I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero or any of the characters.
Surprise Wave
Fenris walked along the path with his sword drawn. The island they were on had monsters rumored to be vastly more powerful and dangerous than the rest of the islands, with an accompanying experience leap. However, Shiva had informed them that the island was also the one she had lived on before becoming Sofia's Familiar. As such, she was guiding them to an area that she assured them would have a very high number of the weakest enemies on the island, as well as Iceburst Crystals, which Fenris planned to feed to his sword. Additionally, she said there was a good chance of finding alternative forms for all three Familiars there. However, they had had tongight their way through multiple groups of very powerful enemies on the way and Fenris was having second thoughts. He was going to keep going,though, since they were almost at the peak of the island's mountain, despite walking through knee-deep snow and all freezing half to death, except Shiva.
"We're getting close now," Shiva said.
"I hope so," Fenris grumbled. "It's cold here."
Shiva ignored him, and after a few more minutes, they reached a massive cave in the mountainside. They walked into it, warming a bit as they left the cold wind behind and Phoenix formed to help warm them back up. After a few minutes of walking, Iceburst Crystals began to sparkle from the rock walls. However, just as Fenris reached oout to take one, Shiva swatted his hand away.
"What?" Fenris asked.
"Don't wake the guardian," Shiva said. "The Iceburst Crystals you can have are up ahead."
She continued walking and after a few more minutes, they entered a cavern with spikes made of frozen stalagmites and stalactites spread here and there. Juat as they entered, the ground broke apart and small thigh-high golems made of Icebust Crystal began to break free of it, charging them. Fenris stepped forward, slashing at oneb but the impact jarred his arms and he nearly dropped the sword. He leapt backward and Sofia blasted the golems, sending them staggering back a few steps before continuing.
"Jesus, they're solid!" Fenris said. "Alright. Let's try this."
His sword flashed and when it faded, it was the High Priest's sword. He shot forward, slamming it down onto one of the golem's heads, but it barely broke the surface. The golem swiped at him with its bladed arm and he leapt backward.
"Shit," Fenris said. "Any ideas?"
"My sword can't absorb their health if it can't hurt them," Naomi said.
"Mine doesn't have enough power," Riley agreed.
"My daggers are useless," Hana said.
"My magic is barely phasing them," Sofia said.
Shadow and Phoenix both blasted a golem, but it was barely affected.
"This might have been a bad idea," Fenris admitted, switching to his Hellhound Sword, failing to make any better progress, the same problem occurring again with his Dragon Soul Sword, mana sword, and many others.
"Dammit!" Fenris growled. "I need something stronger."
Suddenly, his weapons web began to move, finding a sword called the Adamantine Sword. For lack of a better idea, he selected it and his sword changed agsin, this time to a sword with a dark greenish blue guard like a pair of blocky wings curving toward the blade slightly, the usual onyx in the pommel, and a green-tinted blade that was about four inches thick at the base but that was angled toward each other like a triangle before straighetning after about three inches, the rest of the blade about two and a half inches thick. He shot forward and slashed upward, splitting one of the golems cleanly, the golem collapsing into a pile of Iceburst Crystals a little smaller than his fist. His mouth fell open and he spun, splitting three of them before flipping backward onto another's shoulders, avoiding its strike before stabbing down into its head.
"Where the hell has this sword been hiding this whole time?" He wrenched the sword out and dropped to the ground, quickly splitting several more of them.
A golem leapt at his back but Shiva stepped between them and smashed an ice sword down on its head, smashing it to the ground before Fenris killed it. Shiva hurled the sword into another golem as it charged, but the sword shattered against it. Fenris deflected its blade and split it up the front, then turned and slashed the last two. He sighed, grinning at his sword. He liked this one.
He picked up several pieces of Iceburst Crystal and began to feed them to his sword, initially unlocking the aptly named Iceburst Sword, spear, Axe, Dagger, and Claws, before continuing to feed the pieces into it, strengthening all of them. Finally, he stopped, switching to each of the new weapons. The spear had an ice-blue crystal blade, the axe and dagger were both entirely Iceburst Crystal, and the claws had crystal blades with a black metal handle.
The sword had a hand-and-a-half hilt, a four-sided Iceburst Crytsal in the center ot the black Y-shaped hilt's guard that was visible on both sides, and had a long, light blue metal blade with the blade jutting outward then back in a couple inches away from the handle, forming a sort of diamond-shaped section four sections long. The sword itself wasn't overly powerful, but had a moderate cross-weapon ice resistance and weapon-specific damage to both golems and ice-type creatures.
"That would have been helpful," Fenris snorted, switching back to the Adamantine Sword. "I think this will be my new default."
Just as he said this, the ground rumbled and he slowly lowered the sword, looking up at the girls. They were all staring at the far side of the cavern, and when he turned, he saw a tunnel on the far side glowing cherry red.
"Everybody outside!" Fenris shouted just before a deafening roar of rage shook the ground.
They all spun, sprinting back out of the cave. A moment later, they all dropped as a massive dragon exploded out of the cave and passed over them, roaring and circling around. Fenris stood, instantly switching to his Dragon Soul Sword and swallowed hard. The dragon was about a hundred feet long, bigger than the Tyrant dragon, had black scales, two enormous horns on the top of its head, reaching backward, a snout that was almost a quarter the length of its enormous neck, resulting in an aligator-like snout, black spikes covering its body starting behind its horns, each roughly half the size of its horns or smaller, winged forelegs, thick, muscular hind legs, and a massive tail longer than its neck.
"Shit!" Fenris swore. "All of you need to retreat!"
Then, he sprinted forward. The dragon roared, sending a massive wall of flames at him, but he had activated his fire immunity, so it washed over him harmlessly. Then, he slashed it along the neck as he passed under it before diving to the side as it stomped at him, narrowly missing. He rolled to his feet as Shica, now in her larger white form but with her Hellhound Heart circlet still on, hurled an ice spear at the dragon. It reached its head off to the side and its jaw snapped closed with bone-rattling force, shattering the spear. Fenris slashed the dragon's side and its head whipped around, snapping at him. He dove out of the way and Phoenix exhaled a jet of flames onto its face, blinding it for a moment. He batter Phoenix aside with its wing just before Riley, Naomi, Hana, and Shiva all slashed it together, Shiva using an ice sword. The dragon roared, opening its mouth, only for Sofia to send a blast of wind down kts throat, sending its intended fire breath attack back into its stomach. Fenris slashed its head upward just as the flames exploded back outward along with a spray of blood and the dragon roared in pain, taking flight.
Fenris grinned, until he saw its health. They were barely doing any real damage. He formed himself a pair of wings and Shadow formed into his Karma Dog form, the dog with wings, allowing Naomi and Sofia to climb on. Then, Fenris and Shadow took off into the air, Shiva flying after them.
The dragon roared, sending a wall of flames at them, but Shiva flew out in front of them, blowing frozen air into the flames and sending ice streaking along themb the flames ending just shy of the dragon. Then, Fenris and Shiva reached the dragon, slashing it along opposite sides before Naomi slashed it along its stomach. The dragon roared, its tail whipping around at Shadow, only for Fenris to slash one of the dragon's wings, causing it to fall out of the sky instantly. It crashed down on the mountain side, rolling down the skde of it for a ways, ruining the other wing, before stopping and roaring. Shiva swung a hand, ice spears forming in the air in front of her and raining down at the dragon, only to melt in a torrent of flames. Fenris flew through the flames and slashed the dragon's face as he passed, then flipped, stabbing his sword into the side of the dragon's tail to stop himself before streaking in the other direction, his sword splitting the dragon back along the same side just as Shiva pinned its snout to the ground with an ice sword and Naomi's sword tore along the dragon's other side. They all flew up away from it as the dragon roared again. It was bleeding heavily, couldn't fly, and was at half health, but it was still more than dangerous enough to kill them. It roared and charged up the hill, only for Sofia to blast the mountainside with a wind spell, boulders breaking loose and tumbling down the mountain at it. It roared as the boulders bounced off of it, doing a surprising amounti of damage, then roared again as Fenris stabbed it in the back, then flew backward, splitting its back open. The moment he had, Shiva split its throat open from snout to chest. The dragon reared back, rosring in pain before Shiva turned into a spike of ice, Shadow a spike of darkness, and Phoenix into a fireball, all three streaking down at the dragon. Shadow and Shiva both drilled themselves into it, and Phoenix burrowed into an open gash. A moment later, explosions, icicles, and spikes of shadow erupted out of its body all over, killing the dragon. Fenris raised an eyebrow as all three Familiars reformed as themselves. He landed beside the dragon's corpse and switched his sword back to the Adamantine Sword, pressing it against the side of the dragon, the entire body being rapidly absorbed into it.
"We won," Sofia sighed. "And we're at level eighty."
"Me too!" Hana grinned.
Fenris blinked in surprise and stared at her level. She was right. Level eighty. She had caught up already.
"Jesus," Fenris gaped. "How?"
"Once we hit level eighty, and Naofumi's party hit level eighty, she got all of the experience," Naomi said. "And she wasn't really that far behind anyway after leveling on the way here."
"True," Fenris nodded. "Still though. And you three, which of you got the new form?"
All three began to grow and change. Shadow formed a near exact replica of the dragon, but with darkness curling off of it slightly, Phoenix formed a dragon made out of flames, and Shiva begame a white version of the dragon with blue horns, cclaws, teeth, and eyes.
"Very nice," Fenris smirked.
All three shifted back and Fenris pulled on the baracelet from the day before before they started down the mountain. It took them much longer than before, due to being tired from the dragon and from meeting an increased surge of enemies, the Familiars each getting several new forms, albeit weak ones, in the process. Finally, they reached the ferryman and he took them back to the main island and they all returned to the inn to change into a swimsuit Fenris making one for Shiva, as well as altering Hana's battle outfit to make it a special kind of cloth that was as strong as metal using some of the monster pelts they had gotten on the island.
Once they were finished, they headed to the beach. Fenris couldn't help but grin. All of the girls had chosen bikinis, except Hana, and looked gorgeous, Hana included. Riley's white one was too small, Eileen's green one was the biggest she could find and was way too small, Naomi's red one was the right size, but was so thin and tight that it was like a second skin, Hana's black one had the top being a pair of strips of fabric up over each breast and around the back of her neck, then back down to her bottoms, then had three black bows holding the strips together in between them, and had black string around her back to hold it in place, and Sofia's light purple bikini was a strip of cloth wrapping from the back of her neck, diagonally across one breast, behind her, then up across the other while her bottom was a normal but extremely small bikini bottom. Fenris grinned as he sat beside Naofumi, watching his girls all head into the water, including Shiva in her blue bikini. She was petite, like Riley, so her bikini fit her about the same.
Beside him, Naofumi glanced at the girls, rolled his eyes, and returned to relaxing. Fenris looked around, but Filo and Raphtalia were both nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Filo and your girlfriend?" Fenris asked, Naofumi shooting him a dirty look.
"Filo said she wanted to swim, and Raphtalia's still changing," Naofumi said. "Way to go levelling up, though. I don't know what you fought, but it gave us a shit ton of experience. We're thinking about going to get Class Upgrades before leveling tomorrow."
"Sounds like a plan," Fenris nodded.
"Hey Master!" Filo smiled, walking over in a small bikini with a skirt built in to the bottoms and a cloth hanging around the top as well, her hair in a pair of ponytails. "I found another island."
"Big deal, this place is full of them," Naofumi said.
"No listen," Filo whined. "I found a special one underwater, and it looks like it's glowing red."
"A special island underwater?" Naofumi asked.
"And that's not all, there was a big brick building down there too," Filo said.
"A temple?" Fenris asked, then grinned. "I'm game. Want to Class Upgrade first?"
"Alright, sure," Naofumi nodded. "What about your girls, though?"
"They'll be alright," Fenris smiled. "I doubt we'll need them for this. And if we do, we can always teleport away."
Naofumi nodded. "Alright. Once Raphtalia getgets here, we'll go Class Upgrade then explore the temple."
"Excuse me, Master Naofumi?" Raphtalia said nervously.
They all turned, finding her standing a short distance away, blushing and smiling shyly, wearing a light blue bikini with a half-skirt hanging on her right side to her ankle that was blue at her hip, then turned white about a foot later, and a cloth hanging from the top, open in the front to keep her cleavage exposed mostly, then hanging maybe six inches down, white along the edge of it.
"So, what do you think?" Raohtalia asked.
Naofumi blushed slightly and cleared his throat. "Uh...i-it's good." He cleared his throat again. "We're going to go get Class Upgrades, then we're planning to go explore an underwater temple Filo found."
"That sounds fun!" Raphtalia smiled.
"Hey girls!" Fenris called out, getting his harem's attention. "We're heading to Melromarc for a minute!"
They all headed over and Fenris and Naofumi teleported their parties to the Dragon Hourglass. Ake's mouth fell open as he saw them.
"But...you were just..." Ake trailed off.
"And that is the beauty of an ativated Cal Mira," Fenris aaid as all of the girls except Shiva walked over to the hourglass and rested their hands on it, a light shining for a moment, then fading.
"Did it work this time?" Naofumi asked.
Raphtalia smiled and nodded. Once Fenris's girls were finished, they all teleported back to the beach. Fenris's girls all headed back into the water and Naofumi pulled the two penguin suits they had gotten the day before out, then looked to Fenris.
"We only have the two," Naofumi said.
Fenris nodded and looked around the beach. After a few minutes, he spotted a tan blonde guy with a short-sleeve yellow shirt and blue shorts who walked out toward the water, leaving his fancy sword unattended. It had a two-handed handle with a yellow grip in a baided pattern, a red tassle hanging from the pommel, a metal bracket-like piece attached to what he thought was the front of the blade, forming a sort of triangular fish-head design, and a long crystal blade with what looked like bubbles inside of it. At the end of the double-edged blade, there was an arm-like piece that bent back down along one edge, then had a small spike curving back in between it and the blade, the arm also sharpened on the outside. Fenris walked over and gripped the sword's handle, his own sword changing into a replica of it, but instead of a red tassle, the pommel sported the usual onyx sphere.
As Fenris walked back to Naofumi, he checked the sword's stats. It was decently powerful, gave a few cross-weapon stat boosts, and allowed weapkn-specific unrestricted attacks underwater and waterbreathing. Fenris grinned. He knew he had liked the sword for a reason.
"All set," Fenris smirked. "I found a waterbreathing sword."
"Oh that's such a ripoff!" Naofumi snorted. "What kind of bullshit logic does your life run off of?"
Fenris shrugged and they headed into the water. On the way past the girls, Fenris let Sofia know they'd be back soon, then followed Naofumi and the others away from shore and under the water. The swim was mostly quiet. One wagon-sized pirhana tried to attack them, but Fenris killed it without much trouble. Finally, after ten minutes, they reached the temple and settled on the ocean floor in front of it. Naofumi reached out and touched the door, and his shield shone green. Suddenly, the door swung outward and a wall of bubbles rushed out before water surged inward. They all swam inside and the door swung closed behind them. They found the surface and climbed out of it, Naofumi and Raphtalia removing their penguin suits, and looked around, only for the darkness inside to hide everything.
"It's too dark to see anything," Filo said.
"Raphtalia?" Naofumi asked.
"Okay," Raphtalia nodded, holding her hands in front of herself. "Give me First Light."
A ball of light appeared between her hands and ahe sent it into the air over them before the light suddenly shone, illuminating a Dragon Hourglass before them.
"Whoa," Fenris breathed. "That looks a lot more along in its countdown than Melromarc's."
"You're right," Naofumi nodded, holding out his hand.
His shield shone green before sending out a beam of light. After a moment the light faded and Naofumi's arm fell.
"This says the nsxt Wave is coming...in just two days!" Naofumi breathed.
Fenris swore loudly. "Thank God there's a telepathy link between Legendary Heroes and Vassel Heroes."
"There is?" Naofumi blinked.
"There is now," Fenris grinned as a communication ability appeared in his vision. He chose Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu instantly. "Ren, Itsuki, Motoyasu! Can you hear me?"
"What the hell?" Ren's voice asked.
"I must still be drunk," Motoyasu's voice groaned.
"Motoyasu and Ren too?" Itsuki's voice asked.
"Itsuki?" Ren asked. "What's going on?"
"Shut up and listen to me!" Fenris snapped. "This is Fenris. I'm in an underwater temple near the main island, talking to you with a communication spell I just believed into existance using my Vassel Blade, how's that for proof that it is what you believe?"
"Impressive," Ren said. "What's the emergency?"
"We found a Dragon Hourglass in the temple, and it says there's going to be a Wave hitting Cal Mira in just over two days," Fenris said.
All three began to swear and ask questions instantly.
"Calm down and start evacuating the islands!" Fenris shouted over them. "I'll be up to help in a bit. Fenris is about to teleport to Melromarc right now to get the Queen's help."
Naofumi nodded and instantly teleported away.
"We'll get to work," Ren agreed.
"It's a tall order, but we don't have a choice," Itsuki added.
"We're going to be cutting it close," Motoyasu agreed. "Leave it to us."
Fenris ended the spell and dove back into the water, swimming out of the temple just as Shadow formed as a giant pirhana with black scales. He grabbed his scales and Shadow swam back toward shore rapidly. After a few minutes, Shadow jumped out of water a couple dozen yards from shore, then shifted into a bird and caught Fenris, flying him to shore where the girls were waiting, the rest of the beach clear. Fenris landed lightly and they all sprinted to the inn. They fought through a crowd of terrified adventurers who were trying to escape with their gear, eventually making it to their own rooms and gsthering their things. They all quickly changed into their normal outfits and armor, then headed downstairs. The inn was almost completely empty besides a singld man sitting at the bar. He wore a bandanna tied around his forhead like a headband, a red button-up shirt that was open in the front, blue shorts, and had a red sword with a single edged blade folded backward into a tip and ending in a detatched point about halfway back to the guard, the resulting leaf-shaped blade being about three feet long. The man was drinking straight from a bottle and looked perfectly at ease.
"You're not evacuating?" Fenris asked.
"Why would I?" the man asked. "I came here to level up. What better way than fighting a Wave?"
"Mind if I see your sword for a minute?" Fenris asked.
The man held it out and Fenris copied it before handing it back, the man laughing. "Well whataya know. The Sword Hero. It's an honor."
"Actually I'm...eh whatever," Fenris turned, hurrying out of the inn with the girls, all of them spreading over the island to help with the evacuation.
All of the heroes checked in with their progress every couple hours. A surprisingly high number of adventurers were willing to stay and fight. About fifty, many of which were somewhere around level fifty. Finally, Fenris sat on the pier as he watched Mirellia's ships approach to pick up the heroes and adventurers that were planning to help. They had made the timeline. Barely. The ship here to pick them up was ahead of the rest of the fleet, but apparently the Queen had linked them wot Naofumi, eo when he teleported, so would the ships. It docked and they all quickly got on, tossing the gangway off of the ship for the sake of being fastb and by the time it hit the dock, they had already been teleported. Their ship reappeared beside Naofumi's, so Fenris formed himself a pair of wings and flew over to Naofumi, landing behind him.
"We're still in range of Cal Mira's ecperience boost, so I'm going to leave your party with the girls and use that experience storing barelet to store as much as we can get before the Wave ends. Then when it's over we can redistribute it as needed."
Naofumi nodded and dismissed him and his girls from his party. Fenris flew back to the girls and landed beside them as fish-type monsters began to fall from the sky. They were humanoids with tadpole tails with a fin on the end, massive mouths lined with pointed teeth, webbed hands and feet, and what looked like spears. The soldiers began throwing exploding barrels into the water and Fenris smelled alcohol in seconds. Monsters began to float to the surface and soldiers began to fire at them inaccurately. Eileen, Sofia, and Shiva stepped up to the edge and begsn to attack as well, Sofia with fire spells, Eileen with her arrows, rarely missing a shot, and Shiva by hurling spikes of ice out of her sleeves, never missing.
Suddenly, a gigantic monster like a sort of eel with a narwahl's horn that was about a half-mile or more long rose out of the water, ramming one of the ships and destroying it, the soldisrs rapidly being slaughtered by the monsters in the water. Fenris swore. He'd have to fight that, he suspected.
"The alcohol's not working well enough," Sofia said.
"Everyone!" Fenris shouted, every adventurer on the ship turned toward him, the other heroes having separated to one each. "We're going to use an ability to attract the monsters all to us, with the exception of the big one! If you don't think you're ready for this, speak up now!"
A couple of them raised their hands and Shadow formed as a Karma Dog, flying them away from the ship as Fenris's close-range girls spread over the ship to help the adventurers while Eileen and Sofia moved to the Crow's Nest and Fenris had Phoenix take to the air in his dragon form, Shadow doing the same after he had dropped off the adventurers.
"Hana, now!" Fenris shouted, folding his ears down.
Hana whistled, all of the monsters roaring in response, beginning to race toward the ship all at once, darkening the water. All of the remaining barrels were hurled off of the ship and exploded, countless fish being left unable to move for Shadow and Phoenix to slaughter with their fire breath, eileen raining arrows on anything they missed. He wasn't sure how many arrows she had, but he had seen her take about five spare quivers with her. Then, there were monsters leaping over the railing of the ship. The ones with the spears were the stronger ones, but move simply used their claws. Fenris and the others slaughtered them quickly, the other adventurers struggling to fend them off, though none dying.
Fenris ducked under a monster's claws ans slashed him and two more, then spun, slashing a couple others. As he was turning again, two jabbed their spears at him, only for his sword to flash and become his Spider Arms, deflecting the spears before he slashed six of them around him. He spun, tranforming it into L'Arc's scythe and split a full arc of them. One of them leapt over him but his scythe flashed, transforming into the kusarigama he had gotten from the Nue and he hurled the weighted chain, catching it by the leg and yanking, slamming it back to the ground. He spun, the sickle whipping around and splitting a line of the monsters before he hurled the monster he had caught as well, knocking it and a handful more off the ship for Phoenix to burn.
Two leapt at Fenris as he was switching again, but one got blasted by a Wind spell from Sofia, being blasted apart, and the other had a spike of darkness drive itself into it before Shadow expanded back to his Dragon form, killing the creature and continuing to slaughter fish. Phoenix and Shiva both likewise killed a fish and stole their forms, then all three also stole the form of the ones with the spear.
Fenris slashed several fish with his Iceburst Sword, then his underwater sword, then the sword wit lh the wooden handle that the sword had originally been, his Nue Blade, his lava spear, his Razor Sword, his copy of Ren's Sword, the black form that used to be his default. He was switching and attacking to rapidly that the fish monsters barely got on deck before he had killed them. All around him, the adventurers were rallying, gaining confidence from his ferocity. They began to rapidly slaughter the fish, quickly spreading out across the deck until they were killing the fish as they jumped up to the ship. Then, Melty screamed.
Fenris spun with a golden spear, he was pretty sure it was the one he copied from Pope Balmus, but he had lost track of what he was using, and hurled it, the spear becoming a gold blur as it flew. It drilled completely through the fish that had pulled Melty overboard, and Melty screamed as she fell, only for L'Arc to catch her as Fenris's spear reappeared in his hand in a flash of light, only to instantly spin and shift into his Hellhound Sword, the blade as a scythe, and split a fish behind himself in half vertically.
L'Arc set Melty back on the deck of the ship and turned, slashing his scythe and sent out a tornado of Wind magic, which caght three fish in mid air and shredded them. Fenris turned back to his own battle and switched back to his underwater sword, which he noticed was called the Sea King's Sword, then slashed a pair of the fish.
"Sofia, I'm going!" Fenris shouted. "You're in charge! Shadow, Phoenix, do what she says until I get back!"
Both dragons agreed before returning to their jobs and Fenris leapt off of the ship, diving into the water, finding that there actually weren't that many fish left, and they payed him no mind, still being drawn to Hana. Fenris swam down quickly, carving his way through a dozen fish before escaping the rapidly-thinning cloud, as well as the cloud of blood, and saw the massive fish in the distance. It roared as it saw him and shot through the water toward him. He swore. It was fast.
He glanced at his sword before grinning, beginning to absorb water. "Please work!"
An alert popped up, telling him his Sea King Sword had gained Fast Swim as a new ability. He grinned and rocketted forward, spiralling around the fish and splitting it open for a ways before it jerked, streaking away from him before swinging around, horn glowing. He stopped himself and sent himself sideways just before the horn sent a massive beam of golden energy at him, the energy blasting out of the water and taking the top half of a mast off of one of the ships, thankfully not the one Eileen was on. The fish shot forward at its top speed, still far faster than Fenris could swim, and drove its horn at him, only for it to crash into his Adamantine Sword, the blade withstanding the impact without him losing too much health before he flipped over the horn and switched back, gasping for breath before strwkaing along the fish's body, splitting it for a hundred meters. He wrenched his blade upward and swam straight upward, only for the fish's jaws to slam closed around him, the water flooding info the fishcs throat as it swallowed him whole. He drove his sword into the side of its throat, tearing along for two hundred meters before stopping himself, turning his head upward to try snd keep his face out of the flood of blood shokting past him out of the wound. The fish's throat vibrated as a deafening bellow of pain and rage echoed from all around him, nearly shaking him off of his sword. However, suddenly, the throat beside him exploded open in a massive spray of blood before the head suddenly jerked, ripping him free of the side of the throat. He began to fall before electricity exploded along the fish's flesh. Fenris was releived he was thrown off, otherwise he'd have gotten fried. He flipped, looking down just in time to reache the side of the the fish's throat, sliding along it for a ways before slowing to a stop. He stood, sighing and forming himself a pair of wings before flying up to a gash abive him and quickly slashing his way out. As he broke the skin, he instantly switched to the Nue Blade, his axe blocking L'Arc's scythe and his sword blocking Raphtalia's. Both leapt away and Fenris landed beside the gash, switching back to his Adamantine Sword.
"You're alive?" L'Arc asked before smiling in relief. "I knew you were too stubborn to die."
"What's going on?" Fenris asked.
"L'Arc's a hero from another world, and it's beinf destroyed by the Waves, Raphtalia said. "So he's come here with that Glass woman that Master Naofuni's currentky fighting to kill Master Naofumi in an attempt to end them."
"I see," Fenris nodded, looking between L'Arc and Therese.
L'Arc had a shallow gash on his shoulder, probsbly from Raphtalia, and Therese had removed her headband, revealing a gemstone embedded in her forehead, and cjrrently had red hair and eyes. Fenris smirked.
"So that one's the real core, then," Fenris nodded. "Alright. Tell me, L'Arc, is this a Vassal Hero's true purpose? To go to other worlds and kill their heroes so that the Waves destroy them?"
"Yes," L'Arc said. "I'm sorry. The Waves are caused by two worlds colliding. If the heroes of one world die, that world will die, but the other will be saved. If neither world's heroes die, both worlds will be destroyed."
"I see," Fenris nodded. "I don't believe that. I'm going to find a better way. I'm going to find a way for both worlds to survive. Maybe evacuate one world into the other and let the Waves have the empty world."
"That would be next to impossible," L'Arc said.
"So better to let everyone die?" Fenris asked. "Is that what you want? You may be able to accept the responsibility for that, but do you really want Therese to have to live with that?"
"I will follow L'Arc until death," Therese said. "If we have to destroy your world, I'm sorry, but we will."
"As I said, I don't believe that's the only solution," Fenris said. "But I understand your decision. If that's the way it has to be, I'll be your opponent."
"We'll fight him together!" Raphtalia said.
"No," Fenris said. "I'm a Vassal Hero like L'Arc. I'll deal with him."
"And I'll help," Sofia said as she landed beside him, Shadow and Phoenx both hovering beside Fenris. "The last of the monsters are dead. The wave is probably waiting for him to be defeated or leave."
Fenris nodded. "Shall we L'Arc?"
"Yeah," L'Arc nodded. "You and me. Fair's fair."
"Shadow, Phoenix, go wait with the girls," Fenris said.
Both Familiars flew away and Fenris crouched, readying himself. Then, they were off. Fenris and L'Arc clashed rapidly when they met, L'Arc spinning and slashing with his scythe rapidly, Fenris fending it off as quickly as he could while countering when he could. He didn't change his weapon's form, deciding to make the fight a contest of skill, not of weapons.
He flipped over L'Arc's scythe and flipped, slashing downward at him, only for L'Arc to block it with the shaft of his scythe. Fenris landed on his feet as a blue fireball fell at them, only for Sofia to block it with a blast of Wind magic. Fenris deflected L'Arc's scythe up over his head and stabbed at him repeatedly, the blade sparking off of his scythe several times before L'Arc spun around Fenris. Fenris spun the other way, slashing as he dropped to a knee and L'Arc's scythe flashed over him as Fenris's sword tore L'Arc's shirt, only barely scratching L'Arc. L'Arc staggered backward, holding a hand to his abdomen, before smirking.
"Not bad," L'Arc smirked. "You're quick. But I'm afraid I can't allow myself to lose to you."
Therese sent a lightning bolt into L'Arc's blade and he slashed, a tornado with lightning flying through it flying at Fenrisb who spun his sword on each side, forming a pair of blue circles before slashing through them and spinning.
"Meteor Slash, Double Shot!" Fenris shouted.
The first exoded against L'Arc's attack, the second between L'Arc's feet, hurling him backward. L'Arc drove his scythe blade into the ground to stop himself just as Sofia used a fire spell to block one of Therese's spells for Fenris. Fenris strode forward, stopping in front of L'Arc as L'Arc slashed. Fenris slammed his sword i to the underside of the scythe's blade, then slashed the inside of L'Arc's forearm, the scythe spinning away.
"Damn," L'Arc smiled. "You got me."
"So it would seem," Fenris nodded, sword flashing as Fenris drove it through L'Arc's chest.
"L'ARC!" Therese shrieked, falling to her knees.
"My victory, L'Arc," Fenris said, pulling his mana sword's blade out of L'Arc's chest, L'Arc's SP completely deplete, but L'Arc himself unharmed. "Leave. This is your only warning."
L'Arc stared at him for a long moment, stunned, before nodding once, and walking toward his scythe as Fenris switched back to his Adamantine Sword.
"You...spared him?" Therese asked, staring at Fenris. "Why?"
Fenris sighed heavily. "Because I've gone soft. I didn't want you to have to suffer the pain of losing the person you love."
Therese blushed but smiled. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me," Fenris said. "The next time we meet, if we're enemies, I'm going to kill him." He looked over at her. "Take care of him, Therese. And take Glass when you leave. She's a pain in the ass too."
Therese nodded as L'Arc headed for the ship where Fenris could see Naofumi and Glass fighting, his scythe collapsed on the back of his waist. As he neared the ship, the green-haired girl Fenris had seen before going to Cal Mira used a wind spell to hurl several barrels of the alcohol berries at Glass, stopping Naofumi from using his Rage Shield. Naofumi blasted them and the girl that had thrown them and Glass both got soaked with it. Then, L'Arc landed beside Glass, Therese joining them a moment later before Fenris landed beside Raphtalia, Naofumi, and Filo, setting Sofia on her feet.
"Why's he still alive?" Naofumi asked. "I thought you were a cold-hearted mercenary."
"So did I," Fenris said. "They're leaving, though. Right L'Arc?"
"Yeah," L'Arc nodded. "Fair's fair. We've lost this battle. We'll see you again Naofumi. Fenris, I truly hope you find another way."
"So do I," Fenris nodded. "Good luck on your end."
L'Arc nodded and he, Glass, and Therese shone with golden light, flashing up into the sky before the sky returned to its normal hue.
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