A/N: I forgot to explain, that if I change their last names to their first names, then Iwatani had talked to them and had the blessing to use someone's name. I know that the other heroes already use his given name, but Naofumi doesn't know... Anyways, hope you enjoy it!
_
After two (2) hours of waiting and only ten (10) minutes before the battle, Motoyasu decided to carry Naofumi on his back. Amaki and Kawasumi tucked a fleece blanket around Naofumi without trying to restrict his movement. Then, they stood straight and waited, patiently, quietly with a lot of anxiety, to be beamed to the battle. It felt like hours before they were finally beamed away. When they arrived, they saw that they got a lucky break.
They were far from the battle, but it was an open field with nowhere to to take cover. In the far distance, there was a town, but it was too far away to get there within ten (10) minutes of running. All of their companions were there, and Malty but none of the heroes wanted to talk to her more than they had to, and looked to be ready for a fight.
"Damn, this is the worst case in our situation. Guys, it's going to be more exhausting than we expected. It's going to be an endurance test that we need to win. The plan is like we planned before, but the one who carries Iwatani has to do everything they can to protect and fight. Don't be too proud to ask for help, because this is going to push our limits to the end and more. I don't care how, but we will survive this!", said Motoyasu while he already started to distance himself from the rest with Naofumi.
Kawasumi was already telling everyone to kill what they could and stay safe, Amaki told them that they were responsible for their own life and that he didn't need them fighting the big fight with him and Motoyasu told the girls to stay safe and protect everyone to the best of their abilities.
Naofumi looked up and said:"Ralphtalia give them back-up or cut everything down that you can handle without getting yourself hurt. Filo, watch Ralphtalia's back, be careful and kill as many monsters as you can and I'll treat you to your favorite meal next time."
Both Ralphtalia and Filo showed Naofumi that they understood and stood ready to fight with the rest, not arguing or trying to change Naofumi's plans. Everyone sighed in relieve, but they did think it was strange that it was such an open place until the monsters came out. There, in the distance walking to them in groups of five, were about 300 Monsters. They were smaller, weaker and more silent then other monsters they ever fought before, but they looked eager to kill, or eat, them.
Kawasumi cracked his fingers, nodded to himself and started to shoot the monsters that were already advancing in their direction while Amaki ran right in the middle of the fight and slashed the monsters near him. The fight was going smoothly and it looked as if it wasn't as bad as they thought. They were pushing the monsters more and more back to the middle of the field and kept them there.
"This is an easy win for us! We didn't even need to test our limits and there was no need for Motoyasu and Naofumi.", exclaimed Kawasumi proudly.
Kawasumi immediately regretted his words, when a sudden lightning shot in front of him and Amaki. There was so much light coming from the lightning. They had to shield their eyes or risk being blinded. After the light dimmed down, Kawasumi and Amaki saw about 30 huge monsters of about 40 meters high. Each monster had three heads, a long neck, they were brown in color and had a roundish head.
They looked to be made from hard stones or rocks. First they thought about rock golems, but when the monsters opened their mouths, they saw how a ro- no a boulder was created. The monsters snapped their necks, like a catapult, in the direction of the heroes. The boulder went flying at such a high speed, it shouldn't be possible!
Amaki and Kawasumi, who are walking on their own, dodging the boulders when Kawasumi asked in incredulity:"Did they just catapult a rock the size of a car from their mouths?!"
"Technically, they are called boulders.", explained Amaki, still shocked what just happened, but he recoverd quickly and shouted:"Shoot that boulder from the sky before it hits us or someone else!"
Not wasting any time, Kawasumi shot the boulder with his arrows, only for it to break in half. It was low enough for Amaki to slice it in half with his sword, but they couldn't destroy all the boulders. There were so many boulders flying in their direction, that they jumped backwards multiple times. After five (5) minutes of dodging, they could finally get a small breather behind a few boulders.
Motoyasu appears behind Kawasumi and Amaki and curses:"Damn, we're too open"
"*Scream* H-how long have you been here?.", asked Kawasumi while Amaki just nodded.
Motoyasu didn't look impressed and said:"You guys have been jumping backwards the whole time while dodging the boulders. Don't you think that you will be jumping towards Iwatani and me? I've been dodging boulders left and right! I can't defend as much as I want! Not to mention that he has a short cooldown."
"Oops?", said the two youngest Heroes.
"This monster has more power than we anticipated. If only we had someone or something that could deflect the boulders...", muttered Motoyasu to himself in contemplation, not noticing that they weren't flattened by boulders due to their very own Shield Hero.
Naofumi has been using his Air shield to deflect or shoot boulder away from them the whole time without anyone noticing, which was seriously unbelievable. Naofumi cleared his throat and pointed to his Air shield above them. The other three heroes looked bashful away and muttered thanks to Naofumi. Motoyasu decided to ask Naofumi if he could keep shielding him while he's going to defend them.
Naofumi slumped a little on Motoyasu, breathing a bit harder and faster than before. Due to the small break, he wondered why he had so much problems with keeping the shield up, but quickly threw the question in the back of his mind for later and focused his mind on the situation at hand. Motoyasu, Kawasumi and Amaki were already discussing a new plan.
Naofumi forced himself to sit straighter, making himself look stronger, and answered:"O-of course I c-can keep them up. J-just *Clears throat* keep running and watch out while I assist you."
They decided to split up with Motoyasu going further, and faster, away from the Boulder Monsters, Kawasumi and his companions running to the right side of the monsters and Amaki with his companions to the left. They never encountered this kind of monster and haven't made a plan for this kind of situation. They were going to fight without a 100% successful plan and the soldiers need time to arrive before they get back-up. They were alone with their companions, the King's daughter and Naofumi, who's injured and unable to fight for himself in his condition.
While Motoyasu was hoping to get lucky and find a house or a cabin to hide behind, Kawasumi was shooting boulders into pieces, Amaki was cutting them into halves, Ralphtalia was cutting the smaller monsters around the heroes down while Filo tried to kill one of the Boulder Monsters. But it was resisting Filo much more than any other Monster. Filo had to attack so many times, including Ralphtalia and some companions of the other party members and a hero, before they defeated one Boulder Monster.
"Damn, they are stronger than anything else we've fought before. Not to mention how many there are. I don't even think this is the Boss Battle!",said Kawasumi in dissatisfaction.
Amaki nodded and said:"Let's just focus on these guys before we go and decide to take on the Boss."
Meanwhile, Motoyasu was dodging the boulders that were getting through the other fighters. He thought of using his spear, but with Naofumi on his back and using one hand to jump over smaller boulder, he decided against it and just ran, ducked and climbed out of the other trajectiles way. But soon he was getting boxed in by three boulders from each side, the fourth already in the ground and blocking his only escape.
'Damn, these monsters really have it out for us. I just hope that Iwatani has enough strength to keep the shields up. We've been fighting for two hours and it doesn't look as if it will stop any time soon. We only killed ten of those Boulder shooting monsters and Naofumi couldn't rest for half an hour.', thought Motoyasu in annoyance.
Naofumi felt himself reaching his limit. It was slowly taking a toll on his body and the pain was gradually increasing until the shield was flickering. Motoyasu had to watch out a lot more than before and more boulders were coming their way. Naofumi thought about the risks and decided to show his weakness and ask for ask.
Naofumi was slipping fast, his vision was getting blurry and he asked Motoyasu in a slurred speech:"M-Mot-toyasssu, p-potion pleashe."
Motoyasu cursed himself for not looking out for Naofumi before it went to this point and said hurridly:"Hold on, Iwatani, I'm taking it out."
Motoyasu was just about to stop and grab the potion in question when Naofumi yelled:"AIR SHIELD DRITTE SHIELD!"
Suddenly, there were three shields above them. The first one broke within seconds on impact and blasted one boulder off course, which gave Motoyasu the incentive to run for his life and get them out of the boulder's landing path, the second one broke after another boulder got knocked off course and the third shield broke only after Motoyasu got them out of the way.
Motoyasu gave a quick thanks, quickly gave Naofumi his potion and ran again, going back to dodging, climbing and running. Naofumi quickly gulped down the potion and waited for it to work, not being able to shield for the time being. After ten minutes, Naofumi felt a little stronger and was sitting a little bit straighter again, but still looking a bit too pale for Motoyasu's liking.
Motoyasu got a little bit tired of the fight taking so long and asked Naofumi a little annoyed:"Iwatani, do you think you can use your shields again?"
"Yes, I can. Leave it to me, Motoyasu.",replied Naofumi, a little guilty for using so long to get his strenghts a bit back, and yelled:"S FLOAT SHIELD!"
Before Motoyasu can apologise for his behavior, he saw that Kawasumi was being encaged in a near-range battle with three, what they decided to name, Silent Weaklings. Motoyasu was horrified to see that these silent weaklings had knives in their hands and their eyes were glowing red. Motoyasu decided to change their plan a little bit.
Without any warning to Naofumi, he yelled to Kawasumi:"ITSUKI, TAKE IWATANI AND RUN! I'LL TAKE CARE OF THEM!"
