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

Legion… than it already is. No. The Arena... Centurion Primus,” I ordered. I saw the hesitation on his face, as I had clearly given him contradictory orders to those he’d received from the Prefect. It only lasted a second, though, before he saluted.

“Yes, my lord.” He spun around and began shouting new orders, dispatching two fliers, both Alkyon, back to the Enclave. A handful of seconds later, a pair of stretchers had been made ready, and the healer and I were being loaded onto them before being hustled out of the nondescript building where she had saved my life.

Chapter Thirteen

The next half hour passed in a blur. Buildings sped past me, abuse was shouted at our backs, and more than once, I heard the clash of steel and screams of pain.

I laid there, carried on a stretcher by four Legionnaires as they sprinted along. Their full armor jingled and clashed with every step, and always, Augustus was there, watching over me.

Oracle sat by my head on the bouncing stretcher, glaring at the world around us as she flexed her fingers. My slowly refilling mana danced across her hands as she fumed, determined to kill anything she saw as a threat.

The minutes seemed to melt into each other as I tried to focus. The addition of the Cloudring’s pervasive smoke was not helping, growing thicker as we neared the stepped pyramid of the arena. The shouting and fights faded away as the outer doors of the Cloudring closed, sealing off the ‘common people’ from the wealthier inner district.

I heard voices raised in argument, but then Gaion was giving orders and we were off again. The guards looked angry, but allowed us to proceed.

Finally, a handful of minutes later, we were inside the pyramid again, and Bane was helping me from the stretcher into a chair, only to be glared at by Mal.

“What the hell did you do, son? The city’s been goin’ crazy! You wanted to see a healer, do a little shoppin’, you said. Barely over two hours, and you’re back; meanwhile, half of Horseshoe street is demolished, dozens dead.  The Legion is cuttin’ people down in the street, and you brought 'em here! You…”

“Blood and bloody ashes!” came a groan from the doorway, and the healer forced her way into the room, rubbing her head as she looked around, confused.

“…and you’ve kidnapped Mistress Nerin. Oh, that’s just wonderful,” he snarled, bolting to his feet and crossing the room. “You remember the plan? The one that gave us a few days to do a month’s worth of work? The one where we had to try to meet all your stupid wants?” he shouted at me. I heard a growl rumble from Augustus, who stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his gladius.

“You’ll watch your tongue when you speak to the Lord of Dravith!” he snarled, and the room changed as Soween went from lounging against the wall to both crossbows drawn, glittering with magic. Jay was moving across the room in an instant, grinning as he prepared to square off with the enormous Centurion Primus, as Josh jumped to his feet, shouting in panic.

“Whoa, everyone, c’mon! Let’s talk about this, okay…?”  Nerin pushed further into the room, furiously shoving people out of her way.

“What the hell just happened, and why, by all that’s holy, am I here?” she snarled, and everyone paused, looking at each other. I forced myself to sit upright from where I’d slouched bonelessly into the chair, and I waved at her.

“That’d be my fault, I think,” I said, getting a glare from more than half the room for my troubles. “Look, everyone calm the fuck down, and we’ll talk this out, okay?” I rubbed my face. “I don’t have the energy for a fight right now…”

“Lord Jax…” Augustus started, and I snapped at him.

“Shut it!” I forced myself to take a deep breath and straighten up again. “Sorry, Augustus. Loving your help so far, I really am, but right now, I need every fucker to shut the hell up while we try to sort this thing out. I’ll start… the last thing I remember, before finding myself gutted like a goddamn fish on your table,” I said, nodding to Nerin, “was losing my temper a bit in the market. So, how about we all get the whole story laid out first, and then we can come up with a plan to fix things…”

“Fix things… we had a plan! We had a goddamn way out of the city, a way to make some real money and…” Mal started, being cut off by Nerin turning around and smacking him across the back of the head. “What the hell…”

“Shut it, boy!” she snapped at him absently. “I want to hear what brought that fool to my shop, and what the hell that thing was that he tore out of himself!”

“We had a plan…” muttered Mal, rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah… this is gonna take some explaining, but that in itself is an issue, considering the situation. Until I’ve got a more concrete handle on people, some parts of this story aren’t going to be easy to explain. Other bits... well yeah, they’re going to be harder to accept without telling you the whole story, I suppose. Can we agree to an Oath here? What gets said in this room, doesn’t get repeated to anyone else, by word, deed, or omission, for a week from today? That gives everyone time to get over things and for our plans to be put in action…”

“Not gonna happen,” Mal said at the exact same time that Soween spoke up.

“That sounds reasonable,” she said, then looked to Mal. “It’s the only way we’re going to salvage any of the plan.” She shrugged calmly, and I grinned at him as Josh nodded, agreeing with her.

“I don’t like it. Can’t trust the Legion…” said Jay, and I saw Augustus stiffen, his fingers reaching for the hilt of his gladius.

“Jay, you were