My Reincarnation as a Chicken

Chapter 304 War For Larm Pt.XII

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Amethyst had dominated the battlefield with her presence ever so effortlessly. Because of this grand debut, the little drake couldn’t help but feel overly proud of her achievements. She wanted to jump down and start squashing the opponents so everyone would praise her, but she also felt like getting her scales bloodied wouldn’t be praiseworthy and fighting from above would earn her even more praise.

Maybe a downpour of shards? No, she couldn’t control it well enough to avoid hitting allies. In that case, some blinding lights? No, that would also blind her allies.

Oh, that was right. Amethyst alwas had that skill.

No, that didn’t make for a good enough flashy debut worthy of praise! She needed to be super extravagant to earn the focus of every single body on the field. That was right, Amethyst was the super star of the battlefield and needed everyone’s eyes glittering at her beauty and elegance.

This mindset of hers was super reinforced by a certain person while she was training her hardest in the dungeon. As she pondered on what her next move should be a shadow loomed over her. With a snort that could fell trees, the shadow snarled at the little drake. Confused, Amethyst turned around to see the other dragon right behind her. The dragon snapped at her, trying to consume her in one bite, but the drake was faster.

She jumped onto a second platform, then fired a barrage of crystal shards at the dragon’s face, causing it to winch in slight annoyance, before roaring powerfully, shattering the shards. Furiously, it flapped its wings hard to get higher into the sky, where Amethyst’s shards didn’t reach.

It took in a large breath, sucking up a massive amount of air – a sign that a breath attack was incoming. Amethyst took notice of this and immediately started to prepare a counter. She would have preferred to simply set up a wall of crystal to protect herself, but the casualties she would let build up felt unbecoming of Hinotori’s strongest familiar, so instead, she took in a big breath herself.

Five crystals appeared before her, all separated by a 4-metre distance, each bigger than the last. These crystals were [Magnifying Shards] that boosted the power of any magic that passed through them. Amethyst had practiced numerous times in the Dungeon master’s room – since it had regenerative properties – and had quickly built up her power.

The [Magnifying Shards] boosted magic power by at least half and the more shards were present, the more boost there would be in magic power. In fact, they increased the magic power by an exponential degree. This was a technique Amethyst was extremely pleased to discover as it meant she could make up for her short-comings in raw power with this for now.

As bright orange light fire erupted from the mouth of the dragon, a bright purplish light shot out of Amethyst’s, right through the [Magnifying Shards], turning bigger as they passed through the other, and eventually coming out so big it was on the same level as the breath attack from the dragon and both powers clashed, illuminating the entire battlefield.

It paused the battle for only a singular moment, but in order not to lose their lives, everyone continued to fight desperately. Amethyst, surprised the dragon with a barrage of shard attacks from the bottom, throwing it off. As the dragon stopped to deal with the new problem, Amethyst’s blast hit it, boring a hole through its skull.

However, rather than burning away, the dragon simply faded out, almost as if it was never there. Almost like it were some sort of…

“Illusion! That dragon was an illusion!?”, Amethyst exclaimed, flabbergasted at the sheer thought. Following that discovery, two gryphons swooped in, grabbing by the tail and a leg.

‘Eh? Eh? Eeehh!?’, She shouted internally, surprised by just how quick those two were. They’d done it so swiftly and stealthily that she hadn’t been able to defend against it and now she dangled pretty dangerously from these two’s grasp.

‘Oi, oi, swooping in to kidnap me is a bit underhanded!’

‘Huh? This is a war! Nothing’s underhanded you stupid drake!’

‘Don’t waste your time on her Nyxon. Let’s just drop her!’

Amethyst felt a vein burst at being called an idiot. The great familiar of Hinotori was stupid? She wasn’t going to tolerate any form of insults to her as it also insinuated disrespect for her master.

She didn’t want to have to do this, but as much as these two gryphons infuriated her, they were right. This was a war. Nothing was underhanded or obscene in a war. A better phrasing would be, everything in a war is unsightly, underhanded and obscene. It was up to those participating in the war to change the look. In that case, she definitely could use that skill.

“Explode.”, Following her command to the letter, the gryphons simply exploded, blood and organs flying everywhere.

‘Can’t believe I had to use that skill.’, Feeling a little bit embarrassed, Amethyst stood on a platform of floating crystal and reached a certain point right above the centre of the battlefield. She created a [Magnifying Shard], then cleared her throat. ‘Well, if I’m going to have to use it, might as well make it gra-eh?’

Amethyst was cut-off by an unexpected sound.

“Woohoo! Let’s get them, Arisu, Hefla!”, the sound of cheeky girl’s high-pitched voice sounded through the battlefield. An odd sight appeared before them. What was very obviously a human girl wielding a scythe, was riding on the back of a massive rabbit monster. This monster had jet-black fur, with ivory horns growing out of its head and a wrecking ball for a tail. Beside them was another rabbit, with pinkish silver fur and fangs instead of horns.

The existence of a human in Larm was enough to leave some members the opposing side in shock, but they all recovered and tried to kill her. That was one of their biggest mistakes. Aside the fact that they were underestimating the girl, they should have looked at who it was she had appeared with.

Two kings that had been battling each other for quite a while and caused quite some noise in Larm, were her allies in this fight.

Let alone touching the human girl, a majority of them couldn’t even touch the rabbits. With Hefla’s massive horns piercing through opponents and Arisu’s breath attacks, the North found it impossible to even get close to the girl.

“This isn’t fun… I’ll go get something done myself. That way big sis will praise me!” Almost no one heard what she said as she jumped off the rabbit and charged at a group of trolls. The trolls felt a bit underwhelmed, but wouldn’t mind crushing a human or two.

Unfortunately for them, once they interacted her, it became obvious that this was as much her playground as it was the rabbits. The scythe-wielding demon in the form of a little girl cut through enemies like paper. Beheading, dismembering, dividing, no matter how tough their defence was, her blade cut through like a hot knife through butter.

‘Hey! They’re stealing all of my spotlight.’, Amethyst, watching from above thought while looking at it. She then cleared her throat, before shouting through the magnifying shards.

“Enemies of the West, kneel!”

A heavy pressure descended on the battlefield as all trolls, mountain goblins, wyverns, harpies, gryphons and manticores fell to the ground. For the third time, the entire battlefield went silent as a majority of the North’s forces simply disappeared, confirming Amethyst’s claim even further.

Still, there was one very real individual who didn’t kneel down even after Amethyst’s command. The biggest gryphon that had yet to make a single move. This gryphon overlooked the battlefield from a position so high that Amethyst had to look up to even get a look at his face. And it was one of apathy.

The gryphon clearly had no interest in the battlefield and was rather looking out for something. It was like nothing happening down there concerned him, not even Amethyst’s [Overlord] skill. This wasn’t sitting well with her. If [Overlord] didn’t work, what kind of skill would work on him? Maybe she had to try again, this time with more force.

“You! Gryphon! Fall down, now!”, she commanded, but this only managed to garner the gryphon’s attention. “You! W-Why isn’t overlord working on you?”

“Hm?”, He cocked his head, clearly unsure what she was speaking off.

“I used [Overlord] to force all enemies to kneel! Why the hell are you unaffected? Answer me!”

“Is that supposed to be a joke?”, Rather than an answer, he mocked her.

“Ha?”

“I see… you are being serious about not understanding.” He lost any sort of jovial tone he once had and frowned, like he had just been offended in the worst possible way. “Why would I see ants that struggle against illusions as enemies?”

“W-What?”

“You wish for me to treat you as an enemy? Let me show you.”, Upon his declaration, the gryphon seemingly disappeared into thin air. The next thing Amethyst knew, she was in a crater in the ground, her dense scales broken and a hole punctured through her stomach.

Amethyst didn’t even catch a single moment of what just happened to her as she blinked, looking around trying to make sense of what the hell just happened.

‘W-Why isn’t [Overlord] worki-’

“That skill is nothing in my presence. The only one with the authority to command others, is me! Don’t you ever assume you can control [Pride]!”

He declared, then flew off.

***

“That little abomination shouldn’t be allowed to roam free.”, Angrily, a boy snarled as he overlooked the battlefield. His eyes were trained on a combination of three children. Specifically, the tallest amongst them – a girl with a mix of silver and black hair and red eyes. This girl was going on a rampage with a scythe, mowing down the opposing troops like they were toys, but her very existence made the boy’s skin crawl.

“I wish to annihilate that insult to my queen. May I?”, he threw the request to the kitten that rested on the rock next to him.

“That is mother’s dear little sister. If you touch her, I will kill you.”, The kitten threatened with a completely casual tone. This wasn’t the first time Julian had suggested this and it wouldn’t be the last time. Maou had resolved to turn him down every single time.

Heaving a heavy sigh, the boy decided to change the conversation topic.

“Hm, I didn’t expect you to interfere, master.”, The vampire butler muttered with a cheeky grin on his face. The kitten couldn’t take the vampire’s cheekiness. He jumped off the rock and headed deeper into the forest.

What he was referring to was the

“What about the Tyrant of the North?”

“What about him?”

“Are you not going to have me or your new subordinate handle him?”

“If they can’t defeat minor threats like these on their own, how do you expect them to be worthy of being in mother’s service?”

“I guess so. However, maybe your new subordinate should stand guard, in case they need assisting?”

“Hm, if you notice anything unusual happening, take care of it.”

The devil silently nodded with both arms folded behind his back. He waited for the pair to go out of sight before turning around to watch the battlefield. His mind was in turmoil, holding back the urge to say some unnecessary things just in case both were reading his mind.

At this point, he wasn’t certain what to think of his new master. First, it was fear, then maybe he wasn’t such a bad person and now, he was confused. The indecisive ambiguous cat who simply went with the flow most of the time wasn’t the kind of master the devil felt like it could get used to.

***

Hinotori’s Mansion

“I didn’t expect to find you here, Reiman.”, Kara, who just entered Hinotori’s room said with wide eyes. The rat man sitting behind a desk with baggy eyes said. From the way his hair stood messily, it was obvious that he wasn’t in the best of states.

“Well, I wanted to move Lady Hinotori to the basement, but none of us have been able to move her from the bed.” He said, looking at the massive egg that was being cushioned by multiple pillows. He thought back to the day she was evolving. As if she knew that no one would be able to move her, she quickly moved into her room to her bed and immediately passed out. In fact, she seemed out of it, like she was on auto-pilot. “I’m here to guard her in case anything happens.”

“Is that so? Y-You’re so dependable, Reiman.”

“I have to be dependable, since I’m the one our master trusted everything to after all.”, he chuckled at the end, but it sounded dry and exhausted.

“Are you feeling alright?”

“Hm? Oh yes. I’m perfectly fine, just a tad bit confused, but fine nonetheless.”

“You’re ever so reliant.”

Sensing her frustration, Reiman decided to investigate the matter. “Is there something bothering you?”

“Is it that easy to see?”

“I wouldn’t say you have a good poker face.”, he mused, but that didn’t do well to lift her spirits. Rather, he perfectly understood her anguish.

“It must be hard.”

“Excuse me?”

“Not being as strong as your sister, or as powerful with magic as the others. You don’t have the ability to gather information like I do, and you can’t deal with other people properly. If anything, I’d say you’re useless at almost anything you do, isn’t that right?”

Having heard some especially harsh things, Kara started to bite her own lip, while looking out the window, beyond the balcony and in the direction where sounds of screaming and explosions could be heard.

“With that said, there’s still something you can do that no one else can.”

“What?”

“I don’t know. You’ll eventually figure it out one day and you will undoubtedly become a very important asset to lady Hinotori. No matter what, never let yourself feel like you’re useless. You were innovative enough to come up with the plan for acquiring the prison camp, although the enemy had a means to counter that.”

He only made her feel even worse with that. Her plan had been completely demolished by the enemy in a heartbeat. It made her feel like, ‘What’s the point of any of it?’. She’d tried her hardest, but she was never good at anything and even when she tried her hardest. She was absurdly weak for an ogre – a war ogre no less, her magic power wasn’t great enough to actually rival even the best mages in her father’s camp and someone with less experience like Tsuna easily overtook her both in magic power and learning ability. She really was on the verge of giving up.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, it may not be apparent now, but there’s something only you can do that will make Lady Hinotori happy, so don’t think so much about how you aren’t as strong as the others and instead focus on things you think you can do.”

As crude and crass as it was, Reiman still found a way to instil hope in her. She looked out at the battlefield and rubbed her stomach.

“Something only I can do, huh? Yes, I guess this might count.”

Reiman smile contently as he looked at her but frowned upon looking at the egg.

How would Lady Hinotori react to Kara when she woke up?

When this thought came to mind, the egg seemed to twitch. He could have sworn he saw the egg shake, but it was now perfectly still and unmoving. Maybe it was his tiredness affecting his cognitive ability.

‘After this, I’ll need to sleep for a long while.’

He then looked at Kara again. She was staring seriously in the direction of the battle, her hands shaking. Reiman would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous as well. His skill had proven useless at the end. Everything had been completely sent into disarray and now he felt stupid for relying so much on the skill simply because it was a Unique one.

‘Please let this be resolved smoothly.’