"W-What the... What the hell is that thing?!" Sunny stuttered.

Luna ran as quickly as she could, but the monster was faster than her.

"Master, use your nature bending! Do something! Anything!"

"Stop wasting your breath! I'm waiting for it to get close enough so I can see its stats!"

"Master, if that thing gets close enough we're dead!"

"Are you deaf? I said stop wasting your..."

Luna stumbled and fell to the ground. She dropped Sunny, who rolled a few feet away.

Before he even hit the ground, the monster already lunged through the air to attack his friend.

"Stop!" Sunny shouted, taking control of the nearby grass.

Just as it was about to crush Luna, thick lines of grass shot through the air and bound the centipede’s many arms, restraining it from hitting the ground.

Luna looked at the monster while crawling away. It groaned in pain while tearing and biting the grass.

"I... I don't get it!" Sunny panicked.

"What's wrong?"

"The stats... They changed!"

"Ha?"

A small, 2D bubble was in front of Sunny. Luna could see it, being they were party members.

Though she couldn’t read, even she recognized that something has changed.

[ Name: Eldritch Centipede ]

[ Race: Soul Projection ]

[ Class: None ]

[ Body: 25 ]

[ Mind: 2 ]

[ Soul: 0 ]

[ Magic: 10 ]

[ Potential: 0 ]

The monster wiggled around furiously. Its restrains broke as it fought.

Yet Sunny wasn’t afraid of that. He cared more about the change in stats; the change in his understanding.

"There's more! I can’t believe it, it keeps going!"

[ Description: Soul Projections are a type of beings who are created when a certain lifeform experiences overstimulation in one stat. This causes the exceeding power to manifest a physical form in the shape of the soul’s mirror image. ]

[ Special Ability: Alles Fleisch ]

Luna hit the gem in a desperate attempt to regain Sunny’s attention.

"Master, please! Do something! I'm scared!"

"Soul projection... Could that mean..."

The monster tore apart its prison and charged the prey! The countless human arms marched in union with one goal: to tear apart the intruders.

Luna's limbs froze down in fear. Only her mouth moved, screaming as the monster approached them.

"M-Master... Master! Kiyaaah!"

Just as the monster was about to touch them, Seidon appeared from the tall grass and headbutted the enemy!

Boing!

The centipede recoiled from the punch, painfully groaning with its countless mouths.

Seidon landed next to Sunny, whom he quickly gave back his former body and backpack.

"Here you go, Gonyo. I found them when you--"

"Servant Seidon! You came and saved us!" Luna tightly hugged her companion. "How did you find us in the tall grass?"

"You were very loud. And also, we're in a party, so I have a general sense of your location."

"Oh."

The centipede changed its stance. It put all arms, even the ones on the front to the ground. It began to run around in circles, raising an ominous wall around its opponents.

"Amazing!" Sunny scribbled in his notebook. "It tried to charge us two times and failed both attempts. Now it changed to a more defensive style that's slower, but also much harder to stop!"

Seidon headbutted the centipede again, but even if that broke one of its arms, the monster wasn't put off-balance. In fact, it only ran around faster as rage fueled its march.

"Wonderfu~ul!" Sunny sang.

Luna grabbed and shook him by the shoulder.

"What are you so excited about?! How is this any good for us?"

"Oh, I just worried it might be more difficult to defeat our opponent."

"Huh?"

"We won."

Luna was gazing at him in confusion when the grass began rattling. It moved as if the wind picked up, bending to Sunny's will.

"No living organism is hundred-percent solid. Did you know? Humans consist of seventy-percent liquid. That's crazy, considering how stiff they look!"

A crazed dance ensued around them as the grass twisted and turned. It moved violently as if it was a caged animal trying to escape its prison.

"Grass, just like any other flora, depends on many necessities. One of them being water. Which means that no matter how dry it might appear, grass contains water!"

The grass turned in impossible ways, squeezing out its inner juices. Then as it danced violently, these juices shot through the air and fell in the form of a green rain.

Seidon stopped his futile attacks and looked up at the cloudless sky.

"Water..."

His green skin gained a hint of blue. Subsequently with that a wall of text appeared before him.

[ Name: "Seidon" ]

[ Race: Fruit Slime ]

[ Class: None ]

[ Body: 10 ]

[ Mind: 5 ]

[ Soul: 5 ]

[ Magic: 5 ]

[ Potential: 30 ]

[ Fruit Slimes are exotic variants of elemental slimefolks. They possess below-average magic capabilities and high sensitivity to elemental effects. When a fruit slime is affected by an item with elemental attributes, it equips that given element. Fruit slimes are also known for their love of pineapples]

[ Special Ability: None ]

Seidon observed the curious letters with amazement. Though he couldn't read what was there, he could feel it. Somehow he understood the message.

"Seidon, listen!" Sunny shouted. "You are a fruit slime! It means you have an extreme affinity for the elemental! Though you may lack the prowess, your body is a sponge oozing with potential! Can you feel it? The power surging through your blood?”

He paused for a bit before answering.

“Y-Yes. I feel… something else.”

“It’s water! What you’re feeling now is rain soaking through your skin! That’s the element you just equipped. Water. Concentrate on your instincts! Listen to your inner voice and follow through with the assault!”

“Big words.” Seidon thought to himself before focusing back onto the centipede.

There was something in his body, a kind of pressure he never felt before, not even when Lady Aeron swapped places with him. He closed his eyes to better grasp that feeling. Nurturing its presence.

Suddenly, the centipede changed its course and attacked!

“This is it!” Seidon reopened his eyes with newfound meaning.

As the centipede rushed towards his friends, Seidon looked at its head and listened to the inner voice.

“Guru!” He yelled and attacked with a splash of water.

Bang!

As if it was a speeding bullet, water shot a hole through the monster’s head.

The many human mouths of the centipede screamed in agony as it fell beside Luna. It shook around violently as if having a seizure, dirtying the little moth with mud.

“Gahh, just die already!” She kicked the monster.

It grabbed her leg.

“Huh?”

“Oh shit!” Sunny rushed to save her, but the monster threw him aside.

It held up the moth fairy to its head.

“Put me down!” She fought ferociously. “Let go of me! Let me g—“

The groaning stopped. Instead, the mouths opened in union for a song.

Tragic as intimidating, the choir of a hundred mouths sang along with vastly different, but soothing voices.

“Denn alles Fleisch ist wie Gras,

und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen

wie des Grases Blumen.

Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen.”

As the song went on, its wound began to heal.

Luna’s attempts to escape died down as her heart rate sunk and a blue, ghostly form of herself began leaving her mortal soul.

Coated by the calm droplets of rain and the echoing of requiem, how strength left her body felt almost divine. Almost as if she was a prisoner, escaping her eternal punishment.

“Luna!” Sunny screamed, charging the monster.

But his march came to a halt as many splashes of water shot by his head.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

High-pressure water shot off the arms holding Luna. The centipede’s singing turned into screaming again, which only became louder as more bullets pierced its head.

“You might look me down for not being as smart as Sunny-gonyo, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less equipped to survive!”

While the monster was distracted by the pain, Sunny grabbed Luna and rushed behind cover. He put the moth’s head on his thighs and gently tapped her face.

“Luna, can you hear me?”

“So… cold…” She muttered, barely conscious.

“Don’t worry, I’ll warm you up.”

“Huh…?”

He hugged her.

Luna blinked twice, confused about what’s happening. Only when as she felt the gemstone buried in her chest did she realize what Sunny was trying to do.

A bit naïve, as rocks don’t have body temperature.

But even then, his stupid idea worked. Just because of other reasons.

“Alright!” Luna jumped into the air with a determined smile and blush on her face. “Let’s beat this stupid monster!”

A splash of water shot by her head.

“oh shit” She ducked back into cover.

Seidon had a frown sitting on his face. He stopped attacking and looked the monster in its (many) eyes.

“You’re strong, I have to commend that. Truth be told, I would’ve lost this battle, were it not for your incompetence to defy your natural protocol and think about its consequences.”

He bore a serious look on his face. Only for a moment, as it broke down when he couldn’t hold his laughter anymore.

“Haha, funny words! See? I’m just as smart as Sunny-gonyo, if not even smarter! Haha! Hah. Well, anyways. Die!”

His swollen body quickly lost its mass as a large, long stream of water broke forth from the slime.

Splaaash!

To Sunny’s surprise, he aimed not at the opponent’s head, but at its rolled-up body. He sliced through its flesh as the knife goes through bread, spinning around and cutting many pieces off of the monster.

“Gururururu!”

The cut-off body parts fell to the ground, then disintegrated into thin air. Nothing remained of them, not even ash.

Sunny reached for his notebook while observing the strange occurrence.

“Soul Projection, was it?” He scribbled. “Not a real organism, but rather just an image of one’s soul. But who is its master? Maybe… it could be the grass? Or the entire field? Interesting, more research required…”

Luna silently gazed at his friend, who might’ve been just a bit too curious. She sighed.

As the monster neared death’s door, she got up and searched for the nearest rock.

“Ah!” Her eyes sparkled as she found a large, sharp stone.

She held it in her left hand. Equipped a pitcher’s posture. Took a deep breath.

Then, mustering up all her might, she aimed at the monster’s head and threw the rock with one decisive strike.

“Luna’s Special Attack: Rock to the Face!”

The sharp stone flew through the air with a whistling sound. The monster, confused by the noise, looked towards it.

“Bang.” Luna turned her back to the monster as the stone hit it in the head, dealing the final killing blow.