The Skittering Shield

I groaned when my eyes blearily opened. My bugs skittered on stonewalls. Smooth and erect walls! My muscles ached as I lifted myself up. I turned my head around, peering through the lenses of my costume.

I did not recognize this place.

I was in a hall furnished with huge purple curtains with a symbol on them. The symbol contained a cane in the middle of a deformed circle or triangle, I wasn't sure. Something in between at least, and there were five spikes on top. The spike in the middle was the longest and the other spikes got smaller the more on the side they were.

That was what I picked through my bugs while I was staring at the figures in robes who were kneeling. Their faces were rapidly paling as they stared at me.

I was about to open my mouth when a green light hit me in the eyes and interrupted me. I snapped to the three men who were lying on the ground and groaning.

I shoved down the pang of sympathy and focused on gathering bugs to my location. My bugs buzzed in the room making the priests, cultists? look around in panic.

"Where am I?" I said.

"Sh-sh-shield Hero, you'r-," I lifted my palm, stopping him.

"What did you call me?"

The one that answered turned to his colleagues, trying to find some support. When none of them looked back at him, he turned back to me.

I narrowed my eyes. They're either confident I was not a threat or they were not as cohesive as they should be.

He swallowed, "You're the Shield Hero," he said. With the bugs I placed on him, I felt the tremors I didn't see. "And the three behind are your fellow Heroes." He gestured to the people behind me.

I didn't need to use my bugs' senses to notice their bodies shaking as they stared at me. When I snapped my head at them, they jumped and crawled away. I took a deep breath and glanced through my insects. I was in a castle. People were wearing medieval armor. Either this was the most committed prank in history or I was caught up in a cape accident.

I wished for the first, but I knew it was the second. I should've not let Lisa play with dimensions.

This wasn't my city. This wasn't even my time.

I stared at the cultists and contemplated. This might not have been an accident for them as it was for me. I walked down the small stairs, head held up high in a show of confidence I didn't feel at the moment.

When I was a foot away from him, his legs tensed. I snapped my hand at his chin, stopping his fall backward and held him in a steel grip. I forced his face to look at my mask before I leaned in.

"Did you bring us here?" I used my bugs to overlay my voice. My hand stopped him, but his face dipped down. Let's hope a nod here means the same thing it did in my culture.

"Send me back, I have unfinished business back at home," I requested.

He whispered something.

"I'm sorry?"

"W-we can't."

I took a deep breath, "What do you mean you can't?"

"This was a one way spell, my Lady," I noticed the change of honorific, but shoved the thought to the back of my mind.

I turned my attention to the other people in robes. They all broke eye contact and looked to the side or ground. This didn't tell me if he was honest or not.

I wish Lisa was here.

"Then how do I return?" I growled.

When he didn't answer, I turned my attention to him. The grip on his chin kept his mouth shut. I relaxed my hand and let him take gulps of air when I took a step back. "Well?" I said.

"You have to defeat the Waves, Lady Shield," he replied, "This is why the Cardinal Heroes are summoned," behind the fear, his voice picked up a tone of reverence and awe, "the Heroes with their Legendary Weapons are avatars of God sent to smite the monster hordes that attack everything fine and holy," I interrupted him for the second time with the same gesture.

"So you want me to fight this world's Endbringers for you?" I said with a flat tone.

"Endbringer, my lady?"

"Monsters that attack everything fine and holy," I repeated his line mockingly, before using my normal voice, "and I was dealing with a potential Endbringer back at home."

If I cared at the moment, I would have worried about how his face turned even whiter. At least he understood how much shit he was in with me.

"Excuse me?" My head turned to the source of the voice. It was a handsome man with a blond ponytail and casual streetwear. His slanted eyes showed his Asian heritage. Now that I looked at them, they all had Asian features, even if two of them had blond hair. The one that looked the youngest was the one who had the typical black hair most Asians had.

Done with my observation, I answered, "What do you want?"

"Maybe we should listen to what the man has to say before you decide to kill him?" His voice wavered at the end.

I tilted my head. Despite the demonstration I did, I wasn't going to kill the cultist. Not if I didn't have to. Not like I'm going to tell them that, I thought as I glanced at the cultist who stared at the man like he was his personal savior.

"They kidnapped us from our world," I told the man, "Why shouldn't I kill them all?"

He turned ashen, but he hunched his shoulder and pointed a spear? Where did he get that from? at me, "Are you not ashamed talking like that, threatening to kill people? What are you, some sort of villain?" I didn't answer that, "Besides, these people are our biggest hope of finding a way home."

He had a point.

Still, "If you ever point your weapon against me again, you'll regret it," I told the spear wielder, who immediately put the weapon down. Now that I have noticed it, the other two had weapons. The other blond had a bow and the raven haired kid had a sword. Were those three a team? They seemed to follow the same theme at least.

I turned to the man on the floor, "Well priest, the hero gave you a lifeline. You better pull it now."

He nodded so fast I was expecting him to pull a muscle, "We may lack the knowledge to send you back currently, but I'm sure we can find a spell to help you go back home once you beat the Waves!"

Spells? Were they some sort of Adepts wannabes?

I was wondering something though, "Why are you acting as if I am in a team with those three?" I pointed with my thumb at the three behind me. "And why are you calling me Shield? My cape name's Skitter."

"B-but you're the Shield Hero," his voice would be a shrill if he was a bit louder, "You have the Shield on you." He pointed to my right hand, making me look at the shield that I somehow missed.

"What is that?" I whispered.

"It's the-,"

"It was a rhetorical question," I told him.

After seeing the shield that I have never seen before on me, I focused back on the three guys and noted every detail. Their hands didn't have any callouses I could see, their postures were guarded, but not in a way that would let them jump into a fight but rather from it. The biggest thing though was that they were shaking.

Shaking like civilians.

"Is any one of you a tinker?" I asked.

They glanced at each other before the guy who answered before, said, "No..?"

"Are you capes?" I asked.

"What's a cape?" he answered, looking confused.

I inhaled before looking at the ceiling.

"Fuck."