[Slimy Slime] Chapter 57: A Never Ending Tidal Wave of Green

Three days. It had been three days. Three days three days three days three days.

Three days.

I’d killed… so… so many goblins. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t rest. I’d been a fool. No moat? Well… it wouldn’t have mattered. No traps? Well… it wouldn’t have worked. My brain felt like mush and my body was already a puddle.

The sounds of the goblins were endless and my fists punched and grabbed and crushed and… it’d become a never ending routine.

“GRAHHH!”

It was like a zombie horde. The goblins weren’t fast or strong or even tough! Just… never ending. I must have personally killed… a few thousand? The bodies had started to rot. That’ll happen when a million feet crush them into paste. What had once been a clearing was now a bloodied frenzy. Krrrgg was tired too and I’d already sent all of the goblins to poke out through murder holes with their spears. We’d collected hearts and I’d ate them. I was hoping the stats would give me a massive stamina boost if I spent them all at once. But we were too busy fighting to focus on it.

I looked out and saw the never ending tide of green and the masses of dead. Green bodies as fas as the eye could see, clawing and scratching, climbing over and on top of each other. Growls and yells and screams, all with dead eyes. Some broke free, many broke free, but it was a frenzy. They were all coming at us, their minds destroyed one way or another. Their voices were like a physical attack, so loud and close it was. The very air seemed to be lit up with a violence so deep that even now it still felt like my adrenaline was pumping through my non-existent veins. They’d kill us. They’d kill us all and eat us all and destroy everything when they were through.

My fists like lights of blue in the darkness roamed the horde, killing as quickly as possible. Spears darted out from holes, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, always stabbing. No rest for us. More goblins had used the wood we had and began to hurl it at the enemies, hundreds on the wall, throwing anything they could down. The arrows were long used up. Michael worked tirelessly to try and make new spears with our wood, the other ones breaking so often.

My twelve fists constantly moved and I felt it. Felt the scratches and teeth and biting. Felt the heat of their bodies, the splatters of gore and blood as I moved through them, the weight of it all weighing my fists down. My twelve fists worked relentlessly.

Twelve now. Needed more so there was more.

So tired.

“King Slime! You need to rest!” Came a voice. Who knows who.

“Can’t.” I managed to grunt out.

“We can’t keep going like this! You need to do something!”

They were right. I was the only one even close to effective AoE. Everyone else could only kill a few goblins at once. My fists could and had burrowed through multiple at a time, like unstoppable bullets.

It wasn’t enough. We were going to lose.

A flood. A tide. How do you deal with a flood?

Drains. Drains. We needed drains. We needed… we needed something…

Tired. Vision going dark. Tired. Tired. Can’t sleep. Can’t sleep.

“King Slime! Do this!” Came the voice again. I looked over. Name, her name. Name name name name. Didn’t know name. Nammmmee. Paper. Paper with drawing. Don’t understand drawing. Need to make it. Screen. Screen?

[Blueprint available. Build?]

Dungeon tab, it was coming from my dungeon tab. Blueprint. [Architect]. Build. Build? Build.

[Unable to Build. Obstruction.]

Build? Horde. The horde is in the way. Need to clear the horde to clear the horde. Need to clear the horde. Need to clear the horde. Need to clear the horde.

Or we’ll lose.

Or everyone will die.

Clear the horde. Fists. Clear the horde.

Need more.

Fourteen.

Sixteen.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Clear the Horde. Clear the horde. Clear the horde.

CLEAR THE HORDE.

****

Sandra was terrified. She’d been terrified for three days. She knew the goblin horde was coming… but she’d never experienced. Never saw so many creatures try to kill her, never seen so many dead, never seen… anything like this. Tilia hadn’t stopped crying once and Michael had immediately begun to try and make more spears. As for her?

She drew. It took her less than a day to realize they were going to lose. That they, her, her husband, her daughter, were all going to die unless something changed. She drew like her life depended on it, because it did.

The defenders did their best. Once they had a proper way to fight, they did it relentlessly. Many of the [Hob-Goblin]’s had passed out, some more than once, over the past three days. Sleep was near impossible with the sounds and threat so close. The reguluar goblins had gathered on the walls, throwing down what they could in fear and panic, desperately trying to stop their kin. Krrrgg had leapt into the fray multiple times and come back severely injured more than once. She was using that potion Slimy Slime had to keep herself alive.

But none compared to Slimy Slime. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t stopped his ghastly fists from punching out, hadn’t stop fighting. Not for one moment. Not fort one second. He sat there, a small yellow slime on a wall. Yet none would pass him by without notice. He was radiating an… aura of some kind. A skill. Everyone could feel it. Despite the odds, none despaired. None succumbed to terror or fear. They just worked harder and harder. It was the like hand of a god was protecting them. At least, that’s how it felt to her.

Her mind had spun, looking, searching, for some way to prevent this. If they only could have a break, then they could defeat the horde. She had come up with an answer quickly, but not easily. It was stupid but goblins were stupid. Especially these goblins. It would do.

She had shouted to get Slimy Slime’s attention. To get him to enact it and he barely responded. Then she felt it before she saw it. Something… was happening. She so often forget that… Slimy Slime wasn’t normal. Not just a funny monster or an odd person. No. He was a [Dungeon Master]. A King.

An aura she only felt once before manifested as an alien crown seemingly made of crystal and diamonds appeared on top of Slimy- no. King Slime’s head. She felt… stronger. Refreshed. But it didn’t end there.

For a brief moment, she saw a different flood. Not ten or a dozen but… hundreds and hundreds of fists spawned out of thin air. They tore through the horde like it was made of paper… and kept going. It was like watching one massive hand scrape across the ground and sky, punching forward like a meteor. Goblins, the horde, parts of the wall, the ground, trees… all of it was punched through. As quickly as the tsunami of blue fists appeared, they disappeared, leaving only a massive area of destruction. Then… a blue glow took over, as a massive building was made out of the mana they had available. It was stupid, it was simple, but it world work and that was all that mattered.

Before she could pay any more attention to it, she saw King Slime slump over, barely holding together in one piece.

“King Slime!”

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Pain. So much pain. A headache? No. A migraine? No. It was like someone had physically grabbed my mind and tore it apart. Brutally. With knives for hands. I was screaming. I couldn’t hear it, or sense it, but I was screaming. My soul felt… raw. Like I’d torn off my skin.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.

It hurt.

Pain, pain, pain blossoming across my whole self. Consuming me as I stare up, eyes an abyss. No eyes. No feet, no hands, no arms, no legs, no torso, no body no body no body. No bones, no organs, no eyes, no blood. I was a slime. A slime. Sticky goop. I could feel my body, it was so wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Pain, so much pain. It hurts. It hurts. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

“...”

Hurts, hurts.

“...K…”

Words. Words. Words.

“...Ki..ng… Sl….ime”

Words. Words.

“King Slime!”

Words!

“AHHHHHH!”

“King Slime! Please, what’s wrong?! Please, stop screaming!”

“IT HURTS!”

Time lost meaning. It was just an eternity of torment. Sometimes there was black, different black, always black.

And then… it lessened. Dramatically. Like the pain from before had been an illusion.

“King Slime!” Came a voice, came Sandra’s voice.

“Ughh.”

“Oh thank the gods. Are you okay?! Please tell me you’re okay!”

I opened my eyes, to see the roof of a cave. I knew that roof. I knew this cave. Not two feet away was my dungeon core. Nearby, I saw Sandra standing there with panicked look on her face and… Krrrgg. But… she was… crying.

“I’m… I’ll live.” I managed to get out.

I felt…. Terrible wouldn’t even begin to describe it. How on earth can a soul feel sore?! Something just ain’t right about that. That was completely silly. I should write god a complaint letter about it. Right after we deal with the-

“The horde! What happened to the horde?!” I jumped up, or at least tried, sending my whole body into shock and painful spasms.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just relax. You did it. You did it. It’s being dealt with. Relax. Relax. Please relax.” Sandra seemed to be on the edge of a nervous break down, so I very carefully did not try tor get up again.

It was at that time-

Bang

I glanced over in shock, seeing Krrrgg prostrating before me, having slammed her forehead into the ground.

“King! I am sorry! I failed you!”

It took me a moment to understand what the heck Krrrgg was talking about… and when I did I felt myself snap. I was not in the mood.

“Stand the fuck up.”

Krrrgg stiffened, before rising. Her face still teary eyed.

“I don’t know who you are… but you sure as fuck aren’t the Krrrgg I know. Failed? Are you stupid? Did you get in the head? Did you become an idiot? We’re alive. That’s more than a success. You didn’t fail anything. Don’t act subservient to me like that again. You’re a friend and my commander, not some, not some worthless piece of sycophant trash. Disgusting.”

Despite my words, Krrrgg only seemed to smile, tears still going down her face. I looked at her and what we’d been through flashed through my mind. T was more of a solo act, amusingly enough for a king, but she had been there the whole way. She’d tried to eat, only to fail. Then she’d helped me against the Dire Wolves when she could’ve ran away. She stayed with me after that, bringing in the best and brightest among her kind. She trained them and then shortly afterward, she found and brought Sandra and Michael to me. She made a mistake in not telling me information… but she more than made up for it as she went out and recruited an army and citizens. Without them… I’d never have had the mana to build my city.

Without her… I’d probably still just be in this cave, alone, wishing for a friend. For anyone to come by. Just a slime with a shiny rock who felt incredibly lonely. And what had she asked for? What was the first thing she had asked for?

“Please let me serve you Chieftain!”

What have I ever done for her? I hadn’t even freed her from her past bondage, she’d have been safer trying to cross human lands and forgetting all about the wolf forest. Hell, with her evolution and a solid cloak and mask… she could have been far far away from here. She’d done so much for me… and I’d done so little for her.

“Krrrgg.” I said simply but she seemed to stand even straighter somehow, putting her fist to her chest in way of a salute. “I deem that you have done exemplary service both now and before. As such, you shall be rewarded. Anything you want. Simply ask.”

Krrrgg and Sandra’s eyes seem to widen at that.

“King Slime! I can not-”

“Yes. King Slime. Not friend slime right now. This is an order. You are getting a reward. Think about what you want. Now go, check on the citizens and your soldiers.”

Krrrgg seemed shocked… but she nodded sharply and left shortly afterwards. As soon as she was gone, I practically melted into a puddle. Ugh. What a very tiring day. Day? God… how long has it been? How long was I out?

“...Are you okay?” Sandra asked, worriedly.

“..hmm. Well… I’m not dead? So yeah. It feels like I got run over by a few million trucks at the same time and dipped into a pool of acid, before being thrown through a window.”

Sandra nodded, but looked confused.

“I don’t know what a ‘truck’ is but that does sound… terrible. I’m not surprised though. You did something amazing.”

“Huh? What did I do? Actually, no, wait! How on earth is the goblin horde handled?!”

As Sandra told me about what building she had made, I felt my slimy eyes widen and nearly pop out of my slimy head.