This chapter, and most of next chapter is thanks to my chief editor Ace-Triad, and of course, also in charge of fixing my SPAG problems
More author's note at the end for anyone interested to hear me blabber some more.
Mein's mind completely blanks out as her eyes stare into the abyss itself, and there are teeth, teeth, TEETH! Much bigger than the ones that permanently scarred her. A tiny part of her soul seems to be screaming at her body to move, trying to gather her magic and do something to save herself, or at the very least prolong the time she has till her inevitable death. Yet, despite knowing that she should do something, the first princess of Melromarc remains stationary, with her arms still wrapped around the Shield Hero as they fall towards their demise, while being chased by a leviathan monster that's competing with gravity to be their reaper.
"[Meteor Shield]!" Thankfully, Naofumi is much more in control of his faculties, and willing to fight tooth and nail for their survival despite how unlikely the chance may be. With no time left to spare, he uses the highest defensive ability he just unlocked right before the Wave.
A green barrier, similar to his tried and true [Air Strike Shield] forms between them, and rows of fangs. Unlike the shield weapon art of his lower level, this one has a more curved, spherical shape. Although the shape, and its higher durability isn't the only thing that set it apart from its lower tiered counterpart. With a loud boom and a pained grunt from the Shield Hero, the princess feels the back of Naofumi slamming into her. The next thing she knows, the two of them are propelled back out of the reach of the reaper's mouth.
Normally, [Meteor Shield]'s knockback effect would be applied to the attacker. But in this case where the body of the reaper leviathan is easily a dozen times the size and weight of the Shield Hero, it works equally well to repel the two of them away from the monstrosity.
The giant void serpent lets out a roar of anger, clearly not happy the meal that's already in his mouth has suddenly flown away. It dives forward at Mein and the Shield Hero she is clinging her life onto, its claw shaped bone horns clung with chunky sound, ready to chew them through and swallow them whole.
Chapter 80: Falling with(out) Style
"[Air Strike Shield], [Shield Change], [Beast Spike Shield]!" Naofumi immediately fires out multiple shield weapon arts at his disposal, and a green energy shield shimmers into existence right in the monster's maw, even as it tries to chomp down on the two of them. With a point of his finger, the energy shield quickly turns into a jagged shell of different animal spikes and needles.
This time, the reaper leviathan lets out a screech of pain, as it recoils back. Glowing, red blood spilling from its rough lips. The Shield Hero's spike shield may not have the strongest defense rating, or durability in his arsenal. But its ability to reflect a fraction of damage has evidently hurt the leviathan enough to make it temporarily back off, and forget about the two of them.
With the threat of being instantly devoured gone for the moment, the Shield Hero works on the second, yet no less deadly threat that'll cause both of their lives: falling to their death. He changes his legendary weapon into the coil of fully enhanced ropes he prepared before the battle, and tosses it at the leviathan, catching his lasso right atop of the monster's red, meaty looking horn on its forehead. With a second pained yelp, the hero manages to stop their downward momentum, although he might have sacrificed his arm, or shoulder in the process.
In the confusion of how fast things are happening, or perhaps his addled mind hurt by the ache and strang on his right arm and shoulder, the Shield Hero clearly forgot there was more than one giant horned void serpent coming out of the dimensional gap. More importantly, a second reaper leviathan is coming straight at the two of them under the first one.
Mein realizes deep in her mind that the Shield Hero has done all he could to keep the two of them alive under the circumstances. And if she doesn't fancy being food to an overgrown void fish, she'll have to do something to help them avoid the second abomination. Holding onto Naofumi's neck the best she can with only her right arm, she points her left hand to the side. "[Steam Surge]."
Conjuring mixed elements with both hands is hard enough for her, considering her naturally strong fire and weak water affinity. But there is no room for excuses, it's literally do or die in the current situation.
The princess closes her eyes, trying to remember the words of the Founder as she studies his note on water magic. It might be her mind being hyper focused in such a deadly moment, an unbelievably lucky coincidence, or perhaps that the Chief God has granted her some favor thanks to her trying to save one of his chosen heroes. But she managed to fire the spell off well enough, as the two of them quickly swung to the right, away from the preying maw of a second reaper leviathan. Unfortunately, Naofumi's rope lifeline didn't, as even the enhanced rope is cut by the monster's horn claw like a piece of rotten string.
Once again, the first princess feels blades of wind cutting her exposed skin like a sword as she begins falling anew with the Shield Hero. Her right arm starts to burn as she desperately tries to hold onto her poor Naofumi, probably strangling him in the process. And then… she loses her grip, and the two of them begin falling separately rather than together.
Mein's heart beat like a drum. Threatening to burst before she even touches ground at deadly terminal velocity. She tries to squint her eyes open, and in her confusion, she sees an angel glowing with golden light flying up towards her. She wasn't a very pious woman before this day, and she wonders if the Chief God's heaven would have a place reserved for someone like her.
And then, something changed about her body. She is still in the air, presumably traveling down. But now, the wind is no longer cutting her skin through every gap in her fabric. She had taken a few rides with Father on a wyvern's back when she's young and he wasn't working to the bone with administration duties. And right now the sensation reminds her a bit of that happier time. She's either flying, or at least falling with a bit more style than before.
"I got you!" The voice ringing in Mein's ears isn't one where she's overly familiar, like her family, the Shield Hero or even one of his followers. Yet, it's one where she heard from before very recently. The princess opens her eyes fully, and sees a pair of pure, white wings spreading behind the silhouette of feminine figure, and the white feathers falling down like the snow.
Janne D'Arc, the battle saint of the Three Heroes' Church. Previously, she thought the angelic motif of the living saint to be nothing more than another image expertly crafted by the church to further their own holy image, and to indoctrinate the more faithful. She didn't expect the saint of battle to be a literal angel.
Of course, it's much more likely that she's simply a demi-human that happens to have a pair of white, feathered wings such as a swan or a dove. The holy knight was a disciple taught and raised by Pope Balmus after all, and she apparently commands the church's demi-human slave legion. It makes most sense that she was one of them, likely the most loyal one, handpicked by the Pope to be his living weapon.
The princess turns her head around, and sees the Shield Hero in the saint's other hand. Janne seems to understand her apprehension, as the holy knight replies to the unasked question with a prayer. "His mercy is boundless like the ocean. The Chief God protects all, equally."
They are still dropping towards the ground, two extra people is obviously too much extra weight for the Three Heroes' Church saint to handle. But thanks to her wings, and Miracles, they are at least gliding with more grace than before, and could very possibly survive their landing assuming they aren't immediately swarmed and killed by the endless horde of Wave monsters below them afterwards.
And then, a giant ominous shadow looms over all three of them. With her blurry vision, all the princess managed to make out is a reptilian head the size of a small house, opening its mouth and ready to swallow all three of them into its stomach at once. The angel seems to be aware of the monster looming over them, as she looks down at Mein and Shield Hero in a way that's meant to be reassuring. "Have no fear- the Chief God protects us all."
That's when Janne released her hands on both the princess and the Shield Hero, tossing them further away while she's sucked into the Wave dragon's throat into the great beast's stomach. Only a scattered cloud of feathers is left to show that the angel wasn't something the princess' mind conjured up with a delirious mind.
The princess' ear begins ringing again as she starts to free fall towards the ground. She can barely make out the Shield Hero's alarmed cry, as she feels something pulling at her. Looking down, she sees the rope lasso tied around her leg, and Naofumi pulling her closer. Not as if he has anything to save her, despite all the shield forms he unlocked, and spells he learned. There's nothing that'll assist him in flight, or even to break their fall, at least they'll die together this way.
She looks over at the army of Melromarc gathered in the distance. More like a nest of ants from the current height than the fierce army fighting against an endless horde of monsters to protect their homes. Still, she wonders if Father even knows the newest crisis she got herself into, and is trying his best to save her as always. And then, she noticed all the pegasus riders already taken into the air, and fighting through the wave of monsters swimming through the air.
"Onward, my sisters!" Princess Fee of Silesse leads the charge atop of her white pegasus, batting away void fishes with her spear. "We must save Lord Shield Hero and his companion!"
So, Father does know of the danger she is in, and has dispatched the pegasus knights to their rescue. This act would likely result in those aerial knights suffering from quite a number of casualties, and wouldn't endear them to Silesse. But then again, Father had never let good political moves and sacrificial play get in the way of trying to keep Melty and herself safe.
Unfortunately, the pegasus knights are still a fair distance away from Naofumi and herself, and are being slowed down by all the monsters in the air they are fighting over. So there's no guarantee that they'll arrive in time to save them.
She feels the rope around her legs tighten for a moment, to the point it almost feels like her leg is being ripped out of her torso. And then a pair of arms wrapping tightly around her as the Shield Hero finally grabs her once again. "[Air Strike Shield]!"
The princess briefly wonders what the Shield Hero is trying to use a defensive shield weapon art for, and then she feels herself abruptly slammed full body into the armored form of the Shield Hero and comes to a stop. Naofumi lets out another pained grunt, as they roll around. Then, they start to tip and suddenly fall again. The Shield Hero opens his mouth again, this time sounding more like a scream. "[Air Strike Shield]!"
At this stage, even Mein realized what her Naofumi is trying to do: using his defense weapon art, which was previously tested to work as a platform that can be used by people to break their deadly drop into a series of smaller and less lethal falls. It would have worked too, if they are much lower to the ground than they are now. At the current rate, even the series of smaller falls would have likely caused enough damage to the Shield Hero to kill him, or at least make him lose consciousness that'll result in them falling to their death. But maybe he can keep them alive long enough for the Silesse pegasus knights to reach them. At least assuming they won't all be killed by the flying horde of fishes, or eaten by a leviathan like the battle saint of the Three Heroes' Church.
It makes the princess wonder if there's some spell, any spell in her own repertoire that'll help increase their likelihood of survival. Wind would obviously be the best, even if she's nowhere near in the mastery of even her own fire affinity to cast the equivalent of a flight wind spell. A [feather fall] is a fairly low level air spell, and while it won't last long enough at novice level for the entire drop, it'll still ensure anyone's survival if it's cast near the end of their drop. Sadly, she never bothered to learn even such a simple spell, which in hindsight would have been much easier for her to manage than trying to learn water spells, her opposite element.
Curse her own laziness coming back to haunt her! She should have had the foresight to learn at least [Feather Fall], after her friend fell to death. She could try something similar with her [Steam Surge], as it does also provide some amount of thrust to the user even if it is not the main purpose. But it'll be tricky to manage, but it's not like there's anything for her to lose. "Hang on to me tight, Master Naofumi."
She forces her hands into palms, which has clenched so hard into itself she just noticed how her fingers were already wearing through her gloves. The princess focuses her magic into both fire and water, into both arms this time. "[Steam Surge]! AH~!"
It should have been expected, considering how she didn't have the foresight to practice something like this in a more controlled environment first. But she barely manages to keep her arm pointed down for the time it takes to blink her eyes before she completely loses control. The Shield Hero screams together with her, as they roll and spin uncontrollably in the air together. The princess completely loses all sense of direction, to the point she can't even tell the difference between land and the sky. The brown of De Gallia soil, and the crimson of the Wave of Catastrophe seem to blind together in both her eyes and mind, till everything becomes a hodgepodge of deep maroon.
She deeply regrets telling her Naofumi to hold onto her now. If they are separate, maybe the Shield Hero would have found a way to help set her upright, or at the very least save himself. She opens her mouth, trying to scream out at the Shield Hero to let her go. The princess bit her tongue in the process and tasted iron in her mouth, hoping her garbled voice was at least recognizable in Naofumi's ears, especially against the wind that's scraping them. "Lee- let GO!"
"NO!" The Shield Hero's mind is either too addled to think properly, or he's in another bout of unbreakable stubbornness like when he insisted Yatsuhashi stay away from the current Wave battle. Then, the princess feels the sudden stop of metal pulling her in her stomach.
The world, which has been nothing but insane color suddenly comes into focus once again. Despite being able to see the ground clearly now, the sudden change in perspective gives her an even stronger Wave of dizziness. This, coupled with the force around her abdomen finally makes her lose herself, and throws up into the rushing wave of the monster horde below.
Once again, she's falling with slightly more style now. The princess looks up, wondering if the Silesse pegasus knight has finally come to her rescue, or perhaps the Three Heroes' Church battle saint has freed herself from the stomach of the beast that swallowed her up. Instead, she sees Captain Lotheringan in his full dragon's aspect form, holding onto Naofumi's rope with both hands and doing his best to stay afloat with all the extra weight.
Despite having a pair of wings in their full transformation, a Dragon Disciple really isn't really best suited for aerial combat. Considering a human's lack of aptitude at non-magical assisted flying. The captain no doubt risked a lot of his own health to be taken to the air, especially now with the Shield Hero and herself as dead weight.
"Look out behind you!" The Shield Hero screams atop of his lung once again. A reaper leviathan, the one whose maw is bleeding profusely is diving straight at the three of them. The same one from the start, who looks determined to chomp down on both the Shield Hero and herself, and something tells Mein that the beast has taken this action a bit personally after the stunt Naofumi pulled to save their lives. Which he is forced to repeat again. "[Air Strike Shield], [Shield Change], [Beast Spike Shield]!"
The giant void serpent lets out another pained roar, but it bites its powerful jaws down hard this time. The reaper chomps down the Shield Hero's strongest counter attack shield with the same stubbornness of a balloon eating a spiked nut. With its more advanced intelligence compared to the lesser, mindless Wavespawn, the leviathan is clearly holding onto a grudge, and determined to eat both the Shield Hero and her this time.
The royal guard captain can barely keep the three of them upright, his superior power and skill useless in this situation. And it looks like that her luck has finally run out, and she's going to cause the death of both the Shield Hero and her father's Left Fist, just like how she already caused the death of Father's right hand, Uncle Aldrecht. But then, the pegasus knights have finally broken through the flying horde and upon them.
"Hermina! Karin! [TRIANGULAR ATTACK]!" Despite her royal status that should have kept her well protected, Princess Fee is the first through out of the fray, charging headfirst towards the Reaper Leviathan followed by two other green haired knights. Her two fellow knights shout out the party weapon art together with their princess, as the three pegasus knights fly in a roughly spinning shape of triangle.
One of the most recognized party weapon art performed by calvary, especially aerial ones. The technique was first developed by the three earliest recorded pegasus riders Palla, Catria and Est, widely remembered as the 'Pegasus Sisters'. There was even a myth that the Silesse royal house and its original founder Wind Master Ced was a descendent of Palla. The legend goes that by tapping into their sibling bond, when the three sisters charge together they can tap into some kind of force of trinity, which multiplies their ATK power ninefold. In a way, even the Three Hero Church's legitimacy of three being a magical number thus the rightful number of heroes, and their divine sign of holy triangle can trace some root in the Three Pegasus Sisters.
A golden line of triangle forms between the three Silesse knightesses as they crash their lances into the giant monster. The Reaper Leviathan lets out a screech loud enough to shake the earth as it tumbles down into the muddy trench below them. Despite their small size, the Silesse knights tapping into the trinity force and having a clean hit is clearly not something even a leviathan class boss monster can simply shake off and fly away.
But the giant leviathan monsters aren't the only threat to them. Despite most of the smaller void fishes content to ignore them and simply fly towards the army below, a new wave of crashfishes has been released by the three floating islands in the distance. All it takes is a few ramming into Captain Lotheringan and makes him lose his grip to send the Shield Hero and herself plunge down below once again.
A giant Wave dragon, which has been swimming above them, suddenly begins violently jerking. For a moment, the princess wonders if it's hiding another trick up its non-existent sleeves. But the more she looked at it, the more it looked writhing in pain. With a sudden boom in the air, the leviathan monster is blown apart from inside, revealing a golden holy cross of four heroes. At its center, the battle saint of Three Heroes' Church holds her shining lance skyward. "[Demon's Bane]!"
Janne gives a quick look at the situation around, her gaze stays for a few seconds on the royal guard captain below her, and presumably Naofumi and Mein hanging below him. The angel turns around to look at the new wave of incoming crashfishes. She returns her lance to her back, prepping her left hand up as if holding onto an invincible bow and right hand holding arrows. A lightning construct of bow and arrows form in her hand. "Foul spawn of the Wave! You shall not pass while I remain! [Celestial Arrows]!"
Dozens, almost a hundred lightning bolts shoot out of her Miracle bow, detonating the fishes in a nonstop series of violent explosions. Yet despite the angel's best effort, too many exploding monsters are swarming towards them, and many get through her attack. Noticing this, Janne points her hand skyward. "[Celestial Arrows - Starburst]!"
More lightning bolts shoot out of her lightning construct bow, this time in all directions almost like a dome around her. Explosions illuminate around the angelic battle saint, engulfing her in brilliant flames even as she shoots down the first wave of crashfishes.
"Sister Janne! NO!" The distressed cry of a young woman makes Mein look down, and sees more armored demi-humans with wings flying up towards them. More members from their slave legion, no doubt. Most of them lack Janne's pure white wings to make them look like a mythological depiction of Chief God's angels, the one who called out in particular has a pair of black wings. Making her look more typical to a fallen angel.
The church's demi-human slaves fire off their own miracles, or bow weapon arts at the Wavespawn monsters darting across the sky. But none of them have the battle saint's aptitude to use high tier Miracles, and their effort isn't very effective at shooting the exploding fishes down.
The princess collects herself and only pulls at her natural fire affinity this time, pushing it into her sword wand to amplify its power. With a swing of her right hand, she releases the magic she manages to gather so far. "[Fire… Wave]!"
A fire spell she derived from mid-tier fire spell [Fire Wall]. Despite the title's suggestion, [Fire Wall] is well known by all fire mages worth their coin as the most efficient and reliable workbird spell of their arsenal. Much like the unremarkable, yet adaptable filorial, by anchoring the spell work onto a mark in the ground, a [Fire Wall] spell can either deal continuous, significant amount of damage to a slow or stationary target, or roast and stop a wave of much smaller and weaker creatures in their tracks.
Obviously, she doesn't have the earth to use as her anchor point considering they are in the air, but she didn't really need one either. She releases her mana, and fans it outwards like a gust of wind. The result was a much weaker, yet expanding wave of fire meeting the incoming monsters head on. Thankfully, the exploding fishes are much weaker than most monsters and she manages to catch them all and detonite them with her fire magic while the royal guard captain carries them down, diving towards the cliff face below.
Mein clenches her chest after this burst of fire magic. She's clearly at her limit, at least for now. The Shield Hero also seems to notice this, as his arms seem to hold her a little tighter as he blurts out words. "Okay, no more spells!"
The cliff below visibly enlarges as the distance between them rapidly shrinks. The monster wave below no longer looks like a wave of ants, but is starting to resemble the tide of shelled and limbed abominations that makes the princess' skin crawl. Mein can even see the Spear Hero and Katarina riding on their respective filorials as they break away from the main group to run up the cliff wall, trying to achieve Chief God knows what. But that's also the moment the wave of crashfishes catches up to them, the Shield Hero manages to put two layers of barrier right behind them. One with his Miracle, the other with his shield weapon art. "[Barrier],[Air Strike Shield]!"
Explosions ring loud enough to make the princess lose her sense of hearing for a brief moment and makes her head spinning more than it already feels. The fishes eventually break through Naofumi's hastily constructed barriers, and they explode around Captain Lotheringan, either making him lose his grip on the rope, or severing it completely once again. And just like that, they are now starting to crash towards the cliff wall instead of being set down gently on its top.
"[Variable Shield Prison], [Shield Change], [Geo Shield EX]!" The Shield Hero quickly constructs a barrier of rocks around them, probably trying to make a protective shell around them as they are about to collide with the mountain and start their descent below. She's not sure if that alone will save their life, but at least Naofumi is trying.
"I got you guys! [Cartwheel]!" She hears the muffled voice of the Spear Hero before their protective rock cocoon violently starts to jerk and spin. Probably not as hard as it would have been if they directly impacted the earth below, but the sudden stop is still enough to make her puke out blood as she feels like someone hit her body with a warhammer. With a loud grunt from the Spear Hero, she feels their rock shell being set down on the ground and stops moving. "RrraarrggghHH!"
The stone construct around them crumbles, and the princess flops down face up onto solid ground. She would have started kissing the dirt, if her body doesn't feel like it's being pulled apart by the seams. To think, before this day that she has never been this grateful at the ground she steps on every day. The Shield Hero flips around, looms over her and starts to scream something, but she can barely hear him. The golden light in his hand seems to indicate that he's trying to cast a healing spell on her.
But at this moment, her peripheral vision catches something else as she turns to look at the large blob of shadow coming at them from her left side. The giant serpent like reaper leviathan, still bleeding through its fangs and now a large chunk of its side being blacked after being hit by a direct [Triangular Attack] from Princess Fee and her fellow knights. It's still vindictively chasing after the Shield Hero and her. Her mouth moves, trying to shout a warning to both heroes before it's too late, but once again she can barely hear the sound she makes.
Thankfully, her voice is clearly louder to the heroes than herself. They both turn to look at the direction she is looking at, and clearly sees the incoming threat. The Spear Hero quickly jumps up from the cliff top he's previously sitting on and spins the shaft of his weapon. He hits the ground with the blunt tip of his weapon, cracking the earth and using the force to launch himself into the air, right towards the open, bleeding abyss that is the leviathan monster's jaws. Katarina is dragged behind him thanks to the ethereal chain connecting to their wrists, a ball of blue light starting to form between her cupped hands besides her waist.
Before the Spear Hero falls victim to the reaper's rows of fangs, he holds his weapon up. Stopping the monster from closing its mouth and chewing the hero up like he's holding a pillar. Katarina also seems to have finished charging up her attack, as she pushes her hands forward and releases her attack into the boss monster's seemingly bottomless stomach.. For a few moments, nothing seems to happen as Motoyasu and the monster struggle against each other. The Spear Hero tries to stop the monster's jaws from shutting, and the monster tries to snap the Spear in its mouth like a twig.
Then, the monster starts to glow blue in the middle of his serpentine body, and it blows apart with a macabre shower of blood and gore. Its lifeless body loses the ability to stay afloat in the air, and plunges down below with both Motoyasu and Katarina still stuck in its mouth.
At the same moment, the princess feels a wave of soothing warmth coating her body. Knowing Naofumi's healing spell is being used on her, she hesitantly flexes her fingers, and then tries to sit up. She is immediately pulled into an embrace by the Shield Hero, almost mimicking his death grip around her while they were falling through the air a few moments ago. She has to take a moment and think back on it to fully realize what she's gone through isn't some nightmare. And then, her mind finally registers the near incoherent rambling in her ears from Naofumi. "Oh, Mein! We, we are alive! We made it through!"
She can understand the Shield Hero's belated shock, and panic. She's still having a hard time even accepting what happened to the two of them. She tightens her arms around the back of her Naofumi. "Yes, we are alive, Master Naofumi. But it's not over yet. The Wave is still going on, and there may be more of that teleporting Wavespawn. We have to get moving."
"Yes, yes, of course!" The Shield Hero manages to catch himself and pulls away from their embrace. He stands up, and helps Mein to her own feet. "Motoyasu and Katarina! I hope they are okay! We'll have to find a way down the cliff ourselves and rejoin them…"
That's when a yellow blur dashes up from the edge of their cliff, and lands right beside them. It takes the princess a few more moments to realize the giant bundle of yellow fluff feathers standing in front of them is Kou. One of the Spear Hero's monarch filorials. "Climb on, Shield Hero and Miss Mage. Kou will take you two to safety!"
"What happened to Motoyasu and Katarina after they fell down with that dead leviathan?" The Shield Hero asks about the Spear Hero and his companion first, instead of climbing on Kou himself, or help Mein up right away. Even with their salvation present itself, the Shield Hero is still more concerned about the well being of his compatriot.
"Daddy and Katarina are okay! Big brother Black Lightning shadow dashed into that giant fish meanie's mouth, and took them with him safely down with a [Descending Dark]. Climb on!" Kou taps his clawed feet. Naofumi immediately helps Mein up onto Kou's saddle, and then he climbs onto it behind her. Kou spreads his stubby looking wings, taps his feet on the ground some more as the air seems to become charged around them. And then, in a burst of electrifying speed, the bird runs straight down the cliff side as easily as if he's running through flat ground. Behind them, the cliff they were staying on a few moments ago exploded into a dust cloud of broken rock and dirt as an exploding fish monster crashed right on it.
Mein isn't ashamed to admit she's holding onto the bird's reign for dear life. Naofumi is pretty much doing the same behind her. And she used to think their gluttonous devil bird was a dare seeking devilish runner.
Below them, the combined Melromarc army has made good progress towards the giant floating leviathan monster that's been spewing out endless crashfishes. Lord Julius behind his half brother Count Seliph, Lady Ishtar is doing the same behind her cousin Lord Arthur as both young mages charge ahead atop the steeds of the knight they are hitching rides from. They aren't simply having a comfortable gallop though, as they keep throwing powerful spells to stem back the tide of monsters to help ease the pressure of the rest of the Melromarc knights as they push forward. But the true test to the combined Melromarc army is still ahead of them, as the three remaining leviathan monsters are about to be set upon them.
"Leviathan ahead!" "I got it!" Lord Arthur's warning is perhaps not needed, as Lady Ishtar has already flipped her dragonblood grimoire open behind him. Once again, the death sphere of a highly charged, and compressed lightning ball forms atop of the thunder heiress as she prepares to launch it towards the leviathan monsters.
The giant monster might have been able to evade the attack, if two figures didn't suddenly jump onto its head, and run their katanas through its eyes. It writhes in pain as it's blinded by both Coach Zellus, and the Spear Hero's newest monarch filorial.
"[Mjolnir - Thunder Lord's Hammer]!" Ishtar throws her the strongest attack of Thrud bloodline into the still flailing monster as both Vice-Captain Zellus and Karasuba jump off the monster. It lets out a final howl as the attack cooks it alive from inside, crushing many smaller Wavespawn below it with its charred body.
"Lend me your power, brother!" "Try not to hurt yourself this time!" Lord Seliph jumps off his running steed right towards the mouth of the remaining reaper. The scion of darkness crosses his arms as his dark dragon grimoire flips open in front of him. "[Loptus - DRAGON BREAK]!"
The ethereal dragon of dark purple rises up from the Loptus tome as it flies upward, opens its maw and seemingly swallows the ascending form of Lord Seliph. For a brief moment, there is only the form of the dark dragon darting up towards the remaining reaper leviathan. And then, the dark purple starts to grow thinner, its color grows more condensed till it's only a black aura surrounding the scion of Baldr and Naga bloodline like a coat. Despite the new, menacing look, the holy blade Tyrfing in the paladin's hand still glows with brilliant golden light as if it refused to be overshadowed even by the power of the old god.
With a loud yell, the Light Prince swings his sword forward, with one of the strongest sword weapon art. Further empowered by both House Chalphy's holy sword, and the power bestowed by the World Eater. "[Golden Dragon Sword - Loptus]!"
The golden dragon of light, and black dragon of darkness seem to intertwine with each other as the swordbearer of House Chalphy flies into the last reaper leviathan. And the monster completely disintegrates after an exploding light so brilliant, its darkness takes all the color of the world away.
And then, the body of Count Seliph begins to drop headfirst down towards the battlefield below, with him seemingly motionless. That foolish boy! He clearly used up all his strength with that attack! Even worse, the last remaining leviathan releases a fireball the size of a mansion down towards them. Unlike the reaper leviathans that despite their intimidating appearance and size can still only attack anyone in close range, the Wave dragon, despite being highly deformed by a traditional dragon's standard, clearly still has some abilities of its original race.
"[Swords of Revealing Light]! Someone grab him!" The Sword Hero raises his weapon, and freezes the body of the unconscious Lord Seliph in the air. It seems like his defensive weapon skill has more use than simply stopping an opponent.
"[Air Strike Shield]!" In the meantime, despite still on the back of Kou and approaching their main force with blinding speed, the Shield Hero throws up a barrier in the trajectory of the fireball. The void dragon's fire ball easily smashes through his defense, but it delays the attack long enough to allow a second, and a much larger golden barrier appears over the army's head to stop the attack. The princess can make out a golden, female form holding her arms up as if trying to absorb the attack at the center of the Miracle barrier.
[Mercy Barrier], the same one used by the Three Heroes' Church battle priest Martin against the undead knights outside the old Boletaria castle. It's the strongest defensive Miracle used by the church, and is believed to be a Miracle given by the mortals strictly by The Holy Spirit, the goddess of death and rebirth.
A pure white filorial leaps up into the air, and snatches the unmoving body of Seliph out of the air just as the Sword Hero's swords of light disappear. Just in time too, as a beam made of highly compressed air shoots out of the group below, seemingly at the void dragon. The leviathan monster quickly swims away, dodging the attack by a hair.
"You didn't learn anything! DAMNIT!" Mein can hear the exasperated yelling of the Sword Hero as they finally approach the main group. "You are still wildly firing your power moves!"
"Actually… I didn't." By comparison, the Bow Hero's voice is much lower and shakier. It makes the princess notice how pale his face looks, as sweat seems to be draping down his hair. One of the giant, floating islands which according to Itsuki was the thing that spawned out those exploding crashfishes suddenly lights up in explosion. It seems like the young Bow Hero was aiming for the reefback, instead of the void dragon leviathan the whole time.
"Nice shot! Itsuki!" The Spear Hero shakes his fist up victoriously. "Two more left to go!"
"Ye, yeah… You guys keep… that dragon off… my back-" The Bow Hero's eye twitches, he is clearly suffering from extreme exhaustion from overusing his weapon arts. Not surprising, considering he was firing them off nonstop to intercept the flying monsters. Despite how much his legs are shaking, he crouches down and pulls his bowstring back, aiming at one of the two remaining floating islands.
"Right! [Meteor Sword/Spear]!" The other two heroes turn up and fire their weapon arts at the void dragon, either not noticing or more likely not understanding the severe condition their fellow hero is under.
"[Arrow… Shockwave]." The Bow Hero lets go a second vacuum shot, and a second corrupted reefback lights up in explosion. The young man's knees finally buckle as he falls forward onto the ground. Sir Crepe quickly runs over and holds him up, as he shakily takes a stamina potion off his belt, pops open the stopper and is ready to bring it up to his mouth.
"STOP!" Rishia's voice streaks across the air as easily as Itsuki's weapon art from earlier. The useless low rank noble girl jumps off the Beige Ritter she was riding behind and rushes towards the Bow Hero, tripping and falling on the ground a few times. "Don't drink more potions, Master Itsuki! You are suffering from potion overdose on top of your exhaustion. You'll kill yourself!"
"WHAT!" Both Sword and Spear Hero whips their heads around to look at the haggard looking girl. "We can die drinking healing potions?!"
"Yeah, Mein almost had a heart attack because she had too many potions!" Naofumi flips down from Kou as he joins his fellow heroes. "Well… she already hurt her heart before, and she took some painkillers which actually work like the drugs. You know, bad for the heart… but I didn't think about dying through healing potions! Although I guess it's similar?"
"All alchemist reagents have some kind of poison for the body. That's where a potion gets its magical property from. And even the poison from healing potions slowly builds up over a threshold that'll eventually kill. I learnt this from big brother Raruk- AH!" The frazzled girl is pushed onto her stomach when Mald roughly shoves her aside.
"Master Itsuki has no time for some stupid superstitions from whatever tribal savage you call a 'big brother'!" The thug masquerading as a knight practically spits on Rishia's face. "Can't you see he's busy saving the world?"
Sir Crepe's unremarkable looking face twisted in anger. The junior knight looks like she's about to toss the haggard Bow Hero aside to give Mald a piece of her mind. But a quick glance at Itsuki's condition makes her suddenly freeze. Although judging with how Rishia acts next, the Three knight didn't have to do anything in the first place.
"It isn't some tribal superstition, you big oaf! Big brother Raruke I grew up playing with was Stormwind's alchemist apprentice. He's certified to run his own alchemist store before I joined Master Itsuki's party!" Rishia gets up and shoves Mald back. Perhaps it's the surprise of her usual behavior, but the much heavier, and armored knight is actually pushed onto his butt. The Stormwind girl half runs, and half rolls her way over the dirt to snatch the stamina potion away from Itsuki's hand. "You need rest, Master Itsuki! Not more potions!"
"Great! Like all the other additional mechanics we don't have to worry about in an actual game isn't enough!" The Spear Hero cries out in dismay.
"Shut up! Stay focused, you idiot!" The Sword Hero manages to control himself much better despite being younger. He gives Motoyasu a slap on each side of his face, calming the much older hero down. "Itsuki took out two of the three corrupted reefbacks. We'll have to finish the final one!"
"Right! Kuro!" The Spear Hero whistles over his black filorial, and points his arm at the single remaining floating island. "Take Ren and I closer to that last monster. We'll have to take it down before it hurts more people!"
The roar of dragons brings their attention above, as a giant form descends upon the last void dragon leviathan monster. For a brief moment, Mein wonders if Gaelion has managed to kill the first one and come to their aid. But then, she noticed the two giant dragons are still rolling on the ground in the distance, their bodies crawling with other Wavespawn.
"MASTER LOPTUS! YOUR HUMBLE SERVANTS HAVE COME TO SERVE YOU!" A scream that can be best described as nail scratching across the surface of glass rains down on them above. The giant void dragon crashes onto the lowland ahead of them similar to Gaelion from earlier, revealing Midir tearing into its back. On top of the dark eater, ride multiple figures in dark robes and armor. The one currently screaming his lungs out in particular has his figure and face hidden inside a golden gilded, dark purple robe like any self-respecting cultist. "Worry not, my lord! Leave this abomination that dares to corrupt the visage of a noble dragon to us!"
"Well, I'll be," Lord Julius smirks at the raving madman atop of his dragon. "Manfroy, you dotard! You actually made it."
So, that's why Julius didn't bring his pet dragon along with them. He had the giant monster bring up some additional reinforcements.
End Note:
Hope you guys enjoyed the first half of this chapter, where Naofumi and Malty do everything in their power to stay alive in an aerial fall sequence while the flyers in Melromarc army and their allies do everything they can to reach them before the boss monsters do. I was told by Angel Wraith that the sequence was confusing, but I don't think Malty would have the kind of mind that stays rational and in control in this kind of life threatening situation.
I'm a huge advocate in Naofumi is always at his best when he's both underpowered, and forced to be creative. Which is why I decided to add this skyfall sequence in this chapter. While the idea wasn't put in here right before I wrote this wave battle, it's definitely something I planned a few months ahead (as oppose to how this wave will conclude, you guys will see later). Where most of the power he unlocked so far in the story (I already tried my best to limit his power growth compared to canon, mostly I took out ALL his growth bonus abilities and his cursed weapon) are useless when he's put in the worst kind of position I can think of for his build. High in the sky, freefalling where he's high DEF rating won't save his life.
And Rishia finally had enough of Mald's bullying, gives him a piece of her mind herself. I don't have very high opinion on RotSH cast to begin with, but in my opinion, Rishia genuinely could compete for the worst character in the entire cast. "WAH~! MY HUNKY HEROMAN HUSBANDO DUMPED ME! SO I'LL JOIN AND MOOCH OFF THIS OTHER HUNKY HEROMAN TO MAKE MYSELF STRONGER, BEAT UP MY ORIGINAL HUNKY HEROMAN HUSBANDO SO HE'LL LOVE ME!"
*FACEPALM*
This is part of the reason why I consider Naofumi's canon growth bonus ability to be such an absolute cancer. It's unlocked too easily, have basically no consequence and sacrifice to unlock. And it cheapens anything the characters achieve in the story.
Guest review time.
To Andreas:
Not sure you would jump to the newest chapter I published to see my reply to your guest review. But thank you for actually voicing your critique than quietly dropping this story. Both are absolutely valid, and most frequently come up critique to my story. But both problems are also by design due to my own creative priorities.
I don't have a problem with concise stories that focuses on rapid plot in general, but I don't like how oversaturated they are currently (at least when it comes to web novels and fanfictions). In my opinion, Chekhov's gun is a great principle to live by if the goal is to write a concise story that focuses on moving the plot, but the problem with trimming off all the unneeded fat can also make a story feel very conveniently engineered.
While I wouldn't say moving the plot isn't my creative priorities, as I do get excited whenever I DO get to one of the major plot beats I planned for my story (the conclusion of 3rd Wave is a major planned milestone), it's definitely on the back burner compared to other things I wanted to focus on, chief among them being portraying the world over moving the plot. Which is why I staffed my story with a lot of superfluous details you listed in your review. I want to make this world feel more alive than simply a stage for the main cast to tell their story.
On my easter egg reference fetish. Not going to lie, while using pop culture reference helped me with a lot of heavy lifting of world building, the main reason I took most verbatim than tweaking them to be more 'original' (like Zylden is clearly based on Tyrion Lannister but they are not the same character) is because I want to do the pop culture reference. Because I want to work with the 'original characters' so to speak, rather than a cheap Chinese knock off. So yeah, I can understand why people would hate it, but as I'm writing this for fun than for profit, I'm going with what I find fun first.
I can definitely understand this isn't your cup of tea and you would simply drop it, as I myself dropped plenty of stories much better written than mine simply because of some writing quirks that I find distasteful (and I didn't even bother to leave them a review). Cheers!