Ad Astra

116. Splendid Weaponry (VI)

A/N: Bonus Chapter #2. See y'all Sunday. :) 

//

Kaya gasped. “Is that where we’ll be fighting?”

She turned to Dorian, eyes wide. “It’s huge!”

Dorian chuckled. It was the biggest thing in the Oasis: a great sandstone disc which squatted amid the market district, forcing the streets to curve uncomfortably around its girth. In an O...

113. Splendid Weaponry (III)

A/N: Bonus chap again! I don't know how this happened either. I'm in a rhythm! :D

//

When Dorian opened his eyes, he found, to his annoyance, he couldn’t quite let loose. Yet.

First there was the array hemming him in. But more annoying—he appeared to be surrounded. By people.

The crowd had filled out. It’d mostly been workers...

112. Splendid Weaponry (III)

Streaks of golden sunlight slipped in through the tent flaps. Kaya yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and stretched. Then she stilled.

“Huh.”

She expected to feel sore. But she didn’t—at all. Her head was a clear blue sky. She was positively thrumming. Her body was light as can be, coursing with hearty morning vigor. She stood and inspected her arms, then her legs. T...

111. Splendid Weaponry (II)

A/N: Bonus chap! 

Morning found the Heilong Estate in shambles. It was as though a giant spoon had scooped a chunk out the middle, leaving nought but charred slumps behind. There were cringing hunks of steel welded together by the cool night air. There were crushed artifacts. There were bookshelves flipped on their heads, their insides crisped brown. Broken pillars s...

110. Splendid Weaponry (I)

“You swear to wield this weapon… to vanquish the Ugoc threat!” screeched Bin, eyes shot with blood, angry purple veins bulging out of his neck.

Dorian hesitated. What to do?

There was a fruit in the Upper Realms called the Ul-Kran fruit. It was akin to a big, juicy blueberry which smelled like sweetest honey on softest winds. Its skin glistened in sleet or rain or sun...

Interlude III (II)

The dying day bled out in furious reds and stark yellows. The far edge of the sunset melted to violet as night crept up the horizon.

Assembled on a battlefield was a most curious scene: a Patriarch, eight warriors, and a child. A very peculiar child.

Perhaps a little too peculiar—sobbing, stranded in the desert, kneeling beside a grave. But the Patriarch was touched, and ...

Interlude III (I)

Northern Izod Desert.

The battle was all but won.

The Heilong Patriarch stood with his lieutenants around a hidebound roundtable. One grimy lantern hung above them, swaying gently in the humid air. It threw sickly yellow light on a mess of maps, all littered with flags marking out the battlefield ahead.

Outside, there were three divisions of archers. There wer...

109. The Highest Bidder (V)

A/N: Why is there a bonus chapter on a Saturday? I’m not sure! I probably should've saved this for tomorrow, but I couldn't help myself. 

Fair warning: This release may push tomorrow’s scheduled chapter to Monday. Depends on if I can crank out a whole 'nother chapter between today and tomorrow. We'll see! 

//

The bidding was heating up.

“...

108. The Highest Bidder (IV)

A/N: New chapter! Your thoughts are much appreciated :) 

Silence choked the air.

Jaws sagged open. Eyes popped. Cheeks twitched. One Patriarch let out a reedy wheeze which reminded Dorian of a tiny critter being slowly run over.

Hmm. I do believe I’ve gone too far. Which was part of the plan, of course, but it was still unsettling to go through...

107. The Highest Bidder (III)

A/N: Bonus chapter! Woo! See y’all again on Sunday!

Dorian stared, speechless, as the ships rolled in. The earliest to arrive was a chunky steamer studded with masts of all sizes. It plunked to a stop mid-air, blotting out the sun and drenching the crowd in shadow.

There was a terse silence.

Then a tiny man with a waxed mustache leapt up on the prow. He clea...

106. The Highest Bidder (II)

A/N: Sorry for the late upload! I hope to get a bonus chap out this week on top of the usual chap! I’ve got a week off this week. Fingers crossed it’s a productive one!

The smoke was thinning, and Dorian could see the impression of a crowd at the crater’s edges—a smattering of damp pastels staining the gray air. There was a warble of shouts and sc...

105. The Highest Bidder (I)

Dorian and the Heilong Elites stood in a crater, a blackened ruin of a once-great chamber, its sizzling grounds sloshed with half-melted gold and iron. Smoke wafted up like incense over heaps of fractured treasures. The last of their qi leaked out in sparking spurts.

“What,” croaked Bin Heilong, “is your name?”

There was a deathly silence.

Dorian wasn’t sure what to ...

Chapter 104. New Horizons (X)

The scale sank within him, down his throat, and nestled into his Spirit Sea. Right in the eye of the storm.

Dorian felt the shockwave of qi from his bones to his skin. His whole body vibrated, top-to-bottom, like a string plucked by the hand of an angry god.

He lost it. His grip slipped. He yielded easily, relieved, and let the storm of qi detonate within him.

It lashed out li...

103. New Horizons (IX)

Dorian, of course, had no clue about the hubbub above him. Even if he did, he couldn’t afford to think about it. Fierce gales of qi scythed in and out of him, intent on carving his body from the inside-out. There was so much qi flowing through him that his skin had taken on a translucent, glistening tenor; his hair, drifting upwards, was no longer bound by so puny a force as gravity. This was...

102. New Horizons (VIII)

Note: I’m so excited for what’s coming, y’all.

Dorian would’ve never dreamed he’d get a Bloodline piece this early.

As he sprinted into the chamber proper, heartbeat thundering in his ears, he thought of his original plan: Get to Profound. Establish a base of strength via Artificery and Alchemy. Win whatever resources the Tournament offered. Then ...

101. New Horizons (VII)

Note: I will be trying to publish weekly on Sunday evenings from now on, likely ~6 PM EST 

“THE HEILONG FORGES,” read tall, stern block letters inscribed in the wrought-steel door. The thing looked like a shield built for a Godbeast, a hunk of simple, opaque steel overrun with patterns like metal thistles. Dorian went up to it, squinted for a second, licked his l...

100. New Horizons (VI)

“Sure!” beamed Tan. “This way…” and they were off.

They passed the first great door in the chamber, which was emblazoned with a hulking anvil symbol. “The forges,” said Tan airily. It made sense for a military family. There were always swords to be repaired, speartips to be honed by firelight. Dorian narrowed his eyes. Interesting. A heist plan was already fizzling ...

99. New Horizons (V)

“Do you know the origin of my name, Heilong?” said Tan, a glint in his eye.

“Tell me,” breathed Dorian.

Tan smirked. “Every year after the solstice, my father braves the dark corners of the Desert to hunt the Dusk Dragon—Heilong. The blood of the Dusk Dragon runs through each member of my family. It is said that these beasts are direct descendants of the Serpent...

99. New Horizons (V)

“You’ll see,” grinned Tan. “First, let me tell you a little story. My family name is Heilong. It means black dragon. It is my family’s signature Bloodline.”

He pressed a finger to the indent, and Dorian heard a click. It was not a sound. It was a stark feeling, a wrench of the gut, a clink in his soul—a gear snapping open in a realm beyond the physical. And...

98. New Horizons (IV)

A/N:

Hi! I am alive, actually

sorry for the long break :/ schoolwork getting bad + bad writer’s block really got me at once

I suspect it will take a few chaps for me to get back into the groove of things but i am revving things back up! 

Onward!

//

The front doors led into a foyer the size of a watchtower. Its walls were carved with go...

97. New Horizons (III)

Dorian was catching odd looks left and right as he waddled down Main Street. He sighed.

Yes, I know! I look like a clown.

He was wearing a bestiary’s worth of body-parts. King Vordor feathers crowned his black cap, which had as its centerpiece a gaudy Phoenix tail-feather. His scarf was plated with drake-scales, his coat lined with the lush furs of bearskin and sandwolves...

96. New Horizons (II)

A/N: sunday bonus chapter! :D

//

Longfoot flailed back, crying out in pain.

“RUN!! I’ll hold them off!” she yelled. The little girl nodded, wide-eyed, and scampered off. Then Kaya put up her fists. She could do it! She could see it clearly in her mind. She’d beat them up, and help the poor girl find her daddy, and they’d all hug and go off to a bonfire dinner—

95. New Horizons (I)

Kaya felt weirdly good tonight, considering she’d been bawling just hours before. But now she couldn’t stop grinning. The world seemed twice as bright, chock-full of life. She thrummed with spirit. She was so light she could’ve been floating.

She wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe she was feeling pumped-up after her chat with the Tribesmen. Or maybe it was the two doses of bo...

94. Mister Popular (II)

“So?” Receptionist Tao sniffed. “What will it be?”

Dorian took a shallow breath. This little stunt might be risky…

His first move had to be off-balancing the mob. They were so hardened-up in rage no words had a hope of getting across to them. He had to jerk them out of it. Phase 1: sow a seed—just a teensy little seed—of uncertainty.

So he thrust out his...

93. Mister Popular (I)

Note: Due to the tonally dissonant nature of the last two chapters, I’ve decided to make them a side-story!

Next chapter also coming today (Thurs) 

//

Dorian felt eyes on him the moment he arrived at the Guild.

It was subtle. A prickling in the back of his mind, easily overlooked if you didn’t know any better. Dorian recognized it as the work of...

Side-Story 1. The Witch and the Brute (II)

Morning found them tangled up in each other. Eudora woke first; she’d also slept first, in a manner of speaking. Her last waking hour was hardly conscious; she spent it in some addled haze of pleasure, limp, letting him do what he wished to her before he, too, keeled over at last. She was long past spent by then. They’d gone at it most of the night. Her legs and back had taken a ...

Side-Story 1. The Witch and The Brute (I)

A/N: Content warning! NSFW and Sexual Manipulation. These chapters are tonally pretty different from standard Speedrunning fare; covers Eudora & Feiyan'gs relationship. Can be skipped if you're uncomfortable with toxic relationships.

Also: chapter has been edited significantly as of 3/28, 1:30 PM EST!

//

As Eudora snu...

92. Friends! (III)

Sure enough, the old waiter stopped right between Dorian’s and Young Mistress Tao’s tables. He frowned as he jerked a thumb at Mistress Tao.

“Up, girl!” snapped the waiter. “Young Master Heilong demands your seat.”

Tao, for her part, hunched in, making herself seem small. She draped the cowl so far over her head it shaded her eyes. “P-please don’t kick me out, mister...

91. Friends! (II)

“I wish to be more than mere friends, Io Rust,” she purred. “I find you very promising. I saw your work in the Guild. I wish to sponsor you in the Tournament. I want you as a vassal of my clan—I want you to bear my crest.” She leaned in, her blue-gray eyes gleaming like deep-sea gems. “I want my mark on you,” she said in a coy whisper.

Dorian cocked a brow....

90. Friends! (I)

A/N: Not sure how this chap turned out b/c it was written while sleep deprived--hopefully p solid!

//

As Dorian trudged through bustling Oasis streets, he realized he needed a friend.

Hmm. He frowned. No. That didn’t sound right. No-one in this plane qualified for anything nearing friendship. In all his lives Dorian had had two friends tota...