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Overlord (Light Novel) - Volume 11, Chapter 3 - The Impending Crisis Part 3
Volume 11, Chapter 3: The Impending Crisis Part 3
This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml
There were eight clans of Quagoa living in the Azellisia Mountain Range.
They were the Pu Rimidol clan, the Pu Randel clan, the Pu Surix clan, the Po Ram clan, the Po Shyunem clan, the Po Gusua clan, the Zu Aygen clan and the Zu Riyushuk clan.
The children of Pu — the hero of old — formed three clans that took his name, and they feuded with the clans which named themselves Po and Zu. There were slight differences between each individual clan, but on the whole each was composed of 10’000 Quagoa, for a total of 80’000 Quagoa distributed throughout the Azellisia Mountain Range.
Now, if someone wanted to know if the Quagoa people were strong, the answer was that they were not.
Even if one clan had 10’000 members, the Quagoa had little in the way of technology or civilization, and ranked among the lesser races of the mountains. They were little more than prey for the strong.
Now, if one asked who the greatest enemy of the Quagoa race was, the answer would be the fellow clans of their race. No, sometimes even the people of their own clans could become their enemies. Other monsters viewed the Quagoa as little more than food. They did not hate the Quagoa, nor did they compete with them. However, their fellow Quagoa thought differently.
That was due to the way in which the Quagoa grew.
The ores and rocks which the Quagoa ate at a young age determined their abilities later in life. In other words, they had to compete with their own people for rare ores and metals to strengthen their bloodline. Thus, their fellow clans were their enemies, but it was only natural that the nearby foe was more troublesome than a distant one.
Similarly, the Dwarves who contended with them for ores were also their enemies, but it was more likely that the dwarves would chase them away with their lightning-enchanted weapons.
However, at some point, a hero of legends — one who surpassed Pu, the hero of old — was born.
He was the Lord of the Clans, Pe Riyuro.
His might far surpassed that of the Blue and Red Quagoa. His overwhelming power allowed him to unite the clans.
Riyuro’s revolution did not stop there.
After discovering an abandoned dwarven city, he gathered the clans there and formed monster-fighting units, using Dwarven prisoners to develop agriculture and animal husbandry.
That was not all. Usually, when a new clan leader was born, he would exterminate the bloodline of the previous clan leader. This was the commonly-accepted means by which power was exchanged within the Quagoa people. However, Riyuro did not do that. Instead, he chose to let the leaders of the various clans rule themselves. However, Riyuro ordered all the ores to be brought to him. Those who obeyed Riyuro and performed well would be given rare ores, regardless of their status.
For instance, those clans that defeated monster invasions would be known as brave, while those clans that found more gold or precious stones would gain favor and more members. He would reward them for their work with the appropriate ores.
Their competition against their lord turned into competition with each other, and the Lord’s seat was secure.
He had done all these things which no Quagoa had even dreamed of to expand his influence and to set into motion a certain plan.
That plan was to attack the Dwarven city.
The clans gathered their best warriors in response to their Lord’s summons. They sent 2’000 people per clan, for a total fighting strength of 16’000.
This was an army never before seen in history. However, even with that much manpower, a direct attack across the suspension bridge would lead to horrendous casualties. Not only would that defeat the purpose of gathering such numbers, but it ran the risk of being defeated without being able to bring down the fortress.
Thus, Riyuro ordered them to find a way around the fortress.
Although several of the scouting teams did not come back, they managed to find a route to bypass the Great Rift in the end. After that, his troops divided themselves up into three to carry out their tasks.
One group was assigned to find and capture fleeing Dwarves. This task was divided among many smaller squads.
One group was designated as the main force. They were to conquer and loot the Dwarven city. If the elite group took too long in bringing down the fortress, they would step in to help.
The last group was filled with elite Quagoa, who would bring down the Dwarven fortress. This group would move ahead of the main force, bring down the fortress and they might be used to conquer the city as well.
The third group, the vanguard, was led by a Quagoa called Yozu.
He was one of Riyuro’s top men, an exceptional Red Quagoa. His mind was sharp, he was a capable fighter, and he was one of the top candidates for the spot of leader within his own clan.
Even so, it was not easy for someone like him to command his mixed battle group.
After all, the elites from the various clans held deep-seated grudges against each other. However, Yozu could even managed to make use of that.
By fanning the flames of competition between the clans, he brought down the fortress.
Their victory was assured by taking the flanking route and then the fortress, but even then, nobody could doubt his extraordinary command ability.
In truth, nobody else among the Quagoa could match his skill as a commander.
And now, the Quagoa were preparing to checkmate the Dwarves.
***
The first Quagoa among the vanguard who attacked the fortress were assault troops composed of the best of the best. These Quagoa clawed savagely at the hateful gate, but they could not break through.
One more step. Just one step closer, and they could break through that door and trample their hated enemies, the Dwarves. One more step, and they could take this entire domain for their own. They would be ranked first for their achievements, and as their reward, they would receive enough ore to make their heads spin.
However, that chance was denied and sealed away by the cold gate before them.
The Quagoa had a saying; the worm that hides deeper grows bigger.
One of the Quagoa was so angry at being so close but so far that he tried biting the gate. Naturally, he did nothing more than scratch the surface.
Seeing him, several others tried the same thing.
However, regular Quagoa could not harm it at all. They could try for a hundred years and still get nowhere.
Even when they thought to burrow through the rock and bypass the gate, they found that the walls were reinforced by lattices of the same metal which made up the gate.
Regular Quagoa could not breach that gate. Their rare elites like the Blue or Red Quagoa were held in reserve as a secret weapon and not assigned to those assault teams. In other words, their advance was briefly halted here.
Anyone would be frustrated by being denied their glory at their very last moment. However, they were not anxious. This was because they had already reported this to the vanguard commander. If the great Yozu was here, he would surely think of a way that they could not.
Even so, they formed up in clans to rest, because they did not know how much time it would take.
If they were regular troops, they might fidget and wander from stress, or start fighting with other clans. However, everyone here was the best of the best. They rested when it was time to rest, saving their rage and strength for the next battle.
And then, after resting for some time, the Quagoa suddenly looked up, as though their heads were mounted on springs.
There was a low bass creaking that sounded like it came from deep beneath the earth, and the gates began to slowly open.
The assault Quagoa looked at each other.
The Dwarves had sealed the gates in a panic. Why had they opened them again? Did they want to surrender? There were many Quagoa who thought that way, and they laughed mockingly as they bared their teeth.
As if they would accept a surrender.
Their plan was to exterminate the Dwarves. They would not give the Dwarves the time to spout useless words.
They would flood in like an avalanche through the opened gates and brutally slaughter all the Dwarves in their way. After that, they would trample the city underfoot and massacre with all their strength.
A gap slowly opened before the bloodthirsty Quagoa. It was still too small to fit through. One of the murderous Quagoa worked his arm into that gap.
He ventured his sharp claws forth, trying to murder any Dwarves in front of the Gate.
And then—
“Gyaaaaaaaaah!”
The Quagoa who wanted to be number one screamed and rolled back. The arm he thrust in was gone, replaced by a fountain of fresh blood.
Their shock at this development was like dumping cold water on the fires of their bloodlust.
It was easy to imagine what had happened.
In all likelihood, someone had cut his arm off with some kind of weapon, but was that even possible?
The Quagoa special ability was that they were extremely resistant to the weapons which the Dwarves typically used. During their surprise attack on the fortress, some of them had been hurt but none of them had died. That should have held true as long as they were not hit by electrical attacks.
But then, why had their comrade’s arm been chopped off?
There was only one reason for that.
That would be the existence of an extraordinary swordsman, who could easily cut through the arm of a Quagoa, a member of a race whose skin and hide repelled all blades.
In other words, there was an unimaginably powerful warrior behind the slowly-opening door.
The Quagoa stepped back, gripped by an emotion they had not yet felt in this battle — fear. During this time, the gap in the door continued to widen.
“Why are you backing down?” called a powerful voice from the rear of the assault team.
“There are no cowards among Clan Pu Rimidol!”
“Ohhhhh!”
That cry of agreement must have come from the members of Clan Pu Rimidol who had been chosen for this assault team. Panicked, those from the other clans shouted as well, proclaiming their strength.
“Clan Po Gusua knows no cowards either!”
“Nobody from the Zu Aygen Clan will lose to the Pu or the Po! How can we let our ancestors laugh at us from the Land of Derey?!”
To the Quagoa, the valorous dead would watch their children prosper from the Land of Derey. It was said that the ancestors would mock those who shamed themselves.
Those words were the trigger that reignited the fighting spirit of the Quagoa.
They dragged the disarmed Quagoa aside, to the wall. The assault teams kept their distance and took a close formation, ready to slaughter this mighty swordsman.
“Charge! No matter how strong he is, the enemy only has one sword! We’ll hit him with more people than he can handle,” someone said.
“No, we just need to rush straight ahead once the door opens. Once we knock him down, we’ll trample him. Then we’ll sack the city.”
“Then, let me take the lead!”
There was a mineral called Nuran which was crushed into powder and mixed into paint. The courageous would take this paint and draw two stripes through their fur as proof of their bravery.
The Quagoa gathered behind one such brave soul. If he was struck down by that sword, they could still shove him in.
The gap in the door was now big enough for a single Quagoa to pass through. While it was too cramped to burst through, they would be losing men for nothing if they hit the entrance with the lightning magic from just now and then closed the doors again.
“Charge!”
With a valorous cry, over 10 Quagoa made their move.
The brave Quagoa at their head stiffened. The people pushing him from behind felt him being killed by the swordsman. However, they could not stop. If they stopped now, they would be insulting his courage.
Because of that, the Quagoa from behind pushed forward with single-minded intensity, intent on letting their momentum carry them into the Dwarven city to loot and pillage it...
—And then they stopped.
No matter how hard they pushed, they could not carry on. It was as though a thick, massive wall was blocking them.
One of the Quagoa raised his head and looked forward.
It was only natural to wonder if the Dwarves had made a wall.
Because indeed, there was a jet-black wall there.
All their eyes could see was the wall. And then it started moving.
“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
It was a mighty cry that made the air quiver.
What they had thought was a wall was in actual fact a gigantic shield.
The Quagoa had no history of weapon or armor use, but they had seen the Dwarves use them before. However, they had never seen anything this big. Before them was a shield that could have been mistaken for a wall.
As the Quagoa were baffled by this development, the loathsome creature behind the shield revealed itself.
It was a creature sheathed in black full plate armor, its crimson eyes glowing with hatred.
Even the ignorant Quagoa could understand that it was evil, it was violence — it was Death itself.
A pyun! rang out.
In that instant, the heads of three Quagoa took flight as one.
“UUUOOOOHHHHHHHH!!”
The roar battered at the bodies of the Quagoa.
The hair-raising impact made the Quagoa want to run away with all their heart.
Within their tribes, they considered themselves courageous warriors who did not fear death. However, they had never imagined a being like this in their wildest dreams. The monster before them obliterated their courage.
That being the case, why did they not flee right away?
That was because they lacked the strength to do so. Their instincts told them that if they ran, they would be slain in a single blow from behind. Even so, the eyes of that black being reminded the Quagoa of their desire to live.
“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
That roar seemed to come from deep beneath the earth. The Quagoa whimpered in response, and took several steps back.
And then, as though to seize the opportunity which had presented itself, another being identical to it appeared. And then—
“Hiiiiiii!”
One of the Quagoa screamed.
As they looked toward the owner of that voice, they saw their comrade who had lost his head.
He was dead. There was no doubt about that. However, his arms started moving, as though grasping for something. It was clearly not a spasm or anything like that.
The only conclusion they could draw was that the corpse was moving.
As though trapped into a nightmare, the still-living Quagoa found themselves imprisoned in a cage of fear.
Clang, clang, went the two massive suits of armor, and then they raised identical, bizarre swords: flamberges.
***
“So, according to the assault team’s report, they haven’t found a way to bring down the door yet, am I right?”
“Yes!”
The Quagoa whose pelt was streaked with red frowned as he listened to his underling’s report.
He was Yozu, commander of the Quagoa vanguard. He possessed a hide that was as tough as orichalcum and his resistance to metal weaponry was even greater than that of regular Quagoa. He was a superior member of his species, a Red Quagoa.
Yozu turned his eyes from his bowing subordinate to the fortress on the other side of the suspension bridge. Beyond the fortress was a tunnel, and after the tunnel was the Dwarven city.
After conquering it, they would have a good location for a base and all their competition for ores would also be eliminated at the same time.
The combination of expanded territory and an unprecedented haul of ores and minerals would make the Quagoa great.
Once that happened, the Quagoa would someday come to rule the entire mountain range.
“If only we could defeat those Dragons…”
Yozu looked around worriedly after accidentally blurting out his true thoughts.
If anyone reacted, they gave absolutely no sign.
That put Yozu somewhat at ease.
The Quagoa had taken the former Dwarven capital as their home base.
The Royal Palace still stood proud within the city, but it was now the domain of the White Dragon. He was a Frost Dragon, who could exhale freezing breath.
The Quagoa had forged an alliance with the Frost Dragons. However, anyone who knew even a little bit about the truth would know that this was nothing like a relationship of equals. The Clan Lord might have prettied it up by saying that it was for mutual co-prosperity and whatnot, but not even the Lord himself believed what he was saying.
The truth was that the Dragons were strong, and their servants, the Quagoa were weak.
To the Dragons, the Quagoa were little more than emergency rations or convenient pawns.
Yozu had once met the Dragons in the presence of the Lord of the Clans, and that was the impression he got after hearing the mighty voice which emanated from its massive jaw. He was also shocked at the sight of the Lord grovelling before the Dragons.
He did not want to see a great hero reduced to that state, but Yozu was not stupid. He keenly understood the insurmountable difference between the might of the Dragons and the Quagoa.
Even so, he could not permit the Dragons to treat them like idiots.
...We can’t do anything about it now. If we fight that Dragon Lord, the Quagoa race (we) will suffer irrecoverable damage even if we win. But… someday.
He was not the only one holding that wish in his heart. All the Quagoa who had met the Dragons — in other words, all the upper-class Quagoa — had the same desire.
To begin with, they needed to find a way to become immune to freezing breath. If Quagoa like that were not born, they would take terrible losses.
The search for that way would take a lot of time.
Yozu swept away his dark emotions. Right now, he had to destroy the Dwarves. That had not been done yet. It would be foolish to let worrying about the future affect what he could do in the present.
Yozu summoned his subordinates.
“Oi, destroy the fortress and then see if we can widen the tunnel walls to let more people in. We need to prepare as much as possible before the main force—”
Suddenly, Yozu’s ears stood up. He thought he had heard a scream from somewhere.
No, it might not have been a scream. It might have been a threatening noise made by a monster. The problem with being underground was that it was very difficult to tell where sounds came from.
This time, however, he knew instantly.
That was because he saw the Quagoa from the assault team fleeing from the fortress while screaming at the top of their lungs.
A hubbub came from the Quagoa around Yozu.
Given the state of the Quagoa who had come back, it was very clear that they were terrified and confused. Several Quagoa even shoved their buddies from behind, and the latter tumbled into the Great Rift.
“What’s wrong? Is there an emergency?”
One of Yozu’s subordinates answered: “We’re not sure. Could it be a Dwarven counterattack?”
That was not possible. A Dwarven counterattack was well within the expected range of responses. It would not cause the assault teams to flee in panic.
It must have been some sort of special attack. Yozu had once heard that boiling oil was very painful.
“Gather the men and find out what’s going on. If it’s a Dwarven counterattack, continue the advance. We must not let them take the fortress back.”
Yozu’s men formed up into a company per his instructions, and they began crossing the bridge.
The screams continued during this time, and the assault team continued fleeing.
What were they running from? Was it the result of the mysterious power called magic?
As Yozu thought about the matter, a pair of silhouettes appeared at the door of the fortress.
They were big, black… somethings.
“—What, what are those? Giant Dwarves? Dwarf Lords?”
Yozu had never seen such beings before. Although he knew that the Dwarves used armor as part of their equipment, and that some sets of armor covered the entire body, what he saw now was completely different from what he had seen then.
In their right hands they carried wavy-bladed greatswords, while in their left they had massive shields.
Given that the Lord of the Clans was slightly different from regular Quagoa in appearance, the Dwarven Lords probably looked different from regular Dwarves.
Yozu did not know the true identity of the beings which stood at the entrance of the fortress like Nio statues. However, his animal instincts told him that they were dangerous entities.
(Note: Nio statues = temple guardian statues modelled after the Bright Kings of Buddhism)
He also understood why the assault teams had fled from those monsters with all their might.
His subordinates around him were frozen in shock, the same way he was. The only beings that still moved were the Quagoa running from the fortress. They did not look back; their energies were fully focused on getting across the suspension bridge.
The black suits of armor roared.
Even at such a great distance, the cry ripped through the air and made his fur stand on end. Yozu’s guts clenched and turned cold. It was like feeling a Dragon’s roar through his entire body.
As though on cue, he saw Quagoa slowly emerge from beside the black suits of armor.
Did they escape? Or did they betray us? No, that’s not—
Yozu’s eyes went wide.
One of the Quagoa he saw was missing its head.
He squinted, and saw that several Quagoa were trailing their innards behind them, while others seemed to be shambling in an uncoordinated manner, the left and right halves of their bodies moving out of sync, as though they had been cut in half.
Beings that moved even when they could not be alive were —
Magic! Magic that controls the dead!
“Is that the Dwarves’ secret weapon?”
Yozu agreed with what his subordinate had said.
Did they have an ace in the hole besides lightning-enchanted weaponry?
“...Are they Golems?”
It was said that when the Dragon took possession of the Royal Palace, it had fought monsters with those names. Apparently, they looked like armored statues.
“Are those the Dwarves called Golems?”
Yozu shook his head at his subordinate’s question.
“No, Golems are monsters. The Dwarves probably raised those.”
“Like the Nuks we tamed, then?”
These Nuks were magical beasts.
Their males were 3.5 meters long and weighed 1200 kg. They were shaggy four-legged herbivores who could survive on even a little bit of algae. They were tough enough to survive in heavy snowfalls, so many monsters in the Azellisia Mountain Range fed on them.
In any event, there was no telling how well those black Golems could fight, but given the fleeing Quagoa and the assault teams’ diminished numbers… no, more than that, Yozu’s goosebumps and his cold sweat told him everything.
Beating them would not be easy, but fortunately, they only seemed to be watching them from afar and not trying to cross the bridge.
“It, it seems they came to take back the fortress.”
“Y-yes, that’s right. Alright, form up again while they’re still stopped. At the same time, we’ll prepare to — they’re moving!”
The black suits of armor broke into a run, charging at the suspension bridge.
“Who was that! Who said that they were there to take back the fortress?!”
“Commander! Now’s not the time for that! What should we do!?”
The Quagoa which Yozu had sent out bared their claws, ready for battle.
The black suits of armor braced their shields and blew through the Quagoa where they made contact.
Sent flying by overwhelming power, many Quagoa fell from the suspension bridge. The black suits of armor did not stop. Though they slowed down a little, they continued their charge forward with shields raised, like rampaging walls.
If this kept up, they would soon cross the bridge completely and reach this place.
And then, when that happened… what would happen? Realizing the mortal danger which awaited him, Yozu shouted.
“Cut, cut the bridge!”
If they destroyed the bridge, the main force would only be able to use the flanking route, and that would waste a lot of time. The Dwarves would probably strengthen their defense in the interim. Thus, one could consider their first objective of taking the fortress to be a failure.
After the loss of manpower and resources during this operation, failure would not be a matter that could be simply excused by a rebuke. However, all that paled in comparison to the danger of letting those black suits of armor cross the bridge.
If they reached this place, everybody here would die. The black suits of armor were such beings.
“Didn’t I tell you to cut the bridge?!”
The Quagoa could not help but watch the black suits of armor smash their men away with their unimaginable might. At the second cry, they finally managed to move. However, almost all the Quagoa who had been sent out from the rear were had been sent flying into the abyss, and there were only a few Quagoa left on the bridge to face the black suits of armor.
All of those Quagoa desperately bit and clawed at the steel suspension cables of the bridge.
“Have one of the assault teams stall their advance!”
Being told to stop the Golems right after hearing the command to destroy the bridge was no different from a suicide mission. Even so, a suicide squad immediately assembled and bravely went forth.
As expected, the suicide squad bounced off the shields, but some of them managed to get past and hurled themselves upon the black suits of armor. However, the black suits of armor paid them no heed. Being bitten did not seem to hurt them, and they continued their advance.
The bridge had not yet fallen.
If this kept up, the black suits of armor would make it all the way across.
As Yozu realized this, his body began moving on its own. He leapt down from his command post high above, and used the force of his landing and the sharpness of his claws to deliver a hit to the steel cables of the bridge.
A great ping tore through the air.
The suspension bridge rose and fell like a gigantic wave, and broke.
Yozu could not withstand the serpentine thrashing of the suspension bridge and was thrown into the air. However, he managed to grab a dancing cable before he was swallowed up by the yawning darkness beneath him. Since Yozu could not control his movements in mid-air, it was an unimaginable stroke of luck for him. He pulled himself along the cable as his body swayed in mid-air, and managed to make contact with the edge of the cliff.
However, he did not even have the time to catch his breath. A malevolent cold filled his body. Yozu listened to his instincts and threw himself prone.
In that instant, a screaming object swept past the fur on Yozu’s back. Unbelievably enough, that object was a flying Quagoa. Under these dire circumstances, the black suit of armor had managed to throw one of the suicide squad members at Yozu with its ridiculous arm strength.
The thrown Quagoa hit one of Yozu’s men, who was still frozen in shock. The two of them disintegrated into chunks of gory meat with a brief, agonized cry of “Pigya!”
However, that was all, because the suicide squad and the black suits of armor vanished into the Great Rift.
Silence filled the air.
Yozu slowly peered into the darkness of the Great Rift. He was not the only one to do so; all the survivors looked into the darkness that had swallowed everything. All of them knew that there was no surviving that drop; even so, they could not erase their fear that the black suits of armor would come clambering up the sides of the chasm.
After what seemed like forever, Yozu finally sighed in relief.
They did not look like they would be coming back.
Looking around, he saw that there were precious few of his men who had survived.
Even so, the fact that they had survived against those black suits of armor was worthy of praise.
“We’re pulling back!”
If they did not report those Golems to the people on top, things would be very bad for them.
If those were being mass-produced, it was the Quagoa who would be annihilated instead. Yozu did not feel that there were only two of them.
“...How fearsome those Dwarves are.”
Yozu deeply regretted underestimating the Dwarves. To think they knew how to produce such monsters—
“In any case, we need to inform the main body about this. Messengers!”
The people who ran over in response to Yozu’s call were the Quagoa Riders, who far exceeded the average Quagoa in mobility. They possessed a special ability which made them immune to the fatigue caused by extended sprinting.
The reason why he had called this many of them over was because moving in small numbers ran the risk of the entire group being wiped out by a monster ambush. That was not to say that moving in force guaranteed safety, but that it did not matter how many died as long as one of them survived to pass their message on to headquarters.
“Alright! Go! Don’t forget, your mission is very important!”
Yozu gave another order as he watched them leave.
Needless to say, it was to fall back immediately to meet with the Lord of the Clans.
