Iron Lung writes

FG: Chapter 43

Upon the tallest silo of Fleapit’s foundries, a duel was about to break out that would determine the fate of the entire Underkingdom.

Marcus often recalled tales of such duels in the books he loved to peruse as a child – fanciful stories of men and women going off to conquer fantastical realms and slaying dragons or witch covens after proclaiming the inherent purity of the human spiri...

CC: Chapter 41

'Echoes (Part Six)'

Feng-Lung’s body moved like it was an extension of the Disciple’s hatred itself – his limbs swaying as he launched four Dragon Tooth strikes in quick succession at the horde of interrupted Aoyin.

XJ-V watched spellbound as he looked upon the carnage the boy was already causing – the Flesh-Eaters being ripped open by his flames, for...

FG: Chapter 42

Marcus closed his eyes to the heap of shit and piss that assailed his senses, traveling up his nose and smearing itself across his pale face as the Yokun hit-squad dragged him through the Festering Fountain supply pipe.

He only opened his eyes and drew deep the dank air of Fleapit when the emerged on the other side, smashing through the fountain in the residential quarter square and sendi...

CC: Chapter 40

Ori’un dove down the well and felt the encroaching darkness of its thin innards consume him, like he was already traveling down the parched throat of the very Aoyin he hunted.

The sensation of his feet hitting the ground was accompanied by not the splash of water but the crunching of bone, and he looked beneath him to see the pale remnants of a skeleton under him.

“Feng…” he...

Update: Chapters early today

Hey Iron Readers,

Chapters 35 of Cog and 37 of Fantasy General are now unlocked earlier than usual. Same with Chapters 40 and 42 for Iron Overlords. This is mainly because I'll be hitting the Baijiu for a friend's birthday tonight and don't trust myself not to fuck up the scheduling later.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

-IronLung

FG: Chapter 41

Marcus resisted the urge to administer another headbutt to the assassin-hit squad as the second youngest of the team – the one that seemed more attached to the elder Yokun than Marcus’s captor - pulled him up by the scruff of his neck and heaved him over to the doorway.

“Any openings?”

“None yet, Sister,” the wounded snake-fiend replied, her coiled tongue flicking out v...

CC: Chapter 39

Both Feng-Lung and Ori’un slipped into the snow-drenched streets of Marsul village without incident, each man surveying his surroundings by expelling a small fraction of Qi energy and projecting it outwards like a net to catch malevolent spirits. XJ-V could feel exactly what they felt in the moment: the residue energies of evil that still floated in the air, gradually fading to nothing as the...

CC: Chapter 38

'Echoes (III)'

XJ-V watched the young Feng’s face take on a pallid shade of crimson the likes of which he’d never seen before.

Before Ori’un could say a thing, the boy was already on the verge of frenzy.

“When did they depart?” he asked the aged Elder – voice colder than the blizzard blaring outside.

The old man blinked his soulless, d...

FG: Chapter 40

Marcus felt his throat bulge with an intake of Fleapit’s dank air as he watched all his efforts over the last few weeks vanish, literally, into the air.

The ratmen he and his captor had left behind saw them, too, and he realized that this operation was more sophisticated than even he had given the Yokun credit for.

In the distance, floating up harmlessly to the black abyss above ...

New Tier: Iron Overlord

I have been enjoying writing both my books so much, and enjoyed seeing all your feedback, that I have added a new tier to serve as my highest early access option for Patrons.

Currently, 'Iron Overlord' gets you +10 chapters of both Cog Cultivator and Reborn as a Fantasy General. This number will be added to as Patreon goals are met (see the 'About' section)

For current Patrons, let ...

CC: Chapter 37

'Echoes (Part 2)'

XJ-V could feel the biting cold of Ramor-Tai’s base even through the thick skin of Ori’un.

It felt strange to wear the form of a human – a creature of flesh and blood unlike Arha – as he trudged through the snow. Once again, he was struck by the strength he could feel bursting within the Planeswalker’s every muscle – Qi energy be...

FG: Chapter 39

'War is the assassin’s trade’

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Marcus stared at the thin, slightly curved arm of steel that protruded out from the snake-humanoid’s cloaked form.

His eyes then traced its lithe torso, seeing the thin dark wrappings that clung to its skin, clearly well suited for a night raid like this. The body suit was patched with form-fit...

FG: Chapter 38

‘Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.’

-Coretta Scott King

“You…you what?”

Marcus gripped the underside of the war-council table as he rounded on Verulex.

“The Koboldssss are being treacheroussss and ssssscheming,” the robed rat said. “They are being thrown back into the gulch an...

FG: Chapter 37

‘No fighting in the War-room!’

-Dr Strangelove

When Marcus opened the doors to Shrykul’s war room, he found it to be a hotbed of battle already.

“Thissss can not be tolerated,” Verulex was hissing. “You are sssshowing disssssloyalty to your Brother clanssss, Fesssssticusssss.”

“Oh , be silencing your long-winded mouth, Glumrot pri...

FG: Chapter 36

-Fleapit, Castle Carfaxx -

Marcus sat by the light of a single flickering candle, secluded in his private chambers.

Even within these stout stone walls, however, he could still hear the sounds of praise and worship echo throughout the city streets below. He could them calling his name – or, at least, the name they had placed upon his shoulders – over and over ag...

FG: Chapter 35

-One Month Later-

-Fort Festigraf, edge of Boss Skegga’s Territory-

Head-Yip Mivvy watched the deep green pools of the Black Gulch swirl with no alternative, stifling the yawn that was traveling up his tiny red throat.

He spared little thought for the chitter-chatter of his men as they boasted of the ratmen they would hang or strangle on th...

FG: Chapter 34

“Without cavalry, battles are without result”

-Napoleon Bonaparte

In the aftermath of the Glitterpak bombing, there was a lull of perhaps forty seconds where nothing happened at all. Dazzled Kobolds – the ones still living – wandered aimlessly or crawled to return to their Skogs, only to find their mounts had become crisped-up polyps stuck to the sti...

CC: Chapter 36

'Echoes (Part I)'

XJ-V stared into the pale face of Ori’un, struck by the light of the low-hanging moon that threw its shadow across him.

“I am the one who killed Feng-Lung’s mother”, he said.

XJ-V searched his memory banks, recalling how Feng had always spoken of his mother in past tense, avoiding when the Cog had probed him further. He could r...

CC: Chapter 35

The silence that stretched between the three men in the Grove seemed to go on for an eternity.

It was only XJ-V that finally spoke, addressing the mountainous form of the Planeswalker with a curt bow.

“Forgive us, Planeswalker Ori’un,” he said. “We spoke words in seclusion, words meant only for each other.”

He looked to Feng-Lung for support and found the boy to be ...

CC: Chapter 34

'Premonition'

The clouds of the Dao parted today to show him a spring running open and free.

Beneath the waters there was a city.

The skeletal frames of buildings climbed up to the inviting amber of a morning sky. Each steel giant watched its Brothers with thousands of glass eyes, peering at the tiny people walking around inside their bowels. A whisperi...

CC: Chapter 33

“Focus!” Fai-Deng roared as he sent another arc of lightning flying at XJ-V’s right shoulder-joint.

My dominant arm, the Cog thought as he brought his hands up in the swirling motion of the Dragontail swipe. The Tiger is thinking more strategically nowadays.

As he sliced through the strike, feeling the energy from Fai’s lightning dance on his fingertips before flying away,...

CC: Chapter 32

XJ-V stared dumbfounded at his companion.

“A tournament…” he parroted. “A contest to decide who the Planeswalker’s apprentice shall be.”

Feng-Lung nodded, and the Cog thought he witnessed a spark twinkle in his friend’s blue eyes.

“Is it truly worth entering?’ XJ-V asked. “Perhaps Master Longhua speaks true. Perhaps it is best to remain in Ramor-Tai.”

FG: Chapter 33

‘Offense is the essence of air power’

- Henry H. Arnold

The roar of the dwarf powder cannon tore through the air of Razork village like an ancient demon awakened from a long slumber.

It’s every shot rebounded with an echo that traveled through the tiny beating hearts of every Kobold that stood around it, each one waiting for the command to move o...

CC: Chapter 31

The Master of the Eternal Dragon locked eyes with the Planeswalker as he delivered the message from the Waning Moon Sect.

“War is coming, Longhua,” he said. “Of that, there can be no mistake.”

XJ-V felt Feng-Lung’s physical tense beside him even in the dream-space they both occupied in Arha’s head.

Longhua considered the wobbling surface of his green tea.

“...

FG: Chapter 32

Deekius gazed up at Regurg as the latter’s blade came crashing down do cleave his skull.

And then, without warning, the Talon-Commander’s arm stopped – seemingly on a whim.

To the onlookers, it seemed that Regurg had suddenly been paralyzed for, though his sword arm twitched and wavered, his eyes moved around frantically, and a low, pained howl began to emanate from his lips.<...

CC: Chapter 30

'Prying Eyes'

XJ-V snuck stealthily through the Eternal Dragon commune. This was made difficult by the fact he stuck out like a sore thumb, but to the Disciples who were currently engaged in making preparations for their Planeswalker hero, he walked without leaving a trace.

“XJ-V,” Arha twittered under his arm. “Where are we –“

The excitement ...

FG: Chapter 31

Ix wished these ratman mounts wouldn’t sway around so much.

He missed the cool, flat backs of the Skogs that he rode into battle on the dangerous raids against the fat dwarves in their stone houses before this war started. But even the tiniest Yip knows that things change. One day you think you have leaped your highest leap. The next day you find that there is another mountain to overco...

CC: Chapter 29

'Ori'un'

The hulking bear of a man looked up at XJ-V and smiled through his luminescent crescent moon tattoo.

“A Cog Cultivator,” he said. “I bet you’ve been giving old Longhua a headache, eh?”

Amidst a sea of awestruck silence, XJ-V simply smiled back at the Planeswalker.

“I think most people do.”

“Har!” the Planeswalker y...

FG: Chapter 30

-Grindlefecht, Boss Skegga’s Stronghold-

Silas sat in the dark, illuminated by only the single, dim light of a gleaming candle.

Beneath the window of his chambers in the high tower of Grindlefecht, he watched the Kobolds go about their daily routines. Snapping at each other, jumping off the walls, trying to repair the dwarf cannons and losing their feeble limbs in...

CC: Chapter 28

'Planeswalker'

The next few days were a blur of activity.

XJ-V spent his days engaged in silent meditation with Arha curled up round his neck like a shawl or training with Fai-Deng. Within the week he had mastered the Dragontail Swipe and perfected his Dragon Claw. With these two techniques under his steely belt he had the bread and butter of the Eternal Dragon comb...