Chapter Nineteen: The Tools
The Bitch swayed, and Raphtalia stepped out from behind her.
As I distracted them, she had apparently used magic.
Her timing was perfect. We were in the middle of a crisis. Did this fix it?
“Y…You! Do you have any idea who you just stabbed?”
The Bitch was inflamed. Demon-like, she shouted at Raphtalia.
“Ms. Myne! Are you all right?!”
“Wait. Ren! Ugh!”
Ren flew over to the Bitch and locked swords with Raphtalia.
I tried to run over also, but the rain of arrows and magic kept me back.
The sword was still stuck in the Bitch. It must have gone in the wrong way, as Raphtalia couldn’t pull it out. Once she realized it wasn’t coming out, Raphtalia immediately switched to her backup sword.
“What are you doing?!”
“You are all teaming up to attack Mr. Naofumi! I have to stop you!”
“That doesn’t matter!”
The clattering of the swords against one another filled the area. Ren had more experience with the sword. He parried and knocked Raphtalia back.
This wasn’t good. She was practically unarmed.
Filo was still fighting with Motoyasu, and the princess was busy supporting her.
Little by little, Ren and Itsuki’s party members were sneaking closer to the princess.
This wasn’t good at all. Desperate, Raphtalia reached for the magic sword the weapon shop guy had given her. She pulled it from the sheath and it released with a pop. The hilt was empty—there was no blade.
“Ahaha! What do you have there? How cute!”
The Bitch had been healed with magic by now. She pointed a finger at Raphtalia and laughed. But Ren and Itsuki had a very different reaction.
“The sword doesn’t have a blade? Everyone, be careful!”
“Okay!”
“Wh… What’s happening?!”
Ren’s party members were confused.
“That might be a magic sword. It can form a blade from the user’s magic power. It might be very dangerous.”
“He’s right. I don’t know where she could have come across such a thing…”
Thinking back on it, the old guy at the weapon shop had given us a note that said something similar.
“After we read his note, I couldn’t just ignore what he’d said. It had to mean something. So I did a little experimenting.”
Raphtalia whispered, and she wrapped her fingers around the hilt, holding it tight. When she clamped down on the handle, a blinding light shot from it.
The Bitch looked upset.
“Here I come!”
Raphtalia pointed the sword forward, then ran for Ren and the Bitch.
“Damn! Shooting Star Sword!”
Ren used his best skill.
Shooting Star Sword was a skill that shot stars from the arc of his sword swing. I imagine that if it hit the target directly, it was very strong. Even still, Ren wasn’t fighting with all his strength. He was fighting to stop us. He would probably hold back.
Even if he held back, if he connected with Raphtalia it would probably do fatal damage.
What could I do?!
If I went over to help, I’d draw the soldier’s attacks toward Raphtalia,
But Raphtalia dodged the stream of stars and moved in.
“You’re moves lack conviction!”
“Ugh…”
Ren wasn’t sure where he stood in the fight, and it was affecting his attack strategy. Raphtalia dodged his sword, and her own sword flashed.
Ren looked suddenly dizzy. He held his head in his hands and stumbled toward Raphtalia. Then he fell to his knees.
“Now I understand. He gave me this sword to cut things that aren’t physical. So when you cut a person with it, this is what happens.”
Raphtalia seemed to understand something. She turned from the fallen Ren and ran for the Bitch.
“You think a criminal like you can stand before the likes of me?!”
The Bitch readied her sword and swung it at Raphtalia.
“Please be QUIET!”
Raphtalia’s blade disappeared just in time to avoid clashing with the Bitch’s. It would not be a duel. Raphtalia pivoted, turned, and let the Bitch’s sword skirt by her, missing her by a hair.
The magic sword’s blade reappeared, and slid forward effortlessly, straight through the Bitch’s chest.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
The Bitch screamed.
Then, as if she had fainted, she dropped her sword and fell forward against Raphtalia.
Raphtalia used her foot to flick her own sword up into her hand. Then, using the Bitch as a shield, she turned towards Ren.
“Myne!”
“Myne!”
Ren and Itsuki, then Motoyasu, all shouted.
“Sword Hero? I’m sure you realize this, but she is not dead. I’ve simply put her to sleep for a moment.”
Raphtalia held her sword against the Bitch as a threat.
“Do you think you could listen to all Mr. Naofumi has to say?”
“B…But…”
“Release your hostage! If you do not, you will be in danger. You had better stay back from Naofumi!”
Itsuki screamed, but Raphtalia regarded him coldly.
“You’d say that after taking Filo hostage? He took Melty hostage too. And you’d believe all that on a flimsy story about a supposed Brain Washing Shield?”
“Um…”
“And besides, can’t you see? Mr. Naofumi can’t move right now.”
With the Bitch unconscious, the tables seemed to have turned. I still couldn’t risk getting too close to Raphtalia though.
The reason was the relentless rain of arrows and magic falling all around me.
“Stop that right now!”
Ren shouted to the soldiers, but they didn’t seem to be listening.
“Please stop! Commander, please!”
“No! You call yourself soldiers of Melromarc?! Oh, hey! You’re the one that fought with the Shield Demon!”
The soldier that had called out for the Commander to stop was one of the soldiers who’d helped me during the last wave.
“Take your punishment now!”
Everything happened in slow motion.
Slowly but absolutely, a sword was slicing through the air straight at the soldier that spoke up for me.
It was just like with the younger princess.
I was lucky enough to have saved her, but this time I was too far away. I couldn’t make it in time.
“Stop!”
The Commander swinging his sword at a subordinate set me off. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore. I felt like I might explode.
Just then, the little tool the weapon shop owner had given me, the cover for my shield’s jewel, cracked and fell.
“Whoa!”
I didn’t know what was happening, but I was aware of a great volume of light expanding around me.
What was it? It was a circle of light centered on myself, about three meters across. It was pretty big.
What…
The attacks raining down from the soldiers could not penetrate the light. They clattered off of it and broke, ricocheting.
“Whoa!”
The sparks and flying ricocheted attacks rained down on Ren and the other heroes—including their parties. Luckily, the sparks avoided anyone associated with my party. Raphtalia, Filo, the princess, and the soldiers were not harmed.
The broken shards fell on the enemies, blackened chunks. But then they began to burn. There were so many of them, scattered so randomly, that no one could get away from them.
The tool the old guy had given me must have reacted to my shield. The black flames suggested that it had instilled my shield with a counterattack based on the Shield of Rage II. That was the only explanation I could think of anyway.
“Wh…”
“U…”
Ren and Itsuki were both suffering from the flames. The only one who could still fight was Motoyasu, and he was locked in combat with Filo.
“Hiya!”
“Everyone!”
“Damn! Naofumi! Don’t you run!”
Motoyasu understood that the situation had turned against him. He stepped away from Filo.
“Everyone regroup!”
“Okay! C’mon, Mel!”
“Okay!”
What unexpected good luck. This was our chance to escape.
But Motoyasu was still up and kicking. How could we get away from him?
Filo was still stuck in human form because of that hoop. We couldn’t get away on her. And it wasn’t like Ren and Itsuki weren’t capable of fighting anymore. The black flames had burned them, but that was just a surface wound.
“Let Myne go!”
Motoyasu threw a spear at Raphtalia, who was still using Myne as a shield.
“I don’t think so.”
“Mr. Naofumi.”
I was in front of Motoyasu in a flash, but just before Raphtalia could swing back and maneuver behind me, she lost her grip on the Bitch.
Motoyasu’s gaze immediately went to the Bitch.
She’d been our major advantage, and now we’d lost that.
I reached out to see if I could grab her again…
“Myne!”
But Motoyasu had already swept her into his arms.
Damn. She was out of our hands.
Our situation had grown steadily worse since we ran into everyone. We couldn’t fight much longer.
Honestly, if we tried we’d lose.
I was thinking it over when something rolled up against my foot.
A bomb? I immediately raised my shield to block the blast, but the bomb just emitted a stream of smoke with a soft hiss.
“Uh…”
“Wh…”
The whole area filled with smoke, and we couldn’t see anything. I took a single step, and couldn’t tell anyone apart anymore.
With everyone in such close quarters, how were we supposed to tell friend from foe?
“This way, Zir.”
“That voice! Shield Hero, follow the voice.”
Mel called out to me.
“Is it okay?”
“I think so. Just in case, have Raphtalia use her illusion magic!”
“All right!”
Mel was leading me along, I ran behind her.
“Wait! Where did you go?!”
Before we escaped, I called out to Ren.
“Ren, I’m sure you understand all this. After using all this force, can you really say that I’m the criminal here?”
“…”
“I’m using wind magic! Anyone else who can use it—help me!”
“Wait, Itsuki.”
“What is it?”
“Now we should…”
Itsuki was about to use wind magic to clear away the smoke. It sounded like Ren was trying to stop him.
Would we make it? I didn’t know, but we all ran after the voice.
When the smoke cleared, we had put a lot of distance between Ren and ourselves. And just in case, Raphtalia had cast magic back there. They were still looking for us.
That meant…
“Zir, better use this cloak too.”
The mystery voice spoke and threw a cloth over me.
“Will we make it?”
“Quiet… Let’s get moving—quietly.”
Mel took Filo’s hand and ran of silently. We followed after them. And so we were able to escape from the heroes. A short while later, the force field around me vanished. In the end it was clear that we had only been able to escape because of the gifts the old guy had left us.
This wouldn’t be the last time though. How would we escape next time? The heroes weren’t stupid. They would learn from this and come up with a new plan.
And yet, it looked like Ren was starting to suspect that things weren’t as they’d seemed. I had to hold out hope for that.
Anyway, it wasn’t any time to dwell on things. We needed to focus on running.
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