PierceGrey

Chapter 317: It's all part of the plan

Note: Just a heads up that this chapter has been discovered by a cunning, perceptive patron to be out of order. It's technically BEFORE the last Blake chapter...it'll all be fixed by the ebook...

By the third day of living with both orcs and goblins, Blake had begun a kind of betrayal calculation.

It went something like this: the number of drunk or high gobli...

Chapter 316: Party's over

Naya thought it was going well enough. She hadn’t keeled over and died, for example, which became a bit more of a concern after learning one cook was an alchemist.

And the food was…good. Or at least the bread. The rest was tasty but far too rich for elven tongues, to the point Dariya was clearly pushing most of hers around on her plate like a child. Naya gave her the occasional glare ...

Chapter 315: A dinner party

Naya and Dariya prepared themselves to go to the concubine’s ‘dinner party’. Some of her people told her not to.

“She’ll poison you, my lady. With the baron gone, she and the other concubines may even try to slaughter you in the kitchen with knives!”

Naya winced, then did her best to calm her servants down.

“They aren’t warriors. And they’ll hav...

Chapter 314: Dead Dracolich

[Final stage complete. Nexus challenge ending. Calculating rewards based on performance. Please wait.]

Mason blinked, supposing he should have expected something like that. Though he doubted it would have changed how he behaved. He also couldn't help but notice there was no mention of 'success'.

Had they even done what they were supposed to do? Could the whole event hav...

Chapter 313: Haley in Nassau

Haley opened her eyes and sighed, cuddling against the warm body next to her. Then the already vanishing wisps of some dream faded from her senses, and she blinked awake to find it was just a pillow. Mason and Becky still weren't home. She was alone in their bed.

The list of many tasks and problems began to filter through her brain. A few of the male players and civilians had already begu...

Chapter 312: Everything ends

[Apex Predator: Vision of the Dead: partially resisted.]

[First Blood: Wing Buffet Daze: resisted.]

Mason growled and looked up from the ground. He'd been tossed a good twenty feet to crack a tree trunk, and probably a few ribs. He spit blood and winced, expecting broken was more likely than cracked. His left leg was also not quite right, and he gave Transformation a ti...

Chapter 311: The Dracolich

Alex felt the dragon before he saw it.

A hissing sound filled his ears, then a whispering in some language he felt he knew but couldn't remember. The sunlight flickering through the jungle canopy dimmed, then darkened.

I see you, Alexei. The voice grew louder. Clearer. Alex blinked and tried to shut it out, to focus on his powers and his friends, to be re...

Chapter 310: Survivors

"I ain't ever even been on an airplane!" Becky shouted, wide-eyed and grinning at Mason as they flew through the sky. Their birdmen 'pilots' carried them with stony faces, eyes locked on the jungle canopy as they searched for the battle site.

A few burly soldiers were able to carry Seamus, Becky and Phuong by themselves (the guy who got Becky must have won some kind of wager). But it took...

Chapter 309: Time

The destroyed undead/demonic leader gave the players at least a moment to catch their breath. Mason looked out at the army starting to fill in the gap, a seemingly endless procession of corpses in various states of decay just shambling on like nothing happened.

The sun was touching the horizon now.

Soon it would vanish and all the other players would lose most of their vision. Only...

Chapter 308: Of course there's a Plan B

"Are ya sure we need to leave someone at the temple, Mason?" Becky frowned and went a little pink. “Seems we could, you know, use 'em. Against the army of corpses, and all."

She had a point, of course, but Mason just couldn't shake the feeling that sooner or later the dragon was coming for this temple. He shook his head.

"I won't leave it undefended. I want Carl roaming for leader...

Chapter 307: Phase Two

Phase two was apparently an entire screaming army assaulting the walls. Well, shrieking, maybe. They sounded like a horror movie. And probably 'shambling towards' as much as assaulting.

Mason couldn't actually see what was going on. He was still busy shooting and slicing apart an increasingly wide variety of undead things coming out of the ground all over the city.<...

Chapter 306: Phase One

"Change of plan," Mason said, glancing towards the scream. "Everyone but Seamus and Becky on the ground. Roam and find tunnels, deal with anything coming out. If you're getting overwhelmed, fall back to Seamus on the temple."

King Aixa was yelling orders at his men. Mason heard him calling for the flyers to get to the skies, for the 'Great Guard' to fall back to the city. After he'd issue...

Chapter 305: Tireless labourers

Mason truly hated nerdery. And this Nexus. And Blake for doing whatever the fuck he was doing that wasn’t helping.

Apparently a dracolich was an undead dragon. With pretty much all the pros and almost none of the cons. Not that dragons had a lot ‘cons’ to begin with. But at least they had, you know, organs. This thing sounded even more terrifying than the live version.

"His ma...

Chapter 304: A bargain kept

Turned out Seul-ki's 'disguise' power could do more than trick the eye. It could trick magical wards and barriers, getting her to any floor in the tower, and who knew what else. Blake was both deeply impressed, and slightly concerned.

"Incredible," he said, smiling politely. "Not that I'm upset, but did you come looking for me for any…particular reason?"

They were al...

Chapter 303: Just a moment

"A moment, wizard," Ilya whispered, and Blake turned back with an eyebrow raised. The orc lady walked away, stepping to her wooden desk as she tapped her fingers. "I wanted to discuss...your constructs. Before you left."

"Of course, my lady." Blake nodded and glanced back to the orc lord and goblin assassin. "Head on down to my lab. I'm granting you the permission now. I'll meet you there...

Chapter 302: Back in the tower

Blake blinked away from his constructs when he started tasting blood. His lips had cracked, apparently. When was the last time he'd drunk water? Or swallowed, for that matter…

"Patron..."

Blake turned to find Seul-ki wobbling on her feet, hand still on his arm. As he did, most of his joints popped or cracked. He could feel himself trembling and winced that he'd probably gotten los...

Chapter 301: Overall, pretty cool

[You have slain an Elder Dragon. Group experience to be awarded at end of event.]

Mason fell as the dragon died. Its jaws were locked around him, his body contorted and half crushed with his arms and blade dug into its head. His whole body was burned and in agony, and the longer he lay in the thing's blood and saliva the more confident he was it was acidic.

It wasn't th...

Chapter 300: When you die I'm taking that knife

Mason found his prey in a burning ruin. The dragon stood on several small limbs, back half of its long body near the ground, front half raised like a snake ready to strike. Its crippled wings hung at its sides, only one able to tuck back, the other dangling and broken. It turned in circles breathing flame.

Phuong, Carl, and Streak all stood behind a stone building watching. Phuong gesture...

Chapter 299: Killing quickly

The sky filled with the sound of draconic fury, and Mason winced in his sacrificial bowl.

He kind of wished he had a pop reference to compare his situation to. All he could summon was something biblical, but that seemed a touch melodramatic. And probably blasphemous.

It wouldn't help him in any case. He stood there pretending to strain at loosely tied restraints, reminding himself t...

Chapter 298: A desperate hope

"Sometimes I wish I'd known you were this crazy before I started sleepin' with you."

Becky apparently wasn't thrilled with Mason's dragon plan.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," he said, trying to rub her back to calm her down. "You'll all be right there. I'm just the uh, tip of the spear."

They were walking through the floating city with a pack of armed guards behind them, so t...

Chapter 297: Dragon bait

"I'm still out of fecking range," Seamus said with a frustrated sigh. Mason ignored him.

He also didn't wait to see if his first loosed arrow was effective. With his months of practice and increasingly inhuman strength and speed, he just drew his elven bow, formed an arrow from nothing to sit squarely on the string, then loosed with as much draw as it felt capable.

Rather than rely ...

Chapter 296: Good pep talk

The longer the group waited in the 'guest room' in relative comfort, the more uncomfortable Mason got. It might have been a personal flaw. Paranoia, Blake might say. Mason just thought it good sense.

If this were a 'normal' situation—at least as 'normal' as being the guest of a bunch of medieval fantasy bird people might be—he might accept they were really 'guests'.

But this was...

Chapter 295: Took you long enough

Mason and the others became an even bigger spectacle in the floating city itself. It didn't feel 'hostile', exactly, but it didn't feel welcoming, either.

The ape men didn't notice or care, clearing paths through the crowds just with their size and forward momentum.

"This way," said Wounded Testicles, limping slightly still as he guided them onwards.

"Looks like bloomin' Venic...

Chapter 294: The floating city

Mason followed the bird and ape men with the young priest he'd saved, not really sure he should. First of all, he still had no idea where Carl and the others were. Second, he wasn't actually sure why he should care about this priest anyway.

All he had was that the man professed to worship ‘Nephus’, and an intuitive sense that he should. And of course a complete lack of any other ideas...

Chapter 293: We both kept our word

Mason stepped into the small break in the trees and cleared his throat.

"Alright," he said. "You've had your fun. Now untie him and leave him alone."

The 'birdmen' turned and stared or flinched in surprise, some lifting surprisingly well-made spears or bows. Mason just stood there and gave them a moment to inspect him and the giant wolf beside him.

"Who are you?" said what loo...

Chapter 292: A test

Mason dropped to the ground and groaned. He was all burnt to hell, particularly his hands, which he'd eventually used to just pull the damn skeleton apart.

"Oh my God, are you alright? And don't you just say you'll heal! I mean are you OK?"

The giant skeleton had finally stopped moving. As it died, a swirling green...portal, appeared beside the corpse. Mason d...

Chapter 291: This is getting ridiculous

Phuong stood panting at another door, waiting for his abilities to recharge. Then he activated Adrenaline and opened it.

Several more guards sat around a table, or lay on small cots. He’d heard them inside and knew it would be a vicious fight. It seemed the whole area was some kind of barracks. Every room was another fight, and already he dripped with blood. Not all of it his enemies'.<...

Chapter 290: We might get lucky

Carl stared into his Simulacrum's eyes and winced. It was always a little creepy to see some kind of temporary version of yourself, or to wonder if this version had any kind of thoughts. Or how the hell it exactly worked.

He didn't 'control' it. It was more like it was literally him, and knew exactly what he intended, and therefore did exactly that. Which meant the power’s...

Chapter 289: Serious trouble

Phuong had heard the sound of his patron's lightning echoing down the stairs and some kind of hole in the roof. He turned and ran at full speed to go back, forced to cut down a few guards and cultists that stood in his path.

Once back on the floor above, he wasn't sure where to turn until he heard Mason shouting. He gave up stealth entirely now, running at full Athleticism speed to reach ...

Chapter 288: Sorry in advance

Mason dripped with cultist blood. He'd slaughtered his way through the first floor. His traps had begun to activate behind him, and with a grin he just kept dropping more. Whether or not he was hurting whatever was following him he didn't know. But it made him feel better.

Unfortunately, this place didn't count as 'natural', and his traps and arrows were all costing him mana. But if he di...