by Aneko Yusagi
I’d have to watch out for Blood Sacrifice and Iron Maiden.
I wasn’t sure if the negative effects would be triggered, but if I could goad him into using them, it might give me an advantage. But no, it seemed safer to just stay quiet and keep on attacking.
“Okay, I’m going to hold back on you. Be sure you block this, or it will go straight into the women behind you,” I cautioned him. Takt glanced at the women behind him, all too scared to be able to move, and then glared at me with eyes burning with resolve to protect them.
That was it. That was the face I’d been wanting to see. That face, belonging to the one who had taken so many from me—including Atla, the queen, people from my village, from the coalition—now twisted in hatred directed at me.
“Don’t waste your best glares on me yet. I’ve got plenty more pain coming your way,” I said. Having finished the charge, I unleashed the skill again.
“Fenrir Force V!” This time I was ready for the kickback, and rather than focusing my life force too intensely, I unleashed just about the amount I thought he could take. A thick beam was unleashed from the tip of my staff directly at the constrained Takt.
He grunted, but he was using the shield he’d taken from me. It was tough. The women behind Takt hadn’t taken any damage at all. But what about Takt himself, standing in front of them? He was certainly groaning loudly enough.
“Ah, I forgot. This is the legendary Fenrir Rod. It has a special effect called Rebellion Against Heaven. Its effects are . . .”
It had been the first time I used the staff in sparring with Ren and the others. I’d been holding back, so my attacks hadn’t done much damage to Fohl, but it had been different for Ren and the other heroes. They’d complained about the attacks being more painful than normal.
That suggested to me that the effect of Rebellion Against Heaven was to increase attack power when a seven star weapon attacked a four holy weapon—although such a thing didn’t really seem possible from the laws of this world. Maybe it was intended as insurance, prior to the arrival of the pacifiers. I hadn’t seen a weapon with the same skill before. Perhaps the staff spirit was lending me power in order to fight effectively against the stolen shield.
Meaning it might be something special, just for the time being. The Fenrir Rod itself had been called an “exception weapon.” If the point was to just take him out as quickly as possible, a Sakura Stone of Destiny Staff, or something like that, would have been faster.
“I guess you decided to try a shield due to their high defense, but that one is just going to increase the damage you take,” I warned him. Of course, the shield itself did offer high defense, so for me it would probably have been okay.
After about five seconds, I stopped the attack. It revealed Takt standing there, his entire body smoking, battered and beaten, breathing ragged, barely standing. The Fenrir Force beam had caused considerable damage to him. He couldn’t even speak, just barely groan.
“Hey, don’t collapse,” I said. “I’m not satisfied yet, and I have to keep toying with you at least until Fohl gets here.” It was almost as though I was picking on him. Bullying him. And yet it also felt as though I could do whatever I wanted to him.
Since the day we had lost Atla during the Phoenix battle, this was the exact moment I had been looking forward to.
“P-protect Takt! Everyone!” shouted the commander of his women, snapping back to herself. A serious-looking female knight who could have been a palette swap for Eclair raised her rifle. Then the knight attacked S’yne in order to catch her attention.
“Go! I’ll pin them down!” she shouted.
“S’yne, you play with this one. Give her a little of what you taught me,” I ordered.
“Okay. Bind Wire!” Nodding at my command, S’yne started to bind the female knight up in what looked like thread. The knight gave an annoyed grunt.
“What’s this thread?! I can’t move! Gah!” That took care of one of them. As for the others . . . I wondered if that was that.
Then I realized they had started incanting some ritual magic.
They were giving some thought to their approach. I wouldn’t be able to stop ritual magic alone, no matter how hard I tried. Of course, we had also expected this development.
It felt like a long time ago then, but after fighting Motoyasu for the first time, I had personally experienced the same thing we were going through right at that moment. Guys like Takt said they would fight fair and square, but as soon as they got into any kind of trouble, they would immediately employ every cowardly attack they could find.
Which meant we had naturally planned for my own party to provide attacks and support. Takt had just been dumb enough to rise to my taunts; our entire strategy had been conceived around a small number of us fighting a larger number of them. Luckily Fohl and the others were fighting the more threatening among them, making things a lot easier for me. S’yne didn’t even have anything to do! Talk about the right people to have your back in a scrap.
“Fire!” The women pointed their rifles at me and opened fire, gunshots ringing out. I quickly deployed the defensive strategy we had come up with. Lead shots flew toward me, traveling so fast they could almost be called instantaneous. These were rifle shots from enemies at level 250, after all. They were likely on par with the power of rifles from my own world. That said . . . it wasn’t like I’d seen a real gun back in my world.
The women would be confident of hitting me—and yet their faces showed only concern, only worry for saving their ally. I had to wonder how they could make such faces themselves and yet not understand the feelings of others, but I also didn’t really care. In fact, I was about to trample their feelings into the ground.
All of the bullets coming for me . . . hit Takt instead.
He grunted in further pain, while his women dropped their weapons in shock.
“W-what just happened?” they exclaimed, all stunned.
“Seriously? You guys need to be nicer to each other,” I mocked, a grin spreading across my face.
“Why did the bullets hit Takt?!” They didn’t have a clue. In fact, I had used a technique S’yne taught me to adjust the trajectory of the rifle shots and direct them all at Takt.
“How’s that feel, Takt? How’d you like the taste of the lead fired by your own gaggle of level-250 women?” I really put the boot in.
“H-how dare you! How dare you make us shoot Takt?!” they screamed. Incensed, the women started to hurl insults in my direction. Their nonsense just made me feel good.
I really had changed. I found real enjoyment in moments like these.
The old me, back at home, would have likely been pushed close to tears by this kind of treatment from a horde of women. I’d become stronger—maybe “hardened” was a better word for it—but it was tough to tell if that was a good or bad thing.
“You’re ones to talk. Beating down your foes with sheer numbers, using every cowardly strategy in the book. You don’t have a leg to stand on!” I shot back. Snapped back to reality by my retort, the women fell silent. They’d likely finally realized that logic wasn’t on their side.
“I’m kind at heart, so let me use some magic on poor little Takt. Drifa Heal.” I wasn’t going to waste a Liberation on him. Bolstered by my healing, Takt glared at me with increased intensity and he started to chew his lip. “I’m not done with you yet. See if you can withstand this.” Even as I taunted him, lightning crashed down from the sky toward me. It was the ritual magic Judgment. Once the casters hit level 250, they could use it even with numbers for cooperative magic. They had probably focused the power of the Judgment to ensure it wasn’t going to hit Takt.
“Still haven’t learned your lesson,” I chided. With a sigh, I deployed my mirrors into the sky above me.
“Stop—” Ah. It sounded like at least one person had worked it out. But it was too late.
“Die! Just die!” The overeager others dropped the Judgment on me with a terrible rumble of thunder. I pushed my life e
nergy into the mirrors and adjusted the angle of reflection. Just as I predicted, the reflection worked perfectly, and I was rewarded with a cry of pain from Takt.
“Takt!?” the women shouted.
“What are you doing?! This guy . . . it looks like he’s got the power to make all of our attacks hit Takt,” one of the gaggle explained. The others all looked in stunned amazement at the battered Takt. Some of them were even trying to run to him, being held back by the others.
“Hmmm. How about that one? The taste of magic unleashed by your allies?” I quizzed him. I’d thought I was fighting Takt, but at some point, that had changed to me fighting his retinue.
Takt had been using the shield when the attack hit, so he hadn’t taken much damage, but he still looked to be on his last leg.
“You guys are basically killing him for me. You understand that, right? How stupid can you get?” I said. Then I glanced over at the past Heavenly Emperor. She and Raph-chan were caught up in an illusion battle with the fox woman. They were literally throwing everything they had at each other—unleashing fire, calling up water, twisting the very air around each other. The same things had happened during the fight in Siltvelt. This was a rematch for Raph-chan.
“Raph!” she called.
“Hah, clone magic? You think I can’t see through that?” the fox woman said. Raph-chan had turned into an identical copy of the past Heavenly Emperor and was standing at her side. Raphtalia and the past Heavenly Emperor looked a lot alike, meaning it was easy for Raph-chan to copy her. It also sounded like the past Heavenly Emperor had sealed the fox woman away in the past.
Affinity really was important.
Anyway, I needed to concentrate on my own battle.
“Damn! You made all their attacks hit me!” Takt raged.
“You demon!” his women said, continuing to call me unpleasant names. Demon, huh? It had been a while since I’d been called that one.
“I’m fine with being called that. I’m the Shield Demon, after all. What’s so bad about making use of enemy attacks, anyway? You’re doing far worse than me, getting involved in what was meant to be a one-on-one battle. I still want to have my fun. I’ll heal him again.” I proceeded to cast healing magic on Takt. Both my magic and SP were getting pretty low. I took out a healing item, a rucolu fruit, and prepared to—
“No you don’t!” One of Takt’s retinue suddenly appeared and made a grab for the fruit. She was dressed a bit like a ninja. I thought it might be a Faubrey Shadow.
She grabbed it so hard she squished it in her fingers. Those things weren’t cheap. What a waste.
Some of the juice splashed onto the face of the woman who had grabbed it. She gave a cry. I’d been told this was one of the raw ingredients for other alcoholic drinks.
“Melrith!” one of the others shouted.
“Ah, this stinks of alcohol! Ah!” Hah, the woman was already unsteady on her feet. This stuff was basically poison to anyone but me. On the Cal Mira islands, Motoyasu ate one, threw up straight away, and then still just dropped off to sleep. Potent stuff.
“Don’t interrupt my healing magic,” I warned her, then kicked her in S’yne’s general direction. S’yne was quick to wrap her up in threads. I proceeded to take out another rucolu fruit and finally got to eat it. Takt looked at me with hatred blazing in his eyes, shaking his head.
“You think I’m committing suicide, eating a rucolu fruit like this, don’t you? Sorry to say that’s not the case,” I told him.
“So you’ve been given an ability,” he said.
“What do you mean? Ability from who?” I asked. Had he received an ability from someone? The white-clad child-woman had been into homunculus research, and from what Rat had told me she could make physical modifications too. Maybe Takt thought Rat had performed some kind of modifications on me, then.
The Shield Spirit had warned me that Takt was an assassin sent by the one behind the waves, however. I needed to try and get some details out of him concerning that side of our problems.
“I was born like this,” I explained, hoping this could be a good opening. “It sounds like someone gave you your ability though. That’s the difference between us.” Now that my magic and SP were recovered, it was time to carry on.
Huh? Takt’s glare was only getting stronger and stronger. I wanted to know what it was. He’d been given a special ability and so couldn’t forgive me for being born with one. He really did operate entirely on a sense of superiority.
“We’ve had some unnecessary disturbances, but let’s get back to it,” I said. The charge had finished powering up, and I pointed it at Takt again. He couldn’t withstand another one of these, but he also had to know that if he moved some of his women were going to die.
Takt desperately focused his power, concentrating intently on the shield.
Heh, good luck with that.
“Fenrir Force VI!” As a little bonus, I also prepared a Hengen Muso Technique Point of Focus and weaved it into the thick beam.
“I-impossible!” Takt gasped around his groans of pain. “This hurts . . . even more than last time! What is this attack?!” I was hearing multiple impacts, as though Takt was being hit many times in succession. The Hengen Muso Technique Point of Focus looked like it worked well against the shield.
With a final cry, Takt, unable to withstand the attack, was sent flying through the air, spinning like a top. That felt like enough of that. I could have wiped out the women behind him, but no need to go that far.
Takt came down onto the ground with a crunch. His retinue all desperately screamed his name. None of them seemed to understand yet that they had no way out of this situation. With the support of his women, Takt still managed to climb back to his feet. His retinue started providing healing magic again. No one was giving up yet.
“Come on, ladies. Just healing magic isn’t going to cut it. You need to handle his exhaustion too.” Stamina was important too. He was so beaten up he couldn’t take me right now even if he was awakened.
“I’m not done yet. I can never forgive you,” Takt managed.
“That’s my line. I’ve already decided that your death is going to be so horrible you’ll wish you’d never been born in this world. Not just me but all of Melromarc wants this,” I told him. After the death of their queen, the people of Melromarc saw this as their battle to avenge her. Killing the one who had caused her death went far beyond my own personal feelings. That was why I was just taking my time, enjoying putting him through the wringer without actually killing him.
Atla, the queen, the people from my village. That was the bare minimum of those close to me whom I had lost. Those weren’t the only lives lost in the conflict though.
Then there was Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu. After being defeated by the Spirit Tortoise and taken hostage by Kyo, they had been labeled as worthless. But they had learned from that defeat and made significant strides toward becoming better people.
Takt was different.
He underestimated the waves, killed heroes, and had almost caused the eradication of the coalition army. Then he had started a war to take over the world. If he had shown any kind of remorse, and although I didn’t like the idea, there might have been some room for leniency. But he had to pay for continuing to spread the fires of war.
“I’m going . . . to kill you!” Takt proclaimed, lifting the shield on his arm. He was probably planning on unleashing a curse skill. It was too late for that though.
I raised the staff high in one hand and gathered magic and SP . . . life force that had scattered in the vicinity. Then I activated Gleipnir Rope on Takt and bound him in place.
“A skill that applies both Fenrir Force and Hengen Muso Style,” I said. The name of the skill appeared in my field of vision. Incredible. An amazing new application of Energy Blast.
Magic started to concentrate into firefly points of light all around me and collect into my staff. It felt like a special attack ripped right from an anime.
“Now, see if you
can handle this!” I shouted the combo skill name from my field of vision. Annoyingly enough, I still had to hold back enough not to kill him. That was why I wasn’t weaving Point of Focus in this time. Sure, I could have literally eradicated him like that, but doing so wouldn’t be enough to satisfy me.
“Blood Sacrifice!” Takt intoned.
“Ragnarok . . . Blaster!” I shouted. It was a skill allowing for the concentrated deployment of Fenrir Force. It sure had taken a while to charge. That was why I hadn’t moved since Takt stood back up. I had also recovered my magic in order to fire off this very attack.
Just as I had hoped, a beam so concentrated it couldn’t be compared at all to the normal Fenrir Force tore straight for Takt, instantly blowing away the Blood Sacrifice that was coming toward me.
The scream he gave when it hit was like nothing in this world. Unable to withstand the attack, Takt was knocked by the Ragnarok Blaster clean up into the air. I’d been careful with the trajectory to make sure he didn’t hit any of the women. I could have let him crash into them, sure, but I wanted to keep the fun going for a while longer yet.
The Ragnarok Blaster passed through his entire body and then carried on off into the sky, shaking the very air as it went. It even caught up to the Dragon Emperor that Gaelion and Ren were fighting in the sky above. The Dragon Emperor gave a roar of surprise and pain at the sudden attack. Once it passed, the charred Dragon Emperor was still in one piece, however.
“Now!” Ren shouted.
“Kwaa!” Gaelion agreed. Using the smaller dragon as a platform to launch himself, Ren leapt forward and slashed into the Dragon Emperor.
“Phoenix Gale Blade!” Ren’s sword glittered red, creating a storm of flames and a bird of fire formed from pure energy.
“Kwaa!” In the same moment, Gaelion charged in, breathing fire. It was like two separate birds of flame, both piercing through the Dragon Emperor.
