All posts by ShinJae

Sons of Sword: Tales of Glory – Lost and Found #1

Glory City: Stream Quarter Dorms

Metcalf Luo woke to the sound of soft music and a calming water mixer that served as her alarm clock.  Sunlight poured into her room signaling late morning.  Her bed and blankets, soft and warm, left behind for the day’s work.  Dreams slipped from her head as she frowned remembering her tasks and what must be done; what she must do to stay at Sword Mint Academy.

Happy plush toys lined the dressers and tables along the pale orange walls.  They were as close as they needed to be.  Most activities were done outside anyway.  All the same, she would have preferred to have a larger living space.

After her shower, she checked her handheld for the student ranking.  The holographic image displayed a transparent image of all Sword Mint Academy students ranked by their Academy Points.  The rankings changed ever so slightly as she looked; that happened constantly.

She focused the image on the lower forty percent.  The lower half of her focus was covered in a red hue.  These students would be the ones most desperate for Academy Points.  The final exam was dreaded by all students.  If they didn’t find a way out of the red zone within the week, they would have to take it.  Her own portrait was just above the red zone, her rank slipping as she slept.

She looked all the way to the bottom.  “Hm…  Still hasn’t moved yet,” she said to herself.  Lance Da had been accepted to the academy a month or so ago.  There was a little fanfare at his arrival but she paid little attention.  Metcalf recognized him differently now.  He was at the very bottom of the pack since he arrived, still with zero Academy Points.  Most new students rest for a week or so before they start trying to advance, but Lance?

It could be easy enough for him to pass the test.  The Quarter Masters would not expect him to learn enough to warrant a strict grading curve.  However, everyone takes the same strenuous test.  It was difficult enough that even the newer students try to learn as much as they could to prepare for the inevitable.  Lance wasn’t even trying.

She hoped he did well.  It would be embarrassing to fail in the first half year.  For new comers, the test was more of a wake-up call.  A heavy reminder of what Sword Mint Academy expects its students to be able to do.  She took the test once and passed, barely.  It was as horrible as she expected.  She never wanted to take the test again.  Since then, she managed to stay above the red zone with Naoh and Koh’s help.

It worked well but she did not like what they did.  It had to be a perversion of the Academy Point System.  Thankfully, Mid Term was coming up soon.

Now sixteen years old, she had been at the academy for most of her life.  She started realizing her niche a few months ago.  Her type of combat was not the type that warriors crave on the battle field.  She attacked from the shadows.  She was getting good enough to stop gambling with her Academy Points.  She would miss hanging out with Naoh and Koh, but they would have to get their points without her.  Perhaps after Mid Term she could speak to Master Fu about getting a new training regimen.

She stretched and put on her armor.  She grabbed her weapons; Blue, her short bow with barbed bolt arrows; Rasz and Black, her weighted aluminum nightsticks.  She took a count of her throwing knives, making sure she had all twenty of them.  She put the lot into her traveling bag and went out for breakfast.

She still could be a great warrior.  Stealth warriors have a good place in their field.  She would need more training to be useful but that was for another day.  Today, she needed to ensure her own survival at Sword Mint Academy.  To do that, she had to play the swindler; again.

“Here we go again.”

Lost and Found #2

Champions of Battle: AD7 – Awakening #4

GarDNAnge1 had explored five levels below the lobby, thinking they had seen most of the stores.  Once in the elevator, they saw just how big the building was.  There were fifty levels below ground, and they were going to the bottom.

The elevator door opened.  In place of the reflecting metal doors they were presented with a cold, dimly lit room with bodies everywhere.  Not alive but not victims of a killing spree.  They were organized in neat rows; and with no glass, close enough to touch.

These bodies were much like the others upstairs, in the position of their demise.  However, these were completely whole.  Most were laying down, perhaps the victims of a battle.  Others seemed to die while doing normal activities; running, eating, playing cards.  Frozen in motion with nothing but basic coverings, they looked so alive but, not.

Royal couldn’t help but stop and stare to make sure they weren’t breathing.  It seemed as though any of them could move at any time.  Then a thought crossed her mind.  What if one of them gained consciousness while neglected down here?  They would be hungry and want to attack and eat anything they came across.  Who knows what horrible changes they would have gone through to survive in this place?

Cyd lead them trough the level.  The waxed black marble walls and large windows mirrored the rest of the building.  “This is where we keep our oldest entries.”  He sounded like he was giving a tour, “These entries have been completely repaired so hardly anyone comes down here.  We’ve been waiting for them to be retrieved but it’s been so long.  Maybe they’ve been forgotten.”

Oyintsa took up the rear.  He saw most of the party in front of him.  He turned to check on Royal to make sure she was doing well.  She was falling behinds again staring at another adventurer.  “Princess,” he shouted, startling her out of her daydream.       “Keep up!  We’re all here together.”  Soon after, she jogged to catch up.

Cyd continued to lead them to the rear of the massive level.  “They look alive don’t they?”  He said with not little pride as Royal caught up to them.  “These adventurers are more like mannequins in this state,” Cyd continued, “There are several steps in the reanimation process before they move and breath.”

They approached the rear most wall and turned to the left.  At the end of the pathway was an average looking young lady.  Slightly below average height, it seemed as though she had finished drinking out of a cup.  Her orange, yellow-spotted skin looked alive but like all others there she wasn’t breathing.  She looked to the left in horror, distantly in their direction.

“Here she is,” Cyd said as they approached, “She was found in the remains of a nasty bombing accident.  Rubin’s Trail was trying to bombard the Metal Fortress.  Unfortunately for her, there was a protective energy shield.  Most of the bombs exploded on the shield.  A few of them bounced off of the shield into town.  And well, here we are.”

“That was forty five years ago,” Tirzah said calmly almost to herself.  She looked at her handheld to pull up an image of AD7.

“How long have you worked here, exactly?”  Hachiro couldn’t help but ask.

“Not that long,” Cyd said, “Sometimes I get bored and read up on the entries.”

“IMAGE MATCH.” Tirzah’s handheld told them all they need to know.

“This is her,” Tirzah said satisfied, “How do we prepare for the next stages of her regeneration?”

#1 – Awakening #3 – Awakening #5

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #2

Walking towards the exit, Jaquan soaked in the cheers.  The love and adoration of the fans, even the fury of the haters fueled him.  They knew; everyone knew that he was the champion.  Their approval or disapproval was irrelevant.  The championship of the entire world was not up to a vote.  He wanted it.  He took it.  He kept it.  It is his.

His crew waited for him at the arena exit; three people, his most trusted friends.  Once he walked beyond the doorway, they followed him.  He removed his helmet and handed it to, Liana, a female to his left.  He was rather tall for a Crisho, almost five and eight tenths centimeters.  Brown lizard-like skin covered most of his face, the left side being colored with a permanent patch of deep red.  The look of determination glowed from his entire body as he walked with a victorious swagger.  The pains of fight were forgotten with a little effort.

As he approached the locker room, a bottle filled with a clear liquid floated slowly into his path from the right.  It distracted him from his thoughts of dominion.  He looked to the right and saw Catlin smiling at him.  He smiled back and grabbed the drink out of the air.

Walking into the locker room he took a seat on the bench to rest and prepare for the rest of the night.  As the water touched his lips it suddenly became cool and soothing, much more soothing than it should have been.  The coolness spread through his body.  Every muscle the coolness touched was suddenly relieved of all stress.  His pains were completely gone.  Catlin enchanted the water to do just that.  He breathed easy.  By the time he finished the bottle he was ready for another championship fight.

Even so, he took his time as he prepared to leave the locker room.  He could already hear the reporters crawling around outside the door.  They were always there waiting to shove microphones in his face to ask questions that he didn’t care to answer.  This was his victory.  It shouldn’t matter what he was thinking at five minutes thirty two seconds into the match.  They should already know what he was thinking when he was shot in the leg.  The answers were obvious.

It didn’t really matter what he actually said during the interview.  The reporters always spun his words to say what they wanted.  They often ignored his answers and followed their line of questions.  They seemed determined to build a media drama between him and a fighter that got lucky last time.

Orien had hit him with a cheap shot early in their last fight.  Even though he lost, Orien bragged about it ever since.  He took every opportunity to say Jaquan was scared of a rematch.  No doubt the reporters would try to get a response from him.

Putting on the dress clothes Liana had chosen for him, he prepared to face the questions.  Hopefully, this time it will be brief.

“Here we go again.”  With a sigh, he opened the door.

Opportunity #1Opportunity #3