Hold on . . . I’d gotten my hands on a shield in Kizuna’s world that would probably be useful at a time like this. It had come from the White Tiger materials. I was pretty sure it had a support nullification special effect. That could be useful right now if a debuff counted as support magic.

I started messing with my shield but then paused. I didn’t have enough materials on hand to power it up adequately. I tried using what I had and then checked the status screen. Hmm . . . It was really iffy. Since it was only partially powered up, it was far inferior to the Demon Dragon Shield, which was fully powered up. The difference was big enough that it would be a step down, even if I took the debuff into consideration.

“Ra—Shigaraki.”

“Yes?”

“Weapons made out of the White Tiger materials may be able to nullify debuffs.”

This time Raphtalia checked her status screen.

“My stats aren’t high enough to handle the katana anyway, but there’s no support nullification effect on the weapon.”

Oh well. We would just have to keep using the same weapons we had been.

“In any case . . .”

Sadeena glanced over at the spectators and organizers before swinging her harpoon around lightheartedly and then giving me a wink.

“I guess we’ll just have to do this, won’t we?”

“Yeah.”

“Yes. Let’s overcome this obstacle and get the villagers back!”

“They won’t beat meeee!”

Raphtalia and Filo agreed with us. Right around that time, the survey tally was completed, and it was officially decided that the exhibition match would be held.

Realistically, it would be impossible for us to use magic. We had powerful debuff magic being cast on us, and the enemy was buffed. What kind of bastards would make us to fight under such conditions?! I mean, I knew what kind of people they were already, but give me a break!

Should I order the slave trader and accessory dealer to crush them later? They could do that, right? If I exerted my influence as a hero as well, surely we could end them for good. Either way, I needed to focus on winning the fight right now. I’d just look like a whining loser if I tried to pick a fight with them after being defeated.

Something bothered me about how the organizer merchants turned around and left before the results of the survey had even been announced. We needed to finish the match quick. I was sure they were up to no good.

“And noooowww! Let the baaaaattle . . . BEEEEGGIIIINNNN!!”

The gong sound echoed out, and our fight with this Murder Pierrot freak began. Right now, our top priority was to quickly finish off this . . . puppeteer? The clickety-clack of the two puppets out in front as they quickly came running our way was just creepy.

“Let’s do this! Aim for the one controlling them in the back!”

“Understood!”

“Here I go!”