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

in a deep breath as we dove lower, filling her mighty lungs, I felt her magic surge, even as thousands of arrows flew past us, aimed at the upcoming horde.

Most missed, but here and there, a Djinn didn’t manage to shift their form in time, and the break in their concentration helped to slow the storm.

Shustic gave a long shudder and breathed out with a roar that I felt echoing up my body and reverberating through my blood. The flame that followed was a great blue-white gout of heat that tore a path straight through the heaviest concentrations of the enemy.

It was like watching a blowtorch go through tissue paper, as hundreds of them died, screams of agony abruptly cut off as their bodies turned to sooty embers, then blew away on the breeze. She rolled, aiming to rise through their left flank and tear another hole there.

The day was just beginning, and I had no doubt it would be a long and bloody one, but no number of lesser creatures had ever faced a Greater Dragon and lived, especially not one supported by the Legion.

Hours later, I stood on the upper slopes of an active volcano while Shustic rested inside, groaning in pleasure at the mana-rich lava, as the three Clan Mothers of Terin’Olek were led up to me in chains.

I drew Soulstealer and waited, the old hunger taking over inside me, rising ahead of being slaked with their blood.

I blinked and shook myself, the memories vanishing like a popped soap bubble, and I saw Hellenica in a different light, suddenly understanding her questions far more than I had before.

If I were to provide them a safe place to breed, they would quickly grow, and grow, and grow. That was what had happened on Terin’Olek. A thousand years of peace on the island had been broken when the Djinn ran out of room and began to seek more land, aggressively.

“You were…” I muttered, remembering. “There was a Djinn empire, but you destroyed it with infighting… then I stepped in when you tried to expand…”

“How… how do you know that?” Hellenica said slowly, her eyes wide. “Humans don’t have racial memories…”

“Nope, they don’t,” I agreed, my mixed species heritage springing to mind and being banished just as quickly. “Hellenica, your children are unable to breed, right?” I asked, glancing up at the juvenile Djinn frolicking in the air above us.

“Yes, only a Clan Mother, or a ‘Mother-in-waiting’ can breed. There are born, once in a Mother’s thousands, full females of our own species, but as we can accept other species and integrate their strengths into our lines, we tend to happily…” she broke off, glancing sheepishly at Augustus.

“You happily boink other species; got that,” I said nodding. “Do you have any control over your children; for example, can you stop a girl from being born?”

“Kill it, you mean?” she asked flatly, and I shook my head emphatically.

“No, not at all. I mean, is it a choice?”

“No; it is very rare, though,” she said slowly.

“Okay then, for now, until we have time to think more about this, I’d ask you to try to hold off on breeding. Have all the fun you want, just try not to, ahem, finish the deed?” I said awkwardly, glancing at them both.

“If it happens, then it does, and I won’t ever kill your children, provided they don’t raise their hand against me, or my subjects, or the innocent. I just want you to wait until the Tower is secure and we can provide a safe place. Then, I don’t know, we’ll have to come up with some kind of birth control for you, I guess. No more Clan Mothers, and definitely no uncontrolled breeding, okay?” I said, feeling like a complete shit for setting such harsh restrictions.

“That’s fine, Jax!” Augustus said quickly. “I already have a dozen kids to look after in my bloody squad. I don’t intend to be a father for real yet!”

“But…” Hellenica sputtered, and he squeezed her hand, speaking over her.

“No, Hellenica. We can talk about this, and make plans, but we do it in private! You don’t just blurt it out to the future Emperor, especially without even discussing it with me first! We can go… talk. Alone,” the huge Legion Primus growled, trying to hide his embarrassment, as well as a little excitement.

“But you want to?” she asked quickly, staring at him in wonder, and he sighed, nodding slowly.

“So help me… Gods, yes. Yes, Hellenica, I want you. I’ve dreamt of you for thirty years, and more. Yes, I want to be with you, and yes, to be your mate, but we need to discuss this in private…” he insisted, then twisted around and glared at the side of the ship where a rope ladder was twitching slightly. He glanced at me, and I gestured for him to investigate. He let go of Hellenica’s hand and strode to the side, drawing his dagger and looking over the edge.

“Well, well, Grizz. Fancy seeing you here…” he said acidly.

“Uh, Legion Primus, I was… just… uh…”

“Goodbye, Grizz,” Augustus said, cutting the knot free and sending the ladder slithering over the side. A short cry of panic and shock, followed by a thump and a groan from below, let me know that the Legionnaire was still alive. “Go to Mistress Nerin and explain exactly how you came to be injured, Grizz, and if you breathe a word of what you heard to anyone else…” he snarled over the side, before nodding curtly and turning back to us. “Oh, just a little internal discipline issue there, Jax. Nothing for you to worry about…”

I grinned at him and gestured to the stairwell leading back into the ship.

“Perhaps you two would like to go talk?” I offered, and Hellenica smiled, but Augustus shook his head firmly.

“No, Jax, as much as I want to have this conversation, there’s something else that’s been neglected for too long.”

“What’s that?” I asked slowly, a terrible feeling of foreboding coming over