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

consternation. Clearly, it was so much higher in power than me, I was getting nothing, beyond the fact that it was an arrogant shitbag.

“Exhaust yourself now, wisp. Better to purge yourself of the mana you hold, so that my assumption of your bond will be cleaner,” Altai purred as he watch her struggle, a slight smile on his face. He even had perfectly white teeth. If it wasn’t for the overdeveloped canines, he’d have been taken for an angel anywhere on earth in a heartbeat.

Thankfully, he also had a center part in his red hair, and that made things much easier for me as I stepped forward.

“Oi! Cheesedick!” I shouted at him, and he shifted his attention to glare at me.

“I am Altai, mortal, and…” he started disdainfully, before I cut him off.

“Nope. From now on, until the moment of your death, you shall be forever known as… ‘Cheesedick’.” I smiled benignly at him. “I heard it’s because your daddy was always having to burp you to get a cock out of your mouth. The Skyking told me so.”

“What?” he growled at me, clearly confused and furious.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” I shook my head as I advanced another step, trying to distract him as I moved closer to Oracle’s frozen position. “It’s called ‘shit-talking’ where I come from, and man, you suck.”

“I will crush you and all you love; I will…”

“Yadda, yadda, yadda,” I interrupted, shaking my head in mock sadness. “Come on. Is that really the best you can do?” I mocked him, holding his furious attention as Bane appeared behind the pale-skinned Promethean and hamstrung him. At the same moment, Arrin fired a double spread of ‘Magic Missiles’ into the dark-skinned one. Grizz ran forward, his breathing ragged as he interposed his injured form between the oncoming Promethean and Yen, with Stephanos and Miren firing arrow after arrow into both of the creatures.

Lydia struggled to her feet; her shield held high as she staggered back to face the pair.

The pale-skinned Promethean muttered a few words and gestured to his legs. Black mist rose from the ground to sink into his skin, healing the wounds slowly.

“My people are going to fuck you up so bad…” I sighed mournfully as he glared down at me.

“Your words are as noise on the wind, mortal: loud, but meaningless!” He didn’t bother with a weapon, instead pulling back his right fist, which started to glow.

“Lydia, shield!” I cried out, maneuvering my shield to take the punch full on, but not bracing. “Come on, ya pussy!” I shouted, grinning at him and hoping Lydia understood what I was planning.

“Go!” I heard her shout, just as he slammed his fist into the center of my shield with a grunt of effort.

It didn’t go entirely… or at all... as he expected. I didn’t move. Instead of flying backward, bones broken, I’d activated the shield’s ‘Sacrifice’ ability, grinned malevolently at him, then stabbed him in face with my naginata. The blade carved through his left cheek and tore his ear from his perfect face, unfortunately missing the eye and the instant kill I’d been hoping for.

At the same time, Lydia had braced her shield against her back as she faced the dark-skinned Promethean, and had jumped into the air, curling herself up as tightly as she could.

The ‘Sacrifice’ ability of the ‘Twin’s Bulwark’ transferred all damage and inertia to the second shield, but as Lydia was already in the air, curled into a ball, she took practically no damage.

The same couldn’t be said of the dark Promethean, though, as she rocketed into him, heavy armor and all. Her full body weight, powered by the Lord Promethean’s punch, slammed into his chest before he could figure out what was happening. She rolled off him, groaning in pain, but beside the dent in her shield, and a bit of whiplash, she was fine.

Her target was stunned, knocked from his feet, and his right wrist had broken, all of which became far less important when the second barrage of ‘Magic Missiles’ slammed home into his rolling eyes, blinding him and removing over half his HP.

Bane had appeared again and was rapidly pistoning his daggers into the arms, throat, and chest of the pale-skinned Promethean, who screamed in pain, while Altai’s eyes flared with fury and hatred.

He forgot about everything else as he grabbed me by the throat, wrenching me up as his other hand ripped my naginata out of my grip and sent it flying aside to slam into the nearest wall.

He tore my shield from my other arm, making my cry out in pain as I felt the twin bones of my left forearm snap, and he lifted me to look into my eyes.

“You’ll pay for that, mortal. I will make you scream for all eternity!” He hissed, his torn and bloody face inches from my own. I did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed his right elbow, the only place I could reach, and I wrapped both hands around it as best I could, the fingers of my left hand barely responding.

I frantically cast ‘Fireball’, despite knowing I didn’t have the mana for it, let alone being able to cast it two –handed, or with my fingers clenched tight and nerveless, respectively. I slammed my intention, my demand for my mana to form into the palm of both hands, and I felt a terrible, half-controlled version begin to form as I sub-vocalized the words. The air was being throttled out of me as Altai roared in fury, distracted by seeing his followers taken down.

He screamed in truth, then, his howl of pain rising to join those of his men, as the spell I’d butchered exploded, tearing his arm to shreds. Unfortunately, the mana backlash of the failed spell also ripped into me, flaying my mind.

I fell, senseless, collapsing to the floor and twitching as blood ran out of my mouth, my nose, and my ears. I shook uncontrollably, even as his