Chapter 16: War Cry

Despite my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to battle tactics, I’m currently giving siege instructions to about 30 Orcs, who all happen to be cramped together in the cellar of Fort Forth. Sheffie Jr. really worked hard and exceeded my expectations! I’m glad my encouragement didn’t fall on deaf ears.

“Okay, so I have complete confidence in everyone’s ability to NOT harm anyone here, alright? We’re just scaring them a little bit, and then we’ll tie everyone up so that I can speak to the General. Take inspiration from our time in Dadirdtoun, and be really quiet. If someone notices us, then sound the war horn for the other half of the Tribe. If it comes to it, we’ll pincer attack the place to subdue everyone here.”

“Small Queen Talon! How do we fight people if we cannot hurt them?”

“Just simply knock them out as safely as possible. All the people here are apprentice knights at the best. The only real threat is the General, but Sheffie Jr. and I will take care of him.”

“Small Queen Talon, can we eat the food that is in this place?”

“Only after we conquer it!”

“Small Queen Talon! Won’t the image of Orcs deteriorate further if we do something like this? Aren’t we trying to fix our image?”

Ah. Right. I hadn't thought that it might appear that way. I’ll exercise my power as Queen and crawl my way out of that scarily good question.

“State your name!”

“My name is Forken Nyfe!”

“Forken Nyfe, I shall call you Forkie!”

“Yes, Queen!”

“I must admit, Forkie, you make a valid point! You all must have many questions. Why must we raid this place? What will this do for the Orcs? Why are humans against us? To this, I have one answer! Trust your Queen! And if you don’t trust me, trust in your guts, who have trusted Mast Tersheff, whose gut has trusted me! I have foreseen the benefits of our conquest! But I cannot reveal them all to you quite yet, for if you know too early, it may compromise the whole operation. All you need to know is this. The humans need an awakening. These NPCs have been created to merely cower in fear before the evils of this world, but we can change it! Who needs that stupid Hero anyways?!”

I politely excluded the fact that everything I just said was made up on the spot. I also omitted the fact that I have no idea what the benefits of this will be. If things go terribly wrong, I may have to escape from a tribe of angry Orcs AND a terribly irritated war general.

“There’s no need to worry! I, Talon, will lead you to greatness!”

This is a lie. I’m aiming to become the enemy of the world itself in the future, but I can keep that a secret for now.

“What’s that noise from the cellar?”

…It seems I was so engaged in my speech that I attracted the attention of the staff. Oops.

“Small Queen Talon, you seem to have woken people up.”

“Forkie, I appreciate your observation, but I am well aware of my error. Clearly, there’s no point in staying hidden now. Shall we start our operation? I’ll take charge!”

I roughly storm out of the cellar and immediately bump into a wall. Who the heck snuffed out the torches?!

“See?! I told you I’m not crazy Hans! There is an intruder! Sound the bell, sound the bell!”

Ahhh… Apprentice knights are smarter than I gave them credit for. We should try to finish this before it gets troublesome.

“My Tribe, get out here!! We’ve got to move quickly! Sound the war horn!”

From below us, I hear the Tribe's war cry.

“INDAKIT CHEN!!!”

Supposedly, Indakit Chen was this Tribe's first ancestor. The Orcs have a tradition of honoring their ancestors when they head into battle, and Indakit Chen is the most honored among them all. Mast Tersheff even said that he's part of Indakit Chen’s direct lineage, which is why he was their temporary leader. Hopefully I don't pollute the Orcish ancestry with my temporary reign.

The yells of the Orcs soon get mixed in with the war horn and alarm bells. I brandish my weapon and prepare for combat.

I thought long and hard about what weapon I should use. With my small frame, I can't quite wield bigger weapons too well, and because I'm an NPC, I have no magic. There's also my fundamental lack of training in any physical areas. For someone who has disappointing numbers in all combat stats, what am I to do?

After looking within myself, and trying to understand who I really was, I solved this problem quite easily! I'll just fight like a chicken.

When I told Sheffie Jr. this, he gave me a look of pity, but I'm not sure why. For me, it's simply the best option! Chickens, despite their appearances, can be quite frightening, even without their elemental context in Namida. Their pecks and scratches are no joke. So I'll just fight by inheriting their scrappy and unpredictable nature.

I've decided that using clawed gauntlets will bring me closest to my ideal form. They're basically the human version of chicken talons, are they not? I had Sheffie and the Tribe prepare this for me. I'm not sure what methods they use, but the metal is firm, and it has a luster to it that I wasn't expecting.

Wearing these things is a little bit of a hassle, but I have faith that these will help me synchronize with a chicken’s mindset. If I get used to welding claws like these, I'll naturally consider them as an extension of my own body, and the rest of my movements should follow suit and improve retroactively. Once my mind and body sync, I'll be darting around and slashing everything, just like Cooper was!

And this isn't just idealism either. I've figured out a few things about this body. My stamina may be low, but this body can run really fast. Not only that, the strange connection I feel with chickens must be some sort of skill granted to me by this accursed tsundere system.

I need to grab the opportunities thrown at me, even if I don't fully understand them yet. I'm gambling my combat ability based on my body's affinity for chickens. Usually in fantasy settings like this, characters awaken their abilities through intense combat, right? I'll risk getting hurt here and see if something amazing happens. If anything goes wrong, I have an entire Tribe of Orcs to back me up.

“Hey, this girl over here, she's the new person we let in today! She's working with monsters! Capture her! Go! Go! Go!”

The tension in the air is seeping under my skin. As I hear the clashes between Orcs and Humans, and the various shouts all around me, I'm getting that same feeling I felt in the Well-Done Dungeon. The adrenaline inside me is working again.

With the aggro of the apprentice knights now on me, I bring up my claws into a vaguely threatening stance. I don't plan to maul these guys, and frankly I doubt I even could, but it's important to not appear entirely helpless to the Orcs, right? How else would I remain Queen otherwise? I need to join my Tribe in battle like a proper NPC and play my part. After taking a big breath, I shout out my war cry as I head into battle.

“Indakit Chen!!”

Admittedly, doing that is kind of fun.