It did not take long for Cass to find her way back to the rampaging dragon. He was a rolling ball of heat and wind to Atmospheric Sense. The flames of his breath were hot enough to melt the floor and walls and the thrashing of his body enough to send grown men flying.
The paladins the captain had left to contain the dragon had entirely br...
2025-04-02 22:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThe darkness fell away.
There was no new light in the room, but it didn’t matter. He could see the Order wretches around him. Their souls glistening red and vibrant.
Delicious.
The priestess in the center flinched, her hand slipping. Blood spilled. He could smell it in the air, rich with potential. Not a lot. Just a little...
2025-03-31 22:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostKohen wasn’t usually an idiot. He felt like one right now, though.
When Ahryn had started yelling about following a carriage and the dragonlings being kidnapped, he should have run to get their father. Their grandmother. Someone.
But it had sounded like his chance. A way to stand out. To distinguish himself above and beyond Alyx ...
2025-03-29 22:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostCass ran down the halls, the captain and a trail of ice behind her. Her feet pounded over the glass floor, faster and faster with every step. Around her, the wind whipped, telling her every movement of every being in the sealed space.
Atmospheric Sense has increased to level 21.
Atmospheric Sense has ...
2025-03-26 22:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAlyx and company walked through the lower halls of the temple, the twisting hallways spreading in every direction, level after level of subbasements still waiting to be explored.
“I expected more pushback,” Marco muttered as they walked with purpose past another group of priests.
“Walk with confidence,” Telis ordered, demons...
2025-03-24 22:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostSalos did not like the plan. But as usual, he did not have a better one.
His heart hammered in his chest as he leapt from Cass’s shoulder into her shadow and Shadow Stepped out around a corner and out of sight.
His Stealth pushed out to the maximum as he waited for Cass and her pursuers to pass. It was an eternity of tense worry ...
2025-03-22 22:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostCass and Salos stalked the fleeing paladin through the halls, their combined stealth skills hiding them in plain sight as the man ran through the complex. Even if they hadn’t, all eyes were on the paladin as he shouted about his urgent news for the captain. Who would have stopped to look at the shadow creeping after him?
In minutes...
2025-03-19 22:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostAhryn was used to being ignored. It was usually better than being noticed, if he was honest.
He was used to their low expectations. He was used to missing them, anyway. It mostly didn’t bother him any more.
But he’d hoped today would be different.
He stared up at the darkening sky as he walked through the city. ...
2025-03-17 22:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostCass’s Focus had only come back up to 306 when the paladin she’d knocked out with the cold woke up.
He grunted awake, his head snapping to and fro as he tried to figure out what had happened and where he was. Cass didn’t wait for him to get his bearings.
“Welcome back,” she said, pulling the rickety chair she’...
2025-03-15 22:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostCass stared down at the paladin’s body. He was dead.
She was alive.
But he was dead.
She—
She had killed him.
Salos hopped up next to her. “Good job.”
Cass nodded mutely.
“Did an exit open?” Salos asked, already focused on the next task. Already looking to evalua...
2025-03-12 22:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostCass took a deep breath as her opponent’s struggling slowed to ineffective wriggling beneath thickening ice.
Across the room, Salos’s attack had not stopped. 32 was covered in cuts. There wasn’t a joint in his armor that wasn’t bleeding, and a good number of his plates had new, bleeding holes.
And yet he still hadn’t ...
2025-03-10 22:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostThis isn’t working. Cass and 29 stared at one another across her ice field. He was unarmed and panting from exertion. His sword lay on the ice behind her. His shield lay under a layer of ice in the opposite direction.
Cass had limited methods of injuring him and an ever-decreasing budget of Focus with which to work.
...
2025-03-08 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostCass and Salos skulked down the halls. Cass clenched the dagger in her hands. They had the ghost of a plan and were just looking for an appropriate target.
A pair of paladins stormed down the hall, crossing hers.
Order of the Copper Crescent Paladin (Lvl 32)
Order of the Copper Cresce...
2025-03-05 23:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post“And we found the staff there.” Pellen pointed at a rubbish pile behind the Temple. It was mostly food scraps decomposing into fertilizer for the gardens.
Alyx’s hand clenched around her sword hilt.
She, Pellen, Telis, and Marco stood in the temple’s shadow by one of the back service doors.
Cass was st...
2025-03-03 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostCass’s eyes flared open. She was leaning against the dragon’s flank. Its scales were hot, like her stove top when the oven was on underneath. She pulled away as the dragon shifted, its neck craning against its chains to reach her, but falling short.
Salos, you there? Cass asked.
“Here,” he said as he materialize...
2025-03-01 23:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostA wave of emotion crashed over Cass. She collapsed back into her chair, looking at her options.
Salos was finally done absorbing the soul.
He was back. The tension slipped from her shoulders.
With him at her side, who could stop her?
Well, there was a new worry that he wouldn’t be on board to rescue th...
2025-02-26 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post“So, the easiest solution sounds like you should make me your Dragon Knight,” Cass said. That should fix the rabid feral dragon thing, if nothing else.
She’d made herself comfy in front of the fire, leaning back in her extra wide camp chair, one leg hanging over one arm of the chair as she preferred to sit.
“No,” the dragon...
2025-02-24 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostCass found herself in her campground. The wind whipped wildly through the trees, and the fire pit glowed with welcome at her side. Behind her stood her tent, open but empty. Around her towered redwoods, their tall branches piercing a star-filled sky.
Somewhere far behind her, she could hear the rush of waterfalls. Had there always be...
2025-02-22 23:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostCass wasn’t prepared for what she saw inside.
A dragon.
It was huge. The dragonlings had been about the size of ponies, plenty big but tiny compared to the beast before her. This dragon filled the room, as wide at the shoulders as a car, long enough that even curled around himself, he made SUVs look small.
H...
2025-02-19 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostCass heard their voices next.
“Can you believe we need to add a third containment circle,” one of them complained to the other. A man’s voice. A touch nasally. “We weren’t even done with the first two.”
“Third?” another scoffed. A woman’s voice, sharp like high heels on tile. “I think you mean fourth.”
... 2025-02-17 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostCass put a hand on the door. It was cold under her open palm. Solid. Immobile.
Elemental Manipulation hadn’t worked on the crystals in the Catacombs or the glass floor in the hallway. Would it work on metal? Surely, it would be more fruitful than her attempts at applying Strength to the problem had been so far.
She pres...
2025-02-15 23:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostCass had a poor sense of the passage of time, but it was probably several hours later when her resources recovered to acceptable levels.
Stamina: 138/138
Focus: 439/549
Health: 68/133
So far, no one had come back to check on her. No one had noticed the...
2025-02-12 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostAlyx’s heart hammered in her chest as she stood in the waiting room outside the arena. Above her was a stadium of eager viewers, all waiting to see who would be their new Dragon Knights.
She flicked up her Blessing description again.
Major Blessing
She had already won. This was just set dr...
2025-02-10 23:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostCass blinked awake. The floor under her was cold. The ceiling above her was green.
Everything hurt.
She tried to sit up. A mistake, as she could feel her brains sloshing in her skull and every muscle screaming in protest.
Stamina: 44/138
Focus: 66/549
Health: 70...
2025-02-08 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostThere was nothing on the bench. Pellen slumped to the seat, burying her face in her hands.
“Lady Mage!” a boisterous voice called all too loudly through the temple.
Pellen looked up. The swordsman from Lord Kohen’s party waved at her as he walked up.
“Sir Daidyn?” she asked. Was everyone here today to pray...
2025-02-05 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostPellen picked at the skin around her fingernails in a poor attempt to sit still before the priest of Will, the man who would appraise her compatibility with Arcane.
“No need to be nervous, miss,” he said. “Just put your hand on the plate here.” He gestured to the plate of blue-black metal on the table. An Arcane shard—a sli...
2025-02-03 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostThe captain stood before the priestess and her priests, his shield raised, a green force field separating Cass from them.
Fortitude’s Aegis
[A skill bestowed by the goddess Fortitude to protect her faithful followers. Only a truly unstoppable force could break this.]
No. How could he have ...
2025-02-01 23:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostWood splinters flew through the air and sparks of lightning exploded around her. Tempest Blade broke with no weapon to support it.
The paladin’s blade sliced toward her through the maelstrom of shattered staff, nothing remaining to block its path.
She needed to move.
A piece of broken wood remained in her clenched...
2025-01-29 23:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostIf the paladins had all been big, this man was gargantuan. He was easily two heads taller than Cass and twice as wide at the shoulders. A pair of bull horns protruded from either side of his forehead. His skull bulged under his skin, and his nose was flat like a cow’s.
His equipment was much like his men’s: heavy armor, green tab...
2025-01-27 23:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostSo she couldn’t run. Fine. How else did she get out of this?
Fight her way out?
How many opponents were there? Two in front, at least. Atmospheric Sense found four more in close proximity, all approaching quickly, and more, too indistinct to count, beyond them. How many were truly more opponents, and how many were doubl...
2025-01-25 23:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post