Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

Thick tendrils of shadowy flame brushed at him, but Jacob remembered the last time he died and broke off the attack with a backward leap. Recovering his Stamina, Jacob weaved the flaming sword back and forth in a figure-eight pattern.

What he thought was a poor place to fight the creature turned out to be great. The Burgon Beast was just as trapped as he was, and getting past Jacob wasn’t easy.

Jacob lurched forward with Lightning Cracks Stone, missing only because the ground suddenly shifted below his feet. Likewise, the Burgon Beast was caught off-guard but with four paws - three good ones - it recovered faster.

A lash of its barbed tongue took Jacob in the hip, sending poisonous fire radiating up into his chest. Before he could draw forth an item to take care of it, the ground quaked again.

Thrown to his knee, Jacob heard the distant gurgling roar of rage and cursed his luck.

Water burst forth in mighty geysers all around him. The Burgon Beast turned tail and ran as tentacles leaped out of holes in the stonework. He was lashed in place, unable to break free as the tunnels flooded with saltwater, and he drowned.

You Died.

He came awake with a start, gasping for air that blessedly came to his lungs. Drowning to death was one of his least favorite ways to die.

Jacob looked at the pitiful flames of the Pyre, barely higher than a foot off the glowing embers.

The Fire Oppa looked at him mournfully, he was thinner. His fur seemed less lustrous and full. Jacob reached into the flames and took the Fire Oppa in his hands and pet him, trying to soothe the creature though he had no idea how.

“That last death didn’t count,” he said, trying for a jovial attitude. “I drowned, the Burgon Beast didn’t get me.”

Looking up at Jacob with love and adoration, the Fire Oppa winked at him. “That’ll stay just between you and me then, eh?”

“Exactly,” Jacob answered, petting him gently before setting him back into the flames. “Just a little more. It’s already missing a few eyes, and one of its legs is badly damaged. Every time I use Souldrinker on it, the blade gets stronger.”

Several of the [Duskblade’s] nicks and notches were healed. The many tarnished sections of the blade were now giving off a dull gleam in the weak firelight.

“The Burgon Beast returned to snuff out the Drowned Halls Pyre as soon as you died and the tunnels drained,” the Fire Oppa said.

Jacob expected as much. He gave a forced smile of comfort to the Fire Oppa. He was running out of chances faster than he thought possible.

Its red-jeweled pommel pulsed like a heartbeat. Reaching into the flames, Jacob willed the Pyre to transport him to the Desecrated Catacombs. A wash of flames scoured his vision and deposited him on the hard stony ground of the Desecrated Catacombs Pyre. Not too dissimilar from the Razor Pass, except for the deeply oppressive air and the dusty rot.

Jacob hurried to the first layer of the catacombs, where he knew several skeletons were waiting. Before he finished going down the ramp, he spotted the glowing red eyes of the Burgon Beast.

Damn, that thing is fast.

Skeletons rose up against it, and for a moment, Jacob wondered how they would fare against the creature.

Not well, it turned out.

Every skeleton that reanimated was quickly crunched into powder, unable to get up again. Several fractures appeared mid-air as other players, just as surprised as Jacob for appearing there, suddenly found themselves in Jacob’s shard.

Jacob silently thanked them as the Burgon Beast turned to the nearest threats. They didn’t stand a chance. Most of them were already half-dead by the looks of it.

Once they saw the threat before them, something amazing happened. Something Jacob never would have thought to see in Lormar.

They worked together.

He took the time to reapply Flame Blade and then rushed forward, hoping that the new players would provide even a slight advantage. He was beginning to run out of “extra lives.”

The Burgon Beast looked much worse for wear, but it still bit the motley crew of players in half with ease. A massive paw swatted the head from a man in rusted chainmail. The dark fiery shadows burned a young woman to ash.

Jacob wasn’t the only one to score a blow on the Burgon Beast, but after the first few seconds of battle, he was the only one to remain. A collection of axes, daggers, and thrown javelins stuck out of the Burgon Beast’s greasy hide.

The damage they caused may not have been considerable, but each wound was one less point of Health that the Burgon Beast possessed.

It bled on the ground in large oily splatters with every strenuous motion. Large swaths of fur were burned away, revealing cracked and charred skin. And every few steps it made, it belched a fiery burp that scorched its tongue and what was left of its broken maw from the shield it swallowed.

By all rights, it should have been dead already. That it could take so much damage and keep coming… no wonder Alec couldn’t beat it. There was no way any single player could outlast it. This thing had to have well over several thousand points of Health.

Meanwhile, players like Jacob had Health in the very low hundreds. Even a player that put most of his points in VIT would only be scratching 300 to 400 Health.

For all of Jacob’s attacks, only Souldrinker seemed to do much damage to it. The physical harm was there, and it limited the Burgon Beast’s ability to attack, but it didn’t seem to slow it down. Every time he used Souldrinker, the beast withered and seemed less… substantial.

Jacob came on with a flurry of attacks. Left, right, left, right, Caging the Beast forced the Burgon Beast to stand right before him. Instead of continuing the flurry of light hits that barely scratched its greasy hide,