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

as I stabbed forward. The blade of my naginata tore out the throat of the gnome who was half hidden below her, pushing upwards.

Then I yanked the blade back across, the tip scarring a line in the stone over her throat and up her jaw before she punched out, her small fist hitting with the power of a bulldozer as it slammed into my weapon, knocking it aside.

She shoved herself upwards, ignoring the bleeding-out gnome beneath her as she opened her mouth wide to bite and flung herself at me.

Lydia slammed her shield into the side of the incoming gnome, battering the small female aside and raising her mace, slamming it down again and again.

“Hold it!” came an order from behind us, and I spun around, seeing Stephanos pointing at the gnome… and a short, stumpy figure, no bigger than three feet high, dove past both Lydia and I, slamming itself down atop the gnome and pinning it.

It was his Earth Golem, I realized, and if the way the gnome was struggling was any guess, it weighed at least as much as she did.

It wrapped its arms and legs around her and clung on tenaciously. The little gnome screeched and bucked around, furiously trying to get free, before sinking her teeth into the Golem… to absolutely no effect.

I looked further up the corridor, and while I could hear a faint splashing noise somewhere in the darkness, the cause was out of my sight.

“Let me…” Bane said, stepping up and hefting the crossbow he’d taken from the Drow trap. Somewhere, he’d gotten a bushel of bolts from for it, and he sighted carefully down its length before firing… and cursing.

He grabbed at it with his secondary arms, holding it in place and heaved with the bigger pair, yanking the string back into place and tried again.

He missed.

And again, until on the fourth shot, a scream echoed back to us, followed by a faint splash and the sound of something thrashing in the water.

“I hate crossbows…” Bane muttered to me as he slung it back onto his back, striding around the gnome pinned on the floor and jogging into the darkness.

I stood there with Lydia for a few minutes, watching the frantic gnome as it bit, chewed, and bit again, seemingly determined to eat the Golem while trying to punch and kick it.

“That’s not normal,” Lydia said finally.

“Really?”  I asked as Bane slowly came back into sight, dragging a wailing figure by one ankle. “I mean, I didn’t think it was, but you know, different realm and all that…”

“No, this is really not right,” Yen agreed, stepping up next to us, with Grizz following close behind. “Gnomes are generally crazy, but they’re more of a ‘what will happen if I pour these crystals into that liquid and drink it’ crazy. I mean, yeah, they tend to blow shit up a lot, and they even make the goblins look sane at times with their addictions, but…”

“Their addictions?” I asked, and Yen snorted.

“Yeah, you know those drugs you seized? Gnomes. Always the gnomes.”

“What’s with that?” I frowned. “I mean, slavery is legal‒well, you know what I mean; it’s accepted, as is some seriously dodgy shit in the city, like blood sports, but there’s illegal drugs?”

“Gnomes,” Yen repeated, shrugging. “They’re the ones that love the stuff, and when they’ve got a nose full of that white powder, they all seem to want to do crazy shit, like finding out what happens when you add a ‘harmless compound’ to the city water supply. To ‘help people enjoy themselves,’ was the last justification I remember hearing.”

“They really did that? Man, what was it?” I gaped, amazed.

“Who knows?” Yen scoffed. “Whatever it was, though, the street of negotiable affection was rammed that night.”

“Literally!” Grizz said, grinning crazily. “It was like I had a rocket in my pants…not that I don’t normally, but… you know…!”

“Oh, god… Grizz, you remember when we talked about this?!?” Yen groaned, dropping her face in her hands. “We talked about engaging the brain before speaking?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Grizz said evenly, grinning and winking at me where Yen couldn’t see. “I decided not to do that this time; after all, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“What’s the worst?!” she growled, popping her head back up to glare at him.

“Yeah, and remember, I’m a Centurion… Legionnaire…” he said, raising one eyebrow.

“Oh, really? You think that’s going to work?” she growled. “Speculatores of the Dravith Cohortes Praetoriae, remember?” She stepped in close and fumed up at him. “You might be a Centurion, but I can still give you orders!”

“You’re a Legionnaire…” he started to repeat when she interrupted him, her voice a low growl of anger.

“By my authority as a Speculatores of the Dravith Cohortes Praetoriae, drop and give me a hundred!”

The cocky grin was wiped off Grizz’s face as his body reacted to the order, enforced by the Oath the Legion took, and he swore viciously, trying to apologize to Yen, while she ignored him, turning a sweet smile upon me.

“Sorry about that, Lord Jax,” she cooed, and I simply shrugged.

“Hey, Legion politics are your problem,” I said, and she snorted .

“He thought seducing me was even more fun because he was technically screwing a member of the lower ranks.” She laughed. “He forgets that the Speculatores are outside the normal chain of command and can give orders to those within it. Now he gets to rethink his position on that… for the next little while, anyway. Would you like him to do a hundred for you too, sir?”

“No…” I said, and Grizz let out a relieved breath.

“Thank you, boss…” he began, his grin coming back, until I went on.

“But only because we’re in hostile territory. I think keeping order is important, though, so maybe two hundred more on top will remind him? Burpees, I mean?”

“Burpees?” Yen asked curiously, while Grizz tried to interrupt with pleas for understanding and increasingly genuine apologies.

“Yeah, you do a pushup, then stand, do a jumping jack, then drop, do another