- Shari -

Just my luck.

My opponent from all the possibilities had to be the slime-hating captain!

I am really pissed.

Okay, time to analyze the situation.

I have four blades, seven small copper coins, and enough energy to show some offensive.

And I have made up my mind to pull every unfair advantage my body allows me to use.

My enemy has heavy plate armor and a long broadsword he carries with both of his hands.

However, I have to assume that he as well can enhance his movements to a degree.

With this, I have just the possibility to either overpower him by surprise or injure him at the places his plates don't cover and to wear him down.

The inner side of the arms and the backside of the legs are free.

Also, there would be the various joints of his armor.

While my thrusting strength is more than limited, it should be possible to injure him enough to render him unable to continue the fight and then hope that the healer, and I assume this lord has one, will be able to repair the ailments I caused.

Otherwise, this would be irresponsible.

"Now, begin!" (Radon)

It starts. Fine!

At the signal, the captain starts to approach me with steady steps.

I better stay some distance away so I can impede him from getting too close.

Fighting is to a big degree about mentality, so causing some disturbance to him is just right.

I raise both of my arms at him.

In the right, my good old thrusting dagger. In the left nothing.

And without further warning I let the dagger arm shoot out at him as a tendril with a spiky end.

Naturally, he can block this, but even if he manages to slice at the appendage, I can regain my control and pull it back along with the dagger.

For it to actually matter he’d need to completely cut through and sever it.

Otherwise, it's just a waste of energy.

A tip I naturally won't point out to him.

At least my strategy worked so far that he had to stop in his tracks.

While I am sure that he is well trained, his equipment must be heavy and each strike with such a wide sword should be a considerable effort.

So I just came back to overpower him.

And now I even know the strategy I want to follow.

War of attrition!

This is something I can win if I don't fight too wastefully.

The problem with his long broadsword is that as a single weapon he can just use it for one purpose at a time.

Yet I have much more at my disposal to attack him.

I step forward, letting a tendril with my thrusting dagger rush out, flying in a curve toward him.

I am targeting his leg.

But before it is in his range, I aim with my other arm and...

Slime bullet!

He should wear a helmet, as now he has to dodge the coin.

Meanwhile, my dagger comes from behind him.

But even if he had to dodge the projectile, he still managed to bring his blade in the way of my strike by thrusting it into the ground.

However, it was to be expected that he is good.

At this development, I let the shortsword emerge and slash with my stretching arm like a whip in a wide ark at him.

He just in time manages to throw himself behind the still stuck broadsword to take cover and escape my attack.

"Fight fair you vile creature!" (Peras)

"Why should I?" (Shari)

It's not like I had any weapon training in my life.

All I can do is slashing and stabbing at random.

This strategy might be unfair, but who cares?

I continue the onslaught.

Under a volley of stabs and strikes whose he clearly has a hard time to fend off, I can stay at a somewhat safe distance and have just to make sure that he is too occupied to strike a blow with enough force to cut my limbs.

Even if he at times manages to separate the weapon I just reattach the liquid tendril.

If things keep going like this, I can use simple movements, which don't require very much of my energy, to tire him out and eventually win.

They're still draining, as I have to reduce liquidity and increase the density as far as I can to maintain control while I extend them this much.

Nonetheless, this isn't too costly on my side.

On the other side, a human has to deal with short-term exhaustion.

While they can recover with time, I have a much larger pool to sustain me.

And for sure I won't give him the necessary time to rest.

This way it's only a question of time till he's too exhausted to keep up his defense and I win.

However, it seems he came to the same conclusion.

Like a cornered direwolf, he throws himself directly through my attacks, rushing straight at me.

It works, as with this sudden movement I have problems following up with my tendrils.

Yet I was mentally prepared to retreat.

Slime dash!

While my arms strain worryingly thin, this move surprised him.

Taking advantage of this, I lash out with my shabby harvesting knife.

Yes, yes. I just grew another appendage to make that happen, even if I never wanted to do so.

But I've done worse and can cope with this kind of minor issue now.

Aiming for the leg, a little below his waist, he still manages to counter by adjusting his stance to bring the leg armor in the way.

At least I have to admit that he's skilled.

But now my other weapons come from behind him.

While I attempt with the thrusting dagger to penetrate the thinner armor on his back, the shortsword is aimed to cut his side.

Yet again he can avoid the stab so that the strike only cuts into his armor.

After this, I use the shabby knife to keep any advances in check, while the better weapons continue to occupy him.

However, I become aware that he might just try to break through to me in another reckless offense at any moment.

So I decide for a decisive blow.

Forming the largest tendril I’ve ever made over my head, I make Liqu's slashing dagger emerge there.

And while my former measures continue to pester Peras from three sides, I bring it down in a strike from up high.

By midswing, I perceive that he is about to block this one.

So I direct the other weapons to attack his upper torso, in the meantime I jerk the new appendage to the left and change the attack from coming from above, to coming from his side below him.

But my opponent manages to see through the effort I put in this alteration, and instead concentrates on the new attack and ignores all the others.

While his armor does a good job, the shortsword manages to slightly cut it and the thrusting dagger can pierce a less important point on the side of his torso.

On the other side, he focuses everything he's got on the new coming attack.

And this way he manages to completely slash through my appendage, but it still slices his left leg a moment later.

"Aargh!" (Peras)

A fatal mistake on his side.

He thought it would be enough to simply cut the tendril to disable my attack.

But what he didn't take into account was that he is up against a slime.

I'm no tentacle monster you can whittle down like this.

It's simply not enough to cut it.

I intentionally made the appendage that thick.

The moment it got cut, I reestablished the connection on the other side of the blade.

He couldn't assume that I'm able to undo the damage this fast.

Like this, the wound he sustained should actually matter.

At least, his injured leg should decrease his mobility.

Having him cornered like this I might be able to continue until his injuries pile up.

However, this would be bad for my reputation.

The soldiers would see how I mercilessly torture my opponent to bring him down.

Instead, I'm going to finish this in a more flashy way.

I draw all of my weapons back, which he was still impressively effective at fending off, and jump, or rather catapult myself upwards.

In the air, I circle and abruptly extend all my weapon tendrils again.

With all of them at once, I slash to his left.

Naturally, he has no choice but to block the attack with his sword.

"Cla-cla-clank"

Slime dash!

At this moment, I use my dash to rush back down at him, bringing my real core dangerously close to my body's rear borders after two consecutive dashes in the same direction.

Yet, while I circled around I was able to bring a little bit of mass back to my backside.

Also, I adjusted the force and formed a bulge on my back to have some leeway.

In the end, it was enough to close in on him.

I have my four tendrils merging and encompass his right arm with the sword while circling around him.

Then I quickly form another appendage to restrain his left arm as well, ignoring the few jabs from his elbow to my face.

"Wha..." (Peras)

Now I covered him from behind and can keep his arms in check.

If slimes can do one thing right, it’s holding tight.

Most of my weapons fell down, but I can get my thrusting dagger back by stepping on it with an awkwardly stretched leg and pulling it inside.

The captain struggles heavily, but clinging to him is disturbingly easy.

However, he is strong, and without the exhaustion and the numerous cuts on his arms he might have a slight chance.

As a last effort, he throws himself backward, trying to use his weight to crush me on the ground.

But I cushion it.

Like a wave, I flow around his body and spread his limbs, while sitting atop his waist.

No implications!

"You! Let go! It's not over! You..." (Peras)

"Youuuu haaavvve looost!" (Shari)

Sorry, I've lost control over my throat after all this movement.

Urgh. This makes my voice sound totally creepy.

Demonstratively, I let my dagger hover over him to support my point.

"The fight is over!" (Radon)

After I hear this, I immediately rush back to give no one the false impression that I would do anything to my victim.

And to goddamn get off his waist.

I first gather all my weapons from the battlefield, then I take my clothes, as I need them before I will interact with anyone.

Then I’m willing to talk with the count.

My expression might show how frazzled I am, but I swallow everything along with a huge glob of slime to get my throat free.

"Was that enough?" (Shari)

"For someone who cannot fight you did rather well against one of the strongest I have. You almost won." (Radon)

"Almost? But I..." (Shari)

Promptly he holds a stone in my direction.

A stone covered in blue slime.

"You've lost this during your jump. If I remember right, that means you wouldn't be able to continue the fight, regarding the rules we've decided upon." (Radon)

"Wha..." (Shari)

I check and truly, I was so concerned with keeping my true core inside, to not end up as a puddle on the ground, that I forgot about my substitute stone.

Peras simply didn't notice when I pinned him to the ground.

I guess he had other things to focus on at this moment.

I've lost.

"Yet regarding your performance, you did rather well. If this would have been a real fight you might have won." (Radon)

"I am simply not used to this. To make sure you understand me, I don't enjoy making people suffer. Will he be alright? The wound on his leg might be bad." (Shari)

"I have a healer. This kind of cut shouldn't be too difficult to mend. Otherwise, I need a new one." (Radon)

Well, it's not surprising that he is the kind who would sort useless people out.

This brings me to the question of what his opinion of us is now.

"Did we pass the test? Me, Liqu, and Elin as your employees, and so under your protection." (Shari)

"Elin. The human who accompanied you? Why should I take her?" (Radon)

"Aside from the fact that she is proficient in supporting us, like running errands and gathering information, she can fight to a degree. But the most important is that she can get along with us. A human who works well with us is an advantage, I'd say." (Shari)

I will take any ally I can drag with me into this wolf's den!

"And in addition, she has a deep personal hatred towards your enemies. This kind of guaranteed loyalty should be hard to come by, right?" (Shari)

I think that was convincing, but he isn't someone who would let show anything on his face.

Calmly he steps forward into the middle of the now barren field.

There he exchanges some words with his captain.

I can't hear it well, but there is a look of surprise on the battered man's face.

To feel a little bit safer I gather with the rest of my team.

If anything, Liqu is a good backing.

Then the count raises his voice.

"All of you, listen! I now declare that these three are from now on your comrades and have to be treated as such! I want to see the proper demeanor this house is proud of!" (Radon)

And again everyone here is following their favorite pastime, gasping.

Slowly he returns to us.

As soon he is in reach his aide is by his side.

"Milord! Are you really sure about this? This... this is unusual." (Dion)

He says this with an insecure gaze towards us.

I need to say, it's a little bit surprising.

I wasn't too sure when I came here with my proposal, even if we brought his son as a backing.

Yet simply the fact that he would have known about us without attacking could have created a sense of official acknowledgment.

With that, we could at least negotiate with people and inform them about our existence without everything turning violent.

Such a development would already have been a huge boon for my aspiration to coexist.

But now we’re employed by him.

This might turn out well.

That is, if his aide doesn’t make things difficult now.

"Do you think I speak thoughtlessly, Dion?" (Radon)

After this, he grows quiet.

It might truly be a disgrace if the lord now said "Whoops, my mistake, I was wrong!"

That's not a very dignified way to handle this.

"Also, they were honest." (Radon)

"What are you saying my lord?" (Dion)

"You have seen that form of hers? She could have easily killed us all before during the meeting, but they didn't. This is proof enough, for now, to decide that they have no intention to act against us!" (Radon)

Sounds logical to me.

A killer who doesn’t kill you when they have the chance probably isn’t targeting you.

Next, he looks at us and throws what might be the first courteous smile he’s given us in our direction.

"Very well! I expect much from this collaboration!" (Radon)

Why is there a shiver running through my slime?