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

We jogged to the end of the hall, passing the hole in the floor. I noted that the bits we’d used to climb up had been pulled up after the Legion, with a makeshift barrier erected over the hole, which would result in a nightmare for anyone who tried to follow us. A few floors below, I could hear shouts and chants as someone tried to whip the mob up into a frenzy to attack. I looked out of one window as I passed it, catching sight of a Promethean hovering in the air, its back to us as it bellowed about the evil crimes we’d committed.

“Bane, you still got that Drow-poisoned bolt for the crossbow?” I asked casually, and a second later, he was alongside me.

He crouched, aiming carefully, then adjusting, then aiming again. Just as I was about to ask him if he needed help, he fired with a deep ‘twang’. The bolt sailed through the air faster than the eye could follow, burying itself in the back of the creature’s head, golden locks suddenly sprouting the feathered shaft of the bolt.

The Promethean collapsed bonelessly to the ground. The crowd drew back in horror, as I shook my head in wonder.

“Hell, man, If I’d known you were that good a shot, I wouldn’t have suggested wasting the poisoned bolt…” I gaped in astonishment.

“I’m not,” he replied calmly. “I was aiming for his ass.” There was a brief silence before people started to snicker at the mental image of the proud Promethean screaming at having something in his ass, and the fact that Luck had taken such a hand in that for us.

“Damn. Ah well, at least it means I’ve still got a bodyguard, then. I was thinking of having you join the hunters, until you said that.”

“Ever tried to use a crossbow underwater?” he asked me, thrumming his amusement. “I’ve fired that damn thing four times before today!”

“Well, you’re getting lessons when we get back!” Miren piped up, grinning at him.

“Damn right,” Lydia agreed, nodding gruffly.

“Are you guys coming?” Yen asked from the bottom of the stairwell. “Because I’ve already found one trap, and it’s shit.”

We filed over, still smiling, and looked where she gestured. The stairs were old and cracked, badly warped and there were signs of hundreds of feet pounding up and down them over the years, except for the third step up, which had been freshly replaced and had a tiny wire leading across it.

“Really?” I asked cocking my head to one side in disbelief. “That’s not there to trick us?”

“If it is, the second trap’s so good I can’t find it.” she said dubiously.

“Bane?” I asked, and we all felt the pulse of his Worldsense wash outwards. Instead of the low, almost-imperceptible buzz we often felt from him when we were close enough, this was a heavy one, and the tendrils that surrounded his head lifted, each tilting and shifting as he examined the staircase from every possible angle for a handful of seconds before relaxing and turning to look at us.

“Nope, they’re all idiots,” he pronounced clearly. We all started grinning. I leaned in close to the trap, looking it over, and with my ‘Traps’ skill activated, I checked it over further.

“It’s literally a spike trap; trigger it, and spear blades spring out of the wall here…” I pointed to an obviously repainted section of wall. “…and here.” I gestured to the other side.

I shrugged and looked at Lydia, who grinned and stepped forward, swinging her mace at both spots, hard.

After a few crunches, she stepped back, and I triggered the trap using my naginata, hearing the clunk as it released. We all watched as a single spear fell out of the damaged wall, sliding down the few steps to the floor.

“Wow.” I shook my head in disgust. I found much the same on the faces of the others, as well. We’d fought horrific creatures in the arena, and seriously powerful bad guys here, and the trap was just… pathetic. It looked like something a group of kids would make to ‘protect’ their treehouse.

“Okay, people, enough dawdling… let’s go fuck up the Skyking,” I said, shrugging, and Bane vanished, rushing up the stairs ahead of us, followed by Yen, and then myself.

The next floor was abandoned and silent, but the space split into a single room that gave no access to the other side of the building. We paused, looking around, but besides a load of old fabric-covered boxes, some rusted machinery, and a really bad painting of something I couldn’t identify, there was nothing there, so we headed for the next floor.

I’d recovered more than half my mana when we cleared the stairwell onto the next floor, and I intuitively knew something was wrong. Wide openings interspersed the walls, leading out into the night. Although the drizzle outside had increased to a steady rain, the sounds filtering up to us were still full of anger and showed no sign of breaking up, while inside, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising. We were being watched.

“Look out!” came Bane’s voice, and he flashed into sight on the far side of the room. Screams of pain and rage mounted as an illusionary wall shimmered and vanished, revealing dozens of Imps lead by a Promethean, all charging spells or leveling crossbows.

I forced mana into my tattoos as quickly as I could, knowing I was losing a lot of mana in the process, but I couldn’t take the time to build up as carefully as I had before. I groaned as other tattoos began to flare to life, and I had to cut the mana to them, starting again, selecting each Rune one at a time and forcing them to combine to create the effect I wanted.

In the time it took me to do activate my shield, most of the squad had raced past me, and I’d had to duck behind some cover, swearing like a pirate as I