Chapter 38: Flashing Strike

Rihito, Shea and Tohru got out of the northern gate. Rihito then swept up Shea from her feat taking her in a princess carry, and flew up and started heading towards the forest. Shea feeling the sudden sweep exclaimed, "Kya!!" she tried to balance herself but before she could react, she found herself in the arms of Rihito. So, she just nuzzled closer to Rihito contentedly.

Tohru saw this and her brow slightly twitched, but she didn't react much, she just sprouted her wings and followed after him.

While flying above the forest, Rihito searched for a suitable place to repair and upgrade his equipment. It didn't take too long to find a spot - about a kilometre ahead, he spotted an open space in the middle of the forest. "Perfect," Rihito exclaimed as he headed there carrying Shea in his arms.

After we landed, I immediately pulled out Muramasa as Tohru and Shea curiously watched me working.

…

"Hmmm… it seems, after a certain amount of mana Muramasa is unable to handle the pressure, which results in breaking. I then have to readjust everything. Wait!" exclaiming I thought, I muttered, "If I have to readjust everything why not add some new things as well."

Thinking that I pulled out the dragon scales that I collected after the fight against Tohru. Picking up one of the scales I used <Archmage > to analyse it. There I saw that each dragon scale holds the capability to hold some amount of magic on its own, it's not as much as a mana stone but it will do. "If I mix it with Shtar stone, Azantium and Enchant my skills on it then…"

From there with the help of Tohru's dragon fire and Creation Magic, I remade Muramasa from scratch. I gave newly made Muramasa many properties like shock wave absorption, enhanced durability, passive mana absorption, and Gravity to increase or decrease the weight of the blade. While I was at it, I also gave a few upgrades to Drucken, I attached a spirit stone to her weapon with the mechanism to recall her Drucken from afar.

Tohru seeing me upgrading Shea's weapon, asks, "Master Rihito I also want a weapon for my use." She gave me a pleading look.

Hearing that, I was taken aback, I asked, "Tohru, you want to use a weapon?" To which Tohru nodded.

"Yes"

Then, thinking of something, I crafted two gauntlets from the dragon scales and Shtar ore. They look similar to my gauntlets, but they are dark green and golden in colour.

==IMG==

All and all it took me about 6 hours to complete the work, and after that, we returned to the city.

…

After flying back in front of the city, the first thing we noticed there was a stone wall which was previously not present.

Shea seeing the new wall, questioningly asked, "Where did this wall come from?" While Tohru ignored the wall and happily fiddled with her new gauntlets.

To her inquiry, I said "It Hajime's doing," as we walked up to the wall.

Just then we heard strange moans, "Ahh~ Yesh~ that's the spot~"

"Master~ you are really the best~"

"..."

Hearing those moans, I already could guess what happened. So, I decided to just ignore it. I then jumped up on the wall, and there I saw Hajime facepalming himself seeing Tio's antics.

Noticing my gaze, he looked at me and asked, "Where were you?"

"Oh, you know preparing for the upcoming battle," I responded with an easy-going smile.

"I see. Then rest up; in a few hours, the battle will begin. And one more thing, the number of monsters has increased again," Hajime said.

"..."

"How much," I asked, raising my brows.

"60000"

"..."

"Waa!!…" Shea dumbfoundedly exclaimed hearing the number, while Tohru's eyes widened.

…

After that, we camped near the newly made wall, waiting for the arrival of the monster army. Right when dawn was approaching Aiko came with a group of people with weapons in hand. From the look on their faces, anybody could discover that they are ready to sacrifice their life.

Reaching near the wall, Yuka one of Aiko's students called us "Sorry for the inconvenience, I tried to stop them. But…"

Before she could say more, a gruff-looking man cut her off and spoke to us directly, "Please allow us to fight as well. We gathered every able-bodied person who could fight and organized a group of volunteer individuals. We want to protect our town."

As he started to ramble about their reason, my <Mana Sense> had caught some strange activities from the forest, noticing this I informed Hajime, "They are here."

Hajime hearing that looked at the forest with his <Farsight > Skill, there he saw, the monster army consisting of wolves, orcs, ogres, and large beasts. Hajime seeing this looked at Rihito who had a serious look like his.

Rihito noticing Hajime's Gaze, says "If these guys fought, I can say with guarantee, they would die."

Hearing those words which matched his own thoughts, Hajime looked back at the volunteer group consisting of adventurers and locals.

…

Seeing Hajime ponder the situation, I said in a whisper, "How about rallying them using Aiko sensei and making them guard her."

"..."

[That could work,] Hajime thought to himself and readied himself for a speech. But before he could I stopped him.

"Wait"

Hajime then looked at me quizzically.

"When your speech is at the end signal me, I will be doing a wide-range attack from the sky. So, make it look like it is the power of the fertility goddess," I smilingly said.

"..."

Hajime pondering this looked at me with an evil smile, that mirrored mine, "I see what you are trying to do."

Shea, Tohru, Yue and Tio seeing both of us smile looked at Aiko with pity. Aiko on the other hand not understanding tilted her head in confusion.

I then stood up and brought out my upgraded Muramasa from <Item Box>, and gave orders to Shea and Tohru.

"Shea backup Hajime like before."

"Tohru, kill as many of them as you can. This army was created by the same person who controlled you. As long as you avoid harming innocent people, feel free to unleash all your power." Upon hearing my command, Tohru narrowed her eyes in anger as she glared at the monster army. She was prepared to leap forward and engulf them in flames.

But before she could do that, I stopped her, "Tohru, not yet, wait for the signal." Hearing Rihito's order Tohru controlled herself and glared at the army.

I then nodded at Hajime and disappeared from the wall.

…

From high above, I witnessed Hajime delivering an impassioned speech that would ignite your spirit. Every word he uttered tugged at the heartstrings of the volunteer team.

Hajime, "This battle victory is already ours! We are under the protection of the goddess!!" as he spoke about the goddess part everyone started to mumble about the Goddess. The volunteer group was confused for a second, not understanding who is the goddess. For them, they have only known of one God 'Ehit'. now suddenly hearing about another goddess they were confused.

But that didn't last for too long, Hajime then dramatically said, "Yes goddess, 'The goddess of Fertility' Lady Aiko!"

Aiko seeing the sudden attention of everyone on herself dumbfoundedly mumbled out, "Eh!!?"

The volunteer group, when they saw the so-called living goddess 'Lady Aiko' their motivation shot through the roof.

Hajime taking this chance spoke up, "So, as long as the Goddess Aiko is with us, we will never know defeat!" saying that he jumped on top of the wall. Hajime then pointed his index finger at the sky signalling Rihito.

"And I, as her sword and shield, will annihilate her enemies with this blessing from the goddess Aiko!"

When Hajime finished announcing, booming sounds were heard from the sky. Right above the first wave of the monster army, many exploding sights were seen. Upon seeing this, the monsters halted their march and looked at the explosions in astonishment.

"Boom!"

"Boom!" x5

"Boom!" x25

"Boom!" x50

Seeing this scene Shea, Tohru, Hajime and everyone else were stunned. Some of the volunteers unconsciously mumbled out "The sky, it's breaking?"

At the moment of the explosion, numerous pillars of shock waves spread across the battlefield. Each shock wave obliterated everything in its path without discrimination. The monster army, which confronted the shock waves directly, was defenceless against the attack and couldn't fight or flee. The initial wave of the army was entirely wiped out.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Shea, witnessing an attack that broke common sense was too stunned to speak, and even Tohru, who had fought with other true dragons, was too speechless to say anything after seeing such a display of Rihito's might.

Hajime who was shocked in his heart didn't show it outside and said, "You see that, that's the power of the goddess' blessing."

The volunteer witnesses a scene that appears like anger from the heavens. At this moment, none of them had a single doubt that Aiko was a goddess, so all of them shouted out, "All hail Goddess Aiko." They then started to run towards her, as Hajime said his last words to Aiko before he began to focus on fighting "I leave the rest to you, Ok."

Aiko, who was stunned, hearing Hajime's words, exclaimed "Eh? It's not ok!!" she said while swarmed by the volunteer group.

…

"Chapter end"

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