Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 2

With some of her true capabilities unveiled, the rest of the Orichalcum-rank trial concluded with little incident. The ‘final boss’ was a strange sort of Undead Ilyshn’ish had never seen before, wrapped in strips of cloth from head to toe. While the fight was long – it kept healing itself and its minions – it was rather uninteresting once they isolated their foe. Alessia was cursed about two dozen times, but Ilyshn’ish supposed that was what Paladins were for.

She idly fiddled with the Orichalcum tag hanging from her neck, smiling over the fact that the Sorcerous Kingdom would now pay her six platinum coins per month. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but relatively little effort went into it.

“Shiver.”

Ilyshn’ish looked up at the sound of Wina’s voice. She was poked halfway out of the curtain dividing the reception from the back hallway.

“The Guildmaster would like to see you,” she said. “He’s waiting in his meeting room.”

Guildmaster Ainzach’s meeting room had changed slightly since the last time she had been inside: all of the trophies associated with intelligent races had been put away, including the painting of the Adventurer party standing over the corpse of a Juvenile Dragon. This left the space decidedly bare, though attempts to decorate it with images of far off vistas and some ornate-looking equipment had been made.

Within, the members of the Adventurer Guild’s administrative staff awaited her. Ishpen and Ainzach were seated on one of the long couches, while Wina was moving back and forth preparing refreshments.

“Shiver,” the Guildmaster greeted her with a grin. “Please, have a seat.”

He always had a certain air about him when he was preparing to make some sort of proposal or offer, and that air was apparent now. Ilyshn’ish glanced at Wina, who only smiled in return. She sensed that the entire building was empty aside from the four of them, so her wariness eased off slightly as she seated herself across from them.

“I hear you’re going to be in the Empire soon,” Guildmaster Ainzach said.

“Yes, that’s right,” Ilyshn’ish replied. “I have a job to do for the Ministry of Transportation.”

The task Lady Shalltear had assigned her seemed safe enough. She was to travel to every city in the Baharuth Empire and make an assessment of their people, culture, economy and infrastructure. This was presumably part of a greater investigation as to how the Sorcerous Kingdom’s transportation network might mesh with that of its client state.

“While you’re out there,” the Guildmaster said, “there’s something we’d like for you to do. Don’t worry – you won’t need to do anything that interferes with your duties.”

“I’m listening…”

“Basically,” Ishpen said, “we want you to advertise. Our guild is doing well when it comes to raising a new generation of members, but we would like to attract foreign talent as well.”

“This is especially important when it comes to the new Adventurer School,” Ainzach added. “We only have one–no, two members who have formal martial training, while all of our veterans are basically self-taught. Our casters are in a similar situation. Bringing in additional experienced Adventurers will improve things by leaps and bounds.”

Ilyshn’ish knew little about martial training, though her time with the Justice Dragon Dojo gave her an inkling of what it entailed. Her efforts at learning arcane magic had gotten nowhere thus far despite being exposed to arcane spellcasters as she rose through the ranks. Her mother told her that all she needed to do was open her senses and get a feel for things, but she wasn’t sure how one did that. If only it was as natural to her as spellsong…

“What do you mean by ‘advertise’?” Ilyshn’ish said, “Is there some sign you wish for me to carry around? Maybe we could put something on the side of the wagon?”

“Er, no – nothing like that. Hmm…how do I put it…”

“Visit the Adventurer Guild offices wherever you go,” Ishpen told her. “We just need to increase awareness of our organization. Associations with the Undead still overwhelmingly outweigh anything else when it comes to foreign perceptions of our nation. This needs to change.”

“Taking some high profile jobs would be our best bet,” Ainzach said. “With recognition will come questions and you can sniff out promising individuals to send our way.”

“…jobs?”

“Ah, you may not be familiar with how things once were here, but the Adventurer Guild in the Empire is a traditional Adventurer Guild. Local authorities and wealthy patrons put up various requests to be filled.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of this,” Ilyshn’ish nodded. “A system of sanctioned mass murder. While I am not averse to enriching myself, would this not in turn tarnish the image of the Sorcerous Kingdom in the eyes of non-Humans?”

“Er…”

“Requests come in different varieties,” Ishpen said. “You may also find those that are defensive in nature or demanding special skills to fulfil. They’ll be on a board similar to the one near the reception counter here, and you may pick and choose those that suit you. The higher the requirements, the greater the renown and rewards.”

“Which brings us to something we wanted to get done before you leave,” Ainzach said. “We want to bump you up to Adamantite so you can take the jobs that will earn you the greatest fame. We don’t have any official trials ready, but we do have something that everyone will accept as the equivalent. An achievement worthy of the title of ‘Hero’.”

“Shiver, Bard.”

“Zaryusu Shasha. Um…Fighter? I’m still not sure what this is all about. I was accompanying my brother to the city on some business, but Lord Mare suddenly appeared and dragged me off through a tree.”

Before Ilyshn’ish was the strongest Lizardman she had ever seen. It wasn’t even in the sense that he was above the average Lizardman – he was stronger than Themis or Merry. In addition, while the other Lizardmen wore little in the way of adornment, a suit of enchanted adamantite chainmail covered his black scales. At his side was a blade that appeared to be forged from ice.

“A tree?”

“Yes, he has some spell that transports people through plants. None of our Druids are capable of such a feat, not even my dear wife.”

As they introduced themselves to one another, another figure registered to Ilyshn’ish’s Blindsight. Since it, too, was coming out of a tree, she decided that it was someone else Lord Mare had sent her way.

“Oh~ If it isn’t Master Zaryusu! A long time it has been!”

“It’s good to see you again, Hamsuke. So they have brought you here as well. Hmm…something about this seems ominous.”

Despite the cordial greeting, Ilyshn’ish regarded the giant rodent warily. Her silvery fur radiated a sense of strength that surpassed that of the Lizardman. Her tail seemed especially problematic. It measured twenty metres in length, which was longer than Kilistran was from the end of her snout to the tip of her tail.

“A place where many battles have been fought and much blood has been shed, this is,” Hamsuke said. “The Adventurer Training area.”

“Ah, some of my people come to test their mettle here. Their tales almost sound like how we trained back in the day.”

“Indeed, Master Zaryusu!” The dangerous ball of fluff nodded, “I hear that our trials back then served as an inspiration. These Adventurers are our juniors, they are!”

Zaryusu nodded thoughtfully at Hamsuke’s words, then he shuddered. The giant rodent shuddered, too, as if they shared some unpleasant memory. Ainzach mentioned something about an achievement worthy of a Hero – was she supposed to fight these two?

Hamsuke shifted her bulk to address Ilyshn’ish, whiskers quivering as her nose twitched in her direction.

“Our new comrade, this must be,” she said. “Strange…they say that, with her, we may finally defeat that one, but she appears to be a Human…”

“I see…so that’s why we’ve been summoned.”

Ilyshn’ish blinked slowly, having no sense of what they were referring to. It felt very much like when she was new to the city and everyone assumed that everyone else shared the same frame of reference. Hopefully, her time in the Empire wouldn’t be so confusing.

“Pardon my interruption,” Ilyshn’ish said, “but I’m afraid I cannot follow what you are saying. Who is ‘that one’?”

“Rude, I have been!” Hamsuke exclaimed, “That one is a most mighty adversary, Miss, erm…”

“Shiver.”

“Not once have we been able to defeat him, so mighty he is!”

“…and the three of us are going to defeat this person?”

No individual that matched their description came to mind. The closest would be a Soul Eater. Everything she had seen beyond that they probably couldn’t beat without some extraordinary advantage.

“Of this, I have my doubts,” Hamsuke said. “This one has not seen any strong Humans – what manner of warrior are you?”

“I’m not any sort of warrior,” Ilyshn’ish replied, “I’m a Bard.”

“A Bard…you mean those fellows that make all sorts of noise near milord’s house? They do not seem the fighting sort, I must say.”

“My village has a number of Bards,” Zaryusu added. “But they are more well known for entertaining and singing the songs of our people. In war, their skills are a boon for recovering warriors.”

Zaryusu and Hamsuke regarded her with dubious expressions. Did that mean she could support them safely from the back as she had with other parties?

A voice issued from near the entrance of the Training Area, drawing their attention away.

“Ah, um…hello? Shiver, are you there?”

“Yes, Lord Mare.”

“T-that’s strange, I don’t see you…”

Ilyshn’ish slipped the Ring of Nondetection off of her finger, replacing it with her Ring of Regeneration.

“Oh, there you are. Can you lead Mister Zaryusu and Hamsuke down to that place where you stayed for a while?”

“If nothing has changed on the way, yes.”

“Great! Head on down: this shouldn’t take long.”

She did as he asked, wondering what was in store for them. Unlike Adventurers, Zaryusu and Hamsuke did not discuss tactics or engage in banter. They simply followed her with a grimly resolute demeanour.

The two of them appeared to rate ‘warriors’ very highly, and their mysterious adversary was most likely a warrior of some sort. The other Bards in the Adventurer Guild did seem rather flimsy, but she had always attributed this to the fact that they were Humans. Was there that much of a difference? All Adventurers became notably stronger than the average Human by the time they reached Silver Rank.

“So you say you’ve not been able to defeat this individual yet,” Ilyshn’ish said. “How close have you come?”

“Hmm…I would like to say that we have almost beaten him on several occasions,” Zaryusu replied, “but it is difficult to tell. He is quite cunning: often leading us to believe that the battle is nearly won, then going on the defensive to regenerate. It is like trying to climb a hill, but if you stop or something gets in the way, you get sent back to the bottom again.”

“I see…so he fights superior numbers by conserving his energy and tiring out his adversaries. You have no choice but to fall to this tactic because he regenerates and you won’t get anywhere unless you exert yourselves.”

As a Frost Dragon, Ilyshn’ish was well versed in these types of attrition tactics. When it came to defeating one who used them, however, the only answer she had was overwhelming force.

The air slowly grew warmer the deeper they went underground. Upon passing the fourth layer, it felt like a sunbaked E-Rantel street in the middle of summer.

“So hot, it is.”

“Mmh…this is a nice change from the cold autumn weather.”

Ilyshn’ish understood that it grew warmer the further one went underground, but the change in temperature was too drastic to be normal. A hot wind blasted forth from the corridor leading to her former abode. With it came a smell: an odour reminiscent of glowing metal being shaped at a forge. There was at least one individual, as well.

“There’s a Troll in there,” Ilyshn’ish noted. “Is that who we’re fighting?”

“Newer than us, he is,” Hamsuke said, “yet stronger! As his senior, it shames me to admit this is so.”

“If it was only a matter of strength,” Zaryusu told her, “we would have won as much as we have lost. The true difference lies with the way that he turns his martial ability to methods that favour his racial traits. With this combination, he once bore the title of Martial Lord. Since joining us, he has become even stronger…”

She had come across the title ‘Martial Lord’ in her recent reading on the Empire, but she had no idea what it meant. All she could glean with her limited experience was that it was something like the Champions of various Demihuman tribes. Except for a Human nation. Except he was a Troll.

Ilyshn’ish shook her head in confusion: she didn’t think that she would ever understand Humans to any great extent.

An orange glow cast long shadows from the end of the corridor, adding to the sense of heat permeating the air. When they stepped out into what she last remembered was a ledge overlooking a frozen landscape, a long, rocky pathway wound its way over a glowing lake of some sort.

“W-w-w-what is this?” Hamsuke wilted, “This one’s fur is going to singe, it is!”

“I said it felt nice before,” Zaryusu looked down at the bubbling liquid below, “but this is a bit too much.”

“I heard this place was being changed into a ‘volcanic crater’,” Ilyshn’ish said, “or was it a ‘lava lake’?”

It was hot, but at least it wasn’t fire. Frost Dragons were weak to fire. As were Trolls, so it wouldn’t make sense to do that. At the end of the walkway was a flat, circular island resembling a theatre stage. A bulky figure stood upon it, its armour glinting in the dim light.

“So this is the new challenger,” the Troll shifted to address them. “I am the War Troll, Go Gin.”

Ilyshn’ish curtseyed in greeting, as she was taught.

“Shiver…an Adventurer? It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Go Gin.”

“An Adventurer,” Go Gin murmured. “How long has it been since I was last challenged by Adventurers? You do not have the look of a magic caster, but neither do you appear to be a warrior. Well, so long as you can’t fly…”

Go Gin hefted his massive war club, lowering himself into a balanced stance. Ilyshn’ish examined the island. It was true that she couldn’t fly as a Human, but the mass of flattened rock they stood upon was over 200 metres in diameter. There was plenty of room to manoeuvre.

“Hamsuke is here too! Long time no see, Go Gin!”

“We don’t have anyone to call a start to the match this time,” Zaryusu said. “How will we do this?”

The giant rodent and the Lizardman stepped forward, barring the path between Ilyshn’ish and Go Gin. The War Troll gave their formation a cursory glance before snorting.

“If it’s like that,” he said, “then go ahead and make your move.”

No further prompting was required. Hamsuke hurtled forward, while Zaryusu split off to the side. Go Gin’s figure blurred as he evaded the frontal charge, then made one of his own. Ilyshn’ish gave way long before he arrived at her former position.

For a Troll, he was quite fast. The attack was entirely predictable, however. Since Zaryusu and Hamsuke mentioned that they were unable to defeat him thus far, removing Ilyshn’ish from the fight was an obvious first move.

Go Gin appeared to reassess Ilyshn’ish. He had gone from executing a decisive opening to being flanked from three sides. Behind him, Hamsuke and Zaryusu slowly moved further apart. Their eyes gleamed, waiting for some intangible signal to strike.

Ilyshn’ish’s voice rose in song as she wove Bardic enchantments over herself. It took a split second for Go Gin to react to the sound, and he charged forward again. Zaryusu and Hamsuke rushed in but had a greater distance to cover.

Rather than retreat again, Ilyshn’ish darted forward. She dipped past his overhead strike, switching sides with her assailant. It took Go Gin several steps to arrest his tremendous momentum. He twisted around just as Zaryusu and Hamsuke barreled into him.

“「Reinforce Hide」, 「Greater Reinforce Hide」!”

Her allies bounced off of the War Troll, and he took the opportunity to lay out a savage swing against Zaryusu. The dazed Lizardman barely raised his blade in time before being blasted a third of the way across the makeshift arena. Hamsuke’s tail streaked in but was batted away by Go Gin’s return stroke. The War Troll’s weapon smoothly worked around as he lined up another overhead strike against Ilyshn’ish.

She sidestepped the attack, moving counter to his rotation. Her palm drove forward into the back of Go Gin’s armoured hip. Ilyshn’ish frowned when she found that his Martial Arts were still active and the strike had no effect. She danced back before he could bring his weapon to bear again.

Go Gin stepped forward, then stopped to bat away Hamsuke’s darting tail. Despite fighting three opponents, he appeared unperturbed and offered no true openings. On the opposite side, Zaryusu had recovered and was charging back into the fight. His sword slashed out at the back of the War Troll’s right knee.

“「Icy Burst」!”

A flash of frosty air pulsed out from the Lizardman’s icy blade. Rime formed over Go Gin’s greaves, and a thin film of ice spread out over the once-hot floor.

It wasn’t enough to freeze the War Troll in place, however. As Zaryusu reversed his low cut to strike once again, Go Gin pivoted and smashed him across the jaw with a heavy backhand. The Lizardman abruptly altered trajectory and skidded across the stones.

The War Troll’s next parry of Hamsuke’s tail was followed by a blistering charge. The giant rodent buffeted Go Gin with the side of her tail, but the desperate defence had insufficient force behind it. Go Gin’s war club came down on Hamsuke’s furry head, and she made a strange sort of squeak before collapsing in a heap.

Zaryusu pushed himself up off of the ground, shaking his head.

“I think he knows you’re using a healing song,” he said. “He’s been trying to knock us out with every attack.”

“Of course I know,” Go Gin heavy steps thumped towards them. “Did you think a Troll doesn’t know how to deal with regeneration? You cannot fight if you cannot stand.”

Ilyshn’ish hadn’t thought about it at all, nor had anything been discussed in advance. They were just haphazardly attacking Go Gin whenever they had the opportunity, which was not working. It was as Zaryusu had mentioned: the true difference was not from raw strength. The War Troll used his martial ability to dictate the pace of the fight while his racial traits did the rest. The ad-hoc efforts of their randomly thrown-together ‘party’ only made things easier for him.

“Zaryusu,” Ilyshn’ish said, “You said you were a Fighter – what kind?”

The Lizardman glanced at Go Gin. Despite the fact that they were fighting, he seemed completely at ease. Like a Frost Giant, he seemed more interested in what challenges he would be presented with than winning at any cost.

“I believe Humans would call me a disciple of the blade – I am studying the path of a Kensei under Lord Cocytus…though getting thrashed by this fellow all the time makes me wonder about my progress.”

“I see,” Ilyshn’ish said. “In that case, I should be the one occupying Go Gin while you seek opportunities to strike.”

“Er…are you sure?”

Of course she was sure. Nothing would stand in the way of her thirty-six platinum coins a month.

She turned to face Go Gin, eyeing his three metre-tall form. Rather than a Troll, fighting him was closer to facing a very small Frost Giant. He wasn’t as strong as one, but he was faster and could regenerate.

Ilyshn’ish casually walked towards him, pushing back his confident aura with one of her own. Go Gin seemed to smirk behind his visor, and he raised his weapon. She stepped well within his reach before he made his move.

“「Strong Strike」!”

Splinters of stone sprayed into the air as the war club hammered the spot where Ilyshn’ish once stood. She chopped his wrist as he attempted to recover from his strike, nearly jarring the weapon from his hand. With a roar, he bulled her away. Landing lightly on her feet, Ilyshn’ish closed the distance between them again.

The War Troll twisted and swung as Ilyshn’ish continually moved into his blind spots and places where attacking became awkward. Ilyshn’ish sensed Zaryusu standing tentatively beyond reach, head moving as he tried to find a way to attack. After a dozen failed attempts to strike at Ilyshn’ish, Go Gin disengaged from their dance to pull off his helmet.

As it clattered over the ground, Ilyshn’ish glanced at Zaryusu.

“I thought you performed a ranged attack with that sword just now,” she said.

“The ability freezes everything that it touches,” Zaryusu replied. “I did not want you to get caught up in it.”

“I don’t mind,” Ilyshn’ish returned lightly. “This place is too hot for my liking.”

Ilyshn’ish returned her attention to Go Gin, who seemed to have taken the opportunity to catch his breath. Her steps fell lightly over the stone as she approached.

Without the helmet obscuring his vision, the Go Gin’s reactions to Ilyshn’ish’s assault became sharper, but the increased exertion was taking its toll on the War Troll. She smiled to herself: he had committed to a battle of endurance that was not as lopsided as initially thought. He did manage to get her several times with an elbow, knee, fist or the base of his club, but they were glancing blows infrequent enough that her regeneration made up for the difference.

And so their dance continued, though it was more like Go Gin was being forced to dance with her. Still, she needed a way to push him over the brink. While her unarmed strikes did appear to hurt him through his plate armour, she would need a focused string of attacks to overwhelm the War Troll’s regeneration. His recognition of this put her at risk of a counter. Alternatively, he could use a Defensive Art to negate it.

Go Gin grimaced as a line of frost appeared on his flank. The War Troll had finally tired enough for Zaryusu to score clean hits through the tangle of their movements.

“Do the thing,” Ilyshn’ish called out.

“But–”

“Do it!”

“Euhhh…「Icy Burst」!”

A wave of magical cold suffused the area. As before, the War Troll slowed, but did not stop. Unlike before, he couldn’t retaliate.

“Again!”

“「Icy Burst」!”

Ilyshn’ish dropped and rotated her upper body, bringing her fist to bear against Go Gin’s knee. His frozen leg shattered. She slipped beneath his falling form, lifting him high above her head. Would tossing him out of the arena count as a win?

As she made her way towards the edge of the island, the half-frozen War Troll squirmed weakly. Zaryusu stared at her, his mouth falling open.

“W-wait!”

Hamsuke popped up from where she lay. What had the giant rodent been doing all this time? Ilyshn’ish paused to glance over her shoulder.

“What are you doing?” Hamsuke asked.

“We have to win the fight, yes?”

“The fight is already won, it is!” Hamsuke said, “More than that, this is cruel! Trolls are weak to fire!”

“It’s alright,” Ilyshn’ish said. “This isn’t fire – it’s just lava.”

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