Orcs.

Monsters usually classified as D-rank, frequently encountered by adventurers who had moved beyond the beginner stage. Monsters whose breeding rate rivaled that of goblins, ensuring that the adventurers' guild never ran out of extermination requests. Monsters that inflicted terrible damage on ordinary villagers unless their numbers were regularly culled.

That was what orcs were.

To veteran adventurers, orcs were nothing special. But the moment they gathered into a horde, the danger rose sharply.

Despite their prolific breeding, orcs rarely traveled in large groups. Once a group grew beyond a certain size, some of its older members would leave. Those individuals would breed elsewhere and establish groups of their own. That was their natural behavior.

After all, too many rapidly breeding orcs in one place would soon exhaust the food supply. They ate more than goblins and, unlike humans, did not farm. Their habits had developed accordingly.

There were, however, times when even orcs formed large hordes.

The first was when a group exhausted the food in its territory and repeatedly encountered other small groups while migrating. The second was when a higher-ranking individual appeared, keeping the orcs that would normally leave once they had grown from departing and bringing them under its command.

Since ancient times, overwhelming an enemy through sheer numbers had been a powerful tactic. That applied to monsters as well as humans. Even if the individual orcs were only D-rank, a large horde attacking a village was a serious crisis for most veteran adventurers.

And now someone had suddenly come rushing into the adventurers' guild, pale-faced, to report an approaching orc horde?

That meant an army large enough to sweep away an entire village with ease was on its way. Chilture's adventurers and guild staff alike immediately tried to assess the situation.

'An orc horde!'

Amid the commotion, Claire's hatred of monsters, which had quieted somewhat during her time with the slime, began blazing fiercely again. Orcs had been among the monsters that attacked the village where she once lived.

'Orcs!'

Meanwhile, the slime realized that this approaching horde was the raid a viewer had mentioned in chat.

+++

GRRROOOUGH!

The orcs heading toward Chilture were furious.

Even orcs too unintelligent to use the system had emotions. They had enough brains for simple communication. Without at least that much intelligence, they could never have obeyed a higher-ranking individual's words in the first place.

Their king. The pinnacle of their kind.

The Orc King had commanded them:

["March! March! March! Keep moving in the direction I tell you! There is a human village there. Go attack it! Multiply our kind!"]

That order was absolute. The words of the Orc King, the highest-ranking individual of their kind, were like a binding spell etched into their instincts. When he spoke with intent, they had to obey without question.

But carrying out an order did not mean moving like emotionless machines. They merely had to obey; everything else remained as it normally was.

And so the orcs grew angry.

The Orc King had provided no specifics. He had simply told them to travel in the direction he indicated and attack the village they found.

Orcs knew nothing of geography. At most, they knew the terrain around their own habitats.

When they first received the order, they had thought:

Surely they would reach the village after walking a little while, at most!

But they had been wrong. They had spent days doing nothing but marching. Marching endlessly.

When would this end? How much farther did they have to go?!

When the hell would that human village appear?!!!

The farther they traveled, the longer they marched, the more furious they became at this seemingly endless trek.

Yet none of that anger was directed at the Orc King. Their instincts were rooted in the certainty that the highest-ranking individual was not someone against whom they could vent their rage.

Instead, their anger focused entirely on the march itself—and on the humans who were the reason they had to march.

When the village finally came into view, their emotions intensified further.

Joy at finally seeing it. Rage that these bastards had put them through so much hardship. Hunger that made them want to devour humans or anything else immediately. Lust that drove them to multiply their kind as commanded.

GRRROOOOOAAARGH!!!

More than a hundred orcs went berserk, charging toward the village as one. They paid no heed to the armed humans standing before it.

In their eyes, humans were merely targets to be attacked.

+++

GRRROOOOOARGH!!!

The slime had joined Claire and the other adventurers outside the village to defend it. Through its eyes, the viewers watched the mass of orcs charging toward them.

▶Whoa, that's a shitload of them.

[Noblesse Fire]▶Wouldn't one breath attack take care of them all?

▶Don't judge everything by dragon standards.

▶Typical old fart: can't see things from anyone else's perspective.

[Noblesse Fire]▶Where do you live?

▶Lmaoooo

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Bwahahaha! Excellent! Finally, we'll get to see some proper headbutting!

▶The wolf bastard's excited.

▶Guess having something worth watching for once beats getting nagged all day?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Shut the hell up!

Unlike the tense adventurers, the viewers watched and chatted without a care. They weren't the ones fighting, and they didn't believe a horde like this could defeat the slime anyway.

The most eager participant in chat was the slime itself.

▷Orcs! I'll beat them!

▶Lol, good luck.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶You can do it, Squishy~.

[Squishy Queen]▶Go, my kin! Lay waste to those stinking wretches!

[Tailwind King]▶Why the sudden diss?

At that moment, the Orc King, who had been participating only anonymously, entered the chat under his username.

▶What's this?

▶Why's this trolling bastard here with his username? Lmao

[Tailwind King]▶I negotiated with Smartass to get my username unblocked.

▶When did that happen?

▶Scroll up through the history. They did negotiate.

▶Wait, he actually agreed to it? Lmaooo

[Free Spirit]▶If he starts trolling, I'll keep slapping him with the maximum timeout, anonymous mode included. Yep.

▶Damn, he's playing hardball lol.

▶That's how you have to deal with trolls lol.

▶Ah! Troll x!

The viewers who didn't care whether the Orc King's block had been lifted asked him:

▶So how many did you send this time?

[Tailwind King]▶About 150 this time. I'll send more depending on how the fight goes.

▶Niiice lol. Really squeezing every drop out of the combat content.

'Send even more!'

The slime was already eager, but learning that the orcs in sight weren't the end of it fired it up even further.

"Hey."

As they waited, watching the orcs, the male adventurer beside Claire spoke to her.

"What?"

"You're not planning to go in with that slime riding on you, are you?"

He frowned at the slime perched on her head. From the outside, she looked like a thoughtless fool planning to take a pet slime into battle.

"Looks like you take it on quests too, but that's one thing when you're doing them alone. Right now, we need you to fight properly. Leave the slime in the village and come back."

Though they said nothing, the nearby adventurers privately agreed with him. It was hardly their fault for thinking that way. They had never seen the slime in action. At most, they had seen it quivering on Claire's head.

The adventurers in Chilture suspected that Claire's slime was the one Godric's Party had been looking for on their previous visit. They had seen the flyers too—flyers full of strange claims about it being quick, emitting light, understanding human speech, and being friendly toward people.

Leaving the other odd claims aside, they assumed that even if it was quick, that was only by slime standards. They were worried that it would tumble off her head during the fight and get in the way.

Claire offered no lengthy defense. She simply said,

"It's fine. Bouncy's strong."

"Even a strong slime can't be that..."

"Stronger than me."

"What?"

For a moment, the adventurers thought they had misheard her.

"What did you just..."

"Mages, get ready!"

Before he could ask again, the adventurer in command shouted. The orc horde was beginning to enter spell range. Every adventurer present stopped talking and looked ahead.

The mages waiting in the rear drew on their mana in unison, preparing their most powerful spells.

"Now! Fire!"

FWHOOSH!

BOOOOM!

CRAAACKLE!

Raging flames, blasts of wind, spears of lightning, and enormous rocks flew toward the orc horde. The orcs charging at the front were struck dead or hurled far away.

Even so, the rest charged on without faltering. The resentment and rage built up over their endless march would not fade so easily.

"Archers! Fire!"

FWOOSH-FWOOSH-FWOOSH!

While the mages prepared their next spells, the archers immediately loosed their arrows. The shafts traced arcs through the air and rained down on the orcs like a sudden shower.

Some were struck in vital spots and died on the spot. Others, hit in unfortunate places, fell and were trampled by the orcs behind them. Most, however, kept charging even with arrows lodged in them.

"What the hell is wrong with them?!"

"Why aren't they hesitating at all?!"

The adventurers were rattled by the orcs' relentless, berserker-like charge.

Several alternating volleys of spells and arrows had brought down only fifty. A hundred orcs still remained.

The front-line adventurers snorted forcefully and drew their weapons. They were ready to charge the instant the signal came.

Then—

BOING!

'Orcs! I'll beat them!'

The slime leaped off Claire's head and bounced toward the orcs.

BOING! BOING!

"Hey! Your slime...!"

"It's fine."

"What do you mean, it's fine?!"

The adventurer beside Claire was about to protest again.

BOOOING!

WHAAAM!

GRRROOOARGH!

The slime rammed the foremost orc with Bounce Tackle. The orc flew backward, taking several others with it. Those farther back toppled over as well, halting their charge.

Of course, the slime's attack did not end there.

BOOOING!

After completing its first tackle, the slime landed and sprang toward another nearby orc.

WHAAAM!

GRRROOOUGH!

That orc, too, went flying, taking nearby orcs along with it.

"Wh-what the hell?! That slime!"

It was a truly unbelievable sight. Every adventurer except Claire stared wide-eyed at the extraordinary spectacle the slime had created.

Then Claire asked the adventurer in command,

"Aren't we going?"

Although the slime's attacks had stopped some of the orcs, the rest were still charging toward them.

"...! Chaaaarge!"