(Risa POV)
'Risa!' I was in the middle of my third materials check on the stuff we were going to use for the sewage pipes underneath the town when Big Bro called out to me via Thought Communication. He seemed really stressed, so I immediately knew something was wrong. Instantly, I shadow-motioned over to him, calling out for Raya, who spent most of her time in my own shadow.
"Whoa!"
In the center of a plume of flames that seemed to connect the heavens to the Earth below, a radiantly beautiful woman stood, three flaming salamanders floating around her. But only for a moment, for the voice of the world spoke.
'Launching Unique Skill 'Deviant.'
And the girl turned into a giant dude made of pure, concentrated flame.
Immediately, the three adventurers behind Big Bro began shouting to themselves. Apparently, their fourth member was secretly some old hero who'd 'mastered' a high level spirit. Like, over A-ranked spirit. Honestly, though, I didn't need to hear that to realize it.
After all, just one look and I could tell that this thing was stronger than Big Bro in terms of pure magicules. Not by much, but it was definitely a Special A threat, with three B-plus spirits by its side. Judging by the skill name 'Deviant,' I guessed that this 'Shizu' had lost control of the spirit inside her, and was currently being suppressed inside her own body. In other words, we needed to stop this Ifrit character, not that anything else was an option.
Ifrit began sending shockwaves of pure, scalding hot magical force across the landscape. Luckily, we were pretty far away from the few buildings we had under construction, but some of our wood piles were singed or outright obliterated, much to my annoyance. It also hit the adventurers pretty hard, but even though they got a few scratches and burns, none of them were injured much beyond that, and the force wasn't enough to get through Big Bro or my defenses.
Honestly, the attack was more like a 'flexing of muscles' type of thing than an actual attack, but still, if any hobgoblins had been in the area, they would've been roasted like a rare steak (Except for Gobta, who had Resist Temperatures, but he still might've taken a bit of damage just with how hot Ifrit's aura was).
"Hey! What are you trying to do?" Big Bro wasted his time asking. Ifrit simply responded by tossing a massive beam of heat in Big Bro's direction. It was strong enough to do some serious damage, but Big Bro had, luckily, already dodged it.
Clearly changing his mindset to 'In a battle,' Big Bro started off by shooting a Water Blade at Ifrit's stomach. It didn't do much, evaporating before it even got near, but I was able to get a bit of data from the attack. Essentially, water wasn't going to work. By the time I got the water dense enough, I'd have exhausted Big Bro's stomach, and it'd still cause a huge explosion that'd end up killing all of us. But I wasn't done yet.
"Icicle Lance!"
One of the adventurers, the girl, shot ice magic at one of the salamanders as it raced toward Big Bro, provoked by his Water Blade.
"That's it!" I realized, finally jumping into action. Physical attacks wouldn't work against these things, but I did have an attack or two that would. "Big Bro! I've got the little guys!"
…
(Rimuru POV)
"Big Bro! I've got the little guys!" Did Risa mean the Salamanders? Immediately following her declaration, Risa and Raya disappeared into a shadow, reappearing from one right beside another Salamander, the one furthest from me. She wrapped it up in her thread, somehow (I couldn't do that with mine, the thread just went right through), and ate it in one gulp.
'Wait. If I just need magic, then…' "Elen! Hit me with an Icicle Lance! Just one's fine!" I shouted. The request clearly confused her, but she didn't hesitate for long.
"Don't complain about this later! Icicle Lance!"
'Report. Predation of Icicle Lance successful.' Yup. Predator was a totally rule-breaking skill.
Processor was apparently pretty good, too, though. By the time I'd finished my predation, Risa had already eaten a second salamander. And now that I understood the theory behind magic, I'd even figured out how she was doing it. Essentially, she was imbuing 'cold' into her thread, encasing the Salamanders in a shell of threads, touching which would instantly have the effect of cooling them. Since I didn't have the Control Elements skill, I couldn't do that, but I was more than capable of shooting a pillar of ice at the third and final Salamander, skewering it before it could cause any more damage.
Unfortunately, the Salamander that I'd skewered was the self-sacrificing type. It exploded, right in front of the Adventurer trio. They managed to put up a defense at the last moment, but were badly burnt, no longer capable of moving.
…
(Risa POV)
As the adventurers were thrown back by the force of the Salamanders' explosion, I could practically feel Big Bro's last nerve break with a snap.
"Risa, Raya, Ranga. Get them out of here and heal them up. Ifrit is mine." I'd had no intention of going one-on-one against Ifrit anyways. The Salamanders currently being processed in my stomach had taken quite a bit of my magicules to deal with, after all. There wasn't a chance of me beating Ifrit one-on-one as I was right now. Besides, my Resist Temperatures was weaker than Big Bro's, after all. This was his battle. I was perfectly happy staying back and healing the adventurers.
And he won it pretty easily, too. Firstly, Ifrit tried to confuse Big Bro by cloning himself into a half-dozen different Ifrits. Naturally, this made Big Bro fall back to his newest trick.
"Icicle Lance!"
He began skewering Ifrits, one after another. But Ifrit's body-doubling was just for show. A distraction, while he set up the real trap, which Big Bro didn't notice.
"Flare Circle!" Ifrit shouted. Instantly, the world turned red. This must've been Ifrit's special skill, a wide-ranged attack that trapped the target inside a barrier, upping the degrees to the point where anything inside of it would instantly evaporate, not even leaving dust. Unfortunately, temperature-based attacks didn't work on Big Bro. Waiting the attack out patiently, he casually wrapped the spirit up with his thread, then ate it.