The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 09

by Aneko Yusagi

“Now we just need to set the rules and . . . all done. It does draw attention to itself though, so we should try to avoid using it in public.”

  “Imagine if people used these things to control their armies.”

  “They are pretty tough, but they are weak against fire and water. They’re not as all-powerful as you might hope.”

  “If this will convince you to take me with you, then I will not try to remove it. Now then, let’s get going!”

  I wasn’t sure if I could trust the ofuda to operate as effectively as the spell I was used to. But then again, we were just using it as insurance against Yomogi’s treachery.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Kizuna said. She started to chant the return transcript incantation.

  A moment later and we were all standing before the dragon hourglass.

  There were a lot of guards milling about, but I didn’t see any sign of a recent or impending attack. The guards around the hourglass had been instructed to remain cautious, so despite everything happening at the castle, they hadn’t left their posts. They could be counted on for that much.

  Back where I was from, you couldn’t really count on guards to stand their ground. If a guard didn’t actually guard anything, then what were they good for?

  “Everything looks fine, right?”

  “The enemy might be nearby, watching the guards for a chance to strike.”

  “Aren’t you a little paranoid?”

  “It’s what I would do if I were in his situation. Someone should stay here to keep watch.”

  “I’m telling you, Kyo wouldn’t do that! He’s not a coward!” Yomogi shouted.

  Glass and Kizuna crossed their arms and knit their brows in thought.

  “You’re right. We should leave someone here we can trust. Raphtalia, can you stay behind?” I asked Raphtalia.

  “But I . . .”

  She was strong enough to handle trouble if it showed up. I didn’t want to leave her behind, but we could count on her.”

  “. . . I will stay behind and keep an eye on things.”

  “Glass ?! ”

  Glass raised her hand to volunteer for the job, and Kizuna yelped with surprise.

  We could trust Glass with the job and she was experienced enough to deal with whatever came up. Besides, she was from this world. It made more sense to leave it her hands.

  “I believe Naofumi is correct. Kyo has made a fuss at the castle, but if he is truly in possession of technology of the sort you describe, then he may well come after the hourglass. We must ensure its safety.”

  “But . . .” Kizuna tried to protest.

  Then I added, “If you discover that you need my assistance, tell the guards to fire three flares into the air.”

  Kizuna looked at the smoking castle in the distance and nodded, “Okay. Glass, we’re leaving this to you.”

  “Chris, protect her while I’m gone.”

  “Pen!”

  I found it hard to believe that the penguin was going to be much use, but he bowed deeply in response to Glass’s charge and tottered over to stand by Kizuna.

  “Alright, Naofumi. We’re leaving Glass behind, so you better step up,” Kizuna said.

  “I know, and I will. Let’s go!”

  “Alright!” everyone shouted in unison.

  With Raph-chan and Filo on my shoulders, I took off running. Everyone followed me.

  I was worried that Rishia would trip and fall, but she managed to keep up.

  We ran toward the smoking castle. The town we ran through on the way didn’t seem damaged. But it did look like some looters, who had tried to take advantage of the chaos, had been caught and tied up though.

  What was going on?

  We ran through the castle gates to find L’Arc, Therese, and a number of soldiers fighting. But, what were they fighting? They were monsters, but they looked like humans, too. The battle was intense.

  The castle grounds were filled with smoke, and there seemed to be battle happening everywhere at once.

  “Hyaa!”

  Therese cast support magic on L’Arc, and he shot a skill at the enemy.

  But the monsters were quick on their feet, and they dodged his attack. Were these monsters faster than L’Arc? He had a vassal weapon!

  One of them appeared behind him, trying to take advantage of an opening in his defenses. I quickly used a skill.

  “Air Strike Shield!”

  The shield materialized just in time to protect L’Arc from the monster’s claws. The monster was caught off guard, which left it open for attack—a chance that L’Arc wasn’t going to miss. He swung his scythe.

  . . . But the monster dodged again!

  “Kiddo! Kizuna!”

  “We’re so glad you’re here!”

  L’Arc and Therese smiled. They looked relieved.

  “Shooting Star Shield!”

  The barrier appeared and covered us all, protecting us from the monsters. When the barrier appeared, the enemy stopped attacking and stared straight at me.

  “Hero from another world! How wonderful to see you!”

  Huh? What? The enemy turned and stared at us with hate-filled eyes.

  Were we their target?

  I looked closer. It was pretty dark, so I hadn’t gotten a very good look at the monsters yet. But they weren’t exactly humans that were turned into monsters . . .

  What ?! Their faces were strange—half beast, half human. Their bodies also seemed to be split down the center in human and beast halves.

  It looked like they’d been made of two different things stuck together. They were really ugly, to be honest.

  The leader of the group looked like it was half white tiger. The other half was a woman with a ponytail. Her human eye was sharp and angular, and the other eye was a cat eye. She wore light armor, and it was torn in places, probably a result of the battle.

  The human half of her face was actually pretty attractive.

  The other enemy troops were similar, but some of them had feathers and bird-like features, others had tortoise shells on their backs. All of them appeared to be some kind of human-animal hybrid, their hands were like claws.

  They were clearly not like the demi-humans back in the world I’d been summoned to. Something about them seemed . . . unnatural. The demi-humans I knew weren’t like that.

  Their human parts . . . their faces . . . I felt like I’d seen them before—but where?

  “Hey . . .”

  “Raphtalia, Rishia, and Kizuna were pointing at the enemy troops, speechless.”

  “What happened to you ?! ” Kizuna screamed. But damn it! I still couldn’t figure out who they were.

  “Raphtalia,” I said, motioning for her to come over. I whispered in her ear, “Who are these people?”

  “You mean you don’t remember ?! ”

  “You don’t remember us ?! How dare you!”

  The enemy reacted to Raphtalia’s comment and shouted in rage.

  They rushed at me, their weapons brandished. One thrusted a naginata at me.

  “Uh-oh!”

  The barrier shattered, and the pieces floated in the air around us.

  I blocked the naginata thrust with my shield and grabbed the handle. The other enemy troops howled with rage and came charging at me.

  “Die! Everyone! Massacre them all!”

  “That’s right. They’re the ones that came after me and accused me of stealing the katana of the vassal weapons,” Raphtalia explained.

  I finally remembered those faces. It was the gaggle of women that had been with Trash #2. They were so loud and raucous that I never did figure out what his name was.

  The shards of the shattered barrier flew at Trash #2’s friends.

  The charging people weren’t able to avoid the shards. Some of them blocked the shards and kept running. Others had shields like tortoise shells to block them.

  L’Arc and Therese didn’t miss their chance. He swung his scythe and she shot magical spells. Raphtalia
drew her sword and shot across the battlefield.

  It wasn’t clear if Kizuna would be able to damage these half-human enemies, so she was staying back with Yomogi. I tried to keep Filo and Rishia from getting caught up in the fight.

  “Go Chris!”

  Kizuna picked up Chris and threw him!

  Chris spun in circles and shot through the battle, just like Filo’s Spiral Strike attack.

  Chris blew right past the monsters, but a lot of their armor and clothing was torn in the process, and blood seeped through the cuts.

  Heh . . . So that’s how Kizuna was able to attack.

  “Rafu?”

  I looked at Raph-chan. Her eyes sparkled with understanding.

  She wanted to try the same thing, but she wasn’t strong enough yet. She’d have to stay on my shoulder for the time being.

  “Master! I wanna try that!” Filo shouted.

  She wasn’t the best melee fighter these days. I thought she’d make a better support fighter. I was hoping she’d have some bird songs with some good effects.

  “Not now!”

  “But . . .”

  “I want you to work with Raph-chan to support the rest of us with magic.”

  “Okay!”

  With both of them on my shoulders, I continued to block and avoid the attacks of Trash #2’s cohorts.

  “Shield Prison!”

  The wall of shields bought me some time. I looked over at Raphtalia who had locked swords with the leader.

  “What happened to you? Why do you look like this ?! ”

  “Isn’t it amazing? After you killed our leader, we were left without direction, and our lands were taken over by another country. We thought it was the end for us, but then Kyo, the holder of the book of the vassal weapons, saved us.”

  “What ?! ”

  “He doesn’t want to rule over us, he wants to give us the opportunity to exact our revenge. He gave us this power so that we could kill you!”

  “But . . .”

  “Up until now we could never have won a battle against a vassal weapon, or against one of the holy heroes. So Kyo gave us this power, this power he took from the copies of the Four Symbols, the four holy beasts!”

  “And that’s why you look like this ?! ” Kizuna yelped.

  A woman nodded.

  “Kyo will return us to our previous forms once we defeat you! When we defeat you, all will be returned to how it should be, to how it was!”

  “That’s why you must . . . ” they all shouted in unison, charging up for an inhuman attack, “Die!!!”

  The tiger-lady was wrapped in howling winds, which flew into her weapon. She charged us.

  The bird-lady’s wings burst into flame. She flapped them hard, sending the flames roaring at us.

  The tortoise-lady sent huge boulders to rain down on us from above.

  The dragon-lady . . . didn’t seem to be there.

  “Air Strike Shield! Second Shield! Dritte Shield!”

  I sent out the trio of shields and immediately followed them with Shooting Star Shield, blocking all of their attacks.

  Then I focused for a minute and cast Zwiete Aura on everyone, starting with Raphtalia.

  “No! Kyo would never do something so inhumane!” Yomogi shouted behind me. She reached out with her good hand and grabbed Kizuna’s shoulder. “Hunting Hero, I have a request. Please allow me to fight with you. These fools that would speak ill of Kyo must be silenced!” She grabbed a sword that had fallen at her feet.

  “If you try to attack us, you’ll regret it.”

  “I will not do such a thing!”

  Kizuna nodded, and Yomogi took off running. She jumped into battle, slashing at the woman that Raphtalia was fighting.

  “Stay out of this!”

  “Ha! You think I can’t dodge your bumbling attacks?” Yomogi said, jumping back to avoid the woman’s attack and then charging forward again with Raphtalia. “How dare you tell such lies about Kyo! He would never do such things!”

  “You’d call me a liar ?! ” the beast-woman shouted. She looked confused by the accusation. “We can bring back our leader if we kill you! You sliced him in two! Kyo can bring back master!”

  “He can bring back the dead ?! ”

  “Since when did Kyo have that kind of power?”

  That would be amazing, really. Was there a deeper taboo in all of creation? I guess you saw it in old RPGs from time to time. But if he could do that, why not send Trash #2 as his assassin?

  There was something else, some other layer to his plan.

  “The Kyo that you speak of is not the Kyo that I know!” Yomogi shouted and continued her assault. Raphtalia looked confused.

  “You fool! You have yet to see my true power!” The beast side of the woman started to glow, then slowly expand, growing larger and larger. I didn’t like the look of it.

  I was doing all I could to stop the endless string of attacks coming from the other women. There were too many of them, and they were all pretty damn strong.

  It was like the battle we had in the chamber of the Spirit Tortoise’s core. The neo-guardians had been about this strong.

  “Tsugumi! Take this!” one of the other women said and threw a spear to their leader, who was locked in battle with Yomogi and Raphtalia. One look at the spear and I could hardly believe my eyes.

  “Can it be ?!

  The spear looked just like the creepy weapon that Yomogi had been carrying when she tried to attack us back at the house, and now, it was in their leader’s hand.

  Chapter Six: The Reformed

  “Hyaaa!” The woman named Tsugumi raised the spear over her head and swung it in a circle. She didn’t actually hit anyone with it, but the motion produced a shockwave powerful enough to send Raphtalia and Yomogi flying.

  “Ugh . . .”

  “Uh . . .”

  Both of them took the brunt of the impact, and were bleeding all over.

  This wasn’t good. I’d tried to defend them, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  Judging from the battle we’d had with Yomogi, I assumed that the spear was making her attacks more powerful. Yomogi didn’t seem as imposing now, without her special sword.

  But now Tsugumi was faster and stronger than Raphtalia. Her abilities were on par with Eclair—maybe even better. She was probably as good as Raphtalia had been before she was chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons.

  Yeah, she was pretty strong. Those that held a vassal weapon could improve the growth stats of their party members. I was guessing that these women had gotten a boost from Kyo.

  They were strong, but that didn’t mean that victory was certain—not yet.

  Filo had always been my trump card, the back-up surprise when things got rough for Raphtalia.

  Raphtalia had just gotten her hands on the katana recently, and she had already grown so powerful that she was almost as strong as Glass. If this woman was able to send her flying with a simple swipe of her spear, she must have been pretty powerful too.

  Considering how easily she’d parried their attacks, we’d be in trouble if she hit us with a skill, or a technique, or whatever. I’d try to block it, but who knew if I’d be able to?

  Regardless, there was another problem we had to face first.

  “That weapon . . . Kyo must have made that.” Yomogi muttered, her face pale.

  Had she finally lost faith in him? Was she just afraid of the weapon? It was hard to say, but she was definitely unnerved.

  “Calm down,” Raphtalia said.

  Yomogi snapped back to reality, and shook her head, “Where did you get that weapon ?! ”

  “Don’t you know? Kyo gave it to me as a way to ensure the departure of the holy heroes and your vassal weapon holding friends.”

  Yomogi shook her head in disbelief, “Lies! Even if that’s true, you must know how dangerous that weapon is! Kyo must have given it to you without realizing the danger it put you in!”

  “Kiddo, what do you know about that weapon?” L�
�Arc asked, parrying one of the beast-woman’s attacks.

  It wasn’t the time or place to sit down and give a lecture about the weapon, but if it worked like Yomogi’s sword, we were all in serious trouble. We had to find a way to get rid of it without setting it off.

  “That thing was probably made with energy he took from the Spirit Tortoise—it’s a monster. It will give you unbelievable power when you wield it, but it has a mind of its own, and pretty soon it will go on a rampage and explode.”

  Whether the rampage and explosion were part of the design or a result of an experiment was hard to say. But I was sure of one thing: Kyo had taken the Spirit Tortoise familiars (mimic type) and found a way to turn them into weapons.

  “There’s still time! I had one of those weapons too, and it nearly killed me. You have to let it go!”

  Tsugumi answered Yomogi’s warning with an attack.

  I immediately deployed Shooting Star Shield, and followed that with Air Strike Shield to protect her.

  “Ha!”

  “Ugh . . .”

  The attack shattered the barrier and the Air Strike shield, slamming into my shield with a burst of sparks. Then it broke the defense level of the shield and the armor I was wearing took a little damage. The power of that weapon was monstrous!

  We had a real problem on our hands.

  “Ha!”

  “To prove that Kyo is right, you mustn’t use that weapon! The Kyo that I know wouldn’t want you to do this!”

  Tsugumi was off her guard after I blocked her attack, so Yomogi and Raphtalia rushed to attack. But Tsugumi was too fast, and dodged at the last second.

  “You’ll die here tonight!”

  Damn it . . .

  “Second Shield!”

  I quickly blocked the attack with Second Shield, maneuvered around her spear, and caught the handle between my arm and torso, pushing her back and off balance.

  Luckily, I’d learned a thing or two about fighting a spear-wielding opponent when dealing with Motoyasu. I’d only imagined doing that move before, but it ended up working.

  Spears are best for keeping the enemy at a distance, so if you got up close, the spear became a liability—you could only use the shaft.

  To a degree . . . I was somehow able to restrain her.

  “Not so fast!” she shouted.