Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad helping me with SPAG edit. Also thanks to Angel Wraith for reading my rough draft and provide important feedbacks.
Special thanks to Commissar Gaunt for being my consultant about Malty's medical problem in this chapter.
More author note at the end for people who are interested to see me blabber some more.
The princess in disguise stares at the ruined wreckage of the wooden wagon. Her bones were too chilled and paralyzed to move. The memories she shared with the little raccoon girl surface: from how the little girl first showed affection towards the princess after Mein's injuries in the abandoned mine, to the multiple times Raphtalia saved her life in battles, and to how the child treats Mein like a family.
Little Raphtalia can't be dead, can she?
"You BASTARD!" The Shield Hero's action is much more volatile. Multiple emerald colored, ethereal shields float around him, and he chucks them all towards the giant thunder lizard who is still charging forward without slowing down or turning around. The lumbering mountain that walks obviously has a hard time controlling its own movement once in charge.
Predictably, all the shields her Naofumi threw against the thunder lizard harmlessly bounce off its back. The monster probably didn't even notice his rage filled tantrum.
No, a complete breakdown is more appropriate. The Shield Hero is otherwise too smart to waste his stamina in such an useless manner.
Chapter 53: Final Gambit
"Damnit, damnit, DAMNIT! Why am I the ONLY one without any attack power!?" Her Naofumi roars on top of his lung, black smoke visibly rising up from his body. "Captain America can fight with a shield! Goofy from Kingdom Heart fights with a shield! Athena's saints can rend sky and split earth with their bare fists! What good is my sky high defense rating if I can't protect ANYONE!"
The dark smog grows more intense from the enraged hero, but more importantly he'll surely attract the attention of the giant thunder lizard when it turns around. She needs to do something to calm her Naofumi down, and fast.
Mein makes an effort to run forward, but she trips on her feet. The pain relief potion numbs the pain, but it didn't cure the wound she sustained from before.
"Spread out and distract the target! Lead it away from Lord Shield Hero!" Five shadows darts forward on long lines following Tanya's command, embers spewing out of the barrels in their hands.
The princess reaches forward with her arm, prying herself off the ground and makes a lunge at the Shield Hero's back. She manages to throw herself onto the young man, getting his attention. "You have to calm down, Master Naofumi!"
"But Raphtalia is dead because of me! Because of what I told her... because I can't deal damage and kill off-brand Godzilla!" The Shield Hero's head whips back to glare at the leviathan class monster again, promptly ignoring Mein even as she tries to twist his head, or to claw at his skin. He sends more energy shields flying towards it.
Damn it, she doesn't have any strength left to punch, or slap him hard enough to get through his defense. Which means there's only one thing left to do to get his attention.
"PFFT!" The princess must have hit something not healed right in her quick attempt to pivot herself forward, as she ends up barfing a mouthful of half dried blood onto the Shield Hero's face. Not exactly what she planned to do... since she was trying to kiss her Naofumi to snap him out of his rage. But at least she has the Shield Hero's undivided attention now.
Oh well. She didn't want her first kiss with her Naofumi to taste blood and dirt anyway.
"MEIN! You-"
"THINK, MASTER NAOFUMI!" The princess wraps her hands around Naofumi's head, squeezing his face to make him look directly into her eyes. "Raphtalia is well behaving, not stupid! She must have heard the monster coming and got away!"
The incognito princess hopes this convinces her Naofumi, because she breaks into rapid hard breaths and can't get another word out. She slowly slides down towards the ground.
"My Shivs will buy you time, but you'll have to come up with a plan to disable, or kill the thunder lizard, Lord Shield Hero." Tanya and the rest of Naofumi's party finally catch up to them.
"Plan... yes, we need a plan. But Mein needs help, her heart problem must be acting up-" The Shield Hero didn't finish his sentence when Tanya suddenly leans down and pulls Mein up by her collar.
"You have a heart condition, and you took TWO pain relief!" The Shiv leader barks right into Mein's face.
Éclair is about to tackle Tanya again when the knight stumbles and catches herself, giving Naofumi a quick glance. The Seatto heiress is no doubt thinking back on how her mistake caused the Shield Hero to slip away.
"Are you suicidal! Pain relief potion is bad for your heart even if you are healthy!"
Naofumi steps into their space, one arm coiled around Mein's shoulder to support her, and the other hand rests on Tanya's arm. "I made the pain relief, it should have made the potion better with my shield ability."
Tanya turns around to stares Naofumi back in the eyes for a few second, it's enough to have him avoid her gaze. "With all due respect, Lord Shield Hero. Your hero ability enhances the potency of all potions you make, the positive AND negative effects. She's in worse situation than I first thought."
"Oh." Naofumi's short response underplays the terror that suddenly dawns on his face. All of sudden the young man's hands are around Tanya's neck, shaking her around. "PLEASE! Is there anything to help her? I can't lose two of my companions here!"
The Shiv pries Naofumi's hands off and reaches into a pocket, taking out a small bottle and pours out a pill that glows with a faint blue light. She shoves the medicine into Mein's mouth, and feed the princess a mouthful of water from a metal water container. "Yggdrasil pill, one of the few healing item that's both general purpose and without any adverse effect. Cross your fingers, or pray to the Chief God it's strong enough to save her from her own idiocy."
In spite of Tanya's harsh words, she's being rather helpful. She could have simply said nothing, and let Mein die from her heart problem. But the Shiv is even sharing very potent, and extremely rare healing items. Her action is especially unreasonable, considering she is an agent of a foreign country that isn't allied with Melromarc, to put things diplomatically.
Could this be the instruction of prince Tact? He wasn't the kind of person who'll be helpful to other heroes, considering his open hostility towards the Hammer Hero, and Gauntlet Hero. Although he does have a favorable relationship with the female Claw Hero...
Maybe that's the reason. The Whip Hero did show a continuous interest to woo her (even if his action is at best, completely misguided). Considering Mein took off her traveling cloak earlier and give everyone a good look to her face, maybe this Tanya recognized her and tried to keep her alive on Tact's instruction.
"Was that the mythical Yggdrasil medicine?" Éclair's voice sounds both in awe, and disappointed at the same time. "The miracle cure that brings people out of death's door and heals everything."
"No, real Yggdrasil medicine is made with the fruit of the Cosmic Tree, this is made of its leaf extract. Much less potent, but it'll keep her alive if she stop pushing herself further. It won't heal her heart condition, or other permanent injuries like her face." Mein can barely hear Tanya's voice over the distant explosion as the other Shivs engage the thunder lizard. The Shiv turns to send a glare at Naofumi, making the young man shrink. "Get a real healer in your retinue after this. Let's plan how we'll get out of this mess now."
"That leviathan's Defense rating is too high, higher than my thane without his shield." Yatsuhashi throws Naofumi a quick glance. "We can barely hurt it."
"What about that co-ordinate attack you did with Farkas? I saw blood after." Naofumi gently lies Mein down on the ground as he looks around.
"It was a minor flesh wound, its scales and hide took most damage." Farkas loses his bite on the great sword, letting it drop onto the ground. The beastman looks rather pensive for a moment, almost uncharacteristically so. "We might do more damage, if we can aim at its reverse scale."
"Reverse scale?"
"All dragonkind have one on the underside of their neck below the chin." Farkas' shoulder twitches, no doubt the wolf man wants to point at his own neck out of instinct. "If you can get through that scale, you'll have a chance to fatally injure them. But if you don't, you'll enrage the dragon."
"That's our best chance then." Naofumi turns to look at the Lute hunter, he gestures to their ruined wagon in the distance. "Gaston. Check if there's... anyone inside."
The hunter from Lute gives a grim nod and takes off without any words or fanfare.
Yatsuhashi takes a quick look at the giant beast in the distance. "There's no way we can reach its neck like this, we have to find a way to bring it down."
"How do you suggest we do that, when we can barely scratch it?" Farkas rolls his eyes at the bodyguard.
"...We'll have to use its size and weight against it. Lure it into a trap and trip it down." Naofumi sends out a pulse of magic out from his shield, the blue ethereal sandbox floats in front of him once again. Although this time, it looks different than before. There are many more colors than blue, or white compared to the last time her Naofumi used this skill. Especially when he starts to zoom in on their location.
"This isn't the best time to look for resources, Master Shield Hero." Kyubey takes a pause for a moment, after he voices the same concern Mein is having. "I don't think we'll be lucky enough to have another hot spring geyser near us."
The princess turned adventurer has to think over Kyubey's word for a moment. She suddenly remembered that everyone discovered the underground hot spring near the camp of Porter's refugee group. When Firo kicked the ground with all her might, the water erupted out of the crack and sent her flying in the air.
With her able to use both fire and water magic, there is a spell if she mixes her elements together to have a similar result. But it'll be very taxing due to mixing two opposite elements, especially with her heart ailment. Hopefully, her Naofumi can find something else.
"My [Terrain Scan] ability is giving me more information now I fully unlocked and mastered my [Geo Shield]'s potential to five stars, it's like an upgraded appraisal ability on the area... THERE!" Naofumi stops his ramble to point his finger at an area not too far away from them. The terrain is a lighter shade of on the surface, with a deep brown shade under. "The ground underneath is hollowed out and unstable. If one of our heavy hitters smash the ground with full power, we can collapse and crater the area into a sinkhole."
"Will it be enough?" Éclair looks back and forth between the monster stomping around in the distance, and Naofumi's magical sandbox. "Who'll do it?"
"That's the best chance we got." Naofumi looks over at his companions, his sight rests on Firo as his hand scratches the bird's chin. "What do you say, Firo? Think you'll do it?"
Big bird furiously nods her head, letting out a few squawks.
"Even if the plan goes right, we might not be strong enough to go through its reverse scale." The sworn shield grits his teeth, he tightens, and then relaxes his fingers. "We hit that thunder lizard with our strongest weapon arts, and we barely scratched its flesh."
Ah, yes. Despite the best strategy, the lack of offensive power will bring a well thought out plan down. Luckily enough, she has a hidden trick up her sleeve that might help do the trick. And after some rest, her breath is even enough to speak again. "I... I have a way. There is a fire, water mix element spell. [Unstoppable Force], it add one's Defense to their Attack."
"You are in no shape to cast more spells, especially not mixing two opposite elements!" Tanya immediately shoots Mein's suggestion down.
"Opposite elements?" Naofumi looks over at the short Shiv leader. "You mean fire and water?"
"Yes. Fire and water, wind and earth, and of course, light and darkness. If one has the skill to mix those opposite elements together, the resulting spell will be stronger than other mixed elements. But they are volatile, and more stressful to the mages." Tanya glares at the princess again. "You can barely talk straight, how will you chant?"
"No chant." Mein silently sworn , a quickly cast spell working without proper chanting will be weaker than a proper one, and it'll be more stressful on her body. But with the wagon destroyed, they are quickly running out of options. Either they take the monster down, or a few of their party have to sacrifice themselves to lead the monster away while the Shield Hero hides. "We all have to... do our part."
Hopefully, even the much less potent Yggdrasil medicine is strong enough to keep her alive. But if it doesn't... she'll get trampled or eaten by the thunder lizard anyway. A ruptured heart is probably the better way to go.
"You, knight." Tanya no longer bothers to talk with Mein, but instead turns towards Éclair. The princess isn't sure how to feel about the mixed message of the Shiv's treatment. "Do you have healing spells?"
Éclair jumps up at the sudden interrogation. The knight clearly isn't proud of her lack of magic prowess as she looks away. "Only the most basic one."
"That's perfect. Anything stronger may rupture her heart." Tanya hands another pill into Éclair's hand and points her finger at Mein. "Stay with her. If she starts gasping for breath or falls over, feed her the pill and heal her only when she's about to die. You are only buying time for the pill to work its magic... AND don't crush the pill in your hand!"
The Seatto knight nearly stumbles on her feet, but her hand relaxes enough to not ball into a fist. "Go, got it! I think..."
Mein gestures to Farkas, Firo and Yatsuhashi to stand before her. She crosses her legs under her and closes her eyes, feeling her ember like mana with natural fire affinity. She slowly guides one stream down her left hand, and another into her right hand. Using the insight she gained from the Founder's tome, she slowly transmutes the stream in her right hand to start taking the form of water.
She hasn't yet studied the full book of Brimir's Grimoire of Water. But even if she only gleaned less than one part of the Founder's knowledge, it'll surely make her a better water mage than her bratty sister... No matter what her mother thinks!
With that distraction, the vapor like mana around her right hand fizzles out, sending her into a furious coughing fit again. Naofumi kneels down near her, hands holding onto her shoulders. "Don't push yourself, Mein. We'll find another way."
"I... Can!" The princess opens her eyes for a brief moment before closing them again. This time, she truly concentrated on nothing but the spell work. She remembers the lesson uncle Aldrecht taught her when she first started to tap into her bloodline magic to get it under control.
Close your eyes, control your breath. Picture yourself sitting in the middle of a ritual circle. Nothing exists outside. Your mother doesn't exist. Your sister doesn't exist. There is only the magic flowing within your blood, and the natural ether outside.
The distant shake and explosion dulls out as she sinks deeper into uncle Aldrecht's mana control exercise. Her natural magic, once uncontrollable like a wild fire now flows gently within her vein like dragon's blood. She puts all her concentration into the reaction of her mana with the world's ether and slowly takes on the property of water. She makes sure to balance both output, and pushes both of her hands forward into the spell circle she has been picturing in her head.
When the princess opens her eyes, the human, beastman, and filorial in front of her is surrounded by a visible aura of roaring steam that seems to erupt from their feet.
"So, this is the steam element spell [Unstoppable Force]..." Yatsuhashi opens and closes his left hand a couple of times. He picks up the two-handed great sword and slides it between Farkas' maw once again. "Hope it's enough."
"It adds Defense to Attack, huh?" Naofumi stands up behind Mein's back, he sounds thoughtful for a second. "Does that mean I can deal damage, if it's cast on me?"
Huh... she didn't even think about it, since she's so used to the Shield Hero unable to cause damage. But the better question is will her Naofumi be able to fight under the effect.
"Not a good idea to use it on you, Shield Hero. The spell also drains the same amount of your stamina as your Defense rating every time you attack under its effect." Tanya gives another warning to the Shield Hero, possibly debunking Mein's earlier theory that the Shiv is only helping her. "You'll likely only have one shot. And you'll be too tired to get out of the way."
"Fighting with my friends is the least I can do, after everything all of you did for me." Naofumi's eyes don't waver, he looks over everyone and gives a determined nod to Mein. "Cast it on me too, Mein."
The princess gives a weak nod. She closes her eyes again and throws the same spell onto the Shield Hero. The young man lets out a startled gasp as he flexes his fingers. "Such power. Is this... how it feels to have an actual Attack rating?"
"You'll only have one shot. Let your companions go first, and attack only if they fail to bring the leviathan down." Tanya pulls Naofumi forward to look at the monster in the distance, giving the Shield Hero some desperately needed last minute coaching. "And aim at the body, NOT the neck. We are all done for, if you fire and miss."
"Aim for the broadside, got it." Naofumi nods his head along, he seems to remember something as the shield on his arm changes again. This time, the shield takes an oval shape and is covered by obsidian like scales. Through the status screen, Mein can see his already formidable Defense (and Attack for once, thanks to [Unstoppable Force]) shoots up by an additional quarter with his fully mastered [Five Star Dragon Scale Shield]. "Better bring out my strongest shield for this."
As if on cue, Gaston runs back to them. "There's no one in the wreckage, not even a drop of blood. What's the plan?"
It sounds like Raphtalia managed to get away before the thunder lizard turned her into a smear. She even managed to take the captured Bitch Lord with her too. Good girl, she deserves praise if they get out of this encounter alive.
"You'll ride forth with your bird, and lure the giant lizard here. It should be right around that way..." Tanya points her finger at the spot Naofumi marked out for her. Her finger than moves towards the north west, looking the most unsure so far in this night.
"I'll go with Gaston, pointing him out the way with my mini-map..." Naofumi is about to slap Tanya before she catches his wrist. "What?"
"Don't do that! You'll smear me and use up all your stamina." Tanya's voice sounds dangerously like a hiss.
"Ri, right." Naofumi walks back, the young man looks like he wants to scratch the back of his head, but he's too afraid to move his arms.
Tanya presses her left pawn onto her ear and begins speaking, but not to anyone around her. "Attention all units. We are sending an out rider to lure the target into a trap. Converge on the out rider, and help set up the ambush."
"Copy that." five faint voices come out from the Shiv leader's head, startling everyone around.
"You already have a radio headset when the world looks like Dragon Quest... I mean, medieval time?" Naofumi's eyes grow almost as large as a monster egg.
"Ether communication device. Lord Tact provided the idea, Riddle and Son company built the thing. Handy at communication over short distances without too much magical interference." Tanya whips around her head and frowns at the Shield Hero. "Don't you have to go, Lord Shield Hero?"
"Right! Let's go, Gaston! Follow us, Firo!" Naofumi jumps up behind the Lute hunter, the two filorials quickly break away from the group, but not before Tanya jumps onto Firo's back herself. The two heavy hitters also break away to run toward the ambush area Naofumi pointed out.
"We better get to safety ourselves, Mein. Give me a hand, Kyubey." Éclair crouches down and drapes Mein's arm over her shoulder.
"Lucky I only have one hand." The rabbit man replies back with his usual dry tone. It's hard to tell if he's trying to tell a joke to light up the mood. With both of their support, the princess manages to limb her way into the tree lines.
"Big sister Mein! Are you hurt?!" It doesn't take too long for her to hear a familiar voice. The voice is slightly lower pitched than she's used to, but it didn't lose its eagerness. The princess looks to her right, and sees Raphtalia hoping over shrubs and tree roots towards them. "I, I heard the ground shaking. So I took our prisoner into the forest with me."
"...Good, work..." Mein gives the grown up raccoon child a thumbs up as Éclair and Kyubey help her sit down. The rabbit man moves further into the tree lines to retrieve the Bitch Lord, while Raphtalia and Éclair sit around her. They aren't too deep in the forest yet, enough to hide themselves from the giant thunder lizard as long as it doesn't step right on them, but can still see what's going on outside.
Quakes, explosions and angry roars become louder and louder. The ground also starts to shake again as the giant monster is led towards the trap. Between the trees, the princess can see two dark shapes charging across them, more shadows gliding over their head while spewing fire at the lumbering monster in the distance.
Tanya wasn't lying about this supposed new design made by the Hammer Hero. None of them has exploded yet, despite the constant firing. That is, until a blue ember suddenly turns into a cloud of orange fireball. It's hard to see for the princess both with the distance and darkness, but the form slumps onto the ground, until two other shadows touch down, pick it up and flings themselves forward again.
Tanya's voice cut through the rumbling. "Keep going, we are almost there!"
Not soon after, the leviathan class thunder lizard barrels towards where the princess and the others are hiding. Leaving a trampled wasteland of broken trees and terrain behind it. About two, three hundred paces further, a figure flips down onto the ground and shouts out. "FIRO! NOW!"
One of the darker shades, presumably Firo, twists around and jumps into the air. Its body lights up with a bright red orb, like a sun slowly rises above the horizon. She lets out one final chirp, and crushes down.
With a loud boom, Firo falls on the ground. Faster, and heavier than a flaming boulder fired out of a trebuchet. The mountain sized monster continues to stampede forward. Its heavy body unable to stop, its enraged mind too cloudy to see reason. As its feet slam onto the no doubt already cracked dirt, something finally happens. Ground below it breaks apart, swallows one of its feet, and shin down.
For a second, it looks like the gluttonous devil bird went under with the monster's right leg, but it jumps up at the last second away from the sinking earth, and the monster's snapping maw. As the monster's body pitches forward and slams on the soil, two more shadow fly forward. One charges right towards its neck, and the other jumps up and drops down just like Firo did. With two loud CLUNK that's close enough to sound like one, sparks and blood erupt from the monster's neck.
A solid hit! Did they do it?
"RRRAAAWWWRRR~!" The wrathful roar of the beast answers the princess' question. Apparently, their two strongest fighter still isn't able to kill, or sufficiently injure the ancient thunder lizard even with [Unstoppable Force] boosting them above their limit, and hitting the near dragon's weakest point. And now, they managed to anger the beast.
"[Air Strike Shield]..." Naofumi runs forward, an emerald ethereal shield five times larger than him floating beside the young man spinning. The Shield Hero flings his arm forward, ironically like he is throwing a javelin, and his energy construct flies forward. "...[KOTEN ZANSHUN]!"
The attack cuts a small trench in the earth until it finds true on its target. The monster, with one leg still buried under can't move out of the way as the giant emerald shield makes contact. For the first time after it's released, the ancient thunder lizard lets out a roar of pain rather than anger as the Shield Hero's energy shield spins and cuts into its belly.
Naofumi's attack slowly dissolves even as it continues to spins into the monster's body. Finally, it breaks apart into glimmering green particles. The princess inspect the damage, and sees a large gash running from the monster's belly almost to its neck. Not deep enough to cut the ancient thunder lizard open and spill its gut, but it clearly done more damage than everyone else combined so far.
If her Naofumi can muster another attack like that, it'll no doubt kill the beast! The princess looks towards him in anticipation, only seeing the form slumped on the ground, even more still than the monster he just gravely injured.
Tanya wasn't trying to scare him. Her Naofumi clearly used up all his strength to launch that attack. It's hard to tell if he is even alive in the distance. The monster doesn't allow the Shield Hero, or anyone else a moment of respite. Its head, already hung low, snaps forward and swallows the motionless hero whole into its mouth.
No, NO, NOOO! Not her Naofumi! The princess musters up all her remaining magic, ready to throw it towards the drowned thunder lizard. They can still save her Naofumi if they kill the monster and spill its gut, as he's swallowed and not chewed up...
Suddenly, she feels like someone hit her chest with a sledge, or run over by a carriage. The not yet formed spell dissassipate over her hand as she falls on the ground, unable to draw breath even without anything strangling her neck, or choking her throat. She vaguely feels and sees someone flips her over, and shoving something into her mouth as her vision dims without air, her consciousness fading...
Only to be brought back into the land of the waking, still unable to breath, but unable to fall unconscious either.
She feared death when she first started traveling with her Naofumi, not only because of the obvious reason, but also because she doesn't want to prove her mother right in her unable to accomplish anything.
But now, as the first princess drift between waking and darkness, unable to sense much, unable to move, not even able to breathe. She truly understands why someone says there are fates worse than death. This... this pure torture, it's worse than anything she felt so far in her life.
She lost count how many times she's on the edge of losing consciousness, until finally after a violent cough, she is able to breathe again. She is grated, by the Seatto knight's incessant rambling. "My princess! Oh, thank Chief God you are alive! I thought I must have done something wrong and I might have killed you..."
"Shu, shut up! You want everyone to know!?" Mein manages to spit out after a few coughs.
"So-sorry! But there's no one beside us. Okay, the Bitch Lord is beside us but she's still unconscious. Everyone's gone fighting the thunder lizard to save the Shield Hero..." Éclair stumbles over her words, it makes the princess in disguise suddenly remembered what happened right before her heart condition took a turn for the worse. She twitches a couple of times, finally manages to move her body enough to look over at the chaotic scene, where the Shield Hero's party, and the Whip Hero's lackeys all attack the still downed monster.
Naofumi's sworn shield in particular fought like a monster himself. The young man doesn't so much as hack at the thunder lizard's wounded belly, but slamming his sword repeatedly like a blacksmith hitting an anvil.
"You go, join them." The princess makes a couple of weak attempts at grabbing Éclair's hand, she doesn't so much point towards the fighting as twitching her hand towards the general direction.
"I can't! What if the Bitch Lord wakes up? She already tried to kill you once! Even if she's bound now, if she gets away..."
"JUST DO IT!" Mein glares at the Seatto knight and snarls at her. Éclair makes a few squeaky noises but stands up, ready to join the fight. That's when the monster lets out a second pained scream.
Both Mein and Éclair turned their heads. It appears Raphtalia managed to climb up the monster's head, and stabbed one of its eyes. The pained monster violently shakes its head, flinging the raccoon girl away. But as Raphtalia looks like she's going to fall to her death, or at least break more than a few bones, her body starts to change.
In front of everyone's eyes, the girl starts... shrink down. Her body, already well developed like a young adult, returns to the size of a child, even her clothes slims down around her. The raccoon girl, now a child again spreads her limbs out as if gliding down, and she curls into a ball just before impact to roll forward onto the ground rather than crush.
A demi-human, or even a beastman can't just grow up and shrink down however they want, can they? Ability like that only happens in the very rare case where certain strong, sentient monsters that have the affinity for transformation magic learn to take human shape.
The ancient thunder lizard isn't finished with Raphtalia after she takes away one of its eyes. It's head snaps forward, ready to swallow the demi-human child just like the Shield Hero. Kyubey breaks away from the monster, running towards Raphtalia but he is clearly not fast enough. Just as it looks like all the rabbit man will accomplish is to add one more victim, the leviathan's chest suddenly puffs out forward with a loud boom.
The monster lets out a weak groan, its head, and then body falls forward once again. Impacting the ground where Raphtalia landed after Kyubey snatches her away. Blood begins to seep out of the monster's wound as it finally stays still.
Is - is the monster finally dead? What just happened?
Light starts to illuminate the scene more and more as the sun starts to go up. Both Farkas and Yatsuhashi fall on the ground, the steam aura around their body disappears. Tanya, and one of the taller Shivs picks up their dropped weapons and runs over to the fallen monster. They dig the great swords into its scales and flesh around the bump, probably trying to save the Shield Hero.
"Looks like we won." Éclair lets out a breath she was clearly holding. She supports Mein up with one shoulder, and drags the Bitch Lord with her free hand. They slowly make their way over to the dead monster. In the distance, Kyubey and Gaston both see them and rush over. The hunter takes away their unconscious prisoner, and Kyubey takes over Mein. Éclair bolts over to join the effort to free the Shield Hero.
Mein looks over the people standing or sitting around while the antithetical messy clean up continues. Most of the members from both parties look completely spent, but not much worse for wear. One particular Shiv is missing most of her right forearm. An example of why it is a bad idea to enchant a firearm, when it can easily blow up in your hand. But to the surprise of the princess, there isn't any gore despite the heavy injury.
She takes a second look. Inspecting the jagged stump, Mein realizes the girl's arm isn't flesh and blood, but some kind of wood. An enchanted wooden prosthetic?
"We got him!" Éclair's exclamation brings everyone forward. Sure enough, Tanya, and the taller Shiv with a pair of ponytails manages to escort a rancid fluid and gore covered, completely exhausted Shield Hero forward. His eyes can barely stay open, his skin paled almost into a shade of gray. Behind them in the thunder lizard's gashing wound, his three rubbery abominations gorges themselves on the flesh of an ancient near dragon.
It seems like her Naofumi pushed himself to attack the ancient thunder lizard a second time while he's swallowed... and that did the trick. Considering a thunder lizard's defense comes from its tough scale and hide, it's inside is virtually defenseless. Not helped when her Naofumi already heavily injured it with his first attack.
Mein considers trying her luck and washes her Naofumi with a water spell, but Raphatalia beats her to it. The girls' chant is still amateurish, and her spell work is clearly unrefined as she ends up drenching the Shivs together with the Shield Hero. But she manages to cast a basic water ball without a water affinity.
Naofumi blinks his eyes a couple of times, he is probably wondering if he is simply too tired to see Raphtalia as a child again. He opens mouth a couple of times, no sound comes out. Raphtalia quickly takes out a vial of green stamina potion, reading to feed it to the Shield Hero.
"WAIT!" Remembering what Tanya said about getting a true healer before chucking potions, Mein looks at the Shiv leader expectedly. "Ask Shiv lady, first."
"You can give it to him." Tanya nods at Raphtalia without showing any surprise at seeing her change. Or maybe the Shiltfreeden agent simply got used to it after seeing Raphtalia's transformation earlier. The raccoon child nods, quickly runs towards the Shield Hero and pour the potion down his mouth. A shade of pink finally returns to Naofumi's face.
"Thank you, thank you... I'm not playing the DPS ever again... too tiring... and painful..." The Shield Hero lets out some confusing mumble once again as he slowly slouches onto the ground. He looks up at Raphtalia once again, squeezes his eyes tightly shut, and blinks a couple of times. "Raphtalia, are you... a child again?"
"Ye, yeah. I mean, NO!" The child jumps on her feet, she looks over at Tanya and her group, clearly not wanting to reveal whatever happened to her body to these foreign agents. Either some of Mein's words finally managed to stick in her head, or this is a particularly sore spot for the descendants of Q'ten Lo.
Her uncomfortable response makes everyone from Naofumi's party all stare at the Shivs once again. Suddenly, everyone remembers despite their help through the night, they work for a different hero. Who had a past record of bumping heads with other heroes, to put things diplomatically. And Tanya didn't exactly deny Mein's accusation of their help was simply a prelude to take the Shield Hero away.
They still have numbers on their side, and one of the Shivs has lost an arm. But the others are still in much better shape than them, and there is nothing they can do to stop the pig beastman from taking the Shield Hero and run, or put them all into the ground for good measure.
The Whip Hero's retinue all look at their leader. Tanya raises her hand again as she steps away from the Shield Hero. "As offered, we have assisted you to secure the Shield Hero... and took down a leviathan class monster. It looks like our work here is done."
No... she can't be serious. After everything that happened... are they just going to let the Shield Hero, and his party go, without any repayment? This has to be some kind of deception, maybe 'our work here is done' is a message to let her subordinate open fire?
The muscles on Yatsuhashi tense as he forces himself up. The bodyguard tries to make a leap at his sword, but he ends up falling on his face again.
Mein's eyes quickly darted across the other Shivs. To her surprise, no one levels their musket on the Shield Hero's party. The other, tall Shiv - she still can't tell who this is, definitely too tall to be 'Rico' - standing over her Naofumi pauses for a brief moment. She is clearly as surprised at Tanya's action as Mein herself. But she steps away from the Shield Hero just like her squad leader.
"We will take our leave now, and report back to our superior on Siltvelt's betrayal." Tanya walks further away with her subordinate despite everyone's confusion and disbelief. They pull out their grappling gun and aim them at distant trees. Tanya pauses and turns her head to give the Mein a stern look. "Don't take pain relief again."
She is most definitely going to remember that, because she has no intention to undergo the same torture again! She doubts being married to her distant uncle, or being executed in Zeltbole during one of their famed (or infamous, depends who you ask) torture festival can be worse!
But her theory on the Shivs (or Tanya, considering the confusion from the rest) recognized who she is, and spared them because the Whip Hero still wants to woo her seems the most plausible. Granted, they could still kill everyone else, and take both her Naofumi AND herself to Tact. But she doesn't want to dive down that particular rabbit pill nest.
"Wa-wait!" Naofumi reaches his hand up before the Shiltfreeden agents. Tanya looks back at the Shield Hero with expectation. "I have a property in Whiterun. You are welcome to use it as a summer home."
If that's an attempt to flirt, than her Naofumi just gives the worst pick up line she has ever heard. And his ability to distinguish the beautiful from the ugly leaves even more to be desired.
But knowing the good natured young man, he probably just wants to repay someone for their kind, helpful deed. Something she needs to have a serious talk with him, considering he just offered shelter to a self-confessed foreign agent!
"I'll keep that in mind." Mein gets the impression Tanya is smiling under her mask. The Shivs fire their grapple gun into the forest, and they quickly swing away, disappearing amongst the trees. Everyone feels a bit more relaxed, now the second most threatening group after the ancient thunder lizard is also gone.
Naofumi leans back, falling face up onto the cratered earth. He looks over at the now shrunken raccoon child again. "Raphtalia, you... what happened to you? Can a demi-human also de-age?"
"They can, if their level is reset, and their body isn't old enough to naturally age yet." Kyubey confirms the question before looking at the girl. There seems to be a spark of curiosity in his eyes. "But Raphtalia grew younger by her own will. When the thunder lizard tossed her flying, she shrunk down in the air to minimize her fall damage. I never heard any demi-human, or beastman do that."
"The Yoko of Uzumaki clan could do it. They are half demon tricksters, with strong affinity for shape shift in addition to creating barriers and seals." Farkas shakily stands up, his feet still wobbly. But the eyes of the werewolf are still sharp, and he licks his razor-like fangs as Raphtalia shrinks under his glare. "I should have known when she showed her ability to transform into an animal! The only other clan I know of with demon-like shape shift ability... are the Gyoubu Danuki of Kutenrou."
Mein blinks her eyes over and over at all the strange sounding names Farkas spews out. She definitely heard, or seen these somewhere... probably in one of her lessons with a royal scholar she didn't pay much attention to. Curses! If she was a bit more diligent in her study like her blasted little sister...
"Wait, Raphtalia can turn into an animal too?!" Naofumi's head whips over to Farkas and back to Raphtalia. Mein would have laughed at his flustered expression, if she isn't too tired from her ordeal. "And what's with all the Japanese names straight out of forklore?"
Farkas doesn't answer Naofumi's question. Rather, the werewolf continues his ramble on beastman lore, he'll probably even scratch his chin or nose, if his arms aren't ruined. "It is said that only those descended straight from the line of the Celestial Emperor have a chance to awaken as a Gyoubu Danuki. And that's what makes his bloodline special like a hero's descendant, or the twelve dragon warriors. So which line are you from? An illegitimate child of Lord Isshin of Shikouku, perhaps? Or the lost descendant of his younger brother, the last Kutenrou Celestial Emperor Kajirou..."
"I'm from Emperor Kajirou's line. My grandfather was Yamato Kutenrou, the youngest son of Emperor Kajirou." Raphtalia finally stops finding interest in the soil underneath her feet. She looks up... and there seems to be some changes to the little girl who used to be a slave. She acts almost like a... no, she isn't acting like a Melromarc noble lady at all, but there is a certain air of exotic dignity and refinement as she carries herself now. If this is how she always shows herself, nobody would have mistaken her for the child of a nobody commoner.
Omake: Investment of the cunning agent
The Shivs grapple them from tree to tree in complete silence, swinging and darting around like Devil Spider. The sun continues to rise above their head, casting them under the shade of the Rabier County forest.
Tanya holds her hands up, letting the other agents know this is their temporary stop. "We are far enough. We'll camp, eat and rest to regain our strength."
The other Shivs nod, some of them jump down with Tanya from the tree branch and start to make some temporary shelter to protect themselves from monsters, and possible prying eyes. Two Shivs stay on top of the trees, their weapons leveled as their overwatch.
The Bitch Lord, and her main group has been thoroughly eliminated, but there are still other bandit groups roaming the ruined Rabier County. Even special agents can't be too careful inside. Not to mention, scouts from the surrounding area may infiltrate and discover them.
With their preparation made, the agents settle themselves down and begin taking out preserved rations, and canteen to fill their stomach. Tanya frowns at the off, almost disgusting flavor. She knows the supposed horror stories of wartime ration before her incarnation. And from what she personally experienced in this life, there is likely truth to the rumor.
There is no future remaining in the Whip Hero's retinue, not for a pig beastman like her. Tanya wasn't one of Prince Tact's oldest followers, but she knows that well by now judging by how he treated Angelica and Triela. The foolish boy cares more about the face of a woman than what she can accomplish, or what history he had with one of his girls.
Thankfully, she already saved enough funds without the fool's realization, enough to get her a suitable resident in Tristania. Being a pig head means she won't be missed by the Whip Hero. All she has to do is slip away in one of the more dangerous missions, or battle, possibly against the Hammer Hero and his Rebel Alliance. She can get a new identity, and start over. Work as an independent adventurer at the beginning, and possibly get noticed and hired by one of the more prestigious Tristan noble houses like the De La Vallière, or Malfoy. Then, she can finally leave this life of constant danger and running around behind and settle in a safe, cushy management job...
At least, that's her original plan. Until the damned Wave of Catastrophe can't even wait for a full century, and have to drop on everyone's head. With a possible world ending level disaster, staying in the retinue of a hero dramatically increases her chance at survival.
But she doesn't have to bind herself to the Whip Hero like a slave. And judging by the Shield Hero's parting words, she managed to score some serious good will from the young man...
"That wasn't what Lord Tact wanted." Triela's voice breaks Tanya out of her thoughts. The chronically older (but technically much younger than Tanya, if she counts her former life) girl's dry voice belie a hint of sarcasm, almost a sense of challenge. "You know that, right? Squad Leader? We had the perfect opportunity to bring him to Lord Tact, and gain him one more legendary weapon."
Tanya can feel everyone's eye fixed on her. Unlike Tanya herself, the other five members all grew up with Tact before his adoption by the king of Faubley, before he took up the Star Whip, and even before he attended Faubley's Hero Academy. They stayed in the fool's retinue even after losing his favor not out of material gain, but near blind loyalty and attachment to their fratello Tact.
She needs to push this act of minor insubordination down, or else the others might suspect her real motive. Now... how to play this... "I did exactly what's best for Lord Tact. Use your head. Which country reveres the Shield Hero most? Siltvelt. And which country does Dionysia, the hero of Star Gauntlet, come from? Also Siltvelt. The last thing Lord Tact want, is to attract the attention of Dio again. Let the Swine of Melromarc content with the wrath of Lord Dio, for now."
The second oldest Shiv thinks for a and bows her head in concession. "You are right, I apologize for questioning your decision."
"See to it you won't in the future." Tanya takes another mouthful of water from her canteen, reading to turn in.
"Is your arm well, Angelica?"
"I'll have it replaced once we return to big brother Tact." The Tanya can hear the voice of the oldest in her ear even as she closes her eyes. Angelica pauses for a short time, before she starts talking again. "But he changed... hasn't he? After he became the Whip Hero. He left us behind, and he's not our fratello anymore..."
Hmm... it seems there is a crack in the fool's armor after all. Who knows, maybe she can convince some of them to see things her way.
End Note:
The moral to this chapter, consult a doctor first before taking prescription drugs.
Jokes aside, I actually wanted to do a scene where Malty takes some potion and it ends up causing her more harm than good for a while, thanks to Commissar Gaunt explaining to be about the negative side effect of Aspirin. Considering one of my goal for this story is to give realistic consequence to a lot of fantasy writing tropes (which was what I thought RotSH would have been, and why I got interested in the manga to begin with), I decided to go ahead in this current arc.
Of course, I didn't realize it would have caused Malty a heart attack in the middle of the fight, and had to basically bail my story out with a Deus Ex Machina plot device from canon...
Talk about irony.
I guess a lot of people were expecting Wrath Shield in this chapter, right?
Not going to lie, I have an unfair, probably unhealthy hate boner towards Wrath Shield in canon (not to imply my hate boner towards other canonical things is health...). The idea itself is solid, but the execution was just flat out awful. The actual penalty for using it is too insignificant (especially compared to the three weapon heroes who all went insane with them), to the point it becomes Naofumi's crutch ability. Considering how anal the author is at forcing the main character to not deal damage, the lack of consequence of Wrath Shield completely undermine how the Shield Hero is supposed to be defense oriented and have to rely on trusted companion for offense.
Naofumi gets to take MVP status both against the Bitch Lord, and Zilla. And of course, Raphtalia reveals in this chapter that she can freely change between her child, adult body in addition to turn into a raccoon dog. I ends up jinx myself again, and have to leave the actual explanation next chapter.
Guest review time.
To Guest:
Thank you very much for your review, I hope I don't come off insufferably smug with this response (probably will be, since my best talent is jamming my foot into my mouth), but here is my response to your question.
I agree, the bandits from canon deserves what happened to them. But my problem with it had never been to argue if the bandits deserved what happened to them the first place. It's about how canon Naofumi's action in that scene is entirely self-serving and flat out harmful to other people.
My argument of 'Because now, he just left a bunch of bandits more desperate to rob travelers, and possibly peasants living in villages.' doesn't change if the robbers in that scene were malicious bandits, or desperate refugees. The fact their wallet are now emptied by Naofumi will make them more desperate to rob other people either to recuperate their recent loss (in canon's case), or find a way to sustain themselves (My story's case).
So no, what Naofumi did in canon was the opposite of helpful to other natives of Melromarc. I hesitate to call his action vigilantism since he doesn't even ignore law to bring criminal into his perceived justice (which is my understanding of what vigilantism means). What he did is flat out committing crime against other criminals for selfish gain, which we Chinese have a term for that literal translation is 'black eat black', roughly means criminal infighting.
Naofumi's solution to the bandit he encounters in my story is a reference to the manga Thermae Romae (An infinitely better written story than Rising of the Shield Hero, and you have my highest recommendation to check it out if you haven't already. It's a fairly short length manga and shouldn't take you longer than a day to binge through.), where the main character Lucius when confronted by bandits, convinced them to stop robbing others for a living and become self-sufficient people by developing a hot spring vacation village.
As for the bandits being a group of desperate refugee... that's inspired by one of the review about them being very polite to allow Naofumi and the merchant to finish their conversation. I decided why not, and just rolled with the punches. I think it worked out better in the end, considering this current Bitch Lord arc is about him kidnapped by a group of actual bad bandits.
As for Malty's magic, there's nothing concrete on the table yet. One of the ideas I been discussing with Commissar Gaunt (one of my main writing consultant) does involve her master all four natural elements post Three Heroes Church Saga.