After a half-hour or so, something prompted me to look at the amazon again. Bruna’s eyes were beginning to look a little dull, I noticed. “You’re developing miasma ache now,” I stated. For a reply, she simply nodded. She was still lay on her bedroll, covered in her blanket. I moved over to sit next to her and held out …

My mind was blank. I couldn’t make any sense out of the strange things he was saying. All I could tell was that he seemed to be saying those things about me. Pushing himself off the ground slightly, he crawled backwards on his hands and feet, continuing to stare at me like he was seeing a ghost. Finally, he struggled …

. Ceria had been standing near the rock face; she now ran up and joined us, her staff again charged with several preset spells. Bruna had been torn up before, and the state of her miasma had me seriously concerned. I had again done healing on her and her armor had suffered no further damage in the battle, but I …

No matter how much I disliked Ryuu Kowa, I had to give him credit. He had been facing the enemy head-on. He stood in a square stance, his improbably large sword raised over his head, in the middle of another clearing a hundred paces from Graham’s position, doing his best lightning rod impression. From the wide-open-mouthed grimace on his face, …

Normally I use the cocking lever to arm my crossbow, to avoid unnerving people, but I had no time for that. I went ahead and pulled the string back and set it over the latch using just my fingers and Tiana’s inhuman strength. I pulled the enchanted bolt out of the stock and set it in the flight groove. It’s …

Monsters do come in organized attacks. It is not uncommon at all. Packs of flying wolves or giant rats are normal, as are bands of goblins or orcs. Wild ogres are frankly just like very large, primitive humans, so working in groups is their default behavior. Although with ogres, it’s the lone wolves expelled from tribes that are the troublemakers …

An underground forest is an amazing and surreal sight. In an above-ground forest, the light source is above, and partially cut off by the canopy. In a subterranean forest, the light sources are everywhere, scattered throughout the foliage, and every plant has a faint glow, a byproduct of photosynthesis transformed into mana synthesis. The stronger sources  are in the blossoms …

He huddled beneath a stray vine branch, leaning out slightly to see around the foliage that covered most of his body, with a cluster of unripe fairy grapes hanging just above his head. A haunted shadow dimmed his huge eyes, and his wide lips were working in agitation. Ceria moved forward carefully, until she reached four paces or so from …

I wound up landing Bruna on the ground below the outcrop, because it turned out to be too difficult to make a pinpoint landing arranged the way we were. After I flew Ceria down to us, I dematerialized my wings, double-checked the direction and began heading toward the locator stones in the distance. “Hold up!” Bruna protested almost immediately. I …

Using Fairy Sight, I could already tell how my three former companions had managed it. Two enormous impact sites still glowing with waste mana showed me where Graham and Ryuu landed. Leaning out from the opening far enough to look at the wall, I could see Brigitte’s trail as I expected. “Did your friends have a magic rope or something?” …