The Rising of the Shield Hero Vol 14 Page 5

  What was going on here?

  The only thing I could think of was the power-up method text from the burial mound. Could it be that the power-up method I’d been using until now hadn’t been sufficient? It felt like the multiplier behind the enhancement had changed.

  “Naofumi. Little Naofumi?”

  “What?”

  “I’ve been observing it closely, and the weak point does seem to be the same. There, where the body is glowing,” she said.

  I muttered to Sadeena to take out some magic water and soul-healing water and restore the power expended during the beast transformation support. Weak spot, she said! A pinpoint attack there would mean having to dodge through the attacks from the eight heads, and even then it would be difficult to hit—

  “Raphtalia!”

  “Ready!” Just as when she fought the copy, Raphtalia took up the Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny stance in order to nullify the enemy’s blessings. The Orochi gave a hiss—Raphtalia was clearly its target.

  “Not today, pal!” The transformed Sadeena dropped a thick bolt of lightning, floating in the air between Orochi and Raphtalia in order to keep them apart.

  Okay, I admit, the image of Raphtalia with her sword raised and Sadeena, wreathed in lightning, protecting her, struck a super geeky chord with me, not to mention that Raphtalia was wearing the miko outfit that I had put her in.

  Of course, I also stepped up and blocked the Orochi’s attacks.

  “Right! Attack Support! Shooting Star Shield!” I tossed the Attack Support at Orochi, sealing off its movements.

  “You guys! Buy us some time!”

  “No problem!”

  “On it.”

  “Atla has been on my back, after all! I’m not going to give any ground to this monster!” With that, Filo and the others swept aside the attacking heads, creating a large opening.

  “Now I can make a chance to attack! Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny!” Perhaps becoming more familiar with the attack, Raphtalia launched her slice toward Orochi’s barrier faster than before.

  With a clash, however, the sword bounced off.

  “What!”

  “That should’ve been a hit. A clean hit!”

  “Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said as she returned to me, “it seems the Orochi has realized that my attack will break the barrier created by the sakura stone of destiny, and it’s creating its own barrier to prevent that.” Now that she mentioned it, the pillar of light from the sakura stone of destiny and the purple light appeared to be mixing together. So another barrier, not present on the copies, was protecting its weak spot.

  “Can we destroy it using the Hengen Muso Style?” I asked.

  “I don’t know why, but my attack didn’t work. Physically breaking it is going to be difficult,” Raphtalia said.

  The Orochi hissed, as though in agreement, and then the revived heads all fixed on Raphtalia at once and attacked with multiple breaths.

  I stood in front and took the brunt of the attacks.

  “Guwah,” Raphtalia spluttered.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. I’m—okay.”

  “Rafu.” Raph-chan stroked Raphtalia’s back as she coughed. Just that seemed enough to naturally relax her breathing.

  “It’s not the same as the copies, is it?” Sadeena ventured.

  “Looks that way. A real pain.” I took a moment to glance at the copy, which was rampaging close to the town. Even if we defeated it, this main body would just bring it back. But was it worth taking it out again and making this fight easier to win, even if that meant fighting a total of sixteen heads?

  “So the problem is that purple barrier? That’s the issue,” I stated.

  “Yeah.”

  The big problem was that barrier. Raphtalia could deal with the sakura stone of destiny, but the purple barrier clearly had completely different conditions. Honestly, it just made me want to scream! Just how much hassle did these sakura stones of destiny have to be? It was almost as though they’d been created specifically for fighting heroes, although the Q’ten Lo Heavenly Emperor seemed to think of them as nothing more than devices for powering up abilities using a special ceremony.

  Such thinking had led to this dangerous situation, clearly.

  “However, little Naofumi, there is one thing. Based on my intimate observations—”

  “Spit it out.”

  “There is a moment when that purple barrier appears to weaken.” As a former hardcore gamer myself, it wasn’t hard to imagine that defeating an opponent like this would require multiple conditions to be fulfilled. They never would have sealed it away in the past if they couldn’t work that much out. Now it sounded like Sadeena had realized it too.

  “When I attacked and took out a few of those heads, the density of the barrier appeared to drop a little,” she went on. So the heads regenerated quickly after being destroyed, but that also weakened the barrier. If Hengen Muso Style attacks couldn’t break it, it was natural to think that there had to be some other conditions involved. If we couldn’t just muscle through with raw power, then we had to do this the proper way.

  “So killing all the heads at once will bring down the barrier. Sounds like a pain!” I grumbled.

  “They revive so quickly the timing is going to be crucial.”

  “You said it.” To be honest, I was really starting to feel like it would be best to have Itsuki and the others join us here and all attack the heads together. After killing them all at the same time, Raphtalia could neutralize the sakura stone of destiny on its back and then we could finish it off.

  “Sadeena, in your current state, how many heads do you think you can kill at once?”

  “Having received your love, my dear, I’m invincible. If you use that, what was it called, Attack Support to bind them, little Naofumi, I should be able to account for no less than four!” Four, then. That wasn’t bad.

  Raphtalia needed a little charge time in order to unleash the Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny. That wasn’t going to change, even with the Sakura Sphere of Influence. No, okay, it would probably take a bit longer without it, in which case, we needed the remaining heads to be handled roughly by Filo, Gaelion, and Fohl—one a piece. My job was defense and interrupting enemy attacks. One more attacker would be nice, but unfortunately Raph-chan was busy protecting Raphtalia.

  “Let me,” Filo offered brightly. “My timing is greaaat!” With that she struck the Haikuikku pose. Ah, great idea. Filo could probably handle two heads with Haikuikku.

  “I can move longer than before too.”

  “I’m counting on you.”

  “No problem!”

  “Then Raphtalia will destroy the second barrier and blast that core out of its body.”

  “Okay! I’m ready when you are!” Good, then. Everyone was ready. Time for action!

  “Attack Support!” I unleashed Attack Support and tied up three heads. Then Sadeena dropped a massive bolt of lightning.

  “Here we go! Thunder God!” The Orochi writhed, hissing and spitting into the air as though to resist Sadeena’s attack. That wasn’t enough to stop her, however, not to mention that my Attack Support was doubling the damage.

  “I don’t think so! Applied Chain Lightning! Successive Thunder God” Thick bolts of lightning struck the bound heads, and the electric shock even paralyzed the body. Then Sadeena twisted in the air, bending the lightning to send it through another head before it flew off into the sky. Quite the party trick.

  Good, then. She took care of exactly four heads, as promised.

  “Kwaaaaa!” Gaelion matched the timing of his attack, charging in, breathing fire, and smashing another head.

  “I’m doing my part too!” Fohl was going hand-to-hand, dropping an ax kick on another head and taking it out. He was really starting to pack a punch.

  “Jingle-jangle! Haikuikku! Take this!” Filo tossed in her morning star and then immediately charged in with a high-speed spiral strike, crushing a head in an instant. She then m
aintained Haikuikku and kicked the final head with all of her strength. Wow. Filo was one step faster than anyone else in this fight. Then again, she’d always been pretty fleet of foot. She said Fitoria had given her a boost across the board, and she certainly was fast. Just her basic stats placed her as a close match with Raphtalia too.

  “──!?”

  With all the heads gone, Orochi’s body started to convulse, and the purple barrier around it vanished.

  “Raphtalia, now!”

  “This is the one!” Raphtalia dashed in and swung her sword at the sakura destiny sphere. “Supreme Ultimate Slash of Destiny!” With that shout, she slashed down at the sakura destiny sphere, then returned her blade to its scabbard.

  “Rafu!” Then Raph-chan, still on Raphtalia’s shoulder, tossed out a ying-yang-like sphere that quickly swelled up to enclose the entire Orochi.

  “Phew. I managed it, but that wasn’t easy,” Raphtalia exclaimed.

  “Now the protection has been removed?” I asked.

  “Yes. But that isn’t the finishing blow. We need to press the attack!”

  “You’ve got me for that!” Sadeena offered.

  “I’ll purify the Dragon Vein at the same time!” Gaelion also focused his power to finish the Orochi off.

  “In this closed-off land of the Heavenly Emperor, let the clean flow of ideals wash away the old regimes, with the desire to save the world transformed into power! Dragon Vein! The purifying power of the sea! Wash back this filthy tide!”

  “I, Gaelion, order the heavens and order the lands! Diverge now from all physical laws, become one, and spit forth this blighted puss. My power, the protection of the spirits! Purify the land!”

  “Great Sea God!”

  Sadeena and Gaelion completed their spellcasting, rising up into the air while water swirled around them, and then plunged toward Orochi as though dropping in freefall.

  “Uwah!”

  “Waah!” Filo and Fohl, surprised by this downward charge, beat a hasty retreat.

  “Kagura Dance of the Sakura! First Formation! Blossom!” Just ahead of Sadeena and Gaelion unleashing what was presumably the finishing blow, Raphtalia and Raph-chan got off a second attack of their own. Cherry blossoms danced in the air alongside the sword attack. Then a metallic clash rang out, and at the same time, something was sent flying out into the air.

  What was it? The dragon core? Something else?

  Then Sadeena and Gaelion’s attack landed, blowing the remaining body away.

  “That was close!”

  “You said it. I know the timing was important, but I almost got taken out too!”

  “Looks like you still managed to get out of the way.” Fohl glared at me for that comment. “I guess you can complain to them later, anyway. At least we’re all alive for you to do so.” Raphtalia’s Descent of the Thunder God had still been in effect too, allowing her to get off that additional attack of her own.

  Not to mention the boost my own abilities appeared to be experiencing. At the least, I’d managed to keep up with Raphtalia’s speed.

  “We won!” Sadeena, back in her demi-human form, leapt out from the spraying waters and stood, back to the group, shouting at what little remained of the Orochi.

  “Kwaaaa!” Gaelion was showing off too, striking a victory pose of his own. We definitely needed to up our teamwork or it was only a matter of time before friendly fire took someone out.

  Checking behind us, I was treated to the sight of the Orochi I had left to Itsuki and his team also dispersing into mist. It looked like we’d really pulled off the kill.

  “Little Naofumi, it seems we’ve managed to purify the one rooted in the Dragon Vein too.”

  “That’s pretty hot stuff. You seem full of energy too, even though you just came back from a beast transformation.” Based on the Fohl example, beast transformation support seemed to cause considerable physical exhaustion. Fohl, at least, had been so worn out afterward that he could hardly stand. Sadeena, on the other hand, looked to be in pretty good shape.

  “Oh, I’m completely wiped out, I assure you.”

  “You really don’t look it.”

  “He’s right. I bet you could go another round or two!” Raphtalia gushed.

  “You think so?”

  As we chatted, the fighting finished, Atla and the others came dashing over.

  “Master Naofumi! We did it!”

  “We do seem to have had some measure of success,” I admitted.

  “But hold on? I still sense an impure presence.” Then Atla turned to look in the direction of the whatever-it-was that Raphtalia had sent flying right before the final blow. I’d been wondering about that myself.

  “Raphtalia. You knocked something out of it, right?”

  “Yes? I believe that was the Orochi core, just as we originally planned?” Ah. Right. That had been the plan. All the craziness of Sadeena and Gaelion in action had pushed it out of my mind.

  “Kwaaa!” With his own growl, Gaelion flew off in the direction of the presumed core.

  “I don’t think we can leave something like that lying around. Mr. Naofumi, let’s go check it out as well.”

  “Yeah, good idea.” After checking to make sure Rishia, Itsuki, and the contingent from the town were also with us, we headed in the direction the Sealed Orochi’s core had been sent flying.

  Chapter Three: The Cursed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword

  Ahead of us we found, sticking from a patch of barren ground, something that had definitely just dropped from the sky. A sword.

  From where it was stuck into the ground, a purple encroachment was spreading.

  “A sword?” I said. That’s exactly what it was, a sword with a white blade and something very much like the core embedded in the middle of the handguard. If the monster was like Yamata no Orochi, it would make sense—from the perspective of Japanese mythology, at least—for it to spit up a sword. I might have understood if this was a drop, but it looked like the sword was actually the core.

  “We should dispose of this quickly. It’s already polluting the ground in an attempt to revive itself,” Sadeena recommended.

  “Kwaaa!”

  “Well, that’s why we have Gaelion. He can take care of the core, I’m sure,” I said. It was a dragon-type monster, ostensibly, so if we took care of the core, that should shut it up for good. Then Gaelion placed his mouth on the core-like decoration and was flicked away with a snap.

  “Kwaa!”

  “So what? It’s too corrupted?” Sadeena asked.

  “I knew he wasn’t up to the task,” I said. Truly, when it came to the crunch, Gaelion always seemed to drop the ball. “In any case, we need to pull it out and deal with it—but it looks like just touching that thing is going to curse you.” It certainly looked pretty suspicious. My own body was still suffering from the pollution of a curse, and so just getting close to the core was throbbingly painful. Like my skin was burning, perhaps. I narrowed my eyes and checked it out.

  Cursed Ama-no-Murakumo Sword.

  That the appraisal didn’t even work properly proved it was a particularly high-capability weapon. I’d never expected to find this particular weapon, one of the three fabled divine items of Japanese history, here in this other world, although that was just how my shield chose to translate it for me, and so it was surely a different weapon altogether.

  “Feeehhh. W-well, if it’s a sword, how about having the Sword Hero take it and deal with it?” Rishia suggested. Give it to Ren, perhaps? Would it be safe to give him gear that looked so obviously cursed? That said, it also felt like a waste to just leave it stuck in the ground. Not to mention, the Orochi might revive itself again if it was left unchecked.

  I could also place it inside the shield, of course, but I was scared of creating a second Demon Dragon incident.

  “Hey! It looks like you defeated it!” That was when the old guy and his master—Motoyasu II—turned up.

  “First the Spirit Tortoise, now this. You guys sure know how to put
on a fight. I was watching from a distance and it was still amazing.” The old guy was giving me a thumbs-up, and I returned the gesture.

  “Thanks. I mean, all I really do is defend,” I admitted.

  “Oh no, I don’t think we would have won without your powers, little Naofumi.” Sadeena offered that compliment. She’d been watching me more closely recently. That said, after deploying Air Strike Shield and the other support, it wasn’t as though I was just sitting on my hands. If I had any regrets, it was maybe that I couldn’t contain the movements of the Orochi a little more.

  “So what are you doing out here now?” the old guy asked.

  “Right, well, we chased after the core that flew out of that monster and found that it’s shaped like a sword and looks cursed. So we’re just trying to decide what to do with it.” With that, Motoyasu II took a look at the sword stuck in the ground and checked it over.

  “Wow. That’s quite the weapon. So that’s the body of the beast?” Then, most foolishly, he grabbed the hilt and pulled it out. A cloud of purple miasma rose up and swirled around Motoyasu II. So he’d just gone and gotten himself cursed? Ding-ding, round two. What was he, soft in the head? Even as I cursed him—verbally, this time—in my head, I raised my shield, ready to fight the monster all over again.

  “Shut it. Enough wriggling,” Motoyasu II shouted at the clattering sword, and the miasma around it dispersed.

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah, this baby is cursed. You can’t hope to use it.”

  “Says you, after just snatching it up. Are you okay?” I said.

  “What are you jabbering about? I’m a blacksmith! How could I do my job if weapons started cursing me?” Was it really that simple? I looked at the old guy, but he just offered a shrug of his shoulders.

  “Most impressive, Master. Being able to hold that sword,” the old guy admired.

  “Hah. A blacksmith getting cursed means he’s small fry, at best. Holding it in such a way as to not get cursed is easy.” Oh crap. Was I going to have to rethink my impression of him as a skirt-chasing dope? It was starting to look like he really knew his business.