—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Above a high rocky mountain.
In the darkness, a crimson sun rose.
Boom…!
The sun fell, spewing smoke.
The falling fireball, like a huge meteor, crashed into the base of the rocky mountain and exploded with a roar.
The rocky mountain, engulfed in the explosion, burst open, and the magical beasts climbing the mountain fell and were buried in the rubble.
“Cough! Cough! Ack…”
As Ainz and the students of Team 1 coughed for a while, the smoke and dust slowly cleared.
When the view opened up, what caught their eyes was a steep cliff that wasn’t there before.
The gentle slope of the rocky mountain had been blown away in an instant by the explosion.
“Is everyone okay? With this, we don’t have to worry about the back.”
Holding a mana stone, the young man standing behind them spoke with a smile.
Sergei’s assistant professor.
They had only seen him wearing thick glasses and following behind Professor Sergei.
No one in Team 1 had imagined that he would be this skilled.
“Don’t be dazed. They’re slowly climbing up from the front too. We need to prepare.”
“Yes!”
The students, gaining courage, stepped forward with clenched fists.
When the assistant first led them here, everyone was skeptical.
They wondered why he was trying to hole up in the rocky mountain when they should be running towards the forest entrance even now.
The students’ questions were quickly answered.
After running for a short while, a pack of Fenrir suddenly rushed at them from the front.
They barely reached the rocky mountain and desperately climbed up, and the assistant used fire magic to cut off one side of the mountain, leading to the current situation.
Team 1 and the assistant were essentially holed up in a naturally advantageous fortress.
The magical beasts barely climbing the steep slope were shot one by one, making them tumble down and taking down the magical beasts behind them.
It was optimal for saving mana.
“Oh, this crazy…”
As black hounds instantly covered the slope, a sigh escaped the assistant’s mouth.
The beasts had changed their strategy.
They decided to put the black hounds with smaller bodies in the front, allowing a larger number to rush in at once.
Then, to suppress the black hounds, they would have to use multiple single-target magic or wide-area magic.
But the large magical beasts like orcs and Fenrir following behind wouldn’t fall over even if they were hit by the falling corpses of the black hounds.
It was a strategy that forced at least one magic shot per magical beast.
“Guys. Can I ask you to use wide-area magic? If you just take care of the black hounds, I’ll somehow handle the rest.”
“Huh? You, Assistant?”
“Yes. Quickly!”
The red-haired girl and other students began unleashing wide-area magic.
The pack of black hounds was swept away by the whirlwind and flames, but the orcs and Fenrir pushed aside the falling corpses and still advanced.
High firepower and high penetration magic were needed to deal with Fenrir, let alone orcs.
Just as Ainz was preparing to deploy a technique to shoot magic-
Whoosh…!
Kwang!
“Roar!”
The sound of wind being ripped and the screams of magical beasts echoed.
Looking up, they saw a long whip in the assistant’s hand as he stood upright.
Every time he swung the whip, marks were left on the rocky mountain and rock fragments flew, and the orcs fell helplessly, splattering blood.
However, Fenrir were an exception.
That huge gray wolf was enduring the whip lashes and still climbing up.
Even the light magic shot by the students showed no sign of penetrating its hide.
“Just die already, you bastards!”
Two swords appeared in the assistant’s hands as he let out a high-pitched shout.
His internal circuit activated, and his whole body became lighter.
The Fenrir, baring its teeth and rushing forward, had its cheek torn by the rapidly swung sword and was kicked by his boots, sending it flying down the rocky mountain.
The students looked at the assistant, who was single-handedly facing several Fenrir, with reverent gazes.
Thud…
“Huh?”
At that moment, Ainz heard the sound of rock being ripped off from behind and turned around.
And he almost had his breath taken away.
On the side slope that he thought was impossible to climb, a Fenrir had climbed up and was standing there.
“Kwaaah!”
“Damn it!”
Ainz deployed the technique without hesitation.
A magic technique that could sufficiently penetrate the beast’s hide.
There was no hesitation or delay.
It was just not fast enough.
“Ah.”
He was dead.
The moment Ainz intuitively realized that, seeing the fangs approaching his face.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
Blood splattered on his face, and the fangs stopped.
When he came to his senses, the assistant had stabbed his twin swords into the beast’s face to stop it.
The beast soon tumbled down again from the assistant’s kick.
“Th-thank you!”
“No. It’s fi- ugh.”
“Assistant!”
The assistant staggered and then sat down.
Red blood was gushing from his abdomen.
Ainz and the students rushed to the assistant.
In the meantime, the assistant’s face had turned pale white, and he was trembling.
He was already rambling incoherently, unable to properly regain consciousness.
“It’s bleeding! We need to quickly stop the wound with a healing spell…”
“No. It’s internal bleeding. Just stopping the external wound won’t do any good.”
“Then if we stop the internal bleeding too…”
“Are you confident in opening the wound, manually lifting to check which internal organ is torn, and accurately using a healing spell there?”
“…”
At Ainz’s shout, the students fell into a sudden silence.
Although they were Imperial Academy students who were confident in magic in their own way, this was already the domain of a doctor, not them.
“Then what should we do? You don’t have a solution either!”
“…”
Ainz closed his eyes tightly.
There was a solution.
A solution with quite some possibility.
But it wasn’t something he could easily say out loud.
No one could easily say such a thing.
No, would Schlus have done it without hesitation?
‘With great power comes great responsibility…’
Ainz, pondering Schlus’ words, opened his eyes.
There were four frightened classmates who didn’t know what to do, and the assistant who was in a daze.
He could say that he probably had the greatest power here.
Then the person who had to take all responsibility and sacrifice was decided from the beginning.
Ainz, smiling bitterly and nodding, stood up abruptly.
“A recovery potion will do.”
“That recovery potion is in the village now, so how…”
“Carry the assistant and fly to the village. There are no magical beasts in the back right now, so if you run quickly, you can escape.”
Whoosh…!
Ainz said, throwing a rope backward.
The rope, riding the gust of wind, stretched down the cliff and wrapped around a tree, becoming taut.
“Those guys are definitely not stupid. If they realize we escaped, they’ll turn around and chase us right away.”
“Then we just have to make them not realize we escaped.”
“…!”
Ainz turned around.
At that sight, the students’ pupils dilated.
“I’ll stay behind. If I pour out firepower equivalent to 4 people, those guys won’t notice either.”
“Hey! No matter what…”
“Bonus points.”
“What?”
“The professor said the person who contributes the most will receive bonus points. I’m doing this because I want the bonus points.”
“You…”
“So hurry up and go! The assistant is dying!”
As Ainz shouted, the students began to move in a hurry.
Because the assistant was already dying.
It wasn’t a situation where they had the luxury to feel sorry or mourn.
One by one, the students grabbed towels or ropes and climbed down the cliff using the rope.
By the time they all went down, magical beasts were once again climbing up the front slope in large numbers.
“You said no forest fires, Assistant…”
Ainz closed his eyes and constructed a technique.
A technique that could sweep away all those magical beasts.
A bigger, hotter, and heavier technique.
A technique that contained all of him.
“I’m sorry! I’ll cause a little accident!”
Just as a black hound, drooling, rushed in and was about to bite off Ainz’s hand-
Kwaaaaang!
A bright light burst from his fingertips.
The yellow flames that poured out in an instant colored Ainz’s field of vision.
The flames that finally engulfed the entire slope didn’t stop there and stretched down, striking the forest.
When the thick smoke cleared, there were no magical beasts.
Only black charcoal remained.
The rock on the slope was glowing red, about to melt.
“Haa…!”
Confirming that the fire on the trees was blocking the entry of the magical beasts, Ainz collapsed exhausted.
Now that the fire kept spreading, those damn magical beasts wouldn’t be able to come near.
Although the smoke might make it a bit hard to breathe.
“Huh?”
But the fire, far from spreading, was gradually dying down.
Could it be because the thick mana energy lowered the oxygen concentration?
At this rate, the magical beasts would soon swarm again.
Ainz swallowed his saliva and quickly looked back.
“Damn it…”
Orcs were already waiting at the bottom of the cliff.
Did they notice and block the escape route in the meantime?
Drip… Drip…
“Ha. This sucks.”
To make matters worse, it even started to rain.
What was initially a light drizzle soon intensified and turned into a downpour.
The fire was extinguished in an instant.
Soon, the magical beasts that had gathered again at the front of the rocky mountain began climbing the slope.
“Damn it… I should have just escaped together…”
He was about to die trying to get one bonus point.
Ainz barely stood up on trembling legs and picked up the sword the assistant had dropped.
Although it was a one-handed sword, it was heavy for Ainz, who was suffering from mana exhaustion, to even lift with both hands.
Finally, the magical beasts climbed to the top of the mountain.
To be honest, in his current state, he had no confidence in facing even a single black hound.
“Uaaah! Will I suddenly awaken to sword talent?!”
Just as Ainz was about to swing the sword recklessly.
Boom…!
The sound of fireworks exploding was heard from afar.
Ainz and the magical beasts simultaneously turned their heads.
Illuminating the darkness, what soared up was a bright light source that rose vertically, drawing a white trajectory.
Without even giving time to wonder what it was-
Rumble…
“Huh?”
The magical beasts began to climb down the mountain one after another.
They were in such a hurry that they got tangled and tumbled down.
Ainz, dumbfounded, looked down the mountain and saw thousands of magical beasts running around in droves.
The ones that were about to bite Ainz to pieces just a moment ago were now heading towards the place where the light had flown up.
In an instant, the area around the rocky mountain became quiet without a single magical beast.
Gritting his teeth and looking at the deepest part of Whist Forest, where the light was still flickering in the sky, Ainz clenched his fists.
“Schlus Hainkel!!!”
He had a feeling he knew who was behind this crazy stunt.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
