Yuya could see the humans were on edge the closer their darkest day drew near. It was very amusing watching them scatter about while he waited for the timer to hit zero.

Oh he hoped these monsters put up a good fight. He's been itching for an excuse to take out his pent up aggression on something without being stopped. Much to his annoyances lord Naofumi made it clear he wasn't allowed to go over the top when they were grinding. Such an absurd word for training in Yuya's humble opinion.

The puppet only understood about half of what Raphtalia and his lord were talking about when he spoke of levels and things related to that dumb shield.

Morning was approaching, Raphtalia caught Naofumi's attention. She started listing all the things she was grateful for and how he gave her a reason to fight and live on. Her words struck a chord with Yuya as he listened in quietly.

He wasn't too eager to admit it yet however, no that would stay a thought for Yuya alone. The puppet knew he wasn't in the clear like Raphtalia was. So he'd bide his time and wait. But wait for what?

No one cared about him nor did he have a place to return too. A thought that kept forcing itself into Yuya's mind. He grunted, gritting his teeth as the seething anger of Dottore's betrayal burned anew. It was surely his fault. Dottore didn't even bother to help him, he didn't tell Yuya the exact functions of those strings, his utility ran out, but he was still useful!

"Yuya." The puppet snapped to attention hearing his name called. A hand clasping his shoulder, Naofumi looked at him apprehensively.

"Whatever you're thinking, stop. I need you to be calm to fight for me." Naofumi said, hypocrisy tainting that statement.

"Anger is good." Yuya dismissed his words with a scowl. "I think you should use it more, you have plenty to work off." He said. The timer hit zero before Naofumi could retort.

Yuya felt a strange sensation overtake him as they suddenly found themselves close to where Lute Village was. The sky turned dark red, swirls of green and purple tore through the skies as monsters rained down. Yuya stared in slight awe of the destruction waiting to happen, he now understood why it was referred to as Waves, a sea of monsters spawned to crash over everything.

The doll couldn't make out what kind of monsters were raining down. Yuya spotted the wannabe heroes running towards a clearing. From the ear grating noise coming from that direction, he guessed a huge monster was waiting for them.

"Wait, isn't that Lute?" Raphtalia pointed out to their lord.

"Did they all evacuate in time?" Naofumi wondered out loud. He got his answer in the form of a single flare being fired into the sky. Naofumi clicked his tongue.

"Let's go, the castle isn't far but by the time the Knights get there it will be too late." Naofumi ordered. Raphtalia nodded fiercely.

Yuya gave a growl of acknowledgement. "Understood." Yuya followed behind the human. They ran to the village. Yuya could now see what was attacking. Corpses, skeletons and giant wasps, summoning his staff he took aim. Electro burst to life.

He swiped downward. A whip of electro followed in its wake. Hitting a good amount of enemies in the process. Twirling the staff he stabbed an armored corpse. Blood erupted from it.

"Oh this will be fun." Yuya laughed. His opponents bled so it wouldn't feel too different from killing humans. He had been looking forward to a real blood bath.

Naofumi blocked a strike that would have killed a villager with his shield. Yuya focused back on his targets. The undead creatures swarmed at him. The mindless attacks reminded him a bit of his recon missions in the abyss, seemingly endless amounts of monsters throthing at the mouth to tear anything remotely human apart.

He felt his electro spread across his fingers as he used one hand to send a blade at them, then slashed with his staff, mimicking his creator's spear work and elemental abilities. As much as he despised her, he couldn't deny her methods of attack.

Yuya felt the energy around him build up as he cut down an insect. More fell with each strike, he spotted Raphtalia rounding up the villagers. Lord Naofumi was acting as a taunt on those who haven't agro'd on Yuya. Effectively they split the horde of monsters into more manageable groups.

He let the electro build up as his body markings started to glow. Creating a larger sphere of electro he jumped and kicked it down.

"Perish!" Yuya gleefully called out as his attack crashed into the trash in range. The weaker ones died faster, he felt his level go up. A wasp snuck up behind him. Getting in a stinging attack.

Yuya laughed as he recoiled a bit. Regaining his footing he whipped the staff at the monster just as the air suddenly filled with elemental energy. Yuya looked up for a moment. The sky lit up with what Yuya could identify.

Pyro

Pyro started raining down, it was powerful enough to lay waste to the monsters around him. Yuya cursed as he cut his Electro off, he did not want to overload himself by accident. The monsters that survived his burst had exploded once the pyro made contact.

Yuya covered his face from the debris as the flames roared around him, he hissed feeling the heat bite into his skin and clothes, but he wasn't burning persay. Fire and Pyro wouldn't kill him, it wasn't nearly enough.

Once the fire died down, Yuya heard Knights approaching, his name was shouted as Naofumi and Raphtalia ran in his direction.

"Yuya?! Are you okay?!" Raphtalia sounded so worried. Her face contorted to poorly hidden rage as her ears twitched when the human knights approached.

Yuya grunted as he patted at the fire clinging to his sleeves. "Yes, I'm fine… I'm very resistant to fire on its own, it still hurts though." He moved to put the fire on his hair out.

His lord paled a bit. To Naofumi he saw Yuya's HP drop to red. While the fire wasn't burning him anymore, the initial hit still took Yuya's HP.

" Those idiots! "Naofumi turned to the Knights." You could have killed us! Did you even bother to check if the town was empty of civilians?! "He seethed, his hate was slowly spiraling without his notice.

Archon Residue Shield proficiency increased +1

The purple liquid displayed within the shield glowed ominously for a moment. Raphtalia growled reflecting the Shield Hero's rage. She drew her sword pointing it right at the captain of the knights' throat.

Yuya watched with vigorated interest. He got all the fire on him doused. He found some pleasure in seeing them be so openly aggressive for once, excitement bubbled as he joined them, not nothing to warn about the surviving monsters approaching. They looked a lot stronger than the ones that got burned.

"Attacking a Hero and his Companions? Do you humans have a death wish?" He asked, he sounded a bit too cheerful for just being fire bombed.

"Then again your attacks barely did anything, ara weak too." He teased as he came to a stop next to his lord. Naofumi took note of the tone his puppet companion held. It was oddly terrifying.

"Filthy Demi-human! How dare you draw your blade at a knight!" the captain shouted. Naofumi felt like bashing his only attacking shield against the knight's very punchable face.

"Raphtalia stand down," Naofumi said. They didn't have time to squabble with fools who were out to ruin him.

Naofumi was tempted to just let the monsters have their way but orders Yuya and Raphtalia to intercept, as he was supposed to be a Hero.

"Listen up, we're going to buy you some time to get into formation." Naofumi said. He ignored the disappointed look Yuya gained shortly after. The puppet got into a very lax fighting position.

"Raphtalia, Yuya, take off." Naofumi ordered. The racoon girl jumped into the horde, sword clashing with the steel weapons of their foes.

Some of the Knights ran away, Yuya was not surprised, a small group of them stayed. "Form the Failinks!" The current knight in charge called out. "Help the Shield Hero!"

With that shout, the monsters were now being killed left and right by everyone present. Yuya could almost forgive those lowly humans for attempting to burn him alive. Almost. He wasn't being too careful with his Electro's spread across foes. If someone happens to be shocked? Not Yuya's fault they got too close.

The monsters seemed never ending until the sky finally returned to normal. Yuya was disappointed. These waves, while similar, didn't have the same intensity as the deeper levels of the Abyss. Perhaps they would grow stronger over time?

With the fighting drawing to a close Yuya and Raphtalia went around killing any straggling monster, with no more monsters raining down, it didn't take too long for the Hero's Companions to mop up the remains.

Everyone around Yuya cheered as they survived the Wave, how annoying. They all looked exhausted, where Yuya wasn't even remotely tired, aside from a little blood and soot, he was in the same condition as before the start of the fight.

Raphtalia walked up to their lord, the adrenaline finally wearing off, she burst into tears muttering about killing so much. Yuya honestly couldn't relate, they were just monsters.

Naofumi comforted her with a head pat. Telling her she did a good job. Raphtalia lit up at that through her tears she smiled a bit, her tail wagging. They stood there for a moment.

"Yuya, you deserve some praise too. Come here." Naofumi made a gesture to the puppet who had distanced himself. The puppet froze at the request, unsure of what to do. Another prompt from the hero made him move towards them. He wasn't expecting to be pulled into the hug.

Yuya froze again, his mind blanked. He had no idea how to respond to these friendly gestures. It felt…

Nice…

"I was a bit worried back there but you thought it out. Good job." Naofumi gave him a head pat too. Yuya felt his face heat up as his chest started feeling tight.

"Hey are you okay?" Naofumi sounded a bit alarmed. Yuya realized why. The puppet quickly broke the contact trying to hide his face.

"It's fine. I'm fine." He said all too quickly , almost ferociously wiping at his face. Tears… why was he crying?! He was stronger than that! A mere show of affection shouldn't do such things to him!

"Are you hurt?" Stop asking things, stop pretending.

"My condition is stable enough." He huffed. Sure enough he was slowly regaining the lost HP. Naofumi frowned a bit. Raphtalia looked between the two again. Her heart broke a bit seeing the strange reaction Yuya gave to being praised.

"If you insist." Naofumi dropped it for now. Yuya was thankful the Hero wasn't nosy and left Yuya to his own devices. How the puppet hated his filthy human emotions so, he gripped the bag on his hip. It's where he kept two things most precious to him, useless sentiment, but he still couldn't bring himself to get rid of the items.

He really was defective, he just hoped his lord didn't pick up on how useless he actually was.

They were eventually invited to a banquet to celebrate the victory over the wave. His lord didn't want to go but the prospect of a reward made him reconsider. Yuya stuck to the Hero's side as Raphtalia went to get food. He didn't want to be there anymore than Naofumi. The chatter and lively atmosphere sickened the puppet. Self righteous fools angered him the most.

Yuya counted his lucky stars to the fact that his lord wasn't acting like he could do no wrong, or this servitude to the hero would have been a lot more frustrating and infuriating.

Yuya zoned out, staring at the sky. He had formed a habit of doing so. The stars… Are they fake here too? His attention was drawn back to reality when Raphtalia came over with two plates, each held a cake slice.

Yuya pulled a face at the sweet aroma coming from it. "No thanks. I rather swallow rocks."He pushed the offending plate away. Raphtalia's tail bristled.

"But it's really good! You just don't have good taste!" She stuck her tongue out in a similar fashion Yuya often did when he mocked people. "Besides, Master Naofumi needs to eat! It's really good, don't listen to mister 'I only consume bitterness!'" She presented her fork to Naofumi.

"Hah?! What's with that? You're deluded to think sweets are good, it's disgusting and eating stuff like that feels like my teeth will fuse together!" Yuya countered, he wouldn't admit it but he enjoyed the meaningless squabbles he got into, it was the best he could do without going full on sadist on everyone.

Naofumi took the offered bite. He didn't taste what Raphtalia was promising, maybe Yuya had a point. He watched the two fight, it was kind of adorable, then the juvenile mood was promptly murdered when the Spear Hero dropped his glove right in the middle of the Shield's party of three.

Yuya realized everyone was staring at them. The room had gone suspiciously quiet. He could practically taste a storm brewing.