Having a Baal

Rimuru POV

This annoying Thundercat, I swear he's worse than that new animated series. Wait… Is 45 years ago still 'new'? Well, if I'm considered a baby by my draconic siblings still at my age, then I think I can say 45 is new.

I stare at the stupid blonde-haired man responsible for the dozen or so demons that just tried to jump me a moment ago, wondering what his motivations could possibly be.

I recognize the guy as Baal, that obnoxious fool at that dinner I tagged along for a while back. He also happens to be behind that pervert's crazed actions, both with Babyls and Walter Park. For all those reasons, I can't say I'm fond of the man, not even taking into account the attack I just fended off.

"We meet again." He grins at me toothily.

Let's mess with him a bit. I mean, he deserves it after all he's done to mess up Iruma's life indirectly through Kiriwo, so I think a bit of teasing on my part is fully justified.

"Who're you? We've met?" I ask with an innocent-looking tilt of my head, putting on my best 'confused face'.

"You haven't seriously forgotten about me, brat?! You mouthed off to my face at the Thirteen Crowns dinner, remember?"

"Well, I'm sorry but thirteen names is just a few too many to remember."

"I am Thunder-Lord Baal of the Thirteen Crowns, you little shit! Even if you don't remember my name, my face should jog your memory!"

"No… your face isn't anything special. I know a guy that looks almost identical to you. Just finished beating him up, actually."

"YOU OBNOXIOUS IMP!" Baal charges a ball of lightning on his palm and chucks it at me. It isn't anything special to me, however, it's clear it'd cause quite a bit of pain to a demon 'my' age.

Maybe if I let it hit me, he'll go away? He seems pretty mad I knocked his men outta the sky.

I let the attack hit me, feigning an attempt to fend it off and letting myself get flung back a good distance.

"Now I remember!" I snap my fingers in faux realization, "You're that grumpy guy who didn't like what I said! Haha, I didn't realize until you acted so hotheaded!"

He scowls even more at that as I return to the same altitude.

"Don't make me get serious. Shut that mouth before I shut it for you!"

He starts collecting more lightning around his hands but doesn't seem like he's going to attack immediately.

He really seems set on fighting… maybe I went a bit too far?

Really, I don't want a full-blown fight right now; my appetite for battle was sated earlier by beating up two teens under the guise of training them. Not only that but beating up Baal would cause some real problems for me. He's a high-up political figure around here and probably considered very strong by most demons' standards. Winning any sort of fight against him would create way more problems than it's worth while I'm enjoying my time here.

Nope. I don't need that kind of attention.

"No need to go that far, man. I'm not interested in fighting anybody." I fly closer to him, hands up in a show of 'surrender'. I'm more curious about what he even wants from me in the first place than I am interested in hitting him back for that lightning spell.

I was just heading home after finishing my time with Balam, Azz, and Sabnock and got surrounded by a group of demons that tried to attack me out of nowhere. Annoyed, I simply knocked them out of the sky, leaving their fates to, well… fate. I'd hit them hard enough they shouldn't be getting back up here anytime soon, at least.

He doesn't seem to want to fight me more either since the lightning he conjured has been dispersed. Baal attacking me like he did must not be the reason he's here, but just a side-effect of him losing his temper.

I move to land and Baal does the same. Around us are the bodies of the demons he sent after me, injured to a varying degree and unconscious or in too much pain to move much, but none are dead.

"One attack from a child and they're all like this now… pitiful." Baal sighs uninterestedly at the demons, "You at least enjoyed the surprise, yes?"

"Surprise? You mean that pathetic attempt to take me down?"

His intelligence is even more questionable if he'd thought these dudes would be enough to overpower me. After how badly I scared Kiriwo, showing off a percentage of my power, I'm sure that Baal was informed about that.

Knowing that, there's no way he's underestimating me enough to think this is anything I can't deal with.

"Hey now, don't go accusing me of things. I doubted you'd lose that fight; these demons are just weak fodder after all. Just lowly subordinates that were getting too rowdy and impatient. I needed to give them something to do but I didn't expect them to lose so easily with how eager they were to fight."

Baal steps on the neck of one of the unconscious demons, but avoids putting any weight down, though his devilish grin makes it look like he's considering it for a moment.

"I figured you must be bored and looking for a challenge, so I pitted them against you. Without your brother around, you could simply enjoy the ballad of violence without worrying about protecting him."

"So it was just for my entertainment?" Baal doesn't like me, so why would he want to 'entertain' me in the first place? What's his game here? "But seriously, what's your deal?"

"No, what's your deal? You have power and potential; clearly, a force to be reckoned with. Yet devoid of ambition, always hiding in your brother's shadow."

"What can I say? Iruma shines brighter than me, and I'm content to continue backing him up rather than stepping into the spotlight and acceptance he's worked so hard to earn." I shrug, not sure what else to say. "Talking about him, I'd like to get home and see my brother before he passes out for the night, so can you tell me what you want and wrap this up?"

"So I have to spell it out for you? I'm graciously taking you under my wing so you can use that raw power to win the Harvest Festival!"

So this self-centered jerk with an ego too big to fit inside his already-inflated head wants to tutor me? Or, rather, he's possibly been assigned to be my tutor, but that seems unlikely.

"Why do I feel like you weren't the one Grandpa hired for this?"

"Because I wasn't. The one you were supposed to be with has… chosen not to show up, and I decided to take their place."

"And why would someone like you want to tutor a student? Don't you have politics to focus on and a territory to manage?"

"Normally I wouldn't, but doing this isn't just in your best interest, but mine. Being the demon that trained one of the Three Greats' grandchildren, helping them rise above their sibling and win the Harvest Festival would make me look good. You're a much better candidate for that than your brother."

"Don't disparage Iruma to my face. He's got a good chance at winning the Harvest Festival and is working hard to train for it."

"Not as much of a chance as you would if you put your heart into it."

He's right, but I still don't like him saying that out loud.

"Of course, I wouldn't take credit for training you unless you won. There's no point. That means you can tell no one about your training and who it is you're training with."

I can tell he has outside motives, probably wanting to recruit me, starting by earning some trust and camaraderie through training. He has no clue I know he's behind those two disasters, or that he's affiliated with Kiriwo, and thinks he still has ground to stand on when it comes to getting on my good side. He wants me to set one foot inside the door of the back-to-basics movement without me realizing it.

I'm reading this right, aren't I, Ciel?

[[Most likely, Master.]]

With Ciel's confirmation, it's almost certain now.

You know what? I'll bite. I won't let him use me as a tool, but I'll indulge him for now.

I doubt I'll get much out of it, but after seeing through his scheme, it won't hurt me to play along. I don't plan on winning the Harvest Festival anyway, so no harm, no foul for me.

"Why're you acting like I agreed already? What if I don't want your help?" I ask, playing hard to get.

"Then I'll have to convince you a different way." He says simply, flaring out his aura suddenly.

Oooh, intimidation. I think he's even better at it than Kalego was that one time.

Folding my arms and grinning at Baal, I stand and face it, completely unfazed and making it clear to Baal that I'm not going to flinch at something like this.

I notice his arrogant attitude waver for a small moment, but that quickly gives way to raucous laughter.

"You really are a strong-willed brat, aren't you? This is exactly why I chose you!" he booms.

"Strong-willed, yes. Brat, no."

"Stubborn too."

I just shrug at this. "Trying to butter me up really won't work, you understand that, right?"

"Ahaha." He frowns visibly before painting that smile back on his face. "Well alright then, how about this. If you can get home without me catching you, then you are off the hook. If I catch you though, I'll be your tutor."

I smile widely and immediately push off the ground hard, making my wings appear at the same time.

Flying at a decent clip, I head for the mansion. I keep my speed within reason, but enough to outpace Baal. I can sense him behind me, the distance slowly increasing as I go.

Shaking him completely would be easy, but honestly, I'm wanting to figure out what exactly he has in mind for this training, and so that I can pry into his thoughts a little. His movement poses a problem for Iruma's goals, so learning more about what they are up to is not a bad idea.

I keep up this little chase session for a good stretch of the trip back but decide to pretend to tire out and slow myself some. Baal catches up with me shortly after, which was the plan, and stops me by grabbing the back of my hair with one hand.

"Gotcha."

Why'd he have to pick the hair to grab? Why does everyone always pick the hair to touch?!

I put up a 'fight', kicking him (lightly) in the gut and throwing a few weak spells at him.

"Ugh, fine. You win! I'm too tired to deal with you right now!"

Baal sadistically grins at me, clearly pleased by my 'giving up'.

"I'm happy to hear that."

God, I wanna wipe that smile off that stupid face… but I can be patient.

"So let go of my hair!"

Laughing a little first, he finally released my hair from his grasp.

"So? When do we start?" I ask, flashing him a smile.

"Right now," Baal answers simply.

Grabbing me by the arm roughly, he starts flying off at what he probably thinks is a breakneck pace.

Sheesh, this is a literal kidnapping! I'm fine with it, kinda, but he better not try this on any other Babyls students…

Apparently, we have some distance to go, which explains the speed Baal is moving at as it takes us two hours to reach our destination.

After he dragged me to his domain, he immediately threw subordinates at me. For hours.

I'd already told him I was too tired to want to fight. What a rude guy.

I mean, I was lying when I said that, but still!

"So when can I go home already?" I ask, actually starting to get bored.

"Still have some attitude left, brat?" Baal grinned, looking at me condescendingly. "I knew you'd be a good catch."

I punched one of his lackeys in the face, making sure to moderate my strength enough not to pulverize the guy as I replied, "Well, yeah. You said you were gonna train me, is this an exercise in patience or something?"

Baal's arrogant expression drops for a brief second, enough for me to catch it with my years of political experience before his mask comes up again.

"You little brat," seriously, what's up with that? Does he think it's a good insult? "Very well then. I was trying to go easy on you at first, but if you want to learn your place that badly, so be it."

The place we are in is a makeshift arena in Baal's domain. Nothing's built here, probably because he doesn't want to draw attention to his operations, but it's a remote island of bare ground with some bleachers arranged around it.

Many of Baal's other subordinates were here, probably to check out the 'newest recruit' (me.) He gives them a signal, and all of a sudden the 50-something demons observing all rush me at once.

Wow! I was actually a bit surprised. If I wasn't, well, me, this could actually be a bit scary. From Baal's perspective, I'm just an inexperienced teenager, and here he is throwing 50+ opponents at me on the first day of training.

I always knew this guy had no restraint.

[[Master,]] Ciel chimes in, [[shall we show this insignificant fool the error of his ways?]]

Not yet. I respond, in fact, if I win this battle it'll cause us problems.

[[Hmph.]] Yeah, I know Ciel isn't a fan of this whole situation, but defeating over 50 demons single-handedly as a 'teenager' would be hard to explain.

Besides, I remind her, we have bigger goals, remember? For the sake of keeping my cover, I will have to take the L here.

[[I am aware.]] Ciel pouted a bit. Sheesh, she's really been becoming more and more independent lately.

Don't worry, I reassure her, I won't go down without a 'fight.'

Calling on my 'bloodline ability,' I summon a massive puff of smoke and separate myself into five bodies. After separating our consciences, I dismiss the cloud of smoke and we all flash identical grins at the horde of demons that's almost on us.

"Bring it on!" We shout in unison and the five mes about the size of a ten-year-old rush into battle.

I can already tell Baal is loving this, judging by the hungry look on his face. Yeah, I just showed him an unheard-of ability, and now he'll want me on his side more than ever. No matter how much attitude I cop now, Baal is going to try and keep his hands on me.

I win, stupid.

It will probably take a while, even years, for this little game I started on a whim to pay off, but I'm a patient Demon Lord. Protecting Iruma and all the friends I've made here will be worth it.

Each of my clones takes on ten demons, while I take the remainder. It's a pretty fierce battle, as far as charades go.

{{This is Rimu-one. Operation: Fool the Fool, is a go. Take out half the targets and then regroup. Over.}}

{{This is Rimu-two, copy, over.}}

{{Rimu-three. Understood, over.}}

{{...aw, can't I just take 'em all? It'd take less than a second!}}

{{No!}} I shout at the top of my brainwaves at clone number four. {{This is a covert operation, do not defeat more than the allotted amount!}}

[[Pffft…]]

Yeah, I know Ciel, I say to her grumpily.

[[You just do what makes you happy, Master.]]

Now my partner is going to tease me about this for days, but that's fine. I need to do something to hold off the boredom I've been in for the past several hours.

{{Rimu-five. I kind of wanna-}}

{{No!}} I shout, {{just do what you're told!}}

{{Ugh, fine. You're no fun.}}

Whatever. All this took place over only a second with thought acceleration, and now we have other things to focus on–like the horde of grunts that are still swarming us.

Third Person POV

Rimuru's clones began a stare-off with their respective groups of demons as they quickly separated themselves to separate parts of the arena.

They saw this as the best way to split the demons up, as they were selfish creatures who each wanted the glory of fighting Rimuru on their own, even if fighting in a group. However, that very same selfish nature meant they wouldn't approach until they knew Rimuru's strength.

So each group allowed for a single scout to begin the engagement and attempt a real test of Rimuru's limits.

So, Rimuru had to consciously take notes as several bloodline abilities acted upon him at the same time.

Rimuru decided not to entertain the demons though, as after a few moments the clones charged these scouts and grabbed them. Many of the clones began swinging the scouts around in the air or just threw them to attempt to hit a few of their comrades.

That got the demons afraid enough that they all charged their respective clones at once.

A few of the clones managed to fight back as they grabbed the demons and slammed them into the ground, or grabbed the first they saw and swung them at the others.

It wasn't a long-lived defense, but at least it was a defense.

After around a minute of Rimuru trying to keep each group at a distance, each clone was eventually piled on top of, leaving only the original Rimuru.

Rimuru POV

"Why didn't you use your magic? I'm sure you could've destroyed the floor of the arena to stop them." Baal suggested a pretty unacceptably violent way to win.

I couldn't say I wouldn't do something like that though, so instead I decided to lie. "I ran out of mana when I made all the clones."

"Maybe that ability isn't all it is cracked up to be then." Baal glares.

One by one, I let my other bodies dissipate. I make it seem as if the clone bodies were destroyed and not just dispelled to fool Baal into thinking I couldn't maintain them anymore.

I fight on my own for a bit, before falling to the ground, feigning complete exhaustion. I expect Baal to call off his goons right then, but he doesn't, and I get pummeled for a bit.

Seriously? I feel disgusted, watching his excited look via universal perception. He's just watching a kid get beat up by multiple adults–and enjoying it!

[[I believe he is attempting to drive you to your mental and physical breaking point, causing you to snap and trigger a revival via your 'evil cycle.']]

I guess that makes sense, I probably look pretty close to that right now… still, that's messed up!

But after about a minute where I show no sign of fighting back, Baal calls off his subordinates. They back away while he flies down to meet me, still in my smaller ten-year-old form to act out the exhausted state I was spinning.

He kicks me while I'm down, literally, and I let out a weak groan to feign pain.

Looking down at me with a cocky grin, he asks "Still think I can't train you, brat?"

"What training?" I ask in a strained voice, "All you did was sic your subordinates on me this whole time. If I wanted that, I could do it in some back alley. What do I need you for?"

"I should kick you again for even asking."

"You're a real asshole, ya know that?" I grumble from the ground.

Baal lets out a dismissive huff of air, not taking the insult to heart. "So can you stand?" He leers down at me, not looking at all like he cares either way.

"What do you take me for?" I 'struggle' to my feet and face him, sick of lying in the dirt.

"You won't be stuck for that long, no?" He leans into my face sternly, "I don't want your pathetic lack of endurance to interfere with your training."

It takes all my willpower not to burst out laughing in his face–it helped that I was actually angry when he said that. This is the kind of Netherworld this guy wants, huh?

"No, I just need to rest and eat a bit, so let me already!" I snarl at him, annoyed, "I was fighting for hours even before you unceremoniously kidnapped me. I'm exhausted!"

"Fine," Baal rolls his eyes. Looking around, his eyes zero in on one of his subordinates who got knocked out during our earlier match, before Baal sicced the horde on me. The guy is off to the side, trying to wolf down a lunch he must have brought and rest a little.

Baal saunters up to him and the guy looks up, dread slowly taking over his expression as he pales.

Baal grabs the guy's lunch, turns around, and tosses it at my feet. I feel bad for the demon who just got his lunch stolen, but I said I needed to eat to get my mana back, and now if I don't, it'll look inconsistent…

Well, that's fine. I bend down and grab the lunchbox, taking out and unwrapping a sandwich. It looks pretty pathetic, but after I take a bite I'm surprised to find it's quite good. I start eating eagerly, enjoying this a lot more than I expected.

My condolences, random demon. I'll be sure to enjoy this in your place.

Just then, while I was lost in food bliss and not paying attention, Baal smacks the sandwich out of my hands. It lands in the dirt, smashing itself with the speed it was moving at.

"My sandwich!" I glared at him, "how dare you! It was innocent! And delicious!"

"It wasn't your sandwich though, it was his," Baal pointed out.

"You made it my sandwich when you took it from that guy! Now nobody can enjoy it," I pouted. "What's wrong with you!?"

"Nothing. You clearly had enough already since you're back to normal size now." Baal comments indifferently, "And, for someone who just lost a fight, you were looking too happy for my liking."

"Yeah, but the sandwich didn't deserve it! You could've just let me finish it so it wouldn't go to waste!"

"So you're food-motivated, I see. I'll remember that."

Now he's talking about me like I'm his pet!

"Don't think you can manipulate me with that," I respond curtly.

Baal shoots me a knowing grin that tells me he fully intends on using it against me in the future. I have self-restraint, though, so it's not like that'll be much of an issue to resist. If anything, this might be a good way to keep up appearances, since he'll probably have me do something for him eventually.

"Well, you're back to full size, fed, and rested," Baal grins, "so let's keep going."

"It's been ten minutes!" I burst out, "and I didn't even get to finish the sandwich!"

"And we haven't finished for the day because you chose to give up just when it was getting good!"

This scumbag… I've had enough of him for one day.

I've indulged this idiot long enough. If Guy found out I was rolling over like this, I'd never hear the end of it! Not to mention I want to go home and check on Iruma, maybe relax a bit.

"Nope. I'm going home. I'm tired and I'm sure my brother's waiting for me."

I've already been here a whole night and day, completely missing classes. Baal can wait a bit to 'play' with me more.

I move to walk away, but again, Baal grabs me by the back of my hair. This time, though, I'm not having it. I turn back toward Baal, scowling at him angrily, then deliver a swift chop to his wrist. He actually let go because I put some real force into it compared to how I've been fighting in front of him. He stares at the back of me a bit surprised and impressed as I continue walking off.

Man, I hate pretending to be weak sometimes!

To give myself a little stress relief, I shoot up a certain finger at Baal as I walk away, smirking to myself as I do.

Baal doesn't look mad at me for the disrespect, though, instead more puzzled.

Damn. I forgot that gestures like that aren't universal…

It was ineffective but still satisfying, so I leave it at that and fly off.

…

Every day after, Baal came and found me after I left school, dragging me off for more kidnapping disguised as training. I'd play with him for a few hours, before leaving, flipping him off as I did. He even started doing it back after a few times, which I found hilarious since I know he has no clue what it means.

Baal kept pushing and pushing me, clearly trying to get me to snap, ramping up the difficulty more and more. I kept up with it fine, of course, but made it look like I was struggling.

One day Baal dragged me off to a much more remote area of his domain, tossing me to the ground on landing.

"What are we doing out here?" I ask, not even phased after landing on my feet.

"Taking you to the next level, brat," Baal says.

I look around at the massive magic circle covering the area, carved in advance for our arrival, I guess. Baal pulls out a pendant, one I recognize as the same type of metal Kiriwo's charm was made of. It's filled to the brim with concentrated mana.

Baal crushes the charm, absorbing the mana into his body before dispersing it into the magic circle below our feet.

The light snakes through the lines of the magic circle, running across the ground until the whole thing is glowing blindingly yellow.

With a rumble, a massive shape starts to emerge from the circle.

[[That is a rank seven summoned kaiju by Netherworld standards,]] Ciel informs me helpfully.

Wow, so he's stopped playing around I guess. Aloud, I say, "So I get to fight that thing?"

The kaiju fully emerges from the circle, letting out a deafening roar. It's a massive dragon, with two heads on long necks waving in the air.

[[Report. The kaiju is a blue hydra, and–]]

Don't tell me anything yet, Ciel. I want to have fun with this!

It's an unspoken way of me telling her I want my physical limits set pretty low so that I can have a lot of fun without having to consciously restrain myself.

[[...very well.]]

"Oh, and before you throw yourself into the heat of battle, eat this."

"What is it?"

"Food."

"I can see that. What is it?"

"Energy bar."

"Hm. Okay."

Well, I'm not gonna turn down a snack. Even if he put something weird in it, it won't affect me anyway.

I pop the whole thing in my mouth. It doesn't taste that good, but it's not disgusting or anything.

[[Please do not intentionally eat drugged food in the future, Master.]]

Wait, so it was actually laced with something? I wasn't being serious when I considered that.

[[That 'energy bar' appears to contain a chemical that causes demons to go into a state of hysteria.]]

Huh.

I glare at Baal for a second, "I know there was something goofy in that!"

Baal just starts laughing.

"Have fun~!" Baal grins wickedly at me.

I don't even bother responding further, just launching myself up in the air at the dragon.

I pull my sword out from my imaginary space, only to hear Baal shout, "no weapons! That would make this too easy!"

…fine. That actually works better for me, I figured I should grab my sword so my strength doesn't look too suspicious, but if that's what Baal's expecting, then so much the better.

Returning my sword to imaginary space, I square up against the hydra.

I finally get to have my kaiju battle, I excitedly think to myself, still remembering how my last opportunity got messed up. This oughta be fun!

"And if you really want to impress, no using magic outside of your bloodline ability either. Though, I bet you're not powerful enough for that. At least as you are now."

Oh? Challenging me, eh? I don't care much about his opinion, but killing this thing with no weapons or magic and wiping that smug look off his face would be satisfying. I'll take him up on that.

The dragon thing doesn't start by trying to slash at me or anything like that, instead it starts charging up a red ball of energy in its mouth. It's just gonna try to vaporize me right outta the gate!

I thought everyone knows that using your one-shot technique as the first attack always misses.

Well, it does miss as I just hop on top of its snout and out of the way of the ball.

That energy ball just ends off flying into the distance, and I hope for a moment it won't hit anything important.

I then have to jump away to prevent myself from getting attacked by the thing's secondary head. It's honestly a little annoying it had two when its mouth is the only really dangerous thing about it.

Well, at least dangerous if I don't wanna expose myself as nigh-invulnerable.

The thing finally actually just slashes at me with its massive front claws, I manage to just kinda step back from them. Even with my currently artificially limited abilities, it still feels very slow.

"Alright then, big guy! I gotta deal with one of those heads, sorry 'bout this!" I jump back up holding my arm out straight like some kind of giant toothpick and just stab it straight through one of the monster's necks.

I'm immediately covered in purple blood, but that's alright. I quickly hop back down and shake it all off. Sometimes bein' slippery is real useful. Though my clothes might keep these stains.

The head bleeds out quickly cause it's kinda far away from the chest, so just cutting one artery was enough to drain it.

Weirdly enough, as the head slumps over, it just falls off and two nubs start growing where it was.

Hey wait a minute, this is kinda familiar…? Makes me think of Gyros for some reason. Haven't been to Greece in a long time though. I should pay Earth another visit sometime soon.

Those nubs grow into two full new heads pretty quickly, leaving me with a three-headed monster staring me down from too many directions.

"Hey, what's this thing's deal!?" I loudly ask even though I'm starting to get an inkling about the schtick of this beast.

"Can't you tell it's a hydra? Their heads regenerate." Baal says, sounding very sure of something now. "Someone hasn't been paying attention in school."

I turn to him again for a moment, to glare sharply.

The hydra thing strikes out at me, but I avoid it on impulse.

"Well, how do I deal with it with my fists!?"

"Figure it out, kid!"

[[Perhaps Master wants some advice?]]

No, I can do this! I don't need to analyze this thing to kill it!

[[*sigh*]]

I consider just giving up on the 'no magic' challenge for a moment, and instead just killing the thing the easy way, but then I have another idea.

"You said it could grow new heads, right?!" I stare at the thing's chest. "How about its other body parts?"

"I won't tell you," Baal stands in the air and rolls his eyes from forty meters up.

All my questions toward Baal here are performative, of course. I don't need his advice, I just wanted to see if he was willing to act like an actual tutor and try to teach me something useful. Too bad he's too big of an asshole to do even the bare minimum.

Observing the hydra a little closer, it seems like it has some armored plates across most of the rest of its body, so that leads me to believe it may be a weakness.

Still, toothpick arms may work against annoying bosses and giant monsters, but not here.

So instead I do the only sensible thing and run straight toward the thing, hoping that I don't get caught in the jaws.

I want to get a shot at its weakness.

First though, to keep up appearances I put a barrier around myself.

Then, I let the thing grab me, and eat me.

The barrier should've kept me visually safe to any spectators, even if I did get caught on the teeth for a moment.

If all of its defense is focused on the outside, what about the inside? That's the thought behind my strategy here.

So once down the throat, I start searching for some vital spot to target.

Before I can make any further moves though, I hear my phone start ringing from my pocket.

I stop for a moment, pinning myself in place by jamming my heel 'somewhere'. I'm not really sure where I am anatomically inside this thing since I haven't bothered checking.

It's Iruma. So I answer it.

"Hey, brat! Come pick up your moron brother so he can get some rest!" A harsh, high-pitched female voice carries through the phone's speaker.

For some reason, Bachiko has Iruma's phone. Who else sounds that annoying and talks to me like that?

"Kinda busy at the moment. Who is this?" I ask, knowing who it is already, but still wanting to figure out why she has Iruma's phone in the first place.

"Who is this!? His tutor, who else?!" She screams over the phone.

"And why do you have his phone? Did something happen?"

"Yeah, I trained him so well that he's about to pass out."

"BUT WHY DO YOU HAVE HIS PHONE!?"

"Why do I have his phone? Because he gave it to me! Just show up." Bachiko promptly hangs up on me.

Damnit, guess I gotta go pick him up… Don't have time for this fight now…

So, I cause a simple explosion by creating a wave of magic power and watch as the thing's chest gets blasted open around me.

"Hey! I thought we agreed on no magic!" Baal shouts, sounding disappointed that I killed it so quickly.

"Change of plans. I need to go get my brother now. Seeya!"

I fly off, not caring what my "tutor" (big emphasis on those quotes) thinks. Iruma is infinitely more important to me than that idiot's feelings. It seems like he overdid it while training… again.

I have to say, though, him summoning a full-blown kaiju for me to blow up was a nice thing to do. I had fun. It would've been nice to take my time more with it, but duty calls.

Baal POV

I stare off in general amusement and confusion, but also in minor anger.

The child just bailed on me.

However, the way they bailed was the worst part, they used a lot of magic I didn't even know they had access to, as I have never seen anything like it.

A barrier that can block the poison spit of a hydra. An explosion of raw magic power that even sent chills down my spine.

That Rimuru is dangerous, and I'll need to deal with it somehow.

That Kiriwo kid might not have been exaggerating like he normally does. I'm starting to believe Rimuru may be a real monster.