The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the read aloud family TXT] 📗

that morning. We lost 1% health each, the seal — just under 1%. But simple mathematics said that when the gates flew open, we would survive.

I wasn’t the only one who gained some Resilience. Destiny, holding onto Quetzal and me, rolled around on the ground and screamed at us to let her go, saying she couldn’t take it anymore. The men were calmer, but the pain still twisted their usually impassive faces.

Resilience level increased: +2. Current level: 55.

 

The seal began to glow crimson, then caught fire… and seemed to meld into the metal of the gates. With a rumble, screeching their way across the floor, they began to open.

The demonic furnace face stuck out of the opening.

“Grogghr!”

We stepped back. I let go of Destiny’s arm and the girl collapsed to the floor. Quetzal whistled. Hellfish threw back his head and smiled widely.

“Now that’s power! Are you sure he’s on our side, Scyth?”

“I’m sure, Hell…”

Without waiting for the gap to widen enough to let his massive body through, Despot crashed his way outside and tore toward us.

“…fish,” I finished in confusion.

The monster swallowed the werewolf whole and took off Quetzal’s head with a halberd arm. Automatically activating Clarity, I grabbed Destiny by the leg and flew out to the center of the drop. The demon’s fiery aura didn’t touch her, but the silver ranger had lost her arm up to the elbow — Despot seemed to have gained incredible speed outside the dungeon. It was a good thing the damage dealt to the limb hadn’t hit her full on…

I carried Destiny up a floor, poured a health potion into her mouth, already open in horror, and went back to Despot. Leaving Clarity, I faced him, ready to slow time again and escape:

“What the hell, Horns? You killed my friends!”

“Grogkhgr!” he answered, licking his lips. He ground his teeth, belched out flame and then suddenly rumbled in common: “I have a deal with you, mortal. Not with your friends. I have spent centuries in this hole with no way of crossing the threshold! The time of reckoning is here!”

“I forbid you from touching my allies! That’s an order!”

“I will not touch you, that is sufficient. You saved my life and I will save yours. The souls of the other mortals shall be my food! And only Great Prince Diablo can give me orders.”

With those words, he started galloping up the stairs. I opened my inventory to take out the heart and kill the treacherous demon, but I couldn’t see it anywhere. It seemed that when Despot left the instance, the heart returned to its resting place. That must be what made the demon so fast!

His words and the death of my allies threw me off my stride. A halberd arm was already raised above the fear-paralyzed elf girl, and it started to drop.

Chapter 26. Enemy Souls

A FRACTION OF A SECOND before the scythe-like demonic limb touched Destiny, I activated Clarity and surged upwards. The ability didn’t put the surrounding world on pause, just slowed it, so Despot’s halberd-arm continued its descent, just starting to slice through the elf girl’s cotton clothing. I couldn’t save her — another instant and the damage would land…

I had to spend the ace up my sleep, hoping the cast was instant:

Tactical Retreat activated!

 

The world blinked and I suddenly found myself at the top by the Pitfall, in the spot where the four of us had begun our descent. The crafters must have already gone to floor 22.

Destiny lay around five yards away, clutching the stump of her arm, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. Despot was nowhere to be seen.

“Are you alright?” I asked, approaching the girl.

She opened her eyes wide, looking around mistrustfully and shaking with anger.

“No, I’m not alright! I couldn’t do anything!”

“Nobody could have, that demon is level 531!”

“I could have! Covered Withdrawal, Smokescreen, Somersault — there are plenty of ways for a ranger to make distance! But all my skills were disabled by the debuff! I’m the worst player of the day, remember?” she said bitterly, sobbing. “How did we even get here anyway?”

“I had to spend my best-player reward.”

“What? Your reward?” Destiny blinked in confusion. “For me?”

“Well… yeah.”

The girl’s jaw dropped. The information didn’t seem to compute, and she did what Destiny Windsor would never have let herself do in public: she burst into tears.

I didn’t know what to do, so I just held her. I felt the girl trembling, felt her tears dampening my shoulder. I glanced at the raid list. Quetzal and Hellfish’s portraits were covered with black skulls — both were in the game, but they were waiting in spirit form at the graveyard. There was still time. I looked back to Destiny, still not sure what to say.

“It’s alright, we made it. We’re safe, but we can’t stay here. Youlang and Inchito are somewhere nearby.”

The girl got a grip on herself, bit her lip.

“Why did your demon attack us?”

“I don’t know. I had no idea it would just stop following orders like that! You were lucky he went for you last! Hellfish and Quetzal have lives to spare, but you…”

“I thought I was a goner,” Destiny whispered.

The demon was nightmarish, sure, but I doubted a top player who had seen far worse beasts would have been frightened by the sight of him alone. Something else had put the fear into Destiny Windsor. An instant and the girl would have lost everything. She had told me about her deal with her father the night before. Like Uncle Nick said, some get thin soup and others get small diamonds. I didn’t know what it felt like to get too small a diamond, so I didn’t feel any sympathy. She thought she’d be at rock bottom if she