Wave of Catastrophe

Wave of Catastrophe (盾の勇者) is the third episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
It has been a week, Naofumi unlocked a number of Shields while Raphtalia appears to be a teenager. The Wave of Catastrophe is near, are they both ready to face the Wave? What can the Shield Hero do, since he's restricted to be purely defensive?

Plot
Naofumi Iwatani and Raphtalia have been hunting monsters for two weeks now. Naofumi has been able to unlock a huge number of Shields from feeding his weapon various bits and pieces of monsters while Raphtalia has grown into a young woman. Having been injured while fighting against a porcupine-type monster, Naofumi and Raphtalia go to get Naofumi an upgrade to his armor.

While speaking with Erhard, the blacksmith realizes that Naofumi can't tell that Raphtalia has grown, who instead assumes that everyone who comments on Raphtalia's looks are secretly a lolicon, much to the tanuki girl's displease. After deciding against some of Erhard's stock armor, the pair ordered a custom commission and comes back to the shop after another dinner, where Naofumi treats Raphtalia as a child - again, to her chagrin.

With the Barbarian armor equipped, Naofumi comments that since he doesn't know when or where the next Wave will appear, it is hard for him to prepare for it, to which Erhard informs him that the Red Hourglass of the Dragon’s Era is counting down to the Wave and it will transport the Heroes and their comrades to the Wave location when it begins.

Having been given this extremely convenient information that he figures he should have had in the first place, Naofumi goes to the tower and get registered where he is confronted by Motoyasu Kitamura, Ren Amaki, and Itsuki Kawasumi and their respective parties. Motoyasu wastes no time flirting with Raphtalia while also dropping her malicious "warnings" about Naofumi.

Angered, Naofumi takes his companion and leaves the others be while he waits for the next Wave to appear. Just before the Wave, Raphtalia expresses her gratitude for meeting Naofumi and swears her undying loyalty to him. "I am your sword. Wherever you go, I'll follow you", these are her words to him. Once the last grain of sand in the Dragon Hourglass has dropped, the Four Heroes and their parties are transported just outside of the Village of Riyute. Realizing that none of the villagers have evacuated and the Knights can't get there in time to protect the village, Naofumi realizes that all the people in the village are about to get killed.

Instead of going off to confront the Wave's boss, Naofumi and Raphtalia fight to defend the village from the hoard of undead and monster bees summoned into the battle. The two split up, Raphtalia helps to evacuate the villagers while Naofumi lures as many of the monsters possible away from the village. After Naofumi successfully dropping a flaming guard tower on top of the hoard, several villagers and Raphtalia return to the village in order to help Naofumi fight.

Backup eventually comes in the form of Melromarc's Knights, who resort to indiscriminate firebombing to wipe out the monsters and doesn't care if the Shield Hero or the villagers are stuck in the crossfire. While Raphtalia was enraged, Nafoumi points out the danger and asked them to join the fight. The Captain and other higher-ranking Knights run off to assist the other three Heroes, while the Vice-Captain, a younger officer and several other lower-ranking Knights form an alliance with Naofumi to eliminate the monsters. Eventually, the other three Heroes defeat the Wave's boss, a Chimera, and thus cut off the flow of monsters, essentially ending the Wave.

While the other three Heroes were getting ready to collect their rewards, the villagers sincerely thank Naofumi for his actions, though some casualties were unavoidable to occur. Raphtalia asks if they managed to at least prevent some orphans from being made of the villagers, to which Naofumi says yes and pats her head while she cries for her own losses in the past.

Trivia

 * The Heroes must be registered to Red Dragon's Hourglass to be teleported to the region of the Wave. This seems to be the common knowledge of the world, though Naofumi was not aware of it.

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