Nova Terra: Guardian - A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (The Titan Series Book 4)

by Seth Ring

  Boon’s powerful blows sent the guards reeling and SmilingBandit, slipping in behind his raging friend, smoothly stabbed his sword into the gaps in the guard’s defenses. Within a few minutes all of the guards had been taken down, though Thorn was surprised to see that they were not actually dead but just incapacitated.

  “Alright, let’s get out of here.” SmilingBandit’s eyes scanned the street. Not seeing anyone else who could still fight, he led Thorn and Boon back to the hidden tunnel where Velin, Mina, Baxby, and OneArrowKiller stood with the slaves.

  Back with the group, Thorn took a closer look at the four slaves that they had just rescued. All four were terribly dirty and wearing rags wrapped around their bodies and heads, hiding their features. Two of the slaves still held broken weapons in their hands, and from what Thorn could observe, they were fairly confident in their ability despite the damage to the weapons. The slave with the broken spear was relaxed, though Thorn was sure that he was ready to attack or defend at a moment’s notice if needed. The other two slaves appeared to be female, though Thorn could not tell much more than that due to how tightly wrapped they were.

  “We’ve got to move, your majesty.” Putting his hand on his chest and flashing a smile, SmilingBandit bowed, missing the startled reaction from the slaves.

  Velin, still wearing her hood, had been paying careful attention to the slaves and saw the murderous look that flashed across the spear-wielding slave’s face. A moment later a delicate hand rested on the slave’s arm, instantly calming his agitation. The slave who had fallen to the ground earlier shook her head at him, causing him to relax his grip on the handle of his broken spear.

  “Thank you for your help, please lead the way.” Velin’s calm voice hid any indication of the smile that she hid under her hood.

  “It would be my pleasure.” Oblivious to the strange looks that the slaves were sending at Velin after hearing her reply, SmilingBandit gestured for OneArrowKiller to lead the way and then brought the rest of the group into the tunnel.

  The passageway was dark and cramped, and for a moment Thorn was not sure that he was going to fit. Thankfully, it soon opened into a wide tunnel that he could pass through by crouching and proceeding on his hands and knees. According to SmilingBandit’s stories, these tunnels used to be one of the ways that the city disposed of its waste. Once the use of magic was popularized they were abandoned and homes were built over them.

  An enterprising merchant had recognized the value of a way out of the city that did not involve the main gate and the city guards and built the hidden connecting passage, using it as a way to move goods in and out of the city. After winding around for a few minutes, they arrived at the end of the tunnel. The tunnel opened into a large fifty foot by fifty foot room with a few carts stacked to the side. Standing up, Thorn rolled his shoulders and stretched out his back.

  Walking over to the tunnel’s opening, Thorn looked out over the river that ran out of the mountains and past Maandell. Boats and barges could be seen passing by slowly. The tunnel exit was hidden on a small ten foot cliff and barred by a thick metal grate with a hole big enough to throw trash through. With no gate, the edges of the grate’s metal bars were set deeply in the stone walls, floor, and ceiling, sealing the opening.

  “Um, I don’t think your war construct is going to fit through there.” Boon looked between Thorn’s armored figure and the gate. Glancing down at himself, he shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think I will fit out that hole.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Everyone back up.” Mina waved her hands, shooing everyone back.

  Turning to face the metal bars, she took a moment, calming herself. Behind her, everyone held their breath as they waited for her spell to start, curious as to how she would deal with the thick metal obstruction. Lifting her wand, she took a deep breath and opened her mouth.

  “Thorn.”

  *BOOOM*

  Anticipating her words, Thorn took a step forward, passing by Mina and kicking his foot out. His thick metal boot landed on the bars, blasting the metal grate out of the wall and sending it flying towards the river. Completely stunned, the slaves and players who were standing behind Thorn stared as the metal grate flew through the air, passing over a barge and plopping into the river.

  Watching it disappear, Baxby grinned and shook his head. Looking at the stunned faces that surrounded him, he chuckled and then ambled over to the unbarred tunnel exit.

  “Wow,” Boon put his hand on his chest as he stared at Thorn. “Remind me not to get in his way.”

  “So what now?” Baxby stood on the crumbling edge of the tunnel, looking out over the river.

  “We need to grab one of the boats and hope that we can sneak by the city. My hope is that we can sneak onto a boat with a cabin big enough for all of us. Otherwise we might have some trouble. Once we float past the city, we’ll be able to land and make our way toward Thilvena. It would probably be fastest to take the river all the way down to the crossway, but that might be too close to Shaylathemar.”

  “Let's grab a boat for now. We can talk about the rest once we’re clear of the city.” Baxby ran his eyes over the boats down below as he spoke. He pointed at a mid-sized boat with a large paddle wheel in the center of the deck that was anchored slightly up the river. “How about that one? Decent-sized cabin and cargo space. We can hide in the cabin while we head down the river.”

  “That looks good. Now its just a matter of getting on board. Any ideas, boys?” SmilingBandit looked at his two friends.

  Boon just shrugged, but OneArrowKiller withdrew a special looking arrow with a hooked head and a cord wrapped around it from his inventory and held it up in the air.

  “Rope arrow should do the trick. I can shoot it onto the boat and we can climb over. Though we may need to use a couple at the same time due to how fast it is moving.”

  “Let's do it.” SmilingBandit turned to Velin and the slaves that were standing behind her. “In a second we are going to have to make our way to that paddle boat. Please let me know if you need any help. If you cannot cross on your own, we’ll need you to hang on to someone who can cross. We need to move quickly though.”

  As he was speaking, OneArrowKiller took out another rope arrow and unclipped something from the arrow’s tail. Removing a large post from his inventory, he handed it to Boon who stabbed it into the ground. At the top of the post was a ring that he hooked the unclipped ends of the arrow onto. Lifting his bow, he selected one of the arrows and drew it back. Letting out his breath, he fired the first arrow, and without waiting to see where it landed, notched the second arrow and let it fly.

  *thunk* *thunk*

  Both arrows shot through the air, spinning as the rope they carried unwound behind them. Stabbing into the wooden side of the paddle boat with a soft sound, the hooked tips dug deeply into the side of the boat.

  “Awesome, lets go.” Tugging on the ropes to make sure they were tight, SmilingBandit looked at the slaves and then at Velin. “Do any of you need help?”

  “No, thank you.” Shaking her head, Velin stepped up to one of the ropes as Baxby nimbly climbed onto the other. Jumping, Velin grabbed the rope and lifted her legs, wrapping her feet around it. Together, she and Baxby began to shimmy over to the boat.

  Mina, who had been standing on the edge of the tunnel exit, waved her wand, causing a series of ice steps to appear as she blinked out over the river. Stepping lightly on the plates of ice she walked through the air for a moment and then disappeared, reappearing on the deck of the ship with another blink. In the tunnel, OneArrowKiller’s face blanched and he whipped his head around to stare at SmilingBandit.

  “Yeah, I know.” SmilingBandit rubbed his nose ruefully. He had realized earlier who Mina was which made him wonder about the others.

  “You know how I feel about Ragnarok,” OneArrowKiller hissed at his friend, his face pale.

  “She’s not with Ragnarok anymore. Didn’t you hear? She joined that new guild that cleared the last World Quest.
You know, the one with that giant…” Freezing, both players slowly turned their heads to look at Thorn who was standing quietly at the side with Akira perched on his shoulder. After looking at each other, their faces fell.

  “Hidden quest, huh?”

  Ignoring his friend’s sarcastic whisper, SmilingBandit closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

  “We might as well finish this out. We’ve helped them this far so what’s the point of stopping now?”

  “Sure, but you owe me.”

  “Oh, come off it. When do I not owe you?” Stabilizing his feelings, SmilingBandit gestured for the slaves to go ahead.

  Seeing that Baxby and Velin were almost at the ship, the two armed slaves nodded and helped their companions onto the ropes. All of them were fairly nimble and they quickly crossed, leaving Thorn and the other players in the tunnel exit.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  “So, uh… How are we supposed to move the construct across?” Boon jerked a thumb at Thorn as he asked OneArrowKiller.

  “I’m sure he’ll be just fine. Let’s cross.” Still disgruntled, the Forest Warden climbed up onto the ropes and started sliding across to the boat.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about it.” Smiling ruefully, SmilingBandit patted Boon on the shoulder and started crossing, leaving the grumbling barbarian behind.

  With one last glance between Thorn and the ship, Boon shrugged and grasped the rope with his hands, swinging out over the river and making his way across hand over hand.

  [Time for you to cross, Akira.]

  [Okay, Master! I’ll see you on the ship.]

  Akira jumped from Thorn’s shoulder, landing neatly on the top of the pole where the two ropes were attached. Stepping delicately onto the rope that Boon had not selected, she scampered across it, passing by the Raging Barbarian who was swinging over like a monkey. Thorn watched Akira and Boon cross and once they had landed on the ship, Thorn lifted the post and unclipped the ropes. Putting the post into his inventory, he walked to the exit and crouched.

  The small cliff they were on was only a dozen feet from the water line at the very most, so he put his hand on the edge and dropped down, catching himself before he hit the water. Kicking off with his feet, he took a deep breath and let go, instantly disappearing into the water. Dropping like a stone, Thorn felt his feet sink into the thick mud at the bottom of the river. He had intended to swim across to the ship, but the weight of his armor made that impossible. Waving his hand, his armor disappeared into his inventory and he began to trudge through the river.

  On the deck of the boat SmilingBandit approched Velin, his wide smile looking slightly strained. Behind him, OneArrowKiller was standing with his arms crossed, an annoyed frown on his face.

  “Um, excuse me, but are you natives or travelers? I don’t mean to be rude, but I honestly can’t tell anymore.”

  “Do you mind waiting for a few moments? Let’s deal with the more pressing issue first.” Her face calm, Velin pointed toward the cabin.

  “Uh, sure. Yeah, we should find the captain of the ship.” Nodding, SmilingBandit had only taken a few steps when the door to the cabin creaked open a hair.

  “Hey, who are you people? What are you doing on my boat?” A confused voice floated out of the ship’s cabin as the captain of the ship peered through the door at the crowd of people who had appeared on his boat.

  “Excuse us for our intrusion, my good sir. We’re travelers who need to move quickly and your boat happened to be the closest vessel. I wonder if you would be open to taking us down the river toward Shaylathemar? We’d be happy to reimburse you for your trip.”

  “What? Down the river? No, this isn’t a passenger ship. I’m waiting for a cargo so I can head back up into the mountains. I don’t have time to take you anywhere. Now get off my ship.”

  *clink*

  A bag of gold landed on the deck of the ship, drawing all eyes. Her expression unchanging, Velin looked at the captain and spoke calmly.

  “Ten gold to take us down the river.”

  “Ten gold?” The captain’s eyes gleamed for a moment, but he managed to turn his gaze from the bag of coins on the deck. Sighing to himself he shook his head. “Not even for ten gold. I’ve got goods to deliver, I need to ask you..”

  “Per person.”

  “Uh… I need to ask you when you want to leave.” Straightening up, the captain did a quick count of all the people who had appeared on his ship. Snapping a sharp salute, he faced Velin and stood at attention. “We can leave whenever you want to, ma’am.

  “We are waiting on one more person. After that, we can leave.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’ll get the ship ready.” With one last look at the bag of gold, the captain hurried off to get his sailors up.

  Raising her hand to forestall the questions that were on the edge of SmilingBandit’s lips, Velin indicated that he should wait for a moment.

  Under the hull of the ship, Thorn had stopped. The visibility in the river was terrible, but he was sure that he had found the ship after his head nearly put a hole in the bottom of it. Groping around, he felt the curve rising above him and took a step back. He had been holding his breath this whole time, but for whatever reason he did not feel that he was running out of air. Shrugging, he pushed that to the back of his mind and crouched, launching himself toward the surface.

  The barge was quite stable thanks to its wide design, but it still canted to one side sharply when Thorn’s hand reached up and grabbed the side. His extra weight dragged the side of the boat down as he clambered up under the astonished gaze of the people on the deck. Swinging himself over the side, he stepped toward the middle of the boat and stood to his full height, his body dripping.

  No longer in his armor, he gave the players and slaves a wide smile and a wave before turning to dry himself off. Thankfully, the system made that a quick process and he was soon dressed in dry clothing. When he felt the ship tilt, the captain had rushed back to the deck with his sailors and now they stood in the door of the cabin staring at Thorn in utter shock. Used to the looks, Thorn sat down and began getting food out of his inventory. It had been nearly five hours since he last ate and he was starving.

  “Ahem. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that a round of introductions are in order.” Stepping forward, Baxby coughed to get everyone’s attention. “But before that, we should move into the cabin while our captain gets the ship underway. Lady Velin, can we cast off?”

  “Yes.” Accepting a pastry that Akira brought to her, Velin agreed, and the sailors hurried off to get the ship ready to leave. While they were rushing to raise the anchor, the captain showed the passengers into the cabin and then left to take the helm, placing a glowing gem into a slot near the ship’s wheel. Placing his hand on the gem, he started up the paddle wheel in the center of the ship while the sailors pulled up the anchor.

  The ship’s cabin was not a luxurious affair, but the furniture was strong and stable. Stacked hammocks stood against one wall, next to a galley kitchen. The center of the room was taken up by a long table with benches running down the side and chairs on the ends where the sailors normally ate their meals. On the other side of the room were two doors, one for the bathroom, the other for the captain’s thin room.

  “Take a seat and have a bite to eat.” Baxby gestured to the table as Thorn began setting food out.

  Velin and Mina sat down on one side of the table as Baxby moved the chair at the head of the table. Thorn sat down and continued taking plates of food from his inventory, soon creating a feast on the table. Boon, SmilingBandit, and OneArrowKiller sat across from Velin and Mina and began helping themselves to the food that Thorn put out. The four slaves were hesitant, but after whispering together they eventually sat down, the two women sitting next to Velin and the two men sitting next to SmilingBandit.

  Finished with putting the food out, Thorn rubbed his hands together and began eating. Watching the food disappear as quickly as it had appeared, the slaves were completely dumbfou
nded and threw their restraint away, quickly getting food for themselves. As everyone was eating, Baxby began the introductions.

  “Let me get the introductions started. I’m Baxby, a treasure hunter. This is my employer, Lord Greymane. Next to me are Lady Velin, and Lady Mina, and the fur ball is Akira. We came to the island to get in touch with the Elves, not expecting to find the situation as it is.”

  Looking across the table at SmilingBandit, Baxby indicated for him to introduce himself and his friends. Slightly depressed that he had mistaken Thorn and the others for NPCs, SmilingBandit smiled weakly and raised his hand with a wave.

  “My name is SmilingBandit. I’m a Sun Blade loosely affiliated with Obsidian Blade. This is Boon and he is OneArrowKiller.”

  As he finished his brief introduction, all eyes turned toward the slaves who had been eating as fast as they could. Seeing that everyone was looking at them, the smallest of the slaves took a deep breath and stood up, causing the other three slaves to jump up. Gesturing firmly for them to sit back down, the slave began unwrapping the cloth that covered her head. A thick waterfall of golden hair spilled down as she undid the wrap, revealing a gorgeous Elf with looks that rivaled Velin’s.