Chương 13: 1-12 Regicide

"Cana! I'm sending you a little healer!" Josef hollered as he turned back towards the slime king. Nibbles split from Josef moments after the summoning spell had finished. The little rat dashed along the grimy ground of the chamber, straight at the lycan. Ignoring the residual acid splattered on the ground, he reached Cana just after she dodged away from another attack, and leaped up onto her.

Josef would have liked to observe how his new familiar was going to go about healing her, but he didn't have the luxury of time to do so. He had to believe in the little one's abilities as he had in Dusty's. His foremost worry had to be the slime in front of him. While Josef had found a method to inflict great harm on the creature, he could only do so while touching the core. A feat that had become a lot more difficult after it decided to stay away from him. He had to close the gap again, but how?

After the monster had lost almost a quarter of its mass to their earlier engagement, it had become a lot more cautious about getting close. Probably got nimbler too, with less mass to lug around. Something that now came back to bite Josef. He either had to make the slime come back voluntarily, or find a way to catch it. Cornering the dodgy creature wasn't an option, seeing as the room was perfectly round. Maybe he could draw it in by feigning exhaustion or injury?

That was also unlikely, as it would still be more likely to go after Cana than risk jumping on him again. Attempting to create a new spell to catch up was also an option, but could he do it? His mana was running low after summoning Nibbles, and this was still the middle of a fight. However, Cana now had her own healer, and Josef himself wasn't being pressured. There was room to attempt it. What kind of spell could he create?

Josef's thoughts immediately went to mages all over gaming and literature, using the most iconic form of spell-based movement. Teleportation. He had a space affinity, so he could give it a try. But it needed to be something quick, something small in scale. Fortunately, he could think of an iconic spell that would help him here. If he could make it work, that is. Josef called on his remaining mana to fulfill his intent. But where should he direct it? He tried to spread it throughout his body once again.

After all, he wanted to move his entire body through space. Focusing his intent, he began to chant in his mind. Move. Teleport. Blink. Nothing happened. He gritted his teeth in frustration. This was probably the difference between getting an affinity and spells gifted by the heartstone, and a new and unguided affinity he gained from a feat. He had to figure this out from the ground up, no training wheels attached. No pressure.

Involving his entire body's mana channels did feel like the right start to him, but he was clearly missing something. While Josef mulled over the possibilities of his spatial affinity, his chase with the slime continued. The stress of constantly rushing around the area was starting to get to him. His latest Regeneration was still running, but the burn in his legs grew by the minute. Only this time, the acid wasn't to blame. Did the slime king ever grow tired?

He couldn't know the answer to that, but decided that it was likely a big fat no. At this point, it felt more like he was the one being corralled by the slime, not the other way around… Josef could have smacked himself. That's exactly what was happening. That smart fucking slimeball was just keeping him busy, waiting for its backup to arrive. Looking over his shoulder to Cana, he noticed that he had been playing right into its slimy plans.

Sure, she looked a lot less injured than before, courtesy of Nibbles's efforts, but she was wheezing like a steam engine. It was clear she had no spells or other ranged options and had to constantly dance around the queen's attacks just to rip one chunk at a time out of its body. While she had definitely made good progress since he last checked, with probably a third of the pink slime's body mass gone, she wouldn't be able to keep that up for much longer.

Those slimes were playing for time, using their seemingly endless stamina. He needed to change the game, give the fight a new direction. A direction. That's what he had been missing. He wanted to move his body, but there had been no specification about where he wanted to end up. And he had a great idea on how to direct his spell. His earlier attempt had eaten up some mana, but he was doing pretty well on regeneration. Something in the dungeon really helped him in that regard.

But any plans to test and time his recovery would have to wait. He hoped it was enough for one cast of the spell he envisioned, but there would be no room for a second attempt. Once more flooding his body with mana, he observed the slime in front of him. He had to aim right where the thing was going to land. Having reached near the edge of the room, there were only two ways it could jump, unless it was brave enough to leap over Josef. It wasn't.

The moment its body contracted and moved, Josef could tell the direction. His hand shot up and aimed the same way, making a rough estimate of where the leap would end. He had seen enough of them to have a pretty good idea. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Josef pushed his mana with abandon, sending it through the outstretched limb towards his targeted spot. He intended to show the magic exactly where he needed to go.

It was strenuous and wasteful, as the string of energy was leaking all over the place, whipping back and forth from whatever magic was in the environment. Weak and fragile, the connection it had to him grew more strained with every meter it stretched. But it did get to where he wanted it to be. Roughly, and with barely a point of mana to spare. Move. Teleport. Blink. ☆ Blink (Exceptional) Blink and you will miss it. The traditional way to move one's body across a battlefield. If you have an affinity for it that is.

Many have tried to replicate this mode of transport, only to be lost in the beyond. The world moved around him. Colors blurred, and his stomach felt weightless. After a split second, the sensation ended, and Josef could barely stand from the vertigo. He had no time to recover, though, as the pain of acid burning his skin followed immediately after. He had made it in time, just as planned. If only his plans didn't hurt like hell. Half his health was once again gone just from the combination of acid and the impact.

Without a moment to spare, he leaned into his Mana Syphon, or whatever the spell had ended up as. He hadn't checked his notifications, but the name didn't matter as much as the intent and how he channeled his mana. He didn't even wait until he found the core, simply pulling on whatever mana was around him, ripping into the slime like a ravenous beast. The slime tried to recoil from him, but the inertia of its own body was still anchoring it to the ground.

There was a window between each jump where it couldn't move, and Josef was going to make the most of it. Gelatin drying and crumbling around him, he made for the core of the creature. It wriggled its body in response, trying to move it away from him, but the collapse of its own body worked against it. This time, he got both hands on the magic rock, and he was not going to let it go again.

He barely spared a moment to dump the mana he had just leeched into healing, quick and dirty, with no measure of efficiency, and then he began. With both his mana and his hands, he worked on the core. Pulling, jostling, draining. There would be no leeway for the creature that had tried to melt him into sludge. That had killed Dusty. That was pulling him by the nose like an idiot. Once more the slime king shifted, trembled, and finally it jumped. It tried to move away from Josef as it had done before.

And it succeeded. But at a terrible price. Where the slime king landed, it no longer bounced. It went splat, like a fistful of pudding forcefully chucked at a wall. Its pieces spread out, crumbled and quickly dried. Just like every part of its body that was cut off from the core. A core that was still with Josef, several meters over.

'King Slime: True Royal - Level 25' has been slain. You have earned a new feat: Kingslayer Level 8 -> 11 Skill choice unlocked 6 Free attribute points. 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 4 Endurance, 2 Intelligence, 3 Wisdom gained"The king is dead. Fuck the bastard." Josef muttered. There was little joy left in him right now, no matter how great the gains. Even though the level up had restored his Health and Mana, his skin was still an angry red and itching something fierce.

His legs were also still shaking from strain and he was panting for breath. The restoration wasn't perfect, it just made sure he wouldn't die. As much as he wanted to figure out a spell to dull his pain, he had other matters to attend to. Like Cana and the pink slime she was fighting. At least it seemed like she had gained a second wind. Did she also gain levels from the defeated boss? Arguably, she didn't ever attack it, but they were both parts of this fight as a whole, so that probably made sense.

Sprinting over to pincer the queen, he crossed eyes with Cana. She looked miserable, with patches of fur missing, eyes sunk in and bloodshot. Her form was slouched, and even her tail was loosely drooping behind her. But at least she was in one piece. That's what mattered. Pinned between two opponents, or perhaps enraged by her royal partner's demise. The queen went on a reckless offense. Whether this was some genuine rage mode ability or just the last desperate move of a widowed monster, Josef didn't know.

In a massive burst of pink liquid, the bottom of the queen popped open and sent forth a wave of acid, immediately washing over all three of them. The force alone was almost enough to take Josef off his feet, but he managed to stand his ground. Strangely enough, the acid didn't burn as badly as he expected it to. Was the king slime more acidic than the queen? He had no time to mull over that question. With his resources refilled, there was no reason he couldn't repeat the attack he inflicted on the king.

Filling himself with mana, he stretched out another string of energy towards his target. This time, however, the result was less than pleasing. The waves of acid caused massive amounts of interference, ripping his thread apart before it could gain even a full meter of distance. Should he try it more forcefully, pushing large amounts of mana into the thread, or should he try to chain his Blink? Or maybe he should enter his skill selection for a breather. The answer was none of the above.

As Josef was figuring out a magical solution to the massive pink issue, Cana had found a physical one.

"Just fucking die already!" she shouted, spit flying from her mouth, as she lunged through the burning liquid with sheer force and the same burst of movement she had displayed before. Reaching the creature, she ripped into its body with abandon. Its structure was much weaker now that it had opened itself. With elongated claws of mana, she practically shoveled away its body as if it were snow in front of a plow.

Finally, with a fearsome display of teeth, she bit down on the core and twisted and turned as she hacked at the surrounding mass. With a squelch it went free, and the queen was no more.

'Queen Slime: Royal Consort - Level 24' has been slain. Feat upgraded: Kingslayer Walking up to Cana, he spotted Nibbles, who had held on for dear life to the fluff at the back of her neck. Their eyes met, and they silently agreed. They would make sure to never piss off Cana. She really turned into a feral beast for a second there. Josef didn't want to imagine how that scene would have looked with an opponent made from flesh and blood. With a grating sound, the doors of the room opened. It was officially over.

Time to heal and digest the gains.