The Lizardman Heroes

by Kugane Maruyama

  Far faster than he was nimble and—

  —the sword had no trouble cutting through his flesh.

  Zenbel’s headless body gushed a fountain of blood and crumpled into the marsh with a splash. His head followed a split second later.

  “…NOW THEN, TWO LEFT? I HEARD ABOUT YOU FROM LORD AINZ, AND HERE YOU ARE, THE LAST SURVIVORS.” Cocytus, who hadn’t moved one step from his position when the battle started, gazed at the two remaining lizardmen and brandished his katana. Neither blood nor fat clung to the smoky-white blade. It was beautiful, as if everything had come off in that one stroke.

  Zaryusu had recovered enough energy to stand, and Shasuryu had drawn his great sword. They faced Cocytus between them. Zaryusu scooped some of the still-pouring blood from his chest and smeared it on his face. It looked like one of the patterns to call down ancestral spirits.

  “Zaryusu, how are your wounds?”

  “Bad. There’s still a dull pain, but I can swing my sword a few times.”

  “I see… Well, that’s enough. Honestly, I’m pretty much out of magic. If I’m not careful, I might pass out,” Shasuryu said with a kachi-kachi noise of his teeth that could have passed for laughter.

  In response, Zaryusu changed his expression slightly. “Oh… So you’re killing yourself, too.” Smiling faintly, he exhaled and relaxed his shoulders. He let his sword hand droop.

  A sharp pain streaked outward from his chest, but he did his best to ignore it.

  He wasn’t about to give up before this was truly over—he was going to keep swinging his sword.

  He knew full well they couldn’t win.

  There wasn’t anything he could do about the defeat they’d been dealt. Still, he couldn’t just accept it.

  Why? Because he’d lied to a lot of souls, told them that winning was possible. There were lizardmen who believed that big, fat lie, so there was no way he could accept this defeat.

  To the very last second, with all my might—

  “I will keep wielding this sword!” Zaryusu’s roar echoed throughout the area.

  The fangs in Cocytus’s jaw closed with a click. “THAT’S A GOOD ROAR…” He must have smiled. And it wasn’t the sneering smirk of the strong at the weak but a smile at an equal, a warrior.

  “Good, Zaryusu. Just like that. Let’s fight this till the very end!” Shasuryu smiled. “Now then, sorry to have kept you waiting, Sir Cocytus.”

  Cocytus shrugged in response. “I DON’T MIND AT ALL. I’M NOT SO BOORISH THAT I’D INTERRUPT A FAREWELL BETWEEN BROTHERS. ARE YOU READ— NO, EXCUSE ME. YOU’VE BEEN READY FROM THE BEGINNING, HAVEN’T YOU?”

  As Zaryusu and Shasuryu took a solid step forward, Cocytus brandished Imperial Sword Zanshin and spoke. “LET’S HAVE YOUR NAMES.”

  “Shasuryu Shasha!”

  “Zaryusu Shasha!”

  “…I’LL MAKE A NOTE OF YOU AS WARRIORS. AND ALLOW ME TO APOLOGIZE. NORMALLY I HOLD A WEAPON IN EACH OF MY ARMS, BUT…AND I DON’T SAY THIS WITH DISDAIN, BUT…YOU JUST AREN’T STRONG ENOUGH FOR ME TO DRAW THEM ALL.”

  “Isn’t that just too bad!”

  “Indeed. Let’s do this!”

  The two lizardmen dashed at Cocytus. The splashing echoed across the marsh.

  Cocytus cocked his head slightly at their staggered timing. They wouldn’t both enter the range of his sword at the same time; Shasuryu would arrive first. They must have a plan, he thought and waited for them with a vague sense of excitement.

  The first one to enter his range would be Shasuryu. Cocytus watched to see what he would do.

  Right at the very edge of where Cocytus’s blade would reach, Shasuryu stopped and—“Earth Bind!”—cast a spell.

  Countless chains of mud reached out toward Cocytus. At the same time, Zaryusu ran for all he was worth. He hid Frost Pain behind his back so his range couldn’t be guessed.

  Shasuryu’s comment about being “out of magic” had been nothing more than a bluff to trick Cocytus. If he fell for it, he might get caught in the chains and stabbed by the one running up from behind.

  No matter how hard his exoskeleton is, the tip of my sword should penetrate if I put all my strength into it. With that sentiment fueling his charge, the attack of a man who had abandoned defense would be quite powerful.

  YOU MUST HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE IN THAT SWORD. Cocytus understood that sentiment well. He, too, felt strongly about all his weapons. Among them, he had particularly strong feelings for the sword he’d drawn this time, a weapon used by his creator. He was showing them the utmost respect by facing them with Imperial Sword Zanshin, even if it resulted in an even more overwhelming power disparity.

  But they had misunderstood one thing. They were fighting Cocytus, guardian of the fifth level of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

  “…YOUR LEVEL IS TOO INFERIOR FOR YOUR SPELLS TO GET PAST MY DEFENSES.”

  Just before the mud chains touched Cocytus, they were repelled and fell back into the marsh as plain mud. At that low level, they couldn’t penetrate Cocytus’s magic defenses.

  “Icy Burst!”

  Along with the shout from the rear, white frost swirled around Cocytus, enveloping the area.

  A POINTLESS EFFORT.

  Cocytus, with his perfect resistance to chill, took the freezing assault as a gentle breeze and waited for Zaryusu or Shasuryu to spring into his range.

  About a breath later, the chance he’d been waiting for appeared. But he hesitated for just a moment. WILL CUTTING OFF HIS HEAD BE ENOUGH TO STOP HIM?

  Zaryusu had abandoned all defense, so Cocytus didn’t think so. The sight of the headless body charging on appeared in his mind. SO SLICE OFF HIS ARM FIRST, AND THEN CUT OFF HIS HEAD? NO, THAT’S UNCIVILIZED. I’LL JUST SLAY HIM WITH ONE BLOW.

  Zaryusu’s full-speed sprint, with no thought for defense, was hopelessly slow from Cocytus’s point of view.

  In the white haze, the black figure of Zaryusu came dimly into view. Cocytus reached out and deftly grabbed Frost Pain’s blade, just like before.

  Was the reason he didn’t feel any chill in his fingers because Zaryusu had belatedly realized it didn’t work on him?

  Doubt ran through his mind at how easy it had been to stop the charge, despite the speed—but only for a second. He didn’t need to think too hard, because one swing of Imperial Sword Zanshin would end this.

  Then there would be only one left.

  SO IT WAS A CHARGE WITH NO PLAN… Cocytus went to cut Zaryusu down, a bit disappointed, when he changed his mind. AHA…!

  “Rrrrrraaaaaagh!” Through the cold hovering in the area, along with the roar, a great sword came down. Shasuryu’s strike had enough momentum to whip up a wind to blow away the chill.

  Earth Bind, Zaryusu’s charge, and Icy Burst had all been feints.

  Stabs from Frost Pain were worth being on guard against, but Shasuryu’s overhead swing would probably deal more damage. Cocytus had no doubt that that was their main attack. However—

  “IF YOU WANT TO SNEAK ATTACK, YOU HAVE TO DO IT QUIETLY.”

  With the splash of their footfalls plainly audible, it couldn’t possibly be a sneak attack. WAS THERE EVEN ANY POINT IN TAKING CHILL DAMAGE TO ATTEMPT THAT? Cocytus wondered. OR ARE THEY JUST FLAILING?

  But it was true that they’d entered his range.

  AS LONG AS I’M HOLDING HIS ONLY WEAPON, ZARYUSU IS NO ENEMY. ALL THAT CHANGES IS THE ORDER IN WHICH I’LL KILL THEM, thought Cocytus, and he swung his sword.

  One blow.

  He sliced Shasuryu, great sword and all, right in half. Before his corpse even hit the marsh, he’d brought his katana back around to cut down Zaryusu and—

  —just then, Cocytus’s fingers slipped on Zaryusu’s blade. Taken aback, he checked them. WHY IS THE SWORD PUSHING TOWARD ME? In the midst of the white frost, he saw something red on both his fingers and the blade. He instantaneously figured out what had caused the slip.

  BLOOD?

  That was confusing.

  He wondered when it had gotten there—and un
derstood when he saw Zaryusu’s face through the frost.

  He hadn’t been painting a pattern when he’d smeared the blood on his face. He’d gathered the blood to slather it on the blade of his sword.

  Icy Burst hadn’t been to deal damage to Cocytus or to conceal Shasuryu but to hide the fact that the blade had blood on it. That was why Zaryusu had held the sword behind his back as well.

  When Cocytus had stopped Zaryusu’s attack before, he’d grabbed the blade of his sword. Zaryusu had remembered that and made this move on the off chance Cocytus would do the same thing again.

  Then an electric shock zapped through Cocytus’s brain. THAT TIME! WHEN I THOUGHT HE WAS RUSHING AT ME AWFULLY SLOWLY! AHA! TO THINK HE BLOODIED THE BLADE FOR AN INGENIOUS PLAN TO MAKE IT SLIP AND RUN ME THROUGH, WHICH WOULDN’T WORK MORE THAN ONCE. IN ORDER TO CREATE A DEFINITE CHANCE, HE HELD BACK TO MAKE ME THINK IT WOULD BE EASY TO GRAB THE SWORD.

  The blade slipped closer and closer to his light-blue body. Not even Cocytus could withstand Zaryusu pushing for all he was worth with his full body weight—not when he was using only two fingers now, slipping on the blood.

  If he’d grabbed it at more of a distance, he might have had more options, but at this close range, he did not.

  Cocytus was so moved he shivered.

  Even leaving everything to chance, this attack had won all its various bets. More than anything, though, if Shasuryu hadn’t been around, this situation couldn’t have occurred.

  Shasuryu probably hadn’t understood what Zaryusu was trying to do, but he had believed in him as his older brother and sacrificed his life. He’d made that pointless sneak attack and war cry to draw attention from his little brother for even just a moment.

  Just one moment.

  Literally the time it took to blink… As Frost Pain approached with Zaryusu’s all behind it, Cocytus clacked his lower jaws together. “WONDERFUL.”

  Then the sword stabbed at Cocytus—and glanced off without leaving so much as a scratch on his sparkling cerulean body.

  It was the inevitable outcome born of the unbridgeable gap in ability between the lizardman and an elite NPC of the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

  “SORRY, I HAVE A SKILL THAT MAKES ME TEMPORARILY IMMUNE TO ALL WEAK MAGIC WEAPONS. AS LONG AS IT’S ACTIVATED, YOUR ATTACKS ARE MEANINGLESS.”

  Personally, Cocytus would have gladly sustained an injury out of respect for the warrior who made such a splendid attack, but as a guardian, there was no way he could do that with a Supreme Being watching.

  Cocytus intentionally took a single step back. It caused mud to spatter and soil his beautiful blue body.

  A one-step retreat.

  It didn’t mean anything. Nothing happened because of it. Zaryusu was definitely going to die, and Cocytus’s victory was absolute.

  But it was a token of praise from the absolutely strong, Cocytus, to the helplessly weak, Zaryusu.

  Zaryusu smiled a pure smile reserved for those who knew their fate and had done everything they could to avoid it as Cocytus swung Imperial Sword Zanshin.

  3

  “That was some magnificent fighting.” Ainz praised Cocytus, who was bowed before him on one knee.

  “THANK YOU.”

  “That said, I think you know already, but this time you gave them the stick. From now on, you need to give them carrots. We mustn’t rule through fear.”

  “UNDERSTOOD.”

  Ainz nodded and turned to the other guardians in the room. “Good. Listen to me, guardians. As I said in the Throne Room, I’m leaving the governing of the lizardmen completely up to Cocytus. If he requests support from you, give him whatever he requires. Cocytus, I’d like for you to instill in the lizardmen a loyalty to Nazarick…to give them a special education… But I’ll leave the details up to you. Let me know if you need Wings of Ascension or any other specific item. I could lend you a Power Suit or something for a time as well.”

  In Yggdrasil, it was possible for players to change their race mid-game, but not whenever they wanted. There were various requirements that had to be met first, and it was impossible to change back afterward.

  One of the requirements was an item. For example, to change into an elder lich, one needed a Book of the Dead. To change into an imp, one needed a Seed of Corruption. The Wings of Ascension Ainz mentioned were for becoming an angel.

  Ainz thought that perhaps it was possible to be reborn as a grotesque in this world as well and couldn’t help voicing that unintentionally.

  “THANK YOU, I WILL LET YOU KNOW. ALSO, LORD AINZ. HOW WILL THOSE LIZARDMEN BE DISPOSED OF?”

  “Which?”

  “OH, THE ONES CALLED ZARYUSU AND SHASURYU.”

  The ones who lasted till the end, huh? Their corpses should still be in the marsh, but what about it? “Oh. Should we recover the bodies and try using them as fodder for undead creation that doesn’t use my skills?”

  “I FEEL THAT WOULD BE REGRETTABLE…”

  “Hmm, what do you mean? Are they that valuable?”

  From what Ainz was able to tell watching on the Mirror of Remote Viewing, there hadn’t been anything noteworthy about them—Cocytus had won a crushing victory.

  “…IT’S TRUE THEY WERE WEAK. BUT I SAW THE SPARK OF A WARRIOR IN THEM, IN HOW THEY DIDN’T FEAR MY POWER. I THINK IT WOULD BE A WASTE TO USE THEM AS FODDER. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THEY MIGHT BECOME STRONGER THAN WE COULD IMAGINE. AND I DON’T THINK YOU’VE PERFORMED RESURRECTION EXPERIMENTS YET. HOW ABOUT USING THEM FOR THAT?”

  Could it be that he’s taken a liking to those reptiles?

  Honestly, Ainz didn’t get what “spark of a warrior” meant. There was that word bloodlust that came up a lot in manga and books, but like when he warned Narberal, he didn’t really understand. In the same way, empathy between warriors made no sense to him.

  That was because although his current self was quite different, he was originally just a normal member of society. It was probably dangerous for the average citizen of Japan to feel an affinity for concepts like a thirst for battle and the “spark of a warrior.” He would have understood the spark of a brilliant salesman better, albeit still vaguely.

  “I see… A waste, huh?”

  Cocytus answered in the affirmative, but Ainz still wondered, Even if it’s a waste…who cares? But if he really thought about it, Cocytus sounded absolutely right.

  He did want to do resurrection experiments at some point. There was plenty for Nazarick to gain from it, from Ainz’s point of view. And unlike the incoherent Cocytus in the Throne Room, now he was making a proposal with the pros accurately presented. If this was proof of progress, he’d passed this exercise with flying colors.

  Ainz thought for a moment and remembered that he had excellent subordinates. There they were, lined up in postures befitting their status—silent, straight, and stock-still.

  “Albedo, let’s hear your opinion.”

  “Things should be as you wish, Lord Ainz.”

  “…Demiurge, what do you think?”

  “I believe what you say is most correct, Lord Ainz.”

  “……Shalltear, how about you?”

  “The same as Demiurge. I defer to your judgment.”

  “………Aura.”

  “My lord. I agree with everyone else.”

  “…………Mare.”

  “U-u-uh, yes, sir. Me, too.”

  These aren’t answers. Ainz racked his brain.

  After thinking over various things, he arrived at the conclusion that this matter must just not be a very big issue for the guardians. In other words, they must have decided that there weren’t any huge pros or cons either way.

  Of course, that opinion could be a problem depending on where they were coming from. It was the issue of how far you could trust someone saying, It’s not a lot of money, if they thought of a hundred million yen as peanuts—basically, a gap in values.

  There was no point in asking… So does that mean it’s fine if I resurrect them? I keep thinking I’ve thought things through befor
e acting, but I’ve been making a lot of mistakes lately… Since he had no choice, he considered the pros and cons himself.

  “…So we’ve conquered the lizardman village. Is there someone representing them? Any way of organizing themselves?”

  “YES, THERE IS A REPRESENTATIVE.”

  “Oh? What’s he like?”

  “A WHITE LIZARDMAN WHO DIDN’T PARTICIPATE IN THE BATTLE. IT SEEMS SHE HAS DRUID POWERS.”

  “Oh, that one! I see, I see…”

  So we can use her, thought Ainz. She’ll make a good spy.

  But if they implemented the idea in his mind right now, it might cause trouble for Cocytus when he had to govern them. So what should we do? Then he realized something with a start. …It’d be faster to just ask, even though asking before was pointless…

  Ainz explained his plan to Cocytus. Cocytus’s response was affirmative. Ainz couldn’t be completely sure Cocytus wasn’t holding back out of respect, but when he glanced at Albedo and Demiurge and saw no change in their expressions, he figured there was probably nothing wrong with his idea.

  “Okay. How long will it take you to bring her here?”

  “PLEASE FORGIVE ME, BUT I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT ASK, SO I ALREADY HAVE HER IN A NEARBY ROOM.”

  Ainz instinctively looked at Demiurge and saw him shaking his head slightly.

  Crazy! He did something without being asked! It doesn’t seem like anyone gave him the idea, either… This must be how a boss feels seeing one of their subordinates grow, he thought, and his face warped in satisfaction, not that the bony exterior moved at all.

  “No, no, that’s good, Cocytus. It’s foolish to waste time. Your judgment was correct. Okay, bring her here.”

  “Um, please wait a minute!”

  “What is it, Aura?”

  “I don’t think this distasteful place is suitable for you to meet someone, Lord Ainz, even a subordinate. It would be better to meet her in the Throne Room at Nazarick.”

  All the other guardians besides Mare made slight nods of agreement.

  “…MY HUMBLE APOLOGIES, I DIDN’T CONSIDER THAT. DO FORGIVE ME!”

  “Ahh…” I wasn’t even thinking about that! Ainz wondered what to do next. Then he remembered what he’d said earlier. In that case… “Aura.”