I am not the shield hero

It was time for them to start preparing for the waves, and whatever else anyone could throw at them. Dante already felt like they lost a lot of time, but circumstances as they were, it couldn't be helped. Besides, at the rate they were going before, they would surpass what Naofumi accomplished many times over.

The problem was people who were going to make thing difficult for them. On the smaller side, it was slavers, bandits, greedy merchants, and monsters that were actually able to cause damage that required healing. Dante could make plenty of healing salves, but that was to be one of their main sources of income. On the larger side, the church and their knights and shadows.

Piecing together the vague recollections he had from the books—which were not worth much anymore—and what he was told by that knight he tortured, Dante had a general idea about the levels of their enemies. The knights that guy mentioned were mostly around level 30, though the man who led them, Davon Mallory, was apparently around 60. Dante sort of recalled those two numbers for knight levels, standard and elite. Shadows were likely higher, but also probably much less plentiful.

Speaking of, the shadows were much slower than Dante thought they'd be. Sure, they had ridden in a carriage driven by a filolial queen, but they had to go slower to avoid heavy motion sickness. Were Mirellia's shadows dealing with them? If so, he'd have to thank them for being so on top of the situation.

Other than outside influence, the biggest concern was the level cap. Since he knew the church wouldn't let him class upgrade his party, and any attempt to cross any border would be met with church knights, the Whip was his way to circumvent that hurdle. And now, it was time to test that method out.

"Keel." Dante said, gaining the boy's attention. "You will be the first to go through a special power up technique."

"Okay!" He said, standing ready. Everyone watched in anticipation.

"Now, I will lower your level. In doing so, your potential will increase. However, I don't know how this will affect your age. Are you prepared to be a little smaller?"

"I can handle it!" He shouted. Whether that was bravado or resolve, Dante wasn't sure, but he had his answer.

"Alright then." Dante opened his status and looked over the power up method. He selected Keel and a popup showed itself.

Keel: LV 21

Levels to sacrifice: _

He entered '20' into the box and confirmed.

Levels sacrificed!

Keel: LV 1

It worked. He looked Keel over. "How do you feel?" He asked.

"Strange…" Keel checked out his arms, flexing them and moving them around. His body didn't seem to shrink at all. Dante waited a few moments for any change, but nothing happened.

"Alright, it looks like your age won't decrease from using this method." It was a nice bonus. He brought up Keel's stats to see if there was any visible bonuses that would tell him what he got from the Whip. Everything looked the same as it was before, minus his reduced stats.

Wait…his stats look off.

Dante pulled out his notebook and flipped through it, bringing up the page that had Keel's stats at level 1. It was precisely for this sort of thing he bought the notebook, and now it was paying off. Keel's stats were indeed quite a bit higher than they were before, and there was no indication he was affected by the trust power.

The increases for each stat looked different. He checked Keel's stats at his other levels, except the one Dante missed while at Idol's. The increases in any particular stat was pretty consistent, seeing a bump when he started using the Slave User Shield II, but the gains increased slightly after he reached level 10, and again after level 20.

Looking at Keel's stats now and the normal increases he got, there was a connection. A rather simple answer popped into Dante's head. He looked at Keel's stats at level 21 and subtracted what they were originally at level 1. He then compared those numbers to the difference between his new level 1 stats and the old ones.

Yep, there it is, plain as day. The Whip gives 10% of the stats gained from the sacrificed levels. Essentially, every 10 levels sacrificed is a permanent level up.

He told everyone his findings. There was a slight difference, likely due to Keel's physical age now. It was pretty good for what they were going to be doing now, but less so for the future. He was hoping it would be a growth increase that would let their stats skyrocket. How it was did have the bonus of not leaving them defenseless when it was used, but it would take a lot to see significant gains.

Then again, who knows how much would have been needed to greatly increase the growth. Ignoring the gain increase every 10 levels, one could be as strong as a level 100 after sacrificing 1,000 levels, making them level 200 at level 100. What would the growth bonus have been, anyway? 1% per level? 0.1% per level? Less? And would it affect all stats, or just one at a time? This is actually really good.

"Dante?" Sadeena roused him from his thoughts.

"Ah, yes." Dante refocused at the task at hand. No sense worrying about unreachable hypotheticals. "Now then, since we aren't likely to get class upgrades anytime in the near future, level 40 will be our limit. We'll make up the difference by doing what I did to Keel repeatedly. So, we'll need to sacrifice 200 levels to reach the level of elite Melromarc knights."

"200…" Keel stared at Dante like he'd asked for the moon.

"It's entirely doable." Dante assured him. "The XP bonus from being in a hero's party, combined with the two maturation bonuses my shields give, will gain you all much more XP than ordinary adventurers. If we can learn to fully trust each other, your growth will be even quicker."

Sure, having seven party members gave a slight XP penalty, but it was easily made up for. One down side was being a hero's companion didn't increase stat growth, as he found out from Sadeena. However, also thanks to Sadeena, Dante found another growth bonus shield. By happenstance, Dante absorbed a bit of her hair. After that…

Slave User Shield IV

(abilities locked) equip bonus: slave status adjustment (medium)

He absorbed hair and blood from the kids, but nothing else came. He also absorbed some hair and blood from JoJo and Dio, and he got the Monster User Shield IV, which had the same bonus. He didn't wonder much about the reason. After all, he did absorb an entire demi-human corpse, which was most likely a slave. That was likely a component. He figured all the monster corpses were plenty for the Monster User Shield IV, and he just needed some blood or hair from a special monster.

With all that out of the way, it was time to get started.

"We'll be testing something to see how things will work. Sadeena will go with either Dio or JoJo into the ocean to fight some monsters. The rest of us will hunt on land, practice with one another, or attempt to learn from our tomes."

Dante and one filolial should be enough to handle most of what comes there way, especially with Dante's highly improved Reinforced Iron Shield. He wasn't too worried about being too far away. Dante figured if Keel was able to keep gaining XP during the cleanup at Idol's, the party share range should be a good distance.

"What if there's a problem on land?" Sadeena asked.

"I'll activate the seal on Dio or JoJo." He said, beckoning the two. "Can I try that real quick?"

Both filolials nodded in their royal forms. With a few eye movements, the seals activated. The purple lightning jumped from their seals.

"Itchy…" JoJo said, scratching his chest with his wing..

Dante turned both off. "I'll do that to whoever is with Sadeena. It should be harmless, so you won't get hurt if you're in a fight. Both of you will come back to the village and look for us in whatever direction we go that day. We'll hold out until you arrive, if necessary. Any other questions?"

He looked between everyone, seeing no confusion. Raphtalia seemed a bit worried, but Rifana was there to encourager her.

"Alright then." Dante walked over to the two filolials. "You two try swimming in the water real quick. Dive a little and see how your movements work underwater. Sadeena, watch over them."

The three of them walked into the sea, Sadeena transforming beforehand. Once they all disappeared into the water, Dante turned to the kids.

"Now, for today, I'll let Raphtalia and Rifana's level get as high as possible. I'm hoping you two will grow a bit throughout the day and night, making it easier going forward. That way, when I eventually start working on Sadeena, Dio, and JoJo's levels, you three will be ready to step in right away and help get them leveled quickly. Understood?"

"Yes!" The three shouted together.

"Good."

After a few minutes of swimming, diving, and barely seen underwater attacks, JoJo and Dio jumped from the water. Sadeena walked out after them. The filolials shook themselves off before approaching.

"How did it go?" Dante asked, though to no one in particular.

"They seemed to handle themselves well." Sadeena confirmed.

"And staying underwater?" He asked the filolials. "You think you can hold your breaths long enough to fight with Sadeena?"

"Mmm, I think so." Dio said.

"Yeah, it'll be easy." JoJo agreed.

"I'll scout ahead and bring whoever down when I find some monsters." Sadeena said. "They're fast, but I'm still faster."

"Sounds like a good plan." Dante nodded. "All that's left is deciding who will go."

He figured it might be a little hard for them to choose. After all, Dio wanted to sleep with Dante last night, and JoJo was certainly the same. He may just flip a coin to—

"I'll go!" Dio volunteered, breaking Dante out of his musings.

"Oh. Really?" He asked.

"Yeah! I want to have fun with Sadie today!" Dio beamed at him.

"That settles that." Sadeena walked over to the kids and knelt next to them. "Listen to Dante and stay safe." She said.

They gave their okays and they each hugged her. Dante smiled at the exchange. She stood and faced Dante.

"Meet up in the village in an hour?" She asked.

"Yeah. I'll reapply the spell and we'll see how it goes." It wouldn't last a full hour, roughly 20 minutes, but that should be enough to gauge the undersea monsters. "Faust Guard V! Faust Guard V!" He chanted the spell and gave Sadeena and Dio the enchantment.

"You stay safe too." Sadeena gave him a pat on his good shoulder.

"Hey, you know what I lived through. I'll survive anything." Dante gave her a laugh.

Sadeena gave a wave as she made for the sea.

"Bye, Master! See you soon!" Dio flapped her wing at Dante's group.

"Bye, Dio. Have fun with Sadie today~!" Dante called out the last part.

Sadeena flinched and gave him a glance over her shoulder, but quickly dove into the water.

Dante chuckled. He helped Raphtalia and Rifana onto JoJo before Keel stood in front of him.

"Are you making fun of Sadeena?" He asked, his tone serious.

"Mild teasing." Dante corrected. "You've seen how she acts with me, right?"

"I guess. Still, seems a bit mean."

Dante slid forward and lowered his voice. "Sorry, I didn't quite catch that, 'big bro'."

Keel stiffened, similar to Sadeena, a light blush on his face. He pushed past Dante to climb on JoJo, getting on in the back. "Let's go raise our levels!"

"Good idea." Dante hopped on in front of them all.

JoJo set out in the direction they had planned. It wasn't a particularly long ride, less than ten minutes, until they got to their destination. It was a small wooded area that was close to the coastline. Sadeena said she remembered weak monsters being there, a good place to practice with Raphtalia and Rifana.

They all hopped off of JoJo and followed Dante. It was only a few steps into the woods until Dante saw a mush. He crouched down behind some foliage and had the others do the same, JoJo transforming to do so.

"Okay, this will be an easy one." Dante told the girls. "You've already gained a few levels from being in a party. Now we'll have you earn some XP yourselves. I'll go in and distract it, then one of you will stab it with your dagger. Who wants to go first?"

Unsurprisingly, Rifana was the one to speak out. "I'll do it!"

"Alright. Raphtalia, watch close." Dante stood with Rifana. "Go to the left. When I give the signal, attack it."

Rifana nodded and moved to the side. Dante stepped forward. The mush took notice of him and began to lurch towards him. Dante held his shield up, ready for the attack. The mush leapt through the air.

"Now!"

The mush collided with his shield, bouncing off harmlessly. Rifana rushed forward with her dagger and skewered it. It squirmed around on her blade.

"Slice it, quick!" Dante ordered.

With a swipe of her arms, she cut out a wide gash in the mush, killing it.

"Nice work." Dante pat her on the head, eliciting a giggle from the girl. "Your turn, Raphtalia." He said.

Raphtalia audibly gulped as she stepped forward. Dante tapped the dead mush to his shield, absorbing it. He looked around and saw another mush through the trees. Jerking his head towards it, he and Raphtalia walked over. The others followed behind to watch.

"Same as with Rifana. Go to the left and wait for me." He told her. She nodded shakily. Before she could leave, Dante placed his hand on her head, startling her. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you." He reassured her.

She bobbed her head and moved out. Dante stepped towards the new mush and raise his shield. Just as before, the mush slowly made its way over to him. It then sprang into the air when it was close enough.

"Now!"

The mush fell off of his shield, but this time, there was no attack. He looked to his left and saw Raphtalia standing there, dagger in hand, shaking. The mush jumped at him again, this time going for his legs, but it caused the same amount of damage: none.

"Raphtalia?" Dante observed the girl. She tried to take a step forward, but she quickly brought her foot back down.

Sighing, Dante grabbed the mush by its head piece after its third jump at him. He walked over to Raphtalia with it squirming in his grasp. She took a step back as he approached.

"Raphtalia." He lowered himself to the ground and held the mush in front of her, keeping its 'face' towards him. "Stab it."

"N-No…" She slowly lowered her knife.

"What's wrong?" He kept a firm grip on the wriggling mushroom thing.

"I can't…" Her eyes were quivering as she stared at the mush in his hand.

"If you can't, how can you fight? How can you protect yourself? I won't always be nearby to protect you. You must learn to fight for yourself."

He moved the mush closer to Raphtalia, causing her to quickly take a step back. Dante sighed and lifted himself off the ground.

"JoJo." He called, tossing the mush towards the filolial king. In one swift kick, the mush was torn in two. He took the pieces in his mouth and swallowed them.

Dante looked back at Raphtalia. "I'm here to help you get used to fighting. We've sparred with each other a little, now you need to learn to kill."

Killing before her growth spurt was Sadeena's idea. Supposedly, demi-human children that have learned to kill before leveling into adults have an easier time in battle. Good concept, learning at a younger age is easier. Sadeena, however, couldn't bring herself to make Raphtalia kill, despite knowing the benefits.

That's where Dante came in. They gave the girls a bit of time to recover from Idol, not doing too much leveling. Now, with Sadeena not having to watch, Dante would have her fight. It didn't need to be a lot. A few monsters here and there would be sufficient. Just enough to get used to it, if even a little. That was another reason they were meeting every hour: to check on the girls' progress.

Rifana seemed like she'd be fine. Raphtalia would need a little convincing. Dante had an idea, but held off for now.

"Let's move on." He said, leading everyone forward.

~The Wrong Hero~

The hours passed by. Rifana had progressed wonderfully. She killed many monsters. Balloons, eggugs, mushes, even usapils. They even fought a giant crab on the beach, with the word 'giant' being relative. It was a little bigger than a golden retriever. Still, with Dante holding one pincer in his hand and the other pathetically trying to crush his chest, Rifana was able to repeatedly stab it in its softer underbelly and kill it.

Raphtalia, on the other hand, was barely able to kill a few balloons, and that was only in the last hour.

It wasn't entirely her fault. Aside from the obvious trauma she went through, Dante was having a hard time playing the villain with her. Of course, her trauma was a factor in his difficulty. While he had experience dealing with children, traumatized children were far from his expertise.

Still, dusk was approaching. They had gained a number of levels, enough that Sadeena knew Raphtalia and Rifana were due for a growth spurt during the night. He promised Sadeena he would get Raphtalia prepared, and he would do it this hunting session.

Of course, it wouldn't be through hunting.

"Alright." Dante got the attention of the kids. "We'll be splitting up for this next part. Raphtalia will be with me. Rifana, Keel, and Dio will hunt in the woods for a bit."

"Okay!" Dio said, flinging Keel and Rifana on her back before running off. The filolials had switched a few hours ago. Dio had come back, giggling about something she wouldn't talk about, and JoJo went with Sadeena since.

Dante had Raphtalia follow him along the coast for a bit. There weren't any monsters present, as their past few sessions cleared out anything making its home there.

Dante stopped. He took a deep breath and prepared his mind.

Let's get this over with.

"Raphtalia." He turned to face the girl. She'd grown a couple inches during the day. That was another reason for their breaks: getting Rifana and Raphtalia food for their growth. He learned from Keel's growth and cooked usapil meat ahead of time. Either because it was still monster remains, or since he 'crafted' it, he was able to store it in his shield for later.

"Y-Yes, Mister Dante?" She was nervous from his expression.

"I think it's about time I stop trying to fool you. There's no point." He said, shaking his head.

"What?" A bit of fear leaked into her voice.

"Since you can't fight, I can't use you. Oh well, I'll just have use the others as I please." Dante gave a dark laugh as he explained.

Raphtalia stood there, her eyes widening.

"Oh, do you get it now?" He asked her, a smirk on his face. "I tricked you all into becoming my slaves. With the seals on you all, there's no way you can refuse me. It's just better to use praise than threats, but I guess neither will work on you. You'd just fall apart if I forced you, so that's that."

Raphtalia shook her head, tears coming down her face. "No…No! Y-You're lying! You rescued us! You—"

"I did that to keep Sadeena." He scratched his chin. "Although, that was a pretty close fight."

He didn't want her to talk too much about how they first met. Sadeena said there wasn't anyone around, but better safe than sorry.

"Really, you're the only one I can't use. But that's just fine." Dante put on the cruelest smile he could. "I can just use Rifana."

Raphtalia's head jerked up. Her mouth moved, but no words could be heard.

"Have you seen how she acts towards me? She'll do anything I tell her to. All I have to do is pat her head and tell her she's a good girl, and she'll follow me anywhere. It's funny, really. She sees how I act with Sadeena, and she still wants to marry me. What a joke!"

He was laying it on a little thick, but Raphtalia seemed to be buying it all. Her hands were tightly clenched. Her eyes were pinpricks. Her tailed puffed up.

"No…" She let out. It wasn't a whimper. It was pure anger.

"What was that?" Dante held his hand to his ear and leaned down. "You got something to say?"

"No!" Raphtalia yelled, pulling out her dagger. "I won't let you do anything to Rifana!"

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?" Dante placed his hand to his hip. "You're too afraid to kill anything with blood. I don't have to be afraid of you at all!"

"Rah!" Raphtalia lunged at Dante with her dagger. He blocked it with his shield and stepped to the side, letting her continue on.

"What was that?" Dante taunted.

Raphtalia dug her foot into the ground and sprung back at him. She slashed wildly with the dagger, Dante blocking it each time.

"I won't let you! I won't! I won't! I won't!" With each yell, the sound of metal scraping against metal sounded on the beach. Dante let her push him back until they were nearing the woods.

"Is that all you got?" It wasn't easy keeping up this persona, but it got Raphtalia to attack, so he kept at it.

Once they were in the woods, Raphtalia did something to surprise him. She drove her dagger into his boot. It didn't hurt much, even with him using his weakest shield for the fight, but it was enough to break his pace. When he pitched back, Raphtalia dove into him.

They lay on the ground, Raphtalia on top of him, her left hand pressed against his good shoulder, and her right hand clenching her dagger. The blade was against his throat, threatening to draw blood.

The anger in her eyes shone as she glared down at him. "I won't let you hurt Rifana. I won't let you hurt any of my friends."

Dante stared up at her, eyes wide. They softened as a smile grew on his face. "I won't hurt any of them."

Raphtalia shook as she continued glaring at Dante. Her hand began to shake.

"Good job, Raphtalia. I knew you could do it." He told her.

The dagger fell from her grasp. The tears from before began pouring out of her. "I…I…"

Dante quickly pushed himself up and wrapped his arm around her. "Shh. It's okay, it's okay. I'm sorry for scaring you." He held her tight as she bawled into his shoulder.

Minutes passed as she continued to cry. He held her close, patting her on the back and rocking side to side to comfort her. Eventually, the cries calmed down.

"Feeling better?" He pulled her back and looked her in the eyes.

"Mhmm." She nodded, wiping her eyes. "Why did you do that?" She asked, her voice strained.

"I had to get you ready to fight." Dante said, continuing to rub her back. "We were running out of time. With all the levels you gained, you'll go through many years in your sleep. It's better if you're used to it when you're a kid before leveling."

"What about Sadeena?" She asked, her hand still on his chainmail.

"What about her?"

"Why couldn't she help us?"

"She had to get you XP. We have to prepare as quickly as possible." Dante laid his hand on her head. "And…she didn't want to be the one to do that to you. Please don't be mad at her. Forcing a child to do something like that…is a job more suited to someone like me."

If Dante had to do that to someone he considered family, even knowing the benefits it would bring, he didn't know if he'd be able to.

"Think about it like this. Would you still look at Sadeena the same way if she forced you to kill? I can handle you hating me. I don't think she could."

It probably wouldn't go that far. Sadeena would have kept trying, but she wouldn't need to resort to what Dante did. He probably didn't need to either, but he didn't really have any alternatives. He could have had Rifana continue to encourage her, she'd been doing it for hours, but that hadn't gotten anywhere. He could have used the slave seal on her, but he'd be about where he is now, only having also caused her physical pain.

There was surely a proper way to ease Raphtalia into fighting, but they didn't have the luxury of time.

The girl in question wrapped her arms around his neck, closing the distance between them again.

"I don't hate you." She said softly. "And I'm sorry I hurt you."

Dante pat her back firmly. "No. Don't be sorry. I threatened your friends. Never be sorry for protecting who you care about. You must protect them from anyone, even me."

"Ain't that the truth?"

Dante's eyes widened. He rolled on the ground with Raphtalia and quickly rose to his feet. He kept Raphtalia behind him as he looked to who spoke. He saw two men and a woman, all wearing light leather armor. They had different weapons at their hips, but they each carried a bludgeon.

"Who are you?" Dante asked, reading his shield in front of himself.

The man in front laughed. "Don't you know it's rude to ask for someone's name before giving your own?"

"What do you want?" Dante said instead. He brought up his status magic and gave a quick ping to Dio and JoJo. He was pretty sure he knew what these people were.

The grinning man exchanged looks with his comrades. "We want that demi-brat you got there. Oh, and everything you own."

"Neither is going to be happening." He shifted to the Reinforced Iron Shield. "You have any idea who I am?"

"The criminal Shield Hero." The lead man stated. "Like that matters. You're the weakest hero, and you're looking a bit lopsided." His buddies had a laugh at that.

"Cute." Dante gave him a smirk. "You think you can handle all of us?"

"Hah!" The bandit/slaver swept his arm around. "Who are you talking about? You sent your friends away. All that's here is that bed warmer of yours. Once you're dealt with, we'll take the others too." He and his two fellows drew their weapons and bludgeons.

"What are you talking about?"

"Isn't it obvious? We're going to kill you, then we'll—"

"No, not that." Dante let his arm drop to his side. "The bed warmer thing."

"What?" The man cocked an eyebrow. "You don't know what a bed warmer is? How stupid are you?"

"I know what that is." Dante shook his head. "I just don't know why you said it."

"Wha…You're the Shield Hero! Demi-filth worship you! What don't you get?"

"Why you used that phrase. You could have said anything, but you chose that. Why?'

The bandit actually lowered his weapons as he stared at Dante. "Are you serious? We're about to kill you, and you want to know—"

The man immediately shut his mouth and looked down. A small black sphere rolled up in front of him. In an instant, the three of them were covered in a thick black smoke. Dante picked up Raphtalia and took off running.

Glad to see people in this world are that stupid as well. Eddy would pull that misdirect crap so often, I was actually surprised it kept working. Every time he talked about some weird turn of phrase or something nonsensical, it meant the same thing: "Dante, I fucked up. Kill these guys." Glad I figured out smoke bombs.

It was actually with some help from Sadeena that he figured it out. Turned out that some components for gunpowder and acidic water could make smoke bombs. He'd made a poor one, then had his shield make a few more after he figured out the recipe. He showed everyone what they were and how they were used. Luckily, Raphtalia figured out his plan when he had one stick out of his shield. She had a good throwing arm.

However, his luck started to run out. Four more bandits blocked his path, all brandishing more lethal weapons than bludgeons. He tried to double back, but the other three were already there.

"Nice try." The guy from before said. "Just because you're the weakest hero doesn't mean we didn't come prepared."

Dante looked around. They were surrounded. The only direction not barred was the sea, but he doubted he could outswim them. Raphtalia might be able to swim long enough for Sadeena to return, but he couldn't risk it. He needed to stall.

"How the hell did you know we were out here anyway!?" Dante yelled at who he thought was the leader. He did do all the talking, after all.

"Heh. We heard a rumor in town. The Shield Hero came this way with a bunch of demies."

"In the capital?" Dante asked. If so, then he took back everything nice he was going to say to Mirellia's shadows.

"Hah, no. Ronota, the former seat of House Seaetto. Heh, if that demi-human lover could see what happened to his home…"

Ronota, eh? Dante didn't know the name of the other town near Lurolona from the books. Sadeena had told him before, but they hadn't planned on going there. She'd swung by before, but there was no one there. Apparently, that had changed.

That was for later. Right now, he had to entertain these bandits.

"But enough about that. Time to die, Shield Hero." The leader said, holding up his axe.

Well, so much for that.

The man charged at him. With axe in hand, he brought it down with great force. Dante shifted his stance, taking the hit on his deformed shoulder. With no pain to speak of, Dante swiftly kicked the man, sending him skidding back.

It was one of the tricks he learned since coming here. If he tried that as an attack, his foot would have basically bounced off the man. However, if he did that with the intent to push the man, the results were much different. Holds, trips, disarming, general grappling, these were all thing influenced to some degree by his massive defense. He would use them to the fullest.

Of course, he was down one arm, and the other one was holding Raphtalia. With that last attack, he was confident he could take most strikes they could deal to him. He didn't feel that way about Raphtalia.

The others had moved forwards as well. Even if he wanted to run, Dante would need to make some distance between them. As things stood, he didn't think he could outrun them. The man he kicked was already back on his feet and charging forward. Another bandit thrust her sword into Dante's back, but that did nothing as well. Still, it was closer to Raphtalia, something he couldn't have.

"Shield Prison IV!" He wrapped himself, Raphtalia, and the woman who attacked him in his barrier. He dropped Raphtalia and grabbed the woman's sword arm.

"Damn Shield, let go!" She bellowed.

"Not a chance!" Dante called back. The woman smashed her free fist into his face, but he didn't budge. A head-butt produced a similar result, but then she went for his eyes. He tried to keep his head away from her, fearing his defense wouldn't protect his eyes as much.

"When I'm through with you, you'll be begging for death!" The woman howled. Right after, she let out a different howl. Dante looked down and saw Raphtalia had plunged her dagger into the woman's exposed shin. "You little—"

Dante used the distraction to bring the woman down. He kept his grip on her arm, one knee on her chest.

"Raphtalia!" He called to the girl. She was next to him in an instant, dagger in hand. She rushed forward, digging it into the woman's exposed throat. Blood sprayed the both of them, likely from a severed artery. The woman tried to give one last yell, but her throat was already filling with blood. Her hold on her sword diminished, letting it slide down the inside of the prison.

Raphtalia shook slightly, staring down at her blood soaked hands. Dante released the bandit and put his hand on her head.

"Good job." He told her. "Very good job. I'm proud of you." Despite the bad situation they found themselves in, he still needed her to be okay with this sort of thing. In fact, it was especially because of their situation. Someone from a town they hadn't visited told them to come here. They needed to look into that.

Metallic strikes continued to sound outside the prison, but with no discernable damage. Dante continued petting Raphtalia, trying to keep her steady.

"The Shield Prison won't last forever." He said. "When it times out, we'll need to move. If you can hold onto my back, I'll carry you out of here. Okay?"

Raphtalia took in a deep breath. She grabbed her dagger from the corpse and looked up at Dante. There was fear in her eyes, but also resolve. "Yes!"

She sheathed her dagger and climbed onto Dante's back, wrapping her arms around his neck. Dante looked through the small gaps in his prison. It looked like the direction of the village had the fewest bandits, and they could use the sea as a side they needn't protect from.

The timer on the prison was running out. Dante made his move.

"Air Strike Shield IV!" He summoned the shield near his right and back as the prison broke apart. The bandits there were put out from the summoned barrier.

"Cleave Bash II!" Dante rushed forward, swiping his shield at the bandits before him. He hit three of them, stunning them for a few seconds as he ran past them.

"After them!" The leader called, running around the Air Strike Shield.

Dante had a decent head start, the bandits needing to move around their stunned allies.

They chased the pair down the beach for several minutes, slowly gaining ground. When they got close, Dante would slow them down with an Air Strike Shield or trap one in a Shield Prison. Currently, there were five chasing them, one still trapped in the prison.

"Get down!" When he heard that voice, Dante promptly hit the ground. "Zweite Chain Lightning!" Electricity shot overhead, hitting the bandits in sequence. When Dante looked over his shoulder, he saw four of them fall over. None had died, as there was no XP messages. The leader remained standing, if barely.

JoJo rushed past him and slammed into said leader, knocking him to the ground. A low groan emanated from the man.

Dante heard footsteps to his side. He looked up and saw Sadeena holding a hand out to him. He grabbed it and pulled himself up, standing next to her and the already dismounted Raphtalia.

"What happened?" Sadeena asked, observing her handiwork.

"We were being watched." Dante said with a hint of annoyance.

"Hmm." Sadeena looked down at Raphtalia, eyes widening at her bloody clothes. "Raphtalia…"

"I'm okay." Raphtalia said, bringing up her fists. "Dante protected me."

"No 'mister', eh?" Dante said with a smile.

"Ah!" Raphtalia covered her mouth. Dante just laughed and pat her on the head again.

"I prefer it without the mister." Dante stroked her hair a bit, earning a giggle.

"When did they approach you?" Sadeena jabbed at the bandit closest with her harpoon.

"After Raphtalia and I separated from the others. If we were being watched, and no one noticed…"

"Yeah."

They both knew what that meant. Someone who knew enough about Sadeena's race instructed them on how to avoid her. It was entirely possible one of these bandits knew about her, but they could learn that soon enough. One was already dead, but they still had—

"Oh, crap!" Dante said, looking in the distance. His Shield Prison just opened up, letting loose the bandit trapped inside. He took one look at his fallen comrades and ran in the opposite direction. "JoJo! Stop that guy from…"

From the nearby woods, Dio rushed in and slammed into the man with Rifana and Keel still on her back. The bandit got barreled over. Dio stood with a claw on his back, posing.

"Pft! I love that kid!" Dante yelled. "Someone look suspicious? Knock 'em over. Ask questions later."

Sadeena held back a laugh with her hand. "You probably shouldn't encourage that sort of thing~."

"Probably not." Dante brought out his Rope Shield. "JoJo, there's a dead one down the beach a bit. Go grab her for me. We have a bit of work to do."

~The Wrong Hero~

After tying up the living bandits, and collecting the dead one, they went back to village ruins. There they began interrogating the bandits. Of course, they all started yelling at once to be the one to give the best information.

"I'm a little disappointed." Dante said, watching as the tied bandits fought over one another.

"What did you expect~?" Sadeena said, gesturing to the clothes and leather armor at his feet.

On Dante's arm was a shield that looked to be made of bones. It extended beyond his forearm and was roughly oval shaped. The bones went across the narrow side, splitting in the middle. The ends in the center of the shield appeared sharper than at the outer edges.

Of course, the worst part of the shield was the blood stains it gained near the center.

"Shut up, all of you!" He yelled at the bandits. "I want some clear answers, or I'm feeding another of you to my shield!"

The center of his shield opened up. In the center was a black void, one where the body of the slain bandit went. The shield had spat out the equipment she had on her, including a small bit of rations.

The Savage Shield. It devoured the entire body of that bandit, like his monster drops, but more gruesomely. Instead of putting it in his inventory, the Savage Shield consumed the whole body. It still provided Dante with any item drops, but he couldn't use the body as monster pieces for his power ups. However, with that corpse consumed, he did gain a point in HP, plus another in defense. The HP went straight to his personal stats, but the defense point was tied to the shield. It didn't have particularly amazing stats, but if cannibalize could be improved and used repeatedly…

There would be time for that later. He needed information. JoJo and Dio played with the kids to keep them from seeing what was going on.

"Now, start talking." Dante stepped forward, his shield's mouth opening wider.

"W-We don't know anything else!" The so-called leader cried out. Turned out that none of them were exactly in a leadership position.

"Are you sure about that?" Dante inched forward.

"Yes!" He cried again.

With a look from Dante, Sadeena thrust her harpoon into the man's chest. When she pulled back, his body came with it. Dante lowered himself to the freshly made corpse and activated his shield. The maw of the shield gripped the man, pulling him in. It consumed him inches at a time as the teeth chomped further and further down his body.

Eventually, the man disappeared into Dante's shield. It spat out his equipment on the ground. Dante saw his HP went up by one again, as well as the defense and agility for the shield.

"Now, then." Dante stood tall, facing the five remaining bandits. "Let's try that again."

Author's Notes:

It wouldn't be Shield Hero if there weren't setbacks this early. It hasn't even been 2 weeks, and now he's dealing with this crap!

Nothing gets someone ready to kill people more than killing someone. Or it just adds to the trauma. Or both.