Chapter 8 One Last Battle
Harry's everyday routine could be surmised in three sections: the time spent investigating in his own room, the time spent with Jaldabaoth, and the one spent with Momonga hunting out.
It had been quite a while since he had gone out on his own. Since the Room of Requirement could replicate all he needed, Harry had gotten used to search for things in it instead of traveling to this or that part of this Universe, the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil.
But since it was going to disappear in the next two days, he had decided to go and have one last look around.
With this in mind, he went out of Nazarick, crossing the swamp without difficulties as he walked in a seemingly random direction.
Jarvis had been ordered to perpetually collect ingredients from his room, and he had already gone through the items in the treasury he considered were good enough to be preserved. He still needed to give his farewells, but he was postponing it for the last day.
Simply put, he was as ready as he could be to face this world's apocalypse.
Momonga would arrive at night as he always did, so Harry still had some hours to roam around, visiting places he had only replicated in the Room of Requirement.
Seeing the real thing was always better, Harry couldn't help but think, as he gazed around like a newbie tourist in a richly cultural community. He was walking around an enormous lake, which could be accessed only after crossing through a haunted forest in a very particular path.
The water was a black, thick substance that looked very toxic. The background lore said it had been cursed by a World-level enemy, so it had the effect of causing quite a few negative statuses if a distracted player made contact with it.
The trees on the forest were dried, the wood being a horrible sick-green color that could also poison the players that didn't take the proper countermeasures. All of the creatures that inhabited this forest were the kind to be proficient at venomous attacks, especially if it was done in an ambush.
The ground, in contrast, was an ironically healthy-looking grass. It had healing properties if used in the right potions, as if mocking the highly poisonous environment, but it was difficult to harvest; even worse if one tried to reach its roots.
Harry walked slowly near the lake, simply gazing around with a calm mind. It was incredible how many small details were different than the image he used to replicate—
"Woah, you look just like it!"
Harry halted upon hearing a masculine voice address him. Frowning lightly, he turned to face the source.
He had sensed the group of ten players was within the area, but since the end was just around the corner, he surmised people had better things to do than PK others, so he had only placed some mid concealing charms on himself.
The one that called out for him could obviously see through them.
But since the whole party of ten was visible in front of him, he deduced they weren't here to attempt to PK him. If that were the case, they would have left some people hidden, slowly surrounding him.
Considering this, Harry mentally shrugged and annulled his concealing charms before replying.
"Like whom?" Harry said simply, quirking an eyebrow at the male lancer, a Naga.
"Don't play dumb. You did it on purpose, didn't you? Replicate the appearance of that shitty Raid Boss!"
…Well damn.
Harry internally cursed, looking more attentively at the demi-human players and quickly determining that, indeed, they looked somewhat familiar.
Of course, he had such bloody bad luck that he would encounter someone from that time the moment he decided to tour around this world.
Now he clearly remembered why he had stopped going out unless it was to hunt with Momonga.
Harry seemed to be cursed with bad luck when it came to encounters with other players, so all of them either thought he was mimicking the 'Raid Boss' that had previously wiped the floor with them or recognized him as a member of the generally-hated Ainz Ooal Gown guild.
Both options normally resulted in the players wanting to kill him.
"Is that a crime?" Harry replied nonchalantly, shrugging carelessly as he sharply studied the group facing him, "so what if I like to roleplay?"
"That stupid thing killed us thirty times consecutively," The female cleric, an elf, muttered to her companions, and Harry bitterly thought that he should have done so another seventy times.
"Want to even the count?"
"Sounds good."
"Why not, this is my last day after all."
"Might as well."
"It's his fault for choosing that appearance anyways."
Phrases of agreement resounded among the group of players. Harry sighed tiredly, wondering if he should just apparate away as he usually did in situations like this.
Since the world saw him as a player, he had tried to keep things limited to Yggdrasil spells when fighting against other players, in order to blend in. This limitation was also meant to help him get used to those spells, instead of casting the ones he had learned before arriving to this world. The last thing he had wanted was to slip up while being with someone from his guild after all.
But now, with the end so close… well, it had been a while since he vented out some steam. Besides, since this "Game" was about to end in a couple more days, he might as well stop holding back and have some fun.
He wasn't going to see them ever again, and there was no real harm done since they were just game avatars. It wasn't like he would actually be killing someone.
Harry activated the spell that allowed him to see the level of the enemy party, smirking in anticipation upon seeing they all were level 100.
"Bring it on then," he accepted the challenge, summoning his elder wand. His spear was in his inventory, and for this quick battle, it shouldn't be necessary to take it out.
The party of ten players immediately tensed. Not because they thought they could lose against Harry— a "player" they saw as level 100, since that was the limit on the measurable levels— but because it could be a trap.
When doing PK, it was common for a few guild members to act as bait, while the rest would attack the enemy once they were close enough. Of course, the possibility of the bait dying was quite high, but it was a good way to guarantee that the enemy that had taken the bait was eliminated.
That was the reason they were wary now.
Harry smirked freely, knowing the others couldn't see his expression, and chuckled softly before silently casting his first spell.
[Astral Binding]
He concentrated his magic in the surroundings, creating a ward that would keep them from fleeing away. It was probably needlessly strong, considering it was meant for long-timed imprisonment, but since he didn't know all Yggdrasil-spells, it was better suited to make sure they would stay within sight.
While affected by this spell, the creatures imprisoned weren't supposed to need to breathe, eat, or drink, nor would they age at a normal pace, but much slower. There were no known spells that could locate or perceive the targets within this ward either.
He was more than confident that not even a Super Tier spell could help them now.
It was one of the wards he had used on Nazarick and the Volcano after all, even if more for its concealing nature rather than the one meant to keep targets inside, and it had taken a World item for the invaders to get through it.
As the caster, he could control whether the imprisoning feature was activated or not, so those places enjoyed of the positive aspects only.
"Bah, it's my last day anyways!" the male warrior, a half-Ent, shouted after this pause. It was a signal for all the frontliners to close the distance, appearing in front of him in the blink of an eye.
Moving with a speed which put gales to shame, the vanguards charged, wreathed in bloodlust. The ground seemed to explode beneath their feet with every step they took, which was most likely the result of an item for visual effect, considering there were no marks on the ground even after that illusory image.
In nothing but a moment, Harry was on the receiving end of the warrior's long sword, a double-edged lance, the rogue's axe, and he could feel a presence lurking from somewhere behind him, so he surmised a Master Assassin was there as well.
"[Divine strike]!" The Warrior used a special skill, copies of the bright silver sword surrounding him for a moment before rushing like arrows to strike him. Judging by the its name, it seemed to be high level faith-based ability. Maybe he was a Paladin then?
"[Forbidden Force]!" The axe glowed an angry red, leaving behind a trail of light with its fast movement. Since the weapon was not only long, but also heavy, it was ideal for delivering especially powerful attacks, so long it connected with the intended target.
"[Razor Rush]!" A gigantic divine lance appeared in the lancer's hand. It was well over three meters long with an especially large head, oddly surrounded by an aura of purity that seemed to emanate from its very core. It reflected the rays of the sun in its silver radiance, producing a beautiful and eye-catching display.
The male didn't throw it like a javelin, but instead it rose by itself and darted out with absurd speed. The lance suddenly changed its course, somehow managing to be in many places at once, as if it had multiplied. It was impossible to deduce where it would come from.
"[Greater Lethal]!" The master assassin cried from somewhere behind him. Harry recognized it as a skill that would be on par with a 9th tier instant-death spell, made much stronger since this one needed direct contact.
The phrase "one-shot kill" could not even begin to describe this perfectly synchronized combo of fatal blows, which tore through the air towards him. Surely, it would be enough to finish off a normal player.
However, despite the ever-approaching attacks, Harry remained unmoved.
He smirked and opened his arms as if in welcome, while silently chanting a single defensive spell, [Simulacrum].
He watched gleefully as the attacks— which were all level 8th and up— bounced harmlessly on him, much to the shock of the front liners.
"What the hell!"
"How did he—?!"
"Shit!"
Harry simply smirked in amusement even as he prepared his next move.
A first-class fighter could not only deflect the attack without taking damage, but also respond with a counterattack of his own. As such, while [Simulacrum] was activated with a [Rejection effect] that made the enemies bounce back, Harry extended his magic so it was just within the imprisonment ward he had previously implemented.
[Storm of Vengeance].
Since he wasn't using Yggdrasil spells, and Harry had no allies in this battle, there was no need to chant the spells out loud.
As such, seemingly out of nowhere his field-wide spell activated, caused a churning storm to spread over the whole area. Lightning flashed out as the thunder fell over all targets, the lightening moving to follow the ones that had tried to evade it.
Although not particularly strong, it was ideal for fighting against a large number of enemies, since the storm also served as a curtain to impede visibility. Although most players had either items or skills that could let them see through darkness as if it were a sunny day, it couldn't help them regarding smoke or any other phenomena that limited their vision.
That and, after some time passed, if the caster maintained concentration on this spell the storm would produce an additional effect.
Harry deduced that the enemy had either underestimated him, or had been preparing for a possible ambush. Whichever the case, upon seeing that the four frontliners were not enough to even harm him, the whole party of ten finally started to move in a synchronized attack, the ones on the rear dispersing around the area to attack from all sides.
He apparated out of the way of the harmful magic, as the long-ranged attackers started to support the vanguards. As such, no offensive or debuffing magic reached him, so the only result was that the frontliners had been buffed up by their teammates.
Not like it made much of a difference however, considering not a single attack had landed on him.
"Annulate his [Greater Teleportation]!" One of the frontliners cried in exasperation after yet another evasive.
"I already did! I don't know why is not working, the spell activates normally!"
Harry chuckled as he apparated out of the way of the axe's path, successfully evading an attack that was supposed to be undodgeable.
"What the fuck!"
"I can't see shit! Get rid of the stupid storm already!"
"Do you think I'm lazing around?! Nothing fucking works— shit!"
"To hell with it, use wide-area attacks!"
Harry sighed impatiently as they finally reached a logical solution.
In an area where Harry couldn't move freely due to the lake's presence, and where visibility was almost nonexistent, it was only logical to switch to wide-area attacks. Even more so if one considered that no friendly fire was allowed in Yggdrasil, so the fact that their fellow teammates were also in the targeted area didn't matter.
This way, it didn't matter whether they could see Harry or not, whether they could directly target him or not, since he just needed to be in the affected area for the attack to be successful.
It was exactly the way he had predicted it would go.
The female artificer — a gnome who had been moving underground around the field, placing traps — suddenly crashed into his invisible ward. Like a child running towards a wall, she bounced back and looked at the invisible border with confusion.
"Wait!" the female gnome tried to warn them, but her shout was drowned, eclipsed by those of her comrades.
"[Triplet Maximize Boosted: Thousand Lance]!"
Countless — well over one or two thousand — lances of steel erupted from the earth around the human lancer. The spears assailed the battlefield from all directions, scattered pieces of plants and ground alike flew wildly as they impaled the ground.
"[Maximize Magic - Vermilion Nova]!" Crimson flames flared up, easily covering the whole battlefield. It was the true definition of an undodgeable attack.
"[Triplet Maximize Magic - Astrophysical Smite]." That spell could temporarily nullify astral entities, so if Harry had tried to evade the attacks using such a method, it would have been for naught.
"[Greater Force Explosion]" An invisible shockwave exploded from the male Rogue, a dwarf, expanding horizontally like a wave would in calm water.
"[Greater Full Potential: Heavenly slashes]" As if physically cutting through the air, white trails left the warrior's sword and covered the whole area, cutting everything on its path. The light traveled so fast in such a manner that evasion would have been almost impossible, even for someone as fast as the ninja Nishiki had used to be.
After that, spikes of ice sprouted from the ground, and the time-settled traps of the artificer activated, so only those sensitive to movement remained.
The cleric and the healer used defensive and healing magic over their teammates, as if to protect them from anything Harry could have in store for them.
The wide-area skills and spells were casted at the same time all around the battlefield. These powerful area attacks were all high tiered, possessing a great combination of everything: range of attack, power and area of effect. This, of course, meant that they costed a great deal of mana.
Harry almost felt bad for evading each and every single one of them.
Still, since they had fallen in his trap so willingly, he simply waited for the effects to be over in his secured place. He watched calmly as the attacks that were meant to cover around 3 miles were instead covering only the 1 mile he had defined as the battlefield.
The imprisonment ward didn't allow anything to go in or out, not even magic.
So Harry had simply apparated out of the imprisonment ward he had implemented at the beginning of the battle, watching as the area in front of him was covered with all their combined attacks like one would stare admiringly at the fireworks.
If one wasn't in their way, it made for quite a mesmerizing sight.
Once the effect of the attacks finally ended, he apparated back to the middle of the battlefield, not a single scratch on him.
"Is that all?" Harry inquired simply as the visual effect of his [Storm of Vengeance] receded. Visibility was no longer an issue for the enemy.
"How is… no, you must be using [False Data – Life]! [See Through]!" One of the magic casters shouted in a voice laced with panic.
That was a foolish theory. [False Data – Life] made it seem like you had less HP than you really had, so it didn't serve to explain why his own would be larger.
[See Through] was supposed to nullify any attempt at altering the perception of one's HP or MP bar, but the magic caster seemed to be just as incredulous as before. It was to be expected, since Harry really hadn't been hurt at all during the whole confrontation.
"Are you finished? Then please allow me," Harry said with amusement at the frozen enemy, who still seemed to be assimilating the truth.
Since this much time had passed, it was time for his storm to begin its next and final effect.
The dark clouds of smoke that had been hanging over their heads suddenly turned into white, transparent mist. As if summoned by this change however, gusts of strong wind covered the whole area.
At first glance, it didn't seem to be such a big deal. Since the players were only game avatars, it wasn't like they actually needed to blink, so visibility was not an issue, and at their level, this wasn't enough to impede their movement.
That was only because the enemy didn't know that the wind would automatically disperse fog, mists, and similar phenomena in the area, whether mundane or magical in nature. Most importantly however, was the fact that—
"Kuh! Don't look down on us! 「Maximize Magic - Reality Slash]!" One of the magic casters, an orc, used an offensive spell against Harry.
It was, by all rights, a powerful spell.
When one reached the highest level of the strongest warrior class, World Champion, one would learn the supreme, ultimate skill called「World Break]. This tenth tier spell [Reality Slash] was merely an inferior copy of that skill, but it was still among the most damaging spells in Yggdrasil.
It cleaved through the very fabric of space, so a hit from this powerful attack spell could disregard virtually any form of magical defense. Better than defending from it, it was better to try to evade it, even for someone like Harry.
More powerful spells consumed more mana however. [Reality Slash] was one of those spells, and it was quite inefficient, in terms of damage caused for mana expended. Still, it had been a good option for an enemy as desperate as this one.
Harry wondered what kind of face the players were making, once they saw the 10th tier spell break undone before it could even begin to take form.
The second and last effect of [Storm of Vengeance] was that it annulled all long-ranged attacks in the area.
As if taken away by the strong wind, anything that didn't involve direct contact automatically dispersed before it could even take form, resulting in nothing but a waste of mana and limited-use skills.
In other words, around 65% of Yggdrasil spells and skills had now been completely nullified.
He watched interestedly as the enemy party tried to use other ranged attacks against him, not yet understanding why it wasn't working. It was only after they had wasted five attacks that they seemed to understand the nature of Harry's spell.
"Then— then how about this! [Summon Monster Tenth]." The female cleric enchanted while raising her staff.
"[Greater Rejection]." Harry casted out loud for the first time in the battle. He did so without thinking, since he had used an Yggdrasil spell, it was a subconscious act more than anything.
The summoned monsters were dispelled in an instant, so fast that Harry couldn't even determine what exactly had the Cleric elf tried to summon.
"This… doesn't this feel like…?"
"…The battle we had against that thing?"
The battlefield froze, and Harry simply nodded mockingly.
"Nice to meet you again. It's been quite a while since I last encountered you, hasn't it?"
This was most definitely not what they wanted to hear.
The enemy party couldn't understand the meaning of those words. No, they didn't want to understand them.
"Fucking role-player!" The rogue dwarf yelled through the otherwise silent battlefield, refusing to admit the fact that, other than Harry's last spell, the rest had been unknown to them. Just like the attacks of the Raid Bosses normally were.
Still refusing to admit defeat, the rogue dwarf kicked the ground and raised his axe once more.
After a small pause, those who could attack in close range followed suit. In Yggdrasil, the Players couldn't change their expressions, but Harry could almost taste their panic in their voice.
This was the final, desperate attack of the enemy that had realized their mistake after the fact, but who was determined to not admit defeat.
"Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!" The lancer naga cried repeatedly before adding, "How did this happen?!"
"How did you prepare all those attacks? Was kind of cheating skill did you activate?!" The half-ent warrior added as he thrusted his weapon forward.
"What on earth is going on here?!" the rogue dwarf exclaimed angrily as Harry evaded their attacks yet again, being careful to not activate the traps the female artificer had placed around the battlefield.
"Well, what sort of magician would I be if I told you the secret of my tricks?" Harry replied simply, as he silently prepared his final attack.
"A trick!? A trick couldn't have done all this!"
Harry laughed with genuine amusement upon hearing that last phrase.
"Correct! Simply put, let's just say I'm not really roleplaying, hmm?" the attacks that had been desperately chasing after him seemed to halt for the shortest of moments, as the enemy processed the meaning of his words.
"That being said, you should understand now, right? This is nothing personal, but let's end the battle now—"
"[Shadowbind]!" One of the magic casters, an ogre, enchanted, and Harry found himself temporarily tied down by his own shadow.
He could break free without problems, but decided not to upon noticing that the warrior was now surrounded by a very particular magical dome.
Their desperate, ultimate move, was to use the spell which surpassed the 10th tier of magic. Super tier magic.
From the perspective of the tiers of magic, spells of this level couldn't really be considered as magic. To begin with, they did not consume MP, but instead they could only be used a limited number of times per day. Rather than call them magic, they might be better described as skills.
When a player first learned them, they could only be used once per day. Every ten levels after level seventy, however, one could use them an additional time per day.
The average player could only use four super tier spells per day at level one hundred. One might ask at this point — why not consecutively cast super tier spells to defeat the enemy? Indeed, the destructive power of super tier magic was unrivalled. If one could cast super tier spells one after the other, even the damage alone would only be survivable by a vanishingly small fraction of level one hundred players.
However, they could not do that.
The reason was because super tier magic spells could not be cast consecutively.
To begin with, each super tier spell needed a certain amount of casting time. Cash items could remove that casting time, but another penalty prevented the repeated casting of super tier spells.
Once any member of a team casted a super tier spell, every member of the allied team would be penalized by being unable to cast such spells for a certain period of time — in other words, a cooldown period.
This restriction was put in place to prevent guild wars from being decided by who could vomit out the most super tier spells. In addition, this cooldown period could not be eliminated by any skill or cash item.
Thus, when Players confronted each other, the party which casted a super tier spell first was often considered an idiot. After all, defeat was likely when one expended a trump card without properly understanding one's foe.
Yet, they didn't have much option left but to cast such a spell.
A gigantic dome-shaped magic circle had appeared around the warrior, extending about ten meters away from him. The magic circle shone brilliant white, as translucent diagrams of characters and symbols appeared all over the surface. These images changed ceaselessly, with kaleidoscopic speed, differing from second to second.
But Harry could see and understand most of them.
Contrary to popular belief, the sequence of each Super tier spell differed from one another, and Harry had spent a good amount of time investigating this difference. As such, so long he had seen it at least once, he could identify which Super tier spell was going to be used.
That being said, he didn't really recognize this one.
Silently thankful that he was going to gain something valuable from this battle, Harry chose to remain bound by the enemy to see that spell activate. While most level 100 players could only learn around twelve Super Tiers depending on the job classes they chose to learn, he wasn't exactly bound by such a requirement.
As such, so long he could understand and replicate the symbols, it wasn't like Harry had a limit on the amount of Super tier magic he could learn and implement.
The warrior used a cash item— shaped like an hourglass— to instantly cast the Super tier spell. The blue light of the magic circle intensified, indicating that it was ready to be cast, and then—
"[Susanoo]!"
—There was the sound of sizzling, as though someone had thrown a burning torch into water.
The spell, which surpassed the very definition of tiers, went off and the weapon on the warrior's hands was replaced by a new one.
It was a weapon more than three meters long, covered in brilliant white, holly fire. The enemy swung the greater sword down, the blade brandishing very, very slowly.
Harry could now understand why the opponent needed to be incapacitated beforehand. Evading that attack would be ridiculously easy otherwise.
Still, he could see without need to analyze it that the power of attack of this gigantic sword far surpassed even that of a special being like a Raid Boss. Harry considered that a direct hit would be able to take down around 20% of the total lifespan of a normal Raid Boss.
There was no need for him to receive the slow-moving sword.
…Then again, there was no need for him to move either.
There were two kinds of magic resistance in this universe. One was based on the power level of the spells, and was the one that most Players used. Simply put, most magic resistance completely negated the effects of low and mid-tier spells, regardless of how powerful their casters were.
This way, even if it was a World-level enemy, if the spell used was tier 1 then it wouldn't affect most of the Players.
Harry's magic resistance was different however. Belonging to the second, much rare kind, he was affected by the opponent's stats and levels. Even a 10th tier spell would not be able to breach his resistance if it was casted by a weak magic caster.
As such, when it came down to magical attacks, only Raid Bosses and beings more powerful than Harry himself could hope to harm him.
He could still be injured by physical attacks of course, if those managed to break through his unnaturally high defense, but magical attacks were mostly negated. That being said, he didn't like to get too confident, so he always fought and evaded naturally as if those could actually harm him.
But since this was the last battle he was going to have in this world… well, he couldn't help but want to show off a little.
Thus, he stood still, and the sword made of pure mana finally got low enough to touch him directly.
As if a bomb had been activated, the exothermic conflagration generated a rapidly-expanding wave of heat, which greedily consumed everything within its radius.
Eventually, the brilliant white world disappeared. In the wake of the vanishing pulse of superhot energy was a large circular area — vastly different from before. Nothing outside the area of effect was affected. The trees were still trees, the lake's surface wasn't even waving, and the forest itself was untouched — an extremely normal world.
In contrast, the area in which Harry had been standing was charred black, converted into a dead zone. The awe-inspiring temperatures had consumed all the vegetation in the area, and there were several vitrified areas on the ground which were still emitting smoke.
And among this destruction, logically, only one person remained within that area.
Harry was still standing, completely unhurt by the attack, so he simply smirked and waved mockingly at them.
The demi human players cursed in earnest, using a language so colorful Harry couldn't help but laugh out loud even as he slowly walked forward, his footfalls fracturing the charred ground underneath.
Step by step, he shrank the distance between himself and the enemy party, which were logically retreating.
"Well, that was a new one. Thank you for showing me a spell I didn't know before," Harry said sincerely, before pointing his wand at the ground beneath their feet, "I'm running out of time though, so this is it for today."
Harry then cancelled his field-wide magic, the white mist immediately dissipating so now the long-ranged spells could be used once more.
Immediately after, a fully charged orb of light streaked out from his wand at the ground. His surroundings were enveloped by a blast of exploding brilliance the moment it made contact with the earth.
The enemy party didn't even have the opportunity to try to move away, as his imprisonment ward shrunk until all of them were forced into the same area, the demi-humans crashing against the invisible walls as they were forcefully dragged to its center.
And just like that, the battle of 10 vs 1 finished with a clean victory.
Harry looked at the now-deserted battlefield and bent down to pick up the items left behind by the deceased game avatars. They weren't particularly useful, but since the world was ending in a couple of days, leaving these on the Treasury would be nothing but a waste. As such, he placed them on the bag hanging around his neck, and left the area without a second glance.
That had been fun.
AUTHOR NOTE:
Well, I got a few reviews saying Harry wasn't "Raid Bossy enough" and that I should change the title of this fic. This chapter is addressed to them. *Sticks out tongue playfully*
There was also KrisB-71854 that asked why Harry didn't have more contact with other Players or dungeons, why was he limited to Momonga and Jaldabaoth only. This should answer that question too xD.
At first I've placed this chapter and the next in a single one, but upon noticing these are 33 pages long when combined, I've decided to divide it in two.
See ya' next chapter! Happy reading and hope you liked it. This half was of 5.3K words = 13 pages in Word.
