Snow White in a Slime Coffin

The monstrosity kept rising from the abyss, a grotesque mass of flesh, cartilage, and twitching tentacles filling almost the entire chamber.

A heavy heartbeat reverberated through the ground, each thud making the slime on the walls shudder.

“Spread out! Don’t clump together!” Caeriel’s voice cut sharp, like the command of a battle-hardened officer.

“Yeah, thanks for the tip, tutorial-elf!” Gus bellowed back, clenching his demon fist. “You think I’ve never fucking played a boss fight before?!”

Then came the first attack.

Tentacles whipped across the chamber, slamming down with bone-rattling force. The floor quaked beneath each strike, dust raining from the ceiling.

Bromor charged head-on, his axe cleaved through the air, hacking a tentacle clean off. But no sooner had it hit the ground than a new one sprouted from the pulsating mass.

Caeriel was already moving, arrow after arrow sinking into tentacles and the heaving body. But the wounds sealed almost instantly.

Her jaw clenched, sweat glistening on her brow. “Damn it, it’s not working at all!”

Gus’s demon arm pulsed, glowing with sickly green light. He unleashed a blast of raw demonic fire, but the monster’s slimy hide shrugged off most of it. “Shit… tough bastard.”

The creature reared back with a guttural roar, then spewed a torrent of sizzling acid across the chamber.

Marcus stumbled, clutching his staff in a white-knuckled grip. “O-okay… time for a new spell! Everyone, to me!”

The others obeyed instinctively as Marcus rammed his staff into the ground. The gem blazed with brownish light.

“Beer Barrier!”

With a loud SWOOOOSH, a golden dome of frothing beer erupted around the group, just in time. 

The acid splashed against it, sizzling and steaming, then trickled down in foamy streams while they remained unharmed.

Marcus collapsed to his knees, beer dripping from his hair into his face. He sputtered, coughing, shaking himself off. “Ugh… that was stickier than I expected.”

Bromor wiped his beard, gave a wet shake, then grinned wide and clapped him on the shoulder. “Well done, lad! If I’m going to drown in beer, let it be like that!”

But there was no time to celebrate.

The monster’s attacks grew more frenzied, the walls shook, and an unearthly bellow shook the chamber.

A massive tentacle lashed out, snaring Gus by the ankle and hoisting him up like a ragdoll.

“Waaahhhhhh!” he screamed, dangling upside down.

“GUS!” Caeriel cried, raising her bow in one fluid motion. The arrow whistled, slicing through pulsating flesh. The tentacle jerked, split, and Gus went flying, straight over the gaping maw.

“Oh, fuuuuck me!” he gasped, arms flailing.

At the last instant, his demon arm clawed into a bony protrusion, fingers digging deep into the slimy flesh.

Sweat dripped from his face as he dangled from his own cursed arm, the abyss boiling beneath him.

Then he froze.

Amid the steaming flesh, behind layers of slime and throbbing veins… was a human face. Pale and serene, like it was sleeping.

“Holy… fucking… shit!” Gus roared, eyes bulging. “There’s someone down there!”

“WHAT?!” the others shouted back in unison, their voices nearly drowned by the beast’s roar.

Another tentacle whipped out, smashing across the ground. It yanked Caeriel off her feet, ripping the bow from her hands.

It loomed over her, ready to crush.

“CARRIE!” Gus bellowed, and without thinking he let go, aiming his demon hand mid-fall. A jet of green fire blasted forth, shredding the tentacle a split second before it struck.

His eyes widened as he plummeted into the steaming maw, his scream echoing through the chamber until darkness swallowed him.

Caeriel scrambled to her knees, sweat and dust streaking her face, hands trembling.

Her eyes went wide with panic as she stared into the beast’s gaping throat.

“GUS!! NO!!” Her voice cracked, shrill and desperate.

Marcus stumbled a step forward, but his body locked up. He stood frozen.

“…G...Gus?”

Even Bromor was speechless, all three staring helplessly into the darkness where he had vanished.

---

Gus slammed into the wet abyss, the flesh beneath him giving way like a slimy cushion, then a searing pain ripped across his skin.

“AHHH, fucking hell!” He staggered up, the corrosive slime hissing as it ate through his clothes, fabric peeling away, smoke rising from his raw, blistering skin.

Every touch burned like he was being boiled alive. Blisters erupted across his arms and chest as he gasped, struggling not to sink deeper into the viscous muck.

His demon arm throbbed violently, green veins bulging and casting a sickly glow that lit the creature’s insides in pale flashes.

Everywhere, thick strands pulsed like veins, crisscrossing the chamber, wrapping around a central mass like a grotesque web.

And at its center hung a cocoon of flesh, its slick surface swelling and contracting with every heartbeat.

Inside it floated a figure, suspended in the tissue.

A hobbit, barely more than a teenager. Her eyes were closed, her face peaceful, as if dreaming.

Gus’s stomach lurched. A ragged, hysterical laugh escaped him, half-choked by pain and bile.

“Oh, great… Snow White in a slime coffin… what fucking kind of nightmare is this!?”

The acid kept eating into him, he didn’t have much time left.

“Shit… no way that’s random. If this thing’s the source, then you’re the key.”

He growled, and with a roar he drove his fist into the pulsing strands.

Green fire surged from his demon hand, scorching through the flesh. The sinews sizzled, stretched taut, then snapped like wet rope.

The cocoon sagged, split, and the girl slipped out, straight into Gus’s arms.

Immediately, the monster’s insides convulsed. Acid splattered, walls heaved, the whole chamber shaking as if on the verge of collapse.

Gus sucked in a ragged breath, feeling the slime gnaw deeper into his flesh.

“Shit, we gotta get out before we’re fucking stew!”

He opened his palm, his entire arm blazing like a green sun, swelling to three times its size.

Then he screamed at the top of his lungs:

“HANDY!!! FULL FUCKING THROTTLE!!!”

A violent blast erupted from his hand, launching him and the girl upward like a cannon shot.

Flesh and slime tore apart as they rocketed through the beast’s body, a living projectile punching toward the surface.

---

Above, Marcus, Bromor, and Caeriel stood in the trembling chamber when the monster’s gaping maw began to boil.

A deep rumble. Then a deafening roar.

BOOOOOM!

The explosion cracked like thunder through the cavern, as flesh ripped apart, tentacles convulsed one last time. Then the beast collapsed with a bone-shaking screech.

Silence.

Only a steaming, stinking heap of flesh remained.

Marcus dropped to his knees, swallowing hard, tears shimmering in his eyes.

“Gus…”

Bromor pressed his lips tight, slowly lowering his axe. He placed a heavy hand on Marcus’s shoulder.

“…I’m sorry, lad.”

Caeriel stood frozen at the edge of the pit, her hands trembling, her gaze hollow, lips quivering.

“No… no, that can’t be… he’s really…”

Her voice broke off, choked by a lump in her throat. She whispered, barely audible:

“I never even told him… that I… that I...”

A rough, irritated voice cut her off:

“…that you what?”

They all turned.

And there he was.

Soaked, completely naked except for a few scraps of slime clinging to him. In his arms, the limp hobbit girl, hanging like a ragdoll.

“What the hell are you staring at?” Gus wheezed, drenched in sweat and slime, still heaving for breath.

Marcus’s face lit up. “Holy shit, dude! You made it!”

Gus groaned, laying the girl gently on the ground, no longer shielded by her weight. His scarred, raw skin gleamed under the slime.

For a moment Caeriel just froze, her chest rising and falling fast. Relief washed over her features, her lips parting as if she wanted to say something, anything.

But then her gaze actually registered him: slimy, naked, water dripping from him.

Her face went crimson in an instant. She spun away, stammering:

“P-put some… put something on!”

Bromor scratched his beard and burst out laughing.

“You humans really are a bizarre folk!”

He stripped off his half-torn cloak and tossed it at Gus, who tied it around his waist like a kilt.

The group then gathered around the girl, who lay as if in a deep sleep.

“…Is she alive?” Marcus asked, voice tight.

Caeriel knelt, pressing two fingers to her neck, then her chest. She exhaled in relief and nodded.

“Yes. Heartbeat and pulse. She’s only asleep.”

Before anyone could say more, the ground beneath them began to tremble, light at first, then violent.

A low growl rolled through the chamber.

“Time to move!” Caeriel barked.

They scrambled to their feet, Gus hefted the girl back into his arms, and together they bolted toward the narrow tunnel they’d come from.

Chunks of flesh crashed down around them, slime splattering in smoking puddles, as the walls buckled and heaved like a dying beast.

At last they burst through the secret passage, and crashed back into the inn’s guest room.

For a breath, they just lay there on the creaking floorboards. 

But something was off.

The furniture flickered, the floor beneath their palms felt soft, thin, like paper.

Marcus stared in horror as the table in front of him sagged, then melted like wax.

“What the actual fuck…?” he rasped.

The walls trembled. Windows cracked, then shattered into mist. Beams collapsed with a groan, dissolving into smoke until the entire inn unraveled.

And then, nothing but the open night sorrounded them.

Bare rock under their boots, a cold, damp air on their skin, and above them, a starlit sky.

Before them, only a yawning cave mouth, still reeking of the slain beast.

“…It was all an illusion?” Caeriel whispered, eyes wide with dread.

Silence hung over them.

Marcus stared blankly, mouth half open. “So… none of it was real? Not the village? The hobbits? The inn?” He suddenly gasped. “Wait... are you guys even real!?”

He pinched Caeriel’s shoulder.

“OW! Don’t touch me, you idiot!” she snapped, smacking his face.

Bromor planted both fists on his hips, slime still dripping from his beard.

“Real enough. That thing back there sure as hell was.”

Gus stood a little apart, propping the hobbit girl against a rock. His voice was low, grim.

“I’d bet my damn arm little miss here’s at the center of this shitshow.”

And just then, she stirred. A faint whimper, barely a breath.

The group crowded closer.

Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing a golden glow that shimmered deep in her gaze.

Unfocused, she looked from face to face, confused, frightened.

Then she straightened weakly, brow furrowing.

Her lips parted, her voice cracked and hoarse:

"What... year… is it?"