The Fervent Sand Baths

by Nagaharu Hibihana

  “What’s wrong...?” I followed her gaze, and what I saw really took me by surprise.

  It was a sword—one of the iron swords that the knight statues were holding. Of course, it wasn’t the sword itself that surprised me, but the fact that it was floating in the air next to the bath’s door.

  “Roni!”

  “Kyah!”

  The moment the floating sword started to move, I lunged at Roni. The sword flew at us. I swiped it away with the back of my arm. If I hadn’t been wearing gauntlets right now, my arm might have been sliced through.

  “What the hell’s going on?!” I shouted impulsively, but I was met with a loud booming sound from behind me. I flipped around to see that something had punched through the door. Behind the dancing cloud of dust, I saw the silhouette of a gauntlet.

  “Strike, Lightning!” Clena hurriedly swung her sword, and sparks of electricity shot out from the tip toward the fist. The impact was met with loud zaps and bright flashes.

  “That should be effective, with the metal armor and fish tank inside...”

  “Wait... that armor isn’t black.”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re right...”

  Rium pointed out this detail to me.

  Once the dust cleared, it revealed a silver gauntlet, not black like the one Goldfish wore. Maybe it was an effect of getting fried by Clena’s attack?

  “Ya buncha... good fer nothins...” This time, a foot kicked the door down.

  Behind the fallen door was a full suit of silver armor. It was the one right next to Goldfish’s black suit.

  “If only ya had blown the whole door down, woulda saved me the trouble of doin’ it myself.”

  Three full suits of plate armor, two silver and one black, emerged from the armory. So he could control armor other than his own, too? We wouldn’t have enough time for the hose like this. I closed the door to the Unlimited Bath and took up my broadaxe instead.

  “Hahahah... it’s no use.” As Goldfish laughed, I started feeling a strange power in my arms. The broadaxe was pointing at Clena before I realized...

  No, it wasn’t in my arms. The broadaxe itself forced its blade in Clena’s direction. No way, he couldn’t be...

  “Hiyaaah!”

  This is bad, I thought, then mustered all the strength in my body to slam the broadaxe into the floor. Next I summoned earth spirits, which took bits of the floor the axe had just broken and formed a hard shell around the blade.

  “Whoa, what are you doing?!”

  “Watch out! He can control weapons!”

  “Oh, just like the armor...!”

  The floating sword that attacked us, the two suits of silver armor on either side of Goldfish, and the broadaxe that attacked Clena by itself... Judging by what we had just witnessed, Goldfish could control all the weapons around him.

  “My knife...!” Roni’s knife was trying to unsheathe itself from the scabbard hanging from her hips. She quickly grabbed the knife and stabbed it into the floor like I did. “Sir Touya!”

  “Leave it to me! Stand back, Roni!” Unlike the axe, the knife could still be dislodged easily, so I stepped on the tip of the hilt and buried the whole knife into the floor.

  “Clena!” Clena would be in danger next—or so I thought, but she was holding her sword with a confident look on her face.

  “Don’t worry about this sword, Touya.”

  “Tch! That one’s covered in magic?” Goldfish clicked his tongue. Seems like he could only control weapons without magic already influencing them. “I can do this, though!”

  “What?! I’m being pulled...!”

  “Lady Clena!”

  Goldfish flicked one of the gauntlet’s fingers once, then Clena’s entire body started moving in turn. Roni dove in front of her, wrapping herself around Clena’s waist to keep her from moving.

  “My armor!” Clena’s armor was made with hard leather, but it was a high quality product reinforced all over with metal. So that counted as metal too, not just the weapons.

  “Am I next?!”

  “Bingo, now take this!”

  “Guh...!” Unlike Clena, my entire body was surrounded with metal—from my metal-reinforced shield to my brigandine, vambraces, gauntlets, and greaves. He was taking control of everything, and I was being pulled along like a puppet. Rium tried to wrap herself around my waist to stop me, but her tiny body didn’t stand a chance against the power.

  Damn it. I should have worn my hard leather armor, even though it was weaker.

  The two sets of plate armor had their swords drawn. If I kept being dragged into their range, they would start hacking away at me. I quickly dug my feet into the ground, then summoned spirits to create an impromptu wall between us using the floor’s materials. I lost my balance, hovered in the air for a split second, then slammed my back into the wall I just created. Better than being cut into pieces, at least. A rock broke free from the wall and fell on my head. I used the spell while I was still unstable, so the earth hadn’t hardened itself properly.

  The wall was full of holes, but none big enough for a set of armor to pass through. It was similar to a fence. I wanted to praise myself for the extra caution I took to protect Rium from getting hurt.

  “Are you okay, Touya?” Rium asked me in a worried voice.

  “Somehow, yeah,” I tried giving her a smile in response. I didn’t know if I’d succeeded though, considering how my body was still being pulled into the wall.

  I could take off all my armor, but that would be a lengthy process. It wasn’t a realistic option right now. The only silver lining was that Goldfish’s power wasn’t strong enough to pull me through the wall. I couldn’t fight in this state, though.

  I could have just used something coated in magic, but if that was so easy to come by, then I would have bought it back in Jupiteropolis. I could also use a non-metal weapon, but we didn’t have any on hand, so I had no options other than to form a makeshift hammer from the floor and walls. In any case, we were at a huge disadvantage. We essentially had no armor or weapons, while he had them all.

  I could barely move my arms, so I decided to ask Rium to cut the belts holding my armor in place. That would be much faster than removing it normally.

  “Rium, cut my belts for me.”

  “Okay,” she said softly, then took out a knife and started cutting away at the belts on my gauntlets.

  I was hiding her with my body, so Goldfish probably couldn’t tell what was going on. I looked over at Clena and Roni, who were struggling to get their breastplates off.

  “Ye did all that with a basic spell...? I knew I shoulda brainwashed ya.”

  “Come to think of it, why aren’t you trying to do that right now? So it was the water after all?” I tried asking Goldfish, but he didn’t respond.

  We had thought drinking the water would’ve allowed him to brainwash us back then, and it seemed we were right on the mark. He likely couldn’t brainwash anyone outside of that spring. But honestly, if he could do that to us now, on top of everything else, all hope would be gone. Goldfish—the Masked Cleric, one of the 16 demon generals—was this powerful when he could freely use his magic.

  “Y’all are really gettin’ on my last nerves...”

  One of the suits of armor approached the wall and banged against it several times. Goldfish sure was playing it safe by keeping his distance. I guess he didn’t have any specific plans to use against us.

  “Aye, the MP has blended in like a charm. Shame ye weren’t summoned under the Goddess of Darkness, kid.”

  “But I needed to be dead for that.” The Goddess of Darkness only summoned the deceased.

  During our exchange, Rium had moved on from the gauntlets to the vambraces. She had cut my arm a little in the process, but it was hardly the time to complain about that now.

  “Just imagine... You could become king if I summoned ya. After all, the Goddess of Darkness—” Goldfish started rambling about the demon lord again, like he had all the composure in the
world to spare.

  Looks like that talkativeness was just inherent to his raw personality after all. I was thankful for it right now, at least.

  Rium finished cutting the belts on my greaves in the meantime. My brigandine was the last item, and this one had three clasps with two belts at my hips and chest. Rium started with the belt at my chest that had a small clasp.

  “—So it’s a downright shame, y’know... I couldn’t summon ya even if I were to kill ya right here and now!”

  I heard a sea of rattling sounds from the other side, so I turned around to find a countless number of swords, spears, and axes floating together. Shoot, the lower belt wouldn’t be done in time.

  “Rium, run for it!” She had just finished cutting the top belt loose, but I moved away from her and stuck my two gauntlets into a hole in the wall.

  “Instant rocket punch!!”

  “Hurgh?!”

  The power was still trying to draw me in, so the gauntlets, now freed of any constraints, flew through the wall. The gauntlets drew an arc and hit Goldfish’s helmet head on. A metallic clang pierced my ears. As if a bunch of strings had been suddenly cut, the three sets of plate armor and the countless weapons all fell to the floor. So Goldfish could lose focus too. The fish tank was sturdy, though, and he began standing the three sets of armor up again.

  I used the opportunity to take the knife from Rium and cut my last belt. I removed my vambraces and greaves, too.

  “Geez, Goldfish is pretty persistent at full power...”

  Clena stood next to me, having removed her chestplate. It looked like she had torn her surcoat off.

  She and Roni put their armor next to my greaves, and I buried them all into the ground. I couldn’t thank the earth temple elder enough. I had no weapons or armor right now, only earth magic.

  Clena also had no armor, just a thin sword that didn’t seem too useful against opponents covered in full-body metal armor. Roni had hard leather armor but no weapons. Rium was the only one who didn’t wear heavy metal armor regularly, and all her metal weapons were imbued with magic crystals, so they were safe from influence.

  We had little chance of winning in this state, but we couldn’t give up.

  Now that we had regained control of ourselves, I considered using the wall to blockade ourselves from Goldfish, but I was more afraid of losing sight of him. I had to come up with a plan that would give us a chance at victory.

  “Rium, do you think your spear can reach him?”

  “No. Not enough distance.”

  Her silver spear only grew larger once it left her hands. The spear needed more space to grow if it had any chance of doing any substantial damage to our armored opponents.

  “...Rium, use your flying disc to call Rulitora here.” I deduced there was no choice but to call on Rulitora, and ordered Rium to do as such. We destroyed all the golems on the way here, so the flying disc would be the fastest way to make contact with him.

  “...Understood.” Rium didn’t probe any further, and immediately set off on the flying disc she’d been carrying on her back.

  In the meantime, Goldfish had managed to get the three suits of armor back on their feet and lifted the countless weapons back in the air. My gauntlets were among them.

  “Yer not gettin’ away!”

  “Don’t you dare!”

  Goldfish sent a sword flying through an opening in the wall when he noticed Rium, but Roni slashed it away with her bare hands. I knew lycaons had superhuman strength, but I wasn’t expecting that.

  We can count on her to fight, I thought as I submerged the sword into the ground.

  “We’re running out of space to bury everything. Let’s fall back a little.”

  “Got it.”

  We couldn’t bury much more into the ground here, since the remains of the knight golems were already scattered everywhere. We retreated a little, still guarding against Goldfish’s attacks.

  “Hmm...” Goldfish put his hand to his chin, thinking about something as he looked at us. The other two suits of armor were attempting to break the wall with their axes.

  “Looks like this’ll take some time... Might as well enjoy the hunt while I’m at it,” he said, waved his left hand, and sent weapons flying through the holes in the wall. “Now don’t you die until I get there, alright?”

  His voice was eerily calm. I was sure he was smiling on the other side of the wall. Not a moment later, a number of weapons rained down on us. “Watch out, one wrong step and you’ll get skewered.” Clangs of metal and Goldfish’s joyful voice echoed through the otherwise quiet hallway.

  We defended ourselves against the wave, Clena with her sword and me with gloves I formed with gravel on the floor. I was amazed at Roni, though. Even though she had leather braces, she kept striking away every piece of weaponry that came at her using just her arms. Despite the situation, I was captivated by the way she looked so fearless.

  I couldn’t afford to get distracted, though. I stayed a few steps behind them and quickly buried all the fallen weapons into the floor or walls. I wanted to submerge them all at once, but couldn’t risk the entire building collapsing on us, so I had no choice but to bury them one by one while only modifying the building structure slightly each time.

  Roni stopped a hand axe with her bare hands, but couldn’t stop its momentum, so she deflected it into the floor. Her breathing was ragged. The heavier weapons must have been taking a toll on her.

  And then a knife came flying toward the back of Roni’s head. It was at a blind spot to her and she didn’t seem to have noticed it yet.

  “Roni!” I immediately reached out for the knife. Grabbing it with my bare hands, a sharp pain ran through me.

  “Sir Touya!”

  “Keep looking in front of you!” She instinctively started to run toward me, but I shouted at her to stop.

  Enduring the pain, I plunged the knife into the wall and stomped the axe into the ground, concealing both. There was a red line running through the fingers of my right hand, with which I’d grabbed the knife. I didn’t have the time to chant a healing spell now, so I stopped the bleeding by forming a gravel shell around my hand.

  This wasn’t my only injury, though—all three of us were covered in wounds. If we could get close to him, we had a chance at victory. But right now, all we could do was defend. My wall was on the verge of collapsing, too.

  It felt like it had been a while since Rium left. Seeing as how Rulitora had yet to arrive, though, time might have just been passing slowly for me.

  I caught a sword that flew at me from between Clena and Roni. I managed to catch it by the handle this time, but my grip sent pain running through my still-open wounds. I didn’t raise my voice, though, and stabbed the sword into the ground. The pressure made the pain run from my hand to my head, but it wasn’t the worst sensation. It kept me alert while my concentration was currently being tested.

  Then, I heard the sound of something crashing to the ground. I looked behind me to see that Goldfish and the two suits of armor had created a large hole in my wall, rendering it useless. This was bad. We already had our hands full with the weapons he controlled, so if the suits of armor were added to the mix, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “What’s going on?!” Clena’s voice snapped me out of my dumbstruck state.

  I looked over to see my gauntlets trying to wrestle Clena’s sword from her hands. Before Roni or I could move, an axe came flying toward her arms as she was trying to keep a grip on her sword. She quickly let go to dodge the axe, and the gauntlets returned to Goldfish’s side.

  “Yer all outta moves, kid. Yer magic ain’t from a blessing, am I right? Ye can’t use magic unless ye have a medium to channel it into.”

  “Urgh...!” Clena grumbled vexedly.

  He was right on the mark. Come to think of it, she had never used spells without taking her sword out. And now she was completely defenseless. I stepped in front of her, shielding her with my back. Goldfish took the sword from the gauntlets
, inspecting it with a curious eye.

  “...?! Where’d ye get this, ye scalawag?!” Goldfish cried out when he was about to raise the sword in the air. It looked like he noticed something from the pattern on the handle.

  I stared at Goldfish, perplexed.

  “Why, this is the Dark Prince’s sword!”

  “What?!” I inadvertently yelled.

  The Dark Prince was one of the demon lord Amann Naga’s—rather, Nobunaga’s—sons, and one of the Five Great Demon Generals. Goldfish claimed that Clena’s sword was the general’s.

  “...Clena, is that true?”

  “I’d heard it used to belong to the demons... This is the first time someone told me it used to belong to the Dark Prince, though.” Clena responded in a strained tone.

  I had to keep my eyes on Goldfish, so there was no telling how Clena looked right now, but Roni was looking at Clena and I with a worried expression.

  “Tell me how ye got yer hands on this! Maybe a little bit o’ pain will get yer lips movin’?!” Goldfish’s voice trembled with anger as the other two suits of armor started advancing toward us. The blades of their large axes, which had broken down my wall earlier, gave off a dull glow.

  If I tried stopping that with my rock-covered hands, it’d probably just slice me in half. My only option was to make a weapon from the gravel and combat it using brute force. I squatted down, placed my hand on the floor, and shouted toward Goldfish...

  “Now, Rulitora!”

  Goldfish stopped in his tracks, taken by surprise, but in the next moment a glaive came crashing down from behind him. It only knocked his helmet off, though.

  Yes, when I shouted at Goldfish earlier, I actually had my eyes on Rulitora, who had somehow snuck behind Goldfish. He must have found a way to sneak into the armory. Goldfish’s magic cut off, the suits of armor and numerous weapons all fell to the floor.

  “Curses, where did you come from...” Goldfish quickly raised the black suit and tried to pick up his helmet, but I wouldn’t let him.

  “Throw the helmet over here!”

  “Roger!” Rulitora ran at the helmet faster than Goldfish could and kicked it over to us.