Aryan and his friends cleaned up the slime monsters quickly before proceeding towards the gymnasium. All along the way the battled numerous slimes, collecting both gold and transparent spheres. Aryan was thrilled as he added more cards to his deck, although he couldn’t use all of them at the same time, he found that he could summon them as soon as one of his cards gets destroyed.

Riya fought valiantly with a spear. Her moves were fast and clean, and somehow, she was able to prevent the slimes from reforming together, thus slicing them to puddles. Aryan and Sid especially Peter were in awe of her talent. Peter’s continuous and shameless praises had the young lady blushing red.

Aryan frowned as he looked out the window to witness the ‘scenery’ In sharp contrast to the students running away from slime monsters, the outside world looked ordinary, as if this attack was isolated to the university.

Aryan could see cars and trucks moving across roads, this meant that the electronic devices outside were operating normally. With no electricity, the fire alarm became useless, and even though some sections have caught fire there’s been no response from the city.

After cleaning the slime monsters around the gymnasium for a while, Aryan and his group rested as they prepared their weapons.

Riya stretched her arms as she yawned, “I get killing the slimes around the gymnasium to prevent us from being surrounded, but what’s stopping us from simply tossing a gas canister inside the gymnasium and lit it on fire?”

Sid crushed glasses as he said, “Forget that, if we set the gymnasium on fire, without the sprinklers, the fire could grow and consume the entire university and we have no idea if this boss monster is immune to fire, if it is, well...”

Peter frowned, “that’s right! We have no idea what the boss monster is capable of, we are being reckless.”

Aryan looked at them and assured them, “We won’t fight the boss monster to the death, all we need to do is agitate it a bit, try to figure out its weakness and if we can’t handle it, run.”

Before they could discuss any further a young woman’s scream ripped through the gymnasium. Aryan and Peter looked at each other before they barged inside the gymnasium. A woman laid unconscious face down, as the huge slime monster made its way slowly to consume her.

Peter stuttered, “T-That is big? That t-thing is huge! It’s almost scrapping off the celling.”

The slime was huge it was large enough to occupy more than half of the gymnasium. Its large eyes stared at them while small puddles from its body transformed to small slimes from time to time. The boss monster screamed as soon as it discovered Aryan’s group. The small slime monsters that were scattered around the gymnasium made their way between the boss and Aryan’s group.

“Let my minions handle the small slime monsters, we should concentrate on the big one. Ok?”

Peter and Sid threw glass at the boss monster while Riya sliced at the huge slime with fast movements. Aryan stood back and observed the situation, as soon as one of his minions died, he sired a new one.

In time, they did manage to whittle down the monster somewhat, but soon discovered that they had run out of glass. Sid and Peter looked at each other before looking up at the boss slime monster glaring at them.

“S-Sorry?”, stuttered Peter. The slime monster swatted at him with a hand made of slime as an answer.

Peter used his speed to dodge away the attack, and shouted, “Run, Sid!” he looked for his friend only to find him missing. Turns out Sid had made his escape, way before Peter even thoughts of running.

Sid shouted from behind Aryan, “that’s it! Keep it occupied, we will think of a way to save you.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“you mother--“, Peter cursed him as he dodged the slimy hand.

Carrying the unconscious young woman to the gymnasium exit doors with his minions, Aryan frowned as he discovered that the doors were locked. He was too stressed to even check if the young lady was injured. According to Peter, the doors would open after either the boss monster dies or all the humans die. As Aryan was brainstorming ideas, he heard a huge bang as the roof caved in.

A figure shot through the roof, ripping through the huge slime monster; tearing it to two halves. A large transparent ball tumbled as it rolled on to Aryan’s feet. The entire sidewall demolished and a deep trench was carved on the ground which led all the way to the middle of the soccer field.

“Woooo!! We beat it!! Peter, are you okay bro?”, Sid asked with concern when he saw Peter’s face flushed red.

“don’t. talk. To. Me.” Peter glared as he tended his wounds.

Aryan handed the unconscious woman to Riya while he made his way through the demolished wall, across the field to check on the figure.

Dream stood up shakily as he groaned. He groggily took in his surroundings, dusting off mud from his dress.

Aryan frowned; no normal human being deserved to be in one piece after that ‘fall’

Whistling, Aryan joked, “Need help?” even as his fingers gripped the handle of a fire axe behind his back.

“Sure! As long as it comes with a bubble tea and a cold one. A company of a beautiful woman would not be frowned upon either.” Dream said, smiling to himself.

Dream frowned as he realised the abysmal amount of vidia in the air. Standing straight, staring up at the sky, Dream asked, “Where is this?”

Dream didn’t mean to be intimidating but his voice had the inherent effect of drawing fear from any cultivator he faced, as for mortals? They usually piss their pants in fear and give him anything he asks; no resistance whatsoever.

But Aryan in turn asked him a question, “What are you?”

Dream finally deigned to look at Aryan, “I can let you attack me with that prick all you want boy. Trust me, its not even sharp enough to scratch my body.”

Aryan figured as much, but he still gripped the axe in both hands. His body taking a natural stance as if he had fought with an axe all his life.

Dream cocked an eyebrow at that, “What’s your name? and where is this? (After realising he was being rude) I am Dream Ignis. Don’t worry, I mean no harm. Treat me as a passerby.”

Aryan took a deep breath. For some reason he could feel a heavy invisible pressure facing Dream, as if was at a beach with the weight of waves rolling against his body.

“I am Aryan Kshatra. This city is called the Fallen Oak city. (After feeling the need to add) and this is planet earth.”

Eyes gone wild, Dream balled his fists until they went pale as he whispered angrily “That bastard punched me back to earth?”

…..

After giving Dream a bottle of water and some biscuits in his bag.

Aryan brought Dream to the rest of the group. Peter and Sid stood as Riya tended to the unconscious woman with a bottle of water in her hands.

Before anyone could react, the woman tore open her eyes and moved incredibly fast as she hugged Riya. Grabbing her hands, “Thank you soo much for saving me. You are an angel.” She then proceeded to kiss Riya on the cheek.

Peter’s jaw dropped to the floor while Sid had a big toothy grin as he slyly took a picture with his phone, Flash on. Aryan blinked twice innocently; any random passerby could easily misunderstand the situation…. Which Dream did.

“Is this how you thank your saviours from where you come from?”

Then he addressed Aryan with a doubtful eye, “You won’t ask me for a hug and kiss… right?”

Aryan didn’t even bother to reply, he was too distracted by the girl in front of him. Earlier he had his attention captured by the boss monster. He had failed to realise the stunning beauty in his arms.

Jin Yi stood there happily as she introduced herself to others. Keeping a distance from others, in contrast, she seemed to almost cling to Riya.

She wore a tight orange coloured, one shoulder Rib Crop Top paired with faded blue jeans. Her long raven black hair flowed right down her back and her bright intelligent green eyes threatened to capture Aryan’s every breath.

Jin yi was a foreign exchange student, who took shelter in the gymnasium when everything started but was overwhelmed quickly when the boss monster spawned.

This was interesting because the Boss monster should have spawned few minutes after the mini monsters arrived and that meant that this young lady has been fighting the boss monster for almost 2 hours.

The normally shrewd Aryan would have noticed this.. were he not lost in Jin yi’s beauty. It wasn’t his fault. This was the first time he felt this way towards a member of the opposite sex. Usually, his outlook towards woman were lukewarm, they were either friends or casual acquaintance. He never felt this strongly towards them before.

Neither did others notice this as Dream was still too angry and confused about his circumstances. While others were busy claiming their gold.