by Aneko Yusagi
While mixing SP and magic, I cast a spell on all of my allies who were present. Casting this would normally take a considerable amount of time, but thanks to the staff, I was done almost at once. Normally I would need to solve five floating puzzles when I cast it, but all I needed here were two. They had really easy compositions too.
Then I activated the power-up method inside the Seven Star Staff.
“I, the Shield Hero, order heaven and order earth. Cut free the bonds of truth, reconnect them, and spout forth pus. Power of the Dragon Vein, I form power by fusing magic and the power of the hero. The source of your power, the Shield Hero, now orders you. Reconsider the state of all things once more and provide my intended targets with everything. All Liberation X!”
Internet games often included systems in which you used points acquired for such things as leveling up to increase your abilities. Increasing your level and then distributing the resulting skill points was how you learned skills. It was a standard system in online games. A skill learning system, if you would.
That was the power-up method for the staff and the gauntlets.
The staff allowed points to be spent on magic, and the gauntlets on skills. Points were acquired based on your current level, and they could then be spent on both magic and skills. That said, focused spending on just one type of magic would consume a considerable number of points. One of the issues with such a system could be doing the points over again, but that was allowed here, so it also wasn’t an issue.
The power-up points inside the weapon—in this instance, the mastery-level points that Ren had told me about—seemed the easiest to use. You could assign a certain number of them and then wait for the cooldown and reassign them after waiting one day. It really was quite a good ability.
The spell I had just cast was an aura, excellent support magic that could increase the abilities of all allies. It was also a Liberation-class multi-target aura that only a hero could cast. When this was combined with the staff power-up method via distribution of points, I didn’t know what might happen.
“Eat this!” Takt unleashed a Wahnsinn Claw attack toward me. I avoided it with absolute ease. Why so easily? Because Takt’s attack was incredibly slow. It was like a beam of light coming right for me, but I could see the exact trajectory it was going to take.
A beam of light, and yet traveling so slowly.
When I thought about it, the generic shout of “eat this!” that Takt had just unleashed also reached my ears incredibly slowly, stretched out into a lengthy drawl.
Takt’s attack passed by and shot off behind me. It had some homing capacity, but even that was limited.
This was one clear example of how boosted our abilities had become.
We weren’t in the Internet game that Ren had been playing, but each boost provided a significant increase. As well as the effect itself, there were some that made specific effects last longer or caused additional effects to be triggered. It was a pretty deep system, offering some real potential for magic and skills that I’d considered pretty difficult to use effectively up until now.
Powerful magic like All Liberation Aura required a lot of points to increase, but the resulting increase in the effect was also large.
This was the power of the staff and the gauntlets. The intent to defend this world! The spirits were lending us all of their power!
“You dodged it?” Takt exclaimed.
“What’s wrong? You only capable of big special attacks? We deflected that first one too,” I reminded him. It looked like Takt hadn’t even seen me move. That was how boosted my support magic had become.
So he suddenly launched a special attack, it was dodged, and then he was acting all surprised . . . It was like something from that show about rangers with power. I’d often wondered why they didn’t just go to the big guns right away, but now I understood. If the enemy dodged it, then this was what would happen.
“Huh. I held back and missed on purpose. This wouldn’t be any fun otherwise,” Takt blustered.
“Whatever. You just keep telling yourself that,” I retorted. Then I gripped the staff tightly and imbued it with power. The staff had other abilities too. For example, any gamer would probably understand the term “charge attack.”
“I’m just going to toy with you a little,” Takt said, and then he swung his claw at me a few times in succession. I avoided every attack, one after the other. I ducked. I leapt through the air. I even launched myself off from Takt himself. I wasn’t the Shield Hero right then. Even though I’d borrowed the Seven Star Staff, my defense was still weaker than Ren and the other four holy heroes. These attacks from Takt were going to do more than just sting a little if they hit me, not to mention holding my ground might just get my weapon stolen again.
Takt’s stance and movements were pretty refined. Maybe he had some martial arts training. But I had been training against Atla and Raphtalia—women who knew how to throw a curveball in combat, betraying expectations and knocking you on your ass. Having sparred with them for so long, this guy was almost boring.
None of these attacks were ever going to betray my anything.
A means for the strong to defeat the weak was how Takt saw combat and combat techniques. He was no different from Trash II in Kizuna’s world.
Takt made a feint and then went for a killing blow—
“Air Strike Slash!” He unleashed the skill, but even the feint had been so obvious. I practically yawned. I left my dodge until the last moment, my face filled with confidence as I stared Takt down.
“Watch it!” I yelled. Then I performed the most sarcastic dodge possible.
“Gah! You’ve got some moves. I thought all you could do was block, former Shield Hero,” Takt whined. I actually was getting bored. I could have avoided these attacks in my sleep.
“You seem to have got the wrong idea about some things, so let me instruct you. Defense is actually more difficult than attack. You need all sorts of tricks, like redirecting the impact of an opponent’s attacks to reduce their power,” I told him.
“Now! Second Slash!” He unleashed another sudden claw attack, but I redirected it by striking his arm with the tip of the staff. That prevented Takt from unleashing his Second Slash skill at anything close to full force, and it fizzled away.
“That wasn’t what I would call an opening,” I chided him.
“Bah!” he spat.
“Try as many skills as you like. I’ll stop them dead before you can even say the name. This is how the Shield Hero fights,” I told him. Just because I was the Shield Hero, it didn’t mean I had to take every enemy attack head-on. I could also parry attacks or take cunning steps to hinder their strength. In regard to this kind of stuff, I’d been learning it since the day I arrived in this other world, so I knew all the tricks when it came to interfering with enemy attacks.
I also had methods of keeping attacks focused on me, but at the moment, Takt was doing that already, so that wasn’t an issue.
I wasn’t going to break a sweat like this. That gave me a moment to check on how the others were doing. They might be in danger, and I’d made up my mind not to lose anyone again.
First, I checked Fohl.
“If you surrender at once and stay out of our way, I’ll let you go, aotatsu woman,” he said.
“Quite the tone to take with perhaps the strongest clan chief of the aotatsu. Hakuko . . . no, from the stink of you, a mixed blood? You fool,” his adversary said.
“Shieldfreeden is a nation that looked down on Siltvelt for their pure-blood beliefs, seeking freedom for themselves. To hear you speak now as a representative of that nation, anyone from Siltvelt would laugh,” Fohl replied.
“You’ve done it now! I’ll put you back in your place!” the aotatsu shouted. Fohl turned into his therianthrope form and pointed his fist at her. The silhouette of the aotatsu—Nelshen—started to swell and expand. Before long, Nelshen had transformed into a large, eastern-style dragon.
“Amid all of our long histor
y, being able to transform into this shape is proof of being chief! Can you achieve this, mixed-blood hakuko?” she taunted.
“Pathetic. I could if I wanted to, but there’s no value in expending such power on you,” Fohl replied, just as brazenly, punching the air.
“Come then, hakuko and Gauntlets Hero! Time to bring an end to the long enmity between our peoples! To prove that the aotatsu are the mightiest race!” Nelshen raged at the same moment she launched some water magic. Fohl casually dodged the attack, instantly zipping in close and launching a kick into the aotatsu’s face.
“I’m sorry. Did you just do something?” he wisecracked.
“No more games!” the dragon roared. The sound of thunder pealed out and then lightning rained down on Fohl. So the dragon used wind and water.
“Air Strike Rush V!” Fohl’s fist ended up buried in Nelshen’s abdomen. The dragon woman groaned, barely able to speak. It seemed the mighty “aotatsu chief” was no match for the new and improved Fohl.
Next, I looked over at Sadeena and Shate. The two were glaring at each other against a backdrop of thunder and lightning.
“Die!” Shate rushed forward with a thrust . . . and Sadeena avoided it, although barely, thanks to the support magic I had provided her with.
“It’s so sad, failing to protect someone you care for. I understand exactly how little Naofumi feels, painfully so . . .” Sadeena just took a tail attack from Shate right in the face and then simply shrugged it off. “. . . at the anger at failing to defend them, and the feelings upon discovering that hated enemy.”
“So glib! Let’s see how long that lasts!” Shate snapped back.
“We owe you for Atla, not to mention for capturing Raphtalia,” Sadeena said, spat out some blood, and glared Shate down. “I can’t forgive you for either of those things. So I suggest you retreat. Right now. If you do so . . . you’ll get to live for a little longer.” Then she grabbed the harpoon that Shate was holding with one hand. “Before you come to regret having stood before me, you, a mere mixed noid and kusha.” Shate backed down, suddenly looking more like a chicken than a shark. “Well?”
“Enough! Enough!” The shark woman suddenly leapt back to her feet, swinging the harpoon to unleash some magic. “Maelstrom Spear!” The technique that Shate unleashed flew toward Sadeena and swirled around.
“I think you’re making a fundamental mistake here,” Sadeena cautioned, her harpoon crackling with the lightning magic she was so adept with. Shate looked even more perplexed when she saw that sparking electricity.
“An orca . . . using lightning?!” she stammered.
“You’d do well not to put me in with those other weaklings. Right, little Shildina?” The lightning harpoon unleashed by Sadeena wiped away the attack launched by Shate in the blink of an eye. Then she turned to Shildina, who was supporting Filo. Shildina nodded while she supported Filo.
“I’m really angry. How long do you think you can stand against me? As the object of my rage? Now face my true power!” With more crackling, Sadeena underwent another transformation. A request for beast transformation support appeared in my own field of vision.
Hmmm. There were quite a few of Takt’s party pulling second transformations, so why not do it too? I gave permission for beast transformation support and activated it. Sadeena turned into a large killer whale and floated up into the air.
“Your love has powered me up, little Naofumi!” Sadeena made a crazy comment as always.
“Ah, that looks like so much fun. I want to try it too,” Shildina said with envy in her voice as she looked at Sadeena. Maybe there would be a chance next time, but for now, I needed her to wait.
“Time for that fishy body of yours to feel the true power little Naofumi has given me!” Sadeena crowed, light scattering around her. A look of despair filled the face of the shark therianthrope who was fighting her.
Last but not least, I checked the battle in the skies.
Gaelion alone might have been in trouble, but he also had Ren with him. There was no chance of those two losing. That was the level of power we—that the heroes—had now obtained.
“I’ll smash the terror of the Dragon Emperor into your broken bodies!” the massive dragon called Leludia shouted, just unleashing fire breath that looked far more powerful than anything father Gaelion could cast. “Mega Prominence Nova!”
“Liberation Magic Enchant X!” As he rode on Gaelion’s back, Ren raised his sword and incanted some magic of his own. Ren’s sword absorbed the blazing and undoubtedly very powerful fire magic. Of course, any magic hit by Magic Enchant was absorbed and instead applied to the sword itself. It looked like that also worked on dragon’s breath.
“Haikuikku!” Filo shouted.
“Haikuikku!” replied the griffon, the two of them zipping around as little more than high-speed shadows. Shildina was casting support magic on Filo, keeping magic on her so that she could fly around.
“A flying filolial . . . I thought your kind was wiped out! Some of you survived?” The griffon was amazed. I vaguely recalled Fitoria telling Melty something like that. Surprised at seeing Filo flying, the griffon had mistakenly thought she was actually a flying filolial. Not being able to see what Shildina was doing, I could only shake my head.
“You’ve got it wrong!” Filo said, the two of them continuing to trade idiocies as they attacked each other.
“Drifa Tornado!” they both tried at once.
“Spiral Strike!” Filo countered.
“Screw Strike!” the griffon came back. To the side of these two combatants, Gaelion drew a deep breath and blew out fire.
“Kwaa!” It was white. Father Gaelion had mentioned that he was practicing a special kind of breath. I tried to recall what he had said. . . something about a difficult-to-perform, enemy-hindering type of breath that would be ready soon. That was likely what this was.
“Gah! What’s this?” Leludia gave a choke as though there was something stuck in her throat.
“Next it’s my turn!” Ren declared, pointing his sword. The blade was glowing red. “Flame Edge X!” He unleashed a deep crimson sword slash right at the massive Dragon Emperor.
Chapter Nine: Fenrir Force
S’yne, meanwhile . . . was clashing with the maid.
“How about you concentrate on me?!” Takt raged.
“Sure, sorry, sorry,” I said. Enough showing off. It was time I got seriously involved in this fight myself.
“Everyone, cast support magic on me! With all of your power, I can defeat this guy easily!” Takt shouted. So now he was just going to change the rules. After all that bragging about handling me alone!
“Zweite Burst!”
“Zweite Magic!” Support magic started to come in from his allies, but it didn’t seem to change much. Comparatively speaking, the specs of All Liberation X were far superior. It increased stats enough to cover almost a triple-level gap. He wasn’t even a hero, and wasn’t using any power-up methods, so I probably shouldn’t have expected any better than this from him. Pearls before swine. If he couldn’t draw out the true power of the weapons, then he was just another grunt. The weapons weren’t lending him their power. Not like with Kyo.
“Right! I can take you now!” Takt cackled.
“You really think that’s enough to handle me?” I asked.
“Don’t get too big for your boots just because you’ve gotten a little stronger!” Takt raged.
“I certainly don’t want you saying that to me,” I retorted.
“Laugh it up while you can. Prepare for a taste of my magic enhanced by everyone’s power!” Takt roared. I almost felt like telling him that I wasn’t laughing; I was just at a loss for words.
As I considered doing so, Takt started incanting his magic. It was . . . Yes, it was a little faster.
“The source of your power, the one true hero, now orders you. Reconsider the state of all things once more and bring down a storm of flame upon my target! Drifa Firestorm!” Takt completed the spell.
Man, this was hilarious.
When I thought about it for a moment though, Liberation was magic exclusive to real heroes. At a world level, that did make Drifa the strongest.
“Eat this!” Takt unleashed the magic with a grin on his face. It created a flaming tornado that flew toward me.
“The source of your power, just a hero, now orders you. Reconsider the state of all things once more and scatter the storm that would burn its target! Anti Drifa Firestorm!” I read the magic Takt had incanted and activated magic to nullify it. With that, the fire tornado scattered into nothing, as though it had never existed.
Even with that time gap, I still managed to completely cancel it out.
“I’m not sure what to say. Have you really mastered magic? You should at least cut out the incantation time,” I advised him. That said, all the magic I knew that didn’t have any incantation time was low-powered garbage. He actually might have posed a threat if he was capable of firing off Drifa-class magic in rapid succession.
“Wh—” Takt was shocked, stunned at how easily his trump card magic had been nullified. It looked like it had been wide-range magic. Maybe that was what he’d used to raise his level.
“The abilities of that staff . . . I will steal them, I swear it!” Takt roared.
“You’ve got it wrong,” I replied. He still thought it was just the abilities of the staff. It reminded me of how Ren and the others had once been.
The quick analysis was coming from the staff, sure, but reading the magic was a result of all of my own training. Sadeena could use Drifa-class!
“You’ve got a Dragon Emperor in your party, right? So you’ve got the Way of the Dragon Vein. That’s magic that specializes in interference! Can’t you even think for yourself?” I told him. I really was at a loss for words. He did incant fast. It hadn’t taken five seconds to cast Drifa. But I could incant faster than that—thanks to Trash’s staff and support magic, of course. I was starting to have suspicions about this guy . . . but that could wait until later.
