“Nordor Style: Silver Dust Slant!”
“Siegebreaker!”
The air rumbled as a massive silver crescent slash sundered everything before it and a boulder destroying slam shook the very earth we stood upon, causing a miniature earthquake. Our party of nine was barely able to keep ourselves on our feet, but luckily, the impact of Dame Yorshka’s battle with the high ogre was also affecting the grimgarians.
“Don’t fall! Nishio-kun!” I, Tamae Tsuji, looked over to my party’s main mage, hoping he could think of a way to help us out of this situation.
The first to recover were Kyouya, Sir Elrick, and the orc knights who had dug their shields into the ground to stabilize themselves before activating their protective shield skills. As the echikobolds were thrown from their warg mounts, Nishio slammed his staff on the ground and cast [Terra Wall] on the ground, momentarily stopping the quaking.
“Now! Drink your potions and buff yourself up! We need to get ready!” he commanded. Nishio was less proficient than Hestia at altering the effects of System spells with [Fluid Cast], mostly because it drained too much mana to be efficient. The ground was stable for now, but it didn’t escape my notice that the edges of this stabilized platform were cracking under the pressure.
“There are multiple hobgoblin archers hiding behind the trees and shrubbery! They can’t aim yet!” Haruka shouted out to us. She might not be able to fight, due to her fear of blood, but she was invaluable as our main scout with her [Foxian Slyness].
After hearing all of this, everybody began following Nishio’s orders, taking the potions I’d made for them out of [Storage Magic] and drinking them while Nishio, Daichi, and I began strengthening everybody with spells. Meanwhile, Kyouya and Sir Elrick were holding their shields up, protecting us from a few arrows which managed to be shot.
[Various Spell Buffs] [Various Potion Buffs] inflicted on [Human, Tamae Tsuji]
“Where are Tatsuya-kun and Asaka-san?!” I demanded of the three remaining Misfit members, to which they replied that the two had fallen into a hole together. “Huh, they fell into a hole?! Uhm, Haruka, can you speak with them with your [Telepathy] or find their location with your skills?”
We sadly did not have the platoon function in our party bracelets like Hestia and Sensei did, so I had to rely on Kyouya, Haruka, and Daichi for information on their safety. As Haruka was also the only one among us who could use [Telepathy] — due to her low combat potential as a fighter, she bought that skill from the SP shop to provide intel and analysis during a fight — I had to rely on her to find Tatsuya and Asaka before this impending battle.
“I can’t, they are outside the area I can activate my [Telepathy] on.” However, her answer was less than desirable — it meant Tatsuya and Asaka had fallen somewhere deep.
I guess that’s that. We need to take care of the current situation first!
“Kohaku-chan! Kazumi-chan!” I called out.
Both responded with a vigorous, ““Got it!”” before unsheathing their weapons. With her runesword in her hand, Kohaku touched the red rune on it, causing the blade to wrap itself in flames, while Kazumi activated her unique skill [Tricky Kitty] and summoned four shadow clones of herself from pieces of her shadow.
As the earthquake began to subside, the grimgarians quickly returned to formation with the black-armored orcs as the vanguard, the hobgoblin spearmen behind them, the hobgoblin archers in the back, with the echikobolds waiting on their mounts on the side.
We too formed ours, with Kyouya and Sir Elrick leading the frontline while Kohaku and Kazumi would follow from behind. For our rearguard, Nishio, Misaki, Haruka, and I would support everybody in the front with magic, ranged attacks, or intel. Tatsuya always served as our vanguard, while Asaka was our main healer. Without them, the rest of us had to handle more duties.
Misaki managed to nock a mana arrow onto her yumi-like bow before releasing it flying straight at an orc knight, signalling the start of the fight. As he held his shield up and fortified his defenses, most would believe the arrow would simply deflect or get stuck in the black metal shield, but not when Misaki had the unique skill [Samurai Distinction: Yumi].
Samurai Distinction: Yumi
The user can expend mana to create mana arrows of any type they wish. The longer the user readies the bow, the more powerful the shot will become. The user will always ignore 25% of a target's Vitality when the arrow hits
The arrow shot right through not only the shield but also the orc’s armor, piercing his heart. He fell to the ground, struggling as he attempted to take the arrow out of his body, all while his companions coldly watched his movements dull down. The orc’s high Health only delayed his death.
“I can’t sense any mages or shamans! Be careful!” Haruka informed us after using her detection skills again.
“Thank you very much, Lady Haruka! Lady Tamae, allow me to lead this battle in the front!” I had nothing to argue about. Sir Elrick was a proper holy knight, it would be better if he instructed us instead of risking me panicking when something went wrong. “Move closer to the trees, we need to use them as obstructions! Nishio, [Terra Wall] our flanks to create a choke point; not too high to obstruct our sight! Move! Move!”
The battle had begun. The frontline of the grimgarians charged at us with frightening roars as the echikobold riders began to surround us, shooting arrows as we fled closer to the trees. Kyouya and Sir Elrick were able to deflect them since all the riders were still in front of us, however, a few of the arrows had far more momentum than those they’d blocked before, which startled them.
“Curse these monsters! Those hobgoblin archers are a problem!” We had met a few hobgoblin archers at the beginning of our adventures when we were tasked to exterminate a few goblin dens, so we knew how strong they could be despite not having formal training. Unfortunately for us, it was clear that this group of goblins, kobolds, and orcs were trained, so we had to be even more careful.
After our protective wall was built and we secured an area of defense, Daichi shot out an [Inferno Blast] at the approaching orc knights, only to be stunned that their shields easily blocked it.
“What?!” he cried out.
“That’s voldunna metal! From the Empire’s desert! They are extremely resistant against fire!” Sir Elrick informed Daichi.
“What?! Are you kidding me! Dammit, but I don’t think they can block all of this!” Daichi held his staff high, and the red crystal orb on top of it shone red and began rotating as a magic circle appeared on it. As if it was sucking in the heat around it, the air began to feel slightly colder, before the Daichi unleashed a powered-up [Flame Explosion].
The explosion destroyed the scorched earth before us, sending the orc knights in the middle of the formation reeling. The hobgoblin spearmen screeched and fled the flames. After the smoke settled, we confirmed that, while Daichi’s fire attack certainly caused chaos amongst their ranks, it had not killed anybody.
“Dammit! Give me a better shot! Tsk, Reduce Heat.” The flames burning the grass stopped spreading, staying still as if they were content. [Reduce Heat] was an obligatory spell for fire mages as it was the only way for them to control their fire without [Pyrokinesis].
“Control yourself, Daichi! Concentrate on disrupting their formati— Urgh, curses, those archers are too annoying!” Elrick cursed out as he blocked an arrow aiming at Daichi. “Lady Kazumi, send your clones out to scout for their locations! We need to find their location for Lady Misaki to snipe them!”
“Understood!” The four Kazumi clones jumped out from our point of defense and dived into the shadows with [Shadow Dash]. As the church of Aurena only tolerated the usage of [Dark Magic], Kazumi did not have an instructor at the church to teach her until we reunited with Sensei. With how limited SP was, she hadn’t wanted to spend it on something she wasn’t familiar with before, but thanks to [Hestia’s Retainer], she’s been able to train that skill up at an accelerated rate without having to spend her precious SP.
“Nishio, Daichi, disruptive spells! Lady Haruka, stay safe and make sure to warn us if the hobgoblin archers or echikobolds flank us. Lady Misaki, snipe important targets. Lady Tamae, healing and protection. Lady Kohaku and Sir Kyouya, the three of us must hold this position! We cannot allow them through if we wish to survive!”
“We have to stall until Lady Yorshka comes back,” he meant to say but didn’t. It was too demoralizing to hear something like that after we had trained so much. For now, we had to stay focused and survive this. We can do this.
The battle could only be called chaotic from that point onwards. The orc knights rushed right to the entrance, assaulting Sir Elrick, Kyouya, and Kohaku without fear, taking advantage of their thick armor and natural strength to try and shatter our front guards. With their superior numbers, they kept smashing into Kyouya’s and Sir Elrick’s defenses until Nishio equalized everything with his magic.
Using earth and wind spells, he pushed the enemies back while relying on Daichi’s fire magic to scare off the echikobolds flanking our backside, which unfortunately set the trees aflame, but we didn’t have the luxury of being careful. Kazumi’s proficiency with her dark spells wasn’t comparable to Sensei’s but the occasional [Dark Tendrils] still helped immobilize a few orcs and allowed Kohaku to land killing blows with her runesword.
As I was healing Kyouya’s wounds from the initial attack, my [Prediction] warned me to dodge to the side. Out of reflex, I shoved Kyouya forward as I dodged backwards, narrowly reacting to the arrow in time, but, unfortunately, I could not dodge entirely as it lodged itself into my shoulder.
“Argh!” I screamed.
[Poisoned (Moderate)] [Adrenaline (Minor)] inflicted on [Human, Tamae Tsuji]
“Tamae-san!” Nishio shouted before shooting out a fire spell in the direction of the arrow, which was at the top of a tree. As the leaves and branches were set on fire, it forced a hobgoblin archer to jump out, only to be shot dead by Misaki.
“I’m so sorry, Tama-chan! I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice that in time. I’m so sorry!” Haruka apologized with a grim expression, looking like she was about to cry. I calmed her down, telling her everything was alright before looking over at the wound on my shoulder.
Biting the sleeve of my robes, I pulled the arrow from my shoulder while Nishio constructed an earthen dome over us. Screaming once again from the pain, I instantly got rid of the poison with [Cure] and healed myself with [Moderate Heal].
“Nishio-kun, Misaki can’t shoot with the dome over us!” I called out, pointing out how this defensive structure would impede our attacks.
“We have to! I can’t focus on protecting the frontline and the rearguard! We need to sacrifice—” Nishio was about to argue but a part of the dome suddenly cracked open by the hammer of an orc following an arrow shot. Nobody was hurt by it, but we realized the predicament of our situation. Meeting this group of grimgarians in the open woods was a mistake.
“We need to go down! Strengthen the top, dig a hole down!” Elrick commanded and Nishio followed. The dome was repaired and fortified to resist multiple hammer swings as he shot out large [Earth Spears] at the orc knights. [Terra Magic Lv.1] and [Earth Magic Lv. 10] did not have system spells that could directly dig a hole, as such, but you could be creative and use spells that morphed or modified the earth.
Although, this all meant it was harder for Misaki to land a killing shot. With how frantic the frontline was, her rate of fire went down drastically. With the orcs understanding her arrows were killing blows, they were aware they also had to dodge. Misaki killed a couple hobgoblin spearmen and orcs before the dome came up, but now it was too risky to shoot. Thankfully, the same could be said about the hobgoblin archers.
“Another strong clash of attacks is coming!” Haruka warned us just a few seconds before the earth began to quake again. Dame Yorshka’s battle with the high ogre must be fierce.
That earthquake gave us a much-needed break from the constant attacks the orc knights were sending us, but it also caused the dome to crack and begin to crumble. Nothing we were doing was going our way at all, to the point we had to forgo this plan and break out of it.
Daichi, using his [Inferno Blast], shot right through the dome without any problems. As we crawled back to the surface, Haruka warned us of multiple incoming arrows, giving Nishio enough time to block everything with [Terra Wall]. With wobbling legs, he opened a path through his walls for us to escape through.
“I’ve had it! My magic is made for ultimate power!” The first to move out was Daichi, looking as if was about to explode. Ignoring the seismic action, he concentrated his mana into his staff, draining the heat around him before unleashing multiple [Petal Flames], burning down the top of all the trees around us. It was truly a forest fire.
Although it was a bit frightening to see, it did mean the hobgoblin archers were forced out of their hiding spots. Misaki managed to shoot down one of them but the vast majority managed to slip back into the darkness. Daichi did not stop though; seeing fresh targets for his fire spells, he went on a rampage.
Bushes and tree trunks were burned down, and, although most of the hobgoblins managed to flee, they were immediately cornered by Kazumi’s shadow clones and killed off. In this time, the earthquake stopped and the orc knights and hobgoblin spearmen made it around the dome. As we were trying to retreat back into it, the orcs used their hammers to break in, creating a two front battle.
With Sir Elrick on our left and Kyouya and Kohaku on our right protecting the rest of the rearguard and me, we were about to continue this battle of attrition until something threw a wrench into that plan.
“NIAKASH BAAL’AK! Taunt!”
[Taunted (Minor)] inflicted on [Human, Tamae Tsuji]
“Wai- Noooo!” I was caught in a taunt, no, all of us were caught in it.
My head snapped towards the singular orc, holding his shield high up as if he knew it was about to happen. Influenced by the taunt, we unleashed our attacks on the orc, instantly killing it after Misaki shot her arrow at its head. While this action did dispel the [Taunt], the taunt had caused Sir Elrick to move away from his position, leaving one of us very vulnerable.
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“Hahaha! How do you like that you ugly gree— FUCK! URGH!” An echikobold rider charged right through our formation, almost drilling a hole into Daichi’s head, but instead, rammed into him with the warg. As Daichi struggled to get up, the warg almost pounced on him, but was held back by Sir Elrick, who cut it down along with its echikobold rider.
As I was about to run over to provide healing, the remaining echikobold riders charged in, knocking Kyouya, Kohaku, and Kazumi out of the way. Their spears were aimed at Daichi who was still on the ground after the initial attack. With how Nishio and I needed to prepare our spells, it was almost painful to admit that we didn’t have enough time to help him.
“Daichi-san, STAND UP!” I shouted from the top of my lungs.
“F-Fuck! F-Fire—” It was just not enough time. As the horror of seeing my classmate in mortal danger slowed down my perception of time, I somehow managed to see a shadow rustling the trees above us, before it pounced at the front running cavalry.
“Grrrah!” It was the green tiger! “Griiak!”
“Kiiiieeeeyaakkk- Ark! …”
The pounce not only dismounted the ride from its warg, the weight of the tiger unbalanced the wolf and caused it to crash on the ground, frightening the other wolves. With a growl, it held the kobold in its jaw and crushed its skull.
With the wargs and echikobolds disoriented, three green jaguars jumped from the trees to assasinated three more kobolds, before shooting light spells at the others. With the tiger leading them, the four large cats began to eliminate the remaining riders, erasing the threat for us.
Where did they come from?!
I still remembered seeing the four at the beginning of the fight, but somehow, in the middle of the chaos, I lost track of them. Did they come back to help us?
“Tamae-san, help Daichi!” Nishio woke me up from my thoughts as he shot a rock spear at an orc.
I looked over to Kazumi and Kohaku, who were drinking my health potions with their thumbs up, showing me they were okay. “Y-Yes, sorry!” With the threats against our backline gone, I resumed running over to Daichi, only to hear the roar of another orc, sending a chill down my spine.
“NIAKASH BAAL’AK! Tau—”
“Taunt!” But it was interrupted by somebody else. Looking over to the source, I noticed Kyouya activating the same ability, throwing away the potion he had drunk a moment before. I could faintly see hints of red liquid on his lips.
Is he crazy?! That would mean—
The charge had sent Kyouya flying away from the formation, but he was now far away from his landing area. He most likely distanced himself further for this plan of his. As he held his shield up, although I couldn’t see his face through his faceguard, I could somehow imagine the desperate expression he had on him.
[Taunt] was an amazing ability to attract and control the attention of an enemy, but it had the double edge of attracting everybody who could hear him and it also increased the damage he would receive, while reducing what we would receive. It was suicide to use it here, just like what that orc knight did.
As the grimgarians charged at him, everybody quickly sent their attacks flying, knowing if we didn’t thin this horde down first, Kyouya would certainly die from this reckless action.
“Dammit! I had enough of this shit!” Daichi shouted after I finished healing him. “KAMIKAZE ACTIVATED!”
A powerful shockwave exploded from Daichi’s body, sending me falling on my back. As I looked up, I noticed Daichi’s medium-long hair standing up as a visible aura of red mana was surrounding his body. His eyes shone a bright yellow as he held up his staff, about to unleash two fire spells.
“Let the flames of destruction crush what obstacles stand before me, lay them to ruin in their arrogance. Fire Explosion!” Two massive explosions shattered the very ground the orc knight was running on, instantly killing off any hobgoblin spearmen who were unlucky enough. These two fire spells of Daichi’s were frighteningly powerful. Powerful enough, in fact, to crack the orcs’ armor.
“Dammit! That’s all I can do with this shit?! As if! How about you—” But before he could continue his speech, Haruka suddenly called out an attack, prompting me to ram Daichi out of the attack’s trajectory just in time. The arrow stuck right into the ruined earth dome. “Fucking hell, you damn goblins! With flame in my hand, I shall pierce all the walls in the name of Danterno! Flame Spear!”
[Kamikaze] was Daichi’s unique skill, enabling him to shoot out spells as long as he still had Mana. With it activated, he couldn’t be affected by the [Arcane Corruption] debuff and his spells would be strengthened; however, once it was over, all that accumulated arcane corruption would immediately affect him.
It also had the unfortunate side-effect of increasing Daichi’s natural hotheadedness.
“Grrraah!” The tiger roared at us before leading the three jaguars away from the fire and the fight. Daichi chased them away!
“Daichi, we need to kill the orcs! You need to aim for the orcs!” I tried to reason with him, but it was futile.
“I’m fucking killing those archers and kobolds! How dare they try to harm me! Burn them all!” The forest fire intensified, reflecting Daichi’s current mood.
Looking at Kyouya’s situation, the echikobold riders had already reached him, smacking at him and slowly chipping away at his splendid-looking armor. Arrows flew right into his back, piercing him and infecting him with poison.
Even with Misaki free firing, her draw speed was slowed down due to her using a yumi instead of a shortbow. Nishio, Kohaku, Kazumi and Sir Elrick tried their best to slaughter whatever came towards them, but they simply weren’t fast enough. With more and more orc knights attacking Kyouya, dread filled my head.
“““Kyouya-kun!””” We all screamed out as we could see his smiling face through his cracked helmet. Time slowed down for me and my senses were only focused on him, holding my hand out to cast a heal spell.
Healing magic! I need to cast a healing spell! [Moderate Heal], quick! Oh, Goddess, grant me—
“Dammit, I guess I have no choice!” Sir Elrick suddenly took off his gauntlet and sliced his left hand with his sword. “I thought I could hide all of this… But, I need to protect them! I need to survive and find Lady Asaka! Blood Con—”
In this singular moment where everything slowed down, I thought I saw two shadows suddenly shoot right out of the shadow of a tree, striking the area around Kyouya and sending every orc knight and echikobold rider flying. As arrows were shot, they were immediately blocked by a translucent barrier held up by four floating will-o’-wisp type of spirits.
As the smoke settled, what I saw standing behind the barrier caused the dread I felt to disappear.
“Ahwrroooooooooooooooo! Death to all you maggots!” A young man with a furred hand with long claws and the face of a wolfkin howled in the air, swinging his spear around as if he was boasting.
“Shut up with the chunni shit, idiot! Go kill them already.” Behind him was a young woman with blue hair in a white robes’ priestly outfit, supporting Kyouya’s back as he coughed out blood. A white magic circle appeared on her hand as she began healing his wounds, meanwhile, the four will-o’-wisps returned to her, surrounding her like floating tomoe — a comma-shaped figure.
“Tatsuya-kun! Asaka-san!”
They came back just in time.
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[Druidification (Belzac)] [Berserk (Minor)] inflicted on [Human, Tatsuya Nagata]
Pain. Just a fuckton of pain. It felt as if my veins were burning me alive while my heart's response to this was to pump even faster, causing this effect to worsen like an allergy. It hurt so much that my [Berserker] skill from my [Berserker Spearman] Job activated automatically without me taking any damage. There was synergy, sure, but goddamn, it hurt like a bitch.
“Kyouya?” I turned my head around, noticing how my best friend was shivering on the ground with his armor and shield dented and broken. Asaka was healing him, so he wasn’t about to die, but it really caused a deep pain in my chest, even more than what Belzac’s blood was doing to me. “Why the dafuk are you always trying to kill yourself, man!”
I was talking about our first church-issued Quest, the one where we had to hunt down some bandits. Just like today, he had almost died trying to protect somebody. This guy is just impossible to handle.
“Y-Yeah, sorry…” he apologized as he coughed up even more blood. “But, that’s my job as the ‘tank,’ right? Gotta keep the healers and damage dealers safe, right— Yeowch!”
“Alright, I thought you were smart but you, too, are an idiot, huh, Kyouya? Dammit, but you did manage to stall long enough for us to come back just in the nick of time. So I’ll let you off today with a flick on the head,” Asaka scolded Kyouya before ordering one of the onnikai spirits to create a mana barrier around Kyouya. As she stood up, she held her staff up with three onnikais floating on her back. “These things are draining my mana rapidly. We need to end this quickly, Tatsuya.”
I swept my spear in front of me, causing dust to fly. “Got it, my blood is fucking killing me and draining my Stamina even more quickly than [Rush Hour]. Let’s blitz them! Rush Hour!”
[Rush Hour] inflicted on [Human, Tatsuya Nagata]
Incredible power invigorated my body, making it feel so incredibly light that I thought I could run a mile a minute.
“Dragoon Jump!” Jumping forward, I used the power of the Belzac’s blood to cleanly slice off the head of an orc knight before jumping over to the next, killing it before targeting another enemy. I could hear not only my heartbeat but also my muscles and bones cracking under the strain of this incredible power boost.
Meanwhile, Asaka cast [Holy Eminence] on herself and constructed a floating mana barrier with the onnikai to block the arrows of the hobgoblin archers. She hadn’t had any more time to practice with her new power than I had, and it showed. She had no idea how to control the onnikais properly since they had no egos or intelligence, wheras the blood I’d drunk was straining my body to the point that it was just torture.
“Everybody, we need to help them!” As I was resting my aching legs after killing off nine of the orc knights, I noticed Tamae suddenly shouting something. “We can win this! Go!”
“““Yeah!””” With this motivating call-out, Nishio, Kohaku, and Kazumi charged right into the mix with Elrick lagging slightly behind. Misaki in the back continued sniping out any archer Haruka or Kazumi’s shadow clones detected, showing off how frightening a competitive archer’s accuracy was.
“Fuck you, Tatsuya! Coming in late like that! You won’t beat me in KILLS!” Daichi for some reason shouted despite how wounded and drained he looked.
Apparently my and Asaka’s arrivals were the deciding factor, because this battle that had driven our friends to the brink quickly ended in our victory.
[Starvation (Minor)] inflicted on [Human, Tatsuya Nagata]
After I dispelled both [Rush Hour] and my new unique skill [Bloodline Awakening], I fell onto my knees with my stomach growling in hunger. [Rush Hour] would be a great skill if not for the fact that I could guarantee a [Starvation (Minor)] everytime after I used it, even if I’d only activated it for a few seconds.
Damn, no level up, huh? I guess I did just get to 52.
As I was about to take a breather, Haruka shouted a warning and the earth shook, waking me from my slight stupor. “Dame Yorshka is still fighting!” Haruka called out, making me regret dispelling my buffs so early.
After Nishio and Daichi stopped the forest fire, we rushed over to the origin of that earthquake, noticing how the forest was even more devastated than where we had fought. The ground was cracked open, deep enough to be classified as holes, and the tree was shattered into bits as if a bulldozer rolled over.
As we continued, we noticed silvery dust floating around the area, a thick layer clinging onto trees like glue. As none of us could hear any weapons clashing, our worry intensified.
But, it was all for naught.
“Haaaaa, haaaaa, dammit, you kids are already done? Fuck, I’m still too young to slow down like this. A slower lifestyle does make you weaker, huh?” There she was, my spear master — Yorshka. Underneath her feet was the mutilated headless body of a giant ogre whose head was impaled on Yorshka’s spear like meat on a skewer.
As she threw the head on the ground, she hopped down from the corpse, making me realize her armor was broken and her undershirt ripped apart, showing off her underclothes, though there was barely any skin to see, as silvery scales hid it. To my surprise, silver wings moved on her back while a tail swung around her rear. Fangs could be seen in her mouth as she panted. Her ears were almost as sharp as an elf’s while two horns crowned her head.
I knew she was a dragonewt, but… wow, dragonewt women. Wow.
“C-Captain Yorshka?!” Elrick looked at her with astonishment. We hadn’t told him about everything, so he shouldn’t have known about her dragonewt origin.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Elrick. I know the secrets of the Karstein, and now you know mine. Let’s just blackmail each other to stay quiet, alright? I’m too tired to explain everything now, so let me do it later.” She then tied her long white hair into a ponytail and ripped off the last remaining piece of her ruined armor. “Ahhh, I know the Knight-Commander made this armor for me to fit in like a Knight of Aurena, but, wow, could it withstand some hits. Whew, no wonder my little aunt and her friends had so much trouble even with an already injured one. These high ogres are far stronger than the ones I’ve fought in the past.”
“D-Dame Yorshka?!” Tamae ran over to her, taking her coat off and handing it over to Yorshka, who accepted it.
“Thank you very much, Tamae. A wardrobe malfunction would have been pretty bad at this point, huh? Haaaaa, guess I’ll need to bring out my old armor once we return to Firwood,” Yorshka sighed. With the threat over, Asaka and I fell onto the ground, the strain of Belzac’s “gifts” too much for our bodies to handle.
After a short break, we were questioned about what happened to us after we fell into that hole together, so we explained to them how we met the spirit of the legendary S rank fenrir Belzac, and how he wanted us to give Sensei a message.
“Wait, so you two got lucky enough to gain some new powers?! Are you kidding me! Why didn’t I shove Asaka down that hole!” Daichi complained, earning him a sharp kick to his shin by the very same person.
“Shut up, asshole. Beside, the wolf explained how the blood was only available to people with strong bodies to endure the [Bloodline Awakening]. If you didn’t you would just explode or something like that.”
“She’s right. I can feel the pain even now.” My wolfkin features were gone after I dispelled the druidification, but everybody still had that werewolf-like image of me in their heads.
Bloodline Awakening
A superior druidification created by the Goddess of Fertility and Monsters, Edna. Allows the user to draw out the true power of the blood of a monster from a prominent family. Temporarily transforms the user to that blood’s respective beastman form, ensuring they can endure the strain of the blood’s might. More abilities can be drawn out at higher levels of the skill
Asaka continued after I gave them the description of my skill. “And these four onnikais were only given to me because he thought I could control them. Talked about how I had an affinity with them, for some reason. I dunno. All I know is that they drain my mana whenever I use them, and it isn’t by a small amount.”
“Well, I’m glad Asa-chan and Tatsuya-kun weren’t hurt. I’m glad you two came back,” Haruka said sweetly. “But… do you really have to eat this much food?”
With how this power was affecting us, Asaka and I were devouring food in amounts that normally only monsters could devour. We had to restore our lost calories.
As we did so, Asaka suddenly looked over at Elrick. “Hmm, what is it Elrick? Does the thought of us having accepted powers from Edna and Ilsaphone sound that unappealing to a knight of Aurena like you? Does that mean my saint candidacy is null and void and will you cut me down, now?”
Everybody’s head turned to Elrick, looking at him anxiously.
“No, uhm, well… It is true that you took on the powers of two members of the Marsven pantheon. If the church knew this, they would most likely ostracize you, even send out inquisitors to hunt you down, maybe. But, I, uhm,” Elrick hesitated to say anything further, causing everybody to stay on their guard.
That was until Yorshka interjected herself, “Well, shouldn’t you be somebody who can sympathize with the kids, Elrick? I mean, is it fair to judge somebody differently just because they have some disliked power?”
“They had a choice on this matter, Captain Yorska!” Elrick rebuked her.
“Yeah, a ‘choice.’ A choice to either take the power and live, or die down there. Very understandable choices, and don’t give me some stupid reasoning like ‘they are the Goddess’s Heroes so they shouldn’t take on the power of the dark god’ bullshit. They don’t come from this world, they have a different perspective. You shouldn’t force your philosophies on them, especially considering how the church kidnapped them to this world.”
“Lady Yorshka! That is blasphemy! The Goddess summoned them to our world to prot—”
“They were kidnapped here and forced to do the bidding of the church. Otherwise, they cannot return to their own world. That was a choice, too, right? Reject the church and be set adrift, never to return home, or accept their demands and survive. The choices they were given were the same in nature. Instead of thinking like a knight, how about you judge this situation as somebody who was brought out from their world and forced to adapt to their new situation, Elrick?”
Yorshka’s speech reminded me of how it was sort of impossible for us to rely on the church to send us back home, since Aurena wasn’t the one who had made the promise in the first place. Our only way was through Sensei and her friend Hestia, who was a champion of Aurena.
After that, Yorshka explained what the true goal of this trip was. Having heard that a grimagarian army had almost attacked Firwood, only prevented by Sensei’s actions, Yorshka wanted to scout out the entrance in the Avitor mountains which would lead to the grimgarian’s headquarters. Apparently, this information came from Hestia and Sensei who learned it from some fleeing lizardmen.
“I apologize for endangering you, I had not thought we would meet a platoon out here,” Yorshka bowed deeply in a dogeza before raising her head. “I am glad you all survived, but it was still reckless of me. Considering our wounds, it would be better for us to return to Firwood. I will get Lord Sirius to check this out for himself.”
As we all agreed to her plan, especially since it would probably bring us back to Sensei, Yorshka suddenly noticed something and looked up. Following her gaze, we noticed two white wyverns flying above us, releasing roars at us.
As my classmates and Elrick anxiously wanted to flee, Yorshka stood there, looking flabbergasted. “What?! Are you kidding me, the messenger caravan was killed?! Kriashi zlaarash mavree slaah!” Yorshka then pointed in a direction before roaring out once more, causing the wyverns to begin flying.
Facepalming, herself, she just groaned we questioned her about what just happened. “Well, I was sending a message to my family in Loatryx through a messenger caravan, but somehow, it got killed along the way by a group of great eagles. Those wyverns coincidentally hunted them down two days ago and found my message in their nest, and were about to return to their home in Avitor Peaks. They noticed my smell on the message and asked me about it, so I told them to take it to Loatryx.”
“Huh, and those roars were?” Nishio asked.
“Draconic; since true and lesser dragonkins cannot articulate common, we roar in our own language. Haaaaa, I cannot believe this. Why is nothing good happening for me after I met my aunt? This will delay the message to our Matriarch, just great…”
This Matriarch was supposedly Hestia's dragon mother, right? Welp, Hestia will get in trouble for that late message.
As we were about to move away from this location to form a proper camp, a telepathic message suddenly entered our mind.
[“Master’s aura. You have. Ours from Goddess. Where she? We ask, lead us to Master.”]
Four giant green cats descended from the trees. Two jaguars and a tiger stood still as a single green jaguar moved carefully forward. As I was was about to ready my weapon, Tamae suddenly stopped us, informing us these cats were the ones who not only tried to warn us from the grimgarians but also helped them fight them off after Asaka and I fell into that hole.
[“Me, Rajah. Master, Hestia. Healthy?”]
Little did we know that our party would increase by four as our next goal was settled — reuniting with Sensei and her party to discuss our future plans.