Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (english reading book TXT) 📗

Had anything survived back there? I didn’t get any messages about Svechkin’s death! I stepped into the cave, thick with acrid smoke, holding my sword in front of me and activating another Bolide, just in case. My opponent might be simply stunned, and all I had to do was finish him off.

The opposite wall was completely smashed with a gaping hole with melted edges in the middle of it. Behind it loomed a corridor full of clouds of raised dust. I aimed the second Bolide right there, letting the fiery bead fly free. There were no obstacles anymore; the Gravekeeper would surely die. I didn’t want such a fate for him, but there was no choice.

However, no explosion came. With the booming sound of a bell, the global chat informed,

WARNING! THE THIRD OF THE SEVEN HAS APPEARED IN THE WORLDS OF SPHERE! BALANCE HAS BEEN BREACHED!

Svechkin had decided to take his Key! A wall of blue fire blocked off the corridor, and my missile soundlessly disappeared in it, while several bright blue stars flew toward me with a drone-like buzzing. Attacked from all angles, I didn’t see any other way to save myself except for escaping into Shadow. There, I fell on the floor, pressing against it, and quickly crawled toward the exit.

The stars, which looked like blinding balls of fire, were present in the Shadow Plane as well, moving along a complex trajectory and clearly looking for their suddenly absent prey. Self-guided throwing shuriken? Another cheat of a weapon for the Seven Brothers? However, they didn’t seem to be able to see through the Shadow, cruising around the cave.

The Gravekeeper stepped out of the dust in the destroyed passage, touching his hat with one hand and the hilt of the sheathed rapier with another. The seven stars stopped spinning and returned to their master, creating a levitating circle around him.

“You’ve left me no choice, Cat!” Svechkin accused the darkness. “Now, the Balance...but there’s no point in explaining it to you. Where are you hiding? Come out! Are you in the Shadow Plane? It won’t help you...”

I didn’t answer, slowly getting up at the entrance. I was torn between two urges—running away and trying to attack the Gravekeeper from the Shadow Plane. Both seemed hopeless, but what else was I to do?

“I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Rocky continued. “I’ll show you how to use a flaming weapon.”

In one movement, he transformed the shuriken into something akin to a spiked chain—a string of stars on a cord of blue light. He tested it, giving it a wide swing several feet in range. Whoa, I didn’t expect it to have such reach! That was beyond the abilities of my sword. Too bad that, unlike him and Aelmaris, I didn’t know what his Key was capable of. Did I even have a chance?

The stars burned blue, just like my sword. After testing the improvised whip a few times, Rocky started spinning it at such speed that a blazing circle of True Fire formed around him. Anybody next to him would have been incinerated, whether a single person or a dozen. My crude sword tricks couldn’t possibly compare to that.

With a sharp swoosh and the smell of melted stone, fiery strokes appeared on the walls where the stars touched them. The Gravekeeper swung the chain in every direction at every altitude, trying to reach all corners of the cave and hit my invisible body. How could he know that I was even there instead of running toward the ship?

The Shadow Walk timer was counting down its last seconds. Svechkin’s stars had already come uncomfortably close to me a few times. I had to do something or flee, although the second option meant only delaying the inevitable—I couldn’t run far from the Isle of Madness. I clenched the Resuciato pyramid in my hand, marking myself for resurrection. It was clear that I couldn’t fight Rocky directly. The only chance was surprising him by pulling off a gimmick. Now!

I burst out of the Shadow, parrying Svechkin’s spinning disk with a slash of Aelmaris. When the weapons clashed, the star metal howled, showering us with a cascade of white sparks. The blade of Aelmaris got momentarily caught in the coils of the flaming chain, and I pulled it back, trying to disarm my opponent—and almost collapsed, not finding any resistance. The chain broke into fragments as easily as it had assembled, and the stars immediately swarmed me, impatiently hovering in the air.

“This is it, HotCat,” the Gravekeeper said, adjusting his hat. “Say hello to the Magister!”

The shuriken lunged at me like angry bees. I managed to repel two of them, but the rest pierced my body in several spots without any effort, as nothing could stand against True Fire. I crumbled into grey dust, not even feeling any pain. A mangled half-plate armor fell out on the rock-strewn floor, followed by several other inventory items. So that’s what my victims felt like.

You received 3500 True Fire damage from NPC Rocky (Gravekeepers)! You died.

Resuciato held your soul! Do you wish to resurrect? 59…58…57…

The Soul Forge Gem, with its 30% chance of resurrecting, didn’t proc as usual, but Resuciato got its job done. I mentally thanked Yota for such a powerful artifact. Too bad I had only four charges left...

A dead player’s shadow was still visible. If Svechkin noticed that I was still there, it would arouse suspicion. I used the blinding flash, the falling ash, and the cloud of flying dust to slip behind his back and out of his sight.

The hovering stars immediately faded, as if turned off, and fluttered to Svechkin’s open palm. He was really good at handling them, like a card shark shuffling a deck. I felt a pang of envy. Well, no matter; sooner or later, I would learn.

Surprise! As I watched him rake the dropped loot with the