Chapter Ten: The Water Temple
We ended up spending a few peaceful days on the islands.
Filo was pretty obsessed with swimming the whole time.
We’d been on the islands for five days or so when Filo said it:
“Hey master! There’s a thing. It’s like another island! It’s red! It’s at the bottom of the ocean!”
“What?”
What was she talking about? It sounded pretty interesting though.
I suddenly recalled the red outline of the island that I’d seen against the sky. It had seemed to be glowing.
I’d just assumed it had been related to the activation event. I’d seen it pretty much every day since we’d arrived.
“Yeah! If you go out into the ocean at night, you can see it at the bottom!”
Hm . . . another island?
“Well, our leveling has pretty much stopped anyway. We might as well go check it out.”
“Are you sure?”
“We’ve got that new equipment that let’s us swim, don’t we?”
Raphtalia scrunched her nose up. She’d worn the kigurumi the previous day and hadn’t been happy about it.
The thing sure made you look like a fool, but I couldn’t argue with the stat boosts.
The drop item wasn’t all that common, but by the time the day was done we’d ended up with three of them.
So if we wanted to, we could all wear one and swim. It didn’t help Filo though.
“The bottom of the ocean . . . ?”
“What, you can’t swim?”
Big sister can swim just as well as I can!”
“Well, isn’t that something?”
I’d watched Filo swim for a few days now. She could stay underwater for quite a while. She could really hold her breath.
If Raphtalia could match that, then it was pretty impressive.
“Well I am from a fishing village, so I’m a pretty decent swimmer.”
“I guess that settles it then. Let’s go check this place out.”
“I wonder what the monsters in the ocean are like?”
“We’re pretty strong now. I’m sure we’ll be alright.”
“I hope so.”
We had never fought in the water before. Eventually we were going to have to learn how to do it.
“Ride on my back!”
Filo turned into her filolial queen form and jumped into the water.
We could climb on her back and go wherever we wanted. I guess we never really needed to use a boat.
We climbed onto her back, and she lunged forward into the surf.
“It’s down there.”
We had left the island pretty far behind and were getting out into deeper water when Filo indicated the location.
“Let’s change into the kigurumi and swim down there then.”
Fumbling on Filo’s back, we pulled the kigurumi on.
Raphtalia still wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but eventually we had the new equipment on and were ready,
“Alright, let’s dive.”
“Okay.”
“This looks so strange.”
“Too bad. This is the only equipment we have that will let us swim to the bottom.”
We grumbled about it, but a second later and we were diving below the waves.
Wow! It was incredible! We could swim with so little effort, we didn’t really need to try to hold our breath, and the littlest kick sent us moving swiftly through the water. I didn’t care how it looked. I could get used to this.
Filo pointed the way and kept on swimming downwards.
We followed her, and soon enough we saw something that appeared to be an island rising from the ocean floor below.
Had it sunk or something? It was glowing red, just like the island had been when we first approached.
We dove towards it.
Ten minutes had elapsed since we started to dive.
It was amazing that we were able to stay underwater for that long. This world really was like a game—if you had the right equipment you could basically do anything.
Even still, I felt like I was starting to approach my limit. I don’t think we’d be able to stay under for more than 20 minutes.
Luckily, we didn’t run into any monsters while we were swimming.
If we had gotten in a fight, I wasn’t totally sure what we were going to do. Could Raphtalia swing her sword under water? Before I had to worry about it any more, we arrived at the island.
It didn’t seem like there were any monsters lurking about. Besides, if we wasted time with a battle we were sure to run out of air. I looked around the island and quickly spotted something artificial. It looked like a building.
We swam over to get a better look. It seemed to be a temple of some kind.
Was it a water temple? The door was shut tight.
I reached out to touch it. When I did, the jewel in the center of my shield started to glow, and the heavy door creaked open on its own. I looked over to Raphtalia.
We were going to run out of breath soon. Should we go to the surface?
A bubble of air plopped out of the opening door. Was there air inside? I swam to the bottom and looked up, into the temple.
The surface of the water broke soon after the entrance, and it looked like we could climb into the temple to get out of the water.
I motioned for Raphtalia and Filo to follow me.
“Ha!”
“Where are we?”
“I don’t know . . . .”
We all took deep breaths and looked around to get a sense of the place. It was pretty dark, but our eyes soon adjusted. We were in a large room built from stone. The interior of the building looked dry, and the water was only there in the entrance. We walked deeper into the temple.
“It’s so dark.”
“Should I use some of my light magic?”
“Yeah.”
Raphtalia chanted a spell and the room lit up. When the room came into view, I could hardly believe my eyes.
“What the . . . .”
Large and looming in the center of the room stood a giant dragon hourglass.
To make matters even more mysterious, the top portion seemed to be nearly empty. Like it had been counting down to our entry.
What was a dragon hourglass doing in a place like this?
I remember that Fitoria had mentioned it. She’d said that waves occurred in other places too, places without people.
This must have been one of those places.
What should we do? The area might have been under Fitoria’s control,
but it didn’t seem wise to just ignore it either.
The islands were full of adventurers and tourists. If a wave happened now, the destruction would be immense.
The wave wouldn’t be confined to the island either.
The ocean all around would overflow with monsters. It would be exceedingly dangerous.
“We need to hurry back and report this to the soldiers.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
I held my shield up to the hourglass.
A light flashed from the hourglass and entered the jewel in my shield. The remaining time appeared in my field of view.
48:21
There were two days left before the countdown ended.
“There’s a dragon hourglass in the underwater temple?”
When we have back to the main island, I called an emergency meeting of the heroes.
“But that . . . .”
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you there right now.”
“I’m not calling you a liar.”
“At the bottom of the ocean? I remember a really rare quest like that in my game.”
Itsuki responded exactly how I assumed he would.
“So what do you want to do? Ignore it?”
If we ignored it, a wave of monsters would wash over the islands.
At the very least, we needed to evacuate the islands. That would do a lot to prevent loss of life.
But if what Fitoria has said was true, then the heroes had a responsibility to do something about it.
I thought that if the heroes ignored the hourglass, Fitoria might show up and kill us all.
“It’s a good chance to put our new powers to the test. I’m not against it.”
“Me neither. It’ll be a good challenge if Naofumi is telling the truth.”
“I’m not lying. I’ll take you there.”
Both Motoyasu and Itsuki were on board with going because they wanted to put there new, higher level parties to the test.
“Huh? Give me a break, who cares?”
But one hero didn’t seem interested.
It was the Sword Hero, Ren. He’d been quiet for the whole conversation. Now he said he didn’t care and acted like he was about to leave.
“Hey, haven’t we been charged with protecting the world? Are you going to turn your back on it?”
I thought that he LIKED fighting. Was he saying that he didn’t care what happened to the world one way or another? He was starting to piss me off.
I grabbed his hand before he could leave. He shook me off.
“Don’t touch me. I didn’t come here to make friends with you all. If you three think you can handle it on your own, then I’m going to leave the islands.”
That struck me as strange. Why was he acting like that?
I slipped my arms under his and grabbed him, to keep him from leaving.
I wondered if I was breaking a rule of some sort by restraining a hero.
But nothing happened. As long as I wasn’t attacking him directly I guess it was okay to restrain him.
“Let me go!”
Ren started violently writhing and tried to throw me off. What was it with him?
“Motoyasu! Itsuki! Make Naofumi stop this! I’m not going to let you force me to fight!”
Haha! I suddenly understood what was going on. It seemed like Motoyasu and Itsuki figured it out too.
“Ren, you don’t know how to swim, do you?”
“What? No! That’s not it! Fine. If you want me to come so badly, I will. I’ll do it for you. Be grateful.”
He couldn't swim, so of course he didn’t want to go to an underwater temple. And if a wave of destruction was going to come to the islands, he wanted to make sure that he was somewhere else.
That had to be it.
Ren was still refusing, and it looked like he was preparing to fight back in earnest.
“Naofumi, you better let me go before you get hurt. “ “Go ahead and try.”
“ARRRRRGGGGH!”
He thrashed violently and tried to throw me off, but I had him from behind and he couldn’t get at me.
Was he really that scared of the water?
“What are you going to do?”
“Are you really afraid of the water? Naofumi, just drag him into the ocean and let’s go.”
“Sure.”
I couldn’t believe I was agreeing with Motoyasu, but I was. We had to see if Ren was lying.
If he tried to look cool and pretend that he could swim when he really couldn’t we’d end up in deep trouble by the time we got to the water temple.
“Hey! Stop it! I can swim, so just let me go!”
“Fine.”
I dragged Ren over to the docks.
“Itsuki, you can swim, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you wouldn’t lie like Ren here, would you? You’ll have to prove it eventually.”
“That’s fine.”
“Let me goooooo!”
“Ren is always acting so cool. How lame is it that he can’t swim?!”
Motoyasu was gloating and laughing at Ren.
“I . . . I CAN swim.”
“Then show us.”
I loosened my grip on him, and Motoyasu kicked Ren off the pier and into the water.
“?!”
With a pathetic look on his face, Ren fell straight into the water, headfirst.
Bubbles came floating to the surface behind him, but Ren went on sinking.
“ . . . .”
“ . . . .”
“He’s not coming up, is he?”
“Oh well.”
I jumped into the water after him. The water wasn’t deep at all, but Ren was randomly struggling at the bottom.
I slipped my arms around him and pulled him up. The idiot. He’d drown in four feet of water!
“Upah! You idiots! Why are you doing this!?”
Ren was furious, but not intimidating at all.
“You didn’t waste a minute drowning.”
He hadn’t even been in the water 30 seconds.
He could have just stood up, but he just let himself sink—it was a scene I wouldn’t soon forget.
“Doesn’t look like Ren is going to be much help.”
“That’s not good for the rest of us.”
It was a serious loss to lose one of our main offensive heroes.
“I can swim!”
“You still say that after what we all just saw?
We weren’t going to be able to take him with us, which meant that we were going to have to think about another strategy.
“When the waves come, we’ll have to be in a boat or something. Then we can leave Ren in the boat any time we have to be in the water.”
He was going to be a burden, but if we were in a boat, then he wouldn’t be completely useless.
“Who knows what’s going to happen. But let’s plan on using the boat.”
“Good idea.”
“What about the rest of you. I hope you’ve realized that you can add support troops to your party during the waves.”
Motoyasu and Itsuki both winced.
I wasn’t making fun of them or anything. I was just telling them the truth.
“Yes, we understand.”
“Of course we know that!”
“Then let’s talk strategy. What sort of formation are you thinking of using? It will depend on the situation, but what sort of patterns do you have in mind?”
“Naofumi, you sound like you know your stuff.”
“Are you three still thinking of these huge scale battles as if they were the exact same thing you’ve encountered in the games you know?”
If I was being honest, I was an otaku myself.
So I had a ton of knowledge about event battles in MMOs.
It’s not like I was the strongest player, or that I’d maxed out my stats or anything like that, but I did really enjoy these exciting events when they happened online.
I used to make my own guilds and teams. I recruited all the players by myself. I really enjoyed those sorts of events, and so I felt like I knew how to play them most effectively. They were one of my favorite parts of online games.
The waves of destruction did seem to have a lot in common with those sorts of events.
“I have experience with things like this from games I’ve played, but the mechanics are not the exact same. It sounds like these sorts of events were part of the games that you all are used to.”
“I already told you that I have experience with this stuff.”
Motoyasu disagreed—not that I really cared.
Motoyasu might have had experience of a sort, but it sounded like he had never been in charge. He’s always let the other players figure things out.
He might as well have not known anything at all.
“Motoyasu, your experience was always just as a participator, right? Have you ever fought in a guild of like 50, or a hundred people?”
“No . . . are you saying that you have?”
“Yeah.”
I had once set up and run the third most powerful guild on a server.
“Really?”
“If you think I’m lying, just try to remember what happened during the last wave. Pretty much all the villagers escaped unharmed.”
Itsuki and Motoyasu shot me some disgruntled looks. Whatever, I was only stating the facts.
They both knew plenty about the world, but that didn’t mean that they were experienced.
Diplomacy was necessary, even in games. Equipment and leveling could only take you so far. You needed an instinct for command.
“I can figure out the basics and tell people what to do. But I think that there are people in this world that know better than we do, so I’d rather just leave it up to them.”
They were still thinking of it as a game. How much use were they going to be in a real battle? At the end of the day, a game is just a game.
Once formations were formed, we’d have to deal with offense, retreats, and holding patterns. Just getting an army together wasn’t the end of the job. People that played these games were not natural soldiers.
There was no guarantee that the people you played with would respect your commands, so there was always an element of unpredictability due to the individual players. All you could really do was point out weaknesses and time your attacks.
But in this world, there were actual soldiers.
If you tried to utilize actual troops the same way that you used online gamers, you weren’t going to get the same result.
And besides, there were rules that governed behavior in games that weren’t applicable here. In this world, you could do anything.
But in this case, the waves of destruction were a mystery—you never knew quite what to expect when the time came.
Furthermore, there were way more classes and jobs here than there were in games. So the possibilities were far more varied. For example, I was used to online battle events where large armies tried to control the opposing team’s fort. The walls around the fort were indestructible, so you couldn’t destroy the fort by breaking down its defenses.
But here, I was sure that you could break down a wall if you were strong enough. If so, then it would require a different strategy all together.
“We should call for reinforcements from Melromarc. We’ll have to use the formation function to get them to participate in the battle. They will be really useful because they understand how to fight in this world.”
“Alright. I’m starting to understand.”
“That’s a very roundabout way of saying that you want to depend on the castle troops.”
He wasn’t wrong. But it’s not like I could hope to depend on the other heroes. Hadn’t they realized yet that they weren’t going to be able to face down the waves on their own?
“Anyway, here’s how I see it. We call for reinforcements, but we have to act as the high level players in the battle. We have to lead the charge and break through the defenses. We need to assume that we are the secret weapon here. You got that?”
“Yes.”
“I hate to admit it, but you’re right.”
“I can swim!”
“Ren, are you still harping on that? Regardless, we are going to the water temple, so we’ll find out soon enough how well you can swim.”
“What? You want me to come with you? I thought I was supposed to go call for reinforcements?!”
“Nope, here’s a kigurumi. Wear it. I’ve got three.”
“What is that thing?!”
Motoyasu burst out laughing when he saw the pekkul kigurumi.
“I know it looks stupid, but it gives you great abilities when you’re in the water. Didn’t you guys get the drop items from the island bosses?”
“Yes, but I received a risuka kigurumi.”
“Yeah, and I got a usauni kigurumi.”
“Mine was an inult kigurumi.”
There was no overlap at all. I wanted to laugh. I pictured us all wearing the different kigurumi and it was hard not to smile.
The fact that they were actually good pieces of equipment only made it worse somehow. Raphtalia had really resisted wearing one too.
“Anyway, we all received the drops, but I certainly didn’t end up with THREE of them.”
“Sure, the bosses didn’t appear all that frequently, but they were just weaklings, so eventually I ended up with three.”
“Weren’t they sort of strong though? I mean, they WERE the island bosses.”
“Really?”
What was that supposed to mean. They’d thought those monsters were strong? That didn't bode well.
“Anyway, let’s go.”
In the end, we all jumped into the water to go to the water temple, but when Ren tried to swim a clanging sound indicated that he wasn’t able to. He finally admitted that he didn’t know how. Luckily enough there was a convenient magic spell that enabled him to breath underwater for an hour, so we were able to get him down to the temple in the end.
One of the magic-using castle soldiers came with us just to confirm the existence of the hourglass.
Unfortunately the magic wasn’t for use in battle, so it wasn’t effective if you moved too quickly. That meant it didn’t work where the current was strong or when the water got too deep.
The spell stopped working pretty much immediately when we got down to the temple. Had it cut out any earlier, Ren would have drowned.
Motoyasu and Itsuki had a blast laughing at the pekkul kigurumi, but Ren didn’t make any jokes about them at all.
So we began to prepare for the approaching wave.
“So there aren’t any sailors?’
“Not really.”
We were talking strategy with the earl and the soldiers the castle had sent, and there weren’t any sailors in the bunch.”
I didn’t think that the heroes were going to be very much help during the battle this time, so I was going to be acting as commander of the troops. I was hoping that some actual commanders of actual wars would be around to help.
“There are a number of sailors here on the islands that can help, but it doesn’t look like the castle is going to be able to send us much more support. The army commander has agreed to help, but they were hoping that a hero would come to the castle as a representative.”
“Heh. I’ll see what I can do.”
A hero could go back to the castle and still be transported here for the wave as long as they had registered the location.
But who knew if they would be able to prepare the boats and troops in time.
“If the battle will be on the ocean, then we won’t be able to evacuate, which means we won’t need troops for that job.”
“We are planning on the battle taking place on the sea.”
“I’ll leave that up to you then. Who knows what sort of monsters will come out of the water though, so make sure you stay on your toes.”
“Very well. We also have rucolu explosive barrels prepared. Normally they are banned due to fishing laws.”
“Rucolu barrels?”
“Yes. Barrels filled with rucolu that we detonate in the water. It turns the water into alcohol and kills any monsters in the area.”
Heh. I wasn’t able to attack myself, so it was always interesting to hear the sorts of offensive measures that people came up with.
That was one that I’d never considered.
If that worked, it sounded like it would probably come in handy.
“What about the adventurers in town? Some of them are probably itching for a battle anyway.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, good idea. Just make sure you pick good ones.”
There was no reason to try and fight the battle with soldiers alone. When I had been in the first wave, a lot of adventurers had helped out. We needed to use whatever resources we had if we wanted to survive.
The fact that the islands were in the middle of an activation event was sort of good news for us, because it meant there would be more high-level adventurers in town.
“The orders have already been sent out.”
“Thanks.
I thought back about the last wave we’d fought it. If this one was anything like the last time, there was a good chance we would run into Glass again.
We’d leveled up a lot in the interim though.
I really wanted to think that we were powerful enough to win this time, but I couldn’t pretend that was a done deal. She’d been very powerful.
That evening, we went around the island and posted flyers to recruit adventurers.
We appealed to people that wanted to level up in the wave and test themselves.
I was waiting at the dock for a ship to arrive with supplies when L’Arc and Therese showed up.
“Hey, Shield Kiddo. Where are you off to?”
“Nowhere fun. Unfortunately this is all work.”
In the end, I’d been chosen to go back to the castle and register the queen and her troops for teleportation. We’d discussed just sending for more troops, but there wasn’t enough time for them all to get here. So we would have to use the teleport skill at the hourglass.
Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield conditions met!
Dragon Hourglass Sand Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: skill “Portal Shield.”
The problem was that the activation event had rendered the teleportation impossible.
According the Motoyasu and the others, the first teleportation point was the room where we were first summoned. So if I left the range of the activation event, I’d be transported to the castle to add the queen to our formation.
“Still, I’ll be fighting in the wave.”
I sighed. I really didn’t want to fight if I didn’t have to, but I didn’t really have a choice.
“Oh hey, now that you mention it, we signed up to battle in the wave too!”
“Oh yeah?”
I knew I could depend on them. They were powerful enough to take out the waves of lesser monsters on their own.
I was glad to hear they were going to help. It would make it all a little easier.
“The bracelet that you made me can shoot fire!”
Therese was clearly still excited by it all.
“She still hasn’t calmed down about it.”
I was glad that she liked it, but if she didn’t take the battle seriously she’d end up dead—and that wouldn’t help any of us.
“I’ll see you in the wave then.”
“Glad to fight with you again, kiddo.”
“We’re counting on you.”
“No problem!”
We boarded a boat headed for Melromarc harbor and set off into the night.
The ship was actually really crowded. Apparently there were plenty of people that had heard the wave was coming, and they were trying to get off the islands before they got mixed up in the chaos.
Still, at least we’d been given a private room this time, so it was an easier journey than the trip over had been.
Every once and a while I would try to use the Portal Shield skill, but it wasn’t working yet.
The sun had sunk long ago, and we were getting into the later hours of the evening when…
“Portal Shield!”
This time, the icon indicating that it wasn’t going to work vanished, and I was able to shout out a destination or choose from a list of registered places.
Teleport ↑
Teleport location memory.
Be conscious of teleportation.
Melromarc, Summoning Room.
I assumed it was the room I’d originally been summoned to—what else could it mean?
A circle appeared around me on the ground, indicating the range of the spell.
I could select who else would be teleported with me. Which meant I could also select who DIDN’T get teleported.
But the range of the skill was actually really big. Why couldn’t it just be people I was touching, or something like that? It was probably so that the spell could be used as an emergency escape measure.
When the high priest had trapped the other heroes, why hadn’t they used it?
“Alright, I’m using the teleport skill.”
“Okay!”
The words “Melromarc, Summoning Room” appeared in the air before me, and the same time a ghostly, half transparent view of the room also came into view.
I recognized it as the room I’d been summoned to all those months ago.
“Alright!”
I pulled Raphtalia and Filo over to where I was standing and activated the skill on the deck of the boat.
There was a swift rush of wind, and the scenery around us instantly changed. We were in a dark room that smelled of dirt.
I remembered having stood in that same place.
The room was empty. I guess they weren’t in the middle of a ceremony though, so I should have expected that.
“Amazing. That was instantaneous.”
“Wow! We’re back at the castle!”
“It sure looks like it.”
“Mel-chan!”
Filo skipped merrily out of the room.
We called to some soldiers that had been posted in the hallway and requested an audience with the queen.
They had already received word from the islands, and the queen had been waiting for us.
We spent the night at the castle, and when morning came we immediately began preparing for the wave.
The queen had prepared a whole warehouse full of the materials I’d requested before leaving for the islands. She said she would continue to have more sent to us for the duration of our stay on Cal Mira.
“Then I won’t hold back in using them.”
I’d been thinking that I hadn’t powered up enough anyway.
Still, I hadn’t run into any real trouble while we’d been leveling up, which made me think that my previous power up session had been very useful.
I picked out the shield I wanted to use during the wave.
Soul Eater Shield (awakened) +6 35/35 SR: abilities locked: equip bonus: skill “second shield” spirit resistance (medium), spirit attack resistance (medium) SP up: special effect soul eat SP recovery (weak), drain null, wall escape, undead control
mastery level 60: item enchantment level 7 SP 10% up
porcupine spirit counter efficacy up defense 50
status enchantment strength 30+
After powering up the shield I could hardly believe how powerful it had become. It was now even stronger than the Chimera Viper Shield.
Maybe it’s because I got the shield from the last wave boss, but it seemed to respond more dramatically to powering up.
The special effects drain null, wall escape, and undead control all appeared once the shield was awakened.
Wall escape meant that you could pass through solid objects, but to pass through a single wall would use the entirety of your SP points. I’d also only tried it on a very thin wall, and I’d barely made it through, so I was a little worried about what would happen were I to try using it on a thicker wall. Undead control, I assumed, would allow the user to control undead-type monsters. I’d have to try it out to be sure though.
According to the numbers, my defense stat was now four times higher than it had been.
Finally, even though I would only use it if I were absolutely forced to, I decided to try powering up the Wrath Shield.
I really wanted to avoid using it if possible, since I was still cursed from the last time.
I’d healed a lot since then, but I still wasn’t back to normal.
Wrath Shield III (Awakened) +7 50/50 SR: abilities locked: equip bonus: skill “change shield (attack)”, “iron maiden”, “blood sacrifice” special effect: dark curse burning S, strength up, dragon rage, howl, familial rage, magic sharing, robe of rage (medium)
Mastery Level 0
Apparently you could use items or spirit enchantments on shields that hadn’t been unlocked yet. It was the same for the mastery level. I don’t think it was even possible to unlock the Wrath Shield.
But the stat books were impressive.
If I switched to it in battle, I felt like it would completely take over my consciousness, which scared me.
Morning came, and the timer flashing in my periphery was much lower than it had been.
00:20
I think I’d done all I could by way of preparation.
The other heroes should be waiting on the boat. The only question left was where we would be teleported to.
Just to be safe I had a boat prepared for us and ordered it set aside in a nearby river. It was a small thing, only useful in a river, and it wasn’t outfitted with sails.
But that just meant that we could shave off all the time it would take to load a larger boat.
“Mr. Naofumi?”
Raphtalia came walking over with the queen.
“Mr. Iwatani, the preparations are complete.”
“Is this your first time participating in a wave battle?” “I have participated in a battle before, but it was in a different country. I have a basic understanding of the battle strategy.” “Great.” “Yes. While it is still a little early for this type of thing, perhaps we should do something to raise the morale of the gathered troops?” She was right. If the soldiers weren’t fully motivated, then there would be more casualties than necessary. “Everyone! We must keep the destruction to an absolute minimum during the battle!” “Yes my queen!” The gathered crowd snapped to attention when the queen spoke. I hoped the other heroes were doing something similar.
00:10
There were ten minutes left. “Now it comes down to location. Will we be on the ocean or on an island?” We didn’t know exactly what we were going to be facing. That was why we needed to prepare for all possibilities. “Fighting on the sea may prove difficult.” “I know.”
We didn’t really have any experience fighting on the water yet.
I imagined that simply swinging a sword through the water would be more difficult than we might expect. If so, we’d have to try using other weapons.
As for Filo, I’d seen her take out monsters in the water before, so I was pretty confident about her abilities.
If we were in the water, then we didn’t even have the ground to depend on. An attack could come from any direction.
I was hoping that I could use shooting star shield to buy us some time, but I didn’t know if it would be effective against the powerful monsters that tended to appear during the waves.
“Raphtalia’s right. This might be a really tough battle.”
“If only Sadeena were here. She’d know what to do.”
“Who’s that?”
“She fished for my village. She was like an older sister to me.”
“Oh yeah? Was she a good swimmer?”
“She was the best in the village.”
“Was she the same type of demi-human as you?”
“No . . . she was an aquatic type.”
I could picture it now. She would have had unique swimming skills. Raphtalia was right. I wished Sadeena were here.
But this was no time for daydreaming.
“I hope she’s still alive.”
“Me too.”
I forced the thought out of my mind. We had other things to focus on now. The time was almost here. I raised my hand and made an announcement. “If we end up on land then your priority is to split up and protect the civilians. If we end up on the ocean, then we need to get to the larger ships and support the heroes!” “Yes sir!” I turned to Raphtalia and Filo. “This is the third wave we’ve fought in. Let’s power through!
Everything will be fine!” “Yes! And we’ll keep the casualties to an absolute minimum!” “Imma do my best!”
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