At first, Levi thought the boss was a Nature Essence, but it was far too small for that. Only about as big as Becca, if she were curled up in a ball. Not that he’d ever seen her do something like that; she always sat square, with her feet tucked under her, shoulders hunched, head tilted to one side as she watched everything through slitted eyes.

No, it could only be a Spitting Slime. If they weren’t so slow, he’d consider taming it just to have another ranged attacker on the team, but slimes were slow. Incredibly slow. Slow to the extent that it was almost a joke. If not for their uncannily accurate spitting abilities, they’d be easy prey, but… those deadly accurate range attacks.

As they followed Crimson through the maze, he was already running through the upcoming encounter in his mind. Who could they take in? Who should he leave out? They all needed experience, but Peter’s team more than most. He would have to take Peter aside first and be sure he was up for this fight, but it would be a good experience for him. He’d need to get used to stronger opponents and not being the clearly dominant force in every fight.

As the maze wound around the boss room and past it, Levi started to see smaller, ordinary slimes hidden among the foliage on the walls. In his beast-sight lens, they stood out starkly against indistinct backgrounds, but without that they’d have been caught off guard. And he also began to feel something else, though he was too focused on the potential danger to pay much heed to it yet.

“That hall to the left has an ambush of slimes,” he informed them, and Crimson stopped and tasted the air with her tongue, hissing faintly.

“Drok, yes?” Drok proposed, bumping his fists together in front of him.

Levi grinned. "Why not. Go for it, Drok."

Drok’s answering grin made full use of his large, flat teeth as he punched the ceiling in triumph. "Drok YES!" He thundered down the hall toward the ambush site, everyone scattering to get out of his way. Greg had to dive off into a side passage or there’d have been a serious collision.

A slime immediately started spitting its viscous missiles, each hitting the charging ogre and raising painful-looking welts, but Drok was not deterred in the least. He smashed his fist into the first slime as he ran past, then threw it to the floor and stomped on it without slowing. He did the same with all eight of the slimes lining the hall, then seemed disappointed when he ran into the wall at the end headfirst. He stumbled back, shaking his head and staring from side to side. “Drok,” he grumbled, when nothing seemed inclined to attack him.

A few of his slimes had survived his initial rush, and one made the unwise decision to fire on the ogre’s unguarded back. That cheered him right up, and he charged back up the hall the way he’d come, smashing the surviving slimes even flatter. The one who’d fired at him he grabbed, squeezed in a single giant fist until it popped, then threw it aside to splatter lifelessly across the plants trying to bite him.

“Drok yes!” He cheered, straitening, but the action slammed his head into the low ceiling and he sat down with a thump that shook the hall. He glowered up at the ceiling, as though it were a personal affront.

His health was a bit under half, dropping slowly, but recovering just as quickly. Once the recovery got ahead of the lingering damage from the slimes’ attacks, he’d be fine.

“You wait here a bit, we’ll go on ahead,” Levi said. He had a few healing elixirs stashed for emergencies, but without Irene here to level her healing abilities he’d prefer to allow the ogre’s wounds to heal over time. They wouldn’t have any problems defeating the boss slime even if they left half the team behind.

“Yes,” Drok assented, unhappily, and moved aside to let them past. Greg patted his shoulder in sympathy as he squeezed by.

The next batch of slimes they dealt with in a more traditional way. Two sneaked up to stab them, Elmire threw his javelins at them, Cen cleared one wall by himself, stabbing his legs into any that dared to show itself, and Greg followed in Drok's footsteps by smashing any that survived on the gremlins' side of the hall. Everyone took a hit or three, but Nature dungeons weren't known for their deadly monsters.

The third and final slime-guarded hall met a similar fate, and Levi stopped them right before turning the corner. "The next area is the boss room. It's a bigger version of the slimes, which should mean it's all but immobile. It can fire projectiles in any direction without warning, though, and up to three directions at once from what I remember."

"That shouldn't be any threat," Gordon said, gesturing to their team.

"I'd like for Peter to tackle it alone with his team."

"Really?" Peter's excitement made Levi smile.

"Skarm and I will come along to observe, but I'd like to see what you can do. This is going to be a much tougher fight than you've seen so far. The slime isn't fast, but it's sturdy, and its ability to multi-fire means it'll be dangerous whether up close or at a distance."

"I understand." Peter said, very seriously, though his excitement couldn't be completely hidden. "I'll pay close attention."

"Good. I'm not going to step in unless you get yourself completely defeated."

Peter nodded, then motioned his minions forward. Henry ran up to him at once, Crimson slithered back from where she'd been peering around the corner, and Greg slouched closer.

After a brief conference, Peter called, "We're ready."

Levi gestured and Skarm followed, the two of them entering the boss room after Peter.

"You sure you don't need anyone else?" Gordon called, just before the door slammed closed, sealing them away from any additional assistance.

"I'm sure," Levi said, setting his back to the door. Skarm crossed his arms, eyes flicking across the battlefield.

The boss room was as low-ceilinged as the rest of the maze, meaning Greg still couldn't straighten to his full height. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in more vines, branches, and leaves, leaving no gap between them. Unlike in the halls, where the greenery was mostly restrained to the walls, the boss room also had branches sticking out into the main area, or loops of vine hanging down.

The slime was the same vibrant green of young leaves, partially translucent, blending in at first glance if Levi hadn't known where to look. It was standing at the far wall, right in front of the closed exit door, instead of the usual front and center, but he didn't give any sign of having located it.

It took a minute, then, "There it is!" Peter exclaimed, pointing, and Henry set off running at it. Crimson slithered along, almost hidden by the undergrowth, brief flashes of red all that differentiated her from the surrounding plants. Greg didn't have a clear line of attack, and started tearing vines and branches down from the ceiling to clear a path. Peter himself got out his manabow and sighted on the slime, then started firing in a slow steady barrage.

The slime retaliated, firing quick salvos of stinging green goo first at Henry as the dilophosaur closed in, then at Peter himself. Levi had to suppress the instinct to rush to his defence, but Peter's health had only dropped a little.

The slime was losing health too, but not as quickly as Henry. The poor little dinosaur was taking the brunt of its attacks, even as he inflicted the most damage. Then Greg succeeded in clearing a path and jumped into the fray, slashing his oversize blade down into the boss, sending bits of slime flying in all directions. Levi winced as several of the larger globs splattered across Henry's side, and his slowly dropping health started falling even faster.

"Henry, retreat!" Peter called, his volley of manabolts going wide. Levi saw his breath coming fast and frantic, his hands shaking as he tried to track the whole battle.

Henry took one final bite into the slime, then turned tail and ran back to Peter's side. Peter handed him an elixir, then when Henry stared at him pointedly he took it back and unstoppered it. "Sorry! Here."

Henry took the bottle and, with a quick jerk of his head, tipped it up and swallowed the liquid, then dropped the empty vial back into Peter's hand.

However, while this had been going on, the slime wasn't sitting around politely waiting. It had resumed its barrage on Greg, the ogre taking a serious beating. He still had over half his health, but nature afflictions were the insidious kind that stacked up and slowly drained you to nothing rather than doing a lot of damage all at once like some other types.

Crimson reached the fray and began biting at the slime's base, her magma fangs sizzling against the slime's substance, burning through it at a faster rate than Greg's attacks, but the slime immediately noticed her presence and started firing down at her, fully focusing its ire on the little snake.

By the time Peter looked up from treating Henry, Crimson was already down to 12% and dropping fast.

"Oh no, Crimson!"

She glanced back and hissed in defiance. Instead of retreating, she whipped back around, reared up, and slammed her fangs solidly into the slime one last time.

Its next barrage dropped her to zero, and she fell limp to the floor.