Overlord II – 11

(Rubs hands together vigorously) Oh man, do I love a good Overlord battle extravaganza. In order to answer the slight against Nazarick, Demiurge arrives with Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Zeta, along with Mare and Shalltear (though Shally sits out the battle, lest she do much damage) to supplement Sebas and Epsilon.

Nazarick’s…let’s call it a punitive assault, happens to coincide with the Renner Raid, and Climb, Brain, and one of the Orichalcum-ranked warriors provided by the Marquis end up at the same place as Sebas: the Eight Fingers hideout where not only Tuare is being held, but where four of the Six Arms are ready to fight.

Sebas tells them they’ll last up to ten seconds if they all attack him at once, but when he hears one of them dares call himself the “Undead King”, he pops, he gets mad and does it in about eight. No wasted movements, just pop-pop-pop-pop, off come the elite warriors’ heads.

Climb & Co manage to find Tuare’s cell…or do they? The camera cuts away before we see the woman’s whole face (or it’s just assumed to be Tuare and I’m just overthinking things).

Meanwhile, at another Eight Fingers base, Mare figuratively disarms the mistress of the house before literally de-legging her and dragging her away, leaving Zeta to take care of things from there.

The Amazonian Gagaran arrives just around this time, and assumes Zeta works for Eight Fingers, and judges her a foe she can take based on her slight size and cutesy voice, and picks a fight.

Wellsir, Gagaran judged very, very wrong…but she’s not alone, so the fight is extended when Tia arrives and manages to hold out against Zeta’s very novel high-level entomancy, which includes bugs that block blows as well as Cap’s shield, bug bullets that take down adamantium barriers, and bugs that have sword-sized mandibles.

Eventually the gap in level is too much for Gagaran and Tia, but their ally Evileye arrives in the nick of time. Unlike them, when she says she’s stronger than Zeta…I kinda believed her. She certainly demonstrates the validity of such a claim by putting Zeta on her ass (well, abdomen; she’s an insect) with an equally novel homebrew insecticide spell.

With four other sites and four other maids, I expected the episode to jump around more, but I appreciate Overlord’s patience in sticking with one battle once it gets into rhythm, as this one does.

This battle escalates so many times with the introduction of new parties, I wasn’t missing the other raids anyway. When Zeta is just about out for the count, who should arrive but Demiurge, wearing a sinister mask (perhaps to hide his nerdy glasses from mere mortals?).

Demiurge takes out Gagaran and Tia with a ranged fire spell, but went with too high a setting because he assumed they were as strong as Evileye. And even when she throws everything she’s got at Demi, it’s all for naught; his defense is just too strong.

Demi looks ready to stop playing around and finish things when there’s yet another arrival—frikkin’ Momonga himself—wondering out loud which of the two combatants will be his foe. I’m intrigued by the possibilities this presents.

Overlord II – 10

This week Sebas must deal with the fallout of his individual actions which drew undue attention to him and by extension Nazarick. However, as expected, Lord Ainz is understanding, and also convinced of Sebas’ absolute loyalty when he orders the Butler to kill Tuare and Cocytus has to step in to stop him.

When Ainz asks Sebas how it benefits him to have Tuare come to Nazarick with them, Sebas says she can cook. This leads to bickering between Sebas and Demiurge about what kind of cooking is “worthy” of Nazarick, which reminds Ainz of the bickering his fellow players once engage in; a pleasant memory.

Tuare, for her part, is ready to follow Sebas wherever he leads, and wouldn’t mind even if he had to kill her for real, giving him her first happy kiss; possibly his as well.

Over at the palace, Princess Renner is getting ready to unleash Blue Rose on Eight Fingers, but knows she’ll need more men, so she invites Marquis Raeven to her chambers for a chat.

Her brother, the Second Prince, also tags along, and is a lot less antagonistic, especially when he learns just how much his sister knows about the complex political tapestry draped across the kingdom; not to mention when she shows her “real” side, which Raeven likes, but decidedly not if it means betrothing his five-year-old-son to her.

Renner intends to bear children with Climb, but her official, noble-born husband will make those children legitimate. Or something. It’s all…a little arcane? Bottom line, Renner has the troops she needs to bring Eight Fingers down, and she intends to add Gazef Stronoff to those numbers. It should be quite a raid.

Meanwhile, Lord Ainz ordered everyone from Nazarick back to Nazarick, but first orders Sebas and Solution to take care of a grain purchase for Demiurge’s sheep. Why neither Demiurge nor Sebas on his own could accomplish this errand, or why Tuare is left so exposed and vulnerable, is not explained. All we know is Tuare has been re-kidnapped by Eight Fingers, and Sebas intends to rescue her.

I’m certain such a rescue mission, for which Sebas orders Albedo to arrange assistance, will be entertaining, but it seems rather artificially created crisis borne out of abject stupidity on the part of all involved parties. It makes me wonder if the kidnapping truly was set up, perhaps so Ainz could further observe just how far Sebas’ attachment to one lowly human really goes.

Overlord II – 09

While Sebas, Brain and Climb agree to take on the brothel together, they take different entrances, with Sebas going right in the front door, tearing through any hapless resistance, and delivering swift justice to the fat bastard whose name isn’t worth remembering. Epsilon might not care what pitiful humans do to other pitiful humans, but Sebas definitely has a soft spot for the weak and helpless.

Meanwhile, it isn’t long before Brain and Climb split up, and Climb happens to end up in the very room where Succulent (one of the Six Arms) and Cocco Doll (human slavery extraordinaire) happen to emerge from a secret entrance. Climb figures out Succulent’s trick, combining swordsmanship, invisibility, and illusion to show his opponent a fake arm, a fake sword, and even fake clones of himself.

Succulent’s just a half-step ahead of Climb, and delivers what should be a fatal wound, but like his encounter with Sebas’ killing strike, Climb summons the power of his love and devotion to Princess Renner to stand up and hold out just long enough until Brain arrives. Brain has the boy heal himself while he takes care of Sucky with one strike, showing just how far ahead of Climb he is in pure swordsmanship.

With that, Sebas appears and the three celebrate the apprehension of Succulent and Cocco and the taking down of a truly awful brothel. It’s all in a day’s work for Sebas, but he still has to come home to learn Solution has tattled on him; Lord Ains is waiting for him (though no doubt Ains will be proud of what Sebas did). Back at the palace, Climb gives a full report to a worried-sick Renner.

Brain celebrates by having drinks and a meal with his new best bud Gazef, telling him that despite Climb’s obvious lack of talent, he might just exceed his own pure will to live and fight, judging both from his scrapes with Sebas and Succulent.

As for Renner, after she sees Climb off, she summons a maid she suspects “made fun” of Climb with the intent to kill her and anyone else who would do such a thing, revealing a heretofore unseen sinister side. I kinda like how she’s not some pure naive princess, but has her own dark side…it makes me worry a lot less about the five remaining Six Arms we meet. If they want a knock-down, drag-0ut fight, Renner is most definitely game.