Third Wave of Calamity (Part 2)

Wolf tackled her from the sky and off the ship, flying towards the ground.

I followed suit, sprinting across the deck, before leaping into the air...diving off the ship.

...

In my previous and current life, I have never experienced free falling-no, sky diving.

On hindsight, jumping from a floating ship high up in the sky and speeding straight down to the earth was not ideal, but I wasn't in the mood for that.

Falling down, the wind was rushing against me, howling, rustling my hair and clothes. It was fortunate for my face to be protected by my mask. Without it, it would have been a major detriment to my vision.

I dived towards the two still fighting and grappling each other in the air. As soon as I got closer, I balanced myself in the air within seconds, spreading my arms and legs, barely slowing my fall. This showed that with my very high dexterity stat, coordination and balance is easier than ever before.

Bow in hand, I readied it with an arrow notched, and aimed at the one of the two grappling in the air below me.

Well, not so much as grappling, but more like a free for all.

Wolf was snarling like a rabid dog, biting onto one of Glass's fans in the sky to prevent it from moving. Meanwhile, Glass was trying to tear it away from Wolf, smacking and bludering him with her other fan to no avail. Her face distorted slightly in frustration, her thoughts bleeding out from her once noble-like demeanor.

While she attempted to pull her fan away from him, she noticed me falling after them.

Her eyes widened, and she shifted her body more to the right, trying to get Wolf between her and my arrow. She was a moment too late.

*Twang*

The second she noticed me, I released my arrow. The arrow flew through the air, landing true into her right shoulder.

The moment it landed, however, the arrowhead barely pierced her shoulder.

"Tch!"

I clicked my tongue, and and I shot two arrows in quick succession.

She gritted her teeth, and finally managed to tear away her fans from Wolf. In that split second, the moment Wolf let go, she moved backwards, deflecting the two arrows with her fans, using only just a swing. She then slowed down, halting only when her feet landed on the ground.

While she was landing, I noticed the ground was closing in fast.

"Wolf."

I called out to him, and he quickly flew under me, tilting his head slightly, allowing my fall to break slightly, letting me roll to the side and landing onto the ground with a *thump*.

When I fell onto Wolf, he slightly grunted at the sudden weight, and his ears twitched in annoyance, but he didn't complain as he kept staring at Glass, who was dusting her shoulders. The passive abilities from my arrows doesn't seem to bother her at all.

We never left our gaze off of her, not even for a moment.

Glass returned our gaze, barely flinching as she ripped the arrow from her shoulder, and dropped it. The slightly glowing blue arrow fell onto the ground, dispersing into particles seconds later.

"It seems in my arrogance I have made a mistake in thinking that most of the four holy cardinal heroes are incompetent..." She then raised her unopen fan toward us. "If I may ask, what is your name?"

Wolf sneered with disdain as I answered her impassively.

"What a banal question. Like you have said, we are enemies. Nothing more, nothing less."

"It is still polite to introduce ourselves to each other before we fight, is it not?"

"Any bridge of politeness between us have been destroyed when you have stolen our prey..."

As I said so, an arrow appeared nocked into my bow.

"...and so we steal from you." Wolf growled, anger still brewing inside him.

As soon as Wolf finished the sentence, the battle was initiated.

...

The moment Wolf finished the sentence, I kicked up a cloud of dust from the ground towards Glass in an attempt to blind her sight.

Glass remained unperturbed at the sight, opening a fan and waved it at the approaching dust, wind raging through it.

The dust cloud cleared immediately, leaving behind...nothing.

Glass's eyes widened, and her eyes moved left and right while swiftly moving into a more defense battle stance, readying her weapons. After a few seconds of tension trying to find the enemy, she suddenly felt something and before looking up instinctually. She took a breathe, activating her skill.

"Circle Dance Zero: Reverse Snow Moon Flower."

An image of a red moon seemed to appear behind her, and as she moved her body and waved her fans in a counter clockwise motion. As she does so, white petals seemed to follow her graceful movement, flowing around her.

Such an ethereal scene would dazzle the surrounding audience...if it wasn't an actual skill that was attacking them.

The moment her fan waved, a band of red light shot forth, heading towards Wolf, who was diving down on her with a vengeance.

He dodged it by doing a midair barrel roll, and continued diving towards her.

As Glass moved to intercept his dive, she suddenly seemed to have grown a pair of eyes behind her, because she used her other fan to block an arrow I shot, with her other fan blocking Wolf.

She then push Wolf away, and flew towards me as quickly as possible. She reached me seconds later, swinging her fan at me. She was fast, yes, but I was much faster.

The moment she striked me, I had already backflipped into the air, and fired 3 consecutive arrows quickly upside down.

She quickly parried and blocked them as I landed on the ground, with Wolf appearing next to my side once more.

I sighed softly, shaking my head. Now we're back to square one.

Without a moment of respiration, I started backing up and quickly firing arrows at her from afar. The moment I moved, Glass moved towards me, but Wolf charged forth as well to intercept her, preventing her from engaging me in close quarters.

She must've come to that conclusion as well, because she began dashing towards me.

As soon as Wolf was close enough to her, he opened his maw as wide as possible, trying to get a grip on her.

Glass didn't want to play that game, and instead burst into a speed at which we were unable to react to. One moment she was looking into Wolf's gaping mouth, and the next I saw Glass smacked Wolf to the side with indifference. I heard him yelp in surprise and anger as he smacked into the ground, almost sliding along the dirt floor.

Wolf was most likely surprised and forgot to dematerialize himself before he touched the ground.

Before letting Wolf regain his clarity, wasting no time, she charged towards me.

With her speed, she will eventually reach to the spot where I was. Which was fine.

The moment she appeared in front of me, she swung her fan once more towards my head. When the fan was an inch away from my mask, I disappeared in a blur.

I maneuvered behind her by swiftly ducking under her swing, and danced around her body. Then I did what no archer in their right mind should've done: swinging the bow at the back of her head.

'Whoever said the Bow Hero can only attack with arrows?' I thought, a distant memory appearing in my head.

My 'startling' attack did not appear to have fazed her at all, as Glass's face didn't change one bit, moving to duck.

As her face bent down to duck, however, I did not have the chance to see her left eye twitched ever so slightly.

'Are you not the one of the four cardinal heroes, the Bow Hero? Are you not suppose try distancing yourself away from me? Are you playing around with me?!'

Even though she uses fans as weapons, that doesn't she can't fight well in close quarter combat than distant combat. On the contrary, she fights quite well.

She managed to pull back in time as the bow swiped a millimeter away from her face, with the force of the bow blowing strands of hair from Glass's face.

This however appeared to be a blunder on my part, because this left my side wide open to an attack.

Glass happily took the opportunity to strike.

"Circle Dance Zero: Reverse Snow Moon-!"

She suddenly stopped and immediately jumped away, her skill interrupted by Wolf. He have made it back to my side just in time.

He dived from underneath the earth, rising out from the ground, intending to bite her legs. Glass seemed to be wary of him this whole time, because she immediately dodged the bite by jumping away...

To be back at square one, once more.

What a surprise.

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[Naofumi POV]

"This is my payment for protecting you useless people...hehehe..."

"Mr. Naofumi...please..."

Raphtalia was at the edge of the deck, looking down at the ground below, with Filo nearby poking at a monster's corpse. Raphtalia sighed as I grabbed the last of the potions, a high quality healing potion, from one of Motoyasu's girl companions backpacks. Idiots.

"What? They owe me this much at least. Also, we'll need it in the fight against Glass, right?"

"Yes, but...well..." Raphtalia hesitated for a couple of seconds, before sighing once. "It's already been a couple of minutes since the fight started, and Kindred seems to be in a stall."

Time seemed to stop as I suddenly stopped moving, stunned.

"..." I moved my mouth to speak, but no words came out.

'Oh shoot.'

I probably got too into the gleeful spree of looting these idiots as compensation for my pain that I've seem to have forgotten something important going on. Right now.

-------------------------------------------------------------

[Lamb] POV

The fight has lasted for a few minutes, and each side took damage, yet...

No matter how much we fought, nothing changed. The battle stalled.

No matter how much we attempted to damager her, and she attempts to damage me both of us never truly outdid the other in terms of damage nor skill. The only way for me to deal true damage to her is to get a soul type skill attack.

It just so happens that the Soul Eater conveniently gives the skill, but we were not able to absorb it, because...

I just forgot in the heat of the moment.

No matter how we got into this farcical cluster of a fight, we still fought, with no end seemingly in sight...

Until I heard something descending from the sky. Wolf, who was fighting in close combat, moved out of the way as...

"Haikuikku!"

A big white bird suddenly appeared between us, and she kicked the woman at least 8 times in a blur. Unfortunately, that barely did anything to Glass. She blocked the repeating kicks without breaking a sweat.

After fully blocking the attack, Glass counters by slashing her fans at Filo, only to miss as Filo jumped back at the last moment, retreating to where we were.

"Hey, you guys alright?"

Naofumi and Raphtalia hurriedly ran towards us from behind.

I didn't even take a glance at them as they ran to my side. They were suspiciously late.

"Sorry we were late, we had to...prepare ourselves." Naofumi apologized as he stepped slightly forward, readying into his battle stance, but I didn't feel an ounce of an actual apology.

Raphtalia must've thought so to, because she sighed, shaking her head and facepalmed. Filo merely tilted her head in confusion.

"Your help, while unnecessary and unwelcomed, is appreciated," I said in a blank tone.

"Why don't you just say thank you?" Naofumi sighed exasperatedly, scratching the back of his head.

"..."

Help was not needed, because there was no need for help. Our fight has not tilted in favor to one side or the other, because our strength is equal, or at least close enough.

And also, the battle did not need to continue, because...

I looked at the corner of my vision, and saw a small picuture of a hourglass, with a timer inside it.

[0:59]

[0:58]

There was the time limit. It signifies the end of the Wave.

We have defeated the Wave Boss, and since Glass, an otherworldly entity, has entered through the rifts, it had extended the duration of the Wave. It is only for a short time, however, since she is not the true Wave Boss nor a monster.

Glass apparently also seemed to know that her time is approaching, because she started retreating, flying into the sky. I didn't bother to shoot her down because she'll block them anyways.

I clenched the hand that wasn't holding the bow in anger. How frustrating.

Wolf was also frustrated, because he started growling really menacingly.

Before she gets high enough, she looked down at us, and started her villainous monologue.

"It's time for me to withdraw...for now. Next time, we will settle this. We will win, and it is we who will emerge from the waves victorious."

"It is we who will win," Naofumi's said in response, face changed slightly in confusion at her parting words as Glass smiled a little, flying higher into the sky, entering the rifts as the countdown was about to end.

At that moment, the rifts closed, and the hourglass countdown from the corner ov my screen vanished.

Everything returned to normal...besides the corpses and remains of the wave monsters.

*Sigh*, an anticlimatic ending, huh?

I could only turn around and look to where the floating ghost ship was presently at.

The moment the rifts in the sky closed, It started slowly falling down from the sky, the materials of the ship breaking apart. Perhaps because it uses the energy derived from phenomenon of the Waves to float and stay together?

"..."

Anyhow, our reward awaits for us on that falling ship.

...

It felt like it has been a whole day since the Wave started, but it was only around 4 hours. Under the just cleared blue sky, people around us were carrying the wounded and dead, as well as collecting the remains of the monsters.

Meanwhile, Ren and Motoyasu, who were still unconscious as with the rest of their companions, were carried from the ghost ship to a nearby medical station to be healed.

I shook my head at the sight of the two hopelessly dragged off to the recently set up station.

They're suppose to be heroes, and yet they were this weak?

Naofumi apparently thought the same thing, because he scoffed at the sight of them and shook his head, disappointed. Filo and Raphtalia just looked tired enduring the fight during the Wave.

Anyways, it could be said that I was a part of the problem, as I didn't attempt to make them stronger. Still, they were still heroes! Ren has potential to improve himself to be better, but Motoyasu...

"..."

It is better to leave that unsaid.

Minutes past by, and we finally approached the ghost ship where the Wave boss has fallen. The volunteer soldiers, who were from nearby towns and summoned with Naofumi, were cleaning up the mess, leaving the Wave Boss alone.

It was lying on it's side on the top of the ground. It's slowly breaking down even now, since it was the amalgamation of those tiny Soul Eaters.

"Wow, that looks yummy!"

As Naofumi was about to touch the Soul Eater body, Filo suddenly ran up to it in human form, and grabbed a part of it with her hands, and tried to eat it.

"Hey, don't eat it! Cut that out!"

"Masterrrrrr, pleeasssseeeeee!"

Naofumi didn't bother to answer, and tried to take it out her her hands. 'Tried to.'

"Huh?"

The moment he grabbed it, however, the material flowed out of his hand like water, and dropped onto the ground.

While he remained stunned, Wolf pounced on the corpse and started eating it like a rabid animal-probably because he was still mad that Glass escaped so easily-while I kneeled and grabbed a piece of it, putting it up to the bow, and finally absorbing it. Finally.

"Wait, how did you guys hold it,?"

"I put wind magic on my hands," Filo said sadly while she stared at Wolf gleefully eating it with a pout.

"Yes, putting magic onto your hands allows one to hold onto monsters with spiritual bodies. Items with magical properties also enables the user to grab onto these monsters." I responded, shaking my hand to get some of the icky stuff off while still kneeling, observing the sludgy monster. It looked like black goo, melting into liquid.

How I learned to imbue magic into my hands? It's quite simple, really. Trial and error.

Still, the feeling of unrest never left me as I stared at the Wave Boss being gruesomely mauled.

Our prey was stolen, from us! Although the anger has already ebbed away from me, but the lingering feeling was there. Even if we couldn't killed her, we should've at least tormented her a little. That would be enough.

'Actually, I think we did. Glass face grew increasingly more strange as our battle continued. Did she think that we were holding back?'

While pondering on these thoughts, I didn't notice Naofumi cutting a piece with a magical weapon borrowed from a nearby volunteer soldier. The volunteer soldiers were summoned along with him during the beginning of this Wave.

How?

In the help menu, it is said that during a raid of some kind, the hero can invite other people to his/her war party, enabling them to be summoned along with the hero and their party members. The help menu, which the other heroes didn't check at all. I skimmed through it.

Afterwards, he walked up to my side, looking at the Wave Boss once more. A couple of seconds later, he then asked me question.

"So, what will you do now?"

"We will stagnate if we remain in this ill-beggoten country, lead by religious leaders and royalty with mental illness," I said, still staring at the Boss.

"I've heard, although the queen is a great ruler, she is currently not in this country. We shall wander to new lands, to grow, to help people in need...and to save them from monsters. There are other waves after all."

Naofumi pondered at my words as I spoke, rubbing his chin, deep in thought...until I said the last sentence. His face stiffened in shock.

"Are you saying that the waves occur in other parts of the world?! How did I not know this!?"

I shook my head.

"Misinformation, intentionally keeping information away from us...the possibilites could be almost endless. That's why heroes can't gain experience near each other, with the exception of me of course."

I am an anomaly after all.

"We were meant to be summoned apart from each other, not in the same kingdom, queendom, country, or area."

"...so I should leave then." Naofumi started analysing his options.

"You should, but you probably wouldn't have the chance to. Not yet anyways. I recommend you to stay here for a little longer, at least until you're strong enough to walk out of the country unscathed."

We both watched the slowly sagging Wave Boss being angrily chewed by Wolf, with Filo watching on the side, still pouting. After a while of more contemplating, he then sighed.

"This gets more and more troublesome..."

"It does, but that is life. And so I-no, we have a path to follow as well," I said, standing up.

"We will meet again soon for sure, but for now...Wolf."

I called out to him, and he grunted, acknowledging my words as he chewed his last bite worth of food before moving to my side.

"Farewell, Naofumi Iwatani. Grow stronger. The same can be said for the two of you." I nodded at each of them.

Naofumi closed his eyes and shook his head, sighing with annoyance.

'How many times did Naofumi sigh anyway?'

"I'll return that statement right back at you." As he said those words, he turned around and starting walking away towards a village in disrepair in the distance. Some of the volunteer soldiers were slowly heading over there as well.

"Yes, may we meet again Lamb, Wolf." Raphtalia said, smiling and bowing twice to each of us before quickly following after Naofumi.

"Bye bye Mr. Wolf and Lammmmbbbb!" Filo was the opposite of Raphtalia, waving both of her hands back and forth, walking backwards.

We watched them walking away, for about fifteen steps. After a couple seconds, did I begin turning to leave, but only to stop short, looking back at the retreating Shield Hero party.

Naofumi, who was walking away, raised his hand, waving it a couple times without looking back at us.

I smiled underneath my mask while Wolf smirked, his anger from the fight mostly disappearing, and grunted in amusement.

""What a tsundere.""

We looked at each other in shock, and after a couple seconds of trying to hold it in...it broke out.

Wolf started rolling in the air, roaring with laughter, while I was holding onto my stomach, coughing out laughter.

Naofumi apparently heard us, and probably pieced together why we started laughing, because he started walking away faster. Both Raphtalia and Filo hurried to catch up to him, both smiling and confused.

Many seconds passed did we regain our bearing, and after many more seconds passed did we finally turn around, moving forward in the opposite direction with no real destination in mind.