The three of them sat in the cave, waiting for the storm to pass. Wind howled by the entrance, and rain splattered over the stone. Deep in the cave, though, it remained warm and dry. The other wolf sat against the wall, head turned away from Loup and Ike. Every now and again, he sighed, but aside...
2024-05-25 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostHe dashed on, dragged over the land by his skills, shooting lightning in all directions. Overhead, clouds gathered, and rain began to fall. The more he ran, the darker the clouds grew. Flashes of light appeared in their depths, followed by dangerous rumbles. Ike cast a wary glance upward. At ...
2024-05-24 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“Let’s find these skills,” Ike muttered.
He started with the legs. At the thigh, a strange orb met his fingertips. He sliced it open and revealed another green skill orb. This one was clearer than any of the others, the star in its center almost as small as the one Ike had refined. He...
2024-05-23 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLoup leaped into the air and dropped down on the rooster’s head. She opened her mouth. Bright white light shone in her throat. She lowered her head, and thunder boomed as white light slammed into the rooster.
The rooster stumbled. Ike sliced at its throat again, but his sword stuck once m...
2024-05-22 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostLoup slunk through the forest, searching after a scent trail. Ike followed after her. By now, picking his steps through the forest came as an instinct. He couldn’t move as quietly as Loup, but he got close. They crept toward a hen from downwind. It pecked at the weeds, unaware of their presence...
2024-05-21 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe next few days blended together, each one the same as the last. In the mornings, at the crack of dawn, he and Loup rose from their slumber and took to the forest. They hunted chicken until night came, then dragged their kills home for Ike to dismantle. He couldn’t stop himself from breaking ...
2024-05-20 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLoup launched out of the forest. Ike charged at the same time, closing in on it from the front. The chicken whirled to face Loup. It leaped into the air and kicked at her face. Loup jumped back, dodging.
Ike ran at the chicken from behind, his spear high.
Again, the chicken spun. It k...
2024-05-19 14:14:55 +0000 UTC View PostBetween Ike and Loup, the two of them managed to finish the whole roast chicken in one night. Ike laid on his back under the stars, a hand on his stomach, gazing up at the sky. He let out a satisfied sigh. Beside him, Loup laid stretched out on her belly. She sighed as well, just as satisfied as ...
2024-05-18 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostIke stared at the skill orb for a moment, struck dumb. Realizing he was just sitting there like an idiot, he wiped his mouth, stood, and walked over to pick it up, carrying the giant chicken leg with him. He turned the orb around in his hand, taking a good look at it. It glowed with a faint green...
2024-05-17 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe chicken turned slowly on a spit, roasting over a bonfire of deadwood Ike had found easily in the untouched forest. He’d crafted the spit out of the fresh green tree the chicken had downed. It had taken all his Rank 1 strength to cut the green wood apart and shape it properly, but in the end...
2024-05-16 13:14:41 +0000 UTC View PostHey, everyone!
Apocalypse Me book 2 is out now! Go check it out, read, review, whatever!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTPC9F2G
2024-05-16 01:54:19 +0000 UTC View PostAs the chicken settled down to sleep, Ike’s eyes widened. He lifted onto his toes and lunged.
Branches snapped under his feet. Leaves crackled. Vines tore. The chicken startled from its doze and jumped up, whirling to face Ike.
I could have waited until it was fully asleep, but ...
2024-05-15 12:39:55 +0000 UTC View PostThat morning, Ike set off, following the tracks yet again. Loup woke up as he was packing up, gave a great yawn, and vanished off into the forest with no explanation. Ike watched her go, then shrugged and walked on. She would come back.
The tracks he followed were a few days old, but well-w...
2024-05-14 14:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWater splashed. Ike landed on the final step and looked back up. The waterfall towered over him, seemingly unreachably high. He saluted to it, saying farewell to his campsite. “Hopefully, I won’t be back.”
Dense, thick forest awaited him. Ike walked the edge of it, searching for track...
2024-05-13 12:31:53 +0000 UTC View PostDays passed. Ike camped out by the edge of the waterfall, slowly recovering his mana using Rosamund’s head. The wolf came around every now and again. It kept its distance, wary of him. A few times, Ike threw it scraps of non-wolf jerky. It ignored them whenever he was around, but when he went b...
2024-05-12 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe wolf squirmed in his grasp, trying to wriggle free. The thick, loose fur around its neck gave it some wiggling room, and its eyes widened. It twisted harder than before. Ike’s grasp slipped.
The wolf scrambled, but before it broke away, Ike grabbed it again. He wrestled it back under ...
2024-05-11 15:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostThe wolf leaped toward the tent’s flaps. Ike tensed, watching it drop toward the space outside the tent. Toward his final trap.
It slammed its feet down, inches before his trap. Its paws slid through the undergrowth. Its forepaws struck the edge of the pit Ike had dug, knocking the sticks...
2024-05-10 15:02:34 +0000 UTC View PostIke sat at the edge of the waterfall, reading Orin’s guide for a bit. At last, he stood, brushing off his pants. Bustling around the edge of the waterfall, he set up his camp for the night. He put the side of the tent to the Abyss wall and the back to the dropoff, cutting off two ways the wolf ...
2024-05-09 14:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIn the end, he left the body behind, inverted and stuck between the rocks. There was no convenient way to free it from the rocks without risking serious injury, and once he did, the likelihood of luring it into another situation where he could invert it—or even getting it to follow him—was al...
2024-05-08 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostIke thought for a minute, looking at the doll body. There were three large gaps. One at the neck, where its head wasn’t. One at the stomach. One on the side of the body. Of the three gaps, he could fit his hand in her neck or stomach, whereas the gap on the side of her body was long and narrow....
2024-05-07 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post“Come and get them!” Ike threw his entrails into the air.
Rosamund gasped. She ran in, lifting her hands as if to catch the rain.
The second she turned away from him, Ike charged. He lifted his sword high, sending his last pulse of mana into the churning storm clouds. The clouds c...
2024-05-06 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post“Rosamund.”
He didn’t know how. He didn’t know what. He only knew that his life was in danger, and the form which that danger took. The monster. The shattered doll Rosamund had become, not the happy girl chatting with her father as he flew her away.
In the split seconds before...
2024-05-05 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostScrrr. Like nails on a blackboard, porcelain dragged over stone.
Ike glanced back. A puddle of dark fluid remained, but no body. Ice jolted through his veins. He hobbled faster. His legs healed as he walked, but his mana drained at a proportional rate. From half to a quarter, and e...
2024-05-04 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostHolding onto Rosamund’s collar, Ike plummeted into the Abyss. Rosamund slapped his hand away. Ike released her, and she kicked away from him and threw her hand out. A rose appeared, but as soon as it appeared, it wilted. Again. Again. She stared at her hand, startled. “Why can’t I—?” 2024-05-03 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
The wolves leaped at Ike. Ike raised his sword. The higher wolf crashed into it nose-first and fell back, crying in pain. The lower wolf smashed into his ankles, throwing its weight against his body. He stumbled, his stance broken. Another wolf closed in, darting at his feet. Ike threw himself ba...
2024-05-02 14:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIke walked through the woods, following Orin’s directions to the Fulgur-Loups as best he could. He’d tried wearing the second toad armor backward, but the combined stiffness made it too stiff to move, so he’d put it back in his pack for now. I’ll improve the armor later. When I have t...
2024-05-01 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostThe toads dangled from a tree, strung up by the back paws. Blood drained out their necks, dripping onto the ground. Ike worked to skin the toad, slicing it open with his razor.
Behind him, Rosamund wrinkled her nose. “Disgusting.”
Ike looked up at her over his shoulder. “You don...
2024-04-30 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostLooming large over the forest, so large it blocked out the sun, the enormous toad lifted a claw to crush Ike.
Ike turned and ran. He sprinted toward the lake, away from the toad. The huge claw slammed down. Mud flew up, splattering over the toad corpses. The toad tilted its head down, unbli...
2024-04-29 14:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostThe toads leaped at Ike from all sides. Across the pond, the toads jumped at Rosamund and her handmaids. Rosamund shrieked in horror. “Get it off! Get it away from me!”
Ike put them to the back of his mind, focusing on his own battle. She said she could handle it. I’ll have to bel...
2024-04-27 14:32:56 +0000 UTC View PostThey walked through the forest. Sunlight dappled the path before them, and a gentle wind blew. Ike consulted Orin’s book again and frowned. The man had a knack for giving the worst directions, and it was no less true of the route to the Giant Toad than it was of the route to Silver. Return ...
2024-04-25 14:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post