An army, thousands strong was marching through a forest. They were being helped by some holy knights who planned on surrounding the entire city with a holy field with the help of crystals. It would be an easy and quick victory.
Or they would think.
"Why do we have to march with them? Couldn't we at least travel on a horse or something? We're supposed to be above these regular ones.", Kirara, an otherworlder complained as they went along.
"Relax, Kirara, there's not much we can do now. The order has already been given.", Kyoya, another otherworlder, who was calmer and more intelligent, tried to relax Kirara. "We seem to be making good progress, I would've expected more resistance right now."
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud and brash voice, "It doesn't matter to me. I'll show those monsters how strong I am. So what if they have some kijin? I'll show them how string I really am!", Shogo, the last otherworlder of the trio, explained to Kirara and Kyoya.
Kyoya just ignored him. He knew Shogo was strong, but he was also intelligent enough to know that there was a reason they had help from some holy knights. "You can go crazy later. At the very least, just wait for the holy knights to put up the barrier so the monsters get weakened."
"Why should I wait for that?! This is supposed to be an invasion, we should just rush in and show how strong we are!" Kyoya was trying to keep his calm, but Shogo was making it difficult. He only cared about "strength this" and "fighting that", it could be annoying sometimes, but they're in similar situations, so he could let if slide at times.
"Why am I even here? I don't know how to fight like you two. The only good thing is what I can do with words."
"Well, from what I've heard, Kirara, the plan has been changed. Apparently, the monsters are still recovering from a war with a demon lord. I don't know much, but there was supposed to be some kind of force to go first, but now we're here. But still, it feels like it's too easy right now."
/\\//\\//\
"Hurry up! I've almost had it with you! Have you forgotten all the training you've had?! We're behind schedule because of you!", a holy knight, leading a small group, shouted to one his soldiers under his command. He didn't know what was happening, one day everything was fine, but now at the moment of the mission, it was as if they were doing it on purpose.
"Uh…sorry? I'm still getting used to this whole holy knight thing. I'll figure it, I just need time."
"There is no time! We're here to do a coordinated strike and you're going to mess that up. I'm not going to risk any punishment on me, so from now on, all I want you to do is just stay back and watch. Maybe you'll learn something.", the knight commander was fed up at this point. It had gotten to the point where he started wishing that this knight would die in this fight.
'Oh, come on! I can do something!", the seemingly inexperienced and inept knight complained and the captain just decided to do something less it turned into a childish rant.
"Fine! Just hold the crystal and make sure nothing happens to it!"
"You got it, boss!", the knight held on to the crystal with a happy face, acting like this was a walk in a park.
'These guys are morons. If Miss Artoria saw how these 'holy knights' acted she'd probably flip out. The guy is so mad he didn't think about effects about this crystal to the incompetent knight.', the knight, who was an undercover servant of Soeui thought to itself. It was just waiting for a signal to start the attack.
'Start the attack', an order from Souei was heard in his mind. It was not only him, but all other servants. The ones marching with the army as well as the ones marching with the holy knights.
'Finally, showtime.', he thought to himself. While walking, the servant accidentally "tripped" on the ground while holding the crystal. A simple fall wouldn't break it, so he applied some force with his hands to crack it and make it more fragile.
The crystal shattered and all the other holy knights looked in shock at his carelessness. The knight captain was furious. He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the knight. The knight got up quickly with both his hands held up.
"No more! I've never seen incompetence like this before. Are you purposely sabotaging this whole operation?"
The knight just smiled and let out a smirk. "It took you some time, but you got me." before any of them could react, the knight turned into a blur of dark mist while taking some daggers seemingly out of nowhere. He didn't waste any time as he quickly cut the throats of all the holy knights faster than they could react to.
The knights dropped dead on the ground, barely getting a glimpse of what happened before they could react. The servant stood in the middle of their bodies, before disappearing once he completed his objective.
/\\//\\/\
The status of Falmuth's army could only be described as pure disorder and chaos. It was a sudden and completely unexpected attack not from the enemy but from their own comrades. Or at least that's what they thought at first.
What looked like normal knights quickly turned into dark figures that swiftly cut them down with ruthless efficiency. They realized too late that they were being attacked by the enemy, but by that point, everything was already in chaos. Knights would start fighting only to face another betrayal from their supposed allies.
Paranoia and doubt slowly settled into the minds of the knights amidst the chaos, but to make the situation worse, someone shouted something that seemed to make the situation hopeless. "Monsters! From the forest and above us!"
From the forest, orcs appeared, and behind them were kijin, and goblin riders. In the sky, there were dragonewts flying above them. There was no time to admire it as the dragonewts started to breath fire from above and rain down fireballs all over them. The explosions from the fireballs knocked over some knights while incinerating some others, killing them.
They wouldn't get a single break however as the orcs started attacking them. Their big bodies and armor made taking down one of them require a team effort. Pair that with kijin and goblin riders, and it was a complete disaster for Falmuth's army.
The otherworlders were not doing any better. The initial attack had killed Kirara almost instantly. Thanks to some intel, she was marked to be one of the first ones to die so she couldn't use her unique skill, and given that she wasn't much of a fighter, she died before she realized what was happening.
Kyoya and Shogo were trying to fight off the initial attack, but it seems whenever one was killed, they seemed to just regenerate or disappear into mist and reform again. No matter how hard or fast Kyoya cut or how hard Shogo punched, they never seemed to go down. When the secondary attack started, things went downhill even faster.
/\\//\\//\
A clash of swords made sparks. To the naked eye, it would seem as if there were multiple swords due to the afterimages made from the speed. Rimuru was in a fierce sword fight with Hinata. He clutched his sword with both hands fighting defensively. Whether it was blocking the strikes from the rapier with his blade or using the crossguard of his sword to catch the rapier's blade and throw it to the side, giving him a small window to attack, he used everything he'd learned to stay in this fight.
"Hinata, I'm telling you, I didn't kill Shizu! This is all one big misunderstanding!", Rimuru shouted while defending himself from an attack.
"You did kill her. Like the slime you are, you swallowed her up and took her form.", Hinata wasn't hearing out any of Rimuru's remarks. She was stubborn and blinded by the rage she had for Rimuru.
"It's not like that! She wanted me to do it! She was nearing the end of her life and her last wish was for me to do that!", Rimuru, despite the stubborn nature of Hinata, still tried to convince her, but his statement only made it worse. Hinata's attacks seemed to be faster and carry more power. This sudden burst caught Rimuru off guard for a tiny moment, but it was enough for Hinata to get passed Rimuru's defense and hit his arm.
Rimuru immediately backed off and created some distance between them.
'That's not good. Each hit means less room for error. I need to get out of here. I need some kind of big move to buy me enough time to break this barrier and escape, but what?... I got it! That move Artoria does! The mana burst thing! I can't believe I forgot about that. Raphael, I want you to beef up this mana burst and after that we can get out of here.', Rimuru thought to himself, coming up with a plan. Something to stop the fight immediately. If he's learned anything, it's that this was planned and something bigger was happening in Tempest and he needed to get back as fast as possible
[Confirmed, but don't forget your training as well. Your sword has a certain fundamental advantage over her rapier.]
/\\//\\//\
(Flashback)
"Rimuru, when you're fighting against a rapier, don't lunge with your sword. Well, don't lunge using both hands, it'll be a problem because of the way you'll lean. Come here and I'll show you what I mean.", Rimuru got up from the ground after the thrashing he got from Artoria and went towards her.
Artoria pointed her rapier, transformed from Rhongomyniad, to the ground making sure it didn't fall. "Do you know what sword you have, Rimuru?"
"Um, it's like a regular sword, something medieval?"
Artoria sighed and shook her head. "A longsword, Rimuru. You have a longsword. Look, just pay attention and put your sword next to my rapier. It's something you should've picked up on earlier."
Rimuru did as she asked and compared the rapier to the sword. He was a bit confused, but he pointed out what he saw differently. "The blade on the rapier is longer?"
"Yes, but what else do you notice?"
"My sword is longer overall?"
"Bingo. That's what matters. You can lunge with your sword, but make sure to have one of your hands all the way to the back of the hilt to get the max length. By doing that, you can disengage and extend with your whole body to make your attack deadlier. You'll lose a bit of control and the sword will be a little heavier, but you can do it. If you can create an opening and use the technique, you'll be able to land a hit."
/\\//\\//\
'Just have to create an opening.', Rimuru thought to himself while defending. He didn't need to win this fight, he just needed to not lose.
He focused on defense as much as he could. He just needed one moment. As he was defending the opportunity presented itself. A downward slice. That was his moment.
Rimuru caught the blade with the crossguard of his sword, and before Hinata could pull it back, his left hand let go of the sword, and he made a sweeping motion to clear a path straight to Hinata. Her rapier scraped along Rimurus's sword, being controlled by his movement. Rimuru quickly pulled his arm back and went for a lunging attack just like he was taught.
'Rapheal, do a mana burst now!', he didn't need to tell Raphael twice, as a perfectly timed surge of mana burst forth from Rimuru, enhancing his attack with more power and speed.
It was Hinata's turn to be surprised. The sudden increase in speed at the last moment didn't leave her enough time to react. A clean hit landed on her and she was launched violently through the air. She skipped across the ground like a rock on water as she landed.
Rimuru seeing this, immediately went to the barrier. He used Beelzebub and easily destroyed the barrier. "Ranga, come out!", Ranga leaped from his shadow and Rimru got on him. "Ranga, we need to get home now! Go as fast as you can! Don't hold anything back!"
"Understood, master!", Ranga asked no questions and immediately took off with a speed he didn't know was possible himself.
'How much does Artoria really know?', that question lingered in Rimuru's mind, but it would have to be answered later. 'I hope things are fine back home.'
/\\//\\//\
Artoria could be seen standing on a wall. She made it using the creation abilities of Rhongomyniad. She was overseeing the battle that was taking place. Well, it was less of a battle and more a massacre. Souei's servants eliminated the holy knights before they could even do anything, and the main battle already had a clear winner.
Artoria had seen enough and started leaving, but not before leaving a thought communication with Benimaru.
'Benimaru, I'll leave the rest to you. The only order I'll give you is to leave the king alive. Everyone else you can decide what to do.'
'Lady Pendragon, should we not capture Reyheim or Razen for information?'
'No need. Soeui's already given us more than enough. Anything they would give us would be redundant. Just make sure to end it quickly. That'll be all.'
'Understood.'
The thought communication ended and Artoria left the scene. Benimaru's skills were more than enough for this. She could leave knowing that victory was all but guaranteed. Right now, she needed to plan for the aftermath of this. But the important thing is Rimuru. She knew he would have some questions. A training session against a rapier only to face an opponent later that uses a rapier? That was too much of a coincidence to ignore.