Rimuru’s Elegant Escape Play – 13
The morning of the fourth day.
The light of the sun was blinding yet warm, which made it hard to believe that there had been such a fight last night.
The intense battle with the poison tiger had gone on all through the night.
They had somehow been able to drive it away, and now everyone was sleeping deeply as if they were dead.
No one had died in the fight, but many were heavily wounded.
The casualties had stopped there because Moss had been ordered to protect everyone, but it would not have been strange if the outcome was one of a majority death, had I not intervened.
It wasn’t so much that Julius was a bad commander, but that the enemy was too strong.
It was like asking an elementary school student to defeat a soldier. There was too much of a gap in basic combat abilities.
In fact, it was one of the strongest on the island.
Semi-Demon Lord rank power was nothing to scoff at.
But nevermind that. A much more important incident has occurred…
So let us go back for a moment, and I will explain what it was that had happened.
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The combat teachers stood in the forefront and faced the poison tiger.
Unlike the time with Laplace, they were fully prepared.
Physical boosts through magic and skills, physical boosts through items. And completely equipped with unique equipment.
Their power was equal to an A-rank… However, an A-rank could be quite diverse.
A-rank. It was proof that you were at the strongest level in this world.
There was an enormous barrier to being admitted as an A-rank, and you had to be strong enough to set yourself apart from everything that is beneath it. It was the seat of the strongest.
However, that was before–before the great war.
Now that the Tempest unique rank equipment was circulating, it had become quite easy to achieve an A-rank.
People who have conquered different layers inside of the labyrinth often sold their acquired items on the black market, which meant that people were able to buy them with money.
Of course, acquiring unique equipment through such means would not allow you to use the equipment to its fullest potential.
If your base level had not reached a certain point yet, then you, of course, would not be able to break through the A-rank barrier.
Because of all of this, each school had a number of A-rank teachers employed there.
And yet…
With the threat of the monsters in front of us, it did not seem excessive.
Hazard rank, Calamity rank, and the old Demon Lord level, which was Disaster rank.
In the end, there was even the Catastrophe rank, which no one would touch.
As we were the only Catastrophe ranks, it wasn’t really something we had to consider, but the Hazard rank monsters ruled their territories in many lands. And so allowing a degree of the unique rank equipment to circulate was partially in order to increase the number of people who could fight them.
Because of this, damages from monsters all of over the world had decreased dramatically.
As for comparing the teachers and monsters in terms of power, we were at a great disadvantage, just as I had predicted.
I had already felt that Hazard rank monsters were too much for them, but this poison tiger was Calamity rank, so there was no comparison.
Just as I had said, there was a huge difference.
There was always a bigger fish.
Still, the teachers had relied on their numbers and surrounded the poison tiger, trying desperately to hold it.
And the result was this. The poison tiger’s powerful poison had injured them all to the point where they were on the brink of death. It was a terrible sight.
But they had done well.
They had used all of their power.
After all, I had witnessed it myself. They had felt that they could not fight ungracefully in front of me, and they had fought desperately against an opponent that they had no hope of winning against.
I felt like praising them without reserve.
At the same time, Julius and the others were also impressive.
With the pack of monsters coming towards them, Julius has stood in the front, fighting to his best ability while encouraging the others.
“We will surely win! Don’t give up!!”
He shouted. The students had been in danger of losing themselves in fear, but the voice gave them courage.
He had more backbone than I had thought.
And his skill with the sword was not bad. And he was even using magic.
He must have spent a lot on his equipment, as it was of the finest quality, and seemed like it was a lot more advanced than the weapons and armor of the teachers.
And while he was a student, he was almost as strong as an A-rank person.
Handsome+Prince+Capable!
I hated it.
The conditions were so great for him that all the males around him would feel miserable.
However, none of this had anything to do with the monsters. The monsters did not discriminate and did not spare Julius because of those qualities. He was only food to them.
And so they attacked, one after another.
Julius fought desperately.
Julius’ followers were also fighting hard.
The argumentive Maria Rogwall and the quiet girl, Carole Primrose as well.
And the butlers.
Even the students who had seemed to have lost heart had regained their will and were cooperating with a fervor again.
Those who could fight went out in the front, while those who could not, acted as rescuers.
They were very efficient too.
The tents were lined up here, and the terrain made it easy to see everything.
As there was no place to hide, those who could fight moved out and created a circular protective wall around the center.
There were some students who screamed and cried, but as they would get in the way, they were shooed away towards me–in other words, into the center of the protected area.
It was so they didn’t lower morale, probably.
The pompous academic called Julius was also hiding here sneakily…
This guy. There would definitely be a punishment coming to him later.
In any case, I believed that Julius’ actions here were the right ones.
If even a portion of the wall was destroyed, the monsters would trample over us.
Fearing this, the teachers had lured the poison tiger away. However, with over a hundred monsters facing them, this was a battle too severe for the students to fight alone.
This wasn’t about Julius’ ability as a commander, but the fact of the situation.
As I said before, it was their opponent that was just too strong.
But still, Julius fought hard.
While my order to Moss to prevent any lethal blows played a big part, he had still avoided being hit by the monsters for quite a while.
Combat members of the exploration team, such as Karma and Magnus, were also cooperating.