“Change Shield!” I shouted, giving up on intercepting their swords with float shields. Instead, I changed the float shields into mirror shields using Change Shield and then used them to reflect the ball of magic fired from the Spirit Tortoise Carapace Shield. This was like the combination attack I had pulled off with the Demon Dragon when using the mirror vassal weapon. Now I could do it alone. The reflective float shields moved away from my awareness and auto launched a different skill that I had activated when I was using the staff vassal weapon. The name popped up, so I shouted it and activated the skill.
“Magic Prison!” I had no idea how many reflections imbuing life force would make it possible, and no idea how much the enhancement multiplier would increase with each reflection, but this should allow us to compete with the support magic the enemy was using. At my shout, the reflected All Liberation Aura ball shattered apart and was applied to everyone I had designated as allies. It instantly felt like my body had become lighter. I used my float shields to pin down the flying swords again, which assisted Raphtalia and the others in switching back to offense.
“Get ready! Eight Trigrams, Destiny Thrust!” Raphtalia said.
“From me too! Eight Trigrams, Destiny Smash!” Ruft added. Raph-chan was keeping the barrier going while Raphtalia and Ruft unleashed a synced-up special attack directly at the now-weakened Piensa therianthropes and their flying swords.
“You won’t take us out that easily!” the fox shouted. All of our attackers broke off and leapt backward to safety. The attack from Raphtalia and Ruft headed for the swiftly slashing swords. The weapons continued to flail around, but they were smashed left and right by the attack.
“There’s no escape. Deploying Optical Wings,” S’yne said. Rushing after the enemies as they dropped back, she split her scissors into two swords and then deployed the wings of light on her back.
They were indeed wings. They were delicate butterfly-like wings sprouting from her back. They looked a little different from the ones I’d seen R’yne use, but they were visible to the naked eye and moved beautifully. S’yne zipped up to where the eagle therianthrope was flying.
“You dare pollute the skies, outsider Sewing Kit Hero?” the eagle squawked.
“It was a mistake to think you’re the only one who can fly!” S’yne retorted. She flapped her wings and butterfly dust drifted toward the eagle therianthrope, causing small explosions on impact. Then S’yne flowed into a familiar double-sword combination attack. She slashed vertically with the scissor half in her right hand, performed a spinning attack with her wings, then slashed horizontally with her left hand, while her two familiars performed an attack from behind.
“Too many attacks!” the eagle blustered. “Feather Shot!” Trying to escape from being mobbed, the eagle unleashed some attack magic against S’yne’s sister, but she simply dodged back for a moment to avoid it and then closed in again. The eagle swung his scythe wildly, but S’yne confidently intercepted by grabbing its shaft.
“See how you like it!” S’yne shouted, redirecting the weapon and chopping into the eagle with it.
“I know—” S’yne said.
“I know someone much more skilled with a scythe than you. You need to train harder,” her familiar spoke for her. That was the first time I’d seen that in a while.
“They’re too fast for us! Illustrious heroes!” the fox shouted.
“We have to do everything,” the Staff Hero complained and then started to incant some magic again. “I, the Staff Hero, command the spirits and command the world. Dragon Vein. Combine your power with my magic and bravery! As the source of your power, the Staff Hero implores you! Let the true way be revealed once more and strip from them everything! All Release Debuff X!” The Demon Dragon lurking in my mind analyzed the magic and informed me that it was like the All Liberation Down X that Itsuki used. I’d expected a move like this and we were pretty buffed up, so I could just let it through.
But why should I?
“Did you think debuff magic would work so easily? Pathetic!” I shouted, more at the Piensa guys than the Staff Hero herself. I revved up the old Hengen Muso Style Lost Technique: Magic Eradication, which gathered together the magic the Staff Hero unleashed and then wiped it out. Even if I couldn’t block the casting, I could nullify some debuff support magic like this, no problem.
“He repelled the debuff magic? Impossible!” the fox exclaimed.
“You’ve got some moves, I can tell, but we’ve just been through a whole lot more shit than you have,” I said flatly. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.
“These guys are tricky and tough!” the puma said.
“I think you’d have more luck trying to convince Piensa to give up world domination than you would trying to kill us,” I told them. “You must have some idea what’s really going on behind the scenes over there.”
“Maybe. But that’s for the top brass to know. We don’t have the right to question them,” the fox said. It sounded like a military through and through. I would have appreciated it if the knights in our time had retained this ability to keep emotions out of things, at least. But then again, I reasoned that anything passed down from these demi-humans or therianthropes would go to Siltvelt or Shieldfreeden. I looked over at Raphtalia and the others and gave the signal with my eyes. Raphtalia returned her katana to her sheath for a moment and then started to charge her life force.
“My universal collaborators! Respond to my call and materialize your magic power!” Raphtalia called, drawing on the power from the distant Raph species in order to unleash a big attack.
“Raaaaph!” said Raph-chan. Light from the vicinity flowed into her. She became a jacket of light again and Raphtalia put her on. Ruft crouched and fluffed up his tail, preparing for a big attack. S’yne had her wings out and her scissor blades crossed in front of her. Keel’s normal cheerfulness had changed to anger. She was growling. Her pupils were open wide and she was ready to leap into action at any moment like some feral predator—or at least an angry, husky puppy. Shadow and Raph Shadow both had daggers in their hands, hiding in the darkness, waiting for a moment to strike. It was an unconventional party, but not a bad setup.
“No point in keeping our trump cards in the deck!” the fox shouted. The Piensa side started to throw out all the swords they had, not just the first two.
“Shooting Star Shield!” I shouted. The cooldown finished and stopped the four incoming deadly swords. It was important to have Raphtalia and the others attack, but if they got hit by these, then healing them here would be hard. They moved quickly and could leave us totally on the defensive.
“Weapon Prism X!” the Staff Hero shouted, firing what looked like a rainbow-colored gemstone up into the air above us. I wasn’t sure what was going on.
“Zhield Hero!” Shadow shouted. “That’z like the zkill Trash usez!”