Catastrophe Returns

Catastrophe Returns (災厄、再び) is the eleventh episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
The Heroes face the next Calamity Wave at the remote village. Thanks to the help of the volunteers, the safety of the villagers was secured. However, there is no sign of ‘Wave’ dying down. Naofumi and his team find the other Heroes fighting the monster on a ghost ship with little success and no coordination among them.

After berating them, Naofumi takes matters into his own hands and succeeded in defeating the boss of the Wave? Or did he really win?

Plot
Naofumi Iwatani and his party have stockpiled on supplies, mostly medicines and weapons, in preparation for the next Wave, which is minutes away. Erhard has the utmost confidence in Naofumi, knowing how careful he's being and how hard he's worked to prepare. As part of those preparations, Naofumi has crafted a mana-boosting bracelet for Raphtalia and a physical stat boosting hairclip for Filo.

Ake and his comrades get added to Naofumi's party and together the eight of them are transported to the Wave. A hoard of Goblins and Beastmen from the Wave are attacking a lone villager whom they save and inform about the villagers were evacuated to a safe location and that he should be there. The local guards are barely keeping up but a familiar old Woman makes short work of the monsters, but stops briefly to thank Naofumi for saving her. Naofumi realizing she's the same old woman he cured about a month earlier.

Naofumi questions what the other Heroes are doing as it's already been three hours since the Wave started. Since Ake's group, the other guards and the old woman are at the village, Naofumi feels confident enough, leaving them alone while he goes to confront the Wave's boss. The group spots a ghost ship flying through the air and sees Itsuki Kawasumi taking shots at the ship's figurehead with the rest of his party. Itsuki explains that attacking the figurehead will force the Soul Eater into spawning out, but the other Heroes and their parties are on board the ship looking for the boss.

Arriving at the ship, Naofumi sees Ren Amaki's group fight an endlessly reviving Skull Captain while Motoyasu Kitamura's group faces off against a Krakken's tentacles. Their disagreements over which enemy they should prioritize lead to them fighting each other as much as the monsters. Naofumi scolds the Heroes for their childish behavior while blocking shots from both monsters they were fighting, stating that if they don't stop treating this like a game, then they are all going to die.

Looking at the Skull Captain, Naofumi realizes there's something hiding in its shadow and orders Raphtalia to hit it with light magic. Thanks to which, the Soul Eater is forced out of hiding, though the Heroes's lightning-based attacks do little to damage it. Filo's wind and highly quick kicks are slowly wearing it down. However, Naofumi realizes they've already wasted too much time and the other defenders are already too exhausted to keep going for much longer.

Deciding that they have no choice, Naofumi calls on Raphtalia's emotional support and uses the Rage Shield. At the same time, though Naofumi hears the voice of the Zombie Dragon calling out for Ren's blood, the Rage Shield is upgraded to the Wrath Shield as Naofumi's armor is transformed into a rather sinister set. At the same time, the Wrath Shield's flames coat Filo and send her into a berserk rage against the Soul Eater.

Raphtalia scolds the Heroes for making Naofumi use the Wrath Shield and more accurately laments her own weakness. Itsuki and Ren are drawn into the action and attack the monsters which are about to attack Naofumi, and call Motoyasu to join in, who was reluctant to work with Naofumi but does so anyway. Prodded into action, Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu all work together with Naofumi and Filo to strike down the Soul Eater while Raphtalia works to drag Naofumi out of his psychotic rage before his own flames kill him.

Clearing his head, Naofumi thinks straight and unlocks a new skill by using Wrath Shield, Shield Prison, and Animal Needle Shield and unleashes the attack known as Iron Maiden. Summoning the namesake torture device, the Soul Eater is locked inside and stabbed to death on all sides while Filo and Naofumi collapse from the Wrath Shield's effects. Filo doesn't recall what happened. Naturally, the other Heroes assume Naofumi is cheating somehow. But their woes have only just begun, as a second Soul Eater appears.

However, someone else kills the monster without breaking a sweat. The person in question is a young woman with long ravenous hair, wearing a dark kimono, and wielding a pair of steel fans. The woman introduces herself as Glass, who mocks the group for being so weak that a monster like that was giving them a hard time. She states that only one of them, Naofumi, is worthy of the title of Hero. She makes it very clear that she is his enemy and gets ready to fight.

Trivia

 * Unlike the previous Wave, in which the three Heroes agreed on fighting Chimera to be the boss monster, this time the Heroes had shown a difference in opinion in fighting the Waves based on their own gaming experiences, and thus remained fruitless for three hours.
 * This Wave may be easily the longest, with a lifespan of more than three hours.
 * This time, Naofumi and his party had succeeded in reducing the causalties to zero.
 * The old lady who was saved by the Shield Hero was revealed to be a successful adventurer in the past and faced many foes that were much more dangerous than the Wave monsters, explaining why she was dealing so easily with the Wave enemies.
 * Ren, his party, and the Skeleton Captains's level are shown. This indicate that Ren and his party got class-upgraded. Ren is 65, his party are respectively 51, 49, 52, 55, and the Skull Captain was 49.
 * Naofumi felt the Zombie Dragon's intense hatred for being killed by Ren.

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