- Shari -

God, is it normal to be so nervous when you're about to massacre people?

Well, that I'm about to massacre them is the most likely outcome, but before that, I'd like to at least try giving them a chance.

"Hey, scum! I'll give you a chance! If you put your weapons on the ground, lie low, and surrender, I won't kill you!" (Shari)

So, I know they won't do me that kind of favor, but with this, I at least gave them a way out.

From now on, all they decide to do is on them.

I can't be held accountable for killing criminals who made their choice to fight me.

This at least gives me a sense of a soothed consciousness.

"Who the fuck are you?!" (Renkos)

That guy seems to be the boss.

At least I think so, because of the glances the others give him.

The most important thing is that I play my act as the cool adventurer convincingly.

This way, I'll draw the attention to my person and away from the tiny slime strand on the ground, which connects to the rest of me outside.

"The girl you guys decided to assault tonight! Seriously, I had a tough day and don't need to fight raiding parties in my leisure time!" (Shari)

"Tha-that's the alchemist!" (Warren)

I remember that guy from today.

He was the smarter one of the two.

That doesn't mean I find him much more favorable than his now-dead comrade.

He's still a criminal who was about to kidnap a boy.

"The alchemist? How can she be here?! I sent Calios with half our boys to deal with her!" (Renkos)

Yeah, about that...

"That's right! You should be able to figure out how that went! And as you might've guessed, I'm seriously pissed off right now." (Shari)

Now the rumors start.

The bandits are unsure if I'm telling the truth.

"Can this really be?"

"Calios is a C-Rank adventurer. Would he really lose like this?"

"Look, her clothes are in tatters! They must've fought!"

"Can this really be the truth?"

"What other explanation is there?"

Seems like the feat of already having dealt with their best fighter prior can give me a bit of leverage that I should make use of.

"Yet fortunately for you, I'm quite lenient. So I'm willing to just hand you over to the officials and leave it at this. Nobody has to die here." (Shari)

Huh?

Okay, I know it was a bold demand, but is it really necessary to look at me as if I just demanded them to get naked and dance to aristocratic music?

"You're insane! Do you have any idea who you're talking to?!" (Renkos)

"Criminal scum! I thought I said so when I just came in?" (Shari)

"Shut that wench up and bring me her head!" (Renkos)

Quite the hostile reaction I find.

And this after I was so accommodating.

Before the first of them are close, I grab a bottle, filled with Liqu's excess slime, from the belt under my cloak and activate dissolving.

As it's not mine, the reaction takes a tiny bit longer to reach the glass.

Once I think it's ready, I hurl the whole thing at the next guy to approach me.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" (thug)

The result isn't pretty.

I suppose he would've screamed louder if the dissolving slime hadn't splattered most of his face and throat.

The sight of disintegrating skin is enough to give the other thugs a pause, which gives me a chance to reveal two other bottles with the same contents.

With this, I should have successfully established my position as the mad, acid thrower.

"You didn't believe this would be so easy, right?" (Shari)

Okay, that was a cool line.

However, I'm honestly quite out of it at the moment.

Not because this situation makes me uncomfortable.

Rather, it's the opposite.

I'm so goddamn calm, it's scary.

This hunter mind of mine makes me far too indifferent about the fact that the guy whose face I melted stopped moving.

While I can see causing this kind of suffering as something bad and on a logical level tell myself that one shouldn't kill people if possible, right now I don't feel distressed by all the gore in front of me.

Okay, after everything I already went through, being in battles, and seeing people and monsters being dissolved on a regular basis, this isn't even so much out of the ordinary.

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But right now, I'm in the spotlight.

All that happens to these people is my direct doing.

So yes, the fact that the idea of slaughtering every last one of them isn't distressing me more is distressing in and of itself.

Yet as sad as this is for my mental condition, for now, I'll have to make use of this slime-killer instinct if I want to deal with these people.

So without further ado, I let two short swords slip through the sleeves into my gloves.

The very same the queen gifted to me.

The special point to them is that they're hollow.

For this very reason, the handles are still covered by my sleeves.

Within those, I retain a connection via a strand of slime that fills the intentional cavity inside.

There it can reach all the way to the tip, which allows me to assume full control over the whole weapon, as if it were a part of myself, as this is kind of the case.

"She's armed!" (thug)

Oh really?

Am I?!

Seriously, did they think I would raid their base unarmed?

I focus on the one closest to my position and guide the tip toward his chest.

He tries to deflect the attack with his club, but with the kind of control I have over the weapon, I press on and guide the tip around the obstacle towards its destination.

This way, the force of my stab is basically all gone.

However, I don't need it.

All that is necessary is this tiny bit of contact I achieve now because this little bit already manages to pierce the skin.

A chance I use to release the slime from the tip right into the body.

Barely more than a drop, but this is enough, because when I pull away...

"Thud"

He drops dead to the ground.

"What happened?!"

"He barely got scratched!"

"Look! The wound!"

"It's poison! Her weapons are coated."

Yes, this is the power of poison.

Very expensive, super deadly poison.

It might seem wasteful to use the kind I bought from the alchemist, but it was the best I could do to win here.

The death is quite painless and it will allow me to quickly take them out while fighting like a human.

The other stuff I gathered wouldn't be as effective, and only an idiot would hold on to the stuff they specifically brought to make their lives easier.

I even still have half of it left.

The gang leader finally becomes nervous and gestures for his henchmen to hold back for now.

"It seems you have some tricks up your sleeve." (Renkos)

"I prefer to prepare properly, if I can, you know?" (Shari)

"What do you even want?!" (Renkos)

"How many times do I have to repeat myself? You guys attacked me in my home, and for this we now have quarrel. Yet I'll consider this settled if you all accompany me to the guards to confess your wrongdoings." (Shari)

In any other place and situation this would be a totally reasonable demand, I think.

You know, if you put aside that the criminals basically control the town, I'm threatening them with all my weapons, and am a slime.

Some of these things might weigh more than others.

"Are you dumb!?! The guards work for us! There's no way you can hand us over!" (Renkos)

"I'm sure that somewhere in this place is some kind of incriminating evidence. If I present it, they'll probably listen. This, and naturally the testimonies you'll all readily give to them. Oh, and naturally you will insist on them giving you an official verdict, as this is the only way for you to atone for your sins. Isn't that right?" (Shari)

Maybe a bit crude of a plan, but better than nothing.

"This is over! I'm not talking to lunatics!" (Renkos)

He wants to say something else, but before he can do so, I interject by raising my hand.

"One more thing! I made arrangements that anybody who tries to leave won't survive! Yet that doesn’t mean I won’t accept a surrender. Whoever of you holds their life dearly may lie face first on the ground and close their eyes." (Shari)

This way I might avoid witnesses.

It would bother me if they surrendered and I still had to kill them because they got a too-well glimpse at my body.

It's simply a poor reason, and I don't intend to go back on my word.

"What you're waiting for?! Kill her!!!" (Renkos)

Yet the way things are developing, I might not have to worry about anyone surrendering.

While some are running into a backroom, probably to fetch better weapons, the rest are running at me with all the crude weapons one expects from this kind of lowlifes.

The first of them slashes at me.

I already am in highspeed-processing mode and can easily evade and twist my blade like a snake through his defense.

It helps that all I need is to go for a small nick in the skin.

The next one is coming from behind me, but I simply plunge the weapon in my right hand at a dead angle over my own shoulder in a way that a human probably couldn't pull off.

The blade goes straight into his chest, which presumably would kill him even without the poison.

Yet I like to be thorough.

With this, the others are once again unwilling to approach me.

"How did she do that?" (thug)

"Has she eyes in her back?!" (thug)

The answer to this question is "yes".

Just not in the way they assume.

Because, while I can't see that well with a hood on, nobody notices how my main body's head is poking out behind the window which allows me to see things from an outer perspective.

This is pretty disorienting, but high-speed processing and the just as convenient as disturbing adaptation of my slime mind makes it possible to adjust to seeing and acting in accordance with two pairs of each sense.

"Not one after the other! Attack her together or I'll finish you off myself!" (Renkos)

Not a nice thing to say, but effective, as now all the remaining thugs come at me.

I manage to take the first of them out with relative ease.

However, in a group fight, things are not as simple, no, things get messy and the other opponents don't just wait for you to finish them off, one after the other.

"Clonk"

"She's wearing plate!" (thug)

It might be a little bit harder to move freely in armor that is tough enough to really protect one's body, yet I need to say this one is of good quality in terms of weight-to-sturdiness ratio.

As I'm not even mildly disturbed by the attack I just received, I simply answer it with a good slice.

This one is deadly enough and allows me to continue my attacks.

Naturally, I receive more blows, yet as I said, those to my chest are completely ignorable.

"Sclunsh"

"Got her!" (thug)

But then one hits my head with a cudgel and already triumphantly voices his success.

Yet it's not like I was ever in any danger.

Without hesitation, I slice his throat.

"She's still alive!?" (thug)

With this, the sword dance begins.

I receive blows that obviously aren't effective, and in return, hand deadly ones out.

After a short time, only half of my opponents remain.

It's at this point that the guys from the backroom return with crossbows.

"Swish"

Just in time, I manage to dodge behind one of the guys I'm in close combat with.

Before they can shoot further, I throw another "acid" bottle in their direction.

I didn't manage to get a direct hit, but the spreading dissolving slime should have injured some of them, and at the very least, it delayed their shooting.

This is all I need.

* Slime dash!

Within half a second, I'm over there.

All the time very focused on keeping up with the connection strand.

Then I only have to injure them to apply the potion, which comes easy, even though the distance puts some strain on my control, as a crossbow isn't that great in close combat.

I can't spend too much time on this side of the room or someone could step on my connection strand.

So I have to retreat, yet not without throwing my potion at the guy who's currently reloading.

Fortunately, they're getting afraid of me and retreat when I close in.

Then it happens.

The first are starting to lie flat down on the floor.

The others still need a bit of convincing.

Some more poison applications later, nobody else seems willing to oppose me.

I make an expressive gesture, pointing with one of my blades to the ground and the other at them.

They get the hint and, like good boys, lie face-first on the ground.

That leaves their boss.

"Hey! Stand up! Don't let that wench best you!" (Renkos)

Having no one else in my way, I begin walking slowly in his direction, through the corpses and quivering people.

Yet I'd like to make sure none of them will get second thoughts.

"I would remind you here that you'll all die if you do even as much as twitch. So I advise you to stay put." (Shari)

Now that that's taken care of, I continue drawing closer to the boss.

"No! This can't be!" (Renkos)

"Oh, well, it can. I'm deeply sorry to tell you this, but you had already lost when this began." (Shari)

As it's simply natural when the opponent literally can't be killed.