Rewind: A Grimdark LitRPG Series (Pyresouls Apocalypse, Book 1) by James Callum (reading tree .txt) 📕

On came his [Mace]. Jacob fell into a deep crouch, turning his hips to add force to the swiping attack at its knee. Breaking Rocks took out the rusted armor just above the knee and the suit of armor overbalanced as it attempted to counterattack.

A reversed backswing was enough to break its Stability and set the animated armor crashing to the ground. Unfortunately, the attack angle was all wrong and had no real force behind it to deal much damage.

Wasting little time, Jacob lifted his [Mace] over his head as the suit of armor began rolling back and forth in an attempt to get up. He had a momentary thought that it looked like a turtle on its back before he snapped every muscle in his body and sent his [Mace] arcing forward.

Hammering the Nail shattered the armor’s breastplate and cracked the stone beneath, sending up a spray of suspiciously briny water against his face.

The suit of armor seemed undeterred by this and swept out a broken sword at Jacob’s ankles. He wasn’t fast enough to leap back nor was he skilled enough with a [Mace] to bring it back in line like he could with his [Longsword].

Still, he tried and took a sharp jolting hit to the lower quadrant of his shins. The armor held but the bone had nearly cracked from the casual swipe.

Pushing the pain away into a tiny compartment made for the sensation, Jacob jumped over the returning strike. He tried to time it to land on the gauntlet, halting future attacks but he wasn’t fast enough and missed it by an inch.

Foregoing all form and finesse – not that he had much with a [Mace] – Jacob straddled the armor and struck at the thing’s helm in a series of brutal, denting blows.

The air filled with the red flaking rust and Jacob fell back from a sudden searing pain in his side as the white wisp of the defeated creature streaked into his chest.

You defeat the [Animated Armor].

Awarded 400 Souls.

You gain 1 [Dull Spark].

Thinking he pulled a muscle, Jacob reached down to rub the stitch in his side and found, to his surprise, a jagged blade stuck there. It wasn’t in too deeply, just barely penetrating the leather armor padding beneath his breastplate.

That he was stabbed in the middle of the fight wasn’t surprising. But it was surprising when he realized it wasn’t a blade that he was stabbed with. It was some sort of tentacle made of stone.

Worse, when Jacob went to extract it the thing wriggled and burrowed deeper. He tightened his grip for a moment, trying to extract it by main force but the waves of nausea and pain that wracked him as the thing tore deeper into him made him stop.

So long as he didn’t try to remove it, whatever it was didn’t move. It remained solid, though now another quarter of his Health was gone, leaving him at roughly half. Disturbingly, the half of his Health that was missing had turned gray and stony.

This was a creature he never heard of before.

Just to be sure, he looked at his logs and found no prompts telling him what happened. He was not afflicted with any disease or toxin and his Curse Level wasn’t high enough to cause a hallucination yet.

Getting to his feet, Jacob winced as every movement caused the thing in his side to shift. It dug no deeper but having a solid piece of stone impaled in your side was not so easily shrugged off.

As tempted as he was to use an ampoule, something about the thing in his side told him that it would react violently to the action. Not to mention the way his Health bar was half-filled with gray. And so Jacob limped on, careful to move as gingerly as possible.

The doors to the rooms had a disturbing amount of tentacle iconography, the sort he hoped he would never see again. The Vile Kingdom used such religious symbols.

Was this where they got the inspiration for their kingdom?

Even now, as he laid eyes on the twisting carved tentacles on the faces of each of the stone doors, was he looking at the impetus for the Vile Kingdom?

Jacob couldn’t help but wonder if he might find something that would help him undo their terrible reign. Humanity was already limping along, mostly dead, by the time they came to power but what hope was left turned to ash when the Vile Kingdom revealed themselves.

Kim’s bloodstained grin flashed into his mind.

It let off a bone-deep spark of anger that flared into a towering inferno. Without thinking, Jacob lunged forward and bellowed. He spent his fury, his rage, on the twisted iconography on each door.

Breaths coming in short gasps of exertion, Jacob looked at the ruined imagery with grim satisfaction. Weary from the anger and the effort, he didn’t bemoan the wasteful act.

He would break every image of their twisted design he could find and be glad for the opportunity.

A shrill noise caught his attention. The sound ratcheted up out of human hearing but being Fae-Touched, he could still hear it as it climbed the octaves.

Only then did he realize the absence of sharp pain in his side. Looking down at the floor he saw, coated in his own blood, the writhing thing that had impaled him.

A tentacle made out of gray-blue stone that shriveled as lines of cinder glowed within, consuming it from the inside. The creature writhed in deep pain before the flames leaped out from the glowing cracks in its stony skin and turned it into a charcoal husk.

You defeat the [Leviathan Spawn].

Awarded 200 Souls.

Out came a [Cinder Ampoule] and Jacob crushed it, reveling in the soothing sensation of a Pyre as his wounds were knit. He kicked the dark, twisted thing at his side but remained troubled as he went to the left-most door.

He didn’t know why that happened. Was it destroying the imagery? Or did the