Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 6

Chapter Six: The Reformed

“Hyaaa!” The woman named Tsugumi raised the spear over her head and swung it in a circle. She didn’t actually hit anyone with it, but the motion produced a shockwave powerful enough to send Raphtalia and Yomogi flying.
“Ugh . . .”
“Uh . . .”
Both of them took the brunt of the impact, and were bleeding all over.
This wasn’t good. I’d tried to defend them, but I wasn’t fast enough.
Judging from the battle we’d had with Yomogi, I assumed that the spear was making her attacks more powerful. Yomogi didn’t seem as imposing now, without her special sword.
But now Tsugumi was faster and stronger than Raphtalia. Her abilities were on par with Eclair—maybe even better. She was probably as good as Raphtalia had been before she was chosen to wield the katana of the vassal weapons.
Yeah, she was pretty strong. Those that held a vassal weapon could improve the growth stats of their party members. I was guessing that these women had gotten a boost from Kyo.
They were strong, but that didn’t mean that victory was certain—not yet.
Filo had always been my trump card, the back-up surprise when things got rough for Raphtalia.
 
Raphtalia had just gotten her hands on the katana recently, and she had already grown so powerful that she was almost as strong as Glass. If this woman was able to send her flying with a simple swipe of her spear, she must have been pretty powerful too.
Considering how easily she’d parried their attacks, we’d be in trouble if she hit us with a skill, or a technique, or whatever. I’d try to block it, but who knew if I’d be able to?
Regardless, there was another problem we had to face first.
“That weapon . . . Kyo must have made that.” Yomogi muttered, her face pale.
Had she finally lost faith in him? Was she just afraid of the weapon? It was hard to say, but she was definitely unnerved.
“Calm down,” Raphtalia said.
Yomogi snapped back to reality, and shook her head, “Where did you get that weapon ?! ”
“Don’t you know? Kyo gave it to me as a way to ensure the departure of the holy heroes and your vassal weapon holding friends.”
Yomogi shook her head in disbelief, “Lies! Even if that’s true, you must know how dangerous that weapon is! Kyo must have given it to you without realizing the danger it put you in!”
“Kiddo, what do you know about that weapon?” L’Arc asked, parrying one of the beast-woman’s attacks.
It wasn’t the time or place to sit down and give a lecture about the weapon, but if it worked like Yomogi’s sword, we were all in serious trouble.
 
We had to find a way to get rid of it without setting it off.
“That thing was probably made with energy he took from the Spirit Tortoise—it’s a monster. It will give you unbelievable power when you wield it, but it has a mind of its own, and pretty soon it will go on a rampage and explode.”
Whether the rampage and explosion were part of the design or a result of an experiment was hard to say. But I was sure of one thing: Kyo had taken the Spirit Tortoise familiars (mimic type) and found a way to turn them into weapons.
“There’s still time! I had one of those weapons too, and it nearly killed me. You have to let it go!”
Tsugumi answered Yomogi’s warning with an attack.
I immediately deployed Shooting Star Shield, and followed that with Air Strike Shield to protect her.
“Ha!”
“Ugh . . .”
The attack shattered the barrier and the Air Strike shield, slamming into my shield with a burst of sparks. Then it broke the defense level of the shield and the armor I was wearing took a little damage. The power of that weapon was monstrous!
We had a real problem on our hands.
“Ha!”
“To prove that Kyo is right, you mustn’t use that weapon! The Kyo that
I know wouldn’t want you to do this!”
 
Tsugumi was off her guard after I blocked her attack, so Yomogi and Raphtalia rushed to attack. But Tsugumi was too fast, and dodged at the last second.
“You’ll die here tonight!”
Damn it . . .
“Second Shield!”
I quickly blocked the attack with Second Shield, maneuvered around her spear, and caught the handle between my arm and torso, pushing her back and off balance.
Luckily, I’d learned a thing or two about fighting a spear-wielding opponent when dealing with Motoyasu. I’d only imagined doing that move before, but it ended up working.
Spears are best for keeping the enemy at a distance, so if you got up close, the spear became a liability—you could only use the shaft.
To a degree . . . I was somehow able to restrain her.
“Not so fast!” she shouted.
Even the handle could be a weapon with the right amount of attack power. It really hurt.
“Therese!”
I didn’t have time to cast spells, so I’d need to rely on Therese for support.
“Great power in these stones, hear my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give them the power of unshakeable protection!”
 
“Shining Stones: Hardened Protection!”
Therese’s spell took effect, and I felt my defense rating rise.
The pain disappeared almost entirely. Therese’s magic must have worked by multiplying my stats, so if my defense rating was already high, then her spell worked even better.
“Ah, so you’re tougher now? You otherworldly hero! Kyo said that you were useless aside from defense, but you sure are annoying!”
I guess they’d been gossiping about me. I hope they’d heard about my counter effects.
Too bad she didn’t just drop the spear and run away. I really would have preferred that.
“Master!”
“Rafu!”
Filo and Raph-chan jumped at Tsugumi.
“Hey, what are you—”
“How irritating!” Tsugumi shouted, swiping at them with her beast hand.
“Yikes!”
“Rafu!”
Before Tsugumi could slice at them with her claws they both disappeared in a puff of smoke. Where did they go?”
“That was close!”
Filo reappeared a short distance away, carrying Raph-chan.
“Rafufu!”
 
I guess they used Raph-chan’s illusion magic to escape just in time.
“Be careful, you two. You’re not strong enough for this yet.”
“We’re okay, master! We can dodge that lady’s attacks!”
I guess Filo could use haikuikku if she needed to. She’d have to charge up her magic power, but she could also fight in that energy-conserving mode that Fitoria taught her.
But this wasn’t the time. The enemy was too dangerous.
“Charge up!”
Both of them jumped onto my shoulders.
“We can get stronger if we ride on your shoulders for a bit!”
Ah, right. That must be what abilities increase while carrying (medium) did.
Hopefully it would come in handy.
“Tsugumi!”
The group of women all focused on me now, deciding I was the leader of the group.
“Better watch out, Kiddo, looks like they’ve got it out for you!”
“I guess so. I won’t make it easy on them!”
“Indeed. We cannot afford the possibility of your loss, Naofumi. I have many gemstones that require your skilled attention,” Therese exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?” I barked. I wasn’t sure I liked the way Therese was thinking. L’Arc better rein her in.
Anyway, back to business.
“Feh . . .” Rishia whimpered, tossing an ofuda.
 
“Wh . . .”
“What ?! ”
It fluttered helplessly from her hands and hit one of the beast women, prompting a yelp of surprise. It might actually come in handy. It looked really weak and pathetic, so they would probably ignore it—only for it come back and bite them later.
Anyway, I still had a hold on Tsugumi’s spear, but I didn’t know how long I could keep it. With my boosted defense, I was hoping to twist her to the ground. But I didn’t have much hope that it would work. Come to think of it, I don’t think I had pulled it off since the Cal Mira islands.
Regardless, I was thinking it over when Tsugumi tightened her grip on the spear, and its point started to flash behind me. The point of the spear snapped and cracked behind me, and it started to feel like it was burning me.
I’d been through this before! When I was fighting the high priest!
He’d held a replica of the holy weapons. His attacks had burned just like this.
There was only one thing to do.
“Filo! Get out of here and prepare yourself!”
“Okay!”
“Rafu!”
Filo knew what I meant. She grabbed Raph-chan and flew off.
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Kiddo, are you doing what I think you’re doing ?! Everyone get away!”
“What? What’s happening?” Kizuna shouted as L’Arc pulled her away with him.
 
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“It’ll be okay! Raphtalia, help protect Yomogi and Filo!”
I hadn’t done this in a long time, but I didn’t have any other way to survive this beast-woman’s attacks.
As for unlocking the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield, I may have finally been able to do it in this world, but the Shield of Wrath was still stronger.
I knew it was risky, but I had to protect everyone from the attack this lady was about to unleash, and I didn’t have any other ideas.
I had to do it. I readied my shield and prepared to use the most forbidden power I had.
The Shield of Wrath—I’m forced to turn to you again.
I didn’t want to do this!
“Wh . . . What?”
“What’s the otherworldly hero up to now?” Yomogi shouted as L’Arc pulled her and Raphtalia out of harm’s way.
“Kiddo just switched to a weapon that will hurt him, but it’s strong enough to stop their attacks.”
“Hurt him? But . . .”
“Has Kyo used it?”
The women regrouped and came rushing at us, seeing Kizuna and Raphtalia fleeing as an opportunity. They attacked in wave after wave.
“Arrrhhhh!”
“Take that! Piercing shot!”
 
I had my grip on the shaft of the spear, but the spear point pushed against my shield, unleashing a deadly skill. A burst of energy shot out of the spear. But I was able to hold it off.
Like trying to stick your finger in a faucet to stop the water, the energy beams burst out anyway. The light shot through the castle walls, and there was a crater left on the ground around us afterward. But that was the end of it.
“ARRHHHHH!” Tsugumi roared, getting ready to blast me away.
I had to fill her with despair. I had to make her think she had no hope for victory.
The spear started to glow, and the eyeball set in the handle opened and looked around in short, erratic jerks.
“Everyone! Focus your attack on him!”
“Right!” they all shouted together.
“Come at me then!”
If they attacked me, they weren’t going to like what happened next.
I pulled on the spear and spun it around, grazing the rushing attackers.
“Ahhhh!”
“Ugh!”
It had barely touched them, but they took plenty of damage. Luckily for them, half of their bodies had been reformed with monster parts, so they were a bit singed, but they were fine. A little healing magic would heal them.
“You’re damn persistent.”
“All I have is a shield. I have to do what I can.”
 
Locked neck and neck with her, I was still able to continue to hold off Tsugumi’s energy attacks.
But, finally, the skill seemed to run out of steam. There was a deflating hiss, and smoke streamed from the tip of her spear.
“Give up already!”
I had to get this fight over with.
“No thanks!”
“Then you’ll pay for it!”
I’d pay them back for all the pain they’ve caused—and more.
“Therese! Get a defense spell on us! Filo, you help! Get everyone you can on this! Protect everyone!”
“Alright!” Therese shouted. She called some other soldiers over and they all began to summon a protective barrier.
The flames might’ve been so powerful they would’ve turned everything to ash. But, I’d tried my best during the battle with Glass, and she had survived. So, I just wanted to make sure I didn’t do any unnecessary damage. I used Air Strike Shield just in case.
“Ugh!”
The shield was starting to take over my mind. A deep hatred burned in my head, telling me to kill everyone.
But there were people I had to protect—wanted to protect.
Not only Raphtalia and Filo.
After the battle with the high priest, so many things had happened. There were more people on my side now—more people that needed my protection. The more I cared about, the less I could use this shield.
 
During the battle with the Spirit Tortoise, Ost had taken the rage and hatred from the shield and made it into power, power that made the shield even stronger.
Yes . . . now my rage had a direction. I didn’t just hate the whole world. It was focused on a single point . . .
To protect my friends, I had to control my rage.
Rage, hate, disgust, loathing, resentment, anger . . .
They weren’t for everyone. I had to focus them on those in front of me.
“AAAAGHHHHH!”
Dark Curse Burning S activated, roaring forth from my shield.
“I thought he could only defend ?! ”
“Haven’t you been paying attention? Of course I can counter attack!”
Black flames leapt from my shield, fanning out before me and rushing over the enemy.
“Ahhhhhh!”
“Arrrughgh!”
I had never felt such power in these detestable flames before. They were stronger than they had ever been, roaring in my ears as they burned everything before me.
“Whoa . . .”
“So that’s . . . That’s Naofumi’s forbidden attack . . .”

“It’s a bit different from yours, isn’t it? Pretty dangerous. Glass needed soul-healing water to stand up to it.”
 
“Enough chitchat! Fight!”
I felt the hatred wane, but I knew that it would come back. That’s how the attack worked.
Just withstanding it was almost enough to drive me crazy. It was a battle I had to fight with myself. But I had friends now, Raphtalia, Filo, and the others. I had to protect them. It might sound a little cheesy, but if I wanted to protect my friends, I couldn’t allow myself to be swallowed by the hate.
“Damn it! We’re not giving up!”
Even after being hit with an attack like that, she still refused to drop the spear.
How was I supposed to stop someone so obsessed?
Trash #2 was a real creep, from what I knew about him. But if there were all these people that still felt strongly for him, I guess he must have done some good things in his life too. I guess if everything had gone how he wanted it to, his inventions might never have been used, and all these women wouldn’t have ended up the way they did.
Besides, Glass did warn him at the end. Don’t move, she said.
He’s the one who ignored the warning, and that’s why he died. Why did they insist on making all of this our fault?
Ah! The Shield of Wrath was taking over my mind again.
I had to stay on my toes. I couldn’t afford to get lost in the hate.
 
 
“More power! More! Enough to destroy these fools!”
The burned enemies slowly rose to their feet.
As if to regenerate what they lost to the flames, the beast side of their bodies grew and spread.
Damn it! How much did I have to burn them to get them to stay down?
“Hyaaaaa!”
Not good! Just like what had happened with Yomogi, the spear was glowing with heat, and tentacle-like vines whipped out and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm.
But Tsugumi didn’t seem to mind. Maybe it was because of her beast-half?
What was I supposed to do? Kizuna cut the vines last time, but . . .
“Blood Flower Strike!”
Kizuna was on her in a flash. She sliced through the vines and fell back to safety. But the vines grew back almost immediately and wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm again.
Did she really not notice or care what was happening?
The power she emitted steadily grew stronger. I . . . can’t hold it off much longer!
“This is the end!”
The tip of her spear suddenly shot . . . yes, shot stars!

There was no doubt in my mind. This weapon of hers was a copy of Motoyasu’s spear.
 
This attack was probably Shooting Star Spear.
“Ahaha! That should end it! Die!”
She wrenched the spear free from my grip and pointed it at me, ready to shoot a beam, when . . .
There was an awful sound, like the tearing of flesh.
“Gyaaaaahhhh!”
The smile disappeared from her face as Tsugumi fell to the floor. She wriggled and writhed.
“Tsugumi ?! ”
“What’s happening ?! ”
The other women ran over to Tsugumi where she lay on the ground.
“Ahhh! Ag . . . argh!”
She twitched violently as her eyes rolled back into her head.
Was it the spear that was doing this?
Before I even had the time to wonder, the women that were locked in battle with Raphtalia and L’Arc stopped fighting and began to groan. It was like their medicine had suddenly worn off.
“What the hell is going on?”
“You think WE did this?” The cursed flames had the special effect of delaying any restorative effects for a while—but that wouldn’t have been enough to cause this.
“You don’t think this has anything to do with those creepy animal bodies of yours?” Kizuna asked.
But there wasn’t any time to waste on that.
 
“Kizuna, they aren’t our biggest problem right now.”
“You’re right!”
The spear was still wrapped around Tsugumi’s arm as she writhed on the ground. It was sucking all of her power, just like it had done with Yomogi. That meant that it was probably just about ready to explode.
Damn it! Did we even have time to throw it?
I was worried about that crystalline eyeball in the handle. It was shining brighter than Yomogi’s sword had, which made me fear that the explosion was going to be bigger than last time.
“Kizuna! Wait!”
“What ?! ”
“Don’t cut the vines yet. It might trigger the explosion.”
I hadn’t known what to look out for during the fight with Yomogi, but looking back on it now, the vines may have caused it.
“Maybe it won’t explode as long as it is sucking energy out of her.”
“Are you saying we should just leave her like this?”
She had a point. If she was twitching on the ground, then she was probably almost out of energy anyway. If we weren’t going to be cruel, we’d have to get them to a safe place before we let the thing explode.
Kizuna and Raphtalia probably wouldn’t like that plan. I wasn’t too fond of it either, but we didn’t have many options.
There wasn’t enough time to have a discussion either way.
“Ahhhh!” they all shouted in pain. Then they crawled to their feet like
beasts and began to howl and shout.
 
Falling on all fours, they started to walk and stalk around the battlefield like the animals they were based on.
“Damn. What the hell is going on with these people ?! ” L’Arc shouted as he worked with Raphtalia and Yomogi to control the raging beasts.
They didn’t move with intelligence, or with a plan, but they were faster and harder to predict than before.
“Fehh . . .”
“Rafu!”
Raph-chan puffed up her tail and cast a spell on the marauding beast women. They all turned to an empty area of the battlefield and rushed to attack it. Raph-chan must have fooled them with some kind of illusion magic. Judging from what I knew about games, illusion magic tended to work best against wild enemies. Of course, on the other hand, there were enemies that it didn’t work against at all.
“Stop! Look at what is happening to Tsugumi! Abandon your revenge and do what you can to help her!”
But they weren’t listening—or they had lost the ability to listen.
“You all better calm down. That might happen to you next. Better to save your strength.”
Then they all seemed to calm down, as if they had lost the will to fight.
“That’s it. The ones that are freaking out the most were the most belligerent ones.”
“. . .”
“Ahhh . . . Ah . . .”
 
Like a sponge being squeezed, Tsugumi shriveled up before our very eyes. Her cheeks sunk in over her bones, and she looked like a mummy.
It was probably happening because of a combination of two things. The irrational raging that came from her twisted animal side, and that creepy spear thing her hands. Speaking of the spear, I had no doubt that it would explode once it finished sucking the life out of her.
“I can’t use portal.”
But there is another way I can use portal.
The problem was that it only worked with party members, but even if I didn’t set it to teleport myself, I could still open a portal to anywhere I’d been before. I had hoped that I could use it to do something about the spear and Tsumugi, but it didn’t work if she wasn’t already in my party.
And there was another problem. The beast half of her body was related to the White Tiger, which was having a jamming effect on my ability to use portal too.
There was no good way out.
But I had another idea.
“Cast support magic on her! Don’t forget to replenish her magic and SP!”
“What are you thinking ?! ”
“We’re going to bring her somewhere away from everyone and then run for it. If we don’t, that weapon will kill us all when it explodes.”
“But what about Tsugumi ?! ”
“We’ll think of something as we buy ourselves some time.”
 
But before I could finish my thought, a creepy laugh echoed over the battlefield. It came from the eyeball in the spear.
“You think . . . You can . . . get away?”
The voice cut in and out, but it clearly belonged to Kyo.
He didn’t have to tell me. I knew we were out of time.
“Seems . . . failed . . . plenty to get rid of you . . . still . . . this is the . . . ! ”
There was a deafening clang, and the whole spear began to glow, just like what had happened with Yomogi.
“Kyo! It can’t be! This was your plan all along?” Yomogi shouted, but Kyo’s voice had already vanished. I guess he had cut it off from his side.
The spear was shining much brighter than Yomogi’s sword had. It was definitely about to explode.
“Ha!” Kizuna shouted, dashing forward to cut through the vines.
I couldn’t afford to stand back and watch.
I grabbed the spear and tried to throw it as high above our heads as I could. I knew that it was right about to explode.
We weren’t going to make it. I felt like a soldier trying to throw back a grenade.
What should I do? What COULD I do?
Time seemed to slow down.
Everyone was going to die.
From what I could tell, the monster that took the form of the spear seemed to have died before it could explode. The same thing had happened with Yomogi back at the house. I felt—and I’m not sure why—like maybe I could absorb it into my shield.
 
Back at the house I had prioritized throwing the sword away, but I knew that there wasn’t time for that now.
There was only one thing left to try. I let my shield absorb it. There was a little resistance at first, but then, as if the shield understood what was happening, it slid in easily the rest of the way.
“Mr. Naofumi ?! ”
“What ?! ”
“There’s no time. I have no idea if it will work, but I’ve got to try!”
“It’s crazy!”
“What other choice do I have? This shield sucked up the light from the last explosion, so maybe . . .”
Right—this spear thing had probably been made from the Spirit Tortoise’s energy. The energy released in the blast was probably returning to the Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield.
A spear icon blinked in my vision. Was it trying to say that there was a foreign object in the shield? The icon was red and flashing.
What if it broke the shield itself? What would happen to me in that case?
I had no idea, but if it would lessen the damage to my surroundings, I had to do it.
“Shield Prison!”
“Mr. Naofumi!”
“Rafu!”
 
“Master!”
Raphtalia and the others were running over, so I enclosed myself in the shield prison to keep them away. If the shield exploded, it would help with the shockwave too.
“Kiddo . . .”
“Naofumi, you . . .”
“Naofumi . . .”
I heard them shouting through the wall of shields. Then I covered myself with my own shield to protect them from the blast.
I was still using the Shield of Wrath. It was the strongest shield I had, so hopefully it would be enough to stop the explosion!
The red spear icon blinked forebodingly.
The Spirit Tortoise Heart Shield icon appeared and began to glow with a faint light, as if it were sucking the energy away from the spear.
It happened a second later. There was a heavy thud deep within my body, and I felt something tear. The spear must have exploded.
“Ugh . . .”
A terrible, creeping feeling coursed through me, like poison was making its way through my veins. Damn. I thought I might die.
It wasn’t like me at all, but I really might end up giving my life to save these people. I’d rather not die if I could!
Shield Prison normally didn’t last very long, but it wasn’t showing any signs of disappearing yet. What did it mean? Either the skill was lasting longer, or my sense of time was slowing down.
 
If the latter was the case, then it felt like a second had become a minute or more.
Goddammit! It hurt so much. How long did I have to bear it? I felt like I might lose my mind.
The pain was unlike anything I knew, unlike the burning flames of the Shield of Wrath. I grit my teeth against it and eventually, the spear began to glow and melt away.
Was it over?
“Ugh . . .”
I was so dizzy I thought I might fall over.
I felt like I’d been poisoned.
I was lightheaded and I was afraid I’d pass out any second.
There were still problems to deal with. There were still enemies outside of the prison. I couldn’t afford to pass out here. Not yet.
Then I saw . . . a phantom? A hallucination?
Shimmering like a mirage, I thought I saw Ost come running over to help me stay on my feet.
She didn’t say anything, but her eyes told me what she was thinking.
She was supporting me, keeping me awake, and giving me energy.
My feet found their place, and I rose to stand tall.
When I looked for her again, she was gone . . . or maybe she hadn’t been there to begin with. Normally, I would have laughed at the very suggestion that someone had come back from the other side to help me. But this was no ordinary time.
 
I had to carry out the task she’d entrusted to me.
Which meant that I couldn’t afford to lose here, now, to these people.
The Shield Prison finally vanished, and everyone came running over to me, their eyes wet with tears.
“Mr. Naofumi! Are you alright ? What happened?”
“I’m fine. It was a little rough there, for a minute.”
I’d thought I was going to die. I was still a bit exhausted, but at least I could stay on my feet.
“We still have work to do!” I shouted, and everyone immediately resumed their battle positions.
“Gaahhhhh!”
Tsugumi was back on her feet, freaking out and acting wild. She still looked like she might die at any moment.
“Stop it! Don’t you see we’ve been tricked? Let’s surrender, this is not our battle to fight!” one of the other beast women called. Tsugumi paid her no mind. She went on raging. She looked like she would kill anything that crossed her path.
“Please, we have no right to ask this of you, but please help us!”
I wanted to balk at the suggestion, but before I could Kizuna rushed forward and nodded.
“Fine. We know what it’s like to be used and abandoned by Kyo. And we killed your friend. We have a responsibility here.”
“He got what was coming to him, if you ask me.”
Kizuna held a finger over her lips, as if to tell me to shut up.
 
Hey now, shouldn’t THEY shut up?
“I realized this during the battle, but you know as the Hunting Hero I can’t damage human opponents, right? Well I also can’t damage demi¬humans like Raphtalia. And yet, I can fight against them without any trouble at all.”
“Yeah? Well, they’re sort of just hobbled together, aren’t they?”
“That’s not what I mean. It’s like . . . When you just did what you did to protect everyone, I got the chills from it. I kept thinking that I wanted to protect people the way that you do, that I want to save people. I wondered if there was anything I could do, you know? And then it was like I heard a voice. Like the answer was inside of me.”
Kizuna looked like she was moved by her own speech. But man, she sure did take her time, didn’t she? Get to it already? What happened? I didn’t have time to listen to a whole oration here.
I wanted to say hurry up and get to the point, will you?
Kizuna drew her tuna knife and turned to face the raging Tsugumi.
“My name is Kizuna Kazayama. I am the Hunting Hero, one of the four holy heroes, and I cannot kill a human. On my honor as a hero, I will save you all!”
She quickly shot across the battlefield.
As soon as I understood what was happening, I cleared my head and cast a support spell on her.
“Zweite Aura!”
Soon she was up against the raging Tsugumi. She shouted.
 
“Break Down! Scale Removal!”
There was a flash, and a crushing sound, and innumerable blades arced through the air, slicing Tsugumi apart.
So many of Kizuna’s skills emphasized her speed.
“Gah!”
Tsugumi went stiff as a board.
“To think I’d . . . If I move I’ll . . . just like master . . .” she muttered.
A second later and all the fur fell from her beast side. The cuts must have gone deeper than that too, because the fur was followed by spurts of blood.
“Ahhhh!” everyone shouted. I ran over to check the corpse.
But . . .
“You don’t need to worry about her. She’s tougher than she looks.”
I was sure she was dead, but she wasn’t. I hoisted her up and showed her to everyone.
Half of her face was covered in lacerations, but she was breathing deeply and steadily.
“Zweite Heal,” I cast the spell over her face.
As the spell took effect, her face looked more and more human. Like the beast side had been killed and vanquished.
The other women came running over, sighing with relief when they realized she was safe.
“It’ll be a while before she’s back on her feet.”

There were still places where she had white tiger parts, but she wasn’t acting strangely anymore. It would take time to heal her completely, but it looked like she was going to be okay. . . . And it’s all thanks to our resident Hunting Hero, I guess. She couldn’t hunt humans, so her attack had only hurt the beast side of Tsugumi. It was like a surgical operation. But “Scale Removal?” What was that, like cleaning a fish? Maybe she should be the cleaning hero, or the break down hero. “So do you still feel like fighting?” I looked over and locked eyes with each of the other women. They slowly sat down and announced: “We surrender. We’ve been used.” “You probably don’t want to hear it, but you need to think about who you can trust.” After all I’d been through with Bitch, I knew what I was talking about. “Anyway, at least you’ll get out of this alive now.” “. . .” “Honestly I’d prefer to get rid of you here and now, but . . .” The women looked shocked and terrified. “But I guess the commander in these parts wants you all alive. I’m just an outsider here, so I don’t have a say in it.” Besides, my arms were full with Tsugumi. I couldn’t fight them off now if I wanted to. Oh well, things could be worse. “Naofumi . . .”
 
“Mr. Naofumi . . .”
Raphtalia gazed at me, her eyes filled with emotion.
What, did they really think I was going to kill everyone?
“Rafu . . .”
“I’m tiiiiired,” Filo whined.
“Anyway, let’s talk it through. This is no time to get in an argument,” L’Arc said.
I guess they didn’t want to fight anymore. They just sort of surrendered.
“Kizuna, take care of the others like you did with her.”
“Sure thing!” she said, approaching the women.
Sigh. We would be going to war soon. We didn’t need this crap to deal with now.
“Wait! What about Glass ?! ”
The women snapped to attention when Kizuna asked about Glass.
“That’s right! Kyo’s strategy had . . .”
Oh give me a break already. There’s more?
“He was going to send troops to the dragon hourglass while we attacked the castle!”
I knew it. It was easy to predict his shallow strategy. He did whatever would bother us the most.
“It’s just like you said, Naofumi.”
“He’s driving me nuts. You,” I said, turning to the women. “Can you convince these people to stop the attack?”
They nodded.
 
“If you betray us, Glass and I will kill you!”
“Let’s get going!”
“Yeah!” L’Arc shouted. “Troops! See to the injured, the repairs and reports! I’m leaving!”
“Yeah well, I guess this is your country after all. It’s no fun to sit around and be attacked, is it? Let’s go finish this thing!”
“Yes. Let us expose the truth to those who are deceived,” Raphtalia said.
“Yes! Return Transcript!”
Kizuna used her skill and led us back to the dragon hourglass.
My surroundings instantly changed to the room that housed the hourglass, and from the room, I could hear the sounds of battle raging outside.
“Circle Dance Zero Formation: Reverse Snow Moon Flower!”
Through a doorway, I heard Glass shouting, and saw an explosion of snow-like flower petals. I saw the shapes of people falling.
There were people writhing on the ground. The square had become a battlefield.
Glass was drinking the bottle of soul-healing water I’d left her, and firing off skill after skill.
Kizuna was pretty damn powerful, but Glass could hold her own.
Her abilities had grown even sharper after discussing vassal weapon power-up methods with Raphtalia.
I was glad that Glass stayed behind. That was the right choice.
None of the enemy troops had gotten past her yet.
 
Kyo hadn’t sent too many of them. He must not have been expecting us to guard it.
Actually, the main attack force at the caste, Trash #2’s women, had been pretty sparse too.
The enemy seemed to have lost its will to fight upon my arrival. Either that or they knew they were already fighting a losing battle by the time we got there.
“All of you, calm down! The Hunting Hero is here to save those of you that have lost yourselves to madness! Stop the fighting now!”
“Kyo is just using us!” the women that had been fighting with us at the castle shouted. The other women fighters who were still engaged in battle turned and replied, “But! But what about—?”
I almost heard Trash #2’s name, but there was a crash nearby that drowned it out. Was I ever going to get his name?
“You know what I’m talking about! Someone here is going to lose it! It happened to Tsugumi back at the castle! She had a weapon that nearly exploded and killed us all! We’re just pawns in Kyo’s game!”
“But . . . But . . .”
"If you want to keep fighting, then keep on fighting. Raphtalia, Kizuna, L’Arc, Glass—everyone. That’s just how they are. We don’t have time to entertain them. Take them alive, or don’t. Try to keep the damages to a minimum.”
“Roger that! We’ll save the chat until we’ve taken care of these guys!” Kizuna shot off like a bullet, slicing through the wild beast half of the women. It was only one attack, but the seemingly immortal women fell to the ground. Those that remained conscious writhed in pain.
 
A few of them remained on their feet, desperate to continue the fight. Raphtalia took care of them in a flash.
Strength really does come with numbers, doesn’t it? I wanted to get more people on my side.
“What are you after? What were you going to do to the dragon hourglass?”
The captured women turned to their leader, who held out a pendant. It looked like the sort of gemstone that adventurers in this world used to check for drop items.
“He said . . . He said that if we registered the dragon hourglass with this, then we would . . . win . . .”
“I figured it was something like that. He wanted to recreate Return Dragon Vein. Then he could have sent as many troops as he wanted into the center of the castle.”
Speaking of strength in numbers, he could have sent his whole army over. Victory would be all but assured.
L’Arc, Glass, and Raphtalia might be some of the strongest fighters around, but there was a limit to what we could take on by ourselves.
“It was just an idea. I can’t believe he really . . .”
“It’s just like him. He even sent three separate attacks.”
He sent Yomogi to attack us at Kizuna’s house. Then he sent half of Trash #2’s women to the castle, and the other half to the dragon hourglass to try and make sure that he could send even more troops over.
 
“Anyway, you’re all lucky that Kizuna stopped you. You could have gone crazy at any minute. You can hate us for this if you want, but you should at least realize why your commander died.”
I turned my back on them and continued, “We can probably get you healed with medicine, but I don’t know if the people at the castle will want to help you. Maybe I can figure something out.”
“Aren’t you a charmer, Naofumi?” Kizuna said.
“That’s what so great about Mr. Naofumi!”
“Rafu!”
“It’s one of your best qualities, Kiddo.”
“Shut up already!”
Finally, the night was over. A lot had happened—too much, for my tastes.