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

ways. My improvised club swung around to hit another Naga and sent it flying into the nearest wall.

The next leapt at me as well and met my left fist coming the other way. Its face folded around the metal-clad limb, causing it to drop to the floor and leave a fang embedded in my gauntlet.

I grimaced and shook it free,  stamping down hard on its windpipe and ensuring the cartilage crunched underfoot as I moved on.

“Come on, then!” I shouted, yanking my dagger free and gripping it in my left hand while continuing to lay about me with my ‘club’.

They seemed to come from everywhere, first two, then five, then a dozen, and more, swarming out of a series of holes in one wall, hissing and screaming their hatred.

“We’re comin’!” I heard Lydia shout from somewhere above; then Oracle was there, screaming and lighting up the sunken room with a series of lightning strobes. The bolts slammed out over and over again, taking the creatures down in droves.

I spun, bringing my Naga club down hard on another that I’d sensed as much as seen struggling up through a hole in the floor, feeling both my club and my target’s bones breaking; then another was on me. It had dropped from the ceiling, and I hadn’t even realized in my furious attack that I’d moved forward under another section of steel until it landed on my shoulders, wrapping its arms around my neck and upper right arm, trying frantically to pull my helm aside so it could get at my throat.

I yanked my head back as claws scrabbled across the front of my helmet, catching on the eye slits and digging in, leaving a trio of scratches down my right cheek to join the other one. I twisted and stabbed out, feeling my dagger slice across skin and sink below the bottom ribs. Grunting, I yanked downwards, tearing a good-sized section of its guts out to rain down over my right shoulder onto the floor.

It screamed, and I dropped my broken ‘club’ to reach up and grip its head in my right hand.  Tearing it free, I slammed it down onto the floor on its back before me.

I stepped forward, reaching over my shoulder and yanking at one of my swords, finding, as always, that it was a bastard to draw from my back, as the last few inches caught, but with an extra tug, it was free, and I grinned at the gathering Naga, their reinforcements slithering up from somewhere deeper in the darkness.

Then my people were there. Bane, appearing to the left, carved a bloody path through four of them, screams of shock and pain filling the air until he vanished again. Lydia and Grizz took up station on either side of me, and Jian danced through the area behind, making sure that stragglers and the wounded didn’t become an issue.

Then the ranged fighters came into play; they’d clambered down far enough, in Stephanos, Miren and Arrin’s case, to be able to see the fight and were firing arrows and Magic Missiles into the horde, even as Yen and Tang stepped forward, their bows put aside in favor of their swords.

Suddenly, no longer outnumbered, the battle went from fast and furious into a rout. Arrows slammed into the Naga as they turned, trying to flee, and Oracle spun to face me, clearly furious and looking terrible.

I couldn’t see the fight anymore as the others stepped up and took over, my vision overwhelmed by her haggard and enraged expression as she glared at me. Her hair stuck up in all angles, and her clothes‒no, her entire form‒just looked wrong, like it had been put together by someone who’d heard roughly what a fairy should look like, but hadn’t ever seen one, or anything else that should fly.

“O... Oracle?” I stammered, fear in my mind as I desperately tried to understand what had happened to her.

“You… you… arrrgh!” she snarled, throwing her hands up in the air and buzzing in a fast circle as she started to swear, calling me all sorts of names. My companion started with ‘ass-fucking-monkey-ball-licker’ and went downhill from there, getting more and more inventive, until the sounds of fighting entirely ended, and Grizz and Tang started repeating some of the insults in impressed tones.

“What’s wrong… ” I asked soothingly, trying to break her stream.

“… son of a sheep-screwing donkey! You…” she went on, undeterred, as I held up my hands, frantically trying to calm her down. Lightning crackled across her tiny form and between her fingers.

“Oracle!” Lydia snapped loudly, and Oracle spun to face her, glaring her fury at being interrupted. “Tell ‘im what he did wrong, then snap out of it! Yer can kick his ass later, when we’re no’ underground surrounded by monsters!” she snarled, then went back to watching outwards, as the distant sound of snarls and fighting could be heard.

“Fuck!” Oracle cursed, then spun back to me, zipping in close and leveling a finger at my face close enough to scratch my nose. “Remember what a broken spell does, Jax?” she asked me in a low, furious whisper. “Remember what that felt like, in your meaty, muscle-filled brain?” I nodded slowly, eyes widening with every syllable. “Well, now imagine what having the same thing feels like, when you’re a fucking magical creature that doesn’t have meat to absorb it! It hurts a lot more, you asshole! Add to that, I was having to build that goddamn spell on the fly!”

“Shit.” I winced, remembering the spell backlash I’d felt before. I shook my head slowly. “Sorry, Oracle…” I started to apologize, but she cut me off with a sickly-sweet tone as she moved in awfully close to my face and lifted one hand, claws suddenly forming and glinting in the meagre light of the magelights around us.

“Oh no, Jax, you’re not sorry, not yet. But the next time we’re alone? When you’re all hot and ready for me, I’m going to remind you