บท 13: The Sixth Night - Part 1 - The Fight Continues
The Pentafive regained their energy back by eating a bit of chylefruit from their belly bags. But it did not take too long before they are again exhausted.
The moonlight faded and made the world dark again but it was not a problem for them because of the lights the little man set.
But not too long does the moon ascended from the other side again. The new night began....
Currently, the amassing slimes were too much for them especially for the woman who had to take on two kinds of slime, but the little man was helping her if he had freehand so to lessen the burden for her. That made her able to bear the waves of slimes.
Her quick steps did not let any wind slimes enter the field while her evasions kept the water slimes splashing on the ground and there she would pluck its core and throw it away.
But with its immense number, she was the first to get tired and the only one with two bits of chylefruit in her belly bag and took the last one.
The others were just enduring the waves, but when they heard the man in the middle shouted:
"Phase 2 Formation!", he shouted at the top of his lungs while perspiring.
The other four heard this and immediately left their guard post except for the woman.
The old man who had anxieties about his granddaughter sprinted to her when he heard the man's order.
The young girl was completely depleted of her energy and had trembling limbs, unable to fight back when a fire slime launched itself towards her.
She made a small shriek and cried but instead of getting burned, she heard a pained groan.
When she opened her eyes, she saw her grandfather taking all the heat to himself. His shield was his hardened skin and it was weak to fire.
With roasted forearms, the old man immediately fell on his knees, weakened after the wave of attack. His ability wore off as wisp of smoke escaped from his toasted skin.
"Old Ze!", the young girl cried.
Hearing the cry of his granddaughter, the old man mustered his last bit of strength and ignored his pain. He hurriedly stood up and carried his granddaughter away before the next wave would commence.
The little man went to the man with long hair to help as that was the Phase 2 Formation where they, excluding the woman, had to join their forces to beat the worn-out Giganslik.
The woman had to stay and guard the riverside and all corners from the quick wind and water slime.
The other slime was ignored since it would take time before they could reach the black slime.
At that moment, they were racing against time!
The rock slime came rolling so they used all their strength to beat the black slime.
The black slime glowed dark and the old man, even without his ability, protected the little man from getting hit.
Even with the size differences, the old man fell on his back, unable to get back on his feet. The black slime harshly hit his churned skin.
The young girl and the little man used all their remaining power to bombard the black slime!
Then the man with long hair tried to finish the black slime with his fading energy sword with dents and bents.
Crack*
The ground behind the black slime crashed as the sword pierced through the slime.
The man with the long hair smiled, thinking they finally beaten the Giganslik!
However, to his great dismay, the black slime slightly flattened and weakly jumped, barely hitting the face of the man.
'It's still not enough?', the man frustratingly thought, 'Just one more hit!'
He gritted his teeth and a translucent blunt sword shone from his hand, weaker compared to earlier, he thrust this blunt blade once more but failed as time was not to his favor.
The Giganslik expanded as a rock slime came rolling down to it, and along its path, hit the man's hand.
The man's jaw dropped in misery, 'Just one more hit...'
But it was too late as the Giganslik gained its power back and while on it, a Splash!* was heard to the nearby river.
The man with a dismayed face saw his comrade and he whispered her name, "Veronia?"
Hurriedly, he stood up and escaped the Giganslik.
Both the little man and young girl had their faces in distress to see they, yet again, failed.
The man with the long hair was the strongest of them all, but he still failed.
No, they all failed.
If only I had more energy... We will come back for the seventh time... everyone had these words bugging their mind.
The man with wobbly steps went for the river and saw the woman that guarded against the wind and water slime fainted on the river.
It was fortunate that she still had a pulse. So he pulled her from the water and to his fear, he saw there was blood scattered on the river water.
Tears came rolling out of his face and his whispered in litany, "No... nonono...nono.."
Using his last strength, even with wobbly limbs, he tried to carry the woman but couldn't.
The old man saw that they failed. All of them were mustering their strength while almost a hundred slimes were ignoring them and hoarding on making the Giganslik stronger.
"Mission failed!", the man shouted as nerves popped out of his neck when he tried to pull the woman.
To his disbelief, this woke the woman.
"Eh?", the usual provocative woman had her face a sad and dark expression, "We failed again?"
When the man heard this, he ashamedly nodded his head and cried with tears rolling from his eyes, "Yes, I'm sorry."
This put tears on the woman's eyes too as she shook her head, "No, please, we are all at fault here..."
She didn't waste her energy on words as she tried to get up.
"Ah, don't, let me carry you. Your wound may worsen.", the man worriedly said.
But the woman just became confused and looked at her body, "I... don't seem to have any wounds. I know I just fainted from the depletion of energy."
"Eh? But there's blood...", the man pointed and saw that there was blood on the flowing river. Both looked at each other, puzzled.
But they knew they have to get out of there, as long as they don't provoke the Giganslik, it won't attack until it reached its true form!
"Come on, I'm fine now.", the woman felt a bit hazy but she took no damage. She grabbed the man's hand and helped him walk away.
The old man took her granddaughter and followed, and the same was for the little man.
They left dejectedly and escaped to the cave near them. They were all silent, blaming themselves for their failure. Leaving behind them the monster that was continuously gaining its size and power.
But the man tried to lighten the mood, "We are almost there. So the next time, we are sure to get the Giganslik's core and get out of this hell.", he continued, "We have another five days to prepare and wait for the Gantlet Woodlands to reset."
"But", the little man looked down, "We almost defeated it because we were lucky. Don't you think there were..... fewer slimes?"
The woman nodded as she held the man's arm over her shoulder, "I do think there were fewer wind and water slimes that was why I was able to endure so much."
The rest nodded.
"If there are others here, that might explain it."
"Huh?", the other three exclaimed and the old man asked, "You mean people? If that is right then they should be new."
"But that's impossible...", the little man wanted to disprove it but he couldn't and just asked, "It might explain why there were fewer slimes but what if we just truly got lucky?"
The man with long hair shook his head, "I found blood on the river."
The other three were stupefied. If there were other people here, then Gantlet Woodland would not reset.
Silence struck them and the atmosphere worsened until the woman clicked her tongue;
"Tsk! This is because the old man couldn't handle a single fire slime.", she said provocatively.
".....", the old man stared silently at her and complained back, "What? What about this midget?! All he needs to do is burn wood!"
"Haaah!? Do you have any idea how much energy I spent on a single ball of fire?", the little man retorted to this, "Sceke had it good, fighting, a small slime."
After that, as if there was an energy reserve for this, they bickered endlessly until they laughed and regained their mood back.
.....
Over the side of the river, Renir came out of the woods with wounds all over his body.
But he was fine and was not in need to catch his breath.
Along the way, he plucked and ate some chylefruits.
To recover, he ate three chylefruits in total.
The ability he gained from the black slime was immense, that he himself couldn't believe it. That kept his sanity and enjoyed his reward, thinking the harshest challenge was over.
Because not a single slime entered his senses.
This was the sixth night but he found no new foe. Maybe this is the same as the first night as there was no challenge?
But the stone tablet did not it include that. So maybe, he should go back and test the stone tablet with this free night.
Renir looked around, he knew this was the place he heard the shriek from.
But it never occurred to him that there was another challenge just around the corner
..... but now, at its true form.
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