Roaring Heroes Battle the Overlord (Ainz)

Barrett took out a white woolen coat from his spatial ring and wrapped it around his head, then carefully began to climb a tall pine tree. Despite his muscular build, he moved more nimbly than a monkey when it came to climbing.

At the top of the snow-covered pine, Barrett poked his head out, scanning the distance. On the other side of the forest, a wall of flames blazed, a moving line of fire, with thick smoke billowing up, blocking the sky.

Someone was setting the mountain on fire.

Barrett pulled out a brass telescope, brought it to his eye, and after adjusting the focus, he finally made out a group of tall, skeletal knights, holding long spear-like magical devices and burning the trees. The magical devices spewed scorching flames, slowly devouring the forest.

Above, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air, and Barrett ducked under the tree's leaves. A massive peryton flapped its wings, screeching as it flew low overhead. That was definitely not a beast that should be out at this time of year.

In addition to the peryton, several long, skeletal dragons circled high above. Their bone wings were now powered by the wind element, and they seemed to be searching for something.

Barrett jumped down from the pine tree. He was now a hundred percent sure that the Great Tomb of Nazarick's forces were hunting them.

He turned to EeDeChi. "Do you have the ability to avoid magical detection?"

EeDeChi nodded. "My seal has a passive effect that grants immunity to all detection magic."

No wonder Ainz Ooal Gown had resorted to such primitive methods as setting the mountain on fire. Barrett thought carefully about their next move. Staying here any longer would guarantee they'd be found. They needed to leave, and fast.

To come up with the right escape plan, they needed to know their exact location. Otherwise, they'd just be blindly running through the forest like headless chickens. But when he looked around, all he could see were trees and snow, a monotonous and dull landscape. How could they possibly find a way out?

"Look around, see if there's anything unusual in the terrain?" Barrett shouted to EeDeChi.

EeDeChi had better vision. She pointed off in the distance. "There's a river over there, but it's frozen, and there's a tributary."

Barrett ran over. He pulled out his compass and looked at it. The river ran north to south. Due to the freezing temperatures, the river's surface was completely iced over, covered with snow, and it was impossible to tell the direction of the flow.

"What now?" EeDeChi asked, a bit anxious. Through the thick tree canopy, she could also see the scout flying in the sky. The two adventurers only had white sheets tied to their backs, using them as makeshift cloaks, barely enough to hide their presence.

Barrett cautiously chipped away at the ice on the river's surface, creating a small hole. The ice was thick, and he stuck half his arm through, only feeling the water's direction at his fingertips.

Pulling his arm out, a bighead carp shot up from the hole in the ice, leaping out of the water in a graceful curve, spraying sparkling water droplets into the air. To help the fish, which longed for air and freedom, Barrett quickly grabbed it, tied it up in a cloth bag, and stored it in his spatial ring.

That was an unexpected find. If they managed to escape successfully, they could have fresh fish soup for their dinner tonight.

The forest, with its large pine plains, lay to the north of the river. The main river flowed from the north to the south, and a tributary veered off toward the southeast. Far in the distance, two towering mountains stood side by side, forming a massive range that blocked the northwest side of the forest.

With this limited information, Barrett began to piece together his current location. He pulled out several maps from his spatial ring, including a large map and a few smaller ones, and began to carefully compare them.

The howling wind filled the air as a peryton, with the head of a stag and the body of a bird of prey, swooped past. It stirred up a massive gust of air, causing the snow on the treetops to fall. The peryton came within just fifteen meters of them, close enough that they could see the jagged branches of its antlers.

The more dangerous the situation, the calmer Barrett became. Panic couldn't speed up the brain's thinking; only extreme calmness could find a glimmer of hope in a perilous situation.

His fingers slowly traced the lines of the map, and in a flash of insight, he finally found a spot that matched their surroundings.

They were still within the borders of Re-Estize, but they were far from the capital, deep in the southern part of the kingdom.

This was the Voss Forest, with the Nega Mountains marking the edge of the forest. The river was labeled with an absurdly difficult-to-pronounce name: "Duruk Grunak."

Barrett had once had a dwarf companion, and he knew that this name was a direct translation from Dwarven language to the common tongue. In Dwarven, it meant "The River of the Fallen."

Following the course of the river on the map, he indeed saw a great waterfall at its end. The river seemed to be sliced in half, and after cascading down the waterfall, it split into three smaller tributaries.

"What should we do?" EeDeChi asked, jumping down from the top of a pine tree. Both her legs sank into the snow, and she was visibly panicked. "The forest is surrounded by skeletal knights setting the mountain on fire, and there's a line of undead soldiers heading our way. We're surrounded!"

Barrett brushed aside a patch of snow, pressing his ear to the ground. After listening for a moment, his expression changed.

In the forest, the rhythmic sound of footsteps was unusually clear, completely unlike a human army. They had less than five minutes before the soldiers would reach their position. Although the low-level undead were no match for Barrett and EeDeChi, the two adventurers would undoubtedly give away their location.

In the distance, the pine trees suddenly began to sway, and several deep, rumbling roars echoed through the forest. The ground gently trembled, as though the forest itself had become enraged.

Barrett quickly realized that the guardian of the forest—the treants—had been awakened. The Voss Forest was ancient, home to trees that had stood for thousands of years. Not needing the whispers of wood elves, some of the plants had long since developed sentience under the nurturing power of magic.

The ground trembled more intensely, as if a giant were running through the wilderness. Deep in the forest, thick tree trunks lifted and then crashed back down. It was the treants moving.

The treants, in their role as protectors of the forest, would undoubtedly attack the Sorcerer Kingdom's army. The undead soldiers had to halt their search and engage in a brutal battle with the towering treants, buying a brief moment of respite for the two adventurers.

Barrett and EeDeChi ran along a trail of winter wolf tracks in the snow, using the footprints to cover their own movements. The river had long since frozen over, the ice solid and covered with snow, like a thick white blanket.

The two adventurers crossed the ice and entered the dense forest on the opposite bank. But after just a few steps, they had to turn back, because several treants were battling a group of winged demons with red wings. Leaves and fire soared through the air in a deadly dance.

"Wait!" Barrett stopped and asked EeDeChi, "How long can you hold your breath?"

"Hold my breath?" EeDeChi looked confused. "I should be able to hold my breath for a long time."

"Try it."

EeDeChi took a deep breath, like a windbag being pumped by a giant's bellows. The air swirled around her, forming a vortex centered on her. A low-pressure zone formed around her, drawing air in from all directions.

Barrett stood beside EeDeChi, feeling the air thinning, and he was close to suffocating. He grabbed his throat and coughed loudly. "Okay, okay, I believe in your lung capacity and breath-holding skills. Hurry and draw a short-range teleportation circle."

"I can't draw a teleportation circle, and this forest's space is probably blocked off." EeDeChi shook her head.

"Drawing a short-range circle is just a decoy, to confuse them. We're going to take another path."

EeDeChi nodded and agreed. She took out The Mystery of Magic from her spatial ring, flipped to the chapter on teleportation arrays, and began copying the designs, carefully drawing a complex array in the snow. Barrett pulled out a few magic crystals and placed them inside the array.