The Fourth Secret: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Divine Apostasy Book 4) A. Kay (best management books of all time .TXT) 📖

on Ruwen’s left brought his sword down at an angle. They expected him to step backward to avoid the blow, placing him right in range of the Fighter on the right, who would skewer Ruwen from behind.

Instead, Ruwen stepped into the attack, letting the sword fall and strike him between his neck and shoulder. The Sword clanged loudly against his armor, momentarily deafening him, and the force of the blow vibrated through his body.

Ruwen grabbed the Stone Piercer’s neck with his left hand, opened his Void Band a foot, and used fifty Energy to launch a rusty short sword. He’d taken the weapon from the goblins who’d protected the Mist Wraith Talker in Blapy.

While fifty Energy had worked fine for the heavier blessed bricks he’d used when fighting the Bone Sculptor and its minions, it was far too much for the sword.

The Stone Piercer’s head disappeared as the short sword traveled through his skull, the cross-guard destroying the Fighter’s head, and turning it into a red mist. The sword continued up into the air, disappearing from sight.

The ground vibrated as the Fighter behind Ruwen stepped forward to attack. He sensed the disturbance in the air as the sword approached his back. As the headless body dropped in front of him, he stepped toward the central Fighter and turned his body, causing the attack from behind to miss.

Ruwen had one more goblin short sword, six rusty spears, and nine head-sized chunks of granite he’d taken from the wall while Hamma had performed Last Rights on the goblins, earning Prayer Points.

The central Fighter triggered an ability and the shimmer of an Energy shield appeared around him. Ruwen used that to his advantage. Using one hundred Energy, he launched one of the granite wall pieces at the central Fighter.

A boom echoed off the mountain face above them, and a deafened debuff appeared as Ruwen’s ears rang. Fragments of granite sprayed outward as the Fighter’s shield took the brunt of the force, the shards bouncing off Ruwen’s scale armor and the even stronger armor of his body.

The central Fighter staggered backward, stunned from the massive blow. Ruwen turned to face the leftmost Fighter and found him wiping blood from one eye, pieces of granite stuck to his face.

Ruwen stepped up to the bloodied Fighter and brought both hands down on the sacs around his neck, which he hoped had the same affect as hitting a human in the throat.

Using a joint lock, Ruwen forced the Fighter to drop his sword. Ruwen caught the sword as it fell hilt first, and then immediately rammed it upward through the Fighter’s damaged eye and into his brain.

Ruwen pushed the sword away from himself, rotating and then snapping the Fighter’s neck. He faced the remaining Stone Piercer who stumbled to his feet, the Energy shield gone.

With two Fighters down, some of the Scouts had a clear shot at Ruwen, and crossbow bolts struck him like a hailstorm. Fears, roots, and stuns struck him, but his Resistances held them off.

The remaining Fighter must have decided to take Ruwen seriously. The Stone Piercer’s sword glowed yellow and began to drip what smelled like acid. His skin turned grey and rough as it hardened into stone, and a six foot worm appeared beside him that Ruwen’s Perception labeled a Flesh Tunneler. It had no eyes and just a ring of sharp teeth, which it pointed at Ruwen.

Three glass vials struck Ruwen’s chest and shattered, covering his armor in red liquid that reacted violently with the air. The vapor surrounded Ruwen in what Analyze assured him was very toxic fumes.

Ruwen channeled one Energy per second into Fresh Air to keep the area around his head free of the vapors. His Scarf of Freshness would make the air he breathed safe, but he worried what the gas would do to his eyes.

Crossbow bolts continued to bounce off Ruwen, some exploding, others causing elemental damage. The Overseer armor’s durability had taken a beating, but Ruwen’s body remained unaffected.

The Stone Piercer and the Flesh Tunneler had separated by ten feet. Ruwen kept his focus on the Fighter, but didn’t lose sight of the disgusting worm.

Opening its mouth wide, the Flesh Tunneler’s teeth shot outward like a fleshy circular tongue. It struck Ruwen’s Insect Repellent shield, throwing off the tongue’s trajectory, and instead of striking Ruwen’s head, it latched onto his chest.

When the Flesh Tunneler jerked back on Ruwen, he leaped, adding his momentum and striking the soft worm in a blink. He wrapped his arms around the creature and channeled two Energy per second into the level four Fighter spell Wrath, causing him to burst into magical flame.

The worm’s skin sizzled and Ruwen was thankful the scarf and Fresh Air kept the smells away. He channeled twenty Energy into Scrub, and like he’d done to the centipedes on the first level of Blapy, he cleaned the worm to death.

As Ruwen finished killing the Flesh Tunneler, the Stone Piercer didn’t advance on Ruwen, but flicked his sword, covering Ruwen’s cloak with acid.

The one hundred fifty point shield activated on the Hooded Pacifist's Cloak of Wandering, protecting Ruwen’s Overseer armor from more damage. He faced the Fighter, not bothering to dodge the crossbow bolts the Silent Spotters still fired. He ripped the Flesh Tunnelers tongue off his chest, threw it to the ground, and stopped channeling Wrath.

Instead, Ruwen channeled ten Energy per second into the level fourteen Collector spell Sow Seed. Every time a Scout threw a vial, which were all under one pound, he would mid-flight telekinetically flip it at another Scout.

The Energy Ruwen had channeled into Scrub, he transferred to Melt. Since he only had the one level the Divine Amulet had given him, he added Energy until he reached the spell’s maximum Energy of one hundred per second, eleven more than his Energy Regen. Just like Harden, it only worked on inorganic substances, and the remaining Stone Piercer had just changed his skin into stone.

A flaming arrow materialized in front of Ruwen, struck him