[Slimy Slime] Chapter 51: Slimy Slime vs Krrrgg

“Krrrgg! Fight me!” I yelled out, startling Krrrgg. She had been nice enough earlier to regive back the bracelet I’d given her and now I threw it at her. I’d truly learned all I could from it. Hell, I suspected the only reason I could teleport was some weird sub-conscious mental thing from doing it before with it.

And now! It was time to train properly for once.

“What?” Krrrgg asked, suspiciously in Common. I swear… that language is way too easy to learn! It hasn’t even been that long! A week and you’re already nearly fluent in it?!

Currently, she was standing in front of a bunch of goblins. Actually, not just a bunch, but all the smart ones from earlier that I’d gifted iron spears too. They seem to really be go-getters, I mean, sheesh it’s only been half a day and already they had wooden logs set up, repeatedly and enthusiastically stabbing forward.

And they weren’t the only ones training, just the ones closest to Krrrgg. There was at least over a hundred goblins punching, kicking, and biting wooden logs or sparring with each other. I didn’t make this training field, which left me feeling… strange. It was almost like watching your child take its first steps. My city… my kingdom… it wasn’t even fully in place yet. Hell, I wasn’t even fully mentally in place yet with the whole thing. What had been my childhood dream was quickly becoming a reality, with all the realities that entailed.

Sometimes, I just sat and marveled at the [Dungeon Core], especially when I was going to bed. That thing allowed me to freely create like I was a god. It made me sometimes regret not taking [Creation Authority] but… that was fine. I had a version of it that probably would have taken me, god, centuries at least to make. The mana altars and storage alone…

Krrrgg turned to me, axe in hand, still waiting on my reply.

“Yes! Fight me!”

Krrrgg blinked, and a million questions passed through her mind but, well, ultimately she wasn’t human. She was a monster. And even more than that… she was my first soldier, my first [Captain]. Her smile grew wide and toothy, and she raised her Axe, more than ready to follow orders.

“Okay.” She said and the next moment, a Tier 2 monster was bearing down upon me, like a force of god, Axe trailing so fast it practically left after images.

Fast!

Pure panic saved me, as suddenly I was no longer looking at Krrrgg and her wide smile, but instead her nearly naked behind. At the same moment, I heard the sound of metal hitting the ground. Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! I came out here for some training, not to get my ass handed to me you know!

Still, two can play at that game!

A fist materalized inches away from Krrrgg’s head, aimed for her temple. In a near physics defying move, she twisted her body, hand moving even faster, blocking it with the side of her axe. Oh, you’re fast Krrrgg. Strong too. But that was only one fist! Let’s see how you deal with ten!

Suddenly, all ten of my fists appeared, raining down towards Krrrgg. I couldn’t see her face from this vantage point, behind her and in her shadow, but I was smart enough not to stay there. The training yard didn’t have a lot of shadows to use nearby but I wasn’t incapable of moving. I backpedaled as fast my slimy body could slime, as Krrrgg tried to cut my fists apart.

With no success.

I’d fought that damn wolf and I know well the danger of getting my hands clawed and chopped apart. For starters… it fucking hurts. Secondly, it makes them a lot less useful. Dexterity and Agility Krrrgg may have, strength and practice against me she did not.

My hands twirled, twisted, and flew. Sometimes phasing in and out of reality, passing right through her axe and sometimes through her body. Despite that… I hadn’t truly hit her once. Whether it was instincts or something else, she seemed incredibly worried about letting even one of my fists touch her. That was probably smart. They could shatter trees and rocks with ease, her bones wouldn’t last a moment unless she had pumped up Endurance while I wasn’t paying attention.

Then she disappeared again, but she seemed to have learned her lesson this time. She hadn’t even known that I could teleport before but this time she ran with her back facing the sun, the shadow falling where I already was. She saw it once and already figured it out… she hadn’t survived for this long off luck alone.

I could unsummon and resummon my hands closer by to protect but that felt like a loss…

She neared, coming closer and closer, Axe once more seeming like a judgment of doom… when I disappeared again. She looked around quickly, not staying still as she did so, before she noticed something. My hands were clamped up tight in the sky, in a ball.

Fun fact… my hands were ghostly, spiritual, and could not only go through walls but could also go invisible… but they weren’t transparent. Eight hands were clamped around each other in the air, not letting even a speck of light in. The darkness teleportation was stupid, it wasn’t like a shadow was pure darkness. The sun was still out, UV rays were still hitting that area, etc etc.

It was more conceptual than anything, which was weird. So even though my hands couldn’t create a truly dark area with their natural glow… it was barely enough. I appeared inside it, resting on top of one of them, while the rest scattered out into the air. Krrrgg looked up at me with a frown I understood. Air superiority… was really, really hard to beat.

But she should’ve counted the hands.

Suddenly she reached towards her throat, eyes going wide, as her arm holding the Axe began to stiffen. Two of my hands were there, one holding her throat and the other her Axe arm, becoming physical and visible in the process.

She glared as I let go. I floated down gently, landing in front of her, while her glare only got worse. I couldn’t help but smile smugly to myself.

“That’s a point for me.”

“No fair! No flying!” She snarked out in Goblin.

I nodded, the Gods and Goddesses know how many times I couldn’t focus on flying while in a fight. A grand total of two… and each sucked. Training with only my natural and magic dodge would be better.

We continued again… and the next three times, I got my ass beat. Krrrgg was kind but not… gentle.

[HP: 275/287]

[HP: 268/287]

[HP: 259/287]

She would cut down, hard, and cut a bit of my slime off. Which was disturbing to see separated like that, just lying there, on the ground. Normally in a fight it’d be lost in the grand scheme of things but here and now… I could see it and kept wanting and trying to move it… to no avail.

But I got better. Better at jumping with my 50 Agility, 50 Strength, and light body, basically making me shoot out like a small cannonball. Better at teleporting and quick applications of it, as sometimes I just let it activate and prayed there was one close by. Ended up in a watching goblin’s shadow one time because of it. Poor guy was so scared he nearly jumped out of his skin. Better at fighting as I moved my hands in a way to not be hit or to hit the flat side of Krrrgg’s Axe, nearly sending her flying.

I felt something almost begin to click into my mind with all of it. It wasn’t quite there yet, whatever it was. In fact, it felt nowhere near complete. But I got better. All my previous fights had been straight up fights to the death and either way too hard or way too easy. Krrrgg was not easy, I could barely land a hit, she was just too fast. Her Agility was 100% higher than mine. She also had skills specifically for it. Her old dash skill, whatever it was, was only stronger now. With that activated she became a blur to me.

Hours began to pass and so many small things suddenly began to pop out in how I fought. The most obvious was… I was immobile. Even with my hand, my dodging, my teleporting, I was essentially an immobile fighter that could barely take a hit. The worst type of glass cannon. This wasn’t how a slime ‘fought’ that was for sure. An [Acid Slime] consumed and that was it. That was a bit much of an ask when fighting a Tier 2 monster though…

I wasn’t the only one improving however. Krrrgg needed to not get hit, an increasingly harder thing to do, but her entire fighting style seemed to rely on speed. She managed to get a few hits in on my hands… only for them to do nothing. That was insane to me. That was a steel Axe you know! And it may not look it… but Krrrgg was probably strong enough to, say, lift a fully grown adult. Hell, probably two…

And yet, barely scratches were left on my hands. This world was insane. At what point do high level people and monsters just… stop feeling like they're in the correct world? Like the world is made of glass and slow moving cardboard…

The game continued on for a while, feeling increasingly like tag. Krrrgg needed to hit me, but I had options to move and options to block, including two invisible hands I kept at the ready at all times to grab and throw her if she got too close. I needed to hit her, but she was so freaking fast. It was faster than the [Black Eyed Wolf], but not as fast as when it went Berserk.

By the time we were done, I was feeling a little exhausted. Not physically, there was nothing to physically exhaust, not like I could swing a sword or run with my non-existent feet. But I’d teleported many, many times, using my magic and mental muscles. Not to mention controlling all my hands like this in an extended, non frantic life or death fight was… different. Different and exponentially harder. They were drooping by the time we were done, only my force of will stopping them from dragging along the ground.

But my smile was wide.

“I win.” I said.

Krrrgg grumbled but she had an even bigger smile than I did, which surprised. She seemed like a competitive person.

“King. Strong.” She said loudly in Goblin.

I blinked and then nearly had a heart attack as a loud cheer erupted. I turned and almost definitely had one. The original ‘maybe a hundred’ goblins that were training had ballooned and now I felt like the whole village of them was actively watching me. They were cheering loudly, with awe and respect in their eyes. Um, ah. I hadn’t noticed any of you at all! I was too invested and busy fighting…

I really needed that 360 vision…

It felt awkward being praised and watched while I sparred. But what’s done was done. This wouldn’t be the last time I did it and the novelty would wear off eventually. Hell… I was basically forcefully conscripting them all to fight for me…

The least I could do was encourage them. Wow. Now… I feel like a piece of shit. Krrrgg has chosen to follow me but she’d beaten the brakes off and killed any goblin who wouldn’t, which thankfully was close to 0 right now, and forcefully recruited the rest. It felt fine in the past but… but if I don’t, the [Goblin Chief] will probably just send them to die against me…

Oh great, at what point are the goblins enemies or slaves and I a dictator? A dictator isn’t a king…

And I am a King.

A new resolution appeared in my heart. I’d just have to get so strong… that no goblins needed to fight or die at all. It was a task I was doomed to fail but one I’d try and do my best at. I’d settle for just protecting the ones that choose to follow me.

For now… it was getting late in the day. I’d find Michael and talk to him, see if he had any cool tips. Then I needed to get back to the grind. The skies were too dangerous… but I needed stats.

It was a thirty mile area, there had to be wolves somewhere right?

Right?