TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 42

This whole thing was the most tedious, yet nerve-wracking fight I'd ever experienced in my slife.

Repetitive, but continuously dangerous.

I'd been slowly coaxing Charybdis toward the mountains to avoid monster settlements within Jura, but doing that while keeping myself from taking damage was easier said than done. And that damn regeneration it had was making this all take forever.

Charybdis really was a mindless thing though, that became clear pretty quick with its repeated patterns of attack and lack of strategy.

But there was one thing that I did notice that showed it had at least an ounce of intelligence.

It was angry. At me.

I could sense it in its aura. Anger, hatred, spite, and... humiliation? All targeted at me, or that's how it felt to me, at least.

Anger is a pretty primal emotion, but at the same time, this felt more complex than that. Maybe it saw me as an annoying bug buzzing around its head, biting at it with my attacks whenever I could, but I had my doubts. This felt more personal.

But none of that mattered, really.

I had a fight to win, and that was all I needed to focus on here.

_____

I idly kicked my legs as I sat with my hands gripping the edge of the cliff, eyes fixed on Rimuru's fight in the distance. He'd gotten stronger for sure, but all the moving he'd been doing was super annoying! Good spots to view this fight were hard to come by, and he kept making me move!

I'll have to knock some sense into him later, I thought as Rimuru suddenly entered a steep nosedive, a laser just missing his feet as he fell. He swooped down under Charybdis's belly, maintaining speed as he flipped on his back and fired concentrated streams of black flames into its scales.

The charred scales were already regenerating as Rimuru passed under, narrowly avoiding a storm of them fired at him.

"Hehee," I giggled, Rimuru was just too funny. "Charybdis doesn't have a weak spot, Rimuru! Such a silly little slime!"

"Milim, he won't hear your advice from here," Frey said like it wasn't obvious.

"Well duh," I knew Frey wasn't that stupid so I didn't know why she said that. "It'd be too nice of me if I just gave away tips like that!"

"I think he could use a tip or two," Carrion muttered. "It's been, what, three days? Why hasn't he dropped out of the sky yet!?"

"Hehee, Rimuru doesn't need sleep like you, Carrion," I snickered. "You need to get rid of that weakness!"

Carrion leaned down into my face with a big smile that did nothing to hide how offended he was, "oh, are you saying that I'm weak, Milim?"

"What if I am, Carrion?" I grinned back and shoved my forehead against his, "what'cha gonna do about it?"

"That aside," Frey grabbed us both by the hair and pulled us apart, "how about imparting some of these 'tips' to us, Milim, for when that pet of yours finally gives in?"

"Rimuru's not a pet!" I grumped, folding my arms. "He's my bestie! And you won't need 'em, he's gonna take that thing down himself sooner or later."

"Milim..." I could tell Frey was looking down at me, "while I don't doubt how well you've trained him, I don't think he can finish Charybdis off on his own."

"Yeah Milim," Carrion added, "it's just not realistic."

"Hmph," I turned away with a sour expression. "Just you guys wait and see. You youngsters are soooo impatient."