(Risa POV)
As soon as Big Bro gave the order, Raya disappeared back into my shadow. She tended to stay there every moment unless I needed her for something. Meanwhile, Soei split a replication off, which picked the lizardman guard lady up in its arms. Huh… I didn't know that Lizardmen could blush?
Totally shipping that.
…
(Chief POV)
I was on my last legs. My spear had shattered against the halberd of the orc general in front of me with a single swing, and my body had already passed its breaking point, too. I could feel it.
But I couldn't let the others know that.
"A-ha-ha-ha! Destroying my weapon won't save you, dumb orc!" I paused, catching my breath, before giving my royal guards an order. "My guards, come forward! Protect the women and children with your lives! Do not lose hope! We simply need to buy time until our reinforcements arrive!"
None in the room believed me, but my vice-royal-guard spoke to back me up, "Believe in our chief! If he says help will arrive, then help will arrive! Believe in them, and protect the pride of the lizardmen to the very end!"
But-
"You fool! Ridiculous chatter about 'pride' will not save you from my blade!"
'Oh. This is the end.' Time seemed to slow for the chief, as the orc general's halberd dropped toward his chest. He couldn't defend it.
"Nope. That's my job."
…
(Risa POV)
'Got it from here. I can sense him.' I told Soei via Thought Communication, the moment that I sensed the lizardman chief with my Magic Sense. Or at least, the fairly strong lizardman who seemed to be fighting an orc that was even stronger than the one who'd attacked the lizardman royal guard lady.
'Understood, Lady Risa.' Immediately, his replication handed the lizardman lady over to me, before dissolving itself, no longer necessary.
As I got closer to the chief's location, I wondered if Big Bro should've sent Soei instead. He was better than me at fighting with precision in closed spaces, and all of these orcs were still at the point where they could be compared to Gobta. Basically, this particular orc general, the strongest one I'd sensed so far, could still be pretty easily killed if Gobta and Rigur worked together against it. I'd say that putting it against Gobta and Rango by themselves would turn out to be a pretty good fight.
In the end, though, I figured it didn't matter that much. In fact, this might end up being my only chance to contribute to the battle.
After all, these orcs were being controlled, technically. The only orc that really had to die was the Orc Lord himself. Sending me out against the army proper would basically ensure mass deaths.
When I appeared in front of the chief, the orc general in front of him was saying something. "Pride will not save you from my blade!"
"Nope. That's my job." Dropping the royal guard lady on the ground carefully, I casually raised my arm to stop the Orc General's halberd. Huh. Kaijin and Kurobe were talking about making a weapon like this for the Goblin Riders to use while mounted, but ended up deciding regular swords were more adaptable, even if you're sacrificing reach in the process.
This guy, though, was big enough to make full use of his weapon. Not that it mattered against me.
"Wha-?! A child!?" I sighed. Everyone seemed to stop, shocked by the 'child' me who'd appeared in front of the orc general, easily stopping the beast's powerful, lizardman-killing weapon with a single arm, but I was just annoyed. I understood that it was unusual, but I wasn't the only super-strong, child-looking majin around, right?
"Father! Are you okay?" Behind me, the royal guard lady immediately latched onto her father.
"... my child… so this is…?"
"Yes, this is an envoy from Soei's master. She was ordered to save our people."
"Gwahaha! Fine, then! I have no problems eating you first!" The orc general laughed. Honestly, though, I wasn't paying attention to him at this point. I could fall asleep, and he still wouldn't be able to hurt me. He pulled his halberd back for another blow, but I was done with this.
'Sol.'
'Huu!'
I hadn't been sitting on my butt, just learning swordsmanship from Hakuro and doing nothing else, since my battle with the ogres. I'd been mastering my powers.
Pulling my sword, Solslicer from my Stomach, I casually swiped it at the Orc General. The result was instantaneous. A bright light appeared from Solslicer, destroying the Orc General from the inside out. Not even ash remained.
The reason for this was twofold. First, I'd named the second fire spirit that I'd absorbed from Ifrit. His new name was Sol, and he was an above-A monster now. Downloading him into a magic crystal inside Solslicer's pommel allowed him to truly 'possess' the blade, turning it from a Unique-grade magisteel blade into a low Legendary-grade blade made out of a material that nobody could analyze.
Using Solslicer in this state gave a few boons. Firstly, the blade itself contained energy on par with an A-ranked monster, and was basically unbreakable, as well. Secondly, it granted the wielder the extra skill Dominate Heat, which I also had. Basically, me holding Solslicer granted me enough raw firepower to basically redefine the concept of heat. Anything that its blade touched would be instantly eradicated at the molecular level.
"..." Everyone looked at me like they couldn't believe their eyes. Even the orcs who'd infiltrated the chamber, fighting against the lizardmen guards, were stunned into silence. I ignored them all, bending down to heal the lizardman chief.
"Umm… Still a few lizardmen in the passages, huh? That'll be a problem…" I muttered to myself, sending out razor-sharp threads from my fingertips to force massive amounts of a sleeping poison directly into the brains of every orc left in the room. They'd live, but they wouldn't wake up for several years unless I gave them the antidote. I didn't want to kill unless I had to.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn't particularly well-suited to precise, large-scale work like Big Bro or Soei probably could. I didn't want to waste all of my time searching out these passages for the handful of live lizardmen still hiding in random caverns and holes, nor could I specifically target every single orc in such a large space…
Then, Izzy gave me a suggestion, and I immediately jumped on it.
"Here's the antidote. They'll basically sleep forever without it. You might want to search the caverns for hidden lizardmen after I leave." I gathered a bit of rock from the walls of the cavern, manipulating the shape to create around a hundred makeshift containers, then put the antidote to my sleeping poison inside them, before dropping them on the ground in front of the (still dumbfounded) lizardman chief. Then, I raised my hand and began releasing the sleeping poison in a gaseous form, making sure to keep it away from the lizardmen in the cavern with me.
Honestly, this was the best attack I could think of. My only other wide-ranged attacks were either cutting by nature, or way too deadly to use in a place where innocent victims could potentially be nearby.