Chapter 31: Squire Sorey
Rose groaned on the ground while the hellion just looked at her.
"You know you're either being awfully nice or you're just pitying me." Said Rose.
"I'm going for the latter because that's a dragonnewt." Said Dezel.
"Meaning …?"
"It's a type of young dragon that probably would've killed you by now if you weren't looking so pathetic." Said Dezel.
"Oh …" Said Rose then getting up. "Let's just purify you and get this over with."
"I'm pretty sure that like drakes, dragonnewts are pretty strong and have a high chance of killing you." Said Dezel.
"You gotta be kidding me." She sighed. She got up and drew her knives.
"Yeah this looks like a situation where you need to run if it starts looking hairy." Said Edna. "Welp, nice knowing you."
"Hey!" Rose snapped.
"Let's just try to weaken it as much as we can." Said Dezel. "Then make a break for it."
"But I'm gonna do most of the heavy hitting because of a broken pendulum right?" Said Rose.
"Not if we armatize." Said Dezel.
"Fair point." Said Rose. "Lukeim Yurlin …" They flew out of the way of the hellion's sword swing then countered with a dragon blitz and a flurry of other attacks. However the dragonnewt barely looked affected. It gave Rose a smirk, or something similar since lizards don't have lips, cocked its head then it swung its sword down on Rose. "Whoa!" She shouted as she rolled out of the way. "Think we should go for the arial advantage?"
"Yeah probably." Said Dezel.
"Wait don't-!" Mikleo tried to shout but Rose flew up to the ceiling and then smashed her head. "I tried to tell you, we're in an enclosed environment you can't really fly that hight, just hover somewhere between the floor and the ceiling."
"However that was hilarious." Said Edna.
"Ugh dammit …" Rose growled. She dodged another slash but in order to do so she ended up flying into a wall. "Ugh! This isn't working! Mikleo, Edna can you help me out here?" She dearmatized and Mikleo and Edna came out.
"I'll be … I'll be over here then with healing." Said Dezel pointing to a nondescript direction and went somewhere. So Rose rushed up to the dragonnewt to slash at it or stab it while the seraphim casted seraphic artes then Rose would get knocked back which lead the dragonnewt to attack one of the casters to which Rose would have to stumble up to get back at the hellion while it was busy fighting Mikleo or Edna (or chasing Dezel). Then the cycle repeated all over again.
"Rose!" They heard Sorey shout she quickly turned behind her to see him running towards her with Zenrus slowly approaching behind. However his breathing was much heavier than it would be if he was healthy.
"No." Said Rose. "You just nearly coughed to death! There's no way you should be up and about!"
"You're not the one who raised me Rose!" Sorey snapped back drawing out his sword and dodging the hellion. "I'm going to help you whether you like it or not!"
"Then help me by getting out of here and not being a liability!" Rose shouted slashing the dragonnewt. However the dragonnewt wipped its tail having Rose slam into a wall.
"I'm not dying I'm good enough to fight!" Sorey shouted ducking when the dragonnewt swung its sword and slashing a leg when he got low. The dragonnewt stumbled forward but caught itself.
"You can't even purify any hellions!" Said Rose.
"Then let me be your squire so I can!" Said Sorey.
"How do you ..? Why am I even questioning this of course you know about squires you're around Muse all the time!" Rose muttered to herself before turning to Sorey and telling him "No!"
"Well why not? It's not like I'll die if you die or anything that!" Snapped Sorey.
"It can happen how do you know?" Rose snapped back.
"Muse would be dead and Mikleo would've never been born!" Sorey shouted.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Rose shouted back.
"Muse was part of the S.H.I.T.S." Said Mikleo rather bluntly. "Freeze Lancer!" And a bunch of icicles shot forward hitting the dragonnewt. However the creature only seem to have gotten angrier and attempted to split Mikleo in half, however he fortunately got out of the way.
"What?" Rose exclaimed throwing a knife at the dragonnewt.
"Yes she was part of the S.H.I.T.S.!" Edna confirmed. "How else would she have knowledge about seraphim, the Lord of Calamity, armitization, and squires? Hell Zenrus basically flat out confirmed that she was part of the S.H.I.T.S. back in Lady Lake! I don't see how you missed that!"
"So what you mean to tell me is that, for one the ring leader of the S.H.I.T.S. died sometime before Mikleo was born, and Muse was one of his squires. Meaning that if squires died whenever Shepherds did, Muse would be dead right now and we wouldn't have Mikleo around?" Rose asked.
"Yes! I just said that!" Sorey shouted then getting knocked back.
"You're still not going to be my squire." Said Rose. Sorey then blocked one of the hellion's claw attacks with its sword.
"I am currently defending myself just fine against an overgrown lizard while not at a hundred percent and just with a sword." Sorey commented. "How the hell are you still insisting that I not become your freaking squire?!"
"Just cuz." Said Rose.
"For the love of …" Dezel sighed and grabbed Rose and pulled her aside.
"What the- Dezel what the hell are you doing?" Rose shouted.
"This is getting out of hand!" Said Dezel.
"What?" Said Rose.
"You blatantly refusing Sorey to be your squire even though he is qualified as fuck." Said Dezel.
"But his illness …" Said Rose.
"Zenrus agreed to take care of that. Aside from that he saved your life, he figure out a puzzle in the ruins, he has a good chunk of knowledge about Shepherd stuff as well as various things in history, he warned the soldiers in Marlind about the war, and he's held his own against hellions and yet you blatantly refuse to let him join us. Why is that?" Said Dezel, "And don't give me the illness stuff as that can be taken care of and it feels like lying at this point. I know there's something else."
"He has other obligations." Said Rose.
"Really. Muse seems pretty okay with letting him go on adventures away from the guild." Said Dezel. "Don't lie to me Rose."
"Right you can pick that up." Rose muttered.
"Fess up. What is it." Said Dezel.
"I don't mean to interrupt you two but hurry up!" Edna snapped while casting a seraphic arte, "Air pressure!" The arte forced the dragonnewt to one knee and dropping its weapon leaving an opening for Sorey and Mikleo to slash it and whack it over the head respectively. The hellion then lashed its tail at the two but they dodged out of the way. It then picked up its weapon leapt in the air and slashed down at Edna slicing open a forearm. Mikleo healed the wound but then the dragonnewt turned its attention to him.
"Oh no …" He said under his breath then quickly blocking a slice from its sword. He then jumped back but couldn't cast any artes because the hellion kept gaining ground on him having him block its attacks and then landing a few lucky bows on it. Then Edna came in and jabbed it in the back. It then turned to her and growled.
"Yeah, what are you going to do about it you sad stupid lizard?" She insulted. It growled then went attacking her. She jumped in the air and opened her umbrella making her landing seem a little bit more floaty. She then spun around whacking the hellion in its gut which gave Sorey an opportunity to slash it in the back. He then stood by Edna.
"You all right?" He asked.
"Yeah. Honestly I'm somewhat glad you and Meebo got my back." Said Sorey.
"That's an adorable nickname." Said Sorey.
"It might be less adorable if you call him that to his face. However it is hilarious in my opinion." Said Edna with Sorey blocking the hellion's sword. Meanwhile Dezel was still staring at Rose waiting for her answer.
"Well?" He said starting to get impatient.
"I just … I just don't want other humans to get involved." Said Rose.
"You got Sergei involved."
"Things change in a few weeks." Said Rose. "The Shepherd's duty has now turned into something that is beyond us something that no human can comprehend. And if we try to tell anyone most people will simply not believe us and if they do I honestly fear they will go mad from the revelation. Plus there's also the factor that governments will try to use us and Sorey will get caught up in the middle of it and if it gets out that he's part of the Scattered Bones we're dead. So I believe I should take the Shepherd's duty on my own with you seraphim."
"You're being ridiculous." Said Dezel.
"It's true!" Said Rose.
"I know. But this taking on the Shepherd's burden on your own crap? It's ridiculous." Said Dezel.
"And how pray tell is it?"
"Because you're only human and under too much stress humans will break." Said Dezel. "Which is something that will happen to you if you continue with this 'you have to go at it alone because humanity doesn't comprehend' crap. It will break you. If that happens you're not gonna be of much use if you're a broken Shepherd and someone else will have to take the job, whether it's Sorey, Muse, Sergei or literally anyone else." Rose's eyes widened as if she had a 'holy shit' realization. "However it won't end up like this if you just let him in. And honestly anything doing with the Scattered Bones is Sorey's descision and how much we end up in that mess is up to him." Rose gritted her teeth and sighed.
"I hate it when you're right …" She muttered. She then turned to Edna. "Hey Edna can you make that squire's pact?"
"Well … sure … but we're kind of busy at the moment." Said Edna. Rose sighed and ran in.
"Hey! Hellion over here!" She shouted waving her arms. "Think you can manage with just seraphic artes?"
"Well just as long as you and Mikleo keep it away from me I'll be fine." Said Dezel. Rose ran in and slashed the hellion's stomach.
"Rose … I'm gonna need you to give him a true name." Said Edna.
"Um … uh … fuck!" She muttered blocking the sword. "Pethdak Kiwat!"
"Really?" She heard Sorey say.
"You heard her. C'mon boy pact. Now." Said Edna.
"But Pethdak isn't even a word!"
"Yell at her about it later." Said Edna then grabbing his hand. Meanwhile Rose and the remaining two seraphim distracted the dragonnewt through various attacks with Dezel staying in the back taking care of any healing and using only seraphic artes while Rose and Mikleo were more physical to prevent the dragon newt from attacking Dezel as for one it wants to kill the main healer first. When the pact was done Sorey rushed in and attacked the hellion from behind. While Zenrus went up to Edna and started to make the sublord pact with her.
"So glad you can join us." Said Rose.
"Yeah." Said Sorey as the two dodged a downward slice from the dragonnewt. "So that super powered thing you did, the armatus was it?"
"Don't act coy with me you know full well it's called the armatus!" Rose snapped stabbing the hellion's tail.
"Okay yeah I know that but how exactly do you activate it?" Sorey asked.
"Just say their true names." Said Rose. "Lukeim Yurlin for Dezel, Luzrov Rulay for Mikleo, and Hepsind Yulind for Edna."
"That was a bit fast can you repeat that?" Asked Sorey.
"Just say one of them!" Rose shouted as she then got slammed against the wall.
"L-Lukeim Yurlin!" He shouted and almost immediately after he was briefly emitted in a white light giving him a similar appearance as Rose has while armatized with the side ponytail with the flower, the green accents specific to Dezel, the heavy boots, the single glove, and the ribbons absolutely everywhere over an almost pure white outfit. However the differences ended up being his legs being covered and the sleeveless long coat like tunic.
"Aw man why does he get the cool looking one." Rose muttered.
"That's because it's based off of what my brother would wear." Said Edna just having finish up the pact.
"Though this could change what yours looks like." Said Zenrus tossing her the cloak.
"Your name … I barely heard it but from the gist of it I guess it's Fivwress Zubwek, right?" Said Rose. Zenrus nodded.
"You guessed right." He said.
"Fivwress Zubwek!" Rose shouted and the armatus that came out of it had pure golden accents and the cloak with the hood up covering up the majority of the default armatus. "Nice." Said Rose looking at the cloak's transformation.
"Now, shall we see what this can do?" Zenrus asked.
"Oh hell yeah!" Rose shouted running into the fray just as Sorey seemingly learned the capabilities of the wind armatus until he ran into much of the same difficulties Rose had run into when using the armatus in tight quarters.
"No … no this isn't working." Sorey muttered to himself separating himself from Dezel. "Luzrov Rulay!" He shouted then armatizing with Mikleo. He ducked out of the way and whacked the dragonnewt with the bow to back up a ways from the hellion before he shoots it which angers it and charges at Sorey. Rose meanwhile was standing around trying to figure out how the lightning armatus works.
"Come on … work! … Lightning!" She shouted and nothing happened.
"I suggest you stick to seraphic artes for now." Said Zenrus.
"... Fine …" Rose sighed focusing her energy into the arte with Zenrus guiding her through the incantation.
"Thunder of the heavens guide us to our foes to strike them down!" They changed. "Guiding Bolt!" A bolt of lightning shot from Rose's hands and struck the hellion zipping around their allies. The hellion shrieked in pain as it froze up and it temporarily glowed like a beacon. It then shook off the effects of the lightning it then turned to snarl at Rose then started charging at her.
"Shit!" She muttered under her breath as the hellion just bit down on her however she felt a spark of electricity surge through her then shot back at the hellion causing the jaw to slacken to Rose could get away. She grabbed her shoulder but she felt no wound and then looked to her hand to see no blood. "That's weird." She commented.
"It looks like it has a focus on counterattacking." Said Zenrus. "This means that you're gonna have to get hurt a lot …"
"Well that's just damn perfect for me isn't it?" Said Rose. Then getting whacked by the hellion's having Rose then reflect the pain to the hellion in the form of lighning shouting "Rebound Bolt!" The hellion snarled and got away from Rose and went back to focusing on Sorey who shot a saint's arrow and followed it up on other attacks. "Sorey!" She shouted he ducked out of the way of the blade and she cut infront of him which made the hellion turn around and focus on Edna. "Hey!" She whined.
"Now to be fair if I was still a lich and I kept getting electrocuted when I hit you I'd focus on someone else too." Said Mikleo.
"Yeah, I'd also stop stabbing you if you ended up electrocuting me." Said Sorey. Rose glared at him like she was plotting to murder him then sighed.
"Fine. I'll just run around like an idiot preventing it from hitting anyone while everyone else shoots it." Said Rose then stomping off to defend Edna while Dezel was healing her and blasting the hellion with seraphic artes and Sorey continued to shoot at it while occasionally casting Arrow Squall. When she stepped in front of Edna the dragonnewt stopped and went to attack Dezel repeating the cycle again until Sorey knocked it out with a good headshot with azure assault which if that didn't ended up being over kill by running up to it and slamming it into the ground with Splitting torrent certainly ended up being so. The malevolence returned to the earth and the hellion turned into a dog. Dezel gave an excited gasp.
"Not yet Dezel, it's a seraph, you have to ask before you can pet it." Said Edna. Dezel groaned.
"It's over … right?" Sorey asked panting.
"The Shepherding stuff, no, this particular fight, yes." Said Rose separating from Zenrus.
"You did well Sorey." Said Zenrus as Sorey and Mikleo separated.
"Gramps? You-?" Sorey started but then he went into a coughing fit.
"Sorey?" Rose and Dezel exclaimed.
"No … I thought you were okay!" Mikleo cried simultaneously. However Sorey collapsed to his knees and everyone started to see blood trickle from the hand covering his mouth. Mikleo quickly started using a healing arte on him. However it didn't help as he passed out shortly after.
I'm pretty sure that no matter what cypher you use for the ancient tongue "pethdak" will be some form of gibberish. And hooray! An armatus form that would be totally impractical in the game/manga/light novel while making you look like a useless scrub in the anime as since attacking requires you getting hit you're gonna be real dead real quick.