With his new coterie of ogres (sorry, kijin) Rimuru encounters three anime tropes in a row this week: a brewing rivalry between Shion and Princess Shura, the very lazy revelation that Shion sucks at cooking, and Gabiru, the overconfident puffed-up adversary who isn’t smarter than he looks, and he looks pretty dang stupid!
Gabiru actually has moments of self-doubt, but he’s a helpless sucker when it comes to positive reinforcement: his men tell him he’s The Best and Nobody Beats Him, and therefore he believes he is. He may be insufferable, but for some reason I still like the guy. Ya can’t teach charisma!
Rimuru and his crew are extremely #NotImpressed, and Gabiru has no idea how many of his gaffes almost get him killed during his short encounter with the Slime’s subordinates.
Rimuru appoints Ranga (in his true, intimidating size) to deal with Gabiru, who expresses his disappointment a great direwolf is serving a lowly slime. Ranga clearly isn’t sure he can fight Gabiru without killing him, so he delegates the task of dueling with him to Gobta, who manages to survive Shion’s cuisine with new poison resistance.
Much to Rimuru’s surprise, however, Gobta is a stout warrior, throwing his spear as a diversion then using Shadow Movement to sneak up behind Gabiru and deliver a knockout kick. Gabiru’s shocked retainers don’t give up on their leader, but cart him off as they scurry off in retreat, promising “this isn’t over!”
Despite the stupidity of one of their leaders, Rimuru still contemplates at least aligning his forces with those of the Lizardmen, considering the threat two hundred thousand orcs presents to the whole of Jura Forest. A dryad named Treyni appears and formally requests Rimuru’s assistance in defending the forest from the orcs, adding further urgency towards action.
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