novelnext 100. Charlatan Forest, Part 2 (R-18)
100. Charlatan Forest, Part 2 (R-18)
100. Charlatan Forest, Part 2 (R-18)
Gabby, Gale, and Megan all exclaim as vines hoist each of them into the air by the ankle. We’ve gone and gotten ourselves caught in a trap baited by Fruit Nymphs.
I leap for Gale. The avian girl’s talons are being restrained, making her the most vulnerable of the captured trio. My Harpy Lightweight mark and Ogre Strength allow me to dart through the air like an arrow.
Knowing all the ways my rescue attempt could go wrong, I grab onto Gale and refuse to let go to maximize my chances. The last thing I need to happen is to waste my window severing her bindings only for more to drag her out of my reach. With this method, I put myself in more danger, but I won’t be separated from my Harpy girl.
Gabby arrests her movement with a spell, growing vines from nearby trees that grab her limbs to anchor herself. Then she uses Ember Magic on a section of the enemy vines to sever them. Her opponent’s mistake was not disarming her rods.
Megan’s fur bikini (Flou3) places a crystal-blood dagger in her palm and she uses the weapon to cut herself free. The mouse girl falls, but Jonny in his Stone Ooze girlfriend suit catches her.
Olindia’s Pink Jellyfish Slime tentacles extend from my body to anchor us to nearby foliage and grapple the vines pulling on Gale. With our movement halted, I have the luxury to burn through the vines with Ember Magic while looking around.
There!
I find a Pitcher Treefolk below us. She has green skin, green hair, massive tits, and her crotch melds seamlessly into the lid of a ten-foot-tall acid-filled pitcher. Bitch was trying to drop us into her open stomach.
Last time I fought one, my spears didn’t do jack shit. The lady half is a decoy like the lure of an anglerfish; it doesn’t die if you stab her through the heart. Piercing the pitcher didn’t do much either; the puncture wounds bleed too slowly.
Today, I have a new weapon.
“Go, Harpy Matron Air Magic!” I focus on the air in front of my hand, compressing, condensing, and shaping the magic until I form a sharp edge. Then I fire the Air Blade at the Pitcher Treefolk’s body.
She interposes branches from Plant Growth and her own vines, but they barely slow the cutting force. A gaping wound opens in the Pitcher’s side that vomits acidic green bile. The Treefolk shrieks in pain and turns to flee. I’m about to throw another Air Blade at the retreating form when I hear Gabby’s battle cry.
“Gale, get us to Gabby!”
“On it!”Upstodatee from
The freed Harpy girl shreds the vines holding us with her talons, grabs my shoulders as I fall, and flies us through the canopy toward the sound of my Goblin wife’s voice.
She’s struggling to defend herself from a second Pitcher Treefolk.
Gabby counterspells its Plant Growth spells and responds with dual casting, launching small rocks with Earth Magic, but they bounce off the Pitcher’s belly. In turn, the plant monster sends its vines after the Goblin girl, only to have them be entangled with Gabby’s Plant Growth spell. Meanwhile, the Treefolk lumbers its acid-filled bulk closer and closer.
I shoot another Air Blade, cutting through the undergrowth and tearing a wide swath in the monster’s side. This one doesn’t stay to fight either. Are these Treefolk cowardly, or am I that scary?
“Alex!”
“It’s Megan!” Gale shouts as the three of us about-face and charge toward the mouse girl and the duo protecting her.
Jonny in his Brenda suit is facing off against a third Pitcher Treefolk. It seems Megan planted three crystal-blood daggers in the monster’s bulk, but they aren’t accomplishing anything. We’re just in time to see the Stone-Ooze-covered man rip through the vines trying to restrain him and throw a heavy rock punch.
The blow sends ripples through the Treefolk’s whole body and caves in part of the pitcher. However, the displaced acid comes spilling out the pitcher’s mouth and all over its assailant.
“Jonny!”
I shoot Air Blade after Air Blade at the wounded Treefolk. My slices sever vines, dice apart the decoy body, and chop the pitcher body into chunks. Another few for good measure and it finally goes still.
Gabby hoses down Jonny and Brenda with Water Magic to wash away all the acid covering them. Thankfully, Brenda had the presence of mind to completely envelop Jonny when they were splashed, letting him escape damage. The Stone Ooze herself, on the other hand...
Jonny is ejected naked onto the forest floor as Brenda stumbles away clutching at herself and moaning. He stands, and I put a restraining hand on his shoulder to stop him from running to her. I can tell something is happening.
Cracks propagate throughout Brenda’s body and a thin layer of glowing green slime bleeds through. She crumples in on herself, pauses, then stands again slowly. She turns to us, changed.
Brenda’s eyes open to reveal luminescent green slime pupils, sclera, and even eyelashes. Her nose and ears glow with inner light like the entrances of a cave hosting a fire. Her nipples and crotch glow slightly as well, though there’s no slime visible at the moment. She opens her mouth to speak, showing green slime lips, teeth, tongue, and uvula.
“I feel strange... better.” The now presumably Green Stone Ooze looks to me like a creature from deep underwater, perhaps green anemones embedded in a hollow rock on the ocean floor. Despite the name, her stoney portions remain grey as slate.
“Green Slime! Green Slime!” Gabby chants, excitedly. She’s happy to add more data to the Book of Monsters. “It almost looks like a cohabitation of two disparate Slime-type elements instead of the usual fusion...”
Slime Core
Slime Constitution (Jl, Fz, Pk, Lg, Sm, Rd, Gr)
Slime Malleability
Slime Malleability (Jl, Fz, Pk, Lg, Sm, Rd, Gr)
Slime Mutability
Slime Amalgamation
Slime Mutability (Jl, Fz, Pk, Lg, Sm, Rd, Gr)
Slime Hair / Legs / Arms / Stature
(Rd, Pk, St, Gr) Slime Hair / Legs / Arms / Stature
Stone Ooze Body
Green Slime Acid Resistance
Jellyfish Slime Tentacles
Fuzzy Slime Flesh Shaping
Large Slime Stature
Fuzzy Slime Fur
Pink Slime Restoration
Small Swarm Slime Multitasking
Red Slime Blood Magic
Stone Ooze Skin
The way I see it, there are two problems with Stone Ooze Skin. Firstly, I’m afraid of losing tactile sensations. Brenda herself reported feeling ‘stiff.’ Secondly, I can only combine two skin-type body modifications with Slime Amalgamation. That means giving up Photosynthesis and Pitcher Treefolk Vines (because that mark depends on having a plant-type body modification equipped) or Lizardfolk Scales. Both seem like poor trades.
Meanwhile, Green Slime Acid Resistance has a huge appeal in this environment. If I need to dive into a Pitcher Treefolk to save one of my girls, I’ll do it without hesitation! Having to navigate my tummy menu in a situation like we just had where everyone got split up and every second counts would be disastrous.
Slime Mutability allows me to transfer Slime Marks to another mark tree temporarily, but I’ve already selected almost everything good available. Keep my options open or take the clear and ready advantage? There’s having flexibility, and then there’s hoarding. I’m not a hoarder.
*Selected Slime Hair!*
*Selected Green Slime Hair!*
*Selected Green Slime Acid Resistance!*
My hair turns blue and goopy, then green and glowy. I guess green is my color today. Then a tingle spreads throughout my body as an invisible layer of acid resistance settles over me. Always good to have a passive resistance ability.
I’ll probably refund the hair modification tomorrow morning since it appears to be mainly cosmetic. I'm afraid changing my arms, legs, or body to slime would alter my fighting style in dangerously unknown ways. Maybe throwing spears or jumping would suddenly become difficult!
“Ready, Alex?” Gabby says as she polishes her spectacles. I nod.
Gale and Megan have cleaned themselves up, Flou3 is back in fur bikini form on the mouse girl, and Olindia crawled back inside me while I worked. Brenda leans forward and her back opens like the zipper of a wet suit, revealing a landscape of glowing green tentacles within the rocky exterior.
Jonny steps inside her with a little trepidation, more from where her tentacles might probe than any sense of danger. Once he adjusts to the change and can walk straight without an odd hitch to his gait, we move out.