It had been two weeks since Raphtalia agreed to train under the dark knight although she showed little results in the first two days, she began improving rapidly thanks to shield bonuses dedicated to the improvement of the party members of the shield hero:
[Mentoring Master Shield LV 3] (unlocked once Bruce began to train Raphtalia and after she showed dedication to continue)
[Equip Bonus 10 agility, MP 5, SP 15]
[Unique Ability Training Practice: training matches and training exercises give passive exp to any student under you, if they are deemed as no longer a student by the user or the student himself, this ability will not be in effect anymore unless they are declared a student under you once again]
[Unique Ability Master's Wisdom: all students under you gain 15% more stats when leveling up, 10% more depending of their dedication when the level up happens]
[Unique Ability Pacific Fighting: students under you gain half exp that they would gain from killing enemies by defeating then on combat, if it's obtained through melee combat aside from sparing matches and training exercises, they gain 30% more]
[Demi Human Shield Series: Tanuki LV 2] (unlocked after Batman put a bit of Raphtalia's hair inside the shield)
[Equip Bonus 5 HP, 10 MP]
[Unique Ability Maturation Adjustment: a maturation bonus of 10% is given to any demi humans of the Tanuki type in your party]
[Companionship Shield LV 2] (the most recent, unlocked after enough time is passed amongst party members in non combat activities)
[Equip Bonus: 5 defense, 5 MP]
[Unique Ability Friendship: all party members gain 10% more stats when leveling up]
[Unique Ability Friendship II: all party members will earn 10% more exp]
Raphtalia had also aged in a rapid passe thanks to her demi human biology and demi human series as once on level 18 she had the body of a adult woman, although Bruce still considered her mostly a child mentally despite the raccoon's many attempts at explaining that her brain had also become that of an adult, it was futile however as although she was capable of more complex thinking like a adult it didn't mean that she lost all her mental characteristics of when she was ten, raphtalia acted mature most time but that was due to discipline from her training and she still had moments were that inner child spoke out. None the less she was improving and it had finally come to the final test before more advanced training could begin.
"Close your eyes. Visualize your target" Batman instructed her as the two were in a clearing, not far from Lute village. They were both 10 meters away from one another as they were in the final step for Raphtalia's training to be concluded, Raphtalia was doing a good job at holding her excitement.
"...Got it, do I really have to do this to be ready?" She asked as this seemed to not really change much in the way sparing matches usually went, she always got defeat no matter how she tried to tackle it
"I need to know you won't freeze in fear during a fight, a moment of weakness will always be taken advantage by your enemy, specially the ruthless and sadistic ones." Batman explained, to be able to follow in this crusade fear needed to be tamed and conquered so they could use it against the cowardly and superstitious criminals, but also so they didn't fell prey to that same method against themselves. Raphtalia had shown a moment of fear and weakness once Bruce used the [two headed dog shield] once, clearly because it brought memories of the wave were she lost her parents, so it was necessary that she was able to overcome that fear in order to fully be ready for the crusade
"Okay... Bring it forward, I can deal with it now" she said as her mind was clear and calm now, with Bruce equipping the shield, the two menacing metallic heads stare down at Raphtalia and she... Doesn't flinch, her face remains neutral.
"The objective is to either tumble me and make me fall to the ground or to land a significant enough hit in my chest symbol, you're allowed to use not only your hands and fist but also any of the training weapons provided by your side. You will fail once you give up the fight or become too injured to fight" he explained the rules of this fighting session, so far she has shown promise in fighting to a certain degree but she clearly had more limitations than what she liked to admit, using magic and acrobatics to compensate for her still lacking strength which wasn't bad but unfortunately not enough for what the future holds.
"Sounds simple, easy even... But it's never easy with you is it?" After spending time with the dark knight Raphtalia knew he rarely went easy on everything, considering what he does and what how dedicated he is, it made sense. Much more so considering the whole country was on the look out for him, he even got a wanted poster with an interesting depiction of Batman, more bat monster than man. She picked a wooden short sword as her sparing weapon, it was light and would give her just the extra range needed to hit the chest area of the Dark Knight.
"You'll see, Begin." He said as both stroke a stance and Raphtalia immediately goes to the offensive by rushing at him from the front before going to the left and right at the same time! Seemingly splitting herself into two to cover both sides of Bruce, but he dodges the attempts with little effort, tripping one of the Raphtalia's and throwing her against the other which seems to work as they fall to the ground.
"[Shine Burst!]"But a third Raphtalia comes out from above as she makes the sunlight behind her more powerful with a spell, but Batman is hardly blind by this as he is able to block her sword swipe and uses it to activate the parry skill of the [two headed dog shield] as the metallic heads spring into life as they extend out to bite Raphtalia, she is able to dodge the first one despite being mid air but the second one comes in close as she has to sacrifice her own wooden sword to prevent it from sinking it's teeth on her.
"[Air strike shield]" Batman said as a large magic shield appeared in the area raphtalia was, the generation of the shield so rapidly to occupy the space she was made it have not only a mighty amount of strength but also served as a strong punch to the gut of Raphtalia, her body send flying a few meters before she falls on the ground, she tried to get up but was too out of breath to do it.
"Dang it... I quit" She admitted defeat as she turned around and breathes in air, she always falls for that same trick no matter how much she tried to take it into account, but she knew that he was also very good at adapting on the fly when needed
"You lasted an extra 3 minutes, better than your first attempt two weeks ago" Batman complemented as he used a healing spell on her, they were useful for quick healing of minor damage and allowed the training matches to be a bit more unrestrained than they would be otherwise.
"Well I didn't freeze in fear when you equipped the shield nor when it tried to bite me, so I guess I really have improved" Raphtalia got up and stretches out her arms, these were getting easier to do but still were quite the amount of exercise considering how she was accustomed to fighting, although the young raccoon girl was convinced that if her opponent was anyone else she would have the upper hand
"... Does It still scares you?" He asked when taking away the [two headed dog shield] and equipping another one, he knew that fear was hardly something you could get rid off.
"A little, but after training with you I realized that the real monsters aren't the mindless beasts that attack as soon as they see us. I still don't like the shield but the little fear it gives, makes sure I won't rush head first into a fight, specially considering the nasty bite this thing gives" it was a bittersweet lesson but a necessary one and after seeing the horrors slavers are, a monster with barely any rational thinking was the least of her or the world's problems, after all it doesn't know what it's doing is evil most of the time, but there are people out there who do and still commit atrocities.
"You have been practicing the illusion magic books I gave you last week." From what she had shown in the match, at least a few were already able to be used and he knew she had taken out some hours of sleep just to practice them, she was very dedicated but seemed too eager to jump into danger, she seemed careless about her life... Maybe her self worth was still in need of help, she had gone through horrible things that no kid should have to endure, the physiological effects of her time in slavery were still very much present, but Bruce felt she had burrowed them deep inside and hopefully they would have time to discuss them before it boils into something worst, for now they had to prepare.
"Oh certainly! It was a much needed change of pace compared to the physical training, I only mastered novice levels spells though..." She wished reading came to her more naturally than fighting, illusion magic was easier than both light or dark magic weirdly enough, apparently it was natural for demi human raccoons to be better at illusion magic but still, she had to go in mostly blind.
"It's more than fine, in the line you have decided to take the power of controlling your enemies perception of you is a valuable tool" being able to cast illusions to confuse targets and make yourself disappear was a mighty weapon to have in your arsenal, especially considering the type of training she had received from Bruce.
"Not as good as your shield, how many have you unlocked by the way? It seems you have a new one every day." The legendary shield was like a box of surprise, whenever Raphtalia saw it in action it was a show to watch the shield take seemingly ordinary objects and make them a shield as well, Batman seemed to experiment with it whenever he had the change to see what it could absorb or not and to what extent it replicate the capabilities of what was absorbed
"I have over 100 shields currently, but just 45 are mastered and only 1 has been fully awakened by using all the available strengthening methods I have." While some have quite minimal amount of time or number of use in order to master them, the stronger the shield is the longer it takes and more resources are required for it to be fully upgraded in their awakened form. Bruce was sure that once they come into a more advantageous position in terms of experience and resources he would be able to double or triple the amount of shields that were fully awake in one month.
"Damn... And when will that be?" She asked pondering, she knew that her mentor was the type to think and plan ahead, so he must have some type of estimate on how long that would take
"Only time can tell, right now we need to return to the store, once the sun is setting we can go on a patrol." Batman said as he begins to walk back towards their makeshift base, but Raphtalia's ears perked up at the last bit he said
"We?... You're finally taking me to a patrol! Yes! I'm going to be able to dish out these moves on some good for nothing criminals! Who are we going after first? Slave traders? Crime lords? Corrupt knights? Or even-"
"It's a simple recognition patrol, we will stop any illegal activities when I give the signal for it." Batman clarified to raphtalia so she wouldn't get her hopes too high, not everyday would be a bold new adventure and there were still other things that had to be done in order for her to fully be prepared, she still needed more months to refine her training but the situation they were in wouldn't really allow for that amount of time, so he tried to give her the most he could with the limited time they had.
"Sure, sure but I want to land that double knee kick you taught me, I bet it looks cool in a person rather than a training dummy" her excitement was through the roof and she was thrilled to be apart of all this, raphtalia had been waiting this moment since the beginning of this training
'I can't believe it! I'm finally going to be able to fight by the side of Mr Bruce, going to be a dangerous challenge but that training wasn't for nothing!... I bet Rifana would love this...' The thought came across raphtalia as her smile became smaller and her eyebrows moved down, thinking back to her friends only made her remember of the time under Rapier and what she had endured there, she clinched her fist as the desire to get her hands on him and punish him were on her mind, but her training also made her calm down.
She knew that they would get to Rapier, might not be soon but one day she would go back there and make him regret what he made so many innocent demi humans suffer. For now they needed to focus on other things, like running this small medicine business to keep up appearances and build up the Bruce Wayne identity, word of mouth is the best means to gather attention within the limited access of communication
"Two men at the right, can you tell what weapon they have with them?" Batman asked as he and Raphtalia stood atop a rooftop watching over two shady people, this was just a simple test to see how far the raccoon girl's deduction skills had developed
"Uh... I'm going to guess it would be light and inconspicuous, easy to carry. Knives are the obvious choice but I can certainly see a small machete or bottle being used." Raphtalia expressed her deduction, she was still unsure of this part of the training but she was starting to see how useful it could be, being able to note or uncover information from a target by glancing at them and using reasoning was a easy skill to pick up since common sense really helped but mastering it was a whole different can of worms, she saw how her mentor could break apart stuff by just looking, he was able to figure out someone's life by just seeing their hands
"Good, defeat both of them quickly and w-"
"Don't worry I can beat them without getting hit" Raphtalia said in a assured tone as she jumped down, still looking at Batman with a smile as she wanted to prove how much she could do thanks to his training. Landing was extremely easy after the practice they had jumping rooftops and the two criminals turned to see her but she was already in motion, she come to one of the guys and hit him in the throat with a open palm strike, before kicking him in the crotch and finishing with a ear clap
The other crook took out a knife from his back pocket and began swinging at her, Raphtalia dodge by back stepping away from the slashes until a opportunity appeared to counter, the crook took a big swing forward launching at it with all his weight that Raphtalia dodge by stepping to the side, now that she wasn't in the direct path of the knife, she hit him in the back with her elbow as he fell on the floor, the last thing the crook saw before passing out was a boot's heel coming straight at him
Raphtalia then did the standard procedure Batman taught her, she placed the two crooks close to a pole and tied them up to it with the rope she had, getting rid of the knife and any other weapons they might have before leaving
"So... How did I do? I wasn't hit and I knocked them out without a problem, I bet I did better than you thought." Raphtalia asked chipperly as she landed back at the rooftop after doing some wall jumping, batman's face would be seen as judgmental to some but Raphtalia knew that was just his default expression
"Good given the circumstances, but you should wait before jumping into a fight you don't know you can win" Batman instructed her as to avoid getting over confident, that could make her sloppy in the fight by thinking that her opponents were not able to provide her with the threat of danger
"Like those two could put a better fight, so what's next? Are we going to do something bigger now or-"
"Here's a list of things I would like for you to see, it shouldn't be much. We meet back up in the pharmacy" Batman said as he held out a piece of paper in front of Raphtalia, after a moment she took the list and began reading, Batman knew she was a bit confused by it
"Running a task list? Oh come on I thought we could go do more crime fighting, what are you doing tonight then?" Raphtalia asked him as she truly thought they were going out to fully fight crime today and kick ass, she knew complaining about it wouldn't change Batman's mind but at least she could know what he was going to do without her
"You're not ready for what I am going to do, you might have exceeded expectations in the past weeks on combat and stealth training but they're still a long way until you're ready." Batman responded before leaving the roof, Raphtalia was really tempted to follow him and see what was his own mission. But she was loyal to him and would respect his wishes, after all he has never been wrong as far as she knew him, so Raphtalia went on to follow the list which wasn't long as it only had three items in it. The first and closest was a blacksmith shop, to grab something in the case it was done and if not to report him when it would be concluded
She entered the shop with relatively no problem, although she took a while to lock pick the window. Inside a large man with a beard and a scar along his bald head was moving some of his inventory
"Hello, I hope you don't mind if I came through the roof, an order was placed by my master and he would like to know if it was done" she said as the man turned to see her, not surprised by the looks of it as he slowly placed down the box of scraps he was holding before fully turning his attention to her
"Let me guess, the Shield hero is your boss?" The man asked half ironically as there was only one person who could be given the circumstances of appearing in the call of night silently
"What gave it away? The cape or the mask? I'm surprised you didn't report him, considering the reward that dumb king put on him." Raphtalia said as some amount of scorn was in her voice, when she and Batman discovered that the king placed a reward for his head, she was livid! Her mentor might have cared little for it, even saying it wasn't the first time that happened to him, but she was mad nonetheless because that king was friends with Idol, that madman went on and on how he and the king served together in the army and how they were best pals which granted him all sort of privileges, the king was next on her list
"Honestly I don't know if I should be helping him, but I have a way of telling if people are scummy or not and he did a damn well job explaining how scummy the whole trial was, I already knew the whole thing was biased considering it was the king's daughter. But I have to admit I tried to attack him when he first came here in the middle of the night" Erhard expressed as he was skeptical of the trial from the beginning from the simple fact that it was the shield, he wasn't overtly religious like some people so he didn't buy it as easily as others, it was too convenient that the one Hero the entire country made effort to hate would commit the most heinous crime imaginable on his first day out. He did attack the Batman but that was because he literally appeared from behind him in the complete darkness, Erhard thought he was a assassin or monster and responded by throwing hands against the inexplicable shade
"You got beaten up didn't you?" Raphtalia said as she looked at him while she had quite the cheeky smile on her, the blacksmith just looked away embarrassed for the most part
"Well... I say it was more of a draw, anyway his armor is in the back of the shop although I still need a two days or more to put the finishing touches." Erhard said as he pointed to a door behind the counter as he and Raphtalia walked to there
"He asked you to make armor? Why?" Aside from a few scratched parts and holes in the cape, it seemed to be just fine to Raphtalia as it still blocked a knife coming to his chest pretty well and the cape was only received damage when he barely dodge a incoming attack of a throwing knife or... Raphtalia began realizing why he ordered a new, stronger set of armor but she felt that the bulky and heavy plates of this new set would damper his agility
"Mostly because his own armor isn't going to last, the suit he's wearing is good but doesn't stand a chance against anything magical in nature, so he must want to upgrade his wardrobe and fix that little problem. I have been working on it but the guy himself did some input in the whole project, been doing it for weeks now. Either he or his shield have some insane arcane knowledge, he found a way to mend magic silk and magic steel in a way unheard of, despite the hardness of the steel plates it has surprising flexibility along with a reduction in the weight." Erhard had to admit it was amazing how the shield hero found a way to make this armor work, it shows that he had some blacksmithing knowledge when he pointed out flaws in the construction that Erhard made, which pissed him off as bit but he was right most of the time. Working with the dark knight on the project was interesting because he wasn't as annoying as other demanding costumers, at least he gave feedback during the process and not after, Erhard wanted to change the design of the armor as it would be less glaring that it was the Batman wearing it, but Bruce wanted it to keep his motif to instill fear amongst the cowardly and superstitious lot
"So it will be done in three days?" Raphtalia asked, she didn't know how far the armor was in the fabrication process, but she had to trust the blacksmiths skill. Her mentor wouldn't just choose some random to handle such a thing, so the dark knight must have some trust in his skills
"Yeah it will, unless your boss is going to come here and put an all nighter to finish it himself" Erhard said that mostly as a joke, though he felt that could be a very real possibility considering the man he was talking about
"He has other things to worry about" she was mostly thinking of the upcoming wave, she didn't knew when it was coming but she knew it wasn't going to be easy, but as long as she had the shield hero there to guide her and taken down the wave, then it shouldn't be anything for her to be scared off
"Right the Wave, reminds me of something he ordered just for you and that thankfully is already done" Erhard opened up a box close to the armor to reveal a sword with a blade of similar black steel as the armor, the handle was a lighter shade of gray in comparison.
"A sword? It's very generous of him... This must be part of my training, he has a strict no kill rule when it comes to people or anything intelligent really. I guess this is his way of testing me? Honestly I don't understand some of his decisions, but I guess he wants me to adapt" Raphtalia rationalized as she observed the blade, seeing perhaps a hidden meaning behind it that her master wanted her to understand, cutting with a sword is easy, so is killing someone with it. But if you have enough restraint, you're able to defeat someone without the use of a killing blow. And that was much more like the batman she knew
"That's what you got from this? I just thought he wanted you to arm yourself" Erhard vocally expressed as he scratched his head, not really getting how the raccoon girl got that message out of the sword, it made sense now that she explained it but he didn't understand how she got that conclusion in the first place
"Maybe, but he always thinks ahead. Thank you for the gift, your contribution to our cause is appreciated" she said as she placed the sword on an waist holder, the weight would do little to diminish her movements
"Just tell your boss to give a heads up before dropping by, I don't like getting scared when someone comes inside this often" Erhard said as he looked down and massaged his head, only looking up after hearing the creaking of a door closing, at least he was reassure that the raccoon girl made a sound when she left unlike her master simply disappearing without a single whisper being heard
"Next stop, that place..." Raphtalia told herself as she saw the next stop on her list, disgust and frustration clear in her tone
Batman watched over the church of the three heroes. The mission was to enter the church of the three heroes and find whatever plan they had against him, but doing so could prove to be a difficult challenge, for any lesser vigilante that is. As he got close to the building he could see guards keeping vigilant watch in the ground without any protection in the roof, a brief analysis of the place showed that they seem to prioritize protection of the main door instead of any other entrance to the church, this was either a trap for intruders to underestimate their security or they were very bad at protecting themselves from enemy spies, which would be pathetic considering they had a specialized group of ninja shadows of their own
Batman divides a plan of action, he jumps to the roof of the church and flips through the window to enter, noticing that no trap of any sort was set on by his entrance, nor was there someone waiting for him. But it was best to be cautious, Bruce begins to sneak through the building, jumping around the high points to stop any of the guards from detecting him and while doing this he ends up noticing a certain red head make her way to another room, he goes to listen in
"We got to find that horrible shield hero quick!" Malty said angrily at the pope, pointing at the man as if to blame him for this situation happening in the first place
"I very much understand princess Malty, but we cannot move the plan faster than it already is" the pope responded with a calm demeanor as he closed a bible with the church's symbol on it and walked over to her
"You gotta be kidding me, he was labeled as a criminal sure, but that was because of my dumb father. But now I have some nobles and even knights question my own word!" Malty was full of rage at the events that had happened, sure they got what they wanted but because of how the shield hero acted and said in the trial, her word was no longer being taken as seriously as it used to. The extent he exposed her lying was something she or the church didn't expect, Malty wouldn't mind but the fact that some people questioned her after the trial told everything she needed. They had to fix this and make sure that her mother doesn't get wind of such a thing.
However Batman was hearing all of this from above as he was holding on to an angel statue on the roof as the architecture gave many advantage points for him to maneuver around, it was kind of odd to see so many gargoyles like statues, from outside there wasn't a sign of this architecture aspect, but it could be possible that this decision was made for the church's own shadow ninjas.
"Yes I understand, but we couldn't have expected that he would be so cunning and intelligent" the pope was calm while saying this but showed slight frustration, it was a brief tick of the eyebrow but Batman picked up as he was putting all of his attention on their talk
"I thought someone was supposed to kill him so we could try and summon again if the shield was a problem" she asked the man, if the heroes were not human then they would have been killed right in the spot. Even if he was human, dressing up like the way he did should have been a sign to decapitate on the spot, even if the bishops that made the ritual were out of energy, the guards or anyone with a weapon could have done something about this mess. But now they have to deal with a incredibly competent shield hero that acted unlike any person that was summoned before
"Unfortunately, we hadn't prepared for such an occasion to happen so soon, we thought he would be easier to pin down" the pope said without a change in his expression, his face always in a smiling position. The pope had a prideful and hateful aura to him like he took his evil acts as a right for him to enforce on others, it wasn't new to Batman but his religious fuel for those actions... He had dealt with something like it before, a cult named the Sacred Order of Saint Dumas, who brainwashed and experimented on individuals to turn them into super soldier assassins like Israel. The church of the three heroes seemed to have their own plot in development and finding out what it was is what Batman came after.
"Well you could send more assassins or shadows to locate and kill him!" she shouts at him, her voice could fill the entire room if the place was any smaller. She wanted this problem to end soon or else her mother would likely have her be put in jail once she returns, or worse depending on how much the shield hero is doing. But the shield hero himself was the problem, it felt like he was watching over her right now and until he is done with, Malty couldn't help but look over her shoulder once or twice, after all if the shield hero were to take revenge she would be the first one to fall.
"I wish we could but it is to be expected that he will see this coming, we have also not been able to find the shield, he is smarter than the average man, he has been able to simply disappear in the shadows" the Pope's words had a form of anger behind them, frustration for the elusive nature of the Batman and his incredible talent of staying ahead of his enemies
"Do you think he left the country!?" She says in panic if the other countries learn about this it could be a gigantic problem for them, she had almost started a war back when she was younger and that had cost her to position of heir to the throne but if Shieldfreeden or Siltvelt learned that they had summoned the heroes and had tried to kill or incriminate the shield, all countries would team up against Melromarc which would be destroyed in the process leaving her a queen of nothing or worst killing her
"No, I'm sure that devil hasn't but I recommend you convince the king to stop any attempt if he tries" the pope responded, they could still save this situation as long as the four heroes were still inside the country, if the shield used his evil influence to gather the beasts from Siltvelt and Shieldfreeden then it would truly be a problem. Even more so if the holy weapon wasn't charged yet. From this entire interaction it was clear to Bruce that Malty had very little effort to form a strategy against him, she didn't have a subtlety to her plans when she was desperate, while this pope seemed to have something in preparation for the upcoming future.
"We will try our best to track them down princess Malty, for the sake of our holy country and it's people" the pope said while doing a gesture with his hands as if he was giving a holy sermon
"You better! Otherwise I will never be queen!" she says before leaving the room in anger, Malty was infuriated at this situation and she would blame anyone else over admitting that she was the one responsible for the situation to have gone out of control. Malty was gonna have to manipulate every string she could to solve this problem, that is if she even bothers to try. Bruce didn't need to be a genius to see that all she wants is a easy way to the throne... That's easy enough to see, but the Pope's plans are still a mystery.
Following the pope leads him into a main chamber with a giant hourglass porting out a mystical sand of sorts, decides to go closer to the hourglass to see if it has any other important information or what it's content was, the hourglass was very extravagant with two dragons holding the glass and what looked to be a filolians carved on the top and bottom of the hourglass, the sand in it had a golden glow to it almost angelic despite it's sand being blue
"This sand..." He says grabbing a bit of it as it fell, it was sharp like a razor but at the same time soft as a feather and it felt weird to the touch. he decided that putting it in his shield was a good option, this seemed to be a one of a kind sand that could possibly give a ability he couldn't find anywhere else.
[Dragon Hourglass Shield LV 1 unlocked]
[Ability Portal Shield: allows you and your party members to teleport between locations you have visited, you can define up to one location to teleport at a time]
Surprise was actually visible in his expression even if briefly, this was possibly the most useful ability he ever gained from a shield for personal use. Teleportation, his shield now served as limited teleportation device, Batman was already thinking of the uses for the ability and he began scanning the status magic to see what else it had to offer. From what he could see in the status magic, this was a slow leveling shield that maxed out at level three and couldn't be awaken by the strengthing methods, so at it's full capabilities it would allow him to teleport up to three times per day.
This was great, but Bruce didn't want to leave the church just yet, he wanted to see what else was hiding within the walls. Moving to the main room of the church were sessions were made, he found a peculiar detail on the statue behind the Pope's chair, to the left side there were some minuscule scratches in a 90 degree angle which indicates that the statue was able to be moved. To the church's benefit it was well hidden but using [inspection] along with [detective vision] made their best attempts at hiding details like this futile. Moving the statue with a good amount of effort, he is met with a stair into darkness
Going down the stairs he could see a room full of papers, old books pilled up in tables. There also tubes running along the ground, their purpose was... Unknown for the dark knight but likely nothing good, following them he is met with a radiant spear like object seemingly made of crystals that gave off the faint glow of yellow to the room. This must have been the secret weapon of the church, or a relic they held in high regards, but the tubes connected to it clearly indicate the first.
The weapon seemed to be Incase on some form of display mirror with copper borders, skills like [inspection] didn't seem to work and touching the glass was not a option considering that it vaporized a batarang with energy upon contact, using information from his status magic he could deduce a form of rune or spell was cast upon the container, preventing anything or anyone from interacting with it unless they were recognized by it, how was the question Batman was making. But the sound it was making was almost like a buzzing and it seemed to drown out any other small noise in the room, including footsteps from someone else. But he didn't have to worry about a sneak attack, his soon to be aggressors were more than pleased to make themselves known for the dark knight
"I don't know how you got here devilish scum, but you're not leaving alive" one of the church's own shadow ninja members announced as four more where by his side as they looked down on Bruce who turns to see them, the largest of the group close the entrance to the chamber as they prepared to make it a bloodbath with the shield hero's own. Batman had a very calm expression which was pissing off the shadow members even if their masks hid their faces
Without saying a word a fight erupted as the five men tried to stop Batman, all intending for each hit to be the final one. However they are not organized enough to take on the dark knight as they all went to him from the front with two going after him from behind, it was unfortunately for them too predictable as Bruce is able to dodge, using a shield counter to push back the first two. The biggest one tries using a massive mace to hit Batman but is met with elbow to the eyes follow up by a electric discharge right into the head, finished by Bruce grabbing his head with his feet and spinning the man into the ground.
Two more coordinated members came in, each covering one side of the dark knight. Blocking them was relatively easy as their daggers weren't much he hadn't seen before, a well synchronized strike on their necks followed by a devastating double kick flip sends them in the air before Batman used a [Shield Bash] to send both against a table full of old books
One of them went with full swing as he used a pair of katanas to slash and dash at Bruce, dodging the blades to the best of his abilities as another shadow was shooting him with a bow. He uses an electrically charged batarang to disarm the archer momentarily and breaks one of the katanas with his arm spikes, a open palm swipe in order to disorienting the aggressor followed by a punch to the rib cage and a simultaneous strike on the neck by both hands, finished off by leg swipe to tumble him into the ground.
The archer tries to grab his bow but has his hand crushed by Batman's foot as he picks him up to put the shadow against the wall for a bit of interrogation, the largest of the group begins to get up as he looked at his defeat allies before gazing the casing where the relic was stored
"I suggest you tell me how to deactivate that barrier or I'll have to make this much, much more difficult than it needs to be" Bruce asked he pressured the man's throat with his arm, he wanted to know just what the weapon hiding here was and how to take it away from it's container, whatever it was he couldn't let the church used, not after the conversation he overhead between the Pope and Malty.
"I'd rather die in glorious holy flames than give information to the devil" the shadow said as it talked back to Bruce before smiling, were it not by [awareness] Bruce would have turned a second too late as the mysterious relic is used in his direction, activating the most of his defensive skills as he could a energy blast explodes in front of him. Throwing the dark knight against the wall with so much force he breaks through and lands in a catacomb of the church that seemed to be part of the church's sewer system, barely holding on to a piece of rock was Bruce as he struggled to get up from the edge, despite activating [air strike shield] and [defense up I] he was barely able to make it out of the attack with life, his health bar indicated that he was in the red which meant it was critically low.
His suit's armor held on somewhat but the cape had been very damaged and most of his suit had been burned away as the kevlar underneath was exposed in certain areas, worst was the shadow caught in the blast who died before even hitting the water underneath, body turned into a luminous charcoal ash by the attack
"Ugh..." He grunted as Bruce gathered his breath, it was difficult doing much more in this state. He reaches for a healing potion in his inventory and drops it's contents on himself as to slow the pain and heal him enough for him to move his arms, he begins moving through his status magic to select a shield as the shadow walked towards the hole in the wall to look at Batman all the way from above with a malicious but tired smile, preparing to shoot a mystical arrow with the relic, now transformed into a bow
"Hehe... Looks like we can risk you off..." He begins feeling a dazed and a stinging burn coming from the weapon, he tries to drop it but it seems to be leching off his skin and won't come off as his whole body begins to dry up, his veins glowing as his magic and life was getting sucked into the weapon
"Ahhhaahahah!" Is all he was able to scream before becoming a lifeless mummified husk, that falls to the ground with the weapon, the other shadows began getting up to react to this scene
"The fool killed himself, he should have known the danger" one of them comments as he looked at the husk, freaked out about the state he was in considering how much bigger and allegedly stronger he was compared to them
"On the upside he got a clean hit on the shield, we can finish the job if he's still breathing." Another one said as the opportunity to end the fight was at stack, the shield was incredibly wounded and was now an easy target for them to finish, it would be a mistake to not act upon.
"Nowhere left to run" the final one said as it dashes to the whole ready to go down where the shield hero was hopelessly laying, but he couldn't see anything except for an empty pool of blood and a mystical glow fading away. They all look at each other worried and angered as the three shadows go warn their master, Balmus.
Elsewhere in Lute village, inside the current pharmacy owned by Bruce, he materialized into the room almost falling to the ground having used the [teleportation shield] to get out of the church safely, he rested in a chair while applying a healing potion to himself as the HP bar was finally back to yellow which meant a medium amount of health. He barely got there alive, but at the very least he knows what function that relic had, it was a very powerful weapon and he doubts it was fully charged when used against him, it was too risky going back there for now and the best option was to gather his strength, prepare for the next time.
Belouska swiped his sweat with a finger tiff as he sat in his office, a bandage on his noise as he wrote on papers and permits. The shield hero's visits we're not something he enjoyed or waited for, as he was very... physical about his disdain of the practice, but the worst one was his party member, a demi human that belouska could swear he saw it once. But that meant she was once a part of his shop, which explained why she was more brutal to him when the caped crusader wasn't with her, the once proud slave trader was now regretting his choice of life simply do to the Batman having become his... Business partner in a way, although he had made his sales go up 15% thanks to the slaves coming off as a better quality due to their new living situations, he had also become forced to give the dark knight information on anyone he sold the slaves to, very likely to go break in to their house and set the slaves free but Belouska could only assume this as he wasn't brave enough to ask what the information was being used for. In truth he wanted to come forth and tell what the shield was doing to the authorities, but he could feel his gaze over him in that moment so he had to lie, it was like he watched from every dark shadow that was casted.
It was all so stressful for him, the slave trader wanted to feel safe once again but he didn't know how, only way would be for the shield hero to leave the country and thus him too. But all he could do was play along or else he would be fated for worst, the one time Belouska tried to stand up against this, he was knocked unconscious and was woken up hanging upside down over one of the castle's highest towers.
"Did you make any sale today?" Raphtalia's voice broke the silence on the shop, her voice had a very serious tone compared to how she usually talked and her facial expression was very much a stone face with a hint of underlying anger, Belouska jumped from his seat
"Goodness, don't sneak up on me like that. I could have a heart attack!" The slaver said as he recomposed himself, taking a few deep breaths before he looked at the raccoon girl and swallowed dry, afraid of her temper
"Cry me a river, did you make a sell or not? Because if you did, we should be informed about it" She ordered, Raphtalia was usually a lot more mad when she entered here and considering her history with the shop it was more than justify, for everything this man caused to her and other demi humans she wanted to bet him within a inch of his life, but Batman taught her enough self control to not act upon this type of thought, but she didn't have to be nice to the man
"I didn't do any sales, not of slaves anyway" Belouska responded and it was true, he didn't sell any demi-human slaves, he did only sell some monsters and brought a few items to replace stock, nothing that would warrant a attack from the vigilant in training
"Good, if you were holding up information on us, we both know how that would go. You didn't sell any to Him... did you?" Raphtalia asked as her eyes became sharp blades threatening to slit Belouska's throat wide open, pupils on the verge of turning red from bloodlust
"After your... Convincing, no I did not." the Slaver knew she was talking about Idol Rapier, she made sure when she broke his finger that he would remember the one man she hated and desired to hurt more than him. In a way, Belouska felt bad for Rapier on the inevitable day this raccoon comes for his blood
"If you allow me, I have something for the shield hero, a gift of sorts... I hope this can make our business relationship... Less aggressive..." Belouska took out an egg incubator from underneath his table cabinet, it was a large white egg shell with a special blue mark, symbolizing it was a using a different high end seal similar to a slave mark although without it's control of the branded monster through pain, the ink was developed by Batman after experimentation with it's composition and implemented in all the intelligent slaves, ensuring that their masters wouldn't use of magical means to force their slaves to work. It also served as a way to know the location of said slaves within a limited radius of the shield
"I tried getting him a death scream bat but those are so rare now that they are... Close to extinct, he mentioned a form of moving around faster, I assure you that this filolian egg is the best in all of Melromarc." Belouska explained as he wanted to give the Batman a bat monster since that would probably please him but after the Axe hero careless extermination of such a dangerous but loyal creature, no way he could just get a monster worth gold and give it for free, so a fillolian would have to make due
"Doesn't seem like much, I will see if he will like it. But let me make you one thing clear, you're a filthy slave trader and as long as I breathe, I will always hate you." She fully expressed her disdain for what Belouska represented and what he made her go through, she wanted to hurt him in a way he couldn't recover from but raphtalia reminded herself of restrain, the thing she is working towards. So she leaves the slave shop, making her way to the spot she is meant to meet back with the shield hero and he was already there, seemingly more in thought than normal and his clothes were definitely in need of replacement as they were worse then last time she saw him
"I checked everything in the list, your armor should be done by tomorrow night and the slave trader wanted to give you this filolian egg as gift, everything went as ordinary as usual... The blacksmith gave me this sword, so I'm pretty excited to use it. But how did things go on your side?" She asked as she looked at Batman for any signs in his body language but came flat results, she wasn't as good as him in this but considering the battle damage he had, something went wrong or was tougher than normal
"I found something powerful and I'm sure that it will be moved far away by the time I return there, I wasn't expecting security of that kind... As for the sword, You'll have a good opportunity to use it. The Wave is tomorrow, we need to make preparations for the village and hopefully convince an evacuation plan by the village leader" Batman said as he started to move through the roofs, Raphtalia close behind, continuing their conversation as they jumped building to building
"Really? How did you... Was that what you were doing while I ran those errands? It has something to do with your new shield, it counts down to the wave?" Raphtalia stopped for a moment as she pointed at his shield's different form, one she hasn't seen before.
"In short, yes. We can't lose too much time, we need to make preparations" Batman responded and Raphtalia nodded as they went to get out of the city and make their way back to Lute as to prepare for the next day, which could shape their future depending on how dangerous it was
"Doesn't mean we can't chat about your secret mission, was it hard? Was there anyone who got you in a pinch?" Raphtalia asked as she really wanted to know. She bothered him the whole trip back about it but Batman kept quiet while in thought
"He was here, you are telling me he was here and you only discovered his presence after he found the holy replica?" Balmus questioned his shadow servants as he didn't have the same smile as always, now he seemed dead serious about the situation in a terrifying way that the remaining shadows never saw before
"... Yes, we assume he was vaporized by the weapon's attack but we couldn't confirm a body. Following his trail lead us to the hourglass so he might have teleported a-"
"Move the replica to a safe location, this instant." The pope ordered as his displeased tone was something the shadows didn't want to hear, they begin moving the replica's container at once as Balmus watches over the hole made by the weapon's attack, it was not fully charged and now they were set back an entire week or more of its charge
"It seems I have underestimated the shield hero far more than I thought, that monster is going to be the end of us if we keep him unchecked" Balmus was thinking of how they could deal with this problem as the Bat seemed to think in a conventionally smart way, no sane man could match his wits... But the insane just might, and he knew where to find it.
"To fight a monster, we sometimes need to make our own monsters. I need to write a letter to an associate, he might have what we need." His smile resurfaced once again in his face as a new plan was forming in the Pope's head and thankfully it would work.
[Author's notes]
Another chapter done, next up is going to be the wave which I'm kind of looking forward to, leave a comment/review as it helps the fanfic to know what you guys think.
So I'm going into different angles with the fanfic than the original shield hero story obviously, the developments in the church are setup for future encounters and to build up a somewhat believable foe for Batman to face, my reasoning being that using the original plans of the church from the original material would be... Kind of disappointing, like their plans are not that complex or ingenious when you look into it, not to mention how easy it would be for Batman to expose them and defeat the Pope. So I decided to give them something else to build up to in their scheme of overthrowing the royalty, as to who is this mysterious man? I plan on revealing it later (depending on how I write the chapters, it will be a while)
Also I can already see someone saying 'Batman should have died from a blast of the holy replica' and to that I say, he survived reentry into the Earth's atmosphere with his base suit, plus it wasn't fully charged to begin with so it's potency was lower
What did you think of Raphtalia in this chapter? She's not my favorite character to write but I'm trying to make her stand out and be an interesting companion for Bruce.
Speaking of companions, we got ourselves a Filolian! Now I'll give you all options and whichever is more popular is going to be used in the fanfic, I am doing this because in canon the development of the filolian depends on whoever raised them along with their emotional state so the options are:
A- White male with Yellow pupils, aggressive and determined. Has a unique transformation different from a 'angel' form
B- Grey male with Brown pupils, educated and loyal. Has a 'angel' form
C- Black male with Red pupils, friendly and optimistic. Has a unique transformation unlike the 'angel' form
D- Yellow male with Blue pupils, duty bound and dedicated. Has a 'angel' form
E- Blue female with Pink pupils, silent and slightly envious. Has a unique form that is unlike the 'angel' form
F-Orange female with Green pupils, talkative and judgmental of others. Has a 'angel' form
If you're curious about the 'unique' form some of the filolians have, you gonna have to wait but its a specialized form for certain environments or lifestyles, also not all of them will look like kids in their angel forms, might bring one more of these back in the future but that will have to wait until around the third wave. Hope I gave you all enough to talk about and think, now for the reply section
To the mysterious Mr.E: thank you, I do plan on the heroes interacting with Bruce Wayne so you can expect to see that in the future.
To SombraZorro70: the Queen's shadow had an interaction with Batman in chapter 2 so he is very much aware, can't say the same for the Queen and I am waiting to write her finding out about Batman, I love to imagine Mirellia losing her cool with the type of characters I put in these fanfics
To TheRealD3lph0xL0v3r: he has a ring shield that can transform into a ring for him to wear, but it heavily limits the amount of skills and abilities he can use while it's transformed into a ring.
To nnnnmhughuuhhjiijj: sorry for the walls of text, I just get very descriptive when writing Batman
To Da Lone Ranger: thank you, having a hard time finding moments to write because of college and work but I manage at least 1 or 2 hours so it's not all bad.
To ceroxon: Itsuki is pretty much set to be an antagonist for the fanfic, but it will take a while to develop his character. I'll take what you said into account
To Guest: vote now for what the filolian will look, it's bird form might impact it's human form, unless you choose options A, C and E
To GuardianLightTheVanguard: I usually don't bring characters into the other world unless it's necessary for the fanfic, besides I think they would have their own problems to deal with now that Batman is gone. Maybe I'll write a bonus non canon chapter of them reuniting after the fact, but I do have one cameo in mind for the future but that will have to wait until after the third wave
To Bloody Scarlet: I'm sure as hell trying, but man is it hard writing the flash when he has one of the most broken power sets in fiction, like he breaks the story in bigger and worse ways than superman the more I think about, I need to find a balance of his speed so the narrative doesn't break
To Ed: I like Filo, but according to canon it is impossible for her to appear in most fanfics, read the Reprise of the Spear hero to see what I mean because it deals with time loops and Motoyasu's quest to find Filo in them, any little change can cause her to not exist or to a different filolian to be born like Sakura.
To Tylus: I'll try but the other heroes can be annoying to write, especially Itsuki and Motoyasu, have to decide what arc Ren and Motoyasu will have in the story as nothing is set currently
To zanzara: thank you for the review and don't worry, I like reading the long ones. While I do plan on having a Bat Carriage I am not sure if it will have all those functions but thank you for your suggestion