I sat in on the continuation of the war council the next morning, but I didn't contribute at all. They seem to be taking it seriously, and it’s better if I practice delegating this sort of work while the city is still small. I've already decided to follow their lead on this.

The council ended when it was still early in the morning, and then the troops were gathered. Father is the only capable non-slave who won't be fighting. It’s his responsibility to evacuate people to the shelter under the castle if invaders teleport into the city. Defense will be left in the hands of the golems at the gates, which are active and ready to fight, though right now they're just sitting still like statues.

We started our march: elite fighters in the front; standard troops in the middle; and wagon-pullers at the back, with a handful of guards. Honestly, the wagons only have a few spare weapons in them and the pullers can be easily replaced. They won't really be useful until after the battle ends, to collect the spoils.

I'm at the very front, but not for long.

“Chief, it’s about time.” Fiara did her best to look like she’d agreed to this part of the strategy.

“Right,” I nodded and took to the sky, heading a direct course for the enemy camp. I stopped as far away as I could while still being close enough to cast magic.

Although I was expecting it, the female Small Baphomet from before didn't appear. Perhaps I'm out of range and her detection doesn't reach this high.

Then I'll just go ahead.

My first part in the strategy the others thought of is to decrease the enemy’s numbers as much as possible in one attack. Since I'm up this high in the air anyway, and Fomors don't have any extra defenses against blunt weapons, there’s something I've been wanting to try for a while.

Are you going to give it to me, or will you make me do it manually? I half teased the spirits.

[[Conditions met. acquired.]]

Oho, it’s a third level spell right off the bat. The customizable parts seem to be… the number and size of the meteors, as well as the area of impact.

About this much should be good.

It’s a big spell with a bit of delay, but soon I was able to see a few specs in the distance. My only worry was that the enemy would see them coming and flee, but they didn't notice nearly quick enough.

Loud booms shook the earth as the stones pounded down on the enemy camp, toppling, or even crushing, trees and throwing dirt into the air. I couldn't hear any screams over that noise, nor were any mangled bodies visible past the dust. It’s as if I attacked a ghost camp, and it’s not nearly as satisfying as I thought.

Once the rocks stopped falling, my next job was to take distance, allow the enemy to recover, then let their guards down. That’s when the guys on the ground will attack, and my job will be to watch for particularly strong enemies from above. I won't be making use of ’s aggro in this battle. Far from it, I’ve had on this whole time.

***

I hope the chief is doing alright. Fiara looked ahead at the sky and tugged on one of her braids. Can you see her from here? Is she safe?

Three yellow eyes floated to the top of Fiara’s consciousness. Indeed, there had been an extra eye since she learned her first level three spell . The third eye was placed between the other two, and a little above them. It was smaller and rounder than the two almond-shaped eyes; it was a button eye, with no visible whites.

“You don't need to worry. Everything is going smoothly. She’s keeping a low profile and has withdrawn after significantly reducing the enemy’s numbers.”

Is that so? The blue Orc let out a breath of relief and held her hand over her chest.

“You should have a little more confidence in the person you call your chief,” Adelai chided.

How can you turn around and say that after warning me over and over again that she’s reckless and dangerous and all that?!

“Someone has to pull your head out of the clouds, and I’m the only other person in here. It’s not like she doesn't have some good spots, but that’s usually all you tend to see.”

Th-that’s because the chief is amazing.

Fiara was conceived late and born in the winter. It was too cold to go outside and make friends, and the older kids didn't make much effort to befriend her either. It was still bearable when she was locked inside with her mother, who taught her about the various things the village women did, but then those Beast People came and killed her, and Fiara was left alone in that house. Through the dead of winter, when it was cold, and one could only huddle up inside, and there was no longer anyone to talk to,

Boring.

A child with a perfect memory like Fiara;

Boring.

A child with the curse of the ancient Indigos;

So boring.

That was her hell. That was what woke Adelai up. But Adelai could only stay awake for a short amount of time each day, so winter was still hard. Even after winter, Adelai was indispensable for Fiara; she knew things none of the Orc women could tell her. But she could only stay awake for a short time each day.

The chief knew things that even Adelai couldn't tell her. The chief possessed memories of life on another world. The chief made sure she always had something to do or think about, and the chief slept the same time she did.

The chief is amazing...

“Alright, we’re close enough. Send the scouts ahead,” Varoon raised his fist up and signaled the main force to stop marching, and his sudden shout made Fiara jump.

Short golden bristles were growing from the top of Varoon’s head lately. It grew considerably slowly compared to the others, and it was stiff. Rather than hair, it resembled the fur of the Golden Boar that was in his ancestry.

“Hm?” Varoon glared down at Fiara out of the corner of his small eyes. “Is there something wrong?”

“N-no,” she looked up timidly and pushed up her glasses which had slipped. “I was just a little lost in thought, so I was startled.”

The chief's brother… our brother...

“Hmph,” Varoon directed his eyes ahead, instead of down at the person he was speaking to. “I know your research is invaluable, but please focus on where we’re at, until we’re safely back at Babylon.”

“Yes, I’ll try.”

He’s so different from her.

***

Within a tall, conical tent, sat upon a wooden table, was a wide and flat stone bowl, filled with a faintly purple liquid. Smaller stone jars were lined up along the back of the table and were mostly filled with dried or powdered ingredients.

My, that’s a rather nice color. The antifreeze property seems to have been completely diluted though. Oh! Wouldn't it be interesting if I added some Saga blossoms to this? Do I have any left?

Azza searched through a few of the stone jars and pulled some purple blossoms out of one of them. Holding them in front of her snout to inspect, she chuckled to herself.

If the other chiefs knew I had something like this, they would get terribly mad, wouldn't they? “Why didn't you bring any white ones?!” or something like that.

While still chuckling, Azza mixed the purple blossoms with some kind of clear liquid to help them dissolve, then she tipped the resulting slime into the large bowl.

At that same moment, a terrible impact shook the earth, raising quite a violent sound. Because of the shaking, Azza ended up dropping the smaller bowl into the larger bowl. Several jars of semi-precious ingredients also fell to the ground and shattered. They were barely even spared a thought.

“Wh--! What was that?!”

Before she could recover, another great impact struck down. She ended up using just to avoid the unstable ground, floating outside her tent to look at her surroundings.

“Wha--?!”

Azza’s rectangular pupils trembled as she stared up at the sky. Her vision was filled with huge, flaming stones wherever she looked. Every last one of them was fixing to come down upon them.

“Earth magic?!” she realized it a step too late. “That damn pig attacked first!”

! !

Once her composure had returned somewhat, the female Small Baphomet used Spacetime magic in quick succession to stop as many meteors as she could. The ones she stopped blocked the ones behind them, but the area that needed to be covered was too large--especially if she considered Neff in the camp beside hers. As the man who would father her child, he mustn't be allowed to die here.

Flying with haste, Azza collected her elite subordinates and quickly organized them. Since Azza’s magic was the most useful in this situation, the other chosen of Baythes were reduced to mere batteries, as they supplied the Magic Power for a massive spell formation of Azza’s making. The spell would be weaker, being made piecewise like this, from hastily summoned Spacetime spirits, but it would have to do.

! She shouted internally, and roughly seventy percent of the sky above the camps was protected. The first half of the offensive spell had had its run of things, but the latter half was almost neutralized.

Feeling considerably drained, Azza released the spatial barrier, allowing the crumbled remains of the meteors to rain gently down over their heads. Before even catching her breath, she used to search for the attacking magic caster.

Where? Where?! Unfortunately for Azza, she never expected a pig to be flying in the air, so she didn't look in the right direction. Ah?! However, she did clearly discover the rest of Vyra’s army on the ground.

Fu… Fufufufu! I found you, swine!

“That Hob cob-sucker is dead! Hey, quickly, transfer over the rest of your Magic Power!”

“Azza, that’s…”

“What?” She grinned wildly. “Just steal it back from Neff’s worthless subordinates. He owes me more than a few favors with this, and they can't fight anyway.”

The other Small Baphomets gathered around her put on tense faces and transferred what Magic Power they had left, leaving Azza to laugh wildly.

“Lord Baythes, watch as I triumph in your name!” she screamed to the the sky and vanished.