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

ready. Lydia, Yen, you’re with me. Barrett, get everyone back on watch or rest.” With that, I slammed my door, feeling my anger mounting now that I knew we weren’t under attack.

I was sooo close! We’d crossed that line, and we were finally going to do it, when some fucker interrupted and my sexy time was taken away. The more I thought about it, the more furious I became.

By the time I walked back out into the hall, my naginata was glowing with a crackling blue-white light, and streamers of power lifted from it with every step I took. I locked eyes on Jay, who swallowed, then stepped back, gesturing to the corridor behind him.

“Mal’s this way,” he said, setting off, and we followed.

It took until I was nearly across the building before I managed to dampen down my anger. It took the sight of Oracle, furiously glowing and flashing with the same power, to make me realize our bonded emotions were feeding off each other. I forcibly tamped it down to manageable levels, and Oracle landed on my shoulder again, drawing in deep breaths and trying to master her own anger. The sight of her bouncing chest at eye level did wonders to distract me.

By the time we entered Mal’s office, I was able to think again, and managed to not stab the man on sight.

“What the hell did you do!” he roared at me, poking a finger at my chest. I slapped it aside and glared into his eyes, which filled with a mix of fury and fear.

“I had a fucking bath!” I growled at him, and the room went silent as everyone considered the apparent non-sequitur.

I looked around, finding Jay glowering at me from the corner where he leaned against one wall. Josh, looking concerned and chewing on a fingernail, sat next to a stoic Soween. I eyed Mal’s own disheveled state, who looked like he’d also dressed in a hurry.

I turned and sat down, running my hands through my hair and beard, trying to get them into some semblance of order, as I took a deep breath.

“Okay, Mal, let’s take it from the top, shall we? I left you in a calm, collected mood, and I went and had a fucking bath. You clearly found something out since then, and you’re suddenly furious with me, so how about you tell me what it was?” I said, trying to be reasonable.

“I got a message from the damn Skyking! That’s what happened… Here!” he snarled, throwing a piece of parchment at me. As I caught it, I noticed something I’d missed earlier in all the excitement. Under a chair on the far side of the room, the corpse of an Imp lay on its back, three crossbow bolts protruding from its chest.

I looked from the corpse back to Mal and saw the fury in his eyes. That hint of fear remained, and I nodded to him, then looked down at the note.

Arena whelp.

You give succor to my enemy. I send my creatures to collect them. You put them on roof tonight, with all gold and smoke-herb, and I let you live.

Skyking

“Well, isn’t he fucking articulate,” I muttered, looking up at Mal and the others. I stood up and shook my head. “Look, once we arrived in the city, I sent one of my men to scout the area, and he was attacked by the Harpies. We sent the ladies to you, and while we waited, we were attacked by a fuckton of the little bastards. We killed most of them, captured a few to question, and then your glamorous assistant Hector arrived, and we came here. That’s it. We didn’t find out why the Harpies were hunting my people, just that they were told to find any Legionnaires out of the Enclave.”

“It’s the Legion? Not the rest of you, just your Legionnaires they want?” he asked me, turning to glare at Yen.

“I can leave, my lord,” Yen said to me. “I can try to make it to the Enclave…”

“No,” I said flatly, and Mal glared at me.

“You don’t get to make that choice,” he growled. I stepped up close to him, glaring right back.

“If you want one of my people, you go through me first,” I whispered to him, feeling heat rising through my body as it prepared subconsciously for the fight.

“You can’t win against the Skyking!” he snapped. “Right now, we can give her up, and maybe it'll leave us alone. Ain’t nowhere safe from that thing in the entire city. Those damn Prometheans will come tonight, and if she ain’t sat up there, ready for them, they’ll tear the arena apart to find her. I’m not riskin' my people for her.”

“You’re not risking anything for her,” I said coldly. “You’re risking it for me, and for your freedom. I don’t care what they offer. You don’t get to give one of my crew up. No chance.”

“I never said I’d join you!” Mal snarled, and I lifted my eyebrow at him in question.

“Really? Seems that the Skyking thinks you have, and it wants all your gold and drugs to just leave you alone now. Tell me, Mal… what happens after you feed that thing all it wants? What’s gonna stop it from coming down here after you, from taking the arena for itself? What, you think it’ll just leave you alone? Or if one of the gangs is after me and my people, that the others won’t be?” I snorted, shaking my head, and stared into his eyes. “You know the mob was whipped up to hurt the Legion, and it won’t stop there. Whoever is out for them will keep going until they’re all dead. Now someone’s told them you’re on my side. Word’s going to spread, and you know it.”

“You think you can trap me? You think I’ll just go along with it? Boy, you know how frequent I’m chased and hunted? I spend my whole damn life on the edge of the wheel!”

“Fancy trying