by Aneko Yusagi
Even the handle could be a weapon with the right amount of attack power. It really hurt.
“Therese!”
I didn’t have time to cast spells, so I’d need to rely on Therese for support.
“Great power in these stones, hear my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give them the power of unshakeable protection!”
“Shining Stones: Hardened Protection!”
Therese’s spell took effect, and I felt my defense rating rise.
The pain disappeared almost entirely. Therese’s magic must have worked by multiplying my stats, so if my defense rating was already high, then her spell worked even better.
“Ah, so you’re tougher now? You otherworldly hero! Kyo said that you were useless aside from defense, but you sure are annoying!”
I guess they’d been gossiping about me. I hope they’d heard about my counter effects.
Too bad she didn’t just drop the spear and run away. I really would have preferred that.
“Master!”
“Rafu!”
Filo and Raph-chan jumped at Tsugumi.
“Hey, what are you—”
“How irritating!” Tsugumi shouted, swiping at them with her beast hand.
“Yikes!”
“Rafu!”
Before Tsugumi could slice at them with her claws they both disappeared in a puff of smoke. Where did they go?”
“That was close!”
Filo reappeared a short distance away, carrying Raph-chan.
“Rafufu!”
I guess they used Raph-chan’s illusion magic to escape just in time.
“Be careful, you two. You’re not strong enough for this yet.”
“We’re okay, master! We can dodge that lady’s attacks!”
I guess Filo could use haikuikku if she needed to. She’d have to charge up her magic power, but she could also fight in that energy-conserving mode that Fitoria taught her.
But this wasn’t the time. The enemy was too dangerous.
“Charge up!”
Both of them jumped onto my shoulders.
“We can get stronger if we ride on your shoulders for a bit!”
Ah, right. That must be what abilities increase while carrying (medium) did.
Hopefully it would come in handy.
“Tsugumi!”
The group of women all focused on me now, deciding I was the leader of the group.
“Better watch out, Kiddo, looks like they’ve got it out for you!”
“I guess so. I won’t make it easy on them!”
“Indeed. We cannot afford the possibility of your loss, Naofumi. I have many gemstones that require your skilled attention,” Therese exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?” I barked. I wasn’t sure I liked the way Therese was thinking. L’Arc better rein her in.
Anyway, back to business.
“Feh . . .” Rishia whimpered, tossing an ofuda.
“Wh . . .”
“What ?! ”
It fluttered helplessly from her hands and hit one of the beast women, prompting a yelp of surprise. It might actually come in handy. It looked really weak and pathetic, so they would probably ignore it—only for it come back and bite them later.
Anyway, I still had a hold on Tsugumi’s spear, but I didn’t know how long I could keep it. With my boosted defense, I was hoping to twist her to the ground. But I didn’t have much hope that it would work. Come to think of it, I don’t think I had pulled it off since the Cal Mira islands.
Regardless, I was thinking it over when Tsugumi tightened her grip on the spear, and its point started to flash behind me. The point of the spear snapped and cracked behind me, and it started to feel like it was burning me.
I’d been through this before! When I was fighting the high priest!
He’d held a replica of the holy weapons. His attacks had burned just like this.
There was only one thing to do.
“Filo! Get out of here and prepare yourself!”
“Okay!”
“Rafu!”
Filo knew what I meant. She grabbed Raph-chan and flew off.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Kiddo, are you doing what I think you’re doing ?! Everyone get away!”
“What? What’s happening?” Kizuna shouted as L’Arc pulled her away with him.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“It’ll be okay! Raphtalia, help protect Yomogi and Filo!”
I hadn’t done this in a long time, but I didn’t have any other way to survive this beast-woman’s attacks.
As for unlocking the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield, I may have finally been able to do it in this world, but the Shield of Wrath was still stronger.
I knew it was risky, but I had to protect everyone from the attack this lady was about to unleash, and I didn’t have any other ideas.
I had to do it. I readied my shield and prepared to use the most forbidden power I had.
The Shield of Wrath—I’m forced to turn to you again.
I didn’t want to do this!
“Wh . . . What?”
“What’s the otherworldly hero up to now?” Yomogi shouted as L’Arc pulled her and Raphtalia out of harm’s way.
“Kiddo just switched to a weapon that will hurt him, but it’s strong enough to stop their attacks.”
“Hurt him? But . . .”
“Has Kyo used it?”
The women regrouped and came rushing at us, seeing Kizuna and Raphtalia fleeing as an opportunity. They attacked in wave after wave.
“Arrrhhhh!”
“Take that! Piercing shot!”
I had my grip on the shaft of the spear, but the spear point pushed against my shield, unleashing a deadly skill. A burst of energy shot out of the spear. But I was able to hold it off.
Like trying to stick your finger in a faucet to stop the water, the energy beams burst out anyway. The light shot through the castle walls, and there was a crater left on the ground around us afterward. But that was the end of it.
“ARRHHHHH!” Tsugumi roared, getting ready to blast me away.
I had to fill her with despair. I had to make her think she had no hope for victory.
The spear started to glow, and the eyeball set in the handle opened and looked around in short, erratic jerks.
“Everyone! Focus your attack on him!”
“Right!” they all shouted together.
“Come at me then!”
If they attacked me, they weren’t going to like what happened next.
I pulled on the spear and spun it around, grazing the rushing attackers.
“Ahhhh!”
“Ugh!”
It had barely touched them, but they took plenty of damage. Luckily for them, half of their bodies had been reformed with monster parts, so they were a bit singed, but they were fine. A little healing magic would heal them.
“You’re damn persistent.”
“All I have is a shield. I have to do what I can.”
Locked neck and neck with her, I was still able to continue to hold off Tsugumi’s energy attacks.
But, finally, the skill seemed to run out of steam. There was a deflating hiss, and smoke streamed from the tip of her spear.
“Give up already!”
I had to get this fight over with.
“No thanks!”
“Then you’ll pay for it!”
I’d pay them back for all the pain they’ve caused—and more.
“Therese! Get a defense spell on us! Filo, you help! Get everyone you can on this! Protect everyone!”
“Alright!” Therese shouted. She called some other soldiers over and they all began to summon a protective barrier.
The flames might’ve been so powerful they would’ve turned everything to ash. But, I’d tried my best during the battle with Glass, and she had survived. So, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t do any unnecessary damage. I used Air Strike Shield just in case.
“U
gh!”
The shield was starting to take over my mind. A deep hatred burned in my head, telling me to kill everyone.
But there were people I had to protect—wanted to protect.
Not only Raphtalia and Filo.
After the battle with the high priest, so many things had happened. There were more people on my side now—more people that needed my protection. The more I cared about, the less I could use this shield.
During the battle with the Spirit Tortoise, Ost had taken the rage and hatred from the shield and made it into power, power that made the shield even stronger.
Yes . . . now my rage had a direction. I didn’t just hate the whole world. It was focused on a single point . . .
To protect my friends, I had to control my rage.
Rage, hate, disgust, loathing, resentment, anger . . .
They weren’t for everyone. I had to focus them on those in front of me.
“AAAAGHHHHH!”
Dark Curse Burning S activated, roaring forth from my shield.
“I thought he could only defend ?! ”
“Haven’t you been paying attention? Of course I can counter attack!”
Black flames leapt from my shield, fanning out before me and rushing over the enemy.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Arrrughgh!”
I had never felt such power in these detestable flames before. They were stronger than they had ever been, roaring in my ears as they burned everything before me.
“Whoa . . .”
“So that’s . . . That’s Naofumi’s forbidden attack . . .”
“It’s a bit different from yours, isn’t it? Pretty dangerous. Glass needed soul-healing water to stand up to it.”
“Enough chitchat! Fight!”
I felt the hatred wane, but I knew that it would come back. That’s how the attack worked.
Just withstanding it was almost enough to drive me crazy. It was a battle I had to fight with myself. But I had friends now, Raphtalia, Filo, and the others. I had to protect them. It might sound a little cheesy, but if I wanted to protect my friends, I couldn’t allow myself to be swallowed by the hate.
“Damn it! We’re not giving up!”
Even after being hit with an attack like that, she still refused to drop the spear.
How was I supposed to stop someone so obsessed?
Trash #2 was a real creep, from what I knew about him. But if there were all these people that still felt strongly for him, I guess he must have done some good things in his life too. I guess if everything had gone how he wanted it to, his inventions might never have been used, and all these women wouldn’t have ended up the way they did.
Besides, Glass did warn him at the end. Don’t move, she said.
He’s the one who ignored the warning, and that’s why he died. Why did they insist on making all of this our fault?
Ah! The Shield of Wrath was taking over my mind again.
I had to stay on my toes. I couldn’t afford to get lost in the hate.
“More power! More! Enough to destroy these fools!”
The burned enemies slowly rose to their feet.
As if to regenerate what they lost to the flames, the beast side of their bodies grew and spread.
Damn it! How much did I have to burn them to get them to stay down?
“Hyaaaaa!”
Not good! Just like what had happened with Yomogi, the spear was glowing with heat, and tentacle-like vines whipped out and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm.
But Tsugumi didn’t seem to mind. Maybe it was because of her beast-half?
What was I supposed to do? Kizuna cut the vines last time, but . . .
“Blood Flower Strike!”
Kizuna was on her in a flash. She sliced through the vines and fell back to safety. But the vines grew back almost immediately and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm again.
Did she really not notice or care what was happening?
The power she emitted steadily grew stronger. I . . . can’t hold it off much longer!
“This is the end!”
The tip of her spear suddenly shot . . . yes, shot stars!
There was no doubt in my mind. This weapon of hers was a copy of Motoyasu’s spear.
This attack was probably Shooting Star Spear.
“Ahaha! That should end it! Die!”
She wrenched the spear free from my grip and pointed it at me, ready to shoot a beam, when . . .
There was an awful sound, like the tearing of flesh.
“Gyaaaaahhhh!”
The smile disappeared from her face as Tsugumi fell to the floor. She wriggled and writhed.
“Tsugumi ?! ”
“What’s happening ?! ”
The other women ran over to Tsugumi where she lay on the ground.
“Ahhh! Ag . . . argh!”
She twitched violently as her eyes rolled back into her head.
Was it the spear that was doing this?
Before I even had the time to wonder, the women that were locked in battle with Raphtalia and L’Arc stopped fighting and began to groan. It was like their medicine had suddenly worn off.
“What the hell is going on?”
“You think WE did this?” The cursed flames had the special effect of delaying any restorative effects for a while—but that wouldn’t have been enough to cause this.
“You don’t think this has anything to do with those creepy animal bodies of yours?” Kizuna asked.
But there wasn’t any time to waste on that.
“Kizuna, they aren’t our biggest problem right now.”
“You’re right!”
The spear was still wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm as she writhed on the ground. It was sucking all of her power, just like it had done with Yomogi. That meant that it was probably just about ready to explode.
Damn it! Did we even have time to throw it?
I was worried about that crystalline eyeball in the handle. It was shining brighter than Yomogi’s sword had, which made me fear that the explosion was going to be bigger than last time.
“Kizuna! Wait!”
“What ?! ”
“Don’t cut the vines yet. It might trigger the explosion.”
I hadn’t known what to look out for during the fight with Yomogi, but looking back on it now, the vines may have caused it.
“Maybe it won’t explode as long as it is sucking energy out of her.”
“Are you saying we should just leave her like this?”
She had a point. If she was twitching on the ground, then she was probably almost out of energy anyway. If we weren’t going to be cruel, we’d have to get them to a safe place before we let the thing explode.
Kizuna and Raphtalia probably wouldn’t like that plan. I wasn’t too fond of it either, but we didn’t have many options.
There wasn’t enough time to have a discussion either way.
“Ahhhh!” they all shouted in pain. Then they crawled to their feet like beasts and began to howl and shout.
Falling on all fours, they started to walk and stalk around the battlefield like the animals they were based on.
“Damn. What the hell is going on with these people ?! ” L’Arc shouted as he worked with Raphtalia and Yomogi to control the raging beasts.
They didn’t move with intelligence, or with a plan, but they were faster and harder to predict than before.
“Fehh . . .”
“Rafu!”
Raph-chan puffed up her tail and cast a spell on the marauding beast women. They all turned to an empty area of the battlefield and rushed to attack it. Raph-chan must have fooled them with some kind of illusion magic. Judging from what I knew about games, illusion magic tended to work best against wild enemies. Of course, on the other hand, there were enemies that it didn’t work against at all.
“Stop! Look at what is happening to Tsugumi! Abandon your revenge and do what you can to help her!”
But they weren’t listening—or they had lost the ability to l
isten.
“You all better calm down. That might happen to you next. Better to save your strength.”
Then they all seemed to calm down, as if they had lost the will to fight.
“That’s it. The ones that are freaking out the most were the most belligerent ones.”
“. . .”
“Ahhh . . . Ah . . .”
Like a sponge being squeezed, Tsugumi shriveled up before our very eyes. Her cheeks sunk in over her bones, and she looked like a mummy.
It was probably happening because of a combination of two things. The irrational raging that came from her twisted animal side, and that creepy spear thing her hands. Speaking of the spear, I had no doubt that it would explode once it finished sucking the life out of her.
“I can’t use portal.”
But there is another way I can use portal.
The problem was that it only worked with party members, but even if I didn’t set it to teleport myself, I could still open a portal to anywhere I’d been before. I had hoped that I could use it to do something about the spear and Tsumugi, but it didn’t work if she wasn’t already in my party.
And there was another problem. The beast half of her body was related to the White Tiger, which was having a jamming effect on my ability to use portal too.
There was no good way out.
But I had another idea.
“Cast support magic on her! Don’t forget to replenish her magic and SP!”
“What are you thinking ?! ”
“We’re going to bring her somewhere away from everyone and then run for it. If we don’t, that weapon will kill us all when it explodes.”
“But what about Tsugumi ?! ”
“We’ll think of something as we buy ourselves some time.”
But before I could finish my thought, a creepy laugh echoed over the battlefield. It came from the eyeball in the spear.
“You think . . . You can . . . get away?”
The voice cut in and out, but it clearly belonged to Kyo.
He didn’t have to tell me. I knew we were out of time.
“Seems . . . failed . . . plenty to get rid of you . . . still . . . this is the . . . ! ”
There was a deafening clang, and the whole spear began to glow, just like what had happened with Yomogi.
“Kyo! It can’t be! This was your plan all along?” Yomogi shouted, but Kyo’s voice had already vanished. I guess he had cut it off from his side.
The spear was shining much brighter than Yomogi’s sword had. It was definitely about to explode.