Chapter Text
“Progenitors dammit! Why is there a Blade-master on the third floor!”
The rhythmic thumping of the Blade-master followed down the worked stone halls, echoing off the bricks and mortar that made up the Labyrinth. A scratching sound echoed closer and the one running, or slithering as it was, turned to look back to see it almost upon her.
And then ended up smacking into a wall.
She looked up in horror to see that she had moved into a dead end, or perhaps the dead end had formed just to corral her. Whatever the reason, she was trapped, and would soon die to one of the Labyrinth’s Blade-master’s.
She looked back at it and scowled. It’s lightly armored mechanical body was sturdy yet mobile, too fast for many of her attacks with her current levels, and in its four hands it held wicked curve blades meant to slice and flense. Her scales might protect her against a weapon made for slicing at her current level, but all it would take was the blades hitting her non scaled skin and they would cut right into her. Her level was not high enough for her skin to have any real defense against such an attack, and even her scales were probably not tough enough to take on a blade-master’s strikes.
And to make matters worse, since a Blade-master was a construct type enemy, it wasn’t effected by a lot of gazes or similar abilities.
Meaning she had no way to stop it, or kill it, and was likely doomed.
“Dammit, if I’m going to die, I’m taking you with me!” she yelled as she moved toward the Blade-master and raise a large fist back to swing a punch right at it’s torso.
Only to stop as the Blade-master suddenly twitched and seemed to freeze up, its arms stretching to the sides in short jolts as if it was malfunctioning, before it suddenly exploded into a cloud of wooden gears and brass coils that made her recoil and fall backwards. Smoke and dust surrounded her, and when it cleared she could only look up at her savior in wonder and surprise, for it was none other than the white dragon himself, Ainz Schwartzwald.
He stood tall, his alabaster skin and scales seemingly merging into each other and his great silver armor covering his shoulders and sides and upper legs. His lower legs and arms were uncovered, as was his chest, giving an amazing view of his lean yet sculpted body, and the way he looked down at her with his pale yellow eyes was strange.
She expected him to look at her with disgust for her weakness, not relief at her safety.
“Hey, you okay?” Ainz asked in a soft tone as he stepped forward and drove his great sword into the remains of the Blade-master while offering a free hand toward the one before him.
“I, I am, thank you,” She replied as she took Ainz’s hand, surprised that her own over-sized claw was only just slightly bigger than Ainz’s own.
“Good,” Ainz said with a smile as he pulled the girl up. “That damn Blade-master ran away from us when we were coming back down from taking on the Hero on the ninth floor. We shouldn’t have let it escape us, so I’m happy it didn’t hurt you.”
“I, c-can I ask you what it’s like? Fighting a hero I mean?” The girl asked. She knew this would probably be the only chance she’d have to talk to such a skilled Climber, especially one so well known as the Alabaster Knight, so she had to make what little conversation she could have worth it.
“Well, it’s not so bad after you’ve done it a few times,” Ainz said with a smirk that shortly turned into a normal smile as he looked the girl over, eyes seeing to canvass her whole body. “What level are you anyway?”
The girl deflated a bit and looked at the floor. “I’m . . . I’m sorry, I’m only level seven, I shouldn’t even be talking to you.”
“Nonsense. Everyone starts at a low level, even people like me, you have nothing to feel sorry for,” Ainz stated seriously before taking a look around. “Are you here alone though?”
“I am.”
“Are you not part of a clan?”
“No.”
“What heart are you attuned to?”
“Um. T-Typhons.”
“That’s pretty impressive most can’t get unlocked from his, that makes you pretty lucky!”
“Really? It doesn’t feel like it. Every clan I tried to join told me no, either because I was level one at the time, or because I was unlocked by Typhons heart,” The girl said as she seemed to wither a bit closer to the floor.
“Well, some people are just jealous. What kind of weaponry do you use?” Ainz asked as he looked around again. “Did you lose it?”
“I had a Warhammer, but it got destroyed when I tried to block the Blade-master.”
“Damn, yeah that makes sense; those swords can cut through lesser equipment pretty easily.” Ainz said as he looked down the hall to the oncoming noise of other Climbers. “I’m over here!”
“What?”
“Some of my Clan-mates,” Ainz answered just as people came down the hall and into her view. And she recognized all of them. The Einherjar twins, Theron and Thoren who looked like towers of armor bearing swords of polished cobalt steel with glowing dots of glaring flames in their helmets. Betty, the Wulver woman, whose fur covered form almost hid her long flensing claws. And Lenka the Dark elf Sorcerer, whose flowing robes were only made more brilliant by the kaleidoscopic color of the staff he held in his hand.
“Hey, got the last one?” Betty asked as she ran up first and then saw the girl on the ground. “Who’s this?” she aske, leaning closer to sniff in the girls direction.
“Girl who almost got killed by the Blade-master we missed. She’s level seven, and I was thinking of inviting her to the clan.”
“Are you sure she can hold her own?” Theron asked simply, prompting Thoren to speak up as well.
“Yes, how long have you been Climbing for miss?”
“Um, a little over two weeks now,” the girl answered meekly, figuring it was pretty pathetic.
All four of them looked at her in surprise before Betty rushed over to her, arm around her shoulder. “Seriously? Two weeks to hit level seven? that’s pretty good! I say we invite her to the clan!”
“The girl looked up in surprise to see Theron and Thoren nod in agreement before Ainz offered her a hand once more. “So, would you like to join our clan?”
The girl looked unbelievably happy as she rose up to her full height, Taller than even ainz, and gripped Ainz’s hand with both of her own. “I, I sort of gave up on joining one since they all said no. So, yes please, I would be forever grateful!”
“Excellent, then lets head up and meet up with the rest and introduce you!” Ainz declared as he began leading the group down the hall.
And as soon as they began moving, Theron and Thoren took up positions on either side of the girl.
“So, what kind of race are you? I can tell your a Serpentine type, but what kind?”
“And what’s your name anyway?”
This caused both Betty and Ainz to stop and look toward the girl, interested in what they had forgotten to ask as well.
“I’m actually a Draconid / Serpentine hybrid type, a Gorgon,” The girl said, finding the questions a strange way enjoyable to be asked. She then smiled. “As for my name, it’s Bella.”