CHAPTER 2 – THE FALLEN HEROES AND THE NECROPOLIS
[https://kentusauthor.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/05x-2-1.png?w=676]
Lent Wood, formerly known as Yoshimura Rentaro, used to be a hero of Feuerberg, but things have gone another way than initially expected. He was reborn in Aroahenn, an elven village, and what happened before that is now just knowledge in his head.
Not memories, knowledge. Like all that happened before was read in a book, he knows when he was angry, when he was sad, but he doesn't remember the feelings themselves.
Some people might think that he lost everything, but he's kinda happy with it. The power which courses its ways through his veins, the feeling of ascending into a higher being, these new feelings tell him that he left behind something weak and became something strong. He is now a hero, not only because he was summoned, but because it's now part of his innermost identity.
However, the moment he was reformed was the moment when he had nothing to do. He lost any purpose and therefore couldn't muster much of his new strength. This, plus the damage his former self received are the reasons why he lost the fight against Katsuragi Kenta back then.
He has it now, though. A purpose.
Like most heroes, Lent is serving a deity, but not the unknown one who brought him to this world. No, he'll serve Kami-sama from now on.
The Lady of Midnight, the Mother of Stars, the Ever Accepting.
To call out her name would be a sacrilege. No mortal has the right, has the confidence to. So Lent calls her Kami-sama.
To serve Kami-sama, Lent wants to become stronger.
Also, there are things in his past, which are very interesting and intriguing. He was once in love. With the person who was also his class president, Momokawa Kyou. Lent can't recall these feelings, but he knows that he used to fantasize a lot about that beauty. Her face is clearly in his memory, he idolizes her, just like Kami-sama.
He wants to meet her. Make her his own. Because he's sure that he will fall in love with her again.
She didn't like him before, but that was Yoshimura Rentaro. Now he's Lent Wood, a whole other person. Not the one who confessed to her during elementary school. Not the one who tried his best in middle school to become the top of the class, always failing because of his inadequacy.
He used to work hard with no reward.
Yoshimura Rentaro was a loser, the proof that hard work doesn't always pay off. Lent Wood is something else. Instead of a student, he was already a wizard, was always a wizard, and being a wizard is the core of his being. He is much more intelligent than Yoshimura Rentaro. Much more capable.
Magic is part of his flesh. It's so easy to sense it, to feel it, to make use of it. After training for just a bit, Lent is able to use simple spells even while in the [Soldier] or [Merchant]-class. Lent is strong, and with Kami-sama as an anchor, as a reason to put these powers to use, he'll crush anyone who stands in his way.
Yoshimura Rentaro had to kill the demon lord for a single, perfect wish, but Lent Wood has a new quest, a quest Kami-sama gave to him: To convince twenty other heroes to change loyalty to Kami-sama.
He also has a partner, with a similar mission: To kill a hundred other heroes. Said partner, Star, was also someone else once. He used to be Hoshibashi Takashi, a classmate of Yoshimura Rentaro.
Like Lent, he was reborn and now is a savage, in class and in nature. Fury is his power, but he lacks control. So to quench it, Star usually uses the [Warrior]-class.
Star's former life was also that of a loser. Some sort of delinquent goon, a tag-along. Now both of them are servants of Kami-sama and will earn their wishes due to interacting with other heroes. Either convince them to change their side or to kill them.
It's perfect. Both of them only need to hunt heroes and let them choose to join them or go to hell.
They have already decided upon their first targets: Both of them want to tackle Katsuragi Kenta's party. Lent could imagine a future that lets them join Kami-sama's cause, even Katsuragi himself under certain circumstances.
Lent can't forget how he was almost killed by him and that elven girl, but he doesn't hate him much for it.
The problem here lies with Momokawa Kyou, as Katsuragi has her now. If he let her go, though, Lent has no reason to pursue the whole matter further.
On the other hand, Star always has a tantrum when Katsuragi or that elven girl is mentioned. His savage nature makes it harder for him to think things through.
Nonetheless, Lent is looking forward to meeting them again. He can meet Momokawa Kyou again, make her his ally, and hopefully more. There will be a chance to deal with Katsuragi Kenta, whether to make him a companion or a victim.
About that blonde girl...
As was mentioned before, Lent doesn't really remember his past but retains all his knowledge, and his knowledge about that girl makes him hesitate.
She almost broke his body. Star wants to repay her for the humiliation his former self suffered through her, but this could just be his temper.
That girl is the strongest of Katsuragi's party. She is also the reason why Lent wants to level up and class up before he starts looking for them.
For this reason, both of them are currently outside Kami-sama’s palace, looking through the necropolis which surrounds it.
“Hm...” Lent looks at a tablet inside one of the buildings, pictures are carved onto it. “This is Kami-sama, right?”
“Obviously, that figure has moons as eyes. Why do you even care?”
“Look at the servants. What are they? Owl people?”
“Answer my question.”
“*sigh* Star, I want to understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Everything. For example, why are there zombies here?”
In fact, the necropolis is full of the undead, but most of them are human zombies. There are some strange skeletons mixed in, which could be former owl people, but where did the rest come from?
“Ask Kami-sama, if you're interested.”
In fact, it was Kami-sama who suggested they explore the necropolis. «You want to be stronger? We know a way. The city. Look through it. Look for the truth and claim it.»
“I think that understanding what this necropolis is about is what we are supposed to do.”
“I don't think so. Smashing all these undead until we find their boss, that's what we should do!”
“Just think of this as a break. Just let me do whatever I think is necessary.”
“Fine.”
Star sits down on a stone table and takes something to eat out of his backpack.
He's a rude fellow, but still a valuable partner and more self-confident than his former self, so he wants to be involved in the decision-making more.
Lent turns to the tablet again. At the edge, there seem to be two different kind of scripts, one of them is entirely unknown to Lent, the other is written in this world's letters. “The Lady of Midnight brought us here to be her servants... We are the... the what?”
Time has taken its toll. The tablet is too hard to decipher here and there, and some keywords are missing. In addition to many other words, some of which fortunately can still be filled by a basic understanding of grammar, like conjunctions or prepositions.
Taken together, this tablets tells that these owl people were brought to this place to serve Kami-sama. Kami-sama in person also has something like owl wings growing out of her head... is that related?
Another tablet... war? Against pig people, orcs most likely, and some strange fanged people. Vampires? The owl people faced the orcs on the left, the vampires on the right side.Then there are other bird people, eagles perhaps?
No, crows. And there is a long-nosed man behind them. Are these tengu? Like from Japanese folklore?
Strange.
Another tablet, but the style differs. Did someone else do it? Kami-sama surrounded by all her enemies. But she laughs at them. There is a single word written on that tablet: “Punishment.”
Lent doesn't know what that means, but seeing how Kami-sama is still there, she has won. Against an army, all by herself.
How strong must she be?
Lent sits down next to Star. The taller man gives him a slice of bread with cheese. “Got anything?”
“More questions.” Lent takes the bread and bites into it.
“I'll scout ahead.” With these words, Star loses a lot of his buff as he changes from [Warrior] to [Masterthief], a class-up of [Thief]. He learned it from Correo, just like Lent was able to class-up from [Trader] to [Merchant].
Why [Merchant] is considered a class-up is unclear, but it's all that he could learn from Correo, who claims to know only these two, which should already be more than most.
Lent is sure that Correo is holding something back. Everyone wants their trump card, so Lent is looking for one himself. Something that's rare, something that is not well-known, something that will bring him out of most dangerous situations.
Knowledge is power. The lack of knowledge is weakness. With such a trump card, Lent will be able to create a weakness within the strongest opponents to exploit.
Star is slipping through the entrance, using [Camouflage] and [Sneak] to be hard to detect. Lent can do nothing but eat right now to give his brain nutrients. He also needs to take this opportunity to let his head rest. Otherwise it might fail him later.
Closing his eyes, he tries to meditate, but approximately a thousand thoughts course through his mind. Thoughts about the past he can't really grasp. The former Lent－Yoshimura Rentaro－did a lot of foolish things, often without any logical reason. Most of them are somehow tied to Momokawa Kyou. Like how he waited three hours in front of the gates of the middle school for her, just to ask her to go home with him. Back then she was still in the dance club, so when she finally came, she was surrounded by all of the club members she was friendly with, of course.
She noticed him, smiled at him, and just walked away. He let her do that; Yoshimura Rentaro was a really strange one. He was weak-willed, telling himself that the smile alone was worth it.
Well, now he's gone, and someone different took his place. Whatever that new person puts his mind to, he will succeed. He was no longer ‘adequate,’ he was superior.
“Lent,” Star's voice comes out of nowhere, but then he aborts his skills, showing himself. “There is a large group of zombies down the street. They are wearing armor and have some simple weapons, and the farther the street goes, the more they are. I think there might be something there.”
“Then let's slaughter our way through this.” Lent stands up and readies his staff. “It's my turn.” While Lent doesn't particularly like to kill, he has to do so to raise his level. Since he cast off his former self, his level ups became more powerful.
As he and Star are partners, they had to find a way to maintain some sort of balance, so they are taking turns in combat, trying to level up almost at the same time. This makes the partnership healthy for both.
Lent follows Star and sees a whole lot of undead right in front of him. The only question was whether to burn or to bury them.
Burn it is. Lifting his staff, using it as a focus, he also pushes more and more magic into the spell. “[Incinerate].” A flaming wave blasts from his staff towards what are about twenty zombies and every single one of them burns from within, killing them in quick succession.
[Incinerate] is an instant death spell, it either works or not, the limiting factors are the magic put into the spell and the [Vitality] of the targets. Or in case of a non-heroes, whatever the system used instead of [Vitality].
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
It’s a spell he wouldn't dare to use against fellow heroes, as the only thing they'll do afterward would be dying. He has to convince them to join, not kill them. That's Star's job.
Still, the smell of rotten, burned flesh makes Lent feel better. It shows him that he's indeed strong, that he's able to handle another encounter with Katsuragi.
“My turn.” Star points at another group of armored zombies, who joins the battle from the side. He slovenly walks up to them, lifts his greatsword and cleaves cleanly through one, including armor and everything, without even putting that much power into it. “You know what? [Rock Smash]!” The blade cuts into the stone ground, hurling rocks at the zombies and while these projectiles used to only hurt, they're now strong enough to dismember the zombies.
Partly because of their rotting, partly because of the sheer power.
“[Wind Weasel].” Lent cast another spell, cutting a new group of zombies and some skeletons into pieces. Then he changes class to [Soldier], puts his staff into his backpack, draws his sword, and fights them honestly. He needs to improve his skills with that weapon as well.
“Seriously?” Star laughs seeing that, but also let go of his greatsword to draw his sword and club. “Then I'll explore my [Masterthief] a bit.” Both of them are not taking these opponents seriously. There is no need because they already know how weak the zombies are, how powerful Lent and Star are themselves.
“I think we got all of them.” Lent looks around, seeing the dead bodies of the former walking corpses. “They seem to be stronger than regular soldiers, but more fragile as well.” Great targets for all those spells and skills which are filling a large area.
“The elves were harder.” Back then, when they cut their way through the elves... Before they actually became strong. “Let's move on.”
“Alright.” Lent and Star are proceeding deeper into the necropolis. After two more encounters with living corpses, they finally arrived at something that looked out of place.
Rising from the ground, there is a black obelisk. The surface of the strange crystal has something peculiar carved into it, and sometimes a barely noticeable violet light would surge through those carvings.
Using his [Detect Mana]-spell, Lent looks at this monument. “Strange... there is mana, but only at the bottom. Looks like... some sort of... no, to be more precise, I think it's similar to some sort of spell.”
“A spell?”
“At a basic level. When you cast a spell, you take mana that you have transformed into magic before, and use it in certain ways, like [Elemental Magic] which can influence the four cardinal elements: Fire, water, air, and earth. This obelisk takes mana from the ground and changes it to something else, not like the magic that you and I produce.”
“...there is magic in the ground?”
“Mana. The very source of mana is the planet itself. So naturally, it comes from the ground.”
“Aha. By the way, what does it have to do with our [Magic]-value?”
“To put it into simple words, mana is absorbed by lifeforms, and that's how much you can save. Unless you have some spells like [Magic Buffer] that let you store extra.”
“Can you perceive it in another person?”
“...no. There is a transformation process there. Are you implying this is some sort of magic container?”
“No.” Star lifts his greatsword. “I get the vibe that that's some sort of creature.” Without waiting for Lent's opinion, he swings his weapon, right towards the obelisk. “[Steel Slicer]!”
A loud noise, sparks fly from the weapon, pieces of crystal and metal fly through the air. Both the obelisk and the greatsword are damaged, but for Lent it's evident that if Star decides to keep this up, his sword will snap first.
“Kch.” He also notices. “I can break it.” He's referring to his [Savage]-class, his true self, which certainly has the capabilities to tear it down with bare hands.
“Not yet. We know too little. Let's keep looking arou-”
“Lent!” With just one word, Lent knows what his partner wants to tell him: An enemy is here!
Drawing his weapons, he starts looking around, but the presence is so obvious, that there is no need to look much.
A dark shadow hangs in the air. A humanoid creature clad entirely in black plate armor from head to toe is in the center, a shield in the left hand, while the right hand is at the hip, seemingly choosing between a sword and a flail.
Seeing how lightly armored Lent and Star are, it draws the sword.
“Strange.” It says. The voice is borderline male, it belongs to a man, but is very soft and high-pitched. “Are you in cahoots with the goddess?”
The way he talks is nonchalant, the way he acts is oppressing. The goddess he's speaking about has to be Kami-sama who is still in her palace.
“Fuck off.” Using strong words, Star lifts his greatsword and makes it clear that he won't hesitate to fight.
“If I could, I'd consider it. Let's not be hasty though, after all these fights with the orcs, I'd rather have an intelligent conversation for a change.” Belying his words, his shadowy aura starts to focus, shrinking further and further, while concentrating on his blade.
Lent has a bad feeling about this.
On the other hand, Star is unfazed. “Then let's talk.”
So they talk, using their blades. They clash, and another sparking occurs, but this time only from Star's edge, which starts corroding from the point the weapons meet. Corrodes and break away, bit by bit, but instead of faltering, Star throws a punch, just to be blocked by the shield.
The force of the punch throws the black armored guy several meters back at least. “Strong... You are human, right? Or are you clad in illusions to lull me into a false sense of security?”
Checking his blade, Star smiles challenging. “Find out for yourself.”
“I guess I will.”
The shadowy aura expands again, while the warrior charges in, shield first. The moment Star is touching that aura, Lent is able to see how Star's clothes are deteriorating slowly.
“Star, get out.”
“Right.” Star lets go of his sword, grabs the border of the enemy's shield and throws it, and the one wearing it, through a wall of a large building.
“What's your status?”
“Wait... oh, the aura cuts HP and SP at the same time.”
So it is indeed some sort of death aura. The whole person gives the black knight vibe, but there is something even more sinister to it, so maybe he's some sort of undead death knight, considering the other undead around here.
Out of the crater steps the armored figure, not even caring about his dusty appearance. “You have brute strength, I give you that. Also, while I'm practically uninjured, being thrown like some discus is quite humiliating, so at least my pride took some damage.”
He puts his sword into his left armpit and lifts the visor of the helmet, showing his face. It was rotten to the core, instead of eyes are holes filled with sickly green light, the lips are bloated and purple, yellow-black fangs are emerging through their corners; whatever it used to be wasn't human to begin with, but now it's like an avatar of death.
Star and Lent are exchanging gazes, Lent feels a bit excited. Fighting undead spawns is what a hero is supposed to do, and he is a hero on a fundamental level.
Seeing their reaction, the rotten thing looks confused. “Usually, you should be crying in anguish and fear.” He lowers the visor again. “What unusual people. I'd thought I met some heroes, but even then my visage should have at least some effect.”
“Why?” Lent taunts him. “Isn't being unafraid of anything what makes a hero?”
“Are you mocking me? What are you? Mortals should be affected by dread, but gods don't have heartbeat or blood causing through their veins, and I can sense them in you.”
“Hah. Fewer words, more talk.”
“Should I help you, Star?”
“Sorry, but this one is mine. Have fun with the next big one.”
“I'm clearly being underestimated, right?” the undead comments, while Star draws his shortsword and club while changing into [Masterthief], decreasing his muscle mass in the process. Seeing that, the undead cocks his head. “Heroes after all?”
“True heroes!” Using excessive speed, Star’s contours blur. Going around the knight and his shield, he kicks him in the back, causing him to fall over.
Then another class-change, back to [Warrior], to deal the maximum damage. “[Steel Slicer]!” It's a [Sword]-skill, so he uses it with his shortsword. It may not be as effective as the greatsword, but will still deal a significant amount of damage.
“[Corrode].” But instead, the shortsword rusts during the execution of the skill and *snap* breaks the moment it touches the armor.
The armored undead jumps up to his feet, as if he was some sort of martial artist and like his armor weighs nothing. Then he smashes the shield in Star's direction, who is pushed back, and then cut by the sword on the side.
“You! Take this!” The blow of the club is easily heard, as it also snaps, this time due to the sheer power Star put in his attack. His enemy is flying through a wall again, just a few meters next to the hole he left before.
Lent is fascinated by this battle. Star is using the more powerful attacks, but that death aura is putting him and his equipment under a lot of stress.
The worst: The last attack still wasn't enough to end the black armored man. “If you had taken better care of your equipment, it would still be in play.” Yes, Star lost two of his weapons now, while his greatsword already received some damage. “Still, I really don't like your confidence.”
Yes, the undead is right. Star still is wholly convinced that he will win, the confidence of someone who wouldn't lose to some sort of moving corpse.
“Your friend also did nothing so far, but observe. Quite vile, I have to say, assessing me while we fight.”
Star snarls: “Why do you keep talking?”
“Like I stated before, I am enjoying some good conversation with you.”
Lent knows precisely what that means, as he's also someone who was conversing with his enemy once. What this guy feels is supreme superiority over them He thinks can't lose, so he plays with his prey. Pure arrogance.
Confidence.
No, he might be buying time. For what?
Lent looks around, trying to find something like a disturbance in the mana, but there is nothing.
Star lifts his fist and starts pummeling at the armored undead, but Lent understands: Without the use of skills, the undead is apparently the better fighter. He deflects the punches effortlessly with his shield, stabs at Star whenever possible, and even though Star can evade those attacks, he is clearly drained by the aura of this walking corpse during their exchange of blows.
Drained?
“Star, back off!”
“I can still do it.”
“He's stealing your power!”
“...what!?” With a great leap, Star takes some distance.
“You got wise of me.” With the visor down, it's hard to tell, but Lent is sure that this guy is smiling. “Please excuse this rudeness of mine, but young life force is really refreshing after so long.”
“[Wind Weasel]!” Lent uses a fast and mediocre attack spell to gauge that man's actual power.
The shield flares up while he aligns it against the spell and it dispersed even before it hits.
It wasn't a strong attack, but Lent, being a strong [Wizard], has plenty of power behind each spell. So seeing his spell being treated like a minor matter, with no further comment or anything else, makes him feel irritated.
Lent and Star are strong, but so is this guy. So far, no side showed many of their cards, so there still is no telling who will win.
Yet Star already lost some of his equipment. It wasn't that great, but now it's gone. His greatsword might be the next, and then he would need to rely on [Savage] to use combat skills.
[Savage] is a challenging class, so Star should only use it if he's actually cornered or sure that he will end things there.
“Star, let me handle it.” Lent decides to try to negotiate. He changes to [Merchant], and start using his [Conversation]-skill [Hear me out]. “We don't need to fight, we're looking for the secrets of the necropolis and would like to make a deal with-”
“Declined.”
What? How can this be? [Hear me out] should compel someone to listen to Lent, so why isn't it working? Nobody is currently endangering the death knight, so why can he... because he's undead?
“Why are you declining me?”
“Because you'll make great soldiers, if we take care of the whole 'being alive' thing.”
Something grows from the ground, it's the death knight's shadow, who forms itself to a doppelganger. He lacks the aura, but still moves like its master.
It charges.
Star already retrieved his greatsword: “[Rock Smash]!” A wave of rocks is thrown against the shadow, which shields itself. “Run or fight?”
Lent looks for the death knight, but he vanished at the moment the shadow drew their attention. “Fight!” Running away might make them more vulnerable. So Lent changes back to [Wizard], readying his staff.
“I like it.” Star runs up to the shadow and uses a large swing, trying to cleave it into two with one blow. “[Steel Slicer]!”
The shadow tries to block that attack, but shield and arm are simply cut through. The portion of the shadow falls off, merges with the ground and moves...
“[Crystal Torpedo]!” Touching the ground with his staff, Lent creates a crystal that will move underground the way he wants to. He ordered it to follow the shadow and shoot up when it reattaches to its owner.
Then he starts chanting, a big spell. A hundred little spells to make a big one possible, changing the earth around him, making it harder and easier to shape at the same time. He puts an extra amount of mana into it, making it as strong as possible.
A crack, the [Crystal Torpedo] hits something behind that building. So... “[Stalagmite Prison]!” This spell has three effects. Stalagmites will grow in the area and pierce everything in it. At the same time, it will enclose the whole area in a stone globe. When everything is set up, the inner walls of the globe will grow another set of stalagmites and pierce the target once more.
It's an overkill spell, but considering that opponent, it might not be enough.
Star is finished with the shadow and joins Lent on the way to the [Stalagmite Prison]. They see the globe, which is starting to turn into dust. Yet that means that the death knight is really inside.
“Sorry Star, but I will use the next one.” Lent puts his hand on the rock sphere and chants another spell. “[Smelting Heat]!” The dissolving globe heats up in a fiery red, it should conduct through the inner spikes and burn the stabbed death knight from within.
That's at least the intention.
Instead, part of the [Stalagmite Prison] is blown away by a shield, another part breaks away just a second afterward, and the death knight steps outside. His armor is severely dented, and a bit of smoke and the stench of burned flesh surrounded him, but overall he seems to be fine.
Star punches the smoking figure right into the face, smashing it again into the stalagmites, which weren't firm enough to penetrate the armor. Lent asks himself what material it's made of, as it already suffered quite a lot of damage.
“If I could feel pain, I would certainly complain about it right now.” The death knight still has this confidence, that makes it hard for Lent to guess how well Star and he are doing here. “I'd really like to have you as my subordinates. You called yourself 'true heroes', right? I can see that part. I'm certain that I would lose if I fought against the two of you on my own.”
Star quickly changed into [Masterthief] and surely notices something. “We're surrounded, Lent. Some sort of sneaky undead.” He is right, from the roofs and windows, from the alleys and doorsteps, some strange lanky corpses are appearing. They're certainly different from the zombies, they move nimbly and dexterously, instead of hands they have claws, and there is no rot to see.
“Ghouls. They sneak to the graveyards and eat the flesh of corpses. They are some of my lesser subordinates, and no match for any of you.”
Lent has a bad feeling about it. “Unless you're there, right?”
“I'm Laharel the death knight, general of the Undead Army.” The dark aura around Laharel begins to send pulses, and the ghouls who are engulfed in these pulses began to convulse for a moment, only to have black flames leaking out of their eyes and mouths.
Then they attack. One instantly jumps at Star, who cut it into two halves despite still being [Masterthief], but the upper body of the ghoul claws his way up the blade to scratch Star's face, leaving dark, burning marks.
Though the real problem is Laharel himself, as he charges Lent, who quickly changes into [Soldier] and tried to deflect the sword slash, but Laharel's blade broke a chunk out of Lent's sword, this time by physical power alone.
“Lent, retreat! There is something around all of them, that bastard is getting more powerful by having these ghouls around! Plus, there are more undead coming!” Star's sharp [Masterthief]-senses already got the gist of how the situation suddenly turned to their bad side.
Now Lent understands the confidence of that death knight. He was merely trying to buy time, because he already called for reinforcement, and somehow commander and soldiers have this strange synergy-effect, that makes them all stronger.
“I won't let you retreat! You'll join the Undead Army!” Laharel was already a strong fighter, so now with the empowerment of his strange pulse-skill, he is more than capable of overcoming Lent in melee combat.
However, Lent is a hero, and he doesn't panic. Instead, he reaches for his backpack and pulls a new weapon out to replace his almost broken sword. A spear. He is still somewhat inexperienced with this weapon, but after a particular fight with a spear-user, Lent asked Correo for a good one.
The [Soldier]-class has the [Sword] and the [Spear]-abilities, therefore Lent has trained to unlock the latter.
Laharel's body tells Lent that the death knight is practically sneering at him because a spear is less effective against sword and shield than many people might believe, but Lent is a true hero, so he can quickly learn new skills. “[Armor Piercer]!”
A strong weapon, a strong skill, a strong hero. All of this comes together, as Lent thrust his spear at Laharel, who has no choice but to deflect the spear with his shield, losing his balance in the process, while taking some damage from the impact of the attack. “Star!”
“Right!”
Both of them turned around. “[Thresher]!” “[Speedthrust]!”
Star's [Thresher]-skill is not a [Sword]-skill, but a [Great Weapon]-skill. That's the reason why his former self, Hoshibashi, chose that unwieldy weapon because he could use two [Abilities] with this one weapon.
The user of [Thresher] propels himself forward while whirling the weapon to cut and bash everything out of the way, it's like a [Speedthrust] with a wide attack arc.
Star violently forced his way through the empowered ghouls, Lent following him, the moment they broke through, both of them escape this battle.