Nate Elfirm shifted his eyes at every possible location in the once small, cramped bathroom, where the space around him was now severely limited. Not helping things was that the blue slime flooding around his legs continued to harden.
His breathing was erratic, not once at the normal rate when he was waiting for Sheila to finish her business in the bathroom. The shudders that were in his body were from the coldness of the slime, but in the area where there weren't any, he could feel some form of heat, something like body heat from a creature.
Nate was really certain... no, not really certain, but... extremely certain to the point of being sure that something was alive in this room and with him in this very moment. No animal would be so chaotic as to mess up the bathroom to a degree where it looked like a warzone, but instead a dangerous Faden housed inside the bustling Honoway Mall.
It just didn't make any sense to him.
How... If this is really a Faden. Something similar to the one in the Volanten River and in Vivid Forest, why is it really here?
Nate couldn't believe it. His trembling breath aligned with the foggy confusion in his mind. The only places where these beastly Fadens were supposed to be were the areas where little to no human beings were around to interact with them. And by what Manson said, some of the weaker Fadens even actively avoid the presence of a large group of people, and this mall was no exception, with the number of visitors it usually gets.
Something must have led here. Also, did it not know where it was going when trying to hunt for something? Whatever it was or what it was doing, Nate had to get out of this before he got killed or eaten alive. That was not something Nate would want to experience, especially when he was inside Honoway Mall's dirty bathroom.
So he struggled, moving frantically in any direction, leaning forward as his feet continued to get stuck on the floor. However, the blue slime that continued to pool on the bathroom floor despite the drains in the middle of the room stopped rising, as it leveled only near the middle of Nate's shins.
"Oh... this has to be a nightmare," he told himself. "Although this blue slime stopped right there. The Faden is still here and has the slime stuck in my feet. It is almost like this Faden... can be called the Slimestuck Faden..."
That was the name he decided to call the Faden monster. And the situation he was in was no ordinary nightmare, but the crushing reality leading to stinging pain while being stuck to the floor.
The lights were still out, with the only source of illumination being his phone's flashlight, causing him to be able to see the green-aqua debris from the actions of the Faden.
As Nate darted his eyes around, he felt some sort of long object coiling around his leg, with the heat coming back like it was from someone.
There was something off with Nate's vision, however, as the color from the bathroom stall doors seemed to diminish, with a grayer tone than what it really was a few minutes ago. Nate looked around to see if it was just the stall doors, but to Nate's shock, it was everywhere: from the floor, the ceiling, the rows of sinks, and even on his clothes were greyscaled. It was like it was from his own biological vision that was throwing it out.
It may be due to exhaustion from Nate breathing heavily as he tried not to panic. But then he remembered a crucial resort that may save him from this slimy predicament.
The one-time thing that happened with the two Fadens, the ability that helped him stand on his own temporarily against the monstrous threats, was his ability to summon his shining sword out of the air.
The one problem Nate had to overcome was having to will the summoning of the sword on his own, and so far, he could do it when his life was in danger. Or, maybe the ability was connected to the species of Faden itself?
Using that information in his own way, he tried to strain his hand's muscles to imitate the form he did when summoning a sword. There was supposed to be a bright light that followed up as the sword materialized, and from Nate's perspective, he couldn't see much as his vision filled with the blinding light, leaving not much else in his perspective.
"Come on, work, sword. Why can't you come out?!" he desperately asked his hand without his sword forming.
However, it was extremely hard to focus when there was literally a monster getting Nate stuck with the slime hardening every second. The humming noise still invaded his ears while the bathroom got slightly unbearably cool.
Then Nate felt a spark or two in his hand, and felt that the familiar form finally materialized. Nate's heart stopped skipping beats periodically. His cold sweat could be felt evaporating from his rising bravery. The chaotic mess of the mall's bathroom and the hums of the creature didn't matter to Nate with the sword finally in his left hand, while the phone with the flashlight occupied the right.
The sword glimmered differently than before, like it was less shiny than before. That may be because it was being strengthened more by Nate's easy resolve.
"Right on! I have to get out of here before I get devoured!"
Putting his utmost focus on the hardening sea of blue around his feet, Nate lifted his prized sword above his head in one hand, intending to put his all into at least making a crack or minor dent in the slime, giving it enough damage so he could wriggle his feet out and potentially run for the exit door. And even with the door blocked by the debris and hardened blue slime, he could just hack it off the same way with the summoned sword.
"Aaaaahhhh!" Nate loudly yelped.
Nate brought down his sword with an agile strike against the stone, hoping he would see something change in the increasingly hardened surface of the slime. But instead, the sword shattered into a million pieces, and each shard flew everywhere as sparks temporarily illuminated his surroundings before his sword was no more. He stared at his empty hand that once held his hardy-looking sword in disbelief—his hand now shaking once more, unlike before.
What the heck? What is the big deal? It didn't break like last time, and I'm pretty sure that was less force than the last two times I used my sword.
He looked at his left hand to see if anything was wrong with it, as he might have hurt his hand, as he didn't notice it before. He took his phone's flashlight and shone it on his arms. What he thought was just the dried remains of the blue slime in his forearms was actually a dangerous shade of paleness, with the majority of the tone on his arms similar to the greyscale tone in the background.
Nate tried to scrub it off to see if it was actually real and not just him seeing things, and sure enough, the dangerously pale parts on his arms were legit. He tried to feel it and noticed something... off.
His arm felt a lot heavier than usual, and when holding it, Nate could feel a little distance from his skin and bones. This made Nate shudder in horror and realization. The dizziness from his panicking state, his vision going gray as time passed on, the weakened colors appearing on his body, and finally, the summoned sword instantly breaking into pieces and spreading everywhere. It was all connected. There had to be something that was causing all of this.
As Nate pondered to himself about the possibilities, like him being hungry enough from not eating enough pizza to a malware app in his phone that he unknowingly downloaded as he played his free mobile games while watching ads to get free in-game currency, the hums from before suddenly stopped, causing Nate to glance around in confusion.
A dark, wonky silhouette formed in the corner of Nate's eyes, causing him to blindly turn around with his flashlight pointed at whatever appeared in the walls of the bathroom. Nate's eyes stuck onto the silhouette without looking at anything else, where Nate could now see that it came from a crack in the wall, and upon squinting his eyes more closely, he could make out another being inside. Another Faden inside, too? Because that would be more of a problem.
Moving on to the beastly Faden physically appearing in front of Nate. With his phone's flashlight, he could now see clearly that the Faden was shaped like a frog, with its amphibious traits expressed with its long aquamarine tongue that can be seen moving freely somehow in the hardened slime, and to an extent, its connected body moving through it as well.
This... Slimestuck Faden could be moderately difficult for Nate to handle.
"Aaaahhh... aaaa—aaahh..." he tried to scream, but was too tired to even do so.
A large umbrella-like appendage was on top of the Fadens, and based on the color of it and the slime coming out of its holes, the monster was really the one causing the blue pools of slime to fill in the bathroom. While the face of the Faden was green like an ordinary frog, the skin beyond its face was ashy grey, similar to the other Fadens Nate experienced. The legs and their overextended arms that easily reached the bathroom ceiling were all the same shade of Faden gray.
It didn't seem extremely aggressive like the Volanten River Faden and the one from Vivid Forest. In fact, the Slimestuck Faden maintained its distance from Nate, which must be using the hardening of the slime as a trap for unaware prey to hopelessly wander inside, especially within a tight, enclosed space with not a lot of light sources to allow awareness inside.
But regardless, it was still a Faden as Colten described before, as the bounty hunter was forced to use whatever ability he had to drive the Faden away from Vivid Forest. Nate still had to focus on protecting life before it got too close for comfort.
He observed his legs trapped in the hardened slime, and saw the same grey-ish pale patch that was like the skin on his arms. Additionally, he felt the same weakness that was affecting his usual bodily functions that protected his body.
Hold on here for a minute... The same gray color on my legs as on my arms. Could this slime that I touched have some weakening effect on living beings? It could explain how my arm was affected—because I accidentally touched the substance before I entered the bathroom, and the legs basically explained itself with it being stuck to the floor.
Nate thought this was a highly likely theory for it to be the case... No, not highly likely, but definitely what was happening. He had to believe that the slime somehow drained his strength to hold onto the sword properly, and whatever energy powered up the materialization of the shining green sword.
Nevertheless, Nate was trapped with barely noticeable cracks of the hardened slime near his feet, and his attempts at getting his sword out were disrupted by the flow of the slime's function to drain his power. Not helping things was the long tongue wrapped around his legs, as though the Faden was merely tasting the skin and sweat of the boy before dinner was properly served, devoid of any energy left to escape.
The Slimestuck Faden drew closer, the tongue still freely moving through the slime even though it was hardening. Once the murmurs it used to emit faded away, it was then replaced with raspy croaks, noises that sounded like the hunger of a wild animal. Due to the confinement of the bathroom, Faden had to utilize short hops to slowly make his way to Nate. The splashes of the slime as it hopped into it rose in the air before hardening midway, turning back into the hardened material.
With no other strategy to use, even with his powers at the moment, Nate bellowed in fear, trying to run away, which was useless as his legs were stuck, forcing him to stand.
So, he desperately punched with enough force left in him—not at the Faden itself as it closed its distance, but directly into the hardened slime. He struck the blue stone-like pool. He punched down with his knees bent. He felt a liquid, not the gooey texture of the blue slime, but rather it flowed freely as it dripped down on his knuckles.
Stopping his punch midway, Nate turned his hand. "Augh... It stings!"
Nate must have been really weak, as his knuckles were stained with a familiar crimson. The blood that dripped and met the slime on the floor. The purple bruises that started to form as the background to the bloody mini-cuts. A slight burning ache shortly followed, to the pain in his muscles, to cry out to him that it was enough for his hand to handle.
Great, now I've made myself weaker than before. And I made myself look weak for the Slimestuck Faden to attack me...
The Faden watched intensely as the Faden as it crept right next to him. Its ashy gray legs made its last hop just in front of Nate. He could see clearly that the monster perceived him as not a threat and made no defensive stance, just in case. The Slimestuck Faden showed its confidence by spreading its arms around Nate, as if to hold an invisible sphere floating in the air. The froggy creature would then open its mouth for Nate to see clearly. Rows of teeth filled to the brim with sharpness and jagged shapes, nothing that was remotely close to the mouth of a peaceful herbivore.
With no way out, Nate closed his eyes and whispered to himself, reassuring words that someone would save him. "No, I have to move! I feel like I am gonna suffocate as the heat builds in my head. My head is killing me like I have a fever, oh, it's so warm!"
I should have just run away when I had the chance. I was such an idiot to step inside the bathroom when I should have assumed something was wrong in the first place, especially with the creepy-looking slime that was dripping through the cracks of the door.
Sheila, I'm sorry for not being enough of a protector for you, because I can't even protect myself with my mysterious power, even though this is a monster we're talking about. I thought about what you said before, about how you said that I had to be safe while I wait for her, and I remarked how I should say that to her since she asked me to go with her. I'm so sorry, because I guess this was it for me...
With no other way, just as he accepted his fate, Nate clenched his fist and hoped it would be in an instant. The Faden continued to open its mouth as it went forward with its outstretched tongue.