Hero & Beast

## Hero & Beast (, *Hero & Beast*?)

**Hero & Beast** is the second episode of *Knight's & Magic*.

## Plot

### Act One

In a forest, Demon Beasts stampede. A Division-class Behemoth has been detected by Stephan though a telescope at a nearby castle, his commander Knight Runner orders him to run a message to Jantunen. The Behemoth reaches the castle walls where the Knight Runners, in their Kaldatoah, ready their rods to begin a spell bombardment. After all of them shoot fireballs at the Behemoth, they jump down, readying their swords to attack its head and legs but it is useless. Kuchl and another Knight Runner are crushed by the Behemoth's feet whereas Steude is knocked towards the castle wall by the Behemoth's tail. The Commander makes one last attempt with his unit leaping onto the Behemoth's head, hoping to stab its left eye. Unfortunately, the hard eyelids close just before his sword could make a strike. The Behemoth and its fiery breath instantly melt the Kaldatoah and the commander inside it. Stephan looks back in horror as he rides horseback towards Jantunen.

In the nearby Cloquet Forest, the students of the Laihiala Academy of Knight Runners were exposed to the danger of the horde of Demon Beasts. But they were rescued by Ernesti and the Silhouette Knights, and the damage was minimal. Stefania looks on as the students are told to load the wounded onto the carriages first, she offers her gratitude to Kid, Addy but especially Ernesti, so much that she hugs him, prompting a jealous Adeltrud to hug him, too, claiming ownership. Archid sighs. Ernesti asks Stefania, as she's the Student Council President, why there was a sudden army of Demonbeasts in Cloquet Forest, as he thought it was safe, he suspects they were driven there by some greater power.

At Jantunen, Stephan is exhausted (as is his horse, now in the stables). He tells his superiors about the Behemoth and believes it may head through Cloquet Forest towards the kingdom's capital. The most senior of the Guardian Knights says that even if they were to bring together all the Silhouette Knights of Jantunen, there are still less than 100 men, another Knight Runner informs his comrades about the Laihiala students that who are currently doing a training exercise in Cloquet Forest, this worrying news leads to all Knight Runners in the vicinity to be gathered. As soon as the first group ready to go, they will leave himself taking command.

The Behemoth enters the forest, many students run away. Ernesti fires a fireball as a warning shot and he, Adi, Kid and Stefania direct the students towards the carriages to the north. Edgar in his Earlcumber will lead the other Silhouette Knights to distract the Behemoth but Helvi Oberi, in her Trandorkis, does not believe they can take down a Division-class Behemoth. Edgar clarifies that they will delay the Behemoth until the younger kids can finish their evacuation, as it is their duty as knights. All of them launch fireballs from their rods at the Behemoth's head, aiming for the eye. As the Behemoth has not touched them yet, Dietrich in his Guair and Gephardt in his get cocky, thinking they can take out the slowpoke by themselves, much of the chagrin of Edgar. A breath of fire melts Gephardt and his unit, much to the horror of Dietrich, who decides to run away. Ernesti hurries to the carriage the Stefania and the Walter siblings are on but notices the Guair running past him and decides to follow it, flying using mana. The Guair crashes and Dietrich cannot get it to move and proclaims he only wanted to survive. Ernesti reaches the Guair's cockpit to ask the traumatized Dietrich if he ran away. Dietrich defends his actions as one more unit wouldn't have made a difference and he chose the smartest path. To Dietrich's surprise, Ernesti accepts his reasons and commandeers the Guair. Unfortunately, Ernesti's limbs are still far too short to control a Silhouette Knight so he pulls out the two hand interfaces to expose their cables which he can connect to two Gunlike Rods. He proceeds to use his abilities to magically reprogram the Guair so that he can use his Gunlike Rods to control them. Finally getting the Guair to stand up, he proceeds to run and jump in it, with the joy that he is currently piloting a robot.

### Act Two

* This is Silhouette Knight combat!
1/3Back at the at the carriage. Addy wonders if Ernesti's okay,  Stefania comments that he was gone before they could stop him and Kid suggests that he may have stolen a Silhouette Knight to attack the Behemoth. Stefania doesn't think so but Addy considers it to be a possibility.

The Behemoth slams its tail, quaking the ground around the Earlcumber which nearly gets stepped upon. The Trondkiss and a Solodreah face the unit's Behemoth's head. Helvi avoids its breath attack after being warned by Edgar. She launches a fireball at the Behemoth's left eye but it is no use. Suddenly, the Guair appears, leaping high in the air. Edgar thinks Dietrich is back. Ernesti enthusiastically attacks the Behemoth with his sword and manages to stab its left eye after two attempts to hack at its hard face. To get Helvi to safety, her Trondkiss is piggybacked upon the Earlcumber and Edgar leaves the Guair to finish off the Behemoth (still thinking it's Dietrich piloting). Ernesti dodges the Behemoth's fiery breath and lands on top of the Behemoth's hard body. Cutting is useless and magic won't penetrate so he decides to find a weak spot; destroy the Behemoths catalyst crystal.

Dietrich, who was sleeping at the back of the cockpit wakes up to see the Behemoth's face and screams and it nearly rams into the Guair but Ernesti luckily dodges it, demanding his senpai be quiet for he is in the middle of a fight. The Guair's sword has been cut in half so Ernesti throws it away to the shock of Dietrich, but he quickly points out to a complete sword lieng on the ground which the Guair picks up. He can fight for a little longer but he is less than 20% mana. Ernesti was trying to conserve as much mana as he could but there's a limit. Ernesti vows to at least take out a leg before running away in order to look cool. The Guardian Knights from Jantunen have made their way to the battlefield in Kaldatoahs. According to them, the two student practice units, the Earlcumber and Trondkiss were recovered but the remaining unit, Guair, is still in combat. The behemoth is sighted by the commander who tells his troops to spread out, he is surprised at the Guair's acrobatic movements. Dietrich is pleased to see the Kaldatoah reinforcement whom Ernesti thinks arrived sooner than expected. The commander complements the "Crimson Knight" for his good job hanging in there and proceeds to order all of his units to draw their rods. The Kaldatoahs launch fireballs at the Behemoth but Ernesti knows it won't go down so easily.

Four Hard Cluster Bunkers, each carried by four Kaldatoahs, prepare to ram into the Behemoth on four sides. The first one penetrates the Behemoth's shell and blue liquid sprays out. Screaming in pain, it's fiery breath blows the Kaldatoh's away. While Dietrich contemplates Death, Ernesti refuses to give up as the only thing that's allowed to destroy a robot is another robot. Ernesti stabs the Behemoth in its left front leg, releasing more blue liquid, causing the Behemoth's magic to deplete. The commander orders all squads to surround it and attack once again. Unfortunately, the Guair undergoes metal fatigue. As Ernesti would've preferred to go down in his own robot he hands back control to Dietrich so he can step outside with his two Gunlike Rods. Dietrich makes the Guair's arms move up so the system can perform the Air Bullet spell with Ernesti's incantation. The Guair continually jumps back while Air Bullet is activated. The Guair then leaps on to the nose and touches the hilt of the sword still stuck in the Behemoth's body, finally killing it before the Guair itself succumbs to the metal fatigue.

The next morning, the commander of the Guardian Knights demands a report from each company and for those still mobile to recover the behemoth's heart. Edgar and two Guardian Knights stand in front of the immobilized Guair. Edgar, who believes Dietrich is dead, posthumously apologizes for thinking he ran away and is grateful for him dying to save them. Suddenly, Ernesti pulls Dietrich out of the cockpit and both land on their backs on the Guair's head, unsure why Edgar is shocked.

Back at Laihiala,  Ady has confirmed her hunch that Ernesti stole a Silhouette Knight, Edgar feels sorry for Dietrich and Stefania asks Ernesti what he would've done if he couldn't get into the silhouette knight. Ernesti replies that he would've ran away with all of them, declaring what he did to be a really big gamble. Helvi and Kid sigh. Ernesti is still set on having his own mech that he can move in the way he wants so what he did doesn't need to happen again.

The monarch of Kankunen is informed at his castle about the twelve-year-old child that defeated a division-class demon beast. Recognizing the name, he is affirmed by a subject that the child is the grandson of Lauri.

## Stats

### Spells

1. Fireball
2. Air Bullet

### Quotes

Initiating pattern analysis.
Identifying similar spells.
Physical enchantment.
Movement control.
Position mapping.
Modularizing and linking.
Output control.
And the input and output power of the Ether Reactor.
*Ernesti eschewed all physical control methods, instead attempting to control the Silhouette Knight by using his Gunlike Rod to directly input the scripts. No one else had attempted anything even close in the history of Silhouette Knights.*
Converting the spell parameters of myself and the Silhouette Knight, and initiating input-output control with default values!
Conversion complete.
Activating engine!
Adjusting output control variables.
Feeding back movement disparities.
initiating optimization!
Modify, modify, modify...
A robot!
I'm piloting a robot right now!

### Music

1. Hello!My World!! (Opening)02:28 to 03:58
2. You & I (Ending)22:55 to 24:25