Chapter 81: Slimes Fight Back (1)

The situation was so dire that Gates didn't have time to react to the state of the women in his alliance party, besides he wasn't faring that much better. Still he was happy to see them, between the six of them… maybe they could do something!

Now the main problem would be orders during combat, with a group of people who had never adventured together it would be nearly impossible to effectively command teamwork. Luckily Gates knew a little about each of his party members, through questions along the way he realized that his firepower lied in both Katrin and Agni while he and Sypha would normally act in support roles.

"What the hell is that you're bringing back with you!?" Ariadna shouted as she jerked her cloak closed around the edges. Suddenly she was feeling even more exposed.

"S-slimes react poorly to light magic! It causes them to aggro and fuse together!" It was all Gates could say as he hurried towards the ladies.

"Get ready for battle! Agni, Katrin -- keep your distance and fire off spells. Sypha, focus on healing and support for everyone! The rest of us will engage, we need to bring this thing down quickly!" Gates shouted as he spun on his heels and called forth a gnarled wooden staff. It reminded Agni of something a wizard from an old 'Last Fiction' game would use.

Agni and Katrin were quick to adjust, preparing for the battle. Agni felt at home in her magical armor while Katrin donned nothing but a cloak, witch's hat and the heel high boots she'd been wearing. Her Grimoire floated by her side the second she made up her mind to fight, it's pages flipping constantly as a light blue glow surrounded it.

[Gunge Slime Level 45

Affinity : None

Vulnerability : Elemental Magic 200%

Resistance : Physical Weapons. Light Magic 200% Darkness Magic 50%]

One or more slimes which bonded together. It's attacks are extremely unpredictable and erratic.]

"Level 45? What happened to cause something like this to appear?" Agni shouted as she prepared a fireball hastily and launched it. Her spell hit the mark without needing to influence its trajectory -- but it simply impacted the large mass of gel and dissipated. The surface of the creature's body quivered, as if it had taken on the qualities of a still lake being disturbed, but that was it. The creature continued moving, but rather than the strange way of wiggling it now began to tack itself onto the ground for more traction, the bottom of its "body" looked like dough being pulled and stuck to the ground in dozens of points as it began to move even more quickly.

The eye less creature seemed to have no trouble sensing the group of adventures as both Agni and Katrin had begun to move. The other four remained somewhat clustered together, Agni assumed this was due to the battle commands Gates issued just moments before but her assumption would be wrong.

*F-fight? In this state!? It's one thing to bare my body before other women but..* Merri's thoughts were racing. Truthfully she found her new, muscular body and minotaur features to be off putting. Her body phobias were running at an all time high considering that she was armed with little more than an ill fitting cloak, remnants of her Guardian shield and her will to do battle (which was now shaky at best). Still, when pressed by the enemy before her Merri couldn't help but act. True to its description the creature rolled towards them, stopping three meters away as it prepared to strike.

The only ones who seemed alarmed were Gates and Sypha, in fact Gates was wildly cutting the air to summon forth spirits he deemed appropriate for the situation. Beneath his robes Gates was fit, with a slender build that bulged slightly of muscles. Agni couldn't help but notice, her mind was drawn to details and features now like this. A different sensation came over her this time as she struggled to focus.

*T-this might be harder than I thought.* Agni thought inwardly, though for a different reason. She had little experience with men since arriving in the world of Adventia. In fact, today was the first time she'd even been within the proximity of the opposite sex. Thus she was having conflicting emotions. Her body reacted like any person's might upon seeing someone relatively attractive of the opposite sex. The familiar sensation of heat building between her thighs caused Agni to gently bite at her lips. But…

*But..he's a guy! Am I bi-sexual? What the fuck!* Her mind was racing in overdrive, despite the situation at hand. She would have so many things to sort out later, but for now she chose to focus on the battle at hand. Thus she pushed the sensation of gentle heat to the edges of her mind as she prepared two more fireballs.

Upon seeing the effects of Agni's fireball, Katrin grimaced. She expected the creature to be tough considering their level difference but seeing hardly any reaction made her nervous. She couldn't help but think back to her First Death experience. Even though she could always come back given enough time-- death still hurt! Both physically and mentally, it left a wound that was difficult to describe. With this in mind her resolve to win became a great motivator and a large spike of earth shot upwards from beneath her target, piercing through it entirely.

For a moment it looked as if the creature had been slain, all movement stopped as the large earth spire skewered it. But then, second later it's body rippled ominously -- both Katrin and Agni , who had their fair share of battle experience, felt something was off. Everyone else was completely oblivious until the attack came.

As the surface of the Gunge Slime came to a stillness several dozen projectiles issued forth, almost like a wall of slime bullets. Unlike the normally soft and squishy body of the slime, these felt like rocks and each was about the size of a strawberry.

Agni took up her place in front of Katrin on instinct, it was her role to prevent Katrin from taking as much damage as possible in their party so her reaction was automatic. She lowered her stance and crossed her arms into an X shape, tensing her abdomen as half a dozen of the slime pellets struck her.

*What the fuck! These things hurt!* Upon being struck Agni realized that the slime pieces were more like crystal shards instead of balls and just as hard.

[-9]

[-15]

[-10]

The hits kept rolling in though she kept her eyes firmly on the foe before her. Behind her Agni knew that Katrin was casting even more spells so she stood her ground for a few seconds longer, even after the assault of slime pellets subsided.

Her party members didn't fare as well as she and Katrin. Sypha was forced to his knees as the majority of projectiles seemed aimed at Gates, who had somehow managed to gain the creature's enmity. Using his abilities as a Light Weaver Sypha created a construct of magic which resembled a large, translucent plate. It was roughly 1 meter in height and width and easily 5 centimeters in thickness (3 ft by 3 feet, 5 inches thick).

Unfortunately the shield was not enough and he barely managed to maintain it after the fourth pellet. It required sheer willpower and half of his mana to keep the shield from shattering completely. Several of the pellets broke through, cracking the light construct and striking Gates on the face and waist. Sypha didn't escape unscathed either as he took several of the slime shards to the chest, one of which was now embedded in his upper right shoulder.

Due to the position of the men, most of the ladies behind them remained uninjured. This wasn't due to a sense of misplaced chivalry, but rather out of respect for their bodies. Even in this situation Gates wanted to be as respectful as possible, thus he turned his back to them immediately and faced the enemy. He was now regretting that situation. He could feel a cold sweat coming over him as a warm sensation of blood trickled down the side of his face.

*Dammit.* He thought inwardly as he breathed in several deep breaths. Gates was only level fifteen. As party leader he had intimate knowledge that most adventurers wouldn't. For example, the level of his party members. He could even take a look at their stats and he'd done just that. By far, the strongest of them were the Scribe and Succubus. With their levels in the twenties Gates thought that they would have a fighting chance. Each time the slime absorbed another it grew stronger, not necessarily in the physical sense but its health grew as did its "intelligence". This was why he and Sypha had problems to begin with, they underestimated the fact that a mass of combined slimes would grow more cunning.

The original plan had been to meet up with the women and bombard the creature with as much magic as possible. Gates was now regretting the fact that they didn't just escape. He cast a glance towards the ladies at his back in the short reprieve allotted to him during battle, for luckily the salvo of slime shards was short.

Merri seemed panicked, but she had her corroded shield in hand. Realistically she might be good for defense if Gates used some magic to infuse her. Ariadna on the other hand seemed less useful, from what he knew of her Trickster class, she specialized in deception and close range combat for the most part. Gates doubted that using subterfuge against a slime would be all that effective, partially due to the state of her clothing. She was almost completely nude, only a scrap or two of her original outfit remained around her neck.

Agni and Katrin reacted quickly and appropriately, thus reaffirming to Gates that their battle experience was real. If anything, he now held even more respect for them. Katrin's choice to skewer the flan-like monster wasn't wrong -- there was just an unforeseen consequence to doing so. Gates could never have predicted that the monster would counter in such a way. One third of his health was gone, though he had little to begin with.

*But what the hell is that Succubus made of? She freaking tanked six of those bullets and isn't even bleeding!* Gates couldn't help but smile at the thought, for it was reassuring that his original assessment wasn't that far off the mark.

"Agni. Katrin. Slight change of plans. We'll distract it. You will be our main attackers!" Gate said suddenly after a few seconds of careful thought. Besides, a few seconds was all the time they had. The Gunge Slime's body began to shrink inwardly, compacting in upon itself as it shattered and grinded the large earth spire Katrin used to pierce it.