Without a warning, Milim scooped me up in her arms and rocketed away again, leaving me holding myself together for dear life.
This girl has got to learn to warn people! I griped in equal parts terror and frustration.
We landed in a secluded glade with a crash that flattened grass and ripped limbs off the nearby trees. Milim unceremoniously tossed me into the center, where I landed with a bounce.
"Alright, let's get started!" She cheered.
"Um, okay. What are we go–oooOOOOOING!"
Before I could finish my sentence, and before I even knew what was happening, I'd been splattered all over the ground.
Pulling myself together, I bounced up and shouted, "what the heck Mili–M!?"
But instead of with words, Milim answered with a punch faster than I could see, splattering me again.
"Wait-wait-wait!" I yelled as fast as I could, preemptively shooting across the clearing as soon since I'd gotten all my slime back into me. I was in some serious danger!
Milim's fist hit the ground where I had been, then immediately she turned and crossed the several dozen yards between us in the blink of an eye.
"Wahahaha! Not bad!" Milim praised me as she slammed and splattered me against the ground again. "You picked this up faster than the last few!"
So this was her idea of 'training.'
Instead of asking about what she meant by 'the last few,' I decided to shut up and focus on survival, because right now those three punches I'd endured had already taken over half my magicules.
[[Correction: magicule capacity is actually at 24.37%]]
I would have screamed at [Great Sage], but right now I didn't even have time to think. I was going to die!
Help me, Sage! I prayed as I started hopping away from Milim as fast as my slime body could allow.
[[Attempting to access 'reserve' magicules… confirmed.]]
Suddenly I felt a rush of energy, and my previously sluggish regeneration picked up again.
Milim stopped, skidding to a halt with her fist right above me.
She tilted her head and let out a curious "Hm?" but I was too busy dodging behind her to care. Behind her now, I entered human form and swung Shizu's sword at her as hard as I could.
If this was training I was supposed to hit back after all, right?
"Wahaha!" Milim grabbed the blade in one hand, turning a glowing, draconic blue eye toward me with an expression that would make even veteran soldiers faint. "Good try, Rimuru~!"
Unceremoniously, I was hit again. I slammed against the trunk of a tree with a *WHAM*, my human form partly lost cohesion, but at least I was in mostly one piece.
"Gah!" I peeled myself off of the tree and dove out of the way of another punch from Milim, which shattered the trunk of the tree. It fell towards us, at a snail's pace compared to how this battle was going. Milim and I were long out of the way before it had gone very far.
C'mon… I can do this. I tried to land another hit on Milim, but she whirled out of the way toward me before I could even move much.
"Aaaaah!" I cringed, waiting for the blow… but it didn't come.
Cautiously I peeked one eye open and turned [Magic Sense] back on, which had vanished when I braced for the blow. I didn't want to see my head get punched clean off again. Not after last time.
Now Milim was next to the tree, a hand resting on the trunk.
"Hey, Rimuru," she said, tone deadly serious.
"Y-yes…?" I asked, tensing up slightly.
"You turned off your Magic Sense. Never, ever take your eyes off your enemy, y'hear?"
Well, she was right. I was so freaked out I didn't even think about it, but that could seriously cost me in a real fight.
This felt a lot like a 'real fight' though.
"U-um… yes ma'am!" I shouted.
Faster than I could react, she grabbed the massive trunk in her one hand… and slammed it down on me.
I cringed, and with no time to dodge, braced for impact. The tree shattered over me, its trunk splitting down the middle.
I quickly sprang up between the split halves, leaving a Rimuru-shaped indent in the ground.
"Don't call me ma'am! Call me Milim!" Milim shouted, already above me with a punch that promptly forced me back into the ground.
I had no room to answer, recollecting my slime body and quickly sliding out from under her fist.
There was no way I could keep up with this. Hoping to level the playing field, I activated [Paralysis Breath] and started spraying it all over the area.
Maybe that will–! My thought broke off as Milim kicked me across the field, and I went flying.
"Cute!" She laughed after me, "but you'll have to try harder than that!"
So paralysis doesn't work. There went my hope of catching up a bit.
I hit the ground, but my slime body couldn't get enough traction to stop my slide. I switched to human form, digging my heels in the ground and pulling out Shizu's sword again.
Shooting towards Milim without a second to lose, I swung at her, only for her to step cleanly out of the way.
Another punch put me face-first in the dirt, but I returned to slime form, slipped out, and tried to land another cut with the sword on her back.
The blow connected, this time… but Milim showed no signs of damage.
"Come on," she taunted, "that didn't even tickle!"
"Urgh…" I gritted my teeth, storing Shizu's sword since it proved useless against Milim, and tried to gain some distance, but Milim was too fast for me.
For the first time after a while in this fight, I was completely splatted onto the ground.
Quickly reforming, I hopped around the battlefield, avoiding Milim's blows by a hair's breadth, or occasionally being batted across the arena by her fists.
Come here… I thought, having leaped clear across the field.
Milim leaped after me and landed, leaving a small crater where I would've been… but I planned for this.
Slipping through between her legs, I jumped up in human form with my [Body Armor] claw gauntlets and slashed at her exposed back.
"Eeeh–!?" I let out a squeak of shock, Milim had immediately turned around and grabbed my fists.
"Ooh!" I squirmed, trying to escape by changing from slime form to human and a few others while she just held my rapidly morphing and unmorphing claws in her hands. "These are really cool, Rimuru!" She laughed happily, "you ought to use 'em more often!"
Milim then whipped me around, and threw me across the ground by both arms.
Bringing out my wings, I managed to orient myself and slow down enough to land on my feet, albeit stumbling a little. But as soon as I touched down, Milim was on me again.
"Okay, okay! I give!" I cried out as she pummeled me, skidding across the ground in slime form from the force of another punch.
"Silly, there's no calling quits in a real fight!" Milim giggled, slamming her palm into me.
"No, no really!" I begged, barely dodging a second attack. "I'm done! Let's…" I ducked under a swipe, "um, review notes? Take a break–!?"
Milim just grinned, and I splattered across the field again.
"Milim, please!" I called out, jumping out of the way of a kick, only to be launched into the tree line by her fist.
We exchanged blows a few more times… or really, she hit me a lot, and I tried and failed to dodge.
"Uncle!" I yelled, "Uncle! Milim I swear, let's stop and talk now!"
She had stopped responding to me entirely, just pummeling me with a relentless torrent of blows.
I'm gonna die! I freaked out, Great Sage, please do something!
[[Confirmed. Assessing countermeasures… none found.]]
You useless piece of crap!
I felt another rush of energy come into me, [Great Sage] had been supplying me like this this whole battle. Who knew I had so much 'reserved' magicules? Where was it even getting it all?
That was for later though. Right now, I had to find a way to survive, or Milim was literally going to kill me!
[[Notice: I suggest evasion.]]
Yeah, and like heck that's been working!
"Milim!" I tried one more time, "do you want some more fish? Maybe we can–WOAH!"
A blast of energy suddenly beamed right past me… and blew off my arm.
It was gone.
Just gone.
Milim hadn't used that on me before. It was like the limb had just disintegrated into nothing, which was a terrifying thing to even consider.
Screw this! I turned around and booked it, the only chance I've got is to run!
"I told you Rimuru, no running~!" I heard Milim's voice behind me. She sounded mad and playful at the same time; that's a deadly combo, if you ask me.
"Shoot, shoot shoot shoot-shoot-shoot," I hissed. I entered my wolf form, the fastest form I had on land.
Great Sage! Make a body double and draw her away from me!
Suddenly, where there was one wolf tearing through the forest, there were now two. I split off from my double, praying she would take the bait.
"Wahaha! I've told you silly," I heard her yell, "you can't trick me~!"
Crap!
I just had to run. As fast and as far as possible. She had to get tired eventually, or slip up–I could lose her and hide. Maybe run back to the western nations or something.
Don't think, run. Don't think, run. Run!
I focused on nothing else but moving forward as fast as possible, dodging trees, boulders, jumping off cliffs without hesitation.
After a while, Milim's cackling laughter faded into the distance behind me.
I kept running. I ran as fast as I could for as long as possible. I didn't dare look back.
Finally, when I was out of energy, I slowed a bit. I listened, but no voices pursued me.
I don't sense her aura… I spotted a knot in a tree up ahead, and leaped for it. Switching back to my slime form, I slid inside and made myself as small and invisible as possible. Pushing the [Formhide] to the max.
Did I lose her…? I scanned the area with [Magic Sense].
I waited. One minute. Two.
I really need a nap…
Just as I was thinking I might be able to rest and recover a little, a hand appeared and yanked me out of my hiding spot, gripping uncomfortably tight as it dug into me.
"Gotcha!" Milim shoved me in her face, "that was a pretty good start!"
I was too tired. This was too much.
"Um… M-Milim… please…" I started, my exhausted mind losing the ability to put words together.
She held me for a moment, staring at me thoughtfully. Staring so long I began to get nervous… well, more nervous.
"M-Milim…?"
Suddenly she drew me in close… and sunk her teeth in.
"EEEEEEEP!" I let out a shrill squeak that I didn't even know I was capable of making, and all rational thoughts disappeared from my mind.
I lit myself on fire with [Black Flame] and squirmed out of her hands as quick as possible, shooting off again.
She was actually trying to kill me! I was being hunted, and if I didn't escape, I'd be eaten!
I tore through the forest with Milim hot on my trail.
A week. For a whole week Milim chased me!
No matter where I ran, no matter where I hid, she'd find me time and time again, and every time she did, I'd get splattered! Her attacks were as relentless as her chasing, and equally as unavoidable.
After trying to lose her on the other side of a mountain, I sensed Milim's aura barreling towards me in the distance. In a panic, I looked for a place to hide–but the only direction was down.
I dove into the ground, using [Gluttony] at full force to bore a tunnel straight into the mountain. It was only big enough for my squishiest, thinnest shape, and she couldn't possibly get to me under tons of rock!
I wasn't sure how long I dug, but I kept going, unaware of where I was and convinced that it wasn't far enough from Milim. But at least she couldn't follow me… probably.
But I was so, so wrong.
"There you are!" My [Magic Sense] vaguely picked up her cheerful greeting under the sound of an entire mountain being bulldozed by her fist. Rocks flew everywhere, huge boulders the size of houses sailing through the air–and in the middle of it all she grabbed me.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I shrieked, trying to use my slime flexibility to get away, but she had an iron grip on me. Finally I tore myself off, severing the bits of slime she was holding, only for her fingers to dig into me again.
"Okay! Training's over!" Milim wrapped me in a crushing hug. "That wasn't bad!"
Her words didn't even register. I shot a torrent of [Black Flame] in her face, ripping myself away again and switching to the giant bat's form, pumping my wings as fast as they could go.
"Hey!" Milim caught up with me easily once I was out in the open air. I screamed again, and immediately switched forms, trying to drop under her so I could escape.
"What's wrong?" Milim grabbed my slime form, "I said it's over."
Like I would believe that! She had a good hold on my slime form and was using some sort of barrier technique to prevent me from splitting myself again. Switching to human, I put both my hands and feet on her wrist and tried to pry my hair out of her grip.
"Did I break you?" Milim tilted her head curiously. She brought my face up to hers to look into my eyes. "C'mon, don't do something boring like that!"
Break… me…?
Milim forcefully holding me in one place long enough helped my mind to catch up with my body, and I stopped struggling for a moment, staring at her wildly.
"Here." She let go of my hair and held me up under my arms out in front of her. "That's better, right? So did I break you? I hope not."
"U-uh…" I stuttered, taking a full five minutes to form the words. "...no?"
"Oh, goodie!" She beamed, "'cause you can't lose your sanity that easy, you know, if you're gonna get your students back!"
Suddenly, I remembered why I was here in the first place. The hell of the last week had completely wiped it from my mind. The only things I had thought about that entire time was evading Milim and surviving.
Shizu's students… Chloe… Alice, Kenya, Gale, Ryota…
I was doing this for them.
"R-right," I stammered. "Um, I'm…" I wasn't fine, technically, but… "I'm good now."
"Great!" Milim let go of me and I caught myself by forming some wings, looking down at the hellscape her descent into the mountain had caused. "Now let's get you fed! Your magicules look like they're already stable, but you lost a lot of weight!"
"I what?" I stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Look at yourself, silly!" Milim poked me in the chest.
I turned [Magic Sense] on myself, and gasped in horror.
Not again!
"I look like a three year old!"
Great Sage, what's the deal?! My skills are working fine!
[[Reserve magicules have been… depleted. Ultraspeed Regeneration will remain unavailable for seven days to conserve energy.]]
"Noo!" I almost sobbed, putting my face in my hands. Not only was I short, how would I survive another week with Milim like this!?
"Hey, cheer up!" Milim grabbed me in another hug and tousled my hair. "I know some mountains near here with a ton of dragons, let's get you one for a snack!"
"Milim, I can't fight like this!" I wailed, "and I'll be like this for a whole week!"
"Whaddya mean? You're plenty strong," she said. "I'm sure you can still take a dragon when you're small."
"But if I take any damage, I'll just get even smaller! M-my regeneration isn't working!"
"Then just don't get hit, silly!"
"That's not the issue!" I screamed at her. Ugh, even my voice is more high-pitched! This is horrible!
"Hey, c'mon." Milim patted my head comfortingly. "You need to rest, you're acting all crazy. Why don't you go back to the forest, and I'll fetch a snack for ya?"
She was acting suspiciously motherly, but I was too far gone to care. Any opportunity to get a moment away from this nightmare sounded good to me.
I nodded, and she gave me a cheerful thumbs up, before zooming deeper into the mountain range I had run to the edge of. With a sigh, I turned back toward Jura.
Deciding it was too much bother to fly, I dropped to the ground and started trudging along.
Once I was a small distance into the forest, an annoyingly familiar aura sprung out of the ground nearby, taking the shape of a dryad.
"What?" I growled, not even pausing to look at her.
"Did something… more, happen?" Treyni asked. "You look a little–"
I glared at her and she immediately shut up. But after a moment, I let out a heavy sigh and relented. "I was 'training.' With Milim."
"So I saw."
I couldn't even be mad at her for not interfering. Demon Lords really were in a whole other league.
"This area has been evacuated for some time," Treyni said. "So if you wish to rest here, you won't be disturbed."
"Ugh." It was too much, I was planning to make it all the way back to the Sealed Cave, but Treyni's reassurance broke me.
I groaned and fell face-first on the ground then literally melted into slime, letting my shape spread out across the soft grass until I was practically a puddle. It was shockingly comfortable.
Treyni was looking like she wanted to talk more, but I wasn't about to have it. She just stood there, probably waiting for me to acknowledge her somehow, but at this point I was getting used to being constantly stared at, so I had no difficulty continuing to pretend she wasn't there.
"Just so you know," Treyni began conversationally, "the orcs are settling in very well. Some of the different races' villages have formed small groups, creating an alliance under your name. A few have even formed agreements with the lizardmen for access to…"
She kept talking. I didn't answer, though I sort of listened to her chat for a while. I was sure that [Great Sage] was taking notes for me. After a few hours of this, Treyni disappeared without a word. Right on time, a pink comet streaked through the air, and she landed in front of me with a thud, laughing almost-maliciously. It was unnerving and I caught myself shuddering a bit from it.
"Wahahahaha!" Milim grinned down at me, "I got your reward, Rimuru!"
"Uh, yeah… thanks." I said. Milim was standing there with a dragon the size of a house held by its horn.
"Hey," Milim pouted, drawing my attention away from the dragon as she glared at me. "You changed back!"
"Uh, yeah…?"
"But you looked so cute before!" Milim stomped on the ground and the trees shook, the dragon making sounds you'd never expect a dragon to make, it was so terrified and unable to escape her iron grip.
"Okay, okay!" I returned to my mini-fied human form and sat up on the ground, desperately raising my hands to placate her.
For a moment, I considered making my form larger with some extra magicule use, but quickly dismissed the idea. I tried that once, to make myself adult-sized, and was not pleased with the results. Yes, I looked more respectable, but it felt awful!
Not painful, but uncomfortable. Imagine having input lag, but with moving your actual body. I felt sluggish, and kinda numb, almost. It was tolerable, but fighting in that state would never be a good idea, I decided at the time. So, for this I would just have to make do with this… smaller form. To keep Milim happy, at least.
"I'll stay like this!" I continued, then I looked at the scared dragon again. "And, you brought… that?"
"Yeah!" Milim preened, confirming my fears. "It's a nice treat, don'tcha think?"
I felt bad for the poor thing, having been in the same situation not too long ago. And I'm supposed to… eat it? That would just make me feel guilty. I had been too tired and bewildered to argue earlier, but now I wasn't so sure I wanted to go through with this.
It was here, though, and I was a little terrified of what Milim would do to me if I refused a "gift." I'd eaten tons of monsters before, this wouldn't be any different.
"Alright," I groaned while forcing myself to my feet, "let's get this over with." I started charging up [Gluttony]; a snack would do me good anyway, but Milim had other plans.
"Woah-woah-woah!" She held out a hand to stop me. "Don't finish it off too soon," she said.
"What?" I looked at her tiredly. "Why not?"
"This exercise," Milim preened as she revealed her full plan, "is all about technique."
"I thought this was a 'gift.'"
"It's both!"
"Okay…"
By this point I was just figuring out what Milim seemed to consider 'technique', which was paying a little more attention when you smashed into the poor target. "I want you to try controlling your strength against this guy, so don't kill 'im right away."
I balked. "That's cruel!" I protested, my eyes again darting to the growling, scrabbling creature Milim was holding onto.
The Demon Lord just shrugged. "It's just an arch dragon," she said, "and you're going to eat it anyway, right?"
"But I…" I trailed off, looking from the dragon to a grinning Milim, and back again. I was so exhausted, and in the short time I'd interacted with Milim I'd won absolutely no arguments with her. And who knows what she'd do to me if I didn't play along with her plan? Also, if I spent a while fighting the dragon, I could at least use it to stall and put off more torture.
Sorry dude, I apologized mentally, though admittedly not entirely sincerely. Better you than me. "Fine," I sighed aloud while summoning Shizu's sword. This would work better if I didn't use my skills at first. "Set it loose."
"King Gazel, the intruders are moving back into the forest." My best intelligence officer, Henrietta, reported to me as I sat around a table with my top advisors.
"Good. Continue to monitor the aura and notify us if they take even a step back," I instructed.
She nodded, still managing the magic connection to her informants while she sat at the table.
"Jaine?"
"Only one of the Ten Great Demon Lords could cause that amount of trouble."
"Hmm." I rubbed my temples.
Many incidents of powerful auras appearing in the forest of Jura had been occurring recently. Often they appeared dangerously close to Dwargon, but this was the worst yet.
We felt the rumble of the mountains in the city, and then suddenly a huge quake occurred, the first in Dwargon's history. Damage reports were still coming in.
"Could it be that new 'Guardian' creature trying to flaunt its power?" My good friend, Vaughn, suggested.
"If it is, it will soon discover Dwargon is not a foe to trifle with," I grumbled. "What of the dragon lords, Henrietta? Any sign of movement?"
"They are remaining put, your majesty," she answered.
"Well," I stifled a shudder, "if the dragon lords will not confront this thing, then we must simply stay put and hope it turns away from Dwargon."
This had been a long few months, and I was becoming antsy. First the Orc Lord incident, then some creature comes in and annihilates it and its army single-handedly to take over the Forest of Jura. What's next, a new Demon Lord?
I was itching to go out and remove the threat myself, I could feel this was not a creature to ignore… but to impulsively rush out and provoke it could mean huge losses for Dwargon.
At times like this I missed my days as an independent hero.
We ordered some snacks and prepared for a long night of vigil, ready to act the moment it became clear this monster was after Dwargon.
That Arch Dragon hit all the spots… and by that, I mean I felt much better after eating it. Fighting it hitless was a bit of a challenge, but not much of one, especially when compared to sparring with Milim.
Eating it only shortened my regeneration's 'deactivation period' by a few hours though, but oh well.
It was a bit annoying when I had to figure out [Spatial Motion] on the fly, though. Especially since I didn't even know about the sightline teleportation thing… Then again, maybe the Sage made that up on the fly because I needed it.
It did wonders though, when it came to dodging that breath attack. I wasn't able to move fast enough to avoid that, but using [Spatial Motion], despite its slowness, it was still faster when teleporting to a distance near the edge of my [Magic Sense] range.
Well… now I was left with that empty feeling again. I really wanted to stick it to Yuuki and find my kids, otherwise I really didn't know what would happen to me. Plus, I still needed to punch a Demon Lord in the face for Shizu, so I guess training with a Demon Lord that can help me do that isn't too bad.
"Hey, Milim."
"Yeah?"
"If I, hypothetically… uh, punched Demon Lord Leon in the face, would you back me up?"
Milim stared at me for a long second before an excited grin spread across her face, "Only if you manage to hit him! And don't die immediately after."
"Wait, but aren't we besties? You wouldn't let me die trying, would you?"
"I make no guarantees, even I have limits… Sorta. If you die instantly, how can I stop that?"
"Touche…"
"Hm… Seems everyone wants to punch Leon, I wonder what he did."
"Well, I guess he hurt a lot of people."
"Nah, it's probably because of how he acts. He's never hurt a fly, but he just seems to make everyone grumpy, or sad, or something else. Guy's thoughts are probably the weirdest though."
"Never hurt a fly… that's a load of garbage."
"Sheesh, you really hate him, don'tcha?"
I nodded.
"You probably are misunderstanding him. It happens a lot. He does things and people assume it's for bad reasons, but I know he's a softie on the inside! Especially since he's kinda human… all gooey and soft on the inside. Not as much as you though, Rimuru. Slimes are gooiest!"
Milim held her arms out and gestured for me to come closer. She wanted to hold me in slime form, I knew that, and without a reason to refuse, I obliged. She hugged me in one of her too-tight hugs, but not as bad as she had a few times in the past. It felt nice.
"Wait," I said while still being trapped in her arms, "Does that mean you're not 'gooey' on the inside?" Considering most living things are that way, it made sense for Milim to be too.
"Of course I'm not, silly!" Milim boasted, "I'm the strongest Demon Lord, remember?"
"Right, right… yes you are."
Leon was still on my mind, but I guess I couldn't go after him anytime soon either way. I had other more pressing issues anyway. Leon could wait.
I decided to shrug it off for now and returned the hug. Well, as best I could, as a slime. I didn't exactly have any arms to hug with at the moment so slime-nubs had to do.
Milim's brutal training continued. Day after day, we did nothing but fight morning and night. I still hadn't recovered my body mass, and now I was being forced to use my remaining energy stores on surviving her constant onslaught.
Maybe she let up because I was "wounded", or maybe I was getting better, I don't know, but I was getting hit less often.
Well, not a whole lot less often.
Actually, I think it was about the same.
"You've got a bit faster, but you're still too slow for me, Rimuru!" Milim laughed, and in the split second between me being able to parse what she said and her fist coming towards me, I had a perfect view of impending doom.
"AAAAAGH!" I couldn't help it, I'd been screaming a lot lately, and I shot backwards through the trees propelled by Milim's absurd physical strength.
I smashed through full-on tree trunks, trying to get a purchase but anything my fingers grabbed hold of tore along with me. Then I smashed through something else.
I glimpsed a me-shaped hole in a wooden wall, some clay pots and stuff, and then I was outside again.
Suddenly I crashed into something hard, my back almost giving out from the force. I felt a huge, heavy thing tip over behind me, saw a massive congregation of monsters staring at me furiously, and slid through mud that smelled suspiciously like stew.
Whoops.
[[Notice. Liquid mixture, 90% bulldeer components, 10% native grasses. Analyzing composition for later recreation…]]
Isn't that cannibalism or something? Taking in the situation with my mind still on hyper-drive, I stared at the herd of biped cow-people surrounding me, looking like they just stepped out of an ancient greek myth.
Aren't these guys supposed to live in labyrinths? I think they're in the wrong setting here. Eh, different world, different tropes, I suppose.
Actually, maybe I should be more worried about how angry they look.
"Ah-hahaha, sorry!" I scramble to my feet in the mix of soup and mud, glancing at the empty cauldron that could probably fit a horse. Looks like I spoiled their dinner.
And one of their houses.
After the split second it took them to get over their shock, this entire herd of like thirty-something starts raging at me.
It sounds like ragnarok out here!
"Filthy, weak little majin!" Various voices spat at me, "how dare you intrude on our territory!" A few of them were marching forward, others had rocks in their fists, spewing what I think were insults and general 'how-dare-you-weakling' crap.
"Uh, sorry! It was an accident!" I raised my hands and tried to back away, but they'd surrounded me.
"HALT!" Suddenly a booming voice broke through the crowd, and they backed up around me. A steaming, raging, furious bull-man stomped forward.
"That's MY house!" He pointed at the two walls I had smashed through furiously, "this one is mine!"
"You?" An incredulous voice spoke up as another big guy stepped forward. "That was my soup! I cooked it!"
"I think my house is more important than your slime-infested, horn-sucking soup!" The other challenger roared, turning on him.
"My soup does not contain slimes! How dare you accuse me of utilizing such a lowly, disgusting pest!" They were literally like, chest-bumping now, horns locked and everything.
Uh, I think it has slime in it now… my thoughts were cold even as my already-built rage at being beaten up day after day started to boil over.
[[Answer: these lower lifeforms do not seem to recognize Rimuru Tempest as a slime.]]
Wow, was that an insult from you Great Sage? I was kind of impressed.
"QUIET!" Suddenly an even bigger, meaner-looking bull-brute butted in, literally, with his head, and forced them apart.
" "Chief!" " After a moment of glaring and defiant huffing, these two guys seemed to give in to the larger bull-man and dropped to one knee, clasping their hands together in front of him.
"Chief! Allow me the honor of disposing of this intruder!" The first guy bellowed at the top of his lungs.
He's right there, dude…
"No! I am more fit to serve justice to this puny weakling!" The other huffed loudly.
To be honest, I could've been long gone by now, but watching this trainwreck of a society had me fixed to my spot. But, regaining my senses, I decided to try and start inching away… only for everyone to suddenly turn and stare at me, like in some kind of movie.
"No!" The chief roared, "I am the strongest, I defend the territory!"
Pushing through the other two without even breaking eye contact the guy loomed over me, literally standing almost on top. I barely came up to his knee at this size.
"Intruder!" He jabbed a thumb in his chest as he postured, "you have the honor to be defeated by I, Chief of the greatest of tauroids! Embrace your fate!"
"Um… look, I think we got off on the wrong foot here," I raised my hands and backed up again. "I'll just leave, and, um… listen, I was appointed… uh, Guardian of the forest or whatever by the dryads," I fall back on my only piece of clout in hopes it'll chase these guys off. "So, l'll just overlook this incident and be on my way."
I tried to sound a bit authoritative at the end there, usually that worked when I was chasing away nosey coworkers, but it had the opposite effect from what I wanted.
"Oh ho!" The minotaur guy grinned, "you claim to be the Guardian? Yes, I recognize you now! You have shrunk!"
"Great! Yeah, I just, uh… chose to be smaller today, so now that that's established…"
"Yes," the guy hit his palm with a fist. "When I defeat you, I will be the Guardian!"
"I don't think that's how it works, man!" Dangit, what's taking Milim so long!?
"Now we duel!" The minotaur… er, tauroid, declared… and he ran away from me at full speed.
Eh? Is he surrendering?
The crowd parted for him, and when he had gone as far as he could… he turned around, lowered his head, and started snorting. Scraping his foot and everything.
"Crap." I said out loud. I guess I would just have to beat this guy, and maybe they'd listen to reason…
The bull-man charged towards me, I waited until the last moment, and sidestepped him. The crowd parted for him as he careened past me… straight into another wall.
"Rrrrgh!" The chief pulled his head out and shook pieces of wood off his horns, at the same time as someone in the crowd yelled, "the intruder smashed my house!"
"What, you're blaming me for that too?!" I shouted.
"Dodging is a coward's play," the Chief stomped towards me, "you are weak!"
No, it's a life-saving one… especially when you're tussling with a Demon Lord!
I guess I really would have to knock some sense into this guy.
My attitude took an entire 180 in an instant with that thought. "Alright," I growled in frustration, "come at me then! I can handle you just fine!"
This time he charged me, and we grappled. I got a hold of his horns, and the guy reared up…
…completely lifting me off my feet.
"Ack!" I was being tossed around like a ragdoll, still hanging onto the guy. I was extremely light right now, and it was becoming an issue in the fight.
"You know what, fine!" I kicked the guy in the face, and got a purchase on his cheek with my other foot.
The way I was positioned now, I could break his horns pretty easily… but that felt a bit too far. They were pretty cool, and I think horned animals have blood vessels or whatever in them so that'd be pretty painful. It'd make a mess too.
Not to mention he'd be lopsided, so I'd probably have to break the other to even him out…
Best not to cause any permanent damage here. As "Guardian" they were still in my "care" technically, after all.
Holding back a bit since I didn't want to kill the guy, I summoned a strike of [Black Lightning] right on top of the guy.
"GRAAAAAH!" The Chief screamed and I dropped to the ground. He looked quite a bit more toasty than before, but he was still alive, so he'd probably be fine.
I dropped to the ground, grabbed his leg, and flung him into the dirt a couple times, finishing by tossing him against the wall he'd smashed through earlier.
"Rrrgh…" The guy was prone on the ground, but he still struggled to get up. "I will not… be defeated…"
"Come on man," I complained, "how badly do I need to beat it through your thick. Dumb. Skull." I stalked towards him, ready to punch him again or something.
"That's enough," with a flourish of light Treyni suddenly manifested between us. "This battle is over."
"Whadd'you want?" I grumbled, glaring at her as I stopped walking.
"Lord Rimuru," she looked at me, "well done proving your right to your title."
"Eh? Why'd you interrupt me then?"
"This battle is already won."
"He sure doesn't think it is!" I complained, "Treyni. Out of my way," I order calmly.
She gives me a strange look. "I refuse," she answered simply.
"Look at him!" I gestured to the Chief, who had stumbled to his feet and was still raring to go.
"No," she said. "You have gone far enough."
"At least lemme knock 'im out or something," I whined.
"If you kill him," Treyni said sternly, "there will be a power struggle in this section of the forest. It will create chaos, and many other races will suffer."
"I wasn't going to kill him!" I objected, but at the same time my mind was going, I was going that far?
"Wahahaha!" Now Milim showed up, suddenly landing next to me. "He should kill him for that disrespect. Who cares if there's a power struggle thingy?"
That's when I realized, that's who I was starting to act like.
I didn't want that. And Treyni was looking intimidated by Milim. She might actually back down at this rate, even.
"You know what, fine." I waved and turned away, "enjoy your life or whatever, Chief…"
"I'm glad you made the right choice, Rimuru." Treyni walked over to me and opened her palm.
Inside were some of those magenta berries, the same kind from that tart in Englesia.
The reminder just made my inner fire burn hotter.
"Thanks," I grumbled, snatching them from her grasp and popping them in my mouth. Walking away I wondered, what was that? Is she trying to train me?
"That's right!" Milim cheered, "know your place, cow-boy." She jeered at the Chief as she followed after me.
Authors' Note: Just a friendly reminder that this is a joint project between me, AgentT123, and WatcherMagic!