Chapter 84: Hammer and Anvil – Part 1

Chapter 84: Hammer and Anvil – Part 1

"Wolfy, we have a problem," Yunia affirms sternly.

I eat another piece of chocolate. It's hazelnut with raisins, my favorite combination. It's just above peanut chocolate, but we don't have peanuts, so that's something we'll have to watch out for while buying food.

I sigh and sink into my seat. "Just one?" I ask, almost whimpering.

"Well... no, we have more than just one problem..." She says, her voice losing strength with each word.

"So... how fucked are we?" Hana asks with a grin, trying to brighten the mood just a bit.

"Very fucked," Yunia answers with a flat tone and sighs, then she hardens her expression again and continues, "Our first problem is that the Giants seem to be wearing some sort of stone armor, making fire much less effective against them."

"I saw holes for the nose and eyes, so Rox's Sneeze-'n-Wheeze should still work," I comment.

"And the oil could still reach their skin if we manage to hit those holes," Alissa adds.

"It would just be easier to use my Sneeze gas, instead. We'll have to use Wolfy's second plan," Roxanne argues back.

Alissa thinks for a moment, then nods in agreement, and at least one of our problems is addressed.

We turn to Yunia again, and she continues, "Our second problem is that their army seems to be larger than ours, so they must be collecting monsters from the other waves, which brings us to our third problem: their numbers are constantly increasing.

"Then there's our fourth problem: they're not advancing, so we have to meet them in the field before their numbers grow too large, which puts us at a disadvantage since the Lonlanzas need time to set up their lines, making them terrible on the offensive. Our fifth problem is that the corridor is so wide where they are now that we might not be able to block it off with all of our companies combined, allowing them to wrap around our flanks with their superior numbers."

"Can't we build walls at our flanks to protect ourselves?" I ask.

She gently shakes her head. "We don't have a lot of Engineers, and they have a lot more mages than we do, making it possible for them to dispel whatever we build. To make more permanent fortifications, we'd have to conjure them, which would take a lot of time that we simply don't have."

"What about forming a levy with the commoners?" Ciel asks.

Yunia shrugs. "We could try, but I have no idea if they'd accept it."

"They'd die in droves if they met an elite enemy unit, so we'll have to be very careful with how we use them," I state, and Yunia agrees wholeheartedly.

"Our sixth problem is that the Orc Lord is intelligent, so we can expect a tough battle," Alissa adds.

"And our seventh problem is that we can't starve them out because their mages should be able to conjure food, or even just cannibalize their coming waves," Roxanne contributes.

We all go silent for a moment, trying to think of a safe way out of this pickle we find ourselves in.

Ciel fought for her entire life behind the walls of a town, so her first thought relates to that. "Couldn't we just wait back here and build up our defenses?" She asks.

"If they gather enough Grim Giants, then no matter what we build, it just won't be enough," Yunia replies, and Ciel frowns.

The elves didn't conquer the marshes of Antano for a long while specifically because the Giants can easily destroy any defense besides the ginormous trees of the High Forest.

I cross my arms and lean back in my chair with a wry smile as I say, "So, we're being forced to fight in a disadvantageous position... I once heard that that's exactly how you lose a battle."

"Precisely," Yunia agrees without a hint of mirth in her tone.

The tiredness from fighting all day suddenly hits me, and I feel my eyes get heavier. It's well past bed-time, and I didn't even have that much fun today. The dragon, the kid, and even the pervert inside me are all complaining at once.

I stare up at the dark ceiling, and a faint glimmer reflects off the red sand from the slowly pulsating light of the glowing elves. An idea begins to form inside my mind, and all the girls slowly look up with me as realization seeps through [Bind].

Yunia follows our gaze, then she smiles in satisfaction. "It's dangerous, but I'm certain it'll work."

We go to sleep with our armor off so that we'll be completely rested for tomorrow's big battle.

Today is the 26th.

Alissa wakes me up lovingly, and I release all the tension from yesterday down her throat, repeatedly.

We [Clean] our mouths, then I put a small piece of chocolate on my tongue and pull her in for a morning kiss. We wrestle for control of the candy as it quickly melts in our mouths, giving our kiss the flavor of Heavenly Chocolate.

The idea of dripping molten chocolate onto her pussy and eating her out reinvigorates me and awakens the dragon between my legs.

I savor her lips and push her away, then I look around me at all the delicious bodies slowly stirring awake. "Just a quickie with everyone wouldn't hurt, right?" I ask, and Alissa's tail starts wagging.

The tentacle-dick monster makes a brief reappearance.

Alissa leveled up to 40. Her [Bow Use], [Dodge], and [Fox Transformation] increased by 1 (now 34, 4, and 6). I'll put her extra point and two more from [Reduced Mana Cost] into [Mana Efficiency] to balance her magic a bit more.

Roxanne leveled up to 40. Her [Mana Control], [Fire Magic], [Space Magic], and [Alchemy] increased by 1 (now 31, 3+28, 2+9, and 6). I remove an unnecessary point from both [Fire Magic] and [Alchemy] and put them in [Reduced Mana Cost] (now 9+4) for a more mana-efficient [Explosion].

Ciel leveled up to 40. Her [Glaive Use] and [Wind Magic] increased by 2 (now 23 and 10+22), and her [Parry] increased by 1 (now 9). Her last extra point will be put in [Mana Efficiency] (now 3+4) for a more mana-efficient [Fly].

I apply not-Nutella to my bread and moan as I take a bite. The chocolate Nour brought wasn't as delicious as this, so I'm certain that we'll be able to make a profit out of commercializing my creations.

Ciel hesitantly puts the not-Nutella on her second slice of bread and takes a bite. She squeaks in a low tone and sighs in satisfaction.

"Are both of you chocolate-sexual?" Alissa asks with a raised eyebrow.

"That... doesn't even make sense," Ciel shyly states while avoiding looking her in the eye.

Alissa smiles smugly, mimicking Yunia's smugness. "Just take a look in Wolfy's mind, I'm sure you'll find your answer there."

"Considering that I was just thinking about drizzling hot chocolate onto Alissa's pussy, perhaps you're right," I say to Alissa with a wry smile.

Alissa glances at Ciel, radiating smugness, and my chocolate angel blocks out our voices from her mind so that our teasing won't ruin the pleasure she gets from her meal.

The elves don't need sleep, so we did make some progress over the "night," but there are still a few hours until we reach the Orc Lord's army.

Just as we begin cleaning up after breakfast, Yunia calls our attention, so we don't even get up out of our seats and simply wait for her to start.

She sternly looks at each of us, wiping away the levity of our breakfast, then she clears her throat and starts, "I'm not a general, but we still need to fulfill the job of one, so we need to start discussing strategies. We also need to have plans ready for all kinds of scenarios so that we can react immediately" -she turns to look at Lina- "and it's best that we write it all down so that we can study them later."

Line nods, making her cute bangs sway, and wordlessly pulls out a few sheets of paper and a magic pen.

Just when I think that we're finally finishing up, Yunia turns to me and throws me a bomb, "Wolfy, there's something you must do. We need to get the levy ready to defend themselves."

I groan internally.

"So, now I give them a speech?" I ask wryly, holding back my reluctance because this is important.

Her long elven ears twitch as she subtly cringes. "I... I guess so. I was going to suggest just talking to them, but you can appeal to their emotions more effectively with a well-written speech."

I laugh nervously. While letting out adrenaline-fueled cheers and cries during battle is one thing, giving an actual speech to an audience is something else entirely.

"I'd better put my points in [Acting], then," I say and use [Godly Language] to calm myself down.

Before talking to the commoners, we assemble the Generals to have a talk with them. They ignore the girls when they speak of anything not related to battle, greatly irking Yunia, so it seems that I'm the only one who can actually talk to them. Their presence is rather imposing, so I keep the girls behind me for emotional support.

It's a bit hard to hide the fact that Alissa, Roxanne, Hana, and Lina aren't elves, so I think they have some sort of mental block that makes them think we're all "kin." Either that or they're just using that word to refer to any humanoid.

Since they don't care about our race, I take off my helmet and look them in the eye. They take off their helmets, too, revealing a line of supermodels.

Stupid sexy elves.

I clear my throat and mutter another calming order to myself with [Godly Language], then I activate the dragon within me and make a stern expression.

I let them talk for half a minute, then Yunia says that it's time to really turn up the hype.

"So tell me, what role will you take?" I ask and wait a few seconds to catch their attention again. The young men start to cheer, and I gradually increase the volume of my voice as I yell, "What are you?! The hammer, the anvil, the vine, the tree, the bark, or the weapon?! WHAT ROLE WILL YOU TAKE?! ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT?!"

"Yes!" The men cheer, drowning out even Hana.

I draw my sword and raise it high into the air. "I DIDN'T HEAR YOU, ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT?!"

"YEEEEES!"

"URAAA!" Hana lets out a war cry.

"URAAAAAA!" The crowd cheers, and their war cry resounds through the tunnel.

I catch my breath and smile in triumph, then I look towards Number One, and he silently nods at me.

We start organizing the hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers. Those with magical prowess aid the Elementalists in producing spears and shields nonstop or get taught first-aid by the healers; the young and strong are equipped with these new weapons to fight, and they're taught by Hana how to make a crude shield wall; the old will hold the pikes at the back of the Lonlanza formation; and the ones who can't move help sew thick padded armor to protect the militia.

We can't really help them build anything since they can only conjure that same glowing matter that their bodies are made of. They're doing well on their own, though, and we wouldn't be able to help much, anyway.

We train the non-warrior nobles to help with organization, speeding things up, then we continue our march, killing a few Ice Wraiths along the way.

At 11 AM, we stop our advance so that the army can rest, and we have an early lunch. After that, we finally reach the Orc Lord's army, apparently interrupting their meal. Forcing them to fight while they're hungry is just one small advantage that we need to take to shift the odds in our favor.

The first thing we see are hundreds upon hundreds of small dots of light from their torches and an assortment of crude light spells. Monsters don't know [Spirit Light], and they hate [Light Magic], but they've easily developed their own version of that spell that doesn't include any Holy/Godly influence.

Then we see six hulking masses rapidly grow within the army as the Grim Giants rise to their feet, each reaching a height of up to twenty meters. Their bodies are thicker than the usual Grim Giant due to the stone armor they're wearing.

I use a Holly to take a closer look and notice that their armor seems rather odd. It's mostly orange and black with hints of green and yellow here and there, and its surface is very rough, giving it a crude appearance.

"They tried to conjure bronze, but their mages are so bad that they only managed to conjure it in mineral form," Lina says as she observes them through my Holly.

Yunia blinks repeatedly in confusion. "Why not just conjure iron, then?" She asks.

Lina shrugs. "Monsters are weird. The ones near Mountainhome like bronze, for some reason."

"WOOOOO...!" The Giants suddenly roar in anger, slightly hurting Alissa's ears, then the monsters all start to yell and taunt at us.

I climb up onto the prow and apply a fair amount of [Godly Language] to my voice as I yell, "STEADY, MEN! HAVE FAITH IN THE GODS, AND WE'LL CRUSH THEM!"

"URAA! URAA! URAA!" Our army starts to chant in response.

We're so far from each other that the taunting dies down on both sides long before we can even see each other.

The monsters might try to harass us before we can get in position, so the girls and I get ready to fight, and we make sure that the army marches in formation.

I split a large chocolate bar between us as emergency rations. The battle might last a while, and chocolate will be the perfect energizer for us.

Our army slowly approaches the lights shining ahead, and the small dots gradually become larger, allowing us to discern more details and identify their units.

Goblins, Living Armors, Spriggans, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Ogres, and Grim Giants. Those are the enemies that we'll have to fight, and they certainly outnumber us, even with the militia.

But fuck them. We'll show you what we can do, Arreira.

A commotion stirs among the monsters, and both Trolls and Goblins break out of their line.

They're coming to harass us, initiating the first phase of this battle.

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