Shalltear had also been told that Aura would merely observe from behind, and she was not to be used in any combat operations. In other words, the entire operation, from planning to execution, was solely Shalltear’s responsibility.
Firstly, she had to perfectly and elegantly fulfill her Master’s orders.
She unclenched her fists.
“Hanzos.”
“Yes!”
The ninja-costumed minions gathered before her.
“I want to make sure that none of them escape. Can you verify that there’s nobody else in the tunnel?”
“Certainly. We await your command.”
As expected of her Master’s minions. Their enemy would have no means of retreat now. The next thing she had to worry about was if the enemy was scattered throughout the city. Of course, she could take some time to hunt down and root them all out, but she wanted to avoid wasting time. While her Master had not given her a time limit, wasting too much time was proof of incompetence.
“Alright. How about this…”
Shalltear relayed the details of the plan she had thought up on the way here.
She would surround the enemy, and then disable everyone within the perimeter.
In other words, she would use the Hanzos to cut off their retreat, then compact them into a mass before taking them all out in one blow.
Granted, this plan was a little dangerous, given that she did not know the abilities of the opposition. However, if the enemy had the power to kill Shalltear and the Hanzos, the Dwarven Kingdom could not possibly have survived this long.
Well, provided that Dwarf Gondo was not especially weak.
After dispatching the Hanzos, Shalltear counted out three minutes. She had to do so because she had no means of communicating with the Hanzos.
Fortunately, the Quagoa seemed to have circled their wagons around the building, with no intentions of dispersing.
“Let’s start. Begin as ordered; keep them from escaping into the surrounding area.”
After giving orders to the undead she had brought along, Shalltear ran along the rooftops, and then leapt in front of the Quagoa. At the same time, her undead landed around them.
They had taken control of all the major thoroughfares around the building. The Quagoas’ routes of retreat were almost completely cut off.
Shalltear sensed their confusion, and she cast a spell long before they could recover.
“[Mass Hold Species].”
As she had expected, they were not high-level opponents. Many of the Quagoa had stopped moving, frozen in place.
Those Quagoa who had not entered the spell’s area of effect managed to recover from their confusion, but none of them attempted to attack Shalltear. She had appeared out of nowhere and used a spell they had never seen before to pin down their comrades. Even choosing between fighting or fleeing must have been very hard for them.
Shalltear smiled thinly.
It would seem the conclusion she had reached from observing them, that of centering the spell on an outstanding-looking Quagoa — for now known as the commander — had been a worthwhile one.
“[Mass Hold Species].”
She cast the same spell again, and now even the fleeing Quagoa were neutralized.
“Close in!”
In response to Shalltear’s shouted orders, the surrounding undead shrank their perimeter.
The Quagoa within the building heard Shalltear shout and sensed the abnormality in their comrades, but it was far too late for them.
As a sadistic grin grew on her face, Shalltear clapped her cheeks. She could not be careless. Her failure in the past was most likely because of that.
After recovering her composure, Shalltear stormed the building. While breaking through a window would have given her the element of surprise, she considered the effort of breaking through and decided on going straight through the door instead, using herself as bait.
The waiting Quagoa swiped their claws at Shalltear over and over again.
Three in front of me, four deeper within, nobody who looks like a commander. I should take their attacks and verify their strength.
Shalltear did not avoid their attacks, but bore the brunt of the Quagoa offensive.
As expected, she was unhurt.
Shalltear could only take damage from magical silver weapons. Some high-level monsters had natural attacks which counted as magic, while others had attacks which counted as silver, but those were very rare in low-level monsters.
While she might have expected this, the Quagoa were taken aback. As though unable to believe what they were seeing, the surrounding Quagoa clawed at her, but to no avail.
“Alright, the experiment’s over. Shall we end here? [Mass Hold Species].”
As the spell was cast, all the Quagoa present stopped moving.
“Now then, next up.”
Shalltear looked around and saw the Quagoa in the next room through the remains of a broken door. Their wide eyes held the emotion she most loved — fear.
As Shalltear’s stride brought her forward, the Quagoa clambered over themselves to flee.
However, they were too slow. To Shalltear, they were as slow as slugs. She resisted the impulse to give voice to mocking laughter, and instead cast her spell at their backs.
There would be no escape.
Shalltear would not tolerate any slipups.
Now that all the Quagoa within the building had been captured, she entered the tunnel and found six Quagoa by the feet of the Hanzos. Given the faint movements from their bodies, it would seem that they were still alive. Shalltear then asked the Hanzos:
“Now then, are these the Quagoa who tried to flee?”
“Yes. Nobody else managed to escape through here.”
Since Shalltear had not let anyone get away, one could consider her mission to have been perfectly accomplished.
“Just in case, go make sure there’s nobody else lying in wait within the building. After that, have the undead who are bringing them in carry these Quagoa out. You can tell the undead to bind them with ropes, right? I’ll wait here until you finish searching the interior and see if anyone else is trying to make a run for it.”
After receiving Shalltear’s orders, the Hanzos picked up the Quagoas on the ground and returned to the building. They returned to Shalltear after two minutes had passed.
Having flawlessly completed her task, Shalltear emerged from the building, where she saw many bound Quagoa and the forms of Ainz, Aura, the Hanzos, the Dwarf and Zenberu.
“Well done, Shalltear. It seems you accomplished your mission and didn’t let anyone escape.”
“Yes! Thank you very much, Ainz-sama!”
“Now then, Shalltear, I shall give you your next order. Interrogate these people, but do your best not to hurt them.”
“Understood.”
To begin with, she ordered the undead to drag out one of the Quagoa who had been captured with magic — in other words, one of the first captives.
“Hiiiiii! Save me!”
“Hehe, well, if you’re honest, I won’t kill you. If you’re honest. First things first, who’s the greatest of you people here?”
“Him, the one with the streaks of blue in his fur.”
“You son of a bitch! You sold me out!”
The one shouting back did seem to have a faint hint of blue in his pelt.
“Okay, okay, don’t fight. Then, can you bring him to me? Send this one back.”
The highest-ranking Quagoa was brought before her.
“Hmph! You must be a friend of the Dwarves! I’ll never talk! I’ll stake the pride of my race on it!”