They had decided to split into two teams for the mission- Team A, consisting of Remedios and Neia, would create a distraction near the gates of the enemy camp, and hope to draw away most of the guards that were stationed there. The Zern, under the leadership of Boobeebee, would know to keep most of their guards in the camp, and so it should be easy then for Team B, consisting of Ainz and Dantallion, to sneak into the camp under the cover of magic and free the Zern prince, then teleport to smuggle him to safety.
An easy enough plan. Suzuki probably could've come up with a better one if he had the time to scout out the enemy camp a bit better, but the thing was that he wasn't sure how easily he could use divination magic or get close to the camp- if there was someone else there on his level, or if it had the same protections as a guild base, they would be able to detect him and counterattack.
Waiting wasn't the hard part- the hard part was dealing with Dantallion. Namely, resisting the urge to fling him off the hill they were stationed on.
"So," Dantallion whispered to him despite Ainz telling him to shut up for at least a hundred times (this past hour), "do you see any attractive demihumans down there?"
"I can't see anything except for a few dots, now shut up," Ainz hissed at him. "How did I even get stuck with you in the first place?"
"Well," Dantallion began, not realizing that this was a rhetorical question, "the official story is that Neia is the only one with Ranger skills so she'll be useful in the getaway, and you can't really trust Remedios with a stealth mission, so they're over there and we're over here. Unofficially, you and Remedios drew straws and you drew the short one, so you were stuck with me."
"You saw that?"
"It wasn't like you were trying to be discreet about it. By the way- do you think that she cheated you out and rigged the straws somehow?"
Ainz had thought that that might be a possibility, but had discounted it. "I don't think that that's true- she is a paladin after all, they're supposed to be above that kind of trickery."
"Are you sure?"
"...no..."
"Speaking of Remedios, I can't help but notice the way you look at her. When's the time you intend on popping the question?"
"There's no way that you can know the way I look at her given the fact I wear this mask all the time."
"Yeah, but there's also the fact that I think those robes are meant to hide something from showing..."
"I don't even have a... you know what, nevermind, it's pointless listening to you anyway... now shut up or you're going to give away our position," Ainz said.
"But hey, do you want to know a surefire way that a girl likes you?" Dantallion asked him.
"If it's advice coming from you, I'm already a hundred percent sure that it's completely wrong," Ainz said.
"See, all you need to do is stare at her cleavage for too long," Dantallion said. "Just try to be subtle about it, but cast your gaze there for a bit longer than what's socially acceptable- based on her reaction, you'll know if she's into you or not."
"Just as I thought, it's completely useless..."
"So, if she smiles and exposes a bit more, you know she likes you..."
"And- this is what I'm assuming happens to you all the time- she punches you in the jaw, what do you do?"
"Hey- what's life without a little risk? Also, if we're going to be doing a stealth mission, can you untie my hands? You know that I can't run away from you anyway, right? And I wouldn't want to hinder you if it's hard for me to move."
"I have a better idea- [Paralysis]!"
Dantallion slumped to the ground, motionless, but still alive.
Ainz should've thought of this idea sooner.
Neia and Remedios were watching the front of the camp.
"Alright, Squire Baraja, this is how we're going to do this," Remedios said. "We'll keep score like this, killing a demihuman counts for one point, killing a Hero among them is worth three points, and killing a somewhat trained one counts for two points."
"Captain, this is supposed to be a stealth mission," Neia said.
"And we can't be caught if all of our enemies are dead."
"They'll raise the alarm if we cause too much noise, and hunker down instead of chasing after us," Neia said. She would've honestly in any other circumstance been a bit stressed out to be alone with her captain, but given the alternative, this was slightly better. She glanced around. "At least Dantallion isn't here to weigh us down..."
"...yeah, you could call that luck," Remedios said. "...or you could call it rigging a game of straws."
"Captain!? But... aren't we paladins... aren't we supposed to be... y'know, against that kind of cheating?"
"Pfft, do you want that annoying brat with us right now?" Remedios asked her.
"...no..."
"Then stop complaining," Remedios said. "Alright, is that the convoy?"
The demihumans were shipping food into the camp, and the plan was for Neia and Remedios to hijack one of the convoys, take it away, and in doing so lead the demihumans in the camp on a wild goose chase in the wilderness. They had to be careful with this plan though, if their attack was too fierce, the demihumans would hunker down in the camp instead of following them. As such, it would need to involve restraint on Remedios's part- which was a bit of an issue given the fact that she didn't know the meaning of the word.
"Alright, let's make our move," Remedios said, gripping the hilt of her sword. She seemed calm, though the twitching of her left foot that Neia noticed gave away her sense of apprehension. Neia knocked an arrow.
The grain shipments to the place were taking place via three different carriages, with four guards in the reare and four in front. Two demihumans which looked like mixes between horses and mermen (Neia thought they were called Kelpsies- though as far as she knew they usually spent their time near lakes and rivers, and did not normally venture onto land) were pulling the carts.
The gate began to slowly open to let them in, and it was now that they had to act.
Neia released an arrow at the front of the supply train- Remedios could cut down those in the rear in a flash, and it was more important that they prevent reinforcements from coming in.
Both of them ran out from their hiding place, and as expected, Remedios cut through the rear guards as easily as if they were made of paper. Neia fired another arrow, though this one narrowly missed the head of the demihuman it was aimed at.
Remedios used the distraction to flip over one of the carriages as if it weighed no more than an empty sack flipped it over, blocking most of the gate. She then grabbed onto a second cart, and then cut it free from the other one as well as its harness, and then began dragging it along the road. "Squire Baraja! Cover me!"
This was easier said then done, as the demihuman's confusion and panic began to wear off once they had taken about twenty paces away from the camp. Neia perched herself on top of the carriage, and though the foothold was rough given how Remedios was dragging it, she hoped it wouldn't put her aim off by too much.
The demihumans cowered behind shields when she nocked an arrow, though given the distance between them and how fast they were catching up, they would soon catch up to them.
Hopefully, the loss of a carriage of grain would be enough to motivate them to follow them. Just to be sure though, Neia knocked and released a flaming arrow at one of the other carriages, igniting it.
Ainz could not exactly see what was going on from his vantage point, but he could make out that there was a commotion at the gates of the camp. He hoped that Neia and Remedios were doing okay, he had given them a flare in case things went wrong, and it didn't look like it was needed at this point. He had offered to have a Death Knight be used instead, but Remedios had refused to budge on that issue.
Unfortunately, [Paralysis] did not prevent Dantallion from talking.
As he saw a large group exit the camp, he realized it was time to roll. "Alright, time to get a move on. [Fly]!"
He was carrying Dantallion along with him under his arm like a sack of luggage- with the newfound strength he had obtained in this world he barely felt the weight.
"Alright, so we need to go find boobies," Dantallion said.
"Boobeebee," Ainz corrected.
"I'll stick with what I said," Dantallion said. "By the way, is this the wrong time for me to say that I'm uncomfortable with heights?"
Ainz ignored him as they descneded under the cover of [Perfect Uknowable]. None of his wards were triggered and no alarms went off as they descended- so perhaps there were no countermeasures against advanced stealth magic?
The camp itself was simple in design- a large wooden fence about twenty foot tall with a single southern gate, and several wooden buildings likely being used for storage. There was a single rudimentary stone structure, where they assumed that the Zern's prince was likely being held.
Unfortunately, here Ainz had run into a problem he hadn't thought of before- he couldn't tell the Zern apart from one another! The camp had emptied out, but the Zern were overrepresented in the individuals who had chosen to stay- likely something that had been preplanned, but they would need Boobeebee's help to find the prince.
"Hmm.. perhaps this will work? [Message]!" Suzuki cast the spell, searching for her, and it connected. "Ah, this is Ainz, but I need help finding you. Where are you?"
Boobeebee was a bit troubled by the spell, but when explained that it was Ainz, she calmed down and said that she was near the entrance of the stone structure.
The issue was of course that Ainz couldn't be seen, but he still approached her from above, then after a moment's thought, switched [Perfect Unknowable] for [Invisibility] and said, "We're here!"
Boobeebee seemed to be alarmed, or at least that's how Ainz saw it, but again, Ainz was able to calm her down somewhat. "So where is the prince?"
"Deeper within this building," Boobeebee replied. "Somewhere below, but I don't know exactly where. It's guarded by demihumans loyal to that Lich, and so..."
"Understood," Suzuki said. There were several issues that he would need to deal with, but first things first, he cast [Invisibility] on Boobeebee as well. While it would hide her, he could see her just fine. But this meant that this was a bit of a low-level stealth spell, and it was possible someone on the enemy's side could also see through the illusion.
Their first issue was getting through the door, but there was a simple workaround for that- there was a small window on the top through which they could sneak in via [Fly]. It was a bit of a tight fit for Suzuki, but he got in after stuffing in Dantallion unceremoniously first. Of note, there were no winged demihumans in the camp that he had seen, which was likely why the demihumans had left the window in the structure in the first place- not to mention it would serve as a port for demihumans to crowd the roof and attack any sieging force from above.
Suzuki did think it was odd that the window was not closed or had a shutter of some sort- but it was possible that this was a makeshift construction and the demihumans simply hadn't had the time to deal with something like that?
Regardless, they were able to make their way down the tower with ease, and then saw the two guards near the basement. They were two demihumans, both of whom Ainz recognized as Naga Rajas.
Now here it was that there plan had the highest chance of failure- Ainz needed to not only get information out of these two, but also stop them from raising the alarm. Any offensive spell would shatter the invisibility cloaking not only him, but also Boobeebee and Dantallion as well. As such, if they had some sort of unknown resistance to his magic- say through a magical item, they might be able to raise the alarm, and then they would be in trouble...
...but there was not use thinking of it any further- given that they were short on time, they had to act.
"[Mass Hold Species]!" Ainz cast, and breathed a sigh of relief when the spell worked, binding the two of them in position. Now, he was revealed to the two of them, but it did not matter as he cast his next spell, "[Dominate]!"
Under the effect of [Dominate] Ainze was able to get them to divulge the location of the Zern prince (two flights down and two turns to the left, and then a right), and also on how to get through the door without triggering the alarm.
The two snakemen had an accessory he had initially not taken hold of- which looked like a small anchor on their waists. By placing it on the door, it would disable the alarm.
With all of this information obtained, Ainz killed the two of them with [Death].
"Was that not going a bit overboard, killing them?" Dantallion asked, a little spooked.
"They had seen our faces," Ainz said, still wearing his mask. "And they would know that the Zern were traitors- that could compromise their escape."
The door opened up, and it was dark and unlit, though that posed no issue to Ainz, who descended once again under the cover of [Invisibility]. He had wondered what he should do with the corpses of the two snakemen, and decided that the easiest thing to do was to simply open a [Portal] and deposit them back in the [Fortress] he had made.
"I smell him!" Boobeebee said as they descended. "I know where he is! The prince!"
"Alright, lead the way," Ainz said. There were only occasional torches, meaning that it was likely that whatever demihumans ran this part of the camp had either excellent night vision, or other sense that let them operate in near-total darkness.
"Here," Boobeebee said, pointing to a door. There were no guards near it- which was odd, and Ainz could not detect any traps near it (though such spells were not his specialty), and so the decision was made to break the door down with [Greater Break Item] and walk in.
The room, again, was nearly pitch-black. This did not bother Suzuki or Boobeebee too much, though Dantallion complained (which Suzuki ignored), and he found what he thought was the Zern prince.
The room was sparsely decorated, though there was a large bunch of hay upon which rested someone who looked like Boobeebee- though different enough that Suzuki would have doubted that they were the same species if he hadn't been specifically told otherwise. He was around fifty percent bigger than Boobeebee- and the tint of his skin was a deeper shade of blue with some emerald swirls mixed in. Perhaps that was a symbol of royalty within the Zern?
"Prince Beebeezee!" Boobeebee cried out.
"Boobeebee?" the strange maggot creature spoke. "What are you doing here?"
"My prince, I bring grave news," Boobeebee said. "Your father is dead. The Death Emperor does not intend to honor their deal with us- and you are the only surviving male that we have. It is imperative that we break you free, and we should leave his service at once."
Ainz had learned from Boobeebee earlier that the Night Lich which commanded the demihuman army had styled itself 'Death Emperor'- which strangely enough was the actual name of an undead that he could summon. Was it merely a conincidence that the two names were the same? Or was this Night Lich on par with a Death Emperor? As it was, it did not seem that Remedios or any of the paladins were that good at differentiating high-tier undead, which made it a possibility that this Night Lich was actually some other species of undead entirely- and a Death Emperor was a level ninety high-class undead, even someone like Suzuki would be unable to summon one without expending XP.
It was why that Ainz had raised his guard ever since- there was a possibility, slim but terrible, that he was facing a very strong enemy, on par with someone like himself. Death Emperors could not be fought individually within Yggdrasil, but perhaps one had managed to find itself into existence somehow in this world?
"Is that so?" Beebeezee said. "In that case, I suppose we should leave posthaste... but who are these?"
"Humans from the Roble Holy Kingdom," Boobeebee said. Ainz technically wasn't from the kingdom, but it was kind of pointless to correct the Zern on that. "Whom we have allied ourselves with."
"Ah, and though it pains me to ask... what happened to the Grand Mother?" Beebeezee asked.
"She is dead... I confirmed it as I saw the head myself," Boobeebee said. "The Death Emperor wished to make an example of the Pandex- they are as good as extinct now."
"Ah, such a tragedy," Beebeezee said, there seemed to be genuine sorrow in his voice. "She was my first love."
"My prince.. she was not even the same species! Surely you must jest!"
"Ah... though it might seem strange, I don't think that any woman could equal her..."
"Hey- don't give up on your love!" Dantallion said. "I would'nt go ahead and give up if I were you! Love knows no boundaries- and certainly not species either!"
From anyone else, Ainz would've been somewhat comforted by that line, but it was Dantallion so...
"...I think it's time we regroup then."
Neia was not having a good time.
Despite their lead, as it could be assumed, the demihumans had caught up to them, and after a few moments had sent a very large force against the two of them.
It was good for Ainz and Dantallion as it would mean that they had less to deal with, but it was nightmarish for the two of them.
Or at least, it was for Neia. Remedios seemed to be having the time of her life.
"Die demihuman scum!" she screeched as she chopped off the head of yet another troll. They had swapped positions now- with Remedios in the rear of the carriage and with Neia hiding out back front and firing arrows into the crowd- trying to stave off the enemy from flanking Remedios or completely surrounding her.
Neia had sustained multiple injuries during the last five minutes- she had several bruises near her chest, a small cut over her forehead which kept dripped blood into her mouth, a knocked out tooth, and two of the fingers of her right hand had been fractured.
Remedios had been kind enough to heal her fingers, though her other injuries went unadressed- likely because without her fingers, Neia could not use her bow.
Granted, she would be in far worse shape if it wasn't for all the gear that Ainz had leant her- some of them were things beyond what she imagined even Remedios would have. However, gear could only take one so far, and it wasn't as if Neia was anywhere near her father's level yet.
The sun had set though her special goggles meant that she could see just as well as daytime. The Shooting Star Super fired arrow after arrow- with screams from the demihumans following.
They had parked the carriage near a hill, meaning that Remedios had the high ground while swinging her sword. But, it looked like they would be overtaken sooner rather than later, and Neia's hand went for the flare that Ainz had given her- though she wasn't sure if it would work.
As she was about to use it, the scenery changed and disappeared, and she was now in a dark room.
"Eh!?" Remedios cried out.
"Ah, so it worked," Ainz's voice carried to her ears. Remedios pulled out a small wooden doll which began to dissolve.
"So that's what this was for...?" Ainz had handed her that before the mission started.
"Indeed," Ainz said. "We've found the Zern prince, and I think we should hightail it out of here now."
"Before that though," Dantallion interrupted Ainz- Ainz had removed the [Paralysis] effect while they were coming down, and Dantallion had been free to move. "I made this using some charcoal I found and some leather."
Ainz paused to squint at it.
"What is it? I can barely even see in this light!" Remedios complained, before activating a special effect of her armor that made it glow softly so she could actually see.
Though quite frankly, it might have been better had she not done so.
Because she would now see what it was that Dantallion had drawn. Suffice it to say, it was 'rule 34' art of a Pandex, and what seemed to be Beebeezee together.
"Ta-da!" Dantallion said.
"How... how did you make that so fast?" Ainz asked.
"Consider it my special talent. I wanted to make an artistic expression of the Grand Mother and the Zern Prince improving relations between their two species!"
"Couldn't you have some useful talent?"
"Neia, baby, like I've told you before, I am a man of culture," Dantallion said.
"I swear," Remedios said, shaking her head. "I think I died back there on that hill, and ever since then I've been transported to some sort of bizzaro world where nothing makes sense anymore."
"Ah, sorry, these are more of my companions," Ainz said to Beebeezee.
"Ah, pleased to make your acquaintance," Beebeezee said. "Also, if you don't mind, could I have that drawing? I would like it for um... research purposes."
The conversation had taken such a bizarre turn that Ainz barely noticed the trident as a result and was unable to block it in any way other than the simplest one- placing himself in the path of the weapon as it made its trajectory towards Neia's neck.
