The Orc Lord
She hates it. She absolutely hates it. It's the middle of the night, which means basically everyone else is asleep. Rowena is busy putting together as many evacuation plans as possible just in case things go wrong and their first one isn't usable for some reason, so she wasn't really available. And she's absolutely drawing a complete blank on any experiments she could do with her Skills and the like to kill time.
Which means she's left to nothing but the black hole that is her thoughts as of late.
It's why she currently had her left foot planted on the edge of her chair, gazing at her husband's confusing words even as her left hand's thumb absently rubs back and forth over where her wife's words were under her shirt, “...Seriously, what is with this? What the hell does ‘individual not found’ even mean?"
No matter how much she wracks her mind trying to find answers trying to ignore the thought that they aren't here, she just… can't think of anything.
It makes her wish she had a strong drink to try and drown everything out.
It wasn't good in general obviously, but she supposes that's one benefit of things continuing to happen back to back to back. It gives her something else to focus on. Most of the time anyway. It doesn't really help now but…
She sighs as she leans back somewhat and tilts her head upwards to gaze at the ceiling of the roof in her room in the temporary dorm.
Her gaze wanders as she turns ideas to kill time at night better over in her head. The town planning is basically done, and despite the fact neither of them really expects it, with the way they just… keep getting new people, they've even planned out enough for a small city. Even with the magic books, with the way that between how this universe's magic works and her own honed talent in raw magic manipulation, she basically just needs to imagine it and she'll usually get something. She still hasn't achieved any sort of time manipulation, but she also isn't really getting anywhere with that, just getting more acceleration and deceleration Skills.
Those have finally started to merge a bit, but it's slow going. Probably because while they're all acceleration manipulation in general, in that overall category they're opposing. At this point, she's basically been forced to take a step back and reevaluate her overall methodology rather than just trying new particular strategies within it. It's strange, having so much trouble when she has a vague idea of what she's wanting to do. She can't decide if it's because her mind is too scattered when it comes to anything but the burning questions about her soulmates she's genuinely doing something wrong or it's just harder as a natural consequence of how powerful even a simple, small success is practically guaranteed to be.
She doesn't exactly have a way of measuring the problem either.
On a different line, there is engraving magic, she had gone through her books swiftly. Initially just making some quick minor things to generally improve quality and ease of living in the burgeoning town. Then she'd moved onto using her Elemental Sight to work out how to get a Teleport Gate using the method of pulling what it's teleporting into the information dimension. She had of course detoured into making a spell to do the same for her own use since she has the magic to easily power it, even if she uses larger versions with a lot of targets. But she's keeping a tight lid on it, not wanting a teleporting magic that doesn't run the risk of killing the people it's transporting until she works out engraving based warding to counter it getting out to potentially be used against them.
And that right there is the crux of the problem with her engraving magic experiments. She hasn't gotten anywhere near a sort of ward she's remotely happy with. The ones she has managed to put together as a sort of ‘proof of concept’ of various permanent ward techniques she was trying are frankly garbage in her opinion. She's still been trying to make them better of course, if only to potentially get up to something she can actually use as a placeholder until she can possibly make something with similar functionality to a Patronus fire ward, and/or something with a basis in the area of effect style Decomposition.
The problem is, that's pretty damn stonewalled itself. Since she regained the use of Elemental Sight, she can at least start to get a deeper understanding of what each engraving magic symbol does and exactly the reaction between combinations, but that doesn't magically give her answers. Especially when her mind is so unfocused and listless about anything else but the soulmate problem.
So. She's basically banging her head against the proverbial wall when it comes to that as well.
If it wasn't for the fact that with everything that keeps happening and she still can't really afford to wander out of town to start going places just so she can teleport there later with her spell she'd be doing that at night, but… As tempting as it is to just start heading out to slowly expand, she really can't afford to risk it as things currently stand.
…Arts maybe?
Hakuro briefly explained Formhide and Arts after evolving, but she still hasn't gotten around to asking him about them.
…She should do that tomorrow so she can start practicing those at night.
She sighs. Morning couldn't come fast enough.
Following Soei through Shadow Motion, she exits into a cavern, surrounded by Lizardmen. There's a throne of sorts in the middle back of the room, and she focuses on that immediately, ignoring the other Lizardmen for now, “The Lizardmen Chief I assume?” He nods solemnly, “Greetings, I am Rimuru, the one Soei here serves that he was speaking of when he first made contact.”
He nods in greeting, “It is an honor to meet such a distinguished individual Lady Rimuru.”
She smiles, “Unfortunate that it's under such circumstances, but I suppose it can't be helped. And on that topic, I hate to jump right into business given it can be rude but…”
The Lizardmen Chief smiles, “It can't be helped given the circumstances.” She nods, and his smile slips away as he grows troubled, “...Is it true that it's an Ord Disaster?”
She sighs, “It hasn't evolved to that level yet, the Dryads who we're also working with have confirmed it's still just an Orc Lord. Which is still quite a problem of course, but not to the same degree.”
Before the Chief can reply, one of the Lizardmen off to the side of the Chief throne bristles, “The Dryads?! Such lies to toss around their lofty name! Why would they work with-”
Soei had twitched at him calling her a liar, but she quickly stops him from losing his cool for the ‘insult’ to her, reaching out with Thought Communication, <Easy Soei. Given what you've all told me about the Dryads, it's not surprising there would be disbelief.>
Out loud, she turns her lazy gaze towards the man, “You are aware they see everything in the Forest, yes?”
He looks insulted, which is ironic given the crap he was saying, “Of course! What do you take me for, an ignorant child?!”
She tilts her head, “Which means they absolutely heard me say that. And yet, none of them showed up because I was using their name without authorization.”
There's a heavy silence as that sinks in and her Multidimensional Perception lets her know he's blanching under his scales.
The Chief looks rather miffed at his man, pinning him with an angered gaze, “Quite so. The very fact she was capable of making that claim without them showing up to at least dispute her, if not punish her depending on their measure of her character and goal in and of itself speaks volumes. So too, does the very fact they’re working with her give a lofty assessment of said character and goals.” He turns back to her and bows his head a bit, “I apologize for the insult Lady Rimuru. I beg you not hold it against us.”
She shakes her head, “Don't concern yourself over it. Leaders do not have such a tight grip on what their people do and say without becoming tyrants, and even then…”
The Chief smiles again, looking rather relieved, “Quite so, Lady Rimuru.” Then he sighs, “Sir Soei briefly gave us an overview of what you were wanting to do.” His brows furrow, “All due respect Lady Rimuru, how precisely do you expect us to hold off an Orc horde under an Orc Lord?”
She hums, “I'm not wanting you to go out and meet them in the marshes or anything if that's what you're thinking.” Apparently a few of them were concerned about that, given the way some of them have shoulders subtly collapse in relief, “I have zero desire to place your people at considerable risk for one thing, but also, it wouldn't be very helpful. Between the way they can improve themselves from potentially eating corpses via the effects of Starved as well as the fact its mind control makes it practically impossible to break their morale, it wouldn't be a wise tactic anyway.”
She tilts her head, “They are heading this way, whether we want them to or not, and as we haven't managed to get eyes on the Orc Lord, there's no stopping it. I actually just want you to make good use of your extensive almost maze-like tunnels. It will bottleneck how many can come in at a time for starters, and given Lizardmen are smaller and faster, you can easily switch out in the narrow space unlike them. Furthermore, if we trap the tunnels, it would also slow them down while mitigating the risk to yourselves. We really just need to buy time to draw out the Orc Lord on the surface for a precision strike, given the mental control and power boosting effects of his abilities means they may stop as soon as the mind control is broken, but even I'd they don't, they'll be regular Orcs at that point.”
She sighs as she brushes her hair back as her gaze drops, “...Technically, given that mind control, I'd prefer to avoid causing as few casualties as possible even on their side, but at the end of the day, we can't risk people dying because we're being too merciful.” She lifts her gaze to find the Chief looking a little troubled, but from the way he was slowly nodding, she pretty sure it's over the fact the Orcs are being mind controlled and not because she wants to cause as few casualties as possible, “It would also normally be beneficial in helping slow them by blocking up the passageways so I would normally recommend we use traps designed to ensnare them to minimize casualties, but given the fact they'll eat each other without hesitation, I doubt it would do much.”
And man, had that been an unpleasant thing to learn from Soei's report.
The Lizardmen Chief also looks disturbed, but he doesn't look surprised so he probably already knew that and was just unsettled about the reminder, “That's true… While I can understand your wish for as few casualties as possible on both sides, as you yourself said, we can't afford to let such things blind us and lead us to our deaths. Anyhow, I see no reason we cannot trap the passageways to gain as much advantage as possible, and you're certainly correct we have an incredible advantage within the tunnels. If we are just trying to slow them and buy time until the Orc Lord reveals himself in the marshes… we may be able to do this.”
She nods, “I would prefer to tip the scale in our favor as much as possible however.”
The Lizardmen Chief blinks rapidly, “That is always a wise choice of course, but how do you suggest doing so?”
She smiles, “I would like to begin by saying I have zero intention to demand loyalty or anything from any of you afterwards. I'm offering merely to tip the scales in our favor.”
Soei's voice echoes in her mind, <Lady Rimuru, that…>
She's not surprised he's already starting to realize where she's going with this, given she'd said the same thing to the Ogres, but she ignores him to continue after the Lizardmen Chief nods his understanding, “I wish to grant you names to increase your power. I'm perfectly capable of doing so, as should be evident from the plethora of named beings I have in my service, even those that are inherently more powerful at their base evolution.”
The Lizardmen Chief bows his head, “We would accept it with gratitude. We shall have to pick out our best warriors to be named-”
She smiles, “Ohhh, that won't be necessary. The only thing you'll need to do would be to pick out a skeleton crew to keep watch. Given the Orcs are still five days out, preferably you actually want to pick noncombatants for it.” The Lizardmen Chief tilts his head in confusion and her smile widens, “I have a couple tricks, and between them, I can name every Lizardmen here.”
The Chief jolts, and while he suppresses it from showing visibly to an incredible extent, her Multidimensional Perception picks up on micro twitching from Soei. The Lizardmen Chief shakes his head, “Lady Rimuru, surely you jest, there are-”
She tilts her head, “Twenty-one thousand, eight hundred and thirty seven of you.(1) Twenty-two thousand essentially. I am aware, yes. Like I said, I have a few tricks up my sleeves. I can name you all. Probably over two days, but that's entirely due to the time it'll take to name so many. That's why I said you need to pick out scouts to watch the tunnels though, since while the Orcs are still five days away, if you evolve, you'll end up unconscious for seventy-two hours. And while the Orcs are the primary threat, they're far from the only in the Forest.” She glances at Soei briefly, “So you need to leave a watch that I can name later, and if Soei here leaves a Replication for them to call upon if they find trouble, everything should be fine.”
The Lizardmen Chief still looks absolutely floored even as Soei nods at her words, though while the Lizardmen probably don't notice it's somewhat delayed, probably due to shock given what she's suggesting. In fairness, it did seem like an absolutely impossible task, but she wasn't lying about having tricks up her sleeves. She had her refined naming technique for starters. But also, while she's been blanking on good ideas pretty hard lately, one had hit her like a freight train while she was mentally lamenting the impossibility of naming the Lizardmen to give them their best possible chances due to her lacking the magic.
The Full Potions she had stored.
They were made with Hipokute which was just a magical mutation of grass and just fusing its juice with more magic.
Which had begged the question, could she just absorb the magic out of them directly, and if that didn't work, use Separate to rip the magic out of Full Potions and absorb that? The answer, she had in fact needed to use Separate, but she absolutely could.
The only real difference between that and something like when she used the underground lake water she'd stored after absorbing Veldora to analyze Unlimited Prison was that unlike the loose magic in the lake, despite only using one ingredient, that actual magic in the Full Potions was woven in a rather complex manner. The only thing that really meant was that unlike the lake magic, which after being stored inside her rather than just near Veldora, had become ‘charged’ with her magical signature essentially turning into an additional magic storage, whereas the Potions’ magic was complicated enough that it would take far longer to do so if it was even possible.
Also, it was too valuable of a trick to pass on, given a single potion's worth of the fluid contained enough magic that it was equal to about a third of her own magic stores. Considering just how much of the stuff she had, and that even a single Full Potion contained around the same amount of magic as fifty of the Lizardmen and she had gallons and gallons of the stuff, she could easily Separate the magic out and absorb more than enough to name every single one of them without even making a dent in her stores.(2)
The Lizardmen look torn between disbelief at what she's suggesting and excitement at the prospect that she may be telling the truth, but after staring at her, measuring her words and confidence for a while, eventually the Chief nods and quickly moves to pick out the skeleton watch crew.
While they're hurrying to sort that out, she withdraws another stock of potions, not to use her magic Separation/absorption on but as the other part of tipping the scales she'd had in mind but unintentionally swept under the rug before she could even mention it with her naming proposal. She doesn't want any of them to forget about it though, so she brings them out now while they're hurrying to get things in order for the mass naming. She'll explain them to the Lizardmen Chief later. She's mostly just pulling them out to serve as something of a reminder to explain as she hands them over later.
The fact it wasn't really her magic in any capacity meant this version of naming is practically guaranteed to result in a fairly weak connection between namer and named since her body won't really have the time to properly make the absorbed magic her own, but that's okay. She's not looking to actively expand her number of subordinates or anything, just increase survival chances.(3)
Her mind is already turning over what to name them all. She's not sure about the rest, but his daughter is one of his guards from what Soei has told her, wasn't she? And she had four others serving her? There's an opportunity there at least. She could name the four after the cardinal directions, to sort of represent that they cover all avenues together? No clue how or even if she'll find a way to tie in the Lizardmen Chief's daughter into that naming trend though.
There's also the question of what to name the Lizardmen Chief. Perhaps Kouki(4)? Using the Kanji for ‘sovereign’ and ‘valuable, honorable’, since he is the Lizardmen Chief and all.
Well, not that it'd be written that way given this world has a different language. The intent is there though. And it's a start at least.
Speaking of the Lizardmen Chief, practically all the Lizardmen seem to use spears as weapons, but the one the Chief has held onto throughout their whole meeting was somewhat ornate. It was probably a symbolic weapon of his being Chief, right? In which case, while the Chief wasn't likely to be fighting, if worse came to worst and he did, it would deal incredible damage to morale if it broke.
She's somewhat advanced her attempts at building wards from ‘utterly useless’ to ‘mildly helpful’ though, and one of those was in finding a way to translate Eidos Data Fortification to this world's magic, whether as a regular spell or engraving magic. Given Eidos and Physical reflect on one another, if she applied a Data Fortification spell with enough power to last a couple weeks, it should strengthen it long enough to avoid the potential morale hit of it being damaged.
Oh, and she also needs to warn the Lizardmen Chief about her heavy suspicion the Orcs have some sort of backer. If nothing else, while Orcs may not exactly be sneaky, they have no guarantee their backer doesn't have someone in their employment who may manage to scout out their tunnel entrances and worse, maybe even the layout of them itself.
Her expecting the worst of what's approaching means they should assume that is the case and hope it actually isn't.
He's just… staring, mind feeling a little blank, “...What the hell sort of trick did Xiǎolóng come up with?”
Darling laughs slightly hysterically, “I have no clue, but whatever it is, it clearly works. And I can absolutely understand why Soei, the Lizardmen Chief, and the Lizardmen higher ups who are getting named at the end are all staring like the only thing running through their heads is the question of what the hell they're witnessing, since she's already through fifteen thousand of them. In a mere day and a half. She's absolutely already gotten basically all the fighters and is just down to the noncombatants now.”
He nods slowly, “Yeah… Tell me about it. I already was pretty fond of the man, given how practical he was about his approach to officially being named Rimuru's Covert Agent and the potential hiccup that may come from whatever me and Sister choose to do as well as his loyalty and sheer compliance, but man. Sheer sympathy at being hit with first hand Calanthe Disbelief Experience has me liking him even more just for getting it by experiencing it.”
Darling starts to open her mouth, then slowly closes it, “...I was going to say there's no such thing as the Calanthe Disbelief Experience, but actually, while we've never really named it, there kind of is, isn't there…”
He hums, “Absolutely there is. Not to be confused with the Calanthe Experience mind. That's just in charge of experiencing the pace she's capable of launching forward at with her various projects and plans and all that. And the inevitable subsequent whiplash of trying to keep up.”
Darling nods, “Which also isn't to be confused with the Calanthe Awe Experience that hits when she's being particularly brilliant.”
They stare at each other for a moment before both of their serious expressions crack at the joke. Sort of joke? It does have genuine roots… Well, it doesn't really matter. And if nothing else, it helps break up the disbelief that's been hanging in the air, making everything feel weightless and like reality is merely a suggestion.
She's with Hakuro starting on the basics of Arts and she can absolutely see why the other Ogres hold him in such high regard. He knows a lot, and it wasn't just limited to Arts either. She wasn't an amateur in the slightest, but he was even good enough to help her hone her sword talent. He wasn't particularly knowledgeable with the sword and shield combo per say since he didn't use a shield, the Katana he worked with not really being compatible with shield use. It doesn't really matter though. He's incredible enough that he's absolutely capable of keeping in mind her own preferred equipment and altering what he was teaching as they go to take it into account.
It makes her absolutely confident that she made the right choice when it came to the title she'd given him. She honestly hadn't thought much of it at first, having mostly given Rigurd, the other elders, and Ranga titles as a matter of governance more than anything, but Treyni had casually mentioned that if they wanted their strongest chances to win she should give some to Benimaru and the other fighters at least. Which itself had led to the revelation that while it wasn't as important as a name, the titles also had their own minor strengthening effect after being granted, and very, very rarely one could even gain a related Skill.
She had of course discussed it with the Ogres at that point, but they had been more than happy to agree, so even before she had set out to speak to the Lizardmen Chief, who she had ended up naming Kouki, they'd all be given titles. Benimaru becoming her General had been a pretty easy choice, especially since her biggest question was more whether he was actually okay with going from being the Heir to essentially a Lord to just a General after swearing himself to her, which he had been more than happy with.
He wasn't one of the fighters precisely, but she's no fool and knows full well he has his own vital part in arming them so the only brief question about Kurobe's had been whether she should give him some sort of title related specifically to his weapons focus, ‘Arms master’ or something like that. But they'd both sort of unanimously come to the conclusion that while it would probably focus any benefits of it on his weapons, it was more useful overall if he got some sort of title benefit to all his smithing. Including anything that wasn't a weapon that he was asked to assist with in some sort of rush order or something. So he'd officially been titled ‘Blacksmith’.
There had been another brief debate about the title she was inclined to give Hakuro from what she's seen so far, or more accurately whether she should pick something more combat focused since they were after the benefits of the titles and the potential of tipping things in their favor just that little bit more for safety's sake. Hakuro had pointed out that a teacher needed to in and of themselves be masters of the abilities they were teaching though, so in its own way, the ‘Instructor’ title she'd wanted to give him and they had settled on certainly had its own benefits.
The only thing even approaching a hiccup with Soei had been that usually she left such things to her husband and sister in law, but she didn't exactly know for certain what they'd want to do when she found them if she found them, if they were really here- no she couldn't think like that, surely they have to be here. Soei was incredibly practical though, pointing out he could still benefit from the title and just eventually be placed under the management of one of them. Which had ended the brief hiccup and seen him titled ‘Covert Agent’ and put in charge of everything related to that for the time being.
While also not directly a fighter, she also had her own part to play in overseeing the evacuation if it became necessary while they were gone and other such things, so Shuna had gotten a title too. There had been another brief debate on it, mostly in whether she should give one more focused on those sorts of things, but Shuna had pointed out that arguably such people were already involved in those kinds of things and much more since amongst other duties they also were in charge of helping guide people, so ‘Oracle’ had been the official title she'd gotten.
That had just left Shion. The proverbial problem child. Benimaru had briefly mentioned that if it wasn't for her shutting down the idea before, he'd have suggested giving her the title of Royal Guard, but that was off the table. Or, she'd thought Shion would be a problem child. But right after Benimaru had mentioned that, Shion had piped up and pointed out she could just be given a title directly referencing her being one of their main fighters. She had ended up kind of staring at Benimaru for a few moments, both of them quietly sharing the understanding of the assumption that Shion wouldn't have been happy with something like that. But with what was essentially her permission and taking into account what she's observed so far as well as pairing with Benimaru's General since that implies an army, ‘Offense Commander’ she had become. That is to say, if Benimaru was her General, Shion was specifically in charge of leading the offense.
She'd named it that instead of something like ‘Melee Commander’ since if she did that then she's pretty sure with the way they tend to interpret things she says that it would make Shion or anyone she was put in charge of that they shouldn't be using things like Arts that are technically distant attacks. Hell, out of paranoia, she'd even explicitly explained the only real difference between an Offense focused person or Corps and Defense was the focus, not whether they utilized it at all. Both Offense focused and Defense focused should still utilize the other as the situation calls for. From the way there had been a flicker in Shion's eyes like she was rethinking something, she has a feeling that absolutely changed what Shion was thinking she meant. Which makes her stupidly glad she'd said it since otherwise, Shion or anyone under her command undoubtedly would've gotten ridiculous ideas that they were supposed to neglect defense entirely.
Regardless, Shion had been perfectly pleased with her title, so she hadn't been as much of a problem as she'd been worried about.
Unsurprisingly given how rare Treyni had impressed that it was, none of them gained Skills from her title granting, but as confident as they are about handling the Orc Lord, as she'd firmly stated to them previously, it was always best to assume worst case for yourself and best case for your enemies, so miniscule it may be, but she wasn't going to not take advantage of the fact title granting technically strengthened as well. Or, it was miniscule for such small titles anyway. There was a bit more gained from weightier titles, but such things had to have some sort of basis. All titles did really as it turns out, but the heavier a title the more basis it needed to have.
Anyway, she had granted Hakuro the title of Instructor and placed him in charge of training combatants in their burgeoning town. There were already too many people for him to train them all of course, and it would only get worse if they got more people, but that was actually fine. By and large, unless he took a particular interest in someone, he was going with teaching higher ups and letting them pass along training to spread the burden of teaching everyone things they need to know more reasonably. She had needed to be the one to come up with that system though. Apparently even someone as practical as Hakuro was prone to taking her word way too seriously and at face value and had already been looking into how to handle going about being in charge of everyone's training.
Seriously, these people practically take her word as divine. It's absolutely necessary to make things like that clear and that she fully expects them to properly balance their jobs and taking care of themselves or they'd probably work themselves into the grave.
…Her soulmates would be calling her such a damned hypocrite if they could hear her recent thoughts… But in fairness, as much of a workaholic as she is, she's not nearly as bad as these guys get sometimes when they misinterpret what she's saying.
It's definitely something of a headache to deal with though, that's for sure. They need to take care of themselves. If nothing else, even from a perfectly practical perspective, they aren't at their best if they don't, so it's actually better for overall efficiency if they do.
…She can practically hear her soulmates grinding their teeth and demanding to know why that doesn't apply to her. But it's different. Not in that she thinks she's capable of being just as efficient or not working herself into an early grave, but because she does understand reasonable limits! She's not as crazy as their fervor makes them!
She's in the middle of drawing up mental comparisons between her workaholic tendencies and how bad these people can get, neatly written out on either side of a line of course, as she spars with Hakuro while trying to get a handle on Arts when Soei appears in the flicker of movement of his Shadow Motion, stealth, and high speed combination kneeling facing towards her with his head bowed, “Lady Rimuru, I apologize for interrupting but a situation has come up.”
She lowers her sword and shield, “It's fine. What is it?”
He lifts his head to gaze at her, “There is a Lizardmen delegation at the entrance to town demanding our ruler come out to speak with them. However…”
She tilts her head, “However?”
He sighs, “I have been observing as much of the local area as possible with my Replications to monitor both the Orc situation and so as to inform you if anything important happens my Lady. From conversations I have observed, they were sent out by Kouki before we contacted him, so they are unaware of our alliance or you. They're being rather… arrogant and rude my Lady. Demanding to speak to whoever is in charge because they want us to swear loyalty to them.”
She snorts, “Then they're in for one hell of an awakening. We may as well go sort this out before they cause problems.”
Hakuro nods in agreement, “Undoubtedly a wise choice my Lady.”
She flashes him a smile, “Sorry to interrupt our spar Hakuro. I'll be back.”
He shakes his head and waves her off since it's sort of important, so without hesitation she Shadow Motions after Soei, following him to one of the town entrances. When she arrives Rigurd is trying to explain to the envoy that they have already sworn loyalty to her, which he's basically ignoring as he laughs boisterously, proclaiming that he's a much better Lord to swear to than some simple Slime.
Given the amount of magic she feels coming off of him, he's around the same strength of a Tempest Wolf.(5) Which honestly makes it laughable that he seems to think he's powerful enough to basically rule via raw strength.
It means right from the get go, just from hearing a little of his unfounded bluster she's already exasperated, “I was informed there was a Lizardmen envoy asking for me.” She eyes him, and her tone turns dry, even as she sidesteps just how much they know even as she conveys that with Thought Communication so no one reveals things, “I thought perhaps there was some sort of mixup, maybe habit when I was told it was a Lizardmen envoy, but I suppose not. You must've left before we reached out and worked out the outlines of a plan with Kouki.”
Habit seems to initially have him start to open with, “I am the marvelous Gabil! Named Liza-” But then his brain seems to catch up to what she said and it seems to throw him off, “I- Kouki?”
She hums, “For the record, being named isn't something special around these parts given everyone here has a name. Anyway, the Lizardmen Chief? Well, I suppose it would be Dragonewt Chief since I named them all and they evolved. Oh, wait, you introduced yourself with a name, didn't you? You must be Kouki's son. I'd sort of forgotten he'd mentioned he'd sent you out with everything going on.” She very noticeably leans slightly to look at his back and distinct lack of wings, “I'm surprised you didn't evolve if you were named. Didn't actually know that was possible.”
Apparently picking up on her desire to humble the pretentious man and undoubtedly more than happy to join in given Gabil's insulting tone and implication when he'd remarked on her being a Slime, Benimaru happily says, “Oh no Lady Rimuru. Naming isn't a guarantee to evolve the named, though I can understand why you'd get such an impression when every being you've named since you were reborn in this world was evolved after being named by you. Even all of the Lizardmen.”
Gabil's hold on his spear slackens as his eyes go wide, “...What do you mean all the Lizardmen? You mean you named all the warriors? That's rather impressive I suppose-”
She smiles, “No, I mean all the Lizardmen. All twenty thousand of the Lizardmen settlement at Lake Sisu. Actually, given they all evolved, I suppose it should be called the Dragonewt settlement at Lake Sisu now, shouldn't it? Since the only Lizardmen left with ties to it are you and your men.”
That seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, given without a word, Gabil whirls away to mount what she's been informed is called a Hover Lizard and fly away in a rush.
His men hurry after him, calling his name, and she lazily turns away, “With that dealt with, I'll be heading back to my training with Hakuro.” She lifts a hand over her shoulder as she walks away, “Let me know if anything else happens that needs my attention.”
There are sharp agreements behind her, so without hesitation she Shadow Motions back to Hakuro. They still have two days before the Orcs should arrive at the Dragonewts’ home and begin their assault after all. They need to get whatever advantages they can before it begins.(6)
As she lies in wait for the Orc Lord to show himself, she can't help but mull over the additional information Soei had given her regarding Gabil. The Replication she'd had him leave with Kouki in case an emergency came up had seen when he'd come back, his utter disbelief when he'd seen his men were the only ones who were still Lizardmen. Kouki had apologized for seemingly wasting his time previously, having not anticipated her showing up. With their plans and the lack of desperation to muster everything they could to try and claw their way to victory, he'd deemed the Goblins he'd sent Gabil to get before to be needlessly in danger and frankly more of a risk. As such, he'd ordered Gabil to inform the Goblins from the villages he'd gotten into contact with that they were no longer needed and either send them back or off towards her town. They'd chosen the latter, which means she's practically guaranteed to have more naming to do later, but it can't be helped.
Gabil had gone to do just that, somewhat nervously, but obediently. Which was odd given the positioning he'd had them in implied he'd been planning to attempt a coup against Kouki. Or maybe it wasn't so odd, given a different Replication Soei had followed them with to ensure there wasn't trouble had overheard a rather important conversation between him and his men. They had expressed surprise that Gabil was following Kouki's orders rather than attempting the coup, but Gabil had angrily asked them if they'd lost their senses. They had only one hundred Lizardmen and seven thousand Goblins, so what exactly, were they supposed to do against thousands of Dragonewts? Especially when they had an alliance with someone powerful enough to name them all in her?
He'd commented on the fact he'd let his naming go to his head and think he was special when he wasn't. Or, he'd corrected himself with a bitter laugh, he was special. Special in the way he was the only one of the Lizardmen who was named that didn't evolve. He could be a fool sometimes, the bitter pill of reality had gotten him to admit that, but he wasn't that much of a fool.
Maybe it was the stress of the situation darkening her humor maybe it was the growing hopelessness and despair she was trying so hard to stymie regarding the unknown about her soulmates giving her something more along the lines of gallows humor, but she couldn't help but be amused by it all. He was as much of a pompous fool as she'd thought he was, but her attempt to humble him hadn't done as much as she'd wanted, if only because before it could well and truly sink in it had sent him rushing back to his home and finding that she was telling the truth. They were all named. And Kouki had been more than happy to confirm it was her doing, even happily commenting on the fact she'd strengthened the Vortex Spear. In a manner he admitted he wasn't familiar with, but it had more than quintupled its power, at least temporarily, since she'd certainly been careful to inform him of that part.
That had seemed to snap him out of his delusions of grandeur and back to obediently following Kouki. The sheer numbers and evolution of all of them had broken his brain enough as it was, but the strengthened Vortex Spear, while not amazing in its own right, due to its significance to the Lizardmen had been the straw that broke the camel's back.
He could still do with some growing though, if the only thing that got his head on right and prevented him from attempting a coup against his father was just how outclassed he and his men were as the only ones who were still Lizardmen and not Dragonewts.
Benimaru and the others had set out after the first couple hours hadn't seen the Orc Lord showing himself to cause even more trouble. Given she wanted to give the Orcs a chance, to see if it was just the control of Starved that had them behaving so despicably or if the only difference was in the fact it made them powerful enough to do things they couldn't but would've if given the opportunity, they're avoiding mass casualty inducing attacks for now. They have permission to use them if they get into trouble, since at the end of the day, she must prioritize her own people over attempting to give strangers mercy, but there hasn't been any need for them so far.
The only other thing holding them back from being at full strength or at least capable of utilizing it at a moments notice only effected Soei, since out of the six Replications he was capable of making, while it could be a risk, she'd asked him to dedicate two of them to keeping people up to date on what's happening. One was with Kouki showing him and his higher-ups what was happening on the surface with Thought Communication so the Dragonewts will have forewarning of things falling apart and needing to attempt to flee practically the moment it happens. The other was back in their town, using Thought Communication to keep Shuna and the like up to speed, just in case things go so horribly wrong it becomes prudent to toss aside attempting to use the town itself as their first fallback point and go straight to the Treant territory.
They've only been down there maybe thirty minutes, but apparently they're kicking up enough trouble that the Orc Lord can't continue to stand back, if the huge Orc that towers over the rest and to whom all the connections of the Orcs under Starved lead back to is any indication. She also notices with her Multidimensional Perception a man dressed rather oddly flying in at speed, but that's not really a concern right now. She'd honestly only noticed him to begin with because he was approaching at speed and her subconscious filter had let it through as a potential threat, which he certainly wasn't if the amount of magic he has is any indication. She'd contemplated following the Starved connections back actually, but Benimaru and the other had convinced her not to, since the Orc Lord was still standing back in the forest and the dense foliage may put the Orc Lord at a disadvantage, but it could also complicate things if she needs them to back her up.
Now that he's here though, she uses her Gravity Manipulation to descend on him, letting go of the wings from her shape-shifting that she only really uses as a precaution against some sort of Gravity Manipulation failure, not bothering to announce herself as she drops with a swift swing of her sword encased in Black Flame.
The Orc Lord must've sensed her coming or had good instincts, since he manages to dodge it cleaving straight through his head, though sacrificing an arm to avoid the lethal strike, the stump of which ignites with the stench of burnt pork.
She presses the attack, not letting him recover, and he barely brings his massive cleaver up in time to halt her sword. Well, even if it stops her blade, the hungry black fire immediately heats the metal and within a second he has to drop the cleaver before the flame devours his hand. It hardly has time to hit the ground before it's a molten puddle, and the moment it leaves his hand he quickly reaches over to rip off his still flaming stump from her first strike before the Black Flame can spread any further. There's certainly something to admire about his ruthless efficiency, even if he's an enemy.
He roars and a red aura bubbles up before tendrils of it fly towards her. They slam into her multilayer barrier, and a grim feeling comes over her. Given the magic drain was increasingly on those as she watches them flair into existence and start to break up before her magic flows in and recovers, it was pretty likely to be a rather dangerous attack.
Beginning to feel the beginnings of strain under the assault of the tendrils chipping away at the barrier and forcing her to constantly remake it and trying to force him to back off before they can potentially break through and cause who knows what amounts of damage, she makes a snap second decision to use Gravity Manipulation on him, tripling the amount of gravity pressing on him.
He makes a wet choking noise, and the tendrils do falter ever so slightly under the brutal effect of the increased gravity, but even then, he manages to keep enough of his concentration to continue assaulting with them, trying to break through her shield and get to her.
Narrowing her eyes at the fact that wasn't enough, she moves for a multi-pronged attack. Upping the gravity even further, leaving him experiencing six times the normal, driving him to his knees. At the same time, she dashes forward for another attempt at his neck, launching into an upward swing her flame encased blade. Even then, even then, he still manages to dodge her.
She can't help but feel reluctantly impressed, even as disbelief at the skillful escape from the jaws of death floods her.
Just how strong was this guy? Not in general, but raw strength wise to be able to have dodged even with six times the normal gravity pressing down on him?
It's not good given he's an enemy, but however reluctant, however begrudging it may be, one still has to admit it's rather impressive.
The problem though, is when she went for the beheading and he'd dodged, he'd moved surprisingly quickly, snapping out a hand to catch her before she could move away.
The aura the tendrils had been coming from thickens around her, and she presses her lips together. She was a Slime at the end of the day. If he wanted to get into a match about who could eat who first, she wouldn't say no. That was a lie, she would normally say no, too cautious for things like that. She's being reckless, but it's not like it's anything new in the wake of the soulmate confusion, and subsequent panic and terror that they aren't here.
As she lets go of her Calanthe mimicry, she starts to wrap around him. Almost immediately he seems to realize the danger and starts to try to rip her off of him, or eat through sections of her body with that aura, which actually does get through with her body trying to stretch out to cover him, and ooph. She had Cancel Pain, so it didn't hurt but it certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling, that was for sure. It slows her down though, which means it isn't the near instant engulfing Predator usually was.
Around the time she gets wrapped around a tenth of him, that weird guy who was coming in at speed that she'd noticed before arrives and uses some sort of gust spell. Which, unfortunately, is enough to dislodge her and blow her away from the Orc Lord.
Turning back into her Calanthe form midair, flipping around to land on her feet as she gives him a furious look. He meets her gaze, seemingly angry himself, “What is going on here?! Who dares to disrupt the plans of the great Gelmud himself?!”
Gelmud? Wasn't that the name of the man who named Rigur? Rigurd's older son that she named him and his younger son after so they could always carry a piece of him with them to remember him by that is. A niggling suspicion blooms in her mind and she reaches out with Thought Communication, <Soei, did Gabil ever say who named him?>
He responds immediately, <Yes my Lady. When he was talking about throwing their coup plans aside with his men. He was named by an individual named- …Gelmud… who… also approached the Ogres with an offer to name our most powerful, now that I think about it…>
Her brows furrow as fury flares inside her, <And what would happen, if an Orc Lord devoured multiple named monsters?>
There's a stunned silence for a moment, <...The sheer amount of power the resulting Orc Disaster would have after he evolved from an Orc Lord…> Then his mind makes the next logical step and fury and agony washes over his mental presence and voice, <The deaths of our people was just the sacrifice of pawns?!>
Her own fury continues to grow, <So it would seem.>
The whole thing had taken only a couple seconds, and he turns to the Orc Lord with anger, “Geld, what the hell are you doing, letting such miniscule beings interfere with the plan to evolve you into an Orc Disaster?! Into a Demon Lord after that?!”
Before he can even attempt to answer, she uses Dark Thunder, Dark Flame, and Molecular Manipulation in conjunction. Reaching a hand out to her side and using Molecular Manipulation to catch a bolt of Dark Thunder as it falls before flicking it forward to circle it around him. Then she siphons off some Dark Flame from what she resummons on her sword, stoking it and adding it in to encase this Gelmud in a cage of fire and lightning. Apparently realizing just how badly he's outmatched, he stumbles back a step before seeming to realize if he goes any further he'll run into his cage. From what she can see with Multidimensional Perception under his mask and from the way his head was turning, he was looking around wildly in panic, his face paling as he realizes just how screwed he is. Multidimensional Perception is also letting her see a strange connection leading off of him, and following it back, she finds its connected to a crystal ball a man with white hair is watching intently.
The connection is too thin for her to get enough of a lock on the area to try to read the white haired man's mind. She can get the Eidos data of the crystal ball from her look, as well as other things in the area, but that's about it, so she turns her attention away.
Refocusing on the area around her, as much as Gelmud disgusts her, it's never wise to let resources like him slip away, so she uses telepathy to raid his mind for everything he knew, just grabbing everything in one data block to store with Occlumency to look it over later.
With her Thought Acceleration, following the trail back to the crystal ball and getting what info she could from there as well as raiding Gelmud's mind hadn't even taken a second. He turns back to her after realizing he's trapped, quickly holding his hands out, “N-no. Wait, please-”
Her lips twist into a silent snarl, “There's no point begging for your life. I have no mercy for disgusting bottom of the barrel low-lifes like you. Die.”
Without hesitation, she strikes out at him with one of the forks of Dark Thunder encasing him. She has no clue if it's because it's weakened from the combination of slowly losing energy, from it just being a fork of it, or that Gelmud has more defense then she gave him credit for, probably a mixture of all three in all honesty, but he isn't vaporized or blown to pieces. It still kills him immediately, it's just that his body is still very much intact.
Immediately, she feels something shift as a new Skill pops up, and idly orders Rowena to look into it in case it'll be useful right this moment, but otherwise to tell her later. The Orc Lord stares at the body for a moment before moving forward quickly, uncaring of the electrical and fire damage he gets from the cage she hadn't yet dissipated. Which… on one hand, he can obviously force his way through the fire and electricity, but on the other, who does that? Places themselves into a cage like that she means.
As he sets upon Gelmud's corpse she's even more thrown at the fact he's also leaving himself wide open for a meal. She knows he gets stronger when he and his men eat, but was it really so critical he ate something to try to give him more power right now? In the middle of a fight?
Well, regardless, she's not about to not take advantage of him being vulnerable. And while he'd walked through the two, they had damaged him pretty bad, so she strengthens the lightning and fire of the cage and pulls it tight before moving to swallow his form as he roars in pain, even as his power levels increase at the same time and his healing kicks up a notch.
Around the time she gets about half of him covered, maybe because that red aura also seemed to be trying to eat her so they were sort of melting together while the battle of wills took place, she starts hearing his thoughts, even as images start playing through her head.
She sees a barren land, children crying with hunger from the famine, even as he takes advantage of his regeneration ability and rips his own arm off to feed them something, anything, ‘I can't afford to lose. I ate my own comrades.’
A flicker, a conversation that he'll set out and attempt to seek help from the Forest of Jura, collapsing from hunger along the way, only to be found, fed, and named by Gelmud, ‘I can't afford to lose. I have to become a Demon Lord. Lord Gelmud wanted me to become a Demon Lord, and now he's dead. I have to fulfill his desire at least.’
Him gathering up every one of his people down to even the children and placing them under the effects of Starved, not out of cruelty or a desire for power, but because an effect of it means that they'll keep going until they literally fall over dead from starvation, which will see them through until they reach the Forest and can secure food, ‘I can't afford to lose. My comrades hunger. I can't afford to lose. I must eat until I'm full!’
She sees him talking to the singular Orc who's not under his control with Starved, his own son, who he'd left uncontrolled mostly for the purpose of being free of it to kill him if Starved ever made him lose himself so much he started turning against their people. A regular Orc was no match for an Orc Lord of course, but all he could do was pray enough of him still existed that even as he started to turn on their people, he couldn't hurt his son.
She supposes that explains what General Treyni told her about that wasn't under the influence of Starved. And while she can sort of get why he trusted Gelmud initially given he saved him and all that, but really, has he not realized Gelmud was just using him yet? Why would he be so intent on seeing through his desires. Rowena nudges her mentally and hands something over and she feels like laughing bitterly. Especially since while she wasn't entirely correct when she assumed he only named the others to feed to Geld, ultimately he was still only looking to secure a Demon Lord who would obey him for his own personal power. He didn't care about Geld and the Orcs or any of the others he named. It was only ever to increase his own power, and given he can't exactly make use of it, he likely wouldn't care if Geld fulfilled his desire posthumously.
Geld seems to pick up on what she was thinking about, probably getting through her Occlumency because they're currently kind of melting together, easily brushing aside thoughts of Geld, ‘I still can't afford to lose. I ate my own comrades. I committed… terrible crimes… I can't afford to lose.’
She sighs, ‘I'm sorry, but I have my own people to look after, and our alliance means I have a duty to the Dryads and the Dragonewts as well. You will lose here Geld. You've already lost, no matter how much you may struggle in this battle of wills.’
Geld trembles slightly, and while she knows it's entirely due to her slowly eating away at his body and not due to emotions, he also hits his knees at that point, ‘But I can't afford to lose… If I die, I leave the sins of my crimes to my comrades. I don't mind if I, alone, am sinful. I did whatever was needed to avoid starvation. I will become a Demon Lord. I will accept all the hunger in this world. So no one else has to feel this famine! I know I can. I am an Orc Disaster. The consumer of all.’
She hums, ‘It's a lofty goal, I'll give you that, but the effects of Starved means practically no one would ever accept the continued existence of an Orc Disaster, nor any of the Orcs under his command. If you truly want peace for your people, I hate to break it to you, but the best thing for them at this point would be for you to die. The monsters in the Forest are already going to inevitably have humans encroaching and possibly picking fights with Veldora unavailable, if there was an Orc Lord or Disaster and his hoard here as well... Especially since sins are not inherited. Your people were technically under mind control with Starved. I had no intention of letting them be prosecuted from the get go.’
It's strange to have someone having access past her Occlumency like he is, but it doesn't really matter since he's going to die soon anyway. To that extent, she feels bad enough for him that she pulls up and shows him the memories of her wanting to give them a chance but knowing she has to prioritize her people and allies, even going so far as to ban her people from using large attacks unless they get into a desperate situation. The only ones they had no intention of showing mercy to were the Generals under Starved, and that was entirely due to Treyni's warning meaning they really couldn't.
She also lets him see her thoughts on his memories of how they got to this point. How they can't just send the Orcs away, since they'd just be condemning them to starve and she's not the sort of person to do something like that, even if you ignore the practicality of it, since if they do send them back, its entirely likely they'll be right back to square one with one of them becoming a new Orc Lord. She's not sure where they'd put so many Orcs and the best way to feed them all until they can get settled and become self-sustaining, but if nothing else, arguably the Dragonewts and Dryads owe her a favor or two for her help. They can sort out the details when it's all over.
Geld seems to stop fighting against her at that, ‘Ah… I couldn't afford to lose… But… I am tired. It is… warm here. Merciful one. You know there will be no tranquility down the road you tread. But you are still willing to forgive my people my crimes… I thank you. My hunger… is sated.’
And just like that, Geld is gone, his presence in her mind vanishing as Predator devours him and she kills him to break the control of Starved on the rest of the Orcs.