They had thought of a way to work off their newfound energy, but not everything was going to plan. There were…disagreements.
Anna narrowed her eyes. Ian stared back, eyes just as narrow. The other kids leaned back, shying away as if a Core were making monsters burst ou...
2022-07-13 00:45:18 +0000 UTC View Post“Hoist the sails! Quickly now, before she catches up! C’mon ye salty sea dogs, the Great Expedition awaits!” a voice cried out, the sound tinny and weak despite its owner’s best efforts.
“...I’m not a dog. And there aren’t any sails. And why are you talking like tha...
2022-07-09 18:12:42 +0000 UTC View Post“I still can’t believe that the Council agreed to this so quickly,” The Unrepentant One said, his head shaking back and forth like he couldn’t decide where he wanted to look. I tried following the motion, but there was nothing there. Not even when I checked with [Am...
2022-07-05 18:40:00 +0000 UTC View PostElara stood, arm dangling limply at her side. It still hadn’t healed, even with so much time spent in range of the Guardian Statues. She was starting to think that it never would. Healing didn’t seem to work; it didn’t fix the fact that her arm still felt impossibly dense 2022-06-28 05:06:38 +0000 UTC View Post
It wasn’t a hard decision.
Okay, it wasn’t that hard of a decision. It was still a little hard. There were a lot of options that I wanted; [The Golem’s Echo], [Guardian Link], and even [Bloomh...
2022-06-24 06:26:59 +0000 UTC View PostIt was the sudden absence of cold that got to me, even in my near-senseless state. A change from the horrible, consuming chill that had invaded my body, one that was just barely held back by occasional surges of warmth - the touch of life essence against flesh, its golden radiance like...
2022-06-23 00:55:55 +0000 UTC View Post“Wake up! Wake up!”
Kala’s shout was like a needle piercing Elara’s ear - light, at least compared to the battle that swirled around her, but no less noticeable for it. No less painful. The sound forced her to whirl around, catching sight of the archer, her fingers franti...
2022-06-15 05:10:43 +0000 UTC View PostShe tried shaking it harder, stepping backwards to give herself some extra space. A lone section of flesh hit the ground in a wet, meaty plop. Elara’s heart soared - and then fell just as fast. It just hadn’t been connected to the rest of it very well, an already-tattered ...
2022-06-11 06:08:51 +0000 UTC View Post“...I’m still down one.”
I watched from my perch as The Grateful One’s arm flopped about, frustrated at my inability to fight. At my inability to do anything other than bite at my own tail. To keep myself alive.
I stared balefully at my enemy; at the back o...
2022-06-09 01:36:55 +0000 UTC View PostDoran was frustrated. It was a combination of things that caused it. The creeping chill that invaded his body in fits and starts, alternately beaten back and reinvading again as it warred with the warmth of the [Little Guardian’s Totem] around his neck. The ...
2022-06-03 05:08:12 +0000 UTC View PostI flinched, nearly losing hold of my tail as a Coreless-shaped mass blurred past me in a gust of wind, only to end in a deafening crash of ore-flesh against stone. From the corner of my eye, I could just barely make out the prone form of Will, already struggling to get back onto his fe...
2022-05-31 06:19:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe heart of the Core’s lair, its inner sanctum, was a mess of bones and flesh and stone. Corpse after corpse covered the floor in varying states of decay, the amassed flesh broken up by giant stalagmites that both ringed the cavern and sometimes cut through it. The massive pillars o...
2022-05-27 00:28:41 +0000 UTC View PostIt was more than a little longer, or at least it felt like it. The tunnels leading to the Lesser Core seemed endless, a mess of twisting and turning darkness, filled with corpse-thing after corpse-thing hiding within. They threw themselves into our path in great waves, and I f...
2022-05-24 02:03:31 +0000 UTC View PostLesser Core Skill: [Life - Vigor X] Increased.
[Life - Vigor XI] Acquired.
The thought-light flickered as a stream of gold left my fangs and began to fill not-Needle’s flesh. For a second, it felt like her body resisted....
2022-05-23 22:02:05 +0000 UTC View PostWeakness rushed through Valera’s veins in a frigid stream, like her blood had turned to ice. It pulsed at the edges of her skin, causing her limbs to grow heavy, and her breath to come in harsh pants. Like an unavoidable weight that pushed down on her, making it harder and harder to ...
2022-05-18 06:55:22 +0000 UTC View Post“Which way do you think he went?” Valera asked. The darkness wrapped like a cloak around the world around her, an occluding barrier that blocked out what lay behind it. Only faint tendrils of light managed to pass through, and even those lasted barely a few steps before they faded ...
2022-05-17 21:13:02 +0000 UTC View PostI slumped back with a satisfied hiss, feeling a tingle in my scales; an electric jolt akin to a great many [Sting]s, only without any pain slithering alongside it. A surge of glee that set my mind afire, fighting the sluggish haze that came with overuse of man...
2022-05-12 04:50:34 +0000 UTC View PostMake sure prev chapter didn't get skipped, posted a few minutes before this one
The mana-water glimmered, casting forth a searing radiance that was more than enough to remind me of [Ambusher’s Vision]’s fatal weakness. I twitched the muscles at...
2022-05-09 22:24:57 +0000 UTC View PostAs I shattered another swath of mana beneath my will, forcing it into the shape I needed, I couldn’t help but think about the difference I had found between the essences of life and death. Between the way I coaxed one into shape and brutalized the other, the formation of the...
2022-05-09 22:21:50 +0000 UTC View PostThere was another chapter posted immediately before this, make sure you didn't skip it!
I pulled free from my scale-flesh, fighting back a wave of revulsion strong enough to send me reeling. The scale of my betrayal was staggering, horrifying beyond belief. I had been too w...
2022-05-03 04:11:36 +0000 UTC View PostElara had become depressingly familiar with corpses as of late. More than she ever thought she could be. It was hard not to, what with the time she had been forced to spend as a Core’s puppet, pulled by strings and spores in whatever direction her captors pleased. Forced to walk by t...
2022-05-03 04:10:38 +0000 UTC View PostExperi-
Experi-
Experi-
Experi-
Experi-
Experi-
The snake spasmed violently as the group of in...
2022-04-28 02:08:47 +0000 UTC View PostThe snake slithered along, the bitter cold of death wrapped around its scales like a second skin - but not quite that. Because it was more than that. Food. Drink. Comfort. Healing. Safety. Life.
Need.
Something flickered at the edges of the snake’s mind,...
2022-04-27 03:52:07 +0000 UTC View Post2nd chapter today, make sure you didn't skip the previous.
If I had learned one thing during my most recent life, it was this - preparing for a battle ahead of time went a long way towards winning it. It was something that many bad-things didn’t seem to realize o...
2022-04-24 21:47:39 +0000 UTC View Post2 chapters done so far today, but I'll try to get out one or two more after that if I can manage. Here's the first.
Ever since my creation, I had an instinctive understanding of what a Core felt like, even if that feeling was something completely different for every Core. I...
2022-04-24 21:46:20 +0000 UTC View PostAs a whole, the lake of the leviathans was a craggy mess of weathered stone and neverending mana-water; at its edges, in the places where not even a real shore was formed, the walls rose like the steepest of cliff faces, the sheer surfaces broken only by an occasional wall-crack that c...
2022-04-21 03:25:57 +0000 UTC View PostAs my spore-puppet and I plunged back below the lake’s surface, the scent-taste of blood pressed against me; cloying, even when spread across the vastness of the mana-water. Even from as far away as I was.
And I quickly noticed that most of it was my spore-puppets’ - because ...
2022-04-20 05:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostI could not figure out how to end this chapter for some reason. I wrote so many different ending scenes to this chapter and could not find one that I was actually happy with. I still don't have one I really like, but decided it was better to just post and move on to the next chapter. This...
2022-04-15 05:39:58 +0000 UTC View PostDimmed swathes of mana-water slid across my scale-flesh, stolen light rushing into my reservoirs with every passing touch. I flexed my length forcefully, cutting through the lake with a powerful slither that sent me rushing forward, my increased swimming speed a result of strengthening...
2022-04-08 05:10:44 +0000 UTC View PostLooking down on where the river met the lake, the rushing water dropping the length of a great many not-Needles and finding its home below, I felt a surge of excitement. Finally, after the last few days of gathering my forces, I was nearly ready to face the leviathans of the d...
2022-04-04 19:37:29 +0000 UTC View Post