A Realm of Raven's

By D.A.Marz

The lands of Terra have been a place of hostility and bloodshed. Since the dawn of creation the creatures of this world have been fighting to find where they belong. Raven a out going woman is not exception to this. She wants nothing more than to find peace for her people but what she will find out is in order to secure that peace she might just need to grip her sword a bit tighter than she would like. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Duncan Martinez
• Release date: Nov 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988649083

Book preview

Chapter 1

The purple-eyed warrior stared at the massive manticore; its blood shot eyes stared into the very soul of the warrior. It opened its mouth with a snarl and bared its teeth that looked like blades that had just been worked by a wet stone. It drooled blood red saliva out of the corners of its mouth. Darkness leaked from deep within the beast. It was agitated with the warrior, but they knew it was not because of them entirely. It was the darkness from within. Long ago, all of the lands thrived and there was peace among the planet, animals, elves, and humans. Something awakened deep within the planet and it began to corrupt everywhere that it could dig its claws into. Much like the manticore before the warrior had picked up a sword, the warrior once wandered the land and lived peacefully. It moved to the side showing the wounds that the warrior had just inflicted on its side. The cuts were deep in its fur covered flesh. Its eyes flickered with determination and then the beast lunged forward. If the warrior was just a common soldier, the beast would have claimed another victim; but the warrior was what was known as a drake and was much faster than the common living creature. The determination to not join the many fallen warriors that littered the grounds around the beast also gave the warrior the drive to watch their step and not hold back their power. If the common person looked at the purple and black armor that the warrior wore, they would think that they would be slow moving like most of the knights that wore the same style of armor. This outfit looked bulky but was as light as a feather and strong like dragon scale. The armor was made by the elves who were experts at their work. The armor and weapons were one of the reasons that most of the main continent was ruled by eleven kingdoms. The beast's tail slashed at the warrior and they barely made it out of its reach. The beast flung its tail forward and it launched one of the thorns from it. The thorn tore across the pauldron of the armor. In most situations the thorn would have dug into the side of the warrior, but it glanced off the side leaving a large mark on the pauldron. Even if the thorn had broken through, being a drake meant that they had scales on parts of their body that were just as strong if not stronger than dragon scale.

The drakes of this realm were humanoid creatures. Their faces and bodies looked human, but their eyes were slit like a serpent and the scales on their bodies were an indication of their non-human origins. It was the scales that made drakes formidable foes. Channeling magic through the layers of scale made their skin stronger than armor. Some drakes were strong enough that their scales were stronger than the scales that coated the bodies of the great dragons. Most drakes did not need to wear armor because by their young adult years they would let the dragon spirit in them loose and allow their body to be covered in scale. There were advantages and disadvantages to allowing this transformation. The only thing that was final was once a drake let the spirit take one hundred percent of the body there was no going back. The only reason the warrior wore armor was to cover the parts of her body that were not covered in scales. They had their reasons for not allowing their body to be coated in scales. One of the reasons was that there were a few people in the world that hunted their kind as sport. The warrior flicked the sword in her hand causing the blood of the manticore to fall off onto the dirt and grass at her feet.

The manticore drew its head back and snapped at the warrior. She moved fast, jumping to the side and struck the beast, cleaving its ear off. The creature roared in agony and anger and turned quickly, throwing repeated shots with its massive claws, which were bigger than the warrior. She dodged most of them with ease and grace and those that did hit the warrior bounced off. The warrior could feel the bruises forming from the hits. She jumped back, putting twenty feet between her and the beast. She poured magic into the blade she was holding. The ebony blade shined with starlight and beauty; the red gem on the hilt shined