57 Tatsuki's fight

How the heck did it all end up like this? I'm supposed to be graduating. Not battling monsters in a dwarven city! Also, watch out, Miyata!

I somehow knocked a crude arrow out of the air with a single hand chop that was heading straight at my kohai, before getting back to my current fight with a giant half spider half woman monster. Man, these new powers made defending people so much easier. If only I had these back on Earth I'd be able to fight back against that jerk Takamori.

Maybe if I'd had these powers back then, none of us would've been brought over to this world at all. We'd have been safe back in Japan, studying for our next exam.

Even though I was in the middle of a fierce battle for my life, and technically for the fate of this world (Or so they told me.), my mind flashed back to that fateful day.

It was a bright and sunny morning, not that the weather mattered at all since we were scheduled to be in buses and museums all day, and most of the school was out in the parking lot waiting to be loaded into buses. Some parent or other had kicked up a fuss about lack of field trips in the school, and this outing was our school's overreaction to hide the embezzlement and student theft.

When the groups had been assigned, and we were all clumped by our respective buses before boarding, Takamori strolled over and was bullying another student to take their place in my group. Apparently, this group had a couple students who were new conscripts to his gang, and he wanted to spend more time breaking them in.

That school made me want to puke. These new students had pretty much bribed the teachers to get away from Takamori, and then they just ignored his blatant bullying.

I did what I always did of course. I stood up to Takamori. My great grandfather did the same thing when he stormed the beaches at Iwo Jima, and I was gonna make him proud as he watched with my ancestors. It went as well as it always did though.

As I was getting my ass handed to me by Takamori's paid goons, they had zip tied my hands behind my back and were beating the stuffing out of me, a bright light shone out from under our feet. And a magic circle that was straight out of an anime encircled our entire group.

When I opened my eyes again, everyone was gone, and I was in a blank white void. "Um, hello? Anyone there?" I repeated the question in American English, just in case whatever or wherever brought me here didn't speak Japanese, and definitely not to show off my Brooklyn accent imitation.

"Hello, Tatsuki." A voice said in plain English before switching to Japanese. "No need for showing off. I don't care about your language skills."

Looking around, I saw that a man was now standing with me in the blank white void. He was rather average looking, plain if you're being harsh, with brown hair and eyes, and a face that would've blended into the background even if he was all alone. But his body, holy heck that body, it made me want to challenge him to a judo fight right then and there to see who would win! It was heavily muscled, not roid rage muscles, but the type you only get from honest fighting. But from the bottom of his t-shirt down to his hands, every inch of skin was covered in scars, and in his hand was an impossibly large shield.

"So what is this place? Am I being summoned to save a fantasy world? Or am I just being punked?" I was fully expecting the second option, no way was all that trashy anime my American friends liked anywhere near reality. In response, the man started softly chuckling.

"Mihara Tatsuki." The man said gently, a warm smile glowing on his face. "You're being summoned to save our world. I don't have any time to explain, but I've seen your constant valiant fights to defend your comrades. So I, Tarian, god of defense and shields, grant you my blessing. May you use it to save the inhabitants of this young world."

"What? How do you know my name? Are you serious-" My words were cut off as a black square opened up in the blank void directly under my feet, and I dropped through it with a start. Either losing consciousness or just unable to see anything in the pitch black as I whistled through eternity.

When I came to, (No! I didn't pass out. Shut up.) all I could see in every direction was wilderness. This wasn't the manicured wilderness you'd see in parks, or the restrained wilderness you'd see driving through the middle of nowhere, this was pure and unadulterated wilderness that looked like it had never seen a human before.

"Hello?" I called out. "Anyone there? If this is for some survival show or prank channel, I'd like to sign the paperwork first before anything happens."

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even a rustling of a branch, or the sound of a chirping bird responded to me. Since this wasn't a prank, or some new TV show, my mind went to the only other option.

"Well, at least Takamori and his goons have stepped up their game." I remarked to myself. It wasn't the first time that they had knocked out some unlucky student and dumped them somewhere. Usually it was someplace creepy, smelly, uncomfortable, or all three if possible. I'd personally gotten locked in a storage locker just before a holiday weekend, others sometimes got worse picks. "Well, the first step is to find some civilization, then I can start making my way home. Hopefully there's a bus line nearby."

I didn't even consider that some guy calling himself a god had actually sent me to another world. That just doesn't happen in the real world.

Hours of wandering turned into days, days turned into weeks, and I couldn't find a single hint of civilization. Where the heck had Takamori dumped me?

Finally, after I had completely lost track of how long I had been lost, I heard a familiar voice. It sounded like one of the younger students at my school, she sounded like she was in trouble! "Miyata! Is that you? Don't worry, I'll save you!"

I rushed forward like I always did whenever I heard another student in trouble, maybe I'd even be able to beat up Takamori this time and then I could take his car back to a place with a cell phone charger.

What I found however was not a car on a road, but a wagon that looked like it had rolled out of a game of Oregon Trail and a path that I had passed by several times in my wandering but had assumed to be an animal track. Miyata was being held hostage by several odd looking people in even weirder looking clothing, so I rushed forward to rescue her.

All went well until I tried throwing a short man with an especially big beard in an overhead throw. He somehow seemed rooted to the ground, and refused to be thrown. He then threatened me with a great big axe that probably shouldn't have even been legal in Japan, and forced me to sit down.

A lot happened after that. I found out that I really was in another world. A fantasy world filled with dwarves, beastkin, and the most beautiful elves I had ever seen. I had been summoned to deal with a Goblin Lord leading a horde of monsters. The adventuring party I had run into was running ahead of a human army to make extra special weapons for the emperor. Oddly enough, they were calling themselves by an Earth word, the Yankee Party. Did I mention the beautiful elves yet?

I traveled with them to the dwarven city, where I got some new clothes, and armor that was hand made by dwarves. Thanks to that, I felt stronger than I ever had before, if only my judo sensei could see me now.

After that, we met with the leader of the human kingdom that was sending an army to help the dwarves. There was a lot of politics going on but I just let all that fly over my head. I just wanted to do what I had been summoned for, protect the world from monsters.

Takamori got summoned too, along with me and Miyata, but I doubted he'd be any good in a fight, even with his new fancy armor and sword. Takamori always was and always would be a coward. Only fighting when his opponent was tied up or incapacitated, and I doubted the goblins would get taken in by cheap tricks like looking where a finger was pointing and then getting whacked over the head. (Not that I've fallen for that, and you can't prove otherwise.)

All that led to where I am now. Fighting against monsters that were hell bent on horde rushing us into submission.

"Thanks, Tatsuki!" Miyata said gratefully as she fired arrow after arrow into a troll that was chasing her down.

"My, my, my." The arachne cooed in a laughing voice. "Am I really that dull of an opponent that you feel you can protect your comrades while fighting me? You Imperial Guards really are idiots."

"I'm not an Imperial Guard." I retorted as I did my best to fend off the spider woman's slicing exoskeleton hands. "I'm the summoned hero, and I'm gonna protect everyone that I can."

"Oh my, a summoned hero." The arachne chuckled. "It seems the humans got quite desperate if you had to call on the gods to send heroes. Don't worry, I'm sure they'll honor your memory with a nice shrine."

What was this arachne talking about? A shrine? Noticing my confusion, she gave a smug look.

"Don't you know? Summoned heroes are just disposable pawns to the humans in this world. They're going to use you up to the last drop of your blood and magic, and then they'll make a nice little shrine to make themselves feel better when you die an agonizing death."

That couldn't be true! The emperor, all his guards, Kvalinn, and the other dwarves, they all respected me as a fellow warrior. A fighter who was doing their best to protect the world!

"It doesn't have to be that way though." The arachne said in a seductive voice. The human part of her was quite beautiful, so it was tough to not get sucked in. "Join me. With a summoned hero fighting with the arachne, we'll rule over the caves. Every mountain will be under your rule, and you can take as many wives and land as you want. All you have to do is kill the remaining dwarves and humans."

I paused for a moment, and the arachne took that pause to try to slit my throat with a swipe of her sharp fingers. It would've been a much more tempting offer if she wasn't trying to kill me the entire time we were talking. Sheesh, and my American friends told me that used car salesmen were bad, this was a million times worse.

Seriously though, it was a tempting offer. If what she was saying was true, I'd get sent all over the world to fight monsters so that the people here didn't have to, and all I'd get for it was a lousy shrine when I died. On the other hand, I could be king of the mountains with the arachne, with all the power I wanted and a bunch of wives like in a harem anime.

"No." I said as I blocked another cutting swipe with my gauntlets. "I'm going to fight the good fight, and defend humanity, just like my great grandfather would."

"Oh well. It was worth trying." The arachne shrugged as if it didn't really matter to her. "It would've made our job so much easier if you had done everything for me. Not that I would've let you live after you killed everyone else. Time to web you up for dinner, little hero, even though the brave ones are always so spicy."

She then began rapidly circling around me, laying out a web on the ground, and preventing me from moving by continuously trying to kill me. Her hands moved like she was a professional boxer, but instead of wielding heavy gloves that would just deliver a good blow, she was bare handed with a razor sharp exoskeleton.

This was bad, really really bad. If she managed to finish her web around me, she could wrap me up like a sushi roll and kill me without resistance. So far the dwarven armor I had gotten had kept me alive, but I didn't want to test my luck on the parts of me not protected. I had to think of something fast.

What can I do? What can I do? Can I Dark Souls roll my way out? Nope! Nearly lost my head doing that. Weak points? Almost all of her is covered in an exoskeleton. Vital points? Same answer. Can I throw her in a nage waza? Nope, no clothes to grab onto, and she's taller than me by several feet.

Just as I was trying to figure out if those godly gifts that had been bestowed on me included a respawn feature, something glinted in the corner of my eye. The sword that the dwarf guy Kvalinn had given to me! I had ditched it at the beginning of the battle so that I could fight with the judo I had been trained in, but now it might be my only way out.

"Where do you think you're going?" The arachne asked in a teasing voice as I tried edging closer to where I had stuck the blade. "My web is almost finished, and I'm getting hungry for hero's blood."

"Sorry, but hero's blood is off the menu!" I rushed over to my weapon, careful not to let my feet get snared by the strands of webbing that sparkled faintly in the darkness, and pulled the sword from the stone.

"Aww, but I just finished tenderizing you!" The arachne plaintively protested before perishing from my prompt punishment. Her body flipped onto its back, all eight legs shuddering violently before curling up dead.

Phew, that was close. Now I was about to do something before getting attacked… Right! Gerde! The cute little beastkin girl! I need to go save her!

"I'm coming, Gerde!" I yelled out as I tried to spot her. Hopefully I wasn't too late. The god of defense had given me his gift, and I was bound to defend everyone I could, especially the weak and helpless.