“Grrr, ROAR!”
“Uwah!”
Moe swung her long tail in a wide circle on the ground. The soldiers who had been possessed and attacking her were blown away all at once.
“Be careful, you’ll get caught by her tail! Uwah!”
Even the soldiers who managed to avoid the initial strike were caught by the repeated tail attacks, being blown away one after another.
“Don’t get close. Attack from a distance with bows or something.”
The captain, judging that close combat was disadvantageous, ordered his subordinates to attack from a distance.
(Boohoo, my tail attacks aren’t hitting anymore.)
The soldiers began to maintain their distance, and no more soldiers were blown away by Moe’s tail attacks. In this form, her weight increased significantly, which was a drawback as it greatly reduced her movement speed. Therefore, if they didn’t enter her attack range, the soldiers couldn’t inflict any damage on her.
“Hey, your attacks aren’t hitting anymore. And the soldiers who were blown away don’t seem to have taken much damage. Isn’t Moe going to be at a disadvantage if this continues?”
“That’s why I said we should have finished them off, but you masters told us not to kill them, making it difficult!”
Kent, watching from the air, looked at Moe with unease. She was following the instructions of Kent and the others, taking great care not to kill her opponents. As a result, the soldiers who were blown away seemed to be returning to the battle line after a short break.
“But, it’ll be all right! Moe’s attacks aren’t just physical!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You’ll see if you watch!”
To Kent, who looked anxious as his attacks weren’t hitting, Fuuko confidently replied that there was no need to worry.
“ROAR!”
*Swish, swish.*
“UWAHHHHHH!”
When Moe moved her wings, a strong wind erupted, and soldiers were blown away one after another to who knows where.
“Hey, hey, they flew far away, are they okay?”
“Yes, it looks like she’s creating wind with her wings, but she’s actually using wind magic. It’s only meant to blow them outside the forest, so there should be a force to soften the impact before they hit the ground.”
“I-is that so?”
This attack inflicted heavy damage on the Kingdom’s Army soldiers, successfully reducing their numbers significantly.
“BUOOOAAAHHH!”
“Ouch, ouch, ouch!”
“It’s too hot to get close!”
After that, Moe spewed flames from her mouth.
“Whoooooooosh.”
Then, the flames suddenly turned into ice.
“Hah!”
*Rumble, rumble, rumble.*
“Uwah, I can’t stand!”
When Moe lightly jumped and landed, a large earthquake occurred, bringing about disaster-level destruction to the surroundings. Before they knew it, a considerable number of the 40,000 soldiers had been blown out of the forest, leaving only about 10,000 remaining.
“Yummy. *Munch, munch. Gulp.*”
Moe lumbered through the forest and casually swallowed a soldier who happened to be nearby.
“Hey, is that thing eating people?”
“I don’t want to be eaten!”
“Hey, desertion is a serious crime!”
While being outmatched by a single dragon, Moe launched a strategy to inflict further psychological damage. The sight plunged the soldiers into terror, and some began to flee.
“Hmph, *spit*.”
Moe discreetly spat out the soldier she had swallowed when the soldiers weren’t looking. Covered in various liquids, it flew far away.
“D-don’t come near me!”
“Ru-run!”
Moe slowly blew away the soldiers as she moved, finally reaching the logistics unit stationed in the rear. This unit’s main mission was to transport supplies, and with only a few guards, they had little offensive capability. The carts loaded with supplies were slow, so once Moe got to them, they couldn’t move with the carts, and the soldiers had no choice but to abandon their supplies and flee.
“Itaaaadakimasu. *Munch, munch. There’s so much food.*”
With no one left to resist them, Moe began to rummage through the food and eat. Her appetite seemed to be enormous, and the amount of food rapidly decreased.
“If we lose our supplies, further advance is impossible. Retreat, retreat!”
Having lost their supply of provisions, the Kingdom’s Army judged that further advance was impossible. They abandoned their supplies on the spot and began to withdraw.
“Is it over?”
“It seems so. They’ve completely lost their will to fight.”
Kent, watching the retreating army from the air, judged that the battle was over. Fuuko held the same opinion.
“Moe, you did great. It looks like there were no casualties, you did well.”
“You did great, Moe!”
“Dad and Mom praised me.”
Kent and Fuuko descended to Moe’s side and praised her performance. Although she looked formidable, Moe was delighted to be praised and looked happy.
“Well, let’s return now.”
“Okay, Mom.”
“Whoa, you’ve gotten smaller!”
When Fuuko told Moe to return to her original form, Moe became a lizard of her original size. Kent exclaimed in surprise at the sight.
“The Kingdom’s Army has some pretty good stuff, don’t they? Hey, Master, is it all right to take some back? Let’s use it for dinner. I’m tired of just bread and soup, you know!”
“Hmm, I wonder if it’s okay to take it?”
Fuuko was rummaging through the carts that Moe had destroyed, looking for food that could be used for dinner. Since it was the Kingdom’s Army’s food, Kent hesitated about whether it was okay to take it, but thinking that it would just rot if left there, he silently acquiesced to Fuuko’s actions.
“A great catch, a great catch!”
“Most of it was dried meat, but there were some good ingredients mixed in, probably for senior officers.”
“Really, the important people in the kingdom eat well!”
“For now, let’s just take what we can carry back.”
The carts contained a lot of water and dried meat, presumably for the rank-and-file soldiers, but there were also a few high-quality ingredients. They guessed these were for the higher-ups in the army, but there was no way to confirm. For now, they gratefully decided to use the ingredients and, dividing the load, returned to their campsite.
“The quality of the food has improved a bit. I’m tired and so hungry! Let’s eat quickly.”
“Yes, yes. Well then, let’s eat.”
When Kent and the others returned to their campsite, they immediately began preparing dinner using the secured ingredients. Moe helped to some extent before saying she was going to eat and disappeared into the forest. Kent and Fuuko were left to eat dinner together.
“The plan was successful, but since there were no casualties, they might attack the Duchy again.”
This operation was a great success, but the Kingdom’s Army had few casualties. Kent worried that they might regroup and invade the Duchy again.
“We just did what we were asked and succeeded, so from now on, we can leave it to the Saintess or someone, right?”
“That’s true, but if something like this happens again, we might be asked again.”
“Indeed, it would be annoying to be asked repeatedly. Well, it’s like a gut feeling, but I don’t think they’ll advance again.”
Fuuko, with her intuition as a national god, believed that they would not invade the Duchy again. When she told Kent this, the situation hadn’t changed at all, but her words had a strange persuasive power, and he felt a peculiar sense of relief.
