Disclaimer
The following is a fan-based Fiction.
Rising of the Shield Hero belongs to Aneko Yusagi
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Pushing One's Limits
After catching up, they discuss their strategy on defeating the Church.
Misato and Matilda theorized that the reason why the Vanguards of the Three Heroes Church are so dangerous is not just because they are wielding Hero Replicas but rather, each wielder is said to be a master at wielding the same weapon type.
Eclair vouched that Adele Feur, the deceased Sword Vanguard, was a fierce fencer, almost equal if not better than her own skills in sword fighting. She was raised by a family of sword fighters who strived to be strong. But Forrest was much stronger than her.
The Shadows explained that Anselm Himmel came from a family dedicated to Archery, they were obsessed with Justice, they said that Anselm grew up learning archery all of his life, training hard so that one day, he would have the power to enforce 'True Justice' on the world.
Meanwhile Rainhart Lestung was an orphan that was raised by the Church of the Three Heroes. After some sparring, he was declared as a Spear Wielding Prodigy, and to pay the Church back for taking care of him, he trained hard, learning various styles of Spearmanship, all for the sake of the Church.
So, with their mastery over their own fighting styles and give them each a Hero Replica weapon that compliments their skills… Then the Church has three or rather two dangerous assets that can do more than just release an onslaught of mimicking hero powers against their enemies, they can fight without relying on those imitations alone, they can use their skills to defeat their enemies with little casualties on their side from charging up the Vanguard Replicas.
Unlike the Pope, who likely has no training for any weapon type but no doubt he would have the largest group of mages charging up the Cardinal Replica. While he isn't skillful with any of the weapon forms he uses, he is still formidable as the Vanguards are by having greater power. Although Fitoria claimed Forrest would make quick work of the Pope without using the Legendary Gun and seeing how Forrest defeated Adele, who had the skills and power, everyone believed her.
With that in mind, the plan was to separate the Vanguards and the Pope from each other, as the three of them combined would be quite the struggle. Fitoria can take them but she did say that for her to interfere would cause major rumors to spread and it wouldn't be right for her to take away the Cardinal Heroes' desire to defeat them personally. She will only assist them or will engage in battle if necessary.
Perhaps with a coordinated effort, the Heroes can use their weapon skills to separate the groups by force with Fitoria permanently separating them. Or Fitoria could form a magic field, slicing the groups apart and containing them. They'll work on that idea later…
As for who takes on who. Misato suggests that Motoyasu and Ren's parties will take on the Bow Vanguard's group, while Naofumi and Itsuki's parties will face the Spear Vanguard's group.
"What? You're not going to let me fight that spear wielding bastard?" Motoyasu protests.
"And I'm not going to face Anselm?" Itsuki adds in, upset as well.
"I'm sorry but the Vanguards are almost equal in power, and unless you both fully unlock the Legacy Series, in terms of skills, you two are no match for each Vanguard wielding the same weapon type as you. You know very well that they dedicated their whole lives mastering weapons similar to the replicas, while we Cardinal Heroes only had a few weeks…" Misato explains.
Motoyasu initially winces but nods, seemingly conceding to Misato point but Itsuki doesn't.
"But… I want to prove Anselm wrong!" Itsuki argues. "I want to shut his damn mouth for blabbering about his 'True justice." Matilda places her hand on his shoulder.
"You can trust Ren and Motoyasu to do that, the moment Anselm loses, he will realize that he was wrong…" Misato assures.
Ren and Motoyasu both straighten and nod at Misato's point.
"Yeah, we'll shut him up for you." Motoyasu says and Itsuki frowns, nodding.
"Okay."
"So why are Motoyasu and I fighting him anyway?" Ren asks.
"The weakness of every archer is close combat. If the two of you ambush him up close, the guy won't be able to make an effective counter attack, and sure he has some ability to defend himself up close but with two close range fighting heroes, he will be overwhelmed. Plus, you personally know how the Bow Vanguard fights." Misato explains.
"I see…" Ren nods
"Sounds good." Motoyasu agrees.
"As for the Spear Vanguard, Naofumi had more experience dealing with Spear fighters since he faced Motoyasu, Rifana and Rainhart in the past. He's familiar with defending from that style of fighting. So while he keeps the Vanguard's attention, Itsuki can maintain distance, sniping the Spear Vanguard and Naofumi can keep him from getting too close to Itsuki."
"Good idea." Naofumi comments.
"Alright…" Itsuki concedes to Misato's point.
"Meanwhile the party members of each hero will face the people supporting the Vanguards, the faster they remove their source of mana, the easier it will be for the Heroes to take them out."
"Wait, so if they are facing the Vanguards, are we going to face the Pope?" Keel asks, eyes shining along with Rifana.
"Yep… That bastard is ours…" Misato is going to roast the hell out of him.
"Hell yeah!"
"Woah, wait so your party will face the Pope's army? Your team's levels are high but that's too much for them alone." Naofumi points out and Raphtalia nods, worried about her friends.
"We have Fitoria…" Misato points at the Strongest person in the room.
The Heroes look at Fitoria's level.
Level: ?
They all nod.
"You also have me." Melty adds in.
"What? No, you're going to a team that needs your magic." Misato argues. "All of us can cast spells and I am a long range fighter, having two is a bit redundant."
"You? A long range fighter? Please…" Melty rolls her eyes. "You don't act like a long range fighter at all, you would be too busy trying to break Balmus's teeth. In fact, if you weren't chosen by the Gun, you have definitely been the Gauntlet Hero." Misato opens his mouth to argue only to close it, realizing Melty was right. For almost every fight he has been in, Misato often doesn't maintain good distance with his enemies, even eagerly charging up close to people when he could have shot them instead.
"Your team needs a dedicated long range fighter and supporter, especially against the Pope's army, I can provide it, especially since I'm the Staff Hero now thanks to Forrest." Melty claims. "With me and S'yne, you have two Star- I mean Vassal Heroes with your Party."
"Not only that, but I want to face the leader who threatens my home, the person who you described as a selfish man who lies to everyone, even to himself. Someone who is willing to risk the entire world for their ego…" Melty says, firmly staring directly into Misato's eyes.
Misato sighs and nods, understanding Melty's feelings. "Okay, you're in but we're going to figure out a way to convert your oldman's levels and make you level 100 or more.
"Alright."
"Come on Forrest!" Agathe yelled as she thrusts her rapier which the Previous Gun Hero narrowly avoids, moving and rotating his body to his right side. Mid dodge, Forrest extended his arm out with what looked like a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
But the Vassal Fencer's weapon glows and transforms, she flicks her wrist, swinging the weapon towards the gun, slightly bending, her weapon seems flimsy looking, like the fencing sword used as a hobby back at Earth.
"Repulse." Agathe mutters, the tip of her sword glows as it hits the gun and suddenly Forrest's right harm holding the Gun is blown aside, a small ring of purple light appeared for a brief moment when the sword touched the gun.
The force of the blow causes Forrest to stumble on his right but he raises his left arm and the Gun reappears as a rifle with a bayonet, he thrusts the weapon, hoping to hit her. But Agathe was a step ahead of him, changing her weapon, doing a clockwise parry, smacking the gun to aim away from her, while poking her sword at Forrest's throat.
"Dead." Agathe stated and Forrest sighed.
"Damn." Forrest muttered, falling on his butt with a groan, wiping off his sweat with a tight fitted shirt, identical to the modern gym clothing athletes wear but much more plain.
"You have improved, it was a clever idea of willing your Gun to reappear on your other hand in hopes of catching me off guard, however you are not the first Hero that did the trick. Were I anyone else, perhaps you would have won." Agathe said reflecting on their spar.
"Thanks…" Forrest said, frowning. The Fencer Hero sighs.
"Forrest, it is not fair to compare yourself to the other Cardinal Heroes, they have lived a much longer life than you have, they have more experience and wisdom than you do. Do not mind the comments of the soldiers too, they placed unfair expectations on you."
"..." Forrest sighs. "I'll try…" He said. "But it's difficult to ignore the glaring and whispering whenever I appear in the room."
"I suppose so… Do not hold it against them though, this War has been quite draining on everyone…"
"Yeah and they chose to waste their energy trying to create lasers out of their eyes to burn me since I didn't die old like the others…" Forrest commented not hiding his bitterness.
Agathe frowns, kneeling next to the Gun Hero. "Do not worry, in time your efforts will be fruitful and their disdain towards you will fade…"
Motoyasu stands on the balcony, looking at the night sky filled with stars, he would normally not be able to see this back at home in the city. He frowns, recalling his conversation with Misato alone about his source.
The story of how the Anime Spear Hero fell the hardest among the Four, blindly trusting in the wrong woman, eventually betrayed and alone. The Spear Hero's mind shattered, now a fanatic, obsessed over angel girls like Fitoria, Filo and Sakura. Having creepy behavior that would have gotten him arrested back at Earth.
The story was horrifying to Motoyasu because of how similar they were before the Anime Character's mind broke. Constantly doubling down on everything that implies the opposite of his delusion, even when the 'Villainous Princess' was finally exposed for her crimes with a slave seal forcing her to speak the truth, the Spear Hero still remained by her side, until he was betrayed…
Were it not for Misato, Itsuki and Naofumi… Would he have been like that?
The weird part is, Misato couldn't figure out the Anime Character's past, the Gun Hero was frighteningly spot on with how he died due to two yanderes stabbing him, just like Motoyasu did but any more than that was unknown. Misato couldn't make heads or tails of how and why the Spear Hero was so blind.
Motoyasu shakes his head, unlike the anime character, his fate isn't written by an author, he isn't a character meant to make the Main Protagonist look good in comparison like Misato described. Unlike the Anime Spear hero, he can change.
Meanwhile, Ren was disappointed in the Anime Sword Hero, as he was shown to be reasonable, albeit arrogant and a bit of a jerk sometimes but was still considered the least bad. However, for the Sword Hero to believe in the 'Villainous Princess.' After her trial, is perhaps the stupidest thing he heard the character do. Yes Misato did explain that the Sword Hero lost his teammates and was on the verge of breaking his delusion but what the hell! How desperate was the Sword Hero?!
Before Ren could decide the information was useless to him, Misato did explain that the Anime character had a poor ability in communication and understanding people that he didn't understand how real his teammates seem. Subconsciously, some part of the character knew they were real but he never fully recognized it due to his time in playing Virtual Reality Games, until they died. His mind couldn't handle it and tried to avoid the truth.
Just like Ren did…
Naofumi takes a deep breath, firmly placing his hand on Shirono Mamoru's tombstone and closes his eyes. Raphtalia and Fitoria hold their breath, while Filo and Sakura are playing somewhere in the Sanctuary.
Naofumi frowns and opens his eyes. "I got nothing, no vision, no pop up message." He says letting go.
"Are we missing something?" Raphtalia wonders, and Fitoria walks over to the tombstone, rubbing her finger on it.
"Or perhaps this isn't truly Mamoru's grave, but rather a placeholder to help me remember him. Perhaps the real one is at Stilvelt." Fitoria deduces.
"Shit…" Naofumi groans "You're certain it's the same nation where my most recent predecessor died?"
"Yes." Fitoria confirms, slightly frowning at the implications.
"What will we do now? I doubt Melromarc would keep track of a Shield Hero dying in this country." Raphtalia asks.
Naofumi sighs.
He was really hoping to unlock the Legacy Series. Misato really lucked out on having the Gun and having a good predecessor to help him. Naofumi sometimes wondered what it would have been like to be the Gun Hero.
The Legendary Gun is great, not just because it's a gun, which conceptually is a lot better as a weapon. But because of how useful it is to Misato. It constantly saved his life, taking hits Misato could not block or avoid, it told him useful tips immediately when relevant, it told him the strengthening method it had where the Shield didn't say anything. The Gun seems to be making Misato an 'Absolute Unit.' Capable of many forms of fighting, especially with the Legacy Series helping him. The Gun lets Misato wield other weapons, something all the other Heroes could not do without being shocked until Misato explained and suddenly, the rules changed…
From what Misato described, the Gun has been really supportive of him, something that Naofumi believed every weapon should do but for some reason they seem so passive… The Shield forced him to have a stupid amount of the defense and no way to inflict harm if he is alone, until the Legendary Gun gave him the hybrid series and got him some form of offense just in case.
Plus Misato can instantly equip his armor once he puts it on for the first time, everyone else has to manually equip the old fashion way. The armor Naofumi wears is a pain in the ass to put on and remove!
Fitoria said it had to do with Misato's bond with the Gun…
The 'Legendary Shield' only stuck on his arm looking pretty, where Naofumi had to figure things out on his own, experimenting, discovering what works and doesn't work for the Shield as it finally explains things that could have been useful so much earlier. Were it not for the recordings he would have never known the Shield's Strengthening Methods. Well three of them anyway…
Oh well…
"We'll figure it out after we deal with those fanatics." Naofumi concludes and a filolial carrying a bag walks over to Fitoria, she opens the bag, lifting a oval shaped short shield with a pretty sharp looking point at the end.
"What's this?"
"Mamoru's favorite shield, copy this." Fitoria says and Naofumi complies.
Kinetic Shield Copied!
Passive Effects: When an enemy strikes your shield, it will absorb 15% damage of your opponent's total damage stats.
Each attack counts charges 25%, you can only charge up to 100%.
Parrying attacks will give you an additional 25% charge beyond the maximum. Up to 125%.
New Skill: Kinetic Strike - Release the damage you absorbed.
+50 Defense
+5 Attack
Note: Can be upgraded with Energy Points and modified by Resource Customization.
No wonder why this was Mamoru's favorite shield! This is the most Offensive Shield he has now!
"Hah… Hah…" Misato breathes deeply, standing in front of him are mannequins and large targets, each behind some trees and rocks, all surrounded by Fitoria's field magic, covering the area. He slides his finger across the Legendary Gun on his thigh and raises his left hand.
Timer Start
Misato presses the button and moves.
BangBangBangBang!
Misato fires the Viper Pistol at the targets while moving around the obstacles, keeping his sights aimed at the targets ahead. The gun runs out of ammo, he presses eject and flicks his wrist, flinging the magazine away from him, turning into particles in the air. Another magazine forms on his hand but a mannequin appears around the wall, he fires the viper knife, striking the heart and he reloads his gun, firing at the targets again.
The Gun Hero transforms his gun into an assault rifle, aiming with the scope, firing at the targets further away from him, firing in single shots. He then moves on to the next targets, switching to automatic, willing his gun to remove the scope and fires short bursts at the 'enemies.'
'Faster, I have to move faster!'
Misato goes through the course, changing his guns for the appropriate situation, from shotguns to sniper rifles, to a pistol, even changing to the Gun Spear and Gun Sword when a mannequin gets close faster than a shotgun could fire.
Boom!
Misato fires the Siderite rifle, taking out five in a row and stops the timer. Itsuki and S'yne walk over to him.
"How did it go?" Itsuki asks
"Faster than last time." Misato answers with a grin.
He loves Infinite Essential Ammo! Although it is weaker than the real material bullets, he can fire his gun without worrying about running out of ammo!
It also unlocked Resource Copying. A feature of the Resource Customization where the user must have at least one material inside their inventory, giving them the ability to make copies of that material to create and customize more weapon forms.
For example, Misato can have a single iron ingot inside his inventory and could create 30 iron ingot copies and use them to create a new gun. If he gets his hands on another Siderite Ingot, he could have multiple guns made of Siderite!
However, this feature is only for creating and customizing weapon forms for the hero, they can't create an infinite amount of weapons for an army, it's only for the Hero wielding the weapon. Not only that but he has to wait a certain amount of time before he can copy the material again.
"Good job."
"Thanks." Misato turns to S'yne. "Thanks for helping me and Itsuki practice." The Otherworld Hero nods.
"Let's take a break." Misato says, walking over the bench underneath the tree. He sips a glass of water and sighs.
It's been a few days since the last meeting, everyone has been training hard, maximizing the potential of all 19 strengthening methods combined and refining their skills.
The top priority is to grind and increase their levels. Fitoria has been escorting each Hero's Party to different locations across countries via teleportation, to fight monsters and level up. While one team goes out to grind, the others stay at Reichnott's Town, training hard. Every Hero present had to go through a crash course on learning how to fight like they aren't Heroes, relying on actual fighting skills and it was quite a humbling experience for them.
It wasn't too bad for Naofumi as blocking with a shield isn't too complicated, the fights he had has helped him retain the proper defensive stance by instinct now. Of course, he still had a lot to learn as people exposed him by sweeping his leg or yanking his shield arm away. While his defense is still ridiculously high so even without his shield blocking he will be okay, but it's better for him to try to block all attacks the best he can.
Itsuki was okay too, somewhat familiar with the training and did learn proper archery without aid of using Hero Power Skills. Thanks to Matilda's guidance.
Ren and Motoyasu… Their ego is definitely bruised, fortunately not bad as their Canon counterparts, and much more tolerable.
Motoyasu had no experience, he only knew the very bare bones of Spearmanship, which is 'Poke them with the sharp end.' His moves are ridiculously flashy, when he tries to pull a combo attack with multiple skill moves, he wastes his energy and time, twirling the spear around his body. Motoyasu definitely learned that the hard way when the Spear Vanguard mocked him while taking advantage of his obvious openings and tells.
Ren, while he was a competitive VR Game Sword fighter he admitted that the fights he experienced did not prepare him for an actual sword fighter like Eclair, this was also evident in his fatal mistake against the Sword Vanguard.
Misato in terms of skills he is best thanks to the Legacy Series but he does rely a bit too much on the Gun helping him fight, saving him from hits he cannot block or avoid. They also discovered that the Gun cannot take every hit for him. Because if Misato cannot see the attack, it seems that Gun cannot appear where Misato will be hit. With that in mind, Misato mainly practiced his aim and reload speed, while occasionally practicing hand to hand combat without his Gun assisting him.
Despite the groans and some whining, the Heroes still kept going, considering what they went through, they are certainly not going to question their teachers. They knew their flaws and Misato did raise a good point. By fighting like they aren't Heroes, they do have a solid foundation to work on when they add in the powers of being a Hero. It's also a good thing to learn when they run out of SP, MP and EP, or when someone suppresses their weapon, they would only have their skills to rely on.
Misato's train of thought changes as he looks at S'yne. "You got a vision of R'yne meeting Forrest and yet you didn't unlock the Legacy of the Sewing Set Hero Series or something like that, any ideas why?"
S'yne shrugs. "T*o Da*aged?" She suggests.
"Maybe…" Misato mutters but his gut instinct is telling him that it's something else.
Ren fights Eclair, both trying to land a good hit on each other, fighting hard, and since they are in the same party, they cannot hurt each other, allowing them to not hold back their swings.
Eclair is almost equal to Ren due to the massive stats gains she received when fighting monsters with the Sword Hero's Party, making this fight a contest of skill rather than power.
He's getting tired, he has to end this while he still has the energy.
Ren uses his remaining strength to knock aside Eclair's saber but he fails as Eclair instead uses the force of the blow to quickly rotate her sword back to her center and pokes Ren's chest. The Sword Hero sighs and slouches in defeat.
"You relied too much on the first swing to knock aside my sword, leaving you open for me to counter quickly. If I was lower level with lesser strength than you, perhaps it would have worked but it is not good to rely on such a thing." Eclair critics. "Let's take a five minute break."
"Hai…" Ren mutters, sitting underneath a tree, drinking water with Eclair next to him, both observing their peers.
Rifana and Motoyasu are practicing their thrusts with Sadeena coaching them.
Matilda is coaching her niece, Rishia and Welt on knife throwing.
Rino was likely somewhere quiet to cast spells.
After a few minutes, Naofumi's party returns with Fitoria, who asks Misato to face her in a one on one fight.
Misato vs Fitoria?
He's not going to miss this.
All parties stare from behind the magic barrier Fitoria created, watching with great anticipation.
"Whenever you are ready, Misato." Fitoria prompts not even taking a combat stance.
Misato takes slow and deep breaths, trying to calm his heart. His hand twitches, hovering over the Gun on his right thigh. He grabs it but the gun suddenly reappears as an Uzi on his left hand and he fires across his body, shooting a wave of bullets at Fitoria. He then raises his dominant hand, firing a revolver with a scope, made completely out of glass.
Fitoria dodges the wave of bullets, leaping over, using a magic seal to kick her feet off of, flying right towards Misato with her fist raised.
But the Gun Hero disappears right as she swings, hitting air. Fitoria's eyes widened.
Behind!
Fitoria turns, with her finger pointed out, firing an Air Shot where she sensed Misato. The spell flies towards Misato and Misato suddenly uses the Great GunSword to push him up by his feet.
Clang!
The airshot hits the bottom end of the sword but Misato flips forward, willing the Great Gunsword to reappear in his hands and swings his sword right on top of Fitoria.
She dodges it, moving to Misato's right side and moves to punch but Misato lets go of the sword, raising an Uzi, swinging his right arm firing the gun at Fitoria's legs. She jumps over the bullets only to be hit by the Great gunsword Misato is now holding with his left arm.
Misato knocks Fitoria back, drawing 'first blood.' She lands, her feet dragging through the dirt, stopping herself.
It seems she has underestimated him…
Fitoria then dashes forward, faster than before.
Misato fires a shotgun blast and Fitoria deflects it with a gust of wind using her arm. She then raises her open hand at Misato. Five airshots form on each finger and they all shoot from her hand, flying towards Misato.
"Deadeye!" Misato yells, taking aim with his assault rifle.
The bullets intercept the air shots, the rest of the bullets fly towards Fitoria but she swipes it aside with her arm, using a wind cutter.
She then uses wind magic to boost her speed, getting close in an instant, throwing a punch which Misato blocks with a Gun Shield with a loud clang, echoing in the area.
Misato is knocked back from the force of the blow and rolls to his feet, finding Fitoria up close again, ready to slap aside the gun shield with her left arm. But he doesn't let her and wills the Gun to disappear. Fitoria's arm goes wide as she misses the Gun Shield.
The Gun Hero goes for a straight jab but Fitoria ducks and locks her arm around his. Misato instantly rotates his body, with his back turned, slamming his elbow with the Legendary Gun over it but Fitoria blocks it and hits his back with her hand.
Misato turns back, holding Fitoria's wrist, moving her arm in a circular motion, opening her up for him to punch her face with his left fist.
Fitoria catches it with her free hand, but a gun appears over Misato's forearm.
Bang!
Fitoria's head gets shot point blank and she flinch out of surprise. Not expecting Misato to be able to fire it without pulling the trigger with his hand.
Forrest was able to do that too…
Misato then goes for an upward kick to her chin but Fitoria leans to the side, grabbing his leg and she flips him into the air.
Bang!
Fitoria flinches again and looks at Misato landing, seeing the smoking gun on his right hand, the same side where Fitoria was when she flipped him. When Fitoria grabbed his leg, he got the gun to appear on his hand to shoot her as she flipped him?
She blinks, now seeing Forrest standing, raising the gun at her.
W-What?!
Bang!
Misato is suddenly flying into the magic barrier, bouncing off of it with a loud cry.
Misato lightly coughs, he didn't feel pain but the force of the blow pushed the air out of his lungs… He takes a deep breath and looks ahead, seeing Fitoria with her arm out, her eyes blank, staring at him.
What happened? Misato fired his gun but he didn't even see Fitoria move to strike him and he didn't blink.
Did she move so fast that he didn't see her move at all?
"Fitoria?" Misato asks, snapping Fitoria out of her daze, she blinks and her eyes widen.
"Apologies Misato, I was so caught off guard that I accidentally went faster than I limited myself with." Fitoria says, quickly checking his body. "Did I hurt you?"
"No, it's a good thing you're in my party." Misato replies.
"Mhm, if we weren't in a party, the power I put into that punch would have knocked you out." Fitoria states and Misato feels a sweat drop on his neck from the statement
"Why did you suddenly move like that?" He asks.
Fitoria frowns, looking at Misato. "The way you fought… It reminded me so much of Forrest…"
"What is it?" Itsuki asks.
"Why were you frowning behind Misato's back?" Matilda questions with a neutral tone.
"I wasn't."
"I saw you when Misato was being complimented by his peers after his fight against Fitoria."
Itsuki grimaces, looking away.
"Itsuki, do not worry, I won't judge you on any negative feelings you have." Matilda assures, grasping his hand.
The Bow Hero sighs, still not opening up.
"You're jealous of Misato aren't you?" Matilda says, hitting the nail on the head and Itsuki flinches.
"I'm... Y-yeah I am…" Itsuki finally admits.
"How come?"
Itsuki then explains how his world worked, how he had esper powers, a power they can create and use with their minds. In a school filled with people like him, they had esper powers that made him a tiny pebble in comparison and was bullied constantly. He tried to put in good effort but the teachers had no faith in him, always putting him down for his weaker power.
"One teacher said that I was 'A waste of space'." Itsuki quotes and Matilda frowns, wishing to 'speak' to this teacher with a knife to their throat. "My power is accuracy, I can never miss."
"It's a very useful power." Matilda praises, seeing the potential behind the ability to never miss.
"Yeah, and how can it compare to someone who can lift an entire mountain with their mind?" Itsuki retorts with a scoff. "Misato doesn't have my power and yet he's proven that he doesn't need it." He says recalling Misato shooting the targets and mannequins. "Now with the Legacy Series, Misato is climbing up at a level that I and everyone else cannot keep up with…" Itsuki mutters remembering Misato's intense fight with Fitoria.
"Then when I helped Misato gain his own Esper Power, using the Gun to absorb my tears, he unlocked Power Manifestation. The power to create and cultivate multiple Esper Powers. Something that many would consider to be an S Tier or easily make him the Top Ten back in my school…" Itsuki explains, frowning, remembering the condescending comments and looks from his peers. He hated it so much…
"What you feel is fine, I do not judge your jealousy, it is normal to feel that way, just remember, does Misato look down on you?" Matilda asks
"No…" Itsuki recalls how genuine Misato looked, how he never behaved like a bully, he feels guilty now…
"It's fine to feel guilty too, it's fine to feel those negative things." Matilda points out, noticing Itsuki's guilt. "Just what you do with those feelings is what determines if it's right or wrong, I know you don't actually hate Misato.
"What do I do? I want to be stronger, not because of my ego anymore but I honestly feel like I'm stuck again back in that horrible school."
"You work harder, and while it may be tiring and exhausting, one day you will shine, maybe not like the typical praises you received in the past but rather, you shine from the deeds you accomplish regardless of what the others do."
"Really?" Itsuki is skeptical as he always recalled being in someone's shadow of their accomplishments.
"You'll see…" Matilda assures and stands up from the bench. "I'm going to check on Rishia's progress." Itsuki nods, thinking about what Matilda said.
Matilda frowns as she walks away.
'It seems that there is a gap forming between the Gun Hero and the other Cardinals due to the Legacy Series. Eclair reported to her that Ren, Motoyasu and Naofumi were staring at Misato after his fight against Fitoria. They all seem envious of Misato's power. Hopefully there will be no problems in the future when they gain their own…'
Inside a dungeon a few hundred miles from Stilvelt, the Gun Hero's Party faces the Crystalline Spider Queen, fighting together, trying to adjust with their newest members, S'yne and Melty, to prepare for their massive fight with the Pope.
Misato transforms his weapon into the grappling gun, grabbing the hook end and swings the Gun end towards the Mini-boss.
"Change Gun!"
The grappling gun changes into a metal carriage still attached to the wire and Misato swings it at the Spider like a wrecking ball.
Slamming into the Mini-boss, swinging into the wall, Misato removes the weapon, finding the spider on its back against the wall and right before it falls, Misato fires the Nail Gun, pinning it.
The Spider Queen cries in pain and roars, commanding her children to swarm.
"Ace, Sadeena, Keel, finish it!" Misato commands and the three go on to kill the Queen. "Rifana, Melty, cast Typhoon! S'yne, we need to slow down the swarm!" Misato pulls out the Dragon Emperor Chaingun, mowing down the spiders as S'yne takes care of any stragglers, meanwhile Rifana and Melty stand together.
""As a source of thy power, we order thee!"" Both Melty and Rifana say.
"Decipher the laws of nature, bring forth a raging wind!"
"And bring forth a pelting rain!"
""Produce a storm that blows our targets away!"" Melty raises her staff, illuminating the cave with blue light, while Rifana raises her hand producing green light.
""Typhoon!""
Misato and S'yne then teleport out of the way of the combo spell. A large tornado of wind fused with water washes the spiders away, pushing some of them back into the tunnels, or crushing their bodies against the walls and spikes.
"We finally did it!" Rifana yells
"We were in perfect sync!" Melty cheers and high fives with Rifana.
The two turn around to find the Mini-boss is dead, gaining a lot of EXP.
Fitoria smiles in the corner of the cave.
Misato Morgan: Archer (Gun Hero) Level 91
S'yne Lokk: Sewing Set Hero Level 73
Ace: Royal Filolial Level 85
Keel: Axewoman Level 84
Rifana: Spearwoman Level 85
Sadeena: Guardian Level 87
Melty Q Melromarc: Princess, Staff Hero Level 90
Fitoria: Filolial Queen (Carriage Hero) Level ?
Misato's team has progressed nicely, Melty and S'yne seem to have adjusted well with his party. Misato has gotten very creative with his weapon, even more than she has with her Carriage. Looking back at her fight with Misato… She now realized her martial arts are incredibly rusty. Most of the moves she pulls off are likely muscle memory, where Misato is being greatly guided by the Legendary Gun.
In fact, the bond between Misato and the Gun is so powerful she is having a bit of troubling deciphering if she is sensing the Gun or Misato. They are both in perfect sync with each other.
The Dragon Emperor Gun Misato uses and the fact that Forrest was likely the one who absorbed it for Misato, gives her mixed feelings, due to her experience with those dragons in the past. However from what she could tell, the shard is surprisingly docile, the Dragon, Gaelion, explained that his ancestor made a promise to Forrest in the past, to use the shard to help the New Gun Hero.
She vaguely recalls a massive battle Forrest took facing a dragon but not much else about some deal he made…
"Woah!" Misato gasps and Fitoria walks over to the party, curious, seeing Misato hold a large crystal from the Mini-Boss.
"What is it?" Rifana asks.
"The crystal the Spider Queen has much better stat scaling than the magic crystal Ace and I used for our magic threaded clothing. S'yne you think you could sew it?" Misato says, facing S'yne who inspects crystal and nods. "Good, I do have a new design in mind and want to speak to you about it."
"Thinking of getting a new jacket?" Rifana inquires.
"Yeah, maybe something a little thicker and more similar to the jackets from my world."
"Fashionable?"
"Of course, how could I ever forget the most important thing in clothing." Misato replies and Rifana grins.
"I wish I could see what your world's clothing is like." Sadeena says and all the girls, minus Fitoria and Keel, nod in agreement.
"You probably would have liked it, Beth would have…" Misato trails off, remembering his dead friend. His party looks at him, concerned for their leader.
He shakes his head. "Never mind, let's get out of this cave."
Fitoria blinks. "I sense a native Vassal Hero nearby."
"Exactly how far?" Misato asks.
"Approximately fifty miles behind the mountain."
"Yeesh, well, let's meet them." Misato says.
"Is that a good idea though? This Vassal Hero might be an ass." Keel questions and everyone grimaces, recalling the King, while Melty frowns at the reminder of her father.
"Maybe but… The strengthening method could be very useful…" Misato mutters. "Then again, without any of the known Cardinal Heroes here, they are less inclined to help us, so I guess we'll just go back."
Fitoria nods, summoning her carriage but then she stiffens.
"What's wrong?"
"I sense someone with a much higher level near the Vassal Hero…"
"How high and strong?" Misato questions.
"Stronger than the Vassal Hero and all of you but not me…" Fitoria answers and Misato frowns.
For someone to be stronger than the majority of them and is near the Vassal Hero? Not a good sign.
"We should check them out but we maintain distance, Fitoria will get us up the mountain quickly and we use our scopes to see them if possible." Misato suggests and the team nods in agreement.
Fitoria takes them mid way up the mountain and goes around it. Along the way, she senses a group weaker than the first person but still stronger than the Gun Hero's Party and Misato's stomach turns, giving him a bad feeling.
They finally make it around the mountain, just far enough to see the valley on the other side, giving them some cover, they see a group of people in the distance, almost ant sized. Misato covers everyone with a blanket colored green and gray, camouflaging them with the mountain.
The Gun Hero transforms to his Sniper Rifle and zooms in.
He sees two groups, on one side is what looks like a large demi-human wolf, with scars all over his body and a pair of claws on his hands with almost gray blue gemstones on the weapons.
"Looks like the Claw Hero." Misato whispers and Fitoria nods.
"Yes, he is the hero I sensed."
Alongside the wolf are likely his teammates, both demi-human bears, a young man wielding a flail and shield, and a girl in her late teens or early twenties, wielding a cutlass. The Hero's entourage seem to be siblings based on their similar traits.
On the other side, is a blonde man with a red bandana on his head, wearing what looks like biker clothing, which is a bit out place in this world, and on his hip is the a whip with a purple gemstone-
"Huh? I think I see the whip hero too." Misato mutters.
"I recognize him, he's Takt Alsaholn Faubrey, the Whip Hero." Melty confirms.
"If he is, then why did I not sense him?" Fitoria says and Misato frowns.
Something isn't right…
Misato looks through the scope, noticing Takt's group is filled with girls, there seems to be about ten of them in that party.
Suddenly, Takt turns into a blur in Misato's eyes appearing before the Claw Hero, a flash of purple, red, blue and green colors erupts.
Misato blinks away the flash and gasps, seeing Takt holding the claws and its previous wielder looking gobsmacked.
"What just happened?! Why does he have the claws?" Keel whispers.
"He stole it…" Misato suddenly answers
"Th*t's a pow*r pe*ple fr*m th* W*ves use!" S'yne gasps out loud, clenching her scissors tightly.
"""What?!""" The entire party gasps and Misato groans, feeling an intense migraine.
"Misato?" Sadeena whispers, concerned. Ace pats his shoulder.
"I'm okay…" He tries to ignore it, watching the rest of the scene.
The male demi-human bear tries to hit Takt with his flail only for the thief to dodge him with ease, arrogantly smirking and stabs him with the claw. The cutlass wielding bear female seems to yell, running over to her fallen comrade as the Former Claw Hero stands, yelling at Takt, getting his attention.
He turns into a blur, moving towards Takt but like his teammate, Takt slashes him with what looks like a projectile cut from the Claws. They quickly die, leaving only the girl, who is grieving, tears falling off of her face like a waterfall. She looks at Takt and her grief turns into vengeful rage, drawing her cutlass.
She tries to kill him, but Takt seems too high leveled, dodging her telegraphed attacks, and catches both her hands. She struggles to break free, seemingly screaming at him but Takt uses one hand to grasp both of hers and raises the other hand to her face.
A flash of light erupts with a myriad of similar colors as before, a second later, Takt lets go but the girl doesn't try to kill him, and she drops her cutlass.
"What?" Rifana murmurs in confusion.
The girl suddenly hugs Takt, kissing him.
"What the hell? Why is she kissing him?!" Keel questions.
"Agh!" Misato cries out as the pain in his head increases, unable to watch anymore.
"Misato?" Ace says and Misato passes out leaning on the Filolial boy. "Misato! Queen Fitoria help!" Melty shuffles over to the Gun Hero, using her healing magic. "Fitoria?" Ace asks again, turning to see Fitoria looking… Afraid?
Not even a millisecond later, everyone finds themselves inside a carriage, all of them feeling a sudden wave of nausea.
The Party sees a flash of light and Keel peeks out the window.
"We're back at the Sanctuary." She says with a burp, trying to resist the temptation to vomit from the sudden movement. "How-" Keel burps again."Did we get in the carriage?"
"Ace thinks Queen Fitoria put us there… She was too fast." Ace whimpers, resting his head on Melty's lap, who leans against the seat, groaning.
Sadeena looks around, now seeing Fitoria hugging Misato's head to her chest, trembling.
"Fitoria… Please calm down." Sadeena whispers with a calm voice, trying to soothe Fitoria's fear like she did with the children back at Lurolona Village. "We're in the Sanctuary, we're safe."
A few seconds later, Fitoria takes a slow breath and calms herself.
"Apologies… After what we just saw, it… It brought back traumatizing memories…" Fitoria explains.
"You don't have to explain." Sadeena says and Fitoria frowns, lowering Misato's head onto her lap, rubbing his head.
What was it that made Fitoria, THE Legendary Filolial Queen, afraid?
Misato awakens, gasping, rolling off the seat and falling on the floor.
"Misato?" Sadeena asks, helping him stand but the Gun Hero pays her no mind as he stumbles out of the Carriage, and vomits. "Misato!"
Everyone gathers around the Gun Hero, concerned.
"What's wrong?" Rifana asks, rubbing his back.
Misato presses his hands against his ears, expressing a look of horror, something they have never seen him express before.
"The screams… I can still hear the screams…" Misato whimpers, crying. "Forrest… What the hell did you do?"
Forrest lets out a sigh of satisfaction. He has made good progress with the weapon.
The Previous Gun Hero observes the area in the Sanctuary, and it seems like they haven't come back from Piensa…
Hopefully Mamoru and the Bow Hero, Akira, are managing well by trying to change Piensa's ways… Their mindset and culture…
Forrest clenches his fist.
They are an insult to the people he fought with before the world fell!
Before he failed…
Forrest looks up, seeing R'yne flying towards him with blue transparent wings and she is… Crying? The Sewing Set Hero lands, stumbling into his arms, hugging him tightly.
"What's wrong R'yne?" Forrest asks. "What happened?"
"A-Akira is d-dead and M-Mamoru…" R'yne hiccups, pressing her face into Forrest's chest.
"Mamoru is what? What happened-No…" Forrest eyes widen realizing the implications as a pit forms in his stomach, R'yne moves her head back facing the Gun Hero and she speaks.
"He's-"
Forrest falls on his knees, still holding on to R'yne, he doesn't hear her voice, only ringing in his ears and an intense heartbeat pounding inside his chest.
The Gun of Rage Unlocked!
Forrest stands in the middle of mobs, all of them angry and screaming at them. Throwing rocks and rotten food.
"YOU LIAR!"
"THEY WERE FAKE HEROES!"
"YOU DARE KILL OUR LEADER?!"
"THOSE FAKES DESERVED TO DIE!"
"PIENSA IS THE ONLY RIGHTEOUS NATION IN THIS WORLD!"
What is wrong with these people? Why do they ignore the horrible things they do? Why… Disgusting… They are all disgusting…
How could such people exist? They shouldn't exist… If they cannot change then…
The Gun's blue gemstone turns pure black and something inside Forrest snaps.
R̶̜͍̙͚̄͝É̷̛̘̘̀M̴̞̘̲̑̎́Ǫ̸͇̔͐V̸̺̯̺̭̒̓E̴̛͇̝̳͌͘ ̶̮̈́̌̑T̴͇͓͖̫̫̔̂̅̿H̸͙̗̬̺̕É̸͈͝ ̴͓̙̍͂̆͌͌F̶̱̗̼̺̏̍I̵̡̗̠̘̍͛̉̿̕L̸̢͚̪̇̓͠Ṫ̴̖̞͎̉̓̍͌H̶̟̻̥̲͔̋̽̚͝ ̷̞̜̫̈́̍͝F̸̨̱̣̳̄͠Ŗ̸̗̗̼̾͌̐̓̔Ó̴͚̟̭̻̌̒M̴̡̢̜̥̓̌͋͌͝ ̷̲̩͆͊̾Ț̵͖̬̋̚H̶͚̥͇͆I̵̳͍̰͛͛͌͊͜ͅŚ̷̩̋͋̊͑ ̴̦̼̬̈ͅW̴̧̧͍̫͖̾Ô̸̤̹̫Ŕ̶̪̲͗̈́̕L̸̘̾̐̒̕͠D̶̦͙̪̹̓́
A beam of dark light pierces through the sky, blocking the sunlight and in its place are ominous dark red and black clouds high above.
A Black lightning bolt strikes the ground behind Forrest.
"I WILL DESTROY YOU PIENSA!"
Author's Notes:
Welcome to the end of this chapter, thank you so much for reading it in spite of the notification issues from this website. Sorry, this took a while, I have been playing Elden Ring, for no particular reason that happened recently…
So, about the last chapter, you are right that Naofumi would have been upset either way but Misato at the time didn't really think of that. It's in character for him to feel guilty.
The Kinetic Shield is inspired by God of War Ragnarök.
As for Rishia, spoiler alert she will join Misato's party but due to the current situation, they don't exactly have a lot of time to adjust to new teammates. S'yne and Melty are familiar with how Misato fights, so they get to join. Plus the Pope certainly made things personal for Melty, feels wrong to deny her that fight.
Itsuki feeling jealous of Misato, I mean it was bound to happen considering Itsuki's personality but it's a lot more tolerable compared to bitchy brat Itsuki in Canon and I hope some people are rooting for this version of Itsuki to become stronger.
(X)
Now for the Real Shit. Takt Faubrey has made his debut. Yeah, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try and foreshadow his eventual appearance and role against the Cardinal Heroes. Unlike the Light Novel where I think Takt was only there for a single book. I wanted Takt to have some "screentime" to build up tensions. I know his harem did a lot of that crap in the background, but I wanted more than that.
As for how different this fanfic Takt is compared to canon, you're all smart, he might have something else to his powers and how it might correlate to his horrible personality. Both of which might include some good roasting material for Misato to use…
(X)
As for the last scene in that flashback of Forrest activating the Curse Series.
There IS A REASON why the Army of the Waves and the World Eater DOESN'T seem to know anything about the Gun Hero's actions in Raphtalia's world. More will be revealed later in this "Season." Don't worry. I just hope the reason does justify Forrest's actions in the past and how he remained hidden all this time.
Also, here's some context. Forrest came from a world where the nations were genuinely united, because they needed each other to survive the Waves that were much worse.
Piensa… From what I gathered in the Fandom Wiki, (I haven't read the novel because I thought the wiki might be good enough) they might be the Church of the Three Heroes' predecessor. Knowing what the 3HC Cultists were like, I kind of got a picture, hopefully it's the right picture.
So, imagine how Forrest would react to a nation like Piensa compared to the world he came from.
Since I have no intentions of doing time travel, I thought it would make more sense that Forrest may have done something in the past. Just because he kept his identity a secret doesn't mean he did absolutely nothing in history. History that is going to be relevant very soon.
Thanks again for reading and have a good day!