"Talking"
"Thinking"
[Status Magic or other reference to a system or power]
…
Being his sword was the way she was going to help him. That's what she decided, but... It was having no effect on him at all. She resolved further. "If words can't move him, I'll show him I meant them with my actions."
[00:00:00]
The gem on Naofumi's shield began to glow and grew in intensity, blinding the both of them. In the next moment thay were somewhere else. Naofumi looked up. He saw twisted cracks in the sky, filling it with unnatural colors. They were seeing in real time, the land being overrun by all manner of fiends. Zombies in various armors and several large insects poured over the land. This was all more than Naofumi expected. He was in a state of shock.
"Onward to the boss!" Motoyasu shouted as he and his team charged forward.
"You're not showing me up!" Itsuki soon followed.
"A head-start wont help either of you" Ren ran after. He was by far the fastest and was quickly passing Itsuki, but his party was left in the dust. They did their best to keep pace at the rear.
Seeing the other heroes all ahead of him, Naofumi needed to preform well. "Come Raphtalia, let's-"
"Naofumi-sama! Look!" She pointed to a small village. "Is that not Lute village!?"
Naofumi switched to his [Map Shield] to use it's unique ability [World Map]. This confirmed it. It was lute village. He considered the fact that they might have evacuated. Likely to the mine he cleared out for them. Naofumi was on the fence, but then a flare shot up. While not well versed in this worlds procedures, he knew what that meant. Naofumi changed his plan immediately. He was grateful he had the foresight to not sell his potions yet.
"We have to hope those 3 idiots can handle the boss. We have to help the village first. after an evac of the non-combatants, we'll rendezvous with them." Naofumi's MMO guildmaster skills were actually getting some use here. Prioritize objectives based on need. He switched back to [Spike Shield].
Raphtalia was pleased by this. She'd get a chance to save those who were in a position similar to her own just 2 or so months back. That and Naofumi gave up the chance to receive glory for a thankless job that needed to be done. This is what she had gathered on Naofumi over their time together. A truly good person who doesn't value others opinion of him in the slightest, for better or worse.
...
A cornered man raised his rake in desperation before a zombie with a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. The zombie cut right through the tool with the axe and took a step in to follow through with his sword.
[Air Strike Shield]
A shield-shaped force field manifested just before the kill could be made. The forming of the wall pushed the weapon out of that space, resulting in disarming its sword. Naofumi came down on top of the zombie from the roof above, activating [Bedrock]. His increased weight crushed the meager zombie beneath his heel. Two more zombies ran at Naofumi in response to his appearance.
"Depending on positioning, [Air Strike Shield] can force movement to free up the space it'll occupy? Good to know."
The zombies raised their arms to strike, but were cut in half in the next moment. Naofumi never paid those enemies any mind, knowing Raphtalia would handle it.
"Oi, get your ass to the mine! Tell everyone else the same!" The man simply fled in the direction of the mine, obviously too scared to do much else.
Next as they entered the town proper, Naofumi saw a screaming mother running with her two kids in the wrong direction. 3 bees the size of his arm came at them, but-
[Shield Prison]
The ball cage formed around the 3 villagers, as Naofumi ran directly into the bees. He was not being reckless though. He needed to know if these bees that seemed like possibly the weakest enemies here could beat his defense. He could use [inspect], but he wanted to preserve as much resource as he could, even the tiny 2 Sp that it would cost him.
They tried to sting him, but dealt no damage and thanks to his currently equipped [Spiked Shield] they all took a little bit of damage due to [Hazard].
"Good, but they took very little damage, meaning I don't beat them by much." Naofumi saw another insect. it was a... Grasshopper? No. Locusts? "Those are likely lacking even more attack than these bees. Maybe [Hazard] alone can kill them?"
Naofumi spoke to the 3 in his [Shield Prison], "Listen! Once the ball fades away, head towards the mine!" He saw there were too many bugs gathering around suddenly...
"Raphtalia ignore the bugs I think I got a solution for them".
Wordlessly she complied, never questioning him. Naofumi readied himself for the next attack. As the only one yelling or even talking, the bugs swarmed Naofumi. As they struck, he used [Parry]. This sent all of the bugs away from him many dead, but even the ones to live could not fly. "Just as I thought. [Parry] doubles my defense for just an instant combined with [Hazard] can result in great crowd control".
The frightened family of three were freed from [Shield Prison] just in time to see the bugs scatter from Naofumi. It looked impressive and served to give them hope. They ran as instructed.
[Alert! Danger Imminent!]
Naofumi listened well and notice his [Minimap] telling him it was behind him. He barely moved out of the way as an axe came crashing down next to him. He immediately grabbed the axe and used [Bedrock].
"Now!" As the huge zombie struggled to lift his axe, Raphtalia swooped in and took off his head in one clean motion. Naofumi saw he was going to be overrun soon, which would cause Raphtalia to dive into the enemies too deeply, "have to avoid that".
He used [Air Strike Shield] as a step to get atop a roof and see the larger situation. It was pretty bad. A few building were on fire. Some guards and adventurers were here putting up a decent fight. His best bet was to prioritize saving the guards and adventurers first. Doing so he could rally them and begin to cut a path thro-... No. If he didn't have such a shit reputation maybe they'd have listened, but no one would follow him into battle or follow his orders without a slave crest. He needed the next best thing...
"Raphtalia. You're far faster on your own. Clear a path to the mine, I'll return you here once it has been made safe. I keep in contact with this" He switched to his [Satellite Shield].
Raphtalia hated the idea of leaving him alone, especially after she just resolved to stand by him, but he was right. She turned toward the mine and ran, killing anything that came within striking distance.
Naofumi started using [Tele-Communication] with Raphtalia. "Can you hear me?"
Raphtalia was a bit surprised. He'd given her a rundown of what each of his shields did. He did his best to keep her in the loop and she knew which shield ability this was, but being told what it does and actually experiencing it were two different things.
"Yes Naofumi-sama. Can you hear me?"
"Yeah. Tell me when you're done." He tried his best not to show it, but he was a little scared without her. He just had to stay moving, helping who he could along the way.
...
Naofumi was so thankful to his [Universal Battery]. Screw Sp and Mp, he needed that bonus stamina. He'd ran himself ragged in less than 5 minutes. All out combat will do that to you. He kept at it though, he'd saved quite a few people at this point.
[Alert! Danger Imminent!]
He saw the [Minimap], saw the enemy, but the fatigue left him a moment too slow. As he turned to put up his shield, he was caught at the stomach by the axe of yet another giant zombie. It barely cut him at all thanks to the great armor, but the kinetic force was tremendous. It launched him into a wall and now he was struggling to catch his breath.
"Are you done?" He asked Raphtalia, he current state easy to hear.
Raphtalia did the job well enough. There were a few more things she wanted to do, some paths she wanted to search, but Naofumi took priority "Yes, Naofumi-sama"
Naofumi grinned at the giant zombie that approached him. Even with dozens of them gathering, he wasn't worried anymore. As he had been sitting on this charged up ability for weeks.
"Congrats big bastard, now taste my strongest attack, [Knock Knock]!". In an instant, a small door appeared and Raphtalia shot out of it. "Because Raphtalia is my greatest attack".
She tore into the large zombie too fast for it to lift it's weapon. It was down in the next moment. Naofumi and Raphtalia regrouped and watched the gathering monsters. "Likely me crashing into that wall was what brought them... that's twice now. Come to think of it, the villagers being pursued were very vocal. If I had a way to produce a large noise..."
"Raphtalia they seem to simply travel toward the largest noise. They focus villagers that scream and yell, they ignore you when I yell, an earlier noise brought that huge crowd of them to me. Hammer into my shield!" He switched to his [Light Metal Shield] and used [Record].
Without hesitation she struck his shield several times with the broad side of her sword. The [Light Metal Shield] rung out greatly. After Raphtalia stopped, Naofumi played back the recording, which was even louder. As planned the monsters gathered and they prepared for combat. As they went to move in though.
[Alert! Danger Imminent!]
Naofumi saw the source via his [Integrated Information]. He grabbed Raphtalia and threw his cloak around her, placing his shield above them both. Fire rained down around them striking every foe, but also destroying multiple houses. After about 20 seconds of hellfire, it stopped abruptly. Naofumi looked up at the source of this destruction. What he saw was as confusing as it was angrying.
It was the knights from the capital. They'd just arrived and they first thing they did was destroy several houses and could of hurt them both.
"Haha, they all burned simple enough. Oh, is that? Yes, the shield hero. Your durability lives up to that title if nothing else".
Raphtalia was angry and unlike normally, it showed. Before Naofumi knew what was happening, Raphtalia shot off of him and made a straight shot to the Knight captain talking, a man of below average build with a small mustache. Her blade was intercepted by his direct subordinate, a man with a large scar across his face. The man crossing sword with her was somewhat struggling to keep her at bay, which seemed to surprise him. The captain himself looked a little scared
"Did you know Naofumi-sama was here? Did you do it deliberately? Depending on your answer, I'll have your head." Her face in fury and her words said very calmly in contrast made for a threatening sight.
The Captain then spoke, "I couldn't be sure why, but the monsters gathered very heavily in this one location seemed like a great chance to curl the enemy numbers. Either way, he came out well enough. So, what's the problem?"
Naofumi hated them too, but fighting each other during a wave? Stupid. Raphtalia looked like she wanted to pursue the issue, but-
"Stop Raphtalia. It's as he says. The monsters were defeated and we are well enough. Drop it. We need to focus on protecting what little of this village remains, maybe find of few holdouts that refused to evac".
Raphtalia didn't want to, but she relented and disengaged. The scarred man seemed not to take it personally and no conflict between the two groups was going to escalate further.
"Hmm. Much wiser than your criminal record would lead you to believe. Indeed. As long as you stay out of our way, we won't make any mistakes..."
Referencing his false charges, then a thinly veiled threat. He was doing his best to get Naofumi angry.
Naofumi saw his [Minimap] info and gave an evil grin, "After all, the two of us can stay out of your way and watch as your forces eat shit. It'd be a good view from here".
The knights didn't quite catch what he meant until the shadows engulfed them. They turned to see more monsters, 3 of which were those larger zombies. Before anyone could respond the first axe came down. The unlucky soldier was thrown back and sunk into the dirt. It had to of hurt, but since they were wearing full plate armor and probably not cheap full plate at that, he'd live.
"Don't panic!" The captain said in a panic, "Form up, shields out, mages in back". No sooner did the words leave him did he see the second axe come down, this time on him.
[Parry]
Naofumi ran in front of the man and knocked the giant zombie back. "We'll buy you time, so make yourselves useful".
As the giant zombie fell back, Raphtalia ran up his front. She slices his head off, then jumped toward the next one. While she did that, Naofumi switched to [Rope Shield] and used [Hook] on the second ones arm, then used [Bedrock]. This bound his arm, unable to raise it before Raphtalia laid into his skull.
The third had already swung at Raphtalia, not caring about taking out the other giant zombie with her. Naofumi switch to his [Duelist Shield] and used [Sunder] for the first time. It was better than he expected. Cleaving the imposing figure in two with a force he could hardly believe he produced. "I see why it's once a day".
Naofumi switched back to the [Spiked Shield] and used [Record] to draw the bugs in, then his [Parry] [Hazard] combo to scatter them. The knights watched in awe as all 3 of the giant zombies were laid to rest in moments with the bugs blown away by the shear force of the shield hero.
By this time the knights were in formation and ready. "I can draw all the enemies to me with that sound I produced a moment ago. We'll move down the main street. Doing so will not only clear out more of the monsters, but will serve to let holdouts know they can escape now." With this group Naofumi could go back to MMO tactics he was comfortable with.
"A criminal does not command me!" Naofumi half turned and gave him an ominous glare. Combined with his armors bonus effect, it left the captain more than a little spooked.
[Air Strike Shield]
The barrier appeared behind the captain saving him from a zombie preforming a stabbing motion. As soon as that attack was a failure, Raphtalia fell upon him. He scattered under her blade, knocking the remains violently in every direction. The force field saving him twice in a row.
"I will not repeat myself" Naofumi threatened.
"Tsk, understood. Men, march!" The captain caved. He wanted glory, but his life took priority.
Just then a piercing noise was heard throughout the town and beyond. Moments later the wave of catastrophe faded from the sky.
"Keep your heads, no new monsters does not mean anything. There are plenty of enemies left to deal with!" Naofumi told the group
...
"Pretty easy for a boss". Ren commented.
"I know, right? If the wave didn't stop I wouldn't believe it." Motoyasu said with a laugh.
"It's probably that we're too strong, not that it's too weak". Itsuki added smugly.
The three were silent a moment.
"So how do we decide the loot?" Ren eyed the other two.
"What do you mean? One head a piece seems appropriate, right?" Motoyasu saw no problem.
"True, but who gets what?" Itsuki cut to the heart of the matter.
"I want the dragons head, I focused it the whole fight". Ren made his claim first.
"Why do you get to have first pick? I finished the fight. I'm MVP" Motoyasu said in that perfect combination of ignorance and matter-o-factly that was unique his own.
"What!? You're not MVP, I dealt the most damage!" Itsuki protested.
They argued for quite some time.
...
With Naofumi leading the way, the knights did great work. They swept through the main street of the village first, finding the holdouts that he hoped he was wrong about. After this Naofumi tried to strong armed the knight into temporally joining his party, so he could use [Tele-communication] and split them up while keeping contact. This didn't work out though. The Captain was no longer in life or death danger and so his priority now was to reach the other heroes.
Naofumi and Raphtalia split up. Naofumi searched for survivors and began handing out medicine if it was needed. Raphtalia was sent off to finishing the foes that remained. She was told to prioritize the giant zombies, then the normal ones, then the bees, then lastly the locusts. Naofumi of course ran into a few fights, but nothing major. Naofumi had trouble with the zombies, but at least the larger ones were all taken care of. Naofumi made sure to block attacks to build up [Knock Knock] again.
After they swept through the village, treated the villagers and made sure that they were safe. The two of them were exhausted by this point. They stopped to catch their breath.
"So, that was a wave? Damn." "That Raphtalai lived through one of these and had the courage to fight- No. I didn't give her a choice." He looked up at her.
She was trembling as she stood there. Was he suppose to comfort her? What could he say to her? This trauma was his fault.
"Naofumi-sama... we won, right?" She seemed lost.
"Yeah. We saved as many people as we could... There wouldn't be a 'lute village' without you. Good job". He placed a hand on her head. She let a few tears out as she reached around him and hugged him.
He didn't know what to do, so he kept patting her head. They stood there for a bit, partly due to exhaustion, partly due to not wanting to stop. Then they were interrupted.
"Um, excuse me shield hero?" It was the woman that Naofumi saved along with her two children. Naofumi and Raphtalia pulled away from each other and faced her.
She bowed deeply before him "Thank you so very much! We live by your mercy". She said it with sincerity.
Naofumi considered this. While everyone hates him now, maybe by doing his part as a hero... It seemed more than optimistic. He could settle with some people not hating him. After all it's not like he was staying here forever. Once the waves were over, he'd be free. He'd release Raphtalia and return to his world. A world without all these terrible people and their blind hatred of him.
"Don't worry about it. I just-"
More people were gathering. The first man he saved, the holdouts they saved, the first woman's children, the village lord who he browbeat into paying more a few weeks ago, and many more. They all had the same thankful look on their faces. They all bowed deeply before him. All thanking him for saving him.
Naofumi didn't know how to respond. He turned away from them and spoke, "If you have time to thank me, you have time to clean this place up... we're going Raphtalia" He walked away not wanting to face them, he wasn't sure why.
...
"So I get the bird head? Well it's the one I wanted, but..." Itsuki seemed to be satisfied by nothing.
"Too bad, the dragon head is mine." Ren was tried of arguing and took the head he claimed into his sword.
"Well I guess it's fine. The goat head has bigger horns, the lance form it'll take will be most appropriate". Motoyasu reasoned to himself.
Itsuki gave in and absorbed the bird head, then turned to the other two, "What about the snake head?"
Motoyasu laughed as he absorbed the goat head, "Don't you see? It's Naofumi's cut. Haha, we can give him the scrapes. It seems all too appropriate".
Ren considered this, "Yeah, he's so far behind us. We kinda have to leave him some, otherwise he'll stay weak".
Motoyasu placing them above Naofumi and Ren framing it as helping the weak. That left Itsuki in agreement, "Fine, fine".
"Ah great heroes!" The knight captain reached their location.
"You did a marvelous job defeating the wave boss. You should make preparations. The king has ordered banquet to honor you."
The whole group cheered and slowly made their way to the capital.
...
Naofumi fed remnants from the monster to his shield
.
[Interdimensional Bee Shield]
+1 agi, +1 poison resistance
[Ability: Poison Needle Shield] (requires 'Change Shield') (requires 'Shield Prison') Poison captured targets from all sides.
.
[Interdimensional Locust Shield]
+1 def
[Ability: Swarm Stomach] Consumable goods used by you gain an area of effect of 5 feet plus 2 inches per level you possess. effects only affect desired targets within the area.
.
[Interdimensional Zombie Shield]
+1 def, +3 to rot resistance
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[Interdimensional Zombie Shield ll]
+2 def, +5 to rot resistance
.
Naofumi only found these 4 monsters as he traveled in the direction the heroes first left in. As they went, Raphtalia couldn't help but smile. They has saved a village and many people, they even acknowledged their efforts and thanked Naofumi.
"There it is". They entered a clearing, but it wasn't natural. It was a man-made clearing, likely created in the battle. Naofumi saw the large beast, It had 3 missing heads, but knew it was probably many times stronger than the giant zombies they fought. Naofumi went around it cautiously, not getting too close. He noticed the large snake as a tail. "Even if its the worst parts, if they left me something, I'll take it. I can't afford the luxury of pride".
As he approached it, his [Minimap] pinged a target. There was no [Prophecy] warning though. He stopped and took note of his information abilities.
Raphtalia noticed his odd behavior and asked, "What's wrong Naofumi-sama? It's dead, yes?"
"Of course it is... but something isn't..." He thought for a moment. He used [Inventory] to pull out his carving knife, which was currently buffed with sharpening l. He began cutting the beast open. Tearing into it.
"Um, Naofumi-sama. My sword would do a quicker job". Raphtalia was confused and concerned.
"No. It has to be me. I can't hurt things with weapons, remember. So, I literally can't accidentally cut it." Now she was more confused.
ZAP- "Ow!" Naofumi dropped the knife.
"Are you o-"
"I'm fine, just fine. I expected it". He did sound fine, but Raphtalia was worried.
"Then might I ask what your doing Naofumi-sama?"
He turned to her smugly as he reached his arms in deep into the corpse's bowls, "Getting this".
He pulled his hands out and with them, an egg.
"I-is that?"
"Yulp. I noticed it, thanks to some of my information gathering abilities"
"B-but it's an egg... from the wave boss!?"
"Thought it'd be weird to lay an egg, but I guess it has more bird and reptile than mammal, huh? ... Why are you yelling by the way?"
"Naofumi-sama, that t-thing came from the wave boss. It came from the wave. We should probably destroy it before it hatches" She seemed worried and Naofumi could understand why. A wave boss killed her family right in front of her... but this egg has committed no crime. Moreover, it will likely grow into a powerful monster that could prove to be a valuable party member...
"No." Raphtalia didn't expect this refusal. "It might become a problem. If it does, it'll still be weak enough to deal with no problem. If it can be domesticated though... We'd have a powerful ally".
Raphtalia could not believe that he, a cardinal hero, was considering raising a wave boss's spawn. It seemed antithetical to his purpose. "I understand Naofumi-sama, but... Taking care of that beast..."
Naofumi actually wore a smile and perked up, "I know, it's perfect. Raising this thing might do my nerves a world of good."
And with that, Raphtalia gave up. Even if it became a problem later, she'd not deny Naofumi any chance at happiness... no matter how foolish.
"Hold it for a bit, I need to get this tail" He handed her the egg and she reluctantly took it.
She stood there awkwardly holding it, clearly uncomfortable. Though she expected it to feel weird, it felt like any other egg to her. Did that make her more or less concerned?
"There we go".
.
[Chimera Viper Shield](locked: Higher level required)
+3 def, +3 mdef, +10 to poison resistance
[Ability: Antidote Compounding Up] Increase the effectiveness of anti-poison medicines you make by 25%.
[Ability: Change Shield] Switches shields instantly. Can be used on the your shield or on another skill itself.
[Unique Ability: Hook] Grab onto something within 8 meters
[Unique Ability: Snake Venom Fang] After an enemy attacks this shield, poison them with snake bites. The power and affect of the venom is based on your poison resistance and some other resistances.
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[Chimera Meat Shield]
[Ability: Cooking ll] Moderately increase the taste and nutritional benefit of food you cook.
.
He also took as much of the remaining materials as he could fit in [Inventory].
"Holy shit this shield is crazy powerful! My god!" His excitement faded though, "Wonder when I'll be able to use it".
He ignore it for now and went to Raphtalia who quickly gestured that he take the egg back. He did, holding it securely. As they began to walk away, he looked down "I wonder what I'll name it? Maybe 'Mera' if it's a girl?... for chimera... I suck at names".
[Author's Notes]
Bam! Out in less than a day of the previous one.
The knight with the scar across his face is an anime exclusive character, but I still felt like including him.
Bet no one guessed the first egg, huh? While Filo will hatch right after this one, I didn't want Filo to be the oldest sibling. Ruins the family dynamic in my head.
Can you guess what kind of chimera it is?