The Evil Lord had closed the distance and then cocked his hand back, preparing to deliver a haymaker.
Dammit! I hate people like that who just rush straight in and start punching! If you’re a substitute for Narberal than attack with magic! You damn Gorilla!
Well, if the Evil Lord had really cast a spell on Ainz, he would have resisted it, so it would have been boring anyway.
Ainz did not hesitate; he stepped in before his enemy could fully close the distance.
The Evil Lord had guessed that Ainz would flee, so his movements slowed by a beat. Behind him was Yuri, who was probably planning to flank Ainz with the Evil Lord.
The strike from the flaming fist ― was a feint, which was why Ainz had managed to evade it by stepping into the range of the blow.
The arms whistled past his ears, and the wind in its wake sounded like a scream.
A pure magic caster had evaded the attack of a warrior-type monster.
While he thought that this would be impossible if he were still a YGGDRASIL player, this was not due to luck. As mentioned before, the Evil Lord had not expected Ainz to step into the attack, so he had not used his full force. And then there was another point, which was that this was the result of his training.
Ainz had practiced this method of evading his opponent by closing in with them several hundred times with Cocytus. About one in every ten times, if Cocytus was not attacking in earnest, he could completely slip past them.
Cocytus did say that a good warrior would never make such incredibly flashy and telegraphed attacks, so I shouldn’t get careless… but it’s pretty useful in an actual fight, isn’t it?
And so, Ainz placed his bony hand on the Evil Lord’s sturdy chest.
And then he cast a touch spell.
While most spells had an effective range, some spells had a range that was practically zero. Such spells needed direct contact with the target to be cast, so only people with levels in spellcaster and warrior classes could use them well. It was because they were so inconvenient that they were more powerful than spells of a similar tier, being roughly a tier more effective,
Ainz’s specialty was necromancy, and this was an 8th tier spell from that field, 「Energy Drain」. It was a spell that drained the opponent’s levels and granted various benefits depending on the amount of levels drained. Naturally, this spell had also been maximized.
He beat the Evil Lord’s spell resistance and drained his levels. Thanks to that, he recovered almost all the damage Yuri had inflicted. That said, the healing provided by this spell was only supplementary in nature.
Ainz’s parameters were all temporarily enhanced, and he received a special buff which would fade in a short time. In turn, the Evil Lord had received a level down debuff which could not be removed by the passage of time.
This time, it was the Evil Lord who backed away.
His wrathful visage was tinted by something else.
Was it surprise, or was it admiration?
Ainz wanted to praise himself for successfully evading that blow too. That said, he had managed it because his opposition had been far too cocky. Just like how a magic trick became boring once you pointed out the gimmick, this move would probably not work a second time.
“Well, however good a plan is, only an idiot would use it more than once. Isn’t that right ― Pleiades! Aureole Omega!”
That was how it was.
He was fighting five Doppelgangers, the Evil Lord of Wrath and a level 100 NPC.
Is Albedo trying to make me lose? I didn’t think she’d even use Aureole.
Aureole Omega was the lastborn of the Pleiades Seven Sisters. She was an Area Guardian of the 8th Floor and a level 100 NPC specialized in commander-type classes. As a commander, she could issue orders which buffed her allies. CZ must have been able to beat their level difference thanks to that.
While he had no idea what kind of special ability Aureole had used, if one looked at party roles such as physical attacker, magical attacker, healer and so on, then she would be a wild card ― an all-rounder. It was hardly strange that she would be able to do anything.
What exactly could Punitto Moe-san do?
Ainz never went head-to-head with his opponents during PVP so Ainz had little experience in dealing with commander-type opponents.
She could not have left the 8th Floor and come here without my permission. That would mean that she must have buffed the Doppelgangers before they came here. That would mean she probably didn’t buff them too carefully — or no, is there a Doppelganger of Aureole here?
―No. There was no time to think about such pointless things. Only one thing mattered. Could they completely shut down Ainz’s spellcasting, and could they keep it up forever?
There were two kinds of special abilities in YGGDRASIL. One kind had a cooldown period after use. The other had a limited period of uses within a certain period. There were also combinations of the two.
In general, the more powerful the ability, the longer the cooldown or the fewer times it could be used. Ainz’s trump card ― 「The Goal Of All Life Is Death」 ― which could only be used once every 100 hours was just such an ability.
In that case, which type did CZ’s ability to interrupt Ainz’s spellcasting belong to?
That move just now was very handy, but it did not seem to have a long cooldown time. That would mean it was the use-limited type. However, he could not tell how long it would take for her to recover her uses. All he could do was hope that she could not recover them during the course of the battle after they were depleted.
―Though I think I ought to save my tenth tier spells for when they’ve been depleted…
Ainz quickly verified the positions of the Pleiades and the Evil Lord. The Evil Lord was in front of him. Yuri was behind him ― and preparing to slug Ainz. While her ki-enhanced attacks could even shatter steel, they were of little concern in the face of Ainz’s levels. After reconfirming that the Evil Lord was the real danger, he turned his attention to the others.
Entoma was inside a house on the left side of the square. Lupusregina was in the square. Solution stood in front of her, like she was protecting her. CZ’s location was unknown.
While not knowing a sniper’s position was the worst possible scenario, the fact that the enemy was now dispersed was the best case for him.
Ainz snorted.
Though he knew that now was hardly a time to laugh, he could not resist the mirth welling up inside him.
Now this is interesting!
“Alright, now get out of my face. 「Maximize Magic Nuclear Blast」!”
“!”
Before Ainz’s eyes, the space between him and the Evil Lord flashed and swelled, consuming everything in an instant. Yuri was surprised, but that was only to be expected, because Ainz had been caught in it as well.
Using the ninth tier spell 「Nuclear Blast」 as an attack was a questionable choice. It did composite damage ― half fire, half bludgeoning ― and it was one of the weaker 9th tier spells in terms of damage.
Considering the Evil Lord of Wrath was immune to fire, this spell should not have even been considered for use. Even so, Ainz had his reasons for using this spell.
First of all, it had a very large area of effect. It was superior to almost all other spells in that respect. In addition, this spell also generated all kinds of negative status effects such as poisoning, blindness, deafness, and so on, but anything of the Evil Lord’s level would be able to resist it with their raw statistics alone and the Pleiades’ equipment ought to have made them immune to all these effects. The main reason he had chosen this spell was because it also possessed a very powerful knockback effect.