Wave of Catastrophe

Wave of Catastrophe is the third episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

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 a upgrade to his armor.

While speaking with Erhard the Black Smith realizes that Naofumi can't tell that Raphtalia has grown, who instead assumes that everyone who comments on Raphtalia's looks are secretly a loli-con. After deciding against some of Erhard's stock armor the pair order a custom commission and comes back to the shop after another dinner where Naofumi treats Raphtalia as a child.

With the Barbarian armor equipped Naofumi comments that since he doesn't know when or where the Next wave will appear it's hard 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 if he registers at it, it will transport him to the wave 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 clock tower to get registered where he is confront by Motoyasu Kitamura's, Ren Amaki's and Itsuki Kawasumi's parties. Motoyama wastes no time flirting to Raphtalia while dropping her warnings about Naofumi.

Angered Naofumi takes his companion and leaves the others be while he waits for the next wave to appear. Once the last grain of sand in the hourglass has dropped the Four Heroes and their Parties are transported just outside of Lute Village. 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 fights to defend Lute Village from the hoard of undead and monster bees that have appeared to attack the village. The two split up, Raphtalia going to evacuate the Villagers while Naofumi takes as many of the monsters down as possible. After 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.

Back up eventually comes in the form of Melromark's knights who resort to indiscriminate fire bombing to wipe out the monsters and doesn't care if the shield hero & his comrades are stuck in the cross fire. While Raphtalia was enraged, Nafoumi points out the danger and asked them to join the fight. Some faction of the knights forms an reluctant alliance with Naofumi to eliminate the monsters while the knight's commander runs off to join the other three heroes. Eventually the other three heroes defeat the wave's boss, a Chimera and thus cuts off the flow of monsters.

While the other three heroes go to collect their rewards, the villagers sincerely thanks Naofumi for his actions. Raphtalia asks if they managed to prevent at-least 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.

Characters

 * Naofumi Iwatani
 * Raphtalia
 * Erhard
 * Motoyasu Kitamura
 * Myne
 * Ren Amaki
 * Itsuki Kawasumi