“Why me?”
“If I go back to dancing, I want you there watching me,” she said. Her voice had become sincere and intimate. “If I cannot defend myself from slavers, then I want you there to help me escape. If I choose to explore all the worlds among the stars, then I want you at my side. I have never met someone like you. A man who is not repulsed at what I am. A man who sees me more than a plaything for the night and to be disposed of in the morning. If it were not for you, I would have been a pawn to Leafblade, the man who murdered many of my people. You helped set me on this path, Guy. The right one. And I know you will help me do it again. Also.” Xanthe held his hand and guided it to her right wing. She gazed into his eyes. “Never had a man that could make me come just by massaging my wings!”
And I never lost the chance to bang the same woman three times . . . Once on Faeheim, then the other day just before I fought with Remy . . . and now . . . Guy looked over her shoulder and at the three women bathing. If Xanthe and I were alone, we’d probably be fucking right now. Okay, I can’t take this. The next chance I get, Xanthe and I are gonna . . . fuck. No excuses.
She stepped closer, his erect penis an inch from her black bush. She moved to the side of it, giggling, then inched her face to his to make their noses touch. Her wet breasts and firm nipples pressed into his pecs.
Xanthe moved her lips to his ears to whisper. “You could bring Rachael along too, or Tempeste. I honestly don’t care. I want you there with me.”
“This is all when we’re done, of course,” Guy said. “We still got a lot ahead of us.”
“Of course. Killing Leafblade comes first for me. So, with that said, Guy, does that sound like a deal? Me and you as traveling companions once this is over?”
“Maybe. Let me think about it.”
“Then let us seal the deal that you will think about it.”
Xanthe shut her eyes, puckered her lips. She wanted to kiss him, and he wanted to let her do it. She stood on her toes while inching her lips to his. They were inches away from the kiss, then one inch, then half an inch. He could feel the heat from her face as she held the back of his head—
“What the?”
That was Averyl, and it sounded like she was panicking.
“Where is my robe?”
Xanthe never kissed Guy. She opened her eyes to look at Averyl. Guy did the same and saw Averyl standing on the land, naked and examining the spot she had left her Flame Priestess’s Robe. It wasn’t there.
“Your dress is gone?” Tempeste said to Averyl.
“Yes,” she replied, and searched the area. “It was here a moment ago.”
Chapter Forty
Synaria ran from the spring river and hoped her small druid feet would not give out. She held Averyl’s Flame Priestess’s Robe in her hands then looked behind. It did not appear as if the bathing women saw Synaria steal it. But just to be safe, she shifted behind a few trees, using their trunks to block her form, then rushed down the hill.
Once clear of eyes, Synaria stopped to open her inventory and tossed the Flame Priestess’s Robe in it—
Snap.
Someone stepped on a fallen tree branch, cracking it in half.
That someone was not Synaria. She was being followed and had no AP to use Stealth. Synaria had blown her AP on Stealth to sneak toward Averyl’s stuff undetected. Behind, she heard the feet that broke the branch move faster. After waving away her screen, Synaria dashed into a pack of harmless monsters in the wooded area and quickly examined them.
Lesser Kobold | LVL: 12 | Rank: D
It was of a lower level than Synaria and perfect for feeding her the AP she needed for Stealth. She pulled out a pair of Marauder’s Dirks from her dagger belt, twirled them in her fingers, then rushed in swinging and stabbing the Lesser Kobold, hoping she would get the AP in time. Stopping to fight only allowed her pursuer to close the gap faster. Synaria had to move her tiny dagger-wielding hands more quickly.
She kept her ears out for the person behind. The footsteps trotting through the woods grew louder. They would be able to see her wasting time fighting such evasive beasts like the Lesser Kobold. Synaria’s AP rose to 100 at last. She disengaged from the monster and used her Stealth skill. A wave of astral energy swirled around Synaria, rendering her invisible as it kicked up a pile of fallen leaves. Her footsteps no longer made any sounds in the woods. The Lesser Kobold snarled, licked their wounds, walked away, confused at what became of the druid Assassin.
The faun named Kam approached while holding his Aspirant’s Lance out. He was the one who followed Synaria. Kam was also the faun Synaria saw jacking off while watching Henrietta, Tempeste, and Averyl bathe. Synaria stalked Kam from behind with her Marauder’s Dirks held in each hand. She wanted to kill him for pleasuring himself like that and could do it with ease despite Kam being level 16, one level higher than her. Kam was a rank C Spell Lancer without a subclass, and Synaria was a rank B Assassin using a Berserker subclass.
Easy there, Synaria thought to herself, and lowered her weapons. You off Kam now, then the others in his party would see his HP hit zero. On the other hand, he probably saw me steal Averyl’s attire. Kam was in the treetops and would have gotten a good view of me thievery. If that is the case, I must eliminate the witness!
A second figure emerged from the trees, drawing Kam’s confused gaze at them.
Nijana (Bard) | LVL: 11 | Rank: B
That was not a good thing. Nijana brushed the ends of her frill dress clean and trotted to Kam as he ran to her. Then Kam stopped, his eyes looking up and down at Nijana.
“Wait . . .” Kam said, and leaned closer.
“Oh, Kam,” Nijana said, while imitating Averyl’s polite tone. “It is so good to see you again.”
Kam grimaced and took a step backward. “Likewise . . .” he said slowly. “Nijana.”
“No,” Nijana said, shaking her head. “I’m not her, I’m—”
“The real Averyl is back at the river,” Kam said. “Was looking at her tits not long ago until an Assassin appeared from Stealth and stole her robe. Cheeky little thing beat me to it!”
Kam twirled the Aspirant’s Lance above his head, bringing it down to point the tip at Nijana’s face. He held an elegant pikeman stance.
She threw her hands up in defeat. “Well, fuck. I had to try.”
Nijana reached for her Marauder’s Chakram, prompting Kam to heave the Aspirant’s Lance at her. Nijana deflected his thrust then leaped back. Neither of the two spotted Synaria emerge from Stealth and wedge her twin Marauder’s Dirks into Kam’s back, carving her name into it and spilling faun blood to the ground.
The ambush gave the faun something else to think of and went to introduce his Aspirant’s Lance to Synaria. She leaped to his side, continuing to slash him up and down along his waist. Kam twirled again, so Synaria used the full power of her agility, dove, and rolled aside from his attack, swept out his hoofed foot, dropping him down face first. Synaria jumped onto his back, spun her Marauder’s Dirks, and plunged them into his arse hole. Both blades.
Kam died and gushed out a circle of red on the ground. Synaria stood away from her kill, grinning. The two women examined the dead faun. Nijana sighed and rubbed her forehead with her free hand, the other clenching her Marauder’s Chakram.
“I really wished you didn’t do that, Synaria.”
“I really wished you stayed where I told you.”
“Went to see if they got you,” Nijana said and wandered away. “What the fuck took you so long?”
Synaria walked with Nijana, removed her bunny head accessory, and gave her platinum curly hair a wipe. It was still wet with the water she had used to rinse it clean recently. Synaria put her bunny ears back on, sighed, and revealed.
“I had to wash the cum out of me hair . . .”
“What?!”
“Aye. That faun was stroking himself up in the treetops I walked under. I thought a fucking bird took a shite on me until I looked up and saw his dripping faun cock—�
�
“Okay, I didn’t need the mental image.” Nijana rubbed her forehead again. “Oh, fuck, I can’t get it out of my head now!”
“I said something similar when I was trying to wash it out . . .”
“Kam!” a voice echoed in the air.
It prompted Synaria and Nijana to hide behind a tree. Synaria peered around the trunk from the left. Nijana did the same to the right. The two saw nothing in the woods. They just heard people shouting Kam’s name over and over as they walked closer to their position. She heard Guy’s voice, then later Ulysses’s.
“Kam!”
“Why are you calling his name, Guy? He’s obviously dead, mon ami!”
Synaria and Nijana faced each other simultaneously. “How did they know?” Nijana whispered.
“Kam was in a party,” Synaria said. “They saw his HP go to zero.”
“Fuck, we got to get out of here. Now!”
The two hurried through the woods. They did not know where they were going, just that they had to slip away from Guy and his party searching for their dead member. Synaria and Nijana ran past a river spring with a lone woman bathing in it. Synaria kept running. Nijana stopped to grin at the woman.
“Wait,” Nijana called out. Synaria waddled back to her partner in crime as Nijana looked down at her with a wicked grin. “Hmm . . . I got an idea.”
The two peered at the lone woman as she brushed her raised arm clean with water. Her firm curvaceous breasts were raining water down her torso, across her strong waist, and past her hairless pussy.
It was the star-fae, Rachael.
Guy led the search for Kam’s body. This time, he wasn’t calling his name. Ulysses made a good point; a dead body wasn’t going to reply. Guy had leaped from the river with Xanthe quickly once he saw Kam’s HP hit zero, grabbed his boxers and Asteria’s Sword, and raced to see what had happened.
At first, Guy thought Kam had jacked off so much that he fell off the tree and died. Only, the faun wasn’t at the tree Guy saw him climb to. There was a lot of cum on the ground, though. He cringed, moved away, and pretended to not see that. Ulysses joined Guy, commented on the splatter of cum everywhere, including traces of it in a small pond. It looked like someone tried to wash off the cum in haste. Both had agreed to never speak of what they discovered again.
A stone landed at Guy’s foot. Someone else was nearby. He held Asteria’s Sword out and followed where the thrower of the stone was, slithering past a bush and trees, and found Rachael bathing in the spring she had invited him to.
Guy lowered Asteria’s Sword. “Oh, shit, sorry.”
His words startled Rachael, and she spun around fast, splashing water. She looked at him, flushed, covered one hand between her legs and used the other to obscure her pink nipples. Surprisingly, Rachael didn’t rage at him.
“You just had to take a peek, eh?” Rachael said, and she sounded playful, too.
Guy turned around. “No, someone threw a rock at me.”
“Wasn’t me.”
“Thought it was the person who got Kam.”
She gasped. “What?”
“He’s dead,” Guy revealed. “We’re trying to find his body so Averyl can resurrect him, hopefully before he bleeds his LP away and turns to a crystal.”
“Hmm, I can do that too now. Give me a sec to get dressed.” Water splashed as Rachael treaded through it to the edge. He heard her get into the Lumière Aspirant’s Chain Dress. “Why are you only wearing your boxers, Guy?”
He looked down and remembered the haste he had made. “Oh, I—”
Xanthe stepped into view, dressed in her dancer’s bedlah. Guy could still make out the shape of her curves, since she was still soaking wet.
The shadow angel stopped when she noticed Guy and smiled. “Oh, there you are, darling.”
“Never mind,” Rachael growled. “I can guess why.”
Xanthe looked ahead at Rachael, held the smirk, and closed her eyes playfully. “Oh, Rachael, you should keep that off,” Xanthe said. “Get some sun on that pale skin.”
Rachael growled at Xanthe.
The shadow angel just laughed at her.
“And lighten up, will you?” Xanthe continued. “How do you expect to attract any boys when you’re always so uptight?” Guy assumed Xanthe literally just stood there and watched Rachael get dressed. He wasn’t sure as he kept his back to her. And it looked like Xanthe was enjoying it. “You have to give a little to get a little, you know what I mean?”
“Sounds like the pleasure temples taught you well,” Rachael said. “Give a sexy dance to get silver, give a blow job to get gold.”
Rachael strode toward them and tapped Guy’s shoulder. It was a signal; it was okay for him to look at her. Rachael wore her split dress made of sparkling chains where a number of sigils covered her legs and arms. She retrieved the Marauder’s Staff and stood beside Guy, close. Really close to where their arms pressed as she gave Xanthe an intimidating glare.
“Okay, where too?” Rachael asked.
Guy shrugged and pointed ahead. “I haven’t searched down there yet—”
Rachael sneezed.
“Sorry, allergies—”
She sneezed again, and a druid Assassin, level 15, rank B, appeared out of nowhere, wearing a cute bunny ear head accessory. Rachael sneezed so hard it broke the Assassin’s Stealth.
Slowly, Guy, Xanthe, and Rachael lowered their gazes down to the 4’11 bunny ear Assassin.
The druid Assassin wiped Rachael’s sneeze from her face and grimaced. “Well, that’s bullshite . . .”
The Assassin was a PKer, the same one who dropped Guy and Rachael when they first arrived on the planet. She reached for her daggers and assaulted the three so fast her tiny hands and arms looked like a blur of colors. Guy wasn’t sure if he should take the Assassin seriously or not. She was no taller than 5 feet, and the bunny ears on her head of wavy platinum hair were so cute.
To be safe, Guy grabbed Asteria’s Sword, and aimed for her face. As cute as she was, she killed him once before—
“Guy, wait!” Rachael called to him.
He stopped to face her. “What?”
Rachael pointed at his chest. “Where’s your armor?”
“Fuck.” He was still half-naked. Guy was a Paladin in his boxers, waving a sword at a bunny girl Assassin. Worry about it later, man. No time to run back and get changed!
Guy protected Rachael by using the flat of his blade to block the Assassin’s dagger strikes. Rachael protected Guy with Regeneration and Medica. He was going to need the extra recovery now that he lacked defense. Together, the two took it to the bunny-eared Assassin, who refused to stay put. One second the Assassin was plunging daggers into Guy, the next it flipped away, then it was behind Rachael, carving bloody gashes into her back. By the time Guy tried to cleave the Assassin, she had leaped away and fought with Xanthe and her twin Aspirant’s Blades. He couldn’t keep up with the Assassin. None of the three could.
The Assassin was traveling at impossibly fast speeds. Guy doubted it was their agility that did it. There was something else enchanting them. He looked to the side and found it; a fae Bard had entered the fray, chakram in one hand, Dianna’s Ocarina in the other.
Averyl (Bard) | LVL: 11 | Rank: B
And she had played a brief note from Swift Carol, granting the Assassin with increased speed. That was why the petite woman was jumping all over the place.
Guy stared at Averyl, and she stared back. The glare she gave him was one Averyl would never have given him. It wasn’t Averyl, despite what her information had stated. Guy’s head perceived the Bard to be Averyl. Averyl was still at the bathing river, naked and looking for something to wear, and Averyl never leveled Bard. His mind put things together, and the Bard’s label updated.
Nijana (Bard) | LVL: 11 | Rank: B
Guy directed the glowing blue blade of Asteria’s Sword to Nijana, grinning at her. “You’re good. You almost had me there.”
Nijana entered the fight a
nd took a swing for Guy using her Marauder’s Chakram. He blocked her attack, then countered with a fierce cleave but missed. She had leaped back, laughed, and slashed his chest three times in quick succession. Like the Assassin, Swift Carol enhanced Nijana’s movement and attack speed. Nijana ran circles around Guy, striking him high and low before he could spin to react. If she wasn’t in melee range, then Nijana threw the Marauder’s Chakram at Guy, then raised her hand for it to return. He got close and cleaved, hitting the air as Nijana dove and rolled to safety.
Nijana beamed as she rolled up to her feet, kept one hand up high, the other pointing her Marauder’s Chakram at him. “You should watch your back, Paladin—”
The Assassin hit Guy from behind with a devastating Backstab.
The bunny girl druid leaped and twirled above Guy, landed in front, and slashed at him repeatedly. His bare chest flared with pain as it gushed a river of crimson down his six-pack abs.
Nijana’s Marauder’s Chakram had softened him up.
Guy fell over and never got up.
You died.
Chapter Forty-One
Guy | HP: 0%
Obtained: 1000 Experience Points
The experience points yielded by his death put a big smile on Nijana’s face. She pivoted to her next target, the star-fae Rachael. Rachael’s horrified expression left her wide open for anything. Guy must have been important to her. So it was no surprise to see that Rachael opted to cast a Revive spell on Guy rather than heal herself or the shadow angel, Xanthe.
Fine by me.
Slashing and throwing the Marauder’s Chakram at Guy gave Nijana enough AP to play another song. She brought Dianna’s Ocarina to her lips and played a calming note to Rachael.
Lullaby
Sing a soothing song and put a target to sleep.
Duration: 2 Minutes
Cost: 100 AP
Rachael wobbled, yawned, and passed out. The star-fae ended up taking a nice nap and floated face down in the river. Always take down the healer, Synaria had taught Nijana. And Nijana did that without having to kill Rachael. She just simply put the Medic to sleep with Lullaby.
Mirror Princess: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 2) Page 31