On deck, we found Ren, sitting by the railing, obviously being the one I heard being seasick back in the cabin, if his current green complexion was any indication. He barely seemed to react as the three of us came out of the door, but his moaning words did get some of the others on deck to turn to us, and in a moment, Filo, Naofumi, and Raphtalia were on us, the first hugging the three of us, thanks to being in her bird form, while the other two stood back a bit.
Naofumi, looking us over once, held out a hand with a potion, but I waved it off, saying we were fine now, though I would obviously need a good tailor, given I was currently wearing this year's most fashionable bed sheets. That got a chuckle out of him as he explained that while there were a few people my size in the fleet, none of them had bothered to bring casual clothing, so I'd been given the best the ship had on board, which was, well, a bit of cloth designed to cover you in a rainstorm.
A quick look showed this vessel actually had mostly only the crew, and none of the adventurers, and Naofumi confirmed. Motoyasu, his companion, and the Royal Family had used the Spear Hero's (Town Portal) to return to the capital, but since it only had a few slots, they'd been forced to stay behind. Worse, with most of the ships having taken few supplies, to make more room for adventurers and knights, there was little food or water on any of them.
As such, with the Royals gone, their ship had requisitioned what little the others had, and while they would head to Cal Mira's port, or what was left of it, to hopefully get enough food and water for everyone, we, that being the remaining three Heroes and our companions, would make for the mainland port at best speed, which meant we were still three days out, despite myself and Lucia having slept most of a day and a half.
With us up and about now, we made plans, and after confirming with the Captain that he'd be more than fine with a few less mouths to feed, given their thin supplies, we gathered up Ren, with Welts holding his Hero at his side, and with a shout, I held up my arm, selecting the (Fast Travel) skill from my menu, and we vanished from the deck of the ship, to reappear in the streets of the capital city of Melromarc.
Our arrival was barely remarked upon by those in the streets, but the guards at the castle gate immediately acted, bringing us inside quickly, as the King and Queen had expected us to arrive sometime today or tomorrow. Luckily, the moment we were off the ship, Ren's pale face started to have some color in it, and while it would be some time before he could eat or drink, he was already starting to walk on his own, only putting a little weight on Welts' shoulder.
Interestingly, we were escorted right to the inner chamber, and while I might have thought it was because they were there waiting, the Royals, as well as Motoyasu and Rishia, were only just arriving as we took our seats at the table, with them quickly sitting down, and exchanging a few pleasantries with us, asking if there was anything we needed and the like, before I brought us down to business.
"To start with, let's make sure we're all on the same page. I think my (Insight) probably gave me the best view of our enemies, but if I miss something they might have said or done, feel free to add in your own comments as they are appropriate," I said, rising from my seat.
"Let's begin with our battle against the Whale. You were flawless, all of you. That creature stood no chance, and the victory was handily won thanks to the combined efforts of everyone in this room, as well as all the adventurers and knights that accompanied us. We should ensure both the latter groups are given some acknowledgement, publicly, when they return here," I said, and the Queen nodded.
"I had already intended on giving both a bonus in pay, but the suggestion of public honors…it might do to raise morale, to show that the Heroes are not alone in this duty, and that we all share in your struggle. I will see to the arrangements," she said thoughtfully, and I nodded. The fact that any honors would take time to bestow, and the timing of the Wave would keep them here, was also a good thing, as we were using the Capital as our base of operations for three of the four Heroes, it meant that we could more easily deploy them in ways with our (Fast Travel) skills.
"We have other business of honors we will need to discuss after this, but for now, I believe it best we continue," said the King, who I noticed was back in his 'casual' clothing, rather than his stately or knightly outfits. As was the Queen, and even the Princess was 'dressed down' which was not a look I'd seen her in yet. They honestly wouldn't have looked too out of place on the streets of the capital in these clothes, which was surprising to think about, but I pushed it out of my mind as I continued.
"That Whale was significantly stronger than the Soul Eater, and we beat it far more easily. At this point, it is safe to say where are beyond the power curve of the Waves, and I see no reason as to why we wouldn't continue to grow stronger. That doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels, but it does mean we should be proud of ourselves, and our accomplishments," I said, and everyone in the room, especially my fellow Heroes, seemed to brighten up at that assessment.
"That being said, we did a lot of preplanning, thanks to our foreknowledge of the type of enemy we'd face. We won't likely have that advantage again, the ability to nerf our enemy that hard. Worse, we lost a relic level item, and that is not an easy thing to replace or plan without. We are still far stronger than we need to be, but we'll need to take that into account when planning for the next Wave and beyond," I reminded.
I looked briefly towards Lucia, who was still wearing the smock she'd been given on the ship, having not found a new outfit yet. Strangely, she still had her hat. How I didn't know, and I wasn't going to question. Of course, around me, the expressions darkened a bit, but not by as much as if I'd led with this, an old psychological trick, lead with a positive, then do the negatives, and try to end with a positive. It helps people process information a bit easier.
"Beyond that, our enemies have proven to not only be of the Wave, but we now know that the woman, Glass, is not only not alone. She can somehow cross over from another world into this one. A world being struck by the same Waves of Calamity as this one, and losing, or so it sounds like from what I read," I begin, getting their attention now, as I walk over to a small nook on the table, one with figures, probably to be placed on maps to represent troops, and pull out three of them.
"First, the leader, King L'arc Berg Sickle. I don't know the name of his kingdom, it wasn't included in what I read via (Insight), but it's a kingdom that has passed the Vassal Scythe down for uncounted generations, in the same way Faubury does with the Vassal Axe, or Siltvelt did with the Hammer and Claw," I begin, placing the first figure on the table, and tapping my finger on it.
"He's a physical power house, in stats that are not of this world. Worse, his 'sacred item' in the Vassal Scythe gives him the ability to gain power with every foe he slays, the boost growing, and the timer for it resetting every time he makes another kill, meaning even in the stats where he's weak, mostly the magically focused ones, he's going to get stronger if you let him take down monsters or other combatants," I began, describing him in terms of an enemy. No one objected.
"His partner, the woman, Therese, is of the Jewel Race, a special class of person on his world. Instead of Demi-Humans and Beastmen, as on this one, his people are divided amongst more magically inclined races. Her particular kind look human, overall, but are born with a 'heart jewel' from which they derive magical energy. They have a moderate resistance to physical damage, but their most combat oriented trait is they can channel their magic through other, specially treated, jewels," I explained, tapping the second figure.
"The orbs she used against me," said Lucia, and I nodded.
"That is one form, though, given what I read, I think those are more of a personalized weapon for her. Naofumi, you saw her fight. Did she ever use floating orb-like weapons, about the size of her head?" I asked, and he seemed to start for a moment, like he hadn't expected to be drawn into the conversation, but then quickly shook his head.
"She used jewels and gems, that's true, but they were smaller, nothing larger than a thumbnail, and she had them mounted on various pieces of jewelry she wore, mostly in the form of wristbands. I…made her one, in celebration of her and L'arc being our friends," he said, sounding particularly angry at that last declaration. A man, once burned, is even MORE likely to see a second betrayal as a shot straight to the heart. If Naofumi had ever considered L'arc and Therese companions, they were now little more than targets in his eyes.
"She used those to cast spells, I would guess she held off on the orbs for another reason than simply hiding them," I said, looking down at the three as I considered my words a bit more carefully, not wanting to get drawn off topic quite yet.
"However, before going over that, I will lay out that Therese is a caster type. Her orbs come in a variety of forms, which she can seemingly swap out on the fly. Most of them she can use infinitely, though her 'lightning orbs' seem to draw on her 'Aura', her magic, instead of simply use. Her spells also drain aura, and have a charge time, rather than a cast time, though effectively they are the same, as interrupting her stops the spell. The difference is she doesn't lose the aura if it fails to cast," I said, laying out the advantage she would have over our own magical types.
"The final member of the trio is Lady Glass. She is a Spirit Person, a type of animated collection of magic. She LOOKS human, but she isn't in the same way. Her body is Aura, made physical. That's why her abilities and health seem to draw from the same pool. Like all Aura, however, it regenerates at a natural rate faster than MP, even if the ceiling on its use is effectively lower," I said, moving on to the final figure on the table.
"We saw her powers when we fought her. She barely takes damage from physical attacks, only from 'Will' powered strikes, and given we don't have Will scores here, we have to rely on either hammering her with blows to keep her off balance, or simply getting around her protections. She is the most mobile of the trio, the Rogue to the L'arc's Fighter and Therese's Mage," I said.
"Her weapon, the Vassal Fan, like L'arc's Scythe, gains power as the fight goes on. Unlike his, the method is simply attacking. Every blow she lands seems to 'syphon' some of the power that the other uses to defend themselves with. It means that she grows more dangerous the longer the fight goes on, and unlike the Scythe, the Fan's boost timer resets every time she hits something. It starts smaller, mind, but is exponentially more dangerous in a one on one match," I explain, before placing my fingers on all three figurines at once.
"They form a nice, neat group to fight against, a balanced party that we have yet to face all at once. They won't make the same mistakes thrice, given we beat them when they ambushed us, and then when they tried a divide and conquer strategy. With difficulty, to be fair, but still we did it when they had every advantage in terms of staging and shock value of their attacks, we can surmise if they come at us again, it will be as a unit, and they WILL come back," I said, knocking the three figures down with a push.
"We can also guess they'll attack during Wave events. Given Naofumi's explanations of his battles with L'arc and Therese on his team, as well as my own observations during the defense of Cal Mira's main population center, I don't think they have the ability to use the stats of their world, when on this one, outside of the Waves. We would have noticed otherwise, and they would not have held off attacking if they could have beaten us earlier, reducing the amount they would have to fight during the larger battle later," I explained, enjoying, slightly, that everyone was hanging off my every word.
"That means that I doubt we'll see them again until the next Wave, which we have almost three weeks to prepare for. We can beat the things the Waves throw at us, but their PvP is throwing off the balance of this campaign. That means we have two options," I said, and held up two fingers on my left hand.
"The first is to try and figure out HOW they managed to get across outside of the Waves, as I doubt they would have left their world completely defenseless if they could help it. That and (Insight) said their division of myself and Lucia from the group was based on what Glass had told them, meaning she had to have some communication with them," I explained, and I could see Motoyasu and Naofumi both already thinking of ways to make that happen.
"The second way is one I'm more in support of. I say there's no more time for half measures. We need all the power up methods, and that means going to the kingdom of Faubury and demanding access, for a few minutes, to the three Vassal Weapons there, and using every resource at our disposal to find the Vassal Whip and Vassal Projectile. Once we have them, if we are strong enough, we can even claim the Vassal Gauntlet from where it rests. If we have all eight power methods, I doubt we'd be caught flatfooted when they return to face us again," I said, and everyone looked at me, obviously considering the question that would shape our immediate future.