The CHALLENGE chugs on!

[UXLZ]

I should have chosen Touhou for my theme. >_>

Thankfully, as my house did not nearly burn down this week I got everything done.

Spoiler

Show

[LeSwordfish]

Okay so two weeks at once, which means twelve things.

• Map changes, as linked last week.
• Three pages of script! I miscounted before, since various versions of celtx export different numbers of lines per page. My best guess is three pages? I don't know. It won't be less than that.
• One warhammer model - the speeder in the centre of shot. And while this isn't part of a challenge, here's a picture of all my scouts at once because i'm proud. (Both of those are super large images, by the way.)
• And to make up the difference, a 2500-ish word battle report. Official word count suggests 2669 words, but that includes the html-code so i would estimate that the number of real written words is a bunch less- should still be over the required amount.

Yeesh. Hope the hard drive can be salvaged, Swordfish! That situation always thoroughly sucks.

Hard drive is unsalvageable, apparently, and while i think i made a copy of everything important if there's anything i've forgotten then, well, i've forgotten it. Hopefully not having my games to play will mean I get more work done and creative things.

I'll mention it now, while i'm here: i'm away next weekend, returning home at about 1am Monday morning(!). I'll see about uploading before I leave Friday though - I don't want to keep slipping! (Also if I can churn out 2500-word battle reports I'll need to make this "challenge" more challenging.)

[jseah]

New chapter is up: 42

4261 words.

[Artman77]

Life has been busy. Ill be back up next week.

[Glass Mouse]

Status for the week September 28 - October 4!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy strip, a voice-stealing mermaid, and 1054 words of witch novel.

Lycunadari passes with six pretty plant photos.

Allan Dotson passes with a Critters page, a kobold rogue, a goblin wolf rider, a hill giant, a hanging Eddie, a triceratops, and an adorably toppled bunnycore.

Cuthalion passes with holybeephowamIsupposedtocountanumberthatbig paintings of nature, birds and assorted objects.

Artman77 didn’t upload/send me anything.

LeSwordfish passes the past two weeks with a map update, 3 or 15 (formatting be weird, guys!) pages of script, a warhammer model, and 2500 words of battle report.

TheWombatOfDoom did not upload/send me anything.

jseah passes with 4261 words of A Hero’s War.

celtois passes with 640 words of dungeon crawling, a silently screaming guy, three face portraits, and one suited-up dude.

UXLZ passes with six flashy anime banners.


Thus, Artman77 and TheWombatOfDoom FAIL this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Cuthalion, LeSwordfish, jseah, and celtois, and UXLZ PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 258 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 1 week

Lycunadari
Current run: 143 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Allan Dotson
Current run: 57 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Cuthalion
Current run: 4 weeks
Longest run: 21 weeks
Themes: -

Artman77
Current run: -
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: -

LeSwordfish
Current run: 14 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: -

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: -
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: -

jseah
Current run: 15 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

celtois
Current run: 4 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 1 week

UXLZ
Current run: 1 week
Longest run: 2 weeks
Themes: -

This week's theme (October 5 - 11), chosen by me, is That was NOT the plan!.

Next week's theme is chosen by Lycunadari - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

here's a picture of all my scouts at once because i'm proud. (Both of those are super large images, by the way.)

Dang, that’s a good-looking lineup. That colour theme works really well in bulk!

Life has been busy. Ill be back up next week.

Glad you’ve not disappeared completely. Hope it’s good(ish) things keeping you busy!

[jseah]

Lol, it's totally not the plan for my next chapter. Since 43 is Cato making lots of plans. =P

[UXLZ]

GM, you say I pass, then you say I fail. :v

[Glass Mouse]

GM, you say I pass, then you say I fail. :v

Oops, sorry. It's fixed now

[jseah]

I wonder if notes for a tabletop card game counts...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...Capitalism.rtf

I don't mind if it doesn't, that means I get a free plug anyway. =P (I already hit 1.5k words this week)

[Glass Mouse]

I wonder if notes for a tabletop card game counts...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...Capitalism.rtf

I don't mind if it doesn't, that means I get a free plug anyway. =P (I already hit 1.5k words this week)

I'm pretty sure we've allowed similar things in the past, so sure.

[jseah]

Chapter 43 is up. https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3238329/43/A-Hero-s-War

5049 words.

[UXLZ]

Oh, right, I forgot to mention last week that I won't be putting anything up again until the 10th of November (one month from now.) It's my final year of High School, and I have exams coming up ludicrously soon. It's possible I'd be able to scrounge enough time together to make enough pieces, I don't think it would be consistent enough to say I'll keep participating until that point.


See you in a month, wish me luck~ ^_^

[celtois]

I was expecting to be home today, but I'm not sure that , that's going to happen. Coupled with the death of my phone means I'm hours from my sketchbook and all my digital photos of my sketches are gone.

If I get home today I'll take some new photos and upload them tonight. If I don't any chance I could use my grace week?

For the time being here are drawings I have access to.
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Logo-1-565635144
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Logo-2-565635280
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...ract-565639512

edit: I made it home, more drawings!
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Logo-3-565698057
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...lock-565698028
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...etch-565697995

[LeSwordfish]

Seven more space marines.

[Glass Mouse]

Status for the week October 5 - 11!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy strip, and a sheetful of faces.

Lycunadari passes with six pretty autumn photos.

Allan Dotson passes with a Critters page, a cyberzombie, a ratdude, a soccer Batgirl, a Batman, three chalkboard monsters, and a vrock demon.

Cuthalion passes with a pinecone, a desk, a house front, a tree, a fancy clock, and a hooded vulture.

Artman77 didn’t upload/send me anything (again).

LeSwordfish passes with ALL THE SPACE MARINES (or, well, seven).

TheWombatOfDoom did not upload/send me anything (again).

jseah passes with 1.5k words of tabletop card game notes, and 5049 words of Hero’s War.

celtois passes with three logos, one abstract colour thingie, a city block map, and a face.

UXLZ will be back on the 10th of November.


Thus, Artman77 and TheWombatOfDoom FAIL this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Cuthalion, LeSwordfish, jseah, and celtois PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 259 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Lycunadari
Current run: 144 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Allan Dotson
Current run: 58 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Cuthalion
Current run: 5 weeks
Longest run: 21 weeks
Themes: -

Artman77
Current run: -
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: -

LeSwordfish
Current run: 15 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: -

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: -
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: -

jseah
Current run: 16 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

celtois
Current run: 5 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: 1 week

UXLZ
Current run: -
Longest run: 2 weeks
Themes: -

This week's theme (October 12 - 18) has not been chosen yet, so it is up for grabs.

Next week's theme is chosen by Allan Dotson - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

See you in a month, wish me luck~ ^_^

Luck!

I was expecting to be home today, but I'm not sure that , that's going to happen. Coupled with the death of my phone means I'm hours from my sketchbook and all my digital photos of my sketches are gone.

Horray for me having a crazy sleep schedule, huh?

[Artman77]

Whoops! My wife had our baby last week, and I totally forgot to upload. My bad.
I did some artwork, but not much due to the 72-hour-no-sleep-zombie-marathon we did. Birth and undeath, hand in hand, who needs sleep?

Also, I'm going to motivate myself this week with a theme: "Yeah, what Shia LaBeouf said."

[Glass Mouse]

Whoops! My wife had our baby last week, and I totally forgot to upload. My bad.

Eeeeee congrats congrats! Hope you're happy and healthy, all three of you

[Artman77]

Thank you, we are! The baby is only a year behind the last one, so we've got our hands full.

Working on art already: Nailed it.

[jseah]

4086 words. Just in case I don't finish the chapter today.

Spoiler: A Hero's War

Show

Danine looked up from the magical strength exercise to see one of Tim's friends running along the roofs. Hrm, Amra, yes that was his name.
"Danine!" he shouted across the alley gap, right before jumping across, "look at this!"
She kept the large ball of unformed magic hanging above her palm and just nodded at him to continue. The strain on her magic was already making her feel sleepy but she could hear him out. Danine hoped she wouldn't suddenly fall asleep mid-conversation.
"See what I found!" Amra held out a fist.
Danine stared at it stupidly for a few seconds before realizing what was strange. His fist had magic inside it.
That wasn't an exercise she was taught nor read in Landar's book on magic. Magic always existed outside of people's bodies, you couldn't push magic into people because you hit their lifeforce first. The book was pretty clear on that.
So how was it that Amra had a bit of magic inside him? Danine put away her training exercise and looked more closely, trying to figure out the structure.
She couldn't do it, the structure was ridiculously complicated, more than even the large gem Landar had shown her on the way to Corbin. And it wasn't like normal structure, the magic flowed and divided and subdivided in a disturbingly organic fashion, unlike the rigid lines and forces that Landar's exercises taught. How could Amra even use magic so complicated when no one, not even Danine, had managed to do much more than launch the simplest crudest magical bolt? Magic more complicated than even a Summoning Stone itself?
All Danine managed to get from it was that the magic was blue.
"What is that?" Danine whispered, wanting nothing more than to know where he learnt that from.
"I already figured out what it does," Amra said, opening his fist and taking her hand. His hand was cold to the touch, a chill that abruptly stopped halfway up his wrist. A chill that spread to her hands solely because he was holding hers, not like sticking her hands into a chilling spell.
She explored the magic for a while then nodded at Amra, "you can turn it off now. "
His expression seemed to relax and Amra shook some life into his cold hand. The Fuka boy grinned at her and took her hand in his still clammy fingers, "please don't tell the others I can do this, I want to keep it a secret. "
Danine was too surprised to take her hand back and just blinked at him, "why not?"
"I can teach you how to do it, I'm sure we'll find it useful," he stood a bit closer, "it can be our secret. A special ability just for us two. "
Danine raised an eyebrow. That made no sense, she had gathered the Fuka children to form a... to defend each other. What was the point of keeping this interesting discovery a secret?
She said as much.
Amra looked closely at her, still holding her hands, then he sighed dramatically, "all right, if you say so. " He only made her even more confused by letting go of her hands then sitting down on the roof and looking out over the town.
Why was he disappointed? Danine couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Amra looked like he might even be sulking! Over her not wanting to keep a secret that wasn't a secret!
"What's wrong?" she asked, feeling a little concerned at his weird behaviour. Amra had always been rather distant at their gang meetings, er, training sessions. While he turned up for every single one, he always kept quiet and never talked to the others. Now he was being unusually touchy.
He just shook his head then sighed again.
Danine decided right then that she couldn't be bothered dealing with this when there was a tantalizing piece of magic dangling in front of her, waiting to be learnt. He would probably recover from his funk or whatever spurred on this bout of unusualness.
"So, how does it work?" Danine asked, sitting down beside him.
Amra looked confused, then flustered. Then after a long moment of staring at her strangely, he held out his hand again. The magic spread across it, shifting under his skin at a lower power.
"You know how you taught us magic?" Amra started, "you said to extend a part of ourselves out of the body to where we wanted the magic to appear. "
His strange magic disappeared. She could tell he was concentrating but there was nothing appearing. "Then we do something like this. " They didn't have the words to describe what was going on, but Danine knew the process. It was a bit like flexing a muscle, only they did it where they wanted the magic to appear. The harder you did so, the more power you used and the more magic appeared. With practice, you increased your pool of magic, the total magical strength you could exert at any one time and your control over the magic.
Amra followed the exercise and a small blob of magic rotated in the air above his palm. "The thing is, the magic here in this ball is just a thing. We have to... push it around, like we are holding a real ball. The hard part was making them structured. Or coloured as we see it. "
Danine nodded.
"So I thought, what if instead of making the ball appear then changing its colours, we just... make the colours. I couldn't do that, but what happened was this," Amra waved the ball of magic away then replaced it with the same pulsing lines of complexity Danine had saw.
"It wasn't what I wanted but it was interesting so I practiced making it appear, just to be sure. I think it's not a mistake, it's a magic that we can use," Amra said.
Danine frowned and tried Amra's idea. Extending her magic was almost easy now, but trying to purify the colour without any magic to purify? That was something she hadn't managed to do.
A flash of red appeared in her hand, a tiny spark of magic. Danine blinked in surprise. She concentrated again and the red appeared once more, solidifying as she grasped the concept. It really was like suddenly noticing a third arm she had always had.
Danine blinked and looked up at Amra. "It's that easy?" she asked, getting a nod from him.
"I only noticed this yesterday," Amra said.
A pulse of magic lines was moving inside her hand in time with her focus. Now that she could make the magic appear to her magic sense, she noticed that it moved under her skin to wherever she was extending her magic, in the same way she did when she was trying to cast a spell. She pushed more magic down the complex mesh of magic, wondering how far her control extended with this new application.
Her hand stung and then she was hopping around, trying to wave the heat away from her hand. Ow! It was like putting her hand into a fire!
Some minutes of panic later, Danine flexed her sore fingers in wonder, a cool blue glow of magic inside it taking away the burning heat like a welcome splash of water.
"This is incredible," she said, grinning at Amra, "it's so easy! I don't even have to practice to get this!" She demonstrated by moving the magic up her arm and around her neck, then down to her feet. Faster and more fluid than she could manage any sort of spell.
"Do you know what it is?" Amra asked.
"Landar's book didn't say, nor did she mention it," Danine said.
"So I discovered something the humans don't know?" Amra asked in disbelief.
"Maybe," Danine's grin got wider, "we'll get to give Cato a surprise then! If the basic functions work the same way, then I can think of some things right away!"
She flipped the colour to a solid green on her hand and immediately felt her hand become slow and heavy. The Resist magic nailed her hand to the air, making all movement difficult, even falling. Yep, exactly the same. Danine poked at her hand curiously with the other.
She blinked then turned to Amra, a wondrous feeling bubbling up inside her. "I think this is the key," Danine said, "your discovery will let us handle the Red Water gang. "
"What?!" Amra said, shocked at her sudden statement.
"Take my hand," she said, expression becoming serious. Danine pushed her magic down to her hand again and he reached out, putting one hand above hers. Then he jerked away in surprise.
Her skin was as hard as rock.

"How's the evacuation?" Morey asked, putting down the two steel staves on the ground.
Ereli didn't raise her head from the table. She just murmured a negative.
"That bad huh?" Morey looked around the tavern. One would not have thought this was a village in the path of a huge army of zombies, judging by the crowds of people crammed into the tavern gawking at him. Every seat was full, except for the Hero table, which was right in the middle and permanently reserved for their use.
Honestly, he was starting to get sick of this worship. The Hero's table, the Hero's room, the Hero's... Morey looked down at the plates they doubled as paperweights for the map. Hero's cutlery? Surely not... right?
"They don't want to move," Ereli explained, "they think the Hero will save them. "
"The zombies will get here a day before the nearest army unit!" Morey cried, "surely, anyone can understand that five people can't hold off an army? "
Ereli gestured at the people surrounding them. They surely hadn't missed what Morey was saying but no one seemed to be surprised.
"No one wants to move because they think we can hold off the zombies," Ereli said, her voice flat and exhausted, "you are the Hero, of course the Hero will win. It will be a glorious battle, perhaps a good time to have a picnic. "
Morey picked his jaw off the table and rubbed his eyes. He should have expected this. There had been all the signs of Hero worship since he arrived, they even tried to lay out a red carpet using flower petals. When the nobles wanted to know how Earth treated its nobles, Morey should have just shut up. He had spent nearly an hour talking the villagers out of it.
Despite that, there were still no decent toilets. Heroes using the toilet was not part of the image.
"Try harder," was all Morey could say. And nodding futilely was all Ereli could do.
"So what about the defence?" Ereli asked finally, "should I come help?"
"Can you even help?" Morey asked bluntly. Ereli hung her head sadly, "but I still want to..."
"You're helping enough just by filling these," Morey reassured her by indicating the two steel staves he had put down next to the table. Spending the cost of steel for two long rods the height of a person was a waste, but steel could contain a bit more magic than iron per weight, so the staves could be smaller and lighter. As it was, the two hollow staves were already half Ereli's weight. Morey had to constantly remind himself that Ereli was tougher than she appeared.
"But that's just a strength exercise," Ereli complained, "all I do is fill these with magic every day!"
"And that helps us go much faster," Morey said, "we completed two rows today. It would not be possible without this huge boon of magic you give us every day. "
"But still-"
"You'll get your chance to help when the zombies come," Morey said, "we'll be relying on Grand Cross to deal most of the damage. "

Most didn't mean all however. Over the next week, the villagers became increasingly curious as to what the Heroes were doing on the nearby hill. For all they knew, it looked like the Heroes were planting magic items in the ground like crops.
The alchemist Locoss would draw off a sliver of magic from the steel staff and pack it into a pebble. Then Nal would bury it. Then they moved on to the next spot in the row. Meanwhile, Etani would examine the freshly buried pebble and wave some flags to Morey, who was standing in a big open field of wind eyes. Morey would then pace up and down until Etani waved for him to stop and then he would plant a stick into the ground. And thus the field began to slowly fill with sticks sporting little coloured pieces of cloth.
From Etani's perspective however, the pebbles were the size of human heads and each time, Locoss would enchant the rock to a pre-agreed magical power level then set it firmly into the hole dug just nicely to hold the rock and a pool of water securely. Then Etani would take the curious metal device Morey had given her, called a slide rule, and would sight along the direction the spell would fling the rock and then get Morey to move to where the device said he should be.
What the entire charade was for, Morey hadn't explained fully, but she was given to believe that the enchantments on the rocks would shoot them to approximately where Morey was planting his flags.
This was apparently something that his world had done before and after a few experiments on rock flinging, Morey had come up with that slide rule.
Locoss buried the last rock and nodded at her. After Morey had marked another position, Etani raised the black cloth to signal the day was over.
"Do you think it's enough?" she asked Morey as he came up to her to survey the work.
"The hunters are saying we still have another day before that field gets crushed by tens of thousands of feet," Morey said gesturing at the widely spaced flags waving among the wind eyes. "I think that's enough layers," Morey added, "it better be. "
At least Nal was doing something they were sure would work. This rock flinging exercise was something that had never been done before and Locoss was left scurrying around trying to fulfill Morey's orders on making magical enchantments with exactly the same amount of power. The poor girl had tried her best, even practicing her art over and over into magical exhaustion without a word of complaint.

The five people standing on the crest of the hill was a pitiful force, but one wouldn't have noticed it from the makeshift banners and cheering that came from the village's walls. Despite his best efforts, Morey hadn't been able to make the villagers evacuate short of using force. And now the zombies were here and they simply had to defend the village.
"Why won't they understand?" Morey complained.
"I must still disapprove of this battle plan," Etani said, "noble or heroic doesn't help you if you're dead. We should run if the zombies become too overwhelming. "
"But then all the people will die! "
"They didn't listen when we said we couldn't protect them," Etani replied, a tinge of frost in her voice, "as much as I would like to end this war without dead people, I am afraid that is already impossible now. You shouldn't throw away your life protecting these villagers, the Hero is worth more to Inath than a few hundred peasants. "
Morey wanted to reply but Etani's assessment was correct. Cold, but correct. These four girls had been presented to him as Inath's best mages in each area of magic, they were practically indispensable for the war effort. Morey couldn't honestly count himself as necessary, but to lose these four would be like losing an entire company of soldiers. Not that Inath had a professional army with organized units.
When Locoss joined, Morey had suddenly realized that all four were girls around his age, even if Nal looked doubtful. And they pretty too. That was just a tad suspicious. But their skill was real and the five of them had a combat performance that was among the best adventuring parties.
But there was something morally wrong about running away and saving yourself when the entire village was going to be slaughtered. Morey's decision to intervene when they intercepted the messenger had been strongly protested by Nal and Etani but his position as the Hero was quite useful in these matters.
There was movement at the horizon, a thin black line appeared above the gently rolling hills. The Enemy was here.
And the host of zombies grew and grew, seemingly without end. An endless black tide of misshapen bodies and patchwork abominations that pounded the grassland into brown dirt.
The movement of the zombies was predictable, they headed for the village straight as an arrow. And they ran into the first set of defenses.
With great roars and flashes, the ground itself seemed to reach up and swallow them, tossing broken bodies into the air to land as a rain of tortured flesh and soil. The huge boulders Ereli had filled with magic and that Locoss had turned into explosive bombs were now making their mark once the army of zombies reached it. Once any erosion of magic occurred from the dark magic around the zombies, or the rocks were touched by the zombies, the enchantment dumped its entire power into the rock, shattering it and sending fragments scything outwards in all directions to mow down zombies like wind eyes under a blade.
The zombies didn't care, they simply marched on, absorbing the losses. The black tide was not even stemmed in the slightest, the shattered zombies simply pieced themselves back together and marched on. The zombie magic came into sensing range, even at this extreme distance. It loomed like a dark cloud, diffuse and wispy but no less immense for its sheer size.
Then as the front line touched the edges of the cultivated fields, Morey launched his main defense. The red flags were the outermost and at the longest range. He waited until the front had went past it until they almost touched the second yellow line before nodding to Locoss.
Locoss nodded back and bent down to touch the thin red thread connecting the rocks. As one, the rocks launched themselves off the ground into the air towards the zombies with huge bangs and cracks. The ground churned upwards under the explosions of superheated steam as the enchantment in the rocks dumped their heat. Morey was quite sure that heat magic was more efficient than movement magic, judging by how easy it was to heat water.
The near-simultaneous explosion made them all jump a little. Even battle hardened Etani flinched at the wall of sound and the sounds of cheering from the village wall behind them was stilled. A steam explosion from a single rock was one thing but to have fifty go off all at once was quite another.
The accuracy wasn't quite what he had hoped for, but by now the zombies had overtaken the expected kill zone they had taken two weeks to refine and prepare. The rocks tumbled downwards like cannonballs then, right on at the set time, the same movement magic used in the boulder mines shattered them into a cone of shrapnel that shredded bodies and shattered bone. Huge circular holes appeared in the formation, there would be no reanimating those zombies.
Some rocks had exploded early, their shards spread across too wide an area to generate sure kills. And some never exploded at all, smashing a few zombies into pulp but leaving those to either side untouched. This level of success would only have been possible with Locoss's skill in alchemy though and for a while it seemed like the tide could be held back. The cheering started again once the rolling thunderclaps of exploding rock had quieted down.
The advanced faltered as the zombies in front halted, waiting for those behind to catch up. Then, as one, they moved again, a clear line of the dead marching forward as if at a drill parade. The feeling of their magic was buzzing higher and higher, but Morey put it out of his mind. They had crossed the second yellow line far enough. He nodded at Locoss again.
Etani's hand creaked on her warhammer as another line of holes appeared in the formation, more accurately this time. The second line had been used and while hundreds upon hundreds of zombies had been mashed like so much rotten fruit, there were still countless thousands. The third and last line tore savagely into the densely packed formation, the holes now overlapping into zones of total destruction.
It was clearly not enough. The zombies were visibly thinned, but there was still a huge army. From the start, it was pointless to have them fight the entire army by themselves. A good quarter of the zombies had already been felled, an achievement that was already legendary for a small band of five, but that put them in reach of the remaining thousands.
And there was still the village behind them.
As the cheers turned into a scramble, Morey turned to Ereli. She was standing in the middle of four steel staffs that had been planted end down into the ground, surrounded by so much stored magical power than the very air seemed to hum in her presence.
"Your turn," he said simply, "but save your own magic. We will probably need Blade Wall once the zombies reach us. "
Ereli nodded and held up the summoning stone that was also the pride of the Iris family. Magic wafted up from the four staves and gathered into the familiar formation above her. The magical glow swelled in defiance of the zombies' magic but it was clear which was bigger.
Grand Cross slammed down, squashing zombies with its downdraft and smashing through the thinner cloud of the zombies' dark magic. They watched as the rotating cross moved across the formation, leaving broken bodies and gaping holes in the magic behind it. Then the glow faded and was finally consumed by the tide of dark magic, leaving Ereli with only four dead sticks of steel.
"Did you see that?" Nal said.
Locoss simply nodded, to Morey's confusion. "See what?" he asked.
"The zombies. When Grand Cross touched them, they fell down immediately," Nal said.
"Well of course, that's what Grand Cross does," Ereli said, "it flattens everything. "
"No, I mean before that," Nal pointed at the hole that was closing up again, "some of the zombies, the ones outside the force area, some of them just fell over. Doesn't Grand Cross have a magical disruption field larger than its force field?"
"It does, but-"
"The zombies fell down even without the force!" Nal said excitedly.
"Warning," Locoss interrupted and pointed at the zombies.
"What?" Morey looked again. Something glinted off the front ranks of the zombies.
They all looked closer. "Is there some sort of crystal on them?" Etani remarked.
"I wonder where they got it?" Morey said, "or what it does. "
That wasn't the only surprise. A small glow appeared in the middle of the formation once the zombies had gotten close enough. They had only a second to wonder about it when there was a flash of air and a clap of superheated air. A bright lance of light connected the glow to a patch of soil in their direction and disappeared in a blink of an eye. A puff of glassy soil was thrown up, like someone throwing a pebble.
"What was that?" Morey said once they had all hurriedly dived to the ground behind the hill.
"Light attack," Locoss said, frowning worriedly.
"What does that mean?" Nal asked.
Another puff of soil at the top edge of the hill in the flash.
"Concentrated light. " While her reticence was famous, at times like this, Morey felt like strangling her.

[LeSwordfish]

Six more space marines. Still grinding my way through them: now I can't afford to buy any more I might actually get them finished.

[celtois]

A terrible art week for me. I was very dissatisfied with basically everything I drew. It was like some switch between my hand and brain has disconnected. Still, I did draw so here are six new drawings for you.

http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...on-2-567055732
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Ink-567055587
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Rogue-567055359
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Hand-567055136
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Person-567054932
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...Face-567054446

[Glass Mouse]

Status for the week October 12 - 18!


Glass Mouse passes with a Genre Unsavvy strip, and two pieces of fanart.

Lycunadari passes with four nature photos and a sheetful of wardrobe designs.

Allan Dotson passes with a new Critters page, a bard, a Dream, a secret agent, a rat, a dog, and a freaky clown.

Cuthalion passes with three cats, and three landscapes.

Artman77 uploaded a mock youtube screenshot.

LeSwordfish passes with six more space marines.

TheWombatOfDoom will be back on Obtober 25 with four weeks worth of pieces.

jseah passes with 4086 words of Hero’s War.

celtois passes with two people, an ink stand, a rogue, a hand, and a face.

UXLZ will be back on the 10th of November.


Thus, Artman77 FAILS this round!

Glass Mouse, Lycunadari, Allan Dotson, Cuthalion, LeSwordfish, jseah, and celtois PASS this round!


Current standing:

Spoiler

Show

Glass Mouse
Current run: 260 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Lycunadari
Current run: 145 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Allan Dotson
Current run: 59 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

Cuthalion
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: 21 weeks
Themes: -

Artman77
Current run: -
Longest run: 13 weeks
Themes: -

LeSwordfish
Current run: 16 weeks
Longest run: 5 weeks
Themes: -

TheWombatOfDoom
Current run: 13 weeks (pending: 3)
Longest run: 71 weeks
Themes: -

jseah
Current run: 17 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

celtois
Current run: 6 weeks
Longest run: -
Themes: -

UXLZ
Current run: -
Longest run: 2 weeks
Themes: -

This week's theme (October 19 - 25) has not been chosen yet, so it is up for grabs.

Next week's theme is chosen by Cuthalion - let me know in PM or this thread, and I'll include it in the next status.

[Glass Mouse]

Also, I hate harping on the tardiness thing, but one thing just came up and I should clarify:

If you make use of the advance system, you must give a return date. That date is your new deadline. Failure to upload on that date will be treated as any other kind of tardiness.

[jseah]

Chapter 44 is up.
https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3238329/44/A-Hero-s-War

Final count is 4262 words.

[Artman77]

Dang. I knew I forgot something.

Theme:[B get a job.] [/B]

[jseah]

Double length chapter 45. Word count 9414.

Battle scenes seriously eat a ton of words. I wrote the army battle (~3k) in one night...

[LeSwordfish]

1038 words of battle report... Need to pull my finger out and write something else before the day is done.

[LeSwordfish]

Guess who forgot about this until like 9.30pm after he'd turned his computer off? This guy! 541 more words.

Spoiler

Show

Cora forced herself not to tense too much, to remain loose, ready to move. What good it would do with the heavy pistol at her neck, she didn't know, but it was much more helpful to think about her stance, her breathing, and her muscles, than to picture the bullet punching through flesh and shattering bone. The pistol was a good six inches from her, but she could still somehow feel the ice-cold metal prickling against her.

"Again, I really am sorry about this, my dear." Gideon said quietly. "But I'm sure you understand, this has to have never happened. Everybody involved has to be trapped, arrested... Or dead, fallen from the outside of the building. Your role, alas, must be the last... Which I suppose could be considered a mercy. Your friends will go to prison for a very long time."

She opened her mouth - there was something to say here, some clever phrasing that would get her out of this, Sho would know it, there must be...

"It was a pleasure working with you." He sighed, just a little. "It truly was. Goodbye, Cor-"

The earpiece in Cora's ear buzzed, and she saw Gideon's face twitch as his did too. The voice that spoke was Lee's.

"You there? It's done. Little suckers are rats in a box."

Then Mathilde. "I'm done, but keep the line clear please."

Slowly, very slowly, Cora brought her legs up, knees bent. Gideon's focus was on the headset - his eyes were still on her, but he couldn't see her gently brace her feet against the sides of the desk drawers. it was uncomfortable to hold herself like this, especially making the tension not show in her back or arms, but maybe she could get enough leverage...

"I'm still working on it." Gideon said into his own earpiece. The gun hadn't moved from her back. "Give me a moment to pay my respects, would you?"

"We don't have many moments." Mathilde said tersely. "I hear sirens already."

"Already?" Gideon said, interested. "That's quicker than I expected."

There was the tiniest change in his voice as he turned his head towards the window, and Cora took her chance. She extended her legs sharply, forcing the chair back across the polished floor to slam into Gideon's stomach and chest. The gun went off - a deafening roar that blasted her eardrums painfully, and dropped into a high-pitched tinnatic whine. It was to this soundtrack that Cora kicked again and she, Gideon, and the chair together fell to the floor. The gun was in his right hand, so she rolled that way trying to pin it to the ground - she caught his gun wrist with one hand, but the leverage was too bad to make an attack. Gideon struck out at her, roaring in anger, but the bulk of the chair was in the way. She hauled his gun arm against herself and twisted it sharply, trying to force the weapon from his hand, but it wouldn't come, and Gideon was raining painful glancing blows on her around the chair. In this desperate brawl on the floor, close as lovers and clawing like cats, she made a move that was in none of the lessons she had learned, and sunk her teeth as hard as she could into Gideon's wrist.

[celtois]

More arts.
Due to a variety of circumstances my game has been delayed so there are no more session reports :(

http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...face-568385333
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...bbes-568385042
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...-Guy-568384870
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/ar...ce-2-568384728
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/Soldier-568384594
http://dizzyartist.deviantart.com/art/House-568384321

[Artman77]

Art here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...-Master!/page3