The place where I have left the ring to explode was not randomly chosen. A thin wall had been built there to separate the corridor from a chamber full of slimes. Murderous slimes about level one or two. I ran down the tunnel as fast as possible and reached a bifurcation. Good that Andy knew the caverns well. To the right, in another spacious cavern, stood a solitary slime. A giant of its kind, probably level seven. I shot a thunderbolt towards it and ran back with the king slime following me. The guards appeared on the left, but I reached the opposite wall and started climbing it towards an upper platform about five meters above the ground.

I was partially hidden from the guards by the bumpy wall. The danger was that they would shoot me down with one of those spears before I would reach the top, but they did not take the risk. The spear might have ricocheted and hit the giant slime. Or it might have simply missed me, and they would be disarmed.

As they hesitated and even retired, I finished my climbing.

“The king slime will lose its aggro, and you'll have to come down from your perch! You'll get the beating of your life, cunt! Come down now and repent, and you may escape the worst! I won't beat you if you come down now!”

He not, but his partner will do it.

Just to make sure, I shot another thunderbolt towards the king slime. It barely felt it but bubbled angrily.

The guards stood there examining the wall. The only good way to climb to the platform was where I did it, and the king slime was now stationed there.

I had enough stones up there to defend myself from the guards if they tried to climb, and now I heard the sloshing sound of the many slimes that were coming from the back. Yeah, my plan had worked, and the wall to the slimes chamber had collapsed.

All I had to do now was shoot at the guards whilst the slimes did the rest.

As the guard had said, the king slime will lose its aggro with the time and go back to its chamber; however, that should be after the guards had died. That was my plan.

As one of them tried to climb the wall, I threw stones at him. I did hit him, but he managed to hold even if it was a difficult or impossible place to climb there. How does he do that?

He transformed.

Oh, fuck me! These are werewolves!

I picked up the heaviest stone I could lift and hurried to drop it on its head. I thought it would break him; it hit his head with a thud. He sacked in himself and against the wall, then growled with fury. He was entirely transformed. I started sweating. I hurried up to pick another stone with trembling hands when I heard a maddened growl. He was now in a frenzy. A berserker skill? He must have been at least level three to get a skill!

The moment when I dropped my little stone on his head, I realized I had no chance. He shrugged it like an annoying fly, fixed his claws into the wall, probably into some crevices and pushed hard with both hands propelling himself up towards the platform.

I shot an icebolt at his face. It was well-timed and made contact when he was in the air, but to no avail, it did not change his trajectory, and his claws grasped the platform's rand.

I turned on my heels and shot another icebolt at his face as he propelled himself on the platform with a victorious growl. I am done. I ran a desperate dash along the platform, feeling his breathing on my neck.

I jumped in the air, trying to get over the giant slime. Up there, I realized it would not work. That sinking feeling of flying directly into the mincer grappled my heart.

In his frenzy, the werewolf jumped behind me. His claws almost touched me, but an interesting, confusing thing happened when my foot touched the slime. Something helped me, pushed me, and I simply slipped over the giant slime surface like over a slide. Its 'skin' was not as corroding as I feared, and I landed beside the slime on my butt, hearing a terrified growl above me as the werewolf sank inside the giant slime. His mad flailing did not help him, and a moment later, agape, I could discern his dark silhouette inside the slime.

I did not lose any moment admiring that feat. I healed my injured butt and dashed along the corridor to land face to face with a patrol of four.

This was so unfair!

I stopped as fast as I could and turned back, shooting bolts as I retreated. I heard their screams and curses.

“Escaped slave!”

"There she is!"

I avoided a thrown spear and reached the slimes. What should I do? I hesitated for a second; however, that was enough. A spear penetrated my back, the tip bursting out below my left breast.

The impact threw me to the ground. I heard a victorious yell:

"I got the cunt!"

With the balancing spear in my back, I screamed all my pain and sorrow and continued on all four between the advancing slimes.

I fell on my belly. I couldn't hold any more. Each and every movement was too much; each balance of that spear brought excruciating waves of pain. Let them finish me. This will be my end. I was sorry and angry but also a little bit proud of what I'd achieved in the short hours of my existence. Pity that it did not work to the end.

The pain troubled my vision and thoughts. There was no pain suppression; the gamers had done something wrong with the setup.

Do I try now again with a different character?

I fell to the ground and hearing the sloshing around, I closed my eyes.

Fuck it. The next avatar will not be a dark elf.

I waited. I moaned and waited to die, breathing hard. Each breath was painful.

Probably I lost my conscience for a moment. I opened my eyes.

Surprised, I realized I was still there. I was still alive? A pool of blood was forming under me. Behind me, the patrol has engaged the slimes. They were trying to keep them away with their spears. Why am I still alive? Not being devoured?

I raised my head a little and looked around. There were slimes all around, but none attacked me. Slimes are monsters; they are not intelligent. But even if they would be smart, why would they not attack me?

"Maybe because of that coating you have from the king slime?"

Huch that may be the reason. They think I am part of the king slime?

To say 'think' was maybe too much. Feel is probably the right word.

I stopped thinking about it and suddenly started to fight for my life. First, I need to get rid of this spear. My left lung must have collapsed as I had great difficulties breathing, but was it any wonder?

First, I thought about pushing the spear back, but then how to extract it?

I turned my head as much as I could and looked at the spear. It had no longer protrusions or anything else that would hinder it from slipping, the thicker part was already through, so I put my hands on the tip of the spear and pulled.

At first, it did not work, but then when I used all my power, I could make it slip a couple of centimetres.

I screamed my pain and healed, just to keep myself alive, and then I did it again.

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Slow, centimetre by centimetre, I pulled that spear through my thorax.

I don't know how long it took. Maybe one hour? Maybe less? But it looked like hours to me. The beginning was hard, but after a while, I got it, and it went faster. At each movement, I almost fainted, but I healed, which helped me keep doing it.

Only when I finished did I look behind. The noise had decreased but now increased again. At first, the slimes must have pushed the four further down the corridor. But now, the four had received reinforcement, and they were pushing the slimes back.

I wiped the sweat from my brows and had to grin as I encountered two bumps on my forehead.

“Congratulations, Flo; your horns are growing!”

"Don't be ironical; that is really a good thing!"

"How so?"

As she was in the lead, she flapped my mini wings on my back.

"This is what rescued us from falling on the giant slime!"

The extra push that helped me to over-jump the king slime.

“How comes those little stubs could help propel me?”

“The wings work with magic as a multiplier. With fully developed wings, Andy should be able to fly.”

“Really? Cala too?”

“Yes!”

“What are you doing now?”

“Increasing that congruence spell. We need it to work faster!”

“But will that not strain the puny mana resources Andy has?”

“Yes, but the horns also help with mana regeneration. With bigger horns, your mana regeneration is faster, and your mana control better.”

“I hope you will not make Andy have two meters horns?”

She laughed:

“Above ten to fifteen centimetres, there are diminishing returns. Mature horns are at ten centimetres, after which they grow very slowly or even stop. It does make sense to grow your horns bigger.”

“That is very reassuring… What are you doing?”

“The slimes are losing. I need to help them.”

“Help the slimes?”

“On which side are you? So yes, we help the slimes!”

She advanced between slimes towards the 'fighting line' and shot an ice bolt in the face of an attacker. The timing was such that it made him miss the stab with his spear; the attacking slime passed under his spear and snatched his foot.

He screamed as he was overwhelmed, but the others became again aware of me.

“That damned slave has survived!”

"How can she stand already? Is this the same one?"

“Bring a mage and archers!”

Oh well, until then, I'll continue to help the slimes.

They tried a couple of spear throwing in my direction, but I had high mobility, and my emerging wings helped me move even faster. Mana regeneration was becoming good, and I could shoot almost continuously my little bolts, and with the death of the next spear wielder, I got one level.

“Finally!”

I ran away from the fighting and tried the lightfire spell. The spell started and failed again.

“We need more mana, more levels.”

“Will one level be enough?”

“No. I don't think so.”

Oh fuck. One level per night was a fantastic performance. Two or three levels? That's impossible. But none of us spoke that word. Flo went back to the fighting area.