They had previously swapped out the ammunition in their guns from the healing rounds to more damaging ones. He didn’t think they would see anymore undead outside the graveyard. Tess had the rifle while he had the shotgun with the laser pistol on his hip. With that and R2 tagging along, Chuck felt fairly confident they would be able to reach the altar.
The troubling part was that while they continued to get closer, there was still no sign of any enemies. This made him even more nervous. R2 surprised the pair by throwing its spear at something in the distance. Chuck still didn’t see anything but the spear impacted something.
The spear was sticking into something and seemed to be floating in midair before the creature’s camouflage failed, exposing the monster. “Um, isn’t that a shapeshifter?” Chuck asked, confused. The creature in question was a huge red colored slime that was at least twice his height and as wide as the pickup. “It’s a stealth demon. I’ve only heard stories about them. Don’t worry, they aren’t sentient like shape shifters.” Tess replied, raising her rifle.
“This might be a weird question, but how do you kill a stealth demon?” Chuck asked, steeling himself. “You have to shatter its core.” She replied, aiming the rifle and taking a shot. The bullet of fire mana tore through the slimy body and impacted a dark colored shape within. The stealth demon instantly fell apart, splattering on the ground.
“Careful, they are masters at camouflage. We are probably surrounded.” Tess warned, chambering another round. Chuck glanced around but still couldn’t see anything. He realized R2 must be able to detect them somehow. “R2, show us where they are.” He yelled behind him. R2 used the arm that had thrown the spear and started picking up rocks and tossing them. Each rock hit one of the stealth demons which caused their camouflage to falter.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
R2 uncovered at least 10 of the creatures which were closing in on the party. They didn’t seem to move very fast but still had the party completely surrounded. Both he and Tess started firing at the creatures. Chuck found it hard to hit the small targets but a couple shots with the shotgun usually did the trick. The stealth demons weren’t staying idle and continued to move forward while starting to spit globs of acid at them that sizzled when they hit the ground.
“I thought you said slimes don’t use acid.” Chuck complained, while trying to dodge the acid balls. “They’re not slimes or shape shifters, they’re stealth demons.” Tess corrected, still firing. “They look like demon slimes to me.” Chuck grumbled, hissing in pain as some of the acid splashed onto his legs. R2 hadn’t been idle and was using his swords to pierce the cores but the acid was quickly ruining the weapons.
They had managed to take out half of the creatures but who knew how many more were hiding in the area. “R2, can you clear us a path?” Chuck yelled as he stopped to reload. R2 took the lead and started whirling his arms around with the swords while Chuck and Tess hung back to avoid the acid splash.
R2 quickly cleared out the ones in front of the party but had received a lot of acid damage. It seemed his metal body wasn’t doing well against the acid attacks. On the way by, R2 picked up his spear and used it after his swords had been completely melted.
His movements were beginning to slow and soon the damage to his legs was severe enough to make him stop altogether. He motioned us to go ahead while he stayed to make his final stand against the remaining monsters. He also kept throwing rocks to uncover more of the creatures. It turned out the place was crawling with them.
Chuck and Tess didn’t have time to mourn their loyal companion and just said their thanks as they hurried toward the altar which was now only around 50 feet in front of them. There were still more of the monsters coming from all sides and that was just the ones they could see. A lot of them were drawn to R2 as he battled fearlessly and continued to pelt them with rocks. Chuck and Tess kept blasting the ones in front of them, running toward the altar in desperation.