SB3 C8: Silk-String (2)
8 - Silk-String (2)
The rest of the team was across the way, outside of another warehouse. Ellen and I joined them; I concealed the ledger as best I could in my pocket. Expla...
2025-10-03 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Chris Huisjen posts
SB3 C7: Silk-String (1)
7 - Silk-String (1)
I needed to know.
To know that my core was working again, and what it was capable of. To put it under some pressure and see what would happen. To ge...
2025-10-02 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostSB3 C6: Kintsugi (3)
6 - Kintsugi (3)
The hungering void finished consuming all the excess Mana in my core, and I forced the Law of the Hungering Abyss to stop. It resisted; it still hungered. It...
2025-10-01 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostSB3 C5: Kintsugi (2)
5 - Kintsugi (2)
Something was…not wrong. But different. Deviant.
The God of Thunder pondered it as Kade Noelstra maneuvered the needles into his body and toward his ...
2025-09-30 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSB3 C4: Kintsugi (1)
4 - Kintsugi (1)
In the two weeks Jeff had been crashing on my couch, I’d learned a few things.
First, that Jeff was almost as broken as I was, but in a totally diffe...
2025-09-29 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 3 C3: Promises
3 - Promises
When I opened the door, Jessie was nose-deep in her Governing Council tablet.
She smelled faintly of decontamination mist and more strongly of therapy exer...
2025-09-26 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 3 C2: Under the Lens
2 - Under the Lens
I’d been to the Governing Council’s headquarters before.
That time, I’d been dragged up to Councilwoman Myers’s private office and into a mee...
2025-09-25 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 3 C1: Homecoming
1 - Homecoming
The convoy rolled through Phoenix’s eastern gate, Deborah Callahan at its head. She hadn’t lost a single truck—or a single delver, much to her annoyance...
2025-09-24 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C59: A Friend of Jeff's
59 - A Friend of Jeff's
Kent. Lamar. Amanda. Angelina. Nevaeh. Turner. Nicholas.
Jeff Carlton had put every ounce of his time and energy into C-Rank to find that list o...
2025-09-23 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C58: Fallout
58 - Fallout
It took two days.
Two long days. Days of dumping Mana into the injured delvers. Sleepless nights of research in an attempt to figure out the best cures for...
2025-09-22 13:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C57: Hurricane Force (2)
57 - Hurricane Force (2)
Skill Learned: Stormbreak
The shattered core within you offers power, if you can contain it. Burn mana from all source...
2025-09-19 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C56: Hurricane Force (1)
56 - Hurricane Force (1)
Queen Mother Yalerox, Paragon of the Hurricane: A-Rank
Rage.
And fury.
The kind I’d felt on the playground the f...
2025-09-18 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C55: Corestorm (3)
55 - Corestorm (3)
Pain.
Agony.
Burning deep inside me. The storm broke through my core’s last barriers. Lightning rippled through my veins. Every cell screamed...
2025-09-17 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C54: Corestorm (2)
54 - Corestorm (2)
I followed Ellen along the path, my thin hoodie and shorts almost comical next to her dress and heels. We stopped at a second sign, and more Mana flowed ou...
2025-09-16 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C53: Corestorm (1)
53 - Corestorm (1)
“What do you mean, no?” I asked.
Fury built inside of me. I knew Eugene had a solution. I knew it. He could hold my core togeth...
2025-09-15 13:00:16 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C52: Port in the Storm (3)
52 - Port in the Storm (3)
My words were empty and tasted like ash. All the bravado in the world didn’t hide the fact that we were outmatched.
We were down our A-Rank...
2025-09-12 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C51: Port in the Storm (2)
51 - Port in the Storm (2)
Something was in Queen Mother Yalerox’s newest tower.
Maybe multiple somethings. A slightly higher than normal number of her youngest child...
2025-09-11 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C50: Port in the Storm (1)
50 - Port in the Storm (1)
As I looked around for the portal, two thoughts warred in my mind.
First, that this was impossible. There was, undeniably, a Paragon attached...
2025-09-10 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C49: Dawn's Light, Midnight's Depth
49 - Dawn's Light, Midnight's Depth
It was impossible.
She was Queen Mother Yalerox. Mother of millions, Paragon of the Hurricane. Her forces had breached the fortress...
2025-09-09 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C48: A New Day
48 - A New Day
“We can’t just leave,” Jeff growled as we left the bunker’s portal metal door and stepped back into Carlsbad’s fake streets. “I only found two of t...
2025-09-08 13:00:18 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C47: Pack Bonding (7)
47 - Pack Bonding (7)
One hour wasn’t much time.
Ellen and I went after Jeff first. He was still searching the rows of people, trying to track down anyone who might k...
2025-09-05 13:01:31 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C46: The Fortress (3)
46 - The Fortress (3)
I didn’t take a steel rod to the chest.
It did take five minutes for the mage to confirm that I was, in fact, not a portal monster. Questions an...
2025-09-04 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C45: The Fortress (2)
45 - The Fortress (2)
The A-Ranked, named and titled monster appeared two more times. Both times, it watched us, almost daring us to attack it.
The first time was a blo...
2025-09-03 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostApocalypse Engineering Book One is out on Kindle!
Hello, Patrons,
Today, Voltsmith, the first book of the Apocalypse Engineering series, is out on Kindle/KU. Voltsmith is a story about a man from Nebraska who finds himself working at a...
2025-09-02 14:02:58 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C44: The Fortress (1)
44 - The Fortress (1)
There shouldn’t have been a hurricane in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert. It defied physics. And no hurricane had ever been small enough—or focu...
2025-09-02 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade 2 C43: Rolling Thunder
Reposted for Free Members
43 - Rolling Thunder
Queen Mother Yalerox stared at the walls of the fortress that should have been hers. She’d battered it with storm after...
2025-09-01 13:00:27 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade B2 C42: Dual (2)
Republished for Free Members
42 - Dual (2)
As the C-Rank core cracked, I had a moment to wonder why Energy Font and Brendan’s Hymnal...
2025-08-29 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade B2 C41: Dual (1)
Republished for Free Members
41 - Dual (1)
Two hours later, the convoy was circled up, and I found myself face-to-face with Deborah.
And Angelo Lawrence. And Terr...
2025-08-28 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade B2 C40: Aliens (4)
40 - Aliens (4) We had a lot to do, from the moment the portal opened and vomited us—and to my surprise, the half-dozen surviving humans—out
40 - Aliens (4)
We had ...
2025-08-27 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostStormblade B2 C39: Aliens (3)
39 - Aliens (3) I abandoned any pretense of stealth or subtlety. The sooner we were out of here, the sooner we could link up with Angelo and
39 - Aliens (3)
I abandoned...
2025-08-26 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post