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I Said No Human Sacrifices, Dammit! 17
🕑 Added 2025-09-11 04:22:15 +0000 UTCMy eyes opened.
The scent of cooked meat and delicious fruit wafted to my nostrils, and I observed as the feast was set in front of me.
"I cannot conceive of it; your plan actually worked!"
Humans milled about, especially, a small woman in glasses, alongside a bigger woman with dark skin and a man who wore glasses similar to the small woman, though of significantly worse make.
"I am awakened!" I called, as I reached with my hand to the huge platter of food set before me, grabbed a bunch of cooked meat of dubious and hopefully animal origin in my hand, and then, popped it into my mouth, tasting the gorilla meat, I decided to relax, and after devouring the rest, mostly giant manbearpig meat, I began slowly picking at the fruit while the humans gathered before me.
Some of the fruit, I didn't know, but most of it was just kind of generically sweet.
Oh right they're talking.
"Can you repeat? I was not paying attention, I did just wake up you know," I pointed out, as I put my arms, front legs, whatever, in front of my chest and raised myself, craning my neck so that my head was close to them even as I got into the stereotypical sphinx position, though I wound up tucking my hands under my body because that was just more comfortable.
"Oh. Right. Yes. I'll make it short," the muscular woman stated, gesturing towards the path that lead from the shrine to the capital town. "The Dragon Priestess sent an urgent message, she wishes for the Great Silver One to bear witness to the Conquest of the Overwhelmingly Aggressive And Abrasive Tribe."
"Is that their actual name or did we name them that?" I asked, because there was no way that was their name. "You know what I don't care," I stopped her before she spoke. "What's this about conquest?"
"Oh... the- did you not command the Priestess to go out and conquer?" asked the Scribe. "Because that's what she said."
"No!" I responded. "What do you mean- oh. Oh my- well, me!" I exhaled out through my nose, crystals of ice forming as the cold air went through. "Which way?" I asked.
"Which way what sir?" asked the Scribe, then she seemed to realize. "That way," she said, turning around and pointing directly to where I assume the disaster was happening.
I spread my wings, then thought better of it and shoved the last mouthful of fruit down my gullet, then spread my wings again, and with a leap, took off, first having to jump relatively gently and then enforcing my might and my power upon the world to take flight, increasing my speed.
Damn the world really is fucking huge. I mean, so am I really, but, you don't get an idea just how big the world is from the ground. Also was that rock always floating there? I don't remember seeing a floating rock. I think that's a castle on top of it too.
Oh boy! I wonder if some great and powerful wizard somewhere built a secret magic tower on a floating island. Or oh, maybe it's some sort of super-tech civilization creating a city that floats in the sky. Maybe I'm bearing witness to the golden age of one of those civilizations that inexplicably get wiped out and then many years down the line some plucky isekai hero is going to uncover their secrets and gain massive power.
Before I get distracted again, I bid farewell to the floating rock with a castle on it and turn back to the ground, where I can see a distant battleground, a large open valley between two hills, a river ran down the middle, and there were a whole bunch of structures built along it, not quite buildings, but, platforms, raised towers made of wooden logs, palisades... weapons strewn everywhere, broken, bits of armor, also broken, and bodies.
Lots and lots and lots of bodies.
It smelled really bad too. Smelled of piss, shit, blood and vomit. Right, later I'd have them gather the bodies and prepare for burning them.
This is not the least bit hygienic, what did I spend so much time teaching them for? Well, I hope they've at least washed their hands.
I scanned the visual area and followed the trail of corpses to the sight of my people... The Dragon Priestess had not, in fact, brought an army to wage war against some other tribe. No, she had brought the Dragonguard, in their sexy silver armor, and had basically just walked through an army about two hundred strong.
Eight of the Dragonguard, and the Priestess, stood before what appeared to be the leader of the opposing tribe, their chieftain if you will. See I knew he was the chieftain because he had the biggest hat with the most feathers, and he was also the one wearing the most armor, as he had thick padded furs armored with bronze plates.
The Priestess was actually knocking him around using her staff, even as the man tried to swing what appeared to be a mostly blunt, chipped and ready to shatter thick bronze sword.
She stepped back as he swung, raising her staff to intercept his attack, planting her hands on its shaft so that she could hold it, letting him slide down the length of the burnt wood staff, the momentum carrying him forward as she turned and planted the staff on the ground.
With the full force of the swing redirected, his overcommitment caused him to go all the way to the ground, burying his sword on the tightly packed dirt.
All around them were more dragonguard, each of them holding several prisoners. I counted a total of thirty four Dragonguard... come to think of it, how many do I even have? I know there's always at least half a dozen hanging about, and that they're deployed all over the place since they're basically the Priestess' hands and feet, but...
How many even are there?
You'd think I'd know since I'm the one making their armor, but to be entirely honest I've never paid attention to that sort of thing.
Oh right the fight... The priestess had managed to start landing blow after blow on her enemy, but he managed to block the few power hits as she swung and thrust her staff, her feet moving so fast that it looked like her robes were liquid flowing around them as she seemed to almost dance around his retaliatory swings.
She hit his foot when he left himself unguarded and stepped a little too far forward, her staff managing move in a whip-like swing, that looked like it moved way too little to actually do damage, but, I guess it did because he collapsed into a heap.
It was then, as I witnessed the Priestess about to land the final blow, that I decided to land.
I did not, however, expect that the tremor caused by my landing would knock her flat on her ass.
"I've come."
"Big Fat Lizard!!" someone screamed.
Then the sound of a punch came and I knew a Dragonguard had knocked him out.
Damn.
"What in my name is going on here?!" I demanded to know, planting all four of my claws on the ground and projecting my voice in as booming and powerful a tone as I could, sweeping my head and craning my neck around to ensure that I meant everything and emphasizing it as well with a second sweep.
"Great One!!" the Priestess shouted, jolting to her feet, and raising her staff. "We've been hoping you would bless us with your presence on this most auspicious-"
"Can you make it short? I was interrupted while I was having a really nice dream," I lied, because I didn't remember what I was dreaming about, but she doesn't have to know that.
"Right, yes! In your name we've sought the biggest dealer in the slave trade!" she called. "We've tracked them down to this tribe, which-"
"Hold that thought," I called, as I turned my face to the Chieftain guy who had grabbed his weapon and was moving to try to stab the Priestess in the back while she spoke with me.
I pondered how to solve that issue. Can I do eye beams? Just makes my eyes tingle. Okay I gotta figure that out. For now, I just opened my mouth slightly, my jaws parting just enough that I could send out a thin stream of cold air that hit the dude's arm and froze it off. No, not froze it in place, I mean, froze it off, it just sort of fell along with the battered and beat up sword.
When it hit the ground it crashed like glass.
He screamed and then the Priestess turned around and roundhouse kicked him, it was actually perfectly executed too, and the spin, man, she really could give classes. She made him spin in place and I'm shocked his neck didn't break, he actually did like, a full seven twenty spin, before landing on the ground.
"Oh you should probably heal him enough so he doesn't die," I said. "I'd do it myself, but that's what I have you for."
She pouted, but tapped him with her staff, and his breathing evened and he seemed less likely to just die, I didn't really know if that would work to keep him alive, but, still...
"Okay, what were you telling me? Something about slavers?"
"Right! These people are attacking others, enslaving their people, then selling them to other tribes or abusing them. We know you hate slavers Great One, so in order to do your will we've tracked them down, and killed them!"
Riiiight.
"Okay, but- how are we better than them if we do the same thing they do?" I asked.
"We are better because we free their slaves," she responded.
I wanted to argue, but it was hard to disagree with her opinion. "Fair enough," I was forced to admit. "But that's not just as simple as undoing their shackles and telling them to go home. You need to have a program to reinsert them into society, help get them back to their origin tribes, and even support for those who either have nowhere to belong to, or who are too young and have been separated from their parents."
"That's a lot more complex than I expected. I... might have hoped it would be as easy as just telling them to go home."
"Well it's not," I said, exhaling hard enough that I actually sent a bunch of stuff flying and shaking my head left and right. "I appreciate that you wanted to do something to impress me, but putting yourself and so many others in danger, well, it's not good."
"But this was barely a danger!" the priestess said, "thanks to your blessings, their weapons simply bounce off of the armor you have granted us, and if they do injure us," she said, "hey you come over here, yes you," she said, "with the cut on your thigh!"
She pointed at a Dragonguard who was in turn pointing a finger at herself, and then, the woman approached. She had a tiny little cut on the outside of her thigh. In hindsight, maybe the armor was a bit too skimpy, the faulds should've prevented that from happening, I could make them longer...
"See?" the Priestess said, tapping the girl with the staff. "This is like, the heaviest wound I've had to heal! And thanks to the Water Tribe, we've improved so much in our fighting techniques that we managed to win without taking a single casualty!"
"Well that's a big and tough act to follow..."
She looked confused at that, but I didn't bother explaining.
"Ensure that everyone is safe, make sure no one has any wounds, you know what I've said about dirty injuries right?"
"Leaving them to fester can cause infections!" the priestess said, "I've ensured that we brought Super Clear Water from Lady Aqua's lake to clean up and our supplies also contain clean clothes for everyone to wear," she explained. "And as you instructed we made sure not to shit where we eat!"
Vulgar, but, I'm glad to hear that they've been keeping up with the advice I half-heartedly gave them when they were asking for wisdom.
"Good. Okay, here's your next steps after that - look for any sort of ledger or record, and gather the survivors from the tribe, I want to make sure we can track down as many sold slaves as possible and bring them back to their families and tribes if and where possible," I explained.
"And what if the buyers resist giving up their slaves?" the priestess asked.
"We're not asking them to give up their slaves," I said, simply and clearly. Then I realized that she could interpret that as me telling her to go to war with and attack tribes that didn't let the slaves go. "Negotiate with them. Remember that your words are my words and your will is my will."
"Of course Great One! And, well- if I am to speak in your name it would make sense if I looked like you wouldn't it?"
I looked at her.
"Nice try. Tell you what, resolve this situation, and I'll grant you wings," I said. I'm not sure if she'll be able to fly with them, but she'll at least have the wings. And speaking of wings, I spread mine. "Oh and all the slavers will be put in detainment permanently. Since you guys figured out how to make the mill work, I've got an idea for one manually powered by humans, it'll be a great way to put them to use."
Because, realistically, keeping prisoners simply wasn't productive, but making them do the physical manual labor no one else wants to do, well, that's just good use of resources.
Is that hypocritical of me I wonder... Punishing slavers by making them slaves, he who fights monsters and all that... See this is why I leave this sort of things for the humans to handle.
As I flew away, I began to ponder what I could do to make the hard laborers' situation better without actually making it not a punishment, and if it'd even be worth the time...
Maybe I'll discuss it with my pillow later, my nap was interrupted, and I really want to go back to bed.
