Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) by Jez Cajiao (beach books .txt) 📗

She was still immature and girlish at times, the sudden recollection of her naïve desire to visit the ‘street of negotiable affection’ in Himnel jumping straight to mind. She’d believed it to be a place where you could get hugs and verbal affirmations… instead of the seedy place it was in reality. But she’d matured now to stand with a steely glint in her eye and a confidence that told the world that she’d take the best it had, and nothing less.

I knew as I looked at her, and then let my gaze carry over the rest of the group, that I could always rely on these people, even if it was a hopeless fight.

Thankfully, this wasn’t.

“Okay, people, stand down,” I ordered. “Have one on watch, and one to go get the others when it’s needed, but for now, until we either get to the Storm and lose them, or they manage to close the distance, there’s nothing to do, so go get some food and rest.”

Grizz saluted to me, the seasoned warrior showing through the ‘happy-go-lucky’ exterior he generally displayed as he immediately worked with Yen, setting up a rotation, then sending the others down below to rest out of the wind and making sure everyone got some food.

“What are we going to do?” Yen asked me quietly as Grizz shooed the others away.

“If they fire the DarkSpore at us?” I asked. “I mean, I assume that’s why they’re building that thing.”

“Yeah.”

“We dodge if we can, and we kill what we can’t dodge,” I said simply. “There’s not a great deal of choice in the matter; we don’t have the power reserves to outrun them. We can manage maybe one more burst of speed now, but Jian is saving that for when they fire on us next, so it’s a case of trying to keep ahead long enough that we can hide in the storm. If not, then we fight.”

“We’ve got less than an hour, the way they’re working,” Yen said grimly.

“Think they can keep it up?” I asked, and she shrugged.

“Depends on the men, really…” she admitted, backhanding Grizz without looking at him as he threw me a wink and opened his mouth to comment. “The Legion could do it easily, but they’re not Legionnaires, so who knows. Equally, they’re working on a ship that’s carrying that thing, so they’re either working in a flat-out panic, or they’re already possessed, so…?” she went on absently.

I nodded in grim agreement, turning, and looking ahead at the storm that was quickly building, having grown large enough to blot out the sky from left to right, with huge black and grey-green clouds towering over us.

I watched the flashes of blue-white lightning streaking through the clouds and shook my head in disbelief. The ‘storm’ ahead of us now would be classed as a national threat, something along the lines of a hurricane and a thunderstorm meeting and breeding insanity. As the thunder rolled and shook the world around us, the rain arriving right behind a blast of air that staggered us all and caused the ship to dip in the air.

“Damn, that’s cold!” I gasped out as the rain hit, the drumming sound loud even as the wind swept across the deck in a wave, making those hurrying below thankful that they were escaping it. The majority of the gnomes paused in shock, huddling together.

“They’ve never seen weather!” Yen said, her voice a mix of shock and horror, as we saw several gnomes break away and abandon their work, sprinting for the hatches leading belowdecks.

“Damn. Looks like I found my next job, then!” I cursed, hurrying to the edge of the upper deck, and clambering down awkwardly. The suddenly wet deck was made far more slippery as the moss and fungus that covered most of it became slick with moisture.

I fell down the last couple of steps, then pulled myself upright, rushing through the oncoming rain to skid to a stop beside Frederikk as he bellowed out orders, trying to return order, or as much as the gnomes seemed capable of, to the work at hand.

“How long?” I shouted to him, amazed by the speed of the wind and rain, having been told only minutes before that we were an hour or more away from the Storm.

“‘Til we can go below decks? Or ‘til it’s done?” He shouted back, lifting his hands and trying to block the rain from his face.

“Yes!” I shouted back, and he shook his head.

“We need to go below now! We can’t work in this!” he bellowed back, gesturing at the few gnomes that were still in sight, mainly huddling on the floor, clutching desperately at ropes or fixtures, and hiding their faces. “These buggers haven’t seen this before, ever! It’s like hell has come for them! We need to skirt the storm, or they’ll be useless!”

“Get them working, or we’re all dead!” I bellowed back. “I’ll make Jian skirt the storm!” I spun and ran for the wheelhouse, practically stomping on a gnome who’d lost his footing and was frantically dragging himself across the deck on his hands and knees.

I jumped over him, landing hard and nearly taking the door off its hinges when I slammed into it, entering the wheelhouse with a gust of wind and a spray of rain.

“Turn us around!” I shouted to Jian as Stephanos shoved the door shut behind me, and the noise level dropped dramatically. “Turn us around…” I repeated, shaking myself and sending water droplets flying. “… we need to skirt the edge of the storm, or we’ll never get the gnomes to finish. They think it’s the end of the world out there…”

“Gnomes!” Jian replied in annoyance, shaking his head. “We’ve not even hit the storm yet, Jax; this is the outer edge. We just got a bit blasted forwards, that’s all. I’ve spent most of my life outdoors; this will pass in a few minutes, then we’ll