I thought Rimuru didn't fight Hinata because Chloe could bear with her loneliness, which resulted with Rimuru departed early. Because of that, Hinata managed to sense Rimuru earlier and managed to avoid him. Rimuru who didn't encounter Hinata chose to take a long way route to enjoy the ride, which gave Hinata enough time to destroy the Tempest nation.
What I don't understand is, if my hazy memory served me justice, one of the reasons why Shion's undead army could be revived was because the barrier also blocked their soul to escape. Rimuru killed the human army, became the demon lord, then simply put their soul back where it belongs. However, if he went to a quest to seek that "legend of revival thing", wouldn't the souls escaped already by the time he came back? Wouldn't that result with Rimuru basically threading the devil path all the same? That's why I'm at loss here.