Disclaimer: I do not own Rising of Shield Hero
I was going to write more for this chapter but decided to instead spend my time trying to work on another chapter in one of my stories. Anyways, it's thanks to all those views of the first chapter as to why a second chapter was made not too long after. Thank you all and have a nice day.
S(H_I^
A caravan was burring its way down a long slope to the kingdom of Syntomarc; its convoy containing every ally belonging to the four Cardinal Heroes trailing behind as an itinerary that no bandits would come after them.
It was uncomfortable sitting in a caravan as a demi-human with a long tail you have to hold up from between your legs, but Canda was doing a fantastic job of it while enmeshed with nine other individuals. It was her master/partner Brandon who cohered this idea the four of them would travel alone while she and the party members of the other heroes would travel together, for safety.
Canda didn't feel safe with a bunch of humans around her. There was one other demi-human and a different species with the Shield Hero: one was a slim gray eared, silver haired wolf girl with azure eyes, a fluffy tail she brushed against her neighbor the ninja, red shorts, a short sleeve shirt with no collar showing her neck and her impressive cleavage. The other demi-human was a slim dragonkin encrusted with red scales that looked like rash skin, short glossy brown hair, a red tail with a white underbelly he also had to hold like Canda, and he covered his whole body in brown robes.
The Sword Hero's allies were triplet's; three blond haired warriors with only one having an aptitude in healing magic. One of the brothers had short cropped blond hair with a little brown in his side hair. His brother, the one who can heal, was gaunt, tall with a flabby face and a treetop looking head. And finally there was their one and only sister who had blue eyes like her brothers but with long hair that bent into two upward points.
Even though Canda was in this caravan for almost an hour she didn't speak to any of them until Matt's ally, Toda, unwrapped a twenty-centimeter white cube in a cloth with hemmed edges—tofu. Canda wasn't suppose to stand up and for that matter move around yet she did so anyways because her stomach outweighed her obedience for Brandon.
She wasn't subtle with her intent to have some of that tofu, her mouth was watering and she was veering left and right, bumping into people who were just minding their own business, Toda being one of the last ones to notice her until her tail thwapped like a pancake in his face.
"Didn't that non-essential Bow Hero teach you any manners?!" The amazon roared being the only one telling Canda what the other heroes were too disquiet to say.
Canda ignored her with her head over the white cube and her tongue rubbing all the saliva off her front teeth, her mouth too hydrated to even swallow all that spit.
Toda was a little aloof at the moment. Her face was imprinted with a red mark of Canda's tail. Instead of pleading for a tiny piece, Canda arrogantly used her claw to etch a square on the far left corner of the bottom of the cube and pick it out.
She raised the cube over her face to drop it into her awaiting gulch...when a left arm slugged her in her non-existent cheekbones. She was flitting airborne out of the caravan and towards the ground, which she did a front flip and landed on her feet in response to.
Her being inordinately hungry didn't excuse her from her unruly behavior, so the amazon believed, and she was standing on one foot, bending a knee, and huffing before leaping out to face Canda in hand-to-claw combat.
Cadna was still hungry, dizzy from how famished she was, but wouldn't let Sunelh charge up and plow right into her no matter how sinewy her enraged biceps were. She let her paws flow through the air like slow waves while her feet sank into the dirt.
"I'm not the 'distraction' of the team for nothing, brawny." Cadna mocked.
And so when Sunelh finally got into hot air breathing range...Cadna jumped high in the air and landed on the amazons' shoulders.
Cadna was delighted that her plan worked; she usually just scuttle really fast after goading an enemy—mostly during a Swarm—and Brandon would nock his arrow so fast and hard the trajectory would pock right through the monster she was running from forehead, and even if she was winded he would have her do it again for another monster.
'Now this...this is the way to be a distraction.'
But her plan was only short-lived. It didn't take long for the temperamental amazon to feel the talons in her toes grazing into her shoulders. She clutched her two brawny hands around Cadna's feet. The catgirl was in for a whirlwind of further dizziness when the brawny girl twirled her around like a rag doll before launching her in the air, screaming all the way:
"Mr. Bow HEROOOOO!"
At the height she was plummeting her skull would shatter as easily as a wine flask falling off a dinner table, however, in a world of magic where the luckier you are was from how many skills you had, she was in no danger.
"Earth, Dimension, Copies: Cat Catch!"
With three skills activating simultaneously she created slim golems that replicated herself formed around a ring and even skipped the part of time itself where she was falling to land safely in the muddy paws of her copies.
Her life was saved...which didn't feel euphoric when keeping her eyes open stung like a stinger.
' This is why I should never leave my hero's side...so I don't have to feel like my mother when she gave birth to me.'
It didn't help the climes in this region was over cliffs that had air shafts that at first made wanderers feel euphoric until they just collapse from the lack of air there was. Not willing to try doing any moving when she was lying in multiple hands and far away from everyone else she closed her eyes and napped.
She snored the whole time.
In her dreams she was pressing her claws on a mirror that was both plummeting from a much higher altitude than the one she just fell from, but it was yawing as if it was a flying carpet swerving away from a giant meteor falling from the stratosphere. The size of the meter was over 300 feet and when it plummeted closer a halo of blinding green light surrounded it.
And then—Cadna woke up to see four out of nine of the allies standing over her: Toda, Sunelh, the dragonkin, and the short haired warrior. Although they unnerved her just looking at one of their grimacing faces, Sunelh, it was nice that their bodies shaded her from the sun rays.
"Should we help her up?" the dragonkin asked the warrior.
"Yes, so long as she promises to ask first before trying to pilfer from one of us. Toda."
Toda extended her arm to help Cadna up. Once Cadna was back on her feet, Sunelh extended a palm of onigiri with tofu wedged inside. Cadna started salivating seeing it, her right arm aching slowly towards but, but the amazon reeled her arm back.
"Have you learned your lesson? I won't be so gentle with you next time."
Cadna puffed her cheeks, her impulsiveness in following orders was her most childish behavior. She reluctantly nodded her hand and the amazon gave the tofu to her. Starving, she shot her arm into her mouth and swallowed her own fist before eating the tofu. While chewing she remembered something—and swallowed.
"How much longer until we rendezvous with Brandon and the others?"
The gray wolfgirl sauntering up to them overheard Cadna's question, her left ear perking up. She looked at Sunelh, Sunelh looked at Toda, and Toda looked at the short haired warrior and dragonkin who just pointed at the other before shaking their heads. The wolfgirl sighed before approaching Cadna being the one who had to relay the distressing news:
"This is where the four heroes should be. Ian paid the driver twenty-five silver coins to take us out here, and now he's gone...and there's not a single outbuilding in sight."
Cadna wasn't sure she could believe what the other demi-human girl was telling her. She had to see for herself, tried to step around the group of individuals serving different heroes without bumping into them, and gazed straight ahead. All she saw were trees, grass swaying in the breeze, and birds who were making annoying chirping noses that made her want to jump up there and wrangle one of them. But what she didn't see was any buildings, any tents, or any of the steads the heroes rode including the Filolial shew knew and loved.
"I don't get it." Cadna said. "Brandon showed me where this king wanted to meet, so where is my Brandon?"
Synyoug had ordered his finest mages to make an incantation circle normally used to summon heroes from different worlds. They were one hundred percent complete with the rune of the circle and only needed to complete an incantation to summon them, but unlike the summoning of the four Cardinal Heroes...once the summoning was complete all the mages who used their magic to summon him would die.
One of the maids tried to plead to him, "We mustn't do this! It is against what prophecy stated we should do. We can only have four heroes because there's only four Legendary Weapons for them!"
"And which one of the heroes blessed our castle?" Synyoug countermanded. "Three Swarms and not a single one were we saved by any of the Cardinal Heroes. Yes, what we are doing is heresy at it's most taboo...but I would rather be condemned to hell than spend another day not having what THEY have!"
The ritual finalized with a halo and ether stretching out and sucking out the lifeforce of the half dozen mages. They were groaning before yelping out in pain they suppressed their vocals for before they collapsed on the floor and died. Synyoug had mild empathy for them, but that quickly dissipated when he saw him facedown with only a pair of white underwear on, his own summoned hero.
Synyoug tried hard to let him stay down at his leisure. Every action he made greeting this new hero would influence what kind of hero would be forged out of him, then he finally had to have the hero listen to him when he raised his head.
"Welcome to Syntomarc. I, King Synyoung, welcome you to my kingdom."
Synyoug let this information sink in for the young male. He was a brown skinned male, had cropped black hair glinting with a little brown locks in his hair, fingernails all clipped off so they were all blunt, and a belly with exposed ribs yet had a rotund belly. After twenty, twenty-one seconds he finally spoke...now Synyoug could see what he was dealing with:
"Who am I?"
His head was aching within. That ache started to clot into a prodigiously painful migraine. His attention was on the six priests collapsed on the floor even when it was the funny eared man talking.
"These are just former worshipers of the dark gods who want to expiated themselves giving their lives to bring you here. You are here to bring clemency in a world full of turmoil, famine, and war. My name is Synyoug and I am the very first demi-human to become the king of this kingdom." The fragile looking boy stared at the king with a face that said he only understand partially what was being said, and that was probably akin to how hungry he must be. "Why don't we carry this conversation in my bedroom slash office slash only place I can think."
Monsters are all carnivores while demi-humans are omnivores. Synyoug's chef's prepared a salad with blueberries and raspberries mixed in with two wooden spoons and mutton in a bowl with banana's on the bottom and meat on the top. The frail boy needed help eating his supper; he had no recollection on how to use utensils. Ergo, when he tried to touch the food with his hands Synyoug stopped his hands and slowly fiddled with his tiny hand until he was clutching a fork and knife like a real noble would—and Synyoug spent a lot of time around nobles even before he was a rich king.
When the boy finished his dinner two men with ghostly tree apparitions shimmering on their heads retrieved the dishes. Their faces looked just as disoriented as the boy, timid. When one of them had problems picking up the bowl the other one shuddered. His eyes narrowed to the king whom simply whisked his hand for them to scurry away; so they powerwalked away with the dishes.
"Let's get down to business," Synyoug said. The boy didn't look at him at first, his migraine and amnesia a strong distraction alienating him from social norms, but he finally looked directly at the king. "Heroes summoned hero are brought for one purpose—sacrificing their lives in their old world—and that is to defend us against this calamity we call the Swarm. Every four weeks a horde of monsters come here and try to overthrow my kingdom. My kingdom has barely lasted their siege this bar, which is why we for lack of the better term 'kidnapped' you to protect us."
It was taking all his attention acumen to understand what the king was telling him, and not because of his amnesia. He did, however, raise his hand.
"How can I help you?"
Synyoug smirked. "You didn't really think I would send you to this world and not gift you with something only a worthy hero can behold."
He pointed to his right hand. The boy may have amnesia but he would know if he had some sort of weapon on him and he clearly didn't. What he did have was a large ring.
The ring was white rhodium gold with inward waves made of rose gold. The ring also was shown to have tiny diamonds rectangular in shape. The young boy reached his hand to touch it...
"There's no point trying; that ring will only come off when you return to your own world...or you die." Synyoug said nonchalantly. "Although this is the very first weapon of its kind something similar was used by erstwhile adventurers until people believed swords, spears, bows and even shields were the weapons of the future."
He resisted the urge to pull it off and just looked at it examining it closely. He could smell his own foetid breath bristle his finger but there was no condensation smearing the gold.
"Do you like it, Ainny?" Synyoug asked. The boy blinked hearing that name. The king unabashedly explained himself. "You don't remember your name so it is only necessary to address my hero with a name. Is Ainny okay?"
The boy nodded. He crept his right hand in the royal pajama garbs Synyoug gave him; the air was so frigid it made him shiver.
"You have so much to learn and so much to grow, and we are not in any rush because there's still three weeks until the Swarm comes. Why don't my servants take you to bed."
Ainny as he was now called was taken to a luxurious guest room with a four foot mirror with the outer rim made of expensive gold, silk red sheets, fluffy linen windows, and three large windows adjacent to each other with a view that stretched for miles; a small sliver of a moon floating in the night sky with dozens of tiny stars.
The maid that brought him to his room was the same maid that warned the king not to use the incantation circle to summon a hero. She had a wayward grumpy look on her face.
"Thank you very..." before Ainny could thank her for showing him to the guest room she slammed the door leaving him alone. "...much."
Ainny wasn't tired spending his time alone trying to see meandering shapes with the stars clustering all around the moon. This whole place was a phantasmagorical dream to him he had from reading too many books, or so he believed he reads books, even if he doesn't remember what a book is.
In his mind though he is seeing himself outward as a mesh of stars roaming the sky when a small floppy eared dog also a mesh of stars skips giddily to him, wagging its tail, before hoping in his awaiting arms.
That image stayed with him even when he sank under the bed sheets and closed his eyes. Even while asleep his limbs were quivering. Over and over in his mind he kept frolicking around chasing after a small brown dog with a tabby tail. He felt euphoria seeing the joy on the little dog's face. He had his arms outstretched to hug him.
Then, suddenly, his dream was over and he awoken to see his entire room eerily red.