History Awesome / WanderingOfASwordHero

** In a more {{Meta}} perspective, we can see that five years of being lectured by Rin has made him smarter in doing heroic deeds, as he now takes the long-term effects of his actions into account.

** While the above is going on, Shirou heals [[IllGirl Atla]] by imbuing his blood with the concept of Avalon, and does the same with an approximation of Excalibur to fake Saber's prana well enough to activate the scabbard's healing powers to a much greater extent than usual, and has the girl drink from it. The improvement of her health is so abrupt and inexplicible that people start to refer to him as an actual Saint from then on.

** It's worth noticing that's ''[[BitchInSheepsClothing Malty]]'s'' narration of events, meaning that "Issei's" display was so aweinspiring, in both senses of the word, that even a terminal case of [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissism]] and {{sociopath}}y like her couldn't help but walk in fearful and respectful silence in its aftermath. That's just how damn scary Shirou can be from a third-person perspective.

* Shirou single-handedly annihilates most of the Siltvelt's Wave monsters in Chapter 15 with a StormOfBlades. Rita deserves a mention as well, for quickly and efficiently killing every monster that got close to her, despite it being her first real battle after training under Shirou. Then he even gives her the go-ahead to fight the Wave Boss solo after gauging both of their strengths, and she would have won if not for Fitoria appearing and unceremoniously finishing the monster off.

* Shirou single-handedly annihilates most of the Siltvelt's Wave Monsters in Chapter 15 with a StormOfBlades. Rita deserves a mention too for quickly and efficiently killing every monster that got close to her despite being her first real battle after training under Shirou. Then he even gave her the go-ahead to fight the Wave Boss solo after gauging both of their strengths, and she would have won were not for Fitoria appearing and unceremoniously finishing the monster off.
* Shirou's approach to international politics in Chapter 25. He stepped into a summit with the representatives from every great nation in the continent and told them, in no uncertain terms, to stop clamoring for war -- which were actually just attempts to squeeze as many reparations from Melromarc as they could for summoning the Four Heroes -- or he will simply ''do nothing''. Or in more words, Shirou pointed out that if no Cardinal Hero fights each of the Waves of Calamity about to hit their countries, they will ''have'' to mobilize every combatant available to protect as much of their own population and infrastructure as possible, meaning that sending troops outside their borders incurs in the risk of spreading their military strength too thin to make a difference on either front. Given that no other Cardinal Hero can be relied on at the moment, Shirou's [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse offer]] to deal with their Waves himself is like the diplomatic equivalent of saying "get in my lifeboat and behave, or just stay where you are" to the passengers of sinking ship, leaving the representatives with no option but graciously agree.

** First, he enters the so-called "Griffin Run" -- a BeastlyBloodsports event where spectators get to bet who and how many unarmed combatants will die locked in a 5-minute cage match against two level 93 [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent Griffins]] wearing magic-blocking shackles. Shirou not only jumps in when he hears AudienceParticipation is allowed, but he also has Rita gamble their savings on ''no one dying'', an outcome with such ''microscopically'' low odds that it pays over ''3,000''-to-1 after he kills the beasts in front of a completely {{Stunned Silen|ce}}t audience, and incidentally making it the last of such events ever.
** The battle against the two griffins in itself is an Awesome Moment all of its own, perfectly showcasing how well he has integrated Jian and the other world RPGElements to his fighting style. First, he asks a fellow volunteer to cast a strength buff on him while he draws a low-quality rune under him to [[DrawAggro piss off the griffins so badly they pounce straight at him]] the moment they're released. Then he uppercuts the first one to get to him so hard it goes flying ten feet into the air, which distracts the second one long enough for Shirou to clothesline it, grab onto the chain hanging from its metal collar to pull it back to the ground. When the two beasts get back on their feet, they see "Shirou" standing right between them and smiling. They lunge at him again, too furious to realize that the figure has no shadow until it flicks out the moment they made contact with it. When they crash into each other, the real Shirou uses Alteration to merge their chains together to hinder their movements and backs off. He uses the opportunity to imbue the concept of Jian's Griffin Sword IV weapon form, one carrying a level 12 Enchantment granting it a whopping [[SituationalDamageAttack 180% extra damage to hybrids]], into his arm. Finally, he jumps at them while making sure both creatures are aligned with his attack, resulting in a left hook that ''[[OffWithHisHead blows off both of their heads at once]]''. No wonder the entire colosseum fell into a StunnedSilence after witnessing that. Also, bonus points for [[NotCheatingUnlessYouGetCaught breaking the "unarmed" rule right under everybody's noses]].
** Shirou soon reveals that saving Fohl and the other gladiator slaves while making a tidy profit at the same time was ''far'' from the true extent of his plans. He goes back to his Mercenary Saint persona and uses his sudden wealth to go to the colosseum's joint slave trading business as a customer interested in purchasing Fohl and Atla. If you're thinking he breaks their Slave Seals, grabs them and fights his way out by kicking everybody's asses and making plenty enemies and a political clusterfrak to deal with, then think again. Shirou simply tells the Slave Dealer he's buying all the slaves -- as in the Colosseum's ''entire stock'' of over 10,000 slaves including but not limited to their gladiators, sex slaves, domestic slaves, you name it -- plus enough carriages and Filorials to transport them, all for above their market price to a 50,000 gold total (going by fanon estimations, that's around USD 200 ''million''). The Slave Dealer simply stops breathing when Firo starts to unload the cash and he realizes that yes, the guy is being completely serious about it, and then runs to comply when Shirou says he will throw in another 5,000 gold if he manages to get it all done by the end of the day. Not often ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney and ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight have looked so good together.
** While the above is going on, Shirou heals [[IllGirl Atla]] by imbuing his blood with the concept of Avalon, and does the same with an approximation of Excalibur to fake Saber's prana well enough to activate the scabbard's healing powers to a much greater extent than the usual, and has the girl drink from it. The improvement of her health is so abrupt and unexplicable that people starts to refer to him as an actual Saint from then and on.
** Despite all the above, it's soon revealed those were just the preparative steps of his ''real'' double-objective plan. Instead of simply [[SlaveLiberation releasing the slaves from his ownership]] right then and there, he gets Queen Mirelia's permission to have them relocated in Melromarc under the protection of Van Reichnott, one of the few good nobles she has in her DecadentCourt, which is why he bought all those carriages. Shirou was also counting on the good faith he earned by releasing them and curing Atla to convince the former slaves of following him. Furthermore, he specifically requested Filorials instead of other FantasticMount to pull the carriages because Firo's status as a Filorial princess gives her authority over them, which considerably simplified the logistics of such a massive migration together with the literal tons of food stored in Jian's {{Hammerspace}} from all the monsters they killed in the previous Wave.
** Now, before describing the hidden objective in there, let's take a moment to notice that a) the East Gate Colosseum is currently closed to the public because they've got no slaves to throw to the arena, meaning right now there's only a skeleton crew consisting mostly of slavers and guards manning the place; b) Shirou had ample opportunity to scout and memorize the whole thing while everybody was busy preparing his massive purchase; and c) Jian gives Shirou access to an effectively unlimited {{Hammerspace}} and [[WarpWhistle semi-casual teleportation]]. Put a) + b) + c) together and the result is a HeistEpisode for the ages where Shirou goes full-on KarmicThief and KleptomaniacHero and robs the East Gate Colosseum ''blind'', as in he has Jian absorb even the stuff bolt down in place into her Item Box, of course including the enormous vault with over a ''million'' gold coins worth of blood money from years upon years of GladiatorGames. Just to make a point, Shirou dishes NonLethalKO to everybody in there, loots them down to their undies, and then leaves them tied up on top of a nearby rooftop just to give them first-row seats to the sight of East Gate Colosseum ''burning down to the ground''. By then Shirou has already teleported back to the caravan hundreds of miles away just in time for plenty of people to see him arriving to the next major town in their route, thus creating an airtight {{alibi}} for himself just in case.
** Not content with destroying one of the colosseums in Zeltbull, Shirou takes the opportunity to get rid of ''all three of them'' by starting an easily extinguishable fire in the West Gate Colosseum [[FalseFlagOperation while framing the North Gate Colosseum]] for both acts of arson. This sparks a violent MobWar between them that not only keeps the remaining two colosseums closed for the time being and thus cutting them off from their source of income, but the conflict itself cost them people, resources, and reputation that should make it very hard for them to get back on their feet in a cut-throat BlackMarket-run economy like Zeltbull's.
** It's even better than that. According to Queen Mirelia, Shirou inflicted such a ''crippling'' strike to the GladiatorGames as a form of business that they likely won't recover from it in a lifetime, if ever. Once the dust settles, she predicts her diplomatic agenda with Zeltbull will be a lot easier to achieve because the collapse of the Colosseums will shift the balance of power between the merchant guilds toward blacksmiths, who are naturally more receptive to her peacemaking efforts because the tariff of their import and exports depend on friendly enough international relations. Such a prospect puts the Queen of Melromarc in an outright ''giddy'' mood, to the point she has to fight down the urge to [[NotSoStoic break into maniacal laughing]] lest spies will see it.
** To sum it all up: [[GladiatorSubquest Shirou kicked ass at the arena]]. [[SlaveLiberation Bought, released, and relocated]] over ten ''thousand'' slaves including Atla, Fohl, a yet-to-be-named Sadeena, many of them experienced combatants ready to pay him back should he someday need it. He destroyed GladiatorGames as a form of business, saving an untold potential number of people from such a horrible fate, all while making himself ''stupidly'' rich in the process. And finally, if more incidentally, he also ''landscaped'' Zeltbull's political topography in Queen Mirelia's favor, making her peacemaking efforts a lot easier to achieve. All because Atla and Fohl reminded him too much of Illya and himself, prompting Shirou to decide he couldn't let something like that stand while kicking the Sword of Sloth's induced BystanderSyndrome to the curb. Did we mention that all this happened over few days and only the Queen and her Shadows even know he did it all?
** Later chapters reveal an additional positive outcome from Shirou's actions in Zeltbull. The Three Colosseums were also the biggest buyers of slaves in the market at an international scale, meaning that Shirou forcing them to go under all but made the illegal slave trade ''implode'' on itself. While this doesn't do much against the legal slave trade, Shirou basically marked the end of an era for most slave poachers.
** In a more {{Meta}} perspective, we can see that five years of being lectured by Rin has made him smarter in doing heroic deeds as he now takes the long-term effects of his actions into account.

* In Chapter 30, Atla figures out the basic of a coveted [[ArmorPiercingAttack Defense-piercing technique]] from the Peerless Transformation/Hengen Musou, a legendary fighting style with feats to its name on the level of the Seven Star Heroes and Cardinal Heroes of old, by merely observing Shirou manipulating his prana when using his Magecraft.
* Just like he did in Siltvelt, Shirou single-handedly cleared most of the monsters in the Melromarc's Wave in Chapter 37 after succeeding in his goal to let Atla and Fohl grind their levels and observing the other Heroes' actions, including sending the Wave Boss to near death. Only this time, the other Cardinal Heroes got to witness it.

** It's worth noticing that's ''[[BitchInSheepsClothing Malty]]'s'' narration of events, meaning that "Issei's" display was so awe-inspiring in both senses of the word that even a terminal case of [[ItsAllAboutMe narcissism]] and {{sociopath}}y like her couldn't help but walk in fearful and respectful silence in its aftermath. That's just how damn scary Shirou can be from a third-person perspective.

* Two chapters later, we get a backhanded compliment in Naofumi's monologue. It's pretty impressive that he put Motoyasu on the same level as Raphtalia when it comes to being useful in battle considering Motoyasu only had five days to put into practice what he learned from Shirou.

** Not content with destroying one of the colosseums in Zeltbull, Shirou takes the opportunity to get rid of ''all three of them'' by starting an easily extinguishable fire in the West East Colosseum [[FalseFlagOperation while framing the North East Colosseum]] for both acts of arson. This sparks a violent MobWar between them that not only keeps the remaining two colosseums closed for the time being and thus cutting them off from their source of income, but the conflict itself cost them people, resources, and reputation that should make it very hard for them to get back on their feet in a cut-throat BlackMarket-run economy like Zeltbull's.

** Shirou soon reveals that saving Fohl and the other gladiator slaves while making a tidy profit at the same time was ''far'' from the true extent of his plans. He goes back to his Mercenary Saint persona and uses his sudden wealth to go to the colosseum's joint slave trading business as a costumer interested in purchasing Fohl and Atla. If you're thinking he breaks their Slave Seals, grabs them and fights his way out by kicking everybody's asses and making plenty enemies and a political clusterfrak to deal with, then think again. Shirou simply tells the Slave Dealer he's buying all the slaves -- as in the Colosseum's ''entire stock'' of over 10,000 slaves including but not limited to their gladiators, sex slaves, domestic slaves, you name it -- plus enough carriages and Filorials to transport them, all for above their market price to a 50,000 gold total (going by fanon estimations, that's around USD 200 ''million''). The Slave Dealer simply stops breathing when Firo starts to unload the cash and he realizes that yes, the guy is being completely serious about it, and then runs to comply when Shirou says he will throw in another 5,000 gold if he manages to get it all done by the end of the day. Not often ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney and ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight have looked so good together.

** No content with destroying one of the colosseums in Zeltbull, Shirou takes the opportunity to get rid of ''all three of them'' by starting an easily extinguishable fire in the West East Colosseum [[FalseFlagOperation while framing the North East Colosseum]] for both acts of arson. This sparks a violent MobWar between them that not only keeps the remaining two colosseums closed for the time being and thus cutting them off from their source of income, but the conflict itself cost them people, resources, and reputation that should make it very hard for them to get back on their feet in a cut-throat BlackMarket-run economy like Zeltbull's.
** It's even better than that. According to Queen Mirelia, Shirou inflicted such a ''crippling'' strike to the GladiatorGames as a form of business that they likely won't recover from it in a lifetime, if ever. Once the dust settles, she predicts her diplomatic agenda with Zeltbull will be a lot easier to achieve because the collapse of the Colosseums will shift the balance of power between the merchant guilds toward blacksmiths, who are naturally more receptive to her peacemaking efforts because the tariff of their import and exports depend on friendly enough international relations. Such a prospect puts the Queen of Melromarc in an outright ''giddy'' mood, to the point she has to fight down the urge to [[NotSoStoic break into maniacal laughing]] lets spies will see it.

** Despite all the above, it's soon revealed those were just the preparative steps of his ''real'' double-objective plan. Instead of simply [[SlaveLiberation releasing the slaves from his ownership]] right then and there, he gets Queen Mirelia's permission to have them relocated in Melromarc under the protection of Van Reichnott, one of the few good nobles she has in her DecadentCourt, which is why he bought all those carriages. Shirou was also counting on the good faith he earned by realizing them and curing Atla to convince the former slaves of following him. Furthermore he specifically requested Filorials to pull from the carriages because Firo's status as a Filorial princess gives her authority over them, which considerably simplified the logistics of such a massive migration together with the literal tons of food stored in Jian's {{Hammerspace}} from all the monsters they killed in the previous Wave.

** To sum it all up: [[GladiatorSubquest Shirou kicked ass at the arena]]. [[SlaveLiberation Bought, released, and relocated]] over ten ''thousand'' slaves including Atla, Fohl, a yet-to-be-named Sadeena, many of them experienced combatants ready to pay him back should he someday need it. He destroyed GladiatorGames as a form of business, saving an untold potential number of people from such a horrible fate, all while making himself ''stupidly'' rich in the process. And finally, if more incidentally, he also ''landscaped'' Zeltbull's political topography in Queen Mirelia's favor, making her peacemaking efforts a lot easier. All because Atla and Fohl reminded him too much of Illya and himself and Shirou decided he couldn't let that stand while kicking the Sword of Sloth's induced BystanderSyndrome to the curb. Did we mention that all this happened over few days and only the Queen and her shadows even know he did it all?
** Later chapters reveal an additional positive outcome from Shirou's actions in Zeltbull. The three colosseum were also the biggest buyers of slaves in the market, meaning that Shirou forcing them to go under all but made the illegal slave trade ''implode'' on itself. While this doesn't do much against the legal slave trade, Shirou basically marked the end of an era for most slave poachers.

* In Chapter 26, Shirou made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy due to the Sword of Sloth with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] in the previous chapter makes it doubly awesome.

* Shirou has a lot of these.
** He single-handedly annihilates most of the Siltvelt wave's monsters with a StormOfBlades.
** He made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy due to the Sword of Sloth with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] in the previous chapter makes it doubly awesome.

* Rita knocks down the Spear Hero with a [[RuleOfFunny spear]].
* Atla manages to somehow do Peerless Transformation/Hengen Musou by merely observing Shirou using his Magecraft.

* Shirou singlehandly cleared most of the monsters in the Melromarc Wave after succeeding in his goal to let Atla and Fohl grind their levels and observing the other heroes' actions and sent the boss to near death.

--> Malty had been there as Motoyasu-sama and Itsuki-sama had almost effortlessly pushed back the Wave all the way to the origin with minimal assistance from the others. The powerful attacks blasting back the monsters that stood in their way.

--> They were powerful and gallant and… [[OvershadowedByAwesome completely shown up]].

--> When they had finally reached the disgusting Zombie after a two-mile trek on foot through the monster infested areas, swords began to rain down from sky all around them. Each and every one of them hitting a monster without causing any damage to their allies, and more than ten of them piercing the Boss's body. With the pressure removed and the Boss already hobbled, the Bow and Spear defeated the monster easily.

* You have to give credit to Naofumi and Motoyasu for actually managing to [[TeethClenchedTeamwork work well]] [[EnemyMine together]] considering they don't like each other's guts and was just in a duel earlier. ''Especially'' Motoyasu, as he's way more competent here than he was in canon, actually figuring out that all they're doing is put some pressure on him, and it's not enough.
** Two chapters later, we get a backhanded compliment in Naofumi's monologue. It's pretty impressive that he put Motoyasu on the same level as Raphtalia when it comes to being useful in battle considering Motoyasu only had five days to put into practice what he learned from Shirou.

* It gets somewhat lost due to the graveness of the situation, but Shirou went from from sitting to running at nearly twice the speed of sound in 3 seconds to save Rishia from falling.

* It was a backhanded insult by Naofumi, but it's pretty impressive that he put Motoyasu in the same level as Raphtalia when it comes to being useful in battle considering Motoyasu only had five days to put into practice what he learned from Shirou.

* You have to give credit to Naofumi and Motoyasu for actually managing to [[TeethClenchedTeamwork work well]] [[EnemyMine together]] considering they don't like each other's guts and was just in a duel earlier. ''Especially'' Motoyasu, as he's way more competent here than he was in canon, actually figuring out that all they're doing is put some pressure on him, and it's not enough.

--> When they had finally reached the disgusting Zombie after a two-mile trek on foot through the monster infested areas, swords began to rain down from sky all around them. Each and every one of them hitting a monster without causing any damage to their allies, and more than ten of them piercing the Boss's body. With the pressure removed and the Boss already hobbled, the Bow and Spear defeated the monster easily.

* spoiler: Atla manages to somehow do Peerless Transformation/Hengen Musou by merely observing Shirou using his Magecraft.

** He made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy spoiler: due to the Sword of Sloth with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] in the previous chapter makes it doubly awesome.

--> They were powerful and gallant and… completely shown up.

* Shirou singlehandly cleared most of the monsters in the Melromarc Wave after succeeding in his goal to let spoiler:Atla and Fohl grind their levels and observing the other heroes' actions and sent the boss to near death.

* Shirou singlehandly cleared most of the monsters in the Melromarc Wave after succeeding in his goal to let [[spoiler:Atla and Fohl]] grind their levels and observing the other heroes' actions and sent the boss to near death.

** He made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy [[spoiler: due to the Sword of Sloth]] with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] in the previous chapter makes it doubly awesome.

* [[spoiler: Atla]] manages to somehow do Peerless Transformation/Hengen Musou by merely observing Shirou using his Magecraft.

--> //Malty had been there as Motoyasu-sama and Itsuki-sama had almost effortlessly pushed back the Wave all the way to the origin with minimal assistance from the others. The powerful attacks blasting back the monsters that stood in their way.

They were powerful and gallant and… completely shown up.

When they had finally reached the disgusting Zombie after a two-mile trek on foot through the monster infested areas, swords began to rain down from sky all around them. Each and every one of them hitting a monster without causing any damage to their allies, and more than ten of them piercing the Boss's body. With the pressure removed and the Boss already hobbled, the Bow and Spear defeated the monster easily.//

* Shirou singlehandly cleared most of the monsters in the Melromarc Wave after succeeding in his goal to let [[spoiler:Atla and Fohl]] grind their levels and observing the other heroes' actions and sent the boss to near death.

* [[spoiler: Atla]] manages to somehow do Peerless Transformation/Hengen Musou by merely observing Shirou using his Magecraft.

** He made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy [[spoiler: due to the Sword of Sloth]] with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] last chapter makes it doubly awesome.

* Rita knocks down the Spear Hero with a spear. Also RuleOfFunny.

** He made short work of two Griffins in the Colosseum unarmed. The fact that this was preceded by Shirou snapping out of his apathy [[spoiler: due to the Sword of Sloth]] with sheer [[{{Determinator}} willpower]] last chapter makes it doubly awesome