Overlord, Vol. 11: The Dwarven Crafter

Chapter 3 | The Impending Crisis

1

The Great Chasm…

That was the name of an enormous rift that ran along the western side of the dwarf city Fehu Jura. This underground ravine stretched nearly forty miles and, even at its narrowest, was over 130 yards across. No one had managed to measure its full depth. It was unclear what was waiting at the bottom, but not a single member of the two exploratory expeditions sent to investigate had returned.

This natural fortification had long protected Fehu Jura from any monster attacks. As long as the dwarves held the bridge they had taken great pains to build, there was no danger of monster invasion from the west.

But on this day, inside the Fehu Jura garrison—a base situated between the Great Chasm and Fehu Jura—was a storm of shouts and confusion.

“What happened?! Can anyone give a precise explanation?” the supreme commander who had been leading the dwarf army for over ten years yelled.

The information that came in was disorganized, so it was impossible to tell what was true. The only thing the commander had confirmed was that the fort at the Great Chasm was having some sort of emergency.

“The last word we received said that the kuagoa were attacking!” One of the platoon leaders raised his voice to repeat the report from the fort.

That in itself wasn’t rare. The kuagoa were the dwarves’ loathsome rivals and they sometimes attacked in units of a hundred. He couldn’t even remember how many times it had happened since he became supreme commander of their military forces.

But the attacks had always been repelled by the fort, so the enemy had never even approached the garrison, much less Fehu Jura proper.

The kuagoa were fairly sturdy against blows from physical weapons, but they had a racial weakness to electric attacks. Since the dwarves knew that, they kept at the fort a magic item that could unleash a power similar to Lightning.

Lightning was an attack spell that could pierce through enemies in a straight line, making it ideal for dealing with anyone crossing the bridge. With this, the dwarves could nail all the kuagoa at once. Moreover, the guards at the fort were equipped with crossbows that dealt additional electric damage as well.

Compared to how well prepared they were equipment-wise, it was true that they didn’t have much manpower stationed at the fort. At the same time, it wasn’t as if they were deliberately leaving the fort undermanned despite its strategic value. The dwarf army simply wasn’t that big to begin with. They stationed enough of their limited forces there that it couldn’t be called negligent.

The fort was specially designed to combat the kuagoa, but the situation was apparently so bad that they couldn’t even spare a moment to call for reinforcements.

What did that mean?

“Are there so many attackers that the fort troops can’t fight them all off? There’s no update from the guards?”

“Not yet!”

Cold sweat dripped down the supreme commander’s back.

The words
great invasion
flickered before his eyes. There had been whispers about it for years, but he had frantically convinced himself that such a thing wasn’t possible. Yet, he had the feeling that was exactly what was happening now.

The supreme commander pulled himself together. This wasn’t the time to let his fears hold him frozen in place.

What was the correct thing to do right now?

A gently spiraling tunnel ran from the fort to the garrison under his command. Beyond the garrison lay Fehu Jura, making it essentially the city’s last line of defense. At the boundary between the cave where the garrison base was located and the tunnel, there were doors of mythril and orichalcum. If these doors were closed, they could stop an attack.

Should the doors be locked up?

Closing them would also mean not being able to send reinforcements. That would be the same as abandoning their fellow countrymen who were fiercely struggling to defend the fort at that very moment.

But he wavered for only an instant.

Only twenty soldiers manned the fort.

But in Fehu Jura, there were some hundred thousand dwarves. When deciding which to prioritize, there was only one answer.

“Shut the doors!”

“Passing it on! Shut the doors!”

Before the shouts even finished echoing off the cave walls, a groaning noise traveled through the ground as vibrations. The giant doors slowly began sliding into place to shut off the entrance. The doors had only ever moved during training exercises; today was the first time they were used for real.

“Commander! It’s the kuagoa!”

“What?!”

At the shout from the guards at the gate leading to the tunnel, the supreme commander shifted his gaze beyond them. What he saw were horrifying subhumans with bloodshot eyes, foaming at their mouths.

Without electric weapons, even one kuagoa was a tough opponent. But more than he could count on two hands were hurtling toward them now.

Did the fort really fall? How strong are the kuagoa forces? Are their numbers so great that even closing the doors won’t stop them?

With a great many questions on his mind, the supreme commander shook his head to clear it. “Don’t let them in! Pikemen, to the front!”

With a war cry, the soldiers formed a thicket of pikes.

But even seeing that, the kuagoa’s charge didn’t slow. They were confident in their fur’s resistance to steel.

The supreme commander clicked his tongue. The enemy was making a smart choice. A crossbow volley might have repelled them, but a thicket of pikes could only keep them in check. But he had anticipated the kuagoa reacting like that, so they were ready.

“Wizards! Use lightning!”

From a watchtower situated near the gate, the tier-three area-of-effect spell Lightning Ball was launched at an angle that wouldn’t hit the pikemen from behind, and two casts of Thunderbolt Lance flew to pick off individual targets.

These attacks were conducted by the dwarf military’s three most powerful wizards.

Due to their weakness to electricity, the kuagoa leading the charge were easily felled by the Lightning Ball. The ones behind them were forced to stop as well.

That short time made all the difference.

With a loud bang, the doors slammed shut. Immediately after, the sound of pounding on the other side carried all the way through the thick metal.

The tense atmosphere relaxed slightly. But the supreme commander and all the soldiers around knew nothing was over yet.

The doors were durable, so a normal kuagoa’s fangs wouldn’t be able to chomp through them, but some had fangs reported to be as tough as mythril. Those were in the ruling class, but it wouldn’t have been strange to find them participating in this attack. There was no guarantee that the dwarves were safe.

“Tch! If only the doors delivered a shock at fixed intervals, then…!!”

The commander had proposed the idea when he had assumed his current position. He said that for a final line of defense, these doors weren’t enough. But due to their nation’s dwindling strength, they didn’t have resources to spare for the doors. And the fact that the fort by the bridge had repelled all previous attacks was also a major influence on the decision. There was a sense that the other defenses made improvements to the doors unnecessary.

When he looked around, everyone’s expressions were dark.

This is bad. If we lose hope, we’ll be defeated when a melee breaks out.

The supreme commander raised his voice to change the mood. “Okay! Now the city will be safe! But it’s not a sure thing just yet. Let’s erect a barrier in front of the doors in case they break through! Hurry!”

Some life returned to a few dwarf faces. Having been reminded that there was still something they could do, the soldiers responded to his call with renewed vigor. A flimsy hope was better than none.

The supreme commander’s chief adviser sidled up to him and leaned toward his ear. “Commander, shall we bury the doors?”

He considered the proposal.

It seemed likely they would receive objections from some dwarves complaining that they shouldn’t shut down the entrance so completely.

“These people have no idea the situation we’re in.”

Noticing his adviser’s surprise, the commander realized his comment to himself had been overheard and taken as a reply.

“Sorry, I don’t mean you. I was thinking of the regency council’s reaction.”

“But you’re one of them, aren’t you? Is that why you know how they would respond if we completely sealed off the tunnel? Personally, I think we should not only seal the tunnel but consider abandoning Fehu Jura as well.”

The supreme commander squinted and grabbed his adviser’s arm to pull him somewhere their conversation wouldn’t reach the soldiers’ ears. He didn’t want anyone to hear the rest.

“So you think so, too?”

It was unclear how many kuagoa were on the other side of the doors.

Because they were forced to quickly go on the defensive against the enemy’s rapid advance, the garrison had lost the opportunity to collect all sorts of information. It was like being locked up with a blindfold on.

The only thing they could base decisions on was that the enemy force seemed to have been large enough to take down their hitherto impregnable fort.

If that was the case, it would be practically impossible for the dwarf forces to open the gate, fight off the kuagoa, and take back the fort. Perhaps abandoning the city was the best course of action.

“How much time can we buy if the tunnel is totally sealed off?”

“If we collapse this cave, quite a bit. Unfortunately, simply piling up dirt would only earn us a few days.”

“What are the risks of collapsing the cave?”

“As you know, Commander, this place isn’t very far from Fehu Jura. We’d have to call the tunnel doctors to investigate to know for sure, but it’s possible that the city would be affected. In the worst case, a pathway could open up behind the gate, allowing the kuagoa to surge into Fehu Jura.”

“In other words, we need to get the area checked out in a hurry. Then, I have a different question. Do you think the fort fell to a kuagoa wave attack? Why couldn’t the soldiers stationed at the fort contact us sooner?”

“I can think of several scenarios. The one I personally find most likely is that the kuagoa got assistance from another race.”

“Like the frost dragons?”

The kuagoa had occupied the onetime dwarf capital, Fehu Berkana, and were living there. The royal palace towering in its center was ruled by frost dragons.

The two races didn’t seem to be fully cooperating, but if they were coexisting, it was certainly possible they would help each other out.

The supreme commander made a grim face. An elder frost dragon was a living catastrophe.

Once there were four dwarf cities.

The royal capital that had been abandoned two hundred years ago during the evil spirit attack, Fehu Berkana.

The eastern city and current capital, Fehu Jura.

The southern city, which was recently abandoned, Fehu Raido.

And finally there was the western city, Fehu Teiwaz.

The western city had gotten caught up in a fight between two frost dragons, Olasird’arc Haylilyal and Munwinia Ilisusulim, and was left in ruins.

“It could be, although I don’t know what kind of contract would get those proud creatures to make a move. Another possibility is that the kuagoa came up with their own way to cross the Great Chasm…like magic or something. Or they could have taken a long detour.”

“Not even we dwarves could find a route around!”

“But that was years ago, Commander. It’s possible that during that time, monsters moved, the kuagoa built tunnels, or the earth’s crust itself changed, revealing a new path. They could have even gone aboveground.”

“Kuagoa on the surface?”

“Maybe some of them gained that ability.”

The kuagoa race went totally blind in the sun. For that reason, the commander had been confident the kuagoa would never attack via the surface, but was that simply his personal assumption?

Well, it was too late for regrets. All he could do now was keep that assortment of things in mind as he formulated a plan.

“I see. Then, we need to strengthen our defenses against potential attacks from the surface, too. Choose some personnel without leaving us too undermanned here and send them out. Then report to the regency council and propose that we evacuate south.”

Besides the garrison base, the fort by the Great Chasm, and the regency council hall, there was one other military site in Fehu Jura.

At the entrance that connected to the surface, there was a fort large enough for the taller races—it was built with humans in mind—to be accommodated. The commander’s orders were to strengthen that fort and keep watch for a potential attack from the surface.

“Yes, sir!”

“And tell them to get ready to bury the doors. We have to wait for the regency council’s approval, but we’ll convince them somehow.”

“What if it takes longer than expected?”

“Do your best. I’ll do mine, too.”

That was all he could say. Of course, as one of the association’s eight members, he intended to do everything in his power, but if the other members vetoed the plan, then he would simply have to do as much as he was allowed under his position’s jurisdiction.

As he was resigning himself to the duties of the supreme commander—
depending on what happens, I might even have to…
—a panicky voice rang out.

“I—I have a message! A message! Where is the supreme commander?!”

When he looked toward the voice, he saw a dwarf soldier on a riding lizard.

Riding lizards were a type of giant lizard. They could measure ten feet or longer from head to tail end. There weren’t many, but the dwarves kept them as mounts, and in times of peace, they were handy as pack animals.

They weren’t used for any old message. Riding lizards were broken out only in emergencies, much like the one the garrison was currently dealing with.

Anxiety gripped the supreme commander’s heart.

“Where was that messenger stationed?”

“This week he was supposed to be guarding the fort at the entrance to the surface.”

The supreme commander was now sure his fears had come to pass. No, it had been obvious from the tension in the messenger’s face and the wild tone of his voice. The reason the commander had asked anyway was because he didn’t want to accept the truth.

“I’m here! What’s the matter?” he shouted and ran toward the messenger. He couldn’t just stand there waiting. He needed to hear the message and take action.

The messenger practically tumbled off his riding lizard and shouted as he desperately tried to catch his breath. “Commander! It’s an emergency! M-monsters! There are monsters!”

Kuagoa?
he thought but immediately realized it wasn’t them. If the kuagoa had shown up there, the messenger would have said so. “Calm down! I don’t understand if that’s all you tell me! What happened? Are the others safe?”

“S-sir! A terrifying monster appeared at the entrance! He said he has business with the kuagoa attacking us!”

“Whaaat?!”

The timing was too perfect. It had to be someone connected to this series of events. Was it the kuagoa leader? Or perhaps this was the one who had helped them cross the Great Chasm?

“Who in the world is it? Explain what it looked like! You, round up as many soldiers as you can!”

“Yes, sir!”

He didn’t have time to watch his adviser rush off in a panic.

“How many are there?! Give me a damage report!”

“There are about thirty. But they don’t seem to want to fight! On the contrary, they said they want to negotiate, but they seem so sinister, I doubt we can trust them. It’s clear they have an ulterior motive!”

What made the messenger think the newcomers were sinister? And he still hadn’t heard what they looked like. When he repeated his question, the messenger gulped and began to explain.

“They’re horrifying undead wreathed in an ominous aura!”

“What?! Undead?!”

They hate life, spread death, and are the enemy of all living beings.

The moment he heard the word
undead
, numerous images came to the supreme commander’s mind—like frozen zombies and frost bones. But those weren’t terribly powerful. And the messenger should have known that as well. The natural question was: Who had terrified the messenger this much?

And why had the undead come? Did it please them to see dwarves and kuagoa—living beings both—fighting to the death?

“…Hey, are the preparations complete yet? As soon as they’re wrapped up, we’re moving out! I don’t know exactly how many undead there are, but don’t let your guard down! Show no weakness! We don’t need to provoke them, but we shouldn’t take them lightly, either!”

2

The party pressed onward with Gondo as their guide.

Most of his travels had been done underground, so he wasn’t very familiar with the surface. For that reason, their navigation depended more on pure direction than the lay of the land. Ainz was nervous at first, but after seeing Gondo instruct everyone without hesitation, his trust gradually solidified until he eventually left their route entirely to the dwarf.

Moreover, since the dwarf capital was under attack, it didn’t benefit Gondo to get the party lost. Following him was probably fine.

Obeying his instructions, Aura’s magical beast traversed the snow-covered mountains as if they were trotting across a grassy plain.

The mounts truly were high-level monsters. Their agility and stamina were outstanding. They carried Ainz and the others on their backs over snowy mountainous terrain where the air was thin for a journey north that covered over sixty miles, but they didn’t seem to slow their pace at all.

A few times, flying monsters appeared overhead, but one growl from the magical beasts was enough to send them scattering, wasting almost no time at all.

Ainz expected them to arrive at the dwarves’ only remaining city, Fehu Jura, in less than a day.

He asked Gondo, who was riding the beast running parallel to his, “…So, Gondo, is Fehu Jura inside a fissure cave like Fehu Raido?”

If it was, they wouldn’t find it unless they searched very deliberately.

At first, Gondo had clung fearfully to his beast, but now he seemed to have gotten used to riding. He answered. “It’s true that the part of the city where the dwarves live is like that, but Fehu Jura is a bit different from Fehu Raido in that it was built for facilitating trade with human countries. There’s a large fort outside so people can find it easily and have a place to stay when they visit. If we look for that landmark, we should be able to find it.”

Ainz acknowledged what he was saying and made a cursory search around them, but he didn’t see anything like a big building.

“We need to go a little farther north before we’ll spot it.”

Gondo sounded fairly confident and seemed to have an idea of their current position. In any case, the dwarf was their only guide, so even if he was wrong, there was nothing Ainz could do. He had no choice but to follow.

“I see,” replied Ainz and then cast Message.

The captured kuagoa that had been taken back to Nazarick were being pressed for information. He figured whatever they knew could complement Gondo’s knowledge.

Kuagoa typically lived in clans ruled by a strong boss, and the eight clans of the Azerlisia Mountains were apparently united by a clan king. The total population was around eighty thousand.

Ainz inspected the data and gave the race his stamp of disinterest.

If he could lend his strength only to either the dwarves or the kuagoa, he would definitely favor the former.

At the same time, he was interested in the fact that the type of metal kuagoa ate during their youth affected their strength as adults. He felt like if he fed them some of the metals he had back in Nazarick, he might be able to create some superpowerful ones.

He recalled the prismatic ore he had been thinking about on the initial leg of the journey here.

Even if the kuagoa clan king hadn’t eaten that, could it be that he was the result of eating some rare metal from
Yggdrasil
?

If this clan king held a power that Ainz could acquire, it was worth looking into.

If he’s willing to swear allegiance to the Nation of Darkness, I’m not sure I can support eighty thousand subjects, but I should consider it. That’s the sort of country I’m aiming to create, after all.

Ainz thought about the shape he wanted his nation to take.

He wanted all different races to coexist. He wanted his country to be like the guild Ainz Ooal Gown once was in the Great Tomb of Nazarick—the kind of country where his old guildmates could enjoy themselves.

That was why he felt he should show compassion to the kuagoa.

But even if they swear loyalty, where can I have them live? These mountains are a tricky proposition… Maybe the mountains south of E-Rantel? But there are probably already other people living there… Hrm. This is a pain. Maybe Cocytus can make use of his experience ruling the lizardmen, since the civilization level is about the same. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to call him.

The yell that disrupted Ainz’s train of thought came from Gondo.

“There it is!”

In the direction he pointed, sure enough, there was a fort-like structure right up against the surface of the rock.

Everyone moved toward it. If they wanted to hide themselves, there were plenty of ways to do so, but that would only defeat the purpose of their visit, so they openly headed for the front door.

As they got closer, there were signs they had been noticed as the soldiers guarding the fort began to move.

Like a businessman checking his appearance on his way to a meeting, Ainz made sure his robe didn’t have any wrinkles. Of course, it was a magic robe, so it couldn’t get wrinkled, but Satoru Suzuki’s memories whispered that he should smooth it all the same.

As they continued their approach, the dwarves in the windows took aim with their crossbows.

The only people in the party who would take serious damage from a crossbow bolt were Gondo and Zenbel. If Ainz had those two walk out front to show the party had no hostile intentions, they could be mistakenly shot, so he discarded that plan. Ainz would go first to negotiate. Zenbel and Gondo could come later.

He had the magical beasts stop just outside the effective range of the crossbows and got down off his mount. They were still within maximum range, though, so he ordered Aura and Shalltear to stand by and protect Zenbel and Gondo just in case.

All that’s left is counter-player measures.

He directed everyone to prioritize withdrawal and defense in case a player appeared. On their way here, Gondo couldn’t confirm the existence of anyone that strong, so it was more likely that there weren’t any other players present, but Ainz definitely didn’t want to let his guard down and lose one of the guild’s NPC children again.

All the dwarves observing them had the same expression frozen on their faces. They were so beardy, it was hard to tell them apart, so the way they were standing with only their faces and their identical expressions showing was somewhat…comical?

Suppressing his laughter, Ainz feigned composure and walked forward alone.

Partway there, he held up his hands to show he meant no harm.

When he had nearly reached the fort—

“Stop right there!”

—a tense voice issued an order. Ainz internally lamented how cruelly they were treating him—he may have been an undead, but he wasn’t exhibiting any hostility at all.

“What are you here for, undead?”

Ainz stroked his smooth skull face. “I am the ruler of the Nation of Darkness, Ainz Ooal Gown. I, the King of Darkness, have come to build friendly relations with you, the dwarves. We will not be hostile unless you attack us. Lower your weapons.”

The dwarves peering out the windows looked confused. Ainz decided to say what he came to say and continued.

“When I captured the kuagoa invading Fehu Raido, I learned they were targeting this city. If you’re lacking confidence in your military might, I—my country, rather—could support you. Yes, as a sign of friendship.”

Then he smiled. But perhaps because he had no skin, his benevolent expression didn’t get through to them.

“Who’s that dwarf behind you? A hostage?” The dwarves were still wary of him.

“How rude. I said I was a king, didn’t I? Is that how you talk to a king?”

The dwarves exchanged glances. Then one of them replied. “B-but wait. You need to prove to us you’re a king.”

“I see. That’s reasonable.” Ainz agreed emphatically. “Then, allow me to introduce him. This is Gondo, one of your own and an engineer I met in Fehu Raido.” Ainz indicated the dwarf with a kingly gesture he had practiced a million times.

It was the motion a ruler might use to summon their subordinate.

When he heard the faint sound of the dwarves gasping, he was deeply satisfied and knew the time he had spent practicing hadn’t been wasted.

Gondo had arrived, so Ainz cheerfully struck another royal pose and said, “Sorry, can you go into the fort and explain the details?”

“Sure, leave it to me.”

Gondo went to the gate. Then he introduced himself and asked to be let in, but the gate didn’t open.

“…What is it?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe something weird is going on.”

“H-how do we know you’re really that oddball Gondo who never goes out with us? You might have used magic to change appearances!”

Ainz frowned when he heard the dwarves talking. Being on guard was extremely important. Ainz agreed wholeheartedly. But to have this little trust was next level.

He had heard on the way, though, that there might be someone on duty there who knew Gondo; fortunately, there was.

“Very well, Gondo. Can you tell them something—say, your address or whatnot—that only someone living in this city would know? That would prove it’s really you.”

“O-okay. Hmm… I’m going to spill his secret to his wife later. Uhhh…so there’s a joint in my ’hood called the Black Gold Beard! The old lady who runs it has a face like an anvil and serves food that tastes like shit. The simmered dishes are the only edible things there!”

The dwarves were silent. Ainz looked at Gondo, wondering what the hell he was doing, but the response a moment later was remarkable.

“You idiot! Nobody eats there! That place is for drinking! Their dark beer is the best!”

“That’s a lie! The best is the red shroom wine!”

“What are you guys talking about? The best is the unrefined stuff, with that full flavor.”

“Seems like you guys don’t know what real alcohol tastes like. The best spot is the Bearded Maiden!”

Ainz made a mental note that dwarves were extremely into drinking and asked them, “So? Do you believe he’s really Gondo now? And about the earlier topic I raised, all I really wanted to say was that the kuagoa are on their way to circumvent the Great Chasm to attack you. If you could just tell your higher-ups that I warned you, that would be great. Now, no matter what horrible things happen to your city, I know my country did the right thing, so no one can complain to me later.”

A few of the dwarves pulled their heads inside.

Some more time went by. They seemed to be consulting one another in a group.

“Wait there for a little while! We’ll send a message to our supreme commander!”

According to Gondo, that was the highest authority in this country’s military.

So that meant this matter warranted the attention of a person at the top.

“Heh-heh-heh.” A laugh Ainz couldn’t contain spilled out.

When he looked in the direction of the
ker-chk, ker-chk
noise he heard, the dwarves were pointing their crossbows at him again. They were breathing hard and seemed extremely tense.

Crap. Are they mad because I laughed?

“Sorry. For the time being, is it all right for Gondo to enter the fort? We’ve explained who he is, right?”

“N-no! D-don’t move! Wait right there!”

He hadn’t even really laughed
at
them, but it seemed they were offended.

Any strong emotions he felt were normally automatically suppressed. But little waves of emotion got through.

If a businessman was caught snickering during his first time visiting some company, what would the hosts think?
Ainz was slightly irritated that he hadn’t thought that far and made a mistake as a result.

I need to be a bit more careful
, he thought as he and Gondo distanced themselves a little from the fort.

They stood there waiting for a while.

Even I offered Jircniv a welcome drink and chairs when he came to visit! Do dwarves not do that? Oh…but I guess this is a different case.

Jircniv had come with an appointment, but Ainz was making a cold call. He supposed he should be glad he wasn’t simply turned away.

Besides, he couldn’t drink with his body anyhow.

Still, we brought intelligence that can help the dwarves, so I think they could be a bit more hospitable. Well, I can afford to be more aggressive once we actually establish a diplomatic relationship, so I guess I’ll wait.

He did think maybe he should change his clothes to not be rude.

First, he took out his imitation Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. Everything about it was visually the same, down to the metal used in its construction, but it didn’t have even a tenth of the real one’s power. It merely held jewels of the same color.

Ainz formed a red light in it and then darkened the color. Why did that adjustment function even exist? Ainz was troubled by the mind-set of his most perfectionist guildmate.

It wasn’t as if it was synchronized to his aura or anything.

A dark halo appeared behind him. Sure enough, it was no different from the staff’s aura.

…It’s just visually appealing, I guess.

A crash interrupted Ainz’s thoughts. He noticed three dwarves had plunked down onto the ground.

He had the feeling this group included the dwarves who had been on guard against the party but also their superiors. Partly because two of them had fancier clothes than the third one. Was one of them a guard from the fort and the other two officers?

Why are the three of them sitting down? Is it etiquette to sit when you talk…? They’re staring at me with awfully wide, suspecting eyes. If that’s some sort of expression specific to dwarves, I kind of hate it.

Since their beards hid their mouths, it was hard to tell what face they were making.

Ainz wasn’t sure what to do, but he walked over to the seated dwarves and held out a hand—in a way that could be taken as either him offering them a hand to get up or a handshake. Personally, he would have preferred it if they stood to talk to him.

Interacting with a foreign culture was truly difficult. One wrong move, and he could be making a gesture that to them was rude.

If they laughed at him and said,
If you’re here for diplomacy, then how come you didn’t even bother to look up our country’s manners?
he would have had nothing to say in return.

Anxious internally, as well as thankful for his unmoving expression, he continued holding out his hand.

The dwarves looked between his face and his hand, perplexed.

Hrm? Could it just be that they’re incredibly frightened?! I mean, I guess I do have a particular…appearance. Still, no one in the human world reacted this way.

People in E-Rantel were scared of him, but not like this. It was also possible that it was rude for dwarves to shake the hand of a superior.

Finally, he got impatient and grabbed their hands and pulled them up.

If they have time to waste on nonsense like this, the kuagoa must not have attacked yet. If they were under attack right now, I would’ve had a chance to make them seriously indebted to me, but maybe I should limit myself to simply warning them about the approaching danger instead. Ahhh, that’s too bad. But anyhow, which one of these guys is the superior?

“Now then, I am Ainz Ooal Gown, King of Darkness. Are you in charge of welcoming me?”

It was unclear which one of the two officer-looking dwarves was higher ranking, so he directed his question to the space between them. Then one of them shook his head so hard, it seemed like parts of his face might come flying off before saying, “Kgh! I—I lead the military.”

“The military… I see.”

This is the supreme commander?
Ainz was surprised. He hadn’t expected the highest-ranking person to come directly.
Could it be that the executives of this country have heard about the Nation of Darkness somehow? Or maybe I just came at a good time?

“I take it the kuagoa aren’t posing too much of a problem at the moment? I’m sorry to disturb you at what must be such a busy time.”

The supreme commander’s eyes gaped.

“I see… So you were able to discern that much from the simple fact that I came to this meeting?”

What is this guy talking about?
thought Ainz, but he couldn’t very well say that. “Of course, yes.” He nodded benevolently in the kingly fashion he had rehearsed.

“I see… As you know, we’re currently holding off the kuagoa attack, err, Your Majesty.”

“Oh-ho. And…?”

Ainz wanted to know what this
as you know
was about, but having already pretended to understand, he couldn’t ask.

“First, we heard that you got information out of kuagoa you captured in Fehu Raido. Do you have any evidence to back that up?”

“I believe your countryman Gondo will—”

“Physical evidence.”

“Hmm. Will a kuagoa suffice? I’ll summon a few so you can hear it straight from them.”

“That was fast… Should I just come out and say everything? At this rate, it looks like we won’t be able to evacuate to Fehu Raido.”

“Commander…!” the soldier standing next to him shouted sharply.

As far as Ainz could gather, the outburst was to censure the commander for discussing military secrets in front of him.

But the commander didn’t seem concerned at all. “His Majesty the King of Darkness already knows everything. He essentially said as much a moment ago. If someone who should be leading the troops comes here instead, it must mean the fight is in a deadlock. And once you know that much, it’s not hard to imagine how our army will move when we can’t expect any reinforcements.”

Nah, I asked because I was curious if it was okay for you to be here during a time like this
, Ainz thought but couldn’t say, and he simply nodded the way he had rehearsed.

The supreme commander shared details about their dire situation.

The fort guarding the Great Chasm had fallen, and the invasion was already at their final line of defense. That was a single set of doors, and if they were broken, the city would be attacked and many dwarves would die. The dwarves were considering an evacuation of the city and taking shelter in Fehu Raido while the military bought them time, but doing so involved changing their plans completely, leaving them in a crisis of survival.

Hearing what a horrible spot they were in made Ainz sneer inwardly. Everything was playing out to his advantage.

“Then, how about this? I’ll lend you my soldiers, and we can repel the kuagoa for now.”

The supreme commander narrowed his eyes—to hide what he was feeling.

“You can do that? But…”

Normally, Ainz would set up a conference and ensure he would get something out of it before lifting a finger. That would benefit him more. But if he lent the dwarves his strength for free this time, he was sure to earn their gratitude. Sometimes a debt could result in returns that wouldn’t be possible through a normal deal. That’s what Ainz was after.

Between tangible and intangible, intangible was certainly the messier of the two. It was like going to a restaurant and being told to pay whatever feels appropriate and then paying far more than necessary.

How does that saying go?
Grasp all, lose all
? I think Squishy Moe was the one who said it.

“I would hate to have the country I’m trying to establish friendly relations with get destroyed. Won’t you accept my help?”

“…I need to ask the higher-ups.”

“If you have time for it, I don’t mind. I only promised to assist. You guys decide. I heard it’s the regency council who makes the calls, but…you know how it goes. The congress dances but doesn’t move forward and whatnot. I don’t want my trip here to have been in vain, but do what you must.”

“…Your Majesty is confident the kuagoa can be driven off?”

“If they’re like the ones we met in Fehu Raido, it’ll be easy.”

Gondo nodded next to him.

“But only if they haven’t invaded the city yet. In the middle of a huge brawl, it would be too hard to target only the enemies. I’m sure you’re not about to tacitly approve of the city ending up as collateral damage, right? If you’re just managing to hold them off with one set of doors, then I’m sure this is your last chance.”

The supreme commander made a sober face—

“How much time do you have? Will the gate hold for a few more days?” Ainz’s confirming questions seemed to push the supreme commander into making up his mind.

“…I understand. Your Majesty, King of Darkness, we humbly request that you lend us your strength.”

“Commander!”

The other soldier raised his voice, but the commander shot him a sharp look.

Then he said “Excuse us” to Ainz and took the other dwarf a little ways away, probably so they wouldn’t be overheard.

Then came a flood of attempts to persuade.

Ainz could hear bits and pieces like
insane
,
un—
,
the kuagoa
,
we still
,
the immediate cri—
, and
if we have to choose
.

The commander must have been trying to argue the case that they should jump at the chance for Ainz’s help, since it would be difficult to handle the kuagoa invasion on their own.

Now was a good time to press a little. Ainz put a little force into his voice and asked, “Have you decided what to do yet?”

3

There was a total of eight kuagoa clans in the Azerlisia Mountains.

Pu-Limidol, Pu-Landel, Pu-Srix, Po-Ram, Po-Shunem, Po-Guzua, Zu-Aigeno, and Zu-Ryushuk.

Three clans were descended from the ancient hero Pu, and the other clans were the children of Po and Zu, his rivals. There were slight differences in the number of kuagoa per clan, but they were all fairly close to ten thousand. Thus, eighty thousand kuagoa lived scattered around the Azerlisia Mountains.

Were they strong? The answer was not really.

These kuagoa, even with ten thousand in each clan, only had a primitive civilization and were considered an inferior species best counted in terms of how far up they ranked from the bottom. They were merely food for the strong.

So who were the kuagoa’s natural enemies? That would be the other kuagoa clans. No, not only the ones from other clans. Sometimes even members of the same clan became enemies. Other monsters only preyed on the kuagoa—it wasn’t as if they hated them or thought of them as rivals. But members of the same race were different.

The issue stemmed from kuagoa patterns of growth and development.

Adult kuagoa’s abilities depended on the types of ore they ate when they were children. In other words, the way to strengthen one’s family was to steal rare metals from kuagoa. Other clans were also opponents in this, but naturally the nearest rivals were the most problematic.

And since the dwarves were also competing for ore, the dwarves were opponents, too, but since they wielded lightning weapons, kuagoa attacks on them were usually driven off.

But then there came a time when a legendary hero who surpassed even the ancient hero Pu was born.

That was the chief clan king, Pe Riyuro.

His abilities went far beyond those of the blue and red kuagoa, and with his overpowering strength, he unified all the clans.

But Riyuro’s achievements didn’t stop there.

He discovered an abandoned dwarf city, gathered all the clans there, created an organization to combat monsters, and used dwarf hostages to gain knowledge of agriculture and raising livestock.

And there was more. Traditionally, kuagoa regime changes involved eradicating the descendants of the previous boss. But Riyuro didn’t do that, and instead he had the existing bosses govern their own clans. He did, however, order that all ore be brought to him. Anyone who did good work for him was given ore, regardless of their social standing.

For example, in a monster attack, the clan that shed the most blood was most appreciated, and when he had them collect gold and gemstones, the clan who brought him the most was treated the best. He distributed ore accordingly.

Any enmity the kuagoa would have directed toward the king was instead channeled into competing with the other tribes, and Riyuro’s position was secure.

Having accomplished something no other kuagoa had even thought to do, he began to work on expanding his influence.

He attacked the dwarves.

Obeying his orders, each clan contributed two thousand of their hardiest members, which combined to make a military force sixteen thousand strong.

This was an army on an unprecedented scale. But no matter how many warriors they had, if they tried to charge over the bridge, serious casualties were unavoidable. That defeated the purpose of assembling a large army and meant a real possibility of being beaten back before they captured the fort.

That was why Riyuro commanded that they discover a detour.

A few of the expeditions he sent out never returned, but eventually they found a way around the Great Chasm. From that moment on, the army split into groups with specialized roles.

One was the unit that spotted and captured runaway dwarves. It was made up of several smaller squads.

Another was the main forces. They were the ones who would loot the dwarf city once it had fallen, and they were also available to assist the elite team attacking the fortress if it seemed like it would take too long.

The last was the team of elite kuagoa who would attack the fort. This unit was sent in ahead of the main forces with orders to take the fort and the city itself if possible.

The leader of this vanguard unit was Yoozu.

He was a red kuagoa, and either the most valuable or second most valuable of all Riyuro’s subordinates. With his clear head and high personal combat skill, he was the favorite to become the future boss of his original clan.

The unit he had put together was a rough bunch to lead because of the deep-rooted clan rivalries that remained latent in the diverse group of elite kuagoa. But Yoozu was able to take advantage of that.

By cultivating a competitive spirit among members of different clans, he managed to capture the fort.

Taking the flanking route around and coming up the stairs on the side of the fort meant victory was practically a given, but there was no doubt his leadership was exceptional. Probably not a single other kuagoa in any of the clans possessed comparable command abilities.

And now, he had the dwarves in check.

The elite of the elite in the strike team that was first to reach the fort now clawed at the irritating doors barring their way. But they couldn’t even leave a scratch.

Just one more step. With just one more step, they could get past the doors, trample the dwarves, and take this land for their own. That was an extraordinary exploit, so if they could pull it off, the amount of ore they would be rewarded with was sure to be incredible.

But the cold portal before them blocked the way.

As the kuagoa said,
The worm hiding in its hole is always the biggest
.

One of the kuagoa bit a door out of rage that their chance was slipping away. Of course, that simply meant he tried to scrape at its surface using his sharp teeth like a plane.

Some others who saw him do it followed suit.

However, the average kuagoa’s teeth were no match for these doors. They could spend a hundred years trying the same thing and never break through.

A lattice of the same kind of metal as the door covered the rock to either side, so they couldn’t even bore through the earth way.

Normal kuagoa like them had no chance of opening the door. Blue and red kuagoa had been held in reserve as a last resort, so none of them was assigned to this strike team. In other words, their advance was temporarily halted.

Everyone was annoyed that they had so nearly missed out on the glory, but they weren’t panicking, either. They had already reported the situation to the commander of the vanguard. Surely the outstanding Yoozu would soon produce some plan to deal with the situation that would have been impossible for them to think up.

Still, they didn’t know how long it would take, so they rested in shifts according to clan.

Lower-ranking soldiers might have wandered around recklessly to cope with their stress or start arguing with members of other clans, but these were the elite of the elite. When it was time to rest, they rested wholeheartedly, saving up their anger and energy for the next operation.

So it was during their rest when suddenly, they all raised their heads.

With a low rumble from deep below, the doors had slowly begun to open to either side.

The strike team kuagoa exchanged glances.

They couldn’t understand why the dwarves who had so frantically closed the doors were opening them now. Were they planning on surrendering? That’s what many of the kuagoa thought. They wore fangy grins.

They would never accept a surrender.

The plan from the beginning was to kill as many dwarves as possible. They wouldn’t even give them time to talk.

They would surge through the gap in the doors, create a bloodbath on the other side, and proceed into the city to kill the rest of the dwarves.

Before the murderous kuagoa, the gate cracked open. The gap wasn’t large enough to fit through yet. But one of them stuck his arm in. He meant to kill a dwarf on the other side with his sharp, pointy claws.

But—

“Gyaaaaaagh!”

The kuagoa who tried to land the first kill shrieked and fell backward. The arm he had stuck through the crack was missing, and fresh blood spurted from the wound.

That unexpected turn of events put a damper on the kuagoa’s bloodlust.

It was easy to imagine what had happened.

Someone with a weapon must have sliced off the arm, but was that possible?

Kuagoa racial characteristics worked well against races like dwarves who relied on weapons. Case in point, when they had caught the fort by surprise, the dwarves had managed to injure some of them, but none of the attackers had died. As long as there weren’t any lightning attacks, that was how it usually went.

So why was their fellow soldier’s arm severed?

There could be only one reason—the existence of a swordsman who could cut through a kuagoa’s arm, with blade-turning fur, like nothing.

The kuagoa took a few steps backward in response to an emotion they hadn’t experienced in any of their fights thus far: fear. And as they did, the crack between the doors grew gradually larger.

“Why are you falling back?!” one of the stronger members of the strike team shouted from the rear.

“There shouldn’t be any weaklings in the Pu-Limidol clan!”

“Rrrragh!”

The ones who answered must have been the members of the Pu-Limidol clan. The tough members of the other clans hurried to raise their own voices.

“We don’t have any cowards in the Po-Guzua clan!”

“The Zu-Aigeno clan isn’t about to lose out to any Pu or Po guys! You think we’re going to let our ancestors laugh at us from the Land of Dele?!”

It was said that brave kuagoa went to the Land of Dele when they died to watch over the prosperity of their descendants. But if any descendants did something shameful, they would become the object of their ancestors’ ridicule.

Those words seemed to finally incite the kuagoa to battle and spur them into action.

They dragged the one who had lost his arm to the wall, and then the strike team got into a tight formation in preparation to slay the powerful swordsman.

“We’re going to charge! No matter how strong our opponent is, they only have one sword! As long as we have greater numbers, we’ll be fine!” someone said.

“Eh, once the door is open, all we have to do is charge and shove. Once the enemy falls, we trample them. Then it’s straight into the city to destroy it!”

“I’ll take the lead!”

Two stripes of ground-up Nuran ore paint were the sign the speaker was a brave kuagoa.

Behind him, others pressed in close so they would be able to keep pushing forward even if the enemy’s blade cut him down.

The gap between the doors was finally large enough for one kuagoa to pass through. It was still too small for a charge, but the kuagoa didn’t want to risk losing warriors to a quick lightning spell only for the doors to slam shut again right after the dwarves completed their harassment attack.

“Go!”

With a war cry, over fourteen kuagoa surged toward the gap.

The courageous one at the head of the group went still. The ones jostling behind him knew instinctively that the swordsman had killed him. But they didn’t stop. Stopping would have made a mockery of his courage.

And that was why the other kuagoa would push through without hesitation, trample the dwarf city, and— Their feet stopped.

No matter how hard they pushed, they couldn’t go any farther. It was as if a huge, thick wall stood on the other side of the doors.

One of the kuagoa craned his neck to peer ahead.

He had the perfectly natural idea that perhaps the dwarves had built a wall.

And there was a wall. It was pitch-black.

The wall took up their entire field of vision. It moved.

“Rrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”

The battle cry vibrated the air.

What they had thought was a wall was a giant shield.

The kuagoa didn’t use weapons or armor, but they had seen the dwarves use them enough times. They were never this huge, though. This shield was large enough to be mistaken for a wall.

As the kuagoa were struggling to comprehend their situation, a horrifying being showed itself from behind the shield.

Something in black armor with crimson eyes full of loathing.

The kuagoa may not have known much of the world, but this they understood. This was evil; it was violence; it was death.

Something whizzed by.

That instant, three kuagoa heads went flying.

“Rrrrrrraaaaagh!”

The battle cry hit the kuagoa like a physical blow.

Shocked in a way that made their hairs stand on end, the kuagoa were assailed by the urge to flee in the face of what they knew to be a futile fight.

These were the bravest warriors of their clans who held no fear of death. At least, that’s what they had thought. But they never imagined facing something like this. The monster before them was more than enough to shatter their courage.

So why didn’t they run away?

The muscles in their legs wouldn’t cooperate. They knew instinctively that if they turned to run, they would be killed in a single swing from behind. Still, the glow in the black thing’s eyes reminded them of their thirst for life.

“Rrrrrrraaaaaaaaaagh!”

The kuagoa yelped at the earth-shaking roar and took a few steps back.

When the armored creature moved forward to close the space between them, another of the same type of being came into view. And then—

“Eeegh!”

One of the kuagoa screamed.

The ones who turned to look at what happened saw fellow soldiers with their heads missing.

They were definitely dead. But their hands groped for something to hold onto. It was clear these weren’t mere muscle spasms.

All they could think was that the corpses had begun to move.

It was as if they were trapped in a nightmare. The warriors felt as if they had been taken alive to the limbo all kuagoa feared.

Thomp, thomp.
The two armored figures walked forward, their unusual swords—flamberges—held high.

•

“The strike team says they don’t know when they’ll be able to break through the gate?”

“That’s correct, sir!”

A kuagoa whose fur had a faint red tinge to it frowned at his subordinate’s report.

This was the commander of the vanguard, Yoozu, boasting fur as tough as orichalcum and superior resistance to metal weapons. He was a red kuagoa, an elite.

Yoozu looked past his subordinate’s bowed head to the fort across the bridge. Beyond that fort was a tunnel and beyond that tunnel was the dwarf city.

If they could take out that city, not only would they gain a better base, but they would be able to wipe out their ore rivals.

Expanding their territory could mean a chance to claim types of ore they had never seen before, which could lead to a new level of prosperity for the kuagoa.

Then, someday, the kuagoa could rule these mountains.

“If we could only defeat those dragons…” Yoozu accidentally let his inner desires slip out, and when he realized, he hurriedly glanced around.

No one seemed to have noticed.

He was a little relieved.

The kuagoa home base was a former dwarf city that they now occupied. In the center of that city was a palace, but it was ruled by frost dragons—white dragons that could spit out Chill Breath.

Ostensibly, the kuagoa and the dragons were in alliance, but anyone who was familiar with the reality of the situation would say the relationship was nothing that equal. The clan king may have sugarcoated it as coexistence and coprosperity, but even he probably didn’t believe those words.

The truth was the weak kuagoa served the strong dragons.

To the dragons, the kuagoa were surely an emergency food supply and convenient pawns in the meantime.

Yoozu had gone to meet them once, with the clan king, and that was the sense he got from every word that came out of those gigantic jaws. And the chief clan king had been surprisingly submissive.

He didn’t want to see their great hero act like that. But Yoozu wasn’t stupid. He knew what a huge power disparity separated the kuagoa and dragons.

Still, would they really tolerate being treated like such fools?

…At the moment, it’s still impossible. Even if we could defeat the dragonlord, victory would cost us so much that we wouldn’t be able to recover. But…someday…

He wasn’t the only one harboring this earnest wish. Anyone who had met the dragons—all the kuagoa in higher positions—felt the same way.

First, they needed to find a way to block the Chill Breath. If they couldn’t produce kuagoa with perfect resistance to that, they would never be able to minimize their casualties.

How long would that take?

Yoozu chased away his gloom. Before everything else came defeating the dwarves, and they hadn’t finished that yet. Looking too far ahead and ignoring what was right under one’s feet meant a great risk of tripping over.

Yoozu summoned a subordinate. “Hey, see if it’s possible to destroy the fort and widen the tunnel so we can attack in numbers. We need to prepare as much as possible before the main forces get h—”

There Yoozu abruptly stopped to listen. He thought he heard screams coming from somewhere.

No, it might not have been screams. It could have been a threatening monster call. One of the troublesome things about the subterranean world was that it was difficult to pinpoint where a particular sound originated.

But this time, he knew right away.

The strike team he had sent in came running back out of the fort.

That caused a commotion among the kuagoa around him.

The undisciplined way they ran away made their panic obvious. Some were even shoved off the bridge in the rush and fell into the Great Chasm.

“What? What’s going on?”

One of Yoozu’s subordinates answered his straightforward question. “I don’t know. Perhaps the dwarves counterattacked?”

That can’t be it.
They had anticipated a dwarf counter. There was no way the strike team would flee in a panic just because of that.

Did they get hit with a special attack? For instance, he had heard once that boiling oil was quite painful.

“Take some soldiers and find out what happened. If it was the dwarves striking back, keep pushing—don’t let them retake the fort.”

Following his orders, his subordinate assembled a group and set out across the bridge.

Meanwhile, the strike team was still routing, screaming.

What could have possibly made them so desperate to escape? Was it that mysterious power of magic or whatnot?

As Yoozu was racking his brain, something appeared at the entrance to the fort. Two somethings.

Large black creatures.

“Wh-what the heck is that? Giant dwarves? Dwarf kings?”

Yoozu had never seen anything like this before. They seemed to be wearing the armor dwarves used over their entire bodies, but there was definitely something different about them.

In their right hands, they carried wavy swords, and in their left, massive shields.

Maybe dwarf kings look different from normal dwarves in the same way the clan king looks different from other kuagoa?

Yoozu had no idea what the beings looming at the entrance to the fort were, but animal instinct informed him they were terribly dangerous.

And he understood very well that the strike team had been fleeing from none other than those monsters.

The kuagoa around him were all staring, frozen stiff—no one moved except for the strike team members. They continued running across the bridge without looking back.

The dark armored figures let out a battle cry.

Even at this distance, the rumbling in the air made Yoozu’s hairs stand on end and his blood run cold. It elicited the same feeling as a dragon’s roar.

As if that was a cue, some kuagoa appeared next to the black armored figures.

They’re escaping? No, they’re traitors? N-no, that’s not right, either!

Yoozu’s eyes widened.

One of the kuagoa was missing everything from the neck up.

When he squinted, he saw that some of them were dragging entrails behind them, and some seemed to have been sliced in half, the left side of their body moving separately from the right.

They shouldn’t have been able to move at all, yet here they were. That could only mean…

Magic! They’re using magic to control the dead!

“Could that be the dwarves’ trump card?”

His subordinate’s comment made sense.

They must have been preparing this other ultimate weapon while repelling them with the lightning one.

“…Golems?”

He remembered hearing that when the dragons took over the dwarf palace, they had fought monsters with that name. They were like armored statues.

“Those are what the dwarves call golems?” his subordinate asked.

Yoozu shook his head. “No, golems are monsters. The dwarves must have tamed them.”

“You mean like the Nuuk?”

The Nuuk were magical beasts.

Males grew to be about eleven and a half feet and well over two thousand five hundred pounds. They were longhaired quadruped herbivores that could survive on just a little moss. Since they were hardy enough to survive in heavy snow, they lived all over the Azerlisia Mountains, and many monsters preyed on them.

In any case, the exact combat prowess of the black-armored golems was unclear, but given the gap between the strike team’s head count and the ones who had made it back out, it wasn’t hard to imagine. Even with no information besides the way Yoozu’s hairs were standing on end, figuring it out was simple—they wouldn’t be easy to defeat.

Luckily, the enemy was apparently content to simply watch and wait, not crossing the bridge.

“I-it seems like they came to take back the fort.”

“Y-yes, it does. Okay. Let’s regroup, as long as they’re not moving. We’ll think of a plan while we do that— Agh, here they come!”

The armored figures were charging across the bridge.

“Who was it? Who was the one talking about retaking the fort?!”

“Commander! Now’s not the time! What should we do?”

The kuagoa he had sent onto the bridge raised their claws.

The figures carrying the giant shields rammed into them.

Flung away by the overpowering strength, a few of the kuagoa fell off the bridge. The armored figures didn’t stop. With their shields still up, they continued to barrel across the bridge only slightly slower than before. It was like a surging wall.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before they finished crossing the bridge and arrived on their side.

What will happen now?
The threat to his life made him scream, “C-cut down the bridge!”

If they dropped the bridge, the main forces would have to take a tedious detour. Surely the dwarves would fortify their defenses during that time. Considering that taking the fort had been their primary objective, this operation was a failure.

The resources and personnel expended were such that Yoozu doubted he would get off with a mere reprimand. But it was more dangerous to let those armored figures cross the bridge.

If the enemy reached them, not a single kuagoa would survive. That was the kind of beings these were.

“Did I not just tell you to cut down the bridge?!”

The second time he gave the instruction, his subordinates peeled their eyes off the monsters sending other kuagoa flying and began to move. Most of their fellow soldiers on the bridge had been knocked away; only a few remained to face the enemy.

A handful of kuagoa bit and clawed the bridge’s ropes.

“Send in a unit to pin them on the bridge!”

Telling people to go fight the monsters on the bridge while they were trying to cut it down was tantamount to telling them to go die. Even so, a unit formed up and headed to their doom.

The shields kept many at bay, but a few managed to circle around to the monsters’ backs and attack. But they were ignored. Kuagoa bites did nothing to slow their advance.

The bridge isn’t collapsing.

At this rate, the monsters are going to make it across.

The minute Yoozu realized that, his body moved on its own. With zero hesitation, he leaped from the higher ground from where he had been issuing orders and used the momentum of his fall to land a powerful slash with his claws on the bridge’s ropes.

There was a sound like the air was ripping.

A huge wave rippled through the bridge, and it collapsed.

Unable to withstand the wild motion of the bridge, which was like a giant snake in its death throes, Yoozu was hurled off. But before he was swallowed up by the darkness below, he grabbed a rope dangling into the void. It was pure luck that he was able to do that in midair despite having no way to adjust his orientation.

He managed to haul himself up the rope, his body twisting this way and that, and reach the edge of the cliff.

But without even a moment to sigh in relief, he responded to a chill that made him shudder by instinctively throwing himself on the ground.

And in that instant, the object that had been thrown with a grunt skimmed the hairs of Yoozu’s back. As unlikely as it was, the object had been a kuagoa. Enraged, one of the black-armored figures had hurled one of the suicide fighters it had latched onto earlier with its outrageous strength.

The flying kuagoa crashed into Yoozu’s frozen subordinates. Leaving behind truncated screams—“Pgyah!”—they were turned into chunks of flesh.

But that was the end of it. The monsters disappeared into the Great Chasm along with the rest of the warriors who had resigned to die.

Silence fell over the area.

Yoozu staggered over to the edge and peered into the darkness. It wasn’t only him. All the survivors were staring into the blackness that had swallowed everything up. Though they knew there was no saving anyone who fell into that hole, they couldn’t shake the fear that one of the armored figures would come climbing up the side of the cliff.

How much time had passed? Yoozu finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed like they truly weren’t coming back.

He surveyed the area and saw how few of his soldiers remained.

But up against those black suits of armor, having this many survive was surely a job well done.

“Fall back!”

They needed to report the golems to their superiors as soon as possible.

If those things were mass-produced, the kuagoa would be driven to extinction. And Yoozu was sure the enemy had more than just those two.

“…Dwarves are terrifying.”

He regretted taking them lightly. The fact that they possessed the technology to create such monsters was a complete shock.

“First, we need to tell the main forces about what just happened. I need messengers!”

The ones who responded to Yoozu’s call were kuagoa riders, who could travel much faster than ordinary kuagoa. They had a skill that allowed them to run at full speed without tiring at all.

The reason they traveled in a group was so that if they were attacked by monsters, there was less of a chance of them getting completely wiped out. It wasn’t that they would be safe traveling with this number but that even if some of them died, others would survive and reach the main forces.

“Okay! Now, go! Don’t forget how critical your role is!”

Yoozu watched them race away and then announced his next orders.

It went without saying that everyone would withdraw so he could discuss the situation with the clan king.