Slime Slime Slime

The view at Edge's Overlook was every bit as specular as they had been promised, Aono mused as she took in the scenery from the viewing area. With a smile, she watched the silly antics of Tamu, who was doing some flashy tricks with cards to show off to Sardu. A distance away, above the chasm, some Lightning Snatcher Hawks drifted, forming a magnificent sight against the skyglow.

"Be mindful of them there Snatchers," said one of the rangers lodging at the overlook, "Isn't often they come over here, we shoot them to scare them off, but now and then one gets bold. Big things, they can catch an unwary Folk and shock the poor victim with the electricity in their talons. That stuff'll paralyze or kill you."

"Ah, so the warning sign," Aono said as she pointed at the sign in question that warned of potential Lightning Snatcher Hawk attacks.

The ranger otter clad in reinforced leather nodded, adjusting his hat. "Yea. Always keep an eye on the sky, we do too and shoot any that approaches. But best be safe."

Aono raised an figurative eyebrow. "By the way, wondering about those spikes. Are they for protection against being... snatched?"

"Yea," the ranger affirmed, "Discourages them from holding on."

"Clever," Aono said then wrinkled her brow as a few strange musical notes filled the air.

Things suddenly started happening all at the same time. The eyes of the ranger she was talking to glazed over and Aono herself had to strain to focus. A blur seized Tamu in its talons. And a shadowy figure appeared, their knife already in Sardu's chest.

Shock and fear filled Aono as the chaos continued. Her slimes appeared, automatically summoned, and immediately lunged at the would-be assassin. Sardu turned limp, slumping against the railing, way too much blood coming out. The hawk carrying Tamu flew into the sky, rapidly climbing up and away. The assassin's leap toward her was stopped by her slimes body-blocking the attacker. And Aono activated both her domain and healing ability, frantically trying to keep Sardu alive long enough to heal her heart.

For a heart-stopping moment, Aono could feel no response to her healing. But then Sardu appeared in a different location, clutching her bleeding chest, and Aono could sense that the actual wound was... still enough to easily kill Sardu in a few moments but a little better than her healing ability's sense had told her. And the fake fell to the ground, revealing itself as a log.

Sardu took quick action, pulling out her emergency medical kit and ripping out the bandages within and clenching them to her chest with one hand while the other hand threw hurled a knife at the would-be assassin who was making quick work of Aono's slimes. Aono continued hurriedly healing her lover's heart and chest. And the assassin vanished with Sardu's knife embedded in her shoulder and acid burns across her body.

Worriedly, Aono thought of Tamu's fate. Sardu must've guessed her thoughts, because with a strained voice the ninja said, "Tamu is either dead or managed to get free through that cleverness of his. Either way we'll find him after I'm healed enough."

"Don't push yourself!" Aono said urgently, "But yes, we'll find him. Now hold still and let me fix your heart, it's all I can do to keep it beating. Do we still need to worry about that assassin?"

"Maybe," Sardu said then stayed quiet as Aono worked.

..oOo..

Tamu the Tricky Inventor was pretty certain he was going to die. Electricity now and then arced through his body, paralyzing him, thankfully not killing him due to his Fool's Resilience ability. He could feel searing pain from where the talons grasped him and he had to be bleeding. He was pretty sure his ribs had at least cracked from the hawk's tight grip on him. And even if he could get free, he had a long drop ahead of him, one that would be hard to do anything about while paralyzed, bleeding out, and with potentially broken ribs.

It was hard to think straight with the sheer amount of panic running through him, not to mention the wooziness from all the ways he was hurt. He was going to die, he was going to-- No, think, Tamu! Think, think, think your way out of this! A thought emerged: could he summon his most lethal joy buzzer straight onto his hand?

As it turned out, it wasn't simple to do. Just concentrating enough to activate his Trickster's Bag ability was a bit tough, but it was manageable. No, the hard time was actually using his mana to trigger it. Something about the regular zaps going through his body seemed to have immobilized his mana, paralyzing it just as much as his body. Try as he could, he couldn't push in enough mana to summon the rather bulky joy buzzer. His mana stirred, but not enough.

But a thought entered Tamu's mind. Could he push his mana enough to get that wake-up candy he had made on a lark? As soon as he had that thought, he almost shuddered, the only thing stopping him being his state of paralyzation. But it was the only way he could think of to deal with said paralyzation. So he pushed and pushed his mana, and suddenly the most utterly foully sour and salty taste ever filled his mouth. He almost puked.

Somehow, however, it managed to "wake-up" him enough that he could move his mana and body a little more freely. And that was enough to summon the Special Edition Killer Joy Buzzer that he had made half on a lark and half as a close-combat option just in case. After a very brief moment of hesitation about how this thing could kill him too, Tamu made his move. Stirring his hand enough to press the joy buzzer's trigger against the hawk's talons was another struggle, one that took a little too long as his wooziness grew.

But he did it. And the world seemed to shake as the joy buzzer vibrated the talons fiercely enough for them to start falling apart, all while a torrent of intense electricity lethal even for the highly resistant hawk poured through it. Just like that, the hawk died. Which solved the immediate problem, leaving just the problem of Tamu's badly shaken and burnt body. Also the fact that he was now falling toward the chasm.

Another quick struggle later, he was able to spit out the Wake-Up candy and replace it with another thing he didn't want to do: the Fool's Placebo pill. Trembling, he swallowed it. ...What was he worried about? He was exactly fine and he was invincible! His various health issues were solved! No, wait, his injuries would only be suppressed for ten minutes.

Acting quickly, he whipped out his prototype Fiery Propeller Backpack (memo: think of a better name) and zoomed toward the ground next to the chasm. Managing to land in a manner that must've at least slightly broke his legs (which was temporarily suppressed by his Fool's Placebo), he threw away the backpack before it could inevitably explode then began sprinting back toward the overlook at the city's edge at a speed that would be unsustainable if it wasn't for his Fool's Placebo making him invincible. Gods he would regret it when that pill wore off.

The system timer he had linked the pill to mercilessly ticked down as he ran and ran while giggling about how healthy and invincible he was. At seven seconds left, he threw himself over the overlook's fence and rolled to a stop by a worried Aono who was... nursing a Sardu whose front was drenched in blood? Just what had happened? Wait, no time to wonder, time to explain he needed healing too! And so he did, his last thought before his fade into unconsciousness being that he was glad his Tricky Tinkerer had evolved into Tricky Inventor after that Master Ray fight, being able to broaden what he was able to make had saved his life.

..oOo..

Aono looked on in alarm as her squirrel lover threw himself at her foot and yelled, "NEED HEAL TOO!" while injuries suddenly erupted across his previously healthy looking body.

But she didn't have time to wonder about that, only time to swiftly begin healing. And concern grew in her as she saw the extend of his injuries. Just how precariously had he escaped? She could sense broken bones in various places, severe electricity burns, some form of damage in all his organs, muscles aching and torn from over-exertion, and for some reason rather severe damage to his taste buds. Luckily, Aono had managed to get Sardu to a more or less stable state, or she would've had to choose which lover to save. As is, she re-summoned her slain slimes to act as guard while she got to healing Tamu.

About ten minutes later Aono managed to get both of her lovers to a state where they could move somewhat safely. As she reached that point, Sardu spoke up, saying, "Listen. I'm taking over as temporary leader of our group of cuties, I know the most about how to handle this kind of situation. Our first priority is to go back to a safe place like the inn."

"Alright," Aono said and Tamu nodded.

It was at about this time that the ranger snapped out of his apparent trance. "What just happened?"

..oOo..

A few turns and twists into the city while holding hands, Sardu suddenly jerked the other two aside, taking a different route at an intersection than the one that led to their inn. As Aono looked back in the direction she had thought they were going to go, she saw what must've been illusory duplicates of the three of them walking the correct route to the inn.

"We can talk briefly while I'm cloaking us," Sardu said, "I lied about going back to the inn room. It isn't safe anymore. Did we leave anything important in there?"

After a thought, Aono shook her head. The only thing she had left there was minor things like her slime-suitable soap in the shower. It would be a pain to replace, but she could live without it, it just made it easier to rinse the top layer of dirty slime off her membrane. She could make do with just plain water.

Tamu said in a hushed voice, "The, uh, blue device. Or what's left of it."

Sardu laughed. "Duchess, that's a lousy way to hide that you're talking about the Azure device. Seriously, 'blue device'? We'll work out better code phrases later. Anyways, the cloak likely was going after us because she knew we had it or she heard us talking about it or our other plans. I'm guessing that much because I was able to peek through her cloaked status and her class's Azure Wind Agent. She must've been here for other business and stumbled across us. By the way, wind cloak classes are nasty for their ability to pick up conversations on the wind, so we aren't safe talking about things unless it's in code or I'm hiding us like now."

"Cloak?" Aono asked.

Sardu answered tensely, "Yeah, cloak, it's the word us cloaks use for various covert agents."

"Sardu..." Aono said, sensing Sardu's unhappiness.

"I left that world behind for a reason, Princess, being pulled back in sucks." Sardu slipped into pained silence.

"Hey, you weren't pulled in!" Tamu protested, "More like that world slipped into your path and stubbed your toe! You're Sardu, our Guardian, not a cloakwhatever!"

Sardu blinked at Tamu then grinned wearily. "Yeah, I like being a Guardian more than a cloak."

"You're certainly protecting us now," Aono noted.

Sardu slowly nodded. "Yeah.. okay, let's talk about the plan. We're gonna slip out of town, on a different route than we previously discussed. I'll buy supplies under disguise while you hide, then we'll beat it."

"Quicker than we planned for, but we were planning to leave anyways." Aono sighed. "Wish we could've resolved that peacefully."

"Some people are just stubborn," Sardu said, "Anyways, I think the best route is gonna be the Burning Desert."

"Seriously? That place's a nightmare, I heard?" Tamu said worriedly.

Sardu waved her hand. "It's manageable if you know how. I did cross it before, when I was leaving the Iron Empire. Gotta buy some stuff to help us survive the heat and such."

"Sounds like a plan," Aono said.