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

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “You!” In dropped an axe-wielding fae, bringing his fluttering wings to a stop, his cuirass reflecting the gold-like light from the flames around. “Pick up your magical sword and show me what you can do!”

  Land-fae (Berserker) | LVL: 10 | Rank: C | HP: 100%

  Guy retrieved his fallen sword and gave a nod to Rachael as she brought out her Oak Staff. She nodded back, and the two sprinted. He hoped they didn’t alert the flying Ranger when he made the first strike with his blade held high, bringing it down to the Berserker’s face. Asteria’s Sword met the haft of the fae’s battle axe. Guy wasn’t the only one who could parry an attack. Before the Berserker could retort, Guy jumped away from the massive axe aimed for his face. Only the rush of wind from the axe hit him.

  Guy ambled to the right, saw an unguarded moment and seized it, stabbing the Berserker’s abs then sidestepping in anticipation for the next axe cleave. The Berserker missed Guy again, his axe’s blade hitting the road so hard it got stuck in it. As the Berserker yanked to pull his weapon free, Rachael beat him with her Oak Staff from behind, slowly chipping away his HP. Guy remained in front, with his blade ready, hoping the Berserker would have tunnel vision.

  He did. Once the Berserker’s weapon came free, he held it hard and lifted it up, raising to crush Guy’s head in with it. Observing the Berserker’s moves, Guy waited, saw the slow-moving lunge, and jumped to the side. The Berserker missed again, his axe cratering the road. Since his side was in front of Guy, he slashed to the left and right, dealing further damage—

  A wide cleave cut into Guy.

  Now Guy was the one who had tunnel vision. Guy crashed back first, then leaped up to the sight of Rachael dashing behind him and taking the two seconds needed to cast her healing magic—and two seconds was what the Berserker required to close the gap.

  Whack.

  Another axe strike.

  Pain pulsed across Guy’s torso. Rachael screamed as blood covered her nurse’s uniform again. She got hit. The axe hit so hard that the knockback had pushed Guy and Rachael apart. And looking down, Guy noticed his chest had turned red from a horizontal slice across his top. The Berserker sauntered to Rachael. She hadn’t pushed up from the knockdown. Guy reminded the Berserker that he was the primary threat by hitting the armored fae’s back with repeated cuts, shredding his fae wings.

  The Berserker lifted his axe as he looked down at Rachael, who was groaning. He didn’t make the blow. Guy’s last attack had pierced the Berserker, drawing blood. The Berserker spun, swinging an axe leveled with Guy’s head.

  A quick duck brought Guy away from the weapon. Once clear of the axe’s chop, he came up with a leaping slash, cutting a red line from the Berserker’s waist to his chest. Guy kickflipped back, his trench coat fluttering during the move. Guy landed a few meters away and held an epic stance, then watched and waited, eyeing the Berserker’s slow-moving body as he came to strike again.

  Behind, Rachael pushed up and went for the Berserker’s legs with a swift jab of her Oak Staff. The big man lost his balance and wobbled on one leg. So, Rachael smashed that with her staff, then somersaulted away to avoid getting crushed when the armored fae fell backward. With the Berserker down on the ground, Guy shoved his blade into his chest. Blood squirted upward. Rachael came in again with a leaping bash. Then Guy repeated his downward stab.

  It was worse than kicking a man while he was down.

  Guy removed his sword from the dead Berserker’s chest, grinning at the 90 experience points the kill rewarded them. Rachael stood beside him, making her body pulse with green and blue light, and restored their HP.

  “I told you!”

  Guy and Rachael had an unexpected audience, survivors from the siege. Fae men, women, and children, along with the old and the sick, wearing burned clothing, fear trembling their slender limbs. A convoy escaped the death squads.

  And they all pointed at Guy.

  “It is the Paladin Asteria sent! He has come to save us!”

  “The knight of light has come from the stars!”

  Guy let out a deep sigh. “You got the wrong person, bud.”

  “And look!” A woman pointed at Rachael. “Asteria has sent us a healer too!”

  Rachael made a quick flabbergasted step backward, pointing at herself. “Who, what? Me?”

  “Save us from the Autumnfall Empire!” The frightened fae pleaded and pointed at the armored fae ravaging the city. “They have come to kill us.”

  The Autumnfall Empire. Guy had read about them, the largest fae nation that controlled one of the continents in the northern hemisphere. The armored fae was part of the empire’s army, and the city being razed was likely a new conquest. It still didn’t explain why they answered to Wylume, a land-human, or how he knew Guy’s uncle’s name.

  “Let me see what I can do,” Rachael said as she approached the wounded fae. “I took an oath to heal.” She kept her attention on a woman bleeding profusely from her left arm. “With or without magic.”

  “You also swore an oath to do no harm,” Guy said, “and we kind of killed someone back there . . .”

  “As I recall, you landed the killing blow!”

  “Did not!”

  “I was casting a spell when he dropped!”

  And Rachael casting a healing spell sealed a woman’s bleeding arm shut, silencing their groans of pain. Rachael turned to the next wounded, closed her eyes, and performed the two-second cast as her body glowed green and blue, mending their injuries.

  Guy wondered if the empire were there because of him. If so: “We’re so getting fired, Rachael—”

  Multiple explosions quaked the land.

  The blast bangs were loud. It surprised Guy that his eardrums didn’t explode. When he got up, all he heard was a high-pitched sound and saw Rachael’s mouth move as she tried to speak to him. No words came. It was just ringing in his ears.

  “. . . Guy?”

  His hearing returned as he shook off the pain and looked toward the explosions that turned several buildings into rubble—

  No, that was wrong. It turned half the city into rubble.

  “That sounded like an energy weapon . . .” Guy said as he looked at the devastation.

  Rachael watched in shock. “Land-dwellers shouldn’t have tech like that.”

  Guy stumbled forward while grabbing Asteria’s Sword. “Heal me quickly.” Rachael pulsed with light, casting Medica and mending Guy’s light wounds. It didn’t hurt to walk anymore. “Wait here, I’ll check it out.”

  She nodded and returned to the wounded. “Find more survivors and bring them to me!”

  Guy never found many survivors. All he saw were the deceased, missing body parts, and in the case of one man, his chest as the remains of his ribcage caught fire. Seconds later, the man shifted to a crystal, along with the other mangled corpses. A dead teenage boy missing half his head turned to a crystal, same with a man whose torso was blasted to bits and hurled in random directions. The head was miraculously in one piece, though, before it too changed into a crystal.

  In a field, imperial soldiers raped women to death and forced their husbands to watch. Once finished, the imperials impaled the screaming husbands. Those who broke from their bindings didn’t make it far before the soldiers flew ahead and slashed their bellies open. Fae intestines spilled out. The dead transformed into crystals, and the imperials collected them with smiling faces.

  And there wasn’t a fucking thing Guy could do to save them. He was alone and outnumbered—

  “Help!”

  Survivors. Guy ran toward the cry for help, locating a teenage girl pulling on the arm of someone buried by rubble. The girl lacked the strength to get the fae free. Guy didn’t. He hurled the debris off the body, surprised his hands were strong enough to do so. Once finished, a fae man covered in soot emerged from the rubble, his wings torn apart. He embraced the teen girl, who Guy assumed was his daughter.

  Turning back to Guy, he said, “Thank you!”

  “Why is the empir
e attacking you?” Guy asked.

  “They are not attacking all of us,” the man gestured ahead.

  Guy saw two imperial soldiers point their weapons at a family of fae, yell some words at them, then turned around to search the burning city. The fae sprung their wings and flew to safety. And the Ranger in the skies? She aimed her bow at them, then lowered it, allowing the family to flee. Guy wasn’t able to see what class the family was, likely because the phenomenon changing the planet to have game rules hadn’t changed them. They were normal fae.

  The imperials only killed the fae who had a class, then looted the crystals they transformed into. Selective massacre.

  Another blast hit, and its heat and destructive force threw everyone with life to the ground—everyone except Guy. He scanned the burning town, searching for the source of the explosion. He found it in the smoke-filled skies. Men wearing white metal suits descended from the smoke, their wrists mounted with pulse weapons aimed at the homes still in one piece. The men weren’t land-dwellers, not with advanced armor like that and blazing blue jetpacks on their backs. Guy wasn’t even sure if they were men at all. They could have been machines, androids perhaps. And that’s what scared him the most, because not even star-dwellers had the power to produce fully functioning androids. It had always been a thing of science fiction—

  One man in the skies spotted Guy, aiming their wrist-mounted guns at him.

  “Fuck.”

  Guy ran—

  Boom.

  An explosive blast hurled Guy forward.

  He hit the ground and landed upside down. Guy got up in time to see the hovering men bombard the city, destroying homes and spreading flames, which blocked the roads Guy traveled on, making it impossible to return to Rachael—assuming she even survived the barrage.

  “Damn it!” That was all he had to say about the flames blocking his path.

  “Over . . . over there!” It was the man he had saved from the collapsed house, pointing at the dock and a single boat anchored to it. “We can escape on that.”

  A quest window flashed into existence.

  Escape from Muruai

  Objective: Clear a path to the boat and escape on it with the survivors before reinforcements arrive.

  Issued by: White Dragon

  Reward: 500 Experience Points

  Accept quest? Yes/No

  He accepted the quest, wondering what they meant by clear a path. Escaping wasn’t going to be straightforward, he figured. There was one obstacle blocking them. And upon examining the docks closer, Guy saw it. Three imperial soldiers lurked near the docks, looking for anything that sought escape. That’s what the quest meant by clearing a path. Guy held Asteria’s Sword steady with both hands.

  “Wait here,” he said. “Try to find other survivors.”

  Guy sprinted to the docks, and he didn’t care that his footsteps were making too much noise. He needed the imperials looking at him as he ran out from the cover of the smoke blanketing the area. Guy heard multiple weapons get yanked from scabbards as he approached, their owners turning to face him, laughing.

  He held Asteria’s Sword with one hand, and used his free one to wave at the three imperials. “‘Sup.”

  He checked their levels and classes.

  Imperial Trooper (Berserker) | LVL: 3 | Rank: D | HP: 100%

  Imperial Trooper (Berserker) | LVL: 4 | Rank: D | HP: 100%

  Imperial Trooper (Medic) | LVL: 3 | Rank: D | HP: 100%

  They were all a few levels lower than him. Easy.

  The three imperials ran to Guy with their weapons cutting through the air in his direction. He didn’t bother to parry. Guy needed to build AP as fast as he could and getting 100 AP cost him a lot of HP. He was facing two Berserkers, two who built 100 AP off Guy simultaneously, two who unleashed their weapon skills upon him. Guy’s HP dropped from 316 to 213.

  With Guy’s AP still at 100, he used Storm Slash, and spun around with his sword out, kicking up winds in the process. Laughter filled the air. Guy stopped as he noticed the imperials had leaped back. He hit nobody, wasting his AP.

  “Fuck . . .” I have to get AP again. But those two will get AP too and hit me with their special attacks. I need to reach 100 AP before they do!

  A clash of weapons waved and clanged against their intended targets. Guy noticed two of the imperials had stood shoulder to shoulder. He kept Asteria’s Sword aimed at them.

  I wonder what happens if I hit them both with one swing?

  So he tried that, making the cleave as wide as he could. Guy’s blade struck the first soldier, dealing damage and granting him 10 AP. Okay, that was expected. With his broad attack still in motion, he struck the second imperial.

  AP: 20/100

  Okay, I need these guys as close as possible. I could get 30 AP per slash if I hit them all at once.

  It wasn’t easy to get them closer . . . or was it.

  He eyed the imperial with a battlestaff . . . a Medic. Rachael had to get close to heal me . . . I bet this guy has to do the same. Guy went mobile, making hit-and-run slashes, targeting the Medic first, then running back to strike the two sword-waving Berserkers. His repeated attacks got the imperials clustering toward the Medic. Guy waited for the aura of Medica’s healing light to pulse. That Medic is going to remain idle for two seconds, and if those Berserkers want to get healed, they’ll have to stay close. I have two seconds to get AP and fast.

  Guy put his plan in motion, moving to make a broad horizontal attack.

  Slash.

  AP: 50/100

  His hit interrupted the Medic’s spell casting—

  A sword curved for Guy’s head.

  He ducked, evading that slash plus a second. Meanwhile, the Medic retried casting Medica. While still in a lowered position, Guy cut at their legs.

  AP: 80/100

  One more should do it!

  And it did. Guy’s final wide slash brought him to 100 AP.

  Storm Slash made Guy’s body twirl like a storm made of swords, hitting and knocking the clustered soldiers back, their bodies tumbling. He checked his HP.

  Guy | HP: 187/316

  An HP hypospray should take care of that. He pulled the device from his inventory and injected it into his arm.

  Guy | HP: 250/316

  It evaporated once used, then Guy ran to the Medic, putting one foot on his head while sticking Asteria’s Sword into his throat, chest, and throat again. The Medic never moved after that.

  Behind, the two remaining imperials stood with their faces full of rage at the fact that their healer was dead. Guy and Asteria’s Sword met them; he raised the blade to parry one attack from the imperial, then kicked back the other, staggering them. A three-folded slash brought the HP of the left imperial to 13%, and a second one across his belly released the grisly sight of his intestines, dangling about, raining blood.

  The last soldier held their sword up high, leaving their chest exposed. Guy saw that and pushed his blade into it, piercing the armor, chest, and ribcage. Asteria’s Sword, now dripping red, poked out from a spot near the imperial’s fae wings.

  Guy looked up, shocked that his attack pierced so quickly.

  Imperial Trooper (Berserker) | HP: 0%

  Oh, that’s why. He yanked the weapon out, and the man slumped over dead. I need to learn new skills soon. Storm Slash has its limitations.

  The path to the boat was clear now. Guy waved for the survivors to limp over, and they filled the boat’s space. Rachael wasn’t among them, nor the people she was working with.

  “Let’s set sail!” one survivor called to Guy.

  He shook his head. “Wait, there are others!”

  “We cannot get to them! The flames are too strong, and there is little space left!”

  Guy never took his eyes off the burning city, where he had left Rachael. “I can’t leave my partner!”

  “You are assuming there is anyone left alive.”

  A roar in the skies grumbled. More of the hovering men wearing star-dweller tec
h descended to bombard the city with their pulse guns. It didn’t look like they saw Guy and the survivors at the docks, and that situation was going to change the longer Guy remained watching the burning city, hoping Rachael and the others would flock over.

  He rechecked his quest objective.

  Objective: Clear a path to the boat and escape on it with the survivors before reinforcements arrive.

  It mentioned nothing about waiting for Rachael. And the men in the skies? Those were the reinforcements arriving. They had to leave while they were distracted.

  He turned aside from the inferno, placed Asteria’s Sword to rest on his back, and climbed aboard the crowded boat. With nobody else wanting passage, the fae un-roped it from the docks, pulled up the anchor, and sailed from the island as the flames spread to the jungles and beyond. Even if people escaped, they’d have to deal with the fires burning the trees to ash.

  And Guy left Rachael to deal with that alone. They were sailing off without her.

  Damn.

  Escape from Muruai – Quest Complete

  Obtained: 500 Experience Points

  Guy has attained level 6!

  And . . .

  Investigate the Land-Fae - Quest Updated

  Objective: Travel to the fae homeworld and search for clues for Rachael’s mysterious land-dweller fae in the hospital.

  - Arrive at Faeheim [Completed!]

  - Land at the city of Muruai [Completed!]

  - Explore Faeheim for clues

  . . . the White Dragon who issued the quests didn’t seem to care.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Xanthe had a busy day.

  Now that she had found work at the tavern in Holt’s Inn, Xanthe found a quiet spot to herself outside and addressed the items taking up space in her inventory.

  Xanthe’s Inventory - 06/50

  Asteriarite: Strength +1

  Asteriarite: Strength +1

  Sigil: Blade

  Sigil: Manipulation

  Sigil: Swiftness

  Silver Dagger

  First up were the sigils. Xanthe removed all three from her inventory, then placed the Blade and Swiftness sigils on her left and right arms. She grinned when the sigils’ light shined.