A Not So Tearful Reunion

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest chapter of Armory of the Forgotten Hero! We've got, an admittedly very short chapter this week. Hadn't been aiming for that but when I went back through it the ending point just seemed like the right spot, but I'll let you decide on whether or not you think it was a good one. At the very least it should prove entertaining and also, feel free to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Now then, with no guest review questions this week, let's dive on in!

Nighttime: The Home of the Hunting Hero

"Wait a minute, hold up," Rifana said while approaching the front of the group to talk to Darius, "you know her?"

"Right, I never got around to the whole story with everything going on," the Armory Hero realized before holding his hand out in introduction, "everyone, this is Yomogi Emarl, the samurai girl who helped me get to Mikakage's capital. And, uh, Yomogi, these are all the friends I was trying to find."

"Don't speak to me as if you and I are friends," she declared while pointing what Darius now saw was a strange straight sword with a guard that resembled a tortoiseshell, "you lied too and manipulated me into helping you, Duo Yamato, if that is your real name!"

"It's Darius, actually," he corrected, "my real name is Darius Saxon. I would've gone by my real name, but I was kinda in enemy territory, and 'manipulated' seems a bit too far. I would've been cool if you didn't want to help me get to the capital, but I can't deny I got there a lot faster thanks to you."

"You shouldn't have gotten there at all!" Yomogi exclaimed, "had I known who you really were-!"

"Kinda proving my point," the Armory Hero informed, "I had to use a false name because of….oh shit don't tell me. Your childhood friend that you loved talking about is KYO?!"

"That's right," Yomogi affirmed while narrowing her eyes, "you poisoned him and gravely wounded his side, it's a wonder he even made it back. Topping all of that off he was furious when he found out I could've delivered divine punishment onto you and didn't!"

"Okay I get what's going on now," Naofumi spoke up, quickly deciding they were getting nowhere with the current conversation, "you're clearly a good person who's just been misled. I mean yes, we nearly killed him but that's because he attacked our world."

"Absurd," the samurai girl barked, "you broke the Hunting Hero out of the Infinite Labyrinth and rampaged through the temple at Mikakage. Furthermore, you stole the vassal katana and tore through the guards in the capital of central city before killing Kyo's associate, Kazuki! If anyone's attacking here, it's you!"

"Then why don't we demonstrate we mean no harm with actions, instead, I'll start," Darius offered as he held up the vassal katana replica and made to dissolve it. But just as he was doing that, Yomogi launched forward while swinging her sword. Naofumi intercepted with a newly unlocked shield, the white tiger clone shield, bracing himself against the surprisingly strong blow.

"Do not think I'll allow you to mislead me again!" Yomogi declared as she slashed against the Shield Hero's tiger-headed weapon a few more times, "you were the one who lied to me in the first place, Darius Saxon, and I'll not allow it again!"

"Freakin' A," Naofumi grunted as he blocked her latest vertical strike, "guess we're doin' this the hard way. Raphtalia! Rifana!" The demi-human girls responded by moving out from either side of the cardinal hero, attempting a pincer maneuver.

"As expected of villains," the green-haired swordswoman commented before leaping back to avoid the two weapons, "cowardly resorting to your numbers instead of fighting one on one."

"Don't talk to us about rules!" Rifana exclaimed as her kanabo club collided with her opponent's sword and knocked her back. Her recovery was quick, though, and she parried Raphtalia's strike before countering with a low swing that forced the raccoon girl back. "We've fought too many people who spout their honor bullshit and then throw it away the moment it's convenient for them!" She missed the samurai girl by mere inches then with a vertical attack as her weapon cracked the floor.

"And besides," Glass suddenly spoke up as she jumped into the air with her fans held aloft, "you're the one who broke into Kizuna's home looking for a fight that we tried to refuse, you brought this on yourself!" She swung her weapons and released her Reverse Four Seasons attack then. As the yellow energy blades approached Yomogi, however, she held her sword up and electricity began radiating from it.

"THUNDER SWORD!" She called out as a blast of lightning flew from the blade, not only tearing through Glass's attack but also striking at her. It was only thanks to the fan hero crossing her weapons to block the attack that she wasn't injured, though it did push her back and create an opening for Yomogi to charge, once again at Naofumi. But instead of a shield, her sword impacted with a spear as Darius moved in between them with his replica of the cardinal spear.

"State of Emptiness," the Armory Hero announced as the force of Yomogi's attack was reflected back against her, sending the warrior sliding away several feet before she planted her foot and regained her balance. "Okay, let's just try and settle down for a bit," he said before desummoning the spear and holding up his hands in a placating gesture, "look, no weapons now, I'm not lying when I say I don't want to fight you. If you just take a minute to hear our side of the story I'm certain you'll understand why we're here."

"Liar," Yomogi growled while pointing her sword at him, "there's nothing you could possibly say to convince me that Kyo's the villain you claim he is!"

"Oh no," the cardinal hero remarked with a raised eyebrow, "then how about this: put down that sword and take me out using the other one on your hip. Ya know, the one I gave you instead of the parasitic monster you've currently got in your hand."

"What are you talking about," the samurai girl questioned, "this sword is an excellent piece of craftsmanship."

"In a manner of speaking it is," Darius said, "I never quite explained one of my key abilities: weapon analysis. You see my true title is Darius Saxon the Armory Hero, that's where all of my strange abilities come from. In this case I've been analyzing that sword you've been using the entire time and the effects it's been having on your body. You're probably noticing it right about now too, we haven't been fighting long but you're already out of breath and I've seen your stamina before."

"You better still be talking about fighting," Rifana commented with a raised eyebrow while resting her club on her shoulder.

"Not my best phrasing, I'll admit, but the point is that sword is draining your life force in exchange for the strength it's granting you," Darius revealed, "I know you don't want to believe me but if you just drop that sword and use the other one then I'll take you on in one-on-one combat. That is what you were hoping for, right?" The warrior girl seemed to contemplate this for several moments, her eyes darting back and forth between her sword and the others. Finally, she let out a sigh before lowering her weapon.

"I intended to leave this sword in your corpse anyway," Yomogi stated as she sheathed the tortoise sword. But as she reached for the other sword, an eye suddenly opened on the one Kyo had given her. Even despite the four heroes and their party members shouting a warning it was too late as tendrils emerged from the sword and wrapped themselves around Yomogi's wrist and arm. The samurai girl cried out in pain as the weapon was pulled to her hand and her body started moving unnaturally, like she was a marionette.

"Wha-What is this?!" The stunned swordswoman exclaimed as she was forced to swing her weapon towards Darius. Fortunately, Naofumi quickly intervened and blocked the strike.

"I don't care how you do it," he said while blocking another clumsy strike, "either get rid of that sword or get rid of her, just do something!"

"I might have an idea," Kizuna announced as she raced around the shield hero, "Glass get ready. Breakdown Scale Removal!" A flurry of slashes rained down on the tendrils until Yomogi was finally released enough from the weapon's grip for Glass to smack the weapon with her fans and send it skittering across the floor.

"Don't leave it there," Darius warned as an alert popped up on his HUD, "that thing's set to explode!"

"Leave it to me," Filo said as she rushed forward while summoning a miniature tornado in her hand, "Zweit Wind Cutter!" The sword was picked up just as more tendrils were sprouting from it and sent careening out of the door by the wind attack.

"Rupture Stance Rondo," Glass declared while readying the purple energy blade of her fan, "Tortoise Shell Cracker!" The energy blade went flying and hit the aerial target dead on. The resulting explosion temporarily lit up the night and shook the foundations of Kizuna's home as everyone tensed to see if something else would happen after that. Thankfully, that was the worst of it.

"Whew, that was closer than I would've liked," Kizuna commented while acting like she was rubbing some sweat off her forehead, "what sort of weapon was that?"

"If my analysis was correct," Darius answered, "it was a type of familiar that doubled as a weapon. Kyo likely created it the same way he created the monarch guardians back in our world by using the Spirit Tortoise's energy to create a replica cardinal weapon. It looks like it gave him the ability to control it remotely, too." As if to confirm the Armory Hero's analysis, several small balls of energy came racing back through the door and entered both his and Naofumi's cardinal weapons.

"That's it alright," the shield hero confirmed, "we finally made some progress in retrieving the Spirit Tortoise's energy." It was a good moment, but one that didn't last long as the group's eyes all turned back to the intruder, who was currently sitting on the floor breathing heavily. No doubt she was the most surprised at how close she'd been to dying.

"Hey," Darius decided to take a chance as he offered her his hand, "You okay? No joke that sword was draining your life away just now. Why don't we get you-." He was stopped midsentence as Yomogi slapped his hand away before trying to stand up and draw her sword.

But just as quickly she grew unsteady on her feet and the cardinal hero was easily able to seize her wrist while using his other hand to teleport her sword to his inventory. "Jeez will you cool it for a minute, you're gonna hurt yourself worse than you already have."

"I don't care if I go down fighting," Yomogi replied as she pulled her wrist out of the armory hero's hand, "so just go ahead and kill me already!"

"Uh, yeah, shouldn't have to point this out," the hunting hero chimed in, "but that guy you're fighting so hard for just tried to kill you. Or were you not listening to the part about that sword being remote detonated?"

"Kyo would never do such a thing," the samurai girl tried to argue back.

"Except the sword he made, and was probably remote controlling, just tried to do exactly that," Naofumi pointed out. Yomogi's answer to that was to turn her head to the side and scowl.

"This is pointless," Glass said, "even after nearly getting killed twice by that madman she still wishes to defend him. We'll just have to take her to the castle and put her under tort-."

"Absolutely not," Darius interrupted, "we're trying to prove we're not the bad guys here so why don't we cool it on the war time condition stuff and try something a little more constructive. Rishia, could you give me a hand for a sec?" The green-haired princess nodded and came over to start healing the samurai girl, already understanding the armory hero's intentions.

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing," Yomogi growled, "I saw you pull this with that bandit. You're offering to heal me in exchange for me giving up information."

"You apparently forgot the part where I gave the healing potion to the bandit, after I got him to agree to sharing information," Darius pointed out, "I'm having Rishia heal you right now because I don't want you to die, and because I'm hoping you'll at least hear our side of the story."

"You think I'll believe anything you have to say now," the samurai girl said with a glare, "you already made a fool of me once."

"I lied back then because I was low-leveled and in enemy territory," the Armory Hero replied, "and I honestly didn't think we'd be meeting again. But since we have, I at least owe you the truth for helping me out."

"We should still head to the castle," Naofumi informed, "this girl might not be the only one Kyo sent."

"MASTER! BOSS!" Called Filo and Johann as the pair came flying in from the outside. They'd been scouting around for any other threats on the shield hero's orders and judging by the looks on their faces something was going on. "It's the castle, it's on fire!"

"What?!" The cardinal hero exclaimed as everyone hurried outside. The view wasn't great given that it was nighttime, and they were at a bit of an odd angle on the hill where Kizuna's house sat. But the glow of a fire in the distance was unmistakable. "Gah I should've known! Even if the exploding weapon failed Kyo knew that girl could succeed as a distraction!"

"Then we need to get to the castle now," Kizuna exclaimed, "L'arc, Therese and Ethnobalt are there but they'll need help!"

"What should we do with her, then," Rishia asked as she finished healing Yomogi, "taking her to the castle might be-."

"Perfect," Darius spoke up suddenly before turning to Yomogi, "I can't help but notice you looked surprised about this. Did you know there was going to be an attack tonight?"

"I…..I had no idea," the samurai girl replied with disbelief clear on her face, "that sword was supposed to still be in the experimental phase with the other weapons. I was angry and wanted to redeem myself, that's why I took one of the swords and came here of my own volition. I had no knowledge of this so…..take me with you!"

"Are you both insane," Naofumi asked while looking between Darius and Yomogi, "I know you owe her one Darius, but you can't seriously be thinking of taking an enemy along with us?! And you, why should we believe you won't stab us in the back the moment you get the chance?"

"You said you wanted to prove you're not villains," Yomogi answered, "and I want to prove Kyo is innocent. You can bind me, gag me or anything else you feel you need to do so long as you let me come with you!"

"That might actually be a good idea," Kizuna spoke up after thinking about it for a moment, "I say we bring her along."

"Oh not you too," the shield hero groaned, "does no one get she'll try to kill us if she gets the chance?!"

"Naofumi she came through the front door and demanded one on one fighting," the armory hero reminded him, "trust me when I say she ain't the type to go for underhanded tactics. If she says she'll cooperate with us then she means it."

"I wish to clear the misconceptions about Kyo," Yomogi explained, "once you all see you're in the wrong I'll exact divine punishment. But I shall not harm you before then, you have my word as a warrior."

"I'll hold you to that," Kizuna said, "but if it turns out that we're right, you tell us everything you know about Kyo."

"I have no intention of making a deal with villains," the samurai girl grunted, "but since I've little doubt you'll be proven wrong I'll at least agree to call off my divine punishment."

"Gonna have to be good enough for now," Darius said, "we've wasted enough time as is, so let's get moving."

The Temple of the Dragon Hourglass

"Is everyone here," Kizuna asked as the group appeared in front of their destination.

"I thought you were only able to warp using an hourglass," Naofumi noted, "what did you use just now?"

"It was another skill called 'return transcript'," the hunting hero explained, "it's a skill that lets me teleport to a nearby dragon hourglass. Provided there are no blocks on teleportation, of course."

"I'm guessing it only works with registered hourglasses," Darius surmised, "but we'll discuss that later, we got a castle raid to stop right now."

"And we're already running late," Kizuna said, "let's get moving!" And everyone was about to do just that before Johann spoke up.

"Guys wait a minute," he said, "something isn't right."

"Not right," Rifana repeated with a look of mild confusion, "what is it, Johann?"

"This place, there's the smell of blood in the air," Filo answered, "Master, there are monsters here, but they don't smell like regular monsters."

"Monsters are here," Naofumi repeated as realization dawned on him, "Glass, that teleportation ability that Trash #2 used, it's supposed to be similar to Return Dragon Vein, right?"

"That is correct," the fan hero affirmed, "teleportation is more common in this world than yours thanks to the use of a device that replicates the Return Transcript skill. However, since this is the capital and the hourglass isn't far from the royal castle a blockade has been put up which only allows certain people to teleport here. The device for operating the hourglass to use Return Dragon Vein is also sealed so that only cardinal and holy heroes can use it."

"Not if someone breaks the seal," the shield hero pointed out while readying his weapon. Everyone else did the same as a figure came speeding out of the shadows towards them and leapt up into the air. They came down hard with a powerful spear thrust onto Naofumi's shield, a resounding clang breaking the silence of the hourglass chamber as the cardinal hero stared into the both human and animal eyes of their newest adversary. "You're a…half-beast?"

The enemy smiled before jumping back, giving everyone a full view of who their foe was. It was definitely a female with a ponytail hanging to the left side on her head and a familiar robe-like outfit with light armor. But that was only half the story when it came to this woman. The other side of her body looked like a white tiger had tried fusing with her but only got halfway. But that wasn't all, the spear she held possessed the same type of shell design as Yomogi's sword where the spear's shaft met its blade.

"You," Kizuna exclaimed as recognition sparked in her memory, "what happened to your appearance?"

"Oh come on, now you recognize the enemy we're facing," Naofumi groaned in annoyance.

"Why don't you recognize her," the hunting hero shot back, "we've met her twice before and so has Darius. She's one of the personal bodyguards of that self-proclaimed genius we took out."

"Oh crap you're right," Darius grunted, kicking himself for not seeing it sooner, "that explains the others." Indeed, the now half tiger woman hadn't come alone as two more of her compatriots emerged from the shadows. One was recognizable as the pigtailed guard who now sported birdlike features and a spirit tortoise bow while the other was a long-haired woman with lizard-like features. But what really made Yomogi's eyes widen was the sword the lizard woman was wielding was exactly like the one she'd stolen.

"Oh yeah, now I remember," the shield hero said with narrowed eyes, "Trash #2 had connections with Kyo so it's little wonder you were able to acquire those weapons and your new forms in such a short time. But I'd really like to know what it is about that self-absorbed scumbag that makes you all want to sell your souls to Kyo just to avenge him?"

"What do you mean 'avenge him'," the tiger woman asked, "Kazuki lives."

"Lives," Darius repeated, "last I saw that guy he was cut in half. Don't tell me we killed a double?"

"Oh no," the lead woman growled, her teeth grinding with hatred at the memory, "the man you killed was most definitely our beloved Kazuki. But Kyo made a deal with us, said that he'd revive him if we used the power he gave us to end you and bring down this kingdom. How fortunate it is that both goals happen to be in the same place." She crouched for a moment before pouncing, the bloodlust clear in her eyes as the battle for both the dragon hourglass and the kingdom of Sikul truly began.

Talk about wasting no time, they just had a celebration practically the same day! Though speaking of time, again sorry this chapter turned out a bit short but I hope you can see why I made this the ending point. There's gonna be more than a little bit happening in the next chapter, but that'll be then. Right now feel free to leave a comment or review about what you liked/disliked or if you've got any neat ideas for future chapters. Also, don't forget to check out my book, Plains Riders, on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited! Last thing, feel free to stop by next time as our heroes take on Kyo's latest scientific monstrosities! 'Til then.