Chapter 15: Surprises in the Next Wave
The next Wave is coming soon. Over at an inn, Itsuki and Ren are all alone at a table with the scrolls open on the table written in Japanese kanji.
"Hey, Ren?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you think?"
Ren looks at the scroll. "I mean, I will give him an A for effort but some some of his kanji is a little off."
Itsuki gets upset, "Not that!"
Ren looks at Itsuki, "Right. At least we know that the Three Heroes Church is responsible for your reward."
"That, and they plan to kill all of us. But if they do that, the Waves will get stronger and will occur more frequently. Not to mention that, the princess of this country has a soul fragment of the goddess responsible for the Waves. She is now an obstacle for what we need to do and we can't kill her."
"I agree." Ren agrees with Itsuki. "If she dies, the Waves will grow stronger."
"Right now, lets make a plan for the next Wave."
On the day the Wave arrives, everyone gets geared up and make final preparations when the Wave finally hits. Arthur and his party are outside of Erhard's shop. Arthur now has the dragon zombie core on his duster on his chest close to his neck. Arthur even give a bracelet to Raphtalia that helps out with her mana regeneration and a hair piece for Filo to increase her speed and agility twice as normal.
Erhard says to Arthur, "I modified the zombie dragon core on your duster to give it an auto-repair function. Your outfit should be good for a while."
Arthur smiles at Erhard as he lowers his hat to look cool, "Thanks, Erhard. Once the Wave is over, I'll let you know when we go out to another nation and get some supplies."
Erhard smiles with his arms crossed, "Be sure you do and good luck."
Arthur steps out and sees his party all ready for the Wave. Plus he has a wagon full of medicines, spare weapons, some mana potions and a few other necessities necessary for the villagers that get caught in the Wave and for themselves.
"You guys ready?" Arthur asks with a confident smile.
"READY!" everyone says with a slight nod.
Filo jumps up in the air, "I'm ready too!"
And then the countdown starts and they will be teleported to where the Wave will hit in 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 Teleport!
Arthur and his party have teleported to a village where the Wave is at with the sky doing those crazy swirls in the air. Goblins and other monsters have already started attacking the village.
"Let's go!" Arthur says as he charges in with his party behind him.
Intense fighting is happening in the village as some of the guards try to stand on their own against the monsters. You can hear the sound of metal clashing and the sound of screams in the air. Speaking of screaming, there is a man trying to run for his life while being chased. The man tripped as a goblin with a spear tries to pierce him. But he was saved by two guards as they stabbed him in mid jump.
One of them speak to him, "Everyone else in the village has already evacuated! Get out of here, now!"
The villager gets back up, "Right! Yes, sir!"
They both drop the goblin's corpse as the guard says, "I think he is the last one. We're done with the evacuation."
The other says, "It sure took a while. Maybe we should be getting back to-" The sound of large footsteps are coming from behind one of them that stopped his sentence. "Huh?"
When the look at where the footsteps were coming from, they see a large lizardman about ready to kill them. But Arthur, with his [Chimera Shield], stopped the attack.
"Go!"
Raphtalia comes in and slice the lizardman's neck followed by a few kicks from Filo in her Filolial form and a stab to the head by Gwen.
Arthur look at one of the guards, "You guys alright?!"
"What the-?" one of the guards say in astonishment, "You guys took down a lizardman like it was nothing."
"I'll take that as a 'yes'. But keep your eyes peeled! There's still plenty of them!"
"Got it!" they both say as they get up and do their duty.
Yet they hear a loud roar ahead of them and noticed an old woman in violet martial arts clothes killing two beastmen with her kick and palm attack. The two monsters fall down dead at her hand.
Raphtalia, in amazement, asks, "How did she do that?"
Gwen smiles, "Feeling better, granny!?"
The woman turns to face the heroes and pays her respects by having her right fist over her left palm and bows her head. "Indeed I am. Thank you very much in the past, Shield Hero. I am indebted to you."
Raphtalia thinks about it for a moment and realizes, "Oh! You were that man's mother that needed the medicine from a month ago!"
She smiles and chuckles, "Yes, I am! Thanks to the Shield Hero, I am much better now!" A goblin tries to attack her but she does a spinning kick. She has one foot on top of one of the beastmen corpses. "As you can see, small fry like these are no match for me."
Filo gives a, "Wow!" at the lady as she shows off her arms.
"I swear by these arms, that had fought many formidable foes back when I was an adventurer!" Then she laughs proudly at her newfound strength and rekindled youth.
Gwen chuckles, "I think you made a monster."
Arthur just elbows her.
"Sir Hero!" Akel walks towards Arthur to give a report. "Sir, all the villagers have been moved to safety!"
"That's good news." Arthur appreciates the report. "Now keep these monsters out." He looks up at the sky and noticed that three hours have passed. 'Those guys are messing around and trying to do their own thing, are they?"
"Sir Hero, you really should go. We need to put an end to the Wave quickly. It'll help all the villagers as well."
"On it!" Arthur gives a thumbs up. "Oh, and granny, make sure none of them die. Please?"
Granny, or rather Elrasla Grilaroc, gives a laugh and smacks the backside of Akel (which causes him to cough from how hard the smack his), "Leave it to me and these whippersnappers to defend this village!"
Gwen says, "Thank you."
Raphtalia then says, "We'll stop the Wave as best we can!"
The three ride on Filo as they head out to find the boss of this Wave to get it to stop. They are looking for some sort of flying pirate ship with an sea snail shell under it and tentacles with skull at the tips. Not to mention some skeletal birds flying around it.
Raphtalia points at the ship when she spots it, "Arthur! Up there!"
They spot the ship just flying pass one of the mountains.
Filo says in astonishment, "What a big ship."
Not long after, they see a volley of lights being fired upon it the underside.
Itsuki orders, "Keep it up!"
The ship fires those lights back as a member of Itsuki's party set up a magic shield to block the attack. Then Itsuki and his fellow archer companion fire at the skeletal mast of the ship as Arthur and his party arrives.
"What's the situation!?" Arthur asks.
Itsuki tries to fire another shot, "We're doing a divide and conquer strategy. The ship is similar to the games, but turns out that the weaknesses are different so we're trying to figure out which is it so we can get the Soul Eater. The other two are on the ship dealing with the Skull Captain and the Kraken."
'You guys are now working together and it is taking three hours? Guess things haven't changed much from the anime.'
Filo says, "At least you guys are using your heads."
Gwen smiles, "I agree."
Raphtalia notices something heading straight for them as she shouts, "Look out!"
Everyone got out of the way of the attacking monster that came up from the side of the mountain. As the dust clears, Arthur gets a good look at the monster that tried to attack them.
"No way." Arthur says in shock. "What is that doing here?"
The monster is 30 feet long with spikes on its back and horns on its head as well as its fatty tail covered in armor. Its claws are sharp, its mouth is full of sharp teeth with a strong jaw like an alligator, a long tongue covered in venomous drool. It is a monster Arthur is all too familiar with.
He shouts out, "IT'S A GILA DRAGON!"
"A WHAT?!" Itsuki shouts as the Gila Dragon looks at Itsuki's party.
"It's a monster from my world! Careful! That thing has radioactive blood!"
Itsuki shouts again, "IT HAS WHAT?!"
The Gila Dragon roars before Filo kicks it on the back of the head and Gwen fires a pistol round at its soften and fragmented skull as blood started to come out of its mouth, nostrils and eyes. It falls down to the ground as its lumbering corpse falls back down to the base of the mountain and leaving behind a trail of blood. Arthur pulls out a Geiger counter from his pocket to see if it does have radioactive blood.
"What is that?" Itsuki's blonde haired female companion asks.
As Arthur puts the metal antennas close, the Geiger counter starts going nuts. "I was afraid of this." he says as he grips his Geiger counter tightly. "This really is a Gila Dragon from my world. Now the Waves are pulling in monsters from my Earth too!"
Itsuki is shocked to hear that. "What do we do!?"
Arthur looks up at the ship, "Right now, let's finish this and worry about it later. Once we're done, we'll work on quarantine the monster's corpse."
Gwen uses her spider webs to sling onboard the ship with Filo carrying Raphtalia and Arthur on her back. On the ship, Ren is fighting against the Skull Captain and it is on its last bit of HP. Motoyasu and his party are fighting against some of the Kraken's tentacles. When Ren takes down the Skull Captain, it came back to life with full HP.
"Shit!" Ren swears. "Come on."
Ren and Motoyasu bump back to back while keeping an eye on their foes.
"Any luck?" Motoyasu asks Ren.
"Not good. No matter how many times I took it down, it keeps on getting back up. You?"
"No good here either. No many how many tentacles we take down, more just pop up. It's like dealing with a hydra."
"I wonder if Itsuki has any luck."
Well on the bright side, both parties are working together instead of arguing with each other. Wonder if has something to do with Arthur's influence or maybe they became more competent than they should? Yet either way, they seem to be screwed.
"At least you guys are working together." Arthur says as he drops down on deck with the rest of his party. "Glad that you don't let your egos get in the way."
Motoyasu smiles at Arthur, "About time you joined in! Thought you were too busy saving the village."
Malty is upset that Arthur is here. Arthur glances at her hand and doesn't see any bandages nor the black clover mark. Which means that Malty is free to use magic once again. Even brainwashing.
Ren says to Arthur while keeping an eye on the Skull Captain, "We decided to do divide and beat the different bosses but nothing seems to be working."
Arthur looks at the shadow of the Skull Captain and notices something is off. "Hey." he points at the shadow, "There is something up with its shadow." He looks at the Kraken's tentacles' shadow, "And there too."
Ren takes a closer look at the Skull Captain's shadow and noticed that the edges are shimmering. As if it is alive. "You're right, I see it!" Arthur defends Ren with his shield and repel it back.
Motoyasu notice the same with the Kraken's tentacles, "Same here!" Arthur then defends Motoyasu from the Kraken's attack.
Arthur looks at Raphtalia, "Do your thing, Lil Sis!"
"On it!" Raphtalia knows what to do and casts a spell, "As source of my power I order thee," she becomes enveloped in light, "decipher the laws of nature and illuminate my surroundings. Fast light now!" She points her sword up in the air which a stream of light is projected before becoming a flash of light.
The shadows of the tentacles and captain moved around as eyes and mouths started to appear. Raphtalia then runs up and attacks the shadow at the feet of the Skull Captain. Some sort of white gusts is spewing upwards where the shadow was. Once Motoyasu and Ren noticed that, the both stab the shadows of the Kraken's tentacles which lead to the same result.
"Now what!?" Motoyasu says as the strange wispy pillars appear.
"Look!" Itsuki and his party have board the ship. "Soul Eaters are spawning everywhere! All over the ship!"
The wispy pillars that give off a faint blue glow head up towards the air to form the boss of this Wave. The Dimensional Soul Eater.
Ren attacks first, "Thunder bolt slash!"
Then Itsuki, "Thunder arrow!"
Then Motoyasu, "Lightning spear!"
Three electrical attacks strike at the Soul Eater yet receives no damage as it roars at the heroes.
"Its stronger than I thought." Ren speaks his mind.
Motoyasu speaks, "Are any of our attacks even affecting it?"
Arthur smiles as he raise his shield, "Looks like I get to try out my new toy."
Gwen raises her left eyebrow, "New toy?" She realizes what Arthur is doing, "Please don't tell me."
"Ah yeah." Arthur's shield has transformed into the symbol of...The Ghostbusters. Which it is called, [The Ghostbuster Shield]. "Not only it fights ghosts, it also plays the Ghostbusters' theme song."
"You are so corny!" Gwen says in annoyance.
Ren, Motoyasu and Itsuki look at Arthur's new shield and have no idea what to make of it.
"What the hell is that?" Motoyasu asks.
Arthur projected a proton stream from his new shield and grabs hold of it. The creature tries to break free as the Ghostbusters' theme song is playing from Arthur's shield. He dances to the song as he flings the Soul Eater around like a ragdoll. Everyone just stand there all confuse while Gwen facepalms in embarrassment.
Arthur says to Filo, "Hey, Filo! How about a little wind magic on that thing, huh?!"
Filo is still a bit confuse as she just says, "...'kay?" She swinger her wings so a tornado is form as she says, "Fast tornado!"
The tornado hits and did a lot more damage. Arthur stops using the proton stream and fires sticky ectoplasm that tethers the Soul Eater to the deck of the ship while still dancing. The he fires boson darts at the thing that explode and did some major damage. Then switches over to the stasis stream that froze the Soul Eater in place before using dark matter shock blasts as he smiles and dancing.
Malty, confused and not sure what the hell is happening, asks, "What is happening?"
One of Ren's male companions says, "I think he's enjoying himself."
Itsuki says, "I think so too."
Arthur continues to fight until he notices that 10% of its HP isn't going down. He stops smiling as he goes, "The fuck?" He fires a few more shots yet still nothing. "What the hell!? It should be double dead now!"
Filo does a high quick to stop the monster with Raphtalia doing a light slash yet nothing seems to be working.
"Something's wrong." Gwen notices. "Its not taking anymore damage."
"I know that." Arthur says. "But why? This should work. Did it get some sort of invincibility when its health is low?" 'We need to get rid of it quickly! No telling how long they can last!'
Back at the village Akel, Elrasla and the rest are reaching their breaking point and aren't gonna last long if this keeps up.
Back on the ship, Raphtalia backs up to Arthur's right side and Filo flies to his left.
"We're not hurting it at all." Filo complains.
Raphtalia says to Filo, "Stop complaining. Let's find its weakness."
"Damn." Arthur says to himself. With no other options, there is only one thing to do. "Looks like I have to use THAT shield."
Raphtalia and Filo are confuse on what is happening and what Arthur says. But Gwen knows and she is worrying for Arthur's sake.
He steps up, "I was hoping to avoid this, but I got no choice." He prepares to switch shields, "Sorry girls. Come forth, [Rage Shield]!"
The gem of his shield started to glow red as some weird red pattern forms on it that spreads throughout his body as he struggles to hold on to whatever strength and sanity he can muster.
Inside his mind, he hears a voice.
"You will pay." It sounds a little soft at first but gets louder, "YOU WILL PAY!"
Arthur is standing under the only light as the dragon appears before him. "Oh shit."
"I think not." says a familiar voice.
"What?!" The spirit of the dragon looks up and sees Nephalem.
He sees the dark golden flaming figure with purple eyes, gray wings, black horns and a white halo that stands tall. Taller than the dragon's spirit. Seeing this figure frightens the dragon as he beholds such an imposing figure.
"What...what are you?" the dragon asks in fear.
Nephalem laughs, "I am the lord of all balance. This boy is my vessel. And you are trespassing. So, you will be absorbed."
"WHAT!? NO!" the dragon's spirit gets scarred as Nephalem clenches his right hand on the visage of the spirit. "NO! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T ABSORB ME! I HAVE ALREADY SUFFERED ENOUGH AT THE HANDS OF A HUMAN!" Nephalem opens its mouth and proceeds to eat the spirit. "NOOOOO!"
CHOMP! Nephalem ate the spirit and swallows it.
Arthur is a bit frighten himself as he witnessed the whole thing. "Damn. I didn't know you can do that."
Nephalem laughs, "Believe me, I have done worse. Now use that shield and kill that other soul eater."
Arthur gulps before he gives a nod, "Right!"
Back in reality, Arthur is equipped with the [Rage Shield]. Yet the red jewel is replaced with a grey one.
"Damn." he says. "Now I feel like an idiot."
Gwen grabs Arthur by the shoulders to get a good look at his eyes. She looks worried, "Arthur! Are you still you?!"
Arthur just smiles as he gives a right thumbs up, "The one and only."
Gwen is confused on what is going on. "You're not going berserk? Then how are you...you know? Not only that, you don't have dark armor. What's up with that?" She looks at Filo and noticed nothing has changed. "Filo isn't effected either?"
"What do you mean?" Filo asks.
"We'll talk later." he breaks free from Gwen and is prepared to fight against the Soul Eater. "Right now, we got this asshole to deal with." He shouts out, "|Shield Prison|!" The Soul Eater is then encased in steel plates with chains. Arthur then shouts, "|Change Sheld|!" The Soul Eater gets skewered inside the ball as Arthur prepares his final attack. "Within this virgin of cold ore, who shall swallow your screams with her embrace. Suffer the anguish as your entire body is stabbed and skewered. I cast the |Iron Maiden|!"
A flash of blue light that transformed into a swirling vortex of clouds and lightning. At the center of it, a gigantic iron maiden appeared as it opened up a sound of a church bell that spells doom. The trapped Soul Eater gets taken up to the inside of the iron maiden. Once there, the doors close on it as the spikes penetrate the |Shield Prison| yet hasn't shut fully. Once snap from Arthur, and the doors close completely as a bright light shine before it disintegrates. Dropping the corpse of the Soul Eater into a ravine.
"Whew!" Arthur says in relief. "Glad that's over!" His [Rage Shield] switches to the [Chimera Shield] once it is over.
Filo asks, "Big Bro, what just happened?"
Raphtalia and Gwen run over to hug Arthur as everyone else is in total shocked.
"I'll be damned." Itsuki says to Ren and Motoyasu. "So that's the true power of the Shield."
"That or he cheated." Ren says. "But I doubt that."
"Goddamn." Motoyasu says with his jaw slightly dropped in astonishment. "Wish I can do something like that."
Filo transforms and approaches Motoyasu. "Hey. Don't tell me that your jealous?"
Motoyasu defends himself, "That's not it, Filo! I'm just saying that I would have easily one shotted that if I was serious! It was a no brainer, really!"
Filo's not buying it, "Really?"
"Um, oh yeah! Absolutely! Motoyasu never lies!"
"Then why didn't you?"
Before they celebrate, Arthur felt something. He looks at the direction where he felt the disturbance and says, "Knew that was coming!"
Everyone looked at where Arthur is looking at and notice that there is another Soul Eater.
"Another one!?" Itsuki says in surprise.
"That was not in the game." Ren commented.
Everyone prepares for another round until something comes down on it. A volley of lights come down on the Soul Eater that pinned it to the deck. Everyone (except Gwen and Arthur) were surprised when that happen. Gwen and Arthur stand their ground for what is gonna happen next.
"How very disappointing!" says a voice of a woman.
A woman with long black hair and in a white kimono, pale skin and red eyes comes down and killed the Soul Eater just by landing on it.
"You have trouble with weaklings like these?" She sounds a little high and mighty with a lot of confidence as she addresses the heroes. Actually sounds more like arrogance. "Are you really the heroes holding the world's fate in their hands?" Actually, more like rude. She walks slowly towards the heroes as she holds twin fans, one in each hand. "There is only one worthy of being called a hero." She set her sights on Arthur, "And what is your name?"
Arthur smirks, "I was wondering when you would show up, Glass."
"Huh?" everyone looked at Arthur who seems to know this woman.
Glass is shocked to hear that Arthur knows her name. But she smiles, "So you know who I am? I'm flattered."
"Don't be, Fan Hero. But if you want my name, my name is Arthur. Arthur van Buren."
The others gasp at what Arthur just said and are completely surprised.
Itsuki says, "Wait a minute, she's a hero!?"
Motoyasu asks, "How can that be?!"
Ren asks, "How do you know this woman?!"
"My, my." she says as she has her fans unfolded and ready for battle. "Looks like you know more about me. But shall we battle?"
To be continued...
AN: Oi! Glad I finally made this chapter! Just to let you know that my work schedule is crazy so expect chapters to come out at random rather than every two weeks. Giving you guys the heads up.
And JGResidentEvil - Damn. But I hope to avoid that in the future.
Plus: Check out Survival in a Strange Galaxy (which is a sequel to Survival on a Strange World), Shokugeki no Saiba: Food Wars! and An Isekai in RWBY. Hope you enjoy!
