Badda bing, badda boom, here's another chapter of our resident lawyer boi. This time we've got some exposition, some combat, and a bit of background as to what the Veil actually is.

For those of you that wanted an Io type character for Forged Heroics, stay tuned. You'll be seeing her soon.

Finally, to that one guy in my reviews that was kind enough to suggest a metric FUCKTON of characters (Seriously, that was like 30+ characters I had to consider), I appreciate the effort. However, I can't use any of them. I started reading the light novels, which is why I ended up rewriting to begin with, and according to the lore, 90% of the races that exist in the list wouldn't exist in Shield Hero. Which is sad, because you have a lot of good ideas. I homebrewed a few things myself, but I still tried to stay in the confines of the universe. Shield Hero is just one of those things that's really, REALLY hard to futz with, end even the Rock Drakes were pushing it in the last draft (Though I will be sticking to those. They were fun to write in lore for.)

With all that being said, let's get this show on the road, shall we?

Chapter Three- Boy Meets...

The wind above the rooftops tore at Max's hood as he leaped about, using various implements of the Veil to traverse the overhead world.

When a jump was too far, he extended a Stinger tail to launch himself further. The tail had a habit of extending with the spearhead first, then pushing outward by making the chain. This leads to increased maneuverability, since using this can push him further than he can actually jump.

Only issue was that it seemed to make him more visible, even if he couldn't be recognized.

"Hey! You! Get down from there!" There came a voice from below, located in an alleyway. "Over here! We have someone on the rooftops!"

"Shit." Max cursed beneath the mask, redirecting his course. He'd have to move fast, since he didn't know how long he'd have before they decided to use whatever magic this world had to offer to try to catch him.

"As source of thy power, I order thee! Decipher the laws of nature and slow my target! First Speed Down!"

His ears just barely managed to catch this right before everything around him sped up. Damn! What the hell was that? My movements are slower?! He looked down at the people below him, grimacing in annoyance. Another incantation was cast, resulting in a shattered window and a woman screaming. That one he hadn't been able to hear.

"Get down here, damn it! You're not supposed to be up there!" One guard shouted, to which Max said nothing, only taking another turn to hopefully shake them off his tail.

I gotta get down from here. If I duck into an alley, I can change out of this Veil and lose them. Another Grapnel was launched from his wrist, stabbing into an adjacent rooftop and yanking him forward. This gave him a bit of space to move, but it also put him in the path of a few people he really didn't want to be associated with the second he hit the ground. Specifically, more guards.

"The hell?" One brandished a sword upon seeing him. "Who are you?! How'd you get up the- HEY! GET BACK HERE!" Max never waited around to hear the end of his question. By the time he was asking how he got on the roof, he'd already turned on his heel and started dashing in the other direction. The guards were quick to pursue, running at full speed after him. Due to the empty streets, not many people were in his way.

Damn! If only I could change to the Scout's Veil, I could outrun them! But switching would show who I am… I can't risk that. His only option was to outmaneuver them. He pivoted on his heel, running straight towards the wall to his left, then kicking off and dashing into the alleyway before they figured out what was going on. Using Grapnel once more, he attached the wrist grapple an overhang above him and pulled himself. Stationary Anchor kept him in place as the guards charged down the alley he had gone through, not once bothering to look up.

"This way! He couldn't have gone far!" This is when he switched out to the Scout's Veil in Ivy configuration, watching as they charged forward without a second thought. The crimson scarf dangled from his neck as he breathed a sigh of relief, raising one hand to his ear.

"Audio Enhancement." His ears began picking up conversations from the buildings around him, very quickly being overwhelmed by the amounts of voices he was hearing. Including noises he found slightly disturbing, directly beside him in the building to the right.

"-on't your wife be angry?" This was a woman's voice, from what he could hear.

"She doesn't have to know. She's over in Mirso, doing business. We have the entire week to ourselves." This was a man, the voice playing over what sounded like the rustling of fabric. "Let's get to the fun, shall we?"

Oh, ew! I did not want to hear this! Focus on something else, focus on something else! Get this infidelity crap away from my ears! Well, if nothing else, this skill would be pretty damn good if he ever decided to become a private investigator.

Shaking his head and resisting the urge to vomit, he made an attempt to focus on the guards that had just made their way down the alley, but could only focus on the heavy bootsteps that were left in their wake.

"Whew… I guess that I'm in the clear for now." The vines of the anchor he'd set up retracted as he grabbed the ledge of the building, pulling himself onto the roof again. This time, he had some speed on his side and had less of a chance of getting seen. He'd lost a lot of ground between following Naofumi and being chased by the guards, and he needed to catch up.

Knowing that, he ducked into a runner's crouch, then put that Speed Up (Passive) skill to use as he took off in a sprint.

He should've done that from the beginning, rather than waste time on worrying about not being recognized. With this, he was significantly faster than he was before, probably running at somewhere close to 13 mph. Humans tend to run at about 5 mph on average, so this was a huge increase. He was traversing the rooftops at more than twice his normal speed, though part of that was probably due to his AGI stat. It was one of his highest stats, after all.

Within about thirty minutes, Max had made his way across the rooftops of the kingdom and landed on the one closest to the castle. Tiny problem, though; this was still at least a hundred feet away, and he knew that even if he could jump the gap by building up enough momentum, someone would see him. This was out of range of Grapnel, and his Stinger wouldn't be able to reach that far.

Damn… well, let's see if I can figure out what's happening from here. He waited patiently for the timer on his HUD to tick down to zero, then used that skill once more. Audio Enhancement. He held his hand to his ear as if holding a headset close, turning his fingers occasionally and pantomiming the turning of a dial to readjust his focus on another conversation.

"-dunno what they put in that sausage at the feast, but it hasn't been agreeing with me." A male voice spoke, and Max could distinctly hear the clinking of something small, metal, and plentiful in count. It must have been chain mail of some sort.

"Who knows? Maybe they ground up some cat that was lounging around the castle." The same clinking sound could be heard beneath the voice of another person, so these two had to be guards.

"Gross. Don't say weird things like tha-" That was about as far as that conversation got before Max turned his fingers to adjust his hearing, focusing elsewhere for the time being.

"-at about that new hero they summoned? The "vein hero," or whatever he was called?" This was a woman's voice.

"Oh, quiet Beatrice. And it's the Veil Hero, not Vein. Listen for once." This was another woman, berating the other for her inattentiveness. "Either way, he'll make for a good show. Something tells me that boy is going to be interesting to keep an eye on."

"Right… although, if it weren't for those eyes of his, he'd be just my type." She made a strange sound, which could've been a shudder of either unease or… well, he didn't want to think of the other possibilities. "I swear, it was like he was staring through me."

"I know, right? Any other color, they'd just look at you, but… Silver? Why did we have to draw a creepy one this time around? He makes me think of some sort of back alley serial killer."

"..." Max sweatdropped at hearing these statements, his face falling flat into a deadpanned glare at nothing in particular. "Okay, now that's just rude."

"I know, right? A creep is one thing, but a serial killer? That's a little excessive." Max blinked for a moment, then took a look around, thinking someone was here with him. Seeing nobody, he shook his head and redirected his focus again.

"-aped the adventurer he was with."

"Seriously? Despicable. To think that a hero of all people would do such a thing…"

Hello… What's going on here? He held his hand over his other ear to block out noises in it, then focused his attention on the conversation he was picking up.

"Knew the shield would be a rotten one the moment I laid eyes on him. Just saying the name makes me want to put my boot between his eyes. I hope that after they try him, they lop off that stupid little head of his. No rapist deserves to live, even a hero."

Max's mind screeched to a halt. They're… talking about Naofumi? What do they mean by 'rapist?' He had never really felt anxiety before, but he was sure it was pretty close to this feeling. Consequences be damned, he had to figure out what was going on. Things were getting really damn confusing, and answers were needed, or he was gonna hit someone. Lowering his hands, he took a few steps back, ducked into a crouch, and sprinted at full speed towards the ledge.

Preemptively, he extended the Shadow Steel Ore Veil in Stinger form, using it like a pole vaulter would and moving himself as far as he could go. While rotating midair in a rapid spin, a use of Shifting Hollow got him half the distance while a single shot from Grapnel was enough to latch onto the outer part of the castle wall, the mist that was his form fully reappearing as he did so.

Like before, this did not go unnoticed.

"Holy-"

"What the hell was that?"

Just before the guards could see him, he ducked behind one of the battlements that had been used at the top of the castle walls, making sure not to be seen. A boy with long blonde hair and a weird weapon to boot would most certainly stand out amongst the others. So, he had to hide.

"...guess there's nothing there…"

"You idiot! Saying things like that is a good way to get you killed! Stay at your post. I'll go alert the captain."

"Crap. Guess they're not as stupid as in the movies, huh?" Once more, a voice that he didn't recognize caused him to whirl around to see if he had been followed. The act of doing so caused him to realize that there was a guard directly where he had decided to land, staring directly at him and attempting to process what he'd just seen.

"..." Max gave him an awkward stare and retracted his weapon. "...I guess it's too late to say that I forgot my room key, isn't it?"

"..." The guard just tilted his helmet down over his eyes, as if pretending he didn't see him. "...I'm too old for this shit." He just continued grumbling in annoyance as he made his way down the path atop the wall, leaving a dumbfounded Max in his wake. He stood there for several minutes in sheer confusion before the frozen blob of chili that was his brain finally decided to thaw out.

"Huh… never underestimate laziness." He stood on the edge of the battlement now, taking a look around to see if he could find what he was looking for. "Let's see… where's the area we started in?" He switched out to the Wanderer's Veil once more, not putting on the hood or mask this time. He kicked off of the wall, drawing out his Climbing Gear skill and attaching himself to the wall with a claw.

Through the stained glass, he could see several people inside, including nobles, guards, and three of the heroes. The sun was just starting to come up, revealing the shield hero in nothing but his boxers and a t-shirt, surrounded by guards with a bright blue glow pushing them back as they attempted to grab him.

Long story short? Things didn't look good in the slightest.

Unheard words were spoken by the people inside, which Max could not understand due to his Audio Enhancement skill having timed out. But he could get the general gist of what was happening. Everyone seemed convinced that Naofumi had done something, and although he had a suspicion that he knew what he was being accused of (since the guards had been talking about it), Max still had a pretty damn hard time believing it. Seriously, how do you get yourself raped by a person with an overwhelmingly low attack stat?

Naofumi stormed out, throwing something at Motoyasu that glittered in the sunlight. As the gates slammed shut behind him, that adventurer that Naofumi had in his party latched onto Motoyasu with an expression that made Max knit his eyebrows.

This is all kinds of wrong. I have to find Naofumi. If I want to hear the truth, I'll have to hear his side before anything else.

"Hey! On your right!"

The warning came seconds too late, Max giving a grunt of pain as he was blindsided and thrown from the wall. The force that did so wrapped around his leg, whipping him around midair and pulling him several feet away from where he initially was. More than just that, it dragged him down the alley outside the castle walls.

"What the hell is this thing?! Let go, damn it!" He manifested a claw on his right arm as his Veil turned to Ogre configuration, grabbing onto his leg to keep himself upright and hacking at the thick cord wrapped around his ankle. It wasn't anything like he'd seen before, since it looked like a rope made of flesh and bone. His claw wasn't doing anything to it, so he tried just straight up tearing at it in an attempt to get it off.

In his haste to free himself after being flung through the air like a rag doll, he slipped and sliced his hand open. The adrenaline was surging now, his panic turning to desperation as he clawed and tore at the rope to no avail. He finally stopped when the thing slammed him into a wall and let him drop to the floor.

"Urgh… well, that's not a roller coaster I want to ride a second time…" His head dropped to the stony floor as the adrenaline faded, giving way to a dull and throbbing headache. "I think that one had too many turns and twists." His vision went black, and with a quiet voice, he said, "Stop the world. I want to get off."

The night had returned by the time Max next opened his eyes. He blinked twice, then three times.

This was because an unfamiliar sensation was felt on the back of his head. Rather than hard and cold cobblestone, he could feel something warm and soft. Before he could figure out exactly what that was, a girl with white/silver hair, tanned skin, and golden eyes leaned over him with a gentle gaze, staring into his eyes. She appeared to be right around his age. The last thing he noted was that she wore a strange pendant and a black hood/scarf combination thing.

"Welcome back." She spoke in a voice that reflected the same gentle nature that her gaze represented. "How are you feeling?"

"Ai…" He sat up slowly, placing his hand on his neck and moving it only slightly. This sent a jolt of pain into his skull and down his spine, which soon silenced itself after he tilted his head to let his neck crack quietly. "Been better, I guess. My head feels like someone slammed it into a wall."

"Good. You're finally awake." This was a male voice, who held what looked like a military style rifle with a bayonet grafted to it. The man in question looked to be in his late twenties, sporting black hair and red eyes. Beside him was a man with brown hair and a small white streak through it, having an eye color similar to Max's but at a darker shade. The alley he was laying in appeared cordoned off, isolated from the public by a strange bonelike structure at the end of the alley.

Alongside the people in front of him, there appeared to be several more around them in hoods and masks.

"What the hell is going on here? Am I being mugged?" Max jumped to his feet, flexing his fingers and drawing out the Ogre variant on the Shadow Steel Ore Veil. "I won't hesitate to cut you to pi- HEY!" His voice cut out for a moment as something kicked his legs out from under him, being caught by the girl who had greeted him upon awakening.

"Would you calm down for a second? Jeez, you meet the people you're gonna be working with and your first instinct is to attack… either you have some killer instincts the likes of which I've never seen, or you're a bit trigger happy." This was the one with the gun, who thumbed the safety and chambered a round. Much like with Max and the Veil, he had a core in his hand, this one colored a deep blue.

"Wait, 'working with?' I don't even know who you people are!" His voice showed that he was growing quite agitated, but as the girl who had caught him ran a hand over his hair, as if stroking it, his mood began to calm to a dull throb. "Sorry, that came out a bit more aggressive than I planned for. What are your names?"

"We don't use names when we first meet each other. We go by callsigns." He shook his head and raised his rifle to rest on his shoulder. "Mine is Brujah. wielder of the Legacy Firearm." He pointed a thumb at his companion. "This is Tzimisce, wielder of the Legacy Trick Weapon. The girl who's got you is Toreador, Legacy Pendant holder." At the mention of her callsign, she turned her gaze to the one with the gun. "The one who knocked you down is Nos, Legacy Grieves. That one behind you with the book," Max only just now noticed him as he was pointed out. "...is Ministry, Legacy Tome Wielder."

Max couldn't see the fourth one he was talking about. Maybe that was just one of his skills?

"We're here so that we can get you up to speed on what's going on here. Nos had infiltrated the castle and gathered some intel, listening to what was happening." This was Tzimisce, who crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "The redheaded adventurer, Myne Sophia, had an idea to get closer to one of the heroes by accusing the shield hero of rape."

"Seriously?" Max deadpanned. "You knew this and didn't bring it to anyone? Why not?"

"We have our reasons. But now that you know this, what do you want to do about it?" Brujah asked, stepping forward with his firearm at the ready. This confused Max, causing him to tilt his head at the question.

"What do I want to do? What do you mean?" Toreador's hand stopped stroking his hair.

"Every person who has a Legacy weapon has some reason for wanting to be stronger. They have some drive within them to why they wish to be a hero." Nos spoke, crouching down with his forearms resting on his knees. "What's your reason?"

"..." He didn't answer, as his reasoning for even having this weapon in the first place was because someone yanked him from his world and said he was hero material.

"You don't know, do you?" Brujah asked. "That's not good. That won't do at all. Tzimisce, do the thing."

"Right." The man cracked his knuckles and neck in a similar manner to Max, then flicked his hands upwards. "On your feet, Veil."

"Uh… what?" Before he could get a proper answer, Tzimisce reached out his hand… and kept reaching out as his entire arm extended in a mess of flesh and bone. The arm grabbed his shirt and lifted him into a standing position.

"I said on your feet! We're going to train. We need to get you into fighting shape." Tzimisce dragged his arm back as his flesh properly reformed. "Come at me. Summon your Veil."

"Fine, then! Don't blame me if you get hurt!" Max took a fighting stance, drawing his arm back and ducking into a half crouch. His Veil switched to the Shadow Steel Veil in Stinger configuration, drawing out the metallic tail within in a display of shifting metal. His mask formed over his face in response.

"That's the spirit." Tzimisce took a fighting stance, beckoning him forward with only a hand. "I'm ready for you."

As Max gave a roar and charged forward, the Legacy wielders backed up to give them both space.

His first attack was a whirling strike with the Stinger, attempting to catch Tzimisce off guard with the movement of the tail. This didn't go unanswered, being deflected easily with a simple bit of bone armor that emerged from his flesh.

"Try again. You don't know what you're doing."

"Grr…!" The Veil switched to Ogre configuration as he called out the name of a skill. "Phantom Assault!" His body dissolved into glowing mist, causing him to vanish before the eyes of those watching. When he reformed, he was in the air and delivering a whirling slash to his guard. The claw simply bounced off of said guard, much to Max's annoyance. He activated his Climbing Gear skill next, which caught Tzimisce by surprise slightly when the second claw threw his guard upwards. "Shadow Assault!" His next strike was one that actually did damage raking his claws across the chest of his opponent in a vantablack slash. A hint of blood could be seen spraying from the wound, which was collected by the Veil and deposited within the reserves of the core.

"Hmm… not bad." As Tzimisce held out his hand, a staff made from what looked like bone built itself out from his hand. He spun the weapon deftly within his hands, slamming it into the ground. "My turn." He dashed forward, blurring before Max's eyes before the staff of bone collided with his jaw and smashed against it with a sickening crunch of metal, bone, and tissue.

"AGH! HUN OF A HITCH!" He found himself unable to even swear properly with his jaw as it was, cradling it within the broken mask and hanging by bits of torn muscle. A popup appeared within his field of view.

[Attention. You have received serious damage. Consider using a Regeneration Charge.]

The weapon on his arm disappeared, as did the mask, forcing Max to hold his fractured jaw in place as he dodged the consecutive attacks from Tzimisce's staff. How is he so strong?! He shattered my jaw in one hit! Seeing the prompt on his screen, he considered the option before pressing his left hand to his face. Holding his jaw together with one hand and holding the core against it with the other, warm light passed through his hands and face as the pain subsided within moments.

"Hey! Jackass! That friggin' hurt!" He switched to various Veils as he began dodging attacks with more efficiency, the first being the Meteoric Iron Ore Veil to activate one of his skills, Iron Will. The second was the Merciless Reaper skill from the Hydrosteel Ore Veil. Add those to the skills from the Yellow and Orange Balloon Veils, which were those Adrenaline and Blow of Madness. Finally, he switched to the Meteoric Iron Veil for one of his attack skills.

"Tell me, Veil! Why do you want to be stronger?!" His attacks kept on, ranging from thrusting attacks to swirling strikes that dealt a lot of damage if they hit. "If you get out of this alive, why will you strive to obtain strength?!"

"Why do I want to get stronger?!" This all took place over the course of about 30 seconds. He was forced to duck, dodge, weave, parry, and do anything he could to possibly stop Tzimisce from dealing that much damage to him again. "At this point, I don't care about the waves! I just want to go home! But more than that, I want to make sure that Naofumi's name is cleared above all else!" He leaped into the air once everything was active, preparing one of his strongest attacks. "Eat this! Severing Abyss!"

He dropped back down into the alley, slamming down with a claw that burned with dangerous energy. Tzimisce simply raised his staff, the claw crashing against it and igniting sparks. It didn't take long before the enhanced claw split the staff down the middle, raking the claw against Tzimisce's face and chest.

"Ngh! Damn…" The man stepped back, holding his hand to his left eye. The area now had a somewhat nasty looking gouge travelling from eyebrow to halfway down the cheek. "Lucky shot…" He raised his hand to summon another weapon, but he was stopped by the rifle that was held by another hero.

"Alright, that's enough." Brujah spoke, separating the two. "I'm satisfied now."

"'Satisfied?' What the hell do you mean by that?" Max maintained his position, still in a combat stance.

"The Veil is meant to be one of the most powerful out of the Legacy weapons, hence why it was made in the image of the Holy Weapons. Kind made it so that it could properly mimic their power, and although it can't quite outmatch them at full strength, the wielder can go toe to toe with a Holy Weapon for at least an hour if he's got the right skills." Nos finally spoke, moving into view from where he was. "However, the only way that the Veil can be fully awakened is through the power of an outside force and strong resolve."

"A summoned hero and a reason for growing stronger, right?" Max deduced. This caused Nos to nod.

"Right. A Veil Hero is almost always summoned from the world of where a hero has been called. Since there's already a path to that world, it's easier to draw one from it. You're from the world of the current spear hero, right? Though the Legacy Heroes can share their strength with the Holy and Vassal Heroes, it's rare that we actually share our techniques with each other. Most don't trust us, since we mostly feed off of the monsters we kill."

"You mean with the blood, right?" Max looked down at the core in his hand, remembering that there was a section that had to do with how much blood he had stored.

"Right. Most of the weapons don't have anything that they can do with the blood of monsters. We don't have that limitation. Most of our unique abilities run off of blood. But enough exposition. Let's get to the good part." Nos reached down towards his feet, touching the core in the grieve on his right leg. A small chunk of meat the size of his fist was produced, glowing with energy. Brujah did the same, and Tzimisce simply produced it from his palm. Ministry did the same with a book he held in his hand. "We've got a few things you might need."

"What are those for?" He asked, watching as they handed the pieces to Tzimisce, who molded the chunks of flesh into a larger one.

"Materials from Wave bosses." Brujah put his rifle on his back. "All of the countries have Waves, so they have individual bosses that you can take on to get materials. Tzimisce fought the one in Shieldfreeden, I fought the one in Zeltoble. Nos helped with the one in Siltvelt. Ministry fought in Siltvelt as well, the main driving force that helped push the monsters back. We imbued these chunks of Wave boss meat with blood from our weapons to give you something from each of us." Tzimisce handed the meat to Max, who looked down at it while the core glowed brightly, waiting to accept the material. Giving a shrug, Max placed the material in the core and watched his HUD light up with text.

[Attention]

Kindred Techniques have been shared. Implementing now…

Completed.

Conditions Met

Queenslayer's Veil
Equipment Grade- Ramshackle
Ability- Restorative Offering: Using the power of your regenerative capabilities, you can sacrifice some of your health to grant it to your allies.
Rank Up: Using the power of nothing more than your own determination, force the Veil to evolve itself to face the situation at hand. Any configuration unlocked has its power multiplied to some degree, upgrading to a more advanced version of itself.

Combat Techniques Unlocked
Holster (Ministry)
Flash Step (Nosferatu)
Sleight of Hand (Tzimisce)
Weapon Form Manifest (Brujah)

Looking at the various messages that popped up on his screen, Max blinked in surprise. Combat techniques? Since when were those a thing?

"That should be enough for now. We'll give you more when you can handle it, and when you've mastered what you've got." This was the one with the book. Ministry, if he remembered correctly.

"Hang on a sec… some of what you ended up giving me really doesn't line up with what you have. Shouldn't Brujah have Holster and Tzimisce with Weapon Form Manifest?" Max looked at his HUD after reading over the things he just got.

"I think that was meant for us to work together. The creator of these things decided it'd be a good idea to swap combat techniques around to make sure we can share our shit and be even stronger." Brujah shrugged, his hand tracing the trigger guard of his rifle. Within moments, it shrunk down to the size of a handgun in the form of a flintlock pistol, which was attached to his side and hidden under his jacket.

"Guess that makes sense…anyways, if I'm gonna get stronger, I have to figure out what happened from the other heroes." Max stood, switching to the Meteoric Iron Ore Veil in Hound configuration and putting the jacket on as normal. "Chances are everybody has a different story, so I need to cover all of my bases. Thanks for everything, guys."

"One more thing, Veil." Nos spoke once more, leaning against the wall. "Toreador and I are going to be watching over you for the time being. Myself so that you don't end up dead, and so that if anything happens, I can relay information to the others. It's one of my skills." He pointed at Toreador. "She's gonna make sure you don't frenzy."

"Frenzy?"

"You'll understand later. Just try not to exhaust the reserves of blood in the Veil, and there won't be an issue." Tzimisce nursed his wounded eye and face with a sealing of flesh through his powers, leaving a crack shaped scar over his left eye. "Now get outta here, kid. Go get stronger."

Max took a single look around, then gave a nod in response.

"I will. I won't let you guys down."

With that, Max dashed off into the night, leaving the Legacy wielders to simply look behind him and watch as he left.

"He's a good kid." One of the masked figures hummed in thought as he pulled down his hood and mask, revealing pitch black skin and bright green eyes. "Let's hope he lives up to the legacy of the last one."

"One can only hope… right, Boss?" Brujah turned to him while raising an eyebrow.

"Right. Nos, you know what to do. Bring him in."

"Got it."

And that's all she wrote, ladies and gents! How did you guys like the introduction to the Legacy wielders? Some of you might recognize the callsigns that were being used. If you do, let me know in the reviews!

Also, let's give a big round of applause for the first Omake, which was inspired by one of the users from the Shield Hero Discord server. Check it out if you get the chance.

Omake 1- Not how this works
(A huge thanks to GamerTriton13 in the Shield Hero server for coming up with this!)

The sounds of metallic bootsteps hitting the pavement of Castle Town were loud and very noticeable to most of the citizens that were out and about. Currently, they were chasing some psychopath that decided to jump onto one of the rooftops and run up there for God-Only-Knows what reason. One of them had already cast a debuff spell to slow him down, but he still had the advantage of being as high as he was.

"Well, shit… how do we get him down? We don't have the equipment or any creatures that could get us up there." One guard asked, crossing his arms and staring up at the man that now glared down from behind his mask.

"No worries, I got this." One other guard donned a smug grin, cracking his knuckles after lacing them together.

"Uh, Steve? I don't think that's a good idea-!" One of the others spoke, but his cries were ignored.

"As source of thy power, I order thee! By my arm, strike true and fly!" A mote of energy materialized by him, pulsating violently and with no discernible shape. As his hand closed around it, it manifested as a glowing sword made of pulsating energy. "Dreifach Sword… YEET!" Upon saying the last part of the incantation, he drew back the sword and hurled it as if it were no more than a dagger.

It missed its mark spectacularly, sailing and breaking through the window of a nearby house while exploding and nearly blinding the occupants.

"Steve, I told you there was more to magic than that." One of the others groaned and facepalmed, while "Steve" simply grunted in annoyance.

"And I thought I told you to shut the fu-"

"What the hell are you doing?!" A woman wrapped in nothing but a towel peeked her upper half out the window. "I hope you plan on fixing this, or there'll be hell to pay!" Immediately, the guards stiffened and bowed in apology.

"Terribly sorry, Ma'am! We will cover the damages! Please enjoy the rest of your bath!" She drew herself back inside with an audible 'Hmph,' which caused the guards to loosen in terms of tension.

"Haah…. I don't get paid enough for this shit."