An Uneasy Stalemate

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

When the leader of the dark realm of Midnight decides to invade Earth, it's up to a group of four magical girls to defeat his demonic minions, a job at which they prove all too efficient. Thankfully for Earth, the minions are rather stupid, and seem perfectly happy to continue walking one by one toward their doom.

Mostly.

The Bane known as Decay has watched his fellows getting slaughtered, and decided he wants no part in their fate. When he's ordered to cross the rift to Earth himself, he's willing to do anything to survive. There may be no chance of victory, but, with a little effort and a few acts very much against his nature, it might just be possible not to lose.

This is a short story, mostly following the POV of the very confused and slightly traumatised magical girls as they try to figure out what to do with their rather atypical enemy.

Only published here, Scribble Hub and Patreon. If it appears on any other sites, it's stolen.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: cathfach

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.7/ 5.0
Followers: 734
Views: 121,300

Chapters(14 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(10)

Carson6319Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
It's well written with interesting characters and enough world building that more could be added.
The story really adds a nice spin to the generic magical girl defence genre.
Recommend it for a sweet one day read.
Thank you for sharing this story on the royal road platform. Really appreciate it.
GreenthumbRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The fiction page synopsis covers the plot description quite well but unfortunately is unable to cover how surprisingly entertaining I'm finding this work.
It is stylistically well written with just a touch of the cutesy anima tropes that I was expecting to be gagging on every other minute. The here are just enough touches to be both familiar and entertaining without being overpowering. Thankfully, there are no sexual overtones common among many anima stories.
It's rather early it the plot to give a review. I normally wait at least 50 chapters and I review very seldomly but all the chapters I've read thus far have left my smiling. I find I'm really looking forward to how the plot develops and hopefully the author can keep it fresh. I'm really enjoying the tension between the protagonist and the antagonist; it's really entertaining that which characters are protagonist and which are antagonist is arguable thus far in the plot.
Grammar seems quite good- I haven't seen any typos, odd word choices or ambiguous sentences. There are no weird grammar choices to distract from the plot.
I'm really enjoying the the character development as well. The author has given enough background that we know the bane's motivation without having an information dump but enough to have some sympathy for where he's coming from.
The female characters are still acting like a little typical female anima characters thus far, but it's early in the plot and there is plenty of room for further character development. Even if these characters continue to act like anima characters, I still think the story will remain entertaining.
On the whole, I think this it a very entertaining, light, amusing read that's great when a reading just wants something that brings a smile and maybe a chuckle. I really hope the work garners attention from other readers, who enjoy it as much as I have been. It just needs more chapters🤣
HyrielRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Excellent short story, well done wordsmith. A delightful dose of dopamine that took me about 2-3 hours to read and made me giggle quite a bit. Decay is the best and Natasha is also the best. I'm now off to see if the wordsmiths other fictions are just as good. (Ooo, perfect 50 words, not including this lol)
RznRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This was an interesting subversion of the normal monster of the week and magical girl battles evil type genre norms. Given the nature of the powers, an unexpected foe frustrates the team and gives them more than they bargained for. A solidly written short story that has some minor issues with the dialogue of teenage girls, and some minor plot holes that few readers would notice, but nothing major. The ending did seem a bit forced to me, but it does wrap up the story in a satisfying way that resolves some of the loose threads.
ShyrainRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Very interesting and original story that really shines.
The story likes to wrestle with philosophical questions while creating hilarious situations.
Read this if you want something more than the usual ‘Litrpg’ fare on Royal Road, or if you want something creative and funny
If You like satire and comedy, then this story is for you
plus it’s a short story, so that is nice because you can get all the way through it quickly
TreeLeafRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This was a fun short story to fill my afternoon with.
An Uneasy Stalemate is well written and well paced, and this was the first time I actually read an ending to a Magical Girl story that gives a satisfying logical ending and not just a feels good Vibes™ ending (though it gave that too 😁).
No obvious mistakes that I noticed and having good characters, I enjoyed my afternoon with this story.
Great job.
Xman 99Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Writing this review a bit over an hour after the first chapter came out reading the chapter and the description it's right up my alley and I've generally liked the past books of this author making the book really promising I'm writing this review so more people be able to find the book.
catgymRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Very good. This is a real page turner, a real nice story that will keep you up at night and unable to look away. This is so good because it takes a established genre and just messes the hell out of it. Nothing is as expected and all the characters feel human and are all charming. Everything just comes together to make a damn charming and memorable novel that I have to say is one better stories on Royal Road
W. KuRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
I love how much exposition, both world-building and characterisation, is done in just the opening paragraphs. An absolute masterclass. I tip my hat to you!
There's a really good level of balance in the sophistication of the prose as well. No grunt-level this-happened-then-that-happened, but also no unsolicited poetry.
Only shaved off a sliver of a star for the dialogue feeling a little unnatural, but it's better then Brandon Sanderson's and he's Brandon Sanderson so far from a fatal flaw.
Well written!
kuenaiRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
To the author: Thank you for sharing your skill and art - this was a charming story, and brought a few tears to my eyes, along with many smiles and a few belly laughs.
Bravo! Bravo!
To my fellow readers: if you like magical girl stories with comedy, wit, drama, poignancy, and a gentle, reasonable hand regarding moral questions, I urge you to give this story a read.
Enjoy!