A Dark Fantasy Series

Ytecat

pronounced “teh-cat”

Season One  •  Complete

A story about grief, survival, and what it costs to stay human
when the world keeps asking you to be something harder.

Read Season One — Borrowed Swords → ⇣ Download PDF
Season 1 — 33 Chapters  —  Written by Rob Florendo
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A Note from the Author

Our world is cruel. It is unrelenting and unforgiving, and it does not pause to ask whether you are ready for what it brings next.

I wrote Ytecat thinking about that — about what it actually means to be strong in a world like that. The easy answer is to carry it alone. To close off, to distance yourself, to decide that needing someone is the same as being weak. It feels safer that way. It costs less, until it costs everything.

Real strength, I think, looks different. It looks like trusting someone else to hold what you can’t. It looks like understanding your own flaws clearly enough to let another person fill that gap — not because you have no choice, but because you choose to believe they will. That takes more courage than carrying the weight alone ever does.

This story is about what happens when people choose each other anyway. Not because the world gets easier. It doesn’t. But because enduring it together is the only way to overcome it at all.

— Rob Florendo

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The World

One hundred years ago, a portal to the Demon Realm tore open in the world of Ytecat. The seven races — already weakened from centuries of war against each other — were overwhelmed. Today, eighty-three percent of their world is occupied. What remains is held not through strength, but through sheer refusal to stop.

83% World Occupied
100 Years Since the Portal
7 Races of Ytecat

Haruki and Hayate are the only survivors of their village. They didn’t escape — they fought their way out, and the weight of everyone they couldn’t save has shaped them in opposite ways. Haruki became calm, methodical, the steady hand his brother needed. Hayate became something harder — aggressive, instinct-driven, carrying grief as rage.

In a world where the seven races distrust each other almost as much as they fear the demons, this group of misfits begins to do something quietly dangerous — trust each other.

Together they arrive at Akebono — a human settlement whose name means dawn — with borrowed swords and empty pockets, looking for work. What they find instead is a party: Lyra, an elf archer with warmth on the surface and something darker underneath; Freyja, a Cecaelian warrior searching for her missing brother; and Rask, a winged Beastman who protects the ones no one else will.

But the world is not content to let them grow at their own pace. A demon spy embedded in the closest human town has been watching them since the beginning — using them, manipulating them, and when they proved too useful to simply eliminate, sending them behind enemy lines on a job designed to serve his agenda whether they survive it or not.

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The Seven Races

Humans
The most numerous of the surviving races, adaptable and widespread. Their towns form the backbone of the remaining defensive lines. Their greatest strength and oldest flaw are the same thing — they are capable of extraordinary unity and devastating division in equal measure.
Elves
Long-lived and perceptive, with senses sharper than any other race. Their capital, Dawnholt, stands on the coast — a city of high forests and ocean views that has served as the elven seat of power since before the portal opened. Warmth, when they offer it, is earned slowly and guarded carefully.
Dwarves
Master craftspeople, particularly in metalwork and weapons. Their loyalty runs deep within their own kind and cautiously beyond it. They have held their strongholds longer than any other race. Their endurance is legendary. Their patience with the failures of others is considerably less so.
Orcs
A warrior culture shaped by ritual and honour. Their young are sent into the world to prove themselves before they can return home — a tradition that has sent many orc fighters to the frontlines. Do not mistake their discipline for simplicity.
Beastmen
Hybrid humanoids — part human, part animal — covering enormous variety in form and ability. Winged Beastmen, serpent hybrids, and dozens of others exist within the same broad category, each carrying the traits of their animal lineage. Stoic and deliberate. Their softness is not visible in a casual glance.
Cecaelia
Amphibious humanoids — human above the waist, cephalopod below. At home in water as much as on land, they hold the coastlines that other races cannot defend. Their culture is traditional and family-bound. Fiercely loyal to their own. The loss of one of theirs leaves a wound that does not heal.
Revenants
A dying people. Bound to Ytecat by an ancient pact with the God of Death, they cannot pass on — instead they return after death, over and over, but each death costs them something. A memory. A name. A piece of who they were. The oldest Revenants are the most powerful and the most hollow. They are not undead. They are simply running out of time in a way no one else is.
Demons
They are not mindless. They have generals, captains, lieutenants — armies with structure and strategy. What occupies Ytecat is, in fact, a scouting force. Four generals hold eighty-three percent of the world with a fraction of the demon realm’s true power. They are not in a hurry. The slow burn, for most of them, is the point.
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The Magic System

Fire
Offensive
A weapon of direct harm. High damage output, particularly devastating in combination with Light.
Dark
Offensive
Shadow-based attacks and movement. Unpredictable in the hands of someone willing to use it fully.
Earth
Defensive
Used to protect and strengthen. Can enhance metal weapons by fortifying the earth within them.
Water
Defensive
Absorbs kinetic energy and shields the target. Capable of carrying Light properties when blessed.
Light
Support — Anti-Demon
Healing, enhancing, sustaining — and significantly more effective against demons than any other element.
Wind
Support
Speed, propulsion, and fire enhancement. In the right combination, extreme piercing capability.

Every person in Ytecat is born with a magical affinity — or without one. No person can wield more than two elements. Most have one. A rare few have none at all. The combination matters more than the individual parts.

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The Party

Haruki
Human  •  Age 17  •  Rapier
Calm, steady, the kind of person whose smile makes you feel like everything is going to be okay. He carries himself like someone older than seventeen. The weight of responsibility shows in his posture, not his face. He became steady because someone had to — and Hayate couldn’t.
Fire Light
“The weight of the ones we couldn’t save.”
Hayate
Human  •  Age 11  •  Greatsword
Eleven years old. Broad-shouldered, explosive, imprecise, magnetic — a child’s face on a fighter’s frame. He carries grief as rage because rage at least feels like it’s going somewhere. By the end of Season 1, standing in front of burning Kibou, he learns what it means to be the steady one.
Dark Wind
“What would Haruki do?”
Lyra
Elf  •  Age 19  •  Bow & Dagger
Warm and playful on the surface, with hazel eyes that carry something that doesn’t quite match the smile if you look closely enough. She wears a raven pendant necklace that becomes a significant detail through Season 1. Easy to like, careful to be known.
Light Water
“Warmth on the surface, darkness underneath.”
Freyja
Cecaelia  •  Age 15  •  Trident & Shield
The youngest-feeling member of the party — bright-eyed, wide smile, cheerful in a way that disarms people. She is also the tank. Her magical trident returns to her hand via a bangle at her wrist. She is searching for her missing brother, and everything she does serves that one purpose — until it doesn’t.
Earth Water
“She should read as someone who loves being here.”
Rask
Beastman, Winged  •  Age 21  •  Dual Daggers
A winged Beastman with predator’s eyes that miss nothing. Tall, lean, built for flight and close-quarters precision. Quiet strength — not cold, restrained. Always watching, always assessing, never wasting movement. The softness underneath is not visible in a casual glance. He protects the ones no one else will.
Wind Fire
“Protects the ones no one else will.”
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Season One

Borrowed Swords
Season 1 ends not with victory — but with survival. And barely that.

A city lost. Kibou burns behind them, smoke rising thick against an early sky. Hayate stops on the road west and looks back at the fire for a long time. He thinks about his brother. He thinks — what would Haruki do? And for the first time, he knows the answer. He turns back to face the others and says, “We keep moving.” His voice is steady. He is not sure how. They follow him west into a world that is eighty-three percent occupied, and they keep walking because that is what you do.

First Conceived
Late teens — early 2000s
Writing Began
Early 2026
Season 1 Completed
2026 — 33 Chapters
First Published Online
02 April 2026, 22:43 AEST — 4our.it/ytecat