"Good morning, Pontiff." Kris greeted as he was escorted by Hilda into the room after having been fed and made presentable.

"Good morning to you as well young Kris," The Pontiff said back, sitting behind an ornate mahogany desk. "Please have a seat."

Kris did so without further prompting, the chair thankfully being made for someone his size.

"So, sir, what is all this about being a Summoned Hero?"

"Well you were summoned to fulfill the role of the Hero, and slay the Demon Lord," The Pontiff explained.

That was exactly what Kris was expecting. "I see. I'm assuming I'm not to do this alone, yes?"

"Of course, Hilda here was selected by Chief God to be your companion on your quest, and of course you can find other warriors on your journey to join your quest," The Pontiff answered.

"I see, I see." Kris said with a nod. "Though I must ask, why summon a hero? Are people from my world stronger here or somesuch?"

"No, there is just none here that have the disposition to receive the blessing, we thought Lady Noscrim would receive it upon her seventeenth birthday but she did not, so we went with the emergency option."

"Ah, so I'm the backup plan." Kris said, now understanding everything about the why and how of the summoning.

"Yes we had to be rather quick about it, the window is rather small for the ritual," The Pontiff explained. "But do not think yourself lesser young Kris, for you have demonstrated to have received the Chief God's blessing. So we ask of you, to please slay the Demon Lord and save our world."

"That's… that's a lot to ask of someone torn from their home." Kris admitted. "If/when I beat the Demon Lord, I can get sent back right?"

"Of course if that is what you wish, the Chief God will fulfill it," The Pontiff said.

"Well, this sounds like an offer I can't refuse, so I'm in." Kris said. "I'm assuming I'll be outfitted with proper weapons and tools to do so?"

"Of course, and training," The Pontiff said.

"Great! When do we start? Because I'm eager to see what I can do and brush up on my old fighting skills." Kris said, now eager for the challenge with the assurance he would be able to return home eventually.

"Immediately if you desire so, Hilda and others will help you get up to snuff as young people call it," The Pontiff said with a smile.

"Yes." Kris said with a much more eager smile.

—

"You have not chosen a weapon?" Hilda asked.

"I have." Kris said, getting a feel for the rounded shield he'd selected. "This is all I need for now." He said as he swung it like a weapon and punched with it, shadowboxing to get a feel for it.

"That is certainly an interesting way to look at a shield," Hilda answered. "But if that is what you feel most comfortable with, then that shall be your weapon. Now let's grow muscles and shed pounds."

Kris immediately pointed at her dramatically with his free hand. "I'll have you know this is all muscle and I will not take such slander!"

Hilda let out a giggle at that.

"Speaking of slander, why is your breastplate designed so poorly?" Kris asked.

"What do you mean?" She asked in confusion.

"If you'd allow me to demonstrate," Kris said as he slowly, clearly-not-actually-attacking her, struck forward with the shield, lightly tapping on the boob-plate and being directed towards her center mass. "It deflects attacks directly towards your heart."

"Oh that is the point."

That threw him for a loop. "Wait, what, really?"

"It's where it's strongest."

"The armor or your chest?"

"Yes." She simply answered.

"Ah. I'm thinking in terms of human sensibilities, where the chest is definitely not the strongest part of the body."

"Yes us angels are simply built differently, compared to humans, though with your Blessing your chest is naturally stronger than most steel."

"Oh is that why a lot of that dog's bites were sliding off my skin?"

"Correct."

"Awesome… So, I'm guessing this is the part where you kick my ass until I can hold my own, right?"

"Correct," She said with the same heavenly smile she had been holding the entire time.

"Awesome."

He got knocked down.

A lot.

But he got up again, every time.

And he got his fair share of hits in as well, which caught a few of the onlooking clergy and Orderites (apparently they were called The Order of the Chief God, this being the Iceflower Regiment) off guard that he was so willing to do so.

Or perhaps it was the sheer reckless abandon behind every blow, leaving himself open for counterattacks he simply took in order to hit more.

Kris never would have expected he would fight like this, but it felt right.

It felt natural.

And swinging the shield around like he was knock-off Captain America felt nice too.

Especially after he figured out how to, in secret, throw it, catching Hilda off guard and getting one of his few clean hits.

Not to mention he did use a number of other weapons, he just never stuck to one for more than a fight at a time.

Kris was rather insistent on the board-only route.

Well, board and fist, and elbows, and knees, and whatever was on hand.

There was no honor in Kris's fighting style.

Exactly how he liked it.

It meant that even if he was caught off guard or disarmed, he'd never truly be unarmed, a problem he was certain would come up once they explained things a bit more.

Namely, that the current Demon Lord was a Succubus that had turned about half of the monsters into Monster Girls, Mamono, which instead of killing humans, raped them both physically and mentally into liking it and becoming monsters themselves.

And considering the children of such unions were always female, that meant that if things continued, the human race (and the other civilized races, elves and dwarves were a thing which was neat) would be raped into exctinction.

And considering humans could not truly harm Mamono, only beat them into submission, he figured he might as well go the most route possible.

Hence, deciding to focus on the fists.

And the training paid off over the course of the month he spent in Salvarision, as he was no longer being consistently beaten by Hilda and her enigmatic smile.

The biggest payoff?

When he punched, and it was accompanied by a burst of radiant, holy light, that had made him giddy for the rest of the day.

And when they'd finally finished replacement glasses after an ill-timed headbutt to the breastplate, he'd been able to see what was going on around him as well, which was nice, the new spectacles even being made specifically for combat to not fall of or break as easily, not to mention they gave him nightvision, which was just plain cool.

They taught him plenty of other things beyond kicking his ass, like horse riding, how to read their language (which seemed to be a variant of Latin, which meant the High School Latin classes finally paid off!), some modicum of tactics, and more about Monsters, Girl and otherwise.

Namely, sex with any of them would be effectively fatal.

Which was perfectly fine with Kris, he was no horndog.

But they did warn that all Monster Girls were effectively Succubi and would either seduce or take by force appropriately to that title.

Though, Kris was pretty sure that not all Monster Girls were bad but a combination of 'there's a demon lord commanding them to copulate' and 'enough of them are antagonistic' with 'this is literally the enemy faction' meant that no-one in Salvarision would say anything remotely like that.

Not to mention he learned more about his new companion, and tentative friend in the form of the angel Hilda, who he learned was not as zealous as the orderites and was more…

Well…

She was basically a golden retriever, happy to be working alongside a hero, a bit of an airhead, and in general being surprisingly human for being an angel.

And she was nice, too. Very nice. And completely understood Kris's situation, unlike the old fuddy-duddy priests that Kris didn't even bother correcting, knowing it would go nowhere.

And so, after a month, they were set and sent off on horseback, a brand new shield designed specifically for throwing at his specifications on his back.

"Alright, time to save the world I guess."

"Yeah I guess so Kris," Hilda responded.

And so, they set off.

After a few minutes of riding silence, a thought occurred to Kris. "Hey Hilda?"

"Yes Kris?" Hilda asked back.

"Where are we going?"

"..." Her face clenched up as Kris could see it turn redder, and redder by the millisecond until radiant steam was coming out of her ears.

That was another fun thing about this place- sometimes, anime tropes kicked in. Mostly in humorous moments.

"I forgot to ask…" She whimpered.

Kris sighed with a slight smile. "Let's turn around, get a location, and maybe get a map before we get lost, alright?"

"...Yes."

Xxx

A/N: A shorter chapter, Kris is now a level three Zealot Barbarian and Hilda is a level three Devotion Paladin.