Chapter 4: A Terrible Day for Rain
Annelida is the most explicitly monstrous of the girls so far, so I'd like to know what everyone thinks about her.
Cyrus did not consider himself an expert on many things, meteorology included; however, even as a layperson he could recognize that slime falling form the sky in rapidly growing torrent was unusual. Then he noticed that the slime now covering the ground didn't stay still, but started to flow together, forming into the same type of slime you could find in the forest normally, but now they were as plentiful as the rain falling from the sky.
"Maybe you should get inside? I might need to fight these slimes off to keep them off the houses."
Cyrus said, drawing his spear and skewering one of the gelatinous creatures.
"I mean…. How bad could a few slimes be? Couldn't we just cozy up inside and wait for the weather to clear and let the little buggers bounce away to wherever slimes go?" Annelida asked, simultaneously trying to hide from the slimy rain while also remaining as indolent as possible.
"That would be a problem," Cyrus said, pulling a torch from his bag and lighting it. "Watch this." He threw at a nearby slime and the rest of the group jumped back as the unfortunate creature went up like a tinderbox, burning bright and hot for a few seconds before the flame petered out until all that remained was a circle of charred grass. "I figure you like your house uncharred?"
Most of the girls decided to head back inside, wanting to avoid getting any more soaked in the flammable substance, but Annelida gave him a hopeful look and a smile as fierce as a knife. "Maybe… I could help you with this."
Deciding to ignore the hunger in her eyes, Cyrus asked "How, exactly? You don't have a weapon… I think?"
"With these, of course!" she said, tapping her pearly whites. "Others may know me as the Eater of Worlds, and I'm sure I could… handle a few of those slimes."
Cyrus had seen many strange things in this strange new world, but watching a young woman eat an entire slime was definitely high on that list of oddities. "Uhhh…. Are you ok?"
Annelida licked her lips and gave him a fang filled smile. "Definitely. I assure you, I am always hungry. How about I take those slimes over there and you take the rest?"
At the very least, having two people batting the slimes away from their houses made the process a lot faster; although Cyrus decided that maybe he should look into giving Annelida bigger portions. The girl could certainly eat.
"I assure you, they taste delicious. You really should try them!"
Cyrus stuck out his tongue and caught a bit of the slimy rain. "I suppose it's not bad, but I can't help but feel that I'm eating something dangerous, considering how flammable it is, and the source."
"And going to hell isn't dangerous?"
Cyrus felt a deep sense of relief as the downpour seemed to slow, with fewer and fewer slimes taking shape in the grass, and it became clear that he and Annelida were disposing of them faster than they were taking shape.
He skewered one, and then noticed that the slime from the creature started… moving? It flowed behind him and he turned to see where it was going only to find a growing mound of slime that had reached the size of a house, with a faint human figure hanging suspended in the gelatinous mass, surrounded by a big, hoop-like structure. The mass took the shape of a normal slime, and the hoop inside of it rose through its body until it sprouted from the beast's top, revealing itself to be a gleaming crown of pure gold, spangled with gemstones, sapphires and emeralds, with six truly monstrous rubies, each the size of Cyrus' head tying the crown together. This, Cyrus figured, was the King of the Slimes, and it took a tremendous leap to try to crush him as Cyrus ran out of the way.
"What is that?" Cyrus exclaimed, delivering a glancing blow with his spear as he dodged the body of the tremendous beast.
"It looks like an unusually large slime, dear." Annelida snarked back.
Cyrus took a flying leap and cut with his spear, shaving off a chunk of the King Slime that fell to the ground with a splat. He lept back, only to realize that all the progress he made by cutting off a fragment was made invalid when the piece just… flowed back to the main body, rejoining it and restoring the flawless whole.
The first idea Cyrus had to fight the creature was to light the creature on fire, but he realized that would be a tremendously bad idea for two reasons: One, he might accidentally start a tremendous forest fire, and two, it might hurt whoever was suspended inside the creature, or the girl who would inevitable appear when the creature was defeated (Cyrus didn't expect any different at this point, in all honesty). How would he get rid of all that extra slime without burning down the entire village? Then he looked to his left and saw Annelida. Oh.
"Annelida, whenever I cut a slice off of that thing, can you eat it before it reattaches to whole?"
She gave him another one of her predatory smiles. "Certainly. Let's get to work."
Once the two of them got in to a rhythm the King Slime wasn't really a threat. Bit by bit the slime shrunk and shrunk as cut strips out of the creature, getting smaller and smaller while retaining the same slime-like shape. Eventually the creature got so small that the crown slipped off of its body and crashed to the ground with a faint boom. However, as it got smaller and smaller the creature grew more agile, leaping higher into the air. Cyrus wondered if the poor girl inside was okay, getting rocked around like that, and he had to strike carefully not to accidentally nick the human figure hanging inside the slime.
Finally, with one last heavy strike with his spear, the slime surrounding the girl sudden became much more liquid and less viscous, flowing off the person inside like water off a duck's back, revealing a young woman. She was small and willowy, with short blue hair, and she wore a thin circlet of gold studded with gems and a long, dark blue dress which covered a body composed of slime instead of normal flesh and bone. Cyrus could pick her up without too much effort.
"So…. I guess we've got a new villager? Our town just keeps on growing…" Annelida mused, joining Cyrus on his walk home as the rain came to a halt.
At this point, Abigail was resigned to always having at least one bed full with someone who needed to be looked after. She double check both Annelida and Cyrus, and other than a thorough dosing in slime, they both escaped unscathed from the King of Slimes. Or would she be a Queen? Cyrus shook his head and left to take a bath.
Sometime the next morning, the slime girl's eyes fluttered open, looking around at Cyrus and Abigail. "Where… where am I?" she asked, voice slightly raspy.
"You're in our village. I suppose we don't have a real name for the place yet. You sound a little thirsty. Do you need some water?"
"Yes. Now go fetch some for me, would you?" she demanded, turning up her nose.
"Well sure thing, your majesty" she gave a regal smile at that.
"At least someone here recognizes my station as King of the Slimes." she said, looking smug.
"Wait. King? Are you a dude?" Cyrus felt something like hope bubble up in his chest. He certainly didn't dislike any of his guest, but he would appreciate a little less estrogen, all things considered.
"That's a tad sexist of you, isn't it? What keeps a woman from being a King? It just means the ruler of a kingdom" she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Plus… the position of Queen is kind of taken."
"Then who's the Queen?"
She waved her hand dismissively, "You'll meet her eventually, I'm sure. Now get me that water! Us slimes need it for our health, you know."
It was clear that the poor girl was thirsty, but she made a valiant effort not to spill the pitcher of water she was drinking from. Cyrus could appreciate her class, but the jury was still out on her attitude.
"So what's your name, your majesty? Cyrus found that playing into her ego made her cooperative (or maybe she just thought he was disrespecting her when he didn't).
"You may call me Visca, King of All Slimes!" she stopped preening herself for a moment to puff out her chest in pride.
"Sure thing…" she glared at him. "Your majesty."
Then there was a sudden knocking at the door. "May I come in?"
Cyrus smiled. It would be good to introduce Visca to the rest of the town. "Come on in."
Annelida opened the door, leaned in, and jumped back as Visca shrieked in fear. "Keep her away from me!"
"That's just Annelida. I promise she won't hurt you."
"She ate my subjects alive!"
Annelida peaked through the door again and shrugged. "Maybe you should get less tasty subjects."
After just barely keeping Visca from throttling Annelida, things returned to normality, as warped as Cyrus' normal was by this point. After a tour of the town, Visca immediately demanded the largest room she could find, a room belonging to Cyrus, but he recognized a loosing battle when he saw one, and conceded the room.
That night Cyrus just couldn't sleep, haunted by visions of of the pits of hell and demons with flashing ivory claws. He walked outside to get some fresh air and saw someone lying on the roof of one of the houses, gazing at the stars.
Clambering up next to the person, he realized he was sharing a roof with Cthylla, who turned to greet him. "You can't get any sleep either?"
"Yeah. Could you scoot a little?"
She smiled and shifted a little. "Of course." She really was beautiful, Cyrus thought. Her hair was so dark he could barely see where it stopped and the night sky started. Her blue eyes gleamed, reflecting the stars spangling the sky above them.
"I love the night. Maybe it's because I was nocturnal as the eye? Or maybe because it's when I became human." Cthylla mused, looking up at the moon. "All the tiny little craters speckling the moon's surface. I like counting them before I go to sleep. I think there are a few dozen?"
"Wait. Dozens" I can barely see any craters when I squint. I mean sure I can tell there's some dark grey and light gray intermingling, but I can't count craters like you can."
"Maybe… it means I've got exceptional eyesight? Certainly fitting for the Eye."
"I may not be able to see as well as you, but I can definitely appreciate how beautiful y- the night is."
Cthylla smiled at him. "Definitely. So many beautiful things to see." She was looking him straight in the eyes, and leaned towards him. Her skin looked so soft, her eyes were so blue…
"Hey! What are you two up to?" Annelida seemed to be peaking on the roof, trying to wriggle her way onto the roof with her long, worm-like tail. He felt a little angry at her for interrupting the moment, but Cthylla sent her a vitriolic glare. "What do you think you're doing? We're in the middle of something?"
Annelida grinned. "In the middle of what, dear?"
"Well… ah… it's none of your business!"
Cyrus gave Annelida a hand and pulled her onto the roof. "We're getting a little tight on space, aren't we?"
"I think things would just turn out better if we shared, ya know." Annelida shifted on the roof, the smooth coils of her tail shifting under her as she leaned back.
"What do mean, share?"
"Space on the roof, of course. Did you think I meant something else?" she was still smiling, twirling her long hair in her hand.
Cthylla flushed a deep red. Cyrus thought Annelida was being a little cruel, honestly.
Cyrus could feel a sort of tension in the air, and didn't really want to think about what the source might be. It made breakfast a less enjoyable affair than usual, but they tried to be hospitable for their new companion, Visca.
"So this sort of fare is what you eat? I suppose it's fine enough." Visca shrugged, and despite her haughty attitude she was eating as quickly as her refined manners allowed.
Annelida and Medulla whispered to each other quietly as Cthylla inhaled her breakfast. Cyrus turned to Garrett, and asked "So Garrett, do you any idea about what I should do next?" Nissa perked up as well, clearly interested in giving Cyrus the tools he needed to fight evil.
"Well… I see two options for progress at this point, the underground jungle or the depths of the dungeon. I'd recommend the jungle first, as the latter has a fierce guardian."
"A fierce guardian? One… like us?" Medulla looked up, and Cyrus had a strange feeling that she would be taking notes if she had a notepad handy.
"Yes, I think. There should be something similar in the depths of the underground jungle, but there are all sorts of things to find in the jungle before fighting the creature, if you even run into it at all."
Cyrus thought getting away from the town for a while might be a good idea. He got up to grab his equipment as the rest of the group finished up breakfast.
After making sure to cover up as much skin as possible to prevent another bug bites incident, Cyrus left for the jungle, and within half a day he had reached the sun soaked hills of the jungle. There was a sweet, almost flowery smell in the air, but Cyrus knew that like the rest of this world, beautiful exteriors could hide fatal interiors.
He was fortunate enough to find a cave entrance before he drowned in sweat, seeking relief from the burning sun and choking humidity. Of course, grabbing a drink of water from the lakes or rivers of the jungles proved inadvisable, as they teemed with razor fanged piranhas which would certainly liberate a few fingers from his hand if he tried to dip in a canteen or bottle for a drink.
The mud of the jungle squished slightly under his feet, but at the very least he was out of the sun. The caves weaved through the earth for a short while, before opening up into a truly massive cavern, shaped like a massive inverted cone, narrowing as the cavern descended deeper into the earth. He could see a massive brickwork structure poking out from the opposite side of the cavern, covered in lush greenery and curling vines bursting with vibrant blue and red flowers; however, Cyrus couldn't spot an entrance that he could reach.
Turning, he saw something he certainly could access: a truly massive beehive, less than a hundred feet from his cave's opening into the cavern. Carefully securing a rope to a particularly tough mahogany root, he began to cautiously climb the flaky mud which crumbled under his hands. He could feel sweat pouring down his palms, soaking into the slick mud and moss under his hands. He could feel his grip slipping, but he got close enough to get a grip on the hive and began to climb the structure of the beehive, inching towards the entrance where he saw bees flying in and out in thick clouds. He realized that maybe diving into a swarm of bees wouldn't be good for his health, and after securing himself via rope to the honeycombs, before tossing a lit torch into the hive's mouth, the smoke and flame spooking the bees as Cyrus climbed in.
The size of the hive was truly massive, easily thirty times Cyrus' height and just as wide, the walls divided into hexagonal cells so tall that Cyrus could stand at this full height inside them without bending over. In the center of hive, separated from him by deep pools of yellow honey, was a sort of larva suspending in a yellow-ish, amber like substance. The air smelled sweet, unsurpisingly like honey, but there was a strange earthy scent in the air as well, in addition to the acrid smell of poison.
Cyrus figured this hive would be as good as place as any to take a break and explore the jungle from, and he turned to block up the entrance somehow, but found himself nearly face to face with a massive wasp, buzzing mere inches from his face, and he dove to the side as it loosed a massive stinger at him. He hit the wasp with the flat of his spear, crushing one of its wings and sending it spiralling into the depths of the cavern. Then he heard a deep, echoing roar that caused any monsters he could see to flee. He turned with growing horror to see a massive bee hovering in the air, wings churning the air and sending ripples into the pools of honey dotting the floor.
He cursed under his breath and took a defensive stance.
Another chapter! If it wasn't clear, the wasp's sting hit the larva and woke the Queen Bee up. I tried to implement some more "ojou-sama" like traits in Visca, and for the name, it's roughly based on the word viscous, plus at this point I might just stick with the names ending in A thing. If you want some more of the whole personified boss goodness (plus my inspiration for Annelida's design) go check out the Reddit user Dukethra, who drew a bunch of personified boss girls. I also tried to lean into the monster side of the girls a bit more today. What do you guys think? I love reading reviews.
