The First Mission: Part II

Hinako stumbled forward, barely keeping her balance. She turned around and saw Kuro leaning against the doorframe with a big smile.

“Any tips?”, Hinako hissed angrily.

“Don’t get slimed.”, Kuro replied with a big smile.

“Does it dissolve human too?”

Hinako watched a whole cow leg getting dissolved in the dark sludge and grew slightly worried.

“Nah… It can’t dissolve anything living… they thought at least about that… You’ll just smell like shit for a few days if you get slime on you…”, Kuro mentioned with a shrug.

Hinako gave him a weak smile and then turned towards the pile of meat and slime.

“Try to make it entertaining.”, She heard Kuro’s voice behind her.

Hinako made a gesture telling how she felt about that suggestion. The next batch of animal parts got pulled in by the slimy tentacles. Hinako slowly got closer. The slime didn’t seem to have noticed anything yet, but it grew at a steady and terrifying rate.

I should finish this quickly, before it gets out of hand. Well, if it is a slime, it should have a core somewhere in his body. Guess I’ll have to expose that first…

About twenty meters from the pile Hinako stopped. She extended both arms and prepared a spell. A fireball formed in front of her palms few glyphs and gestures later. The slime seemed to have noticed it, as more and more black slimy sludge pooled on the side facing her. At the same time as Hinako finished forming her spell and getting ready to launch the attack, she noticed that red, green, yellow and blue shimmering crystals appeared in the slime facing her. They were ejected in a wide arc a split second later. Hinako saw a bunch of crystals with their tip pointed at her. She reacted quickly and let the fireball explode towards the oncoming barrage. The explosion pulverized the first few and the rest got knocked off course. Hinako heard high and shrill clattering mixed with low and soft thuds. After the smoke of the explosion cleared she saw countless shards scattered across the floor and bigger ones stuck wedged into one side of some hanging meat pieces around her.

“Ah, I forgot to mention, that they were conditioned to instead of producing one big clump of crystals every time they reached a certain growth threshold they can grow infinitely and only start producing crystals when they sense the magic energy of a spell cast near them. They react by quickly producing a shitload of smaller crystals which they eject in the direction they sensed the spell… Very convenient for automated and mess free harvest when in a controlled environment… less so, when one of them gets loose and a poor MDF adept has to deal with it…”, Kuro explained casually standing behind one of the spiked carcasses.

“What? So, every time I’ll cast a spell that fucking thing will shoot me with pointy crystals?”, Hinako scoffed back in anger.

“If it senses a spell being cast…”

Hinako cursed under her breath and extended her arms again. This time she conjured up a small and fast firebolt and immediately flung it against the slime. It hit one of the meaty parts and apart from burning it a bit, nothing happened.

“Great, that does absolutely nothing… How am I going to deal with this bastard?”, Hinako complained aloud.

The whole pile shook and moved a bit. The partly burned meat piece got ejected violently the next moment and sailed quickly towards Hinako. She lunged to the side and took cover next to Kuro. The flying meat hit exactly where she had stood with a wet squelch, as it was dripping with blackish slime.

“I think it heard that… slimes have feelings too, you know.”, Kuro said with a smirk.

“Shut up.”, Hinako hissed angrily.

“Need a hand?”

“Fuck off! I told you that I will handle it, and I will! Don’t you dare to interfere!”

Hinako got up again and looked at the slime. It went back into eating mode again. Hinako pulled out her magical discharger and aimed it at a black spot in the pile. She activated the weapon and a small projectile shot out of the tip. It hit the slime and detonated in a human head sized flash of red light. Everything inside vaporized and some burned pieces of meat showed where the edges were. The slime reacted again and trembled. A black fountain of sludge shot out in her direction. Hinako barely dodged it. A small splatter hit her on the shoulder. It immediately began to emit vapor. The rotten smell got really intense, but the slime dissolved. The cloth underneath was fine.

“The clothes you are wearing are resistant against the slime… but not immune… prolonged and excessive contact will lead to garment dissolvement… you should still be safe… just a bit exposed afterwards perhaps…”, Kuro mentioned appearing from behind another cow carcass.

“You could have told me that sooner!”, Hinako groaned angrily.

“I could have… but where would be the fun in that…”

Hinako told him with a look how she felt about his fun. The slime part next to her had been slowly sliding back to its main part in the meantime and nearly reached it. The pile was back in his passive state and started consuming meat again, while steadily growing. Hinako had an idea. She ran a bit closer to one of the pig halves that were close to the slime. Hinako put her hand on the meat and started to trace glyphs on it. Kuro watched her from further back and gave a slight nod of acknowledgement. Red glowing veins started appearing from the places that Hinako traced with her fingertip. She did that for a while until the whole pig half glowed. In the meantime, more and more of the meat parts got snatched up by the slime. Only one row was left in front of the one Hinako stood behind. She took a few steps back and waited. The slimy tentacles shot out again. No other meat was between the one Hinako had tempered with and the slime now. She waited a bit antsy and watched the current batch of meat get dissolved until nothing was left. Not even bones. Everything got consumed and the slime grew. Tentacles started forming again. Hinako held her breath in anticipation. She smiled as they extended out, blinked as they connected and dropped her chin as the meat got pulled in. Every piece in front of her, except the one she had tempered with, got snatched up.

“What the… how?! Why?!”, Hinako complained aghast.

“Maybe it somehow got wind of your cooking skills…”, Kuro remarked appearing next to her.

Hinako turned, her eyes wide in shock.

“What…That’s… I…”, she stuttered struggling to find words while waving her finger angrily at him. “Shut up…”

Kuro smiled, basking in her death glare for a while. Long enough for the next batch of meat to get snagged. Hinako’s meat was again left untouched.

“Why?! Why isn’t it taking that one? Does it sense it? It didn’t shoot crystals…”, Hinako complained.

“May-“

“Shut up! I don’t want to hear a word out of your mouth right now!”

Kuro refrained from talking any further. Hinako stepped in front of the shunned meat.

“Oi you fucking stinky, slimy bastard! Come and get a piece of me, you damned snotslob!”, She shouted angrily.

Hinako additionally activated her magical discharger a few times in rapid succession and blasted some temporary holes in the side of the slime. Her plan worked. A thick tendril shot out in her direction. Hinako dodged at the last moment, and the slime connected with the meat behind her. Slowly it got pulled in. Hinako waited smiling until the meat got fully covered by the main body of the slime.

“Kaboom.”, She whispered and activated the stored spells inside the pig half.

The veins in the meat lit up and began to glow brightly. The slime expanded around the glowing even faster. A muffled explosion occurred and the inside of the slime got illuminated and heavily bloated. Hinako watched with a satisfied smile as slime grew to four times its size rapidly. She smirked as it burst. But that facial expression changed quickly as tons of slimy lumps began flying in every direction. Unable to find cover in time she tried to quickly cast a barrier, like she had so the past few training days. A pinkish shimmer spread from her fingertips and quickly covered her whole body. The barrier got immediately hit by lump after lump squashing against it. The barrier glowed up but held out. The next few lumps hit, and Hinako watched with dread as her barrier began to crack. The next lump sealed the deal and the spell crumbled. All the gunk came down on Hinako. She felt the wet sliminess covering her whole body. Silence fell as the last lump squashed somewhere to the floor. Hinako’s mind was blank for a second as the slime began sliding down her body. The sudden intense rotten stench that penetrated deep into her nostrils jump started her brain again. Hinako let out a shriek of disgust and began to quickly shake as much off as she could. She got covered in stinky vapor as the slime on her clothes began to dissolve, but a few patches of fabric did as well.

“Good job in figuring out, that the slime sensed only when a spell got activated, not when it is prepared. Nice idea to use remotely activated spells.”, Kuro said next to her.

Hinako finally got the last of the slime out of her eyes and looked at him. He was inside a purplish shimmering barrier, completely untouched.

“Oh, and bonus points for managing to put up a barrier in the nick of time. Your training wasn’t a waste after all… The toughness still needs some work, though…”, Kuro added casually.

Hinako opened her mouth, fought down the urge to gag in preparation to tell him where he could shove his bonus points, as a deafening explosion took place, followed by a shattering noise. Both looked around for a moment and then back at each other.

“Wasn’t me…”, Hinako said immediately.

“That was… the barrier around the facility?”, Kuro guessed confused.

Hinako noticed that the slime on the floor started moving towards where the pile had been. Something shiny was covered there in a slowly growing mass of black sludge.

“Shit that thing is still not done?”, She sighed in frustration.

Kuro wasn’t listening. He was looking towards a window leading outside. A bad feeling started to spread in his guts, and it wasn’t because of what he ate for breakfast today.

“You clean up in here… I’m gonna check something out.”, Kuro said curtly and walked out of the door they had come before.

Hinako watched him leave and then focused back on the slowly growing slime. She began conjuring up a fireball. The slime immediately shot out its crystal again, making Hinako dash to the side and dropping the spell.

“FINE! I GET IT! YOU STUPID BLOB OF ROTTEN FILTH!”, Hinako shouted enraged and started to sprint at the slime.

She pulled out her magical discharger again and began to shoot a barrage of magical bullets. With her other hand she conjured up one firebolt after the next and shot it at the monster as well. The combination of flames and small explosions managed to fight the slime back and unveiled its shimmering core. Hinako shot directly at it, but it didn’t even get a scratch. She screamed in rage and unloaded onto it until only the core and a few smudges of slime remained. She then quickly grabbed her knife.

“Eat this, you slimy bastard!”, Hinako growled and put as much energy into the weapon as she could.

The blade started to glow brightly. Hinako stabbed the core and it cracked as the tip went in. She smiled triumphantly as she put her whole bodyweight on the knife to drive it fully in. But before she could do so, something strange happened. A shadow hushed across the floor towards the core. It seemed to seep into the crack. Hinako tried pushing her knife deeper but couldn’t. She tried pulling it out, but it wouldn’t budge. The core suddenly began to pulse.

“What the…”, Hinako gasped as she noticed the first small slime lumps flying onto the core.

Faster and faster, it grew. One lump after another. Squashing and squelching in the process.

“Fuck!”, Hinako exclaimed panicked and let go of the knife.

She wanted to jump back but it was too late. A huge lump of slime hit her in the back and pushed her forward. A few heartbeats later she was completely encapsulated by the slime. She saw dark green tendrils growing out of the core in front of her. She could not move or breathe. Panic started to well up inside of her. Everything grew darker until the only things she could see were the green tendrils slowly expanding towards her. They nearly touched her face as she felt a hand grab her by the shoulder and pull on it.