Ludger drew a long, steady breath, letting his eyes stay closed as he extended one hand toward the packed dirt in front of him. Doesn’t have to be a wall. Just a dent. A shift. Anything....
2025-09-30 15:15:38 +0000 UTC View PostLudger’s eyes sharpened as he stepped a little closer. “Then tell me this—how exactly do you manipulate the mana in the earth? Not just feel it, but move it. And if someone has a Spi...
2025-09-30 15:14:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe next bolt snapped from Ludger’s palm, faster this time. Viola yelped, jerking sideways at the last moment. The mana sphere whizzed past her ear, close enough that she felt the heat.
Ano...
2025-09-30 15:13:42 +0000 UTC View PostThey walked the length of the market street, Ludger slowing their pace just enough to point things out.
“See that?” He nodded toward a vendor piling golden apples high on a cloth-covered ...
2025-09-29 15:16:53 +0000 UTC View PostViola slammed her palms on the table, glaring. “Grandfather wouldn’t send us here for nothing. Why would he pick someone like you?!”
That finally made the man pause. He lifted ...
2025-09-29 15:15:26 +0000 UTC View PostThe guildhall’s doors groaned as Ludger pushed them open. Dust motes swirled in the stale air, disturbed for the first time in days. The place was cavernous but empty—rows of tables overturned ...
2025-09-29 15:14:20 +0000 UTC View PostBy the second day, the road curved over a low ridge, and the city finally came into view.
The walls rose from the valley like a squat fortress of stone, thick and wide, not tall or elegant li...
2025-09-29 15:13:13 +0000 UTC View PostHer voice came small, hesitant. “…If I stay, does that mean I’m running from home?”
Arslan crouched a little, meeting her eyes with a grin that was gentler now. “No. It means you’...
2025-09-28 15:22:50 +0000 UTC View PostThe arrangement hadn’t even cooled before a shadow fell across the yard.
“Ludger.”
Elaine’s voice cut sharper than any blade. She stood at the entrance, arms folded, eyes glowin...
2025-09-28 15:21:28 +0000 UTC View PostViola planted her wooden sword into the dirt and crossed her arms, still giving him that sharp, suspicious glare.
“You’re so weird,” she muttered. “Who suddenly decides they want to l...
2025-09-28 15:20:18 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, after breakfast, Ludger asked his mother to step out into the backyard with him. Elaine followed, wiping her hands on a cloth, her curious gaze narrowing as they crossed the thres...
2025-09-28 15:19:03 +0000 UTC View PostThey reached home the next day, the walls rising steady and familiar after days of smoke and ruin. Viola, still stiff from their spar and with bruises she didn’t want her grandfather to see, chos...
2025-09-27 15:14:58 +0000 UTC View PostWhen Ludger stepped out of the tent, the morning light struck his eyes. Just a few paces away, Viola stood with her arms folded, waiting.
Her face fell the moment she saw him. “So… you di...
2025-09-27 15:13:46 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, Ludger woke to the clang of hammers and the rasp of saws. For a moment, he thought it was another battle—the rhythm of impact, the groaning of wood—but when he pushed himself ...
2025-09-27 15:12:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe work never stopped.
Through the rest of the day, Ludger’s world narrowed to blood, sweat, and glowing hands. The wounded never ceased—soldiers dragging comrades with broken ribs, othe...
2025-09-27 15:11:37 +0000 UTC View PostThe shamans lifted their staves again, their voices rising into a chant even more dreadful than before. Mana thickened, flames coiling overhead like serpents ready to strike. Soldiers braced, their...
2025-09-26 15:15:01 +0000 UTC View PostThe clash at the barricades turned savage in seconds.
The barbarians fought like rabid beasts, hurling themselves against the wedge with no fear of death. One man’s arm hung useless at his ...
2025-09-26 15:13:25 +0000 UTC View PostThe closer they came, the heavier the air grew.
At first, it was just the steady grind of boots and hooves, the rattle of shields, the wheeze of leather straps straining under the weight of a...
2025-09-26 15:12:03 +0000 UTC View PostThe tent went quiet after Torvares’s decree. Captains grumbled, Arslan scowled, Viola smirked, but Ludger stood still, staring at the map. The arrowhead formation. Him in the center. He’d thoug...
2025-09-25 15:20:26 +0000 UTC View PostLudger watched him. Under the bravado and the infinite, dangerous arrogance was something a child could touch: the absolute, naked fear of legacy. Arslan wasn’t afraid of his own end. He was terr...
2025-09-25 15:19:05 +0000 UTC View PostThe clash of blade and footwork drew louder whispers, more boots crunching into a loose circle around the spar. Even exhausted men who had been too tired to lift their heads now stood straighter, e...
2025-09-25 15:17:25 +0000 UTC View PostLudger’s eyes lingered on the wounded for a moment longer before he finally asked, voice low but steady,
“Where are they? The barbarians.”
Arslan followed his son’s gaze to the ...
2025-09-24 15:24:28 +0000 UTC View PostLord Torvares’s eyes blazed, but when Viola squared her shoulders and opened her mouth to fire back, he cut her off with a growl.
“Not here.”
His cloak whipped as he turned, gestu...
2025-09-24 15:23:30 +0000 UTC View PostThey let the grove hold them a while longer, catching their breaths and letting the morning burn into midday. By the time the sun had begun its slow arc west, they were moving again.
The heat...
2025-09-24 15:22:15 +0000 UTC View PostLudger kept the thoughts locked behind his teeth. No point voicing them—not to Viola, who would only double down on her recklessness, and not to Luna, who already carried enough weight in silence...
2025-09-23 15:31:12 +0000 UTC View PostLudger let the silence hang for a moment longer, then exhaled through his nose. His smirk didn’t come this time—only a steady, level gaze as he answered.
“Fine. If she runs off to do so...
2025-09-23 15:29:59 +0000 UTC View PostAs he jogged back through the fields toward the city, Ludger wiped sweat from his brow with the back of his armguard. The stench of goblin blood clung stubbornly, seeping into the leather, soaking ...
2025-09-23 15:28:42 +0000 UTC View PostTwo months of relentless grind bore fruit. Ludger’s weighted runs, his endless bursts of Dash and Quickstride, his nights of mana-burning discipline—piece by piece, they stacked into something ...
2025-09-22 15:33:16 +0000 UTC View PostThe next morning, the courtyard rang with Arslan’s voice, already barking corrections at Viola as she hacked at a training dummy. Ludger arrived a little later, shin guards strapped on tight—he...
2025-09-22 15:32:01 +0000 UTC View PostArslan leaned forward on his knees, his usual grin dulled into something heavier. “The border didn’t fall, but it was close. Too close.”
Selene and Aleia crossed her arms, her jaw tight...
2025-09-22 15:31:05 +0000 UTC View Post