James fired his shadow-infused gun, and the bullet flew in the air before lodging itself in Soluble's chest.

The grey slimy humanoid simply chuckled, before they fell completely silent. They looked down and gazed at their chest, a black spot had appeared where the bullet had entered and it was spreading.

Barry and Larry couldn't believe their eyes. Oh, they had begun to flee down the tunnel, of course, but everything had gone so fast they were still present through the entire encounter and seeing that their boss had pulled out a gun had frozen them in their tracks. The last time they saw him fight something he had used strange tactics that mostly relied on physical contact and surprise attacks, but here he was, doing something entirely different.

Their eyes widened as the black mass that had invaded Soluble's torso grew within seconds, the surrounding slime bubbling and sizzling, as though the mutant's body was trying to fight off some kind of infection - which it probably was, now that Barry thought about it. The person they had learned to fear throughout their late adult life, one of the strongest mutants they knew that wasn't part of the gang, had fallen on the ground and was rolling in pain, screaming in such a high-pitched manner that their teeth hurt. Such a dangerous foe, reduced to nothing with a single attack...

Had their boss been playing around with those two monsters the other day? Was this his true strength?

What had they gotten themselves into?

"What's... What's happening to them?"

Barry turned around and saw Larry's face. He wasn't terrified of what was happening, only confused and nervous. Barry knew him well enough that it wasn't hard to know why, Larry may have been disturbed by Soluble's fate but he trusted their boss enough to be sure he wouldn't harm them.

How Barry wished he had his confidence.

Their boss moved, but not in the way he expected. He thought he would maybe turn around, either to talk to them or get rid of witnesses, but instead, he somehow opened his chest and pocketed his gun within his own body. His chest closed, leaving not even a seam behind. Not that Barry could have seen it, considering their boss' strange physique.

"In truth, I myself am not sure."

"What?"

"What's... What's happening to them?"

That's a very good question.

James wasn't sure how to answer Larry's question. Should he say the truth? That this was the first time he fought against someone sapient and the first time he used a gun he had randomly inserted magical energies into?

Uh, maybe not this way but, with some more polish...

James stowed the gun away as he thought up the best way to keep his persona intact while not seeming like a demented maniac.

"In truth, I myself am not sure."

"What?"

Barry's follow-up question was as predicted.

"This weapon is a prototype I recently finished. I had yet to find the time to test it."

"You brought an untested weapon to a fight and used it?"

"Yes, this is a summary of the words I said."

"Why? Why did you do this?"

"In case I would need it, of course. You cannot doubt its efficacy."

Soluble screeched as they tried to rip off all of their slime that had been affected by James' bullet, the discarded black goopy mass fighting back to stay attached and corrupt the rest of the body further.

"Yeah..."

"In any case, please avoid provoking any further incident with otherwise neutral entities. I won't always be present to save you."

"Yeah... Sure, boss..."

"Is something bothering you Barry? Apart from the sight before us of course."

"Well, it's just... Larry and I aren't the most irreplaceable guys around, you know? If anything, I thought you would have taken them instead."

"Oh, there is no need to worry about that, I would never hire such reckless fools. If someone goes to the bank after earning a large sum of money, it's usually to make a deposit, never attack someone who is trying to negotiate, and never assume your opponent's weapon can't harm you. And all of that is without even taking into account their questionable morality. No, they would make terrible employees."

"Ah... Glad to hear that, boss..."

Soluble screamed once more, their body bending in ways that would be impossible for a human - and, considering what James could see of the state their skeleton, even the slimy humanoid would probably avoid.

"Uh... Do you know how long they're gonna stay like this?"

James looked at the mess that his would-be attacker had become. It would probably be for the best to put an end to their torture, not that he knew exactly how to. Well, he had an idea. As unpleasant as it may be to admit, just like he could vaguely sense what was happening around items he had infused, he had a connection to the spreading corruption that had infected Soluble. He could feel through it and, if he really focused, he guessed he could probably control it.

"Not much longer."

James approached the convulsing monstrosity he had partially created and knelt, or more accurately, lowered his body by diving halfway into his shadow. He formed a tentacle and touched the black mass that was still struggling to gain control of Soluble, mentally sending it a single order.

Seize.

The black mass froze. James sent it a few more orders before Soluble's acidic nature destroyed it.

Dig. Infiltrate. Resist. Hide.

The mass rumbled before suddenly going inwards, going straight to Soluble's black bones instead of trying to spread through his slimy body. In a blink of an eye it had disappeared and, as James suspected, the acid stopped affecting it. It didn't take a genius to guess that a solid mass in an acidic solution was probably immune to said solution's properties. From an outsider's perspective, Soluble's body seemed perfectly fine, which was enough for James to be satisfied with the operation.

Soluble stopped moving, going completely still and silent. Honestly, if James didn't have a small part of him inside of them thanks to his infusion he would probably think they were dead.

"Is... Is Soluble dead?"

"No, Larry. They are still alive, merely neutralized. It'll probably take some time for them to recover and be out and about, but I cannot say how long with certainty."

"Oh, alright boss. Thanks for the explanation!"

Barry looked down at the unconscious Soluble with uncertainty.

"So... What now?"

"Well, you were supposed to inform me about the current ongoing of the slums."

"Right, but uh... What about them?"

"I must admit I am unsure. Do they have any ties to any group? Friends or allies we should be worried about?"

"No, nothing. Those three are loners. If anything I'm sure people would be glad to be rid of them."

"I see. Do they have the resources to potentially harm us and become a genuine threat?"

"I don't think so. We, uh, kinda destroyed their base a short while ago. Even then they didn't have much, to begin with."

"So, there are no drawbacks to sparing them but also none to disposing of them. Well, this certainly isn't making things any easier."

Frankly, James didn't want to kill them. Killing toads and bugs was one thing, people were another, even if they had attacked Larry and Barry first and had the intention to kill them. He didn't mind fighting them, although it had been his first hostile encounter with a sapient since reincarnating, as they were clearly used to beatings, on both sides of the thing to boot. Plus you should never hesitate to fight someone trying to kill you, honestly.

Well, I did shoot them with a gun.

He'd argue that was different but thinking about it, it really wasn't. In fact, now that he took the time to ponder, he didn't actually mind killing, so far as it was justified. It wasn't needed to get rid of the lizardman and the bipedal rat, so he didn't. For the slime leader, on the other hand, it was the safest and most effective solution. Again, you didn't need to be smart to know that using melee against acid was a bad idea.

This makes me think I should probably try to figure out some kind of ranged attack. Guns are good but they have limited ammunition, you need to recharge them but you also need to make the bullets in the first place. Plus, there are probably tons of ways of bulletproofing stuff in a world like this one. Well, more esoteric means of damage may have ways to be prevented too but I hope it's cheaper to protect against bullets than fireballs.

All of that to say, James would kill an opponent if necessary, but defenseless idiots he had already beaten into submission? He didn't feel comfortable with that.

"What do you two think?"

"Wait, you want our opinion?"

"Yes, that is the implication of my question."

"Sorry, I just... Didn't think you'd want it. Uh."

Larry played with his goatee before coming up with an idea.

"We could bring them to Pete and tell him what they tried to do."

"I dunno Larry, it kinda seems like a bad idea to leave them alive. People with grudges are always bad news."

"Yeah, but Pete will notice. And he'll ask questions. And look at them, the boss beat them so quickly they couldn't even attack! They're probably scared of him now."

James liked where this train of thought was going.

"Oh? Could you elaborate Larry?"

"If they're scared of you, then they'll be scared of what you'd do if they attacked us again!"

"Larry, that's a stupid idea."

"No no Barry, Larry has a point. Have you ever heard of mutually assured annihilation? It's the idea that, if both sides of a conflict are guaranteed to destroy each other, then they'll be too scared to actually start a conflict. In this equation, you two and those three are the conflicting parties..."

"And you're the assured annihilation?"

"For them. Assured annihilation for them. If they ever try to harm you again that is."

"I dunno boss, ruling by fear never works..."

Ah, normally I'd agree my dear Barry. Fear alone is never enough of a motivator to get people to comply since with enough time and resources it'll grow into a desire for revenge. In this case, however, I got a special little trick...

James felt the shadows pulsing within Soluble's bones.

"I have my methods."

"If you say so, boss."

"Don't worry, Barry. Besides, this isn't ruling since these aren't my people. It's only good neighborly relationships."

"Sure thing, boss..."

"Now then, about this report..."

A few hours later, Mark and Jeffrey left the sewers while dragging Soluble's still unconscious form, taking care to only touch the parts that were still covered in leather. It was only after walking through a few alleyways that their fearsome leader began to stir, groaning as they woke, surprising their two underlings who promptly dropped them.

"OW! Watch it you... Ugh... What the hell happened and why do I feel like I got run over by a train?"

"Soluble! You're fine!"

"What an unexpected sssurprise. I thought you'd ssstay out cold for longer."

"We thought you were dead!"

"No, Jeffrey thought you were dead. I knew that if you were dead your ssslime would have dissolved. You ssstayed too sssolid for death. A coma, maybe."

"Again, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?"

"Well, remember how we decided to ambush Larry and Barry after what Lucia told us?"

"Yeah."

"When we went there, we found them. The problem is, they were meeting sssomeone. Their new bosssss."

Suddenly it hit them. Memories came back to Soluble, their meeting with the dark figure, how easily he got rid of Mark and Jeffrey, how they had denied his attempts at negotiation and... And... He had pulled out a gun. And everything went dark. Their slime shuddered, something that rarely happened. Whatever this shadow had done, Soluble's very being refused to remember it.

"... Yeah, I remember now."

"Really? Could you tell us what their boss is like?"

"Why, didn't you see him?"

"Well, we knew they were going to meet him and once we were there something knocked usss out without killing usss. It was easy math."

"BUT we didn't see him. I remember something grabbing me and dragging me down a tunnel before hitting me against the wall, but I never got to look at it. Same goes for Mark."

"He was... I don't know."

""What?""

Soluble surprised themself. They got a good look at this boss but, now that there was no adrenaline to cloud their judgment, the things they saw didn't make sense. It was...

"It was like a shadow given form. Visible yet not truly there. Clearly defined yet incomprehensible. It was... It was..."

Mark and Jeffrey unconsciously got closer, captivated by their leader's words.

"It was?"

Unknown to all, something else listened to the conversation. A little something, hidden within black bones.

"It's like it was only a silhouette."