"Gob!"
"Gob?"
"Gobbo..."
Looking over the army that I had assembled on the bridge that went from my tower to the dry ground, for no real reason as the tower was standing on solid ground as well, it was hard to say that I felt overly confident. For the last few days, I had done nothing but use every single drop of my DE to summon more creatures, which consisted of 90% goblins.
Though I hadn't been bothered to count the exact numbers, I knew there were just a bit more than forty goblins standing in front of me, with half of them holding bows, while the other half were equipped with wooden clubs. In front of them, Gob was standing proudly, holding a steel sword in his hands, the symbol I had gifted him as the commander of the goblin troops.
Behind them, being the units closest to my tower, there were two fairies, with one of them being Pi, and five huge eagle-like creatures, which were the birds of prey that I also was able to create.
Standing inside the tower, as she was unable to go outside the perimeter, I could see Tatiana looking at me with eyes filled with expectation. Expectation to see me finally start walking the path of a true demon king.
Opening my mouth, I wasn't sure what I was about to say, but I had a feeling that I was at least expected to say something before we ventured out to face the goblin tribe that was currently on its way here.
'People of the Dark Lands? No, they aren't really people, are they... Monster of the Dark Lands? No, it still sounds like something an old geezer of a king would say...'
In the end, I simply turned around, flaring my white and black wings a bit, with my upper body still exposed to the world as I had yet to find any piece of clothing that I could wear, and gave up on delivering a grand speech.
"Let's go."
*GOBGOBGOB!*
Somehow, something about what I said appeared to have set off the group of misfits behind me, making all kinds of sounds of excitement, with the goblins being by far the loudest. However, even the two fairies let out a couple of 'Pii!' sounds as well, showing how much they were looking forward to going to war.
Which, frankly, was creepy as hell, hearing the two lovely, magical girls being so thrilled about going out to fight.
'Aldric, focus!'
This was no time for me to start thinking about anything other than making sure we won this war. A war that according to Tatiana would be going down on the large, dried plains on the other side of the forest filled with dead trees ahead of us.
I had no idea how she seemed to know about everything that happened around us, not only in the Dark Lands, but the world as a whole, but I had no choice but to trust her words for now. At least until I had some sort of idea of what I was doing.
It didn't take long until me and my army had entered the forest, now keeping up a brisk pace as to make sure we could intercept the enemy forces on open ground.
To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was the best of ideas to actually face off against them in an open space, as I would have probably leaned more into some sort of guerilla tactics, but Tatiana insisted that it was unbecoming for a demon king to act like that.
*Awoo!*
Seeing our advances, monsters all around us quickly dispersed, with even large, dark-furred wolves recognizing that they wouldn't be able to do much against our numbers.
No matter how nervous I was about going out to fight for the first time, as I didn't actually regard my 'battles' with the slimes as true battles, it did feel quite good to be in this kind of position of power.
That just our presence was enough to scare away all the monsters in the vicinity, despite me still being terrified of them, was empowering to the point where I could almost believe in myself. However, that quickly changed as we exited on the other side of the forest, and I got to see our opponents.
'...huh?'
I had been thinking that I had managed to acquire quite a large army, relative to the time I had at least, but seeing the hundreds of goblins ahead of us, I couldn't help my already pale face from getting even whiter.
The whole plains were just covered with green creatures, all wearing purple loincloths while carrying all sorts of metal weapons in their hands. Even worse was that they were all lined up perfectly in ten different rows, showing off just how coordinated and structured their forces were.
Suddenly, I could see one of them start walking forward, a goblin that was at least two sizes bigger than the rest, holding a big metal axe in his hand. And then, he stopped, seemingly waiting for something. Or rather, someone.
From behind me, I could feel the gazes filled with adoration and expectation burrowing themselves into my back clearly telling me what they wanted me to do.
Unable to stop myself from doing so, I threw a look back at them as well, only to find a certain goblin commander looking at me with a huge grin on his face. And it was not a grin of enthusiasm or excitement, it was a grin filled with ill-intentioned glee.
'Gob, you bastard!'
Despite my eyes narrowing at him, he simply shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, 'Whatcha gonna do about it?'.
And the truth was, I couldn't do a single thing about it. At least not right now.
Right now I was too busy forcing my legs to move forward, while at the same time flaring my wings out to the sides in order to make myself look bigger and more threatening than I was. Peacocking, more or less.
In spite of that, it still seemed to have some effect, as the larger goblin, whose skin was more orange than green, flinched a bit. And then, as I came close enough for us to be within talking distance, with a couple of meters between us, he spoke.
"Are you demon...? We of Gobba see strange things around forest. You are lord of land?"
Yes, he actually spoke what I believed to be human words, although he was obviously not the most proficient at it. Therefore, it did take me a couple of seconds to try and interpret his words, which I assumed meant they were from the Gobba tribe and that he wondered if I was the demon king.
Which made me believe that I still had a chance.
"That's right. I am Aldric, the demon king, ruler of the Dark Lands!"
Silence swept the fields as I made sure to speak loudly for all the goblins on the plains to hear my words, desperately hoping that they might get scared and run away.
However...
*Sching!*
Brandishing his huge axe, the large goblin, who seemed to be almost tall as my shoulders yelled with such vigor that saliva flew out of its mouth.
"Then, duel! King and Gobbu duel, champion become ruler!"
For some reason, him challenging me felt like a very, very good alternative if it meant that we wouldn't have to wager war against troops at least five times that of my own.
Inspecting my opponent, who wasn't just wearing only a loincloth like all the other goblins, but also had a single shoulder armor equipped, which didn't seem like it would do all too much as the rest of his body was naked, I wanted to believe that I was stronger than him.
No, I had to believe that I was stronger than him. Because if I wasn't, we would all die, as there was no way we could stand a chance against their massive army.
"I accept."
*GOBGOBGOB!*
All the goblins behind Gobbu, which I guessed was my opponent's name, cheered loudly as the duel was decided and accepted while banging their weapons in the air to make as much noise as possible. An act that made me assume that the duel had now begun, thereby making me feel inclined to do something.
And that, I did.
Collecting as much demonic energy as possible, I quickly elongated my nails and activated the only new skill that I had managed to learn before coming here.
"[Claws of Darkness]!"
"Gob?!"
Four lines of incredibly sharp, dark magic flew out as I swiped my hand, quickly approaching the goblin who I now realized had not been ready at all, as his eyes opened up in shock when seeing the attack. Shock due to the fact that he couldn't believe how dishonorable the demon king was, attacking him without warning before the duel had even begun.
*Splurt!, Thud!*
Gobbu fell to the ground, as his chest and neck had been completely torn apart by my attack, making a fountain of purple blood spray into the air. Then, right before his eyes went dim, he looked at me with a scowl.
"Coward..."