This wasn't what was supposed to happen. I'd known they wouldn't listen to us, even if I'd hoped maybe Naofumi might. Still, even then, I'd had an idea that maybe one or another would take our presence here as a kind of challenge, let the timer run down, and then let them deal with the monsters, since my World, my Kingdom, was having to do it every time, as those lousy Heroes refused to leave their 'bunker' they'd built for themselves using their weapons.
But no, they fought, and how. Naofumi was good, his skills had been obvious, and the others too. But I was using the power of both worlds, and that power was beyond what I had thought they could fight. Yet it wasn't. They'd knocked me around, even with my reaction speed, able to make them look like they were moving in slow motion if I focused, just like Glass promised, they were still too much, coming from too many angles.
Glass was, likewise, having problems. The Heroes, she'd claimed, hadn't been able to touch her in her prior battle. Now? She was facing their companions while I faced the Heroes themselves, and they were beating her bloody. Without her innate resistances to physical attacks granted by being one of the Spirit People, Glass would have died, regardless of the protection of both systems working for her.
But we WERE winning, in the end. It was more violent, more difficult, than I had anticipated, but this was not a battle we were going to lose. These Heroes, their companions, they were stronger, more coordinated than I'd expected, even without the Bow Hero's assistance. But they were not THAT much stronger than expected, and coordination only allowed them to keep us from hurting them, it didn't help them beat us any quicker.
Then the demi-human woman, the cat one with the black ears, froze. Glass took advantage of that, but it wasn't too long, a minute or so at most, before she was moving with the rest again, acting, but in that time, Glass had given us some breathing room. Whatever had made her freeze like that was a boon, and I wish I knew what it was so we could repeat it, but before I could question it, the barrier of Therese's Wall of Light came down.
That was…it wasn't shattered. That was a different look altogether. I'd seen it happen when the monsters contained inside were simply too strong for her. No, this was Therese taking it down, and for a moment, I was afraid. Afraid she'd slaughtered the two inside, despite what I'd promised myself. If she had…Kizuna would know, she'd know immediately what we did. That young woman was sharp like that.
I was already playing out that conversation in my head, wondering how we would be able to adapt to a world with no Heroes at all, if she refused us her aid over this. Only that image was shattered by the panicked scream of Therese, a sound I'd never heard before. That woman was…she was one of the best of the best from my world, she'd faced demons of death on a daily basis and just shrugged it off, but that scream?
Glass and I moved the moment we heard it, her fans shimmering as she created a (Wall of Blades) behind us. It wasn't quite as…solid as the (Wall of Light), but it would keep the Heroes back as we leapt, my body thankful for the movement stat that this world granted it, as we landed heavily on the deck of the ship, and saw the Hero of the Bow, his hand gripped around Therese's shoulder, holding her roughly on her feet, as his other hand pressed into her side, a small trail of blood leaking from her mouth.
I growled, but Glass? She screamed in anger, pulling back her fans, and letting loose an attack. I wanted to shout at her not to, we both knew the Bow Hero was no champion, not a combatant like the others, but shockingly, he let the attack slam into his bare skin, the Will behind it slashing and tearing at him, making me turn away, expecting that he'd be ground down to so much meat and bones.
But then…nothing. He didn't even seem to feel it, as he pulled his hand back, and placed it against Therese's body again, his thumb pressing into her side. There was that horrible, light, crack, as bones gave to the seemingly light touch, and Therese herself jerked about, trying to break his grip, trying to pull away, tears coming out of one of her eyes as she clawed at him with fingers that should have broken him.
I goggled at the sight before me, Glass hovering in the air, her Fans and nature as a Spirit allowing her to do so. We both just drank in what was going on, as the Bow Hero, standing there, seemingly not even seeing us, kept his eyes locked firmly with Therese's. His expression was…blank, even his eyes looking like glass orbs, as Therese kept trying to break his grip, failing despite what I knew should be happening.
"Let her go," I ordered, hefting the Vassal Scythe up, a pop up informing me I had only six minutes and some change remaining to make a kill before I lost my bonus. Glass, given what she'd just done, would be fine, as her powers depended only on the attack, but if I was going to be of any use in this fight, I might have to duck out to kill a monster, lest I lose my buffs.
"She broke her," was all he said in response, a cold, dead tone to his voice, and she looked at me, pleadingly. I had to assume he meant that Lucia, that woman in the white robes with red trimming, was dead. I was…regretful for that, but I knew Therese. She wouldn't have done that unless it was necessary. I also refused to allow the rule of an eye for an eye to be used before me.
"Let her go, now," I ordered again, adding the emphasis on the last word. That, it seems, got his attention, as he turned, and as if seeing us for the first time, looked towards myself, and then up at Glass, before turning back to Therese, running his hand upwards to cause another rib to break, her body squirming as she started to lose consciousness.
Glass and I reacted as one, dashing forward. We were faster here than on our world, but we reacted faster as well. That should have let us move into position and get the drop on him. Instead, as we tried to pincer him in, the Bow Hero…moved is the only proper word for it, his body coming back just a step, so that we were now aiming our pretty powerful attacks right at Therese herself, as he just watched.
I was quick enough to stop my attack, but Glass, in the air, had to let loose her fury somehow, and so sent a blast of wind to just behind where Therese was, barely able to turn it aside. The railing and side of the ship didn't take the impact well, and I was brought to my knees for a moment to keep from falling over. Meanwhile he just adjusted his bare foot on the boards, as he looked at us.
"Impressive, Your Majesty," he said at last, and the words shocked me enough that I only registered them when he tossed Therese into the sky, launching her like a stone, and causing her to collide with Glass. Luckily, Glass was used to catching people when they fell, and did so now, holding Therese in her arms, and healing magic passing between them, Glass giving up some of her life to restore what Therese had lost.
"Kizuna will be very upset with you three. If I'm right, she told you specifically not to do this, didn't she?" he asked, that same…dull tone, as if he wasn't trying to rip the heart out of all three of them, as even Glass, who cared the least for the Hunting Tool Hero, was seen to wince as she and Therese slowly descended to the deck.
"You can read our thoughts?" I asked, out of curiosity, and he shook his head robotically.
"No, though that would be useful. I simply have an ability called (Insight). For monsters it gives statistics, strategies, and habits. For people it does statistics, but then includes a small section for history. Before I found my Pride, I was unable to read Glass', and I never tried to read yourself or Therese's history when I used it, so as not to invade your privacy," he explained dully, and then 'moved'.
The speed was still a shock, as one moment he was standing there, seemingly just at ease. The next, he vanished in a swirl of wind as he rushed over, and with a burst of that same wind right in my face, he knocked me backwards. I was good enough to catch myself, but he held up his hand, swinging it up, and the end of his Bow began to glow, causing me to react on pure instinct.
Holding up my weapon, I blocked the attack, a bolt of golden light shot for the ornate Bow's aperture, and it struck my Scythe. The Vassal Scythe, one of the strongest weapons of its kind on my world, and better charged with the lives of the hundreds of monsters I'd been killing before. And all that did nothing to help as he drove me backwards, nearly off the ship, before I was able to come to a halt.
The moment I was stopped, I leapt forward, brandishing my Weapon. He wore no armor, and I had hoped that he might be unable to defend himself as well as he was at attacking us. Glass, obviously intending on helping, shifted Therese to her other arm, using her Fan to create a few splinters of power that flew towards her foe with unerring accuracy, even as I swung down, trying to end this in one strike.
He moved again, before either blow could touch him, getting out of the way of them, which said even he wasn't confident he could take the blows. That meant if we could hit him, we could win this. Hitting him, however, was quite the problem in and of itself, as even with Therese flinging orbs at him, it was hard to pin him down, especially once he decided to start using that (Blink) spell of his.
Worse, a glance out onto the ice showed the forces of this world were making their way through the barrier Glass had erected. The (Wall of Light) that Therese did had to be struck with Will enough to shatter it, but the (Wind Wall) that Glass used was an attack, not a defense, and they were using up the power that maintained it, firing into it, slowly whittling their way through the thing, and towards us.
We…we had lost. All the preparations we'd done, leaving my Kingdom to fend for itself against the hordes, and all we'd achieved was to inconvenience the Heroes a bit. We'd killed one of their allies, too, but that had never been the goal. The goal had been to buy time, to make it so this world would face the same peril as mine, to make the playing field just that much more even.
And it was all for nothing. As Bard leapt out of the way of one of my strikes, sticking himself in the air, Therese loosed a bolt of lightning. It was…weak, pathetic in a way. Nothing like what I'd seen her do in countless battles before. Glass too, was fading fast. Her powers were weakening, even with the bonuses given by the Vassal Fans, she'd taken too much damage from the Heroes before to fight at one-hundred-percent, and her power came directly from her life, unlike my own.
I…THEY would fight on, if I asked it. They would keep fighting this losing battle, but I wasn't going to throw their lives away. We'd failed, but we would get stronger, better, and next time the 'Heroes' of this world would find us prepared for this trick too. But I would not go quietly, not yet, as I hefted my scythe up. Power flowed into the weapon, with only a few seconds left, I transformed the boosts of the felled monsters into an attack instead of using their power.
And that was when I saw it. The Hero of the Bow jerked a bit, his body moving less surredly. I was a veteran of far too many battles to not recognize someone who had lost a sudden boost. But the timing? The moment my own power faded, and the end of my scythe began to grow, the blade shining a violent azure, as a red eye appeared on it, it revealed the source of the strength he was using.
Us…somehow he was using OUR power against us. But now he had less of it, and knowing that, I was not going to let the opportunity go to waste. Pulling back the Scythe, feeling the power taking form, as the head became broader than my torso, I leapt upwards, roaring at the man who had so foiled my plan, driven Therese to be a killer, and he looked shocked for a moment, as the glowing blue blade came towards him.
The blow struck. He caught it, with his hands, keeping it from slashing into his torso, but it still bloodied him, as it drove him into the ship below, slamming him into the wood. He slid along it, as I landed. But he was only minorly hurt. A few bits of his HP bar vanished, but still able to fight as he looked at his palm with the slash across it, and wiped away the blood, allowing his body to regenerate, just like he would if he were on my world
"Therese, Glass, stand down. Don't fight him anymore, he's mine," I ordered, and unlike what the Heroes of this world might do, neither argued, as they hauled themselves away from us. The Bow Hero, seeing this, did try and go after them, using his (Blink) power to get right up to them, but I wasn't about to let him hurt my friends, as I moved in between them, knocking his hand away, and causing his shots to go wide.
Strangely, he did react. Like, I expected him to come after me now, to focus on me, but instead, as Therese tried to pull away from him, as she retreated, she seemed to be all he cared about now. Was it because she wasn't opposing him now? Or was it just that he knew I could beat him now, and he was trying to go after her before I struck him down? Either way, I slashed at him again, giving him a nasty cut all along his left arm.
He noticed that, even diving away from me, and firing. But all the power he'd had before was gone. The only one he was drawing strength from now was me, and I could use this power better than him. He shot, and I blocked it. Our stats were not equal, he was stronger, but it was obvious he wasn't in his right mind, as he kept firing at me, even as he rushed towards Glass and Therese, who, as I ordered, didn't engage.
Instead every time he tried to go for them, I got him, leaving long marks on his body. They healed, slower now since my own regeneration wasn't that great compared to Glass', but it was enough to keep him standing for a while. Three attacks later, and I heard the sound of something, and wanted to turn towards it, but I knew the moment I looked away, he'd go after my party again, so I was forced to pull back, just a bit, to keep him in view.
What I saw was…Naofumi being an idiot. A brave, noble idiot, but still, as he and Filo leapt into the swirling blade-like winds, their bodies covered in an aura of cursed fire. The power of Wrath filled him, and went to her as his familiar. The power made him dangerous. Curse damage wasn't something you could block, as Glass had found out previously, and with all his defense put into the attack power of it, he could do some real damage.
Worse, the others, all of them, were obviously waiting to make it through, and with BOTH Heroes wielding powers like this? We couldn't win that fight. Even if we COULD hold them off for a few minutes, the timer was still over ten of those, and we'd be dead long before it hit zero. If it had been just the two of them working against us…no, we lost this fight completely, and there was no salvaging it.
He dodged this time, showing he was still reacting to me at least, and with him doing that, I made a motion with my hand. Glass nodded, and grabbed Therese in her arms, holding her gently, and then pointing her Fans in her other hand towards the deck. He tried to get around me this time, tried to (Blink) on top of them, but I leapt up, and with a roar, I slammed hard into him, driving him down into the deck, as the two blasted off into the sky.
They shattered the wall as they went, tossing everyone outside the ship away, and as he tried to (Blink), this time I went with him, holding him with my weapon, and his shots, while painful, didn't break my grip, as we tumbled in the sky, the two of them vanishing into one of the holes. The moment they were gone, for the first time since I'd started fighting him, the Bow Hero let out a sound expressing emotion. A howl of furious sorrow.
We landed back on the ship, hard, my shoulder popped out of place. But he'd been under me, I could hear bones snapping from the impact. And yet he still climbed to his feet, firing a few impotent bolts into the hole the pair had vanished into, only for him to stop, as if a switch had been flipped. The moment it was, he turned to me, and I stared right into his cold, dead eyes as he came for me.
"You let her get away…I will break you now, until you tell me where she went," he said, and he shambled towards me, his foot twisted the wrong way, his right arm hanging limping at his side, and a dribble of blood and saliva moving down his chin. He ignored it all, and given I was only in slightly better shape, I was able to block two blasts from his Bow with my Scythe, before I was driven to my knees.
"Now," he said in a tone with finality as he limped towards me. Beyond him, I could see forms coming onto the deck, climbing or leaping onto it. They didn't stop him, even Naofumi, who, while no longer covered in his cursed fire, looked at me with absolute hatred. I deserved it too, and was ready to receive my punishment for my failure when something changed, a feeling in the air, as both the man before me, aiming his weapon at my head, as well as the demi-human with the feline ears and tail, both froze.
"I…she…" he said confused, and then vanished, as the catwoman leapt over my head. The suddenness of the action left us all standing there, completely confused. Luckily, pain was a good focus when you still had adrenaline in your blood, and I recovered just a moment sooner than anyone else. I hefted my Scythe up, and with a cry, blasted it into the deck, blowing a hole clean through the ship, the ice, and parting the sea beneath us for that moment.
The kickback rocked the vessel, keeping them off balance enough that as I shot into the air, only a few bits of lightning shot from the Sword Hero even tried to touch me, and they flew wide, as I glanced down one, seeing…that Lucia woman, hugging the Hero of the Bow? She'd been dead, hadn't she? Wasn't that what his whole death wish for Therese had been about? Or was there some other meaning?
I'd ask Therese when we managed to get back together. For now, I felt that all too familiar chill, as tendrils came from the hole above me, and drew me into it, taking my body into the depths of the space between worlds. My stomach did flips, and as my mind went blank, my last thought was of Kizuna, and how I'd explain all this to her, as she was sure to notice all the damage Therese and I had picked up this time, if not just realize what our absence for a few days meant directly.