There was silence in the Dungeon Hall.
No one really knew what to say. Everything had gone to shit within minutes… but it had also been fixed around the same time. Many people quickly realised they were about to die when they saw David Shield and the Beast of Caerbannog out for the count.
The shock of not being dead in the face of such a monster hit them harder than most would expect.
“MEI! OTTO!”
A voice pierced the silence, and Mei looked down to see Melissa kneeling on top of the shattered wall facing the stone forest their town square had been turned into… by Izuku???
“Melissa!”
Melissa dropped down into the Dungeon Hall, quickly grabbing her and Otto’s hands and dragging them to the front. “You guys can use your [Summon Stone]’s more than once, right? Like if you used them right now you won't lose them?”
Mei got her feet working properly after almost tripping when Melissa started dragging them and nodded. “Yes? But they’ll be unusable for about a day after the fact. Why do you want us to use them?”
Otto nodded, looking confused, but was taking being suddenly dragged better than Mei was. “Is this about Izuku? Does he need help? I doubt our Golems could even touch that [Dragon].”
They cleared the shattered wall of the Dungeon Hall, and Melissa was silent for a moment as the other two gasped at the sight in the middle of the town square that was partially hidden from the other people in the Dungeon Hall.
“Melissa… d-do you know what happened?”
Melissa frowned she dragged them along, having never heard Otto sound so scared before. It took her a moment for the adrenaline, that had pumped through her at being so close to the Dragon and Sir Ratsudon fighting while she healed Izuku, to clear enough to realise she was dragging them both to the corpse of a Dragon strong enough to take out her Dad and Lady Usagiyama.
‘Take out…’
She clamped down on her mind as worry spiked in her heart. Her father was okay. He had gotten one of his [Mana Shield]’s up. He was a strong spell caster, stronger than anyone else she knew. If the shield had stayed intact from the attack long enough to crash into the Dungeon Hall, it was good enough to keep him alive.
Shaking her head, she pushed any thoughts about him and Lady Usagiyama out of her mind, just for the moment. She knew she would have a right proper freak out about it later on once her dad had woken up, but right now there was someone that wasn’t as strong as him that needed her help.
Or at least, she didn’t think Izuku was as strong as him?
She had no real way of explaining what she had just witnessed. When she had used [Appraise] on him it had told her that Izuku was relatively low level, and so had the boy himself, so how, pardon her dwarvish, the fuck did he just kill a dragon like this one?!
“Woah, Melissa!”
She stopped right in time to avoid running straight into the corpse of the dragon, having apparently been far too lost in her own head to realise. Nodding to Otto, who had been the one to snap her out of her thoughts, she dragged them around the other side of the Dragon.
“This is why we need to use your [Stone Golem]’s…”
She motioned to the massive, unhealing hole in the side of the Dragon, bright blue blood spilling out onto the floor… and onto the almost returned to normal Sir Ratsudon. Otto and Mei just stared for a moment, before Otto swore.
“Fuck, he’s inside that thing, isn’t he!?”
Melissa nodded as both of the Hatsume’s grabbed their [Summon Stone]s, and stepped back as rock started to appear out of thin air, shaping itself into a vaguely humanoid shape. Mei’s [Stone Golem] was actually a little bigger than Otto’s, but the girl herself hadn’t seemed to have noticed that Otto had given her the better one yet, focused on giving it orders.
[Golem! Go in there and get Izuku out, without hurting him!]
[Alright, go get the kid out of there! Cooperate with Mei’s Golem!]
There was a sickening sound as the [Golem]s shoved their arms into the still-bleeding hole in the underbelly of the Dragon, and Melissa winced. Then, one of the [Golem]’s crouched down slightly, and she could see that they were trying to open the hole a little bit wider so the other one could go in and get Izuku.
And the Dragon’s flesh didn’t budge.
“What the fuck is this thing made of? These [Golem]s are supposed to be able to lift Carts if needed!”
She glanced over and saw Otto running his hands through his hair, looking concerned as he saw the Golem’s trying and failing to open the Dragon wide enough to get Izuku. Mei was just frowning.
“This isn’t working. We should get both of the Golems to hold it open and get someone to grab him out.”
Melissa shook her head. “We couldn’t do that until my dad or Lady Usagiyama woke up, or the higher-levelled guards from the gate arrive. The mana coming from the blood is too high for anyone below Level 50 to come into contact with for very long.”
Mei pulled her goggles up, looking at Melissa very pointedly. “But, Mel! He’s not-”
Melissa sighed. “Yes, I know he isn’t higher than that either. But… after what I just saw. I can’t explain it, Mei. I believe that he’s gonna survive this. He had the strength to kill the Dragon, after all, why not the strength to survive the aftereffects of it?”
Otto frowned, crossing his arms as the sound of yelling and shouting started up from the Dungeon Hall again, the shock that kept them silent having apparently faded enough. “That's quite the gamble, Shield. You sure about it?”
Melissa paused for a moment, but the memory of the sheer power she had felt coming from him when she attached her [Minor Regeneration] rune to him stuck with her. She stood up straight and nodded.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
Otto nodded right back, a sharp one that clearly showed he didn’t believe her, but would trust her anyway. “Alright then, let's get back to the Dungeon Hall and get your Pa and that rabbit-kin awake again quick. You might be trusting him to survive, but let's not make him have to survive for too long now.”
Melissa nodded, and before she was even done doing that, she was sprinting back to the Dungeon Hall.
Heavy stomping noises were the first thing she heard when she finally woke up.
Even before she opened her eyes, Rumi tried to sit up, only for every single bone, muscle and nerve in her body to immediately reject the idea, sending her into a coughing fit. Fuck, she really was sore all over.
‘What the fuck happened to me? No Leviathan should be able to hurt me this much through that barrier Shield put up.’
It was hard to really remember what had happened after the rain had failed to stop. God damn, her head hurt so much. She couldn’t move enough to do anything about it though, so she didn’t really have a choice but to tough it out.
“L-dy --agi-ama! -ad!”
She groaned internally as a young, female voice echoed through her already hurting head. Wait… was she trying to talk to her? That first name did sound an awful lot like what Shield and Izuku called her…
She forced herself to actually let out a groan, just something to let whoever the fuck was talking to her know that she wasn’t dead, and finally allowed her eyes to fall open. The light hurt, but she was too sore to squeeze her eyes shut.
“Lad- Usa-iy-ma!”
Rumi sighed inwardly. Yep, they were talking to her. The light that was shining directly into her eyes dimmed a bit as someone knelt over her, and Rumi finally got a good look at the girl. Probably around 20, blonde with blue eyes, and the spitting image of… ah damn, this was Shield’s kid, wasn’t it?
Shield’s daughter held a green rune over her before it collapsed into a green ball of light, which the girl then dropped right onto her chest. Rumi grunted as the healing energy surged through her, spreading across her entire body, so much so that the warm feeling was gone almost as quickly as it arrived.
She was still in a lot of pain, however, so it was a blessing when she saw another green rune appear over the Shield girl’s palm, before dropping onto her again. And again. And again. Rumi didn’t know why this girl was so insistent on having her healed up so quickly…
Unless the monster that smacked her and Shield around wasn’t dead.
‘Shit.’
After 5 or 6 uses of what she reckoned were [Minor Regeneration], Rumi was good enough to at least get up on her own. She ignored the Shield girl’s shocked gasp as she sat up quickly, the lessened pain not enough to hold her down, and got to her feet.
“Lady Usagiyama! Are you alright?”
Rumi glared at the blonde girl, her head still pounding, and then grabbed her temple, covering her eyes with her palm. She tried to respond but ended up in a small coughing fit. Leaning back down, she grabbed her [Dragontooth Katar]s off the floor, shaking her head.
Still coughing, she sheathed one of the Katars, keeping the other ready, and covered her mouth with her fist. Her body was calming down a little after the repeated use of [Minor Regeneration], but it was still sore as all fuck and protested almost every movement she made.
Finally, her coughing stopped, and she was armed again. Opening her eyes and looking over at the Shield girl, she managed to croak out a sentence. “Where’s the monster?”
The Shield girl looked confused for a moment, but then she glanced down at the Katars in Rumi’s hands and seemingly pieced together what was going through her head. Another ball of green light impacted Rumi’s chest, taking even more pressure off her, and then the Shield girl spoke.
“No, Lady Usagiyama, that's not why I healed you so quickly. The [Dragon] is dead, but I need you to come help me save Izuku. You’re his party member, right?”
Rumi felt her ears straighten at her words. There was a lot to unpack, but she could do that later, as the girl seemed on the verge of panicking. “Yea, that's me. Where is he, why do you need my help?”
Rumi grumbled internally as she followed the Shield girl to the… god damn, did they break the Dungeon Hall’s wall that much when they hit it? Shaking her head again, Rumi pushed the distraction out of her mind and climbed up the broken wall after the Shield girl did.
“That's… well, it will be easier to explain in full once you everything has been dealt with and you’re all healed up. For now, all you need to really know is that, uh… Izuku is in there.”
Rumi’s eyes opened wider than they ever had before as she looked at the stone forest the Town Square had turned into. And then even wider than that when she what the Shield girl was pointing at, the [Dragon] corpse, riddled with holes and gushing blue blood.
She stared at the Shield girl in disbelief, but the girl didn’t falter. She just gave a serious look back at her and nodded her head before she started running over to the corpse. Rumi rubbed at her temples again, hopping after her.
‘This is what I get for agreeing to [Party] with a fucking ‘hero’. Ryuko was fucking right, these [Heroic] guys are stressful as all hell.”
