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

a section that seemed designed to carry something else, but whatever that was, it was missing now.

Bane tried a couple of the small hatches on the back side of the device and found they were storage for something, but what, we had no idea yet again. After a few minutes, when everyone had gathered up and the gnome was still flailing around, I sighed and gestured to Bane to lead the way.

We set off, traveling deeper into the structure by way of the corridor. Numerous doors were scattered along either side, but each had seemingly rusted shut, and we moved on. The end of the corridor kinked to the right at a sharp ninety-degree angle, and as we approached the corner, Tang appeared and held his hand out in silent warning.

I opened my mouth, but he shook his head frantically, then gestured for me to come forward, slowly.

I nodded in understanding and moved closer, feeling Yen and Lydia moving in alongside me as we crept up to the edge and peered around.

At first, I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing; then as my eyes adjusted, the scene slowly resolved into a chaotic vista that fell away before me.

Seemingly at some point, either in the crash or the hundreds of years that followed, an entire subsection of the city had collapsed. This space had then been colonized by the gnomes, creating a small pocket of their civilization, surrounded on all sides by metal walls. As I stared out, I blinked again and again, trying to bring the scene below me into comprehending focus.

The corridor had been torn apart at some point, and it now ended a few feet ahead, opening out into an enormous cavern. It was filled with thousands of small lights, structures, moving figures, and machinery, with a huge form that belched steam and smoke as it slowly shifted around the outer edge on a track.

My eyes were glued to the mobile structure as it went, the entire thing shaking, shuddering, and occasionally crunching over something that had been left on its tracks.

I watched in awe as its scale became clear; the construct was easily three stories high, box-like, with a pair of great ‘arms’ that folded up to the main body. The top of the device had a gnome seated inside it, pulling levers and cackling wildly enough that his voice could be heard floating over the hustle and bustle of the tiny town.

It came to a shuddering halt next to a tower that swarmed with gnomes that fought and bit at each other, trying to force their way into the collection of vehicles that rested in racks, waiting to be ‘loaded’ aboard the device.

The contraption reached out with two massive arms, clamping them both onto the middle of the tower. With a loud clank and a blast of steam, the vehicles started moving; they slid down the rails, one at a time, slamming into holding bays, before the arms shifted, and took another vehicle, and another, until it was filled again.

We watched in stunned amazement as what appeared to be a mobile siege weapon, originally designed to roll up to city walls and provide access over them, appeared to have been partially rebuilt as a mobile deployment facility.

As we gaped at the unexpected scene, it finished reloading and began to shift around, slowly turning and rolling back in our direction.

On the ground, two levels down and maybe three hundred feet away, I saw a fight break out between a pair of gnomes that hadn’t managed to get onto the vehicles that were loaded. Others that were nearby seemed to be drawn in, either shouting or caught by stray blows, and the entire section of the cavern was suddenly filled with a rolling, spreading fight.

“It’s a tavern brawl… without th’ tavern,” Lydia muttered in awe.

We watched for a handful of minutes as more and more of the inhabitants appeared from the surrounding buildings, gleefully diving into the fight from nearby roofs and popping out of holes, and piling into the center. Fists and feet flailed, until a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder burst into the cavern, blasting the happily fighting group apart. Several were clearly killed, with limbs blown free, and the crowd scattered, clearly cowed by the display of power.

Bane stiffened, and as I turned to inspect the direction he faced, I saw what I’d missed before: a hunched figure clad in a red robe stood on an ornate balcony maybe halfway around the cavern, flanked by two more Leviathans, these two being considerably bigger than the ones we’d just fought.

“So, if there’s a bigger one than them around…” I started when one of the creatures suddenly screamed. The noise was horrific, and I clapped my hands over my ears, staring across at them.

The figure they flanked had turned away and they’d been walking back into the building, when apparently one of them had spotted us, and the pair were suddenly laser-focused on us, trying to determine where we crouched in an effort to hide in the remains of our corridor.

I shook my head, looking down at the cavern floor, noting that the mobile platform had come to a grinding halt, and the streets were rapidly emptying as the gnomes fled their master’s ire.

Bane staggered back, hands clutching at his head again, and I waved him to back away before turning back to glare at the red robed figure as it pointed at us, its hands lifting as it summoned magic.

I focused on the figure, frantically trying to push my mana into the right channels and mentally shoving mana into the relevant tattoos.

“Get back, all of you,” I hissed as I stepped forward, slamming my naginata’s base into the floor and giving the mage the finger.

I could feel their spell building, the glowing white light interspersed with crackling gold and black threads as it built to a crescendo, even as I tried to get my shield up and working properly.

It flared to