Chapter Six: Emergency Evacuations
As I expected, we were sent to nearby Riyute, not too far from the Melromarc castle town. Ren, Itsuki, and their companions were racing toward the fissure. The whole scene felt very nostalgic.
In my first wave, without even stopping to hear what Father had to say, I had simply dashed straight for the wave. My heart had been racing to jump into battle! I had wanted to see just how far my training had gotten me.
“Oh, come on!” Father shouted. I had cast an illumination spell to show Father what Ren and Itsuki were doing. “It’s just like you said! Ren and Itsuki jumped straight into battle without even thinking about bystanders!”
We could’ve intervened to try to hold them back, but we didn’t want to get into an argument again. Just as Father had proposed, we remained calm and let them do as they wished.
“All right then,” Father said. “Let’s stick to the plan and focus on evacuating the villagers. Keel, Sakura, Yuki, Kou, Elena, fight off the monsters coming for the village and do your best to make sure no one gets hurt—Motoyasu and I will evacuate the villagers.”
“No problem, Big Bro!” Keel said, tail wagging in excitement. “And once we get everyone out, should we go fight the boss? I’ll protect everyone! Arf!”
“Keel, calm down,” said Father. “Sakura, keep your eyes on Keel and make sure he doesn’t get hurt.”
“You got it!”
“Keep everyone safe, Yuki and Kou,” I told them.
“At all costs.”
“Are the monsters tasty? I want Naofumi to cook ’em up once we’re done!”
“I told you I would,” Father said. “Can we even turn those monsters into food in the first place? Aren’t they . . . what, ghouls, zombies, locusts, bees? I’m not sure if any of those would be any good. Maybe boil them in soy . . .” Father trailed off, muttering to himself.
The corpses of the monsters would probably rot fast, so once Kou saw them, I figured he would lose interest. He might be able to get a taste of the boss if he made it in time though.
“Oink oink,” said Lazy Pig.
“Yep. I need you to help us out here, Elena. Keep an eye on the time so you can stop the others if they get too into fighting the monsters.”
Lazy Pig oinked regretfully.
“Then let’s get going!”
At Father’s direction, we started evacuating Riyute. The filolials were so fast that we arrived at the village before any monsters had infiltrated it.
From the villagers’ expressions, you could tell that they knew there would be a wave of destruction somewhere but had never imagined in their wildest dreams that it would hit so close. I also saw a number of adventurers assuming their fighting stances to face the monsters, but I could tell that their movements were slow. From the last go-around, I knew that if Father didn’t come to protect these villagers, then the village would’ve been totally destroyed. However, I remembered that even with his help in the first go-around, the village still needed a lot of repairs.
This time, we’ll protect them for sure!
“Are those filolials!?”
Of course! There was that filolial farmer in Riyute. If the filolials got caught up in the wave, monsters might kill them, since humans always prioritized their own lives over those of precious filolials.
“FILOOOOLIAAAAALLLS!”
“Motoyasu! Wait! Where are you going!?”
I sprinted as fast as I could to the filolial ranch, destroyed the fence, and herded the filolials out. Once I had evacuated all the filolials to safety, I returned back to Father and the others.
“Hurry, this way!”
Father was shouting at the villagers, pointing them in the right direction.
“You’re back,” Father said, turning to me. “What the heck were you doing?”
“I was rescuing the filolials, I say!”
“Oh, of course. I mean, I understand why you would do that, but we need you here. You’re the strongest. Remember that, okay?”
And then, under Father’s orders, I proceeded with evacuating the villagers. At first, they sneered at the detested Shield Hero, but when they saw the monsters pouring out of the fissure and storming toward the village, they quickly started to follow his instructions.
Meanwhile, Keel and Sakura fought the monsters that were racing toward Riyute and protected all of the villagers that they could.
“Get out of here, everyone!” Keel screamed. “If you don’t, you’re toast! Sakura! Look—a big one right there!”
A huge ghoul had broken through the crowd and reached the entrance to the village. If I showed my true strength, I could instantly crush all of the monsters in this area. Unfortunately, that was not the plan. I had to hide my true strength as best as I could, like Father told me to.
“Leave it to me!” Sakura cried, shifting into her filolial queen form, drawing her two swords in a flurry, and cutting down the ghoul in three swift blows.
“Incredible.”
The other adventurers watched Sakura in amazement.
Was the dispatch from Melromarc castle not here yet? There were so many monsters that if I kept holding back, sooner or later there would be some casualties. While I was trying to decide whether or not to eradicate the whole field of monsters with one spell, more and more giant insects and ghouls stormed in toward the village.
What in the world were Ren and Itsuki doing? Well, they weren’t particularly strong in the first place, so whatever.
“Motoyasu! Don’t let them get any closer!”
“Yes, Father! Air Strike Javelin, I say!”
I launched my spear with all my strength, scattering the approaching monsters.
“Heeeelp!”
I saw Father turn and rush toward the sound of a pig’s scream. A monster rushed toward a pig, threatening to devour it whole. Father extended his hand.
“Shield Prison!” Father cried.
A prison materialized, trapping the monster and saving the pig.
“We need to get the rest of the villagers out!” Father shouted. “Anyone who can fight, protect the others!”
The nearby adventurers nodded, surrounded the villagers, and ran off with them, leaving Father scratching his head.
“So those guys are done too?”
“They’re scared for their lives,” I told Father.
Father sighed. “Well, no point in complaining over it.”
“It would be much easier if they just swarmed us rather than going after all the little guys,” I said.
If the people whose lives we were saving were just going to desert us, I didn’t need any kindness from them, I say.
Father sent all of the nearby monsters flying with a Shooting Star Shield. Father’s barrier shields came in handy for times like these.
Then, all of a sudden, a blaze of fiery rain came pouring down over Father and me. With my strength, it didn’t hurt or even tickle, and Father didn’t look like he sustained any injuries either.
“Hey!” Father and I turned to see a group of Melromarc knights standing across the village. “We’re over here!” Father yelled angrily. The knights appeared to have cast the spell.
I could tell from their expressions that they had been hoping that their spell would take out Father. But his Shooting Star Shield had stopped the fiery rain from dealing any damage. Should I teach those knights a lesson or two?
Keel, Sakura, Yuki, Kou, and I all fixated our nastiest glares at those detestable knights.
“Hmph,” one of the knights scoffed. “So the Shield and Spear Hero aren’t paper-frail after all.”
I was tempted to burn them all down in a raging tempest of flames. Just like I did last time. But when I raised my hand to start chanting the spell, Father pulled my hand down. Whatever Father might say, I still wanted to take those knights out. I would’ve never guessed that they would actually attack us in the middle of the wave. I wondered if they attacked Father this same way in the first go-around, baptizing him into the world of magic. I felt a storm of anger start to rise inside of me.
“What in the world do you think you’re doing?” shouted Keel, waving her dagger at the captain of the group of knights. “We’re doing our best to save as many villagers as we can! And you attack us!”
“So the Shield Hero has stooped to working with lowly demi-humans,” the captain responded. “You’ve fallen even lower than we could have expected, Shield Hero!”
“Who are you calling lowly?!” Keel shouted. “We’re just fighting to protect everyone! If you attack us again, I won’t hold back!”
Father was beating out the nearby blazing flames with his cloak. He ran over toward Keel and put his arm on her shoulder. “Keel, Sakura, I need both of you to calm down!”
In a flash, Sakura was in her angel form, her sword pointing straight at the back of the captain’s neck.
The captain yelped in surprise. “How dare you!”
“Choose your words carefully, or this sword will cut straight through you.” Sakura spoke calmly, even gently, but you could hear the bloodlust in her voice. “I’ll slice your head clean off.”
Classic Sakura. Hopefully, the captain would understand who really had the upper hand here.
“So you want to die, is that it?” The captain glared at Father.
I take that back—he did not appear to understand in the slightest. Personally, I would have no problem if Sakura sent his head flying.
“We only have one enemy,” Father said. “And that’s the monsters coming out of the wave.”
The captain turned away from Father. Undoubtedly, his mission was not to fight the wave but to take out Father instead!
“What are you prattling on about, you criminal?”
“If you insist, I’ll get out of here, so long as you take care of the rest,” Father said, pointing to the countless monsters rushing toward the town. Sakura still held her sword to the captain’s neck. Father walked up to him and grabbed him.
“What are you doing! Let me free, you fiend!”
“Yes, of course, I’m the enemy, aren’t I?” Father said. “You all really don’t even know how to extend basic courtesy, do you? We’re here evacuating civilians, fighting monsters, and then all of a sudden you show up and attack us. Wouldn’t that make you the enemy here? I’ll let you go if you fight alongside us. And you don’t even have to apologize to us. How about it?”
As he was talking, Father walked toward the horde of monsters, pulling the captain with him.
“Yes, and I know you did attack me behind my back, but it didn’t hurt at all, so I’m not mad or anything,” Father ranted. “But when you look down at me for only being able to protect . . . Well, it just makes me want to give you the firsthand experience of just how powerful my abilities are.”
What a glorious sight! His tone of cold, reserved fury stood toe to toe with that of Father in the first go-around, I say!
I was nearly moved to tears. While Father was usually kind and gentle-hearted, he would ever so occasionally show us a glimpse of his tough side. Yes, I should’ve expected this from the future leader of the Four Holy Heroes! Father, magnificent Father!
“L-let me go! Enough!”
Father finally let the captain go with a nasty look.
“You’ll never get away with this!” the captain growled.
“Still worried about me? I would be more worried about the monsters coming after you!” Father shouted.
I wasn’t sure it was because his threat worked or not, but the captain went running away as quickly as he could. What a repugnant sight.
I decided to assassinate that captain on the next pitch-black night. It would be a just punishment for his sins against Father.
The rest of the knights went fleeing after their captain. Now we had to face an even larger horde of monsters racing toward us. But working together, we managed to stop every last monster from reaching the village. Eventually, Melromarc reinforcements arrived, evacuating the rest of the villagers, and finally we finished our work.
“Motoyasu!” Father called. “We’re all finished up over here, so would you mind going to face the boss now?”
“Absolutely. Yuki, Kou, let’s hurry!”
“At once!”
“More food!”
“Don’t let Kou eat too much!” Father added. Kou had his mouth full of insects.
I leapt onto Yuki’s back and rushed off toward Ren and Itsuki, who had been slowly and unskillfully making their way through the enemies and toward the boss.
Yuki, Kou, and I arrived on the scene. Ren and Itsuki were using fairly weak skills, nothing more than Air Strike Bash and Dual Arrows. I supposed they had nothing better to work with at this point. They screamed at the top of their lungs as they put up a decent fight against the chimera boss.
Still, they were doing even less damage than I remembered. Maybe it had been much faster with three heroes rather than two? It wasn’t a particularly powerful boss in the first place.
“Now you’re here! Motoyasu, what the hell were you doing?” Ren demanded, dodging an attack from the chimera and coming up to me.
“Slacking off as always, I’d expect,” Itsuki said.
“We were evacuating the villagers, I say! There was a village right in the path of the wave, so if we didn’t do anything, the whole village would have been destroyed.”
Ren scoffed. “You should’ve just left that to the castle soldiers.”
“Our sole objective is to defeat the wave of destruction,” Itsuki said. “Naofumi should’ve been able to handle it himself. The guy can’t even attack, anyway.”
How could Itsuki not comprehend just how disadvantaged Father had been this entire time? A group of Melromarc knights literally attacked him! I bet Ren and Itsuki didn’t know about that!
“Please don’t say such things about Father,” I told him. “He may not be able to attack, but he can stop opponents in their tracks, which makes it much easier for the rest of us to take them out.”
I wondered how Father might handle fighting this chimera boss. A scene easily came to mind: first, he’d stop the chimera’s movement by grabbing it by the forelegs. Then, with his shield’s counterattack, he’d send the monster’s attacks bouncing right back at it. And finally, he’d ask Big Sis or me to land the finishing blow. Father would enable us to focus all of our energy on one powerful attack that was sure to take out the chimera for good. But Itsuki and Ren would have no understanding of something like teamwork.
“If it had been just you and Itsuki, the village would have gotten completely destroyed,” I declared.
“Not if we defeat the boss fast enough!” Ren responded.
“The boss is the highest priority,” Itsuki said. “Many more will die if we do not defeat it!”
I sighed. “Now I can understand why . . .” They really were the pinnacle of stubbornness.
And I had made a promise to Father and to my beloved Filo-tan. To treat everyone kindly, and to lead the world to a true peace.
That is the reason why I fight! Not for my own selfish reasons!
“What are you talking about?”
“If you’ve got something to say, go ahead and say it already!” Itsuki demanded.
“It’s nothing whatsoever,” I protested. “There’s no point in saying it.”
It was time to take out the chimera, already. The big problem was that if I revealed how much more powerful I was than Ren or Itsuki, it would prevent my knowledge of the future from remaining useful. So I had to fight without using any of my skills.
I gave Yuki and Kou a sign to hold themselves back as well. Yuki nodded and raced ahead in front of the chimera to attract its attention.
The chimera had three heads: a lion’s, a dragon’s, and a goat’s, plus the tail of a snake. It let out a furious roar and its tail lashed out toward Yuki to attack her. The dragon’s head puffed out a breath of flame as the goat’s head wagged back and forth.
There was no need for any of my skills here, I say! I simply stabbed the chimera with my spear a few times. I slashed its fur ragged, broke its bones, and slowly went about defeating the beast.
“Motoyasu! Use your skills!”
“This is no time to be playing around!”
I heard their voices behind me and stopped. Even my normal attacks were far stronger than Ren and Itsuki using their best skills. I supposed they were utterly lost for words at the display of my power.
“Oh, I get it,” said Ren. “Instead of learning how to use skills, you used a different skill to power up your normal attacks.”
“Aha! You got your hands on that sort of skill!”
They must’ve been referring to what I knew from my gaming experience as the skill called Berserk. Unfortunately for them, they were incorrect. Any of my skills would’ve been far too much for them or this chimera to handle, of course. My attack power was simply on a different level. In fact, I had been holding back with all of my might and still dealt tremendous damage.
To mistake my strength with a skill . . . just how stupid could those two be? But they wouldn’t believe me even if I explained the power-up methods I had used. These are my regular attacks, I say!
Finally, no longer able to bear the might of my attacks, the chimera collapsed, defeated.
Then I ran over to the fissure and thrust my spear into it, sealing it up and ending the fight for good.
“All right, that’s just about it!” I proclaimed.
“That boss was no problem,” Ren said.
“At this rate, the next wave of destruction should be super easy,” Itsuki said.
“I wouldn’t recommend thinking that way,” I said. “You two are mistaken about that.”
Ren turned to me. “All right, Motoyasu, time’s up—what did you want to tell us before?”
“If you have something to say, hurry up and say it already!”
And now they were mad at me. I was simply trying to warn them that the next wave was in fact a close fight. And that Ren and Itsuki, as a matter of fact, were the ones who got knocked out by the enemies.
“Now to get the ingredients!” I had to collect my gifts for Father, I say. Back in the first go-around, I took the head of the chimera that seemed like it would make for the strongest power-up and added it to my spear. After the fact, Itsuki pretended like he had known to do the same thing and chose the goat head. We had also collected the hide of the chimera, if I remembered correctly.
“Let’s split up the remains,” I said. “I’ll take the lion head and the tail.”
“Hey! Who said you get to decide?” Ren demanded.
“Should I take a different part then? If you want to give me the dragon head, then I’ll take that.”
“No, that’s not . . .” Ren trailed off. I knew he wanted the dragon head. Another instance where my knowledge of the future came in handy.
“Why do you get to choose first, anyway?” Itsuki asked.
“I was the one who landed the first attack!” Ren said.
“But I was clearly the MVP here,” I said. My attacks had obviously defeated the chimera. They couldn’t deny that. “And since Father was the one who saved me, I’m taking a piece of the prize for him too.”
“Hang on a second,” Ren said. “Naofumi was just protecting the villagers. He didn’t help us here.”
“Yes, because all you two could do was charge at the boss like a wild boar,” I remarked.
“How dare you!” exclaimed Itsuki.
“In fact, we had almost finished evacuating the villagers when that group of knights came. If Father hadn’t been there, the village would have been done for.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Those Melromarc knights came to attack me and Father. They shot a sky’s worth of fiery rain straight at us.”
Ren glanced at me. “Is that true?”
I nodded, and Ren fell into thought with a deep frown on his face. Then he spoke in a calm voice.
“Well, the snake tail isn’t worth much anyway. Since Motoyasu did protect the villagers . . . may as well give it to him.”
But Itsuki came straight up to me, his face bright red with anger.
“Melromarc would never do that in a million years! Why would you tell such vicious lies?”
“Either way, we ought to give Naofumi something too,” Ren said. “Naofumi and Motoyasu were the ones who protected the villagers. So they probably saved a lot of lives. You want that, don’t you, Itsuki?”
Itsuki clenched his teeth. “Fine. Take whatever you want.”
“Then I absolutely shall!”
I immediately slashed off the lion head and snake tail with my spear and took them.
“Now, Yuki, Kou,” I said, turning to them. “Take this head to Father at once, I say!”
“Understood.”
“All right! Let’s do it!”
I added the snake tail to my spear and gained the skill Chimera Viper Spear. It appeared to give my spear a poisoned tip. It wasn’t weak by any means, but I didn’t exactly need it at the moment. I’ll just get rid of it later.
“That was . . . fast,” Ren said.
“How did you cut off the head in one blow?” Itsuki exclaimed.
As I started to take my leave, I heard Itsuki and Ren talking about something or other. My priority was to get the ingredients to Father.
“All right! Time to go!”
And with that, we concluded our battle against our first wave of destruction without much difficulty. When I got back to Riyute, Father, Sakura, Keel, and Lazy Pig were taking out some stray monsters. The Melromarc knights also appeared to be helping. Things were pretty much wrapping up.
“Father, my present to you!”
“Oh, you beat the boss? Then we’ll have no problem from here.” Father saw Yuki and Kou pulling the enormous lion head. “What the . . . That’s enormous! A giant lion’s head?”
“It’s the head of a chimera,” I said. “Now, hurry, Father, add it to your shield!”
“Okay, okay. Thank you, Motoyasu.”
Yuki and Kou dropped off the lion’s head and Father added it to his shield. That should really help bring out the true power of Father’s shield, I say.
“Oh wow, this . . .” Father held up his shield. “Apparently, I have to use some more ingredients to be able to unlock whatever skill is attached to it.”
“Yes, I have some more right here!”
“I really appreciate it, Motoyasu. Did you get a new skill?”
“I’ve already unlocked everything I need, Father. No need to worry about me!”
Now Father would be one step closer to my level of strength. Did I get Chimera Lion Spear, maybe? I remember that I had gotten a powerful skill.
Still, it paled in comparison to the spear I had at my side today.
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