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

whatever. We need to concentrate on Bane next,” I said, standing, as Oracle gave Tang a hug and whispered that she was glad he was okay.

We moved below decks then, searching and eventually finding the room that Bane had been dumped in.

He was curled up on the bed‒again, a gnome one‒but Bane was clearly far more flexible than Tang, and had his legs tucked up with his arms wrapped around his knees. He was covered in swathes of bandages, his skin was discolored, and there were swollen areas all over him. In some places, he had lost a huge amount of skin, while in others, it was blackened and clearly burnt almost down to the bone. Still other sections were peeling and raw, with the strange blackness that comes from cell death through extreme cold.

More than half of the tendrils that ringed his head were missing, clearly hacked away in bunches as they’d tried to make him talk.

I looked at him and I felt like a goddamn terrible friend.

He’d taken all these injuries for me; he’d been scouting ahead, been jumped by that little shit Joshua, and then tortured. He’d not told them anything, either. He was a hell of a bodyguard, and I’d find a way to make this up to him somehow.

I felt Oracle start to use our ‘Greater Examination’ spell, scanning him and building up a fully populated picture of his body, all the way down to a cellular level.

Then we started work, ignoring the sounds of the gnomes and my team moving around the ship, and the occasional argument between the researchers or Hannimish and my people.

Only once did I have to get involved, and then, when I was interrupted by a shrill complaint so loud that it actually managed to get to me through my meditation, I was so furious, I stormed out of the cabin and literally kicked the door to the adjoining one off its hinges. I hauled one researcher, and Grizz, who’d been on guard at the door of my room, grabbed the other squabbling human. We dragged them both outside and dangled them over the side of the ship, as I seriously considered just letting go.

“I am trying to heal one of my closest friends, who your group tortured to the very fucking edge of death… each and every god damn sound you make is making that harder… so give me a single goddamn reason I shouldn’t shut you both up right now! Permanently!” I screamed at the man who was turning purple in my grip.

“Ah, uh, my lord Jax…” Hannimish attempted to soothe me, standing to one side, rubbing his hands, and licking his lips nervously. “Perhaps… I mean to say… please…”

“You want me to let them live?” I snapped at him, and he nodded quickly. “Then they’re your fucking problem! Make them be quiet, and make them useful, or I swear, they can swim from here!” I snarled, yanking the man I held back over the railing and dumping him, gasping and wheezing, on the floor before storming off back to the cabin where I’d left Oracle working on Bane.

“Tempting, wasn’t it…” I heard Grizz mutter behind me and I snorted my agreement, returning to the cabin, too worried and stressed to speak further.

Healing Bane was easily the most complex series of spells and physical work we’d ever attempted, in part because the specialty of ‘Reconstructor’ was exactly what was needed here, and that was why we’d had to find Nerin in the first place.

Fortunately, Oracle had learned some things from her, and we had improved our own spells since then, so while we were neither as quick, nor as skilled, as Nerin, we could at least manage the basics.

We stopped for meditation several times over the next few hours, running myself almost dry each time, before taking a break, but after three hours, Bane’s internal organs were fully repaired.

“How the hell has this taken us so long?” I huffed to Oracle at one point, exhausted.

“More than half of his organs were either dead or dying,” she said pointedly. “The rest were damaged in practically every way possible; he had frostbite, severe burns, and had lightning bolts poured into him. His teeth were shattered, and most of his bones fractured, at the least; then in the rapid healing you’d had to do to save his life, you’d basically plastered over the cracks. We’ve had to rebuild those areas, rebreaking and healing sections, which always takes far longer.”

“I know, it just…” I said, gesturing generally.

“It just seems like it should be quicker?” Oracle offered helpfully, and I nodded.

“I’ve been healed enough times, and it’s usually far faster than this…”

“It is, because a stab would, or a broken bone is one injury, even when you’ve had dozens of bones broken, beyond that it’s usually been a case of just bruising elsewhere or minor cuts. Here, there wasn’t a single part of him that didn’t desperately need healing. Believe me, we’re doing amazing.” She looked at me consideringly. “You know, you’ve let me take the lead on healing generally, especially in the more complicated situations…” she started, and I nodded.

“It’s been for the best.” I admitted.

“Well, you’re not going to learn anything if I keep doing it.” She pointed out.

“Wait, what?”

“You’re taking over,” she said simply. “Take over Bane’s healing, and you’ll learn a lot more,” she said again, stepping back. “I’ll cast the spells, but you guide them; that way, we can still do this despite the… hand… issue.”

I grunted, but accepted that, yeah, it was probably the best way to do it. I settled down to meditate until I was full again, then used the ‘facilities’, which were basically holes that led straight out to the sea far below and resulted in a damn chilly arse, before starting to work on Bane again.

I got comfortable and felt Oracle as she cast the spells, although I didn’t feel her in the way I wanted… then she handed the reins over to