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

“Your training, remember?” he said with an evil grin. “You might have forgotten, but I haven’t, and Bane mentioned to me that you’d been avoiding his training sessions, too. Makes sense to me that we’ll just roll them both into one. Bane agreed when we last had a chat about it.”

“Oh, I bet he did…” I growled, turning around, and catching him watching me as he was measured up for new armor. I felt the air shaking with the subsonic thrummm of amusement that was his version of laughter.

“But unfortunately, I have to spend a lot of time with the Golems, especially directing them, and Bane needs to be able to watch outwards, as your bodyguard…” Augustus paused, and I let myself relax slightly, thinking it wasn’t going to be as bad as I’d feared. “So instead, I reached out to the one person I felt could provide the level of training and dedication that the future Emperor requires…” His words trailed off as someone strode up from the depths of the ship and out into the bright sunlight.

“Centurion Primus Restun, thank you for your willingness to take over Lord Jax’s training,” Augustus finished, and I felt my balls shrivel at the look of evil satisfaction on the Legion Primus’ face, as well as the look of calm determination on that of Restun’s.

“Well, fuck,” I muttered disconsolately.

“I win,” whispered Bane from behind me, the sound carrying in the sudden silence that filled the ship’s deck, even the Legion armorers watched me with pity on their faces.

I might be the Imperial Heir, and the Scion of the Empire… but this was Centurion Primus Restun, and he had just become a far higher authority.

Chapter Six

I reached up one shaking hand, fumbling desperately for the rope, and I felt my grip weakening involuntarily. My fingers flailed about, frantically patting across the top of the railing blindly, while I swung in a gentle breeze and tried not to fall.

“W… where… are… you…” I growled to myself before finally finding the scalloped, carved grip and digging my fingers in. Shaking, I pulled myself up the last few feet and rolled over the railing, only to collapse heavily , sweating and gasping for breath on the deck, while sparkling flecks of light appeared and vanished alternately, indicating that I’d pushed myself so far, I was dangerously low on air.

I heard slow, steady footsteps from my right and saw Restun move into view, staring down at me in grim-faced disapproval.

“You agreed that when I train you, you have no rank, yes?” he asked firmly, and I wheezed out that I agreed. “Then you are lower than the lowest new recruit. They, at least, are aspirants.” he continued, and I winced at the acidic tone. “But you, Jax, you are an embarrassment! You break down and collapse after only three hours of climbing?! I haven’t even started to train you yet!” he roared at me, dragging me to my feet and shoving me forward.

I stumbled, my legs like lead weights as I tried to keep upright, staggering along the track he’d laid out. The Battleship still had huge sections of the deck missing, but if you were careful and paid attention, it was possible‒just‒to run across it.

The points I’d sunk into my Agility stat were truly earning their keep as I staggered, wove, and stumbled my way forward, trying to keep up with the Centurion Primus. He hadn’t even broken a sweat yet, as near as I could tell, and he’d been doing the same exercises as I was, even going so far as to wear the same weighted armor he’d had me kitted out in.

When Thorn had brought it out and strapped it on, she’d whispered an apology to me as she locked the sections together. An apology I’d taken with good grace, and a smile.

That seemed like at least fifteen years ago now, as the additional weights clattered and banged, bouncing and swaying and nearly throwing me off balance further as I followed the old bastard around the edge.

I could hear cheering and whooping from below as I came into sight again. The Legion and civilians, those who were eating their evening meal, had apparently taken the time to place more bets and cheer me on as I continued on my way.

I dug deeper, motivated by the shouts and the determination that I wouldn’t be seen as a failure by my own people. Gritting my teeth, I pushed myself to try catch up to Restun, where he comfortably jogged a few meters ahead of me.

Once we passed from the end of the deck, we took the next stairwell down, then turned left, running along corridors that were strewn with junk, gear, and people’s belongings. Before long, our path took us out into the second level of the main hold.

Once within the space, we followed a balcony path around the second level, jumping over occasional obstacles and avoiding the few people remaining inside, before taking the far set of stairs down to the lower floor of the hold. Rather than slowing, we began climbing the crates and piles of gear, jumping down from the opposite side, and climbing the next one, then jumping down and repeating, until we reached the far side of the hold.

Here, we stopped for thirty seconds to rest, then started pushups, star jumps, and sit-ups.

After three hundred of each, done in sets of fifty with sixty seconds between them, we were off again, running along the corridors to the far end of the ship, then back along the outside until we reached the rope ladders and climbed the side, wrestling ourselves back up to begin all over again.

I was seeing stars and spots, my breathing running ragged and shallow, and I could taste blood with every breath, when Restun finally called it two more laps later, and I fell to the floor bonelessly.

“Well, you’ve earned a break, boy,” he said grudgingly. “I have to admit, you’ve got grit, but that won’t save