Zindra stared at the figure pouncing toward her as the silver orb on the floor began to twist and pulsate. It stretched and climbed up her body at blinding speed before jumping into the empty vial. Meanwhile, another colorful liquid seemed to spring to life. The yellow liquid extended and fanned out in front of Zindra, forming a thin sheet of pulsing liquid that resembled rippling water.

  The figure's hand struck the expanding wall of yellow liquid, which seemed to grow larger and thinner with every passing moment. However, when his hand made full contact, it felt like he had struck a mountain. All of his momentum was pushed back at him, causing him to stumble backward several steps. Wasting no time, the figure jumped into the shadow cast by one of the cots and used that entrance to leap behind Zindra, utilizing the shadow of another cot. Yet, the thin yellow wall twisted around once again, easily absorbing the figure's punch, leaving him to question his own strength.

  "What is this?" The figure shouted, but Zindra only glared at them through the openings of the thin wall.

  Through the gaps in the yellow wall, the figure observed a liquid that seemed to come alive, breaking into pieces and latching onto the bodies around. At first, their expression darkened, their face contorting into a grimace. However, after a few seconds, they appeared to understand what the woman was trying to accomplish.

  "Hahaha!" The figure hunched over, holding his stomach as he laughed, "They're already dead, you dumb woman! Do you think you are the second coming of the Goddess of Life or something!"

  The figure continued to laugh, but Zindra was more focused on the children, young men, and women who doted the room with pillars of green light pouring out of them. She knew that it was probably too late, but she had never tested the green SLIMME on injuries so severe, and if there were just a sliver of a chance to save just one of them, then she would gamble for it even if it cost her everything.

  "Hey! Woman, did you not hear me?" The figure asked as he paced around the moving yellow wall, his smile growing wider as he peered into the openings to see the frantic woman inside.

  "Stop talking to me, loser. Can you not see that I am busy!" Zindra spat out as she glared at the figure.

  "You do remember me?" The figure seemed happy initially, but his face grew dark when the words seeped in, "LOSER!"

  "That's what you are. Now, get lost before I remind you what happens when you mess with me."

  "Hehe..." The figure puffed out a couple of laughs when a sudden burst of flames hit the yellow wall and blasted Zindra outside the room and into the hall.

  "Both of you are useless." A new figure dressed in a grey and red suit with a black hood covering his head and a plain white mask landed gracefully beside the figure.

  "We told you we could handle this! There is no reason for you to get involved."

  "You are being blocked by someone who has already defeated you while the other is incapacitated by someone else. And here, the target is right in front of us, and yet we do not have them. Both of you are useless failures, so now I need to step in..."

  A streak of silver light blasted into the room, hitting the corner of the masked figure's face, cracking the mask and revealing a bit of their mouth.

  "Interesting, " the figure said slowly, annoyedly glancing out the still cindering hole where Zindra stood.

  "Who are you and what are you doing?" Zindra asked

  "What am I doing? Well, an assignment, but now I have found an interesting toy... so I think I'll take a break and play with it." The figure said a bizarre smile could be seen from the broken side of the mask.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Zindra couldn't see the new masked figure's eyes, but the creepy smile sent shivers down her spine. It didn't take a genius to understand what they were referring to, but she had to ignore it because she had other priorities.

  "Get the target while I play with this new toy."

  "Be careful; she has new... things that she didn't last time."

  "Are you instructing me?" The masked figure whipped his head toward the other figure, "I am not as useless as you. It does not matter how many accessories they bring. They amount to nothing."

  "Of course."

  The figure walked toward Carter's direction, forgetting a significant event that had happened just seconds ago, and as he grew closer to Carter, a wall of silver grew before him and enveloped him entirely. As he struggled inside the silver cocoon, the thing began to move, jumping out of the hole leading toward the front of the Central Building.

  The masked figure watched the scene unfold, amusement dancing on his half-exposed lips. "Are you sure you can afford to lose one of your needed weapons when you are about to fight me?"

  "It's fine. I know that SLIMME can handle that Shadow Race alone without my interference. I just need to keep you here until someone comes to help. I can do that."

  "Oh? Then shall we test that? Experiment versus Experiment and Creator versus Creator, how interesting do you not think?"

  "Experiment?"

  Zindra attempted to gather more information, but the masked figure lunged forward, their hands glowing with a smoldering flame that they hurled toward her. In response, Zindra activated two of her vials—the red and the blue—while also trying to pull the green SLIMME back together and towards the vial so it could rest, just in case.

  A beam of flames shot out of the figure's hands, but the red SLIMME jumped to life and greedily gobbled the flames like a starved beast. Its faint red grew deeper, and cinders wafted off its liquid body.

  ?"Annoying," The figure said as he clicked his tongue.

  As the figure repositioned himself away from Zindra and her red SLIMME, which resembled a hungry beast that had just found its prey, Zindra made the blue SLIMME grow in size, inflating it to match her height. The masked figure braced himself for an incoming explosion, but instead, a high-pressure stream of water shot toward him.

  His body moved instinctively, dodging as the water pierced through the walls and followed his movements, creating a line that traced his path. As the figure moved and danced around, he found the perfect place to stand where the woman wouldn't attack. If she did, she would hit the useless child still stuck in his stupor.

  "How funny. Do you really think that you can afford to be so kind when you fight me? I don't know if you are foolish or plotting, but with this, you've lost your upper hand."

  Suddenly, ice began forming in the puddles of water pooling. Zindra watched as the ice grew, appearing lost and confused. Initially, she assumed this figure was someone from the Blaze Race; however, she realized no known race could control fire and ice. Then, she recalled a race, specifically a family from that race—a family that could indeed have this power—but she needed to confirm that first.

  Zindra pulled the blue SLIMME back into her vial while using the red SLIMME to continue heating the surroundings to negate the growing ice the best she could. At the same time, the violet SLIMME started to wrap around her body, and after it did so, the SLIMME pulsed. Zindra took a step and now stood between the figure and Carter. The violet SLIMME jumped back into the vial while the yellow SLIMME jumped back to life, enveloping her and Carter as best it could. At the same time, the orange SLIMME bounced out, its speed growing as it continued to hit objects. It eventually reached a blinding speed before shattering the mask and revealing the icy-blue hair and the familiar face below.

  "Logi?" Zindra blinked confused

  "I hoped to do this with little interference or annoyance, but who could have guessed you would have been so... aggravating? Honestly, I thought it would be Arc, considering how duty-bound he is, but you've impressed me. Now you have to die."

  "Why would a guardian..." Before Zindra could finish, a sharp pain radiated from her right side, where a pitch-black dagger now protruded.

  "It seems your experiment has failed, just like its creator," Logi said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

  Zindra let the green SLIMME move to the wound and let it slowly pull out the dagger while she watched the other figure reappear behind Logi, but she thought it strange why they did not take the child. Now would be the best time. As she was thinking, her silver SLIMME crawled back into the vial to rest.

  "Sorry, little one, but I still need you to work just a little longer," Zindra whispered as the silver SLIMME seemed to pulse in protest but still crawled out and hid behind her back.

  Zindra placed the green SLIMME back into the vial, allowing the green motes to waft from her wound. If she was going to execute her plan, she needed to appear weak and injured. She stumbled forward as the yellow SLIMME began to collapse and crawl back into the vial, followed closely by the orange SLIMME. Zindra then fell to her knees while the two approached her. The silver SLIMME enveloped all three of them when they got close enough. Zindra's soft voice telling Carter to hide was the only sound left in the air as the silver SLIMME jumped away.