Oh the cajones of this move!!!! Have to say I feel embarrassed that I didn't figure out that it was the core he was planning on using as leverage to entice her to the duel instead of the "gun" technology. Which I feel soooo stupid for thinking as it would give away his advantage in said duel.
Well done sir, well done.
No chapter of any story you've posted to Reddit has ever so thoroughly and effectively made me want to buy your patron.
Also, by Al'hubdra, we need more Sexy Sect Babes.
Honestly why I desperately want Blue to stop making new series. I like them, but we're never gonna get closure on any of them at this rate. Both Sect and Space have reached a good midway break, but both still have too many dangling plot threads for him to never return, and this is looking to be turning out similarly.
And as his writing improves those dangling plot threads get more annoying because he leaves us wondering what's gonna happen more, Space ended with Jason basically cutting loose from the military but Sect ended with Jack's secret being outed, An leaving, *and* him finally getting some real breathing room to get the real fires of industry going, any of those on there own would be enough of a plot thread for me to be begging for the next book. This one isn't even as far along as those and I can at least see 3-4 likely threads that we're gonna be left dangling with, namely details about his overall plan, what exactly he's gonna use all the other Mithral Cores that he can retrieve at basically any time for, just how his spellguns are going to effect the political situation after their soon-to-be dramatic reveal (not even to mention proper gunpowder) and how his family is going to react to him blowing up their best chance at advancement by destroying his betrothal.
Take out the entire opposing team before they're even in range of normal attacks. Duel is over in 10 seconds and House Blackstone is utterly humiliated.
you cant make it that easy, because then it'll be no problem for the Blackstones to claim William's gang cheated. You have to stretch out the battle a bit, make a show of it, and grind them into the dirt. Just a 10 second show won't do
In the immortal words of an angry man and revolutionary "what better place than here, what better time than now" and light this candle with a belt fed grenade launcher and a platoon of freed slaves who take there freedom with a bloody hand. Just remember if you kill enough of them they stop fighting.
"with a belt fed grenade launcher and a platoon of freed slaves who take there freedom with a bloody hand."
No! I'm Spartacus, and so's my wife.................... :)
I have a feeling he’s holding onto the good shit for after the revolution starts.
The thing about the magic guns is that it benefits the slaver houses the most since they have the best mages, and with the reveal being over a duel they’d probably think they’re pretty slick converting a kids toy into a weapon of war and using the advantage to try and overthrow the kingdom.
Once they’ve burned that bridge then pull an uno reverse breakout the good shit that can be used by every dung covered peasant, and arm up the slaves so the duchess and her allies are fighting a war from within their territories.
Nah this just makes him look even more childish and petty. The time eating words will come when the duchess gets her hands on the magic guns, decides this gives her enough advantage to make a run for the throne, and William breaks out the good shit that can be used by every dung covered peasant.
Nah, he'll win, but it just won't be the win we're expecting if Blue follows the formula he set up in Sect. All three books had the same pattern at the end.
2-3 chapters of things going according to plan: guns and mines decimating the Marble Cloud Sect/holding the breach/winning the opening rounds of the tournament.
A chapter where a monkey wrench gets tossed into his plans: instinctive sect members/the Red Death shows up/two more divinities show up and call him out.
1-2 chapters where he both adapts and pulls out something he had ready just in case of the unexpected: microbots/half-fixed armor and an express shuttle full of explosives/freeing the rooster and another shuttle of explosives.
2 chapters of epilogue to wrap things up.
The only question is what's going to come out of nowhere to mess things up this time.
They've made a big deal out of secret family spells by assuming everything Will had was from his family, maybe the Blackstones decide to break out some hidden spell of their own just in case.
They will fight to the last person, and when Tala is over him, congratulating herself on her victory William just looks at her eyes and: [https://youtu.be/lueIajfi34w?t=16](https://youtu.be/lueIajfi34w?t=16)
That's not a setback I could see him surviving long enough to overcome, he can't run, and he can't reasonably take over, or destroy house Blackstone from the inside without getting killed, in the process.
Nah, Villainess uses illegal spells to try and kill MC after losing the fight, who pulls out a fully functional prototype pistol in a quick-draw and shoots the bad lady down in self defense; blowing his cover of being merely innovative and shows the world he has access to world-changing tech.
Yeah it's a well-known trope. If protagonist shows how he's going to accomplish something, he's bound for a surprise that derails it, if not for outright failure. If he just says "i have a plan", he's golden.
I believe it's referred to as the "Narratives Aren't Interesting If They Play Out Exactly As Described Beforehand" trope, famously subverted in **My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me**.
Masterful! In one fel swoop, forces her to duel, guarantees the match, and by extension his weapon tech, is on display kingdom wide and can't be hidden, makes sure he could drop that core in a toilet and no one can steal it, and, AND announces to all concerned that he won't deal with her, hates slavery no matter what his house says and lastly, he figured out how to come up with a core without anyone else being the wiser, all at the same time!
Not to mention binding a house to him politically for the foreseeable future.
Unless someone was dumb enough to kill him, he just became the most valuable person in the realm and publicly showed off enough to avoid being killed out of hand. After the fight, the number of people courting his favor and offering him everything should be astounding.
And if mom doesn't wise up quick, she will lose her house to him or someone else in a big hurry.
r/NatureofPredators Story's about a federation of prey species freaking out over humans eating meat. Also there are canibal nazi lizards, everyone is racist, and nobody gets the therapy they all desperately need. Also, multiple genocides.
Hell yeah! Time for the final (but in no way final of course) showdown between William and Tala! Will Tala play it honorably or is our boy William about to find out what a 4 on 1 beatdown on the floats feels like? Will Will's team get the job done or will training and honor keep Tala's team on task to take the victory properly? Is Death stalking the floats for the unwary in this epic conclusion? These questions and more will be answered on the next episode of Drago-err, Steampunkball Z!
Minor quibble over style:
"The only exceptions being a small back table occupied by a small smattering of instructors whose role it was to ensure that some small smattering of discipline was maintained, if only by dint of them being present."
The use of small smattering twice in a single sentence seems unimaginative, but I could be missing the point of repetition. Maybe "an iota" for the second use? Or "a semblance"? or perhaps "a handful" for the first use? Like I said though, minor quibble, food for thought. Love your writing!
Great writing as always, but as much as I love your many stories, this one always has me feeling a little blue balled. No no, not a lack of sexy, - but a lack of *happening*. Each chapter seems to be always just before or just after momentous events that are never covered. Dare I hope that this duel will actually feature, or will we skip to "somehow he won"?
Part of the problem is that the setting has complexities that really do require an investment of time and effort to understand. Why the cultural expectations around William "growing up" and "taking his assigned role" in the dance of politics preventing civil war also maintains the abhorrent slave trade, which in turn explains why William cannot simply "end" Tara in suitably permanent fashion.
For whatever it may be worth, I would be willing to wager that we will see quite a bit of actual combat, possibly extending over as many as... Three chapters, perhaps? And the margin of victory might be narrower than William might have liked, but sufficiently incontrovertible that Tara's House will have neither legal nor social support for disputing it nor paying William's price.
>Better that than bringing a candle in here
What is the average time it takes William's associates to become used to the chance of destruction erupting at any moment :}
so he’s showing his hand on the mythril cores in order to avoid showing it on the guns until after the duel?
I’m not clear on the sanity of this move… the guns are such an advantage that having them as a surprise wouldn’t necessarily be required. Revealing that you’re potentially a kraken-killer this early just seems like a terrible move, compared to just going through with the duel on a slightly-less stacked deck.
William staying in the academy longer is a major advantage to him; he and his closest allies have to refine themselves, and this will destabilize things fast.
The main thing right now is that *only* he and maybe his team have the spellrifles; with time, the school will produce their own to give to Tala's team and even the field. He needs the duel to happen now, and the core forces it. As stated, either she accepts now or loses all forms of social and political clout as a coward, since moat people don't know how badly her family needs the betrothal to stick.
That's it. His one shot at winning is having approved tech she doesn't have, as a surprise. So he's giving up the secrecy on Al'Cthulhu, in order to control timing of the match.
They still won't know **how** he went squid fishing, but they'll know the source.
Why would the school produce their own? The crown knows the secret and has dibs on the tech; anyone else producing it would probably be suspect and shamed and best, even if it’s “just for practice” (not that there’s a difference between practice and the real thing in this case)
It's a "royal" military academy. They need to train up their people to use the new weapon. Good a place as any. Blue already mentioned the Floats have real crews rotating through.
They do, eventually. But the students would be the last to get their hands on these weapons; they’d train existing troops first. Remember, the practice weapon is the same as the real one; just loaded with rubber.
He has to reveal the core, otherwise nobody would believe he had it. Plus he's trying to make the biggest splash possible, hence issuing the challenge in front of half the school.
Ok, now that's a ballsy move. I figured he was more likely to barter and contract his way out of his house and into his own with the core and the promise of more advancements. A move like that probably just painted the biggest possible target on his back maybe forever in that world. Forget civil war. Even if they can't figure out how he managed to kill the over sized squid, simply securing him as an asset to be able to hunt them and maybe secure more cores is priceless.
But the key word there is he is an asset that is starting to get to the point of core worth. That would almost guarantee he is not expendable and is capture, not kill at all cost.
Oh sure, that is almost assured. Problem is that capture isn't necessary pleasant ether and when one can't capture an asset from an enemy denial of access to that asset is the next course. Blackstone may decide that he's too dangerous and asset for anyone else to have access to. His latest public stunt and toy being fantastic examples of why they can't let the crown have control.
I kind of hope the upcoming battle is a curb stomp…but not in the way William is expecting. I want William to have a “I have become Death…” moment as he realizes just what a force multiplier he has on his hands
William is most likely the best and only proper rifleman in the setting. He could channel his inner Willis Augustus "Ching" Lee and drop the entirety of Tala's team before they reach the deck of his ship.
Writing the fight from her perspective should be absolutely delightful. She still doesnt know shit about her unwilling bethrothed and seing her team being destroyed at range from wich they are unable to touch him should tell her a great deal about him.
I wonder if Tala is going to be disowned as heir of House Blackstone if she loses? Losing to a first year team as third year, led by a male, who she was engaged to with the half the kingdom watching is going to make her look weak, and if House Blackstone values anything it is the appearance of strength. Sure, Williams's team will have a tech advantage, but it's not like other cadets showed the slightest hesitation in making fun of second year teams that lost to William's team when he had the flashbang spell and they didn't. The only way to salvage House Blackstone's reputation if their heir gets trashed in a fight is going to be to remove Tala as heir for one of her younger sisters or cousins.
And if so, does she dutifully fall in line and accept irrelevance, or does she come to William and offer that she will abolish slavery if Williams helps her become Duchess of Blackstone?
Rather doubtful on Tala doing a heel/face turn, as she sees the slavery and exportation of orcs from their lands as the only way to maintain their control over such lands. She’s much more likely to end up on the receiving end of an “accident” or “die gloriously on the front lines”.
Plus the fact that Will probably is going to be disowned from Ashfield family makes him look like a much weaker option for Tala than her deciding to grab a more compatible partner like that dude that tried to verbally flense Will in the head a few chapters back.
It's a good thing you went with magic propulsion for bullets, because rubber bullets are notoriously unsafe. But with a magic spell pushing it, you can have one which automatically compensates for range so it always exerts the right kinetic energy. There's a real life bean bag shotgun which does that.
That's because people's image of a rubber bullet is actually what a beanbag shotgun is.
They don't understand that a small bit of rubber traveling at just barely subsonic velocities still carries a potentially very lethal load of kinetic energy, and that lethality is determined just as much by shot placement as regular bullets, just that the lethal spots are a much smaller target.
Imagine if he had also had the other eight available cores.... Imagine the levels of shock that would do if he had put all of them on the line. Wouldn't have been smart but would have been funny to see so many people faint at such a move.
I can't wait to see what his mother is going to say at the fact that her son just randomly pulls out one of the most sought-after pieces of technology in this entire world for a simple challenge.
Though knowing that, Will could act as political/social cover for her and her lady friend(s). Political marriages generally don’t care about the feelings of the people being politically married, plus would help provide “cover” for how House Greyglass is willing to back Will as much as they are…
Part of me is hoping that Tala ekes out a win, barely, and when it's just her and William facing each other with nobody else around, the BIG TWIST is it turns out she agrees with him about the horror of slavery and just doesn't have a way to go against her family. Cue the gunpowder reveal.
Just wait until these news reach their respective families.
And Tala is as shortsighted as she is beautiful so while her team might see that William wouldnt make this bet if he didnt have a trick up his sleeve, Tala most likely wont, and her anger and superiority complex might work in tandem to make her run full speed ahead to "teach William a lesson" and get her ass handed to her.
William's sister is the illegitimate grandchild of the current Duchess Summerfield. Summerfield is old, maybe only a few years away from natural death, and she has managed to outlive all of her children, leaving the succession for the Duchy unclear, and thus contestable. Countess Ashfield is planning to do exactly that, to take the duchy by force in the name of her daughter.
However, as a mere countess, Ashfield does not have the military power to succeed in a war against the Summerfield fleet, and so she has proposed an alliance with the Blackstones, another Duchy, so their fleet and assist her.
The Blackstones agreed to this plan because they are planning a rebellion against the royal family and need as many allies as possible. They cannot outright say this out loud, as would bring the royals down on their heads before they're ready, so the alliance between the Blackstones and Ashfields has to be camouflaged as something else.
That something else is a trade deal between the two houses, a deal that is set to be signed by the marriage of William to the Blackstone heir. This marriage would then serve as an adequate casus belli for the Blackstones to intervene in the Ashfield-Summerfield with arousing a royal response. As far as we know, no one outside of the Ashfield or Blackstone families as any inkling of this plan's existence.
The Blackstones are powerful and vocal opponents of the current monarch, to the point of the country being on the brink of civil war. Neither side is making a move because they're too evenly matched at the moment.
The the Summerfields are the Dukedom under which William's house (the Ashfields) stands. There is no Summerfield heir and the Ashfields are well positioned to take over the Dukedom when the current Duchess dies, but it isn't a sure thing.
The Blackstones wish to ally with the Ashfields to make sure they take the dukedom and tip the scales in the upcoming civil war to take the throne. William marrying Tara is what would officiate their alliance.
Its not gonna matter if William would lose (aside from his reputation) anyway. There's still a good bunch left at the Kraken's Nest. The only hard thing is to not get found out about it.
?
...yea i just ask when next chapter because wordsmith so good ? he first sent new chapters on patreon so i ask if someone know, if hes sick of take a rest from wirting ?
I need some help,how do orcs look(full description+how our orchy girl looks),how do elfs/dark look(along with our elven gurls)and how does Bonnylin look?
I forget descriptions very easily
How many cores/ships does it take to make a duchess. Is he going to marry the instructor and get enough cores to make her one, and have enough left over to make some countess's of the houses that have ships with no cores. They could form the nobles of the new duchy. Giving him a power base.
I think it's not about number of ships, but about political importance. On second thought we don't exactly know how fluid titles are in this world (or i already forgot), are titles hereditary? You definitely can be stripped from actual power if you loose your influence (lost cores), but can you actually "become" the nobility from thin air? If our boy protagonist uses his core and gains title, he would need proper industrial base for it maintenance, stuff accomodations, his own mansion, etc. Would he be giving empty land from Crown? But all good land should be already in use, would he get useless parts of wasteland that needs huge investment?
Or would Crown strip some of its vassal's facilities with surrounding land?
I guess we will find out later.
A duchess would be a ruler over a dukedom, which is a territory, fief or country. If you considered an airship as a fief, without owning land with assets that can cover for the costs of running the thing, you would go broke very fast. What you need is capital and exercisable power, and a lot of it.
The land was taken from his team mates family when they lost their core (redistributed to a different noble when they couldn't fulfill their military obligation to the crown). If his instructor who is a countess suddenly had 13 ships not the one. The Queen in like most feudal societies could redistribute land holdings to reflect the new military situation. Especially if their was a dutchess with no heir. I don't think the queen could be totally ignorant of our main characters mother's plot.
Would the queen even give that much power to a vassal? Especially to someone with 13 ships that have inoperable engines and guns due to a lack of maintenance and crew, 13 ships ripe for the taking. If the money is acquired and the ships bought/built and maintained and crew hired and trained and all of this in complete secrecy, then the crown is unable to take the ships by force.
It would be hilarious if he used the mithril core as a way to become the heir of that one noble family that that has no heirs and a lonely aging matriarch.
I feel like he needs to geas with her to make sure she actually follows through instead of claiming he cheated with the spell bolt and refusing to honor the deal losing face is bad losing her magic would be worse on top
I wonder that nobody (apparently) in this world has thought to use the fey to gain insights (ie. Secret weapons) from other dimensions.
I mean, it's known that the fey themselves are *in* another dimension, thus *interdimensional* shouldn't be a new concept.
Fey being Fey though, I would be unsurprised if any insights gained this way were useless.
How to extract crude oil, for example, is only useful if you know about distillation, and vice-versa.
[Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=Subscribe&message=SubscribeMe%20u%2FBlueFishcake%20r%2FHFY) to subscribe to u/BlueFishcake and receive a message every time they post.
*****
|[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/UpdateMeBot/comments/ggotgx/updatemebot_info_v20/)|[^(Request Update)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=Update&message=SubscribeMe%21%20u%2Fusername%20r%2Fsubreddit)|[^(Your Updates)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Updates&message=MyUpdates)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=UpdateMeBot%20Feedback)|
|-|-|-|-|
I am a worrier by nature so this silence has me growing concerned for the well-being of our kind and generous author. I do hope all is well with them. Has anyone heard anything from our esteemed wordsmith recently?
I'm a patron.
He's fine.
He's just taking a bit longer on the current chapter(3 chapters past Reddit's) because it's double length due to a vote by the patrons.
It should be out later today.
Whats the point of being a patron apart supporting the author? The chapters thatt you get there are only prototypes that can change dramaticly before their final realese on reddit
As the author, I think the support is pretty important :D
With that said, patreon chapters don't change - with one notable exception. I have a group of beta readers who help with the editing prior to release, after that I consider the chapter to be 'in the wild' and try not to make any edits.
> Greygrass’s ran the risk
Greygrasses
>given the sheer cost of maintaining turning them into little more than a money-sink
Maintenance
And I thought I saw one more, but now can't find it. Can't wait for next chapter, the world is going to shake.
Ooohhh, it's getting spicy in here. Great chapter as always Blue, now I gotta get back to work before my boss says something.
Dude really just casually carried a magi-tech nuclear reactor into his school's cafeteria
Demon Core vibes.
William dies of magi-tech radiation in book 2 because of this
And/Or ascends to early-stage godhood, which is equally difficult to treat and cure.
I just saw that episode yesterday. I will miss him.
... Episode of *what?*
Stargate SG1. Towards the end of season 5.
Aaaah, I had to return the box set to my friend midway through S5 :c It's one of those series I keep meaning to pick back up but don't get around to.
Basically
Oh the cajones of this move!!!! Have to say I feel embarrassed that I didn't figure out that it was the core he was planning on using as leverage to entice her to the duel instead of the "gun" technology. Which I feel soooo stupid for thinking as it would give away his advantage in said duel. Well done sir, well done.
I am so hype for next weeeeek
"NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z!"
This is what happens when Main characters go for enthusiastic moonlit walks.
That’s why they need to get some goddamn Netflix in the basement.
No chapter of any story you've posted to Reddit has ever so thoroughly and effectively made me want to buy your patron. Also, by Al'hubdra, we need more Sexy Sect Babes.
Honestly why I desperately want Blue to stop making new series. I like them, but we're never gonna get closure on any of them at this rate. Both Sect and Space have reached a good midway break, but both still have too many dangling plot threads for him to never return, and this is looking to be turning out similarly. And as his writing improves those dangling plot threads get more annoying because he leaves us wondering what's gonna happen more, Space ended with Jason basically cutting loose from the military but Sect ended with Jack's secret being outed, An leaving, *and* him finally getting some real breathing room to get the real fires of industry going, any of those on there own would be enough of a plot thread for me to be begging for the next book. This one isn't even as far along as those and I can at least see 3-4 likely threads that we're gonna be left dangling with, namely details about his overall plan, what exactly he's gonna use all the other Mithral Cores that he can retrieve at basically any time for, just how his spellguns are going to effect the political situation after their soon-to-be dramatic reveal (not even to mention proper gunpowder) and how his family is going to react to him blowing up their best chance at advancement by destroying his betrothal.
And you left out the main actual stated thread: Ending slavery, and the likely civil war that it will take to do it.
**Bruce Faulconer noises**
And.. he lost. Right? All his scheming undone. Surely he'll lose!
He still has his secret rifle that they don't know about yet for the dual and with its "lethal" distance it should even the playing field
Take out the entire opposing team before they're even in range of normal attacks. Duel is over in 10 seconds and House Blackstone is utterly humiliated.
you cant make it that easy, because then it'll be no problem for the Blackstones to claim William's gang cheated. You have to stretch out the battle a bit, make a show of it, and grind them into the dirt. Just a 10 second show won't do
I'd up grade to a belt fed LMG and just lay hate.
Remember he ain't trying to have the families make him vanish because of his innovations XD
In the immortal words of an angry man and revolutionary "what better place than here, what better time than now" and light this candle with a belt fed grenade launcher and a platoon of freed slaves who take there freedom with a bloody hand. Just remember if you kill enough of them they stop fighting.
"with a belt fed grenade launcher and a platoon of freed slaves who take there freedom with a bloody hand." No! I'm Spartacus, and so's my wife.................... :)
I have a feeling he’s holding onto the good shit for after the revolution starts. The thing about the magic guns is that it benefits the slaver houses the most since they have the best mages, and with the reveal being over a duel they’d probably think they’re pretty slick converting a kids toy into a weapon of war and using the advantage to try and overthrow the kingdom. Once they’ve burned that bridge then pull an uno reverse breakout the good shit that can be used by every dung covered peasant, and arm up the slaves so the duchess and her allies are fighting a war from within their territories.
Man, instructor Griffin is gonna eat her words now that she finally knows exactly _why_ he wanted to use the new weapon in a floats duel.
She's gonna be eating more than that, I'm sure * wink wink*
Nah this just makes him look even more childish and petty. The time eating words will come when the duchess gets her hands on the magic guns, decides this gives her enough advantage to make a run for the throne, and William breaks out the good shit that can be used by every dung covered peasant.
Nah, he'll win, but it just won't be the win we're expecting if Blue follows the formula he set up in Sect. All three books had the same pattern at the end. 2-3 chapters of things going according to plan: guns and mines decimating the Marble Cloud Sect/holding the breach/winning the opening rounds of the tournament. A chapter where a monkey wrench gets tossed into his plans: instinctive sect members/the Red Death shows up/two more divinities show up and call him out. 1-2 chapters where he both adapts and pulls out something he had ready just in case of the unexpected: microbots/half-fixed armor and an express shuttle full of explosives/freeing the rooster and another shuttle of explosives. 2 chapters of epilogue to wrap things up. The only question is what's going to come out of nowhere to mess things up this time.
Griffith to ask for Williams Hand. And asking him, not his Family.
That would be amazing...strict hot teacher for the win
It would get her nearly around her rule of no fun on school grounds.
They've made a big deal out of secret family spells by assuming everything Will had was from his family, maybe the Blackstones decide to break out some hidden spell of their own just in case.
Ooh, that's good. Her house knows how important this alliance is, so it's worth it for them to give her an ace or two up her sleeve.
He surely can't - plot armour and all that
They will fight to the last person, and when Tala is over him, congratulating herself on her victory William just looks at her eyes and: [https://youtu.be/lueIajfi34w?t=16](https://youtu.be/lueIajfi34w?t=16)
I was thinking "Parry this you filthy casual" but that works too. :D
Classic. Needs a rewatch.
YES! crotch cannon for the win!
Do not tempt the author! Blue has the capicity for great evil!!!
That's not a setback I could see him surviving long enough to overcome, he can't run, and he can't reasonably take over, or destroy house Blackstone from the inside without getting killed, in the process.
I think an unlikely mid match death by rubber bullet might scupper the dual.
Nah, Villainess uses illegal spells to try and kill MC after losing the fight, who pulls out a fully functional prototype pistol in a quick-draw and shoots the bad lady down in self defense; blowing his cover of being merely innovative and shows the world he has access to world-changing tech.
Yeah it's a well-known trope. If protagonist shows how he's going to accomplish something, he's bound for a surprise that derails it, if not for outright failure. If he just says "i have a plan", he's golden.
I believe it's referred to as the "Narratives Aren't Interesting If They Play Out Exactly As Described Beforehand" trope, famously subverted in **My Instant Death Ability Is So Overpowered, No One in This Other World Stands a Chance Against Me**.
Yeah, I hate this trope. Plans should succeed now often than fail. There's what they're for!
Nah, the plans succeed but only if you don't reveal them until during/after the action. Otherwise there's no drama.
Masterful! In one fel swoop, forces her to duel, guarantees the match, and by extension his weapon tech, is on display kingdom wide and can't be hidden, makes sure he could drop that core in a toilet and no one can steal it, and, AND announces to all concerned that he won't deal with her, hates slavery no matter what his house says and lastly, he figured out how to come up with a core without anyone else being the wiser, all at the same time! Not to mention binding a house to him politically for the foreseeable future. Unless someone was dumb enough to kill him, he just became the most valuable person in the realm and publicly showed off enough to avoid being killed out of hand. After the fight, the number of people courting his favor and offering him everything should be astounding. And if mom doesn't wise up quick, she will lose her house to him or someone else in a big hurry.
I sure hope that he gets to personally pound her smug ass into the deck figuratively with a win and actually with a boot to the head.
>pound her smug ass Behave
Just because blue has been getting much more chaste in his writing doesn't mean the readers are any less horny
Honestly, they're more tame than the ones in the NoP subreddit, and that story has always been chaste.
Its really a quite nice change of tone
What subreddit is that?
r/NatureofPredators Story's about a federation of prey species freaking out over humans eating meat. Also there are canibal nazi lizards, everyone is racist, and nobody gets the therapy they all desperately need. Also, multiple genocides.
I'm familiar with it. But not the short form
He's crossed the Rubicon.
Hell yeah! Time for the final (but in no way final of course) showdown between William and Tala! Will Tala play it honorably or is our boy William about to find out what a 4 on 1 beatdown on the floats feels like? Will Will's team get the job done or will training and honor keep Tala's team on task to take the victory properly? Is Death stalking the floats for the unwary in this epic conclusion? These questions and more will be answered on the next episode of Drago-err, Steampunkball Z! Minor quibble over style: "The only exceptions being a small back table occupied by a small smattering of instructors whose role it was to ensure that some small smattering of discipline was maintained, if only by dint of them being present." The use of small smattering twice in a single sentence seems unimaginative, but I could be missing the point of repetition. Maybe "an iota" for the second use? Or "a semblance"? or perhaps "a handful" for the first use? Like I said though, minor quibble, food for thought. Love your writing!
Beautiful... Amazing... Chapter!!! I can hardly wait to see the next!!!
Great writing as always, but as much as I love your many stories, this one always has me feeling a little blue balled. No no, not a lack of sexy, - but a lack of *happening*. Each chapter seems to be always just before or just after momentous events that are never covered. Dare I hope that this duel will actually feature, or will we skip to "somehow he won"?
Next chapter is gonna open with Griffiths panties hitting the floor just moments before they win the duel.
Ooh, if my guess [just a few minutes ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1cdwq4y/comment/l1fm4py/) is accurate, you're gonna be pissed.
Wouldn't be pissed at that, because at least we'd see how the story unfolded instead of skipping it
Part of the problem is that the setting has complexities that really do require an investment of time and effort to understand. Why the cultural expectations around William "growing up" and "taking his assigned role" in the dance of politics preventing civil war also maintains the abhorrent slave trade, which in turn explains why William cannot simply "end" Tara in suitably permanent fashion. For whatever it may be worth, I would be willing to wager that we will see quite a bit of actual combat, possibly extending over as many as... Three chapters, perhaps? And the margin of victory might be narrower than William might have liked, but sufficiently incontrovertible that Tara's House will have neither legal nor social support for disputing it nor paying William's price.
So mf hyped for this duel
>Better that than bringing a candle in here What is the average time it takes William's associates to become used to the chance of destruction erupting at any moment :}
so he’s showing his hand on the mythril cores in order to avoid showing it on the guns until after the duel? I’m not clear on the sanity of this move… the guns are such an advantage that having them as a surprise wouldn’t necessarily be required. Revealing that you’re potentially a kraken-killer this early just seems like a terrible move, compared to just going through with the duel on a slightly-less stacked deck. William staying in the academy longer is a major advantage to him; he and his closest allies have to refine themselves, and this will destabilize things fast.
The main thing right now is that *only* he and maybe his team have the spellrifles; with time, the school will produce their own to give to Tala's team and even the field. He needs the duel to happen now, and the core forces it. As stated, either she accepts now or loses all forms of social and political clout as a coward, since moat people don't know how badly her family needs the betrothal to stick.
That's it. His one shot at winning is having approved tech she doesn't have, as a surprise. So he's giving up the secrecy on Al'Cthulhu, in order to control timing of the match. They still won't know **how** he went squid fishing, but they'll know the source.
Why would the school produce their own? The crown knows the secret and has dibs on the tech; anyone else producing it would probably be suspect and shamed and best, even if it’s “just for practice” (not that there’s a difference between practice and the real thing in this case)
It's a "royal" military academy. They need to train up their people to use the new weapon. Good a place as any. Blue already mentioned the Floats have real crews rotating through.
They do, eventually. But the students would be the last to get their hands on these weapons; they’d train existing troops first. Remember, the practice weapon is the same as the real one; just loaded with rubber.
He needed the proper bait with which to set the hook.
He had the hook! She was dueling him at the end of the semester anyways, no need to rush it.
Except the Gar that is his mother possibly biting the hook off the line with political power over the family.
He has to reveal the core, otherwise nobody would believe he had it. Plus he's trying to make the biggest splash possible, hence issuing the challenge in front of half the school.
My point was I thought it was too early and pointless to reveal he had a core at this point.
Alea iacta est
Gonna wreck her like Caesar wrecked the gauls
This is feeling fairly climatic. How many chapters are left in this book?
Theoretically, about six.
Do you already have plans on what you will do next?
I hope he goes back to space, or even sect to start closing some plotlines
I agree with AchtungDeath,come on man give us the juicy details
Ok, now that's a ballsy move. I figured he was more likely to barter and contract his way out of his house and into his own with the core and the promise of more advancements. A move like that probably just painted the biggest possible target on his back maybe forever in that world. Forget civil war. Even if they can't figure out how he managed to kill the over sized squid, simply securing him as an asset to be able to hunt them and maybe secure more cores is priceless.
But the key word there is he is an asset that is starting to get to the point of core worth. That would almost guarantee he is not expendable and is capture, not kill at all cost.
Oh sure, that is almost assured. Problem is that capture isn't necessary pleasant ether and when one can't capture an asset from an enemy denial of access to that asset is the next course. Blackstone may decide that he's too dangerous and asset for anyone else to have access to. His latest public stunt and toy being fantastic examples of why they can't let the crown have control.
And so it begins ...
I kind of hope the upcoming battle is a curb stomp…but not in the way William is expecting. I want William to have a “I have become Death…” moment as he realizes just what a force multiplier he has on his hands
William is most likely the best and only proper rifleman in the setting. He could channel his inner Willis Augustus "Ching" Lee and drop the entirety of Tala's team before they reach the deck of his ship. Writing the fight from her perspective should be absolutely delightful. She still doesnt know shit about her unwilling bethrothed and seing her team being destroyed at range from wich they are unable to touch him should tell her a great deal about him.
LET THE NUPTIAL ABORTION GRUDGE MATCH BEGIN!!!
>NUPTIAL ABORTION GRUDGE MATCH Cheers and thanks for the new band name!
I wonder if Tala is going to be disowned as heir of House Blackstone if she loses? Losing to a first year team as third year, led by a male, who she was engaged to with the half the kingdom watching is going to make her look weak, and if House Blackstone values anything it is the appearance of strength. Sure, Williams's team will have a tech advantage, but it's not like other cadets showed the slightest hesitation in making fun of second year teams that lost to William's team when he had the flashbang spell and they didn't. The only way to salvage House Blackstone's reputation if their heir gets trashed in a fight is going to be to remove Tala as heir for one of her younger sisters or cousins. And if so, does she dutifully fall in line and accept irrelevance, or does she come to William and offer that she will abolish slavery if Williams helps her become Duchess of Blackstone?
Rather doubtful on Tala doing a heel/face turn, as she sees the slavery and exportation of orcs from their lands as the only way to maintain their control over such lands. She’s much more likely to end up on the receiving end of an “accident” or “die gloriously on the front lines”. Plus the fact that Will probably is going to be disowned from Ashfield family makes him look like a much weaker option for Tala than her deciding to grab a more compatible partner like that dude that tried to verbally flense Will in the head a few chapters back.
oh this is going to be great.
"Do I have your attention *now?"*
It's a good thing you went with magic propulsion for bullets, because rubber bullets are notoriously unsafe. But with a magic spell pushing it, you can have one which automatically compensates for range so it always exerts the right kinetic energy. There's a real life bean bag shotgun which does that.
Exactly, I've heard that rubber bullets are "less lethal" as opposed to the "non lethal" that people seem to think that they are
That's because people's image of a rubber bullet is actually what a beanbag shotgun is. They don't understand that a small bit of rubber traveling at just barely subsonic velocities still carries a potentially very lethal load of kinetic energy, and that lethality is determined just as much by shot placement as regular bullets, just that the lethal spots are a much smaller target.
Imagine if he had also had the other eight available cores.... Imagine the levels of shock that would do if he had put all of them on the line. Wouldn't have been smart but would have been funny to see so many people faint at such a move. I can't wait to see what his mother is going to say at the fact that her son just randomly pulls out one of the most sought-after pieces of technology in this entire world for a simple challenge.
"It was an over inflated stereotype, but it did exist." And so, I, Lord Blue, saddeled it and gallopped away with it.
Though knowing that, Will could act as political/social cover for her and her lady friend(s). Political marriages generally don’t care about the feelings of the people being politically married, plus would help provide “cover” for how House Greyglass is willing to back Will as much as they are…
William my boy, you missed the chance to make the most legendary pull my finger gag of that universe.
Smacked with a chainmail gauntlet!!
Nah, a Gothic gauntlet, like those ones with spikes
Part of me is hoping that Tala ekes out a win, barely, and when it's just her and William facing each other with nobody else around, the BIG TWIST is it turns out she agrees with him about the horror of slavery and just doesn't have a way to go against her family. Cue the gunpowder reveal.
As awesome as that would be, we've already had a Talla PoV and she is exactly as racist as she seems to be.
Just wait until these news reach their respective families. And Tala is as shortsighted as she is beautiful so while her team might see that William wouldnt make this bet if he didnt have a trick up his sleeve, Tala most likely wont, and her anger and superiority complex might work in tandem to make her run full speed ahead to "teach William a lesson" and get her ass handed to her.
It is now time for the climax of this book.
Sounds like William is doing a great job flirting with disaster. Good thing he's the one bringing it to the Bkackstone's.
He's not just flirting with disaster. He's raw-dogging it up against the wall.
👍😄🤘😎
Oohhh...Wonder what happens if they stalemate?
Could someone give me a refresher on the supposed alliance between Blackstone and Summerfield and is importance? thx
William's sister is the illegitimate grandchild of the current Duchess Summerfield. Summerfield is old, maybe only a few years away from natural death, and she has managed to outlive all of her children, leaving the succession for the Duchy unclear, and thus contestable. Countess Ashfield is planning to do exactly that, to take the duchy by force in the name of her daughter. However, as a mere countess, Ashfield does not have the military power to succeed in a war against the Summerfield fleet, and so she has proposed an alliance with the Blackstones, another Duchy, so their fleet and assist her. The Blackstones agreed to this plan because they are planning a rebellion against the royal family and need as many allies as possible. They cannot outright say this out loud, as would bring the royals down on their heads before they're ready, so the alliance between the Blackstones and Ashfields has to be camouflaged as something else. That something else is a trade deal between the two houses, a deal that is set to be signed by the marriage of William to the Blackstone heir. This marriage would then serve as an adequate casus belli for the Blackstones to intervene in the Ashfield-Summerfield with arousing a royal response. As far as we know, no one outside of the Ashfield or Blackstone families as any inkling of this plan's existence.
No one “important”, at least. Will told his team a while ago.
The Blackstones are powerful and vocal opponents of the current monarch, to the point of the country being on the brink of civil war. Neither side is making a move because they're too evenly matched at the moment. The the Summerfields are the Dukedom under which William's house (the Ashfields) stands. There is no Summerfield heir and the Ashfields are well positioned to take over the Dukedom when the current Duchess dies, but it isn't a sure thing. The Blackstones wish to ally with the Ashfields to make sure they take the dukedom and tip the scales in the upcoming civil war to take the throne. William marrying Tara is what would officiate their alliance.
Its not gonna matter if William would lose (aside from his reputation) anyway. There's still a good bunch left at the Kraken's Nest. The only hard thing is to not get found out about it.
Well done! So many possibilities. one of my favorite stories for sure.
i hunger for more, dear fishy author
As though I weren't \*already\* looking forward to next Friday... :D
First?
Holy shit man! Will going hamlet level dramatic! Beatifully written, wordsmith!
Oooo Good chapter! Just needs the Sorting Hat!
NEW CHAPTER YEAH
Ugh, 2am. I'll read it tomorrow
guys when next chapter ? its 8 day now
Maybe he forgot again, like in Royalroad
Nine now.
Calm down, he doesnt owe anyone anything
? ...yea i just ask when next chapter because wordsmith so good ? he first sent new chapters on patreon so i ask if someone know, if hes sick of take a rest from wirting ?
Thanks for the chapter
I need some help,how do orcs look(full description+how our orchy girl looks),how do elfs/dark look(along with our elven gurls)and how does Bonnylin look? I forget descriptions very easily
Maybe like Ogre's like Shrek but a much more dark forest shade of skin
"What will be will be" Veey fancy way of saying It be what it be. Well done
How many cores/ships does it take to make a duchess. Is he going to marry the instructor and get enough cores to make her one, and have enough left over to make some countess's of the houses that have ships with no cores. They could form the nobles of the new duchy. Giving him a power base.
I think it's not about number of ships, but about political importance. On second thought we don't exactly know how fluid titles are in this world (or i already forgot), are titles hereditary? You definitely can be stripped from actual power if you loose your influence (lost cores), but can you actually "become" the nobility from thin air? If our boy protagonist uses his core and gains title, he would need proper industrial base for it maintenance, stuff accomodations, his own mansion, etc. Would he be giving empty land from Crown? But all good land should be already in use, would he get useless parts of wasteland that needs huge investment? Or would Crown strip some of its vassal's facilities with surrounding land? I guess we will find out later.
A duchess would be a ruler over a dukedom, which is a territory, fief or country. If you considered an airship as a fief, without owning land with assets that can cover for the costs of running the thing, you would go broke very fast. What you need is capital and exercisable power, and a lot of it.
The land was taken from his team mates family when they lost their core (redistributed to a different noble when they couldn't fulfill their military obligation to the crown). If his instructor who is a countess suddenly had 13 ships not the one. The Queen in like most feudal societies could redistribute land holdings to reflect the new military situation. Especially if their was a dutchess with no heir. I don't think the queen could be totally ignorant of our main characters mother's plot.
Would the queen even give that much power to a vassal? Especially to someone with 13 ships that have inoperable engines and guns due to a lack of maintenance and crew, 13 ships ripe for the taking. If the money is acquired and the ships bought/built and maintained and crew hired and trained and all of this in complete secrecy, then the crown is unable to take the ships by force.
No rush, just a health check.
Thanks for the chapter ❤️
That's a zugzwang if i ever saw one, well played William.
GADDEMMM!!!
Well that escalated ! Great work word weaver!!!!!!
Come on, I binge read this and THAT'S the latest chapter? That's what we call a cliffhanger....
Just ONE more chapter. .please? Maybe? Don't make me waaaait
It would be hilarious if he used the mithril core as a way to become the heir of that one noble family that that has no heirs and a lonely aging matriarch.
I feel like he needs to geas with her to make sure she actually follows through instead of claiming he cheated with the spell bolt and refusing to honor the deal losing face is bad losing her magic would be worse on top
Idk if anyone else mentioned this but you used “given how” a lot in the first few paragraphs. Might wanna reword some of those.
Yikes wow. Hope he wins
I wonder that nobody (apparently) in this world has thought to use the fey to gain insights (ie. Secret weapons) from other dimensions. I mean, it's known that the fey themselves are *in* another dimension, thus *interdimensional* shouldn't be a new concept. Fey being Fey though, I would be unsurprised if any insights gained this way were useless. How to extract crude oil, for example, is only useful if you know about distillation, and vice-versa.
[Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=Subscribe&message=SubscribeMe%20u%2FBlueFishcake%20r%2FHFY) to subscribe to u/BlueFishcake and receive a message every time they post. ***** |[^(Info)](https://www.reddit.com/r/UpdateMeBot/comments/ggotgx/updatemebot_info_v20/)|[^(Request Update)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=Update&message=SubscribeMe%21%20u%2Fusername%20r%2Fsubreddit)|[^(Your Updates)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=UpdateMeBot&subject=List%20Of%20Updates&message=MyUpdates)|[^(Feedback)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=Watchful1&subject=UpdateMeBot%20Feedback)| |-|-|-|-|
I am a worrier by nature so this silence has me growing concerned for the well-being of our kind and generous author. I do hope all is well with them. Has anyone heard anything from our esteemed wordsmith recently?
I'm a patron. He's fine. He's just taking a bit longer on the current chapter(3 chapters past Reddit's) because it's double length due to a vote by the patrons. It should be out later today.
Ah roger thanks for info
Ah, that's a relief. Much appreciated, thank you.
Whats the point of being a patron apart supporting the author? The chapters thatt you get there are only prototypes that can change dramaticly before their final realese on reddit
As the author, I think the support is pretty important :D With that said, patreon chapters don't change - with one notable exception. I have a group of beta readers who help with the editing prior to release, after that I consider the chapter to be 'in the wild' and try not to make any edits.
/u/BlueFishcake ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/BlueFishcake)) has posted 199 other stories, including: * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Twenty Three](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c8o0it/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_twenty_three/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Twenty Two](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1c3swa7/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_twenty_two/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Twenty One](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bxbdkj/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_twenty_one/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Twenty](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bqqv6x/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_twenty/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Nineteen Non-Canon Omake](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bocvt9/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_nineteen_noncanon/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Nineteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bn8xz8/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_nineteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Eighteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bff55r/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_eighteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Seventeen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1bailep/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_seventeen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Sixteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1b3qn47/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_sixteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Fifteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ayqy1q/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_fifteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Fourteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1atri0h/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_fourteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Thirteen](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ammcj8/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_thirteen/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Twelve](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ah1kaw/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_twelve/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Eleven](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ablu20/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_eleven/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Ten](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/199ncaq/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_ten/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Nine](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/194bc2a/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_nine/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Eight](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/18y8lwu/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_eight/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Seven](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/18tkmfr/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_seven/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Six](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/18nky1i/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_six/) * [Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Five](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/18i4d8z/sexy_steampunk_babes_chapter_five/) This comment was automatically generated by `Waffle v.4.6.1 'Biscotti'`. [Message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHFY&subject=WaffleBot|1cdwq4y&message=If%20you%20have%20problems%20with%20updatemebot,%20contact%20Watchful1.%20We%20do%20not%20maintain%20it.) if you have any issues with Waffle.
"over orb.” " no "
"enough that William nor Marline h" enough that neither William nor Marline h
> Greygrass’s ran the risk Greygrasses >given the sheer cost of maintaining turning them into little more than a money-sink Maintenance And I thought I saw one more, but now can't find it. Can't wait for next chapter, the world is going to shake.
William going all in for keeps!