"Wolfy, we have a problem," Yunia affirms sternly.

I eat another piece of chocolate. It's hazelnut with raisins, my favorite combination. It's just above peanut chocolate, but we don't have peanuts, so that's something we'll have to watch out for while buying food.

I sigh and sink into my seat. "Just one?" I ask, almost whimpering.

"Well… no, we have more than just one problem…" She says, her voice losing strength with each word.

"So… how fucked are we?" Hana asks with a grin, trying to brighten the mood just a bit.

"Very fucked," Yunia answers with a flat tone and sighs, then she hardens her expression again and continues, "Our first problem is that the Giants seem to be wearing some sort of stone armor, making fire much less effective against them."

"I saw holes for the nose and eyes, so Rox's Sneeze-'n-Wheeze should still work," I comment.

"And the oil could still reach their skin if we manage to hit those holes," Alissa adds.

"It would just be easier to use my Sneeze gas, instead. We'll have to use Wolfy's second plan," Roxanne argues back.

Alissa thinks for a moment, then nods in agreement, and at least one of our problems is addressed.

We turn to Yunia again, and she continues, "Our second problem is that their army seems to be larger than ours, so they must be collecting monsters from the other waves, which brings us to our third problem: their numbers are constantly increasing.

"Then there's our fourth problem: they're not advancing, so we have to meet them in the field before their numbers grow too large, which puts us at a disadvantage since the Lonlanzas need time to set up their lines, making them terrible on the offensive. Our fifth problem is that the corridor is so wide where they are now that we might not be able to block it off with all of our companies combined, allowing them to wrap around our flanks with their superior numbers."

"Can't we build walls at our flanks to protect ourselves?" I ask.

She gently shakes her head. "We don't have a lot of Engineers, and they have a lot more mages than we do, making it possible for them to dispel whatever we build. To make more permanent fortifications, we'd have to conjure them, which would take a lot of time that we simply don't have."

"What about forming a levy with the commoners?" Ciel asks.

Yunia shrugs. "We could try, but I have no idea if they'd accept it."

"They'd die in droves if they met an elite enemy unit, so we'll have to be very careful with how we use them," I state, and Yunia agrees wholeheartedly.

"Our sixth problem is that the Orc Lord is intelligent, so we can expect a tough battle," Alissa adds.

"And our seventh problem is that we can't starve them out because their mages should be able to conjure food, or even just cannibalize their coming waves," Roxanne contributes.

We all go silent for a moment, trying to think of a safe way out of this pickle we find ourselves in.

Ciel fought for her entire life behind the walls of a town, so her first thought relates to that. "Couldn't we just wait back here and build up our defenses?" She asks.

"If they gather enough Grim Giants, then no matter what we build, it just won't be enough," Yunia replies, and Ciel frowns.

The elves didn't conquer the marshes of Antano for a long while specifically because the Giants can easily destroy any defense besides the ginormous trees of the High Forest.

I cross my arms and lean back in my chair with a wry smile as I say, "So, we're being forced to fight in a disadvantageous position… I once heard that that's exactly how you lose a battle."

"Precisely," Yunia agrees without a hint of mirth in her tone.

The tiredness from fighting all day suddenly hits me, and I feel my eyes get heavier. It's well past bed-time, and I didn't even have that much fun today. The dragon, the kid, and even the pervert inside me are all complaining at once.

I stare up at the dark ceiling, and a faint glimmer reflects off the red sand from the slowly pulsating light of the glowing elves. An idea begins to form inside my mind, and all the girls slowly look up with me as realization seeps through [Bind].

Yunia follows our gaze, then she smiles in satisfaction. "It's dangerous, but I'm certain it'll work."

We go to sleep with our armor off so that we'll be completely rested for tomorrow's big battle.

Today is the 26th.

Alissa wakes me up lovingly, and I release all the tension from yesterday down her throat, repeatedly.

We [Clean] our mouths, then I put a small piece of chocolate on my tongue and pull her in for a morning kiss. We wrestle for control of the candy as it quickly melts in our mouths, giving our kiss the flavor of Heavenly Chocolate.

The idea of dripping molten chocolate onto her skin reinvigorates me and awakens the dragon in me.

Alissa leveled up to 40. Her [Bow Use], [Dodge], and [Fox Transformation] increased by 1 (now 34, 4, and 6). I'll put her extra point and two more from [Reduced Mana Cost] into [Mana Efficiency] to balance her magic a bit more.

Roxanne leveled up to 40. Her [Mana Control], [Fire Magic], [Space Magic], and [Alchemy] increased by 1 (now 31, 3+28, 2+9, and 6). I remove an unnecessary point from both [Fire Magic] and [Alchemy] and put them in [Reduced Mana Cost] (now 9+4) for a more mana-efficient [Explosion].

Ciel leveled up to 40. Her [Glaive Use] and [Wind Magic] increased by 2 (now 23 and 10+22), and her [Parry] increased by 1 (now 9). Her last extra point will be put in [Mana Efficiency] (now 3+4) for a more mana-efficient [Fly].

I apply not-Nutella to my bread and moan as I take a bite. The chocolate Nour brought wasn't as delicious as this, so I'm certain that we'll be able to make a profit out of commercializing my creations.

Ciel hesitantly puts the not-Nutella on her second slice of bread and takes a bite. She squeaks in a low tone and sighs in satisfaction.

"Are both of you chocolate-sexual?" Alissa asks with a raised eyebrow.

"That… doesn't even make sense," Ciel shyly states while avoiding looking her in the eye.

Alissa smiles smugly, mimicking Yunia's smugness. "Just take a look in Wolfy's mind, I'm sure you'll find your answer there."

"Considering that I was just thinking about drizzling hot chocolate onto Alissa's sensitive bits, perhaps you're right," I say to Alissa with a wry smile.

Alissa glances at Ciel, radiating smugness, and my chocolate angel blocks out our voices from her mind so that our teasing won't ruin the pleasure she gets from her meal.

The elves don't need sleep, so we did make some progress over the "night," but there are still a few hours until we reach the Orc Lord's army.

Just as we begin cleaning up after breakfast, Yunia calls our attention, so we don't even get up out of our seats and simply wait for her to start.

She sternly looks at each of us, wiping away the levity of our breakfast, then she clears her throat and starts, "I'm not a general, but we still need to fulfill the job of one, so we need to start discussing strategies. We also need to have plans ready for all kinds of scenarios so that we can react immediately" -she turns to look at Lina- "and it's best that we write it all down so that we can study them later."

Lina nods, making her cute bangs sway, and wordlessly pulls out a few sheets of paper and a magic pen.

Just when I think that we're finally finishing up, Yunia turns to me and throws me a bomb, "Wolfy, there's something you must do. We need to get the levy ready to defend themselves."

I groan internally.

"So, now I give them a speech?" I ask wryly, holding back my reluctance because this is important.

Her long elven ears twitch as she subtly cringes. "I… I guess so. I was going to suggest just talking to them, but you can appeal to their emotions more effectively with a well-written speech."

I laugh nervously. While letting out adrenaline-fueled cheers and cries during battle is one thing, giving an actual speech to an audience is something else entirely.

"I'd better put my points in [Acting], then," I say and use [Godly Language] to calm myself down.

Before talking to the commoners, we assemble the Generals to have a talk with them. They ignore the girls when they speak of anything not related to battle, greatly irking Yunia, so it seems that I'm the only one who can actually talk to them. Their presence is rather imposing, so I keep the girls behind me for emotional support.

It's a bit hard to hide the fact that Alissa, Roxanne, Hana, and Lina aren't elves, so I think they have some sort of mental block that makes them think we're all "kin." Either that or they're just using that word to refer to any humanoid.

Since they don't care about our race, I take off my helmet and look them in the eye. They take off their helmets, too, revealing a line of supermodels.

Stupid sexy elves.

I clear my throat and mutter another calming order to myself with [Godly Language], then I activate the dragon within me and make a stern expression.

"Have you all determined my worth and that of my harem?" I ask them in Ingua.

"No," the First General answers in his usual flat tone.

"Why?"

"You haven't struggled enough."

"Defeat the Orc Lord and we'll consider you worthy," the Second declares.

I was expecting this, so I continue without flinching. "And what will happen once you deem us worthy?" I ask, still stern and calm.

"You'll have our loyalty," the Third responds.

"I see…" I mutter and narrow my eyes.

That isn't exactly reassuring since we know even less about them than we did about the Chimeras, and we were still betrayed in the end.

"Why do you want to go forward?" I ask the one million dollar question.

"Because we must," the Fourth immediately answers.

Okay… that didn't go how we thought it would.

"And why must you?" I press further.

"It's our purpose," the Second answers.

"And so it is yours," the First adds. I feel a hint of emotion in his voice that reminds me of Yunia's smugness. I guess that's just the elven standard.

"I guess 'moving forward' is a not so subtle reference to the purpose of all humanoids that was given to us by the God of Creation," Ciel wryly says.

"And 'not one step back' is a reference to elven stubbornness," Yunia dryly adds.

Oh, right, there's something else we have to ask them about.

"Why can't you take even 'one step back'?" I continue my questioning.

"We accept no less from you," the First responds, emotionless.

I frown and look back at the girls. "So it's a restriction for us instead of being a specific limitation they have," I remark in Andraste.

Roxanne anxiously adjusts her glasses as an idea comes to her. "Can we convince them that retreating wouldn't be taking 'a step back'?" She asks.

"Maybe…" Yunia mutters in pondering.

I try to question them using hypothetical scenarios, but they never give me a concrete answer, only a "maybe," so I drop that matter for now.

"We'll just have to wait until we actually need it," I say to the girls and shake my head, then I switch to Ingua again and turn back to the Generals. "We wish to ask the commoners to join the battle to come. What's your opinion on this matter?"

"They're not soldiers," Number Two answers. They don't have names, so I'll just refer to them with whatever I feel like.

"They don't owe you their lives," Number Three adds.

"Yes, but if we want to continue moving forward, we need every able-bodied person to fight," I insist.

"You're allowed to ask," Number Two says.

"But not to demand," Number Three finishes.

They sound eerily similar to the doll golems with their split phrases.

I glance back at the girls, but they don't have anything else to add, so I finish the conversation. "Very well… that's all we had to ask."

"Bring us victory," Number One states, and I stiffly nod.

"Not one step back!" The Generals suddenly yell in unison, nearly making me flinch.

While we prepare my speech, I test using a small amount of [Godly Language] on Alissa, and it really does have an effect on her. Instead of it compelling her to follow whatever I say, it has a more subtle effect, either making me more believable or making her more agreeable to my suggestions. A "sniffer" might notice something wrong with my voice, but it's unlikely that they'll be able to understand what exactly I'm doing unless I use it at full power.

Yunia seems very interested in my tests. Her beautiful face gets really close to my neck to inspect my mana, and she says, "We knew that imperials used [Godly Language] to inspire their troops, but we never imagined that it'd be so simple."

I kiss the top of her head, making her smile wryly, and ask, "How much do you know about this skill?"

She rests her head against my chest, making Test Subject 01 a bit jealous. "Very little. I was taught how to resist it, though."

I wish that I could play with her drills, but her hair is tightly tied up into a bun, so I play with her flexible ears, instead. "How does that work? It's extremely easy to understand the principles of [Godly Language] if you can sense the mana vortexes that I create."

"Not from a distance. Shout with [Godly Language] from far enough away, and not even a sniffer would be able to detect the vortex."

"Ooh… so I guess using it for speeches is pretty safe, then."

"Indeed."

We bring all the commoners and soldiers in front of the ship, and we stop our march for a short while.

I climb up onto the prow and look down on at least a thousand stupid sexy elves who are staring up at me intensely, patiently waiting for what I have to say. No pressure.

I calm my heart once again and force my face to adopt a stern and confident expression like a mask, concealing my real feelings.

Lina hands me a small smoky gem, then I press it against my neck, feed it some mana, and start, "Fellow kin!" -[Project Voice] makes my voice boom through the crowd, but it doesn't deafen the people close to the front, maintaining a steady and loud volume over the entire area it fills- "I have stopped our constant advance and gathered you all here to report what awaits us ahead: monsters, hundreds upon hundreds of monsters! They number more than us, and they even have six armored Giants ready to break our lines…!"

I make a dramatic pause to give the crowd time to process what I'm saying. A few eyebrows knit in worry, so I guess I'm on the right path.

I use a brighter tone to lift their "spirits," heh. "But our strength isn't in our numbers. My harem and I are immensely powerful, the Generals can kill any of the monsters in single combat, and the soldiers are extremely competent, as we've repeatedly shown with our overwhelming victories thus far. None of the enemies that we've faced have even made our army break a sweat!"

The girls cheer, and the soldiers follow, with some of the commoners joining in by raising their fists into the air.

I let my tone go serious and dark. "Unfortunately, that won't be enough against the massive army ahead of us. Even if we defeat them, the losses that we might suffer would certainly spell the end of our march forward…"

The excitement immediately dies, and the faces of the soldiers become grim and deeply concerned. I basically just said that most of them are going to die.

I go back to being energetic again. "But this isn't the end! We still have a choice, a chance, an opportunity to seize an overwhelming victory. That is, we must all fight together! Every single person who can hold a spear and a shield should fight! Every person who can carry a burden should aid the soldiers! Every person who can move should participate in the battle and share in the struggle."

The soldiers seem to gain stern expressions in approval of my words while the commoners show concern. It's time to give them a bit of motivation.

I gesticulate wildly with my hands, putting all the energy that I can into my tone, but I don't shout, yet. "If humanoids wish to live, then they're forced to kill. As long as there are monsters roaming this realm, civilization will be forced to fight to protect their existence in the same way that the individual is forced to protect their life."

The crowd starts to become agitated, as if every sentence I impart to them is breathing new life into their bodies.

"One is either the hammer or the anvil, the vine or the tree, the bark or the weapon. What you are will be for you to decide, for you have given me no vow, and I cannot force you to make a choice. I only ask that you take my words into your heart and think deeply about what role you should take."

Their faces go from emotionless to hopeful and proud as they start to yell and cheer in response to my words.

"The survivors of this battle should be able to look back with pride upon this day, the day on which a great army affirmed the elven unity. May every elf realize the importance of the coming battle, assess it, and then bow their heads in reverence before the will of the Gods who have brought us here for a reason: to show our worth!"

The soldiers cheer and roar along with Hana, showing their pride as warriors and in the vows they gave to sacrifice their lives to further the goals of their Generals. They may not be able to fully understand my words, but they understood my intentions and the emotions I wanted to convey.

The commoners seem to have finally awoken from zombies into actual living beings. They murmur and discuss among themselves while the younger ones act more energetically, sounding eager to fight.

I let them talk for half a minute, then Yunia says that it's time to really turn up the hype.

"So tell me, what role will you take?" I ask and wait a few seconds to catch their attention again. The young men start to cheer, and I gradually increase the volume of my voice as I yell, "What are you?! The hammer, the anvil, the vine, the tree, the bark, or the weapon?! WHAT ROLE WILL YOU TAKE?! ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT?!"

"Yes!" The men cheer, drowning out even Hana.

I draw my sword and raise it high into the air. "I DIDN'T HEAR YOU, ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT?!"

"YEEEEES!"

"URAAA!" Hana lets out a war cry.

"URAAAAAA!" The crowd cheers, and their war cry resounds through the tunnel.

I catch my breath and smile in triumph, then I look towards Number One, and he silently nods at me.

We start organizing the hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers. Those with magical prowess aid the Elementalists in producing spears and shields nonstop or get taught first-aid by the healers; the young and strong are equipped with these new weapons to fight, and they're taught by Hana how to make a crude shield wall; the old will hold the pikes at the back of the Lonlanza formation; and the ones who can't move help sew thick padded armor to protect the militia.

We can't really help them build anything since they can only conjure that same glowing matter that their bodies are made of. They're doing well on their own, though, and we wouldn't be able to help much, anyway.

We train the non-warrior nobles to help with organization, speeding things up, then we continue our march, killing a few Ice Wraiths along the way.

At 11 AM, we stop our advance so that the army can rest, and we have an early lunch. After that, we finally reach the Orc Lord's army, apparently interrupting their meal. Forcing them to fight while they're hungry is just one small advantage that we need to take to shift the odds in our favor.

The first thing we see are hundreds upon hundreds of small dots of light from their torches and an assortment of crude light spells. Monsters don't know [Spirit Light], and they hate [Light Magic], but they've easily developed their own version of that spell that doesn't include any Holy/Godly influence.

Then we see six hulking masses rapidly grow within the army as the Grim Giants rise to their feet, each reaching a height of up to twenty meters. Their bodies are thicker than the usual Grim Giant due to the stone armor they're wearing.

I use a Holly to take a closer look and notice that their armor seems rather odd. It's mostly orange and black with hints of green and yellow here and there, and its surface is very rough, giving it a crude appearance.

"They tried to conjure bronze, but their mages are so bad that they only managed to conjure it in mineral form," Lina says as she observes them through my Holly.

Yunia blinks repeatedly in confusion. "Why not just conjure iron, then?" She asks.

Lina shrugs. "Monsters are weird. The ones near Mountainhome like bronze, for some reason."

"WOOOOO…!" The Giants suddenly roar in anger, slightly hurting Alissa's ears, then the monsters all start to yell and taunt at us.

I climb up onto the prow and apply a fair amount of [Godly Language] to my voice as I yell, "STEADY, MEN! HAVE FAITH IN THE GODS, AND WE'LL CRUSH THEM!"

"URAA! URAA! URAA!" Our army starts to chant in response.

We're so far from each other that the taunting dies down on both sides long before we can even see each other.

The monsters might try to harass us before we can get in position, so the girls and I get ready to fight, and we make sure that the army marches in formation.

I split a large chocolate bar between us as emergency rations. The battle might last a while, and chocolate will be the perfect energizer for us.

Our army slowly approaches the lights shining ahead, and the small dots gradually become larger, allowing us to discern more details and identify their units.

Goblins, Living Armors, Spriggans, Orcs, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Ogres, and Grim Giants. Those are the enemies that we'll have to fight, and they certainly outnumber us, even with the militia.

But fuck them. We'll show you what we can do, Arreira.

A commotion stirs among the monsters, and both Trolls and Goblins break out of their line.

They're coming to harass us, initiating the first phase of this battle.