The morning arrived, and Naofumi was woken up by the sound of something falling onto his face, followed by a clang.
"What the hell?" Aston managed to hiss out. "Why did you drop your axe on him!"
"I didn't mean to! I just wanted to wake him up!" Clind called out, obviously concerned.
Naofumi felt the weight of the axe leave his face, even as Aston continued.
"What sort of sane person holds their axe whilst waking someone? It's gonna make you look like a serial killer!"
"I'm more concerned about how he did not take any damage from that." Osvald spoke up, grabbing their attention. "That's a freaky level of defense."
"...Yeah, you're right. But I guess he is a hero, so it makes sense.." Clind spoke. "But how are we gonna wake him up now?"
At that, Naofumi opened his eyes, being greeted by Clind staring down at him. He had a pained expression on his face, and for some reason, Naofumi felt that he could relate.
"Well… You don't need to wake me up now." Naofumi grumbled, moving to sit up.
"Damn, I mean, at least he's awake?" Aston spoke with a small, nervous smile.
The smile soon disappeared as Osvald hit him on the back of the head, with Aston shooting a glare at the older man.
"Bloody…" Osvald sighed, shaking his head. "Gauntlet Hero. If you could wake up your friend, there is some stuff we need to discuss. Preferably before everyone else is awake."
Naofumi nodded at that with a sigh, already moving over to shake Motoyasu awake.
It took a few minutes for both Naofumi and Motoyasu to fully wake up, but once they had, the duo were guided into the forest.
Naofumi was suspicious of the whole thing, but still followed along. Motoyasu however, had no thoughts about it, speaking easily with the three men.
Once they were far enough into the forest, the trio paused, prompting Naofumi and Motoyasu to do so as well.
"Right." Osvald began, clearing his throat and turning towards Motoyasu and Naofumi. "There is some… information, you may wish to know."
"What sort of information?" Naofumi questioned.
"Such as why a large group of people are headed to Lurolona." Osvald continued.
"Didn't Clind say you lot were going for your fish trade and all that?" Motoyasu asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Well…" Osvald looked towards Clind, who simply looked away. "We aren't exactly going there for fish, but there's probably some sort of aquatic demi-human there."
"What exactly are you going there for?" Naofumi spoke bluntly, even as Motoyasu moved closer to his side.
"Well, to tell you the truth, it's for money." Aston stepped in, much to the relief of Osvald. "We were offered a decent amount of cash, part of it paid up front, to capture any demi-human we could from Lurolona."
"Capture…Demi-humans?" Motoyasu spoke slowly, his eyes narrowing as he took a step forward.
Aston raised his hands, and Clind and Osvald followed quickly.
"Why are you telling us now?" Naofumi questioned them.
"Because," Aston began, "We wanna be on the winning side."
Naofumi could appreciate his honesty, but found it doubtful that it was the only reason for them to say this.
"Why should we believe you?" Motoyasu asked instead, glaring at the three men. "What else do you gain from being on the 'winning side'?"
He took the question from Naofumis mind immediately, and Aston grimaced.
"Well… The most important thing is probably a decent place to stay. I don't care much about demi-humans one way or another." Clind offered up. "So long as I'm allowed to live and continue to hang out with them two, then I don't care what anyone is."
"And you two?" Naofumi pointed at Osvald and Aston. "What do you get out of this?"
"Me? Well, I'm hoping for a decent life for me and the wife. Hopefully move her to Lurolona before the church starts getting up to things…" He murmured the last part, but it was still loud enough for Naofumi and Motoyasu to hear it.
"As for me…" Aston let out a small laugh, nervously scratching at his cheek. "Well, what sealed the deal for me was you two's cooking."
Naofumi and Motoyasu stared at him for a moment, making sure they heard it correctly.
"Our cooking. The food we made last night?" Naofumi asked, just to clarify.
"Yeah, it was fantastic. One of the best things I've ever tasted." He admitted with a shrug. "Honestly, if you kept feeding me that level of cooking for the rest of my life? I would do anything and everything to keep it coming."
"To be fair, it was damn good cooking. Also a decent part of why I decided to swap as well." Osvald pointed out.
"Same here. Not the main reason, but still part of it." Clind added in his piece as well.
"...I see," Naofumi said, his voice blank.
"What did Osvald mean by the church?" Motoyasu pointed out, getting looks from the three friends.
"How do you not know about the church?"
"Well, we were summoned a couple of days ago…" Motoyasu trailed off, taking in the surprised looks on their faces.
"Just a couple of days ago?" Osvald questioned, getting a nod from Naofumi and Motoyasu. "Right. Well, let's see…"
From there, he gave a short explanation on the three heroes' church, of their hatred of the Shield Hero, brought along by the hatred of demi-humans. He also mentioned offhandedly that the enslavement of demi-humans in Melromarc was legal, but a glare from both Motoyasu and Naofumi got him to stop talking about it.
"I see. So you three are betting everything on us then?" Motoyasu summed up, getting a nod from the trio.
"Exactly." Osvald, taking the conversation back from Aston, who simply stepped back. "If we stand with you, then we are going to be branded heretics by the church, and our lives will become… let's just say significantly more difficult."
"Then how do you plan on acting after?" Naofumi asked.
"Preferably asking the lord of the territory if they can keep our family safe, whoever that may be at the current moment." Aston finished.
"I see. Then did you have a plan after all of this? Or was it just to tell us this information, and go from there?"
None of the three men dared to meet Naofumi or Motoyasus eyes, and the two heroes looked at each other in disbelief.
"Alright. That's fine. We can work with this." Naofumi spoke with a sigh. "It's still pretty early. Everyone else in the camp shouldn't be waking up any time soon, right?"
"Not as far as i'm aware." Osvald spoke with a nod. "There's a couple of early risers, but they usually just laze around for a bit. It's not until the captain gets up that everyone starts getting ready and he's… Let's just say he's a heavy sleeper."
Naofumi nodded his head. "Alright. You three are going to help me and Motoyasu level up some more, just to be better prepared if it comes down to a fight, and we are going to discuss a plan whilst we do it, alright?"
Naofumi got a nod from everyone present, including Motoyasu.
By the time they got back to the campsite and loaded everything from their group onto the wagon, the captain of the group of slavers was beginning to get people into action.
"Jeez, you two are seriously strong, but I guess that's the power of the heroes." Osvald pointed out as they got onto the wagon.
They had gone up a few levels, but both Naofumi and Motoyasu were both just shy of getting enough points to up one of their skills to III. It was a shame, but they couldn't push themselves further out of concern of being noted down as missing, and drawing unwanted suspicion to themselves.
They had come up with a rough plan during their time spent levelling, but it relied heavily on Naofumi and Motoyasu getting to Lurolona before everyone else.
Thankfully, Osvald, Clind and Aston seemed confident enough in their ability to stall the slavers for a short time, giving the duo a chance to get to the village ahead of everyone else.
Soon enough, they set off, but not before Clind messed around with one of the wheels on the wagon, unnoticed by anyone else beside their group.
Once they got closer to the village, and the sight of monster corpses began to become more common, Osvald spoke.
"Get ready you two. You should probably start running as soon as it happens."
"As soon as what happ-" Naofumi began, only to be almost launched from his seat.
The only reason he didn't get launched was because Motoyasu had grabbed hold of his shoulder, to which he was thankful.
"Sorry, someones gotta take the fall. Mind acting disobedient for a bit?" Osvald spoke out front, just loud enough for them to hear. Was he talking to the Knight Dragon?
Naofumi shook the thought from his head, as he and Motoyasu stood up, ready to run to the village.
"Good luck you two. Hopefully things go well over there." Aston spoke with a smile.
"Yeah, same here. I'll see you over there, I guess." Naofumi spoke hesitantly, still unsure how he felt about the group of three.
With that said, Motoyasu and Naofumi took off running towards Lurolona, even as they heard shouting from behind them.
"Leave them alone!" The same voice which allowed them onto the wagons in the first place called. "If they are filthy demi lovers, then we will take care of them soon enough!"
With that, the voices seemed to die down. Though neither Naofumi or Motoyasu stared back to see what was happening.
Once they were fully within the village, Naofumi took a breath, looking around. The village was not looking good in the slightest. It was obvious that the place had been recently destroyed. From both the destroyed buildings to the monster corpses piled at the edge of the village.
One corpse was separated from the rest, that being a three headed dog. It had obviously been cut up slightly, likely being used as a source of food for the village temporarily, but it was still massive.
"Hey! You lot, over there!" Motoyasu called out, directing Naofumis attention to where Motoyasu was shouting.
He could vaguely make out a couple of adults surrounded by kids. They were all frozen in place as Motoyasu shouted.
"Can you tell us where the leader of this place is? We need to speak to them, desperately!" He continued to shout, even as he walked forward, a smile on his face.
As they got closer, Naofumi noticed some features about them. One of the adults seemed to have bear ears on his head, whilst the other a set of whiskers. Naofumi was surprised, but kept it to himself.
The kids hid behind the two adults, who stepped forward, prompting Motoyasu to stop. "If you are looking for Lord Seaetto…" The one with bear ears began slowly, "Then I'm afraid you will be disappointed. He perished during the wave."
Motoyasus smile dropped, and Naofumi stepped in. "Then who's in control now? We need to speak to them. As my friend said, it's important."
The adults looked at the two warily, before the one with whiskers responded. "Well… you see the house, at the head of the village? That's where Lord Seaettos' daughter is currently. She took it upon herself to lead us for a time, but she's not exactly suited for that sort of thing, bless her heart."
" Not suited for it is an understatement." The bear-eared demi human spoke with a roll of his eyes. "Least she's doing the good thing and going to the crown for assistance."
"I see. Thank you" Naofumi lowered his head towards them, and he heard the two kids behind the adults gasp.
"Hayden, look at his hands!" The girl behind the adults whispered excitedly to her friend, who popped up above her.
Naofumi could see them staring at his gauntlets, and gave them a small smile before changing his gauntlets.
The two adults gasped, but the kid behind them shouted. "That's the Gauntlet Hero Alia! And the other guy, he has a gem in his hammer!" Hayden shouted excitedly
"A hero?" The one with whiskers questioned, looking towards the two.
Yet, before either of them could ask any questions to the two, they were already off, headed towards the house they had been directed to.
It didn't take them long to reach the house, and upon knocking on the door, they could hear some sounds from within.
It took a few moments for the door to open, but once it did, a voice spoke.
"I'm sorry. I'm a bit busy right now, so if you need something, it's going to have to wait." Spoke the person opening the door.
The door opened fully, allowing Motoyasu and Naofumi a look at the speaker. She had strawberry coloured hair that went down to her waist,
"No problem!" Motoyasu took the lead, bowing his head towards the lady. "We just wanted to discuss some stuff of importance with you, if you would, miss…?"
"Eclair. Eclair Seaetto." She responded, nodding her head. "May I ask who you two are? It's not common for two strangers to show up, especially so soon after the wave."
She looked at the two with suspicion, and Naofumi couldn't blame her. Especially not with what they were about to tell her.
"Well, I'm afraid it's for some rather unpleasant reasons." Motoyasu spoke, still smiling at her. "But before that, can I say you look absolutely beautiful?"
Eclair seemed confused by the sudden change in the conversation, only for Naofumi to smack Motoyasu on the back of the head.
"Ow! Why'd you do that?" Motoyasu whined, clutching his head as he turned to look at Naofumi.
"Because you're trying to flirt with her! We don't have time for that! Just get on with it." He spoke with a sigh.
Motoyasu grumbled about it for a few moments before straightening up.
"We have information that a group of slavers are about to attack the village." He spoke easily, making Naofumi roll his eyes.
Why couldn't he have done it before trying to flirt with her?
"Slavers?" Eclair asked, a concerned look on her face. "How did you get this information?"
"Well…" Motoyasu trailed off, looking towards Naofumi for help.
"We're heroes." Naofumi began, wondering why Motoyasu hadn't just started with that. "We were headed here to see if we could figure out what to expect during the wave, and whether or not we could find anything to help us get stronger."
"I see. A valid reason for coming, but still nothing about how you got this information." Eclair pointed out, getting a nod from Naofumi.
"We got a ride with a group of people, but the three we were with had a change of heart I guess? I'm not really sure myself." He spoke with a shrug. "They told us what was going on, and helped us get here before everyone else by causing a distraction."
"I understand." Eclair spoke with a nod. "Heroes, thank you for bringing this to my attention. If it's not too much trouble, could you…" She trailed off, but Naofumi understood what she wanted to say.
"We are happy to help, if you will have us." Naofumi spoke, getting a nod from Motoyasu.
"Yeah. I'm not gonna let anyone be enslaved." Motoyasu spoke, a determined look on his face.
"Thank you." Eclair spoke, lowering her head for a moment. "We need to gather up everyone in the village immediately, and alert them to what's happening. From there, I'm planning on sending everyone into the basement of my fathers home."
"Everyone?" Naofumi questioned, getting a nod from Eclair. "Why not only those unable to fight?"
"Yeah, what Naofumi said! Surely there are going to be some people who want to actually fight. It's their village after all, right?"
Eclair seemed torn on that, but let out a sigh. "I'll see what they say when we get there." She answered.
"That's all we ask, but me and Motoyasu are prepared to fight on our own if we have to." Naofumi responded.
Eclair simply looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Alright. Naofumi, if you would please take the east side, and gather anyone you can. Motoyasu, if you could take the west side, and ill gather everyone else. Direct them to the centre of the village please."
Naofumi and Motoyasu agreed, quickly setting off to do their assigned task.
It didn't take them long to gather everyone in the centre of the village, and by the time Motoyasu and Naofumi had got there with the few people not already there, they already had a few people looking at them in awe.
As Eclair explained the situation to the villagers of Lurolona, Naofumi took the time to look at just how many people there were left.
There were more kids than adults in the village, which was one of the first things Naofumi had noticed. Likely, the adults had fought against the monsters that came from the wave whilst protecting the children, leading to the situation they were in.
Though of the remaining adults, most of them were the elderly or women, with only a total of four men left in the village. Had the wave really been that brutal? Naofumi shook his head, wondering what could have been if the four of them had perhaps been summoned earlier.
Naofumi continued to look around, noting the many animal features he found in his mind. There were a few humans, but they were in the minority.
There were two separate groups who caught his attention.
The first one who caught his eye was a young girl with what looked to be a white apron and a cooking knife in her hands. She was standing on her own, at the edge of the group of people, and seemed to be looking around anxiously.
The other was a group of three kids, standing on the outer edges of the large group similar to the first one. Each of them held distinct animal traits. One of them had racoon ears and a bushy tail, whilst another had weasel ears.
The one with weasel ears was comforting the Racoon demi-human, who seemed upset by something, whilst the third member of their small group, a demi-human with dog features, stared at Eclair as she spoke.
Naofumi was curious about them, and he was tempted to go over and ask where their parents were, but realised that it would probably be a bad idea to do so. If their parents weren't here, it was obvious what had happened to them.
"...As such, I would prefer it if you all stayed in my fathers home, hidden in the basement for your own safety." Eclair finished.
Almost immediately, voices rose up, saying different things that overlapped with each other, but it was quickly silenced when one person stepped forward. It was the same bear demi-human that Naofumi had spoken to earlier.
"I understand getting the kids to safety, but why everyone?" He asked Eclair, getting a few people to agree with him.
"I… Well, you all have already faced a lot since the wave, from having to rebuild parts of the village, to coping with your various losses. It doesn't feel right to involve all of you in this, especially so when we have two heroes who are willing to help us." Eclair answered him.
"I understand that, and I'm thankful, I am," He reaffirmed. "But I want to fight for my home as well. I don't want to just leave it in the hands of the heroes, no offence to you two."
Neither Naofumi or Motoyasu took offence, but they still nodded to him anyway.
"I want to fight to keep everyone safe. Even if I don't have any kids to protect, I'll fight to protect the kids who have no one else, even if it does cost me my life."
A few of the other adults of the village also stepped forward, sharing similar sentiments, and Eclair sighed.
"If that's what you want, I won't stop you." She relented. "But I can't promise you won't get hurt, or worse. Are you all really willing to take the risk?"
A couple looked concerned, but they still did not back out from their decision, getting another sigh from Eclair.
"Alright. I have a few spare weapons in my home to give to you, which we can retrieve once everyone else is safe in the basement. Let's get going everyone!" Eclair shouted the last part, and they all began to move towards her home.
It didn't take long for everything to be sorted. The adults who were not willing to fight were in the basement with the village children to keep them calm, and enough food and water had been given to them to last a couple of days if the worst came to pass.
The adults who were fighting were armed with various weapons, mainly different types of swords from Eclair's old weapons.
When Naofumi had asked her about them, she had simply stated that she had outgrown them, or moved onto a different fighting style whilst looking away in embarrassment. Naofumi simply shrugged at that, continuing to hand out the weapons.
He and Motoyasu made sure their own armour was sorted, as well as points assigned to their skills. They still only had enough for II on two skills, or III on one skill, but Naofumi had decided on splitting between both.
Skill Mastery had little to no effect on the two skills that both heros had unlocked, and they couldn't do anything more with Weapon Synthesis without spending any of their money on unlocking a new slot, which was expensive.
"We do have three people with them." Naofumi spoke, as the group of seven waited at the entrance to the village.
They had all grouped into one party to keep track of each other's health. They would suffer an experience penalty, but hopefully it wouldn't matter that much. Their goal wasn't to kill them after all.
"Can you trust them?" Eclair asked him, even as the others shuffled on the spot.
"They said they wanted to be on the 'winning side', so I'm not absolutely sure." Naofumi answered with a shrug.
"I mean, one of them said the swapped sides due to our cooking." Motoyasu pointed out. "I personally think they can be trusted, but ill leave it up to you."
"We will just have to see what happens then." Eclair spoke with a nod, ending the conversation.
A few moments later, and the wagons that Naofumi and Motoyasu had seen travelling with them the previous day appeared on the road. They continued for a time until they stopped in front of the entrance to the village.
Everyone was wearing armour, and Eclair let out a small gasp as she looked them over.
"Those… Those are Melromarc knights! What are they doing here?" She spoke, a hint of anger in her voice.
"Is this all that Lurolona can offer?" A person spoke, stepping forward. His helmet was off, and he held a smug grin on his face as he examined the group.
He focused on Naofumi and Motoyasu for a moment before continuing.
"If you two demi-human lovers had not run off immediately, we would have let you do what you want with the village you know? Could have had the scraps of what we left, but I suppose it means more for us, isn't that right?" He spoke, getting a cheer from the people behind him.
"What are you doing!" Eclair shouted, pointing her sword at the captain of the group. "You are supposed to be a knight of Melromarc! Not slavers, or common bandits!"
"Hm? Aren't you…" The captain trailed off as he looked at her before laughing. "You're the Seaetto heiress! When we didn't get a report on you, we assumed you had died, just like your father!"
He continued to laugh, wiping a tear from his eye even as Eclair continued to point her sword at him.
"Men! Kill everyone else, leave her to me, understand?" The captain commanded, drawing his own sword.
Both Eclair and the captain of the slavers took a step forward, with Eclair's sword moving forwards, clashing against the Captain's.
Naofumi would have continued watching, but was instead distracted by two of the slavers who had charged at him, holding an axe and sword.
The one holding the sword brought it down on Naofumi, but he raised his hand, the sword sliding off his covered hand. His other fist moved forward immediately.
"Erst Rush II" His gauntlet-covered hand hit against the slavers' armour, and the man exhaled sharply, having been winded by the punch.
The man with the axe seemed concerned, stepping back as he looked at Naofumi.
Naofumi opted to punch the sword wielding slaver in the stomach again, sending him to the floor with a hand over his armoured chest.
Naofumi stepped over the collapsed man, moving towards the axe wielder. He seemed to have gathered some resolve however, as he raised his axe, intent on striking at Naofumi, but he soon froze, slumping over.
On the back of his head was the beginnings of a bump, which had been given to him by the handle of Clind's axe.
"I didn't think you would actually help us out." Naofumi spoke casually, getting a shrug in response.
"The other two were insistent, and considering I like being with them? It was a no-brainer." He answered simply, getting a nod from Naofumi.
He looked around the area, watching as Motoyasu pointed his hammer at a slaver who was backing up. He mouthed something, and a string of rope shot from the gem of his hammer, tangling around the slaver's foot, tripping him up.
Osvald and Aston were in two separate places, with Osvald helping out the bear eared demi-human who had spoken up earlier, whilst Aston was going around tripping up his former comrades.
It did concern him just how quickly they had turned over to their side simply because of their cooking, and he couldn't help but wonder if he and Motoyasu had messed up somehow with the food somehow.
Either way, it made things easier for them, so that was all that mattered in the end.
He jogged over to another one of the demi-humans, who had just taken a cut to their shoulder, and before the slaver could finish him off, Naofumi punched forward.
"Rapid Strike II"
The skill, as the name suggested, let him punch a few times in quick succession, And as it turned out, a few punches to the slavers back did the job, sending him to the floor without any issues.
Naofumi honestly couldn't see how they expected to win, especially if they folded under any sort of resistance against them
Then again, they had been aiming for a sneak attack essentially, so they likely would have won in that case. Naofumi let out a sigh, watching as Motoyasu, Osvald and Aston moved around the battlefield, quickly finishing off the slavers who had remained.
A few had seemed to notice that both he and Motoyasu were seven star heroes, similarly to how Aston, Osvald and Clind had, which had caused them to run away.
Naofumi wasn't exactly sure if it was a good idea to let them get away, but he was going to let them for now, simply due to the fact that he had little to no idea of what they were going to do with those they had taken down.
Soon enough, it was just Eclair and the captain duelling, with everyone else watching on.
Eclair didn't even seem to be putting in any sort of thought, instead effortlessly blocking the captain's blade without breaking a sweat. The captain on the other hand, had his eyes open, wide with fear.
"Your swordsmanship is sloppy." Eclair spoke after a few more failed strikes against her. "How you ever became a captain, I'm not sure."
She deflected his sword once more, sending his sword flying to the side with a quick trick, and the captain stumbled backwards, even as Eclair pointed her sword down at him.
"I'm ashamed to even share the same title of Melromarc Knight with someone like you." She said, glaring down at the captain.
He let out a small noise, but was quickly silenced by a kick to the head from Aston. Eclair gave him a look, but Aston simply shrugged.
"What? Your duel was over, so might as well shut him up. He would have just ranted about how you were a filthy demi-human lover who deserved to be killed."
Eclair let out a huff before sheathing her sword on her side again, turning to everyone else.
The battle against the slavers had ended in a victory for their side, with minimal injuries being sustained by them, which was a surprise.
Now, it was just a case of actually figuring out what to do with the knocked out slavers, and how they could be punished.
Turns out, this chapter was a pain to write for some reason. Don't know why, considering I had the outline in my docs for like a couple of weeks, but it's done now, so that's that.
Once more, I prove I am not great at writing fights. Hopefully the longer the fic goes on, it gets better, but I will just have to see.
Thanks to Robotech for checking over stuff, the chapter likely would have had a few mistakes which I missed on my first couple of go throughs without him. Go check out his works if you haven't already.
Not really much else to say I guess. Thanks for reading and all the support, until next time I suppose.