Iron Lung writes

FG, Ch 106

---Southern Arasaka Coastline---

---Former Clan Hitogi ‘Fujiwara’ Plantation---

Marcus stretched his hands across the weathered map that sat upon his bamboo command table, his eyes tracing the new etchings his scouts had given him before he looked up to acknowledge that his commanders had just filed into the room.

It was time to get down t...

CC, Ch. 93

The celebration feast in the wake of his victory was more lavish than XJ-V felt he deserved. The entire edifice of the Spearclaw Colosseum was brought down and the Regulators organized rows of tables to be filled with the most seasoned meats and sweet treats that existed in the storerooms of Ramor-Tai. Baijiu, Mantou, and roasted Gonji that looked as though it had only just been wandering the W...

FG, Ch. 105

---Two weeks later---

---Hokiyama, City of Scarlet Knives---

---North Arasaka Prefecture---

 Patriarch Kanade Jung calmly placed another pale stone disc on his Moji board, sitting back with some small satisfaction as he waited for h...

FG, Ch. 104

Fury.

The Overseers of the Kaita Southern Plantation felt the air charge with this single emotion, sweeping through the slaves in a psychic wave that came crashing down on Lord Yakuma and then came for them.

Those who dropped their weapons and fled had the right of it – they were the ones who managed to make it to the palisades and alert the marksmen there of the coming storm. 2024-08-23 13:11:42 +0000 UTC View Post

CC,Ch.92

Victory…

In the wake of the duel that had had XJ-V stare into the flames of his past, the Colosseum of Aun’El was repurposed. Without having time for nary a breath, the Cog was whisked away to prepare for the ceremony of his triumph, and the celebration that was to come.

Several attendants prepped him with a set of embroidered robes be...

FG, Ch, 103

Marcus sat in his tent, pouring over a small etching of the Clan Kaita plantation done by a few of his Oshu scouts. Luckily, the Overseers and guards didn’t watch the horizon closely enough to pick out their camouflaged forms. This, Marcus thought with no small level of excitement, could be the beginning of a genuine scout regiment that would work in this environment. He wouldn’t be caught ...

FG, Ch 102

The next morning, Marcus knew they weren’t alone.

He woke to the sounds of screaming as the sun split the trees, and both he and Mari ran outside to find the army surrounded on all flanks by a group of thin, almost skeletal beings hanging from the trees.

“Oshu…” Mari murmured.

As Marcus was about to give the go-ahead to assume battle formations, she stayed his hand. 2024-08-19 13:43:59 +0000 UTC View Post

CC: Ch. 91

In Aun’El’s Grove, something was happening.

Far from the chaos of the Colosseum duels, the Huli and water-spirits around the great Qi pool watched in wonder as the waters began to ripple and bubble with life. A sheen of lambent gold then shone from the very depths of the pool, shimmering up to the surface and bathing the entire grove in a pillar of light that the creature...

FG, Chapter 101

The next few mornings stretched on, the heat of Thea’s crimson sun bearing down with more intensity than the claustrophobic darkness of the Underkingdom ever did. The lush plant life of the jungle more than made up for this issue, however. Marcus had never been much of an outdoorsman (it was always Mari who’d spurned him on to take a Highland hike or camp in the wilderness back...

FG, Ch 100

Mari stared at the Yokun tied up before her.

She didn’t really know why she’d lied to Marc when she said she wanted to hit the hay. She was tired—that much was true. But a more…primitive compulsion had forced her to come here, into the tent they were using to hold their special little captive.

She fingered the stiletto she kept concealed under her shirt. But when he began to...

CC: Chapter 90

Mah-Jung felt his Qi reserves deplete, pouring into his relentless assault on the XJ-V’s melting body. Then, with a spark of searing light, the machine-man rose like a steelclad phoenix.

“Impossible…”

It was the only word the awestruck Mah-Jung could mutter as the Cog fixed his glowing eyes on him, walking steadily thro...

FG, Chapter 99!

Quick note: thanks to all Patrons for your support! To celebrate Fantasy General's 100th chapter, there'll be a bonus chapter tomorrow!

The rising of a new dawn over the South Arasaka jungles brought with it a new sense of purpose for the Pipers. There was business to be conducted before their great exodus to Marxon’s Empire was to begin.

Chief among them was the funeral of...

FG, Ch 98

Prince Nagoya was not a Yokun to allow surprise to overcome his battle-fervor.

He struck out at the deceptive Tigran with force, his katana cutting into the thick carapace of Yokun armor she dared to desecrate with her fleabitten flesh. She buckled beneath him as soon as the blade made impact, and the Prince brought his sword up in a mercy stroke that would end her miserable ...

FG, Ch 97

Marcus wasn’t sure exactly what would happen when his burning hand touched the Hakka carts at the back of the Prince’scamp. Indeed, as the Tigran Pipers stalked forward and slit the throats of the half-asleep men who had been stationed to guard them, he gulped down a sense of palpable anxiety.

Now was not the time for doubt. Mari and Hialjia’s lives were both at stake.<...

CC, Ch. 88

XJ-V had expected an Aun’El’s Rebuke right off the bat, but Mah-Jung surprised him with five consecutive Dragon Tooth’s that sailed towards him as though personally intent on his destruction.

Two Dragon Swipes sent the firebolts flying wide, but XJ-V had no time to recover.

His Brother flew towards him with lightning speed, creating a dust-cloud that ...

FG, Ch. 96

Marcus tried to stifle the spluttering, whooping coughs that racked his throat.

Marvin, he telepathed. How close to the surface are we?

The bulky human replied as his pickaxe bashed through clods of dirt and soil above them, while the rest of their troops waited behind. Two hundred of them – for now. The others were helping with the ongo...

CC, Ch. 87

“Let the clarions of Aun’El ring out for our final contenders! The prize: the glory of joining the illustrious order of Planeswalkers! The combatants: Mah-Jung and XJ-V of the Eternal Dragon!”

Ori’un’s call reverberated through the crowd like a divine wind, sweeping them up off their feet and forcing them into premature cheers and applause....

FG, Ch 95

“Lord Nagoya, the Zhurkin have failed to report.”

The Yokun who delivered this message said nothing more to his Prince before bowing swiftly and returning to his post, dread hounding his every step.

“Like a den of wolves,” the Prince remarked to himself as he sipped from a flask of carefully brewed Gogi tea. “They hav...

FG, Chapter 94

The main assembly chamber of Piper’s Hill was brimming with wounded and the battle-ready. Tigran, Yokun, and human beings jostled about this way and that, attending to eachother with the meagre supplies they still had. Yet others were busy ensuring the last of the evacuations took place – they had led the families through the Southern Tunnels and were ready to ...

CC, Chapter 86

[Anima Cores: 158]

Concentrate…

Concentrate, and…

His next fight – the final fight – was on the horizon.

The fight that would determine his future, and perhaps the future of the Wasteland itself.

But he pushed such thoughts from his mind as ...

FG, Chapter 93

“Soul of Rakhash…” Hialjia murmured as she saw the brilliant green light spark in Marcus’s palm. “He is…truly Gloomraava.”

“Jump, Hialjia!” Mari shouted while everyone else was blindsided by the sight—and the YokunZhurkin began to back off.

As Hialjia jumped back onto the lip of the Civilian plaza’s Southern Tunnel, Marcus barked one last telepathic command to ...

FG, Ch 92

The civilian plaza of the Piper’s Hill commune was awash with shades of purple-crimson splashed on onyx—the armor of the Hitogi Zhurkin buckling under the pressure of the coordinated slaves. Their flanks began to push their frontline spearmen forward, desperately attempting to avoid the hail of arrows fired from the center of the Piper’s defensive knot.

But the equilibrium of the ba...

CC: Chapter 85

“I’ll tell you what I saw on that first day we met,” a rather drunk Feng-Lung told XJ-V as they sat on the roof of the Ramor-Tai library.

“Gracious,” Kai-Thai yawned. “Should we leave you two alone for this?”

“Kai,” Fai-Deng grunted. “If you make another joke, I will place my hand so far down your throat that you will wish Brother Jung finished you off.”

...

FG, Ch 91

The entrance to Piper’s Hill was engulfed in chaos.

Mari was stationed at the residential quarters just past the first corridor, relying on the ragtag troops she had left to keep the invaders occupied.

“Move, move!” she was shouting over the din of combat, watching the former slaves toss their Hakkatovs at any warrior of Nagoya that dared to breach their perimeter.

She s...

FG, Ch. 90

Sounds of combat reverberated throughout the underground vaults of Piper’s Hill. Marcus heard them as a veteran who never believed he’d have to hear them ever again did – with a crippling, knowing trepidation.

“Marcus Graham,” Jin’an said. “I thought you a man of greater ambition.”

He looked up at the Yokun with hate-filled eyes...

CC: Chapter 84

Defeat…

XJ-V sat cross-legged in his small crook of the Eternal Dragon quarters, the flickering light of a single candle casting elongated shadows on the walls. The air was thick with the incense he had burned to facilitate his meditation, but despite his best efforts, the tranquility of the scene belied the turmoil within him. His metallic hands rested on his knees, fingers ge...

FG, Ch 89

“Matriarch…”

Marcus traced the curvature of the Yokun’s robes and ended on her sharp reptile eyes.

“That makes you the female leader of Mari’s House, right?”

“The former leader,” the Matriarch whispered. “I vouched to train the Pale Lady in the way of Whispers in preparation for her taking my place. Littl...

FG, Ch 88

Mari led him by the hand back through the shanty town that was Piper’s Hill. The place had become a hub of activity since last night – the former slaves were swiftly packing their things and making ready to move. Marcus saw Yokun and humans both swaddling their younglings and carrying as much as they could from their ramshackle houses as they converged in the town center.

Those that ...

FG, Ch 87

Prince Nagoya Hitogi looked upon the leveled plain of desolation he’d carved into the earth.

What had once been a dense patch of the jungle had been reduced to smoking cinders, the trees whittled away to dark skeletons of their former selves, not even a hint of vegetation remaining on their broken boughs. His snake-eyes picked out no movement within the remains of the jungle. Not even a...

CC: Chapter 83

“As you wish, Brother,” Mah-Jung told the goading Feng-Lung.

The tension in the arena was palpable as the two Dragon Sect Disciples faced off once more. Feng-Lung’s confident smirk mirrored the determination in Mah-Jung’s eyes. The ethereal winds continued to howl through the arena, setting the stage for a battle that would be remembered for generations.

Mah-Jung's aura fla...