Sword Hero's Redemption

Shield vs Spear

A/N: Wow, this is the most voted story I ever had. Thanks a lot. Also, the chronological order of this fanfic is different to the anime. This was a Shield vs Spear fight on the start, and now there is a new Shield vs Spear fight. The one that happens on Episode 4.

Narrator's POV

After the tough fight against the wave, Ren is really tired. But he has to go to the royal castle of Melromarc to get his prize money.

Ren and Naofumi enter the Royal Castle and the Sword Hero bows to the King and greets Itsuki and Motoyasu politely.

"Now that the heroes are here, I want to congratulate them. Bow, Spear and Sword, awesome job against the waves." Said the king.

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, but the Shield also deserves congratulations. He evacuated the villagers. Without him, it would be a big killing display, and it would have been an extremely costly victory." Ren said in a polite tone.

Everyone gasps and some people started whispering horrible things, mostly about the Shield Hero.

The King sighs. He knows that Ren is the strongest hero (most people present in the battle told him that Ren basically carried the team), so he just accepted it.

"Congratulations to the Shield Hero as well." The king mentioned Naofumi in a tone full of venom.

Ren sighed and nodded.

After that, Motoyasu saw Raphtalia into the crowd with a slave crest. In her status, it said "Naofumi Iwatani's Slave".

Motoyasu was fuming. He went to Naofumi.

"Is this your SLAVE, Naofumi?!" He shouted/asked, with a loud tone.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Answered Naofumi, in a casual tone.

"THIS IS WRONG! We are going to duel NOW! If I win, Raphtalia is free!" Shouts Motoyasu, outraged with the fact that the Shield Hero is a slave owner.

"And what do I get if I win?" Asks Naofumi.

"Everything stays as it is." Motoyasu answers.

"You know, Motoyasu, this isn't fair. Even though I cannot respect slavery in any way, shape or form, who in the world would fight without any profit?" Says Ren, facepalming. Itsuki nods.

"Hmmmm...you are right. Naofumi, if you win, you will get 40% of my prize money and the Chimera head that I looted on the wave!" Says Motoyasu.

"Fair enough. Let's do this."

"I will be the overseer. If anyone cheats, it's over." Says Ren, wanting to keep things fair and square.

After that, everyone goes to the arena. They want to see the Spear Hero destroying the Shield Demon.

"Ready, both of you?" Ren asks.

They both nod.

"1, 2, 3...GO!"

Motoyasu (who is twenty-two levels above Naofumi) proceeds to mock his adversary with the tale about the all-penetrating Spear and the unbreakable Shield and wonders which one is stronger. When Naofumi ignores Motoyasu's offer to surrender gracefully, the Spear Hero charges. 

Motoyasu starts attacking Naofumi with his spear.

Ren does a mental note that the Spear is way too heavy, and Motoyasu is very predictable. His movement is slow and his mechanic handling of the spear doesn't help him a lot.

Naofumi proceeds to dodge, block or even counter-attack all of Motoyasu's attacks.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT? Ren, are you certain that he is not cheating?" Motoyasu asks, outraged with the fact that Naofumi is winning.

"There are no cheats. This battle is being fair from both sides." Ren explains to him.

Motoyasu accumulates rage and attacks Naofumi with the Chaos Spear special attack, but he blocked it, causing little to no damage.

When the cooldown time and the lack of magical power kick in, Naofumi starts to charge.

Using the balloon monsters on his person as weapons, and the various Shields he unlocked, Naofumi beats Motoyasu into a corner. The Spear Hero calls him out for using the monster, ordering him to fight fairly, but when he retaliates is suddenly attacked by The Dog Demon Shield.

Knocking the Spear Hero down with Air Strike Shield, Naofumi sics several more Balloons on his winded opponent and locks them within the confined space of a Shield Prison, so that the monsters can devour Motoyasu.

Everyone is speechless: Motoyasu is being beaten to a pulp by the 'weak' Shield Hero.

And, with that, there is outside help once again from people in the crowd.

"FIGHT ENDED!" Ren calls out.

"Huh?! Why?" Asks Motoyasu.

"Someone from the crowd just did a wind magic. It's clear: someone cheated." Ren says with a strict tone, and glares at one specific person at the crowd.

Everyone is shocked, especially Malty with Ren's cold glare piercing her completely.

"I declare that this fight is a draw: everything stays as it is." Ren knew that Naofumi was about to win, but he didn't want to destroy his popularity with the nobles. It can be useful on the future to be in good terms with the Melromarc nobility.

Ren has his communication problems, but he has a great reputation as a level-headed and down-to-earth person who has the maturity to handle different problems in the kingdom, and that makes him a hero that people actually like and respect.

That includes the nobility of Melromarc, which he has a lot of meetings with - he is bad at talking, but he makes it up with near-perfect etiquette that he had to learn in his spare time to be able to even have those meetings.

Although the Shield Hero is not popular with the people, most of them already noticed that the Melromarc Royal Family isn't exactly great and that raises a lot of suspicion between commonfolk about what is going on in the throne.

END OF CHAPTER