Chapter Eleven
Joe woke with the morning and stretched in bed. His back ached a bit from the hard bed, but more than anything it was the feeling of quiet satisfaction suffusing him that let him know today would be a good day. Joe enjoyed the morning breakfast with Gardenell with a bit of leisure and relaxation. Although Joe wanted to get out to the drunk priest and out into the forest with a different job, Joe was feeling excited about yesterday and felt he deserved a bit of a rest day. He still didn’t linger too long and was finishing up his meal when Joe stopped, startled. Shouts and screams erupted from outside east of the village, and when Joe turned, he saw Garnedell already sprinting out the front door with the other customers and the large matron waddling rapidly out the door. Joe blinked with some surprise, then followed as well, pulling out his bow and knocking an arrow when he made the street.
He followed the streaming crowds towards the screams, now greatly outweighing the shouts, coming out onto the fields overwhelmed by a chaotic dispersion of people. Several men dashed forward holding various cudgels of differing links while others scattered in fear from an absolutely monstrous slime almost triple the size of what he was used to fighting out in the forest.
“What is that!”
Garnedell shouted back but Joe didn’t understand anything and closed with the slime at a run, dropping his bow and relaxing his pull on the arrow, but kept it nocked. As he came close, he considered bringing up his bow again, but noticed something strange floating within the slime. He holstered the bow and placed the arrow back in the quiver as he quickly pulled out his spear. He didn’t have his wooden stake, but given the size of this slime, he was pretty sure a stake wouldn’t be enough. When he got close, he saw several different blobs inside, but the one that caught his eye the quickest was the sight of a young man who floated inside the body of the slime, still struggling desperately. Joe ran forward past the line of men who were preparing to hold the line against the slime and charged at the slime. As with other slimes, it locked on him almost immediately even as he came within a fifty meter range. He continued his sprint forward, but had to dive under the slime in surprise when it leapt towards him almost ten meters further away than he was expecting. Wow! OK. Bigger means a bigger jump then too, huh. Joe grunted in surprise even as it slipped only a foot or two over his head even as he tumbled under the slime in a roll.
He leapt to his feet and charged back towards the slime and prepared even as it landed, knowing that he was now well within the range of a larger slime’s charging jump attack. He readied his spear and looked towards the slime, fixing the struggling young man’s movements in his eye as he carefully chose a location to spike the slime to the ground. He tensed, the prepared to leap to the side as the slime also contracted, beginning it’s leaping attack. As the slime came flying towards him, Joe leaped to the side as always, then curled up in shock as he realized he had made a huge mistake. Shit! The thing is almost twice as wide as a normal slime! I didn’t jump far enough to the side!
Joe whipped the butt of his spear around and brandished his spear shaft against the slime in a block more than a thrust, angling it slightly. The slime hit him like a runaway train, and Joe spun away from the slime, luckily bouncing off of it instead of being absorbed, the spear shaft helping him push himself just slightly further off to the side. He tumbled across the soft turned dirt of the grain field and was able to pull the spear shaft up against his body horizontally so he didn’t accidently stab himself. He leapt to his feet once again and didn’t even look, knowing that his tumble had taken too long and he took a diving roll at a ninety degree angle to where he believed the slime would have already launched its attack. He felt the swoosh of air whirl over his back even as he rolled and came up again, turning back towards where the slime was landing. He was able to catch it even as it landed, and Joe squared his stance towards the giant slime, prepping himself. He once again took in the sight of the squirming boy, his movements now much more frantic, and Joe placed the boy’s location in relation to his needed jump to spike the slime. He flipped the spear’s direction so that the spear head was correctly aligned for the soon to come slime attack.
As expected, it hit the ground and immediately contracted, leaping back towards him. This time he leapt to the side opposite of where the boy was, making sure the leap was much larger. Joe swept the spear around and into the slime’s body firmly, thrusting the shaft as high as he could and down into the body of the slime towards the earth. But almost immediately, Joe realized things were much different, the slime’s mass was significantly greater and he felt his whole torso pinwheel around, the shaft as the center of the spin and the slime’s body as the counter weight to Joe. The spin twisted him almost ninety degrees from his original facing, but he was still able to bring the slime’s leaping motion to a stop, although the body deformed horribly even as he spiked it into the earth. The slime body bulged outward, the weight of the drowning young man adding to its forward motion before it came wobbling back, desperately attempting to maintain its huge form.
Even as the oversized slime wobbled back to equilibrium, Joe gained his feet and pulled out his spoon spear and stabbed the butt of the spear into slimes body and arms bulged as he slammed the spear shaft into the boy’s torso before ripping him from the slimes body, goop splashing out of the slime and leaving the young man scrambling to clean his mouth and nose to catch a breath. Joe pointed at the young man even as he yelled out to Garnedell.
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“Garnedell! Help the guy.”
Garnedell yelled back in acknowledgement and charged across the field towards the slime covered man while Joe turned towards the much reduced slime, whipping his spoon spear down and across in a wide arc to spray off the slime ooze. He stepped up to the slime and searched for the slime gem, then frowned as he saw what appeared to be two slime gems orbiting each other. Joe stabbed his spoon spear in and tried to slide the reverse bowl up against the gems, but the gems would always slide to the side. Joe looked toward his good spear, and saw that the slime had oozed off it almost half way. Frustrated worry overcame him, and Joe spun the spoon spear until the bowl was faced up to scoop both gems. His arms bulged again and scooped the dual gems out. Man! Is the fluid even more viscous? He was able to scoop the two gems out along with a large gloop of ooze as it flew up and over the back of his head. The large blob of ooze in front of him splashed to the ground and seeped across it even as Joe ripped his good spear out of the ground and sprinted in the direction where he had thrown the double gems.
It arced across the sky and splatted on the ground just as Joe threw his spear. Joe was only ten feet or so away and was fairly certain of the throw. The spear struck true, if a little off center, but enough to pin it to the ground. Joe was able to come to a stop and square his stance carefully so as to properly finish the slime. The spoon spear entered the reduced slime and Joe positioned it well underneath the double gems before whipping it up and out, the two gems orbiting each other into the sky, tied together by the tiniest string of slime. Joe turned to follow the arcing gems and walked towards them as they tumbled across the turned soil. He squatted and brought out his whisk, flipping off the ooze with the practiced ease of thousands of times practiced. The flush of the status gain swept through him, and he was sure the slime was dead, but he still turned to carefully look around the field to make sure there were no more threats. He pulled out his good spear and swung his spoon spear onto his shoulder even as he glanced around.
After seeing nothing else attacking, Joe turned towards the slime covered man and sprinted towards him. The man was sitting up, gasping with loud full gulps. Joe looked towards Garnedell and then pointed to the man, asking if he was alright with a questioning thumbs up. Garnedell nodded in return so Joe quickly helped the man up from to his feet and led him to the lake before helping him into the water. The man looked at him gratefully, even as his skin was now turning a bit red and some blisters had started to form from the slime’s digestive fluids. The man quickly immersed himself in the water and cleansed himself, even as Joe took the time to clean his two spears.
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Kargallen had run forward at the first sign of cries of alarm. The yells of monster had come quickly, and he had brought his hammer from the anvil, one of the few tools he could hold and possibly use as a weapon. He sprinted after the crowd and came upon the men doubling as militia, forming up an impromptu defensive line. He settled in the line, near the center as he was considered one of the strongest men amongst the villagers. The line formed quickly as the last of the defenders joined, and Kargallen called out orders to form up, firming the line. Even as they watched, one of the young farmers was engulfed by the great slime, and Kargallen grimaced as his face blanched. A great slime! This… this will be bloody! There was little they could do for any in the field, the great slime would need everyone working together, and even then, several would likely die; none here were adventurers, let alone great warriors.
The last of the villagers and farmers fled back past the line and Kargallen started calling out the time, measuring their timing as they pushed forward in step. But even as the line began moving, the foreigner sped past them at amazing speed, holding a gorgeous magical spear and his poor imitation effort that looked like a giant spoon with a tiny spoon bowl. Kargallen shouted out, hoping to gain the help of the foreign warrior, but the man seemed to not even hear them and sped across the field.
What followed was a fight that was the stuff of legends. The foreigner seemed to dance across the field, the great slime completely unable to connect with the foreigner. He seemed more like an acrobat than a combatant, his leaps and tumbles having him clear the great slime’s attacks by hairbreadths. Suddenly, the foreigner seemed to have the slime spiked to the ground, its movements curtailed as the foreigner quickly freed the trapped farmer before shouting in his strange language, mixed with some few words he understood, for Garnedell and pointing at the downed farmer. Seconds later, he killed the slime in a matter of only another three strikes: his poorly made spoon spear ejected the distinctive double core from the great slime, followed by an extraordinary throw spiking the small slime left behind utilizing his magical spear, and finally finished off the slime with a last core ejection with this spoon spear. The man sped to the double core and did something with a strange stick before pocketing it and turning to sprint towards the farmer that had been eaten by the great slime.
Kargallen and the line stopped, stunned. They watched as the man helped the eaten farmer to the lake where the man cleansed himself before the poisons of the slime could do worse. As they watched the foreigner helping the man, the line glanced towards each other and said nothing for several moments, shock freezing voices from speaking before the whole line broke into excited chatter.
“Did you see that? By Tyr’s horns, the man ended the great slime with three strikes!”
“Tyr’s horns? More like Sors’ great luck!”
“That was no luck! That was Thur’s blessing! No man moves in such ways without Thur’s blessing! He was dancing across the sky as the very incarnation of Thur himself!”
“Boys, this was a fight of legends, make no mistake, but this was a fight of nothing more than warriors. He is only a man,” Kargallen replied with some moderation but still could not deny the mens’ instincts, “but still an astounding one!”
The men continued their conversation as they broke up in pairs and triplets to head back to the village. Kargallen decided he would head towards the foreign adventurer to thank him for his help, but then saw him get into a significant conversation with the boy, so did not wish to interrupt his apprenticeship. I’ll thank him later. He will need to stop by soon to repair his blades. Kargallen heaved a great sigh of relieve as he headed back to his forge. At least we have a great hero to protect us.
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