City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

is. I need you and the fliers to board the ships, take control of them, and do it as quickly and quietly as possible. For now, get some of your people nearby to watch them. The Alkyon have some people trained to fly the ships; we just need to take them quickly. Can you communicate with them at a distance?” I asked. Once she nodded in confirmation, I turned to Augustus.

“Is the mob still outside?” I asked, and he nodded grimly.

“They’ve started to disperse without the rabble-rousers, but still, the majority are there.”

“And they’ll go nuts if they see us,” I concluded. “Fine. Hellenica, once we’ve got the Alkyon ready, we’ll send them and your people to take command of a ship, bring it as close as it can get to the building, and we’ll jump aboard.”

“And then?” she asked. “Surely, they’ll launch other ships to hunt us down…”

“The rest of our forces are taking care of that as we speak, or at least, they’d better be…” I muttered. “Okay, people, loot this place to the ground. There’s gotta be some good shit somewhere…” I called out, forcing myself to start walking by heading to the back to search the space where the Skyking had made its bed.

***

“Get ready to move on my signal…” Mal whispered to his team. Soween, who was leaning with her back to the building across from him, nodded in acknowledgment. Her hair was bound up out of the way, and she and Mal wore similar long coats, closed tightly against the incessant drizzle.

The pair of them pushed off the walls and started walking towards the Stockpile, heads down and hats pulled low to shield their faces from prying eyes as they walked across cobbles slick with rain.

The footing was slippery, made more so by the layer of animal shit left behind by the dozens of wagons that passed in and out of the Stockpile each day. As they approached, Mal glanced up, making sure nothing had changed from the regular recons he’d performed, and he swallowed hard, fighting to suppress nerves he’d never admit to making his stomach twist.

The wall of the compound that surrounded the Stockpile were high, grey stone slabs that glistened wetly, and eerie shadows surrounded them, the torchlight flickering and hissing as the rain washed against cracks in the streetlight glass. The two guards stationed on either side of the gate were bundled up against the weather, muttering to each other quietly as they huddled around their braziers, desperate for the warmth as they waited for their turn to sit in the guardhouse.

The combination of the braziers, the weather, and the general low likelihood of anyone actually trying to rob the City Lord, all served to make the pair less perceptible than they should have been, which meant that it was only when they threw back their coats and raised their wickedly glowing crossbows that the guards noticed them.

By then, it was far too late. Mal and Soween both fired at the same time; their bolts, loaded with a powerful paralysis poison, took both guards before they could raise the alarm. As they crashed to the floor, Mal and Soween turned, training their remaining loaded crossbows on the guardhouse doorway.

A call came from inside, a voice raised in question, followed by grumbling and swearing as the sound of someone being ‘volun-told’ could be heard.

Mal’s team rushed forward, catching up to their leader and grabbing the guards. They hauled the stunned men out of easy sight as the door opened and a young guardsman blinked out into the chill rain.

“Hubert? Varrin?” What’s up?” he called, his night vision practically non-existent as he blinked out at the figures that surrounded the door, “Wha…” he managed to utter in surprise before Soween shot him, sending him crashing back from the door. Jay rushed in after the falling boy, his massive steel-clad fists lashing out and bludgeoning the remaining guards into unconsciousness. The rest of the group flowed inside, including two men who quickly stripped the guards of their cloaks and wet weather gear, slinking outside to replace the men they’d just taken down.

“Okay, people, you know what to do,” Mal said, reloading his crossbows. He holstered one of the gnomish marvels and checked the string on the other, before holstering that, too. Soween motioned the rest of their team inside, splitting the group up to move out, as Jay started dragging bodies to the holding cells against one wall. Meanwhile, Mal studied the maps and stock notes on the wall.

There were the usual compliment of drunks and kids that had been caught by the Guard filling the cells already, and they went silent as the group quickly moved in to take control. After a few minutes, one summoned up the courage to speak.

“Yer gonna let us out, then?” he asked, slurring his words as the foul reek of cheap gin and halitosis permeated the room.

“Nope,” Mal said casually, still reading. “But iff'n you’re real quiet, we might not kill you…” Silence greeted his words, and he allowed himself a quick smile before stabbing a finger out at the map. “There! Soween, Josh, that’s what we need: two guard huts nearby, and a rovin' patrol of up to a dozen. I want the patrol taken down first, then the guard huts. Then, and only then, take the walls. We’ve got fifteen minutes before the next patrol comes past, so make it count.”

“Might want to send the boy to alert the guards at the Enclave now, then, Mal,” Soween murmured, getting a glower as he stopped his incessant grumbling long enough to look at her, then leaned out the door and shouted into the night.

“Jonas! Get your boy movin’!” He pulled himself back inside and shrugged, scowling out at the falling rain as he muttered, just loud enough to hear, ‘I was just about to…’

Soween immediately began barking orders to the teams she’d organized, sending people scurrying as Jay walked back over from the cells, wrapping