“Spirit Blade! Soul Slice!” Raphtalia said, using the opening I had created.
“What?” the Staff Hero exclaimed. Then he screamed as Raphtalia’s katana landed. All of the Staff Hero’s SP drained away as she toppled over and fainted.
“Are you okay? Hey!” the Projectile Hero roared, dashing over to the collapsed Staff Hero and lifting her up. But she wasn’t moving at all. In the next moment, the countless swords flying around me vanished into a mist, leaving just the original four circling and attacking.
“Shooting Star Shield,” I said, creating another barrier to hold them off. I’d been chopped up so badly it was hard to locate all the individual injuries.
“For the Shield Hero!” Ruft shouted, smashing down with his axe.
“I’m here too!” Shadow added, joined by Raph Shadow, who unleashed a quick series of slashing attacks, pushing back the fox demi-human and puma therianthrope.
“Me too!” Keel shook her head, as though dispelling a dizzy spell. Then she sucked in a deep breath before unleashing a torrent of fire toward the enemies. The fox barely managed to take what looked like three claws from inside her clothing and catch Ruft’s axe with them. She was still sent flying away. The puma therianthrope was cut into by the two Shadows while also getting burned by the black fire.
“Keep the prezzure on! Blood Drain!” Shadow commanded.
“Raph!” said Raph Shadow.
“My blood . . . is being sucked out? What now?!” the puma exclaimed, roaring.
“Let’z zee how you enjoy experiencing the pain of woundz that cannot be healed,” Shadow said. He worked with Raph Shadow to draw the blood from the cuts on the puma therianthrope and then turned to attack the eagle that S’yne was still tussling with. “Blood Rain!”
“Huh? Is this . . . blood?” the eagle said, then started screaming himself.
“That’s my opening!” S’yne didn’t miss her chance, chopping into the eagle.
“I won’t lose to you!” the bird replied. “Any wounds caused by this will never heal! You’d better not—” But S’yne just carried on, taking the thrust of his scythe into her body. “Such . . . noble determination . . .” the eagle managed and then plummeted down to the ground with a crunch. S’yne landed with the scythe still jabbed into her. She turned off her wings and came over toward me. At the same time, Raphtalia had her katana at the throat of the Projectile Hero. If he moved a muscle, he was dead.
“This fire has an effect to delay healing!” Keel crowed, doing a pretty good impression of me. “How does it feel to get a taste of your own sick medicine?”
“This is . . . going badly,” the fox said. The four swords the fox and puma threw returned to them for a moment. They then deployed two of them again, but against Raphtalia. As she dealt with the two swords, the Projectile Hero took that opening to drag the Staff Hero away. “We have to fall back. Their Shield Hero will surely die from those wounds anyway.”
“Yeah,” the puma agreed. “A shame, almost, seeing as how strong he was.”
“These are orders from our nation . . . from Piensa royalty. All’s fair in love and war. Your own strength was what led to you being targeted,” the eagle said.
“I won’t apologize for anything,” the Projectile Hero said. “We did this to save our own world.” The Staff Hero was still knocked out, but I guessed she would have had something to say too. Each of the enemies nodded at the fox’s command, but they left us with a nice parting message. The two swords around Raphtalia also returned to their owners’ hands. The fox took out what looked like a piece of cloth and placed it over all of them. By the time it reached the ground, they had vanished. There was no sign of the cloth either.
“Have they hidden themselvez?” Shadow asked.
“No. It doesn’t feel like that,” Ruft replied.
“They aren’t here,” Raphtalia confirmed. “They must have run far away.” It was some kind of way to travel between dimensions, maybe. They had selected retreat. They knew how their weapons worked, after all. Considering the beating they had given me, they probably didn’t expect me to last very long. They could have tried to hold on a little longer, but they knew when it was best to give up. I felt the inescapable dragon Sanctuary end too. They had really covered their tracks.
“Mr. Naofumi!” Raphtalia exclaimed, rushing over to me as I breathed hard.
“Bubba!” Keel shouted and then grunted as I ended the Shield of Wrath Change Shield. The beast transformation ended and Keel collapsed on the spot. The power of the Shield of Wrath had helped to somewhat reduce the damage caused by their deadly weapons, but I was reaching my limit too.
“I can’t believe . . . using your power is this rough, Bubba,” Keel managed.
“You saved us, Keel,” Raphtalia told her.
“But . . . I couldn’t do half as much as I’d have liked. I need to get . . . much stronger than this,” Keel said, managing to drag herself into a sitting position.
“Zhield Hero! Are you okay?” Shadow asked.
“Do I look okay?” I replied. I had bloody cuts all over my body! I was lightheaded from the blood loss. But if I collapsed here, I was going to die, no doubt about it. Pure force of will was keeping me standing.
“Raphtalia, make sure they don’t double back. S’yne—” I started.
“Forget about—” S’yne cut me off.
“Ms. S’yne says that you should worry about yourself first,” her familiar translated.
“Okay. Give me some support,” I said. I took some magic water out from my shield and then started to incant some magic. It wasn’t easy to use such difficult magic when I was so low on blood. This definitely wasn’t something I could ever use in battle.