The Rising of the Shield Hero Volume 05 (18 page)

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