Virtue of the Shield Hero

by Allen Blaster

According to Newton's Third Law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Unfortunately, Naofumi and co will find this to be especially true after returning from their Otherworld trip. Rest of Summary inside. The third installment is here. Multiple pairings. Covers Season Three Territory and beyond. Arc 10: Chapters 14 & 15: The Standoff, and Battle Royale

168. Part Three: Battle Royale

Be aware, I posted two chapters today. Hope you all enjoy this as much as I did!

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Chapter Fifteen: Part Three: Battle Royale

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It was… a confusing mess.

Imagine a tornado hitting your house and then having a hurricane flood the ruins. Now imagine what remained of your home being struck repeatedly by lightning and catching fire, before another, even larger tornado, slammed every other house in the vicinity down where it'd been.

That was pretty much Motoyasu's battlefield right now. He did, of course, have to deal with all the rubble on the ground from the islands and stone pillars that'd been destroyed during his and Sadeena's death match. He was also up against an entire cult of hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals dedicated to ending his life, with these individuals being led by four jerkwads that weaved in and out of the combat like annoying flies. The inside of the underground arena that he was fighting in was around the size of a typical American football stadium.

And then, of course, there were the slave soldiers and mercenaries who did not want to fight Motoyasu, but were being forced to because of the slave crests on their chests.

"Ahhhhhh!" One of these slave soldiers screamed in pain and panic as he swung his mace down at Motoyasu's head. Despite being debuffed, the Spear Hero easily sidestepped the move, switching to one of his weaker weapon forms for a second before punching the guy in the face, effectively knocking him out. The Spear Hero then switched to his strongest weapon form again before driving it through the chest of a cultist attacking him with a poisoned dagger.

It really was a confusing mess. There were those he clearly had to kill while there were others where he had to hold his punches.

Yet despite that, Motoyasu was actually slightly relieved to be thrust into a situation like this compared to the tightrope he'd been balancing on for the past week. Being able to finally cut loose was refreshingly straightforward.

Knock out the mercenaries and slave soldiers being forced to fight him and his comrades. Kill the cultists and Fitoria's enemies using them as meat shields. For once, he didn't have to hold back against his opponents, he was free to go all out with everything at his disposal!

"Chaos Thrust!"

The line of cultists charging him with a variety of weapons fell under his lightning-fast thrusts. Motoyasu barreled past, blood adorning his face as the last thrusts of his skill struck the barrier of the rogue reincarnator that'd been using the line of cultists as a meat shield.

"Hmph! Too bad you're so weak now! You're nothing against my raw talent!" The rogue struck the spear away with his sword, before jabbing at Motoyasu's face.

Motoyasu spun his spear, slapping the blade away with the handle before it could connect. He then brought his weapon around as it glowed with a skill.

"Piercing Thrust!"

The man's eyes widened, and he quickly hopped to the side before Motoyasu's skill struck his body, having gone through the barrier surrounding him.

This caused the Spear Hero to smirk as he faced his ruffled-looking enemy.

"What? Did you think this is my first time seeing barriers like this? Let me tell you, there was a bastard named Kyo who used them all throughout his fight with my brothers and their friends.

"I don't have to just brute force my way through them. I just have to hit them with the right attack!" Motoyasu yelled as he rushed forward again, charging another skill as he did so.

"Defend the great one!"

"#$%^!" The rogue vanished amongst the sea of fighters, both cultists and mercenaries alike converging on the Spear Hero's spot.

Motoyasu weaved through a variety of different attacks. He rapidly switched through various weapon forms of his Spear, knocking out the right people while slaughtering those who wanted to kill him.

Simple and straightforward. Just how the Spear Hero preferred it.

…

Nearby, Amber ducked a slash from one of the Speakers, sweeping out his legs from underneath the guy before impaling her spear through his chest.

The man gurgled, his hands trying to grasp the shaft to keep it pinned in place. However, Amber easily pulled it back out, leaving the cultist to bleed out and die as she spun around, disarming a mercenary attacking her.

"Ahhhhhh!" The hakuko female snarled in terror, swinging a fist at the side of Amber's head.

Amber easily tripped the tiger woman, making her fly past. Her fist instead planted itself in the dying Speaker's chest, finishing him off as it destroyed what remained of the guy's heart.

"Yaaaaah!" As Amber looked for her next opponent, she felt attacks coming from three different directions and jumped high into the air.

Beams of red-hot energy went through the area she'd formerly been standing in. Cutting through cultists and slave soldiers alike.

Looking around before she landed on the ground again, Amber saw the faces of three of the individuals whom she'd recently killed. She could confirm she'd killed them too, as the ahoge on her head was darting left and right. Fitoria recognized them as well.

"Fitoria is teleporting to her closest save spot. Get the Spear Hero and his friends out of there as fast as you can. I am coming to help."

"No need! These people aren't that tough!" Amber said out loud, glaring at the nearest reincarnator who was laughing in delight. His eyes were already glowing, readying another laser barrage, as were his two comrades. "Stay with the flock in case this turns out to be a diversion! Amber and Blondie can deal with them."

"Don't underestimate them. Those attacks they're unleashing aren't natural. Fitoria can deal with them."

"If we run and wait for you, they'll just kill more innocents. We can deal with them." Amber retorted confidently.

"Why you talking to yourself, Bird Girl? You going mad since you can't kill us as easily as before?!" The lead reincarnator of the three laughed as he and his comrades unleashed another series of laser attacks from their eyes.

All three of these reincarnations shared the same type of cheat: [Heat Vision]. It allowed them to endlessly spam this ranged attack over and over again with no incantation, costing only their MP reserves.

Amber blocked and dodged the various attacks, depending on where they were aimed. She was able to use her weapon to block since they aimed exactly where they were looking. But she couldn't do so for too long, as her weapon became unbearably hot after a short time. But the times she dodged, she did so because their attack would hit a cultist or the ground, and not one of the slave soldiers or mercenaries fighting for their lives around her.

Strange, she hadn't noticed any mercenaries trying to attack her lately. She had no time to figure out the reason for it though.

The three reincarnators continued to laugh. Without a flock of Filolials to back her up this time, this was almost too easy. It wasn't going to be long before-

"Fire Steps."

Amber's form blurred, and a series of fiery foot patterns appeared in the direction of the reincarnator on the left upon the activation of a spell similar to Filo's High Quick.

Before he could react, Amber's spear thrust through the barrier, impaling the guy in the chest.

"Urk!" The guy coughed up blood, his two compatriots pausing in their barrage out of shock.

"H-How? These barriers, are…" The reincarnator coughed. The barrier around him vanished.

Amber's face remained set in a frown. "Amber doesn't know. Amber just mimicked how Blondie does it."

…

Yes, Amber had just unintentionally copied Motoyasu's Piercing Thrust skill without realizing she had used her life force to form a defense ignoring attack.

The girl quickly pulled her spear out of the guy as his two compatriots simply continued to fire their lasers at her at an increased intensity compared to before. She moved out of the way, however, allowing the lasers to finish off the first reincarnator as she took to the air.

The remaining two laser visionaries continued to laugh, not caring about one of their own biting the dust again, still believing they held the upper hand on her.

Amber would make sure it wouldn't take long to rectify that mistake of theirs.

---

Up above, witnessing the fights breaking out all over, the main Announcer was trying to get the magitool that amplified his voice during the match to start working again. It looked like a microphone but had a purple crystal embedded in the bottom of it.

"Mr. Strong, we need to get out of here!" One of the secondary announcers was trying to pull him towards the exit of the balcony. The man looked deathly afraid, but everyone's favorite announcer shook his head vehemently.

"No, we can't just run! Not during a crisis like this! We need to try and restore the power to the announcement system somehow! We need to tell everyone to stay put! If too many people try to run for it at the same time, they're just going to crush each other to death!"

As his fellow announcer shook his head and ran for the exit, several figures ran up the steps, going past him towards Mr. Strong.

"What the- Councilman Hickwaal!? And Lieutenant Ambuur too?! How did you manage to get here so fast with so many people in the way!?" The Announcer asked in shock.

"We hitched a ride through the air." The wiry lizardman hissed curtly before sharply pointing with his forked tongue behind him where Sebas could be seen taking off to the air nearby. "What'ss the ssituation here?"

"Ah, r-right, of course! The other members of the Council remotely disconnected our magitools from the network earlier. I'm trying to force it to reconnect, but have been having issues doing so." Mr. Strong admitted.

"Understood. Let me take a look." Hickwaal said with authority. "I know a thing or two about magitools."

"Of course, of course!" Mr. Strong handed the device to the Plump Merchant.

He examined it in his hands for a moment, before closing his eyes and focusing. The process felt similar to enchanting, though it might have been a barbaric way of describing it.

The best way Hickwaal would describe it was that it was still connected to the main magic device below the arena, but that someone, either the Council Members or these reincarnators, had placed a block in the way that kept this magitool from connecting to the power source that powered it down below.

Without a power source, the magitool would be next to useless.

So, thinking on his feet, Hickwaal quickly pulled an accessory from his pocket. A simple enchanted Emerald Band that wouldn't have been worth more than thirty silvers, due to how weak the enchantment on it was.

However, using a process only he or Naofumi could have described, he ripped the magitool from its connection to the power device down below. And forged a connection between it and the band in his hands.

The entire process took Hickwaal fifteen seconds, and he was sweating hard as he handed it back to Mr. Strong. However, the result was that the purple crystal on the end was glowing again. And when Mr. Strong tapped it lightly, the sound reverberated in the room.

"Alright, that should last a good thirty minutes, at least." The merchant breathed in and out heavily.

"That'ss more than enough time for uss to do what we need to do." Ambuur nodded his head, before looking to Mr. Strong. "I trussst you remember the ssscript for code red?"

The Announcer Guy nodded, an excited expression coming onto his face. "Indeed, I do!"

He brought the words to his mind and then began to speak.

---

"AHHHH!"

In her part of the battlefield, a few minutes before Hickwaal had fixed the magic device, Sadeena was pissed off.

Initially, when the Council fled, she attempted to climb out of the pit to chase after them. And she did manage to clear the outer wall and land in the stands.

However, she was still weakened despite being healed. Even now, she didn't have the strength to transform back into her therianthrope form. And countless mercenaries and cultists were impeding her way. Attacking her from all directions since she'd given up the safety of being around allies to try and fight through everything by herself.

"Nadia, I'm so sorry-" A familiar burly man, a good friend from the Mercenary Bar, cried pitiful tears as he swung his war hammer at her face.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

The man was thrown far away with a swing of Sadeena's fist before she deftly caught his warhammer in her hands and pushed ahead.

The guy's body slammed into a stone pillar, crumbling to the ground. He was, fortunately, still breathing, but had likely broken several bones.

"AHHHHHH!" Sadeena screamed as a group of cultists quickly surrounded her, stabbing her with their daggers. The blades didn't pierce very far into her as, unlike Motoyasu, she hadn't been debuffed. And it didn't appear that the buffing magic being used on the reincarnators right now extended to any of their allies.

The scratches still pissed the orca woman off though. She'd already lost a lot of blood today.

"Zweite Chain Lightning!" After quickly chanting the spell with gritted teeth, she cast it on herself.

The cultists all cried out as they disintegrated under the powerful lightning attack that left the orca woman smoking, but relatively unscathed.

Her path should have been clear then. And yet, more mercenaries charged her way. Their pikes lowered to skewer her, but their faces were painted with terror and confusion, lit up by the light of the slave crests glowing brightly on their chests.

"RAHHHH!" Sadeena bowled right through them with a feral roar. Placing herself deeper into the thick of the crowd in an attempt to fight her way out.

Only, there were thousands of individuals struggling in this free-for-all. And just one of her.

Civilians and tourists who didn't want any part in the fighting. The few mercenaries, adventurers, and bodyguards not under the Council's direct jurisdiction trying to move various groups of people out of this mess while defending against attacks from everywhere.

Sadeena continued fighting in a blood-frenzied haze. She couldn't recognize whom she was killing or the damage she was dealing or being dealt.

It did not matter. None of it mattered. Her brood was in danger. If she didn't get to them first, then her sponsor would. And then, he and the other Council Members would escape with the children, and then… oh gods…

She couldn't even picture what'd happen then. Her heart was breaking into pieces as she raged, and raged, and raged in futility to try and catch up to her enemies. Barricaded in all sides and trapped in an endless sea of foes.

"Sadeena!"

SLAP!

It was as she'd been about to bring her warhammer down once more that a large pawed hand slapped her across the face. The amount of power behind the hit was shocking, especially since the orca woman was still in her human form. She staggered back as a familiar face filled her view.

"Sadeena, don't you dare kill any more of my men!" Larsa screamed in anger as she pushed Sadeena off the mercenary she'd almost killed. Behind the orca woman, a line of bodies littered the seats.

Many of them were cultists. But more than a few had been mercenaries, slave soldiers who hadn't wanted to fight her or participate in any of this… and tragically, she'd seriously injured a pair of tourists as well, who got caught in the middle of it all.

Sadeena gritted her teeth. She tried to push the panda woman aside to keep going forward. She had to save her children.

POW!

However, this time, Larsa did not hold back. She decked her friend in the jaw, and the force of the hit made the orca woman spin around and fall on her behind.

"Listen to me! I realize how important your kids are to you! If you'd only asked me sooner, I would have done everything I could to help you!" Larsa screamed.

"G-Get out of my-" Sadeena turned forward again, trying to use the warhammer as a crutch to get back up.

"No! Sadeena! Stop! That's… enough. Stop."

Sadeena's rage briefly faltered as the panda woman's clawed hands gripped the sides of her head and forcibly made her look up. Larsa's bestial eyes held a storm of emotions in them that matched Sadeena's own in many ways as she looked down at her, their faces only inches apart.

"Even if you get back up to the balcony, it's useless. Elmelo already cleared the initial rubble away. Those bastards dropped more explosives, collapsing the passages further down. Chasing after them from here is useless, and right now..."

The orca woman shook. Her eyes trembling in their sockets with angry tears forming in their corners, but the panda woman did not let go of her head or look away.

"Right now, the people here are my brood! I cannot allow you to go on killing those I'm trying to help when they need me!"

"Boss, watch out-" Another mercenary cried out while attacking the panda woman with her weapon.

Larsa quickly turned, however, grabbing the girl she recognized and restraining her before Sadeena's eyes.

"Halt, Saxon's order was to kill them, right?" Larsa asked in a sudden, calm voice.

The mercenary woman was crying but nodded her head.

"Then do what the crest is ordering you to do. And kill 'them'. Kill one of these damn cultists." Larsa said in an authoritative tone. "That idiot left it vague enough that you just have to kill somebody. So fulfill that order against our real enemy here, and after that, you'll have the choice to continue fighting or helping out the civilians that still need to be evacuated. Is that understood?"

"B-Boss-" The mercenary said in surprise.

"I SAID, IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?!" Larsa yelled this time.

"Yes ma'am!" Even though her crest was still glowing bright and inflicting her pain, the woman saluted.

Larsa then proceeded to chuck her at a group of mercenaries contending with the nearby cultists. Sadeena finally looked around, taking in the full scope of the battle royale.

Larsa wasn't the only one giving out these orders. All her faithful lieutenants were weaving through the battle. Elmelo, the elephant woman, was trapping cultists inside prisons of stone with her magic, making it easier for those suffering from the slave crests to kill them.

Hou-Lon ran on all fours to assist his brethren, the last surviving veterans from the same war as him, who had already fulfilled the orders of their crests and were helping the younger hakuko around them to do the same. And so were the others who'd done so, whether accidentally or intentionally.

Taking down cultists, targeting the Speakers specifically while avoiding confrontations with the barrier individuals as much as possible while getting their men who hadn't been smart enough to realize the vagueness of the Council's order to fight against the right enemies.

Those who managed to kill one of the cultists were then freed from the order. Allowing them to either run from the battle, help with the evacuation from the arena, or help their comrades to eliminate the rest of the cultists once and for all.

"Attention, people of the under city! I have been instructed by one of the Chief of Security's lieutenants to begin speaking on the situation we find ourselves in!"

And then, looking above, Sadeena spotted one of Larsa's other lieutenants. The lizardman standing next to Mr. Strong, who'd retaken his place on the balcony overlooking the arena. His voice drew the attention of many of those in the crowds still panicking and trying to find a way out of the situation.

"I am issuing a Code Red. This is not a drill. Those trapped inside the arena like I am that are unable to fight, get down on the floor near your seats. Do not move until security gives you the all-clear! It is next to impossible to evacuate everyone with this amount of combat going on, so stay low. Do not make yourself a target!

"For those inside and outside the arena, adventurers and mercenaries alike without the slave crest, I beg of you, help our men assisting the Spear Hero and rid ourselves of the vile Cult of the Waves from our city once and for all!"

Where he was on the ground, Motoyasu looked up in surprise at hearing the Announcer speaking again. His eyes then widened further, seeing Hickwaal, who'd recovered his breath, walk up on the Announcer's other side. Khan, as well as Raias and Kaiden, were behind him.

Hickwaal tapped Mr. Strong on the side then, gesturing for the mic to be lowered. And Mr. Strong did so.

"Hello, this is Councilman Hickwaal speaking. For those in need of a bit of motivation, I am announcing a bounty on the Cult of the Waves to the equivalent of 2000 Gold Coins. It is no joke when I say that this cult has long since overstayed their welcome in our city.

"Do not show them mercy. Kill every last one. Those who kill more will receive a greater share of the reward."

Hickwaal nodded to Mr. Strong, who took the magitool back to his lips. He was smirking widely now. "And there you have it folks! Now, let's have some-"

"Oh shut up already!" One of the [Heat Vision] reincarnators stopped firing at Amber briefly to shoot laser eyes up at Mr. Strong.

The announcer flinched in fear but before the beam could reach him, Sebas suddenly appeared in front of the balcony, floating in the air with the help of his wings.

"Hah!"

With a quick horizontal swing of his arm, the butler backhanded the magic attack away, as if it was nothing more than an annoying buzzing insect. The beam bounced off down onto the arena floor, piercing through the torso of one of the cultists, killing the zealot instantly.

"Focus on your own fight there, gutter trash!" Sebas growled as his clawed hand shot back and tore off one of the stone bricks that formed the balcony's outer balustrade.

The eyes of the reincarnator who fired the earlier attack widened and he took a step back. And just as he did, the serpentine butler reached back with his arm and then launched the brick forward at near subsonic speed.

The projectile, covered in a strange energy, pierced the barrier protecting the guy and smashed into the middle of his head. The reincarnator was left reeling and bleeding from the injury long enough that Amber managed to close in. It was only pure luck he didn't die in that moment, but he took a nasty gash along his arm while avoiding her attack.

"Hmph. Can't believe I had to resort to using one of Elrasla's parlor tricks on these worthless vermin." Sebas scowled, but he continued to hover around the balcony. Acting like a guardian angel for his master, as well as everyone else standing on it.

Sadeena took all this in. Mr. Strong continued speaking up above, confidently covering what was happening in the various fights thanks to the protection he was being given by Hickwaal's butler. But the orca woman wasn't paying attention to him anymore.

"Sadeena," Larsa spoke again, making the orca woman turn back to her friend.

Larsa breathed in deep and then held out the Harpoon she'd dropped earlier. "I swear, once we've cleaned up this mess, we'll go to the surface and save your kids.

"I promise, I will give you everything you need to do so, including my life if need be."

"..." Sadeena bit her lower lip as she took her weapon back from the panda woman with trembling hands. "You shouldn't have done this, Larsa. I already told you that you don't need to repay me for anything time and time again. And now you've given up everything that you've been working towards. Even if we make it out of here, they'll hunt you down for the rest of your life. All because of me-"

"Shut up. It's my life and my choice to decide what to do with it." The panda woman harshly cut Sadeena off. "And besides, I was already planning on retiring for a while. Do you know how freaking stupid it was having to pry open a bunch of wood and steel crates several nights in a row to ensure that none of your children were getting smuggled out of the city?" Larsa chuckled at the end.

"It wouldn't have done them any good anyway." The corners of Sadeena's mouth slightly twitched upwards. "Motoyasu used his portal skill to bring Tulip back with him to Lurolona."

"..." Larsa looked at the fighting Spear Hero down below again, before looking at Sadeena with resolve. "Either way, you are my friend, blood debt or not. So stop freaking out and let's get through this."

"Yes... thank you, Larsa." Sadeena nodded, her face turning serious again. Electricity spread across the length of her weapon. "Shall we?"

"Hahaha, yes, that's the champ I know. Do make sure you keep up." Larsa grinned.

"I might not be able to change forms right now, but Big Sis here could still kick your &^% if she wanted." Sadeena bantered back with a small smile returning to her features.

"Big talk from such a small fry!" Larsa laughed.

"Kill them in the name of the Great Ones!"

Oh, their jobs were about to be made a lot easier for them! A Preacher was leading another band of cultists straight to their deaths!

"Try to not get in my way if you can. I've got a bone or two to pick with these bastards." Larsa bared her teeth in a predatory grin.

"No promises, fufufu." Sadeena giggled.

The pair charged the cultists together.

It wasn't long until their religious chants turned into cries of pain and agony.

"And our Chief of Security has teamed up with our favorite Champion to mow down the cultists as well!" Mr. Strong yelled in an excited voice. Helping to calm down the noncombatants trapped in the Arena. "This definitely isn't good for our hated adversaries!"

---

"Hah… hah… hah..."

Saxon's vision blurred in and out as he ran in front of the other Council Members. His face had paled further, and the right side of his white suit was stained with blood from his gaping shoulder wound. The only thing that'd kept him from bleeding out by this point was the nature of how stats affected the world.

Due to his high level, he had a high HP bar. This did not mean his body was fitting more blood than what it could hold. Rather, it meant he was bleeding out more slowly because his HP bar was so big. But even with that, it had fallen to the red. And the effects of blood loss were gradually kicking in.

'Damn it damn it damn it damn it!' The man snarled again as he tried to keep one foot going in front of the other. "Why couldn't any of you morons pack some Healing Potions with you?! You in particular have no excuse, Cain!" He yelled behind him.

"Just get us back to the surface and we'll get you treated, you big bald baby. And once we get to Faubley, you can buy yourself some Yggdrasil's Elixir and restore your arm like nothing ever happened." Cain spat back, his voice trailing with sarcasm.

Saxon snarled like a wild animal again. Right, he could still survive this. He could still become one of the richest men in the history of the world. He just had to keep on pushing.

Just… a little bit… more!

"Heh… heh… heh… heh…"

Another minute passed by. Saxon's face turned another shade of white. His breathes became short and hard to take in.

But then, after turning another corner, his hard work was rewarded.

"Yes, aha, ahahahaha!" Pressing his hand against a stone, the wall opened up before them. Revealing the inside of his largest weapon shop.

'Screw getting a doctor, I have my own Healing Potions in the back!

'I'll just sip one of those suckers, let it kick in, and then I'll be able to… … to…?' Saxon's line of thought trailed off.

Looking down, he saw the tip of a javelin, sticking out the front of his chest.

"H-huh?" Was the only thing that Saxon managed to grunt out.

"Well done, leading us back here, Saxon. But this is where we must part. You have done an outstanding job rounding all of these brats up during the last few months. We'll be taking care of the rest from here. Enjoy your retirement." Judas said with a look of fake sympathy on his face.

"Gurg…" As Saxon tried to speak again, blood sprayed from his mouth.

Judas pulled his weapon out of Zeltoble's largest arms dealer, making him collapse to the ground. Already weak from blood loss, Saxon's body began twitching in its death throes, as this time, Judas had made sure to aim for the heart.

Judas, Delilah, and Cain walked past the bald man's body towards the store entrance.

"Those brats are still in the same safe house as before, right?" Cain asked.

"Yes, let us hurry. We are a bit ahead of schedule, but we should still be able to get them to our buyers." Judas replied quickly. And the three of them would have an even greater share of the wealth too, now that Saxon was out of the picture.

The third person with them said nothing. Delilah hadn't spoken once since they made their escape. The other two were acting as if they could still go through with their original plan, and perhaps they could.

But Delilah knew better. If they'd made an enemy of the Cardinal Heroes…

She steeled her hands. She'd just have to use what her alchemy teacher taught her and attempt to make the deadly Ouroboros Poison for when the Spear Hero came knocking on her door in the future. She wouldn't stand a chance against him in open combat, but that dreaded poison could kill even the strongest Heroes if they ingested it.

She just had to get through this part first and live long enough to get away from these two idiots. It took months to brew a vial of the deadly stuff, but once she had it, she could have it at the ready for when Motoyasu inevitably came for her head.

With these conflicting but somehow similarly aligned goals, the trio went into the store, leaving the body of their associate behind.

…

As the man in the white suit lay on the floor in a growing pool of blood, his life flashed before his eyes in his final moments. He had gotten so far. He managed to climb out of the lowest pits of poverty as a slave. He became one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world. He managed to land an exclusive long-term contract with Faubley. He got to the top and even attained political power as a member of Zeltoble's landowner council at a young age.

And none of it mattered in the end. He was butchered like a pig in his own store.

All the threats. The aggressive takeovers. The sabotage. The arson. The murder of his competitors. The murder of those start-ups that could have threatened him down the road. Using their bodies to climb further and further up. To make sure that he would never have to live like he did once.

Only to end up like this. Alone on the floor.

As the darkness claimed him, one final thought lingered in Saxon's head until the bitter end.

'Would Nadia have helped me right now if I hadn't betrayed her?'

...

Whatever the case, it was too late.

Saxon's eyes glassed over as the Kingmaker of Zeltoble passed on to the next life.

---

"Chaos Thrust!"

Closing in on the rogue reincarnator again, Motoyasu unleashed a series of thrusts one after the other. It was a barrage of attacks hitting all at once, some of them being either a defense piercing or defense rating attack as he wanted to pierce/destroy the barrier around the guy.

"Ha! Ha! Huah!"

Yet, somehow, his opponent was deflecting or parrying each thrust with his sword. It moved like a blur, countering each of Motoyasu's attacks like the bastard knew what it would be in advance, which shouldn't have been possible.

"The Spear Hero is facing down one of the main leaders head-on, but he appears to be struggling to land a hit on him! Come on Spear Hero! You can do it!" Mr. Strong's voice announced from up above.

As silly as it might sound, Motoyasu liked the fact that the Announcer was back. He could tell whenever he looked all around that the regular people were glad he was too, since they were following the earlier instructions to stay put to the letter. Making it easier for the mercenaries, slave soldiers, and now the adventurers in the room to fight without the civilians getting in the way.

"Hahaha, after last time, I looked through all the styles [Swordsmanship] gives me access to find one that could defend against that attack!" The rogue reincarnator gloated. "How do you like a taste of World 11's "Lancereaver" sword style?"

"What the hell are you going on about?" Motoyasu narrowed his eyes as he selected another skill.

The rogue reincarnator fell back into the next line of cultists, however, forcing Motoyasu to slaughter more of them to give chase.

"Kill him! Kill the false prophet!"

This group was led by one of the Speakers. And as Motoyasu mowed down his men, their leader slashed sideways with a dagger, which Motoyasu deftly blocked with the handle of his weapon.

Motoyasu was about to retaliate but then his eyes widened in recognition. He'd seen that dagger before.

"Now you see, False Prophet! It is impossible to stand in the face of our righteous indignation! Bow down, tremble before the might of the true gods, and offer up your soul as penance for your crimes against our world-" The Speaker began to shout with fanatical glee.

Motoyasu's empty hand shot forward like a bullet, grasping the man's throat and cutting him off. "What was her name?" The Spear Hero asked in a threatening tone.

"G-Gurk!" The Speaker struggled to respond from surprise and getting the airflow from his windpipe cut off.

"I won't ask again." A deadly aura surrounded Motoyasu's figure this time. The gemstone of his Spear turned a murky green. "What was the name of the girl that you sacrificed to your gods last week?"

The man's eyes narrowed in defiance. "D-Die, heretic!" He stabbed forward with his ceremonial dagger again.

"Wrong answer."

!

The dagger the Speaker was carrying shattered in his grip. He hadn't even seen the attack Motoyasu used to destroy it.

Motoyasu pulled his spear back and held the man aloft above him, while the Speaker stared at what remained of his gift from the gods in growing terror.

"Lightning Spear!"

"AHHHHHH-!" A bright bolt of lightning came down around the man.

Seconds later, the skill ended, and there was nothing left of the Speaker.

…

The Spear Hero was still in the middle of a battle, but after shaking the ashes off his hand, Motoyasu took a second to bow his head while remembering the scared face of the girl he saw last week.

'I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you then. May your soul rest peacefully now.'

…

Clang!

Motoyasu shook his head as the next cultist's weapon bounced off his armor, and he turned to face the pair of figures that'd engaged him.

"Wait- I remember you two!" Motoyasu's downcast face suddenly brightened.

Motoyasu was not one to believe in coincidences. So today must have been special because he recognized the pair who tried to flank him as well.

The last two cultists were members of the disintegrated Speaker's group, fresh recruits that'd joined only that week. They'd been thrilled at the thought of being able to fulfill their dark cannibalistic desires through the cult. But after one of their weapons bounced off the Spear Hero without leaving so much as a scratch on his chest plate, both stepped back with terror in their eyes.

The aura that surrounded Motoyasu at that moment was very familiar to them, even as brainwashed as they were by the Speaker who'd taken them in.

It was the same two who'd looked at Amber with hungry eyes. Motoyasu could never forget a sin like that, I say!

"Thanks for making my job of tracking you down a lot easier for me! Crimson Thrust!"

Both cannibals cried out in terror, the last thing they ever did as their bodies were entirely disintegrated by Motoyasu's fury.

"And the Spear Hero vaporizes another one of the Cult's Speakers along with his compatriots! Goes to show just how powerful the Heroes of Legend truly are against the actual heretics of our world!"

Mr. Strong's words weren't just motivating the people in the room and causing some to laugh. They were riling up the cultists, making them move and attack erratically. Which would have been bad had people been in the way, but in this scenario, the only people they were attacking were battle-hardened mercenaries, veterans, adventurers, and so on.

Attacking erratically like monsters made them a lot easier to deal with.

"Ha!"

Rogue reincarnator came diving back in to strike at Motoyasu, but the Spear Hero swung around with his spear, hitting the barrier surrounding the guy with enough force that he was launched away even though the barrier didn't break entirely.

Unfortunately, before Motoyasu could pursue, more mercenaries who hadn't killed somebody yet were forced to start attacking him.

"I'm sorry! Please don't kill us! We can't help it!" One of the men cried out in fear as he charged at the Spear Hero, spurned on by the glowing purple light coming from his chest.

Motoyasu clicked his tongue in frustration and switched to his weaker weapon form again, making sure he knocked out each of the mercenaries like before.

"Magic Bullet! Stone Bullet!"

While he was doing this, however, the rogue reincarnator reappeared. Hurtling a large spinning bullet made of Earth at his back. Due to having the weaker weapon form equipped on top of being debuffed, the Spear Hero was thrown off his feet.

"Ack!" Motoyasu coughed up blood.

The rogue slaughtered the other mercenaries still standing there as if they were standing still and laughed as he closed in on Motoyasu again.

Clang!

Motoyasu got up and raised his Spirit Tortoise Heart Spear in time to block the strike. Yet the guy kept on laughing as he then turned into a blur in Motoyasu's vision.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

It was almost like he was using Motoyasu's Chaos Thrust against him now! The Spear Hero backpedaled, still wincing in pain from where his armor had been punctured by the earlier magic attack.

"Sir Spear Hero reengages with one of the leaders! Meanwhile, his fiery comrade has another one of these blokes on the ropes! Do finish him off, Amber! And make it as painful as you can!"

"Man, that idiot's annoying." Rogue reincarnator rolled his eyes before addressing Motoyasu again. "Anyway, how do you like this style?! This one's known as "The Flowing Mantis" on World 37!" The rogue guy laughed. "Those who learn it can strike over and over and over again like a river!"

"S-Shut up, already! Lightning Spear!"

"Whoa!" The rogue stopped laughing as he sidestepped Motoyasu's charged skill, which blasted a hole in the wall below the stands. "Hah! Not bad, spear turd! Too bad I'm buffed out of the wazoo here!"

He began striking at Motoyasu again and again repeatedly to prevent him from charging up another skill.

"I was honestly wondering if we'd be able to fight on even footing again without having access to levels from another world via the Waves, but the arenas here are perfect! We didn't even need to raise our levels all that much in the end! You're so weak right now it's almost pathetic!"

"Piercing Thrust!"

Motoyasu's next attack broke through the barrier, catching the guy's arm and leaving a nice gash along it.

The rogue backstepped again, surprised by the feared attack appearing so suddenly. The dude's weapon hadn't even been glowing beforehand, indicating that he would have been charging up a skill!

"Is that fear?! That is very unbecoming of one who wishes to best the great Spear Hero in combat!" Mr. Strong yelled, pointing a finger down at the guy.

Seeing how the tide of battle was quickly starting to turn, some of the people in the stands began laughing, cat-calling, or booing the rogue reincarnator. And the rogue didn't look very appreciative of it. He looked quite angry at all the names being launched at him from the audience members around the arena who became emboldened by Mr Strong's running commentary that made it feel like this was all an intended part of the show that they all came for.

Motoyasu's weapon began glowing this time, and on top of that, he finished chanting a spell.

"Flames of Hermes, Chaos Thrust!" With his speed boosted, Motoyasu once again began thrusting at the rogue over and over again.

"Pathetic! That move isn't going to work!" Switching to his previous sword style, the rogue began deflecting each thrust in the blink of an eye, despite the move coming at him now like a blanket of spear points.

Motoyasu grimaced, cutting off the life force he was supplying to his attacks. He was already running low as it was.

The rogue retreated behind yet another group of cultists, forcing Motoyasu to waste his strength on another round of playing cat and mouse again.

He slipped some potions out of his Spear while fending off the cultists to charge up his MP and SP reserves again, only for a Stone Bullet to shatter them before he could attempt to drink them.

"Nuh uh uh. None of that now." The rogue laughed as he closed in again.

Motoyasu grimaced as he took a defensive stance this time. Nearby, he saw Amber had just killed the second guy shooting lasers from his eyes. If he could hold out for another minute, then he'd have her assisting him again.

However, he was starting to worry that Meteor Guy hadn't made a single move since the battle had started. He just stood there in the stands, watching quietly with a cocky smirk from behind his line of cannon fodder.

"Don't think your partner's going to come save you this time, Spear Zero!" The rogue laughed after noticing where the Spear Hero was looking. "I'll be finished with you long before that happens!"

"Aha! Ahahaha-"

"Scissor Cut!"

From the side, a familiar girl suddenly appeared from the fray. Swinging the large pair of scissors in her hands like she would a greatsword.

Ksch!

The attack slammed into the barrier surrounding the rogue, shattering it. If not for his backstepping at the last second, he would have been eviscerated by the powerful attack.

"Whoa…" Motoyasu's jaw hung open when he realized who had rescued him.

"What is- THIS IS AMAZING! THIS IS TRULY MINDBLOWING!" Announcer Guy began frothing at the mouth in his excitement. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, OUR LOVELY YET DEADLY MURDER PIERROT, WHO WAS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN KILLED IN HER PREVIOUS MATCH WITH SIR BUBBA, NOW SIR SPEAR HERO, IS ALIVE!"

At his words, more cheers began rising from members of the crowd.

Murder Pierrot stood tall, twirling her scissors around above her head before settling them against her side. A shockwave of power moved off her at the action. She was not wearing the gladiatorial outfit she'd used before.

Motoyasu saw that she wore no jester's hat this time. Instead, she was wearing a white cloak with a hoodie that had purple lining the inside around her shoulders. Her main outfit was also different, having the same colors as her stage outfit, but with the addition of black lining her sides and along her arms. Stitch lines ran along the edges of the black sections of cloth up the sides of her surprisingly sizable bosom down to the wrists of her sleeves.

She had a purple headband with square symbols wrapped around her head, held on by a large button that almost could have been mistaken for an earmuff. The other large matching button was sewn near her waist, holding together a white belt with the same symbols on it as her headband. She wore a pair of short white shorts that exposed the skin of her thighs. The rest of her legs were covered by a pair of leg warmers matching the color scheme of her outfit, as well as a pair of nice tan boots to finish off the ensemble.

The Spear Hero realized that what he'd thought about the girl before absolutely failed to capture just how beautiful she was. The girl wasn't just a ten out of ten. She was at least a fifteen, no, a twenty out of ten, I say! Such beauty and tenderness should have only been reserved for the angels!

While Motoyasu's mind tried to go full-blown simp mode, his attention was drawn to his HUD, which had just notified him that he'd received a request from someone to join his party. The girl's eyes were focused on their opponent, but it looked like it had come from her.

"Please acce██ it." The silver-haired girl asked politely. "I am going to █elp."

"W-What?! You!" The rogue shouted, glaring at the girl in anger.

Motoyasu was not about to argue against backup, even if he was dying to ask the petite girl a million questions, or otherwise simp for her till the day he died, so he readily accepted the request, and Murder Pierrot's info appeared in his party menu. Included amongst her stats was her real name.

S'yne Lokk

Motoyasu smiled. Even her name sounded beautiful in his mind. "Thanks for the assist, S'yne. Is that how you pronounce it?"

S'yne didn't look his way. A bit of red flared up in her cheeks. "Yes, th██'s correct. And y██ ██e Motoyasu?"

Huh, so he hadn't been hearing things before. Her voice really did static in and out. Yet when it wasn't doing that, it was the most sweetest, most gentle, and most beautiful voice he'd ever heard, I say.

"Haha, yup, that's me-"

"Hyah!"

Rogue reincarnator attacked once again, forcing Motoyasu to angrily parry the strike. "How dare you interrupt us, knave!"

"Interrupt you- I'M TRYING TO KILL YOU, YOU &^%$^&-!" The rogue screamed in anger.

S'yne pried her scissors apart, attacking with both halves simultaneously. The rogue blocked her strikes and tried to counterattack, only for Motoyasu to charge him like an enraged ox.

He'd tried to harm the paragon of beauty next to him?! He'd pay with his soul for such an action, I SAY!

Motoyasu and S'yne both began to attack the knave together, forcing him back.

"AND IT APPEARS THAT MURDER PIERROT HAS TEAMED UP WITH SIR SPEAR HERO TO FACE DOWN THE LEADERS OF THE CULT!" Mr. Announcer Guy- ahem, sorry, Mr. Strong was losing his mind. "THE CULTISTS ARE COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY SCREWED NOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

---

Pow! Pow! Pow! Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Ugh, get off me you stupid mutt!" Ksch!

Keel leaped out of the way, her fists stinging as she dodged Kanemoto's magic beam. She then ran on all fours in her therianthrope form as she continued dodging multiple beams of magic hitting the floor all around her.

Keel then struck up into the underside of the reincarnator's barrier, off-balancing him for a second and giving the dog girl time to switch back to her human form and punch in different spots. Trying to find a weak point in the guy's defenses.

"I got him!" Slash! Clang!

Before Kanemoto could strike again, Anya suddenly leaped at the harbinger from behind, a large pair of shadow-colored claws striking the back of his barrier. Despite how impressive they looked, however, they didn't even leave a scratch on the purple translucent field and simply bounced off it like all of Keel's attacks. "Damn it, that didn't break through either!"

"Stupid cat! I thought you were supposed to be a mage!" Kanemoto growled.

"I am a mage! I'm just an unorthodox one!" Anya retorted before diving back into the shadows of the barrier control room.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Kanemoto's spree of magic attacks failed to hit either girl. Anya leaped from one spot to another on all fours, her arms and legs enshrouded in shadows and a layer of wind as she prepared to strike from the shadows again.

The cat girl did dress like your typical mage, yes. But unlike most of the other kids in the Hero Nation who were learning magic, she had not specialized in traditional offensive magic. After sparring against her friend Keel, who powered through anything sent her way, as well as against Granny, Anya had ended up developing in a different direction. Choosing to specialize in support magic that'd enhance her close-range fighting abilities instead of long-ranged offensive magic like her other friends.

If Keel could be classified as a physical bruiser in combat then Anya was the magic bruiser equivalent. But no one would suspect that till after the fight had started.

"Hah!" After jumping over another magic attack, Anya brought her shadow-covered leg down on top of their enemy's barrier. A shockwave of shadow and wind burst out from the area she'd impacted.

Clang!

Kanemoto's barrier left a physical crater in the metal floor from the force of the impact, even if it hadn't taken any damage. And Keel then struck with both fists at the barrier in front of his face.

Kapow! Clang!

The harbinger was sent back sliding across the metal floor again. This guy did not look used to fighting in the slightest. No wonder he'd been the first to die facing Fitoria's flock last time.

Still, despite the two girl's surprisingly powerful strikes and coordinated assault, his barrier hadn't cracked once. Kanemoto smirked as he formed more balls of magic around him.

"Keep on struggling if you wish. It won't matter. You're not strong enough to hurt me. All those clang sounds are proof of that!"

"Tch. If you didn't have that barrier, I would have laid you out flat on your back at the start of the fight." Keel barked back in annoyance.

"Hah! As if! I bet your fleas hit harder than you do!" Kanemoto laughed.

"Hey, I don't have fleas anymore!" Keel refuted, sounding embarrassed.

"...anymore?" Anya paused in confusion while staring at her friend. Kanemoto also paused in his barrage, his face twisting in disgust.

"Yeah, slavery really sucked in more ways than one." Keel shuddered. It was also a big reason why she was far better at grooming herself compared to when she was younger.

…

Pow! Ksch! Slash! Ksch! Pow! Pow! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The three individuals resumed fighting. The reincarnator looked more confused than anything else at how dense the dog girl's skull was.

While the two girls kept the pressure up, Fohl tore another metal panel off the wall, his eyes looking increasingly desperate as he glanced back at the battle before focusing on his task again.

He'd said before that he was a prideful boy, and he was. When the battle had started, he'd tried giving his best shot to break through the guy's stupid barrier alongside the two girls.

But their enemy, whoever he was, didn't even pay him any attention and instead focused on trying to land an attack on Anya or Keel.

Fohl then quickly found that he was accomplishing nothing, and was instead getting in the way of his friends, who were actually pushing this jerk around even if they weren't doing any damage. So, after moving those mercenaries who were still alive out of harm's way, so Keel and Anya wouldn't accidentally kill them in battle and have to live with their deaths in their consciousness, Fohl switched to doing the only thing he could do.

Trying to find those blasted back-up crystals powering this scumbag's barrier and magic attacks.

He didn't entirely understand how Kanemoto was able to control them remotely like this, but if he was being truthful and had an ability that let him steal the energy of magic tools, then Fohl reasoned in his mind that there'd be no energy for him to steal if the source of power of said magic tool was destroyed. He wasn't even worthy of the guy's attention, so he could get away with this while the two girls battered at his defenses, keeping him distracted.

'Come on, where are they?' Fohl tore another metal sheet off the wall. Then tore out some of the paneling beneath it with his claws.

He wasn't finding anything!

Another shockwave went over him, but no Clang accompanied it. Fohl looked back at the battle again.

"H-HOW?!" Kanemoto screamed. A tiny, spidercrack had appeared on the front of his barrier.

"Ha, finally found it!" Keel pumped her sore fist in triumph. "Anya, aim your attacks there! That's the weak spot in his defenses!"

"Urgh!" The man focused, and the spiderweb crack was fixed. "That was just a lucky hit! You're not going to land that a second-"

Slash!

Anya moved so fast, that it was almost like she teleported in front of the guy. Her shadowy claws slashed into the exact spot he'd just repaired, and to Fohl's joy, the crack reappeared and looked even bigger than before. It looked like one of his hands could fit in the gap Anya had created.

"YOU PAIR OF STUPID WHO-" Ksch! Ksch! Ksch!

To enraged to fix the breach in his defenses, the rest of the guy's words were drowned out as he unleashed waves of magical attacks at the two girls, both of whom dodged and weaved, grinning wide in delight as they prepared their next attacks.

The downside was, Kanemoto knew where they were going to strike next to get past his defenses. So they had to be careful.

Fohl went back to work, tearing more panels off the walls with a vengeance. Both girls were putting in so much effort to win! He had to deactivate this idiot's barrier, so they could take him down for good!

As he tore off another metal panel as well as the console beneath it, his eyes were almost blinded by a sudden purple glow.

YES! JACKPOT!

There was a small hole barely several inches wide in the wall here, and down its length was a line of glowing purple crystals.

Fohl reached forward, grasping the first one and pulling it out.

Easy. Almost too easy. Would pulling out the second one here deactivate the line, or only the section? Fohl didn't think about it too much and reached in for the second one.

Ksch! "AH!"

Just as he was about to grasp it, however, his head turned to the side at the cry of pain.

Anya's luck had finally run out. One of the magic balls that Kanemoto kept on throwing around hit her square in the chest when she thought she had an opening. With a pained cry, she was launched backward and slammed into one of the walls.

"Anya!" Keel stopped her assault, turning to face her friend with eyes full of worry.

"Eyes on me, mutt!" Ksch!

Keel was launched like a ragdoll into the back wall of the room as well, leaving a crater in the metal before her body collapsed on the floor with a groan. The maid outfit around her stomach had a sizable hole in it, and the bare skin beneath it looked burned and was bleeding.

Fohl's eyes widened in shock. "K-Keel!"

He ran from the hole in the wall, rushing towards his friend as Kanemoto glided menacingly across the floor towards her.

"I'm going to enjoy breaking you." The man chuckled darkly before raising a fist as the dog girl struggled to get back up, to continue fighting.

Kanemoto laughed as he swung down.

Pow!

…

…

"Hmmm?" The reincarnator frowned.

Keel looked up, wondering who their enemy had just punched.

Fohl stood with his arms and hands crossed in front of him before the injured dog girl.

"Out of the way, trash. You're not worth my time." Kanemoto narrowed his eyes. His simple punch left a nasty bruise on the boy's forearm. Yet, somehow, Fohl was still standing.

"W-Who are you calling trash." Fohl spat out. "With a weak &^% punch like that?

"I could take those all day."

Kanemoto snarled. "How about this then?" He formed a magic ball and fired it at Keel at point-blank range.

Ksch!

Fohl quickly moved, blocking the attack with his arms and torso, which caused him to stagger one foot back. It felt like one of his ribs had just fractured. But despite that, he kept standing.

"Is that all you've got, bastard!? My sister hits harder than that and she can't even stand on her own!" Fohl growled.

The reincarnator's eyebrow arched up angrily. He formed a multitude of magic balls in front of him. "Get out of my way!"

Ksch! Ksch! Ksch! Ksch! Ksch!

Fohl was impacted over and over again as he protected the dog girl behind him. Each attack seemed to hit harder than the last, burning away parts of his clothes and leaving him bleeding and burned and hurt all over.

The tiger boy coughed up blood. It felt like several of his bones were breaking simultaneously. A dull ringing began to fill his ears as the smell of iron filled his nose.

Why was he doing this? Why was he taking this beating for some girl that he barely knew? This didn't make sense. None of it made any sense.

He wasn't as strong as her. The few days he'd spent in the Hero's Nation had taught him all the advantages she'd had to her growth. He hadn't even taken the time to gain any levels. He had no right to be taking this beating on her behalf.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Kanemoto screamed in anger.

"NEVER!" The tiger in him roared in challenge.

Keel's eyes were drawn to Fohl. A gasp fell from her lips.

It felt like her heart had forgotten how to beat in her chest.

The tiger boy stepped forward, enduring the barrage of attacks. His eyes hyperfocused on where Anya and Keel had exposed the gap in his defenses. One which this idiot still hadn't taken the time to fix.

The two girls did have an advantage over him when it came to stats. However, neither of them had Fohl's degree of combat experience. Nor the will to persist even through the worst of injuries.

That was one area where he could outshine them. To persevere even after taking lots and lots of damage.

With a frustrated scream, Kanemoto stopped his barrage to try and punch the trash boy's face.

With a snarl, Fohl sidestepped the punch, and his clawed hand slipped through the gap in Kanemoto's barrier, slashing the reincarnator across his face, catching one of his eyes.

"GAHHHHH!" Kanemoto screamed as if he'd been mortally wounded. The barrier around him fell after Fohl landed the strike.

Fohl nearly slumped forward. He was still covered in injuries. Several of his bones were broken. However, even with the taste of blood filling his mouth, he was laughing.

"Who's trash now?! I'll show you a hakuko's fighting spirit! So be grateful for this once in a lifetime oppurrtunity!" Fohl's speech slurred at the end, but he bunched his left hand into a fist, slamming it into Kanemoto's chest.

The man had at least a double-level advantage over the tiger boy, along with whatever increase he'd gotten to his stats from the buff spells being used on himself. But Fohl's blows hurt.

Kanemoto tried to raise his barrier again, but Fohl lunged forward, biting down on his arm with ferocity blazing in his catlike eyes before the barrier could keep him out.

Keel's eyes widened as she got on her hands and knees.

"GET OFF! LET GO OF ME, YOU PSYCHO!" Kanemoto screamed, his fist slamming into the side of Fohl's head with the force of a jackhammer.

Fohl felt some of his teeth dislodge, and he almost lost consciousness as he let go of the guy's arm. But then he righted himself, dug in with all his strength, and punched Kanemoto in the face again.

The way Fohl was fighting… Keel finally realized why his determination felt so familiar then.

It was just like when she'd protected her friends from the Cursed version of the Bow Hero all those months ago as a kid.

Like her, he refused to budge even in the face of overwhelming odds like a true man of the sea.

Fohl took another punch to the gut, which he returned in kind. A magic ball slammed into his face, but he punched the guy with enough force to knock out one of Kanemoto's teeth. The white object landed on the ground nearby as Fohl tensed his body and kept fighting like a man possessed.

"W-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!? GET AWAY FROM ME!" Kanemoto screamed, fear coming into his voice.

But Fohl didn't waste his breath to respond anymore. He just kept punching and biting and kicking like his life depended on it.

He just had to keep fighting.

He had to keep fighting!

HE HAD TO KEEP FIGHTING TILL HIS BODY GAVE OUT OR THIS BASTARD WENT-

KSCH!

All of a sudden, the barrier around the two was shattered as some kind of huge figure made of black energy smashed into the reincarnator's side.

BOOM!

After the bizarre light faded away, Kanemoto's body could be seen embedded into an impact crater on the wall, before he slumped down to the floor unconscious.

"... eh?" Fohl wondered if he was seeing things or not. That attack hadn't come from him. Anya and Keel were still working to get up. So who…?

"Oh! Whoops, guess I really overshot with that last attack of mine! Man, where the heck did I end up this time?"

Fohl rubbed his eyes. Was he delusional now? It looked like somebody else was there. Some weird spiky-haired kid holding… was that a giant black broadsword?

"Wait, is that…? Asta-kun!" Keel shouted happily.

"Oh, it's him." Anya scoffed.

"Keel! Anya! Boy, am I glad to see your friendly faces! Things really went downhill here, am I right?" The boy laughed, settling his large sword on his shoulder as he laughed.

"Yeah, thanks for taking that jerk out for us! He was surprisingly tough!" Keel spoke excitedly, her tail wagging behind her.

Anya was the exact opposite of her friend though. Her scowl only deepened. "Of course, almost none of our attacks could break apart that stupid barrier of his, but he does so with one strike from his freaking anti-magic blade. Life is so unfair." Anya crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

"Hey, what are you calling unfair?!" Asta yelled angrily. "Anti-magic is literally the only thing I have going for me, you know, even though I've always wanted to become a mage and throw spells around and all that fun stuff! My MP stat is still a flat ZERO even after I got my class up last month for crying out loud!

"So don't go around complaining about this one super specific niche thing I managed to work with when I can't do all the fun stuff you can!"

Anya was about to angrily retort, but she'd finally noticed something when crossing her arms.

Looking down, she found the robes around her chest had been burned away by Kanemoto's spell. Her arms were pressed against skin instead of cloth.

Frazzled, and suddenly blushing like a ripe tomato, Anya brought her mage hat down over her ruined outfit. THAT PERVERTED SON OF A-

Oh… never mind, it didn't look like Asta or anyone else in the room had even noticed. He was still ranting about how unfair the world was to make him magicless. The cat girl sighed and after vowing to tear their enemy apart limb from limb after they were done here, began to speak again. "What are you even doing down here, idiot!? Isn't this place supposed to be a restricted area!?"

Saying that was probably not the smartest call, since they were down here as well. But Anya was too frustrated to care and not to mention suspicious at the convenience of their timely rescuer.

"Oh, didn't you hear? I guess we are pretty deep underground here. The announcement system got turned back on and Councilman Hickwaal put a bounty on every member of the Cult of the Waves. And Councilman Ziro's right-hand man has granted temporary access to all of the arena's facilities to everyone who wants to participate in the bounty hunt."

Fohl… slowly looked from the boy to the wall he'd burst out of to get here.

There were several different tunnels with large holes through them… all several feet thick… just what attack had he been using to cause this amount of damage underground?! Could you really do that kind of stuff with anti-magic?

"Oh, and you are… Fohl, right? I don't think we've fought before, but I heard about you!" Asta gave the boy a thumbs up and grinned, only for his smile to quickly fade as he noticed how beat up the tiger boy was.

"Baksta, will you hurry up? The others need help with the remaining cultists over here." A girl poked her head through the hole in the wall. She was stunningly beautiful, with silver hair and pink eyes.

"Sorry Noelle, think you could use some healing magic on this dude here before that? He doesn't look like he'll last much longer as is." Asta asked with concern while pointing his finger at the shaking tiger boy.

Now that all the adrenaline was wearing off, Fohl was about to pass out from all the injuries covering his body.

"What are you- oh, gods!" Upon seeing how badly Fohl was hurt, the girl immediately rushed in and immediately began reciting water healing magic to help him out.

Fohl wanted to complain that it wasn't that bad, only for his body to finally shudder and collapse to the floor. It was only because of Anya catching him with the shadow constructs covering her hands that he didn't faceplant against the metal in front of everyone.

"Drifa Aqua Heal!"

Before Fohl could pass out, a blue aura of energy surrounded him. The hakuko teen experienced the uncomfortable sensation of his bones moving back into place and knitting together. Of internal injuries being sewn up and healed. Even his teeth were moved back to their rightful spots in his gums.

Not all the damage was healed, but by the end of it, he no longer looked like he was going to keel over and pass out.

"A-Alright, that should be enough to get your friend here out of the danger zone." The silver-haired girl took a deep breath. She looked shaky after her use of magic.

"Thanks, Noelle! You're the best!" Asta smiled at his friend, and for some reason, she started blushing like crazy.

"J-Just hurry up and get back out there, Dorksta! Or else I'm claiming the bounty without you!" She rushed out of the room, still blushing like a ripe tomato.

"Alright, it was nice chatting with you all again! See you later!" The spiky-haired boy rushed out of the exit he'd created, swinging his sword while screaming like a maniac.

"Thanks again for the help Asta-kun! Bye bye!" Keel waved happily.

"May we never have to see his face again," Anya said with a grimace and a shake of her head.

…

It took until then for Fohl to realize the hole in the wall lined up with the line of purple crystals Fohl had been trying to remove earlier. Their shards now littered the floor in front of the hole.

…

…

…

"That was lame." Fohl finally muttered.

"You know what, for once, I agree." Anya shook her head with a sigh. Had their big moment just been ruined by pure happenstance?

Fohl coughed again. His chest still ached. At the very least, he wasn't coughing up blood anymore.

"Hey, are you okay?" Keel asked, suddenly looking worried for him.

"It's fine. I've had worse injuries before." The tiger boy scowled, looking away from the dog girl. "I'll survive."

It was… a lie. Even his one-sided battle with Keel hadn't left him so battered. But he wasn't going to lose face and admit that.

"... thank you." Keel smiled genuinely. "What you did there was really brave and cool."

"H-Huh?!" Fohl looked caught off guard by the dog girl's genuine kindness and compliment.

Yet Keel continued to smile, closing her eyes as a look of pure joy settled on her face. And her tail was wagging rapidly again too. "I'm happy to have you as a friend, Fohl-Kun! You're the best!"

"Urk!" This time, it felt like the tiger boy was punched in the mind and the heart at the same time. His mouth moved, trying to form words, but none came.

Fohl's mind was racing off in many different directions. One part wanted to vehemently deny that he did it because he didn't want the jerk to hurt her! Another wanted to yell that if she'd been more careful, he wouldn't have had to take the beating on her behalf!

Another part was furious that she'd called him her friend. But it was also confusing because it was almost as if he didn't want to just be a friend. Which sounded so stupid and-

"It was brave of him to do," Anya spoke before the tiger boy's brain could achieve a full meltdown. She was holding an empty healing potion vial in her hands. She was also using her shadow magic to cover the large hole in her outfit so she could wear her hat on her head again. "But it was also stupid, not to mention, reckless.

"I honestly thought it'd be hard for anyone to outdo Keel's stupidity. But clearly, I was wrong."

All of Fohl's thought processes ground to a halt. He turned to the girl with fury blazing in his eyes. "What'd you just say?!"

"First," Anya spoke as if Fohl hadn't said anything just now. "You're only level 32. We're both twenty levels above you."

"I'm a hakuko! That kind of level difference means nothing-" Fohl began to refute.

"Second, me and Keel have undergone our class-up rituals. And we both chose the Filolial Class-Ups offered by Fitoria, which doubled all our stats immediately afterward."

Fohl's follow-up retort died in his throat. But the cat girl was far from done.

"Keel and I have also undergone Fitoria's [Growth Revision] training several times. We've had to sacrifice levels for it time and time again, but the boost to our stat growth in attack, magic, agility, and other stats we've focused on has been a tremendous boon for us.

"On top of that, me and Keel both have Hero Service Crests, giving us an even greater advantage in terms of stats and stat growth compared to others.

"Finally, the cherry on top," Anya leaned forward, her face flat and devoid of expression. "Me and Keel have survived and endured Granny's training for much, much longer than you."

…

Fohl stared up at the cat girl, his mouth agape, unable to form any sort of response.

He had a bunch of fighting experience… but nothing could compare to the hell Granny personally inflicted on each and every one of her students with her own fists.

"You might be a hakuko, and you certainly have grit. But in terms of stats, we far outmatch you in every category. To be blunt, I'm surprised you even survived the beating he gave you, considering how much weaker you are compared to us."

Keel pouted. "Anya, you don't have to be so mean about it."

"One of us has to be. Otherwise, next time we face an uphill battle, this idiot might just get himself killed trying to protect us before he manages to accomplish anything useful, if he doesn't realize what he has to do to catch up to us after this." Anya glared at her friend.

"You could just be honest and tell him thank you for saving our butts like I did." Keel grinned.

"I will not encourage more stupidity on his part or yours." Anya deadpanned, her glare not lessening in the slightest.

"Well… well I still think that what he did was brave and selfless and worthy of being called a true man of the sea, so you're outvoted." Keel stuck her tongue out at her friend.

"... Of course you'd think that, seeing how hard you were crushing on him just now," Anya muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Keel asked.

"Nothing." Anya rolled her eyes in disgust. This country bumpkin tomgirl was truly hopeless.

Fohl was sputtering again. Unlike Keel, he had heard what Anya said there!

It was too bad he didn't have time to form a retort, however, as a bright light began to surround the group of three.

"Eh, doesn't this look the same as Bubba Spear's portal skill?" Keel asked in surprise.

"What's happening up there?" Anya furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"What did you mean by Keel is crushing on-" Fohl started to scream.

In a flash of light, the group of three vanished from the room.

---

"Sci██or Blaze!"

"Air Strike Javelin! Second Javelin! Dritte Javelin!"

Moving together, S'yne and Motoyasu attacked the rogue reincarnator, who had multiple gashes and cuts on parts of his body.

His cheat, [Swordsmanship], gave him access to every known fighting style across multiple worlds. After his defeat last time, he'd looked through all the lists, looking for ones he could use against the Spear Hero in their rematch. He'd even practiced getting used to them, even though his cheat didn't require him to practice the sword styles!

It should have been easy! A walk in the park! He should have dominated this match against the weakened Spear Hero from the start, especially with stupid Kanemoto's stupid cheat finally making them all so much stronger!

Quite literally, it was only because of the barrier protecting him, as well as the addition of it buffing him and debuffing his enemies that he was still alive. The rogue's cheat was proving to be as useless as it was the day he first exchanged blows with the blonde idiot.

'D-Damn it! How is he still this strong?! And why does he have HER helping him out?!'

The harbinger began to sweat nervously. They all had explicit orders from their Chief Enforcer in the Third Army to not interact with this girl under any circumstances.

Should they flee then? Then again, this was only self-defense, since she struck them first, so…

Nearby, Amber was closing in on her last target. The rogue realized who she'd be fighting next after that idiot was dead, and he began to sweat even harder.

That fat bastard was still standing back in the stands too, watching the battles all play out! His eyes then narrowed, finally noticing blue strands of light coming from the barrier surrounding him and going into his body.

Wait, was he-

"The cult leaders are on their final legs folks! Sir Spear Hero and Murder Pierrot have one cornered while Amber is wearing down the last of her opponents! I predict they won't last even ten more seconds!" Mr. Strong yelled happily.

The rogue didn't want to admit it, but the guy was right. Things couldn't possibly get any worse than they already were for them right now! If something didn't change soon, then-

Ksch!

All of a sudden, the barrier that'd been protecting the surviving reincarnators, buffing them and debuffing their enemies… vanished.

And with it, the buffs that the knave had been under, and the debuffs S'yne and Motoyasu had been fighting under, disappeared as well.

…

He didn't even get the chance to utter a curse before both the Spear and the Scissors impaled his chest and gut simultaneously.

"Gurk… this is… such… bull…" His body slumped, and fell over, dead.

Nearby, Amber's spear finished off the last reincarnator. It had taken a while, but she was unharmed.

"And they've done it! Four of the Cult's heavy hitters are dead and lying on the ground!" Mr. Strong roared, causing the crowds to roar as well.

Motoyasu looked around himself. There weren't any mercenaries near him at this point. The number of cultists on the arena floor was shrinking by the second. The Listener stood next to Meteor Guy still, staring down at the Spear Hero in shock. But their numbers all around had dwindled to the double digits.

Mercenaries and Adventurers were going row to row, helping those who'd gotten on the ground back up and escorting them to the exits in the arenas. However, there were quite a few who simply got back in their seats, wanting to see things all the way through to the end.

Motoyasu narrowed his eyes. Just the one guy left. The one who hadn't made a move to attack him that entire battle.

The stout reincarnator cracked his hands together. "Huh, Kanemoto must have bit the dust. I wasn't quite done powering up there, but oh well. I still have options.

"This was fun to watch and all. But now that everyone else has had their turn, I'll do the grand finale.

"Yo, clown emoji. You and your followers won't mind lending me your energy, right?!" The guy suddenly bellowed at Cicero.

"O-Of course!" The Listener began to laugh again. "The Cult of the Waves will give their lives to help the Great Ones if need be!"

"Heh, good to know, since you're definitely not gonna survive this." Meteor Guy smirked, finally activating the cheat on his HUD.

"[Drain]"

Streams of clear, blue energy suddenly erupted from Cicero and all the other cultists around Meteor Guy. Motoyasu and the others paused in their tracks, stepping back as tiny streams of energy also came out of their hands, streaming toward their enemy.

Motoyasu's SP bar only dropped by a single point. This attack, if that was what it was, wasn't very effective on either him or the allies surrounding him.

But the same could not be said for the cultists surrounding the stout reincarnator, willingly giving their life force over to him, just like Balamus's followers had done to boost the power of the Replica Weapon.

"What… is this?" Mr. Strong cocked his head to the side. "I don't think I've seen anything like this before."

"Yes! YES! CICERO CAN FEEL HIMSELF BECOMING ONE WITH THE GREAT ONES! OH, CICERO IS SO HAPPY! CICERO IS-" As the Listener of the cultists was screaming in fanatical glee, his body suddenly toppled over. And then, the bodies of everyone else around him toppled as well.

Perfectly healthy, but also, perfectly dead.

Motoyasu's body shuddered in terror, having seen that play out before. He suddenly realized this was more than just the ability Balamus's followers had employed to empower their leader. It was the same thing the Spirit Tortoise had used to kill others around it as it moved from city to city!

"Man, with all the energy that I absorbed from this place, as well as what these freaks gave me just now, I feel like this one should be bigger than the last one, even without my levels from another world boosting its power." The stout harbinger laughed with glee, loving the feeling of soul energy running through his veins.

Bigger- no, he couldn't mean-!

Motoyasu raced across the floor and into the stands towards him, but the guy had already extended his hands above him.

"Magic Bullet: Meteorite Invitation!"

This deep underground, the Spear Hero couldn't see what'd appeared in the sky. But Motoyasu could still feel what was coming. His skin began to crawl and he could feel his hair starting to stand up on his back.

A familiar deep unnerving pressure could be felt in the air all around him. It was just like when he tried to face the spirit tortoise alone.

While Mr. Strong was still confused, Hickwaal and Sebas' eyes clouded with worry. Sebas, in particular, was able to recognize, even though it'd been an unfamiliar chant, that the guy had just used a spell of some kind.

"Ahahaha!" The guy laughed, even as Motoyasu closed the remaining distance. "Can you feel it, spear zero!? The very air around us dancing with death and destruction!

"This is true power! This is-HURK!"

The stout reincarnator's voice was cut off as Motoyasu's spear went through his chest. Yet, even then, his mouth still spread wide in a manic grin as he laughed while choking on his own blood.

"You think you're funny, you piece of &^%$?!" Motoyasu roared angrily. "Die already!"

"Ah...hahaha... that's right... I did say last time... that you can stop this spell by killing me... didn't I?" The guy chuckled evilly.

…

The chill going down Motoyasu's spine grew stronger. A wave of dread seized him by his very soul, even before his enemy muttered his next words.

"Too bad... for you... I lied... hahahaha..." The guy grinned smugly, his teeth tinted red with blood.

Motoyasu's face paled in horror.

The guy coughed up more blood as he laughed. And then, his HP bar hit zero, and he died on Motoyasu's weapon.

Motoyasu threw his body off, looking over at Sadeena and Larsa, who were still fighting side by side at two of the exits to the Arena. At the mercenaries, who were helping to get stragglers out of danger.

Sadeena paused though. Her hair stood on end as she looked at the Spear Hero. She did not know what was happening, but she could tell something terrible was coming.

Amber could feel it too. The ahoge on her head started darting around like crazy as she contacted Fitoria again.

'Fitoria! Something really bad is about to happen up above! Amber doesn't know what to do!'

"I'm almost there. I can- what is-" Fitoria's voice trailed off in shock. "STAY PUT! Whatever you do, do NOT go up above!"

'What-' Amber tried to ask.

"The underground city you're in is a shelter, just like our nest! It was built to withstand attacks like this! But Fitoria's too far away to stop it from landing!

"Whatever you do, don't let anyone go to the surface!" Fitoria yelled in her mind before the connection cut off.

Okay, if Fitoria sounded pretty confident that they would be safe down here, then they would be fine. But the same couldn't be said for Nice Whale Lady's kids or Merchant Guy's friends!

"Sir Motoyasu!" Hickwaal yanked the magitool away from Mr Strong. "What does the spell that man just cast do?!"

The Spear Hero didn't answer as he selected the portal skill again, only to find there was still interference preventing him from using it! &^%$! Even if the blast didn't reach this far underground by some miracle, Sadeena's kids were still in the city! They along with many other people were about to perish from a falling rock the size of an island if he didn't get up there NOW!

"AHAHAHA!" Suddenly, a ghostly translucent figure rose from the body of the stout reincarnator. It looked nothing like him, but somehow, Motoyasu knew it was him. "TRYING TO ESCAPE!? TOO BAD! ME AND MY COMRADES TAMPERED WITH THE HOURGLASS HERE TO PREVENT YOU FROM BEING ABLE TO PORTAL, IDIOT!

"NOW WATCH! WATCH AS YOUR PITIFUL LIVES END IN AN INSTANT UNDER MY OVERWHELMING POWER! AHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHA- URK!"

Looking down in shock and sudden terror, the stout reincarnator found S'yne's scissors piercing his chest. And they looked nothing like her regular scissors either.

These ones were black, with red gems that looked like the eyes of a soul eater in the handles.

Without a word, S'yne opened them up, and the reincarnator screeched as his soul shattered with the sound of breaking glass. Ending his existence for good.

Somehow, Motoyasu knew they were never going to see his face ever again. But even with his permadeath, he could still feel that the Meteor up above hadn't vanished, and was instead falling rapidly towards the ground, now that the stout reincarnator wasn't holding it back with his power!

Should he risk it and try to blast a hole through the ceiling? No! He was nowhere near as precise as Ren was! He would just bury everyone here under tons of rubble before he ever got to the surface!

He was out of ideas! There wasn't a single way to get them all out of there and save Sadeena's kids!

They were toast! They were finished! They were-

Melromarc Wave: 0:00:00

The notification suddenly appeared on Motoyasu's HUD.

"Huh-" A bright light surrounded the Spear Hero, as well as all of his current party members, as well as their party members, and their party members, as his Cardinal Weapon's extended squad feature activated.

"Blondie, what's-" Amber started to ask.

And then, with a bright flash of light, every one surrounded by the light vanished.

---

"HA!"

Judas threw open the doors to the safe house.

…

"Wha…" His eyes widened in shock.

The small abode, having only five rooms, had no kids at the door, waiting to greet their older sister figure. The doors were all open. Toys were strewn about the floor, a ball still rolling around, as if a child had just been playing with it.

But the kids were long gone.

"W-Where's our retirement fund?!" Cain asked in shock.

"T-The crests!" Judas cried out. "It says the kids are all out of range! HOW DID HE DO IT?!" The scarred elder raged.

Cain pulled up his Slave Menu as well. To his astonishment, every single kid under Sadeena's care was out of range of their commands.

They could do nothing to them.

…

…

It was shortly after this realization that Delilah turned around to make a run for it.

And because of it, she was the only one of the three to see the giant, glowing, red-hot Meteor the reincarnator had summoned falling directly onto their heads, as well as the giant bird queen racing towards the city in the distance.

Too bad it was beyond too late. Delilah and her fellow wicked Council Members vanished under tons of rock and fire, dying immediately alongside everyone else on the surface of the city before the Legendary Queen of the Filolials could intervene.

---

"Are you good to keep walking, my love?"

"I… I believe so, dear."

Mirellia held her husband's hand as they walked together through the newly renovated Four Heroes Church.

Before, they'd only managed to remove symbols and memorabilia that indicated this Church's rather spotty past in regard to the Heroes of legend. But now, the interior had been redone entirely. The walls had been painted over and statues of the four Heroes and their weapons were placed in the central Cathedral beneath the area of the Hourglass and along its halls.

The two monarchs had been able to listen to a sermon from the Four Heroes priest as he gave it out to the people of Melromarc. And Mirellia had watched as her people attentively listened to what the priest had to say about all four of the Heroes individually.

The Spear represented loyalty; to one's nation and one's family. The Sword represented power, earned through one's strength and hard-fought effort. The Shield represented one's desire to protect and the ability to inspire others around them to protect themselves. Finally, the Bow represented justice through fairness, whether young or old, peasant or noble.

These were the tenets that the weapons upheld. And it was these tenets that the people of Melromarc had begun to learn in their purity for the first time in centuries.

It made the Queen feel relieved. There was still no sign of her first daughter, but hopefully, as the Four Heroes Church's core doctrines spread throughout Melromarc, it'd make things easier for Naofumi after his return.

There were still people who argued that he was a devil because of the Three Heroes Church's false doctrine. And those who said he didn't deserve forgiveness since he'd been accused of raping a woman and had never been cleared of that charge. But the Queen could see how the attitudes of the people were slowly changing.

Naofumi's sacrifice in saving the coalition army from the Spirit Tortoise's breath attack and then his subsequent charge to the core of the Spirit Tortoise had not gone unnoticed by the average soldier. And even if most of them hadn't been there, the elites she'd brought with her told the rest of the coalition stories of the Shield's heroism which spread through all the ranks like wildfire.

After returning home, almost every single one of her knights had spread what they'd witnessed and heard of the Heroes in action against the massive Guardian Beast to every part of her nation. And most notable among the stories were the feats of Naofumi.

These stories joined with others that'd been told. About Naofumi and the Heroes beating Balamus. Of them stopping the Wave at Cal Mira. Of them going through Melromarc to save the people from the flocks of familiars from the Spirit Tortoise. And others besides those.

Mirellia hoped that the merit Naofumi was garnering for himself would sway the opinion of her people around soon enough. She'd feel more at peace if Naofumi wasn't hated in this world.

And then, when that happened-

Ksch!

The ground around them shook, almost toppling the Queen and her husband over. "W-What was that!?" Mirellia spoke out fearfully.

"My Lady, the Hourglass!" Shadow appeared next to Mirellia, pointing up at the Hourglass in the back of the room above them.

Mirellia and Aultcray, as well as the priest and everyone else in the room, looked up. Their eyes were wide as they witnessed something truly terrifying.

The next wave in Melromarc was not supposed to arrive for at least a few more weeks. But the sand at the top of the hourglass was forcing itself rapidly into the bottom. Draining the top faster and faster and faster.

"D… Dear…" Aultcray, who tore his eyes from the hourglass, looked out of a nearby window and then pointed something out to the queen.

Cracks were beginning to appear in the sky above their city. Like a glass that was slowly starting to break.

Mirellia looked between the hourglass and the cracks forming overhead. And her face drained of color as her brain tried to go into overdrive. First trying to think why a Wave was happening now, before throwing that out and thinking of how she could possibly mobilize her knights or anyone to help them in time as she didn't know if the Heroes would appear for this Wave because of its sudden appearance and…

The Hourglass behind her hit 0 before she could give it any further thought.

CRACK!

Reality broke above the skies of the Capital, and monsters began to pour out from the seams of Glass's world into the city below.

---

Author's Notes:

Funny thing really, the day of Sadeena and Motoyasu's death match lined up for the point in the timeline when Kyo forced a Wave open between his world and Naofumi's world. I actually hinted at that in the previous omake, deranged as it was.

Next chapter will conclude the climax for this arc, and then there'll likely be two chapters I'll post at the same time to close the arc out (we'll see if I have both written by then or not).

Also, I just noticed I crossed the 2M words milestone without even realizing it.

---

Hero Clips!

---

Pandas are Actually Pretty Dangerous

---

"Ooooh."

Kanemoto groaned as he rubbed the side of his head. That last hit had hurt. Had he seriously been defeated by a literal deus ex machina back there?

Well, at least it was less embarrassing than being defeated by a trash tiger boy less than half his current level. Gods, his fighting abilities were &^%$. Why did he have to choose [Magic Tool Thief] as his cheat? His past self was an idiot for choosing that and not grabbing a more combat-oriented cheat, or choosing a cheat that would have given him a better stat build.

It didn't help that he always got stuck at level 68, no matter which world he went to. Don't get him wrong, whenever a Wave connected two different worlds he'd leveled in, he was a lot more powerful than normal. But he never could get over that stupid Exp wall, no matter how many hours he grinded with others to do so!

If he could only do that, then his growth would explode just like a Magikarp evolving into a mighty Gyarados, and-

"Well look what we have here!"

The cardboard cutout of a villain's train of thought was rudely ground to a halt as a shadow appeared over him.

Larsa and her four lieutenants were behind her. She'd wondered if she was seeing things with the crystal ball showing one of the six reincarnations was still down here. But lo and behold, he was still alive.

"Heh, can't say I'm much of a furry, but I love the-" Kanemoto began to smirk.

POW!

Larsa decked him in the face. His nose broke immediately, and Kanemoto cried out in pain.

"Quiet! I'm still deciding what I want to do with you!" Larsa yelled.

"D-Don't look down on me, you-" He swung his fist forward, making one of his magic balls appear in front of it.

Larsa grabbed him by the wrist. The magic attack dissipated against her face, barely doing enough to singe the ends of her fur.

…

Kanemoto began breathing in and out heavily as 'murder' filled the woman's beady eyes. Right, because without a Wave connecting to the otherworld, and without the abilities of the magic tool that'd formerly been operating in this room, he was about as strong as a pre-awakened Rishia.

Or in other words, he was nothing but a Magikarp in the face of a Pangoro at this very moment.

"You know what, I think I know 'exactly' what I'm going to do with you." Larsa grinned predatorily.

"Um… it wouldn't happen to involve letting me go, by any chance, w-would it?" Kanemoto stuttered nervously at the end.

…

Larsa strung him on her back, her lieutenants making way as she yelled at her surviving comrades.

"GET THE ARENA CLEANED UP, BOYS! WE'RE HAVING AN EXECUTION BY DISMEMBERMENT BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING ELSE!"

"W-WHAT!? NO! NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT-" Kanemoto started to scream in fear.

Elmelo stuffed a wad of cloth in his mouth, gagging him. The mercenaries and slave soldiers quickly began moving to fulfill her orders. No hint of merriment or happiness on their faces.

They'd already eliminated the entirety of the Cult of the Waves. Killing Kanemoto would just be putting the last nail in the coffin.

Moments later, Larsa executed him in the same arena his comrades had died in. Ripping off his arms and legs one at a time until he died.

Anya might not have been so literal when she mentioned wanting to do this to him earlier, but Larsa's actions would have made the cat girl happy all the same.

You know, that's one of the coolest things about pandas. They look cute and cuddly, but when they became aggressive…

Well, they are still bears. And bears are no joke, kids.

Kanemoto's soul wouldn't be destroyed as stout reincarnator's had… but the death Larsa gave him would traumatize him until the day he permanently died himself.

---

Hero Clips!

---

What Happened During (oh no)

---

"Damn it! Damn it all!"

A middle-aged fellow with graying hair and a small port belly ran down the stairs to the underbelly of the arena. Gasping and wheezing for breath.

He was not a tall man. He was a little below average in terms of looks and personality. But, as had been established before, he clearly had some intelligence in his head.

However, that stat of his might have dropped since last time since he was now running for the control room, where he'd seen his 'property' engaged in battle via the crystal ball recording everything. First with the mercenaries hired by the Council, and then as he finally got out of the stadium proper, an odd fellow surrounded by a weird purple barrier.

The specifics didn't matter! Fohl and his damn sickly sister were his property! He'd been making good money off the little idiot before his damn kidnapping, and he'd be screwed if he didn't get him back so he could make more money to appease the loan sharks circling his house!

Yes, it didn't matter that fights were breaking out all over. It didn't matter that Zeltoble was about to be flipped on its head. His money and his crippling gambling addiction were clearly more important than anything else.

…

You know, maybe it wasn't that he was stupid. Maybe he'd just allowed his addictions to have too much control over his pathetic miserable life, and that was why he was where he was now.

…

Well anyway, come hell or high water, this man was going to get to that room. Grab that tiger boy by the arm, reapply the slave crest to his chest, forcing him to reveal where his sister was, then grab her and reapply the slave crest to her as well, all so he could force Fohl to fight on his behalf and throw matches to earn him coin once again or else he'd let his pathetic sickly sister die!

…

You know what, I lied. Maybe he was a little stupid.

"Go my children! Go and zap to the extreme! Hihihihi!"

As Fohl's former sponsor came down to the bottom floor, he stopped in his tracks. His chest seized up.

A pair of large, snake-like creatures with electricity coursing over their bodies were engaged with Cultists. Their teeth tore into bodies left and right, their length smashing others into walls, and their fangs danced with electricity that paralyzed anyone they sank into.

But no, these creatures were not what made Fohl's former sponsor begin to seize up in terror.

Instead, it was the masochistic dwarf, ordering his pets around with the widest smile on his face. "Hihihi, Hickwaal is going to owe me so many gold coins after I'm done here." Deloukas laughed in his creepy voice. His glasses sparkled with the bags of money he'd be receiving after he claimed his part of the bounty.

At the very least, he was wearing a spandex gimp suit, so his body was entirely covered this time. But, then again, that might have also been a bad thing, as there was a censor bar covering his lower half.

"AH! AHHHHHHHH!"

Oh hey, the guy showed how intelligent he was yet again as he turned around and fled, terror and PTSD fighting for dominance on his face.

All thoughts of recovering his property and enacting his stupid ideas were thrown out the window. He did not want to deal with that again!

"Hmmm?" Deloukas paused, looking to where the sound of screaming had come from earlier. Odd, it sounded familiar for some reason.

"Oh well! Onward, my pretties! Hihihihihi!" With a creepy laugh, Deloukas and his pets fought alongside the adventurers and mercenaries down below to eliminate the Cultist threat once and for all.

"Yep, this is still not worth all the griffin meat in the world." Followed behind by his loyal, yet steadily more creeped-out bodyguard.

---

Till Next Time

Allen