Ambition of the Slimes

In a plain beside a river, a small group of soldiers was gathering up.

"They are here"

George, the knight leading the troops, said as he looked across the river on top of his horse. There, several slimes were seen moving slowly towards the river, going straight to the bridge connecting them.

"Prepare yourselves, you've heard the rumor. They have destroyed several villages, we can't let them get close to the capital city," he said towards his subordinates.

"But sir, should we trust such a doubtful rumor? Do these weak slimes really have such a power to destroy villages?" one of them, a swordsman, spoke back to George.

"I don't know. Frankly, I only half believe the rumor myself, especially about that part. But King Belares entrusted me with the task of defending this kingdom while he is away. I'm not going to disappointed him"

George was one of King Belares' most trusted man. He's loyal to the king, and would do his best to fulfill Belares' command.

"...Where's Diane? What took her so long?"

George muttered, focusing on a building just beside the bridge on the other side of the river. It was an inn, housing several refugees from the villages around. They said their villages were destroyed by slimes, and the slimes were using weird ability they had never seen before. The innkeeper were pestered by his guests to go to the castle to report it, so the inn keeper told one of his servant to do it, leaving the refugees who were too tired and scared to move from the inn. Without any word from the refugee themselves, George doubted it. But the refugees themselves were quite indisputable evidence, so George sent Diane to go back with the servant to get more information as he prepared a troop.

The slimes were getting closer, but there were still no sign of Diane. Was she still inside the inn? George was getting nervous, something he shouldn't feel when he was just facing slimes, the weakest monster of all.

"...Move forward, we will engage the slime before they reach the bridge"

"But sir, wasn't the plan holding them up in the narrow bridge?" one of George's female archer asked.

"I know, but I'm worried about Diane. She should've been back by now. Go! We must not let them attack the inn!"

"Yes, sir!"

George's men were definitely not happy about the sudden change in their plan, but they respected George and his judgment. Thus, they moved forward to intercept the slimes. As they were getting closer to the bridge, it became apparent that the slimes weren't really going towards the bridge, but towards the inn instead. All of them were determined to stop the slimes. But as they walked across the bridge, the slimes went next to the inn, disappearing as they went out of the soldier's view.

"Sir, they're gone!"

"No, they're not! They are behind the inn! Hurry up!"

The soldiers moved faster to catch up with the slimes. They were in front of the inn when George told them to split up to attack the slimes from both sides of the inn. But before they could do that, the door of the inn burst open and Diane went out. She seemed out of breath and took quite a beating. George couldn't figure out what could make a martial artist as good as Diane looked like that. Had the slime attacked the inside of the inn? When Diane saw you and the others, she looked both relieved and terrified.

"Sir George! Everyone! Quickly, we must flee!"

'Flee' was not something George imagined would come out of Diane's mouth. She was so reliable in combat, and often refused to back down against powerful foe. But now she wanted to flee? From slimes?

"Diane, calm down and tell us what happened"

Before she could answer George, the inn's door opened once more. Coming out, was the servant that went back with Diane. As he walked towards Diane, George wanted to speak to him. However, Diane suddenly spun around and kicked the servant so hard he flew back inside the inn. Of course, George and the others were surprised of what Diane just did.

"Diane, what are you doing?! What's the meaning of this?!" George couldn't contain his bewilderment to himself.

"It's the slime, George... They g-"

Diane's explanation was cut short as something heavy suddenly landed on top of her, made her crashed on the ground. It was a slime, one of those that George and the others saw disappearing to the back of the inn.

"On the roof!"

One of George's men shouted. But it was too late. One by one, slimes jumped down towards the unsuspecting soldiers below. One tried to land on George, but he quickly swung his sword to repel the slime. It flew away from George from the sword impact, but unfortunately it landed on one of George's archer. Soon, half of the soldiers were knocked down by the slimes. All in all, they seemed okay, the slimes were not the acidic slime George knew about. But then something weird happened. The slimes aimed at their mouths, and forcefully tried to enter their bodies. The soldiers gagged, obviously unable to breathe. The rest of them wanted to help, but didn't know what to do. Just in seconds, the slimes managed to completely enter the soldier's body. They were convulsing for another several seconds, but then stopped moving altogether. When the others approached their fallen comrades, they started to stand up. When Diane stood up together with the others, George called up to her.

"Diane... Are you alright?"

Diane didn't answer, and silently stared at George instead. Her eyes were full of hatred, something she had never done to George before. George swore he could see them faintly glowing red, too.

"Don't tell me... The rumor is true?" George muttered in disbelief.

Another reason of why George didn't believe the report of the refugees was because they told the innkeeper that the slimes could enter a person's body and then take over their consciousness. One couldn't believe such an absurd story unless they saw it with their own eyes, George included. After a moment of stillness, chaos started. The soldiers who were taken over by the slimes started to attack.

"H-hey! Stop! Snap out of it!"

"Liz, stop! I'm your fr- *stab* Uaaagh!"

The soldiers were confused, not knowing what to do. They couldn't attack their own friends, while the possessed soldiers, without any tiny bit of hesitation, attacked them relentlessly. George was at loss on what to do himself when Diane jumped up and tried to knock him off his horse.

"Ugh..." George groaned as he tried to evade Diane's punch. He failed; Diane grabbed his helmet and pulled him down behind his horse. George fell behind, his helmet went off. He quickly stood back up, facing Diane who was now holding his helmet. George didn't know what to do with the sword on his right hand; he couldn't bring himself to attack Diane. On his hesitation, Diane threw the helmet at him before running full speed at him. When George's attention was at the helmet, swiping it away with his left hand, Diane jumped and landed a kick straight on his chest. George unintentionally let go of his sword and fell down. He couldn't handle such an impact.

Before George could stand up, Diane sat on top of him, holding him down. George's attention was on her face, her beautiful face. She usually smiled at him with that bright smile of hers, but now it was almost expressionless, minus those fierce eyes of her that showed nothing but wrath. As Diane raised her right hand, George saw the silver ring, glinting from the sunray, on her ring finger. He had just proposed to her last week.

"Diane, I-"

George couldn't finish his sentence as Diane rained down her fists onto his face dozens of times. When she was finished, nobody could recognize George anymore. Diane stood up, her hands dripping blood. Not only George's blood, but hers as well as Diane broke a few fingers, but she didn't care. Looking around, she saw that the other soldiers were also already taken care of by her new friends. Without a word, they looked at each other before crossing the bridge, walking towards the capital.