Chapter Seventy Eight

The slime shuddered out of the tree line, its body thundering out of the forest without doing too much damage to the forest itself. Several of the trees had fallen into its body, eaten through and dissolved into the massive slime's body. It stretched into the field with one last tendril pulling itself around the massive bole of one of the largest trees on the tree line it had simply oozed around.

It broke free of the trees, the bark of the last tree eaten from it. The transparent tan muddy brown swirl of colors slowed, calming once it made it into the field proper. It shivered, bouncing in its place as it seemed to take in the massive battle before it. Something punched it in the back, a dent forming at its rear and rippling around towards the front before rebounding back. The punch seemed to motivate the slime, its movement beginning once again and this time heading towards the walls. It moved quite slowly compared to the triple core green slimes that had attacked the small village of Lakeside.

It hobbled along at a speed that was unremarkable, slightly faster than the speed of a jogging human. However, another punch hit the back of the slime and it stopped, ripples bouncing outward from the punch simultaneous with jiggles from the slime. It tensed, seeming to twist vertically upon itself, then began to roll. Oh… crap! Its speed was significantly greater as Joe watched it pick up speed.

Joe quickly got an arrow ready, imbuing a mana point into the arrowhead and releasing it almost instantly. The shot was easy; simple. The slime rolled directly towards the wall at him, picking up speed as monsters began desperately scrambling out of the slime’s way. Its speed grew so quickly that soon beasts were crushed under its gelatinous body while some were swept up into it where they slowly dissolved as they twisted and futilely fought against their demise. The slime’s rotational speed was now so great that the once spherical shape had begun to flatten out into a tall disk; a wheel barreling directly at him. His arrow left the bow and the slime immediately tilted towards its right, the arrow missing it and burying itself into the monsters behind it. After the arrow passed, the slime turned back to aim directly at him.

Joe took a deep breath and cleared his mind, settling another mana point arrow into his bow but becoming as empty as possible, prepared for the strike but without any intent at all, simply absorbed into the moment to properly direct his arrow. The slime grew ever closer, but he released all tension, thought, and worry. The moment stretched, expanded, contracted, and dissipated, then it simply was. The arrow flew from his bow. His bow did not drop, his eye’s remained locked on the arrow even as he froze and watched the arrow fly.

The slime continued to roll forward, not reacting at all to the arrow's flight until it was almost too late, it’s body jerking in obvious terror even as it appeared to stumble, if a ball of ooze spinning so fast it had elongated into a wheel could technically stumble. It dimpled one side of its torso that was on the ground, tilting its body to the side as a massive spike from its body erupted from the same side it was tilting and punched into the ground. The spike seemed to form almost a hand surrounding the spike and the spike pierced into the ground while the surrounding fingers also grew spikes form their fingertips and clenched the ground in its grip.

The ground held for all of a split second before the massive chunk of soil was ripped from the earth. That split second was enough to twist the entire torso of the slime into an arc almost out of the path of the arrow but it wasn’t enough. The arrow still struck the slime. However, the arrow glanced off the slime, it’s slime body denting under the strike of the arrow then erupting back outwards, sending the arrow spiraling upwards off into the distance over the forest. Joe grimaced.

Right… seems to be able to feel it like the shadow cat could…so… Joe pulled another arrow out, this time investing a mana twister into the arrowhead instead of a mana point. Joe hoped that with the lesser amount of mana or… is it mana intent?... what’s… Joe cleared his mind, returning to the fight, completing the mana hurricane and bringing his aim on target.

He’d had plenty of time, his target had tumbled across the field in a wild uncontrolled crash with dozens of monsters destroyed underneath its crash landing. The blob wobbled and stumbled like a drunk where it came to a rest, its internal liquid still swirling madly from all its rotational inertia. It turned the slime into something almost like a top, its body a mad whirling of tan and muddy brown.

Joe took a bit more time to aim as the slime seemed to be gathering itself, struggling to slow the massive inertia of the fluids spinning in its center. Joe emptied his thoughts and aimed, and released. Once again, the arrow flew true, and once again, the slime responded almost too late. It’s definitely too late! I’ve got it! The arrow was too close and too fast, yet the slime once more reacted faster than Joe could have ever expected, but what it did was more terrifying than its speed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It ballooned off two portions of its self, a small blob about the size of a typical single core slime, and another that accounted for almost a quarter of its mass. The small blob it shot at Joe’s arrow, striking it head on and Joe grimaced, fear spiking. The arrow hit the blob and didn’t pierce it. Instead, it ricocheted off like it had hit a rubber ball, flying back from it and shattering into the city wall below his feet.

The second larger blob the slime had shot off itself was shot at high speed perpendicular to the flight of the arrow, acting like reaction mass and shoving the main body of the slime off to the side. From what Joe could tell, it was just enough to move the slime out of the path of the arrow. The secondary blob flew off from the main body, spinning off wildly towards the tree line. Both blobs maintained cohesion only for a second after separating from the main body, each spinning just as wildly in the same direction that the innards of the blob were spinning. This spin, when it lost cohesion, sent the acidic slime splattering across the entire field. The second blob flew wildly towards the tree line and scarred or killed hundreds of monsters, leaving a great swath of the area empty of any lethal threat.

The first smaller blob flew towards the city wall but burst into a spray long before it reached the city wall or even the line of guards below. Despite that, there were still a few droplets that hit a few of the guards below who danced back and cursed as they shed clothing or armor to protect themselves.

The slime’s reaction was terrifying, just as much as its defense was. Can an arrow… I … Joe found himself struggling to find out how he could verify if his arrows could even puncture the slime’s skin. If I … The idea struck him like lightning, a bolt of insight. He moved without thought, an arrow coming to his string and released, no mana or point of any kind, a simple arrow. Like all other creatures, it did not respond at all. The arrow struck the slime and sunk in a few inches before it dissolved almost instantly and then what was outside the slime fell to the ground.

Huh… so… Joe shot another and the arrow struck again, piercing slightly before dissolving and falling to the ground same as the first. He fired another five or so in rapid succession, the first three arrows sinking in as the others but then the next two hit the skin and reflected off of it. Joe ground his teeth, grunting. Well… that’s not good! Although there isn’t really any point, right? The arrows don’t do anything anyway… so…

Joe looked on over the fight, the slime once again moving, but this time moving carefully, hobbling across the field in a slow hop that gave Joe time to think. He waited for a few moments before firing another single arrow and noticed it sink into the slime once again, dissolving as the previous first few did. So… can’t keep it going the whole time… so… better not fire anymore… or it’ll just keep its defenses up… but… Joe’s mind wandered over possible options but could not think of anything at all. Even his special spoon spear would be useless for at least two pretty obvious reasons. He’d struggled to pierce the skin of the triple core slime and this one was some specialized one with some kind of defensive ability. Even if he could pierce the skin of the slime, the core, even if it stayed in the center, it would still be too far for the spoon of the spear to reach the core to pull it out, let alone have the leverage to scoop it out.

His mind whirled and he could think of nothing to stop the slime. It was heading directly towards him and his section, which made it his responsibility. His thoughts stuttered through dozens of options, but he couldn’t figure out anything. The slime came closer and closer, and Joe tried to fire another mana point arrow as well as a mana twister arrow but nothing really made a difference. For the first, it fired off another blob to block it, the blob hardened and reflecting the mana point arrow easily. This time, Joe noticed that the blob kept a small tendril connected to it until the arrow had been blocked. The tendril snapped a few seconds after that before splattering across the ground once more. So… can only harden as long as it’s connected? Probably? Good guess?

The second arrow, the mana hurricane arrowhead, the blob simply ignored, hardening its skin to reflect it away and continued moving towards his wall. The guards watched on, some glancing up at him in obvious fear even as orders were shouted out and the guards began retreating towards the wall. Well… guess it’s only melee… but… what… Only really… one option, I guess…

A poor beginning of a plan that Joe hated more than anything else began forming in his mind, but there really wasn’t much else he could do. He sighed, then calmed himself even as he committed. Time to crap or get off the pot! By now, people on either side of him were firing off mana bolts, lightning strikes, fireballs, and all manner of magical attacks that Joe desperately wanted to know and study but found himself frustrated as he kept his thoughts on his plan and the slowly approaching slime.

“Garnedell, I need both spoon spears; yours and mine. Quick! Gwenvair! I need water. A lot of water… enough to wash a grown man four or five times… even more is better, even several dozen times if possible. And tell people to stop attacking the slime!” Really need to punch into it… so…