By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 10

Chapter 8, Episode 10: Extermination

“Hmm... There’s plenty left over.”

Reinbach was right. While the number of Undead below the cliff had decreased, there were still several hundred writhing in the valleys. Many of the remaining monsters were slower or had stopped regenerating. Still, with the fire dying down, the disintegration of some of them had given the others enough room to wander, making any more spreading of flames unlikely.

“I call it a major improvement. Let’s take it easy—it’ll take as long as it takes,” said Remily.

“Then I’ll bring the slimes to secure locations for you all to descend,” I said.

“Thanks. As soon as you give us those openings, we’ll join the fray,” said Sever.

The wind blowing through the valleys should’ve cleared the smoke and carbon monoxide, but I decided to wear a filter slime like a face mask to be safe, and prepared to spray water onto my landing zone.

“Water I can handle, Master Ryoma. Waterfall!” Sebas’s spell generated enough water in the air to fill an Olympic swimming pool, which cascaded down a moment later. There was a sizzle, and steam rose as the water met the scorched rocks below, but the steam was soon engulfed in the downward torrent.

“Thank you!” I said, then gave a direction to the emperor scavenger slime.

In response, it enlarged itself as much as it could. As soon as its body reached the edge of the cliff, it contracted, toppling over the ledge, jiggling in the gusty air. The emperor scavenger slime landed like a rubber ball in slow motion, using its resilience to cushion the landing. I checked in with it, and it responded by sending me a mental image that indicated it was doing well. Even after a five-story jump, the slime remained completely unharmed.

“I wasn’t convinced that your slime would be unaffected by the fall until I saw it,” said Remily.

“Emperor slimes have incredibly high resistance to physical damage. I once tried attacking it as an experiment, and I couldn’t deal any damage to it,” I explained. Magic fared better than physical attacks, but its effectiveness was also greatly muffled by the slime’s resistance and sheer mass. I don’t know if I could’ve taken an emperor slime down if I had to. As it turned out, I now had a slime that could prove very dangerous in the wrong hands...which was exactly why I felt so safe with it on my side.

“Look at it swallowing up the Undead,” Sever remarked.

“They don’t stand a chance,” Reinbach said.

The Undead would notice the emperor in their vicinity and approach, only to be entangled in the slime’s tentacles and crushed under its overwhelming mass. The monsters must have been trying to resist, but their efforts made no difference against the massive emperor slime.

“It’s doing great,” I said. “It should be able to split up and carry on fighting, but I’ll send the other slimes down before I do that.”

Seeing that the emperor slime had stretched out like an airbag, I sent down the other slimes to safely land on the cushioning emperor slime. Soon, I followed suit.

“I’m going down,” I announced.

“Be careful,” Reinbach said.

“I will—thank you.”

Releasing my lifeline, I dived off the cliff among my slimes. The cold air buffeted me and roared in my ears, but I was untroubled by it.

In the process of testing the emperor slime’s physical resistance, I had jumped onto it from great heights numerous times. While the idea had never made it out of the planning stages because no one but me could tame an emperor—an amalgamation of ten thousand slimes—I trusted it enough that I’d considered using the slime to help with rescues even before the attacks on Gimul.

Holding my knees mid fall, I landed on the emperor slime cannonball-style, and it gently caught me. I barely felt the impact, let alone suffered any injury.

“Are you all right?!” Sever shouted, representing the four adults peering down at me over the cliff.

“I’m fine!” I waved to them as I began separating the emperor slime. With the Undead still running amok, I wouldn’t have much time to talk.

When I brought my gaze down, however, the slimes were trampling over the Undead. For example, a skeleton who’d noticed my descent tried to attack me, only for a metal slime to charge it from the side and shatter its ribs, rendering the monster a pile of immobile bones on the ground.

Other metal and iron slimes leaped into the air with momentum, morphing into lances or chakrams to pierce or tear up the monsters. The slimes were making good use of their mass, speed, transformation abilities, and advantage in numbers.

The gruesome corpses left behind in their wake were absorbed by the scavenger slimes and acid slimes that followed. They treated the flesh and bones of the Undead just like any other monster’s. I did see them struggle a bit with parts of Undead that were still regenerating, though.

Even the spider and sticky slimes helped with the effort by tripping and gluing down the Undead with their silk and adhesive solution.

Despite the large number of Undead remaining, the slimes already in the action held an overwhelming advantage, which left the light slime with nothing to do except to observe.

While I had resolved to continue watching my slimes feast on fresh Undead meat and bones, both for our safety and for research purposes, I had to admit that the Undead were never easy on the eyes.

Soon, I sensed magical energy behind me, signaling the others descending by Space magic.

“This shouldn’t take too long,” Remily noted.

“We’ve been watching their movements from above, Ryoma. There are fewer Undead to our right. We’ll take care of those first,” Sever said.

“Got it. I’ll keep the other side in check,” I answered.

“Don’t get too carried away, Sever,” Reinbach warned.

“I know. Just a little exercise,” he said.

“Miss Remily?” Sebas prompted.

“You got it. Coating Light.”

As I gathered my slime forces to start on the Undead to our left, Sever readied his halberd, and Reinbach and Sebas each drew their swords from their belt. What drew my eye was Reinbach’s unusual longsword—it was a matte white, as though it had been carved out of a bone. What was more, the blade caught fire as soon as he drew it, and its length was suddenly covered in roaring flame.

Sebas’s weapon of choice was a rapier, which now emitted a gentle glow due to the effect of Remily’s spell. It almost looked like one of the lightsabers from those movies back on Earth.

It was easy to see how effective each blade was against the Undead. When Reinbach sliced an Undead in half, fire spread from the wound, preventing regeneration as it turned the monster to ash. Sebas’s thrusts left holes much larger than the size of his blade in the Undead. With how rapidly he struck, it almost looked like he was blowing up the Undead on contact. Sever had leaped in front of both of them to wreak havoc. His wind-coated halberd might not have been as flashy as a sword that burned or glowed, but each swing of his weapon was followed by a ripping gust. His long reach and wind magic cleared the way while Reinbach and Sebas cut down any monsters he missed.

“I knew how strong Sever is, but I’m impressed by all of them,” I said.

“Of course. Reinbach and Sebas could each go toe-to-toe with a proper knight in a sword fight,” Remily said. “Besides, Reinbach’s Arcane Sword is a basic technique that you could use too. Actually, I think your incantationless spells are harder to pull off.”

“They produce a similar effect, but you think mine is more difficult?” I asked.

“When you cast the spell, you coat your arm with another burst of magical energy to protect it from your own spell,” she pointed out.

“Yes. When I realized while practicing that I could hurt myself with my own magic, I started layering my spells over a thin coat of magical energy.”

“I’m sure you developed that through experimentation, but it’s not a novice technique. Arcane Sword is a lot simpler—just coating the sword with magic. With fire, you just have to set your sword ablaze.” Remily’s explanation made me wonder if the magic would damage the blade. Apparently Remily saw the question written on my face. “Those who use Arcane Sword choose a weapon made from a material that resists whatever element they plan to use. That way, there’s no need to protect the blade with magical energy. It makes the spell a lot easier.”

“A good spell to learn as a foundation,” I noted.

“That’s right. Same deal as Sebas, except I’m casting the spell.”

“I see... I usually work alone, but being able to enhance someone else’s weapon might give me more options in battle,” I said. “Are there any other spells with similar effects?”

“Hmm... For your friends, I’d say Neutral enhancement spells or barrier spells. But if you have the time and money, making magical items and weapons will serve you better. Of course, there’s no downside to learning those spells,” she said.

The concept was giving me ideas, but my thoughts were cut short when I spotted an Undead traffic jam where I had gathered my slimes. “Excuse me for a minute.”

“Need any help?” Remily asked.

“I should be fine. It’s just a little congested...” Readying my slime sword, I concentrated physical energy into the blade. One horizontal swipe and a blade of energy flew at the dozen or so monsters helplessly caught in a pool of slimes—and it severed the monsters in half. A clattering of bones followed, making me feel like I’d gotten a strike in a bowling alley. Now the slimes would have an easier time absorbing them and marching onward.

I sent blades of energy flying towards a few more clusters of Undead that were holding up slime traffic. That ought to clear the way for the slimes to take care of the rest.

“Another technique in your arsenal?” Sever asked.

While I’d been bowling, the men had returned from mowing down slimes on the right.

“I just learned it,” I said.

“Impressive execution for a newly learned technique,” said Sever.

“Three of my employees who could apply physical energy like this taught me.”

Those three were Hudom, the former spy, Fey, the former assassin, and Ox, the former champion of the colosseum. After my match with Hudom, I’d gone around asking them what kind of physical energy techniques they could teach me. Respectively, they’d taught me how to fire physical energy from a punch, how to shrink and extend a blade of physical energy, and how to concentrate extra energy into weapons to boost their effectiveness. Based on their instruction, I’d striven to recreate the move the Greatsword Brothers had used against me during their attack, and I’d ended up with the move I used just now to cut down the Undead.

“You’re an avaricious student, stealing the techniques of assassins sent against you,” Sever noted.

“Once my curiosity is piqued, I can’t help it.” In fact, now that the slimes were back on track, I wanted to learn more about Arcane Sword. I summarized my conversation with Remily for the other adults.

“I was wondering what you were doing instead of backing us up,” Reinbach said.

“Did you forget I enchanted Sebas’s sword? Besides, you never needed our backup, and you know it,” Remily quipped. “My time was much better spent giving Ryoma some pointers. And rule number one is preserving magical energy when you can.”

“I have no complaints.” Reinbach turned to me. “I can teach you the basics of Arcane Sword, Ryoma. If you don’t mind using Fire magic, I’ll get you a dragon fang like mine.”

“Dragon fang?! Not that I know exactly how expensive one is, but I’m guessing they’re extremely rare,” I said, ready to decline his offer.

“As long as you have a dragon as a familiar, you’ll get one every few years when they regrow. They’re not hard to come by in our family. It is considered a top-shelf material, but I’m still very much in your debt,” said Reinbach.

“I’m interested in the spell, but I feel like I would waste materials like that. I’ll practice with a normal sword for now.”

Dragon materials would make me feel like I had to prepare to face a final boss in a video game, and I wasn’t ready for that. A glance at my slime sword made me feel more comfortable... Slime weapons were going to be the best fit for me.

I looked up and saw that there wasn’t a moving Undead in sight. They were all on the ground—or glued to the spot, just waiting for the slimes to devour them. Since us humans had nothing to do and didn’t want to risk catching any slimes in the crosshairs, we just watched them work.

Good thing that they’re working their way through the Undead, even if I pretty much just chatted away while they worked. 

After not too long, the slimes collectively waved their tentacles in victory.