That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Episode 12

The Gears Spin Out of Control

At the end of last week’s episode, a dryad appeared before Rimuru and his companions to request that he take up arms and defeat the orc lord who’s currently leading an army of 200,000 through the forest. Now that the existence of an orc lord has been confirmed, it’s time for the discussion about whether or not to take action.

I’ve mentioned many times that this series hasn’t really done anything special so far, and that the idea of orc lords or champions isn’t all that unique considering both Goblin Slayer and SAO, the two other fantasy anime I’m watching this season, also use that concept, but I have to say, I like what TenSura has done with this.

In Goblin Slayer, and probably SAO, monster lords or champions increase the deadliness of those under their command simply through their leadership. In Goblin Slayer specifically, goblin champions can learn how to use more advanced technologies, and then teach their underlings how to use them as well.

While that’s a fine way of increasing the overall power of a monster group through the emergence of a monster lord, I have to say that I like TenSura’s way of handling it better. From what I can tell, the orc lord does have higher intelligence than the rest of the orcs, and this helps him lead them, but that’s not the only “party-wide buff.”

Instead, what’s more important here is that the orc lord shares his unique skill with all the other orcs he commands. The orc lord’s unique skill is known as Starved and it works in a very similar way to Rimuru’s Predator, except it also comes with a constant debuff.

When the orc army defeats opponents, they eat their corpses and subsequently gain the strength of those they’ve devoured. They also use this skill on their own fallen comrades. However, it’s unclear if they obtain the unique skills of those they devour in the same way that Rimuru does.

My guess is that this isn’t the case, because if it was, that would be an insanely broken unique skill. Rimuru’s unique skill is already broken as it is, but imagine if everyone under Rimuru was also given the Predator skill simply by having him as their master.

So, by using the Starved unique skill, the orc army is able to continuously power itself up as it progresses forward. When they defeat enemies, they become stronger as a whole, and when they lose comrades, they don’t necessarily lose strength because it’s redistributed between the survivors.

For example, if 199,999 of the 200,000 orcs were killed, but the one remaining orc ate the corpses of all those who had died, there wouldn’t merely be one orc left, it would be one orc with the power of 200,000, so it’s as if none of them were ever defeated. And, that orc would have the additional power of whatever else it ate.

However, I did mention that this unique skill comes with a considerable debuff, and that’s the fact that the entire orc army is always starving. While this is certainly a debuff, it also makes the unique skill more powerful because it drives the army to always be searching for new prey, which will then be converted into power.

But, at the same time, if the army runs into a vast, unpopulated region, they’ll all die of starvation.

Rimuru and the gang also learn from the dryad that it seems to be this starvation which is the driving force behind the movements of the orcs. Instead of the orcs having a specific target and plan of attack, they appear to simply be going on a rampage throughout the forest in an attempt to find more food.

If this is indeed the case, then it brings up the question of, what was the majin who created the orc lord after? Was this majin simply trying to cause chaos throughout the land, or is there a specific reason he created this ravenous army of orcs?

An Alliance is Formed

Upon learning that the orc army doesn’t have a set target and is instead going on a blind rampage throughout the forest, Rimuru decides his village has no choice but to fight, because there’s no telling when the army will head in their direction. But, he knows they can’t do it alone.

Well, at least the series would like us to believe Rimuru’s village can’t defeat the entire orc army alone, but I’m fairly certain that they could. It’s stated that Rimuru is stronger than the orc lord, and so all he has to do is defeat him via his Predator skill and the army would fall into chaos.

I assume that if the orc lord were to be taken out, the rest of the orcs would lose their unique skill which they obtained through him. And, even if they didn’t, Rimuru can still theoretically just eat the whole army.

The lizardmen are the obvious choice when it comes to allies considering they literally just sent an envoy to the village for this exact reason. That said, everyone in the village recognizes that Gabiru isn’t the lizardman they want to enter into diplomatic relations with.

And so, Rimuru sends Souei directly to the lizardman chieftain in order to forge a new alliance. It’s unclear to me exactly why Souei wanted to be the one chosen for this task, but as we see, he was definitely the right man for the job.

Souei enters the lizardmen stronghold while allowing all of his immense energy to be detected. Presumably he does this to show how powerful he is, and therefore how powerful his master, Rimuru, must be by comparison.

The lizardman chieftain then accepts Souei’s proposed alliance, but wants to meet Rimuru before the battle begins. After agreeing to this single request from the chieftain, Souei then explains the danger of the orc lord’s unique skill and tells the lizardmen not to engage in unnecessary combat before the set date for the battle in one week’s time.

Gabiru Ruins Everything

But, just as Souei leaves and everything seems to be going perfectly as planned for the newly formed alliance between Rimuru and the lizardmen, Gabiru returns to ruin everything.

While out on his diplomatic mission, Gabiru was met by a masked man who claimed to be sent by the majin who had given Gabiru his name in the past. I forget the name of this majin, but he’s the same one who also gave Rigurd’s son his name.

This masked man, who says his name is Laplace, informs Gabiru that the majin believes the lizardman chieftain is becoming too old and that Gabiru should become the new chieftain. Although he was already planning his rise to power after defeating the orc lord, this message seems to give Gabiru the push he needs to take the throne even sooner.

Immediately upon returning to the swamp, Gabiru stages a coup and has himself named the new lizardman chieftain. He claims that the previous chieftain had grown weak in his old age, and asserts that the lizardmen should go out and fight the orcs head on rather than simply defending their tunnels.

However, what Gabiru doesn’t know is that the previous chieftain wasn’t engaging in any offensive battles because he knew of the orc lord’s unique skill. And, because of his lack of knowledge, Gabiru leads his men out into battle.

Remember how over the past couple of weeks I was saying how the lizardmen aren’t likely to play much of a role in this series after this arc? I think we may have just learned why. With Gabiru leading them, the lizardmen may simply get wiped out by the orcs and make them even stronger.

Conclusion

What do you think the fate of the lizardmen will be now that Gabiru is in charge? And, why do you think the majin created the orc army in the first place? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.