Chapter Seventeen: Blood Flower Strike
“Hey, that one looks pretty tough. Alright, let’s do this Glass.”
“Yes!”
“Right on! I haven’t seen Kizuna’s skills in a long time,” L’Arc added.
“Kizuna, it’s all in your hands now. Phantasm!” Glass shouted, slapping open her fans and using a skill that filled the air with dancing flower petals. Delicate cherry blossoms flit on the wind, making everything look pink and fantastical.
The tigers swayed on their feet, their eyes rolling around in their heads. The skill must have made them dizzy.
What was going on? What was the plan?
“Here I go!” L’Arc shouted, throwing his scythe. A tornado erupted from where it landed.
The howling winds appeared to make Glass’s skill even more effective.
“Oh power in these stones, here my plea and show yourself. My name is Therese Alexanderite, and I am your friend. Give me the strength to stop them!””
“Shining Stones! Paralysis Wing!”
Butterflies flapped out from her hands and joined the howling winds and flower petals.
The tigers lost their momentum, slowed, and then came to a complete stop.
“It’s a little tricky to stop so many of them at once. This would have been over a long time ago if there had only been one,” Kizuna said, turning her weapon into the tuna knife.
“But it’s the end now—and we have won. Behold the true power of the Hunting Hero,” Glass declared.
“Naofumi... Actually, Raphtalia, we’ll need your help, too. When the attack happens, you go after the strong one that Naofumi is holding.”
“Alright,” Raphtalia said, turning to face Trash #2. I still had him cornered.
Then Kizuna held her tuna knife like Raphtalia held her sword, took a breath, and ran for the tigers. In a flash, she was already done with them.
“Instant Blade: Mist!”
“Hunting Skill: Blood Flower Strike!”
Raphtalia held the katana in both hands and flew at Trash #2.
“What?!”
“What is it?”
“The blade... It feels strange—like it cut unnaturally deep.”
Trash #2 stopped trying to wiggle free from my grasp. I let him go.
He shook and shivered, and his face grew pale.
“Ugh...”
“Oh, it will hurt worse if you move. You should stay still,” Kizuna added, tapping the frozen White Tiger copy with the tip of her tuna knife before returning to where Glass and her friends were standing.
I hadn’t seen the attack at all, but suddenly all of the tigers collapsed, falling into bloody chunks.
The air was thick with the scent of blood.
The sprays of blood hung in the air, like red flower petals to match the pink ones.
Kizuna’s skill was aptly named—it really did look like flowers of blood.
Trash #2’s women and his backup troops stared at us speechlessly. They must have realized that if Trash #2 moved at all, he would fall apart into bloody chunks, just like what had happened to the tigers.
“I don’t believe it! How could you defeat our most powerful weapons so easily? It’s impossible! Impossible!”
One of the women pointed and shouted, “And by the weakest of the heroes, no less!”
Kizuna rolled her eyes.
I knew how she probably felt. I was used to people saying the same kind of things about me. I guess people only respected you if you could fight against other people.
“Do you even know anything about the Hunting Hero? I’m sure you realize that all the heroes have their specialties...”
That’s right. Kizuna had said something about that. She couldn’t attack people, but she made up for that with her special abilities against monsters.
“I may not be able to fight with other people, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fight. If you don’t learn to separate rumors from fact, you’ll end up dead.”
The crowd of reinforcements started to murmur among themselves.
It was amazing. Glass and her friends had been struggling against those tigers for the whole fight, and Kizuna took them all out with a single attack. She was terrifying!
Looking back on the time we’d spent together, I couldn’t think of a single time I’d seen her struggle in battle, except for when we were faced with human opponents. She had always defeated monsters without breaking a sweat.
I hadn’t realized how terrifying my travel companion really was!
I wonder if she felt the same way about me—after all, I was a holy hero, too.
I couldn’t do much by way of attack, but when it came to defense, I was far more impressive than anyone else I’d met.
I’d survived the Spirit Tortoise’s main attack—wasn’t that proof enough?
Just like me, Kizuna couldn’t attack humans, but when it came to attacking monsters, she was the most powerful person around. I was actually grateful that her specialty wasn’t the opposite... What if there was a holy hero out there that was specialized in fighting people? Wouldn’t that be terrifying?
“Alright then... You’ve seen how easily we defeated your commander and your strongest weapons. Don’t you think it would be best for you to let us go free?” Kizuna said, twisting her tuna knife so it flashed in the sun.
“Feh...”
“Rishia, Kizuna’s on our side. Don’t be scared.”
“Mr. Naofumi, your new friend is really something...”
“I guess so.”
“Rafu?”
Raph-chan had kept quiet during the battle. Or I guess she did try to protect Rishia.
That was fine. I had never expected her to be much use in battle.
On the other hand, I had seen Glass and Kizuna’s shikigami, Chris, doing all it could to protect them during the battle. I still didn’t have a firm grasp on what they could do, though—I’d been too occupied dealing with Trash #2.
“Raphtalia, your attack was really impressive, too. You must have gotten stronger since I saw you last.”
“Do you think so? I’ve been so busy since I got here that I haven’t had the time to stop and reflect on it.”
That attack of hers was really something. I was sure of it.
It was certainly strange that she’d been chosen by the katana, but it was starting to feel like destiny now. She’d really handled herself well in the battle.
She must have been through so much since we’d been split up, because she seemed more skilled than she had been. If we had to split up again, I wondered if she’d develop bulky muscles or something.
“You’re thinking about something rude again, aren’t you?”
“No. I was just thinking about how strong you’ve become and how dependable you’ve become.”
“Oh... Well... What should we do now?” Raphtalia asked, staring at the katana in her hands.
It was a good question. Once we got back to the world we’d come from, was it safe to walk around with such a valuable weapon?
“Naofumi? Aren’t you going to absorb some of these White Tiger parts?”
“Yeah, yeah, of course. But I’ve got a hostage here, so I can’t move yet,” I said, looking back and forth between Trash #2 and his women and the backup troops.
He must have been a pretty important person, because everyone seemed stunned by his capture. They clearly had no idea what to do. They knew that if they tried anything funny, he’d split in two at the waist—Trash #2 seemed to realize that he couldn’t move at all.
“Take a good hard look at him. If you stay after us, you’ll end up the same way,” I said, squeezing in one last threat.
“Mr. Naofumi, you love doing that, don’t you? Threatening people.”
“If they don’t really feel scared, these underlings of his will never learn.”
“Sigh... I supposed you’re right. It seems there are people like him no matter where we go...” Raphtalia murmured.
She was right. He reminded me of the other heroes back in our world— or of Trash #1.
“Alright, we have your vassal weapon. This whole debacle is because of his foolish recklessness. Don’t forget that.”
Didn’t anyone in this world care about the holy heroes?
Didn’t they respect Kizuna at all?
I guess I’d been through something similar back in the last world. There must have been people that didn’t believe in, or trust, the heroes. You didn’t want to get captured by people like that.
I walked over and absorbed the White Tiger parts into my shield, keeping an eye on the soldiers that hesitantly ran over to rescue Trash #2. We had what we needed, so we left. On our way out, I saw the gaggle of women casting healing spells on him. He would be fine... maybe.
“Don’t let them get away! You must kill them all! Look at what they’ve done to me! The vassal weapon belongs to our country. We cannot allow them to escape—”
Raphtalia turned back to stop his tirade. “It’s too soon. If you move in the next ten seconds, you’ll still die. You’d better keep healing magic going for the next few days.” Raphtalia bowed deeply and then raised her face. “We didn’t pick this fight with you, and we do not wish for war. If you can consider the situation dispassionately, you will see that an alliance with Glass’s county is in your best interests. When you reach that conclusion yourself, please discuss it with your government.”
He didn’t give up. “Wait!”
“You mustn’t move!”
“Don’t believe her! I’ve already cast healing spells on myself! You’ll see!”
Slowly, the women and soldiers began walking after us. Trash #2 rose to his feet to join the fray, when...
“... How unfortunate. We truly wished to end this without any unnecessary bloodshed.”
“I agree. I had hoped that your nations could form an alliance that could usher in an new era of optimism for the future of this world...” Raphtalia sighed.
Glass nodded in agreement. “Naofumi, you had better not watch. I’ve seen Glass and L’Arc slaughter people like this before,” Kizuna said.
That just made me want to watch more.
Raphtalia seemed resigned to this outcome, reasoning that they had brought it upon themselves.
“Rishia, you’d better not look, either!”
“Rafu!”
“Feh... Why? What’s happening?”
Filo and Raph-chan were trying to keep Rishia from watching.
I actually didn’t need to watch to know what was going to happen. I’d seen it in anime before—that thing that happens when someone is instantly sliced up.
“What are you doing!? Hurry up and... ugh...”
First came a sickening, crushing sound. Then it was followed by the hiss of blood spraying into the air.
“Kyaaaaaaaa!” the women screamed.
“—Youuuuuuuu!”
I couldn’t make out what he was trying to say.
Too bad. I didn’t feel a bit of sympathy for him. I didn’t really care about his name, but I wonder what it was...
I could only think of one thing to say: “The world is rid of another piece of garbage, heh, heh, heh...”
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia shouted, chastising me.
I didn’t see what was so wrong with what I said. This creep had been trying to kill her!
And he’d done everything he could to get in our way.
“Kiddo, I know you want to be cool, but I wouldn’t laugh. You wouldn’t want to see it by accident.”
“I wouldn’t mind... as long as it’s not too gross.”
I didn’t really want to turn and look at the splattering gore behind me, but I still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to gloat. There were plenty of people back in the world I came from that I’d like to die this way, but if they actually did, then it wouldn’t be a good thing.
Anyway, that’s how we won the battle and escaped.
We left the town over its rooftops.
“What kind of attack was that?”
It was so fast that I hadn’t actually been able to see what happened. It looked like she had just cut the monsters with her knife. But it couldn’t have been that simple—what was all that stuff she’d done with the fishing lure beforehand? That must have been setting up the killing move. It might have been a sequence of skills, like when I use Shield Prison and then Change Shield (attack) and follow those up with Iron Maiden.
“Hm? Oh, the skill connects all of the enemy’s weak points and then cuts through them. It doesn’t always kill them, though. Sometimes it just cuts very deep.”
So it was actually a really strong attack, and the enemy only fell apart if the attack was strong enough to kill them.
“What were you doing with your fishing lure beforehand?”
“It’s a skill called Lure Needle, and it multiplies damage. Anything hit with the lure will take double damage on the next attack.”
That was why she told everyone not to attack until she was ready. If someone had attacked, then it would have taken the multiplier off of her follow-up special attack.
“The effect only lasts a little while, so I was in a hurry. If the enemy figures out what’s happening too quickly, they can cancel the effect.”
“It was pretty nasty.”
So the lure lowered the enemy’s defense for the next attack.
An attack like that could really mess up my strategy.
“It’s not as simple as it looks. The lure only affects the area that it touches, so you have to make sure that you hit the enemy’s weak point. It probably wouldn’t do all that much against you.”
I had experience with something similar in some games I’d played. There was a skill that worked the same way—strengthening the next attack in a sequence. I normally used it as a trump card during tough boss fights. But if the boss’s defense rating was already really high, then it obviously didn’t help as much.
The skill’s effect only lasted for a little while, which made it pretty fickle to use right. I often felt like I was relying on luck.
Kizuna was clearly very skilled with it, though. She must have been an amazing fighter.
She couldn’t do damage directly against human opponents, but she could probably use that lure skill to deal damage indirectly with the help of her teammates.
That was probably why Raphtalia’s attack had been more effective than she had anticipated. Maybe that was the reason she sliced him in half.
Could they have really saved him if they kept casting healing magic on him? To tell the truth, I didn't really care that he had died. The world was better off without him.
“Hey, can you get in touch with him now? I don’t know how many people I can take with me, but we could use my skill, too.”
“One second,” Kizuna said, holding an ofuda to her forehead and whispering to herself, “Yeah, I got him. He says he’ll meet us at the agreed place. You want to go back first?”
“Probably. You’ve got Glass and everyone with you, so you should be fine. I’m not sure how many people I can take with me through the portal.”
“You use the skill but don’t know its limitations?”
“I’ve never felt the need to test it out.”
Back in Melromarc, I didn’t have the need to—my only friends were Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia. I never tried to use the skill with Eclair and the old lady or Keel. I never tried to see how many people I could use it with. The cool-down time was pretty long, too, so I was careful not to waste it.
“Something tells me those women of his will be out for revenge...”
“I’m sure we can handle them—they don’t have the tigers anymore. Don’t you think, L’Arc?”
“Sure thing! With Kizuna on our side, we’ve got nothing to fear!”
Kizuna was like me in that she could handle herself fine, as long as she had teammates to work with. She’d be fine, as long as she was with Glass and the others.
On the other hand, all of our enemies were together again. If Kizuna turned on us, we’d never survive.
Kizuna, Glass, L’Arc, and Therese... I suddenly imagined them scowling and attacking me. I didn’t think I could win.
How much did I really trust them?
“Alright then, we’ll use my portal to teleport back to your country, ahead of you.”
“Sounds fine to me. We should all be good. Let’s split up.”
“I’ll see you soon. Alright then, we’re going. Portal Shield!”
And so we left them behind and teleported back to the country they called home.
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