The three of us, plus the three sages, set out together toward the town we knew was being attacked by monsters. We arrived to find there were indeed monsters swarming absolutely everywhere. They really had invaded en masse. That said, we also heard Laika’s battle cries almost immediately.
“Well?! Who’s next?! Come at me, and I’ll cut you down where you stand!”
Laika and Wynona were clearly struggling, but they seemed to have kept the monsters at bay, for the time being.
“Thanks for holding down the fort, you two!” I shouted as we charged in to back them up.
“Lady Azusa! Welcome back! If you’d taken much longer, we might not have lasted!” said Laika. Her expression lit up the moment she realized we’d arrived.
All right, monsters! It’s time for round two!
“You certainly took your time, didn’t you, Sub-Hero?” Wynona grumbled, though even her griping had a distinctly positive ring to it.
“Sorry, but at times like these, help always arrives at the last possible second!” I said. “What’s the situation with the monsters? Is there a boss around?”
If there was a boss present, then the monsters were likely to retreat once we’d taken it out.
“One of the fleeing villagers said something about a commanding officer taking up position in the center of the village,” said Laika. “I was hesitant to gather information at a time like this, but I suppose it was valuable in the end.”
Yeah, that’s RPGs for you. If an NPC has dialogue, it’s definitely in your best interests to listen to it, no matter how dire the situation around you…
Our party went on the offensive, cutting a path toward the invading army’s leader. Godly Godness’s prediction from way back whenever proved true: Our offensive spells had grown so powerful that we were mowing our foes down with ease.
“Let’s do this! Meteormeteor!” I shouted, wiping out a whole group of monsters with a single spell. “Yep, that’s powerful all right! No wonder I can only use it a few times.”
“Your heroic powers are incredible, Elder Sister!” said Pecora. “I’ve gotten some new attack spells, too—I can summon now! Come on out, dragon!”
Pecora chanted her own spell, and a moment later, a blue dragon appeared in the air above her.
Wait a minute. Is that Flatorte?
“I’ll turn you all into icicles!” Flatorte roared. The next thing I knew, she had done just that—the monsters we were facing had been frozen solid.
[Shock Trooper took 2448 damage!]
[Shock Trooper took 2466 damage!]
[Shock Trooper took 2503 damage!]
Once again, the enemy squad was wiped out in the blink of an eye. Flatorte paused for a moment, seemingly pleased with the show of force she’d put on, then vanished.
“Yikes! That’s some overkill, all right,” I said.
“I can’t wait to use it every turn during our next boss fight! ” said Pecora.
We made a beeline for the boss, slowly but surely whittling away at the monsters’ numbers. Between our new spells and the offensive magic of the sages who were fighting alongside us, we ended up reaching the boss with ease.
“Who will it be this time, I wonder? Perhaps Fatla or Vania, presuming we’re to once again fight a familiar face?” Beelzebub speculated.
“I could see that,” I said. “It feels a little early for us to fight the actual demon king or anything on that level, but those two seem like they’d be just the right sort of encounter for this point in the game.”
“If it really does turn out to be them, I shall give them an earful the next time I see them at work.”
“No bringing training dreams into reality! All the others were pretty much press-ganged into this, just like we were!”
The boss, however, did not turn out to be the leviathan sisters after all. Instead, we were confronted by a sprite that bore a distinct resemblance to Nahna Nahna.
“My name is Nahna Nahna, and I was bribed to leave my previous position in the land of the dead and become a commanding officer of this army. I will now proceed to ensure you never get in the way of our plans again.”
I can’t tell how much of that was her sticking to the script, and how much was her ad-libbing!
“What point could there possibly be to attacking a village this petty and insignificant? ’Tis folly! Pull your forces back at once!” shouted Beelzebub.
“I’m afraid that isn’t an option. We will conquer this town, construct a hotel and large-scale commercial facilities selling goods at dirt-cheap prices, and undercut all the local stores, equipment dealers, and inns, driving them to bankruptcy.”