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

and I saw Grizz nod to me that he understood. I shifted my grip, offering the blade of the weapon toward him, keeping a light grip on the haft and continuing to channel into it, as he gripped it by the head and slashed down.

I felt the resistance, the slight snagging, as the blade first met my arm. It vaporized the leather and the cloth instantly; there was a hiss, and a smell reminiscent of burned bacon, then a shift as the blade angled slightly aside, diverted infinitesimally as it encountered the twin bones. Then it was shearing out of the far side, and I fell to one knee, hissing in agony as the reality of cutting off my own goddamn arm struck home.

I released the naginata, and the room dimmed as the magic faded, while I fumbled with my belt, popping the cork off my healing potion and downing it.

It was practically useless.

It was an ‘average’ level potion, so it slowed the bleeding, and the sheer heat of the naginata had sealed most of the wound anyway, but it sure as shit didn’t help with the pain or the shock, let alone regrowing my damn forearm.

But it was okay, I told myself as I straightened up, forcing myself to my feet and glaring at Joshua, who gaped at me in shock.

I was alive, and as I hit myself with ‘Battlefield Triage’ again, I found no trace of the curse.

Simple problem, simple solution.

Not one I could have come up with before losing my hand, I had to admit to myself, but infinitely more doable than it would have been. Add to that, years of watching this kind of thing done on TV, and my outlook was a bit different to that of an essentially medieval society.

I glared at Joshua and forced myself to show no pain as I casually spoke.

“That was a mistake,” I said simply; coldly, even.

“You… you… fine!” Joshua snarled, coming out of his shock. “All I have to do is cut you again… think you can keep hacking your own limbs off?” He hefted his dagger again threateningly.

I smiled at him and spoke clearly to Grizz, and to Stephanos, who I hoped could hear me, and to Tang, who I had total faith would be damn close, by now.

“Joshua is mine. Spare Hannimish, for now, and kill the guards unless they surrender,” I said.

There was a few seconds’ pause as everyone waited for someone else to make the first move, and I took the chance. I had twenty-seven mana left.

No point in saving it for the SporeMothers, after all, so I slammed it into ‘Mana-Overdrive’, slowing the world down as I blurred forward.

I crossed the ten feet that had opened up between our groups in just under two seconds, ducking under a swung sword that moved like it was encased in treacle. I swayed, then crouched, slipping effortlessly between two guards, and I yanked a long needle-tipped poniard out of a sheath on the swordsman’s leg as I went, flipping it over and ramming it into the base of his skull and crunching into the bottom of his brain as I straightened up, my eyes locked onto Joshua’s.

He snarled hatefully at me, slashing horizontally, as the swordsman’s body got the message that he was dead and collapsed, I simply stepped back, leaning slightly, as the blade ripped through the air before me.

I stepped into range, Joshua staggering off-balance from the lack of expected resistance, and I grabbed his wrist with my right, and only remaining, hand. As I twisted, my greater strength and training became clear as I yanked his arm into a locked position.

I straightened, then stamped down hard with my right foot on the inside of his left knee, forcing it to buckle, and then I leaned in, bending his arm around before he could stop me.

I saw the look of shock, followed by terror, as he tried to grab at me, reaching up in a futile attempt to stop what I was doing.

I had to weigh half again what he did, and that was without my armor; standing at nearly seven feet of solid muscle and barely controlled rage, augmented by Mana-Overdrive, a foppish noble was like a toddler trying to stop a bodybuilder.

I sneered down at him, scorning the terror on his face as I pushed the blade closer.

“That was my favorite arm, you little shit,” I growled, and he whimpered, opening his mouth for one last word.

“Please…” he managed, before the tip of the dagger punctured his eye, vitreous fluid bursting around the blade as I drove it through the orbit and into the brain, the tip crunching out the back.

As Joshua twitched and flailed in death, his body receiving a last-minute panicked barrage firing of neurons. I released him to fall to the floor, yanking the dagger free and turning to glare at the single remaining guard as Grizz yanked my naginata free of another.

The guard dropped his weapon nervously, raising his hands in surrender, before he suddenly fell to the floor, an arrow sprouting from his forehead.

“Sorry!  My bad!” called Stephanos, just as Tang materialized directly behind the guard who’d been restraining Hannimish and rested his sword against the guardsman’s back, the tip pricking the skin right where the armor didn’t reach.

“Now, that was lucky timing on your part, wasn’t it?” he whispered in the man’s ear, and the guard closed his eyes, whispering a brief prayer as sweat began to roll down his cheek.

“Thank you!” I called to Stephanos. “That’s how you use that phrase! Speak to Oracle when we get back; make sure she gets it, okay?”  I called, before turning to address Hannimish.

“So…” I said, waving with my stump. “Want to explain this?” I swallowed hard as I released the overdrive and felt the hit to my stats.

“Be very, very convincing and contrite…” Tang recommended quietly, yet in a voice that carried from behind the guard and the pale, trembling noble.

“Ah… my lord… uh…” Hannimish started, tears