I felt like this was a bit of a weak follow-up to last week. It also seems like this season is going to end with the kids being saved, based on the pacing. I thought that might be a plot for a potential next season, but I doubt it at this point.
I don't really have any opinions on the kids, the battle with Rimuru and the kids were pretty lackluster. For him "showing the overwhelming difference" in their respective powers, it was basically just him hopping around. I was expecting him to at least knock them out or throw something back at them, at the very least. And, I agree with
@renorxukuth, it really didn't even seem worth having the dragon battle in this. Might as well have had the whole thing off screen.
If there is another season, I hope there will be a decent time skip between the kids being saved and Rimuru returning to his town. That could be interesting, coming back in like 5 years, when the kids are more like teenagers and have been trained up a bit. Then we see the town again, maybe there are some political problems that have stirred up in Rimuru's absence, and have the kids sort of fold into the plot as people who are stronger, more intelligent than they are now and aren't simply on the screen because they need to be saved from death.