by Aneko Yusagi
As we faced it down from the air, the Yamata no Orochi–like monster—the “Sealed Orochi”—started to intimidate us, throwing out a multiheaded hiss.
“From the looks of it, it’s been fitted with both a sakura stone of destiny and sacred festoon of blessings, providing a pretty big power-up,” I said. Along with that threatening hiss, it also spat some poison in our direction. With a grunt, Gaelion flapped and avoided the missiles. Still, the creature was in the center of a sakura stone of destiny barrier, which weakened the four holy powers, and then had blessings on top of that. Which meant what? We had to approach it across terrain in which the power of the heroes was weakened and somehow finish it off?
That wasn’t going to be easy.
“If we don’t keep it busy the port will suffer damage,” I declared. Backing off, and perhaps giving up on attacking us, Orochi now started toward the town. It may prioritize attacking us if we got in close and bothered it, but for now it seemed happy to target the general population. That was very dangerous.
“You know what? A bit of damage will make the nation all the angrier.”
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia scolded.
“Okay, okay. We can at least put up a fight with the sakura stone of destiny weapons. We don’t have a choice.”
“Oh my,” Sadeena exclaimed.
“This will be quite a tough one.” Still. Time to take this thing down. “Come on! We can do this!” I shouted.
However, in the moment before Orochi reached the town and we faced the thing down, it was stopped by some kind of wall.
“W-what now?” I wondered.
“Little Naofumi, there.” Looking in the direction that Sadeena was pointing, I saw a sakura lumina glowing brightly, creating something like a wall.
Sakura lumina were plants native to Q’ten Lo, very much like sakura cherry trees, but convenient for being able to do a variety of things. Perhaps, then, they had defensive abilities against larger monsters?
“Hold on. I sense the power of a dragon. Maybe the Water Dragon is helping us out?” father Gaelion told me.
“That sounds promising,” I said.
“It looks like just a matter of time before it breaks through though.” Indeed, the resistance of the barrier was visibly weakening. I guess we had to use this time to get ready.
Gaelion landed, and as I climbed down, Sadeena started to turn into her therianthrope form.
“In either case, we fight, right?” she said.
“Yeah. If we don’t stop that monster somehow, we’ll never be able to take this country.” But still, taking on a monster equipped with anti-hero gear? Why did my battles always place me at such a disadvantage!
“We’ll deploy the Sakura Sphere of Influence right away,” I said. We’d use our new power-up skill, Sakura Sphere of Influence, to enhance our allies while also casting some support magic. The issue was that this was still placing restrictions on our weapon power-up methods.
A little testing had revealed that we were unable to use Sakura Sphere of Influence unless the barrier from the sakura stone of destiny—the sakura destiny sphere—was also active.
“Shooting Star Shield! Air Strike Shield! Itsuki, you’ve already registered your sakura stone of destiny weapon, right?” I blocked some attacks from the Sealed Orochi even as I asked the question.
“Yes. All taken care of.” His voice was lifeless, due to the curse, but he responded without question to commands. If he selected the correct power-up method and used it well, he’d be able to handle this situation. Indeed, his lack of distractions might actually make this version of him more convenient.
“Then fight with that weapon. Any others will definitely be nullified.”
“Understood.” How about if Itsuki fired from outside the barrier? But no, the arrows themselves would still end up inside. Duh.
“If Astral Enchant has been cast on that thing, this isn’t going to go smoothly.” If all of these monsters were being linked together and powered up, this one might be more powerful than even the Spirit Tortoise.
“That wouldn’t be an easy thing to pull off. If they’d managed that, any defensive capabilities the town may have would have surely been wiped out in an instant,” Sadeena said.
“Good point. Anyway, we have the new skill Raphtalia learned to remove that kind of problem.”
“Shall I go in first, then?” Raphtalia promptly offered.
“Yeah, go ahead. Even if we can’t take down this sakura destiny sphere thing, you should still negate the blessings. Can you?” I asked.
“Yes. I think so.”
In any case, we just had to concentrate on the enemy in front of us.
“I’ll do my best too,” Filo promptly offered.
“Kwaaaaa!”
“I’ll do my part,” Sadeena chimed in.
“Me too.” Filo, Atla, Fohl, and the others also displayed their resolve. I hoped they could handle it.
“One more thing, you guys. If you get close and feel your strength flagging, drop back a little.”
“Ah, well, the weapon shop guy gave me this back there,” Filo explained.
“Me too.” Each of them had weapons in their hands and on their legs made with sakura stones of destiny. Apparently, they had the ability to lessen the nullification of the hero’s protection. For a moment, the support of that old guy warmed even my shattered heart. He made these so quickly, after all, thinking ahead to keep us safe for something just like this.
“He told us we’d need them in the times ahead.”
“That we should keep them with us in order to not fall behind.”
“Kwaaa!”
“Hold on. No one told me!” Atla looked confused for a moment and then promptly grabbed Fohl from behind. Clinging to his side, she proceeded to try and pry free the gauntlet fitted on his hand.
“A-Atla? Guwah! S-stop that—what are you playing at?”
“Brother, you have to give that to me.”
“What happened to the one you got?”
“That pervy old goat sickens me. He clasped my hand with his sweaty palms when he gave me the item, and so I tossed it away. I don’t have time to go back and get it.” So Motoyasu II had gone personally to give Atla hers. No wonder she’d thrown it away.
“He came to me too,” Filo chirped up. “But it was so sparkly and pretty I kept it!”
“Brother! Hand it over.”
“A-Atla, quit it—” Just looking at this scene, in complete isolation, and she could appear to just be a little sister begging her big brother to borrow his favorite toy. Fohl actually looked pretty happy about it.
“Oh my,” Sadeena exclaimed.
“You two, seriously,” Raphtalia began.
“We don’t have time for these games!” I shouted. Seriously, none of them were mentally prepared in the face of the enemy. “Atla, if you haven’t brought your weapon with you—” Hmmm, good question. The brother or the sister? The weapon was a gauntlet though. Atla wasn’t going to work well with that. “Taking the capabilities of this opponent into account, Atla, you can stay in the back. No complaining. Don’t take anything out on Fohl, either.”
“Gah! How humiliating. All thanks to that letch,” she said. I understood how she felt, I did, but in this case, she was clearly in the wrong. That said, she generally fought barehanded, so there was a high probability she wouldn’t have brought it with her anyway.
“If you don’t like it, maybe you should pay a bit more attention to fighting with a weapon equipped in the future.” Weapons were imbued with various effects. Fighting barehanded provided no such benefits, so having Atla carry a weapon with some kind of effect might be worthwhile.
“If those are your orders, Master, then I’ll equip one in the future!”
“You hang back then, Atla. You can defend Itsuki and Rishia.”
“I’m on it!”
With that, then, we formed up to face off with the Sealed Orochi. Having so many hotheads in the party wasn’t always a good thing
.
Filo ruffled up her filolial feathers, threatening the target. Gaelion said she was a type of dragon, right?
“Enough chatter! Let’s take this thing down! Sakura Sphere of Influence! Attack Support!” A barrier with a cherry blossom pattern appeared, centered around my feet, and the thorns created by Attack Support flew toward the Sealed Orochi. When those thorns passed through the barrier they were transformed into five cherry petals and proceeded to bind themselves around two of the Orochi’s heads. The creature gave an angry hiss.
“Time to strike!” Filo shouted.
“Kwaaa!”
Filo and Gaelion both flew in, still competing to be the first into anything, and slashed into the two bound-up heads with their claws. Both had pretty decent abilities, and with power equal to any special attack, they tore their respective heads right off the creature’s body.
“Doesn’t look like it’s got much in the way of defense,” I commented.
“Vitality, though, it’s still got in spades.” Atla provided this analysis from the rear. Perhaps agreeing with her, Raphtalia also nodded. That was also the moment both of the heads Filo and Gaelion tore off immediately regenerated. Yeah, the father Gaelion had classified this as a hydra.
“Raagh! Huh?”
“Get me in there.” Fohl, now in his therianthrope form, grabbed onto the charging Filo and used her speed to close in. He used the impact of his descent to land on and squish one of the heads and then immediately fell back. He was really getting ferocious. He’d definitely been on a roll recently.
In any case, the heads were regenerating with such speed they definitely didn’t feel like the beast’s weak point. Do all of these Spirit Tortoise–like monsters have regenerating powers?
“Rafu.” Raph-chan was sitting on Raphtalia’s shoulder, her fur standing up. It looked like she was providing some kind of magical support.
“Aim for the body! That seems more likely than the heads!” I yelled.
“Sure thing.” If that didn’t work, we’d have to try something like destroying all the heads at the same time. In the next instant, though, and with a metallic sound, a barrier shaped like a hexagonal prism appeared centered around Orochi. So it was definitely the body.
“Raagh!”
Not to be outdone, Filo launched a flying kick, but she just bounced off the barrier. “It’s super hard!” Hissing again, perhaps enjoying the compliment, Orochi’s many eyes flashed red and then it started to spit fire.
“Second Shield! Dritte Shield!” I already had Float Shield active. By standing at the head of the party, this allowed me to draw all of the enemy attacks to me.
“Hmmm. It’s absorbing some of the Dragon Vein power. It would be foolish to spend too long fighting this thing.” Father Gaelion offered this advice even as he flew up close and nipped at the heads I was keeping occupied, in an attempt to distract them.
“I know, Gaelion. Hey, Sadeena!” I yelled.
“Count me in, sweetie! Finally time for us to have some real fun together!”
“Lose the innuendo! Gaelion, we need your help too.” Getting the support magic Descent of the Thunder God active and pressing our attack seemed like the best move here.
“Arrow Rain! Eagle Piercing Shot!”
“Hengen Muso Throwing Technique! Rolling Spin!” That was Itsuki and Rishia providing some support fire for Filo as she fought bravely against the eight heads of Orochi on the front line.
The hexagonal prism on its back provided protection just like the shell of a turtle. Any attempt to get in close to kill it was also blocked by the barrier. It basically had double walls protecting it.
“I’m going in too.” The skill Raphtalia had learned appeared to nullify the protection of the sakura stone of destiny and was definitely going to prove convenient. I’d also got a useful new skill, which was really going to help out in the coming battles.
“Okay. On my signal, we strike together!”
“We’re with you!”
Rather than talking, though, I should have been concentrating on my magic. Since Gaelion joined us we could now use cooperative magic much more quickly.
“Descent of the Thunder God!” This particular spell was a hero-exclusive skill based on Zweite Aura, which increased all abilities. Combined with lightning magic, a specialty of Sadeena, it at least had an effect more potent than high-ranking Drifa. It definitely got another hiss out of Orochi. Raphtalia was closing in with the heads, and the beast started breathing poison, fire, the full works at her.
“Raagh!”
“Haaah!” Filo and Fohl took care of the attacking heads while Itsuki and Rishia continued their supporting fire.
“Drifa Chain Lightning!” Finishing her incantation, Sadeena joined in to launch magic against Orochi. Raphtalia gripped the hilt of her scabbarded sword, and then swung the blade toward the head that Filo was already engaging.
“Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny!” The attack itself was little more than a simple sword slash. The trick to this technique was the attack also being able to cancel any protections cast on the target. The only difficulty was that Raphtalia needed to be able to see the protections placed on her target. Being able to break the curses placed on me or Raphtalia herself, well, that would be asking too much.
It produced more hissing, anyway. Orochi started spraying flaming counterattacks.
I took the brunt of those attacks and used the counter effect of the sakura stone of destiny shield to activate Blossom Blaze. Being close to me during this effect had been shown to provide additional strength. A little speculation on my part, perhaps, but I also believed it to alleviate interference from other sakura stones of destiny.
“Filo! Hit that shield again, will you?”
“On it!” At Raphtalia’s direction, Filo quickly closed in with the barrier and kicked it again. The barrier gave a powerful shudder, and then a ying-yang symbol appeared on it and surrounded Orochi. As though being crushed by a weight made of magic, that symbol started to press down on Orochi, the creature writhing and hissing in confusion under the pressure.
A few more moments and all eight heights started to scream.
The ying-yang symbol eventually faded. The heads wobbled back up, slower than before but still spitting angrily at us.
Seriously, this was one tough reptile. Reptile-thing.
“That’s temporarily broken the sakura stone of destiny’s protection!” Raphtalia exclaimed.
“Right, everyone, pile on!” I shouted.
“Okay!”
“My time to shine!” Atla rushed recklessly in, launching a preemptive attack on Orochi. Gah! “Raaaaagh! I say raaagh!” She attacked one of the heads, and it immediately stopped moving. Wasn’t she paying attention though? That wasn’t the weak spot!
“Oops! I need to target the body, right? I’m coming!” she said.
“Atla, do as you were ordered and stay back!” Fohl yelled.
“Brother, don’t stop the attack now!” Fohl and Atla moved to strike at the body, bickering as they went.
“I’m coming too!” Filo headed in after them.
“Hmmm?”
“Oh my.”
Not to be left behind—in fact, ahead of all of them—Raphtalia dashed in close to the body and unleashed her own skill. “Stardust Blade!” With a series of meaty thunks, each special attack struck at the body. Orochi convulsed just a little, and then all of the heads dropped to the ground and it fell silent.
What? We’d won? That was pretty easy.
“More a worm than a snake,” Itsuki offered from a little distance away.
“You said it. I was expecting a bit more of a fight,” I announced. Pathetic was what it was. Absolutely pathetic. The start of the fight made me think it was tougher than this.
Even as I had that thought, Atla started to back away from the body, eyebrows furrowed.
“Everyone, I think we should run away now.”
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“It’s
giving off a strange reaction. Like . . . the same reaction as those people who blew themselves up.”
“What! Everyone, get out of here! Now!”
“Okay!”
“Waah!”
At my command, everyone fell back from the Orochi corpse. The next moment, that same corpse swelled up and then exploded in a shower of poison. That alone was enough to break the barrier protecting the town and also create a noxious fog in the vicinity. My party and I only just got out of the way in time.
My Shooting Star Shield could hold off the poison for now, but what about after that? It wouldn’t be long before the spreading fog started killing the townsfolk. I wasn’t really one to care about the unwashed masses, but losing any of what little fighting strength we currently had would definitely hurt.
More than anything, though, we were looking at a sealed monster, an explosion, and now poison. This string of events was our chance to mobilize the people of Q’ten Lo, and the new Heavenly Emperor being the one to end this threat would be a great start to her career.
“Filo, can you use some wind magic to blow that poison cloud away?”
“I’ll certainly give it a try!” Filo immediately spread her wings and started an incantation. “Drifa Tornado!” The fog was lifted by Filo’s magic and blown in the opposite direction from the town—but it wasn’t enough to disperse it completely. In fact, while it had thinned out, we might have only succeeded in spreading it over a wider area.
“Nuh?” Then Gaelion gave a cry of surprise and whispered to me, “I fear we are facing quite a troublesome beast here.” A moment later, and with a foreboding rumble, eight fresh Orochi heads peered out from the burial mound. They even appeared to have more lustrous scales than before.
“What’s going on here? Didn’t we just kill that thing?” I said.
“It was what you might call a clone. A copy. It won’t be that easy to defeat the real monster,” father Gaelion replied. That explained why it had been weaker than I expected. A freaking copy! And a copy that had still blown up and spread a thick poison when defeated? Talk about a pain in the ass. Why the hell did they have to go and set this thing free? If it did manage to defeat us, just how were the Heavenly Emperor’s goons planning on stopping it?
