Sleeping Player (Project Chrysalis Book 3) by John Gold (novel24 TXT) 📕

there’s a terramorphing machine nearby—the grass is barely alive, and the crimson flowers I remember from the Inferno are starting to pop up. Demons generally get hit with debuffs when they’re in our inhospitable world. I have to guess that their antiportal installations are modifying the magic field, enabling the demons to operate freely.

I arrive fourth to see that my groupmates are all really strong. I’m just a question mark as far as how I’ll fight, as my clothes from the clinic keep my name a secret and stop portals from scanning my attribute panel. The League is using me as a dark horse.

My group is a highly unusual one. There’s a shapeshifting paladin who’s both a healer and a tank at the same time, wearing armor with the likeness of an animal god on it. Then, there’s a girl who’s a water and air mage with two tadpole familiars. The third is a guy with a huge bag over his shoulder for carrying javelins. Where are the normal people? Why does the spear-thrower have two extra joints on both his arms? Who is the mage girl whose body is made out of water, with the air around her so compressed that it feels like a tray sphere? It’s practically cheating. I half expect to find out that the paladin is a saint or even a god.

The trio eyes each other, figuring out who’s strongest where and deciding how they’re going to be working together. None of them pay any attention to me. After a little while, a judge steps out of the portal, which closes behind us. There are only four in our group.

Without wasting time on greetings, the judge starts giving us our assignment.

“Your target is the troll castle of Rumak. It’s a kilometer to the north of here, and the demons massacred the warriors there and captured it. What you need to do is destroy the antiportal equipment and survive for twenty-four hours until our main forces arrive, while preventing the demons from rebuilding it. You can use any available method—this is war. All magic, all weapons, and all pets are on the table if they’ll help you reach your objective. The only thing you can’t do is kill other trial participants.”

Sagie, if you’re reading these lines, forget what happened during the probation period. It was just your usual siege, killing demons, and capturing a castle, all of which turned into the castle’s defense. I spent the whole time doing nothing. As soon as Femida showed up and I threw on my battle outfit, however, the attitude the trio had toward me changed quickly to fear, doubt, excitement, and disagreement.

Sanity wins out over greed, and all of them go to their corners. Operating separately from us, they do good work during the first wave of attacks. Femida has fun with her sword, killing demons by the dozen. Her Level 900+ and achievements, mastery, and advanced swordplay skill give her a huge advantage over anyone else when it comes to close combat. She really is a Valkyrie.

We constantly move around, causing chaos in the demons’ ranks while the three future Hunters defend the castle. The inner courtyard is a trap. The paladin slams the door shut when they get enough demons inside, and the mage girl uses tray spheres to do area damage. As it turns out, the spell doesn’t do her any damage in liquid form, though it does damage armor. The spear-thrower heads up to the main tower and picks off enemy archers and mages.

The attack lasts about two hours. Then, we spend fifteen minutes fighting off the last demons, all of them on the edge of psychological exhaustion. At the last trial, we were able to fight on our own terms and with a more predictable opponent; this time, we have to stick close to the remains of the castle. There are four attack waves, our opponents grow stronger, and the trio’s strength is nearly exhausted. Fem and I, on the other hand, just relax under the red sun.

We’re feeling so at ease that we don’t even notice a girl walk up in a mage’s red outfit. Her black hair is streaked with gray, her face is set firmly, and her figure is superb. Isaac notices her, though he doesn’t react.

Our guest takes a deep breath and lets out a roar at the top of her lungs.

“Pies, hot pies!”

And that’s the first thing I hear Ekron say. She turns out to be a very attractive demonologist girl.

A minute later, a battle begins between the three future Hunters and the leader of the Katain demons. She uses Satan’s visage to block the paladin and, at the same time, cast two spells. Her magic shield deflects a javelin, and a shadow time spell kills the spear-thrower by burning him to a crisp. The paladin’s head is taken right off his shoulders, helmet still on. And neither the incredible dense shield the mage girl casts in the air nor her body made out of water save her when Ekron detonates the former and dries out the latter with an infernal ball. Smart move! She used trap spells to beat a tricky opponent.

We watch as the girl has her fun. Femida eyes her as if she were an opponent, though I’m more interested in who our new friend is.

As it turns out, Ekron is a fire and space mage. That choice gave her access to the demonologist subclass, and she wields Level 1881, enormous resistance to all kinds of damage, the patronage of all four of the kings of the Inferno, and a wide array of unique battle abilities. She is in every way my equal.

Two pairs of arms, a tail, an enormous maw, and demon scale armor appear when she’s using Satan’s visage. Her body turns into something the size of a large crocodile, something we see the value of