Andrew Rowe - Sufficiently Advanced Magic

These slimes, though? They were a good ten feet tall, and I was pretty sure the stone beneath them was sizzling . Acidic, then.

Derek turned toward Sera. “You want to handle these?”

Sera blinked. “I mean, we could, but wouldn’t it be easier for you to do it? And did we already decide on this room?”

Derek waved a hand into the chamber. “Definitely. We’re lucky to have found something this easy, trust me. I haven’t had the luxury of fighting slimes in years. I’ve seen you fight once before, but I’d like to get a better idea of your whole group’s fighting abilities. It will help give me a better idea of who I need to focus on protecting.”

Orden leaned up against a wall near the door. “I agree with Derek’s sugestion. While I’m confident that Derek could handle most of the monsters here without any difficulty, I’d like to see what the rest of you are capable of. And I’d rather that Derek save his strength in case Katashi isn’t feeling diplomatic.”

We had a moment of silence as everyone processed the gravity of that particular statement. Orden and Derek shared a nod of acknowledgement.

They’re planning for the possibility of fighting him, I realized.

I’d been so worried about Derek that I hadn’t really considered what might happen if Katashi wasn’t sufficiently satisfied when we delivered Vera to him. What if Vera told him something he didn’t want to hear?

I didn’t want to think about it.

I’d seen Keras fight Katashi for a few moments, so it was possible for a human to survive a conflict with a visage briefly. I still didn’t know what that entailed, however. I’d heard that Keras had escaped, but that didn’t mean he’d gotten out intact .

I didn’t know how Derek stacked up against Keras in combat ability, but I doubted he was much more powerful. I didn’t know how powerful Orden was, either. I hadn’t missed the fact that she’d been deliberately evasive about how powerful she was with her Wayfarer Attunement, but even if she was another Emerald, I didn’t think they stood any significant chance in a direct confrontation.

Maybe they could survive long enough to teleport us out, though?

I dismissed the errant thoughts. I didn’t have enough information to speculate with any level of accuracy. I had a few contingency plans of my own if I needed to use them.

I turned to Derek. “Can we just hit the slimes with attacks from out here?”

He shook his head. “Most spells won’t pass through the doorway. That’d make it too easy, I suppose. Gotta get in there and put yourself at risk, otherwise there’s no challenge. And Selys loves challenges.”

I groaned. “What about if we blasted a small hole through a wall right next to the door? Would our attacks be able to pass through the gap we made?”

Derek laughed, glancing toward Professor Orden. “Does he always try to solve problems by making bigger ones?”

Orden nodded sagely. “That would sum up Corin’s problem solving methodology quite appropriately.”

Sera nudged me. “Don’t let them bother you. C’mon, this’ll be fun.”

I sighed. “Fine. We’ll go get to the fighting.”

Derek stepped out of the doorway, bowed at the waist, and gestured toward the open door. “After you, then.”

I grit my teeth. I didn’t like letting Derek get physically behind me, but I was also letting him get under my skin, and in some ways that was worse.

I needed to focus.

I drew steel.

Sera, interestingly enough, did the same.

I hadn’t seen her wield a sword in years. We’d played with wooden blades as children, but we’d graduated to dueling canes as soon as we were old enough to use them.

Well, younger than we should have, if the scarring developing inside my hand was any indication.

Either way, the elegance of a full-sized sword was quickly overshadowed by the vastly superior fun of being able to blast each other with magic. At least for the two of us. Tristan had kept up standard sword training all the way up to going into the tower. He’d always had a stronger affinity for physical combat than I did.

Apparently, Sera did, too; she settled into a fighting stance that I’d seen both my mother and Tristan demonstrate, but I’d never learned. It was a high stance, with the sword raised above the head and the blade pointed toward the enemy. It looked impractical.

I was using a stance built for dueling canes, knees bent with the tip of the blade pointed directly toward the closest slime’s center of mass.

This was, of course, even less practical. Unlike a dueling cane, this sword didn’t have a rune to send a blast of energy out of the tip.

In short, we probably shouldn’t have been using weapons.

Jin stepped up to my left side. He hadn’t drawn any weapon at all.

I turned and gave him an expectant glance as the slimes slowly lumbered toward us.

He shrugged. “Don’t have a sword.”

Two pistols were clearly visible on his belt. I didn’t bother to point that out.

Okay, Jin. Have it your way.

I wasn’t going to wait until those things got close enough to swing at.

Stepping forward, I brought my sword up and back down in a diagonal slash and pushed the blade’s mana forward. The shockwave closed the distance in a second, cutting a deep gouge into the closest slime’s gelatinous body.

That didn’t slow it down, though.

Sera hit it next. Not with the sword, but with a rain of icy knives that manifested at her whispered word. That slime collapsed, falling still, but didn’t vanish.

The next closest slime crashed into it — and stretched out over it.

I blinked. “Is it…eating the other slime?”

I got my answer a moment later when top slime melted into the bottom one, causing it to swell in size. Then it started moving again, and considerably faster.

“That’s bad,” Sera mumbled. “Okay, Plan B. Hit it harder.”

I nodded, pointing with my demi-gauntlet and rapidly sending several surges of mana into it. I blasted the slime with a half-dozen globes of energy, tearing off bits of goo with each burst. I’d damaged it, but nowhere near enough.

Sword reach. I swung, but a pair of gelatinous spikes shot out of the creature’s side and deflected my blade. I barely had time to widen my eyes and side-step as more spikes shot out, piercing the air where I’d been standing a moment before.

Sera jabbed Selys-Lyann into the creature’s side, leaving an icy wound.

The slime shivered, tiny drops of slime raining everywhere, before firing a sustained barrage of gelatinous spines in Sera’s direction.

She didn’t move. Instead, she said, “Wall,” and any icy barrier sprung up in front of her, blocking the spines.

I took advantage of the distraction to run away.

Or, more accurately, to run toward the single isolated slime that was still half a room away from us. The two merged slimes were clearly much stronger, and I didn’t need this thing getting any more powerful from merging with a third slime.

I assaulted it with a series of quick cuts, the transference aura around my blade parting slime easily with each motion.

It didn’t take long for my barrage of slashes to wear the creature down. There was no obvious core — no vital organs — but once I’d slashed away enough of the creature’s mass, it collapsed like the previous one had. It looked almost like it was deflating. I hit it a few more times before it finally vanished, leaving a single green gem behind.

I ducked to grab the gemstone with my free hand and headed back toward Sera.

The merged slime had smashed through Sera’s wall, and she’d maneuvered around it to strike it with several more cuts. Three spears pierced through it into the stone floor, but they failed to pin it down. It simply tore through its own mass to surge toward her.