Witches weren’t easy to kill, Deadrick Blade thought, as he dug his serrated blade into Morag Tagra’s chest, and pressed it down like a lever, forcing her heart out.

He then took her head from her body with one clean sweep, and set the heart alight, insuring that, even if Morag did come back looking for it, there would be no heart to look for, and she wouldn’t have the privilege of having eyes to look for it in the first place.

Morag had built up quite a name for herself, in the few short weeks since she had gotten a bit too big for her boots and surfaced around the northern marshes, she had killed two small children, and taken a rather large baker named Roderick back to her cave to breed.

The man was chained to a wall, and his face lit up as Deadrick sheathed his blade.

  “Oh thank Halin! I knew that someone would come for me! Halin grace your soul,” The man cried gleefully.

Deadrick ignored him, and cut the chains with his blade.

   “I don’t want Halin to grace any part of me,” Deadrick said coolly,  “As long as your family grace my wallet, I’ll be happy. Now get up.”

Roderick’s face was puzzled for a moment, before he climbed- well, struggled- to his feet.

Stepping over the body of Morag, they left the damp, fungi infested cave, out into the close air of the marsh.

RATE THIS CHAPTER!

Author guidance for This story

The blurb is under the 'About' box :)

I've finally finished, thanks to everyone who read it and gave me kind words to keep me going! Hope to see you all here for the sequel ;)
(This is the first draft, and I won't be posting the much better final draft, so there are a few errors (both grammatical and spelling) and its a bit rough around the edges - you'll have to buy a copy if you want the best! :D

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Some of the detail of this world is vague, i'm not very good with description anyway, but the world i used is the world I tend to use in almost all of my fantasy stories- reading up on them might give you a basic background of the world itself (please keep in mind that it is where I dump most of my ideas, and each story is set in a different timeline than the others, so place names might change etc). Some good ones to read (cue obvious plugs) would be:

Venturers
http://www.protagonize.com/story/venturers

Ashwinn
http://www.protagonize.com/story/ashwinn

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Deadrick may also start popping up in assorted collabs:

Character Conversations: In The Flesh
http://www.protagonize.com/exercise/character-conversations-in-the-flesh/74539

Thanks!

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-CharlieRoberts

(Because I like boosting my ego, here's some recommendations from my most loyal readers! :D)

"This is a fantastic story! It's action-packed, fast paced and full of unforgettable characters, including the most awesome and brilliantly funny anti-hero since anti-heroes were invented. Five stars from me!"
-SpookOfNight

"With an invincible anti-hero and his ragtag team of misfits in a well developed fantasy setting, Deadrick Blade is an action-packed novel, well-written for it's target audience and I would not be surprised to see on the young adult shelves of a bookstore sometime in the future."
-DarkLiquid

"Fast-paced and full of action, Deadrick Blade is beautifully written and perfectly suited to its target audience. Deadrick firing off witty one-liners left right and centre creates the perfect blend of adventure and comedy and of his ragtag team you can easily pick favourites (it's Danyel for me). And the author's pretty damn epic too!"
-Alis

"In this slick and imaginative retelling of classic legends, Robert's sharp wit shines through in the character of Deadrick Blade, who is a likeable character despite his best efforts! Roberts is a promising writer and his epic fantasy tale full of action, humour and well-developed characters will keep readers on their toes until the end,"
-GeorgiaAmanda

updated Oct 4 '10 by CharlieRoberts