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

out about the SporeMother and Barabarattas’ deal weeks ago. He’s breeding them…” I said, and I felt my magic shaking as my words were examined for the truth.

“TRUTH…” It hissed, spinning to face the robed man.

“I serve Lord Barabarattas, but he doesn’t confide all his plans in one so low…” he hedged, and the Skyking glared at him. “I… I don’t know anything about the…Arghhhh!” He broke into a scream as the light around him changed, compressing in.

“LIES!!!!” the Beholder bellowed, zooming forward to face him. The mass of eyes hovered above him, growling, as a single eyestalk snaked down, its eye glowing red and projecting a pin prick thick beam of light that burned into the human’s face. “TELL THE TRUTH OR DIIIIEEEE!”

“Perhaps the City Lord is planning to attack you?” I asked, taking a chance. The light around me shook harshly, making me gasp in pain.

“CONJECTURE…” The Skyking finally determined, turning back to the robed man. “SPEAK, WORM… DOES BARABARATTAS PLAN TO ATTACK ME??!”

“No….” He said, whimpering, and the light grew darker around him, crushing in as he started to scream in pain once more.

“LIESSSS!” The Skyking howled, more eyes flashing forwards and the pupils morphing, each becoming triangular and generating a bright beam of black energy that sizzled as it punched into the human, making him scream louder.

As it was distracted by punishing the human, I did something I didn’t want to do. Something I’d told myself I wouldn’t do again, not after the last time I’d done it.

I used the ability ‘Child of the Night’.

The Beholder was fixated on punishing the human before it and had looked away from me. A solitary eyestalk had been left pointing in my general direction, and when I vanished into a cloud of blackness, it responded slowly, first one eye, then another turning, trying to locate me, as the majority continued burning into the object of it’s the Skyking’s wrath.

As I bounded forward, from shadow to shadow, I remained functionally invisible in the shadow filled room. More eyes shifted from the torturous configuration and twisted, searching for me, until the main eye slowly turned. The last remaining six tentacles that were firing into the now-smoking corpse cut off, and half of the Skyking’s eyes morphed to a crescent iris, bathing the room in  a strange light which they emitted. The changed eyes continued searching, even as others remained in the triangular pattern I’d come to think of as ‘Death ray’. They swept back and forth as the creature started to hiss in fury, its minions howling battle cries and sprinting forwards, weapons raised.

Bane was the first to be found, as a beam of light flashed across him. His stealth effect was cancelled instantly, and a pair of death rays lashed out at him, making him cry out in pain as he dove behind a pillar of black stone. Next was Nigret. The crazy cat-dude had been climbing slowly across the ceiling somehow, his claws leaving a trail of shredded cloth behind. An eye found the streak of ruined cloth and traced along it until he was visible. The Trigara hissed in annoyance as he let go, falling and flipping in a move that only someone with a feline background could manage. He landed, rolled, and then jumped, landing between an oncoming Promethean minion and Nerin.

All over the chamber, steel and magic were flashing suddenly, as the entire room devolved into battle, with Hellenica howling for the Skyking’s attention.

She lifted her right arm, and the fog that flowed and billowed around her rose at her command to create a dozen spears. They hardened, compressing, and suddenly glowed, an unearthly glitter coating them before she flung them forward. To her dismay, a magical shield flashed into being to protect the Skyking.

Tang swore violently as he was exposed, approaching far closer to the Skyking than anyone had expected. He’d come within less than a dozen paces, and he flung both his arms forward, his twin daggers flashing end over end to slam into the shield, before he was blasted backwards into the Beholder’s massive bed.

Arrows flashed the length of the room. One slammed into the shield, but the other took a Promethean in the neck, puncturing through the skin, muscle, and cartilage to take him down instantly. I saw a sudden flare around the image of Miren in my vision, and knew instantly, even if only with a tiny portion of my mind, that it’d been her shot, and she’d leveled, thanks to its success.

Just as the other times it had happened through the weeks since we’d formed the party, the realization was accepted and dismissed in the same instant, the momentary note to congratulate her later being made and forgotten just as quickly.

I sprinted forward, running between pillars and drapes, hanging banners and silken sheets, paintings and plinths which held glittering, magical items. I managed to come within ten feet of it, when the Skyking finally found me. The eye that locked onto me made me scream in pain, as the ten HP drain for using the ability in darkness jumped exponentially to a hundred HP a second instead, and two death rays flashed out.

I gritted my teeth, rushing forwards, and felt the rays pass through me.

Something about the ability to become incorporeal was harmed by light, but the death ray was useless. More eyes spun to face me, and I swore, twisting and jumping in an attempt to avoid them as I closed the distance, before ploughing ten mana into my naginata and making it flare with light. I screamed involuntarily as the additional light increased the drain, now consuming a hundred and seventy HP per second.

I flung my naginata forward, left-handed, and dove to the right, cutting off the ‘Child of the Night’ ability as I slid behind a pillar.

I heard a scream and a sudden crash from the other side of the pillar, before the Skyking started screaming louder in abject fury. The pillar I was hiding behind started