CHAPTER TWO_SLIME ATTACK (WITH A MIX OF TROLLS AND ORCS TOO)
"Alright, let's help," declared Shinji.
Unit One stood up to its full height and started to scan the distant horde to try to understand the looming threat. There seemed to be two main problems. Behind Unit One was a big hole in Summerise's protective wall. Behind that defensive wall was the town that surrounded the grey turreted castle. Bastion was organising soldiers on the ground at said gap. Rows and rows of pikes, swords and bows were lining up. Archers were also making their way along the top of the walls and into the turrets and embrasures dotted along the undamaged sections of wall.
From his height, Shinji could see that some siege weapons were being wheeled out from wherever they were stored. Satisfied that everything possible was being done behind his position, he stood at the ready to receive orders.
[…]
And Shinji remained at attention, ready for orders.
[Shinji, there's no radio here, remember? I think you should just do what you can.]
"Uh, right. Sorry."
[Stop apologising so much.]
"But mum, what should we do? I'm…I'm nervous that I'll mess it up again," Shinji said to Unit One.
[This isn't your first fight against a giant monster. You should know the basics by now, right?]
"Yes, I do. But normally, Misato's the one who comes up with the crazy winning strategy," Shinji responded. "Every time I've done something on my own, things have gone wrong."
[What do you mean?]
"Well, against the Fourth Angel, I went against Misato's orders and attacked, even though my friends were in the entry plug with me, and we were almost out of power. I won, but by less than a second. Then, this time against the Twelfth Angel, we got sucked in and I nearly died."
Unit One's consciousness seemed to consider that for a moment. But his mother quickly dismissed his concerns.
[You killed the Fourth Angel though, right? And you're still alive now after we escaped that weird Angel.]
"But…"
[Buut, the job was DONE. It wasn't perfect, but how could it be against an enemy we've never fought before? Have some confidence in yourself. Mistakes happen. Remember the goal.]
There was another flash of red in his mind, and the warm feeling of a smile.
[Wow, Shinji. You really should have led with that one. See? That time you took the initiative was a great success!]
Shinji sputtered. "Mum, please don't. Can we…can we talk about this later?"
This enhanced ability of Unit One (or his mother, really) to communicate with him ever since escaping the Twelfth Angel was really starting to annoy him. Despite his embarrassment, a warm feeling that reminded him intensely of a happy laugh emanated from the bottom of the entry plug and filled his heart with mirth.
The time Shinji had used to unsuccessfully come up with some sort of a plan with his mother had allowed the incoming horde to inch ever closer to Summerise. Time was running out for Shinji to blunt the attack. He had to come up with a plan somehow. What could he do with an Evangelion and a progressive knife? He didn't have the ability of Misato Katsuragi to come up with ingenious tactics and strategies on the fly and use whatever was available to her advantage.
"Mum, give me a minute please," he said as he ordered the unit to kneel and then partially ejected the entry plug and opened the hatch.
"Commander Bastion, it's Shinji," he shouted as loudly as he could while jumping off the back of Unit One, and then running towards where Knight-Commander Bastion was organising his troops. "Commander!"
Bastion turned around as Shinji approached. "What is it? What's happening?"
"There's a big army of monsters and in the back is a giant slime. I'm going to go out there and try to stop them," Shinji said, as valiantly as he could. "I-My mech and I can do this!"
"Mech? Oh, you mean the giant purple thing?" asked Bastion. Shinji nodded. "Alright. We're going to need whatever help you can give us."
"Commander Bastion, do you know how to fight these things?" asked Shinji. He was missing pretty much all his arsenal. No explosives, no guns, and no better close combat tools than the progressive knife and Unit One's hands and feet. He really wished that one of Tokyo-3's arsenal buildings would just materialise out of thin air.
He suddenly wished that he'd paid more attention in that self-defence class his generally uninterested tutor-foster-parent had signed him up to all those years ago.
Bastion thought for a while. "My scouts have told me, just like you, that there are orcs and trolls plus the biggest damn slime they've ever seen coming this way. The orcs and trolls are standard fare here. My army and Templar-Commander Redwood's people can take them. The trolls are the bigger threat because they're so big. One could wipe out rows of my knights and solders in one hit. Tell you what, leave the orcs and anything the size of a man to our soldiers. If you can take some of them out conveniently, then we won't complain. Target anything bigger than a man, and especially the slime. We have nothing that can really stop them."
"O-Ok. I'll do my best, Commander Bastion," Shinji forced out. He tried to sound brave, but he was sure Marcus could hear the nervousness in his voice. Shinji was most definitely shaking inside. He had no way to communicate with anyone outside Unit One. He was normally alone, and he generally enjoyed the solitude. But this time, he was dreading going into battle without the support that he normally enjoyed. He now realised just how much of a team NERV was and how much he had taken for granted. Even all the monotonous training and drills meant something now.
With that, Bastion sprinted back to what he was doing before, organising his people for the best defence they could mount. Shinji sprinted the short distance back to Unit One and leapt into the entry plug, sealing it behind him.
"Ok. Ok, I…I think I know what to do," said Shinji, probably more to convince himself than anyone else. "I'm ready."
[OK, Shinji. I'll be here as always. We'll do this together.]
Shinji gripped the control yokes. He drew upon a reserve of determination he didn't even know he had. He had a sort-of-plan forming in his head. He remembered that giant eldritch monsters were best faced head on. After all, it seemed to work against the Fourth Angel and even that big one in the ocean. Shinji couldn't remember many details about that battle apart from there being a big thing with a lot of teeth, but he did remember the most important part of that battle and how a certain Asuka Langley Soryu had intruded into his life and demanded an extravagant amount of his attention.
[Shinji, this is probably not the time for this kind of thing…]
His reverie was cut short by his mother's soul reminding him that he had a job at hand. What was important at that moment, was the objective. If I ever want to see Misato, Asuka, Ayanami, Touji and Kensuke again, I have to win this fight first.
Shinji had Evangelion Unit One crouch down into the classic runner's starting position. He took a few seconds to plan out his next steps. AT Field full power, track and neutralise the big ones first, then attack the Big Slime. OK, let's go.
Shinji willed Unit One to start sprinting, just like he did during the mad-dash intercept of the Tenth Angel with his comrades. He felt Unit One's heels digging into the earth, phantom sensations making it feel like he was stretching the muscles and tendons in his leg in sympathy.
If Shinji was to think about it, the approaching horde was quite a long way away by foot. But he was watching this from the vantage point of his Evangelion. Unit One was a formidable sprinter and with the advantage of an AT-Field, Shinji hoped it was nigh on invincible. As he accelerated toward the generic fantasy monsters, he pulled out Unit One's progressive knife and activated it, the knife's familiar hum and vibrations sang up the Evangelion's nerves and into his own arm in the entry plug. And then, a few seconds later, he slammed into the nearest troll, which had literally no idea what hit it. Why would it have any idea what the technological marvel eviscerating it with a knife was? The first troll fell in a heap before it even stopped and lifted its weapon in readiness, Unit One and Shinji not even giving its defeated foe a thought as they sprinted towards their next target.
Shinji was focused on the big targets, and as he willed Unit One towards them, its giant armoured feet pulverising the ground, trampling bushes, orcs and imps alike, whilst stirring up the soft soil and lush grass, in turn heavily disrupting the formations of the remaining army underfoot. A great number were squashed beneath Unit One as it leapt and bound through the host of fantasy monsters, slaying trolls. Shinji was in the zone where he was focused only on the objective, only on the goal. And he didn't care what else was happening around him. Admittedly, it was easier than going up against the Angels. Even if he was alone and had no backup team, it wasn't like trolls and orcs had AT Fields or progressive knifes, or particle beams, and though they wore armour, his progressive knife was designed to fight giant alien abominations with astronomical toughness, not flesh protected only by leather and rudimentary plate. His progressive knife carved through the armour as easily as a jet fighter cut through the air.
Unit One's progressive knife warmed the air, humming its note of death as it went. The orcs and trolls would roar in defiance against the neon purple and green Evangelion. But underneath the garish paint scheme was also what its ultimate masters would call a monster controlled by two intelligences. It did not scream or roar in anger, and it did its work in comparative silence. It blocked large tree trunks being used as clubs, its arms caught punches aimed at its head, and dealt it all back with interest.
Given the chaos Shinji was able to render unto the monster horde, he was surprised when a few of the trolls rallied and made a group attack against him. Three in front, one each coming from the left and right, plus another coming from behind. Each of the giant trolls had a lightly modified tree trunk in its hand.
Despite knowing that Unit One was most definitely the superior fighting unit, Shinji had never really faced off against more than one Angel at a time. Except that one time, with Asuka, and that was technically one Angel split in half. Even though the trolls were armed with nothing but clubs made of barely shaved trees, and pieces of crudely beaten metal for knives and swords, Shinji knew that getting hit by one of those would still hurt, and would cause damage to Unit One.
He suddenly wished she was next to him. At least, he reasoned, she had received more training than he did in combat and would be able to think of more than brute force tactics, like stab-stab, punch-punch. At least he hoped that was the case. Asuka hadn't necessarily shown off any of her tactical prowess while in the entry plug during their battles together. She delighted in displaying her own notion of brute force. Maybe she hadn't had to, since Misato had been in charge every time they sortied.
I miss everyone.
Shinji noted where the trolls were as the titanic combatants sized each other up. While he had increased his confidence level recently, increased synch ratio and been part of a string of victories to the Evangelion Pilot Corps, he was still wary that he could make a mistake. Indeed, he had made a mistake which ultimately led him here. To this day. To this battle. To this moment.
He decided that there was probably no better tactic than brute force when it was six-against-one. So, he and Unit One sprinted into the fray, barrelling down on the three trolls attacking him from the front. He turned Unit One's left shoulder pylon into the incoming attacks at the last moment, hoping the big heavy trees would be shattered against the strengthened alloy and composite armour. The subsequent jolt and pain radiating through his left arm in sympathy told him it hadn't completely worked. But he had managed to give the trolls pause, and taking his chance, brought his progressive knife up to slice off hands at wrists and arms at elbows.
The two trolls Shinji had delimbed bellowed in pain, staggering back in surprise and fear whilst grabbing at their formerly complete appendages. Shinji pressed the attack, using the momentum he carried to stab and slice at their torsos. In a matter of seconds, it was down to four-against-one. The other flanking trolls had seen their comrades fall, all that despite being successful in landing hits on the purple and green colossus.
Shinji was in a state of bloodlust, rational thought having escaped him for the moment. He was in the zone like he was in the last thirty seconds against the Fourth Angel. Pain was forgotten. Noise was secondary. Everything else was irrelevant, aside for the need to destroy his enemy. The trolls had circled around now, grouped together in a line, and began advancing quickly but cautiously, their hastily bodged wood and metal weapons raised high in anticipation of making the first strikes.
He did not wait for the figurative tree hammers to fall. Shinji figured out that Unit One's mobility was a great weapon against the lumbering trolls. He and Unit One jumped above their heads, mustering the memory of that dance routine against the Seventh Angel (or Angels, from a certain point of view). On the downward part of the trajectory, he had Unit One execute a somersault, leading to a straight kick to the face of which ever troll happened to be in Shinji's path.
Now dear reader, it should be said that while one or more Angels that could eventually attack Tokyo-3 might have looked like a troll, these trolls engaging Unit One were most definitely not comparable to Angels. They did not have the tough armoured hide, the S2 Engines, the frankly weird and mystical weapons, and they also lacked AT Fields. Humanity had spent a lot of money, blood, sweat and tears to build the Evangelions to defeat Angels. Because of this, they were very much over-designed in battles against primitive trolls. This was unfortunate for the trolls currently engaged in combat with Evangelion Unit One. Unit One's boot impacted the left-most troll's head. However, the momentum the Evangelion carried from its jump meant it carried on with negligible change in velocity through the subsequent layers of bone and soft tissue.
Unit One landed, turned back and slashed out with its progressive knife before the first unfortunate troll's body had even realised it was dead. The second unfortunate troll's back erupted with bloody gore in sympathy, any ability to fight lost in an instant. The third troll swung its tree trunk wildly at Unit One, reminding Shinji of his ill-fated attempts at hitting baseballs in Tokyo-3 during school sports classes. In his mind, he ducked the swinging wood, and Unit One performed the action almost instantaneously owing to his elevated synch ratio. The fourth and last also swung for all it was worth and managed to catch Unit One's right shoulder as it was moving down.
"Garrrgh!" screamed Shinji as the pain from the feedback system coursed through his being. He pushed through it though, returning a left-hooked punch from the Evangelion's armoured fist to the fourth troll's face. He instinctively threw in a right upper cut too, which disoriented his opponent. He finished the attack with a stab to the troll's heart from the progressive knife and spun around to search for his final opponent in the group.
He found the troll to his right, seemingly unsure of whether to run home to its mother or press an attack that was quickly becoming very obviously suicidal. Shinji was panting in the entry plug, adrenaline coursing through him from the frantic action, helping to full the pain from the hits he'd sustained. He glared at the troll in the entry plug, subconsciously trying to funnel his wild, unfettered aggression at it. The troll seemed to take the hint as it stared at Unit One's eyes. Even though they were simply slits in the otherwise armoured helmet, the Evangelion seemed to exude menace and death. It had just obliterated its comrades after all.
The troll turned and ran, not caring that it caused further chaos in the ranks of the orc horde beneath its feet. Shinji simply smiled, breathing a little easier now.
But his small celebration was cut short as a huge shadow appeared over him. Through sheer instinct, Shinji dived just in time, as the main threat of the horde announced its arrival to the arena of battle.
Mind you, the Great Big Slime as Shinji decided to call it, was very quiet for a monster of its girth. He hypothesised that it was because it was one big fat lump of swirly incensed red and orange jelly. It was kind of cute, he had to admit. If it were smaller and not about to attack a town full of people, he'd consider adopting it as a pet much like Misato had adopted Pen Pen. Its bulk carried two slightly translucent, dark areas that he assumed were eyes, set just underneath the surface, which gave Shinji the only indication of where 'front' of the monster was. It felt like they were giving him the cutest, most angry look it could. Still, it didn't seem to have a mouth that could swallow Unit One nor crush it with teeth like the Sixth Angel threatened to do. That was a bonus.
[Watch it Shinji, I have a feeling this won't be an easy fight.]
"I know mum, I want to see what it does first," he replied almost absentmindedly. Unit One's progressive knife was at the ready, excitedly humming away in the Evangelion's right hand.
Despite its size and pudginess, the Great Big Slime was quick. It was almost as agile as Unit One. Shinji managed to dodge the first lunge it made at him by only a few metres, to which he replied with an instinctive slash with the progressive knife. Despite piercing the skin of the creature, and some of its jelly-like flesh leaking out, it carried on as if it had encountered to no harm.
"Alright, the knife's probably going to be useless then," muttered Shinji to himself. Despite that, he felt like he needed the psychological comfort of having a proper weapon at hand. He slashed a few more times at the Slime's flank, dealing what would have been devastating damage to anything but this creature.
[That's not working very well, is it?]
Perhaps this time the Great Big Slime really did feel it. It turned as it jumped up and landed facing him. The two eyes seemed to burn with fury as it gave Unit One the best death stare it could muster. Despite this, Shinji still thought it looked pretty darn cute.
In response, Unit One stepped back and ran into a grove of large trees, plucking a large one from the ground with both arms straining against the pull of the roots. Once it was out, Shinji sprinted towards the Slime and hurled it like a makeshift javelin, aimed squarely at one his foe's eyes.
In the clamour and heat of pitched battle, lots of things probably seem like great ideas in their moment. This attempt at ranged combat probably would have worked better against any other enemy. But Shinji received another not so subtle reminder that slimes are soft creatures. The tree-javelin sailed as gracefully as it could and penetrated into his target with a noise that sounded very much like a long and wet fart.
He would have giggled if the situation were not so dire.
The Great Big Slime did not miss a beat, continuing to bounce its way towards Unit One. Shinji wracked his brain, but since he had no other option, pulled some more large trees out of the ground and hurled them into his foe eliciting a string of squelchy mayhem that his inner child had trouble resisting. Despite this enthusiastic effort, he might as well have thrown toothpicks against a giant. Each of the trees seemed to settle comfortably into the Slime, the first trees already starting to dissolve.
"Am I just…feeding it?" asked Shinji absentmindedly. Maybe he should stop throwing things at the Great Big Slime. Clearly it wasn't having any effect on it apart from helping restore some of the matter it had leaked from being hit repeatedly with the progressive knife. "Mother, any ideas here?"
[Maybe, Shinji. You're going to need to trust me if I suggest something a little crazy…]
"I…I'm listening. I mean the Angels I've fought so far have been nearly eaten me, I've caught a massive flying eye and jumped into a volcano. Also, my guardian has a pet hot springs penguin…"
[OK Shinji, focus. My idea is going to sound weird. You need to jump inside the Slime. I'll do the rest.]
"Alright, I'll jump…wait wh-what?"
[Jump inside the Slime. I'll use Unit One's new power source to kill it.]
"Mum, wh-what new power source?"
[I think Unit One ate that weird Shadow Angel's S2 Engine when we escaped. If that hadn't happened, we wouldn't even be fighting right now, let alone be alive.]
"Uh, OK. I don't know what that is, but that explains a lot. Are you sure this is a good idea Mother?"
[…I don't have a better one.]
Shinji mulled it over for a while. He could hold off the Great Big Slime, but not forever. There were limits to how long he could last in combat. He didn't have any weapons that could hurt it, and if the fight lasted too long, the fight would drift ever closer to the already broken wall of Summerise. A glance back told revealed that the soldiers were doing a decent job of pushing the orc horde back. The archers at the ramparts and those on the ground were using the hole in the wall to their advantage, firing their arrows and even hurling rocks and spears into the gap as if it were a funnel into which they were concentrating all of their rage.
Thinking on his current circumstances, Shinji knew that his mother had a point, the Slime had to be stopped before it got closer to the town. Nothing he had could possibly do the job. He wished he could call Misato right now and ask for one of the Evangelion sized bazookas. Asuka usually hogged those, and he always thought they reflected her rather explosive personality very well.
"I... neither do I, Mother. Then we'll have to try it your way. What do we need to do?"
[The best way to do this is to be inside that Slime. You'll have to think of a way to get into it.]
"Alright, I'll think of a safe way to get inside it?" said Shinji, resigned to his fate. A safe way to get inside the Great Big Slime? What was he talking about? He was already having trouble with holding off the Slime from the outside and diverting its attention away from the vulnerable town. There was no way he could do that effectively when inside it. Unless it was killed when they were inside it.
"I really hope this works!"
Shinji urged Unit One forward once again, trying to coax the Slime's attention away from Summerise. It worked. The Great Big Slime clearly thought that the Evangelion was the biggest threat to its mission of wibbly-wobbly (and very cute) mass destruction. It needed and wanted to eliminate any potential interference posed by the purple giant. The Slime also charged by bouncing towards Unit One. It was deceptively quick given its gelatinous composition, and soon Shinji found he and Unit One were about to run headlong into its pudgy bulk.
Shinji stepped to the left at the last second, but kept running around the Slime's body, with Unit One's progressive knife humming joyfully as he rendered a long, continuous slice along its skin. Almost immediately, the Slime started leaking its semi-solid innards on to the ground. Any plants the matter touched seemingly recoiling in fear or disgust. There was no time to think about that now. The Slime was clearly after him, he could almost see the fire in its beady translucent eyes. It even seemed to glow, its interior a swirling mess of red and orange fire. It almost looks like her hair in the wind. He pushed the thought back into the back of his mind before it overwhelmed him. The Slime was jumping lower now, probably knowing that every time it moved, more of itself would spill out on the ground. Shinji took a chance. He commanded Unit One to spring and then dove straight inside his foe.
And Shinji instantly regretted it.
Whatever stuff the Great Big Slime's immune system was made of did not react well to Evangelion. He could feel cold probing pin pricks all over his body, the sympathetic connection between him and his chariot telling him that this was Not A Good Place. He pushed through, reminding himself that he'd taken much worse. I mustn't run away, I mustn't give up, I mustn't run away.
[OK Shinji. It's my turn.]
He felt a great warmth spread through his body. It was comforting. From somewhere down in the bowels of the Evangelion, he could hear a great hum and whir and the bottom of the entry plug became iridescent red. The screen started to crackle; the image marred with increasing amounts of static.
Oh no! The armour! It must be giving up or something!
He could see that Unit One's hands started to sparkle as electricity started to flow along its fingertips.
"Mother, what's going on? Are you doing this?"
[Yes, son. I just hope this works.]
And then the world became very loud and brilliantly white.
Author's notes:
High everyone, your friendly neighbourhood fanfic author here. I hope you enjoy this action packed update. It was a good deal of fun to write.
In the next episode - A girl calls Shinji pathetic while looking at him. Shinji walks while looking at his feet. And Knight-Commander Bastion looks at people while speaking.