Slash.
BOOM!
The giant's hand never even reached him. The blood blade sheared cleanly through the elemental colossus, parting the ocean itself in its wake.
The sea split wide open, revealing the jagged, black reef hidden beneath the waves. It also revealed Rimuru, who had been using the depths as cover.
Locked onto by the residual energy of the slash, Rimuru had no choice. He hoisted the stolen demon sword, channeling a desperate burst of mana to block the sea-parting strike.
It's useless, Svelten thought, flicking the blood from his wrist. This entire ocean is my inner world given form. You can't hide in my own mind.
With a flick of Svelten's wrist, the bisected water giant completely destabilized. Three hundred and forty-two magical anchor points snapped simultaneously. The colossus collapsed, detonating into a localized, thirty-meter-high tsunami that crashed down toward the reef.
Beneath the shadow of the falling wave, Rimuru was in awful shape.
Getting dragged into a war of attrition inside an enemy's Reality Marble was the absolute worst-case scenario. And his body was failing him. He had four or five gaping blood-holes punched through his torso and dozens of jagged lacerations carved into his arms and legs.
If this were normal combat, he would have just bounced back. But Svelten's claws carried a virulent blood curse. It actively suppressed his High-Speed Regeneration and entirely bypassed his slime immunity to physical trauma.
If he didn't keep his distance and rely on large-scale hydro-mancy, the White Knight was just going to carve him into sashimi.
Pain, deep, soul-corroding pain, gnawed at his consciousness. He had already ordered the Great Sage to numb his pain receptors by eighty percent, but the curse burned like battery acid poured directly onto his soul. Just standing up took immense effort.
He closed his eyes, breathing raggedly.
The situation was dire, but it wasn't checkmate. Svelten looked relaxed, sure, but that was only because everything had gone exactly according to the vampire's script so far. Rimuru had traded blood for blood; he knew Svelten was hurting far more under that smug exterior than he let on.
[Warning: The physical vessel is reaching critical failure.]
The Great Sage's voice was devoid of panic, but the data was grim.
[With my assistance, you have been forcibly operating 173 Magic Circuits at maximum output to survive. The hardware cannot sustain this load. At this rate, even if you secure a victory, this biological shell will collapse.]
"Then…" Rimuru muttered, keeping his eyes shut as the tsunami roared closer. "We settle it on the next hand. All in."
Seeing Rimuru close his eyes, Svelten arched a blonde eyebrow.
"Giving up already?"
It was a pity. But the White Knight hadn't lived for centuries by playing with his food when the trap was ready to spring.
The moment the tsunami was about to swallow Rimuru, Svelten moved. He became a streak of crimson light, his speed accelerating to the absolute limit. The massive bat wings on his back flared, generating a storm of thousands of blood-red blades that swirled around him like a hurricane of glass.
He dove straight for the kill!
At that exact millisecond, Rimuru's eyes snapped open. The mechanical crimson glow within them flared blindingly bright.
He raised a single, small hand.
His 173 magic circuits screamed, radiating a heat so intense his skin literally began to steam. Overloading the system entirely, he seized control of the falling tsunami.
Snap.
The massive, chaotic wave didn't just freeze. It geometrically disassembled.
With a deafening CRACK, millions of perfect, razor-sharp ice cubes materialized in mid-air, radiating an aura of absolute zero.
In the blink of an eye, the freezing matrix surrounded Rimuru, unleashing a localized blizzard so violently cold it threatened to freeze the mana in Svelten's veins.
"Ice?!" Svelten sneered, pushing through the chill. Is this your final, dying flail?
The storm of blood blades behind the vampire shattered into countless fine, needle-like projectiles. They rained down mercilessly, obliterating the floating ice blocks into powder as Svelten bulleted straight toward Rimuru.
Svelten wasn't stupid. He saw the trap. He knew that the millions of floating ice cubes were a collapsing geometric array. If he flew into the center, the array would snap shut, crushing him or sealing his phantom form entirely.
But it didn't matter.
He had calculated the cast time. He was confident he could survive the ambient cold. More importantly, he was absolutely certain he would reach Rimuru before the jaws of the ice trap could close.
He aimed the tip of his sword directly at Rimuru's heart.
One strike. Winner takes all.
…
"Rimuru, I don't get it."
May tilted her head, watching the young, blue-haired boy scribble notes in the manor's library. "Water is soft; you can use it to drown an enemy. Ice is hard and freezing; it has massive lethal potential. You haven't even fully mastered those two yet, so why are you suddenly obsessing over researching mist?"
"I don't know," the young Rimuru replied, blinking innocently before a small, smug smile tugged at his lips. "Because of the Mystery, I guess?"
"Mystery?" May frowned. "What's so mysterious about some fog?"
"I had a dream yesterday! There was a really cool technique in it." Rimuru shook his head, turning to look at Alice Kuonji, who was quietly reading a thick tome nearby. "It was called the Silent Killing Technique. Actually, it fits your style of Magecraft perfectly, Alice."
"My… Magecraft?" Alice slowly lowered her book. Her dark, doll-like eyes locked onto Rimuru, showing a faint flicker of curiosity.
"The reason monsters are terrifying is because of the unknown. You could call that 'Mystery,' right?" Rimuru nodded to himself, entirely too proud of his stolen anime lore. "That's why I prefer mist. It hides my figure. It turns me into the monster. Plus… it has a very beautiful, tragic aesthetic to it, don't you think?"
He leaned forward, lowering his voice into a theatrical whisper.
"Imagine it. Deep in the thick fog, you carve your enemy into a dozen pieces. By the time the white mist clears, the killer has already vanished into thin air."
"You're… a complete psychopath, aren't you?" May muttered, looking a little disturbed.
"Nope! It's just the classic legend of the Murderer of the Misty City! Right, Alice?"
"Mn. Jack the Ripper." Alice gave a slow, measured nod. She lowered her gaze back to her book, but a subtle ripple had disturbed her usual stoicism.
Using dense fog… to conceal the monster?
….
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