ruins part 2

Alex placed his hand on the giant door; it swung open easily, almost as if it were weightless.

As Alex walked through the door, he had a gut feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Alex found himself in a massive circular room, with four extremely tall pillars at its center. Directly above the center of the room, there was a trap door roughly the size of a car.

After a few more steps, the door that had opened so easily suddenly slammed shut. Alex felt a chill run up his spine. It took only moments before the trap door opened, unleashing a huge green slime.

Alex had never seen a green slime before; the slimes he had fought were blue.

This slime was slimier than the others, with parts of its massive body boiling and bubbling, squirting small amounts of green slime.

The small puddles of slime began steaming rapidly. Alex watched in stunned confusion and fear, his thoughts screaming, "WHAT THE HELL? THE MAP DIDN'T SAY IT WAS GOING TO BE A CORROSIVE SLIME!!!" He tried his best to snap himself out of it; fear and anger would not help him now.

Alex needed to come up with a plan unless he wanted to die there. The slime sat there, seemingly waiting for Alex to approach. This was common in ruins; as soon as Alex took a step, a battle would start, and there was no guarantee he would come out on top.

He thought to himself, "I need a plan," and recalled everything he knew about slimes. "Slimes have cores as weak spots in their center mass. This slime seems to be losing body mass, so my best bet will be to wait for its attacks until the core is exposed."

Taking a deep breath, Alex drew his sword, signaling the start of the battle. The slime bounced towards him, losing a tiny part of its mass in the process.

Alex began running in a circular pattern. As he neared completing the circle, the giant slime noticed what was happening and stopped, preparing to make an attack.

It opened its mouth, trying to catch as much air as it could. The air mixed with the slime's internal acid, resulting in a chemical reaction and a lot of pressure.

Spitting out an intense stream of acid, the slime nearly touched Alex's arm, but he quickly ducked behind a pillar. The pillar and floor seemed mostly immune to the slime's effects, so Alex was safe, at least for a moment.

Feeling relieved that the massive attack had wasted a lot of the slime's mass, Alex knew that a few more attacks like that would expose the core somewhat, and then he could strike.

Seeing that Alex hadn't been hurt by its massive attack, the slime filled with rage. It started stretching its body before impacting the ground, causing it to jump high in the air toward Alex, dropping bits of itself as it flew.

Alex ran as fast as he could in a different direction, wondering, "How the hell does a slime even jump?" The slime, realizing it had missed Alex again, decided to try something different. It became motionless for a few moments. Alex waited, but the slime didn't move an inch. He thought to himself, "This is weird," and approached the slime, shield in hand, on guard, with his sword adjacent to the shield, taking slow and cautious steps.

As Alex got closer, the slime plotted to defeat him. It waited for the perfect moment to strike. When Alex was about a foot away, he lost his patience, lowered his shield, and performed a full thrusting attack to reach the core inside. Upon closer inspection, Alex noticed that the core, compared to other slimes, was huge. It was black, spherical in shape, with complex runes that Alex couldn't comprehend.

But just before Alex could thrust his sword through the slime's core, it pulled back, startling him. The next thing the slime did was release gas from within itself. It had been producing gas inside its body, causing an explosion and shooting bits of slime everywhere, including in Alex's direction.