Charybdis 2

Needless to say, the news that Tempest was in the path of a monster needed an urgent meeting with everyone important in the city. He sent out a though communication to all of his councilors, Vesta and Gabiru and even Fuze to meet up in the central hall. Thankfully, he didn't made a fool out of himself by asking 'what the heck is Charybdis', as Great Sage helpfully informed him; Charybdis, the Ruler of the Skies, was a calamity class monster with no intelligence or will of its own, quite literary just a flying calamity that destroyed indiscriminately. It also had a number of monsters called megalodons that appeared with it whenever it was on the move. Worse thing was that it couldn't be killed; as a spiritual lifeform, its physical body was just a collection of magicules, and as long as its core remained intact it would continuously resurrect itself, though it would require a vessel to do so, like a corpse. Centuries prior, however, a hero managed to defeat and put its core in a seal.

-'I can't imagine the hero's seal would be undone with no reason.' Hakuro said in his usual calm tone 'perhaps it was undone on purpose?'

-'My sister said as much' Trya said from where she was sitting down, resting 'right now, she and my other sisters are doing their best to keep it at bey, but they will not last. It will eventually move on, and we are in its path. I estimate four days, at most, before it arrives'

The meeting continued for a few more minutes as they decided what to do; the main part they all agreed to was to evacuate the city so that at least the citizens would survive. The rest, however, they had little idea. Given Charybdis' implied strength in the stories, it was safe to assume all the assembled forces of Tempest had few if any chances of taking it in direct combat. Vesta was dispatched to inform king Gazel in the hope that he would honor their treaty and send help, but aside from him Rimuru could not hope for much.

'Ah, seriously, just when things were settling down too! My luck is just rotten, isn't it?' he complained to himself; trying to search his brain for a solution was pointless; even Great Sage only advised him to not engage Charybdis, much like it did with Milim

'Wahahahahaha, aren't ya'll forgetting someone?!' the person in question billowed; a pink aura enveloped her and in a flash she was back to wearing her usual, skimpy outfit. She proudly held a grin on her face and struck a pose 'Just leave it to me! I'll deal with this beast in a flash!'

'Wait...wait! Of course, I can let Milim handle it! Why didn't I think of that! Why didn't you think of that, Great Sage?!' Rimuru screamed internally.

Report: the question 'can individual Milim Nava handle Charybdis' was not posed'. the Sage informed him in a monotone. As useful as it was, Great Sage was not omniscient; if the wrong question was asked, it could not provide the right answer. He wanted to complain more, but decided to celebrate the newfound solution instead

-'You would?' 'Oh man, I could kiss her for...wait! Where the hell did that came from!?' he furiously stopped, wondering what he was thinking, but was distracted by the Demon Lord laughing even harder

-'Of course! That dumb fish is no match for me! I can fly over right now, take it out, and be home in time for dinner!' she proclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rimuru didn't remember when was the last time he smiled so broadly

'I will make you the greatest feast you ever had if you do this for me!' he wanted to tell her, previous thoughts already forgotten; however, Shuna and Shion had other plans.

-'We can't allow that, Lady Milim.' Shion told her

-'What?!' 'What?!' Milim and Rimuru screamed in unison (though Rimuru wisely did so only in his head) 'Hey, what are you on about?!' he wanted to say but was interrupted by Shuna

-'That's right, this town is our responsibility. We can't take advantage of our friendship to have you solve all out problems.'

'No, we totally can! She's the one who suggested it!' he continued his internal tirade at them 'What is wrong with you people?!'

-'Only when we are completely at a loss and out of options, only then we will ask for your help.' Shuna informed...and Milim, though disappointingly looking, backed down, pouting with a weak 'Fine...' then looked at him with pleading eyes that just begged him to say something.

'I'm done. I'm dead. Ah, it looks like i need to put up an act too, huh... 'he though as he took a deep breath, then with the most sincere smile he could muster and told her 'That's right, Milim! Have some faith in me!' He felt like if he was in a human body, this act would be utterly failed as he would be trembling like a leaf; good thing he was in his slime form. He thought he saw a flash of some emotion in Milim's eyes he didn't saw before, but it was quickly gone.

-'I do have faith in you..' she said genuinely, but he could barley make it out. Then she sat in a corner, sulking.

'I feel like crying too, Milim...' Looking over at the sulking Demon Lord, he got an idea, however 'Ah, but there is something you can help me with!' before he could even finish the sentence, Milim was already up, all traces of disappointment gone

-'What is it?! I'll do anything, just say the word!' she excitedly claimed as she got so right up in his face,

-'Ah, well, I was thinking I need to get as strong as I can in just four days, so...would you mind sparring with me?'

-'Spar with you?' she asked with a curious glance

-'Yeah; see, I need experience on how to fight against much stronger opponents, so sparring with you would be the perfect chance.' he explained his plan to her; she understood his reasoning quickly with an 'ohh, good point!' and quickly agreed.

Thus it was decided; Rimuru would train his hardest with Milim for the next few days while Benimaru organized their forces and a put together a proper strategy and the others helped evacuate the city just to be sure. Vesta quickly returned and informed him that Gazel would be honoring his deal and send over a squad of his best knights. With the plan in place, the countdown began to Charybdis' arrival.

A loud boom echoed through the nearby forest, though it did not startled the line of citizens evacuating the city; two days into the evacuation, the commotion coming from just over the hill had become just background noise. This noise was, of course, the mock battle between Demon Lord Milim and Rimuru, although to an outsider it looked more like Milim was being a bully.

It became pretty clear pretty quickly to Rimuru just how outclassed he was in terms of, well, everything against Milim as soon as they started sparing. Even when holding back to what the Great Sage was claiming to be just 'three times' of his own estimated power, her combat prowess was just off the charts. She was faster, stronger and pretty much impossible to outsmart (as far as battle went); he was sure she wasn't using her Dragon Eyes to tell what he was gonna do, but even so she was never once caught off guard by his tactics, no matter what he did. He wondered if she had just been in so many fights, she had simply seen all the tricks in the book and could instantly tell what would be coming. Even though she was wearing he power nullifying gauntlets, her punches could still topple large trees in one hit and crack a five meter wide boulder into pieces; and she wasn't shy about directing those at him, mock battle or not. He could't complain, as he was the one who said not to treat him with kid gloves, but still...one hit and he would fall unconscious, he was sure of it. Fortunately, he was just fast enough to avoid them, if barley, but it was extremely draining. Slimes didn't got tired as a rule, but at the end of each sparring match he felt weak, like when he was almost out of magicules after going on a naming spree. On the other hand, she didn't look like she had spill a single drop of sweat.

As he jumped around, trying desperately to avoid her furious punches, he continuously searched for an opening, a small mistake, anything that could help, but it was a waste; any openings were so small, he doubted he could move fast enough to exploit, and that was assuming they weren't deliberate on her part to draw him into a trap. He didn't put it past her, she was crafty. When in battle, she really felt like a different person; focused, decisive and, if he was honest, merciless. The others had joined in at first, but quickly gave up. Benimaru, Shion and Soei had already tasted what she could do once and didn't need much from the second round to leave. They even had Hakuro try his luck; he failed, but Milim seemed genuinely impressed, which must have touched the old ogre because he bowed in honest appreciation.

'This is a true Demon Lord' Rimuru though as he watched Hakuro leave 'someone who is just leagues above in power than even those who would otherwise be considered at the top. No wonder she's selfish; I doubt anyone in a thousand years was ever stupid enough to say no to her requests. Ah, dose that make me the ultimate idiot?' he didn't want to know.

In any case, today's session ended like all the others: him totally defeated, she not looking a hair out of place. 'Good grief...' 'Time out. I can't...take much more.' he said as he tried to not simply melt into a puddle

-'Awww, but I can still go! You'll never get better if you don't push harder, you know?' she said with a pout

'No, i can't get better if I DIE of exhaustion.' he wanted to tell her but decided against it; he doubted she would listen 'Whatever, I do have a few good ideas on how to deal with Charybdis, depending on what it dose...' Trya had helpfully filled him in on Charybdis' known powers; by far the most dangerous one was its magic interference, which caused magic in its general vicinity to be extremely unreliable. Purely magical attacks would be diminished next to nothing, so direct physical attacks were required. Problem was, as Trya explained, Charybdis was huge, easily a hundred meters long and covered in extremely though scales.

Using his fights against Milim as a benchmark, he had honed some of his skills into being more effective (Great Sage had honed his skills into being more effective); he seriously hoped it would be enough. Speaking of Milim...

-'I have lunch from Shuna.' he informed the pouting dragonoid. She tried to resist the temptation for a few seconds, but when food what involved her willpower took a nose dive.

And so they went about eating lunch under the shade of a nearby large tree. As she happily ate at her sandwiches, Milim looked over at him with a curious expression 'Say, you still sure you don't want me to take care of things?' she asked nonchalantly. She did that every time after their battles, no doubt hoping to get a different answer. He had already committed to the though act, so he refused

-'The answer is still no, Milim.' she just pretended to not hear him and to not have asked in the first place, munching away. Before she got too carried away again, he decided to be a little more straight with her 'Listen, I...wish I could just let it up to you, but I can't. This is the responsibility I accepted for myself, so I have to see it through.' he said as he began scratching the back of his head, not making eye contact. He could feel her eyes staring at him inquisitively. After a few more seconds, he heard her speak

-'Aren't friends supposed to help each other, though?' she asked with genuine curiosity, making him turn around in her direction, locking eyes with her. 'Were...they always that blue?' he wondered as he stared at her. For her part Milim seemed confused at why he was staring, tilting her head ever so slightly. It was enough to make him turn away before he had another weir though about her, but it was too late. ''She's...really something, having this effect on me just from that...' he pondered her words and decided that he should really stop taking her for granted; she was completely and utterly sincere when she said that; she really did consider him a close friend, maybe the closest she had.

'Yeah, they do.' he told her 'Just...not this right now, okay?' he turned around 'So don't worry, I got this!' and gave her the best smile he could muster. For some reason, it was her turn to quickly turn away; he was confused as to why. Was that red he saw on her ears? He dismissed it, though. No point in letting the imagination run wild during an emergency

Unknown to Rimuru, Milim was having a panic attack; when the boy(slime) flashed that smile at her, she could feel her heart stop for a second. If she was human, she though it would have caused her to die or something, so good thing she was a Demon Lord. Then she felt a strange heat rising up to her cheeks and ears, and an urge to turn away from him. So she did, faster than she launched her punches in their mock battle earlier

'Wha...what is this?' she had trouble with thinking straight 'Its like that feeling I had the first time I came here, but much, much worse...was it...that? I never felt that feeling before, so...is it something else?' She, being a millenia old Demon Lord, of course knew the basics of...relations, but aside from that she never really cared to learn more. Now though, she regretted it. She wondered who she could ask for advice on the issue, someone who would't laugh at her. 'Maybe Shuna? She seems really okay, I don't think she'd laugh...but...she's Rimuru subordinate, would she help me? AH, why is this happening NOW?! What...do I do?.'