Seeing Lupa come to her senses, Lynn said to her seriously, “In a moment, the two of us will first lure the Dungeon Slime deeper into the sewer. About forty or fifty meters back, the sewer gets much wider. Once we reach there, we'll have a chance to slip past the Dungeon Slime's side.”
Lupa nodded.
Lynn continued, “Once we reach the wider area, you'll first draw the Dungeon Slime's attention to buy me some time to chant my spell. As soon as my spell is released, you run straight outside immediately. Don't worry about me, understand?”
“But what about you?” Lupa couldn't help but ask.
“Just focus on your own escape. Don't hold me back. I have my own way out,” Lynn said calmly.
He naturally didn't need Lupa to worry about him.
As long as Lupa bought him enough time to cast, Lynn could easily dash out using the Rune 【Burst Step】.
The five-meter dash distance provided by the Burst Step Rune sounded short, but dashing five meters in 0.3 seconds was a completely different concept. It meant that in the blink of an eye, before the Dungeon Slime could even react, Lynn would have already pulled several body lengths of distance away from it.
But Lupa didn't know Lynn had something like a “Rune”; she thought Lynn was planning to cover her retreat.
Lupa never expected that right after becoming an adventurer, she would meet such a wonderful captain.
She looked at Lynn with deep emotion, tears already welling up in her eyes.
Lynn was somewhat bewildered by her reaction. Was there something wrong with this girl's head?
Lynn couldn't bother with that now.
The Dungeon Slime ahead seemed to have finally noticed their presence. It crawled sluggishly in their direction, leaving a long trail on the ground.
Lynn didn't stand there foolishly waiting for the Dungeon Slime to approach.
Unstrapping the hand crossbow from his back, he loaded a bolt. Taking only a little over a second, the taut bowstring snapped like a crescent moon, sending the bolt flying straight into the Dungeon Slime's body.
Every little bit of damage counted.
When the bolt struck, only more than half of the arrowhead managed to penetrate. The seventy-pound hand crossbow couldn't even break through the Dungeon Slime's surface gel layer. Wrapped within the gel layer, the metal arrowhead melted away like butter in a matter of seconds, and the wooden shaft clattered onto the ground.
It did little damage, but it was highly insulting.
A mere human not only refuses to run, but actually dares to take the initiative to attack me!
The angered Dungeon Slime sped up slightly, rolling forward as it charged at them.
Under the crushing weight of the Dungeon Slime's multi-ton body, Lynn felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly. The stone bricks loosened, and the rising black water soaked his leather boots.
“Run! Follow the plan!”
With a sharp shout, the two quickly retreated deeper into the sewer.
And just as Lynn had anticipated, the Dungeon Slime pursued them relentlessly.
Seeing the Dungeon Slime closing the distance, Lynn actually breathed a sigh of relief.
What he feared most wasn't being caught by the Dungeon Slime, but rather that it wouldn't pursue them! If the Dungeon Slime had any brains and simply stood its ground at the sewer entrance, Lynn really wouldn't know how to escape!
In that case, Lynn would be forced to stay in the sewer, waiting for a rescue that might not even exist.
Because the quest was supposed to be simple, Lynn hadn't brought much food when they set out—only a small flask of fresh water and a slice or two of dry bread to stave off hunger.
Waiting for rescue would be no different from waiting for death.
Fortunately, for now, everything was still proceeding according to Lynn's expected script.
A few seconds passed, and the distance between them and the Dungeon Slime was already under ten meters—just a breath away.
In this damp and slippery sewer environment, the Dungeon Slime was like a fish in water, whereas Lynn and Lupa's movement speed was restricted by the fear of slipping.
Fortunately, Lynn didn't plan to run too far.
Once they reached a slightly wider area, no matter how much the Dungeon Slime's gelatinous body expanded, it inevitably left a few body-widths of space on its sides.
Lynn stopped in his tracks, turned to Lupa, and said, “Help me hold off the Dungeon Slime. Four seconds is enough!”
With that, Lynn activated Stealth to reduce his presence while simultaneously making hand gestures to begin channeling the mana within his body.
Lupa nodded heavily. Looking at the rolling slime, the fear in her eyes had vanished.
“Bastion!”
The girl roared, and the tower shield, which was almost as tall as she was, emitted a dazzling light in the dark tunnel.
This shield was definitely not simple.
Upon activating the Skill, Lupa seemed to bulk up, prominent muscle lines appearing on her body. Lynn felt that she didn't look like a Shield Guard at all, but rather like a barbarian berserker.
With a loud clang, the metal tower shield dug deep into the gaps between the stone bricks.
One and a half seconds passed, and the Dungeon Slime was already right in front of Lupa.
Even with Lupa raising her tower shield in front of her, the Dungeon Slime had no intention of slowing down or bypassing her from the side. Leveraging its massive body of nearly three tons, it charged straight into her.
It probably thought she was just a speed bump.
But a Dungeon Slime was not, after all, some unstoppable crushing force. Not only was its weight far less than a steel coil, but its hardness was also completely different. Because its body was gelatinous, the impact it delivered was far less than that of steel of the same weight.
Anyone with a basic understanding of physics knew that when facing the same impulse, if the buffering time differed, the force endured would vary by several times!
Thus, even with the Dungeon Slime's immense momentum, when it collided with Lupa's shield, the full second of buffering time caused by its deformation greatly reduced the power of the impact.
Two and a half seconds passed.
The dull thud of the gel colliding with the shield even drowned out the sound of the flowing water.
The tower shield wedged between the stone bricks seemed to be made of extraordinary material; even under such an impact, it barely deformed.
Stone bricks pried loose, and dust filled the air.
Lupa was knocked back several steps in succession, yet she still couldn't stop her backward momentum and was flipped straight to the ground.
Lynn felt that she must have sustained significant injuries, but fortunately, her legs weren't injured, so her movement wasn't affected.
The Dungeon Slime leaped high into the air, clearly intending to completely crush the fallen Lupa into a meat patty.
Four seconds had finally passed.
“Get out of the way!” Lynn warned.
Lupa understood instantly; Lynn must have finished chanting his spell.
Ignoring the Dungeon Slime that had already leaped high, intending to crush her completely with its weight, she threw her tower shield aside first and executed a tactical roll right toward the Dungeon Slime, slipping directly underneath it.
Picking up her discarded tower shield, Lupa turned her head slightly, catching Lynn's movements out of the corner of her eye. How is Lynn going to escape?
By now, Lynn's magic had finished channeling, and a teal missile floated in front of him.
The Dungeon Slime also sensed the presence of this mage. Under the threat of the spell, it was forced to let Lupa go and leaped toward Lynn instead.
Even a rather unintelligent monster understood the principle of killing the mage first.
Watching the massive body change direction and crash toward Lynn, Lupa couldn't help but break into a cold sweat for him. She could almost picture Lynn being crushed beneath the slime in the next second, swallowed and dissolved into a pile of bones.
But Lupa didn't stop running. She couldn't let Lynn's sacrifice be in vain. Go back to the guild and call for help!
But the scene on the battlefield did not unfold as Lupa expected.
Even when facing the mountain-like pressure of the over two-meter-wide monster, Lynn remained completely unperturbed.
To cast a spell, one's hands must be steady, and one's mind must be calm.
“Magic Missile” Proficiency +1, Current Lv.1 (2/10)
“Vas!”
With a soft shout, the teal light missile shot straight out, accurately colliding with the mid-air Dungeon Slime.
It wasn't until the moment the teal light missile hit that Lynn truly understood the power of Magic Missile.
The Dungeon Slime's gelatinous layer, which had easily withstood the seventy-pound crossbow bolt, was as fragile as paper before the First-Circle spell, Magic Missile.
In an instant, the tough gelatinous layer was bored open by the light missile. From there, the light missile encountered no resistance inside the Dungeon Slime's body, easily tearing a gaping hole straight through it.
Gray mucus spilled from the slime's body, sizzling the moment it made contact with the stone bricks on the ground.
Lynn was also secretly shocked by the power of Magic Missile.
When he had used it against the Goblin Warrior, the missile hadn't had such a devastating effect.
Magic damage seemed to be exceptionally effective against slimes.
Rate on N.U.
