"There are some among you who have tamed the direwolf race to do your bidding. Whoever accomplished this task, I will gladly appoint as one of my top advisers. Bring him here now!"
Exclaimed Gabil arrogantly, the one who gave him the task of being an envoy made a huge mistake, I hope the rest of the lizardmen aren't like this, if so maybe allying ourselves with them would be questionable, An incompetent ally is worse than a strong enemy.
All of us were fed up by his behavior, and in the end Ranga was summoned to deal with him since it seems he came for the wolves. When he asked Ranga to leave the 'lowly slime' and join him, Ranga was so angered that he was one step away from crushing him directly. But finding this clown beneath him, He assigned Gobta to kick his ass.
I have to admit, Gobta suprised me when he won in just a couple of moves, he threw a spear at the Lizardman who shifted his attention to block the projectile, while Gabil was distracted, Gobta executed a perfect Shadow Motion move to hide. Perfect enough that even Gabil lost sight of him. "Where are you?!" he shouted, furtively looking around. But by then, the battle had already been won.
Flying out of the shadow behind Gabil's back, Gobta flung himself into a midair spin as he executed a kick. I figured Gabil had no idea what happened. The rear attack came as a total surprise, and he took it straight to the back of his neck, immediately causing him to black out. Gobta had aimed right where neither Gabil's armor nor his helmet could protect him, and he aimed well. Even the stoutest built of lizardmen couldn't hold up against a direct attack on such a vulnerable collection of nerves. His scales would keep the blow from turning lethal, but he would no doubt take a while to recover,
"It is settled! The victor is Gobta!!"
Ranga's proclamation was almost drowned out by the cheers and applause from the ogres. Gobta soaked it up for a moment or two.
"Hey, uh, we won, okay?" Rimuru yelled at the rest of the lizrdmen. "And I gotta turn down the offer, too, all right? If you want help fighting the orcs, we'll think about that, but for today, you mind leaving us in peace? And don't forget to take him with you."
That was enough to stir them to action. And with that, our attempts at a cross-species summit were over.
After this Interlude, Rimuru decided to hold a conference to discuss measures against the orcs, so he ordered Rigurd to call for everyone else who was needed.
Most of the town's important figures were there. Among hobgobs, there were Rigurd, Rigur, Rugurd, Regurd, Rogurd, and Lilina. They were joined by the dwarf Kaijin and the ogre mages Benimaru, Shuna, Hakuro, Shion, and Soei. Twelve in total, not counting me and rimuru, and they encompassed most of the town's managerial duties, apart from production.
Kaijin represented the town's building and production interests. Lilina handled management, and Rigurd, Rugurd, Rogurd, and Regurd were the top political brass. Rigurd was in charge, and the other three were his ministers, although They weren't assigned concrete duties yet. Benimaru and Hakuro were our military, Soei our intelligence, and Rigur our security.
Once Soei returned from his latest recon trip, the entire gang was at the conference room. Time to kick this off.
Rimuru starts the conference itself by asking Soei who we had sent off on a spy mission to scout the orcs. He responds saying "From what I've seen I would say 200,00."
Rimuru yells out "200,000!". His shocked response makes the atmosphere a little uneasy. I guess seeing their powerful leader react like that put them on edge. I was also quite surprised don't get me wrong however it didn't show much on my expression which suprisingly reassures them a little bit.
Benimaru thinks back to when they got attacked by the orcs, "So that means the ones that attacked our village were only a small division."
Soei nods responding, "Yes, after investigating that much became clear. Currently their army fo 200,000 are heading south towards the marshes."
Rimuru still doesn't have a proper layout of the Forest of Jura in his head so he asks if they have something like a map to get his head around this. They apparently don't know what a map is, which is interesting I would have thought at least the ogres would know something considering their history.
Rimuru explains what a map is, to which some get a good understanding of it and attempt to get a basic one down on a block of wood. After getting input about the surroundings from everybody—quite efficiently thanks to thought Communication, he draws a decent map with the help of Great Sage,
With the map we started to deduce the route which the orcs could traverse to invade. From the center of the Forest of Jura, there were three basic directions an army as large as the orcs could go. All involved tracing the Ameld River, which stretched out from the Canaat Mountains. This river forked into two tributaries near the center of the forest, one flowing into Lake Sisu. The larger branch moved upward in a north-south orientation, traversing nearly the entire continent. Toward the end, it made a slow curve before dumping out into the ocean to the east.
The forest hugged this river for much of its outward flow, and generally speaking, the area east of it was occupied by the Eastern Empire—human lands. After exiting the woods, the Great Ameld fed the fertile plains that were ruled over by demon lords. That plurality was important. Shizu had told rimuru that much as well, that the demon lord Leon was just one of them. It sounded a bit odd, the idea of multiple demon lords, but apparently this was the case.
According to Soei's report, after leaving their habitat near the demon lord lands, the orcs had been making their way along the Great Ameld. It was the only route large enough to hold an entire army, but apparently, they had also been sending squadrons into the forest, picking off the stronger monsters that might threaten them along the way—including the ogres. They were after food, I wagered, but it still seemed odd.
Kaijin explains that the orcs can basically eat anything, even then the question still lingers as it would still be near impossible to feed that many Orcs.
Soei brings up something that disturbs everyone, "This is just speculation on my part, but I wonder if, perhaps, they were…foraging upon the bodies of those who died of starvation or battle wounds. I say this because, while I conducted thorough investigations of the battlefields they fought in, I found not a single corpse."
"What?!" Benimaru exclaimed. "Including our own homeland?"
"…Yes. There was absolutely nothing, and no one, left."
"How?!"
"Oh no…"
The Kijins were at a loss for words. Oof… I could see why. That's what orcs are like? Just imagining it was quite disturbing.
"That's… That's just too hard to accept…"
"They are omnivorous, I know, but… Really?"
Soei eyed Rigurd and Kaijin stoically. "It is simply speculation," he repeated. "But wherever they were known to be, I found not a single corpse—and our homeland was completely devoid of anything. That is the full truth. And that brings to mind a certain skill…"
He stopped, and his face twisted.
"No!" Benimaru shouted. "An orc lord?"
"Indeed. I have not confirmed it, but I cannot deny the chance that an orc lord has appeared. I have, at least, confirmed the presence of high-order orc knights. Our attackers, likely."
"Indeed. They would have to be, judging by their strength. I could imagine orc generals among them, even."
"That would certainly explain everything…"
The Kijins' faces grew more and more concerned. They seemed to know who this orc lord was—not that it meant anything to me, Rimuru, Kaijin, or the other hobgoblins.
"Whoa, who's this orc lord guy?" Kaijin asked, finally unfreezing himself. "Could you maybe include us in this conversation, please?"
"Yeah," I added. "If you don't mind?"
That was our first insight into exactly how fearsome the orc lord was.
To put it briefly, an orc lord was a unique monster with advanced leadership skills. They appeared one at a time, out of the blue, once every few hundred years, to spread chaos across the world. your classic fantasy boss backstory.
What made them so nefarious was the skill they were born with—the unique skill known simply as Ravenous. It allows the caster to make his allies devour everything around them, like a swarm of locusts, afflicting them with a severe hunger they never have any hope of sating. It sounded like torture for the victims, but it had great benefits for the caster. It very efficiently removed all organic matter from entire regions at once, transforming it into energy for yourself. And even if it starved your people—hell, because it starved them, the ultimate effect was tremendously powerful.
But the scariest thing of all was that whatever monsters the hordes consumed in their mad dash for sustenance, their skills would be transferred over to the caster. Monster powers, physical attributes, even skills. It wasn't a sure thing every time, but the more monsters you consumed, the better your chances. in other words...
"The orcs aren't trying to eradicate the forest's higher-level monsters at all? They're trying to take their powers for their own?" I concluded as silence fell upon the room. It indicated, once and for all, that rest of the group had already made that conclusion.