Moonlight Assassin: A LitRPG Space Fantasy, page 13
“If she doesn’t,” Sayuri the Soul Hunter said, reaching for the bottom of her top. “Then she will now.”
Sayuri lifted her top up, exposing her navel area. Then she tugged her skirt down. Guy thought she was going to pull down her skirt for a second, but she stopped partway through the tug, revealing what was below her navel. It was a lower belly tattoo of a moon eclipsing the sun.
The sight of the tattoo lit Nijana’s eyes up with fire.
“The Lumina faction!” Nijana yelled, pointing at Sayuri’s belly tattoo. “Guy! She’s from the dark universe! She’s here to kill me!”
Chapter Fifteen
Nijana struck first. The Soul Hunter ducked and avoided the razor-sharp edges of Nijana’s throwing weapon, which soared through the air and returned to her hands. When she came up, Sayuri charged Nijana with lunging weapons, her black, waist-long ponytail waving about behind. Nijana lifted the Glimmer Circle and Marauder’s Chakram and somehow parried the initial six pokes, then kicked off Sayuri while performing a horizontal cleave with the Glimmer Circle.
The sharpened edge of the disk-shaped throwing weapon missed the Soul Hunter’s forehead by inches as she leaned backward to evade. As Sayuri recovered from her leaping maneuverer, Nijana threw the Marauder’s Chakram for her target, missed, and scowled as the throwing circle cut a thin gash into a tree. The Marauder’s Chakram returned to Nijana’s raised hand, missing Sayuri again. Just before the disk returned, Nijana heaved the Glimmer Circle, but like the Marauder’s Chakram, Nijana only hit a sapling behind. The evasive backflips of Sayuri were too fast for her.
Keeping the twin Kunoichi’s Sais clenched hard, Sayuri charged Nijana while she retrieved her returning chakrams, closed the gap, and unleashed a vicious three-fold strike, each hit removing 10% HP from Nijana. Sayuri lost 5% of her HP when Nijana pivoted like a ballerina and hurled the Glimmer Circle and Marauder’s Chakram, sending them spinning and slicing into Sayuri’s pale skin before returning to her extended hands. Nijana ducked from a kick as her fairy wings bloomed outward. With buzzing wings, Nijana fluttered to the side, escaping another spinning jump kick from Sayuri.
All that happened while Guy and Synaria ran to Nijana with twin daggers in their firm grips. Guy made a note to himself, watch your ass. He was a level 13 Assassin with only 672 HP and 25 defense to keep him breathing. The only Paladin skills Guy had to work with were Storm Slash, Cut Through the Armor, and Blinding Flash, and they weren’t the rank B versions of those skills. His level wasn’t high enough to access higher-ranked abilities. Defending the women he cared about just got much more complicated.
The sticky situation didn’t stop him from helping Nijana and Synaria pile on the pressure with deft stabs, spinning slashes, and fancy footwork to blindside the level 35 Soul Hunter. Seeing Sayuri lose so little HP every time Guy shoved the Azure Photon Daggers into her gut or shoulder, only to pull out blades free of crimson juices, was irritating. The trio had a long way to go before making the Soul Hunter bleed. Correction, Nijana did. Now and then, Guy and Synaria’s blades cut through Sayuri’s skin and drew blood, dripping red droplets along with HP to the forest’s dirt path. It was one advantage of the Assassin class, a trait called Deep Cut that randomly put deep and oozing lacerations into a target, regardless of how much HP they had.
Sayuri snarled at Guy and Synaria, performed a flawless triple backflip away, and landed with both weapons ready. Red gashes cut along the length of Sayuri’s arms and legs coated her porcelain skin with leaking gore. The damage done by the bleed really pissed her off. With nimble, moving hands, Sayuri replaced one of her Kunoichi’s Sais with a soul crystal yanked from her inventory. Sayuri clenched it tightly, and an eerie aura of light flashed around her with astral winds kicking up her lengthy black ponytail hair and picking up the edges of her red skirt so high he saw her panties.
A black and green ghost wielding brass knuckles emerged from the astral winds and light. The ghost put up its dukes in defense of Sayuri long enough for Guy to view its information appearing in his vision.
Human-phantom (Pugilist) | LVL: 25 | Rank: C
And the Pugilist dashed toward Guy and Synaria, punching him in the face for 226 damage and spin-kicking Synaria. The bunny druid yelped when the blow flung her into a tree, cracking its trunk. Guy slashed at the phantom, missed, and took a ghostly fist to the face, losing another 226 HP. Guy face-planted to the dirt, though he had no memory of it. The Pugilist punched harder than a truck, leaving Guy with 220 HP. The next hit would kill him.
Guy hopped back to his feet and snapped his busted nose back in place. “That’s a new trick . . .”
To the side, Synaria collected the Earthen Stiletto and Marauder’s Dirk that fell from her hands, rearmed herself, and pointed the blades’ tips to the Pugilist. The ghost summoned by the Soul Hunter remained in the middle of their battle, taunting Guy and Synaria to challenge it.
“Did she just use a soul crystal?” Synaria asked.
“Yeah,” Guy said, stowing one Azure Photon Dagger away. He retrieved an HP hypospray and pressed it to his shoulder. The device recovered 134 HP, bringing his current HP up to 354. “But a Pugilist?” He rearmed himself with the Azure Photon Dagger. “Never heard of that class.”
A shuriken spiraled through the air and sank into the ground before Guy’s feet, thrown from the dexterous hands of Sayuri. She was still in play and retrieved a second throwing star, hurling it for Guy. He dashed away and heard the shuriken hit the tree behind, spun, and saw Sayuri throw a third and fourth shuriken at Nijana, each removing 3-7% of her HP. Guy twisted around and made a leaping dive for Sayuri as she was preparing to throw another shuriken at Nijana. He came down and sank the Azure Photon Daggers into Sayuri. She ignored Guy’s attack. Both weapons had hit her for 2 damage and didn’t make her bleed, much to his disappointment.
Crack.
The Pugilist punched Guy down, leaving him bleeding and his HP at 128. Guy was so glad he used the HP hypo earlier.
Stab.
Synaria’s Backstab angered the Pugilist and dropped its HP to 23%. The ghost snorted, then punched and kicked Synaria to the ground. As it did that, Guy stabbed it six times, got 100 AP, and unleashed his own Backstab, knocking off the last of its HP.
The phantom turned into black and green miasma and disappeared beyond the leaves shading the fighters from the sun. There was one target left, Sayuri, and she was in melee range again, piercing Nijana’s flesh, spilling her blood to the ground when her HP fell to 25%. They had to stop her. But first Guy needed to do something about his HP. He used two hyposprays and raised his HP to 396. Then he made his move. Synaria rushed Sayuri on the left; Guy went to the right and aimed the glowing blue end of his Azure Photon Daggers at her shoulder.
Stab.
He plunged the right Azure Photon Dagger into her arm, forcing a trickle of blood to seep through her skin. Guy loved the Deep Cut trait. He didn’t need to strike Sayuri hard, not that he could at his level, just stack on lots of severe cuts and let the damage brought on by the bleeding do the rest.
Synaria dished out a four-hit dagger combo, bringing Sayuri’s HP to 65%. The Soul Hunter countered with a spin while aiming her Kunoichi’s Sais out. The attack hacked a red line through Synaria, Guy, and Nijana, smacking Nijana and Synaria backward. Guy remained still, thankful his passive human trait kicked in. He lunged once more for Sayuri, missed when she flipped back, then frowned when she pulled out another soul crystal. The same ghostly astral energy blew skirt-lifting gusts and brightened the area with black and green light. Sayuri was calling another phantom.
I wonder if I can interrupt her summoning, he pondered. I really don’t want to fight another ghost . . .
Guy ran toward Sayuri with 100 AP ready for Storm Slash, but he was too late. By the time he got in striking range, she had replaced the soul crystal with a Smoke Bomb and slammed it into the dirt.
Poof.
A plume of smoke enveloped Sayuri and erased her form as her beautiful chestnut-brown eyes peered into Guy’s. Sayuri was gorgeous. Too bad they had to fight her.
The smoke from the bomb cleared away, unveiling nothing but trees ahead. Synaria and Nijana stood with Guy, their faces shifting about in search of the Soul Hunter.
“Where did she go?” Nijana asked.
Laughter echoed from the shadows, causing a large frown to expand on Guy’s face. “Stealth . . .” he grunted.
Synaria laughed back. “Two can play at that game!”
A spin of leaves rotated around Synaria, rendering her invisible. Guy did the same, and a cluster of light particles circled around him. He disappeared from sight. As the two entered Stealth, a new target glided down from the treetops with large, feathered wings flapping.
Guy looked up and viewed its information.
Shadow angel-phantom (Sorcerer) | LVL: 20 | Rank: C
The black and green glowing Sorcerer floated below the treetops, gathered astral energy as purple lightning swirled around the column of the creepy-looking casting staff it wielded. The Sorcerer lifted the staff into the air. A cascading barrage of thunderbolts rained upon the surface, exploding with a deafening roar and sparking yellow flashes of sparks everywhere Guy ran. Guy couldn’t do anything but run. One blast from the lightning elemental magic would force him to reappear from Stealth. And with his luck would also place the Shock debuff on him, assuming the 396 HP he had left was even enough for him to survive, probably not.
As Guy dashed for safety, Nijana’s buzzing wings carried her to the tree leaves. She soared toward the Sorcerer, flinging the Glimmer Circle and Marauder’s Chakram at it and raising her AP. When Nijana’s AP rose to 100, she used Brisk Strike, slashing the phantom once, twirling behind it, and landing the skill’s second strike, granting her the Brisk Strike High buff. Now each of Nijana’s attacks inflicted 15% more damage. It was for the best the more Guy thought about it while dodging the lightning bolts. Nijana wasn’t in the party, he and Synaria were too far apart, and the thundering lightning strikes were causing too much noise. Bard songs only worked when you were in the party and could hear them from start to finish. It was something to note for the future. Bard songs were ineffective when someone cast loud lightning spells and delivered bright flashes to the battle.
Speaking of flashes of light, Guy noticed bursts of green and blue light brightening the trees. It was Averyl’s healing magic, keeping Nijana alive. Averyl and Rain had flown in to help. Rain landed to give her crystalline wings a break. They faded as Rain immediately waved the Chaos Staff in the air, creating a blustery green vortex above her. A Wind Sprite emerged from the summoning rift and floated toward the Sorcerer with mischievous giggles. With a wave of a tiny magic wand, the sprite sprinkled green pixie dust before the Sorcerer, dust that turned into hurricane-force winds. The gusts blew the Sorcerer backward, slamming it into a swaying tree and making it easier for the raging fae Bard to tear into it with dual chakrams.
The lightning spells stopped thundering the forest, much to the delight of Guy’s ringing ears. He wouldn’t have heard Averyl scream suddenly if it hadn’t ended.
Guy ran to Averyl, noticing that the fae princess collapsed to her knees, her wings torn to grisly shreds. Sayuri had ambushed Averyl by sending a flurry of shurikens into her wings, then slashed her with swift strikes. As Guy ran for Averyl’s aid, Synaria appeared behind Sayuri with Backstab’s critical hit, knocking the Soul Hunter’s HP down to 39%.
Sayuri gritted her lips, displaying impeccable white teeth, and spun aside from Averyl. She turned to the druid Assassin with bunny ears sagging to her shoulders. Synaria parried the first strike but failed to duck from the spin kick that flung her ten feet backward. While Synaria tumbled to the ground, Sayuri stretched her hands and made three hasty hand gestures. Guy wasn’t sure what the gestures were for, just that when finished ropes appeared out of nowhere and knotted themselves around Synaria, pinning her to a tree. Guy was almost in range when Sayuri turned toward Averyl on the ground. Tears were streaming down Averyl’s red face.
The Soul Hunter raised her right Kunoichi’s Sai for a stab, then squinted at the bloodstained fae. “You are not Nijana—”
Whoosh.
Pixie dust from Rain’s summoned Wind Sprite had fallen around Sayuri and turned into high winds, blowing her away from Averyl.
“Get away from her!” Rain yelled, standing in defense of Averyl, the Chaos Staff held horizontally.
The Wind Sprite’s attack had sent Sayuri tumbling to the ground with leaves and twigs blowing through the air. She ended up rolling toward Guy’s feet, her back facing upward. Guy’s invisible feet. Thanks to the Ginseng Tea in his belly, Guy’s AP had long risen to 100, so he heaved the Azure Photon Daggers into Sayuri’s back, striking her with Backstab.
The attack knocked her HP down to 37% and forced Guy to appear again. With a grin, he snorted. “Surprise!”
Sayuri snorted back and swept her leg across the dirt, slamming them across Guy’s legs. He fell over backward. The two leaped to their feet simultaneously with twin weapons in hand. Guy and Sayuri exchanged stabbing strikes, spinning kicks, leg sweeps. The works. Guy was confident that using Paladin as his subclass gave him the skills to deflect most of her attacks. However, despite Guy’s best efforts, he couldn’t lower the Soul Hunter’s HP, only prevent her from lowering his. Their thirty-second battle had grown to a stalemate, forcing Sayuri to growl and shove Guy backward when he blocked her Kunoichi’s Sais for an eighth consecutive time. Sayuri glanced at the treetops and shifted her gaze about. She was looking for Nijana.
And found her farther away, slicing away what remained of the shadow angel-phantom Sorcerer’s HP. Sayuri ran for Nijana while the Sorcerer had kept her distracted. Guy followed in pursuit—
“Guy! Little help here!”
That was Synaria.
He twirled around and saw that the mysterious ropes had tied and pinned the bunny druid to the tree, her tiny frame squirming about. Guy carefully held the Azure Photon Daggers and sizzled the ropes binding Synaria and cutting her free. Meanwhile, Rain swung the Chaos Staff shimmering with astral energy and forged a white and pink vortex where the Heart Sprite floated out. The sprite waved a wand above Averyl and dusted her with magical dust. When the pixie dust fell to Averyl, it sealed her wounds, mended her mangled wings, and made the blood-staining her flesh trickle back inside. While the pixie recovered Averyl’s HP, Guy and Synaria ran after Sayuri, who was closing in on Nijana. The Soul Hunter was fucking quick.
“You have AP?” Synaria asked during their sprint.
Guy nodded. “Yeah.”
“Use Chase.”
Synaria used the technique Chase, and her running speed increased. In seconds she ended up running ahead of Guy, leaving him behind.
Guy checked out the skill in question.
Chase
Increases movement speed by 20% to catch a target.
Cost: 100 AP
Then he spent his AP on it.
Guy’s speed increased. The skill forced him to move so fast that the ends of his coat and hair were rustling. Guy and Synaria made a large leaping dive, soaring straight toward Sayuri when they jumped. Guy stretched his Inferno Wings during the jump and used his increased momentum to fly and glide toward Nijana battling the Sorcerer. His opening attack was a fly-by cut, lowering the Sorcerer’s HP to 17%
Nijana grinned at Guy’s entrance and drifted backward with buzzing wings. “I forgot you could fly.”
Guy flew in a circle around the Sorcerer, leaving a line of flames in his wake. “So did I.”
The duo flew together with relentless lunges and stabs, decreasing the Sorcerer’s HP each second. Nijana might have been a faster flyer than Guy, but his blazing wings always left lines of fires to burn flying foes as he passed around.
Below, Synaria and Sayuri engaged in a duel to the death, twirling about and evading each other’s attacks. It was good and bad. Good because Synaria wasn’t losing HP. Bad because she wasn’t gaining AP either. Like Guy earlier, all Synaria was doing was holding Sayuri’s attention, stopping her from calling phantoms or using those hand gestures.
Averyl and Rain drank MP potions, then sprouted their wings, fairy wings for Averyl and ethereal crystalline wings for Rain. The two flew over to help, whirling about to escape from multiple lightning bursts conjured by the Sorcerer. Its lightning attacks were slowing them down. It would take a while for the two to fly in casting range. Guy and Nijana had to end the phantom Sorcerer.
Boom.
The Sorcerer exploded with roaring flames whirling around its frame. It looked like it had cast a tornado spell composed of fire. The explosive blast did little to Guy, having drifted backward as the eruption raged. Nijana screamed and flailed her arms about. The flaming twister had set her fairy wings on fire.
“Fuck!” Nijana wailed over and over.
She couldn’t fly correctly with wings on fire. Nijana crashed to the surface, lost 200 HP from the fall damage, then rolled around on the dirt path, trying her best to put out the fires that were burning her wings to ash. The sight of Nijana burning put a grin on Sayuri’s face, drawing Synaria’s glare to Nijana. Guy wished Synaria had watched the Soul Hunter instead because she ended up kicking Synaria in the face. Sayuri performed a quick three-fold hand gesture, conjured ropes to appear out of nowhere, and tied Synaria’s arms to her back and her legs together. A third rope tied Synaria against a tree.
Synaria tried and failed to wiggle herself free from the magical ropes. She snarled at Sayuri and yelled. “Now that is just fuckin’ cheating!”
The flames burning Nijana died out. While panting and moaning in pain, Nijana pushed herself up from the road just in time to see Sayuri running toward her—
Guy made an epic dive downward, performing a three-point landing worthy of a comic book superhero. His dive placed him ahead of Sayuri, blocking her path to Nijana. He grasped the Azure Photon Daggers and guided their blazing blue energy blades forward, parrying the Soul Hunter’s piercing thrusts and deep carving slashes.
