Author's Note: Okay another chapter down, taking a little break from writing right now in favour of getting my hands on the next volume of Shield Hero.
Chapter 43: The 'Hero' of the Whip
While Setsuna's spear worked on converting the tooth into a back up weapon Setsuna herself was working to purge herself of the curse she was afflicted with. One of the benefits of the recent mass level up is that Setsuna's reserves of Spiritual power had skyrocketed. Thus the half demon put her priestess training to work purging herself of the curse she had been afflicted with while her spear transformed the tooth in her possession. She hoped to get something at least as powerful as the Tessaiga, but didn't hold her breath. This thing spat out average quality works only, and Totosai was a master blade smith. Just to make sure she checked the Inugami tooth spear, but it seems that it didn't retain most of the abilities of the real thing, just unlocking her ability to spit out more Javelins at once which was handy, in it's own right.
Her working theory is that if she unlocks enough spears she automatically gets a new skill, or when she got a skill that corresponded with something she could already do it instead bumped down the requirements for the next one. Of course it did, both the Tessaiga and the legendary spear increase their power and unlock new forms by consuming material. There was so much redundancy here that the spear seemed to just eliminate the parts that it could already do and convert that to offensive power, or at least that was how Setsuna hoped it work. Whatever the case was Setsuna was short on information, like how the weapon stealing power actually worked, the conclusion she reached was 'don't get hit and you'll be fine' being too cautious would just hamper her ability to fight. Still, it made her pause and think about the implications, that these legendary weapons really did have too much in common with the sword that was forged for her grandfather.
"Miss Setsuna, are you feeling better?" Setsuna opened her eyes for the first time in three days and she was soaking wet.
Wearing little more than a white cloth Setsuna has been sat underneath this waterfall using it to drain the miasma from her body. Then for the first time in three days Setsuna stood up. She found it odd, if this was her world she would be turning back into her human form right now, her other monthly gift as her sister called it, yet that doesn't seem to be the case. No matter what every time she looked into the air there always seemed to be a moon out, some times with different colours. No matter, it could wait.
"Here one of you take this." Setsuna stated as she pulled out a familiar Katana from her storage space, well familiar to her anyway.
"Is that they blade you were working on?" Rifana asked looking at the Katana before her eyes went to a dead panned look on her features. "Does this mean that we're going to be hanging back and leaving the fighting to you again?"
"No it means that you're going to be in the middle of the fighting using that thing to keep yourselves safe, holding off his companions, and if necessary giving that to me so that I can finish the bastard off if he steals my spear." Rifana was surprised by the statement as Setsuna moved on with her evening.
"Now where is Keel?" While Setsuna was purifying herself Keel had been given the task of collecting information. A bottle of cheap black dye, feminine clothes taken from a maid where she would normally dress very masculine, and no one had recognised her. It made collecting information on this so called Whip Hero very easy, she was able to learn about his entire entourage and his companions. "What were you able to learn?" Keel was in the midst of changing out of her disguise as she explained the situation to Setsuna.
"This Tact guy is apparently some kind of genius. He deciphered information from the Heroes world and built all kinds of machines based on them. I was able to nab this from one of their warehouses." Keel pulled out some kind of machine from a bag, the shape resembled a flintlock rifle of her world but much more advance, there was familiar fire magic laced into the firing chamber presumably to mimic the gunshot process. There was also a detachable box that went into the firing chamber and pulling it out revealed a block of metal, tool marks having scraped metal off into balls. "I hear it's called a machine gun, at least that's what this lady called it." Keel pulled out a woman's head from the bag as well, apparently a shadow employed by Tact, at least that's one pest they don't have to worry about. "It's suppose to shoot those ball things really really fast and hard." Setsuna learned how to use the flintlock rifle back in her world so she idly pointed at one of the trees in their little hideaway and held the trigger for a few moments. The metal balls shattered the stone. Amusing but moot, considering her inability to use it.
"Here." Instead Setsuna idly tossed the weapon to Rifana. "Anything else?"
"Carriages that pull themselves, cars I think they called them." Keel stated the look of disbelief on his features clear. "They even got a really fancy one in their warehouse in the city. No roof on it, and it runs on lightning magic."
"I think I know what you mean." Yet more stories from Setsuna's aunt, along with the disturbing similarities to the gun suggested that he possessed information that he shouldn't have. She'll have to torture him first before she kills them. "And the people he's got with him?"
"A human, a Kitsune-Zveal Hybrid, a Noid-Kusha Hybrid, a griffin and a dragon." Keel explained prompting a amused snort from Setsuna.
"Five of them vs the five of you, it's not even sporting at this point is it?" Setsuna realised from fighting the Aototsu woman that there was no way in hell any of these people had growth bonuses in effect. If that was the case she would've been eaten by that dragon woman. Compare and contrast them who used Siltvelt's and the mountain's waves with the nice little bonus from that dragon woman to get their levels up high and multiple growth bonuses that were in effect because along with that they also had further stat boosting class upgrades. Their enemy was dog food at this point in time, the potential theft of her spear be damned.
"And how is this 'Tact' himself doing?" Setsuna questioned spitting the name like a curse.
"Up and kicking. Are you sure you got em?" Keel asked looking concerned.
"It seems I made a fatal mistake last time in that I didn't stick around to make sure he was dead. I will see to it that this time he does not get back up." Setsuna changed into her regular armour as she looked down at her legendary spear, and more specifically brought up the stats for the Spear of Wrath.
"My blood and hair upgraded this thing once so..." Setsuna proceeded to feed bits of herself to the spear, her blood and her hair to increase it's power and sure enough she pushed it into the Wrath Spear VI. Lovely, but the dark burning curse increased in power which also meant his convenient healing factor would have to work a lot harder to save him this time.
"So how are we going to find him?" Rifana asked looking at Setsuna bewildered.
"You've got that backwards, he is going to find us."
Naofumi and Sadeena finished loading the rest of the supplies onto the carriage. Unlike Fohl Sadeena showed no visible changes from the level down process something which implied that her age was identical to her appearance. Naofumi portal back to Melromarc for a short cut and more specifically back to the village where he dropped off and picked up slaves. Anyone who didn't look like they would be ready for a fight before they hit ShieldFreeden was made to stay behind in the village.
"Don't worry boss! We'll have them fixed up proper in no time!" Rowdy would be staying behind too, he had the group management skills necessary to see to it that everything was ready by the time Naofumi got back. There was also the trailer to consider as well, and the limited number of people that could fit onboard, and the levelling, and the list went on and on.
"Kyubi, Zenberu, you two are staying behind." The pair nodded their heads. With himself, Raphtalia and Filo covering for the three newbies wasn't a problem. "Fohl, Atla and Sadeena, you're coming with us." Naofumi stated as the Tiger boy made a shocked face.
"You're bringing Atla into battle! She's a patient in recovery and..." Naofumi silenced the mouthy tiger with his magic pain button.
"Currently so low levelled that if she went into remission now it would likely kill her. But with some levelling and the stat boosts that comes with it she has a chance at being able to function properly." Naofumi had paid for two ridiculously powerful half tiger slaves and he would have two ridiculously powerful half tiger slaves. "Now than, we're eating before we leave." They wouldn't have the chance to eat during the wave, and going through ten years worth of growth in about ten minutes on a empty stomach did not seem like a very good idea.
"Why is their's bigger than Filo's?" The whiny little girl who had three servings of food laid out before her asked.
"It's a one time thing, I'm taking measures for their growth spurt." Naofumi even had Rowdy prepare some armour and clubs for them a few sizes too big for just such case of emergency. "Remember how fast you went from a little chick into a full sized bird?" To Naofumi's retort Filo could only pout and keep eating.
"This tastes excellent sir Hero. Doesn't it taste excellent brother?" The younger sister was enjoying Naofumi's food a lot more than her brother who could only give a bitter face as he ate his burgers.
"Why are you giving us so much anyway? Are you trying to fatten us up for your monster?" Sadeena replied on Naofumi's behalf with a tap to the back of the tiger's head.
"I don't know what it was like for you, you seemed a little scrawny before so I'll just assume you were being underfed. When we level up we grow, when we grow we need raw matter to contribute to our rapidly increased mass and the energy to do so." Sadeena stated as someone who was speaking from personal experience as she ate her own much more modest sized portion.
"But this much? We didn't even kill anything on the way over here?" Fohl complained confused.
"Because I have few hours yet until I can finish unlocking the growth bonuses for the two of you." Naofumi stated as he looked down at the progress of his newest shields. After giving medical treatment to all of his new slaves and that damned meeting with the world leaders Naofumi managed to polish off the Hakuko hair shield and was now working on the Hakuto Blood shield. "We'll finish the blood shield on the way over to Shield Freeden. If this information the representative from Shieldfreeden gave me is accurate then we should be working on your second growth bonus during the wave itself." Naofumi and the others climbed onto the trailer. On Raphtalia's insistence the group pressed themselves up against the back of the trailer while holding onto the safety handles installed therein and tying themselves down, little realising that her preparations would be in vain. "Filo, if you can see, hear, smell or otherwise detect a monster while we're on the road you can kill it and kick it into the shield." Naofumi explained as he took Sadeena out of the party. Might as well get some levels in before the wave started.
"Kay!" Filo cheered with joy while she prepared to take off running, waiting only for the new magic Naofumi mentioned he wanted to cast on her.
"I, The Hero of the Shield, call upon the origin of power." One of the past Shield Heroes in Shieldfreeden apparently found some kind of super buffing magic in some far off land and wrote it down for his successors to learn. Not a attack spell but Naofumi would just have to make do with what he's got. "Gift everything unto my target, First Aura!" In the corner of his eye Naofumi watched Filo's already monstrously high stats doubled and Naofumi found himself hold tight to the reins. "Go get em Filo!"
What followed was a scene of absolute hell. The loud boom of the sound barrier breaking echoed out as Filo ran across the ground at Mach one. Filo swung the carriage out like a giant bludgeon splattering whatever monster her finely honed instincts picked up on reducing them to little more that ground hamburger before she peeled them off and threw them into Naofumi's shield. Naofumi was silently grateful for the seat belt, and that he was closer to the eye of hurricane Filo than the others who were tossing and turning about inside of the constantly zigzagging trailer. Fohl was also grateful that Raphtalia tied him down now.
"HE'S TRYING TO KILL US! MAKE HIM STOP PLEASE!" Fohl's pleading fell on deaf ears, he felt like he was going to hurl but the contents of his stomach had already been processed and was in the process of being converted into newly grown flesh. That said he strongly suspected he wouldn't be hungry after this.
"This actually seemed kind of fun doesn't it?" Atla on the other hand was the only one besides Filo having fun.
"Filo! Keep your eyes on the road!" Naofumi had cast Aura on himself too a few moments into this sleigh ride from hell, it was the only way he could keep track of where they were going and by extension make sure that Filo kept track too. He had taped their map to the inside of his shield and with that was barely able to keep track of where they were going in time to realise they were there.
"FILO STOP!" Naofumi reinforced his command with the slave seal making Filo grind to a halt. Unfortunately said grind managed to take them through dozens of trees, a store house, several houses, a market place and to Naofumi's increasing horror the palace.
Tact was in the middle of trying to hunt down the 'bitch who murdered Nellisen' better known as Setsuna. It was a process largely consisting of prowling the city streets while going on a small rampage.
"Tact-sama! We know where the Spear Demon is!" We know where she is, not we found her. Tact partially dreaded the context of that statement. "Where is she?"
"She broke into the royal palace!" Tact jumped onto his griffin's back and flew over the city bearing witness to the column of smoke that was rising out of the palace and more importantly the massive hole inside of the palace from where the Spear Demon had broken in, if you could call it that. A break in implies a degree of subtlety, a thief in the night, a window nudged in the right direction, not a entire wall smashed to rubble and remade into shrapnel. The term thief also carried implications, that the person there wants something, money, jewels, some other piece of valuable things that someone would want, not that the 'thief' in question would be using a member of the royal family as a couch as she lounged around the palace like she owned the place.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't my friend's murderer." Setsuna stated her eyes glaring up at the self proclaimed Hero of the Whip.
"Funny I could say the same about you!" Takt snapped jumping off of his mount as the other members of his little harem gathered around him. Setsuna responded by standing up, kicking her makeshift couch away as the rest of her party members walked in.
"He, is mine!" Setsuna ordered as much as threatened.
"Everyone stand back! I'll avenge Nellison you all focus on dealing with her friends! After I'll bring her down we'll execute them one by one in front of her! That'll teach her what it's like to watch someone important to you die right in front of you!" Takt once against blustered, but that was a good idea, she'll have to remember that one for when this was all over.
Yuki and the other griffin flew up into the air in front of each other, One of the dogs jumped in front of the newly transformed dragon while the other one took position in front of the lone human, Rifana looked ready to take the fox woman while Keel got the Inugami blade out in front of the shark woman. Just as it looked like they were all about to kill each other a massive dust cloud slammed into the wall of the palace turning Tact into paste as whatever it was about to slam into Setsuna next she extended her arm and punched it aside.
"Guo! Guo!" The trailer was utterly wrecked, the hapless passengers inside alive only by virtue of the growth bonuses and the armour Naofumi had Sadeena wear.
"Wah! Filo's carriage!" Filo had a horrified look on her face as she realised the damage done to her Quote Unquote nest.
"Well. We're not doing that again." Naofumi looked around at the situation and simply absorbed the broken ruin of what had been his home for the past five weeks into his shield. Maybe he could convince Tatsuya to fix it for him the next time he saw him. "Setsuna, what the bloody hell have you been up to!?" Naofumi stated as he took note of the walking disaster who had punted his carriage away like it was nothing. The Spear of Wrath looked more evil now, if that was possible, dripping with a black Ichor like Setsuna had been feeding it her blood. Oh whatever gods brought them here tell him please that she hasn't been feeding her demonic blood to that damned thing.
"Quiet." Setsuna was staring at the corpse of Takt, glaring more accurately with spirit power glowing in her eyes. "So that's how you're doing it." Fatter, nerdier looking, but a spirit had emerged from the bloody smear on the ground, before malevolently grinned at Setsuna like he wasn't aware she could see him, before disappearing into the ground.
"Setsuna are you even listening to me!?" Naofumi snapped a look of audacity on his features as Setsuna simply got ready to attack the ground.
"No I'm not, after a Short investigation I was able to determine the identity of the murderer of a good friend of mine. A man that I have determine possesses the ability to switch out bodies when one dies on him. Now thanks to you I have a limited amount of time to figure out how he's doing it, so if you excuse me." Setsuna slammed her spear tip into the ground. "Meteor Thrust!" And thus the floor collapsed underneath her feet.
"Raphtalia!" Naofumi saw through the lines of what was going on. Firstly was that spear, who or what managed to piss off Setsuna enough to create something like that? Then there was what she said which he couldn't ignore. Thus there was only one conclusion to make. "Until I figure out what the hell is going on keep everyone from killing each other! That goes for all of you!" Naofumi finished unlocking the final Hakuto growth correction and switched over to the one for Sadeena's first bonus before he jumped into the hole.
"Muu." There was something vexing about Filo, a bird, not being able to fly when two cats can.
Fortunately Filo was still on the power high generated by the effects of Aura. With another explosive sonic boom Filo took to the air in her human form and used her wings to glide and guide herself in the air while steering herself to get in Yuki's and the other griffin's way.
"A flying Filolial!?" Tact's griffin was shocked by the appearance of the bird girl.
"Stay out of Yuki's way! They killed Yuki's Daddy!" The snowy griffin manoeuvred around Filo and slammed into the distracted griffin.
Atla emerged from the rubble in time to witness the brawls going on the ground between Setsuna's two cerberi and Tact's dragon and maid girl, one of them using a strange mechanical contraption shooting small metal balls with great destructive power. Atla was mildly surprised by the appearance of her brother who was still but a boy a few minutes ago and now looked to be in the later part of his teens. She made special note of his increased height, specifically because he was so much taller than she was.
"Why...?" Atla hadn't aged a day, she had to double check her levels to be sure but she was in the later part of her twenties.
"Atla it's too dangerous for you, let me do this!" Credit where it's due, the dogs were effective, their stats were so ridiculously high that they were shredding through the defences of their opponents, literally shredding in some cases. Fohl looked at the two of them and determined that the maid with her strange distance weapon would be more dangerous and so took the iron knuckles from the carriages weapon supply and went into the fray while Atla climbed up the remains of the palace.
"Rifana! Keel! What are you two doing here!" Raphtalia shouted getting the attention of all four combatants in the process.
"You...!" The fox woman immediately locked onto Raphtalia in a murderous glare.
"A Luka! I should've known your kind would be involved!" To the shark woman's shout Sadeena had a look around confused before pointing at herself.
"Yes y-!" Keel interrupted the shark woman by slamming the butt of her sword into the shark's guts, around the same time that Rifana took advantage of the distraction Raphtalia had caused to light her opponent up. With lightning. "GAH!"
"These people killed one of the Seven Stars maybe more! If you're not going to help then stay out of it!" And on that note, the battle between the two factions of Hero companions were on their way.
Author's Note:
MarauderPrime12: Thank you for saying so.
Xenvic: Hero Stats is a term I created to refer to the growth bonuses from demi-human, slaves, and companions.
RonaldM40196867: I've seen worst. Theirs or ours?
superpierce: What everyone has ever wanted to say to a politician.
Guest: True.