(Rimuru POV)
After I sent Risa out to save the lizardmen, I sent the Goblin Riders out to the battlefield early, to save Gabil and his army. From our little experiment I could tell that each Rider was vastly stronger than the base-level orcs, and in groups of five, a general orc was basically nothing. From there, I left the kijin to their own devices, popped some wings out of my back (my clothes were Unique Grade equipment, so they could adapt to my body's changing), and flew over the battlefield to observe. Part of me wanted to tell the kijin to spare as many of the orcs as they could, but, frankly, that wasn't something I could ask them right now.
Everyone did know the main point of the battle, though. We needed to draw the Orc Lord out, then kill it. The other orcs were collateral damage, not targets.
But…
"Okay, wow." When I got to my vantage point, I was lucky enough to see the exact moment that Gobta's Goblin Riders made contact with the orcs. It actually looked really cool.
Gabil had been fighting a duel against one of the Orc Generals. He was actually doing pretty well, with his spear, but, unfortunately, I was just in time to watch the giant, ugly orc brush off Gabil's finishing move, countering with one of his own.
'Report. That orc general is applying Rot to his attack, on roughly the same level as the Tempest Snake that you once killed.' Great Sage informed me. Yeah, Gabil wasn't gonna survive something like that. But Gobta was on it.
"Deflect! Air Walk! Counterattack!" Appearing from Gabil's shadow with Rango behind him, looking unusually cool, Gobta deflected the blade headed for Gabil's head at the last minute, making it slam into the ground. Then, he kicked off of midair, going straight into a spin without any hesitation. From there, his blade, enhanced by magicules pulled straight from his body, slashed right through the orc's head.
Gobta landed on the ground behind the orc general's body as it fell to the ground, unfazed.
"WHOA!? WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" Yup. There's Gobta. No clue what he just did.
Great Sage? Please explain that. 'Basically, Gobta's sword works based on a computer-like system with prerecorded responses to various situations. By yelling 'Deflect,' he told the sword's system to respond to a threat by changing the direction of the oncoming weapon. 'Air Walk' likely stopped him from falling on his face once the deflection completed. And, since he was flying toward the Orc's face anyways, he likely decided to pair it with a 'Counterattack' command to see if he could get a slash in.' Oh… So it was basically Risa's computerized sword adjusting his motions that let him do that. Cool sword, but from what Risa'd explained to me about it, if he was still using verbalized commands that affected his physical motions, Gobta was still a long way from mastering it.
According to Risa, Dodge, Deflect, Parry, Block, Slash, Counterattack, and Blast were basic verbal commands that actually changed how your body moved to ensure that you did the motion right. They also pulled magicules from your body to go through with the command, depending on the command.
Air Walk was an advanced command, but just one use in midair, through verbal means, wasn't that impressive. After all, the sword's main thing was in its ability to detect threats and help the user respond to them, so the verbal commands were really just aids and nothing else. Against a real over-A rank, they'd be fairly useless. But still, good job, Gobta!
But, unfortunately for Gobta, the other orcs called his bluff and began moving in on the lizardman army, for the kill.
And that's when Ranga struck.
"AWOOOOO!!!" I casually dodged a tornado.
"Umm… Great Sage?" I couldn't help but ask.
'Report. Individual Ranga has evolved into Tempest Starwolf, and unleashed ranged skill: Deathstorm.' Yeah, so Ranga just walked up, howled, grew a second horn on his forehead, and turned the entire area around our allies into a deathtrap of black lightning, tornadoes, and howling wind. Apparently, he was using the Extra Skill: Control Wind to massively magnify the effects of Black Lightning, changing the wind pressure to turn a single lightning bolt into a continuous deathtrap that ran for several minutes in a wide area. By the time the skill stopped, a giant swath of land, along with thousands of orcs, were just gone.
'Big Bro. I used a sleeping gas in the lizardman caverns. The lizardmen left behind are currently looking for lizardmen who didn't quite make it to the safe zone, and just hid somewhere instead.' Risa sent me a thought communication. Sleeping gas, huh? Smart idea, in a confined space like that, you wouldn't need too much, and you could keep your allies from getting hit with barriers.
RRUUMBLE…!!! POP!
My thoughts were interrupted by a huge black dome appearing on the battlefield. When the dome dissipated, there weren't any orcs inside. The Kijin had stepped onto the scene.
'Risa, I'm gonna send the Riders to protect the lizardmen in the caverns. Come on over here. I'm gonna need you when the Orc Lord makes its move.' I decided, relaying the order to Gobta. With Ranga just sitting there in front of the lizardman-goblin army, none of the orcs were gonna dare to come close, so I didn't need all of the Riders protecting them. Besides, I was more concerned about the noncombatants that Gabil had left behind than the fighters out on the battlefield. He'd left a skeleton crew, but I didn't like their chances of protecting all of these women and children if ten thousand orcs decided to go back into the caverns to eat their sleeping comrades. And since Ranga's entire pack had evolved along with him, I was sure that the Riders wouldn't have a problem covering that much ground while we dealt with the fighting.