King Explosion Murder the Shield Hero

by BKL777

This is the story of hero in training Katsuki Bakugou being transported into the world of Melromarc and is the new cardinal shield hero in their darkest time of need. Bakugou will go on many new adventures in this fantasy world to become their world's greatest hero whether they want him to or not.

6. Chapter 6: Onward

Chapter 6: Onward

By the next morning after the duel, the four heroes and their party members gather at the throne room waiting for their rewards from the King.

Motoyasu was even there, barely able to stand up after losing the duel yesterday covered up in bandages and bruises and had no choice but to wear normal clothing after his expensive armor was destroyed from Bakugou's howitzer explosion.

Speaking of Bakugou himself he stood there looking impatient with his arms crossed not caring about proper behavior for everyone he hated just for the reward.

On his throne, King Aultcray finally spoke, "Thank you all for coming. As a reward for his effort during the wave as well me giving support for a swift recovery, Master Motoyasu will receive 4,000 silvers. And masters Itsuki and Ren will receive 3,800 silvers. I've also set aside 500 silvers for the shield Hero."

The three go on to grab their bags of silvers, but as Bakugou attempts to get his, the King interrupted, "However, since it's being offset by the cost of Motoyasu's injuries the shield hero will not be receiving funds at this time."

Bakugou wasn't surprised by this but it still pissed him off as he spits on the throne rug to spite the King who wasn't done speaking yet, "In fact, the Shield hero is required to pay several fines before he will be allowed to leave the castle."

"What bullshit are you talking about now consort!?" an angry Bakugou demanded with Neia also giving the King an ugly look.

"It's King, and your fines involve your fight last night, you've nearly killed my daughter by your actions, severely injured sir Motoyasu, destroyed his armor, are suspected of cheating, and had in general been disrespectful of the crown. For all of that and other charges, you will be forced to pay up to 3,000 silvers." the King demanded from Bakugou.

"I ain't paying you jackshit! You can go to hell along with your dumbass fines!" Bakugou yells at the King.

"You are to pay them now or you're never allowed to leave this castle am I clear!?" King Aultcray yells back with Bakugou ready to just attack the King as he emits his quirk out in one hand.

"Hold on a second!" a voice interrupted them, it was Ren standing his ground, "You're the one that encouraged that duel to happen in the first place. You almost allowed an innocent person to be enslaved from a crime your daughter set up herself and blatantly allowed her to cheat so Motoyasu could have the advantage, who was also the one to accidentally injured Myne anyway when she was doing her cheating. If anything, Myne should be the one to be fined."

Itsuki also spoke out, "I agree, I may not like Bakugou but he deserves his share for all the work he had done and all the stuff you put Neia through."

The court was quite shocked by the two heroes defending the shield hero including Bakugou, which only angered the King.

But Myne attempted to make up an excuse, "You misunderstand heroes, I was merely retaliating against the shield hero's own cheating."

"Oh what bullshit are you going to make up now bitch?" Bakugou snarks back at her making Myne mad to just hear the shield hero speaking.

"Listen devil! It was supposed to be a one on one duel but you used those balloons at one point in the fight, that was a direct rule violation so I merely balanced the scales for Motoyasu from your cheating!" Malty made up while still pissed off at Bakugou for making her and Motoyasu look like fools last night.

But no one was being convinced by this including Itsuki, "Those balloons came out of Bakugou's own shield by his magic, how would that be any different than me using a magic arrow from my bow?"

"That also doesn't change the fact that you attempted to enslave Neia over a crime you made up." Ren also comments.

Myne was still hard-boiled mad from that whole situation and lashed back, "That filthy demi is a criminal! I know what I saw! She should be executed on the spot now along with the rapist shield devil!" Myne yells toward the two.

But no one was still buying it as everyone gives her cold stares with the King remaining silent and looking away awkwardly from his daughter to not draw her attention and drag him into that mess.

Myne growls and turns to her whipping boy, "Sir Motoyasu! Aren't you going to do anything about this!" she shouts at him.

But the injured wannabe hero looks toward Bakugou as he gives out a threatening growl toward him that frightened Motoyasu, "Uh... no no Myne. Let's... let's just stay out of this and let your father deal with it he seems more than capable of it than us." Motoyasu stutters and nervously excuses wanting nothing to do with Bakugou right now.

"Sir Motoyasu!" Myne shouts at him again but he refused to speak another word after that and looks away whistling, a day ago he would've done almost anything for a woman but after his embarrassing and traumatizing loss yesterday his fear of Bakugou was greater than his lust at the moment.

This continued to make Myne furious that nothing was going her way, but there wasn't much else she could do for herself so she also remained quiet for the rest of the throne meeting.

Ren also brings up this point, "I'm starting to doubt your daughter's honesty King Aultcry, if she was lying about Neia's crime, then I suspect her accusation on Bakugou a month ago might've been just as exaggerated. I might even require that case to be reopened if he doesn't get what he deserved." Ren threatened, which actually made the King nervous because that would be the last thing he would need now especially with the nobles starting to doubt his power as a regent.

As much as he hated it the king conceded, "Alright fine, he'll be given the minimum amount but nothing else."

"I don't think so." Ren speaks out again still having more to say to that, "Bakugou deserves far more than 500, he not only fought and defended that town but he was the one to kill the boss of the wave and the one to end it. If you ask me he should receive more then the three of us." Ren defended Bakugou who was mostly just staying silent wanting to see where this situation goes with the King looking more pissed off now.

"What the shield hero did was most likely just a bunch of lies and exaggerations. He doesn't deserve more than the minimum." the King excuses not wanting to help Bakugou anymore he could get away with.

"They were not exaggerations!" shouted a voice and it wasn't from the heroes but from one of the young Knights that was at the town during the wave. "The shield hero fought valiantly to protect the people of the town and he and his partner took down that monster together." the Knight continued.

His commander was understandably not happy about this, "Silence soldier or we'll lose our heads for this!" he barked at the young soldier.

But the soldier wouldn't back down, "No, you also saw it yourself, he stood his ground and protected us from that thing!" he continues to defend Bakugou.

Another soldier in that unit came out to speak out as well, "Indeed, the shield hero is truly one of the best fighters I've ever seen and killed that giant monster that ended the wave just as the sword hero says." the other soldier defends Bakugou with the other knights nodding in agreement with the commander even more nervous than before with his whole unit going against the king who was getting more angry by this.

Itsuki also spoked up again, "Even if what he did was just an exaggeration, that still doesn't change what you did to Neia. I also don't think 500 is enough to compensate her for what you and Myne almost did to Neia. She should be given plenty of reprehension money from your rash actions." the King was furious to no end as he clutches his fist with Bakugou just enjoying the show without needing to say a word making him smugly grin.

What became the turning point though was when one black-haired noble wearing small glasses and blue clothing with a white coat spoke out from the stands, "If I may inject my opinion sire, but you also seem to be giving special treatment to the spear hero with extra rewards and turning a blind eye on his partners cheating from that duel yesterday that benefited him. Is it because your daughter is in his party that you constantly favor the Spear hero even if he doesn't deserve it?" the noble announces to the whole court.

"Yeah, you allowed cheating in that duel!"

"Are you trying to overthrow Queen Mirellia!?"

"You're not even fit to rule!"

other nobles on the stands shouted among of things over the King's favoritism with the room now filled up with angry voices as the king growls in frustration.

King Aultcray knew the nobles were already questioning his authority, he then quickly shouts out, "OK FINE DEVIL WORSHIPERS!" as he slams his fists on the arms of his throne making the room silent again, "If you want the damn shield devil to get a bigger reward then fine he'll get 3,800 silvers just like the other heroes! But don't ever expect any more out of me Shield devil!" he yells at Bakugou and then turns to Ren, "But this will be cut out from your reward sword hero." he angrily says to him putting some of his frustration on Ren knowing he started this in the first place.

But Ren hardly seemed upset, "Fine, it's not like I'm low on cash anyway." the servant's that gave out the rewards then switched Ren with Bakugou's reward which the shield hero just aggressively grabs the bag of money.

"Now begone already!" the King yells at Bakugou.

"You know I could care less about your charity consort, but if it will piss you off more I'll take as much you will give me." Bakugou mocks the king.

"I said begone! And it's King!" Aultcray yells at him again

Bakugou then turns around, "Come on Blue I've had it with this palace of incest already." He calls for Neia as she nods and walks along with her master as the two head off on their way to become the best heroes in this world and save it from the next waves.

---

After leaving the castle Bakugou and Neia had gone around the marketplace to get some more supplies and better equipment for their journey's. They visited Erhart's blacksmith shop again to repair some of the equipment after fighting yesterday's wave and Bakugou's duel later that night. Bakugou had also bought a small portable anvil, a crafting hammer, and a bunch of other materials from him for Bakugou to make his own specialized gauntlets.

He and Neia also made visits to the herb and magic stores with the herbalist offering a free medical book for Bakugou for saving some of his family at Lute village during the wave. The magic shop owner had also offered Bakugou a free grimoire that read "curses and how to break them" to Neia for saving her grandchildren in the same village. Bakugou had also bought a bunch of other books from various shops that include books that taught about new skills, spells, and general history of the various regions of Melromarc as there will be plenty of times to read for long periods of waiting.

There most awkward stop was at the Cathedral where most of the church members gave Bakugou ugly looks, worse then before as he goes up to the dragon hourglass to get the time for the next wave which was now about 45 days away, more time than before.

After all that shopping and stops, the two went toward a large building to pick up some quests for them to do. This had been the same place where Bakugou had found all the killing monsters quests including the one with the trolls and the Hydra.

While some of the adventurers that were there were still uncomfortable with the shield devil in the building, some there had gotten used to him by now after picking up so many quests from before.

Most of the potential quests were all on a large bulletin board where people can pick up specific jobs big or small. The person or a group of people with a problem can sign up to a place like this and be able to create flyers to put on the board that gives a quick description on the problem itself, the quest givers names, the location to meet the quest giver, and most importantly the reward the comes with it. Many of these jobs can be very mundane things but others can involve life or death situations.

Bakugou had been only been picking out the ones that involve monster-killing since most people around here prefer to not want help from a supposed rapist. But lately people have started to warm up to him a bit especially after winning that big fight last night and Bakugou knew he and Neia need to go out more outside the general region or otherwise they will start to fall behind the other heroes who were going out of the general region more.

After some scanning across the board, Bakugou found one quest that caught his attention, the flyer read, "Assistance needed. I desire help retrieving a very special item that I'm unable to acquire myself. Knowing spells on disarming traps and curses will be required. Meet me at the address below at Melromarcs capital for me to give you better details and the location of this item. Reward 10 gold coins.". Bakugou wasn't sure what be so important for this quest giver to get this item that is worth over 10 gold, but a quest is a quest so he took the flyer off to get it signed off to the people running the place.

The address to the quest giver was at the capital so they head off toward it.

---

After some walking Neia and Bakugou found the small house of the quest giver. Bakugou knocks on the door and after about a minute the door creeks open where a pair of eyes look in between the small opening and look toward them.

"Ah, so the cardinal Shield Hero has finally come to my doorstep, what brings you here?" the weird mysterious man asked the two.

Bakugou got straight to the point as he shows him one of his flyers, "We're here for the quest you posted. You want us to find some item right?"

The man opens the door completely and comes out himself, he was a strange-looking man in his 30's with white hair with red streaks on its side, wearing mage robes with what appears to be a white science apron and gloves. He looked toward them with a creepy smile, "Oh yes my quest, I am glad to have your help shield hero to finally get my very important property. The last adventurers that I had to go out to get it were... disappointing to say the least." the guy says sinisterly.

Though Bakugou was hardly intimidated by him, "Whatever I don't care what losers failed before, just tell us what this thing is and where to get it?" he demanded.

"Yes eager I see, alright then I'll get to the point. You see about southwest of Lute village there's a canyon gorge, very dry and arid. There you will see several ruins within the place and one cave that contains an extremely important item I desire is within it. I'll hand you a small map of the area and the item's location. If you bring back that item safely to this house I shall greatly reward you." the man explained.

Neia was excited about another quest, "Of course sir we shall..."

"Hold on a second blue!" Bakugou interrupts her, "I like to ask some questions with this freak first." he continued.

The quest giver looked amused and smiled back at Bakugou, "Very well why don't you tell them now?" he asks.

"Well first of all, who are you exactly, why do you need us to find this item. and if you know the location of this thing already then why bother hiring us?" Bakugou asked first.

The man continues to smile and answers, "Of course, the name's Zenra, a prized botanist of Melromarc. I would've done it myself, but my powers might not be enough to fight back some of the violent wildlife there so it be a great danger for me to do it, also the item is guarded by magic that I lack knowledge and skill in. So I'm requesting someone with knowledge of curse breaking to retrieve it as the item that is being protected by such power." Quest giver answers

Bakugou was getting really suspicious with this strange man, "So what's the item exactly? What are you planning to do with it?"

"It's an item with magical properties that will help me over my science and magic experiments that I prefer to keep quiet about. So unless you don't want the quest and payment, I recommend you to not dig any deeper than that." the man tells them.

Bakugou thought this all seemed wrong but he showed no fear and asked one other thing from him, "Fine you weirdo, I just want to know if this 10 gold your offering isn't just bullshit."

Zenra smiles and reaches in his pocket with a bunch of gold coins, "See more than ten gold here. And to ensure that I'm genuine, take this one as a way of appreciation and a guarantee that you will be paid the rest. Does that sound fair?"

Bakugou was hesitant, but after some thinking he decided to take the offer, "Fine but don't try to screw me over in any way or I'll be the one to shove that coin back up your ass!"

The man smiles and hands him the one gold coin and the map to there destination marked on it, "Good luck and be careful out there." he finally says as he shuts the door behind himself with a sinister smile on his face.

The two walk away with Neia feeling somewhat concerned after that conversation, "Sir Bakugou I understand that you are not scared of anything and we shouldn't just judge on appearances, but I have a bad feeling about that man."

"I don't trust that creep one bit, I know he'll try to screw us over in some way." Bakugou says to Neia as he looks at the golden coin he gave them, it seemed suspicious for someone to trust this kind of money on a random adventurer since there be nothing to stop someone like him to run away with it. He then continues, "But we need to go out further then the general capital region, we need to do bigger quests soon and encounter bigger monsters if we are to get stronger, this quest will at least take us to a different region then before so just be on your guard when we get there."

He then took out the map the man gave them and inserted inside the shield, with the location of the item now listed on the map shield, "This map that he gave us does seem to be legit. So we will play along for now, but if this creep attempts anything when we get back, I'm going to strangle him with that damn apron of his." he finishes with Neia nodding in agreement.

Bakugou then teleports him and her into the town of Lute. After a few hours of shopping, it seemed too late for them to go to the quest location on foot, and being any new location in the dark seems too risky so they will go on to the quest in the morning.

While there he and Neia continued to help the locals to repair the damages from the wave, they were all still very grateful for everything he and Neia did.

While they didn't have much to offer, they still paid both of them small amounts for there work and healing magic.

The most important thing though was getting some information. Bakugou had learned about another village that was not too far away from where the quest was at called Lelore so that be a good place to go to afterward. Though from what the villagers told him, that it wasn't a good idea as there were rumors of food problems going on over at the town. But that just motivated Bakugou to go there even more. And Neia didn't objected to helping out starving people.

A few more hours of aiding the town later. He and Neia finally went off to the inn for the night and rested.

---

By the next morning Neia and Bakugou were ready to head off to do there big quests, after breakfast they both left the inn and went out to buy some traveling food at the local market before they head off, but before Bakugou could buy anything he and Neia heard a random villager say, "Hey what are the knight's doing here? And is that the Spear hero?"

Both points sparked the heroes curiosity as they followed that villager toward a large group of people that gathered around a group of knights and upon a stand was indeed Spear hero Motoyasu and Princess Malty holding out a open scroll.

The princess finally spoke, "In light of his exploits during the last wave, the spear hero Sir Motoyasu has been assigned as ruling lord of this region."

Motoyasu himself looked like he was in better shape than yesterday, while he still had some bandages on him it was a lot less than before. He also finally got his armor replaced after Bakugou destroyed his old one two days ago.

Malty continued, "To help the rebuilding efforts, we decided to levy a toll. This toll will be 50 silvers to enter the village and 50 to exit it."

This frightened the crowd with how ridiculously expensive that toll will be,

"But that will ruin us."

"We won't have enough to buy food."

The villagers continued to complain about the toll, but Malty only got mad by their disobedience, "You dare defy your lord's orders? You should be respecting your heroes that saved your low life village or you will be punished." She threatens them with Motoyasu just grinning happily with the fact that he will actually become a lord of his own land.

Up until one of the villagers finally recognized Motoyasu, "Hey wait a second, aren't you that same hero who got his ass kicked two days ago?"

"Oh yeah now that you mention it, he was also the same one who admitted he was a bitch baby." another villager mocks at the spear hero as they and a few others laughed at him.

Motoyasu's smile immediately disappeared and cringed after those comments, 'Oh come on, even the regular villagers know about that?' Motoyasu thinks to himself feeling completely embarrassed now.

As the villagers laughed, Malty grew more furious, "How dare you insult your cardinal hero! You be quiet now or suffer the consequences!" she threatened

But some of the villagers continued to make fun of Motoyasu and quickly Malty as well, "Oh yeah I remember you too, your that cheating bitch that got sent flying into a wall by him." the villagers continued to mock her and laugh with Malty now boiling red in anger.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Malty screams making the laughing stop, "If I hear one more word about that duel again! I'll have that word be the last one anyone of you will say before I have their tongues cut out! Motoyasu is your new lord and those that defy him or me again will suffer!" she shouts to everyone as some of her royal guards lay out their weapons.

"Hey I thought the flying bitch act was hilarious too!" shouted a voice from the crowd.

"Who dared said that!? Show yourself! When we find you, you'll be executed on the spot!" Malty yells as she looks around the crowd of now terrified villagers.

It turns out to be Bakugou finally revealing himself within the crowd, "It's me you spoiled bitch!" he shouts out to her with the crowd moving out of the way to give him and Neia some space.

Malty growls and grits her teeth in madness to be seeing him again, "What the hell are you doing here cheater!? This is Sir Motoyasu's land now, so get lost!" she yells at him and points her finger out toward the outside of the town. Motoyasu himself remained nervously silent walking behind a soldier, he actually looked terrified to be seeing Bakugou again this soon.

"His land huh? This seems more like an extortion operation to make a quick buck than actual governing, I imagine that your consort daddy helped you and ponytail slut to get it just because you asked him." Bakugou mocks Malty which only makes the princess more enraged.

"You watch your tongue! My father is the King of this country and this is sir Motoyasu's rightful land and he is free to do whatever he wants with it. Leave now along with your criminal partner or I'll have the both of you thrown out by force and the rest of the villagers will pay for your crimes." Malty threatens the two with Neia looking mad as well by the sight of the evil princess.

"I like to see you try! I'm not going anywhere until this town is out of your whore hands!" Bakugou yells back at Myne

"Neither will I!" Neia yells as well with her and Bakugou holding their ground to protect this town from exploiters.

Myne just evilly smirks back at them, "Very well then. Guards throw the shield devil out of here along with his filthy demi, then I want you to gather the villagers for all of them to be lashed and whipped including the elderly and children." she orders which horrified the villagers.

But as the guards look back toward an angry Bakugou he growls at the knights. They all looked terrified as Motoyasu and refused to engage him and stood back against Malty's orders. Despite the fact she is the princess, they fear the Shield hero more than her after they saw him beat Motoyasu the cardinal spear hero in a duel two days ago.

The fearful guards remained where they were, which only infuriated Malty, "What are you idiots waiting for!? I order you to throw him out of here, NOW! Do it or I'll have all of you beheaded as traitors!" she yells as she points toward Bakugou with neither side budging.

But then all the sudden a group of masked hooded figures dropped down in front of Myne out of nowhere surprising everyone including Bakugou and the princess.

Nobody knew who they were until the one in the middle spoke, "I trust you know who we represent, princess Malty."

"But why have you come?" Malty says with irritation to them now recognizing who they were.

The leader of the mysterious group then handed her a scroll, "For you."

Malty snatches the scroll out of her hand. As the princess was reading it, both Bakugou and Neia were wondering who they were, for them to be able to get the princess to listen to them? They must be powerful or have someone else powerful backing them up. They remained quiet with the villagers just as quiet unsure of their future.

Malty read through the scroll and looked even more irritated, "How could this be." she says to herself until she finally finished reading it and looked back mad toward Bakugou, "Shield hero! Fight us for the right to rule this village!" she shouts toward him pointing her finger at them.

Motoyasu however immediately coward away behind a knight when he heard the f word, "Fi... Fight?" he nervously asked Malty who ignored him.

Bakugou liked the sound of it, "Sounds good, I'm up for a good beat down."

"We won't have to fight here, this time it will be just a simple race. 3 laps around the village riding with whatever you have to Motoyasu's dragon. The fastest will win the lordship to the town." Myne tells Bakugou.

Motoyasu signs in relief now he won't have to worry about actually fighting him again.

"I don't have a ride, so you're going to have to pick something else," Bakugou responds back to Malty who was just getting irritated with Bakugou's smartass remarks.

"Really? You don't have anything to ride on? Your more pathetic then I thought." Malty deciding to mock Bakugou.

"Says the whore who hangs around with a bitch baby." he mocks back at Malty only making her madder.

"Fine then Shield devil! If we can't race, then I guess we can just have another duel after all!" Malty shouts to him freaking Motoyasu out.

Bakugou was eager for it, "Sounds great, I'm pumped up to kick that bitch baby's ass again!" he says as he punches his hand to make a small explosion.

But Malty wasn't finished yet, "Hold it devil, due to your cheating from Motoyasu's last duel he won't be able to fight at his prime for a while. So the duel will be done by two different people this time."

Bakugou was curious about who she was talking about, "by who?"

Malty was quick to the point, "It will be between just me and that demi of yours." she answers pointing toward Neia.

Everyone turns toward the young blue elf girl making Neia stress out, "Wait! Me!? Just me?" she startles losing some of her cool.

Myne continues, "Of course, Motoyasu is still recovering and I know you will just use that weird fire magic to cheat, so it will be between the heroes' best champions and the one who wins will claim the right to rule this village. Do you agree shield?"

"Hell yes, You're on!" Bakugou quickly answered without hesitation.

"Wait! Sir Bakugou!" Neia shouted wanting her say on the matter with Bakugou looking coldly at her in silence, "Sir Bakugou, I..I don't think this is a good idea, I.. I'm not strong enough to fight her. I can't do this alone." She says to him being completely honest with herself and was expecting a big scolding from Bakugou.

But rather than yelling at her Bakugou just shakes his head and then said, "Don't be telling me that. Tell that to them." Bakugou points toward the scared villagers who were all gathered near the two.

"Please miss, you have to help us. Even as the village lord, not even I can afford these tolls. You're our only hope for the future of our town." The elder village lord begs to Neia.

Neia in silence looks toward the crowd of villagers which included families with young children. Almost all of them had just experienced the full force of the wave and now are in danger of losing everything they had to an evil princess and her toy hero she drags around. Neia felt immense guilt if she were to leave these people to their fates and she knew well Bakugou would never let it down.

She pulls out her sword to look at her reflection as she debates on what to do. She fears Malty and what the duel could entail, but Neia couldn't bear the burden of guilt of being too afraid to help these poor people.

It was a hard decision for Neia as she thinks to herself. But Malty was losing her patience, "Well Demi! Are you going to fight or not?!" she demands from her giving an ugly look at the two heroes with Bakugou giving Malty an ugly look back as well.

But after some thought Neia had finally made up her mind, "Alright! I'll do it, not just for me but for this whole town." she answered confidently.

But Malty just evilly grins and announces, "Very well. Then the duel shall start in less than an hour and we shall see which hero's champion is the best.".

---

After some set up the arena was quickly built up with some physical work and magic, it was a small area that was about a foot tall. Big enough for swordsmen to fight on, but small enough for one to be pushed off. To Bakugou this reminded him of the sports festival but on a smaller scale.

The duel was going to be ready in a few minutes with Malty on the other side quietly talking to her knights on doing sinister things. While Bakugou was waiting for the duel to see how well his sidekick will do in this duel for the town by herself.

Despite her confident answer to Malty earlier Neia was still nervous as hell to be fighting the same woman that made her to be arrested then forced on the ground by guards and had almost enslaved her.

Bakugou looks at her in an angry frown knowing there's great fear in her and Neia knew it without him needing to say anything.

She finally decided to speak up, "I still don't know if I'm going to be good enough Sir Bakugou, I'm... I'm not sure if I can handle this on my own." she confesses to him as she clumps her hands together nervously.

Bakugou knew he had to say something to her despite inspiring speeches not really being his thing, "Listen Blue, your far better than that spoiled whore. You managed to survive and helped kill two multi-headed monsters, you can beat this one headed monsters ass like nothing. Don't let her get to you by her bullshit, show that bitch what your made of and kick her ass and show who is the better sidekick." he says to inspire her with Neia starting to feel better by her masters supporting words.

"I understand Sir Bakugou, I'll do my best. Not only for my dignity but for all the people of this town as well." She answers back.

She was ready to move away to the arena until Bakugou stopped her by placing his arm on her shoulder, "But I'm also warning you blue, don't expect her to play fair, you saw yourself what she tried to do at the other duel two nights ago. So be on your guard and pay attention." Bakugou tells her as she nods in agreement.

After a few more minutes of preparation the duel was ready to start. Malty and Neia got on top of the small arena as they were set at on opposite ends of arena both looking directly at each other on there ends.

While still nervous Neia held her ground as she takes out her sword and held it in a guarding position awaiting for an attack once the fight starts.

But on the other end was Myne evilly smiling as she waves her own sword around thinking she had nothing to fear from some supposed demi with the knights and Motoyasu cheering for her. She even went as far as to mock her, "Don't feel too bad if you lose like a fool. I will be glad to give you another one of my rings afterward to make you feel better." Malty mocks showing off her hand with more rings on her.

Neia knew she was just digging into her skin which only made her madder at Malty, she was now ready to put this brat princess in her place after she humiliated her that night just as Bakugou would have done.

The two warriors readied themselves as everyone watches awaiting the duel for the fate of their town to begin. The town elder and lord then made his announcement, "This duel shall be between the cardinal hero's champion's, Malty Melromarc and Neia Varon. The duel shall be over when one surrenders or is kicked off the arena. Magic will be permitted but only by the champions, any outside assistance is forbidden. Killing your opponent is also forbidden so restrain yourself to some capacity. So be ready now." he announced.

Neia knew Malty wasn't going to be following the rules as Bakugou said before, probably even the no killing part, so she had to be on her guard from any moves that look like death blows.

"Fighters on your mark." the elder said with the two fighters in their positions waiting for this moment as they both stare in resentment of each other.

"ready... FIGHT!" the elder throws his hand to start the duel.

Malty immediately went on the offense with her sword as she sprints toward Neia who remained at her position holding out her sword.

Both swords finally clashed, bashing into each other. Malty continues to swing at Neia as she attempts to cut open the supposed Demi as Neia continues to block and dodge each attack while remaining away from the edge.

At first it looked like the duel was very one-sided as Malty continues to fight aggressively. But this was merely a strategy Neia came up with from her training on sword tactics. Which involved making her opponent tire herself out after so many aggressive moves to make it easier to fight back once her opponent starts to slow down from exhaustion.

The sword fight continued as Malty acts confidently thinking herself as the superior fighter to the demi who was barely fighting back, "What's the matter? Too afraid to fight against your clear superior? Just give up already to end this farce." she mocks Neia.

But the young elf wasn't going to let that affect her as she continues to block off Malty's attacks.

After few minutes of constant attacks as Neia predicted Malty was starting to already feel tired from all the aggressive swinging and was fighting more sluggish then before and was breathing heavily.

"Hold still you blue demon!" she yells at Neia. Malty clearly did have some training with swordplay, but she clearly never completed it as she fights with pure brute force rather than any discipline or strategy both things that Neia has.

Neia knew it was her time to finally go on the offense, after ducking from another swing from Malty, she quickly swings at an opening and strike Malty at the center of the princess's torso.

The sudden pain caught Malty off guard and allowed Neia to quickly strike more hits on her. Despite the staggering Malty was able to start blocking Neia's attacks and attempts to fight her off again but her rage could only go so far as Neia strikes a few more times at Malty as she fails to get a hit on the young elf.

This continued on as Neia press on her strategy while Myne fails to adapt thinking she will overpower the weak lower being, but she grew more and more tired as Neia dodges her every attack and had lower nearly 3/4's of her health as Neia made another aggressive attack after she stunned Myne again.

The force of all the slices nearly pushed Myne out of the ring but she managed to barely hold herself up. The townsfolk continued to excitedly cheer for Neia thinking she had it in the bag. All but Bakugou who knew the bitch was up to something once he sees a small smirk on her lips.

Neia quickly charged her sword from her mana to finally knock the exhausted Myne out for good, but when the young elf just finished charging, Myne winks out to a random soldier who nods and turns around and goes on to create a magic spell.

Neia charges at Malty intending to finally finish her and kick her off the arena, but as she was about to make contact with her sword, Malty suddenly had an green aurora around her and when Neia's swings she just misses her opponent. Malty was able to instantly dodge it, surprising Neia and the crowd.

She then throws a slash at Neia's stomach, finally getting a good hit on the elf.

It hurt badly but Neia was able to keep her balance and was able to jump back away from Malty who started to smugly grin at her opponent as if she knows now she was going to win again.

But it wasn't just her reflexes either, her health was slowly regenerating back with her attack power increasing as well.

Bakugou knew full well that it wasn't coming from her as he looks beyond the crowd and sees Malty's soldiers casting spells to aid her in the duel despite that being against the rules with Motoyasu completely oblivious of this as he cheers for Myne.

Bakugou wasn't surprised one bit, but he knew the bitch will deny it if he calls her out on it so it would be pointless to call foul play. He also wanted his sidekick to learn to adapt, he already warned her that her opponent wasn't going to play fair just as any real battle won't be fair. So she has to learn to adapt to the situation and fight back, not just for her own sake but for the people of this town as well.

Malty quickly launches magic fire attacks on Neia as she does her best to dodge the fire blasts. And to her luck Myne's MP was regenerating as well so she was spamming fire none stop until most of the arena was covered with fire.

Malty smiling sadistically then placed a fire charm on her sword coating it with fire making it extra deadly.

Neia attempts her trump card as she yells, "Electric shock!" as she places her hands on the ground to electrify the arena.

But as electricity spreads across the small arena, she quickly noticed Myne wasn't affected by it at all as she continues to stand there with her evil grin. It seemed a soldier had provided her with strong electric resistance as well.

Myne strikes back again with her flame sword as Neia tries her best to dodge and block it all but to also avoid the fire on the ground. Neia knew she had to somehow win, but it was challenging to fight someone getting a bunch of bonus buffs outside the ring.

Malty was finally able to strike at Neia a few more times and while she was staggered Myne blasts a fireball right at her opponents stomach sending Neia flying.

She would've been knocked out of the ring, but Neia stabbed her sword on the ground in time to stop her momentum.

Neia struggled to get back up still feeling the burns from Malty's fire sword even as the fire on the ground fades away. But she wasn't giving up yet, Neia knew her master wouldn't give up like this when people depend on him, so she won't either.

Malty runs up to her with her sword out ready to strike at her head with Neia just in time blocked it with her sword. The two fighters struggled with each other as they attempt to overpower the other as they tightened their grips on their swords, Neia struggled more while Malty continues her smug face thinking she had already won.

The princess then attempts to break Neia psychologically to make her give up, "Face it, you're no adventurer, you're just some puny demi-human who sells herself to an Ox of a man to provide for you. Your no different than a prostitute, so just give this up right now." she intimidates and mocks Neia.

While such words hurt, it wasn't enough to break Neia. In fact it actually gave her more of a drive to prove Myne wrong, "Your right about one thing, I'm no adventurer. I'm something even better. A hero!" she throws herself back at Malty with the princess looking confused as they both begin to clashed again in struggle now trying to overpower the other.

"And for the last time. I'm not a demi-human!" Neia shouted and then bashed her forehead right onto Malty's, quickly breaking sword struggle. The head bashed harmed them both but Neia was able to get herself back together faster and starts attacking at Malty again. Despite Malty's defense and reflex buffs, Neia was still able to strike hard at the evil princess over and over as she fights faster than before.

Malty attempts to use her fire magic again, but Neia was fighting up so close it forced Malty to not use it without hurting herself. All she could do was place another fire charm on her sword.

Malty swings at the elf again only for Neia to duck down allowing her to punch Malty in the stomach.

"OW! You little!" Malty attempts to stab her flaming sword at Neia on the arena floor, with the young hero dodging it right away. The opening allowed Neia to kick Malty in the shins forcing her to kneel down

Neia strikes at Malty flame sword over and over again with Malty holding it up to block the attacks over and over until finally the princess's sword finally breaks into two from Neia's powerful strikes.

Now with half a weapon, Malty could no longer keep up with the more trained fighter as Neia strikes again and again with even her regenerating health no longer able to keep up.

Neia gives Malty a good punch in the face then kicked her in the chest launching the princess near the edge of the arena.

Malty could barely get herself up as Neia makes a final charge at her.

Malty angrily stares behind herself to force the knights to make a final attempt to screw Neia over.

The knights created a large magic hole right near Malty like the one Bakugou used on one of the trolls before.

Malty smiles confidently quickly thinking she had won with the anticipation of the elf girl falling into it and breaking her legs.

But Neia was able to see it quickly and use her strength and power to jump off right from the edge of the hole and was up in the air thanks to her magic jump power surprising the princess, the knights, and everyone else.

Neia finally sticks her foot with her metal boot out and with her full force and momentum she kicks Malty right in the Jaw. The kick was so powerful that not only did it break off some of her teeth but it forced Malty right off the arena making the princess fall on her back as she rolls across the ground with Neia landing right on the edge of the arena.

The fight was now officially over, Neia had won.

All the villagers cheered for Neia and her victory. Despite being injured and tired, she never felt any more proud of herself, too be cheered on as a hero, someone of importance. Something she never felt back at home. Even Bakugou was making a small smile. Bakugou wasn't much for giving other people gratitude's so Neia knew it was completely genuine.

On the other end, the soldiers had to quickly help out princess Malty with their own healing magic, with Motoyasu mostly looking away knowing what was going to happen.

Finally healed up the now furious princess forced herself up with her face as red as a cherry and she stomps her way back toward Neia, "YOU!" she yells getting everyone's attention, "You filthy little cheater! You somehow had that shield devil use magic to help yourself out in that duel! This match was nothing but a sham! And... OW! You broke some of my teeth from the royal jaw!" she yells at Neia and Bakugou while holding on to her injured jaw.

The two were not amused and Bakugou shouts back at her, "Accusing me of cheating again how cute. What about your little group of knights giving you all of your bullshit buffs?!"

Malty denies it but she was still furious at him, "I never cheated you idiotic liar! You've used magic and I know it!" she continues to furiously yell at him but before he could say something the hooded group comes back to defend the shield hero.

"We detected no magic coming from the shield hero throughout that match, nor was Neia ever blessed with any outside forces. We did detect all forms of magic on you from outside the ring. So you are the one who cheated here." the hooded figure told her only increasing her anger and was making Bakugou act smugger.

"You heard her. Now how about you get off my land now, or I'm placing a toll on the existence of redhead whores!" Bakugou demanded and threaten her.

Neia and Bakugou knew that with this hooded masked group here Malty had no choice but to follow Bakugou's rule, which pisses her off to no end, "Aaaaarrrrgggggghhhhh! This isn't over yet! You and the rest of the peasantry will suffer for this one day!" she yells at them as Malty stomps off toward the way out of town. As she stomps away she walks up to and drags her boy toy Motoyasu by his back armor collar with her, "Come Motoyasu, lets get you leveled up and have you finally put that demon in his place!" she yells at him as she continues to drag his body without the spear hero resisting which just amuses both Bakugou and Neia.

"But Myne what about that town we were going to deliver those supplies?" Motoyasu asked having enough guts to say something to his partner/girlfriend.

"We'll deal with that later, right now we are going to grind your levels up and buy the best equipment this kingdom has to offer! I will not be insulted like this! Not now, not never!"" She shouts at Motoyasu who was to frighten to oppose or say anything else as she drags him off out of town with the knights and the rest of Motoyasu's partners following suit.

Bakugou immediately turned toward the mysterious figures, "So who the hell are you?" he demanded.

"We are referred as the shadows, we work directly for the queen, but we are not allowed to say anything else. Just know this Sir shield, you are not alone in your hatred of Aultcry and Malty, once the true sovereign eventually returns she will make things right." she finishes as this group leader and the rest of her group run away.

"Hey you bitches I'm not done! Get back here!" he yells at them but they were already far gone.

"Are we going to follow them, sir?" Neia asked and wondered.

"No it's not worth wasting our time over." he answers Neia, but then Bakugou turns back to her to make a small smile at his sidekick, "But not bad out there blue, you showed that whore who's better."

Neia was happy to hear that, she would've hugged him but she knew he would've hated it so she just bows to him, "Thank you for everything master Bakugou."

Once the spear heroes crew were out of sight the villagers gathered back around and cheered on to the shield hero their new lord and his sidekick.

The village elder finally spoke up, "Thank you so much Shield hero, you and your partner have saved our village yet again. How are we to repay you for everything you two have done?"

Bakugou didn't say anything at first until he thought of something, "You got any means of transportation?". Bakugou knew that he needed to have a way of traveling then just on foot, with how large this kingdom is among other factors. To be able to keep up with the other heroes as well as wanting to improve more of his skills and abilities without constantly walking, he would need to get to places faster as well as train himself and his sidekick. Which he can't do if he is walking on foot or controlling an animal to travel around at the same time.

But before the elder could think about it one villager came up to him on the subject, "Excuse me sir shield hero, I may have what you want."

He immediately caught his attention, "Well what is it?" Bakugou demanded.

The man quickly answered, "The name's Dalven, I run a traveling and delivery service for the people of Melromarc. For a price I can give rides to those that don't want to walk on foot for long distances or have no access to a horse, dragon, or Filolial But since you saved my family from the wave and the spear heroes exploits, I'm glad to not charge you for anything no matter the destination. Normally some areas would be off-limits due to high amounts of monsters or highwaymen, but as long as you're with me no monsters should be any threat to me.

Bakugou smiles at that, "Good, the faster we can travel to places the better."

The Elder then bowed to the shield hero again, "I'm glad you got what you needed, now it's time for us to continue the recovering efforts." he tells Bakugou.

"Hang on a second old man, take this first." Bakugou says as he takes out a sack and throws it to him, "Here, make sure it's spent well." he tells the elder confusing him.

"Uh what is this Shield hero Bakugou?" the Elder asked.

"It's a bag of money idiot, 3,800 silvers to be exact," Bakugou answered making the elder and the townsfolk widen in surprise.

"3,800 silvers?! This much shield hero? But why?" the elder asked for why someone would give that much to a small village like this even from a hero.

"Considering I'm the village lord now, it's my responsibility to have it recover from disaster. That idiot consort seems more focused on having parties and kissing up to his whore daughter then helping his citizens. So think of this as me giving what should've been given to you from the beginning. That's more than enough to pay for all the repairs to this village, and I want the rest to be spent on equipment and weapons to prepare you idiots for the next wave, especially the guards and officers stationed here." Bakugou answers them with everyone feeling thankful for the shield heroes' generosity.

"But you better not spend it all on stupid shit or pocket it, or I'll be back bashing in some heads!" he also threatens them while not something a hero would say, the villagers understood what he was saying and his actions had spoken louder than words.

"Don't worry Sir... I mean lord Bakugou, I'll ensure that the money is spent right and have the men get the weapons and equipment they need be ready for the next waves to come." the elder answered with Bakugou smiling and nodding.

About an hour later after some quick celebration from everyone toward Bakugou and Neia healing her up. They finally meet up at Dalven's Filolial wagon. As promise he wouldn't charge them and Bakugou told him the coordinates to that one quest and they quickly head off toward their next adventure.

---

The two heroes continue onward with their quests as they sat on the wagon. Their destination was a few hours away even with their riders constant speed, so he and Neia had time to learn new or improve on their skills. Bakugou was reading his new book about curses and to break them since that was going to be relevant in their mission soon. He had been reading it thoroughly and at a fast pace without skimming over anything.

Neia was reading and training through a spell book on water magic spells. Since Neia was a water elf it made sense for the sidekick to teach herself on her element. Unfortunately though she was struggling to conduct a simple water ball spell.

Bakugou noticed as she tries over and over again to hold together a water ball, only for it to fall apart in seconds into a bowl of water Neia had out, "Come on, hold... hold... 'pop', damn it not again. Alright, let's try again with greater concentration. Ok concentrate... concentrate 'pop'. Damn it why can't this stupid ball stay solid!?" she yells at her bowl of water, getting enraged at the inanimate liquid.

Bakugou just found the whole thing amusing, "For a water elf you seem to be shit at water magic." he playfully mocked with Neia not amused.

"It's just... It's just... ugh! Why is water so damn hard to control. Electricity magic was never this hard and I'm not an electric elf." Neia complained feeling like a fool in front of her master.

"Well bitching about it isn't going to make it better. Besides you shouldn't be wasting time on new skills anyway; you need to go back and refine the magic you know better in. Find new ways to use your electricity magic, using one big move in battle will not be useful against multiple opponents or an army." Bakugou recommends to her. He remembered how Deku use to blow everything he had on his body on one or two punches and would remain almost useless for the rest of a event early in the school year, like the USJ incident or the sports festival. Or like when Kaminari turns into a bigger idiot after he uses all of his electric power. That last thing he needs in a sidekick is for her to be dead weight.

Neia was still mad but she understood what he was saying perhaps improving on her electric magic is a better idea, "Yes master Bakugou, I'll improve my electricity skill." she says to him as she throws the water out of the cart and went back to reading the magic grimoire on electric magic.

While Neia was reading through the book in this long trip she wanted to ask Bakugou something, "Say Sir Bakugou, how do you do that fire magic? Could you teach me how to do it?" she finally asked him.

"It's not magic idiot, it's basically a biological part of my body, I can sweat nitroglycerin and make it explode from the palms of my hands simple as that," Bakugou answered unamused, he was getting tired of people calling his quirk magic.

"I'm not sure what nightglencin is, but I'll take your word for it master," Neia says mispronouncing the chemical that probably doesn't even exist in this world yet. She did ask one other thing about it though, "Have you tried to put some of it in your shield like you do with all the other materials sir?" she asked.

"No, I'm not a part of this world so why the hell would this stupid shield know a thing about my sweat." he bluntly answers, though it did cross his mind about his quirk sweat and how it night work with his shield.

"Well maybe you should at least try it, see if something happens. Considering how powerful it is, you might get a powerful shield out of it." she continues curious to see what will happen.

Bakugou was sure it will do nothing, but since they didn't really have anything else to do but read books he might as well try it, "Fine, but don't expect crap out of it."

Bakugou then made his body produce some of his explosive sweat as it collects in his hand. Once it was at a significant amount he poured some of it in the gem of his shield and it actually did absorb it.

It surprised both Neia and Bakugou and the shield menu popped up to show: *Shield unlock, explosion shield, allows user to absorb explosive liquid in shield and will cause an explosive impact on the enemy who strikes it or by the shield heroes command. Passive explosion damage increased by 10%.*

Bakugou quickly activates the shield and it was a large orange and yellow shield with a symbol at its center that resembled Bakugou's pissed off face. Bakugou growls in anger from the symbol, while Neia found it amusing, "How cute it looks exactly like you." Neia jokes.

"IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ME BLUE! SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT!" Bakugou explodes at his sidekick which only made her giggled some more with Bakugou now resembling the symbol which just made Bakugou growl in annoyance more.

He did eventually calm down enough to look at his shield, "A shield based off explosions huh? Don't know what that entails, but I wouldn't mind seeing what it does in action." he says to himself as he goes back to his reading.

Though the more he read about curses and magic traps, the more he grew suspicious of that coin the botanist gave him. When he decided to get a closer observation of it, he noticed a weird feeling coming out of the coin itself. it was as if there was some sort of energy coming from the small object. He was growing more suspicious of it, but he eventually just puts it away to deal with it later.

He and Neia continued on reading as they wait on until they made it to their destination.

---

Soon enough after a few hours Bakugou and Neia had finally made it to their destination. The area was an arid canyon with hardly any grass or vegetation other than some Cactus and some predatory birds flying around.

According to Dalven from some rumors, he heard this area used to belong to an ancient alchemist guild until one of their members went mad and turned the rest of his guild into science experiments, torturing and dissecting them to make whatever sinister things he thought of. That was until one of his mad experiments went wrong and ended up killing him. Their temple had been looted and was deserted ever since.

"Of course that plant creep made us go to a creep place." Bakugou sparked, knowing whatever this botanist wanted it was something made by this guild or by the alchemist himself.

Eventually the driver stopped about a mile away from the temple to drop the two off. He then drives back to the end of the canyon where it was safe from monsters to wait for them to come back hen they were done.

The two heroes moved out to find the abandoned temple. After some walking they found it. The temple itself was completely inaccessible with the whole inside of it caved in with rocks. If there was anything left of value inside, it was crushed long ago.

But the location of the item wasn't in there, it was across from it. A small cave that was pitch black with most likely dangerous creatures inside it. As the two heroes head toward the cave entrance Bakugou took out that coin the botanist gave him. He continues to feel that weird energy coming from it making him more suspicious about the coin.

After some thinking he made up a decision, he purposely dropped the coin on the ground and left it there as he continues to walk away from it, "Sir Bakugou you dropped a coin." Neia noticed.

"Forget it, we can get it back once we get back out of this cave, it's not like there's anyone else here to claim it." Bakugou excuses but he knew something was fishy about that coin and wants to be as far away from it as he could.

The two were finally near the entrance with Bakugou creating a light spell to see in the dark.

They continued to walk through the dark cave to find this item, it seemed like a small labyrinth that someone could easily get lost in, but Bakugou would always blast a part of the wall where he and Neia had been at before and in different shapes so he would know where they were at and not get lost.

There were some monsters in the cave, though it was mostly just monster bats or moles, nothing serious and Bakugou would acquire a few more shields out of it.

Eventually the two finally found what they were looking for. In the room was a podium with a large chest on it completely shut tight.

"I'm guessing this is it?" Neia commented as they approach the podium.

When the two got right up to the chest Bakugou noticed some writing on a platform next to the chest. It was in an old dialect of the current writing system in Melromarc but Bakugou was able to translate it and gave the ability to read it to Neia.

It read: "We pray that this seed never leaves out of this tunnel. It is a horribly twisted manifestation of our wish that no one would feel the pains of hunger ever again in this world."

"That doesn't sound good," Neia commented now feeling uneasy about this whole quest.

Bakugou was wondering what it meant by seed, whether it was a literal seed or not. But he wasn't scared of some warning, "Whatever, we have a job to do so we might as well just get it." he says to his sidekick.

Neia then goes to open the chest, "Well ok then, let's open this thing and ..."

But Bakugou quickly grabs Neia's arm and stops her from touching it, "Are you that stupid!? Do you think that something like this out in the open would be that easy to open and take!?" he scolds at her as she moves away feeling bad for making Bakugou yell at her again for doing something stupid.

"Magnifying shield," Bakugou shouts with his shield transforming. Bakugou uses the glass shield to observe the chest and sees through its deadly magical enchantments, "Just as I thought, this thing is hexed. And it seems to be a very powerful one at that." Bakugou then transformed his shield again, "Queen Balloon shield." once transformed he created a balloon monster from it and drops the small thing right on the chest. As soon as it made contact on the surface, the little monster was enveloped in magic and the poor thing screams in pain as it quickly vaporized into dust on the floor.

"Again just as I thought, any looter or would-be adventurer that attempts to just touch this thing is reduced to nothing," Bakugou confirms as he and Neia look down at the floor by the chest and noticed a large pile of ash in front of it, most likely from all the looters and people that attempted to open this chest.

Neia felt even more stupid now, knowing that she would've been reduced to dust as well had her master not stopped her foolishness, "So what now sir?" she asked.

"Hold on a second and I'll figure it out!" he raises his voice to her as he continues to observe the chest to figure out how to break the hex.

After a few minutes of observing and reading through his curses book Bakugou finally figure it out, "By the looks of it, whoever the hell put this hex up really didn't want this thing to be opened up. It has a cardinal level curse on it." he says out loud.

"Cardinal level?" Neia asked.

"Basically idiot it's a curse so powerful that the only thing that can break it without getting killed by it is through a cardinal weapon and with an experience hex breaker. We got both of those covered but even with that I have to concentrate on a curse-breaking spell to get this damn thing to open." he answers her and looks back, "So Unless you want to be vaporized you better get to the back of the cave, I won't need your help and I don't need any distractions. And don't try to jump in to help because you could get us both killed if I screw this up! Got it?" Bakugou asked and demands from her.

"Yes sir, I understand." While Neia didn't like the sound of that, she trusted her master enough to follow Bakugou's lead and moves as far to the back as she could, while Bakugou does his dangerous curse breaking spell.

Once she was far enough Bakugou takes some deep breaths and finally starts the disarming ritual. Bakugou's shield glows as he shouts out a magic chant which makes the chest glow as with the shield until it started to emit powerful electric pulses with Bakugou producing a magic barrier as he concentrates on breaking the magic curse.

It was an intense struggle with Bakugou using all of his willpower, mana, and concentration to finally break this magic hex without it killing him.

It looked like it was actively hurting him as he continues to struggle with the magic. Neia was tempting to run in to help him but he told her already to not interfere. So she remains and holds herself back as the intense magic continues to light up the cave.

But soon enough after one more large burst of magic energy, the power around the chest dissipates until it gets dimmer and dimmer until the energy finally disappeared. The hex was finally broken.

Neia walked back up to Bakugou as he smiles pridefully to his accomplishment of breaking a powerful spell in his first attempt.

Bakugou then opens the chest, and the item that had such a powerful hex on it's chest to drive away thieves was just a large seed, "You're kidding me! This is it!? I could've died for this stupid thing!?" Bakugou complains as he gets angry that his big accomplishment ended up being just for that.

"But why would they put such a spell on just a seed? Is this what that weird botanist guy was looking for?" Neia asked Bakugou who was still pissed off by the whole thing.

But as he examined the seed more he did detect powerful magic in this seed. He could now see it was more than just an ordinary seed, it was a seed with power behind it. Bakugou then just shrugs and just puts the seed into his shield inventory, which then says in a pop up, *shield unlocked: bioplant shield, allows skill of plant modification*, "Whatever let's just get out of here and meet up with that creep later."

The two began to head out toward the cave entrance. But right before they could leave the room a giant Rock monster bursts out of the wall behind them.

It barely fitted in the cave but it looked strong and powerful with red eyes and a strong source of power glowing within its chest. According to Bakugou's hub, it is labeled as a "guardian golem.".

"I'm guessing he's here to protect the seed as well?" Neia comments as the two prepare themselves to fight the thing with Bakugou holding his ground.

"More like to kill the one who tries to steal it!" Bakugou shouts back.

The golem finally engages the two as it smashes its fist right at them with both heroes barely dodging it. The rock creature was a lot faster then it appeare. It continued to smash across the small area attempting to hit his two targets.

When it was about to punch at Bakugou, he finally shouted "Explosion Shield!" in which the shield quickly transformed. As he held it out though, he felt something weird, it was as if the sweat that was being collected from his palms was being sucked out by the shield.

But before he could figure it out himself, the golem punches right into Bakugou's shield and in less than a second the shield lets out an explosion right on the golem's arm blowing it completely off.

After the golem jumped back Bakugou quickly figured out what the shield did. It took some of his explosive sweat from his palms and was absorbed into the shield itself and once an enemy makes contact with it by an attack the shield let's out a large explosion.

Bakugou likes the idea of it, "Heh, I guess this isn't a dumb shield after all. I like to see Ponytail slut try to hit it now!" he mused to himself.

But thinking of more ways to kick Motoyasu's ass would have to wait as he and his sidekick had to worry about a mad golem.

The one-armed guardian attacked again as it attempts to punch and smash at his targets with his one other arm, but the two heroes were too fast for it.

"Blue! Strike the legs!" Bakugou shouted as Neia jumps and rolls under the rock monsters legs as she used her sword to slice behind the legs forcing the thing to kneel down.

Bakugou ran up to it and lets out multiple explosive blasts at the Golem as he blasted away large amounts of its torso, while Neia sliced up it's back until the monster got up again as it swings it's arm around and just like last time Bakugou activated his explosion shield and just as before on contact it blows up its other arm.

The golem then just starts to run all over the cave trying to smash and run over the two with its body weight as it continues to crush into the walls.

Bakugou finally just stopped as he allows the berserking golem charge toward him. The young teen smiles as he activates the shield one more time as the rockattempts to run him over as Bakugou held his ground. Once the rock monster collided with the shield it exploded once again blowing the golem back away destroying most of its head as it was forced to back itself near a wall.

Bakugou then yells as he rans right up to the golem and finally blows up what's left of the top half of its body off.

The now headless monster could no longer stand up as it finally fell backward against the wall now dead.

Bakugou leveled up to 44 and Neia to 32.

Bakugou then walked up to the golems lifeless body to take in some of its material for his shield which unlocked, *Guardian Golem shield, defense increased by 30.* it was quite a lot of defense and Bakugou didn't complain about it but just before he could walk away he saw a glowing light above what's left of the golem's chest.

After a closer look it turned out to be a small glowing orange orb, it was no bigger than a cantaloupe melon but it seemed to have a powerful energy aura around it.

It sparked Bakugou's curiosity, as he blasts carefully around the golem's corpse to get the orb out. Once he got the orb out it seemed to be a mystery for the hero. Even through his shield menu the only information that popped up for it was *?*

It also made Neia curious as she stared at it, "What is that thing sir Bakugou?" she asked.

"Don't know, but whatever it is I'm keeping it," Bakugou answered as he places the orb in a leather bag normally he would put it in the shield inventory. But he rather not put in something he doesn't know about first.

The two went on their way out of the cave without much other resistance and back into the light.

Neia then wanted to talk about the explosion shield, "So how was that shield you used on the golem?" she asked.

"It's fine I guess, but it really sucked a lot out of me. It almost made me dry after the third attack. It's useful in certain occasions, but I can't just use it all the time or I will just be a worthless shielder. At least until I level up the thing to be better." he answered her as they continued walking, "Alright I had about enough of this place, let's just meet with our driver and then..."

But suddenly a giant burst of energy with electric bolts exploded twenty feet away from them. They were far enough away to not be caught in it but they wondered what that was.

Once the surge of energy disappeared it became clear where it came from. The gold coin Bakugou dropped earlier. Whatever magic trap it had in it was set off.

Now Bakugou knew something was up, "Sir Bakugou wasn't that the coin the botanist gave you?" Neia immediately asked.

But before he could say something, Bakugou saw a bunch of glowing energy balls coming right toward them, "Blue look out!" Neia turns but before she could react Bakugou jumped in and blocked the powerful attacks with his shield with the force of the explosive energy balls pushing them both back.

After those attacks, more energy balls went on to blast at the top of the canyon making large rocks fall and rain down on them, forcing the two heroes to run away with Bakugou blocking the energy balls focusing on them and blasting away any of the falling debris.

But more energy balls continued coming as it continued to blow away the tops of the canyon as the two heroes continue to retreat until they were near the collapsed temple. The debris ended up covering and blocked the way out of both sides of the canyon.

"What the hell is going on here!? Who set us up!?" Bakugou yells, but that answer finally became clear when he and Neia started to hear laughter from a distance on top of the cliffs.

"Aha hahaha hahaha, looks like you two are smarter then you appear." said a voice until he finally revealed himself. It was Zenra the botanist, the one who made them go on this quest in the first place was up at the cliff holding on to a magic staff with a sun piece on it.

"Hey that's the botanist Bakugou, what the hell is he doing?" Neia asked looking confused.

"I know who it is blue! By the looks of it this whole quest was a sham after all. I wasn't expecting to be screwed over this soon though." Bakugou quickly answered as he holds out his shield.

Zenra then went on to monologue, "Oh no it wasn't a sham, I absolutely desired that seed you got out of that cave. It was the fact you were going to come back alive that was a sham though."

Bakugou looked more pissed off than before with Neia drawing out her sword, but she still wanted to know more, "Why do you even want this seed for anyway? What good is killing us for it?" Neia asked.

Zenra continues to smile to give his answer, "It's more than just a seed, it's a life-giving source of power. Created by one of my ancestors long ago and I intend to reclaim it. You see I was more than some mere botanist; I was once the Queen's royal advisor of agriculture and the castles royal gardener. I've made numerous scientific discoveries and carved beautiful landscapes all for her. Oh Mirellia was such a wonderful woman, such authority, such power, and yet also such compassion and beauty. I over the years fell in love with her, I wanted to be with her forever, I wanted to be her new husband rather than that old hack Aultcray who never appreciated me and had always says that I'm nothing more than a "creepy flower breeder".

"Hate to agree with that bastard consort, but you're definitely a perverted creep, trying to get your dick into a married woman." Bakugou insulted him now realizing who he was dealing with.

But Zenra was greatly insulted by that, "Shut up! I was not perverted, it was never about sex, it was about love. 5 years ago I did eventually confess to her as I presented her my most beautiful flower breeds as a gift of my love. And do you know what she did?"

"Told you to fuck off!" Bakugou continues to insult.

"Basically that! That cold-hearted bitch rejected me! Gave me no mind after that and flocked back to that old fool! After that I burned down the gardens till every single flower was ash! Of course she fired me for that and remained with that "perfect" family of hers." Zenra shouts as he got more emotional about his one-sided relationship with the Queen.

"After that I had no choice but to join a small guild to continue to have meaning in this life as well to pay for food, she pretty much had my reputation ruined after firing me so no other noble wanted to ever hire me. It was a boring and miserable time for me. But one day I was reading through my family history, and I found out that one of my ancestors was a world-famous alchemist and had said to have created a plant with tremendous power, combined with my genius and research I can finally achieve my ultimate revenge. With it, I shall create a powerful army of plant warriors that will do my bidding to conquer Melromarc and destroy its armies. And once I coronate myself as emperor I will then behead that bastard Aultcray and his two daughters including that spoiled brat Malty, and Mirellia will finally be all mine whether she wants to or not. She shall be my queen consort in my newfound empire that will eventually control the whole world and our children will continue to rule on forever." He excitingly explains to them on his insane plan.

"Ok you creep, so why send us and other people to do it for you and why try to capture us anyway!?" Bakugou continues to ask questions as he gives himself time to figure out a plan for him and his sidekick to get out of this death trap without Zenra just blasting them from above. Though one thing he said before did drew Bakugou's attention, he mentioned Aultcray's "two" daughters. He knew full well of that bitch Malty, but who was that other daughter he had?

"Well that goes back to my old guild. I told them of my ancient family treasure and of course we went to find it here for monetary gain. We found that chest thinking it was ours for the taking, but to our luck the chest was enchanted by that hex and 3 of my 5 guild members had all been reduced to dust attempting to open it. Unfortunately my magic is no good in breaking curses and it didn't matter anyway as it was a cardinal curse so I knew I had no chance in getting it open. It did give me an idea though. While my last two guild members weren't looking as they turn back to the cave entrance I went behind them and paralyzed both of them with a paralyzing magic spell and then dragged them off to my house. There I decided to embrace what my ancestor did in the art of science to experiment on the two and continue on my research for my ultimate plan to make that beautiful bitch know whose more deserving of her love."

"And let me guess those other adventurers you talked about before, they ended up your next test subjects?" Bakugou continued to ask as he also observed the rock formations with the easiest path to get on top to blast the mad botanist away.

"Yes, and I've done it multiple times. Groups of young adventurers come by to accept a supposed easy quest for big money. I gave them a gold coin as guarantee compensation, they go to this same cave and attempt to break open the chest only for a few of them to be vaporized to dust. They realized how out of there league they are and leave the cave, then I activate the paralyzing spell from a distance I had placed on that coin to go off in my command and well paralyze all of them. And like my guild members before I take them in have more subjects to experiment on. There is also a tracking spell within it too, so I know where they are going if they attempt to make a run with it, and I can set it off anytime I want to. It was a perfect system, though I never expected a real cardinal hero to come by and actually take up my quest to break the hex, I won't be able to do my little scheme anymore but oh well at least I can finally get my prized property now. I'll kill you so you won't drive any suspicion from the authorities to me, no one will be missing the shield devil and some demi, and I don't have to pay you a single copper." he finishes as he continues to look down at the two.

"Well your stupid seed is in here you crazy bastard!" Bakugou yells as he holds up his shield, "If you want it, come down and get it out of my dead body!" he continues trash talking hoping to get the mad doctor off his vantage point.

But he just smiles, "No need, I got my own help to get it off of your corpses for me." he then tap his staff on the ground creating a small surge of energy that went across the ground.

At first it seemed like nothing happened until the two heroes saw a bunch of figures coming up next to Zenra up on the canyon. It was a bunch of monsters but they looked humanoid, Frankensteined, and zombie-like but are all covered in green plant-like material and stitches with most of them about 7 feet tall with large muscles. They all looked horribly mutated and deformed with magic power behind them.

Bakugou and Neia knew that they will be forced to fight these abominations off and were ready for them.

Zenra continued to monologue, "Do you like them? They were all my test subjects. They're pretty much weaker versions to what's to come, but they are still quite deadly, so good luck Shield hero as you and your partner's guts are about ready to be ripped out. Hahaha!" He laughed as he taps his staff again, "Now kill them!" he orders as he points down toward the two heroes.

All the mutant plant monsters went on to jump off the cliff into the canyon as they engaged the two heroes. There were about 20 of them and they were all attacking at once. They were all strong abominations and Bakugou and Neia went out and engaged them fight the plant monsters off.

"Blue attack on the left! I'll go right!" Bakugou ordered as they split up and attack the plant mutants.

Bakugou engaged as he uses his quirk to blast at the mutants as they attack him with there thorn-like arms and sharp teeth. Neia went on to slice at the mutants as they attempt to overwhelm the elf, but her speed and agility had allowed her to escape from there powerful grips. Some of the mutants went down like nothing but some of these things were smarter then they look as many kept there distances from the two while trying to attack them with their vine-like attacks.

They also had poison attacks as they barfed out a deadly purple liquid, but Bakugou's poison resistance was already so high it barely did anything or he just blocked the liquid away with his shield and Neia was too fast to get hit by the purple goo or Bakugou just used an air strike shield to protect her from it.

"Blue! Get back to me!" Bakugou ordered as she ran back to Bakugou now fighting together as they overwhelm the mutants.

"Electric blast!" Neia shouted with her arm out as a bolt of electricity forms and zaps at one of the mutants with Bakugou jumping at the shocked mutant as he blasts it into pieces.

"See, I told you refining your skill was better!" Bakugou shouted making Neia smile as they continue to fight off the mutants that are down to 5 by now.

Zenra was watching above just smiling at the two finishing off his minions looking somewhat disappointed but wasn't as upset as one would expect.

Eventually Bakugou blasted away the last mutant with the area now covered with bodies and guts of the mutant plant people.

"Those are your best creations?! Your work seems like shit you quack!" Bakugou insulted him but Zenra didn't look scared.

"Like I said their prototypes, but here's one thing they can do when they die." Zenra then taps his staff again with green energy flowing across the landscape.

The two heroes were wondering what he did until the bodies of the dead mutants started to move.

And no more then a few seconds the dead remains began to move in together like magnets as they all pile up in one spot, that clump of bodies grew bigger and bigger until the mass of bio matter started to reshape itself into a giant version of the plant mutants. The mass of dead bodies was now a living 30-foot tall giant.

They were both horrified by the monstrosity, and Bakugou became extra pissed off.

"Haha, do you like it? There human components might be dead but there plant material is still technically alive so I can still mold them under my thumb. Now, kill them!" Zenra orders the monster as it roars loudly as the beast stomps its way across the canyon as Bakugou and Neia try to dodge the giant plant as its arms turn into vine tentacles that attempt to smash the two from a distance.

Neia attempts to slice open the creature by jumping right at it cutting its belly as she did with the Hydra before. Bakugou then jumps and blasts right in its open wound blasting a hole through it.

But the monster quickly completely regenerated itself as if nothing happened, "You got to be shitting me! Regeneration!" Bakugou yells at it as Zenra enjoys the show.

The plant monster continued stomping on the ground, releasing out thorny vines, and shooting out large amounts of poisonous goo. The heroes continued to dodge and attempt to find a way to kill something that can regrow itself back.

"How about that explosion shield Sir!?" Neia suggested as she slices away at the constantly growing vines.

Bakugou answers back as he continued to fly and blast around at the large monster, "If this thing can just regrow its chest back from nothing, an explosion blowing away its arms won't do shit to it."

The two continued to dodge the monster as it moves across the canyon, trying to outmaneuver the monster, only for the two to jump away from attacks by giant energy balls forcing the two to dodge more things.

Zenra was only laughing up top, "I figure my creation could use some help, so I hope you enjoy the power of the sun. Photosynthesis blast!" he shouts as his staff forms more energy balls from the sun's power and they continued to blow up all over the ground with the two heroes being forced to dodge them and the monster at the same time.

This continued on for a few minutes with neither side getting the upper hand, though Zenra is intending to win the war of attrition as he remains safely up there, though he was starting to grow impatient by the two's resilience.

But things changed for the heroes when the bioplant abomination attempts to punch at Bakugou as he was jumping near the canyon wall and when it finally hits the wall hard and a bunch of large boulders fall right on its head, it seems to have physically hurt the plant abomination as it stops to rub its head feeling pain.

After witnessing that it gave Bakugou an idea to kill it, "Blue I want that thing near the canyon wall. Make it smash into the canyon as much as you can! Don't ask why just make sure it stays where it's at!" he orders his sidekick.

Neia wasn't sure what he had planned but she nodded in agreement and did as he said as she slices at it again and blasting it with electricity. It got its full attention and tries to smash the elf girl. Bakugou went off with his quirk toward Zenra knowing he needed to get him out of the picture as soon as possible.

Zenra continues to blast Bakugou with his photosynthesis attack but the hero continued to jump out of the way as he blasts himself up the cliff. The doctor grew more irritated as Bakugou continued to endure, "Hold still you brute!"

Bakugou continues to dodge with his quirk that also allows him to fly across the wall until he was near the giant again as it smashes into the canyon wall. Bakugou then blasts at multiple points of the wall leaving a bunch of large holes as he was getting higher and higher up the canyon finally making Zenra nervous as he blasted at Bakugou again even hitting his own monster as it still tries to kill Neia.

Bakugou after one final push he got himself up on top of the canyon. Zenra freaks out with the shield hero right next to him.

He attempts a spell, "Photosynth..", but Bakugou quickly grabs at the staff. Zenra attempts to fight over it, but he was useless physically against muscled bound Bakugou. And after a good yank the staff was now Bakugou's despite it zapping him with electricity for holding the weapon he's not allowed to use. He quickly hits the doctor in the head with it like a blunt object making Zenra fall off the cliff.

Zenra screams as he falls off into the canyon until he hits his back on his monsters head breaking his fall but just ends up falling again on the ground, breaking both his legs and back. "Ahhhhh! The pain, no! You... You! can't kill off me or my creation you unintelligent bruisers! Your still as good as dead!" the doctor insults as he attempts to crawl away in pain.

Neia still kept the monster at one spot with Bakugou jumping back down with his rope shield keeping him attached to the cliff and starts blasting more holes into the canyon with more large rocks falling on the monsters head getting it to focus back Bakugou as it punches into the cliff trying to kill him. But that was exactly what he wanted.

It continued smashing and smashing, and once Bakugou was right behind a large hole he made the abomination make one last effort to smash him.

Bakugou jumps away as the plant monster punches in through the hole. But it was now stuck unable to get its arm out of the hole no matter how hard it tries.

"You idiot! Just cut your arm off you'll regenerate a new one!" Zenra yells at his creation while still broken laying on the ground.

But it did no use as Neia moves away and Bakugou blasts himself some distance away from the cliff still attached to the rope, "You probably should've given your creations some brains. Cause without your fancy staff it's nothing but a retarded plant! And now it's time to bury it in dirt!" Bakugou yells to insult Zenra as he falls back toward the cliff with momentum with his quirk ready to fire while yelling.

As soon as Bakugou was right at the wall

"BOOM!"

Bakugou made a large explosion right at the cliff. The canyon wall quickly starts to crack and shake until a bunch of giant boulders started falling down. Bakugou converted his shield back breaking the rope and blasted himself away as the cliff wall collapses.

The monster remains stuck as Zenra looks in horror knowing what the shield hero had just done, "No! No! Not my creation!" he screams as some of the large boulders start to fall near him freaking Zenra out as he attempts to crawl away.

Quickly enough the entire cliff collapses into an avalanche of giant rocks covering the area as the monster is buried beneath all of it, completely crushing and killing it. With the only part of if itself left exposed was its left arm as it falls on the ground now completely lifeless.

Zenra had also been partially buried with the bottom half of his injured body now covered in rocks as he struggled to get himself out but to no avail

The doctor and mutant plant giant had finally been defeated.

Finally relieved the two heroes healed themselves with magic, Bakugou then went up to the plant giants hand to a sample out it and placed it in his shield that then showed: *Shield unlocked, plant abomination shield, increase damage to plant base monsters by 20%*.

The two were about ready to finally leave the canyon until they heard some faint struggling. It was Zenra trying his best to get unstuck under the rocks, "No! No! It can't end like this. I... I need to rebuild and.." Bakugou then went up to him to make a smug grin to rub salt on the wound of the mad man.

"You probably should've had a career changed and got yourself a woman who wasn't already married" Bakugou jokingly snarked at Zenra to piss him off.

"Yo... you bastard! I'll... I'll make you suffer for this shield devil. Once I'm out of here and.. and I get my bones fixed I'll chop you up and turn you and your bitch into fertilizer!" Zenra threatens them as he could barely make out words anymore.

Neia and Bakugou just smugly smirked at him, "Good luck with that quack. You're pretty much buzzard food now." Bakugou finally mocks him as he uses his quirk to launch himself up the collapsed cliff with Neia using her magic power jump to follow him until they were both back up the cliff.

"Wait! Wait! You can't leave me here like this!" the doctor desperately tries to call for them realizing what situation he was in now, "Um, maybe it won't be too bad, maybe if I can think of some magic spell to help me I can..."

But to the doctors' luck he saw shadows moving on the ground and looks up to see a bunch of birds flying around until landing near him. They were giant predatory hawks now eyeing an easy lunch.

Zenra panics and attempts with all of his might to get out of the rock avalanche but it was no use as more surround him as they observe there soon to be meal.

"Uh...uh... Nice birdies, be good. I'm just an innocent botanist here trying to..." Then they started to aggressively peck him, "AAAAAH AAAH AAAAAHHH, HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP MEEEEeeeee…..!" he screamed as the desert hawks ripped him up with no means of attacking or escaping the carnage.

Bakugou and Neia watch from above, "That happened faster then I thought?" Bakugou says as he and Neia turn around from the eat out.

"So what now Sir Bakugou?" Neia asked after all the crazy stuff they just went through in one day.

Bakugou quickly activates his map shield, "First things first is to visit that quacks house again and burn what's left in there." he answered wanting to make sure all of Zenra's abominations are done for.

The two instantly teleport back to Zenra's place in Melromarc's capital still in the same condition as it was before.

Bakugou wasted no time and blasts open the door into the house, as they get a good look at the place, it was covered in plants and scientific equipment. Most looked like normal plants, but some of them looked like mutated abominations, only these ones are stationary like a normal plant. One even tried to bite on Bakugou's hand but ends up getting blown to bits.

He and Neia searched around the house tearing the place up to see if they could find any secret lab or anywhere he would've done his "experiments".

Bakugou went upstairs to his bedroom that was covered up in pictures and posters of a purple haired noble woman with some having Zenra's face glued on next to her, including portraits where King Aultcray was on completely covered over. This was most likely Queen Mirellia that the man obsesses over. But as he looked at one picture he noticed two other individuals on it other then the queen and Aultcray with his face plastered over. Malty whose sight gives Bakugou rage and the other was a little girl with dark blue hair. To his guess this must be that other daughter Zenra mentioned earlier who looked a lot younger then Malty, nor more then 10 years old. Bakugou wasn't sure what to make of it, he didn't know who this girl is. She could be no better then her sister, but then again she could be more like her mother who by from what he knows from her shadows and stuff he heard from the locals she's a more reasonable person that seemed to be just as mad at her bastard husband. She seemed to support the shield hero without even meeting him in person.

It was something for Bakugou to think about later as he had no idea where this girl was, her name, or if she was even alive so it was not his problem for now. He moves away from the picture and quickly found something disturbing. It was a Lifesize large mannequin doll that looked a lot like the Queen with a wedding gown and by the look of it some of her real purple hair on its head. Bakugou was so disgusted he blew the doll into pieces, not against the queen but to that now dead mad man's creepy obsession.

He looked around more until he found a safe that he blew open and found 15 gold coins inside. After scanning the coins with his shield they had no magic on them so they were perfectly safe unlike the one before, "At least I got paid for this insanity plus extra." he says to himself out loud as he pockets the money.

After tearing up the place enough they eventually found a bookshelf up against a wall in the living room. Bakugou knocks on the wall on the side of it and finds out that it's hollow.

Neia immediately knew what this was, "So the entrance to his basement is behind this bookself. Ok so I'm guessing we pick through the books until we find the right..."

"Boom!"

Neia turns and saw that Bakugou just blew through the whole bookcase, "Or I guess doing that works too." Neia says as the two go down to the lair.

It was quite the horrid sight, not like with the Queen doll but more about body horror as they see many horrified looking creations both alive and dead in cages. The two proceed to kill off the live ones to put them out of there misery.

They also heard groaning voices around and quickly found two normal survivors who seem to look like adventurers, one boy and one girl that were chained up on tables to be the next guinea pigs in the late doctor's experiments.

They were barely alive from starvation, but thanks to Bakugou's healing magic and blasting off the chains he got the two up again as they cry to their rescuers, "Thank you! Thank you so much for saving us, this botanist guy is insane! He's going to turn us into plant monsters soon!" the male adventurer thanked as the two hugged Bakugou's knee's that only irritated him.

"Get off of me idiots! The doctor is bird shit now so quit crying about it." Bakugou bluntly yelled to the two, but despite yelling at them, they were still so happy to be saved by a hero even when it was the shield hero.

"That's good, I hope that evil bastard is burning in hell now." the girl says as she tried to comfort her partner.

Bakugou then pointed the two toward the way out, "Just get out of here already. Inform the guards of this and have them burn it to the ground. But it's best you don't mention me and my sidekick's involvement or they will just ignore you." he ordered them and they were happy to oblige.

"Of course, Thank you again Shield hero, we hope to meet you again to repay the favor." the male adventurer said to him as they run out of the house.

After that and killing off the rest of the mutant abominations Bakugou and Neia were ready to head out and let the city guard take care of the rest.

But right before Bakugou left the basement he noticed one book near a table of an abomination corpse that had the title of "plant stats and modification". It seemed like any ordinary book that anyone can buy. Bakugou easily concluded that Zenra was probably using it to help his research to make his plant monsters.

Bakugou decided to keep the book for himself thinking it had some use especially with the shield he got from the seed, the bioplant shield. Once put away he and Neia quickly ran out of the house before the guards would come to destroy the building.

After a few minutes, the guards eventually did come and after they did their own investigation the whole place was burned to the ground with all that was inside.

Neia and Bakugou watch from the streets, far enough away from the so they couldn't just turn toward them and accuse the shield devil of anything. Neia then finally said something, "So what now Sir Bakugou? Call it a day and just rest at the inn?" Neia asked specifically wanting to just sleep after all the crazy fighting in one day.

"Absolutely not blue. We still need to visit that town that was close to where we were at before," he told her making Neia sigh.

"Can't we just visit there tomorrow? The town isn't going anywhere," she complains.

"You really think our driver is going to survive a night out there by himself?" Bakugou asked

"Oh crap Dalven! We forgot about him! I hope he is alright?" Neia freaks out now remembering him.

'Can't know until we get back. So quit complaining and get next to me." he ordered her as she complies as Bakugou and Neia fast travel back to the canyon area.

---

Two hours had past and Bakugou and Neia were back on the cart again with Dalven. Thankfully he was fine, spent most of his time reading until he waited for the shield heroes return as promised.

They continue their trip to that town close by the abandoned guild temple.

Neia continued reading through water spell books again hoping to finally get water magic.

Bakugou was reading through the now-dead mad man's book on plant biology and modification, it seemed similar enough to how his world's biology works. However he did learn about certain plants that can be directly modified through magic with various stats being labeled like propagation, production, vitality, immunity, intelligence, growth, and mutation.

He decided to go through his inventory to find the seed within it. After pressing through the menu and activating the bioplant shield he discovered a screen that showed off the seed's stats. The shield didn't tell what each stat did, but the book Bakugou acquired did so he knew what it all meant for a plant to have.

He played around and messed with the seed by making duplicates of it to make small versions of the plant he creates from manipulating it's stats with many turning hostile especially with high intelligence and mutation, but it was not a threat to Bakugou who can kill it quickly before it grew out of control. Bakugou hardly cared about plants but it did seem like an interesting ability to being able to create his own plants in the way he wants too.

But what kept catching his eye was that glowing orb from the golem, it didn't seem to be harmful, but the object did seem to feel warm, not burning hot but enough to warm up a hand. Bakugou was unsure what it was and he hoped he get an answer soon

---

After another hour the two finally made it to the town of Lelore. The whole area seemed very bleak with a very depressing atmosphere around it once they were in town itself, it was a sad sight to see. The entire marketplace was closed down and there didn't seem to be any place to buy food at. The entire town had sad faces everywhere and everyone looked hungry. The two heroes can easily tell that this village was starving.

The wagon did draw attention to the villagers as they began to follow it with people unknown to them. Once the wagon made it to the center of town many of the villagers began to crowd around it hoping it had food in it.

Bakugou jumps out of it with his shield in its book form along with Neia as the starving people stare at the two.

Things were silent at first until some of the villagers started to talk,

"Please sir do you have any food, my children haven't eaten in two days."

"Sir my mother is sick in bed now and we had no trade lately."

"Mr. please I'll pay you any price, I'll do anything!"

The villagers all continued asking and begging for food with so many voices shouting and interrupting Bakugou which infuriated him.

The amount of noise began to irritate Bakugou as he attempts to bring order, "Ugh, Will you all just be quiet?!" he ordered them but the voices continued to be loud pissing him off more, "I said quiet!" he shouted at them but they continued to not listen and talk over him until Bakugou had enough, "SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!" He explodes at them as he lets out his quirk shocking and surprising everyone into silence. Bakugou could've continued to explode at them but he knew it wouldn't be the hero way if he continued to yell at the starving people. He would only just prove the King and the church that he was the devil by continuing to act that way. All he wanted was order.

After some deep breaths he calmed himself and spoke again, "Look I do have food to give away, and because I'm nice I won't charge any of you for it." he told them with everyone now smiling for this strangers generosity, "However!" he continued getting their attention again, "I want God damn order here. All of you idiots will get into a single file line and I shall give you a pack of Hydra meat that should feed up to 5 people for the day. But don't complain about anything else or me and my sidekick are out of here! Got it!?" he told and ordered them, it was harsh but if things weren't kept under control they would probably kill each other over the meat.

The villagers all noded and agreed to his request. In a few minutes they all lined up as Bakugou used his cardinal weapon to take out the last of the Hydra meat from his inventory as Neia hands each person one at a time there share of meat.

About an hour later, they gave the last villager in line their packet of meat with all the villagers now having something to eat. Bakugou was thankful that was the last one as he only had about 7 packets of hydra meat left. Those were given to the ones who had many really young children, they were the ones needing it the most.

After that one older looking person came up to the two, "Thank you so much for your generosity Sir, it's not every day we have an encounter a man willing to give away most of his stock for hungry people for free." he thanked Bakugou.

"Yeah whatever I was getting tired of the damn Hydra meat anyway so I just wanted it out of my sight." he makes up trying to act tough but the elder didn't care either way.

"Well whatever the reason we are all still thankful, I'm the lord of this town and we had all been through hard times lately." the Lord told them. "What is your name anyway?" he also asked.

"It's Kacchan that's all you need to know." Bakugou lied, figuring people would not react well to the shield devil he took up a fake name to help hide his identity in places like this. It was his nickname Deku would call him back at home since they were kids, he didn't care about it that much, but it was useful enough without it sounding too obviously fake as the village lord didn't question it.

"How did this town get like this? Why is there so little food around?" Neia finally asked them with Bakugou wanting to know too.

The Lord then explained, "We had a lot of bad luck recently. We had a terrible blight that killed off most of our crops, then the waves came by. We didn't suffer many human casualties but the monsters ruined what was left of the crops and killed off our livestock. Since then we had to rely on the food stocks we had locked up in storage, but since last week the last of our reserves had ran dry and now we are barely getting by. It seemed like we were all going to starve to death until you came by to give us some hope again."

"Why didn't you asked for any help from the crown?" Neia asked.

"We did, but we haven't received any response from them. They seemed to have more important things to do then helping out a minor village." the lord answered looking like he had been betrayed from an uncaring regent.

"Typical, I'm not surprised that consort bastard did nothing, he focuses more on important things to him like wanting to protect ponytails reputation than protecting his subjects." Bakugou commented, "So what are you idiots going to do now." he bluntly asked him.

The village Lord took a while to say anything until he finally said, "We don't know, we tried to replant the fields for more food, but it takes time and most of us don't have that, I don't think even half the village will make it by next week."

It seemed like a grim sight for the future of the village with no means of getting food. It seemed like the place was doomed, but Neia wasn't going to give up on them and turned back to her master, "Sir Bakugou there has to be something we can do about this? We can't just leave then to starve to death."

"Do I look like a farmer to you? I'm the last guy you want to ask about growing food. You people have better luck just leaving this dump." Bakugou bluntly told them.

"But this is our home, where many generations have lived on. We have so much history here, we wouldn't ever abandon it. And besides we have many who are too old, too young, or too sick to travel long distances and not everyone can afford a wagon to carry their stuff. So please sir Kacchan, there must be another way.

Bakugou hated to be in this kind of predicament where he can't just blow up the problem as he growls in anger, " This is so pointless. Unless you have some miracle plant that can grow food quickly than you idiots might as well..." But before Bakugou could finish he suddenly remembered something, he quickly looks at his book shield as it pops up a menu where he checks his inventory and finds the magic seed again remembering what he was doing earlier. He also takes out the magic plant modification book as he skims over some of the pages. He pridefully smirks again.

He then grips his hand, "Alright listen here! Just give me one day and I'll fix this food problem of yours instantly!" he shouts toward the village lord who was quite surprised to hear that.

"A... a day? How's that even possible?" the lord stuttered in surprise.

"I'll make it possible grandpa, just give me a place for me to do my work and it'll be done," Bakugou demands from him.

the lord quickly answers by pointing toward a large building, "Well there is an inn with plenty of open rooms if you..."

But Bakugou cuts him off, "That'll do. Blue while I'm on that, go around and help the town with whatever, don't bother me while I'm working. So tonight get yourself another room in the inn." He ordered Neia as he walks toward the building.

"Uh.., yes sir I won't disturb you then." Neia responds as the shield hero went to do his work.

After that Neia did exactly what Bakugou told her to do and helped around the small town. Mostly minor things like fixing some broken stuff and playing with some children that are trying to find some fun in this bad time.

Eventually night came and Neia did as she was told to do and went to bed in a different room as Bakugou continued to spend all night trying to make up a miracle.

---

By next morning the villagers were gathered to see what this hero had to show off.

"Feast your eyes on this!" he shouts as he showed off a seed, but this one looked a lot different than the one they got out of the cave yesterday now redder and smaller.

"What is it?", one of the villagers asked

"This is my creation, the seed of a Katsuki fruit tree. This baby will grow and bear fruit in less than a minute and will continually get bigger." Bakugou brags to them naming the plant and fruit after himself.

Though most of the villagers were confused wondering if any of this was even real, a plant that can grow food in less then a day?

"You aren't pulling our legs are you pal?" one of the villagers doubting it.

"I SPENT ALL NIGHT MAKING THIS DAMN THING, SO WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP AND LET ME SHOW YOU ALREADY!" Bakugou shouted freaking the villagers out and making the man shut his mouth.

Bakugou then blew a small hole in the ground with his quirk and drops the seed in it and quickly covers it back up, and only in a matter of minutes the seed quickly grew from a small seed into a small tree just about as tall as Bakugou. And just as quickly it bared large orange-red fruits that were star-shaped about the size of a large apple.

The villagers were all amazed by this plant, "Wha... What is that thing?" one of the villagers asked.

"I already told you idiots, it's a Katsuki fruit tree. Grows nutrient and vitamin-rich fruit instantly. My own creation." Bakugou continued to brag about it as some of the villagers were amazed, but others weren't as excited.

"Yes, the hero did it, he has created a miracle to solve our hunger now we can.."

"Hold on a second!" one of the villagers shouted as a few others joined in confusing the other villagers and was pissing off Bakugou.

"What the hell is wrong?!" Bakugou angrily asked.

"Haven't we all remembered the legend that our elders passed down. There it stated that the town would face ultimate doom by a seed created by an alchemist. This whole scenario is too good to be true, this "hero" is probably the harbinger of our doom for all we know." the cautious villager says as the rest of the confused villagers continue to talk to each other with them remembering that old tale.

"Neal, let's not do this. We all know of the legend, but we have no other food to give out. We will starve to death if we don't find an alternative food source." The lord tells the skeptical villager.

"I'm still not trusting this alchemist; the fruit could be deadly for all we know." the guy thinks up as the villagers began to discuss and argue about the plant.

Bakugou just facepalms himself in anger, "Are these idiots really going to do this!?" he says to himself with Neia wanting to chime in.

"They could be talking about that original seed we got out of the cave. That was created by an evil alchemist, that might be what they are referring to?" Neia says to him.

"Of course that's what they are talking about idiot. You think those two things didn't originally go together. Now they're going to starve to death because of that stupid alchemist who couldn't make a proper plant!" He shouts to himself as he tries to think of something to make these villagers accept the fruit.

But after taking one more look at the villagers he finally came up with something, "Listen up!" Bakugou shouts to get the villagers' attention. "You idiots are continuing to argue over a stupid legend that you don't even know the exact details to. This bullshit is pointless! Just try my damn plant and not make me force it in your heads before starvation." he shouts at the villagers with some of them still doubting this generosity.

"We are not taking any chances, you can just get out of here with your thing." the one villager demanded, Bakugou was getting pissed off and was about ready to walk up and punch the guy.

But before he could Neia jumps in to say something, "Listen all of you before you make your choice, Why don't you look down below you." she told them.

Many of the villagers looked down and all they see is their children, weak, hungry, and starving.

"Let me ask you. Are you going to tell them they won't get any more food just because of an old fairytale? That you are more concern of yourselves that you ignore the ones that need you the most? I know it can be scary to go into the unknown, but you can't think of just yourselves when you have people who depend on you for help. I learned that lesson from a great man, a man who is trying to help all of you from the goodness of his heart. You should at least try it and see for yourselves and help the ones that can't help themselves." Neia says to the group, Bakugou had his arms crossed somewhat surprised to see his sidekick handling a situation like this on her own.

Many of them were still unsure, but her speech and the sight of their hungry children was becoming unbearable to them. Eventually the pressure made them concede, "Alright, I guess there's nothing wrong with at least trying it first." said Neal the one who originally protested this in the firste place, whose daughter was standing next to him just as hungry as the rest.

He himself walks up to the plant and picks off the fruit to be the one to taste test. He quickly bites into it and eats the fruit. Many were anticipating something bad would happen, but after a few seconds of chewing, nothing did happen. Neal was actually really liking the fruit and continued biting into it until he ate the whole thing even its seeds, "It tastes amazing and so filling." he smiles and turns toward the crowd, "Everyone! The fruit is fine! It's time to finally have full bellies again." he told them with the children looking all relieved and happy.

They all ran up at the same time to the Katsuki fruit tree. And without hesitation they all ate the fruit off of the small tree. The little ones all enjoyed the fruit, feeling such joy they never felt in a long time.

Bakugou pridefully smiles to himself again, "Ha, and everyone back home says that I scare away children." he says to himself as he creates some more of the plants on the ground seeing how the children almost ate the one tree bear of its fruits.

With the children showing no ill effects or anything harmful like Neal, all the adults decided to dig in themselves. Even the original skeptical ones finally gave in and started to munch on the amazing fruit.

In minutes the entire village was indulging themselves as Bakugou gave the village a large supply of seeds he created allowing the villagers to grow more and more as they plant themselves and harvest the quick bearing fruit. Bakugou had succeeded where the alchemist failed, solving hunger

Neia was also just as happy as well seeing her master bringing such joy to the world despite his pride, "You have done an amazing thing Sir, you had transformed this village for the better just as you did with Lute." she complimented him.

"Obviously, but don't let me take all the credit. You did your part as well with kicking that whore's ass back at Lute and getting these idiots to accept my plant without shoving it down there throats. You still have a lot to learn, but not bad blue." He complimented back as he gave a single thumb up making Neia feel even prouder and happier of herself.

The village lord came up to Bakugou again after he finishes eating his 4th Katsuki fruit already, "Thank you so much Hero. You have saved this village from starvation and brought us hope for the future. How can we ever repay you?" he asked.

Bakugou thought to himself if he could think of anything that wasn't too greedy but still useful to him as a traveling hero, taking money from starving villagers would make him look bad and made him no better then what Myne tried to do back at Lute. After a minute of thinking he finally thought up something, "How about free stays for life at the Inn and I take about 3% of all monthly profits from my fruit for about a year." he asked.

The leader was surprised by how generous that offer was, "Really, only 3%? My boy you deserve at least half for all that you have done for us. But if that is all that you want then we will honor it and reserve a permeant spot at the inn for life." he thanks as he bows to Bakugou.

Bakugou did have one more thing to say though as he gets something out of a bag, "Also, do any of you know what this thing is?" He asked showing them the orange orb thing.

The Lord and a few others observed it to see what it is but they were just as clueless as Bakugou, "I'm sorry but we have no idea what it is, it doesn't seem like any magic crystal ball or any sort of other items we are familiar with. I guess you could always take it to the royal court or to the church to get an answer." he told him.

But those were the last places Bakugou wanted to go and he just growls in anger as he puts away the orb, "Forget it, just make sure you idiots don't kill off my plants. I spent all damn night getting them right." he said to them as they say there thanks again and went toward the rest of the villagers to discuss how they will be planting the new plants.

Neia turned toward Bakugou again, "So what now?" she asked

"We're going to have to stay here a few days. Help them with whatever they want and do minor quests to make sure nothing insane happens with my plant." He tells her which actually amused Neia a bit.

"Ha, you think something will happen with your plant. Are you acknowledging that you might've made another mistake and might not be a perfect hero?" she jokes and giggles to herself which only pissed off Bakugou.

"NO I'M NOT! It's just to keep precaution, with the rules of this weird world who knows what could happen." he yells and excuses himself not liking his sidekick making fun of him.

But Neia just continues to smile as the two walk over to help out the villagers on their plans to revitalize the town.

---

Two days had passed since Bakugou's miracle and the fields are already full of Katsuki fruit trees. What was once a town on the brink of starvation was now filled with food and life.

Bakugou and Neia had stuck around to help out the villagers with anything like repairing structures, curing the sick and injured, killing off dangerous wildlife, and many other things. Of course Bakugou just wanted to make sure nothing funny happens with his plants that have so far shown no major mutations or anything else that could threaten the villagers.

Eventually a few of the villagers did figure out Bakugou was the shield hero and his real name was Katsuki Bakugou naming himself after the plant. They definitely wouldn't have trusted him at all had they knew who he really was days ago, but as of now they didn't care. Despite his loud mouth and rude attitude, this hero had saved their village and did so much for it. They didn't care that he was the so-called "Shield Devil". To them he was seen as the saint of the orange star fruit.

Everything seemed fine, but what had kept bugging Bakugou was that orb thing, it continued to glow and emit heat for all this time but he nor anyone else knew what it was. And he sure wasn't going to the church or crown to find out. He even fast traveled to Melromarc's capital to the magic shop owner and she was just as clueless about it.

So Bakugou just kept it around, in the hopes he could finally figure it out. What such a thing could've been used to power up a golem?

His answer finally came up sooner then he thought.

---

After spending a 3rd night in the inn of the town at his and Neia's permeant rooms. Bakugou and Neia finally awake as they get ready to eat breakfast and finish what other jobs the town offers then head back to the Capital to continue on with their adventure.

"Come on blue will you hurry it up I'm starving!" Bakugou yells at her with his stomach desiring breakfast.

"Sorry sir I'm almost done I just need to put on my boots then..."

But suddenly a strange loud noise came from inside the room that alerted the two, they turned to where the sound came from and it was from the orange orb that was suddenly glowing brightly and shaking in place on a table Balugou place it at for the night.

Bakugou raised up his shield and yell to Neia, "Behind me now!" and Neia ran behind with her blade out and Bakugou having his quirk active.

The two weren't sure what was happening, but they were ready to engage the threat as the orb continues to act crazy.

This continued for a few more seconds until the top of it started to crack, Bakugou was ready for an explosive result.

But finally, the top of it cracked open and the glow stopped.

Bakugou and Neia were confused, wondering what was going on.

But it became clear as more cracks opened out and what was inside the orb had finally revealed itself, it was a tiny lizard-like creature covered in slime, and the shell of the orb.

"It... It was an egg. But what could it be?" Neia finally spoke out, with Bakugou still silent understanding what Neia said quite well.

The baby lizard creature continued to struggle until it got the rest of itself out of the egg.

Bakugou was curious and decided to move closer but remaining cautious.

He got a closer look at it and the baby creature was scaly, colored light orange with a small tail, and had what looked like batlike front arms.

While standing there Bakugou quickly came to the conclusion to what it was, "If I had to guess, it's a baby Dragon." he answers Neia as he lowered his guard down on the baby as it continues to crawl around the table exploring it's new world, "I'm guessing it was used as a power source to that rock bastard." he concluded considering the power a dragon can have.

Bakugou remained mostly silent as he observes the baby dragon as it starts to cough up little fire puffs proving Bakugou's theory.

The little baby dragon then notices Bakugou and crawls on its winged hands to get closer to him as it rubs itself on Bakugou in comfort.

Bakugou remained mostly quiet as he was actually getting attached to the tiny baby as it allows itself to be imprinted on Bakugou.

Neia finally came up toward the two, surprised but at the same time happy to see her master in such a calm state, "It seems to think you're his mama sir Bakugou." she comments.

Though Bakugou got mad by it, "Dad! It's dad, idiot!" he shouts angrily at her for once actually trying to not be too loud with the baby dragon as it lays itself on Bakugou's hands as it moves around on them.

It was a peaceful sight to the two as they observe it crawling around the table again, "So we going to keep it then?" Neia quietly asked.

"Of course we are. You think I'm just going to throw out my own personal dragon." Bakugou quickly answers her. Bakugou had always wanted to have a pet lizard or snake since he was a child. But his mother would never let him have one thinking he would just use it to torment Deku, which she might have been right about that.

The two smiles for a bit until Neia asked something else from Bakugou, "So what are you going to name it?"

"Prince Explosion Murder." Bakugou immediately suggested.

"Oh come on Sir Bakugou, you can give it a better name than that?" Neia says rolling her eyes, which just made Bakugou angry.

"What's wrong with that!? It's a perfect name for a fire breathing dragon!" Bakugou quickly shouts at Neia wondering why so many people always hated the explosion murder part of the name.

"I mean you're not going to give a child a name like that and pets shouldn't be treated any less, he should have a more normal name. Preferably one that is one word." Neia suggested.

As much as he hates to admit it, he knew Neia did have a point, maybe a name like that would be fine as a hero name, but he would've murdered his parents if they made his real legal name King Explosion Murder.

So Bakugou continued to think about some more names that would fit. Until he figured out a perfect name for his tiny dragon, "Alright I got one, how about, Kirishima."

"That sounds like a great name. Does it mean anything?" She liked and asked never hearing a name like that before

Bakugou quickly answered her, "In my homeworld it means, friend." he made up. Though just remembering Kirishima already made him somewhat homesick already.

Baby dragon Kirishima crawled back up to Bakugou hands and went to sleep on him making the young hero smile. He knew there was nothing he could do about it but he now had greater motivation to continue forward.

Not to just get back home to be with his friend again, but to also give a safe future for his sidekick Neia, his pet dragon Kirishima, and the people that willingly call him a hero.

---

Authors note: I'm extremely sorry for how long this took, I spent more time on this chapter then I thought. I went through many ideas with this part and had a hard time trying to make it work, so I went through many rewrites in the middle part of this. I'm also an extremely bad procrastinator. I've had a bunch real life stuff going on the past two months that held me back to, like getting a new job and been sick for a brief period (and if your wondering, no it was not by "that" virus thankfully.), and of course as of March 2020 there is a global pandemic affecting a lot of things. So again I apologize, I hope to keep the series schedule consistent to at least one chapter a month, but I guess we will wait and see what happens.I debated again to split this in two chapters or not, but most people didn't seem to mind how long chapter 3 was so kept it one. Though if enough find issue with how long this was I can change it easily, but otherwise it remains as one.I also want to discuss Bakugou's team and sidekicks including the new member. The dragon Kirishima for this story won't be too much of a character at least compared to Filio. He'll be like the Appa and Momo of the story, being mostly the intelligent pet of the team though I have some stuff planned for him involving the dragons of this world later on. Also as of now I have 2 future sidekicks planned out, one being a canon character (not melty but she will be in it temporary like in canon) and another OC that I'll introduce later. But that will be mostly for the first part of shield heroes story up until the Cal Mira arc, I'm thinking of adding 2 or 3 more sidekicks joining up later down the road past that arc and as of now I have no clue what they could be. It won't be for a long time but I won't mind suggestions of OC's or canon characters I could use that also fit in this world, but who knows by that amount of time might've developed something but suggestions won't hurt.So again thank you for reading and I hope to get the next chapter out faster (I hope I didn't jinx it)