A ball of green slime slammed its body into the Clay Sentry. The sound of the impact was formidable but it did even less damage than the goblin’s club. In return, the autonomous golem smashed it into a puddle, but the mass of slime simply quivered and quickly reformed.
Small strands of steam sizzled up from the splotches of green mucus on the Clay Sentry's hand. It seemed that the slime's entire body was made of a weak acidic substance, but it hardly did anything to the clay golem.
[ Clay Sentry ]
Mana Capacity: 33/250
Though it went unnoticed by the others, Gilgamesh also saw with his scouring stare that a dark purple clump seemed to drift within its body to avoid being hit, and the green slime coalesced around that same clump before anything else.
“That dark purple orb is its core!” Gilgamesh shouted at the two new spearmen. “Be ready to destroy it!”
“Now!” He shouted after the Clay Sentry squashed the slime once more.
But the new attackers were slow to move. The slime reformed before they could attack and slammed into one of the men, sending him crashing back across the ground where he remained, writhing and gasping for air.
“You, take his place.” Gilgamesh shouted at Coward. The man hesitated at first but did as ordered.
The Clay Sentry squashed the slime again, just as easily as the other times, and the two attackers rushed out at Gilgamesh’s command. Coward was fast this time, and focused. He lunged forward to pierce the slime's nucleus, but in that same moment, the monster had in turn splashed some of its mucus over the man’s face and torso.
Coward screamed in agony as steam rose from his flesh along with a slight sizzling noise. A blue-haired woman rushed forward and held out her hands. Dim green light shone from her hands and coated the Coward’s dissolving wounds.
Soon, the acidic slime wore off and the healing managed to curtail further damage, but there was only so much that could be done with a low level Iron Tier Talent. Half of the Coward’s face was badly scarred, the skin still reddened and raw.
Gilgamesh looked down at the whimpering man with disgust. Such wounds were surface-level, nothing more than mere ache that would not affect his movements. Even still, he could see that this pawn was broken.
“He won’t be any more use…”
[ Slime - Monster (Iron Rank) ]
Attributes:
Strength - 15
Agility - 29
Vitality - 11
Perception - 13
Force - 21
Spirit - 19
Control - 14
Willpower - 8
Magic:
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Buck lvl. 5 (iron), Acid Splash lvl. 3 (bronze)
Traits:
Acidic Body (bronze)
[ Buck (iron) ]
'Slam at a target.'
Potency: 10 Force
Mana Cost: 5 motes
[ Acid Splash (bronze) ]
'Conjure a glob of acidic liquid.'
Magnitude: 1.2
Mana Cost: 10 motes
[ Acidic Body (bronze) ]
'Holder's body possesses slight acidic properities.'
Potency: 30 Force
“Roughly similar to the goblin.” Gilgamesh thought. “Good. There might not be many here that are stronger than my golem.”
[ Clay Sentry ]
Mana Capacity: 29/250
A giant moth monster flew out from under the tree leaves and hovered overhead as it showered the group in flaky scales from its fluttering wings. Drowsiness seemed to stagger the movements of the others, but Gilgamesh was utterly unaffected.
Just as he was about to command his Clay Sentry, an arrow sank into the moth’s body and it fell to the forest ground dead.
Gilgamesh turned to the red-haired archer, who happened to have been just outside the range of the Dusk Moth’s attack. She was quickly proving to be the least useless of all the pawns. “That soul is yours.”
“Uh? Oh, right.” Archer Woman trotted over to absorb the monster’s soul with her badge.
As she did, Gilgamesh glanced at the others and confirmed that they understood the implication. Gilgamesh did not intend to claim every soul for himself, not this early at least. Now they could see that their participation would actually be rewarded, and therefore be more motivated to take action and less likely to mutiny.
“We should head back…” The blue-haired healer spoke up.
“No.” Gilgamesh bluntly refused. “We’ve only fought three monsters. That isn’t nearly enough.”
But the healer did not back down. Gilgamesh could see her muster the resolve to speak again.
“It’s only been three, and there’s been close calls already. If… if we continue like this, some will die.”
Annoyance almost stained Gilgamesh’s expression. This fool was destroying the morale he had managed to build up so far. “This is not a place that rewards complacency. Get that through your head-”
A stone suddenly cracked the healer woman on the side of the head and she crumbled to the ground. Blood stained the grassy earth and her eyes remained lifelessly still.
Gilgamesh followed the trajectory to find a scaled creature the size of a goblin with the head of a small dragon, twirling its sling.
[ Kobold - Monster (Iron Rank) ]
“Get behind the golem!” Gilgamesh shouted, shortly after he had already made the lunge.
All of the others managed to reach safety as well. One man got clipped in his shoulder, but it was far from a lethal injury.
“We’re advancing!” Gilgamesh ordered without delay. “All of you bait the kobold to use its sling. Archer, wait until it attacks, then take the shot.”
“How are we supposed to do that?!” One of them objected.
“Just distract it!” Gilgamesh shouted back. “Lurch out for a moment. Stick your weapons out. Throw something at it. Anything!”
Although hesitant, they did as they were told. The kobold took the bait for one of them and hurled its sling for a pointless miss. Archer stepped out from the other side and loosed her bow as quickly as possible, but the arrow missed badly.
“Again!” Gilgamesh ordered.
A second opening came but the archer missed again. This one flew close enough above the kobold’s head to gain its attention, and it peered closely at the source. Panic started to set into Archer’s expression as she nocked a third arrow.
Gilgamesh spied the kobold from between his Clay Sentry’s limbs. No matter how much they moved up, the kobold kept its distance precisely what was optimal for its sling. And now it seemed more focused on the side the archer woman had shot from.
“Smarter than the goblin…” Gilgamesh turned to the archer. “Shoot from the other side. And hit it.”
For the third time, the group attempted Gilgamesh’s plan. The kobold hurled its sling at a distraction and quickly loaded another stone as it focused on the golem’s left, but Archer Woman stepped out of the right.
This time, she took a half moment more to set her feet and line up her shot. The kobold screeched as it adjusted its aim towards her, but she fired her shot first, and hit the monster square in the chest.
Jubilation filled her expression as the kobold fell to the ground. “I did it!”
Just then, a large stone fist barreled out of the trees and smashed her into a bloody paste. Gilgamesh watched the rock creature push its way past the trees. Its body was that of a large boulder with short, thick legs and long arms that ended in disproportionately large hands, and it had the crudely sculpted head of an ape.
The strange stone ape stood two feet taller than his hulking Clay Sentry, but it had the same thoughtless glowing eyes. Gilgamesh knew what kind of being it was even before the Schema told him.
[ Boulder Ape - Golem (Low Grade) ]
