Hearing his subordinates' praise and flattery after making his proposal to Tiamat and Shion, Gabiru was feeling very confident, after all, he was the great Gabiru! What woman wouldn't want to be his mistress? Gabiru was so focused on being the center of attention, that he didn't even notice the death glares centered on him.
"So, what's your answer? I can assure you that becoming my wife is much better than living in this run-down village.", Gabiru said with confidence.
When Gabiru mentioned Tempest, defaming the village, not only Shion and Tiamat but everyone else felt really angry.
Gabiru didn't seem to notice that everyone in Rimuru's group was looking at him with hostility as he still had a smug smile on his face. Fortunately, his subordinates weren't as stupid as he was.
Feeling clear hostility directed towards them, one of the Lizardman approached Gabiru's ear and whispered, "E-Ehem, Gabiru-sama, about the Direwolves..."
"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me!" Gabiru praised his subordinate, then he turned back to Rimuru's group again and said, "Let's save the wedding talk for later, I have more important matters to discuss! Ahem! I've heard that some among you managed to tame Direwolves. I will make those of you who have tamed the Direwolves as officials in my army. Bring them to me," he demanded.
Tiamat decided to ignore the conversation as she was feeling irritated, so she started to focus on the feeling of Rimuru's slime body.
'Fufu! What a squishy and cold body! It would make a great pillow on hot summer days. Oh! It's not a bad idea to create slime pillows! I think I'll make one for each of my children as a gift! I'm sure they will like it!' Tiamat thought, happy with the idea she had.
On Tiamat's lap, Rimuru shivered. 'W-What was this feeling of danger I just felt?!'
From that point onwards, the conversation continued more or less like in the anime with Rimuru summoning Ranga to talk to Gabiru, the difference being that everyone was really angry with Gabiru for talking badly about Tempest. Even Rimuru seemed upset about what Gabiru said, but he remained polite as they talked.
They continued talking until Gabiru insulted and challenge Rimuru to a duel in front of Ranga, which resulted in Ranga almost killing Gabiru in that instant. It was then that Gobuta appeared while bouncing around and humming.
"Hey, what're guys doing?" Gobuta asked curiously, then he saw Tiamat holding Rimuru. "Miss Tia, you're here too! What a coincidence! Hehe!", he said with a big blush.
Rimuru and company turned to Gobuta, surprised at his arrival. Tiamat smiled as she saw Gobuta getting all embarrassed like a timid high school teenager girl; her mood improved with that.
'Fufufu! What a silly child!', Tiamat thought with a giggle.
"Gobuta! What are you doing here?" Rimuru asked.
"Oh! I was just passing by when I heard you guys talking, so I decided to check it out!" Gobuta replied.
A big shadow passed over them all, and Ranga landed behind Gobuta. Ranga grabbed him by the jacket with his mouth, and said, "Good timing."
"Huh?" Gobuta muttered confused, and in the next instant, he was facing Gabiru with a spear in his hands. "What the heck is going on?!"
Ranga, who was right next to Gobuta, looked at Gabiru and said, " Lizard, if you can defeat this one, I will consider your offer to join your army."
Gabiru, who was ready for the duel, said contemptuously, "Hmph! Fine by me! Having one of your subordinates fight in your instead saves you the shame of losing. Wouldn't you agree, slime?"
Unfortunately for Gabiru, his tactic of trying to make the slime angry didn't work out as Rimuru wasn't paying attention to him.
"T-Tia-san! Stop it! This somehow tickles!" Rimuru was too busy trying to get Tiamat to stop rubbing her face on his slime body.
'Wow! It's really refreshing! Why haven't I tried this before?', Tiamat thought.
Seeing that he was being ignored, Gabiru's eye twitched in irritation. He, the great Gabiru was being completely ignored by a mere slime! He never felt so humiliated!
Feeling Gabiru's gaze on her and Rimuru, Tiamat was annoyed again. Just feeling the despicable gaze of that lowly lizard made her irritated. She then looked at Gobuta, who was shaking in fear in front of Gabiru and had an idea.
In the original work, Rimuru encourages Gobuta to fight, with the penalty of eating Shion's food if he loses. But as far as she knows, Gobuta didn't eat Shion's food yet because of the competition he had with Rigurd, so Gobuta doesn't know how bad Shion's food is.
That was Tiamat's fault. There was nothing that could motivate Gobuta to fight because of her interference.
That said, as it is her fault, it's just fair that she gives Gobuta some motivation, right?
Tiamat handed Rimuru to Shion who was beside her and walked towards Gobuta. Rimuru, Shion, Hakurou, Rigurd, and even Ranga were completely perplexed by the light-blue-haired woman's unexpected actions, they had no idea what she intended to do.
Gobuta noticed Tiamat approached him and immediately started stuttering nervously with a blush, completely forgetting about the duel that was about to take place.
Tiamat got beside Gobuta, looked at him with a smile, patted his head, and said affectionately, "Do your...Best...Okay?"
Doing what she wanted to do, Tiamat returned to Shion's side. Everyone looked at her, completely intrigued. 'What the hell was that?', they all thought.
While everyone was confused, however, Tiamat's words continually repeated in Gobuta's mind, and in the blink of an eye, a huge aura of Super Saiya-Ehem! I mean, a huge aura of determination exploded out of his body!
"Uooooh!! Leave it to me, Tia-san! I'll kick that lizard's ass for you!" Gobuta yelled; his youth was burning more than ever! It was his chance to show how manly he was to Tiamat!
Tiamat smiled brightly as she saw Gobuta completely determined to win. All according to the plan!
Rimuru looked at Tiamat with some respect and fear. 'With just one sentence she made the cowardly Gobuta completely determined to fight, women are scary...'
After that, the fight quickly unfolded, with Gobuta defeating Gabiru with just one blow.
All the lizardmen present were paralyzed in shock at the loss of their leader with just one blow, and Rimuru and company congratulate Gobuta on his victory. As a reward for winning so overwhelmingly, Tiamat patted Gobuta on the head once more as she congratulated him. Gobuta was happy and smiled silly, thinking that this was the best reward he could receive.
Of course, Rimuru also offered him a weapon made by Kurobe as a reward, which Gobuta readily accepted.
Rimuru turned to the lizardmen still frozen in shock, and announced, "As you can see, Gobuta won this battle! If you want us to help you fight the Orcs, we will consider it, but we won't serve you. Take your leader and leave for today!"
The lizardmen came out of their stupor and they quickly picked up Gabiru, who was passed out on the ground, and left, with the promise that they would return for revenge.
Seeing the Lizardmen flee, Rimuru and company sighed. However, Tiamat had a satisfied smile on her face. She found it very refreshing to see Gabiru's face smashed on the ground.
"Well, I guess we'll have to plan where we go from here," Rimuru said.