Author's Note: Nothing to say this week, got one half of my Covid shots on Wednesday and another few weeks I'll get the other. So until then Read, Review, Favourite, Enjoy and don't go getting me sick now that I'm finally getting my vaccine!
Chapter 5: Demon Bow Training
Tanya had outlined her proposal to the King to mixed opinions. Put bluntly Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is pure crap, 90% of the remaining 10%, or just 9% of everything is moderate. Only the 1% matters, hence the phrase best of the best. For the purpose of picking out the best of the best Tanya had taken 400 members of the army and was planning on cutting that number down to four.
"She's really not holding anything back." Katarina noted watching as the soldiers of the army received fire from Tanya's artillery blasts on the mountain next to the estate that they were borrowing.
"Neither are they." Kuro noted having picked up the flaw in Tanya's plan. "Tanya's training is going to make sure only the most stubborn and fanatical make it through alive to be her companions." Which means a high probability of more church fanatics in her party, not less.
"Apparently she requested a large number of Demi-human slaves too." Katarina noted recalling the explanation Tanya gave.
Upon being given a detailed overview of the Slave Seal and how it worked Tanya immediately requested one hundred Demi-human slaves in addition to the four hundred human soldiers. Slave seals mean instantaneous communication across the battlefield while reducing the number of deserters at the same time.
"Hopefully they can bond over this blatant torture, or are stupid enough to expose any racist feelings they have." As Kuro said that she dropped a griffin corpse in front of Katarina, already half dismantled by Kuro's hand and turned into weapons.
"How long is she going to leave them there like that?" Kuro asked looking at the mountain that was being pounded by mage fire. "She said 36 hours straight, which according to my countdown they have 34 left to go." Katarina explained before a thought occurred to her. "Think she's going to do that to us?"
"I hope not." Kuro stated letting out a sigh. Tanya's training regime went as follows, after a 36 hour long period of bombardment, the recruits will be made to march through rough swamp ground terrain, hike through monster infested territory as stealthily as possible, learn field base and encampment building, and if still alive after all of that be allowed to join her party. If anyone drops out or outright fails then Tanya has dragon knights on standby waiting to ship them off of the training field.
"In any case. We should go see Elena." Katarina stated and Kuro nodded her head.
Tanya took a break from overseeing the cover fire exercise to join with Kuro and Katarina, it was the the first break she took since the day before.
"Kuro. Shall we continue with the process?" Tanya asked looking at the brown skinned magus with interest.
"Might as well." Kuro had shared with them her unlimited blade works. The Noble Phantasms taking the form of spears and bows appeared out of Kuro's magic one of each one per day, not that it did much good.
"Why are we doing this anyway?" Katarina asked holding a long red spear.
"Because we can, and it's better to do so in relative isolation." Tanya stated with Yew wood bow in hand.
Kuro and Tanya could both identify when they were being watched, able to easily recognise the presence of the kingdom's black ops group, the shadows, just by glancing in their general direction. The downside to this is that Heroic Phantasms being the weapons of mass destruction that they were, most couldn't be unlocked until they were quite a bit into levelling but that was alright. Better to have and not need then to need and not have. Elena soon arrived with the literature texts she had prepared in order to facilitate the learning process for the three girls.
"Alright we'll start with our ABC's." Elena was soon interrupted by the sound of knocking as the door leading into their makeshift class room was opened and elderly black man with a long serpentine tail and a younger red haired man with bird feathers and talons instead of arms walked in. Elena recognised them immediately, her father's diplomatic contacts serving her well in this situation.
"Genmu and Shukaku." Tanya stated recognising their species. "Diplomats if their manner of dress is any indication."
"How do you know what their species are?" Kuro asked looking at Tanya suspiciously.
"There are several among the Demi-hundred out on the mountain. I fed samples of their hair and Blood into my bow earlier today." Tanya explained prompting a disgusted reaction.
"You fed bits of the soldiers to your weapons?" Katarina asked recoiling away from Tanya.
"For want of better materials, yes." Tanya stated shrugging her shoulders. "You two should consider doing the same, I got weapons that give increased bonuses to their growth per level up."
"Huu." The benefits seems good but the process...
"In any case. Most of Shieldfreeden's higher ranking execs are hybrids, even if they were the likelihood they would send two pure bloods of the top four is extremely low. Siltvelt I presume?" Tanya asked suspiciously.
"How much has Elena taught you?" Katarina asked exasperated.
"Not as much as the King's advisers." Tanya answed bluntly.
"Miss could you excuse us for a bit?" The Genmu asked smiling at Elena.
"Right top secret stuff. Got it." Elena left the room as the two Demi-humans sat down.
So all four of them were young girls then? Young Kaede was probably the oldest of the four of them. It likely dashed any delusions of using them as breeding stock that any number of countries had put together, if not severely impaired that process. And yet...
"So tell me who was the one who put that together?" The Genmu asked looking at the mountain that was being subjected to constant magical bombardment by the kingdom's mage division.
"That would be me." Tanya stated bluntly. "The adventurers the king promised to be my companions were hilarious below my standard, this is the most efficient way to correct this issue that I could think of. They will be ready just in time for the next wave to hit Melromarc." Well that means that they won't be getting the one with military training, not until her investment bore fruit anyway. Down to business.
"I am called Oroko and this is my associate Werner." The Turtle man introduced them both. "My country you understand is in a perilous situation." The Genmu stated as he took out a thermos of soup. "You know them as the waves."
"Huu." Tanya should've known she would've had to do deal with this more than once a month. "The last time one of us did something to displease this country they dropped a castle on her. How would they react to aiding you their sworn enemy?"
"They'd likely try to kill you, and it wouldn't be a quick affair either." The Genmu stated as he slurped his soup. "I can't even guarantee my own countrymen won't kill you for not being the shield." Three Knocks echoed on the door, Katarina went over to check on it but when she opened the door no one was there. Of course there wasn't. That was the signal from the Genmu's personal shadows to indicate that the area had been secured.
"You're not selling your case very well there buddy." Kuro stated making her opinion known.
"I understand that." The Genmu replied shrugging his shoulders. "But that is irrelevant."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Katarina asked looking legitimately offended.
"You can not return to your home world's and your families therein until the Waves of Catastrophe are defeated." The Genmu stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Do you think this can be done by defending only one country from the waves?" The words stung viciously.
"I'm going." Kuro knew that Tanya had no love for the world she came from, and nothing to return to. Kuro and Katarina both had families waiting for them, and of the two of them Kuro was the only one who knows how to fight.
"Not stopping you." Tanya stated waving Kuro off.
"Huu. I really need to learn how to handle a spear." Katarina commented ignorant to how that could be interpreted wrong, especially with that put upon sigh.
"I'll get one of the dropouts to teach you." Tanya stated simply. "For now it would seem we have a language lesson to get back to."
"Ah but there's more." The Genmu stated having pored a second cup. "The Shield Hero, the girl you know as Kaede Honjou or Maple, is still alive." That got their attention. "Some of Melromarc's homeless took the initiative to smuggle her wounded body out of the sewers to be healed after she landed in their midst." Which was the limit of the amount of good news he had to share.
"Is she alright?" Tanya asked eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Physically? She should have a few days left of recovery, her right eye was damaged in the blast but the damage appears to be cosmetic, by virtue of several healers." The three of them sighed in relief at that. "Mentally however..." Oh that wasn't a good tone of voice. "Taking the life of one's own species for the first time can be thought of as a crucible. Either you are okay with it or you are not." The Genmu looked the three of them straight in the eye. "She is not okay with it. A cursed weapon meddling with her mind is exacerbating the symptoms."
"We need to go to her!" Katarina shouted as she got up to leave.
"Can you get to her without the Shadows following you?" Katarina stopped in her tracks. "Otherwise you'll just lead them and the church straight to her." The Genmu made a viciously effective point.
"What are you planning?" Tanya asked blatantly suspicious. She was angry beyond measure. When was the last time a complete stranger showed nothing less than complete and unconditional kindness in the face of hardship? No more important than that, these fools decided to kill her in the name of their worthless gods. Fine then, as 'God' of the bow she demands sacrifices of her 'loyal followers.'
"After she is healed I intend to arrange for her to be loosed into the country side of Melromarc where she will progressively deal with the various neglected problems spawned by the church's recklessness undermining them in the process."
"This plan has gaps in it." Kuro stated suspicious.
"We don't need to know what it is." Tanya stated tapping her foot impatiently. "The more we know the greater the risk that we accidentally leak something to the next group of shadows they send to watch something that we can only do now because this guy's men just killed the ones that were watching us for the Church." Tanya explained prompting the Genmu to nod his head in acknowledgement.
"It's good that you're perceptive." The Genmu stated as he decided to move the conversation along.
"Is Maple alone?" Tanya asked suspicious.
"We're arranging a support group for her." The Genmu stated polishing off the last of his soup. "And my finest shadows are watching her to make sure she doesn't end up fighting anything she is not emotionally or physically fit enough to handle."
Tanya breathed in and breathed out.
"We will find her you know." Tanya stated in no uncertain terms.
"I do sincerely hope that you will, aside from your reunion it will also teach the church what they are messing with." The Genmu stated as he heard two knocks at the door. "At last though it seems that I must now tend to the least pleasant part of this quote unquote plan that we have in the making." The Genmu cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders.
"And that would be?" Kuro did not like where this was going.
Detestable Demi-humans!
After loosing contact with the team for watching the three heroes the church had to deploy another batch to go and watch them, the last thing that they knew about the situation was the appearance of the damnable Genmu at the chateau. Now they would have to take drastic action, again, if the damned demon of a turtle managed to poison one of the heroes minds, they were only children after all. A loud explosion announced the demolishing of roughly half of the chateau in question, the form of the fully transformed turtle man emerged after smacking away the Spear Hero. The Bow was putting up a more moderate effort but that was only to be expected giving her status as a properly trained soldier, the half naked child they knew as their sword hero on the other hand was unconscious and being carried under the damnable monster's arm like a potato sack. They were about to intervene when the detestable Shukaku also appeared and aided the Genmu in his blatant kidnapping by providing a branch to carry the both of them off, the bow's attempts to shoot them down failing thanks to the zig zag pattern of flight. Quickly, the shadow activated the illusion accessory to change his appearance into a guard as he approached the two remaining heroes.
"What happened?" The shadow/guard asked legit panic bleeding into his features.
"That bloody demi-human tried to convince us to try and deal with his countries wave for them." Tanya was legitimately sore from when he sucker punched her earlier and rubbed the section of stomach that would soon developed a fist shaped bruise. "He didn't like our answer." Tanya glared at Katarina after she got up from the ground, her legitimate attempts to fight back against the Genmu failing miserably.
"You're going to get trained in how to use that thing. Immediately." Tanya looked the guard. "Tell the king the best spear man in the kingdom is to report to the castle: immediately." Tanya picked Katarina up by her arm and pushed her forward. "And she is to join them there."
The disguised Shadow nodded his head, having bought the performance they had put on.
Kuro's party members ran down the mountain as fast as their legs could carry them, chasing after the brown skinned Hero and the two Demi-humans who had kidnapped her. The arrived to the sight of the three of them enjoying a nice meal together left the group of four stunned.
"You know people tend to talk about this kind of thing with their parties in advance right." Welt asked as she realised what was going on? "Can we at least get something to eat too before we all fly off to Siltvelt for a bleeding suicide mission against the wave?"
Ake had seen hell.
He had spent the past day in a half in a hole while explosions were sounded above his head for every moment of time robbing him of all his sleep. When the Hero of the Bow told all of them that they would be engaging in anti-wave battle training, which mostly consists of digging holes to escape from AOE magic bombardment while using spears and cross bows to attack whatever target they drop into the area, that was bad enough but the Bow hero decided to announce that they were beginning the training exercise with a literal bang before directing their attention to the shovels they would be using to dig the holes in question. Suffice to say Ake hadn't gotten any sleep. Still the lack of explosions going off in the air and the full moon in the sky indicated that roughly thirty six hours had passed by.
"MAGGOTS!" Tanya was standing on the side of the mountain further up literally looking down on them. "I hope you all didn't think that light wake up call is going to be the end of your training session. None of you people have quit yet-" Several loud angry shouts and thrown stones indicated differently. "Not nearly enough of you have quit yet." Tanya called over the griffin and Dragon riders who then proceeded to take the angry people out of their holes so that she could continue with her blatant torture. "After this you all are going to go visit the swamp. Start walking!"
Tanya had a smile of madness on her features, of sadism, of knowing the taste of suffering and indulging in it like a fine wine. The air taxi had already left, there was just the people in the holes left to get out. Ake went over to the next hole over and spotted the sight of a demi-human curled up inside, not out of cowardice as some might accuse him, he was snoring.
"Hey you wake up!" Ake poked the man with round ears with the butt of his spear prompting him to eventually wake up. "Eh. Morning." The man climbed out of the hole exposing round ears and a long bushy tail in the process before he noted the procession and proceeded to join in. What type of Demi-human he was was initially a mystery, up until he reached into a hole in his abdomen and pulled out a half eaten sandwich and started to chow down on it. When Ake asked he introduced himself as Otto, a Kushtaka, as for how he was able to sleep so soundly apparently when you grow up in a brothel you learn how to sleep through people's active night life.
"The strongest monsters in the world live in the far off places where no one can get to them within a reasonable amount of ease, therefore my companions must be able to suffer through an unreasonable amount of difficulty." The would be companions were presented with large rucksacks, in front of a huge stretch of swampy terrain. "Those are your supply's for the next week, your assignment is to take them and get through this nasty, wet monster infested territory, you may also forage and hunt for more supplies as well. In fact I encourage it as you are going to save me time collecting materials for my bow." Because it wasn't enough that she was making them suffer, she was also making them do her job for her too. "And you're going to do so in groups of no more than five."
The demi-humans had the advantage here, species with the power to assume the form of creatures that take to water like fish, and only in a few cases because they were fish, or to the skies like birds, or assume forms at least twice as tall as a human to turn waist high water into a piddling knee high. Course what no one but the Demi-humans knew was that the people with animal bits had been forbidden from teaming up with other demi-humans. Otto proved himself adept in crossing rough terrain, lassoing a distant tree with rope from one of the rucksacks before looping said sack with the rope and sending it into the swamp on a zipline. The real show came however when he dived into the water and popped out a moment later in the form of a giant humanoid otter, a small swamp dragon struggling in his jaws. Small as it it was only as long as he was.
"I'm with that guy." Ake and whatever soldiers were wise enough to join him waded through the swamp water weapons raised above their heads, then while Otto continued to chase away or kill anymore of the crocodile like monsters they redid the supply zip line to continue making their way through the swamp. They made good time and collected a decent bribe for the bow hero while they were at it. Otto took the liberty of butchering the swamp dragon's with a great deal of precision stripping leather from meat and meat from bone.
"I'll be taking that now." Tanya held out her hand expectantly and Otto passed her a swatch of leather for her bow getting a new weapon out of it. "'Swamp Dragon Leather Bow.'" Tanya read aloud. "Now that has some implications."
Three more 'Experiments' later and Tanya also got swamp dragon bone, meat and just plain old swamp dragon bows, she attempted various organs as well but they just registered as swamp dragon meat. Instead she took the new implications and left the soldiers to prepare their meals and their bribes and went to try her hand at practising magic. She'll have a decent army soon enough, and the power from her bow on top of that. Then they pay the church a visit. After four days in the swamp they encountered a mountain trail, and a arrow pointing to a sign that Tanya had set up for them, why Tanya didn't just tell them, especially since she was following them, was made apparent after they started reading the sign. 'Monsters from the first wave. Two headed dogs, very good surveillance specialists, avoid if possible, kill when needed.' Ah crud. The two factions were on some what even ground here, superior demi-human senses let them detect the presence of the dogs even after they tried to sneak up on them for a impromptu meal, but the soldiers had received some military training, particularly in avoiding those superior senses. Smearing mud and plants to hide smell and impromptu camouflage, tracking the flow of the wind to make sure their scent wasn't carried on it, avoiding branches and leaves to make sure they didn't make any unnecessary noise, and throwing stones to make a clatter when needed. They made good time and eventually came out to a killing field.
"You made good time maggots." Tanya stated idly walking past the corpses of massacred dogs. "Before you are the ruins of abandoned fortresses, mines and camp grounds. Utilising the techniques I am about to teach you you will fortify these locations, and then defend them from a horde of raging monsters." They were really starting to hate her now. "Trench warfare violates much of the common sense that I'm told you have come to expect in battle, going up high so that gravity adds power to arrows and other projectiles." More digging, the demi-humans were starting to wonder if the kingdom summoned a Lemo to be the bow hero, she was awfully short like one. "However with the trenches the enemy isn't allowed a clean shot at the majority of the body, only the most difficult part to hit. There are also strong ambush power here as well. If you see a guard tower then you assume a archer or someone else skilled at range is going to be manning it ready to shoot at you. If you see a large empty plain you assume that there's no body waiting for you to shoot you. To build a fortress you need wood, stone, personnel and time. All you need to dig a hole is a shovel and can do attitude." Ake's group ended up with a abandoned camp and was now in the middle of stringing cross bows.
"When the monsters do come operate in pairs. One man's the cross bow, take time necessary to pick and chose your shots, if you're not confident that you can't drop them in one blow then let someone else take the shot." Ake wasn't that good of a shot so he was operating on the other half of that equation. "Your partner will have a loaded cross bow ready when you are good to fire. Mage units will act in reserve. The trenches have been dug at a angle, so that one side is always closer to the enemy than the other. And in doing so they will be tricked into grouping together into a single mass. And that is when the traps come into play." More dug holes, filled with sharpened spikes and covered with a layer of shod. A arachne was among the demi-humans, her spider webs turning the field into a mass of trip ups to stall or incapacitate, water was made to soak the killing field, after that would come the lightning. The final line of defence, simple wooden spears, tied together in rows of three and with a simple press able to be lifted into the air to stab at incoming enemies. "The down side to using magic is that it's time consuming, even the most basic spell takes at least five seconds to cast, other more powerful ones take longer. When your enemy is faster then you are it's better to be prepared."
It was irrelevant to Tanya how many monsters they took down, she would be having their levels reset before they could join her party anyway, the more important part here would be that they bond, expose or move past any overly racist feelings that they have and give her the chance to pick through for the best of the best. Then, they came. Mind you that mostly has to do with the powerful bait oil she dropped in the area drawing them in but still. As predicted it was a killing field, emerging from the woods were met with arrows sailing through the air striking at centre mass of the dogs. Entering the field tripped them up, both on the corpses and on the webs that they had fallen on while magic started chanting. The dog's met spears one end pressed down while the others were raised into the air in a surprise ambush while the bolts were striking at point blank range at this point in time. Then the lightning struck. The fact that any were still standing at all after such a blatant act of savagery was testament to the mettle of the dogs, they'd make wonderful material as Tanya had learned. She learned about the loot function after wondering if she could do anything more useful with the Swamp Dragon leather. For now she got a look at the men's mettle in melee, superior team work and numbers was the advantage of humans, monster transformations the advantage of Demi-humans, the battle was over so quickly that it wasn't worth mentioning.
"I will announce the final cut for my own unit now." Tanya announced observing the army whom for the past two weeks she had been torturing. "Otto." The Kushtaka from earlier looked up from cleaning his claws of dog blood. "Aranaya." The Arachne woman who had littered the battlefield with traps looked away from her grim work questioningly. "Eli Von Eisenberg." The dual sword wielder seemed more interested in the blood specs that still coated his blade then the news he made the cut. "Victoriya Bludleitter." The woman in question pulled her sword out of the mangled dog she had used as a shield. "Ake Irvine." The exhausted soldier in question looked up surprised. "Congratulations. The five of you have impressed me. The rest of you, report to the Castle Town for the wave in two weeks." Leaving Tanya with two weeks to track down the people responsible for trying to kill Maple.
Author's Note:
RonaldM40196867: True. This Chapter? If you are going to kill something, then kill them, not only is it humane but it also prevents their death throes from inducing anymore casualties. Two reasons: first the controversy that was it's opening narration managed to draw a huge amount of attention from the general public letting them see how good of a show it is. Two: Raccoon Waifu.
Ozilla: Sorry but I will be disappointing you.
REiNozomi: That she is. And yes, Malty has been yeeted.
Captain Imaginat: This is all true. Believe me, it was every bit as satisfying writing Tanya dismantling Itsuki's old party as it was to read it. And don't worry it will. It won't last the night.
xerad: Mana depletion, you may remember that Katarina doesn't have a lot of Mana, at least not in the category that her family does. Wait and see.
drmcgraw186: This is all true. And don't worry, Keel and Rifana are both going to be okay. One word: Devour.
hmm23: You may remember that how to spot illusion magic was part of the training Tanya put the recruits through in the anime, so yes she should be able to see a shadow standing in the middle of the room relying on illusions to stay invisible or disguise themselves as someone else. No she didn't, and if memory serves she met Naofumi two weeks after the wave in the canon, in that time she went through several owners because her sickness and shaking hands from her trauma made her unsuited to be a worker. If anything this might be a little late to move her. Phrasing, the redness shows up well in the dark and reflects light making it appear to glow.
ptl: Probably. Never watched Kamen rider but I do have plans in place for the dragon material that should give quite the power up for Maple. The more powerful a Noble Phantasm the more mana it takes to make it.
Alicemisuzu: This is true yes.
Halo: Tanya's main form of magic from the anime seems to revolve around weight manipulation, making herself lighter to fly and projectiles heavier and bigger to do more damage.
King of Fans: That is something Tanya would do, and something Kuro would gleefully admit to. True. It's because all of the time they're not wasting that things are moving so fast for them. Not everyone has the benefit of getting to wait two weeks until their army is good and ready. Technically speaking time for them was paused, that said Katarina's probably going to have some explaining to do as soon as she gets back, not the least of reasons why because she's going to suddenly have this spear that seemingly came out of no where.