CHAPTER 11: Nature Of The Beast
There were two routes leading into E-Rantel from Carne Village. The first and the most used route was from the south, eventually joining the main road leading to E-Rantel. Next was through the Forest of Tob, which at first glance may have seemed slower and more dangerous, but was surprisingly much safer, because bandits typically expected people to travel down the main road towards E-Rantel.
People who usually went through the forest were either suicidal, adventurers, or carrying something that was so precious from outside of E-Rantel to avoid being attacked by thieves
The entrance was usually filled with traffic because there were so many people from villages outside of E-Rantel who wanted to trade with merchants inside the city. Today however, the front entrance was quiet and barren. There was no one, not even the two guards who were guarding the iron gates into the city were to be seen.
Instead, the gates were closed shut and the people were all frantically running about.
They were all running away from the same place. Away from the front gates.
"Hurry up and get ready!"
"Get your ass up! C'mon, we have to go!"
People were all running amok, creating mass panic inside the city as they tried to get as far away from the main gate as possible.
Most of the guards and adventurers were helping people evacuate, directing them towards shelters and knocking on people's doors to make sure they all got out safely.
"Oi, hurry up and get out!" one adventurer hammered on one of the citizen's homes.
A man opened the door. His eyes were unfocused as he stuttered, completely bewildered at the transpiring events "W-We have to pack…"
"Forget about packing!" the adventurer raised his voice. "What they want is not your stuff, they want your life! Just bring what you need and leave as fast as possib-"
The adventurer's breath hitched as he saw a child by the door.
"D-daddy…" A child clung onto his father's pants, clearly on the verge of crying. A child no older than four, and didn't even come up to his father's knees.
Children, any child, could feel the fear of their parents. This one was no exception.
The father looked scared out of his wits, clearly at a loss for what to do. They just moved into E-Rantel four years ago, when their village was run over by the stampede. He and his pregnant wife were part of the very small percentage of those who survived.
They wanted to create a new chapter in their lives, and they did. Forgetting all their trauma and fears from four years ago, the wife birthed a boy into their small family. A family filled with warmth and happiness.
But that warmth was going to be taken away from him all over again.
"Move!" the adventurer knocked the man to the side, forcing himself into the house. Taking a leather bag, he quickly shoved essential items such as bread, cheese and three small jars of sauerkraut into the bag. He then moved to his wife who was frozen in fear in the kitchen. He grabbed the man's wife by the wrist and took her to the door, as well as giving her the bag filled with limited supply. "You gotta get out of here."
But the husband's feet were stuck to the ground. His feet trembled and his eyes unfocused. Clearly his soul wasn't here.
The adventurer screamed. "GO!"
The loud voice makes the husband seemed to come to his senses and ran out with his wife and children away from their new home.
Right now, most of the citizens had been evacuated to the heart of the Fortress City, and in a few minutes the outer residential area became a barren wasteland.
The rest of the guards were guarding the front gates, becoming meat shields to stall the monsters' assault.
This was their home. And they will do anything to protect it.
The adventurers, the hope of the city, geared up as well. Even though there was no quest asking for them to subjugate the stampede, they all knew that it was their duty as well as their only chance for revenge for their fallen friends and families.
A small army of Adventurers and guards were all waiting outside of the iron gate standing in a line formation that seemed to stretch across the whole front area of the city.
Those who could use healing magic were located at the very back, providing support to the frontliners. Archers were positioned right in front of them, followed up swordsmen and rogues who were defended by bulky vanguards; the typical lineup in any quest, just on a much larger scale.
They knew that the monsters would come from north of the city, from the Great Forest of Tob, and they waited with hearts full of fear.
Today might be the day they die.
They waited, and time ticked by slowly. The hands of the clock kept on moving, disregarding the people's feelings and prayers for time to turn back.
All kinds of adventurer from a mere copper plate to the great and strong gold plated adventurers stood there.
"Make way!" a shout was heard from behind them.
A team of Mythril ranked adventurers, Rainbow, parted the crowd and make their way to the front.
All present sighed in relief. At least a Mythril team was here. They would be alright.
That's right. The stampede was just a B-rank quest. With the guidance of seasoned veterans that were Mythril ranked adventurers, team Rainbow no less, they would come out of this battle alive.
Then more people followed behind team Rainbow.
Their eyes boggled in disbelief.
The Sky Wolves and Kralgra were also there to help.
"All the Mythril Adventurers are here!"
"We're safe!"
Morale skyrocketed among the rest of the adventurers and the guards.
Moknach, one of the most seasoned veteran adventurers turned his head when he heard that Bellato and Igvarge were also there, and acknowledged them with a nod of his head.
"Oi, listen up you mongrels!" Igvarge screamed at the lot. "This battlefield is no place for the weak! We adventurers, we will do all we can so that we can survive!" He raised his sword high up to the sky. "Destroy all those monsters until we're out of jobs!"
A deafening roar was the reply he got. The crowds were ready to rally, especially with the three mythril teams present. They knew they would defeat whatever was coming.
Suddenly, a scream erupted from the tower. "I-It's here!"
"Archers!" Moknach yelled. The archers who stood in the back pulled their strings taut with an arrow in hand. They waited with bated breaths.
Then the monsters walked into the clearing.
Trolls and Ogres, as well as small Goblins filled their view. From the looks of it, there were perhaps more than two hundred in total.
As soon as those monsters saw the humans lined up, they let out a large battle cry snarls and groans as they broke into a sprint straight towards the formation.
"FIRE!"
A hail of arrows rained down from the sky and fell upon the charging horde.
Many arrows missed, but most hit the monsters, who fell down in the field with a large thud. Especially the heavy Trolls and Ogres.
"We did it!" They shouted exuberantly. Perhaps this stampede wouldn't be so bad afterall.
"NOT YET!"
Then a booming sound was heard followed by the Goblins' cries
A large shadow appeared from the trees.
"N-No way…" one adventurer said out loud without realizing.
Brown colored demi-humans, about fifty in total, showed themselves from the edge of the forest. They were short, but everyone could see their powerful build and sharp talons on their feet and arms.
"Q-Quagoa!"
"W-Why are they here! They're supposed to be in Azerlisia Mountains!"
Quagoas were a dangerous enemy for weak Adventurers. Even though they had a slight advantage because the Quagoas were blind under the sun, the demi-humans had high physical resistances that deflected weak metallic weapons, making the copper and iron adventurers who used simple iron blades all but useless.
The Quagoas, without vision, started to attack blindly from wherever they heard sound.
The formation that the adventurers had made started to break apart as those with weak wills ran for their lives.
Metal clashed against metal and the grunts of war were heard even from a distance. Although the adventurers managed to finish off some of the monsters, they were still vastly outnumbered as monsters continuously poured out like a never ending waterfall from the forest.
The Quagoas also made things difficult since they attacked blindly. The adventurers never knew from which direction the attack was going to come from and would be quickly blown away.
Monsters swarmed over the fallen adventurers, their foul blood mixing with that of their adversaries. They mindlessly rushed at those who still had the will to resist and attacked ferociously, their minds completely ruled by instinct. Instinct was what drove them to attack, what drove them to survive, and what drove to butcher the adventurers before them.
That was the nature of the beast.
Moknach jumped high with the help of his team, and stuck an axe into the troll's head as he safely landed using the troll's body. Then he heard the whiz of an arrow passing by his left side near his face, and he heard the grunt of a goblin from behind him.
Moknach nodded at the archer who saved him and continued attacking.
The battlefield was brutal.
Monsters were coming in left and right. Ferocious and deadly in their numbers, but the Adventurers were not deterred.
To them this was their song of vengeance. For the adventurers who suffered many burdens and losses while their blood and hearts were tainted by these monsters, they felt that it was their duty to eradicate this horde and to defend their way of life.
But no matter how much they attacked, or how many monsters had fallen, it was a never ending stream of monsters...the Stampede.
Those who were capable of using magic were scattered around the battlefield. He could see shining runes dot the field as lightning struck the Quagoas. Arrows darted left and right, slaying smaller monsters and barely pricking the hides of tougher monsters which were dispatched by squads of swordsmen.
Grunts from both humans and monsters could be heard even by the villagers who were seeking shelter, and were that much louder on the battlefield.
The shirring sound of metal grinding against metal, the flitting of arrows left and right as the archers tried to avoid friendly fire, the gleam of spells being cast.
It was chaos, but it was controlled. Despite how the swordsmen all seemed to be in one desperate melee, each person looked out for those around them and guarded one another from sneak attacks. The mages seemingly tossed spells at random, but to the careful observer, they too worked together by combining spells to take down sturdier monsters .
Seeing monsters going down left and right, everyone had high hopes that they were going to win the battle.
Igvarge was fighting one of the Ogres, parrying its attacks and easily avoiding its clumsy movements. Despite his arrogance and all the rumors surrounding him, Moknach couldn't deny what he saw. Clearly, Igvarge had trained himself intensely and that showed in the battlefield.
"Don't give up!" Bellato hoarsely shouted. "We're almost finished."
The morale of the adventurers rose as they believed the end was in sight. With each passing minute, the amount of monsters were starting to decrease. Of the original two hundred, about a hundred monsters were still left on the battlefield.
But the monsters were not the only ones who suffered losses. Adventurers were starting to fall down one by one as they succumbed to fatigue or their injuries. The Stampede was always taxing due to how they were always vastly outnumbered.
The adventurers who were capable of using healing magic stayed behind, trying to mend the adventurers who were hurt. All sorts of injuries were taken by the adventurers, from broken ribs to sprained ankles. But none of the injuries sustained had been life threatening in any way.
However, most of them had run out of stamina, and if the battle continued on, they didn't know what they would do.
Way in front, away from the main gate, the Mythril teams were still leading the attack.
"Rising to Adamantine, tch!" Igvarge struck one of the trolls with a swing of a sword. "That bitch isn't even here!" he bellowed, frustrated.
"That's true." Bellato nodded in agreement. "We've defeated almost half of the stampede already and I have yet to see her…"
They couldn't help but notice her absence. Hannah Annafelowz was someone that stuck out in a crowd, especially with her white dress and silver hair against the regular brown and black. But they didn't see her anywhere.
"She must've ran away." Igvarge jumped up and with the help of his team members, managed to make the Ogre fall onto the grass. Igvarge jammed his sword in the monster's head, splitting it in two. "Coward!" he screamed in fury, his face splattered with the monster's blood and gray matter as he continued to hack away at the Ogre's corpse.
"We're almost done. Don't get distracted." Moknach warned them.
A troll and an ogre came together towards Moknach's direction, and he threw his axe at the troll's head and killed it instantly, refusing to allow it to regenerate. Then he ran towards the ogre and hacked at its leg, forcing the monster to its knees. He took his axe from the troll's dead body and disemboweled the howling ogre.
Igvarge whistled. "Damn old man, that's some skill you got there."
Moknach remained quiet as he tried to focus on defeating the rest of the monsters, but suddenly the temperature of the field dropped, and above him a shadow blanketed the field.
He slowly looked up, and his eyes widened in fear.
Igvarge and Bellato looked at Moknach and they looked up as well. Their mouths went slack in shock and their eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Even Igvarge dropped his sword to the ground.
The temperature of the battlefield dropped sharply as both monsters and adventurers stopped whatever they were doing to look up to the sky.
Above them were three Frost Dragons flying in slow circles. Their wings were a snowy white and their scales radiated a blue color that glittered in the sun. When one of the beasts exhaled, the difference in temperature causes them to see the mist of their own warm breath in faint clouds.
Most importantly was what came afterwards.
After the Frost Dragons showed themselves, other monsters started to come in. Barghests, giant snakes, spiders, and more flooded the battlefield and within seconds, another wave of monsters were rushing towards the helpless adventurers.
But none of them were paying attention to the next wave of monsters as their eyes remained glued to the sky.
"F-Frost Dragon!" one of the adventurers behind them screamed in abject terror.
As soon as the Frost Dragon was about to use its breath attack, the copper and iron plated adventurers started to run into the city to seek protection.
But they never thought one of them would do the unthinkable.
After a few of the low ranked adventurers fell back into the city, one of them had the audacity to lock the gates, leaving their comrades outside the city to fend for themselves.
Once the gates were shut, the guard rang the bell three times again, signaling that the citizens needed to evacuate as soon as they can and after he performed his duties, he ran away from the tower to join those seeking shelter.
As soon as the bell rang out, all semblance of restraint was banished from the people within the city. The crowd began to trample over each other in hopes of escaping the jaws of the monsters behind them. The lowly ranked copper adventurers also ran away with them in fear.
But the most dangerous part of being in such a crowd such as this was that the group moved too quickly in panic. They wanted to keep up with the people in the front in order to maximize their chances of surviving.
Their movement was controlled by the people at the front, and the people from the back only followed. As a result, the crowd clumped together in a dense mass towards the front.
It was at that moment, they all realized.
Fear.
The Frost Dragon unleashed its bitter cold breath and in a few moments, the battlefield was a barren tundra.
Most of the adventurers were already put out of commission. They no longer had the stamina nor the power to deal with another wave. Moreover, they could not escape into the city since the gates were closed by the stupid copper plated adventurers who were selfish enough to save themselves at the expense of everybody else.
All that was left were some of the Adventurers who managed to erect makeshift barriers against the Dragon's frost breath. The Adventurers dwindled down until there were a mere five teams left. Less than forty people were still capable of resisting.
Less than forty people against another wave of the stampede, and they realized…
The odds were not in their favor.
"Open the gates, you coward!"
"Traitor!"
The enraged screams could be heard from across the entire field. Even the Mythril ranked teams who were quite a distance away from the main gates could hear the protests.
The gates needed to be opened so that the healers could quickly send their comrades to the temple before it was too late.
"The gate needs to be locked so that the monsters can't come in!" was their pathetic reply.
"What do you mean monsters?! There are Frost Dragons out there! We'll be doomed either way!"
"...sorry." and with that the person ran away into the city, leaving behind the ones left on the wrong side of the iron gates.
The sounds of disagreement grew louder and louder.
Borg whispered to his team. "We need to do something…"
The leaders of the Mythril teams survived the breath attack, as well as their party members. However, they knew that this battle would be their last.
"Another wave of monsters," Bellato said to no one in particular. "This is insane!"
The numbers of monsters swelled yet again. Moreover, there were now Frost Dragons in front of them.
This was the first time there were this many waves in a stampede, and in such a large number. Soon, their faces were filled with despair and disbelief as they lost all hope of victory
The Frost Dragons took in another deep breath, this time, all three at once. There was no way they could block three breath attacks simultaneously.
"No." Igvarge muttered. His muttering slowly became screams as he continued repeating the same word."Nononononono! I won't die here!" and he blindly charged the dragon.
"Igvarge!" Moknach screamed. "FOOL!"
Igvarge charged in at high speed towards one of the dragons, but none of his team followed, for they knew that his attempt was futile. Even before he could swing his sword, one of the dragons swiped him away with its tail.
"That idiot!" Bellato raged at Igvarge out loud, and immediately order the thief on his team to quickly grab Igvarge and fall back. What Igvarge did was the epitome of idiocy. Blindsided by his emotions in the middle of the battle. This is why no matter how hard he tried, he will never rise to Adamantine.
The Frost Dragons unleashed their breaths once again, and they knew they were finished.
Moknach crosses his axes together to guard himself and closed his eyes.
But the biting chill never came.
Curious, he opened his eyes slightly. He would never forget the view in front of him.
The Silver Priestess was blocking all three of the Frost Dragons' frost blasts with magic. An invisible shield that was as large as the dragon held their impending doom at bay as their savior sweated bullets, struggling to fend off the frosty breath.
All that was left from the Frost Dragons' ferocious blizzard were measly chill breezes.
"I'm sorry I'm late."
Hannah Annafelowz, the Silver Priestess had finally arrived.
"Moknach-san, get away from here and bring the injured adventurers inside the city."
"W-What are you talking about, there's no way you can defeat all of them by yourself!" Moknach pleaded. He had seen far too many overconfident adventurers die young, and he would do anything to stop it from ever happening again.
The Priestess turned her face towards him and smiled. A warm smile without a hint of fear. He thought he could even see a gleam of playfulness in those amethyst eyes.
"I can't," she pointed towards the sky, "But he can."
An earth-shaking roar bursted from the sky, and a dragon that dwarfed the Frost Dragons appeared. Its rumbling was like thunder as light and heat shone from its maws and suddenly a pillar of pure white flames shot out from the Priestess's dragon, rendering one of the Frost Dragon incapable of fighting anymore as it was burned to crisps.
The rest of the adventurers could only watch in shock.
"I can handle this, Moknach-san."
Moknach just stood there, unmoving.
Bellato tried to reason with her. "B-But-"
"Go!" she spoke with the weight of authority lining her voice. "Carry the injured with you into the city! I told you I'll protect everyone, and that includes the two of you."
Moknach looked back at the battlefield. Nearly all of the adventurers present were injured. Even though their injuries were not life-threatening, their morale was crushed. In the state they were in, they would not be able to cooperate with their teams effectively nor be able to fully utilize their abilities. He saw their blank eyes and knew that they could not continue like this for much longer.
They've lost their fighting spirit.
Losing their spirit was worse than sustaining injuries. Physical injuries could be healed in a fight. But losing spirit meant that they were no longer focused on the battle.
He saw their crippled forms strewn across the field, some with their bones sticking out, others who were literally beaten black and blue, and saw their comrades desperately trying to drag towards the relative safety of the gates.
Moknach nodded in understanding. "Got it."
"Moknach-san!" Bellato raised his tone in unbelief. There was no way he was going to let a single adventurer fight against this horde of monsters.
"Let's go! Bring as many people as you can!" Moknach quickly gave orders to his team. Bellato stood there in incredulity, but in the end he relented and ordered the same to his team.
"I assume you know how we can open those gates, Hannah-san?" Moknach asked.
The Priestess grinned as she nodded at the city gates. "Look again."
He turned back and saw the team Hissing Vipers scaling the walls with a rope, and with the help of fellow adventurers, they finally managed to get inside the city and opened the gates.
"I was actually planning on asking my dragon to throw you inside the city. Thankfully for you, they acted faster than me."
Moknach looked back at team Hissing Vipers who is helping other adventurer scaled the wall as some of them move towards the tower to open the gate, and he grunted in acknowledgement. "They're good adventurers."
"They are," she agreed.
"Are you sure you can handle all of this by yourself?"
She turned her back to him and ran towards the nearest monster, her voice ringing out with piercing clarity.
"Watch me."
He smiled in relief. Throughout his whole life working as an adventurer, he could differentiate pride and arrogance from self confidence. The Priestess's attitude was definitely the latter.
In a powerful booming voice, he ordered. "Fall back! Everyone to the gates!" and in his heart he prayed that the Priestess would be safe from harm.
"After you're done evacuating everyone, close the gates!" the Priestess shouted at him, throwing scorching streams of fire at the incoming spiders and Barghests.
"What? What about you?"
The monsters in front of her burned down, and she turned towards the ogres, "Make sure everyone is safe first, I can protect myself just fine. Besides, I'm not alone."
From the corner of his eye, he could see her companion is taking on three Frost Dragons at the same time. Claws against claws, tooth against tooth.
Finally believing that he could leave the rest to the Silver Priestess and her dragon, he made sure he and his team were the last people who stood outside the gate and controlled the evacuation process for the rest of the adventurers. After everyone was inside, he asked the Hissing Vipers who stood at the tower to close the gate.
Then the gate was shut.
On one side, were adventurers who are beaten up, scared and tired, and on the other was a lone woman, holding an entire horde back.
Almost everyone who watched the scene that day would not forget it.
The stampede, this stampede in particular seemed to be set up so that any adventurer would be massacred. The fact that she chose to fight on her own had to mean she was insane! She couldn't possibly be thinking of defeating three frost dragons and hundreds of monsters at the same time.
"A b-bunch more came out!" one of the adventurers who was spectating the whole thing from the tower stuttered out in warning.
"Even B-class monsters are a threat when they're packed together like this!"
"Does she really mean to take all of them on by herself?!"
"She does," amidst all of the confusion and fear, Moknach's voice rang out. "She took a private quest to defeat the stampede just earlier this morning…she means it," he looked again into the distance beyond the iron gate.
Antonios smirked at Moknach, "Of course! Look at her," he pointed out and their attention turned away from the conversation to look at her back. They could see a small smile and the sheer confidence that she exuded.
"But will she be alright?" one asked in concern. "She's by herself after all…"
Antonios clenched his fist. If he could run to help her, he would, but he was already wounded despite his restored leg. "I'm sure she'll get through it," Antonios tried to convince himself. "I believe in her."
The Priestess got into her battle stance as she jumped away to dodge incoming attacks from the remaining ogres. The ogres hit the ground with such force that a visible crater remained. The Silver Priestess moved with fluid grace as she weaved in between the monsters' attacks.
"『Minor Flare』" she raised both her arms. An omni-directional spell with a short cast-time, it was a deadly damage spell, especially for the fourth tier, that immediately incinerated most of the monsters in her vicinity. All monsters that did not die in the initial blast quickly died from the burn debuffs inflicted on them.
"A-amazing!" one spectator watched in awe. The low level monsters such as goblins, barghests, and spiders immediately died from the attack.
"That's crazy tactical skill…" Bellato commented.
Moknach nodded his head in agreement. "Amazing that someone so young could quickly make an effective strategy in such a dire situation."
The rest of the adventurers heard the two Mythril ranked adventurer talk amongst themselves.
"What are you talking about? Isn't she just trying to demolish them all at once?" a curious adventurer asked.
Bellato answered swiftly, "No. By casting an omni-directional attack, she learned the responses, abilities, and defensive capabilities of each type of monster in an instant. With that, she will able to calculate what kind of attack works best against each different kind of monster."
True to what the Mythril adventurer said, she immediately expelled a gout of flame imbued with lightning to bring down the Quagoas, and in an instant, the Quagoas fell down, electrocuted and singed.
If they got too close, she beated them away with her staff. Moknach was amazed at the incredible toughness of the staff, as he watched it deal heavy damage to the monsters near her.
Her dragon mowed down one of the Frost Dragons with its teeth and the other ones through its claws.
The sound of its deafening roar could be heard everywhere, and the adventurers watched the battle of the century up close. The battle of dragons.
While her dragon held aerial superiority, she dominated the ground.
Countless monsters lay dead among the blades of grass.
For monsters that were far away, she shot deadly fire spells, and attacked closed ranged monsters with her staff, breaking their bones and rendering them unable to counterattack.
Unexpectedly, the giant snakes and barghests who managed to escape from her initial fire attack launched a simultaneous tackle and she was thrown away by their attack, leaving behind a trail of dust.
The adventurers could only watch with grim expressions. Of course there was no way a human would escape that many monsters unscathed.
Then one of the giant spiders threw its web at her, and she shouted out a spell, its name lost in the roaring of the monstrosities surrounding her. Suddenly she was enveloped with a small golden sphere, a defensive spell, to protect her against the attack.
When the dust settled, the people behind the iron gates could see the state of the Silver Priestess.
Specks of blood decorated her silver hair, dulling its usual brilliance. Her long white dress was ripped up to her thighs and dyed in crimson, a testament to the slaughter she went through. Moreover, she had received countless injuries and bruises all over her body.
She was attacked countless times, but she never failed to stand back up against the enemies of humanity.
Everyone watching was fiercely cheering, begging her to survive the fight.
One of the monsters, a Giant Snake took her by surprise and bit her leg, injecting it with poison.
"Hannah-sama!" Antonios screamed in anguish.
She quickly bashed the snake's skull open with her staff. Tearing off part of her dress to make a bandage, she tied the white cloth around her leg, to stop the poison from travelling through her entire body.
They wanted to help but they were in no condition to.
This filled them with a sense of shame and gratefulness.
This adventurer, this lone woman, was currently fighting for all of them combined.
Today was a day they wouldn't be able to forget.
The day the stampede hit the city with ungodly force and fear gripped the hearts of the adventurers.
That day, the stampede turned into something more.
A Pandemonium.
They knew that if she hadn't come to their rescue, the city would be nothing but rubble and countless citizens would have died.
Civilians were cheering behind the iron gate, giving words of encouragement for the lone woman on the battlefield.
As she sustained wound after wound, the Holy Priestess who should have fallen, danced beautifully, just like a petal drifting in the wind. A dance of death.
The adventurers wept tears of joy.
"Th-there's no way…"
"I-I don't believe my eyes."
She single-handedly vanquished hundreds of monsters and cleared the entire Pandemonium.
Her dragon munched on one Front Dragon with its teeth and stomped on the others with its feet. Her body was beaten, bloodied, and broken.
There, they all realized. This was the true extent of her power.
When she raised her staff high against the sky, the sound of adventurers cheering for her was deafening. The earth quaked at their exultation and the sun shone on her as if to set her apart from regular mortals.
The whole nightmare was finally over.
But those cheers soon died down when they saw the Silver Priestess point the tip of her staff towards a single shadow peeking out from the forest.
A cloaked woman, with elaborate horns and a red tail walked out from the dark forest and out into the sunlight. They all assumed it was a woman with its long red hair and feminine body, but they could not be sure since her face was covered by a metal mask with gold markings.
Looking at this, they somehow knew that in front of the Priestess was the demon behind the Pandemonium.
The demon raised both of her hands in front of her, and even from the gates people could see the paleness of the demon's skin and her long sharp red nails, while the Priestess warily went into her battle stance.
But the demon clapped.
She clapped, slowly, sarcastically, mockingly congratulating the Priestess on winning the battle, and then the demon turned its back, swallowed by the darkness of the forest, never to be seen again.
The Priestess waited with staff in hand, but after standing there for a few minutes, nothing seemed to happen.
The Priestess relaxed her stance, and she limped towards her dragon. As she gave it pets and kisses as a way of thanks, they could hear the dragon rumbling against her.
She whispered something to the dragon, something they couldn't hear, but as soon as she finished, the Dragon spread its wings and flew away, carrying the corpses of the Frost Dragons with him. One in its jaws, and two with its claws.
She watched until her dragon disappeared into the horizon, and when it did, she limped back towards the gate.
The gate slowly rose to let her in.
But just a few meters away, they noticed that her knees were wobbling and her eyes were unfocused. Soon, her legs buckled and she fell down on the grass.
"Hannah-sama!" Antonios hoarsely screamed.
As soon as the adventurer saw that, they immediately ran towards her.
"Get the healers quick!" Moknach ordered.
Antonios was the first person who reached the Priestess and upon reaching her he knelt down, her head on his knees as he held her fragile shoulders, cradling her in his arms.
Soon, they passed her through the crowds of people as gently as they could.
"Careful, she's a hero," one of them said, and they took the sentence to heart.
Truly, this woman was a hero. A hero that they didn't deserve.
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
At noon, Ainz and Narberal arrived at the Fortress City.
But he was shocked at what he saw the discrepancy between the reports he reviewed and the sight before him.
He heard that the city was closely guarded because it contained storehouses for combat rations and that there were numerous shopkeepers in several plazas where stall owners energetically promoted their wares to the people walking by.
The city's rowdy and energetic atmosphere should've lasted until the sun went down.
Instead, he saw injured adventurers lining the streets of E-Rantel as their friends tried to heal them.
He wondered what happened.
He went inside the adventurer's guild and the number of injured adventurers he saw kept on increasing. Some of them were resting on long wooden benches as their team-mates patched them up with makeshift bandages. They eyed him and Nabe but didn't do anything.
He walked to the table where the receptionist stood. "Excuse me."
"Yes, what can I help you with?" she replied.
"I saw a bunch of adventurers injured on the streets, could you perhaps tell me what happened?"
The receptionist looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "You don't know?"
"Sadly, I've just arrived into the city and I'm here to register as an adventurer. So no, I don't know anything." he swiftly replied.
"A hero has descended upon this city." she simply explained.
"Hero? Like an Adamantine Adventurer?"
"Yes. Truly the might of an Adamantine Adventure…" she said, unfocused, as if in a trance.
"A hero...huh." Ainz muttered. Another competitor in his and Tiamat's bet. This would be hard. He needed to investigate more about this new hero.
"Does the hero have anything to do with the injured adventurers?" he asked.
"Injured adventurers?" she absent-mindedly questioned, but quickly realized what he meant. "Oh! No, not at all! She saved all of them, without them they'd have died, that's for sure."
Ainz quickly digested this newly found information. "She? The Adamantine adventurer is a woman?"
Ha ha...it couldn't be, right?
Before the receptionist could answer his question, someone hollered from the second floor. "Oi, quickly call the Lizzie Bareare!" he yelled to the adventurers at the lobby, and almost immediately, the adventurers scrambled outside the guild. Most were probably searching for the woman in question.
"W-what happened?" one adventurer down in the lobby asked the man on the second floor.
"Just find Lizzie Bareare as quick as you can!" he bellowed.
"Noted!" one team, he presumed they were a team since they were all wearing the same colored cloak, ran out of the adventurer's guild.
"Antonios," the receptionist interjected. "Is she alright?"
Most of the adventurers had the same question. They waited with bated breath for the man on the second floor to answer the receptionist's questions. Their eyebrows furrowed in worry and fear, and Ainz's curiosity grew. Just what was happening…
"None of the healing spells are working. Thankfully she's still alive, but she isn't waking up." the man quickly explained, and he ran up the stairs back to the room on the second floor.
He could hear gasps of shock and panic all across the adventurers' guild.
Ainz raised his hand, "Perhaps I could help." this was the perfect opportunity for him to dig for information. "I have a healing potion."
"You do? Thank god! Please follow me, we might not have much time."
Ainz walked up the stairs following the receptionist with a chilling sense of foreboding. They turned the corner on the second floor into the room the Adamantine adventurer was in and Ainz almost stumbled in his steps.
The small room she was in was only furnished with a wooden bed and a rickety desk, and laying on said bed was none other than his dear friend Tiamat, covered in blood and bruises.
"Momon-sa—n," Nabe eyes widened and she whispered fearfully. "Isn't that…"
Ainz's emotional suppressor worked overtime pushing aside the fear and anger that clouded his mind as he pushed the man aside and rushed to Tiamat's bedside.
'Impossible…! How could there be anything out there to have put her in such a state?!' Ainz frantically pulled out a healing potion from his inventory and gently moved her head upwards to pour the potion down her lips.
The person in front of him did not resemble his comrade, but he knew this was Tiamat. They had the same body structure, and the same face. The only difference was her hair and the absence of her horns and tail.
As the red potion was slowly emptied from the bottle, Ainz looked over her injuries. Her clothes that she made with a『Create Greater Item』scroll were ripped up to her thighs and the rest of her dress was dyed a blue-gray color, that he assumed was monster blood. On her left leg was a bite mark and a makeshift bandage, and lacerations were all over her body.
Once the potion was consumed, Ainz anxiously waited for a reaction. She remained as still as a corpse.
YGGDRASIL potions had an immediate effect and no cooldowns, so players could always reach for their HP Potions as long as they had it in their inventory.
However, he didn't see the wounds mend and the bruises didn't disappear.
"『Detect Life Essence』," Ainz muttered under his breath.
A faint aura of green suddenly appeared around Tiamat. The health potion didn't seem to have recovered any HP but at least she was alive.
Ainz quickly drew a small breath. A breath of relief, but the rest of the people in the room thought differently.
"U-um, Momon-san? Is she going to be alright?" Antonios nervously asked.
The black warrior didn't get up from where he knelt, and in a small whisper he said, "Get out…"
"Momon-sa—n?" Nabe reached out to him.
"Get out." he nearly shouted.
"W-What are you talking about? Is she alright? The potion you gave to her is different from ours. What did you give her?" a stream of questions flowed from Antonios's mouth. Currently, only he and Borg were in the room with the Silver Priestess. They had helped carried her to one of the emergency rooms at the adventurer's guild, and now this shady person was going to ask them to leave? Fat chance.
Nabe looked like she was prepared to attack him at any moment. Ainz shook his head slightly and Nabe relaxed, albeit slightly.
"Potions didn't work, so I'm going to try my hand with a healing spell." Ainz lied through his teeth. "However, the ritual of the healing spell must be kept secret. I hope you understand."
"No, there's no way I'm going to leave you alone with—" Borg put his hand on Antonios's shoulder, halting him in the process and with a small 'tch' he relented.
"Nothing is working Antonios, she's been like this for a few hours now." Borg softly said to his comrade as he gripped his shoulder. "I doubt Lizzie's potion will work either. This might be her only chance." give her the same chance she gave you were the words left unsaid by Borg.
Antonios gritted his teeth. He knew that feeling well enough, the feeling of hopelessness and despair when nothing seemed to be working, so he nodded grudgingly and turned his back from his Goddess.
"I won't do anything to her, you can rest assured." Ainz impatiently explained. He was sick of these humans getting in the way. "Nabe, please guard the door." he ordered.
"Yes, Momon-san." she walked behind the two Adventurers and shut the door behind her.
Almost immediately, Ainz casted a silencing spell inside the room.
Without warning, a blurry portal seemed to break through the air in the room, as if ripping it apart, and it grew into an oval shape large enough to fit several people. The oval contained red and black spirals, as a somewhat blurry『Gate』appeared, and from it, an obscured familiar red-head who was using an invisibility scroll finally showed herself to Ainz.
"Eh, Momo-chan?" she faltered a bit after seeing his disguise to check whether it was truly him or not. "What are you doing here?" she said out loud in surprise, dispelling the scroll entirely.
Ainz took a large step and stood in front of her. Tiamat looked up at him, eyes blinking. He knocked her over the head.
"Oi! What the hell are you doing?!" Tiamat brought her hands up to her hand.
Suddenly, he brought her into a crushing hug. He was relieved, so relieved. He had for one terrible moment, thought her defensive stats wouldn't work in the New World, and if not for his emotional suppression he probably would have burned the city down to ashes in anger.
"Uhh...Suzuki?" she asked using his real name, concerned with the sudden change of attitude he was displaying. "You alright?"
"I believe that I should be asking you that." he replied letting her go from his hold once he knew she was safe and in good health. "What was this all about?"
"Ho ho, this is me winning the bet, dear Momo-chan." she said haughtily with her hands on her hips.
"Explain." he demanded, he has had enough of her playfulness. One heart attack was enough for today. Or whatever his heart was now.
"So," she moved to the bedside and sat near her disguise's head. "Meet my clone. I made her using 『Advanced: Ragnarok's Scale』. Pretty isn't she? She looks just like Daenerys Targaryen from that old tv show Game of Thrones."
"I knew it was a clone, I checked using 『Detect Life Essence』." Ainz lied. He had completely forgotten about Tiamat's item, and in his panic, did not check whether or not the body was a clone. 『Clone』 was a 5th tier spell that could be accessed with specific job and racial classes. In this case, Tiamat's 『Ragnarok's Scale』, an item that could only be used by players with a large amount of levels in draconic racial classes, not only gave her the power to disguise herself, but also the ability to create a clone of herself. However, said clone was extremely limited in the skills they could use and was all but useless in PvP.
These clones could only be level fifty at the highest, with the exact same build as the original and only half the power. Since Tiamat had high defensive stats, her clones would be absolute meatshields. On par with his Dark Young summons from 『Iä Shub-Niggurath』if she buffed it with her racial classes. But her clones could only inherit up to fifty of her class levels even after sacrificing a third of her mana. All in all, her clone was just a meat shield without any decent attack skills.
"How did this clone manage to get so damaged?" the state of her clone was truly something to be worried about. An entity that could cause this much damage to a level fifty defense oriented summon was something they had to watch out for.
"I figured out that I could disable her defensive stats and only buffed her with 『Aegis』so she didn't sustain too much damage. What you're looking at is a level forty me with no defensive stats and abysmal attack power." she gave him a bright smile. "What better way to get promoted than making it seem like you fought hard, while leaving the battlefield in a natural way…"
Ainz sighed and put his hand on his face. He could feel a massive headache incoming even though he only had a skull for a head. How someone could bring so much trouble and invoke so many emotions within him, he had no idea.
"You caused all those injuries to those Adventurers?" he asked in a monotone voice.
"Well, you could say that. I indirectly caused their suffering is more like it. But it's alright, after this I'll make sure to give basic healing to each and every one of them as an apology." she tried to console him. "Anyways, I won the bet~" she said in a sing-song voice.
"How…"
"One of the skills of God Beast,『 Åsgårdsreien』, controls low-levelled monsters below level sixty. I basically hypnotized them and they did whatever I wanted them to. By the way I brought three Frost Dragons as gifts; after Aura tames them you can do whatever you want with it." she said nonchalantly.
Ainz sighed yet again in exasperation, thinking about what he would do with Frost Dragons while Tiamat was the complete opposite. She was cheerfully taking off all her clone's clothing while humming a tune under her breath. "Don't look." Tiamat warned him with a stink eye, and Ainz turned his back, sighing for the third time in one day.
Tiamat undressed herself and put her imperial red dress in her inventory. After she finished peeling the tattered Priestess dress from her clone, she put it on, so that her story would be consistent with what happened. There was no logic going out of the room with a perfectly ironed dress after an intense battle.
After she was done, she dismissed her clone, and it disappeared into the wind just like mist.
"You know, this means you're not winning the bet." Ainz said, back still turned.
"Pshh, what are you talking about Momo-chan?" she dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "I guess you didn't know huh? I received a private quest from the leader of three Mythril ranked adventurers as well as the guildmaster himself stating that if I defeated the stampede I would immediately receive my Adamantine plate. At this point there's no way you can catch up to me in this race, so it's my win." she bragged happily. "You can turn around now."
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't think you won," he stated matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, you just don't want to admit I beat you at your own game Momo-chan. You're such a killjoy…"
"You definitely didn't win anything. The bet is off because you cheated."
"Cheated? You didn't say anything about manipulating our way to Adamantine, which I'm sure you're about to do as well!" she said in disbelief. How could Ainz be such a hard-headed Overlord? Just by looking at the results, it was obvious that she won, so why did he keep on insisting that she cheated?
Christ, sometimes speaking to Ainz felt like she was talking to a brick wall.
"Don't you remember? I said you shall not use any of your draconic racial levels and only use your one dragon summon," although monotone, his voice carried a hint of playfulness to it. "You just admitted to me that you've used『 Åsgårdsreien』didn't you?"
Tiamat just stood there facing him, her mouth gaping wide in disbelief, and the twinkle of playfulness in her amethyst eyes vanished instantly. She brought her hands to her face, covering it in shame, as she landed on the bed with a floof. "I can't believe I forgot about that, I'm such an idiot!"
Throughout the whole bet, Ainz had already stated since the beginning that she was not supposed to use any of her racial classes, which was why Ainz had insisted she was cheating. Now it all made sense.
She thought she was being clever, but she realized she had been a big doofus.
She buried her face into the pillow on the bed. "Nuuuuuuuuuu…"
All that effort and pent up emotion while dealing with quests, sacrificing hours of sleep to finish all fifty-three quests, all of it just went to waste.
Ainz scoffed at her light-heartedly. Her antics were always interesting, but he couldn't believe she forgot about that part of their bet. He assumed she was too focused on getting to adamantine as fast as possible.
"Hold up." She sat up on the bed, her eyes widened in realization. "That means you set me up from the beginning. You knew I went to the Azerlisia Mountains didn't you? You even encouraged me to go!"
He sighed again, "You only realized that now? I thought you were smart enough to have realized from the beginning."
Tiamat gasped in disbelief. "You set me up to fail from the beginning…You genius asshole."
'The battle is over before it begins,' the famous line from Punitto Moe's strategy book: PKing for Dummies. For her, it was truly over from the beginning.
There was no way in hell she could rise to Adamantine just by being a support healer. Ainz made sure of that since the beginning.
"I'll take that as a compliment," If Ainz could have smiled he would. This conversation reminded him a lot of Nazarick's golden days, and as his heart was filled with happiness, his emotional suppression activated again, and he clicked his nonexistent tongue in disappointment at the loss of such an ecstatic feeling. "Congratulations on ultimately failing, the bet is off," he decided.
He cut her some slack, because in the end her plan was truly ingenious. With little effort, she portrayed herself as a capable and caring adventurer in the span of a few days.
A part of him was slightly disappointed in himself, because he thought it would be much more fun for them to go on adventures together.
'Perhaps in the near future…'
"Since you're all fine, I'm going to head out." Ainz turned towards the door. "Oh, and congratulations on getting to Adamantine as well. I'll make sure I rise faster than you." What Ainz said was not a promise, but a statement, and Tiamat knew he would be hell bent on making it happen.
She sighed, clearly disappointed with herself, and waved him off. "Hh, yeah yeah. See you at Nazarick." she said as she laid back down on the bed and covered her eyes with the back of her hand.
Before Ainz left the room, he looked back at her form once again. Her dress was in tatters and no bruises were to be seen, a fact that made him exhale in relief. But one thing had been bothering him from the beginning.
The shortness of her dress.
Since it was all but destroyed and she had to wear it to keep up with appearances, he still felt that her dress was way too short and showed an uncomfortable amount of her thighs.
The length of her leg was longer than the length of her torso, giving her a slender appearance. Her ankle was thin and fragile. Her calves were soft, white, and smooth, like that of a sheltered heiress. His eyes moved up to her thighs; they had just the right amount of fat, making it seem plump and shapely, while her calves were lean and thin.
Somehow, this irked him.
He unclasped his red cloak and covered her legs with it.
"Make sure you go out wearing this." he said a bit louder than he intended.
"Shoot, it's too short isn't? Thanks Momo-chan!" and with that he left the room.
He held his head with his hands. Today is gonna be a long day…
(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
The Six Cardinals sat around a round table in the meeting room. The room was dimly lit by flickering candles and the glass panes only let a small amount of light into the room. Shadows obscured the Cardinals' faces, but it wasn't like he needed to see their faces to identify them anyways.
To the far left was Berenice Nagua Santini, the Cardinal of Fire. The sole female Cardinal amongst them.
Ginedine Delan Guelfi, the Cardinal of Water. The wisest and the oldest.
Dominic Ihre Partouche, the Cardinal of Wind. The holy warrior of the Sunlight Scripture during his golden age.
Raymond Zarg Lauransan, The Cardinal of Earth, as well as the commander of the Six Scriptures, and a former member of the fabled Black Scripture much like himself. He had heard that the entire Sunlight Scripture was missing in action while they were on an assassination mission. Even to this day, no one knew the fate of the Sunlight Scripture members
It was like they had disappeared from this world.
Next was Yvon Jasna Dracrowa, the Cardinal of Light. The high ranked divine magic user.
And to his far right was Maximilian Oreio Lagier, the Cardinal of Darkness, who previously worked as a priest from the Judiciary.
Only the highest and the most exalted of the Theocracy were allowed in this inviolable sanctum.
"Let us begin the meeting," the Cardinal of Earth, Raymond Zag Lauransan began to speak. "Our first topic is the Dragon Kingdom, as well as the Elf Country."
These topics were regular points in their meetings.
Not a lot of people knew all the details of ongoing events, and most what people heard about the Slane Theocracy was just hearsay.
But here, in this very sanctum, was where all decisions with regards to the Theocracy and humanity as a whole were made and agreed to.
Dominic spoke out. "What's there that needs to be discussed?"
Raymond patiently went on. "As you all know, the Sunlight Scripture has been missing for a couple of weeks. The Windflower Scripture has found no trace of bodies or corpses nor have me received any information about their whereabouts or well being. But we do know that the Sunlight Scripture failed to assassinate Gazef Stronoff. With such a low number of troops, I don't think we can honor our agreement with the Dragon Kingdom to annihilate the beastmen."
"What are you saying? There is no way the powerful Sunlight Scripture was defeated. They were able to survive the fight against Lakyus Alvein Dale Aindra of the Blue Roses during the conflict dealing with the demi-human village within the Re-Estize Kingdom."
The group nodded one after the other.
Raymond quickly replied. "We're not denying the fact that the Sunlight Scripture is the strongest out of the Six Scriptures, the fact remains unchanged that they're currently missing. Even Thousand Miles Astrologer couldn't pinpoint their location because something broke her monitoring mirror."
"This could be a problem…" muttered the sole female cardinal. "The Dragon Kingdom expects us to eradicate the beastmen, how are we going to solve this problem?"
Suddenly a heated debate between the Cardinals broke out in the small sanctum.
That was until a brief clapping of hands cooled it down.
"What was the last thing she saw through the mirror?" Ginedine asked curiously.
He kneeled in front of them and knew that they were asking this particular question for him to answer. "According to what is written on the report, they could only see one person. Presumably a demon…"
How troublesome. Everyone thought to themselves, even if none said it out loud. But the presence of another demon could be disastrous if left alone.
"Do you have any other report on this...demon?"
"A thousand apologies, however, there is only one report in particular that had been addressing the demon in question."
To this he stood from his position and distributed a thick record. Maximilian took it and passed it to his right. After the report had been passed around, he went back to kneel beneath the Cardinals while the Cardinals took the records and studied them.
After a few minutes they stopped at the last piece of paper, the newest technology of the Theocracy. After years of hard work and research, they had finally managed to create a thin paper, much thinner than parchment, and so much cheaper to produce.
The room was filled with the rustling of papers as they had the same stiff expressions and their faces slowly grew pale.
And as though to represent each and every Cardinal in the room, the Cardinal of Darkness shouted. His jaws gaped wide in disbelief as his glasses fell onto the carpet. But he didn't seem to care when faced with the news before him.
"Impossible! How could anything like this possibly happen?!"
He waited until the Cardinal quieted down, and after a few seconds had passed, he finally responded. "The reports given to you had been re-written at least five times before it landed in your hand, My Lords. I personally had been researching the things written on the report, and all of it had turned out to be accurate. The stampede that was supposed to happen once a decade happened again within a span of four years just three days ago."
The Cardinal closed his mouth shut at his reply.
"Is this actually real?" asked Raymond.
"Yes. the demon who instigated the stampede, no the pandemonium, is definitely the demon who last met the Sunlight Scripture."
With a painful grimace, they all looked back at the papers they were holding. If the reports were accurate, then they were dealing with a being much stronger than the Evil Gods of the past. A demon who was able to lead a horde straight out of a nightmare.
Then the Cardinal of Water flipped through the report he was holding. "Fifty goblins, seventy trolls, fifty- seven ogres, sixty quagoas, thirty giant snakes, eighty bhargests, seventy seven spiders, and to top it off, three frost dragons. Almost five hundred monsters is it? This...pandemonium," the word sounded strange in his mouth but he continued, "They were all defeated by one person?"
"Yes. her name is Hannah Annafelowz, they call her the Silver Priestess. On the day she arrived into the city, she was immediately evaluated at Mythril rank because of her dragon companion. Within three days, she had managed to finish a total of fifty-three quests, and is the creator of the tears of the sea, and within the next day she and her dragon managed to defeat about five hundred monsters in total by herself. On top of that, after her wounds were healed, she proceeded to offer her healing services to the injured adventurers. Now, she is an Adamantine adventurer that is hailed as the saviour of E-Rantel." he answered with precision.
He was met with several defeated sighs.
The Cardinal of Earth replied. "As long as she's defending mankind, then we have no problem with that."
His sentence was well received as the rest of the Cardinals nodded their heads in agreement. "Keep an eye on her," the Cardinal ordered him.
"Yes, My Lord."
"Then, we shall move on to the next agenda." The Cardinal of Earth said out loud. "The Miko Princess of Earth died in a strange explosion and the Crown of Wisdom has been stolen."
"Yes, we presume this is the work of the former member of the Black Scripture, Clementine. Apparently she worked with Khajiit Dale Badantel in the secret shrine under the great cemetery of E-Rantel to raise the undead. But we found out afterwards that the Crown of Wisdom was destroyed as its remains were left on the shrine itself."
"Who stopped Khajiit and Clementine?" Berenice asked.
"It was a new adventurer team under the name Darkness. They are comprised of two people, a skilled black warrior and a mage who was capable of using sixth tier magic. We heard that the Black Warrior Momon saved Nfirea Bareare who was kidnapped by Clementine in order to use his talent to use the Crown of Wisdom in Khajiit's ritual of death. Moreover, the mage had also managed to defeat two Skeletal Dragons. Because of this, they rose to Mythril in one day." he recited perfectly.
"How dangerous," mused Yvon. "Two more superb adventurers just pop out of nowhere."
Raymond nodded his head in agreement. "Then we will monitor these adventurers, and if we find anything suspicious, we shall end them. That is all."
With that the meeting came to a close.
A/N: Whew, writing battle scenes is hard, what do you think hackslashbash? By the way, a big shout out to Ie-maru for figuring out the plot in advance. You're awesome. To be honest, I'm just happy Tia could finally meet Ainz again. Their conversations are like three chapters apart...
hackslashbash: It really has been awhile since we've had Bone Daddy make an appearance. Anyways, we'll be working on improving our fight scenes in preparation for some pretty interesting battles in the chapters to come. We hope you continue to enjoy reading our story!