

What is the essence of cutting? Yuriko pondered as she danced through the blobbies.

A few days had passed since she called Gwendith through the spell, and she wandered deeper into the mountain. The farther north east she went, the more entangled the capillary tunnel...

CoESC Book 14-20.2: Scramble

Yuriko’s thoughts swirled around her shortcomings. Or rather, her swordsmanship’s shortcomings. Without Radiant energy, her swordplay wouldn’t be as good, she knew. She lived off it back in Rumiga, right after her Atavism Ritual. Before she held Fri’Avgi, she used a sideblade, a Plasma Ca...

CoESC Book 14-20.1: Scramble

Ryoko hummed as she browsed the wet market on the 101st floor.

‘No, it can’t be truly called a wet market. For that, it must actually contain wet things,’ she thought to herself with a giggle. It was close enough though, since food prep was practically illegal in the mega building. On...

CoESC Book 14-19.3: Corpse

DannyGhost: I’ve got it.

Michaka: I can’t believe you talked anyone else into this.

DannyGhost: It wasn’t that hard.

Michaka: Really?

DannyGhost: Not everyone’s a pretend prude like you.

Michaka: I resemble that statement!

DannyGhost: Point. And Devilma...

CoESC Book 14-19.2: Corpse

The meeting room was small, barely three paces to a side. The bench was barely wide enough to seat Heron comfortably, and the table in between trapped his legs. He was clad in casual clothes: a t-shirt that had a pretty flame design on it, tight-woven cotton that the locals called jeans, and a pa...

CoESC Book 14-19.1: Corpse

“Dragon Fall City. Dragon Blooded. Scourge bones. A mountain with bones. The blood used to turn and make Scourge…” Yuriko muttered as she walked towards the tunnel. Her mind was a bit dazed after her enlightenment. “Who knew it was also the Radiant energy that was messing with my head?”...

CoESC Book 14-18.3: What Lies Underneath

One moment, the pool was simply boiling. Then the next, it seemingly exploded. That was Yuriko’s first impression though, but a second glance countered it. The pool rose, almost like it was boiling over, but then, a second later, tentacles shot out and stabbed into the ground. Whatever that thi...

CoESC Book 14-18.2: What Lies Underneath

‘Mama, help!’

Fluffer’s mental shriek jostled Yuriko out of her daze at the armoured man’s strange, possibly suicidal actions. Her gaze snapped towards her pupper even as she mouthed ‘Mama?’ to herself.

Shaking her head, she fought the urge to burst into laughter at the s...

CoESC Book 14-18.1: What Lies Underneath

By her reckoning, Yuriko and Fluffington had traversed nearly fifty longstrides under the mountains, if it was by a straight line. She couldn’t really be sure since she couldn’t employ her standard method of measurement by dint of using her reach as well as the Radiant Sun or Luminous Moon fo...

CoESC Book 14-17.3: Blood of the Forefathers

Using her Anima to fly, or simply to travel faster down the tunnel, was a fool’s errand, Yuriko decided. Touching the bare walls would hurt or distract her, and probably the only reason the floor didn’t sap her energies was because of the layer of sediment. The raiders might only be ahead by ...

CoESC Book 14-17.2: Blood of the Forefathers

Part of Ilvara’s job was watching up-and-coming matches in arenas, legal and otherwise, around the city. She’d had her fill of the legitimate kind years ago. It was all the same, she realised early on. The pageantry, the gear, the methodology. Prospective recruits, serious gladiators, and eve...