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

tipped with onyx claws. They were being slowly driven back, battling against the merrow on one side, and heavily armored crustaceans on the other. Their bodies littered the ground for each step they took backwards from the pool.

The creatures in the third group were short but wide, covered with thick armor plates that moved as they did, reflecting the light. Glittering spikes covered the crustaceans’ armored pincers. They looked like lobsters, grown to horrific size, and possessing terrifying sentience. I gritted my teeth, looking the groups over, until I saw one of the blue-skinned second group try to cast a spell. It wove its fingers through a pattern I thought I almost recognized, until the large merrow lifted a huge pearl into the air, and the blue-skinned creature screamed in agony as the mana was ripped from it.

I saw the pearl pulse with dark energy, and I gritted my teeth. The fact that that thing, which every instinct screamed at me was evil, had clearly brought such a device here to steal the mana of what was left of the city was enough for me. The minor detail that the only ones it looked like I’d be able to speak to without my balls curling up into my stomach in fear were also apparently the inhabitants of the city, also helped. I stepped forward, my feet passing slowly across a deep crack in the floor that bordered the entrance to the room, and I felt the slant of the floor beneath me increase.

With every step I took, I felt weaker, my hands beginning to shake as I snuck along, trying to keep to the shadows.

I watched the merrow leader, noticing some of the city’s inhabitants rush out of a doorway on the far side of the room, carrying heavy slabs of rock and facing off against the crustaceans… even as I examined her, my body weakened as I used mana I needed to animate it for the ability.

Critical success! Your opponent is unaware of being observed and has no defense against your ability.

Deepwater Merrow Chieftainess

You have found a creature hated and reviled by the surface world. A merrow chieftainess is a creature so thoroughly steeped in dark magic that it can create, use, and alter artifacts from the great void that her master resides in.

Merrow Chieftainesses are well aware of how hated they are, and tie the life-force of their minions into themselves, gaining their abilities and immunities for themselves. This ability weakens their minions and creates a festering hatred that would consume their nests… if only they could break free…

Weaknesses: Fire, Earth, and Life magics are all doubly effective against creatures of the Deepwater.

Resistances: Water, Darkness or Death magics used against this creature suffer a 75% damage penalty.

Critical Weaknesses: Neck, Eyes, Liver, Lungs.

Level:37

HP: 410

Mana: 16/70

I blinked as I read the details, and focused in on the creature, my meridian-aided vision helpfully highlighting the creatures’ weak spots. I reached out in the silence of my mind, a desperate plan coming to me.

I had no mana to speak of, and with none in the air or anywhere about, anywhere… except…

“Oracle! I’m going to need mana!” I called out to her within my mind, and a second later, I felt her suddenly closer, the awareness of her filling my mind as she somehow reinforced our link even further.

I staggered forwards, my determination and sheer stubbornness overcoming the weaknesses of my flesh.

I pushed myself, rushing forward from cover to cover, ducking behind fallen pillars and piles of rock until I was close to the battle, then hurried to put my back to a large rock just within running distance.

I rested for an all-too-short time, my body shaking with the exertion, and the faint blue glow of the veins tracing my limbs grew steadily dimmer as I grew closer to the artifact.

I edged my eye around the corner of the rock and looked, seeing the battle slowly pushing back from my location as more and more of the blue skinned humanoids fell.

The merrow chieftainess had risen up on her coiled tail, looking over the battle and screaming something in a language I didn’t understand. She had a hood that flared out and covered the back of her head, but from where I stood, the line of spines flaring from the tip of her head and running down between her shoulders looked perfect for my plan. Two of her six arms gripped the artifact high overhead, while another two pointed and gestured to her subordinates.

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, then pulled in another sharply and sent Oracle a last message, setting off running.

“Now!”

I kicked off another rock nearby, forcing myself to go faster, my sword already growing heavy in my rapidly weakening hand, but I pushed myself to go on. My boots, made of supple leather undamaged by the ages, kept my approach quiet, and the battle served to cover any last noises that I made.

I was less than two dozen steps away, but as weak as my body was, I nearly didn’t make it… until a sudden infusion of mana hit me.

It was like getting a double espresso, made with Redbull instead of water, and injected straight into the heart. Everything changed as my body flared to life, limbs strengthening, muscles bulging. My flesh grew thicker and my skin lost the texture of old parchment. I covered the last few steps just as one of the rearmost merrow turned, the now-brightly gleaming mana in my veins drawing his attention before the skin thickened enough to hide them.

It had time to hiss a warning in shock before my sword, short and heavy bladed as I liked it, lashed out, cutting halfway through its neck. It fell back, blood fountaining out of the severed arteries, and the second one tried to bring its trident around.

I grinned as the trident moved slowly, too slowly, and I leapt over it, landing and kicking off in the same maneuver to leap for