With a roar, the skeleton archers were swarmed by the lizardmen, just like they did to the skeletons. At this distance, archers lost their advantage and could only be attacked one-sidedly. As they fell one after another, almost all the skeletons had fallen into the wetlands, and just the army of zombies was left.
Finally, a new enemy was unleashed.
Undead beasts.
Undead created from wolves, snakes, cobras and all sorts of animals. A monster that combined the tenacity of zombies with the agility of animals.
The undead beasts rushed at the lizardmen. The fast moved fast, the slow travelled slowly, an assault with no formation to speak of.
The attack coming from down low was unexpectedly hard to evade. The undead beasts will gnaw onto the feet of the enemy. After immobilizing them, it will deal the killing blow, a style similar to wild beasts.
For the lizardmen who were getting more and more tired, this attack was difficult to fend off. Several lizardmen whose movements had dulled got their necks torn apart by the undead beasts. Even those who believed the spirits of their ancestors was with them couldn’t help but panic when they saw their comrades fall.
The Head Warriors fought at the front, but were pushed back slowly. As they were thinking that it was just a matter of time before their battle lines will be broken, the wetlands suddenly swelled up.
What appeared was two conical masses of earth about 160cm in height, with no head or limbs.
The two masses started moving.
It moved smoothly across the wetlands despite the absence of limbs, heading straight for the undead beasts. After closing the distance, whips that were longer than its height emerged from where its shoulders should be.
That was one of the lizardmen’s ace in the hole, the fairy of the wetlands summoned through the combined effort of all the lizardmen’s druids.
The wetland fairies charged into the midst of the undead beasts, flinging its whip like tentacles to grab the enemies. The undead beasts engaged it ferociously with claws and fangs.
It was a battle between creatures without fear. But the wetland fairies had the advantage due to their superior combat power.
Their priest could overpower the undead. This fact revived the courage of the lizardmen and they renewed their attack.
An intense battle ensured
Unlike the fight with the skeletons, the lizardmen also suffered casualties. But the scale of victory was tilting towards the lizardmen who had the advantage in pure numbers.
He was going to lose.
Cocytus understood this fact.
His forces lacked any undead that have intelligence. That was the reason for the loss, and was something he was worried about from the very beginning, but Cocytus didn’t imagine the army to be this weak.
Cocytus regretted his shallow thinking deeply. There was a way to turn the tide under such a situation, but it wasn’t a good method as taking such a step was equivalent to admitting his loss.
On the other hand, how could he report this failure to his master? Cocytus picked up the ‘Message’ scroll. Who should he contact at such a crucial moment—
“… Is this Demiurge?”
『Yes my friend. For you to actually message me, something happened?』
A steady voice sounded out in Cocytus’ mind. Demiurge’s intelligence was top notch in Nazarick, he might be able to think of a solution.
In a way, Demiurge was one of Cocytus’ rivals, so Cocytus was not too fond of asking him for help. But avoiding defeat took priority, how could an army from the Great Tomb of Nazarick fail? To avoid losing the fight, Cocytus threw away his pride and lowered his head for help.
“Actually—”
After using a scroll to explain the current situation, Demiurge who listened quietly gave a troubled sigh.
『And what do you need from me?』
“I wish for you to lend me your wisdom, the battle will be lost if this carries on. I can accept it if it was my personal fight, but I do not wish for Nazarick and the Supreme Beings to be disgraced by this.”
『Does Ainz-sama truly wish for victory?』
“What do you mean by this?”
『I am talking about why Ainz-sama formed an army from such lowly serfs.』
Cocytus also had doubts about this. He couldn’t fathom why they had to form an army from the lowest servants in the Great Tomb of Nazarick.
“… Ainz-sama must have his reasons, but what is his intention?”
『… I can think of several possibilities.』
As expected of Demiurge— Cocytus didn’t express this out loud and kept his respect in his heart.
『Let me ask you… Cocytus. You had been in this place for several days now, shouldn’t you be gathering intelligence on the lizardmen before the attack?』
Demiurge was right. But—
“But Ainz-sama ordered me to defeat them with the forces given, and to do so in a direct confrontation.”
『That might be so, but I want to think about it carefully, Cocytus. The important thing should be what kind of result do you want to present to Ainz-sama, right? If the objective was destruction of the village, you would need to consider the best way to go about it, correct?』
Cocytus couldn’t answer, Demiurge got right to the point.
『Ainz-sama must have considered all this when he gave those serfs to you.』
“… You mean Ainz-sama intentionally gave me forces that wouldn’t be able to win the fight?”
『That possibility is high. If you had collated intelligence beforehand, you might have been able to tell that the forces you have on hand is insufficient to take the village. In that case, you should report to Ainz-sama that ‘the current forces are not enough to complete the mission, I will need more reinforcements’. That should be Ainz-sama’s goal.』
Which meant that Cocytus had to understand the true intention of his master. He should not just follow orders blindly and had to make adjustment on the fly. That was what Demiurge was trying to say.
『This was Ainz-sama’s method of changing our way of thinking. But he seemed to have another objective as well…』
“What else is there?”
Cocytus asked Demiurge in panic. He had already made one mistake, he doesn’t want to risk another one.
『Ainz-sama sent out messengers to the villages, but did not mention Nazarick by name. He also forbid you from taking the field. This means—』
Cocytus gulped and waited for Demiurge to carry on. But Demiurge didn’t continue.
『Urg! Cocytus, my apologies, I have an urgent matter to attend to. Sorry but I need to go, may you obtain victory.』
Demiurge cut off the communication suddenly and the ‘message’ ended.
Cocytus could guess what made the calm and collected Demiurge so flustered. He shifted his eyes onto someone in the room. He saw Entoma casually tearing off a tattered talisman from her forehead.
For a Talismancer to use a talisman meant—
Everything was too late.
It was time to deploy the undead that was held back until the very last moment, the ace card. But was this really the intention of his master?
This was probably the first time Cocytus thought about the intention behind the orders of his master. But he could only come to one conclusion.
Cocytus activated the ‘Message’ spell.
“— Lich Commander, I order you to attack. Show the lizardmen your true powers.”
An old and luxurious robe covered its body of skins and bones. One of its hands was holding a twisted staff. Its rotting face was just a skin covered skull with evil eyes full of intelligence in its sockets. The emitted negative energy covered his body like a thin fog.