《The Treeboy (Hiatus)》Chapter Eighteen: Plan For Assault.
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The days began to fly by. Yohiro became fascinated with enhancing his body and make it stronger, beginning to follow a small training program from Clous, enough to keep his muscles capable of doing basic work. Together they had received; half a million norai, which was the currency that had begun to spread after the king took his throne, equal to half a dollar as of that time. Of course, most of them were disappointed and happy at the same time; disappointed because they were used to more money and got less due to their needlessly flashy and explosive performance, credit going to Hiona, and happy due to the fact it was money at all. They hadn’t gotten a mission in months after all, and Hiona had arranged one for them after all that time. It was boring to them for the most part - and the base was pretty loud - until Sebansio came knocked on their door on one usual night; all of them playing Edno on the table(Bernie’s favorite card game), with Yohiro in the lead.
‘’You either set a card or draw, Rosa, stop procrastinating!’’ Bernie nagged her, hiding his cards carefully. The timid man was quite competitive at games he was good at. ‘’Shut up, i’m considering my options, calculating the outcome and Yohiro has two cards in his hand! I don’t wanna lose to him!’’ She explained to him, pointing at Yohiro viciously. ‘’Would you bastards shut up already…?!’’ Clous moaned, lying on the couch with his back turned to them, speaking in a drunken daze. ‘’I’m winning…?’’ Yohiro asked them, smiling obliviously and getting them all disappointed as they heard a knock on the base door, causing them to re-direct their attention towards the suspiciously patterned knocking, quickly letting them know it’s Sebansio. Rosa walked over and opened the door, finding the old man standing there in a butler suit, sweating from his silky, messy, gray hair to his very outfit.
‘’Who poured a bottle of whiskey on you, Seb…?’’ Clous asked him as he rolled over, sitting up as the other placed their Edno cards on the table, leaving them face-down. Sebansio, forcing a contained demeanor, inhaled and exhaled, ‘’Your new assignment was delivered to me today, and I think you can already tell that it’s a dirty deal on their part…’’ Sebansio explained to them, inviting himself in and sitting on Rosa’s now abandoned chair, beginning to calm himself as he loosened his tie. ‘’You don’t mean they gave us some shit that’d usually require at least ten people, right?’’ Clous spoke to the nervous man, watching him flinch, confirming his suspicion. ‘’So the fuckers from the division wanna get us disbanded for failing a mission due to bad ratings again… Damn this job,’’ Clous muttered, leaning his back on the couch and crossing his hands behind his back and using them as a pillow.
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‘’Indeed, and this time it even involves the king himself. I highly recommend you dec--” ‘’Explain the mission first, Sebansio, then we’ll be thinking about giving up!’’ Bernie told him, raising his fist, wanting to just finish the game. ‘’Ah, yes…,’’ Sebansio got himself comfortable in his seat, ‘’The request was made by a man named Hachikira, and was given to you by the thief’s division, as you already managed to guess,’’ he explained to them what they already knew, irritating most of them. ‘’Um, Mr. Sebansio, who’s this king person?’’ Yohiro leaned over to him, whispering in his ear. ‘’He’s the man who commands everything in this city, Yohiro, now please don’t interrupt me!’’ Sebansio answered quickly, giving off a frustrated feeling, making Yohiro feel slightly ashamed.
‘’See, Hachikira...wants the king’s daughter, Touka, for himself for reasons he chose not to disclose in the form. Obviously, he marked it as the hardest class mission possible…’’ The stressed old man explained to them. ‘’Sick fuck probably just wants to touch up a teenager and then he’ll throw the kid aside after he’s not satisfied. Why should we bother with this?’’ Clous asked, leaning forward again and placing his arms on his legs in a leisurous pose. ‘’I thought you knew that we don’t care what the person wants, we do it because it’s out job. He could go after all the five-year-olds for all I care, but I want my money from it.’’ Rosa stated her view on the subject nonchalantly.
‘’B-but that’s too much of an assumption, right? Maybe he believes he’d be a better parent to he--’’ ‘’That’s retarded of you to say, man,’’ Clous cut Bernie off, handing a reality check to him. ‘’Y-you guys don’t plan on accepting this, are you…?’’ Sebansio asked, his fingers twitching abnormally. ‘’Yeah, i’m in as long as the majority rule applies,’’ Rosa and Clous stated together, scoffing at each other right after. ‘’So am I!’’ All of them turned their heads, finding Hiona standing by her room’s door, walking around in her underwear, which looked so crumpled, it was like she had put it on at the spot after listening in on the conversation, which what she did. ‘’You too, master?! I don’t want to abduct a child, to be morally proud of myself this instant!’’ Bernie announced loudly. ‘’Like it matters; we’ve got three people and Yohiro will always agree with me, no matter the context. Your opinion doesn’t matter and you’d enjoy gunning people down anyway. Got all that?’’ She spoke to him, walking closer, the words leaving her mouth as if it was machine gun, rapidly shooting Bernie down and ruining his confidence and lowering his head depressingly.
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‘’Actually, why is taking this girl with us a bad thing? If the Hachikiba - I think - man is that bad, why don’t we keep her with us?!’’ Yohiro suggested, standing up, silencing them. ‘’Uh… That’s not an option; we won’t get money if we do that,’’ Rosa knocked on his head, making a circular sign with her fingers with her other hand, confusing him. ‘’No, actually, why not take the brat?’’ Hiona asked, smiling gleefully. At that very moment, the room became filled with the shocked and confused screams of four people, sounding like they were singing in unison. ‘’Master, please, let’s not have an intervention! This is NOT a good idea!’’ Bernie shouted, trying to knock some sense into her, while also not wanting to have to kidnap a young girl for reason that seemed obvious to him, but apparently not to her. ‘’Ow, that kinda hurt… Also, why were you two yelling?!’’ Hiona turned towards Rosa and Clous with curiosity.
They didn’t answer, since their worry wasn’t the kidnapping, but the fact that it was Hiona who agreed to Yohiro’s suggestion, meaning it was pretty much already decided that that’s what they were going to do. ‘’Fair enough then. Since you already gave your ‘’yes’’, we’re doing it!’’ Hiona jumped up, happily humming and muttering ‘’Woo~~’’ under her breath. ‘’We gave out vote to the initial mission, not this shit!’’ Clous yelled at her, standing up. ‘’Mr. Sebansio? Do they always yell at each other, or did this begin happening after I came?’’ Yohiro asked, unable to break his smile. ‘’Oh they’ve been like this since Hiona recruited the second member of the group; nonstop yelling and arguing. It honestly drives me to bully some of my friends from the bar sometimes…!’’ Sebansio explained to him. ‘’I wonder, though,’’ Yohiro shouted, stopping Clous, ‘’do you have a glyph set up at the king’s castle already, master?’’ Yohiro asked her, clapping his hands together.
‘’Nope, we’re doing it the old-fashioned way!’’ She declared to them excitedly.
‘’Burning the castle down?’’ Rosa chuckled mockingly under her breath.
‘’Get in there and steal the girl while flipping ‘em off?’’ Clous added right after.
‘’Bomb them?!’’ Bernie also joined in, suddenly closing his legs shut, not surprising the other two.
‘’We’ll just get in there, right…? And kill them. And then we get the girl. And we run.’’ She began slowly explaining what she thought was a plan, slurring her words to entertain herself. ‘’I quit this team! I’m actually gonna quit, I tell you!’’ Is what Clous attempted to say, ending up with, ‘’That’s not a smart idea, master!’’ Hiona snapped her fingers. ‘’I’m kidding, i’m kidding! We’re gonna sneak in somehow. I’ll figure it out on the way there. But Bernie’s staying behind; he’s too large and this time we won’t be freely murdering everyone.’’ She gave them her actual plan, making Bernie both sad and happy as he looked down. ‘’While on that subject, Bernie, don’t think you’re on a higher moral high ground just because you don’t want to kidnap kids. You’re a thief anyway,’’’she laughed at him slightly, watching him drop from the chair, beginning to see in a fetal position as he accepted her words and took them to heart.
‘’That being settled, we’re gonna be accepting the mission today and leaving tomorrow. I kinda don’t like that predator myself, so let’s fuck him over, okay?!’’ She cheered, whistling something that made Rosa blush slightly. ‘’You? You, master, are gonna complain and call people predators? Are you serious?!’’ Clous shouted, again, quite loudly, jumping from the cough to the floor. ‘’Yeah, i’m a hypocrite, burn me alive, right? Sebansio, please accept this person’s request at once! We’re storming the castle!’’ She declared, striking a pose Clous recognized, resembling a certain main pointing his fingers like a gun and smiling with his crooked teeth, only she made it looks pathetic. Sebansio sighed, leaving the room, planning to head towards the registry so he could mark it as accepted.
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Nero Zero
Monsters plagued the lands for too long. No matter if one had fangs, beak, teeth, skin, fur, or feather, or was tall, stout, or diminutive, the people suffered. Until the Gadgeteers came with a device that could allow people to fight back. Powered by one's own magical power, feeding off of monster Essence, the Arbitrium bracer turned the tables. It also changed society. Strength of one's level cap was all that mattered. The strongest were Kings and Emperors. The weak or those too poor to afford the marvelous device, destitute. And so it has been for millennia. All that mattered was one's level cap. High, low, a fate decided the moment the strange contraption came alive. Too high and you were a threat to those interested in keeping the status quo, a weed to be nipped before it could grow and take root. Too low and you were nobody, fated to be a bit more than a simple farmer. What if someone, somewhere, came up with a zero for their level cap? Unable to use Essence, unable to level up. On all of recorded history, it never happened. Until it did. In a small village of fur-less and tail-less ape-beastkin, a boy found out he was uniquely handicapped. Nero's level cap was Zero. But he'd never let that stop him from reaching his goals. ------------------------------------------------ All stories have already been told. We merely reuse elements from them. From Joseph Campbell's Monomith to Stephen King's advice, and that encyclopedia of tropes you've visited, fiction has been dissected and reassembled countless times. One will surely find elements inspired on other works here. Just like cooking from basic ingredients, the recipe and presentation is what really matter. This is a fantasy adventure, of someone that goes from a zero to a slightly bigger zero. It will have romance but no harem. Cruelty but with hope dimly shining ahead. Lightweight where it can be, heavy where it must. Thanks for reading. Cover Credits (The cover is CC-BY-NC-SA): Steampunk Spider Bracer, by Daniel Proulx. CC-BY-NC-SA Picture Frame, @anaterate, Pixabay license. Some odds and bits from here and there.
8 262Eryth: Strange Skies [Old]
[Currently Being Rewritten] Link to Rewrite A stranger in strange lands; lost memories; a peculiar world. Here is a story of a youth who found himself stranded somewhere he didn't belong, with fragmented memories of who he was but just enough to realize what's at stake; just enough to help him scrape a semblance of normalcy in a world yet uncharted. And he will stop at nothing to reclaim what is truly his. 2k-3k words per chapter A little bit of slow burn A dash of slice of life here and there No number crunching though the system is well and truly present MC grows over time, no zero to immediate hero kinda thing. He has to explore his power. ∆ No Harem Tag ∆ Multiple POV Chapters ∆ Rewritten chapters from Prologue I to First Contact, chapter 41. ∆ Glossary Erm, English is my third language so, treat me well...pwease? :) Er, some content tags are provisional ...will give warnings just in case :)
8 145Amber Silverblood
Meet Amber, a teenage girl struggling with the death of her father, an overstressed mother- and lycanthropy. Amber wants nothing more than for things to go back to normal, but a magical corporation has its sights set on her. Six months ago they lost a very important test subject, and they think Amber will be a suitable replacement. If she refuses to go with them, a demonic crime lord has his own plans for her as well. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Amber is forced to find allies in the midst of her enemies while still trying to keep her new wolf-ish nature under control. Only one thing is certain: she can trust nobody but herself. Amber Silverblood is freatured on Web Fiction Guide and Novels Online! www.webfictionguide.com http://novelsonline.info/
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Mighty Sword King by ProudSmilingWanderer I will break the chains of hatred that confine me. I will cleave the earth, and all mountains and rivers and seas. I will pierce the sky, through every raindrop and cloud and thunderbolt. ... that is my Tao. I will pave path for my kin! Copyright © 2016. Marcus K. Reteike. All rights reserved.
8 178Urban Divinity
He slowly backs up until his back is against the wall like my own, "You're..my neighbor?" He points to my door and I nod my head quickly. He hums softly, "You been here a while?" He asks and I nod my head once again. He chuckles, "Ya head hurt?" I nod again but stop as he laughs softly, "I-I mean.. no.. it doesn't." My cheeks burn red as I look at my shoes, "I-It doesn't hurt.." I repeat like a dummy and listen to him clear his throat, "So do you actually live there or was it bull?" He nods to my door and I play with my fingers, "Yeah.. I do.." I feel his eyes watch me and I quickly stop. "You live with your boyfriend or do you like sweatshirts that reach your knees?" He teased, making a giggle slip past my lips. I look away to the floor again, "I-I like big shirts... a lot." I mumble softly and he nods his head, "Hol' up." He puts his box down before walking over to one of the grey bins. I nosily watch as he pulls out a big grey sweatshirt, "Here." He holds it out for me to take and I stare at him with wide eyes, "F-For me?" I hesitantly grab the soft fabric as he chuckles, "Nah for ya mom." I puff my cheeks a little and give him a small glare, "Hush." He leans back against the wall and shakes his head, "It's cold out. You should put it on." ____________________________She was a shy girl from the city with no spine and a list of problems so long that it could touch the floor and roll off her shoes. Though troublesome, she never truly minded because despite her fears, she was a smart little thing and worked around it. But like many of us, it kept her trapped in a tight little box. The fear of pain, insecurities, and endless thoughts held her back from the life she dreamt of. Until she met him. He was everything she could pray for and more. Tall, dark, handsome, intelligent, and caring.Perhaps she could peek out her little box.. just this once?#1 in Daddy (1/1/2021)#1 in wholesome (2/10/21) #1 in Black Romance (5/15/21)
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