Gloominess +3: Reign of Decay. A LitRPG series: Book 3 Read online

  The combatants were left behind. Feeling that the spell was about to end, I quickly turned around the corner of a house, third from the crossroad, and looked around. All was clear.

  When the world regained its colors, I immediately took the Bat out of my inventory. At first it lay immobile on my palm, but a few seconds later it unsurely moved its wings. With every second, the Wight’s movements got more and more confident. Soon, it flew up and set off in the direction of the town hall.

  While I was waiting for the news from the scout, the cooldown of Twilight Wanderer had ended.

  “Let’s go…” the Bat said upon its return.

  Our movement speed got significantly slower. Three times in the following half an hour I put the Bat into my inventory and went into the Twilight. In all honesty, I was worried about using this unusual skill near the crowds of Decayed too often. Who knew what they could sense? To be exact, who knew what the Mothers could feel through them?

  “That’s where the real fight is,” I whispered, peeking from around the iron-wrought fence that surrounded the mansion.

  “And it’s… Drawing… To an end,” the Bat wheezed.

  Finally, we reached the city square that had now been turned into a bloody battlefield. The battle had been going on for a long time now, and the amount of torn bodies I saw counted more than the number of alive defenders of Ekheim. The road to the city hall was littered with corpses. Some time ago, people hurried through here, but nobody was trying to join the fighters on the square now.

  No one would come anymore.

  The rest of the people would die, banded together in squads like the one Captain Koyne had commanded near the center of the town.

  There would be no reinforcements for humans, but every minute crowds of Decayed poured onto the town square from different sides.

  I heard tramping and a loud rasping sound. Looking over my shoulder, I saw two Warriors up the street and a horde of weaker monsters approaching me. If they came from the same place I had come from, that meant…

  “Hurr-…” the Bat began, landing onto my hand, but didn’t have time to finish. I hid it in my inventory.

  Twilight Wanderer.

  In one second I rushed forward, knowing full well how crazy my decision was. Though the physical abilities of my current body exceeded those of the best athletes back on Earth, I wouldn’t be able to cross the square, run up the stairs and get inside the town hall in five seconds. Once the skill ends, and the world gets its colors back, I’ll have to use the Joy of the Acrobat and fly into the building through a window.

  Damn, I didn’t want to draw unnecessary attention to me. If someone followed me, saving Una would be jeopardized. Not to mention that somebody could shoot me down.

  Damn! I had to get as close as possible to the town hall.

  Faster! Faster!

  Even faster!!!

  Feeling that the spell was about to end, I jumped forward with all my might, hoping to close the distance between me and my goal as much as possible. I had the Joy of the Acrobat at the ready, but…

  “Oh, what was that?” I heard a scared woman’s voice near my ear. “Have they caught up with us? Do you feel something disgusting?”

  Blind Eye.

  While one part of my brain tried to understand what had happened, the other, noticing a crowd of people in the lobby of the town hall, hid me from them and rushed to the staircase.

  Hmm, that’s strange. I couldn’t say that I had sped up, but I managed to cover more than a hundred yards in five seconds. I noticed that every time I used Wanderer, today especially, I covered unbelievable distances. Not as big as the one that I had covered just now, but still…

  What does this mean? Distortions in space? That’s quite possible. What a curious skill I have…

  But there was no time to think now. Getting to the staircase that led to the basement, I stopped, pressed myself against the wall, and materialized the Bat.

  “Already… There?” Kane, who was following my adventure, couldn’t hide his astonishment. However, he quickly got back to business. “Wait here…”

  The scout came back in a couple of seconds.

  “She’s… Here…” the Bat informed. “Some… Lade guy… Is torturing her… Level… Sixty… Five… HP… Almost… Three… Thousand…”

  “Thank you,” I said, going down the stairs. “Take care of things around here while I’m gone.”

  I didn’t notice when I materialized the trident in my hands. I didn’t think myself a nice guy or, what’s more, a hero. However, the sole mention of the bald monk almost made me lose my temper. That scum had betrayed me once. And Dina, who considered him her friend, died in that battle. And now he, while the others were fighting to death with the spawn of Decay, was torturing another helpless girl.

  However, from a rational point of view, he was doing everything right. It looked like Tsunter’s people failed to extort from Una the information about the whereabouts of the Quarter of Zurtarn and Splinter of Unity. It won’t be long before the Gleam of Rugus falls into the clutches of the Decayed. This was their last opportunity to pry the information out of her. If Lade succeeds, and if he’s a Disciple of his God, then he could connect to Guer-Shui and tell him everything. For our enemies, not the Decayed, but humans and their patrons, the monk would become a hero.

  Well, to be honest, I probably would’ve done the same if I were him.

  But I wasn’t. I was going to kill the bastard in order to keep the important information safe and save my ally. And for my own satisfaction, too.

  The stairs ended, and I found myself in a dark corridor. Dim light came only through the open door right in front of me. I rushed forward, past four closed doors that were facing each other, and burst into the prison.

  Tranquility of Darkness.

  I attacked Lade without hesitation, and only after that did I glance around the small room. It was about 215 feet square and it had no windows. In other words, it was a dump. It had two cages at every wall, eight in total, three of which were empty. Una was in the furthest one; iron cuffs that glew with pale blue light and by the chains of which she was tied to a hook cut into her wrists. Her light armor and cape were torn and covered in her blood; her face was swollen, lips cracked, and one eye was swollen shut. But that was nothing comparing to the black, curved daggers, which reminded me of saber tooth tiger’s teeth that stuck out of her right side and back.

  With difficulty, Una began to turn her head in my direction, but I had no time to look at her any longer than a second. The effect of my favorite skill failed to work on the first try, so I activated the Aura of Darkness and switched to defense.

  “Now’s not a good time, lad,” Lade said before rushing into the fight.

  I managed to deflect his palm strike, which aimed at my face, with the trident, but he drove his hand downward, turning his body clockwise, without losing any speed. A powerful heel kick hit my temple and dealt almost 500 points of damage.

  For a moment, everything reeled in front of my eyes. I staggered backward. My opponent used the opportunity to attack me again. Hell, he’s so fast…

  I wouldn’t like to be hit with his Paralyzing Strike again. I remembered when I couldn’t move for almost a minute and hung limply like a rag doll, while Lade carried me from the tavern to this very town hall. I didn’t know how to get rid of the debuff back then. Now I knew, but the monk was one level higher than me, so I would lose ten percent of all my stats to dispel it. At that moment, my body would be defenseless and would turn into a very convenient training dummy.

  He soon began to glow with the same pale blue light as the shackles; his wrists at first, and then his arms and shoulders. Lade’s strikes became faster and they now reminded me of spear strikes. I didn’t manage to dodge them. I couldn’t block them either. And although not every hit of his dealt much damage, there were too many of them. I felt like a punching bag. Luckily, his hands soon stopped glowing indicating that his buff had ended. Though, I had less than
half of my HP left.

  Damn, if I had at least a hundred of “lives” in stock, I could use the “Power of Light.” The cooldown must’ve ended by now; enough time has passed since the attack pierced Aerida’s collarbone. Though, using my strongest skill on a common human doesn’t seem as epic as using it on a Goddess.

  I hated having my back against a wall, so I always tried to have a backup plan. I could throw grenades all around the place. Una would die and resurrect, but she would be saved. The same would happen to me. And someone would be gone from this dark world forever.

  But again, that was the worst case scenario. While I was in the town hall, I wanted to use being here to its full extent. I had things to do in here, after all. The most important thing was to remain hidden from the masses.

  The world, or maybe my patron, heard me.

  Lade has fallen under the effect of your “Aura of Darkness.”

  Lade has felt the “Tranquility of Darkness.” Lade loses the desire to fight you and your squad.

  His lightning-quick high kick halted right next to my temple. The monk drew his leg back, put it down and brushed the dust off his baggy trousers as if nothing had happened.

  “Fine, fine, I give up. I’m tired!” he said with a heavy sigh. “So long.”

  Waving his hand, he went past me and headed to the door. But something was bothering me. This was the first time that I had “calmed down” an intelligent opponent, one that wasn’t an animal. And…

  “Turn around!” Una wheezed, but even without her hailing I managed to guess what was wrong.

  “So you can suppress will, too?” the monk cried out, kicking me square in the chest. I managed to block his kick with the trident’s shaft, but the attack was so powerful that it threw me back a couple of feet.

  Yes, even though I had successfully casted Tranquility of Darkness there was no message about winning and getting XP. I figured that people could combine their HP, mana and energy to shake off the shackles of mental, that is, magical, control. Lade was a higher level than me, and it cost him only five percent of his stats to clear his mind. How did he do it so fast though?!

  It was a good thing that I didn’t attack him the moment he felt Tranquility; otherwise I would’ve freed him myself and he wouldn’t have needed to spend his stats. From this point of view, my skill differed from skills that imposed direct control, paralysis and audio-visual hallucinations.

  Using no special skills, Lade aimed for my head with his palms. I managed to block most of the hits and dodge the rest, but I still missed a few.

  “Oh…” I wheezed, reflexively falling to my left knee. With his uninterrupted flow of attacks he made me switch to defense and carefully watch his hands. So it wasn’t surprising that I missed a strong, low kick.

  Damn! He’ill clobber me! There’s little space for maneuvering and the ceiling is very low.

  I tried to close the distance between us. I jumped back, but he caught up to me almost instantly. I was unable to counter attack.

  Another low kick was followed by…

  Lade used “Paralyzing Fist.”

  You have received 138 points of damage.

  You cannot move for the next 50 seconds.

  Chapter 3

  Speed

  He got me after all…

  I felt my knees buckle, and I fell face first onto the cold stone floor.

  Lade kicked and punched, tossing me around like I was a rag doll. Bastard… I expected the fight to be hard, but I didn’t think it would be this difficult! I wondered what he was going to do to me once he wins and I lose conscience. Would he hang me near Una? But he had no time for torturing. Would he take me with him as a trophy?

  Stop… I had to clear my mind and distance myself from everything. I had to forget about the pain and imagine my stat bars.

  Imagine the vertical line that divides the red... Divide the blue and yellow bars into full and empty parts.

  Good.

  Now pull them simultaneously…

  I recalled that in some games you could slow down time during a battle or even press pause to make a tactically right decision. Unfortunately, though this world had a game interface, it didn’t have such an option. However, it had something else — experience. Not only the level up kind, but real fighting experience that couldn’t be compared to the one I got through a VR-headset.

  My brain was working at full capacity even though I was engaged in a deadly fight. It was in moments like these that it used its hidden reserves.

  How can I win?

  The first option was a combination of Twilight Wanderer and a grenade into his chest. However, that was too dangerous as I risked Lade dying, which would put a stain on my “pacifist” record. Not to mention that the explosion could attract more enemies, and that Una would see something that she probably shouldn’t see.

  The second option was to increase my own speed and stop being his punching bag. There was only one way to do that though.

  Having gotten rid of the debuff, I deprived him of his most powerful skill for some time as it had a several minutes long cooldown.

  Upgrade “Acrobatics” by three levels.

  Why did I decide to spend this amount of Everyday Skill points? Because I now had level 4 Acrobatics. Joy of the Acrobat gave me three bonus levels. Upgrading it by one level wouldn’t help me much now. I needed at least two. But since level ten was a milestone I hoped to get some bonuses. And so I did.

  Attention! You have acquired “Acrobatics” level 10. You can now choose its further development. Agility has been increased by 100.

  My body became lighter at once. I rolled over to my side and leapt to my feet. Lade chuckled balefully and rushed after me. I jumped up, gripped the cage’s bars with my left hand, and lifted myself up; I looked like a flag fluttering on the wind.

  A phial with Enhanced Healing Potion appeared in my right hand. I uncorked it with my thumb and quickly poured it into my mouth.

  Aside of the already mentioned bonuses, upgrading Acrobatics to level ten gave me something else — I could now clearly see how to best utilize the space around me. My style of fighting was best suited for open spaces before, but now…

  Jumping at the bars of a nearby cage and holding onto them with one hand, I aimed the other at Lade. Black smoke rushed from my splayed fingers. The effect didn’t work. Jumping up as well, Lade grabbed the bars and, turning, tried to kick me with both feet.

  I jumped on the floor, materialized the trishula, and aimed upward. The monk dodged, ran up the bars as if they were a staircase, and landed behind my back.

  Darting forward, I rolled over and found myself right at the door of the prison. I jumped to my feet, pushed off the floor, and gripped the bars again, this time taking the Master of Fast Shooting’s Crossbow out of my inventory.

  You have dealt 130 points of damage.

  Lade has fallen under the effect of your “Aura of Darkness.”

  Lade has felt the “Tranquility of Darkness.” Lade loses the desire to fight you and your squad.

  The monk’s expression changed again. He stretched his neck slowly, and then opened his mouth to say something…

  I understood that he was trying to get rid of Tranquility’s effect. If he succeeded, everything would go down the drain. I needed to use the situation to my advantage before it was too late.

  Copying Lade, I ran across the bars toward the ceiling.

  Trident of Darkness.

  I hit him in the back. Yes, it wasn’t fair, but I bought myself enough time to attack him again.

  Power Strike.

  A fight to the death with a strong and experienced enemy, what could be better for discovering new abilities? What else could’ve made me stronger? Blood was boiling in my veins; the thrill overcame me like a tidal wave. However, if I was to be honest, I didn’t like it. I preferred it when everything went according to a well thought-out plan, when chances to fail were close to zero.

  It was a pity that things almost never happened
that way.

  Although I managed to become as fast, or maybe even faster than Lade, and even though I managed to “calm down” and attack the helpless monk twice, he managed to find a way to counterattack every time. Getting tired of running, we started openly exchanging hits.

  “Well, you’re good, lad!” Lade suddenly said, jumping back. “I wish we fought on the same side!” A dark-green phial appeared in his right hand.

  He threw it in my face without as much as a swing of his hand.

  Everything about his appearance gave off his assurance of victory. I couldn’t avoid whatever was in that phial — something expensive and very powerful, something like the paralyzing flame that we had used against the Warriors.

  Lade saved his Ace for last, huh? Did he only now realize that he could really die?

  Well… Then it’s time that I take out my Joker.

  Twilight Wanderer.

  The phial and its dark-green contents flew right through me. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed that the phial had dissolved into viscous acid before it touched the stone floor.

  Drops of acid spattered everywhere; the dense vapors filled the air.

  Rushing forward, I went through the astonished Lade and appeared behind his back. I turned around to assess the fallout of his attack — half of the room, from the floor up to the middle of the walls, was covered with a layer of the dark-green stuff. Had I been in my corporal form, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to dodge that. And if I had decided to jump up, the gas would’ve poisoned me.

  Trident of Darkness.

  You have dealt 357 points of damage.

  You have defeated Lade.

  XP received: 5,310

  You can use the slaying skill on Lade.

  Phew… It’s over… Keeping on a straight face, I glanced at the defeated monk and walked confidently to Una.

  “Have you heard about… Monkeys?” she croaked. Flashing a tired smile, she lifted her head to meet my gaze.