Monster Breeder

Around the corner and down the hall is a strange display. Tattered netting drapes from ties high on the walls, most long since fallen out to leave craters of crumbling drywall. A long pole painted to seem like wood lies collapsed and broken along a crack in the middle. The detritus of centuries befouls a previously pristine fake-grass carpet pocketed with perhaps purposeful holes at intermittent distances. Plastic relics festoon the area: baubles, colored balls, clubs that may have once had a ceremonial use—because they were certainly too flimsy to ever use as weapons even in their prime.

A faux-wood deck further away holds a surprisingly well-preserved treasure chest, although a trio of those conspicuously perfect holes makes an appearance at the middle-bottom of the chest’s front face. The severed leg and boot of some mannequin or statue perches atop a barrel labeled in barely legible flecking black paint, ‘RUM,’ next to the chest, the remainder of the sculpture destroyed or absconded with at some point in this place’s extensive history.

Against that backdrop, a battle rages between fire and ice that threatens to slag this ancient monument to human whimsy.

In one corner is a bouncing furry albino Slime that leaves a patina of frosty rime on every surface it touches. It roars to reveal rows upon rows of icicle teeth inside its pale, fleshy maw. Opposing it, inexorably approaching from across the room, there crawls a glacial wave of lava. This second Slime at the crest of that rolling hill glows bright with heat through cracks in its shell of molten rock, casting the chamber in a hellish hue.

“Large White Fuzzy Slime,” Jing pronounces, “And an Orange Stone Slime.”

“Finally! I’m calling that big fucker,” Olindia says, excited to complete her trio, and throws her jellyfish tendrils at the fuzzier of the two. Sadly, she greatly underestimates the freeze-factor at play. Her tentacles solidify on contact with the White Slime even as they attempt to wrap around its girth. Their inanimate weight causes a sheer fissure that severs the limbs at their midpoint, and the gooey goon simply shlorps over the amputated arms. “Shit!”

Both gelatinous enemies then notice our presence and attack us as one. The volcanic Slime erupts at us in a shower of burning rocks. Meanwhile, the abominable snow Slime breathes deeply, inflating itself to three times its size before exhaling a cone of raw cold in our direction.

Brenda and I leap to safeguard the others from the rain of hot stones while Jing and Tink use bubble shields to defend our group against the icy breeze. As expected, Olindia and Chris thankfully don’t freeze solid on contact with the White Slime’s breath because they’re encased in a thin barrier of blue energy, while the stone shrapnel bounces off my/our hard exterior. Gale covers her avian wingmaidens with a conjured sheet of water that cools and deflects any volcanic shards that get past me.

"Mistress Gale is so dependable, protecting her lowly servants," Rosie says while sheltering behind the Rainbird's defense.

With the first volley past, we silently split into two teams as if coordinated, and get to work. We each have a good idea of the matchup and how we fare against Slimes at this point, so there’s no need to have a mid-battle powwow.

Gale throws Rain Pellets at the Orange Slime, a similar scenario to a previous skirmish, but the results differ—any smoldering slime her rain touches solidifies to hard stone on contact. The result is a stalemate where, the more she attacks, the tougher her opponent’s defenses become, but the Stony shell of the volcanic Slime is much less flexible than an Ooze equivalent. Her opponent grinds to a crawl under her assault while the Harpy wingmaidens watch her back.

Our Large Pink Jellyfish Slime has a poor matchup regardless of which way she leans, so she pursues her ultimate target—the Large White Fuzzy Slime. It’s no issue to push her Jellyfish tendrils through the transparent energy shield; it only block enemies from entering the designated space. Despite that, her tentacles barely restrain the enemy at all as they harden on contact, but any battlefield control is good with us!

When Chris throws a blood-crystal dagger at the abominable snow Slime, it scores a long line across her opponent's furry back (courtesy of Flou’s auto-aim feature), eliciting another icicle-teeth-bearing roar—this time of pain. Growling in fury, the furry, bestial Slime charges the beautiful bunny, whose eyes widen in fear.

Brenda and I slam into the big brute’s broadside with a hard tackle that sends it off-course while Chris dodge-rolls away. Consequently, its flabby bulk rebounds with a body blow that has us backpedaling across the artificial deck where we stumble into the fake treasure chest. The impact of slamming into the side of the thing accidentally pops open the lid, revealing what the two elemental Slimes were fighting over.

A mound of golden doubloons glitters in the orange light of the molten Slime, but I already know they aren’t real. This ancient human dalliance was never meant to be more than illusion and caprice. It was once a play area for children. Real gold is the last thing one would expect to find in that fake chest.

However, when gallons of gold coins lunge for us in three hefty clumps, my intuition doesn’t matter a whit. It’s too late to evade. At least I’m proud you weren’t fooled for a second, Jonathan!

“Watch out for the Small Mimic Swarm Slime!” Jing calls out.

I almost give a harsh retort, but we know that wouldn’t be helpful, and we need all our attention as we’re swamped with annoying hitchhikers. Although they can’t easily harm us, it’s difficult to move with this unwieldy extra weight unbalancing our stride. The doubloons evade our attempts to grab them while mindlessly attacking our impervious Stone Skin. This is the worst! So annoying! We’re in no position to chase after the abominable snow Slime now.

The frosty furball goes for Chris while I’m taken out of the fight and, as the bunny girl hops and dodges, Olindia cries for the others to, “Hurry up and finish that Orange Slime, so you can come help us!” Olindia’s Jellyfish tentacles serve as no more than brittle tripwires to the Large albino Slime that freezes and shatters her arms with every shlorp forward.

“Do it!” Gale commands, and her wingmaidens strive to obey.

""Yes, Mistress!""

Monal and Rosie flap forward, talons bared at the stony Slime drowned in Gale’s drizzle. Their claws go to work gouging clefts into the rocky shell of the monster that reveals fresh Orange Slime beneath the surface that sizzles and pops on contact with water. Gale’s constant stream of Rain Pellets hit the gaps her wingmaidens create to expand fissures and send cracks spiderwebbing through the Slime’s exterior. It looks like they’ll make short work of their volcanic opponent.

But then the Orange Slime erupts.

Gouts of burning rock and a burst of shattered stone pepper Monal and Rosie at point-blank as the Slime forces them back with a last-ditch effort. Sadly, Jing and Tink’s shields are covering Olindia and Chris at the moment—all four of whom flinch as it happens. We all watch with alarm from the corners of our eyes as the Harpy girls stagger backward while clutching at themselves with their wings. It’s a rough sight to behold.

Gale keeps the Orange Slime pinned down with Rain while her wingmaidens collect themselves, but the abominable snow Slime takes advantage of the situation. The frosty furball inhales again, swelling in size before unleashing a stream of arctic air that covers its volcanic opponent in rime before turning on the avian ladies.

Brenda and I attempt to run for them in vain—our efforts are spoiled by the Mimic swarm of gold doubloons dragging us down. Jing switches her shield from Olindia (who doesn’t need it at the moment) to Gale as the Rainbird gets in front of her wingmaidens. A blast of cold batters and warps the energy barrier but allows Gale to raise a defensive fog cloud in the seconds before it shatters. Her misty shroud staves off the lethal chill for a few moments more.

We look about in desperation. There’s nothing to throw. Nothing for us to throw.

A blood-crystal dagger scores another line in the White Slime’s fur, causing the frosty furball to face the surprise attacker. Gale clutches herself, using her wings as a blanket, and shivers to recover from her near-fatal encounter with an icy grave.

Chris is the one in danger now, though, as that was her second-to-last dagger. Since the final dagger contains one of Flou’s Cores, I expect the bunny girl to hold fast to the weapon. Instead, she makes eye contact with us from across the hall, says, “It’s all up to you, Flou!” and tosses the dagger my way.

I realize what she’s doing an instant before Flou arrives.

The ruby dagger morphs midflight into a Fuzzy Slime furball whose toothy maw splits open to chomp down on a handful of doubloons, swallowing them eagerly even as the abominable snow Slime lunges to devour Chris is a single gulp. Dread drops like a lump of coal into our belly, the fear that we lost one of our friends an incomprehensible possibility, our only hope that Tink’s energy shield around Chris can help her withstand the cold.

“Chris!” Flou screams but doesn’t turn or slow. She knows the best thing she can do for the bunny girl is finish what she started. The Fuzzy Slime shlorps all around our body nabbing every last gold coin of the Mimic Slime’s body until she manages to swallow all three of its hidden Swarm cores. Then a profound glow illuminates Flou from within.

It lasts no more than a few seconds, her fuzzy fur blocking much of the light, and then she makes it obvious to everyone that Chris’s gambit worked. Flou has the Core trios from a Bone Swarm, a Fuzzy Swarm, and this latest Mimic Swarm, making a triple-trio that merges with her own Swarm Core. Uniting them all, along with her previous battle experience qualifications, results in an instantaneous transcendence of Tier.

Flou’s body expands, taking a feminine, humanoid shape, and reaches a height of three and a half feet tall, her flesh now entirely made of blood-crystal ruby that organically flows with her movements; a fur bikini covers her naughty bits. Inside her translucent body, we see three large Cores, one in her pelvis, one in her chest, and one in her head. Nine slightly smaller Cores situate themselves in her arms, prepared for use at a moment’s notice. Two perky blood-crystal bunny ears adorn her head while her face takes on a look of bloody-minded determination.

“Let go of her!” Flou swings her arm, flinging four of her Cores at the Fuzzy White Slime. Globs of crystal-blood cling to each of the four Cores separating from her body that morph into daggers. Each dagger soars through the air on a distinct trajectory that follows her target, demonstrates evasive maneuvers to avoid a torrent of cold air blown by the snow Slime, and dives in like a piranha to bite at the enemy’s flank. Four gouges appear in the abominable Slime’s sides in an instant, but the daggers aren’t done. They circle around for another pass while Flou flings another three Core daggers.

Brenda and I run from the White Slime and the swarm of deadly daggers dogging its steps, not out of fear, but to reach the volcanic Slime before its next eruption. Gale, Monal, and Rosie are still shaking off the damage they suffered from previous attacks while the Orange Slime melts its stony shell back into lava from the inside. It’ll be upon them in moments unless we do something.

“Hey, listen! Look!” Tink, my precious Fairy Companion, highlights the Orange Slime’s Core with a reticle. “Be careful, my Hero!” She already knows what I’m planning.

With our target in our sights, we punch a stony arm into the lava with all our might. Ow! Even Stone Skin and Green Slime flesh can melt and boil if the heat is this intense. The enemy Core slips out of our reach, and we’re forced to go deeper. We scoop out a lump of lava and plunge our other arm as deep as we can go. Fist by fistful we dig, we scrape, and we claw our way into the heart of the volcanic Slime.

Our stony skin turns cherry red. Green Slime expanding from the rising temperature bubbles out through the cracks in our rocky exterior. We’re foaming at the mouth, green suds spuming from our lips as our insides start to vaporize. It takes both of us sharing the pain, sharing our will to win, each cheering the other to push through it all and grab that damn Orange Core.

The moment we withdraw the Slime’s Core from its depths, the monster goes cold, gooey lava becoming hard stone that sets like drying clay. But the battle isn’t over.

Flou’s flying daggers harass and harry the abominable snow Slime as we watch her whittle away at the monster. I can tell from her worried expression that she’s cautious of hurting Chris while attempting to subdue the Slime. Cuts cover the White furball, its pale, translucent interior visible through the gaps in its albino pelt, giving us glimpses of Chris inside and the fading blue bubble protecting her from a deadly-cold embrace. Brenda and I aren’t in any shape to help, nor the Harpy girls, since Gale is finding out that the Rain Pellets she favors freeze into slush on contact with the enemy.

It’s Olindia who grabs flaps of the white Fuzzy fur and skins the Slime even as her jellyfish appendages solidify and snap off from their own weight. That gives us a clear view as Tink’s bubble shield collapses—Oh, no!

Chris’s arm whips out at the last second to grab a glowing jewel, the abominable Core, before her body goes still. Instantly, the Fuzzy White Slime slows to a halt and its body loses cohesion, pale, translucent flesh sliding away as strips of albino fur slough off its remains. The bunny girl’s body is fully revealed when the last of the Slime evaporates, frozen from head to toe with the Core clutched in her dying grasp.

“No fucking way, skank, you still owe me all your holes!” Olindia dashes forward and embraces the bunny ice sculpture. A bright pink light blinds us all for a moment.

When our vision returns, we’re ecstatic to see Chris is alive and well—not to mention changed.

Chris’s black Playmate outfit has been transfigured to white! Blinding white sheer-to-waist pantyhose covers her shapely legs, radiating impossibly pure vibes despite her notoriously perverted personality. Adorably, her strapless corset teddy is now fur-lined and cozy-looking. She still has those cute fuzzy cuffs on her wrists. The most striking change, however, is the jewel embedded in her sternum. Beneath her fluffy angora ruff, resting proudly at the peak of her cleavage, is a brilliant sapphire Core.