What we found outside, I would love to say, was a shock, but the moment we heard the sound of metal on metal, and began to rush forward, the other two hoisting their weapons up, anticipating a fight, while I just groaned, knowing exactly what was going on. My sense of drama was not disappointed, either, as in the courtyard, right outside the castle's central keep, was what could only be called 'a brawl'.
The dusty floor had already done a good job of creating a small cloud in the air, and I could see some small scorch marks on the stone walls where they'd been struck with fireballs and lightning bolts, of low enough power not to cause any significant damage to them. Meanwhile there was an entire trench dug into the ground from where someone had either dragged their weapon along it, or, more likely given the shape, dragged someone bodily to dig it out.
The fight was not as chaotic as all that, of course. The groups had broken up into smaller brawls, not all of which were one party against another, as the three forces seemed to have small alliances all throughout. The most obvious pairing…well most visible given their size was a man with an axe strapped to his back grappling with Strong, the two of them having the sheer audacity to be grinning at each other as the matched muscles for muscle, several marks on each showing they'd been punching each other just moments ago, before going for the contest of raw strength.
Meanwhile, dancing over the entire place was Fast, a man with twin daggers, and a woman in martial arts gear, while a guy with a normal spear doing some of the dancing between them, obviously favoring the fox, as he continually blocked the daggers, doing a damn fine job of it too, using his weapon as a shield by spinning it before him. The four of them were the most in motion, and if I took my eyes off them for a moment, they tended to disappear.
A smaller man with an axe, and an armored guy with a sword were fighting someone with a rapier and a woman who looked like a dancer, she was able to keep them off balance, doding through their attacks, and poking them to keep them off balance, as the rapier wielding gentleman was doing his best to poke them with his far more potent weapon than her fingers, his weapon glancing off the breastplate of the axeman or the armor of the swordsman.
Finally, the magic wielders, Myne and Lucia, as well as someone with a crystal tipped rod that was glowing, and another with a book were flinging out spells at each other. It seemed that that one was a three way, as the crystal rod and book guy were working together, while Myne and Lucia were flinging out spells at not just the pair of them, but at each other when they had a chance.
All in all, it was a good looking brawl, and I was honestly curious about it, given I could see that there were some pretty one sided match ups. Fast should have already WON his fight, for instance, given his speed, especially with his new footwear, but Strong should have lost his, given the axe wielder's strength vs his. Though that was raw stats, perhaps skills were adding bonuses I wasn't seeing.
"What in the hell's going on out here?!" asked Motoyasu, shouting, but the fighters ignored him. I was, to be fair, honestly tempted to let them keep at it. Not all of them looked like they were having fun, mind, but neither was anyone trying to do too much damage to their opponents. This was more in the vein of a barroom brawl, and in fact, I was actually just starting to think I should assist, when Ren decided it was time to end it.
"Crimson Blade!" he shouted, as he waved his hand over his weapon, and then leapt into the air. It was a nice looking move, honestly, with his hand moving up and somehow causing a spark of fire to literally engulf the blade, before he waved it, and a…lightning bolt of fire I guess, struck the ground. Unlike the party members, Ren had no chill, and was not holding back, so his strike created a small blast of heat and force that drove everyone apart.
A tangle of limbs was soon all we had for party members, and all of them looked around, obviously confused, before they turned to us and found a very cold looking Ren, an angry looking Motoyasu, and an…I was probably looking crazy, considering I was smiling, but that was for someone else to decide. Whatever we looked like, the groups soon disentangled themselves, standing in their groups, allowing me to see where I stood on party members.
For Ren's group…at least I assumed it was his, given he was already walking up to them, we had the big axe guy, who was grinning with a nice black eye…that wouldn't last an hour, as it was already fading. Beyond him were the twin daggers person, who barely looked scuffed, the armored knight guy, and the one with the breastplate and smaller axe, and finally the magic user with the book, and the crystal rod one to round them out.
For Motoyasu, I saw Myne, who was already rushing to him from the group, the martial artist, the dancer, and the rapier wielder, along with the spear. That was an interesting breakdown of the groups, especially given not all the brawls had broken down along party lines. Still, I motioned for the others to follow, eyeing Shadow as he fell into line behind the rest, and we pulled back, mostly as Ren yelled at his people, and Motoyasu got snuggled up against by Myne, one refusing to hear what happened, and one being very, very obviously wrapped around a finger.
"Alright, amusing as that was to come upon, I've still got to ask what just happened, and why, so we can avoid that sort of thing in the future," I said as we rounded a corner into the interior of the castle's walls, out of sight of the others, if not fully out of earshot. Ren was a forceful guy, and had a good set of lungs for someone his size.
"Prin…Myne insulted Strong, which caused the large gentleman with the axe to speak up, and then…things escalated from there," said Lucia, being very unhelpful with the details, though given I didn't care, and the HP values of my party were already naturally healing, I decided to let it lay, as we waited for the others to come out. I didn't miss, however, that little slip of the tongue. So, Myne wasn't all she appeared to be then…interesting.
Regardless, Ren, looking positively broody now, and Motoyasu, looking lovestruck, stopped their sessions of yelling and swooning respectively, and we set off, the parties now walking at a distance from each other as we made our way across the city, this time getting less attention, as Ren was insistent that we not draw too much, and I silently agreed with him, making Motoyasu pout a bit, but not raise too much fuss on the issue.
We were soon taken to, as stated, a barracks, a squat, stone box that was against the outerwall of the city. It was designed with all the amenities one would expect for rank and file soldiers. Beds that were HARDER than the stones around them, tables that would have held an entire piece of paper before falling apart, and a kitchen with all the latest comforts, like lack of ventilation, and smear covered walls.
All in all, it was a craphole, and one I wouldn't have stayed in over the outside world, but the King's generosity wasn't to be refused. That said, it was odd that something with the space to house at least a hundred men, twenty in five different large sleeping quarters, was empty, and so as I had the others stake out a claim on the bunkroom closest to the ground floor, while Motoyasu's group picked top, and Ren had his almost go military style into one in the middle, I got to talking with the guard who'd brought us here.
It was actually obvious, when you thought about it. They knew the Wave was coming, that it would strike somewhere in this nation, but they had no idea where exactly. So the guards were being sent out in smaller units, and stationed…basically everywhere. The Capital still had enough units to man the walls, and even fight street to street if the Wave happened to hit right over it, but otherwise they were spreading their forces out.
Spreading them thin, as well. They'd be depending on us when the Wave struck to make sure it ended sooner rather than later, before what forces they have are overwhelmed, and people start dying by the truck load. If the things my beastmen companions had told me were true, even in places being hit only by the one or two holes at a time, it was bad, especially if they had no guards at all on hand to help.
That did kill any plans to 'farm' the Wave fodder first, especially if they were infinitely respawning as had been described. Even if I didn't care about normal people in this world, I wasn't quite ruthless enough to waste their lives just to gain some more levels. I'd just have to go hunting like anyone else, and with my (Sense) skill, and listening to rumors, it wasn't like I'd be wanting for targets.
That sorted, we spent most of the rest of the day making the barracks into a livable space. Well, most of us did that. Myne had, somehow, finagled a place for herself and one other person to stay for a few days, and had taken Motoyasu off as her +1, leaving the rest of us to rough it out in the military compound, but his cheer squad didn't seem to mind. At least they didn't openly complain about it.
The rest of us did things like scrubbing several decades worth of slime off the kitchen walls, finding that it did in fact have a nice big opening in the roof right over where you'd do the fire pit, just it had become clogged with an almost solid bit of ash and dust. A wind spell from the three remaining casters took care of that, with Shadow on the roof to send it out of the city with his own ninja power.
The beds…well, they'd fit most people, but Shadow, myself, and the big axe guy, whose name I could not for the life of me pronounce. It was some french thing with a rolling R that refused to come off my tongue, and made me grateful that my own party had simpler names to remember. Regardless, the three of us wouldn't really fit inside the beds as they were, and so we gathered a few blankets and made some nests on the ground.
The sun had begun to set by the time we were done, and one of Ren's party members returned with enough food for all of us, courtesy of the Sword Hero's own funds. This included some drinks that smelled of alcohol, which were passed around, and gave the whole evening the atmosphere of a subdued party, with the various members of the three Heroes' parties mixing and mingling, as I got Ren alone.
I had hoped to go over strategy or deployment with him, maybe even investigate how strong he'd become, as my (Sense) skill seemed confused by him. His level was higher than mine, almost ten higher, and consequently his stats were better too. Enough that he could have bodied my party with ease without my buffs. Yet…the level gap said he should be stronger even than he was.
"So, what have you been doing to grind out some levels? I notice you're not as strong as your compatriots," he said bluntly, as the two of us stood on the roof of the barracks. Nearby was a rushed ladder set into the stonework that would take us up onto the wall that surrounded the city, likely meant for quicker deployments then heading to the guardhouses near the main city gates that had stairs for the same thing. He briefly was going to climb up them, but I waved it off and he joined me sitting by the edge of the roof instead.
"Mostly just that. Going cross country through the wilderness to try and figure out what it's like for these people to live like this, you know? We can take these monsters out no sweat," he looked at me with some doubt, and I had to shrug in response.
"Okay, some sweat, but still, my party and I are able to tear through some of the things that would force these people to move carefully around their own nation. And those are only the remains of the Waves from the past. Think about what we'll be facing when one hits directly," I told him, and it was his turn to shrug, as he joined me in looking out at the city, and the throng of people milling about, some doing just that, seemingly just walking to keep from being still and having to think about what was happening to their nation.
"I asked my party about it, and asked for some suggestions. We've been hunting the biggest prey they know of nearby. Five new-way…news?" he said the last, obviously unsure of how to say it, but I knew the things he was talking about.
"I've heard it's pronounced 'new', but it's spelled n-u-e. They're demons from Japanese mythology. I also saw some yatagarasu myself, as well as some babi ngepet, and even some orthros. So we've got Japanese, Indonesian, and Greek already. And I've definitely heard talk of a western style dragon, and one report of giant snails," I told him, and he nodded, stroking his chin, thinking, probably the same thing I was.
"You told us, that first night, that these things, these other worlds, are being influenced by our own, correct?" he asked, and I shrugged.
"Or we're influenced by them, but the result is the same. The 'physics' based worlds we come from are in some way connected to this one…or even these ones, all things considered. We have no way of knowing if this is the only magical world either," I pointed out, and he drew his weapon, staring at the blade as it caught the setting sun, the light of which was already dipping below the wall behind us.
"It is our duty, then, to defend this world like our own, lest whatever is here find its way back to ours through the link we made simply by being summoned here, correct?" he asked, trying to sound all serious, but I could hear it in his voice. He was nervous. He was a kid, after all, and he was basically being told that the weight of the world was on his shoulders, not much of a surprise that bracing against that was straining him.
"It's possible that our physics would kill them. Balloons certainly couldn't exist in my world, they've got no anatomy to speak of, and I checked a few of the others. Some have makeups that COULD exist, but don't, but like the orthros' body is only sort of sensible, no way that nervous system is supporting two brains. Magic is making it work, so take it out of a world based in that, and it drowns…metaphorically speaking," I admitted, and Ren, trying to hold his sword up as much as possible nodded, and seeing him strain, I helped, just a little, to give him a few more inches, before the shadow claimed his blade, and he brought it back down.
"Thanks," he said, as he looked at his weapon one final time, before setting it down on the roof, and then turning to me.
"So, should we discuss specific grinding strategies now? You seem to be a much higher level than me, but your stat spread is only a bit better," I commented, and Ren shook his head.
"No, I think that would defeat the purpose of our being four, rather than a singular hero. We each, even Naofumi, have chosen a differing path to power in this world. We will soon taste what a Wave has to throw at us, and once we succeed, then we can compare how we have gained what power we have," he said.
"And if we don't succeed?" I countered, and the teen, in that way only a teenager convinced of their own immortality can, chuckled and grinned.
"Then none of our strategies worked, and it won't matter much anyway, will it?" he asked, and then started back towards the roof hatch that led back into the barracks. I followed him down into it, and then the two of us were soon with our parties, Spear's having gone back to their own room, and we divided ourselves up, each of us soon falling asleep in our own ways, and waiting for what the day after tomorrow will bring.