Defensive Magic - Chapter 3: Lessons on Dueling

A conversation with a handsome stranger leaves Ariane chained in a cellar with a strange affliction. She soon discovers that the darkness of the nineteenth century’s Deep South hides many dangers. Mages, wolf shifters and the humans who hunt them play a risky game where to stumble is to die, all under the amused gaze of the apex predators of the supernatural world: vampires.

It is never healthy to attract the gaze of the aristocracy of the night. It takes much to survive in this merciless world, but Ariane will not let that deter her. The southern belle has a bite, and she is willing to learn and to grow in this hostile new world. She will use whatever means necessary to reclaim her freedom, be it guile, charm, or those intriguing new instincts that make blood so delectable.

This is a story of vampires as I believe they should be, with their strengths and weaknesses, with their remnants of humanity and the beast inside. Updates every Friday. Mind the tags.

Cover by Antti Hakosaari: https://www.artstation.com/haco

Special thanks to Svensonsen for getting me started, as well as Omi Nya, Hesketh, Rhaegar, Yaksher, Selkie and Raven for proofreading my stuff. Thanks to my patrons and you dear readers, for the support. I could not do it without you.

Journey is on Amazon, both in ebooks and audio. here is a link to the first one:

https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B08DK6G8Y8

The story probably exists in your local marketplace as well of I can tempt you.

It’s the age of superhumans!Genetic modifications, Cybernetic enhancements, magic enchantments- the choice is yours! For the right price, you can rise above the masses and gain power only ever seen in myths!For the right price!No matter how far humanity advances, power will always fall in the hands of the wealthy few. It was a truth Dante learned at a very young age and with it came a burning hatred for those who look down on everyone from their ivory towers.The flames grew stronger once he found himself faced with the cruelty of those who rule from above. He swore revenge on each and every one of them, but true power couldn’t be fought with hatred alone.In his search for a weapon that could help him take his revenge, Dante crosses paths with a certain Artifact, his fate taking a turn he could never have anticipated.

Having a rough life growing up, Wang Tong had numerous dreams of living a better life. However, his alcoholic foster father sells him off as a space settler of the distant planet Norton for some pocket change. Soon after his arrival, the Zergs overran the planet and obliterated its defenses in a matter of minutes. What awaited Tong on Norton was more than just an unbearable environment – its gravity alone was five-times stronger than earth – there were also swarms of bugs, constant hunger, thirst, and desolation.

While he lives a year of total carnage and survival, humanity’s Confederation eventually overcomes the Zergs on Norton and the powerful survivor Wang Tong is given a recommendation to a once famous, but now dying military academy where he begins his life anew.

A journey through space and time... a lost soul that will find the answers about the past of a world and the mysteries of an ancient war.

When Adam finished his turn and then was preparing to go home after several hours of work, his team received a fire alert. He didn't expect that he would die following his father's footsteps, but fate had something else in store for him.

Adam died, but he was reincarnated in another world as Aion Kresnik, with his memories intact. Still, an easy life wasn't waiting for him despite the fact that he had a system and the ability to change jobs and make a spiritual weapon change to many forms. The reason for that was the fact that he was the son of a war hero and, at the same time, the son of a war prisoner and one of the last members of a powerful bloodline of mages. A bloodline that was hated by the whole world.

Aion's goals in that world were simple, get rid of the discrimination surrounding his mother and then find out why he was reborn with such a system since he knew that things couldn't be that convenient...