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Spire's Spite Chapter 55
Fritz reactivated all his Treasures in a panic and ducked under the soaring shadow. His barrier burst as soon as it appeared, and time slowed slightly, letting him turn his dodge into a controlled roll under the Hound’s raking, roiling, black-tarred claws. Sensing danger, he used his barrier ring ...
Spire's Spite Chapter 54
There was a sharp intake of breath, a ragged cough and a croak of, “Stop crying,” left Sid’s bloody lips. Fritz blearily wiped the tears from his stinging eyes, blubbering out something incomprehensible even to himself. But he suspected the emotions he was trying to convey did reach her, on so...
Spire's Spite Chapter 53
The great black beast lifted its massive head, inhaled deeply through its snout, scenting the air for the interlopers on its floor. It turned eyes that were darker than night and drank in the moon’s silver light slowly across the grey waste before it. It searched steadily until its dreadful, hollo...
Spire's Spite Chapter 52
A lonely note pierced the blanket of silence, its longing tone bouncing off the sky. The desolate sound reverberated and reflected, then was joined by more hollow cry's, hundreds of anguished howls, a cacophony of craving calls all pulling at the moon as it responded, rejoicing in discordant ech...
Spire's Spite Chapter 51
Fritz took the white and black know-note eagerly and read its new glyphs.---------Treasure------------Amulet of Repose---Alignment: Boon, Life, Mind, Sense.---Capacity: 3/6------------Abilities Imbued------------Second WindPushing through, tired and weak, rise again, reach the peak.Recovers two thir...
Spire's Spite Chapter 50
“So,” Fritz started as he stood and paced within the small crystal walls of the miniature fort. “I have three choices.”“Really?!” Bert exclaimed in exaggerated surprise.Fritz frowned then realised he had, in fact, said something obvious, so he amended his previous statement, saying, “W...
Spire's Spite Chapter 49
The goblin Chief towered over Fritz’s kneeling form its burning-bright blade held high. The creature trembled with giddy delight and giggled darkly as its radiant sword swung down in a terrible, effortless arc.Fritz pushed against the compulsion bearing down on him. The force that bade him stay st...
Spire's Spite Chapter 48
The last of the grey-skinned monsters manning, no goblining, the small section of wall fell. Fritz leapt into action, rushing the spiked, ramshackle mushroom and crystal fort with Sid and Bert following fast on his heels.He unfurled his rope and threw it high, letting it fly over the battlements wit...
Spire's Spite Chapter 47
“Over there, just by the second to the left spike,” Fritz said pointing out the next goblin captain as it hid from its far-off attacker.Sid grunted and conjured another arrow, she brought the translucent shaft up to her sweaty cheek, looking down its length as she bent her bow. Sid stood there a...
Spire's Spite Chapter 46
It was a slaughter.Arrows wrapped in winding winds drilled through the first and second rank of goblin swarm. Fritz followed in Bert’s wake as he ploughed into the teeming horde, he covered his friend’s flank with sawing sweeps of his fish blade, focusing on hacking away limbs rather than aiming...
Spire's Spite Chapter 45
Beyond the stone entrance there was a shallow basin in an enormous cavern, the outlying stony lands were covered in fields of pale mushrooms the size of small trees obscuring the basin's floor.Fritz could see there were a scattering of shanty towns where goblins slept, cooked or ate, overseen by...
Spire's Spite Chapter 44
Fritz’s grip on his dagger shook but he was still ready to spring forward and stab anything that came near the shadowy entrance where he skulked.The goblin Chief took a ring-encrusted hand off the hilt of its jagged, brightly-glowing crystal sword that hung at its side and its flaming eyes darted ...
Spire's Spite Chapter 43
Fritz and his crew hurried up the stairs eager for their next Attributes. They entered the green marble of the well room, this one looking remarkably similar to the landing floor’s forest of green-and-blue marbled pillars. Though these green stone columns were thin, more like spiderwebs than trees...
Spire's Spite Chapter 42
Skulking up the stone stormcloud-hued steps Fritz took his time to stop and listen, making sure he wouldn’t be ambushed as soon as he stepped out of the Stairway again. He heard nothing but his crew’s and his own exited breath and the soft scraping of shoes. He snuck as silently as he could mana...
Spire's Spite Chapter 41
Fritz groaned, the floor rocked and he spun dangerously on the cool stone. He struggled fitfully, grabbing onto the ground lest he be thrown off. He was dewy with sweat and an oilcloth blanket lay over his body. He searched for Sid and Bert, groggily turning his head to where he could see them eatin...
Spire's Spite Chapter 40
Fritz immediately breathed a deep lungful of crisp, cool and wonderfully fresh air, something that was denied him in the smokiness of the cave they had taken shelter in. He listened to the quiet of the forest, paying close attention for the crunching sound of snow under boots or padded paws. He coul...
Spire's Spite Chaper 39
They sat by the fire in companionable silence for about ten minutes before Bert brought back another trunk and then joined them by the fire’s warmth.“One more log,” Bert said shivering. “That’s it. Getting too cold out there.”Fritz walked over to the tunnel's entrance and stuck his a...
Spire's Spite Chapter 38
Sid stared at Fritz angrily in accusation. Bert laughed, raising his hands and clenching them into fists as he turned to face the low growl echoing through the stone tunnel. Over the noise of the growling Fritz could hear the scrapes of claws against rock. Kneeling Fritz rooted through his pack, sei...
Spire's Spite Chapter 37
Fritz’s now-dry boots stomped up the cold rock of the stairs, he listened for any danger as he climbed and heard nothing save the shrill whispering of the breeze as it wove between trees and his own quiet footsteps. His head and body breached the top and he strode up into a small, quiet clearing. ...
Spire's Spite Chapter 36
Bert and Sid sat with their backs resting on the grey stone orb, waiting for Fritz to speak.“My, oh my, what choices I have. Well first there’s Gloom Strike; the Ability that Steve used to stab Bert. It does some extra damage and obscures the attack made, making it hard to notice. I would know I...
Spire's Spite Chapter 35
Sid checked on Bert first as he was the one who had taken the most wounds, when she had run to his side to give him the health potion in the fight he had waved her off saying something about Tough Skin and Vitality keeping him okay.She had done as he asked but was now worried that it had possibly ki...
Spire's Spite Chapter 34
Fritz and his crew rushed forward to meet their enemy, now they knew the threat they were up against the fight went a lot smoother. For one Bert didn’t melt his fists, nor lose the black chisel in the snail's guts. For two Sid didn’t waste another conjured arrow when the snail retreated into...
Spire's Spite Chapter 33
The giant snail’s skin was not the lumpy light grey of its smaller cousins but a bright rust-red riddled with salt-white cracks. Its flesh was slimy and sticky, covered with a thin layer of cloudy mucus. Three thin stalks unfurled from its thick, tuberous body as it left its quartz-coloured shell....
Spire's Spite Chapter 32
The hammer and chisel made easy work of the green glass wall and they were running up the stairway behind within moments.The stairs brought them up and into a Well Room of square pale stone bricks. The room was strewn with pillars topped with shallow basins half filled with glowing water, which remi...
Spire's Spite Chapter 31
“The belt,” Sid and Fritz said together, meeting gazes then looking away awkwardly.Bert chuckled then asked, “Why the belt?”“Well it’s the strangest of the equipment and we have a vague idea of what the might ring do and I’m sure that in time you’ll find out what your garments do,”...
Spire's Spite Chapter 30
Fritz broke into a crawl, scrabbling to the green glass wall where he had seen the silhouette of what could be a Treasure chest. He didn’t get far, the spinning and vertigo rushed back with a vengeance and he flopped onto his belly.“Bert,” He cried out. “Bert a chest, look!” Bert spun, the...
Spire's Spite Chapter 29
“What do you mean? Plan two?” Fritz said scathingly through panting breaths, his spells having taken a huge portion of his stamina. He cursed himself for not aligning more points into Endurance, he’d gotten carried away with his new Advanced Attributes and that had blinded him to the necessity...
Spire's Spite Chapter 28
Fritz slept fitfully.The events of the previous floor tormented him with the image of Steve’s shattered face. He saw his mother's broken body lying in a pool of blood.A pool of scarlet that expanded with sloshing waves, covering the wooden floorboards, filling the room and rising to his ankles...
Spire's Spite Chapter 27
Fritz felt the icy power burn over his mind, body and spirit. His grey-barked willow grew taller, its bark darkened and the shadows its branches cast deepened into crooked lines of night. Such simple and subtle changes rendered the willow harder to make out in the rain, but Fritz could feel it there...
Spire's Spite Chapter 26
“I am a Wizard,” Bert said projecting honesty, but Fritz could see the telltale creases in the corners of his eyes that warned him to disregard everything he said as lies. Sid gasped, not being able to read Bert’s trickery.“You got access to an Arcane Path? Aren’t they impossibly rare unle...
