“I’ve heard it doesn’t take that long to recover mana.”
“My sister said the same thing.” Remedios’s sister had been a priest. If it was something she said, no one could really object.
“We’ll purposely let a few subhumans escape. Then we’ll lure Jaldabaoth’s army here—before our food runs out.”
“…How many troops will show up, I wonder.”
The three of them had already exchanged information; they estimated Jaldabaoth’s troops after the earlier battle to number slightly less than a hundred thousand.
There were armies of twelve races and then another six races that weren’t as numerous for a total of eighteen.
The twelve races were…
Snakemen. A type of subhuman that had the head of a snake. Said to be a relative of lizardmen.
Armats. A race reminiscent of bipedal rats with fur like steel. Said to be a relative of kuagoa.
Caven. Like apes slightly larger than humans. Eyeless due to atrophy.
Zerun. A slimy race with upper bodies like eels that sprouted arms and lower bodies like indigo maggots. Though they seemed like grotesques, the fact that spells targeting subhumans were effective against them indicated they were actually subhumans.
Bladers. An insect-like race with swordlike blades jutting out of the backs of their hands and covered in exoskeletons like armor. Similar to the zerun, they were classified as subhumans because they were susceptible to magic targeting subhumans.
Horrunners. Subhumans with horse legs who excelled at sprinting. They had astonishing endurance and hardly required any breaks while running.
Spidan. Subhumans reminiscent of spiders with four long, thin arms and slender legs. They could make clothing out of the thread they spat up. The garments made with those threads were hard as steel.
Stone eaters. Possessed primitive weapons. Terrifyingly, they had the ability to spit rocks they ate. Those rocks could easily fly a hundred yards and had no trouble denting iron armor. But since they couldn’t launch them indefinitely, they were less formidable if one could ride out the initial attacks.
Orthrouses. Like kentauroses, only half carnivorous beast instead of half horse. Stronger in combat than kentauroses but can’t run as fast.
Magiroses. Innate magic ability allowed them to use up to tier-four spells. The magic type they could wield apparently manifested visibly on their bodies as tattoos. The stronger ones were covered in them head to toe. Some of them were also casters, and in those cases it was rumored they could use up to tier five. Perhaps those were lord-tier individuals.
Pteroposes. A race of cliff dwellers that excelled at gliding. They could also fly, but it took quite a bit of energy, so they could only do it for a certain amount of time per day. And after that, they wouldn’t even be able to glide. As long as they didn’t fly, they could whip out cutting gusts of wind that were difficult to protect against even in armor, so they were stronger when they weren’t flying.
Then there were the bufolk.
The other six consisted of races that either had members who were very strong individually or didn’t have a tendency to live in close proximity or cooperate.
Ogres.
Pri-um, a race similar to ogres that possess control over the earth and were considered by some to be a powerful species. Their special powers were deeply associated with dirt and soil.
Va-um, similar to pri-um but with water powers instead of earth.
Nagarajas. A race of people with scaly snake bodies equipped with arms. Though their name was similar to naga, the two were actually completely different races and didn’t get along. Born with the ability to cast several spells, they sometimes also used weapons and armor.
Spriggans. A race with the ability to change size at will. Essentially good; evil spriggans were exceedingly rare. But whether good or bad, if they got out of control, they were impossible to handle.
Zooostias. With upper bodies of beastmen and lower bodies of carnivorous beasts, this was a race similar to kentauroses and orthrouses. They wore lamellar armor and carried oval shields. They didn’t have any special abilities, but they served well as heavy cavalry possessing the power and ferocity of wild animals. Since zooostias were individually quite strong, orthrouses often relied on them; it could be said that their relationship resembled that between goblins and hobgoblins. But given the zooostias lack special abilities, they weren’t terribly difficult foes for adventurers who could use Fly or the like; still, in a head-on clash, an orichalcum team would have a tough fight ahead of them.
“According to the King of Darkness, the enemy could be staking out your base, right? In that case, they probably know about the troops here, so it’s best to assume the enemy knows what kind of numbers we have, too. That means he won’t send too many, which will work in our favor. But there’s one problem.”
“Food.”
“Yeah. The priests should be able to make some with their magic, but even if we had them use up all their mana, it wouldn’t be anywhere near enough. And we can’t just eat subhumans like they eat us.”
Remedios and Gustav looked disgusted, but all three of them were aware that some subhumans ate humans.
And it was why they knew that if they made it a battle to see whose supplies would hold out the longest, they would lose. Every prison camp doubled as a storehouse packed with food for subhumans.
“How long will our food last? We should f—”
“The orders to calculate it have already been given. And I’m also checking if we have a blacksmith who could adapt some of the subhumans’ equipment so we could use it.”
“Nice going, Commander.”
The trio’s meeting in preparation for a siege battle scenario continued for a while. After a little over an hour, they must have reached a conclusion they all agreed on; they exchanged smiles.
“Okay. Get us prepped for a siege.”
A week later, when they had less food and they really needed to start heading south, the subhuman army appeared far off on the horizon.
But it was a far greater force than any of them had expected.
