Chapter 10: Light & Slime
...
After my talk with Suu and she answered all my questions, I set my stuff down and went back to training. Since I was here anyway, I saw no reason not to train. I also wanted to interact with Suu more.
Right now I am swinging a sword of light through the air. In the corner of my eye, Suu was sitting crisscross applesauce on a rock near the water, watching me with wide green eyes and her hands on her face. Since she absorbed all that water, her current appearance was more mature, with wider hips, thicker thighs, and a much larger chest. Her green tendrils of hair covered what they needed to cover, but they were doing a bad job at it. Because her breasts were so enormous, they were too big to hide, which made it harder for me to look away.
'Why did I have to ask her what she ate?' I smile wryly before shaking my head and going back to work.
"Hyaagh!" I twist my body and slash through the air with a sharp streak of yellow light before repeating the motion again and again. Sweat was rolling down my face and neck, my clothes clinging to me from all the movement.
I've been at this nonstop for almost two hours. Meditation helps with recovery, sure, but that doesn't mean the work magically stops feeling like work. "HUH!" I swing down with both hands.
Switching things up, I pour more power into the sword. The weapon glows brighter, then lengthens and widens until it becomes the size of a greatsword. I gripped it tightly and proceeded to swing, turning my whole body with the motion. Air kicks up from the force, scattering dust and bending the grass nearby.
Suu, sitting close enough to feel the gust, blinked as the wind rushed over her. Her tendrils shook and fluttered from the force before settling back down. "WAAAAOOH!" She stared at me admiringly.
I keep the motion going for a little longer before shifting my grip and swinging the greatsword double-handed. The blue slime girl slides off the rock and approaches me. I slow my swing and glance at her. "What's up?"
Suu raises one hand. Her arm ripples like water before reshaping itself, the lower half thinning and hardening into a blue slime blade. She isn't holding a sword. Her arm literally becomes the sword.
"…Que." I stare at it, confused and impressed at the same time. Slimes are really fascinating with their amorphous bodies. I take a closer look at it and ask if it's alright to touch it. I knew she was ok with physical touch, but it felt right to ask.
She gives me the go-ahead. I touched her weapon arm, feeling reminded of the protagonist of Parasyte. Its appearance was like that of my regular steel sword. It didn't feel squishy either. The sword felt solid, but its blade was not sharp. Still neat. "Not bad." I stepped back.
Suu smiles and childishly swings her sword arm as if it were a stick, but slowly she was imitating my moves. "So, you want to join me?" I ask.
"Mhm!" Suu nods eagerly.
"Alright, but be careful, got it?" I point to the light greatsword. "This can hurt."
Suu nods again and gives me some proper space. I return to my practice swings, and she stands nearby, watching closely before imitating my movements. At first, her swings are clumsy and loose, but that starts changing fast. She adjusts her stance, shifts her feet, and reshapes her sword arm. into a proper sword so that she can wield it like I did my weapon.
I noticed immediately that despite her initial inexperience, Suu was a fast learner as she copied my moves, and the more she did, the better she got. It took her merely twenty minutes to copy my moves as well as me. Not only that, her slime body provides her insane advantages. She had unbelievable flexibility and balance. She could stretch and twist in ways no human body ever could. It left me astounded.
Suu moves side to side as her slime blade cuts through the air. Then the shape changes again. The weapon loosens, stretching and bending until it acts less like a sword and more like a whip. I watch from the corner of my eye, eyebrows rising slightly, and I feel a hit of inspiration.
I stopped my swings. "Suu." I call, and she stops immediately and looks at me. "Step back for a second. I want to try something."
The slime girl nods and moves out the way to her rock, though she leans forward with obvious interest at what I was going to do.
Instead of sticking only to solid, straight weapons like swords, I decide to try something more fluid like Suu. A flexible weapon could provide me with greater reach, unusual angles, and an entirely different attack pattern that is difficult to predict. Taking a calm breath, I reshape the glowing greatsword in my hand. The blade thins, stretches, and softens into a long cord.
Since the original construct only has about 0.7 percent of my reserves in it, I add more power. The strand thickens as more light wraps around itself, intertwining like a glowing rope. I extend it until it reaches about one hundred and twenty centimeters.
Now in my hands was a whip of light with five percent of my power in it, far more than what I usually put into a light weapon. I test it with a small flick of my wrist, feeling the energy shift through the construct.
Then I crack it against the ground.
*CRACK!*
The sound splits through the clearing like thunder. A long mark carves itself into the dirt, nearly four feet from end to end. I stare at it and let out a whistle. "…Damn. "This was going to be a lot more dangerous than I thought. Then I glance at Suu. "Step back. Like, way back. This is new, and I don't want to accidentally turn you into slime soup."
Suu blinks, then quickly hides behind the boulder and peeks from the side. "Good girl."
Thanks to my unbelievable talent in using weapons, I don't feel like a newbie holding the whip, but I was because this was my first time. My head told me I could, so I went with it and started slow. Whips are different from swords. A sword is direct. A whip has delay, momentum, and timing. If I treat it like a blade, I'll probably smack myself in the face, and while meditation can heal me, I would rather not do that. I've seen Baki and the explanation on whips.
I pull my arm back and swing harder. The whip flashes through the air in a streak of golden light.
*CRACK!*
*BOOM!*
A small shockwave bursts from the impact, kicking up dust and loose pebbles. When it settled there, a line mark on the ground was sizzling and smoking. I let out a breath as I prepare for my next move, feeling much more comfortable now and ready to let it rip.
"Aaahhng." Suu from her corner stared.
Getting into it, I start swinging again. Slowly at first, then faster and faster.
*CRACK!*
*BOOM!*
The whip snaps across the clearing, carving lines into the ground with each hit. I move my arm, wrist, shoulder, and waist together, internally knowing that this weapon demands rhythm rather than brute force.
*CRACK!*
*BOOM!*
*CRACK!*
*BOOM!*
I move across the clearing like I'm dancing, each step and every twist guiding the whip's path. The golden cord lashes out, pulls back, circles, and strikes again. Every snap leaves another scar in the dirt. I laugh despite myself, adrenaline rising as I let myself go in the zone. "Whoo!"
Feeling confident, I form a second light whip in my other hand. The new construct snaps into existence, glowing just as brightly as the first. I rotate my wrists and send both whips flying in tandem.
I'm not just standing still anymore. Nah, that's too boring. I shift my feet constantly, taking small steps, adjusting my balance while my hips and shoulders guide each strike. The whips crack through the air, shockwaves popping across the clearing like fireworks as I aim only at the marked section of ground far away from Suu.
Suu watches for a while, looking on in amazement. Wanting to join, she raises both arms and reshapes them into long, slimy whips. I'm too focused to notice at first, but Suu starts copying me, swinging her slime tendrils around with a cheerful expression. But unlike me, her movements don't have the same speed or force as my light. To her, my golden whips probably look like lightning. Still, her ability to copy what she sees is impressive. Her form is rough, but it improves with every attempt. However, an accident occurred because she thought we were just playing around. One of her slime whips reaches too far and makes contacts with my rapidly moving whips.
*PLAP!*
Suu becomes slightly stunned and looks down to see her missing arms. Feeling something make a hit against my light construct, I immediately turn to Suu. We stare at each other silently. I stare down at her hands, but Suu quickly hides them behind her back.
She had stretched her slime whips too far and had swung into the danger zone I was operating at. I was in the middle of another sequence when I felt one of my light whips slice through something.
"What!" I stopped what I was doing and turned around. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw Suu standing there without arms. "Suu!" I cast the whips aside and rushed over to her. "Oh my god! Are you okay?!" I kept myself from grabbing her shoulder, looking at where her arms were supposed to be.
There was no blood, and she was not screaming like what I expected. Her shoulders were just cleanly separated like a clothing store mannequin or a sex doll.
Then I remembered. Oh fuck, right, slime girl. I smacked my head. Still, knowing that didn't magically make me calm. "Suu, are you alright?" I asked again.
Suu merely blinked at her missing arms, then looked back at me with the same innocent expression as always. She nodded like it was no big deal. To prove it, her shoulders rippled, and her arms grew back in a smooth liquid spiral, reforming from her shoulders until stopping at the tip of her fingers. Her height had shortened a little, and her chest size decreased too, making me raise my eyebrows in disbelief. I knew she was a slime girl, but holy crap.
"…Wow." My mouth hung open.
Suu lifted one hand and touched my cheek with her finger, as if to say she was fine. I gently took her hand and inspected it, turning it over to make sure it really was good as new. It was. No damage. No scar. No sign she had just lost both arms like two seconds ago.
I breathed out in relief. "Phew, okay… good." Then my expression turned serious. "But be more careful around me when I'm training, Suu. This is why I told you to keep back. My light is dangerous. Very dangerous. I don't want you getting hurt."
Suu stared at me for a moment, then nodded firmly. The look on my face must have got through to her because she actually understood how serious I was. You may think I was overexaggerating a little, but I didn't know the full extent of my powers, and the last thing I wanted to do was accidentally kill someone. I'm so glad Suu was a slime girl. If she had been human or a blood and bone monster girl… The thought made me shiver.
"Alright." I sighed and patted her head. "Go sit over there for now." Suu hopped over to where I pointed, and I turned back to inspect the damage.
The ground was covered in glowing streaks, the carved lines smoking and sizzling. I crouched and lightly brushed my fingers against one. The heat rolling off it was intense. If I weren't as strong as I was, touching it directly probably would've burnt me.
"Yeah…" I muttered, standing back up. "I'll have to be careful with this." Once I double-checked to make sure that Suu was safely away, I resumed my whip training.
This time, I increased the output, sharpening the whips and making them more lethal by adding another five percent. The golden cords brightened and snapped through the air even faster, tearing across the marked section of the clearing with frightening speed. They were now so dangerous that when they hit the ground, instead of scorching it, they sliced through it. They were also moving so fast that my eyes had trouble following them, but somehow, I still knew where they were and where they'd go without causing an accident. My body just knew.
"How am I doing this?" I questioned as my arms, wrists, and shoulders moved before I even had to think, guiding the whips through the air with terrifying precision. If I wanted, I probably could have done this with my eyes closed. Which was cool. Also, horrifying.
The entire time, I kept part of my attention on Suu. Thankfully, she behaved like a good little girl and stayed where I told her to, watching from a safe distance in wonder as the whips cracked and flashed like golden lightning.
I kept that pace for nearly an hour, taking only brief moments to close my eyes and trigger meditation long enough to refresh myself before moving again. Theoretically, if I could keep doing that while fighting, then I basically had an endless stamina and health recovery glitch. Which was great because I was definitely going to need stamina in this world. Wink. Wink.
To finish it off with a bang, I aimed both whips at one of the boulders and swung them in opposite directions. The golden cords flashed across the stone in crisscrossing arcs, slicing through it like hot knives through butter. For a moment, nothing happened. The boulder remained standing, perfectly still. Then I walked up and gave it a light push. The sliced pieces collapsed all at once, falling apart like a Jenga tower.
"Noice. Who's the man? I'm the man." I gave a little victory dance as I let the whips dissolve and rolled my shoulders.
Training was going well, but when I turned to check on Suu, I noticed something. She looked a little anxious. Not scared. More like restless, and I can guess why. I hadn't been paying attention to her for a while. That explained why she had started copying me earlier. She wanted to play.
I sighed, then smiled. "Alright, Suu, I'm done. Come here." Suu perked up immediately and hurried over. She stopped close enough that I had to very deliberately keep my eyes where they belonged. I smiled wryly as I said, "How about we have some fun?"
I raised my hand and formed a small ball of light about the size of a baseball. "Want to play catch?" Suu tilted her head, clearly not knowing what that meant, but the word "play" seemed to get through because she nodded vigorously. "Okay, let's do it." I stepped back and pointed between us. "I throw the ball to you. You catch it. Then you throw it back to me. It's easy."
Suu nodded, and I created a baseball glove out of light, but before I could make one for her, Suu looked at my hand and copied it. Her own hand reshaped into a mitten-like glove made of slime. I raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh. Whatever floats your boat, I guess." I shrugged.
Taking it easy, I tossed the ball towards her in a slow arc. Suu watched it carefully, lifted her slime glove, and caught it. Her eyes lit up instantly. "Yay!" She bounced happily, holding the ball up as her breasts bounced. I really need to get a grip on myself.
I laughed. "Good catch. Now throw it back."
Suu nodded, pulled her arm back, and threw it towards me. I stepped back slightly and caught it with ease. "Nice throw." Suu cheered, practically glowing from the praise. I tossed it back, and she caught it again. Then she threw it to me. Then I threw it to her. Back and forth, again and again.
It got a bit repetitive, but Suu looked thrilled the entire time, and honestly, I was having fun too. The game let me practice light control and gave Suu something to do with me.
We played catch for about half an hour before I finally called it. Suu looked like she could've kept going forever, but I still had training to do, and as enjoyable as it was watching her knockers bounce around, I didn't come here just to play slime-girl catch. Back to work.
As Suu was playing in the water, I focused on testing my abilities without going overboard like last night. While I have tried and failed multiple times to control and release my power at higher intervals, I have learned from my mistakes. Like, for one, my current safe limit seemed to be around thirty-eight percent before things started going to shit. I kept that number firmly in mind. Until my body could handle more, or unless I was forced to, thirty-eight was my ceiling.
That said, thirty-eight percent was more than enough for now. I could do a lot with that. The real issue wasn't the power limit itself. It was everything around me. Whenever I pushed higher outputs, the area reacted badly—heat, pressure, wind, the whole "miniature sun trying to eat the environment" thing. It's become a major issue. If I could figure out how to stop it from affecting my surroundings, then I'd be square.
Raising my hand, I formed a light sphere in my palm and glanced towards Suu. "Suu, I'm going to need you to stay back. I'm about to try something dangerous.
The blue slime girl stared at the glowing ball and hurriedly ran back towards her home behind the waterfall, making sure she was far enough away while still peeking out to watch.
I focused back on the sphere and began increasing its output. The golden light grew larger, brighter, and heavier. Heat spread through the clearing almost instantly, and the rocks around me began to tremble as pressure thickened the air. The familiar hum returned, low and dangerous.
I narrowed my eyes. "Oh hell no. Stop affecting the area!" And just like that, the sphere obeyed. The pressure in the area vanished, the rattling rocks stopped, and the light continued to float in my hand, glowing with the same dangerous power, but it now felt quieter.
A slow smirk spread across my face. "Now we're talking."
I continued increasing the output, pushing past twenty percent and climbing higher. Twenty-five. Thirty. Thirty-five. Finally, I stopped at thirty-eight. My breathing grew a bit heavier from releasing so much power in one go, but I closed my eyes for a few seconds and let meditation fix it.
The sphere remained stable. Unlike last night, it wasn't fighting me. It wasn't leaking power against my will or trying to turn the clearing into a disaster zone. It was still dangerous, sure, but in the same way a sword was dangerous. It would only act if I told it to. You know, that sounded pretty cool.
Since I had no intention of launching another glowing meteor into the sky, I dispersed the sphere. The light broke apart into golden particles and faded into the air. Now I knew my current limit, and more importantly, I knew how to keep myself from causing another dangerous situation by accident.
I grabbed my journal and wrote everything down. Thirty-eight percent stable. Side effects are controllable by command. Exceeding the limit will cause backlash. Do not be stupid. I underlined that last part twice.
When I finished, I looked towards the waterfall and called for Suu. "It's fine now, Suu. You can come back."
Suu peeked her head out and, seeing that everything was fine, went down. But she didn't climb down. She jumped.
"Here we go." Already expecting something like that, I leapt up to meet her. She came flying towards me with her arms spread wide, and this time I caught her properly instead of getting flattened like an idiot. We landed safely together, my feet skidding slightly against the ground.
"You've got to stop doing that." I put her down.
Suu simply smiled. We took another short break after that and sat near the water. I discussed random things while trying to ask what she liked to do. Her answers were vague at best. She told me that she spent most of her days sleeping, eating, and playing.
While we rested, I made a few light butterflies and let them flutter around us. Suu's eyes immediately lit up as she chased them around, trying to cup one in her hands. Every time she almost caught one, I made it slip away, but she was determined.
"Hehe. Too slow." I smirked as she missed another.
Suu pouted harder, then chased another one. After a while, I stood again and moved back to practice. "Alright. Next test."
My body began to glow as I focused on my armor. This took longer than weapons. A sword was simple. A shield was simple. Armor was annoying because it had parts—joints, plates, spacing, and weight distribution. If I made a mistake, I would either limit my capabilities or create something that appeared visually appealing but performed poorly.
The golden light wrapped around my body piece by piece. Boots. Greaves. Gauntlets. Chest plate. Shoulder guards. Collar. Every section locked into place slowly as I adjusted the shape, thickness, and fit.
When the glow died down, Suu's eyes sparkled. "You like it?" I asked, standing in full bright armor, glowing faintly from head to toe. Suu immediately ran up and started touching the plates with both hands, fascinated by the shine. I laughed as she poked my armguard, then my chest plate, and finally tried tapping the shoulder pieces.
Since I wasn't exactly an armor expert, I copied one from an anime. What I had now looked like Gilgamesh's armor from Fate/Grand Order. Full plate armor with sharp layered edges, broad armored shoulders, a high collar framing my neck, segmented guards along my arms and legs, and a cape-like piece hanging from the waist. It looked arrogant and expensive as hell.
Honestly, I can see why the King of Heroes would wear this fit. The whole design screamed 'kingly'.
Sadly, it also wasn't really my style. As cool as it looked, it wasn't me. "Suu, step back again." I said.
Suu nodded and hurried back to her safe spot near the waterfall cave. Once I confirmed she was far enough away, I returned to the test.
I flexed my arms outward, and the armor broke apart into dozens of glowing pieces. They floated around me like golden fragments, waiting for my command. I pulled them together into one mass, then split that mass into four equal parts. Each part stretched, thinning into long bands of light that circled me like glowing scarves.
Then I wrapped them around my body. Arms. Legs. Hands. Shoes. Torso. Layer after layer of golden light coiled around me like fighting bandages, stacking over one another without restricting my movement. I clenched my fists, feeling it.
Constructing light into armor, regardless of its form, boosted my physical performance as long as it was on my body. Speed, strength, and defense. All increased depending on how much power I poured into it. The appearance didn't matter as much as the structure and output.
Defense was a little trickier. I could make the layers heavier and denser for better protection, but that would slow me down if I carried the weight directly. I could make shields float to avoid that issue, but armor had to stay attached to me. Too much weight would turn protection into a handicap.
I bounced on my toes, threw a few punches, then moved through a quick series of steps. The light bands shifted with me perfectly, glowing brighter with every motion.
When I wrapped the light bindings around my body, it only had about 0.5 percent power in it. At that level, it barely contributed anything to my physical abilities, even at night. But once I increased it by another 4.5 percent, the difference became noticeable immediately. The light bandages shone brighter. I clenched my fingers, feeling the strength rush through me—not from inside my body, exactly, but from the outside.
Eager to test it, I crouched down and jumped. I shot upward fast, clearing the ground in an instant. I slowed down until landing near the top of a tree, grabbing the trunk to keep my balance. Looking down, I could see the top of the waterfall below. Judging by the height, I was probably thirty to forty meters up. In the distance, I could see Iliasville with my enhanced vision.
"I wonder if I can fly?" I muttered, scratching my chin. I knew Canon Luka could, but I recall he only did that when he went full power. Thankfully, I'm creative and watched a ton of anime so I could come up with a way.
I focused on the light around the soles of my feet and commanded it to lift me. My body shifted slightly, weight leaving my feet for half a second. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make me smile. With all the practice I've been doing, this has been on my mind for a bit, and the idea of flying like Superman sounded like a dream come true, and it made me glad.
"But not today." I stopped it. I wasn't stupid enough to attempt actual flight. Unplanned flying sounded like a very quick way to end up a red stain somewhere. "Maybe I'll try in a month or two."
Just as I started thinking about how to get down, I heard movement around me. I turned and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Suu below me. "Suu, you got to warn me before you do that. I almost had a heart attack. How did you even get up here?"
Suu merely lifted her arms. They stretched longer, wrapping around nearby branches as she pulled herself up to where I was standing.
"Right. Slime Girl." I shook my head. I really had to stop comparing her to normal girls. Turning back to Suu, I asked, "So, you missed me already?" Suu nodded cutely, getting a chuckle out of me. "You are too sweet." I went to pat her on the head.
The blue slime girl hummed contentedly. Letting go, I said, "Time to get down." With bright fiery lights glittering in my hands, I summon up a slide. The glowing construct curved from where we stood all the way back.
Suu squealed excitedly and looked at me expectantly. "That's right. We're going on this." I gesture for her to get on. Suu went in front, and I followed behind, closing my arms around her waist to make sure she didn't fly off. I wasn't using this as an excuse to hold her body. I genuinely thought she would.
We slid down, picking up speed fast, but I made sure we didn't as we safely got down. Suu made an excited "wee" sound the entire way, raising one hand while I kept my grip on her waist so she didn't wiggle herself off the slide.
When we reached the bottom, she hopped out and started bouncing around. I stepped off the slide after her and began to break it down. Suu was immediately saddened. "Sorry." I apologized, raising a hand. "I need to train, but we'll do some other fun things, so just be patient, ok?"
Suu clapped cheerfully in response, her breasts giggling in tandem, making me briefly ask how long this form of hers would last before she shrank back down. "It probably lasts up to a day until she needs to refill. I can see why she chose this place as her home." I looked to the water.
Going over to a tree, I placed my palm against the bark and commanded my light to stick to it. Nothing happened. "Figures." I frowned, then tried a different approach. Instead of making the light simply stick, I went more in depth. I created thin, near-microscopic spikes from my palm like tiny barbed hooks that gripped the uneven surface of the bark.
My hand stuck, getting me to smile. I did the same with my other hand, and it worked too. Then I did the same with my feet. Once all four were anchored, I pulled myself onto the tree and stood sideways against the trunk. A stupidly excited smile spread across my face as I began walking. "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.~" I sang under my breath before jumping to another tree.
It really worked. I could stick to surfaces, climb sideways, and even moonwalk if I wanted. The only downside was that hanging at weird angles made my hair point in every direction, and I really didn't like the feeling of blood rushing towards my head. Suu, of course, didn't want to have the same problem as she swung around using her stretchy arms.
I humored it for a while. Even if she fell, she was a slime and considering she'd already jumped out of a twenty meters high waterfall and landed on me without so much as a scratch, she'd probably be fine. Still, I'd kept an eye on her.
Soon enough, it turned into a game of tag. We jumped around the treetops, chasing each other from branch to branch. Because of Suus's versatility, she didn't make it easy, but my speed when I timed my landings right could catch her off guard. That said, I purposely lowered my speed to keep it fun.
I pushed myself off a branch as Suu swung overhead. Seeing my moment, I put more strength into my jump and caught up to her. Suu looked surprised when I flipped in the air, tapped her head, and then hooked myself to a branch.
"You're it." I turned and jumped away. The blue slime girl giggled as she chased after me.
Everything was going fine until one of the branches under Suu snapped. "WAAAHH!" She flailed her arms as she fell.
My head whipped back. "Suu!" I stretched my hand.
...
..
.