Forgotten But Not Lost

13

Rock spat on the ground, tossing his broken weapon aside and retrieving another one from a nearby corpse. He swung it once to test the balance before glaring again and the dim-witted monster that had him so pissed off, and had probably cost him any chance he could have ever had with the beautiful Hinata.

Years of hunting down monsters had taught the man one thing, that the only place worse than the Friend Zone when it came to starting up a romantic relationship, was the Hero Zone. Once you save a girl's life, that was it, no dating, no getting to know each other better, it was all over. Unless you already knew the girl on a personal level.
For any strong-willed girl, which in Rock's mind were the only types worth pursuing, they all seemed to be under the impression that if you save their lives, and then try to start a relationship with them, that means you feel that you are entitled to sex because you saved their lives. He didn't want sex as payment for save their lives. He just wanted it because they were hot… and he kind of got off on being dominated. But time and time again he had been rejected by angry women who he wanted to at least share a beer with all because he had saved their lives before reaching first base. It was the entire reason he tried to avoid people thinking of him as a good guy, or a hero. Unless the relationship already existed, rescuing the dame was the kiss of death.
Nice guys finish last. Good guys never finish at all.
Now, after months of trying to get to know Hinata better and finally reach first base, Rock had just broken his number one rule, so fat chance he was ever going to get any now. And it was all this stupid looking goliath's fault.
Rock was so mad his vision was practically going red. Still, he was on the battlefield, and priories had to be set.
"Moyugi, Tsuga, Rookie. You three take care of what's left of the stragglers. Kuro, Kajita, and I will handle this worthless sack of flesh until y'all finish cleaning up." Rock spat. The Orc came at him, swinging its sword, but it had been too slow and predictable to get him.
"How are you thinking we handling this thing? Magic doesn't work and its armor is too hard to cut through without it." Kuro asked as he launched his own arrow at the thing's skull, staggering it as the arrow banged against its head with enough force to down a tree.
"Simple, if you can't cut it up or blow it up, just bury it." Rock said, gesturing towards the pitfall traps. Each one was only around twelve feet deep, meaning the Monster Rex could stand in one and have his head poking out of the top, but with all that armor he was wearing, Rock was willing to bet that he couldn't climb too well. Would serve the stupid creature right to die slowly in the bottom of the pit. They could bury him in such a way as so that only his head was above the ground and then take turns pissing on its stupid purple hair.
"That's… actually a pretty good plan." Shirou said, sounding genuinely surprised. Rock was about to snap at him when Tsuga added his own commented.
"Our glorious leader does have his moments." The Priest said with a smile.
"He might look dumb, but he hasn't survived this long on chance alone." Moyugi nodded along.
"Okay, fuck all of you!" Rock shouted at them. "Now do your damn jobs before I decide you ain't worth having around!"
"Yessir." The three said, jokingly before moving off to assist in the slaughtering of the remaining Orcs.
"Damned bastards." Rock huffed before turning his eyes back toward the giant. "Shino better be paying us extra for this."
"Well, there is probably a sizable bounty on this fucker's head." Kuro commented, as the three of them started to lure the Orc towards the holes in the ground. The big guy was surprisingly fast for someone wearing so much armor, though he was a little clumsy. Even so, his lack of actual skill in wielding a blade made him predictable and let the humans stay one step ahead of him.
"The money ain't the same if it ain't come out of that smug pricks pocket." Rock snapped, picking up a shield off the ground and chunking it at the Orc's head. It just bounced off like everything else, but it was still enough to keep the guy plenty mad.
They would keep its attention easy enough. Killing it would be the hard part.
With the majority of the typhoon members distracted, the Orcs tried to group up and push through the weakest side in an attempt to break through the encirclement. The forty or so remaining Orcs pressing against a line of seven Warriors and Paladins, quickly starting to overwhelm them, even with the Priests, Mages, and Hunters behind them offering blessings and covering fire. It would be a race for survival. If the Orcs couldn't break through before the remaining human forces descended upon them, they would die.
If the Orcs managed to escape, they could be pretty fast runners and might get away. With the fort they were supposed to be resupplying just a two-hour run away, if they got the word out about the ambush, then it would be unlikely that the Human's would be able to gather up all of the loot before they had to run from the Orcs counter attack. They were counting on the two or three extra hours it would take for the Orc encampment to get suspicious of how late their supply shipment was in order to unload and reload all the goods onto their own horse drawn carts about a half-mile away. An early alert would mean no stolen supplies and that the entire raid was a failure.
Shirou shot off his last two arrows, aiming for the less defended joints in his target's armor. The longbow that Kuro had given him was still too pumped up from Shirou's earlier overuse of [Steel Guard] for him to power it up again. Luckily he was surrounded by weapons that the dead weren't in any hurry to use themselves.
Discarding the bow and quiver, he retrieved one of each from a dead Orc soldier he himself had shot down earlier. It was a shortbow, the arrows were barbed and more heavy at the tip than what he had been using before and the shafts were a little thicker. It was a more close range weapon than the longbow, meant for getting a few shots off on a charging group before the soldier dropped it to pull out his sword.
To a normal archer, these kinds of sudden changes in equipment would be disastrous. Even if they had gone from one longbow to another it would have cause problems, as no two bows are exactly the same. Some would even say that the subtle differences from shot to shot would have an effect on one's accuracy. Pulling out an entirely different kind of weapon would make one lucky to land the first few shots as they had to adjust to the differences.
But with Shirou's supernatural knowledge of weaponry, he had adapted to the weapon instantly, changing his stance and draw to match those needed to use the shortbow. The first arrow released bore straight into its target's skull.
"Does anyone have a back up plan for if Rock's plan fails!?" Moyugi inquired as he reached the edge of the Human line and started to cut down any Orc that tried to pass around it.
"No. Do you think it will fail?" Shirou asked as he rapidly shot four more arrows, using more and more [Steel Guard] in order to improve the strength of his shots to the point where they would break through the Orcs' thin neck guards. The shortbow would reach its saturation point much quicker than the longbow had. He'd need to replace it again soon.
"I'd give it a fifty fifty chance." Moyugi admitted with a shrug. He said a short chant and scrapped his knuckled across the flat of his sword, causing a black mist to appear and rush towards a group of Orcs who had been trying to circle around him. The black mist went up their nostrals and the entire group went nuts, swinging their swords around randomly as if trying to attack an unseen foe. Moyugi just left them to accidently kill each other. "We are gambling over whether or not that monster has the upper body strength to pull himself out of a hole while wearing full body armor. While the armor will certainly inhibit its movements and weigh it down, it might still be strong enough to pull it off."
"True, fortune tends to favor those who have back up plans, but I can't think of anything that would be of use." Tsuga said, having finished off a small pod of Orcs who had managed to get by the line. He stood in prayer for their souls, making the hexagram that was the mark of the local religion before returning to the matter at hand. "Its armor was hard enough to take one of Rock's [Rage Cleavers] to the head without scratching. Perhaps if we had a high enough quality weapon we might be able to cut through it, but such weapons are too expensive for even top-class Crimson Moon members like us to get our hands on one. The Dwarves always charge a king's ransom for their best works. I doubt anyone in the frontier has one. I've never even seen them as being necessary, since you can get by on blessings and curses. But since those aren't an option, I'm afraid I'm stumped."
"How much is a king's ransom, exactly?" Shirou asked, out of curiosity.
"A dwarven masterpiece costs about five thousand gold… cheep." Moyugi grumbled. Shirou couldn't help but to let out a low whistle. That was enough money for his entire group to retire on, twice. "How about its own sword. You said they are made of the same material. Would it be capable of cutting through the armor?"
"Not a chance." Shirou said, shaking his head and firing off one final arrow. The arrow went through the last of the Orcs' heads and the monster collapsed to the ground. Having used up the shortbow, Shirou tossed it aside and searched the ground for another one. "The unusual crystal structure that gives the rainbow pyroxene its durability makes it next to impossible to shape it into a proper edge. The sword can withstand a serous beating, but don't expect it to cut anything. The worst it could do against that armor is to put scratches on both of them."
"It's magical resistance. How absolute is it?" Moyugi asked, just accepting that Shirou was an expert. "Is there a delay, or a way to overwhelm or saturation the armor with magic?"
"It counteracts the nature and structure of blessings and Elementals. No matter how much magical energy you put into it, it will just lose its shape the moment it comes in contact with that armor. Arcane magic would work, but I don't know how much help flinging magic missiles will be against armor like that." Shirou explained as the three grouped back up and looked to where Rock and the others were fighting the giant Orc. "Kobold magic was used to make the armor, so it must be able to get around the cold iron's effect. Either of you happen to know any?"
"No human does." Tsuga said with a sigh. "So we have an enemy we can't cut and that is immune to magic. So what can we do?"
"Have you tried blewing it up?" They all turned to see Rin standing behind them, her arms cross and a scowl on her face. "It my experience, it works pretty well."
"Miss Rin, as much as I approve of your enthusiasm, it is immune to all our magic." Moyugi said flashing her a nerves smile.
"We don't need to use magic on him directly." Rin said sticking her nose up in the air and taking a sniff. "I smell alcohol."
The boys all paused and sniffed the air themselves. True enough, even though they were outside, something smelled like an entire tavern out there. Following the scent, they found the wagon that the Monster Rex had come out of, and in it, instead of supplies, were six large kegs. Two of them were open and drained dry, three were still sealed, but the last one was on its side, thick golden-brown liquid was pouring out of the container and spreading over the wagons surface, soaking into the tarp that had once acted as the wagon's roof.
"Holy hell. Is… is that… the good stuff?" Moyugi whispered, wonder in his voice.
"By Lumiaris's light… that thing was drinking it by the keg?" Tsuga stammered out, sounding truly frightened. "It really is a monster. How is it even breathing?"
"Stop gawking at it and start helping me get this thing moving." Rin told them. "We need to cut it loose from the Dragon Horse corpse if we are going to get anywhere."
"Are… are we really going to use this as a weapon?" Moyugi said, too stunned to move.
"The others are not going to like this." Tsuga said, nodding in agreement before grabbing the man and dragging him into action.
Shirou just followed Rin's instruction, wondering to himself.
What was so special about the beer?
They lured the monster closer and closer to the traps, taking it in turn to perform small hit and run moves on him, though not really putting any effort behind their swings. No point in damaging their weapons if it wasn't going to have any real effect anyways. But once they had gotten within ten feet of the hole, the monster started to wise up to their tactics… sort of. It still didn't just turn around and walk away like something with real intelligence would. It just stopped charging at them as Rock stood at the edge of the pit with a smug grin on his face.
"Come on, you aren't afraid of a little hole, now are you?" Rock taunted the giant with a challenging gesture.
The monster grunted and swung at Rock, but was too far way to hit him. Even though the Orcs face was completely covered by its helmet, Rock could just image the stupid expression it must have had as it tried to figure out a way to squish the human that was being such an annoyance, without getting any closer to the hole.
"Hurry it up big boy. Make your decision. Do you want me or not?" Rock said, jumping around just outside of the monster's reach. The goliath growled at him but didn't move forward. "Well, even if you aren't going to come at me, you probably don't want to stand right there." Rock said, knowing full well that the Orc couldn't understand him. Even if he could, it would be too late.
Kajita had moved up behind the giant while he was distracted and wound up for a devastating hit. "I'm going to smack you…" The normally quiet man shouted as he let loose a [Spiral Slash] that carried behind it all his strength and the full weight of his oversized weapon. The Orc heard him and turned his head just in time to take the flat mushroom shaped top of the blade straight to his face. "…WITH MY DICK!"
The swing was so fast and so heavy, that the air around them seemed to pop. Rock jumped backwards over the hole as the behemoth was knocked straight up into the air and towards the hole, his front half sliding over it. The monster struggled to get a grip on anything to stop himself from falling in but couldn't find anything on the flat soil around him.
Rock jumped back over again, planting a foot on the giant's back before jumping off of him, pushing the creature's head down. As the creature face planted in the bottom of the hole, Rock began to laugh. "Stupid piece of shut." He said spitting down into the hole on the monster as it tried to right itself, with great difficulty.
"Damn, the bastard broke my dick." Kajita grunted as he inspected his sword. The mushroomed shape at the end of his weapon was seriously damaged.
"Don't worry. We'll make Shino to buy you a new one. You earned it." Rock said, grinning to himself.
"Ah, boss." Kuro said, pointing back to the pit they had just dropped the giant into. Rock looked back to see the massive black sword being lifted up over the top of the hole's edge, before it slammed against the side of the wall, collapsing dirt into the hole even as it widened the rim.
"Son of a…" Rock began to swear as he realized his master plan wasn't going to work. He tried to think of something else, but couldn't think of anything that would put an end to the monster before it managed to make itself a ramp to get out of the hole they had wanted to bury it in.
After five hard hits, the monster began to try to climb out of the hole, having only to deal with a steep slope rather than a straight up wall. Its upper body was over the surface and it would soon be free.
An arrow whizzed by, slamming into the monster's chestplate and knocking it backwards again, back into the hole. Rock and the others turned their heads to see Shirou discarding a bow before jumping behind a wagon and helping Moyugi and Tsuga push it. "Come help us push!" Tsuga shouted. "We are going to drop it on top of him and then set it on fire!"
A grin spread across Rock's face as he shouted at Kuro and Kajita to get off their lazy asses and help. The six men worked together, quickly pushing the wagon across the field to the hole and letting it fall down over the edge even as the monster was trying to climb back up it.
"Get clear!" Rin shouted before starting her chant. "Derem hel en van alev. [Scorch]!" She shouted, creating a wipe of fire in the air which she directed towards the wagon. While the Elemental magic-based fire couldn't touch the monster's armor, the natural fire it caused had no such problems. The carp and wood began to burn quickly, and soon the barrels in the back of the wagon exploded in a sudden burst of much more intense fire.
The explosion didn't kill the monster, the armor absorbed the force of it all. But the heat and flames still had the desired effect. The Orc screamed in pain as his flesh burned. Though the screams themselves only lasted a short while before being replaced by the strangled gasps and choking sounds of something suffocating as the fire quickly ate up all of the evaluable air. With its helmet hardly providing enough air to keep the creature alive to begin with, it seemed as though it was die from lack of oxygen long before the fire killed it. Though the party was more than willing to just wait and let the fire burn the Orc's entire body way.
"You never told me you knew anything about cooking monsters." Shirou said, giving Rin a sidelong smile.
"We are NOT eating that." Rin said giving Shirou a deadpan look.
"Man, that's one hell of a fire. What was in that cart anyways?" Rock asked as he watched the flames burned and smiled at the pathetic dying sounds of his hated enemy. However, when Moyugi and Tsuga just looked down at the ground and didn't answer him, he started to get confused. "Hey, you two alright?"
"That wagon… it had… the 'good stuff' in it." Moyugi said, his voice full of regret. Rock, Kuro and Kajita's eyes all widened so much that you could actually see Kajita's eyes behind his shades.
"No…" Kajita said, slowly shaking his head. Then the massive man dropped to his knee and started to scream it. "No! NO! Why god!? WHY!?" Tears were coming from behind his glasses as he stared down at his own hands, lamented what he had just unwittingly taken a part in.
"…We won the battle, but the sacrifice was too great." Kuro said, pulling the cap of his head and crumpling it over his heart.
"Why… why couldn't it have just been Shino!" Rock shouted, falling to his hands and knees and punching the ground.
"…Are they okay?" Shirou asked Tsuga, looking at the three men with a bit of concern.
"They will be fine." Tsuga said with a sad smile. "The Orcs have a rare and extremely strong drink that the three are quite fond of. We aren't sure what it is made of, or even what its proper name is, but they call it, the good stuff. At one point in time, the three of them got us to raid a camp of three hundred Orcs just so they could steal two barrels of the stuff. Nearly got us all killed."
"This is so stupid." Rin said with a sigh. "Come on, we need to help move all of the loot into our own wagons."
"Right." Shirou said, turned and following her back towards the rest of the Crimson Moon forces. Today had been a weird day.
"So Archer, how did you know so much about the monster's armor?" Rin asked him once they were out of ear shot.
"Ah…" The look Rin gave him at that moment made him know he wasn't going to get away without telling her. "I'll explain later… when we are in a more private place." Shirou said, glancing around at the other soldiers. "Rather keep it a secret."
"Fine then, but you are going to tell me." Rin said. It was a statement not a question. "Consider it your price to pay for running in like an idiot without my permission."
Shirou's shoulders sagged a bit. "Of course it is."
I considered having Shirou have a deus ex machina with Eldritch helping him to temporary regain some of his old knowledge and trace a copy of Caliburn to kill the monster with, creating another parallel to rattle Rin's members a bit, but then I decided against doing that.
Why?
Fuck if I remember.
Maybe it seemed a little too early for him to be selling his soul for a miracle.
No! I can't become the most popular story of this category. I was only supposed to threaten to do it.