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Chapter 4 goblins and wolves

I was running… "Aniki! Where are you? Aniki!" I screamed as I ran, everything was on fire, it was like the whole forest was on fire, I could hear screams and cry.

"Hotaru!" I heard a voice scream, 'Aniki?' my feet moved faster than I thought possible as I ran to the voice

"Aniki!" I yelled as I neared the voice, and I saw him, his human form laid sprawled across the ground,

"Ho...taru *cough* you're alright," he said as he laid in a pool of blood

"Don't talk, Aniki save your strength," I said as I huddled over him and held his arm

"I'm sorry,"

"Shut up, stay with me, you got that! Just hold on a little longer, I-I can fix this I promise!" I yelled as I tightened my grip around his hand

"You can't, after all, you need me to do everything right," he said flatly as his grip around my hand tightened painfully so,

"What are you… talking about?" I said as I tried to pry my hand free, but before I could react my world started spinning before I felt an immense pain in my back,

"So WEAK!" I heard him shout, as I sat up and looking around for my attacker, but there was only him, with the arm I held him with, held tightly in his grasp,

"W-why are you doing this!" I shouted as I stood up and backed away from him until my back hit a rock wall there was no way I could scale the wall with only one arm,

"Why? WHY!? Because you're weak, useless, I'm tired of having to carry you and help you with anything that fights back even the slightest," he said as he clenched his hand, as my detached arm was crushed together, it finally broke with a resounding screech,

"See what I mean, just look at this pathetic waste of tech," He said as the pieces fell to the ground, I tried to make a break for it, but before I made it far, as my feet were suddenly tied making me fall to the ground,

"Oh, trying to run," he said as threads wrapped around my body,

"Aniki... stop... please," I cried as I felt the threads tighten before…


# Ho… ru…. Hotaru! # I heard Aniki shout, startling me awake as I looked around 'It was just a dream' I thought as I relaxed my racing heart

# Yes Aniki do you need something? # I said as I stood up

# Just get over here, now! # He said

# Okay! Okay! # I shouted back, as I started running before stretching out my wings and flying into the air 'You better be okay,'

Timeskip

When I was near Aniki's location I stopped and looked down, it was a small clearing that had primitive hut-like buildings with several small, green, child-sized creatures standing around a sky-blue ball that I could tell was Aniki,

# I'm here what do ya need Aniki? # I said as I hovered, hidden from view, above the village

# I just want you to be on ready in case the battle starts going south, # he said as he began to talk to the beings that looked a lot like goblins now that I think about it, but I discarded that for later and instead looked around with my height advantage

I couldn't really see anything of note, maybe some wolves, but aside from that there isn't anything dangerous, 'well, I could just get comfortable in a nearby tree, and wait for them to do whatever they're planning,'

With that in mind, I perched myself on a decent size tree and began to doze off,

'Lord can you wake me up at when the battle is about to start,' | very well, | 'thanks,'

Several hours later

As I woke up from my nap, I looked around 'it's night, well, whoever we're fighting does know how to time an attack, perfect timing even if we weren't expecting them,'

as I looked around I could see that the goblins were standing behind a shoddy looking, wooden fence with bows, while Aniki stood at the only opening in the fence which was in the middle, meaning that the enemy would probably try to strike there,

# Aniki, do ya need any help or should I just sit with my finger up my ass? # I asked as I watched the goblins stand tensely, waiting for their enemies to arrive,

# It would be better if you standby in case they manage to breach the fence, # he said making me pout, 'jeez, he yells at me to hurry over here, and now all I'm doing is sitting on my ass,'

# Fine. # I said as I sat back and waited for the battle to begin, which wasn't that long of a wait, as I heard the sound of howls approaching from the west, making me look to the field west of the village,

There I could see several wolves maybe a hundred, 'it's starting,' I sat up and began to watch the wolf pack as they seemed to analyze their opponents, and after a minute some of the wolves charged Aniki and the goblins,

Only to be cut to ribbons by Aniki's Steel threads, and the goblins' arrows, the wolves that did make it past both were easily dispatched before they could do any harm,

"That's my skill Steel thread," Aniki said as his threads shone red with blood 'is he gloating or taunting them,' either way it did get a reaction

"This is your doing?" the wolf that seemed to be the pack leader said, it also had a scar running across its right eye

"That's right!" Aniki said with a tone full of confidence, this seemed to piss the wolf off

"A puny monster like you dares to do this? I will squash you!" it said as it charged forward and used its fangs to cut the threads in its path before trying to leap on Aniki

'Fool,' keyword is "try" as when it leaped it became tangled in a web of Sticky threads, the wolf struggled and growled, but its struggle stopped when Aniki separated the wolf's head from its body, this shocked the wolves into a petrified state,

As the threads lowered the rest of the pack leaders body to the ground the only one that dared move was Aniki

"Hear me, Direwolves! Your boss is dead!" He said as he stood over the pack leaders body "I'll give you the choice: submit or die!" 'I'm sorry, but what the fuck is he doing! We could make them run away, why is he doing this shit!'

'They're too quiet, do they have no idea what to do without a pack leader?' I wondered as I spectated the scene, then suddenly Aniki consumed the late pack leader,

| Direwolf species skills: "supreme sense of smell", "Thought communication" and "menace" acquired. | Lord rattled off the skill names, 'is he gonna… '

Then he promptly transformed into a Direwolf, and howled, the howl created shockwaves and gave off a menacing feeling as I heard it, the Direwolves looked like they were trying to reach Aniki, 'do they still want to fight?'

As Aniki stopped howling the entire pack laid down in a submissive posture, "Our pack yields to you." the wolves said in unison 'eh?' I was shocked again for the second time in my life by the pure absurdity of the situation,

# Hey the fights over, you can keep sleeping if you like, # Aniki said snapping me out of my daze, 'I'm not even going to question it' I thought as I got more comfortable in my tree so that I could sleep,

# Goodnight Aniki, # I said in a tired tone, as I fell asleep I heard Aniki gasp 'why did he, oh who cares I'll ask tomorrow….'

third POV

#Goodnight Aniki# the slime heard an incredibly cute sounding girl voice say making him mentally gasp, 'was that Hotaru?' he thought as he watched the goblins celebrate

'well, they do look androgynes and when they started calling me Aniki their voice seemed different from before, maybe Hotaru is a tomboy!' the slime thought excitedly as his mind filled with images of the ero-games he played 'No stop! She's my Imouto, I should never mention this to her,'

The next day Hotaru POV

"Yaaawn… I wonder what's in store for me today," I said out loud as I jumped down from my perch and walked to Aniki who was awake and seemed to be thinking about something,

"Aniki, how are you doing?" I said verbally as I grabbed his slime body and hugged him,

"F-fine! How about you? You didn't get to see any action," he said with a small stutter

"I'm alright, it was kinda boring just sitting around," I stated as I sat down and stared at the rising sun,

"Lord Rimuru!" I heard a voice shout making me turn to it, it was a goblin wearing a red bandana on its head, a pair of ragged pants and a rusty looking set of chainmail over their chest, in their hands was an equally rusty looking sword,

"Who are you!" they asked me, they're shaking, they're afraid

"My name's Hotaru Tempest, Nice to meet you," I said

"M-my, you're Lord rimuru's sister then," I heard an old man say making lean to look behind the first goblin, he was a very old goblin and leaned on a walking stick nearly as tall as him

"W-what are you talking about?" I said

# Hotaru, you're talking in a girl's voice, # Aniki whispered to me 'uh,'

"Well, It is a pleasure meeting you, I'm happy that Aniki could aid you in your time of need," I said bowing my head lightly,

"As is meeting you, Lady Hotaru, Lord Rimuru didn't mention you, but you seem just as strong if not even stronger than him," the elder said

"T-that aside could you please assemble the village," Aniki said,

"Of course, my Lord," The elder said,


"That's all of them?" I asked to which the elder nodded

"By the way, What's your name?" Aniki asked the elder

"Monsters do not usually have their own names, after all, we do not need names to make ourselves understood," the goblin said 'so that's why Veldora named us, and why I didn't call myself or Aniki by our old names,'

"Still, it makes it less convenient for me to call on you," Aniki said 'Why do I feel like he's gonna say something really stupid now?'

"Okay, then I'll give you all names," Aniki stated 'there it is, there are over a hundred of them Aniki I doubt you have over a hundred names on the tip of your tongue,'

"Are you sure about this? There's' quite a few of them," I asked as the elder gathered everyone in a line in front of us

"I'm sure," he said leaving no room for discussion,

"Fine, but don't expect me to help you, this is your choice," I said as I dropped Aniki down on a tree stump next to us, and walked off into the forest,

"Geez, making crazy promises, giving so many people names, but if they all get names then I'll be able to get closer to them," I muttered as I wandered through the forest,

"Hei… "

"Hello? Anyone there?"

"Over here…" I heard a voice say to my left, I activated "Sense heat source", alongside "Magic sense" I could see strange Magicules that were coming from the same direction,

"Are you okay?" I asked as I got close to the source of the voice and the Magicules, it was a person, they looked a lot like Astofle from Fate, their left arm was heavily damaged and showed the same pitch black color underneath that my body has 'Wait… so does that mean... I'm….naked?'

"Wow, I wasn't expecting a Hird to be the one to come to my rescue, but still I'm just happy anyone came at all," they said their voice also sounds like Astofle, now that I hear it,

"A Hird? Whatever, Do you want me to take you somewhere safe?" I asked they aren't going to die, they just can't move,

"I have eight cores with me, just take my core along with them and leave this body," they said, as nine slots opened each containing a glowing blue crystal shaped like a diamond, his core was in his chest

"Okay, I'll take care of you," I said as I started to remove the other crystals 'Lord, do I have similar slots to store these cores,' | Yes. they are located at the stomach and waist, there are a total of 40. |

'that's a lot of space, well open nine of the ones on my waist,' | Very well, you can do this yourself similarly to the way you do with your firing ports, |

"So, what happened?" I asked as I grabbed a core with a symbol of a sword stabbed into a rock like Excalibur, and put into a slot and sealed said slot,

"Got jumped by a Majin, but I hide so he didn't find me, my Intake broke so I couldn't heal myself and then I ran out of fuel, " he said as I put away the second to last core, leaving only his

"Really? That aside do you have a name?" I asked

"No, how about you?" he said

"Yes, my name's Hotaru Tempest. Hey, how about I name you,"

"Seriously! Well if you want to then I won't stop you," he said, he seemed shocked, but he hid his shock quickly,

"Then… how about Astofle?" I said as a glow emitted from his core,

"Astofle huh… sounds….right, thank you Hotaru, I'm ready," he said, I then removed his core making his eyes widen as the life in them disappeared,

"I hope you don't have to wait too long, I can't wait to learn what more about you," I said as I put his core away, and closed his body's eyes, | Suggestion, absorbing Astofle's old form could yield useful material and information, |

'Good idea,' I thought as I prepared myself, "three… two… one…." I said as my liquid started to flow out of my joints and started the conversion of Astofle's body, his skin became pale and his hair color dulled to a white and grey color, before turning into metal tendrils and entering my body,

"Aaah!" I screamed as Images began to flash before my eyes, 'no they're blueprints, but for what?' three of the Blueprints stood out, one was of Astofle's body, the second was of a large container that had a body like mine in it with a follow up showing it now looking like Astofle, 'Is that how he changed his looks?', the last was of my body, well my model if I was being technical, it had all internal components, with a slot in the center for a Core,

| Skills: "Camouflage", "Presence Concealment", "Blacksmithing", and "Air manipulation" acquired. | Lord said as I struggled to stay on my feet, I balanced myself and started to process all the info that I had been given,

"Camouflage and Presence Concealment will be pretty good for sneaking around, BlackSmithing will help with me make weapons, tools, and armor for the goblins and the wolves, but what could Air manipulation help with? And what were those blueprints?" I wondered as I began to walk back to the village

'I could use Air Manipulation to make a tornado or maybe deprive enemies of air, I'll have to figure out the effective range of it and how strong it is, if I get the chance I should try to figure out those Blueprints' I thought as I reached the edge of the village,

Only to see that the entire village was in a bit of distress, they seemed worried about something, I walked around till I saw the elder,

"Hey! What's going on? why's everyone running around like headless chickens!" I asked as I walked up to him,

"Apologies lady Hotaru, but your brother has fainted most likely because he named so many of us," the elder said,

"Great, so where is he now?" I asked as I looked around for Aniki,

"F-follow me," the elder said, as he leads me through the village until we came to a stack of pillows with a knocked-out Aniki resting on top, he seemed fine, 'Lord, why could giving people names make him faint?'

| It requires Magicules to name a monster, as such as Rimuru is a slime albeit a strong one, he has a lesser amount of Magicules to give, | Lord said 'okay, how do Aniki and I compare in strength?'

| you are able to defeat Rimuru in pure combat strength. Your Magicul capacity is a thousand times his, | Lord said 'wow, I'm both happy and yet sad,'

| why? | Lord asked 'cause now if I can't defeat an enemy that means he can't either, still we probably won't do much fighting so it doesn't really matter, that aside how long will he be knocked out for?' | three days. |

"Well then since he'll wake up in three days," I said as I turned to the elder and his son, and asked, "what names did Aniki give you?"

"My name is Rigurd and my son inherited my older son's name Rigur," Rigurd said

"Well it's nice to meet you again Rigurd, you as well Rigur I hope our time here will be pleasant," I said as I greeted them 'names are power for monsters, I should try to learn all their names, well to the best of my abilities,'

"Now then while he is asleep we should try to organize ourselves, Rigurd, do you know how many people are in the village?" I asked as I looked at the buildings

"There are about 80 Direwolves and about 70 goblins," Rigurd answered 'even if the goblins and the wolves don't take up that much space I doubt the space we have will be enough, building new houses or some basic barracks would be good so that they don't have to sleep outside in the cold,'

"We should gather food and firewood first, who's in charge of hunting?" I asked

"No one my lady, we merely gather food as we can," Rigurd said,

"Okay, who's the pack leader of the direwolves?" I asked,

"That I believe would be Ranga," Rigurd said,

"Can you go and bring him to me and can you also bring you best hunters?" I asked to which he nodded, 'I need to make sure that they don't starve to death before Aniki wakes up,'

"Yes, I shall go fetch him and the others as well," He said Meekly as he left to get Ranga,

'I hope Ranga and his pack will be able to help keep everyone alive,'

"Lady Hotaru, you wanted to see me?" I head a new voice say, 'that was fast,'

"Yes, I want your pack to help gather food for everyone, bring some goblins along, I'll go with you," I said,

"Understood, are the goblins that Rigurd brought the ones you want us to bring?" Ranga asked, making me turn to see that about eight goblins have gathered with bows in their arms and quivers on the backs,

"Indeed," I said as walked up to the goblins, Rigur was there,

"Are you the hunters Rigurd sent?" I asked to which they nodded,

"Ok, the direwolves will let you ride on their backs, so hopefully this will be a good hunt," I say to them,

"We'll do our best!" Rigur said to which the other goblins nodded, 'I hope this life will be easy going,' I thought as I ordered the goblins to mount up as we began our hunting,

And that's Chapter 4 sorry it took so long I got a serious case of writer's block at the end here sorry if it kinda sucks at the end, see ya guys later,