Chris Huisjen

Stormblade C35: True Magic (1)

35 - True Magic (1)

Jessie wouldn’t stop talking the whole time we rode the bus to the Peoria GC training center. Eventually, I had to stop her. It was just so much. “You know you’re working as an assistant front desk receptionist, right?”

“You’re...

Stormblade C34: Pack Bonding (3)

34 - Pack Bonding (3)

It took fifteen minutes to get to my apartment. Once we got there, Ellen changed out of her battle gear, and so did I. She was in a workout top and shorts to manage the Phoenix heat—I wasn’t wearing much more, myself. It was stupid to bundle up aro...

Stormblade C33: Friendly Neighborhood Portal (3)

33 - Friendly Neighborhood Portal (3)

It took almost a minute of watching. Of watching light rip into the two fighters. Watching the support and Ellen hunker behind Jeff. Watching and waiting patiently for the opportunity to make a difference.

So, when it happened, it...

Stormblade C32: Friendly Neighborhood Portal (2)

32 - Friendly Neighborhood Portal (2)

I hated spiders.

They weren’t as bad as the centipede monsters that had killed Dad, but they had way too many legs. That hadn’t been a problem one-on-one. Eight was acceptable. But there were a half-dozen of them in front of m...

Stormblade C31: Friendly Neighborhood Portal (1)

31 - Friendly Neighborhood Portal (1)

We started working toward the guild a few days later, in an Arboreal-typed D-Rank portal.

An unarmored elf dropped into a lunge that would have made Dad proud, and my own attack went off-center as I rotated away from the blade’s...

Stormblade C30: Christening (2)

30 - Christening (2)

Jessie just stared at me, eyes widening.

Ellen stood up from the ‘bar’ and started walking toward the couch. “You’re right, Kade. That is way dumber than—“

I stood up. “Okay, it’s a crazy idea on the surface, but I�...

Stormblade C29: Christening (1)

29 - Christening (1)

The new place was gorgeous.

Two bedrooms. A kitchen that was separated from the main room by a low, countered wall. A tub, not just a standing-room-only shower. Two bedrooms. On the first floor, which would be great for Jessie. Close to a public b...

Stormblade C28: Breaking (4)

28 - Breaking (4)

The bus didn’t take us back to Jessie’s school. It dropped both of us off outside of our building, and I wheeled her to the elevator, then to our apartment.

She was really hurting—both physically and emotionally.

And there wasn’t anythi...

Stormblade C27: Breaking (3)

27- Breaking (3)

Jessie: Yeah, we’re sa it’s in here monster monster monster hurry!

My blood ran cold. Some of it ran cold from the wounds that covered my arm as Recovery stitched my face together. I’d unsummoned my Stormsteel breastpla...

Stormblade C26: Breaking (2)

26 - Breaking (2)

Jessie had been studying. Not chemistry or math or social studies, but her new—hopefully, if she passed the exam—job as a Governing Council rep. So, when the alarms went off, steel shutters covered the museum’s doors and windows, and her phone buzzed...

Stormblade C25: Breaking (1)

25 - Breaking (1)

Tuesday afternoon. That was the soonest Ellen could meet up again—except for Sunday, and I’d already committed that time to helping Jessie. I wasn’t ready for her to meet Ellen. It’d be a nightmare.

So, here we were. Ellen sat on one...

Stormblade C24: Pack Bonding (2)

24 - Pack Bonding (2)

I spent the rest of the day forging the storm into armor and contemplating what Stormsteel Core really meant for my build. The forging came first, and when I’d finished, the gauntlet I’d created on the mountaintop looked like a chi...

Stormblade C23: The Price of Power (5)

23 - The Price of Power (5)

The healer, for all that I hated to admit it, was right.

I’d sat down last night to merge Grassi’s Greater Swordplay, but before I could—before I’d even started—fatigue hit me.

So had Jessie. Not literally t...

Stormblade C22: The Price of Power (4)

22 - The Price of Power (4)

I’d forgotten about the Ice Troll. Tunneled in on the D-Ranked archer. And now I was paying for it.

I staggered under the blow; it wasn’t just the agonizing bite of its three claws—though they’d ripped clean down to my spine and my ...

Stormblade C21: The Price of Power (3)

21 - The Price of Power (3)

As we climbed the tunnel in the dark, I kept waiting for an arrow between my shoulder blades or to walk into a razor-sharp string trap.

But that didn’t happen.

The only sound was our clothing crackling at the joints with every motio...

Stormblade C20: The Price of Power (2)

20 - The Price of Power (2)

Nearly nine seconds.

Enough time to walk from my apartment door to Tara’s and knock on it.

An eternity in combat.

That delay didn’t necessarily prove anything. Andrew could have gotten tripped up. The archer who kept head-ch...

Stormblade C19: The Price of Power (1)

19 - The Price of Power (1)

Lizard-man intestines slopped over my sword’s guard and onto my hand as blood froze mid-air and shattered against my face.

I’d signed up as an extra body for Andrew’s team because he promised I’d get to fight, even though the pay wa...

Stormblade C18: I Want to Do My Best, Too

18 - I Want to Do My Best, Too

The Roadrunners didn’t say anything to us the whole time we walked out of the portal. And they didn’t say anything as they loaded the unconscious, bleeding woman into the back of their car and drove away. I didn’t mind.

After all, ...

Stormblade C17: Roadrunners (3)

17- Roadrunners (3)

The Magmatic Octopod’s jaw opened wide as its tentacle yanked Ellen off her feet. I knew exactly what was coming. It lifted her high into the air, and this time, Ellen did scream. Her aura was weak, but not flickering like she was out of Mana�...

Stormblade C16: Roadrunners (2)

16 - Roadrunners (2)

Ellen screamed.

No. Ellen didn’t scream. I’d learned a lot about her from this portal clear, and one of the things I’d learned was that she didn’t scream.

Not even when a five-hundred-pound rock snake was trying to squeeze h...

Stormblade C15: Roadrunners (1)

15 - Roadrunners (1)

My next portal was another E-Rank, this time close to home.

A training portal. Nothing special. Just a chance to level up my skills and get ready for the D-Rank portal I’d need to clear for my next core. And, surprisingly, it had slipped through...

Stormblade C14: Pumping Iron

14 - Pumping Iron

“Forty-nine…and fifty! You’re done.” Ellen said.

Much to my surprise, she’d followed me over to the gym. Most mages didn’t put in as much time on their physical conditioning, and my initial read on Ellen was that she was…not lazy. No on...

Stormblade C13: Pack Bonding (1)

13 - Pack Bonding (1)

It was a rare cloudy Monday in Phoenix, and I shivered when I got off the bus outside the Peoria GC center. Not that it was cold. It hadn’t been cold since January, when it had actually gotten below freezing for a few hours. But a windy, cloudy day w...

Stormblade C12: Rites

12 - Rites

Carlos hadn’t been a father. That was the only good news, because everyone else he could have left behind, he had.

Almost ten minutes passed before I stepped inside the community center. I hesitated outside as people filed in; I didn’t recognize anyone,...

Stormblade C11: You Have to Keep This Secret

11 - You Have to Keep This Secret

Ellen and I had argued as the timer ticked down.

It had gotten…heated.

She’d raised some good points; a lot of A and S-Rankers had familiars, but they were all Earth animals, and while they helped, they always played a suppo...

Stormblade C10: E-Rankers (3)

10 - E-Rankers (3)

Guilds always saved the portal boss kill until the last minute.

Sometimes, they’d even let it break if they had a team ready.

They preferred to get control of their portals, then strip-mine every resource they could find from them. Portal me...

Stormblade C9: E-Rankers (2)

9 - E-Rankers (2)

I scanned the treeline warily, the Stormsteel rapier nothing but a metal bar and hanging by my cheek in a high, longsword guard instead of a fencing one. “Hold on a minute,” I said.

“What’s up?” Javier asked. The big guy had grown more conf...