"So, Lord Rimuru, what do we do?" Benimaru asked me. By this point, my entire cabinet (minus Risa) including Gabil and Fuze, were inside of the conference room.
"Okay, guys. I've thought this through. The enemy is Charybdis. Probably stronger than me, maybe even stronger than Risa and I put together. His forces include 13 A-rank threats. For the sake of safety, let's err on the high side and assume that each of these Megalodons is likely as strong as Rango and Ranta put together… just weaker than Raya." That was probably more than a bit high, but better to be safe than sorry. Everyone nodded in response, except for Fuze.
"You can't be thinking of actually fighting that thing? It's not even in the same class as the orc lord! We need to call in backup or something!" Fuze shouted. I couldn't blame him, but I hadn't beaten an orc lord. I'd beaten an orc disaster.
And besides, no major army (except the Pegasus Knights, whom I'd already contacted) would bother assembling to help a monster town. They'd wait until Charybdis destroyed us, then deal with it on their own time, as it moved to attack more important targets.
"Fuze, can you think of anyone that both could and would help us, even if we managed to stall Charybdis here?" I pointed out. He dropped back down to his seat, silently agreeing with me, though he clearly didn't think it was a good idea.
"Look, guys. We need to think of this as fighting 13 Rayas, and one Me. That means that you guys are gonna need to beat those megalodons on your own, so that we can save Risa and I's strength for Charybdis himself. Here's how we're gonna do it."
…
First, we needed to look at our available forces. I could trust Benimaru, Shion, Soei, Ranga, and Hakuro to each deal with a single Megalodon. At least. In fact, I was pretty sure that, if it came down to it, Benimaru and Soei could probably take all thirteen down by themselves. I advised them to save their strength as much as possible, though. Charybdis was the real threat. The megalodons were basically just practice. So, I simply created teams, rather than anything else.
The goblin riders would be one team. Each of them was an A-minus threat, with Gobta a solid Hazard when on Rango, leading them.
Then, I had Rigur take command of Benimaru's Flare Corps.
Our new military was divided based on skill sets. In most cases, that just meant race. Rigur had around 3,000 hobgoblins on his Security Force, while Benimaru had another 1,000 in his military. These were the Flare 'Forces.' The Flare Corps were the elites of that, and they numbered around 100 B-plus at minimum hobgoblins, with Rare-grade weapons from Kurobe and Kaijin. The rank and filer beyond that were equipped with Special-grade weapons at minimum, so they were a fair bit stronger than that. With Rigur backing them, they'd likely be strong enough to at least stall a megalodon or two. I'd have Hakuro keeping an eye on them, just to be safe.
I bet the Riders would appreciate that… Hakuro tended to be especially strict with them, so they'd have a bit of breathing room.
Then, I had Geld command another hundred of his High Orcs. Call them the Orange Corps.
And Gabil's team, Hiryu. Each of the Dragonewts was around an A, maybe a bit higher, and the hundred-strong army had wings to fly with and a seemingly limitless supply of potions.
The final team that was going to be dealing directly with Charybdis, from Tempest, was Soei's team. It may have been composed only of four, Soka's friends, but between their base strength, formerly part of the lizardman chief's personal guard, and whatever terrifying, hellish training Soei had put them through, Soei calmly boasted that they'd get the most megalodon kills out of any team.
So, we had a challenge now. Five separate teams, all vying to get the highest kill count before Dwargon's Pegasus Knights showed up. Each team would get one of my top advisors watching over it, to make sure that nobody died. The moment that we got a single potentially deadly injury, the entire team would be disqualified from the 'competition,' and all advisors would spring into action, massacring the megalodons without prejudice. I didn't really expect that, though. After all, anything potentially dangerous could be healed with potions, so it was difficult to tell when something was actually 'deadly' compared to 'needing a potion.'
"You're turning a battle to the death… against A-ranked Hazards… into a competition?" Fuze realized, shocked.
"It's the best way to protect my friends. After all, if I can't save my friends, how'll I ever live up to Shizu's legacy?" I asked.
"Shizu's legacy?" Fuze parroted, "What do you mean by that?"
I explained everything to Fuze after that. Shizu's circumstances, my death and rebirth, and the fact that I'd promised to punch Leon for her.
"I see… so that's what it was…?" Yeah, none of my cabinet members were surprised to hear that I was an otherworlder. In fact, while Fuze seemed to have suspected it, nobody else seemed to care at all. Fuze seemed to be more interested in Shizu's circumstances. According to him, she was a close friend, after all. He'd probably only stayed around Tempest so long because he'd never figured out how to ask me about it.
"Alright, guys. Let's beat us a Calamity!"