Chapter Eleven: Opposing Nullification
I turned my attention away from Filo and Sadeena—I had my own battle to fight, after all. The slow staring contest with S’yne’s sister continued, but she was incanting magic all the while.
“You’re wide open!” Bitch taunted. “Air Strike Backwhip V!” She unleashed a whip skill that ignored range and attacked from behind. She really did love surprise attacks. I had been expecting just such a cowardly attack, however, and it was easy to stop it.
“Formation One: Glass Shield!” My life-force-imbued glass shield caught the whip as it tried to strike me from behind. The glass shattered and flew toward Bitch.
“Lady Malty! Save me!” one of her retinue screamed, grabbing onto her.
“Hey! Get off me! Oww!” Bitch complained. Some of the fragments actually hit her.
“Whatever are you playing at?” S’yne’s sister said, narrowing her eyes as she watched the scene unfold. She seemed to have used up all her patience with Bitch now.
Raphtalia rushed in toward S’yne’s sister, keeping her body low, drawing her sword in a Draw Slice.
“Instant Blade! Mist!” she shouted. The effects from her scabbard allowed her to attack in haikuikku, but S’yne’s sister still managed to avoid the attack.
“Well, well, well. Very scary stuff,” she taunted. She had seen it coming a mile off. Just how fast was she, I wondered again after seeing her avoid an attack at that speed.
“Spider Wire!” S’yne grabbed the opportunity to try and limit her sister’s movements, but her sister swung her chain around and swept away all of the incoming threads.
The best plan looked to be for Raphtalia, S’yne, and me to keep S’yne’s sister’s attention focused on us—she was the real threat here—then seizing an opening to take down Bitch and the others. In order to achieve that, though, I needed to get aboard the ship.
As we tussled back and forth, Glass and Shildina—buffed by the Demon Dragon’s magic—launched into battle against the guy with the ofuda holy weapon.
“I order you here and now,” the ofuda guy intoned. “My ofuda . . . respond to my call! Lightning! Pierce my foes! Chain Lightning: Five!”
“Hah! Circle Dance Reverse Formation: Lawless Counter!” Glass reflected the magic unleashed by the ofuda holy weapon holder, and then Shildina threw her own ofuda in response.
“I’m skilled at handling lightning. I order you here and now. My ofuda . . . respond to my call! Water . . . disperse this lightning! Lightning Drain!” Water extended from Shildina’s thrown ofuda, adjusting the trajectory of the lightning. “Did you really think such a simple attack would hit us?”
“How about this then?” the ofuda guy replied.
“You’ll have to deal with our attack first. Shildina, together!” Glass said.
“Let’s go!” Shildina agreed. Glass splashed some soul-healing water over her body while Shildina gripped an earth crystal, and both of them turned their fans into swords. They had the Wave Sealing Sword, a unique weapon that was a fan but could turn into a sword. Glass closed in with the guy with the ofuda holy weapon, with Shildina swinging her sword right behind her. Even more impressive, she had found a second sword from somewhere and was fighting with two.
“Wave Sealing Sword: Zero Formation! And then special skill . . . Sword Dance: Mizuchi!” Glass shouted, cutting vertically, then adding a spin.
“Twin Water Dragons Sword Wave!” Shildina was right behind her, providing a magical sword technique using her two swords with ofuda added. The guy with the ofuda found himself under a series of dragon-themed attacks. He gave a grunt.
“You’re good, I’ll give you that,” the guy with the ofuda said.
“I’m not finished yet. Have a taste of this! Reverse Return Strike!” Shildina turned into her killer whale form for a moment and unleashed a tail swipe. Then she immediately chopped at his body with both swords.
“Uwah! You are both full of surprises,” the ofuda guy said, leaping backward.
“Formation One: Pit Trap!” Kizuna immediately created a hole at the ofuda guy’s feet, toppling him to the ground with a grunt.
“Another cowardly attack . . . you won’t defeat me like that!” The ofuda guy gave a roar, placing ofuda floating in the air around him like Ethnobalt and Kyo had done with the pages of the book vassal weapon. Using them as stepping-stones to climb up into the air, the guy with the ofuda holy weapon launched a follow-up attack.
“I can handle enemies who move like a rabbit,” Shildina said—perhaps talking about Ethnobalt. The way this guy was using his holy weapon to make new footholds for himself was similar.
“You can’t handle your weapon yet, can you? Just like all the resurrected, you lack experience. Take this! Direct from my master! A combination attack with a style from another world!” Glass shouted. Joined by Shildina, they turned their fans back into swords and each unleashed their own attack.
“Circle Dance: Turtle Carapace Cruncher!”
“Hengen Muso Fan Style: Paper Blizzard! Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Snow Moon Flower!” It sounded like Shildina shouted the wrong attack name. She had learned some Hengen Muso Style techniques but didn’t have a complete understanding of them yet, so her degree of recreation was low. Because she was combining her power with Glass, however, she still managed to activate it. A skill much like Glass’s own huge attack, Reverse Snow Moon Flower, was triggered. Wind blew up around Shildina, and flower-petal pieces of ice attacked her enemy.
Glass followed up at once, launching the defense-rating attack the old man developed right at the ofuda guy. He tried to dodge it and defend against it, but Shildina’s skill still hit him. Even I felt that one—a real nasty combination attack. Their target groaned.
“Quite a nasty attack, even though you are so weak,” the ofuda guy replied, a hint of panic creeping into his face as he responded. He had the kind of face that suggested he loved to call other people cowards.
“I think there’s a nicer way of saying that. At least call us creative,” Glass replied.
“Your weapon feels like it is mainly intended for using magic anyway. Shouldn’t you be working with your allies to launch some big magic spell? You’re not suited to close combat,” Shildina analyzed calmly. The ofuda guy didn’t seem happy with that suggestion either.
“Thank you for the advice, but I don’t need it from the likes of you. There is only one who is allowed to caution me so openly,” he replied.
“Like we know about your silly personal rules,” Shildina shot back.
“Don’t get full of yourself just because you’ve got a pretty face,” he retorted.
“Full of what? Even having a pretty face won’t get sweet Naofumi to look my way,” Shildina replied.
“Clearly Naofumi doesn’t care about looks. Look how he acts with the Demon Dragon. I think her analysis of him was correct,” Glass chipped in. I would have loved to step in and put them straight, but I had my own battle going on.
“I think I’ll give you a lesson on how to actually use ofuda,” Shildina said. “With some instructions on surprise attacks too. You’ll see how the miko priestess of carnage fights!” She closed her fan and took out an ofuda, then started to incant some magic. Glass pressed her own attack against the ofuda guy, protecting Shildina.
“You can’t expect these attacks to get you very far for long! Hah! Intense Cascade: Five!” At the shout from the ofuda guy, a vast volume of ofuda flew out to cover the vicinity closing in around Glass. But she danced and whipped up a wind around herself to divert the attacks and create an opening to escape.
“Circle Dance Evade Formation: Wind Dance Melody! A powerful attack, to be sure, but that hardly matters if I can dodge it. We can also use this to pin you down. Kizuna!” Glass shouted.
“I’m here! Double Lure!” Kizuna cast in her lure, and in the same moment it hit, Glass slammed the ofuda guy in the shoulder with her fan.
“Circle Dance Destruction Formation: Turtle Carapace Cracker!” Glass made every word linger as she hammered the attack home. The ofuda guy screamed as something exploded inside him, blood rupturing out. I had to admit, the sight of a handsome guy getting his comeuppance felt good.
“Your high stats worked against you in the end,” Glass commented.
“I’m not finished yet! Things are just getting fun!” he retorted with a laugh.
“Then you’ll just have to enjoy it alone,” Shildina said. “My magic is ready.”
“You aren’t the only ones who can attack!” the ofuda guy shouted. “Take this! Art of Fire! Blazing Ball: Ten!” He bypassed the ofuda completely and unleashed some magic from this world. It was definitely different from the ofuda magic.
“Another direct attack. Are you even trying to hit us?” Shildina asked. Accompanied by Glass, the two of them slipped easily beneath the impressively sized incoming fireball and continued to close in.
“I order you here and now. My ofuda . . . respond to my call! Water and wind! Attack the foe who stands before me!” Shildina’s magic caused a shoal of watery fish to appear, wrapped around in wind. “Wind Fish Rush Down!”
“You aren’t trying either!” the ofuda guy shouted. “You can’t expect to hit me with that!” He seemed to be focused on defense now, with his ofuda out to dodge or block any incoming attacks. However, he had failed to look closely enough at his surroundings. He had failed to identify which attacks Shildina was most skilled with.
“I lead the power of the ofuda here and ask that it be realized. Vein of the earth! Ofuda! Lend me power!” Shildina continued. “Sweeping Ofuda Tempest!” That looked like hybrid magic based on the Way of the Dragon Vein, which meant she could probably imbue it with additional strength. Her ofuda proceeded to float up into the air and fly toward her target.
“That is the mark. See if you can avoid it,” Shildina taunted.
“Your attack can’t hit me if that ofuda doesn’t. You seem to favor attacks that take a long time to launch, do you not? Maybe you should have incanted after you marked me,” the ofuda guy replied.
“I have to incant the first hit or it doesn’t work,” Shildina explained.
“I see. That only raises the bar higher. If I smash that ofuda out of the air, all your efforts will have been for nothing,” he said, keeping an eye on Kizuna and her support while fending off Glass’s attacks. Shildina glanced at the flying ofuda . . . and then it happened. From behind the ofuda guy, Glass stuck an ofuda onto those she had already deployed.
“What?!” he shouted. Now that they had a designated target, the watery wind fish started to fly toward it. They were like homing missiles. Shildina continued to summon more water wind fish, sending out countless fish toward her enemy.
“Shildina currently possesses me, you see. That means we have to share everything required for activating magic. Oh, and look! Chris wants to take part too!” Glass said.
“Pen!” Chris replied. Glass drew in her fan and prepared to launch a skill, and then Chris appeared and turned into an ofuda. Glass attached it to her fan and started to dance.
“Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Water Wind Fish! Penguin Peck!” She elevated it to the level of a hybrid skill, Glass’s Reverse Snow Moon Flower mixed with the water fish Shildina created, and then Chris added too. The whole pile of attacks plowed toward the ofuda guy.
Perhaps because of mixing attacks, there were now clones of Chris too! Each time one of them hit, it fragmented apart and vanished. They weren’t dying. They were just attacking while mixed in with the skill. I looked on in admiration, wondering if Raph-chan could perform a similar combination skill of some kind.
The ofuda guy gave a moan, losing ground in his attempts to defend against the attack. The power that the combination of Glass and Shildina brought to the table really was a big help.
“If you can’t deal with rating attacks, you better not try and defend so much,” Glass suggested.
“Where . . . where is such an attack coming from . . .” the ofuda guy gurgled. Then I noticed that Glass and Shildina had—quite creatively—worked in some Hengen Muso Style life force as well. The poor punching bag didn’t know how to deflect it and was spitting up more blood as a result. He was still holding out, but that was about all I could say for the guy.
With an impotent roar, the ofuda guy launched another large fireball at Shildina and Kizuna.
“I’ve told you this thing is too easy to see coming,” Shildina told him. It was pretty big and pretty fast, but both Shildina and Kizuna easily avoided it.
“Hitting you wasn’t what I had planned,” the ofuda guy managed, even scraping out a laugh. “Art of Fire! Fireworks Ball: Ten!” From where the ball landed, it turned into a massive pillar of flame and then exploded further. That was some serious area-effect magic.
“The final work of a fool . . . Secret Circle Dance: Cursed Return!” Shildina took out her fan and swung it toward the incoming magic, focusing a part of the exploding flames . . . and then returned it toward the ofuda guy.
“What? This can’t be?!” It was hardly inspiring final words. Then he screamed as the fire hit him. Shildina was already using the new secret techniques in combat! I was impressed. This was a magic-conduction technique similar to the Gather technique that S’yne had taught Atla and me. I was struck again by how many varied attacks everyone in my party had—I could barely keep them straight myself.
“Your cooking is something else, Naofumi,” Glass commented. “My attack power has never been so high, and the cost of the possession has been reduced to a trickle too. But I still can’t contain my gag reflex at thinking about food made from the Demon Dragon!”
“Try to make a snack to go with alcohol next time, okay!” Shildina requested again. The effects of the “food doping” were pretty easy to see, anyway. Along with additional experience and the permanent ability boosts, it also offered temporary stat boosts. It even offered a boost experience rate, making it easier to level up. But that information didn’t matter to us right then. I was still struck by the difference in Glass’s reaction—almost dejected—and Shildina’s—simply offering an unbiased impression.
“It’s working! One more big push!” Kizuna shouted support from the sidelines while focusing on attacking the holy weapon using the hunting tool.
“I’m ready! He’s very tough, though. If this is the difference in enhancement between us, we are going to have an uphill struggle,” Glass commented.
“We can do it!” Kizuna shouted back.
“I’m not finished yet!” the ofuda guy said. So those hadn’t been his final words after all. He was looking intently at his own ofuda, which seemed to pulse somehow. “This is the sealed power of my weapon. The power of the cursed ofuda! Feel it across your pathetic bodies!”
“I’m not scared of curses. I’ve been through enough of them,” Shildina said offhandedly. It was a classic Shildina line. She had handled all sorts of dangerous stuff back in Q’ten Lo.
“—!” S’yne trying to speak got my attention back to our battle. Glass and Shildina looked to have things under control.
“Take—!” S’yne’s familiar doll was heading into battle alongside its mistress. They were both sticking close to S’yne’s sister. S’yne was using her scissors as two swords and attacking over and over again. Although each time it almost looked like she would get hit, S’yne’s sister was dodging with an almost annoyed look on her face.
“Well, well, well, you have improved even since we last fought. You always were a hard worker, S’yne,” her sister said, even as she weaved through S’yne’s enraged attacks. She was preparing to cast the nullification magic, so she was focusing more on just avoiding attacks for the time being.
“Not—lose—time,” S’yne said.
“No one likes a stubborn girl, little sister,” S’yne’s sister said. I had hardly been able to hear a word S’yne said, with all the sound skipping. But S’yne’s sister frowned. All her advice seemed to do was rub S’yne the wrong way. Her eyes hardened and the frequency of her attacks increased. She was playing into her opponent’s hands, though, it felt like to me. Any opening she got, S’yne sent out threads to interfere with the other enemies around us, but S’yne’s sister blocked them with her chain each time.
“Here we go! My magic is ready. Disarming Shot! Earth Explosion: Ten!” S’yne’s sister shouted.
“Have some of this too!” the metal magic dragon added, both of them launching their magic at the same time. That suited us perfectly. Although it was from two separate sources, the area of effect for the two was linked together. The unlocked effects of my weapon visualized magic for me at the moment, so that made this all the easier.
Up on the ship, Bitch was gripping her whip and gathering her power. She was clearly planning to attack in the moment that we were weakened. I wasn’t going to allow that.
The magic that S’yne’s sister unleashed closed in first. I used a mirror to knock the flying enhancement magic toward the nullification magic, then used my new skill to rebound it away.
“Release Rebound!” Matching my own timing, Raphtalia and Glass both also unleashed their own skills for nullifying enhancements. With an immensely satisfying sound, the nullification magic S’yne’s sister cast was sent flying away and turned into mist.
“Well, well, well. You learned that quicker than I expected. But what about this?” she asked slyly. The metal magic dragon unleashed more magic, even as the Demon Dragon viciously attacked.
“Universal power of my mighty core! Respond to my desires and materialize your magic power! I am the Dragon Emperor, ruler of this world. My power is the strength to conquer all, the ultimate magic that can eradicate all! My foes fall before me! The Dragon Emperor, ruler of this world, commands it! Nullify all magic! Demon Dragon Freezing Pulsation: Ten!” A second wave of enhancement-nullification magic was unleashed, and the dragon even had the next one all lined up too. Would it be debuff magic next, I wondered. That’s what I would have used.
“We have a plan in place for that too! Secret Circle Dance: Pulse Rebound!” Glass shouted. She and Shildina opened their fans and started dancing again, applying power along the incoming magic and then repelling it away even as it came flying in.
“Me too, of course!” Everyone else pulled it off about a third of the time, but I had a slightly better success rate than that. All I could do was defend, after all. With all of this power being drawn out of me so unnaturally at the moment, I felt as though I could send any incoming magic back the way it had come. With rage and compassion at war within me, I simply couldn’t be stopped! “Hold on a moment. What name did the old lady give this? Ah, right. Hengen Muso Style Lost Technique: Magic Eradication!” It involved filling my mirrors with life force, collecting the enemy’s magic using the Gather technique, and then sending it flying away. As a side effect, it could also scatter magic within a two-meter area around the users. But pulling that off required a level I hadn’t reached yet. Being able to apply Gather like this made it easier to use than I had expected.
I was using floating mirrors to do it. When the magic hit the mirror made from the Mirror of Wrath, fire exploded out from it, causing a minor tornado. That had been a clean hit, so maybe it had an attack hitbox. It must have triggered a counterattack.
Raphtalia was also using draw slices to chop down the incoming magic.
“What? What is all this?!” S’yne’s sister exclaimed in surprise.
“Did you think there was only one way to counter you?” I responded. “You have to realize that you aren’t the only ones who can pull off all this unpredictable stuff.” I was pleased! We had more than proved we could do it, knocking away nullification magic and getting rid of it for good. That would keep us much safer in battle.
“Phew! Yep! I’ve got a handle on it now!” Kizuna was putting what she had learned into practice too, protecting Sadeena and Filo before the magic hit them.
“We’re going to be playing catchup forever,” Raphtalia said.
“Well, well, well. You’ve certainly been putting some time in,” S’yne’s sister said, giving us an annoyed round of applause. She still seemed pretty at ease.
“What magic are you going to use next? I’ll send it right back at you,” I said, mirrors ready.
“Bah! Stop getting carried away!” the metal magic dragon said, glaring at us.
“If you want us to stop, stop us,” I replied. I was loving the look in her eyes. I always wanted my enemies to look at me like that.
The battle was growing more chaotic.
“Well said, Shield Hero,” said our dragon. “Your taunts provide a thrill for me too.” She was starting to piss me off more than our enemies, to be honest. There was no defeating the sexual harassment dragon.
“Hold on!” Bitch squawked. “How are you letting them get away with this? Hurry up and weaken them! This isn’t what we agreed on in the meeting!”
“Well, well, well. Did you expect Iwatani and his allies to just sit on their hands? It’s arrogant to think that we would be the only ones making any forward progress. You need to be ready for just these kinds of things!” S’yne’s sister replied.
“What are you talking about?! You guys are strong enough to trample any efforts they might make! So start trampling!” Bitch demanded. S’yne’s sister looked displeased at this, shrugging even as she fended off S’yne’s barrage of attacks.
“The problem with fighting someone is you never know what they are going to do. You’re sitting up there, removed from everything, watching the big picture. Maybe you should pull something out from your bag of conniving tricks to help us,” S’yne’s sister pointed out.
“Hold on. You’re going to blame this on me again?” Bitch raged. I was just enjoying the show. There was nothing quite like watching two enemies you hated tearing into each other. I wanted to keep watching for the rest of the night, but we didn’t have that kind of leeway here.
The cannons on the ship vassal weapon had already started to fire down on us.
“Stardust Blade!” Raphtalia was using what was also a long-range skill, her Stardust Blade, to fire stars up at the ship vassal weapon in the sky, but her efforts didn’t seem to be having much of an effect. I wondered if I could get up there using a Movement Mirror from a glass shield.
Then I had a better idea.
“Formation Three: Glass Shield!” I shouted. I used Glass Shield and Mirror Cage to intercept the incoming shells and prevent them from interfering with any of my allies. I was able to make it through using Stardust Mirror, but it was still a pretty tense situation. I certainly didn’t have the leeway to try and get up there myself. I needed to deploy Raphtalia as support for someone. That was becoming clear. The battle had only just started . . . In mere minutes we were also being pushed onto the ropes . . . The future did not look bright, not in that moment.
“I’ve got plenty more for you yet! Eat this!” The metal magic dragon unleashed a stream of magic.
“My power is the strength to conquer all, the ultimate magic that can eradicate all! My foes fall before me! The Dragon Emperor, ruler of this world, commands it! Lower everything! Demon Dragon Lowering Pressure: Ten!” The metal magic dragon was trying to send out more balls of magic. I looked over at the Demon Dragon and gave a nod, not liking the synchronized feeling with her.
“What a coincidence, my little fragment. I was just incanting that magic myself. Allow me to make use of yours,” the Demon Dragon said, taking advantage of the flow of magic created by the incanting of the metal magic dragon to immediately complete the incanting of her own magic.
“Demon Dragon: Raging Reduction!” A cluster of black magic balls was formed, interfering with the magic the metal magic dragon had been trying to trigger.
“No! Never! I have the power of a holy weapon at my command! You can’t stop me like this!” The metal magic dragon raised a hand and tried to force out the balls of magic . . . but I could see it all, which meant I could also reply.
Using Gather again, an application of life force, I moved my mirrors into position, placing them in front of the magic before they flew, knocking them into a Float Mirror, and then sending them back. Of course, the final thing they hit was the rage-infused Mirror of Wrath. After this impressive combination, the Demon Dragon also clicked her claws.
“What?!” The metal magic dragon’s shout was then drowned out by screaming—joined by the harpoon guy and his entire party as the magical lights unleashed by the Demon Dragon crashed into them all.
“Well, well, well. Look out!” S’yne’s sister knocked the magic away from herself.
“Hah!” The guy with the ofuda holy weapon did the same thing. I wasn’t sure how the ship was doing it, but it was knocking the magic away too.
“My strength! My power! My entire body feels like its burning . . . Is this a curse?! But I’m not finished yet! I’ve just fallen to plus/minus zero, that’s all!” The harpoon guy checked his own status, then turned hate-filled eyes on us. With the enhanced magic and debuff magic at the same time, his stats had hit no positive, no negative adjustment . . . but that couldn’t be right. He had the Rage Curse on him, so he had to have some negative on there.
“I’m not done yet. You were created from me, nothing more. Take another level of nullification magic.” The Demon Dragon unleashed more magic toward the metal magic dragon. “Universal power of my mighty core! Power of the Four Heavenly Kings! Respond to my desires and materialize your magic power! I am the Dragon Emperor, ruler of this world. My raging power is the strength to conquer all, the ultimate magic that can eradicate all! My foes fall before me! The Dragon Emperor, ruler of this world, commands it! Nullify all magic that I desire! Demon Dragon: Selective Freezing Pulsation!” The magic was complete, and powerful light flared out from the Demon Dragon’s claws.
“Again? What a nuisance.” S’yne’s sister sighed. Once again the magic failed to hit her, the guy with the ofuda holy weapon . . . or anyone from S’yne’s sister’s forces, Bitch, or the others on the ship vassal weapon.
“You only nullified enhancement magic? That’s another dirty trick!” the harpoon guy fumed, looking at us as though we had killed his parents or something.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, you’d be calling this a skillful piece of strategy, right?” I jibed in reply. Anything done to them was cowardly. Anything they did was exceptional. I’d read of enemy generals who praised the tactics that defeated them, but in real life no one was celebrating having junk like this done to them. That was real warfare for you.
“I couldn’t resist it all!” the metal magic dragon said with a grunt. She had thrust her hands in front of her, trying to weaken the incoming attack, but it had clearly just been too powerful for her. The Demon Dragon was still one step ahead of her. They might have the edge in terms of raw power, but the Demon Dragon was far more experienced. The metal magic dragon and the harpoon guy could barely handle their respective weapons, to be honest.
“I’ve still got a move or two!” the metal magic dragon said with a roar, choosing to ignore the Demon Dragon and fly directly at Filo. Filo crossed her wings and prepared to engage, unleashing haikuikku.
“How is she so fast?” the metal magic dragon gasped. “Why?! I might be debuffed, but I still have a holy weapon! Why can’t I keep up? Gyah-gyah!”
“The Four Heavenly Kings receive their blessings from me . . . Now I have been powered up. It makes sense that they would be powered up too . . . does it not?” the Demon Dragon said.
“Boo!” Filo still didn’t sound especially pleased about any of this. “I’m feeling all angry, so now I’ll sing that fun song that I went to listen to with the bow guy!” Filo said. She kicked the metal magic dragon away, got some distance, and then started to sing. Her voice sounded even more powerful than before. “Air Machinegun Meteo!” she sang. Countless pockets of tightly compressed air appeared above Filo and rained down on the metal magic dragon.
“How dare you! One of my Four Heavenly Kings daring to turn against me!” the metal magic dragon raged.
“Pathetic copy, they do not belong to you. These are my Four Heavenly Kings,” the Demon Dragon replied.
“My only master is my master!” Filo said. She kept getting caught up in these pointless debates, she really did. I felt sorry for her, being dragged into this clash between the two Demon Dragons.
“It’s finally time for me to get some action,” Sadeena said. She dropped down quickly from the Demon Dragon’s back and leapt toward the harpoon guy, quickly suppressing him with her flowing harpoon attacks.
“What?!” he shouted in surprise.
“Here you go! And here too, look. You need to commit more! Oh my. That’s where you’re going to attack? Really? I don’t think you’ll like what happens.” Sadeena laughed, providing a taunting commentary as they fought. She started with a blunt smash, into a sideswipe, a small thrust and then a big one, a wild spin all around before countering the incoming counterattack, spinning and weaving as attacks bounced off each other.
“Damn you! Look how cocky you are, just because your stats are a little higher!” the harpoon guy complained.
“That has nothing to do with this. You can’t handle the power of that weapon, can you? I was already reading your attack even when your stats were high,” she reminded him. Then she found an opening in his defenses, placing her harpoon against his chest and taking a powerful step forward, thrusting him away. I’d seen that last move back in Zeltoble.
“Enough of this! Whale Hunting Harpoon: Ten . . . and then Brave Fish Blaster: Ten!” The harpoon guy took out a second harpoon and threw it at Sadeena before spinning himself in the air and plunging down toward her. The skill names made them sound like ones Sadeena would definitely want to avoid, but she still had a super-relaxed look on her face.
“Such simple attacks. It doesn’t matter how strong you are. You won’t hit anyone like this. In fact, I’m getting a bit bored,” Sadeena said. She avoided the harpoon vassal weapon holder’s wild rush with a few backsteps, then hopped up into the air and came down on her opponent’s harpoon. The skill had been a piercing downward strike, which meant Sadeena’s careful jump into the air had avoided it completely.
“Damn you! Haaah! Uwah?!” The harpoon vassal weapon holder cancelled the skill and launched a thrust of his own, taking the brunt force of Sadeena’s punishing blow.
“You don’t know what to do with it, do you? If you swung it around like that in the ocean, you’d never catch any fish,” Sadeena bemoaned. A harpoon was essentially a fishing tool, created for hunting fish. Kizuna could use harpoons as weapons, and so could Motoyasu. Sadeena had actually trained with those two quite a bit, proving herself superior. Kizuna was one thing, but Sadeena was good enough to even teach Motoyasu a thing or two.
“The strength of a harpoon lies in attacking swiftly. Like this. Poke, poke. See?” Sadeena rapidly jabbed out with her harpoon, stabbing the harpoon vassal weapon holder numerous times. He moaned. He was still a hero, so he was too tough for that to break the skin, but it definitely seemed to hurt him.
I recalled our undersea adventures prior to coming to this world. There were some pretty big fish-like monsters down there. Sadeena and Shildina had fought them all without backing down a single step. Even under my own powerful enhancement magic, that was still quite the feat. The killer whale was, at least from what I knew back in Japan, the ultimate creature in the sea. That also stood true among therianthropes in the world to which I had been summoned. They were known as the ultimate therianthrope when in the sea.
And here we had one known as a genius even among the killer whale therianthropes—a real genius, too, not the resurrected kind. There was no way one so unexperienced with the harpoon could hope to defeat her.
“Lightning Shock Harpoon: Ten!” the harpoon guy shouted.
“How many times do I have to say it? I can see that coming,” Sadeena told him. “Here you go!” The harpoon guy had spun around rapidly, trying to copy Sadeena, and she had just extended her grip on her harpoon and thrust it into him. His own momentum had pushed him deep onto her weapon, right into his shoulder. I wondered if it would slow him down . . . but he pulled it out right away, blood gushing.
“That hurt! You bitch!” he shouted.
“I am not the bitch in this situation,” Sadeena replied. The harpoon guy received a healing ofuda from one of his allies and placed it over his wound. That was a handy item from this world. It acted more directly than potions. Still, the field that the Demon Dragon had created was slowing down the effects of all healing.
“I’m going to kill you!” the harpoon guy roared, eyes open wide in rage as the veins popped on his forehead. I noticed that his harpoon had changed to a pretty nasty-looking one. It was easy to tell what was happening—he’d changed to a cursed weapon.
It wasn’t that he’d been underestimating Sadeena until now . . . just that he was finally not going to hold anything back.
“The punishment given to the sinner is that same sentence carried out on the crucified saint. This is holy punishment! Bring judgment to the one before me! Crucifixion!” Something like a black cross appeared behind Sadeena, oozing with black miasma. It extended barbed threads toward her.
“Oh my,” she responded, spinning her harpoon to gather all the incoming threads together and then sliding through and away from them as they tried to bind her. She was skilled with a harpoon, I’d give her that.
“Heavenly Wind: Wind Wing Slicer!” Filo unleashed a blade of wind from her wing, cutting in between Sadeena and the threads chasing her and keeping her safe.
“Sadeena, are you okay?” Filo called.
“I’m fine, thank you!” Sadeena called back.
“What a pathetic excuse for an attack! Hah!” The Demon Dragon stamped down on the cursed skill, then bathed it in fire to destroy it completely.
“You destroyed my attack? Impossible!” the harpoon guy raged. Was it really that surprising to him? It looked like the kind of skill that bound a foe and then acted on them, but it was meaningless if it didn’t hit—and we weren’t going to just stand there, were we? “You also dare to use Kuflika’s techniques against me?!” He simply wasn’t getting it. The power of Kuflika and all of her techniques belonged originally to the Demon Dragon and had now been given to Filo. Of course, she could use them. He really seemed bent out of shape about it, though.
I’d been mad when my shield was taken, of course, but you used whatever you could get your hands on. The harpoon guy surely had to have stolen things from his enemies in the past. He had killed one of the holy weapon heroes, if I recalled correctly. That meant he had to be making use of that weapon in some capacity. He didn’t have a leg to stand on.
“Your pathetic mewling is nothing compared to the Shield Hero and my rage,” the Demon Dragon mocked.
“You’re joking! I’m far more incredible, obviously!” the harpoon guy roared back. I wasn’t about to start comparing personal tragedies with this guy. If that was true, he needed to prove it.
“Whine about it all you like. You can’t change the facts,” the Demon Dragon said, looking down on the harpoon guy in disgust. I was more impressed with Sadeena dodging all those attacks so easily.
“Sadeena,” I called to her.
“Yes, little Naofumi,” she replied.
“Are you sure you’re not one of the resurrected?” I asked. If she was and was just waiting for an opening to strike at me, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to deal with it.
“I can tell you that I definitely don’t have any memories of a former life like these resurrected normally do. Shildina can look at me and see the truth too, I’m sure,” Sadeena said. The two of them had the ability to see the resurrected, and neither had ever pointed a finger at the other, so it sounded legit. They might have just got their stories straight behind our backs . . . but looking at how Sadeena lived, and what she had done, it was easy to tell that wasn’t the case.
If she was a resurrected, she wouldn’t listen to anything anyone said and would brag on about being a genius. The resurrected also liked to build a collection of the opposite sex. None of these things really fit with Sadeena.
“Hah! You aren’t going to win just because you’ve got a few harpoon skills! Our Demon Dragon isn’t the only one who can use magic!” With that, the harpoon guy took out his own ofuda and made to unleash some magic.
“Oh my! I have some magic skills myself, actually! Jewel Spark!” Sadeena triggered some lightning from her accessory and burnt the ofuda to a crisp.
“What? My ofuda!” the harpoon guy exclaimed.
“Shildina and the others would never let something like that happen. You need to protect yourself better with magic,” Sadeena said. It was like she was talking to a child. She had no respect left for this guy at all.
Perhaps having realized Sadeena’s qualities, the harpoon vassal weapon started to glow, just like the musical instrument had done with Itsuki. This was the same reaction as when Itsuki got that one. I almost started rubbing my hands. Time to collect a harpoon!
“Now I just need to destroy the accessory on the butt of the harpoon, correct? Little Naofumi, Kizuna?” Sadeena asked.
“That’s right,” I told her. “That’s how Itsuki claimed his weapon.”
“That’s what I heard. I’ll be aiming for it too, so don’t worry!” Kizuna turned the hunting tool into a bow and took aim herself.
“I’ve had enough! I can’t take any more games! You rabble! Kill these fools!” the harpoon guy raged at his companions, who all quickly replied in the affirmative. It seemed the harpoon guy had realized that he was going to lose the harpoon if this situation persisted, and that made him even angrier than before.
“What’s this? It looks like someone is going to steal away your weapon, and now you decide to leave the fighting to others? I can’t believe poor Kuflika would fall for a loser like you,” the Demon Dragon said, choosing this moment to put the boot in. The next line out of the harpoon guy’s mouth would be, “Shut it! It’s fine so long as I win! This weapon is mine! You can’t possibly steal it from me!” There it was, just as I predicted. I was getting sick of these cookie-cutter villains.
“Leave this to us!” The harpoon vassal weapon holder’s women all dropped down from the ship and quickly surrounded Sadeena and the Demon Dragon.
“Don’t get cocky just because you’ve got a pretty face!” one of them said. “You harlot!”
“How rude. You’ve actually upset me. Little Naofumi, praise me so I feel better,” Sadeena said.
“You aren’t upset at all, so don’t play the victim. You give off a sexy vibe, anyway—it’s sure to give some people the wrong idea,” I told her.
“Oh my. That sounds quite sexist,” Sadeena said.
“You don’t seem very serious most of the time, Sadeena, if I’m being honest. I find Shildina easier to talk to,” Raphtalia added for the knockout. Sadeena never really seemed to take anything seriously and had a very flirty attitude. In actual fact, she could get pretty heavy. And when the call to action came, she was always ready.
“Oh yes, praise me more!” she exclaimed.
“I wasn’t praising you!” I replied.
“Neither was I!” Raphtalia added. I had to wonder what was going on inside her head sometimes. We’d known each other for a while now, but I still couldn’t accept her taking any of that as praise. Did she think treating everything as a joke was some kind of virtue?
“An opening!” The harpoon guy seized what he thought was an opening and Sadeena rammed him with the butt of her harpoon right between the eyes, without even looking.
“Oh my! Did that hit you? I’m so sorry. Even if I close my eyes, I can still tell exactly where you are.” She really did have his number. As a killer whale therianthrope, Sadeena had an understanding of the sound waves around her. She could even use them to see through certain types of illusion magic. Surprise attacks were simply never going to surprise her.
“You scum! What are you doing to my master?” the metal magic dragon roared, attempting to aid the harpoon guy in battle.
“You fool! You can’t even match my power, and yet you seek to abandon the fight with me?” The Demon Dragon followed this up by whacking the metal magic dragon hard with her tail, eliciting a satisfying grunt. “You can’t even block a simple attack like that! In your weakened state, you might be better off just leaving! I guess it would be amusing to see how well you can compete with my magic.”
“Hah . . . you can’t hope to match my casting! Master! We must remove the debuff and regroup!” the metal magic dragon said.
“Agreed!” the harpoon guy shouted back. “Then this harlot and her Demon Dragon will fall before us with ease!” The Demon Dragon was capable of running incanting interference even against another Demon Dragon, if she got serious about it. In our world, magic of the cooperative class couldn’t be blocked, but that would really depend on the quality of the companions of the harpoon guy. I also had a hunch that the Demon Dragon would even be able to interfere with cooperative magic now.
“Time to get serious!” Sadeena raised her harpoon, and the Demon Dragon obligingly clicked her claws. Sadeena’s harpoon was immediately wreathed in a mixture of black fire and lightning. “Excellent work, little Demon Dragon,” she said.
“You are originally the miko priestess to a dragon. You also share my strong feelings for the Shield Hero. So go ahead and finish off the harpoon guy and his companions!” the Demon Dragon said.
“Take a good long look! For as long as you survive, anyway! This is how the priestess of carnage fights!” Sadeena exclaimed. I was unpleasantly reminded of Sadeena and Shildina conducting all that torture.
“Never!” the harpoon guy shouted, but then he immediately started groaning as Sadeena zapped him with both the lightning and the black fire from her harpoon. That was definitely doing some damage. He just kept on launching himself onto her attacks.
“That skill you tried to use on me . . . is this kind of how it went? Demon Dragon: The Binding Cross!” Sadeena used the magic of the Demon Dragon to make a cross appear behind the harpoon guy, which sucked him toward it like a magnet and held him in place.
“It burns! Owww!” Black smoke started to rise from the back of the harpoon guy, like a steak smoking too long on the grill. Binding the target down and slowly cooking them—quite a nasty piece of magic.
“I’m going to follow up too! Poke, poke!” Sadeena didn’t hold anything back, poking at the chest of the harpoon guy. It really was starting to feel like an execution. She seemed to have perfectly replicated the skill her foe had tried to use on her. “And to finish! Let’s set that little weapon of yours free, shall we?” Sadeena cooed.
“No way!” Sadeena attacked the harpoon vassal weapon holder’s harpoon, but he smashed his way down from the cross and backed away from her, protecting the accessory attached to it. “Hah! You are truly a fool if you think you can steal this!” he shouted.
“That’s right! Demon Dragon Freezing Pulsation: Ten! That removes the debuff! Now you can’t hope to win!” the metal magic dragon crowed. Rather than using support nullification magic for everyone, she had just used it on herself and the harpoon guy—probably to cut down on incanting time. In any case, our side was putting up a good fight.
They weren’t the only ones. Glass and Shildina had just started to pile onto the ofuda guy, both of whom had just been buffed by support magic from the Demon Dragon. Their opponent used his cursed ofuda to summon three creepy looking demon things and fight back. Controlling the demons looked pretty hard, though, because the ofuda guy was suddenly moving a lot slower. Chris pinned one of the demons down while Glass responded to another.
“Laws of Evil: Parasite Poison Curse!” the ofuda guy shouted, causing countless swarming bugs to erupt from an ofuda that made a beeline directly for Glass and the others. It looked like a curse skill, but I was pretty sure my friends could handle it.
“Hah! You seem quite unfamiliar with your weapon. No matter how strong it is, that’s meaningless if you can’t land any hits,” Glass told him.
“I do have an awareness of not yet mastering the weapon given to me. But I am also not so weak that I need to back down from this fight!” the ofuda guy replied. He used an ofuda to bat away Glass’s attacks, while using another to skillfully change the trajectory of Shildina’s next attack.
“Hmmm . . . how about this next?” Shildina took out an ofuda while unleashing a monster that looked a bit like a soul eater at her opponent. Then I realized it wasn’t a monster—it was a variant on the wind-wreathed water fish that she had used earlier. She shouted as she fired off the attack.
“You are skilled with dark element ofuda,” Glass commented.
“I’m starting to enjoy copying skills!” Shildina replied. Just like you could use techniques to copy skills, you could do a similar thing with magic. There was some time lag, but Shildina was good with magic, so she could copy them quickly.
“You copied me?!” the ofuda guy shouted indignantly, even as he avoided the incoming attack. Shildina was strong too, so that probably would have hurt if it had landed.
“Shildina, you really are so skilled,” Glass said again.
“I like playing with cards,” she replied. I had no idea how many she had with her, but Shildina proceeded to take a bunch of ofuda out from her holder and started to toss them out like playing cards. Each and every one had a magic effect sealed inside, so just throwing them could trigger an effect. They would also interfere with each other, triggering more magic, making them exceptionally suited for Shildina to use. Ofuda were pretty expensive, but that wasn’t an issue with L’Arc supplying us. She was also pretty choosey about her materials. I remembered her asking for some blood from the Demon Dragon in order to make ofuda. “This is an exploding ofuda I’m particularly proud of,” Shildina said. She lifted a nasty-looking ofuda, imbued it with magic, and then threw it at the ofuda guy. It was one of those that was activated not by incanting to turn it into magic, but by throwing it.
“That won’t work on me!” the ofuda guy crowed.
“Watch out! Get down!” someone else shouted, trying to warn him—but he just used one of his own ofuda to try and suppress the incoming attack. As soon as they touched, Shildina’s ofuda exploded into black fire. The ofuda guy fell down onto the ground, burning and wailing as he rolled around.
“Oww! Shildina!” Glass called sharply, almost getting hit by the cursed fire herself.
“Wow! Demon Dragon blood is something else! I got sweet Naofumi to give me a little of what the Demon Dragon gave him,” Shildina explained.
“That seems a very dangerous substance to make ofuda from! Please be more careful! Are you even listening to me?” Glass shouted.
“This is getting fun!” Shildina replied. She wasn’t drinking but was starting to look drunk. Just like her sister, she had the capacity to simply enjoy fighting someone—but I hadn’t really seen it in her since her first fight with Sadeena. In fact, she only ever really looked like that when she was fighting Sadeena. That made me question the relationship between the two of them again . . .
Even as I had that thought, the ugly-colored ofuda holy weapon started to release waves of powerful vibrations.
“What now? My ofuda is reacting without me doing anything?!” the ofuda guy said. The ofuda seemed to want to fly toward Shildina, while its current owner was desperately trying to prevent that.
“That looks like . . .” I started, and then a strange vibration also rolled out from the chest area of the metal magic dragon.
“Ugh . . . what now?” she complained as a light emitted from her chest and flew toward the ofuda holy weapon—as though sharing its final power.
“Stop it! Calm down!” the ofuda guy shouted, struggling to control his own weapon. Shildina and Glass looked on, most of the tension drained from them completely. Moments later, something black started to snake out from the accessory, winding around the ofuda. It looked to me like the holy weapon was creating an opening for us to attack—but this wasn’t a vassal weapon we were talking about. It couldn’t be doing this because it had found a new owner. Holy weapons were awarded to heroes summoned to the world they originated from, and the hero for this weapon was already dead and gone.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted to get my attention.
“Master! Do you want to go up?” Filo flew in toward me amid this new distraction. It did seem like a good chance to take out Bitch and her goons.
“Well, well, well.” S’yne’s sister was still locked in a staring contest with S’yne, who was attacking repeatedly. She had increased her number of familiars to four, allowing for a continued rolling wave of attacks, and she did seem to be gaining a little ground. Dolls that looked like the Demon Dragon were firing off a barrage of magic, pinning her opponent down. She was a real craftswoman, I had to give her that. The chain would fly out every now and then to try and bind S’yne down, but she dodged it smoothly each time.
Our eyes met for a moment, and she seemed to be telling me to go and attack while we could—that she could still handle things here. Okay then! Raphtalia and I both raised our hands and Filo swooped in toward us. We grabbed onto her legs and Filo lifted us both into the air, heading for the ship vassal weapon that hovered above us.
“What are you doing? Shoot them down!” Bitch screeched. The cannons blasted toward us, one after the other, but they couldn’t do anything about Filo’s speed. Bitch and her own goons, along with women from the harpoon guy’s allies, all tried to attack us with magic or their weapons, but none of them were anything I couldn’t handle with Stardust Mirror.
“Hah! So you’ve finally decided to pay me the attention I deserve! I’m ready for you!” Bitch was cracking her whip on the bow of the ship, seemingly eager to get this started. “You are such a hard nut to crack—pointlessly hard. But I’ve got what it takes to crack you now! I’ve just finished a nice long charge, just for you! Eat this and even you will die, for sure!” That was pretty much what I had been expecting. Motoyasu had a special attack called Brionac, and with all the effects of skill enhancement and other things, his charge time for it was now considerably reduced. The whip seven star weapon had to be thoroughly enhanced, meaning a skill that required a charge as long as this was going to be seriously powerful—perhaps powerful enough to change this entire situation.
I was starting to think their entire plan had just been to buy enough time for Bitch to launch this skill. Things were going pretty badly for them, which was normally the kind of time Bitch would cut and run, but this time she was sticking around.
“You maggots seem to have got the wrong idea about something. You still think destroying the accessories will let you steal the vassal weapons. Haven’t you considered that we might have fixed that flaw by now?” Bitch said proudly.
“What?!” I exclaimed. I looked down at S’yne’s sister and she nodded, providing confirmation that this wasn’t a bluff.
“That’s true. Our R&D guys got quite upset that the goodies we stole were getting stolen back from us, so they’ve really upped the strength of those little trinkets. They’re even stronger than the one we used on the Hunting Hero,” S’yne’s sister explained. I cursed. If they couldn’t be destroyed, that was going to make this a lot more difficult. I still had to have Kizuna try though.
“Brilliant! Lady Malty! Now this fight can finally come to an end! Oh wow! You’re so lovely!” Woman B II exalted Bitch with her high-pitched voice. I swore again. I was going to turn her into ash, just like the original Woman B!
“This is the end of our long and sordid relationship, Shield Weakling! Have a taste of Infini—” Bitch raised her arms and prepared to crack the whip again, unleashing her powerful skill.
“Oh yes! Lady Malty!” Woman B II cried. I didn’t seem to have any choice but to try and block it with glass shields. Even as I prepared to deploy them—
“Ugah?!” A sword appeared in Bitch’s midriff, poking through her from behind. Blood exploded from her mouth. I did a double take. This was completely unexpected. Bitch and her goons had been expecting victory a moment ago, and now they were stunned into silence. Raphtalia and Filo were too. Everyone present was completely shocked by what had just happened.
This could have been our chance, or even a chance for our enemies, but no one could do anything but look on in shock and surprise at what had just happened.
“By which I meant, end with a victory for the Shield Hero, of course.”
The primary thing Bitch had done, for her entire existence, was mock others for falling into her traps. If things started to look bad for her, she would pass the buck to someone else and make a run for it. She had rarely suffered any direct consequences of her actions. The most damage to her was perhaps when Raphtalia got close once using stealth and stabbed her. Yet here was that same Bitch, suddenly getting stabbed out of the blue, and by the most unexpected individual.
“Huh . . . huh? Why is there a sword . . . inside me?” Bitch stammered. She didn’t seem to understand even this basic fact, trembling, turning around to look at the one who had stabbed her. It was Woman B II.
“Bitch. You have no idea how long I have waited for this moment,” Woman B II said coldly, her sword still skewering her target.
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