<~> CHAPTER 25

("I don't know if I'm comfortable with this Luna...") I said looking down the hallway.

On their request, I led the group to a fork in the maze with a path that led to slimes. Now that I had heard them once it was easier to recognize them. The idea of fighting slimes again wasn't what was bothering me though...

("Have you really never fought anything in your human form? You seemed so strong that I thought you were just unfamiliar with swords.") Luna was looking me up and down.

In one hand I had the oversized kite shield and with the other, I rested my hand on the hilt of Maxwell's old sword. The shield I could use in either form but the sword's handle was too small for me in my wolf form. Since we were fighting the slimes again, and I wouldn't be able to fight these things barehanded, they insisted I learn the basics of using a sword.

While Luna and Piper rested Maxwell took me through drills over and over. My enhanced stamina and endurance helped me move through the sequence of forms non-stop until the movements felt natural, but the exercise was incredibly boring. Once Maxwell approved of my form enough, he signed off on the part of the plan that I hadn't been informed of yet. I kind of thought I was only practicing in my human form because we only had a human-sized sword available. What was actually happening was that we were going to go hunt slimes again but this time I would do it in my human form using a sword.

I turned and looked at Luna. ("Before coming to the dungeon, I'd never been in a fight before in my entire life... well not a real one anyway. The only thing that's kept me alive down here are my umber wolf transformation and the instincts that it gives me.")

Luna frowned. ("Well... I still think you should give it a try. Maxwell says you're in perfect shape and quite a bit stronger than the average hunter. Piper will be able to heal you if you get hurt again. If you get overwhelmed all you need to do is block with your shield as best you can and only take swings if you have a good opening. ...None of us will force you to fight in your human form but I think you'll do fine. I know you have what it takes.")

The only thing that didn't make me drop it outright was Luna's belief in me. She's been trying to talk me into this since I realized what we were talking about. I looked over at Maxwell and Piper who were both confused as to why we had stopped. There had been a miscommunication, they hadn't known I wasn't comfortable fighting in my human form. Maxwell thought that accepting the sword training had been my tacit approval.

I turned back to Luna and gripped the hilt of my sword. I don't think I would ever feel ready but the only reason I had started fighting the goblins at all was because my body had moved on its own the first time. Maybe I did need to jump in head first. While what had happened to my hand had been excruciatingly painful, as long as I didn't try and stick my hand inside it again, they wouldn't be as threatening as a lot of the stuff we fought.

Okay. Maybe I could do this.

I took a breath and nodded. ("Okay. I'll try it. Let's go before I talk myself out of it again.")

She smiled and patted my shoulder. ("I know you'll do great.")

I led them down the hallway disarming the traps as we went. Until it was time to fight the slimes I wanted to stay in my wolf form, just in case I missed a trap somewhere. I hadn't tripped any since I had gotten my hearing under control but I still wanted to minimize risks where I could. Curiously the sword vanished with the rest of my clothes but my shield hadn't. I didn't understand the logic behind how the transformation worked but it seemed to know I couldn't use the sword like this so it disappeared with the rest of my clothes. Did the magic have a mind of its own or did my thoughts influence it?

A wooden door appeared as we turned a corner. I could hear the slimes on the other side, their goopy squishing noises stuck out clear as day. I nodded and gestured to the door and my friends fanned out next to me. I shifted back into my human form, grabbed the hilt of my sword, and swung the shield off my back and into my hand. Maxwell had drilled me in using a sword both with and without a shield but with these enemies, I would be needing it if they decided to swarm me again. Maxwell would be using his new sword and Luna would be using her new sash so this fight should be easier than the last one if nothing went wrong.

If nothing went wrong. Knock on wood. I lightly tapped my shield with one hand drawing a curious look from Luna. I didn't feel like explaining my superstition though so I didn't tell her about it.

Maxwell approached the door. One hand was on his shield and the other on the door handle like last time. The plan was similar to the last time we had done this but with better preparation around if they swapped targets to me. He gave me a quick rundown on holding enemy focus and protecting teammates but I had a feeling he didn't want me to take over his role. Frankly, I didn't either, I don't like the idea of being a punching bag for the enemies. If I was forced into being an impromptu punching bag I would suck it up and handle it though. These slimes had been the only things so far that insisted on targeting me.

He slammed open the door and charged into the room with his shield. There were twelve smaller slimes this time, all of different colors. I slipped into the room next to give the others some cover to follow in after. I had been waiting for all of the slimes to attack me but that hadn't happened this time, the ones closest to me bounced off my shield but most of the monsters were focused on Maxwell.

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A warm prickle of heat filled the room as Luna's magic started to be cast. Standing in the middle of a glowing red magic circle felt like an insanely bad idea but she had reassured me multiple times that she could choose who was affected by her magic and she wouldn't risk friendly fire with a large area spell like this one. I trusted her but it still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up as I felt something swell around me.

My shield was so large that I felt like I was hiding behind a wall at times. I popped out from behind it and tried to stab at one of the slimes in front of me. Maxwell told me that thrusting attacks were the best bet for these particular enemies, even if they usually left you open for longer. Even with the big shield blocking my line of sight I was able to track their movements by ear whenever they hit the ground. Slimes unfortunately were pretty mobile though so it didn't help once they bounced off and into the air. That's where timing came in. One of the slimes had just bounced off of my shield and a different slime that was attacking me was about to hit the ground.

An opening! I stabbed my sword forward and pierced right to the slime's core. The core itself was tough but even a small amount of damage to its core was enough to kill a slime. I assumed that the attack destabilized whatever was keeping the ball of goop together but I couldn't even guess at the rules that governed these things. I had been told that a lot of my questions were more for the realm of scholars instead of hunters like themselves. They were more concerned with how to kill something, not why that killed it. It was a bit disappointing to hear but I could understand their priorities. Once the first one was gone the timing on the second one became easier to handle and in half the time I finished that one off too.

The core of the second slime clacked to the ground. Since the slimes I had been fighting were dead I quickly scanned the battlefield and saw that there were only seven left. Maxwell was corralling them around, keeping them from leaving the circle. His glowing blue sword left trails of light as it shaved slices of the slimes off with every swing. It was amazing how sharp his new sword was, the sword he gave me didn't compare, it would bounce right off the rubbery texture of the slimes if I tried to follow his example. Unfortunately, slicing pieces of the slime off made them smaller but it didn't really stop them outright.

The collection of energy that Luna was collecting finally reached its crescendo and the entire room lit up with a flash of heat. Despite the gout of flames that were shooting up below my feet the warmth was only mild for us. The slimes caught fire and quickly burned away leaving only one that had managed to jump out of the circle just as it had activated.

Maxwell sheathed his sword and jumped at the last slime before gripping it and holding it in place. He said something to the other two but I couldn't understand what he was saying.

("Helena!") Luna called through the rings. ("Maxwell wants you to try and shifting to your wolf form.")

I wasn't entirely sure what the purpose of that was but I didn't mind. With only one slime left, I didn't feel threatened so I also sheathed my sword and shifted into my larger wolf form with only a thought. The moment I did the slime stopped struggling to get at Maxwell and started struggling to get at me instead. Maxwell's grip momentarily weakened and the slime slipped its way off of him to bolt at me. I pulled up my shield and batted it away from me by reflex. Before I could do anything else, Maxwell's sword cut down into the slime and sliced at its core. The slime's body immediately broke apart into a puddle and dropped the core to the ground.

Maxwell turned to Piper and started talking to her. Luna's ears perked up and she stepped a bit closer to listen in on the conversation. I couldn't even begin to pick up what they were talking about. I could understand words here and there but a majority weren't things I had been taught yet.

Once they reached a lull in the conversation Luna turned to me. ("Something about your wolf form was attracting the slimes in a way that wasn't happening when you were fighting with a sword. We're thinking that maybe your transformation gives off a constant aura of mana which could attract slimes to it. But if that were true then your transformation would be more similar to a spell than a physical transformation.")

I furrowed my brows. A spell? ("I don't really know anything about magic. If this was a spell why is it happening so... naturally? I couldn't control my shifting initially, it just happened, it's not like I'm trying to cast spells.")

Luna shrugged. ("I said it was similar to a spell, not actually a spell. None of us are magic scholars or anything. It's just an interesting observation.") My eyes were drawn to her cute tail that flicked back and forth for a moment before I refocused on her face. ("How did you feel about fighting in your human form?") she asked.

("It felt... fine?") I answered honestly. ("It wasn't as... scary as I thought it would be... I guess.")

She smiled and patted me on the shoulder. ("See, I knew you'd be okay. Slimes are a safer first fight than something like goblins.") She glanced down at my right arm. ("And it's possible that the slimes being attracted to your magic also had something to do with why they burned you so badly that time.")

I reached up and rubbed my arm where that acid burn had been. It had already been healed by the time I turned back into a human but the memories of that time still freaked me out. Even being nearly cut in half had hurt less... but maybe the acid hurt me more because of whatever attracted the slimes. I'm just glad that it hadn't carried over to my human hand. I don't know what I would have done if Piper hadn't been there to heal me.

Piper came over holding a pouch of twelve slime cores. She held one in her hand and said something to me through the rings. ("Well, since now we know we can take slimes on safely, how about we go hunt down some more before going up another level? These slime cores will be a big help in communicating with each other properly.") She grabbed Luna by the shoulder and pulled her into a side hug.

I chuckled and gave her a smile. ("I guess so. Let's get hunting.")