[“On! On! On the ship, now!”] My voice resounded through the minds of the many fleeing beastmen swarming past me into the makeshift ‘grimgarian ship docked on the pier. Since I was in my fenrir form, my elevated height allowed me to overlook the entire chaos, where I quickly noticed a few of the beastmen were actually fighting back! [“Stop fighting, get on the ships, now!”]
“Go, Miss Saori! They killed my mate! We will relish bathing in these demihuman’s blood!” A bovline, the Peolyncan minotaur, shouted her response to me while she smited a hobgoblin warrior with the help of an arvisian archer.
“Grawwwr! Torment! They used a warrior like me as a slave! Goddess of Vengeance, fuel my strength to fight your spawns for tainting my honor!” A leonid roared out, scaring the few goblins and kobolds away. With a blood-soaked cleaver, he covered the escape of a pair of katzune slaves.
In fact, quite a number of beastmen were fighting instead of fleeing. Many were doing it in the name of vengeance or to regain their honor after being forced into slavery by the grimgarian army. Their anger was understandable, but this was not the reason I came here for, leaving the rest of Aurora to do the Event Quest.
Even if I accepted that I had to be less controlling, since not every situation would turn in my favor, there was a limit I would allow. This was too much, too many people trying to do whatever they wanted with no rhyme or reason. Irritating!
“My honor will—”
“Ahwroooooooh!” I howled, interrupting their shouting before shooting out black lightning at some incoming grimgarian. I used [Air Step], walking up to the sky to growl down at the agitated beastmen [“You will stand down! Who gave you the order to die?! Move! Into! The! Shi—”]
[“Watch out.”] A deep, growling voice interrupted my telepathy, but I didn’t need him to tell me when my skills already did it.
With my [Shadow Armament]’s armor, I had some separate from my body to create two small footholds—floating discs essentially. I looked at both and cast [Warp Point: Entry] and [Warp Point: Exit] both, respectively. Even though I could feel my mana draining quickly, the spells still required some time to form, far slower than what Hestia could do.
Once they were fully formed, I snapped my head around as I noticed a blue glow in the distance, before a ball shot at me. I opened both portals and used the space-distortion to have the projectile go into one and out of the other. Essentially, I was redirecting the attack back at the mana cannon that shot at me.
[Lifetaker (280)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
Owch! My eyes twitched, still unused to [Space-Time Magic]’s level level 4 and 5 spells. My mana had grown, but I was just not used to the amount I would lose just to keep the warp portal open for more than three seconds.
However, this was what Belzac was training me for.
[“Get on the ships! I will defend you, I told you this the moment this rebellion began! The moment I freed you from your shackles! Move!”] I growled, intimidating the last few unconvinced beastmen onto the four ships docked at the port. A good majority of the warrior caste were naturally unhappy, but I could start being more understanding with them after I was done with this Divine Quest.
Divine Quest: Your First Quest
Quest Giver: Goddess of Fertility and Monsters, Edna
Description: First real Quest. Enjoy, Saori.
Free the slaves. You know. Bring them back to Carmaniate
Reward: +1 level, Divine Quest [Belzac Wolves Alpha Training] will conclude, [Ambassador of Grim]’s function unlocked, my official acknowledgement of being my Champion
And, this.
Divine Quest: Belzac Wolves Alpha Training
Quest Giver: Goddess of Death and Necromancy, Ilsaphone
Description: Train under Belzac. Master his teachings. Become a fenrir beastmen will follow. Become an alpha.
Hestia’s soul protects yours. Still not strong enough. Sentences short.
Belzac will train you in his empty vessel magic.
Reward: Unique empty vessel magic [Abyssal Sacrilege], [Belzac’s Successor] upgrade, unique skill [Shadow Armament] upgrade, unique skill [Shadow Pack] upgrade, unique Job unlock
Unlike Hestia’s incredibly detailed Quest descriptions whenever she got a Divine Quest, mine were made with short or even incomplete sentences. This was how most blessed communicated with their patron gods, and while I wasn’t an exception, [Hestia’s Retainer] was fortifying my soul somewhat, making the deciphering process easier.
Asaka had a similar Quest, but hers gave a different reward. In fact, she didn’t even get the Divine Quest to free the beastmen since Ilsaphone’s sister was Kronnaz, the ancestral mother of the grimgarians. I did wonder why Edna was making it difficult for Kronnaz, seeing as they were mother and daughter, but if there was one thing I learned from Earth myths it was to not question the gods. Trouble in the family was like a weekly event for the Greek gods, at least.
In any case, while it wasn’t exactly what Belzac had planned, my efforts to rescue the slaves from the grimgarian army and the Ogre King to effectively cripple them was my final test. I had already intended to do this, as I explained to Hestia and the others, as weakening the grimgarian army also meant the demonkins’ plan would be stalled as well. Their invasion would be made impossible. In fact, would the grimgarians be even able to maintain their current base to the east of Artorias without their slave labor?
That thought made me hopeful that my little “Haitian Revolution” would bring about that very result. Well, I say Haitian, but unlike the actual Earthen revolt where the Haitians expelled the French government out of their country, I was helping the beastmen slaves escape the grimgarian cities and towns they were forced to build under the commands of the Ogre King.
“Oi, Segawa!” I heard Asaka’s voice call out while I was defending the pier from the hobgoblin archers and other projectiles from the grimgarian army. Before long, a large shadow passed by the grimgarians, freeing me from having to pay attention to them.
I turned my head around, looking over to see Asaka underneath the docks, standing on my slime Shoyi’s amphibious body as she used a spray canister to color the ship’s hull white and black. Glancing at the other three ships, they all had the same treatment.
“I fixed all the holes and breaches! All four ships are ready to sail! I’ll add a sail with my empty vessel in a moment! Is everybody on?”
Miss Graffiti Artist was quite useful when her graffiti could be used in such a manner. Well, her unique skill [Twilight Paladin] allowed her to create spells using “Twilight” as an element, a mixture of holy and dark magic. It was, honestly, rather incredulous how “Twilight” ended up as an element; then again, what else would you get from a compound element made from holy and dark?
With the skill, she could also solidify the mana of whatever she made, similar to the slime Ilsaphone gave the onnikais. It was fitting for Ilsaphone's Champion, in other words. With this knowledge, Asaka created the custom spell [Vivid Grafiti] to bring her passion to reality, while also making her unique Skill useful for situations like this.
That “Twilight” slime kept the holes on this makeshift grimgarian ship sealed.
[“We’re nearly done! Shoyi, get her on the ship and prepare to protect everybody!”] I commanded, prompting it to respond with some gurgle sounds to make sure it understood.
I then landed on the ground, looking over this small harbor village, made from local wood and stone. It could have passed as any other medieval village if it weren’t for the many grimgarian and beastmen corpses. Sadly, I didn’t manage to protect all of them.
As I explained to Hestia, the slaves I rescued during my mission to force the grimgarians to recall their invasion ships from Artorias wanted to take down the grimgarians as revenge. That was why I called it the Haitian Revolution, but now due to my new Divine Quest, the plan changed to an escape mission.
After freeing more and more slaves, to the point I believed I had everybody unshackled, we were making a last ditch effort to get out of here. The cave towards the Belzac forest was blocked by the grimgarian army, and I heard from Svena in the [Room] subspace that it had been a week since Hestia hadn’t returned from her dungeon dive. Without her, I couldn’t just teleport people away and with, from my calculations, about 1357 beastmen slaves it was literally impossible to sustain that many people in the [Room].
Our small subspace was never made to accommodate an army’s worth of people for multiple days. Even teleporting them from the grimgarian kingdom to Firwood couldn’t be done in even a week. Unless you were Hestia, everybody had to spend mana to fast travel from one location to the other. The longer the distance, the more you had to pay, and even with our numerous catalyst tools, it was a logistical nightmare of possibly catastrophic results.
Even if we considered Artorias or another country willing to feed that many beastmen, how could we assure the peace? I could not trust any of these people fully. Boredom could force even the most sensible person to perform unpredictable acts.
As a result, the only possible method was through the seas. Yes, it would still be a problem, but this was our only way out.
Haaa, if only I could fly like you …
[“Alpha!”] I turned my head back to the blood-filled village streets, seeing Uno appear from the shadow of a house, emerging with black flames covering his body. A proud rank B fenrir larger than an elephant, standing taller than even me, he was now a [Seething Shadow Fenrir].
With a body as black as charcoal, as if he was just burned alive, Uno raised his head, directing my attention at an incoming army of grimgarian with an ogre wearing a crown leading the way in the horizon. I couldn’t count how many appeared despite this area being an open plain with only a few small hills. They could begin artillery shots, but it should take them a bit longer to reach us, probably an hour or so.
Nevertheless, we had to prepare. Uno, noticing my worry, agreed. His shadow flames—shadow smoke similar to my [Smokey Haze] custom spell—that were exuding from his body suddenly changed in size, making him taller than usual. With a loud howl, four more shadow beasts surrounded me.
My second garm, and now fenrir, Song appeared—a fenrir around my size but with a far slimmer frame which made her look more like a fox than a fenrir. However, unlike Uno and me, she didn’t focus purely on overpowering others with her physical prowess. With blue, silvery fur covering her body, this [Lunaghost Fenrir] could slip through the night almost undetected and kill with the highest mana, intelligence, and wisdom in our group.
Our third member was Sarasa, but unlike the others, she wasn’t standing on four legs. In fact, she was about the size of a wolfkin form. However, her body was completely covered in thick fur to hide her highly developed muscles. Our brute force member, the one who sacrificed her spellcasting potential to reach a strength level to hopefully rival Hestia’s—[Shadowfist Wererir].
And then, there was the last of my former garms, Quatre. With a size and frame similar to Uno, this beast of a wolf was completely covered in heavy bone armor, only showing his four through the slits. Looking like a skeleton wolf, he growled at the approaching army as black slime oozed from his body, covering his body up, turning him into something similar to a juggernaut. Fittingly, his race was called [Deathcharger Fenrir].
Last, but not least, we were joined by our only non-wolf rank B—Varya, the virigress mother of Rajah and his siblings. A [Splintertail Virgacuga] now, the feline was the size of Song with a similar build, only her front legs and tail were highly developed, being thick and strong. Her green fur could now harden up, turning sharp like blades and able to inject venom into others. With a tail able to shoot harden fur like spikes at others, she was our venom producer whenever I was away from Hestia.
Unlike Hestia, the one-woman army, my shadow pack was my army. My swissknife. Black lightning from me, shadow flames from Uno, the perfect assassin in Song, the “hammer” in Sarasa, the shield in Quatre, and the venom producer in Varya. Not to mention how Varya’s cubs still had time to grow and how Shoyi, my slime, was close to rank B, too.
This wasn’t even mentioning …
[“Saori, we are ready.”]
… my mother. Although still a rank C garm, she was still a pack leader with years of experience. This person was now guiding me as I took command of everything.
[“Yes, Mother.”] I nodded before turning to attention to a wolf skull necklace hanging around my neck. [“Belzac, will you watch me?”]
[“I will evaluate you, yes, Saori.”]
As planned, we abandoned the Belzac forest nest of his, leaving his shrine behind while I carried his remains with me to keep him close as my mentor. It was, after all, time for me to take a step back into the real world and continue my training in a more useful manner.
We just have to delay until the ships depart … Can we do this?
Six rank Bs versus the rank A Ogre King. Could we win against him? Probably not, since he had an army behind him, including numerous rank B commanders as his bodyguards. My small group couldn’t win … but my job in Aurora had always been more on the difficult side. Saving a few people?
Easy enough.
[“Spread out,”] I ordered, noticing the rage-filled face of the Ogre King, before using [Identify] on him from afar. It was a bit hard to pinpoint him from this distance, but my eyesight could manage it if I focused.
Ogre Giganvin: An ogre who had grown larger than its peers, towering even the healthiest ones. A bulwark of muscles and rage, these ogres have chosen to follow along the path of vengeance of the Goddess Kronnaz. Unlike most ogres, this one has well-rounded stat growths, allowing it to act as a mage with its one track mind to destroy its enemies. Able to use their racial skill to increase their size even further to rival those of the same rank. Rank A
Name: Kreigst Thunderslayer Level: 25 Race: Ogre Giganvin Age: 62 Years
Status: Health: 67890 Mana: 9578
Strength: 14289 Intelligence: 6213
Vitality: 13900 Wisdom: 10006
Agility: 9021 Stamina: 23189
Titles: [Watched by Kronnaz] [King]
Information Blocked
…
In humanoid terms, this monster was level 155. Not to mention, he had far more stats than even Hestia in her dragon form aside from mana and intelligence. I was actually faster than him, but my strength wasn’t even close to his vitality, and he was also wearing a set of armor to further boost it. With that insane strength and his weapon, he could cleave any of us in two!
Also, what in God’s name was that Health pool?! This ogre could tank Hestia’s attack and probably still be able to fight just like … that rank A geisenlarg king we fought in Griffonpeak … Oh no.
Okay … as the second-in-command to Aurora, I knew exactly what sort of battles I could win. This one, though, uuuuuuuh, maybe this wasn’t the time to try to use my new abilities. I wasn’t even close to his level and stats!
[“… Maybe you aren’t ready just yet.”] Belzac’s voice warned me.
[“Retreat! Cover the ships!”] I corrected my orders, which my shadow pack instantly followed without questioning it. They heard my panic.
“Beeeeeeeeeelzac!” The Ogre King roared as he saw us turn our backs to him. With me using [Identify], he probably realized we wouldn’t want to challenge him right now.
He rushed ahead of his army, running with his lightning-infused horned hammer raised up. His army did not follow, letting their king charge with eyes filled with rage. His muscles suddenly swelled and that supposed size change the description mentioned happened.
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Before, he had been around Uno’s height—slightly shorter than a giraffe’s height—but now he was large enough to tower over even Hestia. A real gigantification, this ogre was a massive monster like in those kaiju films, although he still couldn’t be compared to Melloxtressa.
With every step, the earth quaked as he took a massive leap towards the port, leaving three house-sized foot imprints on his way like an Olympic triple-jumper! He would reach us before the one hour ETA!
[“Sarasa! Quatre! On me! Everybody else, take care of the ships!”] I quickly gave my commands before having everybody in my pack cast [Shadow Pack], effectively doubling our number of combatants.
Just delay! Haste, Swift Winds, Strengthening Flames!
[Shadow Armament (Full Cover)] [Various Spell Buffs] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
[Wind Magic Lv. 5]’s and [Fire Magic Lv. 5]’s buffing spells. With my growth as a mage, I had also finally taken the step to broaden my spell arsenal. Not for their offensive powers, no, [Stygian Voltage] and my dark elemental attack buffs meant using anything outside of my black lightning and dark spells meant I was weakening my damage. I bought these two skills and leveled them up for their buffs and utility!
I then clapped my front paws together, causing my white fur to start producing black lightning. I placed them in my shadow before conjuring a black black circle.
Behold, my new spell, Hel’s Thunder!
I then grabbed hold of my shadow with [Shadow Armament], allowing me to use [Umbrakinesis] to enlarge my shadow and make it connect with the ones cast by the nearby houses. Just as the Ogre King reached the pier, my spell activated, using all the shadows mine managed to touch to unleash a maelstrom of black lightning, striking the ogre right in the chest just as he was about to land, making him fall onto his back.
Hel’s Thunder: A custom spell made with [Stygian Voltage]. Allows the user to channel their [Stygian Lightning] through their shadows and any other as long as the owner’s shadows touches the rest. Grows in strength the more shadows that are connected, with its effectiveness lessoned when used in complete darkness
Unlike my trump card [Hadaen Dragon Thunder] which was meant as a crowd control spell, I could channel each individual lightning bolt into one enemy, shooting all of the bolts like a minigun. And I could continue using the spell as long as I had mana!
Fire!
The black lightning shot in the sky, gathering into a single point before turning into the form of an arrow to strike the ogre. However, his body suddenly started to shrink to the point I couldn’t see him from here anymore. The lightning struck, causing the black light to dissipate from the area. However, for some reason, my skills warned me of an incoming attack.
Just as a shiver ran down my spine, I noticed the color green in the the area where my lightning had hit, before I realized that was the attack of the ogre! We had to dodge!
Sarasa, Quatre, and I all dodged the right just as a giant cleave of a green lightning shot out from that direction, bisecting the entire harbor into two. The crackling electricity still caught us, though, causing some minor burns as we crashed against a few buildings to escape. Loud chirping sounds resounded in my head, as I felt slightly light-headed from the crash. After shaking it off, I snapped my head around.
My shadow pack was alright, I could feel it, but what about the ships? Thankfully, I made the correct choice by assigning four members to take care of the ship. With Shoyi’s help as a platform on the water, Uno, Song, Varya, and Mother cast [Dark Tendrils] and managed to pull the ships off the pier and out of the water.
Aside from Uno’s rescued ship, the rest had almost capsized due to the other three lacking strength to control them. Thankfully, Asaka and Shoyi already handled them, with the former using her graffiti spell to create a large balloon to make the ships bounce to the side. With Uno quickly helping out the other three, they managed to get the ships to stabilize.
“Wroooooooooh!” I jerked my eyes around as I heard Sarasa’s howl, noticing the Ogre approaching, charging up his axe once again.
Shit, I have to use it!
[“Sarasa! Quatre! Delay!”] I gave out my orders, prompting our two physically-focused fenrirs to charge at the ogre. He eyed them, before throwing his axe onto the ground and began to provoke them by gesturing “Come at me” with his hand.
This guy knows he’s stronger!
“Wrooooooooooh!”
However, we wouldn’t take this lying down.
Sarasa howled once again as her shadow spread in front of her before slamming her arms into it.
Her shadow began to quake and then lashed out, attaching itself to the ogre’s shadow and suddenly causing him to sink into it as if it was a swamp. The ogre’s eyes looked down, unperturbed.
Quatre dove into the shadow just as Sarasa grabbed a nearby house, pulling it and its foundation out of the ground before slinging it at the ogre. He was about to defend himself, only for his body to jerk back, slowing him down and causing him to get hit by the house. As the dust settled down, he frowned, shaking his head to get rid of the dust.
He eyed the shadow, having noticed Quatre using his unique racial skill [Underworld Charger] to slip into the shadow without [Shadow Dash]. There, he was fighting the Ogre King, swimming around and ramming his hardened bone armor into him.
The ogre king raised his arm, prompting Sarasa and I to intervene. We Belzac wolves fought dirty.
[“kmkpASAMDAmsakmasassdKFKSDKdkfsdfldllasd”] Sarasa and I sent scrambled thoughts through our [Telepathy] into the ogre, followed by the four other members of this shadow pack.
“Grruk! Wolves!”
The mental attack worked, dazing the ogre king and allowing our six [Shadow Clone]s to attack him. However, none of them could deal any damage, and instead of dealing with them, the ogre just ignored them and raised his arm again.
Sarasa, in response, pounced at him, kicking the arm before wrapping some mana threads around it. She then threw the strings towards me, which I caught and began pulling to stop the ogre, but that quickly proved to be a bad move.
But instead of trying to break out, he began to flex his muscles before an audible “pop!” sound resounded from around the arm the thread was on. In the next moment, blood oozed out of his bronze-black armor, dripping into his shadow, causing it to shake and create small waves in it.
As I was confused at what happened, Quatre suddenly dove out of the shadow, panting as his shadow armor was sizzling for some reason. At the same time, the ogre king jerked his arm and pulled me over. To save me, one of the [Shadow Clone] bodychecked me out of the ogre’s grip but ended up taking my place.
Squeezing the elephant-sized wolf like a plush toy, it exploded, before the ogre forced himself out of his shadow, then grabbing his axe and throwing it at me. Sarasa, thankfully, was faster, slingshotting herself up by using [Dark Tendrils], where she grabbed the axe mid-flight and flung it away. I caught her with my own tendrils, before using [Wind Blast] to weaken her acceleration.
At the same time, a rune lit up on the axe, causing the axe to fly back to the ogre’s hand, Sarasa along with it. Telling her to let go, I used another [Wind Blast], changing my trajectory towards the Ogre King while I channeled my dark lightning around the white fur on my front paws to land an electrifying [Voltage Impact] right at my enemy.
He, however, grabbed his shadow with his blood-dripping left arm and used it to produce a shield to block my attack, before grabbing his flying axe to slash at me. I jumped off the shield, and used both [Wind Blast] and [Just Blink], my first custom ability. For a single second, I disappeared from everybody’s perception using [Shadow Armament] to disappear. Even the Ogre King couldn’t detect me running to his back to land a back attack on him with [Voltage Impact].
However …
… Dammit.
“… It seemed you weren’t just a feeble little wolf, scurrying around my kingdom like a rat, infesting the foundation. You can fight.” He pulled his helmet off, showing his scarred face to me with its two large horns. His beard was short, as if he had shaved it a week ago. “We finally meet eye-to-eye, Belzac wolf.”
I took a step back, far enough from his attack range. He turned his body around, hiding the sizzling, black mark on the back of his armor—a mark that showed that, while I managed to deal some damage on him, it was not enough to penetrate his defenses. Red lines suddenly showed on his face as blood oozed from them, making him look a bit shamanistic before he put his crown-like helmet back on his head.
He pointed his axe at me before glaring deep into my eyes, flashing his fangs at me.“I am king of the grimgarians, Kreigst Thunderslayer, as you already know. You stand in my kingdom, Grimmeirgon, the haven I have built up for all grimgarians willing to find a place where they can live without being treated like ‘monsters’ by every other ‘intelligent’ race. Present yourself, rogue.”
… He could appraise me just as I did, but isn’t trying to? Tsk, makes me look bad.
[“Saori Segawa.”]
“Kneel and surrender these beastmen, and I will give you a painless death. I will let your pack flee, for I only want your head for the blood you spilled.” His eyes widened, anger seething as he raised his axe. He really was holding back his rage, sadly …
[“I kneel to no one but my best friend.”] I readied myself. [“And your men have hurt us over and over already. Your warpath have caused enough of the people I care for to suffer.”]
“Suffer? Your naivety in this manner is stunning!” he raised his voice, clearly irritated. “We grimgarians have suffered just as much as any human, beastman, elf, and dwarf! Hunted down like bandits! How is it fair that we are treated like the feral monster spawns? There is a distinction, nuances … But everybody thinks of us as if we are just monsters. Goddess Death take them all!”
He let out an ear-splitting roar, strong enough to cause the ground to shake and push everybody away from him with a strong shockwave. It was so loud, the grimgarian army coming towards us roared as well and were increasing their marching speed. They were running! My attempt to delay him failed!
“Hear this, Belzac wolf! I don’t know how you befriended humans or whoever your master is, but know this! The rest of the world will never think of you as a normal being. They will monsterfy you just like they did us! Not every grimgarian is a ‘monster!’” He pulled his axe back, putting it over his shoulder, readying himself to continue this fight. “They hunted down your family seven years ago. They still hunt you. Even if they share no grudge, they will hunt you for your fur, your bones, your fangs, your claws; you are nothing but a sack of materials in their eyes!”
… Not as long as I keep with the ideals of Aurora. Diplomacy and talking can solve more than enough issues.
This, however, was maybe not one of them. [“I know enough, King Kreigst. I know the demonkins sent one of their sympathizers to hunt my mother’s pack and family down. I know you are working with the demonkins. You wish for war, I wish for it to stop.”]
I remembered what I had learned about Davison during our stay in Firwood. How he put out a Quest that attracted rank A adventurers to kill my garm grandparents and my many uncles and aunts. Although I didn’t acknowledge it back then, I acknowledged it now as my second mother was a garm. A garm whose life was dramatically changed due to all of this!
Davison worked with the demonkins to cause chaos, in particular, created a diplomatic situation by kidnapping and experimenting on faefolk. He used a demonic brew to fight back against us. If the Ogre King knew about this, then he was my enemy.
“Then we are enemies.” The blood on his face oozed out, covering his armor before it hardened up into a protective shell. This blood-covered warrior was setting himself up to use his berserker abilities! “Any last words … warrior? Be quick about it, my heart beats with my desire to avenge everybody you killed!”
The ships were almost far away enough, having departed after the ogre sent that lightning cleave. He could probably do the same again, so I had to delay him even further. Anything was worth a try at this point.
[“… I am a Champion of Goddess Edna. I am here to rescue the beastmen from your clutches by a Divine Quest. Will you let us go?”]
“… Even if you had asked me this before all the bloodshed, I would have rejected it. We need these beastmen to know our suffering; we need them to build this nation! A nation where we grimgarians know our toil and death resulted into something! For revenge on this world!” He closed his eyes, meanwhile, Belzac suddenly spoke to me.
[“I told you.”] He acted all smug, as he knew I couldn’t convince the Ogre King. [“Grimgarians might be very loyal to the dark pantheon, but ultimately are fueled by vengeance. Until a wrong is righted, they will not talk and cannot be reasoned with. Talking with them is a fool’s errand.”]
It was the exact thing he told me before we departed from his shrine. I knew it was the truth, especially after the countless grimgarians I had to kill to protect Hestia, Tasianna, and everybody else. I had to force their hand and have them bring back their fleet from Port Annencia.
Hearing the ogre reject my proposition felt bad. Then again, even if we managed to peacefully deal with everything, the beastmen slaves wouldn’t have been let this go quietly. The warrior caste amongst them would have caused an uproar even if I ordered them to not to. This fighting was, sadly, unavoidable.
It was a war where the only way to change things was to wait for the aftermath.
His eyes snapped open as I finalized my resolve. “Now though, I believe the Ancestral Mother sent you here to die … For I will show my worth as a Champion to her! Bloodsoak—”
His axe was covered in his blood, reminding me of how an ogre we fought in the past used blood-based attacks. As the scarlet blade shone, reflecting the sun, he was about to shoot it at me.
My agility has been over 10000 for a while now. I could dodge and outmaneuver him!
“—Cleav—”
However, just as he was about to do it, my shadow pack launched another mental attack before our five remaining shadow clones threw themselves at the ogre to delay him. Sarasa and Quatre did the same, and this sudden attack forced the ogre to stop his own attack; instead, he swung his weapon, cleaving two shadow clones with one strike.
A black magic circle appeared on his left hand as he destroyed the third shadow. He then cast it, shooting out the [Tenebrous Magic Lv. 2] spell [Abyssal Bomb]. I countered by shooting out some stygian lightning, causing the bomb to explode in between us, causing a black smoke to blind me. At the same time, I felt [Foresight] warning me of an attack, prompting me to use [Shadow Dash] just as blood cleaved the ground where I was standing.
Since I had no line-of-sight on a nearby shadow, I jumped out of the same spot, into the air, intending to use [Air Steps] to jump away. However, it was this moment that the ogre had been waiting for.
“Niakash baal’ak. Victory or death. You will not flee!” He slammed his axe onto the ground before he roared out, “KNEEL! TERRITORY RELEASE!”
Oh boy.
Hostile Territory detected! [Revenge’s Throne Room] has been activated!
Sarasa and I dodged out of the way as the Ogre King’s mana exuded into the surroundings through his aura. The ground turned black—not shadows, but as if it was corrupted. Any grass or plant life died before the grimgarian’s body turned black. From it, black armor similar to [Shadow Armament] covered his body and equipment, turning it into a mix of pitch black and blood red.
At the same time, Sarasa, Quatre, and I were suddenly pulled onto the ground, softly landing there and forced to kneel before the ogre. We couldn’t pull ourselves up; it was like an invisible power was holding us in this pose. Was it his mana?!
He raised his axe, but instead of killing us while we were in this compromising situation, he pointed his axe at me as the shadow on the ground began to enclose our surroundings. It was just large enough to act as an arena.
“This is Goddess Kronnaz’s throne room, brought down into this world with my aura!” he spat out. “Those who reaped grimgarian blood are the most guilty—those like you. Mercy kill, trial by combat, or do you wish to flee like a coward? Choose.”
… Territories are usually pretty simple. This has to be caused by his unique skill or something else. Regardless, I can’t move right because of one of those reasons. Whatever I answer, it will probably have an effect on my next move.
Belzac’s voice appeared in my head after I told him of my thoughts. [“Correct thoughts, Saori. The Territory has to be related to the arena he created and the sudden gravity control. Asking for your answer is probably related to the unique skill. Meaning, whatever you do, you will not like it. There is only one way to get out of this without penalizing yourself.”]
[“Can I use it now?”] I asked him, knowing what he was insinuating.
He sent me a mental nod. [“Yes, but only for a short moment. The shorter the better. The arcane corruption backlash is determined by how much mana is consumed while the Territory Dispute is happening. However, you need to push away his effects by using your own Territory! That’s the winning play!”]
Alright … Territory Release!
Mana Release activated. Aura used as control unit: [True Wolven Bloodlust]. Territory [Yomi] has been established. Territory Dispute engaged
My shadow exploded from underneath me as it began to overflow everything like a water leak inside a submarine. The breach that was my shadow broke, opening up even further as everything began to turn black, even helping the grimgarian’s Territory to close up.
Thankfully, as Belzac explained, the existence of another Territory within a Territory meant I was pushing the effects of his away from me. My wolves and I could move.
Seeing me stand and activate my own Territory, the ogre smiled, crackling and stating how overjoyed he was. “This will be a good battle,” he said, explaining that, if I could beat him here, he would forgive everything that happened and let my pack leave alive with the slaves. He would order his army to stand down.
If I were to die, though, he would only let my pack go.
“Now, let us fight!” he roared, raising his axe in the sky as it burst with green electricity.
Hehe.
[“I refuse.”]
“Hu—”
Yomi: A Territory Release that uses an aura to exude dark elemental mana into the surroundings, encasing everything in a shadow the user can manipulate without any problems. Every shadow within this Territory is under the authority of the owner, unless the shadow’s owner has their Territory activated. The shadow is like a liquid
I could not control him like a marionette, buuuuuuut, the liquid part was the important part here!
Hel’s Thunder! Voltage Impact!
My wolves dove into my shadow as I cast [Hel’s Thunder] on to the ground, before stomping the ground with a huge blast of black lightning, creating a shockwave that forced the ogre to take a step back. He, however, quickly recovered and was about to swing my axe to decapitate me, but he was immediately held back when both Sarasa and Quatre emerged from underneath him and held his legs back.
I then summoned a [Shadow Clone], having it bodycheck the ogre, blocking his sight of me as I jumped to the top of the arena where my Territory just closed up. As it was all part of my Territory, I easily broke through it, getting out of the sphere before releasing [Hel’s Thunder] within the sphere, causing countless black lightning to strike the ogre.
He wouldn’t die from this, but I didn’t care. I quickly rushed to the ships, smiling as they had made it far enough that the grimgarians had to use their boats to catch up. The distance was as long as three baseball stadiums.
Instead of the ships, I landed on the floating body of Shoyi, where I rejoined with an exhausted Asaka and the rest of the pack. At the same time, Quatre and Sarasa emerged from my shadow, panting and happy to see I succeeded in my escape.
I looked to the side with a wide grin as I saw a black sphere in the distance. Unlike Hestia’s Territory, which was an unbearable heatwave able to melt most things, mine was just that shadow ball. When my black liquid “leaked” out of my shadow, that was essentially my Territory when I fed it mana, allowing me to produce more of that “liquid shadow” as I called it. As such, it was tangible.
[“Good boy! Good girl!”] I praised both Quatre and Sarasa for delaying him long enough. One bad move and they could have died.
Speaking of which, I frowned when I saw the ogre breaking through my Territory, looking barely injured. He, however, was quite angry. To commemorate our meeting, I should give him a taste of my next spell—[Hadaen Dragon Thunder].
Lightning channeled around the magic circle before I unleashed my spell, large enough to consume the ogre’s entire body and my shadow spehere. As he was still stuck in it, he was sent flying away like a ragdoll until I dispelled my Territory. With the ogre nowhere close to the port, all we had to do was to speed up the ships and our escape would be a success.
Uuuurgh!
Territory deactivated. Territory Dispute completed in favor of individual [Ogre Giganvin, Kriegst Thunderslayer]
[Arcane Fever (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir, Saori Segawa]
Are you kidding me?!
It was just for a moment but I still got so much arcane corruption I got [Arcane Fever]?! What was this insanity?! Belzac explained to me the consequences of losing a Territory Dispute, but for something that didn’t last even a minute, I got penalized this heavily?!
[“It is a good lesson for you to learn. Do not use your Territory for every single encounter, especially if you know your enemy has a Territory themselves. Sometimes, things can backfire really hard. If you were forced to disable your Territory for any reason, you could potentially just burst like an explosive frog. Poof.”]
…
W-well, leaving that aside, I should just stop worrying so much and tell everybody the good news. After I had all my garm enter my shadow again, Asaka took out some dragorade for me to drink to help my headache. She also began teasing me how she “had” to heal me now and how I should praise her for being a “good person.”
… Yes, this girl was telling me, a person who has [Arcane Fever] to use [Telepathy] to praise her, while I wasn’t allowed to use mana to recover. Haaa, well, at this point, I was just happy she was willing to speak with me … If you realy thought about it, I undoubtedly was the worst teacher she could have gotten. I should have been more supportive of her, instead of wanting to push her for my own selfish needs.
[“… Thanks for sticking around this long with me, Asaka-chan.”] I groaned as I told her this.
Noticing me in pain, she screamed, “Oi! Shut it! Don’t speak, it was just a joke. Jeez, you should know better, Segawa … You fought enough, come on, let’s enjoy the break and wait for Edna to be happy.”
Yeah … let’s. I nodded.
I didn’t know if I got any closer to Asaka in the time we stayed in the cave, but … I hoped so. I wasn’t her teacher any longer, but I still felt guilty about the way I treated her. She was, after all, just a troubled kid. While I was just the control freak who wanted to abuse her students’ academic prowess to get more money.
I stared up as Shoyi moved us onto one of the boats, where the beastmen were cheering for me, praising how I fought bravely against their leader. Some scorned me for fleeing, saying how I should be ashamed for fleeing, but I ignored them. To be honest, unlike Hestia and my human dad, I didn’t feel that happy about all the cheers.
Unlike them, I wasn’t much of a hero. I was just happy everybody from my party survived and that the mission was a success. I guess that was one part I couldn’t get rid of—my wish for everything to go perfectly. That little control freak side of myself wouldn’t die for a long time, and I was happy about it.
Alright, time for the next stage. Hestia, Tasianna, Ellaine, Grimnir, we will all meet up soon. Set sail!