The following morning, Elron, the newly crowned king, did not celebrate. He didn’t declare his title to the world or summon his people to rejoice. Instead, he stood in the citadel gardens, crouching down with sunken eyes to watch caterpillars feast on the leaves of varied, vibrant flowers.

  For months, his mind had been a storm, clouded with an insatiable bloodlust that lingered even now, gnawing at his peace. A relentless fire burned in his skull—a blaze that never smoldered. Elron could not sleep; he hadn’t rested well in nearly a year, and, aside from the occasional forced sleep spell, he knew he likely never would.

  He plucked a flower and rolled it between his fingers, watching the tiny caterpillar clinging to a leaf whirl around helplessly. A delirious chuckle escaped his lips.

  “Hello, son.”

  Elron jolted, nearly dropping the flower as he drew his sword, flames flicking from his blade. “I know that voice. Pull back your hood.”

  His body trembled, fire dancing hotter as he caught sight of the face before him.

  “I heard what happened—”

  But before the figure could finish, Elron slashed through him, his blade cutting only a plume of smoke.

  A clearing throat sounded from behind. “You’re angry with me, I understand,” Alaric’s voice murmured.

  Elron roared, a raw fury swelling within him. His blade surged with energy, growing in size until its fire singed his brows. With a tremendous shout, he swung in a powerful arc, the force of the slash leaving a deep crater in the garden.

  As the dust settled, only emptiness remained.

  “I wish you the best of luck,” Alaric’s voice echoed softly. “And I pray you’ll be a better king than I.” A faint pressure tousled Elron’s hair.

  Before he could turn to strike again, an unnatural heaviness settled over him, his head dropping against the hilt of his sword. His vision blurred, the garden blurring into haze. Sinking to his knees, Elron’s eyelids fell shut, surrendering to an inescapable, overdue slumber.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  Afterword

  A lanky man walks into your room with the stride of a pimp and sits down in front of you.

  “Hi there, I’m Drake… First, I want to thank you for reading my story. I appreciate it more than you could ever know. This next bit here is going to be me ranting about my thoughts on the book.

  Ah, with that out of the way, let me start off by saying… I never thought I would ever complete a novel, at least not an eighty-thousand-word beast of a book. Eh, hm, I know that’s small in terms of fantasy novels, but I typically write short. Before this, I wrote a novella and half a dozen short stories, all of which you can find on the web, somewhere.

  So, Rise of the Half Blood… it was something. I’m writing this after just finishing the novel with no feedback at all… Probably a poor move on my part for not obtaining beta readers, but oh well. The most important part is I had fun writing this and can now say, ‘I wrote a book.’ If you’re an aspiring author, then that’s all that should really matter; otherwise, it’s a job.

  The story… I knew from the start Slyra would betray Elron, Kael would be a shapeshifter, and Maris would be this religious character; that was all planned. The part where Slyra ended up being Elron’s daughter and Kael having spicy time with a wererat, amongst other things—just kind of hit the page, like many of the things in this book. The explicit scenes were one of those “many things,” as I never really saw myself writing quote on quote, spicy scenes, of any kind. I wanted to make the story very dark and serious in some places, action packed in the rest, all while dropping some minor humor where I pleased; so, that’s what I did. I knew Elron would kill his own mother, and I knew the turning point in the story would be him making a pact with the sword, basically a point of no return. The funny part is, I never planned for the sword, Balmer, to ever be a thing, ha. I was stuck, took an entire week’s break from the novel, and somehow decided, well, I guess there will be a sentient sword antagonist now. So, clearly, what I just said doesn't make sense. To clarify, I knew the type of turning point that would be present; I just didn’t know it was going to be a pact with a sword. Also, there are some obvious points in the novel where I just outright pantsed the book. Yet, I really did try to make every scene engaging, even if the plot and pacing were questionable at times; that’s my take, though I may be totally wrong there.

  The RPG or LitRPG aspect of the novel… If you’re one of those die-hard LitRPG readers, then I kind of ran you through without buying you dinner first. But, I acknowledge this, and appolgize now.

  Will there be a second book? Eh, maybe. To be upfront, I write for me. I do not write for money, and I do not have a following, or at least a vocal following as of posting my last chapter to warrant me continuing this series. There is certainly a story to continue here, and oh boy do I have some ideas cooked up… However, my focus has gone onto other works of writing. I may return to this, as I did enjoy writing this character, but for now, it will be marked as a completed work.

  I’m not sure what else to add, so feel free to drop me a comment. Again, thank you for reading. This concludes book one. Take care.”

  https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B0DLVR5JHV;

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/97350/rise-of-the-half-blood?utm_source=home&utm_medium=latest_updates ; Join the discord @ ;