Maruyama Kugane - The Invaders of the Large Tomb

“「Magic Arrow」!”

“「Lesser Dexterity」!”

As the shield blocked the two strikes, Arche’s spell sent a white bolt streaking towards Ainz. At the same time, while the sound of clashing metal still rang in the air, Roberdyck cast a spell to augment agility.

“Child’s play.”

Ainz did not even bother looking at Arche. The missile of light flicked and faded out of existence before it even managed to touch Ainz. A shocked expression appeared on Arche’s face.

“Spell immunity? But from where?”

“Hmph!”

In response, Ainz swung his shield at Hekkeran’s face.

“A shield bash, is it!”

The widely-known basics of fighting skills resounded in his head. Hekkeran decided to turn this danger into an opportunity, and made his move. He aimed at the belly, reasoning that the bulk of the shield would create a blind spot in the defense.

However, Ainz easily swept his weapons aside with the black sword.

He saw through it!

His eyes followed the wall-like shield as it approached, and he barely evaded the blow by the skin of his teeth—and then an armored boot kicked at him from below.

Hekkeran would not have been afraid of a normal kick. However, through their brief exchange of arms, he was fully aware that due to Ainz’s incredible strength—despite having no muscles to speak of—any attack he made could kill him in a single blow. Taking the hit was tantamount to taking a mortal wound.

Hekkeran rolled away in a panic. Without Roberdyck’s support, it would have been impossible. The vacuum in the kick’s passing sliced off several of his hairs, and a chill raced up and down his spine.

“This way!”

Imina launched two arrows from her bow. Because she had cried out, it was not a sneak attack, and Ainz casually avoided it.

The arrows flew past him, having missed their mark.

To begin with, arrows were not effective on skeleton-type monsters like Ainz. She had hoped that he would not bother with evading them and casually take the hits, but it seemed that was not going to happen. The arrows she had loosed had flattened heads, like a spade; they were specially-designed magic arrows which would do bludgeoning damage. If they had not been avoided, they should have been able to strike a telling blow even on skeletal opponents.

At least, that was how it was supposed to happen, but even if that was not the case, there was nothing to regret. Hekkeran took the opportunity to stand up and slightly widen the gap between himself and Ainz. Imina’s cry had also been to give Hekkeran the chance to rise to his feet.

“「Twin Blade Strike」!”

“Hah!”

The two slashes were easily deflected by the single sword. The shock of the parry sent tremors through Hekkeran’s hands.

What a troublesome guy, is this what happens when you give warrior training to a monster with superhuman abilities? Just how strong is he?

The price of repeatedly using certain-kill moves was the rapid draining of mental stamina. His brain felt like it was screaming from his exertions, so Hekkeran decided to back away.

Of course, Ainz would not permit that.

“As if I would let you escape!”

Ainz charged. That was only to be expected—backpedaling was slower than forward motion.

Just as he was about to be overtaken, something whistled through the air as it flew past the side of his face.

A high-speed arrow came from behind Hekkeran’s back, hidden by his body. Naturally, a normal person would not have been able to avoid it. However, against Ainz with his superhuman reflexes, it was still not enough.

“「Flash」!”

“「Lesser Strength」!”

A brilliant flare of light burst in front of Ainz. Whether he resisted it or not, the spell would blind him for a moment, but it seemed pointless against Ainz. All it did was annoy him.

“Interfering busybodies!”

Ainz clicked his nonexistent tongue at Hekkeran, who had closed the gap thanks to his augmented strength and dexterity.

“「Reinforce Armor」!”

“「Anti-Evil Protection」!”

Arche and Roberdyck’s support spells had solidified Hekkeran’s defense.

Having evaded Hekkeran’s attack and deflected his swords, Ainz was about to riposte once more when another arrow flew into his face.

“Hmph!”

The casual ease with which Ainz evaded the arrow by simply turning his face was befitting of the ruler of the tomb, and of a monstrous swordsman.

Hekkeran used the brief opening made by the support fire to back away, and sweat coursed down his body from the brief but intense combat.

He already knew this, but Ainz Ooal Gown was very strong.

His physical abilities were completely untouchable by human beings. Worse still, he had the technique to make full use of his superhuman strength and speed. His observational skills could see through feints. He had the measure of every member of Foresight. Combined with his resistance to magic and the enchanted sword and shield he bore; he was everything a warrior wanted to be.

But there was a reason they could stand toe-to-toe with a being like this.

To be fair, he had been hard-pressed to hold his ground. If he had misread the angle of the falling sword and missed his parry, his swords would have been ruined and he would probably have suffered a fatal wound. A small mistake in estimating the speed of the black sword would have resulted in him being sliced neatly in half. The fact that all his coin tosses had come up heads was nothing short of luck.

Yet, there was an even more important reason beyond this.

That reason was teamwork.

It was precisely because they were all working together, and were intimately aware of what each of the others was thinking, that they could move and act like a single organism.

This was how the united group ‘Foresight’ could stand against the mightiest individual, Ainz Ooal Gown.

A faint smile lifted the corner of Hekkeran’s mouth.

Until now, Ainz had been untouched. Certainly, he was very strong. But he was not invincible.

With this conviction in his heart, he swung his twin swords.

Hekkeran’s sword strike, the fastest his augmented body could produce, was deflected by the round black shield. The arrow flying in was interdicted by the black sword. Arche and Roberdyck made use of this opening to enhance Hekkeran even further.

Ever since Ainz had clicked his tongue, his hostility toward them had been rapidly weakening.

After considering whether or not to press the attack, Hekkeran decided to back down and calm his frenzied breathing. The undead Ainz would not get tired no matter how long or how hard he fought, but a human like Hekkeran and the others would become exhausted. Dragging the battle out was a bad idea. He had to rest whenever he got the chance.

“So… as I thought, I still couldn’t deal a decisive blow. I thought had the advantage in strength, skills and knowing what you could do, but when I’m actually engaged in battle, I’m still feeling some anxiety… something like, why haven’t I taken any of you down yet?”

Ainz shrugged his shoulders in annoyance. Hekkeran, who was watching from opposite Ainz, did not feel particularly irritated by his patronizing tone.

Truthfully speaking, this was the advantage of working as a team. Hekkeran smiled as though he had been praised.

In the midst of all this, the beauty who had been silent up till now finally spoke.

“Ainz-sama. Perhaps we should end playtime here.”

“What?”

“Forgive my rudeness, but I find it hard to believe that you would permit continued freedom to these base knaves, these thieves who dared use the name of the Supreme Beings to deceive you. Perhaps it is time for you to grant them mercy?”