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 the instincts of a born hunter, I could still predict this orc’s moves just by looking at him. It was cute, in a way.
“Gehh! Who are you?” the long-armed orc shouted at me, 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 me. 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.
I knew I had asked Soei to remain impartial for as long as possible, and I guess he followed my orders to the letter. He wasn’t at fault for that, but now I wish he had stepped in a bit earlier. I was starting to look like a total villain, and I figured it was time for a good deed to make up for it.
“Drink this,” I 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. Nice. That oughta improve my rep a little. Good thing I earned some brownie points with these guys before the big meeting with the chief.
As I patted myself on the back, the lizardman approached me.
“P-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 to me.
“What—?”
I was 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 me by surprise, but with my 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 of me, 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 me. “Hardly worth my time!”
“Yeah, Sir Rimuru,” 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 I ordered. The speed with which they had carried out those orders shocked me into silence. Hakuro was just cutting down the few surviving orcs behind them. Maybe I was worrying too much.
“Y-you’re kidding me!” the orc general managed to gasp out. Then things got even worse for him. Just as I was about to order Soei to interrogate him, everything finished.
“Die!”
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 me, anticipating the praise that was no doubt coming. I didn’t know whether to compliment her or scream at her.
“Uh, yeah,” I 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!”
No, nothing like that. At all. But I didn’t want to bother explaining it to her. She said yes to my request, and that was good enough. The entire squad was now dead, and while I would’ve liked some of the orc general’s intel, I was willing to call this a success. No point dwelling on what’s already done.
I mentally shifted gears as I turned to the lizardman. At least we wouldn’t be interrupted any longer.
“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.