Chapter 78: A Shield’s Job

Without any hesitation the Greater Murdermoth violently flutters its wings and shoots out two of its long, black tentacles towards Sam. She’s exposed, I have to get to her in time!

“SAM!” Running as fast as I can I throw myself in front of the oncoming attack and root my feet in the ground. It was a close call, as in mere seconds t-the tentacles start wrapping around my shield and trying to pull me closer. 

“Thanks, Meri! Hold it there!!”

“I-I’m... trying...!! This moth is stronger than it looks...!!” It’s beating its wings hard, trying to pull back with enough momentum to pull me out of the ground like a weed... but I won’t let it. I’m standing firm!

Using this brief little window the brave Princess raises her huge sword into the air and brings it down over the pair of black tentacles with a loud, “HYAH!!”

Her downward strike easily severs the tendrils and creates a powerful gash along the ground, sending bits and pieces of the forest scattering in its wake.

The moth screams a terrifying and shrill cry. I didn’t even know moths could scream to begin with! In any case, it’s certainly not very happy at all about the damage, but... we can’t let up our assault with just this!

Zutiria takes the stage and points her pretty staff at the large foe and whispers, “Neg... ati... ball...”

One of those small orbs of concentrated darkness forms and fires off at decent speed, and the three of us get pumped for the resulting fallout of her attack!

But...

“NO, DON’T!” The master shouts from behind us causing a momentary panic. “THE SCALES ON ITS WINGS CAN REFLECT MAGIC! I WAS LITERALLY JUST ABOUT TO SAY SO!”

Zutiria’s typically tired eyes shoot wide open and she watches as the giant enemy moth twirls gracefully about in midair to make sure that her dark orb hits the wings a-and sure enough... it sends it hurtling back towards Zutiria.

“I-I’LL DO SOMETHING, I’LL-” Wait, I can’t...! Neither of my shield’s forms can absorb or bounce back magic, so even if I could throw myself in front of her it’d be no use... n-no... I still have to try... I...!!

“THERE’S NO TIME, ZUZU! DODGE!”

The little mage does her best to run away from her spot but it’s too late! The exchange happens in the blink of an eye and the spell hits its caster. Her body jerks scarily as it shakes with encroaching darkness... Oh, no...!

“ZUZU!” Sam shouts.

Zutiria falls to her knees and the color seems to drain from her face and even from her hair... when she looks up, even her eyes have become a duller shade of blue.

‘It’s... hopeless... I never should have left my tower... I’m sorry for failing you, Sir...’ She sighs and pulls her hat over her face to cover her shame.

“Zutiria... Meri, cover her until the spell wears off! It shouldn’t take very long to blow over against the one who cast it, and her robes probably absorbed some of the potency as well!”

W-well, I guess Mage armor has to be good at SOMETHING, right? That’s already a lot better than whatever Sam’s b-bikini has going for it...

“R-RIGHT!” I run in front of Zutiria and thrust my huge tower shield into the ground to serve as a barricade. I-I really wish I could use some of my mom’s advanced techniques right about now... A Phalanx Wall would be so useful!!

“AND I’LL GO AND KILL THAT THING IN ONE FUCKING SWING, I SWEAR TO BOTH OF THE FUCKING GODDESSES!” Sam makes a stance and prepares to run off towards the foe, but Boss yells out to stop her before she can take a step.

“SAM, FOCUS!”

She instantly gets mad and looks back at him with genuine r-rage in her eyes... w-why is she so angry?! “ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY I SHOULD JU-”

...

Sam stops herself mid sentence and suddenly looks really ashamed of herself... she blushes and takes a deep breath. “Right...” The Princess grips her sword tighter and slowly advances towards the deadly moth flying overhead in the distance.

It stares at Sam like it’s sizing her up, just idly flying in the same spot like it’s no big deal... and then... like mad whips the two remaining black tentacles latch onto a mossy boulder from the ground below.

The moth rips it out and dirt scatters everywhere! Oh no, this is bad...! It throws it at Sam!! I can’t watch, it’s heading straight for her... I can’t tank a literal boulder with my shield like this, and I need to protect Zutiria... I... I...!!

WHAAA?!

F-for a brief second I watch as the anger returns to Sam’s eyes. Then... she drops her sword into the soft earth below and throws her arms out in front of her. This... can’t be happening. No way... I know Sam is strong, but...

AH! SHE DID IT! SHE CAUGHT THE BOULDER IN HER ARMS A-AND NOW SHE’S... SPINNING!?

Sam throws it right back at the moth with a heavy grunt of exertion. I guess even for someone with Sam’s strength that took a lot out of her... 

“NICELY DONE!” Master beams with pride as the boulder hits the moth square in the ugly face! The boulder crumbles to pieces on impact and they fly every which way. Sadly, the thing isn’t dead... it falls out of the sky and wiggles around like crazy from all the pain, though!

“Heh. I guess taking it slow and steady isn’t so bad after all...” Sam smirks and picks up her sword, running off to the moth to finish it off.

‘I’m... ok now...’ From behind me, Zutiria stands on her feet after using her staff to prop herself up. ‘Nicely done, Sammy.’ She smiles gently and I can tell she really does seem to be better now, with most of the color returned to her face.

“Thanks!” Sam smirks right as she gets to the moth.

“Careful, it’s only stunned! Don’t let it take you by surprise!” Master’s not yelling anymore, so I think we’re in a somewhat good state right now... 

“I know, I know!”

Man... I’m glad this battle went this well, but I wish I could've contributed more than I ended up doing.

Sam reaches our big boss monster and raises her sword over her head... she brings it down with another of her powerful down slashes aiming to cleave this thing’s head off in one blow! But... t-the two remaining tentacles shoot out from its backside and wrap themselves like vines around Sam’s great blade- stopping the attack right then and there.

This is really, really bad...!!

“WHAT?!” Sam gets angry again super quick but it makes her lose focus all of a sudden and the huge moth headbutts her straight in the gut! From the shock of the impact she drops her sword and hurtles back into a tree so strongly that the force breaks it in half... I-IT’S FALLING DOWN ON SAM!!

“MERI BE... ACK- BE READY!!”

W-what? That voice wasn’t Master... that was...

Zutiria slams her staff down on the ground and yells, “SWAPSHADDA!” She falls over from the pain and clutches her throat in tears a-and before I can even try to help her a horrifying sinking feeling sets in... literally! I start falling into my own shadow.

Soon everything is dark and twisting chaos that my body hurtles through. I can see s-scary eyes staring at me from a thousand different directions a-and I don’t even have time to be creeped out about it because soon enough Sam zips past me and I see a bright light.

Then, POP! I’m exactly where Sam was and she’s now where I used to be. Wow, what a handy spell! I could’ve gone without the horrifying tunnel of darkness b-but... WAIT THE TREE IS ABOUT TO FALL ON ME!! “HYAA!!”

I root myself into the ground and throw my shield over my head... I absorb the blow... aaaand... “REFLECT!”

BOOM!

While it’s not a giant burst of energy or anything, I’m able to bounce the tree off of me and plenty far away from the others. It lands safely on the ground around ten feet away, leaving the only danger left being the nearby moth that’s already gearing up to take to the skies again.

Master runs to Sam and Zutiria’s side. “GIRLS!”

“Ugh, fuck... let m-my guard down for ONE fuckin’ second and look where it gets me...” Sam coughs as she holds her poor tummy.

‘Meri... I’m.. almost out of mana and... I’m... in a lot... of pain... m-make this count...’ Zutiria is on the ground but she somehow against all odds manages to sit up and point her staff one final time. My adrenaline goes crazy as I pump harder and harder, strangely excited about what kind of crazy spell she’s gonna use this time!

“L... ift.” The Mage says before hitting the ground again and knocking herself out from lack of mana.

Eh? That sounds kinda basic...

The scattered remains of the boulder that shattered earlier in the battle all fly into the air and hover above the moth’s wing right before it manages to take off in flight.

Then, they stop floating and the weight of a boulder all drops down and pins it to the ground. I-I guess it can reflect magic but only actual magic energy and not physical objects moved by magic. Makes sense.

As the rocks drop the Greater Murdermoth wails in pain once more. It struggles and while trying to get out from under the weight it ends up tearing off a big chunk of one of its wings! The moth then tries to fly again but it doesn’t end up going so well. It falls to the forest below after getting about ten feet into the air- it just can’t make up for the large portion of its wing that it just lost.

“Fuckin’ NICE.” Sam smirks as she tries to hobble up on her feet again, before falling over too. “Shit... You gotta finish it, Meri. I’m... ngh... having trouble getting my breath back...”

“Stay still, Sam. Meri’s got this. Right?” Master looks at me with conviction and he gives me the sense that he answered for me.

“R-Right!” I nod my head back at him and he smiles warmly back.

“Gods, I fucking need some real armor...” Sam grunts in pain as she grabs her stomach again.

“We’ll talk about it later. It’s indeed a problem that we should have addressed far sooner...” Master sighs and holds up Zutiria in his arms to check on her condition, leaving me alone to deal with the writhing monster.

I-I gotta be careful here. I switch my shield back into buckler form as I start approaching it and the moth watches my every move carefully... it’s so creepy the way it stares at me like that but I’m not afraid... no, I-I can do this!

I close the distance a bit more and it suddenly whips one of its remaining tentacles at me while letting out a piercing shriek. I was expecting this! It doesn’t want me to get close enough to kill it, so as soon I’m in distance it reaches out and I slice a large chunk off before it can latch on to me again.

This isn’t so bad! I just need to watch out for big attacks like what it did to Sam... then again... I do have something I could do to make an opening! I didn’t use it earlier because it would’ve distracted everyone, but now... now I bet it’d work just fine!

“Everyone! Close your eyes, please!! I-I’m gonna use one of my tools!”

“Understood!” Master says.

“You got it!” Sam yells out.

With their confirmation I reach out to the side of my fauld and pull out something my dad made for me. Since I can’t use all the techniques and forms my mom could, he came up with some ideas to compensate... they’re a bit bulky so I have to strap them to my waist armor and I can only carry three on each side.

I carefully hold the long, pin shaped object by the handle and twist the cap far enough to activate it. Then, I throw it out towards the Greater Murdermoth!

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... Ah! Shields up, that’s right! I-I can’t forget that part!

Thankfully I block my vision with my buckler just in time, and an overwhelmingly bright light explodes from the flashbang right in front of the moth’s face. It screams louder than ever before and I can hear it thrashing about, but that’s not the only one I can hear thrashing.

“SHIT, MY EYES!” Sam shouts from behind me.

“W-WHAT?! I TOLD YOU TO CLOSE THEM!”

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA DO SOME KINDA COOL SECRET MOVE, NOT BLIND ME! AHHH- FUCK!”

I hear Master sigh heavily and I can imagine he’s probably rubbing his temples like he always does when he gets too stressed out... heh... it’s a cute thought.

Once the light dies out, I confirm that my enemy is stunned just as badly as I was hoping for. I know moths are attracted to light and all that, so thankfully it didn’t have some weird reaction where it ended up making it stronger. That would have been bad... but I guess I’m just overthinking things!

While it’s still thrashing around violently it doesn’t see me get close enough to make my next attack. I pull my arm back and shout, “HYAH!” driving my sword into its face once, twice, three times... I-I lose count from here but I keep going long after it stops its death throes.

Its squicky green blood coats my sword and splatters all over my armor which was already plenty dirtied from all the Murderpillars I killed today. Pulling my sword away, I take a deep breath of relief... I... I did it... I actually did it! I didn’t just kill a monster, I beat a really strong boss monster with everyone’s help!

As I turn around to rejoin my friends, I can’t help thinking... Mom... if only you could see me now, I-

Crack.

Wha?

Crack crack crack.

“SHIT, MERI IT’S MOLTING!” Master screams at me and I look over my shoulder in sudden panic to see it.

N-No... this can’t be happening... The Greater Murdermoth is not only alive, but it’s shedding its entire skin! The huge insect crawls out of its husk and I can’t believe my eyes... all the damage that we did... it’s all gone. It was like the entire battle never happened... all three severed tentacles are replaced and the moth takes to the skies with fresh wings. Its body is coated in a transparent slimy liquid that trails down onto the emptied husk below.

“THIS SHOULDN’T BE HAPPENING, IT’S NOT THE RIGHT SEASON FOR THIS! WE NEED TO USE OUR RETURNERS, NOW!”

“BOSS, WE CAN’T! ZUZU’S STILL OUT COLD AND ONLY THREE OF US COULD TELEPORT OR ELSE WE’D... AGH, YOU KNOW!!” Sam tries to protest, but...

“SHIT- I CAN’T... I can’t make a decision like this...” Master bites his lip and angrily punches the earth. “Someone needs to stay here and try to escape with Zutiria... but that’s... a death sentence... I REFUSE TO LET ANYONE DIE HERE!”

Master takes off his glasses and stares down the enemy so hard that he starts bleeding out of his eyes intensely. “THERE HAS TO BE A WAY!” He shouts. “THERE HAS TO BE A WEAK POINT, THERE-” Master pauses before he cries out in pain.

“BOSS!”

“Master...” I swallow nervously and stare down the enemy. “I can do this... I’m not a little girl playing pretend anymore... I’m... I’M A SHIELD MAIDEN! NO ONE’S GONNA DIE HERE, NOT IF I CAN HELP IT-”

As soon as I make my bold declaration, the monster shoots out its tentacles faster than before and wraps them all around my limbs before picking me up off the ground and throwing me as far as it can into yet another tree. I-It might be strong but it doesn’t have a lot of tactics, I guess... gah, focus, Meri! Now isn’t the time for silly observations!

The impact of the tree doesn’t cause it to topple over unlike the last time, and it doesn’t hurt as much as it did Sam because... well... I’m wearing not only armor but a heavy gambeson for padding... not a bikini. Still, it... it hurts... I knew it... I can’t stand pain... n-not even a little bit... but...

I’m able to get up quick enough. It still takes a lot of my stamina just to remain upright, but I’m on my own two feet and my buckler sword is still just as sharp... I... I can... somehow... maybe still end this...

But before I can even size up my options, Master suddenly runs in front of me holding that same old knife from the other day. “Stay back! Use one of the stamina potions while I cover you!!”

“BOSS COME BACK, LET ME DO IT! I CAN STILL HELP, I-” Sam places Zutiria down on the grass and tries to run over to where we are with her sword in hand but she trips and falls over herself.

The Greater Murdermoth pays it no mind and starts advancing on Master, who’s intent on protecting me... he’s so reliable... dependable... and he’s never let anything happen to us if he could help it.

It’s so weird to think that in such a short amount of time I’ve managed to... completely fall for this scary, perverted Guild Master... especially when he’s such and idiot.

“Let... me... do... my... JOB!” I shout angrily and grab him by the back of his vest and throw him behind me using all of my strength. I hear him land in the undergrowth.

“MERI!”

“SHIELDS DON’T NEED TO BE PROTECTED!” 

The Greater Murdermoth screams defiantly and starts whipping its wings around like crazy. It raises its head into the air before hurtling its entire body towards me in a brutally strong tackle.

I switch back to my tower shield and grit my teeth for the oncoming assault. My feet are planted into the ground and I smash my barricade straight into its face and refuse to let it move me... not... an... inch... no matter how much it hurts... no matter the cost... I won’t ever let myself be protected again... I...

I WILL PROTECT EVERYONE I CARE ABOUT, AND I WON’T LET SOME OVERSIZED BUG STAND IN MY WAY!

“REFLECT!”

My shield glows brighter than ever before... it’s so bright that it looks almost like... Mom’s... I almost feel like I can see her smiling at me, b-but... it’s just my imagination.

What isn’t my imagination is the immense shockwave that erupts like a volcano out of my shield. It booms louder than the moth could ever hope to scream and the sheer force of it is.. Astonishing. This isn’t a Reflect I should be able to do... this... this massive attack of mine back uproots a few nearby trees and blows them away like it was nothing.

I didn’t just send back the attack a little bit stronger than it was to begin with... this had to be at least two... n-no... four times stronger...?!

The Greater Murdermoth’s head caves in like a meteorite creating a massive crater... this is my chance... I won... I won so I need to do it properly!!

As my attack finally finishes its powerful last echoes I shout the only thing I could think of.

“GET... F... FRICKIN’ SQUASHED!!”

What remains of the moth is sent twenty feet away and I can’t even admire my own work. I fall flat on my face with a clunk and groan. At least the ground is nice and soft here...

“MERI!” Sam and Master shout in unison as soon as I’m down. 

Sam reaches me first, and I think she’s mostly recovered by now. She picks me up and smiles proudly with tears in her eyes. “Holy shit, you fuckin’ did it you... you...” The Princess wipes her tears when I smile back at her.

“I-Is my shield ok...?”

Sam picks it up and grins before handing it to me.

“Yup. Good as ne-”

CRACK.

...

This time, it’s not the moth shedding yet another husk. Now it’s something far, far worse.

M-Mom... Mom’s power gem... it... it cracked even more...

CRACK.

“NO... NO!!”

CRACK.

I gasp and start crying my eyes out as I cradle the shield like it was actually her... I used what little of her energy was left in the gem and it... it’s...

With one last giant crack the bright red gem in the center of Mom’s shield becomes nothing more than dust that scatters itself into the gentle breeze.

“She’s... she’s really gone...” I can’t even bring myself to cry anymore. The realization just... hits me... really deep.

“I SWEAR I DIDN’T DO IT, I-IT WAS JUST FINE WHEN I HANDED IT TO YOU!!” Sam starts panicking and waving her hands around trying to show that it wasn’t her fault. 

I just nod my head slowly. Of course it wasn’t her fault... 

My victory suddenly tastes like ashes in my mouth. I can’t feel anything. There isn’t any pain... no pride... just...

“G-Girls...”

Huh?

Sam and I both glance back over where I threw Master and we see him toppled over and clutching his chest. His face is red and sweating profusely as he struggles to draw breath.

“I... I am fairly confident... I’m... having a heart attack...”

...

Sam and I share a muted look at each other and then back at Master.

...

Are you fucking kidding me?

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