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I know I'm going to get shit from some people for 51, but this is where I've been going with this book. Anyway, next week will be a triple chapter upload covering the entire climactic sequence, which will hopefully offer a surprise or two. Then a quiet epilogue the week after that, with more info about future stuff.

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(Moved to RoyalRoad.)

Comments

Anonymous

Jeez, I saw "gonna get some shit for this" and thought you were gonna, like, kill Melissa. Sinking a ship is positively a relief by comparison.

Anonymous

I'm actually impressed with him. That was the most proactive decision he's made with his romantic life yet. It was also a life changing one in many ways, from his chances in this competition to his path as a cultivator.

Anonymous

Breakup felt a bit unearned to me. Like "Hey this has to happen so She's just gonna go ahead and tell him to murder someone."

Anonymous

> A cold realization spread through him as he understood that it wouldn't work. There was a gap in between them and it had nothing to do with lucrim. > Rick stared after her, feeling like he'd fucked up but not sure what to do. In retrospect he could have handled it better, but it was too late for that. Honestly, I thought this was just... lazy. Rick suddenly becomes an idiot and fucks everything up for the sake of the story. Yes, his relationship with Emily is unhealthy, but Rick isn't an **idiot**. He is capable of expressing what he feels better than this. We've seen him do this multiple times. There was a staggering number of ways to handle the breakup, compared to... that. Or at the very least, don't kill off the relationship and make Emily switch from love to hate in TWELVE sentences.

LordMarksman

I agree, I mean I always thought this may come up with Emily at some time forward because what she was expecting was both heavy and too much too soon. Wanting Rick to go fight her vendetta with her and KILL people is quite extreme. Granted I do believe there are times when killing IS the answer but it should never be a quick or easy decision. It's a last resort not a go to solution to solve all your problems the cycle of violence and all that. Still Good luck Rick, your going to need it. I do wonder how that demonic bond will play out for him. I mean most of the times these things end up badly for their users but in Rick's case he actually knows one he made a pact with so perhaps it may eventually develop into a mutually beneficial relationship. Since I have a feeling being partner to Rick may skyrocket Bftgage & Ythsil station in life by quite a bit (eventually). Or was this just a mistake he'll pay for later I suppose only time will tell.

Anonymous

I was pretty sure Rick and Emily wasn't going to be a healthy relationship in the long term. So excited so read the climax next week.

Anonymous

Seriously.. this is a world where killing seems like its semi-normal. "Killing doesn't earn you any points to discourage the act" is an example. Its like fuck you and all the support you've given me. As if its not reasonable to kill someone who is actively trying to kill you.. Emily should be against melissa joining Rick on this endeavor causing Melissa to start a fight and lashing out against Emily during the training montage. Rick is left with feeling like he needs to choose between his girl and his sister and chooses his sister breaking up with his girl.

School work

Horse shit....MC's a dumbass. Being able to kill someone who's cleared a blood vendetta doesn't mean you are sliding down some slippery slope to darkness or being like Jack.....it just means you have some sort of self-preservation instinct. The MC should know this, since the silly birth-righter he fought was more than willing to pursue a vendetta despite likely never having killed anyone. I can understand him being off-put by Emily, but the reasoning and method feels heavy-handed and a bit clumsy/illogical, even given how dumb the MC can be at times. It's made quite a bit worse for someone who's chosen career path to this point has been mostly to hurt people (which is why he's in all of these situations to begins with).

LOLtohru

Seems to be an unpopular opinion here but I think it's good that Rick was honest with Emily. She might have reacted emotionally but she's a logical person and I think she'll be back.

Pete

I don't think that sounds like what Emily or Melissa would do.

Pete

Good point Jack has no reason to stop if he loses his position, in our world i would suggest the police but here he really needs some plan if he neither wants to kill nor risk being killed. About the breakup some earlier chapter telegraphed it so with the note and the title it was quite expected. Too bad though, prefer her over Lisa.

Anonymous

Yeah, that break up could have been done a bit differently. I like the honesty in it though, but the timing is absolutely odd. Also makes Emily and her value feel like a nothing too. She felt dumped by your writing as well.

IBG_Music

If you knew we were going to react poorly to this, you could've just changed it and written that part differently. where the story is going is fine, but that breakup part. don't rush because you feel you have to.

GoodOldChap

What’s weird is that he’s breaking up with her because he doesn’t like that she’s willing to kill while simultaneously offering to help her kill someone

Gabriel

I think I see what you were going for, I personally would have preferred if he tried to communicate his feelings regarding the situation rather than just dumping her as I find that sort of healthy realistic relationship dynamic more interesting and sadly not done often when it comes to conflict in stories. D: Missed opportunity for a different type of parting and leaving the future open to different possibilities. Something along the lines of stating his feelings towards her, his confusion at his own feelings, the limits of what he is willing to do and why that is. Things don't have to go all nice. Emily doesn't have to accept it, but then it isn't just Rick being an uncommunicative silly head and we see some "fuller" character growth. It also gives Emily less reason to feel that she has been betrayed and more of a chance to grow. Still like the story! I'm just kinda tired of messy break ups in fiction. :P People can break up, have it suck and hurt, while have no one being a tool. I just wish entertainment showed that more often.

Runcible Technician

Ha, the lonely warrior is so wuxia. This is great!

Thundermike00

Is lisa lesbian? The amount of times rick sister hits on her is very frequent and makes you wonder. Maybe it’s just me or did you make the sister lesbian because you did wanted some lgbt in your story?

Anonymous

... Melissa isn't hitting on her. They're just good friends. This is how girls that are close act.

Anonymous

I like the willingness with which Emily discusses killing is what ignites all the red flags Rick sees. I'm curious though, Sarah, since I don't feel like I understand Emily enough to answer myself: how would you write this scene, or how would it go, if this were to spark a conversation that instead reconciles them rather than tears them apart? Would they become closer but agree romance wouldn't work? Be FWBs? Have a deeper romantic connection? I'm really curious how that would go.

Desertopa

His career path has involved fighting people, but as far as the story we've seen goes, he's never once aimed to deliberately maim or permanently disable an opponent, let alone kill someone. Rejecting Emily doesn't even mean he necessarily rejects the idea that her plan is pragmatic. But he rejects the direction of personal development that she is, by all appearances, looking to use it to instill in him.

Desertopa

I'm confused; I don't see how. Rick showed enough respect for Emily to be up-front about his feelings, even at a risk to his life, and not just use his relationship with her as an excuse to keep her around as a bodyguard when he knew he wasn't going to want to stay with her long term. In turn, Emily could have stayed on through the event to help him, because his life literally hangs on it, and even if they're not in a relationship she could still follow through with an effort to save his life. It's possible she'll still show up at the last moment in a later chapter, but for now, as far as we know, she didn't, and I think the fact that this feels in-character for her is, if not a sign that Rick made the best pragmatic decision for his own survival, at least a sign that he's right that the two of them weren't suited for each other.

Anonymous

D-I meant mostly from a story timing situation. Maybe I'm a bit biased due to our episodic roll out. If this is the last we hear of Emily, she feels very much like a toss away story element to establish Rick as "not a killer. " If this were the completed book, maybe we'd all be flipping through the pages frantically? Right!

Anonymous

Eh, Emily was too good for him anyway ; )

Kyle Aretae

Lisa so has the hots for Rick. She thought they were getting close, but then Emily hopped in. The love interest was always heading in the Lisa direction.

sarahlin

I appreciate your questions, but it would be premature to answer some of them right now. Feel free to ask again next week!

Anonymous

Any of the competitors who are not as oblivious to people and their names as Rick should be able to figure out who "[redacted]" is by process of elimination. I wish Rick were not written as such an idiot most of the time.

Anonymous

I love Melissa. She's so cute! And clever by Rick. After seeing the end I'm sure you foreshadowed it well, but didn't see it coming. This is me asking again. 🙂

sarahlin

Emily would always have a negative emotional reaction to the conversation and need time to process. Hypothetically if Rick was a lot more emotionally sensitive, he could have brought it up slowly, but I've tried to write him as just average for a guy his age. Hypothetically if he was more proactive, he could have followed her and had a further conversation, though this could easily have angered her more. A conversation that reconciled them would have required a long argument about how incompatible their life ideals are, in accordance with Emily's analytic nature. Emily might accept a FWB situation, but Rick wouldn't. Though it pushed them apart for now, this conversation actually did bring them closer together in a non-romantic way. If the series goes on long enough, Emily will be back.