The Whispering Forest suddenly lost its voice. The wind that usually hummed now stopped blowing, as if nature itself was holding its breath witnessing the emergence of an apex predator.
In front of Rent and Kaen, the giant-sized Water Elite Slime vibrated violently. Its body, made of thick blue-black water, emitted a bone-piercing cold aura. Its surface rippled, and slowly formed two giant water tentacles that floated menacingly in the air.
"Master! The Elite Slime is gathering Mana! They are going to attack with Water Whip!" screamed Moro, spinning around in panic above Rent's head. "If you get hit by that attack, your bones will be crushed like crackers!"
"I know, you don't need to describe it!" Rent retorted curtly.
Rent's eyes moved quickly, analyzing the situation. Behind them were dense trees, in front of them was a giant pudding monster. Their running speed wouldn't be enough to escape the reach of those water tentacles. Let alone Kaen, who was currently struggling to move due to the acidic slime on her shoes, not to mention her transparent white shirt making her constantly cross her arms over her chest.
Damn it. Think, Rent, think, Rent thought hard. Should I throw Moro? No, it doesn't have meat and it probably tastes weird.
SRAAAASH! The first water tentacle shot forward, slashing the air at terrifying speed, aiming straight at Kaen's body, who was still frozen in shock.
SMACK!! CRASH!! Rent leaped in front of Kaen, hugging the girl a split second before she was almost hit by the impact of the high-pressure water whip.
As Rent hugged the girl to dodge the whip, the momentum caused them to spin a few times. Kaen almost lost her balance and fell backward. Swiftly, Rent supported the girl's waist with one hand, while his other hand tightly gripped Kaen's hand. He leaned his body slightly forward to anchor his stance, supporting Kaen's body that was arched backward. A dramatic embrace that resembled a Dip—the finishing pose in a noble's ballroom dance.
Time seemed to stop for a moment in the Whispering Forest. Kaen's purple eyes widened perfectly, staring at Rent's face which was only a few centimeters away from hers. The young man's deadpan face looked slightly rigid as he supported the weight of Kaen's body with his leg stance.
The forest wind blew softly, sweeping Rent's black bangs. For a moment, Kaensista—the narcissistic goddess of Lumeria who was usually never at a loss for words—felt her heart beating frantically. The ahoge on her head even curled to form an imaginary love sign out of sheer shock. A deep red flush immediately spread from her neck up to her ears.
"Y-You..." Kaen stuttered, her voice suddenly shrinking. Her hand unconsciously gripped Rent's shirt tightly. "W-What are—"
"MASTER! MISS! THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO FLIRT!!" Moro's shrill scream broke the awkward moment and instantly cut off Kaen's words. "THE SECOND TENTACLE IS ALREADY BEING PREPARED TO CRUSH YOU BOTH!"
Rent looked up. Above them, the shadow of the second giant water whip had blocked out the sunlight. Its size was much larger, and this time it was ready to smash the two of them who were still trapped in this awkward Dip dance pose.
Damn it. I'll have to force myself to spin with her a little longer. Better to listen to her complaining later than to die as flattened meat, Rent thought quickly.
"Sorry, but we have to spin one more time," Rent said flatly.
Still with a red face, Kaen raised one eyebrow. "H-Huh?!"
Before Kaen could process that sentence, Rent had already pulled the girl's waist tighter and spun his body using one leg as a pivot. Their movements looked incredibly smooth, spinning to dodge like an elegant waltz dance scene at a noble's party. Only... their dance floor was the forest dirt, and the background music was the sound of a deadly water whip slashing.
SWUUUSHH! CRASH!! The giant water tentacle smashed into the ground right where they were a second ago, creating a small crater and splattering mud everywhere.
Using the momentum of that deadly dance spin, Rent released his embrace and half-threw Kaen behind the trunk of a thick ancient tree.
"Ouch!" squeaked Kaen from the other side.
"Don't go anywhere, sit quietly there."
Rent picked up a rock and threw it right at the Elite Slime. THWACK!
"You, come here. Catch me if you can, Stupid Slime!" he shouted from across the tree.
It didn't take long for the slime to shift its focus to the one human who threw a rock at it. Even though its body was huge, its speed was on par with an agile deer. Rent ran zig-zag again, avoiding the pursuit as well as the long tentacle attacks from the giant Slime.
There was only the sound of heavy panting as he ran.
"MASTER! I SEE ITS CORE IS IN THE HEAD AREA!" shouted Moro from above, "IF YOU CAN, TRY TO THROW SOMETHING OR STAB ITS CORE DIRECTLY!"
"Hah... ha... ha... core?" Rent muttered, catching his breath while running. He glanced slightly to see the location of the core. There, he saw a dark blue pearl right inside the giant Slime's body, located in its upper section.
Without thinking much, he immediately ran to grab the wooden branch he had thrown earlier. Then he looked for the right position, preparing to stab that blue pearl.
"Alright, on the count of three I'll turn around and stab straight up."
"One... two..." Rent stopped, then quickly turned around and raised the branch high, "three!"
STAB!
The tip of the arm-thick wooden branch successfully pierced the watery surface of the Elite Slime. However, Rent's tense face didn't have time to turn into a sigh of relief.
The wood got stuck terribly. The water pressure inside the giant body was so dense and heavy that his wooden branch was completely jammed, stopping only five centimeters away from the blue pearl Core.
"Damn it, how hard is this water?!" cursed Rent as he exerted all the remaining strength in both of his arms to push the wood deeper.
The giant Slime vibrated in anger because its body was pierced. Two giant water tentacles shot up, coiling like pythons, then plunged down to smash Rent's body.
"RENT! LOOK OUT!" screamed Kaen from behind the ancient tree trunk. The girl turned pale, her eyes widening in horror seeing the young man with the same face as hers about to be crushed into minced meat.
"MASTERRR!" Moro screamed hysterically.
"Ah, dying a silly death by a blob of water. Damn it," Rent answered resignedly.
However... SWUSSHH!!
Rent's eyes caught a fireball shooting at high speed from behind the giant Slime's body. Without any cue, he roughly jumped to the side right as the slime's tentacle attack smashed into him. Slash!
A small scratch from the slime slightly grazed his cheek, right after he jumped... BOOOMMM!!
The fireball smashed into the giant blue Slime's body. It instantly created an explosion large enough to generate a shockwave of wind. Rent, who was still nearby, was blown back slightly.
"Ugh!" His feet braced directly against the surrounding dirt to maintain his balance, forcing him to drop to his knees.
The explosion just now caused the cold air brought by the Elite Slime to evaporate instantly. Thick smoke billowed from the direction of the slime's body, which was now nowhere to be seen.
Kaen's eyes widened after witnessing that. "W-what in the..."
Moro's imaginary eyes also widened, but even wider. "T-that?! The same terrifying element from 3 days ago?!"
"Cough! Cough! What... happened?" asked Rent as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
From the direction of the billowing smoke, there was a new light; its color wasn't dark blue but bright orange. Slowly, the thick smoke began to fade, and a familiar figure was standing on top of the melting slime's corpse. A small, orange-furred creature was chewing on something there.
"P-Pyuuu!" (Not sweet enough! Tastes bland!)
Fyra-Bunn. The fire rabbit, heavy sleeper, and a bit of a glutton.
Rent's deadpan eyes also widened slightly. "Y-you... This creature, since when?"
"R-Rabbit?!" Kaen pointed at Fyra with a trembling finger. "N-New monster?!"
Moro floated closer, circling Fyra-Bunn, not out of panic but excitement. "MASTER! YOU SEE?! I TOLD YOU SHE WOULD BE A STRONG SPIRIT COMPANION!"
Rent was still kneeling. His brain needed time to process this absurd event. "Moro," Rent called out flatly. "Why... did Fyra suddenly attack the Slime earlier?"
Moro floated toward Rent, "Of course she was protecting her Master! Remember? Master Rent's status toward Fyra is a Spirit Servant! So automatically your resonance bond is much stronger!"
Rent stared flatly at the orange-furred rabbit. Instead of looking back at him with the deep affection of a hero who had just saved her master, Fyra was actually busy chewing the remains of the Elite Slime's blue pearl Core like hard chewing gum.
The rabbit chewed twice, swallowed with difficulty, and then... BURP! A loud burp was heard, followed by a puff of hot steam from her tiny mouth.
Fyra turned to Rent with puffed cheeks and a maximally pouting face. She thumped the ground with her hind legs, glaring at Rent as if launching a strong protest: 'Master! This jelly tastes bland! I want to eat meat!'
Rent massaged the bridge of his nose, which was throbbing violently. He felt the burden of his life being strung along by the absurd fate of this world. "Your theory is completely wrong, Moro," Rent sighed wearily, slowly standing up from his kneeling position. "She didn't save me because she cared. She just thought that giant monster was a free jelly snack, and got mad because it tasted bad."
Kaen, who slowly came out from her hiding spot behind the ancient tree with her wet and transparent clothes, blinked in disbelief. "We... the two of us were just saved by the hunger of a stupid rabbit?"
"Shut your mouth and look at the ground," Rent replied, pointing at the remaining puddle of water.
Miraculously, the five glass bottles Kaen had dropped earlier were now completely full. The remaining clear gel from the evaporated Elite Slime had crystallized and collected inside the bottles due to the extreme temperature drop reaction from Fyra's fire. Their mission completed itself without them needing to bother squeezing the slime.
Rent picked up the bottles and walked toward Kaen. He handed them over while turning his face straight to look at the lush trees, firmly refusing to lower his gaze to the girl's chest or thigh area.
"This is your natural laundry soap. Mission accomplished. Now let's go back to the Guild," Rent said as flatly as a board.
Kaen received the bottles with a face that suddenly flushed deep red. The cold forest wind blowing made her just remember the condition of her clothes. Her shirt was 100% transparent and her skirt had melted into a tattered mess!
"W-Wait a minute, idiot! My shirt is still see-through and... and you didn't bring your shabby jacket to lend it to me?!" Kaen protested in panic, hurriedly crossing her arms tightly to cover her D-Cup chest. Her narcissistic arrogance from earlier had been washed away by the shame of having to walk back to the city.
"Your own fault for whining to come to the forest wearing only thin clothes and forbidding me from bringing my jacket because it smelled," Rent retorted without mercy.
The young man turned his body and started walking ahead through the forest. Fyra jumped agilely, landing smoothly on top of Rent's head, then curled her tiny body getting ready for a nap as if nothing had happened.
"Just walk right behind me," Rent concluded without looking back even a little. "As long as you stick to my back, no one on the city streets will be able to see that embarrassing body of yours."
"W-What did you say?! Embarrassing body?! THIS IS PROPORTIONAL, YOU KNOW!" Kaen screamed hysterically, her embarrassment turning into annoyance.
Even though her mouth kept complaining at length, the purple-eyed girl hurriedly ran to catch up with Rent. She hid right behind the young man's broad back, continuously sticking close and following his footsteps like a train carriage so her dignity would remain intact throughout the journey home.