Chapter 24

Mickey looked at the drenched teens.

‘ I did advise you to remove your clothes so you could avoid walking around soaking wet, but whatever. We all made it and you all got your reward. Huzzah. Onwards to the next chamber.’

‘I’m not letting some weird old guy stare at me in my undies.’

Cassie muttered indignantly.

‘How’d you get across though. You’re not even wet.’

Asked Benjamin.

Mickey shrugged as they left the chamber. Between one step and the next, he manifested a short pole beneath his foot, followed by another with his next step. Now walking on a series of quickly appearing and disappearing poles, Mickey answered simply with.

‘Stilts.’

In short order, the group found themselves in a circular arena, watching a pale orb rapidly roll towards them.

Cassie stepped to the front of the group, grinning confidently.

‘I’ve got this.’

She stated.

It quickly became apparent that she did not, in fact, 'have this'.

As Cassie kicked the slimeball, its tough outer membrane warped around her foot, twisting it. Meanwhile, it's still spinning innards propelled it into Cassie’s leg with enough force that, with an audible pop, something broke.

Cassie went down screaming.

Alphonse charged in, bellowing, preparing a mighty downwards swing at his foe.

The slimeball rolled on top of Cassie and started spraying its toxic liquid at the oncoming Alphonse.

Mickey, seeing the coming disaster, quickly moved between the slimeball and the charging Al taking the spray on his back.

Grabbing the slime with one hand, he turned, dragging the construct of Cassowary and towards Alphonse.

‘Don’t strike downwards when you have a friend on the ground, idiot! Watch your fucking target!’

Mickey yelled as he checked on the fallen girl. Alphonse scowled but engaged the slimeball.

‘Benjamin! First aid on Cassie. Dolphin, Rosa! Assist Alphonse with that one. I’ll distract the others.’

As Benji ran over to help Cassie, Donga and Big Al started bludgeoning the slime with their flail and cricket bat. Rosa stared at the injured Cassie mutely before shaking off her shock and moving around to try and find an angle where she could get a clear shot. To her frustration Alphonse and Dolphin kept moving in and out of her line of fire.

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Mickey watched the teens struggle with the first construct as he moved to intercept the other. As the second slimeball charged at Mickey he retrieved a sword from his pocket space and lazily swung at the construct’s core while sidestepping its charge.

The sharp blade sliced easily through the outer membrane and deep into the slimbas body. However Mickey underestimated the impact of the slime's internal rotation and his sword missed the slime's core. Regardless, the gaping wound on the slimeball was still enough to neutralize it, its inner liquids gushing onto the ground as the construct deflated like a balloon.

Two steps and a single strike and it's done. These things are practically harmless and people are still having trouble? C’mon guys get it together.

Mickey walked back to the teens. After checking that Cassie's life wasn’t in immediate danger he observed the trio. After a full minute of swinging their glorified clubs at what was essentially a sack of goo, to no avail, Mickey lost his patience.

Stalking around the fight Mickey grabbed Donga by the collar of his top and pulled him away from the fight. At the teens' questioning look he handed them the sword he used on the other slimeball.

‘Slash don’t stab. The goal is to bleed it to death. And keep your distance from the other guy. Make it split it’s attention.’

Dolphin nodded and moved around the slime to start hacking at the tough membrane with great enthusiasm and limited success. As soon as he cleared the line of sight Rosa let loose an arrow into it’s entre of mass with a wet ‘thwack’. While the arrow failed to make it to the core it did open a small rent from which the inner liquids leaked. The subsequent arrows and cuts from Donga managed to cause the creature to deflate somewhat.

Seeing that the trio had matters in hand Mickey went to check on the injured Cassowary.

Kneeling down beside Benji and Cassie, Mickey asked the boy how she was.

‘Ask me Idiot. I’m right here and I’m in fucking pain.’ Cassie replied.

‘And you were dumb enough to kick a unknown but mobile creature in a hostile metaregion. Clearly your judgment is not to be trusted.’ Mickey said, mercilessly.

‘She can’t stand but I don’t know whether it’s a break or a sprain.’ Benji informed Mickey.

Mickey nodded, before placing a hand over the bandaged injury. Dark grey smoke drifted from his hand and writhed around Cassie’s leg.

With the metaregion boosting his powers Mickey could get a fairly good look at the injury. If he had a better knowledge of anatomy he may have even been able to attempt healing it.

‘Well kid the good news is you’ll live. The bad news is that you cracked a bone and snapped a tendon. It’ll be a month before you can walk and three before you stop limping. Hope you like crutches.’

Cassie looked at Mickey in shock.

‘I- Can you- Is there anything you can do?’ She asked uncertainly.

Mickey shrugged and turned his attention to the three who were finishing off their slimeball.

‘We’ll see.’

The slimeball, now more of a sad sack, lay in a pool ground between Alphonse and Dolphin. With a triumphant roar Alphonse brought his flail down on the now exposed core, shattering it into hundreds of brittle pieces.

Panting Big Al and Donga headed over to the others at a tired jog. Rosa on the other hand sprinted over to the injured teen, and immediately started fussing over her asking question with obvious answers such as ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘Does it hurt?’.

As the final two member joined the group clustered around Cassowary, Mickey clapped his hands together loudly to get their attention. As they turned towards him Mickey smiled and spoke in a cheerful tone.

‘So let’s start our after action review shall we? Firstly, you all suck. Failing marks all round.’