Disclaimer
The following is a fan-based Fiction.
Rising of the Shield Hero belongs to Aneko Yusagi
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The Vanguards of the Church
A bright flash of gold blinded everyone, all except Fitoria. She stood there mouth agape, the light dims, allowing everyone else to see the Gun Hero, standing there with gold light emitting on his entire body.
"Misato?" Rifana said and the Gun Hero twitched at the mention of the name.
Fitoria squinted her eyes, Forrest's presence is certainly there but it's not as strong as before, in fact somehow there are also many other unknown presences somehow flowing through Misato's body like a torrent of wind or a storm, and in the eye of it is…
"Y-Yeah, I-I'm still here!" Misato said, turning back to Rifana, opening his eyes, instead of his pupils, in its place are two golden orbs shining bright as the sun.
"Woah, Misato's eyes are glowing!" Ace exclaimed and squinted. "And it kind of hurts to look at…"
"But it's gold, not blue." Melty pointed out.
"Where's Forrest?" Keel asked.
"He's around, I think… I-I don't know why he didn't take control." Misato answered. Isn't that what normally happens when activating full combat enhancement?
"I sense Forrest's soul but it's more faint than before and I am also sensing many other souls inside Misato's body." Fitoria explained and narrowed her eyes.
"How do you feel?" Sadeena asked.
"I feel… Good… Really good. Like I could take on that army by myself." Misato answered confidently.
"So that means Phase One is still good?" Naofumi questioned and Misato nodded.
"Y-yeah, I think so-No, it is still good." Misato said firmly with a nod.
Not liking the hesitation, Naofumi asked again. "Are you certain you can take on the Vanguards and separate them without Forrest taking control?"
Which was the plan, they expected Forrest to take over and fight the two Vanguards since he was a veteran Cardinal Hero whose experience is likely unmatched even by Fitoria. Considering how he fought the Sword Vanguard in a style that not even Misato considered before. Like willing the Legendary Gun to reappear on different parts of his body other than his hands to shoot or hit someone. Everyone figured Forrest would be more than capable to separate the two vanguards.
"Yes." Misato answered, staring directly into Naofumi's eyes. The Shield Hero broke contact first, mostly to avoid being blinded.
"Then it is time to charge." Queen Mirellia said, taking command.
Everyone takes their position, drawing their weapons, Misato's fingers dig into a bit of the dirt as he takes a position similar to a track runner. "Misato you don't wish to ride me?" Fitoria asked and Motoyasu stifled a snort, Rino elbowed him.
"No and uh, phrasing…" Misato cleared his throat. "And I really feel like running."
Fitoria's eyes narrowed, scrutinizing Misato and nodded. "Very well." She said.
Misato turned to face the Church Army in the distance, gold light highlighting his legs. Misato took a deep breath and moved.
In a blink of an eye the Gun Hero kicked up a cloud of dust from where he stood, leaving behind a dust trail.
"He's fast as a filolial!" Melty gasped along with everyone else staring at Misato's shrinking figure as he continued to run.
"For Melromarc and the future of our world, CHARGE!" Queen Mirellia roared and everyone charged with the Heroes in the front lines, all roaring in unison, following Misato.
Misato silently dashed through the fields, not even using a sword to cut through the tall grass and simply plowed through. He doesn't even feel tired or breathless!
He saw a tiny spark of gold light up ahead, he tilted his head, avoiding the golden arrow and it hit the dirt, kicking up a dust cloud.
A rain of arrows soared high above and Misato drawed a SMG, firing at the arrows.
Ratatatatatatatatatatata!
The bullets ripped through the arrows, creating a gape and he avoided the projectiles, continuing his approach with no hesitation or fear. A rain of spells fly towards Misato and he still charges.
Boom!
Firing his gun Misato flies into the air, avoiding an explosion of fire from where he stood, a large lightning bolt flashes to Misato and he fires again, launching his body further up to the side, avoiding the bolt.
Using the recoil of his guns, Misato flew through the air like a leaf in the wind, dodging the enemy projectiles with calculated precision and accuracy, dodging into areas that aren't in the path of another attack.
Misato's eyes narrowed, seeing the Bow Vanguard and the Spear Vanguard, their weapons glowing.
Anselm Himmel: Archer Level 93
Rainart Lestung: Spearman Level 95
There they are…
The Two Vanguards fired their skill imitations and two beams of white light flew to Misato but he fired a blue flare, canceling out the shots with a large explosion of white.
Bang!Bang! BOOM!
Misato goes through the explosion, flipping through the air, flying above the Spear Vanguard, using the recoil to increase his momentum towards the Bow Vanguard, aiming to hit him first.
"Arrow Barrage!" The Bow Vanguard roared, launching a group of arrows to Misato.
Boom!
Misato fired his Siderite rifle at the Spear Vanguard, taking out a barrier, the gun kicked back into Misato, launching him upward and he raised the gun above his head, firing again, dodging the barrage, flipping downwards to the Spear Vanguard with a great gun sword, entering barrier dome.
The Spear Vanguard leaped to the side as the Gun Hero slammed the sword hard, cleaving through the ground. Rainart charged with his spear at Misato's right flank but the Legendary Gun appears on Misato's right arm as a gun shield and deflects the spear replica. Misato raised his left arm, the gun reappeared as a shotgun and fired but the Vanguard leaned down.
The shotgun shot clipped Rainhart's shoulder. The Spear Vanguard gritted his teeth from the pain and the weapon transformed, he swung the glowing halberd at Misato.
Misato fired a rifle, denting the armor plate on Rainhart's thigh, Rainhart stumbled and the replica of Naofumi's first shield appeared on Misato's left arm. Misato braced his other hand against the Pair Up Shield right before the halberd collided.
Clang!
The sound echoed loud and bright like a flashbang. A Gun-longsword appeared on Misato's right hand, slashing at the Vanguard's chestplate, leaving a sword size dent, he slashed again, drawing blood and moved to stab the Vanguard.
"State of Selflessness"
Misato's sword hit the halberd and gold light suddenly exploded. Misato blocked the counterattack with the shield, spinning back from the force of the hit. The Spear Vanguard transformed the Replica into its spear form, thrusting the weapon but using the force of the spin, Misato blocked the spear with the shield and fired a DMR at the Vanguard's Spear hand, knocking the weapon away from his body.
Misato moved to swing but he saw the golden spear return quickly. He raised his shield, blocking it and swung the gun-sword to the legs but the Spear Vanguard deflected it. The Spearman thrusted his weapon to Misato's head but it slid off the pair up shield and Misato back kicked him with a point blank shotgun blast at the end of his foot, right on the ribs.
Misato clashed with the Spear Vanguard, constantly changing his Gun to a different form, not sticking to a particular fighting style, changing from a normal gun, to a sword or a spear hybrid. Confusing the Spear Vanguard as he had never seen such a fighting style, even when he studied how to counter the Shield fighting styles those monsters in Stilvelt used. The guns Misato occasionally fired made things worse for the Vanguard.
Rainart, the Spear Vanguard, growled in frustration as he never landed a solid hit on the heretic. The heretic swung his strange sword.
"State of Selflessness"
Rainart's eyes gleamed as Misato swung his sword right at the halberd, about to be counterattacked. But then the sword in Misato's hand disappeared and he swung nothing at the halberd, not activating the counter move.
"In my source, when activating the counter skill, the vanguard has to time it right, do it too soon, nothing will happen if you don't hit him and when the counter window disappears he can't move or do any other skill for about five seconds, enough time to dish out massive damage…" Motoyasu lectured in Misato's mind.
The gold light faded from the halberd, Misato moved his left hand beneath the replica and a Great Gun-Sword, with the barrel of a gun on one side of the blade, appeared in his hand, with the blade right on the Vanguard's chestplate. Misato grabbed the sword with both hands and fired, increasing the power of his swing, slamming the Vanguard into the dirt.
The Spear Vanguard bounced off the ground and Misato swung his sword again. A magic circle formed at the end of the sword, a blade made of fire, similar to wind cutter, flew from it, soaring towards the Spear Vanguard but a barrier intercepted it, stopping the blade from cutting the Vanguard.
Rainhart coughed and inspected the crystal orb on his armor, only to find a big scratch on the crystal, it's still functional.
Misato groaned at the dumb mistake, the crystal orbs are still pretty tough, he didn't have enough momentum to land a good hit on the orb, his sword only scratched it, if he did a full swing into the Vanguard instead of swinging him out, maybe it would have cracked…
Rainart sighed in relief but a second later he growled in frustration. He let his guard down and got the sacred armor damaged! A priest casted a healing spell on him and he watched Misato engage his knights.
Misato, placed the pair up shield on his back, and let out a war cry as he clashed his sword against a sword wielding knight, he quickly turned to deflect another opponent on his flank, the first knight tried to slash his back only for their sword to ineffectively bounce off of the pair up shield. Misato turned, knocking the sword away and slashed the knight.
The Sword knight grunted in pain, Misato's leg glowed, he went past the knight with his sword out in a blur, before the Knight fell over, Misato shot the other knight, hitting their crystal orb.
The Gun Hero glanced and tilted his head, avoiding another headshot from an golden arrow. He faced the Bow Vanguard, who fired multiple arrows at Misato. He fired a grenade, intercepting an arrow and it exploded, creating a large puff of smoke.
The Bow Vanguard's eyes narrowed behind his helmet. That boy dodged his arrows so casually, such arrogance will be his downfall.
CrackCrackCrackCrackCrackCrackCrackCrackCrackCrack!
Suddenly the barrier dome protecting the Bow Vanguard, his knights and his supporters are under a hail of small exploding fire, like firecrackers.
"Tch, these attacks aren't even scratching the barriers!" Anselm scoffed. What is the heretic hoping to do?
Boom! Smash!
Anselm looked up to see Misato dropping down feet first, past the broken barrier with a spear pointed down on him.
The Bow Vanguard dived to the side and Misato hit the ground, he quickly leaped up throwing the gun-spear at the vulnerable Vanguard. A knight deflected the gun-spear with their sword, but Misato finished his landing roll with a leg sweep, the knight loses their footing and right as the knight dropped on the ground, Misato finishes his sweep with a decapitation using a large Gun Sword.
"Arrow Barrage!"
A group of golden arrows flew toward Misato.
Bang!
Misato leaped right over them using the recoil of his gun. He flipped forward with the Siderite Rifle, firing a blue bullet with stars trailing behind it.
The bullet broke through the barriers with ease and the Bow Vanguard wisely moved to the side avoiding the shot but the supporters behind him were not as quick. The piercing bullet kills a row of five priests and mages.
Anselm growled, enraged that his comrades were killed, he turned to fire his arrow.
Bang!
Only to find Misato infront of him, swinging a Gun-Sword horizontally. Anselm ducked the slash, he drew an arrow-
Boom!
A shotgun appeared on Misato's knee, shooting Anselm point blank. The Bow Vanguard cried out in pain as the bullets chip and crack his armor away. Misato raised his hand aiming to stab the Bow Vanguard with the Great Gun-sword.
"Broniac!"
The Gun Hero saw a flash of white light in the corner of his eye and a gun made completely out of glass appeared in his hand.
Bang!
Suddenly Misato appeared behind the downed Bow Vanguard, avoiding the beam of light, swinging his Great Gun-sword. The Bow Vanguard turned and barely blocked the hit with his bow, but the force of the hit sent him flying.
Anselm yelled as he flew into the air, only to be caught by his comrade, Rainart, now recovered from his initial bout with the heretic.
"Sir Anselm, as the Vanguards of the one True God, we must work together to defeat this great evil." Rainart proclaimed and the archer nodded.
"Yes, together, we shall deliver justice for Lady Adele's soul." Anselm agreed and stood up, drawing an arrow while a priest casted a healing spell for him.
Misato wordlessly flicked his wrist, ejecting the magazine from his SMG, he reloaded the gun with one hand by pressing the magazine to his hips, snapping it into the gun with a click, he took a deep breath and charged.
Meanwhile, the Queen's army clashed with the Church and with the Four Cardinal Heroes working together, the favor was clearly in the Queen's hand, even with the Pope occasionally providing some support. His attacks kept getting blocked or intercepted by the Four Cardinal Heroes.
"Naofumi! The Pope is attacking with Broniac!" Itsuki yelled, seeing the Pope point the spear.
"Filo upfront now!" Naofumi yelled and they dashed in front of the army, Naofumi hopped off of Filo's back and dug his feet into the ground with his shield up. A beam of pure white light hits his shield. He feels the heat try to burn the skin on his arms holding the shield…
A Royal soldier fell over a dead body, scrambling on the dirt to create distance as their opponent approached them like a savage animal ready to pounce. The Church soldier raised their sword with a cry and swung, but they didn't feel their blade touch flesh. The Church soldier looked at their sword, the blade missing.
"What-UGH!" The Church soldier grunted as the Royal soldier pierced their chest with a discarded spear.
The Royal soldier sighed in relief and looked at the blade less hilt.
'What happened to the sword?' The soldier wondered.
This soldier wasn't alone as many Royal soldiers find themselves with some fortune during a fight. One Church soldier would charge, only to trip over seemingly nothing, another would find their weapon breaking during a fight, a Church mage would launch a spell only for that spell to miss their target by a large margin or unintentionally hit their allies, and civilian conscripted soldiers with slave seals would be found unconscious with their seals removed, allowing Royal soldiers to evacuate the civilians out of the battlefield.
Some would notice something moving in the corner of their eye but when they turn their head, they would find nothing. A few would later report that they saw a white blur appearing and disappearing in a blink of an eye.
Little did they know, it was actually Fitoria in her humanoid form, moving as fast but also as careful as she can through the battlefield, assisting the Royal army. When the battle started, using her keen senses and great speed, Fitoria was able to determine which of the Church soldiers was innocent. She immediately took care of them so the Royal soldiers could fight with no distractions, while searching, if they were in her path she would also assist a troubled Royal soldier or change the trajectory of the enemy spells with her wind magic
Misato was the one who suggested this, as a way to keep Fitoria's identity a secret but still allowed her to contribute greatly in this battle, lowering the amount of deaths on the Queen's side.
Fitoria looked at the town walls, she was sensing something strange from the crystal on that wall nearby…
Misato with a pair up shield on one hand and a gun-shield on the other, deflects every attack from each vanguard. The two vanguards were working in perfect sync, one attacks, the other moves to attack a split second later, keeping Misato from recovering, and to break his guard. The Spear Vanguard smacked aside Misato's Gun-shield, an arrow hit the weapon and Misato's right shoulder leaned back, the Spear Vanguard moved to stab Misato while he was exposed.
The Gun Hero, using the momentum of the hit, turned and back kicked the Spearman with a Gun-Spear that barely touched the bottom of his boot, extending the Gun Hero's reach more than the Spearman's. The Spear Vanguard cried out in pain, caught off guard by Misato's split second counter. The momentum of his charge into the Gun-spear left a large hole on his chestplate, but it missed the crystal orb.
Bang!
The Spear Vanguard cried out as the Gun-spear fired, knocking him back. Misato glanced to see a flash of light from the Bow Vanguard, he turned his head, the golden arrow fell short but hard at his feet and Misato side flipped to avoid the force of the impact.
"Broniac!"
Following his instincts, Misato rolled to the side, avoiding the beam of light from behind, a larger arrow flew, Misato blocked with the Gun-shield but it sent Misato sliding across the dirt and he fell over, rolling.
The Gun Hero quickly stood up to see Rainart swinging his glowing halberd, Misato jumped straight into the air, dodging the slash to his legs, it hit the dirt and exploded. Misato turned to see another shot from the Bow Vanguard and raised his gun-shield.
Clang!
Bang!
The Gun-shield took the hit, Misato fired his gun, keeping himself in the same position, spinning in the air to mitigate the force of the arrow and lands, sweeping the Spear Vanguard off his feet while firing his Siderite rifle, destroying the Bow Vanguard's barrier. He recovered from the spin and fired.
Bang! Clang! Clang!
The bullet hits the Bow Vanguard, ricocheting off of him, Misato ducked from the bullet, and it hits the Spear Vanguard. The Spear Vanguard fell over from the shot, a split second after the spearman fell down, Misato immediately raised to throw the gun-spear at the Bow Vanguard. In this form the spear head is on one end and on the other end is the barrel of a rifle, Misato fired the Gun-Spear, using the recoil to launch the weapon faster.
The gun-spear bounced off a barrier, but it transformed into a gun completely made out of glass.
Bang!
Misato suddenly appeared in front of the Bow Vanguard's barrier, wielding a great gun-sword.
Bang!
Misato fired the great gun-sword, increasing the power of his swing, smashing through the barrier, almost cutting the Bow Vanguard in half diagonally. He swung again aiming for his neck-
"Mirage Arrow!"
Suddenly multiple Bow Vanguards appeared, surrounding Misato, firing golden arrows from all angles. Misato dodged and weaved through the onslaught of arrows with incredible acrobatics. But eventually an arrow hits his leg, shoulder and then his chest. To Misato's surprise, it didn't hurt, instead it felt like someone poked him with their finger.
The Gun hero observed his surroundings with a frown, the Bow Vanguards all looked perfectly identical… He crouched, two SMGs appeared on his legs, he spinned on his upper torso with his legs up, firing the guns and used magic to cast two streams of fire from his feet.
"What in the world?!" The Bow Vanguard screamed, absolutely befuddled by Misato's moves. He had never seen anyone spin like a top while shooting fire and metal!
The fire and bullets washed through the illusions hitting the real Bow Vanguard.
Anselm gritted his teeth from the burns and bullets, he drew an arrow to shoot, but found Misato missing. He frantically looked around, trying to find Misato around the burnt grass.
'Where did he go?!' Anselm thought.
"BEHIND!" A supporter warned.
Anselm glanced back but was too late as Misato slammed his glowing elbow and fist into Anslem's back.
Golden energy appeared on the Bow Vanguard's armor like veins, and then it exploded into a hundred pieces.
The force of the blow launched the Vanguard away, his body skipping off the dirt and into the arms of the knights with the mage supporters.
The Bow Vanguard's group then disappeared behind a wall of mist.
"What did you do to them?!" The Spear Vanguard foolishly roared, transforming his spear into a lance. "Charge!"
The Spear wielder's body glowed and he turned into a blur but Misato dashed forward, meeting him in an instant. Misato deflected the lance with his Pair Up shield and thrusted with a Gun-Spear. He pulled the trigger, the recoil increased his thrust and stabbed the Spear Vanguard's chest.
Smash!
The sound of glass breaking echoed as the Spear Vanguard flew back with a cry, rolling on the dirt, like the Bow Vanguard, his armor broke into pieces and left a trail of metal as he rolled. He rolled into his supporters and a wave of mist then took them away.
Misato sighed and turned to see his party regrouping with him. He saw each pair of Cardinal Heroes move to face their opponent.
The fight against the Vanguards is up to them now…
Anselm coughed and groaned, pressing a hand on his back. It hurts so much… What kind of move was that? He shattered his armor to pieces without breaking the crystal orb first.
Even with the priest healing him, his back still ached…
The Bow Vanguard stood up, observing his surroundings, they were completely surrounded by mist… Field magic, a water and wind combination spell?
"Chaos Spear!"
Anselm turned to see the False Spear Hero attacking him, he raised his hand, moving the magic barrier to protect him from the attack. Spear slowly whittled the barrier bit by bit, but it gave Anselm time to draw an arrow and fired.
Motoyasu cried out in pain from the head shot, canceling the skill. The Bow Vanguard's knights move to attack the stunned spearman but blue transparent swords cut right through them and a blue gemmed sword pierced through a knight's chest.
Ren glanced back at the Bow Vanguard, pulled out his sword and dashed forward to the Bow Vanguard.
"Crimson Blade!" Ren yelled and his sword became covered in fire, swinging at the Bow Vanguard.
Anselm pulled the string back and leaped to the side, avoiding the slash, he landed shooting but Ren dodged the arrow. Anselm stood up, pulling the string back to shoot again.
"Airstrike Javelin!" Motoyasu yelled and threw his spear.
The red glowing spear smashed through the magic barrier, nailing the Bow Vanguard's chest and he fell over from the hit.
Ren moved to Anselm but a knight intercepted him, crossing their blades. Motoyasu moved to attack but another knight grabbed his spear and the two fought to over power eachother.
Eventually the two heroes broke free, taking down their obstacles, they looked and found the Bow Vanguard regrouped with his supporters charging up the Bow Replica.
"Raining swords!"
Pink transparent swords appear flying from above, flying right towards the Bow Vanguard, splitting into even more swords.
"Arrow Barrage!" Anselm fired at the swords.
The multiple arrows canceled out the swords, both projectiles smashing into harmless pieces in the air.
"That attack… It can't be…" A Church mage muttered and Anselm looked at the origin of the familiar attack.
There stands the heretic Eclair Seatto, wielding the Sword Replica, drinking a mana potion. Seeing a heretic like Eclair wield such a sacred holy weapon, Anselm's rage exploded like a volcano.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Anselm roared and drew an arrow at Eclair.
"Lightning Spear!" Motoyasu yelled and blue lightning pierced through the barrier, hitting the archer's leg, opening up for Ren to attack.
"Flashing sword!" Ren yelled, blinding the Bow Vanguard, not letting anything up to chance for his next move! "Meteor Slash!" Ren slashed his sword on the archer and activated the skill, creating extra damage by combining his stat damage with the skill damage all in one swing.
Anselm cried, he raised his bow barely managing to block Motoyasu's spear from piercing his head, Ren moved to slash but Anselm yanked the spear and Motoyasu slammed into Ren. The two fell over each other, Anselm drew an arrow-
Bang!
Ren fired a sword gun, it bounced off the replica, giving time for Motoyasu to awkwardly throw his Spear from the ground, Anselm growled in pain and anger as he deflected the spear with his available limb, hitting bone, leaving a large gash.
The Church knights moved to fight the False Heroes but a fireball exploded in front of them. They turned to see a young girl wielding a staff, in front of her, a row of soldiers and Eclair.
"CHARGE!" Henry roared and his platoon charged wielding swords and shields.
The Royal soldiers clashed with the Church knights, each pair of soldiers faced a single knight. Ake gritted his teeth, blocking the knight's sword, the knight grabbed his shield, trying to yank it away but his partner stabbed their sword into the gap of the arm protection, allowing Ake to stab his sword into the knight's neck. Ake's partner smashed the crystal orb and tackled the now encumbered knight, Ake then finished the knight off with a stab to the head.
"We got one!" The soldier triumphantly cried and Ake smiled. Sir Misato was right, fighting with a sword and a shield is so much better!
Eclair deflected a sword thrust using the rapier and transformed the replica into its longsword form, slashing through a knight's stomach. A spear wielding knight moved to stab but Eclair hit them first using the Replica's Greatsword. A row charged at her and Eclair spun, cutting them all in half with one swing.
With Motoyasu's party and Eclair distracting the knights, Ren's party members fought the mages supporting the Bow Vanguard's power. The Supporters relied greatly on the Knights to protect them but since the knights were preoccupied they were exposed to be slaughtered. None of the supporters are even decent at close combat.
Seeing that his support was in trouble Anselm aimed but a flash of movement in the corner of his eye made him turn, blocking a strange spear.
"Your fight's with us!" Motoyasu roared and pulled a trigger.
Bang!
Anselm stumbled back as the shot pierced his left shoulder, he stumbled into Ren who slashed him and fired the Sword-Shotgun
Boom!
The shotgun blast knocked him back into Motoyasu who slammed his halberd into Anselm's stomach, damaging the archer greatly and pushed him back to Ren.
Ren swung but the Bow Vanguard unexpectedly parried his attack with the bow, hooked it around Ren's neck and threw Ren over his shoulder. Motoyasu moved to pressure the Bow Vanguard but he was too slow.
"Arrow Barrage!" Anselm yelled.
Motoyasu raised the Spear-shield which was a spear with a buckler at the bottom of its head. He desperately blocked the multiple arrows but some slipped past, hitting his limbs and he cried out in pain.
"Motoyasu!" Ren yelled, moving to stand up but the Bow Vanguard grabbed Ren's left hand, and used his leg to pin Ren's torso down on top of the arm wielding the Legendary Sword, preventing Ren from swinging it. The Bow Vanguard twisted Ren's wrist downward and pulled.
"I'll dislocate his arm!" Anselm thought, as he pulled Ren's hand, but without the stat enhancements from his armor, he has to use more strength than he expected and Ren had gained defense stats considerably since they last met but Ren isn't in a good position to push himself up! His strength stat is almost worthless in this position!
Ren gritted his teeth, trying to get his sword arm out of his own body to hit Anselm but it was stuck! The Bow Vanguard will eventually break his arm!
Wait, Misato was able to get his Gun to reappear on a different part of his body…
"You just have to think hard on a certain part of your body, think of how it comes out from there and it will do it…" Misato lectured in Ren's mind.
Ren closed his eyes and concentrated.
Suddenly the sword reappeared on top of Ren's left hand, stabbing into Anselm's shoulder. The Bow Vanguard leaped back and drew an arrow but ducked the swing from Motoyasu's halberd.
The Spear Hero thrusted in its standard spear form, the Bow Vanguard fired but the arrow bounced off of a shield attached to the spear, he assumed the wrong spear form... Motoyasu stabbed the Bow Vanguard's stomach, spraying blood at him and Motoyasu grimaced, he pulled but his spear got yanked back. Motoyasu looked to see Anselm's bloodshot eyes.
Anselm Himmel coughed out blood, he glared hatefully at the false Spear Hero, his allies were gone… He doesn't sense their mana charging his bow anymore… Knowing that his death has come… Anselm hooked the spear with his Bow Replica in its recurved form and using whatever mana he had left, drawed a large golden arrow at the False Spear Hero
He'll take this evil man with him!
"Motoyasu!" Rino cried, seeing the Spear Hero's predicament. Anselm then began the strongest imitation skill he had.
"May this arrow pierce through the clouds…"
"Make your spear disappear!" Ren yelled, running to them and Motoyasu's spear quickly reappeared on his back and Anselm stumbled back from the sudden disappearance of the Spear.
Anselm scowled and aimed at the False Sword- "GUH!" Anselm suddenly coughed out blood as he felt something sharp pierce his chest. He was too slow… He glared hatefully at the False Sword Hero.
He must not let evil win so flawlessly…
Anselm slowly lifted the bow but Ren's sword transformed into a familiar golden sword.
"Phoenix Blade!" Ren roared.
The Flaming bird slammed into the Bow Vanguard point blank and launched him a few meters away, burning his body. Ren copied the Sword Replica and gained some of its skills, it can also use Mana as an energy source. Hence why he was able to activate it despite using a lot of Soul points on his other skills.
Everyone stared at Anselm Himmel's burning corpse, half expecting him to suddenly lean up and shoot. But the Bow Replica snapped off the burning corpse and everyone sighed in relief.
Ren and Motoyasu fell on their backs on top of the grass.
"It's finally over…" Motoyasu groaned.
"Not really…" Ren corrected
"Well at least Bow Vanguard's gone…" Motoyasu replied.
"Yeah…" Ren agreed before sighing and slowly stood up. "Come on, let's regroup with the others."
"Fine…" Motoyasu whined, standing up, using his spear to support himself.
While Ren and Motoyasu fought the Bow Vanguard...
Rainart scowled, leaning his head to avoid the arrow of the False Bow Hero.
"Charge!" The Spear Vanguard roared, leaping forward with the Spear Replica in its Lance form.
Itsuki fired an arrow but hit a barrier, leaving only a crack. Rainart grinned, eager to pierce his lance through the heretic's torso-
"Switch!"
Only to suddenly meet a green gemmed shield.
WHAT?!
The lance slid off of the shield and Naofumi wrapped his arm around Rainart's throat, choking the Spear Vanguard. While Naofumi's abysmal attack stat can't actually hurt him, it doesn't mean Naofumi cannot choke Rainart out. Rainart punched the Shield Hero to no effect and a mage fired a spell trying to help him but an arrow intercepted it. Naofumi and Itsuki's party members attacked the Spear Vanguard's supporters and knights, distracting most of them.
The Spear Vanguard wrapped his free arm underneath Naofumi's leg and flipped Naofumi off of his neck, freeing himself from the headlock by brute force, slamming Naofumi onto the dirt.
Rainart growled, raising his spear to stab Naofumi but an arrow hit his spear, knocking his limb back. Rainart pulled his arm forward with his weapon, transforming into a lance.
"Broniac!" The Spear Vanguard roared, firing a beam of light at the Bow Hero, who quickly avoided it. Naofumi stood up behind the vanguard and placed him in a chokehold with the spear arm stuck in Naofumi's arm.
"Meteor Arrow!" Itsuki screamed, firing a blue arrow with stars trailing behind it, smashing through the barrier and hitting the Spear Vanguard hard.
Rainart cried out but then growled, the Spear Replica transformed into its halberd form, with the blade glowing and using his wrist he slammed the weapon into the ground nearby, creating a golden explosion of light. Both he and Naofumi get knocked back from the explosion. Rainart stood, moving towards Naofumi, and Itsuki drew an arrow.
"Thunder Arrow!"
"State of Selflessness!" The Spear Vanguard countered, his halberd intercepted the arrow and returned fire with multiple spears of light. Itsuki transformed his weapon to a Bow with a circular shield attached to it and braced but got knocked back by the explosion of the impact.
Naofumi leaned his head up-
"Javelin Copy!" A golden transparent spear bounced off of Naofumi's head, drawing a bit of blood.
The Shield Hero groaned, he raised shield arm but a metal boot stomped on it and a boot pressed on his siderite chestplate. He looked up to see Rainart with his replica in its standard spear form glowing ominously over Naofumi's head.
"Chaos Spear!" Rainart roared, imitating Motoyasu's favorite attack. Naofumi raised his free hand and a large tower shield appeared on it over his head.
ClangClangClangClangClangClangClangClangClangClang!
The attack ineffectively bounced off the shield. Rainart growled in frustration, sp he stabbed Naofumi's stomach and twisted it. He grinned as heard Naofumi scream in pain but Naofumi fired a Shielded Shotgun, point blank and an eagle shaped arrow ripped his tunic, both hits knocked Rainart off of Naofumi.
The Spear Vanguard and the Shield Hero stood up facing each other. The Vanguard tilted his head, glaring at the Bow Hero behind the Shield demon from a distance with his arrow pulled back.
The Spear Vanguard ran forward with the halberd glowing, Naofumi raised his shield to block but right as the vanguard swung, it transformed into a glowing spear in a reverse grip and he stabbed the ground, exploding near Naofumi's feet, knocking him back. Itsuki fired an arrow but the vanguard deflected the arrow.
"Wind Arrow!" Itsuki yelled.
Rainart swung a glowing halberd at Naofumi, who was still laying down, launching Naofumi into the wind arrow, since they are both in the same party his body canceled out the skill.
"Charge!" Rainart roared, leaping towards Itsuki, who barely managed to raise a Bow-Shield to block it in time, but he flew back a few meters, hitting the dirt. Itsuki raised his bow-
"Javelin copy!" A golden transparent spear pierced through Itsuki's shoulder, breaking his steel shoulder armor, he screamed. Rainart raised his spear eagerly.
"Airstrike shield!" Naofumi yelled and a large green transparent shield stood in Rainart's path.
"Damn you Shield Demon-
"Shadow Bind!" Itsuki yelled
Rainart stopped, finding his body paralyzed, he looked up to see Naofumi running to him, wielding a strange oval shield with a sharp point near his fist.
"Kinetic Strike!" Naofumi roared, releasing all the damage points he absorbed into the shield. Since this shield can absorb a small percentage of total attack points from his opponent, he had Fitoria punch this shield as hard as she could without launching him, giving him a powerful attack for once in his life.
But the paralysis effect wore off sooner than expected and Rainart leaned to the side, Naofumi striked Rainart's left shoulder, the impact removed Rainart's left arm completely.
The Spear Vanguard gasped, looking at his missing limb, seeing his blood flow out, he looked at Naofumi's bloodied shield and back to his shoulder. He looked to see the last bits of mana flow to his weapon from his supporters right before they died to the demi-humans.
…
Rainart recalled his harsh life growing up as an orphan, until the nun took him in along with many other children. His childhood friends… The joy he had when he entrusted the Spear Replica…
"As the Spear Vanguard, I swear… I shall escort our people to the righteous path…" Rainart promised as he was knighted by his holiness, Pope Balmus.
The Spear Vanguard clenched his spear and roared, frightening everyone in the area. He swung the halberd one handed at Naofumi who barely blocked it, but the vanguard immediately swung butt of the halberd painfully into Naofumi's knee. Naofumi collapsed from the sudden counter, exposing him to the painful blow to his head, and the halberd created an explosion, knocking him away.
"Arrow Squall!" Itsuki fired.
Rainart changed his halberd into a spear, spinned it behind his back, deflecting the barrage of arrows with insane speed. He turned to Itsuki, with his spear raised above his head.
"Javelin copy!" The Spear Vanguard launched a transparent spear and transformed his weapon into a lance. "Charge!"
Itsuki avoided the javelin but the lance pierced his siderite chest plate, he cried out in pain, falling over. He moved to shoot but Rainart pushed the bow aside with his spear and pressed the shaft of the spear into his throat with his boot on the other end of it. Pressing his weight onto Itsuki's throat, strangling the Bow Hero.
"DIE!" Rainart screamed, his bloodshot eyes staring directly into Itsuki's eyes.
"High quick!" Filo yelled, kicking Rainart off, who quickly swung his halberd at her neck. Like before, Filo transformed, avoiding the decapitation, she raised her fist to punch but Rainart was prepared and kicked her like a ball, launching the little girl away.
Itsuki coughed, struggling to bring air through his bruised throat, crawling away and the Spear Vanguard turned to finish him off.
"Shield Prison!" Metal plating and chains covered around the Spear vanguard but a second later it immediately exploded into pieces. The second provided the Shield Hero time to place the vanguard in a rear chokehold again.
"What the fuck is with this guy?!" Naofumi yelled as tried to bury his shield into the maniac's throat. Rainart raised the glowing halberd to swing again but Raphtalia and Albert appeared, grabbing his arm stopping him. Matilda grabbed Itsuki, helping him stand
"He's almost dead! Someone take him out!" Naofumi shouted urgently and Evelyn moved to stab the Vanguard's chest but the vanguard kicked her leg. She fell, accidentally stabbing his stomach but it wasn't enough.
The Spear Vanguard roared, transforming his spear, making it reappear in his hand in reverse, the head glowed and he slammed into Naofumi's ribs, knocking him off. He pulled Raphtalia toward him, slamming his forehead into her, she cried out in pain, leaning back from the brutal blow.
Albert pulled the spear with all of his might but Rainart surprisingly let go of it and Albert fell back. Evelyn bravely moved to stab Rainart again but he grabbed her by the ears and threw her at Albert. The Lizard swordsman dropped the Spear Replica, catching the little bunny girl.
"Get back!" Albert yelled and Evelyn ran away, he drew his sword but Rainart suddenly dashed forward, slamming his good shoulder into him, knocking the air out of his lungs. Rainart grabbed his spear, he looked at the wounded Bow Hero with Matilda, trying to get away, the weapon transformed into a lance.
"CHAR-HUGH!"
Mid activation, a knife stabbed inside at the back of his mouth. Everyone stood up, completely tense, but a second later, the Spear Vanguard dropped his weapon and fell over, finally dead. After spending a few seconds fully processing what just happened. they all slouched, exhausted from their fight.
"Nice throw Matilda." Naofumi complimented with a sigh of relief.
"That wasn't me." Matilda said, as she was busy trying to help Itsuki create some distance between him and the Insane Spearman. "Rishia?"
The young girl nodded. "Y-yes, I was the one who threw it." Rishia nervously answered. She was uncertain how to help as the Spear Vanguard looked terrifying with how bloody and messy he looked, especially when he would not go down. Some people were busy dealing with the remaining stragglers of the Spearman's support and the others did not recover quickly enough. Then she saw the vanguard ready to hurt Matilda and Lord Itsuki…
She couldn't let things happen without doing anything… Not again…
Matilda smiled, her chest swelling with pride. "Well done." She said and Rishia smiled.
Naofumi looked at the Spear Vanguard's corpse. "How the fuck did Misato fight him and the archer and win…" He muttered to himself, recalling the Gun Hero's One Vs Two fight. The Two Vanguards had their armor and the full support of their mages, Misato demolished them but he and Itsuki struggled to take down one unarmored Vanguard…
"We-" Itsuki coughed. "Need the Legacy Series soon…"
"""Yeah.""" Everyone agreed in perfect unison.
Misato's party stood behind their leader, facing Pope Balmus in his armor, and his 'Holy Guard', an army of five hundred knights and soldiers with a thousand mages charging the Cardinal Replica.
The Pope's glasses shine and he grinned. "At last! I can cleanse this land of its most Foul Renegade! You will pay for accusing me of Blasphemy!"
"It's not an accusation, it's the truth." Misato replied and Balmus's eye twitched. "The core values of your religion is that you are loyal and righteous to wield power and yet you have ordered your followers to slay hundreds under God's name. You took over the capital by force and claimed it was God's will but you were not welcomed. That alone has proven that you overstepped your boundaries, that is why you are the most disgusting blasphemer in existence…"
"Such heinous words, as expected from a heretic, your accusation has no weight…" The Pope said. "You and Melty's cleansing will be thorough, you're fortunate that our God is compassionate to accept your apologies in the afterlife." The Pope claimed "As for those beasts you two reside with, they will find no mercy."
Misato rolled his eyes. "Neither will you…" He said, glaring at the Pope.
Unmentioned Shield Forms
Mini-Teleport Shield
Skill - Switch:
The User can switch places with a selected party member.
Author's Notes:
Welcome to the end of this chapter, thank you all for reading! Sorry it took a while. I had a long marathon of watching Monty Oum animation fights, especially RWBY. I had to get some inspiration for Misato's 2v1 Fight with the Vanguards. I hope you enjoyed the action. I hope it was descriptive enough to get an idea of the skills Misato pulled off without making a wall of text or several paragraphs describing their moves. Remember, in full combat enhancement mode, Misato doesn't need to verbally activate magic or skills.
As for the other fights, it was like getting yanked by the belt, I lost all my momentum when I got to writing the other fights. I had to go from attempting to write Misato in his Avatar (Gun) State to normal Cardinal Heroes with great potential but presently they aren't that skillful yet. Then I had to watch Deadpool and Wolverine. Loved that movie.
Eventually I got around to writing the chapter again and tried to make a good fight for each Vanguard. I plan to showcase more foreign magic spells from a different world in the next chapter.
The Vanguards of the Church, they exist to be a skillful dangerous threat to our Protagonists, because in terms of fighting skills the Pope has none. He's just a Caster, a Mage, he just throws magic and doesn't know how to throw hands. Yes, the Pope is dangerous by the sheer brute force of the Cardinal Replica's (The OG) attacks but in most stories at least in this power scale of Season 1, I think having skills rather than power is better. You'll understand the next chapter. Each Vanguard, I did try to highlight some moments of mastery over their weapons when they fought not just spamming powerful attacks… Until Misato came in with the Legacy series.
Still, even with the advantage, I wanted the Vanguards to be dangerous with their intense last stand moments. Especially the Spear Vanguard reaching his last phase, writing his fight, I felt his frustration grow from not being able to land a decent hit with Naofumi getting in the way and Itsuki being far out of reach, like that one annoying archer enemy in every RPG. I hope these scenes made some logical sense.
I once considered the idea of Misato using the Legacy series to fight all Three Vanguards at once to have this epic fight, while the Four Cardinal Heroes fought the Pope. But then I settled on leaving these two for Misato to soften up before separating them because I have some good roasting material for Misato to say directly to the Pope's snobbish face. Don't worry, the other Cardinal Heroes will get their words in too. A lot of people will.
I'm kind of curious, did the Pope in the Light Novel get roasted? Not after he died or privately in Naofumi's mind? Did he get called out on his bullshit and get hit on the nerve by someone's words?
Next Chapter:
The Pope Boss Fight.
Have a nice day!