Xanthe’s attention shifted to Leafblade.
Sword fighting in the air was a lot different than fighting on the ground. You did not have to worry about tripping or objects obstructing your movement, and you had complete freedom to soar away from the edge of a sword—like the move Leafblade pulled when Xanthe aimed for his head: he dove, repositioned himself, and soared up at Xanthe as she climbed upward, hoping her flight speed was faster than his.
It was—she had forgotten about her passive racial trait. Shadow angels got a boost to their flight speed. Xanthe was the fastest living thing in the space between the sentinel ship and imperial airship, but flying quicker than Leafblade was no way for her to kill him. She had to get closer to strike him. Reluctantly, Xanthe decelerated her glide, spun in the air, and closed the gap between herself and Leafblade. Both their weapons aimed for each other’s necks.
Slash.
Leafblade hit first.
She retaliated, swinging both scimitars, and missed. Leafblade just grinned.
Slash.
Xanthe | HP: 221/504
Rachael needed to heal her fast.
Leafblade cleaved again, but hit the air. Xanthe made a swift flight to his right side, then struck him twice with the Steel Edge and thrice with the Heavy Kilij. Leafblade groaned and rotated. Xanthe drifted behind him, and slashed up and down at his wings.
Leafblade | HP: 87%
His HP was extremely high, or she needed better weapons. Xanthe’s last strikes brought her AP to 100. But with Leafblade’s back turned, he would never see Alluring Waltz, and the magical dance would have no effect.
Brisk Strike it is—
A sword struck her side, inflicting 40 damage.
And then came another, and another. Xanthe’s blood rained from the heavens, and her HP fell below 25 percent. One imperial had flown behind her to save their master. She spun to meet the imperial and used Brisk Strike on them instead. Her Steel Edge pierced the soldier’s chest, and Brisk Strike’s second act played out, forcing her to make an aerial flip, dive behind the soldier, and carve a deep gash into his back using the Heavy Kilij.
Imperial Trooper | HP: 23%
The imperial lost enough HP for her to inflict grievous wounds. With Xanthe’s attack and defense now boosted by 15%, she cleaved off his wings and laughed. His cries echoed below while his body spiraled out of sight and into the ocean.
Splash.
Obtained: 70 Experience Points
Leafblade and Xanthe met again among the clouds and crossed their swords to the winds howling. Above, the sentinel ship and imperial airship darkened the duo with their shadows.
“I cannot believe I trusted you!” Leafblade growled.
She smiled. “Was it my charming accent?”
“It was your class,” he said. “We have no Blade Dancers. I thought you would be useful . . . I thought you really were here to offer service to us!”
Getting AP took longer than usual. Leafblade’s sword always parried one of her scimitars. Good thing she was dual-wielding. Having access to a weapon in each hand gave Xanthe the chance to strike him once as he parried her other weapon.
AP: 60/100
Soon, she would be able to use a forbidden dance.
“Well,” Xanthe said and angled both weapons at his torso. “I suppose I have given you something to think about!”
“Yes! Never trust your kind again!”
The aerial duel resumed and filled the clouds with the clangs of their weapons.
She checked her AP.
AP: 80/100
Almost there.
The sigils on Leafblade’s hard biceps glowed. He had AP to use.
Obtained: 70 Experience Points
With his weapon out, Leafblade became a whirlwind of death, spinning so fast that you could not tell that a man was moving toward her. Xanthe could not slip away. Whatever the skill Leafblade used, it sucked Xanthe to him like a tornado.
Obtained: 70 Experience Points
Slash.
The attack cut red gashes across her belly, arms, and legs. She felt blood escape from her veins, then a stabbing thrust enter her chest and exit her back.
Xanthe | HP: 21/504
Leafblade laughed.
Obtained: 70 Experience Points
So did Rachael.
Rachael cast Regeneration, and two seconds later, finished the cast for Medica. Xanthe’s bleeding ceased as her HP rose above 126, and the red-gushing gashes sealed shut. The pain faded. Now Xanthe laughed at the sight of Leafblade’s raging face. She could not see what became of the imperials. Rachael must have killed them. It would not have been hard, just fly away and heal, then come back swinging her Oak Staff and repeat. It would also explain the experience points Xanthe received during Leafblade’s assault—
The sentinel ship rose higher in the sky, angled itself to the heavens, and flashed out of existence.
Ahead, Leafblade flew for the imperial airship. He was regrouping with back-up imperials who leaped off the top deck with their fae wings buzzing. Xanthe eyed them all. Clerics, Mages, and Berserkers. The newly arrived imperials clustered around their leader, their eyes locking onto the two girls now outnumbered.
Where are the sentinels going? Wherever it is, it must be important. They left the imperials behind.
Chapter Fifty-One
“Got a sentinel ship leaving the planet.”
Guy glanced at the computer screen displaying the Seraphim’s sensor data, his hands steadily piloting the ship toward Faeheim. “I see it, Arn!”
He maintained their course and speed; the blue planet with its white clouds now covered most of the forward windshield’s view. One sentinel ship flew through Faeheim’s atmosphere, and another trailed behind, the one that followed them from Mennaze.
“You sure about that?” Arn said, shifting away from his dashboard.
Guy nodded, keeping his attentive eyes ahead. “Yeah, man.”
“Then why aren’t you turning us around? They’ll shoot us down.”
“We got full deflectors.”
“And they barely lasted against one ship.” Arn faced his station and monitored its data. “Now we have two to deal with.”
“I got this.”
Arn sighed. “Ulysses, please wake up faster. The Paladin is going to kill us all.”
The Seraphim dove into Faeheim’s atmosphere, its forward deflectors rippling with a red glow. Behind, the sentinel ship followed and opened its pulse cannon ports. Once in range, the sentinel vehicle blasted twin streams of pulse gunfire at the Seraphim.
Guy entered the zone.
He spun the Seraphim in a swift aileron roll. The lines of pulse gun fire soared past. Once the roll finished, Guy pulled the Seraphim into a dive, making it sink into a cloud. Emerging from the cloud, he rotated the ship and resumed their descent to the second sentinel ship that had left a fae-built airship behind.
Arn cleared his throat. “I said . . .” He shifted his chair toward Ulysses’s unmoving body behind. “THIS PALADIN IS GOING TO KILL US!—”
“Arn, shut the fuck up,” Guy cut in.
“Make me.”
“You know, you were the one who allowed me to take control, right?”
“No, you forced it.” Arn spun his chair back and pressed his dashboard’s buttons. “I tried shooting you, remember?” He grabbed the laser pistol again and aimed it at Guy.
“Buddy, stop! That shit really stings, man.”
“Well, if we’re going to do this, you must go faster. Consider this encouragement!”
Two sentinel ships sandwiched the Seraphim: the one that followed them and the one that broke away from its escort of the airship. Both ships fired their pulse guns at the Seraphim.
Guy grimaced and grabbed the controls hard. “Oh, shit.”
“You said it.”
He pulled the Seraphim into a wide turn, evading the weapons fire from the forward ship, but taking six direct blasts from behind. Their deflectors held for now. The Seraphi
m sank down through another cloud and soared to the airship that one of the sentinel ships was escorting.
“Got a fae airship just ahead,” Arn reported. Looking closer, the two spotted multiple imperial soldiers flying in the open. It looked like they were engaged in air combat, using the full might of their afflicted powers. “Are they fighting in the skies?”
“Yep.”
Guy accessed one of the Seraphim’s forward cameras and used it to capture a zoomed-in view of the aerial fight. He saw some familiar faces in the bout, and numerous fae surrounded them. “A shadow angel . . . is that . . . Xanthe? Holy shit, it is!” He enhanced the camera’s zoom. “And hey, it’s Rachael!”
Arn peeped at Guy’s computer screen, narrowing his eyes at it. “Whoa. That’s Rachael?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, she looks really sexy in that outfit—”
The Seraphim rumbled, making Guy and Arn shake in their chairs and reminding them of the threat outside. They were getting shot from both ships.
Back at his station, Arn brought up their status on his computer screen. “Aft deflectors dropping!”
Kam, Zuran, and Henrietta entered the bridge with worried looks. The trio stood behind Guy and Arn as they worked their stations. Not one commented on Ulysses spread out on the floor with a bow in his hand. They knew what was up.
“Are we going to crash?” Zuran asked.
“Naw, we’re good,” Guy said.
“Actually,” Arn said. “We will, at this rate, so yes.” The Seraphim rumbled again and nearly tossed the three to the floor. “As you can see, our deflectors will drop soon.”
Kam pointed at the windshield. “There! That island, I recognize it.”
Guy looked up, noting that Kam had spotted an island ahead on the horizon with a small fortress near the beach. “What is it?” he asked.
“It is Jenkovi island, home to the Autumnfall Empire’s prison and execution camp,” Kam said. “That airship is circling it for a reason. Someone is to be executed, and they are ensuring that the resistance does not interrupt it.”
“How would you know that?”
“From the resistance.”
Is Kam part of a resistance? It’d explain why he and Zuran are friends. Zuran’s nation is enemies of the empire. “Going to land at Jenkovi then,” Guy said.
“Why?” Arn snorted. “So they can have an easier time chopping our heads off?”
“The empire and the sentinels are forging an alliance, right?” Guy said, his eyes and hands focused on piloting the ship. “The sentinel ships will think twice about shooting us once we land. One missed shot, and they’ll accidentally kill the imperials on the island.”
“Yeah, and ground forces will have an easier time getting to us,” Arn said, also keeping his eyes to his computer screen. “Especially those flying fae. They’ll just swoop down after us.”
“Not unless Rachael and Xanthe hold them off.”
“They’re outnumbered.”
“I shall help them then.” That was Zuran. He spun to leave the bridge with his tome in his hand. As the doors slid open, Zuran stopped and glanced down the corridors ahead. “Yo, which way is the exit?”
Kam reached for Zuran. “What? Are you mad?”
Zuran returned to the team. “If they can stay in the air and fight, so can I.”
Guy grinned and piloted the Seraphim closer to the aerial sword fighting. “Blow them the fuck up, Zuran! The airlock should be down the hall and to the left.”
The Seraphim zipped past the fae imperial swarming Xanthe and Rachael. On the Seraphim’s side hull, the airlock doors opened, unveiling a lone fae Mage standing. Zuran’s wings buzzed, and he flew out from the Seraphim. As he predicted, Zuran didn’t seem to get tired.
Guy couldn’t tell what happened next as he pulled the Seraphim away and made the ship descend toward the island Kam had pointed out. The trailing sentinel ship remained in pursuit of the Seraphim, discharging its twin pulse guns and ignoring everything else.
“Almost there!”
The island was close now, forcing Guy to reduce speed. They were poised to make a rough landing on the island’s beach.
“Brace for impact!”
The Seraphim slammed into the beach, spraying sand, splashing water, and rocking the ship’s floors.
Things got quiet after that.
“They stopped firing,” Arn said after checking his computer screen. “Okay, so you were right.”
Guy laughed while pointing his finger at him. “That’s twice now I’ve been right! And zero times for you, Arn.”
Arn gestured at the windshield. “You sure about that, bud?”
Guy looked.
Several imperial soldiers charged across the beach and toward them, holding various weapons, all of them positioned to surround the now idle Seraphim. Guy didn’t bother to check their levels and classes. There were too many to look at. “Damn, they’re all afflicted.”
Keeping his attention on his terminal, Arn added, “And once the sentinel troops drop, they’ll take down what remains of our deflectors and force their way inside.”
Guy spun his chair, stood up, and yanked Asteria’s Sword from his back. “Then, we defend the ship until Xanthe, Rachael, and Zuran are clear to return to us!”
He stormed toward the bridge’s exit, stepped over Ulysses’s body, and stopped. Guy was going to need a hand. “Henrietta and Kam, I could use your help with this.”
Henrietta nodded and reached for her Autumnfall Cutter, the only rank B weapon among the team. “And I could use the experience points.”
He shot them party invites.
Guy | HP: 812/812 | MP: 202/202 | AP: 0/100
Henrietta | HP: 252/252 | MP: 0/0 | AP: 0/100
Kam | HP: 428/428 | MP: 325/325 | AP: 0/100
Guy accessed his Inventory screen to take stock of his hyposprays—six left. He left three in Ulysses’s hand. He’d need them once he woke, especially if the imperials boarded the ship. Guy pondered what adjustments he would need to make to his build on his way through the corridors; he doubted the three hypos he had would be enough to see things through.
Hmm, stacking vitality asteriarite makes sense, as that will boost my defense. But that would do shit against magic . . . intelligence, though, that should increase my magic defense, but I’ll lose a bit of physical defense once I remove the vitality asteriarite. Damn, what should I do?—
He paused after examining his stock of asteriarite gems. The Asteriarite: HP +10 gems hooked his attention.
Dianna gave me those . . . and I never used them. These should keep me going longer against physical and magic damage . . . and would have saved me when Wylume showed up.
He swapped out two vitality asteriarite gems and replaced them with two HP +10 asteriarite.
The same airlock door Zuran had used remained open. Guy stood in front of it, glancing at the beach and the sand they had displaced upon landing. He leaped out and pushed through the small opening in the deflectors, then waited for Henrietta and Kam to join him on his left and right as the winds kicked up the edges of Guy’s trench coat and hair.
The three exchanged nods, then rushed into battle with their weapons ready to meet the imperial forces.
The battle to defend the Seraphim had begun.
Chapter Fifty-Two
If one were on the ground looking up, the aerial fight would appear as if it were a dazzling show of flying stars. Rachael flew wide circles around the battlefield, stopping to cast Medica and Regeneration to keep Xanthe going or to use her MP hyposprays. Sometimes an imperial would break off and dive for Rachael, then regret it when she swung the Oak Staff in their face. For a level 9 healer, Rachael hit hard.
Xanthe kept the imperial Mages and Clerics at bay with her magical dancing. Despite being in the sky, it was possible to dance and charm those who watched. She used Alluring Waltz on a Mage and enticed them to cast Thunder on Leafblade three times. If her charisma had been higher, she might have been able to get
the Mage to strike Leafblade once more.
Leafblade’s HP had fallen to 53 percent as the effect of charm faded from the Mage—
A flash of blue and green light covered Leafblade, and his HP rose to 74 percent.
The Imperial Clerics were an issue. Xanthe tried to kill them by flying toward them with her dual blades looking for blood. Behind, Leafblade and his minions closed the gap as she stopped to take a swing or five at the Cleric. They were a lot harder to kill.
On that note, she checked her flight time.
Flight Time Remaining: 8 Minutes 49 Seconds
Time was running out.
The same went for Rachael. Once the counter hit zero, their wings would grow tired. The Cleric cast a wide healing spell again, recovering the HP of his people, including Leafblade—up to 89 percent now.
Behind, the battle forced Rachael to perform hit-and-run tactics, sometimes getting blasted by lightning and fire spells, only to fly out of range from the Mages and heal. Rachael could not kite Mages; they could strike her from a distance. Xanthe grimaced. The imperial Mages had also pushed Rachael out of healing range. The Cleric who Xanthe had flown toward was bait to separate the two—
The Cleric exploded in a blaze of light.
Xanthe stopped and smiled at the sight of the burning fae and the Fireballs that rained upon them.
A second fae dove into the battle, dark skinned and wearing a gray shawl over the firmest chest she had ever seen on a man. She recognized him from Holt, the fae who was an acquaintance of Kam and Guy.
Gawking at his fine pecs and six-pack abs was distracting.
She shook out of the dreamy state and watched as the last explosive Fire spell brought the Cleric’s HP to 25 percent. Just low enough for their wings to catch fire.
Star Paladin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy (Sword of Asteria Book 1) Page 39