Good news, I finally got the category for BOFURI made! In celebration of that and the fact isolation is a pain, I give you the chapter one day early. I will say this now but the enemy of choice was from my Beta, who never read Rising of the Shield Hero. So blame her if you don't like it, but also thank her for getting the Category made.
Lets get on with this show already!
Maple watched as the sun rose from the back of the carriage, early enough where even the flies were not moving about. She had to admit watching it come over the trees was nice. The golden rays shine, casting dark reds and oranges on the landscape. However, such a time means everyone would be waking up and making their way back on the road.
The roads were starting to get quite rough, Maple had to admit. What was once made up of stone and gravel were compressed dirt. She held the egg of her companion in her hands, not trusting the cage since she could not get a good grip on it.
No longer were there any farms, but instead a large forest encroach on the road. Yes Maple honestly did not like the look nor the feeling of the place, but at least nothing was coming out to fight the caravan.
"Alright, here." Nao announced as he tugged on the reins, "I'm not going any further. We've had pretty good luck not being attacked by monsters, but I'm not one to press it."
"It's alright!" Maple soon grabbed her bag and unloaded herself off the cart, "You have already done so much for me already!"
"Yeah, so that means you owe me."
"Of course!"
A small laugh and a shaking of the head came from Nao. As he did so Raphtalia called out, "I would be careful, I remember people telling me to not walk into the sludge."
Maple gave the Raccoon a nod and a shining smile, "I understand, I will be careful!"
"We're off then. You remember the last town we passed?" Nao said as he snapped the reins.
"Yup! See you later!" Maple called out as they soon passed her. Raphtalia waved out to her, as for some reason even the bird. Maple couldn't help but blink when she noticed that, but then again this was a fantasy world.
Taking in a breath Maple turned around, the fairly dark forest standing in front her. With a swift action she brought the bag down before her, opening up the top to look into the neatly arranged interior.
"Let me see, three days of rations, ten Health Potions, and a tent. Now if I did this.."
Since there was an opening right in the middle portion of the bag she took the monster egg within her hands and settled it into the pouch slowly. Just like a glove the egg settled within it, luckily it also meant no room for it to move.
With that done, she removed about half the potions from the bag and attached them onto her belt. One of Erhard's many niches in this armor was the special hoisters to hold any potion imaginable. Potions can save your life!
"Yata! Time to charge forward!" And with her personal warcry the Shield slowly moved her way into the forest. Not out of caution mind you, but because she couldn't go any faster.
Her ascent into the forest was marked with little noise. There were no birds chirping within the given region nor were there small animals crawling on the trees. It was as if they did not exist here at all.
The awful stench slowly reached her nose, though an irony of slight nostalgia was felt. Maple could feel the slight tinge crawling up her throat as toxins flooded the air about her. Such an odor would easily dissuade even the most ambitious of monsters from approaching, leaving only the plants who could not even smell it.
The girl took in a deep breath, "Ah, Good Morning!"
Yes, this girl was weird.
With the first deterrent not swaying her away, Maple walk-skipped deeper into the swamp. Her eyes only glanced over the structures that she could see. They were quite random, mostly stone pillars and the occasional wall seemingly erected out of nowhere. They were much smaller than those that the people out in the countryside used, and a few of them sometimes formed a corner.
It was when the once hard ground became mush that Maple started to become cautious. The slight tingle upon her feet signally the toxic feature of the Swamps. Soon a bar hovered in front of her vision, and Maple stopped to raise her Shield.
"I see you!" She laughed at the odd vine that covered a tree.
And like that the vine animated, quickly crawling across the tree with the true name popping up.
Assassin Vine Minor Lv. 5
Like a snake the thing had coiled itself on one of the tree's lower limbs, quickly launching itself towards Maple in an attempt to grapple her. For Maple however, she simply stuck out her hand towards the thing and caught it in mid air.
"Itadakimasu!" And with a feral bite she severed the creature's main body in two. She could feel a slight burn, her health dropping just slightly as she tore through the rest like a slab of jerky.
"So good!" She cried out with a smile upon her face, the taste of poison much more pronounced than ever before. You can say that she had acquired the taste when she was fighting for her life. Such taste forged in the Crucible of War tended to morph even the most basics of humanity.
Before Maple could finish the devouring of the twig, the ground beneath her feet began to move just slightly. Her senses standing on frail ends as she brought the shield about to receive the attack of another bio twig.
"[Devour]!" She shouted as the Shield animated, quickly moving its teeth out to consume the being of the monster with brutal efficiency.
[Assassin Vine Shield Unlocked] Skill Unlocked: Genetic Manipulation Minor
"Okay, so one just tried to attack me from behind, which means… HYA!" With a spin about her own feet Maple corrected herself to receive the next one, this time using the Shield as a bat to knock its targeting off just slightly. This was followed with a swift bite into the mid region, quickly killing the beast and giving Maple back a bit of SP.
"So you have me surrounded!" She laughed with a smile on her face. Almost every tree lit with health bars dictating the existence of the animating plants, "[Provocation]!"
With her cry a wave of red animated from her, covering exactly twenty feet around her body. All the Assassin Vines within her area could no longer linger about her, the demand to attack now too great. In a motion that only creatures similar to a hive mind can act, they attacked all at once.
Maple however just smiled her big smile, as when the group launched themselves at her the Shield Hero already knew what she was going to do, "[Bullrush!]"
In a split second her body went as fast as it ever could, dashing a quick fifteen feet across the forest floor. Her shield slammed into a series of Vines, each of them being skewered by her Shield.
Now with the chance opened she turned about, the large group of Vines all slamming into one another. Piled in a group, Maple simply turned about and pointed the business end of her Shield towards them, "[Bullrush]!"
If these things actually had guts, the entire forest floor would have been covered in them. Instead her simple act sent bodies flying across the floor, leaving her with a Shield covered in bits. The Shield automatically started to absorb the material. Maple gripped the twigs to yank back, but it proved to be stronger.
"Please Mr. Shield, I want to eat!"
[Poisoner's Shield: Unlocked] Ability: [Manufacturer Poison]
She could only sigh as the weapon in her hands seemed to think the trade off fair. It saddened Maple as she reached down and acquired a corpse of her one foe, eating it up like one would a slightly too long noodle.
"Alright, anyone else there?" She called out to the open forest. Nothing responded for the moment, so she once more moved forward towards the center.
The stench that would have killed a majority of Animals and Monsters was becoming a slight annoyance to Maple. Of course she was used to the toxic burns and damning fumes, it was just getting a little stuffy now. Not only that, but her feet were now submerged in a few inches of water.
"Lali dah, da di dah!" She hummed as another Assassin Vine tried to spring an attack. It was quickly taken care of through a [Shield Bash] and [Bite]. The Shield Hero grew a small frown at how they were taking just a tad bit more time to kill as she approached the center.
[Level Up]! [Maple is now Level 15]
She gave a quick swallow of the branchlike material to give a cry into the air, "Yata! I leveled up! Oh, what's this?"
With a few swipes of her hand Maple was able to see the stats of the egg in her bag. There of course were not very many stats, but what was the stats were interesting:
Rockjob Egg
Lv. 3
Hp: 25/30
Vit: 15
Poison Resistance: Low
"So he's leveling up? So cool!" She felt like hugging the item, but common sense told her to keep the egg in the safe location, "So do I just level it up until it hatches?"
She waited for the moment, as if expecting someone to give her the answer. Of course something did know the answer, being a Legendary Holy Relic from the creation of this world. However, it was also one of the things the Shield decided was best left to its user's intuition.
"Well, I guess I need to grind." With that the unstoppable fortress continued moving forward. It did not take the Hero long before the water level rose. She was quickly going from her ankles all the way to her waste. She felt the water starting to burn her skin as if it was acid, and taking a look at her Health it was already nearing half.
In response she took out a small bottle of red liquid, quickly drinking the amazingly sweet nectar. Within a moment's notice her Health Jumped up from the fifty to only a little over seventy five percent.
You just need to get used to it Maple. Once you get immunity everything will be fine!
Indeed she was starting to realize what this land was, but she also had knowledge on what needed to be done. In truth this land would have killed men ten times over by now, which was causing a stir among the main resident. It laid low and contemplated what manner of being had been approaching, how it had consumed many of its base creations.
Has Humanity finally created its predator?
Its interest was both peaked and sense of danger heightened. It would need to redeploy that which it thought to be inefficient then.
A small tick popped into Maple's mind as she stopped mid step. It was just like the time with the Vines, so she quickly turned around with her Shield braced. She felt a small thump, which she returned with a quick motion, "[Shield Bash]!"
Her Shield and arm both lit with green energies, quickly striking the point of previous impact. Out of the water quickly spang a large vine, one much thicker than the Assassin Vines from earlier.
[Bruiser Bodypart Lv. 15]
Seeing that it was flung out of the water Maple did not wait a second long, her mouth quickly biting through the plant. A large chunk was removed, causing it to seemingly back away for just a moment. She however had to lament that after its attack and her bite, the limb seemed to only be at about half its HP.
The same thing quickly happened after that, Maple's mental pings going in all directions. Just as before, she quickly turned about and fired [Bull Rush] into the direction of the most. A large wave of corrosive waters flying in all directions as a series of those vines collapsed into each other.
She turned around to see all the would be attackers seemingly to meld together. Their bodies forming into one as it took a vaguely humanoid form about itself. There was no true head, Maple noticed, only a giant wreathing set of vines in the place where it should be.
[Bruiser Plant Golem Lv. 25]
"Cool, but not good." She admitted with a shaky smile before raising the Shield.
The sound of wood against horn carried through the water. Maple could feel the slight pressure carrying itself through her limb, her sheltered skin burning from the water below. As for the creature, it retracted its hand to reveal a half dozen holes within its hand from the punch.
"[Bullrush]!" Maple retaliated with a blitzed forward into the main body of the Bruiser, just like the Horned Queen before it. With now a few dozen horns lodged into the congregation of Vines Maple activated her other skill, "[Shield Bash]!"
That small umph of strength caused the horns to tear upwards. If there were organs inside of it they would surely have been torn asunder by this move. Of course there were none, but being at just above half HP the Bruiser was not feeling the best.
In contest, the being brought its hand towards the girl, its guts trying their best to grip the horns.
"Come on [Wood Shield]!" And whatever it had became nothing, allowing Maple to bring herself to meet the incoming hand with a slap of the Shield. As her body was in water, the impact sent her tumbling to the underside of the creature's armpit.
She grew a smile, then opened her maw full of pure white teeth. Her bite sinked into the thing's vine like flesh, taking a moment to grip as hard as she could before tearing it away. With a swallow she watched as her SP quickly rose back into the excess range.
The thing was quick for its size, quickly retracting the injured limb in exchange for its other. However, as it did Maple simply absorbed the attack and activated Devour. What would have been a debilitating strike was quickly ensnared by the jagged and wood filled mawl of her Shield. It gave a massive crunch, consuming its entire right arm in the process.
[Bruiser BioGolem] HP: 25%
It slowly moved backwards as if in complete surprise of the events. It quickly grew three vines outfront, each growing a kind of eyeball like organ. It stood its distance away from Maple as if to study her. This Predator was not something to take lightly, especially if it survived impact by a Bruiser.
As for Maple, "So good, it was so good!" She cried before an idea popped up in her head, "Is it that if something is higher level, it will taste better?"
As Maple was realizing the reality of the world she was in, the entity knew what it should do next. Best to rid itself of this pathogen before it gets worse.
As Maple quickly popped her second Health Pot the water all about her began to shift violently. The trees that stood about her all but fell over into rubble, green vines growing straight out of them. A singular wave seemed to carry itself through the waters as Vines, Bark, and Roots all ran themselves into one another.
Maple could not help but drool as six Bruisers just like the one she was fighting were made. The original one had a pair of trees going into it, the slithering vines consuming them and quickly raising the Health to full within moments. Maple might not have noticed it due to her stomach, but all the trees within a few hundred feet of her were consumed by the making of these beings.
[Bruiser Plant] Shield Unlocked
[Poison Immunity] has been Unlocked
[Genetic Manipulation] Moderate has been unlocked
[Bite] Max has been achieved, [Bite of Steel] has been gained
"Fufufu." Maple raised the Shield into the air as all the burning she experienced subsided, "Come and fill my belly! [Provocation]!"
Her cry had matched the commands of the Entity. The seven charged her at once, fists all but prepared to punch her with their fury.
As for Maple, well she wondered how hard it would be to fit two of them into her mouth.
~~Omake~~
"Ah, I love the smell of Napalm in the morning."
The two soldiers in the pit look at each other then back at the speaker. Helicopter propellers could be heard in the background over the noise from the forest literally going up in flames nearby, the gunshots, and the fighter airplanes leaving the area.
"How did a fucking child get here?"
"And why in the hell are you wearing that weird getup."
"I wonder if the tree would taste better after being cooked"
