《I'm... Skeleton A?!》Chapter 15: Karalis
Advertisement
The dragon swings at us with a skeletal claw, and Korv rushes up to meet it. He’s barely pushed back due to his heavy armor and innate strength. Grimvl takes the opening to run up its arm, his blue blade slashing out as he runs. Bones being cut cleanly.
As I rush up, I spot Mace in the distance. Waving frantically from the entrance to a cave. How I even picked the skeleton out from the rest of the throng… I’ll just attribute that to our long travel together.
It wasn’t just my attention Mace gathered though, as I spot Alevia ready her mechanical bow, aiming it towards Mace. I can’t let that happen.
I toss the iron club in my hands, and she leaps to the side.
“Altaire?!” Grimvl shouts, a look of confusion crossing his face, but he’s forced to pay attention to the dragon as it makes to bite at him.
“I fucking knew it! I’ll kill him!” Alevia screams, but I’m already halfway to my skeletal companion. A few arrows whizz past me as I run in a serpentine manner.
As I get closer, I spot another undead that was hidden in the shadow of the cave, but pay it no more attention as it takes all my effort to dodge Alevia’s arrows. Soon, the undead in front of me begin parting, making a path as I run.
“That treacherous! He’s been in league with them this whole time!” Alevia’s screams fade as I shoot past Mace and into the safety of the cave.
I find myself face to face with a spectral horse. An armored skeleton riding atop it. He’s wearing an exquisite feathered helm, Red eyes glaring at me. His regal armor shows signs of battle, and a dark crimson blade hangs at his side. Secured there by black chains and without a sheathe.
Advertisement
“Karalis awaits.” He simply says. Tugging the reins so his horse turns. I look back at Mace, and the skeleton nods. Telling me it’s fine. All of this seems a little sketchy, but I doubt Mace would ever do anything that would bring me harm. I have little evidence of that being true, but it’s something I can feel.
We pass a multitude of gleaming eyes. Their owners’ bones glowing ever so slightly due to the light cast by the spectral horse our guide rides. The sounds of battle having long since faded, we walk on. An occasional tremor reaching us even this far.
After what seems like hours in this timeless darkness, a faint light comes into view. Later revealing themselves to be torches held inside sconces. Casting a faint blue light, shadows dancing in tune with the flames.
The uneven rock makes way for chiseled stone, and we find ourselves in front of a dead end.
“Through Nox we find purpose.” The mounted skeleton rasps out, and after a brief shimmer, the wall disappears. Revealing a long hallway with a worn rug running straight down the middle.
As we walk down this new path, forks appear periodically. We never stray, moving in a straight line. Soon, a robed figure appears in our path. The robe is made of silk, dyed black. The hems are an emerald green. I spot a dark wooden staff clasped in a bony hand, the staff itself formed in the shape of a dragon’s claw, a captivating emerald eye with a slit pupil in its grasp.
“Karalis?” I wonder out loud.
“What an honor, but that is not I.” A thin voice, oddly feminine, that scratches at my ears responds. A pair of gleaming emerald orbs fixing on me. “Though why our master wishes to meet with one of the living I wonder.”
Advertisement
“Ultear, it’s rude to keep the master waiting.” The mounted skeleton speaks.
“No skin off my back. Ufufu. It’s you who’ll be in trouble Piros.” Ultear responds.
Piros draws his red blade, it grates against the chains as he does. “I will fulfill my duty even if I must cut you down, elder lich.” He says.
“Oh my, how rude of me to bar the great warrior king’s path.” Ultear says as she performs a sweeping bow in mocking fashion.
As we walk past, an odd image begins to form over the elder lich’s bones as perfect white skin covers them. Looking under her hood, I spot a beautiful face. Silky black hair frames her face as her beautiful emerald eyes observe me. Her soft lips a pale pink, drawn into a smile, almost seductive. An illusion?
I shake my head, and hurry to catch up to Piros. Apparently having stared at her long enough to create some distance between us. Mace is glaring at me. Trembling, but not in fear. Anger?
I hear a peal of laughter from behind as Piros leads us further away. We pass into what seems to be a hall for guest receptions. Old tables that would have been masterpieces of a renowned carpenter laden with empty bowls, plates, and faded utensils.
Piros dismounts as we head up the grand staircase, and pushes open the large doors. As we step through them, I notice a change in the atmosphere. A sense of dread and foreboding that only grows with each step we take.
I glance over at Mace to find the skeleton in a daze. Walking towards the source of this ominous aura. I’m a bit concerned at this point. It wouldn’t be hard to move a skeleton to your will when you command legions of them, but I continue following regardless.
Even I couldn’t survive against their overwhelming numbers. I came here to find some answers, to reclaim my past. Should I fail and have my life taken from me, it shouldn’t matter. I’ve already lost it once.
We stop in front of a pair of oversized doors. They’re gilded with silver turned black. No doubt responding to the poisonous aura that leaks out of the room. Piros simply stands there. Nobody makes a sound as the minutes pass, painfully slow.
Then with the creaking of rusted hinges, the doors swing open of their own accord to reveal the throne room. A once resplendent red carpet, now faded with time, marking a path all the way to the throne.
A figure sits atop it. Purple miasma seems to pour out of his entire being from under the black robe. Gold inscriptions of runes are sewn all along the hems of this robe. A collection of equally impressive staffs floating around him. His presence is overwhelming as my body moves to bow before him.
The heavy doors slam shut behind us as he rises.
“Bow, for you are in the presence of a god.” His words hang tangibly in the air.
Advertisement
- In Serial151 Chapters
Pantheon Online
Two worlds collide in the new VRMMORPG, 'Pantheon Online', as Colt Anderson desperately joins the game in a bid to save his failing gaming career. At first, he thought it would be like any other game…That was until he discovered the players would be the Gods of this world. The goal? To spread their influence among the mortals (NPC’s). However, if their Divinity ever reached zero, they would be forcefully ejected from the game forever.As Colt is driven forward by his ambition, his beliefs as a gamer are called into question. Tough choices lay ahead, while his feelings for an NPC become complicated as they face the coming storms together.
8 90 - In Serial47 Chapters
The Child of Ebon
Wealth and power, what would you do to gain such possessions as that? Would you murder? Would you steal? Would you scheme? Would you utterly use people in order to get those things? What if you needed wealth and power to save those you hold dear? Your loved ones who can't survive unless you take that single step into oblivion. To be a criminal, a murderer, or a plotter who would do anything to achieve one's own goals. What lies before you is that kind of story; a young man who seeks to climb the fierce ladder to nobility. To ease his loved one's pains, to do what must be done, even if he has to become the most loathed man in his own aching heart. — WARNING: A VERY slow paced story. —
8 105 - In Serial19 Chapters
One Piece: The Hundred Swords Pirate
Arima Koujiro, a middle-aged man who worked as a Yakuza was tired of his boring life. Being a Yakuza in modern time was not as exciting as he thinks it was when he read the stories about Yakuza in his childhood. Expecting life full of action and glorious fights with the rival Yakuza clan when he initially joined Yakuza, instead, he faced with boring ordinary office work with some "business visit" here and there to clients that late to pay their loans. On the night of his 40th birthday, he partied with a bunch of his colleagues on the penthouse apartment that he earned from his 20 years working as a Yakuza. Passed out after having too much drink, he woke up in the middle of nowhere instead of his apartment. Before he gets to process what happened and figuring out where he is, a blue hologram screen popped out in front of him with a mail sign in the middle of it. This is a story of Arima Koujiro fulfilling his dream of exciting and full of actions life that he always wanted. The cover picture is not mine, all rights belong to the artist if he wants me to take it down, I will. Disclaimer, One Piece and all characters in it belongs to GOda-sama except my OCs.
8 177 - In Serial36 Chapters
YAOS 1 - Limitless Adventures - Yet Another OP Story Book 1
December 23rd 2018: Book 1 is now up at Smashwords and at Amazon. December 30th 2018: V1.1.2 of YAOS Book 1 is out, some content additions, fixed typos. Amazon's enhanced typesetting now displays tables properly. YAOS is shown through the eyes of some genius athlete getting OP inside a VR, ah wait, Full Immersion game, ?F.I.O?. Not a Hero, not a Nerd, just a driven individual paying for mistakes made, biding time until he can return to the Real World. He isn't defined like you'd normally do it, you can pick his looks and name all on your own, just like you do in video games. Believe it or not, keeping his looks undefined is harder than you think. His backstory isn't expounded in detail, but it drives his choices. Book 1 isn't about depressing sob stories but about fun and rushing forward, pursuing new horizons. Oh, and you'll end on a cliffhanger! Well, most serials do, so you will probably expect that without being told explicitly. But it isn't that bad, there's a lot of reveals and more to come once this book, that is the first in a planned three-part series, is finally ready for release on amazon et al. The published version will have: 1.) Godawful speaker tags, I hate them, they make you stop thinking and speed up editing so much. In hindsight they should have been in to begin with. But I stand by my goals proclaimed earlier. You guys should think while reading, that is the whole point of the exercise. Apply the knowledge and ideas, improve yourself, get creative! 2.) Pretty colored tables, the damned blue boxes, a lot of work, 69 in one book. Finally fixed amazon's centering issue. Can't say I liked the hours needed to debug that. 3.) The promised Mitara chapters. 4.) A cover! 5.) And lastly, updated polished versions of several chapters. MC shares more of his past, some terrible chapters (esp. 32) finally work. Some new scenes, minor rewrites in parts. Text flow and other issues. The current challenge is to maintain essential ambiguity while satisfying people wanting to know more without thinking three steps ahead. Balancing one with the other is tough. The smut which was in remains, but the story told is not to be superseded by it. A 15+ rating for the first book is also important, not to mention, YAOS wasn't meant to contain any smut to begin with. If the Author can turn to writing full time his output should increase, so please support YAOS #1 once it does finally release. ~Thank You~ No maps so far, that should be in, but is really hard to get done right. Again, tips are appreciated. Update September 2017: Stubbed chapters, sorry guys, currently don't have time to upload them elsewhere, polishing book 1 and 2, writing 3, takes precedence. Book 1 is in heavy editing, too much to keep synced and continuing editing. I'd need a site which offers JS-free rapid managing of chapters and comments. Coding one myself or setting a premade up is out of scope until I'm done with the books. RRL-old offered that, nuff said. This is only here because the author believes in fairies, nobody reads this, most likely. October to December 2017: Life threw some curveballs. February 2018: Book 2 draft 1 completed, at ~150K words. Book 2 is fairly epic in scope, requires 1 rewritten chapter, some editing. Tables and miscellanea are in, but needs at least a grammar pass. March 2018: Book 3 at 28k words, first arc, rest needs serious planning for spin-off and satisfying conclusion. July 2018: Yet another proofing/editing session of books 1-3, 101+ chapters, ~300k words. B3 at 48k, starts out great, but no ETA, no wordcount limit, in flux. But prioritizing my writing cannot be done, I hate the delays as much as you, but you will prefer the whole released in a timely fashion rather than wait. Knowing myself how excruciating waiting can be, at least you'll get significantly polished versions and an ETA on book 2 by release of book 1. December 23rd 2018: Book 1 is now up at Smashwords and in the process at Amazon et. al.. . To all who wait patiently, offered feedback, thanks again!
8 141 - In Serial16 Chapters
art book
penis
8 139 - In Serial59 Chapters
Rud and the Damsel
Fate brings them together and violence forges their circumstance, but can love save them?In the early 1800s, even those born to privilege are not immune to the violence of the time. The only thing they have in common is they both have lost everything, and they will need each other to survive.
8 209