Chapter 57: Ain’t a Leader no more

Author: Please vote at the poll in chapter 56

"Haah... Good thing it went well."

Eleanor who's somehow not affected by the large boom she created went out of the crater she made as a "speaker", not even thinking about the extent of damage she could have possibly done, she only thinks of one thing currently.

_That "signal" will surely damage the pink bats._

She, after all, is tasked to destroy the attackers of the first layer settlement, thus she is only thinking of the damage her actions might have done toward her target and nothing else, honestly, she would have made a good war criminal, the thing is, she is not particularly interested in any military position, probably, she will go back from being a researcher after the war.

"Ellie, the battle between the brainwashed army and the goblin-monkey army just ended."

Said Arachne through a spider that jumped on Eleanor's shoulder through a web, Eleanor nodded, she was quite pleased with her commanding performance as well as the cooperation of Sophia's loyal soldiers. If not for them, her being a commander will not even be possible.

"Alright, I'll go to the battlefield immediately."

She replied as she walked her way to the site, the crater she went out from was not that far away from the site of the battle, thus she didn't need to travel far, after a few minutes she had already reached the core of the first layer battle, as she saw the battlefield, even she who can be considered a war veteran cannot help but squint her eyes a little as she saw the gore of the seen.

Goblins, the majority are the generic small and weak members of the brainwashed army were strewn all over the place as bloodied corpses, some were intact but had all of their bones dislocated and crushed into unimaginable angles and shapes, surely these people are the ones who met the rage of the heavy cavalry, from the footprint of a goat embedded on the goblins' body, one can conclude that all of this injuries are caused just by a stomp from their mighty steed.

Some corpses however are not so lucky, actually the lucky ones who at least have their whole body intact are in the minority and most of the goblins got caught up in the explosions of the water attribute landmines that they so recklessly stepped on, green legs, arms and heads were scattered while gigantic and tiny innards that are mushed and barely recognizable were littered like trash.

The orcs have it more fortunate because they are big, they cannot be trampled on because that will quite literally be like jumping past boulders of flesh.

"Commander, the enemies have given up exactly thirty minutes before your arrival... or more like passed out. Thus all of them are being held prisoners."

Eleanor looked at Kabuto who casually reported all of this like the gore in front of them did not even exist, probably because he was already dead, so he could not imagine the pain people who got trampled on like rags felt.

"... Passed out?"

Eleanor is already certain on what is the reason for the brainwashing becoming undone, but she still wants confirmation thus she asks the most trusted scout and assassin of Sophia.

"Yes, the superb plan of the commander got the whole forest in disarray, delayed the march of the enemy from all layers, and most importantly, eliminated the only strategic advantage of the alliance against us."

Eleanor's eyes opened wide as she contemplated.

_Is it really that powerful?_

Eleanor is someone who knows her magic power, thus when she first drafted the plan, she knew that she would disturb the enemies, but, just to some extent, maybe it was because of her passive or unconfident nature that she subconsciously underestimated herself, she just limited her calculations to "heavy damage at the first layer and minimal to moderate damages for people outside of it and never did she thought that the term "turned the forest into disarray" will be a good description of her plan.

_Mostly, it should be disturbed..._

As she was thinking that, Kabuto continued to ask.

"What do we do with the prisoners, Commander Eleanor?"

Eleanor went out of her trance, for some reason her cheeks rose red as she answered.

"Take the prisoners of wars, go get the wheeled cells for these people."

Kabuto nodded and as he was about to be swallowed by the shadow, Eleanor made an additional command towards him.

"I'll give the commanding rights on the prisoners to you, be sure to not harm them and present them to your lady in one peace. Of course, you can do so otherwise if a civilian or a soldier was hurt."

She just finished her command when Lyra who was riding Philo came into her view, alongside her was the hastily created archer unit, they seemed to be incredibly exhausted because of the war.

"...Standby for new orders it will come real soon so don't leave my side."

Philo already become quite tall due to the growth spurt, he now towered over his master the statement is also true for Lyra, they became quite close when Lyra realized that she could not shoot while she was moving which is essential as one of the main guns of Sophia if ever she got into a one on one fight, so she trained with him.

"... I will."

Eleanor nodded a little looked at the spider and asked.

"Is Sophia still fighting."

The head of the spider bobbed up and down as the voice of Arachne came out.

"Yes, and I must say that the fight is quite intense, it is... like a fight of two biological weapons that were shaped into children because their creators were pedophiles. I have to withdraw my spiders and stop directly watching because they are dying left and right."

Eleanor gulped for she knew that Arachne was someone who would not tell lies if the matter concerned her safety, she knew that what she was saying was true and she could even confirm it by closing her eyes, faint bellows of huge explosions that were just muffled because of the distance between her and the epicenter of the sound can be heard.

She was worried about Sophia, whether she liked it or not she knew herself that she had fallen in love with her, and naturally, she didn't want her beloved to come into harm's way, she knitted her brows, not minding Philo or Lyra, worry evident on them.

"I wonder if I-"

She was about to say something, something that Arachne had already predicted, thus she immediately rebuked her.

"Nope, no, no way, you will just die, I will personally stop you even if that means going against the restraints of the system itself if you dared step foot on that battlefield."

Arachne already encountered a lot of people, including humans of course, and thus well aware of how the thinking of those in love works they will do anything, even sacrificing themselves for the person they so much admired. But, Sophia, her master obviously will not want that, and as a subordinate, she is tasked to stop anything undesirable by her master from happening.

"B-but what if she..."

Eleanor's heart seemed to get pierced by a thousand needles as she tried to come up with anything that could help Sophia, but no matter how hard she rattled her brilliant brain, she could not come up with anything that could help a person who could raise a whole smooth brained goblin community from scratch, hell she cannot even imagine her losing any fight, but she is also well aware that expectations and reality can be quite the opposite things, thus she wants to give her meager aide towards Sophia.

"Well, I gave her my good luck so she should be fine."

Eleanor seemed to not hear the joke of Arachne and with an _Oops_ that she whispered in her mind, she immediately changed the topic.

"But kidding aside, you can help her... Not in a fight but..."

Arachne paused for a moment, remembering what she had just witnessed in the volcano of the second layer.

"Educate (?) her subordinates."

Eleanor seemed to finally notice the words of Arachne as she turned her head towards the white spider on her shoulder.

Lyra and Philo also leaned into the conversation, surely they too are worried about their master.

"Please elaborate."

"Well, you see Wokung and Saru..."

Eleanor's eyes widened every passing moment she heard about the explanation of Arachne of what was happening in the second layer.

"Well, I am not a commander so I cannot command them so I thought that I just might have to report it to the acting commander because the commander-in-chief is in a fight."

The second Arachne halted her speech, Eleanor's face crumpled and her modest expression vanished and only an annoyed commander can be seen visible as she bellowed out.

"LIGHT CAVALRY! LET GO OF YOUR WOLVES AND LET THEM RUN INTO THIS SPECIFIED POINT! DON'T RUN WITH THEM BECAUSE YOUR WEIGHT WILL ONLY HINDER THEIR ADVANCE, INSTRUCT THEM TO NOT TAKE A REST UNTIL THEY REACH THE POSITIONS I JUST GAVE! ASK THE PACK LEADER TO REQUEST OTHER WILD WOLVES FOR REINFORCEMENTS AT THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THEIR DIRECTION! MOVE IN HASTE!"

Eleanor was angered, angered because the people of the second layer did not contact her for orders and acted on their own, the order to them was to create a square formation that would make them relay messages easily... That is of course if the situation did not change.

"Connect me with Wokung."

Eleanor said to Arachne that thought _I hope their ego will be fine after this._ She answered:

"Of course."

_____

Wokung and Saru are annoyed, the father and daughter let their soldiers search the surroundings for any ambush but it seems like their preliminary stupor because of the sound pulse has clouded their vision and made quite a dent in their already shaky confidence, after all, who would have thought that a magic spell such as that one that can damage all monsters in the forest existed, right? But that little dent caused their advance to wane thus letting their enemy get enough time to gather their forces and retreat.

_Not only that, it seems like they have managed to do that quite some time ago..._

Both of them thought so as one of the monkeys reported, they are yet to have a proper salute, thus the monkey just stood straight, fearful of their two officers' glares.

"...They... they seem to have already escaped far, sir..."

Wokung was about to shout but Saru stopped her father, surely, she knew that lashing out at a soldier would not lead to anything good.

"What should we do now...?"

Wokung calmed himself down and looked at Saru.

"The sun is starting to set and the war is already reaching the night, they most probably gathered and escaped at noon without break, plus they also need to move in caution because they are afraid of being collateral of the fight of our master and the serpent..."

Saru did not answer, but instead just analyzed the situation, they have wasted a lot of time by contemplating things like confidence, plus the fact that their former clansmen have been ravaged by their master, even though they have accepted that fact already, they are still yet to fully recover from that humiliation, thus they are currently in a phase in which their confidence and pride are at the lowest, and the only thing that can redeem their pride is the recognition of the person who has given them their names.

_But then that pulse arrived..._

Just as both of them started to gulp and their hands started to get shaky, spiders descended on their shoulders and talked.

"WOKUNG! SARU! What are you loitering around in that empty place!? You're wasting time!"

Eleanor, the acting commander of the first layer bellowed.

"Lady Eleanor... we're sorry..."

Eleanor sighed, she was sure that the two monkey generals wanted to restore their shattered pride through recognition of their master, after all, even though the ones who got defeated were the rebels, all of them were still part of their race.

"Well, what I am saying is, if you have met an unexpected situation, you should ask for orders from the one in charge."

Wokung and Saru lowered their heads, all this time, they were the ones "in charge", thus they did not think of such things, they just remembered that they were not generals now but only a captain of some sort, another brunt to their confidence.

(Author: Wanna say general here but Sophia is the commander-in chief so they are only generals when being addressed by Sophia, they will become captains in this case because a commander in which is Eleanor is ordering them. It's chaotic because there is no official military organization yet.}

"Anyway, no need to cry over spilled milk, just follow my orders..."

Eleanor then elaborated her plan, and as they heard the orders, their eyes widened, amazed by how a commander's... no, a strategist's brain works, obviously different from theirs, but the next words of Eleanor make them rebuke her immediately.

"Assistance of the wolves!? I'm sorry but even though our race is quite close, the monkeys do not need them to chase some tired monsters whose fighting spirit already got extinguished!"

Eleanor replied.

"But they will escape at this rate, and no one of us wants a vengeful bunch of ogres and mantises tailing us in the future right?"

Saru replied too, trying to preserve their pride.

"...But how about our-"

"You're what? Your pride? Dignity?

Eleanor shakes her head.

"No, no that is something you should never think of, you are nothing but tools for victory by Sophia, you will scrape shit using your hands when she ordered and dry up a lake with rags if she said, that is what the oath 'I will live for you and will die if you so desired' means, now you have a chance to fulfill your oath for the first time and your telling that me you two will disobey an order just because of your pride?"

Wokung and Saru's eyes squinted, and they swallowed their saliva for the two of them unconsciously still think that they still have the same bravado of their race as before.

Eleanor knew what they were thinking, so she sighed and said.

"Rest assured, the moment you finish executing this order, you will realize the pleasure of serving your lady. Depart with haste."

Wokung and Saru sighed, their eyes filled with uncertainty, but their remaining pride gave them the drive to follow the order of the appointed commander of the person who gave them their names and the person they gave their oath to, thus they bellowed.

"PREPARE TO SPLIT!"