by Aneko Yusagi
Was it because of the shield’s growth? This “grow up” that had been mentioned?
Ugh… My vision was wavering.
“Mr. Naofumi.”
Suddenly, a kind touch, it must have been Raphtalia.
I couldn’t… I couldn’t lose her here.
There were people out there—people depending on us to stop the wave. I couldn’t let myself be swallowed by rage and hate. I couldn’t let them down!
I threw off the dark shadow and shook my head to steady my vision.
The enemy was there before me. I stared at it and readied myself.
“U…Uaaaahhhhhhh!”
Ugh?!
I turned and, for whatever reason, Filo was engulfed in dark flames.
“Gaaaaaaah!”
Her eyes were sharp like a bird of prey. She ran at the enemy and kicked it hard.
It might have been because she’d eaten the dragon core that I’d used on my shield.
Filo turned on the Soul Eater and kicked it again.
“Yaaaaaa?!”
It looked like her attacks were successful.
But it also looked like she was unable to distinguish the real enemy. She turned on another, random monster in the area and started to attack it instead.
“Ugh…”
The shield was threatening to absorb me.
I ran at the inter-dimensional Soul Eater and pressed it back with my shield.
It gnashed its teeth at me, scratching my shield—but I wasn’t taking any damage.
Perfect.
The Shield of Rage II had self curse burning. It was a counter attack that answered an enemy’s attack with a powerful curse, one that would burn the enemy to ash.
I felt the cursed flames rising within me. They roared throughout my body and engulfed the Soul Eater.
“Yaaaaaaaa!”
The inter-dimensional Soul Eater screamed in pain, but the self curse burning wasn’t powerful enough to completely burn it.
The skeleton captain, kraken, and ship’s cannon all turned to focus their attacks on me.
“I don’t think so! Shooting Star Sword!”
“Shooting Star Spear!”
“Shooting Star Bow!”
Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki had recovered their footing, and they all unleashed a barrage of skills at the enemies before them. Then they turned to the inter-dimensional Soul Eater.
They were trying, and their attacks connected and worked—but none were powerful enough to defeat their targets. The enemies healed themselves too quickly.
Wasn’t there some other way?
I remembered that there was another skill. One I hadn’t tried yet.
Change Shield (attack) and Iron Maiden.
Both of them were skills from the Shield of Rage II. I didn’t know what they did, but it was worth the risk to find out.
I’m pretty sure it was Shield Prison to Change Shield (Attack) to Iron Maiden.
It might have meant that performing the skills in order would lead to some kind of chain reaction. Could it be some kind of combo skill?
“Shield Prison!”
I turned to see the enemy incased in a cage made of shields. Luckily enough, maybe because Ren and the others had drawn its attention, the Soul Eater had left itself wide open.
Now it was caught in the Shield Prison.
The monster was now attacking the cage directly, and it seemed ready to crumble at any moment.
I wouldn’t let it escape. I couldn’t let my chance slip away.
“Change Shield (attack)!”
The command was the same as my normal Change Shield skill.
I was presented with a number of new shields to choose from.
A needle-covered shield seemed like the obvious choice. There was the Animal Needle Shield and the Bee Needle Shield to chose from.
I chose the Bee Needle Shield.
“!”
The shields that made up the Shield Prison all suddenly turned into Bee Needle Shields, their needles facing the interior of the cage, and the monster took damage.
The walls were pressing in on the monster inside.
Iron Maiden!
I was ready to use the skill, when a paragraph appeared in my head.
“The punishment I have chosen to inflict on the foolish criminal before me is called the Iron Maiden. They will be pierced through from every direction, enveloped in their own screams, and will taste true pain!”
“Iron Maiden!”
I shouted to activate the skill, and a giant iron torture device appeared in the air. It’s door swung open, and the entire Shield Prison was pulled inside.
With the door open, I could see the interior was filled with large spikes and the victim inside would have to prepare himself to be stuck through by them.
When the door closed, whoever was inside would be impaled in every direction.
The Shield Prison disintegrated, the door slammed shut, and the enemy was impaled before it was even able to scream.
There was a loud clang, and the door of the Iron Maiden swung open. The Soul Eater inside was stuck through so many times it looked like a honeycomb. Weakened, it turned to escape.
But…
The door slammed shut again, and the Soul Eater was once again impaled on the spikes.
At the same time, my SP meter dropped to zero.
The skill used up all of my SP?
The Iron Maiden either ran out of time, or power, or whatever. The torture device vanished.
“Huff…Huff…”
“Whoa…”
Everyone was whispering, breathless.
The inter-dimensional Soul Eater was riddled with holes, and clearly dead.
“We won!”
I tried to control my ragged breath, and changed my shield back to the Chimera Viper Shield. I would have to find some way to control Filo. She was running around violently.
With the shield powered up, I apparently wasn’t able to use it for very long.
“Huh? Whew….”
Probably because the Shield of Rage II had disappeared, Filo slowly came back to normal. She sat down, exhausted.
“Whew…”
“You did it.”
“I guess.”
“Oh Boy! What happened?!”
I turned around in time to see Raphtalia run up to me, and Filo collapse in exhaustion.
“Did we stop the wave?”
“I’m tired!”
Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki were all glaring at me. They looked envious.
“We lost this time, but things will be different next time.”
“What was that? After all you said about not knowing anything about the world that was some fighting you did.”
“You didn’t join the fight for so long that you still had all your energy.”
Itsuki had the nerve to say something like that? He travelled the world and tried to not stand out, doing all his adventures in secret, and he had the nerve to call me lazy?
“Regardless, now we’ve….?!”
Wh…What the hell? I suddenly had the worst feeling. Every muscle in my body was tense.
It looked like Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki felt it too. They were feverishly looking around the ship.
One of Itsuki’s party members was overcome by fear. He fell to the ground. There was an overpowering sense of dread. It was so powerful that the Soul Eater we’d defeated was nothing in comparison.
What was going on?
There was a shuffle, and a person’s shadow fell over us all.
Was it another enemy? This was getting ridiculous. I didn’t have any energy left!
“Are you all so threatened by these little monsters? It seems there is but one true Hero among you.”
She was wearing a deep black kimono that was embroidered with silver. It my own world, it looked like the kind of clothing a wealthy relative might wear to a funeral.
This whole world had seemed to be like the European middle ages, so it was weird enough to see someone in a
Kimono.
Her hair was long and jet-black.
She looked Japanese, but also somehow ghostly.
It was like… It’s hard to describe, but she occasionally shimmered, like she was semi-transparent.
She held a fan-like weapon. Without warning a stream of light burst forth from it, flying over our heads.
We all turned to see what was happening, only to see the light collide with another inter-dimensional Soul Eater that had been creeping up behind us.
“I would prefer to fight without your interference. The approaching battle is of sublime importance.”
“Wh…”
The Soul Eater fell to the deck, dead, from her single attack.
It couldn’t be true. We’d spent all our energy and time on a Soul Eater, and she’d just killed one with a single attack!?
The girl narrowed her eyes and looked directly at me before she spoke again.
“Well, from what I saw of the last fight, it seems that you are a Hero. The others seemed unable to fight at all, but you are different.”
“Maybe.”
“And what is your name?”
“You’d ask my name without giving your own?”
“Pardon me. My name is Glass. If I must elaborate it wouldn’t be wrong to consider me your enemy.”
I wasn’t about to consider her my friend.
“Naofumi.”
“Naofumi then. Shall we begin the real battle of the wave!”
The girl named Glass opened her fan and rushed at me.
Dammit! I’d just used the Iron Maiden, and I wasn’t in any position to start a new fight!
If I used the Shield of Rage II I would have to contend with its poison. I was barely able to hang on. Thanks to Raphtalia, I’d been able to control the poisonous emotions from the shield, but I felt my limit approaching.
“I won’t let you!”
Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki all readied their weapons and aimed their skills at Glass.
“Shooting Star Sword!”
“Shooting Star Spear!”
“Shooting Star Bow!”
The three skills were flying at Glass when she looked down and let her lips curl, ever so slightly, into a smile.
“How cute… Circle Dance Zero! Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”
It was the middle of the day, but the wine-red sky began to glow and pulse.
There was an attack coming. I ran to Raphtalia and Filo and readied my shield to protect them.
We looked to the sky to see a blood-red moon hanging there, silent and powerful, like it had absorbed the shouts of its enemies.
There was a flash of red, circular light, and the other heroes and their parties all fell.
“GAAAAHHHHH!”
Something like a tornado lifted them from where they’d fallen then flung them all through the air.
“Ugh!”
They fell to the deck again.
Damn. They knew a lot about the world, and they were all at a high level. How could they fall so easily?
But if she was so powerful that she could defeat the Soul Eater with one hit, then how could we ever hope to stand against her?
We’d used all our power against it, but it was looking like that fight had been nothing more than a warm up.
I’d thought that this wasn’t a game, but the difference in our strength was so apparent that we really stood no chance.
If this WERE a game, I would assume it was a battle that you were forced to lose, that losing would trigger an event of some kind. But this was reality.
If we lost, there wouldn’t be a secret event to save us. Life wasn’t that simple.
Besides, the people who already knew all about the game and used that knowledge to efficiently level up had just been defeated—just like that.
I’d spent my time trying to make money. What hope did I have of standing against her?
Still, I couldn’t lose. I had to win, for Raphtalia. For Filo.
“What a pathetic little bunch. I feel bad for your Holy Weapons. They must be crying.”
Her weapon was an Iron Fan. She held it open with both hands, and her fighting looked like a dance.
“This is certainly unexpected.”
“Master, that girl is super strong!”
Filo’s feathers were all standing on end.
“It’s true. I can feel her power from way over here. She’s much stronger than we are.”
Raphtalia’s tail was erect and puffy. She was obviously trying to control herself.
I ran over to the fallen heroes, and looked down at the fainted Bitch.
Those heroes she had depended on were like toys to Glass.
But what were we supposed to do?
Honestly, the Iron Maiden had used up all of my SP. At the very least, I’d need a way to recover that.
That’s it. Motoyasu spoiled the Bitch. Maybe she had some kind of tool that would prove to be useful. Or maybe she’d have a good item or two?
There. She had Magic Water and Soul-Healing Water. The selfish Bitch.
The first item would replenish any magic that you used when casting spells, and the other would recover any SP you used when you used a skill.
Well, Soul-Healing Water was so expensive that I’d never had a chance to try it. But I had heard that it would increase your concentration, and that would make your magic more powerful.
I decided to try drinking the Soul-Healing Water. It tasted a little like the nutritional drinks I’d made, but as I drank it I could see my SP meter being replenished.
Yes, so it really did restore SP. Thinking back on it, Ren and the others had been using one skill after the other, so they must have had a way of replenishing their own SP.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
Raphtalia saw me rummaging through the Bitch’s pockets and yelled at me.
But seriously, they weren’t fighting, and I didn’t really have any other option.
“How cheap. And you call yourself a Hero?”
“I’m fine with cheap. This woman has done much worse than ‘cheap.’ I’m not very fond of her.”
“Master, you look like a bad guy!”
“Shut up.”
“The enemy speaks truthfully, I don’t know what to say.”
Raphtalia sighed to herself. The enemy seemed to be growing annoyed with us.
“She is not on our side, but she is not incorrect.”
“Whatever.”
I stepped ahead of the other heroes, and Glass readied herself for a fight.
They weren’t capable of fighting for themselves, so there wasn’t anything I could do to further involve them in the battle. Glass seemed to understand that too. She had a samurai-like stoic character to her too. She probably only wanted to fight those who would challenge her.
“Very well then. I think our chat has gone on long enough!”
She opened her fan and rushed at me.
She was fast! I immediately raised my shield. Just in time—I caught her attack with the shield, and it reverberated with a dull clang.
Damn! It was so heavy. She’d only attacked once, but the shock had shaken my shield arm until it went numb.
Her attack was stronger, much stronger, than even the Zombie Dragon’s attack had been. If she could manage such a powerful attack with her fan, then Raphtalia and Filo were in real trouble.
“Raphtalia! Filo! Watch out! This one is strong.”
“Understood!”
“Okay!”
“I am the source of power. Hear my words and heed them, protect them!”
“First Guard!”
I cast supportive magic on the both of them, and the battle began in earnest.
“If we fight here, the fallen Heroes will be in the way. My aesthetics do not tolerate unnecessary interventions in our noble struggle. Let us go somewhere else.”
As if she had understood my real intentions, she leapt from the ship. We followed her.
“This seems like a place where we may battle undisturbed. Here
I come!”
If the fan’s attack hit anywhere I couldn’t manage to cover with my shield it was strong enough to overcome my defenses, causing pain and leaving a wound. If I had the chance I would cast First Heal to cover the damage I was receiving. But there was very little time.
Her attacks came quickly and powerfully. More than anything else, she was intelligent. It was nothing like fighting a monster. She realized that her attacks were not as effective on me, and so she set her sights on Raphtalia and Filo.
“I won’t let you!”
I used Shield Prison. I sent it over to where Glass was standing.
“Ha! Pathetic.”
Glass destroyed the Shield Prison with a wave of her hand.
But that wasn’t my real plan.
The real reason I used Shield Prison was…
“Hiyaaa!”
“Take that!”
So that she wouldn’t be able to see Raphtalia and Filo’s attacks coming.
“Ugh!”
Raphtalia and Filo’s attacks covered a larger range than Glass could defend with her fan, and where they connected they produced a shower of sparks.
“So you are using a similar battle tactic. This is much more interesting than those other Heroes.”
She was quick with her counter attack. Her fan opened and sliced at Raphtalia.
I wouldn’t let that happen!
I jumped ahead of Raphtalia just in time and covered her. I took the attack with my shield, which activated the counter attack skill Snake Fang (medium), and the shield bit deep into the enemy.
“Do you think a simple attack like that will defeat me?”
It didn’t look like the poison worked on her. After taking the Snake Fang attack, she didn’t appear fazed.
Of course I knew her defense from when I saw her parrying Raphtalia and Filo’s attacks with her Iron Fan.
Regardless, she was too powerful. Her attacks were so strong.
The fact that she had defeated the other heroes so quickly proved how powerful she really was.
Honestly, I couldn’t picture a version of this fight that ended in victory for us. Even if I could keep us healed, I didn’t see a way to defeat Glass. We just weren’t powerful enough.
“Master, watch my magic!”
Filo entwined her hands and ran straight for Glass.
