AN: Uh oh, a hard fight in the new world? Is this heresy? Yes, yes it is. I'll finish up the Climb and Brain stuff after the next chapter, I swear.

Read the AN at the bottom for my rational as to why things went they way they did, if you disagree, I'd love to know why! Who knows, when I come around to rewriting this fic I may not suck so much! Just a maybe though! :)

Ah, before I forget! I'd like to say that I'd like this fic to kinda be my equivalent to the Overlord Web Novel in which I write down the rough idea of what I'd like the story to be and then go back and fix/rewrite the parts that I don't like as well as adding stuff in. Dunno if I'll have it as an entirely separate fic to this one or if the rewrite will just replace this version. Either way, this version of the story is a draft (albeit a draft that I put effort in) and the superior version will come out sometime after this version is concluded. But, that's for future me to worry about, I've actually gotta finish this version first!

Ahem, enough self-deprecation, read the thing or I'll cry

The forest

The dragon around Touch's arm finally disappeared in a flash of light - nothing happened to Touch. His arm was throbbing and a little bit damaged but he hadn't taken any damage or debuffs from the attack - it was completely negated by his trump card.

Phew, I was worried one of my trump cards had failed me! Now, let's see how everyone else is doing.

The sight that awaited was ever so slightly troubling, well, he heard it before he saw it. Shalltear was wildly swinging her lance around with reckless abandon, screaming in abject agony as her free hand gripped her face. The area around her was carved up with each swing, a few [Shadow Demons] were caught up in the swings and were annihilated in a single blow. However, her swings, being blind, were unfocused and did little to quash the horde of demons that were cutting and slashing at the exposed parts of her armor. Each of their blows while not doing a lot of damage, would add up to astronomical levels if she couldn't' recover enough HP with her lance. A few meters away from the screaming Shalltear was HeroHero was draped in the shadowy tendrils from earlier. Like Shalltear, Herohero was thrashing around in an attempt to harm the mysterious attackers, though unlike Shalltear, HeroHero at least had a target in which he could see even if it was simply motion detection. However, even if HeroHero's acid was unrivaled among even his fellow slime players, you can't dissolve a shadow no matter how hard you try.

"HeroHero!" Touch had leapt off of the tree branch he was situated on but as he flew through the air towards HeroHero, a great oval composed of a black void appeared right in front of him out of nowhere.

A [Gate]!?

In an attempt to prevent his fall into the [Gate], Touch's dragonfly tail burst out of his armor and coiled around the nearest branch. His wings outstretched and beat the air to further halt his descent into the void. His helmet was ripped away from his body due to the sudden acceleration and was consumed by the [Gate] instantly. Shortly after his helmet disappeared, the [Gate] had vanished. Returning to his perch on the tree, Touch took his time to analyze the situation in front of him.

Damn it. Alright, let's look at the current situation here; Number one: We're currently trapped with presumed no way of escape, Number two: We're fighting a minimum of seven people, Number three: This was most definitely a trap, Number four: They can prevent our scrying attempts, Number five: They have at least one unholy / umbral magic user, and lastly, Number six: They're focusing on using long-range combat, traps and summons to fight us. So, if we take all those factors into consideration, we're most likely far stronger than these attackers are seeing as how they're all hiding away from the fray. Well, that's judging by the damage that HeroHero and Shalltear received being minimal. But who's attacking us? It's not an [Umbramancer] seeing as how the shadows are only a single target and not AOE. Furthermore, those shadows look nothing like Temperance's shadows who'd unlocked every one of the shadow-based spells. It's not a [Ninja] either as Nishikienrai never had a spell or ability like that. So, either we're facing someone with a unique stroke secret class or we're facing a new-worlder. I don't know which is more troublesome to be honest.

He still had the [Slave Sight] open from earlier and the seven people in his view hadn't moved all too much from when he'd first spotted them. Each one of them was idly talking to each other and were in no way fighting. They seemed just a little bit too relaxed for being so close to an active battlefield, even the barrier and peculiar sin were in view and yet the seven figures didn't even acknowledge what was happening.

So, they're not the ones attacking? Good grief were we further baited by their appearance? Were we lured into a state of panic by them and when we were fleeing, the true attackers struck? That'd make some sense as in our fleeing state we wouldn't be able to keep an eye out for potential threats as we assumed the seven figures to be the danger. Whoever is attacking is using the exact plan that HeroHero had suggested earlier, great, we're fighting PKers.

Finally, Shalltear's screaming had stopped...and then another light wreathed weapon was flung from the trees. This weapon was different - the trees seemed to warp around it, even the branches and leaves of the trees contorted to allow the weapon to hit it's target. The weapon was more like a warhammer but due to the near-blinding light, it was hard to make out the exact weapon-type.

So, Touch had shouted out to Shalltear. If she got hit by another one then the party's chances of survival would plummet as Shalltear's [Einherjar] and ability to grow stronger by consuming blood was almost as invaluable as Touch himself. "Shalltear, another one!"

"[Negative Impact Shield]" Shalltear had used her ability to prevent the weapon's effect from being activated. A crimson barrier of negative energy appeared in front of her just as the thrown weapon was about to make contact. In spite of the shield's immunity to damage and triggering status effects, another bright flash of white incandescence exploded out from the weapon as it impacted Shalltear's ability.

"GRAAAAAAGH!" It was even louder than her previous scream. Unlike Shalltear, Touch at least had the presence of mind to avoid looking at the flash of light but, due to his compound eyes taking up the majority of his face and with the inability to close them, he too was struck by the flash. His helmet couldn't even restrict his vision because it was swallowed up by the [Gate] so the entirety of his compound eyes were out in the open. He shielded his eyes from behind his shield and arm yet the flash of light seemed to wrap around his raised arm and hand still found its way into his eyes - blinding him in the process. And then, Touch's foot was suddenly no longer on the tree branch. It was as if the tree had forcibly retracted it's appendage and forced Touch into the air. Now without a method of seeing nor making a retreat, he was wide open for attacks.

"[Shield of Faith]" Touch could only cast a single buff skill before something gripped his antenna and flung him into the air. All he knew was that whatever had gripped him was far larger than he was.

Just fight us directly you damned cowards! Great, I can't even transform as I have no clue where our attackers are! My [World Enemy] state doesn't last for long so I should only use it when I know that it'll be effective. Well, I doubt our mysterious friend would even let me transform in the first place. Damn you Devs and actually balancing our transformations! ...Well someone did solo every [World Enemy] in the game but...

Then once Touch had peaked in the air, he came crashing back down to the ground as some sort of magically infused attack hit him from above. Despite not being able to see what had hit him, the swift slice and slight whistling sound that came from the attack combined with the thickness of the blade led Touch to believe that it was a katana or some sort. Through his numerous sparring sessions with Warrior, Touch had gotten familiar with identifying the notable traits of such weapons. No damage was dealt to Touch as a result of his enormous stats but the blow was more than enough to send Touch straight back down.

This doesn't make sense! I have immunity to magic attacks and physical attacks under level 160, how are these people breaking through my defences and are yet unable to even deal significant damage to me? I haven't even taken any serious damage so far so no way are these people even close to our level and yet here we are getting our asses handed to us.

Touch fell to the floor head-first. While he hadn't taken much damage from the fall, his antenna and eyes were searing with pain and his vision grew blurry from the fall. Even his sense of balance was off because the back of his head was slammed into the rocky terrain with his fall. The burning white sun was no longer in the sky, the normal sun was now happily sat at its zenith in the sky.

So that sun was also a part of this, I should have expected this! These cheap tricks...can go to hell!

Another golden dragon was flying through the air before Touch had fully composed himself. Contorting his body, touch had just managed to dodge the projectile thanks to the many joints his insectoid body had.

"[Summon Primal Star Elemental]! [Summon Pillar of Creation]!" With no way to physically harm the attackers, Touch had opted for a more effective strategy: burning down the forest. Though dangerous, it at least gives the party a way of seeing the contents of the barrier and perhaps pinpoint the locations of the attackers. Even though the fires would be contained by the barrier, an immense amount of trees and animals would be consumed by his summon's fire. He'd even used extra mana to bypass the summoning animation and forced his summon into existence prematurely. The swirling mass of fire had taken a vaguely humanoid shape and it reared to it's full height. The area around the star elemental recoiled away deeper into the forest, the trees and their roots were torn from the ground in a bid to escape the fires. The elemental wasn't alone however, a massive pillar of condensed cloud of dust had formed just next to the summoned creature: [The Pillar of Creation]. It was a summonable entity that would, every few minutes, produce either a [Star Elemental] / it's variants or a [Cosmic Dragon] / it's own variants.

The forest is being controlled as well? I knew this place was enchanted! This entire god-forsaken area was trapped! You know what, screw the whole justice thing, screw playing fair! If these people insist on using such cowardly tactics then I shall respond!

Since his opponents refused to fight honourably, Touch had dispensed with all forms of honor he had as well. Thus, rather than roleplaying, Touch was genuinely trying to murder his opponents now.

"[Burn down the forest]!" He'd practically screamed his order to his summon. Even if the blind effect was gone, his vision was no less as dysfunctional - only a few of his eyes were even capable of taking in light as the rest were seared specks on his face.

"FARRRAAAHHH!" With a loud roar, the elemental's mouth swelled in size as alabaster flame built up within it's maw followed by a guttural bellow as a result of the elemental's insides being thrust out from it's body in the attack. As the attack had finished charging up, the elemental let loose a fiery beam of destruction towards the forest. However, another [Gate] had opened up in front of the elemental and ate the entire attack.

Another [Gate]? Why aren't they using it on HeroHero then seeing as how he's immobile? Are they trying to test our strength or something similar? These people are really trying my patience.

This time, the [Gate] did not disappear, a fiery fist had shot out from the void and struck Touch's summoned elemental. Climbing its way out from the [Gate] was an imposing demon with black and red scales lining it's body, massive fangs protrude from his mouth and it's body covered in small flames. The red scales on its body seemed to resemble scalemail on it's shoulders, forearms and demon had relatively stout arms and legs for it's bulky body. Tipping each of its appendages were thick claws. On its back were great flaming wings and long snake-like tail that was tipped with fire. It was an [Evil Lord Wrath], it's body was only partly out of the [Gate] as nothing but the upper portion of it's torso and tail were visible. Despite only being halfway through the [Gate], the wrath began to wildly swing at the face of the elemental. Though it's physical attack was poor, the elemental swung back on the attacker which led to a bloody exchange of blows.

A high level demon, ah, more information to use...wait, another [Gate]? Then that means that the [Dimensional Lock] is down! Now is our chance to escape this nightmare.

From behind Touch came some sort of projectile that was whistling through the air. "[Wall of Jericho]!"

A green wall of energy sprang up from the ground in front of Touch and prevented the projectile from getting close to him with a *twing*. Laying on the floor next to Touch's barrier were three long grey spines-like objects that were halfway between a sword and a massive scale. From the general area as to where they'd been fired from, the trees were...bleeding. Large holes were bored through the trees, most likely because of the fired spines and a thick mucus of red trickled down from each of the holes. The person responsible for firing off the spines was not visible however, only the thick underbrush of the forest could be seen. Not wasting any time, Touch quickly threw two of the projectiles into his inventory for analysis at a later date.

A sniper as well, truly deplorable. [Appraise Item]...

...

Nothing? That means it's not an item then...hmmm, that means that the sniper is either using their own body as a weapon or a friend's. Let's see then. [Discern Enemy]...

...

Nothing? To be expected but no less annoying, I've no doubt that these projectiles are organic in nature though.

He put the third arrow into his inventory.

I'll just have to force their sniper out of hiding then!

"[Maximize Magic - Sunburst] [Maximize Magic - Hallowed flame]!" Eight balls of teal flame began orbiting around Touch and flame-like radiance was spewed out from Touch's free hand. In an instant, the magically enchantment trees erupted into flames as a result of Touch's spells. Thick umbral smog began emanating from the trees as they were burnt asunder, the roots and branches helplessly failed around while the flames dug their way into the innards of the trees.

An earth-shattering scream made its way through the barrier: "UUUSHAAAAAA!" Well, more of a roar than a scream but it was identical to the reaction of an injured animal.

A screaming forest? Wait...that roar...Is that a...A DRAGON! There's no mistaking it...well, it's similar to the ones in YGGDRASIL at least. If that's the case….We're facing a dragon then! That explains the living projectiles and those swords the [Shadow Demons] are weidling but why can't our magic penetrate theirs? Their magic is completely different than ours is so it must be magic that's unique to this world then! Well, that's assuming we're facing dragons at all though, for all we know we could be facing some [World Item], that would explain the op abilities we've seen so far.

"[Triplet Maximize Magic - Walls of Jericho]" Three great green walls were erected around Touch, leaving only a single way for him to be attacked. On cue, yet more scaly projectiles were fired off in the direction of Touch, with no other way of attack, Touch's walls have allowed him to guess the general location of his foe and the rough speed at which they could change from one position to the next.

There it is, fool.

"[World Break]" Touch's sword glowed a brilliant white upon the abilities activation. He horizontally slashed at the air, the three walls around him served to act as a choke point. Therefore, seeing as how his opponents were firing off the scales, they must be in front of Touch - they were easy to target. His sword cleaved through the air and let out an invisible projectile that ripped through the trees in front of Touch. There was no way to block nor avoid the ability. In unison, for hundreds of meters in front of Touch the trees all erupted into scarlet geysers as the top portion of their mutual bodies were cut in two. The fired projectiles were also cleanly cut in half by Touch's attack.

"GGGRRROOOOOOAAH!" The scream was even more deafening than the last. This time, the flooring of the forest writhed in agony, roots were ripped from the ground and trees began to recede back further into the contents of the barrier. For a brief moment, there was a glimmer of some sort of armored person standing a few meters in front of Touch though he couldn't make out the details, the only thing Touch saw was the crumbling of their armor.

Tch, learn to face your opponent head on in future. Enough, we need to leave while the [Gate] is up.

"Shalltear, open a [Gate]! [Greater Teleportation]." Touch had teleported away from the summon that was doing battle with the wrath and had appeared beside a still struggling HeroHero. His pillar was still yet to produce any additional summons but it did serve to increase the amount of burning trees in the area so not all was lost.

"Alright, Arinsu~" Shalltear had been swamped in a number of [Shadow Demons], each wielding the same draconic blades as the one that attacked Touch. While they weren't doing all too much damage to Shalltear, their numbers meant that Shalltear couldn't land enough clean blows on them to fell individuals - only wound them before they retreated into the shadows. As a result of the burning forest, the [Shadow Demons] had far more hiding places than what they once had due to the amount of smoke that filled the air and prevented the sun's rays from reaching the floor.

The whole time, HeroHero hadn't even managed to reduce the mass of jet-black tentacles by even one, all his thrashing had only left the surrounding ground to be a brunt mess of dissolved dirt and plant-matter. He'd only taken around 15% of his total HP in damage but his mobility was completely shut down. "Hey Touch, wanna hel-"

"HRAAGH!" Touch had kicked HeroHero towards the rough area as to where Shalltear was, the [Gate] already summoned and being defended by Shalltear. Just as HeroHero was about to pass through the [Gate], a shock-wave of trembling air made its way through the barrier's insides. The [Gate] had disappeared and the still shadow covered HeroHero landed in a ditch behind where the [Gate] once was with a *thud*.

"Owowow, that hurt, old man!" The tree above to HeroHero had warped itself as some sort of golden dragon tore through the air towards him. It was the same attack that Touch had dodged a few minutes ago. The golden dragon was upon HeroHero before he could try to avoid it, even if he was immobile, he could have at least offered up some token resistance. So, it coiled around his body and had hidden him in it's glowing form. He simply collapsed on the floor the moment the dragon had made contact with him and yet the shadows refused to relinquish their grip on him.

HeroHero's down? So I was right to use my skill in preventing that dragon from touching me directly. Typical, there's always something else with these people isn't there? Why would they let us just escape?

The seven figures in the corner of Touch's view had begun bolting in the direction of Touch's summoned [Umbral Hulk] and had rushed past it.

Huh? Those seven are moving! At least we know that they're not the one's attacking us so we can just focus on whoever we're facing now.

And then, Touch had noticed something strange about his summon: it wasn't moving. It wasn't just idly sitting by or anything - it was absolutely stock still. No breathing, no idle movements of the head, no shifting of the eyes, nothing. Even if it was a summon, the [Umbral Hulk] was a wild animal and so at least some level of movement would be expected, no matter how slight the movement was. Touch hadn't actually noticed when it had happened but then he felt it, all of his summons were dead - there was no mental connection to the being he was seeing through. Not a single one of his summons was alive so his [Slave Sight] had no way of actually seeing those seven people. He'd been looking at a fake transmission the whole time. Something else he noticed was that the old woman in his sight had a robe with a golden dragon sewn onto it. It was the exact same dragon that HeroHero had failed to avoid - it was obvious as to what had happened.

They falsified my scrying magic!? Since when were my summons dead?

"GROOSHAAAA!" The summoned wrath was cut in half as it's [Gate] was dispelled, leaving the top of the torso and tail to fail to the ground in a lifeless heap. The elemental that Touch had summoned was nowhere in sight.

And then, Touch could feel something on his foot, it was like he'd just stepped in a pile of writhing worms. He tentatively looked down at his foot.

Oh dear.

The foot he had kicked HeroHero with was consumed in the shadowy plague that his friend was struggling to fight off. The shadows began to climb up his body as they sapped away at his lifeforce, strangling his soul in their ghostly embrace. Touch had collapsed onto the floor, his legs were completely prevented from working, it felt as if his nervous system was shutting down and his mind was clouded by a deep darkness. No matter how high his resistances were, no matter the effects of his equipment or his classes or his races, he couldn't break free from the shadows - they were tearing into his very soul. No magic like this existed in YGGDRASIL, no [World Enemy] nor [World] class/race nor even the Devs themselves possessed such an attack. From the corner of his eye he saw yet another yellow dragon that was flying towards him, with no way to dodge it, Touch was struck by the mysterious attack. The scaly beast wrapped itself around his body, causing his mind numb further once the dragon had made contact. From his and Ulbert's experiments with mental magic he recognized the sensation: mind control and there was no way in hell he was getting out of this.

You're kidding me! B-but...we're s-stronger than them! How can we lose to cowards!? I've got maxed out mental resistance for God's sake, how can this happen!? GODDAMN IT! WE'RE MEANT TO WIN!

With the remains of his strength, Touch slammed his fist onto the ground. Nothing made sense. Both he and HeroHero had near perfect resistances to all status-effects and yet they were being taken out by a single spell. The barrier was unlike any other seen in YGGDRASIL, the strange flashbang, the scaly swords and the magical forest that somehow bled and felt pain were other oddities as no such things existed in YGGDRASIL. Even the usage of [Gates] was far removed than what they would be used for in YGGDRASIL. No matter the strength of the opponent, both Touch and HeroHero could never be taken out in a single blow, even [World Enemies] failed to one shot them and yet here they were, crumpled on the floor with a mysterious black mass crippling them entirely. It was nothing short of bullshit. It was a struggle for Touch to even cling to a coherent thought - his mind was being strangled of it's free-will and forcibly being turned into the mind of a puppet. And yet, despite the immense struggle, Touch held fast. He wasn't just going to let himself be taken out by a cowardly and bullshit attack.

Th-they planned this entire encounter...didn't they?...Bastards, using m-magic not from YGGDRASIL...

Pft, as if I'd let them just take me and my friends out like that, I won't be turned against my friends, I won't even let them get close to us! If those bastards want to use petty mind control on us then they'll have to work for it instead of hiding away in the shadows!

"[Hypernova]!" With the last of his free-will, Touch activated his secret trump card: [Hypernova]. It was an ability granted to him after securing the 1/1 [Elemental Fighter - Star] class from winning a tournament and was his ultimate ability. To sum up the ability's power: it would generate an endless amount of fiery explosions from Touch's body so long as he was alive and an enemy was within its range of ten meters. The only downside of the ability was that Touch's defence were cut in half however, this was somewhat offset by the fact that he was immune to all damage not within his abilities range. Thus, if whoever was responsible for mind controlling him and HeroHero wanted to give them orders or attack them, they must be within Touch's ten meter range. Considering that whoever Touch and co had been battling were most likely far inferior to the party in direct combat, it was nigh-impossible to survive long enough to damage or order Touch and his friend. Each and every explosion from his ability was akin to a maximized [Vermillion Nova] from Ulbert in terms of raw damage though the range was much lower, it could at least cover Touch, Shalltear and HeroHero. Another effect of [Hypernova] was that the released explosions would have no effect on those in the caster's party, thus, HeroHero and Shalltear were safe from the bursts. In YGGDRASIL, this ability wasn't all too great due to Touch being a physical attacker and would therefore be in direct combat with every foe he face, thus taking damage in the process. Damage was an unavoidable factor when fighting on the front line and reducing your defence by such a large amount was suicide so, Touch hadn't really used this ability before.

Just try and get close to us now, bastards. My [Pillar of Creation] is still here guarding me as well, come...and...g-get us...

Touch's mind was fully consumed by the darkness, his vision and mind completely went blank.

Shalltear's Pov

Touch Me-sama's down!? B-but how does...how does the strongest supreme being fall to anyone!?

Yet another [Gate] had opened up a few meters in front of Shalltear and the [Shadow Demons] ceased their onslaught.

Wait, now's my-...NO! I can't abandon the supreme beings who stayed but...I-I need to protect but how can I do anything? Pero-sama, Momonga-sama, HeroHero-sama, Touch Me-sama, Ulbert-sama...I-I've failed…

Though, the shadows did not claim Shalltear, in fact, nothing really happened for a few minutes. The [Gate] remained open, taunting her as her means of escape would be immediately cut off the moment she tried to summon a [Gate] of her own. Even if she could enter a [Gate], she'd surely be split in half by a [Dimensional Lock] cutting off her [Gate]. There was no way of escape nor of fighting back.

And then, a pair of figures stepped out from the [Gate] while the [Shadow Demons] retreated into the [Gate]. The first was a man in golden armor that seemed far too over-designed to be practical which had an incredibly vague dragon motif to it. The arms and legs of the armor were equipped with large blades on their backs, the helmet was some sort of bulbous golden blob with eight holes pierced into it for visibility while three curved spines grew upwards off the helmet from the cheek region. The actual armor was far too angular and bulky for mobility to be optimal as it was covered with golden spikes and arcs that bore a superficial resemblance to scales. The figure's legs were digitrade in structure and were tipped with a sort of half claw half human foot appendage.

The figure to the golden armored man's left appeared to be an emaciated gnoll-like creature though instead of a normal hyena face, it had a grinning skull-like face that was devoid of all hair. It's mouth took up the majority of its face and despite the monster's appearance, was actually in a polite(ish) smile. The eyes of the beast had an indescribable smugness about them as they gleamed with superiority while it leered at Shalltear. A mangy, yellow crest of fur reached from his head to mid-back, the only fur on its body appeared in small filthy clumps that were scattered around it's skeletal body. The unfurred portion of it's form was covered in a bleak gray hide that was tightly constricted around the creature's thin frame. The beast wholly lacked any kind of armor at all - it's nakedness was on full display, though, the area between its legs seemed to have been irreversibly damaged as it was nothing but a bloody mess. In short, it could be described as a gnoll with mange.

The gnoll creature was the first to speak up, it's voice sounded like that of an upper-class gentleman: "Ah~ All went accordion' to pla-"

The golden armored man interrupted his friend with a raised hand and an exasperated sigh. "Shut it and just get it done, gnoll. We didn't make a truce with your master just to idly wait for your monologues to finish." His voice carried an air of boredom as if he'd dealt with this same situation many times before.

"Ah~ you wound me. So, who're we dealing with then? These are tha one's who've been sendin' out messages all around right?"

"..." The gnoll's companion simply nodded.

Messages…? They know we've been sending messages?

"You! How did you know we-"

"Shut it. It's simple, girly, ya see, [Message] is real damn easy to intercept and falsify! You're all morons fer usin' it as the sole method of communication." Then it dawned on Shalltear. Every single [Message] that had been sent out since her arrival in this world was freely open for anyone who wanted to listen in on what was being said. All the plans, all the names and all the locations discussed over [Message] that she and her lords had thought were secure, were breached by these people without anyone being alerted of their activity.

[Message] isn't secure...so that means…when Ulbert-sama's and Pero-sama's anti-scrying defences were breached, they did it!

" It's just some lil' girl but I wanna make su-"

Once more the gnoll was interrupted: "She's just more filth, hurry up and use the Theocracy dog already, we've returned the rest to their homes and we don't plan on helping you out so you're on your own now, dog. We've played our parts and have suffered heavy losses so you better play yours, 'less you want your master to suffer the same fate as the filth on the floor." The golden armored individual briskly walked back into the [Gate] without looking back at his companion. With his disappearance, the [Gate] vanished and left Shalltear and the gnoll alone. Out from the density of the forest came an elderly woman, her face was as pale as ghosts. Sheepishly, she stepped towards the gnoll who beckoned her towards him.

"'Urry up dog!" The gnoll's tail extended itself and slammed into the back of the elderly woman, sending her sprawling towards him. "The sooner you use it the sooner you and yer pals can go back 'ome to yer Theocracy. We're busy on our end as well y'know - we've got people farms we gotta attend to, this 'ole agreement relies on mutual cooperation - no freeloading! So use it!" Juxtaposing his regal voice, the gnoll's register was crude and near-grating to the ear.

Not wanting to go down without a fight, Shalltear raised herself to and readied her lance. Her body began to shimmer and morph, a clay-like substance ate away at her body as the surface coated her body. After a few seconds of charging the ability, the clay substance amassing on her body detached from her. It was a complete replica of her, the white clay had morphed itself into the form of Shalltear. It was her trump card: [Einherjar].

But Shalltear wasn't done: "[Summon Household], [Raise Kin], [Summon Monster - Tenth]!"

Once more, the bat-like wings had found their way onto Shalltear's body and from the shadows came a myriad of monsters. Each and everyone of them were powerful in their own right but Shalltear wasn't planning on having them fight, there was a single thing her summons had in common: large bodies. Why large bodies? Because large bodies need large amounts of blood to live. As soon as her summons came into being, she drove her lance directly into them which unleashed geysers of blood to spew out of the wounds.

"[Help me]!" With the order given, the rest of Shalltear's summons began to tear into their own bodies as well as the bodies of their fellows. It was a grim dance of blood as each of her summons made absolutely sure that every last drop of their blood could be used to increase their mistress's strength. In a short few seconds, all of her summoned monsters were nothing but piles of gore and scarlet. The blood had coalesced into a ball that hovered around above Shalltear's head.

"Geh? Aw, fuck it, 'urry up oldy! Imma beat the shit outta her since you're takin' yer sweet time!"

Shalltear's armor completely disappeared, leaving her in her dress. And then, her mouth began to deform, growing wider and taking up a larger portion of her face. A muscular tongue wormed its way from her mouth and lashed around in front of her, maneuvering around the untold number of teeth that were exploding out from her maw. Her eyes clouded over in a red haze and bulged out from her now bulbous skull slightly. The dress she wore underwent a similar transformation as it receded up to her knees and morphed into a tattered, brown mockery of its former self. While she was busy with her transformation, her [Einherjar] rushed towards the gnoll who was sprinting in her direction and Shalltear let loose a [Purifying Javelin] aimed at the elderly woman.

Suddenly kicking off the ground, the gnoll had redirected itself and pounced onto the woman to prevent the javelin from hitting her.. Despite the maneuver to force her to dodge the javelin, the javelin just soared through the air and pivoted around the gnoll's body.

"Aw, for fucks sake." The white javelin dug into the back of gnoll, provoking a whimper of pain from the emaciated beast.

"Do somethin' useful, yeah? Oi, oi, all eyes on me yeah? [Showman's Grandeur]" Gripping the woman, the gnoll threw her into the air, away from the battle. The gnoll's spell essentially prevented his foes from targeting anyone but him, it was a stable move for most tanks in YGGDRASIL. The [Einherjar] rushed in during the time it took for the gnoll to throw the woman, it's spuit lance pierced it's arm with little effort. The lance had nearly bored into the gnoll's face through it's arm, the tip of the lance sliced into the gnoll's cheek.

"Piss off, whitey!" The gnoll's tail wrapped around the spuit lance and yanked it from his arm. His free hand was planted onto the [Einherjar's] face and dragged it into the floor and proceeded to slam it repeatedly onto the ground while the gnoll's cackling laughter burst out around the area.

*fwoosh*

"GEHEHEHE...eh? EH!?" In an instant, the other arm of the gnoll was severed while it beat down the [Einherjar]. The limb arm fell to the floor with a hefty *thud*, the cut was so clean that even the nerves in the gnoll's arm were severed. There was no pain nor sensation aside from a faint warm trickling sensation. "Wha-"

The gnoll looked down to where his right arm once was and saw a small hunched figure wielding a spuit lance. The child-like figure was slurping up the thick excretion from the gnoll's arm from the floor anc chomping down on his arm with gleeful bites.

"Yoooooooou…." A scarlet tongue lashed at the opened wound on the gnoll's arm after she'd finished eating parts of his arm. "Yoooooooou're huuuuge! Ehehehehe! Thaaat means yooou've got huuuge guuuuuts!"

"G-get away from me, ya freak!" Trying to gain some distance from Shalltear, the gnoll slammed it's foot into her face. However, due to Shalltear being buffed by both the blood of the gnoll and the blood of her summons, she was far faster than he was and squired his foot onto her spuit lance. Getting up from the floor, the [Einherjar] rammed it's own lance into gnoll's body.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck! [Ma-Maximize Ma- GRAAAAGH!" Shalltear had twisted her spuit lance that was still inside of the gnoll's foot, contorting the appendage into a mess of bloody flesh.

"Ooooooh~ Taaaasty~" Her eel-like tongue snaked all round his deformed legs, guzzling down any and all fluids it could find.

"U-U-USE IT, YA O-OLD BITCH! S-AVE ME!" The [Einherjar] had also twisted it's own lance which served to further mangle the gnoll's body. His thick hide offered all but naught resistance and his bones could do little more than shatter as the lance drilled it's way further into his body.

Another yellow dragon flew from the robes of the old woman as the charge had completed once more. In spite of her near non-existent mental state, Shalltear still managed to dodge the soaring dragon. Her lance retracted from the gnoll's body as she leapt back to dodge the dragon.

"[M-m-maximize Magic - Greater Healing]..."An emerald green light covered the heavily injured gnoll. His magic must have been rather poor as even after the spell ended, his body was still wrecked with damage and punctures.

"Huuuuuuh? Yooo-GYAGH!" The gnoll had leapt forward and smashed his fist into Shalltear's opened maw causing teeth and blood to spray everywhere onto the floor. The generated force was hardly capable of turning her head as a result of the massive buff she'd gotten from consuming so much blood. Blood began to trickle down from his fist due to Shalltear's innumerable teeth digging into his skin which only further increased her power.

"[Force Prison]" From the gnoll's fist came a small shock-wave of condensed air that entombed Shalltear's body, binding her in place.

While struggling to pin down Shalltear, the gnoll barked an order to the old woman: "USE IT! GUH!" Bursting out from his chest came the spuit lance of the [Einherjar], the lance widened in appearance as long tendril-like barbs protrude from its shaft.

"Ah, bugger." The lance was ripped out from the gnoll's chest, the barbs completely annihilated the majority of his torso and caused the gnoll to howl in pain. Just as the lance was freed from the gnoll's chest, an ethereal dragon sailed past the [Einherjar's] face and flew towards Shalltear who was scrambling around on the floor. As soon as the dragon began to coil around Shalltear, her spasming ceased and so did the onslaught of the [Einherjar].

"G-guh…*pant*...fuckin' bastards…*sigh* The hell did they...force me ta do this shit…[Gr-greater Healing]" The giant hole in his torso partially closed itself though one could still see behind him through it.

"Oi, hag, drag the whitey over ta the pile, yeah? I've kinda got mah 'ands full with the lil' bitch…C'mon, we'll bring 'em over ta the others so we can [Gate] 'em all off at once ta save MP."

"O-of course." The old woman and the gnoll each grabbed their respective version of Shalltear. The elderly woman, in contrast to her frail frame, actually managed to drag the [Einherjar] over to where Touch and HeroHero's unconscious bodies were. Little did the gnoll know, he'd just fallen for Touch's trap. Each and everyone one of the gnoll's steps was a step closer to both his own and the elderly woman's deaths. He was too fatigued to dodged and both he and the woman were dragged down by the weight of the two Shalltears and were thus sitting ducks once they entered the range of Touch's ability. He'd crossed the invisible threshold that would trigger the [Hypernova] skill. A horizontal blade of alabaster flame ripped through the surrounding area. Once the gnoll had seen the blade of white, his eyes practically leapt from their sockets and he prepared a skill to defend himself from the attack.

"[Fire Immun-" The gnoll and the woman beside him were completely bisected by the sudden outburst from Touch's body, it was far faster than both had thought. Both the gnoll and the woman were cleaved in half by force of the attack, their wounds didn't even bleed as the searing heat from the burst of heat completely sealed their wounds closed and evaporated their blood.

The only thought in the gnoll's mind was that of an apology to his master. He'd failed to do the simple task of fighting a little girl and had even managed to get outsmarted in the process. The fight with the little girl hadn't even been close either, he'd been thoroughly beaten if not for mind control item from the Theocracy. Surely his liege would be disappointed in such a failure - it was only natural. Though, he was scared as well, the master that had shown enough mercy to forgive his subordinates blunder after blunder, the all loving master would always forgive the failures of his subordinates with a smile on his face. It'd been failure after failure after failure, they repeatability failed their master in all their services and yet every time he'd assure them that everything was ok. Not a single one of them believed their master though, they knew of his displeasure, they could see the disappointment in his eyes as he reassured them. And now, the gnoll had only increased the amount of failures that would be reported to his master. Was this it? Was this the final failure that would drive their master away from them? The gnoll was sure of it. His failure transcended all others, in all their time of operation, there had not been a single major casualty up until now - he was the first to perish and it was unforgivable. And so, the gnoll begged and he begged and he begged for forgiveness - he was a blubbering mess on the floor as he wept for his master. He'd directly disobeyed an order to take every fight seriously and so he ended up as a dying mess on the floor. He couldn't even die gracefully, no, he just further disgraced his master by not accepting death. The mere fact that he desperately clung onto life and wept like the child he was even as those people who conspired against his master in the past watched from afar was an even greater insult than just simply dying. And thus, resolved to not disgrace his liege anymore, the gnoll fell into silence as the tears silently dripped down his face and waited for death to claim him. His death came in the form of yet another fiery burst from afar, severing his head in a single clean stroke.

Six bodies lay on the floor of the receding forest, each was motionless and either unconscious or dead. Technically, Touch and co were the victors as they'd slain two opponents and grossed a huge amount of information about their opposition. Only technically however, his entire party was currently in a state of mind control and were thus useless to his friends. The only thing Touch, HeroHero and Shalltear could do was to wait for either Momonga, Ulbert and Pero to stumble across them or to wait for whoever their new masters were to retrieve them. While strong, Touch's [Hypernova] was far from the perfect defence and even when it was augmented by the [Pillar of Creation] they'd just spawned its first summon, any competent max level player could just walk right up to them and command the party as they see fit. It was just a matter of who got to them first. The only creature left alive in the area was the lowest of all [Star Elementals] being only level 130 and having the least powerful passive fire aura: a [WISE Star Elemental], named after the coolest of stars, it fit it's name. The elemental, sticking true to its namesake, was a tiny brown [Star Elemental] and was pitifully weak when compared it's the others of its kind. Though, it could very well be classed as an apocalyptic monster in this world so Touch and co were relatively safe so long as the [Pillar of Creation] remained active for it's' duration of three hours.

An: Yes this entire chapter was bullshit, that was the entire point! Don't kill me! The next chapter is gonna be hella short as well cause it's just Momonga and co coming up with a plan so it should be out in a few days if I'm not lazy!

*** SPOILERS OR WHATEVER***

So, let me explain myself for a lil bit.

Ok, so I was always kinda bugged by the fact that the dragon lords never did anything to combat players aside from their loose agreement and PDL and DDDL killing players. Like, the players massacred your entire race, polluted the world you lived in and freed your slaves. Most people would be angry, right? I know it's the whole hubristic dragon kinda thing but I'm pretty sure putting your pride aside to combat these world ending threats would be common sense than just sleeping all day. Whatever, what bugs me more is that these players always arrive at a fixed time, therefore giving the dragon lords a deadline in which they can prepare to combat the players and yet the dragons don't do anything to prepare other than Cure and arguably PDL but he doesn't do a whole lot. What do these dragons have to combat players? Wild magic and the loot from dead players. So, I felt it more natural that the DLs would want to enhance and refine their wild magic to give them a fighting chance against players as it's the only feasible way for them to not get absolutely wrecked. Another thing is that I found it strange that the DLs didn't seek out a monopoly on any player related items in the new world as well adn that despite their old age, they had almost zero experience fighting foes as evidenced by Cure being a big dumbo and PDL gettin way too cocky even though he's fighting someone who could end the world. thus, it is my headcannon that the DLs would actively seek out methods to hunt down and eliminate players, this in tandem with their long lifespans means that they could perfect PKing strats. What reinforces this is that we know that the DLs (PDL at least) won't just immediately slap the players because we know that PDL adventured with two of them, therefore given PDL an ample supply to learn about players and how to deal with them. Regarding the spamming of the wild magic in the chapter, I've bassically just had the dragon lords take over a few countries such that they have an ample stockpile of soles to use against players, similar to what Cure did but on a larger scale. Also, there is one other thing that I've changed about the dragons but eeehh, that kinda ruins the final few chapters so...eh? The only thing I'll say is that the lizards aren't as weak as they are portrayed in the LNs, this time they're at least some form of threat to the gang. also, y'know, it's kinda hard not to bullshit a way for Touch to get beaten so I got rid of his world item and at least tried to write something that's semi-plausible. Oh yeah, wild magic in dnd is fucking wacky so there that as well.

So, here's the dragons that I'm gonna be using for now:

Platinum Dragon Lord + armor

Deep Darkness Dragon Lord

Heavenly Dragon Lord

Sword-master Dragon Lord

Elder Coffin Dragon Lord

Catastrophe Dragon Lord

Vampiric Dragon Lord

+The fake Dragon Lords and the loli queen

(?) Dragon Lord/s

I'm giving myself a two dragon buffer just in case I manage to write myself into a corner and need some bullshit plotdevice to get things moving.

Anyway, that's all from me!

Buh-bye~ - Puddle