Traveler Starting from Type-Moon, Demon Lord Rimuru! Chapter 21

The only difference was that Brad was a bona fide—homosexual!

So when he flashed a smile at Rimuru, Rimuru felt a sudden wave of discomfort—he didn't discriminate against homosexuals, but if you asked him to be the target of one, he still felt...

"I can't accept this!!!"

Was Altrouge doing this on purpose?! Did she deliberately stop the Black Knight from chasing me and send this guy instead just to gross me out?!

"I suggest you surrender." Brad's tone lacked the composure and determination of the Black Knight, instead laced with a gentle malice: "Otherwise, I won't be upholding the code of chivalry like the Black Knight—"

"Tch." Rimuru narrowed his eyes slightly and scanned his surroundings—

"No need to look. Within my Reality Marble—unless you defeat me or I exhaust my magical energy, there is no way for you to run."

Brad blew a breath and smiled faintly: "Or, if you return to your original form, I might just show some mercy—"

"..." Hearing this, Rimuru fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly pulled out Wuyin and tossed it into the water with a splash.

In an instant, just as Brad's expression shifted to confusion, he felt the ground beneath his feet become unstable!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Accompanied by the growing tremors, Brad widened his eyes as he watched a massive whirlpool suddenly emerge in the sea.

"I just wanted to be a quiet, peaceful mage, why do you have to keep hounding me!" Rimuru lowered his head and whispered in a low voice: "Of all people to send, they had to send you—"

"What?" Brad watched in astonishment as water dragons began to surge from the sea. Rimuru's trench coat was already soaked, and his pupils were completely consumed by a scarlet hue. On his arms, his neck, and even his cheeks!

Densely packed magic circuits had fully activated and were glowing!

"If you're going to come, fine. But you just had to open a Reality Marble, and of all things, in an ocean environment." Rimuru suddenly smiled, raised his hand, and chuckled: "Experience it for yourself. 173 magic circuits, a mage specialized in water—what does it feel like to be personally standing upon the ocean?"

"Be buried in the sea! Captain of the Ghost Ship."

Chapter 029, Nameless and Ignorant

The seawater within Brad's Reality Marble was not the pure, clear blue of the sky, but a treacherous, murky green like the abyss during a deep-sea voyage. The harbor, with its dark currents and turbid waters, reminded Rimuru of a game he had a deep impression of from his past life—Bilgewater.

Unfortunately, by the time Rimuru lowered his head again, even the last patch of land beneath his feet had turned into surging waves. The Reality Marble's encroachment on reality was complete; the entire world now consisted of nothing but waves, storms, ghosts, and mist.

In the vast expanse, Rimuru waved his hand, and a heaven-shaking wave accompanied by a torrential storm roared, swallowing Brad's ghost ship—

However, Rimuru did not harbor the delusion that he could cause Brad significant trouble with just a storm and the sea.

Because although the opponent's Reality Marble had inadvertently granted him a massive advantage and the confidence to fight back, ultimately, a Reality Marble was a domain, and this domain... belonged to the other party.

The rules were whatever he willed them to be.

And the most basic setting for a ghost ship was usually—it never sinks.

Sure enough, following a roar of waves, the ghost ship that had been slammed to the seabed by the massive waves slowly floated back up. Brad finally put away his dismissive attitude and narrowed his eyes with a faint smile.

"When a terrestrial creature loses the land it stands upon, it is either swallowed by the sea or forced to board the ship to fight." Brad looked at Rimuru, who stood motionless on the sea surface atop a patch of solid ice. He reached out, and a standard knight's longsword appeared in his hand. Behind him, eerie green mist surged and gathered!

Bat wings that seemed to cover the sky were instantly formed from magical energy, launching an attack toward Rimuru.

He knew it clearly, and Rimuru knew it too—the most terrifying aspect of the Ghost Fleet was actually the infinite, indestructible ghost crew. So, while it appeared Rimuru was merely using whirlpools and constant waves to try and sink a ship that could not be sunk, in reality, the opponent was like a skilled crowd-control mage.

He was frantically controlling the distance and restricting the environment of the ship itself, forcing him to engage in a one-on-one duel.

From start to finish, the three ferocious, verdant water dragons hovering behind him had not moved; clearly, they were reserved specifically for him.

"Can I win? Great Sage."

Forcibly manipulating the water flow within the opponent's Reality Marble consumed a significant amount of magical energy. Even with the natural magical advantage of a phantasmal species and the conversion speed of absorbing energy from the world, Rimuru's magical energy could not sustain this for long.

Once trapped in battle, if he couldn't resolve it, there might be no path left to choose.

It wasn't that Rimuru didn't have a trump card for survival... but...

Great Sage did not answer, for there was no time. In the blink of an eye, as his scarlet eyes flashed, Brad's figure had already streaked past Rimuru's ear, driven by the rapid vibration of his bat wings. When the standard longsword clashed with the magic sword in Rimuru's hand, Brad's one-handed sword was directly repelled by Rimuru's immense strength. At the same time, Brad curled his lips into a gentle smile, his free left hand instantly raised, and blood condensed into deep, crimson claws!

Boom!

Rimuru, possessing Great Sage, reacted with extreme speed, tilting his body just enough to dodge the blood claw's strike to his chest, but at the cost of three deep, scarlet wounds on his shoulder.

Stung by the pain, Rimuru retreated hastily—when Great Sage had too little information on the opponent's attack patterns, it lacked predictive capability and held no advantage in close-quarters combat, especially when... the opponent was even faster than Rimuru!

However, just as Altrouge had said, Brad was better at pursuit and assassination, and he preferred... the chase!

Once the opponent showed weakness and their offense slowed into a defensive stance—Brad would immediately press the attack, his lips curling: it meant the opponent had fallen into his offensive rhythm, a slow death!

Rimuru was not without a backup plan. As he retreated rapidly to open up distance, the seawater began to churn, and the three water dragons behind him roared, instantly sweeping toward Brad.

This meant he had abandoned the melee combat of an Executor and returned to the fighting style of a mage—

There was no helping it; facing this vampire count who was both a master of combat and eerie, Rimuru could only rely as much as possible on the advantage of the natural magic workshop filled with seawater to conduct positional warfare!

But this played right into Brad's hands!

He did not immediately destroy those water dragons. Instead, he turned into a ghost, tanking a portion of the magical energy as they passed through him, and forced his way toward Rimuru!

One reason was to press the advantage, and the other, naturally, was to keep those water dragons occupied with Rimuru's focus—a mage manipulating familiars and summons was not like his Reality Marble. Within the Reality Marble, his ghost crew had genuine autonomous combat capability, whereas everything in a mage's magic workshop—

Could only exert its full power when the mage personally manipulated the traps and various arrangements!

You can summon water dragons, manipulate giant whirlpools, and create storms?

Fine. But can you multitask, triple-task... can you... handle seven things at once?

Thinking this to himself, Brad continued to charge at Rimuru without hesitation. In his mind, Rimuru should currently be in a momentary energy vacuum after manipulating the water dragon—that split second where he couldn't react in time.

However, Rimuru had Great Sage, and multitasking was merely the most basic of his capabilities!

Thus, before the eyes of his slightly stunned opponent, as Rimuru's figure retreated rapidly, ropes of water as thick as thumbs extended from the water. Clear and transparent, they instantly coiled around Brad—at the same time, several fluorescent seeds appeared in Rimuru's right hand, burning into smoke as they surged into the ropes along with a burst of Magic Power Release.

Snap!

The water ropes emitted a brilliant glow and constricted abruptly, actually trapping Brad in his ghost state and dragging him into the water with a splash!

Magic Power Release, combined once again with the Church's spirit-exorcism magecraft.

Watching Brad get dragged into the water, Rimuru let out a soft sigh of relief. He glanced at the unhealed wound on his shoulder and frowned—if he hadn't devoured a few Executors earlier, he really would have been at a loss against these bizarre methods of the Dead Apostles.

Rimuru was only immune to physical damage, but Brad's ghost state, which had passed through the water dragon, was immune to all physical collisions—of course, it was perhaps slightly weaker than the intangibility of a certain masked man, but it had the advantage of duration.

He closed his eyes to sense Brad's struggle in the water, and after silently creating several water prisons and seals with magecraft, he turned his head and condensed a faint purification spell in his hand—"High-speed Regeneration isn't working. Is it a curse..."

"That's why I hate these bastards whose attacks come with special effects—"

"BOOM!"

Before Rimuru's muttering could finish, a spray of water exploded from behind him. His pupils constricted sharply as he reacted instantly. While his one-handed magic sword roared with flames, he pulled it back, blocking behind him in a bizarre posture—

However, Brad did not attack.

"Such a familiar movement. Sturt's techniques have been thoroughly analyzed, it seems."

Brad's feminine and calm tone drifted into Rimuru's ear. He turned around slowly to see that Brad had completely reverted to his vampire form. The delicate and frail golden-haired youth had transformed into a ferocious visage with vertical blood-red pupils and bared fangs, his once slender limbs now appearing longer and more powerful.

"Tch, can all of you Dead Apostle Ancestors shapeshift? Are you a magical girl squad?" Rimuru retorted without hesitation upon hearing this: "Are you going to give me a second transformation later too?"

"It is simply easier to walk among the primate world in a human form." Brad seemed completely indifferent to such mockery, appearing as if he were a good-tempered person, shrugging his shoulders—if those were indeed shoulders.

"However, I originally intended to bring you back alive because I quite liked your previous youthful appearance, but... it has been a while, and the Princess of the Black seems a bit displeased." As he spoke, he revealed a mark, the magic power upon it flickering; it appeared to be the communication contract unique to him and the Princess of the Black.

"Well, corpses can be resurrected anyway... wouldn't you agree?"

As he spoke, the ghost ship in the distance finally ceased its struggle with the storm. The crew members actually began to jump off the ship one by one, running across the surface of the water and charging toward the two of them.

"..."

Rimuru was slightly stunned, suddenly feeling a strong urge to complain: "Since ghosts can walk on the sea, why the hell did you let them watch the show for so long?!"

"Wasn't that to drain your magic power?" Brad chuckled as if it were a matter of course: "Besides, I did truly want to try a one-on-one with you..."

"..." But you're a summoner, you bastard!

Rimuru felt a bit weary. In an instant, he canceled the whirlpool and rainstorm that had been restraining the ghost ship, then suddenly fell silent.

His magic power had indeed been wasted quite a bit because of that.

But he had nothing to complain about, because from the very beginning of the battle, the scheming had already begun on both sides.

A battle between equals is more like a game of chess. Setting aside the so-called psychological theories of being on the first, second, or fifth layer, the outcome of a fight between true experts often hinges on a single move, or rather, a single moment.

But this did not mean their battle was truly clean and swift.

On the contrary, a fatal turning point requires dozens of probing, ambushing exchanges as the basic elements of the early stage—

Much like the hidden magic spear when the two-brushed lancer faced the Saber.

It might be considered lacking in martial virtue, but in a true life-or-death struggle, one shouldn't talk about stopping at a point—the only reason they don't use their ultimate moves at the start is simply because they aren't confident.

To put it bluntly, it's just: I don't think one ultimate move will finish you off, so I have to use a few small skills to build up my passive or whittle down your health first.

But now, as both sides seemed to have figured out the other's bottom line, it was clear that while Brad might have lost out in the exchange of blood, he felt he had seen through Rimuru's trump cards and was preparing—to decide the outcome once and for all.

"Phew, damn it."

Rimuru sighed. The wound on his shoulder could not be treated, and the pain kept stimulating his mind. Slimes were immune to physical attacks, but the opponent's blood claws and the attached curse were by no means physical attacks.

In this regard, the opponent had a slight edge over him.

Bang, bang, bang!

Accompanied by exploding water sprays, a translucent Rimuru suddenly appeared in front of every ghost, drawing a transparent two-handed heavy sword amidst the waves.

In an instant, hundreds of Rimuru's water clones, under the manipulation of Great Sage, actually managed to hold off the opponent's ghost army.

Rimuru was unsure if these ghost crew members had any strange skills or negative status effects, so for safety's sake, he didn't want them getting too close.

"Oh..."

This scene undoubtedly shocked Brad for a moment—"To be honest, your attainments in magecraft shock me. It is no wonder the Princess of the Black values you so highly... but such a powerful mage as yourself should not be unknown—"

"It's not that I'm unknown..." Rimuru lowered his eyelids slightly: "Since your master is interested in me, she must have recognized me or heard of me... so, it should be that you are the one who is ill-informed—"

"I consider myself to have some reputation... in the world of mages..."

"Ah, is that so? Then I am the one who is ill-informed. My apologies." Brad smiled, his ferocious vampire face twisted. Rimuru tilted his head, actually feeling that with the addition of the other's personality, it was somewhat uniquely handsome?

But the opponent's appearance only served to show that he was fearless, clearly determined to finish him off.

Closing his eyes slightly and raising his magic sword, Rimuru proactively ended the conversation.

Let's begin.

Rimuru thought to himself that he was not without a means of survival—that was his other clone, the one far away at the Clock Tower. That was not merely a simple familiar; it was real, truly as Rimuru had said.

Slimes are capable of splitting.

Ever since he used his own clone to strengthen Wuyin, Rimuru hadn't really researched anything else over the past month. Focused solely on self-preservation, he finally drew inspiration from Touko's puppet magecraft to create a clone that functioned like a phylactery, splitting himself in two.

However... to ensure his talent and foundation remained unaffected, Rimuru naturally didn't split himself exactly in half. This meant the clone's strength was actually only a tiny fraction of his true self, capable of exerting less than two-thirds of his combat power only when controlled by the main body's magic.

Once the main body died, his soul and consciousness would be reborn through the clone. While his life would be saved, it would take at least five or six years of recovery to regain his original strength, even with his super speed regeneration.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Rimuru really didn't want to experience what it felt like to die.

Because that would lead to five or six years of being in a slump, and the road home would be indefinitely extended!

Even if he was eighty percent sure he couldn't win... he still had to risk his life!

Chapter 030, He Will Not Return

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Exploding splashes of water were pierced by the cannons of a sickly green ghost sailor, only to slowly coalesce from the seawater, once again forming the shape of Rimuru.

The ghost army was frantically draining Rimuru's limited magic, but they were blocked on the periphery by a seamless defense, while at the center—

The eerie sound of ghosts sobbing softly drifted through the gloomy mist, and the dark sky was accompanied by rain saturated with magic, yet it could not wash away the Mourning Mist that permeated the air with a decaying scent, like the miasma of a swamp.

Within it, strange and petite figures constantly intersected; at one moment, crisp sounds of metal clashing rang out, and at the next, the dull, painful sound of blades piercing flesh echoed.

"Roar!"

A clear, massive hand suddenly flashed from the seabed as a water giant nearly a hundred meters tall rose with a whistle. The surging shockwaves overturned all the ghosts, soaking Brad's golden hair. A look of gravity flashed across his strange, pale face, yet he still wore a smile as he condensed a blood-red magic blade!

Slash!

Boom!

Before the sky-covering giant hand could descend, the blood-red slash had already bypassed the water elemental's massive body, splitting the seawater behind it in two. It revealed the reefs hidden on the seabed and forced Rimuru, who had been lurking underwater, out into the open. He was instantly locked onto by the opponent's strike, and he was forced to unleash the magic blade in his hand to block this sea-splitting blow.