Myungho rushed out when he heard someone shouting outside. I followed him, sensing that something unusual was about to happen.
There, we found a frightened person running away while the villagers, armed with various weapons, were facing off against what looked like a green puddle of slime.
Even while standing still, it bubbled and boiled, then suddenly surged upward on its own—a far cry from the cute and harmless image I had in mind.
It might be fine for me, but… if the others get touched by it, they’ll end up like the corpse I saw earlier. I briefly recalled the sight of my comrade who had turned into mush and quickly stopped thinking about it.
“Everyone, prepare to fight! We’ve never seen anything like this before, so don’t let your guard down! Akashi, don’t use strong magic, and don’t aim at the people!”
The other party members also drew their weapons and aimed them at the green puddle of slime.
The puddle extended tentacle-like appendages, swaying around, then pointed toward Myungho and quickly crawled toward him at an alarming speed.
I channeled mana into my horn, making the ground it was heading toward as sharp as a sawblade. It didn’t seem to have any cognitive ability, as it continued charging despite its body being severely cut.
Though its size was significantly reduced, its speed didn’t slow down at all. It seemed impossible to slow it down with just shock, so I created a wall of rock between Myungho and the slime.
Like when it rubbed against the ground, the slime collided forcefully with the wall, seemingly unaware of its existence, trying to squeeze through it.
The mage watched the slime with a dubious expression. As expected, he’s useless. Thinking that, I exploded the wall where the slime was located.
Splashes of slime, gravel, and dust flew everywhere. Myungho looked startled by the explosion of the wall that had been protecting him.
Despite our caution, the slime died without much of a fuss, leaving only numerous fragments behind.
“…Alterra, you’re really strong. Did you take care of it? But there’s no way something like this would die so easily…”
What? Don’t jinx it. Ignoring Myungho’s ominous words, I dissolved the wall made from the earth and approached the remains of the slime.
When I poked the slime’s remains with my claws, there was no reaction—only a sensation like touching carbonated water.
Suddenly, the party members and villagers started panicking as they stared at something above me. Looking up to see what it was, I noticed…
A black hole had appeared in mid-air, pouring out slime.
Before I could react, I was instantly covered in the slime. A tingling sensation spread across my body, and I felt the disgusting touch of the slime trying to seep into every part of me.
No matter how hard I struggled, I was completely enveloped by the overwhelming amount of slime.
Realizing the situation was truly dangerous, I placed my hand on the ground and poured mana into it. Fortunately, the slime’s liquid did not interfere with my mana control.
As the mana flowed, the tingling sensation escalated into a burning pain. The protective effect provided passively by the stationary mana had been lost due to its movement.
That’s why we don’t use magic during close combat. However, this wasn’t the time to debate such things.
The earth infused with my mana began to crack, and streams of golden mana light emerged from the fissures.
This is going to hurt. After stopping the flow of mana and forming a barrier to brace for the impact, the initially faint glow of the mana light grew brighter until it shone like the sun, causing a massive explosion.
I was propelled high into the air by the recoil, and the slime scattered in all directions again.
Even though I had clearly blocked it with the barrier, I felt as if my insides were shaken. Before I could recover from the shock, I was slammed back onto the ground.
“Alterra! Are you okay?!”
Myungho rushed over to check on me. Though I wasn’t fine, I could still fight.
It seems I have some bite marks here and there, but they’re healing rapidly. I concealed the scales sprouting on my palms and replied.
“I’m fine. Anyway… it looks like we can’t defeat it just by cutting it down.”
Seeing the slime gushing out of the void, Myungho seemed to agree. No matter how much we cut it down, twice as much pours out from the void for some reason.
The villagers appeared to be unsettled, having never seen anything like this before.
To make matters worse, the slime flattened itself and was reassembling its scattered pieces. This thing will keep coming back. The more we cut it down, the more it crawls out, and it even swallows its own fragments.
“Even if we bury it underground… it’ll probably come back?”
Myungho nodded silently in agreement. Sigh. Then how do we kill something like this? This situation feels even more suffocating than when I encountered a monster as a child.
Yuna… she won’t be of much use in this battle. She seemed to realize she couldn’t contribute and stayed near the villagers to protect them.
What had initially been the size of a decently sized rock in the plain had now swollen to the size of a small cottage.
“Hey, Leader. I know what it is. This slime doesn’t lack a core; it’s just been moved to another dimension while maintaining its connection to the main body.”
“Is that… even possible? Still, that explains everything… Ah, could it be that those Demon Tribe members wanted a rematch?”
“That’s unlikely. It seems they prepared this just in case. Hmph, crafty bastards. They’re still exploiting the method I created.”
“It was you who created it…? Then you must know how to deal with it, right? You do, right…?”
“Easy. Just destroy the core. Well, since the core is in another dimension, you’ll need to break it there. For you, it should be easier. Just write ‘die’ with your brush, and it’ll work.”
“But… how can I write on something like that? It might work on a spirit entity, but not on liquid.”
Myungho put his sword away and took out his brush, though doubt was evident on his face.
“Give me a chance to cast a big spell. Tell that worm to fill its insides with damp soil. You’ll understand after that.”
Soon, the slime seemed to have spotted us and lumbered toward us more slowly than before. The fences and trees in its path were crushed under its weight.
Should I write it?
“Alterra! Fill that slime with damp soil! Akashi says he knows how to defeat it!”
Just as I was pondering, Myungho instructed me to fill the inside of the slime with soil after finding a way to defeat it.
Will it work? Despite my doubts, I didn’t want to be swallowed again, so I crouched down and placed my hands on the ground.
Focusing my mind, I channeled mana to dominate the nearby earth and thrust clumps of damp soil into its interior.
With the added soil, it became even slower. By the time I had filled it enough to turn its green body into a murky brown, scales had already grown up to my wrists.
…Does it matter? Using the rocks formed from the earth, I pierced through its body like giant spikes, completely pinning it in place.
“O Spirit of the Underworld, rise to the surface, envied by you, and consume my enemy!”
The mage mumbled something, and a blue magical circle appeared in his grimoire.
Then, a fierce blizzard swept through the spot where the slime was pinned. Initially thrashing violently as if nothing could stop it, the slime eventually froze solid at some point.
The damp soil inside must have frozen.
That’s why he told us to fill it with damp soil. Even if it tried to change form, the frozen soil filling its body made that impossible.
As soon as the deadly blizzard ceased, Myungho ran forward with his brush and approached the frozen slime.
“Die…”
When he finished writing something and pulled the brush away, the slime abruptly stopped moving, as if the violent motions had never happened.
“…Damn. Every time I see it, it gives me the creeps… that.”
The mage managed to mutter a word while barely standing, then collapsed forward.
…Is it going to pour out slime again suddenly? Suspicious, I hesitated to approach too hastily and instead created a rock umbrella to prepare for a situation like before.
As soon as I touched it with my scale-covered hand, I recoiled in surprise at the coldness. What’s so cold about this?
Using the rock umbrella I was holding, I struck it, and a crack appeared, so I kept hitting it.
Eventually, the mud-colored slime shattered into pieces and neither reformed nor caused anything to pour down from above.
“It really is dead, it seems. Phew, what kind of things exist in this world…”
I shivered at the lingering coldness around me and sensed something strange. That is, my chest felt a bit hollow.
I hadn’t noticed because I was only looking at the slime and my hands, but there was no bandage on my chest. Thankfully, the nipples were covered by scales, so it wasn’t the worst-case scenario…
…
Myungho was standing right next to me.
I covered my chest with my hands.
“…Don’t look.”
Suppressing the joy I felt deep within, I told Myungho not to look.
Even though he was a man, I knew this was embarrassing. I was aware that my posture was odd, but there was nothing I could do about it.
The desire that men didn’t have. The instinct to flaunt one’s superiority and rarity to others.
That was flowing through my blood.
It was an instinct I realized after living among humans recently. Until then, I had rationalized it by attaching plausible reasons, but now I could no longer deny it.
For some reason, this body wanted to be “seen.”
