[NR] Chapter 182 - Slug Hug (Patreon)

Next day the group takes the short hike back to the undead escape point and follows the obvious tracks. For the first half of the day not much happens, but right after lunch they come across their first undead. A dead undead, mind you, but still enough to prove they are going the right way. That and the redead rose slug on it was of a higher level than a newborn, so their theory on that wasn’t too far off either.

Less than a mile and a number of dead skeletons later has the group find the first animated skeleton. It is on its last leg, both literally and figuratively, as the last flickers of baleful fire can be seen in its eyes while it drags itself along. The skeleton’s last remaining leg barely holding together itself with horrible fractures running its length. A quick smack to the skull puts it down as the group passes by.

After the first handful though, they don’t even bother. The holes those undead had crawled out of hadn’t looked too big. But if the sheer number of fallen is to go by, a lot more came out than they expected. Still, the slugs are going up in size and level which is all that matters to the group. Any undead in this area will either be dead or gone soon enough. Though either this slug area isn’t that big or this group of undead is doomed to wander ever deeper into their final death.

Soon though, any worries about the undead slip their minds. Ahead of them there is a pile of dead skeletons, all having dropped at the same time. Besides them, the group can also see a handful of slugs which are about the right size.

One by one they point the slugs out to Lily, starting with the smallest. Well, they do that after first trying to get her to just point out the weakest boss. Lily might be a smart bunny, but she isn’t quite at the point of understanding numbers.

Once the weakest boss has been found the next step of the group’s plan is to separate the slug from the rest. Traditional methods of doing so unavailable as any damage they do could make Lily’s fight count as not being solo. Jason however has a brilliantly stupid idea on how to deal with it. “How about I just go and pick it up then carry it over here?”

Rosha raises an eyebrow at him and Courtney just has to ask, “so you want to die to a slug?”

Jason shrugs, “well we can’t aggro it with damage and the only bait they want is undead energy which we lack. I figure if it deals too much damage I can just drop it and retreat.”

Rosha laughs, “at least they aren’t the classic acid slug. I don’t know what it is with games and making their slugs acidic, but that is one popular combo.”

They talk about it for a bit longer until Courtney admits she can’t think of a better idea either. She throws her hands up in the air, “fine, go and hug a slug. I’ll just be over here ready to heal you when it all goes wrong.”

Jason shrugs, “that’s all I ask.” Then he turns to Lily, “okay now, I am going to grab one of those redeath rose slugs for you to fight. After I drop it, wait until it starts to crawl back towards the others. I don’t know if having it focused on me would change anything, but it is better to not take chances.”

Plan hashed out Jason walks over to the selected slugs, wraps his hands around it, and picks the slug up. The slug isn’t all that heavy. Unlike actual slugs, most of the redeath rose slug's body is made of empty space between the rose petals. Then the pain starts.

-3

Jason isn’t some abomination power by undead energies so it isn’t much. However, the rasp-like teeth are very much an unpleasant experience. Jason ignores this though it is a new interesting twist on causing pain. As he walks away the other slugs for the most part ignore this event. The only change is a few of the nearer ones move around to expand their feeding grounds.

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It doesn’t take him too long to drop the slug off, but when you put a monster’s mouth next to your hand it doesn’t take much for it to attack. The slug now free trundles after him. Being a slug though, even with a few levels under its belt, it has no chance of catching up to him. To keep it in place, he literally runs circles around it until the slug loses interest in him.

As the slug makes its way back to the skelly pile two things happen. First Jason gets a notification that he has gained three hp and a point of toughness. The other thing is the start of Lily’s boss fight.

She pounces on the slug but despite being slow it is able to roll out of the way. Lily slams down on the ground with her front paws and kicks up a cloud of dust. The slug wriggles back and tries to wrap around her but is unable to do so. Her back legs come down and push against the ground, propelling her out of the way.

The redeath rose slug rears up, spreading its tentacles out. At the end of the four tentacles instead of eyeballs there are rose buds. Aimed at Lily, the four buds bloom and send out green rays. She bounces out of the way again, but one ray nips her flank.

-1

The green magic flashes down her leg and grounds itself into the earth below her. Puffs of black smoke rise up from the ground and the slug’s petals lose some of their brightness. The slug screeches and the tentacle flowers close up again.

It moves to bash down on the ground, but this leaves it open and Lily pops in. She grabs one of the petals and hops away, ripping a chunk out of the slug's body.