This is the first of the two chapters today.

Chapter 9: The Wave of Calamity, Part 1

Another week passed in a blink of an eye. And finally, the day the Wave of Calamity opened on Melromarc had come.

That morning, EMIYA and his squad went to Erhard's store for the final preparation. In the final week, they had done all the training and grinding that they could, and EMIYA could say that the three youngsters had grown so much he couldn't recognize them from the naïve, inexperienced adventurer wannabes they used to be when he first met them anymore.

The blacksmith's face brightened immediately when the Sword Hero and his party pushed open the shop entrance. "There you are! I was wondering when you would come! Today is the day of the Wave, isn't it?"

EMIYA nodded. "Yeah. It will begin in about 7 hours, so I thought we would need to be sure that our equipment would be in top form when we go to the battlefield."

Everyone placed their weapons and armors on the counter. The blacksmith looked at them with his professional eyes and hummed.

"Hmm… should take a few hours for all of these to be in their prime condition. You've done quite a lot of training for the last month, haven't you?"

"You don't need to remind us of that, Uncle," Tersia groaned.

"Yeah," Welt also agreed. "I don't want to remember all those tortures we have been through for the whole month…"

EMIYA smirked. "Oh, I see. Then double that amount of training should be our target for next month, ne?"

"Noooooooo…" Farrie moaned miserably. Even though she had improved quite a lot, she was still the weakest member of the team when it comes to physical abilities.

Erhard winced. "You really put them through the meat grinder this month, huh."

The ex-Guardian shrugged. "If they want to grow up enough to fight in a war, they will need that, sooner or later. Better be sooner than later, you know."

Right at that time, two more people entered the shop. It was Naofumi, together with his companion. Seeing the Shield Hero, Erhard grinned.

"About time. The young lady finally needs that change of clothes, doesn't she?"

Naofumi glared at the blacksmith. "Whatever. No matter how she looks like now, she's still just a ten-year-old kid."

The girl in question puffed her cheeks angrily. "Naofumi-sama, I'm not a kid anymore!"

The only person in Team EMIYA who wasn't confused by the weird conversation was the Sword Hero himself. The three teenagers looked like they didn't understand a single word. Farrie looked at Erhard questioningly.

"Um… Erhard-san, I know Sir Shield Hero already, but… who is that girl going with him?"

The blacksmith grinned. "Well I'll be damned. You kids don't know about how demi-humans grow, do you?"

Tersia's eyes widened. "No way. You mean… that pretty lady is Raphtalia-chan?"

Upon the confirmation from the blacksmith, her face turned grim, and she muttered. "Damn it. I wanted to have her as my little sister, but now I have to resort to charming her to be my girlfriend?"

Raphtalia's face turned a healthy blush upon those words.

But EMIYA had to say that his disciple had a point. In just a week, the raccoon girl had grown into a very beautiful woman. Gone had her bushy, tangled mess of hair she had had when they first met her; now her brown hair had grown to her back and looked like it was cared for very well. There was no sign of the sick, malnutritious body of a child a few days ago; now she looked very healthy and had even developed quite a bit of muscle. In short, now the raccoon girl looked like a princess who was trained to become a warrior. Looking at her reminded EMIYA fondly about Artoria, with a personality quite similar to that of Matou Sakura.

"A-anyway," Raphtalia blurted out to hide her embarrassment, "Naofumi-sama needs some equipment! We need to prepare for the Wave today! Please, Erhard-san!"

The poor girl looked like she was pleading now, and the blacksmith took pity on her. He didn't tease her anymore; instead, he turned to the Shield Hero.

"So what do you need, Shield Boy? Considering what you're wearing now, I guess you need new armor and clothes, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Naofumi said glumly. He was still wearing the civilian clothes he got from Erhard. Even though the clothes had been damaged quite badly by the dog monster the other day, his budget and stingy personality had stopped him from buying new clothes. Even the reason why he came here today was because of Raphtalia's constant nagging of him to buy new protective gears for himself. "Maybe just another set of clothes like this is fine…"

"NO!" Immediately, the raccoon girl reacted violently. "I'm not going to let you walk away with it! We're going to get you proper gear today, and we're not going to leave until you have it!"

Naofumi groaned. "All right, all right… Then something cheap should be enough. Something under two gold pieces."

"Two gold pieces… mean about two hundred silver pieces, huh," Erhard pondered. "With that budget, maybe a set of chainmail…"

Before he could finish, killing intent had exploded from Naofumi. The Shield Hero was glaring at him with eyes full of anger and hatred.

"Don't ever mention that to me again," he growled menacingly. The blacksmith winced.

"All right, all right, geez… no need to scare an old man like that…"

He looked around the store. "If chainmail is not good, then maybe iron armor can… Nope, that would be too heavy and would restrain your mobility, and you need to move quickly… A breastplate is not good either; you need protection for your whole body, not just the chest…"

Finally, his eyes stopped sweeping around. He sighed. "Then maybe there's only one thing in my shop that might be a good choice for you. But it might be a little bit out of your budget. And since Sword Bro is also here…"

He walked to the back of the store and brought out two boxes. "These are made from the leather you gave me the other day, Sword Bro. I've just finished them yesterday, and I'm proud to say that they are my masterpieces. I was planning to give the one I made for you today, and showcase the other one in my shop for sale, but…"

He opened the boxes, and the two Heroes marveled at the content inside.

"Behold, the Champion's Garb and Barbarian's Armor."

Inside the two boxes, there were two sets of armor. They were made from leather, and reinforced with an alloy of light metal and siderite. One of them was a long coat with long, reinforced sleeves, armored shoulder and waist plates, and the other was a set of jacket and pants with a long cloak. The long coat was colored red, just like the mantle EMIYA was wearing, and the jacket and pants were dark green and black. They both went together with boots and gauntlets.

"Try it on first, you two," the blacksmith encouraged them, and gave EMIYA the red set, Naofumi the other one. The two heroes looked at each other, then shrugged and went to the changing rooms.

"Wow, you're really rocking it, sensei!" Welt marveled when he saw his teacher walking out of the room.

"You too, Naofumi-sama!" Raphtalia also cheered. "You look so cool and dangerous now!"

Naofumi looked down skeptically at the armor he was wearing. "I look like a bandit wearing this," he complained.

"Who cares!" the raccoon girl said happily. "You look awesome enough for me, that's enough!"

EMIYA didn't say anything. This suit of armor actually looked pretty nice. It reminded him of armors worn by the Knights of the Round Table, especially that of Sir Galahad. And it provided him pretty good protection, too.

Champion's Garb

Base Defense: 100

Endurance +20. Strength +20. MP +200.

Magic Resistance Boost: Very High. Physical Resistance Boost: Very High. Abnormal Status Resistance Boost: High. Heat Resistance: Medium. Cold Resistance: Medium. Self-Reparation. Air Wake. Alert.

There were a lot of bonuses this armor provided. Even the red coat made of a holy shroud he always wore, Hunter of the Red Plains, couldn't provide that much protection. And it seemed the Barbarian's Armor Naofumi was wearing provided pretty much the same thing, too. The skin of the boar lord was seemingly true to its reputation.

"How much must I pay for this?" he heard Naofumi asking.

"It should be 700 silver pieces for everything," Erhard answered. Naofumi groaned.

"Where the hell can I get that much money?! I'm not gonna spend all of our money on a set of armor!"

"Hey, but you have to admit it, this armor is more than worth that much of money!"

"Of course we'll take it!" Raphtalia suddenly jumped in, placing a bag of money on the counter. "But can we pay the rest of the money after the Wave finishes? You know, when we get the monetary support from the King?"

"How could you betray me like that, Raphtalia?!"

Farrie giggled. "You know, now that I think of it, Raphtalia-san sounds more like Sir Shield Hero's wife than his slave, actually."

"She's not!?"

In the end, Naofumi had to buy the armor, much to his chagrin. He had to admit that the protection and bonuses it provided him were very impressive, though, especially the magic resistance boost, which he was severely lacking at the moment.

Raphtalia also got for herself a new set of armor. It included a breastplate and a minidress that hugged her sides, showing off all the curves her grown-up body now had. It didn't offer her as much defensive quality as Naofumi's new armor did, but it was more than enough to both protect her from attacks and maintain her mobility in battle. It's not like she needed more protection anyway; Naofumi alone was enough for both of them.

And of course, Naofumi was groaning in despair. In less than an hour, weeks of grinding, compounding, mining and bargaining efforts had gone up in flame. Not to mention he now also had to bear a big debt!

"Remember to come back for your equipment before the Wave begins!" He could still hear the cheerful voice of the blacksmith even after slamming the door shut.

00:60:00

One hour left until the Wave.

EMIYA took a deep breath. He looked back at his three disciples.

"All right, your first real battle is coming. Are you all ready? If you're not, backing down right now is still not too late."

None of the three youngsters seemed to show any intention of backing down. Their faces all shared a grim determination; they had been preparing for this for quite some time, and it wouldn't be right to let all of those efforts go to waste.

The Sword Hero smiled. "Very well, then… let's go."

Then he pushed open the huge doors leading into the Church of the Three Heroes.

It seemed he was the first one arriving here. The grand hall of the church was almost empty, except for the usual nun who was on duty of guarding the Hourglass. Seeing Team EMIYA enter, she took a deep bow to greet them.

"Good afternoon, Lord Sword Hero. I assume you're here to prepare for the battle of the Wave?"

EMIYA nodded. "Of course. The other Heroes are also coming here, aren't they?"

"Of course, sir," the nun answered. "Oh, I think one of them is already here."

"Woah, Shirou-san is already here? And I thought we would have been the earliest ones…"

He turned towards the entrance, and saw Motoyasu, together with his harem, entering the chamber.

The Spear Hero definitely looked stronger than he had been a month ago. Obviously, he had done a lot to give himself the image of a knight in shining armor; in fact, his armor was actually shining, being made from a type of silvery metal that glimmers in the afternoon sunlight. Beneath the armor was a beautiful crimson set of clothing, and the chainmail he got from the First Princess. However, even though his gear had high stats, it didn't seem to have many protective enchantments. And the Legendary Spear had also changed; it looked quite vicious and menacing now.

Trailing behind him was the First Princess, Malty S. Melromarc, dressed in the adventurer clothes he had seen her in before. Seeing EMIYA eyeing her, she gave him a flirtatious wink and blew him a kiss, which he ignored completely, to her frustration.

"Motoyasu," EMIYA greeted him. "You look quite stronger, I see."

"Of course!" the Spear Hero boasted loudly. "I've done a lot of grinding all this month! The Wave is gonna be a piece of cake!"

"Yeah," the red Hero said dryly. "Don't jinx yourself before the battle; those saying words like that are usually the ones who get killed first on the battleground."

Motoyasu winced. "Geez, Shirou-san, why so serious? This is just the first Wave; there's no way the game could let it be too difficult, right?"

EMIYA shook his head. There's no way to talk sense into his head at this rate. "Whatever. Just don't crawl back to me crying when that happens to you for real."

The next person arriving was Itsuki. He greeted Motoyasu normally, but immediately showed an annoyed face when he saw EMIYA and his team. Looks like he still hadn't forgotten the mockery of a confrontation at the royal castle. He didn't say anything else, just went to a far corner with his party and sulked there while glaring at the Sword Hero.

EMIYA glanced at the clock at the corner of his vision. 00:10:14. Time was running out, and Naofumi and Raphtalia still hadn't arrived.

"Naofumi is late. Where is he anyway?"

Motoyasu snorted. "Who cares about that bastard? Maybe he couldn't face his conscience after doing something that horrible and was hiding somewhere so no one could see his dirty face."

"Excuse me, who has gone hiding?"

EMIYA's eyes turned towards the entrance, and he had to try his best to stop himself from smirking. Naofumi was standing there, with Raphtalia behind him. His face was completely calm, to the point of cold and calculating. He walked into the room, completely ignoring the glare of the First Princess standing right next to Motoyasu.

The appearance of the Shield Hero seemed to send the whole room into an awkward silence.

Finally, Motoyasu was the first one who got back his sense. He sauntered over condescendingly. "What's with that outfit? Are you planning to fight in the Wave wearing such rags?"

"If you want to harass me, leave it until after the Wave," Naofumi answered him in a bored tone, not even bother looking at him. "I don't want to waste my breath talking to the like of you before a fight of life and death."

And just like that, the haughty Motoyasu was reduced to a blubbering mess.

"Hey! How dare you talk like that to Motoyasu-sama!"

And of course, the Bitch had to jump into the conversation. And just like before, Naofumi didn't even bother answering. He just gave her a death glare, which actually managed to make her flinch a bit.

"Hey, who is this girl? She's pretty cute!"

Motoyasu was pointing at Raphtalia. He sauntered over to her, stuck his nose in the air, and began his usual girl-wooing routine he never failed in.

"Very pleased to meet you, my dear. I'm one of the four Heroes summoned to this realm, and my name is Motoyasu. I thought it would be best to make your acquaintance."

Raphtalia tilted her head. "Oh… so you're one of the Heroes?"

"Yes, I am," he looked into her eyes and nodded with a smile. "And…"

"Eh, you don't look as impressive as Naofumi-sama or Shirou-sama."

And the romantic atmosphere of the first meeting was shattered nonchalantly and mercilessly just like that.

Naofumi had to try his best to keep his face calm and impassive. Had it been just him alone in here, he would have laughed his ass off. Ha! Take that, Motoyasu!

"I like this girl already," EMIYA noted with a smirk, embarrassing the Spear Hero even further. Behind him, Tersia and Farrie were snickering, while Welt gave him a look of pity.

The Spear Hero's face was now beet red. Never before had Motoyasu, the womanizer who had never failed to conquer a girl, been humiliated so much.

"Why are you with Naofumi?" he asked Raphtalia with a somewhat harsher tone than necessary. "I think you haven't heard some of the… not very good things about him."

"All right, that's enough," EMIYA knew it's time for him to stop this before everything went too far. "The Wave is going to start in 2 minutes, and I don't think you will be able to do anything useful if you continue chasing after a girl's skirt before the fight."

Motoyasu was startled. He hastily glanced at the corner of his vision and saw that the Sword Hero was right. Grudgingly, he stopped his advance on Raphtalia and returned to where his party was standing, knocking the Legendary Spear on the ground in annoyance.

One minute left.

Fifteen seconds.

Five…

Four…

Three…

Two…

One…

BOOM!

An enormous sound echoed through the world. And everything around them disappeared, then reformed.

"This is so terrifying…"

Tersia grimaced, looking at the sky.

The usually blue sky was now filled with cracks, and was now stained a bloody color. From those crevices, monsters of all sizes were pouring out. From ridiculously huge locusts to battleax-wielding zombies; it was just like a rain of monsters just suddenly appeared on top of them and poured everything it had on their heads.

This was the reason why her Dad had died?

Rage boiled up inside her stomach. She grabbed the hilt of her sword, which was strapped on her back, ready to go on a murderous rampage…

Then she felt a hand grabbing her shoulder.

"Calm down, Tersia," her sensei's voice rang in her ears. "Do not hastily rush in. We need to assert the situation before doing something recklessly."

"But…"

The Sword Hero glanced down and looked straight into her eyes. "Remember what I told you? On the battlefield, letting your emotions control your actions is no different from throwing yourself into the hand of Death. You will have your chance to rampage as much as you want, but only if you keep your head calm and control your emotions first."

"But those two don't seem to think that way, though."

EMIYA looked at where Naofumi was pointing at. Motoyasu and Itsuki were running ahead, with their nine companions following right behind them.

"Those idiots," the ex-Guardian shook his head. "Is it that difficult to use their heads for a few minutes?"

"Everyone!" Farrie suddenly said. "Do you see what I'm seeing?"

She was pointing down at something down the hill they were standing on. They followed her finger with their eyes, and Naofumi let out a curse.

"Goddamnit."

At the foot of the hill lay a small village. No one knew where the Waves were going to happen, so there was no way the citizens of that village would be able to evacuate in time. And Naofumi knew exactly what that village was; after all, he had stayed there for a few days during the last week.

"That's Ryute Village. There are a lot of people there. If no one helps them…"

The monsters from the cracks were all crawling toward the village. And from the direction of the cracks, a flare was shot into the sky, possibly for the royal knights to know where to find them.

But the village was about fifteen kilometers away from Castle Town. When they arrived here, the whole village could have already been massacred.

"I'm going to the village," Naofumi said. "They treated us well during the last week; if they all die here I won't be able to live with myself. Raphtalia, let's go!"

EMIYA nodded. "Good thinking. Then Tersia, Farrie, you two go with Naofumi to the village to protect the citizens there and help him lead them all to safety. Kill as many monsters as you can on the way, but put the safety of the villagers on top of your priority. Naofumi, I'm going to temporarily transfer them to your party; take care of them for me. Welt, you're going with me, to where those two Heroes and their companions are."

"Yes, sensei!" The two girls accepted their mission with firm determination on their faces. The symbols of Tersia and Farrie disappeared from EMIYA's party menu, and on Naofumi's side, an alert appeared asking whether he would add them into his party, which he accepted.

"But what are you going to do, Shirou-sama?" Raphtalia asked worriedly. The Sword Hero answered darkly.

"I need to make sure that those two idiots don't kill themselves off."

In everyone's eyes, Kawasumi Itsuki was never something special.

He was born as an esper who possessed perfect accuracy. It means that if he used a bow or any kind of projectile weapon, he would be able to achieve pinpoint accuracy with every shot he made. In a normal world, that would be a very great boon; he could be an Olympics champion in archery, a sniper who scored kills with each bullet he fired, or got first place in any dart-throwing competitions.

Unfortunately, in his world, powers like super strength, telekinesis, or even elemental bending are the most common thing. And when everyone can do things like slamming people into walls with barely a thought, or flying like an airplane without wings, or zapping people to death with electricity just by pointing at them, no one would even bother looking at a person who could shoot a bow accurately.

In a world like that, someone with such a low rank as an esper like him was just a loser who deserved to be bullied. He was always treated as an outcast in his school, was always the last person chosen when any events were being held, and not even the ugliest girl in the class would want to date him. He didn't have any friends, and the only thing he did outside of school was to lock himself in his room and play the game where his talent could be useful, Dimension Wave, where he was a top player.

And that's why when he was summoned into the game as the Hero of the Bow, he was thrilled. He took no time to believe completely that this was just like the game he had been the master of; even the events that happened were just the same as in the game. Receiving the legendary weapon, fighting in the Waves of Calamity, and returning in victory, being called the strongest hero. Everything was on the right track…

…until the man named Emiya Shirou appeared.

When they were summoned to this world, he was the only Hero who didn't agree to share a room with the other Heroes. He acted like he had some kind of big secret he had to hide from all of them, or he would die. And in front of them, he acted as if he were some kind of veteran who had survived through countless wars. Pfft. As if. Sure, he might be a bit older than them, but there's no way he could be someone who had been a soldier for life. He must have been some kind of man who felt no shame from lying; that kind of person was not worthy of talking to him.

He had been sure about that fact, until the trial.

Itsuki was furious when he heard about what Naofumi had done to his only companion. He had read a lot of isekai manga; some of the heroes summoned from other worlds tend to abuse their roles as protectors of the world to do anything they want, from extorting money to raping girls. And there's nothing saying that Naofumi couldn't be someone like that; from what he learned about him, he was someone who didn't know anything about this world, and maybe the power he thought he got after being summoned here had gotten into his head.

Of course Itsuki would stand at the side of justice. A rapist doesn't deserve to be called a hero.

And then the Sword Hero came and poked holes after holes in the testimony of the victim. He did that so easily and correctly it was just like he had seen through everything in a glance, with simple logical deduction alone.

Itsuki wasn't an idiot. He knew that in a trial, logic and evidence were the only things that mattered. And yet, for some reason, he had let himself miss all of those things completely. And he knew that what the Sword Hero said was completely right when the King had to resort to threatening to shut him up before he could destroy all of his case with his words alone.

But those things didn't matter. Whether Naofumi was innocent or not wasn't something Itsuki cared about. What mattered the most was he had let himself be led by the nose like a cow by the King, his daughter and everyone else in the trial that day without even realizing it. He could have been the one pointing that out; it was so simple and obvious he couldn't even understand why he hadn't figured it out immediately.

And since that moment, he had developed an ire at the man named Emiya Shirou. He felt that the red Hero was just there to steal his spotlight. He was supposed to be the hero in this story, damn it! He was not the top player of the whole server for nothing!

He's going to show him. He would show everyone that he's the hero, by stopping this Wave.

With that thought in his mind, he gripped the Legendary Bow tightly, and rushed ahead into the battle.

"Sensei, there are too many of them!"

Welt yelled when cutting down another locust coming at him from the side. At this range, using a bow was both impractical and wasteful, so he switched to a short sword he got from Erhard right before the battle. He wasn't very good with it, but these enemies were all small preys; even with normal slashes, he could take them down quite easily.

But the more monsters they killed, the more of them appeared. Even though they gave them a hefty amount of EXP, that didn't make any sense. Is this going to continue until the whole world was flooded with monsters?

If that's the case, there's nothing else to do but to rendezvous with the two other Heroes as quickly as possible. They needed to stop this at its source.

A scream coming from Welt pulled EMIYA back to reality. Even though the boy had just easily dispatched a bunch of monsters with his sword, he was still just a human. And his stamina wouldn't last long enough for him to solo through an army of thousands, no matter how weak they could be. Right now, the boy was retreating, but the monsters were starting to surround him from every direction.

The Sword Hero cursed. Letting out a roar, he jumped toward where Welt was being surrounded. The Legendary Sword morphed into the form of the sword with the longest reach he had available at the moment: the no-dachi of Sasaki Kojiro, Monohoshizao.

[Name: Monohoshizao – Quality: Excellent – Base Power: 80]

[Speed +25. Attack +5.]

[Unique Skills: Hidden Sword: Tsubame Gaeshi – Level 1 (49/10000)]

[Proficiency: 36%]

[Unlocked at Level 30 - UNLOCKED]

The sword's unique skill, Tsubame Gaeshi, the signature technique of Sasaki Kojiro, was a pain in the ass to completely master and level up. But it's understandable, given how much the master swordsman himself needed to practice this skill until reality basically gave up and gave him the ability to distort the dimension to strike from three directions at the same time. At level 1, it doesn't allow EMIYA to perform the space-bending three-strikes-at-the-same-time version of the skill, but it still let him do a move involving a fierce downward cut following by an immediate upward one. However, the sword itself, even without the skill, was still a very good weapon. With a swing of the sword, seven zombies perished at the same time. He leaped toward Welt, who was relieved that his sensei had come to save him. The two stood back to back, holding their weapons in front of them and managed to keep the monsters at bay, at least for a while.

But with this number of monsters, breaking through by fighting normally would be impossible. He needed something powerful… something that could destroy an entire army in a blast… an Anti-Army level skill.

The most powerful skill EMIYA had in his arsenal right now was Hundred Blades. It creates an array of one hundred swords in the air, which would then be launched at the enemies, just like he usually did with the swords when he still had access to Unlimited Blade Works. But the number of enemies in front of him and behind him could reach thousands. Even with that skill at full power, he doubted that he could clear the way in front of him enough for them to break through. And he could only use it once per day; if he failed to deliver a decisive blow it would not just be a complete waste of MP, but he would also lose his trump card.

[You have leveled up. Condition for unlocking of weapon forms has been fulfilled.]

About time!

[Conditions for skill upgrading have been fulfilled. Skill: Hundred Blades - Thousand Blades.]

EMIYA's eyes widened. With this, they could break through the enemy formation for sure!

"Welt!" the Sword Hero barked. "Get behind me; we're going to break through the enemy formation!"

He switched the Legendary Sword into the form of Daitsuuren, the golden katana of Suzuka Gozen, one of the swords he had just unlocked when he reached level 40. This sword was not a Noble Phantasm, but it was still a very good sword that had a long history, with pretty high base power comparing to other swords he had available. Also, it possessed a skill he needed for this to work.

[Name: Daitsuuren – Quality: Excellent – Base Power: 100]

[Attack +10. Speed +10. Increase the power of Hundred Blades and related skills.]

[Unique Skills: Suiren (0/400), Rouran (0/400), Housenka (0/400)]

[Proficiency: 0%]

[Unlocked at Level 40 - UNLOCKED]

He raised the sword high above his head, made a downward slashing motion, and yelled: "Thousand Blades!"

Upon his command, thousands of swords appeared from thin air. There were mundane swords such as the Balloon Sword and Vine Sword, but there were also powerful ones to the level of legendary. The army of monsters stopped dead on their tracks upon seeing the scene; even if they didn't have intelligence, they still had enough instinct to know when they were about to be massacred. But it was too late for them to escape; the storm of blades rained down on their heads and obliterated them without any mercy.

After about ten seconds, the attack finally stopped, and…

"Holy shit…"

It was a complete massacre. The enemies in front of them were completely annihilated, leaving only a bloody, empty field.

EMIYA rechecked his status. That skill he just did took him half of his remaining MP, but it already did its job; a way forward had been opened. He glanced at his student.

"Let's go!"

Motoyasu was gasping for breath.

He had been sure that this would be an easy battle. After all, in the game Emerald Online, this was supposed to be the first boss battle in the story mode; it wasn't supposed to be hard. And yeah, it wasn't actually that hard; the monsters all fell easily under his spear.

He just didn't expect that there were so many of them spawning at the same time like this.

In the game, there was no such thing as stamina. As long as he still had HP, SP and MP, he could continue fighting as much as he wanted. But for some reason, in this battle, after fighting for about half an hour, he had started to feel tired.

It was stupid! Sure, he was not someone who liked working out, but surely a game can't be this realistic!?

His companions didn't help much. They did join the fight at the beginning, but after a while, the only thing they did was sitting out and cheering.

Well, he did say that beautiful girls like them don't need to dirty their hands in a fight like this, but still…

On the other side, Itsuki wasn't doing anything better. He was even weaker than Motoyasu in physical strength, and his bow wouldn't do anything much for him if he had to fight a lot of enemies in a close range, unless he continuously spammed his skills. He's luckier than Motoyasu that his companions seemed to be better than his when it comes to fighting, though.

They needed to kill two thousand enemies to get the Wave boss to appear, but so far, they had only managed about half of that number.

"Where the hell is Shirou-san?!" Motoyasu snapped angrily while lancing a zombie with the tip of his spear.

"Tch, so he's only good at showing off after all! Spread Arrow!" Itsuki sneered while activating a skill, firing a barrage of arrows which eliminated a few of the monsters in front of him.

Suddenly they heard rumbles. "What the… ?"

The ground under them shook as if a meteor had just hit the planet. A shockwave swept through the clearing, knocking everyone down on their butts. And the killing count leaped from just about 1300 straight to 2000 in a blink of an eye.

Motoyasu and Itsuki, as well as every single human being standing in the clearing at that moment, could only gape. What the hell was that…?!

But they didn't have time to worry about that. From the biggest crack in the sky, the boss of the Wave was descending. Itsuki immediately leaped back to his feet.

"Here it is! The boss is mine!"

Motoyasu also jumped up from where he was sitting. "No, it's mine! I'm gonna take it!"

And the two Heroes charged.