by Fuse
“There’s still a few days until our meeting. What happened?”
She looked at Soei and me in succession before setting her eyes upon me. “I am the daughter of the lizardman chief,” she said, conviction clear in her voice. “I serve as the head of his royal guard. In advance of our alliance, my brother Gabil has overthrown the royal family and imprisoned the chief. He intends to wage open battle against the orcs, but he vastly underestimates their strength. If this keeps up, we will lose, and the lizardman race will be wiped off the land.”
She paused for a moment, searching for the right words.
“The chief instructed me not to put an undue burden upon you as I related this message. But…please, as the one who offered us this alliance, I beg you to help us!”
Now she was fully prostrate on the ground at me.
Well, huh. Gabil was the son of the lizardman chief, it turned out, and his sister was right here with us. They must have all had good genes. It was a pity how Gabil turned out.
Still, I couldn’t let anything happen to the chief.
So now what…?
“Well, keep in mind that we haven’t forged this alliance quite yet. The chief knew he couldn’t count on us to get involved with an internal dispute at this point, so he sent you over to keep me informed of things. Is that how it is? If so, then why’re you asking me for help?”
It sounded mean, I knew, but I wasn’t bound by any debt to the lizardmen. It’d be one thing after I signed on the dotted line, but it’d still be a lot more intelligent for us to get out of there. I was also starting to resent her not having a name, either. I had heard monsters could tell one another apart via the subtle vibrations they emitted as part of their emotions, but as an ex-human, it was all Greek to me. I felt weird calling her a “lizardman” and “chief’s guard leader,” though.
As my mind was veering off track, she looked straight up at my face. “I thought,” she said, “that ones who have evolved to be as powerful as yourselves may have the strength to rescue us all. If the dryads who watch over this forest have recognized your skills, then I only hope you have the mercy to help. I fully know how selfish this is, but please…”
“Ah, well said!” Shion suddenly burst out. “You have a great deal of potential, indeed, if you have noticed the full glory of Sir Rimuru’s strength. I am sure the lizardmen shall be saved, just as you hope they will. We’re already dedicated to destroying the orc forces, besides!”
Great. Here we go again. I had the weirdest sense of déjà vu all of a sudden. I had appointed Shion to be my secretary, but she had a real knack for tossing more and more work into my in-box.
Ah well. We were in for a fight anyway. Might as well cooperate as much as we could—as long as we didn’t get hurt along the way.
“Soei, can you Shadow Motion yourself to where the chief is?”
“I can, sir.”
“All right. I hereby order you to rescue the lizardman chief. If anything gets in the way of our alliance, eliminate it.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“So you’ll…?! Oh, thank you so much!!”
The lizardman was beside herself with gratefulness. Which I was fine with. But again, I had no intention of getting myself killed for her.
“Keep in mind, I’m not planning to sacrifice myself or my people for this, all right?”
“I would expect as much, yes. I would also like to serve as your guide, if you like…”
Good. Glad to see she wasn’t offended. She probably knew she was asking a lot, and that she couldn’t heap all the responsibility on our shoulders alone. There wouldn’t be much point to calling it an alliance otherwise.
“I appreciate the thought,” I replied, “but Soei will reach the chief a lot faster operating by himself, I think—”
“Can you hold your breath for approximately three minutes?” Soei asked.
“Yes, absolutely! I can hold out for five, in fact.”
“All right. You can join me, then. Is that all right, Sir Rimuru?”
“Sure, no problem. Take these, too.”
I gave Soei a few recovery potions. If he was fine with it, I was, too. I had no reason to refuse her as long as she wasn’t a drag on my men.
“You could probably dilute these to a tenth of the strength and they’d still do the trick, as long as the injury’s not too serious. Use ’em on anyone who needs ’em. If anything happens, I’m just a Thought Communication away.”
“Yes, my lord.” He nodded and saluted me. “We’re off, then.”
The lizardman bowed deeply before turning to Soei. He placed his hands on her hips and began Shadow Motion, disappearing from our sight in an instant.
“I’m sure the chief is in good hands with him,” Benimaru said approvingly. And given Soei’s skills, I figured he was right.
With Soei taking care of the chief, I went back to my original work of surveying the battlefield. Things had ramped up, apparently, so I didn’t have time to waste.
“All right. Let’s go see what this Gabil guy is up to.”
“Can we help him, do you think?” Shion asked.
I shrugged. “Depends on him, I suppose. I can’t say if he’s still alive or not.”
We had agreed to rescue the lizardman chief. I hadn’t breathed a word about Gabil, and I certainly wasn’t going to expose ourselves to danger for his sake…
For now, I wanted to check out the state of the war.
“You aren’t planning to venture into battle yourself, are you, Sir Rimuru?”
“That’s my plan, Benimaru. And I’d like to see things with my own eyes before deciding on anything.”
Scoping out the situation was basic stuff, I thought, and I did want to check and see if Gabil was alive. Benimaru, however, was vehemently opposed.
“My lord, wait a moment. Hakuro and I could handle the job well enough by ourselves. You and Shion could simply observe us from afar, instead.”
“Indeed, Sir Rimuru. You are my leader, and the leader of us all. I am sure it would be wiser to leave this battle to us, in this case…”
Guys, guys, that’s not gonna work. All we had here were Benimaru, Hakuro, and a hundred goblin riders. Everyone had to pitch in.
I had been planning to work out a more detailed battle plan at a conference once the alliance was set in stone, but I already had the general idea in mind. We’d use the lizardman force as bait, and I’d have Benimaru and the other ogre mages take care of the higher-level orcs for me. In other words, I basically wanted to create a scenario where I’d be fighting one-on-one against the orc lord. I wasn’t interested in sending a hundred people to their suicides against two hundred thousand.
“Whoa, whoa, calm down, guys. Do you seriously intend to defeat two hundred thousand screaming orcs with a band of a hundred Riders?” I pointed out with more than a little disbelief.
“Yeah!” Gobta chimed in enthusiastically. “You tell ’em, sir!” I couldn’t blame him. You couldn’t expect someone to follow an order to jump off a cliff.
“I figured, where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Benimaru grumbled. Only Hakuro and Shion agreed with him. I was starting to wonder if all these ogres had a screw loose somewhere. “Will” can only get you so far, guys!
I was planning to give them a fair bit of leeway, but maybe I should tighten the reins a little instead. They had already lost to the orcs once—they should know how scary they all were. That was my take on their reaction, but I didn’t verbally share it with them. They were all acting like their evolutions had wiped the slate totally clean.
“Well, anyway, I’m gonna be watching the situation from the skies above. I’ll give out orders depending on how things go, so I’ll let you handle the details on the ground, Benimaru.”
“All right. Fair enough, then.”
That seemed to appease him well enough. But I was still nervous. I’d never done anything like commanding an army before. I played a lot of strategy games on the PC, but I had no experience directi
ng actual flesh and blood around. So my intention was to watch the action from overhead and stick strictly to handing out orders. I’d use Thought Communication to link up with everyone and keep them abreast of developments. Benimaru would then use that to command the ground forces, although I’d have ultimate authority over whether we retreated or not.
“So is that clear?” I said to the assembled goblin riders. “You are to follow the orders of Benimaru, unless I give specific orders myself. Also, don’t do anything you think might get you killed! This isn’t gonna be our last stand, so don’t fool yourself into thinking it is.”
““Raahhhh!””
The riders roared their approval once more. I warned them not to get too hotheaded, but war was war, and they were rarin’ for one.
“We will not let you down, Sir Rimuru!” Shion said, Benimaru nodding next to her. Hakuro was as unaffected as always.
…Ahh, I’m sure it’ll work itself out. But between the way-overconfident ogres and the level of excitement among the goblin riders, I had a feeling I was getting in over my head. So I swore to myself—If things get too hairy, retreat, retreat, retreat.
I was about to sprout wings from behind my back when I realized that my clothes would get in the way.
Wings granted me the ability to fly—that I knew from past experimentation—but this was an unexpected snag. Then I recalled what Shuna told me. The magical thread used in the clothing could transform itself, to some extent, based on the will of the wearer. Now I know what she meant.
Picturing myself with wings, I could feel two holes automatically open over my back. The wings came out, and the holes closed themselves. This customization is pretty nice. Better thank Shuna and Garm again later.
It would take about an hour of running to make it out of the forest, but in the air, it took barely any time at all. Now I was above the battlefield, checking out the entire situation. I was a bit too high up to distinguish between the two sides, but I could use Magic Sense to figure it out well enough.
It was almost like I was a satellite, taking photos of the land below from sub-stratospheric heights. And come to think of it, having a bird’s-eye view of the entire battle like this gave us a killer advantage, didn’t it? And using that info to send Thought Communication messages to any of the troops I needed… It was like bringing the latest advances in war technology to a medieval battle. I had access to information that no general in this world could’ve ever imagined.
It was just what I needed to make the numbers work with the small force we had. In fact, this approach was probably best suited for handling small, mobile armies like ours. I marveled at my good luck at stumbling across this tactic as I scoped out the battlefield.
To sum up, it wasn’t looking great for the lizardmen. They were clearly surrounded with no escape route, and it was only the wild rallying from their leader that let them hold out. There was no telling how long they’d last.
Squinting, I recognized Gabil as the leader. I thought he was some random idiot at first, but maybe I underestimated him. Given how obviously devoted his sister was to him, I should’ve recognized that he was a decent person at the core. The first impression he gave was disastrous, though.
As a commander, he lacked the ability to see the big picture in battle, which might ultimately doom him. But it wasn’t like leaders were born capable of doing that, without any experience. If he survived this and learned from it, he’d very likely become a great general someday.
Now a single orc appeared before Gabil. Another group, clad in black armor, formed a circle around him. Definitely higher-level ones, decked out in full plate and showing a military discipline none of the other orcs had. The one facing Gabil was likely an orc general like the one Shion had erased from existence a bit ago; he clearly projected a much stronger presence than the orcs in the circle.
Then the duel began. Gabil fought courageously. His considerable nimbleness and skill with a spear as he faced off against the orc general made me wonder if Gobta had had any chance at all, in fact, without that shadow-skipping trick.
Sadly, though, the difference in strength between him and the orc general was just too much. Little by little, Gabil’s body was being ravaged by cuts and wounds. I hated to let him die. And if that’s what I thought, the answer was clear. I gave my orders.
Ranga, can you Shadow Motion yourself to Gabil?
Yes, my master.
As with Soei, Ranga could directly travel to anybody he’d personally met before. Which simplified things for me, definitely.
Gobta, you go there, too!
Geh! R-really?! It’s, like, a huge army there—
I heard a scream of pain through the transmitted thought. Gobta was cut off for a moment, then the line came back.
He will gladly accept the mission, Sir Rimuru.
Now it was Shion inserting herself into my mind. I didn’t know what had happened to Gobta, but I suppose I didn’t need to.
Great. I want you two to rescue Gabil for me. Get going!
Gobta would get to Gabil first while Ranga was distracting the rest of the horde. He’d then work with the lizardmen and goblins to forge a path out of that hellhole.
Off they went, together. But not even they could last long amid the sheer number of orcs, I thought.
Sir Rimuru, Benimaru asked, are we allowed to go…all out, then?
Help the lizardmen first. They need it. After that, do whatever you want. Pay attention to whatever orders Hakuro gives you, but otherwise, have at it.
Yes, my lord! We will show them exactly what the ogre race—or should I say, the ogre mages can do!
He sounded happy. Which was good. Because things were about to happen, and quickly.
My orders complete, I checked on the state of the battle.
The lizardman defensive ranks were about to collapse. It wouldn’t be long now. And if that’s how it was outside, the caverns where the chief was might be just as infested right now. I sent Soei in there by himself; would he be all right? I wasn’t too worried about Ranga, but what about Gobta? To say nothing of Benimaru and his crew…
Oh well. No point fretting about it now. I gave the orders, and they accepted them. If any agreed to do something they knew they couldn’t accomplish, it was their own damn fault.
When I was still new at my company, the boss would yell at me all the time about taking on more work than I could handle. If things got delayed as a result, it negatively affected everyone on the team, according to him. The same went for managers, too—if they were too unobservant to realize they were overtaxing their employees, they deserved what was coming to them.
It was key to do the work that was best suited to you. A boss’s job was to gauge his team’s abilities and distribute the work correctly.
I still didn’t have a full grasp on these guys’ capabilities. It was hard to figure out whether I was asking them for too much or not. I just hoped they knew themselves better than I did—and that I wasn’t dumber than I thought.
It was an irresponsible thing to think, but I had to believe in it for now. And since a boss’s task was to step in and help whenever things went awry, I had a duty to keep watch over them. If anyone ran into trouble down there, I didn’t want them to be alone.
A single swing of the halberd broke the spear in the chief’s hands.
The fact the chief had survived this assault so far was worthy of praise in itself. He gave a proud sneer as he looked at the orc general.
“Pah-ha-ha-ha! I can fight all I want to without a weapon!”
All the bravado in the world didn’t convince anyone else in the room that he meant it. His armor was already shattered, cracks in his proud scale mail obvious for all to see. With nothing left to protect him, the chief was a hairbreadth away from death.
“Listen!” he shouted with as much authority as he could muster. “Come forward, my guard! Protect as many of the women and children as you can. I refuse to let you give up! Buy us as much time as possible and wait
for help to arrive!”
“Ch-chief… These reinforcements cannot truly exist…”
“Don’t say that!” he replied, admonishing the vice general of his royal guard. “Believe in them! We can never abandon hope. Protect the pride of the lizardmen until the very end!”
The chief never wanted to show a moment of weakness. He was a symbol of the lizardman strength, their final hope. To the lizardmen with no place else to flee to, they had nothing to lean upon apart from his words.
“Plus,” he added to his team with a smile, “as long as I can beat this foe, we can open a new path for ourselves.”
He was right. If they could defeat the orc ringleader blocking the exit, they would have a literal path to survival. There was no despair among the lizardman warriors.
Even if their chief fell, they knew they would stand up and fight. This much they had learned over the years, seeing him stand for his people. They would fight to the last man, and as long as they evacuated as many of the innocents as they could, no greater victory could be obtained.
They had to find a connection to the future. But even that hope was crushed before the orc general.
“You old fool! All the ridiculous chatter in the world won’t save you now!”
A flash, and the halberd in the orc general’s hands sliced its way into, and then through, the chief’s chest.
“Argh!!”
He fell, coughing up blood on the way.
This is it…
The caverns echoed with the shouts of lizardmen.
The orc general stepped forward, aiming to land the final blow upon the chief, only to be stopped by a small team of fighters. He cut them down, resentful at this obstacle, and reached the chief’s body.
“You fought well, for a lizardman,” he rumbled. “Your courage proves to us that you will serve well as our flesh and blood. When you die, you will die basking in the honor of becoming part of us!”
He aimed the blade of his halberd upon the chief’s neck, lifted it up, and—
“I’d rather you didn’t do that. We have a promise with the chief.”
