I do not own or maintain any rights to Rising of The Shield Hero they belong to One Piece Books and Aneko Yusagi. I am just playing in their sandbox for a minute.
Chapter 7: They've Come To Snuff The Rooster
"Mr. Williamson, momma said it's time to get up." A small voice called out as I felt something poking my face.
Groggily I sat up after taking a second to boot up. I could see that it had been Billy that had awoken me, who was now poking a loudly snoring Naofumi. Seeing that Billy was having trouble waking him, I slid out of my bunk and walked over to them.
"Mr. Naofumi! Wake up!" Billy shouted, rocking him a little.
"Stand back, Billy," I instructed him as I slid my right foot under the lip of the bed. Flexing my heel, I lifted the bed a good four inches off the ground before dropping it with a loud "Thud!", Naofumi let out a scream as he sat bolt upright and clutched his chest.
"Jesus!" He yelled; he twisted his neck around to look at me. "Was that absolutely necessary?"
"I'm sure if he was here, he'd say it was," I responded, cracking my own neck. "You were sleeping so hard Billy couldn't wake you up," I said, pointing at the boy who was staring up at me. Naofumi sat back to look around me at Billy. Billy smiled sheepishly before heading to the door.
"Momma has got dinner ready," He said, running out the door.
"Come on, bud, they have food ready," I said, heading over to my gear and getting ready for the night. Naofumi put his head in his hands and groaned before getting up and heading to his gear.
"Fill your canteen before starting patrol; we should have about seven hours before sunrise. Also, don't be surprised if it takes several hours before anything happens." I instructed him as I pulled on my jacket and fastened its clips.
"Will do," he yawned back.
Leaving Naofumi to get ready, I headed out the door and over to the well. Pulling the bucket up, I pulled out a rag I had stuffed into my pocket earlier and started to wash my face. Ringing the rag out, I folded it back up and stuffed it back into my pocket.
"Getting ready for the night?" Mathew said as he walked up behind me.
"Yeah, figured it would be wise to head out right after I eat," I said as I tipped the bucket over to pour water into my canteen.
"Do you expect the monsters to attack this soon?" He asked, leaning on the rim of the well.
"No, we might see one or two right now, but I expect the most of them to come a few hours before dawn," I explained, offering him the bucket, he held up a hand, and I dumped the rest of the water out.
"Why do you think that?" He asked.
"It's when the night is darkest, so I think most of the monsters will be active then," I said, hanging the bucket on a hook.
"Well, I hope you and your partner are up to this," He said, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. "The last few have been so bad. Larry and I have had to barricade the door of the bunkhouse to keep the beasts out," He said after taking a few drags. "Can I be honest with you?" He asked quietly.
"I would like to think so," I responded, leaning on the well too.
"The last few attacks have been so bad I have been thinking about getting Larry and heading to greener pastures; I would hate to have to do that to Junior though," He took a few drags before he continued. "You see, Larry and I owe him a lot for letting us stay here, our lives in fact," He said, looking into my eyes.
"How do you owe him our lives? I thought you were ranch hands," I asked him.
Mathew snuffed out his smoke before reaching up and taking off his. To my surprise, he had a pair of rabbit ears tucked under it that fell to either side now that the hat was gone. He looked at me as if that explained it. I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"So, you have a pair of rabbit ears; I assume Larry does too?" I said, crossing my arms.
Mathew just looked at me in shock and sputtered for a moment. "I just told you that I was a demihuman!" He whisper-yelled. I put up a hand.
"What's a demihuman?" I asked him, "Besides the obvious," I added, gesturing at his ears.
"We are," he paused, looking like he was trying to figure out how to explain, "Well, we are. . . like humans but with animal bits attached, and we have some animal senses and instincts. Wait for a second! How the hell do you not know what a demihuman is?
I figured it would be hard to keep Naofumi and I's true identities under wraps, especially at first while we still don't know so much. 'Might as well just tell him; after all, he told me a big secret, I guess,' I thought to myself. "Naofumi and I are two of the Cardinal Heroes," I said, just dropping the bomb.
His mouth dropped open in surprise, "So, Mr. Naofumi is the Shield Hero?" He asked, his eyes almost growing to the size of dinner plates when I nodded. "Does that mean you're the Spear Hero?" He asked, practically jumping backwards into the well.
"No, for whatever reason, the ritual pulled five of us this time; no, we don't know why or what I'm supposed to be the hero of," I said, catching him before he fell in. "Now, what is a demihuman? And why is it so important you and your brother are one?"
Mathew shuffled nervously from foot to foot for a second, "My brother and I . . . well we are runaway slaves," He whispered, looking down, "We ran away from a broker in Castle-town named Belukas. Larry and I got away, but our younger brother Johnathan got caught before he could escape," He said with tears appearing at the corner of his eyes. "We ran all the way here and passed out in one of the pens; when Junior found us in the morning, he carried us to the bunkhouse and bandaged our wounds. When we awoke the next day, he told us that we were needed in the farmhouse. Everyone talked about it, and instead of turning us in, they covered for us." He finished becoming choked up.
"I'm sorry such a thing happened to you; let's go inside and get some food. I can promise you this Naofumi, and I will save this ranch," I said, looking him in the eyes and feeling myself fill with resolve.
I entered the farmhouse to see that Naofumi was already seated at the table with everyone else crowded around it talking.
"Hello," I said, giving a wave to the table at large. "How did the preparations for the raid tonight go?" I asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down between Naofumi and Junior.
"We got more than a dozen traps set up between the pens and boundary wall, along with getting enough torches set up so you should be able to see from the pens to the buildings enough to be useful," Bill explained, handing me a plate loaded with a large steak and potatoes.
"That will be a big help tonight," Naofumi said after finishing a large bite of his steak, "Do you want to repeat our plan from earlier again, or do you have another idea?" He continued taking a drink of water.
"We are going to switch it up a little tonight. We are not going to be the hunters tonight but the hunted. Let's focus on keeping the monsters out from the wall inward; the torches should give us enough light to be able to take most of them from a distance," I finished popping a large piece of the steak into my mouth and savoring it.
Naofumi nodded in response, inhaling some more food from his plate. "So tonight is more about trying to gauge the remaining number of monsters rather than eliminating them outright?" He asked after finishing his morsel.
"That is right, no plan survives first contact with an enemy but the more information you have moves the ball further into your court. I am hoping that we might find the alpha that Bill mentioned to us tonight. If we can do that, we can end this fight quickly with minimal effort on our end," I explained, eating another part of my steak.
"That makes sense; I wouldn't want to go running around in the woods at night with god knows what in there," Matthew piped in, stealing a piece of meat from his brother.
"Well, good luck to you both," Martha said, clearing out the plates of those that were done. "If y'all see anything startling, just give us a holler, and we will come running," She said as she picked up Naofumi's plate.
"That's right," Junior said, standing up and collecting his children. "Stay safe out there." He finished giving us a nod and heading deeper into the house.
Sarah stood up looking like she would follow him but instead walked over to a counter and picked up two brown paper-wrapped packages. "I made you both some roast sandwiches in case you get hungry while you work tonight," She explained once we both had a set, "I can't thank you both enough for what you're doing for us. I love my family dearly and was deathly afraid of what might happen until you both showed up." She finished excusing herself and following her husband.
"She couldn't be more right," Bill said, holding Martha's hand while they sat at the table, "This ranch is all that we have, and until your intervention, I was worried we were going to have to sell it off and head for greener pastures." He said, putting an arm around his wife.
"We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen," I said, checking over my gear one last time. "We should get started now if you will excuse us," I said, standing up, "Goodnight to you both. We will see you in the morning." I finished getting a similar farewell from them both as Naofumi, and I headed outside.
Once outside, I turned to talk to Naofumi, "Keep your head on a swivel tonight; we don't know what is out there. If you start to get in over your head, call for me, I will be there asap to lend a hand.
TIMESKIP
I hadn't expected to encounter any monsters early in the night, so I spent most of the hours after nightfall checking the traps. To my surprise, they were primarily empty after a few hours and remained that way a little after midnight. I had just made another pass by Naofumi when it finally happened. After Naofumi and I had waved to one another and exchanged pleasantries, a loud howl sounded from deep in the forest.
"Did you hear that?" I asked Noafumi cocking my head towards the sound.
"It would have been hard not to; what do you think that was? It didn't sound like the porcupines from earlier." He responded, buckling his jacket up.
"I'm not sure given this world's monsters, but that definitely sounded like a canine; I'm not sure about the size of it other than to say it is at least as big as a large dog. No way it was a chihuahua." I elaborated with a sly smile.
"If only we could be that lucky," Naofumi deadpanned at me.
"We have a solid direction to expect them to come from now; let's move up about halfway to the fence and be ready for the beasts," I said, gesturing to the spot of open grass and field where I wanted him to go. Naofumi gave me a solid nod and quickly jogged over to his position. I sprinted over to a spot about ten feet to his right and brought the tip of my spear to bear.
"You ready for this cowboy?" I asked Naofumi jokingly.
"Is no an option?"
"It is not actually," I said, cracking a smile. As we finished our back and forth, it looked like a shallow wave passed through the grass under the fence in front of us as dozens of balloons raced towards us.
"You better be ready for this, I know that balloons are not very dangerous to you, but there is strength in numbers!" I shouted to Naofumi as the balloons finally made it to us.
The first wave of monsters to hit me was a mix of fragile orange balloons; they were so weak that I could kill large swathes of them at a time with a full swing of my spear. I was falling into a nice rhythm of killing balloons when Naofumi crossed in front of me, luring a bunch of balloons that had gone after him into my path of destruction.
"Good work Naofumi! I will dispatch these. Go take a look around and make sure none got past us and into the barn," I hollered to him as I refocused on the balloons. I heard him shout back an affirmation as he headed to the barn. After another few moments, the sound of balloons popping halted, and I quickly surveyed the situation to make sure that no more balloons were coming for us right then before I made my way back over to the main barn.
"How are the birds doing?" I asked Naofumi as I hopped the fence into one of the pens.
"They are doing well, a small handful of balloons made it into the barn, but the birds got them before I did," he explained, turning to look at me, "Are you okay? That looks pretty deep." He finished sounding anxious.
" I have had worse," I said, washing out a bite from a balloon in the through in the pen, "One of the beasts got a lucky shot on me as I was dealing with his friends." I finished, washing the blood out of my wound.
"We should take a quick drink and get back up there; I doubt some balloons are going to be the worst we see tonight," I said, handing Naofumi a canteen.
He took a quick few drinks before handing the canteen back to me, "Do you think whatever made that howl is going to come after us tonight?" He asked me.
"It is a possibility we should be ready for. I doubt that it is going to hide in the woods all night. Anyway, let's get back out into our positions. Something tells me our rest break is over," I said, pointing at the group of porcupines that was trying to sneak under the fence.
We quickly ran back to the midpoint to cut off the approaching beasts. On the way there, I was able to read most of their levels; it looked like they were all level seven or less. That was going to be enough to put up a fight but not enough to really put Naofumi and me in any real danger. I slid the bow off of my back and knocked in an arrow. I centered the shot up with the porcupine in the rear of the pack and let loose. The arrow scored through the air, silent as a whisper. It flew right past two of the beasts and nailed my target right in the forehead with a loud "Thwack!".
"Did you get a read of their levels?" I asked Naofumi coming to a stop next to him.
"I got a read on most of them; it looks like they are all single digits. What's the plan?" He asked me, raising his shield.
"I am going to try and get a few more of them from here with the bow. Can you try to get behind the porcupines without being seen? Once they get within twenty-five yards of me, get their attention." I said, coming up with a quick plan.
"I can do that, just try to keep me arrow-free," Naofumi responded, taking off to my right as I set up for another shot at the monsters.
The porcupines had all been started when their comrade dropped dead without warning; about half the remaining group had split off to sniff the corpse of their fallen brother. Staying crouched and hidden, I sent another arrow down range and into the side of one of the monsters that had stopped. It did not seem to take too kindly to being shot in the side and had begun to scream wildly. Wich drew the attention of its pack away from me. In the resulting confusion, I put another of the beast down.
It is always when things are going well that they go wrong. When I dropped another of the beast, they managed to spot me. They released an ear-splitting screech and began to stampede towards me; seeing that my cover was blown, I stood up and began to backstop while laying down another couple of arrows. The pack was closing in as I put another two to silence; right as they crossed the line Naofumi and I had agreed on, he slammed into the right flank of one of the porcupines flinging it through the air and into its comrades. Just as they began to rally, he picked up one of the smaller porcupines by its back legs and used it to bludgeon one of its brothers in the head.
"How do you like that!" I heard him yell at one of the monsters as I closed in with my spear.
"Enjoying yourself, I see!" I shouted as I leaped off one of the deads boosting myself into the air and bringing my spear down on the biggest one left.
"Glad you made it in time. These things can hurt me, unlike those balloons." Naofumi said as he got in position to cover me.
"I never abandon my brothers in arms," I said, swinging my spear in an arc at the remaining two beasts, "You want the little one?" I asked him, pointing at the pine with my spear. It let out an undignified squawk at my insult.
"Well, I certainly don't mind not getting the big one," Naofumi responded sarcastically.
I gave him a simple nod as I quickly spun my spear around my body and smashed the counterweight into the aforementioned little one sending it into the air and away from its last brother. Naofumi darted out from behind me and chased the beast as it tumbled on the ground.
"It's just you and me now, Tiny," I taunted the last one.
It gave an evil hiss and started to glow green before it rolled into a ball and came roaring at me. I was just able to jump out of its path as it blasted past me. Before I could turn to engage the monster again, I got struck in the back by two needles. I let out a sharp hiss as the pain hit me; I spun my spear into my off-hand, seeing as my right shoulder was not going to be able to move like I needed.
"Okay, I take it back; you got some moves, Jumbo," I said smugly at my target, "sadly, it is going to take more than some fancy footwork to throw me off." I finished gesturing at it to come on.
It growled at me and started to rush at me again. Once it tucked into a ball and rolled for me, I jumped again to dodge, but the time I slammed the counterweight of my spear into the ground to pivot myself around as the beast turned to shoot at me. Just as the beast fired again, I slid under the spines, and using my momentum to propel me forward, I brought the counterweight up as high as I could before slamming it down unto the beast's head in an explosion of gore and death.
"Looks like this is my win Pokey," I said to the corpse as the pain in my shoulder finally caught up with me.
"Are you okay, Mr. Williamson?" I heard Naofumi say as he ran up to me.
"I have had worse, but if you could pull these spines out, I would be appreciative," I said, gesturing at my newest wounds.
Naofumi and I hobbled back over to the barn as the first rays of light began hitting the treetops across the field. It only took Naofumi a few minutes to pull the spines out and clean out my injury with a bit of instruction from myself.
"So, how do you like officially being a soldier of fortune?" I teased him as he gave my shoulder a final once over.
"It's not too bad; how did you like become a human pin cushion?" He asked me, putting a little more force into my bandaging than absolutely necessary making me wince.
"it's not too bad either, but I think you would have to ask Motoyatsu for the full experience," I replied with a laugh.
Just as we finished our little chuckle session Junior came running around the corner; he stopped when he spotted Naofumi and me. I watched as his eyes panned over myself and then to the field of death and destruction left by Naofumi and me waging war on the beasts. His brain seemed to catch up with him after a second, and he finished running over to us.
"Good morning Junior," I greeted him with a wave as I shrugged my shirt and vest back on.
He gave me a polite nod before speaking, "Have you seen Lily this morning? She's missing."