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

“Could you?” Soween asked, tapping her lip with one finger. “Don’t forget that the Skyking won’t be alone, not entirely. A creature that keeps itself this hidden—especially one that’s so paranoid, it doesn’t let anyone even know where its lair is without a binding Oath of allegiance—won’t be unguarded. Add to that, anything that’s strong enough to command Prometheans won’t be easy to take down. No offense, Lydia, but I don’t see it.”

“We’re not just guards or backups for Lord Jax,” Lydia snapped. “We can fight! We got him here through the fucking Drow, didn’t we?”

“True, but the Drow didn’t even show themselves to the city, let alone face the Skyking. I’m not being cruel here, Lydia. I’m sorry, but I don’t see you and your team winning that fight.”

“No, I’ll be with you, Lydia,” I reassured her. “As soon as we can get out of the arena, Augustus, you and your team of Legionnaires will come with us. We hit it hard and fast; we’ll be heading straight for the Skyking. Once we’ve eliminated the bastard, we head for the shipyards and the Star’s Glory. We’ll be launching the attack right after the final fight of the night. Whoever is left at the arena will be summoned back, if the Skyking has that ability. If it doesn’t, then that’s good too. We keep a few people back to escort me, I hit the Emporium, then up to the Skyking? No, that’s not gonna work, is it…?”

“No. Timing wise, never mind the rest, it won’t.” Mal confirmed. “Instead, if you’re damn determined to do the Emporium, we hit it after the fight tomorrow night, if, and only fucking well IF, you can take the Golems out. We strip it bare, bring back whatever we can and hide it here. I’m betting there’ll be some magical shit we can use the night after.”

“Well, how the hell do we fit it all in, then?” I growled.

“We stagger the fights,” Soween said suddenly. “We tell the Skyking it’s got the final slot of the night, and that we’ll be holding a load of minor fights before the ‘main event.’ To sweeten the pot even further, we want it to submit someone that you can’t beat, someone powerful. Then, after the third fight, we make our move. While the minor fights are happening, we spirit you away to attack the Skyking and kill the fucker, backed up by your current Legionnaires and your squad. Once it begins, I’ll bet the Skyking has some way of magically communicating with its creatures. Whoever is waiting to fight you will leave, we call it cowardice, and we still take the win.”

“Fuck the win. If that goes wrong, the strongest fighter the Skyking has will attack us from behind…” I said, frowning.

“Well, you got a better plan? A better way to fit everything in?” Mal grinned.

“No, but…”

“But nothing! The attack on the Skyking starts the whole thing off at, say, midnight. The attack on the stockpile can get underway, and we make sure word gets to the guards outside the Enclave, so that as soon as we’re finished there, they go runnin' to protect the stockpile; maybe have a helpful urchin who points 'em in the wrong direction. While they’re lookin' the other way, the Legion breaks out. They hit the Shipyards while the guards are distracted. You kill the Skyking and send the Legion fliers and any Harpies you can recruit straight at the Airships above the city, and we get the ships in the air!”

“Head out to sea, pretend we’re heading south, maybe?” Soween interrupted, clearly thinking aloud.

“No, then we’ll have the Narkolt fleet coming to intercept us… can’t go straight for the Tower, either, so maybe…”

“Why not?” I asked.

“‘Why not,’ what?” Mal asked, clearly distracted.

“Why not make straight for the Tower?”

“Because they’ll send the armies after us, obviously. You got a strong enough force to take down the entire army? Because if you do, what the hell are we doing trying to do here?” Mal snapped.

“No, but by the time we’ve done this, we could have the ‘Agamemnon’s Wrath’ and the ‘Freedom’ both heading to us. Combining them and the ships we are able to steal, we might be able to take out any attackers.”

“Might,” Mal said, shaking his head. “That’s not good enough, Jax. I’ve been on the wrong side of battles before. Better not to risk it, iff'n you see reason?”

“Okay, but…”

“But what we do is head out to sea, head east by south-east, straight for the Sunken City. It’s about ninety miles out, but pretty much the only thing out there until you hit the shippin' lanes to Mathai and the Pirate Isles. I heard the traders that were in the city a few weeks back were tryin' to buy the secrets to makin' an Airship, and the inhabitants nearly sunk ‘em to teach 'em a lesson. The nobles and Barabarattas’ll hopefully all think it was them, tryin' to steal the ships. Once we’re a few days out, maybe four or so, we swing around and head northeast for another two days, then swing back inland, come in low, and we should be able to reach your Tower in another six, maybe seven days, with nobody sure where we went. Add to that, if we’ve got all the stockpiles of manastones, they won’t be able to risk following us out to sea, since they’d crash when they ran out.”

I regarded Mal for a long minute, and he stared back.

“That’s a long time to be on the ships… especially the Battleship, considering it’s barely a skeleton frame…”

“Then we add a day on. Stop at the Sunken City and pile all the engineers onto the Battleship, put some barriers up to protect people as best we can from the weather. Tell me it’s not the best way to do this. Until now, we were plannin' on gettin' 'em out via the forests and