The dead fell with absurd ease to Ainz’s blades, though he could feel the eyes watching him when people and goblins returned to the walls. ‘Make my name a legend, and I can do damn near anything.’ He thought as he put the last of them down, a few hundred undead were nothing, but… the exp did add up, even if it was almost nothing individually. ‘Am I getting a little more because it is a mob?’ He wondered, but then focused on the real question.
‘There’s no chance that this is a mere coincidence. That one Lupusregina is dealing with is a fighter of some sort, not a mage. People who can do both are exceptionally rare, even nonexistent other than myself. So she has a caster as a partner… a necromancer, no less.’ Ainz’s time as a gamer told him that much beyond doubt, leaving only the question of where they would be located.
Behind him he could hear the crash of another home being demolished. ‘Lupusregina is playing with her food again.’ The thought almost made him laugh while he scanned the area. He called on his experience as a guild leader and surveyed the landscape.
‘They ‘could’ be anywhere, but where are they ‘likely’ to be?’ He asked himself and immediately ruled out the forest, even with a good view of the gate, that was literally all. No line of sight to their partner or any idea what else was happening inside the village itself. That left one obvious position right away that offered a way to see what the undead were doing ‘and’ let them see inside. ‘The hill.’ He turned his eyes in that direction, and sure enough, a small figure stood, visible to him only because of his high stats.
He sheathed his swords to give himself just a little more speed, just in case the person was faster than he expected, and began to sprint.
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Clementine thrust again and again as fast and hard as she could, yet her blows were batted away by the one calling herself, ‘Lupu’ with a single flick of her wrists. ‘How is this even possible? She is a human, right?!’ The question hadn’t been seriously intended, but once the seed was planted, it began to grow.
“Really, is this the best you can do? I’m disappointed, really I am, I’ve seen better out of soooo many other lesser beings.” Lupusregina said and folded her hands behind her head, she let out a sigh that was clearly intended to taunt.
Clementine’s eyes, already narrow and full of hate, darted around, others were starting to gather, none of them meant anything, they were weaklings, but it meant something worse. She glanced past Lupu, and the woman picked up on her shifted attention.
“Oh, them? You really didn’t notice? Wow, you suck. Yeah, Momon took care of them, he’s probably already on the way to take care of whoever you used to create all that rotten meat. He might be a little cross with you for using the bodies of the families here though, he’s gotten to kind of like these folks.” Lupu said, and the villagers stared at one another in horror, open mouthed, and in many cases, weeping when they understood what Lupu had just told them all.
“I’ll end their misery once I’ve ended you.” Clementine snarled, her bosom heaved with deep breaths, “One poke is all it takes.”
“Tell it to the lover boy back there.” Lupu jabbed her thumb over to where Enri and Nfirea stood.
‘How can anyone… how is this even possible?’ Nfirea ignored the joke thrown in his direction, he shared the thought with the rest of the villagers, the zombies and other undead were reduced to hunks of meat, and in front of them all an impossible fight was being waged. Lupu seemed to be utterly indifferent in the face of a monster, and more importantly, utterly untouchable by it.
“You can only mock someone so much.” Clementine glared.
“Yeah, eventually I’m going to have to kill you, I’m just waiting for Momon’s word. Or you could surrender, I could use a pet. Though I guess I’d have to housebreak you, can’t have you sniffing around places you shouldn’t.” Lupusregina’s mockery redoubled and made the blonde howl with rage and charge again.
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“What are you?! Who are you?!” Khajiit yelled while the dark warrior rushed him, he put up wall after wall of skeletons, raised undead, and sent off acid and fire attacks… but the warrior avoided most and simply bashed through the skeletal walls or literally slapped the undead aside and put them down with that alone.
“Stronger than you, and nobody you’d know, nobody you need to know. A name is meaningless to the dead.” Ainz declared and drew his twin blades as he came close.
“Skeletal dragons!” Khajiit shouted, holding aloft a dark orb in hand. That set the warrior jumping backward, and relief flooded the long face of the red robed caster.
“You’re right to be afraid! Even one would require a team of adamantite adventurers, and I’ve summoned two, and you’re alone! You handled low ranked undead easily enough! And this is a setback! But it’s all over now! You’ll die here, Clementine will kill the rest of the village, and it will all be over!”
Ainz looked up to the sky, true to Khajiit’s word, two skeletal dragons flapped bone wings and bone tails. An ear splitting roar led to shouts of alarm in return.
“OK, so this is different.” Ainz begrudgingly admitted. ‘I wonder if they’re as weak as they were in the game.’
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Clementine got up to her feet, her ears rang where Lupu slapped her. ‘The bitch actually slapped me… me!’ It was a galling thought, but the roar splitting the air and the alarm of those who watched her humiliation was a comfort. “You’re done for now, I’ll never admit this to Khajiit, but his magic is really good. Your warrior friend is done for, how will he face two skeletal dragons? Hadn’t you better start running? Since you did so well, I’ll even give you a head start.” Clementine gestured to the wall and she waited for the panic to ensue.
The villagers and petty adventurers looked like they were about to break.
“No way!” Enri shouted her defiance when she felt Nfirea’s confident arm around her waist holding her a little closer. “We’re not running! This is our home! You’re not going to kill us! You’re not going to burn it! Nobody will ever take from us again!”
Clementine glared at the blonde peasant. “When I finish with her… you’re next.”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“You don’t have a chance.” Nfirea said with utter confidence.
“Nope, not even one. See that warrior is a lot stronger than me. I’m not even a warrior, I’m a cleric.” Lupu said with a cocky grin and a raised chin, daring Clementine to disbelieve her.
It was a dare Clementine accepted, “Bullshit!” She spat into the dirt.
“I’ll prove it.” Lupu said and raised a hand, and in Clementine’s eyes, did the stupid and the impossible both at once.
The healing light hit Clementine worse than a physical blow, not because it didn’t work, but because it did. ‘How… how how how how how how how?! You can’t be this strong ‘and’ use magic like this! It’s not fair! You’re breaking the rules!’
“See, all better, now I can play with you again.” Lupu clapped her hands together with excitement and a giggle, and then took the offensive. She hit home before Clementine could even raise an effort at self defence, the back of Lupu’s hand connected to Clementine’s jaw and flipped the woman end over end six times in the air before the blonde woman landed face first in the dirt.
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Khajiit extended a hand toward the dark warrior when the skeletal dragons descended to guard him. “Surrender, and I’ll let you serve me!” His aged voice was almost raspy, his long face and bald head made him look almost cartoonishly villainish. An absurd notion on its face even if things were not as Ainz knew them to be.
“No, I’d rather use these as an experiment.” Ainz answered, and advanced at Khajiit slowly enough to allow one of the massive beasts, easily fifty times Ainz’s size, to bar the way. The claw came out to stop, and possibly grip, Ainz’s body, and his sword came out to strike it.
Khajiit’s jaw dropped, the bones shattered like icicles hit by stones, the fragments fell down, and the warrior swung again before those fragments hit the ground. Bits of bone began to fall like snowflakes as he literally began to cut the undead monster to pieces.
“Go! Stop him!” Khajiit screeched, sending the second skeleton in to attack. For a moment everything was obscured, there was only the sound of a crash, a smile of relief began to trace over his face. “So, you couldn’t handle two…”
He frowned, the skeletal dragon was flapping its wings, but not moving from where it impacted. “What’s wrong…” He wondered, until the dragon roared as its arm was wrenched away from its body.
“That’s… that’s not possible!” Khajiit stammered when the dragon moved, and he saw that the sword was buried pommel up into the dirt, and the dark warrior grasped the skeleton, and tore the arm free.
“Many things that are impossible to believe, are very real.” Ainz replied, and then he yanked the sword out, and proceeded to cut his way through the body of the dragon. The rain of bones continued to fall as the beast continued to flail hopelessly. ‘Slightly stronger, but just as dumb. Without constant control, all they can do is follow their last order.’ A huge drawback to undead was the lack of intelligence in most of them, and these were no exception.
As one dragon collapsed with a crash into the dirt road, the other advanced, and began to suffer the same fate. Khajiit held the orb in a trembling hand, “Ray of negative energy!” He shouted the spell and black energy shot out to heal the remaining undead monster.
The dark warrior however, simply moved faster, and the trickle of negative healing energy that had been pulling bones back into place, simply couldn’t keep up, and then gradually died out. “No! No! No! I refuse to believe I’ll die here! Five years of preparation! Five years of work and death in the crypt! Five years to destroy E-Rantel and achieve my fondest wish! All to die by a nobody outside of a nothing village?!” He shouted his rage and began using his own mana to desperately launch spell after spell, fireballs lit up the night, but his wild desperation, which redoubled when the second skeleton crashed down, did not help his aim.
The dark warrior was closer, advancing faster than Khajiit could respond, he opened his mouth to scream one last desperate spell and save himself from a fate he could no longer avoid, and his life flashed before his eyes…
...Himself, the young Khajiit, playing by the water with his friends outside of the village they were all born in.
...Himself and his mother having lunch, a little tiff over when he had to come home.
...His harsh words to her, the hurt in her eyes…
...His fun time playing again, but a lingering sense of guilt… a resolve to apologize…
...His return home. ‘Mom, listen I’m sorry I…’ the last words, and they died in mid sentence when he saw her corpse lying there, dead.
...The guilt, an apology he could never give… learning she died of a rare illness and needed him home so she could rest easy…
...The resolution, to give her back her life, no matter what…
...His first kill…
...His first spell…
...One after another… joining Zuranon and rising through the ranks…
...Learning about the death spiral, obtaining the Orb of Death…
...The morning of the present…
The sword was up, it was coming down, ‘I have to say the spell! It’s my last chance!’ He understood.
But only one word came out.
“Mother!” Khajiit shouted for help which had died decades earlier, and the sword severed his head from his body. He lived to see the world spinning end over end and felt the pain as he began to roll down the hill. Dust in his eyes and the taste of it on his tongue, rocks jabbing into the skin of his face.
He rolled down like a ball, unable to cast a spell as he could no longer speak, he felt his consciousness fading, and a part of him wondered, ‘Will I live long enough to come to a stop?’
Khajiit got an answer to his question, his head finally rocked back and forth at the base of the hill, his face looking up toward the endless sky, then his eyes began to close, and his life came to an end.
“That was easy.” Ainz said while the head tumbled down the hill and the body toppled over. “I guess that’s enough, and the exp I got from those skeletal dragons was a lot better than the undead down there.” He yawned heavily and looked out over the village.
“Lupu! Finish it, I’ll be returning in a moment!” Ainz shouted, and started to stroll back down the hill.
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When the skeletons fell from the sky, Clementine could barely believe it. “Impossible.” She muttered, a sentiment shared by every single observer.
“Nah, it’s routine for someone that strong. Those were nothing, not even a warmup.” Lupu said, and then she heard her master’s orders.
“Whelp, I guess that’s it for you then, playtime is over.” Lupu said with a smile as sadistic as Clementine’s own.
The blonde crouched down, “So it is, if Khajiit really failed, I’d better get going.” She said, and though she kept her voice confident, when she crouched down to launch herself at the red haired woman again, she felt the ember of fear burst into flames, her opponent took the same posture, both legs bent, one hand on the dirt, one hand up, despite being without a weapon.
‘She means to end it, fine, so do I, I’m beyond humanity, and she? She’s just a crazy skilled copper plate nobody!’ Clementine meant the thought to reassure herself, and then she sprang into action.
Her stiletto came out, and whooshed through open air, as expected, the woman knew how to dodge, but Clementine was confident in her experience, and had a second one in hand an instant later. She brought it out and tried to jab the redhead in her kidney. That too, whooshed past, but this one went ‘behind’ the woman who stepped inside Clementine’s attack.
The blonde Black Scripture was quick to try to respond by changing her grip and bringing her stilettos in, but to her horror, she felt hands holding her arms, and squeezed.
Her bones snapped under Lupu’s hold, and her will to fight snapped with them. Clementine let out a wail of pain. She kicked and struggled, trying to escape. ‘Run! Run! This is a monster! A monster! A monster! It’s not a human after all! Get out of here! Go! Go!’ Clementine told herself, but the monster that held her broken arms was now lifting her up.
“Well, that’s it for you, I don’t really need you, any purpose you had, you’ve already served, so… to use your words, ‘bye bye.’” Lupu was grinning up at her, licking her lips.
How the redhead intended to kill her, Clementine didn’t know, she barely listened to what was being said, but understanding dawned when she began to feel the slow, steady pull on her arms and felt the fingers of the redhead tearing into her flesh.
“No! No!” No please!” Clementine whimpered and cried as all her courage and will to cruelty died with the feeling of the pull on her arms. Her flesh began to slowly tear away.
The ripping that sounded like paper tearing continued with agonizing slowness, the cruel yellow eyes of the woman that Clementine recognized too late to be that of a true monster, bored into her.
Then she felt it, the feeling of falling. Clementine collapsed when she hit the dirt and landed on her back, up above her, she could see that Lupu still held her arms in the air.
“Hmm, I kind of thought one would tear before the other… oh well, I should have taken bets.” Lupu mumbled, then raised a foot and stomped on Clementine’s ankle while the woman on her back in the dust struggled to kick herself away from the horror of her own demise.
The ankle shattered, but the pain was less than which shot from where her shoulders used to be.
Clementine rolled over onto her belly, and began wiggling, crawling on it as she threw away the last bit of pride to put just one more inch between herself and the one to take her life and her pride and grind both down into nothingness.
“You made a bad mistake, and you don’t get to learn from it.” Lupu muttered, approached, and put her foot on Clementine’s back.
The former Black Scripture felt the foot on her back, pressing her breasts down, grinding them painfully into the dirt, adding one more final agony. The wave of cheers from her would-be victims hit her like one last insult and she thought, as her brain finally began to die, ‘This has been the worst day of my life!’
Then it was her last, and Clementine, died.