They started into the depths. The tunnel made a ramp straight down.
Just ten feet in, Zane was already starting to feel it. The walls were scratched heavily with gravity runes. Nothing like the dwarves’ or the runes of man, but they were strong in their own blunt way.
They hammered ...
2025-07-21 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View Post“Make that fist in the mind,” said the Sage. “That’s it. Now, you crush the damned thing!”
Zane did.
The twenty-foot-tall geode hurtling through the air got crushed to dust.
The geode troll that threw it blinked up, befuddled.
“Nice one!” cheered the Sage. 2025-07-20 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
A/N: Bonus chapter! Things are back on track
//
Late the next day…
Zane was bleeding from a thousand cuts, and more were coming yet.
Hundreds of spears of hardened blood sailed through the air.
A ...
2025-07-18 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostIt all came down to a brutal close-quarters struggle.
The mecha-dwarf had certain advantages. It had runetech pistons in those Divine Profound fists. It had that mech-core, putting the heft of planets behind every punch. The rockets boosting its fists could down half-step Empyreans by thems...
2025-07-17 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostHe chose one of the tunnels out of the arena, and without further ado, started smashing his way toward it.
Soon he’d smashed his way into the guts of the arena, deep beneath the stands. He started making steady progress again—steamrolling right on through. Waves of droids went flying wi...
2025-07-16 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostIt wasn’t that Zane minded a nose break now and again. It happened against these heavy hitters. He’d just been hoping it would hit a little later. The first exchange of the fight was a little embarrassing, he felt, even at his nose break rates.
He shook his head, trying to clear it—wh...
2025-07-15 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe old fellow landed, making a chunky crater. BOOM!
He looked like he’d just come back from a jog.
The blow looked pretty effortless, tearing through reality like paper. Zane could tell he’d barely scratched the surface of his strength.
He thought about the moment ...
2025-07-14 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“There you go!” roared the Sage.
Zane was wrestling with a dwarf in a mecha-suit. A brute of a half-step Empyrean—its gears ground violently as it tried to crush him into the dirt.
He growled, shoving back hard. He had to burn his Asura State near 200% just to keep it off. The t...
2025-07-13 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: 500 chapters! :D
//
His crew closed in on the vehicle. A few prodded it with their shadow-blades.
“Do you know who I am?” said the man.
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar,” said the dwarf, more stiffly this time.
“They call me Pretty Boy...
2025-07-10 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Fifth form?” said Zane.
The Sage made a noise through a mouthful of meat.
Zane took another thoughtful munch.
Sometimes he did wonder just how strong the old fellow was.
The Barbarian Sage never went much into it, but Zane hadn’t seen anything manage more than a pas...
2025-07-09 01:35:45 +0000 UTC View PostThe Sage gave him a slap on the back that nearly tumbled him back down the crater. “How’s that for a damned warm-up!”
“I felt good,” Zane told him. He thought about it. “Bit rusty, but I’m getting there.”
He took a few more hits than he had to if he was in peak fightin...
2025-07-08 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Hey folks—couldn’t get a chapter out Sunday, will be back tomorrow!
//
There was the crash of chains shattering.
Then lines of thick, rage-filled light burst into being, streaking for the center…
A heat began to build.
A build—and build...
2025-07-06 01:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the lateness, folks! Just managed to get this one out
//
They even managed to throw Zane off, making him stumble back.
“Tricky bastards,” said the Sage, frowning.
For a second, Zane looked a bit baffled.
Then the Sage saw the lad...
2025-07-03 03:55:06 +0000 UTC View PostThat said—he was feeling pretty spent. Physically as well as essence-wise. The Sage passed him an iced drink, a bottle of ice blue streaked with lightning-whites.
“It’s the good stuff,” the Sage explained.
Zane inspected it a bit, then shrugged, and downed it in a single...
2025-07-02 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: No chapter on Monday, see y'all Tues!
//
They thudded into the ground, making craters. He saw them when the dust plumes cleared—dwarf skeletons decked in heavy armor, hefting shields that looked like blast doors, forming lines. Then it was like Zane was facing...
2025-06-30 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View PostAt first, Zane thought the sky had cracked open. Then he realized that was all stone—a great sea of stone, far above, stretching endlessly, a continent of fissures and stalagmites.
That was a ceiling—a very distant one at that.
They had to be deep underground.
They’d lande...
2025-06-29 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostOnce they found a quieter stretch of void, the Barbarian Sage made a little fire on Fluffy’s back. He got out some yams and raw jerky and the like, and something that looked like green spam preserved in these big vats of oil—oil soaked in essence. They roasted it all and ate. Pretty salty stu...
2025-06-26 01:49:21 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Hey folks--no chapter again on Tuesday. I thought I could get back in rhythm faster than I could. Still not right fully in the head w/ personal life stuff, sorry about that--I'm just going to have to ask for your patience, this is on me. It's easier this week than last...
2025-06-24 01:26:45 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
Hey folks--no chapter 6/22, sorry about that :/ Still getting back into the swing of things. Should be getting back to a normal schedule soon.
//
Noughtfire took a sip of tea.
“There was a time I sought Destruction,” he said. “A time I'd ...
2025-06-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostA/N:
We're back!
//
It was time for another picnic—a nice reunion after so many years away. Evan, Avery, and Reina all made it.
It didn’t feel like twenty years had passed. Twenty years would’ve been a big fraction of their old life...
2025-06-19 01:34:18 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: Sorry for the late chapter, folks!
//
That universe came at him again—it was like a portal to another world, a great vastness of Earth and Grass and Stone Law. An avalanche of hostile might.
But this time, he charged straight into it.
Bore down with...
2025-06-12 08:31:20 +0000 UTC View PostIt turned out Reina missed him too—
Level up!
Essence Level 563 -> 564
Afterward, he started telling her what had gone down the last couple of years—just catching her up. He went through Makos and Lam’s story. She figured it was Malzare...
2025-06-10 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostHe’d never been hit like this. Not even by the Slayer, which had given him his worst beating yet.
He heard something in his arms crack with the force and gritted his teeth.
Then the punch kept going. It blasted him through the chest, sending him tumbling head over heels; he thudded,...
2025-06-09 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“It all rests on this. One. Moment!” roared the announcer. Then, for the first time that fight, even he quieted down. So did the audience—although you could almost hear their hearts beating faster, feel millions of breaths held at once—sense the arena was thick with anticipation....
2025-05-29 01:30:03 +0000 UTC View PostZane was actually starting to appreciate this announcer. He’d thought the guy a little unprofessional at the start of the tournament. But he warmed to him over time—he could respect a man who always went for it.
“The Way of Rock!” roared the announcer. “It shows you can never judg...
2025-05-28 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostDiseased limbs exploded out of the Blood Demon’s body, ballooning fast. Skin bursting open to show tattered wings, hands turning to claws, bulging—this giant, heavily diseased gargoyle unfurling in the middle of the arena…
***
“The Blood Demon Sage just started his transformat...
2025-05-27 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostShe fired straight for Zane’s heart. No hesitation.
That arrow moved with the force that could’ve killed a minor god. It actually caught him a bit off guard.
The issue with his dodging was that he had to limit himself to Ascendant speeds. It was quite a hassle, twisting and jerkin...
2025-05-26 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View PostKira, Jun, and Ryu made their way through the hallways of the grand stadium, fresh off yet another Jack victory. This one had gone surprisingly fast.
“Guess it just played to his strengths,” said Jun cheerfully.
None of them were still in the running, so it was a pretty relaxed ti...
2025-05-25 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post“Alright, folks!” said the announcer. “It’s the round of 16—it’s getting real low now. Every fighter left’s a threat to make the podium. Every name’ll go down in the history books!”
The stands were packed with cheering fans—quite a few were waving rocks, which Zane found...
2025-05-22 01:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post“Welcome, folks, to the round of 32!”
By now, the arena was packed to near-bursting—every row and box. This late in the tourney, only the grandest of the arenas was in play—a spiderweb silver funneling to clear blue sky.
The audience thundered its approval.
“On the lef...
2025-05-21 01:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post