Author's Note: Alrighty then, Another chapter posted. Please Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 18: The Shield Hero's Duel
Damn you Gaston! Even a child should see that they should be working to stay in the good graces of the Heroes, two of them have already gotten a taste to see what the other countries were like and now a third had made plans to pop over to Zeltoble to deal with their wave. With these reference points in mind they should be trying to increase the appeal of Melromarc by as much as possible and openly declaring that the captain of the Castle Town Guard had flat out tried to have one of them murdered within a day of arriving here was counterproductive towards that goal.
Huu.
The good news was that thanks to the Warrant Officer taking out so many of the donors for the church their influence had been reduced so he had actual room to work with to convince the heroes that Melromarc wasn't anything but a cesspool of schemers and back stabbers. Well Gaston had done that, in the wrong way, going out of his way to front stab young Honjou right now. No matter, all he had to do was bury all of his connections to Malty and hopefully this path of retribution would end here before it got to the royal family.
"Are both of the combatants ready?" The King shouted out as both Kaede and Gaston entered the arena courtyard of the castle.
Kaede had sported the same shields as she had during the wave, the not-sword sheathed in a shield that was and wasn't, a skirt of shields resembling pitch back obsidian while the one pauldron resembled a mass of yellow and black leather and the chest plate a roughly hewn tower shield with a rose painted on the chest plate. Gaston answered with his actions, charging forward to carve the young girl's head off.
"Paralysing Shout." Kaede called out the name of the skill and Gaston was hit with a wave of electricity laying him out flat on the ground at her feet. As if to emphasise her point she then put her foot on his head and used it to pin him into place.
"That is an absurdly useful skill." Tanya commented and the others nodded in agreement. Maybe she had more of the material on her. The foot was kept in place for longer than what was strictly necessary, long enough that Maple's skill had worn off and Gaston had taken to trying to hack her foot off with his sword to compensate. It wasn't a nice feeling, flailing about uselessly your actions not under your own control while someone else held you down. Finally Kaede released her foot and Gaston jumped to his feet, livid.
"Your black sorcery won't work on-"
"Paralysing Shout." Kaede called out the name of the skill again causing Gaston to be frozen once more and fell, face landing on one of Kaede's shields though not it's gluttonous jewel. Suddenly, a chuckle started in the crowd, as they looked down at the situation from above, and laughed as the Shield Hero made a mockery out of one of their knights, and none laughed louder than the king.
"Silence all of you!" Gaston shouted after he was allowed to stand up again finger pointing accusingly. "Which of you would do better in my place aveng-"
"Paralysing Shout." Kaede called out and for a third time Gaston had been floored, the fact that it had happened mid bluster made the crowd laugh all the louder for it.
But Maple knew when she was at risk of letting the joke get old, less Gaston's humiliation start to thin the patience of the nobles.
"Is that the only cheap trick that you know you damned demon!?" Gaston snapped accusingly finger pointed down at Kaede.
"I'm just trying to keep your attention is all." Kaede stated bluntly. "This is between you and me!"
"Well said!"
Credit where do. Gaston knew how to hit like bucking mule, dedicating every muscle of his body to the strikes being made against Kaede's shield, how unfortunate for him that worked to her advantage. For you see the Sword that was not a Sword was a handle, and the shield that was also a sheath was a weapon! Kaede swapped out the Leather Nue Shield for the Nue Shield proper, causing the striped pauldron to gain the face of a snarling baboon while it dropped to Kaede's hand. Kaede switched over which arm she was blocking with and with it what counter she would activate. Suddenly the screeching of a baboon filled the arena as terrifying night visions emerged from the shield to strike at Gaston.
"HIIII!" Having nightmares emerge directly from the shield and injected into the terrified knight's skull did little for his image as she started fearfully crawling backwards to get away from the fifteen year old that looked two years younger.
"Well this fully charged now."
The wave's zombies had been fast, and thanks to their armour heavy. Their blows carried lots of weight as they tossed themselves against her over and over again, their offence adding to the power that have been building inside of the shield. Now Maple gripped the sword that was also a handle and pulled it off of her, the sheath, blade and shield extended telescopically, while the shield split into a great spinning battle axe, carrying with it all of the offensive power that had been shoved into the shield during the wave and by Gaston. And that is what Gaston saw, a demon eyes glowing red, covered in black armour with the faces of monsters, spewing shadows while swinging death straight at him. And he could do nothing but scream as she brought it down on him. The shadows spread outwards dispersing as they went, the illusion they created gone as the crowd stared at was happening.
"Ah ah ah..." Gaston was frozen in fear, nose nicked by Kaede's spinning shield blade and thus bleeding, before he promptly fainted.
Kaede's spinning axe ran out of charge soon enough, and so she had it turn back into a shield with a sword sticking out of it and put it back on her arm before turning to face the nobility.
"I don't like doing these things. Do not make me do them again." Kaede stated as she waited for the verdict of the crown.
"So it is said." The King stated shrugging his shoulders and tapping his cane again. "Have Gaston sent to what's left of the Dungeons." The ones his men didn't destroy that is. "He can join the other enslaved labourers to begin rebuilding them."
Maple breathed out a sigh of relief, weight taken from her shoulders. She didn't want to return to the party and so retired to the room the four of them had shared the last time she was here and looked out on the town through the balcony. Three buildings had to be flat out demolished, there was a massive gaping hole where one more had been before the retaining wall underneath it had collapsed without warning.
"Look at what you've done!"
Another solid smack of a hard object striking the ground, Maple turned around to look for the king but couldn't find him.
"Is it you that keeps doing that?" Maple asked looking down at the shield on her arm and was left wanting for answers. "This day has been too exhausting for this."
Maple was the first to go to bed, this day was more exhausting than it had any right to be for the amount of work that she had gotten done. She didn't like this town, she shouldn't come back here.
The church's best efforts to the contrary it was difficult to find evidence of what young Maple had been up to in the past month, her outstanding defence of the village of Riyute aside, and even that could be largely attributed to Warrant Officer Degurechauff's flash fortress building. No matter, she had done her job to the best of her ability and that was what was important, that demanded a minimal reward.
"You want the snake Tail?" Kuro asked legendary sword reduced to a carving blade that she was using to work through the mangled corpse young Lady Claes had brought into the ball room.
"I'm putting together a collection." Maple stated, and the sad part was that there were enough monsters in the world with snake bits sticking out of them that she could say that and mean it.
"If you insist, if you ask me the other ones look like they can do more damage." And so Kuro removed what was left of the snake tail and handed it over to Maple to absorb into her weapon. The Shield turned into a green diamond shape, two golden snakes crossing one another for a rim.
"Ha! Poison counter attack!"
Besides the point Maple never picks anything for it's potential offensive power, rather for how well it suits her defensive power, so long as she can keep up a steady supply of damage over time skills then her defence will outlast them. Katarina took the goat head with it's dual prongs making her think of a spear head, Tanya the Lion head for it's vast offensive potential, and Kuro the dragon head which came with it's own variety of nasty tricks. it's flesh was further dismantled as they unlocked Chimera, meat, bone, leather, blood and hair weapons and so thus the four of them finally stood in front of the king.
"The four of you have done this kingdom a great service." The king stated as he had his attendant bring over four sacks of coin. "And as such you will be rewarded. Warrant officer Degurechauff, you have done well training the army of these lands." And in dismantling it's corrupt church. "As such, 5000 silver has been set aside for you." The sack was given to Tanya first, who quickly stuffed it into her bow. "Lady's Eizenberg and Claes, though your presence in our lands have not been as well felt as that of the bow your actions have helped to repair our diplomatic relations with our neighbours in Siltvelt and in Shieldfreeden. As such 4000 silver has been put aside for the both of you." Two more sacks had been put at the feet of the other two heroes. "As for the shield." The King visibly sighed. "Your actions in Riyute are commendable, and the actions of Gaston and his men reprehensible. But the damages done to the castle town itself cannot go unanswered for. 1000 silver, the rest has been dedicated to repairing the businesses and homes destroyed one month ago." The final and smallest sack was thrown at Maple's feet. "In compensation, aside from money you may ask us for any favour that suits you." Maple picked up the sack and put it inside of her shield.
"Might I ask for class upgrades for my companions then?" Maple asked looking at the king who sighed in response.
"I would if I was able. But I, a mere Prince Consort, does not have the authority to command the Church of the Three Heroes as I please." The king stated making it clear just how tired he was. "At least, not yet." The king was playing politics again. 'The church is a independent entity, I cannot command them to act as I wish, but if they come after you again they will be dealt with.' It was quite a noose the king was preparing for the church Tanya noted with approval.
"Understood." Not really, but then Tanya had no patience to explain to the nodding Maple.
The physically eldest of the four heroes exited the castle, her party members at her side, less she wander off and get ambushed again.
"Where should we go first?" Raphtalia asked as they made their way to the shopping district for the castle town.
"We need to thank Erhard for the gambeson earlier." Maple stated and therein was about the limits of her plan, with the loot function of the shield she can easily process materials she picks up into the wild into potions and supplies, to speak of nothing about what happens when she does it by hand. She doesn't like this town, it has bad memories for her.
"Hey kid good to see yah!" Erhard stated hearing the door of his store open up.
"Sorry about the damages from last time." Maple stated as she kowtowed before Erhard.
"Shouldn't we be the ones saying that?" Erhard had seen Maple throughout the day, saw the young girl who didn't want to be here looking around frightened like a mouse who realised they were inside of the lions den. There was no way in hell this kid went on a out of control rampage that destroyed half the castle town, at least not willingly. "Anything I can do for yah?"
"Um." Maple looked down at her shield and realised she still had the Charge Blade Erhard had made for her out, to be more accurate it had been a iron Charge blade and was now the main weapon of Eclair. "This was pretty strong, but it's level requirement is actually pretty low. Can I have a stronger one?"
"No problem." Erhard stated beating his fist against his chest.
"Also, do you have anything for sharpening blades and removing rust from them?"
'Conditions Met. Whetstone Shield unlocked. Main Bonus: Blade sharpener.'
Maple turned all six slots of her armour into the stone blocks each with eight slots inside making it possible to sharpen 48 blades at once. Thus she began collecting blades from the battle ground, whatever couldn't be sharpened now would instead be put into the grinder later at the nearest available opportunity. According to Kuro there were little over two thousand zombies scattered around the battlefield, each of them carrying at least one blade which meant 2000 weapons waiting to be sharpened. Approximately 50 weapons would be sharpened and ready for sale every 8 hours which should mean... 360 hours or little over two weeks to finish work on all the blades.
"What in heroes name are you even gathering all those things for?" Eclair asked not comprehending what someone could possible need or want that many blades for.
"I figure I can sell them for cheap once we're on the road again, I need to to pay back Mr. Erhard for the equipment he sent us after-all." That said, it soon became apparent that Maple wasn't the only one out in the field that afternoon, the familiar presence of a elderly herbalist was soon made known as he was busy collecting herbs the presence of the damned corpses be damned.
"Oh. It's the little shielder from back then aren't you?" The Herbalist stated smiling at the young girl he remembered buying supplies from his store.
How could he not? For shields were not popular in his country let alone people who only used shields.
"Umm. Sorry for what happened to your store." Maple however remembered him more as the man whose building she tore a path through trying to get away from the knights.
"All's forgiven." The old Herbalist stated as a familiar face emerged from the brush. Ake, Tanya's party member, promptly stood at attention and gave a stiff bow to Maple.
"Thank you for protecting my home town!" Ake stated before standing up straight again, or at least tried to as the herbalist grabbed him by his head and forced him back down again.
"Too stiff. I warned you that you were going to make her uncomfortable like that." The herbalist stated clearly annoyed.
"Um. You two know each other?" Maple asked watching as the Herbalist let the younger man go.
"He's my nephew." The elder man stated as he started rummaging around his bag. "Hang on I know I have here somewhere, Aha!" For his trouble the old man managed to eventually produce a book on advance alchemy from his person. "Here we go, a gift for you."
"A gift?" Maple asked looking at the man curiously.
"For keeping this worthless nephew of mine out of trouble during the last wave." The old man stated as, his business here done, he started walking back to the castle town.
"I'm not worthless." Ake stated as he began noticing the sword's Maple had picked up. "Oh you're helping gather the corpses along with the arms and armour."
At Riyute all of the zombies in the immediate area had been gathered together into a pit Katarina had dug after being stripped of weapons and armour.
"""-Zweite Decay!""" Several healers had gathered together to use magic to flat out melt the corpses into a gooey mass, eventually the concentrated magic turned them into the equivalent to top soil, speaking of which.
"Earth wave!" Katarina brought down her hoe and all of the fresh fertilizer she and the other mages had just put together was spread over the field, crops damaged on account of monsters landing on them and Kuro and Tanya taking shots at them, with that task done Katarina switched over to the Earth Magic Sphere Spear. "Earth Hole!" And so punched another hole into the ground for the purpose of collecting the dead. Her task done for roughly a hour or so Katarina took a break for a while.
"Lady Claes, your lack of knowledge concerning the numerous politics of the five major countries has not gone unnoticed." Elena stated as she brought out more text books, doubtlessly bought using the coin they just got from the king.
Yep break for a couple of hours.
"Katarina, you said that you were going to help round up any of the undead or dogs that escaped." Rino stated as she came out carrying fresh undented armour.
"Why does it look like Katarina's party tree'd her?" Maple commented looking up in the air at a nearby tree that Katarina was lounging in at the moment, and the two grown women trying to get her out of it.
"Probably not important." Keel commented as he watch Kyurie pick Katarina up using his claws and carry her off.
"Ah it's good to see you sir Hero." Maple turned her attention to a plump middle aged lady who was standing next to a pit that was being rapidly filled up with corpses. "I see you've some Therianthropes for companions. Come this way I've already brought along the tailor to help make some magic clothes for all of them." The plump woman stated as she grabbed Raphtalia by her arm and proceeded to drag her off into the village, the tanuki girl deeply confused. "After that I've brought some books on advance magic for all of you, and some magic crystal balls for you paid for by the King."
"Um..." Maple just stared ahead deeply confused while she had a look around, eventually spotting Eli as he worked to stretch out fur from the two headed dogs to tan. "What's going on?"
"Gratitude, Sir Hero." Eli stated as he proceeded to smear what Maple was realising to be the brains from the dogs over the stretched skins. "You and your companions defended this village from the monsters of the wave."
"That was mostly you guys. You were the ones who set up that defensive wall after all." Maple stated gesturing to the wall. "And Kuro was the one who decimated the wave."
"Yes but you undervalue one key factor Lady Honjou, that being strategy and limitations." Eli stated as he used a stick to draw on the ground.
"Firstly Lady Eizenberg could only wipe out two thousand monsters all at once because said monsters were kept from striking at this village. Yes the defensive line proposed by Warrant Officer Degurechauff kept the monsters out, but they were flimsily built in less than ten minutes, if the monsters had seriously taken a crack at them then they would've been shattered, and so a hole had been deliberately left opened not to defend the village but to corral them into a convenient direction, filled by you." And slaughter them she did, Paralysing Shout immobilised them and made it stupidly easy for Maple to make use of her signature one hit kill ability to vacuum them up like yesterday's trash. "You defended this village. Not everyone in the Castle Town recognises this fact but there are those that do." Eli stated as he made his opinion on the matter abundantly clear.
As far as villages went this one was relatively close to the castle town, there are those over there with family here. But there were also those there who had families there, and Kaede was never going to forget the brick that bounced off her head, the person who threw it or why.
"We need to arrange convoy to Zeltoble." Tanya stated sitting inside of the Headman's office and looking down at a map. "We're not letting another wave go unanswered because a bunch of stupid merchants think trying to profit off of it is a good idea."
"Zeltoble is well known for it's quality of weapons, and it's arenas filled with rare exotic monsters." Viktoriya commented looking at the map.
"Secondary priority. Any large groups of monsters we need to pass through to get there?" Tanya asked looking at the map.
"If we take the land route, then we should pass through Filolial territory on the way over. The air route and sea route will be faster but without cargo and slower respectively." Viktoriya explained as Tanya understood the implications.
With Maple's Filolial her group will blow by any other on the land route, and that includes another group of Heroes.
"Then we take four separate groups and grind while on our way over." Tanya stated dismissively. "We'll need flying monsters for the air route, and to charter a ship for the sea route. See if we can identify any merchant caravan's on their way to Zeltoble that we can offer protection to in exchange for a lift." And then Tanya felt the ground shaking.
Looking outside she narrowed her eyes in a glare.
"I thought we agreed we weren't going to mess with those things anymore." Tanya stated glaring at the Bio-plants that someone had just planted outside of the village.
"Are we sure that this is a good idea?" Keel asked remembering what happened the last time they turned one of these things loose.
"I've lowered their intelligence and rate of mutation down to zero." Maple stated as she experimented with the next seed.
"Yeah but it's too big." Keel stated looking at the tree that was now where Katarina's last hole full of former zombies had been.
"Hmm. Maybe if I limit their growth rate..." Maple's musings were suddenly interrupted by her tree snapping in half with a loud boom and falling over.
"See it got too big and it fell over!" Keel stated as he only narrowly deflected the tree away from the village.
"That was me!" Tanya snapped German accent thick in her voice once more, even as her hand hung in the air from firing the bow. "And I thought we agreed that we weren't going to mess around with those things any more!"
"I'm experimenting with some of the skills I earned when I fed the first bio-plants to my shield." Maple stated as she out some of the material in question. "This one lets you see the stats and properties of any plant that you pick up, and the one from the seeds lets you alter them."
"Oh that sounds really useful doesn't it?" Tanya proceeded to scold Maple for three hours straight.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: One for the spear, a Torture attack like the Iron Maiden of Guillotine.
Captain Imaginat: He looked like a Gaston to me. All arrogant, cocky and prone to self destructive actions.
drmcgraw186: The Three idiots were able to take care of it, of course it's an easy wave. If Keel doesn't get over the fear of dogs then she's going to face problems with her growth down the line considering part of her schtick is 'Turn into dog.' Good one!
Marc Elle-Re Yes: She will, eventually.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Not exactly eat, destroy might be a better description. A reminder to people that he is the 'Wise King' that managed to put all of Melromarc's enemies in their place.
Halo: No no, Daggers can completely be copied into the Legendary Sword. I hope I don't disappoint with Making Gaston look like the fool that he is. I won't speak about the previous Heroes being young girls, but Faubrey was stated to have been founded by a united generation of Heroes in the past.
reindank: Sorry, Maple isn't getting a idiot shield.