Chapter Ten "Assassin"

Ainz paid very little attention to his surroundings. When his right hand moved, the undead were flung away. When his left hand struck, the undead were cut in two. A tornado of death which killed everything it touched. He finally ground to a halt.

"What bothersome pests." Ainz muttered as looked at the undead army before him.

The undead army before him was to easy to kill. All it took was one blow. One blow to kill not just one, but several of the undead at the same time. His attacks were so powerful that even hitting the undead with his weapons were unnecessary. Even a glancing blow or the smallest part of his weapon touching the undead was enough to reduce them to nothing but pieces.

"This isn't a game anymore… This is reality…" Ainz reminded himself.

He looked on the undead around him with an exasperated expression on his face, and then pointed a greatsword caked in vile fluids at them. The undead recoiled at this and tried to flee Ainz. The undead should not have known the meaning of fear, yet they had come to fear Ainz.

"That is strange… Why are they scared of me…?" Ainz wondered.

"It is because they recognize your magnificence, Ainz-sama," said Narberal, who was standing beside him.

"What did I say about calling me that or treating me differently. If someone is watching us and discovers anything amiss than all this time and effort could be wasted if they discover our true nature." Ainz said in a chiding tone.

"Excuse me, Momon-san." Narberal apologized.

With every step Ainz took forward, the undead took one back. They encircled him in this way while keeping their distance from him. The circle moved with Ainz's steps. Although the undead seemed to be looking for a chance to attack, any who stepped forward were immediately destroyed by Ainz. Therefore, the undead merely surrounded him, but did not make a move on him.

"Do you think that they can detect my true nature? Despite me casting magic spells to prevent such magic from working." Ainz asked.

Narberal remained quiet for a moment as if she was thinking that Ainz knew the answer and was instead testing her.

"It might be something that you cannot hide. Similar to how a mother would recognize their child despite altering their appearance." Narberal suggested.

"You might be right," Ainz murmured and turned his attention on the undead before him. "Still, if this keeps up, it'll only be a stalemate," Ainz grumbled as he saw the huge throng of undead that still remained.

If he wanted to break the encirclement, he could easily cut a path through the undead horde. However, if he forced his way through, the undead would scatter in all directions and the nearby guards might end up being injured or killed. If that happened, he would lose the witnesses to his deeds, and thus fail the objective of being "the adventurer who cleared up this matter." Therefore, he had to lure the undead to him as he moved forward, in order to ensure the safety of the guards. However, doing so made his forward progress very slow.

And then, Narberal responded in earnest to Ainz's words. "Should we summon reinforcements? This undead army will be annihilated."

"…Don't be silly. How many times have I told you our objective for coming to this city?"

"But, Momon-san, if we wanted to win fame, would it not be better to let the undead surge into the city and cause more casualties first before stepping in?"

"I have considered that possibility as well. If we knew our enemy's aim, this city's fighting power and so on, we might be able to do that. But since we lack information, we need to avoid losing this chance. It would also be very annoying to have to dance to the opposition's tune. In addition, from what I can see, other teams might snatch away our glory first."

"I see… Momon-san, you are truly incredible. To think your plan was so immaculately conceived; I expected nothing less of… you. I bow before your superior wisdom once more. Speaking of which… your foolish vassal would like to be enlightened on one point."

Ainz silently looked at Narberal. The night wind blew softly. Any undead who sought to exploit this perceived weakness would instead be destroyed in one hit by a swing of Ainz's greatswords.

"Nabe, take to the skies. If the undead was to escape the graveyard and get into the city itself than our objective will be unfulfilled." Ainz instructed.

"Of course, Momon-san," said Narberal as she nodded and fly into the sky.

"What do you see?" Ainz asked.

"The undead army is larger than we had expected, Momon-san. It is easily in the thousands."

He had thought that the undead army he was facing was in the hundreds. The magic spell that had been used seemed like the 7th Tier magic spell, Undead Army, that in YGGDRASIL created upwards of hundreds of low-level undeads depending on the INT (Intelligence) and WIS (Wisdom) stats. The undead army he saw numbered in the thousands, but not surpassing tens of thousands. It just proved that the New World was very different from YGGDRASIL.

A smirk formed. A large army of undead was good news for him. The original plan had been to protect E-Rantel from an undead threat before it could spill out from the graveyard. Ain was supposed to become a local hero for the act. A larger undead army and him defeating would have a greater effect to boosting his reputation than say an undead army of hundreds. He might instead become welcomed as a national hero and that status would greatly aid him in gathering information of the New World.

"No, my plan might be ruined…" Ainz muttered as he looked at the situation from a new angle. "Nabe, are there others besides us fighting the undead?"

"I see some adventurers that are joining the fray," said Narberal, "for now it seems that they are acting as sort of mobile reserve that is plugging holes in the fortifications manned by the guards."

"Not good… If the adventurers manage to stem the tide of the undead than they will eventually counter-attack." Ainz mumbled. "Nabe, move to the largest concentration of undead where people will most likely see. Show everyone our might!"

"Of course, Momon-san," said Narberal as she nodded and flew away to carry out her given orders.

"Now than. I hope you put up a greater fight. The more you struggle and more my prowess will be displayed," said Ainz as he looked at the undead army before him. "Prepare yourself! I have come for your heads!"

- O -

Shirou Emiya slowly and silently crept up to where he was detecting the huge flow of magical energy, which was likely the source of the never-ending undead horde.

"It must be here," Shirou murmured as he looked at what was the entrance to a large crypt.

Not far from Shirou were several suspicious figures in a circular formation within a large and desolate room. The black robes covering their bodies were unevenly dyed and of poor quality. They used a triangular cloth to cover their face, showing nothing but their eyes. The tips of the wooden staffs in their hands had strange engravings.

Different from the rest of the black-robed mages was a man who looked like an undead in the middle was showing his face, and his clothing was elegant. The man held a black stone in his hand and seemed to be concentrating, the same man that had created the restraints and visited Shirou not too long ago.

Their soft whispers were transmitted into Shirou's ears with the wind. Their pitch changed in unison and sounded like a prayer, but it didn't feel like the solemn prayer offered to those who had passed on and more like a magic ritual desecrating the dead.

Shirou materialised several needles and threw them at the black robed mages. The needles were incredible small to the point that they were nearly always invisible to the naked eye when thrown. Each needle were made out of very dense and hard metals to prevent them the wind to knock them off course and when they hit the target to do so with incredible force thanks to their mass.

Several of the mages cried out in pain before clutching their necks and collapsed onto the ground. The rest simple dropped dead. Those who didn't immediately die had the deaths caused by the poison that coated the needles that had hit the carotid arteries and jugular veins, both which either delivered or drew blood from the brain and heart, as the poison immediately ceased the brains and vital organs from functioning. Those who died immediately were due from the nerves that controlled their vital organs from being severed.

One mage, the one with the black orb, was completely unharmed. A large sphere of bones having blocked Shirou's needles.

"Hmmph… How did you get past my traps and alarms without me noticing…? I thought my work had been perfect," said the mage holding the black orb, who seemed to be the leader.

"Your traps and alarms were seemingly not good enough," Shirou drawled on in an unimpressed tone.

From Shirou's fine magical senses, he could detect a sharp buildup of prana. The mage with the black orb was no ordinary mage. He was a powerful one and had very instincts. In terms of gaming and YGGDRASIL, someone that were no mere support mage that helped from the sidelines by debuffing the enemy, providing buffs and heals to allies. He was someone that likely specialized in frontline combat.

"I underestimated you. Maybe I was overconfident of my abilities." The black orb using mage spoke.

"You just haven't met someone like me." Shirou shrugged and replied. "Come out. I can detect your presence. There is no point hiding anymore when I know you are there."

"Ohh~ Impressive~!" A voice spoke. "Ah, I am Clementine. Pleased to meet you." A woman showed herself slowly, a metallic clanking sound could be heard with every step she took. Clementine's face twisted. Her grin was so wide it almost reached her ears. "Khajii-chan, continue on with your magic ritual. I will take her on. Though, I might relocate if I was you. This area is not going to be safe with this fight."

Grudgingly, Khajiit nodded and walked to another location. Somewhere he could safely conduct the wide-scale and powerful magic ritual.

Clementine lifted her cape, revealing orange scale armor. Scale armor were normally coats that was made out of tiny, overlapping "scales" of metal to provide protection. Clementine's scale armor was far from the conventional scale armor. It was more like bikini – bra and briefs – that happened to protect everything beside the midriff, front and back. While Clementine dangerously exposed her midriff and thighs, other parts of her body were sensibly protected. Greaves and boots protected the lower leg and feet. Gauntlets and pauldrons protected entirety of the arms and hands.

Strapped to many parts of her body were holstered sheaths for identical weapons that Shirou instantly recognized. They were stilettos, light and easily concealable weapons. Shirou was facing an assassin, and an extremely successful one. That information Shirou saw by reading the history of the blades that Clementine used.

"I wouldn't be so confident if I was you." Shirou warned.

"Don't be silly~. You cannot defeat me. Maybe if you had someone~ to help you, but it's just you and me~. I can kill you before you can blink~" Clementine cockily replied.

"I see, you are confident in your prowess as a fighter…" Shirou sighed as he closed his eyes.

"That's obvious. In this country there are few fighters that can defeat me~. Correction, almost no warriors that can defeat me~." Clementine confidently and boldly said like it was the truth.

Shirou sent bolts of fire at his enemy. Clementine squinted her eyes in displeasure as she dodged the numerous bolts of fire that shot at her.

There should only be a handful of individuals that can match me one-to-one. I know the general description of most said individuals that could fight me on even grounds. None of those individuals that can good chance of winning a fight with match his appearance. He must be cocky. Clementine showed a disgusting smile to Shirou. "Just to let you know I am a former Black Scripture member. I am Clementine, former 9th Seat."

"I simply don't care." Shirou bluntly spoke.

"What?!" Clementine shouted in outrage at the dismissal she received.

Clementine lost all composure when she was belittlement she received. She was not just some ordinary individual that had the some fighting ability. She was an elite. No, not just any elite. The elites of elites. Amongst the pinnacle of human achievement. Her strength had reached the realm beyond most humans would ever hope to accomplish. While she might not have the reputation of the mythical heroes, she had the strength to match them if they were still alive. She was an ex-member of the Black Scripture, the strongest that a human could possibly achieve without being a God-kin: blessed individuals that had the blood of divinity running through their veins. The nerve that the man showed before her was unforgivable!

The crafty Clementine reined in her anger and shoved her emotions to a corner to deal with after the fight. She calmly looked at Shirou and formed a faint smile. She was going to make the bastard pay for disrespecting her. What better way to make the bastard ask for forgiveness as he begged his life? That mental image made Clementine brought the faint smile to morph in full-blown one.

Clementine stopped and slowly changed her posture, similar to the starting position of a sprinter, but she was still standing so it was awkward. It looked funny but wasn't a position to take lightly. She frowned as the man just simply stood there, watching in curiosity.

Well it's his death, Clementine thought to herself. She shot out like a fully loaded spring that had been released. She charged straight on. Clementine appeared before Shirou in a blink of an eye.

At that moment, Clementine saw the man smirking. The sheer momentum of the sprint more than compensated for her lack of body mass and that her weapon. With a flash, a screeching sound erupted in the cemetery.

The absurd reaction of her blade shocked Clementine.

The slender stiletto hit with a force, which was equal to that a battering ram capable of annihilating a heavily fortified gate, was blocked by an invisible force. She found to believe that there was such a powerful barrier made without a magic incantation, and the barrier showed no signs of breaking. The only barriers she had seen that were powerful like the one before her were made through the concerted effort of a team of mages working in tandem to cast a barrier to resist a siege. It was hard for her to believe that a single mage could cast such a powerful barrier without the use of any incantation and so quickly.

Clementine quickly backed away. No counter-attacks came from Shirou. Only a smug smirk that was worn by Shirou was the only result from Clementine first strike.

"That barrier must have the strength as solid wall of adamantium." Clementine muttered.

The ex-member of the Black Scripture reevaluated her opinion of her opponent. He was someone that stood at the same level as her, who had been amongst the most powerful members of the Black Scripture and just below the standards of God-kin. The man possessed all the tell-tale signs of being an adamantium class mage. The ability to call forth magic so quickly and easily to block an attack from even another adamantium class fighter when even a team of mithril class mages would be hard pressed to replicate the same feat.

"I heard that and feel complimented that you feel that way." Shirou said with a smug smile.

Clementine flinched when she realized how sharp her opponent's senses were. The man had the same level of sharp senses like she did, and that was a crowning achievement alone. She had such sharp senses because her years as an assassin had sometimes relied solely on her senses alone to avoid detection in her spying and assassinations. Three possible explanations came to Clementine. The first, her enemy had naturally sharp senses. The second, her enemy had trained long and hard his senses to be able to track and avoid danger. The third and most likely explanation was that her opponent used magic to enhance his senses.

Shirou didn't just idle stand there as her opponent analyzed her. She too accessed her opponent.

The enemy before her seemed like a mixture between the Lancer, Saber and Assassin class Servants with her agility, swordplay and stealth. While not comparable to the greatest of Servants such as Cú Chulainn, Arturia Pendragon and Hassan-i-Sabbah, Clementine would rank amongst the likes of the significantly weaker and relatively unknown Servants. That was an achievement alone noteworthy of because she was being compared legendary heroes that made up the greatest humans to ever existence. Clementine was otherwise a great example of the New World that Shirou could test himself against and gauge his ability against the New World's strongest.

Shirou glanced at the barrier that he had constructed. While the barrier seemed undamaged for it was invisible to the naked eye, Shirou could sense spider web cracks that had formed inside the barrier. The strength behind the blow was astonishing. That strike was superhuman strength all focused into the bladed tip of Clementine's weapon. If he had been hit in the body with that attack then the blade would have punched through and wrecked havoc to his body.

"Well, I am coming~. So prepare yourself." Clementine commented, snapping Shirou out of his musing.

Clementine adopted the same forward leaning position just like before. She charged over. She was so fast even Shirou's incredible dynamic vision had a hard time keeping up – that was without enhancing her vision with magic. If Clementine wasn't coming in a straight line at him, she might have escaped out of Shirou's sight.

Shirou renewed the barrier when he knew that his opponent was going to repeat the same attack from last time. He was surprised when the barrier's shattering came out like a large bell being rung right beside him and Clementine's blade stabbing towards him.

"Tch! Not only are you powerful but you have the equipment to back your status as someone that can fight on equal grounds as me." Clementine clicked her tongue in annoyance as she jumped back.

Clementine had broken through the barrier and stopped short of inflicting any wounds. The stiletto's top half had been shattered into metal fragments. It was like the stiletto had smashed into a wall. The many stilettos she carried and used were made out of the legendary mithril. They were many times stronger than even the strongest steel forged weapons and without the weight. There were few legendary materials that were stronger than even mithril.

"Are you finished admiring my clothes?" Shirou said with a smirk.

Shirou couldn't help but chuckle when Clementine flinched, despite the fact that they were in a fight to the death. The clothes he were not just similar, if not nearly the same as EMIYA wore. It was only appear-wise that was the same. It combined the magical properties of EMIYA's clothes and YGGDRASIL items. YGGDRASIL stat bonuses enhanced his already formidable physical capabilities and defensive properties that surpassed his original battle armor. It would take only a very powerful weapon or attack to bypass the protective properties or damage his armor.

"Don't get cocky because your armor is strong," said Clementine in a not-so-amused tone. "When you die than you're going to regret for being so cocky."

He didn't reply. Instead, Shirou wondered how to continue the fight. It was still a very jarring experience for him to see himself use magecraft that he shouldn't be capable of. His extensive training at the Clock Tower and personal teaching as Rin's apprentice had greatly expanded his limited repatriate of magecraft that had been limited to the bare basics: Reinforcement, Alteration and Projection. He had been able to do a bit of everything with some limited success, but his handicap because of Origin and Element of Sword had greatly handicapped him what he was capable of with other magecraft.

"I bet Rin would love to be here right now. To see what I am now capable of and tearing her hair out at the mystery of being able to give her a run at her money as Average One," Shirou muttered in a very amused tone as he imagined how Rin would act. "Blitz-Drache."

Sparking electricity shot out Shirou's hand at moved with the speed of lightning as began to take shape of a dragon and the roaring of thunder matched that of a dragon.

Clementine squatted down, tightening her grip on the Stiletto. Breathing out deeply, Clementine prepared sprinted forward once more.

"Pace of the Wind, Greater Evasion, Ability Boost, Greater Ability Boost," Clementine chanted.

In the accelerated world Clementine found herself in after using four separate martial arts to boost her strength and speed significantly, while enhancing her already keen senses and reaction time; she could grasp everything moving around her in perfect clarity. It didn't matter how fast the lightning moved and in what manner. Clementine predicted hundreds of possible paths that lightning could take move. She was confident that the lightning was no threat to her and to show it, she charged forward and narrowly avoided the lightning to the point that she could feel the intense heat given off by the lightning pass over her.

With no hesitation, Clementine ran towards Shirou.

"Die~!"

Using all the muscles in her body, Clementine shoved the stiletto forward at the Shirou's chest. The force behind the stiletto with her enhanced strength and speed was enough to surely pierce through the durable material of his clothes. To add to the stiletto's penetration power, she twisted her blade.

"Trace On."

Clementine yelped in surprise when her opponent moved even faster than herself. She barely had enough time but narrowly avoid being cut by several rapiers held in a claw-like fashion by jumping backwards. The counterattack had been so unexpected that Clementine bit back a scream as her dominant hand, the one that held the mithril stiletto, was dislocated in several places: the wrist, elbow and shoulder. The dislocations happened when she jumped back to avoid the unexpected and dangerous counterattack that caused the rest of her body to move backwards while her dominant arm shot forward to stab at Shirou, driving it forward; the two opposing forces acting on Clementine's body causing the dislocation.

That narrow dodge from the unexpected counterattack didn't save Clementine from danger. Shirou dashed forward to the retreating Clementine and delivered kick that sent her skidding back on the ground.

"Gaaaaarrrrrrgggghhh!" Clementine screamed in agony. "How?"

"About what?" Shirou inquired.

"How did you get those weapons?!" Clementine roared. For her enemy to have even one of those weapons in her hands meant…

"I think you know the answer." Shirou said, seemingly reading the downed assassin as she glared.

Clementine began to smirk in a predatory fashion. She stood up and clenched her stiletto with glee. "It took the Black Scripture long enough to send someone after me."

Shirou tired from the fight. He was pressed for time. Every second was precious. Normally, he would have drawn out a fight such as the one before him as it allowed him to take pleasure in using the skills that he had honed over the centuries but an undead army, which was out to slaughter any living individual within E-Rantel, was growing by the moment. He had to end the fight as soon as possible to deal with the mage that was summoning and controlling the undead army.

"Trace On." Shirou muttered.

Lights began to burst around Shirou as motes of lights gathered to form shapes. Those motes were not just light but magical energy that were taking shape into pre-loaded blueprints from Shirou' mind and being created. The light quickly dispersed to shape dozens up dozens of objects. Each one different in shape, purpose and size. All them were weapons. The weapons remained immobile in the air, defying gravity like they were held in place by some sort of invisible force. They gleamed by reflecting the light that fell upon them.

"What in the hel–" Clementine shouted in alarm but her voice transformed into that of the agonizing screaming.

The weapons were so fast that they were a disappeared from sight, only to reappear later. Roars of thunder were left behind in the wake of the weapons as they broke the sound barrier. Weapons of all sorts shot down at Clementine.

Clementine pushed her already incredible superhuman abilities to the limit to dodge every single weapon that moved faster than even a bullet. For very weapon she dodged, she found another weapon waiting to impale her. No matter what direction she took.

When she stopped to deflect the raining blades, which had proved that dodging wasn't working, Clementine found that it didn't mutter if she remained in one spot and deflected every weapon that came towards her. That didn't matter as weapons came from every direction. No matter how valiantly Clementine fought until the end, she was just delaying the inevitable.

How depressing. The fight didn't even last long. Clementine thought as one after one pierced her body from all directions and turned her into a human hedgehog with weapons poking out of her body.

"Do you wish to live?"

Of course, I want to live. Who doesn't?! Clementine screamed in her mind, but couldn't utter a single breath with countless weapons stabbing into her body, and then she felt the void take her.

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