The Forgotten Faithful: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 2) by Cajiao, Jez (little red riding hood ebook TXT) 📕

broke down into smoke. The smoke flowed into Flux, sinking into his head, and making him shake. The book suddenly crumbed to dust, and Flux arched his neck, throwing his head back and arms flung wide, before the transfer was finally done, and he collapsed to his knees, panting heavily.

We rushed over to him, helping him to his feet, and Ame ‘sounded’ him before starting to scold him thoroughly over the lack of respect he’d paid an artifact, and why he should have told her first. He turned slowly to face me, and I couldn’t help it.

“Let me guess, you know kung fu?” I asked, a vision of Neo flashing through my mind, gone in an instant as he shook his head slowly.

“I don’t know what ‘Kung Fu’ is, but I know the Art of Asha’tuun…I must…I…” He shook his head as though in shock.

“Sounds freaky.” I said shrugging. “Is it any good?” Flux slowly nodded.

“It… it will take some time to work this into our training, but by tonight, I will have a plan.” He assured me shakily, and I smiled at him.

“Seriously, Flux, if you think it’s worth studying, then that’s great; we all need to be a lot better at fighting, but if it’s just another style, or you think that another style that you use would be better…”

“No. You don’t understand,” Flux said, shaking his head. “A master of this art would be practically unstoppable; you gave me a primer. It covers the absolute basics and was created to give new members of the Special Forces Legion a very bare bones understanding of the art before they began to train. We have to find more of the series.” He spoke adamantly, and I turned to scan the space. Not finding Oracle anywhere, I reached out to her with my mind. She’d turned up while Flux and I were training and had gotten bored and wandered off again since then.

“Oracle, do we have any more books on Asha’tuun in the Hall of Memories?”

“Hi, Jax, how’re you?”

“Sorry… Hi, Oracle. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m having sooo much fun with Bob. We’re exploring the forest, just outside the Tower!”

I got a mental image sent by her that showed Bob absolutely covered in flowers. She’d even pushed them into the gaps in his armor. Poor bastard…

“I know you and Bob are having fun, but about the Asha’tuun…?”

“Okay, yes… there’s a memory crystal and one more book in the Hall of Memories that reference it, but I wouldn’t use them yet."

"The book is an advanced one, and the Memories are from a member of the Special Forces Legion. She was a Hunter-Killer for the Emperor, and we haven’t got anyone that I know of that’s even looking to be an assassin or bodyguard beyond Bane, and he’d have no chance of understanding the details.”

“Okay, thanks, Oracle.”

I turned back to Flux and shook my head.

“Sorry, mate; that was the only lower level book we had for that art. We have memories for a Hunter-Killer, whatever that is, and one advanced book, but until you’re more experienced, I’m not going to consider using those; it’d just be a waste,” I said.

“Hmmm, well, I understand that. It would be a waste…. but…” He shook his head, and I clapped him on his shoulder, nodding.

“I know, mate. Look at it this way: as soon as you can level your skill high enough, it’s yours. Okay? Besides, doesn’t teaching help to level your skills?”

“Not as much as you’d hope.” He shrugged. “But I know more than I did, and I have a goal now, so thank you, Jax.”

“No worries. Shall we?” I asked, nodding toward the group that was milling around, waiting for something to happen.

We joined the rest of the group, and while I got a lot of strange looks for joining in with them all, once Cai, Oren, and Barrett also showed up, people seemed to accept that it was training for everyone.

Flux separated us all out until we surrounded himself, Cheena, and Bane in a giant ring. Each of the three faced a different direction, and they guided everyone through a series of basic stretches, jumps, and exercises for the first ten minutes.

Once everyone was warmed up and sweating, he introduced a series of moves that were practically dances, fluid steps forward and back, a low, high, and side kick, and two different punches, one high and fast, one low and aimed at center mass. We spent the next forty or fifty minutes following his instructions, before a long slow cooldown that was almost exclusively stretches and lunges.

By the end, combined with the morning’s two-hour intense workout, and the insane sprint down the Tower, I was absolutely exhausted, and I walked away on wobbly legs as I tried to hide just how hard the workout had been.

The group part hadn’t been so bad at first; it was when those three murderous bastards began to circulate through the group, pausing to order people to go faster, kick higher, and to work to their absolute hardest level, that it got worse. No matter when I tried to slow, to just take it easier a bit, just for a minute, one of them was there, by my side.

They’d just pause, looking at me, then looking at the others, and they’d draw everyone’s eyes effortlessly to me. I was stronger than most, and faster, and if I just did the same as they did, well… So, I worked harder.

I was filled with the thoughts they might be having, concerns over my abilities, and I pushed harder. And harder. And even harder.

As I stood at the railing of the balcony, looking out over the miles of forests and mountains spread out before me, I gripped the enchanted stonework as hard as I could and tried to project relaxation, even as I frantically tried to keep my legs from buckling.

I had notifications waiting, and I opened them after a minute. I felt optimistic, having seen the smiles