by I wrote a fairly long story this month for the short, but it’s one that I’d been developing conceptually for awhile. It’s got a lot of cross-genre elements to it, as I mashed up a lot together. It’s standalone, not in any of my other worlds (though I thought of a sequel story to it this morning… which I might do). I think it turned out really great and it was a ton of fun to write so please check it out.
I give my monthly short stories at a $3/rate, which is inexpensive, and I’m told really good pricing compared to other authors. The funds from this help me supplement my comics, my blog, my broadcasting, as these things are done without any tangible return. If you want to support just to help the blog out and keep reaching hundreds of people daily, you have my appreciation there as well.
We also have a Patreon-only discord channel where I chat regularly. Lots of cool stuff. Help me grow this venture into a thriving artistic community. Link is below, and so is the opening of this month’s story.
The construct shook, steam protruding from its hybrid mechanical-biological underarms. Its optical sensors flashed red. Its hulking mass loomed at twenty times a normal human avatar. Veins, piping, and electronics protruded from its form.
Kenji had been here before, with his guild mates. Last time they tried this, their party wiped. They couldn’t move fast enough in the three-second warning space before the monstrosity’s ultra attack—Megaquake. This time, they’d be able to fan out to the safe distances between the flurried lines of earth magic. Hiro, guild leader and warrior tank, stood dutifully at the front, pounding away at the enemy, even while the creature drew itself inward in a defensive posture. Uehara, the mage, stood in the proper position away from the monstrosity as to not take much damage from the coming attack. The safe zones were limited, but Kenji managed to find himself close enough to a place where he, as a barbarian melee class, could keep from losing too many hit points, while still staying close enough to counter-assault. Everyone was in position, but where was Ayame?
A brief glance behind him was all it took to see she was in the path of danger. The cleric was near-frozen, in the middle of her special defense-healing spell, Holy Reckoning. And she was right in the path where one of the tendrils of earth would hit her. Dammit, Ayame.
Kenji dashed toward her and pummeled into her. It would interrupt her spell, but so would the Megaquake. Even facing away from the monstrosity, Kenji could feel the ground reverberating. The earth rumbled. Rocks fell from the cavern ceiling. A swarm of boulders was headed for them. Kenji managed to push Ayame out of the way in time to be pelted by serval large rocks to the back of his skull.
Everything went dark.
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