Star Paladin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 1)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  A hulking figure dropped from the sky, landing ahead of Guy and Zuran with metallic fists clenched. It was a sentinel, its armor covered in gold stripes, and Guy assumed that meant he was super badass. None of the other sentinels he saw bore those stripes.

  Thud.

  Someone hit the ground hard.

  Oh, that didn’t sound good . . . Guy turned to the source of the sudden thud. Kam lay on the wooden platform, passed out, arms and legs spread with the Bronze Lance in his hand. “Shit, Kam! That wasn’t for you!”

  Recruit the Spell Lancer - Quest Complete

  Obtained: 550 Experience Points

  Or maybe it was.

  Guy hoped so because turning forward, he saw additional imperial soldiers charge to the docks as their sentinel overlords hovered above.

  Guy and Zuran were the only ones able to fight until Kam awoke.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Xanthe and Averyl had departed from Holt after slipping past the searching imperial soldiers and the sentinels patrolling the lands between Holt and the southeastern cave. Partway into the trek, they alerted a group of sentinels. The two ran until they reached the cave, then vanished within it just as a sentinel ship hovered over the area to conduct a search. No sentinels entered the cave. Xanthe and Averyl were free to travel through it.

  Xanthe loathed the experience she had in the cave and the Dire Bear that refused to let her past. Xanthe’s AP skills combined with speedy potion usage and swordplay kept her alive. Of course, she had to spend seemingly endless hours slaying bats to gain the level required to take on the Dire Bear by herself while protecting Averyl.

  By the time the multi-hour dungeon trek had finished, Xanthe felt her arms, hands, and legs become stronger. She checked her stats to find out why.

  Class: Blade Dancer LVL 10

  Experience Points: 130/2357

  I gained four fucking levels doing that . . .

  The new weapons she found from the dungeon loot also helped.

  Steel Edge [Scimitar]

  Rank: D

  Attack: 6

  Charisma +1

  Asteriarite Slot: [Asteriarite: Charisma +1]

  Requires: 45 Charisma 22 Strength

  And in her off-hand.

  Heavy Kilij [Scimitar]

  Rank: D

  Attack: 6

  Strength +1

  Asteriarite Slot: [EMPTY]

  Requires: 22 Strength

  She thought the worst was over after leaving the cave and ventured with Averyl to South Town.

  A sentinel ship darkened the area and the two of them.

  The sentinels followed them from the desert, likely waiting for them to leave the cave. Xanthe and Averyl escaped into the city limits of South Town, but not without the sentinel ship trailing behind. The mysterious starship’s doors opened to release the machina men with their blazing energy projectiles.

  Chaos erupted in the streets, sending South Town’s inhabitants running to their homes or abandoning their businesses. Xanthe had a feeling the two star-dweller ships at the docks would do something similar. She had to get Averyl aboard one of the two ships fast, and hoped the sentinel’s weapons did not blow the star-dwellers into cosmic dust.

  Xanthe ran while tugging Averyl along, pushing past the frightened fae residences of the city, making her way to the docks. Above, the sentinel ship continued to blacken the land below with its shadow as it released machina men. And, looking up, Xanthe spotted the buzzing wings of fae wearing reflective cuirass bearing the emblem of the Autumnfall Empire.

  The sentinels were not just deploying their personnel. They were releasing imperial soldiers into the city. Autumnfall and the sentinels were working together.

  “Halt!”

  An Imperial Trooper had landed in front of Xanthe and Averyl, holding a sword ready for blood.

  Xanthe shoved the princess behind her. “Stay back, Averyl!”

  She reached for her Steel Edge and Heavy Kilij, raising both weapons up to use her Dual Wield trait, and faced her opponent.

  Imperial Trooper (Berserker) | LVL: 10 | Rank: C | HP: 100%

  Easy.

  She ran to the lone soldier, cutting away at his armor and flesh. For every hit the soldier landed, Xanthe’s Steel Edge and Heavy Kilij struck him twice more. Since she was attacking with both weapons, Xanthe was gaining 20 AP per attack round. Combine that with the 2% Attack Speed Bonus her agility gave her, and it took seconds to reach 100 AP, then use Brisk Strike. She stabbed him once in the chest, leaped and twirled behind, hit him again, and received the 15 percent boost to her attack and defense. With the Imperial Trooper’s back still turned to her, Xanthe diced away the last of his HP and his life.

  Averyl had looked aside when the soldier slumped over dead. Xanthe sheathed the twin scimitars to her left and right. “Sorry, Averyl, but he left me with no choice.”

  Averyl was an imperial, and she just watched Xanthe kill one of her people.

  “This was the better outcome,” Averyl said and joined her. “At least they cannot report what we are doing.”

  “Sentinels and their machina might.”

  The sentinels were causing quite a stir at the docks. It sent a chilling feeling through Xanthe’s chest that traveled to her back and stiffened her raven wings. Something was going on at the port, something that got many people screaming, something that triggered several star-dweller weapons, mixed with the clangs of swords, to erupt. The sentinels and imperials did not just come for Xanthe and Averyl. They found someone else critical to their mission.

  Did we just lead sentinels to targets they were not expecting to find? “Stay behind me!”

  Xanthe ran to the docks with Averyl keeping behind.

  Kam awoke from his dazed state, holding the lance he wasn’t supposed to touch. The faun rubbed the left side of his head, just below his goat-like horns. “Oi, you did not tell me I would blackout like that!”

  Guy looked at Kam’s information.

  Kam (Spell Lancer) | LVL: 1 | Rank: D

  Well, he’s one of us now. I guess I should invite him so we can better monitor his HP and shit. Guy sent Kam the party invitation.

  Guy | HP: 321/640 | MP: 160/160 | AP: 70/100

  Zuran | HP: 218/218 | MP: 14/534 | AP: 0/100

  Kam | HP: 65/65 | MP: 50/50 | AP: 0/100

  He hoped Kam would be able to help with the challenge ahead, the Gold Stripe Sentinel.

  “Zuran, please tell me you still got mana potions.”

  “Got two left.”

  “Drink ‘em!”

  He did. “Not enough to cast Fireball though!”

  “But you can cast Fire, right?”

  “Yeah, but the damage is lower than Fireball.”

  “Better than nothing!”

  Kam joined Guy and Zuran as the third member of the party, ready to use the Bronze Lance and whatever tricks his new powers gave. Guy rushed the Gold Stripe Sentinel, intending to get in its face and annoy it. The sentinel turned to confront Guy.

  “I hope you know what you’re doing!” Guy said to Kam.

  Kam drove the tip of his polearm forward, thrusting rapidly. “So do I!”

  Zuran cast Fire—the last spell that his low MP would allow—and a red-orange blaze forced the sentinel to pat out the flames. “There should be a tutorial quest that will explain it,” Zuran said.

  Guy snorted. “I really don’t think this is the right time to be accepting that!” He held Asteria’s Sword tight and lunged for the sentinel, who countered and rose its wrist-mounted pulse gun at Guy, forcing him to wince and leap away to dodge the bolts from the weapon.

  “Well, I’m sure I will figure it out,” Kam said and raised his lance for the sentinel’s chest. “At least they have to get my HP to zero now.”

  But you only have 65 max HP . . . Zuran has more, and he’s a Mage. Oh right, Kam’s level one. “Yeah, Kam, about that . . .”

  Guy closed the gap between him and the Gold Stripe Sentinel and assaulted it with multipl
e slashes, rolled behind in anticipation of another pulse gun barrage, then continued the fight. The sentinel spun to meet Guy, putting its back to Kam and Zuran, and that’s precisely what Guy needed.

  Sentinels only have their forward wrist weapons. As long as he’s facing me like this, he can’t target Zuran or Kam.

  Guy was on the defensive now, utilizing the blade of Asteria’s Sword to swat away as many pulse gunshots as he could with Fortification active. The AP skill allowed him to eat the back-to-back shots to the face he failed to deflect. His HP barely dropped. Behind, Kam shoved his Bronze Lance into the sentinel’s back, inflicting minor damage. It was better than the knife he had been using.

  A woman had shouted. It sounded like an imperial had confronted her. If Guy weren’t busy holding the sentinel, he’d run back to check on her. The woman’s voice was a lot like Xanthe’s too. Did she follow us or something?

  Sweat poured down Guy’s face. He had no idea what it would take to kill the Gold Stripe Sentinel, let alone a standard one since it had no HP bar, and their powered armor was far more advanced than anything he’d ever seen. Not even star-dweller Marines had powered armor like it. It was like poking a sword and a pike on a brick wall while your friends torched it with a flamethrower, hoping it’d magically fall over—but the sentinel didn’t fall over.

  Guy cut a gash across the sentinel’s chest armor and yellow sparks sprayed everywhere. He saw damaged circuits and wires flash and discharge from the cut. It put a grin on Guy’s face. The sentinels were killable. He thrust Asteria’s Sword into the machine man’s chest.

  The sentinel twitched and tried to grab Guy by the collar, but it lost strength and its hands and arms went limp. Guy killed it, and the sentinel reacting to the stab suggested that something was living inside the suit. He pulled Asteria’s Sword from the sentinel’s chest, wincing. The kill yielded no experience points.

  Guy looked for lingering threats. He saw none, for now. The imperials and sentinels clustered in the city, regrouping to make another push into the docks. They knew the Paladin was a force to be reckoned with.

  He sheathed Asteria’s Sword to his back. The three fled down the docks and found Arn and Ulysses blasting their laser rifles, defending Seraphim's open entrance from the swarming sentinels above. Their lasers did fuck all against the sentinels. Pulse gunfire sent Arn and Ulysses diving for cover. Ulysses got up from his evasive roll, snapped his aim to the sky, and let loose red lines of laser blasts.

  Arn came about and took aim at Guy, Zuran, and Kam as they ran to the Seraphim. The trio froze with their hands held out. Arn lowered his laser rifle.

  “Yo, we got to get out of here, now!” Guy yelled.

  He got no argument from Arn and Ulysses as they led the way into the Seraphim. Guy and his party joined them behind.

  Ulysses and Arn threw their rifles in the corner and ran through the Seraphim’s corridors, making their way to the bridge. Guy followed as a new sense of security calmed his nerves when he heard the Seraphim’s entrance doors slide shut and lock. He was aboard a starship now, and the deflector shields were seconds from activation. There was no way the imperials could get to him.

  Ulysses sat in his chair on the bridge, faced the primary controls, and fidgeted with the various buttons ahead of him. Arn took the chair beside Ulysses and fiddled with the navigation computer screen. Behind, Guy caught his breath. It’d been quite a workout. Zuran and Kam entered the bridge next, their eyes in awe at the technology to their left and right. They had never been this deep into a starship before. Like most land-dwellers who paid for a ride on a starship, star-dwellers forced them to remain in the cargo hold or living quarters.

  Computer screens and holographic displays were nothing more than a strange form of magic to the land-dwellers.

  “And we’re good to go!” Arn reported. “Destination?”

  The Seraphim sailed from the docks, the sight of the ocean and blue skies through its windshield. Ulysses took the controls, pushed three blinking buttons, and prepared the Seraphim to operate as a spaceship rather than a boat.

  “Let’s head back to the fleet, mon ami!”

  “No!” Guy ran forward, drawing Arn and Ulysses’s attention to him as they spun their chairs around. “We can’t leave Rachael behind. We have to find her!”

  Ulysses grimaced and displayed his gritting teeth. “Aw, man, fuck!”

  “Whatever you decide, it’s got to be quick,” Arn said and faced his computer screen. “Sentinel ship’s powering up.”

  Ulysses returned to his station, pushed a button, and brought up a map of the planet Faeheim. “Show us the island, Guy.”

  Guy stepped over and gave the interactive map a spin, making the blue globe turn. He forced the projection of Faeheim to stop and pointed at the tropical island north of the equator. “There, that’s Muruai.”

  It got an approving nod from Ulysses. “Laying in a course.”

  The Seraphim’s engines powered on, propelling the ship across the ocean. It lifted a second later with water dripping off its lower section, accelerated into the sky, and vanished into the clouds as twin rays of sunshine reflected off its shiny hull.

  Behind, the sentinel ship flared its thrusters. The mysterious alien spaceship with imperials on board flew in pursuit of the Seraphim.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Xanthe got to South Town’s docks just in time to see a star-dweller ship pull away from the harbor, turn around, and sail off. Once clear, it rose to the skies, thanks to its machina, and moved so fast it looked like it disappeared.

  The star-dwellers had left before she could deliver Averyl to them.

  “Fuck!”

  Averyl gasped. “What is wrong?”

  Xanthe looked ahead, wincing at the sight of several imperial soldiers marching toward a ship, murmuring a battle strategy with each other. The imperials were preparing to advance on the last remaining star-dweller ship at the harbor, its crew holding star-dweller weapons that would be ineffective against them. The ship’s crew would not last long against afflicted fae, but were Averyl’s only chance to leave the planet.

  Xanthe grabbed Averyl’s skinny wrist and yanked her along, the ends of their dresses fluttering. They caught the eyes of the star-humans, lowering their laser rifles. The star-humans were not sure if they should trust the two, and Xanthe could not blame them. The afflicted had increased resistance to standard weapons, regardless of whether they were land-dwellers or star-dwellers.

  Xanthe stopped in front the star-humans. “Star-dwellers!”

  “We’re full, land-dweller!” the human snorted.

  “Please, I beg of you,” Xanthe said to them, “accept one last passenger.”

  The human captain put one hand on his hip, the other held his weapon. “It’s gonna cost ya.”

  Xanthe offered the star-human a sack of coins. “This is all I have.” He opened the sack and pulled out coins reflecting the light above. “You might afford fae whores in the southern continent with that.”

  That put a smile on the captain’s face. “Come on in, shadow angel.”

  “I am not the passenger.”

  “Then who is?”

  Xanthe stepped aside, unveiling the fae princess behind, frightened hands shaking, face full of uncertainty and worry. She pushed Averyl over. “Go with them!”

  Averyl ran ahead to board the ship, stopped, and turned to Xanthe, who backed away from the ship. The princess offered her hand to her. “Please, come with us.”

  “I cannot. Sorry. They would probably ask for more money if I went, anyway.”

  “You damn right we would,” interjected the captain. “Now hurry the fuck up! I don’t know what the other ship is, but it’s powering its engines.”

  Overhead, two massive shadows darkened the harbor. The sentinel ship left the city, and just like the star-dweller ship, Seraphim, it vanished in a bright flash of light and disappeared in the clouds. The sight had Averyl stand in awe, and by the time she looked away, Xanthe
was not with her.

  Xanthe had fled the docks and returned to the city’s stone streets.

  Averyl’s Request – Quest Complete

  Obtained: 1000 Experience Points

  That must mean . . .

  The star-dweller ship soared in the skies, angled its nose to the heavens, then blasted off in a burst of light, making it vanish from sight.

  Averyl was gone, so were the sentinels and the imperials.

  After an hour, calm and normalcy returned, and South Town’s people went about their day like nothing happened. And the dead imperial soldiers? Their bodies turned to crystals and useful items.

  Xanthe spent the rest of the afternoon on a scavenger hunt for the loot.

  “Well, that’s not a promising sight.”

  The Seraphim decelerated when the tropical island of Muruai appeared below in the blue ocean. Guy could tell by the blackened burns that few survived the attack. It didn’t stop him from believing that Rachael stayed safe on the mountain.

  “Taking us down,” Ulysses said and worked his instruments, forcing the Seraphim to land in the water then drift to the remains of Muruai’s harbor.

  “Sentinel ship is inbound,” Arn said, facing down at his computer. “You might want to make your search quick.”

  Guy shook his head. “There’s a lot to search, and I’m not leaving without her.”

  “This isn’t a military ship, Guy,” Ulysses said. “If the sentinels get in weapons range, we’re taking off no matter what.”

  “No, you can’t!”

  “I’m the captain, so I think I can.” Ulysses spun his chair around to face Guy. “You lost your ship, mon ami. Now you’re playing by my rules. Trust me, I’d hate to leave Rachael behind, but if we don’t leave soon, there won’t be anything left of us behind.”

  Arn snorted. “I’m sure they’ll keep at least one of us alive for questioning.”

  The Seraphim pulled to the harbor’s ruined docks and slid open its side door, allowing Guy to leap out and wince at the odor of burned wood entering his nose. The once lively tropical island city was now a barren wasteland, crows echoing in the distance. And the jungles outside didn’t look to have fared any better, nor the wilderness traveling up the mountain. The empire and the sentinels weren’t fucking around.