[Author's Notes]
To the boltguard: yes I know, but I was trying to keep it from the story, if I am correct but don't quote me on that, Keel was referred to as a boy and used masculine pronouns before the reveal of his gender, with them sometimes alluding to this reveal by saying that he was "a boy with an oddly feminine face". It's the same reason why I always refer to Malty as Myne in the first few chapters until we get to a point where her real name is dropped, Shield hero fans know about those little details but since these are also crossovers, it means that this could be someone's first introduction to the series.
To RavenBlu: Yeah...
To Jackthethief: Did he? I'm unsure because most fanfics just go with the king being blinded by his trust in his daughter, the only cases where he was in on the conspiracy as far as I am aware are the Malty Melromarc fanfics. But I could be wrong.
Musizlover2008: I know! I'm so excited for it!
XaralandoWyattWyatt: I kind of already imagined the monster companions each hero would get, but they wouldn't all be filolials, putting in a little variety you know? I am kind of puzzled about how Madeline and Shovel Knight would get their pets though.
ZukahaniMultiColor: kind of uncertain about the celestial magic, but holy magic? Most definitely, kind of baffles me that all of the cardinal weapons just do not give holy affinity, it would honestly make the fact that the heroes are seen as saints make more sense
"Take this!" The young keel shouts as he strikes down another balloon monster popping it with no effort while Juan watches from a distance
"Haha! These things don't stand a chance against me, can we move on to something more challenging?" Keel said as he walked closer to the masked luchador, spinning the small lance on his hand with a confident smile as he was ready to fight real monsters instead of those excuses of a creature
"No," Juan spoke in a firm tone that single word and Keel's expression changed from excited to disappointed
"Ah come on, I'm level 7 already! I can take on something more dangerous than a balloon" the dog boy complained as he was already used to using his weapon, had learned how to read an attack coming, and even learned when to block or dodge. He was sure that he could take on a usapils or something like that
"You're still young and inexperienced" Juan shot back, The kid had the spirit to fight but he was still too young to allow himself to endanger himself
"But I know how to fight! And you can always enter the fight if it gets dangerous" Keel replied, he was sure that the monsters of this forest couldn't pose an actual danger to him anymore, with the masked luchador at his side looking after him he couldn't get hurt for real
"..." Juan didn't respond besides just crossing his arms and staring at Keel with a stern look
"Ugh! I hate when you go all serious parenting mode, I can't call myself a man if I don't fight bigger monsters" Keel complained while kicking the ground, how was he supposed to become strong enough to kill Idol Rapier, the man that tortured him and his friends, if all he did was fight balloons
"I'm just doing my job as a protector, I have to look after your well-being," Juan said as he went to pick over the scraps of balloon skin on the floor
"Whatever, I am a big boy, I don't need to be-" Keel stopped talking when he saw Juan do something magical, he picked up the scraps and seemly made them disappear into a small portal
"How did you do that?!" Keel shouts in confusion, never before had he seen something like that
"I just placed those scraps in my inventory for when I sell them later," Juan stated, as it stands most of the money he was making came from his shared business arrangement with the apothecary, but selling the remains of dead monsters came as a close second
"Inventory? What is that?" Keel asked, he hadn't heard of such magic before, if there was something so useful for carrying stuff then why hadn't he seen people using portals as bags before? He wondered if it was a class skill or something
"Something from my status magic, a hero bonus I guess," Juan said as he finished grabbing the scraps, it was actually kind of nice to have a seemly infinite storage system at his disposal at all times
"Hero?" It was then that Keel's mind raced to a conclusion, the dog boy experienced what some would call a brain blast, as suddenly various tiny details and oddities he at first dismissed or ignored began to connect and form a straight line into a realization he was oblivious ignoring before
"Oh... my... YOU'RE THE SHIELD HERO?!?! THE ONE FROM ALL THE LEGENDS AND FAIRY TALES?!?!" Keel screamed out from the top of his lungs, jaw dropped and eyes wide as he stared at the shield of legend that he heard so much about in his life before slavery
"Yes? I thought you would have recognized the shield like everyone else in the kingdom did." Juan said a bit surprised by the boy's reaction, he never brought up his identity as the hero of the shield because he thought Keel already knew who he was because every citizen of the kingdom knew who he was
"...that explains everything! You carrying a shield even though I have never seen you block anything with it! The fact you fight monsters with most of your body exposed without carrying if it gets damaged! The fact you are built like a brick house! You always look after me and my well-being! And you even freed me, a demi-human from slavery just like the tales!" Keel shouts in the happiest he has been in a while, he wasn't as obsessed about the shield hero as some of his friends but now staring face to face with him after he took him out of that slave tent and gave him freedom as well as the opportunity to become stronger was making him ecstatic, plus he was so manly! Rifana and everyone else always made the shield hero sound like this handsome prince-like character, all delicate and sensitive who was a complete romantic and whatnot, but now Keel saw that the shield hero was more like he had imagined, a man more masculine than a dozen men together, with big and strong muscles like those Sardina had and that had this "awesome aura" all around him.
"... why didn't you kill that slave trader?" Keel asked, he was still super happy about the shield hero but he did wonder why he didn't just kill off that bizarre creature of a man and free all the slaves there like the shield hero supposedly does
"... I usually leave killing people as a last option, I already have enough problems without the title of murder, especially if I killed someone so influential like that guy." Juan responded, that he only "killed" monsters and the few exceptions were people who were already dead or not even people anymore like Calada, Flameface, and El trio terrível, Salvador was an exception because he was destroying every timeline and he was already dying because of sickness. Keel understands his answer, killing that slave trader might have very bad consequences that he couldn't understand
"Right, right... I am the shield hero's party member! I'm so pumped up! Let's go kill more monsters!" Keel said as he began to run towards the forest where more and stronger monsters were, now more motivated than ever to get stronger so he could not only get his revenge but also because he was the shield hero's sidekick!
"Hey! Don't go into the forest!... dios mio, I have my work cut out with this one don't I?" Juan said as he put a hand to his face, That kid was something else, his toughest challenge so far in this world might just be keeping that boy in check, but this thought was not one of disdain as Juan smiled as he went to follow behind the kid.
Madeline and her squad entered the adventurers guild to look for a quest to do, so far she had only picked quests (with the assistance of her party members in the reading department) that were very simple and mundane since she didn't think she was ready for something like killing a dragon, she also felt obligated to because she heard some of the adventurers complain about the sword hero taking all the good and best paying ones, she knew that as heroes they should be doing everything to get stronger and gain money to buy better gear and supplies but it felt bad to steal these people's jobs and source of income so she was just going to get one of the lower end quest, she didn't need the exp that much anyways with how many bows she was mastering.
When she picked a simple 'defeat an X number of wild hogs and bring back their pelt and meat.' She went to the counter to confirm with the attendant there, she saw that he was busy with another person, a tall woman with white hair tied into a ponytail, she was wearing a type of ninja outfit from what Madeline saw, her midriff and arms were exposed showing her lean muscles and abs although her skin was pale in almost sickly way, she had two large shoulder pad on her shoulders, she had baggy pants that were tied to her waist with a gold and grey cloth while the end of her pants were tucked in her boots, in her hands she had big bracelets in both arms and they covered a entire part of her arm, she had fingerless black glove in her left hand, her outfit was nice but it had a lot of wear and tear like scratches and holes that were very few but it still gave off the idea that the woman had just come out of a battle or that she was a homeless, Madeline briefly caught a glimpse at her face reveling that the woman had bags under her eyes probably caused by a lack of sleep but also bright orange pupils that were very eye-catching, and by her expression she wasn't very happy
"Look, I just want to make sure we don't have an apocalypse in our hands! I just want you to warn the adventurers and merchants guild so they can inform the entire world so an outbreak doesn't happen!" The mysterious woman said in a frustrated and worried way to the non-too-interested attendant
"Right, whatever you say crazy lady." the attendant said as he rolled his eyes annoyed "Look best I can do is send these papers of yours about this end of the world stick to the head of the guild of Melromarc, but he is very busy with managing a country-spanning business and just a heads up since you are seemly living under a rock, the end of the world is already happening and its called the Waves of Calamity, now get lost." the attendant said in a demanding tone as he pointed to the entrance telling her to go away
"Gruh, you should be wary of your words when the time comes." The mysterious woman said as she walked off frustrated but halfway there, she fell to her knees and began to violently cough blood, much to the surprise of Madeline and her party although the rest of the people there didn't seem to care
"*Cough!* ...again?... *cough!," the woman said under her breath as she put her hand to cover her mouth to avoid spilling more blood on the floor
"Hey, are you okay? Let me help you." Madeline offered as she helped the mysterious woman get up, who seemed to have gotten a handle on whatever was afflicting her
"Thanks... you're the bow hero, right? The descriptions of you were very accurate." The mysterious woman said as she stared down at Madeline since she was much taller than her, Madeline was briefly intimidated by her but mustered up the courage to respond
"Um, yeah that's me, pleasure to meet you miss?" She asked, wanting to know her name to see if that would help diminish the tension in the air
"My name is irrelevant right now, from what I heard, you're capable of hitting a target from miles away with devastating power and precision correct?" The mysterious woman asked and Madeline could only find herself more pressured by her, 'Why was she wanting to know that? What does she want from me?' Was some of the thoughts going through the red hair head
"W-well I wouldn't say I'm on that level, people here overestimate my abilities," Madeline responded, she was not capable of doing even half of the feats that some of the people of Melromarc keep asking her to perform or talk about, some people even believed she could fly just because of her dashing ability
"Even then, I could use your help in my endeavor." The mysterious woman said as she looked at Madeline with a blank expression before walking away "See you sooner or later bow hero, I will find you when the time comes for when I need your assistance." She said in an omnibus tone as she looked back at Madeline from the entrance of the guild before truly going away
"Lady bow hero, I think you should avoid that lady, she gave off bad vibes..." Welt comment as he leaned closer to Madeline but kept his face turned to the door that woman left, something about her made his guts twist in a worrying way
"Yeah..." Madeline said but she was not paying much attention, as she was focusing her thoughts on that mysterious individual she had just met, curious about her in every way 'I can feel that we are not going to avoid her aren't we?' Badeline asked sarcastically to her counterpart, as she also was intrigued by whoever that woman was
"Please *huff* stop! I *huff* can't *huff* handle *huff* this *huff* anymore..." Lesty screamed desperately, face burning red from how hot her whole body was as it seemed to be making steam come out of her mouth while she was gasping for air none stop, her clothes soaked in enough sweat to fill a bucket, ready to vomit at any minute as she endured the torture of an activity that the spear hero had given her and the other girls in their group.
Shovel Knight and his party were all out in the grassy fields of a close by village, Everyone was wearing casual or more sportive outfits except for Shovel Knight, as they were all partaking in a workout method the hero of the shovel knew, The Hopak or as it was commonly known by the populace as The Kazotsky Kick, a sort of dance that was also adapted into a form of exercise since it is quite difficult to perform and it greatly helps in the development of the muscles in the legs and lower body
"You're a *huff* weakling if this is *huff* tiring you already," Dorren said but she wasn't doing that better herself, but different from Lesty, she was not vocal about how tired she was and didn't look like she was about to die
"So *huff* hard to keep up" Rino let out, she was doing her best to follow in the rhythm of the spear hero but that was an entirely different challenge than this workout
"I haven't sweat *huff* like this in a long time," Elena said with no sign of tiredness besides a minor agitation in her breathing, unlike her companions, she was used to training since she had to learn proper swordsmanship, so she found this exercise more interesting than tortures unlike a certain person in their group
"Relax, we are already finishing, just two more sets" Shovel Knight exclaimed as he continued his training, but unlike his party members who were just doing the leg part, Shovel Knight was doing that while also lifting 20kg dumbells in each hand, doing both actions in a inhumane ease, unbothered by the fact that he was also doing this in his bulky armor
"How can you do this? Better yet, where did you learn this?" Lesty asked as she fell tired on the floor, How in hell does someone learn and master such a thing, and she was only doing the leg exercise and not the full training
"I learned this workout in one of my travels to frost-covered lands, it helps to build stamina and endurance!" Shovel knight exclaimed, during his travel to the kingdom of Urasis, he learned this training method from the nice bear people of the region
"I am going to pass out..." Lesty said as she felt that her body was going to give up at any time now
"Are you sure about this sir sword hero?" Quinn asked as he looked at the beheaded as the two were walking the streets
"Of course, I have been in sewers before, I fought overgrown sewer pests once and this should be a breeze as well." the beheaded assured him as they walked until both stopped as they got to their objective: a sewer manhole
"Well it just, this is a high-risk quest," Quinn said with a hint of worry, The attendant at the guild warned them that this was one of the high-risk quests that was suicide to take, which didn't inspire confidence in the clerics part
"High risk means high reward, plus is just a stupid lizard." the beheaded replied, as this was the quest with the biggest reward in the guild for the moment, he could let such a tantalizing amount of money go to a random idiot
"We should consider this more carefully, 5 adventurers died trying to complete this quest." Quinn pointed out, that this quest has been on the board for four months, an abnormal amount of time for a quest that could only mean the worst
"Yeah because they were a bunch of weaklings." the beheaded replied before taking the manhole cover out of the ground and jumping in a diving position as if he was diving into a lake, Quinn sighed before following him but he used the stairs from the manhole instead of jumping head first
The two traveled through the sewers, the beheaded having turned his once smoke mass of a head into a pink fire that illuminated their path, The cleric was surprised by this but he was much more glad to not be wearing his cleric robes, having specifically put a simple leather outfit for this quest
"What is your plan to track the monster down sir?" Quinn asked he hoped that the sword hero would have a plan on how to track this monster so they wouldn't stay here for more than necessary due to the foul smell
"Not much, just look for anything moving in the water, a weird noise..." the beheaded said as he kept looking around for any indication of where this reptile was
"Ahhhhh!" The voice of a man screaming echoed through the sewer and by how loud it was, it meant it was close
"Or go after the screaming of its lunch." the beheaded said while turning around to the direction of the scream, equipping his [gambling card sword] for its high critical damage rate despite the penalty for missing an attack
"Prepare to die stupid lizard..." the beheaded said before he looked up at the creature, It was an alligator with a creamy white color and pink eyes with deep red irises, Its mouth was currently covered in blood and holding in between its teeth its latest victim, a member of the sewer maintenance group that was being slowly chew before the thing swallowed him. The odd thing about the creature that the beheaded noticed was that... It was wearing a mask? A very bold pink colored mask on its face, that didn't seem like something a monster should have, perhaps it was part of a circus show before escaping to the sewers?
"... they lied about the size of this thing." the beheaded replied as he stared nonchalantly at the alligator, hoping he would get paid handsomely from both the adventurers guild and whoever he sold the pelt and meat of the beast to for the sheer size of it
"By god... It's almost blocking the tunnel with its body." Quinn said terrified, how was something like this so big moving in such a small and narrow environment, this thing should have been reported for extermination by the highly trained guards of the capital and not be left as a request in the guild for any suicidal adventurer to take
"That's great, makes it easier to kill." the beheaded responded as his confident attitude came, This would still be an easy job for him, there were monsters just as tall as this one back in those forsaken isles so taking on a oversize alligator was going to go down easy, suddenly the creature eyed the two and made a displeased face
"Raaaawwwrr!!!!!" The giant alligator screamed out as it tried to slam the beheaded with its chin, the undead was able to dodge it with a roll to the sewer water. He jumped out and cast a skill that summoned a lightning strike from his sword, the water carrying the attack until it hit two of the alligator's stubby legs, The monster was briefly paralyzed and the beheaded used this to slide under the monster's belly and open its gut open, after a brief struggle the monster had fallen to the sewer's water, seemly dead
"Easy, like I said." the beheaded said as he put one of his legs on top of the alligator's mouth triumphantly, he would be smiling if he could just from the profits he was going to make out of it
"Impressive sir sword hero." Quinn applauded, defeating a monster so big and no doubt powerful that has been killing adventurers for months was nothing short of a hero's work. But suddenly the alligator's body began to move again, and the beheaded jumped back and prepared to attack
"Hey! How is it getting up!?" The beheaded questioned, 'Is it becoming an undead? But that would be impossible without the malaise to-' his thoughts were interrupted by the alligator standing up, the pink mask it was using glowed brighter, and while Quinn blocked his eyes because of the light, the beheaded didn't do that and he was able to see the spilled guts of the creature that were coming out of the wound he inflicted, wrap around the waist of the creature as the wound healed and the guts outside its own body began to change and melt until it became a belt with a gold emblem on it, fingerless gloves appeared on its claws and a collar cape seemly manifested out of thin air around its neck, it reminded him of that stupid outfit that musclehead with the shield used
"Joy soy tu Muerte." the now bipedal and hutch-over alligator said menacingly with a Spanish accent as it looked at the beheaded, cracking his knuckles as it let out a grunt
"What does that-" The beheaded receives a tail swipe from the alligator that sends him flying into a wall with the monster following soon, its size along with The new upright posture made the alligator's head glued to the wall and he dash towards the beheaded causing the structure above to get damaged badly as bricks and stones fallen from the ceiling
"Sword hero!" Quinn shouts as he tries to go help the legendary hero, but the fallen debris slows down his attempt
"What the fuck type of alligator is this thing?!" The beheaded said as he got up and looked at the approaching reptile, changing his sword into the [Steel Broadsword] which was an upgrade to the [Iron Great blade] in every sense of the word, even the name was better
"¡Prepárate para morir!" The alligator screamed out as it got in close, The beheaded swung his sword against the creature who countered it by swinging its tail against the blade, Both combatants kept swinging at each other, the beheaded was pushing the thing back with each strike but the fact that the tail of creature hadn't been cut in the slightest was worrying
The clash of tail and sword ended when the alligator swung his tail down below to trip the beheaded, and while the sword hero was still in the air, the creature grabbed him and performed a suplex maneuver, sinking the beheaded into the water, the masked reptile stared to see if his prey was finished, but just then, the beheaded jumped out and hit the alligator in the chin with his legs, changing his sword into a bamboo one, a bizarre choice when you don't take into account its special ability of increasing the speed of the swings done by this sword
The beheaded began to unleash a barrage of stabs in a frenzy, trying his best to hurt the alligator but his scales were seemly resistant to anything sharp, the alligator was blocking with his arms as he tanked the ensuing flood of attacks before deciding that it was enough, he broke through the beheaded's attack, launching his open mouth to the beheaded who was unable to roll out of the way, being put in the beast mouth was terrible as the alligator chopped on him two times before throwing him, the undead was full of scratched up the skin and his left arm was broken, and the beheaded struggled to move an inch as the masked reptile began to slowly walk to finish him off.
Quinn was just watching from the side trying to find an opportunity to support but he wasn't able to keep up with the fast brawl between the two now the sword hero was seemly knocked out and that thing was going there to kill him, the cleric was worried since even the mighty sword hero was able to barely scratch that monster what could a simple cleric who's stronger affinity wasn't even light could do? He looked down and saw his rosary poking out of his pocket, he sighed before putting on a brave face and doing a small prayer that he thought would be his last
"By my power and that of the holy weapons, I command nature to tear apart my enemy with eath's might! [Zweite Rock blast]!" Quinn shouted and rocks manifested from in front of his hand and flew at high speed into the alligator's face, They barely did any damage to the creature other than momentarily stopping the alligator he seemed mildly annoyed by the attempt, and went back to going to bit off the beheaded's entire body
"[Earth Reverse]!" Quinn declared another spell after seeing that his previous one didn't work, this time the contents within the ground mixed themselves and erupted into the alligator, due to being in a sewer, the alligator was attacked and covered by mud, grime, fecal matter, trash and polluted water. The alligator looked at itself, seeing his cape and belt covered in filth, he passed his hand to his face to wipe away some sludge from its mask
"...Lo admito, me cabrea que esta falta de respeto a un luchador haya ensuciado mi glorioso atuendo." The alligator said, more than annoyed that his outfit was ruined and covered in utter filth, he let go of the beheaded letting him fall to the water
"Te cuidaré después sin cabeza, primero mataré a tu amigo con lentes." the alligator said as he pointed to the Beheaded's floating body before turning back to Quinn and starting a mad dash to kill him for disrespecting him, while the beheaded began to regain control of his muscles again
'Now!' Quinn mentally nodded as he preaperded the next step of his plan "[Earth hole]!" Quinn shouted and the ground in front of him opened in a circular hole, the alligator didn't notice the trap as the sewer water made the hole unseen, the masked reptile fell into it and Quinn immediately closed it but due to the creature's size, the alligator's top half was still out but Quinn had already succeeded in what he had planned, the creature was trapped and his left arm stuck pressed against stone and its own body and the sword hero had already seemed to have recovered
"Sir hero! He's guard is open!" Quinn informed with a shout, the beheaded got up and looked at the alligator, devilish thoughts racing his mind as he dashed at the creature
"Thanks for the distraction glasses!" The beheaded said as he jumped into the air, changing his sword into a form with a teal-colored handle and a blade that seemed covered by a black ooze
"[Oil spill]!" The beheaded shouted as his sword shot out a bunch of oil into the alligator, who was confused since this attack didn't even damage it and just made him covered in a sticky substance, Quinn walked a few steps back as he saw the sword the beheaded had just equipped next, the alligator looked back to the sword hero and saw him holding a giant match stick, the beheaded lit it up using the ground before he swung at the alligator, causing the creature to be light up in blue flames
"Cooked alligator on the menu." The beheaded said as he observed the alligator move side to side in pain, helpless as it was stuck and on fire that burned hotter than normal, It seemed like the creature's scales didn't help against fire
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" The alligator screamed out as it broke free from the hole and pouch in the direction of the beheaded
"Oh no you don't, [Oil spill]!" The beheaded said as he jumped back and threw more oil to the creature, which made the fire in its body burn more. Quinn approached the beheaded as the two watched the creature burn until the flames ceased and the creature lay floating on the water
"...Espero que ustedes dos sufran mucho, decapitados y cara de anteojos." The alligator said before passing away and dying, the mask on its head began glowing before floating out of its face, making the alligator turn back to normal, while the floating mask became a orb full of color that slowly floated into the Beheaded's hand
[Piece of ?¿?¿?¿ obtained, 1 out of ???]
Before the beheaded could even comprehend what he was holding in his hand, the orb went to his inventory automatically and became locked, meaning he couldn't take it off his inventory no matter what he tried
"...what in god's name happened?" Quinn asked not just the beheaded but himself, the cream alligator seemly evolved into something resembling a beast-man, manifested clothes out of thin air, began to speak a strange language, and then a rainbow orb flew off its body before it turned back to an alligator. He wasn't even sure about what to take from this whole experience besides that fighting in the sewers was a bad idea
"Gonna be honest... I have no clue." The beheaded said as he was very confused as well, It was similar to when a monster became an Elite but that involved the malaise and this was something else
"... let's just get the body and get out of here." The beheaded said as he could worry about what this orb was, what it implied, and what it did to the alligator later because now was the time to absorb the body of the monster and get the reward from the guild
"Yes, I can't handle this smell anymore," Quinn said as he would need to take a very long bath to even attempt to clench the smell of sewage from him
"Something wrong?" Keel said as he looked at the shield hero, who was looking back at the city with distant eyes
"Nothing is just... I felt something calling me." Juan said as he kept looking towards the place, he felt a calling, almost a melody drawing his attention to something that felt very familiar yet different as well
"Well, let's go set up camp before gets dark, plus we have to get dinner started already, I'm starving!" Keel said as he cleaned some usapil's blood out of his lance, he got so excited to be fighting with the shield hero that he had not eaten anything all afternoon
"Yeah..." Juan said before following with Keel to prepare a place to cook and sleep, still he would like to know what was that supernatural calling he felt.
[Author's Notes]
Sorry for the long wait, got caught up in some stuff like a book report to do and I have been having to help out my mom a lot since she did an operation
A bit of a short chapter but it has the plot thick and some interesting developments
Quinn has Light affinity, it is pretty much required to have it if you want to become a cleric, bishop, paladin, or even tap at holy magic. But his stronger affinity, the one his able to use better and with more ease is his Earth affinity, he prefers to use his light affinity more since that's what he has been indoctrinated to use, but he still uses Earth magic when in the heat of combat