Lurolona village
[00:12:47]
It had been four days since Rino arrived at the demi human village and she... wasn't fitting in, the villagers gave her doubtful eyes and most of them clearly didn't trust her. But she couldn't blame them, they had been attacked and sold off by human slavers before so of course she wouldn't be trusted by them, Rino herself never thought of staying in a place like this before but she was betrayed and sold off to slavery, if it wasn't for that then she might have been more judging of the demi humans of this village. She had been staying with Eclair for the time being, the pink haired knight barely spent time in the house built for her and she didn't mind Rino staying there
"Why is he standing there?" Rino asked as she saw the shield hero standing motionless on the street for seemingly no reason
"He is waiting for a wave" Rifana said, she still was not fond of the idea but she came around to understand that it was his purpose to fight the waves
"Really?! I didn't think one would happen so soon" Rino said as she was caught off guard by this, she didn't even realize that the two weeks and half that motoyasu had said that they had before the wave hit had already passed
"Yeah... but we are prepared now! Eclair is here and she has been training nonstop, Sardina is ready to fight against another wave and some of the adults have been trained to fight alongside her and there's also the new wall which should give us some protection" Keel felt sure that they would be well protected against the waves this time no matter what came
"Plus you have the shield hero, he alone could end the wave" Rino said as it had became clear to hear by hearing what the villagers had to say about the shield hero's feats of power that the man could probably solo the entire thing
"Oh I have no doubt he could" Rifana said as it was obvious that the waves didn't stood a chance against the idol she loved
"The real problem would be if those other heroes and their parties showed up" Keel said, he didn't know what the other heroes were like but they probably were scum, the shield hero seemed to have been doing all the hero work and none of the other heroes seemed to be doing anything, if the shield hero was going all around the world saving people then what are the other heroes doing
"Keel..." Rifana said as she rolled her eye at his response, the heroes couldn't be that bad, sure they were no shield hero but they might still be somewhat useful
"No he's right... I was in the spear hero's party, his way of managing it boils down to having him fight everything while his party just stands back and cheers him and occasionally casts a spell or two" Rino said, she had a real problem with how motoyasu managed his team, she wanted to confront him about but he either tried to change subject or say how his method was the best one for "their" sake, she wondered if that was part of the reason Malty, Myne or whatever she called herself sold her of to slavery
"really? what about the other heroes?" Rifana asked as now she was curious, what Rino just described seemed like something that the shield hero from her old self insert stories were like before she met the real shield hero, that type of strategy was something completely fine for a romance story written by a child but it doesn't seem that good in practice in the real world
"I don't know, but I would assume that they are at least more competent" Rino said as she hoped that the other two heroes were better than the air-headed one she knew
[00:00:00]
The gem on Clark's shield began to glow and grew in intensity once more, blinding the villagers. At the next moment superman was somewhere else. He looked up and saw twisted cracks in the red sky just like in Siltvelt. He could see in real time the land being overrun by all manner of monsters. Zombies in various armors and several large insects poured over the land. This was what superman expected after fighting his first wave in Siltvelt
"Onward to the boss!" Motoyasu shouted as he and his team charged forward, with Myne walking slower on purpose as she didn't want to fight the wave, she just wanted to lay back while motoyasu and the others did all the work
"You're not showing me up!" Itsuki spoke as he soon followed, aside from his teammate Mald, they were able to be neck to Motoyasu's group
"A head-start won't help either of you" Ren ran after. He was by far the fastest and was quickly passing Itsuki and Motoyasu, but his party was left in the dust, they did their best to keep pace at the rear. Seeing the other heroes all ahead of him, Clark takes a deep breath before concentrating to try and find where the boss monster of the wave is
"I'll kill the wave boss and his minions, that will stop the wave" Clark prepares to go in ahead of them at super speed, but then a flare shoots up. While he wasn't well versed in this world's procedures, he knew very well what that meant. Clark changed his plan immediately. He was grateful he had as he was able to spot a close by village with his x-ray vision
"I'm sure those 3 can handle the boss for a while. I have to help that village first. after an evacuation of the non-combatants, I'll rendezvous with them." Superman strategized, he would always take saving lives as his priority and since the three other heroes would be fighting the waves boss there was no need for him to fight for the moment, now what they needed was someone to protect the civilians from the lesser monster's
A cornered man raised his rake in desperation before a zombie with a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. The zombie cut right through the tool with the axe and took a step in to follow through with his sword. However a shield-shaped force field manifested just before the kill could be made. The forming of the wall pushed the weapon out of that space, resulting in disarming its sword. Superman came down on top of the zombie from the sky above. His speed and strength crushed the meager zombie beneath his heel, having tested the ability of the [rope shield] to see if he could use it as a reliable tool in future waves. Two more zombies ran at Superman in response to his appearance.
The zombies raised their arms to strike, but were cut in half in the next moment by Clark's laser vision. the zombies try to attack him with their mouths but both of them have their heads crushed by superman's fist. He uses his supervision to look for a safe place for the people to hide, he looks on a mine outside the village that was clear of any monster
"Go to the mine and bunker up there until the Wave end, tell everyone else the same" Clark said with the scared man nodding before he fled in the direction of the mine, obviously too scared to respond.
Next as he made his way through the town proper, Superman saw a screaming mother running with her two kids in the wrong direction of the mine. 3 bees the size of his arm came at them, but a ball made of shields and chains formed a cage around the 3 villagers thanks to the [pipe shield] ability. Superman began running directly at the bees, catching their attention and making them focus only on him
They tried to sting him, but dealt no damage and he just flexed his muscles using a bit of solar energy, this is enough to send them flying and causing them to splatter across the area
"Good, they don't take much to kill, meaning I don't have to spend much solar energy" Superman saw another insect, it had both characteristics of a grasshopper and a locusts
"Listen once the ball fades away, head towards the mine" Superman spoke to the 3 in his [Shield Prison] before he saw that there were 13 of those bugs coming closer as they started gathering around the man of steel
"I need to deal with these things before they can harm anyone else" he quickly killed them but saw a cloud made of bees forming above the city and Superman to get their attention begins to make noise and as the only one yelling or even talking, all of the bugs swarmed Superman. As they were about to strike, he began to stretch his arms while flexing his muscles before clapping them together. This sent all of the bugs in the area away from him many dead, but even the ones to live could not fly anymore from having their wings and internal organs damaged by the power of that clap.
The frightened family of three were freed from the [Shield Prison] just in time to see the bugs scattered around Superman. It looked impressive and served to give them hope. They ran as instructed.
Superman used super hearing, listened to see where the next problem was before an axe came crashing down to his neck. Superman however was unfazed by this and immediately grabbed the axe, as the huge zombie struggled to lift his axe, Clark shot his laser through the neck of the zombie and this took off his head in one clean motion.
He flew above the city and saw that the guards of the capital were fighting off the monsters but they were being careless. the guards were shooting fireballs into the creatures without care and they were damaging the buildings more than the monsters but they were also ignoring the people. One of the guards shoots a fireball that a zombie is able to dodge, it would have hit a wounded man if Superman hadn't fly in and saved the man
"If they keep this up someone is going to die, I better make sure everyone is safe" Superman begins to relocate the remaining citizens still in danger to the mine in a speed that they could handle, while many of them vomited and were extremely dizzy after being relocated in that level of speed, they were safe and that's what matters
"All done, that was the last person now I h-" before superman could finish, he was caught at the stomach by the axe of yet another giant zombie who had attacked while the man of steel was distracted. It didn't cut him at all thanks to his defense and armor, but the kinetic force was tremendous as It launched him into a wall.
Superman looked at the giant zombie that approached him. Even with dozens of them gathering around, he wasn't worried as with a deep breath, he freezes all of them with his ice breath before flying through them and shattering all of them into pieces. More zombies began to come at him as one began to run at him
Superman tore into the large zombie too fast for it to lift its weapon. It was down the next moment. Superman watched as the monsters began gathering with him. "Likely me crashing into that wall was what brought them... Come to think of it, the villagers being pursued were very vocal. If I had a way to produce a large noise..." Superman took a deep breath and then focused on putting solar energy in his vocal cords, allowing him to let out an incredibly loud scream, all the monsters heard and began to make them to him
"Alright now to face these monsters" superman began destroying each of the new threats with relative ease before he heard a loud stomping coming his way, he dodged a slam to the ground and as the dust clearly Superman saw a new enemy.
This was a much larger zombie than the others having it's upper body being three times the size of it's own legs, the chest of this zombie was large and likely to hold its massive four sets of arms, in comparison it's head was just as small as it's legs with the most distinct feature being the two big teeth on its lower jaw as it was the only teeth the monster had. This zombie was easily stronger than the giant zombies from before as it's size and muscles were anything to go by, if one giant zombie was the size of a house then this one was the size of two of them stacked on top of each other. The monster charged at Superman using it's arms to launch himself at him, despite dodging the creature the man of steel is hit by the attack and is send flying across a house, this zombie was much stronger than the other giant zombies, but this didn't scare superman as he began to rapidly punch the chest of the monster but the creature took the hits and then retaliate by unleashing a devastating uppercut that could level a large house, Superman however took the punch without flinching.
"Good one, my turn" he said before doing his own uppercut to the zombie, laughing far in the air before superman flied up and punched the creature again, it's chest exploding as it was send flying to the ground outside the village, the impact and the trees that ended up piercing its head killed the zombie menace.
"That's done, n-"
"AAARGH!" Superman hears a scream coming down from the village, he flies back down and sees a little girl about to be smashed by one of the zombies, he goes in super speed and kills the monster with a powerful punch
"What are you doing here?" he asked the girl, he was certain that he had evacuated all the villagers
"I-i was h-hiding in t-the b-basement when th-"
"Don't worry, just stay behind me" Superman said as he placed his hand on the girl's head before turning around to fight all the monsters coming their way due to the girl's scream and superman's fight. but before that superman heard something bad. Superman turned and saw the source thanks to his super vision . He grabbed the kid and threw his cloak around her, placing his shield above them both while equipping the [black tyrant dragon shield] for its fire resistance. Fire rained down around them striking every foe, but also destroying multiple houses. After about 20 seconds of hellfire, it stopped abruptly. Superman looked up at the source of this destruction. What he saw was as confusing as it was infuriating.
It was the knights from the capital. They'd just arrived at the village and the first thing they did was destroy several houses and could have hurt or killed the citizens of the city if superman hadn't saved all of them.
"Haha, they all burned simply enough!" the captain of the guards proudly proclaimed as he saw the zombies burned corpses before noticing someone approaching the group "Oh, is that? Yes, you're the shield hero, your durability lives up to that title if nothing else" he said in a somewhat mocking tone
Superman came to the group after taking the girl to the mine "Did you know there was a civilian there?" Superman asked, this caught the guard with a scar by the captain's side by surprise
"What do you mean?" the knight captain asked but he didn't care much for the answer he might receive
"I was saving a young girl when you bombed the village, she would have died if I wasn't there" superman said as the girl moved from under his cape to stare with terrified eyes at the knights from the capital, some of them were very shaken by this
"I couldn't be sure why, but the monsters gathered very heavily in this one location seemed like a great chance to curl the enemy numbers. Either way, she came out well enough. So, what's the problem?" The Captain spoke seemly unbodered by having possibly having burning a person alive
the second in command hated the attitude of his superior, they should have seen if there were people in the village before launching such a devastating attack but of course his superior didn't. He was glad that the shield hero saved them
"The monsters were defeated and the people are well enough, we need to focus on protecting what little of this village remains or else the people taking shelter in the mine won't have a home to return to" superman said as they had to make sure the village took very little damage as to have as few as possible houses and structures to rebuild once this was over
the guard with a scar was relieved that at least the shield hero wanted to secure the citizens, something his superior clearly didn't care about
"Hmm. Much wiser than your criminal record would lead you to believe. Indeed, as long as you stay out of our way, we won't make any mistakes..." referencing his false charges, then a thinly veiled threat. He was doing his best to get Superman angry, but it would be futile as the man of steel didn't care about that
"You shouldn't be over confident, there are things that we can't prepare for" superman warned the man, as arrogance was dangerous to have in a situation like this were so much was at stake
The knights didn't quite catch what he meant until the shadows engulfed them. They turned to see more monsters, 3 of which were those larger zombies. Before anyone could respond the first axe came down. The unlucky soldier who was about to get hit flinched and tried to cover his head with his sword but before he could Superman caught the axe with his hand and pushed the zombie back
"Don't panic!" The captain said in a complete panic "Form up, shields out, mages in the back". No sooner did the words leave him did he see the second axe come down, this time on him.
Superman ran in front of the man and knocked the giant zombie back. "I'll buy you time, prepare to attack them" he instructed the group of guards
As the giant zombie fell back, the guard with a scar ran up his front. He slices the zombies head off, then jumps toward the next one. While he did that, Superman switched to the [rope shield] and used [Hook] on the second zombie's arm, then pulled with his strength, unable to raise it before the guard laid into his skull.
The third had already swung at the guard with a scar, not caring about taking out the other giant zombie with him. he was caught off guard due to being exhaust from this performance and would have been decapitated if superman hadn't put his own neck in front of the attack. the giant blade breaking and before the monster could try and land a punch, superman used his laser vision to go through the monster's eyes and brain, killing it.
The knights watched in awe as all 3 of the giant zombies were laid to rest in moments with the bugs blown away by the shear force of the shield hero. the guard with a scar was completely speechless by the display, no one had heard about the shield hero so he thought that the man would have been weaker than him in the wave, but it was completely the opposite. Even the captain was flabbergasted by the experience
"I can draw all the enemies to me with that sound I can produce. We'll move down the main street. Doing so will allow us to clear out more of the monsters, if not all" the man of steel informed the knights and this time the squad of knights were in formation and ready.
"A criminal does not command me!" the captain shouted with Superman turning and giving him an ominous glare. It left the captain more than a little spooked considering what he saw the shield do.
"[Air Strike Shield]" The barrier appeared behind the captain saving him from a zombie performing a stabbing motion. As soon as that attack was a failure, the guard with a scar fell upon him. He scattered under his blade, knocking the remains violently in every direction, the guard fell to his knees out of exhaustion before two other guards helped him stand up. The force field saves the captain twice in a row.
"I will not repeat myself" Clark threatened as the man's sense of pride was starting to become a annoyance
"Tsk, understood. Men, march!" The captain caved. He wanted glory, but his life took priority.
Just then a piercing noise was heard throughout the town and beyond. Moments later the wave of catastrophe faded from the sky as the crack closed and the sky returned to its natural color.
"Keep your heads, there may be no new monsters but that doesn't mean anything. There are plenty of enemies left to deal with" Superman told the group as they started to move to take care of the incoming monsters
"Pretty easy for a boss". Ren commented as he and the others looked at the dead chimera laying on the group full of cuts to it's body, but Ren wasn't satisfied with how the battle turned out 'still...it took to long to kill for my liking, if I'm going to fight in the other Wave next week I got to get stronger...'
"I know, right? If the wave didn't stop I wouldn't believe it." Motoyasu said with a laugh, he knew they were strong enough to beat the wave but this was child's play compared to the boss fights in Emerald online, if Ren and Itsuki weren't getting in the way he could have finished way sooner 'I need to find someone that can keep up with me, this guys are slowing me down'
"It's probably that we're too strong, not that it's too weak". Itsuki smugly added, after all they did over prepare for the wave 'at least we didn't have too much trouble fighting it'
The three were silent for a moment.
"So how do we decide the loot?" Ren eyed the other two. He needed the best part for himself, after all he had a wave to fight in about a week so strength was all that matters
"What do you mean? One head of each seems appropriate, right?" Motoyasu saw with no problem, there were four heads and there were four legendary heroes. It was pretty basic math to him
"True, but who gets what?" Itsuki cut to the heart of the matter. It was a fact that one head would be stronger and another would be weaker, they had to pick wisely as this was probably a one time only deal so the head they choose would be with them permanently
"I want the dragons head, I focused the whole fight" Ren made his claim first. He wanted the dragon head because it was most likely the strongest and he would need that advantage 'once in fighting the wave in Zeltobe I won't have to worry about sharing the loot'
"Why do you get to have the first pick? I finished the fight. I'm MVP" Motoyasu said in that perfect combination of ignorance and matter-o-factly that was unique on his own, call it his style if you will, Ren rolled his eyes at this.
"What!? You're not MVP, I dealt the most damage!" Itsuki protested, Motoyasu was annoyed at this since Itsuki was just camping the whole fight, in his mind that wasn't really being an MVP.
They argued for quite some time about this while their party just watched in silence.
With Superman leading the way, the knights did great work. They swept through the main street of the village first, finding the holdouts that he hoped he was wrong about. Despite the knights not liking him with the support of the guard with a scar they were willing to follow him the least. This didn't work out for long though. The Captain was no longer in life or death danger and so his priority now was to reach the other heroes.
"There are still quite a few more monsters across the village, we should clean them up before they appear" the knight with a scar on his face said as he observed the surrounding area
"It's a good ide-"
"Why bother?" the knight captain said as he shrugged his shoulders "We have to meet with the other heroes now" he said as it was better for him to go and meet up with the other heroes as he couldn't stand the shield hero commanding him around
"they can handle the boss by themselves, we should focus on making sure this village is safe" superman said but the knight captain simply ignored him
"You handle these things, we have a job to do" The Captain said as he was no longer in life or death danger and so his priority now was to reach the other heroes.
"Unbelievable..." superman said under his breath, he looked around with his super vision, the wave seemed like it ended and the few remaining monsters seemed like easy enough to clean up with no problem
Crack
superman turns to the sound and sees a crack similar to the one that started the wave but much smaller, it was the size of a head if not a bit bigger and out of it a purple blob of goop drops out with the dimensional crack closing afterwards
"What?" superman looked at the strange purple goo, it wasn't like any of the monsters in any way and it seemed... different, when he approached the substance it jumped on him and glued to his arm for a brief second before he threw it away. However before he can evaporate it with his heat vision the goo moves through the air much faster than before and lashes on a dead zombie body that was on the ground, engulfing it and raising the monster back as it reshapes to form... superman's suit but in a purple and black color, the zombie that was used as a base had also been deformed as the skin had regenerated but it's head didn't resemble that of a zombie or human, it was sharp and looked like a menacing skull made entirely out of flesh with it's teeth being covered by this same skin with the hands having fingers mixture with claws in the same way, but then a notification appeared in his status
[the hellish copycat: Shape Stealer]
{10,000,000 HP remaining}
Superman didn't know what that meant but he knew it wasn't anything good, the zombie now wearing a suit similar to his tackles the man of steel in super speed and uppercuts him into the air, it had gained the same level of strength as him and it had begun flying in pursuit of Clark as well with them flying high above the Melromarc sky
'Whatever that was it copied my power just like... Parasite does' he thought while preparing his laser vision but the monster copied that exact move and shot it's own version back at him, a struggle of yellow and red energy between the two lasers begins for a short moment before superman increases the intensity of his laser blast, the copycat dodges out of the beams wave before it could hit him. The two exchange blows but the copycat always dodges the attacks that could truly end it, the monster grabs superman by the leg and slammed him from the air into the ground, similar to how Clark did against the Manticore, the two were now in the desert between Zeltobe and Siltvelt and the copycat begins to deliver punch after punch to superman in superspeed while Clark blocks it with the shield, with each hit the two sink deeper to the ground to the point of being 75 meters under the ground but Clark grabs the monster by the chin and sends it through the entire earth above them until the monster reaches into the air, he moves in to kick the monster with even more strength to a much further distance, while catching his breath superman heard the sound of screaming not to far out from their crash site, it would seem that a close by part of Zeltobe was shaken by the force of those punches likely causing the tetatonic plates of the place to move
"That caused an earthquake... got to end this in the air if I want to cause the minimum amount of damage to the earth as possible" the man of steel said before flying in the direction to catch the monster and while the copycat recovered it's senses, Clark grabs it and begins to fly into outer space where he could get more destructive against this beast. The copycat however wakes up and begins to punch Clark in the back to try and break free, each hit was stronger than the last but superman endured it and crashed the monster against the moon, this slowed down the beast but it got up and they began another exchange of blows. He went with a right, the monster replied with a left, the two were seemingly an equal match to one another but Clark still hold the advantage on some level, the monster was a copy of his powers but it didn't had any of his shield bonuses and while it's level was equal to him as it had copied that, the cardinal shield's powers was something it couldn't replicate which actually made this creature only formidable against Clark as if it had copied any of the other heroes, it would have been much weaker and easier to kill
they kept fighting until the monster grabbed both of Superman's hands and leaned it's head back in preparation for its next attack, the copycat unleashed its own ice breath and froze Clark's upper torso on red ice for about three seconds but the monster used this to grab him and send the man of steel with full force to the sun... that was it's biggest mistake, as from that point on they weren't equally matched
Once Clark began getting closer and closer to the sun, his solar level and by extension power grew as well. Now having a bigger charge than before, he flies into the copycat and delivers a punch with a massive force behind it with the monster trying to deliver one of his as well but superman catches the attack and breaks the monster's arm. The copycat sensing that it had lost the advantage tries to fly away in the cosmos but superman catches up to the beast and grabs it by the neck, flying into the sun with the monster now at hand and the closer they get to it, the louder the copycat screams. It seems that this creature wasn't able to copy the ability to absorb sunlight as a source of power and that was what Clark was hoping for when performing this move, the copycat screamed out in pain and suffering as it's skin begins to boil and bubbles of flesh exploded from the best until eventually all of the creature burns into nothing, the man of steel takes a moment to breath before flying back to Lute village. After he swept through the village, treated the villagers, made sure that they were safe and that no other dimensional crack had appeared. Superman took a moment to use his super vision to look for more monsters but it seemed like they had all been killed either by him or by the other heroes
"So, that was the wave? It was much harder than I originally expected" Clark said to himself as he relaxed his muscles a bit, it had taken longer than the one in Siltvelt but it didn't matter how long it took as long as the people were saved, he was thinking about how he should handle future waves as the shape stealer was a unwelcome surprise for sure, the king had mentioned more than one wave boss appearing sometimes but he didn't expect something like that creature, it had copied his powers and could have caused destruction to a global level if he hadn't stopped it, superman was ready to begin his exit until he was interrupted.
"Um, excuse me shield the hero?" It was the woman that Superman saved along with her two children, he turned to face her.
She bowed deeply before him "Thank you so very much! We live by your mercy" She said it with sincerity, if not by him she and her two sons would have died by those monstrous bees, she never expected the shield hero to save her but after seeing him in person, she was blown away by his heroism.
"Don't worry about it. I just-" he paused for a moment as more people were gathering in front of him. The first man he saved, the holdouts he saved, the first woman's children, the village lord and many more. They all had the same thankful look on their faces They all bowed deeply before him. All thanking him for saving him.
"I can't thank you enough for saving my life"
"You're nothing like those rumors about you, now I know"
"We shouldn't have believed those bad things they said!"
"You're a blessing to us, thank you very much" all the villagers said their many thanks to the man of steel from saving them
Superman didn't respond right away, he had seen this so many times by now and yet he still felt the same way every time. He turned away from them and said, "you don't have to thank me, you still have to clean and fix your village. Tomorrow I will help with the repairs but for now I have to go" He said before walking away, everyone had a hopeful smile as they watched
Melromarc capital, clearing
"So I get the bird head? Well it's the one I wanted, but..." Itsuki seemed to be satisfied but he felt like it was a participant trophy of sorts, he wanted because it could probably give a ability to increase his eye sight and as a archer that is very good. but he also felt it was not gonna be as strong as the other's 'better than the snake's head I guess...'
"Too bad, the dragon head is mine." Ren was tired of arguing and took the head he claimed into his sword.
[Interdimensional Dragon Chimera Sword]
[Equip bonus: 15 attack, 30 fire damage and 20 magic]
[Ability Dragon's Pride: when fighting an enemy weaker than you all skills charge faster by 30% and when fighting enemies stronger than you abilities will recharge 15% faster]
[Ability Dragon's Wrath: missing 1 requirement to unlock]
[Ability Dragon's Wisdom: missing 1 requirement to unlock]
[Ability Change Sword: Switches swords instantly, Can be used on top of your sword or on another skill itself.]
[New Skill Dragon Buster: unleash's a powerful slash of draconic energy after a 10 second charge, this attack causes piercing damage and leaves enemies hit by it with the draconic burn effect for 5 seconds, using it against a dragon will boost it's power and give different properties to the attack depending on the dragon type]
[Unique Effect: Fire resistance (Minor) Draconic Fire resistance (Medium)]
[Mastery Level: 0]
'This is a good sword... but there are two abilities locked for some reason... I gotta find a way to unlock them fast, they could be very useful in the long run...' Ren thought as he analyzed his new purple and green blade that resembled the head of a dragon
"Well I guess it's fine. The goat head has bigger horns, the lance form it'll take will be most appropriate". Motoyasu reasoned to himself, thinking it could work like a battering ram 'it will probably have a great knock back so I still get something good out of it... but the dragon's head would be so cool...'
Itsuki gave in and absorbed the bird head, then turned to the other two "What about the snake head?" he asked while looking at the dead body
"Don't you see? It's Kal-El's cut. We can give him the scrapes, it seems all too appropriate" Motoyasu laughed as he absorbed the goat head, it was only fair for a worthless rapist like him to get the worst part
"Yeah, he's so far behind us. We kinda have to leave him some, otherwise he'll stay weak" Ren said in agreement, although absorbing it could be useful, in reality he didn't have a use for poison damage in his arsenal plus the dragon head gave five unique abilities that were way better than whatever a snake head would give. With Motoyasu placing them above Kal-El and Ren framing it as helping the weak. That left Itsuki to agree with them
"Fine, fine... I guess we still need him to get somewhat in our league or one below" he said in compliance with the other two, even if he was a criminal they should still give him something. Plus a snake head was fitting of such low life criminal
"More like four leagues below us, he will never catch up as a shielder" Motoyasu said as there was no shred of doubt in his mind that miserable scum was probably still at level 10 or less even after all the time that had passed
"Ah great heroes!" The knight captain exclaimed as he and the rest of the knights reached their location.
"You did a marvelous job defeating the wave boss. You should make preparations. The king has ordered a banquet to honor you" the knight captain said, the heroes were more than happy to have a celebration to their names and the whole group cheered and slowly made their way to the capital.
Superman fed remnants from the monsters of the wave to his shield
[Interdimensional Bee Shield]
[equip bonus 1 agi, 1 poison resistance]
[Ability Poison Needle Shield: (requires 'Change Shield' and 'Shield Prison') Poison captured targets from all sides.]
[Interdimensional Locust Shield]
[equip bonus 1 def]
[Ability Swarm Stomach: Consumable goods used by you gain an area of effect of 5 feet plus 2 inches per level you possess. effects only affect desired targets within the area.]
[Interdimensional Zombie Shield LV 1]
[equip bonus 1 def, 3 to rot resistance]
[Interdimensional Zombie Shield LV 2]
[equip bonus 2 def, 5 to rot resistance]
Superman also got to the zombie with four arms he had launched outside the city
[Elite Interdimensional Zombie Shield LV 1]
[equip bonus 7 def, 15 rot resistance]
[Ability Dead Muscle: your base strength is increased by 1% for every dead body around you, stack's up to 10%]
Superman only found these 5 monsters as he traveled in the direction the other heroes first left in. They had done a good job at killing them. but it also didn't seem that the three cared about preserving the state of the forest or plains
"There it is". He entered a clearing, but it wasn't natural. It was a man-made clearing, likely created in the battle. Superman saw the large beast, It had 3 missing heads, but knew it was probably many times stronger than the giant zombies he fought, Clark went around it cautiously, not getting too close as he was expecting another portal to appear like with that copycat from before. He noticed the large snake as a tail.
"I didn't expect they would have left me something, I'll take it." Superman removed the viper head and began absorbing it into the shield
[Chimera Viper Shield LV 1 unlocked]
[equip bonus 3 def, 3 mdef, 10 poison resistance]
[Ability Antidote Compounding Up: Increase the effectiveness of anti-poison medicines you make by 25%.]
[Ability Change Shield: Switches shields instantly. Can be used on your shield or on another skill itself.]
[Unique Ability Hook: Grab onto something within 8 meters]
[Unique Ability Snake Venom Fang: After an enemy attacks this shield, poison them with snake bites. The power and effect of the venom is based on your poison resistance and some other resistances.]
[Chimera Meat Shield]
[equip bonus 3 poison resistance, 2 rot resistance]
[Ability: Cooking ll: Moderately increases the taste and nutritional benefit of food you cook.]
He also took as much of the remaining materials as he could fit in his inventory like the armor and weapons of the zombies, he could sell this to someone like Erhard and get more money for the village that had been attacked by the Wave.
"I wonder what the future waves will be like... and how destructive they will be..." superman asked himself while looking at the sunset, he was ready to protect this world from anything but he still had to worry about the potential power of these Waves and if something as strong as Doomsday was possible to come to this world
Siltvelt Capital
"So what's the meaning of this meeting?" a Demi human with a white tiger's ears asked, he seemed a bit annoyed to having been called to this meeting
"I have called all of us here to discuss the shield hero" Hamlet said and as he did, the whole room got filled with a air of seriousness as the shield hero was the most important figure in the country of Siltvelt
"Why exactly? we already now that he was summoned in Melromarc along with the other three heroes" another demi human with a shell in his back and a snake sticking out of his robes behind him said, once they learned about the summoning of the legendary heroes they were beyond angry at Melromarc, especially the white tiger Haito, but they couldn't do anything about it, as it stands, their dreaded enemy Melromarc had their sacred hero of the shield in their clutches and despite him wanting to end things peacefully between the two countries, Melromarc was doing everything it could to make that impossible thanks to King Aultcray's choices.
"Ugh! We should send an army to slaughter those miserable-"
"Calm down Haito, I'm just as angry but we can't afford that to cloud us now" a demi human with red wings and feathers on his arms and shoulders said to his fellow council member before turning back to the dragon demi human "Hamlet, could you elaborate on what is it this about the shield hero?" he asked the dragonic humanoid
"As you all know, rumors about a shield hero in red and blue performing amazing feats have been circulating around our country" Hamlet said, most of the others in the room got with a disappointed face, except the bird and turtle-snake representatives
"This is why you called us? a rumor?" a woman with sharp teeth, fish tail, and fin on the top of the head said condescendingly at the dragon man, a bunch of rumors weren't something this council should be wasting their time and even she knew that despite not being too important for the council
"I was just as much skeptical about this as all of you, but due to the sheer amount of them and their surprising consistencies, I took measures to test their validations, one of those methods was asking the church of the shield to place crystal balls to verify if the shield hero would go and register to the hourglass" Hamlet said, with the council members starting to slowly begin to form expressions of surprise as the implication of what he said began to run on their heads
"You aren't saying that-"
"See it for yourselves" Hamlet said as he waved his hand at the crystal ball in the middle of the room and a magical projection that starts to show recordings of what had happened in the Church of the Holy Shield a few days ago, the other council members could only stare jaw dropped at what they were seeing, as they all saw clear images of a man with the legendary shield walking through the corridor of the church
"For all that is holy... it's true?!" Haito asked in an extremely loud voice of excitement and confusion, he couldn't believe that those seemingly baseless rumors were true.
"How do we know this is not forged?" Tetsuya asked since crystal ball recordings could be altered, it required a extremely difficult magic process and the results were usually pretty minimal but they just had to be sure
"I checked, double checked, and triple checked, it's legit" Hamlet responded, all the other members knew that Hamlet would not be one to show false information, since he was so incredibly good at telling if something was actually legit or not and also by the fact he was very strict into following the rules
"This... he fleed that horrible country! and now he has been going around Siltvelt helping the people! oh... I'm about to pass out" Werner said as this revelation was leaving him out of breath from how amazing this was, the shield hero was not only here, but it also meant that the rumors about him were all true! his godly strength, speed, durability and more! and when parried with what little info they were able to get about the other heroes which was almost impossible because of the shadows in Melromarc, the three idiotic and racist devils of Melromarc were bratty children while their holy savior was a true man! a super man! an ultra man even!
"If that's true... it was said that he saved some slaves from Melromarc, did you-"
"Yes, I have already interrogated them, I checked documents about citizens of our country, looked for their background and talked with one of the slave traders to confirm with their chain in Melromarc, their history matches" Hamlet said as he had a bit of a smile on his face, much less noticeable than the ones in the faces of the rest of the council
"... Incredible" Tetsuya said as this news was going to be a incredible game changer in the political environment and world situation, not even mentioning what it would cause in Siltvelt
"And he is going out of his way to save demi humans? oh what man!" Maya the shark woman said as she had a very visible blush on her face "do you have some more images of him? in different distances and other angles?" the shark woman asked as she slammed her hands on the table with lustful eyes
"Yes, I have" Hamlet said, he knew very well that his fellow council heads would want to see the shield hero's face and body in better angle and so he can prepare, beginning a slideshow of the shield hero in various angles and shots to show off his physique
"Those well defined muscles... that beautifully sculptured chin... that little swirl of hair! ohh... I think I'm gonna-"
"Please not in here" Tetsuya said coldly since he didn't want the woman to... please herself in the room where they discussed politics
"Have you been able to contact him? please tell me his waiting in the next room" Werner excitedly asked as he turns to look at the dragon demi human, the other members looking at Hamlet as well with curious but cheerful eyes
"No, he is very hard to track since he can fly around the country at such incredible speeds, I have been doing all I can to pin point a location" Hamlet said as the mood in the room goes down back to a bit more professional level but still filled with a cheery aura, except Maya's part, which was filling it with a erotic lust
"Well, at least we know he is here, protecting our country against the waves and any threats" Werner said as he rested himself on his chair very relaxed with how this meeting had developed
"... yeah, this is good, we can sleep without worries in regards to the waves" Tetsuya added, a shield hero that powerful would make quick work of the following waves and grow stronger to the point of the waves being a mild problem at best, they would still invest in protecting their country against those demonic forces but at least they wouldn't need to get desperate about it and go with King Javalis plan on strengthening their people that was like giving in to their beastial side and do a disrespect to their kind in order to fight of the waves
"That means we can go to war at Melromarc! they don't have their bargaining chip anymore! we just have to find him and have him lead us into battle! our victory is assured!" Haito screams out into a maniacal laugh as he thought on finally avenging glory to all demi humans that Melromarc had killed, slaved and tortured over the centuries
"What a sight that would be... oohh~" Maya said as she was imagining the scene while letting out small moans, both Hamlet and Tetsuya were uncomfortable with this behavior but just ignored it.
"As much as this idea is... amusing to say the least, we should not declare a war against Melromarc even if the shield hero is here...". Tetsuya said as he still hoped for a peaceful outcome yet it was becoming clear that Mirellia wasn't capable of keeping her country in order, especially with a hateful man such as Aultcray in charge during her absence. most council members heard his opinion and after thinking for a bit they all nodded in agreement with the gemmu, except for the white tiger
"You gemmu and your slow pace! why shouldn't we?!" Haito angrily growled at the turtle-man, they had an all powerful shield hero to aid them in battle, why the heck would they not use this to their advantage?
"Because we might make the shield hero see us as war morgers, I'm sure that he probably has a distaste for Melromarc, but to consider his description from the rumors, he values the life of others, demi human or not. Plus, wouldn't the other heroes and even vassal heroes of the other countries join forces against us if we attempt a war? we are still suffering from the last one" Hamlet said, since even with the last war being almost three decades old at this point, the consequences they receive from it still affected the country to this day
"Hamlet is right, we can't start a war with no reason..." Werner said with his arms crossed and a serious expression on his face as his eyes were closed
"...although I do think that if that stupid war criminal sitting in the throne of that vile country continues to screw up... we might get a chance" Werner sinisterly implies as he opened his eyes and had a cheeky smug smile, Aultcray was a idiotic person and unfitting of ruling. In a way he was like King Jaralis, both were king's not because of their intelligent decision making but because of their raw power, Aultcray might have been a star hero years ago, but he was getting older and senile to the point of not even being able to use his staff to fight off the waves for his country
"Ah!... perhaps if he keeps being so foolish, the queen or even his own people might decide to remove him from power one way or another" Tetsuya said, while it wasn't ideal it could give a opportunity to rid Melromarc of it's corrupt king which would ease the process of ending slavery, he and the other members began to quietly chuckle at what Werner said
"The ice vixen has been doing her best to avoid conflicts, but I'm sure that the nations of Shieldfreeden, Faubley and perhaps Zeltobe cannot handle anymore of the old fool..." Haito replied as he had a sinister grin on his face, the king of Melromarc has committed a gigantic mistake that his wife is trying to cover up but that wouldn't last, Haito was sure that the other countries would side with them as long as they could point out how selfish Melromarc was in summoning the four heroes to itself and not letting the other countries having them as well
"Let's pray for him to be the catalyst of the next world war" Hamlet said as he and all the council members nodded and sinisterly giggled
"Hehehe..." Maya and the other servants in the room with them tagged along and began to awkwardly laugh.
[author's notes]
Hope you all liked the chapter, leave a comment as it really helps but please don't spam stuff not related to the fanfic
I made what I think the interdimensional dragon chimera gives, I have two of the abilities locked as to not make Ren too op (although I guess in this case it doesn't matter if he was)
what did you guys think of the shape stealer? I put him in this chapter to show what I meant about "super wave bosses" and how they would mostly work on the story, now I have to point out that not every single super wave boss is gonna be like this one as I would want to make them each unique in a way, plus this guy was strong because he copied superman as it gained his levels and some of his natural abilities as a kryptonian, if it had copied anyone else it would have barely even a threat since it can only copy one person that it touched first. Please give me your feedback on the idea as it will likely become a reoccurring thing, now I have to do more set up for the other super villain concept for this story as it will happen later
to perseus12: Melromarc itself doesn't have to worry about superman but the king and the church surely do, the king will not like what Clark has to say about demi human slavery and the church is going to find out that they are outclassed against the shield. The other heroes don't have to worry too much as long as they stay fairly heroic, although Itsuki might be in a pickle when Clark finds out what he has been doing
to Nyesh: wow, I am going to take a look at this and try to come up with shield abilities based on some of those virtues, thanks
to zanzara: hope you liked the council scene and please share your opinions about it in the comments, Galileo as the story stands won't die as I have plans for him in the future (Ren has more important things to worry about other than Galileo, mostly the wave on Zeltobe) but also I don't intend on having him save Rishia, she wouldn't really add anything if superman saved her instead of Itsuki as Rishia really only gets interesting after Itsuki expelled her from his party (heck Rishia was nothing more than a background member in Itsuki's party before getting expelled, the series only gave her a role along side a personality after she got kicked out and joined Naofumi)
to 2zz3: it takes some time for these things to get to the council especially when it is an event very far away from the capital, but yeah the other heroes aren't as desirable when superman exists as right now the list looks like this in terms of priorities for the country leaders
Shield hero: a literal god amongst man, his feats of power are beyond that of old legends and his undying kindness makes him the perfect hero, some see him as too good as he isn't willing to turn a blind eye to injustice or selfish decisions that will harm others. Despite this many are willing to change and flat out stop evil activities for the sake of having him see them in a good grace as the shield hero literally fights against the waves and protects everyone equally from any threat, he inspires hope to all that experience his heroism and that makes him be the number one pick to all country leaders
Sword hero: has good traits as a hero, hoarding high level quests for himself is a well known hero behavior but the fact that he has already registered to an hourglass already boost his chances, the sword hero could be carved into the perfect hero with the right advice and mentoring but his antisocial behavior and treatment of others is the biggest downside to having him protect their country, but still a good pick
Spear hero: seeing as a dumb idiot, all of his slave related crimes would be pinned on Myne/Malty by both the church of the three heroes and queen Mirellia but that wouldn't help him in the eyes of the country leaders as they would see him as easily manipulated with no big incentive, his behavior towards woman and girls is also problematic but that also boost's his chances in the eyes of Faubley or more specifically the pig king. He is still better than Itsuki as he shows some level of heroism but without the right guidance and no one to keep the worst of him to come out, that makes him unpopular amongst the world leaders
Bow hero: the least desirable of the heroes as he doesn't have as many heroic qualities to him, he kills political figures without considering their side of the story and sees everyone that doesn't agree with him as evil or dumb. He is hard to work with and snaps too easily, his lack of respect for authority other than himself makes him the last option for any figure of political power
(also I didn't know that part about Melty and Malty having a middle brother, I don't think I'll use it in any of my fanfics but it's nice to know that for the future)
to Student: I have been thinking of giving him a blessed series shield for a while but I realized that he should have unlocked them immediately upon getting there due to superman's morals being unbreakable and unchangeable, but there is a way for him to get the blessed series but that will take a while. Mister Mxyzptlk you say? that sure would be a chaotic and powerful character to appear in the story as he would break the world of shield hero in half, I'll think about it
to TheRealD3lph0xL0v3r: The Siltvelt council as shown in this chapter really wants the shield hero for themselves as it would be expected from the devoted followers of the church of the holy shield, but there is also the fact that superman is basically the most powerful person alive currently in the world, he is literally a nitrogen bomb fighting against a bunch of medieval weaponry so having someone like that on your side is just game changer in terms of political power over the other countries. Medea will definitely be having tunnel vision as the story goes on, a guy like superman will become such a pain that she will undoubtedly focus on killing him
to AnimeFan13579: sorry if you didn't like the way I wrote the waves or my answer so I hope this chapter helped or that at least you liked it, I try to stay within the rules of the world in shield hero but I'm not against doing things differently from canon, I'll try to make the waves more interesting or less predicative later on especially with the inclusion of super wave bosses and the fact Ren is going to have his own wave that will have to be original
to Chris: they deal with the easy part of the wave and get all the glory, while superman deals with the hard part and gets some minor but legit recognizing by the people that see him do these acts( I want superman to do what Naofumi did in the original story and more, the three heroes aren't great but that doesn't mean they can't do heroic stuff and I can build up to the reveal of Clark's true power better in this way)
could be interesting to have that, we never get a specific number of Motoyasu's party members that were sold but it was substantial
to ZukahaniMultiColor: yeah Balmus second most hated person right now is Myne and trust me she will get what she deserves but as for motoyasu... he won't be great but still be somewhat of a stepup from the original, he needs guidance and someone to stop him from indulging on his darker impulses ( the problem is not making him a pedophile, but that's hard to do considering everything the series says and shows of him)
Blessed series of hope is certainly on the list of blessed shields superman would unlock, the problem is finding were to have him unlock it as technically he would have unlocked them right away in the first chapter but I have come with a work around that hopefully makes sense in canon
to XaralandoWyattWyatt: Rino can certainly teach magic to some individuals in Lurolona and give assistance to any magic related stuff
Sardina is very strong and I'll even say that she is like the Wonder Woman equivalent of the shield hero world in a way, I have plans for her to join Clark's party but that's for the future and for now she is helping train demi humans in the village to protect themselves once she leaves
Both Balmus and the Queen are going to pin all of the crimes of the spear hero on Malty, she is making the church's life worst than it already is and Mirellia lost any substantial chance of the shield hero setting on Melromarc Because of her not to mention the fact she made Melromarc a target to all countries if news of her rape accusation gets out, truth is... I want Myne to have the worst time possible and she will come to hate someone with a burning passion, one tip: it's not superman
to shiramasokan: yeah... shield hero really fumbles the bag with the other three heroes as they make you think all of them will be important but they end up being jobbers just so Naofumi can look good, I have to agree with you on a lot of those points as the author didn't really try to make us like the other heroes that much, all of their redemption arcs felt rushed and barely given the care needed to actually redeem the three. I'm trying to be different in this fanfic and in my other one's as I actually give a care about this characters somewhat, especially Ren as he is going to get a entire chapter dedicated to him fighting a wave on Zeltobe and getting some character development, please stay tuned for future chapters
next chapter might take a bit longer to finish and I have other projects to work on so don't expect a new chapter next week or the week after
