[Slimy Slime] Chapter 23: An angry slime is funny, until it eats your face off and melts your body

Anger was nothing new to me. This murderous rage, however, was certainly a first. It felt like my whole body was fluctuating between boiling over and running ice cold. It made me feel like I had become stone.

I had already tried to ambush the Alpha and that hadn’t worked, so I tried his lackeys instead. A ghostly blue fist flew towards one of the wolves and it tried to bite down.

Only for my hand to go through it.

Weak. I had been far too weak. In mind, mostly. Still was. And that was fine but I could do better. My [Spirit Hands] were spirit hands. They could go right through things at will. So the wolf was very surprised when suddenly that hand turned around and bashed it in the side of the head. My other two fists were barreling towards it.

The wolves closest to the one under attack ran towards my hands, trying to attack them. A few other ones glared up at me or barked and howled. The Alpha alone merely just look annoyed. I’d deal with you in a minute you old asshole.

My two other hands flew through or over other wolves as they tried to bite and claw them, coming up to uppercut the wolf I had been focusing on while the other two went for his eyes. I ignored the sensation of feeling my hands tear through something's eyes and the howls of rage and fear that the wolf exuded. It was hard to fight flying hands wasn’t it?

It wasn’t easy dividing my vision. I wasn’t truly, I hadn’t had nearly enough time to practice and get over my own subconscious ways of viewing. Eventually, I’d be able to see with more than just two eyes, anywhere and everywhere I wanted at the same time, seamlessly. We hadn’t reached those days yet.

So it was with only mild surprise I saw the Alpha leap up at me, my hands were too far away and I didn’t want to resummon them. This was going to be a marathon of fighting and it took more to summon my hands than to keep them active. Which is why I was met with major surprise as the Alpha wolf began to leap through the air.

If I had eyes on my head they would have widened to the point of breaking. Nothing I knew about [Dire Wolves] gave them the ability to fly. Either way, it was coming for me at a rapid pace and my air advantage had been rendered nearly ineffective in moments. My hands didn’t have muscular but I couldn’t exactly rocket them forward at light speed either. That was mired down in my magical stats and right now? They were not enough to raise and move me out of the way fast enough. For yet a third time in the span of my time here, I saw the jaws of death bearing down on me. And frankly, I was tired of it.

The Alpha may be flying towards me, having made a magnificent leap, but it sure gave up a lot of maneuverability to do so. I summoned two more hands, grabbing it by the throat, and throwing it down towards the ground. It hit the ground with a solid thump.

It got up soon afterwards looking no worse for wear, except it seemed pissed and its breathing was a little heavier. I frowned and my mind flickered at that. Maybe the air leaping was a skill then and not magic? That was going to be a problem. Physical skills, even if they seemed like magic, ran off of stamina.

Even while thinking that, I was already pummeling downwards. Having two extra hands out made for a total of six and it was the limit of my mind at the moment. Worse than that, I needed to actually see my hands in order to effectively use them. Dealing with the Alpha had distracted me and I felt pain coming from one of my hands for a moment as a Wolf had managed to bite down. I grimaced but ghosted through the wolf and repaired the hand. It hurt, quite a bit, but the major problem was that it was a drain on my mana. One of the wolves was effectively blind but it still left me with six wolves and an Alpha.

All five of my hands finally reached the same target, the blind wolf. I didn’t know if I could take all of these bastards down at once and some mental pressure if they were so smart would be useful. The wolf may have weighed a good amount but five hands were more than enough. It surprised me, even through my currently rock hard mindset, that my hands seemed to exert so much strength. It was like each hand carried my full strength in it. That made sense in one way, but also was a terrifyingly strong ability in another. A human had the same amount of ‘force’ in either hand, when throwing a punch, more or less. But it was constrained by stamina, other muscles, etc. There was a limit to how many punches a person could throw, how much strength a man could exert. Even if you gave someone ten arms, they wouldn’t have 10x strength of course.

I was not the same.

My hands weren’t connected to anything, they weren’t even physical matter. They were purely soul constructs, influenced by my own stats and mana. Skills were always active, so in a way, my hands always were. All the limits came from the rest of me. With enough time, strength, and practice, I may even be able to lift a mountain.

I showed that terrifying possibility to the wolves as the blind one began to scream as it was lifted into the air. I grabbed it mostly from the back and slammed it into the ground with all the force I could muster.

And then I did it again.

And again.

And again.

The wolves had stopped, the regular ones looking at me with terror, the Alpha looking at me with a look that could kill.

Soon, the [Dire Wolf] I had been beating into the earth was dead, its head cracked open. I hadn’t stopped until it was obvious beyond any doubt. I threw the carcass at the rest of them and all except for the Alpha stepped backwards.

It growled and this time, I could see its Skill activating. The area underneath its feet became more solid. It leaped at me and clearly, I had been underestimating it. I didn’t know how it had managed to get such a strong skill but it had age, experience, and a good amount of intelligence on its side. It leapt across the platforms, dodging the hands I had tried to grab it with. They didn’t just appear directly underneath it, but also on the sides, and once it even jumped across a platform while upside down. The maneuverability was insane and it was on me in a moment. I couldn’t get my hands up in time and summoning any more would more likely leave me unable to use any of them.

As its claws reached me and started to cut through my body, I dropped. I was sent tumbling through the sky but I only had eyes on the Alpha. Its attack had failed but it had succeeded in getting me out of the sky and now it dove for me. Before I could go splat on the ground, I unsummoned and resummoned my hands, one underneath me, five to attack the Alpha falling down with me.

It clearly had expected that and leapt to the side.

We both landed, me hovering only a few feet from the ground and it on its four feet. I glanced at my mana. That failure had cost me a fair bit of mana to resummon all six hands at once. It had lost stamina. I was willing to safely bet it would win a battle of attrition. Stamina wasn’t a set bar, you just had it. And this thing didn’t seem like it was wanting for stats on that front either. Who knew how high its physicals were? A solid fall to the ground hadn’t hurt it at all and it was panting but it didn’t look exhausted from the aerial combat it had just unleashed on me.

The worst part was the height. I couldn’t go back up before it would attack me. I should have raised myself higher though I wouldn’t know if that would have made much of a difference. Height I had, maneuverability I did not. I couldn’t see the hand underneath me after all. It was like moving it with my eyes closed and only at okay speeds. It just didn’t compare to a leap from a wolf at all.

I was taking a moment to reassess. The wolf had got a good hit on me but it wasn’t fatal and slimes don’t take debilitating damage. I had lost around 15% of my HP but was otherwise okay. I needed a way to kill this wolf. It was going to wear me down at this point.

I thought it through, my mind like crisp iron. I was going to lose. I couldn’t escape this wolf, my means of killing it could be dodged, shrugged off, or attacked directly. I wasn’t going to be able to land any good punches on this wolf and it would take a lot to kill it. Even if I somehow did manage to beat it to death, time was ticking. My acid slimes wouldn’t last longer than an hour, wolves would get out from under the wood soon, the other five [Dire Wolves] would shake off their fear and my opportunities would shrink, and I quite literally couldn’t get away fast enough now that I knew this wolf could fly.

I needed to kill it now. This couldn’t be a long fight or I was going to lose and die. And then immediately die again, ring or no ring. It didn’t refill my stamina or magic, I’d be a slime that could “run” at a human’s walking pace, not use any magic, and maybe take a few with me to my death by melting. Real comforting thought there.

I got off my hand and brought all six around me. Two of them in particular being mentally readied.

I was going to kill this Alpha with one attack.