"Eaten these… lizards?" Gabil didn't seem to get it at first. Or perhaps he just didn't want to believe it, I couldn't blame him. He laughed at the idea nervously, "Heh ha ha! Gallows humor, huh, sir?! You'll find that I am still perfectly healthy! Ever since you granted me your name, I have-"
"Huh? Oh. You, Gabil? You worthless, blundering lizard, I named you so that you could feed yourself to the Orc Lord and become a part of its strength! But you still bother to haunt this world, of course… nothing's going right. So be it! I command you to become the Orc Lord's strength! Finally serve me with your death!" Ouch. I could feel Gabil's heart shattering, poor guy. Not that Gelmud cared. At this point, he was gesturing wildly at the orc lord, who just looked at him dumbly.
"Evolve… into demon lord… what is that…?"
"Gah! Such incompetence! He forbade me to meddle in this, but I suppose I have no other choice!" Turning his crazy, bloodshot gaze to Gabil, Gelmud opened his palm and screamed "DIE!"
'I got it.' Sensing Risa's rage, I sent her a thought communication and sprang into action. She'd created a charm with a similar use to my mask, which hid her aura, but I could see it beginning to crack. I wanted her to save that anger until I needed muscle, so I moved in front of Gabil and gobbled the magic bolt up with Predator. Meanwhile, a small detail of lizardmen formed in front of Gabil to protect him at the last minute. Though it wasn't necessary, it proved just how beloved the idiot lizardman really was. I'd seen a lot of his flaws, but he must've been a pretty great commander despite it. He'd protected those 4,000 goblins that he'd gathered from the neighboring villages, after all, despite it being a better tactical decision to use them as throwaway pawns.
I totally understood why Risa was so angry, seeing the man that Gabil admired the most betray him like that.
"You cocky inferior! Don't step in where you don't belong! I'll just kill you, too! You'll all serve me well, from the orc lord's stomach!" Gelmud focused his aura above his head this time, gathering an even more powerful magical bolt… no, this was an Art. Like what Risa did… fairly strong, either way, so it didn't really matter. Naturally, nobody stopped me from protecting Gabil. After all, it was clear that this bolt, even as gigantic as it was, wasn't going to be dangerous for me.
"Let me show you all what a high-level magic-born can do! DIE! DEATH MARCH DANCE!!!" Finally, he launched his magic bolt. Splitting up into countless smaller bolts, each aimed at me, and each as strong as his first. Impressive show, but…
I raised a hand. That was all it took. Every single bolt was absorbed with Predator, and analyzed. Yup. It was an Art. Basically, it was Modelwill. Somewhere stronger than Hakuro could do, but nothing compared to Risa's terrifying Arts. If that was all he had, then he wasn't really strong at all.
"Dude. That's it? Look, if you want us to die, then you should really give a demonstration first." Thrusting my palm out, I tried to do the same thing with my aura that he'd done, but I couldn't quite get it. So, I shot off an Icicle Lance instead, to cover up my mistake. It froze Gelmud's arm, causing him a bit of pain, but it was just a half-hearted effort against a high-level magic-born, so he was able to counter with another giant bolt of magic.
"Ahh." It tasted pretty good. I responded with a Water Blade, cutting a gash into his side when he tried to block it with an anti-magic barrier. Immediately, he began chanting a spell to heal himself.
'Huh. Pretty talented guy. Still, though.' I could kill him with a thought. I didn't, though. I kinda wanted to inflict a bit of pain first, test out my own arsenal. Maybe a bit conceited, but nothing here was in my and Risa's league, anyways, so I figured that I could afford to be.
As I pounded into Gelmud, I realized that he was stupid weak. His aura was pretty big, but only on the level of Hakuro. Shion, Soei, Benimaru, and Ranga outclassed his raw power, and could use their own power far better than he could, so they'd each steamroll him.
In the end, I managed to figure out how to use Modelwill by rolling out bits of my aura in the same way that I modified a Water Blade. I wasn't a good shot, but I had a good target to practice on.
"Gaah!" After a few magic bolts, he was already at his wits end. "A high level magic born like me, defeated by-"
"Dude, you can call yourself high-level all you want, but you're really looking pretty weak to me. Or are you hiding some sort of last resort?" I asked.
"I'll let you join-" Punch. "Wait! I have the backing of a demon lord-" This time, I kicked him toward the ground. Honestly, I didn't really care about his backing. I still needed to punch the Demon Lord Leon, and I suspected that Gelmud'd be punished either way for his blatant screw-ups here. Clearly, I wasn't the only one who believed that, either.
"Gahh! You're dead! My demon lord benefactor will never forgive you for this! O-Orc Lord! Over here! Help me! Dammit! GELD!"
So, the Orc Lord's name was Geld, huh? It seemed that hearing his name finally managed to stir Geld into action. Seems he was gonna help Gelmud, huh? Oh well.
But instead… CHOP. As he insulted Geld for being a good-for-nothing idiot, Gelmud had his head chopped off by the Orc Lord's meat cleaver-like weapon. Then, he began to eat Gelmud before our very eyes.
'Confirmed. Orc Lord's magical energy expanding in quantity. Evolution to Demon Lord seed… complete. Individual Geld has completed the evolution to an Orc Disaster.'
Dammit.