by Fuse
But my full force wasn’t enough to work on him. Lightly, gently, he was handling me with just the right amount of power, ensuring he didn’t nick his sword in the process. It seemed there was a clear, and overwhelming, difference in skill between us. I was so helpless against him that even I had to admit it.
“What? Are you done? Is that all the power you have, Rimuru?”
Come to think of it, he wasn’t restricting me from using my skills at all. It wouldn’t be breaking the rules, I reasoned. But relying on such skills seemed basically the same as admitting defeat. It peeved me. I had to get a clean blow in, no matter what. This whole match had lit a spark under the competitive streak I’ve had since before.
“Shut up!” I spat. “I haven’t come at you for real yet, so don’t hurry me!” But I still didn’t have any new ideas. I didn’t want to lose, but I had nothing to work with. And as if reading this state of mild panic, King Gazel started to move, confronting me with terrific fighting force. Exposed to this aura, my movements were fully held in check.
Oh, crap. I’m leaving myself wide open to him!
Report. Analysis complete. This force is Heroic Aura, an extra skill that is a higher-level version of Coercion. Its aim is to make the target cower and become unable to move. Targets with low resistance will find themselves submitting to, and even adoring, the wielder.
Just as I feared the worst, my reliable partner gave me a report. Now that’s what the Great Sage is for. So how to counteract?
Understood. As with Coercion, the correct way to resist the skill is via fighting spirit.
Um? Fighting spirit? Come on…
Talk about unreliable. I had the feeling that the Sage was starting to phone it in sometimes.
But no time for that. I need to get out of this. How do I conjure fighting spirit? Shouting could help, maybe. I couldn’t move, but I could speak. If it didn’t work, I’d think of something else.
“Uh… Oraaahhhhh!!”
I screamed as loud as I could. It wound up firing a Voice Cannon, one of Ranga’s specialties, right at Gazel. I also released a bolt of Coercion of my own, hoping it would neutralize Heroic Aura.
The king dissolved the Voice Cannon without bothering to dodge it. But it still distracted his attention enough that his aura disappeared. Now we were back to square one. The two of us glared at each other, swords ready.
If this was how it’d be going, the only way to win was via the conditions he offered. See through his attacks and block them. But I wasn’t expecting such an expert fighter. The depth of his strength was unfathomable. It really was like fighting Hakuro. If he wanted to kill me, he probably would’ve struck a fatal blow long ago. He didn’t because, as he declared earlier, he wanted to see what I had.
But I wasn’t ready to accept defeat that easily. I had proclaimed myself leader of the forest, and I had to go all-out to win this. At the very least, I would never allow myself to fight like a wimp in front of all these people.
Shaking the cobwebs off, I quietly brought my sword up to eye level, facing Gazel—ready to take his instruction, like I did with Hakuro. If I can deflect his moves, I win. Banishing all doubt from my mind, I focused on becoming one with my blade. Turn an ear to its sound, and become one with it—that was Hakuro’s advice to me. I had no idea what he meant, but I meekly tried to follow it.
Watching me, Gazel grinned.
“Yes. That’s it. Now, it is time for me to move!”
You don’t have to telegraph it that much, I thought. But just as I did—he disappeared. Not a single one of my search skills could find him.
What on…?!
It was only luck and coincidence that let me deal with it. Somehow—I had no reason for it—I had a feeling that danger was coming at me from below. I had never trusted my fate to such vague premonitions before, but this time, I decided to follow my gut feeling. Maybe it was the “voice of the sword” I felt—what you hear when you’ve fully mastered your craft.
But it wasn’t the end. Because this… This skill…
Oh, crap!
The moment I thought it, I held my sword aloft.
A loud, sharp tiiiing! echoed. The battle was over. I had successfully stopped King Gazel’s sword strike.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh… Ahh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! You’ve stopped me!!”
“Y-yeah… So, uh, if you admit it, does that mean I win?”
“It certainly does. You don’t appear to be at all evil to me.”
With another bellowing laugh, Gazel removed his sword.
“This fight is over! The winner is Rimuru Tempest!!”
With Treyni’s official notice, my victory was complete. I sat down on the ground, relieved. The battle had taken more out of me than I had thought.
So this was Gazel Dwargo, the dwarven king. Somehow, I felt like I had been granted a glimpse, just a glimpse of this hero’s full force.
Treyni’s voice was immediately followed by a chorus of cheers from the monsters assembled in the field. The dwarves, meanwhile, were already grumbling about the result.
“He stopped the king’s very sword?!”
“Ridiculous! It’s simply not possible!”
“Did His Majesty relent at the last minute?!”
And so on.
Though, really, King Gazel was trying to test me. Anything else, and I would’ve lost any sword battle against him. Relent, however? I know me winning doesn’t exactly fill you with delight, but isn’t that going a little too far?
“Silence!” shouted one of the knights, clad entirely in white. “Have you no shame, my fellows?! How arrogant for anyone to accuse His Majesty of relenting on any foe! Are you saying you could follow his movements with your eyes, when none of us even could?”
“He’s right,” spoke another, a warrior-type dwarf dressed in jet-black. “Gazel did not relent. The Master of the Sword fully deserves his title. This was no duel to the death; it was focused squarely upon gauging each competitor’s true nature. Do not forget: We are not here to create enemies!”
How nice of them to plead my case for me. It also proved, for good, that the dwarves were here not for war but to judge my character.
The other dwarves scowled at this dressing down. “Forgive our impropriety,” they said to Gazel and me. I’m sure they weren’t trying to throw mud on the match—they simply didn’t want to admit that their beloved king was fallible.
The apologies sounded sincere enough, so I accepted them. Besides, I could understand their thoughts. Not to be blunt, but I blocked that last attack out of sheer luck. I should know, because I was there. I knew the stance that strike of his required, and it seemed like it’d be pointed at me in the same way, so I just followed my instincts and held my sword aloft—and I turned out to be right.
“Well done, though! You saw right through my Haze of Rumbling Heavens move. Impressive!”
“No, no, it was sheer coincidence. I saw my instructor use that skill before.”
Well, not “saw it” so much as “was beaten to the ground by it” in training. Just the other day, I managed to dodge his first slash, only to be smashed right on the crown by his real strike. Talk about a disappointment.
A piercing blow from the ground to the heavens like that is mainly meant to throw one’s foe off guard. It was the strike that followed after this blow that displayed the true worth of Haze of Rumbling Heavens. It was one of Hakuro’s beginner-level moves, but I was juuust about in a position to deal with it by now. I only stopped it because I was familiar with it. Nothing worth praising me for.
“What was that? Could this ‘instructor’ of yours be…?” Gazel asked, looking down at me in excitement.
Hmm. Could it be, indeed? The same skill and everything…
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! Well performed, Sir Rimuru. Glad to see you are hearing your sword’s voice!”
Hakuro, who was aiding the town’s evacuation, chose that moment to sidle up next to me.
“The women and children have been directed to safety. I
left the rest to Gobta and came here, but what a sight awaited me!”
He gave me a smile, clearly enjoying this. I guess he must’ve thought I needed some help over here.
“If I may…,” Gazel said, suddenly humble. “Are you the Sword Ogre?”
Aha. So they did know each other.
“…Hohh. The child from way back when, is it? I hardly even recognized you. Well, forgive me for being so rude, Your Majesty. I was wondering what kind of stalwart warrior could use such a sword move. How splendid to see you have grown to be a better swordsman than I!” Hakuro gazed upon the king with a smile.
“It is an honor to hear such words, Sword Ogre.”
“Mmm. Three hundred years, is it? Since I found you as a child, lost in the forest, and began teaching you the way of the sword on a whim? A fond memory, nowadays. And now you are the dwarven king!”
So he instructed Gazel at some point? No wonder they had a similar style. Which meant the king was kind of my fellow student. Still, three hundred years? How long has Hakuro been around anyway? Talk about a man of mystery. And talk about never knowing who you’ll run into from your past.
We decided to talk in more detail elsewhere.
Gone were the provisional tents from before. Now, in the center of town, we had a dorm full of rooms for everyone who held central posts related to keeping things running. There was a government building of sorts next to it filled with offices and meeting halls, and we all went inside to hold a little catch-up meeting. The freshly returned town residents could take care of the knight corps—this meeting was just for the top brass, and it began as a rather relaxed affair.
The mission of the dwarves was to investigate the mystery team of monsters that defeated the orc lord—in other words, us. As they put it, they needed to see if we were friend or foe, just like I thought.
Between the dryads and running into the king’s old sword master, any potential hostilities (that duel notwithstanding) were a thing of the past. The dryads were known to be a kind and fair race, and the dwarves believed they would never lend a hand to anyone with evil intentions. If they liked us, then they didn’t even need that duel to know we were okay. I guess that fight was just out of curiosity, then?
Once the dwarves gave their story, I gave ours—from the first rumblings of the orc lord to the Jura alliance we forged. I didn’t mention how the orc lord had evolved into a full-fledged demon lord—it’s all solved now, so I figured I didn’t need to.
Somewhere along the line, the meeting transformed into a sort of banquet. The tension between us dissipated as we spoke, and by the time night fell, Shuna had offered us all dinner. We had a pretty bountiful food supply in town, so she was capable of some pretty decent eats. Nobody was better at it than Shuna, either, so I guess I should have expected this would devolve into a feast sometime.
It was dangerous for the Pegasus Knights to fly in the dark, so we would be hosting them tonight.
We had them all kick back in our public assembly grounds. Staying in regular contact with their home kingdom was no problem, they told me, so I thought I’d build a little amity and bust out some of the wine we were developing. Then the good times started rolling.
In the midst of this friendly affair, I thought I’d ask about something that bugged me.
“I have to admit, though, you guys work pretty fast. We informed the adventurers’ guild about this three months ago, so it couldn’t have reached you that long ago, could it?”
“Ah, our covert team—our intelligence gatherers—I had them keep tabs on you.”
For a king, Gazel seemed awfully forthcoming about what sounded like top-secret stuff. Maybe it was the wine talking.
“Uh, you sure you want to blow their cover or whatever?”
“Oh, what of it? You spotted them anyway.”
“Ah yes,” Soei coolly replied. “We did find someone sniffing around rather suspiciously. We had orders from you not to kill anyone, Sir Rimuru, so we simply chased him away. We thought it of little importance, but perhaps we should have taken him into custody?”
It barely even registered in Soei’s mind, so he didn’t think to brief me about it. I told him to just tell me next time instead of making judgment calls on his own.
“Well, that’s a rather hard pill to swallow. Yeah, my team isn’t too well suited for direct combat, but…”
This was Henrietta, a beautiful woman but apparently a bit of a mean drunk. One of Gazel’s close associates, she was a knight assassin who ran all the kingdom’s intelligence-gathering operations. I suppose Soei just hurt her feelings, but a serious-looking man in the white armor of a knight stepped in to assuage her. That was Dolph, captain of the Pegasus Knights, as he said—a man who adored Gazel, and one of the dwarves who apologized to us after the duel. Running a covert force as he was, he was more honest and upright than I originally thought.
After intervening between Soei and Henrietta, Dolph quickly fell into a deep conversation with Benimaru about aerial combat. I suppose not even someone as magnanimous as Dolph wanted to hang around those two for long. They had stopped sniping at each other, but the air was now silent and frigid between them. I’m sure anyone would rather talk about their favorite battle strategies instead.
Jaine, the old woman so curious about my own skills, was an arch-wizard and one of the most gifted dwarven clerics in the kingdom. She was now debating this or that finer point about magic with Shuna, and it seemed like Shuna was willing to learn from her, perhaps picking up on Jaine’s investigative magic. The crone also discussed the concept of “legion magic,” a kind of spell that could be cast on an entire military unit to annul the abilities of a rival force. It made me shiver a bit. If Benimaru decided to cast Hellflare on the knights, it probably wouldn’t have damaged them much at all.
This arch-wizard was decent enough in battle against individual foes, but apparently her true expertise was in strengthening entire units with magic. A much more dangerous lady than she looked.
Meanwhile, Kaijin was in friendly conversation with a dwarf clad in heavy black armor. This was Vaughn, arguably the strongest warrior of the entire Armed Nation. An admiral paladin, he said, and second only to Gazel in his field. He used to be Kaijin’s boss, and while his post meant he couldn’t play favorites, Vaughn still dearly regretted losing Kaijin. If we had come to blows today, he was prepared to make sure Kaijin and the other dwarves were escorted to safety. Nice guy. Bit scary-looking, though.
So that’s how we managed to break the ice with them all. And here’s King Gazel himself, reminiscing about the old days with Hakuro.
“Well, you may call me Hakuro the ogre mage now. I have taken on the post of instructor for Sir Rimuru.”
This comment of Hakuro’s made the good king promptly request his tutelage as well. His friends had to talk him out of it. The king of a nation—a superpower of sorts, even—leaving it all to go become an apprentice martial artist in a foreign country was gonna be tough to win approval for. So he glared at me instead, green with envy. Yeesh, could you knock it off? It’s not my fault.
It was funny, though. Gazel claimed to be visiting as a private citizen, and right now, that’s what he was. None of the grandiose atmosphere he presented in his royal chamber. Now he was more subdued, all the pomp and circumstance toned down. Or maybe that’s the real Gazel I’m seeing now? Watching him practically ooze delight as Kurobe praised his sword training, I couldn’t help but wonder.
There was Gazel the Heroic King, and then there was Gazel the fighter. He had seen what I was made of, and I felt like I had done the same with him.
Just as the feast got into full swing, Gazel suddenly turned to me, his expression grave.
“Rimuru…I want to ask you something.”
“Sure! Anything you need.”
“D’you want to forge a covenant with me?”
This body of mine didn’t allow me to feel buzzed, but I still felt like I had just snapped back into stone-cold sobriety.
“I ask you not as a fellow student of Hakuro, but as king. If you are the leader of this forest, that would put us in equal position—and if you’ve been able to hold this entire vast forest under a single government, I am sure you will be rewarded with riches and bounties that not even my kingdom can enjoy. We observed this city from the skies, and let me tell you, it is a beautiful one. That, and you have built great roads through the forest; I could only guess at the logistical and technical skills required to build them. They may yet be incomplete, but I can easily see this town becoming a vital trade center in due time—a vast new market, one that will take on great strategic importance. And when that happens, having another nation to back you would help in various ways, would it not?”
Some of that royal coercion was coming back again. He was pressing the offer at me, eyes dead serious. Ignoring that “fellow student” nonsense for a moment, he was basically recognizing that we were a coherent organization. A group he wanted to support, even. What a coup!
“Are you sure? Because this is the same as admitting that we—this group of monsters—are a full-fledged nation.”
A coup, but not something that King Gazel could decide upon by himself. If he was speaking as a king at the moment, this was his last chance to take it back.
“Of course! And since we may perhaps see this differently, let me say this: A covenant would be of great help to us, as well. This is no charity mission, Rimuru. We could both stand to benefit!” He told me all this with a grin, then offered his terms, dead serious.
These were as follows:
1. A nonaggression treaty with each other.
2. Assistance whenever one nation is endangered.
3. The building of a road to Dwargon, in exchange for their backing.
4. Guaranteed safety for dwarves in the Forest of Jura.
5. Promises of technology sharing between us.
There were a few other details, but those were the five main points.