Shinra had never been all that popular, even when his parents were alive, his family always seemed to be black sheep. He never really noticed until Naori was older, and everyone loved her. They could walk together and a dozen people would say hello and talk with her, and they would all pretend Shinra wasn’t there.It was like being a spirit or a shadow. The irony had not escaped him as he walked around the village today.Despite people mostly ignoring him, they weren’t outright rude, and he had merchants and people that he would talk to on occasion. He thought his constant thievery in the city was why people started to avoid him, as if talking to him would make them complicit when the Sheriffs finally caught him. ‘Screw them,’ he always thought. Today though, he needed to le
The flour and rice stopped swirling and Mr. Dalton stepped into the room. “Shinra? Is there a wind current making its way in here?” He didn’t notice anything strange though, he turned back in time to see Shinra walking towards him, some flour on his clothes.“Mr. Dalton, sorry, I went outside to wipe off some of the flour. I accidentally dropped the bag.” Shinra did have flour all over himself.“Oh, no problem. I thought I heard a commotion, but didn’t notice you leave. My eyes are getting old.” Mr Dalton smiled, evidently relieved that there wasn’t a real problem.“I’ll clean that up and take the opened bag as payment, if you don’t mind? I should be finished movin
Naori was really happy when Shinra came back with the flower and rice. He thought she might have been happier than with all of the money and items he brought back from that knight the other day.She promised to make some bread and a good meal once she returned, and then she was off to do the rounds of chores and work she did around the village.This was best for Shinra because he wanted to try and test out his upgraded ability in a controlled environment.Is Fade 2 really much more powerful than Fade 1? Mr Dalton didn't notice me at all when I passed by right in front of him.Shinra sat in front of the small bookcase, a centrepiece of their small home. He'd extinguished all the lights, so the space was dark and shadowed, ex
Despite the fact that zombies had to live near mage cities to stay safe from all of the magical creatures and monsters that prowled the countryside, they managed to carve out a happy existence. At least it was happy when they were left alone. Naori exemplified this. The girl always had a smile on her face and she shared it with everyone. It was like she was the exact opposite of her older brother. She was so well liked that people overlooked the fact that was related to the dour and shady Shinra. She was walking through the village Square with a few town children she was taking care of, when a man stopped her. He was a tall strong looking stranger, dressed in simple clothes that looked brand new. "Excuse me, miss. I am looking for a friend who may have passed through the villag
“My boy was a pillar of our community. Can't imagine that anyone would want to hurt him, but the timing is suspicious. Don't you think so?”“How so Mayor?” Wintersbane asked.“A knight is attacked on the road to the village, and then a few days later my son disappears in the night.” The Mayor had puffed himself up with self importance, to let Wintersbane know that they should be considered equals… they both knew that wasn’t true. With a little time and a few spells, Wintersbane could destroy this entire village without breaking a sweat.“So you think this could be retaliation from mages? Perhaps your son knew something about the attack the other day and they took him without anyone noticing.”
The Beast loomed large in the darkness, but Shinra had no trouble picking it out of the inky blackness. Night vision turned out to be even more useful than he thought. It was like everything was bathed in the silvery light of a half moon and bright stars, though neither was visible in the sky tonight. He had been tracking this monster for over an hour and was pretty sure it belonged to the lycanthrope family, a werebear.He had been careful to search for creatures that were magical but didn't employ magic spells or abilities. Those were beyond him right now. This meant hiding from a few goblins, blood spiders, and witches that all seemed to prowl through the darkest parts of the forest. He wondered where the witches spent their days?This werebear was very strong. According to the system it was several levels above him, which
It took Shinra the rest of the night and part of the early morning to make it back home. He had to make a splint and tie it to his leg with torn scraps from his shirt. 'I really need to stop trying to cross the river with massive injuries,' he thought. 'I can't wait to just lay down and sleep. I'll have to figure out how to get some healing for all of these injuries later.' He hoped one of those potions, or maybe two, would be strong enough to at least mend his leg. They worked on the gouge in his shoulder. Shinra limped towards his house in the brightening light of the morning. Strangely, a lot of people were up and around the area. By this time most people had either gone to the city to work in the fields, or ply their trades. He often had nothing but silence at home during the day. "There he is!' someone cried
'I was so close to the next level that l could taste it. Now I'm powerless.'Shinra missed his old life. He missed the power that was growing in him, missed spending time with his sister, and missed being in control of his life. He'd already been in the Capital with Wintersbane for 3 weeks.He looked down at his new clothes, definitely the nicest he’d ever owned. The slim dark pants were a material that had a little stretch and no wrinkles. His simple white shirt had clever little buttons going up all the way to the neck. The dark jacket that finished his working outfit had a fine satin finish that shimmered in the light, and was covered with many flat pockets. Its high collar looked formal, but could be folded down into a lapel that would fit in with working class mages.Latest Chapter In the middle of a fight is when Shinra felt most certain. He wasn’t thinking so much as assessing and deciding in real time. It was happening faster than thought, and it was addictive.He looked at the wand, death in a slim package, bearing down on him.‘I just need to be somewhere else,’ he decided. His vision highlighted vectors for diving, rolling, and jumping to avoid an attack originating at the sword tip and covering an area of 2 metres around it. He couldn’t just avoid the attack though, he had to finish this one off before the other 4 combatants got their shit together.He jumped, hard, into a forward twisting flip, easily clearing the guard. Even in Daemon time, he could see the surprise on the man’s face as a powerful green blast made a crater in the f Shinra’s vision filled with the measurements, vectors, grids and critical strike paths that he basically associated with life, but now knew was his combat vision.[Ready?][Status: Shinra][Health 3000][Shinra: Death Stalker - Assassin: Tier 2, LvL 5 ][Shinra: Night Squire - — : Tier 0 ][Experience Points: 77,500 | Skill Points: 0][Stats][ Tier 2: Strength | Speed | Dexterity ][ Tier 0: Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Magic ][Skills Status:][Tier 1][ Active: Fade | Sprint ][ Passive: Silence | Knife Mastery | Assassin Kata | Archery | Wall Climbing][Tier 2][Passive: Deadly Aim | Deception | Visual Reflexes][Hidden Path][Passive Skills: Critical Strike | Daemon Prediction ][Shadow Path][Active: Shadow Strike* | Shadow Meld* | Shadow Heal* ][Passive: Vampire Vision ]“Who the hell are you?” Loren was saying, even as her wand came up. Shinra knew she might be able to handle this all on her own, she was exceptional.The chains hit her face and torso, knocking the wa Shinra was leary of all magic, so he almost bolted from his place as soon as he saw the glowing sphere hanging in the air. Well, he did bolt, but luckily he heard Loren’s message from the hall. He was still trying to wrap his head around what she said, even as he stood in front of her door. ‘Naori was here?’Shinra loved his sister, he never had any doubts about his feelings towards her. She was the kindest, most capable, and brilliant person he had ever known. And, though he spent every moment since his parents died trying to take care of her, he knew she had taken care of him even more. Being in the city without her had been difficult, but, if he was honest, he worried about her less after sending her his wages. ‘My life has been pretty complicated this last little while,’ he thought. He knew he was making excuses. He did believe her life would actually be better without him. She was more resourceful than he ever was, and the other villagers liked her much more than him.‘So why The room was Pitch Black, so Raisd wasn't sure if his eyes were open or not at first, so he blinked a few times. ‘Definitely open.’ The fact that he was lying in a bed instead of bleeding in a gutter was a good sign, but he wasn't sure of anything else. He slowly moved his hands down his chest and body, feeling for any bandages or gaping wounds.‘Huh, not only am I naked, I seem to be in one piece.’ Which was amazing in and of itself, because the seven finger Gremlin counter attack is enough to kill most mages. Clearly he was both lucky and, maybe, tougher than he thought.He tried to stand, but that is when he noticed the weight across his legs. Not able to see, he reached down and realized the weight was a pair of legs draped across him. His fingers traced their way up those legs until he found their intersection. It was warm there, and his fingers were tickled by the fine hairs they brushed up against. ‘God I hope this is Mimi,’ was all he thought before the “I promise, it is usually cleaner here,” Loren said as she rushed around trying to stuff books and scrolls back onto the shelves while gathering up a precarious pile of dishes. She definitely didn’t care what the place looked like when Naori’s brother broke in. Funny how something so random could lead to Loren trying to clean her place. She looked over her shoulder to see Naori just standing still, eyes widened by the mess, no doubt. ‘I need to distract her maybe? Where am I going to put all of this stuff!’ Loren was not used to caring what anyone thought about her, her space, or anything she did, really. “Wow. Just…. Wow,” was all Naori said, eyes still wide.‘Oh god, she thinks it is worse than living on the streets, she’s never seen anyone live like this… dammit!’, but what Loren said out loud was, “I just need a few more minutes. Why don’t you sit down over … “ except she hadn’t cleared any of the seating surfaces yet.“This is the most amazing home I’ve ever seen! It is The office was surprisingly orderly for an assassin, Shinra thought. Tastefully arranged sofas, end tables with a high polish, and a full bookcase. He went straight to the desk though, to see if he could find what the assassin guild leader was talking about.‘Would it just be on top? Is that too easy?’ Shinra looked, but the few pieces of parchment on top of the desk were innocuous bills and tally of equipment. He opened the top drawer and only saw quills and inkstones. The larger drawer underneath was locked.“Why don’t I have lockpicking skills? I can do everything else…” He flexed his newly healed hand, still amazed at how whole and pain free they were, after the devastating burns he’d suffered. “Well, I’m strong enough to just rip it open,” he said, then gripped it tightly and pulled with all his strength.He felt the small release of power, ‘shit,’ he thought and then flung the drawer behind him as hard as he could. It was the right move, as the entire desk exploded in a sho “Filthy blood slut," was all the lesser Earl of Clodven had said. It wasn't a nice thing to say about anyone, and Raisd had heard much worse. This time though, it was directed at his betrothed.To his credit, Raisd showed enormous restraint by only breaking the man's nose. The young lesser Earl and his friends didn't agree, and so now Raisd was in an honour bout.“The first to ten wins the bout,” one of the hangers-on was intoning, "and may request an honour payment." “I think I'll ask for one of Its fangs," the arrogant noble said.Raisd paid him no mind. ‘Foppish, useless nobles think life is a silly game. This bout is probably the highlight of his week’. He knew the type well. The lesser Earl’s father, or grandfather, had been useful to the Empire once upon a time, but then they produced entitled, talentless wastes of flesh like this. The patriarch of the family has probably all but disowned him.‘If I'd punched Shinra, he probably would have punched back and we'd be having a Raisd was having a weird night. Actually, everyday had been weird since his betrothal. He couldn't get over the fact that suddenly people knew he was an active part of the imperial family. Well, maybe vampires didn't count as people, but they knew. If that was all that had changed, he could deal. After all he had been in military intelligence, and had infiltrated many places as part of his work, including the deputies office. Unfortunately he was quickly apprised of how different human and vampire customs were. Which was why he was lying in bed with General Mimi right now. Uncomfortably. Wrapped up in his own blanket and wearing a full set of clothes. He wasn't 100% certain, but he was pretty sure that she was naked under the thin sheet she had draped over herself. He made sure all the lights were off though and just laid there staring up at the ceiling in the dark. It had been like this for a few days now, ever since the rest of the vampire delegation went back to their capital Shinra was surprised. ‘Shadow Heal isn’t one of the skills in the list. Does this mean they are all low level skills? Or are there a tonne of skills that the System just doesn’t show me?’Either way, this wasn’t what he was expecting. ‘Healing is high level magic… what does Shadow Healing mean? Am I a mage now?...’ He knew he wasn’t though. He looked around and did not see the primal flow of mana in the world. He was a zombie. One with interesting skills, but a zombie all the same.“Unless a Ninja is a different class of being?” The head Assassin said Ninja enough that it did make Shinra wonder. Not that he had time for that mystery right now. [Skills Status:][Skill Points: 20][Tier 1][ Active: Fade | Sprint ][ Passive: Silence | Knife Mastery | Assassin Kata | Archery | Wall Climbing][Tier 2][Passive: Deadly Aim][Hidden Path][Passive Skills: Critical Strike | Daemon Prediction ][Shadow Path][Active: Shadow Strike* | Shadow Meld* | Shadow Heal* ][Passive: VampireMess in Aisle 3
Vigilantes
Red Reunion
Red Awakening
Soul Sisters
Conspiracy Uncovered
Honour Bound
Strange
Shadow Heal