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

it on the inside some day?” I asked him, and he snorted.

“Like your path’s any easier? You, who’s pickin' fights with the damn city? You think I don’t know you’ve got no fighters? What kinda lord comes into his enemy’s city, thinkin’ he can win with a few raggedy men?”

“A desperate one. One who could do with your help, Mal,” I said.

“I still don’t see what’s in it for me, boy. Me an’ mine need this like a hole in the head! You brought the goddamn Skyking down on us!”

“You killed its messenger,” I said.

“It said something I didn’t like.”

“Have I said anything you didn’t like?”

“Repeatedly.”

“Why haven’t you shot me yet, then?”

“You want to be shot?”

“Not particularly.”

“Then why the hell are we still talkin' about this?” Mal said, throwing his arms up and stalking away to throw himself into a chair.

“You started it,” I said, sitting down.

“Soween, tell him,” Mal said as he pulled a beer out, cracking its top and taking a swig.

“We’re interested, but there are conditions.”

“Go on…”

“First, we get paid regardless. If it goes wrong, and you die, we still get our gold. Second, we get magic. Josh needs a lot of it, so we’re wantin’ five spells. Last, we want a ship.”

“A ship?”

“An Airship. You said you’ve got some. We’ve got some people that can fly, and the rest we’ll figure it out. We want an Airship: fully loaded, cannons, all of it, and we get repairs done for free,” Mal said, cutting in.

“You expecting to get damaged?” I asked and he shrugged.

“I wasn’t expectin’ to wake up today. Make it up as we go along, some days.”

“How much gold?” I asked.

“Ten thousand.”

“Hah! No. Try again,” I said, sitting back and shaking my head. “And pass me a damn beer.” Mal pulled one out and threw it over, pulling two more out for Yen and Lydia as well. Yen declined, but Lydia popped the top off hers and guzzled it down in one go.

“Damn girl, take the time to taste it!” Mal said, shaking his head and chucking her the second one, which she caught and relished.

“Okay, five thousand gold,” Soween said, and I shook my head.

“You’ve got gold here, or you’d not give a damn about the Skyking threatening you. I’ll give you a ship, I’ll let you choose two Spellbooks from, say… ten different spells, and I’ll give you a single Memory crystal. It’ll be of my choice, but I guarantee it will be useful to you, not fucking astrology or something like that.”

“Stars do be interestin'…” Mal muttered, rubbing his chin. “Okay, let’s say we agree to that. It’ll take a few days to get everything sorted, and I need time to plan, time to get people in place. Skyking won’t give us that time, not unless we give it a reason to do so… how good are you with that thing?” he asked, nodding to my naginata.

“Pretty good, why?”

“Need to be more than ‘pretty good,’ if you’re going to survive the arena…”

“What fucking arena?”

“The one we’re sittin’ on, of course!” Mal said.

“What the hell would I need to fight in the arena for?”

“Well, let’s just say there’s a painless way for me to get the time I need to sort all this out…”

“Painless?”

“Well, yeah… for me.”

“I’m going to be fighting in the arena, aren’t I?” I asked, and he nodded.

“If you’re as good as you say, then there’s no issue. You killed a SporeMother, right?”

“With help.”

“You didn’t say that before.”

“You didn’t fucking ask.”

“Well, maybe you can have some help in there, depending on what they put forward for you to fight. There are some gladiators and people booked in already. We start off a bit tournament, say four nights of fights, and that’ll give me the time I need. We tell the Skyking it can put in some fighters; maybe contact the other gangs, say we caught you, and they can put in one each to try to kill you. They pay a fee, we make some gold. Everyone wins.”

“Except me, the guy who has to do the fighting.”

“You don’t win, you don’t got nothin’ to worry about no more. I’d call that a damn relief, personally.”

“There are times I’d agree with you, got to admit,” I said, shrugging. “What do I get out of the whole ‘fighting for my life in the arena’ deal?”

“Well, I’ll put some bets on for you, less a little ‘handler’s fee,’ and you’ll get to live long enough for me to pull this shitty plan together.”

“I could go hide somewhere the Harpies can’t find me,” I suggested.

“Only place you could hide would be the Enclave, and they already want to smash it. Think you being there will help or hinder them?”

“Fuck.”

“Yup.”

“Jax, seriously, you can’t be thinkin’ o’ agreein’ to this?” Lydia interrupted.

“Why not?” I asked shrugging. “He’s got a point that makes sense.”

“Then let me do it. We don’t even know if it’s us or the Legion team that the Harpies are after!”

“Doesn’t matter.” I said, sitting forward and stretching to crack my back.

“It doesn’t matter?” she asked, staring at me.

“Nope. They swore fealty, same as you did. That makes them my people, and anyone that’s out to get you goes through me first.”

“That’s not how it’s supposed to be!” Yen said, speaking up and shaking her head. “We’re the Legion and your guards. They have to get through us to get to you, not through you to us! You don’t protect us…”

“No,” I said flatly, looking at both of them. “This is exactly how it’s supposed to be. My life for yours. I live to protect you all. I might have to let you lay down your life at some point, in order to save others, but the Empire exists to protect the innocent, and as the heart of the Empire, I exist to protect you. All of you, even that fugly piece of shit, Jay.”

“Hey!” Jay complained, and I grinned, as did the rest of the room at seeing how pissed he was.

“Oh, and