Author's Note:
In this chapter, the Shield Hero party heads to Lute to run the errand that Nice Guy (Van Reichnott) wants them to do and decide to make a little money on the side. It results in them having to head into the mines where all three encounter the creature that keeps them up at night to one degree or another. They manage to defeat it, but not without significant scars. They heal up and then once finished in Lute, return to Castle Town to return to Reichnott who, to his word, brings the group to his domain that is nearby Lurolona and as they stop there to take a moment to remember the friends and family they've lost, they suddenly meet someone who is very interested in them…
On a side note, I have a poll up, as I have forever disliked the fact that after Queen Mirellia comes back and puts Malty/Bitch and Aultcray/Trash on trial that even though she sentences them to execution, which considering all both have done, more than warrants it decides to commute those sentences because Naofumi wanted to be petty and change their names to something insulting. The poll is, how many of my readers at the end of the Three Heroes Church arc which is many chapters away, want to see Malty/Bitch and Aultcray/Trash actually executed or how many wish to spare one or the other or both to have one/both of them thrown into the dungeons in chains to live out the rest of their lives?
I want to once again thank Allen Blaster of Virtue of the Shield Hero fame for his comments, suggestions and encouragement and I urge you to read his fanfic as in my view, it is excellent. I also again want to thank Robotech275 of Crafting and Cooking Hero fame for all his help with timelines, Weapon Forms and other comments on this story. He too is a great author and I also urge people to read his and other stories in the Multi World Project like Kampfpanzer who has been and always will be a beta reader that I rely on for help in crafting this story of mine. His work Locked and Loaded in Another World is very good and the best example of a Gun Hero that isn't either far too overpowered and a Matrix/John Wick clone or else a try hard and edgelordy type loser.
Review Responses:
To mk0008: They are now, it took me a moment to figure out how to remove them and make sure they were in my spin-off fanfic meant for them.
To Kreiger Techpreist: Yes, yes they are, and you'll see the value of those seeds of doubt when they meet up again during the Wave and at the Duel.
To BLACKSERFT98: I can't respond to everything you've said, but I'm glad that you're enjoying the story and thankful for the info dumps that you provide. I do read and I do take into account things people tell me and if I ever do get around to doing a rewrite, I'll make some of the mechanics work a lot better.
To MaxPrime: I'm glad you enjoyed the humor, as to this being a harem, I don't know. If it does happen, it won't be until the very end of the story after the waves have been beaten and if I decide that Naofumi would stay (it also depends largely on how the author of canon Naofumi handles things too). So if it happens, it would be as part of perhaps an epilogue where I can let people know what happened after the final battle (or whatever takes place in canon). All I can say is, we'll see.
To Giggity Master: That's a typo, I fixed it, it was supposed to read "I started the cart."
50 Reviews, 40 Favorites, 64 Follows and over 4400 views and counting. Again, thanks to everyone who is supporting me, you are one of the main reasons that I write and will continue to write. As always, I will try to release a chapter bi-weekly, but it will depend on work and life. Let's dive into the story.
"Speaking"
"Thinking…"
"Monster or Therianthrope Speaking"
[Status Magic]
The Struggle of the Shield Hero
Chapter 6
Trauma, Catharsis and Resolve
"Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational. The more cultivated a person is, the more intelligent, the more repressed, then the more he needs some method of channeling the primitive impulses he's worked so hard to subdue. Otherwise those powerful old forces will mass and strengthen until they are violent enough to break free, more violent for the delay, often strong enough to sweep the will away entirely."
― Donna Tartt, The Secret History
We made it into Lute Village just as the sun was going down. I had the girls guard the cart as I headed into the Inn, and thanks to all the shields that the girls gave me to copy, I had one that was small enough to be on my back and to hide under my cloak from view. I managed to get us a room with 2 beds, although I was sure that the girls would all end up in mine before morning.
There was no point in trying to find the Lord of Lute and try to get Reichnott's business done. We settled into the tavern to eat dinner and began to plan how we would approach our few days here. Reichnott had mentioned that Lute was a mining village, so it wasn't out of the question that while we were waiting for things to get done with Reichnott's errand that he said might take a few days that we could ask for permission to mine.
That was on top of maybe ranging outside of Lute to hunt monsters with which to level up and gain more monster materials with which to sell here. Perhaps being away from Castle Town, the Church they might not be able to recognize me and we wouldn't have as much trouble doing business.
We went to our room and went to bed, Raphtalia had a nightmare once more but thankfully she didn't scream like she normally did. It seemed that just by being close to me helped to keep her night terrors to just nightmares. It sadly meant that what I thought would happen, did, and the girls all ended up sleeping with me in my bed. I sighed as once again I likely wasn't going to get much sleep once I had helped calm Raphtalia down and got her and the girls to go back to sleep.
In the morning we had a quick breakfast and then I had the girls wait by our cart as I went to the Lord of Lute's house and introduced myself as Reichnott's proxy and brought him the manifest of the materials he was bringing and then negotiated with him for the things that Reichnott wanted in return. The process was going to take a few days as he'd need to confirm with the villagers on the amount of surplus supplies he could sell.
I asked him for permission to mine and he told me that it was infested with monsters and that if I was willing to clear it, then he'd be happy to allow me to mine and take whatever minerals and ores I could find there and even pay me a little gold. It seemed like the perfect way for all of us to gain experience and strengthen ourselves all while getting metals and ores that we could give to Erhard to upgrade our armor.
I gathered up the girls and already got a headache as I had to deal with Raphtalia and Rifana and even KEEL of all people vying for my attention. It seemed that what Erhard joked about was coming to bite me in the ass. I again told them to knock it off with that stuff as we had a job to do and took them to the site of the mines.
I paused at the broken down foreman's shack by the mine entrance and fed a coil of rope, a broken pickaxe after arming myself and the girls with one each, a lantern and a piece of rusted pipe laying around and received these shields in return.
Pickaxe Shield: conditions met
Rope Shield: conditions met
Pipe Shield: conditions met
Lantern Shield: conditions met
Pickaxe Shield: ability locked:
equip ability: mining 1
Rope Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus skill: Air Strike Shield
Special Effect: rope
Pipe Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus skill: Shield Prison
Lantern Shield: ability locked:
Special Effect: lantern light
I was pleasantly surprised with the shields that I got. The Pickax Shield bonus would be extremely helpful while mining, while the lantern shield would help to light our way. I made sure to equip the girls with their own lanterns so that they wouldn't need to worry about potentially fighting in the pitch dark deep in the mines where lights were sparse. One thing that did intrigue me, was the two skills I got from the Rope and Pipe Shields, Air Strike Shield and Shield Prison.
I first tested out the rope from the Rope Shield and was shocked when I found I could use it to latch onto any object that the rope could be tied to. I then thought about Air Strike Shield, but having never used skills before, thought it best to check the help guide.
[Skill]:
While in battle, a skill may be activated by shouting its title. There are also skills that may be activated by choreographed motions.
Huh, this world does have a lot of RPG game elements, it's no wonder that the three morons would latch on to those things and think that this place was an extension of the games they played.
I held up my shield and shouted "Air Strike Shield" and I saw an icon and it wanted me to indicate the direction to send the skill. I then saw a circle that indicated the range I could send the skill to.
I decided to focus on the ground in front of me, wanting to see what would happen. I could always adjust and practice with it later. A large glowing and semi-transparent shield made of magical energy that looked like an oversized version of my default shield appeared.
I blinked, and so did the girls and we all walked over and carefully reached out to touch it. It felt solid and I turned to Raphtalia first and said.
"Let's test it out, try to hit it with your sword, see if it'll break."
Raphtalia nodded and then drew her sword and with a battle cry, hit the shield with her strongest strike. The sword rebounded away from the semi-transparent glowing shield and did no damage that I, or the girls could tell. After another few seconds, the skill ended and the shield vanished. I nodded and said,
"Well, that'll definitely be useful, once I learn how to use it properly, I'll be able to use it to block an attack, yet still have my shield available to defend as well."
The girls nodded at that, in the mines where room to move would be at a premium, a way for Naofumi to shield more than once at a time would be almost more valuable than gold… almost. I still wanted more gold, and the fact that with my skills as a businessman that I learned in college, coupled with my experience as a salaryman working sales in a medium sized company made me almost giddy to get started as a real merchant selling the products I made. I had even thought about branding and using it as a vehicle to help offset the damage my reputation took from being framed for the crime the kingdom said I did.
But setting all that aside for now, we entered the mines and started to walk in carefully. We hadn't gone too far in as I checked the map to know where to go before the girls seemed to crinkle their noses and I asked,
"What's wrong?"
Keel spoke up, probably because her senses were the sharpest of the trio,
"It smells bad here, like, rotten… I dunno, it's like something died but it's weird…"
I blinked,
"What's weird?"
Keel replied,
"It's like it's everywhere, and I'm not smelling anything else, like, I normally would get a lot of different scents, but this rotten smell is like overpowering everything."
I frowned then, and thought and had everyone shine their lanterns as far down the tunnel as they could while I changed my shield to the Lantern Shield and held it up both to protect everyone and to add extra light. We could see a lot of bloodstains on the wall, ceilings and the ground, but no corpses to be found. That was concerning. I almost thought about giving up, but my eyes caught the glint of ore and I said,
"Keep an eye out, I'm going to mine this part of the tunnel, I see some ore. Hopefully nothing dangerous comes out of the darkness while I'm doing so."
I switched to my Pickaxe Shield and pulled out my pickaxe from the backpack I carried and made sure to check further down the tunnel with the lantern as I set it down on the ground near where I was going to mine into the wall. I didn't see anything dangerous, except yet more evidence of a major fight with gouged walls, bloodstains and pools of blood on the ground. We also saw some large footprints that reminded me of a dog. Clearly there were monsters around, larger ones, and I hoped we were prepared for whatever it was.
I was about to mine one of those gouges that managed to expose some ore to my sight and strangely using the Pickaxe Shield gave me a reticle that I instinctively knew would be the best place to hit with the pickaxe head. I lined myself up, and hit the spot with the pick and then suddenly that part of the cave wall collapsed and a huge chunk of shiny ore was available to pick up.
I took a small chunk of it and fed it to my shield and I received,
Light Metal Shield conditions met
Light Metal Shield: abilities locked:
equip bonus: defense 1
Special Effect: Magic Defense up
It wasn't anything special, but any little bit would help and add up once I mastered the shield. I also slotted in other ores that my HUD helpfully identified and got a few more shields that added other bonuses that would add up over time. With that done and putting the rest of the ores in my inventory, we continued on. The scene of gore stretched onwards until it stopped abruptly where the end of the built up section of the mine stopped and the natural part of the cave continued. We started hearing the sound of a distant waterfall and underground river which, as we looked at the map, was where we were supposed to go. We continued on and the girls were looking pensive and even a bit nervous and scared, and I recalled what Raphtalia told me about her parents dying to a three-headed dog.
We reached the top of the waterfall, and that's when we saw and heard it,
"GRRRRRRRRRRR!"
It was a big, black dog with two heads, and all four of us froze for a moment. That second was enough for it to attack as it howled a battle cry.
"AWWWWWOOOOOOOOO!"
It ran towards us and the girls started to panic and backed away in fear. Raphtalia screamed and that only seemed to spur the dog monster on more as it bore down on me. I was about to yell back at the girls to get into formation when I had no choice but to hold up my shield and try to hold back the monster.
The attack was heavy and I was worried it would knock me down and crush me. I remembered that wild jungle animals like lions or tigers could weigh upwards of five hundred or more pounds and that kind of weight could easily crush a person, even if they survived the actual pounce.
Its nails were thick and were scratching at my shield, but luckily my shield was indestructible, or it might have damaged it and eventually broken through. I had to duck back a bit as both of its heads were attempting to bite me around and over my shield. I had to use all my strength and weight against the shield to push it back and I jumped back towards the girls to give them some cover.
I could stand up to its attacks for now, but that wasn't going to last, and with most of my party disabled with fear there was a real worry that it might ignore me and try and kill them first and they might be so damaged and accepting of it to let it.
Raphtalia screamed and fell onto her backside as the girls all cringed and it began to dash after them. I yelled,
"RAPHTALIA! RUN!"
I barely made it time to jump in front of the monster and shove all three of the girls away, they weren't aware or ready for it and they all toppled over the edge of the waterfall. The fall might not kill them but I didn't want to risk it and so I jumped after them and they instinctively grabbed onto me as I turned my back to take the brunt of the fall into the river. I was lucky that pushing them out of the way had frozen the dog long enough for me to go after them or I could have been in trouble.
We ended up having to swim for our lives in the swirling water until we ended up on the shore a little ways away from the entrance. Looking up, the dog monster was trying to carefully make its way along the cliff face to get to us. I knew we only had a few minutes before it reached us and there was no place else safe to escape to.
I didn't want to have to do this, it was my hubris that led us to come here, knowing that they still held a lot of trauma from the destruction of their very lives due to the Waves. If I could spare them any more pain, I would, it was the responsibility of adults to protect children after all. Their parents made the choice to sacrifice their lives for their children and I couldn't in good conscience make their sacrifice be in vain. Nor could I allow myself to use them as nothing more than living weapons.
They were children, grown by leveling and matured by it, but they still were children nonetheless. I stood up, shaking with the cold and exhaustion and turned my shield towards the creeping dog monster and looked back at the girls, who were crying, hugging each other and traumatized and said,
"Listen… I'm going to block the monster when it reaches here and I want you to jump back into the river and the current should take you out of the mines and to safety outside. When I die, your slave crests will disappear and you'll all be free. You're strong enough that the three of you could make a living being adventurers. You don't have to fight and die for me. Not like this…"
I set myself and got ready to charge at the monster and yelled back,
"I am the Shield Hero, and goddamnit, I WILL PROTECT YOU!"
I screamed in defiance as I ran at the dog creature that ran to meet me and we crashed together, sending the two of us sliding back on the sandy shore. I was tired and sore from the fall down the waterfall and having to swim out of the powerful current so I wasn't fast enough to set myself before the monster bore down on me and managed to bite down on my shoulder. It HURT!
I risked a glance back and noticed that Keel looked shocked and then screamed,
"Wait! No! SHIELD BUBBA!"
It seemed that the girls were starting to come out of their stupor and I yelled again at them,
"What are you waiting for! GET OUT OF HERE!"
I cried out in pain as the dog monster used its other head to latch onto my free arm as I couldn't move, my shield and my high defense and HP the only reason I wasn't in worse shape than I was. Keel grabbed her spear and then yelled, charging,
"NO! I'm not losing anyone else! Not anymore! Not to anything or anyone, ever again! I'm a "Sea Dog"!"
She started to stab the dog in its side and one of its heads disengaged from me to try and bite Keel who danced away. I was losing blood and HP and I heard Rifana then behind me as she sobbed while determined,
"I won't let what happened to my friends and family happen again! I'm not that weak little girl anymore! As the source of my power, the companion of the Shield Hero, commands you!
Erst Flame Arrow!
I glanced behind, just in time to duck and for the flame arrow conjured by Rifana's stave to arc over my head and hit the back of the dog monster. It cried out in pain, being set on fire and released me. The distraction allowed me to grab a health potion and drink it, healing my wounds a bit and recovering my HP. Sadly though, all the attacks did was enrage it more and it glared malevolently at us.
Sadly though, there was one more person here who wasn't a threat, and that was Raphtalia. The dog monster recognized that and snapped at me first to get me to try and get me out of the way and then my eyes widened at who it was really after as I shouted,
"RAPHTALIA!"
I knew I wouldn't reach her in time, and she still looked at me, Keel, Rifana and the dog monster with unseeing eyes that were still locked into the past and the cliffside where she lost her parents and her safety, childhood and innocence all at once. I remembered then those one skill I had gotten and quickly changed shield to the Rope Shield and yelled out,
Air Strike Shield
Just in time, the glowing and semi-transparent shield appeared in the path of the monster, knocking it away, giving me time to get in front of Raphtalia and the other girls to get into position on either side of me. We were determined to protect Raphtalia at all costs.
As the time ticked away on the skill I heard the soft broken voice of Raphtalia behind me say,
"Why… why does it always happen, why did my family have to die? Why did they have to destroy our village and enslave us? Why? Why? WHY?"
She screamed and I closed my eyes, she reminded me at that moment of my brother, who had broken under the expectations of my parents who were so disappointed in me, that they poured all their attention and expectation on him to ensure he didn't end up like me. I recalled what I told him when he had rebelled and he had told me why and I said something similar to Raphtalia,
"I'm sorry Raphtalia… the world isn't fair, sometimes good people suffer while bad people thrive. We can only live our lives the best way that we can and hope and pray that it's enough. That said…
I looked her in the eyes and noticed that she was listening to me and slowly coming back from the hell of her trauma and continued,
"Unlike most, we have the power, the strength, the will and the resolve and even the DUTY to do something about it. Maybe we can't save your parents, or even the ones that have already died, but what we CAN do, is do something about the ones who might suffer the same fate as you.
That's why I'm the Shield Hero, that's my job… and… only you and your friends can help me. I can't fight. I can only defend. But you know? That's enough for me. I'm fine with that, and do you know why? I have three strong, and brave girls to stand by my side and be my sword, spear and magic for me.
I need you Raphtalia, I need you to be my sword, to fight the monsters that come from the Waves, to help me save the people that would suffer like you and your friends. To keep what happened to Lurolona from happening again. I need you to stand up, I need you to draw your sword, stand beside me, Rifana and Keel and KILL THIS STUPID MONSTER!"
Just as my skill ran out, I saw the light return to Raphtalia's eyes, it seemed like my speech had helped her to come to a decision. She stood up on shaky legs and drew her sword and I saw a determined look on her face as she said to me,
"Master Naofumi… you're right, I'm not that scared, weak little girl anymore. You taught me to fight, to be brave, and to be your sword. Well, I AM your sword and I will never give that up to anyone! Not Keel, not Rifana, not ANYONE! So no stupid dog monster is going to stop me now. I can't let it hurt anyone else, I can't let it take anything else away from me! HYAAAAAAH!"
The dog creature had jumped and was about to bite my neck but all of a sudden it was stopped short by Raphtalia's sword that pierced it through its mouth. She looked at her friends,
"Let's send this Wave monster back to Hell where it came from! FOR MASTER NAOFUMI!"
The girls all roared in reply and I can't say that I wasn't sweat dropping from it,
"FOR MASTER NAOFUMI!"
They all started stabbing and attacking it as I jumped in to block it whenever it seemed like it might overwhelm one of the girls and eventually Raphtalia managed to finish it off by stabbing it in its heart, making it stiffen, and then fall over and become inert.
EXP 340
Raphtalia EXP 430
Rifana EXP 450
Keel EXP 440
We all were panting, exhausted, and we fell to our knees together. We were covered in gore, blood and none of us were free from wounds. I had the most serious ones of course from tanking most of the hits, but Keel, Rifana and Raphtalia did not get out unscathed.
Immediately the girls all crawled over to me and latched onto me with a hug that made me wince in pain from my wounds as they sobbed. I patted them all awkwardly on the heads and Raphtalia then looked up to me and said,
"Don't ever do that again! You promised us you'd never leave us! You can't die Master Naofumi! You're too important…"
I could barely make out the whisper of her final words,
"To me…"
Rifana then grabbed my head and shoved it into her cleavage and yelled,
"Right? Right? You're our Master Naofumi! You don't get to sacrifice your life so easily for us like that! Don't do it again!"
I was forced to tap out as I was feeling like I was being smothered by Rifana before Keel separated the two of us and said sharply,
"They're both right! I'm your 'Sea Dog' Shield Bubba! I'm not so unreliable that I need you to die for me, what sort of 'Sea Dog' would I be if that were the case?"
The three of them glared at me then and said in unison together,
"Be more careful with your life Master Naofumi/Shield Bubba!"
I hunched my shoulders, chastened, and then looking at them all, I said meekly,
"Yes girls…"
They all looked at each other and then they all looked relieved at that and then we turned our attention to the corpse of the dog monster. We disassembled it and I fed one of the heads into the Shield and I ended up getting,
Two-Headed Black Dog Shield conditions met
Two-Headed Black Dog Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: alert shield
Special Effect: Dog Bite
After that, we started a fire with what driftwood we could find on the beach and spent the rest of the day resting and healing up.
We made our way out of the mines in the morning, looking worse for wear and some of the townspeople were waiting along with a few adventurers and the Lord of Lute stepped forwards, looking shocked at me, my shield and the girls and said,
"You're alive! You're also the Shield Hero?"
I looked at him wearily and almost thought about just pushing past him but decided to be polite as I still had that errand from Reichnott to complete and said,
"Yes, I am and we've managed to clear the mines, there was a dog monster inside that likely ate up all the other monsters, so it should be safe now to resume mining in there."
The Lord didn't quite know what to think or say, but finally parted the crowd and said,
"Well, we'll investigate the mines to verify your claim, but you all look like you need rest. How about you come to my place and I'll let you get a bath and sleep in my guest room. It's the least I can do and when you're awake and rested, we can complete our business together."
That honestly sounded wonderful, I shook his hand, and he escorted us to his house where his housekeeper served us a filling meal and then showed us to our room. I was so tired and still suffering from the loss of blood from the day before that I didn't even notice the girls helping me out of my armor and into bed, wanting me to get more rest while they all went into the baths to clean up before snuggling in bed with me as they always enjoyed doing and I never had the heart to say no to.
I woke up late in the afternoon, refreshed, had a bath of my own and then went to visit the Lord in his study and conclude Reichnott's business. I was savvy enough to be able to get Reichnott a really good deal and save him money, while at the same time, make the Lord of Lute think that he got the better of the bargain. The mark of a true businessman, to be able to make your client think they got a good deal while you get the better one.
The next day it was time for us to leave Lute as we loaded up the supplies Reichnott wanted into the cart, got George attached to the front and headed back to Castle Town. There were no monsters to speak of and so our trip back took less time than it did to get there. We didn't have any problems getting inside the gates of the city this time and made our way to the Inn where Reichnott was waiting.
We knocked on the door to his room and he bade for us to enter. We walked into a room that, like him, was extremely modest compared to the one Malty had us stay in that second night. I liked this one better frankly, it was clean, and even though it didn't have a bath like the other, it felt safer somehow. He had us sit at a table and I related to him about how the trip went and gave him the bill of sale.
He was impressed with what I had done and when I tried to hand over the money I saved him, he told me to keep it as my commission for being his proxy. I had no objections and I was going to need to get new armor made custom from Erhard and it was likely to be expensive.
He said he still needed the rest of the day to complete his business in the Castle Town so I got myself a room in the same Inn and we made an appointment to meet after breakfast to be able to catch a ride to Reichnott's territory.
We went to Erhard's and I gave him all the materials I got from the mines of Lute and asked him to make me a custom suit of armor that I would pick up in a couple of weeks just before the Wave. He fixed our armor and we went back to the Inn and slept until the next day.
We woke, ate and joined Reichnott in his cart as he drove George who seemed to know the way to go without Reichnott needing to guide him. We spent the trip that took about a week training while stopped, killing whatever monsters that we encountered. I got many more variations of shields, and with some of the cooking bonuses given, all cooking duties were immediately transferred to me to my dismay. It was so good that George was giving me a look that made me want to grab my butt in atavistic fear.
Eventually we made it to his territory and for reference, our levels were now,
Naofumi LVL 23
Raphtalia LVL 26
Rifana LVL 24
Keel LVL 25
He invited us to stay with him, but I knew that my presence would only cause those who already had a problem with him to harass him more. We bade him farewell and began the trek to Lurolona. There was a forest that separated Reichnott's territory from the Seatto one and Rifana suddenly took us on a detour and showed us her 'secret base' where she hid from the Wave monsters.
By this point, the girls were almost fully grown and looked and acted almost like the mid to late teenagers they resembled, and it was a bit jarring. I wasn't going to start anything romantic with any of them at this point, not when their real ages were 10. I wasn't a lolicon after all and to be honest, I grew out of the Otaku fetish for harems. That's not too say I didn't have a few fantasies about it. It's just my own good sense that kept me from indulging my base nature. Well that and the fact that I wasn't planning on staying here after the Waves were finished. It wasn't fair to then to start something that I wasn't prepared to take responsibility for after
Either way the smell of the sea was in the air and as we got closer to the village, we noticed the signs of battle and the scars it left. Buildings were damaged by fire and the battle, both from the Wave and from the knights who came to enslave the survivors. What struck me though was the lack of bodies around. The girls had told me that they did what they could, but there were so many that they couldn't take care of them all. So who did?
The girls left me because they wanted to see if there was anything left of their houses and if they could retrieve some of their personal things. I let them go and started heading towards the beach, feeling nostalgic for Japan as the sea smell reminded me so much of Tokyo.
As I got closer, I noticed a figure on the beach. It was a woman that carried a huge and wicked looking harpoon and had long straight black hair. I was about to raise my hand in greeting and call out to her when suddenly she transformed into… an anthropomorphic orca, pointed her harpoon at me and shouted as my eyes went wide and my Alert Shield blared out a warning,
Dreifa Lightning Bolt
I shouted then,
Air Strike Shield
Shield Prison
Shooting Star Shield
I immediately had the Air Strike Shield appear in front of me, cover myself with a ball made of chains, pipes and shields and with a glowing bubble in front of it as I held my shield out in front of me. It didn't help, the lightning bolt easily shattered all the shields I set up in front of it and slammed into me. I screamed as I felt the worst pain I had ever felt in my life and was blown away, slamming into a building wall and making it crumble around me.
I tried to get up, but my muscles were all trembling and paralyzed from the lightning. I watched the orca person walk slowly towards me as electricity gathered between the prongs of her harpoon and her lips opened up and she spoke to me for the first time,
"Ara Ara, I have some questions for you, and I will get my answers… before I kill you… Now… where are the sur…"
Before I could even respond, I heard a yell from Raphtalia even as I began to fade out of consciousness,
"BIG SIS SADEENA! Noooooo! Stop!"
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's my first actual written battle description. I don't know if I managed to write it out in a way that was both exciting and interesting. I'm using the experience to prepare for the big set piece that will be the Lute wave in 3 chapters and then Duel in the chapter after that.
Next chapter will be in Sadeena's perspective, however unlike the Interludes I did and moved to my spin-off fanfic, this will be a main story chapter and will have very minimal flashback at the beginning to address where Sadeena was during the Wave and why she is here now.
Since I have now posted Chapter 5, as promised, I have removed the Interlude chapters and put them in their own separate side story called The Struggle of the Shield Hero: Interludes and all non-essential character moments and points of view will be placed in there.
Also, I have a question of my readers, who would like to see me do another spin-off that deals with Kizuna and what takes place in her world with meeting Glass, L'Arc, Therese, Ethnobolt and the rest and defeating the Dark Dragon Emperor before she is imprisoned in the Infinite Labyrinth and then meeting Naofumi and Rishia there? I might start it once we get past the Lafan Wave and stalemating with Glass. It wouldn't be updated NEARLY as much as the main story as that will be my primary focus, but I'm curious as to what sort of appetite for it might be.
I have created a Discord for those who want to follow along with my story. I will have a channel for discussions of my fanfic with myself and others as well as a channel where I will post my W.I.P. documents so that people can be spoiled if they like future storylines and events. Invite link is discord . gg / Rx8UkJQwM7 (without the spaces)
