Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 1.06

Once Phobio was safely rescued, Gobwa devoted herself to rebuilding the battle lines. Under Benimaru’s guidance, she had developed into a first-rate commander. Her large-scale labyrinth training gave her experience with every kind of brutal tactic and expertise well beyond the reach of any run-of-the-mill strategist.

The three hundred members of Team Kurenai whom she led were also battle-hardened warriors, just like her. They always took the best course of action, regardless of whether Gobwa ordered it or not. As reinforcements went, they were concerningly small in number, but their presence still greatly improved the situation for their side.

Here, too, the presence of a good commander had a significant impact on a battle. With Phobio back on the front lines and in command, the Flying Beastly Knights had rallied themselves back into action.

The Milim forces were gradually regaining the upper hand.

But amid this seemingly welcome turnaround, Gobta was nearly dead. Piriod, his opponent, was an almost unbelievable danger.

Gobta had a fairly high resistance to poison, but the mist Piriod emitted was powerful enough to kill even him instantly. It wasn’t like a cyanide pill that killed if ingested—a mere touch would melt skin and burn flesh. Even the slightest bit of passing contact would cause extreme pain, a fact of which Gobta had become all too aware.

Whoa! Eesh! I’m dying! If this keeps up, it’s off to the afterlife for me!

It took him less than thirty seconds of fighting to reach this conclusion. So without another moment of wavering, he decided to call over Ranga and employ his most secret move.

“Transform!!”

In a flash, Gobta and Ranga became Unified, transformed into a humanoid wolf with two ominous-looking horns. This was absolutely the right decision. If Gobta had pulled the trigger even a little later, he would have died in battle regardless of what Ranga did.

“Okay, let’s do this!” he said.

“You may use my power to the fullest, Gobta!”

The two were excited about this at first, but their enthusiasm quickly faded. The reason was simple: Piriod was still just as strong. This Unification didn’t vastly increase their combat skills or anything—it was the combination of Ranga’s latent abilities and Gobta’s battle sense that made them more than the sum of their parts. For that matter, Gobta’s existence points weren’t that high to start with, so in terms of pure stats, it wasn’t really much of a difference.

Piriod, on the other hand, oozed an aura of deadly despair just standing there. Her EP was 6.8 million, almost double what the Unified Gobta and Ranga had, and that made her the second most powerful presence in this fight after Zeth. As if that wasn’t enough, she had enough spatial-control skills to even deflect Carrera’s Abyss Annihilation.

Even with Gobta digging this deep into his arsenal, Piriod was still far superior to him. The only reason he hadn’t been defeated immediately was because Gobta and Ranga were close-range melee fighters, while Piriod was more proficient with magic-based mid- and long-range attacks. Thanks to that, Gobta had been in a hectic situation from the very start, unable to let his guard down for a moment. He was able to stay within his preferred range for most of it, which allowed him to keep the battle reasonably close—but that was about to end, now that Piriod herself was changing.

“Gobta, have you noticed?”

“Yeah, Ranga, and it’s not lookin’ good. What’s with her, huh? It’s like she keeps getting pumped up with more power.”

Piriod, the adversary they faced, was starting to concern them deeply. Compared with at the start of hostilities, there were clear signs her fighting strength was increasing, not decreasing. For one, she was growing more and more capable of handling Gobta’s moves. None of his feints worked any longer, costing him the valuable time he needed to launch an attack. His offense wasn’t completely shut down yet, but Piriod’s sharp attacks were starting to reach her opponent.

Plus, instead of the simple strikes she had employed, Piriod was starting to put some truly murderous intent into her attacks.

“Growing in the middle of battle like this… That’s kinda cheating, isn’t it?” Gobta said to Ranga.

“It is a common thing. I have experienced it myself, so it doesn’t surprise me to see the enemy do the same.”

“Well, no, but having it happen to me doesn’t exactly seem fair…”

They dropped the banter after a while, realizing it was doing them no favors.

This situation was not lost on Gobta. There would be no more help coming because they were the reinforcements. Rimuru, who enjoyed Gobta’s eternal respect and would normally be coming along to help at any moment, was busy on another battlefield. The enemy this time around was too powerful for anyone to drop their post and step in for Rimuru. Benimaru might step in, yes, but Gobta preferred he didn’t, since his absence back home could put the whole nation in danger.

So…

“Guess we’re just gonna have to figure something out,” said Gobta.

“Yes,” agreed Ranga. “If the enemy is powerful, we simply have to be more powerful than them!”

In the end, they settled on a “no guts, no glory” approach—not the greatest thing for a commander to rely on, but for Gobta, it offered a reason to push himself. People talk about fighting with their backs to the wall, and for Gobta—who always prudently kept an escape route in mind during every battle—having no such escape route helped him focus more on the fight.

“Okay, we’re gonna try to make this short and sweet!”

With renewed enthusiasm, Gobta accelerated his attack. But every attempt seemed to come up short. He attempted a surefire dual-pronged attack, using Dance with Wolves to distract Piriod long enough for Apocalypse Howling to hit home, but even that she successfully dodged.

Are you kiddin’ me?! This was my big move! I was practicin’ it and everything!

Now even Gobta felt like this was a crisis. Ranga was the same way.

“Should we perhaps retreat for now, Gobta?”

“No. If we step back here, it’ll be too much for Carrera to deal with.”

Ranga saw Gobta was right. If no reinforcements were incoming, one option was to run away and regroup, but that was a last resort at best. This was war, not a staged duel, and abandoning the front lines like that had too much of a negative impact on all their allies.

But if Gobta’s surefire finisher didn’t work, he and Ranga would just be whittled down until they were defeated. Gobta didn’t want to lose any more than the next person did, so he was desperately racking his brains for some new idea. Nothing was sprouting up, though…but then…

“Let me assist you, Gobta.”

Carillon, fresh from defeating the Insect Master Abalt, noticed Gobta’s predicament and joined the fight. And he wasn’t alone.

“I’ll pitch in as well.”

Frey, too, had identified the danger Piriod posed and offered her battle skills. Maybe ganging up on a single foe wasn’t very fair, but again, this was war, not a duel. Victory always took precedence over honor, and Gobta was thus glad to accept this aid.

“Thanks a ton!” he gleefully shouted—and with that, the battle was back on.

Or so everyone thought.

“It’s sad, so terribly sad, to think my children were so weak,” Piriod muttered to herself, but her voice still reached the ears of all those present on the field.

Everyone understood this was the bell signaling the final round.