King of the hill

"Come on! Don't tell me you can't defeat a single slime!"

said a boy, his face was hidden

"Don't worry I got it! I just need an opening"

Young Teras told to the boy, a blue slime was bouncing around the place like a maniac, Teras tried to kill it with a small sword but he was way too weak to penetrate the slime's defense, an anonymous man then approached them and with a single move of his hand he created a compound sphere of air that was directed at the slime, the attack destroyed the slime on impact

"Hey, kids! Don't go around playing with monsters"

said the man, his face was also hidden but Teras could understand that he was angry

"Sorry sir! It will not happen again"

Teras told him while he bowed, the man pat Teras's head and left without saying another word

"What a weird guy, anyways, let's go find the others, they must be worried"

the kid said

"the others..."

Teras mumbled, he then opened his eyes, and he coughed aggressively, water was coming out of his mouth

"Where the hell am I?"

Teras wondered, he had woken up in an unknown location near the river, it was day but the sun hardly could pass through the deep layer of leaves that the trees created

'What was this dream? it felt way too real'

Teras thought, this dream wasn't foggy like all the others, this dream was crystal clean for him so that surprised him, a slime appeared from nowhere to disturb Teras's thinking, the slime's color was white, Teras easily defeated it

'That's right! We were chased by slimes and I jumped off a hill and managed to escape but what about the others?'

Teras didn't want to think the worst so he quickly activated his mana flow and started to look around for everyone, he followed the river's stream so he can get back to the place he was without getting lost in the forest, Teras was moving as quickly as he could but the fall from the hill damaged his legs and ribs so he was healing himself too and because of that, he couldn't reach his top speed. After minutes of running Teras was able to locate the cave that Cara was sleeping at, thanks to the traps she had set up Teras could easily tell that someone was inside it, Teras cleverly avoided the traps and searched for someone, in his surprise he found Cara sleeping on the floor with a knife in her hands

"Cara thank god you are alright!"

Teras said as he hugged her, Cara woke up to Teras hugging her, she was very surprised

"Teras? Why are you here?"

Cara asked him in surprise

"Why do you even ask that? I simply found you, we also have to find the others because they may be in even bigger danger!"

Teras told Cara while he helped her get up

"Before we go can you help me heal my legs? I tried to heal them but they seem to be very injured to the point that I can't heal them on my own"

"I can see that! Now stay steady and I will try to heal them"

Cara said as she looked at his bruised legs of Teras, Cara then used her powers to heal Teras, Teras was clinging to his hands because of the pain

"I did as much as I can! Just don't push yourself too much or else the pain will probably come back"

Cara informed him, and the 2 of them then quickly and safely exited the cave

"We should go this way because last night I heard slimes hopping in this direction!"

Cara said, they then followed the sound that she heard last night, moving around the forest was a bit harder because the previous day a heavy rain fell, the trees were slippery and the ground was sticky but the 2 of them had to push further in order to find their friends, they couldn't just abandon them in the forest, after some minutes of running they spotted Har's rock roof, under the rock roof Lia was sleeping, she was covered with Har's shirt, Teras and Cara didn't see Lia

"Seems like you finally found us, friends"

Har said from behind, both of them were glad they saw Har

"Har, what happened to your hand?"

Cara asked, Har's burned arm was un-maintained all night, Cara quickly started healing Har's arm

"That hurts Cara! you could have warned me..."

Har said, but he was interrupted by Teras's hug

"I'm sorry that I put you in this dangerous situation, I swear I will never make the mistake to separate us ever again"

Teras told him, he was very upset by himself

"Don't worry Teras! you were scared..."

"That doesn't matter! I am your captain and I hurt you with my stupid decisions"

Teras said by disrupting Har

"The healing is done, can you feel your arm now?"

Cara asked Har

"It's much better but it still hurts"

Har told her, Teras then had an idea, he started looking into his bag and found one of his red potions

"I had this for a long time but I never used it, I think that now is a good time to put it on a test"

Teras said as he handed the potion to Har

"Whoa! A health potion? It's my first time holding one with my hands, are you sure you want to give it to me?"

Har asked Teras

"Don't make me angry, it's my fault that you got hurt in the first place so drink up before I force you to drink it"

Teras told him with a smile, Har then drank every drop of the potion and his arm started to slowly heal more and more to the point where you couldn't tell that he had a burn in the first place

"This stuff works like a charm!"

Har said with surprise, Teras was surprised too, he didn't expect to work this fast

"Wait Teras! If you had this all along why didn't you use it on your legs?"

Cara asked confused

"Because mine wasn't any fatal injuries, plus I could easily heal them with time"

Teras answered, Lia woke up by all of the noise the others were making

"H-H-Hey guys! w-what are you doing here?"

Lia asked embarrassed, Cara quickly went for a hug when she saw Lia wake up

"I missed you, Lia! I'm so glad you are alright"

Cara told her, when Cara entered the man-made cave she saw blood under her

"Whose blood is this? Are you sure that you both are alright?"

Cara asked them, Lia and Har became fully red from embarrassment

"I-I-It's from m-my arm d-don't worry about it"

Har said while dragging Cara out of the shelter, Lia quickly got out too

"What are we going to do about this giant red slime?"

Lia asked Teras

"We are going to kill it!"

Teras said with D E T E R M I N A T I O N

"Are you insane? we nearly got killed fighting this monster"

Cara said with anger, Teras giggled

"Now Cara I don't remember the king slime touching us, the only thing that hurt us all was his underlings right? After all those slimes I'm sure that most of the slimes have been slain so that leaves the king slime alone, that means that if we all fight it together we can win!"

Teras said, Har agreed with him

"Teras isn't wrong, Lia and I defeated a golden slime yesterday, the red slime is just a tier higher than the gold one so that means we can defeat it with Teras's destructive power and Cara's and Lia's support"

"That is a very risky thing to do though, remember Har, the golden slime almost burned your whole arm off so how can you be this confident about winning?"

Lia asked Har

"Hey! Don't jump to conclusions, I didn't say what the plan was"

Teras told them

"Then what's the plan?"

Har asked

"I notice that the king slime has a special ability that allows itself to harden when a hit is approaching it, so to defeat it we have to attack it with a surprise attack, so the plan goes like that. I find the king slime and I slowly drive it close to a hill, since Har can harden himself he can jump from the hill and harden his legs so when he lands on top of the slime he would fatally wound it, then Cara and Lia can strike the slime from the opening that Har will create and keep in mind that I will also keep on hitting the slime with my mana overflow so I doubt that the slime can defend itself"

Teras explained to the others, and most of them agreed to the plan

"And what if the king slime has more servants that we don't know of?"

Cara asked

"I will simply kill them all!"

Teras told her with a smile

"Fine I agree but don't forget about your legs condition"

Cara warned him, and the 3 of them took off to the hill

'Now that they left I can move more carelessly'

Teras thought, he then activated his mana vision and started to follow this strong hint of mana that he saw on the ground, after some time he also found destroyed trees

'This must be where the king slime went'

Teras thought so he enhanced his body with mana and followed the destroyed trees, eventually, he found the slime, the slime was frozen in a place, Teras then picked up a rock and threw it at the slime with force, the rock bunched off like it was nothing

"COME AND GET ME YOU SLIMY PIECE OF SHIT!!!"

Teras screamed at the slime in order to get its attention, somehow Teras captured its attention and the slime launched itself at Teras like a bullet, Teras was surprised but he managed to dodge the attack by jumping over the slime, he then charged his weapon with mana and struck the slime, the attack scratched the slime's skin dealing a lot of damage it but the slime quickly healed the damage, the slime then tried to attack Teras but he used a mana shield as a stepping tool to avoid the attack because the king's slime attack was strong enough to penetrate any mana shield that Teras created, the slime then channeled its energy to make a beam

'if a golden slime burned Har's whole arm that was covered with rock then what will do to me?'

Teras thought as he looked at the slime preparing the attack, Teras then retreated to the forest, he wanted to lose contact with the slime but the slime started following Teras while it charged the attack at the same time

'You have to be kidding me! He can move and charge at the same time?'

Teras thought as he swiftly ran around the logs of the trees, Teras was trying to take the slime away from the place where the others were because the attack the slime was charging was more deadly than anything they have ever faced up until this point, Teras eventually reached a tall hill, it was an open area with little trees around

'This spot should be a good spot to fight it'

Teras then started to throw around all of his remaining smoke spheres, by throwing everything Teras managed to cover the whole area with smoke that reached the top of some trees, the slime arrived at the hill but it had a hard time locating Teras, suddenly something entered in the slime's body, it was a flashing device that Teras planted into the slime himself, the flash of the device burned a part of the slime, the slime angrily hopped around the clouded hill but it didn't squash anything, Teras then started planting multiple devices by penetrating the skin of the slime with his hands, every time Teras tried to plant the devices his hand burned little by little because the body of the king slime was made by a toxic material that was harmful to the humans

'I'm really grateful that I had enough smoking devices others wise this tactic would never work'

Teras thought, by blinding the slime Teras had given himself a chance at attacking it without its hardening ability getting in the way, the plan was perfect until something bad happened, when Teras attacked again the slime managed to harden itself at the last second so Teras was unable to take his arm out of its body

"Let go of me!"

Teras was screaming because of the pain and his anger, he was trying to pour as much mana as possible into his hand to take it out but it was futile the slime's hardening was something that Teras couldn't handle but Teras didn't give up he continued to pour and pour as much as he could

"RELEASE ME!!!"

Teras screamed an explosion then occurred from the hand of Teras that allowed him to free his arm from the deadly body of the slime

"What was that?"

He cluelessly wondered as he looked at his damaged hand