By the time Genos arrived, Rimuru had already put the phone back into their pocket, as if they had just finished a call. Hearing the heavy thud of him landing on the rooftop, Rimuru turned to look, waving a small hand in front of their face with a slight look of disdain.
"You're so slow, I've already finished my call. And I'm giving your landing a zero; it wasn't 'Earth's Rebellious Son' at all," Rimuru said to the approaching Genos in a lazy tone, followed by a yawn, as if the impending meteor didn't matter at all.
It made sense; Rimuru had fought Saitama to such an extent before, so they obviously wouldn't care about a mere meteor. Forget that terrifying Golden Longsword—even Black Flame Thunder or the space known as Amenominakanushi could easily deal with that meteor.
Genos didn't understand what Rimuru meant by 'Earth's Rebellious Son,' so he silently stood by their side, watching the meteor gradually approach in the sky.
Just then, the sound of mechanical flight echoed from the distant sky. The two turned their heads together to see a robot. It was entirely silver, bald, with three red holes on its face, estimated to be over two meters tall, and carrying several missile launchers on its back.
"Who's this, Genos?" Rimuru asked, nudging Genos's thigh with an elbow while pretending not to know, making no effort to lower their voice.
Rimuru knew this person was Metal Knight, but his attitude in the original work annoyed Rimuru, so they did this on purpose.
"This is Bofoi, the S-Class Rank 7 hero," Genos introduced the tall robot to Rimuru in concise words.
While Genos was introducing him, Bofoi was also using the robot to observe the masked Little fellow standing next to the newcomer, Genos.
"S-Class Rank 7, huh? Why send such a piece of scrap metal? Do you intend to intercept the meteor with this junk?" As Rimuru spoke, they walked over to Metal Knight and casually pinched the robot's thigh with a small hand.
The part Rimuru pinched was instantly flattened, and Rimuru even tore a piece off with their bare hands.
Bofoi, seeing through Metal Knight's perspective, looked at the piece in Rimuru's hand. Combined with the 'beep-beep' warning of mechanical damage on his control panel, Bofoi had no choice but to believe that this masked Little fellow of unknown gender had just torn his combat robot apart with bare hands.
One must know that this Metal Knight was a combat robot Bofoi had built using the best materials and equipped with new weapons, unlike other scouting models.
In other words, the materials used to manufacture Metal Knight were extremely hard.
"As expected, it's so brittle. Whatever, it's just one more piece of cannon fodder. Better wait for Old Baldy to show up." Rimuru tossed the metal in their hand onto the ground with a slight look of disdain, producing a crisp clanging sound.
Sitting in his base, Bofoi originally wanted to retort, but now he fell silent because he couldn't find any point to argue against Rimuru.
You say your robot is hard? Sorry, I dismantled it with my bare hands. You say your robot has great combat power? My apologies, I didn't see it.
"I say, Old Baldy, you're so..." slow. Rimuru stopped looking at Metal Knight and suddenly heard footsteps. They turned to look while speaking but cut themselves off halfway, because the person who arrived wasn't Saitama, but Silver Fang, Bang, whom they had chatted with briefly at the Hero Association.
"Oh my, I'm not the person you wanted to see. Has this old man arrived at a bad time?" Bang joked with Rimuru.
"Not at all. I'm actually happy to see you, old man. After all, with one more S-Class Hero, our chances against the meteor increase a bit—even if there's a coward hiding in the back who only dares to control a piece of scrap metal."
Rimuru knew how to speak politely; flattery costs nothing, and saying a few nice words wouldn't hurt. Of course, Rimuru's contempt for Bofoi was genuine.
Hearing Rimuru's words, the wrinkles on Bang's face smoothed out, and his smile became increasingly kind. The scene was momentarily peaceful, not at all like a meteor disaster was imminent.
However, only Bofoi felt uncomfortable. But since he couldn't argue back, he could only stand to the side, waiting for Genos to act so he could follow suit and show Rimuru the power of his robot.
Genos didn't join Rimuru's small talk. Instead, he watched the meteor drawing closer, took a few leaps to a higher rooftop nearby, and unleashed his full firepower, though it was of no use.
Just as Genos's state of mind became frantic, Rimuru and Bang walked up to him at some point. Bang spoke a few words, and Genos seemed to think of someone, his lips curling up slightly.
Then, as if making a firm decision, he glanced at Rimuru standing not far away, decisively tore open his clothes, opened the mechanical hatch on his chest, took out his energy core, placed it in his right arm, and unleashed his full power.
An extremely powerful beam of flame erupted from the palm of Genos's raised right arm. At the same time, seeing Genos attack the meteor, Bofoi controlled Metal Knight to fire missiles, joining Genos in the assault against the sky-borne meteor.
"Are young people these days so incredible? I think I saw the meteor being pushed back." Bang had his hands behind his back, his eyes wide as he watched the meteor in the sky.
"Really?!" Hearing Bang's words, Genos's tone carried an unmistakable joy.
"Ah, this old man was mistaken," Bang added unhurriedly.
"You damn old geezer!!" Genos cursed at Bang and increased the energy output of his core.
Such a powerful flame cannon consumed a massive amount of energy. Soon, Genos knelt on one knee because his energy was depleted, his entire body emitting steam.
"Is fate... impossible to change?" Genos murmured softly. Suddenly, a crisp sound of a footstep hitting the ground reached everyone's ears.
A smile appeared on Rimuru's face beneath the mask. "Old Baldy, you're late." Even in a crisis like this, Rimuru didn't forget to tease Saitama.
"Don't call me Old Baldy! And the reason I'm late is entirely because your description of the location was too vague!" Saitama bristled at the name Rimuru called him, instinctively retorting.
"Stop bickering for a moment and deal with the thing in the sky first. You're responsible for shattering it, and I'll take care of the scattered fragments." Rimuru shook their hands, and their amber eyes transformed into the peach-pink Tenseigan at that moment.
"What an uncute brat," Saitama said with some annoyance, then turned to Bang. "Old man, look after this guy for me. He's my disciple, after all."
Without waiting for Bang's response, Saitama bent his legs and pushed off. He flew toward the meteor like a shooting star, and the glass of the building beneath him shattered instantly from the massive impact.
Metal Knight stood below without moving, his gaze fixed on Rimuru. He wanted to see what Rimuru was truly capable of; a falling meteor wouldn't be so easily caught and crushed.
However, what Bofoi didn't know was that if Rimuru wanted to, they could catch and crush a meteor twice, ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times larger than the one in the sky—even the moon.
As for that flying bald guy, hmph, he's just seeking death.
Yet, just as Bofoi was thinking Saitama was seeking death, the scene before him caused him to gape in shock back at his base.
Bang, standing beside Rimuru, was the same. Only Rimuru's expression remained normal; they even wanted to yawn, though because of the mask, no one could see their expression except themselves.
What caused Bofoi and Bang to make such expressions was that Saitama had already smashed the meteor and was falling back toward the rooftop at extreme speed.
The shattered fragments of the meteor were then completely pulled together by Rimuru using Bansho Ten'in, leaving not even a small pebble behind.
Just as Saitama was about to crash into the building, Rimuru used Bansho Ten'in on him as well, slowing the impact force before letting him land on the roof.
"Hiss, that hurts. Rimuru, couldn't you have put me down gently?" Saitama climbed up from the ground, pretending to be in pain while complaining to Rimuru. However, Rimuru didn't respond and instead raised their right hand high.
In the next moment, a massive longsword that seemed to pierce through heaven and earth appeared in their palm. This was a Chinese-style longsword in the truest sense, not a Japanese katana.
"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion."
Rimuru's small voice reached everyone's ears clearly. Then, Rimuru swung the massive Golden Longsword toward the meteor fragments held together in mid-air.
The moment the meteor fragments touched the Golden Longsword, they turned into dust, falling to the earth like rain. Seeing that the fragments were all destroyed, Rimuru retracted the Golden Longsword and clapped their small hands together easily.
"Phew, that was tiring. Saitama, let's go home and have hot pot!" Rimuru said in a very relaxed tone, pulling Genos up and tossing him onto Saitama's back before heading home with Saitama for hot pot.
The three figures had already vanished, but Bang and Bofoi still hadn't snapped out of it. They remained standing there in a daze, the scene of Rimuru releasing the Golden Longsword and slicing the meteor fragments into dust replaying infinitely in their minds.