"If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly."
― David Hackworth
-To War by Jingo-
-Away Down South: Chapter 5-
Raphtalia sighed to herself as yet another pair of nobles turned their noses up in disgust as she walked by. Naofumi had sent her off, telling her to enjoy the party, but that was kind of a hard thing to do when the party was made by and for people who hated her kind. Nevertheless, she did have something she needed to do, so she couldn't complain.
"Excuse me, miss?" Raphtalia tapped a somewhat familiar bob of brown hair on the shoulder. "I wanted to thank you for helping us out earlier."
"Hm? Oh!" Tanya's eyes widened in recognition as she turned around. "You're that 'coon girl from the Shield's party!"
Raphtalia blinked at her owlishly. "'Coon?"
"Y'know." Tanya brought her hands to her head, and mimed raccoon ears. "'Coon."
"... You mean I'm a demi-human?"
"No, I-" Tanya pinched her nose and sighed. "The boss' slang has been rubbing off on me too much."
"O-Oh, sorry, I wasn't trying to make fun of the way you talk."
"No, no, no." Tanya waved her off. "You're fine, and don't think you owe me anything for the help during the wave, I was just doing my job… although…"
The soldier trailed off as she looked Raphtalia over. "You know, if you really want to make it up to me, I'd gladly accept a spar- nothing formal of course, just something to test myself against another Hero's number two."
Raphtalia beamed, "That would be grand!"
But before they could continue any further, their conversation was interrupted by someone calling Tanya's name.
"M-Mr Dixie, it's nice to meet you!" Raphtalia smiled and bowed politely as only one of the cardinal Heroes she hadn't met before walked over.
"Hey Boss, how's it goin'?"
"Miss." Will nodded to Raphtalia in greeting as he approached, before turning his attention to his officer. "Tanya, I need you to go and put a lid on the little party y'all have going on, I don't care if it continues, but make sure no one leaves that room for the next hour or so. Next, I need you to scout around for Rin's party and keep an eye on them, don't interfere, but use the party system to notify me if they make any extreme movements. Get Weiss to do the same with Motoyasu's, we cannot risk anything derailing my next play. Understood"
"Yes sir!" Tanya snapped a crisp salute before sprinting off.
"Um, sir?" Raphtalia looked at Will in concern. "Is something going on?"
"Don't busy yourself worrying about my affairs, just focus on keeping your head attached to your neck for the next few hours." He smiled at her before re-adjusting his hat and walking away. "I'll have you free by the end of the night."
Raptalia opened her mouth to ask what he was talking about, but before she could say anything, her vision was obscured by a wall of royal soldiers.
"Halt! Demi human, by order of the king, you are hereby under custody of the royal guard!"
-To War by Jingo-
The ball was in chaos, it wasn't for long, and it wasn't too bad. But with two of the chosen Heroes shouting at each other, a brief but vicious skirmish between a demi human & the royal guard, and the king himself standing to issue a royal announcement, everyone was distracted.
And with everyone's heads turned the other way, William Dixie took the opportunity to slip past the guards and up a staircase, towards the restricted top ring of the royal colosseum.
A smirk on his face, and a glint in his eyes.
But little did Will know, something just as important as the duel was happening just outside the castle walls. In a corner outside the castle grounds, a certain black worm had been cornered by a couple of balloon monsters, a mundane occurrence, but one that would have devastating impacts in the future.
Teene, blind and deaf as it always had been, hissed in the general direction of the thing that had attacked it. Two balloons hopped eagerly across from it, one was brown and the other was a dark red, almost black.
The worm wiggled and waved itself in a threatening manner. The balloons were not impressed.
The brown one was so unimpressed, that it didn't even wait for Teene to finish the failed attack before leaping forward. It opened its mouth as it flew, and its teeth glowed white and extended as it used it's one and only ability, the low level skill [Fang].
The fight afterwards progressed almost identically to Teene's last balloon fight, the ball bit into the worm, and the worm wrapped around the ball as it squeezed down, turning it into a race; could the balloon gnaw through the worm before it got popped. And once again, just like last time, Teene just barely came out on top due to sheer level difference.
But unlike last time, something strange happened. Once the balloon popped, Teene paused, sniffed the balloon leather for a second, and bit into it.
The dark red balloon stopped bouncing, pausing in a mixture of shock and disgust as it watched a worm eat it's kin… something that would prove to be a fatal mistake. Because, after a few bites of the leather, Tenee froze in place and began to fizzle into static like it had when it evolved, almost like it was glitching out.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: n% I = M]
The second Balloon quickly shook itself from its stupor, and resumed the attack. It opened its mouth, and it's deep red color began to glow in the night as a ball of low-level fire magic formed in it's maw to fry its prey.
It would have worked, if only it had been a few seconds faster.
Instead, Teene recovered from the static and coiled itself up like a spring, launching itself towards the source of the heat. It's mouth opened and white teeth of energy, which it previously did not have, formed as it used it's new skill, [Fang].
The red balloon cried as the worm tore into it, its magic dispersing as it lost focus. The cries of pain didn't last long, however, as Tenee ripped it to pieces and ate it alive.
Once it had finished its meal, Teene flickered again as [n% I = M] activated. After the second round of static died down, it lifted its head into the air, looking more akin to a snake than a worm, and curled back around its body until it hovered over the basic monster seal that had been seared into it since it was an egg.
With a short burst of fire, the weak seal was seared off, causing the worm to flicker again before digging off into the ground.
-To War by Jingo-
Naofumi was angry.
No, scratch that, he was fucking pissed!
They were making him fight a rigged fight, one that they were only allowing because he didn't have the ability to actually fight back! And they had taken Raphtalia hostage to force him to compete!
The Shield Hero sat in the middle of a "preparation" room used for combatants, which was stocked to the brim with swords, shields, spears, axes, and just about every conceivable weapon that people could fight with- NONE of which he could actually use, which just served to make his mood worse.
The only thing that kept him from exploding was the smug thought that was circulating in the back of his head.
They thought he didn't have the ability to actually fight back.
A cruel smirk crept onto his face as he read over his [Thorns] skill for the hundredth time.
It was a skill with a 5 second cool down, that activated if he took damage from an attack (IE- if his healthbar moved), and retaliated with several thorn-like blades that dealt Magic Damage.
Thorns and his Tri-spike shield… this was how he'd win. He might have not been able to deal much damage, but it was still damage. It didn't matter that it wasn't a lot of damage, as long as Motoyasu couldn't get past his insanely high defense, he had all the time in the world to beat away at his stupid smug face. "A death by a thousand cuts" as the saying goes.
...well, that and the mental image of the trash king's face if he knew his own stupidity was actually helping the person he hated the most, allowing him to scan and copy every fucking shield they had in this pseudo-armory.
That was also helping his mood.
-To War by Jingo-
Naofumi stood with a scowl on his end of the arena, ignoring the jeers being thrown his way, while he waited for the playboy to arrive and the match to start.
Finally, after an unreasonably long amount of time for someone who only had one weapon to choose from, the door across from him opened and Motoyasu walked out.
The crowd, of course, actually cheered for Motoyasu, and he lapped it up, doing a few fancy spins with his spear to hype the crowd. Naofumi ignored the childish show, and instead eyed the stands for Raphtalia. She didn't appear hurt, but her arms were bound behind her back, and she was surrounded by soldiers.
Dragging his eyes back to his opponent, he noticed with amusement that even though the crowds cheering had died down, Motoyasu was still spinning his spear… just spinning it in circles while everyone watched in awkward silence.
Eventually it became clear that Motoyasu wasn't going to stop, so the King decided to cut his losses and just interrupt him.
"My honored guests!" He boomed "This is a royal sanctioned duel of honor between the Spear Hero and the Shield Hero! Defeat shall be declared should either of the party be pinned and unable to move, be unable to continue fighting, or admit defeat!"
"A fight between the Shield and the Spear huh? There's not really much of a question who'll win, is there?" Motoyasu shouted to the audience before pointing his spear (with a spin of course), at his opponent. "Naofumi! I'll release Raphtalia-chan from your evil clutches!"
Naofumi glared at him darkly, a scowl on his face. "What, you think you are? Some shitty white knight? A savior of the oppressed?"
"Yes, actually!"
"You may begin!" Aultocray, growing annoyed, cut off their banter and swept his hand out to start of the duel.
Motoyasu didn't miss a beat and immediately took off, rushing to meet Naofumi before his spear had even finished changing shape. The blonde hero spun his spear and brought it down in a sweeping overhead strike, right as it solidified into an elegant bronze halberd.
"Die bastard!"
CLANG
But the legendary spear stopped dead in its tracks, sending shocks up Motoyasu's arm as it met Naofumi's [Light Metal Shield]. Naofumi grunted and shoved Motoyasu back, smacking the pole of the blond's own weapon into his face.
"Is that all you've got?" He taunted as Motoyasu fell backwards to the ground. "Geez, and here I was thinking that the Spear Hero, a weapon literally designed to counter shields, would have some force behind his attacks."
Naofumi smirked as he watched the spear fall for the bait, hook line and sinker. He wanted the idiot to throw his whole body into an attack, put everything into it, and skewer himself on his spikes. It was why he hadn't activated [Thorns] for that first attack, and why he was using his light metal shield instead of his spiked one.
"Shut up!" The Spear Hero scowled, his weapon flashing white as it changed forms again. "You don't even know how the combat system works, you damn shielder!"
Motoyasu pulled himself up using his spear and gave it a spin, something that must have been a habit, and transformed it into a golden tipped lance- a weapon designed solely on its forward punching power. Perfect.
The blond hopped backwards to gain some distance and charged again with a roar, but unlike the last charge, there was no elegance, no flair. Motoyasu had his head ducked low, spear raised parallel to the ground, and was just sprinting as fast as he could.
"Lightning Strike Spearhead!" The Spear Hero screamed as he drew near, and Naofumi winced as the skill activated, coating the lance in angry arcs of electricity. Tanking this was going to hurt a lot more than the last one, but the Spear wasn't out of surprises just yet.
"Quick Charge!" Motoyasu yelled as he jumped into the hair, and as the skill activated, he blurred as it sent him shooting towards Naofumi like a rocket.
Naofumi didn't retreat however, instead he swapped shields and gritted his teeth as he stepped into the attack, causing the lance to just barely sail over the shield and Motoyasu to crash into the legendary 'weapon' at full speed.
But it wasn't the 'slamming into a metal wall' that hurt the most, no, that honor would go to the three giant spikes he'd just impaled himself on.
Motoyasu screamed in pain.
His armor was top tier, but that didn't really matter with the amount of force he'd just used to stab himself. One spike had slipped under his shoulder guard and dug into his shoulder, while another had punctured the relatively thin chainmail on his stomach and stabbed into his gut.
Fortunately, the last spike had hit a heavy section of his armor, and got caught, forcefully canceling the momentum, which stopped the other spikes from running him through.
Unfortunately, there was still more to come for the poor womanizer.
His spear scraped off the top of the shield, bouncing off, and slammed into Naofumi's upper left arm, easily ripping through the leather padding. Then the skill Motoyasu had used earlier came into effect, and hit the Shield Hero with a powerful blast of damaging electricity.
Naofumi clenched his jaw and hissed in pain, but it was drowned out by Motoyasu's second bout of screaming as several green spikes materialised and slammed into him with enough force to knock him off of Naofumi.
The Shield Hero shook his head, trying to clear his vision of stars, and thanked whoever was looking out for him for his passive paralysis resistance ability. Through the blinking lights, he was able to make out Motoyasu stumbling back and trying to regain his footing.
Unwilling to let his brief advantage slip away, Naofumi surged forward, reeling back his arm and throwing the meanest right hook he could; the thought of breaking Mr pretty boy's nose, and fucking up his stupid grin, giving him all the motivation he needed.
-To War by Jingo-
Malty bit her thumb as she watched the fight with rapidly growing concern. Grimacing as the damned shield knocked Motoyasu to the ground, and used some sort of dog shield to bite his arms, trying to pin him.
"He's gonna' lose, ya' know."
The second heir to the throne yelped in surprise as a voice broke her from her trance.
Spinning around and holding her arms out in a, hopefully, threatening gesture, Malty glared at who had dared to enter the royal seating section.
Half concealed in the shadows, and acting like he owned the place, William lazily leaned against a pillar with a smirk on his face as he chewed on a small meat bone of some kind.
"Sir Bow Hero!?"
"Woah, woah, woah, let's not get too hasty!" He chuckled at her in amusement, and held up his arms. "I don't mean ya' any harm, princess."
"Then what are you doing up here?" She hissed, embarrassed both that he'd managed to sneak up on her, and that he'd startled her.
"Why, same as you!" Will shrugged. "Just walked up here to watch the duel, or, well," He sighed "more like 'walk away disappointed' with the way things are going right 'bout now."
"Oh, and how exactly are things going?" Malty crossed her arms and eyed him warily.
The southerner leaned back and gave a laugh before dropping his head and looking her dead in the eye. "The Spear's gonna lose, and he's gonna lose badly."
"Really, I'm kinda tempted to intervene," He picked at his teeth with the small bone. "just to fuck the Shield over."
Malty raised an eyebrow in surprise, but let out an amused hum. "Honestly, I was thinking something similar." She admitted after a moment of consideration. "I have a wind spell prepared if it gets too bad."
"A wind spell? Ha! Don't make me laugh, what are you going to do? Cool him off?" Will rolled his eyes at her. "He's the Shield Hero, his defense is second to none, he'll shrug off your party trick like it was nothing- Hell, he might not even notice it!"
"Well at least I have something, what would you do?" She huffed at him.
He gave her a sideways glance. "Simple. You'll need to bring out an actual spell to do anything, hit 'em with something that hurts."
"An actual spell?" She blinked. "B-But the audience! The Sword Hero-"
"I already have Ren distracted." Will spat out whatever it was that he'd been chewing on and stalked towards her. "The only people in this stadium are Nobles loyal to you, the church who hates the shield, and your own father."
Will took another step, and Myne backed away at the cold gleam in his eye "Motoyasu's knocked down and has his face dug into the dirt, he can't see shit! Not even he'll be able to object, this is your only chance! Are you going to step up and do something!?"
"Wha- I- But what you're suggesting-"
Will stepped forward and shut Myne up as he shoved his face nose to nose with her, using his height to glare down at her.
"Or are you gonna sit back and prove that your mother was right, to pick your sister over you!?"
That seemed to do the trick, as any hesitation in Malty's eyes vanished, replaced by anger as she shoved him away.
"Fuck you!" She spat. "Get the fuck out! I'm destined to be queen! I know what I'm doing, and I don't need some third place to tell me what to do!"
Whirling back around to the match, she realized with a sudden shock of horror that the Bow was right, Motoyasu really would lose the match if she didn't intervene. And if the Shield had managed to tank Motoyasu's attacks, a low-tier spell wouldn't do anything!
Almost as if sensing her anger, Naofumi chose that moment to glance towards the stands, his eyes met hers, and he smirked.
He waved at her.
All reservations she had evaporated, as her vision went red.
Malty didn't think, she didn't have time to, her father would be forced to call the match any second. Instead, she acted. Raising both her hands above her head, she channeled all her anger into the biggest fireball she could, and hurled it downwards.
The effect was instantaneous, the spell smashed into Naofumi's unprepared form, sending him careening through the air and straight into a wall, while gasps and sounds of shock echoed from the stands.
The king looked over in Malty's direction in surprise, but capitalized on the opportunity, hopping from his seat to address the crowd.
"The Shield Hero has been laid low!" He announced, skipping any and all formality, before Naofumi could stand back up. "The Spear is victorious!"
Perhaps in a different timeline, had it been a subtle wind spell, the audience could have overlooked it. The viewing distance, plus their own bias against the Shield, on top of the church siding with the crown, allowing them to put aside their own doubts and go with the crowd; pass it off as the dumb Hero slipping, or Motoyasu using some sort of skill to knock him off.
But here? With no doubt of what happened, the spell very obviously being sent from Malty, and a blatant abuse of power being dangled over their heads?
The King held his arms open wide, but the only applause he received was from his most devout supporters, and even then only tentatively. Instead, angry shouts and cries of protest filled the air from the Nobility. They may not like the Shield Hero, hate him even, but the shouts weren't in support of him anyway, rather they were just against the king.
Such a blatant abuse of power, with the king interfering with a sacred duel of honor to force his daughter's candidate to win, of course the Nobility would be up in arms. After all, that same misuse of power could one day be directed at any of them.
Malty's eyes widened in fear as she realized, too late, what she'd done, but when she turned back to point at Will... he was already gone.
-To War by Jingo-
William whistled happily to himself as he walked down an empty flight of stairs, far away from the scene of the crime, while up top the sounds of everything devolving into shouting was like music to his ears.
He honestly couldn't help but pat himself on the back for a job well done, especially with how little time he'd had to put it together.
Naofumi lost, and would be forced to release Raphtalia from her slavery.
The royals look like idiots, with the king appearing weak, and his daughter like a spoiled child.
He'd buttered up the nobility during the ball, and many had taken a liking to him, so when Malty attempted to blame him (and she would), it would look like a childish attempt to shift the blame, and lower their opinion of the princess even more.
Not to mention they'd be up in arms over how Malty wasn't being punished for interfering with a duel of honor, just because she's a royal. A bit hypocritical, if you ask him, but it helped him, so meh.
The church would be forced to take a side: either keep their reputation, or their good will with the crown. It was a lose-lose situation for them, where Will came out on top either way. They go with the royals? Their reputation takes a hit, and people start to question their preachings: which just so happen to include racism. They call Malty's BS? Well they're unintentionally siding with the 'devil of the shield' which is a loud statement that they're willing to bend on their code: which again just so happens to include human supremacy.
Who said Will couldn't have his cake and eat it too?
"Excuse me, sir Bow?" Will was broken out of his happy thoughts when a servant called to him.
"The banquet is over for the most part, and the food is all getting cold," An old maid with a soft smile said to him. "Would you like anything, before we finish putting everything away, and throw the food out?"
"Can I get something to go?"
"Of course, I can have someone prepare an inexpensive plate for you to take."
"Ha! Why not?" He laughed, "A plate of your finest ribs!" Will paused and sent her a glance over his shoulder. "Actually… Go ahead and make that a double order…" He chuckled as he resumed down the stairs. "I'm feelin' hungry, tonight!"
-End Chapter-
And FINALLY, I can say that William's character has been fully introduced.
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
William is a weird character to introduce into a story, he's not 'Evil', but he's not 'Good'. If I had opened the story by going "this guy is so evil, blah blah", and then had him take an actual moral stance on things (IE: slavery), people would look at me weirdly and say I don't know how to write a villain. Not to mention that he has his heart in the right place, a decent amount of the time- he is just a human after all, not some evil demon BS cardboard cutout. But at the same time I didn't want to come out and say he was all sunshine and rainbows, 'cuz he very obviously ain't.
I eventually just decided to not say anything in the opening, and have the audience get to know Will through his actions/words, and grow an opinion of him alongside the rest of the story's characters- trying to keep up with him & determine what he's being genuine about and what's just acting or manipulation. If you had a good eye, the darker side of his character actually was referenced very blatantly as early as in the first chapter, when he had a whole mental monologue about why it's short-sighted to focus so much on one world when there's an entire Multiverse.
Also, yes the amount of "southern" Will has in his voice does frequently fluctuate, it's not me slipping. He has a decent bit when he speaks normally, with him stamping down on it when he's trying to act 'high class' (like with the nobles), or intentionally bringing it out more when he wants to seem more casual (like when trying to lower Malty's guard).
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
Also, Also, yes, I did change the story's description. The "southern/confederate legacy" aspect plays a huge role later in the story (we're actually about to see the seeds being planted in the next few chapters), but it's not as big as other things. Plus a bunch of people said it was misleading, and others got triggered "cuz south bad", and then on the other end, one guy said that Will "Wasn't a real Confederate" which, what? Why is that a criticism? And blah, blah, blah, I changed it to something more catchy, and more explanatory of Will's character, so people wouldn't be as blindsided.
(It's still underwork, and may be changed- feel free to leave suggestions if you have a good idea.)