Chapter 63: The Power of a Shield Maiden

After a long, passionate kiss goodbye, Opalina left for the day and promised to check in soon to see how things are going. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like I’m going to get the opportunity to make love to her any time soon, given the circumstances. I’m really aching for another go at my mature doctor, but business calls.

I join everyone outside under the typical grey Dewhurstian sky covered by sad clouds and enter the dirty training yard to see Sam practicing her form and Zutiria inspecting Meri’s tower shield. More specifically, she’s eying up the cracked red gem in the middle of it.

Does the Mage know anything about it? I have my concerns, given what I know about the Shield Maiden class... But seeing how sensitive Meri seems to be regarding her shield, bringing it up feels like a challenge.

I'm not ready to just dive into that personal matter just yet.

“Alright girls,” I announce as I walk out the door. “Time to see what our new Guildmate can do.”

“T-There’s another new Guildmate?! ...Oh! M-Me.” Meri stumbles and sweats nervously when she realizes what I meant.

“We’re going to need some help testing your abilities.”

‘What about me, Coach. I’m no good at physical activity.’ Zutiria tugs on my sleeve teasingly.

“You’re excused from class. Take the bench.”

The little Mage smiles and takes a seat on a nearby rickety bench that looks like it’ll fall to splinters if anyone heavier than her ever sat down on it.

“Guess that means I’ll have to help train the newbie!” Sam smiles and stabs her gigantic sword into the earth before leaning into it and crossing her arms around the massive golden guard. The Princess stares at Meri and playfully licks her lips at the nervous brunette, which doesn’t help her apprehensive attitude at all.

“We don’t know if she’s a newbie.” I remind Sam. “How long have you been an adventurer for, Meri?”

“O-Oh. Um... a little over two years now... I’m t-twenty...” Meri blushes from behind her shield. “But I’m no good at fighting... So Sam could p-probably beat me up if she wanted to...”

“Oh sweetie, I’ll be gentle, I promise.” Sam playfully kisses her lips towards the armored maiden, and I decide that I need to be firm. I walk behind her Highness and slap her ass with no warning. “KYA- BOSS WHAT THE SHIT?!”

“Stop flirting. And if you don’t wanna be spanked, wear some actual armor.”

“Oh sure, Daddy,” Sam starts rubbing her poor, meaty ass with her gloved hand. “Lemme just pull the gold for a full set of armor outta my ass for you. OR... if you want, you can go digging in there yourself.”

“Behave.” I point my finger at the bratty Princess and she grumbles, crossing her arms and looking away from me.

“Fiiiine.” Sam sighs while the rest of the ‘class’ laughs at her expense.

“Meri, I’m going to have Sam attack you with her sword. She’s very strong and it’s not just because of the magical effect I have on her. I want to see how much force you can withstand while remaining in place.”

Meri raises a metal fist in determination and nods her head. “O-ok, Sir.”

Both girls take a position and face each other from about ten feet apart. Meri inhales deeply and looks towards her mock opponent and whispers, “Stand firm... stand firm...” under her breath as she widens her stance and thrusts the shield out in front of her. Then, I watch as Meri uses the sheer force of her legs to embed her feet into the earth below.

The Shield Maiden is a very rare class for many reasons, and they function as offensive tanks. The ability to root their body into the earth using nothing but their leg strength is hardly impressive given everything else they can do, but seeing it for the first time is interesting nonetheless.

“Sam, don’t go too hard. You just got topped up this morning.”

“It wasn’t even a full load, I had to share...” She moans and lifts her sword.

Meri blushes at this comment but overall doesn’t change her firm stance... Until Sam starts charging at her, that is. It proves to be too much for her and she reflexively cowers and falls back shouting, “EEP! D-DON’T HURT ME, PLEASE!!”

As Sam’s great swing tears through the air it just barely misses Meri’s tower shield and the sudden whiff makes the inexperienced swordswoman topple over and somehow fall ass first onto Meri’s face.

“The FUCK!?” She shouts and blushes as she catches herself. “You were supposed to just stand there!”

Meri is shockingly quiet as Sam’s butt rests on top of her to the point where it becomes downright suspicious. Eventually the Princess asks, “Do y’wanna stay down there or something...?”

“MERI!” I shout and suddenly her head jerks, causing Sam to raise her hips out of reflex.

The Shield Maiden is almost hypnotized, blushing profusely... her eyes are filled with lust and drool hangs out of her mouth.

With a sigh, Zutiria makes her way over to Meri and magics a napkin out of nowhere to dabble at the dribble. Meri snaps out of it as soon as the other girl makes contact with her.

Merille Tillot... gods, this girl is such an obvious closet pervert that it boggles the mind how I was even worried about manipulating her into sex by accident. I’m half passed convinced that she’s going to snap and jump Sam before the latter is likely to happen.

‘Are you alright, Meri?’ Zutiria asks and holds out her hand to help her up.

I think a firm hand is needed here, honestly.

“Don’t coddle her.” I say, and Zutiria backs off respectfully while Sam groans and fetches her sword. “Why did you flip out like that?” I loom over the Shield Maiden.

“D-Do you promise not to laugh...?” She looks up tearfully.

“I won’t laugh, but I won’t be able to help if you’re not honest.”

She bites her lip and meekly nods back at me. “I-I’m... afraid... of pain...” Meri whispers ever so gently under her breath.

My left eye starts twitching. 

“Zutiria, would you be a dear and-”

‘Sir, I’m not getting you any alcohol.’

“But the damage sponge said it’s afraid of getting hurt.”

‘I’m well aware of what the damage sponge said, Sir, but it’s not even past noon.’

Sam laughs heartily at the resurgence of my stress induced alcoholism while I sigh, knowing I really have my work cut out for me here.

“I-I HAVE A NAME! I’m not just a damage sponge! Shield Maidens are good at lots of things!” Meri picks herself up off the ground and pats her dirtied armor clean.

“While that may be true, the main duty of your adventurer class is to specifically draw aggro from potential threats and soak up the damage that would typically go to Miss Bikini Armor and Miss Goth Lolita over there.”

“We just went over this!” Sam pouts and angrily stomps her foot at me.

‘I’ll have you know that my clothing is laced with mana-rich fiber, and that it works best when worn light.’ Zutiria corrects me, even though I was just joking. I know how Mage ‘armor’ works.

Meri takes my words to heart and takes a deep breath. “Stand firm... stand firm...” She mutters before taking her rooted stance once again. “I’m ready, let's try it again.”

“No. You’re not ready.” I say frankly, and I watch as her expression becomes forlorn and hopeless... that is, before I maneuver behind her. “Close your eyes when Sam rushes at you. Focus on the sound of her footsteps and the sound the air makes as her sword rips through it.”

“Y... You’re actually trying to help me...?” She says, as if scarcely believing it.

“Of course I am. I’m your Guild Master from today onwards after all.”

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“N-No one ever worked with me on my combat skills... least of all my old Guild Master...”

“This isn’t Perlshaw, Meri. This is Dewhurst. I do things differently here and I don’t intend to let anyone fall behind. Sam and Zutiria each have their own problems that make adventuring difficult, and I’m helping them with those, too. What’s one more in the pile?”

Sam smirks and holds her sword behind her shoulder. “If you say shit like that Boss, you’re gonna end up with a Guild full of messed up losers!”

Zutiria smiles supportively, ‘Nothing wrong with that. The underdogs always come out on top in the long run... at least in fiction.’

After this round of encouragement I do my best to chime in.

“Come on, Meri. I’m right behind you. If Sam scares you too much I’ll push you back and hold you in place as best I can.”

Meri’s mouth falls wide open and she stares at me with red cheeks until she finally pulls herself together. “Thank you... thank you so much...! I won’t let you down!” She says, and I firmly believe her.

Sam takes her position once again, and quickly starts running towards Meri. I can’t see her front so I don’t know if Meri is following my advice, but there’s only a minor flinch as Sam rears her gigantic great sword into the air and sends its mass hurtling down into the powerful metal of Meri’s tower shield.

The sound is like a powerful gong being rung as the Shield Maiden absorbs the entire impact, and I can see Sam’s eyes go wide from shock as she stands there pushing forward with her sword, unable to make Meri scoot back even an inch.

“Meri, show me the power of a Shield Maiden.” I command her and point towards Sam.

“YES!” Meri is eager to respond and all of a sudden a powerful red glint emits from the front of her shield.

Sam briefly recoils and shuts her eyes reflexively, “SHIT, THAT’S BRIGHT!” she barks.

“REFLECT!”

This is it- a Shield Maiden’s bread and butter. The impact of any physical attack on her shield is absorbed and stored within the unbreakable power gem at the shield’s center. At the Maiden’s discretion she’s able to unleash the bottled up force as a sort of kinetic impact, albeit on a cooldown. 

Sam’s strong as hell, so even if she held back a full blown Reflect should be a powerful counterattack on Meri’s behalf.

The key word being ‘should’.

What happens instead is a small scale burst of energy that sounds utterly wimpy compared to the mighty heft of Sam’s blade. It’s strong, sure, but it only sends Sam hurtling back a few feet and doesn’t even knock her off balance.

It’s exactly like I thought...

“Meri...”

“I-I did it! I really did it!”

Gods, I feel bad for having to ruin her moment. But we need to discuss it, after all. “Why was your Reflect so weak? Does it have anything to do with your cracked power gem...?”

She falls silent, all her happiness over her progress suddenly gone. “You... you know quite a lot about Shield Maidens I guess, huh...?”

“I know a lot about a lot of things. But from what I’ve read the only time a Shield Maiden’s power gem breaks is when the shield’s owner...” I don’t finish, I don’t need to. Besides, she looks sad enough as it is.

“You mean that attack was supposed to be even stronger?” Sam beams with excitement as she showcases her astounding inability to read the room. “I’m so damn jealous! I need a super move or some shit. I just swing this fuckin’ thing back and forth and hope for the best.”

Thankfully at that Meri ends up giggling just a teeny bit, and it’s enough to coax the truth out of her. “This shield... is my mother’s. She... she isn’t...” Meri whimpers softly before whispering, “Stand firm... stand firm...” To herself once more. “I took it after she passed on, and aimed at living up to her legacy. My dad made me this armor, but I was never actually trained... and... well.”

“That shield is holding you back, you know.”

Zutiria stands between us and takes a defensive position. ‘Sir. Show some tact.’

“How are you even able to use it at all? Shouldn’t all of its energy be lost?” I’ve never heard of a Shield Maiden’s shield still retaining even the slightest bit of power after the death of its user.

“I... I don’t know. I know that the proper procedure is to find my own power gem and craft a new shield but I...” Small tears form in the corners of her eyes. I shouldn’t push this issue any further right now. Meri is delicate and hitting her with hard facts will only get so far.

‘I was looking at it myself. I can’t say I’m familiar with the type of magic that goes into it, but I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that can just be simply fixed.’ Zutiria says with a concerned expression. ‘Magic is a finicky mistress.’

And an inconvenient one, at that.

“Well, how about offense? Are you still able to access your shield’s alternative forms?” I raise an eyebrow, eager to see just how much.

Sam at this point is pretty confused. “Other forms? Are you saying Shield Maidens don’t just stand around and block attacks and reflect em’ back?” I can’t even fault her for thinking this, given how rare Meri’s class is.

Meri smiles and laughs ever so softly, “No, we have some rather unique skills. But... uh... I can only use one other form...” The Shield Maiden focuses her energy and the power gem lights up once more, although much less brighter. This magical energy coats her huge tower shield and it rapidly shrinks into a much smaller, circular shield, a buckler. It merges with her gauntlet and doesn’t need to be held up anymore, most notably there’s a rather thick blade coming out overtop of her fist.

“DAMN!” Sam whistles, impressed. She runs over to inspect Meri’s new weapon and I watch as the Shield Maiden blushes, not used to being the center of attention.

“Oh... N-No, it’s really nothing special...”

“It’s more than enough for you to do some quests with.” I tell her. “I was worried you couldn’t access any of your Shield’s alternate forms at all so this is a pleasant surprise.”

Meri looks off into the distance, suddenly downtrodden. “My mom had all kinds of different forms her shield could take... This is just...”

“Meri.” I step in front of her and clasp her armored shoulder pauldrons.

The brunette begins quivering in her armor, clanking feverishly at my sudden closeness. She looks aside. “Y-Y-Yes?!”

“Don’t worry about comparing yourself to your mom. I’m focused on you in the right here, right now. We’ll improve you however we can in the moment, alright?”

She doesn’t look convinced, but Sam steps up beside her and leans on one of Meri’s shoulders. “Boss knows what he’s talking about, you shoulda seen how I used my sword before he started showing me the right way to use it!”

‘One step at a time. There’s no rush to prove yourself. Sir won’t kick you out even if you can’t perform.’ Zutiria says comfortingly.

She’s right. Even if Meri is useless as a fighter she’s still another body who could help out on fetch quests and help process Pinemen corpses on the side. Ah, industry.

“I suppose you’re right... but, are you even experienced with combat? How would you be teaching me?” She asks me, to which I shake my head.

“I’m just a man who reads a lot. I’ll do what I can.” I laugh.

In truth, I don’t know how much I’ll be able to help Meri compared to how much I could teach Sam to improve her form. Her problems are an awkward mix of having a timid personality, faulty equipment and the crippling weight of having to live up to someone's legacy. At least I can empathize with her, potentially impart some of how I’ve dealt with the very same issue to her once she trusts me more.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not a combat instructor. It does bring to mind something Opalina told me a week ago, however... She mentioned a friend of hers who was. A Grekkan mercenary by the name of Nikita.

I may have to visit the good doctor soon to inquire about when her friend is expected to return to town. Not only does Sam need guidance, now we also have someone around who would probably benefit even more than her highness. Even if she has no first hand experience with Shield Maidens, having a veteran warrior imparting general combat knowledge and experience would be a big help to the timid tin can.

It would also help if we could improve Meri’s tolerance to pain so that she’s a little less afraid in the face of danger, but... when I try to think of ways to treat this particular personality problem my mind wanders into lewd territories no matter how hard I try to steer myself away from them.

For the rest of the day I lay out a plan, I want Sam to work on getting Meri more comfortable blocking and reflecting on attacks, and Zutiria is to go out on Living Fungi and Slime quests on her own. Not much use in the Mage sticking around watching physical training that doesn’t apply to her. I don’t want her tackling Pinemen without a partner there to back her up, but at least this will give us some small amount of income for the day.

While Sam and Meri are working out in the yard, I plan on cleaning up the temporary room for Meri so that we can have our bedroom back. I wanted to avoid this before we got the maids we so desperately wanted, but it’s only fair that my laziness come back to bite me in the ass... 

After all that’s done I’ll visit Opalina and inquire further about Nikita. Once I lay it all out in the open for the girls, Sam gets pumped up to spend more time with her new friend, Zutiria gives me a playful salute accompanied by the Little Sir poking out of her hat to repeat the gesture, and Meri nods her head eagerly- if a bit nervously.

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