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

using me. I got all the fun I could handle, and they got the lives of pampered courtesans in the UnderVerse, if I survived and won.

If not, ‘so sad, too bad,’ and ‘next please…’.

It had taken Oracle and I some time to really understand what was going on between us, and she’d grown, emotionally as well as physically, in the time we’d spent together. Her consciousness had evolved from an almost child-like curiosity to that of a full-grown woman who was comfortable with what she wanted.

Wonderfully comfortable, I reflected, admiring at her naked figure as she sat back upright and straddled me, smiling, as I remembered the night we’d just had.

She brushed her hair back from her face, pushing her lower lip out to blow an escaped strand of hair upwards with a light puff, before smiling down at me. Her hair had shifted from a golden blonde when I had fallen asleep, to a deep lustrous red this morning, her skin pale, soft as silk, and her muscles taut and firm.

I sat up, taking her in my arms and kissing her, reveling in the sensations of her gently biting down on my lower lip and shivering as I ran my hands down her back to settle on her full and firm ass…

“Lord Jax!” a familiar voice called from the door, followed by a heavy trio of thumps that rocked the thin, hastily built wall, let alone the door itself. “Are you awake? I’m coming in.” The door opened before I could so much as break the kiss, revealing Grizz, who paused, then grinned.

“Get out, Grizz!” Oracle and I both ordered, and he shrugged, his cheeks reddening as he got an eyeful.

“Ah! Sorry, boss, and sorry, uh… boss lady? Augustus sent me to see if you were alive, and, well, you are!” He kept grinning, partly out of relief and partly because Oracle was admittedly a hell of a sight.

“Out!” Oracle repeated, throwing our shared pillow at his head as he laughed and closed the door so quickly, the entire wall shook.

“Think that was deliberate?” I asked Oracle, sighing.

“Him walking in, or them sending him?” She countered.

“Yes,” I said, shaking my head. “Both, I mean. He deliberately walked in, probably not thinking about it, or thinking he might be able to wind us up with something, and probably saw more than he expected to. I guarantee you that Augustus and whoever else wants us would have suspected what he would do. Sending a blunt instrument rather than a scalpel to do a job does work, after all.”

“It’s just messy,” She said, and I grinned.

“Shall we get him back?” I asked.

“Oh definitely, and Augustus, too. I think Hellenica will help us there. You know she likes him, right?”

“God, yes; it was a bit blatant,” I replied as she leaned back slightly, arching her back and making sure I got a hell of a view.

“So… shall we get dressed, or…?” She raised one eyebrow and glanced down suggestively.

“Jax, I’m sorry to interrupt, but…” Grizz’s voice filtered through the door. “Prefect Romanus said he needed you on the bridge, if you were able.”

“He’s fucking listening to us, isn’t he,” I said flatly to Oracle.

“He really is,” She agreed, crossing her arms in annoyance. I summoned a fountain of clean, cold water by the doorway, causing the water to splash and run under the door as Oracle fired off a particularly weak Lightning Bolt. I watched with silent amusement as she deliberately adjusted it into a zap, rather than a stunning effect.

“Gahhhhh!” Grizz screamed, followed by the satisfying sound of a huge, fully armored Legionnaire dancing out of the spray.

“He deserved that.” Oracle huffed regretfully as she shifted, resuming her normal diminutive size. Her wings lifted her into the air, a short black halter top and hot pants materializing to cover her assets, and I sighed, dropping my feet over the side of the small cot to rest on the wooden deck.

I felt the faint shudder of the Airship as it changed direction slightly, the engines firing in a controlled burst, before dying away to a steady ‘thrummm’. I shook my head again, standing and stretching, while a multitude of tiny pops and clicks protested the night spent on the cot. It was small, tight, and while better than the floor, the benefit wasn’t by much.

We’d actually managed to break it twice overnight, and the rudimentary fixes weren’t likely to hold a third time, so I folded it up and leaned it against the back wall. Grabbing some boxers and tugging them on, I couldn’t help grinning as Oracle made exaggerated eye-rolls and wolf whistles at me.

“We can’t all just magic clothes up, you know,” I said, hopping on one leg as I pulled my Drow Gloom spider silk pants on. They were a little… okay a lot, stained and scruffy, but they were undoubtably the most comfortable clothes I had. As I dressed in the rest of my gear, casually pulling armor on, and settling weapons into place, I reflected on the fact that going everywhere fully geared for war was the new normal for me.

“You ready?” Oracle asked me as I checked to ensure that my various sheathes and pouches were all secure, twisting at the waist to make sure nothing was caught on anything.

“Yeah, come on.” I nodded to her. “Time to go play with the Legion, I guess.”

“Just remember, they might be a bit reserved with you. You’re the lord to them, but most don’t know you yet; they just felt the bond become active, and the upper echelons recognized that you were their best chance for survival. While they’d never attack you, due to the Oath, it doesn’t mean they’re automatically going to love you either. You’re still going to have to earn their respect.”

“I know,” I agreed, recalling my first encounters with the Legionnaires I had grown close to in the Arena. “We struck gold with Augustus and his team, and yet we still lost a lot of