Bofuri (The Strongest Shield Of Tensura)

Rimuru shot through the sky, weaving between the relentless barrage of razor-sharp scales that streaked toward him like homing missiles. Each one carried enough force to tear through stone, but his reflexes were faster.

"Alright, let’s see if I can do some damage!" He clapped his hands together, gathering power before unleashing a concentrated blast of Black Lightning.

BOOM!

The energy tore through the sky, striking Charybdis with devastating force. Small explosions riddled the beast’s massive body, sending chunks of its armored scales flying. However, when the smoke cleared, Charybdis barely seemed to acknowledge the attack.

Its single, glowing eye flickered, locking onto Rimuru. Without hesitation, it fired a colossal beam of pink energy, the blast cutting through the air with terrifying speed.

"Hah!" Rimuru yelped, twisting his body just in time to avoid it. Before he could fully regain his balance, another beam fired, forcing him to dive to the side.

His instincts screamed a warning.

‘Not good..!’

The beams shifted midair, arcing toward him as they dragged across the forest floor. They didn’t just fire in straight lines, they tracked him.

He barely managed to slip between them, flipping through the air as they carved deep trenches into the forest below.

Then...

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted across the land, an entire stretch of the Jura Forest igniting in a wall of fire. In the distance, a towering mountain split clean in two, crumbling under the sheer force of Charybdis’s attack.

Rimuru hovered above the devastation, his golden eyes wide with awe. "Whoa… Just one of those beams did that much damage?"

He turned his gaze back to Charybdis. Despite the lingering scorch marks on its armored hide, the monstrous entity remained largely unharmed.

"Does this thing have rapid regeneration or something?" Rimuru muttered, frowning.

<>Answer: Given the observed speed of tissue regeneration, it is highly probable that the entity possesses the Extra Skill [Ultra-Speed Regeneration].<>

"Awww, come on!" Rimuru groaned, launching another bolt of Black Lightning in frustration. "So, how long before it fully regenerates?"

<>Estimated time: Approximately three minutes.<>

Rimuru exhaled, rubbing his temples. "Great. So every three minutes, it can do that again…"

A voice interrupted him.

"That sounds like a plausible time limit, don’t you think?"

Rimuru blinked. 'That voice..'

He turned sharply, eyes widening. "Kaede!?"

Kaede floated beside him, a relaxed smile on her face. "It’s nice to see you again, Rimuru-kun." She drifted closer, her dark hair shifting in the wind. "You’ve been busy."

Rimuru chuckled weakly. "Yeah… Between running my city, dealing with unexpected visitors, and now fighting Veldora’s sort of child, I barely have time to breathe."

"Visitors?" Kaede tilted her head.

Rimuru sighed. "Yeah. Blumund and Falmuth both sent people to investigate Tempest. And before that, Demon Lord Carrion sent his Beastke-whatevers to pressure us into submission."

Kaede’s expression darkened slightly. "Falmuth sent envoys here? What exactly did you discuss with them?"

Before Rimuru could answer, a powerful gust of wind howled around them.

Charybdis, evidently growing tired of waiting, let out a deep, guttural roar. Its massive wings flared as it ascended into the sky, towering over both of them.

Kaede flew ahead of Rimuru, she turned to Rimuru, a small smirk playing on her lips. "Sorry, Rimuru, but I think I’ll be taking over from here." She smiled. "He’s a bit more than you can handle."

Rimuru shrugged. "Be my guest." Internally, he sighed. 'It’s not like I was getting anywhere with this thing anyway…'

Kaede’s amber eyes gleamed as she faced Charybdis.

Kaede hovered in the air, arms crossed, staring down the colossal beast before her. "Now then, care to assist me in an endeavor of mine?"

Charybdis’s response was immediate.

A deafening hum filled the air as a blinding beam of pink energy, even larger than the one it had fired at Rimuru, erupted from its eye. The sheer pressure of the attack distorted the atmosphere, splitting the clouds as it tore through the sky straight toward Kaede.

Rimuru’s eyes widened. "Oh, shit!" He instinctively pulled back, feeling the immense heat radiating from the attack.

The pink light surged forward, reflecting off Kaede’s amber eyes.

She didn’t move.

She didn’t flinch.

She simply smirked.

The instant the beam struck her, it vanished, dissolving into a flutter of purple pixels as if it had never existed.

A heavy silence followed.

Rimuru froze mid-flight, his mind struggling to process what he’d just witnessed. "What… What was that? She just tanked it like it was nothing!"

<>Answer: It appears that the individual, Kaede, possesses a skill similar to your Unique Skill [Gluttony] and is utilizing it as a form of armor.<>

Rimuru blanched. "She’s wearing Gluttony as armor? That’s hardcore!" His mind raced with possibilities before he turned inward. "Hey, can we do that too?"

<>Analyzing… It is possible to replicate a similar phenomenon; however, the subskill [Multilayer Barrier] is required.<>

Rimuru groaned. "Aww, so close. Keep a tab on it, though. That’s an amazing defensive skill."

<>Noted.<>

Meanwhile, Kaede remained in place, gazing down at Charybdis as if the monster’s strongest attack had been nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

"Well," she said, rolling her shoulders, "that was disappointing."

She extended her hand, dark energy swirling around her fingertips.

"Guess it’s my turn now."

The forest trembled violently as a thick, murky aura erupted from Kaede’s body, spreading outward in a wave of suffocating pressure.

From a distance, the sight was breathtaking. It was as if a single black flame had ignited at the heart of Western Jura, except this flame was large enough to engulf the entire forest in its ominous glow.

"Woah!" Rimuru yelped as a powerful shockwave blasted him backward, forcing him to fight against the winds to stabilize himself.

On the ground below, Benimaru, Shion, Soei, Hakurou, and the rest of Rimuru’s army struggled to remain standing, bracing themselves against the sheer force rolling off Kaede in waves.

Meanwhile, Milim’s eyes sparkled like a child discovering a new toy. "Hey! Who is she!? She’s super strong! I wanna fight her!" she squealed, practically bouncing in excitement.

Rimuru, however, shivered. "Damn, she’s packing some heat. This power is no joke..." His gaze snapped upward, and his eyes widened in surprise. "Wait... Is Charybdis, running away?"

High above, Charybdis was ascending, climbing higher and higher, as if desperately fleeing from the scorching air surrounding Kaede.

"But… Charybdis doesn’t even have a mind of its own," Rimuru murmured, watching in disbelief. "It shouldn’t be able to feel fear. So what does that say about Kaede… if even Charybdis is scared of her?"

A nervous chuckle escaped him. "I’m so glad she’s on our side."

Kaede, however, showed no urgency in pursuing. She merely watched as Charybdis tried to escape, her expression unreadable.

"Where do you think you’re going?" she mused, extending her hand.

[Psychokinesis]

A massive force materialized above Charybdis, so immense that if the monster had eyes, they would have widened in terror.

A colossal spectral hand, larger than even Charybdis itself, visible only to it, manifested in the sky and seized the fleeing beast in its crushing grip.

Then, Kaede snapped her hand downward.

The response was instant.

With an earsplitting boom, Charybdis was violently yanked from the sky, dragged down as if the very heavens had cast judgment upon it.

The resulting impact shattered the forest floor, sending a deafening shockwave rippling through the land. Trees were flattened, and the wind howled as displaced air tore through the surroundings.

A massive crater now lay beneath the fallen beast, dust and debris billowing into the sky like an explosion had gone off.

"Aww, no!" Rimuru groaned as he took in the massive crater that now marred the landscape. It was nearly as large as Tempest itself, an unmistakable scar on the land. "How am I supposed to explain this to everyone!?"

At the bottom of the crater, Charybdis twitched, struggling to lift itself from the shattered earth. However, a sudden, unnatural shiver ran through its enormous body.

Something was wrong.

Kaede stood atop its massive horn, gazing down at it with an unsettling calmness.

"Now then," she said, her voice smooth yet firm. "I'm really sorry about what’s about to happen to you." She sighed, almost sympathetically. "But it’s either this… or death. And personally, I’d rather you be useful to me."

Suddenly, a distorted voice howled through the air, not from Charybdis itself, but from within it.

MI… MILLIM!!

…KILL…

MILLIM!!!

Kaede paused, an eyebrow arching in mild surprise. "Milim?" she murmured, her gaze sharpening. "Is that why you’re here?"

M…M…MILLIM!!

A deep frown settled on her face. "So you do have a mind after all."

She lifted her hand and placed it gently on its horn, her fingers barely brushing against the rough, hardened scales.

"That’s too bad," she whispered.

A blue glow pulsed from her palm, snaking through Charybdis’s body like lightning racing through storm clouds. Within seconds, intricate glowing lines wove themselves across the beast’s enormous form, consuming it completely.

[Soulwright]

Charybdis’s scales cracked apart, jagged fractures spreading like glass under pressure. Brilliant green light surged from within, spilling out through the growing fissures.

GRRRAAAAAARGH!

MILLIM!!!

The creature screamed as Kaede’s skill dug deep, reaching into something buried within.

"Huh?" Kaede murmured, a flicker of surprise crossing her face.

She slowly withdrew her hand, and in her grasp, a dull grey sphere hovered, pulsing faintly.

Kaede's eyes gleamed grey, the same color as the sphere. Her gaze deepened, as though staring through the soul she had extracted.

"I see..." she whispered, a knowing smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "So that’s what happened."

The grey sphere vanished. In its place, a deep violet sphere manifested in her palm.

"For now," Kaede mused, gripping the new sphere tightly, "let’s focus on what’s important."

Slowly, the violet sphere in Kaede’s grasp began to sink beneath the scales beneath her feet, merging into the colossal body of Charybdis.

A brilliant green light erupted from the beast, enveloping it in a radiant glow.

As the light pulsed, Charybdis’s massive form began to shrink, its body collapsing inward, losing mass and receding at an astonishing speed.

The once-gargantuan creature continued to shrink, until finally, what remained was nothing more than a floating sphere, roughly the size of a beach ball, hovering above Kaede’s outstretched hand.

Kaede stared up at it, her wide grin trembling as tears welled in her eyes, streaking down her cheeks.

Then...

Pop.

The sphere burst apart, its glow fading into the air.

And from within it, a creature tumbled downward, falling toward her.

Kaede reached out, catching it gently in her arms.

She laughed, voice thick with emotion. "Welcome back... Syrup."

A small, familiar voice answered her.

"Turtle!"