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 Nine: Down, down to an Augre's town
Ogre's Mount, three days later
It was unexpectedly annoying, the backtracking. He had intended to follow the proper roads leading close to the Augre Stronghold, dubbed the Giant's Forge by evicted locals who were kind enough to give him directions and advice, but, despite their forced retreat, the blue elves gave him the exact same problems that kept the Chiselle refugees from taking the roads in the first place. For better or worse though the makeshift camps seemed to be on the verge of retreating further inland regardless of what he did. Even so there were still far too many to risk entering a skirmish with for comfort however. Even the smaller satellite camps were packed with too many bodies amassing around their precious mana reserves. As such he had to take to the winding woods and game trails before with chanced upon familiar markers as his only guide. His only consolation thus far however is that unlike before he was moving at a much faster pace. It would've probably been faster too given how energetic the minions were sans the occasional break for food and a nap. The augres, despite their stride, were neither as quick nor as hardy in comparison however.
Still though, three days compared to over a week? Two of which spent traveling and the better part of the third trying to find a feasible means to travel up the volcano's side? Aside from the young overlord's own grumblings, only Gnarl would complain about that!
... when he was sober at least. And not throwing wine bottles, moonshine and what-have-you at unwanted intruders in Naruto's newfound home. Or not bound and gagged by an impishly mutinous secretary who more or less caused his drunken riot in the first place after apparently spilling the beans about some of the Tower Heart's observational capabilities to a certain distressed elf... who brought her butler/seeing eye... person... who was whispering every detail of his travels in her ear...
The Heart's surprisingly sensitive ability to relay communications near its proximity notwithstanding, it was pretty damn creepy in Naruto's opinion. It was almost like he had a ghost whispering in his ear yet whispering to another despite being close to his ear! Sadly however addressing it didn't necessarily rectify it. While marginally less creepy, and regardless of who it was that was more or less narrating his actions, it was awkward thinking that someone other than either of the advisors he quickly grown accustom to being privy to his actions. Honestly, who watches others through some kind of magical window just to see what they're doing? It wasn't like he was playing a game or something! And even then what was he supposed to do to keep things interesting, dye his hair? He may love the color orange but he liked his hair just the way it is!
... but that was besides the point... creepy as it was for Naruto to contemplate at times.
By the fourth day he was essentially following the augres for a change as they led the way along what seemed to be a familiar path for them, one that had the snow driven from it by the aged tracks of boots and wagons marching along it en masse. After following it quite a ways they finally began to see the bodies, both elven and augre alike, at what was obviously the first of the augre's fortifications, a gate with a rampart carved into the side of the mountain itself to overlook the road itself from the side. Amongst its parapets were what looked to have been wall mounted variations of an augre's equivalent of a crossbow, discerned only as such from the many wreckage littering the wall by what few that actually did survive. As for the augres which manned them, it was hard to count how many were there from the charred limbs and other body parts that either stayed in the rampart of seemingly fell off it to join the numerous impaled Renouvelé mages that gruesomely decorated the road like macabre scarecrows... Needless to say that the gate was torn open.
The carnage didn't necessarily end there however.
In the road following the gate bodies were strewn about as traps were sprung, stones were thrown and battle was met. While the bodies of the Renouvelé being ignored was a given, it was a tad eerie to the overlord that neither of the augres so much as blinked at the bodies of their fallen comrades. Well, to be more accurate they ignored a select few of their fallen comrades with but a handful of exceptions: only for a moderate number of their brethren did they stop for and for those few alone they dragged them away to a barely organized grouping of bodies. While some were similar to themselves, most of these bodies were of those with weapons as opposed to even a facsimile of a hand on either limb. Regardless, throughout the entirety of this endeavor, broken up as it was by chancing upon their chosen fallen allies, everyone remained respectively quiet as they could be till they finally passed the field of bodies without further incident to what used to have been a magnificent door way leading into the depths of the stronghold itself; the lower half of the furnished steel gate, easily twice the height of the augres, had been blown in much like the previous defense, effectively scarring what few relevant sigils and imagery that halfway survived on the upper half for the doorway. The hallway that greeted them afterward was just as horrible as the battlefields beforehand.
Worse yet... with the chill of the snow covered volcano and the wind that accompanied it, as well as the added bonus of keeping a fair distance as much as he could, the cadavers outdoors had a lessened sense of ghastliness. Almost like... statues. Disturbing statues liken to the 'scarecrows' just before them. In here though? In the comparative warmth, especially with a few braziers built into the wall for the benefit of bestowing light for all those who enter, in a relatively cramped corridor where the wind didn't blow? Between his minions doing the dirty work for him and what throw able knives he still had, until now he almost never had the unfortunate circumstance of actually looking a glassy eyed corpse emotionlessly staring back at him since his very first raid. Never mind one with its flesh was being eaten away by maggots and other such carrion. Likewise he never had to deal with the smell either... or be forced to contemplate for just a brief moment as to what it actually meant to kill another living being that wasn't a game animal. To make it even worse he his mind in a twisted grim reflection replaced at least one exposed face of an elf to an exact replica of his own to stare back at him. When it added Iruka for a sick kick in the teeth he nearly lost both his lunch and his breakfast, his cheeks greened and bulging from beneath his scarf.
"This..." Adelia cleared her throat within the recesses of his mind as he fought back against the bile in his throat. "This isn't something you should see, my dear," she managed to utter at last as the augres resumed where they left off after seemingly recognizing the bodies. For the time being he and his minions simply stepped aside as the select few bodies of fallen comrades were hauled back to the pile. Try as he might though he couldn't tear his eyes away from the strewn bodies of fallen elves. He cringed a little when the augres accidently yet uncaringly stepped on either them or their extremities, crushing either one effortlessly with a sickening crunch. For better or worse he knew that he wasn't the only one blanching at the sound nor the sight either, a gagged Gnarl and a free Quaver being a part of which. "I think that's enough," Adelia spoke once more with a bit of force behind her tone. "It's time to come home, dear."
Angry grunting could be heard but not discerned. Even with his relatively short amount of time around him it didn't take a genius like Shikamaru to get the jist of what Gnarl was growling about.
"With due respect, Lady Majeau, we're literally at the front door of it all," Quaver evenly countered. "It will no doubt behoove the master to at least do some exploration before he decides to leave. Who knows? There might be survivors left behind these shattered defenses who would no doubt be grateful for some modicum of protection! Or at the very least there would be quite the armory to raid in their absence. It certainly wouldn't hurt to survey our potential new home either in fact."
"Wait—What—New home?!" Aunt Adelia practically shrieked, jostling Naruto from his morose mood with a startled fright. "What's wrong with him living here?!" she desperately cried.
The answer came, interestingly enough, from a rather even Gnarl. Or rather it at least it sounded sort of even due to his gag which garbled everything period... thus rendering this small paragraph moot regardless if they said paragraph was such or not.
"What I believe my intrepid companion was attempting to say," there was a pause so a loud and unmistakable growl could be heard from Gnarl, "is that considering that there is pack of demons specifically targeting our master it would be wise to at least had a giant door to slam into their faces, if only to buy him some time at least."
Stiffening at the inadvertent reminder Naruto's mind flashed back to the clearing just as it burst into a forsaken realm of fire that destroyed everything within it... He then looked to his hand, his arm bent and his palm facing toward him.
"DEMONS?!"
"Yes. A very vicious lot too I'm afraid," Quaver answered as a matter of fact. "Ever since we left Hapvire they been hunting down every descendant of our previous master to the man. As it stands our current master is the last of his line."
Quaver continued rather unabatedly. "As such it stands to reason that our sire is to take every advantage he can gather. Weapons, minions, fortresses—"
Unbidden by anything more than a thought Naruto's hand sparked with life as mana borne lightning arced and whipped along his glove.
"—and magical spells of course, just to name things off the top of my head."
With that same thought and some concentration the energy converged upon his palm into a fitting ball of fire.
"... ALBERTE! GET HELOS AT ONCE!"
"At once my lady."
Though he initially winced at that, the sudden shouting, with a grim grimace of determination Naruto clenched his hand, extinguishing the flame with nary a lick of flame scorching his glove much less his person as the memories of a more intense fire burned away what morbid thoughts that plagued him. When he looked up to the augres it seemed like they were carefully investigated what few bodies of their comrades that remained. In the menatime the countess cleared her throat.
"My apologies, my dear. It seems you have... much to do," she solemnly murmured.
"Yeah," Naruto grunted as he willed himself forth. With uncharacteristic anxiety that he shunted down to the pit of his stomach he strode past the pair of augres and marched down the corridor, ignoring everything he came across to the best of his ability as he descended down a gradually sloping path. The augres in the meantime silently looked to each other, then to the diminishing form of the young overlord as he continued his trek. One thumped his chest rather lightly before using that same lone hand to the ground beneath their feet. He then jutted a finger at the other one and pointed it at the slowly disappearing boy on the verge of vanishing. The addressed augre nodded before lumbering after the party of sixteen. Even as the other augre began his journey the one that stayed hung his head for but a moment before rolling it and cracking his neck in the process. Once he was satisfied he resumed its search amongst the piles of corpses along the hall.
It silently grunted when it found another handless comrade and slowly dragged him away.
XVX
Upper Levels, Giant's Forge
The further he went in the fewer amount of bodies he ended up coming across. Or more accurately he found fewer augre bodies as Renouvelé elves practically decorated once hidden traps and other such mechanisms that once sprung from the walls, the floors and the ceiling before said mechanisms and traps either malfunctioned from the disheartening amount of gore gumming up their works or were forcibly destroyed with complete and utter prejudice. Even so the previous statement still held true in that there were indeed fewer elven bodies the further he went in. Sadly even Naruto suspected it was due to more of a lack of manpower rather than hard learned caution as the doors beyond these traps weren't even touched in the slightest. They were still locked though. At any rate it would seem that for all intents and purposes the blue skinned elves had finally cut their losses and abandoned their campaign altogether long before the overlord's team arrived.
... and though morbid it was for Naruto of all people to consider, sadly for Naruto it also meant that the elves didn't discover all the traps before he arrived either.
Click!
He back flipped away from the stone before he gave it half a thought, surprising him in the process almost as much as the podium which sprung up from the floor. Around its square base and cylindrical top an array of blades sprouted from every conceivable angle like a deadly flower and swirled in an attempt to cleave and maim whatever poor sap that was close enough to them. Luckily for Naruto and the minions neither were close enough for the trap to work. Even so, with nothing left to further engage it the blades retracted with meticulously engineered efficiency and the podium sunk back into the floor to await a new victim.
"What was that?" Adelia asked worriedly, edgily.
"... an interactive objet d'art?" Quaver replied rather... unconvincingly. Something that was further highlighted by a rather derisive snort from Gnarl. "Oh like you would do better!"
"What. Exactly. Happened?"
In the time it took for one of the augres that came with him to finally stride over, tap the floor trap and seemingly disable it before making his way down the hallway and performing similar feats upon equally hidden implements of doom Quaver, with a resigned sigh, evidently ungagged Gnarl with a sigh. The next few moments of traversing the hallway to the augre at his beckoning were spent to the litany of spitting and growled curses aimed at Quaver.
"Feh, typical," Gnarl finally grumbled just as the sound of a bottle's cork being pulled free resounded through the connection. "All eager to prove something but at the hint of trouble you leave me to do the dirty work. Self preening coward."
"Hey!"
There was a brief pause but Naruto could almost swear he heard something as he followed the augre deeper into the depths of the stronghold. Was that chugging? "Aaaaah," Gnarl sighed a second later.
"Alright. Like any proper denizen of evil who isn't keen on visitors the augres of Ogre's Mount have busied themselves with quite a few traps it seems."
"TRAPS?!"
"Oh quiet!" Gnarl snarled. "He dodged that one quite well for your information! In fact most of our masters never had reflexes like that..." He then sighed. "Oh how I lost a few of my favorites that way."
"Easy now! Just breath! Here! Have a bag!" Quaver offered to the subsequently hyperventilating woman. "Now let's get you a nice chair to sit in..."
"Oh kill me," Gnarl grumbled. "At any rate, master!"
"Yeah?"
"While I admit I was... moody for the past couple of days, I still do notice things. Namely how odd this situation is."
"Huh?"
"While my memory might be a little dismal in spots, I do remember augres well enough. For example, while they may not be all that typically interested in having conversations beyond their work, they do talk. The lot that is still loitering out in front of this house? I haven't seen them so much as grunt a word, much less those two accompanying you."
"Oookaay?" Naruto said as they came to a stop at a closed doorway that now barred their way. This one was decorated as well, almost like a mural. On each face of the double door were of augres at work on forges or else holding aloft their completed works towards one single image which adorned both sides. It looked like a portly short legged man with the most expansive beard Naruto ever laid eyes on, he was standing atop of a mountain above the augres. Both his arms were held up high with one hand clutching a hammer and the other a pair of tongs.
"Hm, yes, while that may not be troubling news onto itself, there is a more worrisome matter. While other beings can and have actually pissed them off or forced them to do other things out of necessity, at the heart of it all augres are smiths, devoted ones at that. For smiths there is no greater tool for them than their own hands. While true that they often engage in the act of intentional self mutilation, particularly of their arms, they always make sure they have at least one hand available to them so they could always continue their work regardless of what it may be in order to please their pudgy bearded god. That being the case it's as close to sacrilege as any for them to have both hands removed or made useless short of the last one being cut off in a fight... it's a cold comfort sort of thing really. Helps them with their egos if such a thing did occur."
As Gnarl was talking the augre was fiddling with something, his body blocking Naruto's view of whatever it was on the door. Whatever he was doing he seemed to have succeeded. With a groan the doors let loose a loud but dull metal "ka-thunk" just before beginning to automatically open on their own.
"Something is happening here, sire, that's for certain. It may end well in your favor if you find out exactly what it is and... 'solve' it for them," Gnarl conspiratorially whispered with a slight giggle.
"Right," Naruto half mumbled as the door fully opened for them. He almost made to dash through it when a new rumbling assailed his ears, this time coming from the poorly lit corridor beyond. Soon enough the answer presented itself long before he began to wonder what it was. Coming from the other end of the corridor was a host of augres, the handless kind no less, were stampeding towards them, their arms waving as menacingly as their jaws bellowed a guttural war cry upon finding them. Naruto instinctively grabbed for his weapon and took a step back, his legs tensing as his minions either hissed at the incoming combatants or else giggled maniacally at their advance. As for the augre however...
Without so much as a grunt he simply stood directly between Naruto and the encroaching horde and held up his only remaining hand to stop them. While incredulous, Naruto watched on whilst preparing to flee only to stop himself when the mob's charged slowed to a halt some feet from his guardian while their aggression turned into confusion and bewilderment. With that same hand the augre was gesturing something, yet unfortunately due to his position Naruto was unable to see what was happening properly as the hand dipped back and forth from his body to out in the open. In the end though the one handed augre finally shifted so as to point his remaining organic limb toward the overlord, causing his limbless counterparts to lean over to look at the former academy student with quizzical looks. One of them then grunted rather pointedly and in doing so drawn the attention of the mediator between them. Once his attention was upon the one who grunted that same armed augre grunted anew.
"Huh... I think I'm getting the picture now," Gnarl mumbled.
"What are you talking about?" Adelia near demanded.
"Oh nothing... Besides, unlike mumbling, grunting is another beast to learn altogether. I mean seventy percent is purely contextual, forty percent is ensuring it isn't purely related to their mood, and the rest of it is a practically a potluck of religious differences, species differentiation and how experienced they are in the act of grunting alone!"
"I trust that you are aware that adds up to a hundred and ten percent," Adelia dryly noted with what Naruto could very well imagine to be an equally dry but pointed glare.
"It's actually closer to 249 percent if I count all the little details involved," Gnarl nonchalantly countered.
"... that doesn't make a lot of sense."
"With due respect, my lady, it's its own school of mathematics. In all honesty however I suspect it's designed solely to impress or at least confuse simple minded people, much like taxes rates and bills," Quaver added.
"... designed to impress simple minds eh?"
THWACK!
"AH-WAHAH! HELP! HELP! HE'S GONE MAD AT LONG LAST MY LORD!"
"HOLD STILL YOU FAIRY OF A PEACOCKING, PIPE WEED SMELLING, NERF HERDING—" Gnarl managed to roar before slipping out of the Tower Heart's range.
"My child, I think we may need to consider better... 'advisors' for your future endeavors should you continue after this."
Having lost himself in the conversation in his head Naruto jumped when he realized he lost track of the augres' own exchange. As such when he renewed his sights on them they were simply standing in the exact same place as before, albeit the entirety of their attention was on him. Thankfully it seemed like they were patiently waiting, or at least the one handed one was, as the one with the only remaining hand gestured for him to follow before turning and wading through the crowd to the hallway beyond. The other augres stared at him for a moment before following suit one by one.
Seeing no better option for himself Naruto joined them but a moment aftward.
XVX
Lower Levels
The first floor of which, beyond the traps, was practically a large room with an armory in the back of which where the doorway to the second level was found. The second floor, like the first, was also riddled with traps... in a maze. He only came to learn as much when a few of the more ornery augres deliberately activated the traps in passing with but a slap of their blade or mace 'hands' against the otherwise hidden contraptions. As for the maze, there were too many twists and turns for him not to eventually realize this as he followed the troop meandering through it like a guide. Beyond that maze on the same level of course was another layer of defense: like with the first floor there was a giant room at the end where the exit lay. However there was no armory or something of a mustering field. Instead it was a colossal room with a spiked pit at the bottom, and over it was the only bridge to the other side.
He only discovered the massive boulders held aloft by a series of pulleys when his awed curiosity coaxed him to look up to observe the architecture of the room. It was this same idle wonder that had him notice the unmanned ballista platforms built into the side walls of the room, each balcony offering a clear view of the bridge underneath them.
Thankfully it seemed that beyond this, beyond another of the augres' great doors, that this was the last of their multitude of defenses. He kind of wished it wasn't however, and not because of its potential to break even the most stalwart of invaders.
At first he thought it was unexpectedly poor workmanship , or poor design rather that he and the band he followed wondered into poorly lit rooms lit by uncharacteristically crude braziers loaded with whatever the augres though could give it lasting flame; only a select few of the braziers were properly constructed into a basin and filled with oil whilst the rest were practically baskets made from bent, discarded bars of metal that were hammered into one another. They were so sparse and randomly placed that there was no set pattern for each room. Even then it seemed that they weren't used so much as for light or warmth so much as to cook... meals.
There certainly weren't game animals on those spits.
What finally clued him that something wasn't truly right by their standards was when his foot landed on something in the darkness... something that was disgustingly squishy... and horrendously rank. And getting onto his exposed toes!
"EW!" He exclaimed as he leapt back and vigorously shook his foot to fling whatever it was off his foot. For good measure, yet without thinking, he drew out his canteen of water and splashed a substantial amount onto the affected appendage.
"What? What is it?!"
"(Huff-huff!) Well, it took me a lot longer but I taught. What'd I miss?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Adelia muttered a tad reproachfully.
"Hm... Master, how well can you see in there?"
"Not much?" Naruto offered as he devoted most of his attention toward shaking his leg free of whatever crap he stepped in. In the dark he wasn't able to tell how successful he was as he blindly whipped his foot out for good measure.
"Hm. Right. Let me see if this still works then." In the moments that followed whilst still flailing his limb about Gnarl began to mutter "no, no, no" rather dully as he apparently tinkered with something on his end. "Ah ha!"
"What is it?" Adelia curiously inquired.
"Vision of Darkness Mode!" Gnarl happily supplied. "Can you see better now, sire?"
"No!" Naruto readily answered before finally giving up and looking around for good measure. For the most part, aside from the braziers, he couldn't see jack.
"Huh, I guess there's still some bugs to work out. Then again the Tower Heart isn't typically used like this... Never mind! I guess I'll be your eyes then till you can properly see again—ew!"
"... it's not what I think, is it?" Naruto practically pleaded as his eyes clamped shut.
"It is sire. It sadly is... and there's still some of it atop of your shoe there, master."
Naruto promptly dumped what was left of his canteen onto his foot and waved it anew.
"What exactly did he step in?"
"... do I really need to spell it out for you? I think even an elf would infer what it is at this point!"
"Why I never! It's not as if—..." Adelia was silent for but a moment. "Oh that's just disgusting."
"Yes. You and I can agree on that much."
"Inside their own stronghold?!"
"In the middle of the floor of a dark room no less."
"Have they no concept of good hygiene?!" Adelia incredulously growled.
"Well in all fairness it seems to me that he's in some kind of ghetto of all things. Interesting. "
Countess Adelia drearily sighed in response. "Be that as it may, we're drawing a bath for you when you get back, my child."
Naruto only groaned in response as he finally settled upon both his feet once more.
"Well, sire, it seems my suspicions are correct. While I cannot personally vouch for their preferences for a living space, I do believe most augres would prefer caves to this mess. At least then they could get a hint of personal space judging from their... I'll be generous and call those blankets beds for now. That and have a more designated spot to do their business, in privacy no less... ew..."
"They're not—"
"At any rate, aside from that turd right in front of you the path is relatively clear. That and... Hm. It seems there's a group of augres straight ahead that are looking for something sire. You may want to be careful."
For a brief moment Naruto drew a blank as to what he was talking about in regards to the augres. When his mind rebooted and reminded him as to what he was doing beforehand, before his little... episode, he perked up in embarrassment and raised a foot to dash off in the direction of his guide's group.
"HOLD IT!" Gnarl barked.
Naruto immediately froze in place.
"Now move that foot to the side a bit."
He did so.
"Alright, you're in the clear!"
And without further incident he bounded off in the assumed direction of the augres.
"GAH!/EW/YUCK/GAHAH!"
His entourage of minions were not as lucky however.
Both Gnarl and Naruto took a moment to face palm at the exact same time.
XVX
It was awkward all around: for him in finding the augres in the dark while trying not to gag on the stench emitted by his afflicted minions. For them in realizing it was him after bumping into them and nearly attacking him as a result. For them both in cautiously entering through an otherwise hidden grand door at the back of the room only to cautiously creep through the opening as if they were thieves on the prowl... and for Naruto once again when he expended almost the entirety of his reservoir of water canteens on not only his minions but his leg to make them far less brown in appearance.
... the appearance of a waypoint gate and some minions gated helped assuage his mortification but not by much.
That aside however the group quietly crept through the halls and checked every corner till they found themselves in a storage room seemingly safe to use. Or as safe as can be since the augres relaxed only marginally upon entering it and carefully blocking the door with random items with as little noise as possible; for whatever cracks there was in their impromptu barricade they staffed either whatever conveniently sized items they could get their blade/mace 'hands' on or carefully stuffed with rags so that even the light of the room's oil fed wall mounted brazier couldn't slip through. It was at this point that the augre with the one good hand grabbed a piece of chalk and making use of a nearby wall to inscribe a pictured history of their own story.
The end result was almost identical to Gnarl's own lectures really: simple if a little crude imagery and no words whatsoever. Unlike Gnarl however it was sequenced with arrow marks leading from one image to another and so forth.
The first image was simple enough. It was of them, the augres, presumably hammering away at anvils whilst a handful of them were bowing before a human figure wearing the three horned crown he wore now. The second was said figure now on its side with a sword sticking out of the other. Above said figure were a number of outlined figures with their swords raised in victory whilst the augres seemingly fled from the scene while being chased by other sword wielding figures .
"Augh... they had to remind me of that that."
"What are you talking about?"
"Now where's that wine bottle. Wait, never mind. I forgot I broke it over Quaver's head while beating him. What a waste..."
"My dear, you wouldn't by chance know what he's talking about, would you?"
"Sort of... An ancestor of mine," Naruto muttered as he continued to read the imagery before him.
By the fifth image it seemed that, like the dark elves, they were migratory for a time and forced out of each settlement they erected throughout the lands till they came across this island. Their tale didn't end on a relatively happy note however. The augres, marked thus far by outlines, were attacked by another tribe of augres whose figures were filled in with the white coating of the chalk. From there they were forced into bondage... aside from being tasked the more dangerous and the more menial of tasks their tongues were cut from their mouths afterwards cut out from their mouths as a means of dominance.
Eventually it seemed after a time they rebelled only to lose and in turn were punished for it. Judging from the deliberate side by side comparison of the figures and a following picture of a pair of humans, one taller and with a beard while the shorter one was seemingly a child, it seemed that the older ones were simply mauled for their efforts. The younger ones though... won't be bearing children any time soon, never mind being forever barred from ever properly wielding a hammer at a forge.
Simplified though the images were, Naruto had to fight to keep the bile from leaping out of his mouth. Gnarl in the meantime only hummed in sickeningly appreciative thought.
Thankfully the last set images were not of history but of a plan.
Judging from the rough sketch of himself, made especially short in comparison to the sketching of augres that surrounded 'him,' they wanted him to lead them in another revolt. And as the two clans clashed it seemed, judging by the outline of arrows, navigate his way through the ensuing fight toward an augre with a a strangely claw-like arm as opposed to the more cubic form present on most of the sketched augres's right arms. Aside from the weapon wielding ones of course. Regardless, to further distinguish him from the others there was a crown drawn above his head as oppose to on it. From there, based on the assumption that he won, with the augre 'king' dead, it would seem that not only would the enslaved augres bow down to him but the opposing tribe would as well. Or so was the plan.
"Seems simple enough. A little cliché but a classic notion nevertheless." Gnarl offered with a hum. A clap of his claws quickly resounded through the link. "Right! Let's get to it sire! The sooner you off him, the sooner you can move in with your gigantic bodyguards!"
"Off him? Off who?"
"Oh no one of importance. Our master must apparently assassinate the chieftain who not only enslaved an entire tribe of his overseas kin but decided to spade, neuter and cripple said tribe's young whenever they get uppity. Nothing out of the ordinary really."
the silence that followed was so palpable for Naruto that it was bone chilling for Naruto.
"I see... A word of advice, my dear?"
"... yes?" Naruto squeaked.
"When you do slit his throat, I would suggest keeping the blood off you. My servants make it no secret how difficult how difficult it is to remove it when they accidently cut themselves. I would imagine ogre—"
"Augre," Gnarl offhandedly corrected only for her to continue unabated.
"—would be a hideous task unlike any other."
"You know I may have been too hasty in judging you," Gnarl cordially offered much to Naruto's surprise. "Though to be fair a few years of pointy eared louts wistfully sighing about how beautiful the grass is while writing poems about fluffy sheep and happy dreams can leave quite the mark on someone."
"... they wouldn't by chance be into dreadlocks and advocating to save the animals, would they?"
"Were they holding signs up saying "save the fluffy ones" and trying to convert people into a pseudo religion?"
"We had the displeasure of meeting them," Adelia factually noted.
"Oh please tell me we won't find them here. I hoped we seen the last of them when the demons came back for revenge..."
"No, you won't. Not many at the very least."
"Oh? Am I sensing something of a... story here?" Naruto didn't need to see the minion to see that dreadful grin on his lips.
"Matters did come to a head when they were here as a community," Adelia admitted.
"Oh! Do tell me!"
"I'm just going to go now," Naruto muttered more to himself than anything as they finally began to talk conversationally for the first time. He almost took a step away before he caught himself with a quick glance spent on the wall's imagery. At an overall loss for words whilst Gnarl's perverse giggling, in the manner of enjoying the concept of carnage, rattled through his ear he grabbed his sword and thrust it in the air in lieu of a proper answer. The augres however seemed to have perfectly understood it however as those closest to the door roared with approval before ripping out the crates, barrels and whatnot blocking it. With a sweep of his hand the minions were happily smashing them and setting them on fire for the augres. That and taking just about everything useful they could get their claws on, not that they minded. The same applied to the surprising amount of gold they found and brought to him. Even Naruto couldn't help but feel a little giddy at the sight of which as they disappeared into nothing upon touching his person; the conveniences of a magical artifact at its finest!
Sadly his joy was short lived when an augre abruptly opened the door from the hallway. Had the ones in the storeroom not seized up as they did Naruto may have dismissed him entirely as one of the enslaved augre had it not been for the peculiarly fine, furnished and decorated mail shirt he wore. Even so everyone's shock, his own, his allies and the intruder's was not to last either as it came to a sudden end when one of the closest weaponized augres swiftly lifted his axe for a limb and sunk it into the augre's head with a sickening 'shunk'. As for the victim, his jaw flopped as a weak gurgle escaped from it before the giant fell onto his knees and, after a vicious yank to dislodge the weapon, promptly slammed face first into the floor.
"RWOOOOWAH!"
As one the entire group of handless augres surged through the door in a mad rush the second the victorious bellow ripped through the air. Even Naruto charged after them only to be held back by the scruff of his jerkin. Immediately in response to this he twisted his head to curiously glance at the evident leader of this band of rebel augres who only shook his head in response. He then let go of the overlord's jerkin so he could point at said overlord, then to himself, then to the image of the augre 'king' on the wall.
Naruto didn't need him to elaborate further.
XVX
It was almost shocking for the young overlord at how quickly the stronghold was mired with the throes of a revolt. While it was easily evident to see that with the suddenness of the situation had easily caught their masters unawares, a bloody tally reaped, the slaves soon lost their advantage of surprise when the lording clan began to break out the quality weapons that their slaves weren't gifted with. No matter how finely sharpened or crafted the blade or mace, these weapons on stumps for limbs were barely a match for shields furnished with steel, the flexibility of wrists to properly swing weapons with appropriate might, limbs deliberately forged to be weaponry as opposed to tools, and, once again, pure quality which decided any and all attempts of one weapon seeking to overpower another; crudely finished copper weapons could only do much against their honed iron and steel counterparts. Even so such odds could only do so much to deter a horde of vehement slaves that bum rushed the defenses both out of rage and to distract the defenders. For one augre, a child barely reaching his knee and minions even shorter than he that left plenty of exploitable gaps to steal themselves away from the battle front and the various skirmishes that were littered throughout the city of a underground fortress.
Halls and corridors were quickly bypassed or ducked into when the occasional agitated patrol wandered by. With steady progress they were descending into even lower levels, levels where the heat was steadily climbing into sweltering proportions. Soon enough the answer to his unspoken question as the source of which came with the introduction of the final level, or what he had hoped was the final level.
The stone stairway almost immediately gave way to a metal one halfway down their descent. From there the stairs turned into a walkway with as much warning for the unprepared... That wasn't the interesting part however. Underneath this walkway, held aloft by practically an entire curtain of cables connected to the stone ceiling above, and thankfully a great distance away was a river of magma leisurely meandering its way through the chasm beneath their feet. There was but one discrepancy to it however, an island jutting out from the coursing river, an amphitheater it seemed. One that was divided in the center by a somewhat familiar statue holding high a hammer and tongs.
As they drew closer the finer details came into focus on the island. Yes, it was an amphitheater, and yes the grand statue that was towered over everything, yet, somehow having escaped his notice, was the pair of ducts built into the walls beside the statue itself which oozed lava into a pair of channels. The channels themselves, covered by grating to prevent someone from slipping into it beyond the initial feeding point, reached out and formed a complete circle, creating a red ring at the center of the stage where the pathway dropped off before the lava was bled out by another pair of channels leading back to the lava flow below. The lava wasn't the only thing that caught his interest however. As he was getting closer he noticed a definite deviation to the statue of the dwarf god, though one most likely made out of necessity as he soon spied: the statue's wrists were bound in chains, great chains to hold its arms high while smaller ones tether the cracked shoulders to the main body for the time being; it seemed at some point both arms broke off. There were even cracks in the stadium seating to support the notion. Even so the greater chains which reached all the way up to the ceiling looped back down to the stage below and were attached to a small series of anchor points for the time being. As he drew even closer however neither the lava nor the damaged statue of the deity could hold his attention. Not even the colossal anvil seated in the middle of the flat surface between everything earned more than a passing glance as he beheld the bodies strewn about the seats, the floor and the scaffolding under the destroyed arms. Whether they were once slaves or not he wasn't able to tell save for an exact few thanks to their missing hands.
Eventually though even the bodies weren't able to hold his attention any longer when he finally noticed that there was but one augre alive in the flattest portion of the theater. The one they were searching for, the one with the claw for a hand as opposed to a fist, a hammer or a weapon as was most commonly seen in passing. Wearing silvery steel armor coated in blood, yet surprisingly simple in design, the young overlord didn't doubt in the creature was glaring at them from behind its all encompassing helmet. Thankfully it didn't deign to move from its spot in front of the anvil. Or at least not until they finally hopped off the walkway and entered the amphitheater near where he stood. With little doubt of a baleful glare the armor figure growled in an unknown language as it raised its armor-like claw in their direction, its index finger ominously pointing at them.
"Allow me to translate that for you, sire." Gnarl paused long enough to clear his throat. "'So this is your latest scheme? An assassin from the knife eared trespassers?'"
"'Knife Eared Trespassers'?" Adelia intoned.
"I'm just translating."
The armored augre once more spoke up once more as it haughtily lowered its arm.
"'We crushed you before when you dared to besmirch our home with your disgusting presence! Yet even though you debased yourself to serve a weaker race we took pity upon you and gave you a chance to redeem yourselves under out guidance. And even then when you spat in the face of generosity we gave you another chance after humbling you craven wastrels!'"
The claw swung in a broad but definitely negative gesture.
"'But no more! It is time we end this once and for all for the sake and decency of augres everywhere before you somehow debase us further! Prepare to die!'"
"Be sure not to get any blood on you, my dear."
"Fighting Armor tip #83! Go for the eyes if you can, master!"
And so he did.
The 'king' reared back to bellow out a mighty war cry by the time Naruto lashed out with a pair of kunai aimed at the helmet's visor where the eyes were most prominent. Though one was unfortunately off its mark and bounced off the angled portion of the visor where the augre's nose would be, the other one hit true. Both in pain and caught off guard, the armored augre stumbled back as its normal but armored hand reached up to claw at its face without thinking before finding some sense to pull the visor up to expose its face. At that moment and with an inspiration of a strategy the young overlord swept his minions forth to maul the distracted target as it palmed its face to rid itself of the dagger in its eye. In the meantime he held out his hand which was coated in fire the second later and hurled it, flinging forth the fire in the form of a ball at the chieftain's face. As this was happening the augre who guided him here lumbered forth in a charge of its own as it brought his hammer-like fist up for a swing.
Flames from both the fireball and the red's own bombardment smashed into the augre's face with perfect accuracy just as the armored hand ripped the knife out of its ruin eye and tossed it away. Once more the giant was further staggered, and worse yet vulnerable to both the chargings browns and the augre that followed them. Eagerly the browns rushed his legs and began to wail on them seeing as they couldn't reach any higher than the knee, their weapons loudly clanging against the armor seemingly to no avail. It wasn't such a case for the augre however.
The metallic hammer-fist easily knocked the chieftain down and in doing so enabled the minions to expand their target range, and one even gone so far as to hop onto the augre's plated chest to wail on the monster's face whilst the reds continued to relentlessly target it. Even the on their side augre moved to join in with its fist raised to deliver a killing blow.
That was as far as he could get however.
With a howl of anger and pain the chieftain's normal hand clenched into a fist and swiftly bashed the minion with such force that it flew into the stands and broke what would've once a viable seat; the ghostly phantom that represented the minion's spirit, as defined by Gnarl, instantly snapped and faded away the moment it appeared. Regardless, the chieftain immediately swung its hand up to snap his visor back into place. As he did so he took a wild swing at the opposing augre who swung at him and scored stomach as a result. Panicked, Naruto recalled his minions as their ally stumbled back whilst clutching his stomach to stop the bleeding. In the meantime the 'king' managed to scramble onto his feet and lashed out once more with a backhand from his claw to the otherwise defenseless augre before him, viciously knocking him off his feet in a spin, causing him to land on his stomach.
Once he was done he turned to Naruto with a growl which reverberated from its enclosed space behind the helmet. The kunai that was flung at his remaining eye didn't dissuade the growl in the least. Even worse it goaded him into action when it not only bounced off it but saw that, to Naruto's mounting terror, the young overlord was desperately searching his person for so much as one more kunai to throw at the behemoth. With a snort of derision it lumbered forth and flexed its clawed hand, the rivulets of blood glistening amongst its fingers.
After a quick survey of the damaged done the young overlord couldn't help but worriedly scowl underneath his scarf when he couldn't find a scratch over the sections he knew his minions savaged. At the utter most there was a dent over the augre's left pectoral but even then it was surprisingly shallow given the force behind the blow. As such he didn't consider drawing his own weapon of choice as his mind scrambled over some other means to defeat the towering giant stomping closer to him. His eyes flicked over to the lava coursing around the island and briefly entertained the idea of tricking the chieftain before him. It was possibly but he wasn't going to bank on the possibility of a combined shove between himself and his minions if the opportunity presented itself. Clones maybe? Wait, no! They still didn't know what caused the Tower Heart to act so erratically the last time. Hell, Gnarl swore up and done that it nearly split in two last time when he finally asked about it. Quaver even supported that claim! Thankfully that seemed to be the limit so far regarding chakra techniques. So what could he use to...
He eyed the chains nailed to the ground. He then spared a quick glance at the limbs held high and ready to drop at a moment's notice. He had two shots at this at best. It wasn't like he had a better choice or a more viable plan however.
With an unspoken command he banked right whereas the minions fled to the left where the hammer wielding arm's chain resided. The chieftain spared the minions a glance before ultimately deigning to chase the human with a quickened pace, his claw flexing more vigorously with the obvious thought of fresh blood on his mind. Even so Naruto did his level best to make sure the brute was lumbering toward him with his back turned as the overlord's minions gleefully began to hack and claw at the staples tamping the chains in place, three in all.
As he ran Naruto scanned the floor in the vain hope of possibly finding any of his lost knives as the beast stomped after him. Even so he still kept in mind to ensure the focus was on him, as such, to his chagrin, he slowed himself enough to risk being clawed at, an action the augre eagerly accepted by indeed swiping at him, all the while. While risky, it wasn't out of cockiness.
"He's swinging again!"
"BE CAREFUL!"
Immediately he jumped out of the way, eliciting another growl from the giant that he couldn't help but delight in for but a brief moment. Still the chase continued with him swerving to and fro and onto the stands just to help add variety—
"JUMP!"
Startled into action he did so without thinking and scaled the stadium seating by several rows just in time for a "BOOMF" sound to crackle through the air.
"It seems like he's not playing any more master! Don't get cocky now!" In the meantime Adelia was muttering to the side as if she was trying to calm herself down. "Oh stop that! It's not like he's bathing in acid! ... huh. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm amazed he lived as long as he did before and after he became the Overlord at the time. He made some interesting situations though, idiot though he was."
Gnarl's non sequitur was completely ignored by Naruto as he looked back at the utterly destroyed seating below just as the armored augre ripped his claw out of the drifting dust and rubble. He barely wasted a moment to resume his chase of the blond child in what could only be described as a bloodthirsty jog up the ascending stair-like seats. Though it was a risk Naruto glanced over to the minions to gauge the extent of their work. To his amazement and gratitude it seemed like they were just about ready to finish off the last of the taples binding the chain to the ground. Upon being embolden by this he call the minions off it and had them wait by an imaginary flag as his free hand was lit once more with flames of a magical origin. Those same flames were sent hurtling toward the augre's helmet covered face without Naruto even putting much thought into the action.
Though it undoubtedly did little more than blind him and as such cause the giant to hesitate enough to ensure its balance, Naruto took advantage of the opportunity to leap over the armored juggernaut before the augre could realize it and dashed off in the direction of the hypothesized impact zone. He didn't even hold back his speed either as a roared bellowed out from behind him. The subsequent stomping of plated boots on the ground only confirmed that the augre was hot on his heels once more.
Soon enough he passed the proposed point of impact that he could only guess at it such a short amount of time. Once he was sure he was away from where the hammer would drop he dared to turn around and again lit his hand on fire to once more launch it. The augre upon seeing this suitably did the only sensible thing he could do in his position as he charged at the child and that was to raised his hand to cover his face to better protect it, but in doing so he effectively marred his already muddled sight even further. It was exactly what Naruto was hoping for even as he loosed another fireball at the hand for the sake of the diversion as his minions renewed their assault on the final staple.
KSNAP!
Between the annunciation of metal breaking and the shriek of snaking metal slipping against stone however briefly, it was more than enough to snap the augre out of his charge to investigate the noise. Even after witnessing the last of the chain slip away into the dark of the cavern above and looking up to morbidly confirm as to what that chain was connected to, all the augre could do in his defense was to numbly stagger back a step as the smithing hammer slammed into both him and the ground with a grim and weighted sense of finality.
Naruto stared at the scene for a moment as if struck dumb himself by the hammer only to snap out of it by looking to the left and right to see if the armored enemy would sauntered into sight at any moment. In fact he didn't want to take any chances for whatever it was worth. He recalled his minions and drew his sword as he carefully crept around the fallen stone limb which unerringly rested upon the hammer. when he was past its side he found he was halfway correct in suspecting the tyrant was alive. Or the given value of such. He could almost swear he was hearing gurgling erupt from the closed off helm as it rocked back and forth in a swivel, but with over half his waist and both of his hands having been undeniably crushed underneath the stone mimicry of a smith's implement there was no doubt in Naruto's mind that he was no longer a threat of any sort. For a brief moment Naruto spared a thought toward ending the augre's life to spare it any further suffering rather than leaving it be. Instead however he ignored him for the other augre whom had been ignored since his fall.
"Well, sadly he's alive my lord but otherwise it seems like you won! With irony no less! You definitely have the makings of a great Overlord sire! In fact hold still a moment so I can sketch this one out for my scrap book! Now where did I put that sketch pad of mine..."
"Don't be so crass," Adelia sighed before broaching a new topic. "Still, it is over with. Are you alright though, my dear?"
"Uh, yeah" Naruto mumbled before dashing off to the augre still laying on the ground. "Hey! Hey!" Naruto called to the fallen augre who was his guide and shook his still exposed shoulder. "Are you still alive?"
The augre didn't respond in the slightest no matter how urgently Naruto shook his shoulder which barely budged an inch. Nor did he so much as grunt as Naruto had his minions roll the body over onto its back to exposed just how deep the claw marks actually went. The young overlord nearly gagged out loud upon seeing what remained of the augre's innards peeking out from the body sheering slices that raked it...
It took him a moment to fight the bile that threatened to erupt from his mouth but he managed and for a moment he was at a loss as to what to do. It took an active searching of his own memories to remember that a rebellion was still being fought upstairs, prompting him to rush off to the gangway that lead them here in the first place only for him to stop at the precipice of which as he realized something: even if he were to run all the way back up there, what proof would he have that their boss, the lording augre's chieftain, was defeated? It's not like they would take his word for it...
With a grimace Naruto looked voer his shoulder to the still trapped augre whom continued a vain and pitiful struggle to escape his doom. Soon enough he picked out most easily removed as well as the most likely be recognized item: the helmet.
Reluctantly he jogged over to the still squirming behemoth who, as soon as he spotted Naruto, half gurgled a severely weakened growl at the overlord. He only paid it half a mind as he reached down and worked the helmet off. In a matter of moments the bloodied and scorched face of the augre was pathetically sneering at him as his one remaining eye fought to stay open. Looking at him though, Naruto couldn't help but pity him more than detest him despite what he had done. As such in a moment of illness inducing contrition Naruto handed the helmet off to a minion who almost made to put it on his head were it not for the quick glare Naruto sent it. Regardless, with his hands freed he readied the sword above the augre's ruined eye despite the nausea that was afflicting him at that moment. It was made far worse when the augre began to wriggle its head back and forth in a pitiful last ditch effort to remain alive whilst it put everything else it had left toward an otherwise fruitless attempt to free himself from his stone god's grip. In the end the young overlord closed his eyes and stabbed down with all his might as he did his utter best to ignore the squelching of flesh being pierced as well as the weakened yet thankfully short lived cry of agony.
"Congratulations sire!" Gnarl then tearfully sniffed. "An overlord's first execution is always so magical!"
Naruto dared to peak out from under the protection afforded by his eyelids and found that he struck true. By some miracle his sword found the now dead tyrant's ruined eye and plunged through it, killing him once and for all. He took a deep breath and help quench the bile that threatened to gush out of his throat at long last and regretted it when the wet squelching sound once more rang out. Seeing the thick coating of blood and bits of brain matter that managed to cling to the blade finally did him in however.
"Gnarl! He's just a child! Even with encouragement, he shouldn't be performing such acts!" Adelia fiercely scolded.
"They grow up so fast," Gnarl wistfully sighed.
"You—!"
He tossed the sword out and promptly ignored the clanging of the abandoned metal as he ran for the nearest grate overlooking the lava flow running through the amphitheater. He barely had enough time to yank his scarf out of the way before he finally hurled everything he had been holding back and then some since the first line of defense belonging to the augre stronghold.
"There there sire. It gets easier with time and experience. If it helps you can reserve that sort of thing to people you don't like!"
THWACK! "DOOF!" Thump!
"THAT WAS FOR MY FAVORITE HAT YOU FIEND!" Quaver roared.
"My child, are you alright?" Adelia practically cried. Her response of course came in the form of more retching on Naruto's part. "It'll be alright, my dear," she softly cooed as comfortingly as possible. "Just let it all out..."
After what felt like an eternity Naruto finally pushed himself up to stand on his knees and wiped his lips clean of what spittle and vomit that may of clung to them. He even reached for his canteen only to remember he used it all already. He couldn't help but groan at his fortune as he resorted to spit to cleanse his mouth of the vile taste that now resided in it. While it wasn't water, it worked. A little bit at least.
"My dear?"
"... yeah, I'm alright," Naruto muttered aloud at last. Without looking he swung an arm out which coaxed a minion to break ranks and retrieve his sword for him. Moments later it dutifully returned to him with the bloodied sword in its outstretched claws. He took a deep breath and took it by the handle and simply stared at it, at his reflection even as a small trickle of blood traced through it before widening enough to engulf it. His body lurched at the sight but thankfully only minutely before he steeled himself and finally stood up on his feet. He then flicked his sword to dispel as much blood as he could like he had seen some movie heroes do whenever he managed to sneak into a theater, and sheathed it regardless of what remained on it and turned to his gathered horde of minions who were eagerly awaiting his command. Once he glanced upon the helmet he took it from the minion's grasp with perhaps more force than he would've liked, not that the minion seemed to have minded it. Even so, with his objective in hand he immediately turned to the hanging pathway and ran to it in all haste. His minions were in fact struggling to keep up with him as the distance only grew and grew as the overlord fled the arena and all it held within...