“No way,” I whispered.
This monster was totally beyond all common sense. I wasn’t sure this was reality any longer.
Before my eyes, the demon lord had just ripped off both his arms and eaten them.
An orc general ran up to him.
“My lord, let my body join yours…”
They nodded at each other, and that was that. The orc general was killed, then casually cannibalized.
Man… And with every bite, that charred skin fell away, revealing yet another fresh layer underneath. Then he grew entirely new arms, driven by the muscle and fiber gained from what he consumed. He could use that to cast Self-Regeneration on himself as many times as he wanted, I imagined.
Talk about an incredible healer. I mean, seriously, if we don’t kill this dude in one hit, we’re never getting outta this. Or maybe we’d have to render him into nothing but atoms to finish him. The one thing we knew for sure, though, was that my five strongest underlings could pool their abilities together and that still wasn’t enough.
Then the demon lord let out a guttural battle roar. “Not enough!” he screamed, his yellow aura coursing across his body. “More! More, let me eat more! Consume them all! Chaos Eater!!”
Like sentient tendrils, the yellow aura extended its way toward the nearby piles of bodies. They instantly corroded their flesh, consuming them whole. If anything, it was this yellow aura that was the true driver behind Geld’s power.
It was another application of his unique Ravenous skill. Part of that skill involved Rot—something that could literally rot anything that it made contact with. If the target failed to resist it, it was corroded and killed if it was organic. Fearsome indeed.
Instinctively sensing all this, I ordered my troops to retreat.
“Fall back!”
The moment I did, the ogres stepped back.
“Tell Gobta and the lizardmen not to come near here!”
“What about you, Sir Rimuru?” Benimaru asked.
I opened my mouth to reply. I was cut off.
“You will become my next meal. Die! Death March Dance!!”
The same attack Gelmud tried out earlier. But now it was much more of a punisher. Not only was far more energy packed into it, but each tiny magic bolt had Rot added to it. Get hit by one, and even the ogres would be gravely hurt.
I had to do something.
✦ ✦ ✦
I was no longer able to keep my body from quivering. This was something that came from instinct. Uh-oh. I just couldn’t stop.
✦ ✦ ✦
—Is this fear?
No.
This…is joy.
Oh. So I’m overjoyed.
Yes—
✦ ✦ ✦
From deep within my body, I was quivering in a frenzy of joy, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
A foe that even five of my strongest fighters couldn’t handle. And yet, there wasn’t a trace of fear in my heart. The depression I entered this battle with was a thing of the past.
Now, this demon lord had elevated himself in my mind. He was my enemy. Sorry I thought you were just a pain in the ass earlier. Now I’m serious!
A flurry of magical bolts flung themselves toward me. I used Predator to consume them, and then the tendrils of yellow wrapped themselves around me.
The demon lord Geld’s Death March Dance bolts danced around in the air, as if self-conscious, before coming in to swallow me. It was infused with Chaos Eater, and it had a mission to carry out.
In another moment, the elastic tendrils were around me. Even if they were still on the other side of my Multilayer Barrier, it still didn’t feel very pleasant.
✦ ✦ ✦
—Yeah? You wanna consume me? Well, all right. Do it if you can!
✦ ✦ ✦
Worked up as I was, my instincts commanded me to flash a weak smile.
If you wanna eat me, you’ll just get eaten first.
Silently, I removed my mask and put it in a pocket.
It was time for my clash with the demon lord Geld.
✦ ✦ ✦
An impartial observer would probably assume that I’d have a hard time defeating the demon lord.
But slowly, I took out my sword, the yellow aura still around me. I didn’t like that aura, but it wasn’t dealing me much damage. I didn’t have Resist Rot in my arsenal, but it must have been dealing melee damage upon me—nothing I couldn’t cover for with Ultraspeed Regeneration.
Closing the distance between us, I slashed at Geld. He cleanly blocked me with his meat cleaver, sending me somersaulting. I should’ve expected as much. I couldn’t take Shion in a sword-on-sword clash, and she just lost to this guy. And Hakuro, who was on another plane of existence from me swordsmanship-wise, could do little against him.
I tried another slash, moving at hyper-speed to confuse my foe, trying to find any weakness I could from every angle I could think of. I knew it was pointless, but I couldn’t stop going through the cycle. Whenever I was blocked or swatted away, I just kept going back, testing it all out.
It assured me of one thing. I was weak.
I thought back to the five fighters I had directly under me, as well as Shuna and Kurobe. They had each inherited part of my skills, and in terms of using them, they were already far more expert at them than I was.
A refresher:
Ranga: Dark Lightning, Control Wind
Benimaru: Dark Flame, Control Flame
Hakuro: Hasten Thought
Shion: Steel Strength, Strengthen Body
Soei: Shadow Motion, Replication
Shuna: Analyze and Assess
Kurobe: Research
Even among the most typical of skills, the differences were obvious. The ones they inherited were either downgrades or incomplete versions of my own. Absolutely a step down, in all ways. But they were using them all far more effectively. If I fought each one-on-one, I was pretty sure I could win. Several at once? No way. That was how strong my fighters had become.
And despite that, the demon lord Geld probably could take them all in one go. And win. My Sage analysis of the battle results told me so. They all lacked a truly decisive weapon, and sooner or later they’d run out of energy and lose.
This wasn’t a foe I could beat if I fought normally. Emphasis on normally.
The ogres could use their skills far more deftly than I could. Why was that? For Hakuro, that was mainly just his high level at work, but what about the others? There were a few reasons—they mixed the skills with their own Arts, or their instincts allowed them to unleash their full potential without holding back. They had adopted the skills for themselves, and they could use them more efficiently than I ever could. That’s what made them strong.
Through my Sage-based simulations, I knew I’d have trouble defeating several at the same time. But was that really the case? And…really, was I “weak” at all?
To answer that—
✦ ✦ ✦
Let’s start with an assumption.
Most of my skills were wrested away from other monsters. I wasn’t born with them, so I needed to start by understanding exactly what they were in the first place. You aren’t automatically handed a driver’s license just because you’re tall enough to sit behind a steering wheel—and you sure couldn’t expect to win a professional race that way.
But when I found myself transferred to this world, I did already have a skill or two. The skills I was born with, ones I could use as freely as snapping my fingers.
So all I needed was a single order.
“All right, Great Sage. Smash that foe for me!!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Received. Switching to auto-battle mode.
✦ ✦ ✦
—And there was my answer.