But for a Slime

Chapter Ninety Seven

Lanly stifled his grin at seeing the man but if he was in a dungeon leading apprentices through a dungeon, he was strong, very strong. That gave them a chance that at least the third floor might have been cleared by the man, especially as he’d seen how easily he’d killed the cat. Carlister ran behind him, huffing badly as his stamina had obviously bottomed out, but the oncoming dungeon break was not something either felt comfortable resting while it was going on. Gotta block the mobs behind us… apprentice or the man? Slow him just enough? Maybe…

Lanly made his choice and he slowed, beckoning Carlister on ahead of him. Even as he did so, Lanly glanced up in surprise when the stranger in front of them called out.

“Everything OK? Need help?”

Lanly controlled his surprise, and continued on, pretending to not have heard the man. Just a bit more… a little more…

Carlister wheezed past the stranger likely a dying horse on its last breath even as Lanly quickly sped up to catch up to him. As he slipped by, Lanly flicked out his blade, aiming a slice at the man’s open thigh. His sword flickered out with barely a movement but the stranger reacted faster than Lanly thought was possible and he quickly leapt away, passing by the man. Lanly’s breath quickened and a spike of fear shivered up through him as he sprinted quickly away from the man, glancing back over his shoulder to see the man already standing with bloody red trousers sticking to his thigh but the blood was already evaporating.

Lanly shivered then shouted out, “Dungeon break! Better run now!”

Loki’s silver balls! I hope that shocks him enough… and that he cares about his apprentices enough!

Lanly ran down the corridor with frequent looks back but then grew relaxed when he noticed the stranger turning to speak with his apprentices. Only Loki’s luck! He only relaxed when he rounded the corner before tension rose once again as they raced away from a dungeon break.

* * *

Zilnek stared in shocked joy to see Lanly and Carlister running towards them. His shock was enough that he softly cried out their names, awed to see them. That joy turned to a bit of confusion to see them running so quickly towards and past them. He then simply froze, staring at the bloody wound on Joe’s leg before fear began crawling all up and down his spine when he heard one of the two greatest dungeon divers of Coushar shout out to them, wonder at how Joe was injured evaporating from his mind.

“Dungeon Break! Better run now!”

Master turned to them both with confusion on his face and fear turned to horror when he heard master speak.

“What is a dungeon break? I’ve got an idea, but…a quick explanation if you don’t mind?”

Garnedell replied to Joe, explaining but Zilnek found his breathing quickly turning to panting as fear’s slick fingers crawled throughout his body. He heard nothing, fear slithering through all his thoughts, leaving room for only a single thought. Run! Run! Run! Save yourself! Run! The monsters are coming! Run!

Zilnek’s thoughts swirled ever tighter around that single idea firmly tied with the knowledge he would die! The two greatest had run, which could only mean the monsters were following closely after. His eyes flickered to master’s bloody leg and realized with his wound, master could never escape. That realization brought a new horror. A sacrifice! A plan that sickened him despite his overwhelming desire to flee and survive began to form in his mind. His eyes flicked up at Joe, noticing his curiosity but not fear. No, too strong!

He then looked towards Garnedell and his heart shivered. His eyes turned from Garnedell and slithered down to the spear in Joe’s hand, pointed out to the side so as to not hit Garnedell but so close to him; only a short distance away. Zilnek’s panic froze to a single moment, his eyes unable to tear themselves away from the spear. He did not know how long he stayed frozen like that, staring at the spear, but it felt like eternity, Joe and Garendell’s conversation happening at a distance so great he only heard the sound of rushing noise.

Suddenly, a massive roar echoed through the dungeon, followed by a second and third. The roars were soon backed by the sound of a hoard of stomping feet and the rustling of a massive crowd of beasts. The roar of oncoming monsters shook all three of them and brought Zilnek to awareness, his thoughts no longer lost in fear, only the plan forefront in his mind.

Grab it hard! No spear skill! Hard and push! Zilnek reach a hand out and grasped the spear close to the head of the spear and pushed as hard as he could towards Garnedell. The spear leapt in his hand like a wild beast, utterly outside of his control, but it was enough. The blade of the spear dug into Garnedell’s thigh and thrashed its way into it in a jagged lightning like scar. It thumped off Garnedell’s bone and Zilnek winced in sympathy but continued to push, and the blade slid off the bone and ripped across the rest of his thigh, past his groin and into the other thigh. The three star artifacts of Joe fell from his back with a loud echoing clang even as Zilnek turned and fled, tears streaming from his eyes while a wild scream of horror filled pain ripped from Garnedell’s throat echoed by a terror filled one from himself.

* * *

Joe grumped angrily, the damage from the stranger’s passing already gone but his old world Earth sensibilities understood just how horrible the wound had been. Despite having healed completely with only a small hit to his HP, he struggled to control the righteous anger that boiled violently within him. He shoved that anger down, for now, considering that Garnedell and Zilnek had both reacted very badly to the man’s final cry.

“What is a dungeon break?”

Garnedell immediately answered, but with significant fear, “The monsters have become enraged. They will not stay within the dungeon. They will all rush for the exit and attack the city. We must flee!”

Joe frowned. OK. Bad. Very bad!

“We need to get out?”

Garnedell quickly nodded his head, “Yes. Now!”

“How about hiding in a corner?”

Garnedell seemed to pause at that before shaking his head in consternation, “I don’t know. I only know all delvers have said you must flee no matt… Aaaaah!”

Joe felt his spear jerk in his hand like a wild bronco even as it was pulled towards Garnedell. Joe flinched in horror when he saw the spearhead slice into Garnedell’s thigh like butter and quickly dropped his sword to wrap another hand around it to somehow bring it under control. Then the moment seemed to freeze in his sight when the blade slashed hard against Garnedell’s femur. Joe’s eyes flickered down to see another hand on his spear. His eyes traveled up the arm to what he knew he would see but disbelieving horror still demanded that he check. His eyes locked on Zilnek’s face even as he jerked and pushed wildly one last time, pulling the spear to slide past Garnedell’s femur and buried it into Garnedell’s other thigh. Joe’s breath remained frozen and he was unable to gasp even as he saw Zilnek turn away and flee from them, leaving behind a scream of rage and pain and a trail of tumbled star weapons he used to fight the sparks.

Zilnek’s scream barely matched Garnedell’s own second cry of pain, now backed by a full breath as he screamed in pain a second time. The screams intertwined with the bell like tones of the star weapons falling to the floor from Garnedell’s and Zilnek’s shoulders. Joe stared at Garnedell panicking worry, then looked back at Zilnek with burning disbelieving rage, his gaze flicking back and forth with indecision before he finally reigned in his anger and kneeled next to Garnedell.

Joe spoke urgently and calmly, speaking meaningless comforts even as he opened his status with a panic and looked at his skills, searching through them frantically. Heal! Heal! Something to heal! Something to heal a… freakin’ massive … leg cut in half! His eyes skittered down his skills and quickly settled on the medic line of jobs. He found heal, cure all, and magic heal. He quickly yelled out for help to give him information. Magic heal… magic heal is best… I should… It’s… He checked his status quick even as he yelled out to help to check on other details. Need to double check! Make sure…

Help. What is Heal?

The pop up appeared before him even as his eyes slipped down his available skills page till he saw his magic heal skill and grimaced. Still not enough skill level… only two thirds…

Heal: A skill that will teach you how to properly care for a wound.

Yeah… OK! Still royally sucks! Help. What is Cure All? His mind whirled with thought even as he quickly took a look at his jobs list to find a job to swap out. The next pop up rapidly formed even as he wrestled with his job options.

Cure All: A skill that allows the user to cure status effects of various kinds.

Uhh… nope. Yeah… seems like Magic Heal’s my only option… that… Arg! Help! What is Magic Heal!

Magic Heal (Magic Healer class): A skill that can heal a minor amount of damage to a person. Uses mana to heal. Amount of damage healed is proportional to mana used.

Magic Heal (Faith Healer class): A skill that can heal a minor amount of damage to a person. Fifty percent chance to heal without mana. Ten percent chance of failure. If mana is used, amount of damage healed is proportional to mana used. Requires faith in a god or goddess and for that god or goddess to respond.

Ooh! Yeah… that’s really my only option… right?! Joe’s thoughts skittered in panic even as he struggled to find an option. Gotta have something better than magic heal, right? I gotta… He spent another few moments, searching through his skills list even as he just decided to change any job just to get access to magic heal. Need magic heal. So Magic healer or Faith healer. Joe felt himself dithering and freaked out as he looked up at Garnedell and noticed how pale he was. That only had him even more paralyzed as he struggled to figure out what to do, fear having him skittering through his skills in search of anything that could help even as magic heal awaited him. It sucks… it’s… not enough! It’ll never be… He glanced back at Garnedell and fear swelled further and he scrambled even faster in his attempts to find anything that was useful.

Suddenly, a yowl echoed down the hallway and Joe scowled when he looked up and noticed a cat scrabbling down towards him. Joe growled a curse quietly under his breath and ignored the cat, turning back to his status but looking up to keep the cat in his field of view while he focused on his skill list. As soon as it came close, he whipped his sword up without thought and had it lined up upon the cat, an easy fluidity to his movement. With a single thought, the mana point zapped up into the point of the sword just the split second before the cat impaled itself. It died within a split second even as Joe flipped his sword to the side to whip the corpse off his sword before turning back to Garnedell. Panic swelled again as he looked at him. What can I do? That’s… He made it to the end of the list and grimaced in fearful anger even as he waffled. What… what do I… Joe glanced back and Garnedell and saw him looking up at him, a soft smile on his face and a peaceful acceptance as he stared at him. Joe’s guts heaved, and he took a deep stuttering breath. Not the time! Can’t fail… no faith. Change job staffman to Magic healer!