Dungeon Core Academy: Books 1-7 (A LitRPG Series) by Alex Oakchest (book suggestions txt) 📕

Jahn’s row. Utta trailed after her, his face red. He must have used his powers. Sucked the faint breeze from the air and concentrated it into a single force, using it on Riston.

Riston looked at the town guards lining the street. None of them moved.

He held up his hands, palms out. “Well? Do I really have to make it so obvious? Kill them both!”

Town guards drew their swords.

Anna closed her eyes. Her temple vein throbbed.

She was using her mind-sheets or whatever she called them. Battling inside the guards’ minds, trying to force Riston’s control out.

The guards dropped their swords.

Twenty more guards advanced. They held up wooden bows. Nocked arrows and pulled the strings tight. Anna, looking more tired by the minute, closed her eyes again.

Her cheeks reddened. She clenched her fists.

“I can’t do it…he’s stronger than me!” she said. “I can’t do it, Utta!”

She suddenly stumbled back. Her eyes shot open.

The guards released their arrows.

There were screams of pain.

And then Riston, laughing.

Utta and Anna had been standing together. Now, only Anna was on her feet. Utta was lying on his back. He had arrows in his gut, his thighs, his shoulder. Blood poured from half a dozen wounds.

But Anna was fine. Twenty arrows had been fired at them both at close range, and she was fine.

“Well? What are you waiting for, a sign from the gods?” said Riston. “Did I tell you to take a break?”

I stared at him. At this mage. At this awakener. At this man.

Yes, just a man. A mortal made of flesh and soft organs.

Maybe I had been a man once, but I was a core now. I had to think like a core. A core made from hard, sharp, gemstone.

I soared across Jahn’s Row as fast as I could. Riston backed away. He tried to step to the side, but he was too slow.

I aimed my sharp edges at him, the parts of my core that were damaged after his sword broke some of me away. The edges stabbed straight through Riston’s neck, cut through his throat, and pierced through the other side.

He screamed as he wildly pounded his fists on me like I was a tiger with my jaws closed upon him. His blood coated me with every hit.

He fell on the ground, gasping, blood pouring from him. I rose directly above him.

“You have a choi-” he wheezed.

I ignored him.

I flew down at him, stabbing him through the heart.

It was then that everyone else rushed into town. Maginhart, Cynthia, Bolton, Tomlin, Wylie. They tried to keep the guards back. The townsfolk were still under Riston’s spell and would be for a while. They were still dangerous.

“Cynthia!” I said. “Help the boy.”

Anna was next to Utta, holding his hand tight. Kissing it again and again. Sobbing. Her face was smeared with blood, but not hers.

“Don’t die, you selfish ass!”

Utta ground. “Look at me, Anna. I’m already…already gone.”

“Go and wake the old core up! It might not be dead! Tell it to turn Utta into a wraith. Just keep him alive, and then we’ll find a cure for wraiths!”

“The core is dead,” said Bolton, softly.

“And I…I don’t want to be…a wraith,” said Utta, coughing.

“Then take him to the academy, Bolton! They resurrect people there. You told me that.”

Bolton kneeled beside her. He put his hand on her shoulder. “They resurrect souls, Anna. It is very different, and the academy is far away. Souls do not stay in our world for long when it is time to depart.”

“So? Turn him into a core! He’d still be Utta, even if he didn’t look like it! He’d still be…he’d still be…”

She collapsed now. She completely lost herself to tears.

Utta gripped her hand tighter. “Don’t cry, Anna.”

“Don’t die. Don’t leave me alone.”

“You…wouldn’t be…alone.”

“I would! You’re all I have. I’m nothing without you. Just a stupid…I don’t even have as good a singing voice as I always say I do.”

Utta managed a grin through blood-stained lips. “You’re a Chosen One, Anna.”

“So are you!”

Utta groaned in pain. He did his best to hold it back. “I’m…not. They fired…arrows…straight at both…of us. Look at me! None of them hit you. Not a single arrow. Only a Chosen…One defies the odds like…that.”

“We both left the school at the same time. Neither of us are chosen.”

“School? Who cares about…about…that? Don’t waste your life, Anna. You owe it to yourself.”

“I don’t owe myself anything. I owe you.”

“You always hung around with me at the…school. You knew that not all Chosen Ones actually become what they were chosen…to be. You knew I was one of them. That maybe…I had a chance of a destiny, once, but I’d never be one of those rare few who seize it. Being my friend made you feel…safe. Like you couldn’t fail at being a Chosen One, because as long as you hung around with me, you didn’t have to try.”

“I love you, Utta.”

“I love you too.”

Anna said nothing. Just sobbed as Utta slipped away.

I looked at the mess around me.

Riston was dead, his blood stained all over my broken core. Utta was gone. The townsfolk and town guards were still under Riston’s spell, looking furious about what I’d done to him.

“We need to find Shadow and Eric and then go somewhere to wait this out until Riston’s spell wears off,” I said. “Has anyone seen them?”

“They’re over there, by the alleyway,” said Bolton.

“Then we better lie low.”

“I won’t leave him!” said Anna.

Bolton hugged her. “Love, he’s dead. Come on.”

“He can’t be. He was chosen.”

“Not everyone stays chosen,” said Bolton.

“Then why did I? I don’t deserve it! I’m horrible. Utta, he was…he was…”

“You’ll just have to make sure you