We reached Soei as he deflected a sword slash from an orc that had just jumped off a tree limb. The orc bore a pair of heavy scimitars, curved to look like enormous meat-cutting knives but thick enough to slice through bone.
The long arms on the orcish races made it hard to estimate their offensive range. Soei engaged in a little back-and-forth with him, his constant array of leaps and dodges bringing him precariously close to defeat at times, to an outside observer.
I wasn't worried, though. This orc was, in my eyes, pretty weak. Unlike Hakuro, whose strikes seemed impossible to avoid even with my instincts, I could still predict this orc's moves just by looking at him.
"Gehh! Who are you?" the long-armed orc shouted at us, his face a mixture of pig, wild boar, and human. "Here to be consumed by an orc general?"
Ah. This was the high-level one, then? The orc general?
"How dare you act so rude around Sir Rimuru!" Shion fired back, staring the general down with her unnervingly cold eyes.
"Oh. You…"
I looked down at this new, faint voice. It belonged to a lizardman, looking up at us. She appeared to be cowering, wounded from head to toe and just barely breathing. She had lost a lot of blood. I doubted she'd last long unaided.
Drink this," Rimuru said, tossing the lizardman a recovery potion. She hesitated for a moment but quickly drained the bottle. The effect was dramatic—in an instant, all the cuts and bruises were gone.
"What on…?!"
"Impossible…"
The orc general and lizardman both expressed their surprise simultaneously
Thee lizardman approached saying, "please, sir! Please, I need you and your envoy to rescue my father, the lizardman chief…and Gabil, my brother!"
She was on one knee, head bowed down, as if praying.
"What—?"
We were about to ask what happened to her when the orc general came rushing in. "Get in my way, and I'll eat you first!" he bellowed, crossing his scimitars in front of him. He was probably trying to catch us by surprise, but with Magic Sense, that was never going to happen. I nimbly leaped backward to dodge the incoming strikes, but I didn't even need to bother with that—in a flash, Shion was in front, landing a single slash with her heavy blade.
The orc general instinctively recrossed his swords to block the attack, but Shion's sheer force knocked them right out of his hands. The extra skill Steel Strength put her power off the charts, even by nonhuman standards, so I should've expected as much.
"Worthless beast," she murmured, angrily staring the orc general down with her well-defined face. "You cannot stand still for a single moment while Sir Rimuru is deigning to speak?"
"Dammit! All of you, seize this wench at—"
None of the orc underlings responded to the order. It was understandable, given how they no longer existed.
"They hardly put up a fight at all," Benimaru said, riding up to us. "Hardly worth my time!"
"Yeah," added Gobta, riding alongside him. "Boy, talk about a letdown, huh? Going two on one almost made me feel bad for them."
They had apparently wrapped up the encirclement and massacre, just as was ordered. The speed with which they had carried out those orders suprised me a little. Hakuro was just cutting down the few surviving orcs behind them.
"Y-you're kidding me!" the orc general managed to gasp out. Then things got even worse for him.
"Die!" shouted shion
The voice was accompanied by a single flash of light, backed up by a low rumble. And with it, the orc general ceased to exist in any physical sense.
"What is that idiot doing?" I whispered.
Soei had the same intention as me, approaching the orc general to extract whatever information he could. But Shion had no similar thoughts.
"I have given this impudent fool the divine punishment he deserves, my lord!"
She smiled at Rimuru, anticipating the praise that was no doubt coming. I didn't know whether rimuru should compliment her or scream at her.
"Uh, yeah," Rimuru ventured. "Let's try to capture 'em alive next time, all right?"
"Ah, yes, Sir Rimuru! We need to make them fully understand what happens when they cross the likes of you!"
We didn't want to bother explaining it to her. She said yes to rimuru's request, and that was good enough.
We turned our attention to the lizardman to hear what she wanted to say.
"There's still a few days until our meeting. What happened?" rimuru asked
She looked at Soei and Rimuru in succession before setting her eyes upon rimuru. "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.
Well, huh. Gabil was the son of the lizardman chief, it turned out, and his sister was right here with us. so he is the bad apple in the basket.
Still, it's better that nothing happen to the chief.
"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?" asked Rimuru.
It sounded a a little mean, but I agree with him, interfering in private conflict is always troublesome.
She looked straight up at Rimuru 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. Rimuru had appointed Shion to be his secretary, but she had a real knack for tossing more and more work into his in-box.
We were fighting the orcs anyway so it doesn't matter much.
"Soei, can you Shadow Motion yourself to where the chief is?" asked rimuru
"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.
"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…"
"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."
He gave Soei a few recovery potions. looks like he can bring someone with him during shadow motion.
"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. "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, we went back to my original work of surveying the battlefield. Things had ramped up, apparently, so we 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. we hadn't breathed a word about Gabil.
For now, checking out the state of the war is a priority.