Tristan watched the creature, which looked suspiciously like what Kale called a slime oozed out of the mine shaft. He took a step back from the thing, seeing a brain and eyes was very disconcerting. It was disconcerting, but not threatening. Kale had mentioned that slimes were the lowest of the low mythical beasts, but also that they were made completely of a viscous goo.

Olfred seemed to be of the same opinion, “What is that?“

“Donnow boss, its kinda cute though,” one of his men said. Olfred’s entire team started chuckling like he had made a joke.

He scooped up a rock and crept closer to it. If it had been anyone else, Tristan would have warned him against throwing a rock at the brain monster. Unfortunately for Olfred, Tristan was not opposed to using him as the test dummy. Olfred tossed the rock at the creature, it was not a hard strike and it did not manage to get its attention.

A second rock, moving much faster did. The creature started releasing a black fog and moving toward Olfred. It was faster than Tristan expected, but still slower than the fleeing Olfred. Was this thing a portable black fog generator? If so it would be much less useful outside where the gas could spread.

Judging by the fact that it was chasing Olfred, the creature had no ranged attacks. Tristan judged it safe to throw things. He would have to thank Olfred later. Grabbing a spade shovel, Tristan threw it like a spear. The sharper edge cut into the jelly, but did not reach the brain. It did change directions and started heading for Tristan. He could see more black fog being released from the injury and was sure that this thing had the black gas instead of blood.

He picked up another two shovels, and threw them while retreating. If it had been small he would not have hit it, but it was about three feet in every direction, so it was an easy target. After the years of running, the creature had no way to catch Tristan, but it was still releasing the black fog. Unfortunately, there was a slight breeze that day.

It spread the fog, instead of a simple trail of darkness following the creature around, it was starting to spread. Tristan realized that while it did not have a ranged attack, it did possess an area of effect attack. Chase was the first victim of the fog. He was unfortunate enough to run down wind and it quickly overtook their hiding spot.

Sun set was unaffected frantically shaking Chase as his eyes started closing and he slumped to the ground. From the snoring he was making he was asleep not dead. The fog seemed to be ineffective on Sun Set however. Tristan almost slapped himself, Siren had told him that darkness was largely ineffective against light. As a tier one illuminator, Sun Set should be able to resist any dark essence below the heroic tiers.

Tristan was still leading the creature around, “HEY, Sun. Set!” She jerked and looked at him, “Can you shove this through that things brain?”

He held up his sword breaker. When she nodded he tossed the weapon and its sheath to her. Sun Set was crying, but it seemed to be from impotence rather than fear. However the tears changed from helplessness to rage as she got ahold of a weapon.

Tristan pulled out a sun stone and threw it at the creature. It was instantly snuffed out, but the jelly flesh blistered and eroded when it made contact. He had grabbed a half dozen of the stones, but they would not be enough. Tier zero light fixtures weren’t very effective weapons, who would have thought.

It was a great distraction though. Pain was a great way to get attention. Tristan used it to get the brains undivided attention, and the creature unknowingly Oozed past Sun Set’s position. For being mostly brain the creature lacked the basic intelligence to notice Sun Set. She was screaming as she ran up and started stabbing the creature wildly.

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The serations meant for catching swords acted like a saw, chewing up the soft flesh. Massive amounts of black fog gushed out into Sun Set’s face, however rage is a good way to stay awake. Without arms and legs the creature could not stop Sun Set from digging out its brain and mashing it under her heavy boots.

Tristan winced, angry women were brutal. Sun Set quickly remembered Chase, who was still asleep, she dropped the knife and ran back to his side. Her arms were blistered from being pushed into the jelly, not like an acid, but like rot. Her light essence was excellent for healing, so the problem would be quickly fixed, however Tristan would have been seriously injured in her position.

Without the creature, the fog started dispersing and Tristan was able to go pick up his knife. At first he was worried about it being damaged, but a little bit of logic would have put his mind at ease. Though it was only a tier one artifact, the essence reservoir was made to hold tier five essence. The brain monster came nowhere near exhausting the reservoir.

Tristan started to relax when a crash came from Conni’s house. Black fog was leaking out the windows, Tristan had forgotten about the stairway that connected the boardroom in the mine to Conni’s house. Conni slammed the door open and came running out carrying Grace over one shoulder. Tristan was impressed that he could carry his wife that way, however his attention was grabbed by something following him out.

It was a black skeleton with a black circulatory system, it was fast, but not used to things like doors or stairs. That gave Conni just enough time to escape. Tristan wondered how many more of these things were down in the mine. Dark elementals would be undetectable in the black fog, and with an average tier of four they would be borderline unstoppable.

The fog started covering the skeleton, and any part that was covered vanished from sight, regardless of how thin the fog was. Fortunately for all the miners, it was high noon and the elemental had no brain. It left its cover and ran straight for Conni, it was substantially slower than the one Tristan had seen in the mine. Tristan realized that an average tier of four meant that there had to be some below that. It appeared that this one was a tier three.

It was still stronger than Tristan, but it was not such a wide gap that the miners couldn’t take it if they worked together. Conni was losing ground, the elemental was faster than he was while carrying his wife. Tristan decided that he would practice throwing spears if he survived. He had three shovels with rusted and pitted heads, so he started throwing them.

The first missed, while the second hit it in the shoulder. The blow broke a few veins, but that did nothing to slow it down. It did start chasing Tristan, that caused him to miss the next throw. He was not going to get into a fist fight with it, so he started running. He dashed through the fog remnants and ran for cover. The only place he could think of was the bunk house

As soon as he was inside he regretted the decision. The bunk house only had one entrance and exit, he looked around for something to block the door. However the only things inside were the wheelbarrow on the other side of the doorway and a bunch of bunk beds that were to heavy to move. He took a deep breath, the elemental was fast it would barge through the door and he would escape when it overshot his position.

He hid by the door, just inside the bunk house. Tristan stayed as quiet as he could, he frowned. The elemental should have just blasted through the door. He strained his hearing, but there was nothing. Tristan was about to peak around the doorframe, when he got an odd feeling from the wheelbarrow full of scrap metal.

He squinted at it, the feeling came in and out of focus. All he could see was the metal and a light fog. Tristan immediately dove to the side, the horrible thing was invisible in the fog. He had felt the same thing when he discovered the deposit in the mine. His metal sense was warped by the elementals dark essence. The wall cracked where something hit it, right at Tristan’s head level. While he was on the ground he swiped his knife through the air in front of him at around shin height.

He hit something, he just could not see it. Getting to his hands and knees he scrambled out of the bunk house. He half tripped, half jumped to his feet and sprinted out of the fog. It was almost gone, even the mine had stopped pushing out any. That was a good sign right? The elemental came into view, crawling on its hands and shin nubs. It was still trying to get to him, and it was faster on all fours than Tristan was on his feet.

Tristan briefly wondered what the afterlife would be like. Did silver demons go to heaven? The question was rendered irrelevant when Olfred of all people started beating the elemental over the head with a shovel.

“Leave my money devil alone!” Olfred yelled, “He still has to make me rich!”