Third Wave of Calamity (Part 1)

We watched the blue sky, waiting.

0:00:03

3 minute until the Wave starts...

"It is time for another hunt, Lamb?"

Wolf asked me, eagerly grinning.

"Yes, Wolf."

Oh how long we have waited, for a hunt that excites us. This place is truly mundane, no excitement, nothing new. We have greater chances to find more excitement outside this country. This queendom.

But for now...the Wave of Calamity.

As the timer end, we were teleported, the sound of glass cracking silencing everything around us.

When we opened our eyes, we found ourselves next to the heroes and their parties. They didn't notice us, however, because they were all looking towards the sky with determination. The sky turned dark, red and purple, with cracks appearing in the sky. We looked up as well, seeing a broken flying pirate ship flying from one of the many cracks in the sky.

It looked broken, with its mast almost keeling over. It also looked similar to a haunted ghost ship I once saw in my previous life...

As we stared, monster started pouring down from the other cracks in the sky. That is our cue.

As we started to go for the monsters, and as the others were about to go for the ship with their parties, Naofumi stopped us.

"Wait, you guys!"

They stopped, looking back at him with annoyance.

"How dare he stops our hunt!" Wolf growled, always by my side. I nodded.

No one stops us from the hunt. Not even him.

But I think I know what he wants. While he started talking, I saw multiple soldiers from earlier in that Melromarc royal family drama coming out from somewhere behind him, running to confront the coming monsters. Seems like he did invite them to his war party.

"We have to stop the monsters coming out of the cracks in the sky! The rifts! So-"

I interrupted him.

"So the plan is for you and us to deal with the monsters, while the Spear and Sword Hero would go for the boss."

Naofumi blinked his eyes, exasperated.

"No, that's not it! We should-!"

"Let's get this over with," Wolf snarled, rushing towards the monsters approaching us. I followed him.

The two heroes followed suit, heading towards the ship with their parties in tow.

The Shield Hero facepalmed his head, sighing, with Raphtalia patting him on the shoulders. Filo looked confused as ever, tilting her head.

...

*Twang!*

Another arrow flew from my bow, embedding itself straight into the forehead of some shadow monster. The name appeared above them. A [Black Shadow Wolf], one of the monsters from the rifts. I knelt down to absorb the materials.

Their death came quick, as they are weak, but Wolf...

I looked to the left of me.

"Grrrhhh..."

Wolf was shaking a [Dark Condor], one of the many wave monters, back and forth, trying to rip it apart. When he teared its head off, black blood came from the wound. Wolf still licked his lips, and starting eating it with gusto.

The monsters all have one thing in common from what I noticed. They are dark and shadow type monsters.

Which does not matter. Although a few big ones did come by, they still pose no problem, and are easily killable.

I nocked another arrow into my bow.

Our hunt continues.

...

The wave has not ended yet, and it has been an hour. It wasn't a problem for us, as spirits never really get tired, but humans on the other hand...

"Kindred!"

Naofumi came up to me, riding on the back of Filo in her filolial queen form, with Raphtalia sitting right behind him.

"Do you know why the others haven't finished the Boss yet?

I shrugged. Although I knew from the novels they can't figure out a way to get the boss to come out, it shouldn't really matter. It doesn't excuse the fact that they're heroes.

"Alright, let's check on them.

I turned to Wolf.

"Shall we, dear Wolf?"

Wolf smirked, his teeth showing.

"Race you there!"

We ran off towards the ship in the distance, with Naofumi and his party following behind us.

...

As we ran closer to the ship, I had a chance for a more detailed inspection of the ghost ship.

Lightning and mist seems to appear around it, the wooden ship just seem to float, filled with holes. As expected, the masts were barely hanging on, and the sails were tattered.

Getting closer, the ship seemed to have a mind of its own, because a hole opened from its side, showing a cannon.

It fired a cannonball at us, and I jumped away. Naofumi just blocked it his skill.

"Air Strike Shield!"

The cannonball was unable to break the spell, and Filo jumped up into the air to kick it away.

"Hiiya!"

Filo fell to the ground, and jumped once more, landing on the Air Strike Shield spell still intact, and jumped again, leanding on top of the ship.

I followed them moments later, leaping onto the first spell that was about to dissolve, and with it as a foothold, jumped higher into the air to reach the ship. Wolf flew besides me.

...

We landed on the ship, immediately trying to analyze the situation-

Ren was fighting a skeleton in a captain pirate outfit, and Motoyasu was attacking tentacles coming out from the ship...

The rest of the parties were trying to block off the other monsters from interrupting the heroes fighting.

Of course they weren't even doing anything against the real boss, who was hidden in the shadows of the puppets its controlling.

Naofumi also figured it out seconds later, telling Raphtalia to use her magic to bring it out.

She whispered a spell, and a ball of light appeared, illuminating the entire deck. In the shadows of the skeleton captain and the octopus, as well as in several places around the ship...red eyes and a grin appeared.

[Soul Eaters]

The name appeared above them.

"There!" Naofumi shouted.

The others noticed, and attempted to attack the ghosts as they all seem to fly into a growing mass of Soul Eaters. Even if they took a few out, it was meaningless. There were too many to kill.

Gathering, they formed into a giant Soul Eater version. It smiled at us with its red eyes, its fangs showing as it grinned at us.

[Inter-dimensional Soul Eater]

"Wolf."

"There you are." He grinned, marking the creature hiding.

A 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸 appeared above it, causing the heroes and the Soul Eater itself to look up in confusion. A mistake on its part.

Wolf immediately flew onto the creature, biting it.

The Soul Eater screeched in pain, creating a hand, and...smacked Wolf away. Hard. Wolf yelped in surprise, flying back into the air.

My eyes twitched as I saw Wolf fly off into the distance, and the hero parties that were just about to argue with each other, stared in shock.

Wolf stopped flying back, but didn't charge in right after. He instead stayed in the air, processing what had just happened to him.

After a few seconds to realize what had just happened, he howled in rage, immediately throwing himself back at the monster.

That snapped us out of our shock, and we began attacking it.

Apparently the Soul Eater has deemed Wolf as a threat, as it began to shoot dark magic orbs from its mouth at him, targeting him. Wolf dodged each and every one.

When we started attacking it, even with magic and empowered skills, it barely even damaged it. Why?

I kept thinking at the back, firing arrows one after another as the others futiley tried to damage the Wave Boss...except for Wolf.

Wolf was the exception as hee was dealing the majority of the damage dealt to it compared to the rest of us.

Soul Eaters are spirit type monsters, and therefore can only be truly damaged through skills that can hurt the soul. Such as curses.

Curses strong enough that can pierce into a creature's very being.

Perhaps Wolf was able to damage and anger it, as he is a type of spirit as well.

I, even as powerful as I am now, unfortunately do not have the means to damage a creature such as this one for the moment. Perhaps after I absorb the materials from its corpse...

And so it had to die first.

And the only one who I know can truly damage the Soul Eater is...

"Naofumi." I called out softly, getting his attention.

"What is it?" He grumbled, attempting to block one of its stray black magic orb attacks. He did block it, but instead of f fizzling out, it exploded in a wide radius, blowing almost everyone around him back except for himself and Raphtalia. She moved quickly behind hm before the orb landed.

It wasn't even focusing on him, only paying attention to Wolf, who was still biting into it.

"You have to use 'that' shield. It's the only way to damage him!"

"What shield!" Motoyasu shouted, using another skill. Ren was a but further away, trying to cut through the boss with his sword. They both did barely anything.

Naofumi gritted his teeth, with Raphtalia staring by his side, worried. She was using light magic over and over to keep the Soul Eater from hiding again.

After watching it deal a lot of damage around him, he seemed to finally make his decision.

"Raphtalia...help me."

She gave him a look of concern, but nodded her head anyways.

"I am your sword, and I'll follow you wherever you go...even to the pits of hell."

Naofumi nodded at her words.

"Alright, I'm going to do it, back away from me."

Watching them, my eyes twitched unconsciously underneat my mask.

Even if this is reality now, this is still based on a japanese light novel. Of course there will be moments where-

"!"

I abruptly leaped to the side, sending two arrows at the Soul Eater as a stray black magic orb flew past me within a finger width. It wasn't even targeting me at all.

Imbued by the passive [Cursed Arrow], the arrows landed on the Wave Boss, damaging the Soul Eater a little more than my basic attacks.

I shook my head, slightly frustrated. It is still not enough. After this Wave, I must find new hunting grounds. It is about time to begin on a new journey.

As thoughts of pondering new ways to get stronger kept brewing in my mind, I heard a shout.

"Shield of Rage!"

Turning to the voice, I saw Naofumi's shield came into being, its black and red menacing form appearing...only it was different from the last.

Parts of his armor also transformed, transforming into a black dragon pattern, with glimpses of red here and there. At the center of his shield, a giant blood red dragon appeared.

It seemed he had an upgrade. Probably because of that dragon core he absorbed into the shield, and the core used to upgrade his armor.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And it seemed he was losing control, because he screamed in rage, the wind fiercely blowing around him.

The Soul Eater, who was duking it out with Wolf, turned to look at him in confusion...only for Filo to attack it in a rage.

"?!"

Filo, covered in dark flames, madly kicked it. It actually seemed to damage the monster a little more, because it was knocked back, even if it was only just a small distance. However, after knocking it back, she ran off and started to attack some random monster on the ship, which were still attacking the party members of the heroes.

Seemed like she has also lost control of her emotions, most likely due to the dragon core she had eaten, and in which case...

I looked down at my bow, but nothing seems to have change.

Curious. Perhaps the consuming rage doesn't effect me.

"Mr. Naofumi?"

Raphtalia touched his shoulder, concerned. That seem to have managed to calm him down, because he shook his head, and ran at the Inter-dimensional Soul Eater, already preoccupied with Wolf, who was still biting and gnawing at it.

He's just a floating Wolf head after all.

As the shield touched it, the black cursed flames appeared, stronger than before, engulfed the side where the shield was touching, burning it.

"SCREEEEE!"

It screamed in pain, but that was it. It didn't damage it much at all.

I pulled my bowstring to the maximum limit, making it stretched taut, and released it. Another arrow landed on its forehead seconds later, making it scream once more.. It went on a rampage, shooting even more black magic orbs here and there.

Even though my attack still did more damage than the rest of the heroes, it is not enough.

He'll need to use the skill.

And he did.

He began to whisper an aria of a skill, and all of a sudden, the air turned freezing cold on the ship.

Everyone and everything on the ship seemed to freeze in surprise and fear, the hero parties and the monsters. The Soul Eater especially, with Wolf letting go before the beginning of the spell hit it.

"Shield Prison!"

A prison of shields surrounded the Soul Eater. It seemed to have seemed to have felt the danger of the something spell, because it started trying to tackle the prison, shaking it.

The prison seemed rather weak, because it started showing cracks after a few seconds, with holes appearing here and there.

If it kept this up, within a few seconds it'll break out, cancelling the skill Naofumi was using.

"Prey such as you dare try to escape?"

With the bow already readied, I used the skill [Piercing Horn Arrow]. Taking away 20 MP, the skill appeared, already notched in my bow. I pulled it back, and aimed-

*Twang*

I released the string, and the skill flew into the air, spinning with a blue glow straight through one of the small holes of the shield prison.

The prison stopped moving, before shaking again.

As expected, althought it did more damage than my curse imbued basic attacks, it still did not do as much damage as I would have liked. It only halted it for a moment.

A moment was enough.

"[Iron Maiden]!"

The fighting on the ship paused abruptly as a gray statue of what appears to be a hooded woman appeared in the air. The main body of the statue opened, and inside appeared to be many spikes. Several chains from within darkness of the cage, wrapping around the shield prison the Soul Eater was in.

"SCREEEEEEEE!"

It started struggling even harder as the chains slowly dragged the shaking prison. It tried to break free, but it was too late, as the chains secured the prison. It hopelessly struggled as the entire prison was pulled within the confines of the cage.

As soon as it was dragged in, the cage slowly closed, and after a few seconds, what seems to be blood gushed out of the cage.

Naofumi keeled over huffing, his shield changing back to its normal form, but Raptalia managed to shoulder his weight. As soon as it changed back, Filo's rampaging stopped, and she looked confused. Still though, they all stared at the cage in the sky with the other heroes and their parties.

As the [Iron Maiden] disintegrated in starlight, to most of everyone's surprise and horror as something dropped from the sky. The Soul Eater was riddled with holes, blood leaking out from its pores.

How it has blood, I don't know, but it was still alive, weakly struggling and crying. Alive for us to take its life away.

As everyone stared at it astonished, as the rest of the monsters slowly disintegrating away, as Wolf already by my side, was preparing to pounce on it, I raised my bow. With my bow in hand, arrow notched once more, I aimed and released the bowstring. The movements made in a matter of seconds.

The arrow soared through the air, aiming for the eye...

Only for it to be deterred by a wave of light, which then cleaved the boss in half, rendering it dead.

Dead not by our hands.

Not by us.

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

[Naofumi] POV

I can only watched surprised as the arrow Lamb shot was blocked by a wave of light, which came from the air...

Another wave of light blew over me, heading towards the two heroes and their party members, who were still stunned. As the light approached them, they reacted quickly, attempting to block or dodge it. It was not enough, as they were blown back.

They were quite lucky because the monsters on the ship seem to disintegrate away after the Soul Eater was killed, which was seconds ago.

I glanced behind me, checking to see if everyone was alright.

Everyone hit by the skill were laying on the ground, looking to be unconcious.

Kindred meanwhile seemed fine. Both Lamb and Wolf were a bit farther away, watching. But...they were unnaturally still, intently staring at the now dead Boss. I didn't have time to pay attention to their unusual behavior, however, because I felt a presence approaching me from above.

I looked up, only to be shocked as a woman with long jet black hair in a deep black kimono embroidered with silver descending from the sky. The woman was holding two fan-like weapons in each hand-it seemed that was the source of the skill.

With an unearthly beauty on her pale face, she smiled slightly, looking down on us. She looked like Japanese person, only with a more ghost like feeling emmanating from her. As she floated down until she was just a couple centimeters away from the floor, but still she remained floating.

After we stared at each other for a couple seconds, she decided to speak first.

"It seems there is only one true hero amongst the four of you. The other's seem to be unable to do at least something in the fight, but you...you are different," she spoke softly.

"I guess..." I warily watched the woman, while at the same time tapping on Raphtalia's back to warn her. She was staring at the woman the whole time, but as soon as I tapped her back did she give a twitch of her ears.

Filo meanwhile started slowly approaching us from the back, also staring at the woman warily.

The woman didn't bother to pay attention to the interaction or Filo, still observing me.

"What is your name, hero?"

"You ask for my name without giving yours?"

"My apologies. My name is Glass, and if it wasn't obvious already, it wouldn't be incorrect to assume that I am your enemy."

She closed her fans and bowed slightly, looking a little apologetic.

Who wouldn't? I needed to stall a little bit longer, to regenerate my HP and MP. With how she easily dealt with the heroes and finishing the boss, the probability of her being stronger than us is quite high, especially as we're tired from the fight. We need as many advantages as we get before we start our inevitable fight.

I sighed, giving my name to her.

"It's Naofumi."

Glass smiled once more, opening her fans. I got off from Raphtalia's shoulder and went into a stance. Raphtalia and Filo followed suit, both positioning themselves behind me.

"Well then Naofumi, it's time to-"

All of a sudden, a cold feeling emerged from behind me, and I barely had time to process what it was before I heard a soft, empty whisper.

"That was meant to be ours."

I barely turned my head around as a sudden rush of wind blew past me.

"Wha-!" Glass widened her eyes, trying to raise her weapon to block whatever was coming, but it was too late as a white shadow tackled the woman off the ship.

Before I was able to process once more what the hell was happening, another rush of wind blew past me as Lamb jumped off the ship after them seconds later.

"Hey wait-god dammit! Filo! Raphtalia! Let's go!"

""Right!""

Before I started to get a move on, my gaze accidently landed on the idiot heroes and their parties. An idea was suddenly lit inside my head, and I began walking over to them.

"Mr. Naofumi, what are you doing!? Aren't we suppose to help them!?"

"Don't worry, Kindred can hold out for at least a few minutes, so during this time, we need to...take stock and heal up. Hehehehe."

I heard Raphtalia sigh in exasperation as I walked closer to the heroes and companions. Was my face grinning again?