(Redhead Ogre POV)
I looked up at the plume of overwhelming firepower in front of me, abject horror flooding every nerve in my body. I didn't need to hear my sister whispering "My god…" behind me to know that this thing was in a class… or several, beyond anything that my illusory arts or battle arts could produce. It'd snuffed my most powerful attack out like a fart in the wind.
"I see… Your power, it is in a class far above our own, as much as I hate to admit it. But as the next in line to lead my clan, I take great pride in my race. I refuse to sit idly by without doing everything I can to avenge my fallen comrades! Take the princess and flee!" I still couldn't bring myself to back down, even if it meant that I'd almost certainly die, so I ordered my last remaining companion to take my sister and get out of here.
"I refuse! If we die, we die together!" I smiled at that. Even in the face of certain death, it gave me comfort to know that my best friend, my shadow, would stay by my side. Even if it meant the death of everyone we had left.
"Together, then!" My shadow and I raced toward our enemy, and our fate.
"Brother, no!" My sister screamed, trying to stop us, but she didn't need to.
Crackle.
BOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!
There was only an instant of warning before it happened. A quiet crackle. Then, the world turned black, and there was a huge explosion, about halfway between the majin and myself. I knew that the majin hadn't caused it, but it was still more than powerful enough to send me flying end over end, hitting the ground with a thud before rolling a few more feet.
Slowly getting to my feet, I was shocked to realize that I didn't have a single broken bone.
"Oops. Didn't expect it to be that powerful. Sorry 'bout that!" As the dust cleared, my blood somehow froze even more. Standing between me and the terrifying child majin was another majin. A girl who looked incredibly similar to the first one, except for her light blue hair, and she might have been slightly taller. Hooked on her waist was a mask, similar to the one that the majin who'd been with those pigs wore as he oversaw them destroying my home and slaughtering my people. But even seeing that mask, my legs wouldn't move.
…
(Rimuru POV)
Well, that bombed. I'd done my best to make my entrance unforgettable, to cow the ogres into submission by showing them our overwhelming force, so that we could talk things out, but things hadn't exactly gone as planned.
"Oops. Didn't expect it to be that powerful. Sorry 'bout that!" I felt like apologizing was the polite way to go.
I'd dropped the Black Thunder and used Shadow Motion to appear inside the smoke cloud, but Great Sage had clearly miscalculated the amount of power that I'd wanted to put into it, cause it'd tossed the redheaded ogre backwards like a ragdoll. 'Mm. Report. No bones were broken.' I guess that was what I'd asked...
"Y-you…" He was stuttering, legs shaking. If I gave him an out, I was sure that we could talk things over.
"Look, guys. How about we just calm down and talk this over? Whatever beef you think you have with us, I'm sure that it's just a misunderstanding… Let's just-" I tried, but my words seemed to bring the redheaded ogre's fighting spirit back to full throttle.
"That mask proves everything! You're working with those bastards! For our fallen comrades!"
"Brother, wait!" He didn't stop. Katana raised, he charged toward me, intent on a suicide attack. But then his sister, apparently, said something that finally seemed to get through that thick skull of his. "If they're so strong by themselves, why would they need to use the orcs? It's clear that they could slaughter all of us whenever they feel like it!"
"Young master, she's right. If that girl wanted to kill us, I'd be dead right now." The white-haired ogre backed the pink-haired princess, standing up on shaky legs. Finally, the red-headed ogre dropped his katana.
…
"So… orcs, led by a masked majin, destroyed your entire village?" After the fight ended, it only took a few doses of potion for every single injury to get healed. Most of our hunting party was unconscious thanks to the pink-haired girl's sleep spell, so when she lifted it, the only one still unable to move was the guy who'd been affected by Risa's paralysis breath, something that she could cure instantly with her Arts.
But as it turns out, this was just a side-effect of a bigger problem. One that was threatening to swallow up the entire forest.
According to the ogres, an entire army, thousands of armored orcs had attacked their village of B-ranked ogres, slaughtering them all under the oversight of a majin wearing a mask that seemed, from a distance, at least, similar to the mask that I'd gotten from Shizu.
Thousands of orcs, normally D-ranked creatures, all in full armor, attacking a B-ranked ogre village… and winning the battle? It didn't take a genius to figure out how big of a deal that was. According to the ogres, they'd even spotted a few high-ranking ogres among the bunch, ones C-plus ranked or higher. Connecting the dots in my head, the Sage agreed with my conclusion that the Orcs were being backed by someone, someone with the power and connections to give the orcs a shot at taking over the entire forest.