The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) by Craig Kobayashi (ebook reader 7 inch TXT) 📕

time when dungeon runs were potentially fatal and couldn't be enjoyed from the comfort of her solitude.

"Shouldn't we wait for the other guy to go over the boss fight?" Daisy asked.

"He'll be fine," Auto growled. "All he's gotta do is keep me alive. Easy mode."

"Easier said than done sometimes," Maimon said, exiting the room with the last basketball-sized orb in hand. The Rabbi turned to meet them at the end of the main corridor in front of Illunitus.

"Oh good, the gang's all here. We ready?" Auto said.

"One sec," Athios said. She turned to look at Daisy. "That demon is about to come to life. And he's not going to like us very much. Your first job is to stay alive. Your second job is to blow him to smithereens. Got it?"

"Got it!” Daisy said. “I'll be careful. And I can always fly away."

"Only if I tell you to, otherwise just stay close to me and follow directions, okay?" Athios said.

"Okay," Daisy said enthusiastically, pumping one fist in the air. "Ready!"

"Ready," Athios agreed.

“Ready,” Garath said. He took a moment to give his demons each a brief mental command.

Auto nodded to Maimon, who lifted the black orb and slammed it into the ground. Just like the nine before it, the orb shattered and the dark energy contained within dissolved into thin air.

The last layer of the barrier surrounding Illunitus dissolved and beneath him, a previously unnoticed pentagram lit up a sickly shade of green. It intensified into a concentrated neon, then shot a five-pointed beam of magic into the dungeon boss. Illunitus' mouth and eyes jerked open and Fel magic burst out of them like strobe lights for a few seconds, then the light show stopped as abruptly as it had started. Only the neon glow remained in his eye sockets behind blood red eyes, giving off an ominous orange light.

The hulking demon didn't seem to notice the dungeon Party at all. He cracked his neck left, then right, then rolled it slowly around with a series of loud creaks and pops. As he started rolling his head back around in reverse, Auto lost his patience.

"Hey!" the Chimerist growled. No response.

In front of where Auto stood, a magic line on the ground curved to connect one side of the hall to the other. It didn’t escape the Garath’s notice that it was exactly where the magical barrier had been moments before.

"Hey, dick bag!" Auto tried again, this time with an added insult for flavor. Illunitus grunted once, but the only other response was another round of creaks and pops as the massive demon continued to roll his head in slow circles.

"Auto, don't..." Athios started to say, but it was too late.

Auto charged the monster, barreling on all fours past the magically illuminated line. As soon as he crossed the threshold, Illunitus stopped rolling his neck and looked up sharply.

The smile stretching across Illunitus' hideous features was vexing. His ominously glowing eyes squinted, and black skin pulled tight over his snout to reveal a pair of oversized incisors. Long, twisted black horns protruded just above the demon's eyebrows over two feet in length.

Apart from the canine-like snout, pitch black skin, and devilish horns, his facial features and the shape of his head and anatomy were vaguely human. Not humanoid, but actually human. Illunitus' appearance and similarity to his own features made Garath more than a little uncomfortable.

Athios took advantage of the fact that a global cooldown no longer applied to her to get Auto out of danger. She sent one disk below the Man-Bear's paws and a second six feet off the ground on the friendly side of the magic line. Auto immediately fell from his location in front of the dungeon boss and reappeared, feet first, only five yards away on the ‘safe’ side of the magic line across the ground. For a fraction of a second, his body appeared severed, the head and torso still on the wrong side of the line as his feet and legs emerged close to where Garath, Athios, Maimon, and Daisy were still standing.

During that exact fraction of a second, Illunitus released a spell. With one hand outstretched, he spoke a word of power and a tendril of green smoke slithered through the air. It connected with Auto's head as he slipped through Athios' disk, then reappeared with the rest of his body a few feet away.

"Shit," Auto said. "He got me with a debuff. Cleanse this shit, Rabbi!"

Garath saw a debuff icon appear next to Auto's nameplate and willed more information to appear.

Illunitus' Innervation - while active on Illunitus: increases effective Level by 50%. While active on anything else: decreases effective Level by 50%.

A quick glance at Auto’s stats made Garath cringe. Auto had been Level 29. With the debuff active, not only did his level get cut in half, it also got rounded down to 14. Garath noticed that the Chimerist’s maximum HP had dropped significantly, but stayed at 100%.

Maimon closed his eyes, staff raised.

Then opened them. Nothing happened.

"Can't cleanse it. It's not a poison," Maimon said with a guilty, panicked expression, as if it were his fault the cleansing spell didn't work.

Illunitus took one step toward the Party with a confident grin. He put his hands together, forming a circle with his thumbs and index fingers in front of his chest, where a glowing, neon-green ball appeared. It grew as the dungeon boss spread his arms wide until it stretched into a disk as tall as the demon, similar to Athios' Dimensional disks but with streaks of black lightning dancing across the surface.

The demon kept his gaze locked on Auto and crooked one finger, beckoning him to follow before stepping into the portal. When he did, the magic line on the ground faded then disappeared completely. Auto growled, ground his sharp teeth, then walked toward the portal.

"That is obviously a trap," Athios stated firmly, readying herself to send the tank through another rip in space-time away from the portal if necessary.

“Probably,” Auto