I charged the burning golem, Knut veering off for the other, when Eryn's voice called out clear and strong from behind me.
“I love you too! Don't do anything stupid!”
A heat fully different than the one I got in combat rushed through me.
Roq's derisive snort echoed in my min...
2025-02-27 22:33:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe flames warmed my skin as I stood next to the burning golem carcass. Its massive form was fully engulfed like a bonfire. I pulled my cloak forward, running my fingers over the rough fabric that had just saved my life. There were no visible scorch marks or any signs of damage.
“...
2025-02-26 22:24:54 +0000 UTC View PostMy heart thundered in my ears as I crouched behind a massive bone rib that thrust up from the ground like an ancient monument. Two hundred feet away, the Ironroot Golems stood motionless, unaware of our presence. With me in place, Knut slowly walked to position himself halfway between Eryn and th...
2025-02-26 22:24:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe wooden bridge creaked under our feet as we approached the rift. A group was already waiting to cross the other way with a steelhusk log. The workers below were putting the finishing touches on the defensive ditch. In just the few days we'd spent working the smithy and getting the mind gems in...
2025-02-25 20:56:11 +0000 UTC View PostI could barely see in the darkness as I bounced out of bed. Sleep had come late and left early, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Not today. There was way too much to do.
Water sloshed from the barrel as I dumped a ladleful over my head, standing outside in the morning wind, and gasping ...
2025-02-25 20:55:28 +0000 UTC View Post“By all the Kingdom's forges,” Pa said, his voice dangerously soft as he ran his fingers along the workbench's scarred surface. “What did you do to my smithy, son? Have you been wrestling monsters in here?”
My mouth went dry. We'd spent three hours cleaning, organizing, putting ever...
2025-02-24 18:52:39 +0000 UTC View Post“And this one?” Ma asked, turning over one of the platemaw pieces in her hands, the armor gleaming in the shop's morning light. None of us could still believe how it all turned out, and even Pa was visibly impressed, constantly mumbling something to himself and nodding.
“Adventuring p...
2025-02-24 18:51:57 +0000 UTC View Post“Come on,” Eryn said, tugging at my arm and pulling me away from the street where I'd been pacing back and forth for the last hour or so. “Wearing a path in the dust won't make time pass any faster.”
She was right, but the waiting gnawed at me to the point I even started biting my o...
2025-02-23 21:54:45 +0000 UTC View PostI rolled the first mind gem between my fingers, watching the patterns swirl deep inside the crystal. An almost hypnotically blue-white light danced within, moving as if caught within a vortex.
“Five whole mind gems,” Eryn said, touching my shoulder. “This is—”
“More than I...
2025-02-23 21:54:02 +0000 UTC View PostThe striker exploded into a storm of deadly shards after I smashed Roq through its torso. I ducked, fragments pinging off the Scuttler plates reinforcing my shield.
“Two more from the left!” Eryn called out, already loosing another arrow.
I spun, my shield raised to intercept, jus...
2025-02-22 13:48:13 +0000 UTC View Post“Nothing. Not a single gem in either of them.” Roq's disappointment rang through my skull. “We should press deeper into the chasm. That's where the real treasures lie. The powerful ones. The ones worthy of our—”
“No gems,” I told Eryn, cu...
2025-02-22 13:47:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe gates of Sentinel Station creaked open, revealing the killing fields. Two short rings of the bell announced our departure to everyone within earnshot. We'd secured another simple scouting mission to look for monster signs.
Eryn adjusted her bow across her back, making sure it lay flat a...
2025-02-21 22:34:53 +0000 UTC View PostDarkness had settled over Dawnwatch when Eryn kissed me on the cheek.
“Good luck,” she said, shooting me a wink before making her way down the keep's scaffolding. “Don't give him any slack!”
“Thanks. I won't.”
After having dinner at home, I'd climbed up there w...
2025-02-21 22:33:59 +0000 UTC View PostThe walk back was slow and blessedly free of monsters. Each step sent twinges through my hip while Roq worked hard on mending it. Hopefully, he wouldn't consume any of the corpses with gems inside.
Eryn matched my pace, bow and arrow in one hand, the other wrapped around my waist. I bet she...
2025-02-20 20:11:55 +0000 UTC View PostPain lanced through my shield arm as I skidded across the ravine floor. My head spun, vision blurring from the impact. Small rocks dug into my back through the damaged leather armor, some cutting into my neck, drawing blood.
Shit! What the hell are we even doing? That thing's going to d...
2025-02-20 20:11:02 +0000 UTC View PostI settled into position below Eryn's perch, my shield ready. Above me, she made a soft clicking sound with her tongue, which was our signal for a target spotted. I clicked in return.
She scraped a nail against her bow, twice.
Two targets.
I nodded, adjusting my stance. ...
2025-02-19 18:35:24 +0000 UTC View PostI scanned the ravine's metallic terrain. Loose shards of stone littered natural ledges. Perfect ambush spots. But also perfect for what we had set out to do.
“It should come up through there,” I said, keeping my voice low and pointed to a natural path through the rocks. “That's the ea...
2025-02-19 18:34:22 +0000 UTC View PostA hazy mist washed over us as we stepped out of the rift's portal into Sentinel Station.
Teams of loggers trudged toward the east gate, heavy axes leaned on shoulders. Above us, guards exchanged quiet words as the watch changed, their boots scraping against the wooden walkways.
My hea...
2025-02-18 19:35:01 +0000 UTC View PostPa had laid out our Scuttler parts in neat rows on the workbenches. The smithy’s double doors were closed tight, and my belly was warm and full after a hearty breakfast. Ma had been showing off, knowing Eryn would be joining us for the meal at dawn, and I had to admit that I didn't mind at all....
2025-02-18 19:34:23 +0000 UTC View PostThe forge blazed with its usual warmth as Pa stood at the butchering station, running a whetstone along his favorite dissection blade. The metal sang with each stroke. I kept my arm wrapped around Eryn's waist while she leaned against me, both of us watching Pa as he prepared for business. It was...
2025-02-16 21:00:21 +0000 UTC View PostI halted a bit down the road from home, and Eryn stopped to look at me.
“Changed your mind?” she asked.
“Not at all. Just, you've seen Ma, right?”
She nodded, setting her bloody blonde hair moving.
“She can be a bit enthusiastic, is all,” I said.
“Don't...
2025-02-16 20:59:52 +0000 UTC View PostEryn and I walked across the courtyard to the medical station, positioned close to the rift for rapid response. The tan canvas stretched across a temporary structure, and stood out against the steelhusk-clad purplish palisades. It wasn't the only one of its kind, either, as several more were posi...
2025-02-16 20:59:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe walk back to Sentinel Station was blessedly uneventful, with Edwin carrying Knut easily, his strength making the mercenary seem light as a child. Eryn stayed close to my side as we recounted with Johan what had happened with Benedict's group.
Soon, the killing field stretched before us,...
2025-02-16 20:58:47 +0000 UTC View PostScuttler legs kept pushing through the gaps. I crushed them one after another, but all the monster goo mixed with my own blood as their attacks found me time and time again. A pincer caught my thigh, another my side. None of the attacks were fatal, but they sapped away at my life and my stamina.<...
2025-02-16 20:58:17 +0000 UTC View PostI stared at the Scuttler's crushed shell and the monster goo that was splashed across the ground, my arm tingling from the impact.
“Roq? How can such a light hammer deliver such a powerful blow?”
“CRRRRITICAL HIT!” Roq's voice thundered through m...
2025-02-16 20:57:43 +0000 UTC View PostA hint of light caught in the metallic shavings beneath my feet, each tiny flake trembling like leaves in a storm, except they were too heavy for the wind to move. The massive silver tree at the heart of the Metal Grove loomed ahead, in the grove's center.
“We need to leave,” I said, my...
2025-02-16 20:57:20 +0000 UTC View PostThe soul chart hovered in my vision like a thick tendril of smoke that wouldn't dissipate. I tried to withdraw from it mentally, but the damn thing just stayed there as if mocking me.
Come on, come on!
My tattoo itched worse, like ants crawling under my skin and trying to bit...
2025-02-16 20:56:53 +0000 UTC View PostPa's strong hands helped me to my feet, though my legs still shook.
“Easy there, son. You don't look so good. Sit for a while.”
The workshop door burst open. Ma rushed in, her face pale and she even had a piece of steel in her hand, ready to clobber anyone.
“What happened?...
2025-02-16 20:56:24 +0000 UTC View PostPa always said that a weapon told its story to whoever bothered listening close enough. As I stood in the smithy's doorway, watching him arrange steel with great care, I wondered what story the soul weapon would tell.
The sun lit the room through the skylight. I'd planned to be up first, bu...
2025-02-16 20:55:54 +0000 UTC View PostThe shadows lengthened as I walked the circular path that led toward the town keep. It had risen so fast that the outer walls already stood three stories high, steelhusk planks fitted together in overlapping patterns like dragon scales. What would have taken decades in stone had shot up in mere m...
2025-02-16 20:55:29 +0000 UTC View Post