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

him, the Huntress tensed like some great hunting cat. Her eyes focused on the scene before her. Hal held his breath as the tension drew itself out to the breaking point.

Just as he wondered when she was going to spring out in a blur of violence and kill every man and woman there, the Huntress relaxed. The voices grew distant and a dozen shaky breaths later, she pulled him out of the bush and took off, strangely, in the direction the group had come from.

They had many more run-ins with the villagers. The baying of the dogs was background noise to their constant traveling. The Huntress pulled Hal along the entire way, never threatening but always insistent.

Hal didn’t know if she would stop him from leaving but he had no intention of fleeing. She was the only person that had helped him so far and he imagined he would be caught within minutes of being on his own.

The wily woman led them in strange, circuitous patterns that at times came uncomfortably close to his pursuers and at others seemed to place them far behind. Hal could make no sense of the direction and eventually gave up trying.

Instead, he focused on the Huntress and doing his best to follow her.

Sometime around midday, she held up a hand and Hal froze mid-stride. She cocked her head to the side. They hadn’t heard a villager or much of anything for the last hour. And rather than constantly changing their path, they were making a steady progression in a single direction.

He put a hand out to brace himself against the nearby tree. He was out of breath again. Through the bark, he felt a faint tremor.

Hal looked to the Huntress and their eyes met. He saw her worry and concern.

And a moment later, coming down from the high branches of the tree he was leaning against, he saw the reason.

It reared up ahead of them, the strangest creature Hal had ever seen. It stood well over ten feet tall, covered in a mixture of chitinous green plates and coarse black fur caked with green moss.

Thick trunk-like legs supported a wide fur-covered torso with an insectile head and long serrated arms like a praying mantis. It clicked its two-foot-long mandibles at them, bulbous eyes regarding them as little more than snacks.

The Huntress moved into swift action. She unslung her bow and had three arrows leaping into the air before Hal could even take his hand away from the tree.

Hal looked around on the ground, found a rock, and hefted it in his palms. As much as he wanted to run and hide, he could at least prove a decent distraction.

The arrows struck deep into the thick fur and the creature loosed a disorienting wail. The Huntress staggered for a brief moment.

The [Scourge] uses Stunning Wail.

You resist the effect.

Somehow unaffected, Hal hurled the stone as hard as he could. In a feat of atypical strength, he managed a decent throw. The rough stone tumbled end over end and struck the thing on its bulbous compound eye, just as it leaned down to strike at the Huntress.

You throw a rock at the [Scourge].

The [Scourge] takes 3 points of damage.

Am I in a game? That was the only time he had ever seen prompts like that before. He forced the thoughts away, he couldn’t afford to be distracted at a time like this.

That was all the Huntress needed. The creature swiveled its head to regard the annoyance, Hal. With its deadly arms slowed by the distraction, the Huntress jumped over the scything blades. She cleared six feet into the air like it was nothing.

The monster lifted one serrated claw and struck out at the easier target. Its arm came down at an angle that would cleave Hal from shoulder to hip. He tried to dive to the side but already knew he would be too slow.

But the Huntress wasn’t.

She pulled back on her bow and let fly a glowing arrow that cut a streak of red lightning through the air before her feet even touched the ground.

The arrow intercepted the claw and exploded.

Waves of heat washed over Hal’s face and rolled over his back. But the arrow had done its job and when the smoke cleared, the claw’s reach had been reduced to eight feet.

The broken four-foot-tip of the claw laid near Hal on the ground, leaking an ichorous briny fluid.

Feeling somewhat useful, Hal pushed himself up to his knees and looked for another rock. If he could distract the monster again, the Huntress could capitalize on it.

What he found instead was a wriggling length of rope he initially mistook for a snake. He leaped to his feet away from it at first, only to trip and fall.

The rope lashed out like a striking viper and coiled itself around Hal’s ankles before he could even shout. A second rope soared out from the side and perfectly encircled his wrists. In less time than it took him to say, “What do why?” Hal was tied up and lifted off his feet by the magical rope.

The Huntress uses Binding Rope.

You suffer the effect of Bind.

There was that prompt again.

The Huntress moved one hand through the air like she was conducting a symphony, her fingers left trailing lines of light in the chill air. In response, the ropes tugged harder and pulled Hal behind a row of sheltering trees.

He tried in vain to wriggle out of the bonds but they held tight.

In one move, the Huntress had removed him from the fight. Hal could still hear the sounds of battle but could no longer see anything. And it seemed like it was getting fainter.

His embarrassment and frustration soon gave way to amazement. He was floating in the air, suspended by magical ropes. His mind spun with the implications. Judging from the way she had cast the spell – or so he assumed – it was an easy thing, as she did it mid-combat.

Not to mention the game-like prompts. Just where was