"Shadow blast!" a small burst of dark magic flung from Lucatiel's hands cutting into a giant wolf monster and dropping it's health bar by ten percent, the monster roared and leapt towards the ring hero with its jaws open.
"Air strike shield!" A massive green shield appeared in front of the wolf which slammed into it, breaking the shield and barreling through and biting down on the ring heroes arm.
Thanks to Lucatiel's new armor, a silver and purple waistcoat like breastplate that upped all his defenses and resistances it barely hurt, Naofumi rushed forward and ripped the creature off of Lucatiel's arm and hurled it towards Raphtalia, who sliced it's head off out of the air.
"Thanks." Lucatiel said, Naofumi nodded as a notification appeared in his status.
317 experience gained, you have reached: Level 20. he sighed, finally he had leveled up. Even with the help of his party and two other heroes the process was miserable, Naofumi was convinced that his damn shield was causing him to gain smaller amounts of XP.
He frowned and looked at Lucatiel, who was helping Raphtalia and Eclair carve the wolf into parts and components, Ren had trekked further into the mountain woods alone but Naofumi wasn't worried since he didn't see the sword heroes health drop even once, even when he randomly gained XP from an unknown source.
"Still nothing new, damn." He heard Lucatiel say in frustration. "This damn ring doesn't want me to get stronger."
At least you can attack though. I have to sit here and block. Naofumi thought, feeling a burst of anger that quickly faded. He didn't hate the ring hero, didn't even fully distrust him. There was a part of him that felt grateful for what Lucatiel tried to do/did.
There was just something off about Lucatiel, Naofumi couldn't place it and it frustrated him and caused him lash out on things like those balloons that he liked to punch, they were the only things he could kill and even then it took him twenty minutes just to punch one to death.
He hated it, he despised how useless he was. Maybe that was it, maybe he was just envious of the power Lucatiel had. He watched the Ring hero poke Eclair in the side causing her to yelp and literally roll out of the way, making Raphtalia giggle.
A small smile came to his face as he looked at the Tanuki, she was still a kid. Of course she would find that funny. He felt a small spike and his vision wavered for a moment, and Raphtalia… changed? What was that? Why did she look older for a moment?
"Naofumi you okay?" Lucatiel had noticed Naofumi's strife and was looking at him in concern, he hated it.
"I'm fine. We should go find Ren." It was an obvious subject change and Lucatiel frowned, but he didn't care. He didn't want to talk about it.
"No need, I'm right here." The sword hero walked out of a nearby brush, a couple of leaves and twigs in his hair but otherwise unharmed. "Sorry I dissappeared, I was scratching a solo itch."
"Ah, it's fine. Just don't get yourself killed." Lucatiel smiled and clapped Ren on the back. "Though, nothing here is any real threat."
"The Chimera species is Lucatiel-sama. They migrated here after the first wave and bred like rabbits, any wave monster Is dangerous." Eclair chastised, she was swinging her sword at the air in practice, her eyes wild.
Lucatiel looked at her dryly, the girl had simultaneously lectured her while training right after a fight, seriously. Eclair was in love with her sword, she took training way too seriously.
"Anyway, thanks again for sticking with us until after the first wave." The Ring hero decided to ignore herand turned back to Naofumi. "We didn't have a tank and that made things really difficult."
"That's what happens when you abandon your party. Besides, Raphtalia likes you." Naofumi didn't lie there, Raphtalia was obsessed with Lucatiel's hair, apparently ash colored hair was considered regal in Demi-human culture. Personally he thought that the kid had a childish crush on Lucatiel, it was possible he supposed. The ring hero was arguably better looking than Motoyasu.
Plus he hadn't seen a single person other than Lucatiel with American features, perhaps in another country but definitely not here, everyone had their own unique faces or mixed Japanese ones. Naofumi assumed that made Lucatiel more desirable.
Well in the end he didn't care all that much, as long as Lucatiel wasn't a lolicon like the rest of Melromarc. Even old man was, calling Raphtalia beautiful and what not, she was literally a child! Naofumi couldn't see it, he thought of her like his daughter.
"So what should we do next?" Ren suddenly asked. "We've only got two days until the wave and I'm getting kind of bored, there's not much of a story-line here."
Ah, right. Ren still thought this was a game. He had been summoned to this world as the Sword hero, he was the youngest of the five and a good kid at heart… but he was still hard-headed and at times a little ignorant, he reminded Naofumi often of Kirito from the anime sword art online, wearing black, a sword with no shield. Ironically he had the most issekai look out of the protagonists.
"Maybe we could try to search for Itsuki? Or maybe talk to Motoyasu." Lucatiel suggested.
Lucatiel was actually not technically summoned to this world, he was brought by the ring itself after lucking out on finding it in his world right before he was apparently killed, he was younger than Naofumi and Motoyasu but older than Itsuki and Ren. For the first day or so of him being here, he was by far the most renowned because of him bringing the ring back to the world. However after partially clearing Naofumi's name and freeing the innocent Eclair, his reputation tanked.
It was still better than the shield hero's though, Lucatiel's efforts helped just enough for people to not try Naofumi's patience too much or rip him off, but he still had to buy a slave because no one other than Eclair desired to be in his presence.
"I don't believe that we should go near Motoyasu as long as the second princess is with him." Eclair said.
"I don't know what's going on, but if big sis Eclair doesn't think it's smart then I trust her." Raphtalia added.
"So Itsuki then?"
"Let's not bother searching for anyone right now, we need to grow stronger." Naofumi said shortly. "Raphtalia, Eclair. Can you search for any nearby Chimera? They should offer some decent experience…"
"Maybe I'll get another ring finally, I haven't gotten any more since my eagle ring."
"You really got the crap end of the spectrum there didn't you?"
"Yeah… but at least I can fight for myself. Naofumi can't."
"Not for lack of trying…" Naofumi muttered bitterly, thinking back to his onslaught against the balloons. It did make him feel better, even if the others looked at him like he was a psycho.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the forest so intensely it made the ground shake, and several cracks so loud they sounded like gunshots could be heard. A gasp of fear came from Lucatiel as he swayed on his feet, holding his head in his hands. Naofumi could hear him muttering in a panic but couldn't hear what he was saying.
"WHAT IS THAT!?" Ren pointed at the treeline, something massive was coming their way fast and destroying everything in it's path. "Nothing like this was In these woods in Brave Star Online!"
Eclair, Raphtalia and Ren drew their swords while Naofumi rushed to the front, he couldn't worry about Lucatiel right now, as a creature as big as a house walked out of the woods snarling, it had three tails, each one a snake, but it's torso and main head was that of a lion, but there was another head on top of it that resembled a goat as well as the back legs.
Naofumi analyzed it with his status magic and his eyes widened, Alpha Chimera: Boss type monster from previous century wave. Level: 53, HP: 15,364.
"It's HP is over 15,000! It's a monster from a wave a century ago! The previous heroes must have missed it!" Naofumi explained, he was nervous. This thing was three times stronger than him and Lucatiel looked like he was about to have a panic attack.
"Do we have a chance? With three heroes…" Ren's voice was a little shaky, but he stood right beside him with his strongest sword out.
The chimera was tired of waiting, it rushed at the closest person, which happened to be Naofumi and swiped it's claw like it was swinging a bat, connecting with the shield and knocking him back.
"HAAAH!" Eclair and Raphtalia rushed and swung their blades at the creatures side in an X-slash, Ren slashed at the air and sent a wave of thunder after the girls jumped out of the way.
The chimera took no damage, Even Ren couldn't hurt it. The only thing it did was piss it off, it turned from the shield hero and attacked Ren and Naofumi at the same time, one with it's snake tails and one with its lion mouth. Naofumi managed to block most of the damage but Ren got smacked hard and was launched into the underbrush of the forest.
"LUCATIEL!" Naofumi suddenly shouted. "YOU HAVE TO HELP US!" he caught a glimpse of the Ring hero, who flinched under the loud noise. Lucatiel looked to be in some form of catatonic state, just standing and staring at the chimera with glassy, lifeless eyes.
The Alpha Chimera suddenly changed his target again, swiping Eclair off her feet with the snake tails and biting Raphtalia in the leg with them as well. Her cry of pain made Naofumi see red and swung his shield arm, bashing the Chimera in the face. It didn't do anything at all except get the Chimera focused on him again.
He needed a plan. He needed one right NOW or they were all gonna die, they could run but the monster was probably faster than them. Naofumi ran in the opposite direction, the chimera close on his heels, he flung his hand forward suddenly.
"Air strike shield!" The green shield appeared in the air and Naofumi jumped on it. "Second shield!" he leapt onto the second shield just as the chimera shattered the first, then jumped into a tree.
The chimera bashed into the tree and it rocked like it was gonna fall, but it held fast. "Change shield, rope shield!" Naofumi switched to the rope shield and jumped onto the Chimera's back just centimeters out of the snakes reach and wrapped the rope around the neck of the goat, the Chimera then proceeded to buck around like a bull to try and throw him off, the lion head trying to bite his legs.
"ECLAIR, RAPHTALIA!" Naofumi shouted, on command the two shouted, Eclair targeted the head again while Raphtalia launched herself into the air and stabbed the goat in the throat. Or at least, tried to. The goat bleated and batted Raphtalia in the face, sending her flying. It's horns thankfully missing entirely.
She would have broken a bone if she hadn't hit Lucatiel, they let out yelps as they collapsed to the ground. The air knocked out of Lucatiel's body as he coughed and gasped in a struggle to regain it. "W-what the-"
Ren suddenly burst through the underbrush, bleeding from several wounds as his sword glowed red, he looked angry and scared.
"Crimson sword! Air strike bash! Thunderbolt slash!" Ren used all of the skills in a quick succession, before leaping back and raising his sword to the sky.
"JUST DIE DAMNIT! RED HAND SWORD!" Ren's sword vaporized itself then appeared in the sky before spreading into several other swords that starting falling like the rain, Naofumi raised his shield to protect himself from any stray blades as they pierced the Chimera, a savage satisfaction from it's roar of pain.
Finally they began to damage it, it lost about a fourth of it's health bar from Ren's efforts. Naofumi finally realized that Eclair and Raphtalia would be useless for this fight, they couldn't hurt it at all… so they had something else to do.
He looked at Lucatiel again, almost getting yeeted off the chimera's back. The Ring hero was in the fetal position with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth. Dammit he needed to snap out of whatever ptsd attack he was having!
"Eclair! Raphtalia, focus on bringing Lucatiel back to reality, we need him to survive!" The Chimera had finally managed to fling Naofumi off his back, sending him flying into the grass. It attacked Naofumi with a fierce blood-lust, latching it's jaws onto his shield arm, its arms keeping Naofumi on the ground as it slowly crushed his ribs.
"GAAAAAHHH! REN!"
"Get off him! Eagle strike sword!" A giant flaming eagle barreled into the chimera and knocked it off Naofumi. "You okay?"
"No." Naofumi growled, getting to his feet and popping a potion. "But I have no choice but to be."
While the two heroes were fighting. Eclair and Raphtalia were with the Ring hero, trying to snap him out of his panic attack. So far they were having little success, Raphtalia slamming into him earlier had seemed to bring him back from the brink for a moment.
"Mr Lucatiel? Naofumi-sama and Sir sword hero need your help, so please wake up now." Raphtalia pleaded, gently shaking Lucatiel. She got no response other than panicked mumbling.
Eclair was holding his shoulders to stop his rocking, his body felt hot. And he was sweating so much she was worried he'd start suffering from dehydration. "Lucatiel-sama. We need you to come back now, whatever scared you isn't here anymore."
"No… no no no no no. Don't wanna die again, don't wanna be shot. Please no sir…" Eclair heard Lucatiel's mumbling, and she felt a desperate fear from the possibility that'd they would die.
The crack of a tree could be heard, and Eclair saw Lucatiel jump and whimper in fear and whisper even more fearfully. "Gunshots! Gunshots gunshots gunshots make them stop."
Eclair didn't know what a gunshot was, but she gained an understanding. Whatever happened to Lucatiel was caused by the sound the tree made when it was cracking, she got an idea: "Raphtalia-chan, cover Lucatiel's ears."
The tanuki nodded and did so, immediately a little existence came back to the ring hero's eyes and he stopped rocking without Eclair's help, but he was still breathing rapidly. Eclair reached forward and slowly pried Lucatiel's hands off his head to hold them in her own.
"HYAAAH!" Ren let out a battle cry as he swung his blade, thunderbolt slash skill and all directly into the Goat's head, he missed any vital spot but chopped off and sent flying the horn, the goat bleated and tried to head but him but Naofumi's green shield blocked the strike just enough for Ren to tuck and roll out of the way. The two heroes were putting up a phenomenal
The horn literally landed in Lucatiel's lap, and the ring hero looked down at it confused. A little more life returning to his eyes. "What… is this? This… isn't a gun." he picked up the horn with shaky hands, his Ring started to glow and his eyes latched onto it, clarity slowly taking back over the rest of his senses.
Eclair saw a chance, she took Raphtalia's hands away from his ears and grabbed his face and looked at him. "Lucatiel-sama, there's no gun or gunshot here, that sound you heard was a tree snapping from a powerful monster." She directed Lucatiel's face to the oncoming battle. "It's going to kill us, we need you to wake up now."
"But… I'm not asleep."
WHAT TYPE OF IDIOT IS HE? Eclair screamed internally. "Lucatiel-sama! I don't know your trauma, but we're all here for you. But right now you need to be here for us! We're gonna die without your help."
"Your… gonna die? Eclair? No…. I… wont… allow… that…" Lucatiel suddenly shot to his feet, knocking Raphtalia and Eclair onto their buts, he was breathing heavily again… but not from fear. He eyes flashed back to the fight and he snapped the horn in half.
Then he dropped one half into the ring. "Give me that new Ring. Now." He commanded, suddenly his ring morphed and reshaped around his finger to look like a smaller chimera, then he dropped the other half into his ring. "Break into crafting components."
Suddenly, he grinned widely. "Finally, finally I have you. Create ultimate potion: Liberation Unlock! The crafting components burst out of his ring and combined in the air, Lucatiel held his hand out and a clear white liquid potion plopped into his hand.
A notification appeared in his status. Liberation unlock: this potion allows you to unlock one skill of the 'Liberation' level earlier than you normally should.
Lucatiel popped the potion open and was immediately assaulted by several different 'Liberation' skills, he didn't think about it, just chose one in the middle then drank the potion.
Congratulations, you have unlocked: Liberation, Stellar interception.
Lucatiel could feel it, could feel the power flowing in his body like a wellspring, his ring was glowing, and for the first time in an hour his mind was entirely clear and under his control. He stepped forward, Eclair and Raphtalia getting to their feet.
"Hey, you two. Thank you." Lucatiel smiled at them before sprinting off in the direction of the battle, Raphtalia and Eclair not far behind.
Lucatiel came in with a bang. "Ice blade blast!" the skill struck the Alpha chimera in the side, it didn't do much damage, but it got the attention of the monster.
"Lucatiel! You're finally here."
"Bout damn time!"
"I'm sorry, guys." Lucatiel apologized. "But now it's time to end this." Lucatiel spread his hands apart palms upward and looked to the sky, suddenly, a twenty-meter diameter ring of literal space appeared in which he was at the center.
The chimera attacked but bashed into the edge of the ring like an invisible wall, Lucatiel grinned. The stars inside the spacial ring began to come out of it, and Lucatiel began to rise into the air like he was flying.
"I the ring hero call upon the light of the ethereal plains, I the ring hero call upon the darkness of the ethereal plains, combine together. Unify for my Liberation! Unify for all that is the truth and scatter for all that is a lie! I THE RING HERO LUCATIEL NIAZAKI DEMANDS YOUR POWER. LIBERATION, STELLAR INTERCEPTION!"
Millions of stars suddenly flew forward and began to pierce the Alpha Chimera, the others watched in awe as the star shower rapidly eviscerated the monster, it's health dropping to zero in mere seconds as it roared and hissed and bleated until it's last moments.
Finally, Lucatiel's magic ended, and in it's wake a ten foot crater where the Chimera's battered corpse resided was all that was left. Lucatiel lowered back to earth and immediately fell to a knee, his tired grin dashing away any concern Naofumi felt, leaving him with a sense of pride.
"Wh-what the hell was that?" Ren asked. "I never saw that stuff back in Brave Star Online!"
"Liberation magic. I just unlocked it thanks to the Goat horn you hit me with. Anyway, check the experience we gained from that." Lucatiel said.
Naofumi looked and almost choked on his own lung. XP gained: 17,434. Congratulations, you've reached level: 30.
"I… I gained so many levels." Naofumi gasped as he started scrolling through everything he unlocked.
"Same, I'm level 43 now." Ren said.
"Level 39 here." Lucatiel smiled.
"Dude we totally need to find another one of those, think of the power-leveling we could do if we let Lucatiel one-shot it!" Ren said, he was suddenly very excited. There was almost stars in his eyes.
"That'd be cool. If that spell didn't take all my Mp… and have a cool down period of a month because I unlocked it too early."
"So you can't use it for the oncoming wave…" Naofumi muttered, suddenly a light bulb clicked in his head. "Wait, how'd you even unlock that skill? Something about a goat horn?"
Lucatiel explained, and when he was finished Ren and Naofumi looked a little jealous. "That is insane, I wish I could do that." Ren said.
"Well it's not like I couldn't create the potion again, just let me carve most of the chimera up for myself, I should be able to make four more potions." Lucatiel suggested.
"I'll gladly sacrifice some materials for a god-tier skill." Ren grinned. "You're a saint bro."
"That gamer talk is gross Ren." Naofumi said dryly, but there wasn't any malice in his eyes for once, Lucatiel felt a strange shiver crawl up his back at being called bro. Naofumi then turned towards his party. "Hey girls, carve up the monster parts and give them to Lucatiel except for two pieces."
"Okay Master Naofumi."
"Of course sir Shield hero."
"Wait, I just realized you said four potions. You're planning to make two extra's for Motoyasu and Itsuki aren't you?" Ren asked.
"Why not? We're all in this together in the end, I'd rather not let any of us die. Not if there's something I can do to help." A spike of fear pierced Lucatiel for the briefest moment.
"Well, after this is done, let's get back to the nearest village. I'm completely exhausted."
"Agreed."
A/N: Sorry this chapter was late, I was quarantined without my computer for a while because I was thought to have Covid, turned out I had the flu. I wanted to do more with this chapter but I felt like I was absent a bit too long so I went ahead and rolled with this.
Liberation stellar interception. If you've ever played Kingdom hearts 3 and got oathkeeper and oblivion, you get this. This is what Lucatiel's attack is inspired by.
Bruh I fucking AGONIZED about what the potion should be when it was finally finished, my ideas ranged from a potion that gave experience points, to a potion that buffed every stat permanently by a certain amount. I wanted it to be OP as fuck because I wanted to utilize Ultimate Item creation more, really show off the Ultimate part.
Anyway guys, that's all for this chapter. Thanks for your patience and your reading and I'll see you in the next one.