Chapter 8 The First Wave

-Two Years Later-

''Is everything ready?'' Malty asked, as she, Eclair and Rishia were stood in the Seaetto territory, the First Wave was going to hit at any moment, so far everything was playing out like the story had, her mother had gone to a meeting with the other world leaders taking Melty with her leaving Duke Seaetto in charge and since the heroes weren't summoned yet her father had positioned soldiers at every major location he could think of.

Except for the Seaetto territory which is why she, Eclair and Rishia were protecting it, Malty was determined to not let the events of the story happen, Duke Seatto wasn't going to die, Eclair wasn't going to be declared a traitor and sent to the dungeon and all the Demi-Humans of this village were not going to be taken into slavery.

But speaking of… ''Eclair do you know where your father is?'' Malty asked.

''He's helping to move our people to a safe area in case the Wave hits'' stated Eclair.

''Ok, good'' said Malty, Duke Seaetto had called for reinforcements just in case but her father hadn't sent them and she very much doubted that he was going to send reinforcements, so she, Eclair and Rishia were going to protect the village themselves, Malty was confident they could do it, after all Naofumi defended an entire village from the second Wave, she was sure they could hold of the first wave ''the Waves going to hit any second now, I'm a little nervous''

''Malty why are you so sure the Wave is going to hit here?'' Rishia asked.

''Oh, well…'' Malty trailed off 'I can't tell them I read it in a manga' she thought before saying ''it's just a gut feeling you know, that's the only way I know how to describe it, but even if I didn't have that feeling I'd say we should do this anyways just incase because we know my father's not going to protect this place so we have to''

''Thank you for doing this Malty'' said Eclair ''oh by the way how did Melty take you staying here?''

Malty tilted her head to the side as she remembered that fiasco.

-FLASHBACK-

''But why can't you come with us big sister?'' Melty asked looking up at Malty with big sad eyes, she and Mirellia were just about to leave to go to the meeting with the other nation leaders to discuss what they would do.

'Well I guess me going to school did help wean her off me a bit, at least she's not clinging anymore, its a start' Malty thought to herself ''its because we both have our jobs Melty, your job is to go with mother and help her negotiate with the other kingdoms while my job is to remain here and protect our kingdom''

''But what if something happens to you?'' Melty ask worriedly.

''I'll be alright Melty'' soothed Malty ''I've been training for this since I was your age and me and the girls are level 25, so don't worry we will be fine ok''

''Alright, but promise me you'll be safe'' said Melty.

''I promise you'' said Malty with a smile.

Malty and Melty gave each other a big hug before Melty climbed into the carriage, Malty and Mirellia also gave each other a big hug ''is it all set up?'' Malty whispered in Mirellia's ear.

''Yes everything is set up'' Mirellia whispered back.

After she had decided to go on this trip Malty had talked to her mother about leaving some shadows here and if it would be alright for her to use them, mostly because she was worried her father was going to do something with that Thresher man influencing him and she was worried something else might happen, Mirellia agreed not feeling good about it either and they quickly set it up so the Shadows she would leave would take orders from Malty while also reporting to the queen, the two broke their hug and Mirellia climbed into the carriage before it started to go off, Malty waving at the back of it.

-FLASHBACK END-

''It went fairly well all things considered'' said Malty.

''Have you heard back from that slaver about your cousins?'' Eclair asked.

Malty just shook her head, she had told Eclair and Rishia about Fohl and Atla during there first year at school and she told them that she learned about them by looking through her family records at Faubrey, Malty hated lying this much to her friends but unfortunately it was necessary, anyways she had told them everything she knew about them and what her plan was to get them from Zeltoble and a few months later she executed her plan, going to the slaver that Naofumi went to several times and talked to him to see if he could get them from Zeltoble, he said that it might be possible but he'd need a lot of money, Malty gave him all she could and he went to Zeltoble to see if he could buy them for her.

''Unfortunately no'' sighed Malty.

''It'll be ok Malty, we'll get them out of there somehow'' said Rishia with a smile trying to cheer Malty up.

''It's not just that, I hate using the save trade'' said Malty ''I feel so hypocritical because I've been doing everything I can to get rid of the racism in Melromarc and now here I am, using the Demi-human slave trade''

''Yeah, your not doing this for the same reason the other nobles, your doing this to help them'' said Eclair.

Malty gave a nod before her thoughts drifted to the Wave that was about to hit, she was just hoping it would all go well, hell if she succeeded here it might change the course of the entire story, but there was the chance that Thresher was going to do something which concerned her, she still didn't know what he and the church were planning and she didn't have long to think about it because the Wave just hit.

Blue warp holes appeared in the sky as it turned red with monsters raining out of the warp holes, Malty took a deep breath to calm herself as she saw the monsters falling from the sky, of all the waves she knew about the first wave was the one she knew the least about since it was never shown in story, it was acknowledged that it happened and it caused many of the events in story but it was never shown, so she had no idea what the monsters were and they were too high in the sky to tell what kind of monsters they were and the only monsters she knew of from the first wave were the two headed dog and the Cerberus which was the Waves boss, but other than that she didn't know anything about this wave.

''Looks like your gut feeling was right Malty'' said Eclair drawing her sword.

''Yeah, I can see that'' said Malty drawing her sword ''alright girls, lets make our way to the safe area''

The three girls bolted towards that big castle building from the anime, Malty couldn't remember its name for the life of her, as they rushed towards the castle they encountered several monsters, as it turned out this Wave had a dog theme as its minor monsters were Hellhounds big black dogs the size of wolves that had monstrous rotting faces and breathed fire, Malty ended up using her own fire to push back there fiery breath before cutting the dogs down with her sword, while Eclair and Rishia dodged around the dogs fiery breath before attacking.

After half an hour of fighting through the Hell Hounds and they made it to the castle, the castle was surrounded by Hell Hounds along with two Two Headed dogs, there were a lot of Demi-Humans gathered around outside the castle defending it with pitchforks, hoes and anything else they could use as a weapon and it wasn't just the front of the church there were Demi-Humans standing at the top of the castle and throwing things down onto the monsters.

Malty and Eclair quickly cut there way through the Hell Hounds who were so focused on the people in front of the castle they didn't see them coming and Rishia blasted one of the Two Headed gods with some of her wind magic knocking it over onto several Hell Hounds who were blasting fire at the castle, the three girls quickly cut a path through the monsters and made their way to the front of the castle.

''Princess Malty, Miss Eclair!'' said one of the Demi-Humans sounding surprised.

''Whats the situation?'' Malty asked.

''We've been holding them off the best we can ma'am'' said a Demi-Human.

''Where's my father?'' Eclair asked.

''He's inside ma'am'' said another Demi-Human ''he wanted to fight outside but we followed your orders ma'am and kept him inside''

''Good, Eclair your with me in front, Rishia get behind us and for support'' ordered Malty ''your wind magics not going to help here unless… do you have anything thats holding water?''

''Yes its inside ma'am'' said a Demi-Human.

''Get it out here quickly I want to try something'' said Malty, a Demi-Human rushed inside to follow her orders ''Rishia get ready to use wind magic I've got an idea, the rest of us will hold them off''

As Malty, Eclair and the Demi-Humans began to fight off the crowd of Hell Hounds while avoiding there fiery breath, they were actually doing rather well and managed to push back the dogs and Malty and Eclair managed to kill one of the larger Two headed dogs by dodging its lunge and cutting both its heads off, but as they started to push the crowd of Hell Hounds back, more and more of them were showing up, but fortunately by the time they had gathered everything was set up for Rishia.

''As source of thy power I order thee, decipher the law of nature and unleash a gust of wind!'' Rishia chanted before thrusting her hands forwards ''fast wind blow!'' A magic circle appeared in front of Rishia with released a strongest of wind which sent the barrels flying.

Malty then held her hand up ''as source of thy power I order thee, decipher the law of nature and unleash multiple bursts of fire!'' Malty chanted ''Zweite Rapid Fire!'' A magic circle appeared shooting out multiple small fire balls which hit the barrels breaking them and releasing there contents, water rained down the Hell Hounds screamed as it rained on them steam coming off them, they opened there mouths to release fire, but nothing came.

''Just as I though, come on we now have the advantage!'' Malty cried, those behind her cheered and rushed forwards attacking the hounds and killing them easily, Malty was about to cut another Hell Hound down when a ball of water shot from behind her and hit the Hound in the head, Malty turned to see Rishia forming a ball of water ''Wait you know water magic?''

''Yeah, sorry its not one of my better'' said Rishia firing another First Water Shot ''but I should have used it sooner sorry''

''Oh no, its fine just don't hold back in the future'' said Malty to which Rishia nodded.

Everything was looking up, but then a Demi-Human woman, a Tanuki to be exact rushed out of the castle with her a Demi-Human man presumably her husband, though maybe not, behind her, trying to pull her back into the castle ''Raphtalia! Where's Raphtalia!'' she cried.

Hearing Raphtalia's name caught Malty's attention, she quickly ran over to the woman with Eclair behind her while Rishia and the Demi-Humans held the line ''miss whats wrong?'' Malty asked with a worried tone.

''My daughter, my daughters out there!'' the woman cried ''she was with her friends and I thought she came back with them, but apparently she got separated and now- now- now-''

''She's out there?'' Malty asked, the Demi-Human woman nodded quickly and shakily ''it's alright miss I'll get her'' the Demi-Human woman gasped and thanked her over and over, but Malty just ignored her and turned to Eclair ''Eclair-''

''I can hold it here Malty go!'' Eclair stated.

Malty nodded and rushed off to find the Tanuki girl ''Raphtalia, Raphtalia!'' she cried as she searched for the Raccoon girl, but then she remembered something from the Shield Hero anime and ran towards the cliffs and sure enough she saw Raphtalia standing at the edge of the cliffs with the waves boss the Cerberus prowling towards her.

''As source of thy power I order thee, decipher the law of nature and shoot an arrow of flames, Zweite Fire Arrow!'' Malty chanted shooting a fireball at the back of one of its heads drawing its attention ''hey you big bully, why don't you pick on someone your own size you big bully!'' The Cerberus charged towards her, Malty sidestepped and slashed the Cerberus's hind leg, she then quickly turned to Raphtalia ''Raphtalia run, I don't know if I can beat this thing by myself!''

Raphtalia nodded and bolted off leaving Malty to fight the Cerberus, the giant dog let out a roar and charged at her Malty dodged before firing several blasts of fire at the back of the dog, the Cerberus didn't seem to have any special powers just brute strength like the Two Headed Dogs, like how the Hell Hounds were weak but had fire breath to make up for it, the Cerberus then turned and rushed towards her swiping at Malty with its paw but Malty counted by parrying with her sword, it didn't work and only served to throw Malty back, but she quickly got back up and dodged a bite as the giant dog rushed back towards her and then proceeded to slash it several time, but it didn't seem to damaged the Cerberus much.

She quickly backed off as the Cerberus began to bear down on her with all three heads trying to strike her, slashing where she could but it didn't seem to do much damage, Malty quickly looked at how much HP the Cerberus had and saw that while she had taken a chunk of its HP it was still in the green, not far off from yellow though and she had taken a little damage too from being thrown back, but not much.

The Cerberus then let out a yowl and Malty noticed that it's HP had dropped into yellow ''Malty!'' Malty quickly glanced at what was behind the Cerberus and saw Eclair with her sword stabbed into the Cerberus's hind legs, giving her plenty of time to quickly get back from the Cerberus, Eclair quickly joined her pulling her sword out and ran around to join Malty ''Malty get back I'll distract it you get ready!''

''Ready? Ready for what?'' Malty asked.

''We're going to use your plan again'' said Eclair pointing two the left, Malty looked in the direction and saw Rishia stood ready while Demi-Humans were placing barrels around her ''the Waves going to end soon, we drove off the Hellhounds and the two headed dogs now we just need to kill this thing and we're using your plan to do it, those barrels are full of oil, Rishia's going to blow them at the Cerberus you shoot them with fire and it'll explode either killing it or injuring it enough to land the final blow''

'Well, technically it was Melty or Mum's plan I can't remember which it was' Malty thought to herself, before nodding to Eclair and running to the left, she wasn't very close to Rishia and she was in line to fire at the barrels as Eclair stabbed at and dodged the Cerberus's attacks, looking towards Rishia she saw they were all set up and the two girls gave each other a nod before they began to chant.

''Eclair move!'' Malty cried as she started to chant.

Eclair quickly backed off an Rishia launched the barrels and when they were in range of the Cerberus Malty launched several small fire balls and as they hit the barrels exploded, there were several howls of pain in the smoke before a loud thud, as the smoke cleared they saw the Cerberus on the ground dead and that wasn't all the sky had returned to normal, the Wave was over.

A few hours later everyone was cleaning up after the Wave, the Demi-humans were going around with carts to collect the monster corpses, they left the Cerberus and took samples of the Hell Hounds so they could later be given to the heroes on Malty's orders, Duke Seaetto was leading this effort since it was on his land.

Malty was sat on the ground her back resting against a wall as she just breathed a tired sigh alongside her friends, it was over they got through it, there were thankfully very minimal casualties and Eclair's father hadn't died meaning none of these people would be taken into slavery and Eclair wouldn't end up a prisoner, it also meant that her father wouldn't have the authority to summon all four heroes, she had won.

Until…

''Duke Seaetto, Duke Setto!'' Came a cry, Malty looked up tiredly to see a messenger running towards the duke as fast as he could.

''Whoa, whoa, calm yourself, calm yourself, what is wrong?'' asked the Duke.

The messenger panted he was so out of breath like he had run most of the way here ''the king- he- he- he ordered that the Church summon the Heroes and under Dominic Thresher's advisement they did, they summoned all Four Cardinal Heroes!''

That caused Malty to sit right up ''he did what!''

So there's the chapter, I hope you like it and I also hope I did everything right, there was a lot of ground to cover and I have to agree with a reviewer from last chapter rahad I really just wanted to be finished with this pre-shield hero story era and I'm sorry about Rishia here I legitimately didn't know she had water magic until I read it later on the wiki, I did somewhat try to correct myself though, anyways hope you liked that Wave sorry I made all the monsters dogs but you know all the monsters from that Wave we've seen were dogs, also I'd now like to ask you all something I've been rather on the fence with this but should all the Heroes fall in love with Malty or Malina as you've all been calling her (I like that name I'd like to try and find a way to use it), if you do then you'll have to give me some scene where Ren and Itsuki fall for her, Motoyasu is easy and Naofumi is going to be spending a lot of time with her, but I don't know how I'd have Ren and Itsuki fall for her, I' excited for whats coming up next I already have a couple of scenes in mind for the story, not next chapter but they will show up at one point, a scene with Melty, a scene with Mirellia and a scene with Malty.