The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 02 Page 20

“Okay.”

  Filo finished her carriage feast and nodded over her large, round belly.

  “I feel kinda yucky.”

  “You ate too much.”

  Raphtalia and I moved closer to the corpse to set our plan into motion.

  Rumble…

  “Did I imagine that?”

  “Um…”

  I could have sworn that the corpse had…twitched?

  It was probably an illusion caused by the shifting clouds of Poison Flies.

  Rumble…

  Nope. That was no illusion.

  The dragon began to move, and quickly settled itself into a defensive posture.

  “Gaooooooooooooh!”

  The dragon had no claws or fangs, but it reared up and let out a ferocious roar.

  “Why is this thing moving?!”

  “Mr. Naofumi, you have to calm down!”

  When the moving, dead dragon… the Zombie Dragon, reared up in front of me, I discovered that I was screaming.

  C’mon now, give me a break. No matter how you looked at it, this dragon was too strong for us to take down as we were!

  Zombie Dragons… I’d seen them in games before… and they were always stronger than the dragon had been before it died!

  Would it be the same in this world?

  The dragon rose to its feet, creaky and shaky, as all of its organs began to regenerate and resume their functions. Then it turned its face to us.

  Now it had wings, and its tail was thrashing. It’s claws and fangs would apparently take more time.

  The rotting meat turned into liquid and flowed over the body, only to reform itself into wings and a tail. The same process was happening to its internal organs. I looked, and the fatal wound on its belly had already closed. How were we supposed to fight this thing?

  “We’re running!”

  “But Filo has…!”

  Raphtalia was frantically thrusting her finger in the direction of the Zombie Dragon.

  I’d forgotten! Filolials and dragons never got along!

  “Hiyaaa!”

  Raphtalia had dashed for the dragon and run up its neck to deliver a solid kick to the head.

  There was a loud and satisfying bash, and then the dragon began to bend over backwards.

  “Can we… win?”

  Filo was a strong attacker, and this Zombie Dragon didn’t have any claws or fangs yet.

  Maybe we could win. I found it hard to believe that this dead dragon could hold out for very long.

  And if we were to run from the beast now, there was a chance it might go on to attack the village.

  Just like when Ren beat the dragon, the dragon would revive and make this place his territory again. But he was still regenerating, so this was our chance. If we didn’t beat it now, the next adventurers wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “Don’t be a fool! Back down!”

  “I don’t wanna!”

  “Dammit! All right, let’s take care of it!”

  “Okay!”

  Things were fine for a moment. I switched to the Chimera Viper Shield for its defense, and with that and my defense rating, I was able to stave off the dragon’s attacks.

  But then…

  “Gaooooooooooooh!”

  Something in the belly swelled and moved up the throat. Then the beast opened its mouth and breathed a heavy purple gas in our direction.

  Raphtalia and Filo did as we had agreed and rushed to hide behind my shield.

  I held up the shield to block off the billowing gas, but…

  “Wh…What is this?!”

  “Cough! Cough!”

  The breath was a thick and noxious poison.

  I had Poison Resistance, and even I found my head reeling and my breath coming in ragged gasps.

  Raphtalia began coughing violently behind me.

  Filo was undeterred by the gas, or maybe she had been holding her breath. Regardless, she rushed forward and kicked hard at the dragon’s soft underside.

  “R…Raphtalia! Are you okay?”

  “Cough Cough Cough!”

  She was trying, through her tears, to say that she was all right. But she was unable to say anything. The coughing was too intense.

  This wasn’t good.

  Filo and I could fight, but Raphtalia was incapacitated.

  “Raphtalia, get out of here. Head back to the carriage—there’s antidote in there. Take it and rest.”

  “Cough!”

  Raphtalia fell into another coughing fit, but she desperately pointed at the dragon through the ragged coughs.

  I followed her gaze and was dumbfounded.

  The dragon had opened its wings and risen into the air, only to swoop down and scoop Filo up into its mouth.

  The whole scene seemed to move in slow motion.

  I threw out my hand, but…

  “Ah…”

  Crunch!

  There was a deafening sound, and a wave of red liquid streamed from the dragon’s mouth.

  “Filooooooooo!”

  It was either Raphtalia or me that screamed, I don’t remember. Everything was a slow confusing blur, and I couldn’t be sure who was doing what.

  That selfish, childish little bird had only been alive for a month, but she’d wanted to be with me the whole time, she wanted me to spoil her. She didn’t want me to think her useless. She was just a little kid.

  Like a revolving light show, my memories of Filo came flashing back to me.

  What had happened?

  What had…

  The dragon chewed heavily on its catch, and then…

  Gulp.

  With a loud sound, it swallowed.

  “No! Filo!”

  My voice came wheezing from my mouth, and I stood still—shocked. It hurt. It hurt like I’d been kicked off a cliff. I feel like I finally understood what it meant to feel devastated, to feel hopeless.

  It wasn’t devastation that spurs you to action, or to revenge. It was deeper and sadder. It was the devastation that the clock couldn’t be turned back.

  “Mr. Naofumi!”

  Raphtalia turned to me and slapped me hard across the face.

  “Get a hold of yourself! This isn’t the time to be distracted!”

  Her eyes were filled with tears.

  She was yelling at me. She was saying that things would only get worse if we didn’t do something.

  But I couldn’t hear her. I was overcome with anger… anger at losing my close friend right before my eyes.

  You want power?

  I could hear a voice speaking to me from my shield.

  My eyes wandered down to look at the shield. I could hear the voice again.

  Do you hate everything?

  I felt my heart pound.

  I could feel darkness expanding from the depths of the shield.

  This had happened before, back when I had dueled with Motoyasu.

  The shield’s tree suddenly appeared before my eyes.

  The screen turned around, and the reverse was some color, almost red, almost black—with another tree on it.

  Curse Series.

  The phrase ran through my mind quickly. There was one shield listed on the tree that was shining.

  Curse Series:

  Shield of Rage: ability locked:

  equip bonus: skill “Change Shield (attack),” “Iron Maiden”

  Special Effect: Self Curse, Burning Strength up

  Born from the heart: Shield of Murder…

  This shield came with its own description and instruction. I didn’t know if I had willed it, or if it had been involuntary. But I followed my heart and discovered that the shield was already in my hand.

  The Shield of Rage.

  A great outpouring of emotion came from the shield, and the shield emitted a strong red-black light as it changed form.

  The shield was covered in ominous looking flames, and it was blood-red.

  Thump… Thump…

  My whole being was covered in anger, steeped in anger…

&nb
sp; The last time, when I lost to Motoyasu and they were threatening to take Raphtalia away from me… when I had only hatred for everything in the world…

  Everything in the world had looked black and seemed to be made of shadows… shadows that mocked me and hated me.

  I was overcome with that emotion.

  “Gaooooooooooooh!”

  An enormous black shadow turned to me and howled. It was reaching for me….

  “Haooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”

  Chapter Twenty: The Shield of Rage

  As if to match the howling of the beast, I let out a scream and accepted its attack with my shield.

  It didn’t hurt at all.

  “Gaah?!”

  The black shadow had been laughing at me, mocking me, but now it contorted its mouth in confusion and shock.

  Hilarious.

  “Die!”

  I caught him by the arm and flung him away with all the strength I could muster.

  The huge shadow let out a shriek of surprise as it flew through the air

  “Gaoooooh!”

  But instead of realizing that it should think before attack me again, it rose to its feet and came running at me.

  I wondered…could I still not attack anyone? Even with this shield?

  I couldn’t.

  The beast turned and made to knock me over with a sweep of its tail.

  “That won’t work!!”

  The tail bounced off with an ineffectual clang. Its attacks wouldn’t work on me.

  “Useless!”

  I had no way to beat the monster.

  Or so I had thought. Suddenly a large whirlwind of black fire spiraled skyward with me at its center. It set the shadow’s tail and arms ablaze.

  “GAOOH?!”

  The shadow fell to the ground in surprise.

  “Heh… If the attack is this strong, I wonder if it can counter-attack.”

  The shadow was backing away from me, suddenly intimidated.

  “Ha! Now you beg for your life?! You’ll get no forgiveness from me!”

  I shouted the title of my new skill.

  “Iron Maiden!”

  But the skill did not activate. Rather, the skill tree appeared before my eyes.

  Shield Prison: Change Shield (attack): Iron Maiden

  What was this? There were conditions on its use?

  What a pain. If that was how it was, I’d just let the shadow attack me and try to get a counter-attack to activate.

  “Just you wait… I’ll kill you for sure!”

  As I approached, the shadow behaved as though it was afraid of my anger, my murderous intention. It flung its arms about wildly.

  Its arm connected with the shield and suddenly burst into flames.

  The meat burned up, and the bones melted.

  The flames weren’t strong enough. I wanted to completely eradicate the beast.

  “!”

  I got it! The Shield of Rage was stronger the more enraged I was. The attack would rise, the crazier I felt.

  Well, that was easy for me.

  All I needed to do was think about how THEY made me feel.

  Myne Sufia… I guess her real name was Malty.

  Just thinking of her name filled me with rage.

  Next was the Trash… Then Motoyasu, Ren, Itsuki…

  I went over all that they had done to me, one memory at a time…

  I hated them… I wanted to kill them…

  The blood-red shield was reacting to my hatred and turning black.

  “This time I’ll really kill them… All of them…”

  I caught the shadow by the arm and turned all my hatred into glowing coals.

  The coals flew out from the shield and completely covered the shadow, swallowing it whole.

  Then I felt something, right there on my hand, something warm. My black hatred started to melt away.

  Thump…

  It was… kind…

  “Even if the whole world turns against you I won’t. I’ll say it, time and again: Mr. Naofumi didn’t do it.”

  What?

  At the sound of the voice, the darkened, warped world before me began to waver.

  Somewhere in my heart, I knew that giving myself over to anger would result in losing something even more important.

  I wanted to ignore it… and yet…

  “Please, believe me. I have confidence in Mr. Naofumi. He hasn’t committed any crime. He gave me medicine and saved my life. He taught me how to fight, how to survive. He is the great Shield Hero. I am your sword. No matter how hard the path, I’ll walk it with you.”

  The voice was whispering to me.

  I can’t allow myself to be swallowed by hatred. I still had things I needed to protect.

  Your anger weakens…

  I can’t forget it. But… But I want to give myself over to those who believe in me.

  Would you refuse me?

  I don’t like orders. I’ll choose my own path!

  I’m always watching. Watching for your weakness.

  The dark voice vanished, and some light returned to the world.

  “Cough! Cough!”

  I came back to my senses. Raphtalia was next to me, coughing violently, and holding my hand in hers.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Yes… Yes, I’m…. fine. Cough!”

  She’d been burned badly. But there were no enemies here that used fire.

  What could it… No!

  The special effect of the Shield of Rage, Self Curse, it must have hurt her too!

  “Raphtalia! Why were you holding onto my hand?!”

  “I thought that you… That you would disappear if I… If I didn’t… Cough!”

  Raphtalia smiled, then collapsed to the ground.

  It was my fault… My fault that Raphtalia was hurt!

  “I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!”

  “First Heal!”

  “I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!”

  “First Heal!”

  “I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!”

  “First Heal!”

  “I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!”

  “First Heal!”

  I kept casting the spell until I ran out of magic power.

  Raphtalia… Raphtalia was the only person who believed in me. She was important to me!

  The burns were bad. My low-level magic wasn’t enough to heal them. I ran to the carriage to get the healing ointment.

  “Gaoooooooh!”

  I spun to see the dragon there, howling and swinging his burned arm at me and preparing to unleash its poison breath.

  “Out of my way!”

  I threw my arm up to catch the Zombie Dragon’s attack. When I did, the shield began to shine with a black light and nearly activated the Self Curse Burning skill.

  “Stop!”

  The shield fell silent at my shout.

  Had the flames erupted then and there, they would have killed Raphtalia. That wouldn’t be good at all. But with how weak Raphtalia was, I didn’t know if she could survive a blast from its poison breath.

  As if the shield knew what I was thinking, it activated the Self Curse Burning, but only burned the streaming cloud of poison gas. It wasn’t strong enough to actually kill the dragon though.

  What to do?

  The shield was constantly absorbing my hatred and anger, inflaming them. I was able to keep from being completely swallowed by them only with an enormous effort. How long before I was consumed by it?

  But right now, I had to get to the carriage and get medicine for Raphtalia.

  My need to protect Raphtalia was just barely strong enough to keep the anger at bay.

  “Gah?!”

  We were trading blows and then, in the middle of the fight, the dragon let out a terrible voice of confusion and pain.

  “Wh…What the…
”

  What was happening? Did this mean that the Self Curse Burning was consuming the dragon?

  “Gaooooooooooh!!!”

  Finally, the Zombie Dragon stopped moving altogether and returned to its skeletal form.

  But this was no time to stand back and reflect on the battle.

  The clouds of Poison Flies were nowhere to be seen. The raging dragon must have scared them off.

  I held Raphtalia against myself, ran for the carriage, found the healing ointment and quickly applied it to her burns. Then I gave her the antidote.

  “Oh… Mr. Naofumi…”

  Her breathing had grown more regular, and she opened her eyes and smiled.

  “Are you all right?!”

  “Yes… Thanks to your medicine…”

  And yet her wounds still looked pretty bad. The wounds themselves seemed to have shrunk and healed over from the medicine, but there were black scars remaining, maybe because of the black magic the shield had used. Anyway, the burns still didn’t look very good.

  “Don’t… worry about me… take care of the dragon.”

  “The dragon isn’t moving anymore.”

  “Oh… then… then hurry and get rid of the skeleton.”

  “Okay.”

  Her eyes were insistent, desperate. They drove the point home: I had to do something.

  “Are you okay staying here for now?”

  “I can protect myself if I need to.”

  “Good… Good.”

  I climbed down from the carriage and walked in the direction of the dragon corpse.

  I needed to butcher it and get the shield to absorb it all.

  And Filo… At the very least I wanted to recover her body and give her a proper burial.

  I approached the corpse and could see that the internal organs were still twitching and squirming.

  What was going on? There might be a way for me to fight it.

  The Shield of Rage.

  This dangerous shield that threatened to consume my heart also happened to have a fantastic defense rating and a strong counter attack.

  My heart couldn’t take it, so I had switched my shield back to the Chimera Viper Shield. But I was ready to switch back at any time… if I needed to.