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

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Guy dove from another attack, then rotated and deflected a bite. “Run, or you’ll be done!” he shouted to Zuran. “I don’t think it cares about you, Zuran.” The Sandworm spun. Its twin shadows now surrounded Zuran. “Okay, maybe I was wrong!”

  Zuran tilted his head up at the new threat looming above. “Fuck.”

  The worm smacked Zuran, sending his body fifteen feet in the air, tumbling around until he hit a nearby dune. He didn’t die. Zuran got up, moaning while an HP bar over him shrank.

  Zuran (Mage) | LVL: 1 | Rank: D | HP: 50%

  The affliction changed Zuran and there wasn’t much HP left on him. Guy had to do something before the worm killed him.

  “Damn, man,” Zuran groaned. “Why is my sword so heavy?!”

  Guy got behind the worm and used Asteria’s Sword to unleash an onslaught of slashes. “I dunno,” he added.

  “Look at my muscles.” Zuran flexed his arms, giving each one a look. “And these abs of steel, and pec pumping pecks.” Zuran pec pumped his chest just to demonstrate his brawn. “I trained to use swords and do pushups with two women sitting on my back!—”

  And the sandworm knocked Zuran. He tumbled away like a rag doll.

  Guy watched the fae man spiral through the air. “And you’re about to die!”

  Zuran hit the sand with a thud then pushed up with no broken bones. “But I have shed no blood!”

  “Your HP!” Guy said as he continued cutting into the worm’s thick flesh. “You’re down to 34 percent. At 25 percent, you’ll bleed and feel pain. At zero, your ass is dead.”

  AP: 90/100

  Just one more hit.

  Zuran staggered and examined his hands. “Shit, have I been afflicted?”

  The worm sank into the sand again. Zuran was its target, and the last blow had knocked him out of range. Instead of running, Zuran learned that he could access various floating menu screens, each displaying his stats.

  “Zuran!” Guy yelled. “You got to run right now!”

  “Or else what?—”

  The Sandworm rose.

  Its open mouth missed swallowing Zuran by inches.

  The worm focused on Zuran, causing him to run away fast. Guy charged to put himself back in striking range. Once he closed the gap, he went to make the last hit needed to get full AP. Guy used Provoke.

  He jeered at the Sandworm, sending a red wave of energy at it. The worm spun around and roared its nasty breath at Guy; his trench coat’s ends waved about. Guy lifted Asteria’s Sword as its blade reflected the twin sunlight, and his lips curled to a grin.

  “Yeah, that’s right, motherfucker!” Guy met the worm again, swinging hard and fast. “You don’t like me, so focus on me!—”

  It smashed its head against Guy.

  The blow flung Guy up and down. I guess that racial trait works when it wants to work. Guy rolled back to his feet and returned to the fight, this time keeping a steady eye on the Sandworm’s head, dodging to evade when it tried to smack him with it, holding Asteria’s Sword out to block when he couldn’t. He kept himself alive but wasn’t doing any damage, and therefore not gaining AP.

  And Zuran? He just stood and watched.

  “Bruh, pick up the tome,” Guy said, gesturing to the fallen book. “That’s your new sword!”

  Zuran ran back to where he had fallen, grabbed the tome, and brushed off the sand while narrowing his eyes at it. “It’s a fucking book . . . What am I supposed to do with it?!”

  “I dunno, figure it out!” Guy dove from another attack. Getting up, he added, “And quickly, before I lose my HP?”

  A Quest screen appeared ahead of Zuran as he opened the tome. Zuran read the screen’s contents. “A tutorial?”

  “Yeah, uh, do the first tutorial. That’ll explain what your class should do. Do it fast, though!” Guy ducked from the worm’s attack. Coming back up, he added, “And don’t do the fucking second tutorial!”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it will spawn wolves and shit, and we really don’t need that right now!”

  He checked his HP.

  Guy | HP: 240/424

  Damn it, I gotta top up quick before it’s too late. Running away gave Guy the chance to pull out an HP hypospray and press its delivery tip into his shoulder.

  Hiss.

  Guy | HP: 324/424

  The device turned to mist, freeing his hand to clasp the decorated hilt of Asteria’s Sword. He spun and met the worm, sliced up its frame a few times, and blocked dozens of attacks.

  AP: 100/100

  Hmm, Storm Slash might be a bad idea. I need to save AP for Provoke. He looked at Zuran as he finished his tutorial. Zuran is my only hope to kill this thing.

  A Quest Completed screen floated ahead of Zuran. He tapped the button to accept the reward, then faced Guy. “Okay, done,” he said. “Invite me?”

  Guy brought up his screen to fire off a party invitation.

  Zuran has joined the party!

  Guy | HP: 312/424 | MP: 104/104 | AP: 100/100

  Zuran | HP: 17/50 | MP: 100/100 | AP: 0/100

  He turned just in time to see the worm dive underground, bringing a few seconds of calm. Guy used another HP hypo, then ran when the ground shook.

  The Sandworm rose behind the two, roaring. “There!” Guy pointed at it and led the charge. “Kill it. I’ll keep it drawn to me.”

  And Guy did so by using Provoke. The worm raged and snapped its attention to Guy, like he had stolen its wallet. Guy had no AP, but that was okay because it wasn’t his job to kill it—he passed that job onto Zuran.

  Zuran, free from the worm’s wrath, flipped open his tome and swiped through the pages. The book glowed purple as a circle of light spun below Zuran’s feet. Astral winds blew around the Mage now, rippling his pants. Two seconds later, Zuran extended his left hand to the worm, the right holding the glowing tome as he unleashed brilliant light, Magic Missile.

  Sandworm | HP: 71%

  The sandworm’s HP dropped a lot. Zuran was dishing out damage greater than what it would take for Guy to strike the worm ten times, then use Storm Slash. It took Zuran two seconds to do that. And two seconds later, another barrage of Magic Missiles hit the worm.

  Sandworm | HP: 56%

  It looked away from Guy.

  Zuran was now the most threatening target. He lowered his tome. “Oh, shit.”

  “Okay, now you probably should run!”

  Zuran did exactly that as the worm dove to bury itself in the sand. Zuran yelled, “Ah, shit, shit, shit, shit!” over and over as he trotted across the sand.

  The Sandworm came up again, forcing Zuran to roll to safety. He kept running, and that was only going to make the worm dive into the sand. Guy couldn’t build AP if he couldn’t reach it. “Okay, stop running.”

  “But you told me to!”

  “Just trust me!”

  Zuran stopped, his frightened face looking up at the worm. Behind, Guy ran, slashing upward and downward. He hit the worm with everything he had. Might as well, no point in dodging or blocking something that isn’t going to hit you. He hoped Zuran kept up the evasive rolls.

  Guy checked his AP.

  AP: 100/100

  Perfect. “Okay, Zuran, run!”

  “Make up your mind, bro!”

  Guy Provoked the worm again, forcing it to spin back to him. Zuran was free to stand still and cast Magic Missile. “All right, Zuran, finish it!”

  “I am out of mana!”

  Guy looked at the Party screen. Zuran was right. Rachael used an MP hypospray to recover her MP . . . but only star-dwellers can use them. He searched his inventory quick. Hmm, MP potion . . . useable by land-dwellers. I got six of these and they’re fucking useless to me. He grabbed it and ran toward Zuran, holding up the bottle with blue liquid.

  “Yo, Zuran.” Guy threw the bottle at him. “Catch!”

  Zuran caught it and looked at it. “What do I do?”

  “Drink that!”

  Zuran popped off the wooden quark and
chugged it. His MP went up by 20, forcing a smile to form on their faces. Working quickly, Guy tossed Zuran the remaining five bottles for him to drink, and then turned to keep the worm’s attention. “Now burn his ass!”

  Zuran once again tapped into newfound powers, making the circle appear and spin at his feet while the tome opened to a page in the middle and glowed purple. Zuran pointed at the Sandworm and sent his Magic Missiles flying toward it.

  Sandworm | HP: 42%

  Its HP dropped. Zuran repeated the move while Guy dropped the defense act and put his blade to use, building up AP.

  Sandworm | HP: 23%

  Storm Slash was the skill of choice this time, and Guy’s spinning attack damn near cut the worm in half, sending it to the sand with a loud thud.

  The two stood ahead of it, watching as its massive body disintegrated, leaving behind loot and experience points for the two.

  1500 experience points to be exact.

  Guy has attained level 8!

  Zuran has attained level 2!

  “How the hell did we . . .” Zuran said, his voice laced with shock. He looked at Guy’s weapon. “And that sword . . .”

  Guy stared at Asteria’s Sword, shaking his head. “I’m not sure, man.”

  “Well, thanks for the help,” Zuran said. “I would be dead if it were not for you.”

  “Likewise,” Guy said, nodding. “There’s no way I could have taken that alone.”

  Separated, the two would have died. Together, they killed the worm—

  “Get down!”

  Zuran leaped and pushed Guy to the sand. He was about to ask why when a new double shadow darkened the area for several seconds. Guy brushed the sand from his face and looked up and gasped. An enormous ship hovered past, its blue thrusters propelling it silently over the desert.

  The sight had Guy smiling up at the starship. “Rescue at last!”

  Guy crawled up from the sand and ran to follow the ship as it drifted, vanishing beyond the height of a dune. He heard Zuran get up and dust his pecks clean.

  “No, wait!” Zuran yelled.

  “Don’t worry, man,” Guy said as he ran through the sand and climbed the dune. “It’s probably a search and rescue team from the fleet!” Rachael, I hope you’re on board.

  Guy scaled to the top of the dune and peaked over its tip, watching as the ship lowered and hovered six meters above the desert with rippling heatwaves on the horizon. A swirl of sand blew when the ship sank to the land, its doors sliding open for men in high-tech suits equipped with jetpacks to fly out, wrist-mounted weapons primed.

  He saw the same men in Muruai, the machine men with jetpacks and pulse guns.

  A swarm of the machine men approached the dune Guy was watching them from. He ducked and slid down the dune, moving away from sight, and met the stunned gaze of Zuran, who had crawled up to join him.

  “Okay, that’s not the help I was expecting.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Later in the afternoon, or was it early in the evening?—hard to tell on a planet with two suns—Xanthe returned to her room with a bowl of plums for Averyl and a pitcher of water covered in a thick layer of moisture. Averyl sat up—her arms, legs, wrists, and wings were still tied, but her face was relieved to see Xanthe. The shadow angel kicked the door shut and left the tray she carried beside Averyl, then sat at the edge of her bed.

  Xanthe said nothing. She waited for Averyl to guide her bound wrists and slender hands to the bowl of fruit and pluck one of the sweet purple orbs. Averyl brought the fruit to her mouth and bit into it elegantly, like she was royalty. That’s because she is.

  It was time to call her out.

  “Averyl Autumnfall, is it?”

  Averyl dropped the fruit.

  Xanthe caught it with one hand, then leveled her gaze with Averyl’s, triggering intense flushing. Averyl gasped. “What?!”

  “Oh, please do drop the act, Princess Autumnfall,” Xanthe said. “I know who you are now. Luckily for you, I am new to this world and not privy to the knowledge of popular or powerful fae.” Xanthe brought the fruit Averyl dropped to the princess’s mouth, feeding her like a pet.

  She liked it.

  Xanthe pulled the fruit away, allowing the imperial princess to speak. “How did you know?” Averyl asked.

  “Imperials came to the Inn today, asking about you.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “That I might be able to tell them where you are.” Worry stiffened Averyl’s face as she looked to the wooden floor. “But . . .” Xanthe lay her index finger below Averyl’s chin and lifted. She forced Averyl to stare into Xanthe’s inquisitive eyes. “. . . But . . . you do not want me to do that, do you now, princess?”

  “I am grateful you have not and would appreciate it if you continued to deceive them.”

  “You see, that is where things will get difficult.” Xanthe bit into Averyl’s fruit, right where she had been eating, savoring Averyl’s taste on it. Xanthe pulled it away. “They suggested they would sack the town if they found you here, along with proof that someone kept your presence hidden. I believe the fellow’s name was Leafblade. And it was Leafblade who told me in secret that Holt is doomed either way because of the afflicted living here. He offered to spare me if I revealed the truth.” Xanthe nibbled the fruit again, pulled it from her mouth slowly, and licked her lips clean of the juices mixed with Averyl’s taste. “I did not come to your world to die. I came here to slay a man named Slather, which I did rather well last night. As of now, it would be in my best interest to give you up to Leafblade, be spared, then find a star-dweller who will take me to another world.” A sigh left her wet, glistening lips, touched by the fading sunlight through the window. “And that brings up my next problem, princess Autumnfall. The imperials are seeking star-dwellers as well. If they catch me with them, something tells me my head shall end up on a pike alongside them. What is going on?”

  Averyl opened her mouth to talk, but no words left. So Xanthe grabbed her jaw, squeezing it hard to force the words out. “The bandits . . .” Averyl finally spoke and said nothing more.

  Xanthe finished the fruit, tossed the pit over her shoulder, and pushed on Averyl’s shoulders, forcing the fae princess back to the bed in the most aggressive way possible. She got rough with Averyl, pinning her shoulders to the sheet.

  Averyl just looked up at Xanthe, blushing. She released no fear pheromones, nor was there any fear in her eyes, just anticipation. Averyl liked it. “I paid the bandits to take me,” Averyl added.

  “A fake kidnapping,” Xanthe said, hands still pinning her down. “So, you wanted to leave the planet. Dolnir and his men were just hired help to guide you to star-dwellers.” Xanthe wanted to know more and hoped her charisma was high enough to pry those details. “What is waiting for you off-world?”

  Averyl said nothing and angled her head to the side, the best she could. Xanthe forced her head up by grabbing her jaw. While holding Averyl’s head steady, Xanthe dipped her face down, aligning her lips with Averyl’s, and held them above her for two seconds. She could feel the rush of excitement pass through Averyl and the surge of sex pheromones that came gushing out. Xanthe’s charm was working and slowly poisoning Averyl’s head.

  Averyl could not take it and inched her face up to Xanthe.

  She kissed her.

  There it was. The sign that Xanthe had broken Averyl’s wall. She kissed her back, forced her tongue into Averyl’s mouth, exchanging the flavor of the fruit with her. Below, Xanthe felt a pair of bound hands touch her belly, sneak past her belly button, and dive into her panties. Tiny fae fingers were exploring Xanthe’s pubic hair and the labia firming up.

  Xanthe pushed herself up from Averyl and stood aside from the bed to let the poison sink in. Let the princess desire the fresh taste in her mouth, go mad, then reveal her secrets, in the hopes that Xanthe would reward her with a second round.

  Once Xanthe learned Averyl’s reason for running from the empire, her home, and her life as
a princess, she planned to make a choice about the pending quest, appearing in her Quest Journal for review.

  Report Averyl’s Sighting

  Objective: Inform Heral Leafblade of Princess Averyl Autumnfall’s location.

  Issued by: Heral Leafblade

  Reward: 1000 Experience Points

  The rewards were too good to pass up: increased power and an ally within the empire who would point Xanthe to a general whose throat needed a good slashing.

  Guy and Zuran peeked over the dune’s summit again, watching the starship hover and the searching jetpack men fly about.

  “Who are they?” Guy asked Zuran.

  Zuran sneered. “They are star-dwellers, like you.”

  “Yeah, but . . .” Guy looked again, focusing on the ship. “I don’t recognize that ship’s design or the armor those men have. Or the technology . . . That tech is way more advanced than ours.”

  “We call them the sentinels,” Zuran said. “Their ships have been appearing all over our world, helping the Autumnfall Empire in their war against my people and other fae nations.”

  “War, eh?”

  “Autumnfall has been expanding their territory, having gained machina to use . . .” The two watched the floating sentinels drift above the desert. “And we believe the sentinels are the reason for that.”

  The sentinel ship shut its doors and rose to join the few clouds in the sky. Guy and Zuran were clear to leave, now that lingering sentinels moved away. They were searching for something, someone. Probably me. They probably know I wasn’t among the dead in Muruai.

  “Yo, what is this gauge?” Zuran asked while glancing at his screen.

  “Damn, you’re a newbie at this,” Guy said. He reached into his inventory, pulled out six bottles of Survival Water, and handed them to Zuran. “Drink these, or you’ll start losing HP.” A break in the sentinel search pattern appeared, giving the two the chance to trot across the desert. As they ran, Guy looked back at Zuran. “Okay, you’re probably gonna get a bunch of tutorial quests soon. Let’s do them quick. Easier to let them explain it.”