That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 3

by Fuse

  They could hear all the shrill complaints above the Ting! Ka-shing! of solid metal clashing against metal.

  “I swear, you guys… Why do you do all this dangerous crap every single time?! How do you even survive, performing all this utter nonsense? I knew I was putting too much faith in you… Dah! Elen! Look out! It’s headed over there!”

  The noise grew louder. They could hear the entire conversation now. They were humans, apparently ambushed by monsters. Several of them, Yohm figured, based on how the sounds of battle never halted for a moment.

  “What now, bro?”

  Yohm wasn’t sure. He didn’t answer, instead carefully eyeing the woods ahead.

  He had thirty men under his command, but by adventurer standards, they’d be a C rank at best. Maybe Kazhil, his partner in crime, could manage a B—and Yohm himself, while confident in his strength, didn’t have that much experience against monsters. Thinking rationally, they were better off letting them be.

  What a pain in the ass… Well, sorry, you guys, but we’re outta here— Wait. That girl?!

  Just was he was prepared to give the order, Yohm spotted a woman running at them from ahead. There was the sound of a female among the voices he heard; it must have been one of the fighters.

  “Dehh! All of you, prepare for battle. That bitch spotted us!”

  Yohm’s Farsight skill let him see the situation clearly. A large male fighter was using his shield to fend off an attack from a spider, but it got sent flying after one strike made it through his parrying.

  The spider, opting not to pursue its opponent, changed its focus to the woman some distance behind. It must have been intelligent enough to leave the tougher, dicier foes for later. And indeed, the woman was quick and unerring in her moves—the moment the spider was upon her, she was already fleeing.

  Truly, a seasoned adventurer. Yohm took a moment to marvel at the sight—long enough for one of the spider’s eyes to focus squarely upon his group. This spider chasing the girl was a true monster, its body protected by an exoskeleton harder than steel that defended almost everything except its joints. It could move all those many joints freely and easily, making it far quicker than any human. Each leg was as sharp as the keenest of blades, ready to slice through any tree trunk or human torso. They weren’t swords so much as retractable spears.

  It was likely the “boss” of the local territory, and between its foreboding appearance and its apparent strength, it was a far cry from any monster Yohm’s band had defeated before.

  Those adventurers look pretty expert, so they’ll probably hold out for now, but attrition’s gonna kill ’em in the end… That swordsman’s still keeping things pretty even, but…

  All the same, Yohm didn’t expect this to end well for any of them.

  “That… That’s a knight spider! An A-minus monster! Oh no… Yohm, there’s no way we can defeat it. Let’s go! We’re just no match for it!!”

  Rommel, using the elemental magic spell Clairvoyance, was already looking pallid as he gave the report to his boss.

  Yohm wasn’t interested in listening. “Forget it. Look at that monster move. It can use the trees to go wherever it wants. Once that party’s annihilated, we’re gonna be next—it’ll hunt us down in an instant and kill us all. Running at full speed ain’t gonna save us now, huh?”

  He had no knowledge about knight spiders, but Yohm was still coolheaded enough to instinctively feel what this monster meant. Those instincts told him that fleeing was not in the cards. So he decided to fight back.

  They were surrounded by trees—trees that the spider could cross more quickly than skittering across the ground to catch its prey. Once it caught sight of you, it was all but hopeless. These were the knight spider’s hunting grounds, and Yohm’s men were the hapless prey. The only way to survive was to slay the foe—that offered the only potential for survival they had.

  Yohm steeled himself. “Dammit, I’ll make you pay for dragging us into this, ya bastards! Rommel, cast some strengthening magic on me! Kazhil, you direct our men! Form a circle, and if anyone’s hurt, change ’em out. You’re all gonna survive! That’s an order!”

  Following his command, the band formed a circle formation. In the middle were healers and scouts—men not suited for battle—and Rommel. The rest were forming a shield to protect them. Their orders were to focus exclusively on defense and not launch any attack. Instead, they would let the fighters in the safe zone deal damage with arrows and magic.

  The scouts readied their bows, waiting for the knight spider’s advance, as Rommel began to cast a spell. It involved several inscription magics, something he normally never used, as he set about boosting Yohm’s strength. There was the supplemental magic spell Strength, along with Agility, Protection, and Reinforce Weapon—all serving to power up every aspect of his weapons and armor, granting him a great deal more force. It didn’t make them any less anxious about his chances against a knight spider, but it helped.

  Still, Yohm’s heart was serene as he stared the spider down. In a moment, the battle was under way.

  The woman truly had no shame, showing zero hesitation as she made a beeline straight for Yohm’s band.

  “Excuse meeee!” she shouted as she wriggled her way inside the circle, not bothering to ask for permission. The moment she was safe, she took a moment to catch her breath.

  She’s got a lot of nerve, Yohm thought.

  “Whoa! Lady! That’s not fair, going in alone!”

  Somewhere amid the chaos, another man—a thief, by the looks of it—had made his way inside as well. Not a moment off their guard, Yohm thought as he rolled his eyes, but he had other things to attend to.

  “Oh, come on… Are you in any position to whine at me?” the woman said.

  “Whaddaya want from me? There’s nothing I can do against that guy! How am I supposed to strike any kind of lethal blow with a dagger, I ask you?”

  This pair, at least, didn’t seem too concerned about the danger.

  “Geh. I’ll settle things with you later,” Yohm said as turned toward the spider and swung his greatsword at it. He preferred wielding a two-handed weapon like this in place of carrying a shield. It was a good six and a half feet long, bladed on both sides, and the force behind its weight made it a fearsome slashing weapon. That weight also made it extremely hard to handle, but even without magical enhancements, he had the brute strength and ability to easily heft the greatsword to and fro.

  Now he was using that magic support to whip the giant hunk of iron around like a steel demon.

  Hard, solid noise surrounded him, and the tortuous clanggggg irritated his nerves. It was the sound of Yohm’s sword smashing against the knight spider’s leg. It should have been cut cleanly in half, but the exoskeleton was more than capable of resisting this force.

  He groaned. Geh. Damn, it’s tough. Is that what all that sound was before? Then he changed position, hoping to divert the spider from his party’s circle formation. The spider followed, predictably enough, then attempted to spear Yohm with several legs at once. Unfazed, he danced his way through the attacks—the same ones the large fighter parried with his shield earlier. Without any kind of shield, Yohm opted to wend his way through the stabbing legs instead.

  For what seemed like forever, Yohm continually deflected the knight spider’s strikes. It was never-ending for Yohm but a mere instant in reality. Several legs grazed past his cheek, dug into his side, pricked at his legs, but none of the strikes affected the battle.

  He had dodged them all—and as he had the spider’s attention, the man with the shield, along with a lightly equipped swordsman, were back in the battle, equipped with a new set of magical enhancements and ready to fight again.

  “Sorry we got you into this. I’m Kabal. You can whine at me later.”

  “No time for details. Just call me Fuze for now.”

  “Yohm. My band’s nothing but a drag on us, I guess. We’ll have to take care of this ourselves.”

  “Got it.”
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  With that short conversation, the three refocused on the attack. They each moved to surround the knight spider, restricting its movements, taking turns to attract its attention while the others hit at it.

  Faced with this steel-like exoskeleton, no pedestrian attack would cut it. Yohm’s men understood that; none dared any foolish moves. If they failed and a pincer felled one of them, the results would be too terrible to look at.

  They knew their role was not to drag down their leader. They believed Yohm could win, and in the meantime, they reinforced their defenses.

  The magicians Elen and Rommel were each preparing their trademark spells.

  As a sorcerer, Elen’s specialty was elemental magic, granting her access to a large swath of damage-dealing offensive spells. But she was positioned poorly for that. All the trees surrounding them made the most powerful of her flame-based magic out of the question. Magic was all about picturing what you wanted to happen, allowing the caster to change the nature of their spells to some extent…but attempting to corral white-hot flame was a tall order.

  But right now…

  “Let’s see how you like one of my strongest moves! Stone Shot!!”

  In a moment, Elen had converted the stones on the ground into lethal bullets, infusing them with yet more magic force to summon a punishing, coordinated rain of ammunition upon the knight spider. Every magic-enhanced stone bullet was the size of a human fist, and based on its speed and mass, each one delivered several tons’ worth of force. It was a merciless, punishing magical rain.

  Meanwhile, the three fighters were still taking turns to confront the knight spider—Yohm deflecting its strikes with his greatsword, Fuze with his smaller, nimbler sword, and Kabal with his shield. This is what the spider had to deal with as it was pelted by magical bullets from all directions—but none even dented its exoskeleton. They all bounced harmlessly off, knocking the creature slightly off-balance for an instant but doing little else.

  “Awwww… That was my killer move, toooo…”

  The sight of her killer move failing after she used most of her remaining magic force on it astounded Elen. She had already tried out Icicle Lance and Windcutter, and the results were similarly pitiful. Really, the last finisher she had left was also her strongest— Fireball.

  “It’s hardly a surprise,” Rommel commented. “This knight spider is a local boss-class monster, rank A-minus. We can expect it to have a lot of magical resistance. Given how it’s the apex predator around this area, you’d have to expect at least this much strength. It’ll be hard for any of us to land a convincing blow at our levels…”

  “Okay, so now what do we do?”

  Rommel shrugged at Elen. “Nothing left but to help them with support magic, I suppose.”

  Elen tried to counter this brief assessment. But faced with the reality that none of her magic worked, she gave up. She had a feeling, without even trying it out, that Fireball would meet the same fate.

  “Oh, all riiiight! I hate not being in the spotlight and using stuff like this…but I’ve got Magic Barrier on me.”

  Rommel nodded. As a sorcerer himself, he had several inscription magics at his disposal. Those were what he had used on Yohm, and the other two fighters were already enhanced enough.

  “The enemy’s offense is so strong that it just peels away any magic effects on them. It’s over if they break their weapons, so it’s all I can do to keep just Reinforce Weapon going. If you can fully focus on building that Magic Barrier at all times, that’ll help us out.”

  “All right!”

  Elen adjusted her outlook on the battle. She couldn’t deal magic damage, so she was stuck with a support role instead—a role she happened to be first-class at. Calculating her remaining magical force and recovery skills, she distributed her magic as needed for the battle at hand, and Rommel did the same by her side.

  It wasn’t flashy, but it was a consistent approach to magical support as they concentrated on keeping the aid flowing to Yohm, Fuze, and Kabal. He may have said “just” Reinforce Weapon, but he still managed to keep his other spells going as well without interruption.

  It was an impressive, top-level feat from Rommel, the result of him perhaps toughening up a bit and sowing the seeds of his own magical talents during the past few days with Yohm.

  The performance lit a fire in Elen. Not bad. Better not lose the spotlight to him! Now, she didn’t mind the role so much. Not flashy, but absolutely important.

  Meanwhile, the knight spider and its opponents continued to trade blows with one another, the sheer, wearying intensity of the confrontation not allowing them rest for a single moment. Even in such extreme conditions, the three were still flashing bold, intrepid smiles.

  “Yo…Kabal, yeah? That armor of yours sure is tougher’n my cheap piece of junk.”

  “Heh-heh! Yeah, I’ll bet, huh? This was crafted by Garm himself, you know! It ain’t no ordinary piece of scale mail!”

  “Huh. Garm the dwarven armorsmith? Dang, no wonder. It looked like you took a couple direct stabs, and yer none the worse for it!”

  “Oof, you saw that? That’s embarrassing. Well, I may not look it, but—”

  “Will you two take this more seriously, please?! Stop chatting while it’s my turn to distract him!”

  Fuze couldn’t help but lecture the other two as they enjoyed a lively bragging contest better suited for a tavern. They both grinned, like students being admonished by their teacher.

  “I’m up next, old man.”

  With an exaggerated slash, Yohm tagged in for Fuze. The magical light surrounding him, slightly dimmed just a moment ago, was now bright once more. He was ready.

  The rotation of magical support was being timed perfectly with their own juggling act, as if all five had been working together for years. Very few could have guessed they were fighting in this group for the first time.

  “Thanks,” Fuze shouted, leaving the heavy lifting to Yohm. Dodging his way through the knight spider’s string of stabs, he felt exhausted, his very nerves worn to the core. But he never griped about it. He was the oldest and most experienced man in the circle.

  By the guild’s rankings, he was an A-minus adventurer. His position as Blumund’s guild master meant he was no longer on the front lines, but he never stopped honing himself—the reason he was still able to keep up with this spider’s movements.

  But I’m definitely losing my edge. I could’ve taken this guy solo way back when, but not now. All I’m doing is buying us just a small sliver of time…

  Still, he was the great natural talent among the trio surrounding his foe right now.

  And because of that, Fuze could predict how this would turn out.

  This isn’t good…

  Sooner or later, they would falter.

  With the right magic, tackling a monster stronger than you would be feasible enough. Here, that wasn’t working out. Knight spiders were too resistant to magic, requiring punishing physical damage instead. Fuze understood that, out of this group, only the three of them were gifted enough melee fighters to deal out that kind of damage. Yohm’s men weren’t up to snuff.

  So it was all up to these three men, but after ten or so minutes of battle, they had hurt the spider only a tiny amount. None were seriously injured yet, but they couldn’t hide their accumulated fatigue. Gaining another fighter in Yohm, along with some much-needed magical support, was what allowed them to even tread water.

  “Oh, man, I dunno…”

  “Pfft! Quit your cryin’! You’re the ones who roped me into this! We’re all gonna get killed if we can’t do this guy in, so if you got breath left to bitch at me, move yourself!”

  When Kabal muttered to himself, Yohm launched into a tirade.

  They all understood that perfectly well. Without any really decisive magic that worked, they knew that beating it with their own muscle was next to impossible.

  But giving up was a one-way ticket to death.

  They all drummed up as much courage as
they could, continually throwing themselves into the all-but-desperate battle.

  Then they heard another voice. One much more relaxed.

  “Huh? Ooh! Hey, is that you, Kabal? Whoa, long time no see! And you’re fighting a monster like always, too, huh? You sure must like fighting.”

  They were being greeted by five monsters riding wolf-type creatures—a platoon of goblin riders, led by Gobta.

  Just as they were about to return from their usual patrol, they heard the sounds of battle from before. Gobchi, the eye-patch-wearing assistant to Gobta, noticed first.

  “Gobta, I can hear fighting from somewhere.”

  The platoon captain was pretending to ignore the noise, hoping for a nice, chill ride back to town, but his team was having none of it.

  “I guess so, huh? Should we go check it out?”

  “Ooh, well, I’d say that’s a good idea, yes. Don’t want to be yelled at later, do ya?”

  “Yeah, yeah… Let’s just check up on it, then.”

  Following Gobchi’s advice, the platoon headed toward the sounds.

  And then…

  Gobta found a couple of familiar-looking faces fighting a knight spider.

  “Whoa! Damn, it’s you, Gobta! Don’t just stand there like an ass; help us out! We’re running out of time!”

  Kabal sounded quite a bit more harried than Gobta, dodging the spider’s sharp barrage of strikes as he shouted. He was plainly near the end of his rope, simply letting the multi-leg attacks he couldn’t fully parry bash against his armor. It wouldn’t be long before that armor gave way—and with it, his life, perhaps.

  “Ooh, that’s Fuze, isn’t it? Hey! Fuze! It’s me, Gobto!”

  “You too, Gobto?! Hurry up and take my place!!”

  Just as Gobto spotted Fuze and called out in greeting, Kabal was the one who shouted back as the spider flicked his helmet off his head for him.

  “Well, all right. I’ll take over for Kabal. Gobchi, you get everyone else to distract the spider!”