Charybdis 3

Oblivious of Milim's internal struggle, Rimuru began eating himself. After a while, the girl excused herself, saying she has 'something to do' and left. 'Something to do? Wonder what she's up to. Well, as long as it doesn't cause grief to me.' And continued eating.

There were only two more days until Charybdis would arrive; he could feel the eerie aura coming ever closer, even at this distance. He needed to be prepared, so he pushed aside all other thoughts but his plans against the beast. He would win, he had to, for the sake of his city and all of his people's efforts. He did, however, keep one other though: that once it was over, he would try his best to be the friend Milim believed him to be. Any notion of pretend and convenience, he decided to throw it away; maybe it would finally solve that weird feeling he had around her all the time.

The day had arrived; Charybdis was here. Rimuru and his top subordinates were lined up on one of the roads leading out of Tempest and into the forests. They were as ready as they could be.

The main plan Benimaru came up with was to intercept the creature in the open space the road provided so that even their ground forces had a clear line of sight of it; Gabiru and the dwarven pegasus knights would distract it in the air while the rest would draw in the 13 megalodons accompanying it and take them out first so they could then focus all they had on the main threat. He felt sorry for Geld and the high orcs who toiled for months to pave the road, but it was better it be destroyed than the city. Most citizens had been evacuated into the nearby hills and were ready to leave even further at a moment's notice.

He watch the massive creature loom in the horizon, and he really did feel like just giving up and begging Milim to do all the work. Speaking of Milim, she had, despite his (reluctant) insistence came along on to the battlefield. He tried to protest again but she spoke up first

-'Ah, don't be like that.' she said with a hint of anger 'I'm just here for convenience sake!' she smiled as posed haughtily

-'Eh? Convenience?' he asked her genuinely confused

-'Yeah, id't be a hassle to come find me when you'll need me to step in, right? Oh, and I expect a 'sorry' with that 'please', okay?' she said as she ignored his befuddled look and moved to sit crossed legged under a three, bringing out something from her storage space...'are those...chips?' Indeed, they were chips.

He decided to forget about the girl for now before he popped a vein in annoyance- slimes didn't have veins but he sure felt like he did- and decided to focus on the battle ahead. Charybdis was now almost on top of them. With a sign from Benimaru, the battle commenced.

A Hell Flare shot up into the air, its black flame visible from miles; a megalodon was caught in the blast and died instantly, falling to the ground. The rest of the troops surged forth to deal with all the smaller enemies while Charybdis was distracted by the flying troops. The distraction didn't last long but it was enough; his subordinates made surprisingly short work of the flying sharks, dispatching them one after the other.

In short order, the last megalodon was fell, but as they all feared this was only the start of their struggle; the large beast make a deafening, ungodly screech before a cloud of smaller object began to fly off of it and headed straight for them at great speed. A quick glance told Rimuru they were the creature's scales; he decided this was his moment to shine. He flew and put himself between his assembled troops and the incoming projectiles, ignoring the protests of Soei and Shion to get back. Now he was ready, he was (mostly) sure of it.

'Ever since I had predated the Orc Lord, my skills improved greatly; slowly but surely, they evolved. With the extra experience I got from my battles with Milim, that evolution was now completed. Right...'

Notice: by absorbing and assimilating skill Starved, you're skill Predator has evolved...' Great Sage informed him 'Gluttony!' and with that one command all the incoming scales were gone, engulfed by a black cloud that devoured them in seconds before drawing back into his outstretched arm. Silently, he wondered just how shocked his allies must have been. He quickly flew over to Charybdis and tried to consume the beast too, but it was no use; like Predator, Gluttony could not devour enemies with equal or greater magicule content. However, he noticed that he did, in fact, caused some damage to the creature, as it began thrashing and focused its entire attention on him. A beam of energy shot out of its one eye, but he avoided it easily.

Now that he had its undivided attention, he gave his troops the order to attack. He would keep it at bay while they would dwindle away at its health, slowly bur surely. Though he started this day dejected, he now felt more confident that they could actually do this. However, nothing ever goes perfect.

While they were doing damage, it was to little to really count; it was adding up, but very slowly. Moreover, the damn thing could grow back its scales due to its high-speed regeneration, launching volleys at his allies sporadically, forcing him to stay on the defensive more than the defensive. Thus the battle dragged on. It dragged on for ten hours.

By the tenth hour of the battle, he was really starting to panic again; he calculated (Great Sage calculated) that at their current rate, it would take up to two more days to finish it off. He realized they would not last that long. They had set up a system in place before the battle began to allow troops to rotate around and rest, but that could only do so much. Worse, he suspected- and Great Sage confirmed- that the creature showed signs it would evolve soon. It wasn't too surprising, monsters evolved all the time as they got stronger, but this could not have come at a worse time for them. Then...

A gargle of barley discernible noises came from the creature '...how...dare...you..Mi...lim...' is what it sounded to Rimuru. 'Eh? What? Did that thing just...speak?!'

Confirmed: its exact words were: 'how dare you Milim.. Great Sage helpfully confirmed, but he was still confused. 'How was this thing talking? What the hell did Milim had to do with it? Was my gut instinct to let her deal with this right in the first place?! Damn you Shuna and Shion!' he wanted to shout at the two ogress, possibly scold them, but for now decided to go and see what Milim had to say.

She was sleeping. She was sound asleep under the same tree he left her under, looking completely unperturbed by their massive battle nearby. He was partially annoyed at her for that, but also could hardly blame her; she offered her help, free of charge, and they completely cut her off. He decided against shaking her awake violently and tried to do so gently

-'Milim...hey, Milim, wake up.' The sleeping girl suddenly jolted awake, looking confused at where she was before she remembered

-'Ah, no, I wasn't sleeping!' she immediately protested 'I was...er, cheering you on! With my eyes closed...yeah!' Rimuru was not buying it, but he though better to just get to the issue

-'Yeah, listen...the big tuna seems to have busyness with you, not me.'

Hearing that, Milim stood up quickly and glanced over at Charybdis 'Ah, really?' a moment later, her eyes seemed to glow, a sign he learned meant she was using her Dragon Eye ability. 'Hmm...Oh, that guy is inside Charybdis!' she reported

-'That 'guy'?' Rimuru asked

-'Ah, that beast guy who came to Tempest, Fabio or whatever...' she tried to explain. Rimuru racked his brain to think...

-'Phobio?' he realized 'He's inside that thing?!'

-'Yeah, by the looks of it hes being used as its core.' Milim helpfully explained to him. 'So dose that mean Charybdis was following his desires? To get revenge on Milim for getting his ass beat? What a pain...' he though as he looked over the creature, then over at an eager looking Milim 'Ah, she's rearing to go. Well, I ain't standing in her way one second longer!'

-'Okay, it's your turn. Just let me get everyone out of the way.'

-'Alright! I'll get it distracted!' and flew off at high speed; sure enough, Charybdis was on her tail, everyone else forgotten.

Attention everyone, this is Rimuru; for your own safety, please retreat away from Charybdis. We're gonna try something, and you don't wanna be near it his telepathic message rang through the minds of everyone assembled; as quick as they could, they began a hasty retreat and were clear within a few minutes.

-'Evacuation completed, Milim' he said as he quickly flew over at her side whens he put some distance between herserlf and the monster. 'You can go ahead and do whatever, however...I was wondering if you could do something for me...'

-'What is it?'

-'Would you be able to destroy Charybdis but spare Phobio? I'd rather not have the hassle of having a Demon Lord's underling's death to deal with.'

-'Heh, easily! I don't known why worry so much, but since you asked I'll do it. Now sit back as see how much restraint I can show!'

'Restraint? I have a bad feeling about that...' he thought as he watched she turned to face the great sky monster head on 'What is she going to do?'

Charybdis unleashed another wave of projectiles in the air, all of them headed for Milim; he quickly flew backwards to avoid them, but she didn't even flinch, just smirked and outstretched one hand, palm forward. At that simple action, every single projectile simply stopped dead in the air, their inertia completely killed off. 'What' was all his dumbfounded mind could think up at the sight. With another simple downward motion, Milim dropped them all onto the ground. Then she put her hands together in front of her. A wave of energy seemed to wash from the space between her hands, a brilliant white light emanating from them.

Warning: indescribable; collection of information failed 'Wait, even Great Sage can't tell what that is?

'Dragon Buster!' Milim's voice rang out over the forests; at least two dozen beams of light shot out from her hands, moving at high speeds towards the beast. The beams twisted and turned and made contact with it from several different angles; the effect was instantaneous: a massive explosion replaced Charybdis in the sky, creating a shockwave that could be heard for tens of miles and completely eradicating the monster. An expanding cloud was all that remained.

'What about any of that was restrain?!' he wanted to shout, equally parts awed and terrified at the ridiculous display of power. However, his view was directed at something falling out from the cloud and plummeting quickly to the ground. He realized that she had, in fact, spared Phobio, despite catching him in that insane explosion. How she did that, he had no clue, nor did Great Sage. He grew wings again and raced to catch the falling beast man before he died, then lowered him down onto a flat patch of land, kneeling to check if he was breathing.

Milim also quickly flew down to where he was, flashing a smile and a victory sign. Watching her, he had to admit to himself: she was incredible. He could not even imagine the level of skill required to pull what she did, so he didn't bother. Instead he looked up at her, awed, and was really glad she was on his side