Maddy looked up. Her eyes widened as the village itself seed to co alive with gelatinous hunger. Slis of every conceivable elent were closing in. They flooded the ground like a rising tide and clung to the roofs like heavy, lting shingles. They coated the walls in a shimring, dangerous sludge.
Fire slis hissed, ice slis crackled, and mineral slis rumbled like falling boulders. The air grew thick with the sll of ozone, sulfur, and stagnant water. They were no longer acting as scattered groups. Every sli in the village was now gathered in her imdiate space, ready for war at their lone custor.
Maddy gripped her sword, the sheer scale of the "ingredients and squishy toys" before her reaching an overwhelming level.
"Okay... this is like a total nightmare for a mother whose child has an obsession with slis. It’s like Sephiran decided to decorate every single wall, floor, every little corner with them. This is the literal interpretation of that ss."
Lucy pinged her.
[Response: Alert. 1,400 biological signatures detected]
"Thousands!? Thousand squishy, cuties... and deadly slis!?"
Maddy planted her feet in the center of the town square. Around her, the streets of Oozewell had transford into a bubbling, writhing ocean of gelatinous nace. Elental colors flickered and rolled, every sli a potential hazard or weapon. She tightened her grip on her sword.
"This... this is going to be fun."
The Ice Slis led the charge by flash freezing the ground to create a slick arena. Nearby, the Fire Slis exhaled plus of searing soot that turned the air into a hazy furnace. From the rooftops, Mineral Slis rained down like heavy hail with their stony bodies whistling through the air. Maddy remained calm. She activated her Reflexive Body Control, her movents becoming a blur of total efficiency.
She spun, her round shield intercepting a volley of pressurized water from the Water Slis. As the shield rang with the force of the impact, she used the montum to transition it from an attack.
"Wide Slice!"
The broad arc of her blade cleared the air and cleaved through a cluster of Food Slis that had been trying to gum up her boots with sticky, syrup like secretions.
"Too much sugar in this batch! Lucy would definitely alert with DIABETES!"
Her Extre Adhesion held her firm against the wood as she sprinted horizontally. Below her, Sludge Slis hissed and splashed acidic bile upward. She tilted her body at an impossible angle using her Agile Spine, letting the acid hiss harmlessly past her cloak. As she ran, she saw a group of Soothing Slis vibrating at a frequency that threatened to numb her muscles.
Maddy flashed a sad look,
"Aww... Even them, they used to heal anyone in pain. Now, this damn mana distortion has rotted them too."
To their side, Hygiene Slis didn’t offer a cleaning. They spat high pressure bubbles of caustic soap that hissed and sizzled against her clothes. Maddy’s sadness hardened into a resolve.
"The weakest monsters... Ordinary people used to harvest them with ease. But once they rot, they’re deadly."
She kicked off the wall, her Charging Strength from the Bomb Boar turning the wooden surface into a launching pad. The wood groaned under the pressure as she propelled herself downward. Mid air, she tapped into her Explosive Glands, igniting a controlled burst beneath her feet to adjust her trajectory with a bang.
"Sword Rush!"
She beca a human bullet. Her body whistled through the air, her short sword extended. She ripped through the center of the Sludge Slis, her speed so intense that their acidic bile couldn’t even cling to her blade.
As she hit the ground, she didn’t slow down. Her Adaptive Reflexes allowed her to pivot instantly. She channeled her Blast Shockwave, slamming her shield into the cobblestones. The resulting detonation sent a tremor through the street, staggering the Soothing Slis and shattering their hypnotic vibrations.
The Hygiene Slis tried to retaliate, puffing up their translucent bodies to spray a massive cloud of caustic suds. Maddy was already moving. She used her Blade Bunny agility to weave through the bubbles, her feet barely touching the ground as she danced between the popping, sizzling spheres of soap.
She didn’t waste a single motion. Her breathing slowed, and the chaotic battlefield seed to grow quiet as she focused all her intent onto the edge of her short sword.
"Clean Cut!"
With a single, decisive slash, she struck. The movent was so minimal it was almost invisible to the naked eye, yet the energy transfer was absolute. The blade humd as it passed through the center of the cluster, the sheer precision of the strike bypassing the slis’ bubbly exterior to shatter their cores instantly.
The high pressure suds collapsed into harmless water, raining down on the cobblestones. Maddy stood perfectly still in the center of the clearing, her sword already returning to its ready position.
Then, the world around her accelerated. She moved with the focused logic of a mother clearing her son’s cluttered room, paired with the precision of one preparing a grand feast.
As she channeled her animal traits from the shellgrave forest to eliminate the slis swarming the town, she applied her newly mastered culinary skills. The one thousand four hundred slis were expertly carved into various cuts, looking so appetizing they made Maddy’s taste buds dance; she found herself tempted to eat them even raw.
Maddy stood in the center of the square, her breath steady and her eyes wide as she surveyed the neatly arranged piles of glistening sli cuts. A small, incredulous laugh escaped her lips.
"That was an excellent way to exercise and practice my new adventurer skills. I didn’t even have to use my other abilities—nor should I. Not a single hint of my nature as a chira can be revealed while I am fighting as an adventurer."
Then, her expression hardened slightly, her eyes narrowing as she swept her gaze across the battlefield.
"And... the people here at Sli Village... they’ve been avenged. Finally, there is justice even for a town made of slis."
However, a sudden, sharp prickling sensation shot through her nerves. Her newest trait, Mana Sensitivity—which she had acquired from the adventurer—began to flare with frantic intensity.
Maddy’s head snapped toward the town’s spawning ground: the old harvesting hub.
Sothing massive was forming there...
User Comments
0 comments from readers