The Dark Warrior (12 page)

It was over in that single swing.

Ainz targeted a new ogre, leaving the one in front of him. As if waiting for him to move away, the upper body of the now stock-still first ogre slipped to the ground, leaving the lower body standing. The spray of blood, slop of innards, and diffusion of an awful stench throughout the area were the signs that this was neither a dream nor an illusion.

He’d cut the monster in two with a single diagonal stroke.

Although they were in the middle of a battle, both friends and foes froze to observe the riveting scene as if time had stopped.

A deadly blow—and one that would slice a monster as meaty as an ogre in half.

A “whoa” escaped someone’s lips. The battlefield had fallen so silent that everyone heard it.

“…I can’t believe it. He must be a mythril plate or maybe orichalcum—no… Could he be adamantite?”

To cut an opponent in two—it wasn’t an impossible move, per se. Someone who trained up a very targeted set of skills or who had a powerful magical weapon could probably pull it off. But to hold a gigantic, two-handed great sword in one hand and give it enough momentum to cut someone in half would be difficult. That was common sense. A two-handed sword was used with two hands and relied on mass and centrifugal force to cut—they weren’t about slicing and dicing with physical strength.

So the only way to explain what Ainz had just done was to conclude that his sword was endowed with incomparable magic, that he had more strength in one arm than most warriors had in two, or both.

The ogres that had stopped in their tracks, shocked by the scene in front of them, began to backpedal with fear written on their faces. Ainz advanced one step to fill in the distance.

“What’s the matter? Not going to attack?” His quiet, casual voice floated over the battlefield.

Even just that question scared the ogres—because they’d just seen how overwhelming the gap in strength was between Ainz and them.

Ainz moved in on a second ogre so quickly it was hard to believe he was wearing full plate armor.

“Uooogh!” The ogre raised a hoarse voice in what could have been either a shriek or a battle cry as it readied its club against Ainz, but anyone would have recognized it was moving too slowly.

As Ainz closed in, the great sword in his left hand moved as if he were going to lightly brush the ogre away. Its upper body went tumbling through the air to land somewhere completely different from its lower body.

He’d cut the monster in two with a single horizontal slice.

“Momon… Are you a monster?”

Witnessing another riveting scene, nobody had any objections to what Dyne had said.

“Okay, and as for the rest…” Ainz stepped forward, and the other ogres, ugly faces frozen in fear, moved farther back.

The goblins that had taken a large detour to the side got around and attacked Peter and the others. The Swords of Darkness had lost themselves in amazement but now had to spring into action.

Peter readied his broadsword and large shield and ran to meet the fourteen-plus goblins. The head of the one out in front went spinning off after a lunging swipe. Dodging the fountain of blood, Peter closed in on the rest of the goblins.

“Eat this!” A goblin bared its yellowed teeth as its foul, throaty scream filled the air. Peter easily took a goblin club strike with his shield. The hit that came from the side got blocked and repelled with a loud crack thanks to the magic reinforcing his armor.

“Magic Arrow!” Two glowing shots of magic nailed the goblin trying to hit Peter from behind, and it collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Half of the goblins surrounding Peter ran at the remaining three Swords of Darkness. None of them went to attack Narberal, who was standing next to the gale-force wind of death named Ainz.

Lukrut had tossed aside his composite longbow and whipped out a short sword. Both he and the mace-wielding Dyne dashed into Ninya’s line of fire to provide cover for him.

The fight between Lukrut and Dyne and five goblins was about evenly matched. If they paced themselves, they could probably beat them one by one, but it would take a while. Lukrut had taken a club to one arm and was tolerating the pain with an obvious grimace as he stabbed his short sword into a gap in a goblin’s leather armor. Dyne had taken a bit of a beating, and although his movements had become somewhat sluggish, it didn’t seem like any of his wounds were too critical.

Ninya, keeping a sharp eye on the situation, began to conserve magic. There was one ogre immobilized with a spell. If circumstances called for it, he would have to take it on.

Meanwhile, Peter was spending equal time on offense and defense against six goblins.

The eleven goblins’ violence didn’t overwhelm the adventurers, though, because there was hesitation in their attacks. Their morale had dropped significantly after witnessing Ainz’s amazing one-hit kills, and they hadn’t made up their minds yet if they should fight or flee.

Then, as if to crush their morale further, one of Ainz’s swords swung in a huge arc. No one could hear anything but the sound of it slicing through the air and then something heavy falling to the ground—two things, in fact.

As everyone expected, the number of ogre corpses had increased. Now the only ogres remaining were the one trapped in the grass and the one cowering before Ainz.

Ainz’s helmet moved to confront the final ogre. Perhaps because it had felt the gaze of Ainz’s eyes from deep within the thin slit of his helmet, it emitted a bizarre groan and attempted to escape, dropping its club and racing back toward the forest faster than it had run over. But there was no way it would be allowed to get away.

“Nabe, get him.” His icy voice rang out and Narberal, who had been standing by behind him, gave a quick nod.

“Lightning!” A bolt of lightning sent large vibrations through the air and shot through the fleeing ogre’s body with a peal of thunder. Then it continued on through the ogre that was still tangled up behind him.

That was all it took to stop the beating pulses of two ogres.

“Let’s get outta here!!”

“Run away! Run away!” The goblins that had been watching these events unfold as if in a trance called for a retreat and went to flee, but as might be expected, Peter and his crew moved faster. The demoralized goblins were not so tough anymore.

They were taken care of one after another in smooth succession. Ninya figured he didn’t need to conserve magic any longer and added his powers to the fray. The goblins were killed in the blink of an eye.

Amid the reek of the dead bodies, Dyne tended to Lukrut’s and Peter’s wounds with Light Healing, while Ninya, with nothing to do, went around slicing the ears off the goblins with a dagger.

By turning items like those in to the guild, they would be compensated per monster. Of course, it wasn’t always ears. A specific part was required from each kind of monster. That said, for subhumans like goblins and ogres, it was usually ears.

As he was removing the ears with a practiced hand, he saw that Ainz, accompanied by Narberal, seemed to be searching the vicinity where the ogres had fallen.

“Are you looking for something?”

Ainz looked up to respond to Ninya’s question. “Yeah, just seeing if there are any drops…especially crystals.”

“…Crystals? I’ve never heard of ogres carrying precious stones…”

“So they don’t, huh? I was just thinking maybe on the off chance…”

“Oh yeah, it would be great if ogres carried treasure around,” said Ninya, adeptly clipping off ogre ears. “But wow, Momon. I knew you had confidence in your abilities, but I didn’t realize how strong you really were.”

In response to Ninya’s comments, the other three who were almost finished healing chimed in with more praise for Ainz.

“You were amazing! As a warrior, I hope I can be as awesome as you someday! How did you get so strong?”

“With Nabe along and all, I figured you were rich, but where are those fantastic swords from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen more expensive-looking swords.”

“Now I see that what you were saying at the guild was for real. You might be as strong as the oft-rumored-about strongest warrior in the kingdom. I’m impressed.”

Nabe looked smug enough to snigger next to Ainz, but he demurred. “Nah, it just happened to work out.”

“‘Just happened to work out’…?” Peter smiled wryly. “…Really, the way you fought reminded me there’s always someone stronger.”

“I know you guys will get to the point where you can take care of small fries like that easily, too.” Everyone’s smiles got wryer.

Peter and his friends were working hard at getting stronger. And they didn’t waste a copper of their rewards, only spending on things that would make them stronger. That’s why they’d been able to work so well together so far, but even reflecting on how far they’d come, they didn’t imagine they’d ever be able to reach Ainz’s level. To the Swords of Darkness, Ainz’s level was the furthest of extremes, which only a handful of people were allowed to access.

This guy they were traveling with would probably go on to be a hero whose name would be known by all. He was one of the greats who could stand at the pinnacle of adventuring. That was all they could think.

The party began pitching camp long before the sun would go down. Ainz took the wooden rods he was given and stood them up around the perimeter of their site. That said, they had to fit the cart inside, so it was fairly large—more than twenty yards across.

Once he hammered the four posts into the dirt, he would string a black silk thread around them to make an enclosure. Then, he would make a knot in the thread, pull it right near the opening to their tent, and hang up a big bell to finish it off. In other words, he was cordoning off their campsite and setting up a noisy alarm.

Narberal stood behind him as he was knocking in the posts.
Narberal was supposed to have something else to do… I guess it’s fine if she finished that already? If that guy pissed her off again, I may have to have a word with him…
, Ainz had decided as he went to turn around, but then Narberal spoke in a dark voice as if she was suppressing her rage.

“…Mr. Momon, you shouldn’t have to do such menial tasks as these…”

Seeing her anger, Ainz sighed slightly. Then, he looked around and lowered his voice. “Everyone is pitching in to set up camp. You think they would be okay with just me sitting around on my butt?”

“Didn’t you show them your magnificent combat ability? Everyone has their strengths—this kind of work should be left to the weak.”

“Don’t be like that. Listen, we do need to stand out as powerful, but I don’t want people to think we’re arrogant. You need to keep an eye on your behavior, too.”

Narberal nodded her understanding, but it was plain that she wasn’t convinced, only taking his order. On the one hand, he was happy that her overwhelming devotion to him could beat down her own dissatisfaction, but he wondered if that was really sustainable.

Ainz was actually enjoying his stay in the outdoors. In the real world it had been impossible, of course, but he hadn’t been able to do this even in the fantasy world of
Yggdrasil
, so it was all new and surprising. It also reminded him of going on quests in
Yggdrasil
, even though it did take a little too long to get from place to place here.

If instead of the Great Tomb of Nazarick it had been just me who got transported here, I would probably have just traveled around without a care in the world.
He was undead, so he didn’t need food or drink—he didn’t even need to breathe. He could climb the far-off mountains empty-handed and dive to the deepest ocean depths, too. He would have simply enjoyed all the unfamiliar scenery the world had to offer.

But as long as his guildmates’ precious creations were obeying him, he had to live up to their loyalty by acting as the ruler of the Great Tomb.

Shaking off his memories, Ainz devoted himself to his task once more. Once all four posts were sunk deep enough, he strung the thread tightly around them and returned to the marquee tent.

“Thanks.”

“Oh, no problem.”

Lukrut, who was inside, had addressed him without even looking up. It was perhaps lacking in courtesy, but it wasn’t as if he were slacking off, either. He’d been digging a hole and building an oven around it for a while.

Ninya was walking the perimeter chanting some spell. Alarm was a spell one could cast as a precaution. He said it couldn’t cover a very large area but was worth using just in case.

Ainz had squinted—this was magic that hadn’t existed in
Yggdrasil
. Collecting spells that didn’t exist in
Yggdrasil
was one of the jobs he’d given the others, but as a caster, unfamiliar magic awakened his greed.

The magic Ninya used was, like Ainz’s, magical type. The spells even looked just like the ones in
Yggdrasil
. Ainz had been doing something only characters with the racial skill Black Wisdom could do to increase the number of spells he could acquire.
If I perform a sacrifice ritual, could I get spells that weren’t in
Yggdrasil
? Or is there another way? There are so many things I don’t know…