Novels by Ak Faith

The wind whistling past Jayden’s ears was a shrill, mocking taunt. He didn’t feel like a hero. He felt like a complete moron. Every instinct had warned him the chivalry quest was a trap, yet his ego, pumped up by a single win in a town square, had marched him straight into a hole in the ground. He didn't fall with any dignity. He tumbled, limbs flailing, slamming into the uneven rock sides of the shaft. Every hit was a sharp reminder of his own stupidity.By the time his fingers snagged a protruding rusted pipe, his shoulder was screaming. He hung there, dangling over a dark pit that smelled of wet copper and rot. His breath came in ragged, panicked gasps. This wasn't some scripted game event; this was the direct result of playing a hand he couldn't actually back up."Iris," he wheezed, his voice shaking. "Light. Give me light."[ ERROR: AMBIENT INTERFERENCE. MANUAL ILLUMINATION REQUIRED. ]Jayden swore, fumbling for a glow-stick. He snapped it, and the neon blue glare revealed the n

The air in the valley turned sharp and cold as Jayden stood his ground. Twelve Rhino-men formed a semi-circle around him, their heavy breathing sounding like industrial bellows. The leader, a beast with a scarred snout and a stone-encrusted club, stepped forward. He towered over Jayden, casting a long shadow that stretched toward the village gates where Astrid and Jimmy watched in stunned silence."You killed Raina with a lucky strike, little meat," the leader rumbled. His voice was a tectonic grate that seemed to vibrate in Jayden’s shins. "But there are eleven of us left. You have one toothpick. Do the math."Jayden didn't look at the leader. His eyes were darting, scanning the dirt, the positioning of the sun, and the way the three Rhino-men on his left shifted their feet. He wasn't the panicked kid from the dark path anymore. He was calculating. He saw the world in lines of movement and windows of opportunity."I was never very good at math," Jayden said. He shifted his grip on th

They stared at each other for a long, heavy moment. Jayden’s eyes traced the sharp line of her jaw and the specific shade of her hair, trying to reconcile the desperate girl in front of him with the face he’d seen on every news broadcast back in Seattle."I don’t understand," he said, his voice dropping an octave, raspy with disbelief. "You have to be Fiona. Fiona Caleb. You went missing two years ago. The posters, the searches... everyone thought you were dead."The girl’s head tilted slightly, her expression shifting from fear to a genuine, haunting confusion. "I do not know that name. I am Astrid Irving. I was born in Brinstring Village, south of the Great Divide. I have never known another home."Jayden let out a long, weary sigh and slowly sheathed the silver blade. The adrenaline that had spiked during the ambush was receding now, replaced by a dull, throbbing ache in his joints and a deep exhaustion that felt more mental than physical."Astrid, then," he muttered, pulling a ric

Jayden’s hand didn't shake as he reached for the black dagger. The metal slid from its sheath with a dry, predatory hiss, the blade drinking in the sickly green ambient light of Bram Square. Across the stone-paved hub, the Rhino-man lowered his head, a guttural roar ripping through his throat and rattling the nearby market stalls."I’ll bury you in the dirt, pebble!" the brute bellowed. He didn't just move; he moved forward with the terrifying speed of a runaway freight train.The bustling crowd dissolved instantly, people scrambling back to form a wide, jagged circle of onlookers. Cheers of the bloodthirsty and jeers of the skeptical merged into a wall of white noise. Jayden didn't flinch. For the first time in his life, the paralyzing fear that usually bound his feet was gone. In its place was a cold, focused energy. This wasn't a nightmare; it was a match. And Jayden Anderson was tired of losing."Let’s dance, ogre," Jayden whispered.He didn't wait for the impact. Once the giant r

Consciousness returned as a rare and startling sight: another human being. Jayden’s eyelids fluttered open, his vision adjusting to the flickering warmth of a small campfire. Small calloused hands, but surprisingly gentle, were busy winding a strip of cloth around his punctured arm."Where am I?" a groan escaped his lips. Every muscle in his body felt like it had been shredded and stitched back together with wire."That’s the first thing you said when I dragged you in here," a youthful voice answered. A boy with shock-blue eyes and a smudge of soot across his nose leaned into the light. "Easy now. No mountain dwellers in this spot. You’re safe."Squinting against the orange glow, Jayden took in his savior. The boy looked no older than seventeen, dressed in patched-up leathers that had seen better decades."Who are you?""I’m Jimmy. Jimmy Freeman." The boy offered a hand, his grip surprisingly steady."Jayden... Anderson," he slurred, the name feeling foreign on his tongue. Shaking Jim

Jayden’s eyelids pried apart, but the world didn't return. Instead of the soft silk sheets he’d spent a fortune on for Sarah, he felt cold, vibrating metal beneath his cheek. Instead of the smell of her perfume, there was only the ozone-heavy scent of digital static.He instinctively flung an arm over his face, shielding his vision from the harsh green glow of a floating dashboard."Wh—what’s going on?" His voice didn't sound like his own. It was thin, raspy, echoing in a hollow silence that felt artificial.The memory hit him like a physical blow: Marcus’s smirk. Sarah’s bored, indifferent eyes. The weight of the prototype headset. “I’m not killing you, Jayden. I’m just deleting a bug.”"Marcus..." Jayden hissed, the name tasting like poison.A dark green interface snapped into focus directly in front of his nose.[ WELCOME TO THE GRID. ][ USER: JAYDEN ANDERSON. ][ LEVEL: IRON (BEGINNER). ][ STATUS: SOUL-LINK ACTIVE. ][ INITIATING SURVIVAL PROTOCOL 001. ]"It’s real," he whispere