Felix threw himself back as the slime lunged after him, growing five times with the shape of a wave about to entrap him. He fell on his back, his head bouncing off the floor. The impact left him dazed and everything was happening so fast, it did not help that he was still winded from the prior struggle with the two guards. The slime crashed down, narrowly missing him before bouncing up in the form of a green ball, its shadow directed to his head. A sharp pull from under his arms helped him evade its attack, he was dragged several feet back before he rolled onto his knees as he struggled to get on his feet. KuliKuli had saved him, untangling her tails from him before extending her thick claws just as the slime began to reform from the puddle it splattered into, imitating a humanoid shape. The top of it's being began to mold as it carved and peeled away, dropping bits of slime before standing before her.
In a few seconds, the slime had shaped its appearance to imitate Felix, keeping it's green gelatinous surface and transparent body. It turned its head and smiled down on Felix as he lay speechless.
"Hya!" KuliKuli swiped her paw across its face, slicing it into three halves before it lost its shape and toppled over.
"KuliKuli!" Janette shouted across the room. "Don't let it touch you! Those things dissolve whatever it sticks inside it!"
KuliKuli lifted her paw and witnessed her claws melt just a bit from the surface. She waved her arm back and forth furiously when the green goo shot out from the slime's body to wrap around her neck. Felix gasped and swiped her legs, making her fall in time to avoid a terrible fate. She shrieked loudly as it swung its arm to crush her. Rolling out of the way, she nearly crashed into Felix before planting her feet on his chest to kick him out of the way from the monster's grasp.
"Sorry!" She shouted, turning her head leaping several feet when it tried to pounce on her. This time the monster anticipated her reaction, spitting out a chunk of goop while she was in the air. Felix rubbed his chest and looked up in time to see this as the sticky substance landed on her chest. Once KuliKuli landed on the ground, she looked down and squealed, shrinking in size as her dress crumbled onto the ground. She ran out from the skirt of the dress in her cat form, scurrying away as the slime burned through her dress.
"Damn it! We lack the tools to attack it." Reta stated in high voice, frantically searching around her.
"Cold and hot temperatures can do it some harm, we can lead it into the biomes!" Janette exclaimed.
Reta shook her head. "The room lacks enough space to avoid its attacks, and there lies the chance that it could break the glass and harm the creatures in captivity. It's not the worst idea if we pick the right biome, m-maybe?"
"We can't just-!" Felix twisted around, narrowly escaping another attempt to be engulfed by the slime. "We can't just avoid it forever!"
"Well you can certainly try." Arcaye responded in a curious tone of voice as he enjoyed the show. "You can run all you want, but Slime-o wouldn't like it. If his food struggles back, it angers him more and he'll pick more sadistic means of playing with his food. Catching any food that gave him a workout leaves him satisfied for a few days longer before he hungers for more. So go right ahead, keep him on the move."
He gave his staff a spin with the twirl of his wrist before turning his back to them. "Slime-o, you can have your fun. Just remember, keep the cat alive and don't make a mess of anything. You may eat the others."
"The bastard is walking away." Reta gritted her teeth, looking around the circus for anything to use. The small stages where cleaned out, even the tents were folded up and packed away leaving the small wooden platforms remaining. Felix and KuliKuli had caught up to them with Janette stepping back cautiously as to maintain her distance from the creature. Reta stood her ground, whistling to grab its attention. It lunged at her with a broad swing of its tendril, shattering the wooden stage and sending planks of wood flying around. Reta snatched one in the air and swung it back down, cleaving its appendage off and letting go of the material as it disintegrated.
"Got your attention, did I?" She muttered under her breath, gesturing for it to follow her with a wave of her hand. "Come now, I'm right here."
As the slime monster slowly approached her, Reta took the time to rip off her dress, revealing herself in wearing just a sarashi and a small pair of underwear. Kicking her heels off, she felt the ground beneath the soles of her feet as she flexed and wiggled her arms, bending down until her palm rested on the floor with her eyes staring at her opponent. A tentacle emerged from its side, wriggling and twisting in the air before cracking down with a fierce whip, its velocity was fast enough that they could hardly see a blur from its movement. Reta turned her body aside just in time, feeling the rush of the air against her skin in doing so.
Another attempt to strike her with this whip resulted in scarring the ground with its mark, but leaving Reta unharmed as it failed to catch her. It wriggled and its insides began to boil in anger, squeezing its shape together before lunging its entire body over her in a frustrating attempt to cover as much ground as it could. Reta gasped and jumped back but recognized too late that she failed to get out of its way. KuliKuli wrapped her tails around her friends waist and pulled her back, saving her from a doomed fate and robbing the slime of its meal. It began to take shape once again, turning its head around and glaring at her.
"What's it doing?" KuliKuli asked, staring awkwardly as the shape of this monster began to ripple and peel apart in small layers.
Felix noticed something from behind the slime, he paced to the left for a better view as he spotted the side of the wall had been burnt from one of its attacks, revealing a gaping hole that led into a strange lit room. Reta had flipped back on her feet, keeping in mind to stay several meters away as she too watched the slime split itself in half.
"Janette?" Felix asked, keeping his eyes on the slime. "What else do you know about these things?"
"I uh-uhh, I know that they are shapeshifters." She stammered while pressing her body into the wall as far from the fight as she could for her comfort. "They digest any living organism for food with a preference for m-meat! When they reach an adolescent stage, some would evolve and become sentient, transforming into what you call a slime girl."
"Can they split apart?" KuliKuli asked next with a high pitched tone. "Because this thing looks like it's doing just that!"
"Yes! When they grow to a certain mass or expand their bodies to a certain size, it's a form of asexual reproduction in order to maintain its survivability!" Janette felt her hands were trembling nonstop, shrinking in fear as the slime broke away from its other half.
Both green piles of goo were each taking a different shape as parts of it ripped away. What looked like tendrils started to grow with added layers around it to imitate an arm and a hand. The bottom half split from the ground up before turning into legs, with one slime taking a different yet familiar shape as it lacked the arms and replaced them with pudgy balls and protruding claws. KuliKuli covered her mouth as she looked into the eyes of a green replica of herself, a slime Nekomata that stared back. It formed an eerie smile and waved its paw back. Reta was met with a similar surprise as she looked at a mirror green image of herself, imitating the same wave and grin as the KuliKuli slime next to it.
Both monsters charged toward their respective copies.
Reta stepped back and ducked from an incoming swipe to her head, followed by a strike which she blocked with her forearm. She screeched in pain and jumped back as steam evaporated from her limb. The brief contact left her forearm burnt with the front layer of skin peeling off at the bruised area. Her slime imitation smiled back before confronting her with another blow. This time Reta stumbled and lost her balance, catching herself and snatching another plank of wood off the ground before bashing it on the slime's face. It splattered with a few drops landing on her shoulder, seeping in and disintegrating parts of her skin. Her face twisted in pain and she covered her wound, stumbling back while the slime recovered its shape and continued its assault.
KuliKuli had more progress avoiding its touch, though her copy was relentless as it swiped across at her face and then swung its leg down at her chest. She yelped and shrunk into her cat form, slipping between its legs and scurrying through the dissolved hole in the wall. Her slime monster pursued, wasting no time to catch its victim.
The Nekomata took advantage of her smaller frame, squeezing through the small gaps between furniture and climbing up a high shelf to hide in. The room was a strange assortment of souvenirs and clothing, with a half opened dresser revealing those familiar one piece uniforms that the circus performers were on stage, and the bookshelf she was on containing a number of deflated balloons, darts, bracelets and a brightly colored cap and bells headpiece. At the far side of the room was a collection of hat gear, and near the curtained exit was a decorated red chest large enough to hide a human inside.
She held her breath as her slime walked in, twisted its head all the way around before standing still. KuliKuli shrunk further back into her hiding spot, keeping behind the cap and bells hat to stay out of sight. Her tail nudged one of the bells just enough for it to jingle, the immediate ring catching the slime's attention. Its arm lashed out like a whip and struck the shelf down, sending the head gear flying as it crashed. KuliKuli rolled out on her back with a dazed look on her face, shaking her furry head and jumping as soon as the slime tried to stomp on her. It looked around and spotted the chest, reaching out to open it before swinging it to her. She felt the chest pluck a few strands of fur from her back as she escaped its capture. She yelped and mewed while running under the furniture only for the slime to flip and throw them out of the way. In a bit of desperation, KuliKuli hurried into a pile of hats as a looming shadow fell over her.
Snap!
The chest clamped down over the hat, catching the Nekomata within.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reta found herself on the run, unable to counterattack or block this monster without suffering another burn on her body or worse. She led the creature into one of the biomes, panting and pressing her back against the glass as the heat in the room added to her nervous sweating. The slime imitation had her cornered as it blocked the exit, approaching her while forming her hand into a sharpened spear.
A sharp hiss emerged from over their heads as the monster girl held in captivity recoiled and climbed to a higher tree branch once she spotted the slime. "Hissss! Why do you bring this foul pessst into my home? Get it out now before it kills us all!"
Reta ignored her, keeping her hands steady against the glass behind her as she waited for the slime to attack, and waited, and waited still. This monster wasn't attacking anymore. It cocked its head before morphing her spear hand back to normal, its eyes humored her as if it meant to mock her attempts. This thing wasn't as mindless as she had hoped, and the realization left a sinking feeling in her chest as she was at a loss of actions. Reta breathed in one last time, exhaling the stress from her body as she began to accept her demise. The slime walked up to her as if to confirm her suspicions, extending its hands to trap her in between. She was stuck, unable to move aside this time as her copy closed the distance with that creepy grin glued on her gelatinous face.
She gasped when the heel of a shoe was stabbed into the back of its head, followed by a sudden gasp. It turned its head in reverse to face whoever struck it from behind, only to be met with a frightened Janette. She held her other shoe in a trembling hand, slowly walking back with a wavering smile as she held her hand out in shock.
"Damn it all, I tried! Can-can we talk? No? Okay then!"
She tried to run away when she was met with a swinging blow of the slime creatures arm, sending her crashing against the wall. She struck her head on impact and sunk down, leaning against it unconscious. Her other shoe slipped from her hand and slid on the floor when Reta grabbed it and threw it back to the creatures head just as it faced her, impaling it halfway into its face. It began to boil and swung its other arm frantically, striking the display glass. A fracture emerged from the impact and it spiraled across the wall, spreading further out as the snake girl wrapped its tail and body around the highest branch, her pupils shrinking in terror as the glass shattered and the lake pushed through. The current from the murky waters swept the slime away, followed by the reveal of a large crocodile snapping its mouth and looking around. It scattered out of the biome, leaving a drenched Reta wiping her eyes before hurrying over to Janette and shaking her awake.
"Hey, hey! Get up you fragile brat, perhaps next time you'll focus your time on a sword over a quill. You certainly have the courage for it." She held Janette in her arms as she shook her head until she opened her eyes.
"Did we die? Oh gods, I'm in hell."
Reta huffed and dropped her, standing to her feet as the snake girl descended behind her and emerged with its shadow rising over them.
"The little birdie has lossst her cage." She hissed while looking down on them. Her eyes turned to glance at a bubbling figure struggling to rise from the mud, the fragments of what remained from the slime as its green hand broke down and collapsed into the soaking waters, evaporating upon its death. "Interesssting, you took advantage of my home to rid usss of this pessst. And now, I am free."
She turned her head back to them, with Janette hiding behind Reta. "Hmm, perhapsss an exchange would meet the terms to disssplay my sssatisfaction."
"Exchange?" Reta repeated, watching this snake girl bow its head.
"Szy'Rya Hyszs Sz'zya (Shy-Ree-uh Hai-sh Sh-yuh), that is the name my mother gave me when I first hatched. In exchange for freeing me from my cage, I offer one my ssservitude, a favor in return."
She turned her gaze between one woman and the other. "How can I repay you?"
Felix threw himself back as the slime lunged after him, growing five times with the shape of a wave about to entrap him. He fell on his back, his head bouncing off the floor. The impact left him dazed and everything was happening so fast, it did not help that he was still winded from the prior struggle with the two guards. The slime crashed down, narrowly missing him before bouncing up in the form of a green ball, its shadow directed to his head. A sharp pull from under his arms helped him evade its attack, he was dragged several feet back before he rolled onto his knees as he struggled to get on his feet. KuliKuli had saved him, untangling her tails from him before extending her thick claws just as the slime began to reform from the puddle it splattered into, imitating a humanoid shape. The top of it's being began to mold as it carved and peeled away, dropping bits of slime before standing before her.
In a few seconds, the slime had shaped its appearance to imitate Felix, keeping it's green gelatinous surface and transparent body. It turned its head and smiled down on Felix as he lay speechless.
"Hya!" KuliKuli swiped her paw across its face, slicing it into three halves before it lost its shape and toppled over.
"KuliKuli!" Janette shouted across the room. "Don't let it touch you! Those things dissolve whatever it sticks inside it!"
KuliKuli lifted her paw and witnessed her claws melt just a bit from the surface. She waved her arm back and forth furiously when the green goo shot out from the slime's body to wrap around her neck. Felix gasped and swiped her legs, making her fall in time to avoid a terrible fate. She shrieked loudly as it swung its arm to crush her. Rolling out of the way, she nearly crashed into Felix before planting her feet on his chest to kick him out of the way from the monster's grasp.
"Sorry!" She shouted, turning her head leaping several feet when it tried to pounce on her. This time the monster anticipated her reaction, spitting out a chunk of goop while she was in the air. Felix rubbed his chest and looked up in time to see this as the sticky substance landed on her chest. Once KuliKuli landed on the ground, she looked down and squealed, shrinking in size as her dress crumbled onto the ground. She ran out from the skirt of the dress in her cat form, scurrying away as the slime burned through her dress.
"Damn it! We lack the tools to attack it." Reta stated in high voice, frantically searching around her.
"Cold and hot temperatures can do it some harm, we can lead it into the biomes!" Janette exclaimed.
Reta shook her head. "The room lacks enough space to avoid its attacks, and there lies the chance that it could break the glass and harm the creatures in captivity. It's not the worst idea if we pick the right biome, m-maybe?"
"We can't just-!" Felix twisted around, narrowly escaping another attempt to be engulfed by the slime. "We can't just avoid it forever!"
"Well you can certainly try." Arcaye responded in a curious tone of voice as he enjoyed the show. "You can run all you want, but Slime-o wouldn't like it. If his food struggles back, it angers him more and he'll pick more sadistic means of playing with his food. Catching any food that gave him a workout leaves him satisfied for a few days longer before he hungers for more. So go right ahead, keep him on the move."
He gave his staff a spin with the twirl of his wrist before turning his back to them. "Slime-o, you can have your fun. Just remember, keep the cat alive and don't make a mess of anything. You may eat the others."
"The bastard is walking away." Reta gritted her teeth, looking around the circus for anything to use. The small stages where cleaned out, even the tents were folded up and packed away leaving the small wooden platforms remaining. Felix and KuliKuli had caught up to them with Janette stepping back cautiously as to maintain her distance from the creature. Reta stood her ground, whistling to grab its attention. It lunged at her with a broad swing of its tendril, shattering the wooden stage and sending planks of wood flying around. Reta snatched one in the air and swung it back down, cleaving its appendage off and letting go of the material as it disintegrated.
"Got your attention, did I?" She muttered under her breath, gesturing for it to follow her with a wave of her hand. "Come now, I'm right here."
As the slime monster slowly approached her, Reta took the time to rip off her dress, revealing herself in wearing just a sarashi and a small pair of underwear. Kicking her heels off, she felt the ground beneath the soles of her feet as she flexed and wiggled her arms, bending down until her palm rested on the floor with her eyes staring at her opponent. A tentacle emerged from its side, wriggling and twisting in the air before cracking down with a fierce whip, its velocity was fast enough that they could hardly see a blur from its movement. Reta turned her body aside just in time, feeling the rush of the air against her skin in doing so.
Another attempt to strike her with this whip resulted in scarring the ground with its mark, but leaving Reta unharmed as it failed to catch her. It wriggled and its insides began to boil in anger, squeezing its shape together before lunging its entire body over her in a frustrating attempt to cover as much ground as it could. Reta gasped and jumped back but recognized too late that she failed to get out of its way. KuliKuli wrapped her tails around her friends waist and pulled her back, saving her from a doomed fate and robbing the slime of its meal. It began to take shape once again, turning its head around and glaring at her.
"What's it doing?" KuliKuli asked, staring awkwardly as the shape of this monster began to ripple and peel apart in small layers.
Felix noticed something from behind the slime, he paced to the left for a better view as he spotted the side of the wall had been burnt from one of its attacks, revealing a gaping hole that led into a strange lit room. Reta had flipped back on her feet, keeping in mind to stay several meters away as she too watched the slime split itself in half.
"Janette?" Felix asked, keeping his eyes on the slime. "What else do you know about these things?"
"I uh-uhh, I know that they are shapeshifters." She stammered while pressing her body into the wall as far from the fight as she could for her comfort. "They digest any living organism for food with a preference for m-meat! When they reach an adolescent stage, some would evolve and become sentient, transforming into what you call a slime girl."
"Can they split apart?" KuliKuli asked next with a high pitched tone. "Because this thing looks like it's doing just that!"
"Yes! When they grow to a certain mass or expand their bodies to a certain size, it's a form of asexual reproduction in order to maintain its survivability!" Janette felt her hands were trembling nonstop, shrinking in fear as the slime broke away from its other half.
Both green piles of goo were each taking a different shape as parts of it ripped away. What looked like tendrils started to grow with added layers around it to imitate an arm and a hand. The bottom half split from the ground up before turning into legs, with one slime taking a different yet familiar shape as it lacked the arms and replaced them with pudgy balls and protruding claws. KuliKuli covered her mouth as she looked into the eyes of a green replica of herself, a slime Nekomata that stared back. It formed an eerie smile and waved its paw back. Reta was met with a similar surprise as she looked at a mirror green image of herself, imitating the same wave and grin as the KuliKuli slime next to it.
Both monsters charged toward their respective copies.
Reta stepped back and ducked from an incoming swipe to her head, followed by a strike which she blocked with her forearm. She screeched in pain and jumped back as steam evaporated from her limb. The brief contact left her forearm burnt with the front layer of skin peeling off at the bruised area. Her slime imitation smiled back before confronting her with another blow. This time Reta stumbled and lost her balance, catching herself and snatching another plank of wood off the ground before bashing it on the slime's face. It splattered with a few drops landing on her shoulder, seeping in and disintegrating parts of her skin. Her face twisted in pain and she covered her wound, stumbling back while the slime recovered its shape and continued its assault.
KuliKuli had more progress avoiding its touch, though her copy was relentless as it swiped across at her face and then swung its leg down at her chest. She yelped and shrunk into her cat form, slipping between its legs and scurrying through the dissolved hole in the wall. Her slime monster pursued, wasting no time to catch its victim.
The Nekomata took advantage of her smaller frame, squeezing through the small gaps between furniture and climbing up a high shelf to hide in. The room was a strange assortment of souvenirs and clothing, with a half opened dresser revealing those familiar one piece uniforms that the circus performers were on stage, and the bookshelf she was on containing a number of deflated balloons, darts, bracelets and a brightly colored cap and bells headpiece. At the far side of the room was a collection of hat gear, and near the curtained exit was a decorated red chest large enough to hide a human inside.
She held her breath as her slime walked in, twisted its head all the way around before standing still. KuliKuli shrunk further back into her hiding spot, keeping behind the cap and bells hat to stay out of sight. Her tail nudged one of the bells just enough for it to jingle, the immediate ring catching the slime's attention. Its arm lashed out like a whip and struck the shelf down, sending the head gear flying as it crashed. KuliKuli rolled out on her back with a dazed look on her face, shaking her furry head and jumping as soon as the slime tried to stomp on her. It looked around and spotted the chest, reaching out to open it before swinging it to her. She felt the chest pluck a few strands of fur from her back as she escaped its capture. She yelped and mewed while running under the furniture only for the slime to flip and throw them out of the way. In a bit of desperation, KuliKuli hurried into a pile of hats as a looming shadow fell over her.
Snap!
The chest clamped down over the hat, catching the Nekomata within.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reta found herself on the run, unable to counterattack or block this monster without suffering another burn on her body or worse. She led the creature into one of the biomes, panting and pressing her back against the glass as the heat in the room added to her nervous sweating. The slime imitation had her cornered as it blocked the exit, approaching her while forming her hand into a sharpened spear.
A sharp hiss emerged from over their heads as the monster girl held in captivity recoiled and climbed to a higher tree branch once she spotted the slime. "Hissss! Why do you bring this foul pessst into my home? Get it out now before it kills us all!"
Reta ignored her, keeping her hands steady against the glass behind her as she waited for the slime to attack, and waited, and waited still. This monster wasn't attacking anymore. It cocked its head before morphing her spear hand back to normal, its eyes humored her as if it meant to mock her attempts. This thing wasn't as mindless as she had hoped, and the realization left a sinking feeling in her chest as she was at a loss of actions. Reta breathed in one last time, exhaling the stress from her body as she began to accept her demise. The slime walked up to her as if to confirm her suspicions, extending its hands to trap her in between. She was stuck, unable to move aside this time as her copy closed the distance with that creepy grin glued on her gelatinous face.
She gasped when the heel of a shoe was stabbed into the back of its head, followed by a sudden gasp. It turned its head in reverse to face whoever struck it from behind, only to be met with a frightened Janette. She held her other shoe in a trembling hand, slowly walking back with a wavering smile as she held her hand out in shock.
"Damn it all, I tried! Can-can we talk? No? Okay then!"
She tried to run away when she was met with a swinging blow of the slime creatures arm, sending her crashing against the wall. She struck her head on impact and sunk down, leaning against it unconscious. Her other shoe slipped from her hand and slid on the floor when Reta grabbed it and threw it back to the creatures head just as it faced her, impaling it halfway into its face. It began to boil and swung its other arm frantically, striking the display glass. A fracture emerged from the impact and it spiraled across the wall, spreading further out as the snake girl wrapped its tail and body around the highest branch, her pupils shrinking in terror as the glass shattered and the lake pushed through. The current from the murky waters swept the slime away, followed by the reveal of a large crocodile snapping its mouth and looking around. It scattered out of the biome, leaving a drenched Reta wiping her eyes before hurrying over to Janette and shaking her awake.
"Hey, hey! Get up you fragile brat, perhaps next time you'll focus your time on a sword over a quill. You certainly have the courage for it." She held Janette in her arms as she shook her head until she opened her eyes.
"Did we die? Oh gods, I'm in hell."
Reta huffed and dropped her, standing to her feet as the snake girl descended behind her and emerged with its shadow rising over them.
"The little birdie has lossst her cage." She hissed while looking down on them. Her eyes turned to glance at a bubbling figure struggling to rise from the mud, the fragments of what remained from the slime as its green hand broke down and collapsed into the soaking waters, evaporating upon its death. "Interesssting, you took advantage of my home to rid usss of this pessst. And now, I am free."
She turned her head back to them, with Janette hiding behind Reta. "Hmm, perhapsss an exchange would meet the terms to disssplay my sssatisfaction."
"Exchange?" Reta repeated, watching this snake girl bow its head.
"Szy'Rya Hyszs Sz'zya (Shy-Ree-uh Hai-sh Sh-yuh), that is the name my mother gave me when I first hatched. In exchange for freeing me from my cage, I offer one my ssservitude, a favor in return."
She turned her gaze between one woman and the other. "How can I repay you?"
