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Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat. Splat.

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The sounds of humans being trampled into a pulp, the sound of meat chunks flying through the air, and the sound of the screaming continued on and on.

♦ ♦ ♦

As though they had arrived in a barren wasteland, three of the monsters crossed the center column of the army and ran toward the right wing amidst sprays of blood and gore. In moments, they would be upon Raeven’s troops.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

The way Raeven shouted these orders was closer to a wail.

One could not fight them.

One should not throw one’s life away for no reason.

As they heard Raeven’s words, the surrounding soldiers threw down their arms and fled in a panic.

Of course, since there were just too many people, it was impossible for them to move freely.

At first he had thought of signalling an orderly retreat. They would be on guard against attack from behind and so on, but wasting time on that sort of thing now would be a huge mistake.

“Ainz Ooal Gown, what kind of being, what kind of magic caster are you?!”

He had underestimated him. No, he hadn’t intended to do that at first.

After taking Gazef Stronoff’s words into consideration, he had planned to view him as an enemy of the highest caliber imaginable. However, all he could say now was that he had grossly

underestimated the man’s abilities.

His imagination simply hadn’t been enough.

Who on earth could have predicted that Ainz Ooal Gown would possess such awesome might? Who could have known such powers existed in this world?

Seeing the ever-approaching, ever-expanding silhouettes of the monsters, the troops surrounding Marquis Raeven shouted orders.

“This isn’t a battlefield any more, it’s a killing floor! Just run!”

“My lord!” a knight said as he removed his helmet. “The King! What about the King?”

“You idiot! There’s no time for that! My lord! It’s coming right for us!”

As they looked in the direction of the shouts, while the more enterprising had already fled, the crushing of the broken right wing had already begun. Although it seemed as though they were charging toward them in a straight line, they were not aiming for Raeven so much as trampling wherever they wanted. In truth, the other Dark Young were far away from where Raeven was.

“Where’s the king?!”

“He’s there!”

As he looked in the direction of the royal flag that the soldier was pointing out, a Dark Young was already closing in on it.

Raeven wavered. What could he do if he went to help? However, if King Ranpossa III was lost here, the entire country might come apart.

However—

“Leave it to Gazef-dono!”

Raeven had faith in Gazef.

He was a warrior worthy of praise from the King. Although even he would still be unable to defeat those black goat monsters, at the very least, he could bring the king safely out of this hellscape.

“Marquis Raeven! The situation is bad! Please retreat with all haste!”

The voice of the former-orichalcum adventurers, the subordinates he most trusted, interrupted Raeven’s waffling.

“—My lord!”

It was less of a shout than a scream. Raeven bellowed a reply.

“Understood! I’m going now!”

Already — at this point, at this distance, there was no point disguising a retreat in fancy words.

“Please leave the task of rallying the men to me! My lord, you need to get out of here now, and head for E-Rantel!”

The shout came from a sleepy-eyed man. Although he looked very unreliable, Raeven could not have entrusted his command to a better person.

“I’ll leave it to you! Use my name as you see fit! I’ll bear the consequences!”

The sound of hooves was very near. Out of fear, he did not dare turn around to see how close they were. Raeven stuck his spurs into his horse’s flanks with all his might. However, the horse did not move. Even when he kicked it with strength, it still did not move. It flattened its ears against its head and stayed still.

At that moment, amidst the chaos, a group of horses that had thrown their riders ran through. The men on their backs clung tightly to their horses’ bodies, seemingly ignoring the reins that dangled loosely.

How ironic, to think that trained warhorses would be unable to move out of fear, while untrained horses would run wild out of panic.

“To think training would have the reverse effect!”

In the first place, horses were timid animals. It was only after training that they could be considered fearless warhorses. However, it was precisely because of this training that they could not move. The fact that they did not break and run under the effects of this fear was proof that the training was effective.

“Forgive me! 「Lion’s Heart」!”

The priest of the Wind God, Yorlan Dixgort, cast a spell of fear resistance on the horse. The calmed horse whinnied loudly.

“My lord! We’ll lead the way!”

“Please do!”

With the voices of his subordinates wishing him well echoing at his back, Raeven spurred his horse into wild motion, escorted by the former-orichalcum adventurers.