Guy couldn’t see the king, only a pool of blood before the throne. And, come to think of it, Tempeste had tears dripping from her puffy cheeks. Now he understood why she kept the soul crystal. Rage built up in Guy . . . he was too late to save Tempeste’s father. Everyone who played a role in the injustice had to fucking go, including the man standing in the middle of the throne room wearing a black cape attached to his dark and spiky armor.
Serzax (Nox Knight) | LVL: 30 | Rank: A
And Serzax looked pissed too as he strode toward Remy, past the dead dark elves and fae spilling liters of blood everywhere.
“You cannot become a Paladin,” Serzax sneered at Remy.
Remy sluggishly waddled to Serzax, no doubt still under the influence of the muddle potion. “Er . . . why not, mate?”
“You do not possess the gene.” Serzax crossed his arms and kept his attention on Remy. And not Guy creeping up behind.
The Nox Knight continued, and Guy listened. “Paladins are like the Nox Knight. They are special classes that require someone to touch Asteria’s Sword or the Nocturnal Blade and have the unique gene. I have the Nox Knight gene, as did my son. Guy has the Paladin gene, same with his father and uncle. That is why you do not see many of those classes around.”
Guy paused when Serzax uttered those words and looked at his hands. Hands that had the Paladin gene. I was born to use Asteria’s Sword? No, wait, that can’t be. The corruption didn’t exist until a month ago . . . right? No, it probably existed for a long time . . . why else would Uncle Matthew have Asteria’s Sword, then give it to me? He was a Paladin this whole time, dad too—
“No, no, no!” Remy cried out when the truth hit him.
He couldn’t become a Paladin because he didn’t possess the gene for it.
“Now . . .” Serzax firmly said, his hand held out to Remy. “Give me Asteria’s Sword!—”
“No!” Remy screamed at the top of his lungs. “I will become a Paladin! I will become a king! And my first order as the new ruler of this nation . . .” Remy clenched the sword with all his might. “. . . will be your execution, Nox Knight!”
Serzax whipped out his Nocturnal Blade, clasped its hilt to make the sword emit its strange dark purple glow, and absorb all light around it. Remy lunged for Serzax, missed, and struggled to keep Asteria’s Sword steady. It only made Serzax’s job easier as he raised his blade to strike down Remy’s HP, removing chunks of it with each swift stroke.
Guy winced, backed up, and gave the two men space to fight it out. He found Nijana and Tempeste to the side as Remy and Serzax fought. The two women looked relieved to see the trench-coated star-dweller approach.
“You two, okay?” Guy asked, though their full HP gave him the answer.
“Yes,” Nijana said.
“I take it, the muddle potion worked?”
“Work?” Nijana laughed and pointed.
The trio spun to watch Remy make a fool of himself. The elven Berserker forgot midway into the fight that he was in one. Now Remy looked like he wanted to have a dance-off with Serzax and waved his arms about. Remy stopped for a minute to shake his ass too. Serzax continued to cleave his sword into Remy, bringing his HP closer and closer to zero.
Then the Nox Knight winced and stepped back. “What is this? Are you not going to defend yourself?”
Nijana chuckled. “As funny as this is, I don’t see why the White Dragon intended this to be our course.”
“I think it was,” Guy said. “Tempeste is free, and the dark elves and fae are too busy killing each other, giving Lumière’s army a fighting chance. And . . .”
Guy narrowed his eyes, inspecting Remy and Serzax. Serzax hadn’t even noticed that Guy had arrived in the throne room. The Nox Knight focused his attention on Remy and Asteria’s Sword. They would never have had that opportunity if Remy didn’t drink the muddle potion and held Asteria’s Sword at the same time. Remy and Serzax were still distracted. This was their chance to take Serzax down. This was what the White Dragon had guided Guy, Averyl, and Nijana to. It was to set up that moment. Serzax had to go. Serzax was the last of his bloodline, the last of the Nox Knights, a threat that had to come to an end.
That’s why he and his son were so obsessed with impregnating Averyl. They wanted to spawn a new generation of people with the Nox Knight gene. Hmm, only it still doesn’t make sense why it had to be Averyl and no other woman. Whatever, man, think about it later! Guy turned to Tempeste and Nijana. “I need to switch back to Paladin,” he said. “Serzax’s going to come for us once he’s done with Remy.”
“There is an astral cluster upstairs,” Tempeste said, and pointed to a staircase and the balcony overhanging above the throne room.
Guy looked up at the balcony and spotted the shimmering glow of what could be an astral cluster. Despite the siege going on, the system still considered the castle to be a place of sanctuary. Silly game rules.
“Take me to it!” he said. “I think it’ll be faster to use the one upstairs than to pull out the one in my inventory. That shit’s fucking heavy.”
Guy dropped from his party and hoped the others didn’t mind. He invited Tempeste Nijana to his new one, then followed the elven Spellsword maiden as she led them up the winding staircase to the throne room’s upper level. Guy looked over the railing, and saw that Remy was still in the fight, but not for long.
Remy (Berserker) | HP: 12%
He was a dead man any second. They had to hurry.
The trio found the astral cluster at the end of the walk and stepped aside to allow Guy to touch it. The screen flashed ahead, confirming that he could switch his main class. As much as Guy liked Spell Lancer, it was time for him to return to a Paladin, the class he was literally born to be. He made the switch and felt his chain armor fall off his body. Working quickly, Guy tossed his Spell Lancer gear into his Inventory, pulled out and got into his Paladin gear, then adjusted his sigils, this time keeping a few of his Spell Lancer ones.
It was a well-rounded setup, perfect for bringing down an asshole weak against light elemental magic. Guy was missing one thing now . . . Asteria’s Sword. He hoped taking it back before Serzax did wouldn’t be hard—
“Oh, no!”
That was Tempeste.
She had run to the balcony’s railing to look down at the fight between Serzax and Remy. Guy and Nijana joined her and saw Remy lay in a pool of his own blood. Serzax had killed him.
Guy just shrugged. “Eh, he was a jerk.”
“A misguided one,” Tempeste sobbed. “He . . .”
Serzax drove his blade into Remy’s chest repeatedly. Serzax seemed more interested in ensuring Remy turned to a soul crystal than taking Asteria’s Sword lying beside his corpse.
“Fuck,” Guy said and ran to the stairs. “We gotta hurry!”
He rushed down, not caring about the noise he made. The advantage Remy’s distraction created was just about finished. Guy approached the glass tiles of the throne’s main floor and braced himself to perform the most intense dash he would ever have to make—from the stairs, past Serzax, over to the pool of Remy’s blood, to grab Asteria’s Sword back before Serzax did.
Guy reached the bottom of the staircase, spun to Serzax, and prepared to take the first steps into his plan.
And stopped.
The situation had changed.
Serzax had stuck his Nocturnal Blade into the floor, piercing the tiles like they were soft as soil. Then, the Nox Knight kneeled, and dragged Asteria’s Sword beside the Nocturnal Blade, burning his hand in the process. Serzax dumped out a large stash of soul crystals, including Remy’s soul crystal, and neatly piled them up.
There were sparks of astral energy flaring and twirling around the blades of Asteria’s Sword and the Nocturnal Blade. It looked as if the energy was linking the two weapons together, drawing them closer to become one.
A holographic screen floated above the weapons. As Guy crept toward Serzax, he read the screen’s contents.
Weapon Fusion in Progres
s
Please standby as this may take a while. Add additional soul crystals if you wish to speed up this process.
Weapon fusion expected result: Omega Claymore
Fuck that!
Guy ran and dropkicked Serzax from behind, causing the screen to turn red and blink an error message.
Link broken. Please restart the Weapon Fusion command.
The strange ritual ended as Guy’s kick hurled Serzax away. Guy saw his sword, retrieved it quickly, and moved to evade a blast of dark elemental energy. Serzax cast Dark Orb at Guy. He was using a Mage subclass. Guy made a note of that.
Guy rolled back to his feet, smiling to feel the hilt of Asteria’s Sword in his grip again. “Back in business!”
Serzax grabbed and yanked the Nocturnal Blade from the floor and eyed Guy, grinning. “Hmm, so am I.”
The two men sized each other up, trench coat Paladin versus Nox Knight in dark and spiky armor, his black cape rustling behind as he walked across the glass tiles to Guy. Nijana joined Guy at his left, pulled the White Espada off her sword belt with one hand, and held Dianna’s Ocarina in the other. Tempeste stood at Guy’s right with her Spellsword Saber, its blade shimmering with lightning bolts zigzagging up and down.
It was a three on one fight, and Serzax looked confident he would win.
It probably had something to do with Serzax being an A-ranked Nox Knight, and 10 levels higher than Guy and his party of stylish lady companions.
Chapter Seventy-Five
The blade of Asteria’s Sword glowed blue and white, brightening Guy’s face as he dashed across the throne room’s glass tiles to meet Serzax. Tempeste’s Spellsword Saber charged with lightning bolts. She rushed Serzax from the opposite side, swung for the Nox Knight’s head, but hit his raised Nocturnal Blade instead. It left Serzax wide open for Guy’s impaling thrust. He plunged Asteria’s Sword into Serzax, delivering the first blow in the fight, one of many.
Serzax (Nox Knight) | HP: 99%
He had a lot of HP to remove.
As Guy and Tempeste fought Serzax, Nijana accepted her role as the party’s support member. Nijana cast Asteria’s Judgment to make her White Espada inflict light elemental damage. The spell also allowed Nijana to tap Guy and Tempeste’s wounds with the side of the White Espada when needed to recover minor HP. It was the best Nijana could do. Her sigil build didn’t allow her to cast Starlight Recovery, nor did her small pool of MP. It was the downside to Bards using a Cleric subclass without MP gear or asteriarite. Nijana joined in the fray, lunging toward Serzax with the White Espada’s pointed tip. When Nijana got AP, she played Symphony of Protection I, granting the party with increased defense.
Guy was glad for it. Serzax was a monster of a swordsman. They had outnumbered Serzax 3 to 1, and the big man with long silver hair held his ground. Guy slashed only for Serzax to twirl and deflect Asteria’s Sword. Then the Nox Knight spun to counter Tempeste’s lightning strike, duck from Nijana’s rapier, and come up with his Nocturnal Blade raised to parry Guy while he was making a downward cleave with Asteria’s Sword. Serzax shoved Guy back and turned to duel with Tempeste again. Serzax’s level made him spin faster than they could swing. The Nox Knight had a sword fight with three opponents and was winning. Serzax hadn’t even cast any magical spells yet.
Nijana sneaked in a few pokes with the White Espada to get AP to sing a song, Swift Carol.
Now Guy’s party possessed increased movement speed. The three moved as if the winds carried them, allowing them to get close to strike, then backflip away from Serzax’s blade and his multiple Storm Slash attacks. Guy conserved his MP for the time being. Lay on Hands wasn’t part of his build, and Spell Lancer spells used a ton of MP. Guy spent most of his AP on Fortification, sometimes Cut Through the Armor. Serzax had a lot of defense and Cut Through the Armor’s ability to ignore an opponent’s defense helped take down Serzax’s HP faster. Well, that was assuming Asteria’s Sword wasn’t clanging with the Nocturnal Blade.
Now and then, Guy would use Storm Slash when he saw the opportunity, though Serzax never spiraled away. Serzax was a human like Guy and resisted knockbacks from time to time. Elemental Attunement added light elemental damage to Asteria’s Sword. It gave an extra kick to the odd cuts Guy hit Serzax with. Nox Knights were weak against light. Guy saw a plume of mist rise to the air each time his light imbued sword struck the man of darkness, just like Nijana and her White Espada imbued with the spell Asteria’s Judgment.
The tide of the battle changed when Nijana used Encore, granting the party with Symphony of Protection II and Swift Carol II. The second tier of Symphony of Protection increased their evasion, and the second tier of Swift Carol boosted their attack speed. The wince on Serzax’s face was an awesome sight. Guy, Nijana, and Tempeste were keeping up with the Nox Knight.
Serzax swung for Guy’s head leisurely. It felt as if time had slowed. In reality, Guy and his party were just moving fast. Guy jumped backward and watched the slow-motion-moving blade cleave the air where Guy was. The flow of time returned to normal until Guy went to strike Serzax. The world slowed just enough for Guy to spot Serzax leave his chest open as he lifted his weapon to slice at Tempeste. Guy pushed Asteria’s Sword through Serzax’s chest, removed more HP, and pulled it back before time sped up. Nijana’s Bard songs were powerful—
And Serzax got off another Storm Slash.
Nijana and Tempeste spiraled backward and hit the floor. Guy’s human racial trait kicked in, leaving him as the sole person to fight Serzax until the two got to their feet. As incredible as Bard songs were, the three only chipped away at Serzax’s HP.
Serzax (Nox Knight) | HP: 89%
Meanwhile, Serzax’s recent Storm Slash removed 206 HP from Guy and probably a lot more from Nijana and Tempeste. The key to winning was not getting hit by Serzax. He was confident Serzax could kill him with 8 or so direct hits, and Guy had a Bard for a healer.
Green and blue light sparkled across Guy’s arms and legs, mending his minor wounds for 97 HP. Nijana had tapped Guy with the White Espada and healed him with Asteria’s Judgment. To the side, Tempeste parried Serzax’s rapid slices. Nijana ran to her side, tapped her with the White Espada, and Tempeste sparkled with the same soothing light of Asteria’s Judgment. Nijana’s powers kept them in the fight.
Then she uttered the words Guy didn’t want to hear as he resumed his sword fight with Serzax.
“I’m out of MP . . .”
Guy checked her MP.
Nijana | MP: 2/190
Shit. Well, good thing Nijana’s a fae. Her racial trait should regenerate MP. Each tap from Asteria’s Judgment costs about 25 MP. That means every twenty-five seconds, she can heal us.
Tempeste deflected a sword strike, countered with a flurry of attacks, and stunned Serzax with a spark of lightning. As the Nox Knight twitched, Tempeste opened her Inventory screen to pull out a glass bottle full of blue liquid, an MP potion.
“Nijana!” Tempeste shouted to her. “Here! Catch this!”
Tempeste hurled the potion from her free hand. It tumbled through the open space and across the throne room. Nijana moved toward it with her eyes fixed on the falling bottle, leaped in the air, fluttered her fairy wings to get some extra height, and caught it. As Nijana came for a landing, she drank the blue liquid from the potion, and recovered enough MP to resume healing Guy and Tempeste.
Serzax was still shaking from the electrocution, gifting Tempeste and Guy free shots to stab his body up and down. Nijana ran up with her White Espada and gave it her all—
And then Serzax recovered, clenched his blade, and swung to slash at Nijana. The fae Bard rolled away in an evasive dive, came up with the White Espada in her hand, ready to strike again.
“Any chance you can Lullaby his ass?!” Guy yelled.
Nijana returned to the fight, lunging the rapier. “Not with my current sigil set up.”
“What the fuck? Why?!—”
Serzax kicked Tempeste in the face, then bashed Guy to the floor wi
th the flat of his blade.
Nijana’s jaw dropped as he hit the ground, leaving her the sole party member to duel Serzax.
“Lullaby would not help us,” Tempeste said as she came to. “Serzax’s level is too high to put to sleep. My lightning spells are barely stunning him.”
Guy sighed. They had a long way to go. The three continued to fight the Nox Knight, hiding behind his level advantage, turning the glass throne room into a fighting arena—
Crash.
Another Storm Slash sent Nijana and Tempeste flying back. The girls hit the glass tiles and rolled and tumbled across it for a few. The attack left Guy dueling Serzax solo again until the two got up and returned to the fight. Guy hoped the 829 HP he had left would last.
Asteria’s Sword and the Nocturnal Blade clashed and clanged, then struck against one another, forming an X shape. The light from Asteria’s Sword never shone upon the Nocturnal Blade, while the Nocturnal Blade’s evil shadow failed to take the light away from Asteria’s Sword. Guy and Serzax peered into each other’s eyes, burning with absolute hatred.
“I know what you did to my son, Paladin,” Serzax snarled.
“Yeah, I fucking killed him,” Guy said. “I thought we had this discussion.”
“I used his soul crystal,” Serzax said. “I have his memories, his experiences—”
Guy brought a bright glow to his hand and cast Blinding Flash. The throne room turned white as if a flashbang went off. Serzax staggered backward, groaning.
The light faded, unveiling that the Nox Knight had shielded his eyes with his arm. Serzax lowered his shielding arm and laughed at Guy. The Nox Knight could still see.
“Like that,” he said. “That is how you killed my son, blinding him with that spell.”
Blinding Flash didn’t work, it only singed Serzax’s flesh.
I have to fake him like last time. Though, I doubt he’d fall for that again. I’m better off saving my MP for now.
Serzax resumed his assault, swinging his sword for Guy’s face. Guy wasn’t quick enough to block the first strike, which hit him for critical damage and brought his HP to 577. His blood dotted a single glass tile red. Guy was losing HP to the bleeding debuff.
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 57
