Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Averyl watched the HP bars of Remy and Pierre closely, Remy especially since he was the target of two Berserkers at one point. Remy’s HP dipped to 762, so Averyl cast Starlight Recovery and brought it up to 878. A critical strike had sliced open Remy’s leg, maiming his ability to stand and sprayed the grass red. It left him crippled, unable to walk correctly, and bleeding. Remy was losing 25 HP per second because of the bleed debuff.

  She had a spell that would take care of that.

  Heal Up

  Removes one debuff.

  Casting Time: 1 Second

  Cost: 10 MP

  Averyl cast that spell, and Remy’s lame leg recovered in seconds, giving him the power to dodge an axe chop. The Berserker’s blade hit the grass; the impact webbed the surface with dozens of cracks. She cast Heal Up once more, and Remy’s blood oozing wound faded and stopped bleeding his HP away.

  Pierre’s HP had suddenly fallen to 589. Averyl spun to him with sweat dampening her forehead. A Ranger, hidden behind a tree, creeped out to shoot the Gunner with a volley of arrows. She cast Starlight Recovery on Pierre, brought his HP to 705, then observed the Ranger and his sigils glowing. The Ranger had AP and had positioned themselves to unleash it upon Pierre. Averyl channeled her magical power again, cast Starlight Recovery once more on Pierre, even though his HP was nearly full. By the time her two-second cast had finished, the Ranger used Barrage, an AP skill that allowed them to fire three arrows back-to-back in one second.

  The three arrow Barrage hit Pierre with enough force to throw him to the grass, covering it with his blood. Pierre’s HP fell to 525, then Starlight Recovery flashed its green and blue aura over his body, mending his wounds, bringing his HP up to 641, and giving him the strength to leap to his feet. The Ranger winced, Averyl’s healing spell undid more than half the damage done by the Barrage skill. The Ranger nocked an arrow that materialized into his bow from a surge of astral energy, then aimed it for Averyl. She lacked the agility needed to escape, and the arrow sank into her left shoulder.

  Averyl’s HP fell to 276 with one shot.

  Pierre tried to intervene, blasting his flintlocks at the now charging Ranger, but it was of little use. The Ranger’s high agility allowed them to launch arrow after arrow at Averyl, all while giving him the power to leap from Pierre’s bullets, roll across the grass, and come up with his bow aimed perfectly at the fae Cleric. Averyl hurried to the closest tree she saw, missed arrows soaring past her left and right.

  She got behind the tree, pressing her back and wings against its trunk, and felt it vibrate. Several arrows had hit it with incredible force. She could not see Pierre and Remy from her position or direct healing magic at them. They would have to survive without her for now. Losing the healer in the middle of a battle usually spelled doom for the party. She refused to have their deaths on her mind.

  Averyl grabbed a Greater MP Potion from her Inventory screen, yanked off the cork, and drank it fast. The potion brought her MP back up to 800. She stopped to cast Starlight Recovery on herself, bringing her HP up to 392. She peeked around the tree’s trunk. The Ranger shifted his aim to have a shoot-out with Pierre, gun versus bow. Remy had switched to a defensive stance to fend off the two Berserkers, his HP declining to 498, then 457 when he failed to parry an axe swipe.

  Averyl cast Starlight Recovery three times, back-to-back, and brought Remy up to 805 and her MP down to 650. Now, to recover Pierre’s new arrow wounds. She held her Silver Wand and waited for the two seconds for Starlight Recovery to—

  Stab.

  A trickle of blood poured down Averyl’s back and brought her HP to 150.

  Stab.

  A second stream of red rained from her left side shoulder, HP down to 101.

  Averyl was bleeding and losing HP at an alarming rate. An Assassin had used Backstab on her, one who had been invisible with their Stealth skill the whole time.

  Before the Assassin struck again, Averyl sidestepped and pivoted to see them swing their twin daggers for her. She ran, which put her in firing range of the Ranger. Arrows flew toward Averyl on the side while a sprinting Assassin chased her from behind, her HP slowly falling because of the bleed’s effect, 97, 87, 77. She had to cast Heal Up, but one could not run and cast simultaneously, and the Ranger, Assassin duo knew that. If you could not kill the healer, force them to run. They were smart but were forgetting one thing, Averyl was not an elf. She was fae, so she spread her buzzing autumn wings and floated upward and used Heal Up to cleanse herself of the bleeding.

  Her flight timer decreased.

  Flight Time Remaining: 12 Minutes 30 Seconds

  It was an indicator to let her know when her wings would grow tired from their constant use. Averyl could not stay high in the air forever, but she could hover above the battlefield and laugh at the Assassin, unable to slash her with his daggers and cursing rampantly.

  She cast Starlight Recovery twice, moving her HP up to 319—

  Two arrows struck her chest, triggering more bleeding and bringing her HP down to double-digit numbers. Heal Up removed the bleed from the Ranger and Starlight Recovery allowed her to survive a volley of arrows coming up from the surface, one landing into her left thigh, the others missing her by an inch. Averyl flew behind the treetops, using its leaves and branches as cover from the Ranger, lowering his bow in frustration. He tried running around the tree to target her, so she continually drifted to the opposite end to break his line of sight. As he ran around to aim at her again, Averyl cast Starlight Recovery to mend her injuries, then cast the same spell on Remy and Pierre. She circled around one tree as the Ranger came in targeting range, then drifted toward another.

  Down below, the Assassin switched targets. He stalked Pierre, who stood in the open firing his weapons at the Berserkers, killing one of them.

  Obtained: 150 Experience Points

  Remy only had to defend against one Berserker and had the support of Pierre and his guns. It was a two-on-one fight, and the Assassin was about to change that. Averyl buzzed her wings and soared through the air. Arrows flew up at her in response. She ignored them, hovered above the Assassin, and aimed her Silver Wand down at him, its decorative ornament shining with bright light.

  She cast Chastisement upon the Assassin, and divine light elemental energy made his skin burn and bubble, like it was melting. The Assassin screamed from the pain and fell to his knees as his HP ticked down to 76 percent in thirty seconds. Averyl cast the spell again, and it slowly ate another 24 percent of the Assassins HP, distracting him from the fae who lowered herself to the grass behind, one scepter raised high as she cast her most basic spell.

  Asteria’s Judgment

  Imbue your weapon with Asteria’s essence, allowing you to tap targets and recover their HP or deliver light elemental damage to enemies.

  Potency: 20

  Healing Potency: 20

  Cost: 50 MP to cast and 25 MP per healing tap.

  Asteria’s Judgment imbued Averyl’s Silver Wand with light magic, and she used it to carry out the goddess’s will. She cracked the Assassin’s head with the Wand. Averyl might have lacked the strength to deliver serious physical damage, but the blasts of light elemental energy sparking from her Silver Wand made up for that. Averyl wailed on the Assassin from behind, giving him a taste of his own medicine, reapplied Chastisement’s damage over time effect, and drained another 24 percent of his HP.

  Obtained: 75 Experience Points

  He was dead before his body collapsed.

  Averyl grabbed the dead Assassin man, used all her might, which was not much, and held the corpse to the charging Ranger as they fired at her. The arrows struck the dead Assassin in the chest. She would have held the Assassin longer if her strength was higher, but her delicate hands could not do so, and the body hit the ground. Averyl stood in the open, and the Ranger laughed as his bow raised to take aim—

  A bullet shot the Ranger’s hand, turning it to a grisly red pulp of flesh and bone.

  It was a critical hit from Pierre.
The Ranger brought the stump on his wrist to his face as red juices squirted upward. The Ranger couldn’t fire his bow and couldn’t defend himself when Remy charged and speared him with his swords repeatedly until he died. Behind, a crippled Berserker limped toward the three. Then stopped. Remy, Pierre, and Averyl stood in front of the lone Berserker, grinning. Averyl cast Chastisement on the Berserker, delivering the painful damage over time light spell, Pierre unloaded his guns, and Remy laughed when the big axe-wielding man collapsed backward and never got up.

  Obtained: 150 Experience Points

  It was not over yet, sadly.

  There were more outlaws across the meadows, roaring a furious battle cry.

  Chapter Eleven

  Nijana felt as if she had returned home, back to her ship sailing the wild seas of Faeheim. The surface below her swayed and rumbled, and every sense in her mind told her it was the ocean waves crashing against her ship at sea. The chatter of men around her? Why, that was her loyal swashbuckling crew, drinking and dividing the plunder they stole from a recent raid. And that pain in her head? Probably too much drinking herself, which would explain why she was laying down and clearly had been for some time. Arriving in that other version of Faeheim must have been a dream. Posing as Averyl to steal her wealth? A dream too.

  A smile spread across Nijana’s face. It was all a dream. She was back, so she opened her eyes, sat up, and tried to rub the side of her throbbing head.

  And frowned. Nijana couldn’t move her arms—hard to when someone tied them to your body.

  Trees of a dense thicket moved past as she lay in the rear of a carriage pulled by horses. The swaying felt earlier was not her ship at sea. It was the carriage as it proceeded across the uneven landscape or fallen tree branches. The surrounding men? They were elves, sitting and grinning at her. Her senses were wrong about everything except the plunder laying in the middle of the carriage, and she was certain she’d lose a hand if she reached out and touched it.

  Nijana groaned, “What in the . . .”

  “Ah, welcome back to the land of the living, lass,” said the voice of a woman in a heavy druid accent.

  Nijana angled her face to the woman, slowly as to not make her head hurt even more. Standing in front of the men in the carriage was a short druid woman—if short was even the proper term as all druids were short. She had platinum hair, wore a hair accessory designed to make it look as if she had rabbit ears, and stood with her fists on her hips.

  It was the same Mage who had attacked her.

  “I . . . died?” Nijana asked, her voice full of shock.

  “Why, yes,” said the druid Mage as she pointed at herself and beamed a conceited smile. “I, Synaria Summers of clan McChesney, killed you. How did it feel to go down by the best, lass?”

  “Dying wasn’t pleasant,” Nijana said drily. She tried to stand, only to find that someone had bound her legs with rope. She felt that same rope had pinned her wings to her back. Flying away wasn’t an option either. “Neither are these bindings.”

  “We usually refrain from taking prisoners,” Synaria said and leaned closer. “Makes us look like bandits, you know?”

  “Lucky me,” Nijana snorted.

  “We have some questions to ask you,” one elf asked, a Berserker with a large claymore sheathed to the back of his cuirass.

  “Indeed,” Synaria said with a nod. “Like why you, a level 1 Bard, thought you could attack us with no gear?”

  “Where I came from,” Nijana answered. “People lost their heads when I run at them with a sword.”

  Synaria held her hips again and stepped closer, eying Nijana with intense scrutiny. “And where is that?”

  “I wish I could say,” Nijana said and shrugged. “Faeheim, but . . .” But the Faeheim I knew differs from the one here.

  “Faeheim?” An elven woman asked, a Ranger with a golden bow. “What is that?”

  “Realm of the fae,” Synaria replied.

  Another elf lifted their eyebrow in confusion. “Fae?”

  Synaria cocked her thumb at Nijana. “That is what she is. This lass here is a fairy from another world. Those star-dwellers must have brought her here. Tell me, fairy, how many more of your kind did the star-dwellers bring to Alfheimr?”

  “Just me.”

  “Naw.” Synaria waved her index finger back and forth. “There are more fairies here. Rumor has it, the Lumière Kingdom took in one of their princesses. And now we heard, recently, a large fairy army attacked the kingdom’s airship fleet.”

  “Is that so?” asked the Berserker.

  “Aye,” Synaria said to him. “And fairies, fae, pixies, whatever you want to call ‘em, have a mana regeneration trait. That makes them the best spell casters around.” Synaria jammed her finger into Nijana’s face. “So, I would appreciate it if you could be so kind as to tell us how many faes are in the Lumière kingdom. We need to know what we might have to deal with.”

  “I don’t have a clue, sorry,” Nijana said.

  “You’re lying.” Synaria invaded Nijana’s personal space, her arms crossed over the bust of her purple dress. “How many faes does the kingdom have, and will they send them after us?”

  “I don’t know.” Nijana shook her head. “I just arrived on this world.”

  “Have it your way, lass.” Synaria turned away and addressed the elves in the carriage. “Let’s kill her again.”

  “Wait,” Nijana called out, sweat drenching her face.

  Dying for the first time was horrific enough. The people who held her captive were in the perfect spot to unleash a new type of torture, killing someone over and over until they break. She preferred not to subject herself to that. She had valuables to sell and the identity of a fae princess to steal.

  Synaria twirled back to Nijana, grinning. “Ready to spill it?”

  “I have other information you might want to know,” Nijana said.

  That put a grin on Synaria’s face and made her bunny ears stand at attention. The druid Mage flicked a lock of her platinum hair to the side. “Okay out with it.”

  “Star-dwellers are here,” Nijana said. “And they have classes, just like you.”

  “Really?” asked the Ranger.

  “I believe her,” Synaria said. “Lit two of them up earlier today—” Synaria paused suddenly, her face contorted as she went into deep thought. “But . . . now that I think about it, they were interested in some level 1 Bard. I guess that is you?”

  “Hmm, they found out about my transformation, it seems,” Nijana said. “Well, in any case, there’s a star-dweller ship in the village. And . . .” Nijana gestured at Dianna’s Ocarina clipped to the side of her belt. “That little thing turned me into a Bard. One of their passengers had it. And . . . oh, you’ll love this.”

  “Love what?”

  “Well, allow me to reach into my inventory?”

  “Fine,” Synaria said, and signaled to an Assassin. “Cut her free.”

  Nijana sighed in relief. “Thank you, these ropes are hurting my wings.”

  “Oh, those are going to stay tied, lass.”

  Nijana sighed dejectedly as the Assassin removed the binding around her arms. “Figures.”

  “Not going to risk having you fly away now.”

  “I’m sure the Ranger will prevent that.” Nijana recalled how to open the Inventory screen. She waved her hand, created it, then pulled a dark crystal from it, waving it about to draw Synaria’s inquisitive stare. “I swiped this from the Paladin.”

  Synaria grabbed the crystal and brought it to her face. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced at the small screen that flashed next to the crystal. The druid smiled in sync with her bunny ears straightening. “The soul crystal of a Nox Knight. Very nice.”

  “Nox Knight?” said the Berserker. “Never seen that class.”

  “And I have never heard of a Paladin,” the Ranger replied.

  Synaria’s beam expanded as she clenched the soul crystal. “I know someone who is buying soul crystals. Could fe
tch good coin, especially something rare as a Nox Knight soul crystal.”

  Synaria tossed the soul crystal into her own Inventory screen.

  Nijana grimaced and reached out to her. “Wait—that belongs to me!”

  “Hmm, give her a cut, at least?” said the Assassin. “We are not thieves, after all.”

  No, Nijana was the thief. Synaria’s gang was, in some way, thieves as well. They were just in denial about it. They had taken loot from their battles along with money, which now littered the floor of the carriage. Synaria and her friends were like pirates without a ship. They were Nijana’s kind of people, and she needed to befriend and teach them her ways.

  Synaria’s band of thugs would become Nijana’s new pirate crew.

  “Fine,” Synaria said with a wince to Nijana. “You get 40 percent, and you are coming with us. If this deal makes me look bad, then I will hold you responsible and pass you to them.”

  “Sounds like you deal with some rough people,” Nijana said.

  “Not just any people, dark elves. They will fuck you like a crazy bitch if this is not legit.”

  Nijana beamed deviously. “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

  Synaria exploded with laughter. “I like this pixie,” she said after calming down. “She has some real spunk. And you idiots wanted to leave her to the village’s healers? Ha!”

  A quest screen appeared before Nijana’s face.

  Return to Sender

  Objective: Return Wylume’s Soul Crystal to Guy.

  Issued by: White Dragon

  Reward: 2000 Experience Points

  Accept quest? Yes/No

  I think not.

  She tapped the decline option and the Quest screen faded away.

  “What was that quest, pixie?” Synaria asked.