Black Shadow | Souei

Chapter 14: The One Who Devours All

The Orc army that had been in the marshlands had been taken out. The only remaining orcs were the Orc Lord himself and the part that protected the Orc Lord from behind. Souei and Kumiko had managed to regroup with the rest of the Kijin.

Benimaru, Shion, and Hakurou watched as Souei dragged a reluctant Kumiko by her wrist over to the group. Her feet were digging into the ground as she resisted, but to no avail. Souei and Kumiko might've been on par with one another when it came to fighting, but in terms of physical strength, Kumiko was no match for Souei. He easily pulled along the childish Kijin and stopped in front of the group. Benimaru looked at them curiously. They had made up, right?

"She wanted to go find and fight Gabiru," Souei explained as she shook his arm off and puffed her cheeks. The rest of the Kijin looked at her incredulously. The lizardmen were their allies now.

"I wasn't going to kill him..." she defended. "He almost got the entire lizardmen race killed." Kumiko and Souei both made their way to stand behind Benimaru, with Kumiko to Souei's right, but in front of Ranga and the goblins.

"Plus, the two lizardmen siblings just grind on my nerves..." she muttered under her breath as she crossed her arms defiantly, her scythe held tightly in her left hand still. Souei barely heard her, though he couldn't begin to understand why both of them bothered her. Gabiru, sure. Not only did he lead the lizardmen into a battle they wouldn't win, Souei had to admit that ever since Gabiru had gazed at Kumiko with those impure eyes of his, he wanted to stab him But why the female guard? The rest of the Kijin all sighed knowingly. She was still jealous. Despite seeming to have made up, Souei was still clueless to her anger from before, and she clearly hadn't figured out her feelings. Kumiko was projecting her rage onto Gabiru instead of the guard since even she knew it was unreasonable to hold resentment to the female guard. Benimaru couldn't help but want to knock both of them in the head, despite still being on the battlefield.

Rimuru had let them all know that he found the Orc Lord, so the group was simply awaiting his command. Souei and Kumiko were back to their normal bickering, their aura seething out from them as they argued about who had more overall Orc kills, or who had sliced through the most orcs with their blade. The most ridiculous one that the group heard was who could dice the orcs into smaller pieces. Kumiko glared at Souei as he only smirked back, knowing that his threads could easily secure a victory with dicing the orcs. The Lizardmen and the goblins they had recruited shivered in fear as their auras waged war against one another. All the members of Rimuru's army just ignored the two, knowing that this was a common scene.

The Orc Lord was within sight of them all shortly, and no one was really surprised when the Orc Lord towered over them all. At the sight, Kumiko stopped her childishness and dropped her arms to her side. With her emotions suppressed, a mask of calm came over her and she readied herself, as did the rest of the Kijin. They stared down the Orc Lord, whose lumbering steps shook the ground. All of Kumiko's plans from her [Unrivaled Strategy] began dwindling down bit by bit as the sheer power of the Orc Lord washed over the entire group. Surely, Rimuru could of course beat him, but she had been foolish to assume for even one second that she had a chance to take him on single-handedly. She began to wonder if even the Kijin alone could beat this monster.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a streak of red burst from the sky, hitting the ground and kicking up dust. The Kijin stared forward, narrowing their eyes as a figure stood up from the dust in the center of the crater that was formed. Ranga growled from behind them. Benimaru tensed as Shion took a lower stance so she could jump in at any given moment. Hakurou unsheathed his blade ever so slightly. Souei reached for the handle of one of his swords on his back as Kumiko's blades on her scythe flipped open. Glowing blue holes where his eyes were supposed to be met the army standing in front of him.