Welcome back to The High Life!

We're getting so close to the release date of Highstreet: Calamity. As we approach the big day, the team will roll out a series of teasers. The first is here for you.

Let's dive in! ⬇️

Get Ready to Experience Highstreet: Calamity

The Gardens bear a different meaning for everyone.

For some denizens of Highstreet City, they are a land of overgrown greenery, where nature constantly shifts and transforms. There are natural wonders and areas of leisure, but dangers also lurk within.

For others, it's a failed project, the result of a piece of green Lunarite unleashing energy that is out of control. The ever-changing landscape provides the perfect cover for secret experiments and other scheming.

Others yet with a more intimate understanding of The Gardens have another interpretation.

“It could have been perfect, The Gardens. A masterpiece. The crowning achievement of my career. But when it's nature's power that you try to tame, what you get instead is her wrath.”

Those are the words of Giles Gilbert Tate, the genius behind The Gardens.

Get ready to be dropped into Highstreet City as vegetation claims its space, every effort to hold it back barely succeeding. Watch as Adventurers brave immense beasts. Even if they're struck down, a portal might open for an even bigger threat to step through.

We're counting down the days until Highstreet: Calamity is available for download. Prepare to grab your Oculus Quest so you can enter the Gardens to take down wave after wave of corrupted bots!

Wine, Blood, and Broken Deals — A Tale from Highstreet: Café

PART 2

The Gargantuan Grape lashed its vine-like arms in wild arcs, smashing twisted vines and ruptured fruit with every swing. The air thickened with the sour stench of overripe pulp as the Adventurer ducked and rolled beneath a massive tendril, her blades carving twin streaks across the creature's thick skin.

“We're barely making a dent!” the Apprentice shouted, sweat flying from his brow as he channeled another arcane blast into the beast's side. The energy seared the translucent flesh, but the creature barely flinched.

The Adventurer's voice was tight. “Focus on the core!”

A sudden tremor beneath their feet gave only a split second of warning before a rogue tendril burst up from the soil, snapping toward the Apprentice like a striking serpent. He didn't see it in time.

“Look out!”

The Scavenger's voice cut through the chaos. From the edge of the battlefield, he dove forward, crashing into the Apprentice and rolling them both out of harm's way just as the tendril slammed into the spot where the Apprentice had stood.

The Apprentice stared at him, wide-eyed and panting. “You?”

The Scavenger offered a thin smile as he stood, brushing dirt from his torn jacket. “Don't get sentimental. I need you alive so I can make it out of here.”

The Adventurer snarled. “You've got some nerve showing your face—”

Her words were cut short as another tendril barreled toward them. The three scattered instinctively, the ground exploding in a shower of rotten grape matter.

The Gargantuan Grape let out a deep, gurgling groan. Its central core pulsed—deep red beneath the stretched skin, like a beating heart fermenting under pressure.

“We're not bringing this thing down alone,” the Scavenger shouted. “But together—”

The Adventurer eyed him warily, spinning her blades into a ready stance. “This doesn't make us friends.”

“Didn't say it did.”

The Apprentice grimaced. “Less talking, more not dying!”

The Scavenger slipped behind the beast as the Adventurer drew its attention head-on, blades flashing in a storm of parries and strikes. The Apprentice planted his feet and began building a concentrated energy surge, threads of violet light spiraling around his arms.

“Now!” the Scavenger yelled, leaping up a twisted vine to land directly behind the creature's pulsing core. With a swift motion, he drove a jagged glass shard—likely scavenged from the broken Château Charnelle bottle—into a weak seam.

The Gargantuan Grape shrieked, lurching forward.

The Apprentice unleashed his blast, striking the wound, sending cracks spidering across the translucent surface.

The Adventurer lunged, driving both blades into the fissure. With a wet, echoing pop, the core ruptured in a flood of steaming, violet pulp.

The creature collapsed with a wet thud, twitching once before lying still. The air was thick with the sickly-sweet aroma of crushed grapes and monster ichor.

The three stood over the fallen beast, chests heaving, streaked with juice and grime.

The Scavenger exhaled. “Well. That was unpleasant.”

The Adventurer wiped her blades clean and narrowed her eyes. “You're not off the hook.”

The Scavenger held up his hands. “Didn't expect to be.”

The Apprentice glanced between them. “We need to have a very long conversation.”

“Agreed,” the Adventurer said. “But first—let's get out of this cursed vineyard.”

Together, reluctant, wary, barely allies, and still very much not friends, they stepped away from the steaming carcass and deeper into Solera's tangled roads.

To be continued…

Highstreet Chronicles: Into the Chaos Gardens #14

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