It doesn’t take me long to find my newest acquaintance, since she’s quite loud. The moment my view passed through the wall of the town chamber, I could clearly hear her yelling.

“Aww, man, can’t anyone beat me in arm wrestling?” Her voice sounds annoyed.

I hold back a laugh and quickly zoom in on where she is. The demon girl is sitting at a table, surrounded by burly men of every race and description. Across from her sits a muscular man that has what looks like gills sticking out from behind his ears. Reminds me of an axolotl. The guy has his head in his hands, his face a look of total defeat.

One of the surrounding men says something to Wem, causing her to spin around. Well… her head does, at least. “Whaddya mean, that was the last guy? There’s no way!” Her face falls. “Why’s everyone always so weak…”

Just as I’m about to make a connection to the cute but upset girl, the door to the bar slams open. Every head turns towards the sound, even mine. Standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the faux-sunlight, is a man. A man with cat ears. Wait.

As the person steps inside, my fears are confirmed. Walking through the bar is a still very wounded Azrael. He looks like he was put through a wood chipper!

Like a typical Western, the saloo— bar goes silent as the newcomer walks up to the table. The previous challenger moves out of the way, giving the cat the seat without argument. The scraping sound of the chair on the wood floor is the only sound to be heard.

And then, Azrael smiles at me. He gives me a wink before turning to his opponent.

“Hello, Wem.”

Wem says nothing for a second. “...Uh, do I know you?”

Azrael frowns, the wind instantly taken out of his sails. “Y-yeah, well, I guess not. We haven’t met, but I’m one of the dungeon’s generals.” He looks at the girl, somewhat desperately hoping for a look of recognition.

Unfortunately for the black cat, Wem just stares back, not understanding anything he just said.

Eventually he sighs in defeat. “Let's just arm wrestle.”

With that, Wem perks up significantly, her face stretching into a smile. “Woo! Alright!” she cheers into the otherwise silent venue.

The cat grabs the woman’s gooey hand with his own, his claws digging into the backside of her hand. If he’s causing Wem any pain, she doesn’t show it. The still-smiling girl stares Azrael down.

“Ready?” she asks.

Azrael just nods.

The bartender, an Ave like Taven, except blue, comes up to the table. He clears his throat. “Alright. Three. Two. One. Go!”

Immediately the wooden furniture beneath the two’s grappling limbs shatters into splinters, the floor soon following. Pressure rolls off the gripped hands in waves, pushing back the crowd slightly. After almost three seconds, Azrael’s arm is buried into the stone beneath the store. Besides the sounds of debris settling, the bar once again falls silent.

And then, a loud roar of joy fills the air as every man in the bar cheers at once. Azrael is quickly picked up and carried by the crowd to the bar. As he’s placed down, the cheering slowly breaks way to joyful slaps on the back and raucous laughter.

Azrael looks around, dazed and confused. “B-but I lost,” he mewls.

The men closest to him start laughing. Once finally takes pity and explains what’s going on. “Yeah, ya lost, but,” he pauses for emphasis, his finger in the air, “ya made it three seconds!” Everyone nearby cheers again, with cries of ‘three seconds’ added in. Now informed of his mighty deed, Azrael shrugs and accepts the booze offered to him.

Wanting him to enjoy his time, I quickly repair the damage my two companions made that the Ave owner is staring at, tears in his eyes. With that done, I try to find Wem again.

It doesn’t take long, as she hasn’t gone very far. Behind the bar, she’s sitting on a barrel of… it says ‘bombs’... Anyways, I found her, pouting. It seems she didn’t enjoy that as much as the men inside.

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Focusing on her face, I slowly let myself fade in next to her.

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I’m not even fully materialized before I’m assaulted. My still-manifesting body is knocked sideways, rolling against the wooden road. My head hits it, causing the boards to crack. Hmm… I’m pretty sure that should’ve hurt.

I look up at my assaulter, and find myself staring into three bright pink eyes. Well, staring into two of them at a time, at least. They’re sparkling with excitement… and relief? Odd…

I can’t think on that before the slime girl calls out to me. “Oubi!” She really is happy to see me. “I waited for you to wake up! It was really boring, everyone was just fixing things. No fighting at all!” She pouts.

“Uh… Wem, can we sit up?” Her above me, pinning me to the ground, is awakening feelings I do not want to think about. She seems to realize our positions, as her two smaller eyes blush. She quickly withdrawals, sitting on the… bomb barrel… again.

I get up and brush off my dress. With a small hop I make my way to the barrel next to her, which I refuse to read the contents of. After I seat myself, I notice Wem’s expression is… scary.

“Awww!” she screams. “That was so cute! You did a little hop! Aahhh!” She grabs me and squeezes, seemingly overcome with emotions. Something in me makes a cracking sound.

“Wem,” I wheeze. “Please stop.” She blinks slowly, realizing what she’s doing.

After letting go, she says, “Sorry…” Her head hangs in shame, her pigtails stretching further than normal.

I sigh. “It’s fine. I’m already all better.” I’m fibbing a bit, whatever she broke in my avatar still hurts, but it’s just an avatar. No permanent harm done, at least.

She perks up a little after that. “Oubi, it was so boring,” the demon whines.

I can’t help but giggle at her. “Why didn’t you just help them rebuild?” I ask.

Again she blinks slowly, before smiling. “Oh, wow, that sounds fun! I should’ve… But people don’t really like me being around.” Her face quickly droops.

As much as I want to be angry at the people she’s talking about, she is a bit of a walking natural disaster. For most people it would be the same as trying to befriend an imminent earthquake.

“Well, you’re welcome here, Wem. As long as you don’t hurt anyone, at least.” I smile. She’s accidentally found a place where her abilities aren’t as insane. Any damage she does can be easily fixed, as long as it’s just buildings and such.

She beams at me. “Really?”

I nod at her, unable to resist her smile. “Yeah, really. Just don’t hurt anyone?” I plead.

The slimegirl nods furiously, her pigtails looking like they’re about to snap off. Suddenly she stops, slapping herself in the face with her hair. “Wait! What about monsters?”

I touch my chin with a finger. That’s a bit tricky. If I tell her yes, she’ll wipe out everything in the dungeon out of boredom. If I say just the dungeon monsters are off limits, the lake will get destroyed.

“Uh, just ask me or one of my generals before you do it. Even if they attack you first. None of the monsters here could hurt you.” That’s the best I can come up with at the moment.

She nods solemnly. “Understood captain!” She does a salute, but a bit too hard, so her hand pushes into her head with a horrible noise. I start laughing, this girl is gonna kill me with her antics. Seriously.

Wem doesn’t notice me laughing at her, instead focused on retrieving her hand from her forehead. After a few minutes she succeeds in extracting it, and looks at me.

“Uh… what were we talking about again?” She smiles nervously.

As I start laughing a second time, a warm feeling fills my chest.

The slimegirl squirms as I giggle at her expense, embarrassed. After I eventually calm down, the two of us sit together in silence for a while.

“Uh… Wem?” I ask hesitantly.

She looks over at me. “What is it?”

I tap my index fingers together. “Uh, I’m… sorry. For asking you to stay. I just… I didn’t want you to leave, for some reason.” After I get out the words that are so hard to say, I look at the girl.

She smiles at me, the same soft smile she gave me after the battle. “It’s alright, Oubi, I wouldn’t have stayed if I didn’t want to.” The somewhat-alien maturity lifts off her, her tone becoming nervous. “A-and, uh, I’m glad to see you again.” She flashes her beartrap teeth at me.

My eyes slowly drift down to her hand. An urge bubbles up inside me, to reach out and hold it. I push it down and try to be content with just looking. Her hand is similar to mine, yet so different. Only two digits, besides the thumb. Each finger is tipped with a sharp point. There’s no separation between skin or nail, all of it being made of slime instead. I wonder what it feels like to touc—

My thoughts are cut off by a sudden warmth touching me. Without moving my body, I slowly turn my head to see what it is. I almost squeal audibly.

Leaning against me, is Wem. As I was being a creep, and staring at her hand, she fell asleep. She’s snoring away against my shoulder, drooling something that is eating away at my clothes. It’s fine, not real body, ignore the burning pain.

Seeing the girl sleeping so peacefully, my own fatigue returns. I thought it had gone away after my little… episode, but it seems not. My mind wanders to Azrael, who also seemed totally wiped at the bar. And Maddi has been working since she was born… We need a rest, everyone needs a rest.

But what? My thoughts flick through things we could do. Colosseum? Everyone just killed thousands of monsters, so that’s out. Theater? Who would be the actors? Definitely not me. I’m willing to bet money there aren’t any amusement parks in this world…

A memory surfaces, a rare pleasant one. A school field trip, one I actually got to go on. Well, only because I faked my parent’s signature… Anyways, we went to the ocean. The beach was amazing, and the water was so fun. Building with sand was fun too…

Sand, beach, water? I feel myself smile evilly. We just got all of those things. That settles it.

I’m gonna throw a dungeon beach party!