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

I looked back at her and saw the anger on her face, so I crouched and looked more carefully, creeping forward with the others as we started to move into position.

There were dozens of patches of the flowers, each with thick black soil around the base, and here and there, the roots were exposed. I moved slowly closer to the nearest root, trying to decide why my instincts were screaming that there was something very wrong.

I reached out, moving on all fours, the flowers above me seeming to shift and turn with me, the closer I came, until a hand grabbed my wrist, pulling me to a halt.

I glanced over at Miren, who shook her head slowly, fear clear in her eyes as she inclined her head upwards. I glanced back and froze instantly.

The flowers were all facing us now, and they gave off an impression of intent, malevolent focus as they seemingly watched us.

I slowly backed up, and they gradually returned to slowly fluttering in a non-existent breeze. I glanced back at the roots and swallowed hard, as I finally realized what I’d been looking at. It was an ankle, the leg poking above the soil in places and the foot sinking back down…it was bone white and had clearly been drained of blood. The plants growing over the mounds that I now realized were piled corpses, covered in soil, were gently swaying, turning to follow the Drow as they moved around.

As soon as Miren knew I’d realized what the plants were, she released my arm, drawing back on her bow again.

I peered around the garden, taking the time to spot our people as they moved closer to their targets, I took a long breath in, releasing it slowly as I spotted a movement on the wall above the Drow guard.

It was Horkesh, and she was gone in a second, dipping back into the shadows cast by the flickering blue-green light given off by the plants. I kept staring at the same spot, and gradually made out movement as she slipped down the wall, moving closer and closer…

Until one of the two Drow off to the left spotted Cam and cried a warning, causing the guard to jump to his feet, drawing his bow and sending an arrow flashing across the cavern a heartbeat later, drawing a cry of pain.

“Fuck!” I grunted, driving myself up and forward, moving as fast as I could towards the three in the middle. I saw Lydia and Barrett running as well, but with my heavily boosted Agility, I passed them easily, pulling ahead as my naginata pulsed to life, my anger flowing into it.

I felt the air part around me as an arrow passed on either side of my head, a tiny thought in the back of my mind that I was glad I hadn’t stepped slightly to one side or the other, but I dismissed it as I let loose with a roar of anger, releasing the curb on my simmering fury.

These fuckers had taken Oracle; they’d kidnapped my friend. for all I knew, it was the ugly fucker in the middle that had done it, the one that dodged the arrow so fluidly, while his friend took the other in the eye. He spat something out at his companion and brought his hands up, a sickly green glow appearing as he began to channel magic.

I leaned into my manic sprint even harder, picking up more speed as I closed the gap between us. As I charged, I piled the Stunning Lightning Bolt spell into my left hand until I felt my hand vibrating with the repressed spell, then I powered even more into it. I leapt into the air, jumping over a small ridge and landed, skidding on loose scree and lashing out with my naginata at a flower head that swayed too close. As I skidded closer, I released the spell at the Drow in the middle.

It flashed across the intervening space, energy hissing and spitting loose from the bolt as it covered the distance…before being absorbed into a black shield that flashed to life before the mage.

The lightning simply crackled across the surface harmlessly before pouring into the ground and vanishing, gone. Over a third of my mana, I’d piled into that one spell, planning on cutting through him like a knife through butter, and…I was sent hurtling through the air, pain screaming through my nerves as he released his own spell, a spell that hit me unerringly and seemed to fry every neuron with an overload.

I hammered into the ground a dozen yards from where I’d been hit, rolling with the impact to come to a halt, smoke rising from my body as I twitched uncontrollably.

Inside my body, I felt the changes his spell was trying to carry out. Cells died by the score, a rippling effect that was growing exponentially as I shook and trembled, the pain growing by the second.

I managed to trigger my healing ring once, then twice, barely enough to push back the wave of destruction, but it was enough to get control of my right hand.

I frantically began forcing my fingers through the forms needed for ‘Battlefield Triage’; it blossomed to life in seconds, but still, I barely managed to cast it before I would have lost control.

While I fought my battle frantically, laying in the warm, blood-soaked earth just out of reach of a flower that was trying desperately to reach me. My companions were battling for their lives as well. Miren and Stephanos were concentrating on the mage, hammering arrow after arrow at him, while Barrett smashed his greatsword in great overhead strikes into the shield the mage had created.

With each blow, the strain on the mage’s face grew, and the arrows got closer and closer before being deflected. Lydia and Jian were battling away with the other Drow; she had only a single dagger, her other hand holding a pair of pruning shears, but she