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

the distance instead of running away, and were actively cheering on Despot, commentating on the battle and helping to spot enemies that tried to escape. Some even got involved — Joker the engineer placed slowing turrets and mines around the edge of the graveyard, and hunter Koba threw out Frost Traps.

“Enough souls to make that demon fat!” Meister shouted gleefully, looking into the graveyard where our enemies were beginning to resurrect.

“Mor-r-rtal flesh!” came the demon’s roar.

Our opponents had no chance. As a dungeon boss, the immortal demon had a wide range of abilities! His fiery aura was as deadly as ever, and his forge mouth easily swallowed enemies whole.

“Tasty souls!” the demon said, booming out a satisfied laugh. “But still weak, pathetic…”

Soon the trio from the Pitfall joined us — Quetzal, Destiny and Hellfish. They hated just staying there in suspense, so they decided to risk coming to the graveyard.

“We didn’t want to miss all the fun,” Hellfish said, smiling widely.

“Vengeance is a dish best served cold, of course,” Quetzal added as he watched the slaughter of our enemies, his eyes flashing. “But it tastes just fine hot!”

The Markers were starting to resurrect in the cemetery. Thirty columns of light flashed up at once, as if they had all agreed to resurrect at the same time! As soon as they appeared, the Markers dashed off in different directions. I rushed to help Despot — the demon couldn’t get them all.

The lower our enemies’ levels went, the easier it was for us. They died in droves to Despot’s flame aura alone. My allies ran to the village to get some Demonic Brandy and joined the hunt. Some of the fighters even gained a few levels from the experience for killing the Markers.

After a few rounds of clearing the Markers, I relaxed. I flew calmly around the graveyard, taking out anyone who managed to almost make it to the cemetery’s edge and admiring Despot’s butchery. Then, suddenly, a cry from the silver ranger caught my attention:

“Scyth!” Destiny was pointing straight ahead with one hand and upwards with the other. “Youlang and Caville!”

Encased in a bubble, dark knight Caville had taken to his heels; Youlang set off into the sky and shot up to the clouds; another mage, Skew, cast three illusions of himself, confusing Despot… Seeing that Caville was rushing toward my allies, I activated Clarity and moved to intercept him. And made a mistake — while I was dealing with the dark knight, the spellcaster activated Invisibility and escaped. Thinking for a moment, I decided not to go looking for her — first I needed to finish crushing the rest of the Markers. They were running in all directions like cockroaches.

More might have escaped if it weren’t for ranger Destiny, sniper Hellfish and hunter Koba. They put Hunter’s Marks on the Markers, letting me see even the ones that made it through to the woods. I caught them up and sent them back to the graveyard with a single hit…

An hour before we left the Cursed Chasm, the second to last Marker resurrected at the cemetery — dark knight Caville, who was on his last life. Despot swallowed him down along with his bubble. The knight survived for some time in the forge, unable to break out from within the demon, and when he finally died his last death, our raid was the only one left in the Cursed Chasm. Of our enemies, only Youlang was still in the running — the spellcaster was hiding, and Despot couldn’t sense where.

The time came to take stock of our own losses: warrior Kart, curser Roman, rider Dave, bogatyr Arioch, rogues Berstan and Filex, tamer Shemshur, druids Naiterio and Kanu, hunter Perant, blacksmith Artemius, dancer Olga and paladins Yermak and Blondiecat. All of them had fallen. Another paladin, Equilibrium, died before my eyes.

Five survived in Hellfish’s group: ice mage Kara, archer Yen, templar Alison, hunter Koba and sculptor Anna.

Quetzal had nobody left except Infect, but we’d heard no news from the bard.

There were another seven crafters left, including Michelle, Bloomer, Meister and Joker. The remaining three were only vaguely familiar to me: gnome tailor Hox, hobbit chef Nobu and ogre alchemist Niceguy.

That was our whole team. With Destiny, but not counting Infect, who was still missing, there were sixteen contestants left out of around a hundred and fifty.

After the headcount, silence fell. Quetzal’s voice finally broke it:

“We honor the memory of the departed. Bogatyr Arioch… Hoped to trade the essence from winning the Games for the Svyatogor set.”

“Rogue Filex, our captain at the Arena, he dreamed of winning!” templar Alison blurted out. Archer Yen added: “And druid Kanu got knocked out too… The only ones left from the T-Modus team are Eli and I…”

“Tamer Shemshur, aka Theodor Novak,” I said. “He was the only one at my table who showed me any sympathy when the Games first started.”

Anna blushed and lowered her eyes. Meister coughed.

“We didn’t know you then, young man.”

“Water under the bridge…” Hellfish said. “We remember the fallen. Equilibrium must be the best healer I know! We’ve raided together, nobody else comes close!”

They named the dead, talked about them. It was like I was being introduced to my knocked-out allies after it was already too late. I felt bad for not protecting them. When they came to the troll curser, Meister nearly wailed:

“You know what the worst part is? Roman always had a low opinion of a certain madame here, always considered her an exceedingly egotistical… woman. And now my friend has been knocked out, but that… lady of light virtue is still in the game!”

Destiny didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow. Anyone there might have thought she didn’t give a damn, but having seen her the previous night, honest and vulnerable, I knew it was just a protective mask.

“Don’t provoke