by Fuse
“Very well. We leave this to you, Sir Rimuru…”
I nodded back. Although, of course, I didn’t intend for him and everyone else to just keep quiet and wait.
“…There is a job I would like to have all of you do for me, though. Right now, there are magical devices of some sort in all four cardinal directions around town, generating that weakening barrier over us. Each is being guarded by a company of knights. I’d guess they’re pretty powerful, but I’d like you to attack them and take them all down simultaneously.”
“Ohhh?”
“I see. So we do have a role in this?”
“Allow me, Rogurd, to accept this mission!”
“Yeah, I’m pretty darn mad right now, too!”
Everyone was raring to go, even before I’d finished my request. I raised a hand to silence them. “Hold on. I’ve already decided on my personnel. I want to ask as few people as needed to go through the town’s barrier. First, Benimaru will tackle the east. Hakuro, Rigur, Gobta, and Geld will handle the west. The south will be taken by Gabil and his team; the north by Soei and his. The enemy’s reportedly got teleportation circles in place, so we have to strike them before reinforcements can be sent in! If they do manage to send more troops, call Ranga over immediately, even if you think it won’t be enough to put up a resistance. Did you hear that, Soei?”
“Not a problem, Sir Rimuru. I thank you for providing us the opportunity. Gabil is ready to go as well, and I doubt any of us will fail.”
“Does it look like you can win, from your perspective?”
“It will be simple if we only handle one of the four.”
Great. Soei’s team consisted of a mere six people—himself, Soka, and four others. Their skills were honed for assassination missions, and they’d provide a good match even for an entire enemy unit if it wasn’t prepared for them. Plus, with their movement speed, they’d certainly be able to pull the wool over the enemy’s eyes and flee if needed.
Gabil and his men had grown far stronger during the evolution to dragonewt form. Each one ranked a good B-plus now, and I doubted they’d lose out to even the most well trained of knights. They all had ample potion, too, so as long as they weren’t one-shot killed, they could keep up a fight indefinitely.
So north and south were no problem, and to the east, I had Benimaru to count on.
“I have no concern about your chances, Benimaru, but it’ll be you operating solo against nearly a hundred knights. If you sense any danger—”
“Sir Rimuru, there is no need for worry. It is a given that I will—”
“You don’t have to go easy on them, keep in mind.”
“Heh. In that case, victory is assured.”
No worries about him, either. Among our group, only I was stronger than him, and he had the skills needed to handle large numbers at once.
That just left the west side, which did concern me.
“Okay. So: Hakuro, Rigur, Gobta, and Geld…”
“Sir Rimuru,” Rigur said, “you are safe in our hands. I have no intention of tasting defeat twice. But if you are that worried about us, is it because…you feel it’s likely they are among their numbers?”
Exactly. The west side connects to the shortest highway route to the kingdom of Blumund. If the enemy anticipated that our merchants would flee down that road, then the knights who attacked us earlier were probably stationed to the west so they could strike at our visitors.
“Can you win against them? There’s a very good chance those otherworlders are among them.”
“Sir Rimuru, we are not as weak as we used to be. We have the power to fight, not just to be protected by Sir Hakuro.”
“Yeah! Plus, I gotta get me some revenge for Gobzo!”
“I know we number just four,” Geld said, “but I want you to trust us. I promise you, Sir Rimuru, I will wield the powers you granted me as an orc king as much as I possibly can!”
Hakuro’s reputation preceded him. Geld was powerful, if not quite as much as Benimaru. Rigur, in his role as leader of our security forces, was just as capable in battle as Rigurd. Gobta… Okay, I was a little worried about him, but I figured not even that fool would try anything too rash.
“All right. Take those magical devices down, make this annoying barrier disappear, and give our people their full strength back!”
“““Yes, my lord!!”””
With them on the job, the barrier was as good as gone. That just left me to take on the invading forces by myself.
There was one other thing too important to forget.
“Now, Shuna…”
“Yes?”
“Like I just said, Benimaru and everyone will remove the barrier for us. However, it’s that very barrier, in all likelihood, that is helping keep the souls of Shion and everyone else within reach. Do you see what I’m getting at?”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru. You want us to prepare a replacement barrier for you?”
“Exactly. Can you do that?”
“Oh, that goes without saying, my lord. I promise it will be done!”
Right now, as we spoke, I was casting a unique sort of great magic. I was also releasing a vast quantity of magicules into the air, filling it. That was what it took to maintain the barrier and supplement the magicule supply around here—and I wanted Shuna to make a new reinforcing barrier to help with that. The rest of the people in town would pitch in, too, of course—whatever it took to boost the chances of bringing them all back alive.
In the laws of magic, just like the laws of physics, there was the concept of going “high to low.” Basically, if the air was filled with energy, I figured that would help prevent the energy covering all those souls from dissipating. If they lost this protection, the souls could go right through the barrier and be vaporized. A soul is a pure, unadulterated collection of energy; there is nothing to fence it in. And with the astral bodies of monsters made of magicules, if we could keep this energy from dissipating, I figured that would pen up the souls well enough. That was the Great Sage’s take on things, and all I could do was count on that. (Humans, by the way, could pass through the barrier without resistance, since they had relatively few magicules inside their bodies. It was totally different from monsters, who were much more directly affected by that energy.)
“I would love to help with that if I could,” Mjurran said. Great magic, along with barriers, was an apparent specialty of hers. I appreciated the offer a ton.
“Hey, Shuna…”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru. Thank you for that, Mjurran.”
“Leave it to me. I promise I’ll devote my full energy to it.”
So Shuna and Mjurran would be working together to keep my great magic going strong. Now I could fight with a clear mind.
“Rigurd! I want everybody left to help keep these two safe in the meantime!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“I—I can do that, too?!”
“You got us here, too, pal!”
“Allow the noble Gruecith to see this through for you!”
“Yeah, my bodyguards and I will do our best!”
“You are in good hands, Rimuru.”
“Yeah, you heard ’em, boss!”
I had Kurobe, Yohm, Gruecith, Rigurd, and the Kabal trio in town. It couldn’t be a safer place if they were here.
“Right! I imagine our enemy assumes the final battle’s four days from now, but that doesn’t matter to us. Right now, from this very moment, it is time to do what must be done and annihilate our foes!”
And with that order, everyone began to move, working to the last man to bring Shion, Gobzo, and everyone else back.
Benimaru’s back was straight, shoulders high, as he strode directly for the magical device installed east of town. One of the Temple Knights there was the first to spot him.
“Someone approaching ahead! All troops, prepare for battle!”
It was this company of Temple Knights that established the Prison Field, the barrier weakening the monsters, at Archbishop Reyhiem
’s order. There were a bit over a hundred of them, each ranking a B-plus threat individually. Three other companies were in each of the other directions, attending to the barrier devices. They boasted astonishing battle skills, geared more toward tackling monsters than your average knight, and all of them were more than amply trained for the job. And like any devout member of the Western Holy Church, none of them was complacent. They had guards on duty, tense and focused, and Benimaru was discovered in short order.
And yet—
“Sorry, man, but you’re gonna help me vent my anger a bit.”
It sounded almost haughty, the way he put it, but nobody was there to complain. In an instant, they were all dead. With his sword, encased in jet-black flame, he cut the knights neatly in half—armor and all—as easily as ripping a sheet of paper. Their fresh blood stained the ground red, like crimson fields of flowers blooming amid the black fire.
One of them held out just long enough to voice his final resentments.
“N-nobody said anything about this…this…monster…”
It was the captain of the knight company, and it was his last act on this world before the black flame consumed him. That single dance-like motion from Benimaru didn’t even need half a minute to knock them all out—and another offhand swipe of his sword slashed right through the magical device.
“Mission complete,” he whispered. “Now—are any of my allies pathetic enough to be having trouble with this?”
He sincerely doubted it, but he still set off to check out the scene in the other directions.
Over to the south, Gabil was busy rousing his men.
“Gah-ha-ha-ha! I’ve finally been given a place in the sun! I was hoping my successes in putting our potions on the market would’ve merited my appointment to higher government by now… But then we had this distraction happen to us. It is simply outrageous that these minions should get in my way! Isn’t it?”
“It is exactly as you say, Sir Gabil!”
“Well put. I was hoping that our efforts would be rewarded by now and that Sir Gabil would be basking in the fruits of his success. But now…”
“Yes! Yes, precisely! But! If this battle can prove to Sir Rimuru that I can be of aid to him, I am all but guaranteed a lofty role in his hierarchy! I want to see the full extent of your force in action right now, people! Show them what a dragonewt riled is capable of!”
“““Raaahhh!!”””
Spirits were high, no doubt, although some of Gabil’s men might have questioned the way he phrased that speech. They knew Gabil didn’t need some fancy title in the Tempest government—he had already proven himself a capable leader in their eyes. That was why they had followed him when he was banished from his homeland, after all, and as petty as he could be about it sometimes, they knew he was seriously trying to boost their good name.
“Such words,” one of them whispered, “are exactly why Soka and the others make fun of him, you realize.”
“Shhh! You want him to hear you?”
“Yeah, well, that’s one of the good things about our general, after all, isn’t it?”
“No doubt. You said it.”
“Enough idle chitchat,” barked Gabil. “Put yourselves into this! Ah, you make life so difficult for me!”
“Oh, we do not, General!”
A quick laugh.
“Right! Forward!!”
They were roused and ready to fight as they took flight from the cave, cutting through the clouds as they went southward and attacking in tandem with the others.
The Temple Knights protecting the south were thrown into chaos upon witnessing the surprise attack from the skies. The ever-changing breath attacks—fire, ice, air—took out nearly a third of them in short order.
“Retain your positions!” a senior knight half ordered, half shouted as his men flew into a panic. “Go into our air-defense formation and prepare for magical impact!”
But he was already too late to avoid Gabil’s second wave of offense.
“Damn it! These aren’t lizardmen at all, are they? They don’t have anywhere near this level of force—much less wings to fly with!”
“Don’t panic! These are dragonewts! They’re not as common, but they’re nothing we can’t handle!”
“Dragonewts?! I can’t believe it! Such great numbers, and working as a team…”
Their confusion subsided before the third attack arrived, as they finally began to grasp the situation. But half of them were already down, and none of the survivors was free of injury.
“Curse them! Contact our headquarters and call for reinforcements!”
One of the knights prepared to follow his captain’s order. Then Gabil himself alighted next to him.
“Hngh!”
His spear plunged straight through the knight’s heart.
“May God damn you now!” the captain shouted as he engaged Gabil.
“Gah-ha-ha-ha! You captain this force? My name is Gabil, but there is no need to remember it. Consider my telling you a final gift before your death!”
“What? A named monster?! Very well. You should prove a worthy opponent for me!”
Gabil was occupying the full attention of the company’s leader and commander, and it threw the rest of the knights into disarray. This was the moment the other dragonewt warriors were waiting for. They were an even match, pound for pound, but thanks to the gift of flight, Gabil’s fighters had the advantage. Even the injured among them had High Potions at the ready, rapidly returning them to the front line.
“God smite them all! We hit them and hit them, and the bastards keep coming back!”
“Stay strong! We have the protection of Luminus upon— Gehhh…”
Their numbers were few now, and the shock of these monsters working in precise tandem had hardly worn off. The medicine these foes used to heal their wounds struck fear in their hearts. Even the most devout of the knights began to tremble—and as they did, the captain they so heavily relied upon was slain by Gabil.
“Gah-ha-ha-ha! Victory is mine!!”
Now the fate of this battle was sealed. Without a commander, the rest of the knights were helpless, quickly tasting defeat at the claws of Gabil’s men.
Over to the north, Soei and his platoon were on the move, silently using Shadow Motion to sneak into the encampment.
Out of nowhere, there was a dull thud—the sound of someone’s head hitting the ground. Soei had decapitated the garrison’s commander. It was a signal to all that the battle was on.
“N-no! Where did they…?!”
“Grahhh!”
“Aaahhh!!”
The shapeless assassins had successfully thrown the northern encampment into fits of terror.
“…Sir Soei, these troops were weaker than I thought. I apologize,” Soka said as he took a knee before his leader.
“…Apologizing would be meaningless. I am the one who shall make the final judgment. Plus…”
Soei paused a moment to think. Soka was right. These were all weaklings. If this was what they were dealing with, Soei’s team could have easily destroyed the magical devices in all four directions. Killing all the men as well would pose a challenge, but completing the objectives and escaping alive would have been no sweat.
But the problem wasn’t here on the north side.
“I was hoping they would be here…but I suppose it is the west, after all, just as Sir Rimuru surmised.”
“Yes, my lord! I believe you are right.”
The otherworlders had to be in the west. By Soei’s estimation, if their team worked alone to strike all four bases at once, it might have failed entirely if Soka and the others ran into those guys. Soei had already reported back to Rimuru along those lines—and that was why Soka’s apology was pointless.
“…But who can say,” he whispered as a smile crept onto his lips, “who the unlucky ones really are here?”
Hakuro was on his mind—the Hakuro he saw just before they all moved out. The look on his face was nothing short
of bloodcurdling. It made Soei happy he wasn’t the one facing him down. The otherworlders who struck in town conducted their killing like a pleasure hunt. Now things were quite different. They’d be taking on the Sword Ogre himself.
“It appears to be over,” Soka coldly stated. There were no survivors left among the Temple Knights of the north. Soei and his team were unhurt. It was a victory as total and complete as he had predicted.
The magic-producing device installed west of town had been placed atop a hill with a good view of the highway leading out. Unlike the other positions, the Temple Knights guarding it felt rather relaxed. Their encampment was the safest of all four, and it was loaded with forces—over two hundred troops in all.
There was, of course, a reason for this.
“Hey. Hasn’t anyone fled yet?”
“Oh, er, Shogo! No enemies sighted today, either, sir!”
The soldier who answered Shogo Taguchi’s question seemed terribly ill at ease around him.
“Pfft. How many days are they gonna waste planning their escape? Or did the merchants and adventurer bodyguards decide to share their fates with the town?”
“Ha-ha-ha! Oh, I wouldn’t be so impatient,” Kyoya said to soothe the clearly annoyed Shogo. “The other positions didn’t have any news, either. If they’re running, they’ll have to go down this road. It’s the only option.”
“Huh. Yeah, I hope,” Shogo resentfully replied. It had been three whole days, and nobody had fled town. It made him suspicious. He was here because of the merchants and adventurers who were supposed to be skipping town. Kyoya seemed content with just shutting down this highway, as ordered, but Shogo had other ideas. Razen, the head sorcerer of the Farmus court, had personally told him that he had free rein to massacre anyone on the highway.
Just as Rimuru thought, the Kingdom of Farmus had decided that anyone from Blumund trying to flee the region should be killed. Shogo was no homicidal maniac, but the order filled him with glee nonetheless. He had noticed something in this new world, and that was the way his skills could evolve.
