Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1) by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris (books for 20 year olds txt) 📗

crystal flew over me and pierced one of the jaguars that was biting Rory. The dwarf noticed and brought his hammer down with force on the creature that failed to teleport out of harm’s way. It looked like they weren’t able to use their blinking ability anymore after they were hit with one of these ice crystals. The shock of seeing one of their siblings killed in front of them brought the others to a feral state as they all growled and launched themselves at Rory anew.

By this time, I had already gotten close enough to strike at one of the beasts, so I did my best. I triggered my Mighty Slash skill and saw the beast’s HP bar drop by one fourth. The most logical next move would be to continue attacking while its back was still turned on me. But this was no ordinary fight.

I spun around and brought down my elbow with force at the level of my head. Just as I had expected, the beast tried to jump on me. The sudden hit on its muzzle was enough of a surprise for me to take advantage of. I thrust one of my swords forward and stabbed it, landing a critical hit.

Still, this was not enough to bring it down. What was enough, however, was Louie’s Gale Blast that landed on its back while Leo wounded another creature with one of his ice crystals. Rory used the edge Leo’s skill gave him and ended the last one of the cubs.

“I hate astral beasts,” Rory said and headed to the first door, just as we had done on the previous layer.

“This wasn’t a random selection of beasts,” Leo added as he checked one of the rooms on our side. “These were put here to kill us, or at least delay us sufficiently.”

“Ye think they fled, elf?” Rory asked as he exited the first room.

“Either that or they’re preparing their defenses and are now waiting for us.”

The rooms on this floor were set out in an identical layout to those above, only this time they were clean and tidy. Rory practiced his shield-bashing skills on the server room which was locked in this layer as well. Just before he crossed the portal to the final layer, Louie healed him up to his maximum MP and he nodded at us, sweat beading on his tattooed head. He lunged in and I took four short breaths before heading in myself.

Immediately, I stumbled over Rory’s body and almost lost my footing. I turned around to look at him and saw that his eyes were open and his teeth clenched, but he wasn’t moving. I concentrated my eyes on a flashing icon next to his buffs.

Name : Stunned

Type : Debuff

Level : 7

Effect : Renders the target immobile for 15 seconds

Time Left : 11 seconds

Before I was able to hoist him up, an ice crystal stabbed into my shoulder. At the same time, I heard a yelp from Louie. I ran behind a stack of crates and saw him partially evading an arrow as he hid, much in the same way I had, but on the other side of the hallway.

“You’re out of range,” he shouted and I understood that he meant he wanted to heal me.

I was momentarily worried about him being away from my side until I noticed Leo’s blue robe in the shadows next to him. Louie was safe. I didn’t have to worry about him. Leo knew what to do. I made him promise.

I momentarily rested my swords on the ground as I flashed a thumbs-up with one hand and produced a healing potion from my inventory bag with the other.

“Heal yourself,” I said as I uncorked the vial and poured it into my mouth.

Immediately, I saw the icon of a red vial flash next to my buffs and my wound stopped bleeding.

Now for the hard part.

I knew I had to do it. I yanked the already melting crystal from my shoulder and saw my HP bar drop before it started picking up again. I glanced at the HP of the rest of my party members.

Louie’s HP became full as a flash of light appeared from his side of the warehouse. Leo was only missing around 10% of his total HP, but Rory’s was down to two thirds and dropping as arrows and daggers struck on his helpless body along with small bullets of fire.

I wasn’t too worried about him since the debuff would soon end and there was no way they’d be able to stun him again. This was either a trap containing a high-level spell or an extremely lucky hit. People like Rory with high constitution were extremely difficult to stun, or so he had told me.

My relief turned to horror when I heard a shooting sound from the other end of the corridor and realized that the dwarf was now pinned to the ground. Not magically, or by some skill, but rather by a metal net held down by iron balls.

“Oi! Ye bastards will pay for stunning me,” Rory said and tried to stand up, but was unable to move. Knowing the strength and size of his arms, I was sure he could have done hundreds of push-ups with Leo and myself sitting on top of him, but the net was so tight around him that he would have needed to push more than a ton to stand up.

“Heal him!” I shouted at Leo who risked glancing above his hiding place, only to be met with an incoming arrow.

“On it,” he replied as he ducked back down, narrowly avoiding the attack.

I sprinted to the next available hiding spot, getting closer to where the attacks were coming from. I swiftly popped my head up and finally got a quick look at our enemies.

Name : ???

Race : ???

Class : Occultist

Level : 22

Name : ???

Race : Human

Class : Hunter

Level : 9

Name : ???

Race : Human

Class : Thief

Level : 7

They had been waiting for us. They were