The Fusionist Book 5 -- Chapter 58

Chapter 58

Seeing the visibly unharmed Slime heading toward the Strike Faction as if his attacks on it meant absolutely nothing nearly broke Larek, but he rallied his despondent emotions as he wracked his mind for a solution.  In the back of his mind, he knew that he could arrive at where Nedira and Verne were located and quickly grab them up before leaving, but that was a last resort; that act might kill his old roommate as quickly as the Slime would when it reached them, so he would rather wait until he had no other choice. 

At its current pace, that meant he had a few minutes before he had to make that kind of decision.  Thankfully, at least for the sake of the Faction, the Slime continued to try and throw its massive obsidian boulders at Larek rather than at them, which he was able to avoid easily after his recent practice, but that would likely only last until it was within close range of the other people near the Aperture.

His mind worked overtime to come up with a solution as he dodged the heavy and dangerous projectiles.  With his mental stats so high, he was able to consider the problem quite quickly – though that didn’t mean he could come up with a solution that rapidly, of course.  Still, he fully evaluated the problem from a number of angles, utilizing all of the information he had on the Slime to come up with some things to try and stop it.

First, it was obvious that his staff was essentially useless.  For the moment, he drifted down to the ground and dropped it off, letting it clang against the obsidian below; he would’ve rather stored it away into his Void Pocket sack, but it was back near Nedira.

Secondly, it seemed as though explosive damage, even that coming from a powerful Fusion that was broken, did absolutely no damage to the enormous Slime.  He briefly considered creating another spell pattern in front of it, which would inevitably explode when it couldn’t complete properly, similar to what he’d done to the Greater Trizard Aperture years ago, but he decided against it.  The explosion it would create might not even be bigger than the one that had just occurred when his Shattering Acidic Occlusion Dome Fusion broke.

Third, he thought about why nothing he’d done had worked against the gigantic monster.  Having seen quite a few Slimes over the last few days, he was aware that the exterior of the Slime, which was like a thick shell, was typically the strongest part of the monster, leaving its interior slightly more vulnerable; of course, this was only relative to its actual strength, because its interior could be quite durable by normal standards.  In addition, even if he was able to blast off a portion of its exterior, he’d seen other Slimes quickly harden its exposed internal portions into a new exterior.  It might end up being smaller because of what was blasted off, but it could reform its shell easily enough given a few seconds.

Therefore, it was obvious that the exterior shell of this Slime was highly resistant to magical effects and physical damage.  That much was obvious from the Effects of his wand that he threw at it, but he couldn’t help but think that there had to be a way to get through the protective shell. 

Which brought him to his last consideration, which was applying what he was good at.  He was a Fusionist through and through, and he thought that just about anything could be accomplished through the use of a Fusion – so why not this?  None of his current Fusions seemed to be able to do anything, but what if he made a new one?

He immediately disregarded that idea because creating an entirely new Fusion on the fly, especially in the middle of a fight, was entirely too difficult; ensuring that he didn’t mess up a new formation while keeping it together, all while being bombarded by boulders, was essentially impossible.  That left utilizing an existing Fusion he already knew – and wouldn’t take long to create, as he didn’t have a lot of time – and a quick perusal of his Fusions list brought up the only one that he could think of that might have a chance of working.

Weaken.

Normally used on small stones that would weaken the structure of the material so that it would break apart when it came in contact with something, thereby releasing the Mana inside of the Fusion into an explosion, he had a completely different idea for it.  He couldn’t simply place a Weaken Fusion on something and toss it at the Slime, forcing it to explode.  For one, explosions did nothing to the Slime; secondly, and more importantly, he didn’t have anything on him that could be used to place the Fusion.  He could probably cut away some obsidian from the ground to act as a material, but he was thinking of something else entirely.

Namely, the exterior of the enormous Slime itself. 

While he’d never actually placed a Fusion on a monster before, he did have experience placing one on a person before.  Expression of Free Will was something that he’d created for both Kimble and Nedira to help fight and prevent the influence of Dominion magic, and he had added it directly to their skulls.  There was an extremely brief thought from him that if he was to create the inverse of Expression of Free Will, something like Denial of Free Will, might actually make someone more susceptible to Dominion magic, but the very thought disgusted him.  Even if the inverted Fusion actually did that, he was fairly certain that most monsters, but especially the Slime, didn’t have enough of a mind to try and dominate – so it would be pointless. 

But Weaken, theoretically, should aid in weakening the exterior of the Slime… if he was able to place the Fusion on the monster itself.  Of course, doing that was nearly an impossible task, but he’d had plenty of practice doing nearly impossible tasks, and this was something he thought he could do. 

Breaking out of the hyper-focused state he had used to consider everything about the Slime, Larek saw that only a few seconds had passed since he had begun.  Dodging another boulder automatically, he immediately began to create a simple Weaken formation in front of him, though it was much stronger than anything he’d made before.  At Magnitude 16, it would require quite a bit of Mana and Pattern Cohesion, but it wasn’t anything near what he’d had to put into some of his other recent Fusions.  Thankfully, it was such a simple formation that keeping it together only required a small bit of his focus, so he was able to keep a peripheral eye out for incoming boulders, utilizing the rest of his focus on maintaining his Pattern disk and moving it around. 

Even if he had the focus for such a thing, the very movement of his body through the air meant that he had to use even more of his Pattern Manipulation to move the Fusion he was working on with him, which essentially pushed hit concentration to its maximum.  As he pumped heaping amounts of Mana into the formation, it was all he could do to keep himself alive while moving the Fusion he was working on along with him; nothing else mattered other than the Fusion he was focused on completing, and even the plight of the Strike Faction fell away as he did everything he could to hold it all together.

Just over two minutes later, which was cutting it close for the Faction, he felt the rest of the Mana needed for the Fusion filter into place, and the formation practically hummed with power waiting to be utilized.  Keeping it together, he looked around for the first time, seeing that the Slime was even closer to the front line of the Strike Faction than he expected – and that its attention had turned away from Larek.  Another boulder shot out, not at the flying Fusionist, but at the Faction members, and it was so close and so fast that they could barely react; another dozen of them were virtually obliterated by the stone despite spreading out as much as they could.  They were also raining down magical spells and projectiles from their new staves provided by Nedira, but it was likewise having absolutely no effect on the incoming monster. 

Using his Pattern Manipulation to move himself and his Mana-infused Fusion, he quickly sped toward the top of the Slime, getting closer to it than he ever had before.  As soon as he was within 20 feet of its exterior, the shell of the Slime seemed to writhe underneath him, before it formed into a sharp spike six feet in diameter that shot straight up toward him.  He barely managed to avoid being impaled by the appendage as he dodged out of the way, only to nearly end up another spike that emerged where he ended up.  He maneuvered his disc to avoid another half dozen spikes before he managed to get close enough to the surface of the monster, and as soon as he was able, he directed his finished Fusion to merge with its exterior.

Almost before it snapped into place, the Fusionist took himself back up into the air, narrowly avoiding yet another spiky appendage in the process, as he watched the Fusion take hold.  Now over 100 feet away, he was able to observe it as the entire shell seemed to ripple outwards from where the Fusion was placed, the formation shining brightly to his Magical Detection, and the Slime actually paused in its movement for the first time since he’d seen it.  Rushing back to where he left his staff, glad that he hadn’t had it with him while trying to handle moving the Fusion with him as it would’ve been a distraction, he scooped it up from where it had fallen, racing back toward the monster within seconds. 

Even before he arrived, he saw that the remaining Faction members were continuing their assault from a distance, sending magical projectiles toward the enormous monster.  He flew to the front, wanting to see what kind of damage was being done now that its exterior was weaker…

…and he saw absolutely nothing.

Discouraged but not ready to give up, Larek rose up above the top of the still-unmoving Slime and targeted the area around the Fusion he placed on the monster, taking pains to avoid hitting it directly, as he unleashed a Mag 12 blast, shatter, icy spikes, and acid stream down upon it. 

Nothing.  His efforts had ended up being useless, as there seemed to be no change in the resistance that the Slime showed from before the Fusion.  The only visible evidence that it had done something was in how its entire form rippled after it was in place and the fact that it seemed to be frozen in place for the moment.  How long that would last, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t count on it being forever. 

But it might be enough time to get out of here with Nedira and Verne.

Shaking his head in regret, as he wished he had figured out a solution that might’ve worked, he went to fly toward where his two friends were still taking shelter under the Secure Hideaway, when a yell caused him to pause for a moment and look down.

“NOOOO!!!  I’m not going down like this!”

One of the Martial Faction members, a man wielding a shortsword in each of his hands, sped along the ground, closing the distance between the front line and the Slime.  The man’s Agility stat was apparently quite high because he crossed hundreds of feet within seconds, and when he was approximately 30 feet away he leaped into the air, both of his swords pointed downwards as if he was preparing to impale the exterior of the Slime with his weapons.  Larek nearly turned away, knowing that such an attack would be futile with the man likely just bouncing off; he needed to get out of there soon before the Slime woke up from whatever was keeping it paralyzed, and couldn’t afford to waste any more time.

But something else also told him to watch, despite the futility of it.

He was glad he did, because instead of simply bouncing off, the Martial’s two swords sunk through the exterior of the Slime to the hilt.  The man was visibly confused for all of a second before he used his Strength to pull downwards, and his blades carved two long lines down its shell that only stopped because he hit the ground.  From inside the pair of cuts, as black substance trickled out like an oily ooze, before enough of it pooled at one point to drip down to the obsidian below.

Everyone nearby froze, including the Mages who had been ineffective against the monster thus far.  A few seconds passed as another bit of black ooze dripped out of the cuts to pool along the previous drippage, before there was a roar taken up by the other Martials as they rushed forward, weapons out and ready to tear into the Slime.

W-What?  How?

Larek fired another volley of his staff’s Effects at the monster, thinking that it simply took time for the Fusion to work, but nothing had changed – it still did nothing to it.  A second after his unsuccessful attempts, he flew down to the Slime’s back again, looking closer to confirm that he had indeed done nothing, which he quickly determined was true, before he swung out experimentally with his halberd.  He half expected it to bounce off, but the blade and even the point tore through the barrier like it was soft flesh, belying the fact that it had just withstood the effects of his powerful staff like it was nothing.

As he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening, he was suddenly reminded of something he’d heard in one of his Monster Knowledge classes back at Crystalview.  He’d dismissed it at the time, as he had been largely focused on learning about Fusions at that time, but now the words rang true. 

“…and every monster you encounter will test your abilities as a Mage.  Most will be easy enough to kill through the use of even basic spells, but others will take some figuring out in order to damage them.  It’s why we teach every student here at the Academy how to cast at least basic spells in multiple elements, even if that isn’t your Specialization.  A Fire Elemental, for instance, would be immune to a Pyromancer’s most powerful spells, but a simple Ice Spike learned here at Crystalview might be enough to kill it. 

“But there will come a time when you might face a monster that is immune to all types of magical spells.  Such an occurrence is exceedingly rare, thankfully, but it can and has happened in the past.  In such a case, when all your efforts are useless, something as simple as a weapon wielded by a Martial could be enough to kill such a monster.  That is why we have both Mages and Martials working together, because if a spell won’t work, then it is likely that a metal implement of death will. 

“If you remember anything from this course, it is that all monsters have a weakness.  It might take some effort to find it, but it is there if you look hard enough.  Once you’ve discovered what it is, then you can do everything in your power to exploit it.”

As the memory of his Professor’s words echoed through his mind, he smiled as he looked down at the enormous Slime.  It seemed as though they had found its weakness after all, and it wasn’t anything he was expecting.  Given that the Steel Slimes, Rainbow Slimes, and even the Crystal Slimes – all likely previous versions of this monster – were highly resistant or even immune to physical damage, he had thought the same would be true of this enormous Slime.  While that was, in part, true, it seemed that its weakness stemmed from its originator, the monster that had been initially exploited by those that had been in charge of keeping it culled and closed.

It wasn’t immune to all physical damage, after all.  Simple steel, which was found in the weapons of the Martials – and his halberd – was its weakness.

Of all the things he would’ve thought was its bane, a basic metal wasn’t at the top of the list.  But, now that he knew, he was going to exploit that weakness to the best of his ability and kill this Slime once and for all.

With renewed vigor, Larek went at the Slime with his weapon, slicing large openings through its exterior, watching the goo from inside leak out in a facsimile of blood.  At the same time, the majority of the Martials arrived near the first that had attacked it, and they began laying into the monster with everything they had, slicing off large chunks of it with every blow – and yet it was barely a portion of its overall size.  Larek also found that after he ended up taking off a portion of its shell with a sideways slice, the goo would rush out initially but would quickly “scab over”, forming another layer of its shell within seconds. 

They were doing damage to it, but it wasn’t enough.  That was only made obvious when the Slime began to twitch, as if it was waking up, and the frantic pace of Larek and the Martials only increased at the sight.  Stama was quickly used up as Battle Arts were employed, allowing the combatants to start piling on the damage at a greater pace, and soon enough the ground around it was slick with black ooze, which turned out to be quite slippery.  Fortunately for the Martials at ground-level, they had the stats to keep themselves largely on their feet, but it was getting more and more treacherous by the second.

But at the same time, the Slime was starting to move more and more.  Whatever his Weaken Fusion had done had either been temporary or the Slime was fighting through the Effect, because after no more than a minute after they began the attack in earnest, the first spike began to form near its front where the Martials were located.  Being veteran members of the Strike Faction, they reacted quickly to avoid the spike when it tried to impale one of them, as it was slower to emerge than usual, but if the Slime kept waking up further and further, it wouldn’t be long until it would be fast enough to catch one of them – especially as dodging the attacks would be difficult while standing amongst the black goo under their feet.

They were, yet again, running out of time, and Larek redoubled his efforts in attacking the Slime from above.  He even took a chance to let out a little more of his Stama from his internal Fusion to use Furious Rampage, which doubled his Strength stat while reducing his Body stat by 30%, and he felt the strength flood into his arms while a bubbling anger attempted to cloud his mind.  Thankfully, with better control over his Stama through Stama Subjugation, he was able to maintain his mind and control his actions as he fought, though it was a close thing. 

Almost as soon as he did so, he was forced to avoid a spike from the Slime that lethargically tried to stab him, and he chopped through it completely, which ended up taking up a larger chunk than he’d previously been able to accomplish.  With a growl, as the anger that seemed to accompany his Battle Art influenced his voice slightly, he yelled at the Martials below, “Cut off the spikes!”

They didn’t question his order as more and more spikes started to emerge from its exterior, and they worked together to cut through them, dropping large chunks off the enormous Slime and speeding up the process.  Larek tore into the top of his foe with abandon, soon become covered in black Slime goo, but he didn’t care because he could see a definite reduction in its size.  Of course, they still had a long way to go before it was dead, but they were making progress.

About two minutes into the fight, the spikes were coming faster and were more numerous than before, and Larek heard one of the Martials cry out in pain as he was just a split-second too slow in his dodge.  It’s waking up too fast.  We’re not going to make it.

Just then, the Mages that had been left back at the front line arrived, and while they didn’t have steel weapons to attack, they joined in nonetheless – and that ended up being the turning point of the entire massacre of the enormous Slime.  When a spike appendage was cut off, the Mages quickly focused their magical spells and staff projectiles on the momentarily exposed section of the exterior, and it was quickly revealed that the inner portion of the Slime wasn’t anywhere near as resistant to magic as the exterior.  Large holes were blasted into the goo that then flood out afterwards, as the shell took longer to recover in that area, and the Slime rapidly began to deflate as it leaked from multiple holes. 

Even as waves of black goo spread out in waves along the obsidian ground, Larek saw what was happening and directed his staff downward into the holes in the shell that he made, filling them with icy spikes and acid; he would’ve like to use the blast or shatter effects, but they were more likely to hurt him seriously at that range, as they would explode right at the surface rather than inside.  His efforts paid off as the acid stream seemed to prevent the shell from reforming from the internal goo, at least for a bit, and the whole monster began to deflate even faster.

Despite their success, Larek still heard the multiple instances where the Martials on the ground were impaled by spikes, and he was worried that they would begin to falter if enough of them were taken out.  They kept fighting, however, as they refused to give up; soon enough, the Slime was only half the size it had been when the fight started, and then only a quarter – and yet, there were multiple Martials down.  Larek couldn’t tell if they were dead or just incapacitated until their bodies could heal, but the result was the same: Fewer people to continue attacking the shrinking monster.

It was at that point that another horrific noise, somewhat muffled by the black goo covering it, was instigated by the Slime, and a large chunk of obsidian was ripped out from the ground underneath the Martials.  As they were flung in all directions, they stopped attacking the monster as the obsidian hovered in the air, before being split up into different boulder-sized chunks that were likely going to utterly smash the rest of the Strike Faction within seconds.

Larek began to panic, doing everything he could to tear even further into the Slime, but no more spikes were trying to attack him, giving him an easy way to make a hole.  Just as the last portion of the floating obsidian, dripping with the Slime’s own “blood”, was cut away from the whole, something caught his eye in one of the previous holes he had made along its back, where he was using acid to prevent it from scabbing over as quickly.  A large hump in the sealing shell suddenly bobbed up before descending slightly again, and the Fusionist suddenly knew what it was.

The Slime’s core.

Tossing his staff away before throwing himself off his disk, he used his momentum and both hands to angle his halberd downward, stabbing into the reforming shell, as it pierced through the exterior, he used it to quickly cut through a square so that he could stab further inside.  As he used the weapon as a lever to rip out the chunk of its exterior, there was another ripple through the entire Slime and the pole of the halberd was caught by the undulating shell and ripped from his hand, along with the chunk he had pried off.  The weapon went flying off the side of the monster, out of reach, but Larek wasn’t unarmed.  With a quick motion, he removed his axe from the holder on his belt, unused for a while now, but as he lifted the haft into his hand, it just felt right.  While it wasn’t his original axe that he’d originally acquired back near his home, it was similar enough that it felt familiar.

“Let’s finish this, old friend.”

With a deep breath, he dove into the exposed shell of the enormous Slime.  He couldn’t see anything, of course, but he didn’t have to; almost immediately he bumped into the large core of the monster, and he struck out with his axe.  It took enormous strength to push through the fluid inside the Slime, but he managed to somehow get enough leverage for his axe to pierce all the way through the gelatinous core, cutting it in half. 

An enormous shudder ran through the entire Slime, jostling him so much that he was quickly moved away from the opening, and he struggled to move.  Surrounded by the complete darkness of the monster’s insides, he was quickly lost with no exit anywhere within his questing fingers.

That’s just great.  I killed it, but now I’m going to drown in its insides.

He began to panic as the Slime spasmed again, and he began to feel a pressure as the good started to constrict around him.

Or maybe I’ll be crushed to death first….