Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) Jez Cajiao (top ten books of all time TXT) 📖

she’d done, but not how… her body had literally burned its way through every calorie it possessed, just about. She’d rendered the little fat on her body into fuel and had driven herself at an insane speed; then her body had begun to eat itself, muscles being consumed to fuel the movements she needed to make.

I kept it going as long as I could, before sagging as my mana bottomed out and the mana-migraine exploded in my mind. I fell forward, catching myself before I fell on Lydia, and I screwed my eyes closed, biting my cheek as I forced myself to squint at her.

As soon as I could focus, I saw that she looked better; not a great deal, but she had a little color back in her cheeks and her breathing wasn’t as labored, which, in itself, was a relief.

I turned, sweeping my gaze around the remains of the room, and saw my people huddling on the far side. Grizz had managed to get close enough to them to use his Iceshield, and that, along with their distance from the Lich, had been enough to keep them relatively safe beyond more bruises, a handful of cuts, and though Jian looked to have broken his arm, Arrin was already fixing it.

I scanned the rest of the cavern, seeing the dust and debris starting to settle, and swore as I made out shambling figures starting to appear. I pulled out the healing potion I had, a ‘Common’ grade, and half choked Lydia getting it into her mouth, my concern and distraction, mixed with wearing relatively unfamiliar gauntlets, making it much harder than it needed to be.

A skeleton twisted and turned to face me. I saw the gleam in its eye sockets as it found an enemy, and I growled, long and low.

I still didn’t know where my naginata was. I’d lost the spear I’d gained, and I knew a sword would be little use in here, so I reached into my bag and pulled out the kill-stick, flicking it on, and hearing the steady, rough sound of the cobbled-together device starting up.

It sounded rusty and ill made, and it looked like touching the handle might give you tetanus, never mind what getting an actual injury from it might do.

It was a perfect fit for my mood.

I patted Lydia’s shoulder and stood up, walking toward the skeleton as more of its brethren stumbled out of the darkness to join it.

That fucker, that Lich, had done this. It had hurt my people.

I moved slightly faster, striding purposefully, no longer walking.

The stupid bastard had hurt Lydia. It had made me ask her to push so hard that she was close to death. She’d pushed that hard for me, and I’d let her. Hell, I’d asked her to. That made my anger boil higher, turning to fury.

We could be trapped down here now; we might have lost our chance at an escape before the enemy fleet arrived. We might be fucked, all of us. Lydia, Grizz, Yen, Bane, the gnomes, all of them.

They might be stuck here, trapped down in the darkness, eating fucking mushrooms for the rest of their lives, however short they might be, all because of That. Fucking. Lich.

I broke into a jog, then a run, then a sprint, hearing the animalistic growl of fury that lifted from my lips, hanging in the air behind me as I raced forward.

I jumped, my left foot landing on a pile of rubble, and I kicked off. Bracing against a fallen skull and flying through the air, I lifted my knees closer to my chest and struck out with both feet to slam the first skeleton backward.

I landed on my feet and lashed out with the kill-stick to the right, catching the nearest figure on the jaw, smashing it apart as the trio of buzz-saw blades burrowed into it, and ground out the back of the neck, the head flying free with a grating sound that echoed in the chamber.

As I pulled the kill-stick back, I spun, thankful for the well fitted armor as I kicked out, first smashing another skeleton’s knee, then using it to propel myself higher, grabbing the top of the skull and bringing my knee up to smash the armored plate through the bridge of the creature’s nose.

The force was enough to send it staggering back, but I twisted as I fell back to the ground and tucked my legs up, using my weight to yank the skull down and driving the much lighter skeleton downwards. My momentum rammed its face into the ground; driving the kill-stick into the back of its neck to chew its way through finished it off nicely.

The sight of more and more of them coming, stepping forward out of the darkness, only served to enrage me more.

I knew roughly where the Lich had disappeared, with the largest amalgamations crouching down to wrap themselves around it in protection.

Fuck fighting its minions.

I started running again. I blazed toward the pile where I knew it had been earlier, bashing them out of my way, until I was shoulder-charged by a larger creature.

I’d not seen this thing before, but I didn’t give two shits about that as it slammed into me from the right, staggering me.

It was short and broad, like a centaur that had topped out at five feet and had six legs. Its upper body was rotting, but it had clearly been heavily muscled once, with thick three-fingered hands tipped with claws that skittered across my armor, even as it lunged at me with mandibles spread, an insectile face glaring at me.

I’d staggered when it hit me from the side, but I quickly grabbed its right arm with my left, twisting it until it locked, and used it to hold the fucker in place as I beat it repeatedly, the saw blades chewing entire sections through as I roared out my hatred of it.

I drove my weapon through its forehead last, making it collapse as the kill-stick