“Isn’t it dangerous for us to ride in on this child?”
They could feel the high tension from such a great distance, which made Crusch who was dressed like a vegetative monster voice her uneasiness. She was afraid that the Hydra would draw the wrath of the bloodthirsty lizardmen.
The other party probably knew about Zaryusu, but they might not have seen Crusch or Zenberu before. And not all the Razor Tail tribesmen knew about Zaryusu either.
“Wrong, the opposite is true. We won’t be in danger if we ride towards them on Rororo.”
She had a baffled look, it wasn’t visible, but that was the feeling Crusch gave. Zaryusu made a simple explanation.
“My older brother should have arrived, and he definitely would have told them that I would be riding on Rororo. News of us coming on Rororo should have been reported to my older brother, so we just need to approach slowly.”
After they advanced on Rororo for a while, a black scaled lizardman came out from the village. Zaryusu waved at that familiar lizardmen.
“That’s my brother.”
“Heh.”
“Ho.”
They responded in unison, Crusch was simply curious whereas Zenberu felt like a beast who found a strong opponent.
As Rororo closed the distance between Zaryusu and Shasuryu, they were finally close enough to make out each other faces. The two brothers stared at each other.
The two of them were only apart for two days, but because they had already steeled themselves to the fact they might not meet again, their emotions were really strong.
“It’s great that you returned, younger brother!”
“Ah, I bring good tidings, older brother!”
Shasuryu shifted his gaze to the two behind Zaryusu. Zaryusu could feel the hands of Crusch that was hugging on to him stiffen from nervousness.
As they closed the gap completely, Rororo came before Shasuryu and stretched its neck towards him affectionately.
“Sorry, I didn’t bring any food with me.”
The moment Rororo heard this, it withdrew its four heads as if it was throwing a tantrum. The Hydra couldn’t understand the language of the lizardmen, but it could tell what Shasuryu was saying through their understanding similar to that of family members. Or it simply didn’t detect the scent of food from Shasuryu.
“Well then, let’s dismount.”
Zaryusu said to the two behind him and agilely lept off Rororo. He then grabbed Crusch’s hand and assisted her in getting down. Shasuryu looked at Crusch in surprise.
“What is that Plant Monster?”
Getting this sort of reaction made Crusch a little depressed, but she didn’t retort. This was probably thanks to Zenberu’s constant teasing. But the next stunning blow made her stiffen.
“She is the female I like.”
“…Ohh.”
Shasuryu sighed. He then stared at the stiff Crusch who was still holding hands with Zaryusu.
“Muu… I just want to ask one thing, is she a beauty?”
“Yeah, I am thinking of marrying— Eh!”
The sharp pain coming from his hand made Zaryusu shut up, because the one he was holding hands with was poking him with her claw. She didn’t hold back at all. Shasuryu looked at the two of them with displeasure.
“I see… So you are picky about the appearance… And you kept playing cool, saying ‘I can’t marry’. You just haven’t met the right one yet… Alright, back on topic, I am the chief of the Green Claw tribe, Shasuryu Shasha. Thank you for agreeing to ally with us.”
Shasuryu wasn’t trying to confirm this fact, but was absolutely sure of it. But Zenberu and Crusch won’t be shaken up because of this small matter.
“We should be the one thanking you. I am the acting chief of the Red Eye Tribe, Crusch Lulu.”
Everyone thought that Zenberu would introduce himself after Crusch finished her greeting, but that didn’t happen. Zenberu was sizing up Shasuryu without hesitation.
Satisfied, Zenberu nodded and spoke with a feral expression.
“So you are the one, the warrior who could utilize the power of the druids, I have heard about you.”
“I am surprised that even the Dragon Tusk knew about this."
Shasuryu replied as the two of them stared at each other like a couple of wild beast.
“I am Zenberu Gugu, chief of the Dragon Tusk Tribe, until the day your brother agrees to take over.”
“Thank you for coming. You are indeed worthy to be the chief of the tribe which values strength over everything, I welcome you.”
“So, want to have a match? Shouldn’t we find out who is stronger?”
“… That’s a great idea.”
Zaryusu didn’t want to intervene. Finding out who was stronger now will definitely make things easier in the future.
But Shasuryu raised a hand, diminishing Zenberu’s urge to fight.
“—I agree with you, but this an awkward timing.”
“Why is that?”
Shasuryu smiled at Zenberu’s unhappy face.
“… The scouts we sent out are about to return, we should be able to obtain detailed intelligence about the enemy. We can fight after hearing their reports, right?”
A small house was used as the conference room of the chiefs.
The chiefs of the gathered tribes and Zaryusu were gathered here, a total of six.
Zaryusu, the one who killed the previous ‘Sharp Edge’ Chief, bearer of Frost Pain was famous and all the chiefs knew of him. He was also the brave one who convinced Red Eye and Dragon Tusk to join the alliance, so no one was opposed to him taking part in the conference.
In the small house, the six sat in a circle. When the other three chieftains saw Crusch’s white scales, they were surprised, but had already regained their composure.
After finishing their greetings, the first who spoke was the chief of ‘Small Fang’.
He was petite compared to other lizardmen, but his limbs were as strong as steel. Originally from the hunter group, his ranged attack skill was the best among all lizardmen in the vicinity of this lake. In fact, during the fight to decide the position of chieftain, he settled each of his matches with just one precise rock throw.
In order to determine the position of the enemy troops, he mobilized all the hunters to reconnoiter.
“The enemy numbers nearly five thousand.”
This number exceeded the total population of all lizardmen, but was still within expectation. Some even sighed in relief when they learnt of this number.
“… And the leader of the enemy?”
“I can’t say for sure, there are monsters that looked like giant mass of red meat in the middle, but it’s too difficult to get in close.”
“What about the make up of the army?”
“An army of undead, mainly skeletons and zombies.”
“The undead of lizardmen?”
“No, they are not lizardmen. I don’t really know about the creatures living on land, so I can’t be certain. But it should be human types, I didn’t see any tails either.”
When Zaryusu heard that, he was sure that they were the race living on plains, humans.
“Can we launch a surprise pre-emptive attack?”
“That would be difficult, the other party is using an open space cleared out from a corner of the forest. How long did they take to clear the trees? It is strange that the felled trees are nowhere to be found— Ah, I digress. Anyway, they are in the forest. Leaving whether we can succeed aside, it would be very hard to bring warriors along.”
“What about a sneak attack with just the hunters?”
“Spare us, Ms. Crusch. There are roughly twenty five hunters, how could we defeat the undead army of five thousand? We will just get wiped out.”