The skies begin to rumble as the lightning-clad figure exerts his powers over storms. Black lightning weaves in between the clouds as they grow more and more powerful.

With a flash of black lightning, the figure leaves the ground and shoots into the sky, reaching a height of several hundred meters in an instant before staying there.

Whether it’s for his own sense of superiority or tactical advantage, I don’t know. But what I do know is that there is no need for me to follow.

No matter how far he runs, I can kill him.

Raising my hand up into the air beside my head in a hold signal. I flick my fingers forward.

That was the signal that started the battle.

All of the normal weapons hovering around me shoot off towards the figure in the skies, each one breaking the speed of sound several times in a small time frame, creating a sound louder than the rumbling of lightning in the clouds.

The figure’s eyes turn into crescents, revealing a hint of joy and sadism.

*Crackle-BOOOM!*

The lightning in the clouds surges before shooting downwards, meeting each of my creations one at a time.

9 out of 10 times, the lightning misses. I raise an eyebrow in confusion.

Illya- ‘A few scans show that he doesn’t have a high ranking perception skill like [Universal Sense]. Accurately targeting each weapon isn't an easy feat.”

Rimuru- ‘What about [Investigator], assuming he took it from Veldora?’

(A/N: I forgot about this skill lol.)

I feel Illya shake her head.

Illya- ‘It may boost his mental capabilities, but it does nothing for his senses.’

Makes sense.

Even so, the sheer number of lightning striking down from the skies outnumber the number of weapons I can make so that 1 out of 10 accuracy rate becomes useless if he sends 10 lightning bolts towards each one.

Each weapon hit by a lightning bolt gets knocked off course and sent flying into the ground. Taking a closer look through [Universal Perception], I see each item is damaged in some way or form, most having cracks running through it as they slowly turn to dust and ash.

Rimuru- ‘Why are they all damaged?’

Illya- ‘There’s some form of destruction attribute in those attacks.’

Rimuru- ‘Do I need to be wary of it?’

Illya- ‘It can't pierce your defence. You don’t need to worry.’

Most of the items get destroyed by the bombardment of electricity, but by some miracle, some weapons still manage to reach the figure. Seven of them.

Bryce- “Tch.”

It clicks its tongue, raising its hand and sending out a surge of lightning that hits one of the weapons before bouncing to the next, hitting all seven of them and disintegrating them immediately.

Rimuru- ‘So it’s more damaging from the source itself, huh…’

Looking back towards the figure in the skies, I can feel the smug aura just radiating off him.

Somehow… it pisses me off.

Bryce- “Ahaha! Lame! So lame! Hey, what you did was pretty cool but nowhere near touching me!”

Hmm. That logic is a bit flawed. I mean, I've only launched the most basic weapons. The items with real firepower are still hovering behind me. Granted, there isn't many of them left, but the total damage they can cause can more than triple the earlier attack.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just show him.

I raise my hand and flick my fingers forward again.

The remaining weapons begin their attack.

Giant swords over 20 meters long launch at surprising speeds, magic casting items begin to gather magicules from the air, enchanted weapons of various kinds shoot towards the figure in the sky and energy gathers in the mouths of the massive technological cannons you wouldn’t be surprised to see on giant starships in Star Wars movies.

The figure waves his hands again, sending more lightning from the clouds towards the approaching weapons.

*BOOOOOM!*

It sets off a massive explosion, causing a cloud of smoke to obscure the results.

Because of anime logic.

Bryce gets all smug again before immediately losing that smug attitude as a giant fucking 20-meter sword pierces the cloud unobstructed, followed by hundreds of other swords and a rain of magic spells, hexes and fucking laser beams.

Waving his hand again, he sends a bolt of electricity towards the closest weapon, rebounding from weapon to spell, hitting everything.

Most spells exploded and some weapons turned to dust, but most continued on, even while cracked in multiple places.

In the end, he just moved from his spot to a place a hundred meters or so away with that lightning movement technique. A storm of weapons and energy flood the area he was just in and I swear I heard him gulp.

I can't really see his expressions though…

Illya- ‘His energy signatures are fluctuating a bit. He’s slightly scared.’

Heh.

Bryce- “Ahaha! That was pretty cool! Hey, Rimuru, right? I'm Bryce. Do you… wanna serve me?”

.

.

.

Rimuru- “What the f-?”

Illya- ‘What the f-?’

*BEEP!*

*Illya shall not swear*

Rimuru- “What?”

Illya- ‘What?'

This guy almost killed my waifu and now he wants me to serve him?

Rimuru- “… Are you okay?”

Bryce- “Hmm? Yeah! Better than okay!”

*Sigh*

I don’t want to deal with this guy.

Gripping Yamato in my hand, I begin to make my move.

[Spatial Ruler]

Teleporting in front of this guy, I unsheathe Yamato and swing its blade at him in one smooth motion.

With a flash of black lightning, he reappears a few meters back.

I teleport forwards and swing again, to which it evades again.

Teleport, overhead swing, evaded.

Teleport, horizontal swing from the left, evaded.

Teleport, diagonal swing from the top right, evaded.

Again and again, I move forward and swing Yamato to which he moves backwards and dodges, never losing that casual air around him.

Slowly, I increase my speed.

Teleport, swing, evaded.

Teleport, swing evaded.

Teleport, swing, evaded.

(A/N: Racking up that word count lmao.)

Soon, I begin to teleport and swing twice in under a second. Then thrice. Then four times. Then five.

Faster and faster, until we both become a blurry trail of silver and black, dancing through the skies.

Soon, I feel myself reaching the limits of my strength. I'm striking over several hundred times in under a second. It’s the limits of his strength too, seeing as he’s struggling to keep up. It’s amazing how he can do all this without high ranking perception skills.

I mean, we’re both technically True Dragons, our physical abilities should be similar. If anything, he should be stronger since Veldora lived much longer than I did. I guess it’s only because his movements are inefficient and he's wasting so much potential that he’s struggling.

If so, then I should still have a higher advantage. Why can't I touch him?

Illya- ‘Onii-chan, there’s a possibility that his [Investigator] is predicting your movements.’

Rimuru- ‘It can do that?’

Illya- ‘[Investigator] allows the user to analyse and appraise a target while also allowing access to the records of the world and obtain almost any information the user desires.’

Rimuru- ‘So he’s asking what my next action will be. But it shouldn’t be foolproof… Illya, take over. Randomise my movements.’

And like that, I teleport and swing Yamato. Or rather, Illya swings Yamato using my body with machine-like precision.

Bryce- “Wha-!?”

*Shing!*

And so one more arm goes flying through the air.

Bryce- “GAAAAH!”

The arm flying through the air dissipates and fizzles away, most likely because his whole body is now an incarnation of black lightning.

He stops moving and grasps his arm. A rookie mistake. I can swing Yamato again and lop his head off. But instead…

I stop and move backwards.

There’s no way I'm letting this guy die so easily.

-----

Name: Rimuru

Race: Origin Slime

Protection: Crest of Space

Title: Highest Tier Spirit, Leader of the Monsters, Onii-chan, King of Avalon, Master of Headpats, Procrastinator King, The Nutcracker, socially awkward cringe slightly chuuni slime, Dragon Slayer, Sensei

Manas: [Manas: Illyasviel]

Ultimate Skills: [Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony] [Ahura Mazda, Lord of Creation] [Scathach, Lord of Runes]

Unique Skills: [Spatial Ruler]

Intrinsic Skills: [Infinite Regeneration] [Universal Shapeshift] [Universal Sense] [Enhanced Replication] [Universal Thread]

Extra Skills: [Lord's Ambition] [Thought Communication] [Control Natural Elements] [Control Magic] [Control Gravity]

Resistances: [Cancel Pain] [Resist Melee Attack] [Cancel Natural Elements] [Cancel Ailments] [Cancel Spiritual Attack] [Resist Holy/Demonic Attack] [Natural Attack Resistance]

Equipment: Yamato