“Gaz──”
Gazef Strolonoff used this martial arts before.
He didn’t finish uttering the name when the stiletto stab towards him. It was aimed at the gap of the helmet— the eyes.
Ainz turned his head hard. Although the gap wasn’t hit, the sound of screeching steel still reached his ears. Before he had the chance to sigh in relief, he saw from the corner of his vision that Clementine was raising her stiletto, ready to strike again.
“Tch!”
Even taking the difference in physical abilities into account, Clementine’s straight thrust was faster than Ainz’s swing. The stiletto didn’t miss this time, scoring a direct hit on Ainz.
“Hmmm~?”
“Ugh!”
A surprised sound and a panicked voice could be heard at the same time.
Ainz pressed his hand against his helmet without letting go of his sword and jumped a huge distance backwards. But Clementine didn’t press her attack.
Looking at Ainz with slanted eyes, Clementine looked at the tip of the stiletto and said mockingly:
“Don’t give me any handicap, you will die if you don’t use your full power, you know~”
In order to clear her doubts, Clementine continued asking the silent Ainz:
“But how did you do that? Being unharmed after taking that hit just now. I was sure it would definitely hurt you~”
“… Ara ara. This battle… has been very fruitful. It tells me about the existence of martial arts, taught me not to simply use brute force in battle, and the importance of keeping my balance.”
“… Huh? Are you an idiot? To talk about this now… You are not worthy of being a warrior. But it doesn’t matter since you will die here anyway~ But I hope you will answer my question… Was that a defensive martial art~?”
Clementine spoke as if she has had enough. Ainz smiled bitterly under his helmet, thinking that she was right.
“I have much to learn… I am grateful. But time is short, let’s end this game.”
Ignoring the baffled Clementine, Ainz shouted:
“Narberal Gamma! Display the power of Nazarick!”
Spinning the swords in his hand, Ainz stuck both swords tips down into the ground. Ainz reached out with one empty hand at Clementine, gesturing gently for her to come:
“Well then, come at me with the resolve to die.”
Part 4
“… To really know 「Flight」 magic, looks like you aren’t putting up a false front. But how did you dodge the attack just now? I was behind the Skeletal Dragon and didn’t see…”
Narberal who slowly descended from the sky heard the wary questions. Kajit couldn’t fathom why she didn’t escape using the 「Flight」 magic. She could have retreated since she was facing Skeletal Dragons, which baffled him.
“Hmmp, you think you can win? In the face of Skeletal Dragon with absolute resistance against magic?”
“There are countless ways to win… But before that…”
Narberal grabbed her shoulder and pulled off her robe:
“I am Narberal Gamma, one of the battle maids (Pleiades) who swore fealty to the overlord of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the supreme being Ainz Gown Ooal. You lower life form (Human) should be honored to battle with me.”
The abilities of a user-designed item in YGGDRASIL could be altered with data crystals. Narberal’s robe included a high speed clothes-changing crystal. So Narberal didn’t need to waste time changing her equipment and put on her preset gears immediately.
The robe that was taken off would be put into her item box.
Seeing the maid appeared before him, the confused Kajit blinked repeatedly before he grasped the situation──
“What?”
── And then he shouted in surprise.
Seeing a Magic Caster morph into a maid was definitely surprising.
Kajit felt displeased to see this joke like dressing, but Narberal’s composed demeanor made him feel danger, so he ordered the Skeletal Dragons to attack immediately. The two Skeletal Dragon approached Narberal with unexpectedly nimble movements, swinging their forelegs made up from countless bones. As they were about to hit, Narberal activated her spell.
“「Teleportation」.”
“Again!”
Narberal disappeared again.
Kajit looked up in the sky to searched for the missing Narberal, still remembering what happened earlier. But a sense of pain told him where Narberal was.
“—Ahhh!”
Kajit’s scream echoed in the cemetery. Kajit’s left shoulder suddenly burned with pain and the pain spread all over his body with the beating of his heart.
The shocked Kajit looked at his wound as the sharp blade was about to be drawn out of it.
“—Ugh, ugh!”
The sword was pulled out crudely, inducing a sharp pain once again. He felt his bones being grinded, which accentuated his discomfort. Blood sprayed out of the sword wound, staining Kajit’s black robes.
Kajit who was drooling from the pain turned his head in a hurry to see what was happening.
He saw Narberal standing before him with a puzzled face.
“Is it that painful?”
“—!”
Narberal used her hand that wasn’t holding the staff to toy with the dark, bloodstained shortsword.
Kajit couldn’t speak because of the pain.
A Magic Caster who seldom fought in the front wouldn’t experience a lot of pain. And Kajit was usually served by others and the one inflicting pain. That’s why he had such low tolerance for pain.
Kajit’s head was sweating as he ordered the Skeletal Dragon to attack with his mind. Narberal retreated, putting some distance away from the approaching Skeletal Dragon. The speed of 「Flight」 was faster than the average speed of sprinting.
The two Skeletal Dragons charged into the space where Narberal had been.
Hiding behind the Skeletal Dragon, Kajit regained his calm after getting into a safe position and finally understood which spell Narberal was using.
That is──
“This is teleportation!”
「Teleportation」 was a 3rd tier magic, but for Magic Casters, it was just a means for them to escape and put some distance between them and the enemy.
But that was the limit for Magic Casters with poor physical abilities. For Magic Casters who were as skilled as warriors in melee combat, this spell was as good as an offensive spell. No, with its element of surprise, it might be stronger than some half-baked offensive spell.
Kajit pressed on his shoulder and glared at Narberaclass="underline" “I see, your ace in the hole is using teleportation to kill me! You used that to escape earlier too right!?”
It was a troubling ace. Since spells were ineffective against Skeletal Dragons, Narberal just needed to kill their summoner, an obvious tactic. With her skillful use of teleportation, Kajit might not be able to evade.