+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

  Ygeian Countryside

  They drove for a few kilometers down south.

  In front of them, Captain Weibel and Lieutenant Preisner stopped their horses to raise their spyglasses on the distant town. Hans on the other hand opened his hatch and jumped off his mech. He grabbed his binoculars and looked at the destroyed town.

  Melted homes. Black goo. Barely any fires. Goddess…why is that goo covering the whole place?

  “Looks like we can’t go there,” Lieutenant Preisner shouted as he lowered his spyglass. “I wouldn’t try my chances on those things. It seems to be capable of melting stone. That’s ridiculous.”

  “Well, I’d like to see it melt metal,” Hans said, as he lowered his binoculars as well. Adelyn rushed out of her mech as well, standing beside Hans. “Captain, you should see this. Some goo-like thing. Seems like it’s more than just a normal slime.”

  Adelyn placed her binoculars on her eyes, before lowering it. But she took a second take in disbelief.

  “Damn,” Adelyn’s voice dropped. “It must have killed all the people out there. Those buildings look…”

  “Yeah, looks like we got ourselves an environmental hazard going now,” Hans shook his head. “Look at those puddles. It’s big. Goddess…it’s even spilling on that river. That’s actually probably dangerous.”

  “Should we warn people downstream?” Captain Weibel asked, frowning.

  “Absolutely,” Hans said. Immediately, Captain Weibel turned to his subordinate.

  “Alright, Malte. Go grab some of our boys at Villiers-Dupont. Tell them to ride out and warn any settlement downstream of this river to avoid using or getting close to this water. It’s dangerous.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain!” Lieutenant Preisner replied with a quick, snappy salute. He then pulled his horse to the side and galloped away in haste.

  Captain Weibel on the other hand turned back to Hans.

  “Now, what’s our fucken plan?” he asked. “Do you think we’d need our battlemages for this one?”

  “Possibly,” Adelyn said, shaking her head. “If only we have Father Strobel, maybe he’ll have an idea of what good magic we can use to counter this thing.”

  “They’re cutting it quick toward Nomos,” Hans said. “I’m afraid it’s just us that’ll be able to deal with this. They need to establish our presence there fast and start gathering intel.”

  “I know, I know,” Adelyn sighed. She turned back to Captain Weibel. “Alright, I think we should at least get some counsel from your mages. At least…experiment and find some ideas on how to deal with this. I don’t think my fire-based magic is going to do very well at purifying this thing—”

  “Maybe I can, Lady Adelyn!” Alizée shouted from behind. She was sitting on top of the Diligence’s turret with her arms crossed. “I can purify anything!”

  “No,” was the quick response from both Hans and Adelyn.

  “Besides, you don’t have your ‘ideal’ manifested,” Hans said, waving it off. “It’s also specialized against the Calamity of Desire. Not against this.”

  “Hmm…you’re right,” Alizée pouted sadly as she whined. “I wanna help though…”

  “Go eat your biscuits and read your books,” Hans replied, frowning. “Gee, we should have left you in that town before going here.”

  “I didn’t know you were this cruel, Sir Hans! Leaving a young girl alone in a foreign town. I feel hurt!”

  “She’s going to get into her rebellious phase fast,” Hans complained to Adelyn, who simply nodded in agreement.

  “Yeah, unfortunately.”

  “So I’d be riding back too,” Captain Weibel asked. Both Hans and Adelyn turned to his direction, and Adelyn nodded as she spoke.

  “Yeah, yeah. Grab those mages. Get them here posthaste.”

  “And you two?”

  Adelyn looked at Hans, before turning back at Captain Weibel.

  “We’d be doing some advance recon. I think.”

  “Eh?” Hans shook his head. “Look, I’m leaving my trailer wagon here. You guard it. I’ll be doing the recce myself. You guard the things here, and I’ll come back with proper intel.”

  Adelyn frowned.

  “You sure? What if it suddenly attacks you?”

  “Then I’ll be more slimy than the damned slime and escape,” Hans nodded confidently. “You already saw me fight, Captain. Have trust.”

  “Tsk, you're finding excuses to endanger yourself again,” Adelyn crossed her arms. “Alright, I’ll allow you, because it’s nice that my subordinates show enthusiastic initiative. However, don’t you dare engage that demon without proper backup, okay? Remember, always retreat. Prioritize your life. Is that clear, Lieutenant Hoffman?”

  “Why are you looking at me like I’m about to do something stupid?”

  “I can see it in your eyes,” Adelyn leaned forward. “Clear, or not clear?”

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  “Very clear.”

  She nodded.

  “Then go on, you two,” Captain Weibel saluted her, and rode out of the area. She then looked at Hans, and her eyes softened. “As for you, please be careful, okay? I know you’ll be fine, but still…”

  “I know,” Hans said. “No need to worry.”

  +++

  Hans sighed to himself as he pulled his mech to a halt.

  This is worrying.

  The sheer corruption of the lands ahead was a terror. He had watched as the soil, trees, and houses continued melting under the black-colored goo left behind by this “slime demon”. It was why he insisted on being the only one to go out and conduct a recon. If the worst came, he’d be the only bastard dead.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ you told her. Hans frowned to himself. You lying bastard.

  He continued onward. It was almost like the creature spat the goo out and left it in the environment. Or everywhere it walked on was affected. Hans wasn’t exactly sure. But he followed the black puddles as far as he could. He needed to find out everything about this creature.

  The last thing he wanted was to have someone killed just because of bad intel. And so far, they knew nothing about this creature.

  Soon, he activated his mech upgrade, [UPG: EYE OF PARANOIA I] to be specific. It immediately began tapping through his AP reserves, but Hans ignored it. It was a very efficient upgrade anyway, and he needed it to locate the demon. His mech soon jumped on top of a black puddle, landing on the green fields as he continued onward.

  Soon, tall grass almost obscured his mech, but he pushed onward through it. Then, he went deep into what appeared to be a small forest that had been half-melted by the demon’s strange elements.

  By the time he exited the forest, he pulled into another break. Ahead of him was just a sea of black goo. Hans frowned, walking his Wanderfalke straight into the side of a gigantic puddle, and stepping out of his mech. He walked through the grassy fields, searching for a twig or two. When he found his perfect subjects, he leaned down on the puddle and tossed it.

  They immediately melted, almost turning into the same black goo as well. Hans stood back up.

  “If there’s just…” Hans looked back at his mech. He climbed back inside to rummage through his belongings, eventually finding a knife. It was a knife he bought in a market in Rignon, which he had used to demonstrate the idea of using bayonets. He went back outside, straight into the puddle, and gently pushed it to its side until the point of contact.

  He watched as the steel slowly dissolved, releasing some hot gas upward. But this time around, it wasn’t assimilated. Hans frowned further. He pushed the steel forward, but it just continued dissolving. Hans stood up.

  So I guess…in this case, the acid acts like acid on anything not biological? While biomass is converted into more of this goo when melted?

  “That’s just messed up,” Hans said. He then looked around. He saw something in the distance. It seemed to be a white rabbit of sorts. An idea popped into his mind. Taking his Ruger out, he slowly aimed it at the rabbit. It didn’t notice him, since it was looking away from him. “Now…let’s see how this goes…”

  He pulled the trigger.

  He immediately tossed the bloodied carcass of the rabbit straight into the puddle. In seconds, it melted, before suddenly, the rabbit turned black. It started moving. Hans readied his pistol, as the entire body of the dead rabbit turned into a slimy version of itself. He aimed it at the creature and opened fire.

  All that happened was a quick splash. The rabbit’s body was torn apart, but the slimy elements just reformed back as if nothing happened. And the rabbit—it looked like it wanted to eat his face.

  Hans immediately scrammed back up into his Wanderfalke’s hull as the rabbit tried to chase him. The steel of the Peacemaker’s legs was fortunately not affected quickly by the slime’s steel dissolving properties, but it was making quick damage. Hans immediately plopped back into the crew compartment, sealed his hatch, and made his quick escape.

  “Damn, damn!” Hans shouted with a bit of goosebumps as he escaped the killer slime rabbit. “That little thing wanted to kill me hard!”

  By the time he reached the exit of the small forest, he felt his hair rise.

  “Oh goddess…you screwed me again.”

  He pulled his mech to a stop. There was a horde of the slime monsters all looking straight at him. Humans, cows, pigs, there were even wolves in the mix. And they all had a murderous look at him.

  He tried to look for an exit, but all he could see on the flat distant plains was the massive slime demon. It was dark, almost as dark as the night sky. It had red eyes. And it seemed like how Hans imagined a slime would look like. Just a massive, irregularly shaped blob of gelatinous mass. And it was releasing a lot of black goo.

  But most importantly, it was looking at him.

  Around him, the smaller slime creatures surrounded him, denying him any place to escape.

  Hans just sighed deeply, accepting his cornered fate.

  “Well…I chose this,” he told himself, as his eyes turned dead cold. “I guess I’m going to end up like that rabbit in the end then, huh?”

  The demonic creature soon screeched in its high-pitched voice. Hans, in response, loaded in a fresh MPAT ammunition into his ammo breech.

  “Then better I learn everything about you before I die!”

  He charged forward at the masses of attacking slimes. Pulling his machine guns open, Hans sliced down the horde quite rapidly. It was surprising, but it seemed that the kinetic energy of his machine guns managed to disrupt the bodies of the slimes that they collapsed. They however reformed rather quickly on the ground.

  Warnings soon appeared on Hans’ displays. His legs and armor were rapidly dissolving from the splattered goo. He however pushed onward, aiming his MPAT round straight into the creature. He pulled the trigger.

  The shot immediately exploded near the creature’s eyes. That pissed off the slime monster, which somehow, to Hans’ horror, managed to jump for dozens of meters straight in his direction. It continued hopping, rapidly, and violently. Hans immediately pulled away, as he reloaded his next round.

  Masses of the slimes started jumping and hugging his mech. The Peacemaker however relentlessly drove forward, while his turret and machine guns tried to cut down the creatures to find escape. He was however being slowed down, as his mech’s legs began malfunctioning from the damage.

  Soon, he finally saw the first signs of the goo melting its way through his mech’s armor. Hans grimaced. He pulled his mech to a stop, as two of his legs gave way and fell on the fields. His mech skidded into the ground, while the slime creatures surrounded him. Yet Hans valiantly aimed his turret straight into the massive slime creature charging toward him.

  He noticed something, however. One of its eyes was gone.

  So you’re not as tough as you seem? You can be blinded.

  He aimed it at the second, intact eye. Then, he pulled the trigger. A massive explosion struck the face of the creature, as it stopped to a halt. On the other hand, Hans felt the sound of the metal around him dissolving. Soon, a drop of black goo dropped straight into his legs.

  It burned hard, and Hans hissed. He felt his legs turn into a puddle, and Hans painfully screamed.

  “Shit! My damned legs! My legs!!!”

  It rapidly assimilated his cells, and it felt like a thousand pinpricks gripped his legs. He pulled out his Ruger and decided that he’d rather not die like this.

  He placed the barrel straight into his mouth.

  A single, powerful gunshot sound came out of his vehicle’s exposed crew compartment.

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