Ch 29: Battle or Massacre?

"They have arrived."

Rimuru spoke. Currently Rimuru, Hajime, the girls, Aiko and the students were standing on top of a wall that Rimuru raised with earth magic. This wall was merely representative as monsters would not get here. It was also quite high so that the citizens would not see the battle.

"Hajime-kun I will kill the army and you take care of the generals. I'll also leave the black mage to you."

"Maaa. Fine."

Rimuru told everyone that the monster army was not being controlled completely. Only their leaders were controlled by the black mage and the rest were following them.

Hajime agreed with Rimuru and Shia and Yue didn't seem to mind. Chloe was going to help kill the monsters as well.

Hajime was going to set off on the generals, but...

"Wait."

"Huh?"

"There."

"Kh!?"

Hajime took a fright as his presence detection did not detect it. The army of monsters was on the horizon, but there was someone(something) there, right next to the wall standing still was....

"O.. What is that?"

Hajime asked confused. Rimuru thought for a while and spoke....

"He doesn't seem to be with the army. He must have been sent by the gods. They must think that now is the perfect chance to kill some of you and affect me or something. If they think that, they must not have that much knowledge of my powers.

"Humm. Rimuru-san, let me take care of that thing. Rimuru-san destroy the army and Sakura-chan help Hajime-kun and the others."

The black monster had the strength of an awakened demon lord. That was nothing to Chloe. She could easily defeat it. So Rimuru agreed.

"Maybe they want to test my strength? So they sent someone disposable? Maybe that's it...

Rimuru was thoughtful, so Hajime spoke up.

"It's moving."

They looked at the monster and the creature raised its arms. A purple light came out of its arms and then.

"What the fuck is that!?"

"That's impossible..."

"No... it can't be..."

The students were sweating cold this as the monster army multiplied by 10 times. Hajime then looked at Rimuru and spoke...

"Can you still do it?"

He knew that Rimuru was powerful, but 600,000 was really a lot.

"Yes. Yes. Don't worry."

The students were confused by Rimuru saying he could destroy this army in such a casual tone, but at least it calmed them down a bit. Chloe went towards the monster and Hajime, Yue and Shia went towards the generals. The students and Aiko could only cheer.

●●●

Chloe went towards the monster.

The monster saw her and spoke...

"So you guys have met hein. Eht-sama said that might happen."

The monster spoke. His voice was thick and a little sinister. He was probably talking about Chloe finding Rimuru.

"What is your name?"

"I am Cartinus. I know who you are. The heroine Chloe Albert."

"Yes. If you surrender I can let you live."

Chloe was a hero by nature and did not like to kill. That's why she asked for surrender, but if he denied she would attack mercilessly.

"Don't talk nonsense."

He spoke this and his arms turned into blades. Chloe realized that he would not surrender and attacked. It was a single blow from her sword, but it was enough to make Cartinus retreat.

"Kh!"

Cartinus didn't understand. The Gods had told him that Chloe was weak and would be easily defeated by him. Cartinus seemed to realize something and muttered

"So they used me."

Cartinus didn't know why, but the Gods had lied to him about his opponent's strength and sent him to his death. The best he could do was escape, but for that. He would have to defeat Chloe.

"Demonic flames!"

He launched purple flames at Chloe. These flames were stronger than Yue's blue flames, but they were much weaker than Rimuru's black flames. Rimuru's flames were so Rimuru's black flames were very powerful. So this guy might have had the strength of an awakened demon lord, but he didn't know how to use it properly. He was...

"Weak."

Chloe's sword glowed white and cut through the flames easily. Cartinus lit his arms into purple flames and took off on Chloe.

PIN

Chloe's sword clashed with both arms. Chloe used her strength to make Cartinus retreat. When he stepped back he lost his balance and she delivered a spinning kick to his stomach.

"Blwah!!!"

Cartinus was thrown far away and vomited blood as he hit the wall. Chloe moved closer to attack once again.

"Demon barrier!"

Several purple barriers formed between him and Chloe. Chloe attacked the barrier with her sword and...

BOOOOM

The barrier exploded and purple flames went towards Chloe. This was an explosive barrier that had great power if it accepted its opponent. Cartinus was about to gloat when...

BOOOOM BOOOOOM BOOOOOM

The other barriers were blown away and Chloe was unharmed. Chloe had the strength of a real Dragon and an awakened demon lord was child's play to her. Especially one that couldn't use its powers in the right way like Cartinus who seemed to have recently evolved.

If it was a Maximized awakened demon lord Chloe could face a maximum of 10 at the same time. That was if they could move with time stopped. If they couldn't do that she could face as many as she wanted. She just didn't stop time now as she was using Cartinus to practice.

"Gaugh!"

Cartinus barely managed to dodge Chloe's attack and had his arm ripped off. The arm was regenerating slowly, but it was spending a lot of mana.

Cartinus put all his power into his remaining arm to fight while the other arm regenerated.

"Die!"

He attacked with his blade-arm and Chloe defended with admirable fencing.

PCHIN PCHIN PCHIN PCHIN

Their attacks clashed and Chloe looked normal, but Cartinus was tired. Cartinus' other arm had regenerated and he was fighting back with everything. Chloe delivered a vertical blow with her sword glowing from being strengthened.

"Aah! You monster!"

He crossed his arms in an X to defend, but both were cut off and he was forced to retreat while bleeding.

"No. I can't die. I can't... die!"

He spoke this and a powerful magical power began to pour out of him. A bang resounded and a cocoon of purple mana formed around Cartinus from there it came out.

"Haha. Now even you won't be able to defeat me."

●●●

Hajime, Shia, Yue and Sakura went towards the enemy generals. There were some ogre-like monsters there that had also been multiplied. So there were several generals.

DOPAN DOPAN DOPAN

Hajime fired several shots and killed some generals that looked like video game ogres. The other ogres got scared and went after Hajime. Shia and Yue were along and it was really easy to kill them even if they have 10 times as many.

"Draconic Thunder."

BOOOOOOM

Yue used her magic that mixed lightning and gravity and destroyed Several ogres. The ogres gave pitiful screams and died.

"Take that!"

PLOFT PLOFT PLOFT

Shia crushed them like they were nothing while giving determined screams.

DOPAN DOPAN DOPAN

Hajime fired more accurate shots and the generals were already half gone. He wanted to end this as quickly as possible so he pulled out his machine gun.

"Yue, Shia!"

The two saw Hajime with the machine gun and jumped behind him.

TUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTUTU

And easy as that all the generals died. That left only...

"Hyeaar!"

Nine white five-tailed wolves appeared. The black mage was fleeing on top of another white wolf, but no one in the group chased him as they had already figured he would do that.

"Let's go."

Hajime spoke and they began the fight. Hajime fought with 4 wolves, Yue with 3 and Shia with 3.

"Deya!"

Shia attacked the wolf vertically and it dodged to the side. She was about to attack again when her death vision beeped. She knew what was going to happen and gave a spinning kick to the right

"Hiiiu!"

PLOFT

The wolf was kicked and gave a wailing cry. Shia took advantage and delivered a sledgehammer smashing its head. She was about to attack the other wolf when....

DOPAN

The wolf was killed by a shot from Schlag. Shia turned around and saw that Hajime and Yue had already defeated their enemies.

"Whew."

She was relieved.

The black mage was scared. He was first happy with his army that had multiplied. He thought this was a help from his contractor, but then he was horrified by the power of these people coming to kill the generals. He started to run and heard a voice

"Do you think you will run away?"

A beam of pink light went through the head of the wolf he was riding and he fell.

"Wh...who are you?"

He spoke startled. In front of him was a beautiful woman with pink hair.

"My name is Sakura. I've come to capture you."

Sakura agreed that she would keep an eye on the black Magician and should the others need help she would do so.

"Die!"

He threw a purple magic, but Sakura defended easily. Sakura took out her katana and shortened the distance between them.

"Get out!"

The mage tried to attack and move away, but it didn't work and Sakura came close.

Sakura delivered a blow with the hilt of her sword that hit the back of his head. The magician fainted.

Sakura carried the black haired young man passed out and took him to the group. She arrived at the group and threw the young man in front of them.

PUF

"There you go."

He crashed to the ground and Hajime took off his hood to see his face.

"Just as I imagined."

●●●

Cartinus had just gained a new transformation when he was on the verge of death like some anime protagonist. He now had strong armor and was laughing happily because of his new power. Cartinus even forgot that he was in a fight. So Chloe took advantage of it.

CRACK

"Uwah!?"

Chloe kicked him in the stomach. The kick cracked his armor and launched him far away. His body flew off and hit a mound of dirt. Cartinus spat blood once more.

"How is this possible!? There's no way that can happen! I have all this power! There's no way I can lose!!!"

Cartinus was shouting indignantly. He grabbed his new whip and attacked Chloe hard.

BAM

A bang resounded as Chloe blocked Cartinus' whip. He began to strike again and again.

BAM BAM BAM

Cartinus gave vertical and horizontal attacks with his whip. Each attack defended was another bang. Chloe defended easily and decided to attack. Cartinus didn't want her to come any closer out of fear.

"Stay away! Death ray!"

He backed away desperately and used his not free to cast a purple magic Beam.

ZUUUUUUUUU

Chloe simply blocked the beam and kept moving forward. Cartinus tried to run away, but Chloe grabbed him by the neck and

"Holy destruction."

Cartinus' armor glowed and vanished into thin air. That was a simple attack by Chloe.

"Please wait, I'll do anything! Don't kill me! I pledge allegiance to you!"

SPLAT

His head fell to the ground.

Chloe knew that this kind of person could not be trusted. She also realized that this Cartinus was just a pawn and would have no useful information. So she killed him.

"That was quick. I think I should go back. Maybe Rimuru-san will praise me. Ehehe."

●●●

"My turn."

Rimuru hadn't attacked yet. He wanted to first check if there was no one powerful hiding, but Chloe was almost killing that guy who could be considered someone strong. So if anyone was going to come out. Now was the time, but no one came out and Rimuru went on the attack.

He opened his wings and flew into the middle of the enemy army. The enemies didn't even notice him, so he started the massacre. He raised his hand slightly.

"Gravity collapse."

Two giant black pillars hundreds of meters high appeared in the middle of the enemy army. These pillars were similar to Yue's gravity magic, but much more powerful.

"Yaaaaaa!"

"Hiiiiii!"

"Uraaaaaaaa!"

Shrieks of wailing were heard and the monsters continued to be sucked to their deaths. The pillars killed a hundred thousand monsters and disappeared. However that was not the end

"Blessing of death."

A black flame appeared in Rimuru's hand and he crushed it.

The reason Rimuru used a gravity magic was so that even those who didn't die would be pulled close to him. Then he used this area magic that killed any weak life forms in a certain area.

A beam of black flames came out of the black flame and went towards a monster. He died and from that monster two beams of black flames came out and went towards other monsters from those other monsters 4 beams came out and so on all the monsters in the army were killed.

"Looks like you have some escapees."

Some monsters ran away and Rimuru chased them so that they would not attack villages nearby.

After Chloe killed Cartinus. The bodies of those monsters that were clones disappeared without a trace.

●●●

Aiko and the students could only stare in bewilderment. Their jaws looked like they were about to touch the ground so abetted.

That fight of Chloe and the black monster was so fast that they could only hear delayed sounds of Chloe's sword attacking the monster. They could see shadows now and then, and they could also see when the two stopped to talk.

Everyone was wide-eyed trying to understand the duel, but something made them forget about it.

"O.. What... is that..."

Yuka pointed to the army and there were two giant black pillars there. The pillars were pulling the monsters like a vacuum cleaner and it was something really unbelievable.

"Am I dreaming? Is it a nightmare?"

"I hope that's from one of our own."

"My God, that can't be true."

Murmurs like this were heard, but it wasn't over. Rimuru cast 'death blessing' and everyone's eyes glazed over.

"..."

No one could say anything. It was a scene too unreal for comment. An army of 600,000 annihilated easily. Some of them were shivering or in a cold sweat.

Aiko was thinking that they were right to put up a wall. That way no one from the city would see it and be traumatized.

Even Hajime and the group (minus Sakura) were afraid. Yue saw a much higher version of her gravity magic and was wondering what was that magic that looked like flames from hell and Shia could only stare dumbfounded.

Shia didn't understand any of the magic that was cast. She only understood one thing.

"He overdid it right!?"

Shia spoke indignantly at the unreal events in front of her.

Now they understood why they called Rimuru such exaggerated things like 'Great Lord-demon' or 'Creator of Chaos' or 'He who rules over Lord-demon'.

"Yes. He really did exaggerate. Let's go back to Sensei and the others to make sure they are not traumatized."

"Yes."

"I think it's best."

"Me too."

The girls agreed and they headed toward the city wall.

"Are you guys okay?"

"Hii!?"

Hajime asked Aiko and the students who were staring at the spot where the monsters had died so far.

They took a fright when they heard Hajime, but came back to their senses at his question. Hajime then threw someone in front of him. It was a black-haired mage.

"Shimizu-kun!"

Aiko saw her student who had disappeared and ran to see if he was okay. Hajime then told them that he was the black mage.

"Why did you do that?"

Aiko asked sadly.

"Because if I did that, I could be the hero!"

He spoke in an obsessed voice, his expression was the same.

"What do you mean heori? How would destroying the city make you a heori?"

"A heori to the demons. They gave me orders to kill you Sensei."

Aiko was a great threat to the demons. The humans had the advantage in numbers over the demons, but that yielded many mouths to feed. So one of the big expenses of war is food, but Aiko could improve and speed up the crops which was a big advantage for the humans, and obviously the demons didn't like that.

Hajime observed Shimizu.

Shimizu looked lost. He was willing to kill his own teacher just to be treated like a hero. His expression as he said this was not at all guilty. Hajime thought it best to pull him away from Aiko, but it was too late.

"Get away! I'll kill her!"

Shimizu grabbed Aiko by the neck and had a needle that seemed to contain poison in his hand. The students looked dumbfounded at their colleague using their beloved teacher as a hostage. Rimuru was coming back and at that moment....

"Look out!"

No one understood what happened, but Shia moved toward Aiko. Shimizu pierced Aiko's neck with the poison and a loud sound was heard.

BOOOM

An extremely fast magic came from the mountain. The magic was the size of an arrow and went towards Aiko. Shia managed to catch Aiko and was hit in the abdomen by the magic arrow, Shimizu was hit in the chest by the arrow and fell to the ground.

At this moment Rimuru arrived. He saw Shia now with a severe stomach wound and Aiko with poisoning. He could give Shia a healing potion and then analyze the poison to cure Aiko. Even if she died before the analysis, Rimuru could save her soul and put her back when her body was healed.

Rimuru wanted to pursue the shooter so he was thinking of leaving a clone to save them, but a clone was really hard to keep if they were far away. Normally it would be easy, but Rimuru had no control over the space laws here and could only keep clones if they were nearby.

Rimuru then saw Hajime taking out a jar of ambrosia. Hajime was heading towards Shia, but Rimuru threw a healing potion at her first. Hajime looked at him and Rimuru spoke

"I will chase the shooter. Save Sensei."

"Right."

Ruimuru went after the shooter. He was a demon riding a magical flying Beast and seemed surprised to see Rimuru chasing him with wings.

The demon tried to run away, but failed.

He easily caught up with the shooter and used 'God of souls Hades' to take his memories, but unfortunately he had nothing relevant. The demon was just a pawn who was ordered to kill Aiko.

"What a waste of time."

●●●

Hajime picked up the jar of ambrosia and took it to Aiko.

"Sensei. Drink this."

He tried to give the ambrosia to Aiko, but she couldn't swallow it because of the poison. "Well, there's nothing to do" he thought and.

"!!!!"

He turned the water in the same way he saved Shia from drowning. Aiko healed herself and turned completely red. Rimuru returned at this moment.

"The shooter knew nothing relevant."

Rimuru spoke and Aiko returned to her senses. She looked at Shimizu who was lying bleeding.

"Shimizu-kun!"

She went to him and realized that he was on the verge of death. She looked at Hajime and spoke....

"Nagumo-kun, quick. Give him one of that potion you gave me."

"So..."

Hajime looked at Rimuru and they had a telepathic conversation with thought acceleration. The two nodded in agreement. Hajime walked over to Shimizu and asked...

"Shimizu... are you my enemy?"

Shimizu looked at him and spoke...

"No... I do whatever you want. I'll manipulate anyone you want. Just save me."

Hajime looked at Rimuru and he shook his head as if denying something. Sakura who hadn't said anything until now spoke...

"Those are the eyes of a madman."

Hajime aimed his gun.

"No!"

DOPAN

Aiko I couldn't stop it and Hajime shot him. Aiko fell to her knees.

"Why..."

"He was my enemy."

"But he said..."

"I'm not so innocent to believe a madman. Guys let's go."

They started toward the car and Hajime spoke...

"Sensei. If possible don't give up."

He spoke this and got into the car.

●●●

Inside the car.

Rimuru was wearing a lap pillow on Chloe while cuddled around her waist.  Chloe was stroking her hair half embarrassed. Sakura next to him looked jealous, but Rimuru said he would spoil her later. Will was standing next to them a little uncomfortable and Shia looked pensive next to Que who was hugging Hajime.

At this moment Will spoke...

"Hey. Are you sure it's okay to leave it like this?"

"Yeah."

"No problem."

Hajime and Rimuru replied.

"Rimuru-san, wouldn't it be better to tell them?"

Chloe asked and Rimuru gave a smile and spoke

"So you figured it out?"

"Yes. Sakura-chan also realized it and Yue-chan is the same."

"Understood what? Why am I the only one who doesn't know things!!!?"

Shia looked sad. Yue at this moment spoke up...

"Can I tell them?"

Hajime nodded in agreement. Yue then told them that Hajime killed Shimizu to protect Aiko. Hajime and Rimuru thought about putting a slave collar on Shimizu and leaving him alive with the students. That way he couldn't kill anyone, but it would be dangerous because the demons could remove the necklace in exchange for killing Aiko. Shimizu would probably accept. Rimuru and Hajime saw it in Shimizu's words, attitude and face. He had no salvation left. Shimizu had fallen. So they decided to finish Shimizu off. Rimuru wanted to kill him himself so that the blame wouldn't be all on Hajime, but Hajime told him that if it had been Rimuru, Aiko would have realized the farce.

The travesty was that they killed Shimizu instead of letting him die. He was bleeding puddles and was going to die anyway, but if he died from the shot that was aimed at Aiko. The teacher would blame herself and there is no telling how she would deal with that. So Hajime shot him so she would blame him.

"Ohhh. I see..."

"Aiko will understand. She's smart, but don't worry she's strong."

Shia and Yue spoke. At this moment...

"Hey Will..."

A voice came from behind Will. There was Tio stuck in the window.

"Can you help pull my butt out?"

Will helped her in and Hajime spoke

"Didn't I tell you not to come?"

"Yes, but I have to stay with my master. If master doesn't allow it I'll go around all the towns telling what master did to my butt."

"Tsk. Just don't get in our way."

Hajime reluctantly agreed and so Tio joined the group.