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160 - Never Let Evil Take Root

She could hear its slavering maw clicking just beyond the corner as she inched along the pillars, doing all she could to get away. The locust made a weird retching noise and retreated, whilst Zefaris finally slipped past the patrol when they at la...

159 - Tactical Stealth Operations

With a sigh, she stepped into the maze. A part of navigating it was her gut, but she also marked her path using the filth that covered her forearm, and when it was clean, she took to just spitting wherever she went. The sound of chattering mandibl...

158 - Soul-Sword-Single-Strike

A twitch of the eye, a sharp inhalation, a sudden assault of strikes. Makhus could feel and see them coming, but he lacked the inhuman speed bestowed by Fog-breathing. He blocked some, dodged others, backpedaling through the alleyway as he watched...

157 - The Burning Heart

The vast majority, Strolvath struck down personally, caving in their weakened chitin with the strength of his clockwork leg.

All the while, Strolvath just kept playing, sing-screaming the lyrics to a song that he rarely had reason to perform...

156 - Son of Fog

As disgusting as it was on a surface level, seeing as it was a half-digested slurry of animal flesh and plant matter, Zel didn’t particularly care. All it took to push past the initial stench was a long, long drink of mead elixir.

By the t...

155 - Ritualistic Sacrifice

The difference was that she knew when to use such a stance - the Warrior’s stubby legs top-heavy build naturally rendered its lower half a target. Even still, it wasn’t stupid. It knew its weakness was being targeted, even if its intent to pou...

154 - The First Extermination

It would be just sticky enough to apply. Unsure of how quickly the Doorman of this hive would react, Zelsys made sure to dig out the entire vial’s contents so she could quickly apply and ignite it.

It wasn’t much, but she hoped it would ...

153 - Rip and Tear

The scuttling stopped, only to resume seconds later - now swiftly approaching, two sets of heavy footfalls thumping from beyond the corner. Knowing there was no point to hurriedly trying to find a shank, Zel stood to her feet and breathed, filling...

152 - The Trial of Solitude

“It won’t open to anywhere lower than the first floor,” Zel sighed.

“Hard way it is, then,” the veteran laughed, slowly but steadily rising to his feet. “I‘on’t look forward to clearin’ a fuckin’ dungeon, but what can ya ...

151 - The Undying Spark

The Red Mantis felt herself lose purchase, her right leg severed at the ankle and gushing hemolymph even as she began to stumble into the Fog Gate. Pivoting her arms and pulling the scythes back in an attempt to at least rip at the creature’s ne...

150 - Sudden Death

Assuming the hive queen had a significant measure of control over the swarm, the only question was the reason behind her decision to let them enter the dungeon instead of just killing them before they could get in. A mischievous spirit made her wa...

149 - Into the Mouth of Hell

They departed soon after, and saw that the battleground around the shack was all the same. Even this far along they still followed the path plotted out by the map, for it once more led them into a tunnel of nigh-impenetrable brambles.

It onl...

148 - Dawn of the Fateful Day

It had only been a day since Zel and Zef left on their first major beast-slaying contract, but to Makhus it had felt far longer than that. Not because they were gone - because of all the work it had taken to get the store ready for opening. By the...

147 - Symbol of Rank

She sat on the cot with her eyes closed, leaning against the wall, resting her head on Zef’s shoulder while she sipped the golden nectar. A breath of Fog in, a breath of Fog out, and the pain faded a little more. The silvery threads snaked their...

146 - Safe for Now

“Hrrgh… Victory Echoes!” he roared, and fire issued forth from his mouth. Twitcher’s blowtorch of a left arm was met with his fist, plugging shut the muzzle then splitting it wide open until the insect’s forearm fell apart at the seams. ...

145 - One Retreats, One Returns

Having just barely managed to fully awaken the Brass Eye before the Black Swordsman disappeared into the treeline, Strolvath discerned a short snippet from the train of thought that the man was constantly broadcasting.

It wasn’t even an in...

144 - Sever the Hand

She’d already figured out that it was faster to place a cartridge in each chamber and then simply ram them all down in sequence, but it still took precious seconds - an eternity in the blazing inferno of combat.

Just as she reached a tree ...

143 - Assault Combat

Strolvath knew by heart the tones to resonate a locust drone’s carapace. He also knew they weren’t the greater threat here. He needed to put that gigantic beast of a warrior out of commission. To start with, he murmured his prayer to the dead ...

142 - The Measure of a Slayer

With every ounce of vitriol, every bit of mean-spirited mentality she could muster, Zelsys put on an act to try and provoke the Red Mantis into making a mistake, into striking out in anger so that she could exploit it. Alas… The Mantis didn’t ...

141 - Red Mantis

A small puddle of off-yellow excretions was already forming beneath him as long strings of caustic spit poured forth from his perpetually slavering, chittering maw; lamprey-like teeth filled the gaping hole that had once been a mouth. His head was...

140 - Encirclement

Unlike back there, they couldn’t cut through. Even without superhuman instincts such as Zel’s, they all smelt the sour miasma that suffused the forest, they all heard the distant beating of wings and chittering of human lower jaws that had tur...

139 - Into the Deep End

How curious. She couldn’t wait to see what it would do if she poured it down the barrel before firing at a locust. Around her thigh it went.

She took the rest of their brief break to fully and properly go through the Tablet, having forgott...

138 - Inquisitor

Both Zel’s Strol’s pocket watches rang mere minutes after they finished eating. They walked and walked through the forest until noon, with this part of the forest being a surprisingly mundane juxtaposition against the desolation of the battlef...

137 - Breath Engine

Zel blinked a few times, filing the revelation away in the back of her head to be dealt with later. She put on her usual smug grin, and instead of accepting the apology properly just said, “It’s not as if I died, is it?”

The Singer ret...

136 - Butcher the Lightning

A torrential downpour of raging white-hot lightning came crashing down on the dome. The dome held, and surprisingly, so did the plug - for about half a second. That half a second was more than enough time, however.

All at once she emptied he...

135 - Suicidal Aspiration

His long years in the service even before the war had taught Strolvath to sleep with one eye open, much to his frequent annoyance. He could fall asleep to the pounding of artillery, to the perpetual roar of thunder, but even a minor irregularity i...

134 - Stormtrance

“Thunder n’ fury, did that just hit us?” Strol wondered.

“The circle deflected it,” Zelsys replied.

“Whoever built this place was a better aethermancer than a cabin-builder. Did any of the stones go boom?”

“One cr...

133 - The Storm

A clearing among the trees, old stumps still visible littered among the grass. Its centerpiece was, surprisingly enough, a small log cabin. It was built from roughly-hewn logs and even had a latrine out back, sure, but it was still miles above a t...

132 - History and Fables

“Pretty sure it’s a holdover from the first pattern, when these used to have full knuckle dusters,” Zef explained with audible uncertainty, making more of an educated guess than anything else. “Good for keeping hold of it while reloading, ...

131 - The Man of Stone

Giving him no response, Zelsys began walking, taking in her surroundings. Amidst the mud and trenches, the razorwire and makeshift graves, there were paths - narrow, only made visible by wide gaps in the barricades and plank bridges over the trenc...