Arthur Vs Acid Metal Slime

“Uwoooooh!! This thing’s way more aggressive than I thought!!”

“Lord Arthur, I’ll help you right awa—guh!!”

Gawain rushed to save Arthur, who was entangled by tentacles, but he was already fully occupied trying to fend off the attacks of the Acid Metal Slime.

It wasn’t just the sheer number of tentacles coming at them—what made Gawain even more anxious was something he saw with his own eyes.

“Lord Arthur, I’ll save you right now!!”

“Nah, you don’t have to be in such a rush.”

It was no wonder Gawain was panicking while Arthur remained carefree. Unbeknownst to Arthur, the parts of his clothing in contact with the tentacles—laced with powerful acid—were dissolving. His skin was sizzling and giving off smoke with a hissing sound.

A normal person would be screaming in agony by now.

“To be able to stay considerate even in a situation like this… But I am a knight. It is my duty to protect you!! Besides, if you were killed by a monster, how could I face Marianne again!?”

Arthur’s words only fired Gawain up more. Still, it wasn’t enough to close the gap in their power. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before Gawain got caught by the tentacles too.

“Come to think of it, its bodily fluid is supposed to be poisonous… maybe that means this’ll work?”

Trying it out, Arthur cast healing magic on the tentacle. While it did slow a little, the effect was weak. Most likely, the mineral coating the tentacle was interfering with the spell.

“Lord Arthur, are you alright!? No, seriously, why are you alright!?”

Gawain shouted in disbelief—Arthur looked completely fine despite the pain he should have been in. But it wasn’t just Gawain who found Arthur strange.

“Sluuuurrrr?”

“Uwoah!?”

The Acid Metal Slime pulled Arthur close, locking eyes on him with its round gaze. It normally consumed only minerals, and anything else—whether human or monster—was deemed worthless and killed via acid and crushing.

But Arthur didn’t melt, and even when crushed, he immediately regenerated as if nothing had happened. The slime was confused. Up until now, only its mineral food had withstood its acid.

“Sluurrrrr!!”

“Hey, what are you—Uwoooaaaah!!??”

“Lord Arthuuuurrrrr!!”

Then, the Acid Metal Slime flung Arthur into the air and gulped him down whole.

Mistaking Arthur, who survived the acid, for a mineral snack, the slime had eaten him. Yes, the Acid Metal Slime’s intelligence was inversely proportional to its strength.

It was even lower than Arthur’s…

Inside the slime’s mouth, Arthur grinned even as his whole body was melting.

“Your body’s made of poison, right? Then what happens if I purify it now!?”

“Sluuurrrr!!??”

The effect was immediate. The poison coursing through the slime’s body was purified, and it started losing control over its form.

It was like a human suddenly losing all the nutrients in their blood—reduced to mere water. Naturally, it couldn’t survive it.

“Ababababababa—”

“As expected of you, Lord Arthur!! To use yourself as bait just to purify it from within…!”

Gawain, face lit with admiration, caught Arthur, who was forcibly expelled from the now water-like slime’s body and nearly drowned in the liquid.

“Sluurrr…”

When Arthur was set down on the ground by Gawain, he saw a glittering scene—piles of gemstones the slime had previously eaten were now scattered across the floor, and the Acid Metal Slime itself had shrunk to the size of a human baby.

“At this size, even I can beat it—blargh!?”

Arthur, emboldened by the weakened foe, approached it—only to be smacked in the jaw by a tentacle and let out a pitiful cry.

But it couldn’t be helped. The Acid Metal Slime was one of the Five Great Calamities. Its body was small now, the mineral armor reduced and its core exposed, but it was still overwhelmingly powerful.

In fact, Arthur’s jaw hissed and melted—only to heal instantly. Any ordinary person would have died from that blow alone.

“Lord Arthur!! Please be careful! Even shrunken, the Acid Metal Slime is still a major threat. Stay behind—”

Even as Gawain tried to warn him, the slime’s tentacles struck again. Truly, a cornered rat will bite. Despite being weakened, it was still a member of the Five Great Calamities.

It wasn’t something that could be defeated easily.

“Ah…”

One intense strike tore Gawain’s cloak. But let it not be forgotten—Gawain was a powerful knight. And an extreme sister complex at that…

“You… You defiled my sun…”

Gawain snapped, seeing the portrait of Marianne torn apart. His expression and tone changed drastically—his usual gentle smile replaced by a deadly glare as he locked eyes with the slime.

Then he threw away his sword, now melted and useless, and hefted one of the larger chunks of orichalcum like a club.

“You’ve defiled the most beautiful thing in this world!! Regret your birth and die!!”

Despite his injuries, Gawain charged forward and crushed the slime’s core—body and all—with the orichalcum club.

“…Wait, you’re more fired up than when you were protecting me.”

Arthur, for once, made a reasonable comment.

“I heard something over here!!”

“What the—there are gemstones everywhere!!”

“Wait, isn’t this… orichalcum!?”

Right on cue, the dwarves arrived. Their joyful cries rang out as they laid eyes on the scattered minerals.