Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4)

by Jez Cajiao

  “Nice!” I shouted to her. “How long do we have?”

  “Not long!” She tried pulling her hood around to make it block more of the wind driven rain that was getting to her even inside her helmet, before she gave up and yanked it off, rolling it up and dumping it into her bag. “The gnomes are halfway, they say they should be done with the outside stuff soon, then they can start on the inside.”

  “There’s a gang of them hiding in the damn wheelhouse…” I growled, and she nodded.

  “There’s not a lot they can do there now, they made the connectors, Frederikk says they can’t do more until the outside is done, and those that are hiding, well, they’d be useless anyway, fear makes for shitty inventing apparently.” Yen shouted, holding a hand up to block the rain for a few seconds, before shaking her head in frustration. “This god damn rain! It’s coming from every angle!”

  “Joys of a Storm I guess!” I shouted, hearing my voice carry further than I intended as we passed out a band of the rain and wind, into a sudden quiet patch. I looked around, the lashing rain dropping to a gentle patter as I shook my head at the madness of a mana filled storm.

  “It does this…” Yen said at a more normal volume, pulling her helm off and producing a cloth from her bag to wipe the inside and to dry her face. “One minute it’s all madness, the next it’s a summer shower. Remind me to never do this again, okay?”

  “Yeah, me too.” I said to her, grinning as I looked at her, and she looked over the Helm.

  “Is that the one you took from the Vault?” She asked and I nodded, pulling it off and handing it over for her to examine, it felt peculiar with the sudden loss of the five points in Wisdom and Perception, but I knew I’d get them back when I put the Helm back on.

  “Nice…” She said simply, turning it over in her hands. It was a full-head helm, with a small section cut free for each eye, creating a reinforced forehead that I just knew I was going to use to fuck up someone’s day, and a small section removed in lower mouth, where the helm came down to a point. There was a small line cut out to aid breathing, but it was too narrow for almost any weapons. The entire helm was molded to follow the contours of the face, and it fit… amazingly. Like it was made for me. The final crowning glory was the plume.

  I’d never wanted one before; they looked like they were basically there to sweep the ceiling clear of cobwebs normally, but this one was different. It was made from thousands of tiny spines, razor-sharp, and seemed to shift in color, depending on my location. They dimmed when in shadow, glowed in sunlight, and generally looked awesome.

  Yen passed it back with a smile and nodded as I slid it back on, blinking as the effect took hold again.

  “It suits you,” she said simply.

  “Thanks Yen.” I said smiling, even though I knew she couldn’t see it. “So, some of the gnomes are working under Grizz’s shield; what about the others?” I asked.

  “The bravest amongst them are out on the hull, fixing the collectors into place now, and we’re all just waiting really. Those assholes chasing us closed the distance a few times, but never for long, even with the change in direction, so we’re slowly pulling ahead again. They don’t seem greatly confident with their ship’s weapons, or they’d have shot us down long since.”

  “Oren told me once that they tend to explode when they’re used too frequently…” I said, nodding and thinking about how crazy you’d have to be to willingly carry a weapon that had a good chance of exploding and killing you instead of the enemy each time you tried to use it.

  “I’ve heard that, but nobody was going to waste the gold and platinum on giving things like that to the Legion…” she said philosophically, looking out into the clouds and searching grimly.

  “Well, that’s a thing of the past, isn’t it…?” I said, grinning. “… just wait until the Battleship is finished. We’ll get the damn cannons figured out and make sure they’re safe to use, then…”

  “Where are they?” she interrupted absently, gesturing outwards. “They should be coming out of the clouds by now.”

  “What?” I asked, frowning.

  “The ships; they should have been there. I mean, they took forever to adjust to our new course, and they stopped firing at us, so maybe they’re too low on mana now, but even so, I didn’t think they would just give up?” Yen muttered, searching the skies around us.

  “How long since you’ve seen them do anything?” I asked her, my stomach clenching in fear.

  “What?” she asked, confused.

  “How long since they did anything?” I repeated. “When I came up, I caught a glimpse of them, but everyone was standing still… even the catapult was half-assembled…”

  “They’ve been like that for a while…” She muttered, gaping at me in horror.

  “It’s a spell!” I snarled, rushing to the rope, and yanking on it, hearing a bell ring faintly below us. “Tell Jian to change course!” I snapped at her, and Yen sprinted for the edge of the upper deck, leaping off and twisting her body to land facing the door inside.

  I ran to the edge of the deck, looking down, as the deck hatches were thrown back, revealing my team hurrying upwards.

  “Grizz!” I shouted, waving my own good arm frantically, but seeing nothing in response from the now heavily opaque shield over the gnomes. “Fuck! Stephanos, get Grizz!” I shouted at him as the big man clambered out onto the deck. He saw where I was pointing and started running, even as the ship lurched to one side, the engines all firing seconds after Yen made it inside the wheelhouse.

  The others were spreading out, confused as they looked around for the enemy, and I whirled in place, trying to watch in all directions at once, while praying I was wrong, and that I’d only wasted some of our last mana reserves…

  “There!” Miren screamed, and I spun, following her pointing finger.

  At first, I didn’t see what she meant; then the wind gusted harder, blowing some of the cloud cover along, and I saw an entire patch where the clouds moved wrong, slower, trying to match the air around them.

  “Fire!” I screamed, frantically swapping my naginata to rest against my left side in the rook of that arm, as I freed my right hand for casting.

  Seconds passed, as everyone realized what I’d seen in a horrified moment of clarity.

  They’d hidden behind an illusion once already, sneaking up on us… now they’d done it again, leaving an illusory force lagging behind while they’d burned mana hard to catch up.

  There was a heavy ‘twang’ of Miren firing her Drow bow, followed a second later by Stephanos, who’d finally gotten Grizz’s attention, then I hurled my Fireball at the blur, and Arrin launched his Magic Missiles. Yen rushed out onto the deck and started to cast, and Grizz started running towards me.

  Just before my Fireball would have reached the illusion, it was pierced by the arrows, making the spell warp, trying to match the arrows in flight, and then it broke, shattering into a thousand fragments of illusory cloud, before fading away, revealing three of the ships, the two cruisers and the black one, all well within range now.

  Once they realized the spell had been disrupted, the soldiers on the black ship let out a roar of bloodlust, and the catapult fired with a deep clunk and whoosh of release as the arm slammed forward, a black mass flying through the air towards us.

  The first shot passed the side of the ship in a buzzing, screaming mess, disintegrating to the left as we frantically turned aside, only to see it breaking down into dozens of DarkSpore that flew at us.

  “Here!” I screamed down to Grizz, throwing him my naginata, and seeing the wide smile on his face as he caught it.

  I reached into my bag and yanked out one of the black vampiric swords, glancing at it and seeing it was the health leeching one, I nodded to myself and ordered the others to stay clear of the upper deck, as I started to cast ‘Cleansing Fire’, determined to keep as wide a space clear as possible.

  I’d almost completed it, when the first of the DarkSpore hit us, and were h
it in turn. Miren and Stephanos basically ignored them, trusting in the others to keep them safe as they worked to pick off soldiers and sailors on the ships chasing us, their summoned creatures by their sides protecting their backs.

  The world dissolved into a confusing maelstrom of magic and blurring steel. We fought to keep the gnomes safe, as they finished the last sections of the collectors on the deck, then a scream echoed up from below, and I cursed.

  “Grizz, Jian! Get below and sweep for DarkSpore!” I shouted, having seen Jian appear on the deck, leaving Tenandra to fly in his place. I threw the sword down to him, and he dropped his scythes to catch it. Looking up at me, he nodded, clearly understanding the need to use a magical blade instead of a normal one.

  As he and Grizz rushed for the hatches, the catapult fired again, and more DarkSpore came screaming towards us, just as Yen finished her incantation and heaved her arms forwards, a pair of hastily conjured Flamespears flashing through the air to slam into a shield over the catapult.

  It flared black, then faded into invisibility again, the mana coursing down the shield to sink into the deck and making the ship surge forward slightly.

  “They’ve got better mages than us…” I grunted to myself as the ‘Cleansing Fire’ spell rolled out, covering the upper deck, and setting the first DarkSpore that reached it alight.

  I yanked the mana-stealing sword out and stabbed the screeching, buzzing mass, killing it, and feeling ten mana flow into me through the sword, even as ten health was torn out, quickly recovered by the spell I straddled.

  Two more DarkSpore flew at me, each dying as quickly as the last. Suddenly, I was blasted from my feet, a black and green fireball slamming into the deck behind me.

  I flew through the air, hitting the railing and tumbling over, falling from the ship with an instinctual scream as the black ship cut across our wake. Three mages on her deck were throwing spells at us that I only now realized were the main attack.

  The DarkSpore were a god damn diversion!

  I tumbled end over end, panic making me freeze up, a hasty wish that there was something I could have done, some way I could have a second try at that fight, a way to NOT BE FALLING TO MY GODDAMN DEATH….

  Then it hit me, and I reached out, activating my newly gained ability.

  It felt strange as I picked up speed, tumbling even more wildly, but as I looked up, the world flashing past, and I locked my gaze on the underside of the black ship… I growled in fury, feeling the wind around me, and the clutching threads of air wrap gently but firmly around my body as my descent reversed, and I blasted back upwards, glorying in the feel of flight.

  I was unsteady, clumsy, and closing on the underside of the hull far too fast, but as I drew back with my sword, I forced more speed from myself, rather than less, while I twisted to the side.

  I erupted into the air from below the enemy ship, flipped over into a dive, and blasted straight for the upper deck, where three men stood around the helmsman.

  I cut the power to my ability, feeling gravity reach out to grasp me again, and I landed, skidding, and sliding across the deck, before jumping and slamming both feet into the shield of the man on the right, who gaped at me in shock.

  I used it as a springboard, leaping backward, all my inertia transferring to him, as he flew back, his waist hitting the railing at the back of the deck and sending him vanishing upside down over the side with a scream.

  I spun then, lashing out with my sword, and was amazed by the ease and sudden grace I had with the weapon. The leap in my Dexterity was obviously coming to play as I lopped the hand off a man who pointed towards me, sending it and the mace it grasped flying, before I crouched low into a spin-kick that had a fluidity my old instructors would have praised to their dying day.

  My foot connected with the second man’s chin, staggering him, as I straightened up and stabbed out, the tip of the blade punching into the sternum of the helmsman and cleaving his heart in two.

  The third and final man on the deck scowled at me in fury, then dove aside, rolling to his feet and counterattacking with blinding speed, even as the deck lurched out of control beneath us, sending the entire crew staggering.

  I jumped back, rolling my wrist to bring my sword around and parrying his. He grunted, then stabbed out again, and again, driving me backwards, while he used his shield to deflect my sword. I scrambled backwards, then growled to myself and lunged at him, striking at his blade, driving it down, then swinging low and up, managing to draw the tip of my blade across his upper thigh.

  He screeched and… blurred.

  As his blood sprayed out, his skin changed, becoming sallow and grey, his face lengthening, and his straw-like blonde hair deepening to black, I slowed momentarily, shocked at the transformation, and he punched out with his shield, driving me back and almost making me lose my sword.

  I yanked my shield around, only to have him slam his sword down into it, hard, splitting the outer covering and making me grunt as it dragged my arm down with it.

  “You think you can win, human?” The suddenly revealed Drow before me asked in a low, fury-filled hiss. “The Dark Lady has decreed your death; now feel her hatred!” He opened his mouth and drew in a deep breath, glaring at me in spite and triumph, as something black at the back of his throat wriggled into view.

  I saw multiple legs thrashing as they dragged a bulbous body forward, and I freaked out. I lashed out hard against his shield, yanking my own up to block his sword, and lunged forwards, bringing my helm down with all the force I could manage.

  He was just out of what would have been my range for a headbutt, normally, but he fell nicely inside my new one, with the spiked plumes that now ran down from the crest of my helmet.

  I tore a line down the center of his face, tearing apart his nose and shredding his lips, as well as cutting the summoned Spiderkin in his mouth that he’d planned to spit at me into mincemeat, making him scream in horror as his face was torn apart.

  I yanked my head back up, still pushed forward, and literally tore the rest of his face apart. As I straightened, he collapsed, mewling, to the floor, and I stabbed down, driving the blade through his throat, and carving a furrow into the wooden deck below.

  I spun around, seeing the crew racing for me, and I grinned within the concealment of my helm, turning back, and taking three quick steps, before slashing down twice with my sword, carving great chunks from the wheel and shattering several of the control crystals.

  The ship immediately twisted on itself, turning in a tight right-handed spiral, and I kicked off from the deck, soaring away, even as spells and arrows flew in all directions as the crew tried to take me down.

  I’d not done enough to destroy the ship, I knew, but maybe…

  I screamed as something slammed into my right leg and pain ripped through me. I looked down and saw a large man… no, a large Drow, clinging to me, and grinning up at me, even as he drove another dagger into my left leg, using them as handholds to climb up me.

  I slashed down at him with my sword, and he twisted, spinning his body around and leaping to change his grip on the daggers, switching to hanging on behind me, rather than in front.

  I kicked feebly at him, notifications flashing for my attention as I felt my legs weakening, and I pushed harder, driving myself up into the air even faster as I flipped over and dove towards our ship, seeing the deck coming up at tremendous speed.

  I couldn’t land gently, not now; hell, I’d never be able to stand, not with the damage this fucker had down to me, but… my ‘Cleansing Fire’ spell!

  I saw it on the top deck, guttering out, and was amazed as I realized only five minutes could have passed. I focused on it as I tore through the air and reached out, frantically slamming mana into it, and feeling the resistance as I tried to do something I’d never done before.

  The spell failed as fast as I reached out, and I frantically rebuilt it, feeling my mana being torn from me as I poured it into the structure of the spell, feeling it change, as
my mana poured out like water onto sand.

  In the last seconds before I hit the deck, I glared at it, pushing even harder and forcing myself to ignore the pain of the Drow clinging to me as he ripped a dagger free and sank it into the small of my back, right where the armor ended.

  I screamed, the spell flared with gold and red light… and the world went black as I hit, slamming hard into the upper deck of the ‘Interesting Endeavor’.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The world returned slowly, sound coming first, almost beaten by the pain that followed. The booms and screams, the sounds of arrows slicing the air, and the whoosh of spells hurtling back and forth surrounded me, even as someone shouted my name a thousand and more miles away.

  I forced one eye open, finding the other one gummed shut with blood, and I twitched a finger on my right hand as I tried to focus.

  The world slowly came back to me, as did memory, making sense of what I saw. I was laid on my front, the wooden beams and boards that made up the majority of the upper deck cracked and splintered all around me. I could only move my right arm, and even that was sparingly.

  I flexed my fingers, seeing them twitching before me and trying to ignore the puddling blood that was growing under them.

  I tried to move my legs, arch my back, bring my left arm around, but none of them worked. I felt the left arm still, it just didn’t respond, while the right only twitched spasmodically.

  I blinked in panic, shifting my jaw, and being greeted with a pain like my skull shattering into sharp fragments of glass.

  I could see I was losing more of my health bar, and it was flashing that there was a bleed effect, as well as others I didn’t recognize. I brought up the relevant notifications as quickly as I could, trying to figure out what had happened, and winced as they bombarded me.

  Beware! You have been stabbed with a Midnight’s Helper Dagger, and have lost all feeling in the affected area. This effect will remain until the dagger is removed.