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First Previous Next

On a recently upgraded vessel hurtling through hyperspace:

The Warp Speed Wagon had been a humble CIPer trading vessel, and that humility was merely in relation to her size. She was in fact, the fifteenth most prosperous trading vessel in her guild, and while that guild didn't even make the rankings, Captain Lina Chen was proud of the distinction nonetheless. Why shouldn't she be? She'd worked these decks since she was just twelve years old, and had scraped and scrubbed, and guiled her way up the ranks until the Warp Speed Wagon was hers, all hers. Well, as all hers as any ship can be when you have to hire on a crew, and suffer that they live aboard with you anyway. It helped that her crew were her friends, mostly.
Most of them were in the same boat as her, figuratively speaking, in that they sent the lion's share of their proceeds back to their families on their home planets for various reasons. Not all were as dire as keeping the family farm from going under thanks to the newest prime minister deciding that the price of grain needs to come down and never mind the costs of tractor maintenance, fertilizer, and the skill to make a barren patch of dirt give forth glorious green rice stalks, but then again nobody liked to share how much of a craphole their home planet was. It was a more unspoken thing, except with Marcus, who she relied on for more than as her XO.
It wasn't a glamorous life, but it was enough for the humble crew of the Warp Speed Wagon, or it had been until the Upon the Star Tides We Sing had been murdered. Sure, she was more special to the Republic, but it's not like those suckers were the only Terrans out here in the stars. That ship represented the first time a Human or, Terran for that matter, managed to say hello to a xenos and not be immediately attacked, murdered, eaten, or disintegrated. It was kind of a big deal, and the fact that the We Sing was a merchant ship that rose to be a place of honor, where the stuck up pricks of the Republican Navy sent their absolute best to chill out for the last few years of their service kind of put the cherry on it for her and the crew. So when she got blown up by the Aztecs Dobbins, or whatever they were called, it kind of pissed her and crew off.
So, now the Warp Speed Wagon was renamed the Warp Speed Battle Wagon, well not officially or anything, but the crew had started it and Captain Chen had no intention of stopping them. Sarah had surprised everyone when she was the one who suggested getting some payback for the We Sing. Not that anyone thought she'd be against it, it was just surprising for the doctor to be the one to come up with the idea. What wasn't surprising was how quickly everyone had agreed to retrofit the Warp Speed Wagon with military grade weapons and battle screens, which those stuck-up pricks in the Republic will just sell if you have the money and it won't blow your ship up. And thus, the Warp Speed Battle Wagon was born.

On the bridge of the Temple Ship Jupiter's Might:

And lo, the place of the Emperor's respite was befouled by evil xenos in service to their profane god of death and destruction. The women of Roma Nova did wail, the patricians did sunder their robes, and the plebeians did beat their breasts at the sounding of the doom! Then did the Senate convene, and through a veil of tears it was decreed that legions be raised to bring the wrath of the gods upon the foul xenos who dare taint a holy site with their profane worship.
Consul Fleet admiral Lucius Maximus Decimus stood before the command alter with his counterpart for the expedition and narrowed his eyes. "Are we certain the enemy will be present?"
"They must be," Pontifex Maximus Quintus Versus intoned, "For the auguries foretold a great battle there."
"Moreover, they must consolidate their gains. The Republic is a giant, and it takes time to rouse her, yet if they do not take what they can now, the xenos shall find themselves shattered upon her spear," Consul General Octavia Aurelia mused.
"This is so," Consul Fleet Admiral Lucius Maximus agreed reluctantly. "Yet it beggars belief that such a foe foolish enough to strike the Republic can exist after the True Emperor did strike down the pretender with the thunderbolt."
"Despair not," High Priestess Valeria Iunia chanted, "we arrive, and gaze upon the world, there you see the enemy ships, like ticks they gorge themselves on the lifeblood they did spill, like vultures they do cram the carrion down their gullets. Mars quakes in fury at the dishonor, Jupiter bellows at the injustice, Vulcan weeps at the destruction, Venus pales at the callousness, and Pluto grieves for the souls sent untimely to his domain! Look upon the enemy and know, even the Republic shall laud your swords!"
Consul Fleet Admiral Lucius Maximus grinned as the fleet exited hyperspace and saw as the priestess had described. Even better, someone had decided to fight the Axxaakk on their own.

In high orbit over one of the conquered worlds of the clans of Eldra:

Acolyte-Lord Xamxi-Avav regarded his conquest with disgust. Only about a third of the local dung beetles had been sacrificed. How dare such weaklings pretend sapience? It offended the very commands of Axzur, may the stars tremble at his step. Just so, only a third, and yet Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer had ordered him to cease cleansing in favor of extracting the available resources with particular attention to shipbuilding materials. It wasn't the proper order of things, but the High Priestess had a vision of a mighty foe, so Priest-Lord Tiglach-Pilexer had elected to prepare.
Yet it had been nigh a week since the vision, and the foe had yet to appear. Perhaps they saw the quaking of the stars and became timid. Yet, it was not his place to question the Priest-Lord, lest he lose a hand, or even his head.
Acolyte-Lord Xamxi-Avav was just thinking about how he might at least sacrifice a mere thousand of the beetle-things, and still fulfill the orders of extraction when alarms blared. An incoming vessel, which was strange since his battle group of three battleships, six frigates, and a dozen cruisers should have mad any single hostile vessel flee upon detecting their gravity shadows from hyperspace. He hadn't even ordered hyperspace interdiction for that reason.
"Send a cruiser to that exit," he ordered off-handedly. Then, taking a fancy to the diversion he ordered, "Put it on the main screen."
"I obey," an Initiate-Highborn said, and Acolyte-Lord Xamxi-Avav readied himself to feel the pleasure of witnessing the destruction of the unworthy. A sneer curled his lips as he saw the obviously aged merchant vessel slide out of hyperspace, but it slid from his face when the plasma lances barely made the ship's shields shimmer. Then, it appeared as if the new vessel fired actual mass into the cruiser, as it was torn asunder by impacts from that trajectory.
"Send two frigates and escorts to deal with that thing," he ordered with growing interest, "Order that they fully power their shields and hold nothing back in weapons. This ship is more than it appears." Then, he watched with interest as the lone vessel made a charge for the nearest frigate, and with its kinetic weapons, nearly depleted its shields in the time it took for it to come to and return fire. Then, with the support of two escort cruisers, the unidentified vessel was finally forced to take evasive action. Which was even more interesting because the maneuvers that the unidentified vessel undertook should haver torn a ship of that size asunder, yet not so.
Even still, that merchant vessel was surly doomed, as Acolyte-Lord Xamxi-Avav decided to order a battleship in to finish it off. However, further alarms sounded. More incoming ships. These were completely different, for the most part they bristled with weapons platforms, communications arrays, and gaping maws of shuttle bay doors, except for what looked startlingly like a stone temple with engines.
"Acolyte-Lord, they send a hail."
"Display it."
There was no audio, merely a sanguine banner with golden xenos runes. There was little doubt about what that meant when a solid rod of ferrous material passed through the bridge Acolyte-Lord Xamxi-Avav was standing on.
First Previous Next

I've seen a number if fics in the past where Jaune gets kicked out of Beacon, only to be judged unworthy of rejoining his proud and noble family for his weakness and his lying, cheating ways
Along with being disowned, he has his weapon taken and his aura sealed away so he can't disgrace the name of huntsman anymore
I haven't seen one of these stories in quite a while though, does anyone know of any good ones?

Bear in mind this is just how I haven chosen to reconcile and connect everything until we get some kind of official or semi-official word.
The Beginning:
The goddess were 3 golden dragons who could take female form, they were Farore, Din, and Nayru. They created the world and the linchpin that keeps it stabilized is the Triforce. They blessed a woman with their power and made her a goddess, named Hylia. Hylia was gifted with the power of time which manifested more fully when she was ascended. Hylia's task was to guard the triforce and watch over the goddess's creation as they did not plan to remain. The triforce could not be used by gods but because it could be used by anyone else it needed Hylia to make sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands.
Hylia would not have to do this task alone though as she would be aided by many others. Lesser Dragons, servants of the goddess Faron, Lanayru, and Eldin would help safeguard different areas of the world as well as the 3 flames which I believe are fire breathed by the goddesses.
Then there were other people from different species who had their own magical powers, these would form the first sages (explaining the presence of the sage medallions on the sealed grounds temple). At the time the sages were potentially from the Parella, Kikwi, Goron, Mogma, Ancient Robots, and then it could have been Hylians or Sheikah for all I know.
Ultimately it wouldn't matter too much because a great evil would make work of Hylia's helpers. Emerging from the Depths was a demon king, Demise who came with an army to claim the world. His forces were vast and he himself was too powerful, in the end he razed the land and Hylia had to take drastic measures. She took the weak and defenseless humans along with the triforce and moved them up into the sky then created a magical cloud barrier. After that a great battle was fought which ended in the temporary sealing of Demise.
Hylia used her power over time to look into the future and set into motion a somewhat convoluted and elaborate plot with that knowledge. She would give up her mortality and be reborn as a human named Zelda and leave behind a way to awaken her memories of her past life. As Zelda she would become close to a human (now skyloftian) named Link and she would use those feelings to send him on adventure that would shape him in mind, body, and spirit into an ideal hero who could wield the triforce to wish demise's destruction. Zelda meanwhile would go on a journey to awaken her memories then go back in time and use her power over time to extend the seal for as long as possible to give Link time. But she was even more 5D chess, destroying demise in the present was only one part of the plan.
She knew that this would prompt one of Demise's servants to attempt to change time and prematurely break the seal, and that it would lead to Link going back in time to try to rescue Zelda and prevent it. This would lead to a face-off with Demise and so Hylia prepared her hero with a quest to forge a sword. A special sword that can absorb sacred power to grow stronger, be used a key to travel time, and was more importantly a counter to demise's own powerful weapon that could absorb his power and turn it against him. With that sword she knew that Link would be able to be victorious and defeat Demise, sealing away his essence and then Zelda and Link would return.
There was a cost to this though, Hylia's plan rendered her mortal so she wouldn't be able to carry on her duties and instead keeping the world and triforce safe would fall to her descendent and the reincarnating her she had shaped. Furthermore Demise wouldn't go quietly, in one final act he used his powers to lay a curse on Zelda and Link so that as long as Zelda's bloodline exists and/or Link's soul exist Demise hatred would take physical form and haunt them. With Demise otherwise done for the rest of the Skyloftians were brought back to the surface and began colonizing it.
The Formation of Hyrule:
They skyloftians changed their name to Hylians in honor of Hylia and Zelda's descendants carrying on her goddess blood became priestess to the goddess, eventually giving birth to Sonia. Other races emerged either being discovered during colonization or emerged from evolution or what not. Demise's demons still roamed the land making things difficult for the Hylians and others, no kingdoms were forming it was just pockets of civilization and colonies.
Then the Zonai arrived from the sky, and frankly I believe very much they were basically just aliens. Highly advanced in tech to the point their tech was indistinguishable from magic they were seen as being creatures more like the gods. With their tech the tides turned, the demons were battled and beaten back to the Depths they came from so long ago and shrines were created to then seal the depths blocking their return. Sonia met a Zonai named Rauru and the two fell in love, they worked together and with the zonai's tech and Sonia's people they forged relationships with other races eventually forming the kingdom of hyrule. The zonai just like any of the species also had innate magical powers as well, Rauru's was light and his sister's Meneru was spirit.
On top of that the Zonai had special stones that could enhance the innate magic within people bringing out their power, these are the secret stones. In addition the secret stones if swallowed allowed people to ascend to become beings closer to that of gods, to become dragons themselves, but the process stripped them of themselves so Dragons is all they be. By the time of the formation of the kingdom of hyrule the zonai had either long died out or had left for other worlds so Mineru and Rauru were some of the last present.
However not all people were so peaceful thanks to Demise. One of the races, the Gerudo, ended up the unlucky recipient of his curse. Demise's hate gave birth to a Gerudo King who was named Ganondorf. Ganondorf was an evil man who had Demise's power latent within him, he turned his hate towards the Zonai and he shaped some of the Gerudo into an evil group, as a note Koume and Kotake were young and alive Gerudo during this time and loyal servants to Ganondorf.
Ganondorf enacted a plot to steal the secret stone of the Zonai and gain ultimate power to takeover, and it almost worked. He killed Sonai, used her secret stone to ascend to a demon king like demise, and launched an assault. Rauru with the help of a Zelda who had time traveled to the past gathered up powerful people from each of the races and used secret stones to unlock their latent magic's potential forming a new group of sages. These were from the Gerudo, Zora, Rito, two Zonai, Goron, and Zelda.
In the end it was barely enough to win and it wasn't much of a victory, Rauru gave everything seal Ganondorf away but because of Zelda being a time travel they knew it wasn't the end, that he get free. Zelda sets up a plot to power up the master sword, Rauru awaits the day he can meet Link, and Mineru participates in a few ways. She raises up the islands and hides them behind a sort of magic cover, she helps guide the building of a new castle over Ganondorf's sealed body to safeguard it, and when all was said and done she prepared herself to wait which marks the end of the full blooded Zonai.
Picking up the Pieces:
Sonia and Rauru's bloodline lives on through their child, containing now both the goddess blood and sacred power from hylia and the sealing light power of Rauru. This leads to the modern day royal family who situates itself in the castle and awaits the appointed time. They pass down warnings about Ganondorf being sealed below the castle but over time those warnings would decay, their meaning lost, until all that the royal family remembered was that they were not to go under the castle under any circumstance.
With no goddess, no hero to wield the sword, and no secret stones to empower them the people of Hyrule were in trouble when a group of hylian sorcerers (or perhaps people who had simply found and modified zonai tech) called the interlopers tried to claim the triforce. The goddesses having no choice but to step in sent the light spirits to punish them and banish them to the twilight realm.
The king of hyrule, named Rauru after Zonai Rauru, took steps to prevent future problems. He and a group of others selected to act as sages hid away the triforce in the sacred realm and blocked the entrance by building a new temple of time over the sealed ground where the master sword would act as a key. This is the third temple of time, the first was on the surface in the desert, the second was built by the Zonai, and this is the third built by Rauru who pays homage to his heritage. The ancient sages as they would become known would also look after the mirror of the twilight.
Rauru's temple of time had hidden chambers past the sword that hid Zonai tech like the dominion rod and the statues, the temple is marked with light medallion on its walls symbolizing rauru and the royal family aka the joining of time and light. The dominion rod was hidden here because it was one of the keys to let people reach some of the hidden islands in the sky, the last real vestiges of the Zonai, who by the time of twilight princess will be forgotten in all forms except as a mysterious people in the sky who helped found hyrule. Rauru's bloodline would continue to carry on the tradition of sage of light and sage of time, with Zeldas having the burden of both delivering sealing light powers and managing time powers in order to aid Link.
As for Ganondorf? Well the seal kept him quiet for a time but he wouldn't give up, he tried to work around the seal and though he couldn't break free he could sends his essence out to be reborn and thus Ganondorf - OoT version was born. Not a reincarnation of Demise but rather a reincarnation of the Ganondorf trapped below the castle. Koume and Kotake who are still alive and remember TotK Ganondorf raise this new Ganondorf to be just like him, teaching him how to use his dark magical powers and even forging weapons for him. This wouldn't happen though till around 400 years later, in-between that period of time games like Minish cap would happen.
Then OoT happens and from there it's fairly straight forward, we have the timeline split, and thing go along the adult, child, and downfall timelines.
Odds and Ends:
In the adult timeline because there is no hero they have to beseech the gods again and this time they flood and seal all of hyrule. The Zora end up being magically changed, for what reason who knows, but they cease to be fish and instead become bird-like people. They start being called Rito after the other bird-like species called Rito, essentially becoming an unrelated branch of the Rito. Unlike the Rito proper, the Zora Rito aren't born a full on birds and don't have wings at birth instead they need help from a dragon Valoo whose magic scales grant them wings. They may have interacted with Rito or adopted some of their culture as well so some of their names carried over like Medli, in other words there were probably other Rito named Medli both throughout history and in other timelines.
Ganondorf would keep trouncing around for a long time and in the adult timeline he would be killed and instead of another one be born the wish on the triforce to wash away all traces of Hyrule wiped away the Ganondorf below the castle. In the child timeline he dies and his essence reincarnates into a new Ganondorf though without Koume and Kotake (who I presume were taken out when Ganondorf's coup failed) around he doesn't beeline straight for evil, he does find a trident of power though that empowers and turns him evil and I like to believe that was one of the final weapons Koume and Kotake built. In the downfall timeline is where things get interesting for Ganondorf.
The Downfall timeline Ganondorf gets imprisoned by the sages after the hero of time fails, and after a long battle leaving Hyrule in a pretty bad state. Koume and Kotake manage to return and attempt to bring back ganondorf, sacrificing themselves in place of zelda ending them and bringing back only a being of mindless hate we strike down. Ganondorf would find ways to return again and again and our history ends at LoZ 1&2.
However any unknown number of years later Ganondorf eventually stops coming back as a person at all, instead he devolved into more like a natural disaster, a force of pure malice becoming known as Calamity Ganon. Far more powerful in this state more drastic measures needed to be taken, Sheikah using modified zonai tech created the guardians and divine beasts to aid in defeating Calamity Ganon, naming them after the OoT sages + an unknown Rito that was most likely named Medli or Medo or some kind of variant of that. With Calamity Ganon defeated the divine beasts and guardians were hidden away. As was the rest of their tech to prevent its misuse and await the day it is needed.
Breath and Tears:
Somewhere in all this some secret stones are uncovered and swallowed by people becoming the dragons Naydra, Farosh, and Eldin. Myths about them are spread that they are spirits who changed into dragon form because people don't know about the secret stones or draconification. These guys just kinda casually roam around the place being all vaguely divine but their original selves lost.
Self explanatory enough the events of Breath of the Wild happen and Calamity Ganon having learned from his previous defeat this time got ahead of the game and turned the tech against Hyrule. As we know stuff went poorly and Link and Zelda would need to finish their task 100 years later but that would be the end of OoT Ganondorf for the foreseeable future, but that's only one Ganondorf down.
Finally after 10,000 years Rauru's seal on Ganondorf Prime, the true spawn of Demise's curse, is finally reaching its limit. His essence begins to leak out and is called Gloom, beckoning the curious princess to investigate. This leads to the completion of the loop, Ganondorf Prime breaks free, the seal on the depths and the evil within is broken, all the buried Zonai stuff starts to unearth, the islands hidden in the sky are revealed as the magical cover disguising them is gone, Zelda-light dragon with the master sword is revealed, human Zelda is sent back in time to kick start everything with Ganondorf, and then over the course of tears Link and Zelda finally finish the job of taking down Ganondorf Prime.

Blood Moon Rising
The Appalachian Mountains loomed before me like dark sentinels, their ancient peaks shrouded in an eerie mist. The wind whispered through the trees, carrying with it the secrets of the forgotten. I tightened my grip on the shotgun in my hand, my knuckles turning white. Beside me stood a creature of legend, my pet wendigo, Milo. Its eyes glowed with a hunger that matched my own, its presence a twisted comfort in this desolate landscape.
We had been hired by a desperate family, a last resort for them. Their ancestral home nestled deep within these unforgiving mountains had become infested with eldritch demons. Creatures born from nightmares, they tore at the fabric of reality itself, preying on the weak and the unsuspecting. The family, driven to the brink of madness, had sought out our unique services, knowing that only the unholy alliance between man and wendigo stood a chance against these abominations. The family called them 'demons', and in my experience with real demons, these were not the real deal, but rather another undiscovered species of cryptid.
The moon hung low in the sky, casting an otherworldly glow upon the land. It was a blood moon, a harbinger of the horrors to come. We trudged through the thick underbrush, guided by the faint cries of the family's lost souls. Every step brought us deeper into the heart of darkness, the air thick with a sense of impending doom.
Suddenly, a guttural growl pierced the silence. I raised my shotgun, readying myself for the onslaught. The wendigo beside me crouched low, its elongated limbs poised to strike. From the shadows, a grotesque figure emerged. Its skin was a sickly gray, stretched taut over emaciated bones. Its eyes glowed with an unholy light, pulsating with a malevolence that sent shivers down my spine. It was humanoid, but barely resembling a living creature as its limbs contorted and twisted while its head snapped and clicked, its jaws drooling with hunger.
Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
The shotgun's blast echoed through the night, tearing through the creature's chest. It let out a shriek that curdled my blood, but still, it advanced. The wendigo leaped forward, tearing into the demon with a ferocity that defied nature. Its razor-sharp claws ripped through flesh and bone, leaving nothing but a mangled corpse in its wake.
We pressed on, our mission clear in our minds. We were here to cleanse this unhallowed ground, to rid it of the evil that had taken root. But with every step, the horrors grew more twisted, more grotesque. The demons crawled from the shadows, their forms shifting and contorting with each passing moment. They were nightmarish amalgamations of flesh and tentacles, their faces a mockery of sanity.
The shotgun became an extension of my arm, each shot a prayer for survival. The wendigo danced through the chaos, its hunger insatiable. Limbs were torn asunder, bodies rent in two. The demons howled in agony, their unearthly cries carrying through the night, a symphony of terror.
Hours turned into an eternity as we fought our way through the hive. The family's cries grew louder, their desperation fueling our resolve. Finally, we reached the heart of the infestation, a cavern bathed in an ethereal glow. The demons swarmed around us, their numbers seemingly endless.
But we were not so easily defeated. The wendigo's hunger had become a burning fire, an insatiable rage that consumed everything in its path. I fired round after round, my aim true, each shot finding its mark. The demons fell before us, their grotesque forms disintegrating into nothingness.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The last demon fell, its dying screech echoing through the cavern. The wendigo stood before me, its chest heaving, blood dripping from its maw. We had triumphed, but at what cost?
I turned my gaze to the family, their eyes filled with a mix of awe and fear. They had witnessed the horrors unleashed upon their home, and yet, they were alive. The wendigo had saved them, had saved us all.
As we made our way back through the Appalachian Mountains, a new dawn broke on the horizon. The blood moon sank beneath the earth, its malevolent influence waning. The world seemed brighter, the air sweeter. We had faced the eldritch demons and emerged victorious.
But I knew, deep down, that the horrors we had faced would forever haunt us. The Appalachian Mountains held secrets that would never be spoken of, nightmares that would forever linger in the recesses of our minds. We had danced with the darkness and survived, but at what cost to our souls?
The wind whispered its final farewell as we disappeared into the fading mist, leaving behind a trail of blood and broken dreams. The legend of the man and his pet wendigo would be whispered among those who dared to tread these haunted mountains, a testament to the horrors that lay hidden beneath the surface.
And as the world moved on, ignorant of the terrors we had faced, I knew that the night would come again. The blood moon would rise, and once more, the man and his pet wendigo would be called upon to face the unspeakable.
"We did good," I said, petting him as we walked away. "We did good."
MORE PARTS
CONNECTED SERIES/STORIES
THE BOOKS

Blood Moon Rising
The Appalachian Mountains loomed before me like dark sentinels, their ancient peaks shrouded in an eerie mist. The wind whispered through the trees, carrying with it the secrets of the forgotten. I tightened my grip on the shotgun in my hand, my knuckles turning white. Beside me stood a creature of legend, my pet wendigo, Milo. Its eyes glowed with a hunger that matched my own, its presence a twisted comfort in this desolate landscape.
We had been hired by a desperate family, a last resort for them. Their ancestral home nestled deep within these unforgiving mountains had become infested with eldritch demons. Creatures born from nightmares, they tore at the fabric of reality itself, preying on the weak and the unsuspecting. The family, driven to the brink of madness, had sought out our unique services, knowing that only the unholy alliance between man and wendigo stood a chance against these abominations. The family called them 'demons', and in my experience with real demons, these were not the real deal, but rather another undiscovered species of cryptid.
The moon hung low in the sky, casting an otherworldly glow upon the land. It was a blood moon, a harbinger of the horrors to come. We trudged through the thick underbrush, guided by the faint cries of the family's lost souls. Every step brought us deeper into the heart of darkness, the air thick with a sense of impending doom.
Suddenly, a guttural growl pierced the silence. I raised my shotgun, readying myself for the onslaught. The wendigo beside me crouched low, its elongated limbs poised to strike. From the shadows, a grotesque figure emerged. Its skin was a sickly gray, stretched taut over emaciated bones. Its eyes glowed with an unholy light, pulsating with a malevolence that sent shivers down my spine. It was humanoid, but barely resembling a living creature as its limbs contorted and twisted while its head snapped and clicked, its jaws drooling with hunger.
Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
The shotgun's blast echoed through the night, tearing through the creature's chest. It let out a shriek that curdled my blood, but still, it advanced. The wendigo leaped forward, tearing into the demon with a ferocity that defied nature. Its razor-sharp claws ripped through flesh and bone, leaving nothing but a mangled corpse in its wake.
We pressed on, our mission clear in our minds. We were here to cleanse this unhallowed ground, to rid it of the evil that had taken root. But with every step, the horrors grew more twisted, more grotesque. The demons crawled from the shadows, their forms shifting and contorting with each passing moment. They were nightmarish amalgamations of flesh and tentacles, their faces a mockery of sanity.
The shotgun became an extension of my arm, each shot a prayer for survival. The wendigo danced through the chaos, its hunger insatiable. Limbs were torn asunder, bodies rent in two. The demons howled in agony, their unearthly cries carrying through the night, a symphony of terror.
Hours turned into an eternity as we fought our way through the hive. The family's cries grew louder, their desperation fueling our resolve. Finally, we reached the heart of the infestation, a cavern bathed in an ethereal glow. The demons swarmed around us, their numbers seemingly endless.
But we were not so easily defeated. The wendigo's hunger had become a burning fire, an insatiable rage that consumed everything in its path. I fired round after round, my aim true, each shot finding its mark. The demons fell before us, their grotesque forms disintegrating into nothingness.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The last demon fell, its dying screech echoing through the cavern. The wendigo stood before me, its chest heaving, blood dripping from its maw. We had triumphed, but at what cost?
I turned my gaze to the family, their eyes filled with a mix of awe and fear. They had witnessed the horrors unleashed upon their home, and yet, they were alive. The wendigo had saved them, had saved us all.
As we made our way back through the Appalachian Mountains, a new dawn broke on the horizon. The blood moon sank beneath the earth, its malevolent influence waning. The world seemed brighter, the air sweeter. We had faced the eldritch demons and emerged victorious.
But I knew, deep down, that the horrors we had faced would forever haunt us. The Appalachian Mountains held secrets that would never be spoken of, nightmares that would forever linger in the recesses of our minds. We had danced with the darkness and survived, but at what cost to our souls?
The wind whispered its final farewell as we disappeared into the fading mist, leaving behind a trail of blood and broken dreams. The legend of the man and his pet wendigo would be whispered among those who dared to tread these haunted mountains, a testament to the horrors that lay hidden beneath the surface.
And as the world moved on, ignorant of the terrors we had faced, I knew that the night would come again. The blood moon would rise, and once more, the man and his pet wendigo would be called upon to face the unspeakable.
MORE PARTS
CONNECTED SERIES/STORIES
THE BOOKS

“It’s a hard truth to accept, son… but you need to let her go. You need to understand that your daughter is dead. Gone. Whatever's left… that’s not your little girl. Not anymore.”
Those words broke me, but I needed to hear them.

Pastor Sanders put a gentle hand on my shoulder as I bowed my head, feeling the tears come.
“I’m sorry, Father…” I said, expecting him to take his hand away, to chide me for my weakness. But he did no such thing. Ever the gentle shepherd, he comforted me in my moment of need. He was a kind, but stern looking man, with a comforting smile and greying hair.

“It is natural to mourn the death of your own child,” He said. “That’s what any good father would do.”
“I tried… I tried to raise her right… tried to take care of her.”

“You did your best, my son,” Pastor Sanders assured me, “That is all that a man can do. But Satan is relentless. He is devious. He never comes with horns and a pitchfork. He chooses a more innocent form. He comes bearing what seems like wisdom, he comes in the form of a teacher, a friend, a mentor. Your daughter is not the first child whos life he has slithered his way into… and until the day where he is vanquished along with all the demons of hell, she will not be the last. Children are among Satan’s favorite targets. He seeks to indoctrinate them for his glory, he corrupts them and destroys them. I know what it is like as a parent to watch as he takes the child you raised and leaves something evil in its place. Not knowing or understanding what is happening. It’s a horrifying experience.”

“It happened to you too?” I asked.
Pastor Sanders nodded solemnly.
“It did. The pain you’re experiencing right now, I know it all too well. I lost my son about two years ago. He… he used to be a good boy. A proud boy. Then he met some girl…” His voice lowered into a hiss of disgust, “She lured him away from God. Turned him into something he wasn’t. She took him away from me.”

“How did you get him back?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” Pastor Sanders replied. “There comes a certain point where they are too far gone to save. When your child has forsaken God completely, there is no returning from that. There is no life without God, there is only despair and the only salvation that can be offered to them is to prevent them from comitting any further attrocities before God.”

My heart seized up in my chest.
“Father…?” I asked.
He had a far away look in his eye.
“I brought that boy into this world… I took him out. It was the only way I could save him. The only thing I could do to spare him from eternal Hellfire. I sent his soul to God, and through God I hope he may be purified.”

I was silent, unsure what to say to that. It almost sounded as if the Pastor was talking complete madness. He looked back at me, studying my expression for a moment before smiling at me.
“You’re wondering how I could do it, aren’t you?” He asked.
“Your own son, Father?
“Yes, my own son. It was necessary, to save his soul… and if you want to save your daughter…”
“No!” I said, standing up suddenly, “No! No, I couldn’t!”

He remained seated in the pew of the empty church, looking up at me.
“Then your daughter will be condemned to Hell.”
“There must be some way to save her!” I said.
“If there were, I would share it with you. You know that I would. But there is nothing. Nothing more that I have to offer you, here. The only path forward is to deny the Devil his soul.”
“Please, Father… please, I can’t…”

He finally stood up, turning to leave me.
“Father…?” I asked, as he stepped out from between the pews. He sighed before looking back at me. He paused, studying me for a moment before speaking again.
“As I said before, your daughter is already dead. My son was too. Whatever remains isn’t really them. Not anymore. You won’t get her back. All you can do is set her free. In the eyes of our children, we are their greatest heroes, Bill. And the task of a hero isn’t always an easy one. It never has been, even in the oldest myths. Think of Perseus… that’s a name you probably know, isn’t it?”

I nodded. The Greek hero who’d slain Medusa.
“Perseus ventured into the lair of the Gorgon, Medusa as an act of penance. When the King, his stepfather had invited him to a banquet, Perseus had no horse to offer him as a gift. So he asked the King to name his price. He requested the head of Medusa… and so Peresus sought it and when he returned, he earned his redemption. See yourself in Perseus, Bill. Do what needs to be done.”

With that, he left me there, broken in the pews and struggling with the truth he had bestowed upon me.

I already knew what needed to be done. And I knew that I had no choice but to do it.

Pastor Sanders was a stern teacher… but there was always purpose in his lessons. He was a man who spoke only truth, I knew this. It was why others feared him, ostracized him, persecuted him, and those who followed him. He had come to me at my lowest point about a year ago and I had given everything to follow him. My home was his home. My wealth was his wealth. People said I was a fool for what I did, but I knew that when the time came, they would wish that they had made the choices that I had made. I knew that the Lord would reward me for my loyalty to Pastor Sanders and to Him, for my faith in the Lord could not steer me wrong.

That said - I will admit that what Pastor Sanders told me tested my faith in him a little. But only a little. I knew in my heart that he was right. My daughter was dead. All I could do was deny whatever was left of her the chance to sin again, and perhaps free her soul. Maybe then, I might see her again in heaven. Maybe…

I would see her in heaven.

I would see her again and I would have my little girl back and that would be my reward! God willed it! God would make it so!

I knew what I had to do… and by God, I would do it. Like Perseus I would hunt the demon who had taken my daughter from me and I would destroy it, and grant her salvation!

Hallelujah.

***

I knew that I’d raised my little girl better than this. I knew that I’d raised her right. That I’d raised her to be honest, faithful, pure.

But the girl I saw walking down the street looked like none of those things. My daughter had natural hair, she didn’t dye it! She didn’t put on makeup like some whore, she didn’t dress like a whore! But the girl I saw walking down the street wore short shorts, had dyed blue hair, she had tattoos, good Lord! I almost didn’t recognize her as my own flesh and blood, and were it not for her aryan features I might not have recognized her at all.

I’d known that she had been sick… that she had been twisted. But I hadn’t realized just how bad it had gotten. I should never have let her leave home… I should never have let her leave me four years ago. But she’d begged and pleaded with me to let her go to college. She’d said that getting an education would be good for her. But I’d said no. I’d said that she didn’t need to waste her time on such things! A woman has no business slaving away for a wage. That’s a man’s job. That’s a man’s duty. But she’d begged and begged… and in the end I’d given in. I thought that maybe if she saw the depravity of the world for herself, she’d understand why I was so against her leaving. She’d understand why I didn’t want my precious flower to be poisoned by the sickness that has infected this world!

Clearly, I was wrong.

Once my daughter was gone, she never came back. I was sure she’d come home when I refused to continue to pay for her indoctrination at some college, but she persisted. She stayed in the city, put herself in debt to pay her way through school and started living with some other whore, who she paid rent with.

When I demanded that she return to me, she refused. She said that she wouldn’t go back under my roof! Even when I drove into that city to drag her out, to bring her home by force she locked herself in an apartment and had her ‘friends’ stand guard out front, telling me that she refused to see me.

I would have pushed past them, but they fought me tooth and nail. One of them, a particularly tall and somewhat lanky girl that she lived with. This girl I remembered most prominently. She’d had sharp, roman features, intense eyes and a large beanie that she wore on her head that made her look like some stoner, hippie freak. I swore that I even saw dreadlocks under there. She had been the strongest of them, to an almost impressive extent. She’d kept me from even making it into her apartment.

I’d sworn to her that I’d be back, but she hadn’t bothered indulging me with a reply. And when I had honored my word and returned with my brother and some of his friends, we found that someone else had taken over that apartment. My daughter and her whore friends had fled from us… and we weren’t able to find out where they went.

For years, I had not heard a single word from my daughter… and I missed her every day, or at least I suppose I missed the girl she had been, once upon a time. When I had tried reaching out to her, she had ignored me. I even tried getting in touch with some of her friends, but they refused to talk to her on my behalf.

This was not the girl I’d raised! The girl I’d raised would have honored her father, she would have known she owed me her respect and her obedience, she would never have treated me with such contempt!

No… this was nothing like the girl that I’d raised! This was something else although just what, I did not know. Pastor Sanders had said that only an actual demon could change someone so drastically, and I wondered if perhaps he was right.

I’d tried hiring a lawyer to look into some legal avenue I could pursue to have her brought back to me, and when that proved fruitless I tried to sue the college, for indoctrinating my daughter and taking her away from me, but that didn’t get me anywhere either.

My options dwindled away into nothing… and as much as I hadn’t wanted to accept Pastor Sanders truth, it was the only thing that I had left to cling to. Finding my daughter again after all these years was no easy feat… but I was patient and God was on my side.

She didn’t even notice me as she’d walked past my parked car that evening, but I saw her in all of her depravity. I saw the way she held hands with that tall girl I had seen before… the one who wore that disgusting beanie on her head. I watched as they chatted among each other, I observed the way they lingered so close to one another and I knew that they were more than just friends.

The sight of my daughter in some girls arms sickened me… my daughter, corrupted by this vile woman. The way that the woman in the beanie kissed my daughters cheek confirmed it. And as I watched them, I made the silent decision to kill her first… to teach my arrogant, faithless daughter… or whatever was left of her a lesson. To remind her that there was no place on this earth where she was safe from God!

The gun sat in my glovebox, it was loaded and ready. I watched as my daughter and her lover entered an apartment building. I already knew what floor they were going to, and I already knew which apartment.

Finding them had not been easy, but as I said I was persistent and blessed by God on my holy mission. The strength of Pastor Sanders kept me going and my faith was ironclad.

The sky was growing dark. After a few moments, I left my car and made my move. The gun rested heavy in my hand. It may not have been the most divine weapon, but it would do the job.

Floor 7, apartment 721.

That was my destination.

Like Perseus into the lair of Medusa, I stood stalwart and strong. I stepped out of the elevator and into the hall, feeling my heart race with every step. The voice of Satan whispered in my ear, begging me not to slaughter my own child. But I needed to do it. Killing her was the only way she could attain salvation! It was the only way she could return to God’s light!

My heart raced as I pounded on the door.
‘The task of a hero isn’t always an easy one.’
I was a hero, wasn’t I? I would be her hero!

I could hear footsteps approaching the door. I recognized them.

My daughter was close. My daughter was coming.

I would save her.

I exhaled, and when the door open I moved, forcing it open. I saw the wide, terrified eyes of my little girl as I closed my hand around her throat and pinned her against the wall. She tried to scream, but I forced her not to, pressing the gun into her stomach.
“Not a word…” I growled.

Her big blue eyes were fixated on me, wide and full of tears. For a moment, I remembered the child I’d used to know… the child I’d used to love.

I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do this…

I needed to. FOR HER SALVATION!

Grabbing my daughter, I dragged her deeper into the apartment. I didn’t see any trace of her girlfriend but I could hear a bath running in the next room. I tossed my daughter into the living room, sending her crashing to the ground and keeping the gun aimed at her. She didn’t utter a sound, she just stared at me, knowing what I was going to do.

“Wait…” She said, her voice trembling as she raised a hand to me, “D-Daddy wait…”
I didn’t answer her.

I heard the bathroom door open. Her girlfriend had likely heard the commotion and come to investigate.
“You will watch this…” I said to her, before turning to send the whore who had corrupted my daughter straight to hell.

No sooner had I turned around, did I see her emerging from the bedroom, dressed only in a bathrobe, with a towel wrapped around her head. She seemed to tower over me, and she fixed me in that intense stare of hers, recognizing me and immediately realizing what this was. I aimed the gun at her and watched her freeze.

“You took my girl away from me…” I hissed, “You took her from me…”
My finger pressed down on the trigger. There was no hesitation here. Only rage, pure and unfettered.

I would shoot this woman dead without batting an eye.

It would be easy.

And yet while the gun went off, the bullet missed.

I felt my daughters weight slamming into me, trying to stop me from killing the whore who had corrupted her. I heard her screaming at me, begging me not to. I threw her off of me. She was always a petite girl. She couldn’t stop me for long. I tried to aim the gun at the girlfriend again, but she had taken full opportunity of the distraction that my daughter had produced to close the distance between us. She grabbed me by the wrist with an iron grip, and kept me from aiming the gun at her.
“NO!” I spat, “DIE, YOU WHORE! DIE!”

With my free hand, I clawed at her face. I tore the towel off of her head and then…
Then…

Then I saw what lay beneath it… and my heart froze in my chest.

My daughter's girlfriend seemed surprised for a moment, but not for long. The things on her head on the other hand, seemed almost relieved to be free. They writhed and twisted on her scalp, hissing at me as they fixed me in their burning yellow eyes. They bore their fangs at me, rearing back to strike, but didn’t.

I stared into the eyes of Medusa. Beautiful, yet hideous with tangled emerald serpents for hair… and she looked back at me with a cold disgust that flayed me down to my very soul. Perseus would have stood brave! Perseus would have fought! I needed to fight too!

I struck her again, screaming in both terror and rage. She tried to stop me, but she wasn’t fast enough. I’d hit her across the head once, and was swinging my fist at her again when she caught it. One of the emerald snakes upon her head struck at me, biting my hand. Its bite left a searing pain behind.

I screamed as the Medusa pushed me off of her, sending me crashing to the ground. The gun slipped from my grasp as I gripped my burning hand. Its fingers clenched into a fist, but would not unclench.
No… no! I would not succumb to whatever this was! I would not succumb to the Gorgon’s poison!

“Gabrielle!” My daughter called, rushing to her side. She ran into the embrace of the Gorgon, before looking down at me. Her eyes settled on the bite in my hand, and a solemn look crossed her face.
“Don’t look, May…” The Gorgon said softly, and my daughter turned her head from me.

I tried to stand, but my body was already starting to burn. My muscles felt stiff and moving felt harder and harder… but my skin still looked like skin… it didn’t look like stone! I collapsed, gasping for breath as I did. Watching my skin, I could see something beneath it shifting. It could see my skin begin to bulge and deform. I could see new bone growth appearing in those deformities. My body was burning, growing, changing, coming apart.

I tried to reach for the gun, but my arms would not move anymore.
This shouldn’t be happening!
This shouldn’t be possible, God was supposed to be on my side! I shouldn’t be falling to one of Satan’s monsters! I shouldn’t be dying at the hands of the demon that held my daughter!

I looked up at them one last time. The Gorgon held my daughter close, comforting her as my body turned against me. Every movement caused fresh new pain to erupt through me. Breathing became impossible, as my lungs and throat became solid.

I lay on the ground, gasping for breath until no more breath came and then, when there was nothing left I only watched as the Gorgon gently took my daughter into the next room so she wouldn’t have to watch me die.

The room was empty when I finally slipped away into darkness… and when I did, I knew that God would not be waiting for me.

About a month ago I gave some early gameplay impressions about the full release of Omega Strikers as a sort of follow-up to my beta impressions of Omega Strikers, and wanted to provide more avenues for discussion for a few reasons:

Players (including myself) have learned a lot about how the new mechanics work, which has shifted some of my opinions about the new mechanics and I've learned how to use the mechanics and have played with others that have learned how to use the mechanics. As a result, some of my opinions about those subjects are now outdated, other points I can elaborate on, and even more points are things that were present before but not things I recognized after my previous post.
Some issues I had during the beta I could not assess properly during the short time frame between the full launch and the time I posted my previous feedback, and I have a lot more time to assess how the current state of the game affects these beta problems.
New content got released, and I can give feedback and opinions on those topics.

Without further ado, I would like to share with you some of my opinions on the state of the game as of May 2023.

Beta Problems Revisited

There were a few issues I had during the beta that I couldn't accurately address during my previous post due to not having enough experience with the game in that stage, and wanted to do a quick rundown of those changes here:
Teamplay I believed was a big problem during the beta because there weren't numerical rewards for playing with your team and it was very easy to prevent the goalie from playing the game from the start with the right setup. There still aren't numerical rewards for teamplay, but there are other changes in the right direction: participation awards for dealing a lot of damage are gone from the MVP screen, and the inability to build entirely for damage from the start makes it extremely difficult to bully the goalie and prevent them from playing the game. There still aren't incentives for playing as a team, but there are much fewer mechanics discouraging players from playing selfishly, and it's also much harder to just carry a game.
At the time I wrote my previous post I had not played ranked, and therefore hadn't seen the new character ban system. The benefit of the new system is that it allows you to adapt your character ban to characters your teammates don't intend on playing and/or characters that the stage and/or awakenings system benefit greatly. There's still a problem where it doesn't take a majority vote when there is a slight majority, but that was a problem with the old system that's still a problem with the new system.

Matchmaking

I believe matchmaking is a big problem right now in basically all formats, although it's slightly different for competitive.
In unranked modes, the lack of skill-based matchmaking makes finding a good match with players of your skill level an absolute chore to find. This is particularly problematic for new players, who go into an unranked match, get matched with 5 other veterans, and not get to play the game, as well as experienced players that get matched with these new players that are effectively playing down a player. Realistically, I don't think it would be a problem if the teams were at least partially balanced in spite of the skill gap, but that's not happening: I had a game where I ended the game twice the combined levels of my teammates, and I couldn't blame either of them because it was very obvious that they were new.
In ranked, there's a slightly different problem. It does do a decent job of matching players of similar skill levels together to a reasonable degree, but it also has a slightly warped idea of a player's skill level. There's a huge skill gap in low plat because it's filled with a mix of mediocre players that climbed just by understanding the game slightly better than the average player and abusing the low-ranked elo gains and mediocre players that understand the game well but either aren't skilled enough to make the higher tiers or have dumb gameplay problems like constantly running into the black hole on Atlas' Lab.

Match Length and Pacing

I still don't like the poor pacing provided by the awakening draft, but I think match length is mostly in a good spot now. Once you learn how to use the new mechanics the games feel just as intense as games during the beta did while also feeling purposeful in a way that matches during the beta didn't.
My only complaint with match length is the timer system. Timers should be there to promote interaction between both teams in the same way real-world sports use their timers to drive interactions between both teams, but right now the 1-minute round timers don't encourage interaction, only make interactions more chaotic when a single round goes on for a while. In addition, I feel like there's a large gap in the length of rounds on different stages, with some stages consistently contributing to longer games than the others, and the current overtime system doesn't help with that. Making timers per-set instead of per-round would fix these issues: the threat of losing a set to time helps drive interaction and reigns in the length of games on stages that consistently go into overtime with the current per-round system.

Energy

During my previous post I couldn't provide an accurate assessment of energy because no one I played with (including myself) had a good grasp of the mechanic. Now that I've played with it a lot more it feels like a really interesting mechanic with so many uses. Evade makes it a lot harder to score KOs against players of your skill level and offers a level of counterplay against extremely large abilities that you otherwise may not be able to avoid. Meanwhile, core burst is an incredibly powerful yet versatile tool that's usable on defense and all forms of offense. It feels really good when you use it to secure a goal or KO but feels even better when you get the perfect read on your opponent's core flip and get a sick play out of it. It also heavily rewards interaction with players in a way that no other mechanic has before, since you can now choose to save your evade for core flip at the expense of your stagger bar or can choose to use your energy to save parts of your stagger bar, which produces a really interesting dynamic between those two resources.

Awakenings

Now that we've had awakenings for a while I think the system is generally fun with a few problems. Balance is out of the scope of this post, but there are still gameplay issues that should be resolved:

Unstoppable feels like a very poorly designed awakening. All the other awakenings reward you for good play, whether it's by rewarding you for good ability use with Specialized Training, allowing you to make more decisions with your abilities like Prime Time, or by rewarding you for better managing your resources with Swagger Stagger or Orb Sharer. However, Unstoppable does the exact opposite: it rewards you for bad play by allowing you to make all the positioning mistakes you want and not get punished, as long as you aren't staggered and aren't literally scratching your back on the wall.
Infinite awakenings heavily reduce the skill expression within the game. On one hand, a lucky infinite awakening can swing the tide of the match and emphasizes the random nature of the awakenings system instead of promoting the skill expression in adapting to the awakenings you get. On the other hand, the infinite awakening reduces the skill of denying certain awakenings, either when everyone wants the infinite awakening or when a particular awakening is game-warpingly good on a particular character to necessitate denying it.
I personally don't like how the starting awakenings can influence character picks at the start of the game. New players shouldn't be forced to try and learn multiple characters just because the starting awakenings don't affect the character they play, nor should players be forced to play characters they don't enjoy just because the rest of their character pool physically doesn't benefit from certain awakenings. This is particularly problematic if your character pool doesn't have a creation user, which means that there's a 0.17% chance you don't get to play the game with a character you can play if the game gives you Monumentalist and Timeless Creator. That doesn't seem like a particularly large chance, but if you play 1000 games you should expect to see it at least once, and I don't think that chance is fair at all.
Creations I think are problematic for the long-term health of the game not because of the effects the creation awakenings have on creations themselves but because of the strain that creation-improving awakenings have on the awakening system overall. Less than half of this game's characters use creations, and it doesn't seem fair for 5.88% of the pool of awakenings to be reserved for 41.17% of the cast. That said, I don't think the solution is simply to remove creation awakenings without any compensation to creation characters, as I think that would cause large balance issues since most creation characters really like those creation awakenings, but there needs to be a better solution that allows creation users to have their creation improvements while also being usable on other characters to improve their unique attributes.
There's been an emphasis on awakenings that work well together, with Sparks, the new Orb awakenings with Orb Sharer, and (to a lesser extent) Bulk Up and Peak Performance with other stagger increases. However, I think there's a missed opportunity for other awakening synergies, such as Stinger with debuff duration, Adrenaline Rush and Orb Dancer with both buff duration and haste potency, and really leaning into Bulk Up and Peak Performance's stagger scaling by having it scale with bonus stagger (which could be interpreted as stagger from awakenings and the bonus stagger per level or just the stagger from awakenings). There are already interesting awakening synergies in the game that don't work, and some of these should be changed for a more interesting awakening system.

Gear

My main complaint with gear is that it's a proactive customization option that's considerably less deep than the system it replaced, which I covered in my previous post. My other complaint with gear is that whether or not the gear interacts with awakenings is inconsistent because Strike Shot scales with projectile range but Siphoning Wand doesn't scale with debuff duration and both Magnetic Soles and Slick Kicks don't scale with buff duration or haste potency. Either Strike Shot shouldn't scale with projectile range or Strike Shot shouldn't be the only gear that scales with awakenings.

Stages

Since the my previous post, I've personally developed a greater understanding of what I think makes a good or bad stage, as well as there being 2 more stages I can form opinions on. I think there are 3 ideas that I think make a stage great:

Dynamic gameplay, where the moment-to-moment gameplay changes based on the stage's current features, whether it's the player objectives changing from moment to moment, the stage hazards affecting the gameplay differently throughout the match, or the stage's unique layout changing its gameplay compared to other stages.
Promotion of teamplay, where coordinating with your teammate(s) is more heavily rewarded than playing by yourself.
A sliding scale of extremes, where an extreme case of one of the previous 2 ideas can compensate for limitations in the other.

With these ideas, I can share better opinions on which stages I like and why I like them.
In spite of constantly running into the black hole on accident Atlas' Lab is my personal favorite map. The black hole is far and away the most dynamic stage hazard, leaving effectively 2 modes of the stage that it flips through constantly but predictably. In addition, some stages have hazards that inhibit teamplay, but Atlas' Lab promotes it because the gravitational pull around the black hole offers new and interesting passing lanes that prevents the problem other stages with centralized hazards have where the centralized obstruction interferes with passes. The goal barriers are decentralized enough to get goalies to move out and away from the center of the goalie box and to get forwards from simply aiming for the goal for the full duration of the match. In addition, getting both goal barriers in a single play is both more satisfying and more consistent on this map than any other. My only complaint is that there isn't a visual for the black hole coming back up.
Night Market I think has the overall most dynamic gameplay experience. The walls limit passing angles, but I think the speed boost makes up for it by making it easy for players to travel through the center to reposition for a pass. However, I think the dynamism of the gameplay experience rests heavily on the interaction between the barriers and the wall. On any other map, these barriers would be the easiest to break because they're large and stretch to the edge of the stage, but the walls make it difficult to pass to the other side and make it extremely practical for the goalie to defend both. However, Night Market's barriers have a unique feature: when one barrier goes down, I think it becomes easier to take down the other barrier because there's a new attack angle for the second barrier that wasn't there until the first one went down. The other stages with 2 barriers make it much harder to take the other barrier when one goes down because they are much smaller and aren't touching at the start of the game. This feature of the barriers I think creates the most compelling pacing of any map, where there's a steady rise in tension as the barriers go down when the other stages either have a dramatic rise in tension when a barrier goes down or has reduced tension when a barrier goes down because the other barrier is so hard to get. Also, the speed boost is the most fun hazard to play with on its own, and helps distract from the lack of teamplay. My biggest complaint is that sometimes, the corners of the barriers are inconsistent, where it feels like sometimes the barriers go down for no reason when it touches the far corners of the barrier, usually when the goalie tries to clear it.
Ahten City I think is the exact opposite of Night Market, where it's the king of teamplay at the comparative expense of a dynamic gameplay experience. The goal barrier is big and wide enough that you're not aiming at it like you're trying to score, which is the bare minimum I would expect a goal barrier to try and do, and the complete lack of stage hazards means there's nothing to inhibit. This means that this stage promotes solid teamplay fundamentals while still putting in the minimum amount of effort to make the gameplay dynamic. My only complaint is the orbs: I think it's really interesting for Ahten City to have more orbs than the other stages to make it more interesting, but the fact that it spawns 6 orbs in 6 different locations when the other 5 stages spawn 3 orbs of 4 different locations means that all the orbs players get are rather predictable. I think it would be a far more interesting stage if it spawned 5 orbs (1 in each goalie box and 3 on the stage) so it at least keeps the consistency of "max orbs -1" of the other stages and to make the gameplay slightly more dynamic as players need to react to different orbs being available throughout the game.
Demon Dais is very interesting because its gameplay novelty hinges heavily around it having the most unique gameplay experience, and it's all thanks to the goal barrier. The goal barrier is so far forward that it forces goalies to play a lot further forward than they would on other stages and allows forwards to play behind their opponent's goal barrier, which isn't possible on any other stage. The speakers don't change much about the gameplay by themselves, but the fact that they grow stronger as the barriers go down makes the moment-to-moment gameplay feel considerably different from other stages. Teamplay is inhibited by the fact that players are clumped together when the barrier is up and not gliding behind it, which makes passing not very rewarding and makes it more likely that opponents will be blocking a passing lane, but that's a fine concession for Demon Dais' gameplay experience.
Oni Village has good teamplay without the dynamic gameplay. It's so difficult to defend both barriers at once that it's considered optimal to let one barrier go down and focus on defending the other barrier, and that other barrier small enough and has so few attack angles that it's much easier to defend than the other barriers. In addition, the speed boost makes it much easier for forwards to help defend the goal barrier than on other maps, and using the wall is hard because the speed boost makes it hard to dribble and provides no room to hit around the goalie. In addition, teamplay isn't as well supported as it is on the other maps because the goal barrier is so small that passes are extremely easy to react to. A lot of players don't like this stage because of how much longer it makes games, and while I think it offers a dynamic gameplay experience and has no hazards to inhibit teamplay I don't think it does either particularly well because of how easy it is to defend that second barrier compared to the barriers on all the other stages.
Ai.mi's App is far and away my least favorite stage. The small, centralized goal barrier centered right in front of the goal means that the objectives of the goalie and forwards don't change throughout the match, and the pit inhibits teamplay just by existing in the same way that the Night Market walls inhibit teamplay. I say this as a Rasmus player, who benefits greatly from this map's features, because I don't like how I'm forced to pick or ban a particular character (even though I do really enjoy the character) and I don't like how his presence single-handedly warps the gameplay on the map itself. I expect changes to Rasmus' Death Touch because of this map, but I also hope this map gets changes in the future because it's honestly the most boring map to play on over long periods of time.

Characters and Micropatches

I don't like touching on game balance in these posts because it produces very poor discussion points that creates chaos in the ensuing discussion as people argue about a character's power level. Same thing with any other aspect of the game. The closest I will get to touching game balance comes from balance philosophy since it's based on more substantial ideas of how a game can and should be balanced rather than any individual balancing decision. I say all that to preface that everything I say in this section is in regards to game design rather than game balance, and don't want to be misinterpreted as wanting changes to any individual characters.
I say all this to say that micropatches are being severely misused. Making balance changes requires data, and the time frame between a patch and a micropatch (or between micropatches in some cases) is not enough time to gather enough data to make informed balance changes. In addition, it's possible that the meta changes without developer intervention, and doing balance changes too quickly can lead to an overreactive change that makes the character substantially better or worse as the perception of the character got better or worse and leads to the character being too strong or weak until the moment the developer decides to change them again. Micropatches are best used when they're primarily used to fix bugs that will improve the gameplay experience for a majority of players, not when they're used for balance changes, and I hope that micropatches are used as such in the future.
In terms of characters, there are two characters that I think have problematic aspects of their design. One of these problems I touched on before, and is based on the interaction between Rasmus and Ai.mi's App. Rasmus is considerably better on Ai.mi's App than any other stage because of how Death Touch interacts with the pit, and has the largest difference in viability between different stages with possibly no close second. While I think it's appropriate for characters to be better on certain stages than others I think Rasmus takes it to an unacceptable extreme, as he warps the gameplay experience so much on that one particular map and it makes it impossible to balance him for other maps without completely breaking him on Ai.mi's App unless Death Touch can't pull unstaggered enemies.
The other character I think is problematic for the overall health of the game is Octavia. The nature of Octavia's speed boost rewards playing extremely selfishly to maintain it when players should be rewarded for working as a team and forces her opponents to target her to keep her from pulling off her game plan. No other character warps the game around them nearly as hard as Octavia does (including Rasmus on Ai.mi's App), nor does any other character make the game less fun for teammates when successfully pulling off their intended game plan. Octavia needs a rework to bring her up to the gameplay standards of the other 16 characters, since right now she's not playing the same game as the other characters.
I want to finish with something that might be controversial: I think light hits are outdated. During the beta, light hits were used with medium and heavy hits to denote the gameplay mechanics of many different types of abilities. Now, that gameplay distinction is gone outside of a handful of awakening interactions. In addition, most light hit abilities don't state that they slow enemies in their tooltips, and there are abilities counted as a light hit that definitely don't slow, most notably the basic strike. Finally, light hits are used as an extremely arbitrary balance mechanism with awakening interactions, where moves like Kai's Barrage being capable of gaining 12 stacks of Stacks on Stacks from hitting a single target when Rasmus can use Whiplash to get 8 stacks with a miracle where the enemy team clusters around the core. Perhaps the most notable example of how messed up this is is Era, who (assuming her Bewitching Beam works like it did during beta, where it was definitely a light hit) gets only 2 stacks per hit with her primary but can get 30+ stacks easily by hitting a single fully charged Magic Maelstrom and can 100-0 opponents with said Magic Maelstrom using Tempo Swing, which I don't think is acceptable in spite of playing Era. I think everyone should be reevaluated for their light hits as to whether they should count as light hits for the purpose of awakenings or not and update their tooltips to say how much enemies are slowed and/or that it only knocks back unstaggered enemies. The result should be that these abilities do the same thing they do now, with wording that better reflects their capabilities with awakenings. I think the most important aspect of retuning light hits would be to make it so that Strikes and multi-hitting moves like Barrage and Magic Maelstrom are all reduced and single-hit abilities like Whiplash and sourspot Bellringer get full value, so maybe the best solution would be to replace the light hit keyword with a new keyword called "multihit" for these types of abilities.

Hey everyone, I could use some build advice. I’m currently WW+BOD and while it has its strengths, I’m finding it a little lackluster. It feels like the jack of all trades, master of none. However, only WW & seal of condensed destruction are awakened and most link runes are only rare, which is holding it back.
I’m thinking about moving to pure WW for mobs and fierce strike for bosses, but I’m concerned that with only a couple legendary / awakened runes that it will be weak.
So my question is: does WW & fierce strike need most runes to be legendary or awakened to be viable? (I know fierce strike is mandatory awaken)

The weak prince of an insignificant country, Davey. After becoming comatose, his soul escaped to a temple where the souls of heroes gathered. He trained for a thousand years and has now returned as a max level hero! “Just you guys wait, I’m gonna face you all head on!” The refreshing story of Davey’s royal life and revenge has just begun. ... Read The Max Level Hero Strikes Back - Chapter 131 - MangaPuma. Read more at https://mangapuma.com/the-max-level-hero-strikes-back/chapter-131

Blood Moon Rising
The Appalachian Mountains loomed before me like dark sentinels, their ancient peaks shrouded in an eerie mist. The wind whispered through the trees, carrying with it the secrets of the forgotten. I tightened my grip on the shotgun in my hand, my knuckles turning white. Beside me stood a creature of legend, my pet wendigo, Milo. Its eyes glowed with a hunger that matched my own, its presence a twisted comfort in this desolate landscape.
We had been hired by a desperate family, a last resort for them. Their ancestral home nestled deep within these unforgiving mountains had become infested with eldritch demons. Creatures born from nightmares, they tore at the fabric of reality itself, preying on the weak and the unsuspecting. The family, driven to the brink of madness, had sought out our unique services, knowing that only the unholy alliance between man and wendigo stood a chance against these abominations. The family called them 'demons', and in my experience with real demons, these were not the real deal, but rather another undiscovered species of cryptid.
The moon hung low in the sky, casting an otherworldly glow upon the land. It was a blood moon, a harbinger of the horrors to come. We trudged through the thick underbrush, guided by the faint cries of the family's lost souls. Every step brought us deeper into the heart of darkness, the air thick with a sense of impending doom.
Suddenly, a guttural growl pierced the silence. I raised my shotgun, readying myself for the onslaught. The wendigo beside me crouched low, its elongated limbs poised to strike. From the shadows, a grotesque figure emerged. Its skin was a sickly gray, stretched taut over emaciated bones. Its eyes glowed with an unholy light, pulsating with a malevolence that sent shivers down my spine. It was humanoid, but barely resembling a living creature as its limbs contorted and twisted while its head snapped and clicked, its jaws drooling with hunger.
Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger.
The shotgun's blast echoed through the night, tearing through the creature's chest. It let out a shriek that curdled my blood, but still, it advanced. The wendigo leaped forward, tearing into the demon with a ferocity that defied nature. Its razor-sharp claws ripped through flesh and bone, leaving nothing but a mangled corpse in its wake.
We pressed on, our mission clear in our minds. We were here to cleanse this unhallowed ground, to rid it of the evil that had taken root. But with every step, the horrors grew more twisted, more grotesque. The demons crawled from the shadows, their forms shifting and contorting with each passing moment. They were nightmarish amalgamations of flesh and tentacles, their faces a mockery of sanity.
The shotgun became an extension of my arm, each shot a prayer for survival. The wendigo danced through the chaos, its hunger insatiable. Limbs were torn asunder, bodies rent in two. The demons howled in agony, their unearthly cries carrying through the night, a symphony of terror.
Hours turned into an eternity as we fought our way through the hive. The family's cries grew louder, their desperation fueling our resolve. Finally, we reached the heart of the infestation, a cavern bathed in an ethereal glow. The demons swarmed around us, their numbers seemingly endless.
But we were not so easily defeated. The wendigo's hunger had become a burning fire, an insatiable rage that consumed everything in its path. I fired round after round, my aim true, each shot finding its mark. The demons fell before us, their grotesque forms disintegrating into nothingness.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The last demon fell, its dying screech echoing through the cavern. The wendigo stood before me, its chest heaving, blood dripping from its maw. We had triumphed, but at what cost?
I turned my gaze to the family, their eyes filled with a mix of awe and fear. They had witnessed the horrors unleashed upon their home, and yet, they were alive. The wendigo had saved them, had saved us all.
As we made our way back through the Appalachian Mountains, a new dawn broke on the horizon. The blood moon sank beneath the earth, its malevolent influence waning. The world seemed brighter, the air sweeter. We had faced the eldritch demons and emerged victorious.
But I knew, deep down, that the horrors we had faced would forever haunt us. The Appalachian Mountains held secrets that would never be spoken of, nightmares that would forever linger in the recesses of our minds. We had danced with the darkness and survived, but at what cost to our souls?
The wind whispered its final farewell as we disappeared into the fading mist, leaving behind a trail of blood and broken dreams. The legend of the man and his pet wendigo would be whispered among those who dared to tread these haunted mountains, a testament to the horrors that lay hidden beneath the surface.
And as the world moved on, ignorant of the terrors we had faced, I knew that the night would come again. The blood moon would rise, and once more, the man and his pet wendigo would be called upon to face the unspeakable.

Rune strike weak aura

What grade do you think these cards are?