Iron Lung writes

FG, Ch 106

---Southern Arasaka Coastline---

---Former Clan Hitogi ‘Fujiwara’ Plantation---

Marcus stretched his hands across the weathered map that sat upon his bamboo command table, his eyes tracing the new etchings his scouts had given him before he looked...

CC, Ch. 93

The celebration feast in the wake of his victory was more lavish than XJ-V felt he deserved. The entire edifice of the Spearclaw Colosseum was brought down and the Regulators organized rows of tables to be filled with the most seasoned meats and sweet treats that existed in the storerooms of Ramo...

FG, Ch. 105

---Two weeks later---

---Hokiyama, City of Scarlet Knives---

---North Arasaka Prefecture---

 Patriarch Kanade Jung calmly placed another pale ston...

FG, Ch. 104

Fury.

The Overseers of the Kaita Southern Plantation felt the air charge with this single emotion, sweeping through the slaves in a psychic wave that came crashing down on Lord Yakuma and then came for them.

Those who dropped their weapons and fled had the right of it – they were t...

CC,Ch.92

Victory…

In the wake of the duel that had had XJ-V stare into the flames of his past, the Colosseum of Aun’El was repurposed. Without having time for nary a breath, the Cog was whisked away to prepare for the ceremony of his triumph, and the celebration th...

FG, Ch, 103

Marcus sat in his tent, pouring over a small etching of the Clan Kaita plantation done by a few of his Oshu scouts. Luckily, the Overseers and guards didn’t watch the horizon closely enough to pick out their camouflaged forms. This, Marcus thought with no small level of excitement, could be the...

FG, Ch 102

The next morning, Marcus knew they weren’t alone.

He woke to the sounds of screaming as the sun split the trees, and both he and Mari ran outside to find the army surrounded on all flanks by a group of thin, almost skeletal beings hanging from the trees.

“Oshu…” Mari murmured....

CC: Ch. 91

In Aun’El’s Grove, something was happening.

Far from the chaos of the Colosseum duels, the Huli and water-spirits around the great Qi pool watched in wonder as the waters began to ripple and bubble with life. A sheen of lambent gold then shone from the very depths of the po...

FG, Chapter 101

The next few mornings stretched on, the heat of Thea’s crimson sun bearing down with more intensity than the claustrophobic darkness of the Underkingdom ever did. The lush plant life of the jungle more than made up for this issue, however. Marcus had never been much of an outdoorsm...

FG, Ch 100

Mari stared at the Yokun tied up before her.

She didn’t really know why she’d lied to Marc when she said she wanted to hit the hay. She was tired—that much was true. But a more…primitive compulsion had forced her to come here, into the tent they were using to hold their special litt...

CC: Chapter 90

Mah-Jung felt his Qi reserves deplete, pouring into his relentless assault on the XJ-V’s melting body. Then, with a spark of searing light, the machine-man rose like a steelclad phoenix.

“Impossible…”

It was the only word...

FG, Chapter 99!

Quick note: thanks to all Patrons for your support! To celebrate Fantasy General's 100th chapter, there'll be a bonus chapter tomorrow!

The rising of a new dawn over the South Arasaka jungles brought with it a new sense of purpose for the Pipers. There was business to be conducted be...

FG, Ch 98

Prince Nagoya was not a Yokun to allow surprise to overcome his battle-fervor.

He struck out at the deceptive Tigran with force, his katana cutting into the thick carapace of Yokun armor she dared to desecrate with her fleabitten flesh. She buckled beneath him as soon as the bl...

FG, Ch 97

Marcus wasn’t sure exactly what would happen when his burning hand touched the Hakka carts at the back of the Prince’scamp. Indeed, as the Tigran Pipers stalked forward and slit the throats of the half-asleep men who had been stationed to guard them, he gulped down a sense of palpable anxiety...

CC, Ch. 88

XJ-V had expected an Aun’El’s Rebuke right off the bat, but Mah-Jung surprised him with five consecutive Dragon Tooth’s that sailed towards him as though personally intent on his destruction.

Two Dragon Swipes sent the firebolts flying wide, but XJ-V had no time to recove...

FG, Ch. 96

Marcus tried to stifle the spluttering, whooping coughs that racked his throat.

Marvin, he telepathed. How close to the surface are we?

The bulky human replied as his pickaxe bashed through clods of dirt and soil above them, while the rest o...

CC, Ch. 87

“Let the clarions of Aun’El ring out for our final contenders! The prize: the glory of joining the illustrious order of Planeswalkers! The combatants: Mah-Jung and XJ-V of the Eternal Dragon!”

Ori’un’s call reverberated through the crowd like...

FG, Ch 95

“Lord Nagoya, the Zhurkin have failed to report.”

The Yokun who delivered this message said nothing more to his Prince before bowing swiftly and returning to his post, dread hounding his every step.

“Like a den of wolves,�...

FG, Chapter 94

The main assembly chamber of Piper’s Hill was brimming with wounded and the battle-ready. Tigran, Yokun, and human beings jostled about this way and that, attending to eachother with the meagre supplies they still had. Yet others were busy ensuring the last of the ...

CC, Chapter 86

[Anima Cores: 158]

Concentrate…

Concentrate, and…

His next fight – the final fight – was on the horizon.

The fight that would determine his future, and perhaps ...

FG, Chapter 93

“Soul of Rakhash…” Hialjia murmured as she saw the brilliant green light spark in Marcus’s palm. “He is…truly Gloomraava.”

“Jump, Hialjia!” Mari shouted while everyone else was blindsided by the sight—and the YokunZhurkin began to back off.

As Hialjia jumped back o...

FG, Ch 92

The civilian plaza of the Piper’s Hill commune was awash with shades of purple-crimson splashed on onyx—the armor of the Hitogi Zhurkin buckling under the pressure of the coordinated slaves. Their flanks began to push their frontline spearmen forward, desperately attempting to avoid the hail ...

CC: Chapter 85

“I’ll tell you what I saw on that first day we met,” a rather drunk Feng-Lung told XJ-V as they sat on the roof of the Ramor-Tai library.

“Gracious,” Kai-Thai yawned. “Should we leave you two alone for this?”

“Kai,” Fai-Deng grunted. “If you make another joke, I wi...

FG, Ch 91

The entrance to Piper’s Hill was engulfed in chaos.

Mari was stationed at the residential quarters just past the first corridor, relying on the ragtag troops she had left to keep the invaders occupied.

“Move, move!” she was shouting over the din of combat, watching the former sl...

FG, Ch. 90

Sounds of combat reverberated throughout the underground vaults of Piper’s Hill. Marcus heard them as a veteran who never believed he’d have to hear them ever again did – with a crippling, knowing trepidation.

“Marcus Graham,” Jin’an said. “I thought ...

CC: Chapter 84

Defeat…

XJ-V sat cross-legged in his small crook of the Eternal Dragon quarters, the flickering light of a single candle casting elongated shadows on the walls. The air was thick with the incense he had burned to facilitate his meditation, but despite his best efforts, the tranqu...

FG, Ch 89

“Matriarch…”

Marcus traced the curvature of the Yokun’s robes and ended on her sharp reptile eyes.

“That makes you the female leader of Mari’s House, right?”

“The former leader,” the Matriarch whispered. “I...

FG, Ch 88

Mari led him by the hand back through the shanty town that was Piper’s Hill. The place had become a hub of activity since last night – the former slaves were swiftly packing their things and making ready to move. Marcus saw Yokun and humans both swaddling their younglings and carrying as much...

FG, Ch 87

Prince Nagoya Hitogi looked upon the leveled plain of desolation he’d carved into the earth.

What had once been a dense patch of the jungle had been reduced to smoking cinders, the trees whittled away to dark skeletons of their former selves, not even a hint of vegetation remaining on the...

CC: Chapter 83

“As you wish, Brother,” Mah-Jung told the goading Feng-Lung.

The tension in the arena was palpable as the two Dragon Sect Disciples faced off once more. Feng-Lung’s confident smirk mirrored the determination in Mah-Jung’s eyes. The ethereal winds continued to howl through the arena...