Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) by Jez Cajiao (free ebooks for android .TXT) 📕

blurring as we passed them, and then we were out, erupting into brilliant sunlight as we passed through a magical haze that had seemingly been diluting it.

I staggered to my feet and made it to the railing, gazing back at the Sunken City we’d left behind.

We were climbing still, angled up at a thirty-degree climb that made me want to hang on for dear life, but as we soared, I saw the other ships. Four of them were still in the air and in sight, with a pillar of sooty smoke and flame rising from the hole we’d just fled from, =I saw a flash from below that I had to assume was one of their fallen ship’s engines exploding.

I grinned down, then warily regarded the four remaining ships. Two were larger than us, and clearly built for war, with soldiers manning the decks and a huge cannon attached to the superstructure at the front, while the other two were quite different.

One was a merchantman, if I had to guess; a fast one, judging from the collection of engines, though unarmed and unarmored. But the fourth… she was a new design.

The black ship was long and lean, with a single cannon facing forward, built into the deck in the middle at the bow, with an additional row of four more on either side.

It had a raised deck at the rear, sheltered by a canopy that blocked the sun. Rows of metal plating protected the sides, while four engines to a side were superseded by a huge one at the rear, providing both tremendous lift and maneuverability, I guessed.

Of all four ships, only one was facing us as we rocketed out, and thankfully it wasn’t the black one. If we’d been really lucky, it would have been the merchantman, but we weren’t that lucky.

We continued up, thankful that the ships had all been low down, even as shouts and cries rose from behind us.

A hail of arrows and crossbow bolts peppered the decks, but in seconds, we were out of range, and I breathed a sigh of relief before moving to check on the others.

Grizz, of course was fine; a few scratches and scrapes, a bruise or two, and that was it. In typical Grizz fashion, he’d been in the center of the fight, and had been injured the least.

Yen had several long cuts from the Sporelings that had tried to reach her, but she was shakily sitting up against the railing now with Grizz’s help and drinking a pair of potions, one mana and one healing, so I had faith she’d be fine soon.

Tang, on the other hand, was leaning heavily against the railing on the far side of the deck. As I got to him, he slumped down, grunting in pain, and lifted his left hand up from where he’d had it pressed to his side. It was covered in dark blood, and more was spreading quickly from the six-inch-long, three-inch-thick splinter that was sticking out of his side.

“Tang!” I slid to a halt next to him, catching his arm and helping him to lie flat on the deck. “I told you to tell me if you got hurt!” I snapped, looking the wound over quickly.

It was deep and long; the thinner metal of the lower side of the cuirass, usually made up for with a chainmail covering, was holding the splinter in place, with broken links of the chainmail digging into the flesh.

I swore, trying to judge the best way to remove the splinter from the wound as he looked up at me and forced a grin.

“That bad… eh?” he asked weakly, and I saw the tell-tale way the blood bubbled as he coughed. My suspicions were confirmed by the tearing gasp he let out as he sagged back.

“You’ve punctured your lung,” I explained gently. “This is a shitty time to have to do this, but I can’t leave this in you; I’m gonna have to get it out.” I did my best to project an aura of calm, one that I totally ruined by turning my head and bellowing for the others to get their arses over fast.

I’d seen firebolts and magic missiles hurtling around during the fight before, and I just damn well knew that Arrin had been using magic; we’d needed him then, but Tang really, really needed him now as well.

“Arrin, get ready to heal him. Grizz, I’m going to need a hand getting this out…” I said, inspecting the splinter. It was wedged in tightly and looked to be something like oak. The damn thing was solid in a way that lesser woods like pine just weren’t, or he’d have simply taken a damn bruise and a dent in his armor.

“Well, I don’t know how you did it, my friend…” I said, shaking my head and distracting Tang as Grizz got ahold of the splinter. “… I mean, seriously, how the hell do you get through so many fights without so much as a scratch, only to be taken down by a glorified twig?”

“I just…” Tang started to say, when Grizz yanked hard.

Tang screamed and passed out, even as Grizz yanked again, and swore, pulling his dagger free. Thankfully, it was a normal, uncursed one, I noted absently, and he went to work, forcing the metal back, before giving a final tug and pulling the wood free of Tang’s side.

Arrin had already hit him twice with healing spells, and as his second one landed, I released my ‘Battlefield Triage’ onto him as well. My eyes glowed as I searched Tang’s body, finding the spell augmented in infinitesimal ways by my new ‘Greater Examination’ spell and the information crossover.

“Okay…” I muttered, focusing the spell, and beginning the arduous task of rebuilding the lung that had been nicked and the kidney that had apparently been detonated in Tang’s side. “I’ve got good news and bad…” I went on as Arrin hit him with a third general healing, feeling the spell take some of the load