Benimaru and the other ogres were positioned for battle. They could see how much of a threat the demon lord Geld was. Their easygoing smiles were gone, replaced with stern, serious frowns.
“Sir Rimuru!” Benimaru said. “Let us handle this!” Shion, meanwhile, didn’t even bother to speak. With a flash, she whipped out her large sword and swung it home, putting all her strength behind it, enhanced further by the extra skills Steel Strength and Strengthen Body.
Geld attempted to block it with one meat cleaver–equipped hand. Even for him, it wasn’t quite enough. He brought up his right hand now, too, doing his best to resist Shion’s incessant attack.
“You think some dirty pig can be a demon lord?!” Shion shouted as she landed another strike from up high. “Don’t you dare believe that!” Kurobe’s expertly crafted blade now had a visible aura around it, as it landed with a dull thud against the demon lord’s body.
Both took a step back before clashing once more. Longsword slammed against cleaver, raining sparks upon the battlefield. It looked like an even match, but before long, the differences between the two became clear. Every muscle on Geld bulged, his very armor pulsing as if it were part of his body.
It was the demon lord who won out in the end. His muscle outclassed Shion’s, even with Strengthen Body and all of that. The evolution had greatly enhanced his physical body. It made me want to sigh in despair.
Shion was tossed back, and Geld pursued her. Realizing the danger, she attempted to deflect the blow while leaping backward to reduce the impact. The damage upon her was clear nonetheless. She winced in pain—it’d be a while before she was ready to move again.
But Shion wasn’t the only one here. As Geld landed the follow-up attack, a middle-aged samurai stood strong behind him.
It was Hakuro, and with a speed even I was just barely capable of following, he drew his sword from the staff it was hidden in.
The blade glowed with a constant light, energized by the battle force housed inside the wielder. Its brightness indicated exactly how focused Hakuro was on this. No one could block or dodge him now. A streak of metal ran across the demon lord’s body, cutting it cleanly in half and even slicing off the head on the way back up.
That had to be enough, I thought, but I was still being far too optimistic. Geld’s body reconnected itself, thanks to a yellowish aura that regrouped all the parts with tentacle-like tendrils. The completed body then leaned down, grabbed its head off the ground, and reattached it like nothing was amiss.
The horror movie–like scene silenced everyone for a moment. Even Hakuro was obviously surprised.
Now I knew the most fearsome thing about the demon lord Geld was his otherworldly healing skills. For now, this monster wouldn’t have any resistances, but once he gained them, he’d be impossible to kill.
Then:
“Demonwire Bind!”
Soei used his Sticky Steel Thread to apprehend Geld. He had been lurking within Hakuro’s shadow, waiting for the perfect timing to restrain the demon lord’s moves.
“Get him, Benimaru!” he shouted. Benimaru was already on the move, suddenly unleashing a Hellflare strike. Only a small dome opened around Geld—whether he was deliberately keeping it small or was short on energy after deploying four of them, I didn’t know.
Geld, restrained, had no means of escape from the barrier as it became engulfed in high-temperature flames, doing their level best to incinerate the demon lord. The power of the heat was unaffected by the size of the dome, giving us a guaranteed death.
Or so we thought. Several seconds later, the dome was gone—and Geld was just casually standing there. Benimaru grimaced at the sight. Hellflare was a powerful move, yes, but it was designed for efficiency. It was focused on doing its deed within only a couple seconds; it was incapable of keeping the burners on for extended periods of time like Ifrit could.
Generating Ifrit-style temperatures with relatively little energy was an impressive feat, don’t get me wrong. But a target with enough resistance could easily focus on defending itself to survive the blast, I suppose. If Benimaru could make it last longer, the flames would eventually overcome any resistance or regenerative skills. That, or maybe he could focus further to make the fire even hotter, capable of burning anything in the world. But no.
It wasn’t wholly ineffective, though. Geld had no heat resistance; his skin was burned horribly. The resistance his aura offered was all that kept it from being a lethal blow. He had probably gained something along the lines of Self-Regeneration, like what I had in slime form. The burned skin was already sloughing off, with new skin being generated from underneath. And the moment Geld whispered something, he began to heal quicker than ever.
He must have inherited—or seized—Gelmud’s own healing skills. Combined with his own inherent abilities, he could probably heal almost as fast as me with Ultraspeed Regeneration.
The battle continued as I watched and analyzed. Ranga aimed an extra strike at Geld before he could fully heal from Benimaru’s damage. He focused his Dark Lightning on a single point and released it, much as I had before. Nothing fancy; just a killer amount of force. It hit Geld directly, freezing him. He was burned and blackened, and as we watched, he fell to the ground.
This time, I was sure we had won. And why not? Not even I was sure I could withstand that kind of attack. If it were a Replicant of mine, it’d be burned to a crisp.
I guess we all wound up pitching in on this kill. Hope they don’t think any less of me for it. I doubted any of the ogre mages could’ve taken him on solo and had any chance. That attack just emptied Ranga’s energy, too—Dark Lightning consumed a ton of it, with obvious results. He was now curled up on the ground, unable to move. I wish he could’ve kept a bit in reserve, but I couldn’t blame him for not doing so at a time like this. Besides, it was over now, right?
Then I heard something.
“So this…is pain.”
The blackened, charred demon lord was back on his feet.
Guess not, then?