As I shifted my view down into the hole to investigate this new development, I saw two golden pupils glowing a blinding light looking up at my slimes. I can see all her small external injuries fill with new matter as if she was a slime herself. In her new eyes, I could see surprise as she inspected herself, as if she herself did not quite expect what was happening. Her staff was scattered into splinters and her comrade unconscious. Yet a small grin appeared on her face as her breathing sped up as if excited. She spoke something and her eyes were glued on something on the opposite side? Did she go crazy or something? Why is her smile growing even larger? What the fuck was happening?

Sensing danger, I stopped my little gloat parade to order my slimes to flood in. Whatever baby slimes were left appeared at the crest of the hole and dropped in to do battle with their captured prey. The little woman did another unexpected thing however. As she watched the mass of goo plunging to herself and her comrade, she moved her hands almost robotically drawing a spell of some sort in the air and activating it with a clap of her hands. A thin, semi-opaque veil of gold light moved up the hole to the midway point right before the tide of slimes hit. The reason behind this action became soon apparent as my monsters landed on it with a thud. A barrier huh? What happened to her using a staff? She looked just as shocked as myself, her eyes flickering between the barrier and her hands. Did she somehow get a power-up? I call bullshit. This cannot be happening!

Yet the truth of the matter remained, painfully squeezing my heart… or rather core. I needed to kill her. These… these powers… this… this comeback. As a lover of literature in my old world, my mind screamed hero. Part of me scoffed at it, calling myself a fool to think that. This was real life, there is no such thing. However, the part that complicated that judgment was the fact this was a fantasy world. Anything was possible. In a fantasy world like this, it would not be impossible to be blessed or something right? What if there are heroes? What if this was her awakening? What would that mean for me?

Even if she wanted to escape, I had to. If there is even the smallest chance something like heroes existed in this world, the only way to be completely safe was to cut her story short. I had murdered her comrade. She’ll come back eventually, even stronger. I had to kill this threat in the cradle. Yet, I didn't know how. Every time my slimes were on the verge of breaking it, she would recast it a little stronger than before. She was growing rapidly before my eyes. Then she began something absolutely awful. She casted something new onto her fist, making it glow as brightly as her eyes. With a great look of apprehension on her face, she began to punch the wall of the pit with everything she had, horribly destroying her hand, exposing the bone. Gritting her teeth, she suppressed a blood curdling scream. Over the course of a minute, her hand restitched together and quickly replaced what was lost. Oh hell, was she making handholds with her fists? The rock was supposed to resist such things, but I suppose that whatever magic she put on her fists could overcome it. What could not overcome it however was the fists themselves. It was like hitting glass with glass. Despite what I could only imagine as horrific pain, she pressed on. Cast. Punch. Heal. Repeat. It was a process that I frankly could not watch.

Managing to get up to her shield on her crimson-covered, makeshift ladder, she attempted to see if she herself could go past it, but thankfully, she could not. I sighed in relief, she was still trapped, what could she do about the slimes? My hypothesis was disproved once again as she took the shards of her former staff and dug small holes in the walls just below the barrier to affix the splinters pointed upwards. Then she casted a second barrier just below the spikes and undid the first barrier. Immediately popping the slimes on the edges, like a liquid seeking to fill the container it is within, the upper layers of baby slimes trinkled into the edges to fill in the place of the defeated slimes, but too meet their end by the wooden stakes. Calling back my horde before more damage could be done, it was clear that I could not achieve much. My best hope previously was to outlast her, but at this rate, she would kill more than I could produce even with my larger income. I was in a bind. If I let her escape, she would become an issue later. If I tried to kill her, I would just be defenseless to the next invasion. She had a mind in her head, even if I came up with something to somehow counter what she was doing, she would come up with something else. Do you know how much power it took to make this horde? Sure, they are cheap, but when using them en masse, the bill racks up. It would take me several days just to replace what I had already lost to that swordsman, but the ones who assault my sanctum never end. I was conflicted but the choice was simple. What mattered was surviving in the here and now. I could figure out what to do when the day comes that she comes back.

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Her face covered in a mix of confusion and suspicion as she recasted the barrier to the mouth of the hole, causing her and her knocked out comrade to be covered in a layer of goo from the slaughtered monsters. She restarted her tortuous escape plan over the course of a few hours until she got to the top. Looking around just under the barrier, her face twisted even further into disbelief as she saw my forces hanging back in a defensive posture behind two walls of defender slime. She was hesitant, but she could not give up the chance shown to her. Casting the magic on her hands one last time, she just managed to hoist the man up, although he had to be stripped of all his armour to reduce the weight, leaving only his shirt and pants on.

The man had countless scars on his pale face with curly, unkempt black hair contrasting against it. Honestly, he could have passed as some kind of vampire if I did not know any better, but his open mouth displayed no fangs as he breathed deeply in and out. What surprised me most was his youth. He looked to be somewhere in his twenties. You telling me I was getting my ass handed to me by a twenty something? What kind of monsters are older adventurers with more experience then? I felt immediately bitter, but remained passive as she recasted her barrier into the tunnel itself and undid the one blocking her from getting out of the hole. Turned around to glare at my slimes with a certain hatred. However, we both knew that neither of us had the firepower to break the other’s defenses and she turned around, dragging the man by his ankles. Going to the exit, her head darted everywhere constantly awaiting an attack to defend against, but nothing came. This section of the dungeon was empty. Nothing existed here. Casting her barriers to walk across the holes once impassable to her, she eventually got to the exit, where she visibly deflated as her legs gave out on her. She clasped her hands together in a likely prayer. She did not realize it, her eyes closed, but she radiated an aura that somehow soothed me a little despite only being here in a meta-physical sense and her companion, whose pained expression soon became serene. Hahhhhhh. It is what it is. I just have to grow stronger than her by the time she wants her blood debt repaid. I need to expand the defenses zealously from now on. No more lazing around with the slime squad. I wanted to cry a little.

Goodbye oh sunny days, it is time to get to work.