Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz) - Part 1 (Chapters 1 to 200)

Chapter 34: Fierce Battle

From a jagged hole on the second floor of the castle, a rope was flung out, dangling to the ground.

Stella emerged first, clad in heavy chainmail. She gripped the rope tightly, sliding down with her legs flailing. Nearing the ground, she let go and landed hard on her ass.

Next came Sean, a longbow slung across his back and a hardwood crossbow in his right hand. After firing a few bolts into the hole, he wrapped his left hand and legs around the rope, zipping down to the ground in a flash.

Sean hauled Stella to her feet, and they bolted from the castle, heading for the birch forest behind it.

Last was Barrett, a burly figure. He stashed a massive shield into his spatial ring, then grabbed a black, jar-like object and lobbed it into the castle. Seizing the rope, he slid down with uncanny agility, hitting the ground in a single second.

The man yanked a throwing axe from his belt, hurled it at the rope to sever it, and sprinted toward the birch forest without looking back.

BOOM! A deafening blast echoed from the hole, as if the castle itself had sneezed. A cloud of gray dust spewed out, likely from the explosive device Barrett had tossed inside.

But then, long, writhing tentacles slithered from the hole, followed by a massive, pincer-like maw. One by one, creatures resembling giant cockroaches scuttled out.

Hot on their heels came praying mantises the size of grown men, spilling from the hole. Their razor-sharp forelimbs gleamed as their compound eyes swiveled in all directions. With powerful hind legs, they leaped toward the path the three humans had taken. Armored beetles, wriggling furiously, burrowed out of the castle, charging toward the birch forest.

An endless swarm of insects followed, clustering around a petite maid who emerged slowly from the hole...

Entoma Vasilissa Zeta stood atop a black armored beetle, racing toward the birch forest. Her mask-insect face betrayed no emotion.

She was a member of the Great Tomb of Nazarick's battle maid squad, an Arachnoid by race, and a master of commanding insects.

Barrett ran like his life depended on it, with Sean ahead of him, hauling Stella on his back. Who'd have thought this cleric girl was deathly afraid of bugs? The moment those oversized creepy-crawlies swarmed from all sides, her legs turned to jelly, and Sean had to carry her.

They raced toward EeDechi's position, desperate to warn their battle-hardened adventurer captain that another freakish enemy had shown up. Better to hightail it than keep tangling with that iron-fisted maid.

"What's the deal over there?" EeDechi shouted to Barrett's trio, parrying a blow from the iron-fisted maid with a single sword stroke. She'd already spotted the dark, writhing mass of bugs spilling from the castle and heard the stomach-churning sound of countless critters scuttling across the ground.

"Captain, another maid showed up, and she's controlling bugs! There's too damn many—we can't kill 'em all! Shit, I've been an adventurer for twenty years, and I've never seen anything like this!" Barrett panted, letting a rare curse slip.

The skittering of insects grew louder. EeDechi glanced up and saw a bizarre maid in a frilly dress standing amid a chaotic swarm of black bugs, their wings and tentacles twitching as they surged closer.

"Justice Value's at -100, pretty much pure evil," EeDechi noted, eyeing the number hovering above the insect maid's head. With a flick of her sword, she deflected a steel-clad fist swinging at her from behind, then gave a curt nod. "Alright, we take out the bug-wrangler first. We'll deal with the knuckle-duster later."