Season 4: Ch7: Face to Face

  While my company of goblins prepared for their expedition, I turned my attention elsewhere, one that had taken my interest upon discovery.

  A possible lieutenant in my growing army of ruffians and monsters. Oh, and plus, some curiosity to take my mind from the ongoing issues.

  Slinking through the darkness of a foreign home, I waited in the crevice of a dilapidated wall, the target of my fascination, not much further from my watery puddle.

  Hm. Let's go.

  I emerged, the viscous liquid of Slimey's body, pouring from the mouse hole to form my body behind the shabby man draped in a kimono sitting in a ricotta chair beside a fire.

  Observing him as my eyes adjusted to the light, I could tell he sensed my presence, his hand that lay draped over the arm of his chair clutching the tip of a mead bottle that hung just a few inches from the floor.

  “Mr. Ti-”

  My senses cut, the connection with Slimey's doppelganger interrupted as the slime was destroyed.

  Alrighty, time for plan B.

  “Mr. Tillman,” I continued from another doppelganger that formed to face the man that now stood with a katana slick with slime in hand, “I-”

  Dead. Again. His blade cutting through every core of Slimey's body.

  “-Want-”

  Dead.

  “-to-”

  Dead.

  “-tal-”

  Dead. Alright this is getting annoying.

  “-Talk to yo-”

  Dead.

  “Luke, I am your father!”

  Dead.

  “WILL YOU STO-”

  Dead.

  Sigh…

  Okay. Just breathe. Calm down. Let's try a different tactic.

  Forming a new body at the edge of the room. The man narrowed his eyes, a look of annoyance on his haggard face as he flicked his blade and struck a familiar stance, iai, a quick draw technique designed to kill with one strike.

  Crap.

  He moved, sandal hitting the floorboard of his hovel to strike in one blow to eliminate my body still in the midst of forming.

  “HERO CLAN!”

  At my declaration, the blade ceased its movement, the man with hazel eyes merely a centimeter from destroying yet another clone of my loyal Slime.

  “You, are a member of the hero clan. Your sword technique is kendo, your clothes are eastern, you have a voice in your head telling you to find the Hero to gain access to a system!”

  The man blinked, my tactic of confusing him with a litany of secrets only those of my bloodline should know clearly catching him off guard.

  Of course, it was hearsay, things I only heard from Lhikan who had it heard from Natalie, but I trusted-ah. Oh crap.

  The man known as Jack turned, blade shifting, body posture lowering to strike again.

  “Hey! Do you just attack everyone trying to have a conversation?!” I yelled, anticipating the attack and dodging just as the blade struck. “Look! I don't want to hurt you! I just want to talk!”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Said the monster that's been killing my men.”

  I shifted, avoiding the attack aimed at the cores of my body, with Slimey's reflexes, and my intuition of the blade, avoiding the man's attack was fairly easy.

  He had speed, strength, and a sharp blade, but he was drunk, swaying slightly and up against the very person who had brought his techniques and weapon style into this world.

  Buuuut I may still be a bit rusty.

  Several slashes and already a few of the cores in this clone were cleaved, the man's speed adjusting to my dodging as a testament to his skill. Hardening Slimey's outer layer allowed her to slow the blow partially, but the man was cutting with the speed of a damn sword god!

  “I just want to talk!”

  A flick of his wrist and another doppelganger gone. Ugh! Alright, fine. If that's how you want to play it! Time for plan C! Slimey!

  Yes master.

  At my command, the slimes hidden beneath the domicile became active, each blob under Slimey's command wiggling as they heeded the will of their queen. Of course I hadn't wanted to do it this way, buuuut if he wasn't going to come peacefully, well, guess I'd drag him screaming.

  Speaking of screams, I could feel them, the citizens of Solhiem in a frenzy as the ground beneath their feet began to shake from the march of my slimes.

  “Just so you know, I did try to be cordial about this,” I said, Slimey forming a mouth to speak from a puddle in Jack's room.

  Then the room erupted, the entire rundown home consumed by a dome of blue slime that closed in on the house like a mighty fist.

  HA! TAKE THAT!

  Immediately, the swordsman moved, attempting to cut his way through the slime closing in, but fun fact, metal conducts electricity, and with Slimey's lightning body skill taken from a dungeon core, well, suffice to say this swordsman’s speed wouldn’t negate the effects of lightning on a human body.

  It was… cathartic in a twisted way, the way the man screamed as his body tensed up, the look of confusion followed by a flash of anger before his scream echoed into the gelatinous walls of Slimey's body.

  Hm. Maybe I need therapy?

  Anyway, with my frayed prize in hand, Slimey returned to the sewers, the man now engulfed by holy waters that trapped and kept him alive for my… ehem, interrogation.

  If this man was a descendant of mine, I'd of course like to get to know him, catch up, play ball, ya know, the usual things that a two thousand year old ancestor does with the young-ins. Or uh, whatever the equivalent of bonding with an estranged great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- you get the idea, child you didn’t know you had. And if he wasn’t a descendant of mine, it would help to know where he got his clothes, weapon, and technique from. Especially since I was the only one in this world that practiced kendo besides Lyndis…

  Ah… Lyn.

  Just one of the many things we had in common.

  Fond memories began to cloud my mind, days of idyllic sparring, time in the sun with the heat on my skin, beads of sweat coating my body as we danced under the roof of a blue sky.

  Bittersweet. Suffice to say. Despite Slimey mimicking my form, it just wasn’t quite the same as having living, breathing tissue. Maybe I should try seeing if I can dominate a person.

  Annnnd Slimey is now angry at me.

  Sigh. Yes. You're still good. No, I'm not disappointed in you. Yes, yes, you're my number one. I sent to the irate Slimey.

  Anyway, time to skedaddle before the knights and constables show up.

  ****

  In the depths of the town’s sewer system, I looked around at the sparkly clean sanctum built beneath the city, one of many that I had ordered Slimey to create as a safehouse for Operation Hydra.

  “Welcome to your sanctuary Master!” Twin rows of Slimey dressed in the garments of maids said in unison. Behind them, totems of a rubber duck, with rows upon rows of my visage lining the shelves akin to bleachers behind them.

  “Uhhh…. Slimey, what is this?” I asked, looking over to the slime that stood at my side.

  “It's only proper that your Lord have subjects to greet you when you enter a domicile,” Slimey said casually as I eyed the slimes wearing the visage of humans.

  It wasn't the rows of ducks that caught my attention, nor were it the pillars or the humanoid statues of an anthropomorphized duck, but rather the maids themselves.

  They were slimes. But only because I could feel their presence through our connection. However each one looked like Slimey but… not. Each one slightly off as though imitating Slimey rather than being copies of herself.

  Weird.

  Much like her dungeon time, I'm not going to question it though.

  “Take me to our guest,” I ordered, while I could easily just shift my consciousness to the slime nearest to our captive, I preferred to walk, to see the fruits of labor carried out in my name.

  And boy was I not disappointed.

  The safehouse was a dug out hidden by the city’s sewer and infrastructure. In order to reach the safehouse, one would actually have to dive into the sewer itself, swim to a hidden hole, then up through a tunnel to reach the safehouse itself excavated and built out of marble and stone.

  Equipped with a multitude of rooms, a prison, weapons looted from various armories, food, and alchemical ingredients for explosives, these safehouses would serve as a foundation for me to gather my intelligence and do the work that needed to be done.

  Kidnapping and replacing low level street thugs was fairly easy, but taking out government officials, knights, and magicians?

  That would no doubt require much more… ehem. Firepower.

  Since Berus was on the fence about putting out a declaration, it was time to be more proactive in dealing with the filth of humanity.

  Anyway, before then, it was time to have a chat with my guest using my sword techniques.