Mission: Red Ogre Cried

Mission: Red Ogre Cried was an operation to successfully allow Aura Bella Fiora and Mare Bello Fiore the opportunity to interact with the dark elves of the Great Forest of Evasha.

Background
Ainz Ooal Gown desiring for Aura and Mare to make friends with their own kind, to nurture their mental development sought to create a situation that would make the dark elves more receptive towards the twins from the Great Tomb of Nazarick.

The Sorcerer King, while on vacation in the Great Forest of Evasha, infiltrated the elven capital of the Elf Country near Crescent Lake. After three days of trying to make sense of the bizarre layout of the elf trees of the capital, Ainz finally located a lone male elf who he kidnapped and brought to his Green Secret House which served as temporary base in the forest. Using mental magic Ainz was able to ascertain the general direction of where the dark elf villages laid.

After erasing the elf's memory and putting back in his home, Ainz traveled with Aura and Mare on Fenn to the Three Trees, hopefully to meet some dark elves. When they reached the area and followed the instructions of the elf, they were unable to find the exact location of the village.

Aura wanting to go scout ahead was permitted by Ainz who told her to take Fenn with her for security. Aura eventually returned, this time with a new face, a magical bear beast which reported to her master was a creature of considerable power and a boss of the area. Aura had captured it and hoped to use in a experiment she had planned out.

The appearance of the bear gave Ainz a idea to use Mission: Red Ogre Cried, a old tactic he used with his guild. He had been planning to use a summoned beast for the mission, but the bear provided a substitute. Though there was concern on whether the creature could play the part as it had yet to be under Aura's full control. Mare hearing the title of the operation realized that the Overlord wanted to do a similar situation with the story as in "The Red Oni Who Cried". Ainz confirmed that it was, even though he himself did not know the origin of the name.

Battle
At an unnamed dark elf village which was the largest in the area, Blueberry Egnia had detected a violent roar through the forest whilst manning his post. Egnia concerned over the roar, called the Master of the Hunt Apple and his fellow rangers. From his assessment the roar came from an adult ankyloursus which to the dark elves was a fear monster in the Great Sea of Trees. While the rangers did not doubt Egnia's skills, one of the Vice Masters of the Hunt questioned if it truly was in hopes that the best ranger in the village could be mistaken.

Sadly Egnia dashed her hopes and confirmed that it was an ankyloursus. The Master of the Hunt asked Egnia on what could anger the ankyloursus, and that perhaps something had entered its territory? From Egnia's opinion it could be a number of factors. A few though asked why they should be concerned given that the territory of the nearest ankyloursus was still separated from their village in quite a distance. On that Egnia could only state that he had a feeling something was not right and advised that they should take precautions.

Apple hearing enough then decided that it would be best to postpone their hunt in the forest. Since their hunters had bagged enough food for the village it was fine to wait until the situation with the ankyloursus calmed down. Given the danger in the forest concerns were brought up on whether to inform the other villages of the threat. The conversation though went into the direction of questioning the leadership of the elders of the village, by Plum Ganen however was quickly silenced by Egnia who reminded everyone of their main concern.

Another roar sounded, which was heard by all the rangers, highlight the growing danger, though by the sound it seemed very close to the village. It became an assessment of everyone that something had entered the ankyloursus's territory and escape, maybe causing the beast to chase it. It that was the case, a few of the rangers suggested they go out and look for the prey that is fleeing and lead it away and kill it somewhere far from the village. But the idea was rejected as it was feared doing so would cause the ankyloursus to be angered even more. Instead they should drive the prey away from their area if it came their way.

To prepare, the Master of the Hunt decided to post rangers outside the village in order to lead away the urus or prey away from the vicinity of the village. Since they were dealing with an abnormal situation, Egnia suggested that they work together. Furthermore the Master of the Hunt gave orders to Beniri to handle the division of personnel, Ganen to tell the Chief Pharmacist of the situation to begin making poison, and Ovei to report to the Rite Master. Apple himself would report the development to the Council of Elders before dismissing everyone to their assignments.

Ten minutes after news was spread about the ankyloursus through the village, the forest was permeated with silence, causing the tense rangers to wonder if the magical beast had caught its prey or returned home empty handed. Egnia was the first to detect something moving in the forest which he alerted to all the rangers via a bird call. After the shadow passed through the trees, the rangers were stunned at the sheer size of a four meter tall ankyloursus. But it was not the same ankyloursus that was reported to be living near the area but the Ankyloursus Lord one of the kings of the Great Sea of Trees. The presence of the Ankyloursus Lord confused the dark elves greatly as its lair should have been near the village of Aju which was located north of them. Knowing who they were up against the rangers agreed that fighting the Ankyloursus Lord was suicide even if they used magic to summon elemental s, at best they only could hope to buy time to allow the villagers to escape. But given the other dangers in the forest, fleeing was not an option, and some suggested that they could draw the ankyloursus away using honey.

Whilst they argued, the Ankyloursus Lord slowly approached the outer elf trees of the village. When it was plodding through the flowers that hid the scent of the villages, the rangers were unsure whether to attack it, as they were not sure if they could actually hurt it and fearful that they could make it angry. Egnia soon came up with an idea to use oil to douse the bear and light it on fire. The idea was taken immediately as the elves could use their elementals to contain the fire and hopefully use it to drive away the bear. One of the rangers took the initiative to get the druids to assist in the center of the village.

Soon after the ranger left the ankyloursus began to stand, trying to make itself bigger and intimidate the rangers in the treetops. Oddly the ankyloursus did not attack them. Due to the behavior some believed it was teaching its young who were watching from afar on how to hunt. An idea came to mind by one of the rangers that they should perhaps attacks the cubs, but was rejected as doing that would definitely provoke the adult. The rangers still unable to read its actions, watched in shock as the ankyloursus then suddenly rushed at the elf trees and began to violently attack them. The beast only targeted the trees and while it was aware of the elves through furtive glances, it never attempted to attack the inhabitants. As it whittled the wood of the trees down, the elves panicked and wondered if the ankyloursus was distracting them from another opponent that it was working together. Rather than fight two potential opponents, Apple decided that abandoning the village was their best option and ordered Sumomo and Prune to fetch honey-smeared meat to act as bait to distract the Ankyloursus Lord.

Just as the two rangers left, the Ankyloursus lord changed targets from the outer circumference and then headed towards the plaza of the village. Seeing this Egnia attempted to stop it by firing two arrows at it, but they bounced harmlessly off its armor. The same thing happened when the other rangers fired their arrows at the beast. The ankyloursus though attacked only gave them a passing glance before continuing on its destination. Egnia infuriated that the ankyloursus was looking down on him and choosing to attack the children at the plaza then called for his fellow rangers to chase after it via the suspension bridges in the trees. The ankyloursus having reached the plaza roared in fury at the cowering novices and children there. Egnia seeing no choice, threw down his bow and quiver and leaped on the back of the beast, aiming to find a soft spot with his dagger to pierce. While clinging to the back of the bear, the called out to the crowd to run. The ankyloursus sensing he was on it back tossed Egnia about, who vainly tried to hit the hard hide, He was eventually thrown off and landed hard on the ground. Egnia was briefly unable to move, but found himself in front of the Ankyloursus Lord.

The ranger thinking he was about to meet his end then opened a bag of poison he had and waited for the ankyloursus to eat him. While the amount of poison was small, Egnia hoped that the poison would mix with his flesh and convince the bear that dark elves were unappetizing and be enough to drive it away from the village. However the ankyloursus only stared at him and roared and resumed its attack on the elf trees.

Utterly confused by the situation, Egnia did not have time to think when another unexpected thing happen. An arrow was shot, striking the elf trees right in from of the magical beast. To the surprise of the dark elves, the ankyloursus reacted in fear stopping it assault of the trees. A young dark elf girl soon appeared bodly telling the ankyloursus to end its rampage. Upon seeing her Egnia was enthralled by her beautiful appearance and was at a loss for words.

Whilst he focused on the girl, the newcomer proceed to aim another arrow at, it striking it, causing it to be in pain, finally driving it out of the village. In the midst of this Egnia came face to face with the girl, but was still unable to find the words to speak to her. Due to his inability to speak, his comrades believed that he may have been concussed and carried the ranger off on a stretcher.

Aftermath
Aura was hailed as a hero who “saved” the village from destruction by the magical beast. Unbeknownst to the villagers, the Ankyloursus Lord was sent to the village at Aura’s command along with orders to avoid harming the dark elves in the village. To avoid it being intercepted by other monsters, Aura hunted down and killed most of the stronger ones around the village prior to the start of the operation. Though the plan worked splendidly, Aura felt as if pushing the villagers to despair and then saving them in a dramatic rescue would have been more effective. And even considered killed the ursus to add more effective but ultimately decided to let it live since it was a rare specimen. Her pet was allowed to flee back in the forest where it regrouped with Fenn who used its ability to carry the bear without leaving any tracks to follow.

The villagers never suspecting a thing brought the dark elf girl before the Council of Elders who offered their thanks to the youngling.

Aura followed Ainz’s orders to infiltrate the village and prepare the groundwork for an amicable relationship. To do so, initiated friendly relations and quietly revealed some aspects for the country she originated from, dropping hints to the dark elves of its unique and pleasant environment.

However Aura came to see that there was tension between the young members of the village and the elders and both sides seem intent to use her as pawn for their agenda. Thinking her master did not anticipate this, Aura improvised. Rather than be associate with either faction, Aura decided to make a third faction of her own followers during her stay in the village. Through her interactions with the villagers, Aura maintained the story that she was a dark elf who had traveled together her brother and uncle to visit others of their own kind. Her story was accepted by the dark elves and were willing to allow her family to stay in their village in three days time. Aura successfully opened the stage to allow Ainz Ooal Gown to be welcome and move forward with his plan to attempt to bring the dark elves to his country.

After Aura’s meeting with the elders, unknown to the dark elves Ainz was carefully watching how the aftermath of the operation played out. He spied on the elders who were intrigued by Aura, especially after she mentioned about Trail of the Fey. However Ainz was unsure of what they were referring to as their concept of the Trail of the Fey differed from his knowledge. And was aware of the elders intent to use her to sway the young towards their side. He loathed the idea that Aura would be used as a political pane, making him wonder if selecting the village was a mistake.

After returning back to his camp where Mare was waiting, it occurred to him that Mare could be ostracized by the dark elves, due to his preference for female clothes. Feeling that Mare needed to properly make dark elf friends, he asked the Floor Guardian to temporarily wear clothes suited for a boy at the village.