"Fire, we may have a problem here." TehLulz said.

Fire stretched his arms and replied: "Which is?"

TehLulz just said: "Look over the edge."

Fire walked up to the rim around the platform and looked over. But instead of green grass he saw something else green below them, it was a slime. This was no regular slime, it was a slime of enormous proportions. It was a huge flat blob of green material that had a diameter of at least fifteen meters. It had positioned itself directly below their platform, cutting off all possible escape paths.

Fire said dryly: "That is a problem."

TehLulz asked: "What will we do now? I assume that normal weapons aren't going to do damage."

"Nope, they won't. There is practically nothing that can harm a slime apart from extreme heat or anything else that makes it dry up."

TehLulz chuckled: "I don't suppose you have a few tons of salt in your inventory for an occasion like this."

"I am always prepared but not that prepared." Fire answered.

TehLulz said: "I guess I'll just wake up the others and maybe we'll be able to come up with a plan together."

It took a few minutes for everyone to wake up and a few more for Ambigious to be able to form a full sentence outside the topic of being tired. After seeing the slime they got together in the middle of the platform to discuss what they would do.

freeZe asked: "We are not in danger up here, right?"

Fire explained: "This slime doesn't have enough surface tension to form appendages that could reach up here, it absorbed too much water to be able to do that."

Ambigious said: "I assume that if we try to build a bridge outwards it would just follow us. So we need to kill it. Damn it!"

Unchosen asked: "Fire, don't you still have that bottled fireball that you caught in the Nether?"

"Yes but that is by far not enough to evaporate the water in the slime. The only other thing that we have that could do such a thing is the blaze core and that's sealed right now. The explosion from unlocking it would be too strong for us to use."

freeZe flinched at the mention of the blaze core, probably not wanting to repeat her experience with it.

TehLulz asked: "Can we outrun it?"

"That would make as much sense as trying to outrun a storm tide. The bigger a slime is the more quickly it can move." Fire replied.

They were out of ideas. There was nothing they could do except sit there and try to think of ways to kill or avoid the slime. The sun had proceeded to rise and now was already a good bit higher up in the sky. freeZe was constantly walking around on the platform and in general seemed nervous.

"Are you alright freeZe? Is there something you want to say?" Fire asked.

She replied: "I have an idea how we could get out of this but it is risky and I am not sure if I want to try it."

Fire turned to her and said: "Let's hear it."

freeZe took a deep breath and said: "Yesterday you talked about this whole thing with my life force being able to take control over my body. What if I could willingly give it control so that it can exert its power? It should attack the slime, right? Seeing that it is in a similar mind as me."

Fire answered: "Giving it control you say. Yes that is possible. But as you said it is also risky. We don't know what 'you' would do."

Ambigious threw in: "If we have no other way we might as well try it."

Fire scratched his chin and said: "That is very true." He turned to freeZe again and said: "I'll teach you how to give it control. To do this you need to be perfectly calm. First you must lay down on the ground."

freeZe did as Fire said but then asked: "I thought you were no magic user, how do you know how to do this?"

Fire replied: "I did study a fair bit of magic theory."

"Alright." freeZe said.

Fire explained: "Okay, listen. Close your eyes. You need to relax your entire body, try not to use any of your muscles at all. Good… Now do the same with your thoughts, just let them be. You may be familiar with this if you have ever done any meditation."

At first nothing happened but then freeZe's eyes opened and just like in the Graveyard of the Forest her entirely green eyes had started glowing. It wasn't quite as noticeable since the sun was shining but the light was still clearly visible against her pitch black skin.

freeZe, rather her body now under the command of her life force, rose up and looked around, then went over to the edge. Upon spotting the slime she made a gesture with her hand but nothing happened. She tried it again with the same result.

She slowly turned her head towards Fire and said a single word. The voice he heard was nothing like her normal voice, it was distorted and multilayered, similar to that of the Wither cultists.

"Flames." She said.

Fire gave her a questioning look.

She said again: "Need flames."

Fire now understood what she demanded, he closed his eyes and opened his inventory. He dragged a bottle of fire to his hotbar and as he opened his eyes again the bottle was in his right hand.

"Yes." freeZe said.

Fire walked over to her and uncorked the bottle and handed it to her. She took it in her left hand and held her right hand like a bowl. She then proceeded to pour the liquid flames over her right hand. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air but freeZe didn't even flinch. The flames had now gathered into a ball that was floating above her open hand. She just dropped the bottle, making Fire dive for it so it wouldn't shatter.

Going back to the edge again freeZe held the flame up above her, the ball of fire seemed to have gotten bigger. She leaned over the railing and pointed her hand downwards. Fire could feel how large amounts of energy were being focused into the flame in freeZe's hand.

"Down!" He shouted and threw himself to the ground.

The others were a bit confused but immediately did the same as the air around them started heating up.

Suddenly there was a bright flash and a heat wave washed over them. They could hear sizzling and smelled burnt plants along with another strange smell, which they assumed was the slime.

Moments later the heat was gone and was replaced by silence. The silence got interrupted a few more moments later by freeZe screaming in pain. Fire stood up and rushed over to his friend. A good portion of her skin was scorched, so were her clothes. Her already black hair seemed to have gotten even blacker and her skin was riddled with blisters. Tears of pain were streaming down her face.

Ambigious was the next one to arrive, he asked: "Damn, that looks nasty. Are you alright?"

freeZe forced a smile and said: "It's pretty bad but you should see the other guy."

Unchosen looked over the railing and discovered that freeZe's spell had burnt all plants in the immediate area, only leaving scorched earth. The slime had been reduced to a layer of semitransparent goo, it wasn't moving anymore.

Unchosen announced: "The slime should be dead."

Fire also took a look and said: "It is most definitely dead. This will also give us a safe landing if we jump down. In fact I will go down there right now and collect some of the slime, it's pretty valuable." After a small pause he added: "freeZe, you'll get healed when we are at my base."

"I don't think I can walk." freeZe said weakly.

"I'll have to carry you then."

After those words he jumped down. His impact was cushioned by the now almost solid slime. He started mining the layer of slime with his pickaxe, leaving a landing zone for the others.

About half an hour later the group was standing on the scorched ground, Fire had mined all the remaining slime and was now carrying freeZe in his arms, she was still plagued by the pain from her burns. Fire asked Ambigious and TehLulz to go in front to clear away the plants in their path, Unchosen formed the one-man rear guard with Fire's bow in hand.

"We'll be at my base in just a few hours. Just try to keep yourself together freeZe, you'll get all the rest you want." Fire reassured her.