Author's Note: Okay so going to take another power from Bofuri and put it into this one, going to come out of left field I know but bonus points to whoever can figure out how she did it. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!
Chapter 33: The Demon of the Shield
"Where is everyone?" Maple questioned noting that the king had asked Raphtalia and Rifana to report to the castle the day before and that they hadn't returned yet. He even specified that she remove them from her party which was understandably problematic since that left her two people down for her party. As compensation for that though were these guys. "Mr. Hyoga?" Maple asked looking at the spear man who was hanging out with Katarina's group a while back. "Granny?" And the old woman whose life she saved through the use of the Yggdrasil potion. "...and friends." Which was the only thing that Maple could say looking at the small army of people that the kingdom had gathered to the village to join her party. "What's wrong?"
"A urgent matter has appeared which the King believes can only be settled with the power of the Heroes, and greatly aided by the unique abilities of the Tanuki and the Seawel. Miss Claes and Officer Tanya have reported to the front while Kuro has gone into Shieldfreeden and thus far have stayed there. Why is something I'm sure they can explain when they get back." Hyoga explained looking to the sky in the horizon.
"For now..."
"Hmm." Maple hummed in agreement. "Is everyone here going to be okay to help fight the wave?"
"Fret not. Several individuals here have been trained in Miss Tanya's anti-wave tactics." The spear wielder stated indicating the soldiers he gathered with him. "Alright then." Maple commented while she looked up to the corner of her vision and saw the timer for the wave.
3... 2... 1... Dong!
Maple took the whole plucked out of the area and dropped into the wave thing better then last time. The soldiers and knights quickly arrived at the village where a sturdy stone wall had already been built and the villagers had already chosen to evacuate to the safe area. Trenches were dung around the village with earth magic and filled with water, spikes had been set up in the village and on the roofs to skewer any monster that fell on them and then the monsters came: Goblins, ranging in size from knee high to a man to ogre like brutes wielding Kanabo's preparing to take the villages defences apart. Shame then that they would never make it that far. As soon as they were in striking range of the wall lightning had been sent coursing through the water and proceeded to fry the ogres that were preparing to take the wall apart. Course the trench was quickly filled by the corpses of dead Ogres with live ones more than willing to step over them to cross the gap, still didn't stop them from being electrocuted to death, even as the water turned into flamable gas alongside the ogres that were being quickly broken down and made to release vast amounts of methane gas into the air, and was promptly ignited roasting the entire perimeter of the village causing the flammable gasses to turn into water and refill the trenches. The monsters were now rethinking their life choices while Earth Magic was being used to clear the trenches and arrows were being used to pick them off at a distance.
"...am I even needed here?" It felt like Tanya had trained her people to be better shield heroes then she was.
"Well they wouldn't have been able to get here so fast without you being transported directly to the wave." Keel commented trying to be helpful.
"Yeah but any of the other three could've done that." Maple pointed out dejectedly.
"Maybe, but your job is up there." Sadeena stated as she indicated the ghost ship that was flying through the sky.
"The monsters are coming with their own boss arena's now?" Maple commented as she looked up to the sky and her brow twitched. And then she saw the ship's cannons move. "Dedicated Affection!" Maple swapped out the shield and activated the skill as their entire carriage was given the use of Maple's ludicrous defensive stats to protect it from green blasts of eldritch energy. "Even with regenerating health skills I still don't want to be on the receiving end of those shots any long than I have to be." The others nodded their heads as Filo stopped the carriage.
"Filo can't fly. How do we get up there?" Filo stated looking up at the sky.
"Hop aboard!" Maple instructed and so Filo did so after turning into her human form. "Air Strike Shield!" Maple made the skill appear underneath the wagon and used that to float them up through the air towards the ship. Still as slow as the girl herself but with her ludicrous defensive power they could afford to take it slow until they arrived onboard the ship proper.
"Alright let's find the boss!" Keel stated hungry for battle.
"Filo, destroy the ship." Maple ordered because she was out of damns to give.
"Kay!" Filo jumped up through the air, transformed into her bird form, and slammed her foot into the ship hard enough that the entire thing buckled before outright snapping in two. The part of the ship that snapped off fell to the ground while the back with tentacles of all things, because of course there were tentacles inside of the ship, and outside, and now it was all irrelevant.
"Second Shield." Maple shouted and with the second shield she was able to float over to the mass of tentacles that was keeping the back end of the ship afloat which then lashed out and wrapped itself around her. "You don't know me very well do you?" And thus Maple was sucked inside even closer as the shield sucked up the tentacles much to the screaming confusion of the squid monster as Maple's shield ate the damned thing causing the whole critter to fall out of the sky as soon as enough of it's flesh disappeared that it could no longer sustain flight. Right on top of the other half of the ghost ship.
"Well, that was over quickly." Sadeena commented looking up into the sky and letting out a sigh. The wave hadn't stopped yet. "Alright let's go dig Maple out."
Chunks of the ghost ship was thrown off of the girl as she eventually dug herself out. The newly unlocked 'Kraken Tentacle Shield' Did as the name implied as Maple put it into six shield slots with four tentacles each.
"Oh that must have been a mini boss." Maple commented looking up into the sky. "If you're not going to come out on your own I'm just going to have to come to you instead!" Maple proceeded to sift through the wreckage stuffing it into her shield as she went until a unfamiliar monster popped out of the wreckage.
"Are you the boss?" Maple stuffed the Skull Pirate Captain into her shield in time for the makeshift parachute known as Filo lowered her passengers to the ground after Maple's skill gave out. "Nope." Maple commented looking up at the sky.
"And she was concerned she lacked offensive power." Keel wanted to laugh seeing the way Maple was wiping out the enemies that served as guards to the boss, assuming that it was even on that ship in the first place.
Perhaps aware of the fact that it couldn't keep hiding at this rate the most likely candidate for the position of 'boss' yet appeared, a huge white ghostly fish monster. Which then roared intimidatingly and fled as fast as it could because after watching it's ship getting smashed to pieces and then half eaten and wanted absolutely none of that. Course it didn't get far before Maple tied the rope shield around it's tail and instead proceed to drag her along. Sadeena, Keel and Filo all proceeded to transformed into their more beastly forms and grabbed hold of her trying to get her to, and the monster she had just tied up, from getting away.
"It's really heavy!" Maple stated as the others moved to try and keep the monster from getting away.
Then for the third time that night the ship had chunks of wood were blown off as a figure from below brushed herself off and glared. She broke the theme of the boss and it's lieutenants, a form resembling a Japanese beauty, complete with a dark black kimono and a pair of fans. She contrasted so strongly with the pirate and the two sea monsters that it was flat out ridiculous.
"How'd you get onto the ship?" Maple asked though the woman opted to ignore her and instead looked at the monster they were trying to corral, and by all accounts failing. The woman lined up her two fans and a bright pink beam appeared from one which she then tapped with her other fan.
"Turtle Shell Cracker!" The light sabre like beam was loosed like a arrow and skewered the fish monster Maple and company had been struggling with. "If I have your attention now..."
"Thanks for the help!" Maple shouted before she looked up to the wave and saw that it was still active. "Huu. The wave hasn't stopped yet." Maple stated as she made her way back to the ship to finish sucking it inside of her weapon. She did opt to absorb the boss for materials though, or would have before being so rudely interrupted.
"Pillar wave." The woman in the Kimono snapped loosing another skill to vaporise the boss's corpse. "Do I have your attention now?" The woman asked again sounding highly unamused at having been ignored.
"Was that necessary?" Maple asked looking at where the boss's corpse had been a moment earlier.
"Yes it was. That creature will give you a weapon that is violently effective against me and seeing as how I am going to be attacking you now it would be highly inconvenient if you had absorbed it." The woman gave a curtsy as she introduced herself. "Glass, the Hero of the Fan."
Maple blinked in surprise.
"Are you one of the Seven Stars?" Maple asked bluntly.
"No. I come from the world on the other side of the wave." The Glass woman stated as she lined up another shot.
"Well, good luck with that." Maple stated, completely nonchalant as she continued on her way back to the wreckage of the ship. Apparently annoyed with being ignored the woman loosed another skill at the back of Maple's head. "I'm afraid we've hit an impasse." Maple stated noting a piece of white material left over from when Glass blew up the boss.
'Conditions Met. Soul Eater Shield unlocked. Equip Bonus: SP up, Spirit Resistance, Main Bonus: Soul Eat.'
"I have no interest in fighting you and you can't hurt me." Maple stated turning her attention to face the other woman.
"Are you sure we should just be ignoring her?" Keel asked whispering into Maple's ear.
"What did I just say?" Maple asked looking at Keel questioningly. "You don't want to fight her and she can't hurt you." And yet Keel saw Glass line up her fans for another 'Turtle Shell Cracker.' "She's lining up another shot though." This was not the course of action of someone who has come to the understanding of the futility of their actions.
"It's alright." Maple stated rolling her eyes. "She can't-" Maple's words were suddenly interrupted by blood coming out of her mouth and a hole that suddenly appeared in her chest.
'The Hero's Health has fallen below a unacceptable margin.' A voice inside of Maple's head announced. 'Assuming direct control.'
"Maple!" Keel was currently leaning over Maple's form doing his best to keep any more of her insides from tumbling out of her body.
Then her eyes opened glowing a bright purple.
"Transferring Proficiency to the Yggdrasil Shield 100%. Mastered. Reinforcing Yggdrasil Shield Common... Successful. Uncommon... Successful. Rare... Successful... Legendary... Successful." Maple's flesh started to crawl it's way closed, not fast enough mind you though. "I, the Hero of the Shield, Call upon the origin of power." Glass was not letting that happen so she loosed another of her volley's but Sadeena intervened smacking her fan away with her harpoon.
"Oh I'm not letting you do that." Sadeena stated her casual tone of voice not even remotely hiding her murderous intent.
"Decipher the laws of nature and heal myself! Driefach Restore X!" Maple's body twitched as the hole in her chest closed up and the entity inside of her stood her up, looking directly at the other worldly invader assessing options. "Unknown entity. Weakness's unknown. Assessing materials, calculating optimised offensive options." While the entity chattered Glass and Sadeena battled the first attempting to stab and slash with her fans and attack with her skills while the other blocked and parried.
"Calculation successful." The entity turned to face Keel and Filo.
"What are you?" Keel asked and the entity look directly at him.
"The Legendary Shield." The entity replied. "I can kill her. I will require time." That was almost enough for them.
"That doesn't belong to you." Keel leaned over and threatened in a low voice. "And you will give it back."
"Understood." Keel whipped out his axes and went on the offensive along with Filo who only gave the shield shaped creature a passing glance before she went to join the three way battle. In the mean time the entity closed Maple's eyes and focused.
'Processing Tyrant Dragon Material. Successful. Tyrant dragon Kigurumi.' A kigurumi in the image of the Tyrant dragon popped out of the shield and the entity quickly put it on Maple's body.
"Optimising energy production."
'Transferring proficiency into Mana Potion Shield 100%. Mastered. Reinforcing Mana Potion Shield Common... Successful. Uncommon... Successful. Rare... Successful... Legendary... Successful.'
'Transferring proficiency into Spirit Potion Shield 100%. Mastered. Reinforcing Spirit Potion Shield Common... Successful. Uncommon... Successful. Rare... Successful... Legendary... Successful.'
'Processing Loot Mana Potion and Spirit Potion. Successful. Ki Potion Acquired'
'Conditions Met. Ki Potion Shield. Equip Bonus Ki Regeneration.'
'Transferring proficiency into Ki Potion Shield 100%. Mastered. Reinforcing Ki Potion Shield Common... Successful. Uncommon... Successful. Rare... Successful... Legendary... Successful.'
"Optimising Offensive potential."
'Transferring proficiency into Shield of the Beast King 100%. Mastered. Reinforcing Shield of the Beast King Common... Successful. Uncommon... Successful. Rare... Successful... Legendary... Successful.'
'Allocating Mana Points. Beast Transformation X.'
"Enhanced Beast Transformation!" The Glow in Maple's eyes got brighter around the time that Glass was able to break through the others attacks. They were impressive she'd give them back, three monsters a whale, a Dog and a bird wielding super human stats, the floating axes caught her off guard but she finally, successfully lined up a shot with Maple and fired.
"Hero of the Fan." The Animal costume glowed as Maple's armour changed form. "You should've left when you had the chance."
A blade was rammed through the skull of one of the goblins as the Pope made note of their appearance. Filthy little cretins, they couldn't even gift them enlightenment and have them join their ranks, so he was left with no other choice but to dispose of them. The wave had not yet ended, which means the Shield had yet to live up to her oaths. They had free reign to eliminate the boss using whatever means they deemed necessary and if the Demon of the Shield was killed in the process so what?
"Prepare Ritual Class magic Judge-" A inhuman roar echoed out in the distance indicating the appearance of a monster as a huge amount of energy was shot into the atmosphere and... something, appeared on the horizon.
A monster straight out of the Church's scriptures. Four long arms, one pair of them left over from when the monster's ancestors use to have wings, a massive bipedal body at least as tall as the church building, the end result of a non-dragon monster consuming a frankly massive number of dragon cores and so driven to madness, leading it to be sealed away by the Heroes of Legend. They saw the reports of this very same creature being raised and killed in the course of a single night but they hadn't looked into it. Of course they hadn't, they thought the Shield Hero dead at the time.
"Ah... ah... ah..." The Pope was so stunned that his glasses were about to fall off of his face, what followed though snapped him out of it.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!" The draconic monster stretched up straight into the sky and roared, beating it's chest primally. And then it crouched down and let loose, beating on something on the ground before suddenly stopping.
"Oh damn it!" Maple stated looking down at the broken body of the woman who she reasonably suspected tried to kill her and nearly succeeded. If that was the work of her shield the two of them would have words later. Instead Maple picked the broken body up and poked her a couple of times causing her to twitch to life.
"I do not like doing this things." The monster that had mercilessly savaged Glass stated in a warning tone. "Do not make me do it again." On that note Maple wound up and pitched, throwing Glass through the portals in the sky and sending her back to her own world. As if that had been the Keystone the entire wave suddenly stopped.
"Huh." Maple idly commented, still in the same casual tone of voice even in spite of the demonic tones and that it was coming from a draconic dinosaur covered in Maple's shield armour. "Maybe she really was from another world." Maple suddenly felt something brush against her foot and looked down to see that Keel and Filo had hugged her there.
"How the hell did this happen?" Sadeena asked looking up into the air at the monster like hero.
"I don't know." Maple stated giving a honest shrug of her shoulders. "A bunch of my shields upgraded themselves." And on that note Maple started to do stretches.
"Maple dear, you aren't planning on staying like that are you?" Sadeena asked wondering if the girl was being serious. "Well yeah, for now anyway. We still got a bunch of monsters to round up."
To wit end twenty foot long legs would go a long way of the process of crossing the battlefield and wiping out any and all of the remaining monsters therein and so that is precisely what Maple had started to do. Then a massive beam of energy came down from the sky aimed directly at her, Maple simply held up her hand with the Shield of Gluttony equipped, the magic attack was way too big for just the shield jewel to process, and sucked the attack inside.
"I don't suppose that was a monster attack?" Maple asked in a resigned tone of voice, even as a second blow of magical energy fell from the sky and Maple responded by sucking it inside of her shield.
"I would like to." Sadeena stated familiar flippant anger in her voice. "I would really bloody well like to." But alas Sadeena recognised the spell of Judgement when she saw it. Enemies one after another, nearly dying and unlocking some familiar NWO like power in the process.
"Huu. This is the Castle Town all over again." With that resignation in place Maple shook her head and picked up her party members to go find the people trying to kill her again. Point of interest it was the same people.
"Pope Balmus!" One of the men, one of the ones they hadn't subjected to a curse of brain washing that is, fearfully announced looking at Maple through a telescope. "It's on it's way!"
"Reposition and prepare to fire again!" The Pope announced waving his arm for his followers to move out again. "We will fall back to the castle town and make use of the army to deal with this crisis!"
While the Church forces opted to 'tactically reposition' the rest of anti-wave forces were observing the appearance of the heavily armoured mutant dragon and wondering what precisely was going on here.
"Is it the boss?" One of Hyoga's subordinates asked looking at the creature on the horizon.
"Were that the case then the wave would still be going on right now." Hyoga stated having a closer look at the creature in question.
"Then where did it come from? And why is the church trying to kill it?" Both very good questions. Since it was that self righteous Pope mobilising his forces he would've expected him to have taken a shot at the Shield hero by now, the fact that they were actually doing something useful right now was a welcome change in pace. On the other hand the creature that they were taking shots at seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves in that the magic attacks weren't actually hurting it. It eventually got annoyed enough that it's mouth spewed out a mass of flames at the Church's Army which forced them to counter act by erecting a barrier to block it, Cathedral, the defensive version of Judgement.
"It's odd that the Shield Hero hasn't appeared to fight that thing yet." Hyoga's subordinate commented idly. "I understand that she ran off in that direction to fight boss before." Then Hyoga saw both of the armoured plates on the dragon monster's arms transform into a spiky bucklers which it then proceeded to use to beat on the barrier trying to break through it.
"...that's because that is the Shield Hero." Hyoga noted his disturbed subordinate pointing his finger at the monster but he had no time for this pun. "Mobilise our forces." Hyoga stated as he waved to the people under his command to move out.
"Are we going to support the church against that dragon?" Hyoga's second in command asked making a perfectly logical but simultaneously incorrect deduction.
"No. We're going to support the Shield Hero against the church."
The pope looked on as the Shield Demon pounded on the barrier before the creature finally broke through, the sheer size and mass behind the blows serving to enhance the offensive power of the spikes, whatever her stats might be be damned.
"Phoenix Blade!" The Pope swung the holy sword he had prepared at the monster, and in response to that the transformed shield hero reached over and grabbed the soaring phoenix shaped mass of flame and crushed it before it could even form. "Brion-!" Before the second skill could be cast Maple reached over with her second arm and pinned the pope down using her hand pulling him out of the protection of his skill. "Judgement now!" The Pope shouted and the forces he had gathered droned forward unleashing another mass of magical energy aimed directly at Maple who responded by holding her hand up again to block the attack. "Brionac!" The Pope saw opportunity and so took it, firing off the skill directly into Maple's face and through her draconic skull and so in the process knocking her out of her transformed state.
"What is your problem!?" Maple asked looking at the pope rubbing her face where she had been shot and noting that there was no damage.
"What is my problem?" The Pope asked brow twitching as if he had just been asked a stupid question. "What is my problem you miserable little monster!?" Oh Maple suspected she hit a sore spot with that one. Of course he created one for her when his people tried to have her stabbed in the streets. "Our Heroes have been running off to other countries to defend our enemies. A demon runs free in our country, deceiving the populace! The faith in the church is at a all time low and all because of you!"
"Those are all things that I was brought here to do!" Kaede snapped back, she would be having a lot easier time doing it too if she could still take a step inside of the castle town without being flushed with anxiety because of this Prick!
"You were brought here by our will!" The Pope raised up the bow he was carrying, which Maple could've sworn was a sword before, and fired into the windows of this building shaped barrier resulting in a mass of arrows being released from the windows. "And by our will it is back into the pit from whence you came you shall be returned you miserable creature!" Maple simply pulled up her hood and walked forward, arrows pelting against her body be damned.
"That's rude!" Maple stated walking forward. "Japan might not be the best place to live in the world but compared to nearly getting killed every other week in this one I'd take it any day of the week!" The Pope's brow twitched as he realised that arrows weren't working and so his bow transformed, and this time Kaede saw it do it, back into a spear as he prepared to strike at her. "I hope you are very sure about that." Kaede stated shield jewel raised up in the air. "Remember what happened last time?"
Outside Sadeena was having a look at the soldiers of the Church's army, they hadn't even noticed them yet and as soon as Sadeena realised why she stopped Keel and Filo from taking a single step further.
"Brainwashing curse." Sadeena stated simply around the time the reinforcements from the village had arrived.
"And here I thought the church might be doing something useful with their time." Hyoga stated shaking his head in the negative. "Alright let's start focusing on de-cursing these people."
"Phoenix Blade!" The skill uselessly washed off of Maple's back. "Brionac!" Didn't even disturb the picture that she was doodling in the dirt. "Heart Pierce!" The girl grabbed the skill and threw it aside.
"Do you mind?" Maple asked ignoring the increasingly frustrated pope as he tried and failed to put so much as a scratch on her. "Just die already!" The pope snapped as he attempted his latest epic failure.
"Your army is being apprehended, your weapon is running on fumes and even if it wasn't you cannot hurt me." Kaede outlined glaring at the Pope a hint of anger on her features. "I am ignoring you because to actually do anything to you will either allow you, your followers or some other annoying person out there to imagine justification to try and hurt me again which I am not interested in doing." Kaede stated bluntly. "You will be arrested, afterwards you will be tried for treason and presumably executed." To do less would mean starting a war that the nation isn't prepared to fight.
"Phoenix Blade!" The Pope shouted and slashed the blade downwards, to zero effect, the realisation of the situation he was in slowly sinking in. "I bet that makes you pretty satisfied you little brat." The Pope snapped angrily.
"I have been attacked, framed, terrorised and harassed and the best thing I can do about it is ignore it all while someone else deals with you. In what way am I suppose to feel satisfaction?"
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: He was too valuable to execute, and besides as I understand it the king took what might be generously described as a hands off approach to running his kingdom, after that all he would've had to do was make himself look like a more appealing alternative than the king for his supporters to turn a blind eye and help him with his schemes.
Captain Imaginat: Glad you like the story so much.
Kisame Hoshigaki: Will be? The man's a human shaped eldritch horror put on the planet for the singular purpose of seeing it ruined: he was born crazy. Two raging under aged perverts: a match made in heaven.
Halo: Don't worry, the world's least assassin like assassin will be stay far away from this.