The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series by Dan Sugralinov (e book reader free .TXT) 📕

Wait! Phobos was dead, but where was my experience for killing him? At level 19, the orc should have given me enough for several levels! I checked my exp bar in disbelief — still empty. Still zero points!

The orc’s corpse hadn’t yet touched the ground when I noticed the figure of Smoothie in the corner of my eye. The mage girl stood, her arm raised, her fingers spread and emitting a glimmering spectral slime. The substance froze and took on the shape of the Ephemeral Web of Pacification. I flew away from the sinister net, but she ran after me, her speed overtaking mine.

Somewhere behind me, Riker was preparing to attack from stealth — the grass behind me crumpled beneath his feet. Instead of dodging, I met him with a strike. Turning sharply, I launched a Combo out in random directions, trying to hit out in as wide an angle as possible where I thought the rogue might be hiding. Riker was knocked out of Stealth and I watched as his body broke beneath each successful strike in the combo. It only took one to bring the vampire down — Rindzin’s Ghostly Talon and rank-two unarmed combat more than made up for my low base damage.

“No-o-o-o-o!” Smoothie wailed slowly in despair at the perfect time to remind me of my last foe.

I couldn’t stop the Combo after releasing it, so to make the hits land on something, I turned and directed the end of the attack at a new target, like a battle droid with a machine gun.

The mage’s web was already hanging above me and beginning to unfold into a dome. I was moving too slowly to escape, so I focused on my final enemy. The first hit on Smoothie broke her Mana Shield, she dodged another three by Blinking toward me, and only the fifth hit at point-blank range, dealing full damage and sending the foe to the graveyard.

I was thrown out of Clarity: Combo had eaten through all my spirit reserves. Each hit cost a hundred points and another fifty for every yard of range to the target. In that same moment, the Ephemeral Web of Pacification covered me, pinning me to the ground. Liberation didn’t work against the external crowd-control effect.

Thirty seconds immobile, minus fourteen health per second — I had no chance. I dealt massive damage even by the standards of the top players in the Cursed Chasm, but my health was a pitifully low three hundred and ninety. I somehow hadn’t time to train it at level one.

The web cut into my body as its timer ticked down. It tightened, tearing into my flesh down to the bone. My health indicator started flashing in the red zone and I mentally tore out my hair. I’d killed the three gankers only to be knocked out of the game by Smoothie’s farewell gift…

“Scyth!”

I breathed in sharply, twisted around… Michelle! My heart skipped a beat. The dryad leapt out of the bushes, breaking through branches, then cast a Healing Wave as soon as she was within range. A warmth and freshness covered me, smelling of flowers and pine needles, and my health bar began to crawl upwards.

“Where are they?” she asked. Then she noticed the corpses. Her eyes went wide. “Did you do that yourself?” Michelle turned as the rest of her group emerged from the woods. “He took them all out! At level 1! With the penalty! Guys, I was right, we can definitely win with him!”

“Thanks, Michelle, you came just in time!”

Only then did they all notice there was something wrong with me. My words stretched out into ‘tha-a-a-a-a-n-n-nks” as if I was in a slow-motion video. The raid started talking noisily, discussing my debuff.

Then the web disappeared, flashing as it went. I could move again. I activated Flight to get out as fast as I could, before the gankers came back with Destiny’s group in tow. Michelle watched me slowly ascend.

“Destiny and her group won’t be here for a while. Roman put a mass slaughter curse on their raid. We have ten minutes.”

“Raging Bloodthirst! I had to spend my best-player reward, but it was worth it!” the troll laughed. “They just started attacking each other in the village, trying to kill each other. The NPCs all ran and hid in their houses… Unfortunately, the effect didn’t last long and some survived, but they won’t fight us alone, they’ll wait for the others.

I wanted to ask why they didn’t finish them off, but then I understood: my allies were hurrying to me, and I doubted they could have taken out Destiny’s fierce fighters anyway.

A flickering glow and a cacophony of sound enveloped me for a few seconds: my allies were raining down regeneration buffs, resistances and stat bonuses on me, even a few magic shields.

“Hey, I didn’t get any experience!” I said to my new friend. “But the guide says you should get exp for PvP. And Octius didn’t say anything about…”

My voice was slow and elongated, and it must have been hard for the dryad to understand me, but Michelle got the picture.

“Octius didn’t say it because the village elder says it when you first meet him. You didn’t get the chance to see him. Anyway, that’s just one of the changes out of a range of surprises,” she answered. “The developers introduced Demonic Brandy this year. It’s sold in the tavern, and it isn’t cheap. It gives a penalty to damage against demons, but allows you to get experience for PvP.”

“And when someone drinks it, there’s an announcement in the village chat,” added Olga the dancer, a cute centaur girl. “But nobody drinks it, because it’s easier to kill a mob than a player. And the experience works on the same principle. So what’s the point? One point for killing an equal