jmclarke posts
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Chapter 722: An Argument for Departure
Evening had fallen, and for most folk outside the Heroes’ tent, the camp was still bustling with activity.Soldiers were busy with defences and logistics. Thameish priests healed the wounded, while strategists poured over maps, planning for the next day. Men and women drank. Some shared a meal. Some spoke of the battl...
Chapter 721: A Short Lesson in Divinity
St. Merzhin used his divinity with a vengeance as he stood atop Vesuvius’ back.The battle had been long, tough, and important.All around him, a scene that resembled one he’d imagined one would see in the hells, unfolded.The Heroes, Thameish knights and a group of allies from Generasi were defending a pass leading t...
Chapter 720: The Blizzard and the Mark's Attack
Alex was dying.Even as he and his companions hurtled through space, he could feel blood leaking between Birger’s fingers. His consciousness wavered. Warm frothy fluid, tasting of rust, dripped down his chin. Ashen skin turned clammy and cold.Yet, his mind was on Theresa.Burning.How deep were those burns? Had the sear...
Chapter 719: Pain
Alexander Roth was no stranger to pain.His parents’ deaths had dealt him a wound that would always cut to his very soul. McHarris, the Baker, had hit him more times than he could remember. Burn-saw’s blade left a deep scar on his flesh. Battles against greater demons in Cretalikon, and the Thameish church had wound...
Chapter 718: Honour Among Red Mice
Things had not gone as they were supposed to.The plan had abruptly changed when Mouse, Crow and Fox had stepped through the portal first, supposedly to tell Warder that they had returned and that Alex’s group was going to accompany them to the safehouse.Time had passed, then Crow came back, speaking to Rat quickly in...
Chapter 717: When Things Go Not so Smoothly
Alex quickly slipped spell upon high-tiered spell into Claygon’s bag.Cursed Land was described as a spell that inflicted wide swathes of terrain with a bloody curse. The earth would turn treacherous, the air stifling and shadows would grow deep. Where luck had once been neutral or good, it would abruptly turn ill, an...
Chapter 716: Promises of Eight and Ninth
Control Weather.Magic Alex had always imagined, the true wonder of wizardry he always saw himself casting from the time he was small; images filling his mind of an ancient, powerful, bearded wizard wearing flowing robes and a wide-brimmed hat, holding his mighty staff aloft, raising it toward the heavens.The spell Noar...
Chapter 715: 'Shopping'
The thieves quickly found what they’d come for.They moved through the library’s third level under invisibility magic, silent and experienced, mindful of those studying in desk-alcoves on the bridges, and the golem-knight standing guard below.They plucked what they needed from various bookcases, slipping their prize...
Chapter 714: The Dark Night of Brightfire
At midnight, the campus of Brightfire was a dark, sinister place.With a new moon and a cloudy sky, no light of star or moon shone down, leaving much of the university in blackness. Certain streets and buildings were lit by firelight from braziers and hearths, glowing forceballs, and magical lamps, but these were only t...
Chapter 713: The Dark University of the North
The shadow of the northern university towered over Sorkovo like a massive hungry Gargoyle. Brightfire—or Blightfire, as most members of the guild called it, disparaging the school for its ostentatious, showiness that bordered on the obscene, spoiling the city’s already grim skyline.Where the University of Generasi ...
Chapter 712: Warder
The door shut behind them with a click as final as a prison door.Faint light illuminated the space, peeking through dilapidated shutters.The ruffians’ young leader glanced at the bald man who watched Birger intently.“I take it you have something to show me, old father?” he asked.“Will you be my ‘moneychanger...
Chapter 711: The Knock on the Door
Seeing the capital of the Empire—Sorkovo—for the first time was quite a surprise to Alex. It looked nothing—except for the mounds of snow—like he’d imagined, leaving him wondering why the capital city of such a vast and powerful Empire would look so dull.Cobblestone streets and stone walls were a sea of grey,...
Chapter 710: Sorkovo
“Hmmmmm, making the kind of ward you’re talking about would be a tricky proposition,” Professor Jules narrowed her eyes, tapping her desk in thought. “You’d need it to specifically drive away three separate groups—each group being tied together by blood, faith, magic or professional association—yet allow ...
Chapter 709: Operating on the Soul
It was in the early hours of the morning when Alexander Roth began experimenting on his soul.The sun had crept over the horizon in Generasi, lighting up the rooftops, peaks and towers of its vast skyline. Yet, Alex was not outside under the waking sun, though—mere hours before—he, Theresa, and Claygon were burning ...
Chapter 708: The March
“Hah! Look at them run!” Bjorgrund laughed, sticking his tongue out, his blue eyes squeezing shut as he pointed at the tall figures disappearing in the blowing snow. “A few words and they turn craven. Would you look at that, father! They call me the animal, but they act like scared little mice!”“Calm yourself...
Chapter 707: Giants' Confrontation
The wind was rising when Alex and Birger materialised before the giant’s cottage.And so was the tension.Waiting in front of the cottage door as high winds buffeted it against the door frame was Bjorgrund, his face slowly washing scarlet, anger turning it as menacing as the demonic image carved in it. His hands were s...
Chapter 706: The Coin of Silent Friends
“Kymiland’s resisted being conquered for thousands of years, and I’m willing to bet the Empire’s keen to bring that realm back into their territory, permanently.” Gel-Dor had said. “Which means, the Guild’s getting aggressive.”Gel-Dor had said those words when Alex was entertaining him, his brother Fan-...
Chapter 705: Heading off the Problem
The celestial dire tiger dropped, all half ton of him, straight for the rune-marked warleader.Claws spread.Deadly jaws parted.The celestial vanished.With a blurring strike aimed at the plummeting spirit, the warleader swung his sword, cleaving the dire tiger, sending it back to the upper planes. He leapt up, aiming his...
Chapter 704: The Marked, the Runed and the Bloody
All sound died. Snow melted, turning to puddles around them.Swirling debris filled the air and Alex slammed his eyes shut, splintering wood piercing his torso as red dripped from burning flesh.His skin felt raw, stinging, blistering. His lungs screamed for air as he held his breath, setting his teeth, stopping himself ...
Chapter 703: Runed Seekers
“What is this?” the rune-marked scout whispered.She pushed her hand between two symbol-etched trees, flexing gauntleted fingers. Her arm tingled as she shoved harder, struggling against what seemed to be empty air.Seemed.But she knew better. The scout knew with all certainty that the giants’ ward lay within this ...
Fool Book 4 Audio Has Lauuuunched!
Hello everybody!Well, folks have been asking about this for a time and the time has arrived.MARK OF THE FOOL BOOK 4'S AUDIOBOOK HAS HIT AUDIBLE, NARRATED BY TRAVIS BALDREE.Lots and lots of folk have been asking about this, and I'm so happy it's here.You can find it through this link:Link: https://www.audibl...
Chapter 702: The Giant's Cottage
A fire roared in the river rock hearth that dominated the cottage wall.Inviting aromas of roasting venison seasoned with herbs drifted through the room.Birger was seated at the head of his great table, the old giant was polishing a small—by his reckoning—tin cup. At his back, Bjorgrund tended the fire, the young gi...
Chapter 701: The Giant's Cottage
“I think I’m hearing this Birger’s song,” Theresa whispered. “We’re getting closer.”“Good…” Claygon whispered. “These woods…are strange…it is…unsafe here…”He floated above the group, sheathed in invisibility magic while Theresa, Brutus and Alex trudged the twisting woodcutter’s path th...
Chapter 700: Firbolgs in the Forest
Within a forest clearing in Kymiland, a large elk sniffed the bark of a fir tree.He was an old beast, with fur long greyed; by now his body should have been thick and full, ready for the scarcity of winter, instead, his curving rib bones stood out, stretching against sagging fur with each breath he drew. Slower than th...
Chapter 699: Unnatural Power in the Most Natural Way
“So, the thing about mana regeneration at the highest levels is—” Val’Rok began.“Wait, professor, there’s something important I need to ask you first,” Alex said, easing into a chair and placing his hands on Professor Val’Rok’s desk.The lizardfolk wizard was just getting comfortable behind his desk, a...
Chapter 698: The Ultimate Technique of Mana Regeneration
Thunder echoed through the room.Power flowed across the planes and Alex touched it with Hannah’s energy. He felt for the mana as it reached out to a distant plane; a plane emitting the scent of fresh blood, a pulsing heat of flame, and the sound of metal striking metal.The spell’s mana called, and something answere...
Chapter 697: Build me a Worthy Army
“It was the strangest thing.” The Stalker threw himself on the grotto’s stone floor, his plump legs splayed out before him. From his sleeve, he produced a steaming silver cup of mulled wine, then paused. “Aye, it’s cold outside—my good mortal friends—what say you join me in a cup of the good stuff?”“I...
Chapter 696: Prototypes and Time
“So you found the settlement?” Professor Jules asked, stirring a spoonful of honey into a cup of tea. The amber liquid’s steam rose through the morning sunlight streaming through the map room’s window.Outside, Greymoor tasted the first snows of late fall.A dusting for now, but the day was still young.“We did....
Chapter 695: A Lesson on Terminal Velocity...and Lying
Alex Roth had entered the trading post of Turksini, knowing two things were guaranteed.The first was that any locals he met there would be hardened frontier folk who would see him as a foreign–which meant bad—greedy, young merchant hunter who was way out of his depth in their land.So, he’d reinforced that image b...
Chapter 694: The Treacherous Trading Post
“That’s what you want, big man? You‘re asking where the monsters are? Are you crazy, barbarian? We’re set for war with barbarians and beasts of the forest; you think I’m just going to show every greasy foreigner who walks in here a map?” Old Illiana scowled at Alex from across the trading post’s counter.W...
