I do not own Naruto, Overlord (the game), or anything else that may or may not appear within the story. This story is for entertainment purposes only.Have we not long since established that?!

The one called the Overlord

Chapter Seven: Counter siege

Notre Repos, days later

With the augres aid the camp was quikly ransacked, its defenders overwhelmed. What few of the remaining dark elf prisoners were coaxed into following him he returned to the refugee camp with the spoils of war: weapons, armor and food, all of which carried by his minions. Even so he was still hailed as a hero between inadvertently reuniting lost friends, neighbors and merely bringing food that didn't have to be haphazardly hunted down by novice gatherers, muted as it was by their newfound and more intimidating allies. The weapons were simply a nice bonus for them however. Alas he couldn't help but roll his eyes and groan about it when he ended up having to guard said food from them else it would've been immediately eaten to the last crumb in a trumped up celebration. For better or worse he wasn't made to share in this annoyance alone but that was neither here nor there.

Cutting through the wilderness from Chiselle to the capital of Versailles was an estimate of over a week's worth of traveling, not that the road was much better in this regard in this regard. That was of course under the assumption that they would for all intents and purposes be traveling in a relatively straight line as far as the map was concerned. Sadly the map was not as detailed as they would've liked. It was a given that some of the obstacles had to be navigated in their own right, enemy camps had to be avoided... or plundered whenever the opportunity arose for the aspiring overlord, but one would think a small mountain or two as well as a couple of canyons would have been noted on the map!

Even so they marched on, not that they had much of a choice. Unfortunately this determination was not without consequence.

Tired, worn, weary regardless of class or distinction, both Naruto and elves couldn't help but be relieved upon the first sight of civilization that promised them a measure of rest and protection: high rising towers gleaming from a distance despite a gray sky hiding away the sun. Lighthouses, guard towers and other luxuries to be exact... until someone noticed the pillars of smoke rising from one side of the city obscured by the forest before them.

Regardless of who they were, quite a few of the elves had already sprinted off in the direction of the city before the first cries to "stop!" were proclaimed.

"Quick! Bring them back before they do something foolish!" Helos bellowed out as he tried to reign in those of a like yet belated mind. As for the others, it was like sheep unsure as to whether to follow the rogues out of familial loyalty or to stay with the herd as it was being ushered to safety. Regardless he didn't need to be told twice. Without thinking he had already sent his minions forth to bring some of the wayward refugees, six in all to his fifteen. The first three nearest to them were chased down, tackled and brought back against their wills despite their struggling against unyielding claws. As for the other three, they made it into the depths of the woods and thus out of his and the minions' sights, forcing the remaining horde to return to him whilst the wranglers forcibly shunted the wayward elves back with their kin under Helos' supervision.

"I'll bring them back and see what's going on while I'm at it!" Naruto shouted over his shoulder as he ran after the concerned escapees, his minions following suit with manic giggles.

"Do be careful!" Adelia called out rather worriedly.

He raised his arm up and waved to signify that he heard her... it was a minute later that he came to palm his face in embarrassment upon remembering her condition.

Even so he wasted little time in navigating himself through the woods and brush. Thankfully compared to him and his minions the runners were rather slow in comparison, making them susceptible to the bum rush of his eagerly brutish minions. Not even the extra spurt of energy they garnered for themselves nor the protests of them "joining the fight!" could dissuade either him or his minions whom ignored the struggling elves anyway as they carried them off.

Once they were out of the way he dared to venture further the woods with his remaining band of three minions, one brown and two reds, in the direction of the smoke, all the while being mindful of his surroundings as a certain sense of... familiarity began to eat away at him. Around each corner he couldn't help but expect a hulking mass of red flesh awaiting to chase him once more, or the scent of fire and ash to assault his senses while steel flew overhead with mixed purpose. Before he knew it he was shaking, his pace slowing and his breath being labored with anxiety that even the company of his minions couldn't abate.

"Master, are you alright? You seem rather... out of sorts," Quaver spoke up.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," he murmured in return as he stopped and took a deep breath to collect himself.

"Oh? Nervous about entering your first siege? Ah, to be young again," Gnarl crooned. "Well, granted you're not the besiege or doing the sieging but that's beside the point."

"Ugh... Gnarl—?"

"Yes, yes, I know!" the older minion interrupted. "Just couldn't grant him some dignity as an Overlord, could you?"

Again Naruto ended up shaking them off in favor of simply moving through the brush, albeit slower than what he would've liked. In fact he almost sighed in relief the exact moment he inadvertently snuck up upon a patrol of Renouvelé soldiers, giving him something to focus on, a real threat than one haunting the edges of his peripheral just seconds ago. Six in total, armed with halberds as well as swords strapped to their hips. Not only that but they were more armored more thickly than usual, what few joints that would be normally exposed encased entirely in metal. Rather than tackle them he erred on the side of caution and slipped into the shadows away from the patrol.

Sadly it wasn't the only patrol.

Before long he ended up skulking past patrol after patrol of no less than six soldiers each if not greater whenever he evaded them to delve deeper into the forest. Worse yet the further he went in the more it was becoming readily apparent that the cover that was the forest was reaching a dead end with a startling clarity. In fact to ensure he wasn't spotted he ended up climbing a tree amongst the very last column of the forest for some semblance of stealth and safety. Thankfully it was an action mirrored by his minions no less much to his relief.

From the tree it was quickly apparent that this sudden break to a dirt field was by no means natural: there before a great grey stone wall torn piece by piece by the makings of a siege sat an army's camp, kept at bay not only by the wall itself and what appeared to be a sizable ditch, the depth of which he could not tell from his position. Even then there was a sizable distance between the camp itself and the city wall under siege by ballista and catapults in the ruined field between them. From the camp itself, behind a wood wall and gate, trebuchets launched stones and even what appeared to be roughly made ceramic containers which either crashed and splashed fire onto the walls or else was lucky enough to land beyond them, hence the smoke he saw from the distance, the smoke of burning buildings.

It wasn't met without resistance however.

From above, in the parapets and towers that were not torn apart in the siege by those attacking them, ballista and catapults returned fire in an attempt to crush the attacking weaponry and their operators whilst arrows from the archers flew out in an attempt to snipe the attackers to little avail: larger than average shields blocked what it could. There were even mages to either blast apart or else magically bat away the stones that came close to crushing the siege engines.

"KABOOM!"

But it quickly became apparent that stones and arrows weren't the only means that the Noircî employed: ballista, catapults and even trebuchets he managed to learn in between the Princess Gale movies and even some of his history classes when he couldn't sneak out. Whatever it was that belched smoke and fire from the interior of the city walls themselves, firing from the portholes built into the wall, it launched projectiles with such speed and force that whatever it hit be it shield, weapon or even mage was utterly obliterated. Needless to say it was these openings that the enemy catapults and ballista were focusing their attention on, assuming they weren't being targeted themselves.

Yet despite the piling dead and destruction of their equipment the Renouvelé army sent forth more and more reinforcements. to chip away at the defenses, and chip away they did despite the mounting casualties.

"Hm? Is that... I do believe that is. Look sire!"

Naruto jolted his attention away from the siege and looked about in confusion. When he directed his sight to the camp he was quick to make out something rather unique amongst the tents and the temporary wooden fortifications: towers. Glass towers, four in all, lined with an almost bare minimum steel framing to keep both the glass and the tower itself in place as a familiar blue vapor twisted within its confines. Not only that but there seemed to be some sort of apparatus along the base of which that the blue elves not attending to the front or had any other duty congregated around as they deposited their tanks and replaced them with new ones before marching away.

"Well if what that elf said was true then it looks as if those posh pantywaists are here for the long run. I'd imagine they'd be all the eager to show themselves out the door if their supply of mana happens to have meet a rather... 'unfortunate' accident," Gnarl chuckled. And Naruto couldn't have agreed more.

As for how though, that was another story.

With his army of fifteen and the severe lack of clones he wouldn't be able to mount a proper assault of any kind. Even if he went back and rallied the dark elves and the augres they would be overwhelmed by the patrols alone if any skirmish lasted long enough, especially so if one of them ran off to alert the main camp. Even sneaking into the camp didn't seem that much viable even if he were to wait for night to fall: one wrong move or a stray inner camp patrol would easily put the entire camp on alert. Similarly setting the camp on fire may not be conducive toward ridding of them either, though it would make a nice distraction and even cause a panic if it spread throughout the camp, it wasn't likely to destroy the towers. As such he was left with scratching his head as he tried to come up with a good plan.

It was then that inspiration struck him, from the Renouvelé's own efforts no less: there, toward the back of the camp, was an improvised construction yard where the torn trees were being converted to lumber, lumber being used for both the defenses and, more importantly, the construction of the siege vehicles. And there, waiting to be used, was an entire lot full of abandoned mobile catapults and ballista, even a few trebuchets yet to be deployed... Never has the idea of setting stuff on fire been so appealing.

It took some effort but one by one, tree by tree he got closer to the camp's defensive wall without any of the sentries or passing patrols being any the wiser of his nor his minions' presence. From the closest tree to the wall he took a risk and tossed his minions into a section of the camp he honestly hoped was deserted for the time being. Thankfully nothing reacted to the grunting minions whom gather around an imaginary flag. Nor to himself for that matter when he jumped inside for that matter.

Once inside he scurried off in the direction of the siege equipment while utilizing what cover he could make use of. His minions however... didn't have as much sense. More than once he had to risk discovery by sending them into the nearest open tent flap just to avoid a patrol. In fact it was nothing less than miracle they didn't seem to particularly care when something was actively being smashed beyond a mere glance in that tent's direction. Then again he could almost swear he could see a delighted sneer on the armored soldiers' hidden faces when they looked over at these gold embroidered tents he found himself lurking by. Even so it didn't make it any less stressful as he almost relied completely on luck alone to traverse the sprawling tents without incident. But luck or not he did make it through and found himself creeping to the thankfully unguarded siege engines, all of which primed and loaded for immediate deployment...

But first...

Choosing the farthest tents he could see from the direction he just came from he sent his reds on a suicidal but eagerly carried out mission of distracting the enemy. In the meantime he had the browns muscle the ballista into place, one for each tower. On a hunch and to allow his reds more time in returning to him he had the browns haul another ballista for each tower into place as well whilst he eyed two minions gates present themselves to him from the side.

Once the first set of tents were ablaze he called the reds off only to direct them to set more tents on fire. In short order a blaze ran rampant and thankfully began to spread through the camp without the continued effort of the reds. By the time they were halfway back to him panicked shouting was becoming prevalent enough to be heard throughout the camp, drawing attention to the wildfire, diverting sentries and ensnaring minor patrols into performing an emergency fire fighting situation else the entirety of the camp became a glorified tinderbox. But most importantly it drew attention away from Naruto: it was only by chance that he heard some of the sentries he failed to spot leaving their posts to investigate the matter. In their rush they didn't see him hide behind a catapult along with his minions close by, practically hugging it like himself. It was only when he was absolutely certain that the wildfire held everyone's attention that he finally acted phase two of his plan. The minions were more than happy to oblige.

"Quaver, please hand me a handkerchief. Barely a month of being an overlord and he's already wreaking havoc! I'm so proud!"

In his head the sound of a nose being blown into the requested item was heard. "It's just so beautiful!" Quaver sobbed just as the first bolt struck a tower and shattered it with surprising ease. In fact it was only a little more shocking when compared to how quickly the stored mana escaped into the air.

In quick succession the ballista were loosed onto the towers and just like the first their casings was obliterated. The final tower however was when his plan had finally hit a snag, and with it came the death of his growing idle wonderings as to why the Noircî hadn't performed such a similar feet he himself had just enacted: having grown wise to his assault the mages had stopped the silently screaming bolt dead in its tracks during its flight to the tower. It was barely a second later that it was forcibly thrown away into the depths of the surrounding forest. It only took half as long before the undeniable shouts of anger and orders were heard over the roar of the bewildered camp and for the unmistakable sound of armor en masse moving to his location. Worse of all however was that he soon learned of a very crucial flaw in his plan...

He failed to think of a proper escape route.

Panicking, he began to look for the nearest exit only to find a closed gate some distance away. If anything scaling the closest wall was a quicker means of escape. But doing so though would mean he would have to leave behind his—...

He almost slapped his hand to his face and groaned.

With a wave of his had the browns and the reds dashed to their respective gates and leapt inside with a joyful cry on their lips, one of which shouting "cowabunga!" before disappearing. Alone and unencumbered, he cut his losses and abandoned the siege equipment in his own dash to the closest wall, but not without loosing a fireball on one such engine of war with the mild hope of setting it on fire. Whether or not it did though was a matter he didn't care to investigate as he jumped up the wall thanks to his shinobi training and vanished into the depths of the forest from there long before the first of the Renouvelé arrived on the scene to the beginnings of yet another wildfire.

XVX

Command tent, Renouvelé camp

No battle was without losses for either side. That much is universal law no matter how well planned the strategy was. Of how mighty their equipment was. Of the expertise or even experience being relied upon. Ultimately one could only hope for that in the end that the enemy suffered far more than that of their opponent. Today was not such an event. It was to be expected however, in a sense.

With speed, power and surprise on their side they had effectively overwhelmed each and every point of interest both tactical and non as far as the mana vents were concerned before their black skinned kin could form even an emergency militia to defend them. And though certain regions were likely unaware of what was happening, it was only a matter of time before the forts began to wonder what was happening and investigate accordingly when news ground to a halt. The same could be said for the capital. In fact it would be worse if the capital was involved, where the main army was stationed as a show of force to ward off the nations beyond the sea's horizon. That is why they had to act fast, to strike them and stifle them before they could mobilize on suspicion alone when they failed to receive even the most basic of reports of their precious magical academies' status. While true they had the sea to their back and thus a means to circumvent his own forces, they would be forced to divide their forces to do so in order to keep their would be invaders from crossing the threshold into venerable ground where their ancestors finally found lasting refuge at long last...

... despite their common ancestry however it had to be done. The Noircî had to be put into check before they effectively strangled their more unfortunate kin to death whether they realized it or not. The vents had to be sealed before the worst comes to pass. And for that to happen they needed time to seal up the gaps that bled Bordeaux dry. They needed to keep the armies at bay at all costs. He could only wish they had such time to convey such an emergency to their kin without having to resort to such drastic measures so soon. But what was done was done.

But now though, the task given to his forces was next to impossible.

Of the three siege camps to keep the Noircî from leaving by land his was the hardest hit by an unexpected and outright disastrous infiltration. If they couldn't restore their reserves then they would be forced to retreat within less than a month no matter what they would do. And though while said time may give the engineers time to seal up quite a few of the vents, it wouldn't be enough for them to seal all of the ones in the northern region of Notre Repos before the Noircî finally had their opening for a counter attack, assuming of course they didn't quickly bypass their precautionary methods establish in the northern and eastern beach fronts. Regardless, it was a fact none of his subordinates were taking well, lest of all the nobles... a fact made all the worse when their tents were burned down, the whiners...

He could only imagine how the commanders of the other camps would react as soon as the messengers reached them—ideally they would send in convoys of their own spare canisters filled with mana as he had requested to help alleviate the situation: though it wasn't comparable to a mobile tank, the canisters would help refill one of the silos as soon as they repaired one of them. Until then however he had to maintain order.

"I want a headcount!" he barked as the last of the fires was doused outside. "Killed, injured, missing, I want to know who's here or not! And prepare the auxiliary tents! I want them up before sun down!" he ordered the assembled council before him.

"The auxiliary? The auxiliary!? You would have us sleep in such savage conditions?!" a noble demanded.

From behind a helmet in which only ones eyes were visible it would be impossible to tell if the tallest figure among them was sporting a sour scowl on his face as he turned to the noble, his status denoted by the more custom quality and sheer ornamentation of personal and familial heraldry encompassing his body suit to enable him to stand apart from his counterparts born from similar backgrounds such as the mage before him. Even so the noble took a nervous step back as the elf whom stood both head and shoulders taller than most advanced upon him and came to loom over him. The heavy armor he wore, gilded though it was with hard earned insignia to proclaim his rank, only helped add to the intimidation factor much to his secret delight. Or rather their secret delight. He didn't doubt for a second that his soldiers were taking delight where they could in the otherwise aggravating moaning and moments like these where rank and the fear of crown approved disciplinary measures reminded the nobility of their place for a change.

"Have you packed a spare tent by chance?" he pointedly asked in a deceptively calm yet authoritative manner.

The noble hesitated to speak. He was even squirming under the taller one's scrutinizing gaze, his mouth clamped shut.

"Do you plan on sleeping with the others then?" He gestured to the longer tents, the 'barracks' as the men had taken to calling them, where at night the canisters were detached from their respective garbs and placed onto the ground next to their cots. From there, and if opened just enough to create an opening, a slow trickle of mana would be released to ensure the elf in question would be able to sleep comfortably without being forced to wear the armor or suit at all times to ensure their survival. In a properly made and sealed tent the mana wouldn't either evaporate or be absorbed by something else too quickly. Regardless of this the noble being 'questioned' remained silent as he knew he wasn't going to be supported in his complaint in the slightest by his peers.

"Are you going to sleep outside in the stars then?" The last resort of any of the Renouvelé when the need for sleep was too great to be ignored. Even in a cloth suit it was uncomfortable at best if they slept on their stomachs in the event that they hadn't bothered to alter the dispensing system of their suit. Few did, though it often came as a cost of a smaller canister, a smaller reserve of mana at their disposal to keep them alive.

"No?" The general leaned in, his eyes boring holes into the silent, fidgeting mage. "Then get the auxiliaries out and start setting them up."

The mage slinked away as did a few others to carry out his orders to retrieve the auxiliary tents, spares really. Ironically they were suppose to be the very tents the nobility were to sleep in in the first place. But nobles being nobles preferred their luxuries over common sense and... commoners. In its own odd way it worked out however: it may have divided the camp but those of nobility and commonality were content enough to ignore each other if they could help it... But alas with the destruction of their tents and being forced to live in "substandard" accommodations it was only a matter of time before the deriding comments began to fly once more like back in the more peaceful walls of Bordeaux where drunk tongues and carelessness had both freer reign and, sadly, less consequences. Here though, thanks to that saboteur, such bigotry coupled with a crippling lose of mana held more devastating consequences should a riot break out amongst his troops. Even if by some miracle no one was killed it wouldn't take the Noircî long to not only notice this but mount an appropriate response as well...

With any luck the repairs should help alleviate the problem if only barely. Until then however he had to mind the defenses and the siege. The Noircî were to be held in check. As such they were not to be given a chance to advance.

XVX

Forest, evening

It was late when he finally admitted with a groan that he was completely and utterly lost. In such an unfamiliar forest combined with enjoying what was about to be a lost art of leaping through the trees he was unable to find his companions. Sadly not even a Tower Point surfaced for him to help him back by returning him to somewhere more familiar than the darkening woods.

Lost though he was it didn't mean he was luckless. In his meandering he happened upon another siege camp. In fact he almost mistook if for the camp he had raided earlier in the day had the angle not been different, the tents having not been burnt down or even the three towers, as oppose to four, been standing tall. In fact it was so identical to the previous one that he was quick to spot the siege works where an entire lot of unused but prepped siege weaponry were waiting to be used...

Gnarl would've been proud to see an almost wicked gleam flicker across Naruto's glowing eyes as he eyed a spot where a hunch told him the minion gates would spawn.