After a few moments, I swiftly withdrew from its body and wiped myself clean of the remnant mucus and slime.
The effects of the paralytic and hallucinogenic poisons quickly made themselves known, as its body stiffened and it began babbling incomprehensibly. The rate at which it healed also drastically decreased, courtesy of the Grievous Coagulant.
With my “gift” now properly wrapped and prepared, I picked it back up with a spare set of hands and began making my way to Khaelen’s position. The rest of the slugs would be following soon with their Ally Tracker function but I had a little bit of leeway.
My speed gradually increased as the various debuff abilities affecting me wore off, and I soon spotted a familiar bushy tail.
Khaelen and the others were grimly standing in a circle as they prepared for battle. It seemed that they hadn’t yet noticed I’d already left.
I softly walked up behind them and tapped Misha on the shoulder.
As she turned her head, she came face to face with a cheerfully wagging array of tentacles.
“Hieeeeeeeeek!!”
A shrill screech at a pitch hitherto unknown to man pierced the air, causing 10x critical damage to my ears.
Almost immediately, a shuriken flew through the air and collided with my calmly raised Onisha arm. Several other hastily fired attacks followed behind and were easily dodged.
As I brushed off the thin layer of frost on my arm, I said, “Relax it’s me. Sheesh, I was just saying hello.”
With a sigh, Khaelen lowered the second set of shurikens in his hand and said, “What are you doing here? We thought you were in the middle of fighting and were getting ready to join in.”
I grinned widely and held the limp slug high in the air.
“I’ve got a little present here. This is Misha’s Nemesis right? Just have her kill it and we’ll get all of its abilities for ourselves.”
“How did you.... never mind, I’m not going to even bother asking. I barely even recognize you anymore. You get a new look every time we meet, it seems.”
As the rest of Khaelen’s group chattered excitedly about the new additions to my body, I tossed the Void Dagger over to Misha.
Fumbling desperately for a few moments, she barely managed to catch it with trembling fingers.
I walked over and held the Nemesis in front of her, gesturing with my head.
“Just stab it right there and that should be enough. Look what a nice and handsome guy I am, giving you this on a silver platter. Hey, don’t give me that side-eye.”
Even if I look like this now, I’m still quite the catch!
Misha hesitated for a moment, as she quietly said, “But... I’ve never killed anyone before.”
Sigh. How the hell did someone like this get selected for the Realm Wars? I thought I’d been ill-suited, but compared to her I was practically born for this.
A somber expression came over me for the first time, and my tone grew harsh.
“Do you realize the situation that you’re in right now? That we’re all in? All of us are the last of our worlds, and we shoulder the lives of billions. It’s fine if you don’t want to murder someone in cold blood, but this thing was one hundred percent going to kill you. Just look how it already has three abilities. Killing it not only helps your chances, but all of ours as well.”
The small, mousy girl remained quiet, her head hung low, and eyes fixed on the ground.
The eight-eyed leader of Khaelen’s group, Xandros, spoke as well.
“Don’t forget what happened to the rest of your people.”
Gradually, her shaking hands stilled and her ragged breaths grew steady.
Then, with one swift motion, she plunged the dagger deep into the slug, only stopping once it had reached the hilt.
Not bad. There may be some hope for her yet.
The slug leader groaned as it writhed in my arms, its final death throes spraying a thin film of mucus everywhere. Its movements eventually ceased, and the once soft body began to rapidly harden.
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Three glowing shards of light emerged from its chest and hovered briefly in the air. Each of them shimmered with different colors, creating a vibrant display within the monochrome darkness of the Canopy. Interestingly, they seemed to vary in size.
As if finding their target, each shard abruptly turned and shot forward into Misha. For a brief moment, her entire body became as radiant as the sun.
The rest of Khaelen’s group stood there in awe and silence as she absorbed the Law fragments, while I continued to constantly monitor the surroundings. The rest of the slugs would be arriving here any moment now.
Soon, the light faded and she collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
As two of my tentacles slithered forward and helped her to her feet, I asked, “You alright? How are you feeling?”
“I-I’m ok, Mister Adun. Actually, I’ve never felt better.... Thank you for helping us again. Here, I’ve sent you the points I received from k-killing him.”
“Don’t mention it. I’ve benefited quite a bit from following you guys around as well. By the way, what abilities did you get from it?”
Misha paused for a moment as she opened her Status screen and inspected it closely.
“Umm... there’s a D-grade ability called
Khaelen suddenly interjected, as he urgently spoke, “Let’s save the small talk for later. We’ve got some company.”
I had sensed it as well; the rest of the slug otherworlders had finally arrived to reclaim their leader. A bit unfortunate, as only a petrified corpse now remained.
Xandros tensed as he withdrew a wooden staff that glowed with a faint blue light. The rest of the group readied their respective weapons as well, while a couple buffing abilities were applied to my body.
A golden chain spread from Misha and linked everyone present. Before it reached me, however, I hastily shook my head and declined.
“Don’t include me in that ability. The way I fight usually ends up with me taking lots of damage, because I can just swap things out. It’ll just end up hurting you guys more.”
The preparations appeared to have been completed just in the nick of time, as the soft rustling of bushes could be heard.
The nearly forty-strong mass of slugs emerged from the trees with spears tightly gripped and antennae at the ready. Their expressions were exceptionally grim, as if they had come to meet their ends.
Everyone’s faces, save mine, slightly paled in shock as they realized the sheer number of enemies they were facing. Oops, I forgot to tell them how many there were.
I remained unperturbed however; without
A crackling blue energy coalesced in front of Xandros’ staff and Khaelen’s shurikens became encased in frost. My shoulder cannons began to quietly hum as they charged, and Storm Caller glowed with a menacing light.
Just as a torrent of attacks was about to be unleashed, suddenly, every slug kneeled to the ground in unison and bowed their heads.
“WE SURRENDER!”
....Huh?
Moments passed as we all collectively froze in surprise and disbelief. The slugs continued to remain prone on the floor, their trembling antennae the only sign of life.
Well, this was rather anti-climactic. Here I’d thought they’d been ready to fight to the death with how they had approached.
As I coughed and cleared my throat in the awkward silence, I slowly approached them until only a few meters remained between us.
“Ahem ahem, what’s all this then? Don’t you want to avenge your leader? His body is right over there.”
One of the braver slugs spoke up, as its voice slightly quavered.
“No! Actually, we hated him! He never listened to us and always ordered us around! Just because he was a little bigger and stronger than us, he forced us to only hunt for his Nemeses! He even made me clean out his cloaca with my-”
“Alright enough, I get it. So why didn’t you all just run away once he died? I don’t understand why you still showed up here.”
Another slug chimed in from the side, saying, “We knew we were no match for you, and that you have the ability to track us. I tried telling Florr this many times, but he refused to listen! Rather than being hunted to our deaths, we came here in the hopes that you would find it in your heart to spare us in your infinite mercy, O Great one.”
“Stop with the flattery, it won’t get you anywhere. Haa..... I don’t know, what do you guys think?”
I looked over to where Khaelen and Xandros were standing with the others. After a brief discussion amongst themselves, Xandros simply shrugged his shoulders and replied.
“It is your decision to make, Sir Adun. We took no part in subduing these creatures, and as such, have no right to influence what may come.”
Well, I couldn’t just squash them all flat with Storm Caller now that they’d surrendered like this. It seemed like the main culprit in attacking us had been dealt with anyways, and the rest of them had only been reluctantly following along.
Should I just carve a piece from them and send them on their way?
Just as I was about to make my decision, one of the slugs from earlier spoke up.
“Please, if I may make a request! Let us join your group, and we swear upon our slime that we shall not betray you! Even if you let us go today, we are surely doomed without Florr’s abilities.”
Joining us? There were already too many mouths to feed as is!
But... one couldn’t deny there was a certain merit to having strength in numbers. I wouldn’t be with Khaelen’s group forever, and the addition of nearly forty Tier 5 otherworlders would significantly bolster their strength.
But there remained one issue.
“Talk is cheap, but how can I be certain you guys won’t turn around and kill them when I’m not around? After all, the motive exists.”
The slug replied, its head still bowed.
“Sir, your group’s Nemesis has successfully slain Florr and taken his abilities, yes? If they were to include us within
Ah right, I’d forgotten about that particular aspect of the ability.
I turned once more to Khaelen’s group and asked, “Well, are you all ok with that? It's your group, your decision. I’m only here as a passenger.”
Xandros nodded, saying, “I believe they can be trusted. My species is rather sensitive to the emotions of others, and their desire to join us appears to be genuine. As for their past actions in pursuing us.... let bygones be bygones. We are all merely trying to survive in this world, after all.”
The slugs began to wildly cheer and hug each other, while some shed mucus-tears of joy.
As they continued to dance and roll in glee, I suddenly raised my hand and spoke, interrupting their festivities.
“Hold up! Before you start celebrating, there something you need to know.”
With a wicked grin and a bit of drool leaking out of the corner of my mouth, I pulled out the Void Dagger.
“There’s a very small initiation fee to join this group.”