Bofuri (The Strongest Shield Of Tensura)-Chapter 123 - One Hundred And Twenty Three

The sky above the Great Forest of Jura was the colour of hammered iron.

Benimaru stood at the forward ridge, his arms folded behind his back, the wind pulling at the ends of his hair. Below him, the Falmuth vanguard had already begun its push into the forest’s outer edge, and the sound of it carried up the slope in waves.

’Geld’s work,’ he thought, his eyes tracking the movement of the forward columns as they pressed deeper between the trees.

The traps had been Geld’s idea in the whole sense of the word. Creating several dozen pitfalls around several entrances into the forest.

The first of the traps triggered somewhere in the middle distance. He heard it before he saw it, a sound like the earth clearing its throat, and then a section of the Falmuth column simply dropped, the neat line of soldiers dissolving into chaos at its centre while the men on either side stumbled and collided trying to understand what had happened.

’Good.’

It wouldn’t stop them. Nothing Geld had laid down there was meant to stop four hundred thousand soldiers. It was meant to slow them. Falmuth’s commanders would spend the first hour adjusting to terrain that should have been straightforward, and that hour belonged to Benimaru.

He turned his attention to the left flank, where Albis had positioned the Eurazanian contingent along the tree line. From this distance she was a small figure against a large formation, but he could pick her out.

’She’s good,’ he thought, and then immediately qualified it. ’Or she wants me to think she is.’

It wasn’t a fair thought. He knew it wasn’t fair even as he had it. Albis had come here voluntarily, had argued her way into this war on Tempest’s behalf, and there was no particular logic to the suspicion that she might be here because she wasn’t strong enough to cause trouble elsewhere. The Eurazanian beast warriors were real fighters, he’d reviewed the assessments, and Albis herself was no lightweight.

But she wasn’t pledged to Rimuru. She was pledged to Carrion, and Carrion was absent, and that left a question open that he couldn’t quite close.

With how things were turning out with Maple Tree, even good deeds were turning out to be harmful.

’If things go badly enough, what does she do?’

He didn’t have an answer. He didn’t have enough information to have one, which was the part that bothered him most. Albis was cooperative and capable and he had no specific reason to distrust her, and yet here he was.

’Rimuru trusts her,’ he told himself. ’A part of me does too. That should be sufficient.’

"General Benimaru."

He turned. Shifu had come up the ridge quietly, which was the only way Shifu seemed to do anything. The purple-haired Oni moved without apparent effort, his white armour plates clean despite the fact that he had spent the better part of the morning on the ground with his forward units. He stopped at a respectful distance and inclined his head.

"The Kasarigama Unit is in position." Shifu said. "I wanted to inform you personally before they begin."

"The Kasarigama Unit." Benimaru repeated. "Walk me through it again."

Shifu turned to face the battlefield below, his hands folding behind his back in an unconscious mirror of Benimaru’s earlier posture. "They’re kind of like my personal unit. I trained them myself. Specifically for harassing engagements. They do not hold ground and they do not pursue. They will strike the flanks of a marching column, here, and here..." he indicated two points in the tree line without pointing, just a slight incline of his head toward each. "and then they are gone before the column can redirect."

"Hit and run." Benimaru said.

"In essence. Though I prefer to think of it as controlled pressure." Shifu paused. "The unit is sixty strong, led by six captains. Each of them hand-selected over three years. They will not be seen unless they choose to be, and they will not be caught unless they make a mistake, which I have taken considerable steps to ensure they will not."

Benimaru studied the man beside him. Shifu’s aura was contained and quiet, but he had felt the edges of it during the morning’s preparation and knew what was underneath. Shifu was stronger than him. Probably significantly.

’I could not beat him,’ Benimaru thought.

Crimara was the same. Two people who outranked him in raw capability, now technically under his command, because Rimuru had placed them there and they had both accepted it without visible resentment.

"Your unit, the Kasarigama, when do they move?" He asked Shifu.

"On your word." Shifu said simply.

That was another thing about Shifu. He’d changed considerably since the ogre village. Back then he was one of the most outspoken veterans in the village. It was why his betrayal had been as shocking as it had been.

Now, he didn’t offer opinions unless asked, didn’t suggest adjustments to Benimaru’s positioning or second-guess the formations out loud. He gave information and then waited.

"Hold them until the main column commits to the second tree line." Benimaru said. "Once they’re in, they’ll be reluctant to pull back. That’s when I want the flanks hit."

Shifu nodded. "Understood." He paused, and then, for the first time since the morning, added something unprompted. "You have good instincts for terrain, Young Master. The trap placements were well chosen."

"That was Geld’s work."

"Yes." Shifu said. "But you trusted it. Your father would be proud of you. I’m, proud of you."

He turned and moved back down the ridge without ceremony. Benimaru watched him go.

’An odd thing to say,’ he thought. ’Now especially.’

He noticed Crimara as she walked past Shifu with two of her aides at her back, the red plates of her armour catching the flat grey light and throwing back something that was almost but not quite a shine. She nodded at Shifu as they walked past each other before she reached him.

"General Benimaru." She said, stopping beside him. Her voice had the quality of someone who was accustomed to being heard over noise. "The ground units are in position. I’ve arranged them in three bands, forward fire, mid support, and rear anchor. The forward fire will engage first and draw their Rank A fighters out. Once they commit, mid support closes and prevents retreat. Rear anchor holds for anything that breaks through."

"And the Dragon Riders?"

"One thousand." Her chest seemed to ouff out just slightly when she replied. "A-Rank each, mounted. I’ve held them above the canopy for now. Falmuth will know we have flyers, there’s no concealing the swarm, but they won’t know their composition until I deploy them, and by then it’ll be too late to adjust their anti-air."

Benimaru looked at the sky above the forest, where the Armoured Dragon Flies moved in loose formation, their wings catching and releasing light in slow, shifting pulses. From the ground they would look like a cloud that had decided to be inconvenient. From underneath a Falmuth shield wall, they would look considerably worse.

"They’re all fire affinity." He noticed.

"Every one of them." Crimara’s expression didn’t change but something in it sharpened. "My subspecies have a particular relationship with fire, and that affinity has spread among many of our newer brothers and sisters. Each fighter in the forward band can sustain concentrated output for approximately twelve minutes before rotation. I cycle them in thirds, so the pressure on the enemy line never drops."

’She’s done this before,’ Benimaru thought. ’Makes sense. She must have been in multiple battles before she met Kaede.’

"So, our first play is this, the forward fire draws their A-Ranks." He said slowly, working through it. "Your mid support closes behind them. While their best fighters are committed and contained, Geld’s units push the main line, Shifu’s flank attacks prevent lateral reinforcement, and the Dragon Riders come down on whatever’s left trying to hold the centre."

"Yes." Crimara said.

"And Albis’s flyers hit the rear columns before they can push forward to reinforce."

"Also yes."

Benimaru was quiet for a moment. Below, the Falmuth advance was beginning to slow slightly at the second tree line, the column bunching as the front found the ground less cooperative than expected. Geld’s second layer doing its work.

He did the calculations, not for the first time. Even with Crimara’s twenty thousand and Albis’s contingent, Tempest’s combined force didn’t reach a third of what Falmuth had put in the field. The numbers were not in their favour and they never would be.

’Lord Rimuru said to hold,’ Benimaru thought.

The thought of Rimuru sent a small, involuntary tightening through his chest that he ignored with the ease of long practice.

’He’s handled worse,’ he told himself. ’He’ll handle this.’

He would. Benimaru believed that without particular effort. Rimuru had a way of arriving at the right answer through routes that made Benimaru want to press his fingers to his temples, but he arrived. He always arrived. The Lord slime was aggravating in his methods and sound in his outcomes, which was perhaps the most useful combination a lord could have.

"Crimara." He said.

"General."

"Deploy the forward fire band. I want the pressure on their A-Ranks to begin before they finish adjusting to the tree line. Don’t give them time to settle." He paused. "And tell your Dragon Riders to drop altitude. I want Falmuth’s commanders looking up."

A commander who was looking up was a commander who wasn’t watching the flanks.

Crimara inclined her head, the movement clean and without delay. "Understood."

He took a slow breath, the cold air of the forest sitting in his lungs for a moment before he let it go.

’Alright then.’

Below him, the Great Forest of Jura pressed back against four hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, patient and dark and absolutely indifferent to the odds.

Benimaru intended to be the same.

---

It was somewhere around forty miles away from the border that Rimuru’s group found Hinata’s. Riding on Ranga, he came upon a large clearing that didn’t look at all natural.

It seemed that the place had been cleared out in preparation for what was to come. That could only mean one thing.

They were expected.

Hinata stood at the far end of the clearing.

’She’s strong,’ Rimuru thought, stepping out of the trees and into the open grass, his group fanning out behind him. ’I knew she was strong. I knew that. But now she seems even more dangerous than the last time we met.’

Hinata Sakaguchi stood at attention, her hand resting on her blade handle. At the sight of Rimuru her eyes seemed to narrow, and behind her a group of white dressed people emerged from the tree line.

’Including Hinata, there are supposed to be Ten Saints.’ Rimuru hopped off Ranga, the storm wolf standing beside its master. ’We have Fritz and Garde in our custody, and Glenda is on our side, so that means there should be seven saints left. Who are the remaining five?’

Hinata Sakaguchi stood with the saints fanned out by her sides, alongside five extra men that were also dressed similarly to the saints.

On the other side of the clearing, Rimuru stood, his hand on his own katana, behind him, his entourage, Ranga, Shion, Glenda, Soei, Hakurou, and Suphia.

Both groups stood against one another, the trees moving to the wind as if in anticipation.

"Well." Glenda laughed, her hands still tucked into the strappings at her sides. "You all look exactly the same. And that’s not really a compliment."

"Glenda! It’s actually you!" Saare said a little louder than he expected. "Thought you’d croaked or something. So you were alive all this time."

"The hell are you doing in the company of monsters!?" Grigori roared in disdain. "And if you were alive all this time why didn’t you return!?"

Glenda laughed even harder. "I know that you’re not exactly bright, but you seriously can’t be that dumb Grigori."

Grigori looked taken back. "The hell are you talking about!?"

Hinata narrowed her eyes even further, even as Saare blinked. "Seriously? Oi, now’s not the time to be joking around. Aren’t you a Battlesage?"

Glenda shook her head amusedly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Saare. Trying to deny what’s right in front of your face eh?"

Saare frowned before he tsked as well. "Tch. I was trying to throw you a bone you moron. Just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you’d do something so stupid."

"Glenda Atlee." Hinata finally said. "You are a traitor to the Holy church of Luminous."

"The big shot herself speaks." Glenda grinned. "I feel honoured."

"What the hell do you think you’re doing Glenda Atlee!!!" Lenard roared in rage. "Conspiring with monsters!? How low have you fallen!? You will be brought to justice for this insurgence!!!"

"Hah?" Glenda picked her ear with her pinky. "Can you shout a little louder? Can’t exactly hear you all the way over here."

"What did you say!?" Lenard grit his teeth as veins protruded from his forehead.

"So the screaming banshee is Lenard Jester." Glenda said offhandedly to Rimuru and the others. "His accolade is Child Of Light. He’s contracted to a Greater Light Spirit."

"I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for all this." Litus tried to persuade everyone. "Glenda wouldn’t betray us just like that."

"The naive one is Litus." Glenda told Rimuru. "Her accolade is Litus Of Water. As you can guess, her affinity is water and she’s contracted to a Greater Water Spirit."

"N-naive?" Litus gasped softly. "I am not... What the hell’s your problem huh?"

"You should pay her no heed anymore, Litus. Glenda has apparently chosen her side in this war." Bacchus drew his mace. "What matters is our response."

"The straight faced guy is Bacchus. Bacchus Of Earth. Earth affinity, and Great Earth Spirit, yada yada, yada you get the point." Glenda rushed her words this time.

"Not even the courtesy of a fair introduction?" Bacchus sighed. "Truly no remorse."

"Enough of this nonsense!" Arnaud snapped. "It doesn’t matter what Glenda has done. She’ll fall with the monsters nonetheless."

"And lastly, that black haired simp is Arnaud Bauman. His accolade is Arnaud Bauman of Space. Pretty dumb right?" Glenda snickered.

"Oi!"

"So his affinity is space right?" Rimuru asked. ’That sounds like it’s going to be annoying to deal with.’

"You’d think that, but it’s actually more interesting than that. Arnaud is actually loved by elementals. As a result he has all five affinities. Other than the battlsages, he might be the strongest after Hinata." Glenda chuckled.

’No pressure or anything right?’ Rimuru thought grimly. ’They all sound like power houses. We’re going to have to handle this very carefully. We don’t have Kanade to matchmake... That’s it!’

"As for the rest." Glenda narrowed her eyes. "Those five must be candidates for the newly opened seat in the great saints. That means that they’re at least [Enlightened] humans."

"Are you done?" Hinata asked calmly.

"I’m honestly surprised you let me rant for this long, to be honest." Glenda laughed. "What? Feeling a little generous today princess?"

Hinata didn’t react at all to the barb. "You could say that. From where I’m standing, you’ve already sealed your fate."

Glenda couldn’t help it anymore, she laughed hard, unable to control herself. "You really don’t realize just how screwed you are doing you, Hinata?" She exhaled. "It just baffles me how ignorant you lot are, it really does. But I guess I can’t blame you, I was the same after all."

"The right hand of god." Glenda laughed mockingly. "Such gall, to proclaim that title. I’ve seen what God looks like, and trust me, Hinata, whatever pathetic, useless waste of time and energy it is you think you worship, they’re not it."

Clang!!!

Glenda grinned as her forearm guard blocked Hinata’s sword strike.

It has happened in an instant. One instant, Hinata was standing next to the saints, the next instant, she’d crossed the clearing and was now pushing against Glenda.

"Struck a nerve did I?" Glenda grinned while gritting her teeth as she pushed back against Hinata’s sword with her forearm. "I really can’t help but feel sorry for you Hinata. You messed up big time."

Glenda pulled back and launched a kick at Hinata that surprisingly caught her off guard. Hinata was sent flying back but recovered instantly and slid to a stop.

When she moved again, her sword clashed with Rimuru’s katana.

"Your fight’s with me." He declared as they both pushed against one another.

Hinata literally growled as she locked eyes with him. "Rimuru Tempest."

"Looks like you and I need to have a chat, Hinata Sakaguchi." Rimuru grinned. ’Is it ready [Great Sage]?’

<Notice: The magic art {PvP} used by the individual Kanade Ryuji has been successfully analysed and can now be used.>

’Go for it!’ Rimuru grinned at Hinata. "Why don’t we move this where we won’t be bothered, everyone."

A magic circle suddenly appeared underneath him on the grass and instantly expanded until it was covering the whole clearing. Everyone was within range.

"Now activate, {PvP}!" Rimuru yelled.

The magic circle shone and instantly, everyone within range vanished one after the other, including Rimuru.

Hinata was the last to vanish. "PvP?"