Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: Dinosaur Hunting

It was a few days later.

“Thiz iz no way to treat zomeone recovering from a zerious injury,” Shadow complained with a moan.

“Raph,” said his ninja Raph specimen. We had been moving between the sanctuary and the village, working to protect them both. We’d also received a request from the village close to the sanctuary to deal with some dangerous monsters lurking nearby. Mamoru and his party were busy with preparations for the infiltration of Piensa, and so we hadn’t seen much of them. As a side note, Eclair had quickly become friendly with the lizard men and was often seen training and sparring with them. Maybe because Mamoru was lending them some strength—applying the Whip power-up method—but the lizard men were putting up a good fight even against Eclair.

“You’ve recovered enough for this. Shut up and get moving,” I said. I’d decided to take Shadow and his ninja Raph specimen along in order to level them up a little.

“You do look like you’ve made a full recovery!” Keel yipped.

“I’m a zeriously injured individual!” Shadow complained. I also had Raphtalia, Ruft, the noisy Keel, and—for the first time in a while—S’yne too. I hadn’t even talked to S’yne much recently, what with all her magic training. I didn’t like her just watching me from a distance all the time, so I decided to bring her along. Raph-chan and Dafu-chan had gone with Natalia to help Mamoru. I could summon them via a skill if they were needed, so that wasn’t a problem. Raphtalia and the others could also stop Shadow from trying to escape if he decided this was all too much hassle. It was a good all-round party.

“I’m not sure about working Shadow quite this hard,” Raphtalia cautioned me.

“The very fact he suffered such a wound is why we need to bring him,” I replied. Shadow might have learned a lot of technical things from our village and Q’ten Lo, but in a matter of pure stats, he had performed a limit break but was still behind Keel and the others. This was maybe the only time we were going to have to do something about that. He certainly was tough. He had been up and walking around soon after his wounds healed. If he had been bedridden and unable to move, I wouldn’t have been pushing him this far.

“My role iz only to collect information, infiltrate targetz, and protect Queen Melty,” Shadow said sullenly. He had been all for joining Mamoru in the Piensa infiltration, providing information on routes through the nation and acting as a guide, but I had put a stop to that and practically dragged him along with us.

“You must have upset Bubba something fierce for him to be taking you out like this so soon after a big injury,” Keel pondered. “When I got hurt badly, I was left in the village for everything.” She was right. During the fight with the Spirit Tortoise, we’d been forced to leave her behind due to her wounds.

“If you want to help with the infiltrations so much, you need to be strong enough to escape from any possible enemy attack,” I said pointedly.

“I have no responze to that,” Shadow admitted. “But you are a demon, Zhield Hero. I need zympathy, not combat.”

“What do you mean, zympathy?! I couldn’t be more zympathetic if I tried!” I shot back. He had just healed up and wanted to head straight back into a warzone! I needed to prepare him as best as I could first. What was that, if not “sympathy?!”

“If you raise my level here, Zhield Hero . . . will you end up making me your lover?” Shadow asked.

“Huh? Is that how this works?” Keel asked naively.

“Keel, shut up,” I snapped before addressing the main crazy person. “You think I’m raising my allies’ levels in order to make them my lovers?” I asked. The only ones thinking like that were the old Motoyasu and the resurrected. Before we even got to that point, I couldn’t ever understand why I would want my lovers to be strong.

“Mozt of thoze you go out to raize levelz with are your loverz,” Shadow said.

“I don’t think you really understand the situation,” Raphtalia said. “Keel, that isn’t what’s happening here, so don’t worry.”

“What about Fohl? And Ruft?” Keel asked persistently.

“Me? Lover of the Shield Hero?” Ruft asked. “Ah, love me, love me just like this!” Ruft struck an affected pose. He really did love his Raph therianthrope form. I thought it was cute too, but it was having the opposite effect at the moment.

“Keel, Ruft, you’re only going to make things worse for Mr. Naofumi by getting involved in this. Please stay quiet,” Raphtalia chided them.

“Huh?” Ruft said.

“I’m not sure what you mean, but whatever,” Keel replied. I turned my attention back to Shadow.

“I’m not your lover,” Shadow confirmed with me.

“It might have been better if you did die, at least once,” I said. I had no idea what he thought I was. Yes, I had lost it that one time and grabbed onto Fohl, but there was no reason to keep basing their entire assessment of me on that one mistake!

“Holn haz told me that you fall for the heart, not the body, Zhield Hero. Race and gender mean nothing to you,” Shadow said. So that was the reason for this! Turning the Shield Hero into some kind of idolized pansexual! The idea that love could overcome all boundaries should be reserved to the thinking of dragons and Motoyasu!

“You’ve been zpending a lot of time with Keel recently. Are you trying to make her yourz too?” Shadow asked. I presumed he was talking about the incident that had triggered Keel’s trauma.

“So that’s what’s going on!” Keel said.

“Keel, have you forgotten already? That was punishment for you saying the wrong thing. Do you want to be punished again?” I asked. I’d given her a thorough stroking when we were in the trading wagon as punishment for her telling me I should get with Raphtalia and other mockery.

“Ah! Your punishment feels good, but it scares me too, so no! Raphtalia! Forgive me!” Keel yipped, both hands together, bowing her head as she asked for forgiveness.

“The details of that incident don’t concern me, but please don’t overstimulate Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said.

“I took Keel along on that trip as a punishment in the first place, but I spent most of the trip talking about accessory making with Imiya,” I said. Keel and Imiya played the role of loveable mascots for the village, perhaps, but that wasn’t the kind of “love” being intimated here. Imiya was cute, in the same kind of way Raphtalia was, and she seemed to be into me. But I’d think about that once the world was at peace. Otherwise, there would be some real wild beasts awaiting me back in the future—wild beasts named “Sadeena” and “Shildina.”

I wondered where this rumor that I raised party members’ levels to make them my lovers started from. If I could pinpoint the exact individual, they would need to be punished. It sounded like something that Keel might have kicked off. It might be time to activate her slave seal!

“Why are you glaring at me, Bubba? What have I done now?” Keel asked.

“He suspects you of spreading those rumors about leveling people up in order to make them his lovers,” Raphtalia said.

“No! You’ve got that wrong!” Keel instantly protested. I wasn’t sure about that. Rumors could spread, whether the originator intended them to or not.

“Okay. Where does Cian fit into the crazy scenario?” I asked.

“Zhe’z zomeone already intimate with a different hero, making her an exception. I don’t have any hero I’m ezpecially cloze to, so I’m a likely target,” Shadow explained.

“Well, you can relax. This is all in your head. I don’t even know if you are male or female, to be honest,” I replied. I had always presumed “he” was male. “I’ve never even seen your face. How could I fall for you? The only way to tell you apart from all those other shadows is the way you talk.” I’d seen him turn into the queen once. I actually had no idea of “his” gender. He seemed able to pretend to be Melty too. When I was on the run during Melty’s kidnapping, he had turned into a villager. He really could be a man or a woman, so I had no idea.

“Are you zeriouz?” Shadow said, shocked. “You really don’t care about me, do you?! I’m juzt another namelezz, formlezz blob to you, aren’t I, Zheild Hero?! Raphtalia, pleaze tell me! Why doez thiz feel zo much like defeat?”

“I think you would be better to just ignore him completely,” Raphtalia advised.

“That juzt makez the zting of defeat even worze!” Shadow complained.

“Shadow . . . I don’t even know if you’re a bubba or not, but do you really want Bubba Shield Hero to look at you in that way?” Keel asked.

“I don’t think he (or she) wants it either way,” I said.

“I know Bubba can be foulmouthed, but that only shows how much he cares,” Keel explained, just making stuff up like normal.

“The easiest way to tell the difference between a man or woman is to ask Motoyasu,” I said. He saw all women other than Filo as pigs. His eyes were very accurate. He could probably tell if Shadow was a man or woman with just a glance. “But maybe you’re happy being a genderless shadow?” This whole debate was starting to feel pretty pointless. Be nice to women and hard on men, was that it? Ridiculous. If that was my outlook, I wouldn’t be so eager to send Bitch to hell.

“I underztand exactly how Melty feelz,” Shadow exclaimed with a shout, shaking his fist. I wondered what that meant.

“Where does Melty come into this?” Keel asked. “Raphtalia, do you know?”

“I think it’s to do with being called by title rather than name. Mr. Naofumi called her ‘second princess’ for quite a long time,” Raphtalia explained.

“Oh, okay,” Keel said.

“Whatever the reason, stop believing this crap about leveling people up to make them my lovers. You’re meant to gather intelligence for us! I’m starting to doubt your skills,” I said.

“I’m ztill at the ztage of determining if thiz iz crap or not! I’m running an experiment! Uzing Keel!” Shadow declared.

“Me?! Am I fated to become Bubba’s lover as well?” Keel yipped.

“Keel, there’s no need to worry about this,” Raphtalia assured her again.

“Enough, all of you!” I shouted. “Just shut up and follow me! If you want me to remember your name, tell me what it is!”

“No! No way!” Shadow protested. He was just messing with my head now. He didn’t even want to say his name. If he was a ninja, maybe he didn’t have a name at all. I had no points of contact with any other shadows, so it was fine to just leave him as “Shadow,” but I was getting a bit exhausted in terms of reaching that point.

“Just quit it. I’ve had enough of talking about this. If you want to go back into Piensa, then you need to raise your level and get stronger first. Unless you want them to find you again!” I said.

“I didn’t expect to get caught like that either,” Shadow said. His account of events was that he had been hiding on the battlefield when he was discovered and attacked before he had a chance to escape. I was impressed that he managed to get away from such a situation while injured. Maybe he had used a smoke bomb or something—or pretended to be dead. His survival skills had brought him back to us, anyway. That was a fact.

“Raphtalia, how do you rate Shadow’s infiltration and disguise abilities?” I asked. Raphtalia sounded puzzled for a moment.

“Well . . . he’s good enough that even someone with a high level of exposure magic would still take a while to find him. If he disguises himself as well, that would make it even harder to spot him,” Raphtalia said.

“I can’t even sniff him out,” Keel said, also offering her praise of Shadow’s infiltration techniques—but I hardly rated Keel’s detection abilities very high.

“Look what I can do,” Shadow said. It looked like he was taking off his clothes, but then he had suddenly changed into Sadeena.

“Wow! Amazing! Sadeena!” said Keel excitedly.

“What do you think, zweet Naofumi?” Shadow said. I had no reply. I knew he was good at disguising himself, but he had picked the wrong disguise with this one. “Thiz will give me the advantage over the Zhield Hero!” Shadow crowed.

“Fine. You’ll make a great shield yourself for fighting these monsters. Sadeena can handle anything,” I said.

“‘I’m only joking!” Shadow quickly fired back. “I’m not fully recovered!” He quickly changed back to normal. We hadn’t had many chances to talk like this in the past, and now we were getting one . . . I actually preferred it that way. He was like a comedian trying to push through a bit that wasn’t working. I never thought he had this kind of personality. I needed to have words with Melty to put him right.

“Enough talk. Time to level up,” I stated firmly. “We might encounter Piensa infiltrators too, so keep your wits about you—especially you, Shadow, with your skill set.”

“I would rather thiz goez off without any zuch excitement,” Shadow said. Our goals were to level up while patrolling places a Piensa unit might try to come in from. I’d formed the party from those with skills in detecting others. I would have normally left Ruft with Ren or Fohl, but he needed some work on his level just like Shadow did. He was in a key position, after all—just like Melty and Shadow. Melty herself was off with Eclair and Ren.

Before we left the village, they had been using the names “Raph Species Squad” and “Filolial Squad” to differentiate the two groups, but I was choosing to ignore that.

After a lot of unnecessary noise, we were finally underway. This party of excitable individuals and I were going to defeat the monsters in the vicinity of the sanctuary and gain an understanding of the routes the enemy might use to attack. We could have just waited for them in the sanctuary itself, but we needed to keep the village safe too. It was also an excellent chance to obtain some materials from unknown monsters.

We proceeded along the route we had been asked to clear out.

“There sure are a lot of them,” I commented. “Is there a larger monster population back here?” We continued along the beast track and reached an area with exposed rock . . . it looked like something from the land time had forgotten. There were monsters called the kaiser rex, which looked like an earlier form of the Tyrant Dragon Rex, and then emperor triceratops, king stegosaurus, and lord pteranodon, all dinosaur-type enemies with a royal connection. They were strutting around like they really did rule the place. I guessed we could clear them out too . . . and I was really getting time-travel vibes from this scenery too. Those “other worlds” were such a crazy mashup of concepts. I was willing to bet there would be dinosaur-type therianthropes as well. The lizard men already kinda looked like crocodiles.

I was also a little puzzled to find these dinosaurs so close to human habitation. I knew ecosystems changed over time, but there seemed to be far too many monsters here.

“Hey, Shadow,” I said.

“What?” he replied.

“Are there monsters like this in our time too?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ve seen bonez in the Faubrey muzeum,” Shadow revealed. If we took Rat along, I was sure she’d go crazy for that. This was a world full of dragons and griffons, so why not dinosaurs too?

When we first encountered the first rex, we thought it had been unlikely that we’d defeat it head-on, but I was sure we’d have no problem this time.

“Let’s start the fighting,” I said.

“Yes, okay,” Raphtalia replied.

“I’m ready too!” Ruft added.

“It reminds me of that monster we met when you saved me, Bubba! I won’t be left behind again!” Keel barked.

“I’ve got this,” S’yne said. Each of them took out their respective weapons and prepared for combat. Ruft was using an axe. He seemed to have taken a shine to heavy weapons.

“What can we hope to offer in thiz battle?” Shadow wondered.

“Raph,” said his ninja Raph specimen. Both of them sounded uncertain.

“Don’t worry. Much worse things than this come out on the ocean tours with Sadeena,” I told him. The oceans were a treasure trove of crazy. The experience down there was delicious, but we wouldn’t be able to hack some underwater grinding without the killer whale sisters. On dry land and against these kinds of monsters, I wasn’t expecting any trouble.

“Just stick close to me until you level up a bit. You’ve got some combat experience, so you shouldn’t get too cocky even once your level increases a little,” I said.

“That’z true,” Shadow replied, but he didn’t sound especially confident.

“Let’s go!” Raphtalia drew her katana and rushed toward the dinosaurs. They had noticed us and were already moving in with predatory intentions. Ruft was right behind her, and then S’yne was close behind. A kaiser rex opened with a roar, leaping toward Raphtalia and breathing fire. Then it tried to bite her. It was a wild but carefully targeted fire-bite attack. The jaws of the kaiser rex closed fast and hard over the spot where Raphtalia was standing.

The image of Raphtalia vanished completely. Then she popped up at the side of the kaiser rex and slashed into its ribs with her katana. The attack made a satisfying noise, blood sprayed out, and the monster groaned. Raphtalia passed beneath the beast and not a single drop of blood landed on her. She cut as she went along to induce further cries of pain.

“It’s got tougher skin than I expected. It feels like the flesh is clinging to my blade,” Raphtalia reported.

“I’ll give it the axe!” Ruft quipped, seemingly popping into existence in the middle of the air. The kaiser rex was still focused on Raphtalia and didn’t even notice the axe coming for its head until it was too late. “Just to make sure!” Ruft transitioned into a kick on the spot he had just hit and then unleashed some magic. “Zweite Illusion!” Ruft said and dropped back. The kaiser rex rushed off roaring at a ninety-degree angle from us. It started biting and swinging its tail at thin air. Ruft had applied some illusion magic.

The kaiser rex was a monster but still showed signs of intelligence by sniffing around to try and locate its real target. Its jaws snapped down again but came back empty once more. The illusion magic Raphtalia used could confuse even a monster’s sense of smell. Rat and Holn had been impressed by this facet of their magic. Fox-type demi-humans and monsters could use their sense of smell to defeat illusions, but Raphtalia and the others could overcome even that obstacle. The tanuki always seemed to outfox the fox in Japanese folklore, so maybe that was part of it. The past Heavenly Emperor had displayed the ability to confuse the sense of smell of Takt’s fox woman. Their powers were legit, but it might be dangerous to literally assess our combat abilities based on folklore from my home world. Raph-chan seemed to have better illusion skills than even Raphtalia at the moment, making Raph-chan our most proficient user of illusions.

“Raphtalia and the others have made an opening!” Keel barked. Then she gave a mighty howl and swung her sword down from above. It was just a normal longsword, but she looked like some kind of berserker with it in her diminutive paws.

“S’yne!” Raphtalia called.

“I’m here!” Cutting in a little late to the party, S’yne split her scissors into two blades and slashed into the kaiser rex. The monster was completely defenseless, and S’yne’s attacks quickly found its throat, slashing it.

“I’m ending this!” Raphtalia returned to deliver the final blow. “Instant Blade! Mist!” The kaiser rex was writhing in pain. Then Raphtalia relieved it of its head. The dinosaur collapsed into the dirt, going extinct without pretty much any opportunity to meaningfully fight back.

“It was faster and tougher than I was expecting,” Raphtalia commented.

“But it seemed very weak to illusions,” Ruft replied.

“That’s true. We’re a good match for it,” Raphtalia agreed.

“What about me?” S’yne asked.

“You stopped it from moving around too much. That was a big help,” Ruft told her.

“I didn’t lag behind too much, right?” Keel asked, also seeking affirmation.

“You’re fast on your feet, Keel, which really helped confuse it,” Raphtalia told her.

“You really think so? I want to be faster though, like you, Raphtalia. Maybe I can ask Bubba Sword Hero for a better sword,” Keel wondered.

“That’s a good point . . . Why do you even use a sword, Keel?” I asked. She chopped off the kaiser rex’s tail and then turned to me. She was small but nimble, I’d give her that.

“Huh? You gave it to me, so I’m using it,” Keel replied.

“I bet you could use the same kind of attacks monsters do, like biting and stuff,” I said. She had decent fangs when in therianthrope form. I almost thought just biting the monsters would do more damage. I’d seen her with something clamped in her jaws once, shaking it from side to side like a dog did.

“Bubba, do you think of me like a monster?” Keel asked.

“Have you ever looked in the mirror? I bet Raph-chan could use a sword better than you. Everyone needs to use the right weapon for the job,” I said.

“You could fight in your demi-human form, Keel,” Raphtalia suggested.

“I can move around more easily like this,” Keel said after a moment’s thought. “I’ll stick with it.” She always seemed to choose her dog form for battle. It made her even smaller than normal; I was impressed she could fight at all.

“Your therianthrope form is great. Very cute too,” Ruft said, choosing this moment to get involved.

“It’s not cute! It’s cool!” Keel yipped back.

“Come on, Keel. Your cuteness is your biggest selling point,” Ruft replied.

“I know, but I want to be cool!” Keel retorted. The sight of Keel and Ruft bickering as they defeated monsters was pretty surreal, like cute village mascots causing hardcore violence.

“Let’s keep moving,” Raphtalia said smartly. The party turned smoothly to face the incoming emperor triceratops.

“They’re making zhort work of thiz,” Shadow said. “Bazed on the incoming experience I’m receiving, I would have expected theze battlez to take a little more time.”

“That’s just how strong we’ve become,” I replied. “Ruft has decent specs and just blends into fighting alongside the others without any trouble. Keel is still a little slow off the blocks.” Ruft was Raphtalia’s cousin, which explained a lot. The bonuses from his therianthrope form were not to be sniffed at either. When compared to the rest of the party, Keel was definitely a step behind.

“Bubba! I’m going to prove myself! That’s what all my training has been for!” she yipped at me. Sure, whatever, I thought to myself. “Special attack time!” Keel yelled. She gave a howl, light glowing around her, and then she charged as a shining dog back into battle. “Zweite Wild Fang!” she shouted. It looked like an attack incorporating magic. Keel could use beast magic, which included howling to boost her own stats. For this attack, she had wreathed herself in magic to increase her attack power and then performed a charging magical strike.

“I don’t feel like I can make a contribution to thiz,” Shadow admitted.

“Raph!” said the ninja Raph specimen.

“Don’t worry. When they fight something that’s too slow to hit them, I don’t make much of a contribution either,” I admitted. My role was just to keep attack support on them and maintain buffs. I also needed to make sure Shadow and the Raph specimen stayed safe, so I couldn’t move around a lot. It didn’t seem to matter for this one, anyway.

“Air Strike Shield, Second Shield!” I shouted as an incoming lord pteranodon dropped down fast to launch a hit-and-run attack on Raphtalia. My shields appeared in the perfect spot to block it. It screeched more like a chicken than a powerful dinosaur, surprised at whacking into my sudden defenses. Then S’yne turned her scissors into a ball of twine, wrapped up the lord pteranodon, and Raphtalia finished it off with her katana. S’yne proceeded to deploy a spider web of threads in the event of any other attacks from the air.

“Over here! Ah! Keel!” Ruft called, even as he avoided an attack.

“I’ve got you!” Keel replied. Ruft had confused a king stegosaurus with some illusion magic, and he was proceeding to take it apart with his axe while Keel helped out. With all the illusions in play, the dinos were attacking thin air half the time. There wasn’t much for me to do. These looked like powerful monsters, but they didn’t have any illusion resistance.

We continued to clear out the excess of monsters, with Shadow and the ninja Raph specimen increasing in level and abilities along the way. The incoming experience was pretty good. It was almost a match for hunting with the sisters. I wondered why experience was so good in this time period. Mamoru and his gang were pretty strong, but in terms of level, they weren’t setting any records. I wondered what they did about class-ups. They didn’t have a Dragon Emperor, no filolials, and no Raph species either. So how did they perform limit breaks to class up? Maybe in this time they could limit break just by having a hero around.

“Let me get into the action!” Shadow said, feeling more confident with his boosted abilities and joining the battle with Raphtalia and the others. “Hide Behind!” Shadow launched some magic at the kaiser rex. The monster jerked and looked behind himself. That seemed like a pretty funky effect.

“That’s dark magic, isn’t it?” Raphtalia said. She could create both light and dark illusions. She had a pretty deep understanding of dark magic.

“Correct,” Shadow replied. “I’ve focuzed my learning in magic that controlz and directz the attention of my targetz.” That made sense. He was skilled at a kind of infiltration that took a different approach from Raphtalia and the Raph species, such as making enemies turn away so he could sneak past them or hiding his presence. Kizuna had a pseudo-ninja among her allies too. Maybe these two operated in a similar fashion.

Raphtalia and the others quickly took the distracted kaiser rex apart.

“If I have thiz Raph Zhadow with me, there’z no target we cannot infiltrate!” Shadow said.

“That’s the name you’ve given to your Raph species?” I asked.

“It iz a zhadow from the Raph zpeciez! Zimply a dezcriptive term, not a name!” Shadow replied.

“You are such a pain in the ass!” I replied. I wasn’t sure if he/she/they was just messing with my head now, but I’d had enough of all this ninja stuff! Believe it!

“Raph Shadow . . . can’t we do better than that for a name?” Raphtalia asked. She seemed to want to fight Shadow on this point too. Names weren’t an area I had any right to speak about, but I could see why she might want to complain.

“Hey, have the Raph Shadow equip this,” I suggested, taking out a wrapped package I had brought along. The Raph Shadow climbed down from Shadow’s shoulder and took the item from me.

“I thought that waz your lunch!” Shadow said as though he thought I carried food with me everywhere I went. If we needed to eat something, we could just portal back.

“It isn’t?” Raphtalia asked. “I thought the same thing.”

“Me too!” Ruft chimed in.

“And me! I was looking forward to a nice meal!” Keel yipped.

“Me too,” S’yne added. I felt a sinking feeling that everyone had drawn the same conclusion. I wondered if the idea that some kind of packet I had with me meant I was packing food came from my cooking skills.

“This is not food-related. It’s something experimental. I put it together to try with Raph-chan,” I explained.

“That sounds like something I’m going to object to most strongly,” Raphtalia said immediately.

“If this prototype goes well, we’ll make one for you too, Ruft,” I said.

“What? What is it? I can’t wait!” Ruft said, excited by the prospect of anything Raph species-related. The Raph Shadow opened up the package and confirmed the contents. It was armor based on the teakettle design I had come up with.

 Prototype Raph Species Teakettle: Raph Species Exclusive

  Defense up, slash resistance (medium), thrust resistance (medium), fire resistance (high), wind resistance (high), water resistance (high), earth resistance (high), magic defense processing, enhanced illusion magic (medium), magic/heat conversion, exhaust floatation, enhanced mobility, Spirit Tortoise power, tortoise shell

“Okay, what is that?” Raphtalia asked.

“I guess you don’t know Mt. Kachikachi. It’s based on the tanuki that appears in that fairy tale. I made it for the Raph species,” I told her.

“I remember when you had the idea,” Raphtalia said. “What I mean is, when did you get the time to make it?”

“I ordered Ren to do it. What do you think?” I replied. “Paws up, Raph Shadow! We need to get this on you.”

“Raph?” said Raph Shadow cautiously with a worried expression about putting it on. It did look a little heavy for a Raph species that normally went around dressed as a ninja.

“Don’t worry. The metal originates with Spirit Tortoise materials. You won’t lose any mobility, but one of those nasty new weapons won’t hurt you either,” I explained. I pushed the teakettle down over the head of Raph Shadow. The ninja gear Raph Shadow was already wearing was the same as the clothing Filo wore. It was made from magic turned into thread. It might be fun to have Raph-chan dress up in something like this. The miko priestess outfit I’d made once might be a good place to start. Raphtalia had got angry and confiscated it.

The head, arms, and legs of Raph Shadow all popped out of the teakettle, making it almost look like a tortoise’s shell.

“Raph!” said Raph Shadow, frowning at this change in appearance.

“Wow. Were you going for the turtle look?” Keel asked, sounding unimpressed. I couldn’t see the problem myself.

“Oh wow! That’s amazing!” Ruft’s eyes were sparkling. He almost looked jealous!

“No, it isn’t, Mr. Naofumi,” Raphtalia said, taking a very different tone.

“I made an accessory for you too, Raphtalia. Let me have my fun,” I said.

“If I’d known it would become a bargaining chip, I might not have accepted it,” Raphtalia replied.

“If this works out, I’m going to consider giving them to all the Raph-chans. It could be a boost for both defense and magic,” I continued. I made sure everything was in place, then pushed Raph Shadow to walk. I’d been worried that walking might be difficult, but Raph Shadow jumped easily back onto Shadow’s shoulder. “You can vent magic and float for a short period too,” I explained.

“Raph?” said Raph Shadow, leaping off Shadow’s shoulder again. Heat started to be expelled from the skirt section of the teakettle, allowing Raph Shadow to float for a limited time in the air.

“All the basic principles look sound,” I commented. Rat and Holn had also been involved in putting it together. Holn had been particularly interested after she saw my designs.

“Raph!” Raph Shadow pulled a shortsword out from inside the teakettle, once again displaying the ease of movement even with this new armor equipped. Floating in the air was a big boost to mobility too.

“It doezn’t impede movement at all!” Shadow exclaimed. “How did you make thiz work?”

“This is the power of exclusive equipment,” I replied.

“I don’t think the name ‘ninja’ can be applied to thiz though,” Shadow continued.

“Either change the moniker from ‘ninja’ to ‘fairy-tale creature’ or use magic to hide the armor,” I replied.

“An interesting conceit,” Raphtalia said, quick on the uptake. “How about I make my miko outfit look like my old armor?”

“That’s not allowed,” I said quickly. I needed Raphtalia’s miko getup to stick around—it was just so easy on the eyes.

“I don’t understand your basis for these decisions,” Raphtalia replied.

“It’s so cool,” Ruft said. “I might use magic to make my armor more like that.”

“Please don’t waste your magic on anything of the sort,” Raphtalia told him. She had just talked about making her own miko outfit look like armor but now cautioned Ruft against the same thing. That sounded like a double standard to me.

“Shall I make an exclusive miko outfit?” S’yne asked. She was the Sewing Kit Hero. She would be perfectly suited to such a task.

“Can you do it?” I asked.

“Leave it to me,” S’yne replied confidently.

“Why don’t you ask about the outfits your ancestors wore and make something for yourself too?” I asked.

“That would look a lot like what I already wear,” S’yne revealed. Fair enough. R’yne did wear something similar, but Filolia wore a very different one-piece.

“I want some exclusive gear too! It’ll make me stronger, right?” Keel cut in.

“Keel! A trading outfit?” I asked.

“You made me wear that to interact with customers!” Keel barked back, getting worked up. “I don’t want to get stronger wearing that!” I thought it was perfectly suited to her.

“A loincloth, then?” I asked.

“You want me to fight in my underwear?” she shot back. “I don’t care if it makes me stronger!”

“Keel, you couldn’t go out in public dressed like that,” Raphtalia chided her.

“I do it in the village all the time,” Keel retorted. She did still walk around in a loincloth sometimes when she wasn’t off trading. It suited her, so no one called her out on it, but it could become an issue.

“Enough chatter! Back into combat!” Shadow said. He pulled out a shortsword and quickly dashed at the kaiser rex, slashing into it. Then he took some of the blood from the blade onto his hand and incanted some magic. “Blood Drain!” He lifted his weapon into the air. Blood was sucked from the wounds, forming a red ball in the air that gradually turned black. “Into . . . Blood Rain!” Red rain started to splatter down, falling on the kaiser rex that Shadow had already attacked and the other dinosaurs too. Smoke started to rise from them. “Now!” shouted Shadow.

“Raph!” Raph Shadow said. She was throwing out iron skewers as she still floated in the air. They jabbed into the hide of the dinosaurs, making the creatures stagger in pain.

Raphtalia, Ruft, and S’yne didn’t miss a trick, launching a fresh assault. Their attacks seemed more effective than before.

“That seems to have lowered their defense,” I said.

“Wow! This is great!” Keel yapped.

“Correct. Thiz iz dark magic that lowerz defenze while alzo attacking,” Shadow explained. Making it rain blood was a pretty evil-looking attack, but I couldn’t deny how useful the effects were. Shadow had become stronger already and continued to try and keep up with the speed of Raphtalia and the others. He had mentioned wanting to be faster, so he was probably focusing on that.

“That’s a sharp weapon you’ve got there,” I commented.

“It’s a Zpirit Tortoize dagger made by the weapon maker you favor zo much, Zhield Hero,” Shadow explained. That would explain how strong it was.

“That’s enough for today,” I eventually said at the point Shadow and Raph Shadow could move faster than Ruft. “We’ve definitely reduced the surplus monster population.” I was comparing Shadow and Raph Shadow to Ruft because he was already fast enough. I’d asked Ruft to work on his attack power over his speed or magic. He was swinging the axe around pretty smoothly. I was pleased with his progress. The main remaining issue was that he was just using a regular old steel axe.

“I’ll have Ren make an axe for you, Ruft,” I said.

“I’m only using this at the moment because I love swinging it around,” Ruft replied. “Anything would be fine.”

“Ruft, are you sure you aren’t focusing too much on strength and techniques?” Raphtalia asked.

“I’m keeping an eye on my balance, don’t worry,” Ruft replied. “I only learned a little swordplay from Shildina and some life force techniques from the old lady before we came to this time.” We still needed to work on his technical aspects though.

The sword that Ren had made from Filo materials Melty now carried for her own protection. She was sharing it with Eclair as needed.

“Maybe I should be thinking about narrowing down my weapon choices too?” Keel pondered, looking at her sword.

“What do you want to use?” I asked her. She thought for a moment.

“Before we came here, I saw that guy . . . L’Arc, was it? He had a scythe. That was so cool!” Keel replied, swinging both arms around as though she were reaping some souls. “Filolia’s claws look like fun to use too. I’m not sure I could pick between them,” Keel said.

“You seem to get on well with Filolia,” I commented.

“Huh? Yeah, she’s funny! She wants to be cool too!” Keel exclaimed. As we chatted and prepared to head back, Shadow and Raph Shadow both suddenly looked over toward some bushes a little distance away. Raphtalia and the others looked over there too, noticing the same thing.

“I don’t think we’re finished here just yet,” Raphtalia commented.

“I’m guessing we’ve been infiltrated after all,” I said.

“I know you’re hiding there! Come out!” Shadow shouted, throwing a knife for good measure. Some figures promptly appeared from the underbrush.

“Bah! How did they spot us?” one of them said. There was a fox demi-human with two tails, a puma therianthrope, and an eagle-looking therianthrope with a scythe-like weapon. I presumed these bird types were also categorized as therianthropes in this world. Then two more appeared, one holding a staff and another holding a dagger.