"[Grasp Heart]."
Clash I: Part 2
"-!"
—The spell did not work. The 9th-tier spell, [Grasp Heart] was resisted either due to the great power level of Reinhard or due to a simple immunity and resistance to magical power. Perhaps it was both. However, Reinhard placed a finger to his forehead, and shook his head.
Which meant that the effect of being stunned—momentarily—still got through. Ainz's eyes widened. The spell wasn't negated, only its prioritized effect of instant death was.
"How incredible," Reinhard said. "Though I resisted the sudden grab on my heart, I still cannot figure out what actually happened despite my divine protection of intuition. Neither a long-range attack, nor a close one. Hmm…what is it?"
He thanked Albedo and Demiurge in his heart. Though his name was now known throughout the world, his abilities were kept a secret. They had done a wonderful job in controlling information, and it allowed him this chance.
Yet Ainz hesitated in using his spells. He was going to cast [Triplet maximize magic: Reality slash] but he stopped in consideration of its MP use.
Instead, he casted [Black hole].
A dot appeared on Reinhard's chest and the void sucked him in….or, well, that's what was supposed to happen. The appearance of the dot should have been accurately placed. Yet something else(a divine protection) displaced it away from his body.
The area of effect was still near Reinhard's body. At this rate, he would be sucked into and would perish.
"Hup!" To evade the range of this unknown spell, Reinhard listened to his intuition and leapt to the sky. His leap wasn't the normal jump of a human. It took him straight to the clouds above, leaving Ainz quite stupefied at this 'comic-hero' move.
Ainz kept a careful eye on Reinhard's hand. If it moved to the sheath of his dangerous sword, then he would immediately teleport and retreat. Thankfully, Reinhard chose the hilt of one of the two ordinary swords.
The effects of [Black hole] ran its course, sucking in the table, and a bright light took over the sky like the birth of a new sun. A swirl of pure mana surrounded the ordinary sword held by the sword saint. It accumulated along the posture of his overhead stance.
The light shadowed over him and his two death knights.
"This is the swordplay of the Astrea family."
"Quite considerate of you to announce it."
And foolish.
Ainz smiled mentally at the powerful swirl of magic aimed for him. He smiled not because he underestimated the 'swordplay of the Astrea family.' He smiled because of the fact that even this strongest human needed prep time.
If the sword saint could instantly unsheathe his sword, instantly accumulate power, and instantly strike Ainz with no delays—not even a millisecond—then there was the chance that Ainz would be pulverized without getting the chance to counterattack. But the amount of time Reinhard took for this one strike made him laugh inside his skull.
In Yggdrasil, players casting spells that take a long time, like [Super Tier magic], are the ones who are targeted first, after all.
To a normal warrior, this strike of the sword saint was way too fast. But to Ainz, who had clashed with the broken playstyle of Touch me-san, this was plenty of time to literally do whatever he pleased.
For now, he casted [Triple maximize magic: Obsidian sword].
The three large swords shot straight for Reinhard's exposed torso. However, the result made him click his non-existent tongue. The first sword stayed on an accurate path until it was a few centimeters away from Reinhard. Only then did it perplexingly change its path–as if pushed away by an invisible force—and missed the target like a foolish clown.
The same happened to the second and the third.
Tch. Do long-range attacks always miss him? What the hell? Che. What a pain. Let's see which spells out of my 712 long armory are useless now. 610, no 650, give or take a little.
The swordplay of the Astrea house descended upon him. In his judgment, this strike was a better version of [Holy smite]. But that was all. The area of effect was a little bigger, and the concentration of power seemed denser, but this was just a better version of a spell that he could easily handle. For now, however, he chose not to experiment with how much damage it would do to him.
For all he knew, this could have a secret effect of instantly killing undead beings or some other broken bullshit.
"Death knights."
The simple order was given. The accuracy of Reinhard's strike was quite absurd given the distance between them. Yet the accurate trajectory of that falling pillar of light suddenly shifted, overtaken by another skill, and went straight towards the defending Death knights.
Ainz used [Fly] to fly upwards at Reinhard while the pillar of light descended upon the two knights. Seeing that, Reinhard immediately went for his second ordinary sword.
However–
"[Greater break item]."
The spell worked. The sword shattered into numerous pieces in front of Reinhard's shocked eyes. The sword saint stepped off the air. No, he used the air itself as his platform, and launched himself towards Ainz at the speed of a high-tier missile spell.
Ainz took a look below him. The skill which allowed the death knights to tank any attack, no matter what, and survive with one HP, seemed to have worked marvelously. Because the HP threshold was met, the skill worked.
The fact that the strike took out the health of two death knights easily put the strike over level fifty. If it was just on that degree of power, then Ainz could cancel out the possibility of being lethally hurt by it.
The moment the red-haired sword saint came close with a sharp hand aimed for him, he used [Gate] and constructed it right in front of him. Reinhard stopped, killing his immense velocity, and stepped back.
—It was exactly as Ainz wanted it. It seemed that the sword saint had read Ainz's intentions, but due to the unknown nature of this otherworldly magic, there was only so little one could do, especially when that magic had no killing intent behind it at all.
Similar [Gates] trapped him from all directions. But if the sword saint did not move, then he would not be caught in the [Gate]. That is why, Ainz made him forcefully move.
"[Thousand bone lance]."
An innumerable number of bone spears were thrown at him. This was also a test. A test to see the limits of divine protections. As he had expected, the spears continued to miss him despite their number.
However, he noticed Reinhard's eye movement. He was looking at each of those spears with a speed that terrified the onlooker. As if by sight alone, the spears missed him. It was the divine protection that allowed any attack to miss as long as he looked at them, or, at least, that's what Ainz concluded.
Thus, he casted [Negative burst].
Reinhard brought his hand back, fist open, and swatted at the air. The simple movement brought about a powerful burst of air. Yet that choice wasn't exactly the right one.
The powerful explosion of air surprised Ainz, pushing him backwards with no damage done. Yet the magic, [Negative burst], wasn't negated from a move such as that. Its properties were different from the magic of this world. It hit Reinhard's body.
A shiver ran through his body. It did not kill him, and with the exception of the sudden paleness of his skin, it did not harm him much. As Ainz had thought, the level and resistances were too high to be properly damaged by [Negative burst].
But with that, Ainz had created an opening and had gotten a great piece of information.
"First, get into the gate. [Explosion]."
A massive fiery burst happened right in front of him. It wasn't specifically targeted towards Reinhard, and it wasn't treated as a sudden long range attack. Even when considered as a surprise attack, the area of effect could not be evaded.
Yet despite its power, it barely even charred his skin. Reinhard's fair skin was left flushed with heat and sweat. His unprotected clothes were quite easily burned off, leaving him naked with nothing but his special sword. Even his hair was protected.
Almost complete resistance to fire?
The effect that Ainz truly looked for happened. The knock back from the explosion did work, and Reinhard was sent into the portal created by [Gate].
The teleportation worked perfectly, and sent him down to where Ainz had been, near his chair. This was an experiment regarding whether teleportation works on him or not.
There, the [Triplet maximizes magic: exploding mines] activated and submerged Reinhard under a cloud of smoke, fire, and dust. The two death knights, with their HP at one point, charged into that smoke.
Not even the clash of steel happened within that smoke cloud. Ainz saw it perfectly. The flamberge had missed Reinhard's head. Instead, the weapon had been snatched away, and an absurdly fast slash had cut both knights in two. The knights disappeared into nothing, and, thankfully, the flamberge in Reinhard's hand also dissipated into nothing.
With this, I have learned something.
The sword saint clearly possessed a lot of divine protections along with his natural physical prowess. But there was a limit. The limit was regarding spells and abilities outside of this world. [Grasp heart] was resisted, but that wasn't because his divine protections had understood the nature of the spell and had countered it. The same went with [Negative burst].
And the fact that Reinhard had jumped out of the range of [Black hole] proved that he did not have full resistance to the effects of this foreign magic.
The reason why all of the other spells had been evaded so easily must be because of a general divine protection that allowed him to evade any long-range attacks. And the reason for why spells such as [Explosion] had so little effect must be because of a divine protection of resistance and immunity.
Despite that, teleportation magic still worked. That fact alone opened up a multitude of options for Ainz and for Nazarick.
—The sword saint went straight at him. Ainz quickly observed that he had suddenly absorbed some of the mana from the air. It increased his physical capabilities to a ridiculous degree. It was so ridiculous that Reinhard had closed the distance with relative ease.
Panic filled his heart, but thanks to his emotion-inhibition, even that dissipated quickly.
The speed only left time for a [Greater teleportation], but probably not enough time for [Gate] or [Fly] to be used. It sure did not allow time for any other tricky spells.
Is he learning how to counter?
Still, at the very least, the sword saint did not have the luxury of unsheathing his special sword. Instead he struck a well-powered fist. Ainz was a bit surprised that Reinhard did not strike the World Item—his red orb.
He wanted to see the effects of what would happen to Reinhard's arm if he struck his special world item. However, the fist struck Ainz's torso.
His robe, a Relic class item, was shattered at once. Yet no damage was done to him.
It seemed his damage resistances, high-tier physical immunity, and immunities to critical strikes and lethal attacks were the perfect defense against Reinhard's fist. However, the knock back effect still worked. Ainz was flung towards the ground.
The sword saint was surprised once more. His blow hadn't been a weak one at all. He looked at his fist, and the fact that even that much power, one meant to even knock out people like Cecilus Segmunt in one blow, did not even leave a scratch. In particular, all of the mana infusement in his fist had been negated. Either Ainz's physical defense was high, or it was his defense against magical powers in general. It was probably the latter.
I suppose that is the difference between mankind and the Ruler of Death, he thought.
So, in response, he absorbed a tremendous amount of mana through the atmosphere, infusing his limbs with it.
I should probably give him some clothes, Ainz thought. No, it's better to keep him as uncomfortable as possible.
Ainz observed him, clicking his tongue at the fact that long range attacks would not really work with a few exceptions. But at the least the sword saint himself had few ways to cause lethal damage. Yet there was a growing doubt within him. He wondered why that special sword had not been used yet. Was it that powerful? Could it end the match in one go? If so, then was Reinhard Van Astrea truly this soft, this naive to not even use his trump card until the very end.
He had already tried [Greater Break item] just now, but it did not work. He thought about retreating for now.
There were a few other tests that needed to be done, however. Thus, he stayed in this stalemated battle. Taking a stock of his mana reserves, he noted that there were only a certain amount of moves he could make before it became truly risky to continue.
Right now this battle was a practice match, a test, not something he had to bet his life or his name upon.
Reinhard Van Astrea raised his arm up. His arm was glowing with a concentration of white-blue light. The tips of his fingers were the edges of a sword.
Tch. Something ridiculous is coming.
Reinhard brought his arm down.
It gave birth to a thin slash. A very very thin slash. The vertically pure slash of white traveled towards Ainz, cutting through the air itself. It was a slash meant to cut through anything physical or magical. A single slash that stood at the peak of a swordsman's skill without using a sword or an appropriately suitable object. It was a slash imbued with mana, skill, and his divine protection's passive abilities.
Ainz did not know the true power of this new technique. He had no way to appraise a strange and foreign attack such as this. It left him with two options. It gave him two new experiments.
Take the attack and see whether it goes through his defenses.
Counter it with a spell he hadn't used yet.
Ainz chose the latter.
"[Reality slash]."
The 10th tier spell, [Reality Slash] was used. It sent a singular slash, horizontally angled, to cut through space itself. It was a slash that was only overpowered by something like [World break]. Other than that, it was a slash that stood at the very peak.
The horizontal crescent moon, [Reality Slash], and the vertical crescent slash of the strongest sword saint clashed in the middle. Their collision produced a creaking sound to the world. The space around the two attacks creaked, cracked, and trembled.
However, the winner was the slash that could cut through the fabric of space itself—[Reality slash].
Ainz's attack overcame Reinhard's and continued forth, but it never struck the target. It wasn't simply due to that troublesome divine protection. It was because Reinhard had rushed and slipped right under Ainz's towering figure.
"Tch," Ainz audibly made that sound.
The sword saint was below him, low like a spider, and he immediately lashed out with both hands. Both of his arms were glowing, bubbling with a level of power that harmed his own flesh and skin.
His open fists were aimed at Ainz like the thrust of a sharp sword. Those strikes came at him, and Ainz was dumbfounded. He wasn't dumbfounded because Reinhard had chosen to attack with strikes that hadn't affected Ainz before.
He was dumbfounded because of the sheer speed of these hand strikes. Afterimages were created in front of him. The strikes all blurred together like innumerous bullets, or a barrage of magic spells. Ainz wasn't a warrior class, but he was confident in his observation skills. Yet this barrage of deadly strikes was on another level entirely. This was the level that could only be matched by World champions from Yggdrasil, or by Rubedo.
Touch me-san….
The intensity, skill, and speed of this relentless assault reminded him of his past comrade—a person that Ainz could never beat. Then the barrage descended upon him.
It was a rain, a shower of pure thunder. It aimed for everything except the red orb, perhaps out of caution for the unknown level of recoil Reinhard would certainly receive.
The shower of blows struck at Ainz's defenses, and throttled him with powerful impacts that flowed out of Ainz's skeleton body. His immunities and defenses worked overtime. He was glad of having immunity to critical blows and lethal blows. If not for those, the result of this mighty shower of blows might have rendered Ainz's HP to nothing.
Yet the damage started to go through. Reinhard attacked without any signs of exhaustion. The impacts kept him in place, and the endless rain of blows continued. The earth around him shattered away, a furious whirlwind blew through the place, and the sound of hard blows ruled the world.
The damage overcame even the high-tier physical nullifications, and Ainz observed his HP being slowly chipped away. If Ainz was a normal opponent, then the pain, impact, and shock of these strikes would have kept him still in place until his demise.
But Ainz was an undead. He felt the pain of damage, but his mind was as still as the calm surface of a lake.
"Wonderful, sword saint."
The fact that he spoke within that rain of blows shocked Reinhard. His nervous panic was clear on his human face.
"It was a nice experiment, truly."
Indeed, he was thankful for this. Because now he and all of Nazarick knew that even if every blow of Reinhard was at this abnormal level, there was one individual who could match it. That individual was the strongest entity in the tomb, the strongest NPC, Rubedo.
That future gave him solace. For now, his work here was not over.
"[Body of Effulgent Beryl]."
The buff ran through his body with a glow. Those bludgeoning strikes that were chipping away at Ainz's health were now brittle strikes against Ainz's exoskeleton. The effectiveness was reduced to the point that the rest of his physical and magical defenses made up for any damage that went through.
Reinhard realized the change, the speed of his white-blue blows slowing.
Negating one instance of damage from the final blow of Reinhard, Ainz used [Fly] to back away.
"I see," Reinhard spoke as the distance was created. "The conditions for victory cannot be accomplished like this. You truly are incredible, Ainz-dono. Even after getting to this level, you have a counter to everything I put you through."
Reinhard took a deep breath and lowered his arms. Ainz observed his hands.
"You are more than worthy. However, this is it. I did not want our battle to get to this point, and neither did I wish to beat you in such a manner."
"Beat me, is it?" His eyes glowed. "You may want to doubt that confidence."
"The reason to not doubt it rests here," his blue eyes went towards the hilt of his special sword. "I would ask you to surrender, but I am certain that would be rude of me."
No, no, actually, I would surrender under normal circumstances, but the entire Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick is involved, you see. Not that I can say that while Albedo and the rest are watching this battle. What a pain….
"Then, Ainz Ooal Gown, I will end this battle now," his hand slipped towards the hilt of his special sword.
The moment it was inches away from grabbing it, Ainz made the ultimate gamble that he had been waiting for. If this worked, then he wanted to jump and roll around in joy. If it did not, then escape was the best possible course.
As Reinhard reached for what was clearly his trump card, Ainz did the same.
"[Time Stop]."
