Oozing lime green slime pushed itself through the grating of the large cylindrical pipe, spilling over the side. This couldn’t be good. A monstrous translucent glob of goo rose up out of the cast iron, forming a giant jelly creature with a single giant round eye buried in its center. Above its head hung a red floating sign, [Slime King]. Definitely not good.

Edge didn’t have his shield. Funny the things you miss when you’re standing in your rogue shorts in front of a boss monster in a room with no exit.

“I’m on cooldown,” said Sakura, the jeopardy apparent in her awestruck voice.

Belladonna retrieved her bow from her inventory, and slung her quiver over her bare shoulder. She loosed a [Stun Arrow] as fast as possible. The Slime King paused for a fraction of the time her stun normally lasted.

“It didn’t work,” announced Sakura.

“Should I sing?” asked Daphne.

What was he supposed to say? They weren’t ready for this, not now, perhaps not ever.

[Slash], Claire leaped into the air, coming down hard with her two handed sword, slicing a significant gash into the jelly’s mass. “Snap out of it, Edge. We need you.”

That’s right . . . It didn’t matter how impossible it was . . . If he was going to die, then he was going to die fighting. Eugene promised himself that much at least. “Sakura, Daphne, retreat and get ready for a [Firebomb]. Belladonna, save your [Stun Arrow]’s. If it looks like it’s about to use a big ability, then disturb it with a stun.” He hoped that the stun ability worked as a proper boss counter. “Claire, you’re with me.”

Team Edge went into action. Sakura and Daphne retreated, wading until the water was nearly knee high, as far as they dared go and still maintain some of their mobility. Edge charged to the front with Claire. Belladonna stood between the duos, already loosing arrows into the Slime King. Each arrow embedded itself into the jelly, but it hardly seemed like they were having any effect.

“Claire keep hitting it,” Edge ordered. He had a handful of rocks and was tossing them at record pace. They were having even less effect than the arrows. Claire, however, was already covered in a thick layer of slime, each [Slash] adding to the gooey mess. He was just glad that it wasn’t acidic, or poison. Green monsters almost always had negative effects in video games.

The Slime King’s giant eyeball shifted from one target to the next, marking everyone in the party. Five long tentacle like arms sprouted from its sides, one extending toward each of them. The Kiten both dashed away from the attacks, while Claire sliced off the tentacle attacking her at its base. As soon as it was severed from the main body, it turned into liquid slime splashing down on to the sand.

Edge wasn’t so lucky. He tried to dodge, but the tentacle wrapped itself around his waist, lifting him into the sky. He punched at the jelly, but his bludgeoning fists bounced off the squishy substance. “Bell, try the eye. Shoot it in the eye!”

“Edge.” Claire swung her sword down upon the tentacle, and easily cleaved it off.

He braced himself for the thunk as he fell prostrate onto the sandy beach.

Sakura wasn’t quick enough either. A tentacle reached out across the water, ensnaring her in its slimy grip. Her cooldown was ready, but she hesitated in using it. Claire was hacking away at the remaining tentacles still pursuing the Kitens around the island. Sakura’s own tentacle, unaccosted, was slowly retracting toward the monster’s body. She wasn’t taking any damage from the attack, which worried her more than it should. Was this not the boss’s only special move? Was there more? The Slime King’s eye began another darting pattern, locking on to each party member in turn. “Watch out!” she warned. “Incoming.”

Belladonna loosed another arrow toward the giant eye. Her aim was perfect, but the arrow embedded itself into the jelly without ever reaching the buried eyeball. “It’s not working,” she called, as a new set of tentacles sprouted from where the old ones had been severed. Claire’s speed was her weakness, and she had only been fast enough to detach four out of the five tentacles on the first pass.

It wasn’t until Belladonna’s was cleaved that she had time to shoot even one arrow. She had no choice but to concentrate on dodging.

“Daphne, buff me,” said Sakura. It wasn’t like anyone had any better ideas, and she was still hovering slowly toward the creature. Edge just nodded, as he sprinted away from the newborn tentacle chasing him.

Daphne sang, and ran, and dashed, and dodged and plucked the strings of her harp. It was a lot harder than it looked; she had to concentrate on everything around her, while keeping in range of Sakura. One song. She only needed to last for one song.

It was clear that what Daphne lacked in some faculties, she more than made up for in raw artistic talent!

Sakura cast her [Firebomb] at the body of the creature, as near as she could to both the eyeball and the new throng of sprouting tentacles.

Belladonna dashed across the body of the creature, if she was fast enough she could put her tentacle in range of the detonation. It was worth the risk.

The [Firebomb] exploded in a cloud of smoke and steam with the heavy stink of boiling ooze filling the cistern. For a moment, they were blind to the fight, blinded with the gaseous fog, blinded by hope.

Sakura crashed into the beach, and for the first time ever, took damage to her life bar. She heard, more than felt, a crack when she landed. She screamed; the pain snapping in her nerves, like her arm was broken, which it probably was.

Claire hurried toward Sakura’s cry, already casting a [Light Heal]. Sakura’s health bar had dropped fifty percent in one hit. But the healing spell immediately brought her back to full. “Are you alright?” Claire worried, wrapping the kneeling Sakura in a hug.

“I guess sorceresses don’t have very many life points,” she reported seriously. The pain was there and then it was gone, as if it never even happened, as if it didn’t even matter. “Thank you,” she thanked Claire wholeheartedly, for taking away the pain.

“Is it over? Did we win?” asked Belladonna from somewhere in the fog.

Edge grunted. You never ask that question. It was just plain bad luck.

(The next one is . . . big, in a lot of ways)