That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.65 Battle Day

Rimuru's pov: 

My grogginess from the night before was quickly shaken off as I looked up, having zoned out while sitting on my throne. I gingerly sat up to look on as soka was announcing proudly the event everyone had been waiting for, I'd finally be having my duel with Hinata. Luckily I had already come to get Masayuki out of it, he really didn't deserve the beatdown he'd have gotten if he participated. 

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PREPARE YOUR EYES FOR A SHOW OF POWER YOU HAVE LIKELY NEVER WITNESSED SOMETHING ON THE SCALE OF, AND MAY NEVER WITNESS AGAIN!" While her showmanship was great, she did go a bit overboard on the yelling at times. Soka made an artistic flip as the screens in the stadium simultaneously came to focus on my glorious self. 

I had given Raphael control of my face, she had gone on about perfectly engineering an expression for the optimal impression among the audience for about an hour before this. 

<Master sounds ungrateful, this was truly a triumph of facial characterization!> I could hear the skill, almost sound indignant with her own accomplishments merit. 

'FIne fine, I trust you, Raphael-sensei.' I replied quickly while trying to get her pressure off of my head for a moment to bask in the reactions to my appearance, I had been given a great new outfit. It was a similar one to my demon lord outfit, however the coat was plated in an incredibly awesome thin sheet of magisteel to allow it to work as something similar to a mail, on my request. 'Really it was Raphael's idea, though.' I thought allowed trying to appease her further. Additionally my shirt had been replaced by the most badass black chest piece, even if I didn't really need the armor for obvious reasons. 

There were some gasps from the audience as Soka continued, "Today our glorious Rimuru-sama will be facing the guardian of humanity in a duel of strength and skill, a fight of honor! The winner may get no physical prize, but they will be able to claim the prize of the pride over the other!" The way she worded it struck me as almost not questioning my win, she certainly would not be happy if Hinata was the winner of this engagement. 

I took my que and appeared onto the ring, taking my place on the opposing edge happily. I didn't want to speak and spoil Raphael's facial expressions with my dumb words today, so I decided against it. Instead I simply drew my sword, the black blade that had recently become unreadable to even Kurobei. It certainly was a shame to see it become unreadable, replicating it would be a great thing. I could see my magicules seep off of it as I unsheathed it from within my [Stomach], pulling the sheath itself onto my hip. 

Hinata was not long to appear after me, walking up confidently and taking a place opposite me on the ring. We'd have no chance to speak, but she seemed not to mind. Our last match had plenty of speaking, so we needed none now. She unsheathed her new sword, the Moonlight rapier,  as she seemed to almost glow with divine prominence while chanting softly to herself in her own little world. 

Soka seemed intimidated by simply the two of us standing here like this, and it was about to get worse if she did not step back. She was smart enough to do so, however. Flipping back and into a separate barrier held up by diablo, and continuing. "Both competitors are considered ready as of now, THE MATCH MAY BEGIN!" She almost seemed to have her voice shake as before she had even finished. 

Our auras are what really started the fight, as I released mine totally. The area was drenched in a sickly purple and black as the magicules flowed and did not stop flowing, the barrier was the only thing to stop the flow. However, there was something else to counter the spread of the demonic magicules. 

As Hinata's glow brightened an aura of her own spread out from her, I could see the spirit particles now with Raphael's help. They would simply bend around as the magicules from the respective forces annihilated on contact with eachother like they were opposite in every way, it was honestly something simply stunning to actually see happening, even if I doubted anyone but us demon lords could see it this definitely. 

Starting off quickly, both me and Hinata closed the distance at a speed that must have felt like an instant to the audience. It was not long before the parries and strikes flew at such high speeds as to cause the air around us to noticeably heat up, as I was quickly aware of when. 

<Elemental resistance engaged, counteracting extreme heat.> 

While Hinata was clearly more skilled, I was still just starting to speed up. I could not easily find an opening in her attack patterns, while despite their quickly superior speed mine came off as more predictable to her as she was able to land glancing blows. 

One, two, three. Scrapes against my cheek, chest, and thigh. I could feel a deep pain inside me, 'Why am I feeling pain like this, pain nullification disabled?' I questioned to Raphael while increasing my speed further to attempt to retaliate. 

<Analysis of attacks reveal they are directly centered on the spiritual body, this had been previously unverified due to the lack of such in [Enhanced Clone].> 

I cursed inside my mind and enabled [Thought Acceleration] while taking time to think about what to do, as the attacks slowed I was able to much more easily focus on my goals here. 'I need some way to predict her attacks, if only I could know what she was going to do.' 

<Analysis of skills possessed by subordinate monsters reveals it would be possible to adjust existing [Attack Prediction] to acquire [Future Attack Prediction], this would allow the desired result. Acquire [Future Attack Prediction]? Yes/No?> Raphael seemed completely un-phased by this gigantic news, and I was almost too stunned to respond right away. 

'YES, YES!' I replied as quickly as I could, feeling myself loosing ground as Hinata's skill and ability to learn caught up to my speed slowly. The match may be friendly, but I still didn't want to get gutted like a fish! 

{Notice: extra skill, [Attack Prediction], integrated into Ultimate skill [Raphael: Lord Of Wisdom], additionally adjusted into [Future Attack Prediction.} The voice of the world soon announced, monotone as ever despite the tense situation. 

I thought I heard a satisfied huff from Raphael as she faded into my mind once more, but as she did. I could see like a ghost, several images appear into my gaze. Coming out from Hinata, there were several possible attack routes that I had plenty of time to look at with [Thought Acceleration], if it weren't for me wanting to win, this would seem too broken! 

The ghost Hinatas allowed me to suddenly respond much more precisely to her attacks, while doing so I searched for openings. Que on que, I was able to find one finally. 

Hinata stepped forward quickly and I could see her hip was unguarded as she lunged at me in a stance that exuded the confidence I wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, I had. 

I stepped slightly to the side, allowing for me to glance Hinata's blow off of the thickest part of my chest piece while stretching my arm out, allowing it to turn into a mass of slime as my reach extended and my sword slashed into Hinata's hip with a horrifying cracking sound. 

I could see the shock build up in her gaze as her face contorted into some grimacing mess, she hopped back unsteadily and kept her distance. Her eyes told me she was not done, despite her being near in half telling me she needed to stop. 

I refused to step forward and simply waited, I did not want to take another attack out on her with how damaging that had been, it'd be too much. I also felt a certain vampire would have me in a jar if I didn't hold back a bit more at this point, so I did. 

Hinata stood up tall, and as I could now see the spirit particles gathering around her, I realized something. She was casting a spell, she was chanting under her breath. Finally she yelled out to me, "I KNOW YOU CAN SURVIVE THIS! DON'T LET ME DOWN!" That sent an alarm flying out in my head, and Raphael had already made something of an executive decision on my part. 

<[Absolute Defense] engaged..> I thought I heard a little pause after she said this, but did not disagree with her judgement. 

I could see a blinding light energy form around Hinata, and all of it was channeled into her sword. She yelled out, as she charged toward me, "MELT SLASH!" I did not understand why someone would announce the name of their attack, but it was admittedly a very badass name. The surge of energy jetted toward me, tearing through my aura like butter before reaching me, and engulfing me in a blinding mass of light. 

I stood waiting for a few moments listening to the gasps and the screams as they could likely no longer see me without my aura, and with the light completely covering me. Really though, I was simply standing there with my skill active, waiting for the mass to clear away. 

It took some time and I could even feel Hinata may be getting worried, so I pushed out an even bigger aura than I had before to clear the mass of light away. It quickly once again engulfed the ring, and I could see Hinata's wide eyes while her mouth was ajared with a telling of speechlessness. 

Using my senses to acutely look at some of the faces I cared about, I could even see the demon lords present, with the exception of Milim, were also blown away. Their faces taking  gapes of their own, I could even see Luminious had a look to me with something of a glint, though I was unsure of it's nature. 

King Gazel was perhaps the best reaction, he had teared up a little. Though now, his eyes were near bulging out of his head while his tongue stretched out like it was trying to escape, staring at me like a whole new kind of monster that he could not even understand anything. 

Diablo looked simply overjoyed, from his creepy smile and deep look of adoration in those golden pupils, really I needed to find him something other than myself to obsess over. 

I realized Hinata was hurt badly as I walked forward, and saw her almost doubling over with a pale look on her face. I cursed on my breath and sucked back in my aura totally, and thought of what to do. I quickly came to some idea, as I used a teleportation circle to move Rozemyne here in a rush. "Quickly! Heal her now!" 

The shock on her face was quickly cut off as she looked to Hinata and I could see her back tense up as she raised her hand while walking toward Hinata quickly. Before I could say another word she was already kneeling down and I could see a spell being cast from her memory as she removed her bracelet, allowed a gust of wind and plenty of annoying lightning to shoot forth from her as she was shaking there on her knees. 

Hinata was quick to stand up, and seemed surprised for a moment, the looked to Rozemyne quickly. "thank you, but-" She looked to me while cutting myself off, "You remembered those potions don't work on me?" She seemed to have a bit of a more eased look in her eyes on me now, more eased than it ever had been before at the very least. 

"It was the first thing that came to mind, actually!" I blurted out before I could think about it, and saw an almost piercing gaze form from her as her lip curled up a bit. 

"Of course it was." Hinata said and made her way out of the ring, she seemed to want to talk to Rozemyne, but didn't seem to want to here. 

Rozemyne looked up to me as she quickly stood up and seemed to get a little puffy herself as she began to speak, "At least ask next time! You can't just throw me in on the spot like that!" She wasn't exactly yelling, but her face was tense and she quickly slipped back on her bracelet for her aura to calm. It disappeared quickly, and she seemed to nearly immediately reserve back down while making a pursed expression across her entire face. 'Teleport me back, I should not have yelled, sorry!' I got a [Thought Communication] from Rozemyne shortly there after, and complied with the request. 

This left me alone, the confused victor. 

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--2106 words--

(AN: Wrote this chapter a bit more experimentally to be more expressive and to practice a bit for my upcoming original work, stay tuned for that. I will try to get back on track with regular uploads of this like you are all expecting, seeya next time!)