{"title":"Titan Mage Battle Scarred Signed Books Only","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-titan-mage-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: Titan Mage (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 align=\"left\"\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook One in the Titan Mage series. Published by Spice Rack Press.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium SIGNED PAPERBACK:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSigned by Edie Skye. \u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMagic powers? His own mech? A whole airship of gorgeous women desperate for his genes? Yes, please!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParalyzed by a drunk driver, let go from his job, and stuck in a sad, stagnant town in the middle of nowhere, Joseph Locke was having the worst day of his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then he \u003cem\u003edied\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut considering that he wakes up with a brand new body, in the cockpit of a badass steampunk robot, on an airship of nothing but hot babes, his next life may not be all that bad. Especially when he learns that he’s a void mage—the rarest and most powerful of all mages on the world of Haven. And his shipmates want to help him make \u003cem\u003emore\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs if that weren’t enough, they offer Locke a job piloting one of their mechs, which they call Titans. In the meantime, Locke has to learn his way around this exciting world, all while coming to grips with his new—and \u003cem\u003edangerous\u003c\/em\u003e—occupation. Will he be able to master his Titan? How can he best upgrade the machine to become as badass as possible? Why’s a strange parasitic sludge falling from the sky? And what’s up with the ghost of a space witch living in his Titan—and inside his head?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWARNING\u003c\/em\u003e: \u003cem\u003eTitan Mage\u003c\/em\u003e is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: raunchy sausage-obsessed mechanics, lusty airship captains, prurient mech pilots, and saucy language to match. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from TITAN MAGE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePROLOGUE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“How many are there?” Locke asked, his body cocooned safely within the massive bulk of Titan Chimera. The war machine towered over two stories tall, a humanoid frame of crimson armor plates over black joints and artificial muscles. Gold filigree—faded from wear and tear from who-knew-how-many battles—highlighted a few edges, accentuating its sturdy, powerful build.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke walked the titan up to the square opening in the floor, where diffused light from the sunrise spilled into the airship’s long central hangar bay. He clenched a gargantuan fist around a support rafter running the length of the ceiling and peered down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMorning mist shrouded the base of Mount Driver, and thick pine forests climbed its craggy slopes, thinning out into bare rock and snow near the mountain’s peak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eExcept for a glint of blue and silver moving along the forest’s edge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA \u003cem\u003elarge\u003c\/em\u003e glint. Moving fast for something so big.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ember?” he asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hold it,” she radioed from Titan Long Shot. “I’m not in position yet. Almost there.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Take your time,” he sighed. Or he’d intended to, but his voice cracked at the end. Jitters ate at his nerves, and butterflies fluttered in the pit of his stomach. Fighting monsters in a titan was one thing, but this? This was on a whole different scale of crazy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhy did I agree to this? \u003c\/em\u003eLocke thought. \u003cem\u003eWhy did I \u003c\/em\u003esuggest \u003cem\u003ethis\u003c\/em\u003e?!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In position,” Ember reported. The glint settled atop an outthrust of stone on the mountain, almost like a ship’s bow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“And?” Locke asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, I see them. Right where we thought they’d be.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“How many?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“One titan, which we expected … plus two heavy weapon quads. Big ones, too. Maybe thirty tons each.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“And how many titties?” he asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe radio fell silent for long, agonized seconds. He could almost feel Ember rolling her eyes at him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“For the last time, Locke, the ‘small titans’ are \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e titties! They’re called rigs!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, I know that,” he countered, gazing once more at the drop. “But consider the world from my perspective, just for a moment. I’m \u003cem\u003enervous\u003c\/em\u003e, and I’ve been nervous since I agreed to this plan.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s \u003cem\u003eyour\u003c\/em\u003e plan!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That’s beside the point. What \u003cem\u003eis\u003c\/em\u003e the point is I made a lame little joke back then in an attempt to make myself feel better. And you know the response I got? \u003cem\u003eNone\u003c\/em\u003e of you laughed at my joke. So guess what? I’m calling them titties until I start feeling better.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, good grief.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Remember, I’m about to leap from this airship in a seventeen-ton coffin, and the only thing preventing me from going crunch at the end is an upgrade we’ve never tested!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“You’re not that high up,” Ember jabbed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, you think so? Alyssa, how high up are we?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Just a hair under six thousand feet,” she radioed from the airship’s bridge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Right. Over a mile up, then. And not only that, but I’m dropping in next to some bad people who want us dead.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Try not to land right on top of them, would you?” Ember warned. “You’ll block my shots.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ll \u003cem\u003etry\u003c\/em\u003e.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hey, Ember,” Alyssa cut in. “Back to Locke’s question, before he went off on this weird tangent. How many rigs do you see?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ten to fifteen. Hard to be exact. Some of them are obscured by the trees, and the quads will probably have some extra rigs I can’t see from here.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That’s a whole lot of titties,” Alyssa quipped.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Uhh,” Ember groaned. “Not you, too.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That make you feel any better, Locke?” Alyssa asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Marginally.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Well, shake it out of your system. You’re a titan mage now. You charge in where others fear to tread. Don’t ever forget that.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I know. And I won’t let you down. I promise.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“You’ve got this. I know you do.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Thanks.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now brace yourself. Here comes the turn.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe airship banked to the left, and Locke shifted one of Titan Chimera’s feet outward for better balance. He raised an arm, and through the titan’s eyes he studied the catalyst built into the underside of its forearm. The crystalline rod ran from the machine’s wrist down to its elbow, appearing clear in its inert state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke channeled a simple matter-based spell through the catalyst. Titan Chimera’s void furnace roared alive, burning a steady stream of liquefied void condensate and releasing the powerful essence sealed within. Hot air and black smoke belched out of two louvers, one at each of the titan’s shoulders, and the crystalline catalyst darkened to the same hue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSilvery swiftmetal poured out of a port below the wrist and spun itself into the wireframe of a great shield, while one of the many gauges in his console wiggled downward. More swiftmetal spooled outward, filling in the shield until it formed a solid, reassuring wall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke let the base of the shield thump down against the deck. The magical construct was as solid as wrought iron.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e “I’m getting better at this,” he declared privately with a smile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re almost on top of them,” Alyssa radioed in. “You ready to jump?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“As ready as I’ll ever be.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Watch it,” Ember warned. “That unexpected turn must have grabbed their attention. Those two quads are swinging their guns your way.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Time to go!” Locke let go of the rafter, took one heavy step forward, and let the titan’s bulk tilt over the side. His stomach slammed up into his throat, and Titan Chimera plummeted toward the forest below, wind howling past him, armor plates rattling in the turbulence. Seventeen tons may have granted the machine a degree of stubborn inertia, but a brick still flew like a brick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Warm morning sunlight kissed the titan’s armor as Locke channeled a gravity-based spell into the catalysts in each leg. Crystalline rods built into the titan’s calves glowed a faint purple, and smoke of the same color plumed out of the titan’s louvers in long, pale streamers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis descent slowed and stabilized.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Whew!” Locke exclaimed. “That’s one less worry.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe twin gravity catalysts weren’t powerful enough for true flight, but he could use them to fall in a controlled manner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhich was all he needed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Good luck!” Alyssa called out. High above, the long, glinting shape of the airship banked away from the battle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Luck?” Locke scoffed. “Who needs luck when you can use mag—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA beam of blinding yellow light shot up from the ground and blared past him with an aura of crackling magical lightning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Never mind!” He raised his shield, but the act obstructed his view of the oncoming ground. “Damn. Didn’t think this through, did I?” he mumbled to himself and channeled a matter spell.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSwiftmetal parted to form a narrow viewing slit near the top of the shield.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“There. That’s bet—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA second beam speared into the shield. Silvery metal turned cherry red around the impact, and the force sent the titan spinning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Yikes!” He channeled bursts of gravity thrust, righted the titan, and stabilized the shield with both hands. “Ember, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m being shot at!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Is this a surprise?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Isn’t this the part where \u003cem\u003eyou\u003c\/em\u003e start shooting at them?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hold it. I don’t want to waste my opening shot.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother beam scythed past him, its nimbus crackling against the edge of his shield.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Would you fire sooner if I said pretty please?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“No need. Aaaand … gotcha!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Long Shot channeled its own magic into a red lance of lethal energy. The beam pierced through the superstructure atop one of the enemy quads, rupturing its furnace. Superheated void essence screamed through the widening cracks like enraged, escaping steam, and lightning forked through the air. Mages and engineers in black livery scurried away from the four-legged weapon platform moments before its furnace blew in a cataclysm of unfocused energy magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe blast ripped the entire superstructure off its turret mooring and flung it three stories into the air before it fell back down and crumpled against the ground next to the quad.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That’s one!” Ember called out triumphantly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe second quad swiveled its cannon toward Titan Long Shot and fired, but the crew clearly didn’t have a fix on her position, and the beam bored a ragged line across the stony mountainside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA scattering of shots from void rifles \u003cem\u003etinked\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eplinked\u003c\/em\u003e against Locke’s shield, and he channeled one final burst of gravity magic before Titan Chimera stomped feetfirst into a narrow clearing. He stumbled forward, grabbed the thick trunk of an ancient pine, and planted his feet. The titan’s forward movement plowed two grooves through the damp soil and nearly uprooted the tree before it came to a stop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Made it!” Locke said, then chuckled with the joy of still being alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Three rigs heading toward you,” Ember reported. “North by northwest.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I see them.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke faced the approaching weapons he thought of as “little titans.” These black-armored rigs stood twelve feet tall, less than half the height of his own Titan Chimera. They were too small to come with furnaces of their own, and instead received power from tanks of compressed void essence attached to their backs, which made them resemble deep sea divers to his eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke channeled through his matter catalyst, and the shield reformed into a massive hammer with a long, sturdy shaft. He gripped the weapon with both hands and charged the trio of rigs with long, thunderous strides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rigs opened fire, and bolts of energy chipped at Locke’s armor. He closed the distance and swung the hammer in a wide overhand arc. The hammer slammed into the lead rig’s head, flattened it, then imploded the top half of its torso. It teetered forward, arms outstretched, groping the air before Locke kicked it over. The rig \u003cem\u003ethunked\u003c\/em\u003e to the ground on its back, its legs and arms thrashing in vain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe other two rigs paused, perhaps now regretting their bold charge against this titan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Who’s next?” Locke asked with a wide grin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481611976995,"sku":"TITANMAGE-DAMAGED","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_Battle_Scarred_Shopify.png?v=1786972893"},{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-titan-mage-ruin-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: Titan Mage Ruin (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 align=\"left\"\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook Two in the Titan Mage series. Published by Spice Rack Press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium SIGNED PAPERBACK:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSigned by Edie Skye. \u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/ruin\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA monster-infested ruin? A dangerous bounty? A missing archaeologist? Sign this crew up for adventure!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s been one month since Locke was reborn on the world of Haven, and he’s still learning his way around. But his magic powers, giant mech, and brand new buff body definitely help. Not to mention his three gorgeous crew mates—Captain Alyssa, fellow Titan Mage Ember, and Chief Engineer Bexley—are determined to … help him get used to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe’ll have to get used to it all fast, though, because their next bounty is a tough and personal one. An entire expedition has vanished at the site of an ancient ruin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn expedition including Ember’s mother, Erudicia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is no small task. On Haven, ruins involve more than lost history. They mean valuable artifacts, ruthless bandits, and magically-mutated monsters, and though Haven’s leading research society usually looks after its own missing crews … for some reason, it’s in no hurry to find Erudicia’s.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLocke suspects Ember knows why this particular expedition has been abandoned. He also senses she fears what she might face when forced to reunite with her estranged family. But Ember’s not one to let a little fear stand in her way, and neither is Locke. Not when they have their badass mechs called Titans on their side.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStill, questions remain: What caused the rift in Ember’s family? Why was the entire expedition abandoned? What kind of monsters lurk in that ruin? And have Locke and Ember upgraded their Titans enough to survive the trial to come?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWARNING: Titan Mage Ruin\u003c\/em\u003e is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: voluptuous airship captains, eager engineers, and lascivious mech pilots. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/ruin\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from TITAN MAGE RUIN\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePROLOGUE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was the biggest slimeball Locke had seen since the last election.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, technically not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe’d seen and fought plenty of slime since his strange and fortuitous arrival on the world of Haven. It seemed to be one of the more common forms of monster on this alternative, magical companion to his home world of Earth. (Or, more specifically Grassroots, Kentucky.)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow he’d come to be here wasn’t a long story, but it was a weird one. He’d recently suffered a car crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down and lost his job in quick (though unrelated) succession. He'd been trudging home in his wheelchair when he met a strange woman on the street—a headhunter, he soon learned, who was looking to hire someone with his qualifications. It was an unbelievable stroke of luck, so he’d signed the contract she’d offered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen he’d died.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen he’d woken up inside the cockpit of the giant robot he was presently piloting. Inside a brand-new body that was the exact opposite of the skinny, paralyzed, wheelchair-bound body he’d left behind. On an airship crewed by three gorgeous women, who \u003cem\u003ewanted\u003c\/em\u003e that body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was more to it than that, of course, but considering where he’d started, his current situation was \u003cem\u003eawesome\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven if he was presently staring down a giant slime monster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost slimes he’d fought before had come in the form of what his crewmates called shadow dregs—a parasitic goo that fell in meteors from the Crystal Moon, which hung full in the sky over their heads even this far into the daytime. Locke hadn’t quite figured out the Crystal Moon yet or why it dropped parasite-laden meteors so frequently that meteorfall bounties were the Harper’s Harriers’ main source of income. But then, his crewmates hadn’t figured that out yet, either, and they were native to Haven. All they knew was that shadow dregs took over beings living and non- and bent them to their will, to destructive ends, and so they had to be obliterated the moment they touched down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut in some ways, those were better than whatever creature was writhing below the airship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis goo wasn’t trying to control anything. It was just eating everything in its path.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Found the source of the distress call,” Captain Alyssa Harper radioed from the control room of the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e. “Get ready to disembark.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Way ahead of you,” a voice Locke recognized as Ember Q’Van radioed from the inside of her titan, Long Shot. “Titan” was the name Havenites gave to their most powerful type of mobile weapon. There was as much magic involved in their running as there was technology, but basically they were two-story-tall robots, and Havenites had fun with their designs. Titan Long Shot was a sleek blue and silver mech with almost athletic-looking lines and a subtle, but decidedly female aspect to the chest and hip areas. It was built for speed, mostly so it could fire the magical cannon positioned over its left shoulder and then reposition itself with ease.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Same,” Locke replied from inside his own titan, Chimera. Chimera was the opposite of Long Shot in many ways. Where Long Shot was the obvious product of some refinement, Chimera was—as its name implied—a mess of disparate parts they’d had to scrounge from other titans. (The Harriers frequently operated on a shoestring budget, and it wasn’t even a particularly \u003cem\u003egood\u003c\/em\u003e shoestring.) He’d at least been able to use his matter magic to turn all the pieces the same shade of red—oh yeah, he had magic here, too!—but in general it looked like a weird, gracefully asymmetrical hodgepodge of pieces from different armor suits. Still, it was bulky, manly, built for power and smashing stuff, and that was all he needed it to do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke—and Titan Chimera—crouched for a better view through the square opening in the hangar floor, while Ember—and Titan Long Shot—crouched beside him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn fact, the two had been in their titans since the captain had first picked up the panicked radio signal and spotted the weird shape on the horizon, and now they peered through the open door to get a better look at what they’d be fighting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s engineer, Bexley, looked down through the opening in the floor, too, as casually as if it \u003cem\u003edidn’t\u003c\/em\u003e open to a \u003cem\u003ethousand-foot drop\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Whoo,” she whistled. “That’s the biggest slimeball I’ve seen since the last time Locke and I f—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now’s not the time, Bexley,” Ember groaned, adjusting her cannon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What \u003cem\u003eis\u003c\/em\u003e that thing?” Locke asked. “It’s not acting like shadow dregs.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s a gluttony phantom,” Alyssa replied. “Concentrations of void essence sometimes cause them to manifest. No one knows why.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeering down through his titan’s visual sensors, Locke could easily see why they were called “gluttony phantoms.” Beneath their airship lay an expansive farm, or what used to be one. The resident farmers ran about either shooting ineffectually at the monster or trying to corral livestock away from its flailing, grasping pseudopods, but projectile weapons could only do so much against slime. Locke saw the remains of some poor souls who’d tried to get close enough to torch it—they were currently disintegrating in its gelatinous guts—and there was nothing they could do to save the crops in its path. Wherever it traveled, it left a wide swath of vegetation devoured down to the dirt, and the phantom grew wider as it progressed. Locke could see the point where it had started, too—from this distance, a pinprick in a field of corn-like stalks, perhaps no bigger than a tennis ball. Now, growing ever closer to the cluster of barns, silos, and farmhouses, it was easily the size of a modest building.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHalf the size of a titan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It grows as it eats,” Locke observed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It does,” Alyssa replied. “Fortunately, phantoms only feed on organic matter.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh! So I can punch it!” Locke said. That was a small relief. He couldn’t punch shadow dregs; Bexley kept his titan well-maintained and sealed, but there was always the risk of the shadow dregs finding a crack and slipping in, and while there were ways to purge them, those same purges would gradually compromise the integrity of the titan’s internal systems. Generally, it was better not to touch them at all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Any chance of the phantom reaching me in the cockpit?” Locke asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“There’s \u003cem\u003ealways\u003c\/em\u003e a chance,” Alyssa replied. “Gluttony phantoms aren’t nearly as persistent as shadow dregs, though. If they encounter something inedible, they ignore it, so they’re unlikely to make it that far inside your titan.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“But if it \u003cem\u003edoes\u003c\/em\u003e get inside the cockpit?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Make sure it eats something less important than your dick,” Bexley advised.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I see Bexley has her priorities in order,” Ember groaned from inside her titan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I \u003cem\u003edo\u003c\/em\u003e have my priorities in order!” Bexley snapped back. “Locke’s a void mage! His is an \u003cem\u003eimportant dick\u003c\/em\u003e!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Can we focus on the task at hand, please?” Alyssa radioed in her most Captainly voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Wait,” Bexley chimed, “by task at hand, do you mean Locke’s dick or the—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The \u003cem\u003egluttony phantom\u003c\/em\u003e!” Alyssa shouted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Fine,” Bexley huffed, and Ember moved to take up a better position behind where the engineer was standing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ll snipe from here,” she said as Bexley skittered out of the way. “I can keep the pseudopods from grabbing things, but you’ll need to expose its core.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Core?” Locke asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I can’t see it from here, but it’ll be a little glowing ball of void condensate somewhere in all that slime. Destroy the core, and the phantom will disintegrate.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Gotcha,” Locke replied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We’re low enough for you to avoid fall damage. Ready to jump?” Alyssa radioed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ready!” Locke replied, and then flung himself and his titan feet-first through the hangar opening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Chimera flashed brilliantly red in the morning sun as it plummeted from the airship toward the ground. In this world, titans looked like giant suits of fantastical armor, but they were more than that. Their insides brimmed with magical technologies that even this society didn’t fully understand, but Locke didn’t care much about those details. The details \u003cem\u003ehe\u003c\/em\u003e cared about were the ones that turned titans into ass-kicking war machines, and those were the details he was about to put to use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481641861411,"sku":"TITANMAGERUIN-DAMAGED","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_Ruin_Battle_Scarred_Shopify.png?v=1786973251"},{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-titan-mage-dragon-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: Titan Mage Dragon (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook Three in the Titan Mage series. Published by Spice Rack Press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium SIGNED PAPERBACK:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSigned by Edie Skye. \u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/dragon\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWorld-shaking mysteries? Secretive aristocrats? Shapeshifting dragons? All in a day’s work for Harper’s Harriers!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix months have blown by since Locke was reborn in another world with his hot new body, magic powers, and a giant mech called a Titan. In that time, word has spread that he’s a new void mage—the rarest mage type—and now every woman he meets wants a piece of him. But only the voluptuous ladies of the airship \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e can claim his heart (and … the rest of him).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey’ll need all of him to take on their next bounty, for it promises to test their skills to their limits. A once-simple drake-hunting job has now turned into a dragon-hunting job— but there’s more to this bounty than meets the eye. Something has twisted the dragon, Ultranoth the Organized, from a reclusive collector to a rampaging winged terror, and that “something” might just be the same thing that caused the downfall of civilization a thousand years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt’s a job that only Locke and his crew are qualified to take … especially since his crew includes Chief Engineer Bexley. Or, as she’s more formally known, Lady Beaunessia Valerie Brimble Morton, prodigal (and proud of it) daughter of the distinguished Morton family—and childhood friend to Ultranoth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut will Bexley be able to reach her scaly friend? And if not, what then? Will their two Titans be enough to bring down a dragon?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOr is it finally time for their \u003cem\u003ethird \u003c\/em\u003eTitan to enter the fray?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWARNING: Titan Mage Dragon\u003c\/em\u003e is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: sexy mechanics, sensuous airship captains, racy mech pilots, curious catgirls, and saucy language to match. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/dragon\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from TITAN MAGE DRAGON\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePROLOGUE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ground before Locke roiled with the shape of a monster still forming, and shuddered with the aftershocks of a natural disaster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe meteor had struck mere hundreds of feet from the mine—far enough to miss it, but close enough to collapse it and trap all the miners inside, or worse. He didn’t know if there was anyone left to save so close to the still-smoking crater. He didn’t even know what kind of monster he was about to face.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this moment, at his level of skill, Locke was certain of one thing and one thing only:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf he did not make a dramatic entrance with his robot’s arms heroically crossed over its chest, then he was wasting the whole robot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“You ready, Ember?” he asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe turned his head—and thus his titan’s head—to the right, where a sleek blue-and-silver mech crouched, the cannon on its right shoulder aimed down for its inevitable sniping. Locke’s red titan gripped a rafter at the top of the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s hangar, steadying itself as their airship floated around the scene. It was probably unnecessary—-titans could self-balance with aplomb—but it looked cool, and over the past several months, he’d grown so used to fighting in this machine that he figured he could safely indulge in a little Rule of Cool.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ready when you are,” Ember replied from Titan Long Shot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, I’m \u003cem\u003ealways\u003c\/em\u003e ready,” Locke replied—then did exactly what he’d been planning to do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe let go of the rafter, crossed Titan Chimera’s arms over its broad, shining chest, and then took one step and plummeted down from the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s lowered hangar ramp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSafe inside the cushioning conductor fluid of his cockpit, he felt invigorated rather than terrified by the sudden punch of gravity lurching through his guts. Oh, it had been terrifying the first time he’d practiced this move, but months upon months of airdrops into monster battles had trained him in what to do. He let himself fall for a bit and then, when he was just close enough to the ground, channeled a burst of magic into the crystalline gravity catalysts implanted in the back of each of his titan’s legs. The catalysts flared with purple light. A similar blast of purple excess magic plumed out of his shoulder louvers and trailed behind him like a sparkling cape. And when he landed, it was with all the composed coolness of a veteran mech pilot who was here for one thing and one thing only:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo kick monster ass like it was just one bullet on today’s badass to-do list.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Yeah.” Locke smiled privately inside the cockpit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What?” came another voice from above—Captain Alyssa, calling from her watch point in the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s control room. “Is the situation down there better than it looks?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Nah, it’s as bad as it looks,” Locke replied. “It’s just that I’ve been trying to nail that entrance for months and I finally got it.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What tactical advantage does that give you?” Ember asked from Titan Long Shot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“None. It just looks cool.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Not as cool as the—what did you call it? The three-point landing?” chimed Bexley, the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s chief engineer. “Even if it did tax the titan’s joints too much. Still, nine out of ten stars, would smash.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bexley, how would you even smash a \u003cem\u003elanding pose\u003c\/em\u003e?” Ember spat. Locke could practically hear her rolling her eyes over the radio.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’d find a way,” Bexley replied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m sure you would,” he agreed with a grin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m still not clear on why those ‘landing poses’ are worth expending effort on,” Ember continued.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt once, every giant robot show Locke had watched back home on Earth flashed through his mind, complete with elaborate transformation sequences and epic theme song fights and especially those moments when the robots made their first great appearances on the field of battle, looking so unbearably kickass that even elaborately-animated missiles seemed to stop in their paths just to admire the sheer power of the mech’s presence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut he couldn’t explain that to people from a world that had never known television.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s a guy thing,” Locke replied instead. “It’s hard to explain.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, like an alpha male ‘Step into the room and command all the attention’ thing?” Ember asked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke was about to object, but then reflected on it and said, “Now that I think about it, that actually makes a lot of sense. You \u003cem\u003edo\u003c\/em\u003e get it.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Men are not incredibly hard to figure out,” Ember stated. “It’s what I like about them. You’re very low-effort.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“… Thanks, I guess?” Locke replied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hey, men are as low-effort as you make them!” Bexley objected. “I, on the other hand—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“We know, Bexley,” Ember retorted. “It’s hard to miss the noise.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Sorry,” Bexley and Locke replied together, though Bexley’s was in a tone that was decidedly \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e sorry about all the noise she made when she and Locke were together.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Not that all this banter isn’t fascinating,” Captain Alyssa interrupted, “but there \u003cem\u003eis\u003c\/em\u003e a monster on the field.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Nothing we can’t handle!” Locke replied. Now he stretched his arms out in preparation for the fight. (His titan stretched with him.) “We know it’s shadow dregs, and I’ve fought plenty of those before. Just gotta figure out the form.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe finished stretching, then focused on the writhing blob before him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis first few adventures on the world of Haven had been rocky ones, as he figured out the workings and dangers of his new home and circumstances. But their last big adventure had been pivotal. He’d learned a lot about Haven, its weird magical history, its geopolitics, its cultures, the strengths and limits of its naturally-occurring magic, the sheer complexity of its monsters, and the clever lengths to which he could push his titan—and all that had combined to unlock something inside him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix months ago, he’d been Joseph Locke of Grassroots, Kentucky, down on his luck in every possible way.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut thanks to a conveniently-timed acquaintance and some weird magical whatnot, he’d since been reborn as Locke—just Locke—void mage, wielder of \u003cem\u003eall\u003c\/em\u003e the magical elements, pilot of Titan Chimera, co-owner of the Harper’s Harriers, dangerous-errand-runner-and-occasional-bounty-hunter, and general inamorato of every woman on the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was, simply put, fucking awesome!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut even he knew that he’d been coasting until that point, trying to find his footing, and now that he’d found his first foothold, he didn’t intend to let it go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMonster encounters were regular occurrences here, so his first step had been to brush up on the world’s monstrous fauna. He’d started taking notes on every monster he’d encountered, and filled in the gaps with tips from Ember and a titan mage friend he’d begun to make on another ship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOrion Havoc (or Rion, as he mercifully preferred to be called) was a distant friend at this point—the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eIndigo Gryphon\u003c\/em\u003e spent so much time in the air that they mostly only spoke by radio, or else when they met at random Arcane Indexes—but he was another part of Locke’s strategy: networking. He knew he was \u003cem\u003ebasically\u003c\/em\u003e powerful and valuable in this setting, but even the greatest people were only as powerful as the allies they kept, and he’d stumbled into some potentially useful ones when they’d returned to the Vasor Arcane Index after rescuing Ember’s mother from a fraught archaeology dig four months ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRion wasn’t even the most useful person he’d met that day, but over the course of their conversations, Locke quickly discovered that, in addition to being a mech pilot, he was also a monster nerd, and had been willing to send some detailed references for Locke to peruse between battles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBetween his own experience and Rion’s monster encyclopedias, Locke had been able to put together a much stronger picture of the kinds of creatures he’d be fighting, and the coalescing monster before him was one of the most prominent.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShadow dregs were one of the single greatest scourges of the world of Haven. They were not native, but rather fell to the planet in meteors that broke off from the Crystal Moon hanging above in low orbit. No one had been able to explain what they were, except a magic-infused purple-black sludge; all they knew was that, once shadow dregs landed, they sought out things to take over. Living, dead, inanimate—it didn’t matter, and once they took over those things, they would rampage and spread until someone stepped in to obliterate them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke and the Harper’s Harriers made their careers out of being that someone. Meteorfall bounties were always plentiful and urgent, and time being of the essence, they generally paid well enough to be worth the risk. Of all the monsters he’d fought, shadow dregs were the one he was most familiar with.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut they were more complex than they seemed. The type of challenge presented hinged entirely on the person, monster, or type of object they took over, and they had an intelligence that, while limited, could also be incredibly dangerous. Most dregs opted to sink into living beings, to take over their muscles and brains until their eyes burned bloodshot purple-black with eldritch magic. But if the victim was large enough, they’d ignore the musculature entirely to home in on the brain, and with a host on that scale, they could wreak apocalyptic havoc.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere were other varieties, too, but Locke didn’t anticipate those in most instances.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor now, he looked at the wriggling, violet mass before him and cracked his titan’s knuckles, unnecessarily.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Welp, guess I better light it up before it figures out what it’s doing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ll take the leftmost side,” Ember replied. “Keep clear of my shots.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Will do!” Locke shouted, and then coiled back as if to initiate a running tackle and clawed his hands together like he was holding a huge, invisible globe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis back foot landed with an enormous, earth-tearing stomp. The energy catalyst in his left arm glowed blazing orange with charging magic; the same color again spurted out of his shoulder louvers, and slowly, a dot of crackling bright energy began to coalesce between his palms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was another move he’d been practicing. When he was still getting used to his energy catalyst, he’d either used it as a flamethrower, ice thrower, or beam weapon. He hadn’t yet figured out how his machine concentrated the very physical concept of \u003cem\u003eice\u003c\/em\u003e into a particulate, not-entirely-corporeal beam of light—Haven’s physics were slightly different from Earth’s anyway—but his titan could turn his very \u003cem\u003ewill\u003c\/em\u003e into reality, and so he’d figured other shapes were possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShapes like energy balls. Or spirit bombs. Or—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Gods, Locke, is the screaming really necessary?” Ember shouted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“YES,” Locke shouted back, through a scream that sounded like it should span several episodes and suck all the energy from every lifeform across the planet of Haven. “IT’S AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE PROCESS.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I have literally never heard of another mage harnessing the power of screams,” Ember replied, unimpressed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“MAYBE THAT JUST MEANS I’M INNOVATIVE!” Locke roared back. The energy ball throbbed between his palms, growing larger with each syllable until it threatened to envelop his hands. He raised it above his head and let it throb and grow in size until it spanned the width of his shoulders, glowing ferocious orange and crackling with tendrils of white lightning.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“HYAAAH!” he finally bellowed, and flung the burning energy ball with all his might.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Impressive,” Ember deadpanned, still unimpressed—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe energy ball collided with the writhing churn of shadow dregs. It blasted along the whole of the spread like an incorporeal meteor making planetfall—and left nothing but a hole of singed earth at the center where it had struck.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, I take that back,” Ember began. “That is legitimately impressi—\u003cem\u003eshit\u003c\/em\u003e!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore Locke could even see what she was shouting about, a blast of searing white shot from Ember’s own titan and stabbed into the left side of what remained of the puddle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt didn’t take him long to realize what, though.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor as the wood burning scent of magic wafted past his nostrils, so too did the acrid scent of burning shadow dregs—and the sickening scent of charred human flesh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe shadow dreg puddle writhed more vigorously now, galvanized to action by a direct threat, and as the purplish goo undulated, Locke now saw that it was more than a puddle of mere sludge; there were \u003cem\u003ethings\u003c\/em\u003e inside it. Human-shaped things. And not moving of their own accord.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Be on guard!” Alyssa reported from above. “Something’s happening near the mine!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke didn’t need her warning. From his vantage, he could see the broken earth shifting, as if something enormous was moving it from underneath—-or an enormous horde of smaller things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSuddenly, the ground exploded upward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke felt his stomach lurch as more shadow dregs slithered out of the rocky debris, carrying with them more human bodies, so broken that they looked like vaguely humanoid snakes wriggling across the ground. They all joined with the greater puddle in one sickening glide, and that was when the puddle began to take firmer shape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, damn, it’s a clump type!” Locke shouted, and began to blast heat attacks at the shape at a furious pace. Ember joined him at once, adding Long Shot’s powerful ranged arsenal to the mix. This kind of attack wouldn’t stop it, but the more they could whittle it down before it finished forming, the better.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eClump-type shadow dregs were one of the most uncommon and least fun types to fight. Rather than controlling their victims like zombies, these took their victims’ bodies and lashed them together with their own nasty sludge, forming a single creature that looked made up of magical purplish tar and corpses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Corpse dreg,” Locke specified, intensifying his blasts as the creature grew, as a huge arm splashed out of the shape to claw the ground, then another arm, then a leg, and another leg.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creature had grown to one story tall by the time its first arm emerged, two by the time its second arm sprouted. A great cloud of acrid smoke rose from the fury of their titans’ attacks, partially obscuring the creature. But even behind that oily screen, Locke could see the creature rising even higher. The silhouette of a weirdly humanoid head formed atop its still-wriggling shoulders, twice as high as his titan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd then a fierce gust of wind blew the smoke aside, revealing the creature in its full, terrible horror. Much of the shadow dreg sludge had retreated inward, either into their victims’ remains or behind them, yielding a monster that resembled hundreds of grimy, bloodied human bodies broken and cobbled together into the desired tall, stocky shape, connected loosely by thick, sticky strands of dark purple goop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Corpse \u003cem\u003egiant\u003c\/em\u003e,” Locke corrected.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481649398051,"sku":"TITANMAGEDRAGON-SIGNED","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_Dragon_Battle_Scarred_Shopify.png?v=1786973548"},{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-titan-mage-rising-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: Titan Mage Rising (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook Four in the Titan Mage series. Published by Spice Rack Press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium SIGNED PAPERBACK:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage-rising\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSinister cultists? A catgirl kidnapping? An elite enemy Titan? Sounds like a job for Harper’s Harriers!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke has finally adjusted to life on the fantastical world of Haven—but with his hot new body, magic powers, and giant mech called a Titan, how could he not? Especially since he flies on a ship full of gorgeous women who call him captain (both of his airship … and in their beds).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSoon he’ll have to put all those resources to use because Peth, the incorporeal space witch trapped inside his Titan, has experienced a dark premonition about the Crystal Moon—and in Locke’s experience, “weird moon stuff” is just another way to spell trouble.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhich proves prescient when moon cultists show up alongside a terrifyingly advanced Titan wielding all four magical elements. They assault the Harriers’ airship and kidnap one of his crew—the shy catgirl Sloan, who has a dark history with these cultists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke is determined not to let any harm come to her, and the Harper’s Harriers surge into action. But why do the cultists want Sloan in the first place? How do these events connect to the ever-darkening shadow on the Crystal Moon? And are their Titans powerful enough to take on this new, mysterious foe?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWARNING: Titan Mage Rising is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: sensuous airship captains, naughty engineers, shameless mech pilots, mischievous catgirls, and salacious space witches. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage-rising\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from TITAN MAGE RISING\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCHAPTER ONE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe V-fin Locke had added to his titan’s forehead might have been a bit much, but he didn’t particularly care.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen again, Titan Chimera was already a two-story-tall suit of bright red armor, with five different magic-channeling catalysts and a fresh polish that made it gleam in the rising sun like it had already won today’s battle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCompared to the heroic badassery of the rest of it, his little decorative indulgence was nothing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd besides, with all the ass he’d kicked these past nine months, he’d earned it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow his titan stood by the open hangar ramp of the airship \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e, arms crossed boldly over its knightly chest as Locke surveyed the scene below him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Harper’s Harriers’ star had been rising, but the success of the bounty with the dragon three months ago had rocketed that star straight across the whole sky. Now they no longer had to compete with other companies for bounty assignments; potential employers competed to hire \u003cem\u003ethem\u003c\/em\u003e by offering pay that matched their reputation. This was one such bounty.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut with increased pay came increased challenge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e had three titans now, and today it would need all three of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That’s the biggest bramble hulk I’ve ever seen,” Locke marveled, observing the thing through the visual sensors in his titan’s eyes. “No wonder Lord Argothine’s paying so much.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Well, it’s eaten at least twenty farmers and two mercenary crews,” Ember said from his right, in Titan Long Shot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The more meat it eats, the faster it grows, right?” added Sloan from Titan Deathly Rhythm on his left.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Exactly,” Locke replied. He’d fought bramble hulks before, but the way Lord Argothine’s emissary had described this one, it was levels above anything they’d yet faced. His original, unabridged copy of \u003cem\u003eThe Encyclopedia of Monsterkind\u003c\/em\u003e had been next to useless this time, so he’d used it as a reason to upgrade to the more comprehensive multivolume edition and had been reading up on the creature ever since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBramble hulks were a plant-based form of monster, and not only carnivorous but predatory, even in their simplest form. Standard bramble hulks reminded Locke vaguely of the one plant from \u003cem\u003eLittle Shop of Horrors\u003c\/em\u003e, with a fleshy mouth for a bud and vines it could use for locomotion. (Though to his knowledge, bramble hulks didn’t sing.) In that form, they usually subsisted on small forest creatures and didn’t live long before they met a forest creature that would eat them back. But occasionally one would win against the larger attempts at prey and grow proportionally, and a reign of terror would ensue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eArgothine was the lord of Greenvale, which was not only the most verdant area of Haven—with plenty of places for even a larger bramble hulk to hide—but its breadbasket. This meant that the population he managed was mostly farmers spending most of their lives outside, and vulnerable to the monster stalking the forests around their crops.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creature had only eaten ten farmers when the lord had first hired the Harriers, but by the time they’d arrived in Greenvale, that number had doubled, and the creature’s power with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe monster beneath them now had the same basic shape as a standard bramble hulk, but its size towered to nearly the same height as Locke’s titan, and the vines and leaves at its base spread out in a bushy tangle twice as wide and thick enough that it could be hiding any assortment of nasty surprises.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“That’s a fully mature monster,” Locke reported to his companions. “It’ll probably have pods that spit digestive acid somewhere in there, as well as sticky nectar beads to trap victims, so be aware. We may have titans, but this thing’s already taken down at least one titan.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“How are we going in, then?” Sloan radioed from Deathly Rhythm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Standard opening strategy,” Locke replied. “Ember, you freeze it while Sloan slows it and I whale on it. With any luck, it’ll be as simple as that, especially since it’s still morning.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey’d tracked the creature all day yesterday until it settled on the edge of this clearing and then monitored it, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Bramble hulks would go briefly dormant when the temperature cooled, as it did on these autumn nights. They were always at their most dormant just before sunrise, before the day began to warm, and so they’d waited until this moment to attack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ha!” Ember laughed from Long Shot. “When have our bounties ever been as simple as that?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“True.” Locke laughed back. “But we’ve gotta start somewhere. We’ll adapt as it reacts. Everyone ready?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I am,” Sloan replied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Let’s do it,” Ember echoed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Chimera’s head nodded. “Then, Alyssa, take us down.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Got it,” Captain Alyssa radioed from the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s bridge, and slowly, the airship began to sink toward the ground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke took a deep breath as he felt the gentle sway of the airship’s motion, and let all the sensation of his cockpit sink into him—the gooey slosh of the conductor fluid enveloping his body, the easy press of the insulating neck ring that kept it from splashing into his face, the strange awareness of his reflex link, as it connected his very consciousness to his mech so he could command it without controls.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe became aware of the energy catalyst in his left arm, the matter catalyst in his right, the time catalyst in his right shoulder and the … oh. He’d almost forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Remember,” he added, as much for himself as his crew, “I’m out both gravity catalysts while Bexley’s building my flight unit.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hey, I’m workin’ as fast as I can,” Chief Engineer Bexley radioed from her hangar workstation behind them. “You can’t rush genius.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Of course not.” Locke redirected his attention back to his fellow pilots. “My point is, I can compensate for speed with my time catalyst, but don’t expect me to be doing any super jumps or kicks this time around.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe other two pilots confirmed their understanding, just as the airship shook with the gentle nudge of landing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Titan Chimera strode off, it was with the bold, heavy steps of a giant machine that knew exactly what it was here to do and how it was going to do it. Titan Deathly Rhythm strode out behind it in much a similar fashion—a welcome change from the timidity with which Sloan had approached her mech three months ago. Back then, she’d still been learning, albeit swiftly. Now she was a time-accelerated ass-kicking machine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnce the two had disembarked, the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e lifted off with Titan Long Shot still on board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Awaiting your signal,” Ember radioed as she rose, and her titan crouched to a more stable position.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Long Shot was a sleek blue and silver mech with graceful, athletic lines, but its most defining feature was the great shoulder-mounted cannon that presently rotated from its back to position itself to the right of its head. As an energy mage, Ember commanded energy catalysts in both forearms, but the energy mega-catalyst in her cannon was what saw the most use in battle, and even now Locke spotted the clear honeycomb of its crystalline rod charging to icy white.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ready, Sloan?” Locke said.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I am!” Sloan chimed cheerily from beside him, and Locke grinned inside his mech.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Then have at it!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSloan’s mech sprinted into action before he’d even finished his order. Titan Deathly Rhythm was the Harriers’ newest addition, an elegant teal machine with black and silver highlights that moved with grace equal to that of its smooth curves. It only had a single time catalyst in its right arm, but Sloan had adapted to its capabilities with ease, and now it glowed bright green as she sprinted for the slumbering bramble hulk at over double her regular speed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bramble hulk stirred, vaguely aware that something strange was coming toward it, but not awake enough to react.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat changed when Sloan snatched a short sword from Deathly Rhythm’s back and plunged it straight into the monster’s centermost fleshy bud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creature’s mouth began to open in a startled, agonized shriek—but it could \u003cem\u003eonly\u003c\/em\u003e begin to open. Sloan’s time catalyst flared an even brighter green as she conducted her time magic through the sword and into the monster. Instead of speeding up, the bramble hulk slowed down to half speed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke saw its leaves and vines begin to move in slow motion, but they weren’t nearly fast enough to be of use.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It’s ready!” Sloan reported happily. “Shoot it!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHer tone was like that of a student presenting a gift to a favorite teacher, or perhaps a cat presenting freshly-caught prey to a favorite person, and Ember showed her thanks with a frigid white blast from her cannon. A beam of glowing particulate ice shot into the brambly base of the monster, then crackled up along the thick flesh of the mouth pod.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Nice start!” Locke shouted, and strode forward. “Now it’s my turn!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was his turn that would make this battle—had made all their battles over the past nine months. Most mages on the world of Haven were adept with only one magical element. Though they might have minimal aptitude with a second, few were apt enough to use more than one, and that was what made Locke special.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe was a void mage, a mage with high aptitude for all four magical elements—matter, time, energy, and gravity—and that gave him power and versatility beyond any other titan mage in his company. Ember could only wield heat or cold; Sloan could only speed up or slow down herself or her opponents—but Locke could do that, \u003cem\u003eand\u003c\/em\u003e matter-shift his own weapons on the fly, \u003cem\u003eand\u003c\/em\u003e jump and kick (and eventually fly) with wild manipulations of gravity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now he funneled magic into every one of his catalysts as he stomped toward the titan-sized beast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy now, he had a process for bramble hulks.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst, a matter-energy combo attack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWithin his back armor rested a tank of semiliquid swiftmetal, connected to both his energy and matter catalysts. He willed his energy catalyst to charge the swiftmetal with heat magic—all he ever needed was will; the titan did the rest—and then commanded his matter catalyst to spool it out of a barrel under his right hand. The thin wireframe shape of a long blade spun out of the opening, and then flash-filled with glowing white swiftmetal a moment before he reached the monster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis timing had been perfected over scores of lesser bramble hulks, as had his techniques, and now he charged his time catalyst and dashed around the monster’s circumference, slashing its leaves and vines away like he was some fantastical (if sloppy) gardener, albeit one that kept killer plants. He didn’t move as fast as Sloan could—his time catalyst was a lower tier than hers—but it was still fast enough to make quick work of the frozen brambles, and soon he’d exposed the monster’s most essential center.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt looked like a root ball positioned just below the fleshy mouth pod. Brown tendrils of wood-hard roots curled down from the pod-like protective claws, encasing what Locke knew to be the vital organs of the monster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m to the core!” Locke reported. “Ember, can I get a heat blast? The root armor’s thick.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Not too hot, though!” Sloan added. “Don’t incinerate me.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was a reasonable warning; with Long Shot’s upgrades, Ember routinely incinerated weaker monsters to ash—but she was also precise in every aspect of her handling, from aim to power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ready,” Ember reported. “Stand back.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke zipped out of her line of sight, and soon a hot red beam bored into the root ball.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn explosion of burning splinters blasted from the wooden knot, and a plume of flame billowed out as the wood began to burn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Eew! It stinks!” Sloan groaned as a cloud of smoke wafted up toward her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke didn’t disagree; bramble hulk smoke always carried on it the unpleasant scent of decomposition and wood rot … but there was something different about the smell of this advanced bramble hulk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt smelled like that, and burning blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What’s the verdict?” Ember called down. “Need another—wait, Locke! Look out behind you!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481676005667,"sku":"TITANMAGERISING-DAMAGED","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_Rising_Battle_Scarred_Shopify.png?v=1786974209"},{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-titan-mage-apocalypse-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: Titan Mage Apocalypse (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook Five in the Titan Mage series. Published by Spice Rack Press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium SIGNED PAPERBACK:\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003e\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage-apocalypse\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA world-ending deity? An ancient superweapon? A fight for the future of Haven? Only Harper’s Harriers can save the day!\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Locke came to the world of Haven, he didn’t know he’d be called upon to save it one day—but with his god-tier magic, his giant mech called a Titan, and his crew of hot, capable women, he’s the best man for the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEspecially now that his crew includes the Precursor space witch Peth, whose memories of what destroyed her civilization a thousand years ago have come rushing back. Now that same destroyer is about to break free from its prison within the Crystal Moon. To defeat it, they’ll have to find and activate an ancient Precursor superweapon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut reaching the superweapon won’t be easy, for Locke must now lead the Harper’s Harriers to the one place no one from Haven has gone in over a thousand years:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOuter space.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHas Locke mastered his Titan enough to face his greatest challenge yet? Will his crew, their Titans, and all their epic upgrades be enough to save the world?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe may not know how his story on Haven will end, but between his harem of badass women and the coming battle with a destroyer god, one thing’s for sure:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhatever comes next, he’s going to go out with a bang.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWARNING: Titan Mage Apocalypse is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: captivating airship captains, alluring engineers, provocative mech pilots, titillating catgirls, and sensual space witches. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage-apocalypse\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" alt=\"\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from TITAN MAGE APOCALYPSE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePROLOGUE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Did you literally just fuck Peth’s memory back into place?” Bexley exclaimed from the other side of Titan Chimera’s open hatch door.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke quickly readjusted his magesuit as Peth restored her short, witchy dress—what little there was of it, anyway. Until a few minutes ago, he’d been tossed in the throes of hot nasty psy magic sex with a resurrected Precursor witch inside the cockpit of his giant robot.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike most experiences of his past nine months on the world of Haven, it’d been fucking awesome, but amazing as the sex had been, it wasn’t the most amazing part of this evening.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat had been when Peth convulsed on top of him and then said:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I remember. \u003cem\u003eEverything\u003c\/em\u003e.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Well, it’s been firmly established that my dick has incredible talents,” Locke said as he rounded the hatch door.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe found the four women of his crew gathered on his titan’s scaffold in the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e’s hangar, as if hesitant to fully violate his and Peth’s privacy, even though the reason they’d come to the hangar in the first place was to investigate—and perhaps join in on—the noise. They were still docked at Edgewater, after all, which left all the ladies of the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e with more free time than usual.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe buxom, blonde pixie-haired Bexley just shrugged and nodded in agreement, as did the elegant Captain Alyssa and cute catgirl Sloan. His fellow titan mage Ember was the one hold out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I agree that your dick is talented, but dick-restored memory is a bit of a stretch.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke turned back to Peth, who was following behind him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cem\u003eWas\u003c\/em\u003e that part of your design?” he asked. “That sleeping with me would restore your memories?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“If that had been the case, I wouldn’t have waited!” Peth laughed. “It was simply glorious timing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Glorious …” Locke repeated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe timing wasn’t the only thing about his situation that was glorious. Nine months ago, he’d been a regular nobody in … well, who he’d been back on Earth was largely irrelevant now, and anyone who wanted to know his full story knew where to look. Especially now that his true origin was on record with the Arcane Index as a consequence of … everything that had happened in the past few days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe important part was this: Peth had been a lost Precursor consciousness trapped inside Titan Chimera’s magical core. She’d brought him to Haven so he could use his rare and powerful void mage talents to pull her out into a new body, and the entire time he’d known her, memories of her old life had only emerged in fragments. Which was unfortunate, considering the thing that threatened them now was the very thing that had destroyed the Precursors a thousand years ago.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the meantime, she’d granted him an incredible life, pulling him into a hot, capable new body and a ship full of women who made regular, vigorous use of it. Not to mention his giant mech—Titan Chimera—which circumstances had forced him to upgrade into a badass big stompy robot, because present circumstances indeed demanded Big Stomps.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now, with her returned memories, Peth could provide valuable insight into where those big stomps needed to go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe situation was this:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke had already saved the world once. Sort of. Maybe?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn truth, his last significant battle had only just ended, it had revealed several twists and surprises that he wasn’t sure how to make sense of, and the Arcane Index’s wider investigation into the matter had only just begun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAll Locke knew was that a force named Avarice was stirring in the Crystal Moon and the Endpoint City Arcane Index Director, Pious Pemberton, had used research conducted by moon cultists to turn himself and his followers into potential vessels for the thing. What Avarice was exactly—an intelligent alien, a hungry monster, a literal fucking cosmic horror god—Locke didn’t know. All he knew for sure was that Avarice was responsible for the meteorfall, shadow dregs, and dark specters that had plagued Haven for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd, oh, Pious had shot his disembodied soul into the moon using a Precursor psy satellite dish. As one does.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlso, he’d kidnapped Sloan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was all totally villain behavior on Pious’ part, but that was where the situation became  complex. Because Locke wasn’t entirely sure that Pious was a villain. Oh, turning even willing cultists into vessels for a gooey moon god was suspect, no doubt, but Sloan trusted Pious like a good surrogate father, and Pious had treated his operation like he was acting on the least terrible of two terrible options:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey could allow Avarice to destroy Haven wildly, or they could try to wield its power for themselves, to guide the magic it would inevitably unleash to productive uses. Both would result in the end of their world, but Pious’ expenditure of the magic, so he said, would have been wielded to create a better tomorrow—a world to rival that of the Precursors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke understood the logic, but he didn’t understand why Pious wouldn’t just want to \u003cem\u003edestroy\u003c\/em\u003e the thing, to end its cycle completely. Maybe Pious \u003cem\u003ewanted\u003c\/em\u003e to wield that power, either for his own selfish ends or for the noble end he claimed. But with his body dead and some part of him beamed up to the moon, it wasn’t like Locke could ask him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven that was uncertain, though. Locke couldn’t tell if Pious’ use of the satellite dish had succeeded. The ethereal light that poured off the dish as the spell enacted had flickered unstably, and there was no clear sign of what had actually happened. At least not as clear as, say, the moon laughing evilly as it adopted Pious’ likeness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, it still wore that creepy shadow grin stretched across its lower hemisphere. But, notably, it was no longer sending down meteors. All the meteorfall had ceased within an hour of Pious’ dying.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke wanted to think that was a result of Pious’ influence—that he actually projected his soul into the moon in the same way Peth had pulled Locke to Haven, and that he was now fighting Avarice from the inside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAlone\u003c\/em\u003e, Locke reflected, and shivered at the thought. If Pious was indeed a good man, that was fucking heroic, and he didn’t deserve to be doing it by himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut with their present level of information, all they had were conjectures, and how could one even make an educated guess about the results of psy-magicking one’s soul into the moon? It wasn’t like that sort of thing was a common occurrence, even on Haven.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut now—\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke looked into Peth’s blue eyes, faintly glowing with more eager understanding than he’d ever seen. She could very well hold all the secrets they needed to defeat this destructive moon god and save their world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke stepped aside and gestured to let her go first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n“Then let’s hear everything.”\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481678397731,"sku":"TITANMAGEAPOCALYPSE-DAMAGED","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_Apocalypse_Battle_Scarred.png?v=1786974694"},{"product_id":"signed-print-battle-scarred-the-hot-springs-episode-titan-mage-side-quests-1-paperback","title":"SIGNED PRINT [BATTLE SCARRED]: The Hot Springs Episode (Titan Mage Side Quests #1) (Paperback)","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eOccasionally I get weird books in my stock that are generally good quality, but have minor errors that make them not-full-price-worthy. These are some of those books! If you don't mind a copy that's a little less-than-perfect, though - here, have $5 off! :D\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook One in the Titan Mage Side Quests series. Published by Spice Rack Press. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #000000;\"\u003eSigned by Edie Skye. Contact us at holowriting (at) holowriting.com for personalization requests.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout this premium PAPERBACK:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-d364ed80-7fff-a1ab-7c6d-e9d4ac79ce1b\"\u003eWant a personalized signature? Let us know in the comment box when you check out! \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/the-hot-springs-episode\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/titan-mage-apocalypse\/\"\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"short-description std\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"two-thirds first genesis-author-pro-book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eA mountain hot spring? Sultry swimsuits? A steamy vacation? Sometimes even a hero needs a break!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLocke’s enjoying his new life in another world, fighting dark magic and monsters in his giant mech called a Titan. Add in his hot new body and an airship of stunning ladies who can’t get enough of him and, yes, he thinks he could get very used to this.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen a successful bounty takes the airship \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e by the hot springs town of Steamridge, Captain Alyssa, Chief Engineer Bexley, and Titan Mage Ember decide that what Locke really needs is some “steamy” rest and relaxation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut something is stirring beneath the mountain, and it’s a problem that can only be solved by a titan mage. Will Locke and the ladies ever get to enjoy their hot spring vacation? Or will their hearts be pounding for altogether more dangerous reasons?\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWARNING: \u003cem\u003eThe Hot Springs Episode\u003c\/em\u003e is a fun fantasy adventure containing steam both punk and smutty: alluring airship captains, eager engineers, and provocative mech pilots. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eCONTINUITY NOTE: This side story novella is set between \u003cem\u003eTitan Mage\u003c\/em\u003e (Book #1) and \u003cem\u003eTitan Mage Ruin\u003c\/em\u003e (Book #2), but can be read as a standalone.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Edie Skye has somehow managed to mix together LitRPG, magical mecha, and a spicy harem romance into a story that is fun and great entertainment. It’s been a while since I sat down and read a book in one night, but here we are.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As a teenager, I drooled over the mechs of Robotech and Macross, and nothing since then has captured my love of those massive robots as the titans of Titan Mage.” —Amazon Reviewer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis product is a premium paperback novel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrefer a different format? \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/edieskye.com\/book\/the-hot-springs-episode\/\"\u003eClick here.\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Depositphotos_4583318_S_100x100.jpg?v=1675805195\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\"\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n \n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #00aaff;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEnjoy a sample from THE HOT SPRINGS EPISODE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: start;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChapter One\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“It was supposed to be \u003cem\u003eone monster\u003c\/em\u003e!” Locke snarled as he charged his catalysts in preparation for the latest wave of wood drakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creatures came out of the trees like a pack of tiny, angry half-dragon, half-treants, snapping and snarling and wholly unhappy to see him there in his titan.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTechnically he knew it was inaccurate to compare them to dragons, since he’d learned that drakes and dragons were two completely different creatures on the world of Haven, but it helped him to think of them that way—as wingless, flameless four-legged dragons that made him \u003cem\u003eloath\u003c\/em\u003e to meet a real dragon. For those comparatively tiny beasts—tiny compared to a dragon, at least—still matched the entire two-story height of his mech.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Chimera was a brilliant red building-height suit of armor outfitted with an energy catalyst, a matter catalyst, and two gravity catalysts. While far from being fully upgraded, it was more than capable of wrecking face—and had already done so several times since he’d joined Harper’s Harriers—but never against a pack of titan-sized monsters. Never against fifteen wood drakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“He has a point, Captain,” his partner’s voice came through the titan’s radio. A sudden blast of red shot past Titan Chimera and incinerated two of the drakes as she spoke. “We may need to have some … heated renegotiations with the client. There’s no way they could have missed this many wood drakes, especially as dark-infested as they are. I think they were trying to cheap out on us.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I don’t disagree,” the captain replied from the bridge of the Harriers’ airship, in her usual restrained manner. “I’ll inform you if I see another wave coming from here. In the meantime, take out as many as you can, and try not to get infected.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“For real, \u003cem\u003edon’t\u003c\/em\u003e,” radioed the ship’s chief engineer, in her usual \u003cem\u003eun\u003c\/em\u003erestrained manner. “If this dickhead gets away with cheaping out on our bounty, pretty much all of my budget’s going to get sucked up by repairs, which \u003cem\u003enone\u003c\/em\u003e of us wants. You hear me?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Loud and clear, Bexley,” Locke replied. “Ember, which side are you taking today?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe turned to see Ember’s titan, Long Shot, through Chimera’s visual sensors. The great streamlined airship that was the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e hovered some way behind him, its hangar ramp open, and Long Shot perched there with a clear view of the battlefield below and a shoulder-mounted energy mega-catalyst cannon ready to snipe from a safe distance. The titans paired well together, his bulky, solid mech the melee brawler, her sleek blue-and-silver mech the ranged sniper, and now they both prepared to do what they did best:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFuck up some monsters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Split them up,” Ember said. “I’ll take the left side. And make sure your group’s far from mine when you start burning it. I don’t want to lose you in the smoke and accidentally incinerate you.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Will do,” Locke said, and moved out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe sprinted toward the encroaching swarm of wood drakes, set his energy catalyst to freezing and then fired the gravity catalysts in his legs to \u003cem\u003eleap!\u003c\/em\u003e That was something else he had access to in this world—magic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere were only a limited number of types—energy magic, matter magic, gravity magic, and time magic. It had to be channeled through specially built catalysts before it could be accessed, but he’d taken to it this past month like a … well, like a half-paralyzed nineteen-year-old isekai’d into a new world and a new body that had \u003cem\u003eall the muscles\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eall the magic\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now his pimped-out giant robot somersaulted over the wood drakes on the force of the glowing purple gravity catalysts implanted in the backs of the mech’s robotic calves. The energy catalyst on the underside of his left arm whirred and glowed blue, and a great freezing beam sprayed from his hand, straight through the middle of the pack of wood drakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Chimera landed on the other side of the rush with a tremendous, controlled thud, and when he turned the titan around, he saw that his plan had worked. A low wall of ice now bisected the group of monsters, and they began to split in different directions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnother focused heat blast from Ember took out two more of her drakes, and Locke switched his own energy catalyst to heat and leapt again to catch up with his half. He aimed his left hand straight at the pack, waited for the full charge, and then blasted the backmost creatures with a steady stream of searing fire before they even thought to turn around.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe didn’t land.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore he could, he fired his gravity catalysts again to push him away from the beasts, out of even their slightest grasp.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAgainst most monsters, Locke preferred to fight up close, with his fists and whatever weapons he felt like summoning with his matter catalyst—but these were not normal monsters. He’d fought a lot of drakes in the past month—stone drakes, mountain drakes, water drakes, lake drakes, sea drakes (which were all distinct from each other)—but despite the size and generally ferocious appearance, most were merely cool-tempered animals who wanted to be left alone and only attacked if they felt threatened.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was especially true of the wood drake. A standard wood drake looked something like an old wise man of the forest, like an ageless being that had no concept of the passage of time and only cared to exist quietly in its secluded copse until it decided it was time to leave this place for another. Its scales resembled bark, sometimes curved into the shapes of horns or spikes, and mosses, mushrooms, and lichens just grew on them as a matter of course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBexley had once shown him how to \u003cem\u003epet\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003efeed\u003c\/em\u003e a wild wood drake. They weren’t even carnivorous, except when they accidentally ate bugs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThese\u003c\/em\u003e wood drakes were nothing like those.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTheir normally placid eyes flickered with dark, unnatural sparks of some nebulous energy, and their moss-covered shapes now pulsated with a blackish-purple sludge, slowly seeping into the spaces between their bark scales and filling their bodies with a madness that was not their own—and not even of this world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the sky above hung the great orb of the Crystal Moon; from its surface fell meteors, and from those meteors spread the shadow dregs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo one knew exactly what the dregs were, not even his crewmates, who’d all been born on Haven. All anyone knew was that the shadow dregs craved destruction and would take over anything—living or non—to wreak it. They routinely turned peaceful creatures into zombie-like killing machines for no apparent reason. Once a creature—or a person—was infected, there was no saving them. It was why he couldn’t risk touching the creatures, and why the dregs had to be obliterated whenever they landed. The only creature he’d ever seen survive a shadow dreg infestation was a stone drake, and that was merely because it was fireproof and thus resistant to the magic he’d used to kill the dregs infecting it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wood drakes were definitely \u003cem\u003enot\u003c\/em\u003e fireproof.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut they were also no longer themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith a horrible multi-tonal shriek, every wood drake in his group rounded toward him. He shuddered as even the three that were on fire came for him, their bodies propelled forward by the dregs inside them even as the drakes themselves screeched in terrible pain. He could hear the sap inside their bodies cracking and popping as the heat of his flames cooked them—but all he could do was put them out of their misery faster.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe triggered his gravity catalyst again. A great plume of sparkling steam and excess magic billowed out of his shoulder louvers as he once again leapt out of the monsters’ reach, charged his energy catalyst as white-hot as it would go, and blasted a beam straight at the nearest drake’s flaming head. The creature’s skull exploded. It still moved under the influence of the shadow dregs, but at least it was no longer screaming.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe repeated the process for the other two that were on fire, then leapt back again to take new stock of his situation. Three drakes remained on his side, still mostly untouched; one drake was frozen in the nearby ice wall, apparently caught in his initial blast, and if the diminishing levels of smoke rising from Ember’s side of the wall were any indication, her cannon had obliterated even the ashes of her drakes. But then she had a tier three \u003cem\u003emega\u003c\/em\u003e-catalyst embedded in that cannon, whereas he hadn’t yet gathered enough materials and void essence to upgrade his energy catalyst beyond tier one. \u003cem\u003eOf course\u003c\/em\u003e she’d be wiping out wood drakes with ease. Her titan was \u003cem\u003ededicated\u003c\/em\u003e to ranged combat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis energy catalyst wouldn’t be tier one for long though, and the void essence his titan collected from all these monsters would help him get there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Alyssa, what’s the news from the forest?” Locke radioed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Stay on your toes,” Captain Alyssa replied from the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e. “I see motion in the trees.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke charged his energy catalyst and leapt again, spraying the nearest of the four wood drakes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What kind of motion?” he grunted under the jolt of his titan landing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Could be another wave,” the captain replied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Damn. Why so many?” Locke stated, blasting off the head of the next drake. “Is it normal for wood drake packs to be this large?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Yeah, these are oak drakes,” Bexley replied from inside the hangar, with all the leisure of someone who wasn’t presently staring down two charging, flaming monsters. “They leave their little acorn eggs everywhere and most of them take, so you get lots of oak drake babies and big packs. The proper term for a pack is a grove, by the way.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Wait, how do you know that?” Locke asked, taking out the next drake.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’ll have you know the size of my intellect is directly proportional to the size of my spectacular chest,” Bexley replied. “Plus I once bedded a botanical monstrologist, and the stuff he talked about post-coitus was \u003cem\u003efascinating\u003c\/em\u003e.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bexley, we’re in the middle of a job here,” Captain Alyssa reprimanded.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Fine,” Bexley scoffed. “Don’t make use of my eclectic knowledge. But you’ll probably find it relevant that most oak drake packs have an—”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Oh, \u003cem\u003eshit\u003c\/em\u003e!” Alyssa suddenly exclaimed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke had barely taken out the last of his drakes before a great and terrible thrash blasted the forest open and sent trees taller than his titan flying through the air.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Gods!” Ember echoed, and fired another beam to incinerate one before it hit the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke was not so lucky. He was close to the forest, and so had more trees to dodge, and he taxed his gravity catalysts to their limit as he sprinted and ducked through the avalanche of wood and foliage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the trees stopped crashing, only one thing of the forest remained in motion: an ancient wood drake, its bark rough and knotted with the passing of untold ages, its eyes glowing with the same shadowy fury as the others, and its head stretching far above that of his titan’s, at least three stories tall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“An Oak King,” Bexley finished.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Oak King came for Locke like a landslide. He’d barely fired his catalysts before its great green claws smashed down into the dirt where Titan Chimera had been, tearing divots that were at least a foot deep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe fired a white-hot blast at the creature’s forearm, but it didn’t recoil. The lichens on its back simply caught fire, and it brushed them off as if they were little more than spicy dust.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut as it did so, Locke noticed something.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Ember, I don’t see any shadow dregs on the outside. Do you?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEmber’s visual sensors were better than his, being more essential for her sniping, and after taking a moment to look, she replied, “No, I don’t, either.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“What does that mean?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“They’re probably concentrated in the monster’s brain case,” Alyssa suggested. “A creature that large? It would take all the shadow dregs you’ve already destroyed and then some to control it their usual way.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Take the brain directly, however,” Bexley added, “and they can control the whole thing.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Are shadow dregs smart enough to know that?” Locke asked, blasting a lichen-free spot, then dodging another swipe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“They don’t do it often because the alternative’s easier,” Ember said, “but I’ve seen it enough to know it’s a predictable tactic for big monsters. We’ll want to go for the head.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLocke dodged back a safe distance, then gazed up to get a better look at the head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Dammit,” he groaned. If the bark was thick elsewhere, it was doubly so on the skull. The mosses there hung from great horns that were as thick as his titan’s arm, which suggested the skull supporting them would be at least that thick.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m gonna have to chop it,” he said.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMoreover, he was going to have to \u003cem\u003erun up\u003c\/em\u003e the monster to chop it. He could jump, he supposed, but his control of his gravity catalysts wasn’t fine enough for complex midair maneuvers yet, and if the Oak King wanted to swat him out of his jump, it would have little trouble doing so. He had no choice but to run up its shape, and that meant risking infection by shadow dregs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Hang on! I’ve got an idea!” He sprinted before anyone could order him otherwise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Locke, what are you doing?” Ember shouted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“I’m going to break the skull open!” Locke rounded the monster’s tail and launched up to its hindquarters. He darted up the monster’s ragged spine, and in three great strides, was at the base of its neck.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Got it,” Ember replied, and as Locke scaled the Oak King’s head, he called upon his matter catalyst. This in turn called upon the tank of swiftmetal implanted within Titan Chimera’s back, which spooled out of an opening beneath his right hand to form the thin wireframe of a titan-sized war axe. More slick pseudo-liquid metal spun out to fill the shape with every ferocious step he took, and by the time he leapt onto the skull, it had solidified into its desired form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe fired his gravity catalysts, leapt as high into the air as he could go, and then brought his axe down with all the might of Titan Chimera behind it. The axe blade chopped into the wood of the Oak King’s skull with a thick, wet \u003cem\u003ethunk\u003c\/em\u003e—but only a few inches.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now the Oak King knew what he was doing. It reared its head back and roared—not a ferocious-sounding thing, but a sad noise like ages-old trees groaning as they were felled. Fortunately, though, its thick bark gave it a limited range of motion, and Locke was able to bring the axe down in a similar spot with ease. He did this again and again, each time eliciting tragic moans from the creature, but also knowing it was the only thing he could do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe shadow dregs wouldn’t leave. They could only be destroyed. And so anything they infected also had to share their fate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTitan Chimera leapt into the air and brought the axe down with thunderous force—and this time, the edge sank in with a sickening \u003cem\u003ethwomp!\u003c\/em\u003e The thick wood of the skull split, and a savaged chunk flew out, revealing the weird grayish green of the Oak King’s brain—and the shadow dregs throbbing around it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe shadow dregs gushed up through the hole, straight for him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe met them with his energy catalyst, fired a white-hot beam down into the gap before they could even reach the outside air, and then, the dregs sufficiently distracted, he leapt off the monster’s head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Now!”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNearly as soon as he said it, a brilliant white flash from Titan Long Shot’s shoulder cannon bored into the Oak King’s head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt was some seconds before Locke could look in its direction without squinting. When he did, he saw the creature’s skull black with smoldering embers. But more importantly, he saw a distinct plume of smoke rising from the hole he’d chopped in that skull, suggesting there was even more damage inside. The bit of Ember’s blast that reached the soft tissue behind that hole would have ricocheted throughout the monster’s brain case, incinerating everything inside—brain, shadow dregs, and all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd soon, the unnatural flickering sparks left the monster’s eyes, taking every other spark of life with them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe monster still stood there, held upright by the thick bulk of its body, but now the only life about it was \u003cem\u003eon\u003c\/em\u003e it, in the greenery that still grew and would continue to grow despite the creature’s state.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWell, Locke reflected, at least that life would continue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut on the other hand, he reflected as he headed back toward the \u003cem\u003eBlue Heron\u003c\/em\u003e, his titan had absorbed \u003cem\u003ea ton\u003c\/em\u003e of void essence from the kill!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Holo Writing LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55481681314083,"sku":"HOTSPRINGS-DAMAGED","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0718\/5471\/9267\/files\/Titan_Mage_The_Hot_Springs_Episode_Battle_Scarred_Shopify.png?v=1786974934"}],"url":"https:\/\/store.holowriting.com\/collections\/titan-mage-battle-scarred-signed-books-only.oembed","provider":"Jacob \u0026 H.P. 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