"Okay, seriously, what the hell!?"
"Yeah, why are monsters living better than us? This really pisses me off. They even have running water! Do you have any idea how much I miss a good shower?!"
"Ah, don't get too mad, guys… Though I'm pretty annoyed by this, too." Kyoya tried to calm his two partners, but his own anger shone through despite how he tried to hide it.
Shogo, Kirara, and Kyoya were otherworlders summoned by the kingdom of Farmus.
Today, their job was to kick up a fuss in Tempest, giving the knights that'd accompanied them an excuse to jump in and declare war.
As they strode down the streets of Rimuru City, they talked about kicking the asses of the slimes in charge of the city and taking it over, but only for a moment before realizing that the slimes weren't in the city right now.
Eventually, they decided to keep it simple, and simply use Kirara's Bewilder power to kick up a ruckus.
Following along with that plan, Kirara chose a dopey-looking hobgoblin patrolling the streets and made all of the human passersby believe that he had assaulted her. What she lacked in close combat skills, she more than made up for with her ability to manipulate humans.
Though she couldn't manipulate anything other than humans, if she told a human to die, they'd kill themselves on the spot without thinking twice about it. A truly overpowered skill, when used in the right way.
And luckily, they chose to do it on a street corner in the market district. The same streetcorner where Tempest-made potions were sold. Since they didn't really need them as much in their daily lives, residents of Rimuru City only really passed that area when on their way to somewhere else, so the vast majority of the crowd around them were human. Kirara's skill sunk right in, manipulating their minds into condemning the poor, dopey hobgoblin on a subconscious level. Only the few Tempest residents in the crowd even believed for a moment that Gobzo was the victim, as he stuttered and stammered, failing to coherently defend himself.
But then, Gobzo's supervisor, Gobta, showed up.
"Man, Gobzo. Always causing problems with women, huh? You did that at Dwargon, too, Shion and Shuna were soo mad at Rimuru for that one, man." Gobta joked, forcing Gobzo into a bow, "Sorry about this. Really trying to educate him."
"But Gobta…!" Gobzo protested.
"You didn't do it? Doesn't matter. You know what Rimuru said about the horrors of being falsely accused in the streets." Gobta told him, cutting him off.
"You believe me!?"
"Man, why'd you have to ask me that? Of course I do. Like you'd have the guts for that." Gobta replied immediately.
"I'll follow you wherever you go, sir!" Gobzo immediately told him heartily, even going so far as to hug him.
"Besides, everyone knows that the only woman you have eyes for is Shion." Gobta added, desperately pushing the other hobgoblin off of him as best he could.
"Wait, everyone?!" Gobzo paused, horrified.
"Yep. Give it up, Gobzo. Everyone knows."
"I was gonna follow you everywhere you went, but not anymore!" Gobzo whined, red in the face. As he did, the crowd started laughing at their two-man comedy, having already completely forgotten the prior 'offense.'
Naturally, Kirara was shocked. These people who'd been under her control one second ago were now… laughing at her? Familiar dark emotions rose from the pit of her stomach.
Unfortunately for her, she hadn't realized that these people were laughing because her spell had already been broken. "All of you making fun of me need to just curl up and die!" She shouted at the crowd. Beside her, Shogo and Kyoya rolled their eyes, expecting to see everyone around them follow her commands and just slaughter themselves in the streets. Not exactly the plan, but as long as it led to a fight, the bastards didn't really care.
But unfortunately for them, rather than dying, the crowd simply kept laughing, as they parted.
"You should know, mind control skills are not allowed in Tempest. Especially when used in such a dreadful way. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you and your friends to leave our city immediately." Kirara's knees turned to jelly as the woman, no, kijin, with pink hair delivered her judgement.
"No… way." Kirara muttered to herself. Instantly, she knew that these two monsters, Shuna and Shion, were not also-rans.
But Kyoya and Shogo didn't care. Instead, they began staring at the girls, licking their lips. Shogo's mind was consumed with thoughts of beating the beautiful Shuna as she begged for mercy, while Kyoya thought only of cutting flesh with his blade.
"Your lecherous thoughts are written all over your face, you bastard!" Shion cried, swinging her giant (still sheathed) blade with enough force to crack the road. "Leave this city at once!"
"I'd like to see you make me!" And with that, the battle began. Instantly, Shogo dashed toward Shion, instinctively sensing that she was the strongest one there.
Hakuro was busy training hobgoblins. Soei was off scouting the incoming Farmus army, and Benimaru and Geld were both in a meeting with the Tempest higher-ups, trying to figure out how to deal with it all.
Slamming her sword deep into the pavement (because why use a sword against fists when you have your own fists), Shion met Shogo's fist with her own. Instantly, he was blasted backward, flopping down the street like a rag doll in the face of Shion's overwhelming might.
"I guess that makes you all mine!" Kyoya shouted, charging at Shuna, but Gobta was already there.
"Parry-counter!" Blocking Kyoya's sword with his own, Gobta's foot lashed out, catching Kyoya in the side.
But just as it did, something happened. Suddenly, there was a barrier over the entire city, and Gobta felt weaker. So much weaker. Still, his kick made Kyoya stumble a bit, and Gobzo sprung into action, his training taking over, he punched Kyoya in the chest, making the overconfident Otherworlder lose his footing and crash into the ground, his balance broken.
"Gobzo! Get out of here and get help! Take Priestess Shuna with you!" Gobta shouted his order. Gobzo hesitated for a moment, as Kyoya got back to his feet, but what Shuna said next made him spring into action. "That barrier! I can barely use any magic!" Shuna realized with horror.
"Be careful, sir!" Gobzo cried, grabbing Shuna's hand and running full-tilt down the street with her by his side. In this situation, Shuna was basically just a liability. Her specialty was entirely magic, and while she was fairly strong physically, it wasn't her forte.
"Don't you dare!" Kyoya shouted, attempting to race after them, but Gobta got in his way.
"Like I'd let you!"
"Get away, you little bastard." Kyoya didn't consider Gobta strong enough to pose a threat, so he simply made a casual swipe at him with his sword, imbued with his Unique Skill: Severer, capable of cutting nearly anything with the spatial element.
Gobta raised his sword to block it, but at the last second, he pulled back, jumping away.
"Oh?" Kyoya stopped running, surprised that Gobta had accurately judged the danger in his blade.
Meanwhile, Gobta was looking down at the handle of his blade. There was a small hole in the base of the handle. Normally, that hole was black, but right now, it was glowing red. "That sword of yours can cut my blade, huh?" Gobta muttered to himself. A red glow from that hole meant extreme danger to the blade of Gobta's sword. He'd only seen it once before, when Master Hakuro had gotten serious during training, and had nearly cut him down with his Battlewill aura.
"Smart goblin. Give up, then?" Kyoya replied, reassessing Gobta.
'Honestly, I really want to.' Gobta thought to himself. He could barely run in this state, his body was basically slowed to a crawl, and his magic was in just as bad a state. On top of that, he could tell that his sword was affected, too. Verbal commands weren't going to work, and this guy was so tough that Gobta knew that he'd probably die in a head-on confrontation even at his peak.
The only thing keeping Gobta from tucking his tail between his legs and running away was the sword in his hand. The fact that Risa had given it to him meant that she trusted him, and there was no way in hell that he was going to betray that trust, even if it meant dying to this madman.
So, Gobta did the only thing he could think of. "Master, it's you! Thank god!"
Kyoya instinctively looked behind him, at the fake Master that Gobta was 'looking' at. That gave Gobta the single moment that he needed.
'I'm sorry about this!' He thought to himself, before kicking the stall behind him. They'd moved far enough away from the original scene that this particular stall was a fruit stand run by a kobold who'd already taken off. With Gobta's kick, the entire stall collapsed, sending round fruits, rolling all over the street. Picking one up as it fell off the cart, an apple, Gobta chucked it at Kyoya's head as hard as he could before running off down the street, ducking into a side-alley.
Kyoya swiped the apple that Gobta'd thrown at him out of the air with his sword before it ever got to him, but hitting it with such force caused the apple to explode right in front of his face, covering him in its juices. "You little bastard!" He shouted, moving to chase after Gobta, only to lose his footing and trip on a fruit, falling on his face. "Damn you! I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do." Kyoya whispered the last part to himself, a snakelike smirk coming across his lips as he imagined cutting the hobgoblin's body into bite-sized little pieces.