Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) by Jez Cajiao (free ebooks for android .TXT) 📕

up; you’re with Miren and Stephanos. Yen, Arrin, smite the fuckers. We need to give Jian time to get this done.” I said, snapping the orders out without hesitation.

I got a round of affirmatives as everyone moved into position, and a few seconds later, Bane grunted.

“You’re going to want to see this…” he said, lifting one hand and firing a Firebolt off into the darkness ahead.

I heard the awe in his voice as he cast his first spell, and I couldn’t help but grin inside my helm, remembering how rare it was for a Mer to have access to magic. Well, that’s sure as shit going to change, I thought to myself.

The Firebolt flew straight and true, slamming into the front of a… device. That was the only way I could describe it, and as the flames washed across its surface, I saw a manically grinning gnome pop his head back up from where he’d clearly ducked.

The thing that was stomping towards us was big; alarmingly so. It rose maybe five feet high, but it stretched at least that wide across as well, and the front of it shone in the dying light, reflecting the flames back to us. It was circular in design, the front, at least, and appeared to extend behind itself in a tail. The entire contraption was being driven forward on multiple sets of legs, and a shivering, shuddering motion ran across it as it progressed.

I was trying to figure it out when Grizz spoke up suddenly.

“It’s a damn battering ram!” he gasped in shock.

“What?” I asked him, surprised.

“A battering ram; back in the days of the Empire proper, the gnomes made weapons to breech walls and doors, and they could ride them. That’s what it must be! It’s got a mobile shield on the front, shaped out of extremely thick metal, and it just keeps going. It’ll take a wall out if you let it get close enough… Hell, they might even have the old weapons onboard! They’re…”

“They’re in for a fucking surprise, is what they are!” I snapped.  “Magic! Hit those fuckers!” I snapped out, straightening and beginning to build a Fireball.

“Magic won’t do anything if it’s a real siege weapon,” Grizz warned grimly, but I shrugged.

“Well, it’s a good way to test it.” I squeezed extra power into the spell, compressing it down and shaping it, while waiting for the first of the new round of spells to light it up.

As soon as it reappeared in the distance, I fired. At the very bottom of the shield, I could see what looked like feet; they were made of metal, and there were lots of them, rocking in concert. I aimed for them, thinking if I could stop its feet, it would be useless.

I watched the barrage flashing towards the metallic form, and saw what I’d missed before. It had a goddamn magical shield, not just a mundane steel one!

I quickly triggered my ‘Examine’ and flash read the details as it faded back into the darkness.

Gnomish War Shield

This mobile war platform has been cobbled together by hacking and stealing damaged parts from dozens of other, heavier designs, creating a single working one that could be deployed in the tight confines of the Prax.

All Gnomish battle creations are imbued with both magical and mundane control methods, in case of theft.

HP: 511/2000

Shield Strength: 811/900

Mana Charge: 376/500

I read over the details and remembered where I’d seen the comments about control methods before… the Fenris! That meant that one of those little bastards had a way to control it, and if we could kill them all, then…

I shook my head, breaking off that line of thought. I couldn’t risk it. The shield was building up again, and as I dismissed the screen, I saw it increase from eight- hundred and eleven to twelve, while the mana charge dropped by a single point as well. That was our best chance, I decided, despite the high cost in mana. The corridor was narrow enough that it’d be slow climbing around it, and if we tried while it was still running, it could crush one of us against the wall. Our only option was to take it down at range, and to do that, we needed to burn through our spells.

“Keep firing!” I ordered. “It’s got limited mana to power it; drain its shield, and it’s a dead fucking duck.”

My order inspired a second and third barrage; the time we’d spent getting everyone a spell suddenly made me smile as I watched the glow of the shield on the device get weaker and weaker, until finally it shattered, and the entire thing collapsed to the floor with an audible crash.

There were several seconds of grunts and screeches arising from behind it, followed by a heavy clang… then another, and another.

With the third, a small figure shuffled around the edge of the device and came to a stop, two large plates of steel held in either hand. He grinned maniacally at us, then slammed them together, and started to slowly advance. As he moved, a second, third, and fourth gnome moved out and around the collapsed machine, taking up station behind the first, hunching down and hiding from sight as much as possible.

We stopped firing for a few seconds, as the last glimmers of light died away, and the small group vanished from sight.

“Okay, what the hell?” I asked aloud.

“Gnomes,” Lydia answered, shrugging.

“Well, yeah, but seriously? The damn anklebiters are tiny, but they act like they’re the ones who’re going to win…”

“Because they always do,” Grizz said grimly.

“What?” I asked.

“Gnomes…” Grizz repeated. “They always win in the end. If you kill a few now, it just means that more will come. They’re like sodding cockroaches, and vicious to boot. These seem a lot more mental than the normal ones, but that’s just making my asshole pucker more, to be honest.”

“I really didn’t need to hear that,” Yen grumbled, scowling at Grizz’s back.

“You said I had a nice ass, especially when we were…?”