As the sounds crept closer, I reached for my pants.

Something big slammed into the shelter hard enough to make the whole thing fold over on itself, tangling us in the wreckage.

"Nope," I said, grabbing my spear instead. "Guess my dick’s fighting today too."

I crawled out from under the broken frame, dragging a strip of torn blanket off my shoulder as cold night air slapped every part of me I would have preferred covered. "Damn, you’re... big?"

The girls forced their way out behind me, all three naked, tired, and somehow still more ready for a fight than I was with a weapon in my hand. Reika’s tails puffed out. Celeste snatched her bow from the wreckage with a look on her face that promised violence. Valka ripped her chain free with a sharp metal clash that cut straight through the wet humming noise coming from the monsters.

Two massive blue-green slimes sat on top of what used to be our shelter. Their bodies pulsed as they devoured leather, wood, rope, and the remains of our little fire. Every piece they swallowed melted into them with a soft hiss, disappearing like the shelter had never existed in the first place.

Then both slimes turned toward us.

I tightened my grip around the spear. "They ate our shelter, bro. Who fucking does that?"

One of the slimes rolled forward with a heavy, wet slap.

"Fuck these guys," I said, lowering my spear. "Let’s see what this does."

[ Valka’s Mana Chosen ]

[ Dark Affinity Added ]

[ Warning: Overuse may result in exhaustion ]

"More than I already am?" I muttered. "Valka, what is dark mana good for?"

"I use it for torture," she replied, no joke in her voice.

I looked at her, my face of disbelief at her answer was easily spotted.

She looked back at the slimes before adding. "It is also very good at making things stop moving." She said, somehow making it sound like a bad thing.

"That would have been the less terrifying answer to start with." I joked, turning my attention back to the slimes.

The dark mana crawled up my arm before I could ask anything else. It didn’t feel like Reika’s ice or Celeste’s fire. Those had weight, heat, direction. Valka’s mana felt like something cold had reached under my skin and grabbed the bones directly, turning the head of my spear black.

The closest slime launched itself at us with clumsy aggression.

Celeste fired first, her arrow punching into the thing with a burst of red flame. The slime barely cared. The fire sank into its body, flickered once, and vanished beneath the surface.

"Oh, that’s not what we wanted now is it?" I yelled to Celeste. "Fire might now work, they appear to be made of liquid,"

Reika threw both hands forward. Ice ripped across the ground and climbed the slime’s body, locking half of it in place. The monster kept dragging itself forward anyway, tearing through the ice with its own weight.

Valka moved next. Her chain snapped out, wrapped around the frozen part of the slime, and tightened with a sound like stone cracking under pressure. Black mana spread from the links in jagged veins, crawling across the slime’s surface. The humming noise turned sharp and ugly.

"Now, Adrian," Valka said.

I didn’t think. Thinking would have made me realize I was naked, freezing, exhausted, and about to stab a giant slime with magic I had just learned existed. So I ran in, balls to the walls.

The ground was slick under my feet. My first step nearly killed me. My second got me close enough for the slime to swing a thick chunk of itself at my head. I ducked under it, screamed something that was probably not heroic, and drove the spear straight into the black veins Valka had made.

The dark mana bit down. That was the only way I could describe it. The spear didn’t pierce the slime so much as punish it for existing. The whole monster clenched inward around the point, its body shaking as the black veins spread faster. Then it burst, cold slime splattered across my chest, my face, and several places I did not want monster slime anywhere near.

"Gross," I said as I stood there dripping, breathing hard.

The second slime answered by throwing itself at Celeste. It didn’t roll or crawl like the first one. It bounced once, compressed its entire body, then shot forward like a wet cannonball. Celeste tried to move, but the ground under her feet was coated in slime from the first burst.

"Celeste!" I yelled trying to reach her in time.

Reika moved first. Ice snapped across the dirt, catching Celeste by the ankle and dragging her sideways just enough for the slime to miss her chest. It still clipped her shoulder and sent her spinning into the broken shelter pieces.

"Reika is sorry!" Reika shouted.

"Apologize later!" Celeste snapped, grabbing her bow with one hand while trying to push herself up with the other.

The slime turned on her again.

Valka’s chain cracked across its side, but the links sank halfway in and stuck. Her eyes narrowed.

"It is absorbing impact."

"That’s a really shitty feature," I said, wiping slime out of my eyes.

The monster surged forward, dragging Valka’s chain with it. She planted her feet, muscles tightening, but even she slid a few inches through the mud.

A panel flashed in front of me.

[ THREE-SIGNATURE SYNC AVAILABLE ]

[ REIKA | CELESTE | VALKA ]

[ WARNING: USER BODY MAY NOT HANDLE FULL OUTPUT ]

"No time for the warning label," I muttered.

I grabbed the connection inside my chest and pulled.

[ Three Signature Sync Successful ]

[ Dark Affinity Compatibility: Low ]

[ Stamina: Critical ]

"Critical how?"

My knees answered before the system did. The last slime rolled toward us, bigger now after eating half the damn shelter.

I didn’t think. Thinking was for people wearing pants and making good choices.

I pulled Valka’s mana into the spear until my arm felt like it was full of rocks, then charged straight at the ugly blue-green bastard.

"Eat this, you homeless jelly fuck!"

I slammed the spear down with everything I had.

The slime caved in, hardened for half a second, then burst outward in a massive wet wave. Slime splashed over the trees, the dirt, the girls, and every exposed part of me.

[ Mana Depleted ]

"Oh," I said, wobbling. "That’s probably bad."

Then I was met with the hard ground below.