Wisp kneeled and wrapped a length of thread around a stone. She lifted her hand, squinting down the length of her arm, then threw the stone in the same place she’d just thrown the previous stone. It bounced through and kept going, flying up, up, up, toward the edge of the wall high above.
They grew close to the wall. After so long in the depths of the Abyss, Ike had almost forgotten about the walls that closed them in. Sure, they were there, but they were in the distance. The horizon. Not an immediate concern. Often, he couldn’t even see them. In the dense forest, the trees bloc...
2024-07-29 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostIke swung his sword at the wolf’s mouth, aiming for the smear of blood. The wolf’s jaws closed in around him, the invisible hide cutting off his view of the smear. Ike kept swinging, his eyes narrowed. He didn’t flinch. Didn’t retreat. I kill it, or it kills me. There’s no other opt...
2024-07-28 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostIke lunged at the shadow. His sword sliced through the grasses without making contact with anything. He frowned. The shadow had vanished, with nothing left but the rustle of the grasses.
Paws whispered against the ground behind him, barely caught on his Sensory Enhancement. He whirled, lift...
2024-07-27 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post“I’m coming with you!”
“Oh, yeah?” Ike said, a little surprised. Then again, she did tell me she was originally from outside the Abyss. It’s not too surprising that she’d want to leave.
“Yep. I’m done here. Too many people know my face. As a predator… as a...
2024-07-26 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostThree ravens darted down at them. Wisp flicked her wrist. A dozen wisps of spider thread burst from her hand. Two of the ravens retreated, but the threads wrapped around the third. She yanked, and the raven jolted out of the sky. It crashed into the branches. Wisp leapt on it. Before it could jum...
2024-07-25 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe fire closed in. The raven dropped at Ike. This time, it kept its claws curled close to its body, preparing to extend them at the last second. It opened its beak at the same time. Fire flickered in its throat.
Ike knelt. He leaped high into the air, slicing upward with his sword at the s...
2024-07-24 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIke bounded through the trees. Ahead of him, Wisp arced through the trees. She neatly shot thread and swooped from branch to branch, moving with twice the speed and half the effort. Ike struggled to keep up at times. Without Lightning Dash, he would have absolutely fell behind Wisp. Even then, he...
2024-07-23 14:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostWisp rushed at him. Ike jumped back, not wanting to attack. “Wisp, why?”
“Spar with me!” she said, swiping at his chest.
“No!” Ike snapped. He kicked off the ground. A burst of Lightning Dash took him over the entire Abyss, and he landed on the other side. “You’l...
2024-07-22 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostFrom one spark, to two, to three. Ike didn’t react. Or rather, there was no Ike to react. Ike was gone. Instinct guided more sparks into his core. As the cold wind blew, more and more aether flowed into Ike’s core. Warmth grew in his core, and Ike’s awareness slowly returned.
As his c...
2024-07-21 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostIke dangled in the darkness. Cold wind rushed around him. No mana met his call. His core sat empty, emptier than it had been since he’d first become aware of it. Only a few meager scraps of mana remained, tiny pieces he couldn’t press out. Not enough to do anything, just enough to keep him al...
2024-07-20 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMana poured out of his hand. He sent a pulse of it into Rosamund’s head, testing it. It can turn lunam into that black gunk. So why shouldn’t it be able to turn mana into the storage gunk, too?
He lifted his hand away. A small deposit of grey gunk sat in the corner of the space...
2024-07-19 14:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThey climbed through the trees. The night passed into day, and the day passed into night again. Ike lost count of time, lost track of direction, everything. Time simply flowed. They moved, and the forest stretched on, forever.
At last, Wisp slowed to a halt. Ike almost ran into her, too use...
2024-07-18 14:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostIke followed Wisp into the forest. He checked over his shoulder, gazing in the general direction of Abyssal. Hopefully Ket and Tana have the rest of that handled. I’ve done my part. Took out half of the strongest fighters, destroyed the puppet army, and dismantled the spirit rings. The city...
2024-07-17 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostIke called up his stat sheet, just to make sure he’d properly learned the skill.
[Name: Ike | Age: 15 | Status: Nm | Rank: 1 [Abyss Dweller]]
Skills: Common: 5 | Bronze 2 | Silver 2 | Gold 1 | Rare 2 | … | Unique: 4
Common: All-Aroun...
2024-07-10 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostIke jolted awake. The sun hung low in the sky. Wisp sat nearby, her back to him, chewing on something. She glanced over her shoulder, wiping blood off her face. “You awake?”
“Yeah,” Ike muttered. He sat upright, feeling a bit lost. He blinked a few times and rubbed his face. It felt...
2024-07-09 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIke had enough time to tense before a giant icicle slammed into his gut. All the air left him. A horrible freeze pierced him through, all the way to his spine.
Fuck.
Garrus chuckled. He passed his remaining hand over his stub, freezing the wound shut. “It’s good you can t...
2024-07-08 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostIke’s hand struck home. Ice crunched under his fingers. He frowned. Huh?
Garrus’ coat fell open. Thick ice coated his whole body, preventing Ike from striking home. The ice quickly refroze around Ike’s hand. Garrus swung his arm downward, slicing the arm-blades toward Ike’s...
2024-07-07 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post“Now!” Lightning crackled around Ike’s legs, and he jumped directly into the air.
The two Rank 2s landed. They immediately leaped up again, but too slow. Curtains of spider thread burst from the spiderweb walls. The threads flew beneath Ike’s feet and ensnared the other two fighters...
2024-07-06 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIke gestured the next man down the slope. The line had grown shorter over time, and today, only a few people waited to enter the mana field. He took that as a bad sign. The more pressure the king put on people to avoid his business, the fewer people would show up, so for it to have decreased dram...
2024-07-05 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostOver the next few days, Ike remained at the mana field. Tana brought more and more townsfolk by. Ike camped out nearby, guarding and waiting at the field. Wisp helped by setting up spiderwebs around the field. He wasn’t sure if she did it for fun or out of boredom, but he appreciated it.
...
2024-07-04 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostAfter the first few people started absorbing mana and regaining their Rank, the other men and women with Tana quickly climbed down the wall, bearing wood and gold. Ike received their fees. He placed the wood behind the next row of puppets, then tapped more of the puppets to meet their desires. He...
2024-07-03 14:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostGold light shot up around Ike. Lightning flashed around him, interspersing the gold with purple. Ike grinned defiantly up at them as he Ranked up, from Rank 1 to Rank 2.
Up on the top of the cliff, Tana gasped. “Gold and purple…?”
Ike stared the men and women in the eye. At Rank...
2024-07-02 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostIke’s core grew to eighty percent full. He eyed the progress, taking another big waft of the mana to speed it along. Just a little more. A little more, and then he could do whatever he needed to. He just needed to stall for another few minutes.
“So? What are you doing with those things?...
2024-07-01 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostMana rushed into Ike with every breath. He circulated it into his core, reinforcing his body. The seven pillars in his core surged up, climbing toward their zenith. It was as if an invisible ceiling had vanished. His power climbed rapidly.
He looked at his arms. At the purple lightning flic...
2024-06-30 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostTravelling through the forest around the edge of the dolls, Ike quickly gathered fallen wood. Big chunks, little sticks, it didn’t matter the size. Any dry wood he saw, he picked up. Loup helped too, carrying big sticks around whenever she found a good one. When Ike returned to set the sticks d...
2024-06-29 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostHe returned to a bustling town. Ike looked around, a bit startled. Usually Abyssal was a bit of a ghost town. The remaining mages seemed more interested in wasting their lives away over enjoying life. But today, they bustled around, running left and right.
His brows furrowed. What’s g...
2024-06-28 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostGreen light burst out from between Ike’s fingers. Power swirled into his body. He took a deep breath, circulating his mana again. The skill rushed into him. A faint discomfort ran through his body, and then it settled.
Ike raised his brows. That was all? How nice!
He quickl...
2024-06-27 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIke and the otter charged at one another. The otter dropped to all fours, galloping toward his ankles. Seeing the trip coming, Ike jumped. The otter instantly stopped its charge. Running backward, it curled up under his landing spot and pointed its jaws at the sky.
A blur of gray fur and li...
2024-06-26 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThey walked through the forest. Wisp led the way, moving as confidently as ever. Whenever they came across a bloated monster, Ike and Loup killed it, while Wisp ate it and spat out the ring. The pillars in Ike’s core continued to grow, and his core expanded.
Ike stretched and looked up at...
2024-06-25 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post