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

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “I can,” Zuran said. “Well, until my flight time runs out. Seems I got a time that tracks when my wings will get fatigued.”

  He was right. When looking at Zuran’s info on the Party screen, Guy noticed a countdown timer appear near his name, and it was ticking away by the second.

  Zuran drifted behind Henrietta, grabbed and held her steady, then pulled her up. He didn’t move fast and struggled to keep their bodies in the air.

  “Ugh!” Zuran was struggling.

  Henrietta angled her head at the fae Mage trying to pull her to safety. “Don’t you dare say I’m too heavy!”

  “My strength is not high enough to carry you!” Zuran bellowed. “If I were a Berserker like you, this would not have been an issue—”

  Arrows zoomed through the air.

  The arrows were heading for Zuran.

  Guy wasn’t fast enough to say anything and a barrage of arrows perforated Zuran from all sides. Zuran crashed to the ground, his bleeding body covered in arrows. Henrietta had escaped during the fall. Whoever had shot Zuran was aiming for him specifically.

  “Do not just stand there . . .” And the woman who just shouted? She was the one who shot Zuran down. “. . . kill them all!”

  At the entrance leading to the staircase stood the Ranger from the Muruai massacre—Emeraldal Riversong, if Guy’s understanding was correct.

  Emeraldal (Ranger) | LVL: 17 | Rank: C

  He was correct. Emeraldal had leveled up since he last saw her, and she brought a few imperial soldiers to stand at her side. The bow Emeraldal held in her nimble fingers made it clear she’d shoot the rest of Guy’s party if Zuran tried to fly away while holding them.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Emeraldal pulled the string of her bow, making an arrow flash into existence. She released her finger on the bow’s string and sent one arrow toward the group. Guy wasn’t sure who she aimed for exactly. Guy’s perception of the world slowed, allowing him to track the arrow’s trajectory. He swung Asteria’s Sword up and smacked the arrow, sending it spiraling away. The arrow evaporated when it hit the ground.

  The imperial Ranger frowned and pulled her bow again, shooting arrow after arrow out, her hands working at impossibly fast speeds. Emeraldal’s bow skill was on par with a machine gun, and Guy swinging his sword deflected every volley. She was running and shooting now, and Guy kept pace to keep her arrows away from the team. Emeraldal leaped up—way up to gain a high advantage—as her hands guided her bow to Guy’s party behind. She opened fire, and her storm of arrows sent Zuran, Kam, and Henrietta scattering.

  Emeraldal’s feet never hit the ground. Her wings had buzzed, keeping her in the sky, giving death from above a whole new meaning. Deflecting her rain of arrows was damn near impossible now. With Zuran’s HP down to 51 and Henrietta's low level, Guy once again had to go on the defense, using Asteria’s Sword as a parrying shield rather than a weapon.

  “Kam, handle the trash,” Guy said as he ran, his eyes trying to predict who Emeraldal was targeting. “I’ll keep the others safe.”

  Henrietta yelped and rushed away with her Autumnfall Cutter up in the air. Multiple arrows punctured the floor where she had stood, then another six landed to her right and six more to her left. Emeraldal preyed on the lowest level, so Guy ensured his body was between Emeraldal and Henrietta, his blade rising to block.

  Six arrows came down from the vengeful fae.

  Swing, swing, swing, swing, swing.

  Guy blocked them all except one, and that one arrow ended up in his arm. Ignoring the pain and the HP loss, Guy gave a nod to Henrietta. She returned it and steadied the Autumnfall Cutter in her grips. Another six arrows fell, and Guy’s weapon rose to greet them.

  He blocked three of them, and the other three ended up sticking into his chest. Emeraldal cursed, spun, then flew to Kam as he and Zuran fought her bodyguards. Emeraldal’s arrows sent Kam and Zuran running for cover and freed Henrietta from her spot. The librarian-turned-Berserker charged to the imperials with low HP and split a few heads open. Guy put himself behind Kam and Zuran, shielded them from the next salvo of arrows with his high defense and vitality, and deflected a bunch more with his sword.

  Emeraldal really hated him for that.

  The Ranger got the message: target Guy. It gave Zuran and Kam the chance to join up with Henrietta and kill the last imperial bodyguards. With the guards dead, the party spun for the final pest in the skies as her unlimited arrows continued to be swatted away by the glistening blue blade of Asteria’s Sword. Guy’s arms never grew tired—

  “After them!”

  That was the voice of more guards showing up.

  Another six imperial soldiers joined the battle, forcing Kam, Zuran, and Henrietta to spin to them.

  “Damn it,” Zuran said. “How many soldiers did they bring?”

  Kam gestured to the opened door the guards ran from. “I think that Cleric is downstairs, resurrecting them.”

  Guy deflected an arrow bombardment, rolled to the side, and threw off Emeraldal’s aim. Coming up, Guy added, “Guess we should have stayed to drop their LP too. Give them a Permadeath.”

  Kam met the imperials with his Heavy Lance, raising it to deflect their sword swings with Henrietta at his side and Zuran casting Fireball.

  “Permadeath?” Kam asked.

  “Permanent death,” Guy said, then spun and met Emeraldal’s angry face. “You don’t come back when your LP hits zero.”

  “Well, then.” Kam impaled one imperial soldier, bringing their HP to zero. He repeatedly pushed his lance into their face—permadeath. The soldier evaporated, and when the mist cleared, Kam smiled at a soul crystal and consumable items on the ground. “HP and MP potions!” Kam gathered the loot quickly, tossing them off to Zuran and Henrietta.

  Zuran put his tome to his side. “Give me one!”

  Kam threw the MP potion into Zuran’s hands, grabbed his lance, twirled it in the air, and met the next soldier.

  Zuran drank the potion and his MP rose by 200. It was a Greater MP potion. He tossed the disintegrating empty bottle away and retrieved his tome, bringing its glow out. “All right, time to light this bitch up!”

  With Kam and Henrietta on the imperials, Zuran buzzed his dragonfly wings and reached the skies to meet Emeraldal. The Mage made a three-second cast and hurled a Fireball at Emeraldal’s left side, sizzling her arm.

  Emeraldal | HP: 70%

  Zuran removed 30 percent of her HP. Emeraldal came around, putting Zuran in front of her, then lifted her bow and took aim—

  Boom.

  Emeraldal | HP: 50%

  Her aim wavered. Zuran had unloaded his Fire spell.

  Boom.

  Emeraldal | HP: 30%

  That blast ignited Emeraldal’s wings with raging flames.

  Emeraldal crashed and leaped to her feet, then pulled out and drank an HP potion.

  Emeraldal | HP: 52%

  But her wings continued to blaze, and Guy had a feeling she’d stay grounded as long as they remained on fire. With Emeraldal on the ground, Guy ran to close the distance—

  He ate six arrows to the chest and a seventh one to the collar.

  It hit Guy so hard it flung him to the floor.

  Another three arrows sunk into Guy’s back as he got to his feet and watched as Emeraldal dashed away, strafing and shooting at him repeatedly. There was no way he could go on the offense with her, even when she was on the ground. Her attacks were too fast—

  And that arrow plunged between his eyes.

  Guy | HP: 181/758

  His HP was low enough to feel pain from the damage to his body—blood trickled down from the uncountable number of arrows stuck in Guy’s chest and limbs. He pulled out an HP hypospray—

  An arrow knocked it from his hands. The hypospray vaporized when it dropped to the ground. He had six left and didn’t want to risk losing another.

  Emeraldal had to go. If Kam and Zuran ganged up on her, it’d be over now.

  Kam was b
usy thrusting for the imperials or leaping away from their blades. Kam needed to hold the trash, and had his hands full.

  Guy turned to the party member who wasn’t busy. “Henrietta, I see that your max HP is 166 now! What level are you?”

  “Level 3!” she yelled out. “My level is so low that I am getting 100 experience points with each kill!”

  “I’m not going to last much longer!”

  “Same,” Zuran said and flew aside to evade arrows shooting upward. “Almost out of mana!”

  Guy looked at Emeraldal as she stopped to down another HP potion.

  Emeraldal | HP: 74%

  The flames on her wings dimmed too. She’d regain her flight abilities soon, and Zuran wouldn’t be able to set her wings on fire again without MP.

  It was all up to the librarian now. Henrietta held the Autumnfall Cutter and entered an aggressive pose. “I will . . . uh, give it my best shot!”

  Henrietta beelined for Emeraldal, heels clicking rapidly. She drew Emeraldal’s bow to her, and there wasn’t anything more Guy could do. Emeraldal would shoot Henrietta before he could protect her and he lacked AP for Provoke. Guy ran to put himself between Emeraldal and Henrietta, hoping he’d get there in time.

  He didn’t.

  Henrietta got there first and ate a lot of arrows. Her HP fell to 41 as her blood coated the ground behind. Her heels kept moving, despite the arrows.

  Henrietta was going to die.

  Emeraldal was grinning now, then pulled back on her bow, let go, and sent another arrow toward Henrietta. It plunged into her chest. Henrietta screamed and fell . . .

  Henrietta | HP: 13/166

  . . . to one knee.

  She was breathing deeply from the pain and bleeding so badly that her skirt and blouse were drenched red. Henrietta maintained her grip on the axe, got up, and resumed running.

  Now Emeraldal was the one who staggered backward. She underestimated the strength of the Berserker and their will to ignore pain.

  Whack.

  Henrietta used her axe like a baseball bat. The blow tossed Emeraldal’s aim off.

  Whack.

  Henrietta spent AP on Thundering Blow, hitting hard enough to knock Emeraldal back.

  Emeraldal | HP: 62%

  Guy closed the gap now, then leaped and slashed Emeraldal, up and down, left to right. Henrietta got behind and wailed on Emeraldal’s back. They trapped Emeraldal, and she was unable to direct her bow, unable to run, and unable to fly because her wings still burned.

  Emeraldal | HP: 3%

  She screamed in frustration—

  Crack.

  Henrietta’s axe cut into Emeraldal’s head, creating a valley-like gash on the top of it. The Ranger went down, the Autumnfall Cutter’s blade still stuck in her head, dead eyes open to the skies. Henrietta grabbed the Autumnfall Cutter and pulled it from Emeraldal’s skull, unfazed at the droplets of red dripping from the blade.

  Like Curtakis, Emeraldal’s death yielded some big experience points. 800 for Guy, 900 for Zuran, and 1000 for Kam and Henrietta.

  Guy has attained level 14!

  Zuran has attained level 13!

  Kam has attained level 12!

  Henrietta stepped away, gasping in shock at the dead fae Ranger with a forehead squirting up blood from a wound deep enough to see brains. “I killed her . . .”

  “Sorry you had to endure that,” Guy said. “But it was the only—”

  “That was so exciting!” Henrietta’s blood-soaked body leaped up and down, shaking her breasts with each jump. She stopped to groan in pain afterward. “It was just like this book I was reading the other night. In it, the heroine . . .”

  And Henrietta went on rambling about some book she had read. Guy smiled and nodded, then lowered himself to Emeraldal’s corpse and stole her bow.

  Emeraldal’s Bow [Bow]

  Rank: C

  Ranged Attack: 40

  Asteriarite Slot: [Asteriarite: Agility +1]

  Asteriarite Slot: [Asteriarite: Agility +1]

  Requires: 30 Agility 20 Strength

  She can’t be a threat without this. Then again, if we permadeath her now, she won’t be one either, but . . .

  Guy looked at Kam, struggling to hold his own. The imperials were still in play. Putting the bow over his shoulder, Guy readied Asteria’s Sword again and gestured to Henrietta and Zuran; they ran to Kam’s aid, killing the guards—only for more to run up the staircase.

  The newly arrived imperials were a mix of classes: Mages, Berserkers, and a few Rangers—and there were way too many of them for Guy to stop and count.

  Kam sighed. “Oh, come on!”

  “We need to permakill that fucking Cleric!”

  If Henrietta weren’t at 13 HP, then maybe the four could have fought off the imperials. Instead, the imperials chased them with arrows and spells, and Guy had a hard time deflecting magic. It didn’t take long for the soldiers to push the four back, way back to the edge of the keep, their feet just inches away from falling to their deaths—except for Zuran, who could fly away and could also carry the others with him.

  “Zuran,” Guy said to him. “Get Henrietta out of here. Take Kam afterward.”

  Zuran snorted. “I got a better idea.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Duck.”

  “Duck?” Guy grimaced at him. “What the fuck do ducks have to do with—”

  Multiple shots from the Seraphim zoomed over their heads like an angel delivering an explosive judgment upon the imperials. Guy saw the Seraphim angle its pulse guns again, take aim, then fire. He ducked.

  “Oh, that duck, right.”

  The ground vibrated during the blasts.

  They were so loud that you couldn’t hear the screams of imperial troopers losing their lives. A shadow darkened the four. The Seraphim had flown above, turned, and hovered over the keep’s rooftops while lowering its entrance ramp.

  Henrietta has attained level 5!

  There was enough death to get Henrietta her level, plus another. The blood covering her body vanished as the level gain pushed her HP to full.

  Ulysses walked down the ramp with his laser rifle in his hands, slowly lowering it as he beamed a smug grin. “Bonjour, mon ami!”

  Ulysses aimed at the surviving imperials and fired red lines at them, killing them. The imperials’ HP was so low that even a non-afflicted weapon like a laser could kill them.

  Henrietta stepped toward the Seraphim, her hair blowing, eyes open in shock as she looked at Ulysses. “Those pointed ears. Are you . . . an elf? A star-elf?”

  Ulysses raised an eyebrow. “And who do we have here?”

  “Ulysses, this is Henrietta,” Guy said. “And she’s coming with us, no back talk.”

  Guy led his party into the Seraphim’s opened entrance. One by one, they all leaped aboard, leaving Ulysses standing, sighing, and shaking his head. “Well, well, who am I to argue with the man who’s not the captain of this ship.”

  Ulysses spun to join them and shut the door.

  Henrietta was in no rush after boarding. She meandered through the ship’s corridors, eyeing its layout and lights on the ceiling with a child-like gaze. “Wow . . . so this is a starship?” She gasped, then clasped her hands together and held them over her chest. Henrietta was the last to enter the bridge. The computers and control dashboard wowed her. “This is incredible.”

  “You should see it when it’s flying,” Arn snorted. “Speaking of which, all aboard, Captain?”

  Ulysses retook his chair at the front, joining Arn. “Yes, that is everyone.”

  Arn cracked his fingers and fiddled with his computer terminal. “All right, everybody, hold on to your butts!”

  The Seraphim made a vertical ascension away from the keep, darkening it with its shadow. Its engines roared and pushed the ship into space and into the visual range of vessels in the orbit of Mennaze. Like the sentinel ships.

  “Jesus,” Guy said as he watched the sentinel ships in orbit. “They’re inva
ding half the planet.”

  Wylume sheathed his Nocturnal Blade to his back upon watching the Seraphim vanish beyond the clouds. He arrived a minute too late to support Emeraldal, who now lie dead at his feet in a pool of her blood, a red circle expanding every second. Wylume’s fears were becoming a reality: a group of afflicted people who learned how to level fast and how to use their abilities in combat as a team. If left unchecked, the sentinel’s plans to save the lives of billions would end.

  Wylume sighed at the rest of the dead—at least, those who had not turned into soul crystals. “Veronis,” Wylume said to the Cleric, standing behind. “Resurrect everyone.”

  “Yes, milord.” Veronis stepped forward while holding his staff. He shut his eyes and glowed with green and blue light—

  “Emeraldal first,” Wylume added.

  Veronis performed the ten-second cast required for Resurrection, sending a ray of sparkling light down from the heavens and onto her body. The circular pool of red she lay in moved backward in time and reentered as her wounds faded. Emeraldal opened her eyes. She sat up while coughing blood and spat out a wad of red.

  Veronis turned to the rest of the dead to repeat, making them live once again. Wylume gathered the soul crystals from those who lost LP. They might have come from fallen comrades, but were necessary for the grand plan.

  To his side, he heard Emeraldal stand up, growling. “Where is my bow?”

  “They must have taken it as a trophy.” Wylume laughed at her.

  “Fuck! Where did they go?”

  Veronis pointed to the sky using his staff. “Fled on a star-dweller starship.”

  Wylume grinned. “A ship we can now trace.”

  A sentinel ship lowered from the clouds and hovered before the edge of the keep’s rooftops. Its main entrance slid open as Wylume walked toward it, hands in his pockets.

  Before boarding the ship, Wylume spun to Emeraldal and Veronis. “You two, clean up this mess, will you?”

  She bowed. “At once, master.”

  “I will handle the Paladin and his ship.”

  Wylume turned from the two and entered the vessel.