(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)
The gate had been swarmed with people, probably those that wanted to leave the city perimeters. Poking their heads out from the nearby alleyway, Ren and Naofumi could hear the mumbling and the shouting from those they thought to be adventurers that wanted nothing to do with the current situation and simply wanted to get a move on with their lives. Naofumi could have sworn that they had been parsing through the people, one by one as they slowly allowed those who needed to get by the chance to leave.
However, it was becoming a different story where everyone had been held up, crowding around the knights who had been trying to keep a handle on the situation. The group hadn't been big—perhaps only a group of ten making the commotion with about three knights. There were also a handful of merchants that looked angry with guesses being that they were on a schedule with their wares.
"Settle down, people! I ask you to please understand our side of the situation!"
"Does it look like any of us fit the fucking description of who you're looking for!?"
"Just let us through! Why did you suddenly stop letting people pass!? Do you know that I have to get to the next town by sunset?! These items don't have the time to be waiting!"
"Orders are orders! If you can't comply, then I'm afraid we'll have to apply the law on you!"
"Who's the retard in upper management to give a dumb order like that!?"
"Look, not of this going to make your lives any easier! Piss off or we'll give you a reason to piss off!"
"You know, maybe we should help look for that criminal."
"As your friend said! You arguing with us isn't going to this any faster!"
"Fuck that! I don't give a flying fuck about some spymaster or some shit! I have a job to do and you assholes aren't letting me do it!"
Naofumi, Ren and Raphtalia stood on the outskirts of the crowd, trying to gather the situation at hand. Naofumi could have thought it was going to be much harder considering that everyone was being denied exit, so if they ran for it, they immediately cast themselves as the group with the person that they were looking for.
"What do we do now?" Naofumi asked, making sure Raphtalia was still holding his hand. "Should we try and head for another gate?"
"Again, let me remind you. We don't exactly have the luxury to do that," Ren answered, keeping his surroundings in check every so often. "If we do that, we'll definitely come across a bridge of knights and from what I've been hearing, they've been telling everyone's who is donning a helmet, wearing a mask, or having a cloak to stop and reveal themselves. If we get caught in the center of the capital, it's pretty much game over. They seem to be flushing out the alleyways too, so that idea can't even be considered."
Ren scanned the environment to see if they could use anything to their advantage. There was surely a crowd, but it wasn't enough people to quietly pass the knights and run for it. That method would have meant Naofumi's inclusion was nothing more than a safety net, but he would have rather be that than engaging in a fight. The main problem came from the fact that Naofumi jumped on board to be further blacklisted for absolutely nothing.
"I know that we have to break through somehow, but we should try and see how we should approach this," Ren muttered.
Naofumi nodded. "Yeah, I'll see what I can figure out."
Unlike Ren, who couldn't have a clearer perspective on the scenery, Naofumi could walk out and serve as scout to survey and determine the situation.
That problem stemmed from the fact that it didn't seem like all of the knights were preoccupied with dealing with the merchants and adventurers. There were some standing on guard further in within the gate and more on top of the walls' upper pathways. The moment that Ren, draped in his cloak, stepped out from the alleyway, eyes from up there might see them and immediately deem them as suspicious.
Naofumi left Raphtalia in Ren's care as he quickly walked out and headed nearby the adventurers and merchants. There hadn't been too much of a commotion that would have devolved into a fight between them. It was simply nonsensical bickering from the hotheads of both sides with the reasonable allies trying to break it apart.
As he glanced over at one of the merchants that had been quietly reading a book on the carriage in his wait for the gates to reopen up, Naofumi's mind bounced on an idea. In situations like these in books and anime, the protagonist would usually bypass such a defensive gate by befriending one of the merchants and having them sneak them through the gates, but Naofumi sighed when he immediately realized the comparison.
It might have been nice to think that would happen, it wasn't any better than thinking that this world was a video game. A random stranger wasn't going to smuggle a wanted criminal out, no matter how much Naofumi thought about it.
Though, he could try and think like Ren. If he had been in Ren's shoes, he would suggest something like taking advantage of the present anger and provoke a fight between them and the knights, giving themselves a window of opportunity to gain as much distance away from the capital as possible. The more he considered it, the more he felt bad for using the adventurers, but Naofumi might have to suck up the emotion and do just that. The only problem with that was there were some levelled-headed adventurers and knights on both sides. If Naofumi needed to start a fight, he would need to somehow trigger those people and Naofumi didn't exactly know how to do that.
"Crap, I guess there's no other way…" Naofumi scratched his head and tried to mentally prepare himself for an engagement with both groups since there was probably a chance that they would be turned on if they discovered that Ren was the reason that they were being held up.
Naofumi attempted to back away from the crowd, but suddenly heard an explosion from behind him.
(—ነነነነ(—[[][ Chapter 1-16 ][]]—)ነነነነ—)
(—ነነነነ(—(—(—[][][ Break Through ][][]—)—)—)ነነነነ—)
W-What!? That noise! It sounded like it came from—!
From the alleyway that Ren and Raphtalia had been, smoke started to gather and sent its clouds up into the sky as the attack had drawn everyone's attention towards it. Naofumi's worries had only escalated greatly since an explosion meant that someone had fired a magic spell over into Ren and Raphtalia. Naofumi instinctively took a single step forwards, holding his breath.
As Naofumi prayed—
—a figure had broken through the smoke, leaping into the main streets with a sword in one hand and a child in the other. The cloak had been entirely in shambles and his hood was dropped. He bounced on his back, careful not to injure the child, before he forcefully flipped himself onto his feet, dragging to a halt.
They're okay! But were they already discovered!?
"Raphtalia!" Ren gritted his teeth, holding Raphtalia closely to his body. Ren was structurally smaller than Naofumi, so it looked like he was having a hard time carrying her. "Don't let go until I tell you to!" he shouted, despite the close proximity. Naofumi could see the girl dig herself within Ren's shoulder as the sword wielder pulled his weapon back.
Following Ren out of the smoke cloud, three knights dashed at him—two with swords and the last with a spear. The speared knight opened up by thrusting an attack into Ren's shoulder, but Ren spun around the attack and leapt up, kicking the knight's back and sending him away. The two other knights followed up and began systematically slashing at Ren, coordinating their attacks by taking turns. Ren started to make fancy footwork and body movements to narrowly dodge the majority of the strikes.
S-Shit! This is tougher than I thought!
They started playing dirty and began to shift their focus from Ren to Raphtalia. Suddenly, Ren needed to drastically move his position to be able to avoid their success. He started lashing out a few retaliation slashes of his own, but he could only catch one of them at a time. The other one would be able to find an opening in the recovery. There were a few close calls, but the last one came at him at a terrible angle to either evade or block. His ideal movement would have been to put Raphtalia in danger—
This girl is proof that Naofumi is stepping forward! I can't let her get hurt, now can I!?
—so he took the attack on back of his left shoulder.
"Arghhh!"
Ren gritted his teeth from the pain which layered on top of the previous injuries, but used the sudden surge of adrenaline to bash the same shoulder into the knight him flying away, but not down.
The second sword knight hadn't been done, lunging their blade forwards, but Ren was able meet them with his own attack. Their weapons were held against each other, as they both struggled to overpower the other. However, Ren screamed out and sent a rush of power to push the knight off his guard, transitioning that to a roundhouse kick.
In the midst of the clash, the spearman had stood back up and started chanting. "I am the source of my power! May the elements hear my words and decree the protection of our land! Blast my enemies away in a violent gale! [Zweite Wind—]!"
"Not so fast!" Naofumi bashed his shield into the spearman's back. He started running towards the knight the moment he realized it was probably an incantation for magic, but as the knight dropped, a wind attack blasted from the spear in a disoriented manner, crashing into the buildings nearby.
Naofumi wasted no time to regroup with Ren and Raphtalia, running into the fray. One of the knights recovered and prepared another slash onto Ren, but Naofumi thrusted his entire body right into their side, knocking them off their feet.
"Ren! Raphtalia! Are you alright!?"
"Seen better days! Here, take her!" Ren immediately staggered forwards to Naofumi and dropped Raphtalia onto her feet. "I can't fight properly with a child dangling from my neck!"
"I-I'm sorry…" Raphtalia looked at the wound that was opened up on Ren's shoulder, but he was quick to dismiss it.
"Don't apologize! It's just the circumstance right now!" Ren jerked his head over towards the front gate. Some of the adventurers immediately knew what was happening and quickly drew their weapons alongside some of the knights. "C'mon, we have to move and break through! Situation's moving without us, so this is our only chance!"
"Raphtalia, come here. I'll carry you!"
"Y-Yes, Master Naofumi!"
As Raphtalia ran into Naofumi's arm, he picked her up and suddenly felt immobility settle in. He was astounded that Ren could even move the way he did in that preluding skirmish, but this was barely the time to mull over such a thought. He trailed behind Ren as the hero ahead started to take on the incoming enemies.
"Now move!"
Naofumi didn't even know how this was going to play out. He would assume that the adventurers were higher levelled than them, but it didn't look like that bothered Ren. He decided to follow in his lead.
Two attacks quickly swarmed Ren, but he was able to deftly defend against their attacks—immediately disengaging by sending them backwards. There was another adventurer that swung his sword for Ren's neck, but he quickly ducked. That adventurer transitioned it into a downwards slash.
"Naofumi!"
"I got this!"
Naofumi extended his arm over Ren's head, blocking the attack from landing. In the meanwhile, Ren pushed his entire weight onto his hand positioned behind. In one swift movement, Ren pushed himself off from the ground and kicked him right in the stomach. The power used sent the two flying forwards until they landed, with Ren standing on top.
"Damn you!"
One of the knights from before leapt up from behind Naofumi and dragged his sword down. He reacted quickly and blocked it with his shield.
"That shield…!" the knight growled. "You must be the Shield Hero! Of course scum like you would be helping out a dangerous criminal like him! Just because our wise king was lenient on your conviction, you believe that you can get away with anything now!? Is that it!?"
"D-Dangerous criminal…!?" Naofumi struggled to push off the knight's advances, but he couldn't leave that notion down. "He's not a criminal! There's got to be some misunderstanding here!"
"But it's right of you to say I'm dangerous!"
Ren dashed around the knight and and jumped into the air from the knight's blind spot, slamming his sword against the knight's helmet. It didn't look like it did a lot of damage, but it did do enough to get him off of his shield. Ren pulled him in and caught his foot on the knight's face, leaping off to go right over Naofumi while pushing the knight to the ground again.
"Naofumi! Keep your surroundings in check, damn it!"
Naofumi immediately turned his head to see one more adventurer coming at him with an axe. However, it seemed like he didn't expect an aerial strike from Ren as he was able to drive his foot into the adventurer's face and continued running as the adventurer was pushed onto the ground.
He wondered if Ren actually would have alright by himself. He seemed to have been dealing with the horde of enemies spectacularly by himself, making Naofumi look like dead weight and an extra hindrance that Ren had to keep in mind, but he knew that standing here wasn't going to do anything. With Raphtalia holding herself tightly to his chest, he ran after Ren.
Two more knights rushed in to flank Ren inbetween, but he immediately stopped and backed off. Unfortunately, Ren misjudged where Naofumi would have been and if Naofumi hadn't sidestepped to the left, they would have collided. Though, that allowed Ren to have the space to fend off against the knights and their attacks.
Naofumi wanted to jump back in and get them off Ren, but he wondered if he would be messing up his momentum. However, his head turned when he heard chanting from the gate's direction and soon after, so did his body. He ran forwards towards the two mages to interrupt them, but another adventurer that had stopped Naofumi from advancing.
Naofumi swung his shield to meet with the sword, banging armaments a few times, but Naofumi couldn't keep this up. The adventurers looked as if they were almost done with their chanting, but Naofumi was still stuck with the skirmish. His eyes leered to Ren in between two attacks, noting that he was still trying to disengage from them and had some difficulty in doing so.
Even if Naofumi could break off from this adventurer, he didn't have the speed to interfere with the spells' completion. If there was something he could throw, then—!
Wait, I still have that!
Naofumi made a full bash against the adventurer. His arm felt the impacted shock, but he muscled through and managed to push him. Naofumi then grabbed the remaining balloon monster that was never actually killed before Ren came into Erhart's blacksmith and looked at the monster quickly.
"Don't know if you'll understand me, but I'm counting on you! Go get them!"
Naofumi winded up the balloon like a baseball and threw the monster right into the mages. Both of them widened their eyes and staggered as the balloon bared its fangs, immediately cancelling their magic spells. One of them flinched while the other was the one hit by the balloon, capturing her face inside of the opened mouth and chomping down. There was a shriek coming from her as the fellow mage tried to yank it off, but in either case—the mages were preoccupied.
However, the bladed adventurer rebounded quickly and re-engaged Naofumi. He didn't expect him to return so fast and Naofumi was definitely not in the position to do anything about it. However, he tried his hardest to pull back from his throw and collided with the edge of his shield with the blade.
The force was too sudden for Naofumi though, and it pushed him off his balance. He bounced backwards, slamming onto the arm he'd been using to hold Raphtalia. A surge of pain came onto him and his arm gave out, dropping her at his side. Raphtalia winced in a subtle pain from sliding against the paved streets, but Naofumi noticed that the adventurer had been quickly closing the gap. There wasn't any time to pick Raphtalia up again.
"Raphtalia, stay still!"
It was the only command he could think of as he leapt up to meet with the overhanging slash. He could see the adventurer's face clearly as they both stared at each other with intent.
"I was cheated out of the entire morning because of this dumbass criminal and his lackeys!" he growled. "I'm going to enjoy beating the three of you into the ground—especially that damned demi-human!"
He's… He's strong! Stronger I expected!
Naofumi flinched in the pressure that the adventurer was pushing down on Naofumi until the weight suddenly disappeared. The sword had flung upwards from the recoil, but the adventurer didn't—he let released the sword's handle and crouched below Naofumi's shield. He tried to react quickly, but the adventurer was too fast and grappled Naofumi's stomach and tossed him into a nearby wall.
It didn't hurt as much as he thought, but his eyes were directed right to the adventurer who pulled out a knife while walking towards Raphtalia. A stroke of horror had completely devoured her as the adventurer made a menacing expression.
"I'll start by getting my frustrations on this demi-human! Shouldn't be a problem if she belongs to a criminal, right!?"
"N-No…!" Raphtalia was cowering and panicking, but despite her attempts to move, she was completely frozen out of her fear.
"No, please!" Naofumi shouted to the adventurer as he attempted to run at him. However, Naofumi wasn't used to this level of combat, falling right over on his knees and palms the moment he tried to run. "Stop it! Leave her alone!"
And yet, the adventurer wouldn't listen, stepping on Raphtalia's stomach. He brandished his knife and held it over Raphtalia's small head, as if he wanted to play with her before he hurted her. It was like one of those claw machines back in Naofumi's world, except only this hadn't been a game that he wanted to win.
"So when should I drop this knife?" the adventurer mocked, as Raphtalia was practically sobbing through hyperventilation under his foot. "I'll be gracious enough to let you choose."
He felt terrible that Raphtalia was going to get hurt. Perhaps Ren was right that he shouldn't have joined in with him and Naofumi's thoughts was spiraling downwards, thinking how stupid he was to think that he could have helped. He knew that he was the one to tell Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu to not treat this as a game, but perhaps it was Naofumi that was treating this too lightly.
"M-Master… Naofumi…!"
"Please! Don't...!"
"Or what are you going to do?" the adventurer laughed. "You're weak and a hack. You couldn't even do any damage to me! Super pathetic and I'll show you what happens to people I think are pathetic!"
"My words exactly!"
"Hu—!?"
A knight's body went flying into the adventurer before he could release the knife and he was pushed away from Raphtalia's body. His footing lost itself from the slave, letting her go freely, but she remained, not knowing what was going on until she pulled her head towards where the knight's body had came from—
"Picking on a child, huh!? That's pretty pathetic, alright!"
—and Ren had been running right to her with a glowing sword.
"And didn't you hear him!? He told you to leave her alone!"
Ren leapt over Raphtalia, aiming his sword right into the back of the knight he had thrown. Six transparent blades were summoned around his weapon and converged.
"[Six-Bladed Thrust]!"
The force behind the attack was able to push the knight and the adventurer away and into the few knights that had been trying to support their allies and makeshift allies. Raphtalia watched as Ren flew over her, holding her breath in. The sparks that came from his skill had been somehow soothing to her mind as the white colour glistened its beauty over her.
Ren landed with a roll onto his feet, but grunted. He held his shoulder in pain from the new wound and the accumulation from his previous fight. Regardless, he bounced back to grab Raphtalia's hand. "C'mon, get up! It's not over yet!"
"T-Thank you, Mister Ren…"
Naofumi, in the meanwhile, had been thankful that Ren was able to save Raphtalia. He got up and started running over to the two as Ren dragged Raphtalia back up. "I'm sorry, Ren," he immediately spoke. "I didn't realize that I was this much of a nuisance to you."
"What are you talking about?" Ren turned Raphtalia around and pushed her into Naofumi's body. He crouched down to carefully pick her back up in his left arm. "If you weren't here, there's no way I could have dealt with that extra adventurer and those mages. The difference between victory and defeat can be as small as one more person."
"Is… Is that true?"
"Look, divide and conquer is still a valid form of aide." Ren glared over to the remaining crowd of enemies. "We still have a gate to pass, Naofumi. We'll talk later once we're out there, but don't think you're useless here because this has become much easier for me!"
Naofumi readied his shield and nodded. "Yeah!"
One of the knights walked forwards and scoffed at the wanted criminals. "Do you really think we'll let you just leave? Don't think so. By my honour as a knight and by the orders of our highest captain, I won't allow that to happen!"
Ren smirked at his ally. "You still have it in you for another charge, right!?"
Naofumi grinned in response. "If it's to help you out, of course I do!"
Some knights held their ground with the mages as the rest ran forwards. There were some magic being casted from on the walls and a considerable number of them. On the other side, Naofumi and Ren started to pick up their pace to meet the adventurers in the middle. Ren held his blade to his side and Naofumi brought his shield forwards like a ram. They both made battle cries to meet their opponents.
Ren glared at his sword, swearing under his breath. He didn't know how he was able to perform those mysterious skills from last night, but he knew he didn't have access to them anymore. For what reason, Ren couldn't tell, but it would have been helpful here.
However, a small sphere was tossed from one of the building rooftops that looked to be a compacted wind. Ren and Naofumi noticed it from the angle they were at, but not the adventurers—
—since that sphere had been hovering over their heads.
And in the next moment, it exploded and arrows of air started to fly downwards in a wide spread, hitting the adventurers and staggering them. That magic that had been fired out had been filtered away. Both Ren and Naofumi didn't know what exactly happened, but a glance from Ren told Naofumi to just push on.
They broke through the fallen opponents, leaving them to fight with the remaining knights that stood in their way. One of the knights ran forwards to stop them, but Naofumi sped up to overtake Ren and slammed his shield against the incoming strike. Naofumi threw the knight back, allowing Ren to round his ally and sink his sword as far as he could into the armour before the knight went flying into a building.
The mages had gotten the balloon off of them, killed it presumingly—rest in peace, balloon—and started their chanting once again. There weren't any more balloons to use, but Ren had ran over to the fallen knight and plucked off his helmet. Using his speed, he prepared to throw it, but he felt a sudden sting in his palm.
Oh, come on! Don't tell me it's recognizing the helmet as a weapon now! That's the only reason I didn't go for the sword!
Ren instinctively flattened his palm, not needing to use his fingers as he carried the helmet through the momentum and lunged the helmet into a projectile. It managed to bang one of them, but the other one was still chanting.
"—Rain fire on my enemy! [Zweite Fire Squall]!"
The moment the mage finished the chant, a light was sent from the sky and soon, fire started to rain down onto the two heroes. Combined with another array of magic spells that was sent from the knights above, it started to become a cluster. However, another sphere of wind had dropped down from the heavens above and exploding, sending arrows of air into the raining fire. It couldn't deal with all of them, but dealt enough for Ren and Naofumi to either weave through the remainder or run fast enough to outpace it.
There were two more knights that they needed to take on, set aside the mage who looked like she was probably going to let them pass her. They drew their weapons and cried out as the last stand between the heroes and the gate. There were some people behind them that recovered and started chasing them, but there was one more wind sphere behind where they once were.
Whoever was helping them out—Ren decided that they were going to be taken care of.
"Naofumi, follow my lead and push forwards no matter what!"
"I got it!"
Ren dashed forwards and slid between the legs of one of the knights. Ren rebounded and kicked the knight's back into Naofumi's shield, rushing it forwards like a battering ram. The second knight tried to stop Ren, but Ren twisted his position around him to let Naofumi pass right by. The knight had to dodge, but the opening gave Ren a place to kick, sending him away from the gate.
Naofumi shrugged the knight on his shield off and Ren quickly followed.
Never once did Naofumi feel exhilarated to step outside of the capital's perimeter, but as he saw the blue skies fall upon the green horizon clearly, he knew that the difficult part was over. His breathing had been so dry and his heart had been pumping hard, but he was glad. He was happy to make a difference in Ren's escape of the capital as he looked over with Ren who returned him a smirk.
They were out.
All they needed to do was lose the knights and there had been a forest nearby the capital that they could escape to. As Naofumi and Ren smiled happily at each other, they were feeling the might of Naofumi's optimism—
—because it wasn't over yet, despite how strenuous it might have felt now.
Not even close.
Between them and the forest, Naofumi could spot an odd sight. There was someone sitting there with his back turned towards them and looked as if he was randomly having a picnic there—only that it merely had drinks. There were even two empty small dishes that Naofumi recalled to be used with alcohol back in their world, both positioned behind him as if the man had been expecting two visitors and offered them a drink. Surrounding the man though, he had been wearing all types of swords, ranging from daggers to a rapier, broadsword to a katana. Despite the unique outfit he had been wearing, Naofumi couldn't think properly under the fire.
"H-Hey, Ren? There's someone there!"
"Just run past him!"
Naofumi shook his thought away and followed Ren's instructions. They split an opening down the middle, so they could avoid the man, but Naofumi was slightly curious. He ran past the man alongside Ren who tried not to look back—but Naofumi did make a brief glance.
He noticed a recognizable golden strand of hair on the blacken hair.
"You know?" It was as if time had slowed down. "It's awfully rude to ignore an obvious offer to drink. I don't expect you to accept such an offer though, but an acknowledgement might have been nice."
Suddenly, Naofumi felt his collar being tugged backwards, stopping all of his speed in a single motion. He was ripped backwards and tossed. He held tightly onto Raphtalia as he bounced against the grassy fields. He glanced over at Ren to see that he was flying backwards as well, but he was able to stick the landings on his feet. However, he immediately dropped to his knees and Naofumi knew that Ren was starting to reach his limit. He looked like he had been trying his best to push through and ignore the pain under his bandages the entire time.
Both of the heroes panned their sights onto the man that threw them backwards, but Naofumi didn't know how he didn't realize it was him. Perhaps it was the adrenaline pumping through his head, but his spine stiffened the moment he knew.
Fighting against the knights might have been easy for Naofumi up to this point, but he didn't know how to fight against someone he knew and thought as a good person. Naofumi's grip on Raphtalia had instinctively tightened as the man menacingly looked back, smirking as if he knew that they weren't going to escape.
Z-Zellus…
"Hey. Where are you two off in such a rush?"
Ren clicked his tongue. "You're a knight, are you not? You should already know, given the state of the situation in the capital."
Zellus chuckled and merely shrugged. "Well, that doesn't mean I don't want to hear an answer from your own mouths. Maybe you two can come up with something funny that will amuse me! And then I'll start laughing enough that you two can sneak right past me!"
"You think this is a joke?"
"C'mon, lighten up! I think this entire fiasco is making you stressed out." Zellus boisterously shouted as he sat back down on the grassy field, pouring out a bit of alcohol into the two small dishes. "Sit down and relax for a bit. I got some nice alcohol I picked up when I was accompanying Lothringen and the Queen to Siltvelt for some peacekeeping. It was super boring, but hell—the alcohol that they had was worlds away from what Melromarc could have! Take a breather and try it!"
"R-Ren, he's kidding right?" Naofumi couldn't believe what was going on. They were basically being chased down and it was only a matter of time that the knights were able to recover and rush after them, but here Zellus was—offering them to sit down and take it easy.
"We're leaving," Ren growled.
Zellus dipped his head, sighing in Ren's aggression. "Sorry, but I don't think you have a choice in the matter here. I've already showed you two what will happen if you tried to pass me. You'll be thrown back and start at square one, so just take the opportunity. It's not as if you can choose to walk back into the capital. Calm down a bit and have a drink with me."
Naofumi's spine had felt shivers. That casual attitude that he kept up was in stark contrast to the knights that had been fighting to keep them away from the gate's exit.
However, Ren noticed that there were a group of knights that followed them out of the city and they stopped a distance apart from where they were standing. Naofumi and Ren turned their heads to see a collection of about twenty knights, but they stood still, saying nothing. Instead, they moved out of the way for a single person to walk themselves through the middle.
It was a familiar man in his purple-tinted armour wearing a stern expression that immediately told them of his displeasure of the current situation. Zellus immediately perked up and waved his hand at the man.
"Hey, Captain! These two refuse to drink with me, so how about you take a shot for them!?"
"There's no time for tomfoolery, Zellus."
"How could you call this tomfoolery!?" Zellus patted his chest. "You see, I was able to stop these two folks from running away. I think I deserve to have a drink with somebody here and if it isn't these two heroes, it's going to be you, Captain!"
"Silence, Zellus." Lothringen grunted without breaking his expression. "There are plenty I want to correct you on this situation, but I will save that judgement for another time."
Lothringen stepped forward and glared at the two heroes, blatantly disgusted with them.
"To think—not only was the Shield Hero convicted of a crime, but we have a criminal in the form of the Sword Hero as well. I wonder why the ritual ended up summoning people such as yourselves. I wondered why the Holy Weapons decided to bring you into our world."
Naofumi could Ren readying his blade, but Naofumi wondered if they truly had what it took to escape from this situation. No longer were they dealing with the usual set of knights, but the leader of those knights—and there was no way that this fight wouldn't be difficult. His presence alone felt like it would overpower the two of them.
"Wait, Lothringen!" Naofumi tried instead to plead their way out if straight-up combat hadn't been possible. "We can sort this out! There's been a misunder—!"
"Save your words, Shield Hero." His hand raised into the sky as electricity started to crackle around his arm. Lothringen merely wanted to get straight to the point. "You'll have plenty to speak about once you are captured and considered the state of panic you've thrown our capital in, do not think the wise king will come to the same conviction as before for the both of you—even if it's the Sword Hero's first offense."
Naofumi instinctively raised his shield, but he didn't know how of the attack he could take. He knew he had relatively high defensive stats, but the problem came from how strong Lothringen should have been. Something told Naofumi that Lothringen can easily rip through him compared to the simple balloon monsters. He glanced over to Ren who looked frustrated at the entire turn of events.
Escape had felt so close, but it slipped through their fingers because Zellus was simply at the right place to intercept them.
The breeze started to pull in towards Lothringen as the morning skies started to darken above Lothringen. Naofumi found it increasingly difficult to breath as even the knights themselves were backing off from their captain. They probably knew what was to happen while Naofumi simply had a notion.
Immediately, a lightning shot downwards from the spiraling storm clouds and right into Lothringen's palm as a bright light nearly blinded those who kept their eyes on him. Naofumi and Ren could feel the ground shaking underneath their feet as they both glared in disbelief.
W-What!? Seriously!?
"I, who leads the valiant knights of Melromarc, ask for the blessing of heavens and for them to hear my humble request for power. Allow me to conduct your element and cast judgement onto the wicked. Use my body and my soul in order to weaponize your absolute justice!"
Magic circles began to along Lothringen's arm, centering themselves around the skin before they all converged into the arm itself and covered his arm in a full sheath of electricity. He pulled his palm downwards as a ball of lightning had sat on its surface, but as he held it before him, it crushed elemental sphere and consumed it into his fist. In one swift movement, he pulled his arm back, readying for a punch and unleashed the strike.
"Come, o' holy lightning! Strike forwards! [Indignation]!"
Lothringen threw his punch and lightning soared from his fist, flying straight towards Naofumi and Ren. It was coming at them so quickly that even if Naofumi wanted to block the attack for the both of them, he didn't have any time to move. The lightning, just like a beast, roared as it flew, causing Naofumi to lose his breath.
Even though Naofumi didn't think they could dodge it, he turned over his body to protect Raphtalia—assuming that it wouldn't blow his body to pieces.
However, when Naofumi turned around, he noticed that Zellus was no longer sitting down with his alcohol. A silent and sudden gust dashed right past them.
"That's a bit dangerous for something like this. Don't you think, Captain?"
Zellus' voice came from behind Naofumi—right between them and the magic spell. Where Naofumi hesitated and couldn't move in time to defend against the lightning that would blasted him away, Zellus met the attack head-on. The lightning collided with his giant broadsword had had enough might to push him back a bit, dragging tracks into the dirt with his heel. Zellus was even chuckling as he intercept the strike, though as he held on against it, it was clear that he was having trouble defending. The power behind the magic spell never stopped pushing Zellus, before the spell could reach the heroes, he grit his teeth and swiped his sword to redirected the spell into another direction.
Naofumi and Ren instinctively watched it fly away into the distance, but once it hit the grassy fields—
—it blew up in a giant lightning pillar, leaving nothing but a devastating crater in its wake.
"W-What the…?" "H-How…?" "S-Scary…!"
There was no way that Naofumi, Ren, and Raphtalia would have even considered surviving an attack like that. He would have guessed the size of the crater to be about the area of Erhart's building, but they still felt the destructive shake from here. Zellus, on the other hand, had been heavily breathing, stabbing his giant broadsword into the ground to support himself with sweat dropping from his forehead.
"Captain, you really know how to tease me! Sending out one of your stronger magic spells like that! You're just asking me to fight you now! If this was any other situation, you should have probably defended yourself!"
Lothringen kept his posture and glared at Zellus. More electricity started to sunder from Lothringen's body.
"... What is the meaning of this, Zellus? Are you betraying the knights?"
He shrugged, managing to catch his breath. "I'm not betraying anyone. Look, I just wanted someone to have a drink with me. And besides," Zellus returned a similar tone in his voice, draining all of the whimsical feeling out instantly, "I caught them first. This is my fight and I'm not letting anyone interrupt it. So if you want to take them on by yourself, Captain—you're going to have to duel me for that right. Otherwise, the fight with the Shield Hero and the Sword Hero belong to me. Do you understand that?"
Lothringen frowned. "Do you even know what the crime of the Sword Hero is? It's a severe crime, Zellus. It's not something I can merely overlook and as the capital, I must have the clear culprit captured and taken before the king."
"Do I really need to know in the first place? Actually, there's a better question out in the air. Do I even give a damn? I heard that the Sword Hero needed to be brought back in cuffs. That's all I need to know to draw my swords!"
The difference in atmosphere between Lothringen and Zellus couldn't be anymore different, yet the two knights had been standing firm with their feet planted into the fields. It was like two wolves, trying to break the other in yielding their territory. However, Lothringen had been the one to unexpectedly turn around and falter. The element was dropped and dissipated.
"... Very well. I shall grant you this fight with the Sword Hero, but only because I know about the lengths of your stubbornness. Either way, you are to bring me the criminal once you are finished here. I will have no exceptions, Zellus." He gestured to some of the knights behind him. "You four. You are to watch over Zellus' fight and clean up once he's finished with the criminals. You will not interfere with his fight, not that you'll need to, though I say this mainly for your safety. The rest of you are to be dismissed to your duties."
Zellus chuckled. "Appreciate it a bunch, Captain!"
"Do not misunderstand me, Zellus." Lothringen had been walking back to the capital's gate when he stopped and turned his head. "I did not allow you to take this fight to satisfy your battle pleasure. I allowed you to take this fight because I know that you will be able to bring me the criminal. You may be the worst knight I've ever encountered in definition, but your resolve and experience for combat is what makes you one of Melromarc's most valuable assets and the sole reason why you were even promoted to a high knight. That and somehow getting Lord Aldrecht's approval." Lothringen turned back his head and continued walking.
"In any case, do not fail me, Zellus."
Zellus sighed, resting the broadsword on his shoulder as Lothringen and the majority of the knights had left the area. There were a considerable amount of trivial things that had to be done, and Zellus was glad he wasn't on that end of the stick.
"Hey, I know the Captain's a bit cold," he told the heroes, "but I know he's got a big heart somewhere in that thickness! If you ever get the opportunity to take him out for a drink—not that I think you two can ever get the chance to, considering the circumstances—you should take it! He's a pretty nice guy when it boils down to it—he's just ultra serious about his job."
Naofumi, Ren, and Raphtalia could only watch in silence as Zellus walked right past them and sat down once again in front of them. He stabbed the broadsword right down beside him as he looked at the two dishes meant for the heroes. Meanwhile, the knights that were positioned to watch had stood from afar and muttering to each other.
Zellus started to open back up the bottle and carefully poured back the alcohol from the small dishes. "Maybe you two aren't the types to drink before a fight. I'll accept that, so I'll bring something different."
"What's your game, Zellus?" Ren asked. "Why are you doing this? What's your goal here?"
"Not sure what you mean, but I'll be taking up your end of the trade now."
"Huh? My end?"
"For the information I told you about." Zellus reserved some of the last drops on a dish and drank it for himself. He began to tidy up the dishes and alcohol and beckoned one of the knights to come towards him. "I said that what you were doing in the future would pay for that information. This might as well be what I'm referring to. First, I'll applaud you for making it out of the gate. That's not an easy feat, you know. Especially at your levels. Unfortunately, proceeding any further means you'll need to defeat me in a fight and that is my request."
"... I feel like I'm out of the loop here," Naofumi muttered. "Mind explaining, Ren?"
"I'm not explaining."
Naofumi had a defeated expression before catching Raphtalia in his sights, still held against his chest. "... You… wouldn't happen to know about what's going on here—oh god, why am I asking you?" Naofumi brought his other hand into his forehead. "The adrenaline is starting to disappear and all I'm left is exhaustion. Sorry, Raphtalia."
Raphtalia tilted her head in confusion.
The knight had come over and Zellus had pushed all of the drinking utensils into his hands. He was immediately dismissed and sent back toward the rest of the knights, but Zellus stayed sitting on the ground.
"You see, Shield Hero—or should I call you by Naofumi—either way, I thought you two might have been exhausted from breaking through the gate. And in Ren's perspective, he's all cut up from the skirmishing. I'd hate to fight opponents that are basically someone else's leftovers."
In front of him, he pulled out two potions, but they were contained in a vial that Naofumi nor Ren had seen before in this world. Ren himself had never seen such an ominous potion, even in Brave Star Online.
"It's not a total solution, but here. They look like normal potions, but they're actually pretty special. There's no proper names for them in this world, so I just refer to them as Omega Elixirs. They have the unique effect to allow the consumer to ignore all of their pain and fatigue in their body for a limited time. There's no real set amount of time though—the duration solely depends on the user." I think for the both of you, it's comparable to painkillers pills, only taken to the extreme." In the place of where the two dishes were, Zellus placed down the potions. "Once you two finish drinking it up, we can start the fight immediately or whenever you're ready."
"So these are like painkillers?" Ren frowned as he narrowed his eyes on the vial. "How do we know you didn't just put poison in them?"
"P-Poison?" Naofumi flinched at the thought. "Really?"
"Why would I ever poison enemies I want to fight?" Zellus responded, almost as if they had offended him. "Who the hell do you take me for? I'm not some scumbag that would resort to such underhanded tricks like that. I may hide some details away, but I never tell a lie. Though, I will warn you that taking that pain you receive during its duration will be reduced, but once it ends, you'll instantly feel the full consequences of what you've taken in combat during that time. Thus, your goal will be to attempt to defeat me before the timer runs down. Got it? It's like one of those timed boss sequences!"
Ren sighed as popped off the cap and downed the potion. It wasn't as if he had any other options here. His body felt like it was about to break down and he struggled to even stand up straight. If this fight had been mandatory, it was better to hope that Zellus wasn't lying and ingest it.
When the contents slithered down his throat, his heart skipped a beat and it was as if his body had been surging with power. There had been a faded white glow to his body for a short duration, but when it finished up, Ren didn't feel any of his pains anymore. The wounds were still ever present, but he was able to move normally, rolling his shoulder as if there hadn't been a cut there. And as Zellus mentioned, a timer appeared before his meters, stating that he had six minutes in this state.
Naofumi was completely astounded at how fluid he movements instantly became, but Ren winced once the vial was empty.
"... It's pretty bitter."
"Can't do anything about the taste. Sorry. If it was up to me, I'd change the flavour to make it easily digestible. Maybe like… berry flavor. Yeah, that sounds really nice." Raphtalia's ears had wiggled when Zellus finished the thought.
Naofumi picked up his own assigned potion, but debated if he should drink it. It wasn't because he didn't trust Zellus or he didn't believe Ren's current state, but he didn't think he was in such a dire condition like Ren to be taking such a potion. He would only be ignoring his fatigue, and really, it wasn't that bad in the first place. He felt like it was almost a waste to drink it to sate his exhaustion and decided on another option.
"Hey, Ren. Catch."
"Hmm?" Ren managed to grab the potion out of the air and glanced at it before looking back to Naofumi. "Why are you giving your potion to me?"
"If we're fighting Zellus, then you should keep that in your pocket just in case. If I go down, you can still beat him because of your ability to do damage. If you go down or your timer runs out, the fight's basically over."
"Interesting," Zellus mused. "I didn't expect you to be handing it over, but I got no complaints. Oh, and Naofumi? You can put the kid down. Just set her aside for a bit or else you won't be able to fight properly. I don't think the knights are going to do anything, considering the distance they're standing at."
Zellus energetically waved at the knights, whereas only one of them slowly and awkwardly waved back. The others simply stood there, as if they were basically done with Zellus' antics.
"I got a reputation for messing up people that interrupt my duels," Zellus said, somehow smiling while he said something dark. "... Yeah, they're definitely too scared to contribute anything unless I call them over."
Without saying another word, Ren put the vial into the inventory. Meanwhile, Naofumi hesitated to put Raphtalia down, but he figured if they were going to fight seriously, he couldn't have Raphtalia in his arms. From what it looks like, Zellus wasn't holding any hidden intent from them and he didn't seem like the type of person to attack a child.
"Raphtalia, just hang back for a bit. Hopefully, we can finish this up quickly."
"Are you going to be okay, Master Naofumi? And Mister Ren too?"
"Don't worry about it too much. Though, I can only hope."
"O-Okay… T-Then, I'll hope for Master Naofumi and Mister Ren too!"
He let go of Raphtalia, so that she could stand and walk herself over to the sidelines. She was slightly timid about leaving, but her focus had primarily been on Naofumi and Ren as she kept looking back.
"We have formalities out of the way now. At long last, we can get started with no more interruptions," Zellus smiled, standing back up onto his feet. He pulled out the giant broadsword and rested it back on his shoulder. He walked a considerable distance away from the two heroes as they readied themselves, as he turned back around and took one single deep breath.
However, it was as if Zellus' entire mood changed the moment he exhaled. In Zellus' eyes, there was almost an unspoken deranged personality that was trying to escape, yet his mouth smirked just the same. Both Naofumi and Ren noticed it, flinching before the vicious shouts of the extravagant knight and feeling the explosive shift in atmosphere from whimsical to suffocating. A single glint from his eye sparked along the shadow of the single golden strand of hair, something that suggested a controlled type of insanity.
Ren and Naofumi readied their weapons, wondering how the hell they were going to get through this. If he was a knight that could rival the captain of the knights, then his level would have been relatively higher. They both immediately understood that what they were facing right now had been leagues above what they had to go through for their initial escape, if it weren't for the thought alone.
Zellus threw a finger towards the two heroes, as if he was reading their minds.
"Don't worry about level differences! Fight as if any good strike can kill me!"
[Attention]
[You have been marked by [Absolute Negation of Status Magic (False)].]
[The caster has been marked by [Absolute Negation of Status Magic (False)].]
"H-Huh? What's the hell is this?"
As the finger pointed to the heroes, they both noticed a notification pop up before their eyes, but as it did, their resource meters started to become corrupted and glitched out. Their names persisted on their heads-up display, but no longer had there been levels. It was as if they never existed in the first place. Both Ren and Naofumi quickly glanced at each other to silently confirm the disorientation with each other.
"Consider this as my personal cheat to this world! It's the power to overturn this damn system that makes all fights trivial and make them more exciting!"
In the midst of their confusion, Zellus pulled his hand back and prepared his sword.
"Now, I'm getting fired up! Show me what you're capable of!"
Zellus kicked off and closed the distance between them quickly.
"Show me the power of the Cardinal Heroes!"
(—ነነነነ(—(—[][][][]—)—)ነነነነ—)
Important Author's Notes (TEMP):
Okay, I'm going to go back and see just how much I can dial back Zellus and re-contextualize him. Seeing that people are feeling offplaced by Zellus' unusual strength out of nowhere, which on retrospective, I can understand. However, his unusual strength is important for a subplot, so I'll be looking as to how I can recontextualize him primarily. Thank you for those who touched on this glaring problem, which I couldn't see by myself, and I'll be working earnestly to fix it.
I'll be starting the next chapter with the changes to previous chapters. I don't foresee any radical scene additions though, but the weight of some scenes will be shifted to allure more to Zellus' strengths before the actual confrontation.
