City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

be amazing in a fight when it was just me, it didn’t say anything about excluding allies from the effect, so it had to go. Next was ‘Soul Stealer.’ Even though it would be great to get extra souls, and thus fuel the damage I could do if I filled it up with, say, goblin souls, I couldn’t see the benefit, as opposed to creatures like the SporeMother. That being said, I had no idea if it made a difference, beyond a half-remembered description of the initial evolution…

I knew what I had to do, sadly. I chose the long game over the short, picking ‘Increased Capacity,’ as I could only hope the extra fifty souls equating to fifty damage would be worth it in the end. It’d be a hell of a change, if it was.

The drop from thirty-three extra damage all the way back to one could suck my nuts, though.

I dismissed the confirmation of my choice prompt and settled back, inspecting Oracle surreptitiously as I started eating the food brought in by some of Mal’s staff. It wasn’t much; mainly fruits and a light porridge, which made me think longingly of the bacon sandwich I’d had the other day. God, it had been amazing, but still. I ate my entire plate, watching as Oracle slowly recovered, looking healthier and happier with each passing minute, until Augustus, watching the sandglass in the corner, announced the time.

“Ten minutes to the next round, people! Get your asses up and let’s do a warmup!” That comment fully earned the filthy looks and grumbles it received.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Most of the Legionnaires left the room to give us a little space, which we used to warm up a bit, although I spent most of the time in silent conversation with Oracle to make sure she was okay to keep fighting. I hated the idea that she could be hurt; as incorporeal as she usually was, I’d gotten it into my head that she couldn’t be hurt. Now, knowing that she wasn’t invincible freaked me the hell out. She’d explained it a dozen ways, but I still didn’t really understand how she was corporeal, then not; how she could slip through water without leaving a ripple, but couldn’t do the same with stone, and so on. I just gave up and accepted that it was one of those things that just were the way they were.

Magic made my damn head hurt at times.

“Who’s up next?” I asked, getting a grin from Augustus.

“Night’s Followers. Word is, they hired a team of professionals, likely a team familiar with the arena.”

“Either way, we’re gonna fuck them up.” I shrugged in my armor and felt it move. “Remind me when this is all over, I need some good armor from the Legion Armorers.” I commented, and Augustus grinned.

“Once you’ve tried the Legion, you never go back.”

“That’s what she said…” I said automatically, the room went silent for a minute, before laughter burst out all around me. As the doors opened, and I passed Augustus on the way out, I got a fist bump from him, making me feel a lot more at home.

We marched out onto the sand, the announcer starting up his inane chatter, and I tuned him out, scanning the doors and wondering which one they’d come out of. When their door did finally open, it was to our left, and the team oriented quickly to face it.

“Bane, you’re on overwatch; keep an eye on us and fuck up any stealth types that try anything. Stephanos, Grizz, either wing; fill the fuckers full of arrows. Arrin, middle behind Lydia and me; I want to see you ruin their day, my friend. Lydia, you and I are tanking; take the blows and smash them down, give our people time to kill them all,” I ordered as the opposing team marched out onto the Arena. Two of them stealthed and vanished immediately. The remaining two split up, moving to stand about three meters apart. They were dressed in heavy black armor from head to toe, matte plates of metal that seemed to absorb the light, with faint red glows emanating from the joints. The wearers appeared to be the same height and build; both of them bore a heavy axe in one hand, with a massive tower shield strapped on the other arm. A golden tree with a blood-red crown held in the branches, and a body swinging from a rope on the outermost branch, was embossed on the shields, each a mirror image of the other.

“Shit,” Grizz muttered. “Check them out, boss, quick.” he advised, and I triggered my ‘Examine’ spell.

Torin and Terin; the Twins of Destruction

Twin Brothers Torin and Terin Alderbright were taken at a young age and trained for the Arena by the Night’s Followers Gang. The twins were inducted into a life that has convinced them that their only worth is in killing those whom the gang decides are enemies. Now, at the age of seventeen, they have grown to glory in the kill.

The Brothers are magically linked, granting them awareness of the other at all times, and have fought larger groups and beasts into submission many times.

Weaknesses: 25% weakness to magic, reduced to 5% with intact armor. The Brothers have invested heavily in their link, relying on magical armor to protect them from the weakness to magic this has produced.

Resistances: Heavy armor reduces piercing, slashing, and crushing damage by 35%

Level: 20 - linked

HP: 10,000 - linked

Mana: 100 - linked

“Is it the Twins?” Grizz asked, and I nodded, informing the others of the prompt’s details.

“Shit, I’ve head of them,” he said, blowing his lips out in thought. The Twins stood statue-still, waiting. “They’ve spent a fortune on their armor. It's seriously good shit, and it lets them share a Health pool, somehow, so any damage done to one is halved and spread across the pair. They’ve also got some class skills, a ‘taunt’ that they can both use, an area-of-effect damage... something about