Now that Raphtalia was at Hakuro's training grounds, she prepared herself to train hard for the sake of Naofumi. At the same time, Rimuru brought Filo to participate in the drills with Gobuta and the rest of the goblin riders.

And before they all knew it, the rest of the week passed and the time for the next Wave finally arrived...

By this point, the heroes and their party members were all properly equipped with armor created by Kaijin. But before they were teleported away, Rimuru changed into his human form and said "You guys should be prepared for whatever this Wave throws at you, so remember your training. I'll try to keep an eye on where you end up, so I can lead you back to town. But good luck!"

Naofumi responded first by saying "I'll admit that I didn't trust your reasoning for helping us at first, but I appreciate everything you guys have done."

Raphtalia nodded and said "I feel the same way! I thank all of you from the bottom of my heart, for helping us and Naofumi..." Hakuro simply smiled wryly, satisfied with her quick progress but obviously ready for further training.

Filo then grinned and said "And it was fun! So thanks!" Gobuta gave her a thumbs up, as he clearly had fun while she joined them for their drills.

And finally Motoyasu smiled and said "It's been a pleasure everyone, and even more so that you've all seen how awesome Naofumi is!"

After all that, Milim laughed while saying "You guys had better show everyone what it means to be apprentices to Demon Lord Milum Nava!"

But after that, a white light began to shine around Naofumi and the others, quickly teleporting them away. And once they were gone, Rimuru said "Great Sage, locate them for me, okay? I'd like to see how they do..."

Soon, the next Wave was about to start...

Once they were teleported, they looked around to figure exactly where they now were, realizing that they were in a forest with a coal mine nearby. When Raphtalia saw that, she turned while saying "That looks like Ryute Village! Do you think they've evacuated yet?"

Naofumi then folded his arms and said "We should check before anything starts... They did help us out early on in our journey."

But after that, Mototasu pointed up and yelled "Naofumi, look at that!"

When they all looked up, they saw what they could only described as the sky splitting in two, where a horde of monsters began to fall from it. And with that, they immediately moved to hold off the monsters, while Filo ran to inform the villagers of what they were doing. At the same time Itsuki and Ren, along with their larger parties, ran in search of stronger monsters while unconcerned with the nearby village.

But while that was happening, Rimuru and Milim were flying toward that village, while Rimuru hummed to himself while saying "That sure is scary looking... Does this happen often, Milim?"

Milim just shrugged while flying, before saying "Sorta... I just ignore them though, because none of the monsters from those Waves can stand up to me!"

After that brief exchange, they simply flew silently, where Rimuru felt more than slightly disturbed by how these Waves seemed to operate...

Due to their training, the monsters that tried to attack the village were no match for Naofumi and his group. Motoyasu made sure to use his spear skills on flying monsters that could be more difficult for Raphtalia to reach with her sword. Raphtalia made short work of the other monsters, making full use of the basic techniques that Hakuro had taught her. And Naofumi used his shield to protect his allies, easily shrugging off whatever damage the monsters could inflict. There were a few undead monsters who were larger and more powerful than the others, but even they were no match for Naofumi's group when they all focused on them together.

After a few minutes of tough fighting, Filo rushed back to the fray and dispatched a few monsters herself, before shouting "The village is now evacuated!" That statement gave the others some relief, since no matter how many monsters they killed, there always seemed to be more to take their place.

But after a few more minutes of fierce fighting, Naofumi noticed a group of city guard members off in the distance, leading him to feel suspicious of their motive. Right after that, he saw them launch several fireballs in their direction, causing him to shout "Everyone, to me!"

Once everyone gathered around Naofumi, he used an anti-fire shield skill, protecting them from harm. And by the time the rain of fire had ceased, the monsters were all dispatched and the tear in the sky was gone. It might not have been a smooth ending, but the Wave was repelled.

Though due to how it ended, Naofumi's group were left angered from the actions of those soldiers, but they all were willing to ignore it due to how they suffered no losses. But as they started to dust themselves off and double check for any damage, the guard captain smugly smirked while saying "You're as hardy as I've heard, Shield Hero..."

When Raphtalia heard that, she charged at the captain and crossed sword with him, before angrily saying "You knew Naofumi was here, didn't you? Why did you carry out your attack knowing we were still fighting?!"

The captain merely laughed before saying "I had no idea, honest... We just saw the monsters group up around this location, so we launched an attack. And besides, it worked out fine, so who cares...?"

When Motoyasu heard that, he crossed his arms and shook his head, before saying "I don't believe a word of that... You're lucky Naofumi wasn't harmed by your scheme, or I wouldn't show mercy."

In response to that, the captain took a step back, leaving Raphtalia to stare at him with her sword still drawn. And once he did that, he furrowed his brow while saying "I heard that the Spear Hero started following the Shield Hero, but I didn't believe the rumors..."

While the tensions were still high, Naofumi glanced behind the soldiers, noticing that there was a large number of monsters regrouping in the distance. And once he saw that, he shakes his head and says "Personally, I don't think this argument is even worth it... But then again, you guys shouldn't act so smug after leaving the job half done."

That caused the soldiers to quickly turn around, where they realized that they were now surrounded. And when one of the larger undead monsters swung an axe straight at the captain, he cowered while Naofumi jumped in front of him, before yelling "This is the last of them, so make yourselves useful and form up with us! I can block their attacks while you guys attack the weaker monsters while the rest of my party deals with the tougher ones!"

The captain backed away fearfully, before grumbling and saying "Why would I ever take orders from the Shield Hero of all people?"

Naofumi then just turned back toward the captain, before saying "We could always retreat and leave you to deal with them. It'd give us time to reorganize, and I've got no qualms with making the sacrifice. So do you want to keep testing my patience...?"

Left with that decision, the captain clenches his fist and says "Fine!" Then he turns to the soldiers and yells "Men! We join the Shield Hero in this battle!"

Following that, the next phase of their battle started, while Rimuru and Milim continued to watch from a distance...

While Naofumi's group and the soldiers from the capital teamed up to dispatch the rest of the monsters, Milim was grumbling to herself while saying "How dare they insult my students... Rimuru, let's go join the fight and scare those annoying soldiers!"

Rimuru found it amusing that Milim seemed to take her role as a teacher so seriously, but he shook his head and said "No Milim... We need to let them sort this out on their own. They can't grow dependent on us..."

Milim started to pout in response, while saying "That's no fun, Rimuru..." But after that, she tapped her chin and said "Since the Wave seems to be over, that must mean the other heroes found the right monster and killed it."

When Rimuru heard that, he hummed to himself before saying "So that's how the Waves function... Melromarc should've sent soldiers to that village earlier. It wouldn't be efficient if the heroes are the ones who need to protect the citizens, if they need to defeat the boss monster to stop the Wave."

The fighting at the outskirts of the village was challenging, but with the added numbers from the soldiers, it didn't take very long to clear the monsters out. Even once they were finished, the captain left without thanking or even apologizing to the Shield Hero for what transpired, though some of the individual soldiers looked appreciative of them. Naofumi and Motoyasu both guessed that the Wave ended because of the other heroes, so they focused on making sure the villagers were unharmed.

There was a celebration in the capital for the clearing of that Wave, but due to the king wrongly assuming that Naofumi and Motoyasu kidnapped Princess Melty, they were not invited. That did not bother them however, as they knew that they needed to continue gaining strength, as the Waves would surely increase in difficulty in time. So Rimuru and Milum brought them back to Tempest themselves, managing to make it back in less than a day, where the heroes prepared to continue training.

And now that that Wave was cleared, Rimuru contacted his allies to meet in Tempest, as a curious letter from the Queen of Melromarc herself arrived while he was away.

One month until the next Wave...

Notes

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Around 4 months since I posted a chapter, but really it was due to a lack of motivation to write anything. Hopefully the wait wasn't too bad! I'll try to be better about that, but I can't make any promises. Enjoy the chapter!

But I've had this idea in my head that I may try at some point, relating to Shield Hero. I'm a fan of the Trails series, and I thought it would be neat if there was a fanfic of Loewe (from Trails) ended up as a hero in Rising of the Shield Hero. Don't expect anything about that soon, but it's something I'm considering.

When I started writing this chapter, I forgot exactly where I set things Shield Hero wise, so the Wave written about here is essentially the 1st wave that Naofumi and Raphtalia deal with in the story. I don't want to rewrite all of this chapter, so just enjoy it for what it is. Think of this one as a bridge between the main story Waves. So here's how things are right now:

Wave 1: The one that happens before the story started

Wave 2: The one that Naofumi and Raphtalia first deal with

Wave 3: The one in this chapter, which ended up being similar to Wave 2

Wave 4: The one where the enemy hero, Glass, shows up. Basically the one that actually occurs next in the story

In general, try not to worry too much about minor story details. I'll try to keep things accurate, but it's easy to miss the smaller things while writing, even when checking the relevant wikis and chapters to doublecheck on stuff. Feel free to keep making corrections, but I may not always act on them, but I'll try if they're particularly big errors.

I'm not incredibly concerned with how much time occurs between Waves, since that can feel different depending on what stuff happens between them in the story. So in this case, since I'm saying the next Wave will occur in a month story-wise, just imagine everything shifting related to that timeframe.

I'm also trying something a bit different with making everything (or almost everything) past tense. So if this chapter reads better than the others for you, let me know. Or if it reads worse, also let me know.