Chapter 84: Fiery End

Ariadna had reached her limit. The frightening attack displayed by the Gunge Slime was just the icing on the cake. Truth be told, she never wanted to join a Chapel or fight monsters anyway. Her skillset was much better suited to being a pickpocket and she was perfectly content with that but Merri was not.

"Merri. Are you okay?" Ariadna asked as she knelt over her unconscious friend, inspecting her wounds in the process. Though the healing potions had done their job, marks still remained along with dried blood. She placed Merri's shield to the side half expecting a response but none came. Ariadna sighed before turning her attention to the other injured party member, Sypha.

His wounds were less numerous though he was still in the same shape, unconscious. Ariadna recognized it to be due to mana exhaustion. Her emotions were running in overdrive at the moment. Anger and fear intermingled with one another as she struggled to deal with conflicting thoughts. On one hand she wanted to pay back against the creature responsible for their current plight, and on the other she felt inadequate to the task. She had half a mind to join the remaining party members but she also wanted to safeguard the injured from any other blobs who dared wiggle their way.

In the end Ariadna decided to stay hidden in the bushes near the edge of the clearing. One way or the other the battle would be decided, and if they failed she would just take Merri, Sypha and escape. She fingered the Return Trinket in her hands as she peered through the bushes at the battle now taking place in the center of the woodland clearing.

"It might be too dangerous to use earth element. That leaves fire and wind. You two should be capable of that right?" Gates said as he stepped forward.

"Of course." Agni said with a nod, Katrin also agreed.

"Good. Then let's make this easy on ourselves. That creature has dropped in level, it's now more or less around the same strength as you two. Both of you hang back and prepare your strongest spells. I'll engage it. When you're ready and you see an opening fire." Gates revealed his plan as he walked forth without awaiting confirmation.

"It's a bit disappointing...but I'll go along with it. I really wanted to teach that slime a lesson." Agni said as she watched the wobbly mass begin to inch towards the trio of adventurers.

Gates struck first by pointing his finger and commanding the flaming hawk to swoop in. It shot forth, searing the air as one of its wings sliced into the Gunge Slime. The creature strank away, avoiding all of the damage, causing Gates to wonder if this would be as easy as he'd anticipated. Still he stepped forward and with a wave of his free hand the staff he carried set ablaze with a flame issuing from the gemstone at its tip. He then launched himself into the fray as a second combatant leaving Agni and Katrin to their own devices.

"Katrin. I have an idea." Agni said as she drew near, whispering to the Scribe in a witch's hat.

Gates meanwhile dashed around, he wasn't as nimble as Agni or as fast as Ariadna but even he realized that mobility was the number one rule in a fight. He circled the creature and only lashed out with his staff when his fire hawk spirit moved in to approach. Gates knew that his melee abilities were non-existent but there were a few pieces of knowledge driving him at the moment. The first was his spirits. Now that he'd sacrificed two of his spirits he gained 60% of his mana pool back to use freely. The second was that his spirit transformation would only last three minutes before his spirit would not only revert but disappear to regenerate for a few hours. The last was that he didn't need to get that close to inflict damage…

Gates swung his flaming staff and a whip-like blade of flames issued forth and struck the Gunge Slime, inflicting real damage. At the same time the fire spirit swooped down, talons at the ready to gouge flesh out of the creature. The attack worked well, so much so that Gates was able to easily avoid the Grimlock's retaliation -- several pelting slime balls which it fired in rapid succession.

By distracting the slime's attention on two fronts Gates was able to whittle away at the creature using flaming attacks. Seeing that this was effective Gates decided to go all in by raising their attack frequency to the limits. Each Flame Whip strike cost Gates magic but he didn't care, this would be his final contribution to the battle while the others prepared. The spirit soared through the air like a real hawk, twisting and turning as it avoided slime balls before circling about and slashing the Gunge slime with wings of flame time and again.

Gates also made ample use of distance to stay at medium range while also lashing away at the creature. Closing distance would have allowed him to deal more damage but this way the slime could not retaliate. As long as he stayed a safe distance away and attacked constantly, the slime balls were much less painful than the rock shards. Gates also realized something else important, the slime could only expel high velocity projectiles by shrinking its body. Forty-five seconds into his one man assault Gates was beginning to feel as if he'd overestimated the creature.

With both himself and the spirit landing attacks at will Gates felt it was only a matter of time until the Gunge Slime keeled over -- that was until he suffered an unexpected strike. Gates stopped moving only long enough to swing his staff and it was then that the Grimlock chose to strike. It's green flesh rippled, as if it was preparing another slime ball but suddenly a long tendril of slime shot forth. It was like the extending of a pole, so fast and unexpected that it caught Gates in the ribcage. The blow was so powerful and jarring that Gates only held onto his staff by sheer willpower.

His eyes bulged fiercely as the dense mass of hardened slime fractured one of his ribs with a single strike. His first impulse was to create even more distance but first he would have to free himself! The slime's extension strike pushed him along through the air, forcing Gates to shift his balance to the left in order to rotate himself off of the impact. The slime's "pole" stretched several meters past Gates' location, giving him a small amount of reprieve in the process.

This was short lived as a second extension strike traveled towards Gates, followed by a third and forth. The slime was now firing off these attacks in rapid succession with seemingly no end and Gates quickly found himself on the losing end of the battle as he lunged, rolled and dodged each incoming blow as quickly as his agileness would allow. Only his flame spirit, which continued its assault, was able to impart Gates with a measure of breathing room.

Gates picked up the pace almost immediately as he dashed forward, a trickle of blood issuing from his lips.

*Bastard!* Gates thought inwardly as he was forced to once more reconsider his method of attack. With himself now free from rapid attacks it was now the hawk being pushed back. It seemed the slime could extend portions of its body from virtually any direction and the hawk was clipped several times. Had it not been a magic construct it would have been pierced through entirely.

Gates shot a glance over towards Agni and Katrin, both of whom were busy casting spells. Gates could only admire the freak which was the Succubus, for she was once again using a combination of Inner and Outer casting. Katrin on the other hand was not using her Grimoire as he expected, but rather gathering a great deal of mana to herself using Outer casting.

Gates realized they might need a bit more time so he gritted his teeth, wiped the blood from his chin and decided on a rather reckless course of action. His abdomen ached with each breath, but he was sure that his lungs weren't punctured. Thus he closed distance on the Slime once more, dashing forward as close as he could get. At the same time he commanded his flame spirit to fly upwards into the air -- and that's when he saw it.

A mass of fire magic, roughly six meters in diameter hovering high above the slime. The sight was enough to stop him in his tracks in disbelief, for the magic was not only large but densely packed. There was no doubt that Agni had spent the entire time gathering and condensing flames repeatedly in order to create an attack of his power at her rank.

*This is easily something a second rank magic user could make.* Gates thought as he gazed up at the mass of fire. Unfortunately the split second of distraction also put him in a precarious position. The slime's body shuddered and released a trio of extending slime poles, each of which smashed into Gates full on. He attempted to protect himself after the blinding pain of the first impact made his body shudder, but this was for the most part futile. He was lifted off his feet once more and carried by the first impact while the second and third struck his flame staff, cracking it in the process.

The flame enchantment flickered, faltering as Gates sailed through the air and landed with a thud on the ground. From the edge of the clearing Ariadna watched, gritting her teeth as she contemplated using the Return Relic.

*Why aren't they helping?* She thought to herself as she watched Gates skid across the grass. She held the item up as if she was teetering on activating it when a hand grabbed her wrist.

"No. Not yet." Sypha said, apparently having come to from his stupor.

"What do you mean? He's going to get killed. There's no way that three people can defeat a monster like that if six failed." Ariadna said, voicing her displeasure.

"Look." Sypha said as he sat up, pointing his finger above the clearing. Ariadna's face turned white as she realized what was about to happen.

*Fuck this hurts!* Gates' mind was wracked with pain, several ribs shattered at this point and most likely some internal bleeding as well. Yet he didn't care. He could only smile, even though he clenched his stomach and grimaced in pain. He shot a glance over towards Katrin as if to say, "Not yet?"

Katrin nodded her head and mouthed Agni's name, the signal to begin. From the moment Gates decided on their plan of attack Agni felt a dull sense of frustration eating away at her. Normally she would vent this in battle by cleaving or striking something. Since those two options were off the table and Gates assumed the role she initially wanted, Agni felt she needed to do something extreme to vent her anger.

Agni immediately took a seat, assuming a meditative position after explaining to Katrin what she had in mind. She spent the next couple of minutes in intense focus as she used all methods available to her to create the most powerful magical attack available to her at the moment. Normally something like this in the heat of battle would be impossible but with a party of multiple people--

*I'm going to end you.* Agni thought as her eyes popped open. She clasped her hands together and surged her mana to force the mass of flames downward. The air in the clearing shifted somewhat as the large fireball began to drop onto the unsuspecting slime. Gates played his part to a tee, using his flame spirit until the very last second to annoy and distract the Gunge Slime before finally recalling it from service.

The ball of flames was large enough in itself to completely consume the slime but Agni had taken things to a whole other level. As the ball of flames came down on the slime a shrill sound echoed through the clearing. It was like the sound of ice pressed against a hot flat top grill. The creature's body girated wildly as it struggled to shrink and condense itself to escape the falling flames.

At that moment Katrin activated her own magic which also was centered high above the clearing. So as not to interfere with Agni's fire, Katrin created a mass of wind magic higher above. This now fell downward as well, spiraling until a column of wind was created. The winds brought new life to Agni's fire, mingling together with them until both spells became one. Even Gates, who had an idea of their tactic did not expect this.

*Unison magic? This is crazy!* He thought to himself as the wind column burst into flames and turned into a nine meter high spinning twister of fire -- with the Gunge Slime trapped in the center.

Agni could now feel her mana dropping quickly, Katrin's wind magic was feeding on her own to make it stronger, but it was also more difficult to maintain and control. She focused on shrinking the spiraling flames of the spell, closing the slime in so that not even a single drop of the creature's flesh would remain.

The spell lasted only a few seconds, but it was enough. Both Katrin and Agni were drained, their mana completely spent as a heat filled wind expanded outward and rushed against everyone within a ten meter (30 ft) proximity. The gust was so strong that Gates felt as if his whole body might catch ablaze while Ariadna ducked behind the bushes as the tree branches shook and fluttered.

When everyone opened their eyes again all that remained of the slime was a large circular scorch mark, carved into the earth in varying degrees by both flame and wind.