Upload date: 6/1/2018

Forgive Me [Arc 3] - Remade

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Chapter 6: The Second Hurdle

"You've gotta be kidding me…"

Up the in the sky, the worst case scenario has been revealed to Subaru and his group, three whales, all floating in the sky, leering down at them with a bloodlust like feeling. Some people fell to their knees, some wept with closed eyes, some wailed, some had lifeless looks in their eyes. To sum it all up, they felt like ants about to be stepped on.

Subaru could see a shadow in front of him, kneeling on the ground, begging, 'Turn back, there's no way we can do it now, it's impossible, just run away!' It was himself, begging. The situation was so dire, his fear manifested itself into a hallucination.

One of the whales swooped down on them while they were still their shocked state, thus none of them were able to dodge in time. It opened up its gaping mouth, fog forming its mouth, we were going to be erased. Being the first to snap out of it, Subaru dashed forward and dumped all his earth gems down, they erupted into a large stone whale and the fog was completely halted.

"Spread out!" Subaru yelled while getting back on Patrasche. They quickly dashed away, the whale swooped down and narrowly missed them, "No way we're giving up right now! I've got friends that need saving so I'm gonna kill you right here right now!" Subaru screamed while hurling two light gems at the that passed them, exploding right at its eye. Subaru had blinded it.

"WAAAH!"

"HAAA!"

The twins then attacked next. Two energy waves were blasted towards the whale from above, and was finally grounded! "Ya! The parties only just started!" Next came Ricardo and Wilhelm, jumping straight at the whale and slicing at it. It wailed in pain as it rolled around, bleeding it's insides out.

"Crusch-san!"

"Subaru! Our situation looks dire, what do you think happened?"

"I'm not sure myself, but I thought only one whale existed?"

"Well, that much is true, there must be some sort of trick to this"

They watched the remaining two whales as they circled the army, one was suspiciously high in the air, while the other was about to swoop down. Crusch reacted instantly, she whipped the reins, her ground dragon rushed over to the scene, her sword ready to strike.

The troops were down on there knees at the base of the tree, staring at the beast as it opened up its mouth, shooting out it's fog straight at them, "Don't give up!" Shouted Crusch as she slashed the fog away with her Hundred man strike. The slash stopped before it could reach the whale, and so it continued to dive down for them.

Just then, two fire crystals were shot up in the air and exploded, grabbing the whale's and all the troops attention. "The baits right here you big old fish!" He whipped the reins and Patrasche was off in the other direction, the whale frantically changing its course and following Subaru, "Wilhelm-san! Giant sushi, coming right up!"

Subaru lead the whale away from the rest and from the side, Wilhelm ambushed it, stabbing his sword at it's eye, but narrowly missing it. It screamed in pain and tried to snap at Wilhelm but Subaru threw out another fire gem and got it's attention once again, leading it further away from Crusch and the injured.

The others watched on as the two dragged the whale around in circles, all the while chipping of at its hide, "Watch, that young man has absolutely no experience in the battlefield, from the beginning, if anyone was to fall, I expected him to be the first! But look, out of all of us, he's the one who's shouting the loudest, he's the one trying his best, he should be dead long ago, but he refused! He isn't anything special, so why is he the only one? Why are we, the one who's been suffering the most from its existence, lying on the ground in defeat!?"

The others stared wide-eyed at Crusch's speech, some burst into tears as they cursed their cowardice. Subaru who's been listening from afar couldn't help but sigh as he thought to himself, 'Watching your loved ones die is one thing, but watching them die multiple times, while their right in front of you? While your unable to do anything… that might be the reason why I'm able to stand up now…' "Wilhelm-san! Take its horn!" Wilhelm leapt up and did as Subaru said. Unsheathing a second sword, he cleanly cut through the whales horn, the purple ring on its head fade and disappeared. He landed safely on his ground dragon and the two of them ran away as the whale started to fall down.

Subaru and Wilhelm went back to check on Crusch and the others, the one that Ricardo and the siblings were taking care off seem to have broken loose of its bounds and rushed straight for them, both it's eyes were gone so it used Subaru's scent to trial them "Crusch-san!" Crusch unleashed another Hundred man Strike, this one was bigger than the last and cut the whales horn in half, all the while digging through its skull. It then suddenly faded away, as if it was mist.

"Did we stop it?" One of the soldiers asked, "They are clones…" Subaru said, "Clones of the one that's staying away in the air, the clones only have a third of the whales original power" They all looked at the whale floating in the sky, it was high in the air, circling around Flugel's tree. It let out a screech and suddenly, two more whales appeared and dived down.

Subaru and Crusch clicked their tongues while Wilhelm sharpened his gaze, "We can't do anything unless we take care of the one up there, it's the original, I'm sure of it... " Subaru said while he got off of Patrasche. Crusch replied, "It seems most likely but Subaru… it is currently out of reach for my Hundred man Strike and our cannons would be less effective at that distance…" "Oh, I have a plan alright… but it's an ugly one…"

"Troops, Fire!"

As one of the whales descended, the cannons shot out a barrage of fire gems aimed right at its horn. The whale maneuvered away but was met with a volley of attacks by the Fangs of Irons. The other one was being diverted away by the siblings and Wilhelm. The whale tried to shake them off by descending lower to the ground but that was when Ricardo jumped up with his Riger and chopped off it's horn, making it plummet to the ground.

While everyone was busy dealing with the whale, Felix and several other healers were dealing with the injured. As Felix was healing someone's injured foot, he saw several mages walk over to the base of the tree, away from where they were. "Something's happening nya…"

"AHH!"

A loud scream and everyone turned the other way, one of the whales were charging straight for them, Crusch came over and prepared another Hundred man Strike, but the whale was able to barely dodge the invisible blade of wind and opened up its mouth, ready to shoot out another blast of mist, Crusch tried to muster up another strike but she was low on mana, she then screamed, "Get up and run!"

The healers helped the injured onto their feet and started to run, however, it proved futile as the whale was already blasting it's mist at them. Crsuch concentrated all her mana into her blade and pointed it at the mist, "Ul-Fula!" a blast of wind shot out from the tip of her blade, heading straight for the mist, though it was only a fraction of its size, capable of protecting only Crusch herself, that was when it collided with something midway, a shattering sound was heard and then a whole section of air was frozen, making an ice wall that protected everyone from the mist.

Crusch looked at it wide-eyed as she struggled to stand up, she glanced to the top of the tree where the ice gems seemed to have fallen from and she saw Subaru, giving shooting them a thumbs up with a wide grin. "Hmph, you never cease to surprise me… Natsuki Subaru!" The others shouted out screams of gratitude and relief, some went right back into battle while others went to help the injured heal up.

Subaru had managed to climb up the tree and was hanging on a branch, "Man, this new spell is helpful… but it doesn't help with heights this big…" He glanced down and started feeling dizzy, being a few hundred feet above the ground can do that to you. "Right…" He pulled himself up the branch and stood up, "Gotta get to the other side of this tree… and also gotta bring you with me" He then glanced over to the unoccupied whale, to his surprise, it stared right back at him.

"Hello there creepy…"

The whales red eyes looked deep into Subaru and as if a switch was flipped, it went on a rush, straight for him, its mouth wide open, mist forming, ready to be shot out. "Shit!" Subaru looked around for a near branch but the nearest one was too far to jump across with Murak alone, as he feared the only possibility to jump down and retry, he reached into his sack of magic gems and brought out two wind gems, "Time to get out of here Ram style!" He threw the wind gems down at his feet and casted Murak, they detonated and the blast of wind broke off the branch he was on all the while propelling him forward. Just as he was blasted forward, the mist hit the tree, boring a hole straight through it.

"That was close!"

Subaru kept on jumping from branch to branch as the whale followed from the outskirts of the tree, once he reached the other side, he dumped the contents of the sac out to the side, keeping one wind gem with him just incase, the gems exploded right as the whale made contact with them and blasted into an array of different colors, a signal for the ones at the bottom.

"Your coming with me!"

Subaru then leapt down from the tree, deactivating his spell in order to gain speed. The whale let out a screech as it watched Subaru fall, "I can Return by De-" Shadows started to expulse out of Subaru's body, filling the world with darkness. Time went to a halt as his senses numbed out. In front of him, there was a distortion, it was almost human shaped, he couldn't see it but he felt a hand reach towards his heart. 'Love…' whispered a voice.

In an instant the shadows retracted and time resumed, Subaru winced in pain as an ominous aura shrouded him. The whale reacted instantaneously, letting out a sudden screech, then diving down after Subaru. He gave the whale a smug look as he descended. Subaru looked over the ground for his ground dragon, Patrasche was coming in close but Subaru was already nearing ground, "She won't make it in time!" Subaru threw his remaining wind gem to the ground and the blast lifted him back into the air for a few seconds, giving enough time for Patrasche to catch him by the collar.

She swung him back onto her saddle and speeded off, the whale slammed face first into the dirt, causing a the ground to slightly tremor. Nevertheless, it got up, ever so staggeringly, and chased the two past the tree, that's when Subaru called out to Crusch and she shouted, "FIRE!" One side of the base of the tree was blasted apart and the whole thing leaned down to the whale, Subaru made Patrasche do a sharp turn to get behind the tree and was he reached there with the others, Crusch let out a final strike, a huge and sharp snapping sound was heard and the tree fell down, falling down right at the whale.

It let out a horrid screech as the tree crushed it's insides. Soon enough, the clones started to fade away, grabbing everyone's attention.

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Everyone surrounded the whale, Wilhelm stepping up for the last and final blow. He drew out two of his swords and started to rush forwards, spinning around, attacking it with a flurry of slices and with a final stab to its head, the battle was over. The other two whales had completely disappeared, everyone then cheered loudly, celebrating the defeat of the Hakugei. Wilhelm seemed to be shouting out something but the cheering drowned out his voice but Subaru knew it was something about his wife.

Subaru stood there beside Patrasche, looking off into the distant sunrise, his smile faded as he remembered he still had things to do. As he turned around, he was approached by Crusch, Wilhelm, and Felix, all with ecstasic looks on their faces. "It was a great battle Natsuki Subaru, we thank you for your participation, none of this would have been possible without your aid" The three of them bowed down to Subaru, who could only chuckle nervously at the sign of gratitude.

"Your welcome… to be honest, things went better than I thought it would, in the end anyway…" Subaru walked over to them and watched the warriors celebrating, "Though our casualties were minimized, casualties are still casualties, there are some that were erased from existence, some lost their lives in the final dash, but they all fought their hardest until the end…" Crusch said, the other three nodded. "Nothing could have been done to minimize them even further…"

"Still, Subaru-kyun's quick thinking got us out of there while we were in a pinch, how'd you think of it nya?" Felix asked out of curiosity, "Ah, well, I've had a few close calls before so I guess I just I kinda rolled with it…" Subaru said while scratching the back of his head with a grin, though that grin only lasted for a few seconds as his face turned serious once more. The other three caught glimpse of it and Crusch asked, "You still have things to do don't you?" he nodded, "You'd like some help?" "If it's not too much to ask…"

"Then, why don't you make use of this old man…" Wilhelm said while kneeling down to Subaru, shocking him a bit, "On this day, I have incurred a great debt to you, so please, allow me to return the favor…" Crusch then stepped up, "Take Ferris and half of the uninjured, together with Wilhelm and the Fangs of Irons, it should be enough to deal with the threat your facing" Subaru could only bow to them, "Thank you, your help is very much appreciated"

"No thanks needed, we are all indebted to you, it's the least we can do…" Crusch said as she gave her hand for a handshake, "Until we next meet, Natsuki Subaru…" "Yeah" He accepted her hand with gratitude and they shared a firm handshake.

"Now, I shall be going back with the injured and the Hakugei carcasses, your welcome to visit the Karsten estate once everything is settled with"

"Then I'll take you up on your offer…"

After waving them goodbye, Subaru and the remaining waited for backup to arrive. While they were at it, Felix decided to bring up some small talk, "So Subaru-kyun, how exactly are we going to deal with the witch cult nya?" "To be honest, I'm not sure myself, we just ambush them while we have the chance, and quickly dispatch of them, their leader has a terrifying ability that I'm not sure of yet, so the faster we take care of them, the better…"

"Wise choice Subaru-dono…"

"Ah, yeah, Subaru-kyun, you said you've had a few close calls before, Ferri-chan wants to here about them nya"

"Well… there was the first time I met Emilia, a guthunter was going to kill us, if it weren't for Reinhard, then there was the mabeast incident back in the Irlham village, Rem kinda saved my ass back there, and there was the other time I had a run in with the whale and the cult"

"A terrifying thing to be experiencing, your eyes don't lie, Subaru-dono"

Wilhelm's remark confused Subaru a bit, but he didn't pay any mind to it. In the distance, the backup group was approaching. Several Fangs of Iron members came into view, one was a little kitten demihuman, one of the Pearlbaton Siblings Subaru thought, but there was one more that stood out, and it was, "Julius… why am I not surprised at all?"

He was on his blue ground dragon, riding with his royal guards uniform, with a smile on his face, every bit ticked Subaru off. "Decided to come late to the show? Julius" "Please, a knight must never lower themselves to the level of a mercenary… for the time being, I shall be known as Juli… the mercenary"

Subaru could only click his tongue as Julius brushed his bangs, "Subaru… are you alright?" "Yeah, completely fine, a whales not going to get the better of me" Julius sighed, "I was talking about your wounded pride… but it's good to know that your still fired up for the next battle"

"My pride? I threw all that away to bring all this together" Memories of past loops flashed through his mind, "I've had to raise my voice to a woman as well, haah, just hope this all pays off in the end" "A man who spouts out whatever is in his mind, you haven't changed one bit since we last met have you"

Julius chuckled a bit, but Subaru sighed and bowed to him, shocking him and Felix greatly, "Thank you for coming to aid in this battle, even after what had happened in the royal castle. I admit that what I had done was wrong, I had acted according to my emotions and it caused me and you both inconvenience…"

Felix and Julius stared at him, dumbstruck at what they were hearing, "Nya… I guess even Subaru-kyun can be considerate…" "Don't get me wrong though, I am in the wrong, this doesn't mean I hate you any, less you got that?" Subaru said with his usual scowl which made Julius laugh a bit, "Of course, I wasn't expecting you to like me at all, nevertheless, I accept your apology"

"Seriously, you could've at least taken it easy on me!"

"Well, I was going easy on you"

"Okay, now I really hate you!"

After more laughter, the group went to the base of the tree to discuss their plans for the next battle. The sun rose up, showering them in the morning glimmer, a new dawn has emerged for our hero. As the first hurdle has been overcome, the second one has appeared, the final obstacle to his happy ending.

A/N

Been slacking on the chapter updates, sorry... so we've got about 3 chapters left. The whale battle was heavily altered if you can't already tell, all to make it a more interesting read. Next is a Re-Fantasy Interlude in Ram's POV, so get excited for that I guess. Now im going to study for my economics IGs so see you in a bit!