Slime Evolution

Chapter 456 - Fall

"That’s ridiculously funny," Devon said, still laughing. "A jelly eating a tank from the inside out."

But as soon as that laugh died down, a more serious thought began forming in Devon’s mind, his own eyes narrowing slightly as he watched his own hands gripping the handlebars of the bike.

’If Halon can use his Elysium abilities out here with so much effectiveness,’ Devon thought, ’why aren’t I doing the same thing?’

He glanced quickly at the plasma pistol Kai was still firing nonstop at the armored vehicle, the shots barely scratching the reinforced surface.

’Those pistols are practically useless against a vehicle like that,’ he concluded, that old frustration bubbling back up. ’But I have other tools. Tools I never even considered using outside Elysium until now.’

An idea started forming quickly, connecting to a specific spell he’d already used before, days ago, during that bird hunt alongside friends in Elysium, Devon saw a chance to use it here in the real world too, treating that big armored vehicle just like a giant bird.

’Void magic,’ he thought, feeling his own mana start organizing itself internally, channeling through the mystic circuits he’d developed with so much effort. ’If I can destabilize the gravity around the armored vehicle, even just for an instant...’

Without wasting any more time weighing the risks, Devon raised his own hand toward the swaying vehicle, focusing all his available mana into a single controlled burst of distorted energy.

Unfortunately he had no staff or wand in the real world to help channel the magic, but even so, all he needed was a bit more time for it.

After several seconds, an invisible distortion field expanded around the armored vehicle, momentarily twisting the very laws of physics that kept that heavy vehicle floating in the air, the gravity around it intensifying suddenly and unevenly.

At that exact same instant, inside the already severely compromised internal compartment, Lohan’s small clone found and devoured the last critical component of the electrical stabilization system, causing an even more intense and definitive failure than the two before it.

The combination of those two simultaneous events was merciless.

The armored vehicle, no longer having enough power to compensate for the gravitational distortion Devon had imposed, dropped heavily toward the ground, the reinforced metal groaning with an agonizing sound as the entire vehicle slammed into the cracked asphalt of the abandoned street with a deafening crash.

Inside the cabin, the three men were violently thrown against their own seatbelts, but the internal airbags, deploying at the exact moment of impact, absorbed most of the raw force of that fall, keeping any of them from suffering truly serious injuries, even though all three were left completely stunned and disoriented.

Lohan calmly guided the Porsche to a stop a few meters from the smoking wreck of the fallen vehicle, the metal structure twisted and blackened in several spots where his own clone’s digestion had eaten through the original surface.

He opened the door and got out with firm steps, the thin layer of biomass still covering most of his own face like a smooth black mask, leaving only his eyes exposed, cold and completely devoid of any mercy for those who had tried to enslave people he considered friends.

’You picked the wrong target today,’ he thought, slowly approaching the destroyed armored vehicle.

Satisfied with the generous amount of biomass he’d already built up through that prolonged digestion, Lohan activated his own Thermal Perception, raised to Level 11 some time ago, complemented by the Piercing Sight that let him detect heat signatures even through solid structures.

Through that special sight, he could clearly make out the three reddish outlines of the human bodies still present inside the front cabin, all completely motionless, their heartbeats slow and irregular in the way characteristic of someone unconscious.

’None of them are in any condition to resist or attack,’ he confirmed mentally, whatever hesitation remained dissolving in the face of that certainty.

Commanding the small clone still active inside the vehicle, Lohan ordered it to carve a path straight to the main cabin, dissolving the metal partition separating the already destroyed rear compartment from the space where the three men remained unconscious.

Without any further hesitation, he released the final command.

The small fragment of biomass advanced over the three unconscious bodies, engulfing each of them with silent efficiency, the digestion consuming flesh, bone, and any trace of existence with even more ease than it had shown against the vehicle’s own metal minutes earlier.

In less than a minute, nothing remained of the three men who had terrorized Sara and Skye for over twenty whole minutes.

Satisfied with the result, Lohan called the small clone back, feeling the fragmented consciousness return through the shared mental connection, fully reintegrating into his own main core.

The feeling that followed was surprisingly satisfying.

Not only did he fully recover all the biomass invested in creating that small fragment, he also absorbed a considerable profit from all that extensive digestion, both from the armored vehicle itself and from the three human bodies that had just ceased to exist.

From the just under 1 Unit of biomass he had in the real world, after that battle he’d surprisingly climbed to 2.5 Units, which might not sound like much, but brought him back to a safe level of self sufficiency in the real world.

’Wait,’ he thought, looking more closely at the specific source of that extra biomass. ’Those three were Elysium Players too.’

The amount of biomass generated by their own bodies, even being surprisingly good by the standard of ordinary humans, was still noticeably lower than what Lohan would expect from Players with truly high quality Bases or Races.

’That actually makes sense,’ he concluded, filing that observation away for future thought. ’If those three had truly good Bases or Races, they’d probably be too busy enjoying their own lives inside Elysium, instead of wasting time out here chasing down defenseless girls to fill the company’s recruitment quota.’

Low level, mediocre rarity, condemned to a miserable job in the real world precisely because of their own limitations inside the game.

There was something almost sad in that realization, but Lohan didn’t let it soften the cold satisfaction he felt at the justice he’d just carried out.