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

The first explosion was brief, a burst of flames that washed heat over us, shoving us backwards across the floor. Then, as the air itself ignited, a vacuum formed in the center of the cloud, condensing directly over the group whose foolish mage had been laughing and congratulating himself over the spell he’d cast.

I missed most of the rest of it, having thrown myself over Oracle and pulling my shield atop us, but the enormous explosion that followed, accompanied by the roar of falling steel, the clatter of rock, and the other terrible sounds that rose from the pit that had opened up near us were enough for me to know I’d fucked up. Badly.

The floor under us tilted, slowly at first, then with increasing speed, and the surrounding walls started to slide as well. We fell into the gaping hole, clattering and tumbling into darkness. My DarkVision was unable to compensate after the explosion had wiped it out. And we screamed.

All of us did. We screamed, we shouted… there was a lot of cursing, mostly directed at me… and there were horrific moans from the survivors of the party that had attacked us with the poison cloud.

We all fell for several seconds, and I felt rocks and soil falling down from higher up and hitting me. Solid sections of the walls and floor continued shifting, and then I smacked into something solid. The world exploded in stars, making me cry out as my right knee bent in a direction it wasn’t supposed to. More debris rained down atop me, and I grunted in fear as I realized I could be buried by it.

I frantically reached out, my hands scrabbling around as I tried to push myself forward faster, I grasped rocks and loose soil, and they skidded away under my hands. Suddenly, I felt something solid, larger than the rest, that stayed in place, and I grabbed it, feeling raised sections that I wrapped my fingers around.

I pulled, dragging myself out of the debris, and searched around frantically, seeing nothing at first, until Oracle flew down from above.

She’d fallen free of me and had turned mostly incorporeal, I learned later. Then as soon as she’d gotten her bearings, she’d come looking for me. The rest of the party had thankfully been far enough back that, aside from ringing ears and Jian’s new moustache being singed, everyone was okay. They hurried across to the closest point and looked down into the cavern I’d exposed, staring down at me.

I gaped up at Oracle, feeling my racing heart start to slow as I verified that she was okay. A sound from my right made me look over, and I saw the soil shift before a larger, very pissed off looking Naga dug itself out.

It saw me and hissed, its fanged mouth opening wide enough that it could swallow my head, before tearing the last few feet of its body up and out of the debris.

It screeched at me, coiled its tail beneath itself, and leapt. I froze for a second, my instinctual fear of snakes combining with my recent fall to leave me momentarily distracted enough that the Naga was in the air before I could think of what to do.

It hit me, staggering me backwards, and I felt the long prehensile tail wrap around my waist and back, beginning to squeeze as the onyx-tipped nails latched onto my armor. Hissing again, it lunged forward for my face, trying to bite me.

I panicked further, remaining frozen until its mouth clattered across my helm and a single fang slipped inside.

It barely grazed my skin, tearing a shallow cut down the side of my nose, but it was enough.

My rage roared to life, the flames of it burning through the confusion and fear as I yanked my head backwards. The Naga drew back as if to bite again, and in that moment, I attacked.

I grabbed both its arms and yanked it forward into a headbutt, the Highsteel helm smashing into its unarmored face with the crunch of breaking bone, wasting no time, I hauled back and struck again.

By the third hit, the Naga was frantically yanking at my hands, trying to tear itself free and burbling as blood ran down its ruined face. My blood was up, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen. As soon as its tail unwound from around me, I let go with one hand, hauled back and punched it, stunning it and leaving it hanging by the wrist I still gripped.

“Motherfucker!” I snarled, lifting my other hand up under the lower edge of my helm to touch my face and bringing it away bloody. I looked at my fingers, then glanced up as I heard a scrabbling sound from my left.

I hadn’t fallen a single floor, I saw now, but actually two, meaning I had found a way to the outer edge of the main habitation level, my mind helpfully informed me. Judging from the writhing mass that was heading across the floor towards me, we’d found an entire nest of Naga.

I drew in a deep breath and felt a grin stretching my cheeks, suddenly feeling more like myself than I had in days. I stepped forward, reaching down and grabbing the stunned Naga by the tail, and dropping the wrist.

It stirred and hissed at me before I started to swing it. Then it started to scream.

I spun it round and round by the tail, slowly letting out a little bit to get it to a comfortable length; then, before the rest of my people could get down, I stepped forward, swinging my new ‘Naga-club’.

“Who’s your Daddy!” I roared, spinning the unfortunate reptilian into another that had just leapt for me. I had a split second to enjoy the view as it clearly realized it’d made a tactical mistake; then its cousin slammed into it, and, with a sound like coconuts bouncing off each other, they went their separate