*Thud!*
With a clear, audible sound of something landing, Riezel descended from midair and landed in front of Lakyus and the others with his back facing them.
"Looks like you've pretty much handled them."
Riezel spoke while glancing at the members of Six Arms, who had lost their aura.
Lakyus and the others, facing Riezel's back, still had their faces showing shock and lingering joy, as they could not fully shake off their surprise.
Even though the young man standing before them exuded almost no presence compared to Shalltear, there was neither overwhelming power nor a strong aura, when he appeared and stood before them, the fear and trembling caused by her terrifying aura quietly faded away.
Especially Brain, who looked particularly excited after seeing Riezel knock the terrifying vampire away with a single punch.
Among everyone present, only Zero still couldn't believe his eyes and was unable to accept this reality.
"Lady Shalltear!"
"Implosion."
Shalltear motioned with her hand and cast magic on Zero.
Instantly, Zero's body inflated rapidly, as if he were a balloon, then—
*BOOM!*
In the next second, Zero exploded, his body shattering into countless pieces of meat—completely obliterated, dead beyond repair.
""What?!""
Lakyus and the others gasped in shock at the sight, while Riezel only furrowed his brows slightly but said nothing.
In such a situation, Shalltear casually turned her attention back to Riezel, clearly treating Zero like an annoying insect rather than a subordinate.
Shalltear glanced at Lakyus and the others, then appeared to lose interest in them, as if only Riezel among those present was worth her attention, as her crimson eyes were ultimately fixed firmly on him.
"I must admit, you really are strong, Riezel Brynhart." Shalltear praised without hesitation.
"Being praised by someone like you doesn't make me happy at all." Riezel replied coldly.
"My, I was just talking to myself. You don't have to mind."
Shalltear responded with a sneer before her eyes squinted slightly.
"But I do get it now—I get why Lord Ainz considers you a threat and why my colleagues think you're dangerous."
"If nothing else, just the fact that you can gain the upper hand in this battle alone makes you worthy of being our opponent."
"It's just... I still can't believe that someone like you is actually a weak human... that's really hard to believe."
Upon hearing Shalltear's words, Riezel's expression remained calm, with not a single hint of fluctuation.
"If you're just trying to buy time to recover by talking, then there's no need for that."
Riezel spoke nonchalantly, his translucent eyes observing Shalltear's body.
"I'm sure you've realized by now that I have a special ability to counter undead beings like you. No matter how much you recover, the damage I deal to you will always outweigh the health points you regain."
"As the battle goes on, your injuries will keep piling up, while I'm different since I can fully use high-tier healing magic to fix my injuries, which you can't do because you're undead."
"It's only natural that I'd have the upper hand in this situation. In an evenly matched battle like this, my special ability to counter you will eventually give me the advantage."
Riezel's words caused the sneer on Shalltear's face to gradually fade.
Needless to say, what Riezel said was nothing but the truth.
In terms of strength, the two of them were actually evenly matched.
Except for STR and END, which were still at S-rank, the rest of Riezel's basic abilities had reached SS-rank, which, in the world of Danmachi, was already far beyond the limit for typical adventurers at his level.
At Riezel's current level, other adventurers could only reach S-rank in all basic abilities, but his DEX, AGI, and MAG had all surpassed that limit, reaching SS-rank. If this status was coupled with the high latent basic ability proficiencies accumulated over the previous levels, he could now challenge even Level 7 opponents in his normal state.
In his normal state, Riezel's strength was roughly equivalent to someone at lower-middle Level 7, but if he used a breathing style, his strength would easily match someone at the limit of Level 7.
Not to mention, now that Riezel could use various Tier Magic to handle different combat situations and serve various purposes, without exaggeration, even in his normal state, he would probably have a good chance of winning against Ottar, whose basic abilities, except for MAG, were all at S-rank and whose strength was close to the limit of Level 7.
Unless Ottar used an unknown skill or magic, tapping into a power that could allow him to surpass his own level, Riezel was confident he could defeat him in a normal fight.
Riezel's strength was such that he could casually display strength comparable to the pinnacle of Level 7, essentially matching the limit of Level 7.
As for Shalltear's strength, when she went all out, equipped with both the divine-class and legendary-class items and using all of her racial abilities, special skills, and magic, she was probably at the limit of Level 7 as well.
Considering the two of them were on par in terms of strength, even with slight differences, they could compensate using their respective magic, so it was safe to say they were evenly matched.
However, the problem was that Riezel had an ability where he could give special damage to evil entities, which made him a direct counter to beings like Shalltear, who was undead.
As a result, every time they clashed, Riezel inflicted excessive damage on Shalltear, causing her injuries to worsen as the battle went on, ultimately leading to complete suppression.
What made it worse was that Shalltear realized Riezel seemed to have an ability that nullified mind control and other debuffs, rendering much of her magic useless.
During their battle, Shalltear had used various magic on Riezel, including Charm Species, Mass Hold Species, Implosion, Greater Lethal, Open Wounds, Wave of Pain, and Insanity, targeting both his mind and body with debuffs, but all of them sadly failed, and none managed to hinder him in any way.
Riezel was completely immune to the debuffs from her magic, immune to both mental and physical interference, which was a major reason why Shalltear was caught off guard and gradually lost the upper hand in the battle.
Additionally, Riezel seemed able to significantly reduce damage from fire, ice, light, and negative attributes.
Given this, although it was hard to believe, Shalltear had to admit that if things kept going this way, she would end up losing.
Unless, of course, she used her trump cards.
'No, the main purpose of this battle is to test his abilities and strength, not to win.'
Shalltear silently thought to herself, biting her lower lip in frustration.
'As he reveals his abilities and strength, I'm revealing mine as well. If I use my trump cards now, the next time we face off, it'll be me targeting him, and he'll be doing the same to me.'
'At that point, it'll be a battle of countermeasures.'
'Such a situation might not work in my favor, so to ensure I have the strength to defeat him when the real fight comes, I must keep my trump cards hidden.'
What Shalltear didn't know was that Riezel had already started to grow suspicious of their battle.
'It's gotten to this point, yet this vampire still hasn't pulled out her trump cards?'
Shalltear thought she was hiding her trump cards well from Riezel, but in reality, through the original work, he already knew about them.
What were her trump cards?
They were none other than her special skills.
Leaving aside 'Blood Pool', a special skill that required a lot of blood to use, 'Negative Impact Shield', which Shalltear had used in the northern forest of E-Rantel last time, was something she hadn't used in this battle.
Besides them, Shalltear still had a few other powerful special skills, yet she used none of them.
Among them was a special skill called 'Purifying Javelin', which contained a holy attribute and could deal massive damage to opponents. If she wanted, she could spend additional magical energy to imbue it with perfect accuracy and tracking ability.
Another was a special skill called 'Time Reverse', which could negate the damage caused by a single attack by making her time flow backward, restoring her body to the condition it was in before being damaged, quite similar to one of Divine Meloe's abilities.
And, of course, Shalltear's greatest trump card was a special skill called 'Einherjar', which could create an avatar of herself that was armed and identical to her in terms of status and level, though it couldn't use magic and some special skills.
Even though all these special skills had limitations, being usable only a few times per day or even just once, their effect was undeniably overpowered.
If Shalltear used them, Riezel was planning to do the same—bring out his own trump cards and give his full strength to fight her.
Unfortunately, Shalltear never used them, and from her behavior, it didn't seem like she was trying to save them for later use either.
If that was the case, what was she trying to do?
Pondering up to this point, Riezel suddenly had a flash of insight and realized something.
"Don't tell me your lord really ordered you to just test and gather intel on my strength?"
Riezel's sudden question caused Shalltear to sharply change her expression.
Seeing this, Riezel immediately understood.
"I see... so that's why you didn't use the special skill you used last time in the forest..." Riezel said with a half-smile. "As expected of your lord, always cautious and, as usual... cowardly."
As soon as these words left his mouth, Shalltear's face changed drastically, and she could no longer hold back her anger.
*BOOM!*
With a burst of air, Shalltear rushed toward Riezel with incredible speed, her face twisted in rage as she thrust her Spuit Lance at him.
*DING!*
Riezel raised his sword to meet the lance, causing their weapons to collide with a resounding clash.
In an instant, a shockwave exploded outward in all directions.
*WHOOSH!*
Lakyus and the others, unable to react in time, were directly blown away by the shockwave—some were sent crashing to the ground nearby, sliding back, while others slammed into walls or other obstacles.
*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*
Riezel's and Shalltear's weapons clashed fiercely, sparking and creating sonic booms and shockwaves as they fought.
Shalltear's fury poured out with each spark and sonic blast.
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT LORD AINZ?! YOU DESERVE TO DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS—!!!"
Yelling like a berserk beast, Shalltear erupted with an incredible amount of power, raised Spuit Lance high, and swung it in a wild arc, transforming it into a storm that relentlessly bombarded Riezel.
"I was just talking to myself. You don't have to mind."
Riezel, mirroring Shalltear's words from earlier, spoke with a faint smile, his tone as calm and composed as ever.
Nevertheless, Riezel's actions didn't slow down one bit—thunder and lightning surged around him as he swung his sword, unleashing bolts of lightning that rained down upon Shalltear with overwhelming force.
*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*
*Clang!* *Cling!* *Clang!* *Cling!*
With countless loud metal collision sounds, their weapons collided with intense force, sending shockwaves through the air whenever they clashed—the speed and fury of their strikes were unmatched.
Shalltear had already transformed her Spuit Lance into a blur of afterimages, each carrying the unique negative energy of the undead race.
Her continuous lance barrages seemed to become a disaster-like storm, not only attacking Riezel but also causing shockwaves that shattered the ground, sending it collapsing toward the center where she stood, making cracks spread in all directions.
Riezel was no slouch either.
He swiftly unleashed a series of sword slashes, each crackling with lightning, and as the two forces merged, they created devastating lightning slashes that tore through the air, each strike accompanied by the thunderous roar of lightning that rained down on Shalltear one after another.
At this moment, the battle between them tore apart the very sky itself, and the earth beneath them cracked and exploded, caving in deeper with each passing moment and causing more fissures to appear.
At the same time, countless rocks formed from their strikes flew like bullets, caught up in the storm of negative energy and flashes of lightning, scattering in all directions.
Such an extreme and terrifying battle, with an overwhelming shockwave every time their weapons collided, quickly destroyed the entire courtyard.
Eventually, the hideout of Eight Fingers was rapidly reduced to rubble, creating a scene that seemed to shake the very earth and mountains, like the scene of an apocalypse.
"Wha-What the fuck is this fight?!"
"My god, what the heck am I seeing...?"
"Both of them are monsters!"
Gagaran, Tia, and Tina spoke one after another, struggling just to protect themselves from the shockwaves.
At this moment, they could barely keep up, frantically rolling and dodging to avoid being struck by the flying rocks, consumed by the sinking ground, or blown away by the shockwaves.
"I never thought I'd witness a battle like that again!"
Brain had long since fled the scene, his face pale, clearly traumatized by what he had witnessed.
"Get back! Evileye!"
Lakyus had already started running, no longer daring to stay in this dangerous place.
"Dammit!"
Evileye seemed unwilling to admit it, but she couldn't help but cast a fearful yet respectful gaze toward Riezel and Shalltear.
Now, she could admit it honestly.
Both of them were stronger than her—much, much stronger.
"Riezel Brynhart!"
Evileye shouted in Riezel's direction.
"You have to win!"
Leaving these words behind, Evileye cast Fly, soared into the air, and began her retreat.
*Rumble—!*
As everyone left the disaster-like battlefield, the catastrophic battle between Riezel and Shalltear continued, leaving destruction in its wake and drawing the attention of many observers from afar.