I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero.


"Ugh..." A man grumbled in his sleep, as his body slowly got up, getting all the knots and cracks out of his body. Standing up on his two boots, he gave himself a stretch from the cave grounds he was resting in. One could hear his bones cracking as his body tried to regain his posture from sleeping on the ground. Thankfully, he was used to it, as it wasn't giving him the bad cramps last time. Looking at his makeshift camp, he sighed in a despondent manner looking at how sad it looked.

"Another day to train, another way to occupy my time…" He declared to himself, the same thing he has been declaring to himself for the longest time. Striking one more line with a rock on the cave wall, he began to venture out into a white-hot desert, breathing in the same air, seeing the same environments, and fighting the same mobs that were at least numerous levels higher than his was.

Yep, same ol' routine for Naofumi Iwatani in the infamous Desert Prison, where losing your way was a death sentence..

Packing himself his supplies, like water, a bed roll just in case, a carved walking stick in the shape of a cane, and his equipment, he began to venture into the desert. The desert heat was second nature to his skin, as he continued walking, until he smirked.

A slight rumble later, an explosion of sand erupted, and Naofumi smiled even wider as teeth appeared all around the man from the sand. Soon, the jaw snapped shut, with the man inside, as a giant sand worm launched itself out into the air, satisfied with the prey it has captured… until a rumble was felt inside of its system. Suddenly, its neck was sliced off, and blood and worm innards, with Naofumi jumped out of its mile-high body. The stick he was holding glowed, as he was holding it like a blade.

"Heh, ya gotta try harder than that! I've slain many of your brethren to the point of it becoming so damn easy!" He laughed, almost like it was a game to him. The worm, of course, did not respond, as it just flopped to the ground, unmoving. Sniffing the blood, the man smirked. "Here they come!" From the smell of blood, many more monsters came out, from sandworms, gryphons, giant scorpions and even ancient golems the size of kaiju monsters, he smiled viciously, as his stick glowed a white flaming shape of a sword. "COME AT ME!"

The worms came at him first, all of them jumping him all at once, and a resounding crash and explosion of sand appeared. However, showers of blood exploded from the worms, as various cuts appeared on them, slicing them up into dead meat.

Naofumi appeared in the air, smiling, as his sword 'glow' began to change shape into a two-handed axe, held in one hand. The golems looked up and brought their arms together, firing ancient runic magic towards him, but the man dashed left and right in the air, before bringing the axe down. Immediately, the golem was cleaved in two after a second of momentary silence. "CMON!" He made a battle cry as he dashed from golem to golem, spinning like a hurricane of steel, cutting up his stoney opposition into dust.

Suddenly, a scorpion appeared from underneath the sand, gripping him with his claws. Many more brought their tails up before stabbing Naofumi… not realizing that he disappeared.

"Not bad. But you could use a bit of work!" The man cried out from another sand dune, as their prey disappeared in an afterimage. The 'axe' disappeared, and a 'staff' in his hands came to be. "Have a taste of your own poison." Blue runes appeared around the man, as he chanted an incantation to a spell. "A drop of insanity, a pinch of malaise! Upon thy verge of death shall cometh thy hellish landscape! Blight!" With two hands, he stabbed the ground with his 'staff' stick, and the sand began to change. The sand became bloody red, as a swamp underneath, leaking the foulest poisons began to emerge. The scorpions did not know what to do, yet they tried to go through the swamp towards their real prey, but the poison and the air began to befoul, as the putrid liquid sunk into their carapace. Soon, they slowed down, as all of their shells melted away, along with their flesh, as they valiantly tried to reach for Naofumi. Their scorpion bodies then became corpses, as the poison ate them up into nothing, with the caster smirking at his work. Pulling out his staff, the swamp disappeared, leaving on the rest of the monsters, afraid of the man who has taken care of many of their numbers without breaking a sweat.

"What's wrong?!" Naofumi taunted them, his 'staff' now transforming back to a regular stick. "Aren't you gonna try to claim this prey?! Afraid of a little man?!" He continued. The other monsters probably did not speak or reply, but they were being taunted to attack him.

Taunt was one of his many skills after all.

CRASH!

A resounding crash was heard from his back, but the man did not even faze or flinch. He only smiled. A gryphon, the size of a house, tried to dive him beak-first, yet it was like hitting an unmoving diamond wall. Repelled, the gryphon cawed in pain as it was blown back a hundred metres away.

"Didn't they teach you manners in monster school?" The young man taunted, as the wind propelled his cloak to reveal a metallic shield on his back.

"I'm the Shield Hero, and I never die." Indeed, his health has not gone down one point. His stick glowed into the shape of a 'gun' aiming at the bird, and shooting at it, destroying the gryphon into a bloody carcass in one shot. The rest of the desert kaiju-sized animals, now falling for the taunt, all charged towards the man, now hungry for more. "CMON!" His battlecry resonated, as he brought out his stick into the fight of the ages once more.

.o0o.

"Occultist class, finally mastered." Naofumi stated, panting a bit as the smell of blood and dead animal rotted the air, fires burning the bodies away like nothing ever happened the next day. "Heh, I guess that's every class truly mastered to its fullest." Indeed, his level didn't have a number, but it had a star instead, reminding him that he couldn't level up anymore, even with the help of class advancements. Smiling at his achievements, from his maxed out stats, his perfect skill setup and his list of all the known jobs with stars on them, it felt good that he got this far.

It only sucks that his companions from the past weren't here to enjoy it.

His smile disappeared as he rested inside of the desert cave, the oasis water in his hand telekinetically swirling around in his hand like a goblet of wine. The status disappeared, as if it didn't matter to him, and Naofumi took out an old rugged photo, sighing and smiling at it in a melancholic fashion.

"If only you were here to enjoy those accomplishments… if only I didn't lose you years ago..."

Suddenly, he felt a small tug. Widening his eyes, he grabbed his stick and belongings, looking left and right, and using his superhuman senses at who, or what, was inside the cave. It was actually nothing, but the tug was getting stronger and stronger… until light appeared around him… like a… like a…

"Teleportation…?"

And soon enough, he was gone, along with his belongings, the only trace that was left inside the cave was the campfire, and the many lines that were drawn on the walls.

.o0o.

"Please, Oh Brave Heroes, save our world!"

Oh no...