Chapter 7 - Growth

The next day the trio returned to the woods, already on the hunt for more slimes. Two suitable targets were easily found thanks to Clint’s observational skills. It seemed the twins had woken up refreshed as both approached the slimes with newfound confidence.

Unfortunately, one night’s rest would not alter the results. Once more, both their slimes were blown apart too powerfully and cut in half too imprecisely respectively.

Luna clicked her teeth, frustrated. “I tried limiting my output as much as possible…” She sighed. “Useless, my mana flows too fast. It’s like opening a floodgate, it all comes through at once... “

“Why don’t you just use that stick?” Clint suggested, nodding to her staff.

 “I already told you, its a dreamwood staff! Its a highly specialised and valuable piece of equip-" Sol reached out to silence her again, but she ducked his hand -"Equipment!"

“Alright, we get it. No stick." Her brother sighed. "What about me?" Sol asked earnestly, only to pre-empt Clint's response with an excited idea of his own. "Ooh, what if I just slam them with the flat of my blade?"

"That wouldn't work. You'd distribute the force too broadly-" Luna began, only to be tuned out entirely by Clint. He was looking past the twins entirely now, toward the two slimes they had left.

They seemed to have a different goal than their typical indiscriminate kamikaze attacks. They were approaching one another, inching closer, bounce by bounce until…

They collided, forming into one like cells dividing in reverse. It was so instantaneous, so natural, every square inch of their bodies had been programmed to do exactly this. The end result was outwardly unspectacular, just a larger slime, but there was a clear difference in its movement as it made its way once again toward the party.

It was exponentially faster, its slow and laboured hopping now replaced with a much livelier bounding. It still wasn’t fast or particularly threatening, but it was clear its capabilities had grown far beyond a mere two slimes.

“Hell just happened?” Clint asked.

“This is why we keep their population down” Luna sighed. “If a slime population goes unchecked, they’ll start merging, creating bigger and stronger slimes.” The slime, as if on cue, illustrated her point with a mad dash toward her. She quickly sidestepped. “Luckily a fusion of only two slimes is just barely less pathetic than one.” Despite her earlier complaints about using it, she jabbed at the slime with her staff, piercing its core instantly.

“Told ya to use the stick”. Clint remarked nonchalantly.

“It’s not a stick!” Luna whined.

As the others spoke, Sol’s mind was working. He was on the edge of a terrible, terrible realisation.

Clint just barely beat him to it. “If this place was all abandoned for a couple months because of that Helldog-” he began.

Sol finished his thought “That’s why we didn’t see many slimes yesterday…” he said grimly. “The slime population hasn’t been culled for months. They’re all-”

Perhaps by chance, or by cruel decision of fate; Sol’s fears were instantly illustrated. Behind them, lurking in the treeline was a creature of immense size, somehow unnoticed until now. A gigantic slime that bulged with power, disturbing the treetops as it pulled itself like an enormous slug toward the three.

It barreled through, bending the boughs of the trees and parting them like mere blades of grass. Its speed was absurd for its size, its hefty weight allowing it to easily build momentum as it came like a landslide toward the three.

Clint, of course, reacted first. Leaping into a roll that evaded the slimes' destructive path. Luna was not as lucky. She was already mid-incantation. She figured she’d be able to cast the spell before it arrived, but before she realised it, it was already upon her. She was like a doe, freezing wide-eyed on the tracks as a train came barreling towards her.

Her brother came to her rescue, boldly stepping between the lurching behemoth and his sister. The slimy mountain crashed upon him with all of its crushing immensity. He steeled his muscles, every vein and fibre working to their maximum capacity to hold back its assault.

Despite his immense physical power he was still being pushed back. His feet carved treads into the earth as the creature attempted to barge straight through him. Sol was used to immense weights, he had been lifting boulders since he was a child. But this creature was no boulder, the harsh edges of a stone were much simpler matter than the living being he now had to contend with; He had only stopped part of it, holding its central mass in place, but leaving the rest of its gelatinous form to creep around him; An iron maiden that would soon become his tomb if left unattended.

Just as he had expected though, his sister was not wasting the time he had bought her. Luna’s staff was already raised, a huge crackling orb of dancing cerulean plasma floating in the air above it, buzzing and sparking with power.

It took only a look for the siblings to communicate everything that needed to be said. A glance where blue and red eyes met, exchanging tomes worth of information in milliseconds. The orb vibrated the air itself as it began to descend like a second sun setting over the mountainous slime.

As soon as the descent began, Sol leapt back to his sister’s side, narrowly escaping the clutches of the slime's monstrous tendrils. Their timing was perfect, Sol was in the clear just as the Munditia orb struck the slime. The shining ball of mana buried itself into the enemy, burning through and cauterising its amorphous not-flesh. It lashed and popped as it grew more and more unstable, the slime fighting to push more of its mass between it and its vulnerable core.

Sol took a position in front of his sister, both of them aware of what would happen next. Clint had also figured it out, finding cover behind a tree, but keeping a close eye on the slime as it…

Exploded.

The remains of the once great slime rained down in sizable globs. They splattered rhythmically against the forest floor, burst on tree branches, tumbled through leaves. The great monster they had just encountered was easily slain by the siblings just as quickly as it arrived. Sol's immense strength and Luna’s magical potency made easy work of a beast that would be certain death for lesser adventurers.

But slimes do not die. As surely as the sun sets and the grass grows slimes will live. It was even said that at the end of the world it will be the slimes who inherit the earth. And from that earth that they were perhaps destined to inherit, thousands of slimes began to reform, staining the verdant forest landscape with their paler, sicklier green. While slaying the giant slime was of course an unparalleled feat, it was one without reward, as now countless more enemies began to swarm the trio…