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

I stepped around her victim, finding the matriarch panting in panic as she managed to get her pudgy claw into the backpack at last. It came back out clutching a gleaming red potion, but before she could raise it to her fat mouth… Bane was there.

He slapped the potion aside with his lower right hand, the upper hands each grabbing a wrist and holding the matriarch still. She squealed in terror again, and tried to wrench herself free, but despite her huge size, there was little muscle. She had a second of uninhibited writhing, and then Bane’s lower arms went to work.

He clutched a dagger in the left and slowly dug it into the creature, making her cry out in pain as it slowly cut through layers of fat.

“Bane!” I called out, and he turned furious eyes on me. I stepped in close and nodded toward my belt. He found the dagger there, nodding in thanks as he reached down and yanked it free. I spoke for his and the Matriarch’s benefit.

“It’s called the ‘Dagger of Ripping’…have fun.” Turning at that point, I was just in time to see Oracle lift herself from the corpse of the goblin I’d been facing. She looked around the room, her rage clear in her eyes, and I made sure the enemy were all dead. Once I had no doubt, with Flux and Cheena moving to free the captives, I closed my eyes and went to work at tamping down my anger, getting control over myself, and feeling Oracle calm as well.

It took several minutes of careful breathing, and it wasn’t surprising how difficult that was, what with the matriarch screaming in pain behind me, but eventually, she wheezed out her last, and Oracle and I grew calm.

I opened my eyes again, having heard Flux and Cheena talking to the prisoners, but I’d blocked the words down to a buzz. The freed prisoners had all gathered around Flux; he was helping a small Mer to walk, clearly having to half carry it, it was that badly injured and dehydrated.

The people went silent, even Flux’s words drying up as I stepped forward. I was covered in blood again. Oracle hovered over my left shoulder, liberally covered in the goblin’s black blood, and Bane appeared on my right, facing the group.

“Who are you?” asked one of the elves amongst them, barely speaking above a whisper.

Chapter Eleven

“He’s your Lord…Lord Jax…” Flux said, confusion clear in his voice.

“We swore to Barabarattas…” The elf said slowly, “He’d never come for us; nobody would…”

“He did,” said Bane simply, nodding towards me.

“I thought they were your men?” Flux asked me, looking over.

“No. I want to recruit them, though,” I replied, catching the looks of awe on their faces.

“You went through all this to recruit people you don’t even know?” Flux asked, and I shook my head.

“My friend Oren vouched for them; that’s enough for me. Besides…I told you I’d not leave a child here to the goblins.”

“You want to…recruit us? You came here, killed the goblins and…you just want to recruit us?” the elf asked incredulously before a dwarf shoved him aside and stepped forward.

“Ye knew Oren? Prove it,” he said, eyes locked on mine.

“I know Oren,” I corrected him, “You Decin?” I asked, and he nodded. “He said the story about the lich is bullshit.”

I said, remembering Oren’s comment about the purple robes Decin always wore, and Decin swore, shaking his head and looked around at the other prisoners. An elf behind him started to laugh.

“None o’ you fuckers believe ‘im. It were a lich!” With an indignant glare at the lot of them, he turned back to me as the group seemed to relax. “Ye say yer know Oren… when’d ye see ‘im last?” he asked hopefully.

“About four hours ago. He’s sworn to me and is flying a warship now. He’s my right hand, in charge of all the ships I command…you want to see how high you can rise?” I asked and saw the flash of a grin on Decin’s face.

“Depends…how many ships yer got?” he said, and I grinned back at him.

“I’ve got two, a Warship, and a nice little abandoned one by the lake outside; my engineers got her fixed up,” I said, hoping I wasn’t lying through my teeth.

“Ye stole ma ship an’ want me to swear loyalty?” The dwarf growled, and Flux cut him off with a snap.

“He came here with a team of six to face hundreds of goblins to save your life, dwarf. What did your old lord offer?”

There was a long silence as the prisoners looked at each other. The elf who’d been laughing clipped Decin across the back of the head, hard.

“You’ve always been a bloody fool, D,” he said affectionately shaking his head, then he looked at me. “We come as a package, Decin and I. Is this a problem?” I noted the way his hand quested down, and Decin’s lifted to grip it without a thought, the automatic response of a long-term couple to their partner seeking reassurance. I couldn’t help it.

I grinned at them, glad to see that someone had a partner they were drawing strength from.

“I’m happy to have you both; how about your crew?” I asked, looking at the rest and receiving firm nods in return. “Glad to hear it! Now, how about someone finds me a healing potion before I bleed to death? We can cover all the Oaths and shit once we’re out of here and have a beer in hand.”

I turned and staggered a little as I walked toward the corpse of the matriarch. My health wasn’t too bad, sitting at a third of its maximum, and my stamina was at a quarter, but my mana was in the single digits still. Oracle flew over to me, sitting down on her usual perch of my shoulder, and gave a little shiver that caused all the blood covering her to fall