"… Never mind, I will forgive thee. It's time to end the useless banter, let's duel to the death… Be aware… Those who invade onto this king's realm will end up as food!"
"Huh… Yeah…"
Ainz felt he was losing his drive.
He knew that cute appearance was just on the outside, but Ainz was unmotivated. The overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick dueling against a giant hamster. Objectively speaking, this scene was too sad.
If he defeated it, would he need to drag the body of the giant hamster back and tell others about it? 'This is the Virtuous King of the Forest, I couldn't chase it away because the battle was too intense.' How would the other adventurers, including the members of the Sword of Darkness, see this? The best case scenario he could think of was them consoling Ainz with gentle eyes.
Don't kill the Virtuous King of the Forest then, just capture it alive and ask what it knows.
"Nabel, stand back."
Ainz finally gained some will to fight and gave an order. Narberal had an expression of absolute faith in Ainz's victory, bowing deeply before retreating to a corner of the open space.
"Hmm— it's fine if both of you attack at the same time."
"… Two people ganging up on a hamster, I would never allow such a shameless act."
Seeing Ainz adopt a battle stance after saying that, the Virtuous King of the Forest lowered its posture and tensed its body:
"Don't regret it! This king is coming!"
With a bang, the giant body kicked the ground with enough force to make the earth tremble, pouncing towards Ainz.
The Virtuous King of the Forest pounced with its gigantic body, which would send normal people flying if they didn’t use martial arts to counter.
But Ainz used the giant sword as a shield and took the pounce head on.
It was an incredibly powerful blow, but Ainz blocked it easily.
"Oh!"
The Virtuous King of the Forest was surprised that Ainz didn't even take a single step back, and slashed with its unexpectedly sharp claws. Ainz parried it with the sword in his left hand while attacking with his right.
It wasn't a powerful blow, but it was still a mighty strike.
With a high-pitched sound, Ainz swing was deflected, numbing his arm. The Virtuous King of the Forest had defended Ainz's blow with its claws. Both their attacks bounced back after colliding in the air.
"Impressive! How about this! 「Charm Species」."
Mental attacks were ineffective against the undead. Ignoring the spell, Ainz swung both swords at the same time.
The clash of metal erupted again and Ainz's swords were deflected again.
Ainz squinted the eyes under his helmet.
He was just testing the waters, but the Virtuous King of the Forest deflected that strike with its fur. It was as tough as steel.
So it’s fur isn’t soft? It was a bit unexpected, but Ainz shook the thought that shouldn't appear in the midst of battle out of his mind.
Judging from the levels of Yggdrasil, Ainz estimated its physical attack power to be on par with a level 30 warrior. But that might be boosted by spells and equipment, so it couldn't be judged that way. But using that as a gauge, the battle power of the Virtuous King of the Forest was about level 30.
Ainz's illusionary face frowned:
"Not bad… suitable for close-combat practice."
Ainz concluded he would definitely win the fight if he used his full power. He couldn't let his guard down, but it was good sword practice for a vanguard.
Ainz swung the swords in his hands repeatedly while the Virtuous King of the Forest deftly parried the blows with the claws on its front feet… Another sigil on its body lit up as it activated another spell.
"「Blind」"
Unlike 「Charm Species」, this wasn't a mental spell and was effective against Ainz. But since Ainz had a racial skill that nullified all low-level magic against him, the spell vanished without causing any effects.
When it used magic earlier, a different sigil lit up on its body… So the number of sigils was equivalent to the number of spells it could use.
For monsters that could cast spells in YGGDRASIL, the number of spells it could cast were dependent on the level and racial type, but it was normally around 8. There were about 8 sigils on the Virtuous King of the Forest too, so Ainz felt as if he was fighting a monster in YGGDRASIL.
The Virtuous King of the Forest didn't notice that his spell was nullified and attacked with its front legs. Ainz blocked using the giant sword in one hand while attacking with the other.
He was reminded of fighting together with his comrades in the past.
In YGGDRASIL, one of the strongest warriors that used a sword and shield was TouchMe. The one with the strongest attack, Nishiki Enrai, dual wielding the swords 'Amaterasu' and 'Tsukuyomi'. Claiming he didn’t need a second attack─── although that wasn’t the truth─── using the two tachi 'God Slayer Blade' and 'Takemikazuchi Mk. 8', Warrior Takemikazuchi.
He was also reminded of the warrior he met recently — The knight captain of the Kingdom, Gazef Strolonof.
Ainz assumed the appearance of a warrior when he headed towards Re-Lantier because he was inspired by that man.
Ainz rebuked himself for thinking about such things.
I shouldn't think about random stuff in the middle of a fight. I am doing well, but I can’t let my guard down… Even if the opponent is a hamster…
The sword-attack movements his comrades used in the past appeared in Ainz's mind, and he attacked continuously while mimicking them. At the same time, Ainz blocked the counterattack of the Virtuous King of the Forest swiftly with the sword in his left hand.
The fight turned into a stalemate before Ainz's giant sword finally broke through the Virtuous King of the Forest's defense.
"What!"
With the sensation of the giant sword cutting into flesh, the stink of blood came out. The sword in his right hand slightly slashed through the skin of the Virtuous King of the Forest, sending some fur flying in the air.
Ainz followed up with the sword in his left hand, but the Virtuous King of the Forest sensed the danger, leaped backwards and retreated.
It pulled about 10 meters away.
I heard hamsters would escape from its nest with a leap, but I didn't know they could jump backwards...
As Ainz thought idly with the feeling of fighting a giant hamster, the Virtuous King of the Forest lowered its posture.
Ainz looked at his foe in surprise.
What is it trying to do at this distance? If it tries to charge again, I would raise my sword and let it smash into its own ruin… But it was most probably casting another spell.
The coiled tail behind the Virtuous King of the Forest shouldn't be long enough to reach here—
"— No, wrong!"
Ainz realized his miscalculation.
The first tail attack came from an even further distance. This was still within its attack range.
As expected, the tail swung towards Ainz with a large arc. Ainz used the giant sword in his right hand to block and stared with his eyes wide open in surprise. The tail was using the sword as a pivot point to turn.
"!"
Ainz flicked the sword to the side in order to shake off the tail, but he was a moment too slow, the tail loudly hit the back of Ainz’s armor with a great impact.