Текст книги "Overlord - The Lizardmen Heroes"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

“The problem is who we should send… Let’s show the enemy our strength.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Skeleton riders.

Skeletons with lances riding on skeletal horses. Nothing special to note except their strong mobility, which was exceptional in the wetlands. With their body made from bones, their feet sink shallowly into the mud, allowing them to traverse the terrain with the speed of horses.

The one hundred skeleton riders took the roundabout way to the back of the lizardmen army for a pincer attack.

They could see three lizardmen running at them to the left of their advancing route – which was the direction of the village – but the skeleton riders ignored them. Without any orders, they would ignore anything if they were not attacked. That was the kind of monster the unintelligent undead was.

They almost reached the rear of the lizardmen army when the skeleton rider leading the charge suddenly tumbled. The skeleton rider was flung high into the air before it fell heavily into the wetlands.

A human would be confused and wouldn’t be able to act immediately. But the unintelligent undead skeleton rider moved instantly in order to carry out its instructions.

It stood up immediately, but was limping slightly due to the damage.

That skeleton was hit by another skeleton rider, and their bones were scattered all over the wetlands.

Such a scene happened consecutively in several places.

The reason this was happening in the wetlands? The answer was simple– traps.

Open boxes were buried in the ground and the horses would tumble if they were to spring the traps.

The skeleton riders fell one after another. If they were humans, they would slow their advance. But the skeleton riders didn’t do that. They had enough wits to avoid a hole that was already there, but still fell for hidden traps. They didn’t receive any orders to do so and didn’t had the intelligence to make such a judgement call.

The scene of them going full speed into traps was like mass suicide.

The traps might be very effective, but they could only stall for time. Some damage was dealt to the skeleton riders, but it was not enough to destroy them. The skeleton riders that had fallen all over the place got up with their bodies covered in mud.

At this moment, a whistling sound was heard and the head of a skeleton rider flew off just like that.

The skeleton riders saw this as an act of hostility and looked around the vicinity.

Another skeleton’s head was knocked off like shattered glass.

The skeleton riders discovered three lizardmen about 80 meters away from them. They could also see them using slingshots, shooting rocks to snipe the head of the skeleton riders–

The skeleton riders started moving.

At the same time, the fight with the skeletons was changing.

With the sound of bow strings releasing, arrows rained down on the battlefield.

The 150 skeleton archers fired arrows at the skeletons and the lizardmen simultaneously. It wasn’t just one shot, but two, three...

This was an unexpected assault for the lizardmen.

Several lizardmen were hit and fell. They couldn’t defend against the arrows while they fought against the skeletons.

The skeletons were hit too, but took no damage.

Placing the skeletons that were resistant to piercing attacks in the front and the skeleton archers firing from the back was a great combination. With the time needed to defeat 2,200 skeletons, this tactic would be enough to wipe out the lizardmen.

But the problem was that this tactic was implemented too late. If it was used at the very beginning, the lizardmen would definitely be in a dire state. The skeletons would then overwhelm them with numbers and earn a decisive victory. But it was too late.

Ignoring the dwindling skeletons, the lizardmen charged at the skeleton archers.

The arrows from the 150 skeleton archers fell like rain, downing several lizardmen onto the mud, but it was just a small number.

With the thick skin and hard scales of the lizardmen, their defence was on par with humans wearing leather armor. Even if arrows pierced their skin, their tough muscles might be able to stave off fatal injury.

Another reason for the minimal casualties were the weak arrow shots. They didn’t have enough power to kill the lizardmen.

The lizardmen roared fearlessly as they charged. In the face of the rain of arrows, the lizardmen crossed their arms to protect their head, braving ahead even if their body was pierced.

On the third wave of arrow attack—

This was the limit of how fast the skeleton archers could shoot. If they had intelligence, they would probably retreat. If they moved back and regrouped with the surviving undead army, they could be utilized in a better way.

But the skeletons did not have the mental capacity to store such complicated instructions. They didn’t receive any other orders, so they simply executed their original mission– Even with the lizardmen closing in, they could only fire arrows at them.

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.

This undead magic caster was – a Lich.

The undead obeyed Cocytus' command and looked at the wetlands. He then issued orders to the Blood Meat Hulks standing behind him. They were undeads with fresh red muscles and fats, made by the Supreme Being just like him.

“Kill those three lizardmen.”

The two Blood Meat Hulks obeyed the orders and walked towards the three lizardmen destroying the skeleton riders.

Although Blood Meat Hulks were low-tier undead that could only attack with brute force, they had regenerative abilities. If they were facing physical attack on the same level as them, they would be able to stall for time.

The Lich was certain the Blood meat Hulk could stall for sufficient time.

This wasn’t a good strategy. As a magic caster, the Lich was not good in melee battles, so having the Blood Meat Hulks close to protect him was the orthodox way to fight.

However he couldn’t use such tactics.

The order he received was to ‘show the lizardmen your true powers’. Hence, he had to take the base camp of the lizardmen alone with his overwhelming power.

As the Lich advanced, his terrifying face laughed softly.

He felt this was too easy.

As a creation of the Supreme Being Ainz Ooal Gown, he was far superior to the Liches that spawn automatically in Nazarick. And his mission was to display his might to the lizardmen.

He vowed to win in the name of his master.

“I, Iguvua, will present this victory to my master.”

Part 4

After finishing the extermination of the undead beasts, the lizardmen stooped their shoulders tiredly and sighed in relief. They were saddened by their losses, but had a faint smile as well.

There were many injuries, but they count themselves lucky they didn’t lose more. If the wetland fairies didn’t join the fray… No, if they had appeared any later, their formation would have been broken and they would have been routed.

“Let’s go.”

The Head Warrior said, announcing the commencement of the next fight.

Everyone were weak from fatigue, and only managed to pick up their weapons after some time, and seemed too tired to wield them. They might be exhausted, but the war wasn’t over.

They were needed to take care of the zombies in the distance and guard against enemy reinforcements.

“Alright, bring the heavily wounded back to the village, the rest follow us—”

A sudden burst of flame cut his speech short.

A heat wave radiated out to the surrounding, the two fairies caught in the midst of the fire were swaying weakly.

After the flame dispersed completely without a trace, the appearance of the two fairies was terrible. They were on the verge of falling from that one attack.

Before anyone could scream, the flame blasted once again. The fairies couldn’t withstand the attack and their bodies began to crumble, dispersing into the fire.

The powerful fairies that displayed unmatched strength against the undead beasts were gone. The lizardmen couldn’t process what was happening and had blank expressions.

What happened?

They knew the wetland fairies were destroyed, but they were rejecting this reality. If the two wetland fairies were really defeated, that meant a stronger monster than them was approaching.

The lizardmen couldn’t suppress their confusion and looked around in fear. When they saw an undead in the distance, a fireball was shot from its hand once again.

The fireball that was the size of a human head flew through the air and blast into the lizardmen unit taking point.

Normally, fire would be put out when it come into contact with water, but this fireball was a magical phenomenon and ignored such common sense. The moment the fireball hit the water surface, it exploded as if it had collided with solid ground, creating a tornado of fire.

The exploding flame engulfed several lizardmen– and disappeared.

An illusion– it disappeared so fast that this was the feeling it gave. But the smell of burning flesh– from the lizardmen that laid on the ground motionless was definitely not an illusion.

The undead advanced slowly, its attitude so casual and arrogant. That was the pace of a powerful being confident in its strength.

As the lizardmen were hesitating whether they should charge in just like how they had handled the skeleton archers, the fireball struck again.

The fierce explosion robbed several lizardmen of their lives in a blink of an eye.

The overwhelming power made the previous battle seem like a game.

“Warrgghh!

The lizardmen roared and shook off the fear in their hearts. As several of them were about to charge in with no regards for their lives, a cold voice erupted from an unimaginably far distance.

“– Fools.”

With this word, another fireball burned the charging lizardmen before they could scream.

The undead moved slowly, and the hundreds of lizardmen immediately took a step back. The wall separating the truly strong from the weak forced them back.

“Run!”

A spirited roar sounded out, shocking the lizardmen like lightning. It was one of the Head Warrior.

“That fellow is different from the other enemies! We are no match for it!”

That was correct. The enemy advanced slowly by itself, that majestic swagger made all the lizardmen feel a chill on their skin.

“Run back and report to the Chiefs and Zaryusu.”

“Let us buy some time!”

Yet another fireball exploded, felling several lizardmen.

“Run! Report to them!”

The five Head Warriors ordered the lizardmen to escape as they gauged the distance between each other. They spread out with the blast radius of the fireball in mind, their goal was for one of them to reach the enemy. It was a suicide formation for this sole purpose.

The five of them of them looked at each other after spreading out and sprinted at full speed.

The distance was about a hundred metres. It was a hopeless distance, but they still charged in with all their might. They knew even if they fell while rushing in, it would leave clues for the chiefs and Zaryusu who were watching from behind.

♦ ♦ ♦

The lizardmen escaped, scattering like the spawns of a spider.

Zaryusu watched this scene calmly. No, Zaryusu had been watching its every move since the powerful enemy showed itself. Watching the undead that was spreading the flames of death.

The movements of this foe was different from the unintelligent enemy earlier, he was probably the enemy commander.

The undead started using the wide area ‘fireball’ attack when the five Head Warriors were about a hundred metres from it. Even though they attacked from five different directions, all the Head Warriors attempting the assault were burned alive en route.

“It is time for us to fight.”

Zaryusu nodded in agreement with Zenberu, Crusch gave her consensus too. She acknowledged that the time when she might sacrifice in the battle field had come.

“That’s right, it is our turn. That one is too powerful. This is probably the right hand man of that Supreme One and the commander of this army… At the very least, it must be an ace.”

“Indeed, it is impossible for anyone to control several undead of that level. But how should we do this? It is a little too far away.”

Crusch’s question gave Zaryusu a headache.

Their aim was not to sacrifice themselves in battle, so a strategy was necessary.

Zaryusu and Zenberu couldn’t fight at such a long distance, they had to close in for melee attacks. And the problem was this distance of one hundred metres.

Zaryusu and the others could take a couple of hits from fireball, but they will suffer more than a couple of attacks before they close the gap. And the real test begins after reaching the target. It was easy to see that taking the attack of the fireball from the front will kill them.

“Such a despairingly long distance.”

“Ah… Really, I didn’t know one hundred metres could be so long.”

Zaryusu’s group thought about how to reach the enemy without injuries– or with minimal injuries.

“How about tunneling through the wetlands?”

“Even for the powers of a druid… that would be difficult. It would be great if we could use ‘Invisibility’.”

They could sneak close immediately using ‘Flight’ after casting ‘Invisibility’. But these were not among the spells a druid could learn.

“How about making a shield while we advance?”

“Making a shield will take too much time.”

“What about dismantling... a house?”

Zenberu smiled wryly as he knew the proposal he just said wouldn’t work. The enemy was attacking with fireball explosion, even if they could protect one side, the heat would still get in from the side. There was no time to craft a full body shield to protect against the heat.

“Oh right… there is another way.”

“What is it, Zaryusu?”

Crusch who was a little afraid asked. Did I make such a scary expression? Zaryusu thought. But it couldn’t be helped, he was so troubled that he wanted to curse out.

“No… I just… found a shield.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Iguvua nodded with satisfaction at the current situation.

It was progressing smoothly.  The two Blood Meat Hulks were still battling, but he was making good progress towards the village.

There were several foolish lizardmen who wanted to charge him, but they seemed to understand the futility of their action after witnessing the power of fireball. The five that spread out before the assault had the best record right now, but they only made it to fifty metres.

It was as though Iguvua was walking alone in the wilderness as he advanced silently. He might pity the lizardmen as weaklings, but he didn’t let his guard down.

It was a short distance to the target village. He planned to shoot fireball consecutively and raze the houses together with the lizardmen.

But the lizardmen would definitely try to stop him from reaching the village. It should be about time for someone to attack. Iguvua who was musing about this found himself proven right.

“... Oh, I see.”

Iguvua saw a hydra heading straight for him.

If that was the ace of the lizardmen, he will crush it with overwhelming strength and sap their will to fight. That would make the destruction of the village simpler.

To play it safe, Iguvua checked for other enemies in the surrounding and the sky. After confirming it was clear, Iguvua stopped and waited leisurely for the hydra to enter his attack range.

When the hydra got into the region that was hard to determine whether if it was within the attack range, it started charging. That’s right, it ran full speed towards Iguvua.

“Fools, you think you can cover this distance with your snail-like pace? Beasts will just be beasts.”

Iguvua laughed mockingly and shot the fireball he conjured at the hydra.

The fireball flew straight and scored a direct hit on the hydra. The eruption of flames engulfed the hydra.

Although the hydra staggered, it continued to advance. It carried on charging even though it was on fire. No, the flames dissipated instantly, that was just the imagination of Iguvua. The scene before Iguvua conveyed the exemplary determination of the hydra.

Iguvua frowned with displeasure. His pride was seriously wounded when the beast endured the attack.

Indeed, the hydra had damage resistance buff cast on it, but it wasn’t any of the high tier spells and could not negate all the damage.

… I remember hydras have the special ability of fast regeneration… But it shouldn’t work against fire attacks… No matter, it has high vitality since it is a monster. It is no surprise for it to tank one hit.

Iguvua consoled himself that way, but he could not appease his wrath. Iguvua was a special creature created by the Supreme Being, Ainz Ooal Gown. It is disrespectful for the enemy not to fall from his attack.

Iguvua casted an icy glare that was the opposite of his seething anger at the approaching hydra.

“... How unpleasant, die!”

He fired a fireball once more, engulfing the hydra in flames again. It even gave the illusion of charring flesh from such a distance. The wounds might not be fatal, but it would make it hesitate from advancing further.

But—

“– Why isn’t it stopping? Why is it still coming?”

Part 5

Rororo ran relentlessly. It might be huge, but it had a speed matching the lizardmen since it was traversing the wetlands. Ripples splashed everywhere with loud splattering sounds.

Its amber eyes turned white from the high temperature, two of its four heads had lost its strength.

Despite that, it ran.

Another ‘fireball’ struck Rororo squarely in the body. The heat inside the ‘fireball’ exploded in an instant, penetrating Rororo’s entire being. It felt a pain equivalent to being punched all over its body, its eyes were dry as the fiery air burned its lungs.

With burns all over its body, the feedback of pain that came nonstop from its body warned Rororo: it will die if it was hit again.

Even so– it ran.

Ran.

And ran.

It didn’t stop advancing nor stop its feet. The high temperature peeled the scales away, warping the skin underneath it and blood gushed out. Despite that, it still ran.

Unintelligent beasts would have definitely escaped, but Rororo didn’t.

Rororo was a type of monster called hydra.

There were all sorts of monsters, with those that surpass humans in intelligence, and those that were no different from animals. Rororo belonged to the latter.

For Rororo who was only as smart as a normal animal to continue advancing on the verge of death– towards Iguvua who was dealing such pain to it, it was incredible and hard to fathom.

In fact, even its enemy Iguvua was baffled, and suspected Rororo was being manipulated by magic.

But that was not so.

That’s right, that was not the answer.

Iguvua would probably never understand.

Rororo who only had the intelligence of a beast– it was running for the sake of family.

Rororo didn’t know its parents, though not because of hydras being the type of monster to abandon its offspring. Before it reached a certain age, it should have had lived with one of its parents to learn the way of survival through them. But why didn’t Rororo do so?

That was because Rororo was a deformed baby. Normal hydra would be born with eight heads, and that will increase as it grows older, up to the maximum of twelve heads.

But Rororo was born with just four heads, so its parents abandoned Rororo and left with its other siblings.

Although hydras become powerful creatures in their adulthood, it was only a matter of time before Rororo would have died in nature’s harsh environment without its parent’s protection during infancy.

If it wasn’t for the male lizardmen who happened to pass by and picked it up.

– And so, Rororo got a family that was its father, mother and close friend.

Rororo’s consciousness was about to fall apart from the pain when it thought about a question it had always pondered.

Why was its body so big? Why did it have so many heads?

It thought about this when it looked at its foster parent. And Rororo held a belief from old conclusion.

Some of its heads would fall off in the future, limbs would sprout out like grass, and it would look like its foster parent.

If Rororo really morphed like that– what would it ask its parent to do?

That’s it. They hadn’t slept together for a long time, it will ask for that. They had to sleep apart because Rororo got too big, which made it feel a bit lonely.

The flames seemed to blow Rororo’s thoughts away and filled its entire field of vision as incredible pain hit its entire body. It moaned weakly as the pain pulsed through its entire body.

The pain was comparable to being hammered countless times.

It hurt so much that it couldn’t think anymore.

Rororo’s legs sent signals to stop advancing in the form of spasms.

But even so—

But even so– Rororo did not stop moving.

Rororo's advance got slower. Its muscles were burned and rigid, it couldn’t maintain its usual running speed.

Just taking a step forward was hard.

It was hard to breathe and it hurt when it inhaled, its lungs probably being damaged by the heat.

Only one of its heads could move, the others were just a burden now. The image of the undead conjuring a fireball from its hand appeared vaguely in Rororo’s murky eyes.

Its instinct as a living being told it one thing.

If it was hit again, it will definitely die. But Rororo was fearless as it relentlessly braved ahead—

That was the request of its parent and friend, that was why he would not stop.

As Rororo used all its might – although it was exhausted – to stumble forward a few steps, a red fireball flew from the hand of the undead once again, slicing through the air towards Rororo.

This hit will definitely rob Rororo of its life, that was an undeniable fact.

Death awaited it.

This was the end—

If—

That’s right– if that male lizardman wasn’t here.

Will that male lizardman allow Rororo to die before his eyes?

Watch such injustice unfold in front of him?

That was impossible.

“– 「Icy Burst」!”

Zaryusu who was running behind Rororo lept out to the side and shouted as he swung Frost Pain.

The air before his sword seemed to freeze instantly, forming a white wall of mist before Rororo. That was an extremely cold wave of air.

One of the abilities of Frost Pain.

A powerful skill that could only be used thrice a day– ‘Icy Burst’, it could freeze everything within range instantly and deal heavy damage.

The wall of cold mist blocked the incoming ‘fireball’ as if it was solid barrier. The fiery ball and chilly wall– according to magic theory, it was wise to counter one with the other.

It hit—

The ball burst into flames, struggling mightily against the white mist.

Both sides were like a white and red snake struggling and devouring each other. After pushing back each other for a moment, the two energies disappeared.

The undead was stunned and taken aback. It was the most natural reaction after seeing his spell dissipating.

There was still some distance between the two groups, but they were close enough to make out each other's expressions– and actions. An impossible distance was covered thanks to Rororo’s effort and determination, bringing the three lizardmen this far with no injuries.