3.13.

"Through there," Yousuff pointed to a heavy looking door further in the distance.

"Everyone keep your distance. I'll approach it first," Sequencee said.

"I'll be following closely from behind," Ensel placed his hands on Sequencee's shoulders.

Saying nothing more, the two of them carefully made their way towards the metal door.

A few invisible spells have also been conjured as traps should anything unexpected happen.

Around 8 people. That's not a lot.. hm?'

Blood was seeping out from the gaps below.

"What in the.."

Sequencee took a step back.

All of a sudden, a thin hand exploded from within the red puddle. The perfectly shaped arm, one that looked like it was from a girl, flailed about as if drowning.

As the pool of blood began to expand, more and more thin hands grew from it, blocking their advance. Some of the blood fell into the whirl of water in the canal.

'What kind of magic is this..'

"What do we do now?" Ensel asked calmly, as if what he was seeing was a normal occurrence.

Sequencee could still sense the people inside the room. One by one, the presences were disappearing.

'I have no idea what's going on.'

The pool of blood, as if it had a will, began extending towards Sequencee's direction. More and more of the liquid began gushing out from the cracks of the metal door, some crawled on the wall–

"Wait.. this is.."

"Everyone watch out for their surroundings!" Lowar yelled.

"A blood slime," Ensel explained. "But this is very different from the ones we've come across."

The blood coagulated to form little sac-like pouches on the ground. And then, a dozen eyeballs grew from it. The pupils turned to focus on Sequencee. It sent chills up his spine.

Gloop, gloop–

The blood then exploded into numerous red appendages with dozens of fair arms reaching out to grab them. From the churning waters, red tentacles with jaws and acid spitting viscera created a splash as it rushed towards the team behind.

"Ensel stay close."

One unlucky hand trigger Sequencee's first trap, creating a large ice lattice which enased a large portion of the appendages.

Sequencee erected a double magic and physical barrier around himself and Ensel. He gave the team a quick glance, noticing how they were struggling to hold against this creature..

'Could this be an A-rank creature? Or S-rank? No. it's the terrain.'

Due to the confined space of the sewage pavement, there was barely any wiggle room for fighting. Moreover, this blood slime had the advantage as it wasn't hindered by the water flowing in the canal– no, not just that, it was taking advantage of the water to proliferate.

"AHH!!???!" One of the mages tripped and fell into the water. Appendages burst forth and wrapped itself around the victim. Teeth began to dig into his flesh as he raised a blood curdling scream.

The sight of the victim being eaten alive as the rest remained powerless–

Sequencee reached into his robe and–

Scattered the seed's Leticia gave him.

Ripple–

Like dropping flame in oil, ice-white lotuses blossomed everywhere. Crystal ivies expanded into the surrounding waters, encasing both the blood slime and victim in ice.

'Thanks Leticia.'

Taking the next step, Sequencee sealed off the rest of the blood slime in front of him, including the entire tunnel.

In time, the water will rise above the level they were standing on. Hence it was best to simply block it all off.

"Hold on."

Sequencee jumped down onto the frozen lotus field and rushed to the mage encased in ice. With a grimace, he could still see the blood slime eating into his flesh. He cut the portion of the ice out and pushed it to the surface.

He turned parts of the ice into vapor, releasing both the mage and the blood slime clinging onto him.

"A-AH!!"

"Do something!"

Encasing the slime using ice was possible, but direct freezing was not as the slime had magic resistant properties. If not ice, fire was the other alternative. But Sequencee didn't have any fire spell to reduce the slime to ash without hurting the mage–

"Allow me to!" A different mage yelled as a golden flame shot towards the victim.

The golden fire hit the slime and burned up the bloody mass as the rest of the victims remained untouched.

It seemed to be a spell developed specifically for this situation as many of the mages were using this very flame to reduce the blood slime that wasn't trapped under the ice into ashes.

"Everyone, quickly cast a cure on yourself," Lowar reminded.

There was a possibility of the slime's blood to fuse with one's own. Grotesquely, one could imagine themselves being eaten from the inside if not treated.

"How many injured?"

"We didn't bring any priest–"

"Young mage, thank you," the mage who Sequencee had saved bowed stiffly.

"It's alright.. anyhow, I think the situation is resolved now.."

Sequencee turned around to see the wriggling mass of flesh encased within the large block of ice blocking one side of the entirety of the tunnel. The metal door to the room was also frozen along with it, stopping the incessant flow of red goop from the cracks underneath.

Unless they had a mage capable of teleportation, it's unlikely that the cultists stuck inside would be able to escape. Horrendously, Sequencee thought that maybe the blood slime could help them do the work by killing off the cultist for them– after all, monsters don't differentiate between friend and foe, right?

'Wait a second.. if this thing gets into the water system the citizens..'

"We can't let this thing spread, right?" Sequencee asked.

"It isn't something that normally spreads far due to its inherent nature of needing a central miasma zone.. but I'm not sure about this one. It's different from the ones we've seen."

The mass wriggled, trying to escape by turning into pure muscle– to no avail. Even so, Sequencee felt the strain on his mana just to maintain the large quantity of ice. In fact, he had incorporated parts of the reinforcing formula he learnt from the SOS crystal into strengthening the structure.

Realizing that it won't be able to escape, the muscles turned back into blood and into eyeballs– thousands of them all looking at the holy knights through the ice. It was trying to be intimidating.

"How should we.. deal with this then?" Sequencee asked, appalled by the sight.

'This thing must die.. reeally..'

"The golden flames remain effective. We'll use that," one mage suggested.

"Sir Sequencee, are you able to release parts of the ice bit by bit?"

"I can. So should we first deal with the one in the canal.."

The big mass of blood stuck underneath their feet had also turned into staring eyes.

Sequencee felt goosebumps–

'This is the worst..'

All Sequencee needed was to open up a small hole. The gold flame would be inserted, and like gunpowder, the flames would spread and eat up everything. The blood slime even formed mouths so that it could scream.

"What flame is this?"

"We know it as the pseudo-holy flames. Its effectiveness shines when confronting creatures with high amounts of miasma, like these.. things," the mage explained.

"The trait is really convenient."

"If we have the time after this mission, I would be glad to teach you the way to use this spell."

"I would appreciate it."

A casual conversation over the muffled blood curdling screams in ice.

'I really should've just made the ice opaque– wasted my mana.'

When the last bit of the red goop died to the flames, the sounds of running water in the distance could be heard once again. If one looked closely through the ice, you could see the water slowly rising on the other side.

"Hopefully none of it escaped."

Sequencee turned to the door. His spatial magic was reacting to three presences and a moving mass of the slime.

"Those three are probably them."

"Hm?"

"The blood slime didn't kill everyone in the room. The cardinal and the two kids are likely alive."

"Correct.. how do you know that?" Yousuff asked.

"Spatial magic."

"What..?"

"Sir Procto, what should we do now?" Sequencee asked.

"Miss Lowar. Do you recall if this room connects to any vents or holes leading outside?"

"It's a central control room for the valves in the sewage system. Darn it.. Sequencee, we need you to release the spell and open the door. We need to kill the slime before it gets out," Lowar said with a scowl.

"Everyone ready yourselves," Sequencee dissolved the ice near the door and created a small pocket, expecting goo to drip outside but.. no. Nothing came out, even though there was movement within the room.

Thinking that it was possible the cardinal had control over the slime, Sequencee blew the hatch open forcefully using magic and waited.

Peeking from the corner, one could see coiling blood covering the walls of the room. A disgusting sight anyone would run away from if not for the fact that they had to get rid of this thing before it possibly kills anyone else.

"I'll open up a bigger hole. Fire the flames on fire. Three.. two, one–"

The opening dilated enough that it could fit two people side by side.

The mages behind hurled golden flames into the room. Gold light scattered about, coloring everything inside in yellow.

No scream, no resistance, no movement–

Then everything turned dark.

Sequencee sensed a moving mass, but nothing else. The three presences had disappeared.

"That's.. odd."

'Shouldn't they be.. alive or..'