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

of this, and then I’ll make you sorry…” She tapped her hard-as-steel talons on my helm, her voice ending with a hiss before she turned and zipped away to land on Lydia’s shoulder, where I could her growling and complaining.

“Oh, shit…” I whispered, shaking my head and squeezing my eyes shut. Now that I was relaxed slightly, I could indeed feel the pain that radiated out from her, and I totally understood why she was pissed.

“I’d be staying clear of her for a while…” Tang said quietly, stepping up alongside me as Yen moved over to stand next to Lydia and Oracle.

“Can you hear her?” I asked, and he nodded, flicking a finger toward his helmet, in reference to his elven ears.

“Believe me, you don’t want to hear what the girls are suggesting… I don’t want to hear it, and it’s not me that’s pissed them off.”

“How bad is it?” I asked him uncomfortably, and he shook his head.

“You don’t want to know, and I mean that. You really don’t want to know.” He winced.

“Dammit.” I groaned, before speaking up so that they all could hear me. “Everyone, I’m sorry; that was my bad. I smelled the sulfur and thought it would just burn off; I truly didn’t realize it would be that powerful.” I shook my head, trying to ignore the glares I was getting from the three girls, even as Miren dropped down from the level above into Jian’s arms, pecked him on the cheek, smiled, and then moved over to join them.

Arrin, always the graceful one, fell and landed in the mulch with a splat.

Stephanos jumped down, and he and Jian pulled Arrin up, helping him to strip some of the foul, stinking mess off his armor.

“It sounds like we’ve got more incoming, so we need to find somewhere more defensible, and soon. First, though, we need to find my goddamn naginata and the bodies of those assholes, verify who we killed, and that they’ve not got anything on them that we need,” I said firmly, lifting my right hand and igniting a fireball for light, then holding it over my head.

Grizz was on the outer edge of the light, searching through the corpses that were revealed, and he grunted as he straightened up, calling back to us.

“These are adolescents,” he said, and I felt my gut clench at the fear I’d just killed kids. “Their nest must be nearby. Looks like all ‘Fiends’, so get ready for more swarms.”

“Swarms?” I asked, and Tang spat on the floor.

“Fiends are the lowest caste of Naga; they’re barely sentient, and no matter the age, they’ll attack anything and try to eat it. The only thing that can control a swarm of Fiends is a Packmaster, so either we’ll be facing one of those soon, or these are just wild, in which case we might get a swarm or two, and then it’s over.”

“So…?”  I prompted, still not fully understanding, and Grizz started kicking through the corpses.

“So if we’re really lucky, there’s just one nest of these anklebiters; if we’re not, there could be a lot more… and this is in the sea, so get ready for that.” The Legionnaire grimaced. “I hate Naga…” He grumbled, kicking another corpse out of the way.

I moved back towards the area where I’d first fallen, and while Tang, Bane, and Yen watched outwards, the rest of us started digging.

There was over thirty meters of debris, but thankfully, most of it was large bits, so once we’d moved those aside, it was relatively quick to uncover the bodies.

My naginata was intact, which was a huge relief as I hefted it, and I resolved to take greater care of it as I slid the sword back into its place on my back. I also found my shield, surprisingly undamaged, and decided to slide it into my Bag of Holding, as it was too cumbersome to continue carrying in these conditions.

The human bodies were fairly blackened and crushed, making any real identification difficult, but as they’d attacked us first, and they clearly weren’t Legion, we stripped them of valuables and roughly-made bags, then moved on.

We’d gained a few dozen coins, mostly copper and silver, with a pair of jeweled daggers that Yen asked to keep, several low-grade rings, and three mana potions. I gave two to Arrin and kept one myself.

Beyond that, the gear was cheap and uninteresting, mainly weak and shoddy armor, occasional basic iron daggers and the like, so we ignored them and we were about to move on, when Bane pointed out a small satchel in the corner under a pile of mud.

His Worldsense made it easier for him to identify things, especially in the dark, than it was for the rest of us, and as Yen opened the bag, she smiled grimly, passing it over to me.

Inside, I found dozens of magelights, long dead, but obviously the group had been ripping them free of the walls as they went, and I frowned at the collection.

“Where do these come from, normally?” I asked out of curiosity, and Yen glanced around the dilapidated walls.

“Mostly from ruins. They’re not complicated for a crafter to make, apparently, but they are obviously magic, and there aren’t many magical crafters, so it pushes the price up.” She gestured down the partially collapsed hallway nearby. “I’d guess these areas of the city were hard to access before, so they’d been relatively untouched… by people anyway.”

“They’re not exactly hard creatures, though…” I said, frowning at the reptilian corpses.

“Hah, just you wait,” Yen said, shaking her head. “Fiends are like goblins; they just breed and breed and breed, then swarm over anything they find, so either this is a new nest…” She trailed off, and Grizz spoke up, finishing her sentence.

“Or there’s something nearby that was keeping them contained.” He drew his sword and pointed out into the darkness. “And I think we’re about to meet it.”

“Form up, everyone!” Lydia barked, and we flowed into our accustomed battle formation, the Legionnaires