#lizardman blade

[jisuto]

[soulcalibur-bracket]

Round 1, Match 30 - Lizardman vs Leixia

Note: For the purposes of this poll, all versions of Lizardman and/or Aeon count as the same character.

[betterthantheywerebefore]

Conversion #059 (repost)

Original text: "This was another one of the custom marines my teenage self attempted to bolster my Hawk Lords army with - an Emperor’s Champion. Yup, that’s a Lizardman shield and a chainsword altered to use an Aquila as a blade. It’s a bit odd. But hey, that’s youth. 

The leftover body parts went into producing a very gangly and… Interesting looking fellow model. The rather flat pose reminds me of the metal models from the early 90s, back when they had to be as flat as possible for the purposes of moulding them, and so had a rather flattened stance."

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This is another two-parter, and I'll say, the other model to come out of this Champion is a hell of a lot better lol.

Somewhat goofy already, I let a newly-emigrated Ukrainian coworker pick the colour for his armour, resulting in this rather different shade to what I've been using on the rest of them. She named him Zeke. Zeke says Gay Rights.

[nitrosodiumrapidproto]

Making Enemies

I did most of this on Friday, but I'm posting it now because I couldn't send the image of my notebook to myself at college. These are eight enemy designs I have come up with.

The Hell Bat is a fairly simple creature - two wings, a tail, and a big cyclopean eye in the centre of the skull. Gameplay-wise it would be a 'horde' enemy, low health but high speed, and rushing you in packs. I was inspired by the Cacodemon from Doom, but I wanted to make it clearer that it was flying, so I added the bat inspirations.

The Scorpion is the same school of thought as the Hell Bat, but in insect form. It would fill the same gameplay position as the Bat, but just be a ground variant. It is somewhat redundant, however. I was a little inspired by the Brains from Hero Factory Brain Attack, a staple game of my childhood.

The "Orcoid", or what I would eventually just call an Orc internally, is meant to be the stock enemy type which would be encountered the most frequently. Orcs are a classically evil race in fantasy, so I figured it would make sense - but I also wanted to explore why they are evil. I also gave them a helmet resembling the Roman style, with the mohawk-like crest on top; and a javelin for a weapon to continue the theme. In fantasy settings you often get races being "coded", meaning they are based on real-world cultures, and something I don't see much of is Roman-coded orcs. Consider that the ancient Romans were expansionist, militaristic, and fairly brutal when you get down to it; all traditionally orcish qualities.

The Bone Giant is what I had planned to either be a very large enemy or the boss of the game. The reanimated skeleton of a giant, clad in the rusted remains of centuries-old armour, and holding a blade the size of a tree trunk. Lore-wise I had the idea that the Giants were employed by heaven to construct the Crucible, somewhat like the giants building Valhalla in Norse and Germanic myth. The forces of evil are then bringing their corpses back to life, to serve them. The actual design of a skeleton in rags is akin to the enemies in Sinister, which I didn't actually mean to invoke, but apparently did so anyway.

The "Glutton Orc" was another idea for a heavy yet slow enemy, but this one was decidedly less threatening. A morbidly obese creature dressed in nothing but a loincloth, brandishing a comically oversized femur bone. I was averse to this design for a few reasons, but one was that I already had an Orc enemy in the game, and I was going for variety above all else. The general shape was inspired by the boss Prince Chan from Serious Sam 2, but more orcish.

The Lizardman was going to be what I had called in my notes a "shock trooper" enemy; fast, tanky and damaging all in one. They'd show up infrequently as a sort of mini-boss, forcing the player to prioritise or die. Lore-wise I wanted them to be the captains of the evil army, commanding small squadrons of orcs. To explain their high defence and also hint to their higher rank, I gave them visibly better armour and a shield. Their look was inspired by the Lizardmen from Fear and Hunger, who can notably block attacks with their shields, and will skin you alive upon a game over.

The Rock Elemental was another tank enemy, but I also wanted this one to be a bit of a surprise for the player. Their idle sprite would be a big pile of rocks, the same as would appear inert in other parts of the map. But as soon as you got close, it would rise up as a golem and begin chasing you. My inspiration for this was a very old game called Bionicle: Quest for the Toa. As a kid, I remember going into the Onu-Koro section (caverns) and facing boulder monsters that formed out of rubble mounds.

Finally I designed Dark Dwarves. These would be identical to the dwarf sprite, but dark. The original Norse dwarves, mostly called dvergr (which interestingly also means dark elves) were black like coal, and were associated with maggots and other rotting things. In the Norse creation myth, the gods used various body parts of the titan Ymir to create Earth, and the dwarves were made from the maggots festering in his corpse. My thought is that they'd be either a rival dwarven faction, or the corrupted remains of the original craftsmen.

Because I didn't want to make loads of sprites, and also have redundant enemies in the game, I asked people what designs they thought were best, and what they thought were worst. I wanted them to form opinions very quickly, as that is how players would respond - they would swiftly end the encounter, by killing or being killed, and then they would judge on what they thought of it. Immediately people disliked the Scorpion as it was uninteresting, but very much liked the Lizardman. The other enemies were given middling opinions. Notably, the Bone Giant was derided as a generic enemy, but I think when sized up to a giant stature, it will be more unique. It's just harder to judge from a 2d image. In the end I chose five enemies: the Hell Bat as a rusher (high speed, low health, low damage), the Orc as stock (medium speed, health, damage), the Lizardman as a shock troop (high speed, medium health, high damage), the Rock Elemental as a tank (low speed, high health, high damage), and the Bone Giant as a boss (low speed, super high health, super high damage).

I did not manage to make the Lizardman or Elemental sprites on Friday, and as I do not have PhotoShop at home, I cannot make any more until Wednesday.

[illarian-rambling]

Thanks for the tag @sableglass!

Friday Saturday Night Fight!

Finally! I've already shared my singular kiss, but boy do I have a lot of fights! Here's Avymere beating some bandits >:)

Avymere barely registered this, as they had already broken into a sprint at the sound of a familiar voice shrieking in pain.

Immediately, their lungs seized up, the sudden movement sending their chest into breathless spasming. Avymere ran through this—they could hold their breath. On instinct, they reached for their ancestral blade Moon’s Eye, only to remember it was back in their conquered home.

The first dwarf to spot Avymere raised their crossbow in alarm, yet the elf was too quick. Their boot crunched into the man’s knee, causing him to drop the weapon with a cry. A cry Avymere quickly silenced as they slammed their fist into his teeth.

The brigand dropped to the ground, crying out as chips of tooth fell from between his fingers. A swift kick to the temple and he was out. Avymere barely slowed as they lept over the fallen body.

All around, the caravan was beginning to return fire with muskets of their own. Avymere hissed as they were nearly clipped by a lizardwoman’s wild shot. Some of the dwarven bandits unsheathed long knives as they drew close.

May the gods forgive me for the lives I am to end on this day.

Avymere dodged past a bandit’s whirling slash, dancing out of range before sliding back in with a quick jab to the shoulder. The rough-looking woman scowled and lunged at the Duchon. They made to slip away once more, except, a growing pain in their chest demanded attention. Avymere slipped, spluttering a red-stained cough as the dwarf landed a shallow cut across their forearm.

I can’t breathe! Gods help me, I can’t breathe!

Their vision spun as they tried to drag in a breath, but with their damaged lungs, they only managed a slight croak. The dwarf hacked at them again and Avymere managed to dodge, however, the sudden movement nearly sent them to one knee with the dizziness it produced.

Trying to focus through the needled vice on their chest, Avymere jabbed twice more at the dwarf’s shoulder. There was no power in the strike, yet she blocked with her forearm nonetheless.

It was obscured by the coughed-up blood covering the inside of the mask, but a smile played across Avymere’s lips.

Vision swimming by now, they ducked under another sloppy strike, then drew back to snap a punch once more at the same shoulder. As predicted, the dwarf brought her knife up to deflect before Avymere’s hand even moved.

It was as easy as a song to smash their finger into the bandit’s now-exposed eye. Avymere pulled their hand free as the woman wailed horrifically, already moving towards the wagon from which they’d heard Elsind’s scream. As if rewarding them for their victory, the Duchon’s lungs momentarily stopped seizing for just long enough for them to take a breath.

Resisting the urge to fall to their knees in a coughing fit, they hurried towards the wagon, leaping over a tussle of two dwarves and a lizardman on the way. The bandits didn’t even seem to be going for the goods yet—more likely than not, they wanted the wagons too.

The horses of the fourth wagon pawed the ground nervously, looking as if they were one more rifle crack from bolting. A lizardwoman screamed obscenities from the roof as she returned fire with an antique-looking longbow, blood splattered across her emerald scales. Blood and… and a thinner, lilac liquid.

Elsind was curled in the driver’s bench, huddled down as flat as he could be while desperately clutching his shoulder. Avymere could see an arrow stained with more of the lilac changeling blood sticking into the wood of the bench.

“El— Elsi— Ok?” they managed to get out between gasping for breath.

The changeling glanced down at them, naked terror in his eyes. His dwarven disguise was still on… sort of. The center part of the face had peeled away as his headfins threatened to pull back, the skin on his hands having gone a mottled brown and mauve.

“My shoulder,” he whimpered, pained tears in his eyes. “I— I don’t want to die here. Am I going to bleed out? Oh gods, what’s happening, Avymere? Who are these people?”

Unfortunately, Avymere didn’t have the breath to spare for answers to three questions, so they instead gestured for Elsind to get down from the driver’s bench. If they could get him inside one of the wagons, he’d probably be safe there—not to mention, it’d be a more defensible spot.

Elsind shook his head at their gesture, complexion going pale as he took in their bloody mask and sliced ribs. “I’ll die if I go out there! Please, please, don’t make me go. I— I can’t. I can’t fight! I’ll die!”

Avymere shook their head. Gods beyond, was he going into shock? “Get to—” The paused to cough out another glob of bloody phlegm. “Get inside the wagon. I— I’ll— defend.”

“But….” Suddenly, Elsind’s face peeled back the rest of the way. “Oh gods, look out!”

The Duchon spun, snapping their open hand onto the bandit’s wrist with enough force to knock away his blade just before it carved into the back of their skull. With the dwarf off-balance from the strike, Avymere planted their foot and kicked him hard in the guts.

He doubled over wheezing. Avymere wasted no time in grabbing his ears and breaking his jaw over their knee. Tossing the groaning dwarf to the side, they found the battlefield was clearing—many of the bandits turning tail as they realized this caravan was better armed than they’d expected—but still active. Taking stock of the situation, Avymere made the decision to hop into the driver’s bench with Elsind.

I'll tag @cedar-sunshine @wyked-ao3 @writeblrfantasy @sageswriting @verba-writing and anyone else who wants in :)

[fantasyanthro]

First Theory

[lee-hakhyun]

604, 605

oh my.

i'm realizing now that by doing this, i'm reading every chapter of the side story at least 3 times (mtl, edited mtl, and then proofreading + writing a summary) no wonder lhh is stuck in my head hahah

604. author (5)

right after he thinks it might be yoo joonghyuk, he gets attacked by a weapon flying out from the forest jhw deflects it, and the false author comes out with his ohdokhyup team. with their luck, how did they get there faster than lhh's team?

so the author's name is yeom ilwoo, and his sponsor is the king of gambling. the two with him are outside species characters, the ratman from the plague-calling rat and lizardman from the snake

lhh tries to talk this out, and he's half sincere

there's a difference between killing a reader and a character, no matter what they've done. his next words annoy lhh though lmfao

however, ilwoo still signals to attack, and the ohdokhyup throw more daggers out, lhh remembering killer king's warning: the ohdokhyup are the ones who deserve to die jung heewon strikes down the daggers again, but the daggers were poisoned, melting her sword.

there's another hanja double meaning here which is pretty clever

lhh throws jhw an extra sword, and ilwoo starts to fight too. lhh changes the thought into a shield to deflect his broken faith, and the thought gets the appearance of the item

his broken faith is mass produced, and lhh had thought that the durability had run out until ilwoo reveals he has the dragon jar that kim dokja had used before (see chapter 72) to reuse the broken faith.

the restored blade of faith destroys the thought's old iron shield appearance, and with ilwoo confident of winning they talk while fighting. the king of gambling was the one who had sponsored ilwoo the dragon jar, and that's probably how he got the mass produced broken faith, too

it's a little hard to describe fights...

now that lhh had a weapon to fight with, he comments that the author's fighting sense wasn't very good, even with all the skills he uses. the constellations comment that this is why you shouldn't support incarnations at the beginning, they'll rely on the support and won't learn how to survive

with the author retreating, he yells at the ohdokhyup, who were fighting jung heewon

if [cursed dagger] misses 20 times, the next hit is guaranteed. one of the daggers turns towards jhw, and she is forced to block it with her sword, which melts it. jhw grabs jung jaewoo, who had been hiding, and moves back to lhh. lhh asks jjw if he has any hidden skills, but he doesn't. they're at a disadvantage, and lhh is forced to use a method he didn't want to use

he gives jhw the bamboo stick and incites jung heewon, telling her that her enemies are 'monsters', which is the prerequisite for the judge of demon's judgment time. that is. wow. even the constellations are shocked she absolutely crushes her opponents, and the constellations who increased synchronization with their incarnations were hit with a probability backlash. the rat is forced to leave, while the snake severs its tail to avoid the aftermath jhw throws one of the daggers at the author, and it grazes past and he escapes into the forest

with the battle over, both incite and judgment time ends, and jhw collapses. she's physically fine, but the aftermath has left her unconscious as the price for circumventing judgment time's restrictions

and after that

jung jaewoo has [little luck], and he's survived survived so far with that, but when lhh approaches him

...

lhh goes through medicines that could save him, but he couldn't find a way to save him.

when lhh grabs jaewoo's hand, he can see a transparent soul coming out from his body, and he realizes that if he can get the soul, he can save him-

605. author (6)

oh dear god. the 「I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared. I’m scared.」 hurt.

rep kdj seems sympathetic?

jjw's memories are hazy, and as he sorts through his memories he sees himself on the theater screen, with cheon inho calling out his name. he realizes then that he's dead, and

hm.

after this, a small keypad appears in front of him, and when he sends a message, he chats with the name 'rlaehrwk41'. 37 chats with him before telling him to shut up and watch until he figures out what's going on does him getting the number '41' just a coincidence or does it have something to do with the regression turn?

lhh buries jung jaewoo's body in the rain.

jhw didn't wake up, so lhh continues carrying her on his back while he follows the author's footsteps. he finds the dragon jar on the ground, and if the author has dropped that he assumes that he's probably dying or dead by now. he continues walking, with one thought: 「No one should be lost anymore.」 he aims to escape the movie, but the theater owner says he doesn't want the normal ending. the snake that sever its tail proposes a suggestion, which the theater master accepts, and a 'black moon' appears on the stage, causing the monsters to evolve. lhh quickens his steps, but raptors catch up to him

there's 8 raptors, which are only 8th-grade but with so many, it'll be hard for him to take care of them while protecting jung heewon. he incites himself as yjh to fight them, but he can't think of a plan and gets bit. he uses incite again, inciting himself as a tyrannosaurus rex rex and roars, scaring the raptors away.

but the ground starts to rumble. was it really his roar that made the raptors run? an actual t-rex appears. he's still bleeding, and he can't fight it one on one. this is when he has a thought.

he. he tries to incite himself as the apocalypse dragon. what the fuck, hakhyun incite is pushed to the limit, and in the end, he's not able to do it.

there's a flash of light, and when he opens his eyes,

it seems the first runners were killer king and his sister

the pov shifts to yeom ilwoo, who ran away, and he's pissed. he's severely injured due to the fight and the blow jaewoo left on him, and he dropped his dragon jar. however, due to his sponsor he has really good luck, and is able to get to the research laboratory while avoiding all the monsters, and finds a hidden tunnel that lets him skip to the 5th floor, the rewards room

entering the tunnel, he meets a woman

han sooyoung turns to talk to kim namwoon and lee hyunsung, and then knocks kim namwoon out after he says one sentence

han sooyoung looks at the movie posters torn by yoo joonghyuk, and thinks.

[myths-of-fantasy]

Year of the Rabbit - Ch7 Jura Forest Alliance

When a woman dies and becomes a warrior bunny, only shenanigans can ensue. Or, that time Rimaru got a rabbit bodyguard that immediately declared war on a demon lord.

Chapter Directory | Previous | Next Chapter | Ao3 Link

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All things considered, that Gabil had managed to hold his own surprisingly well, Rimuru noted from the sky watching as Gobta jumped in, preventing the lizardman from being killed on the spot. The lizardman was as crafty and clever as he was boastful and stupid. And brave he supposes, he did defend the goblins rather than leaving them to die. Admittedly, he’d kind of assumed the cocky bastard was all talk and no action - especially after he’d gotten defeated by Gobta. Watching this though… was Gobta actually just powerful? 

Gabil had dodged the snapping tendrils extending from the orc’s shoulders with strain but he’d done it, despite the strength Rimuru could feel radiating from the general. And still, Gobta had taken him down with one kick to the head.

Does this mean Gobta has talent?  he blinked in confusion. Ugh, the idea rattled him. Best not to think about it too hard.

Especially with Ranga evolving to a Tempest Star Wolf and promptly demonstrating his new unique skill.

“[Great Sage] what is this?!” he shrieked, dodging quickly from the path of the series of massive twisters that descended from the sky, crackling with electricity and began frying and ripping the orcs below to shreds.

[Answer: this is the unique skill [Death Storm] of the individual Ranga.]

Death storm is right, holy crap!

Was he able to use that ability too given he’d [Mimicked] the dire wolf and had actually taken the form of the Tempest Star Wolf first? It was something to test - far, far away from his little village.

Where is he, he slime thought furiously, scanning the hoard of orcs. The reason he hadn’t joined in yet (beyond fulfilling his side of the oath taken between himself and the kijin), was that he only intended to fight the orc lord, as he promised Treyni. And yet, for such a powerful and unique monster, he’d yet to catch sight of the threat to their livelihoods. 

The number of orcs was shrinking rapidly under the liberal fire and violence exhibited by the kijin, at least simplifying the numbers he had to pick through. 

<Rimuru, I found him.>

Hm? 

He was interrupted before he could ask with an explosion away from where the kijin were wreaking havoc erupted making him whip around. It only took him a few seconds to be hovering over the place he’d left Ranga and the lizardmen again, bringing him the slight of an odd majin in a long, flowing coat wearing a plague-doctor mask standing with visible frustration just a little ways away front the startled defenders, Black Bunny standing in-between them wild Wildfire raised defensively.

The rabbit lowered the sword with narrowed eyes.

“I was wondering when you’d come out,” Black Bunny said, her tone completely void of emotion. She was pure business mode from what he could tell, watching Wildfire’s blade light up a blazing orange of menace. She adjusted her grip, pointing the glinting tip in the majin’s direction, “Spying from the bushes… that’s no way for a majin to behave, hm?”

The majin stamped his foot like a petulant child, “Who the hell do you think you are?! Ruining my plans?!”

“Your plans,” she scoffed, not lowering her weapon.

“That- That majin… that's Lord Gelmond,” Gabil said, visibly perking up with relief at the sight of the demon who named him. He started to move towards him and Rimuru abruptly felt really bad for him - he was an idiot sure, but being someone's Namer was a great honor. That was going to be a rough betrayal to recover from.

He stumbled to a stop just as quickly as he’d started moving, the flaming blade of Wildfire held out as a physical barrier.

“That demon is not your ally Ser Envoy,” and Rimuru was surprised by how gentle her voice was. She didn't turn her head to look at him, still fixated on her energy just in case he tried a sneak attack but the rabbit was still trying to break it to him gently. “I haven't fully unraveled his plan, but I know enough to be aware he did not grant you your name in good faith. “

“I- wha,” Gabil blinked. 

The masked individual turned angrily, waving his hand at the massive hulking figure that Black Bunny had likely been calling him to come address. Towering over all of the other orcs with arms as thick and burly as their heads, a large and ornate helmet with a massive jewel directly in the center of it  matching the thick armor covering his upper body.

The Orc Lord.

“A demon lord who would’ve done my bidding was just about to be born an now you’ve ruined everything! I’m not supposed to interfere but the at this rate, he’ll be furious with me!”

A demon lord. That title was being used more and more often lately. 

“Ah, so that was your plan then,” Black Bunny deciphered immediately. When he’d sat down and talked to her once, she had explained that she’d been in this world for a full two-years before they’d even caught word that Rimuru existed. [Great Sage] had immediately puzzled out for them that Black Bunny had thus, been reincarnated three years before Rimuru had died. And it was in that time that she had amassed a lot of knowledge about this world  (Central, he remembers she’d called it), enough knowledge to successfully fool him and anyone else not looking too hard into thinking she was native. And that thirst for knowledge and determination to understand was benefitting him more and more every day. “Go around granting a few monsters names, then letting your orc lord devour them to gain their strength. I suspect you even named this orc lord to give you even further influence over him - you’re sick.”

“What?!” Gabil said, shocked as his own warriors mumbled their dissent and disbelief as the revelation. He moved around Black Bunny’s sword and tried to walk towards the demon lord again, “But- But Lord Gelmond, it was you who granted me my name - aren’t you here to save-”

He was interrupted by the enraged, petty majin launching a powerful circle of flame towards them. 

“Lord Gabil!”

“We’ll protect you!”

“Shit!”

Black Bunny sprung forward. Immediately becoming airborne in the face of the the attack. Wildfire blazed to uproarious life in her paws, a powerful aggressive gale kicking up around her blade.

“[Flame Drill]!” she roared, the tip of her sword piercing the attack and sending up a massive cloud of smoke.

“You little rat! Such a lowly and pathetic monster like yourself daring to stand against me?!” Gelmund raged, giving another immature stomp of his foot as he raised his palm again, this time forming a truly massive ball of malicious energy towards the sky. “I will show you to true power of a greater majin! I will wipe you from this blasted land! [Death-March Dance!]”

<Rimuru- >

<On it!>

He’d gotten so wrapped up in watching the stand-off between the two he’d almost forgotten. He flashed down as quickly as he could, sticking out his hand as he watched the purple lights become a ring of red in the sky, shooting towards the ground with all the menace of blazing storm and activated [Predator]. It only took a minute to devour, he supposed in retrospect it wasn’t all that great.

[Notice: You have acquired the skill Death-March Dance]

Thanks [Great Sage].

“...that was superior?” he said aloud instead, lowering his hand. He put on his most unimpressed expression as he re-absorbed his wings, no longer needing them in this moment. He crossed his arms as Black Bunny sprung up to perch on his shoulder again, like she’d done when they faced off against the ogres. “You can’t kill anyone with that weak sauce move. I was more afraid of Black Bunny using [Firestorm].”

“I-Impossible,” Gelmund said, stepping away.

“That was an accident,” she said, visibly embarrassed. “I didn’t think it would do all that.”

“I was scared for my life,” Gobta laughed.

<For a brief moment, I thought you had gone rouge and intended to kill us all,> Ranga joined in with the teasing.

“It was an accident!” she shrieked again, drawing a paw across her face.

“We know Black Bunny,” Rimuru soothed, patting her head lightly. She would’ve told him if she was actually upset by their remarks, so he figured she was playing along with his idea. It was nice to have someone who caught on so quickly, he mused as he side-eyed Gelmund. “It’s just that your little ‘accident’ was ten-times more intimidating than this supposed ‘greater demon.’”

“You- you stepped in for us?” Gabil said, eyes watery with shock and gratitude.

“You’re not a bad guy, Envoy Gabil,” Black Bunny said kindly. She turned her head to glare at the majin who’d been behind it all apparently, “And no one deserves to be yanked around on puppet-strings like that.”

“Speaking of,” Rimuru hummed as Gelmund launched another attack (this time, directly towards the ground creating a massive wave of smoke) as he tried to escape their wrath. He extended his palm boredly as he watched the fleeing majin, promptly activating [Sticky String] forming a thick, binding cocoon of silk that tied him to the ground. “You didn’t think we’d let you get away that easily did you?”

The majin immediately began trying to struggle free, shouting curses and insults all the while. The moment he was restrained, the kijin seemed to materialize around them, glowering furiously down at the one who had ordered the destruction of their village. “You mentioned a ‘him’ earlier. Who is him? Who is the real mind behind all of this?”

“Save me orc lord!” he practically wailed instead of answering the question, the massive demon staring down at him. “Repay your debt to me, the one who fed you, the one who named you, Geld!”

The beast shifted, raising his head slowly.

It’s responding now, Rimuru thought. He was curious - the orc lord radiated a pretty intense amount of strength, even compared to his own comrades. He was fairly sure that altogether, the kijins could defeat him but it would be a much harder fought battle than anything they’d ever experienced yet. That said… it didn’t seem very bright. In Gelmund’s fits of anger and temper tantrums, he had thrown many insults on the monster’s intelligent and self-awareness - none of which the orc seemingly understood. 

[Confirmed: As the Orc Lord continue to gain different powers and abilities, his consciousness has been slowly corroding.]

Ah. Well that was tragic - if that was true, that meant Gelmund had been manipulating him the way he’d been puppeteering everyone else involved. And sadly, they would still have to kill him. He couldn’t just let him continue on with devouring the entire forest and everyone who crossed his path after all.

“...demon lord,” the orc lord voiced finally, his words slow and sluggish as if he was struggling to string them together. “Who…”

“Ugh! It’s you, you stupid tub of lard!” Gelmund snapped. “Come forth and protect your master who gave you a chance!”

Woah. 

Rimuru went stiff as an utterly threatening aura seemed to engulf the battlefield, pure rage and killing intent trying to strangle him. It felt like a more powerful version of Ranga’s [Coerison], the lizardmen and goblins surrounded by them dropping frightfully to their knees. He turned his head in disbelief to the furious form of Black Bunny, eyes narrowed and her lips peeled back away from her teeth as her tiny claws sank into the fabric of his clothes.

He jumped again, looking up as the orc lord - or rather, Geld - started shuffling forward with a dangerous sway. Gelmund laughed manically as he moved forth with his raised butcher-knife as a weapon, resting the blade in his hand.

“Oh look, the mountain of lard has decided to move,” he cackled, twisting to look at Rimuru and the rest of them. “Oh you’re in for it now… you’ll regret messing with me! Get them Geld, make them rue the day they dared to interfere with my-”

Rimuru jumped as Geld cut him off with one deft swing of his weapon, the majin’s head sliced clean from his shoulders. It landed on the ground with a wet sound, leaking blood as it rolled.

[It appears that Gelmund life signatures have stopped.]

Yeah, I can see that.

Geld moved forward in complete silence, dropping to his knees and began to loudly crunch and devour the carcass.

“Back up!” Black Bunny yelled at the kijin suddenly. “Back up! Back up! Back up-!”

As her fourth warning left her mouth, a deep menacingly dark purple energy seemed to seep right from Geld’s skin, seeming to wrap around him in a more sinister version of the evolutions he’d seen of his underlings.

[Confirmed: The orc lord Geld’s magicules have drastically increased, evolution to demon lord has commenced.]

The kijin seemed suddenly more willing to take Black Bunny’s warning seriously, quickly behind them as a destructive wind of powerful began whirling furiously around Geld’s body. Just as they cleared his range, the power exploded off of him with his menacing roar of announcement. 

Affirmed - Individual Geld is now commencing evolution into demon lord, The Orc Disaster

“Oh that’s not good,” Black  Bunny murmured with apprehension, the others present on the field all beginning to inch nervously away from the being and the ominous smoke that was steadily leaking from his body.

[Great Sage] that wasn’t you, was it?”

Affirmed - that was [The Voice of the World]. 

“Rimuru!” Black Bunny cried out, dragging him back into aware at the same time that [Great Sage] proceeded to ring a warning through his mind.”Watch out for the smoke!”

“Huh?” he blinked as he reflexively leaped up, watching as everyone else thankfully followed Black Bunny’s directive without him having to warn them again. He stared in muted horror as it wafted over the various bodies still strewn untouched on battlefield, eating away at them like some kind of flesh-eating parasite. It only took a few seconds each for the smoke to devour them. “So this is his new ability… applying [Corrosion] to anything it touches…”

“Without a powerful resistance, he will continue to devour you,” Black Bunny agreed seriously, looking up at the looming enemy before them. 

“Our king,” said one of the larger orcs beside the orc lord, dropping down to a knee in fealty. “And father. Hail Demon Lord, Geld.”

“Our Lord Geld,” the orcs intoned reverently, each dropping to kneel in turn. 

So this… is a demon lord. I can’t believe Gelmund called himself one, the power difference is insane!

“Shion!” 

“Right!”

“Huh?” said Rimuru, watching the kijin take off with her sword.

Benimaru placed a hand on his shoulder with a slight incline of his head, “My lord, let us take care of this filthy swine for you.”

“...please lay off on those remarks.”

They each turned their attention to Black Bunny who watched Shion unwaveringly, her paw still gripped tightly around Wildfire’s hilt, “Filthy swine, tub of lard, dirty pig - stop it. Take revenge for your people all you like, but stop belittling them like that.”

“My Lady…” Benimaru trailed off, seeming uncomfortable. 

She peered at the red-kijin from the corner of her dark eyes, a frown fixed on her adorable face, “I let it go before because your people had been slaughtered, I can excuse venting your grief.”

She throws her paw out to the still kneeling orcs, “But all you and anyone else has ever done is talk down to them, insult them - for being orcs. Should I have called you all foolish brutes for just being ogres? They aren’t stupid. This display of loyalty… this is beyond a majin taking advantage of their leader. There is something pushing them onwards - and they will keep marching until we find out what it is.”

Rimuru allowed the silence that followed her words as Shion was furiously repelled, her attacks taken up instead by Hakugou making an attempt to completely sheer his head from his shoulders once more. The orc lord revealed a pretty horrifically intense healing ability though, thick lime green chords of energy reaching out and beginning to reseal his head upon his shoulder. At his declaration that he was still starving, one of the orcs immediately and willing knelt before him, offering up his body and life to serve his king.

She’s right, Rimuru thought to himself grimly watching as Ranga stepped up, howling as he released lightning down upon the orc lord in vain, as the being merely shook it off with a determined roar only matched by his followers. These orcs… whatever their reason for wanting to devour the Jura Forest, they all believed in it as deeply and truly as their leader. 

“Ranga… rest in my shadow,” Rimuru commanded gently. 

<I’m sorry,> the wolf murmured.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” the slime reassured, turning his attention to the beast before them. 

“It’s my turn,” Black Bunny voiced, hopping down to stand beside him.

“Wait-”

“We can do this together,” she told him firmly even as a gentle golden glow illuminated around her fur. 

[Great Sage]-

[Acknowledgment - the individual Black Bunny appears to be powered up by a skill acting upon her oath to save the lizardmen.]

So that’s why she glowed but didn’t evolve, he realized watching the tiny rabbit go sprinting towards the behemoth like she was David. 

She sprung up electricity crackling across her little body as she raised Wildfire.

“[Thunderbolt]!” she bellowed, impaling the creature’s head with her sword, and a massive column of blue electricity rivaling (or even, beating out) Ranga’s snapped through the air harshly enough that he felt his hair raise from the latent static crackling through the air between them.

The orc lord released a startled cry as it went crashing to the ground as if it had been sucker punched by a giant right in the solar plexus.

“My Lord!” the orcs cried out in despair.

What was…

“That was Black Bunny?” Gobta blurted out, sounding utterly stunned. “But-but-”

“I know…” Rimuru agreed faintly, taking a half-step back as he watched the tiny black figure fall towards the ground. She landed on her paws, doing an additional backflip to expend the inertia of her contact but seemed otherwise unphased.

“...I am so glad Shuna stopped me from making such a big mistake those weeks ago,” Benimaru mumbled to himself, now aware of just how close he’d come to being murdered.

Has she always been this powerful? Rimuru blinked in amazement. How was she hiding her aura so well though? Without a mask like Shizue's… wait a minute, [Plush]! Her unique skill.

<We have a problem,> Black Bunny’s thought communication echoed through his head while he reeled from the revelation of the moment. <He’s got [Flame Resistance] and some form of [Electricity Resistance] I think.>

Rimuru shook his head, pushing aside his disbelief and panic - this wasn’t the time to be so distressed by that. It was time to gt his head in the game.

<I’m coming in.>

Alright [Great Sage], let’s see what you can do!

| | | |

The aftermath of the ‘war’ with the orcs was almost more difficult than the actual battle itself.

It took him a brief moment after everything to well and truly grasp what he’d seen of Geld’s memories… Black Bunny had been right again. There had been more than it seemed to the orc’s march on the Jura Forest. An entire species starving to death, infants dying mere days after birth because their mothers were so hungry they couldn’t produce any milk for them. An entire species, forced to resort to cannibalism, the young eating the old just so they’d have enough to grow stronger, to reach a state of maturity. An entire species on the cusp of being wiped out and yet, not a whisper on the wind of it.

He wanted to really sit down with his head in his hands to think it through, to really consider that the orc people as whole could’ve vanished from the world and no one would’ve known. And many wouldn’t have even cared. 

“Filthy swine, tub of lard, dirty pig - stop it. Take revenge for your people all you like, but stop belittling them like that.”

I want to build a land of peace, where everyone can get along. I’ll pay more attention to how everyone talks about some species… I’ll be more attentive.

The dryad, Treyni had appeared on the tail-end of the battle ready to organize the beginnings of the clean up. She called for a meeting of all the species there, requesting each of them choose representatives to attend for the discussion of the meeting. The lizardmen had elected their chieftain and his daughter, Benimaru and the oni he’d brought to the battle were the representatives of the kijin with a few of the miscellaneous goblins gathered by Gabil to stand in as the goblins’ representatives. Black Bunny had joined the meeting too, stating her presence as the voice of the Field Warren that held a vested interest in the Jura Forest alongside a few of the released Killer Rabbits that had begun to find their place within the village as hunters. 

Rimuru himself had gotten drafted into being the chairman of the meeting. 

From there, he’d been the one forced to start the meeting awkwardly but steadfastly revealing all that he had learned from Geld’s memories that led up to his awful luck in encountering Gelmund and the subsequent slaughter of the ogre village and his eventual attack on the lizardmen. 

“I… see…” the lizardman chief trailed off, seeming to the be considering his work. “A horrible famine slowly wiping out their people… and that manipulative Gelmund.”

“If  you want to make them pay for what they’ve done, you’ll have to find a way that doesn’t involve money,” Black Bunny pointed out. “Quite frankly, everyone around here has always treated orcs poorly. Even before the famine, they had no money - no one sells to orcs.”

Rimuru winced with the rest of the room, letting her words sink in for others as they had for him.

“Luckily we don’t have to use only monetary compensation,” he took over when everyone seemed suitably chastised even though she wasn’t scolding. He straightened up, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to look unflappable. “When I consumed the orc disaster, I agreed to take on his sins - and all the sins that his people bore in his name. So if you have any complaints, then I will hear them gladly.”

Survival of the Fittest rules this land and all of the monsters within it, regardless of if it was fair or kind to those who were weaker. From the moment any monster decides to fight, they accept that a potential outcome of that encounter is death. All of them. So…

“And if you wish to take your anger, I will be more than okay to fight you.”

As expected, the room remained quiet for a long moment as the demons looked among each other. 

“...Our pride as warriors is not more important than our survival,” the lizardman chief decided. “It was Lord Rimuru that won this war and so, we have no objections to your decisions.”

Phew!

Rimuru hadn’t been completely certain that move would work - he’d learned from his experience with the Dire Wolves to be a lot more careful with the phrasing of his words to avoid unintentionally giving them a ‘third choice.’ If the lizardman chief had been a more confrontational person, it would’ve gone much, much worse. He was sure he had the strength to defeat him if he needed to of course, but after everything… sue him for wanting a few days of peace.

“Forgive me Lord Rimuru, but I now have a question,” the lizardman chief continued, pulling his attention back. “If you do not intent to punish the orcs for their sins, do you then intend to welcome the survivors into the Jura Forest?”

“...” although the fighting had greatly decreased the number of orcs they were taking in, 15,000 was still a big number. Small in the scheme of talking about an entire species but for their little forest? He sighed - well, all that was left was a big gambit.

“Why don’t we form an alliance among all the species of the Jura Forest?” he suggested, causing soft murmuring from everyone in the meeting. “If we did that, I would like to spread the orcs out evenly among us.”

“I see,” Black Bunny said, immediately catching on again. “Payment in the form of manual labor. They can fix the places they destroyed and in return, they have food to eat and a place to live.”

“Yep,” Rimuru chirped. “We can leave the technical portion of the building to our various architects but the orcs could supply the manpower needed to make those architects’ plans into reality.”

He wished he could smile in this body, making due with offering a kindly voice to the orcs, “And any of the skills you pick up can be transferred over into building your own village together, rather than apart.”

“I think they could benefit from having perhaps a capital city,” Black Bunny tapped her chin thoughtfully, “I would like a bit of time to perhaps draw up some papers - a general guideline that everyone has to follow about working the orcs. Just because they’re paying back a species-wide debt doesn’t mean they should be treated poorly but otherwise, I - and thus the Field Warren bordering the Jura Forest - have no objections.”

“I’d like to build a country together, where all of us can live in peace and harmony.”

“And- and we could be a part of that?” the lead orc asked tentatively. 

“I’ll work you hard, there will be no slacking allowed,” Rimuru said sternly. “But if you do, there is no reason for you to be excluded.”

The orcs all fell to their knees, seemingly overcome with emotion.

“O-of course,” choked out the lead orc. “No objections.”

“No objections,” the lizardman chief voiced as well, dropping to take a knee before him. His people followed suit, bowing their heads to Rimuru. “We would be honored to cooperate in such an ambitious goal.”

Is this another monster custom I don’t know about, Rimuru wondered, promptly tugging on the Heartlink with Black Bunny for answers.

<A display of fealty. You’ve asserted yourself as the strongest and effectively declared you were taking command of the forest the way Lord Veldora did before you. They’ve all agreed to follow you.>

Oh.

He did his best to bow back in his gelatinous form as Shion placed him on the chairman’s bench, joining the rest of the kijin in bowing before him. The only monster who didn’t was Black Bunny, who merely stood up from her position to his right, drawing her arm across her chest and forming a fist with her mitted white paw - not an expression of deference, but certainly a declaration of loyalty all the same.

Good, I wouldn’t know how to handle Black Bunny bowing to me as well.

“Then it is decided,” Treyni - who had remained silent for the entire meeting - voiced finally. “As the manager and protector of this forest, I Treyni now hereby pledge to recognize the authority of one Rimuru Tempest as the new Lord and Master of the Great Jura Forest - and it is under his name that the Great Jura Alliance has been formed.”

Why does it sound so much more serious when she says it?!

“I- um. Please take good care of me I think,” he stammered out.

“Yes sir!” they all cried in agreement and that was how Rimuru took over and became the leader of the Great Jura Forest.

| | | |

From there, they took a break while Black Bunny produced paper from her inventory and began furiously scribbling terms and conditions for the employment of the orcs under the rule of the other species. She had begun teaching him the written language of Central used in their area but most of it was still completely incomprehensible to him - from Kaijin’s reaction though, the attention she had to detail would be enough to make a lawyer proud. Still kind and non-judgemental of his lack of literacy, she’d politely read her terms aloud to him and allowed [Great Sage] to process them. His skill hadn’t heard anything wrong with her terms and so, Rimuru gave her the greenlight to begin sharing the terms with the other representatives.

With the initial paperwork sorted, he moved onto the most daunting task: naming all 15,000 orcs.

You see, under the effects of [Starving One], the orcs had all gained a power boost that was sustaining them despite their severe malnourishment. With the death of the orc disaster, the effects were slowly but steadily wearing off. Although Black Bunny’s efforts to formulate a community farm were slowly starting to bear fruit, there still wasn’t enough to outright feed all 15,000 orcs and all of the usual forest inhabitants without devastating all of her efforts from over-consumption. And although Treyni and the dryads offered to assist with creating rations, the weakest of the bunch would likely die off almost immediately after the effects ended even with steady food (Black Bunny called it ‘refeeding syndrome.’)

The prevent them from dying off one by one while they’re waiting for food to come in, he would have to distribute his magical essence among them. And he didn’t know any other method to do that than naming them. 

Initially, he was just going to name them all basic number - ‘Mountain, 633M’ and ‘Field, 635F’ for example because there was just so many but Black Bunny had come for his throat when he proposed the plan. She scribbled up a list of names that she remembered had basic meanings like ‘first born,’ ‘twin’ or just talked about hair-color. She figured he could keep using the landscapes as something similar to clan names, ‘Mountain,’ ‘Westriver’ and ‘Field’ would be differentiating enough but he could just keep cycling through.

Lake Anane (fourth born) even taken to following her around after his initial naming, more than a little awed by the powerful bunny.

Rimuru took a bit of a breath and readied himself to name the last batch of orcs - 2,000 of them. Just as he was beginning to speak, the main orc - the one who had acted as the previous lord Geld’s retainer and watcher spoke up.

“My Lord, we have a request,” he began hesitantly, waiting until he received an approving nod before continuing. “We are the last members of the orc-race’s elites - we are warriors and defenders. I and the rest of us agree that we would like to devote our strength to serve you as we served our Lord Geld.”

<That’s a good offer,> Black Bunny communicated immediately. <We’re still getting trickle-in members from across the forest as our reputation expands. With the addition of the elite corps, we could better defend our territory and expand the city.>

“I accept your offer,” Rimuru voiced aloud in acknowledgement. He adjusted the direction of his names - rather than grant them a landmark if they were going to stay in their town, he hadn’t used any default colors yet. “Alright, let’s wrap this up - Yellow Kenzo. Yellow Kenji. Yellow-”

Two thousand felt lot a lot of people when you alone were responsible for naming each and every one of them, even with Black Bunny helpfully informing him when to tag ‘Jr’ or a minor sound modification to keep things straight. He dredged his way through the names, Black Bunny kindly offering him little bits of fruit from her hyperspace to help him push through before finally coming to the least of the orcs.

The aid, he mused. He was the most recurring face I saw from Geld’s memories - he even seemed to be considered a son to him. The power he radiates… it’s comparable to that of the orc lord.

“I would like you to inherit your former leader’s will,” Rimuru decided aloud. This high orc had kept the rest of his people together and alive while Geld ventured off in search of safe lands, cared for him as his mind degraded in his sacrifice to his people. Though he had defeated Geld and taken command of the orcs, they already had a perfect successor for leadership. “The great orc disaster who always thought of his people, even as he suffered, even as he died. His name was Geld and now, so is yours.”

The newly named Geld dropped to a knee, bowing low, “...I will accept that name with utmost gratitude and I will carry his will with honor.”

Phew! Rimuru thought, even as cries of shock erupted from the named orcs while Black Bunny scooped him up. Glad that’s over. Rest easy now Geld, your people are in good hands.

| | | |

As punishment for the coup he enacted and the unlawful imprisonment of his father and sister, Gabil had been exiled from the lizardman tribe and sent away, followed only by his three most loyal followers. When they were discussing where to go, during his break from naming orcs, Rimuru was surprised to watch Black Bunny approach him. She asked if he was alright and what his plans for the future were - when he admitted that he had none, she had promptly asked if he wouldn’t mind sticking around. 

Rimuru had been a little confused but didn’t object to her offer and so, the former envoy had taken the offer eagerly and then offered something he couldn’t possibly refuse.

“...would you mind if I got rid of that pesky reminder?” she asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Gabil inquired.

“That name Gelmund gave you,” she explained, making all of the lizardmen jolt with shock. “I can re-name you something else, remove those last ties you have to that manipulative bastard. Oh, and your friends too of course - loyalty like that should be rewarded.”

Huh, that was good information to know - he could overwrite an already named monster's Name to provide them additional power or strength. She had barely finished her sentence when Gabil was eagerly agreeing to her offer.

And so, Gabil became Gabiru.

“Your past still happened after all,” Black Bunny said. “And although you’ll be forging a new path forward, there’s much to be gained from observing your past.”

His friends had been unnamed, so Black Bunny chose a few names that she was more familiar with. In honor of his efforts to defend Gabiru, being the first to jump in front of him when he didn’t know that Black Bunny would step in, willing to sacrifice his life for him, one lizardman was named Alexander. The happiest and most carefree member of Gabiru’s group was subsequently named Acacius while the final, remaining member became Galen. He tuned out a little as he watched her run seemingly magnanimously through the large group of lizardman that had originally accompanied Gabiru - all with those distinct, more western sounding names.

He was less surprised than she was to see the gentle but sharp light of evolution coat the lizardmen, stretching them a bit taller and granting them deeper, richer-scale colors with Gabiru in particular turning a lustrous purple. Gabiru had been incredibly pleased to spread his newly acquired wings and even more delighted that he could blend them back into his back. With their names chosen, Black Bunny led the newly created ‘dragonewts’ to the Sealed Cave and had them begin harvesting the Hipokute grass to replenish their medicinal stores.

“I want to experiment with Hipokute extract for uses other than healing,” she informed the serious faced group. “The Sealed Cave is dark but the wind that cycles through is relatively warm so hopefully though it will be a bit of an adjustment, you can come to see it as another home. That place is Lord Rimuru and I’s training grounds so you’ll be granted plenty of opportunity to grow stronger.”

“Yes ma’am!” Gabiru had declared and marched off.

“Feel free to collect other plants as well!” Black Bunny called after them. “And make yourselves comfortable!”

On the other side of things, Gabiru's sister alongside a handful of lizardmen made clear their intentions to follow Souei after his display of flawless powerful when he rescued them. With the lizardman chief (now called 'Abil') granted a name, he had more than enough power and strength to rule over his people for much longer. Which of course, freed up a few elites to begin pursing their own dreams and ambitions.

Rimuru happily accepted their offer, assigning them beneath Sousei in the stealth and intelligence unit.

In the next three ensuing months, a tentative peace had been established in the town. With the help of the orcs (who evolved into outright high orcs upon being named), the dreams and ideals of Kaijin and the other dwarves unfolded rapidly. The people who had been on the verge of extinction from the famine had taken to their new duties furiously, learning steadily from their dwarven instructors. The newly appointed orc king, Geld even seemed to be overworking himself, often having to have Black Bunny step in and remind him of his contract and how ‘dead workers don’t build houses.’

Rimuru resolved to invite the man to a bar when it was constructed.

Black Bunny set herself back to training, having been granted a set of enchanted footwraps that increased her physical strength and healing factor on her legs. Witnessing her usage of [Lightning Foot] with her new equipment had been a bit terrifying, the tiny bunny successfully using it to kick down a massive tree - by kicking through it, like she was using an axe, not her toes. She was a lot more busy than she used to be though,  now managing her sect of dragonewts alongside the loosed killer rabbits that had requested that she open a courier’s post within their rapidly developing town.

 She dutifully ran around their city with a paper and a brush, taking inventory of their food stores, the money slowly accumulating from the monsters that elected to hand it over, building a census of everyone around. It made his head spin to see how easily she stepped into the role of a bureaucrat.

“My step-mother hated dealing with finances and the like back on Earth,” she’d explained when he asked, watching her manually bind and label the various sets of information. “I paid taxes, managed the household budget and did my best to wrap my head around investments until I moved out. I even took a few financial literacy and business management classes to help. I feel like I’m a kid again - and this time, you even thank me for my efforts.”

Sometimes, he gets the feeling that she is understating what her childhood had been like but even these little snippets painted a picture that made him uncomfortable asking directly. While that happened, the last of the goblin people had finally begun showing up in waves requesting names and insisting that they work there. It kept him busy while the finishing touches on the land came together.

Plumbing for every single house like back on Earth was just unwieldy and a bit implausible at the moment but he’d worked around it by having a series of public wells being established all around the city. The toilets had to be manually flushed but they worked all the same. He’d felt slightly awkward asking Black Bunny to do even more work, but she’d agreed easily enough to adding the formation of a city-map drawn up to her list of ‘things to do.’

“We were going to need an update map anyway if we’re going to be open to tourists,” she’d remarked casually. “I am going to see about finding a way to duplicate documents though… I don’t want to rewrite all of these documents again and again like before…”

He let that comment slide and moved swiftly on.

If I don’t think about it, it can’t hurt me.

He'd just begun to close his eyes and enjoy the peaceful energy in the air, a [Thought Communication] echoed loudly through his mind.

<Rimuru-sama, there's a severe emergency.>

<What is it Sousei?>

<A group of armed fliers numbered around 500 hundred have been spotted in the north sky. They're approaching us quickly.>

"Shion," he voiced aloud, drawing attention from the purple themed kijin. "Order Rigurd to begin the process of evacuation."

"Yes!"

He hurried off immediately, knowing the emotions of concern he was giving off would alert Black Bunny to begin tracking him down. He bounced as fast as his little slime body could manage, not wanting to take his human form and draw any additional attention from the army soaring above them. He was intercepted only mid-way to the location Souei projected into his head, Black Bunny wordlessly scooping him up into her paws and began bounding towards the location at his direction.

"There!" Rimuru called out, tilting his body to look up toward the sky. He was startled to see what appeared to be a fleet of winged horses, dressed and armored like they intended to enter directly into war. He wondered if those coverings had magic imbued within them as well.

Several more presences began to appear in the peripheral of his vision as the kijin all rapidly came running over to join him, all prepared to fight the army above. One presence, a non-combatant stood out to him though.

"Kaijin-san, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded. "You should be evacuating with the others!"

"I don't think he needs to Lord Rimuru," Black Bunny remarked, still watching the pegasus as they began descending towards them. "Master Kaijin may be the best dwarf for this conversation."

"Eh?"

"I heard from a general at a bar once about a special military division under direct command of the King," the dwarf said, straightening up almost completely. "The Pegasus Knights."

The muffled thump of cloven hooves landing on grassy meadow patches drew his attention to the foremost pegasus as the imposing aura of Hero King Gazel easily dismounted. Kaijin immediately dropped to a knee, bowing his head with a fist on the ground and Rimuru thinks he felt the harsh and heavy aura of the king lighten in their direction.

"It has been a while my king," Kaijin said.

"It has," responded the king. "You still kneel to me?"

"I do my king," Kajin responded swiftly. "My sentence was lenient and though I serve my Lord Rimuru now, I will not forget your kindness."

That is the loyalty of a true ruler, Rimuru noted. Now that he was wearily, the leader of the Jura Forest Alliance, he would have to keep the dwarf-king’s tactics in mind. Though Kaijin hadn’t done anything wrong in Rimuru’s eyes, the dwarven Lord had been capable of wrangling a way to give Kaijin a light-sentence despite the possible outrage of the other nobles. 

"It has been a while since I have seen you as well, slime."

"Oh," said Rimuru, a little surprised. "You remember me?

“I would never be foolish enough to forget such a powerful slime,” the king said. “That is why I am here - I came not as the king of Dwargon, but as an individual.”

Rimuru blinked - as an individual? A sense of wariness crossed him - why would the Hero King come to speak to him on a personal level? His eyes slid over to the kijin, watching them with wary expressions themselves. They were all tense, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation - that wasn’t good, he’d learned rather quickly that even a perceived insult to himself would send them into a furious rage. It was a good thing Gazel had phrased his remark in the way he did. Well, he supposed this wasn’t a trial so he couldn’t be penalized for speaking for himself instead of letting Black Bunny speak for him.

He wiggled in her arms, doing his best to convey the intent of wanting to be put down and was obligingly, allowed to spring from her arms. He quickly transformed, taking on his human form and touching his feet lightly to the ground. He allowed Shizue’s mask to hang lightly from his head, the strange magic that kept it attached in battle allowing it remain perched delicately in view.

“Then it would be only polite to speak to you in my new form,” he said, extending a hand to the king. “I am the new master of the Great Jura Forest and leader of the Great Jura Forest Alliance.”

One of the soldiers behind him went to grab his sword, only to be stopped by the Hero King accepting his hand and gave him a firm shake. Rimuru did his best not to wince - the combination of thick gauntlets with the Hero King’s large hand made for a slightly painful grip.

“If you have a human form, then words are unneeded,” the larger man noted, his gaze sharpening with something Rimuru couldn’t decipher. “One strike will be enough. You have taken good care of Kaijin and Black Bunny’s continued presence at your side is indicative of your integrity as a person. Draw your sword.”

“Huh?” Rimuru said, taking a slight step back in disbelief. The looming presence of the kijin increased dramatically, bearing down on them with a sense of weight upon their shoulders. 

Black Bunny for her part was the only one who didn’t seem shocked or even offended. Much to Rimuru’s surprise, she gave a little giggle and shook her head with amusement, “Swordsmen. Can you at least move this outside of the village? Master Kaijin and the others might react badly if he ruined the buildings again.”

Before Rimuru could fully process what was happening here, the wind and grass stirred at the ground before them. A moment later, Treyni appeared in front of them, a look of slight annoyance clear in her features. 

“I will not tolerate any arrogance towards our master of the forest,” she said seriously.

“Treyni-san,” he greeted brightly, ignoring the surprised murmuring of Gazel’s calvary. The dryad offered a kindly smile towards him - no one had seen her since the meeting when the Jura Forest Alliance had been formed. Even the deliveries of food to supplement them had arrived with the assistance of the dryad’s creatures, ferrying them into the village for storage purposes. It was nice to see her again and confirm that she was well.

“Ahahah!” Rimuru jumped in surprise from the surprisingly hearty laughter from Gazel, shaking his head in satisfaction before lowing his gloved hand. “If the manager of the forest says so, then I must apologize for any rudeness I’ve conveyed. However, I’d still like to confirm for myself - draw your sword.”

“If you continue to spout insults-” Treyni began bristling.

“Hey!” Black Bunny interjected sharply, her tone a lot harsher than he was used to. Her dark eyes were narrowed at the manager of the forest as she bounded in between Treyni and Gazel. “He has every right to test Lord Rimuru, who is founding a city right next door to him. It is what any good king would do.”

“Thank you for your word of confidence Black Bunny,” Gazel noted, tilting his head to her lightly.

"You are a good man, Hero-King Gazel and I pride myself on maintaining an honorable stance and avoiding hypocrisy," she levies the kijin and Treyni with a sharp look that made Rimuru feel like she was two seconds from sending them to stand in the corner. "I will not allow my comrades to compromise those morals for something as silly and small as personal pride and ego."

"...I apologize for my own rudeness," Treyni said, the dryad appearing suitably chastised.

"You all need to get better at handling diverse personalities and cultures," The rabbit scolded. "You could've provoked a feeling of genuine distaste from the Hero-King with your behavior that seems to insist that a lack of deference to Rimuru is a form of disrespect."

He wonders if her decision to use his name, rather than the title she called him aloud was intentional on her behalf.

He cleared his throat, relieved for a brief moment that she couldn’t read minds and quickly drew his own sword. Best to take any possible negative energy away from himself and Gazel.

“I accept your offer of a spar,” Rimuru said, relaxing a little bit when the king didn’t deny his declaration that this would be a spar. That… that made him feel a lot better about all of this. Despite how highly the kijin and the goblins thought of him, he wasn’t overconfident. He remembered the presence Gazel had back in Dwargon (some of it even lingered with him now) and he knew, as he was now, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating him in a true fight.

But a spar?

A spar he could handle. 

“Very well then,” Treyni coughed, drawing the attention back to herself once more. “Then I will serve as the judge.”

Though Gazel didn’t smirk or even grin, Rimuru could practically feel his satisfaction with the situation.

“Begin!”

[gear-project]

Brother and Sister Fighting Styles

Something I've been meaning to point out in terms of Fighting Game features and mechanics is the concept of Sibling Fighting Styles.

While it's not made immediately apparent, it is most prominent in Soul Calibur as a series:

Each fighting style establishes itself with a great deal of techniques and tactics, but just as each method is established, there are always alternate methods of execution.

This isn't limited to Special moves, but normal attacks as well... just as Samurai Shodown utilized Shura and Rasetsu (Slash and Bust) fighting styles, akin to EX Mode in Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.

But, just to give you a clear idea of what I mean by Sibling styles, I'll just list the ones I know of:

Mitsurugi > Yoshimitsu (Many high speed attacks, also evasive and good at cornering opponents, the main style is offensive based, while Yoshimitsu's style is more evasive and tricky.)

Hwang > Xianghua (You wouldn't notice the similarities in their styles in initial glance, but there is heavy emphasis on a mix of kicks and tricky swordplay, the styles also employ methods to counter attacks through parries or simply absorbing the attacks.)

Rock > Astaroth (Most people won't fully recall the difference between Rock and Astaroth's styles, but with Astaroth the main style puts emphasis on grabbing and smashing opponents, while Rock's style puts more sheer strength in his attacks, and he takes advantage of the range of his weapon aside from its large size.)

Siegfried > Nightmare (A more famous pair in the series by far: the main difference is that Siegfried uses both his hands to wield the massive blade, while Nightmare shifts to a one-handed style due to his massive claw arm. Both styles have very oppressive force, but can still suffer from lack of mobility. Sieg's style puts emphasis on Defense, Parries, and Reversal strikes, while Nightmare absorbs hits offensively and puts emphasis on ease of use for players.)

Kilik > Seong Mi-na (Both styles utilize impressive range, though in Kilik's case, many of his complex moves are focused primarily on countering the opponent's attacks defensively while using tricky mixups. Seong's style puts emphasis on strong break attack strikes (forceful hits) and takes even more advantage of flexibility in favor of range and zoning as a style... both styles are semi technical, but Seong's is the easier of the two to use.)

Sophitia > Cassandra (Aeon Calcos/Lizardman) (Sophitia's style is very misleading in that the goal is to defensively parry her foe's attacks while confounding them with strike-throws and mixups. Many of her attacks are very unnatural, until you realize her style is based on using divine powers that aren't normally used in that weapon style. Meanwhile, Cassandra's style is the more "natural" and organic way to wield a Sword and Shield, though it seems very rough and forceful, including melee throws and parries, it is still very effective. Lizardman's style is essentially an even rougher version of Cassandra's style, putting more emphasis on kicks and biting.)

Raphael > Amy (The Sorel House style is not to be underestimated, and puts a great deal of emphasis on reading the intent of the opponent and using natural counters to oppress them. Raphael's style is very offensive, yet also very evasive, though the focus is primarily on Defending attacks despite how strong the style is offensively. Amy's style puts more emphasis on evasion and acrobatic maneuvering to express counters, though her Rose system overemphasizes the idea that she has exposed her opponent's vulnerabilities.)

Cervantes > Grøh (Utilizing two swords in a fighting style has a great many variations, obviously, but for Cervantes his style is very oppressive and crude, taking advantage of his inhuman speed as well as the firearm built in one of his blades. For Groh's case, the style is more natural and flows equally as naturally AT FIRST... once a player gains the advantage of a Soul Charge, Groh can separate his swords and move just as quickly as Cervantes does to really harass his opponents. Despite the inhuman nature of these styles, they are still very balanced in terms of range, reach, speed, and defense... all-rounder styles that can deal with many situations without reprisal.)

These are the main styles found in Soul Calibur, though there are many other styles that could potentially have alternating methods of combat.

Comparing Voldo with Raven: Both styles are very flexible, while Voldo uses the variability of his limbs to strike opponents while evading them at the same time, his style has very few counters to begin with. Raven's style is very similar in that his limbs are VERY flexible, though he makes full use of his Immortal Regeneration to absorb the attacks of his opponents as well as the range of his Needle weapons.

Comparing Zasalamel with Testament: Both styles use the full range of the Scythe, though Zasalamel uses the pulling reach of the scythe to full effect. Testament uses Magic to expand the reach of the scythe as well as the Curse system to increase mobility and range. Zasalamel's style also uses a Curse technique inside its kit of abilities, but puts more emphasis on them when Soul Gauge (Meter) is used, unlike Testament's use of Overdrives and Tension.

Comparing Hilde with Faust: Unlike Kilik and Mina, these two use a powerful Spear-like weapon that can alternately be used like a Glaive (even if in Faust's case it's technically a giant scalpel). Hildegard von Krone's style puts on a show of using a shortblade along with the spear and mixes the two along with minor kicks in the style. Faust on the other hand would either use the sweeping range of his Scalpel (similar to how Mina uses her Zanbatou) or simply use his own flexibility and long limbs to take advantage of his range.

Comparing Taki with Chipp: Taki puts emphasis on the strength of her legs via kicks in combat, but also uses her drawing speed to take full advantage of her Ninja Swords. While Chipp doesn't have swords to draw, he does use his Ninja Armblade along with his supernatural speed to take the fight to his opponents. Whereas Taki puts more emphasis on kicks, Chipp puts more emphasis on punches. Though it seems Taki takes more advantage of her evasive abilities than Chipp currently employs (as of Strive, that is). Assuming Chipp took advantage of his Ten'i Teleport dashes, the playing field between the two styles would be largely even.

Comparing Earthquake with Axl Low: For a change of pace, I'll discuss the interesting use differences between Earthquake (of Samurai Shodown) with Axl Low (of Guilty Gear): Earthquake uses a rather LARGE Kusarigama chain, so his style puts more emphasis on the weight of the chain when he throws it around (not unlike Goldlewis Dickinson's means of throwing his Coffin around). Earthquake also uses some very "unique" Ninja techniques involving throwing his physical weight around as well as Flame Breath... he also likes to distract his opponent and speed in to them with a "spinning teleport slash" technique (though it's unclear how someone as large as himself can move that fast). Contrast with Axl Low who employs the true full range of a Kusarigama Chainscythe with his Sparrow-Hawk stance, as well as his "Wild Hair" Instant Kill technique which can overwhelm his opponents with the chains in his arsenal. Axl also likes to use explosive Flame magic techniques and spin the sickles of his weapons and generate gales from the force of the spin, which can either create a projectile for his opponent to deal with, or use the force of the spin to draw them inwards like a vacuum (similar to May's original Mist Finer from the first GG game).

Comparing Johnny with Setsuka: Both use a great many similar Battoujutsu techniques (drawing styles), though Johnny puts more emphasis on range, while Setsuka uses speed and close-range techniques to stun her opponent and keep them guessing how she'll approach next. Setsuka's style is unique in that it utilizes concepts centered around the nature of Counter Attacks: Early Counters, Late Counters, and Read Counters. Early Counters are attacks that occur before the opponent considers to strike. Late Counters are attacks performed after an opponent strikes. Read Counters take full timing in to consideration and will fully counter attacks just as they are being used. Utilizing the full discipline of this enhances Setsuka's special move repertoire to a dazzling degree. You could argue Johnny uses a similar technique with Joker Trick and Treasure Hunt, however, how he uses those techniques is not currently AS potent as the style Setsuka currently uses.

Comparing Sol with Ky: As a bonus, we'll talk about another famous rivalry. Ky's style puts more emphasis on range and the potency of his projectiles, though he will use his Vapor Thrusts as physical counters to his opponent's attacks. Sol puts heavy emphasis on the physical power of his attacks, gambling on the timing of their potential range. While his range isn't as safe or as great as Ky's, he can potentially overcome this with the sheer force and randomness of his Strike-throw game. While Volcanic Viper is just as strong a counter as Ky's Vapor Thrust... the range and force it has gives it more utilitarian use and is less situation specific, even lending it use during combos. Compare or Contrast with their EX Fighting style variants from Accent Core: EX Ky put strong emphasis on crossing his opponent up with Grand Vapor Thrust (similar to Sol's Ground Viper Night Raid Vortex/Gunblaze variants), and used his acrobatic flexibility (Crescent Slash) to maintain his offensive. EX Sol on the other hand took inspiration from Ky's normal projectile style and put more heavy emphasis on even STRONGER Gunflames (Gunflame Charge Forcebreaks/Aerial Gunflame) and even had a followup Sidewinder technique after using Volcanic Viper, which could land Clean Hits, setting up his opponent for many types of combos! Sol even had a Forcebreak version of Ground Viper, which is quite literally the most button-mash heavy version of Ground Viper he's ever had (it does a great number of hits depending on how good you are at button mashing!). Last but not least, EX Ky and EX Sol essentially swapped the overall effective range of their own Overdrives. Whereas Sol's Tyrant Rave Beta version has limited range in front of him, and Ky's Ride the Lightning allowed him to overcome his opponent's projectiles via an energy shield of Lightning... Ky's EX R.T.L. expands in a huge orb of Lightning in front of Ky... and Ky can even do the move in mid-air! EX Sol's Tyrant Rave version GAMMA is the "flame" version of Ride the Lighting... or in this case, RIDE THE FIRE. Of course, Sol's version of this move can ALSO be done in mid-air... much like the infamous "GG Anime" version of Sol's Mid-air Ground Viper (which uses the same animation frames as Ground Viper, only in mid-air).

Essentially what I'm driving at here is... there's a great many combat styles out there... and some can easily be swapped out, or even simply change styles mid-combat!

Fighting is a very fluid thing, it is not rigid (despite what Fighting Games might express in a limited capacity)... and although many fans appreciate certain aspects of these styles... consider the reality of them, and their true potential!

[beantothemax]

Looking at him now, that was not the man Olberic once loved. Erhardt's will to fight, will to see another day had all but dissappeared. He fought only to protect a desert town, half hoping to die in combat.

The Erhardt that Olberic knew and cherished fought to see a new dawn. He spoke of a bright future with stars in his eyes.

Perhaps that's what revenge did to him. The anger never abandoning him, only finding a man person to fall upon and destroy, even if it was himself.

"Draw your weapon, Erhardt! For warriors like us, there is no other way!"

Without a word, Erhardt followed the command. He held his sword high, staring at the man he still once loved.

It was strange how time changed you. He once wanted to abandon his quest for revenge to live with this man. Olberic was still his only chance to feel at peace, but now his definition of peace was different.

"Of course, let us fight!" he said.

The duel was short lived. Erhardt's grip on his blade loosened till the fifth time their swords clashed. It clattered to the ground and Olberic struck him in the chest.

As he fell the ground, he could only smile, satisfied that his life would be ended by the only man who had the right. He couldn't fall to a lizardman or mercenary, they did not matter. Only Olberic, the man he had hurt beyond repair, could end his life. Only Olberic deserved such satisfaction.

"So? Was it everything you wanted?" Erhardt smirked.

Olberic sat beside him and pushed the hair from his face. He caressed his cheek as tears welled up in his eyes.

"I wish things were different, I wish we could've spent our lives together," he cried.

"That'd be nice, we could have a house on the countryside and keep a farm. Just the two of us, no politics or war to seperate us," Erhardt agreed.

Blood stained his lips when he coughed. Olberic held him as tight as he could while he sobbed.

Why couldn't thing have been different? Why did they have to suffer when worse people still lived and thrived?

Erhardt coughed again before muttering, "when I said I dreamt of dying in your arms, I thought it'd be different."

Olberic could only cry as Erhardt laughed at his own unpleasant joke.

"I-I know."

"I'll see you soon, my love," Erhardt smiled.

My love. How wonderful it felt to be called that again.

The life left the traitor and his lover laid him on the ground. The color drained from his eyes as his body grew cold. And yet, Olberic couldn't let go of his hand. Not yet. He didn't want to.

But he did. The tears poured like a waterfall as he muttered endless messy apologies.

Through his tears, he spotted his sword on the ground. It still bore Erhardt's blood.

Soon, it would have his too.

a small collection of lines from this fic that make me want to crawl into a hole and scream

PIE I AM SHAKING YOU RAPIDLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!! GGGGGAAAHHHHH!!!!

I saw that it was an olberic fic and thought ‘hey how bad could it be?’ and then you plunge a dagger directly into my chest

olberic about how erhardt has lost all purpose in his life and how he half hopes that he dies protecting wellspring… the fact that erhardt fell so quickly, and how he’s happy that his life was ended by the sole man who had the right… their whole talk after the fight where..! where they talk about the peaceful life they could’ve had!!!!! pie I want to cry!!!!!!!!!!!!

OLBERIC SAYKNG AG THE END THT ERHARDT’S SWORD WILL SOON HAVE HIS BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE JUST WANTS TO BE WITH THE ONE MAN HE LOVES!!!!!! EVEN IF IT MEANS HE HAS TO DIE HE’LL DO ANYTHING TO BE WITH HIM!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAA

[selfdiagnosedeyemotif]

Chapter Three (Praem):

The two arrive, slightly tenser, in a small town in the northern part of the Goldlands

It’s called Millheart, it is positively FULL of windmills, and it’s surrounded by large hills

A few caves rim the town, just because it’s getting a little close to the Stonelands

Some asking around the town is required to find out about what the seer was talking about

It seems that the general consensus is that there’s something amiss in the cave north of town, so it’s safe to say that that’s where The Thing might be

However, the townsfolk are all being like. Real cagey about it. Hard to say why

Eventually the two reach the cave in question, which by all accounts looks like a perfectly ordinary cave

However, as they approach, a villager in armour stops them, saying that they can’t go in and that “they’re not going to lose any more people to that thing”

Praem insists that they are going to enter that cave whether this guy likes it or not

Blades are drawn, and there’s a mandatory Challenge section (because I had to incorporate one somehow and there’s no way I’ll be able to fit one in chapters 4 or 5, trust me)

The two clean the guy up a bit and put him in a safe place but then swiftly move on into…

The Third Dungeon: Infested Cavern

Hey just heads up this is gonna be tagged with bug and spider content warnings in the post form but if you are tumblr user beantothemax reading this from your askbox. Be warned. There are a lot of creepy-crawlies ahead.

Anyway it is extremely obvious what the boss is going to be as soon as you enter the dungeon

Cobwebs are EVERYWHERE and they are BIG

A few sections of it are fully just spider webs suspended over open chasms that you have to painstakingly walk over

The enemies? You guessed it: spiders.

I don’t think there’ll be any puzzle-type sections in this one, though

So it’s mostly just exploration through this creepy cavern

Eventually Praem comes to a large cavity in the cave, at the centre of which lies a bigass spider web

Like this is clearly the head honcho right here

Troublingly enough, however, the wall BEHIND the spider web has some carving on it that’s difficult to make out with the web in the way

Praem and Ekaterina get to work clearing the web

Ekaterina needs to borrow a sword for this because she’s a fencer, so Praem ends up using the dagger that the seer gave her

LOTS of thoughts in her brain about that one

Her ability has never steered her wrong before

In fact, it’s been incredibly accurate about most everything

There’s no way to escape the fact that it’s right

She has seen what’s going to happen

She can’t escape it and

These thoughts are so rudely interrupted by (no points for guessing what comes next) a vision! Just a quick one this time like what happens during battle tho

There’s something overhead. She needs to push Ekaterina out of the way because it’s about to get both of them

She quickly sheaths the dagger and dives into her ally, getting both of them out of the way to look up and see…

The Third Boss: The Great Web-Spinner

This one’s just a real big spider

I think it’s a bit of a shame that the warriors truly get a non-human boss to fight (Olberic fights the Lizardman Chief, yes, but also fights Erhardt in the same chapter), so I’m being the change I wish to see in this world

Enters the fray with one Arachnid Lieutenant, which in turn is able to hold its own decently well, but the main event is the big ‘un

The main gimmick of the fight is effects that progress as time goes on

As its first action, the GWS always uses an attack that lowers the party’s speed

The next party member to take a hit from an attack will be afflicted with some kind of custom debuff

The custom status gradually reduces attack and speed by small increments, and when it reaches a certain turn count (5-10), the afflicted member will lose mobility altogether

It can be removed, but only if no other debuffs/afflictions are present on the ally

So if the speed debuff is still there, you can’t get rid of it, but if you run down the clock on that, you can

Other than that, the Great Web-Spinner is gonna try and poison the party members one at a time, and the Arachnid Lieutenant is going to try and inflict blindness

This boss is mostly here because Praem’s final boss was originally going to be a giant spider and I wanted that idea to live on somehow, so here we are

The fight closes, and the two are able to resume work on clearly the web

Before they start, Ekaterina cuts off the spider’s head and stashes it in her bag, saying that they’ll be able to show the townsfolk to let them know that the cave is a little safer now

Cut to a montage of the two getting rid of the webs

Eventually, the full thing is uncovered, revealing a few things

One: an enormous crevasse, splitting in a Y shape

Two, a waterfall surrounded by stalagmites, with something just visible behind it

Three, a stone efface in a similar shape to the thing behind the waterfall, marked with a symbol of an eye

The same symbol of an eye as the dagger

And that’s the same waterfall as the…

Cut back to Praem’s vision for the second time (forgot to mention but it cuts back to the vision when she gets the dagger) as a flashback, this time to the footsteps on wet stone, and the waterfall

She’s going there

They are going there

She is leading Ekaterina to the place where she will kill her

Praem is again somehow able to maintain her composure but she is shaken by this in her internal monologue

Ekaterina seems to ignore this, and points out where this place might be

It features very prominently on the game’s world map, and is located in the northeastern part of the Stonelands

The two leave the cave, are able to present the spider head to the townsfolk, and then it’s time to head for the cave where it will happen.

[skxrbrand]

Prev / Concurrent

“A pact?”

Kha’xanzyr stared at Khazaan, his blue eyes hard and serious. And disappointed. The Tippler stood his ground though, ignoring the struggling creature in his claws until her squeaking got too fierce. Then he applied the slightest bit of pressure with his thumb. The squirming stopped. He looked back at his brother.

“ A blood pact.”

“With a wizard? Worse, a rat wizard?!”

Khazaan rose a lip, “ A rat wizard who wrested my prison from Skarbrand’s talons.” He felt compelled to vouch for her, if only to protect his own ego. Kha’xanzyr’s gaze dropped from his brothers to the white-furred thing in his talons, stinking of fear. There was doubt in his heart, but he never knew Khazaan to be a liar (or very good at it when he did try). Around the she-rats next was a bronze collar, cancelling her magic-signature and nullifying her abilities. As long as that thing was tight around her throat, she had no sorcerous power. Just how long during the journey had Khazaan been hiding his pet?

The Architect glared, “ Skarbrand will punish you went he finds out.”

“ If he finds out.” Khazaan corrects, “ He wants entry into the Realm of Ruin. Maybe she knows a spell to give him just that.”

Kha’xanzyr moved to sneer and call him a fool, but he stopped. He was not very learned in the Vermin God’s lore...but he knew Grey Seers could summon Verminlords. Portals that led to the Ruinous Realm. Question was, how could they rip a portal open big enough to fit three armies through? A detail they could figure out later.

“ Keep the Vermin. Ensure she does not die, at least not this day.”

Kha'xanzyr walked off to ponder and think about this new development. Khazaan opened his palm to grin down at the shivering Grey Seer within. He eyed her hand especially, carved off by the Blood Queen around a year ago. It had been a pathetic fight and her magic nor her lizard-toy had helped one whit. Rinki was long dead and Khazaan took the liberty of snapping her staff. Two of her Mechs were nothing but bone and scrap. Only the Lizardman and the third mech had been allowed to live and guard her, though they weren’t in the greatest shapes either.

“ Worry not, little ratty.” He pets her with his thumb, laughing at how she grimaces. “ You do not need a staff. You have a blade and a remaining arm. And you will learn to use both. I do not suffer weakness in my company.”

Khazaan laughed again, hearing the she-rat gulp audibly.

[whump-softie]

Goblin Slayer whump fic

Background: Goblin Slayer is an anime, where mc “Goblin Slayer” has a party of non-human companions, named as their species. He is famously faceless, and typically stoic; always a plan in place as their fearless leader. And oh, how I love to torture the stoic ones, front and center.

It was supposed to go as planned. Sneak in, smoke them out, and exit with victory on their shoulders.

But that's not what happened.

When Goblin Slayer opens his eyes, he finds that the bars of his helmet aren't in view. In plain sight, it forces him to see what has become of his party members.

The Dwarf and Lizardman are lying on the filthy ground, hands and legs tied with rope. Both are still unconscious.

The High Elf and the Priestess are upright, chained by the wrists held above their head, restraints cemented into the wall.

A goblin stands between Goblin Slayer and his friends. It's enormous, a Goblin Lord maybe. Much larger than what he can handle by himself, let alone while tied to a chair in the middle of an underground dungeon.

"Let's start right away," the goblin telepathically screams into Goblin Slayer's mind, making him flinch. "The others can wake up at their own pace. They're not what I came here for, anyways."

A large club in the goblin's hands swung fast and hard, hitting Goblin Slayer squarely in the stomach. It knocks the wind out of him, causing him to wheeze and cough. He tries to stay quiet, although he's not sure why. Having the others wake up whilst he's being tortured doesn't sound pleasant, especially now that his protection--his beloved helmet--is off, exposing his facial expressions. He'll have to keep himself in check, no matter the pain.

Another blow, another wheezing cough. 

The goblin is no longer satisfied with this. He pulls a small dagger from his waist and waves it in Goblin Slayer's face. "Pretty, isn't it?"

Goblin Slayer can see High Elf stir, starting to awaken. No, not yet. Please, stay oblivious until I deal with this, until I find us a way out.

The first thing in High Elf's vision when she wakes up is Goblin Slayer being stabbed through his left hand. The blade lodges itself into the arm of the chair, dying the wood a dark red. Goblin Slayer curls in and grits his teeth. His fingers twitch, but it hurts with every movement. 

"Goblin Slayer!" High Elf screams. The goblin looks back at her and smiles. "Finally, an audience," he telepathically whispers to Goblin Slayer only. "Just for you."

He can only tense his body as the goblin tears the blade from his left hand and buries it immediately into the flesh of his right. This time, he cannot hold in a guttural scream. He kills it almost as soon as it passes his throat, but it still causes the Dwarf and Lizardman to finally stir. They look up, trying to find the source of the sound, and both are stunned to silence as they lay their eyes on their might party leader, unmasked and vulnerable, his hands bloody, face scrunched into an expression they can only imagine being agony.

"Boss!" The Dwarf shouts, but the goblin ignores him. Slowly twisting the embedded dagger, Goblin Slayer grits his teeth and groans, the energy needed to hold this in quickly evaporating. The goblin rips it out of his hand and then licks the bloody blade. 

The goblin makes quick work of Goblin Slayer's remaining armor. The helmet already cast aside, he rips through the chest plate like butter, revealing pale, scarred flesh beneath.

[upwards-descent]

Empty

TW: Gore, body horror

Casey spat and a glob of blood splashed against the concrete. He was exhausted, broken, but he wasn't down.

"I thought you'd be more of a challenge," Basque twirled a dagger against his palm, eyeing the bleeding cowboy from head to toe. "Shame. At least your bounty is high."

"Shut up," Casey growled. "I'm not done with you yet."

"Oh, I think you are."

It felt like Casey blinked and he was suddenly on his back, pinned down by the weight of Basque's body. His scales were rough where they scraped against Casey's exposed skin, his shirt ripped in places to show off the slashes in his flesh.

"They say you're the best human hunter in the galaxy," Basque scoffed. He stroked his claws up and down the blade of his dagger. "Doesn't mean much, really, your kind are so soft and squishy."

Casey didn't flinch as the dagger's point hovered only a centimeter over his left eye. He watched Basque's expression in silence, his mouth carving a deep scowl into his face.

"You keep pulling looks like that," Basque tutted. "You'll get premature wrinkles. Human flesh is so malleable, so tearable, so--"

The dagger plunged into Casey's eye and half of his vision went completely dark. Somehow, he didn't scream, even as the searing pain turned cold as ice. He felt the sickening tug and pull and then a sharp yank. Basque laughed, high and manic. He held his blade so Casey's good eye could catch a glimpse of his own eyeball speared on his dagger.

"It was so unsightly, all milky white like it was rotten," Basque's long serpentine tongue licked around Casey's eye, playing with the detached optic nerves. "I did you a favor--"

The lizardman heaved as Casey's knee slammed into his gut. Before he could react, he shrieked. A boot slammed into his groin, hidden blade unsheathed. Casey kicked again and brought his heel down, tearing away at Basque's nethers and launching him off. 

"You'll fucking pay for that!" Basque screamed, curled up in the fetal position, groping at the bloody mess of his crotch. "My fucking gonads! You whore--"

Casey towered over him, firing off a bullet for each of Basque's eyes. The sheer power of the revolver turned the lizardman's head into a splatter of blood and brains. For now, the shock kept Casey conscious. He was disassociating, cold, unfeeling, glassy-eyed. Plucking up Basque's dagger with his own eye still impaled on it, Casey pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 101.

"Thank you for calling emergency services, do you need the police or medical?"

"Medical," Casey rumbled cooly. "And maybe police. I'm a bounty hunter and I've just collected a kill."

"Understood, sir, we're triangulating your location and contacting both services. Anything I can relay to our team?"

"The other guy's dead," Casey supplied, watching blue blood trickle across the concrete. "And I'm in shock. Not sure how I'll be when they arrive."

"Thank you for letting us know. We've found your position at the flight docks, medical should be arriving within a few minutes. Please wait and don't wander off too far."

"Thanks."

Casey hung up and stared at his phone, contemplating. He could feel his senses slowly returning, the numbness bleeding into agonizing pain. He dialed Milo.

"Hey, babe. I'm uh... I'm sorry."

[strinak]

In 2022 I beat all my previous records and read 461 books.

This is largely because of the February of Madness that happened, where I read literally 100 books in 28 days. I was Going Through Some Stuff.

Books below the cut, for my own future reference.

ok it's yelling about characters per block limits, so chunking it up:

Arden Powell - The Bachelor’s Valet

Zile Elliven - Quiet

Mary Calmes - The Fix Is In

Devon Vesper - Soulbond: The Omega’s Assassin

David North - River of Fate: The Jade Scripture

David North - River of Fate: Sunset Knight

Kati Wilde - The King’s Horrible Bride

Sienna Sway - The Alien’s Kidnapped Omega

Elliott Kay - Habitual Heroes

Ilona Andrews - Fated Blades

Ilona Andrews - Of Swine & Roses

Ilona Andrews - Grace of Small Magics

Ilona Andrews - Silent Blade

Ilona Andrews - Silver Shark

Kati Wilde - The Wedding Night

Kati Wilde - Secret Santa

Kati Wilde - All He Wants for Christmas

KL Noone - The Snails of Dun Nas

Sam Burns - The Cat Returns to Adderly

R Cooper - For Better or Worse

Delaney Rain - The Aliens’ Mate

Kati Wilde - Evil Twin

Regine Abel - I Married a Lizardman

Kiki Clark & EM Lindsey - Until His Last Goodbye

Sam Burns & WM Fawkes - Hardwood

Stella Starling - Your Biggest Fan

Megan Derr - The Eastern Gate

Kati Wilde - Going Nowhere Fast

Kati Wilde - Craving It All

Kati Wilde - Faking It All

Kati Wilde - Losing It All

Onley James - Unhinged

Onley James - Psycho

Onley James - Moonstruck

Onley James - Unhinged: Bonus Epilogue

Onley James - Moonstruck: Bonus Epilogue

Onley James - Damaged

Onley James - Captivating

Kati Wilde - The Hellfire Riders: Saxon & Jenny

KM Neuhold - Pretty Boy

KM Neuhold - Brave Boy

Kiki Clark - Reckless

Kiki Clark - Temptation

Eli Easton - Fireman’s Carry

Tara Lain - Medicine Balls

Louisa Masters - How to Date a Dragon

Kiki Clark - Joyful

AJ Sherwood - Alan’s Utterly Accidental Dream-cute

Lucy Lennox - On the Mall

Lucy Lennox - Shy Sheldon

Mary Calmes - Had to Be

Mary Calmes - Just George

Alice Winters - Follow My Lead

Ryn Bretcher - Tiny Kingdom

Mary Calmes - His Hearth

Kiki Clark - The Second and His Bonded

Kiki Clark - The Deputy and His Enforcer

Kiki Clark - The Hunter and His Mates

Mary Calmes - Landslide

April Jade - Mad Love

Tansy Rayner Roberts - Tea and Sympathetic Magic

Kati Wilde - Teacher’s Pet Wolf

Mary Calmes - Jump

Eryn Ivers - The Alien Emissary

KL Noone - December with Peppermint

KL Noone - Bisclavret

KL Noone - The Featherbed Puzzle

CJ Carella - Godkiller Mode

Megan Derr - By the Way

Megan Derr - An Admirer

Megan Derr - Kiss the Rain

Megan Derr - An Exception

KL Noone - Bookwyrm

KL Noone - The Ninepenny Element

KL Noone - Frost and Raine

KA Merikan - Crazy Kinky Dirty Love

Deacon Frost - Fall to the Forest

Onley James - Headcase

KL Noone - Sundown, Holiday, Beacon

KL Noone - Peaches and the Shadow

KL Noone - Sorceress

KL Noone - October Spice

KL Noone - Gingerbread Dreams

Onley James - Dangerous Breed

Mary Calmes - Sinnerman

Ofelia Grand - Soul Eater

Ofelia Grand - Mind Scrambler

CM Blackwood - Superhuman

Stella Starling - Ready for Love

Onley James - Infuriating

KL Noone - A Penny for Your Thoughts

Brea Alepou & Wren Snow - Mafia Prince

KL Noone - A Demon for Midwinter

KL Noone - Love Songs for Every Day

KL Noone - Sunlight and Gold

Stella Starling - Be Loved

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Unhealthy

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Obsessed

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Confusing

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Ruthless

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Wicked

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Gay

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Wrong

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Shameless

Alessandra Hazard - Just a Bit Bossy

Sierra Riley - Lean on Me

Brigham Vaughn - Date in a Pinch

Brigham Vaughn - Embracing His Shame

Brigham Vaughn - Bromantic Getaway

Stella Starling - The Twelfth Date

Eli Easton & Tara Lain - Hot Seat

Louisa Masters - Spirited Situation

Travis Baldtree - Legends & Lattes

Hayden Hall - The Two Stars Collision

Bettie Sharpe - Ember

Sam Burns - Fluke and the Frontier Farce

Alessandra Hazard - Straight Boy

Jessie Mihalik - Aurora Blazing

KL Noone - Lightning in a Bottle

KL Noone - The Demon’s Choice

KL Noone - Bedknobs and Brimstone

Jessie Mihalik - The Queen’s Gambit

Sariah Wilson - The Paid Bridesmaid

Amanda Milo - Contagion

SE Harmon - Chrysalis

Jennifer Cody - Mr Monster Kok

Jennifer Cody - The Trouble with Trying to Date a Murderer

Kiki Clark - Until His Beginning Ends

TS Snow - Chaotic

TS Snow - Hectic

Robin Moray - Hunting Party

Jordan Castillo Price - The Tinker’s Apprentice

Chace Verity - Match with the Demon

Andy Gallo - Spell It Out

Macy Blake - Sweet Spot

KL Noone - The Pooka’s Share

Lucy Lennox - Thick as Thieves

Deacon Frost - Accidental Incubus

Deacon Frost - Saltwater’s Weep

Lucy Lennox - Ski Patrol

Skylar Jaye - Falling for Stereotypes

Michele Notaro - Our Hearts That Tie Us

Stuart Grosse - An OP Returnee

Tanya Chris - Heat Race

Raleigh Ruebins - The Straight Friend

AJ Sherwood - Style of Love

Andy Gallo & Anyta Sunday - Better Be True

Sunny Hart - By Her Sight

Mary Calmes - Tooth & Nail

Mary Calmes - Cherish Your Name

Liz Talley - Deconstructed

Riley Hart - Married to My Best Friend

Anne Bishop - Written in Red

Anne Bishop - Murder of Crows

Anne Bishop - The Shadow Queen

Jennifer Cody - Genesis

Victoria Helen Stone - Jane Doe

Victoria Helen Stone - Problem Child

Sebastian Hansen - All the Wrong Reasons

Skylar Jaye - The Flame

Onley James - Moonstruck (re-read)

A Catherine Noon & Rachel Wilder - Sealed by Fire

Alessandra Hazard - That Alien Feeling

Shelly Laurenston - Beast Behaving Badly

Anne Bishop - Shalador’s Lady

Shelly Laurenston - Pack Challenge

Shelly Laurenston - Go Fetch

Shelly Laurenston - Here Kitty, Kitty

Shelly Laurenston - The Mane Event

Shelly Laurenston - The Mane Attraction

Eryn Ivers - The Alien Bodyguard

Shelly Laurenston - The Mane Squeeze

Shelly Laurenston - Big Bad Beast

Shelly Laurenston - Bear Meets Girl

Shelly Laurenston - Wolf with Benefits

Shelly Laurenston - Bite Me

Shelly Laurenston - The Beast in Him

Shelly Laurenston - Hot and Badgered

Shelly Laurenston - Badger to the Bone

Shelly Laurenston - Breaking Badger

Eric Ugland - One More Last Time

Eric Ugland - Heir Today, Pawn Tomorrow

Eric Ugland - Dungeon Mauling

Eric Ugland - Four: The Loot

Eric Ugland - Dukes and Ladders

Eric Ugland - Home, Siege Home

Eric Ugland - The Bare Hunt

Onley James - Psycho (re-read)

Luke Chmilenko & Bryce O’Connor - Iron Prince

AJ Sherwood - The Tribulations of Ross Young, Supernat PA: Additional Incident - LARPing

Louisa Masters - The Dragon Experiment

Onley James - Psycho Bonus Epilogue

Onley James - Headcase Bonus Epilogue

Margaret Atwood - My Evil Mother

Bettie Sharpe - Cat’s Tale

Wen Spencer - Tinker

Wen Spencer - Wolf Who Rules

Wen Spencer - Elfhome

Wen Spencer - Project Elfhome

Wen Spencer - Harbinger

Kiki Clark - Yearning

Onley James - Mad Man

Onley James - Mad Man Bonus Epilogue

Naomi Novik - A Deadly Education

Naomi Novik - The Last Graduate

Sam Starbuck - Fete for a King

Samantha Cayto - Boi Bride

Xander Boyce - Tallrock

Macronomicon - Apocalypse: Generic System

Bruce Sentar - Mana Master

Bruce Sentar - Mana Beast

Yamila Abraham - Teaming Our Teacher

Natasha Hunter - Taken By the Bull

Ryan Rimmel - The Mayor of Noobtown

Ryan Rimmel - Village of Noobtown

Robin Roseau - Mage Unmasked

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 1

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 2

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 3

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 4

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 5

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters Vol. 6

Stephen L Hadley - Beastkin Acquisitions: Start-up

Amanda Meuwissen - His Silence

Eden Finley & Saxon James - Irresponsible Puckboy

Delmire Hart - The Most Eligible Bachelor

Charity Parkerson - Witchin Warlock

Charity Parkerson - Witchin Solstice

Isabel Murray - Not That Complicated

Isabel Murray - Worth the Wait

Suki Fleet - Fight for This

Kaydence Snow - Like You Care

Charity Parkerson - Mistaken

Charity Parkerson - Nothing

Charity Parkerson - Beautifully Moved

Charity Parkerson - Well-Played

Charity Parkerson - Clash

Charity Parkerson - Pretender

Charity Parkerson - Missing

Charity Parkerson - Keeper

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Bastard

Charity Parkerson - Conned

Vasily Mahanenko - Survival Quest

Vasily Mahanenko - The Kartoss Gambit

Vasily Mahanenko - The Hour of Pain

Lucy Lennox & May Archer - Hitched

Onley James - Where the Devil Don’t Go

Bruce Sentar - Saving Supervillains

Jesse Q Sutanto - Four Aunties and a Wedding

Macronomicon - Apocalypse: Fairy System

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Protector

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Obsession

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Sentry

Charity Parkerson - His Knight

Claire Cullen - Omega’s Gamble

Claire Cullen - Alpha’s Oath

Robin Roseau - Luna Rising

Onley James - Satisfying

Michelle Diener - Dark Horse

Casualfarmer - Beware of Chicken

Alex Gilbert - The Calamitous Bob

Alex Gilbert - In Kazar

Darktechnomancer - Fates Parallel Vol. 1

Scott Browder - Skyclad

Cale Plamann - Foundations

DM Rhodes - Dungeon Item Shop: Vol. 1

Michelle Kathleen Hodgson - Transcripts

Michelle Diener - Dark Deeds

Michelle Diener - Dark Ambitions

Ravensdagger - Spormageddon

Kaleb England - The Way Ahead

DI Freed - Reborn

Megan Derr - Champion of Dusk & Dawn

Louisa Masters - Vortex Conuundrum

Philip R Johnson & Justin C Louis - Dandelion

AJ Sherwood - A Mage’s Guide to Aussie Terrors

LC Mawson - Basics of Spellcraft

LC Mawson - History of Magic

August - Even a Hero Needs a Vacation Every Now and Then

HJ Tolson - Liches Get Stitches

Michelle Diener - Dark Class

Tom Watts - Welcome to Blade’s Rest

Sean Oswald - Watcher’s Test

Naomi Novik - The Golden Enclaves

R Cooper - How to (Not) Train a Firecat

Amy Crook - Finer Points

Marie Cardno & Kalikoi - How to Get a Girlfriend (When You’re a Terrifying Monster)

Megan Derr - Talismaker

Jenny Lawson - I Choose Darkness

AJ Sherwood - How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy: Miracle 1

AJ Sherwood - How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy: Miracle 2

AJ Sherwood - How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy: Miracle 3

Nazri Noor - Prince of Flowers

Danny M Lavery - Texts from Jane Eyre

Gail Carriger - My Sister’s Song

R Cooper - Casper Gets His Wish

R Cooper - A Little Familiar

Lyn Gala - Regi’s Huuman

Lyn Gala - Regi’s Goddess

Onley James - Lunatic

Mary Calmes - Balanced and Tied

Mary Calmes - Together Tied

AC Wiggen - The Human Who Looked at Art

Lee Hadan - No Moon

KL Noone - Sound the Fairy Call

Onley James - Damaged

Megan Derr - Dualwick

Kati Wilde - The Midwinter Mail-Order Bride

Kati Wilde - Pretty Bride

Mary Calmes - A Day Makes

Louisa Masters - Mr Romance

RJ Moray - Finding Elliott

Dassy Bernhard - That Weird Courtship Ritual

Robert Bevan - Guts and Volts

Lyn Gala - Lines in the Sand

GL Carriger - Marine Biology

Brooke Matthews - On Edge

KL Noone - The Arch-Mage’s Firebird

SJ Himes - The Solstice Prince

EJ Russell - Cursed Is the Worst

Sasha L Miller - The Duke’s Deception

Mary Calmes - Romanus

Mary Calmes - Chevalier

Louisa Masters - Conspiracy of Dragons

Alice Winters - Never Have I Ever Ridden a Bike

Sam Burns - Fluke and the Fantastic Finale

AJ Sherwood - How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy: Miracle 4

Kiki Clark - Favor

Mary Calmes - The Big Fix

Megan Derr - How Not to Marry a Prince

Kiki Clark - The Enforcer and His Heart

Andrea K Host - Stray

Mary Calmes - Kairos

Jordan Castillo Price - Quill Me Now

Jordan Castillo Price - All That Glitters

Andrea K Host - Lab Rat One

Andrea K Host - Caszandra

Stephanie Burgis - The Wrong Foot

Mell Eight - Cleanly Wrong

TJ Land - Boomball

AJ Sherwood - How I Stole the Princess’s White Knight and Turned Him to Villainy: Miracle 6

Toby Wise - Love at Frost Bite: Benji

KL Noone - The Twelfth Enchantment

Seth Richter - Just a Bronze

Andrea K Host - Gratuitous Epilogue

Mary Calmes - A Matter of Time Vol 1

Mary Calmes - A Matter of Time Vol 2

Mary Calmes - Bulletproof

Mary Calmes - Piece of Cake

Mary Calmes - Hannah’s Big Night

Mary Calmes - But For You

Mary Calmes - Just Jory

Mary Calmes - Another Day with Jory

Mary Calmes - Ears, Eggs, and Bunnies

Mary Calmes - Heart of the Race

Mary Calmes - Just George

JK Jeffrey - The Princess’s Pet

Charity Parkerson - Falling for Eros

Charity Parkerson - A Sugar Daddy for Winter

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Fighter

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Boss

Mary Calmes - Had to Be

Courtney Milan - Unlocked

Mary Calmes - Landslide

TJ Land - Butterfly Boy

Mary Calmes - Live and Leanr

Mary Calmes - Epiphany

Mary Calmes - First Day of Forever

Mary Calmes - First Day of Forever: Us

TJ Land - Toy Boy

Mary Calmes - Lay It Down

Mary Calmes - Sariel

Mary Calmes - In a Fix

Megan Derr - The Pirate of Fathoms Deep

Megan Derr - Runescribe

Megan Derr - The Toymaker’s Hoard

Megan Derr - The Heart of the Lost Star

Megan Derr - The Lady and the Thief

Kou Delika - Melodious Red

Luke Chmilenko - Ascend Online

Megan Derr - Made for You

Megan Derr - Ruffskin

Megan Derr - Risk It All

Megan Derr - Two for the Show

Megan Derr - The Painted Crown

Megan Derr - Blood and Marriage

AJ Sherwood - Marriage Contract

Megan Derr - Love Tokens

Megan Derr - Wick

Megan Derr - The Queen

Mary Calmes - Stand in Place

AJ Sherwood - Fourth Point of Contact

Mary Calmes - Again

Andrea Speed - About a Bot

R Cooper - A Little Blessing

AJ Sherwood - Common Sense Deserts Once Again

Mary Calmes - Winter’s Knight

KL Noone - Magician

Amanda Meuwissen - Octopi My Heart

Amy Crook - Getting His Due

Daniel Rose - Pink One

SunriseCV - System Change

Jennifer Cody - The Kraken’s Mate

Shirtaloon - He Who Fights with Monsters 7

Catelyn Winona - Being Heroes, Being Villains

Mell Eight - Heartbeat

Mary Calmes - Steamroller

Mary Calmes - Fix It Up

Shannon West - A Dom for Christmas

Shannon West - Defending Devon

Megan Derr - Sword of the King

Megan Derr - Shield of the Dragon

Megan Derr - Fresh Meat

Megan Derr - The Werewolf of Grey Lake Inn

Megan Derr - Midnight

Megan Derr - Something Sweet

Megan Derr - The Shopping List

Megan Derr - Midsummer Song

Megan Derr - Midsummer Baker

Megan Derr - Midsummer Curse

Megan Derr - The Succubus

Megan Derr - Twilight

Megan Derr - Backwoods Asylum

Megan Derr - Rabbit Season

Megan Derr - Frostwick

RJ Scott - Stop the Wedding

Kiki Clark - Out in the Cold

GL Carriger - The Sumage Solution

GL Carriger - The Omega Objection

Megan Derr - Tournament of Losers

Mary Calmes - Mist and Marrow

Mary Calmes - When the Dust Settles

Sam Burns and WM Fawkes - For Life

Toni McGee Causey - Failure to Communicate

TJ Land - Vanquished

Mary Calmes - Frog

AJ Sherwood - Jon’s Downright Ridiculous Shooting Case

Allie Brosh - Hyperbole and a Half

AJ Sherwood - Jon’s Crazy Head-Boppin’ Mystery

AJ Sherwood - Jon’s Spooky Corpse Conundrum

AJ Sherwood - Alan’s Utterly Accidental Dream-cute

Michelle Frost - A Hellhound Called Derek

Megan Derr - Looking for More

TJ Land - The Bounty Hunter

TJ Land - The Bounty Hunter’s Body

TJ Land - The Bounty Hunter’s Bad Day

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Port

Charity Parkerson - Charmer

Charity Parkerson - Ransomed

Charity Parkerson - Ensnared

Charity Parkerson - Witchin Moonbeam

Charity Parkerson - Witchin Fangs

Mell Eight - Gathering the Hoard

Charity Parkerson - Seasons

Charity Parkerson - Sugar Guards

Charity Parkerson - Taint

TJ Land - Ugh, I Really Hate That Guy

TJ Land - Ugh, Being a Secret Agent Is Horrible

RJ Moray - Million Dollar Daddy

Charity Parkerson - Struck

Charity Parkerson - Butcher

[blujello]

1. I've told this story before but essentially my older sister let me play SC3 when i was like 6-ish bc she had it and i loved it but Siegfried scared the piss outta tiny me lmao

2. I've played all except Broken Destiny and Legends (tho i have every game including those two, i plan on playing them too)

3. Honestly a toss up between 1, 2 and 3 as i love all three (i like all the games obviously but those three are probably highest on the list)

4. Siegfried (i thought he was a girl)

5. Siegfried bc i love the range and just in general how he controls is fun to play (i love Kilik too tho)

6. Siegfried (specifically his SC3 design, bro looks beautiful and the armor looks great), Kilik again bc he looks great too (they both have face scars and look good), Aeon/Lizardman (I'm a furry/scalie so yknow this was natural)

7. Link and Ezio (Geralt was good too as far as theme but he was boring af personality-wise sorry *i haven't played as 2B yet but i like her so maybe her too but idk yet*)

8. Valeria for reasons, and Chester bc i love his design

9. Olcadan dammit bring him back i love him, he's silly and stupid

10. Honestly don't have one but Night Terror looks fuckn cool

11. Either Weapon Master or Mission Mode (Chronicles of the Sword too but idk if that counts)

12. Siegfried's story is mainly what got me so attached to his character, especially since while he's a good person, he's not necessarily a NICE person (as I've said he's a cocky little bitch and i love him for it), plus I'm a major sucker for redemption stories where a character genuinely struggles and bro struggles ALOT in his story but never gives up even when he fucks up royal

13. Soul Calibur, Double Crescent Blades and Jingu Staff from SC2, and as stupid as it looks Soul Calibur from SC4 is kinda cool and i sorta like it lmao (and Requiem from the games it's in It's simple but badass)

14. The stages with "Confrontation" as the theme song in 2 and 3, Ostreinsburg Chapel from SC2 (also bc of theme lmao), and Lost Cathedral from 3 (it's absolutely beautiful)

15. Sieg's theme in Soul Edge/Blade, Like i said in the last one "Confrontation" and "Raise Thy Sword", the Lost Cathedral theme in 3, and Ezio's theme in 5 (5 wasn't a great game but it had an absolute banger soundtrack)

16. "Sinners need no mercy...or sympathy" (the delivery is so good omg) (and a few others i just don't feel like listing them all lmao)

17. I love Zasalamel's SC4 ending bc it implies he's kinda watching over humanity with his reincarnation/immortal power and i like that it's kinda like a bittersweet peace for him

18. Neither bc i suck at both

19. Aside from Soul Edge/Blade (there's no contest there), i actually love SC5's opening with pre-time skip Siegfried fighting Nightmare, it looks fuckn awesome (just wish the rest of the game was good)

20. Some other dual wielder please we need more of them it's cool

21. For a realistic answer • honestly anyone from one of the medieval-esque Final Fantasy games (tho Bartz or Faris from FF5 would make me so happy, it wouldn't happen), for a pipe dream answer • either some kinda Pokemon (i.e Mewtwo, Lucario, Zoroark, Gardevoir, etc.), a Monster Hunter character, or a Fire Emblem character

22. The option to make female lizardmen please i just wanna make my ocs in peace

23. I love character creation, usually i just make ocs or alternative outfits for the cast

24. I wanna play online but I'm a weenie and i suck at these games even though i love them

25. Probably an anime or a mini series (i think it'd need more than just a movie's runtime to properly do the story unless they were just doing one game adaptation ig)

26. Ehhhh it's fine ig i like it, i think it's hilarious they made Siegfried such an emo weenie pretty boy (no hate to his VA tho Kirk Thornton did a great job imo)

27. Raphael being a vampire is certainly a choice, ig I'm so used to it since he's been that way since 3 so it doesn't bother me all too much but it's uhhhh yknow just kinda there

28. Bro wouldn't be able to move in that crystal armor, like it's pretty but damn impractical

29. They're.....there ig, Soul Calibur looks better than Soul Edge imo but they both just look like the SC1 versions

30. Honestly i never really use him but i like Aeon with all of them (SC1 Aeon is pretty good honestly even with not very good reach)