PSA: Thanks for all the feedback on the last chapter!

Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 30

It was early in the morning when Ainz and Sebas, dressed in their adventurer garb strode into the packed interior of the E-Rantel adventurer's guild. All the adventurers were up early as usual in order to get the best requests as soon as the guild opened for the day. Usually they would fiercely contest their spot around the request board to get first dibs on lucrative requests, however as soon as they saw Ainz and Sebas coming, they all hastily made way for the two adamantite rank individuals.

Ainz took a moment to look the board over before he spotted what he was looking for. He tore down the scrap of paper and took it over to the counter, where a certain dark-haired woman greeted them.

"So good to see you again Sebas, and of course, my rival" smiled the receptionist lady.

'Oh, it's this lady again.' thought Ainz. 'The one who I met when I first came to register, who spoke really fast. Argh… did she say what her name was that time?'

In the end, Ainz decided to just reply with "Umu".

The woman, Ishpen, clicked her tongue. "-15 points. Now, may I see that request?"

She already knew which request it was so this was just a formality, as she had put it up herself after there had been a great deal of debate among her colleagues about whether to even accept it or not. It came from an organisation calling itself the East-West Trading Company, or EWTC for short, which had only recently appeared, seemingly out of nowhere sometime in the last few months. In addition, even though this was just the first request they had put out, it was for adamantite ranks only, with a huge reward of five platinum coins. Based on trader reports the organisation seemed fairly legit at least, with no signs of any criminal activity. Still, many details of their exact operations remained unknown, so the guild had decided to mark the request as being potentially unreliable.

"Momon-san, you are aware of the potentially dubious nature of this request are you not?"

"Yes, I am aware of the potential risks. However, I am sure my companion and I will be able to handle it. Besides, I could always use the extra funds."

Ishpen looked him over, seemingly taking in his ornate set of full-plate armour.

"Ah, I see, so that's how it is. +10 points."

'That's how it is?' thought Ainz in confusion. 'Well, I seemed to have gained points at least, which is probably good.'

A few hours later, Ainz and Sebas had made their way to the location at the time mentioned on the request. Looking around, there was a small hill-line blocking sight of the walls of E-Rantel, and the trees of the Great Forest of Tob could be seen just a kilometre or so to the north. It would've made a potentially decent ambush location, however Demiurge had assured him that the request was legit, and part of his plan.

Sure enough, after around 5 minutes of waiting three motorised military vehicles emerged from the tree line. After speeding across the plains, they came to a stop around 50 metres away, before a group of soldiers equipped with firearms disembarked from one of them, making their way towards Ainz and Sebas.

Once within speaking distance one of them announced "We come from the East-West Trading Company, please identify yourselves."

"We are the adventuring team known as Darkness" replied Ainz, "My name is Momon, and this is my partner Sebas."

At this the soldiers' attitude suddenly changed, and they bowed, saying. "Understood, we are pleased to make your acquaintance Momon-dono and Sebas-dono. Please follow our lead, we will take you to your destination."

After Ainz and Sebas climbed into the back of one of the trucks, they drove off once again. Along the way Ainz could see the other soldiers in the back with him stealing glances when they thought he wasn't looking. Now being an adamantite-rank adventurer, Ainz had become used to getting such glances around town though, so it didn't bother him too much.

After around 10 minutes of driving the convoy came to a stop in an open grassy plain. After a few minutes, a rapid rhythmical thumping sound could be heard getting louder from overhead. Ainz spotted a large twin-bladed helicopter approaching. Once almost overhead, it began descending, causing the grassy fields to ripple as they were lashed by gusts of air.

At the other soldiers' instruction, Ainz and Sebas entered the helicopter, an access-ramp opening in its back to allow them in. For Ainz in his full-plate armour, it was a little cramped, but not too claustrophobic. As they lifted off, he mused that he had never had the opportunity to fly before in his old world. There was Yggdrasil of course, and now with his magical powers he could fly wherever he wanted, however this was the first time he had done so in a conventional vehicle, and he had to say it really was quite noisy. Still, it was nice being able to sit back and not have to constantly pay attention to where he was going.

Peering out the circular windows he could see the ground rushing past below them, but also another helicopter, a few hundred metres away off to their back-right. It was a single-bladed variant and much smaller than the one he was currently travelling in, although bristling with weapons.

Around 30 minutes later Ainz could see they were now very close to the mountains, and the helicopter began to make its descent, landing on a helipad perched on a small flat area of the mountainside.

When Ainz and Sebas exited the helicopter there were more soldiers along with a few dwarves waiting for them, as well as another one of the trucks they had travelled in earlier.

The soldiers and dwarves approached him and Sebas, while others off to the side stopped what they were doing to gawk at the warrior in purple and gold adorned full-plate armour and the silver-haired monk.

"Greetings, Momon-dono and Sebas-dono" one of the soldiers, who looked like an officer said, bowing deeply. "Welcome to Feo Jera, home of the dwarves. Please follow us, the commanders are waiting inside to give you your briefing on the situation."

Ainz and Sebas were then escorted through the gates of the dwarven fortress built on the outside of Feo Jera, flanked by armed soldiers on either side and to the front and rear. Workers and personnel made sure to get out of the way as the group passed through the tunnels and into the large cavern which housed the dwarven city.

Ainz had told Sebas to do this too, but along the way, although he really wanted to, he tried not to ogle his surroundings too much, as he feared it might make him look more like an out of place tourist than a distinguished adamantite-rank adventurer. Also, while they were walking the officer said he would give a brief explanation about how the weapons they used worked, to avoid any future confusion. Ainz had been quite intrigued at this, as although he know the basics, he didn't really have any idea about the detailed workings of firearms. Unfortunately though, it ended up being only a very surface level explanation of stuff he already knew. 'Ah, well. Demiurge said he had captured a bunch of their weapons so maybe I'll have some time to have a closer look at them later.'

Not before long they were brought to a large building, and taken into a somewhat cramped, but elaborately furnished waiting room. One of the soldiers went up to a door which presumably led into the main chamber and announced, "The adventuring team Darkness has arrived."

It was hard to hear from where Ainz was standing, but someone must have replied from the other side, as the doors swung open, revealing what looked like a meeting room. The human soldiers who had been escorting him so far indicated for them to enter, before taking up posts outside the entrance.

Entering the room, there was a long table, with 8 dwarves and 5 humans. They seemed frozen in place for a moment as they saw him, seemingly taking in his appearance. One of the humans then abruptly said, "Welcome, Momon-dono and Sebas-dono. Please take a seat", indicating to two spots at the far end of the table.

This caused the others to also snap out of their trance and spring into action, moving to introduce themselves to Ainz and Sebas as they went to sit down.

"Momon-dono and Sebas-dono, please allow us to thank you for accepting our request. We hope that with your help we will be able to reverse this unfortunate situation that we have found ourselves in." This was spoken by the dwarf who had introduced himself as the Director of Food Production. Ainz had researched it earlier, but there were apparently 8 members of the Regency Council, and they each took turns at being leader.

"Pay it no heed. Saving someone in trouble is common sense" replied Ainz in a regal tone.

"We certainly appreciate your generosity" said one of the humans, the others nodding in approval. "Now, please allow me to brief you on the general situation…"

As Habiki Ito, the current Director of Operations within the Special Region watched one of the commanders from USJSPECCOM provide Momon and Sebas with their briefing, he admired how they didn't seem the least bit fazed by all the modern equipment around despite having only medieval-era technology. In fact he had heard that on the way here they had spared but a glance at their surroundings, not making any sort of comments. He now understood why his master, being so powerful, still ordered him to respect these individuals, and even recommended that he request their services in order to help drive back the demons and Quagoa.

"…So, for your first assignment, you are to work with Taskforce 6 to help secure the outside entrance to Feo Raizo, thus securing the overland route to Feo Jera" concluded the commander. "Please help where you can, but make sure not to get in the way."

'It seems they aren't confident in my abilities just yet' thought Ainz. 'Hopefully through this first assignment I'll be able to prove myself and gain greater trust from them.'

The meeting was about to conclude when there was a sudden knocking at the door. "Please, I have urgent news!"

The dwarves and human leaders looked at each other for a moment before the Director of Food Production called out, "Come in then!"

A panicked looking human soldier entered the meeting room before exclaiming "The demons! There's a massive one with a huge army of Quagoa, and they're about to break down the door to the city!"

As the human and dwarf leaders anxiously began discussing what to do, Ainz noted that the shadow demon stationed in this room had departed a short time ago, indicating this was a set up by Demiurge as a way for him and Sebas to show off their skills.

He cleared his non-existent throat, catching the attention of the distressed leaders.

"Please, allow us to handle this" he said.

"What, are you sure you can handle it on your own?" asked one of the dwarves.

"I'm sure of it."

Faced with this absolute confidence, all the dwarves and humans could say was, "Well, alright then. We'll do our best to back you up."

Passing by groups of humans and dwarves running about in a panic trying to set up their defence, Ainz and Sebas casually strode up to the huge double-doors. These gigantic slabs of metal were all that stood between the dwarven city and hordes of bloodthirsty demons and Quagoa.

All of a sudden there was a loud bang. That huge door had deformed slightly as if it had been hit from the other side by a large blunt object. A moment later there came another blow, the sound from the force of the impact resonating throughout the cavern. The blows continued, deforming the door further until, with a resounding bang, they finally gave way and swung open.

Flanked by an entourage of hundreds of Quagoa who seemed to shrink back in fear at its very presence was a huge muscular demon covered in purple-coloured reptilian scales. It stood roughly three metres tall, had a tail that resembled a snake, its head was a goat skull, and its eyes were beacons of bluish-white fire in empty black sockets. In its mighty arms it held a gigantic maul, which it had presumably just been using to break down the door, and a pair of bat-like wings sprouted from its back.

Ainz was actually a little disappointed to see such a weak enemy. This being was a scale demon, considered to be a low-level demon by Yggdrasil standards. He wasn't sure defeating it would be enough to impress the dwarves and humans. Although, he had to keep in mind that from what he had seen so far things appeared to be much weaker in this new world, so this might be considered a strong enemy for them.

The scale demon took flight, its wings sending gusts of air causing the few soldiers that had gathered some distance behind Ainz and Sebas to take a few steps back in fear.

"Hmm, it's going to be hard to hit it with my swords if it keeps flying like that. Oh well, here goes nothing."

Ainz raised one of his swords, taking aim before yeeting it towards the airborne demon.

The sword spun through the air, cutting a huge gash in one of its wings, and forcing the demon to land with a resounding thud.

As Ainz approached it, it gave an ear-splitting roar, before raising its maul to strike. As the giant hammer descended down towards him, Ainz deflected it with his remaining sword before cleaving off one of the demon's arms. As it roared in pain, in a single swift strike, Ainz moved to decapitate it. As the demon's headless corpse hit the ground, it vanished in a cloud of particles.

The soldiers that had been watching the battle, or rather execution unfold began cheering. During the fight a few of them had actually fired off a few rifle rounds at the demon to no effect, so it was no doubt a formidable foe that they might've been unable to beat without him.

However, there was no time for celebration. Despite seeing their strongest ally felled so easily, the horde of Quagoa backing up the scale demon didn't hesitate to charge in. As the tide of Quagoa rushed towards Ainz and Sebas, various USJF soldiers and dwarves began opening up with their rifles and crossbows.

[Create Greater Item]. Ainz's swords vanished, and in their place appeared a pair of maces. Cutting the Quagoa apart with swords would be too messy, which was why Ainz opted for this option instead. However, as he moved to strike the first Quagoa, he quickly realised he had made a major miscalculation.

Rather than incapacitating the Quagoa through internal shock, leaving the outer layers intact, his strike caused the Quagoa's midsection to burst apart through sheer blunt force trauma, sending the top half flying through the through the air in a shower of gore.

For his next few blows he tried to hold back a little, which achieved the effect he wanted of clean kills. However, he soon had to abandon this idea as there were simply too many Quagoa. The USJF and dwarves were still moving to set up their defences, and while Sebas was like a whirlwind of destruction amongst the Quagoa's ranks, he wasn't able to exert his full power lest he blew their cover.

So, Ainz decided not to hold back in utilising the strength of his warrior form. With every swipe of his gauntleted arms, not just one, but two or three Quagoa would meet their fate, pulverised like puppets who had been hit by a sledgehammer. As he smashed his way through their ranks, Ainz considered switching back to his swords, as the sheer amount of gore he was creating would probably be less. However, that would cost valuable time, and the extra carnage might help put on more of a show to demonstrate his capabilities to the USJF and dwarves.

As Ainz continued to obliterate the waves of Quagoa, settling into a rhythmical flow, he had to remark at the Quagoa's willingness to charge headfirst into certain death. Demiurge had mentioned earlier that one of the objectives of his plan was the culling of their numbers in order to favour the expansion of the dwarves, who he shared the view with Ainz that they would be more useful future allies. Perhaps then it was some kind of magic that Demiurge was using to cause them to charge into danger so recklessly.

By the time the river of Quagoa slowed to a stream, then a trickle, and finally dried up completely, the area around the gate to Feo Jera had the appearance and smell of a gore-stained abattoir. Ainz himself was covered head to toe in blood, causing his armour to look more red than black. He decided to approach a nearby squad of soldiers to ask how he could contact one of the higher-ups on what to do next.

Striding past the puddles of blood and Quagoa fragments, he and Sebas walked up to their group. As Ainz studied them to figure out who he should ask, he saw that most of them seemed to be recoiling away from him. Ainz figured it was just because they just been through a traumatic experience, and with the amount of blood covering him he probably smelled pretty bad right now.

Picking out one of them who seemed less affected, he asked "Excuse me, but may I have your name?"

"Oh, uh. The name's… Bitami" said the soldier.

"Bitami, hmm…" Ainz was sure he had seen someone who looked just like him with a similar name before. He suddenly noticed that the soldier suddenly seemed to have adopted a rather anxious expression.

"What's the matter Bitami-san, you look rather pale? Well, anyways. Could you please direct me to your superior officer, I need to figure out what our next move will be."

A pair of Japanese AH-64D Apache attack helicopters flew through the air, three kilometres above the treetops of the Great Forest of Tob.

"Knife One-One to HQ, we are 10 miles from the target area now, we have visual."

"HQ to Knife One-One, tell me what you see. What's the status of the Feo Raizo entrance?"

The pilot looked through his helmet-mounted display, using the helicopter's targeting pods to zoom in on the mountainside.

"It's a bit hard to tell from here, but it looks like the entrance has been cleared. I can see a lot of rock debris around the entrance but nothing else."

"Can you see any destroyed vehicles?"

"None."

"Roger, please descend to get a better look."

As instructed, the lead Apache began to descend towards the forested mountainside, with the other maintaining their altitude to provide cover.

As the lead Apache was approaching 1km in altitude, it suddenly got an urgent message.

"Knife One-Two to Knife One-One, abort! I'm picking up an abnormal number of thermal signatures in the forest!"

The lead Apache quickly increased engine power, turning to flee and gain altitude.

Due to how high up they were it was a bit hard to tell, but through their thermographic camera the second Apache could see the fuzzy black and white images of what looked like small, winged demons emerging from the trees and taking flight. They quickly moved to provide covering fire with their 30mm chain gun, though from their altitude against such small and fast-moving targets it was relatively ineffective.

"Knife One-Two to HQ, we are being pursued by multiple hostiles and are aborting mission to head back to base."

"Knife One-Two to knife One-One, don't bother gaining altitude, just try to outrun them."

The top speed of the Apache was 293km/h, which proved enough to outrun the tiny demons in the end, who gave up chasing them.

Although the two helicopters managed to escape, the attack had confirmed the USJF's fears. The demons had cleared the entrance to Feo Raizo and taken control of that area of the Great Forest of Tob. This meant convoys heading to Feo Jera that passed through that area risked being attacked, greatly reducing their ability to resupply the besieged dwarven city.