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

Unarmed Combat (rank II): 63.

Stoneskin: 6.

Meditation: 15.

Night Vision (rank I): 18.

Resilience: 42.

Ghastly Howl: 37.

Imitation: 9.

Lethargy: 3.

Liberation: 2.

Rank one of Night Vision was a nice surprise — I must have missed that during my trance…

“Well, well, well… Look who’s here!”

The bushes parted and two players walked out: Phobos, a level 21 orc warrior, and Smoothie, a level 19 dark elf mage.

I braced myself, preparing for battle. I could take the duo out in a flash with Clarity, but my head was still splitting and I almost had no spirit left. If they’d wanted to attack, they could have caught me unawares. Anyway, what could you do in fifteen seconds before the game ended?

“Scyth, wow…” the elf girl said, standing a respectful distance away. “Turns out you don’t look so bad, you know. Handsome!”

Her eyes flitted back and forth, she danced impatiently on the spot and kept looking over my shoulder. I suddenly got a bad feeling and took off into the air half an instant before the vampire rogue Riker attacked from behind. Thanks for the bad acting, Smoothie!

Flight! I flew up a few feet, but the elf girl had great reaction speed: she waved her arms, spread her fingers and two silvery flashes whipped toward me. Before I could activate Clarity, she unfolded a dome of shimmering transparent netting over me, which instantly stuck to my body, binding my movements.

Ephemeral Web of Pacification

You are immobilized for 30 seconds or until the web is destroyed, and you lose 14 health per second. Ability cast speed reduced by 50%.

Attention — the web is invulnerable to physical damage!

Unlike the girl, my reaction speed was terrible; it was like someone had slowed down time specially for me. It was probably a side effect of spending such a long time in Clarity — my perception of space and time was distorted.

My Ghastly Howl emitted as a reflex sounded unconvincing and didn’t affect any of them — either because my slowed state corrupted the ability or because the gankers were far above my level.

Now falling and covered by the Web, I activated Clarity, but it didn’t even switch on, although my spirit had had time to recover a little. Panicking, I tried to pull away, but I couldn’t even move. Grinning with satisfaction, the orc waved his sword and ran straight at me.

How dumb could I be?! To escape from Abaddon himself only to get caught like this!

Then, finally, Clarity activated. The orc stopped two paces away. Or rather, he didn’t stop, he slowed. It was as if he was stuck in thickening space, and overcoming the resistance demanded enormous effort. The shield in his offhand slowly melted away, replaced by a trident.

The Web began to move, slowly pushing me down, pressing into my body. And that was in Clarity! That meant if time had continued flowing normally, then I would have been turned into mincemeat in a second. I tried to fly away again, saw it was useless and then suddenly remembered my new skills. Maybe I couldn’t wrench myself away or hit the web, but what about this?

Spirit-Crushing Hammerfist of Justice!

I dealt the blow from inside the web. The ability mechanic worked: a phantom fist imprinted on the Ephemeral Web of Pacification as if forcing its way through a thick film, sending scarlet flashes leaping across the fine threads of the net and taking away half its durability. I had to hit it three times. The spirit-strengthened strikes spent my supply of the resource, and when the Web fell off me, I only had one more second of Clarity left.

Windmilling my arms, I ran straight at the most dangerous target, the rogue… And didn’t make it. My acceleration ended and the comedown afterwards slowed my perception of time; I started to slow again as if moving through sludge, my movements turning predictable.

Riker dodged the fist aimed at his face, slipped behind me and attacked. My back exploded in pain and I flew through the air, and the orc’s gigantic trident pinned me to the ground face-down. My life fell to half, and the bar kept going down.

“Cut his head off, Phobos!” the elf girl shouted.

Clenching my teeth, I twisted and pulled the trident from the small of my back, watching with my peripheral vision as the mage girl shot pale white threads toward me. To my right, Riker drew back both his arms, daggers in hand, planning to hit me crosswise, and to my left Phobos waved his sword.

Rolling toward the orc, I dodged the vampire’s attack and caught the sword on the trident. The white tentacle launched by the elf girl froze right in front of my face, and at that moment…

The fourth day of the Demonic Games is over!

The message imprinted on my eyes and was still fading when I found myself back in the real world. The intragel drained away. I expected to see Kerry, rumpled after yesterday’s celebrations, but instead of her, an unfamiliar man around forty stood there. His narrow, elongated face reminded me of a rat. His white hair was slicked back, baring a sloping forehead.

“Good evening, Mr. Sheppard. My name is Donald. I am your new temporary assistant. Though not for long.”

“Hey… Uhm… Where’s Kerry?”

“Miss Hunter no longer works with us. As for you, I will inform you, unofficially for now, that you are to be disqualified for breaking the rules of your contract.”

“Breaking the rules?! How?!”

Unembarrassed by my nudity, I climbed out of the capsule and advanced on the smug man. Adrenalin still coursed through my blood, both from Abaddon and from my lucky rescue, and now this news!

“Did you familiarize yourself carefully with the contract?” Donald asked venomously. “No