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

forward as I swept my blade right to left, trapping his spear. I shifted the point aside, the hafts of our weapons smashing together as he smacked into me, while I deflected his greater weight and speed by my twisting body.

He landed, backed up two steps, then stabbed out. The leaf-shaped blade blurred, only to be blocked at the last second by my own longer sword-tipped naginata. We danced back and forth, sand flying as we tried to maneuver around, each smacking probing attacks aside. He got the first strike, the spear flashing forward before I could deflect it. I’d stepped sideways, but too slowly, and the blade sliced across my left upper arm. I hissed in pain as I shoved hard with my naginata, pushing his spear away from me as I backed up.

He followed, snarling, striking faster and faster, and I couldn’t keep up. The dip in all of my stats after using the Mana-Overdrive skill was slowing me too much.

“See, fool! Now you die!” he snapped, his golden muzzle biting the words off as he lunged at me.

“I’d…*huff*… tell you…to go suck a… bucket of dicks…*huff*… but your breath… smells like you already did…” I grunted out, gasping rapidly as I tried to keep up. My ability was apparently refusing to kick in until I was fully restored. Oracle kept hitting me with healing spells, but she couldn’t keep ahead of the damage he was inflicting. As we closed in again, our hafts crossed as he slowly forced me back. He bit at my face; his fang-filled mouth snapping shut less than an inch from my nose.

“Motherfucker!” I snarled, shoving for all I was worth as he lunged in again, continually snapping at me.

Bane blurred into view, spinning behind him. His new daggers sank effortlessly into the Anubai’s kidneys before ripping outwards, his lower arms pistoning daggers forward to continually hammer deep into Mushek’s back.

Mushek let out a startled gasp, pain filling his eyes as they flared wide in shock. I let go of my naginata with my right hand, driving my arm down his throat before forming a fist, choking him.

I brought my right knee up, slamming it into his stomach and doubling him over as he let go of his spear. Claw-tipped fingers scrabbled at my forearm, desperately trying to get purchase as Bane vanished back into stealth.

Oracle hit me with a heal, then another, causing my mana migraine flare to life for what seemed the first time in ages. I straightened, strength flooding me as my multiple attempts to activate ‘Mana-Overdrive’ finally worked, for all of three seconds, before my mana bottomed out.

It was enough. I pulled him in, turning him sideways against my chest, keeping my right arm down his throat up to the elbow as he bled out and choked. I reached over, grabbing his snout with my left hand, and pulled back as hard as I could.

I felt the muscles stretch, the crunch of cartilage tearing and popping free, and then the snapping of his mandibles as I ripped the top half of his head free in a spray of gore and insane fury.

“WHO WANTS TO GO NEXT?!?!” I roared at the other two, who were now fighting side by side, desperately trying to avoid Arrin’s magic and Miren and Stephanos’ arrows while Lydia howled like a banshee and drove them both back. Bane appeared behind one, hamstringing it and vanishing again, and the other panicked at the sight of its companion going down.

“I surrrrrenderrr!” it snarled, getting a Magic Missile in the face in answer from Arrin. It staggered back, the following two missiles slamming it from its feet. The final arrow in Miren’s quiver removed all its worries about its future in one easy step as the bolt entered its head through the bottom of its jaw, the pointed tip crunching out the top of the skull as it came to a halt.

Lydia lunged forward, smashing her mace sideways across the face of the remaining Anubai as it toppled back, cutting its scream off in a welter of blood, bone, and teeth before stepping in close and bringing the weapon down with an enraged scream, and ending with a single, wet crunch.

Silence fell as she straightened up, the body of her victim twitching and spasming as the last flares of instruction passed down its nervous system. And then it began.

It was low at first, the chant. It started from the top of the stands, surprisingly. Mal’s cold, calm, and sardonic voice filled with emotion as he called out, his voice filtering down to everyone below.

“Legion!” he called, then again, louder. “Legion!” and a third time, but now other voices rose alongside his own, starting with the spectators, and swelling as more and more joined in…

“LEGION! LEGION! LEGION!” they chanted, and we stared up at the crowds that surrounded us. The men, women, and creatures who had bayed for our blood earlier now screamed fervently in our praise.

My head pounded in rhythm with their screams, the mana migraine growing, and I pulled out the weakest mana potion I had left, pouring it down my throat as I picked up my naginata with my other hand.

I straightened, tossing the vial aside and lifted my weapon in victory.

“You like that?” I asked the crowd, who screamed in response. “Then you’ll love what comes next!” I shouted with a grin, leading my team from the gore-covered arena, and out into our rest area.

The attendants were out already, sprinting for the corpses, no doubt intending to pocket something as they recovered our loot for us. I heard the door slam shut on the arena, and Augustus locked the grate in place with a clang, muting the shouts from outside.

“Thank fuck for that,” I muttered. Lydia laughed shortly as she collapsed into a chair, and Nerin started working on us as the rest of the room moved in, cheering and offering congratulations, laughing as they pointed out bits and pieces of the fight.

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