Shield
Whoosh.
Sua grabbed me by the nape of my neck and charged forward, shoving my body out in front of her.
Through the fluttering strands of her light brown hair, I caught glimpses of the monsters' afterimages.
As the distance closed at a terrifying speed, I whipped my head around in a panic to look at Sua.
"Auuuughhh."
I asked if she had some kind of plan.
My pronunciation was just a bit off because my body was getting flung around like crazy.
No answer came back.
Boom!
In her place, I felt—and heard—the impact.
A dull thud hit the back of my head, and I turned to look.
The stone club of the lead bipedal wolf, charging at the front, was shattering against the back of my skull.
Seizing the opening, Sua raised the finger wearing her ring.
Screeech—the sound of air slicing, and the wolf's head split clean in two.
Before I could even frown at the grotesque sight, my body was swung in another direction.
To the right.
Another wolf's club hurtled straight toward me, just a bit to the side.
It barreled past me toward Sua.
I jerked my head around and blocked it in her place.
Unlike the stone club that crumbled on impact with my forehead, I felt zero pain from my body.
"Th-thank…"
"Stay focused."
At my grumble, Sua nodded once, bit her lip, and kept swinging the steel wire from her ring.
Dozens of incoming attacks flew at us, and I blocked them all using my body as a shield.
Hmm…
Something felt off.
Really off.
Is this… right…?
It felt like my human rights were being stripped away in real time.
Not that I even had any to begin with, but still.
My body counted as equipment, so maybe this was exactly right.
At least the performance seems solid…
Despite taking countless hits all over, when I glanced down at myself, not a single scratch marred my body.
A pretty satisfying sight.
I'd been a little tense at first, but now those wolf monsters just looked like cute puppies.
- Kyaaak!!
…Except for that creepy-ass spider lunging at me and Sua right now.
"…I hate that one."
"Ah! Got it, I'll dodge!"
No matter how painless it was, I had zero interest in getting chomped by a house-sized spider.
And so, flung this way and that solely against the wolf monsters, I closely observed how Sua fought.
Her situational awareness is sharp.
She fought on pure instinct, without overthinking.
Fluidly blocking or dodging attacks as needed, then countering with her ring.
Though mostly, I was the one taking the hits directly.
"Watch out—"
Smack!
I shook off the sticky fluids clinging to my hair and stared at Sua.
Her lips pressed tight, eyes darting fiercely as she scanned the battlefield.
Come to think of it, she wasn't normal from our first fight…
That claim about being too scared to enter the tower? Total mismatch.
The moment she confirmed my body was tough, she immediately hoisted me up as a shield.
Her personality was a bit suspect, but the situation left no choice—I got it.
If we'd fought separately, we'd have been wiped out instantly.
Sad truth: I wasn't fast or strong.
I'd entered the tower as Sua's equipment, so if she died here, who knew what'd happen to me alone.
Worst case, I'd vanish; best case, get stranded.
"……Yeah, no thanks."
No way was I getting trapped in another weird space.
I shoved stray thoughts aside and stared straight ahead, dangling from Sua's hand.
Even with my vision shaking all over, my fox-sharp eyesight grasped the situation clearly.
About half the monsters were left—slaughtered.
Of course, half of hundreds was still hundreds.
"Haa, haa…!"
Rough breaths panted right behind my nape.
No matter how well she fought, she was human—stamina had limits.
Her arm, swinging my body as a shield, was starting to sag noticeably from its initial angle.
She's hitting her limit.
At this rate, she'd collapse from exhaustion before wiping them all out.
What good was my durability if the wielder dropped me?
Hanging and swaying, I racked my brain fast.
Sua's combat sense was top-notch.
Her instincts and flexibility were no joke.
But…
"We need to end this in one go."
"I-I know, I know…!"
Critically, she lacked a single nuke to sweep these hundreds at once.
"Hmm…"
I thought of another of my masterpieces, aside from my body.
Sawol.
According to its owner, Daon, swinging the sword let Sawol find the optimal path on its own.
Too bad I didn't have that function.
This was my first real fight, after all.
Instead, I'd do what only I could.
Boost the performance.
Not by controlling Sua's body, of course.
The other equipment here besides me.
"Lemme see your hand."
This ring was a failed scrap with no fancy features, but with me—the creator—hanging here in real time, that changed things.
I reached toward the silver ring on Sua's finger.
"Hold on just a bit."
"…Okay."
Like a scarf draped over her left shoulder and around her neck, I caressed the ring on her right hand.
Perched on her shoulder, she backpedaled while picking off the frontrunners, and I pondered deeply.
The ring's structure was crystal clear to me.
I'd made it, after all.
What we needed now: an AOE.
Problem was, only one steel wire for it—and no spare materials.
- Kyaaak!!
"Ngh…!"
…The ring had a variable structure.
Couldn't predict the wearer's finger size, so I'd designed it that way.
But now? Unnecessary.
Clinging to Sua's staggering, retreating shoulder, I swiftly reworked the ring's structure.
—Click, cl-click!
Tiny metallic clicks echoed from inside the ring.
I forced the adjustable inner wall's fixing pins—designed for her index finger—into place.
Merged the excess play and linked gear slots into one central axis.
"Hmm."
"Qu-quickly…!"
With the internal pulley and rotation axis for the wire aligned, the silver ring's surface glowed red-hot from friction.
"Wh-what…? Wh-what's happening?!"
Sua panicked at the sudden grinding screech of something shredding, losing balance for a moment.
The monsters closed in fast.
Even stretching my body long, I couldn't block every attack at this range.
"Just swing it! Not straight—scatter it everywhere!"
Lips bitten, Sua thrust her ringed hand forward in a wide arc.
—Fweeeeeeng!
A ferocious whoosh—nothing like before—slammed my eardrums.
The unified inner axis.
The steel wire splintered into dozens, hundreds of strands from omnidirectional vents.
Silver blades whipped the air like a storm, surging forward.
Kaboomboomboom—!
Each reflecting blinding flashes, the eerie forest floor flipped entirely.
Silence. Stillness.
"Wh-whoa…"
Sua muttered blankly, staring at the smoke rising ahead.
I glanced back at her awe.
The horde was gone; only a massive canyon-like pit of pooled blood scarred the forest.
And one lone wolf monster, somehow alive, battered and twitching on the ground.
"Sua."
"Y-yes?"
"Throw me."
Something fun occurred to me.
I'd only been blocking hits till now—time to try attacking for once.
Looking back, it'd bruised my pride a bit.
Sua nodded and hurled me in a big arc with her left arm.
I followed the trajectory, raising my legs.
Smack!
I lightly stomped the wolf's skull, then bounced back to land at Sua's feet.
"Am-American captain…!"
Sua fidgeted with her hands, beaming with emotion, but whatever, we won.
I was a masterpiece as shield and weapon. No scrub here.
"Heh."
I smugly curled my lips and looked up at Sua.
Her legs finally gave out, and she plopped to the ground.
"S-sorry about… just now…."
Back to her usual timid, airheaded self—unlike her nimble fighting mode.
Does she only awaken in crises…?
She'd shown that dodging guards to sneak into the tower, too.
Tangible threats on her skin.
I got a feel for how to craft gear for Sua.
"Then I'll just force some crises on you."
"…Huh?"
Ignoring Sua's confused look, I turned toward the emerging spatial distortion.