The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 03 Read online

  “Let’s get on the ship, find the weak spot and bring that thing down!”

  “Damn! Again! You’re always stealing from me!”

  “If it bothers you so much, come with me! Let’s go, Filo!”

  “Okaaay!”

  Filo ran and sprang into the air. I quickly released an Air Strike Shield that she could use as a step. She landed on it and jumped again, and we landed on the deck of the ship.

  “Ah! Wait!”

  Itsuki and his party were chasing after us.

  Good. If it was going to take this long to defeat the wave, then they had to be doing it wrong.

  Ugh. It’s good that we made it to the deck, but the whole ship was littered with bones. The floorboards were rotted through and filled with holes. There were dead fish everywhere, and the ropes and lifesavers were rotten. We’d really have to watch where we put our feet.

  We made it to the deck, but there was… huh? At the back end of the ship there was a giant tentacle, and Motoyasu was fighting it with his party.

  “Shooting Star Spear!”

  Motoyasu let out a triumphant shout, and his spear began to glow before splitting into hundreds of energy-spears, which rained down on the giant tentacle. The tentacle died, but quickly regenerated and resumed its position.

  What was going on? Was there a kraken-like monster clinging to the ship like a hermit crab?

  “Filo, don’t tell me you want to eat that thing.”

  “Why… I can’t eat it?”

  That would be tough, even for Filo.

  I looked down to the other end of the deck, and there was Ren, fighting something like a skeleton captain.

  The skeleton captain looked like a pirate straight from the Caribbean, dressed in ornate robes and a hook where his left hand should have been.

  He looked like… a skeleton version of Captain Hook, from “Peter Pan.”

  “Shooting Star Sword!”

  Ren’s sword flashed, and the flashing light turned into a stream of stars that slammed into the skeleton captain.

  “Damn… he’s tough.”

  “Ren!”

  One of Ren’s party members ran forward and attacked the skeleton captain. The skeleton captain swung his sword in response. Ren and his group attacked again, and the captain stumbled back. Then Ren swung what looked like the final strike, and the captain fell apart.

  “Whew… was it dead?”

  But before he could catch his breath, the pile of bones rose into the air and reformed the skeleton captain.

  “What?!”

  And the captain, his skull wrapped in a bandana, rushed to attack again.

  I turned back to Motoyasu and the kraken.

  “Filo, can you get us to the back of the ship?”

  “Sure!”

  “Raphtalia, hold on tight!”

  “All right!”

  She wrapped her arms around me to keep from falling, and Filo dashed across the ship.

  From the stern to the bow, the deck was covered in tentacles, but Filo kicked them off, and we moved on.

  We made it to the stern and discovered the source of the monstrous tentacles.

  “…!”

  I was right, the kraken was holding on to the ship like some kind of hermit crab.

  Did it have… one head? More than that? It was hard to tell.

  Over where Motoyasu was fighting there was a head, but the eyes were rotten… clouded.

  It didn’t seem to be breathing.

  Filo had no problem eating rotting things, but could she not eat this because it was already completely rotten?

  Itsuki had been attacking the ship directly, but it hadn’t fallen.

  Motoyasu was trying to kill the kraken.

  Ren was fighting with the skeleton captain.

  They were split-up. They were all over the place.

  Sure, they could have said that they didn’t have a chance—but still. This was reckless.

  And it didn’t seem like they were making any progress at all.

  What did all these enemies have in common? The only thing I could think of was that the real enemy was somewhere else.

  Why couldn’t the other heroes, with their supposedly perfect knowledge of the game, figure out something that simple?

  Thinking back on all they’d said up until now, it seemed like they were operating under the assumption that what had made them successful in their games was going to work here. But they were all fighting differently.

  “Ren!”

  “What? N… Naofumi? What are you doing here?!”

  “You’re taking too long, so I came to find out what the problem was. Why do you keep on fighting that thing?”

  “If I can defeat this, the real boss—the Soul Eater—will appear.”

  “And?

  “You have to defeat him a few times and then the boss will show up.”

  “Huh…”

  Apparently he actually was thinking about his strategy. But why was it taking so long?

  “Motoyasu!”

  “Wh… What are you doing here, Naofumi?!”

  He saw that I was sitting on Filo, and covered his crotch when he turned toward us.

  He must of thought that he would be kicked again. Ha! If Filo kicked him with her claws on, he’d be dead in an instant.

  “Mr. Motoyasu, don’t listen to him!”

  The Bitch looked at me like I was garbage, and she warned Motoyasu to ignore us.

  “You need to shut up!”

  “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? You can’t speak to me that way!”

  “I don’t care! Motoyasu, what are you going to do after you kill the kraken?”

  “The Soul Eater will show up, and then I’ll take him out.”

  So that’s what Motoyasu thought too. Itsuki must have been thinking the same thing.

  But it didn’t look like their attacks were doing any good.

  If this were a game, it would mean that the Soul Eater was hiding out somewhere, waiting for his chance to appear.

  Ren was attacking the skeleton captain, Motoyasu the kraken, and Itsuki the ship itself. Yeah, that would take a while.

  “Finally, I caught up with you, Naofumi.”

  Itsuki climbed up onto the deck. That meant all the heroes were now onboard.

  And yet… Soul Eater?

  I had never seen one, so I didn’t know what kind of monster it was, but based on everything else it was probably a safe bet to assume it was some kind of ghost.

  So it was hiding somewhere, and it could control the undead. That was why we’d have to destroy whatever medium was carrying it I guess.

  “Can’t we use light magic to get the thing to show its face?”

  “Want to try it?”

  Raphtalia spoke up. Oh yeah, I’d almost forgotten that Raphtalia had the power to use light and shadow magic.

  Then we might as well give it a try.

  “Can you?”

  “Leave it to me.”

  Raphtalia took a deep breath and focused on her magic spell.

  “I am the source of power, and I command you to heed my words. Light spring forth!”

  “First Light!”

  When she finished speaking the spell, a ball of light appeared in the air over us.

  The ball was filled with a shining, intense light, and the whole deck was illuminated by it.

  Huh? The skeleton captain that Ren was locked in battle with looked different—his shadow had changed somehow. That strange shadow was… there were more of them, all around the ship.

  They certainly weren’t normal shadows, and they seemed to be grinning.

  “There!”

  “I got it! Shooting Star Sword!”

  Ren turned and directed his attack at the captain’s shadow.

  “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  Something emerged from the shadow. It was like a ghostly fish, draped in white cloth. It had a dark, evil looking face with red eyes and long fangs.

  It must have b
een the Soul Eater.

  Once everyone realized what was happening, Motoyasu and Itsuki all began to direct their attacks towards the shadows, and Soul Eaters started appearing left and right.

  “So THAT’S where they were!”

  “Logically, our attacks shouldn’t affect them!”

  They were like ghosts. So I don’t think our physical attacks were going to be able to hurt them. We were going to have to rely on magic.

  “What?!”

  The Soul Eaters all gathered in one place and merged to form a single, giant Soul Eater.

  Similar things were known to happen back in my world. Fish did that—they would swim in schools to look like a larger, more dangerous fish.

  Yeah, anchovies did that. The Soul Eaters seemed to be the souls of fish or something—so that might explain their behavior. And yet, they really had formed one giant monster, and it was MUCH larger than the individual Soul Eaters had been.

  Inter-dimensional Soul Eater.

  “Mr. Naofumi, it’s coming our way!”

  The inter-dimensional Soul Eater had set its sights on Raphtalia because she had performed the light magic. But Raphtalia was sitting with me on Filo, and the Soul Eater was charging straight at us!

  “Air Strike Shield!”

  There was a loud clang, and we were able to deflect the Soul Eater’s charge, but it kept on charging in a new direction—straight at Ren and his party.

  “Look, we found it. Now you have to kill it!”

  Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Ren all shot me looks of displeasure before they turned to the Soul Eater and let loose a rain of battle skills. Their party members were all working to support them, but their physical attacks weren’t going to work on this boss!

  We weren’t prepared to fight something like this, but Raphtalia could support them with her light magic.

  “Filo, use your magic.”

  “Okaaay!”

  Filo cast First Tornado and was able to deal some damage to the inter-dimensional Soul Eater.

  But I wasn’t able to use Hate Control, so I wasn’t going to be any use to anyone.

  It happened the second I let myself think about it. The inter-dimensional Soul Eater started preparing for some kind of major attack.

  The beast opened its large slit of a mouth, and a black ball of magic appeared there, slowly growing larger and rising into the air.

  The magic ball acted like a small black hole, sucking all the light from its surroundings and warping the air around it like a lens.

  “Crimson Sword!”

  Ren leaped into the air and sliced at the Soul Eater with his sword.

  Huh? There was an explosion of sparks.

  “It’s harder than I thought it would be.”

  Hey, these damn game experts. I found the monster for them, and they still couldn’t take it down?

  If it got away and hid again, we’d be in a tough spot.

  “Wind Arrow!”

  Itsuki performed a skill.

  “Lightning Spear!”

  Motoyasu’s skill wasn’t going to be enough to kill the monster.

  Did it have to do with the monster’s weaknesses? Sometimes it took forever to figure out what worked against ghost-type monsters.

  It looked like light magic should be effective on it though.

  The ball of black magic the Soul Eater had released looked like it was nearly charged and ready to release its attack.

  “Hurry! That evil skill is almost ready!”

  “Oh!”

  Ren shouted and Motoyasu turned, ready to attack.

  “YAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

  With a reverberating thwack, the Soul Eater spit the large, black ball of magic. It flew like a cannonball and slammed into the deck.

  There was a large, black explosion. The entire ship shook violently.

  This wasn’t good at all! The enemy was powerful enough that all the fighting up until that point was starting to look like little more than a warm up.

  Had we finally lured the snake from the grass? It didn’t matter. If we wanted to end the wave, this was the only way.

  I jumped down from Filo, ran in front of everyone, and readied my shield.

  “AAAARRRRHHHHHHHH!”

  Ren, Motoyasu, Itsuki, and their parties were all caught up in the blast.

  I felt the force of the explosion through my shield.

  “Ugh…”

  It actually really hurt. The thing was strong enough to break through my defense, and over a really wide area.

  Ren and the others hadn’t been killed by the blast, but they were tottering, unsteady on their feet.

  The inter-dimensional Soul Eater had apparently noticed how effective its attack had been, as it was already producing another ball of black magic.

  That powerful attack AGAIN?! Give us some time before you fire off another one! It was annoying, but I suppose that was the only way to fight. You had to do what your enemy didn’t want you to do. In games, the makers knew what would anger players, so they made it so monsters wouldn’t behave that way. But that was the difference between games and reality.

  “Filo!”

  “Yeah! I know!”

  She was already running, full-speed, at the Soul Eater. She leapt through the air and kicked it hard. I heard the kick connect, but the inter-dimensional Soul Eater just laughed it off.

  “Haikuiku!”

  Filo spun away from a second kick, landed on the deck and started casting a spell.

  For a second, Filo looked somehow blurred.

  There was a series of quick clanging sounds, and the Soul Eater fell back. A second later, and it was back up and preparing to launch a black ball at Filo. Apparently she’d found a way to bother it.

  “You can’t hit me!”

  Filo shouted a taunt at the thing and ran behind me. That’s it, Filo. That’s how we’ll fight it.

  I readied my shield and cast a healing spell just as the black ball exploded before us. I blocked it with my shield, and Filo dashed to fit in another attack.

  Raphtalia was casting light magic spells the whole time. If she didn’t, the Soul Eater would be able to hide from us again.

  “Hiyaaa!”

  Filo was dashing here and there, fitting in attacks when she could and slowly dealing more and more damage. This thing was tough. That’s why it was the boss, right?

  If this were a game, a monster like this would only appear at the end of a large group battle.

  As far as the internet games I was familiar with, a boss like this was about as strong as they got. It was the kind that required a bunch of strong players to team up and take down within an hour.

  What options did we have?

  We could keep making small attacks and hope that they wore the monster down enough for us to win. But would they?

  The longer we spent fighting the boss, the more damage the surrounding villages would incur.

  Even now, monsters continued to pour from the rift.

  We didn’t have the time to spend chipping away at it. If only there were some kind of powerful skill we could….

  There was a way. Only one way, but it might turn the tides.

  My shield had a power that, maybe, the other heroes didn’t have. We didn’t really have any other choice.

  “Raphtalia.”

  Raphtalia had fallen back. I took her hand.

  “What is it?”

  “Help me.”

  She quickly guessed my intention.

  “Okay. I am your sword. I’ll follow you—even to the pits of hell.”

  “I’m doing it. Back away.”

  I had gotten really irritated, and even thought I didn’t want to use it, I was curious to see how much power there really was.

  “Filo, if something happens stick with Raphtalia and keep away.”

  “Okay!”

  I looked over at Raphtalia once more.

  “Mr. Naofumi!”

  She believed in me.

  But if I lost, Raphtalia and Filo woul
d… die.

  More than anything, I couldn’t let that happen. I wanted to protect them. I really did.

  I wouldn’t let myself be swallowed by anger. I couldn’t… I swear.

  I readied my shield.

  Shield of Rage!

  The dragon core stone has caused you to grow up!

  Curse Series: Shield of Rage abilities increased!

  Shield of Rage II: ability locked: equip bonus: skill: “Change Shield (attack)” and “Iron Maiden”

  Special effect: self curse burning: strength up: dragon’s rage: roar: kindred ruckus

  Wh…

  The dragon’s final memories were playing before my eyes, as I’d used the core stone as material for the shield.

  A hero with a sword had stabbed it deep in the chest and forehead, and the dragon had lost consciousness then. The anger it had felt was like something I’d never imagined.

  It was the anger at having lost to a human.

  I was able to understand how wretched, how terrible that was for a dragon.

  Grow up? What did that mean?

  My shield melted and reformed. It looked like it was made of glowing embers with a giant blood-red dragon in the center.

  My Barbarian Armor +1 also changed form to match the shield.

  Was all of this because of the dragon core?

  The armor looked different now, and it was covered in a dark black dragon pattern.

  The anger was so strong my vision was turning black. Everything was filled with hatred, anger, and the desire for destruction.

  This anger, this hate, it wasn’t all coming from me! I could see all the rage there before me, glowing red, erasing everything but itself. It took all of me.

  No! Not here, not now! I had to fight for the people that believed in me! Not now!

  Chapter Twelve: Iron Maiden

  Red dragon flame… The Shield of Rage II had grown into something else all together. I turned it on the black shadow.

  “Aaaaaarrrhhhhhhhh!”

  When I screamed the air around us seemed to crawl and tear—like it was screaming with me.

  “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

  The inter-dimensional Soul Eater took its eyes from Filo and turned them on me.

  This wasn’t good. Compared to the last time I used the Shield of Rage, the emotion was much stronger. I felt like I was losing myself.