Chapter 41: Prelims Day 2 (Part 3)

The suddenness of the situation had caught both Malaise and Veronica by surprise. While the two of them had been practicing their combat skills for several years, both in school and at home, they had never actually been attacked by someone intent on killing them. Their inexperience had cost Karen dearly as her strike that had saved them had allowed her own opponent to get in a massive slash across her exposed back. Pulling out a heavy spellbook to use as a focus while Veronica snatched her unstrung bow 1So it's actually not good to keep medieval style bow's strung all the time and many thicker, higher pound bows are more than thick enough to use as a staff weapon. off her back to use as a quarterstaff the two of them, both long distance fighters, were looking at a very tough fight ahead of them.

Sparing a glance at Shade she took note that she was pressuring her own two opponents and it looked like it would be over soon. Their own job was to deal with the four people in front of them so that Shade would have enough time to deal with her assailants and come to help them.

<Ver, make sure to fight defensively, we just have to hold out until Shade can join us.> - Malaise

Nodding, the succubus took position in front of the fox-kin spellcaster. As the only one with a melee weapon, more or less, she was also the only one that could effectively fight the 4 people in front of them who were currently spreading out to surround them.

[Fleet of Foot and Strong in Fist Enemies Fall before you! Body Reinforcement!] - Malaise

Not giving her opponents the opportunity to fully circle them Veronica pre-emptively rushed forward, thrusting her makeshift staff like a spear into the gut of the person in front of her. Or at least that was the plan, instead she only met air as the man spun around the weapon and swung his short sword at her neck. Pulling back her thrust quickly Veronica managed to block his strike and while he was off-center she hit him with her powerful tail, feeling several bones snap as she did so. Considering the man out of commission for now Veronica was about to move on to the next fighter but a blur to her right caused her to sidestep, only barely dodging a strike from the man that she'd thought was unable to fight any longer. His arm, hanging limply, still held onto the sword he'd just attacked her with.

[Back up Ver! I don't think they're human!] - Malaise

[Heed my call forces of the storm! Spark!] - Malaise

Blasting one of the assailants that was trying to get Veronica in the back while she was distracted Malaise called her friend back. They needed to stick together, overextending themselves would only get them both killed afterall. Nodding at Malaise's suggestion Veronica immediately jumped back towards her, dodging the man with the broken arm as he limply swung his shattered arm without regard for the immense pain something like that would cause.

[What do you think they are? He barely reacted when I broke his damn arm Mal!] - Veronica

[I don't know but for now assume that the only way to stop them is lethal strike's, even then don't drop your guard until you're sure they're dead. Something is wrong with them and I don't know what it is.] - Malaise

Seemingly content to allow the two to plan amongst themselves their assailants continued to spread out in a half circle, with Shade behind them it was luckily impossible for them to surround them completely without opening themselves up to an attack. Glancing quickly at Karen she noted that the Slime wasn't doing so well, with a blade lodged in her upper body. Luckily while it looked like it hurt she seemed to be handling the damage as well as could be expected so it was unlikely that she'd lose before help arrived. Quickly looking around she noted that the initial crowd from earlier was long gone, hopefully to find a guard, but something told her that this attack was planned so that they'd be too far from any real help for it to matter.

[Overcome the limits of mortals and be filled with my power. Mana Break!] - Malaise

Instantly Malaise was assaulted with immense pain, this particular spell being her most advanced and frankly, dangerous, skill. What it was designed for was to increase the rate at which the caster's Mana regenerated, by absorbing it from the surrounding air. Such a process was, to put it mildly, extremely dangerous.

[Mal! Are you oka...!?! AH!] - Veronica

Seeing her wince at the pain Veronica tried to ask if everything was all right but was cut off when one of the attackers, apparently finished positioning themselves, lunged forward in a thrust. Barely reacting to the sudden attack she spun to the left as the second attacker went for a vertical strike against her right shoulder. The only thing that was keeping them alive currently is that the enemies numbers kept them from spreading out enough to attack as one, only able to field about 2 at a time. That was most likely why only 2 opponents had been chosen for each of them now that she thought of it.

Dodging another strike from a third combatant as she swung her weapon at the first's head she heard a scream of pain and saw Karen, now with another sword lodged in her lower body. Her opponent sporting a hole that went through the back of his head. Seeing this she heard Malaise scream loud enough for all of them to hear.

[Undead!] - Malaise

Out of all of the fighter's, Shade was the only one that reacted in time. Pushing back her own opponents she transformed her arms into sharp blade, intent on ending them both as quickly as she could. She smiled inwardly at the sight of Karen imitating her shapeshifting. The slime was able to form similar, if not as efficient, forms as herself, making her the more deadly of the current fighters. Swiftly spinning herself around a thrust as she pushed it to the side she whipped her arm around with the intent of beheading her opponent who jumped back, barely avoiding her deadly swipe.

[...come.] - Shade

Quickly forming a hand once more Shade beckoned them to her, not wanting to waste time with her battle so she could help the other 3. Especially Malaise and Veronica, whom hadn't brought their own weapons with them since it wasn't necessary within the city. Bracing with her back foot she launched herself forward, planning on taking at least one of them by surprise as she formed two more arm-blade's out of her shoulder blades. This technique, trivial for her mother, was immensely difficult for the young shapeshifter. Not used to having extra limbs she was only able to slice off one of the attacker's arms before the other reacted, blocking her second strike. Pressing her advantage she briefly noted the first combatant didn't seem to be bleeding from his stump, rotten meat dangling from his arm instead. This damage, luckily, allowed her to realize the nature of her opponents long before exposing herself to any real danger.

Their plan at surprising her with their undead status foiled the two of them immediately launched themselves at her with increased fervor, not caring for the damage they were receiving. And receive damage they did, with Shade cutting deep into one of their shoulder and barely missing the neck of the second one. Unfortunately this increased intensity did work slightly against the young shapeshifter as she gathered quite a few small nicks and cuts from countless near misses, her body feeling more sluggish with each small cut.

[...die.] - Shade

Luckily this reckless behavior from her opponents allowed Shade to take advantage of the situation, pushing one of her assailants swords to the side she finally succeeded in cutting through the neck of the second opponent as his body dropped lifelessly to the ground, the first real reaction to any damage to them. Warily skirting around the headless corpse Shade was about to launch into a renewed assault on her only apparent opponent left when she heard Malaise screaming behind her as well as a scream of pain from Karen.

[H-How?] - Karen

Immense pain radiated from the second sword in her body, as well as a spreading numbness as she lost contact with the cells around said weapon. Forming a tentacle out of her hair she slammed it into the resurrected swordsman, forcing him to let go of his weapon. This situation, two assailants without weapons, would have been massively in Karen's favor normally. But the presence of said swords lodged in her own body precluded such advantage. Especially since, as a human that lived in modern day America, she wasn't used to actually fighting for her life. Even the last few years, her time anyway, that she'd fought against various monster's had not completely gotten rid of her modern outlook. As such she was starting to panic.

Her mind, already stretched to the limit from the pain of the first sword, finally checked out as the pain reached it, preferring to shut off her conscious, thinking mind to deal with the massive amount of pain in her body.

[....] - Karen

The opponents, although undead and supposedly emptied of fear, paused at the change in the atmosphere. Everything about the slime in front of them screamed danger, the remnants of primitive survival instincts forcing them to warily watch her from a distance instead of pressing their supposed advantage. That of course didn't save them for more than a second as the slime exploded in all directions, instantly growing several times her original size swallowing them into her mass less than a second later. The rest of the assassin's, surprised at the sudden change, were also swept into her body as tentacle's snagged them from their respective fights.

Burning each of her opponent's bodies inside her Karen's body became more and more pink as the remaining flesh melted of the undead assassin's. Her new friends, wary at the current situation slowly backed away from the frenzied slime girl as she focused on consuming the 8 bodies she'd captured. Hearing a sound the gigantic slime turned it's head suddenly as dozen's of armed soldier's finally came around the corner, clearly panicking at the sight of an enormous slime that was gradually losing her blue coloration.

[No! Don't attack them! Karen! KAREN! They're friends!] - Malaise

Hearing someone familiar speak to her, the slime glanced at the foxgirl momentarily. Marking said beastman as a ally in her mind as well as the other two familiar faces she took note of the several dozen armed stranger's that were currently threatening her and her "family" and immediately went into an aggressive stance, towering over the puny human soldiers.