City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) Jez Cajiao (best color ebook reader txt) 📖

of wood and metal blown back into suddenly exposed thugs who were peppered with fragments.

Before they could collect themselves, the rest of the squad followed him, storming inside and attacking.

I gritted my teeth, forcing the last words out with a hiss as my fingers threatened to tie themselves in knots. The screams of dozens of Imps pierced the air as they attacked my fliers, increasing as Amaat and his people fired crossbows and slashed with swords. Firebolts and Icebolts flashed through the sky, waves of darkness and shining light flowing back and forth, and the battle was truly joined.

“I can bring more Djinn!” A small figure begged me, darting forward to hover by my shoulder as I compressed the final stage of the spell. The glowing, spitting lightning in my hands quivered as Oracle smoothed it, compressing it tighter and tighter.

“Wait!” Augustus snapped at the Djinn, shifting his shield aside as I pulled the spell in close to my chest, then shoved it forward with a grunt of effort and a final shout of arcane words.

The spell speared through the air, leaving a yellow-white afterimage that seemed branded into my retinas, until it smashed through the window, taking part of the frame with it. It hit the back wall, exploding with a boom that shook the air around the tower, giving rise to screams of pain as the people inside forgot about firing at my forces. The spell wrapped the outer limit of its range in hissing, crackling lightning that combined with the flaming core of the spell, then began to quickly contract, forcing those caught in its boundaries into the center, burning them with flames and whipping them with lightning.

It was a far weaker spell than the one I’d cast days ago, filled with fury and hatred, but now it was smoother, more elegant, and less wasteful. It expired after only five seconds, but in that time, those caught in its AOE were either killed, stunned, burned, or had suffered broken bones. All had lost their weapons, and in one case, had actually shot one of their own side in the face with a dropped crossbow.

Congratulations! You have created a new personal spell…Explosive Compression!

Explosive Compression:

Creates an explosive shell around an unstable lightning and flaming core. Once the shell is broken, a manaform is unrolled that traps all inside its boundaries, then compresses until the invested mana is entirely used up. This spell causes burning damage, consumes the air inside its boundary and compresses everything within, causing bludgeoning damage as well as a chance to cause internal bleeding for any living being it surrounds.

This spell, while cobbled together from the parts of other spells, has been refined enough to be acknowledged as a fully formed spell , and as such will begin to level and evolve as your understanding of its properties grows.

Cost: 25-500 mana, depending on AOE

I sagged, gasping, before forcing out my breath and standing tall. My mana was down to half, but it was starting to refill already, albeit slower than I’d have liked. I glanced at my new spell and dismissed it quickly.

“Go.” I said to the Djinn. “Tell them where we are. Tell them we’re here to rescue your Clan Mother, and if they want to free her, if they want revenge on the Skyking, now’s the time.”

He nodded, spinning and vanishing into the rain.

“The left…” came a wavering voice, and I turned to regard the small figure of an Imp looking up at me. He was one of the three we’d captured, bound in chains and unable to help in the fight because of the Oaths he was bound by. Now he stared at me from a face wracked with pain. “Take the left stairses, Skyking makeses less trapses that way.” Its words gave way to screams as the consequences of the broken Oath ripped into it. Tiny muscles writhed as they constricted and tore free, bones cracking under the force. It continued staring up at me with agonized determination as it begin to die.

“I will, and thank you,” I said, stabbing it in the chest and ending its life before the Skyking’s cruel magic could punish it further. “What was his name?” I asked the others as they stared at his twitching body in anger and sadness.

“Grebes,” one said, whimpering. “You lets us go now?” he asked hopefully, and I shook my head.

“No. You know you’d be forced to attack us; better you stay where you are.”

“But we’s gonna get kilt by Skyking!” he whined.

“Not if we kill it first,” I said grimly. “Come on people, let’s get in there!” I shouted. A nearby Legionnaire picked the Imps back up, slinging them onto his back with a grimace as we ran through the shattered doorway. Nerin ran alongside me, her bearer from before working with Grizz and Nigret to cover her with their shields, as well as helping the few wounded along.

As soon as we were inside, and I could hear the first and second squads fighting on the next floor above us, I ordered Augustus to seal the door and sort out a casualty area, then sprinted up the stairs with my personal team, Lydia hot on my heels.

“God, I love good subordinates…” I muttered to myself, a smile stretching my cheeks as I heard Augustus bellowing orders. Nerin’s voice joined him, demanding the wounded be brought to her.

“What are we goin' ter do, Jax?” Lydia asked me, and I met her eyes. Her grin was evident on the little I could see of her face through the gaps in her helmet. She was flushed and loving every minute.

I couldn’t help but grin back at her.

“We’re gonna get up there and fuck up the Skyking’s day!” I said, recognizing the blur on the stairs ahead of me that indicated Bane, already sweeping ahead.

We flew out of the stairwell into a small landing. Five rooms led off it, arranged concentrically, and I grinned grimly at the sight that greeted me. One wall from