Lucatiel left the dungeon gallows and made his way back to his room feeling contemplative, not encountering anybody else for the rest of his stroll, he picked his pillow off the floor and collapsed onto the bed, finally exhausted after the long talk he'd had with Eclair.
And the promise he'd made to get her free tomorrow, but it was a matter of him finding the opportunity to do so. Likely tomorrow when him and the other heroes were selecting their party members he'd try to convince the King to let her go, he seemed reasonable enough…
Even though Eclair was in jail for threats of treason, but according to her that wasn't true. The real story apparently was she was imprisoned for standing up for a race called Demi-humans when they started being hunted by humans on a land they were supposed to live peacefully.
She wasn't exactly forthcoming on all of the details, but everything she did tell me was nothing but the truth, Lucatiel knew this partly because he learned to spot when a person was lying during his life. When he confronted her on this she said there simply wasn't enough time to explain everything, but she would if he could get her out of the cell.
It… pissed Lucatiel off that she sounded so resigned, it reminded him of when he was living in his past world. But in the end he couldn't stay upset, Lucatiel understood well just what it felt like to be trapped, she hadn't been trapped for long but seeing nothing but three walls and people who falsely accused you of something had to be draining.
He decided, tomorrow, he would do his best to have her set free.
Line break
"RING HERO!" The king stood and shouted, his face was red from rage. "You must understand that what you ask cannot be granted!"
Lucatiel kept his face impassive, but inside he felt like a raging inferno, his request had shocked the entire throne room into silence and whispers, the adventurers that were supposed to choose which hero to follow were looking at him in clear disdain. He mentally noted a particular Red head girl that was looking at him as if he were nothing but trash, her face was seriously punchable.
Three of the four heroes were looking at him with slight interest, and he heard mutterings of 'secret quest' and 'cheater'.
The fourth hero, the Shield hero Naofumi looked pretty angry, at what… Lucatiel didn't know, instead of thinking about it he turned back to focus on the King.
"I think what I'm asking is perfectly reasonable your highness!" He stepped forward with his hands spread out, the legendary ring gleaming off the sunlight streaming through the windows. "Inside the gallows lies a woman falsely accused of something she didn't do, surely you can understand that! She merely protected your subjects, and she was persecuted for it, that isn't justice."
He must have hit a nerve in Itsuki, suddenly he was very interested in the conversation. And he stepped forward beside the Ring hero. "If what Lucatiel is saying is true King, then that's not justice! You should be rewarding this woman for saving people!"
The King looked a little nervous, having one hero advocate against him was one thing, but two? And one worshiped by the church? That wasn't good for him, he forced himself to calm down and sat back in his throne, putting on a mask of thoughtfulness. Inside he was panicking though, trying to deduce just how the Ring hero learned of her existence.
"...Damnit Ring hero, why are you doing this? I was willing to reward you with almost anything you wanted for bringing the Legendary Ring back to our world then, you do this."
"If what you say is true, then why not set her free, and make Lucatiel responsible for her actions? That way your putting her on probation and allowing her to redeem her crimes." Ren suggested, he didn't look interested in the conversation in the least.
But Lucatiel could see that was just a front he was putting up, as a matter of fact, suddenly Lucatiel could tell his entire persona was just a front. His brother Noah had told him about this, some people who play online games play as an infamous 'loner'. Someone who doesn't interact with others unless facing an enemy they can't fight alone.
"I agree with Ren." Lucatiel said quickly, he could use that, build off it. "Anything that Eclair does that hurts the people will fall on my name. I give you my word."
Of course he had faith that Eclair wouldn't do anything like that, she seemed to diligent for it, but he didn't have to believe it, he had to make the king believe it, Lucatiel was wrong about him originally, he wasn't reasonable at all. In fact he was kind of an idiot that was easily manipulated. It was especially easy to handle them if you knew how to do it, start out with something they'd never allow then backpedal into a more 'reasonable' request which in turn makes it easier for them to agree to.
The king sighed and rubbed his eyes, and Lucatiel knew he won. "Guards, bring the prisoner here." he commanded, no one moved. "I SAID GO!"
It took a few minutes for them to get her, and she was brought out in chains that on anybody else would have made them look pathetic, on her she looked undaunted, however she looked like she couldn't believe what was happening… which was kinda fair if you think about it.
"Eclair Seaetto. You have hereby been pardoned on several crimes such as: Treason, murder of several Knights and wayward adventurers and being brainwashed." The list of crimes the king let off droned on and on, and with it other peoples opinion of me lowered.
Lucatiel was still curious about the brainwash thing and how it was a crime. But the king finally stopped listing off the bullshit and got to the point. "You will adventure with the Ring hero and fight the waves with him, your honor restored and all of your crimes abolished will be your reward for doing so, do I make myself clear?"
There were tears in her eyes, but she nodded resolutely. "Yes my King."
"Oh. There is one more thing, your negative reputation will fall on the Ring hero. And anything you do that hurts the people will fall back on him."
"I understand, my King."
"Now that this situation has been resolved…" The king continued on as Eclair was released from her chains and she stepped beside me.
"I owe you my life, Ring Hero. Whatever you need, and whatever you desire I will help you achieve it. I give you my oath." she whispered to Lucatiel
He smiled at her then turned away. "Future Champions of the heroes! Step forward!"
So they're choosing who they want? Well I'm screwed. Lucatiel thought, the adventurers each chose the hero they wanted to follow one by one.
In the end Ren had five. Motoyasu had four and Itsuki had three and Lucatiel, as expected only had Eclair.
What really surprised him though…
"Yo King!" Naofumi shouted, he had Zero. Apparently nobody wanted to party with somebody who could only defend.
"Well… I have to admit I wasn't expecting this." the King to his credit seemed to be telling the truth, then some man in a robe whispered into his ear and he smirked. "It seems that rumors of the shield heroes ignorance of this world have circulated around town."
"Seriously!?"
"Legend says the heroes come to our world with a firm understanding of them, and they seem to think he doesn't fit the criteria." The King explained.
"Seems like someone listened in on our chat last night." Motoyasu whispered.
Naofumi looked angry, something that surprised Lucatiel a little, the dude seemed so chill and happy. Yet that anger made him look… terrifying. "That aside! Ren! You don't need five, gimmie some of them!"
"Actually I'm more of a loner. So if you guys cant cut it I'll leave you behind." Ren said to his party, who bunched together closer to the sword hero.
"What do you make of this Motoyasu? Don't you think it's unfair?" the shield hero continued to rant, growing more concerned and frustrated by the second.
"I'm actually surprised that my party is all girls too." Motoyasu rubbed the back of his neck while smiling.
It pisses me off that you don't look to broken up about it Naofumi thought.
"The best thing to do would be to split the party into three for each of us, but that would destroy morale and leave Lucatiel with only one still." Itsuki said.
"I'm fine with only one party member." Lucatiel said quickly. "But it Is a little unreasonable that Naofumi doesn't have anybody when he can only defend."
"Wait, Lucatiel you can join me! Your ring doesn't have the same restriction as the other legendary weapons!" Naofumi asked, practically begging… no he was definitely begging.
"Well… that's true but…" He looked at Eclair concerned, but was surprised by the excitement in her face. "Do you want to join him Eclair?"
"I-if it's okay with you Sir Ring Hero, I feel he could benefit from our help." She was blushing for some reason, why was she…. OH.
"Okay, fine. We'll-" Lucatiel began before a voice called out.
"Sir hero! If you don't mind I'd like to go with the Shield hero." A cute girl with long red hair stepped forward with her hand raised.
"Wait… is that…?" Eclair trailed off. Lucatiel looked at her curiously, did she know this girl?
"Really? You sure?" Motoyasu asked, he seemed… upset that he had to let her go, but a part of him looked a little relieved, possibly at Naofumi gaining a party member?
"Yes!"
Naofumi's relief however was obvious, his building panic and anger subsiding as the girl stepped to his side with a smile, Lucatiel's shoulders relaxed and he stepped back.
"At least Naofumi will have somebody now, we won't have to intervene." Lucatiel said, Eclair stepped close and spoke into his ear.
"Sir Ring hero, I still think that we should join his party." she said, her face was a storm of different emotions but Lucatiel wasn't sure which ones, disappointment? Concern? Anger?
"But he has a party member now." He whispered back. "He doesn't need us."
"Please Sir Hero, I'm getting a bad feeling."
Lucatiel bit his lip in thought, then sighed and relented. "Hey Naofumi, if it's alright with you we'll still join you, for a little while at least."
Naofumi was clearly elated. "Y-yes! Thank you!"
"Thank you sir Hero."
"Don't mention it."
"Ehhh? I just lost a party member, you and that cute girl of yours should join me." Motoyasu said. He was ignored as Eclair invited Lucatiel, Naofumi and… Myne, her name apparently was and- Holy shit Eclair was level 25!? Lucatiel gaped at the difference and shuddered, she could probably kill all the heroes as they were now.
Wait, why the hell am I thinking about stuff like that!? And why is Myne only level 4 in comparison?
The king let out a loud sigh. "Are there any other's that wouldn't mind joining Naofumi-dono?" at the silence he cleared his throat and continued. "I suppose we'll have to take other measures, Shield, you will have to recruit other party members for yourself, as a matter of fact that goes for you too Ring Hero, when you eventually split from them."
"O-Okay." Naofumi stuttered. Lucatiel shrugged, he didn't worry about it, especially since Eclair was probably stronger than anything even remotely close.
"Every month, we shall provide each hero with the funds they require, this time, Naofumi-dono's payment, and Lucatiel-dono's payment will be higher as they have less party members." the king declared.
Five people walked up to each hero and handed them a sack of silver, a 'war chest' the King called it, Naofumi getting 800, Lucatiel 700, and the rest of the heroes 600. "Use this to procure the necessary equipment and set forth on your journey."
"Yes sir!" All the Heroes said and began to make their way out of the castle.
After a brief goodbye with the other three heroes, Myne told them about a blacksmith in town who supposedly made amazing equipment. She was bright and friendly the whole way, chatting up Naofumi while walking ahead, Eclair was by Lucatiel's side, clearly enjoying being out of the castle after her imprisonment.
"So… why'd you want to join Naofumi so badly?" Lucatiel's curiosity won out finally, he'd wanted to ask right there in the throne room, but managed to fight against it. "Do you like… have a crush on him?"
A ghost came out of Eclair's mouth as her soul left her body from the sheer audacity of the Ring hero's question, she kind of wanted to punch him but realized that if she did she might kill him since he was still Level 1.
"N-no it's not that. I just don't trust that red haired woman."
"Why? She seems perfectly friendly, granted the glares she was giving us before beg to differ."
"I'm not sure, but I believe that's the second princess of this country Malty… and the second princess is well known for her cruelty."
Lucatiel stopped cold in the street, not noticing when someone bumped into him and sent a glare at the back of his head. "You… didn't think that was important to mention BEFORE?" he was doing his absolute best not to yell.
"I didn't mention it because I don't know for sure. I didn't spend much time at the castle because of my training Sir hero, my memories are rather vague."
"Son of a bitch…" Lucatiel pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off a sudden violent headache. "What do you propose we should do? Try to expose her and bring the whole kingdoms wrath down on us?"
"I just think we should keep an eye on her to protect Naofumi-sama, the Demi-humans I love so much would want me too."
Naofumi-Sama? That… means god right? Wait now that I think about it why are they speaking Japanese when these people clearly don't have Japanese features, is the ring translating it? Lucatiel looked at his ring, but didn't receive an answer.
"So where are the Demi-humans anyway? From what you've described… I don't see anybody that match it." Lucatiel backpedaled on his own statement. "Actually, no I remember. You told me they aren't welcome here."
Lucatiel's thoughts grew a little darker. Slavery… Jesus Christ that's rough, and since it's legal it's not contestable, just immoral. Eclair views it as a necessary evil, but there's bound to be some people who outright hate it.
When they entered the shop Myne showed them, a middle aged muscular man came out from behind the counterand grinned at Lucatiel and Naofumi. It was painfully obvious we had no idea what we were supposed to do.
"Your first time in a weapon shop? You sure know how to pick them." he said, his arms were crossed as he stared down the shield on Naofumi's arm. "The shield Hero eh? How you doing?"
"Oh! I-I'm fine." Naofumi gave a nervous smile in return while rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "So this is what a weapons shop is like."
"And you must be the one that brought back the Legendary Ring, what was your name again?"
"Lucatiel, nice to meet you."
"There are some high quality pieces here Lucatiel-sama." Eclair said, picking up what I identified as a magic silver sword, I also didn't miss how she called me by my name, I felt a bit of relief flow through me at that for some reason.
"Oh! That should do as a good weapon to go with my shield." Naofumi took the sword out of Eclair's hands, but howled in pain as a sudden violent shock went up his arm, making him drop the sword.
"The hell? Are you kidding me?" Naofumi asked the shield angrily, confused, Lucatiel walked over and picked up the sword himself, only to receive a painful shock up his arm.
"Ah Shit!" He growled, dropping the sword as a message appeared in his status: Legendary weapon rule violation, holding unassigned legendary weapon. A hero may not hold, with intent to fight, any weapon other then their assigned legendary weapon.
"So basically your telling me to not do that again, bastard Ring." Lucatiel huffed. "We can't use any other weapon than the one we were summoned with." Naofumi suddenly screamed in frustration.
"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIGHT WITH ONLY A SHIELD AND 1 ATTACK STAT?" he yelled and slammed his fists down on the counter in frustration, the old blacksmith just looked at him with pity.
Wait 1 attack!? He only has 1 attack!? How does the shield expect him to be useful as a fighterI? Lucatiel was suddenly extremely grateful that he had the Ring.
Myne latched onto Naofumi's arm. "Sir Hero! It will be okay, I'll fight for you and you just protect me!"
The blacksmith came around with a magnifying glass. "That's so weird, does this thing even come off?" He knelt down and began to directly analyze it.
Naofumi calmed down enough to speak, though his tone was kind of hollow. "I can move it around, even to my back, but it doesn't seem capable of coming off of my body."
"That's… crazy. It looks like any small shield at first glance, but I sense an extreme amount of power coming off of it, but not even my appraisal magic is showing me much, and I'm level 87."
Level 87!? why isn't he fighting the waves then? Lucatiel thought, the blacksmith eventually sighed and stood up. "Well, thanks for showing me something interesting at the least."
"Yeah, glad to be entertainment." Naofumi bit sarcastically.
"You should be able to still wear armor, since it doesn't count as a weapon." Lucatiel suggested. "And you can outfit Myne with some decent stuff as well, speaking of which…" he walked over and picked up the sword again, this time thankfully it didn't shock him to hell.
He gave it to Eclair. "Do you want this? Since I can't use a weapon we have a bit more leeway with what we buy."
"I'm fine with something of lower quality Lucatiel-sama." Eclair said, but her eyes drifted to a silver iron swordregardless, the Ring hero smiled, amused. She wasn't honest.
Lucatiel nodded, put back thesilver magic sword and pickedup the Silver iron one. "She'll take this, and get her some light but durable armor."
"Lucatiel-sama I insist you get something for yourself!" Eclair said, her voice was a little higher, possibly from embarrassment that she was found out so effortlessly.
Lucatiel sighed. "And a light cloak for me, preferably purple in color but I'll take whatever."
The blacksmith let out a guttural laugh. "Of course, I'll give you a discount just for today since your a hero, same goes for you Shield bro, what do you and the missus want?"
Lucatiel snorted. "Shield bro." Naofumi ignored this and – with the help of Myne – chose what they wanted without any more fuss, Naofumi still looked bummed out though and Lucatiel didn't really like seeing that, it reminded him of himself a little to much.
"Hey, Naofumi."
"Yeah?"
"You may not be able to fight right now, but your bound get something that allows you to do damage eventually, and besides, with your shield you can protect people easier, something I cant do."
It wasn't fully a lie. Lucatiel had a low defense stat, a miserable 13 physical defense compared to his 84 magic defense. But his little half-truth had the desired effect on Naofumi, he visibly got more confident and his face lifted into a smile.
"Your right. Thanks, Lucatiel." he said. Lucatiel suddenly felt an outright malicious glare in his direction, so severe that a message actually popped into his status giving him a warning about malicious intent in his direction.
He glanced out the corner of his eyes and saw… Myne, her face was bunched up into a snarl making it look like she was wilting. It pissed Lucatiel off… what was that… that bitch glaring at? He looked to Eclair and saw that she was looking between him and Myne protectively. Lucatiel was starting to believe Eclair's theory even more, but if her theory is true… then why is the second princess doing all of this?
He pulled Eclair close to him and spoke in her ear, Naofumi began to blush and stutter heavily from the scene and even Myne looked away. To anybody else it looked like Lucatiel was about to kiss her face. In actuality it was his way of speaking privately to her while keeping eyes off them.
"I'm putting my faith in you, I don't like the facade Naofumi's party member is putting up. Can I count on you to investigate?"
He could feel Eclair's body tense for a moment, then she whispered back: "Of course, it'll be easiest after night fall to do so."
Lucatiel unhanded Eclair and leaned back against the counter just as the old blacksmith returned and distributed their gear to them, the Ring hero was a little sad to see that his cloak was black instead of purple, but that was just because it was his favorite color. The blacksmith had infused it with a leather chest-piece 'as a sign of good faith to get you to return' he stated.
All in all, Eclair was set up with what Lucatiel identified as Light Metal Armor, which gave her a small boost in all defensive stats, Lucatiel's own armor only gave him physical though, which was good for now. All in all it costed 380 silvers, which was a big drop from the 440 it's original price was.
This really is like a game. He thought, watching Eclair give a few test swings and look at herself in disdain. "I'm so rusty, this is annoying." she muttered and continued to practice, knocking a shield to the ground.
"Oi, be careful please, that shadowsteel shield is actually expensive." The blacksmith said sternly. Eclair apologized as Naofumi picked it up to examine it for damages, his eyes widening in sudden excitement.
"Weapon… copy?" he whispered. And when he set the shield down he held his shield arm out and took a deep breath, everybody was staring at him in curiosity.
"Change shield!" He shouted, and suddenly he switched from the small shield on his arm to the shadowsteel shield, Lucatiel's jaw dropped as Naofumi grinned. "It worked!" Eclair was practically bouncing in excitement, and even Myne was smiling.
"IT WORKED MY ASS! Your gonna run me out of business with that! Do not do it again!" The blacksmith shouted, his face rising in panic from potential loss of sales.
"Ah, s-sorry old guy." Naofumi apologized sheepishly.
"That was amazing Sir Hero!" Myne latched onto Naofumi's arm, pressing her breasts against him and making him embarrassed. Eclair looked like she wanted to rip her off, making Lucatiel even more convinced she had some sort of crush on him.
"That looked like a high level shield, what skill did you get from it?" Lucatiel asked, walking up and grabbing Naofumi's shield arm, just dumbfounded on how it was literally a perfect copy of the original.
"It's a plus fifty in defense and makes it harder for enemies to detect me, but I can't use the skill or boosts until level 45… but still just knowing I can do that…" Naofumi's eyes widened and he turned to the blacksmith. "Hey, old guy! Can I please copy your other shields? Please?"
"Please blacksmith-sama!" Myne also begged, The old blacksmith was suddenly backed into a corner, eventually he let out a frustrated sigh and relented.
"FINE! You can copy 3 more shields shield bro. Just hurry up before I change my mind."
Eclair stepped back to Lucatiel's side. "It's a shame that there aren't any rings you can copy, I wonder what skills you would be able to get."
Lucatiel shrugged, though he was a little jealous. "Maybe my Ring is entirely unique? It'd make sense why there aren't any."
"Ring's are almost entirely considered accessories, so there aren't any combative or defensive properties in most of them, because of that weapon-style rings are very rare and cost at the least a lords taxes in gold." The blacksmith explained.
"So the only weapon I can use is an accessory for everyone else… have I been struck by karma?" Lucatiel mourned outwardly, remembering how he went to buy the Ring in the first place as a gift… only to get killed by that psycho ass pawn shop guy.
"Lucatiel-sama?"
"It's nothing Eclair, forget about it. How about we leave and get stronger?"
"Leveling eh? I'm down." Naofumi and Myne waltzed back over, his shield switched back to it's default version.
"I know a good place for beginners!" Myne volunteered.
Line Break Pov change: First person
The green grasslands outside of the castle were beautiful, but the orange balloons that attacked were so weak that they couldn't even hurt Naofumi or Eclair, granted the former had to punch the damn thing fifty plus times just to kill it, while the latter one-shot it. Myne the coward hid behind a tree, only attacking when one got close enough for her to haphazardly slash at it with her sword.
Suddenly however, things got interesting when a giant black balloon came out of the ground, causing a small crater in the earth, it looked exactly like the orange balloons, just black. It attacked Naofumi with a surprising speed, chomping down on his shield arm with a vengeance.
"Ugh. This one stings a little, Lucatiel!" Naofumi called, I sighed and stood up. I hadn't bothered fighting the things because they were so weak, instead consulting the help menu on how to fight with my ring.
Long story short, I was a video game mage with no book, however while I was capable of using this worlds magic, The Ring hero had a unique magical affinity in which I could utilize.
Chaos magic, a combination of light and dark. I held my ring hand out and took a deep breath. "Lo there do I call to you, emissary of the dark. I am the Ring Hero, Lucatiel Niazaki. Give me the strength to strike down my enemies!"
"Chaos Lightning!" black electricity formed in my hand before it shot out like an electrical current gone haywire, striking the black balloon in it's eyes, it snarled in pain and reared back to retreat, it's health plummeting to near zero. Naofumi suddenly grabbed it and held it down, despite not having an attack stat, Naofumi was deceptively strong, capable of holding the big bastard down.
I ran forward and punched it, I didn't have a high attack stat let me remind you, but it wasn't 1. so when I punched it it exploded into fragments. I could have used another spell, but I was too lazy to bother chanting again… no matter how cool the chant sounded.
"Are you okay Naofumi-sama!?" Eclair said running and looking over the small wound he had on his right arm, I ignored the flustered look on their faces and bent down to grab a fragment of black balloon.
Let's see, the help menu said to just put it over the ring… I dropped the fragment and watched in amazement as it was rapidly sucked up by the gemstones, I was surprised by the sudden appearance of a message in my Status:
Receive a new Ring.
Break into crafting components for: Ultimate item creation skill.
So I have options huh…after a few moments of thought I picked the latter option, which broke down the fragments into… Super healing potion component 1/3.
Then I picked up another black balloon fragment and chose to get a new ring, which gave me a completely onyx colored ring that increased my magic stat permanently by 2. Work smarter, not harder folks. Granted I was still annoyed, according to the Ring, the giant black balloon was a super rare balloon, but it still only gave me 1 freaking XP.
"This… is getting kind of boring." I sighed.
"Say's you, you didn't even fight until the black balloon showed up." Myne pointed at me and glared. "Sir hero got hurt because of your laziness!"
I shrugged nonchalantly, though on the inside I was pissed off. I wasn't the one who hid behind a damn tree, at least I sat directly in the field. Instead I opted to ignore her and went and picked up a fragment of orange balloon and dropped it into the ring, giving me an orange balloon ring, there wasn't an option this time which probably meant that it wasn't worth anything.
This ring was much weaker than the black balloon ring, but it gave me an extra perma-point in physical defense, which was nice, I needed all the physical defense I could get without breaking my bank… speaking of which.
I took out the money the King had given me and put a piece into my ring to see what happened, it was absorbed of course, but I was satisfied to see that it created a game-like money storage, totaling exactly how much I had. Thankfully all I had to do was think about it to take it back out.
This… was a fantastic feature, it meant that I couldn't be robbed. Which was obviously good, I heard a loud shout and whirled around to see Eclair sending balloons to oblivion, she was fighting like it was her final battle, almost dancing with her sword, the sunset making her blade and armor shine.
She thrust her blade forward and impaled five balloons at once, killing them and actually leveling me up to level 3, she stopped and began to gather the fragments as I strolled over to her.
"You can stop now, Eclair, we're finishing up for today." I said, she looked at me and immediately squinted and turned away. "You okay?"
"Your ashen hair is glinting off the sun Lucatiel-sama, it hurts."
I snorted and rolled the cloak over my hair. "Sorry my face is so ugly." I joked.
"It's not ugly Lucatiel-sama I assure you, just painful."
Is that not the same thing? I wondered. Suddenly, I heard a fearful scream, coming from Myne I rolled my eyes and turned to see her pointing up at the sky, and I heard Eclair hiss behind me.
"Balloon Legion! It's coming down WHY IS IT COMING DOWN!?" Myne dove behind Naofumi who held his shield up, clearly nervous. I was frozen in place, but less from fear and more of surprise.
There were… oh I don't know maybe a HUNDRED damn balloons in the sky rapidly coming down. Fifteen? We could take that just fine. Thirty, yeah we're good. A HUNDRED? FUCK THAT.
"Naofumi you gotta defend me so I can cast my spells! Eclair get behind Naofumi and wait until the last possible moment to use your skill, Myne get from behind the damn tree and fight!"
Suddenly, a party invitation appeared in front of my screen: You've been invited to a party by the Sword hero: Ren Amaki, do you accept?
Suddenly, Ren and his party sprinted down a nearby hill. "Lucatiel! Naofumi!"
"Ren? Where'd you come from?" Naofumi called back, him and Eclair retreating to us, Myne finally coming out from behind the damn tree and sloppily slashing her way through a few stray balloons to make it.
"We've been tracking that mass of balloons for an hour now, then we saw it finally coming down, then we saw you guys about to fight it, don't want you to steal our XP." The sword hero explained.
"Ahh, nice to see that you came out of the kindness of your heart." I said sarcastically, but accepted the invitation regardless, combining our parties. I absolutely enjoyed the guilty look that came to Ren's face for a moment.
"Alright! Let's kill this Balloon legion together!" someone in Ren's party declared, they screamed a battle cry and rushed forward, eager to fight, Ren rolled his eyes.
"I gotta admit, these Npc's are rather advanced, I haven't encountered any glitches yet." Ren ran forward into battle, slashing up balloons that fell from the legion.
"Alright guys same plan as before, go!" I raised my hand into the sky, a white aura enveloping me.
"Lo there do I call to you, Emissary of the light rain down your righteousness on my enemies! I am the Ring hero, and rain down your righteous chaos on my foes!"
"Revolution Light!" You'd think having a AOE spell at level one would be overpowered, we'll your half right, the spell may have hit the entire legion, but it also nearly hit Ren's party and it didn't do much damage. It did look bad-ass though, the sky opened up in a golden glow and it began to rain golden fire.
A message appeared in my status as my dropped to just under half: Warning, this skill has a cool-down period of: 1 hour and 30 minutes.
"HAAAAH!" Ren ran forward and swung his blade in a V-shape slash shredding two balloons, Eclair was right behind him taking down three more, Naofumi blocked an attack that would have hit Ren In the back and surprisingly, Myne cast a fire spell which incinerated another two.
I noticed the chant was different, but I didn't have time to dwell on it as suddenly, the balloons switched their target. To me. I let out a loud curse as the entire legion rushed me at once and swarmed around me, nipping and biting at my body. It hurt much more than I was expecting, and saw my health dropping rapidly.
"AHH!" I screamed in pain as a particular red balloon bit me in the neck, I grabbed one of the balloons and used it as a monster bat, pushing through the swarm just enough for Naofumi and Eclair to yank me out.
"Damn you! Chaos Lightning!" I growled and flung my hand at the Legion, a weaker but still competent version of the spell struck the legion popping a few balloons. Eclair flew into the fray right after, swinging her sword with all the skill she had.
After what felt like an eternity, Eclair and Ren with his party finished off the rest of the Legion, the biggest and final balloon being the one that bit my neck. After it died the experience that came in made it worth it. I jumped from level 3 to 7, and while I didn't get any new rings from the fragments, a lot of them turned into crafting components for my Ring's unique skill.
Ren collapsed onto his butt, exhausted, his hp at about three-quarters, his party weary but proud. impressively enough, the only person that hadn't been hurt during that encounter was Naofumi, not even Eclair completely escaped harm. I was starting to realize that Naofumi was strong, not in the way say Ren was with his attacking, but his defensive capabilities made him literally the perfect tank.
"Haaah…. I'm so tired I could sleep a week." Naofumi said, despite not taking damage he was still rightfully exhausted. "Let's not take on hundreds of monsters again shall we?"
Ren and his party suddenly disappeared from ours. "Now that that's done, our cooperation is over, see ya later. Let's move guys!"
"Oi Ren." I suddenly decided I couldn't stand Ren pretending to be something he wasn't. It'd probably just piss him off, but it was worth a try. He turned to look at me, his face carefully impassive. He was definitely trying to be cool, and while there wasn't anything inherently wrong with that. I could see the anxiety in his eyes.
I knew that well, partly from myself… but mostly from my brother, who had severe anxiety due to the fear of dying that he developed from his illness. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder, his mask slipped and he looked at me in confusion, I didn't know exactly what I could say, and I wasn't even sure I could get him to not just shrug me off. But I had to try.
"Thanks, Ren. You really helped us out a lot. There's a good head on your shoulder's Sword Hero." I decided to take a risk, l wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close so nobody else would hear. "Be yourself Ren, don't pretend to be something your not. That social anxiety you feel and the reluctance to trust others... it's something I knew well before I died."
Ren's eyes widened, and the mask completely shattered. "I-I…" He trailed off, I was kind of worried I broke him before he shook his head suddenly. "W-what do you expect me to say to that?"
Something Ren said stuck with me, when he called his party Npc's. I wasn't fully sure myself whether this world was a game or not, there was… a lot of similarities. But… I died. Why would I be in a game after that?
"Just… I'm trying to say that… I don't think this world is fully a game, I didn't really play games like that before I came here. But I'm sure dying sucks." It was a mess of what I really wanted to say, but Ren seemed to come to a realization, he sighed.
"Hey, Naofumi." Ren called the Shield hero, who was busy dropping monster parts into his shield, he looked up at him. "I'm sorry for looking down on you because of your shield… and… thanks, you know. For stopping that balloon from hitting me… you know."
Naofumi just stared at him, leaving Ren fumbling in awkwardness, the Shield hero finally smiled softly. "Yeah, no problem Ren, anytime."
"Sir hero! It's getting kind of dark and I'm hungry. I know a good tavern if you wanna go!" Myne latched onto Naofumi who smiled at her.
She wasn't wrong, night had nearly fallen on the land, the barest hints of sun peaking over the distant horizon, I turned back to Ren who was still standing there awkwardly. "You wanna walk back with us?"
Ren thought about it for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm down. Hey guys! We're gonna walk back with the others instead, get ready!"
Eclair stepped beside me and leaned to whisper to me. "Should I proceed with what we talked about Lucatiel-sama?"
"Yes, I'm convinced now with the way she acted during this time. Myne's entire personality is fake, and I have no doubt she's planning something." I looked at Naofumi as we walked, who was chatting amicably with Ren while Myne still held him, I felt a strange protective feeling come over me and my thought's turned darker.
If you really are out to hurt my new friends… I'll kill you bitch.
A/N: I could not for the life of me find a way to end this chapter so I just kept writing, I think it turned out pretty solid in the end though.
Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see the positive reception I received in regards to just the first chapter, especially to my OC. I'm fully aware of how… receptive or non-receptive to that people are in the fanfiction community.
Also: a few things to note to any hard-core shield hero fans that happen to read this: I've never read the shield hero WEB Novel, I feel it's inferior to… the rest of the iterations, however I took the balloon legion from it because I thought it was a cool concept as a mini-boss of sorts. However I watched the entire first season of the anime, and read the entire manga thus far. And I also own the light novels from five to seven. (I bought those specifically because I heard the anime rushed a little around light novel five, and after reading them I can definitely see the truth in that).
As a result I'm bound to make some mistakes while writing this, like with the game mechanics for example and how some things work, it's a lot to keep up with and the real shield hero author is badass for doing so and creating a captivating story at the same time.
all I ask is for some patience as I try to decide just how far I want to deviate from canon without potentially getting verbally lynched. I already took a big liberty by having Eclair freed this early and by having Ren… sort of wake up. (Fun fact: I actually really like Ren as a character and can see the potential good he can do as the 'sword' to the shield).
If you read all the way down here I appreciate that too by the way, but this is the end of the author's note. I do not own shield hero, I own nothing other than Lucatiel Niazaki, I probably should have put this in the first chapter, but I… forgot lmao.
Thanks for reading, I'll upload the next chapter whenever I can get a chance to write it.