Altered Destiny

Ch. 11

I did approximately ten seconds of research into chemical vs. thermal burns for this chapter.

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Fighting slimes was a new experience for Ingressus. He had heard about them; the mysterious living blobs of goo that lurked in the damp swamps and deep caves, but he had never come across one. He wasn't too impressed by them either. They just splatted their way slowly but steadily towards the four with no regard to the weapons facing them. Ingressus made an experimental swipe at the first one that reached him and his sword cut cleanly through the slime, leaving a deep gash in its wake. The slime stopped moving, its goo slumping into an unmoving mound.

"How many slimeballs do you need?" Saylor asked, stabbing at the largest slime.

Matt sliced a tiny slime in half. "Twenty, to replace Mr. Duncan's. Once they stop dividing their leavings gel up and become safe to touch. Just scoop up all you can and we'll form them into slimeballs later."

Dividing?

Ingressus glanced back at the first slime he'd killed. The gash he'd left had widened, and the last of the connecting tissue split apart. The two chunks of goo quivered, molding themselves into two tiny slimes that hopped towards him again.

Right. That was good to know.

Ingressus found out what "safe to touch" meant not long later. He had just slashed open a slime as tall as he was, and was carving up its remains in the hopes that would prevent its parts from reforming. He was distracted from that endeavor, though, when something rubbery splatted against his shin. He looked down to find a tiny slime glommed onto his ankle, half wrapped around his leg like a bizarre hug. But as the slime flattened against his leg the skin began to burn beneath it, pain jolting his nerves like lava. Ingressus kicked out and the slime flew off his leg, digestive juices trailing behind it until it smacked against a stone. His leg seared with pain and he leaped in desperation for the river, landing with a splash in the shallows and promptly slipping. He scrambled up, stabbing a midsize slime in the eyespot. His leg still burned but– mercifully– he felt the frigid water washing away the slime's acid.

"Don't let them touch you!" he called, his teeth still clenched.

"Noted!" Leah called, impaling a slime. "You all right?"

The cold had numbed Ingressus's leg, but the limb still held his weight. "I'll live."

Matt stabbed another slime to the ground. "This should be enough. Can you cover me?"

Ingressus climbed out of the water, hacking at another slime and driving it back as Matt yanked fistfuls of slime gel off the ground. True to his word, the slime remains didn't seem to burn his hands, and he scooped it up and shoved the remains into his inventory.

With the loss of the cold water, the skin where the slime had been was stinging like a bad sunburn. Ingressus slashed at the slimes, holding them back from Matt alongside Leah and Saylor. The slimes may not have had the brains to avoid the swords, but they kept coming, and they didn't go down until they were shredded to tiny pieces. Individually, they were no danger. But in a swarm, they were far more formidable than anyone would guess a bunch of wobbly piles of goo should be.

"I got it, let's go!" Matt called.

The four turned and ran away from the river. The sound of splatting slimes faded away behind them, and soon there were several twists and turns of the tunnel between them and the mobs. They came to a stop at the edge of the resonance's aura, everyone catching their breath.

"Everyone okay?" Saylor asked.

"Please tell me someone has water," Leah said, wincing and holding an arm to her chest.