Xanthe winced. “Run . . .”
The imperial Rangers took aim at the four running for safety below.
Xanthe and her party did not travel far as their bodies were sore and tired from the lengthy flight, chests heaving and covered in sweat. A rain of arrows fell from the skies to the laughter of Leafblade above. Xanthe heard the thuds of several armored men land elsewhere. It was the Berserkers of Leafblade’s search party. They had Rangers above shooting at their position, and now soldiers landed with axes or swords drawn, looking to spill their blood.
“There!” Xanthe pointed ahead at a growth of trees in the distance. “Those treetops should block the Rangers’ line of sight.”
They ran into the small, wooded area, tripped over the rocks and fallen trees on their path, and tumbled down the hill. Zuran helped Xanthe up when their tumbling finished. Averyl healed their wounds with Purifying Starlight, putting an end to the arrows’ bleeding effects. No further arrows fell from the skies. Looking up, the four made out the sight of fae Rangers flying above the treetops and unable to spot them as they crept through.
The sabatons of the armored fae marched and crush the twigs and dead tree leaves on the ground. They had to keep moving.
“I don’t recognize any of this,” Rachael whispered to the group as they wandered.
“Indeed,” Averyl said. “We have landed too far away from the others.”
“All because someone had to get revenge,” Rachael snorted at Xanthe with a disapproving glare.
“What is your issue with Leafblade?” Averyl asked Xanthe.
“He is the imperial general who oversaw the murder and enslavement of my people during the crusades,” Xanthe replied.
Averyl did not look at her. She just nodded and kept her eyes forward to the path ahead. “I see . . .”
“Perhaps now, you know why I wished you remained behind?” Xanthe said. “Now, Guy and the others have no healers or Mage.”
“Well, if you had stayed with the group,” Zuran groaned. “None of this would have happened—”
“I told you my reasons already!” Xanthe snapped, perhaps too loud. The imperials might have heard. You are just making this worse, you know that, right? She sighed. Zuran is right, though . . . If I had killed Leafblade back on Faeheim, then yes, we would still be with Guy and the others, and none of this would have happened.
Xanthe stopped in the middle of the wooded area then gazed at the ground, trying and failing to prevent her feelings of regret from floating to the surface.
Rachael pivoted to Xanthe. “Let’s keep moving,” Rachael said to her. “We need to find Guy before the imperials find us.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Remy held a small handheld telescope to his eye, peering through it closely. He’d been watching the skies where Xanthe and the others flew to spy on the imperial airship. Guy waited for Remy to reveal what happened, since it was clear nobody was coming back to their position anytime soon. Rachael’s max flight time was close to 16 minutes. Guy wasn’t sure about the others.
Xanthe did something silly. And now Rachael might suffer because of it.
Remy lowered his telescope. “Well, the good news is, it would appear your friends survived.”
His news soothed Guy’s rattled nerves. He came to stand with Remy as the two looked at the horizon. Guy couldn’t see shit, but he noticed that Remy had more to explain with his mouth opened.
“And the bad news?” Guy asked him. “There’s always bad news with good news.”
“Indeed,” Remy said. “I lost sight of the imperial airship.”
Tempeste joined the two, having overheard. “Let us regroup with them.”
“Hold it,” Remy said, then peered through his telescope again. He pulled it away. “The imperials left a small search party behind.”
Guy folded his arms and glanced at the small, wooded area in the distance that Remy had looked at. “Hmm, we might encounter them on our approach.”
Remy gestured to Guy and then Ulysses, who stood off to the side. “Can you not use your machina, star-dwellers?” Remy asked.
“Our weapons won’t do shit against them and their levels,” Guy said, shaking his head.
Ulysses narrowed his eyes as he stroked his chin. “Oh, wait,” the star-elf said. “There might be one advantage we have.” Ulysses reached into his pocket, pulled out his communicator, tapped its touch screen, and put it to his face.
Guy heard Arn’s voice answer the call.
“Arn,” Ulysses said, speaking into the device. “Does the Seraphim have enough power to scan? Okay, well, I need you to run a sensor sweep from orbit.” Ulysses looked at the afternoon sky. “Yeah, scan the region my signal is coming from. How many minutes? Okay, when the Seraphim’s orbit puts you over us, scan the area, then send me a copy of the data. Understood.” Ulysses ended the call, put the device away, and returned to the group. “Arn can provide us a heads up on what lays ahead once his orbit puts him above.”
“That’s handy,” Guy said. “That’ll give us a huge advantage.”
Guy issued new invites and rebuilt the party, adding Henrietta, Kam, and Ulysses to it. There was no healer or Mage among them or support from a Blade Dancer.
It shouldn’t be that big of a problem, right? I went through most of the shit on Faeheim without a healer. But let’s not take any chances. There are still imperials at large. “Everyone, wait.” Guy’s party stopped and looked at him. Guy opened his Inventory screen and pulled out all the cooking ingredients he had. “We have no healer or support. Let’s eat and drink up. The buffs we get should keep us alive longer.”
He glanced at the items he could make:
Apple Juice
Cooking Level required: LVL 2
Red Apple x1
Hydro Crystal x1
Ham Sandwich
Cooking Level required: LVL 2
Slice of Ham x1
Lettuce x1
Mustard x1
Loaf of Bread x1
Thermal Crystal x1
It was nothing fancy, but it’d do the trick. Not to mention nobody had anything to eat recently. Certain food items gave passive buffs to those who consumed it, and the Apple Juice and Ham Sandwich were one of them. Using his cooking skill, Guy created six bottles of Apple Juice and offered them to the team. After that, he synthesized Ham Sandwiches.
After the quick eat and drink session, Guy looked at the buffs the party received.
Apple Juice
Regenerating 1 HP per second.
Duration: 30 Minutes
Ham Sandwich
Attack, Magic Attack, and Ranged Attack are increased by 10.
Duration: 30 Minutes
The quick break also allowed their MP to recover.
“Might want to redo your sigil builds as well,” Guy suggested. “Use skills that focus on defense.”
Remy just snorted and kept his build the way it was.
Whatever. Your death, pal, none of us can cast Resurrection on you if you die.
Guy experimented with his sigils and used the combination Guardian, Wrath, Safety, Blade, Light, and Path.
New technique learned: Line of Defense
I figured there’d be new skills to learn with new combinations. Let’s see what this skill does.
Line of Defense
Deploy a force field behind you, protecting targets who remain behind it.
Cost: 150 MP
That spell costs more than half my fucking MP bar . . . Hmm, I guess I’ll hold off on casting Line of Defense unless there’s a critical situation. I never realized how much of a Spellsword Paladin is.
Guy led his party into the thicket and followed the dirt path toward the woods in the distance. A pack of beasts growled and stood to be their first challenge.
Wild Cougar | LVL: 19 | Rank: C
There were three of them—one to the front and two behind. Guy brought out Asteria’s Sword and cleaved at the two Wild Cougars and held their attention while Remy he
ld the attention of the third. Kam, Tempeste, and Henrietta made short work of the Wild Cougar Remy fought, then turned to the two Guy fought with, focusing on the one with the lowest HP. The beast snarled its last breath and fell over. From there, it was a six-on-one fight to take down the last.
The next challengers were fae imperial search parties. Guy and his party hunkered behind bushes to examine their unsuspecting opponents.
Imperial Trooper (Berserker) | LVL: 21 | Rank: C
And there were four Berserkers.
Imperial Trooper (Medic) | LVL: 21 | Rank: C
There was one Medic providing healing support for the four Berserkers. It was a full party of imperials.
“Take out the healer first,” he said while pointing Asteria’s Sword at the Medic. “Let’s make sure they’ll be at the disadvantage we’re in.”
His party nodded in agreement while drawing the attentive eyes of the imperials. The Berserkers ran ahead, leaving their Medic to amble behind. They weren’t going to make it easy for them to take down the healer. Tempeste tried to push past the four imperial Berserkers, but they promptly denied her with multiple axes slamming into her armor and sending her flying backward. Remy was busy deflecting axes that clashed with his twin blades, and Henrietta’s lower level forced her to stay on the defensive, using her axe’s haft to block and shove back the troopers who came for her.
The Imperial Medic cast Medica to recover his party’s HP and Regeneration to give them a heal over time buff. Guy’s party was losing.
Damn it, we need to get past this wall of Berserkers . . . Guy looked for a means to do so. He found it, Ulysses. The star-elf had stood back and launched arrow after arrow into the backs of the Berserkers, building AP faster than the rest.
“Ulysses! Hold your AP for a sec!”
Ulysses nodded.
Guy dove into the cluster of imperials, swinging furiously to get as many swings in as he could. He got 100 AP and made sure they surrounded him. They did, so Guy used Storm Slash, knocking them all away and to the ground. As the Berserkers stood to get back into the battle, Guy pointed at the lone enemy still standing, now exposed to them all, the Medic.
“Now, use your AP, Ulysses!”
Ulysses grinned, held his Marauder’s Bow steady, and unleashed Barrage, sinking three arrows into the Medic’s chest. As that happened, Guy slashed the ground, releasing his Shockwave Slash attack. A bright wave of pure astral light carved a path to the Medic, hitting them for light elemental damage and inflicting the Light Touch debuff to lower their vitality, agility, and intelligence.
The Medic countered by casting Medica, then raged at the arrows Ulysses sank into their chest, interrupting their spell casting. The arrows were inflicting more damage. Light Touch’s vitality down debuff reduced the Medic’s defense. Guy and Ulysses had the Medic on the run—Ulysses shooting him with arrow after arrow, and Guy repeatedly slashing the ground to release Shockwave Slash’s might. Henrietta, Tempeste, and Kam kept the Berserkers busy.
Guy ran out of MP during the chase, but that was okay. The Medic was down to 34 percent HP. An arrow struck the Medic’s knee, crippling them and putting an end to their retreat. As Ulysses put his arrows into the downed Medic, Guy came down with Asteria’s Sword, burying its edge in the Medic’s neck, over and over, until gore splashed everywhere. Guy wiped the red from his eyes and resumed chopping.
Obtained: 80 Experience Points
The Medic died.
Guy sank Asteria’s Sword into the dead Medic’s chest, mutilating it until his LP went to zero. The Medic’s body evaporated, leaving a soul crystal in its place. No Resurrection for him. The remaining imperials were a lot easier to deal with now. They had no healers, food or drink buffs, and no way to escape from Ulysses’s Barrage.
The imperial who fought with Remy collapsed to their knees, his head full of arrows and body carved with sword slashes.
Obtained: 80 Experience Points
Ulysses has attained level 10!
Ulysses smiled.
Tempeste swung her Spellsword Saber at the next trooper, paralyzing them with the lightning on her sword. She twirled behind and shoved the Spellsword Saber through his back. A bloody blade came out of the trooper’s chest, along with a fountain of red drenching his armor.
Obtained: 80 Experience Points
Tempeste cast Lightning and summoned a thunderbolt from the heavens to strike the dead body, then repeated. By the time she ran out of MP, the Berserker’s fried corpse had evaporated.
Henrietta rolled away from the axe of one of the last two Berserkers, ran behind the other while swinging the Aspirant’s Splitter and took off his leg with a critical hit. The trooper was hopping up and down on one leg as Kam drove his Aspirant’s Lance through his chest, pulled it out, then plunged it through the left eye of the other. The Berserker cried out in pain and wasn’t able to see that Guy came up behind him with a cleave that split his throat apart.
Obtained: 80 Experience Points
Henrietta held the Aspirant’s Splitter up high, then brought it down into the face of the Berserker whose leg was missing. She caved-in the imperial’s face with the big axe, over and over until he turned to a crystal. The grin and giggle Henrietta made was priceless. If Guy didn’t know any better, he’d say that Henrietta believed that everything truly was a game.
Obtained: 800 Experience Points
The last one was a party leader.
Guy has attained level 19!
His party stood victorious.
“Don’t forget to take the soul crystals,” he said as they searched the loot the bodies left behind. “The empire needs those for whatever they’re planning, so let’s not make their job easier.”
They collected the loot, primarily sigils that Kam, Henrietta, and Ulysses were lacking. The party arrived at the wooded area and treaded past the trees with caution in their footsteps. Guy heard movement ahead. It was a fae wearing leather armor, clenching a bow tightly; a Ranger was patrolling the area. Their presence prompted Guy to hide behind a tree. His friends did the same, then peeked around the tree to view the Ranger.
Imperial Trooper (Ranger) | LVL: 20 | Rank: C
Guy looked away and whispered. “Just one Ranger.”
Ulysses nodded. “Looks like they split up to search for them.”
Guy grinned and whispered back. “Good, Ulysses, shoot him.”
Ulysses nocked an arrow that appeared from a sparkle of astral energy in his hands and fired a shot at the Ranger. It hit the Imperial dead on for minor damage.
“What the fuck?!” The Ranger yelled.
The Ranger yanked the arrow from his bloody shoulder, then pivoted. The Ranger and Ulysses made eye contact. Ulysses covered behind his tree seconds before arrows flew past. The Ranger ran to Ulysses’s tree . . . and right past Guy’s tree. Guy left his cover, stalked the Ranger, and made a swift upward cleave.
The asshole didn’t see the hit coming and panicked.
You can’t fire your bow when your target is right in your grill.
The imperial Ranger tried to leap backward but ended up jumping into Ulysses’s arrows, then Remy’s twin swords.
Obtained: 60 Experience Points
Guy led the team forward, using the trees ahead to block the searching Rangers’ line of sight. One by one, Guy’s party lured the imperials away from their search and into their trap. Kam and Henrietta hit levels 16 and 12 respectively. The battles left Guy with a decent collection of Ranger soul crystals stashed in his inventory.
They continued onward and heard footsteps ahead. Was it another Ranger patrol? Guy signaled with his hand to his party again, prompting them to leap behind trees and lay in wait for another ambush. He nodded to Ulysses, and the two moved up.
The two stopped.
They saw familiar and friendly faces. Xanthe, Rachael, Zuran, and Averyl. Guy sheathed Asteria’s Sword on his back and smiled at the star-fae who looked at him. “Rachael!”
Rachael put her index finger to her
lips and whispered. “Shush, careful, they’re—”
“Imperials?” Guy said without whispering and walked toward her. “Yeah, we took care of them. What happened out there?”
Rachael cocked her thumb at Xanthe. “She tried to give us her best murderhobo impersonation and almost got us killed.”
Xanthe crossed her arms and turned her nose up at Rachael. “I never asked for your help!”
“Listen!” Rachael roared, and jammed her right index finger into Xanthe’s face. “We’re a team now, like it or not. We have to stick together.”
Rachael and Xanthe eyed each other for a period and frowned. “Sorry,” Xanthe snorted to her. “And who was it that put you in charge, Rachael?”
Tempeste tapped Guy’s shoulder. “You might want to do something before they turn on each other,” she whispered.
Guy sighed, “I was hoping this wouldn’t happen.” He stood between Rachael and Xanthe, using his body to encourage the two to take a step or two back. “Okay,” he said. “Simmer down, you two—”
“You two?!” Rachael spat. She shifted her anger to Guy, “Since when was I in the wrong?!”
“Look, Xanthe’s been through a lot in her past,” Guy explained. “It’s going to take her awhile to get used to the new normal. So she might do things without thinking ahead.”
Rachael clenched her fist and shut her eyes. “Guy . . .”
“Listen, Rachael,” Xanthe said to her. “We are alive now, correct? No harm came in the end. And Guy, did you not just say your party took care of the imperials? Well, guess what? That is fewer soldiers Autumnfall has to support New Svartálfar. This was a good thing in the end.”
“Right,” Guy said in agreement. “So, let’s just put this past us and move on. The imperials might send a second group once they realize the first one didn’t check-in.”
“Whatever.” Rachael stormed off with her fists clenched.
Pissing Rachael off was not Guy’s intention. He reached for her, then Xanthe held his arm. Xanthe gazed at him with her green eyes and cocked a half-smile.
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 29
