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

“That’d be me,” I interrupted, making a point of scratching my balls while she stared at me in shock. “Lord Jax, High Lord of Dravith, Imperial Scion, as Acknowledged by the Eternal Emperor Amon, oh, and Arena Champion, I guess. I’d say I was pleased to meet you, but I’m really not. I don’t give two shits who you are. Now, I suggest you fuck off somewhere and hide, as the mob isn’t likely to be too nice to a noble that’s all alone here…” I leaned close and belched in her face, sneering at her frightened disgust before turning away and looking back up the stairs. “Right, enough time wasting. Let’s go fuck that Skyking up.” I started up the stairs, Yen and Bane flowing unimpeded ahead of me, and the rest of my squad following behind.

“You’ve got a way with words…” Nigret called up to me, amusement clear in his voice and I grinned, even though he couldn’t see it.

“Thanks, mate.”

“I don’t suppose there are any of my kind in this Great Tower of yours? A lady or two, perhaps?” he asked hopefully, and I snorted.

“There might be by the time we get back; some of my people were going recruiting.”

“Then Nigret shall live in hope…” he said with a chuffing sound I assumed was laughter.

We jogged up two more floors, finding them both empty, until we came to what we thought must be one of the highest floors remaining. This floor had also been trapped, and unlike the last one, they were both well-built and cunningly hidden. When we came across them, it was pure luck that we were being led by Bane, as opposed to Yen, who’d just dropped back for a drink after leading us past the two previous floors.

Bane sensed the difference in the step as he approached it, and immediately held up his hand warningly. We ground to a halt as he examined the floor, walls, and ceiling, crouching carefully and calling me forward.

“What is it?” I asked him, moving up to lean in close.

“A trap; a magical one, I’m thinking. There’s a pressure plate, but I can find nothing attached.”

I crouched next to him, and with Oracle’s help, we started cautiously examining it, until it all went sideways.

The door at the top of the stairs opened suddenly, exposing a grinning Promethean with a bow. It was a huge weapon, looking more akin to a siege weapon than anything else, and the quarrel that he launched was closer in size to a small spear.

The real issue, though, was the fact that we were trapped in the stairwell and had nowhere to go.

I frantically yanked on my shield, pulling it from my bag and trying to bring it around to cover us, but there was no time.

Bane saw the arrow coming, and he dove, turning around so fast I could barely see him. He threw himself between me and the arrow, taking it full in his back.

The head of it was barbed, I realized, as it erupted from his chest. Blood sprayed across my face, standing two steps down from him as I was. I blinked in shock, gaping at the white of Bane’s bone displayed in front of me. The bolt had punched through his equivalent of a sternum, and his tendrils stiffened in pain before he collapsed into my arms.

I caught him, pulling him down behind me, and shifting the shield to cover us. Crouching behind it, I stared at him, shocked and horrified by the injury he’d taken.

A second or so later, just as I’d settled the shield into place, a second arrow slammed into it, pushing me backward off the step I had been perched on. I landed heavily against Yen, who’d produced a small shield of her own and was trying to cover me with it.

“Bane… no…” I whispered, straightening and getting back on my own stair, shifting to cover him again. Shouting erupted from the floor above, blended with the sound of more people running towards the stairs. I looked back at Bane as he coughed blood and started to shake, his limbs spasming.

“Jax!” Oracle shouted in my ear, slapping me across the cheek, hard.

“What?!?” I snarled at her, torn from my shocked and frozen state.

“I’ll heal him. I will save him! Just go!” she said, determination written large across her face.

“Everyone back off!” I snarled at the rest of my team as Yen and Lydia dragged Bane back, then carried him down the stairs as Oracle worked frantically to save his life. The rest of the group made space quickly, leaving me alone in the upper stairwell.

“You wanna play, cocksucker?” I grated out, glowering up at the archer and ducking back behind my shield as he released another quarrel. The huge arrow slammed into the metal, making me grunt in pain. “Then let’s fucking play,” I growled out, activating ‘Mana-Overdrive’ and crouching. Digging my feet in, I sprang up and hammered forward with all the energy my coiled legs could manage.

My feet barely seemed to touch the trapped stairs before I was past, the traps triggering too late to catch me. The first was an alarm, one that wailed and echoed clearly on the upper floors, followed by spikes jutting upwards a split second too slowly and catching only air. Spears lanced out at a height intended to punch into a trespasser’s ankles and thighs, crippling them.

Finally, a dart shot out from a hole, concealed as a knot in the wood at the top of the back wall. I saw it coming, just like I saw the Promethean hauling back, his fresh arrow resting against the notched grip of the bow, all in slow motion, as though they had been dipped in molasses.

I batted aside the dart with my shield, throwing my naginata with the power and accuracy of my supercharged form. I watched the weapon leave my hand, observing the wobble and flex in its flight. A secondary, icily calm part of my mind noted that