Stormblade, Volume Two

A Portal-Clearing LitRPG Adventure

De: Aest Belequa

Narrado por: Aaron Camacho, Onyx Volcan

Kade’s strength has grown. But a new storm builds in the east.

The portal surge is over. Kade Noelstra’s build is complete. He’s about to reach D-Rank and take his first steps on the Stormsteel Path, but Phoenix and Kade’s friends still need his help. The fortress guarding the S-Rank Carlsbad Portal has requested more supplies and reinforcements, and Kade’s best friend has to be in the convoy. He needs Kade with him.

But to be part of the expedition east, Kade has to hit C-Rank—and he has to do it fast.

To do it, Kade must hunt unique Paragon monsters in the portals still opening across Phoenix and use their cores to strengthen his own. As he pushes himself to his limits, Phoenix’s most powerful people get involved, digging into Kade’s secrets—for better, and for worse. And the more Kade pushes, the more strain he puts on his core. Delvers weren’t meant to grow this fast, after all.

And to the east, Carlsbad Fortress goes silent as the Paragon of the Hurricane finally launches her assault.

The growing storm. The raging typhoon. Kade must rise to the challenge.

©2026 Aest Belequa (P)2026 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

Sister

I wish there was another one but it was good and this is for the 15 word minimum

Poor characters

I agree with other reviewers about the terrible characters. Minor spoilers below.

Jeff's quest to return to his friends from elementary school is so shallow and absurd that it made me want to drop the story multiple times. He went from a solid, dependable friend and party leader in book 1 to a crazed maniac willing to ditch or attack his current friends and party members so he can shave off a few hours of waiting to find people he hasn't communicated with in over a decade. Who gets so obsessed over early childhood friends?! Especially when it's so hypocritical to risk his current friends and battle companions. Somehow elementary school and a decade apart builds deeper relationships than literally fighting for your lives together over and over.

Also Deborah as a villain has such shallow motivation, it's absurd. Deborah got such a minor slight that I still find it hard to believe. In book 1, she didn't come out and say directly or indirectly "come join my team". She just offered the MC an extra core instead of money and the MC basically said "no thank you, I need the money to support my sister with an incurable medical condition". Apparently a polite refusal to a nebulous offer is enough to make a lifelong enemy. Doesn't an A ranker have better things to do than obsessively stalk a much lower rank person for such a polite refusal?

Cool magic, world building, concepts… but

Great book, fun read but it feels weird. Characters are predictable and a bit one dimensional. Classic trope where MC has better magic compared to everyone but is always on the verge of losing everything as his magic is “damaged” from progressing too fast. He then keeps on going and going, damaging his core. Got sick of it as a plot point. Also it’s all done according to some outline and then characters seem like they are bent to fit the narrative. Idk, good but could be a lot better. Like come on, stop having the MC fight up 2 grades. A C grade cannot fight an A grade. Knock it off. Plot armor so thick I’m rooting for MC to get vivisection

Good, but the characters make cartoons look deep

Lot of good concepts in this one. I like the magic system and power scaling. The fractured post apocalyptic world is interesting and has tons of exploring potential. Mysteries behind the portals are also pretty compelling.

IMO the bad is all about the characters. The MC is actually decent, mostly smart but not a genius, practical and not whiney. Almost every other character is a cartoon though. Spoliers ahead...


His best friend Jeff is basically a villain who would sacrifice everyone in his life to get back to his best friends from when he was 10. He's spent more of his life with Kade than those friends but would ditch him and his current GF in a second to see these people again. He and his family had to move away because of the literal APOCALYPSE, and Jeff makes getting back to his friends his whole life's goal. So many kids end up moving away from childhood friends for many reasons, its not that deep. He's even got multiple people killed in this pursuit and no one seems to have an issue with it. It's possibly the stupidest motivation I've ever read.

Debra, the actual villain, is a joke. She hates Kade solely because he turned down her job offer. That's it. And now she's determined to murder him for it. Her boss, who she's terrified of, knows this and also know she's working behind his back to overthrow him, and he still let's her go about her business. It just come across as silly.

Carter is almost as bad as Debra, obsessed with Kade because he got beat, and now needs to fight him again to feel better, I think? Has every reason to just leave the city but won't because he can't abandon team members he that barely knew, treated like crap, almost got killed, are safer with him gone and doesn't talk to at all... make it make sense

The GF has become more of a tool for dual cultivation than an actual character. Complains about her upbringing and hates her father but doesn't really do anything about it. I think she's supposed to have a mysterious past as of now, but it just comes off as 1 dimensional.

There are few other characters of note in the story, including their other members of their team who we know basically nothing about. The sister is ok, making her a disabled hacker was a bit overplayed though. All the A and S rankers seem interchangable - self interested and power hungry

I may go for the next one, but I'm on the fence.

Not finished, but some things annoy me

It is a good book, different concepts, magic progression, and dungeons.

Spoiler ish stuff below. Still three hours from finishing. Will finish the book.

What annoys me is the characters. Specifically Deborah and Caleb/Carter. Why are they so hell bent on revenge. Author tried to build some sort of conflict around really weak writing? Oh I said “no” so going to risk a lot to kill you. Oh I tried to kill you, and you didn’t kill me, but now I’m going to go after your family. Ridiculous. Also, how did Carter get to C so quickly, considering everything Kade had to do with his team to make C.

Then Jeff, turned into a complete obsessive moron, willing to risk his new friends and team. Barely able to see reason, when he was such a good team lead in book 1.

Kade risking all of his progression and core to rank up super quick. Ellen doing the same. Jeff, doesn’t care just needs them to get there so he can help some people he hasn’t seen in 8 years.

Poor writing, plot development… IDK.

Last the female narrator, talks soo slow. I had to speed it up and now they are at normal pace and the MC talks really fast. LOL