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

“That’s not gonna work for me.” I frowned anxiously. “I have a fight tonight in the arena.”

“Not if you want to live, you don’t,” Nerin replied, shaking her head.

“I do want to live… thank you.” I fought to keep the exasperation from my voice, and I was conscious of the need to be careful with everything I said, thanks to the spell. “I also need to be in that damn arena; it’s central to our plans!”

“You’ve just had over a third of the most complicated sections of your body rebuilt from a cellular level. Entire sections of your brain and nervous system were shredded by that thing and had to be completely regrown. I’d be surprised if you can walk unaided tonight. You’ve got no chance at fighting,” she said calmly as I slumped back. “Even now, while you’ve been talking, you’ve had to depend on your companion to hold you upright.”

“I…” I felt something freeze the words in my mouth, and I stopped, realizing the truth. I’d kept having to sit upright, but I hadn’t noticed myself moving. I must have been sliding down as I was talking. Great. Bet that looked fantastic…

“Okay, so I’m a bit worn out, that’s all. How can we fix it?” I asked.

“Food, rest, and sleep,” she said simply. “You could use potions to stimulate your body, stamina, mana, and healing concoctions to keep you on your feet, but the bill will come due, and when you least expect it, you will collapse. Also, using true stimulants, like ‘Bull’s Heart Potion’ would leave you unconscious as soon as it ran out. There is no substitute for food and rest, not when you’ve taken such severe injuries.”

“I’ve never needed to before…” I said, but I felt a worrying niggle as I spoke.

“You just skirted close to a lie there, boy,” Nerin said disapprovingly, and Oracle spoke up for me.

“No, he said what he believed to be true. He just didn’t realize it wasn’t, until this conversation.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“When you’re healed by magic, it takes its toll on your physical body,” Nerin said, slipping into lecturing mode. “The magic rebuilds the body, but it does so by utilizing the body itself. It doesn’t just create bits out of thin air. While that level of repair is possible, that magic is far beyond a simple healing spell. No, a healing spell usually just provides the power to increase the speed of the body’s natural healing capacity. You’ve had a significant portion of highly specialized parts rebuilt, and judging from your tale, this has happened many times?”

“Yeah, and I was always…” I paused considering my previous brushes with death. In the Tower, I’d passed out after many fights, always when I’d had to heal myself heavily. I’d been exhausted afterwards, and I’d basically crawled into the nearest hole I could, in order to sleep like the dead.

“Okay… yeah. Now that I think about it, I guess that makes sense…” I said.

“The plan is well and truly fucked, then!” Mal cursed, throwing his arms up and scowling.

“What’s the problem?” Augustus asked, and Mal glared at him.

“We were supposed to be puttin' the first phase of the plan into action tonight: gettin' the local gangs to put in fighters to face 'Legionnaire’ Jax in the arena. Now what are we supposed to do?!”

“Submit another Legionnaire,” Augustus replied, shrugging. “I’ll do it.”

“No. You don’t know what they’re going to put in to fight,” I said weakly, and Augustus just grinned at me.

“Believe me, Jax…” Yen interjected, and I looked at her in question. “You don’t make it to Centurion Primus in the Legion without being able to fight. No offense, but he’s probably far deadlier than you are.”

“I don’t like it, I...” I started to protest, when Mal cut me off.

“Yes! That’s it! August can fight in the arena! And then…”

“Augustus,” the dark haired, massively muscled Centurion Primus snapped, glaring at Mal.

“That’s what I said…” Mal replied dismissively, waving him off. “So, now that’s sorted, how about you explain what the hell happened in the damn market?!”

“I’m not happy about this…” I muttered, but in looking the massive Legionnaire over, I had to agree that he was probably more suited to the fight, especially dressed in his segmented steel armor over black leather. A huge shield rested against the wall where he’d placed it on entering, and he wore a short gladius on his left hip. A wicked looking single-handed axe with a thick bearded head hung on his back, the handle protruding over his right shoulder, and a pair of sheathed daggers had been strapped to his chest, the handles pointed down for easy access.

Thick overlapping plates protected his shoulders, upper chest, upper arms, and forearms, with knee guards, upper thighs and greaves all fashioned similarly, and chain mail covered the rest. I’d noticed that the armor was the same that the rest of his Legionnaires wore. It appeared far heavier than I’d have expected, but then that explained why they were so damn big. The entire group looked like they’d be able to steal Schwarzenegger’s lunch money.

“The story, Jax,” Oracle said, and I craned my neck to look up at her. “Tell them what happened, and then we can get you to bed. Look at it this way: if you feel up to it later, you can fight in the arena, provided you can convince Bane, Lydia and me that you’re fit enough.”

“Yeah, I’ll believe that… At any rate, long story short, I saw a little girl in the market. She was crying her eyes out, looking for help, and this guy was blatantly up to no good. I saw him going for her, right after seeing slaves all over the place, and a woman… I saw a woman who’d given up. I saw a woman who was broken by life, and a tiny fucking baby that was going to have no chance. I saw all of that, and