“Watch out!” Kedryn yelled, ramming him out of the large water droplet’s path.
Caught off guard and off balance, Glade crashed to the ground. As the contents of his pack spilled out in a thunderous clamor, he realized how terrible of an idea it had been to bring all their gear with them on this first excursion. Sure, it had made sense at the time, but if he had taken even a moment to think things through, Glade would have traveled light so he could react to unknown situations. Like having his 135 pound runt of a Corporal knocking him out of the way of falling water.
Years of experience took over as Glade reacted. In moments, he had extracted himself from the pack and shot back to his feet in a ready position facing his attacker. In this case, Kedryn.
“You have all of ten seconds to explain yourself, Corporal, and eight of them are already gone!” He growled. No sooner had the words escaped his lips than his anger evaporated. What he had assumed was nothing more than an unusually large drop of water had enveloped Kedryn’s entire hand from the wrist up like a glove.
That’s when Kedryn started to scream in pain.
“A Slime!” Riya cried, jumping back from both the wall and Kedryn.
“Hold still Kid!” Glade roared, rushing to the Corporal’s side. In a blink, Glade locked the Kid’s waiving arm in place before forcing him to his knees. The last thing he wanted to do was chase a flailing Kedryn around the tunnels.
Pulling his combat knife, Glade used the dull side to scrape what appeared to be a thick layer of clear gelatinous mucus from Kedryn’s hand. At least, he tried to scrape it off. Much to his surprise, the knife passed cleanly through the mass, barely leaving a mark in its wake as the gelatinous blob simply contorted around his blade, allowing it to pass through without resistance.
“I hate this planet!” Glade snarled as he watched the fine hairs on Kedryn’s hand dissolve away; the top layers of skin were already beginning to peel back.
“Kill it, kill it, kill it,” Kedryn screamed, still kneeling on the ground.
Glade tried again and again to dislodge the flesh-eating water droplet with his knife, which was just as ineffective as his previous attempts.
Not knowing what else to do, Glade used his aura sight skill, hoping to glean any other information that might help.
Slime, Level 4
Attunements: Pure
Health: 40/40
Mana: 0/0
Stamina: 90/100
The information, which would have been helpful ten seconds ago, was about as useful as an umbrella in a sandstorm. The only salient point that stood out was the slime still had full health, which meant the knife hadn’t even harmed the blasted thing.
“There’s nothing you can do!” Riya shouted in panic. “Slimes are made of pure mana! The only way to save Kedryn now is if you take off his hand where the slime is feeding!”
“There’s no way to kill them?” Glade yelled back, refusing to believe this puddle dropping was indestructible.
Riya’s eyes went out of focus as she used her naturist skill.
“You can only kill them by destroying their focus shard, which is practically impossible to see, or by burning them with magical fire!” She cried.
Magical fire. Up until now the only benefit for Kedryn’s ability was to provide light or cook their dinner. Looked like they finally found something else it could be used for.
Glancing down, Glade watched in horror as another layer of skin began dissolving away, the outlines of blood vessels and muscle nearly visible.
“Burn this thing off of you!” Glade yelled, forcing Kedryn to look at him.
“I can’t!” The Kid screamed, blinded by tears of pain. “Get it off!”
“Corporal,” Glade said, bringing his face within inches of Kedryn’s, a quiet sizzle coming from where the slime was feeding. “Quit complaining and torch it! That’s an order! Unless you want me to take your arm off and then make you do push-ups with a stump!”
Kedryn’s screaming died away as he stared at his commanding officer in disbelief.
“Now Corporal!” Glade yelled.
Kedryn jerked back, shaking himself out of the pain induced stupor.
Blood began leaking from the last bits of Kedryn’s skin, swirling into the clear gel before disappearing. The slime swelled, spreading further down the Kid’s wrist and onto his forearm.
Hissing in pain and frustration, Kedryn tried, and failed, to cast his flame spell.
Glade outwardly projected an aura of authority, giving the only support he could. Internally, he was wracking his brain for any other solution. He couldn’t scrape the gelatinous ooze from Kedryn’s hand and shooting the thing was likely just a waste of limited ammunition. If Kedryn couldn’t burn the thing off, then that left taking the arm. Which might just kill the Kid. Sawing through bone with nothing but a combat knife would be… less than ideal.
The slime slipped down another inch and Kedryn cried out, unable to hold the pain in check. Glade’s face grew in intensity as he raised his knife, preparing to attempt the unthinkable.
The Corporal’s eyes shot open in shock. In that moment between heartbeats, Glade watched as the Corporal’s demeanor changed.
Kedryn’s screams of pain transformed into a roar. A roar of pure grit and defiance in the face of insurmountable odds. A shout of a soldier.
A spark flared to life in Kedryn’s ooze covered hand, growing steadily in size. The slime rippled and bucked wildly away from the small flame in an effort to escape. It wasn’t fast enough.
Fire erupted around Kedryn’s hand, engulfing the ooze and spraying flame several inches in every direction.
Glade quickly let go of the Corporal’s arm, shielding his eyes as fire and heat washed over him, the smell of burned hair assaulting his nose.
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By the time he looked back, the slime had fallen from Kedryn’s hand and was writhing on the ground, ablaze.
Glade caught Kedryn as he sagged, a golden glow already emanating from around Riya’s rapidly approaching form.
“That… hurt…” Kedryn hissed through gritted teeth just before Riya’s healing light enveloped his damaged hand. There was just enough skin left to hold the blood and muscles of the arm in place, with only a couple of tears in the skin openly bleeding.
As the panic of the moment faded, the realization that Kedryn had likely saved him yet again sunk in. If it hadn’t been for the Kid’s quick thinking, the slime would have been wrapped around his head.
Glade continued to watch Riya work her magic. In seconds, the bleeding slowed, and then stopped all together. Before his eyes the Kid’s skin began to regenerate, slowly knitting together where it had been all but dissolved moments before.
As seconds ticked by, the wisps of golden light began to fade as Riya fought to maintain the healing energies for as long as possible. Even her spark of light dimmed to barely a flicker.
“Riya,” Glade said softly, “You are truly amazing.”
“That’s… supposed to be… my line,” Kedryn wheezed, eliciting a chuckle from Glade.
The lighthearted moment died on their lips as Riya rounded on them both, a storm of emotion raging within her amber eyes.
Both men knew that look and instinctively leaned back, their panic blossoming anew as they tried, and failed, to find shelter from the power that every woman since the dawn of time has been gifted with. Unyielding, humorless, fury.
“Vlakas!” Riya yelled, causing both men to jump. “What were you thinking sticking your nose into something you had never seen before like some prairie coyote!?”
“I’m… sorry?” Kedryn replied, turning the statement into a question.
Glade had to agree with the Kid. What was there to be sorry about? If it wasn’t for Kedryn, Glade’s face would have melted off by now. And what, exactly, was a Vlakas? His newfound ability with the elvish language hadn’t provided a translation.
“I just reacted…”
“Not you, Mede! And don’t you dare move that hand or it’ll rip open. I’m talking to your commander,” Riya snapped, looking directly at Glade. “What were you thinking?! Moving toward an unknown object? That’s how people get killed! If it wasn’t for Kedryn, you would be dead or dying right now!”
Wait… Riya was lecturing him?
“You heard me!” Riya yelled, her face suddenly inches away from him with her index finger digging into his chest. “What were you thinking!? You never approach anything suspicious without checking it first. That is one of the basic rules of survival! I thought a military commander, of all people, would understand that!”
“Well…” Glade began, glancing at Kedryn for some back up. The Corporal just sat there, a look of relief on his face for not being the one in trouble.
Traitor.
“Well?” Riya asked in a frosty tone, jamming her finger into his chest yet again. “Is that all you can say?”
Throughout his time in service, Glade had been trained to live by the Code of Conduct, which clearly stated that surrender is never an option.
“Well...” He continued, voice as calm as he could make it. “You are absolutely correct. I should have been more careful.”
Fortunately, the Code of Conduct didn’t say anything about a well-timed tactical withdrawal.
“Of course, I’m right,” Riya spat. “Don’t you have a skill to identify things? Like my Natural Lore skill?”
“Yes…” he said, drawing out his response in anticipation of another scolding. She obliged.
“Then why in the 7 hells didn’t you use it?” Riya cried, her voice going up a notch. “That’s how you stay alive!”
“I’ve never seen you use your identification talent before today...”
The words had already left Glade’s mouth by the time his brain caught up with him. He knew better than to argue with an angry woman. Didn’t matter that this one wasn’t even from earth. Stupid was stupid, even across dimensions. It didn’t help matters that his statement sounded incredibly childish.
“You’re a Commander!” She snapped back, “You should have figured that out on your own! Information is power, and it will, quite literally, save your life!”
Glade just stared at this newly transformed woman. What had happened to the meek and submissive Riya?
“She’s right sir,” Kedryn interjected. “Your identify skill...”
“Not helping, Corporal,” Glade growled.
“Shutting up now sir.”
“Riya…” he began.
“Don’t you ‘Riya’ me!” She yelled back, shaking her fist in his face. Was she crying? Glade desperately hoped she wasn’t crying. If she was, that meant the anger had gone from moderate level danger to imminent crisis. “You are not my father! You must learn how to survive here if you’re going to keep us alive. Like you said earlier, this isn’t some game, like the Mede over there seems to think!”
She was crying, and not the sad tears either. At that moment, Glade did the only thing a man could do in his situation and live. He stood perfectly still.
“My world is very real,” Riya continued, her voice catching. “And unforgiving. Everything can change in an instant. And… before you realize it… everyone you love is just… gone…”
An unseen damn within the elf woman holding back repressed pain and grief crumbled. Glade, surprised at the sudden change, reached out and caught her, wrapping his arms around her as he would a child.
In that moment, everything became clear. The evidence had been there all along, he had just been too focused on himself to see. The despondent looks throughout their journey. The hesitancy in talking about her past. The looks of sorrow when talking about her family. Glade knew this pain. Had felt it more times than he cared to admit. And if he were honest, was still struggling with the phantoms of the lost that echoed intimately within his soul.
She struggled against him at first, hitting him with her balled fists, screaming incoherently into his chest. It took a couple of minutes, but she finally stopped struggling, and simply cried.
“Why did they do it?” she whispered between sobs. “Why did they attack my family?”
“I don’t know,” Glade responded gently. He didn’t know her story, but at that moment, it didn’t matter.
There were several notifications waiting for him to read, but he ignored them. There were more important things that needed his attention.
More time passed before Riya finally calmed down.
“I’m sorry, for the outburst,” she whispered against his chest.
“No apologies necessary,” Glade responded, patting her back as he would a child seeking comfort. “You were right to yell at me.”
Riya leaned away, Glade dropping his arms to his side as he gave her a smile.
She simply nodded, wiping at her tears with the sleeve of her dress.
“I don’t mean to interrupt,” Kedryn interjected. “But is there any chance that I could get another healing? While you were… talking, I flexed my hand. And, well…”
He held his newly healed hand up to the light, exposing a small stretch of broken skin.
“Mede!” She scowled, swiping the rest of the tears away. “What did I tell you?”
“To…not move my hand?” he responded dumbly.
“And what did you do?” Riya said, stomping toward him.
“Move it…”
A snort escaped Glade before he could stop himself. Then another. Riya tried to scowl at him, but the beginnings of a smile warred with her stern demeanor. Without warning, a snort escaped her lips. Before they knew it, all three were struggling to keep from laughing.
Their entire situation was ridiculous. They were lost on a foreign planet, unknown danger all around them, no support or real weapons, and they were laughing at a near death experience.
As the moment washed over them, Glade smiled. It felt like he was with his team again. All he really needed to make it complete was for Wildfire or Mother to chime in with one of their wise cracks.
Over the next few minutes, Riya meditated and channeled just enough of her healing magic into Kedryn’s hand to stop the bleeding, the Kid’s flame their only source of light.
Shaking his head at the inanities of life, Glade went about picking up their gear.
As he approached the spot where the slime had burned, Glade saw a small glint reflect back to him in the darkness. This time he used his aura sight skill.
You have discovered a pure focus shard. Can be used much like a mana shard. Increase the skill Aura Sight to learn more.
Size: Unknown
Purity: Unknown
Charges: Unknown
Value: Unknown
He picked up the small chip of crystal and put in the bag with the rest of the mana shards. He’d ask Riya about it later.
Just he as stepped closer to where the Magma Beetle's carapace had spilled out, Glade saw a ripple of light out of the corner of his eye. His reaction was immediate.
Glade slammed his foot down onto one of the overturned pieces of metal carapace, flipping it into his hands at the same time as he lunged past Riya and Kedryn, swinging for all he was worth as another slime launched itself from the opposite wall.