Demeanor: Reforming

What is the weakest monster? If one were to think of the most basic of all beasts, the simplest and most common creature that wandered the Shared Realm aimlessly was no doubt the slime.

Slimes were a strange species. The colorful gelatinous creatures could be found just about anywhere. From the peaceful plains to the verdant woods to the dark mountainous caverns, slimes crawled along the ground leaving a damp, sticky trail in their wake. Their concern for their surroundings almost entirely nonexistent, they spent their lives doing whatever they pleased, staring off into space and wandering aimlessly all the while. At times, they would find an object of interest and spent days observing it until eventually their interest would run out. At times, they waltzed into danger not even realizing they were at risk of having their cores destroyed. And at times, they would be effortlessly stricken down by any passing creature or intelligent attacker without ever even realizing it.

But even the weakest monster could be considered strong in some way. A defeated slime would eventually reform. Being nothing more than sentient blobs of water and gel with a core made being destroyed a passing danger to them. Though physically weak against most opponents, slimes were a long-lived species due to their lack of a solid body. They could endure being splattered into dozens of pieces and return to normal so long as their core was intact.

One human kingdom learned about this trait the hard way one afternoon. After all, the weakest monster was still thousands of times more powerful than the most insignificant species of the Shared Realm.

In the center of the capital city of Draone, a drop of blue slime spewed from the scenic fountain, though calling it a drop would be understating the size of the small fragment of the slime. It broke the fountain completely as it squeezed out of the ground. Pieces of the marble and stone structure were launched in all directions as the aqua droplet twisted and turned. It was changing its shape.

“Look, Mommy, it’s a blue girl,” a young girl with braided hair pointed. She was oblivious to the fact that her mother was frozen in shock from seeing the fountain explode.

Still, the young girl’s description of the slime was accurate. The slime droplet reconstructed its shape to a more humanoid appearance, one of a little child just like her, but with long, unruly ‘hair’ that was a darker shade of blue than the rest of her body. A tiny fragment of the red orb slimes had as a core was floating in the center of her chest. She was also three times the size of an ordinary human.

This was Glau, a Blue Slime who received her name from the fairies who lived in the forest.

“Mmmmm… Elves… hurt...” the slime’s core vibrated, generating a sound reminiscent of a hum. A fragment of the Blue Slime known as Glau, the little slime droplet paid no attention to her surroundings as she stretched her arms. After having been splattered into pieces by travelling forest elves days earlier, she had finally regained enough energy to reform again. 

“Halt!”

A voice from below called Glau’s attention. In response to the three millimeter slime droplet’s appearance, the patrolling guards of the capital city gathered and surrounded the giant monster. The slime girl turned around, but immediately after doing so, she looked left and right in confusion. She couldn’t see the source of the shout because the guard captain and his men were far below her eye level.

“Who do you think you are disturbing the peace of our city like this?” the guard captain pointed his spear at the slime girl’s legs. “Get out of here, you monster.”

The slime girl tilted her head. She was still searching for the source of the voice. It was only when she looked down that she saw the ring of men surrounding her with weapons ready to be drawn. Though she had not formed feet, she had formed legs and they stood just taller than where her knee would be if she had joints.

“Monster?” the slime girl’s core reverberated, mimicking the human’s speech. Imitating was a slime’s skill. Because her core had been fragmented, Glau was attempting to restore her usual capabilities amidst the humans surrounding her. She was curious. What were these creatures that were smaller than her?

“Captain Cyril, your orders!” asked the armored guards.

“Let’s lead this monster out of town. We don’t want her destroying any buildings,” Cyril ordered. Though he came from a town outside the city, he was a hard working guard. He was a man with a fierce gaze, and he knew to be wary when dealing with a monster as tall as a house. 

“Destroy?” the slime girl mimicked the words again, looking at the structures all around her. “These… homes…?” 

One guard scowled and readied his spear for a thrust. “You damn monster, we’ll teach you to invade our home. Nobody’s going to destroy Draone on our watch.”

“Draone? This is… human nest?” the slime girl realized. She looked down at the aggressive guard curiously. He was preparing to attack her, but the slime girl thought nothing of the danger of being stabbed by a spear. Rather, she was smiling.

Slam!

“Gwahagh!”

“Got you~!”

The slime girl’s left arm extended and her hand slammed into the guard, knocking away his spear and forcing him to the ground. Like a little kid learning how to play, the slime droplet laughed at her accomplishment with gleeful innocence.

Cyril was greatly unamused at the sight of his men being attacked. “Why you… All men, let’s force this giant out!”

“Yes sir!”

The men unsheathed their swords and readied their spears. Glau watched with puzzled interest as the little Draonean guards closed in on her. The guards were unable to initiate their attack, however, as it was at that very moment that something else broke through the ground directly beneath the woman and child who were watching. 

“Aaaaah!”

Another wriggling blue droplet emerged from underground. Seeping through the cracks, it moved like a serpent across the ground. The guards closest to the second slime droplet broke formation to protect the civilians and attack the new enemy, but the second slime fragment simply ignored their presence and made its way to her.

“Another one? Stand your ground!”

“Wait, sir, that second one is…”

“What the- Oh no! They’re combining!”

The slime girl’s tiny core fragment fused with the fragment of the second slime, and their gelatinous forms mixed together. The bystanders and guards around the capital’s central square watched as the slime girl grew bigger as she absorbed another part of itself. The 3 millimeter slime grew to 10, and her young body was slowly maturing. What had looked like a five year old girl before now looked more like a child of ten years. She was now a head taller than the tallest building in Draone. The humans were the size of small dolls to her.

“Hehe… Humans… I can see...” the slime girl looked down at the frightened guards with a smile. Her language was improving after regaining just one more part of her being.

“By the Goddess… Call the magic enforcers! We need to take this beast down now!” Cyril’s legs shook as he stared up at the child-like giant, but he still dared to fight. He ordered several of his men to gather reinforcements and stood his ground.

The sight of the brave guard not running away caught the attention of the slime droplet girl. He only had three other comrades left who had not run off, though two hadn’t moved simply because they were frozen in fear. Like a child, Glau was curious about the trembling dolls and wanted to see them move.

It was then that the slime girl reached down. Her left hand extended towards the guards. The armed soldiers swung their spears and swords to strike and repel their attacker but quickly found they couldn’t pull their weapons out. The creature’s body was as thick as tar.

Realizing the danger, the guard captain jumped backwards and shouted towards his men, “Pull back!”

But it was too late for the one guard that was closest to the slime. His sword was absorbed into the slime’s transparent body while her hand completely wrapped around him. Her fingers held him tightly and brought him up towards the slime girl’s curious face.

“Grk! No! Let go!” the guard struggled to break free of the slime’s grip, but the slime girl wasn’t even holding onto him tightly. Her sticky body had adhered him to her fingers like a fly caught in honey.

Glau was not paying attention to the man’s words. She hadn’t even realized he was alive. She simply held the guard in her hand and inspected him. Leaning her face, which was several times his size, closer in, she opened up her mouth and curiously extended a long tongue. To the slime, she was merely inspecting the man with a tentacle, but to the guard, it looked as though she tasted him.

“Oh Goddesses, no! I don’t taste very good. Please don’t!” he cried and trembled as the thick, sticky tongue coated his body in sticky ooze.

The slime girl frowned. Her red core pulsed an even darker shade of crimson as though to signal her dislike of the man.  Her expression contorted into a scowl. 

“Loud human… you’re no fun...,” she murmured as she opened and tilted her palm.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

The captive guard could only scream as he fell victim to gravity when Glau let go. He tumbled her large palm and began to plummet. His comrades could only watch with pale faces as he quickly approached the ground. 

“Hm…?”

“Huh?”

“What the-? Oh no, Clay! Cut yourself free, quick!”

“Captain, what’s goi- Gaaaaaaah!”

But the man’s life did not end there. Glau’s sticky slime clung to his armor and stretched with him when he fell. The viscous ooze snapped back up to the slime girl’s palm just before Clay hit the ground. The sudden whip-like pull of the slime coupled with the impact of slamming back into the giant monster’s hand bruised the man’s entire body.

It was a shame that he had not been knocked out yet. Glau had seen the entire thing. The tiny man’s body dropped to the ground quickly but then was yanked right back up by her slime. The sight not only interested her but also entertained her. Her red core flashed green for a moment to show her joy. She had discovered a fun way to play with the man she had deemed boring.

“Hm… This is... funny...” the slime girl smiled. 

Those words sent a chill down the helpless man’s spine. “Oh Goddesses, please no. Have merc- Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

She dropped the man off her palm again, listening to his wails as he descended. Before he slammed into the ground, she retracted her slime back into her body again, causing him to abruptly stop and then get yanked back up. She repeated the process not just once or twice but for a total of eight times.

It was on the eight time that Glau’s slime strands snapped. She was too forceful in pulling Clay back up to her palm that she missed catching him. He flew a great distance in the air, his weak screams growing fainter as his body made a large arc in the air before coming back down. A large crash could be heard in the distance by Captain Cyril and his other two subordinates. They were certain their ally had not survived the fall.

“Damned monster…,” Cyril cursed.

The monster girl, however, paid no attention to the other guards. Her mind still lingered on the plaything she had lost. The elastic yo-yo she had created was now gone. One minute it was there, and the next, it wasn’t. The slime’s core flashed blue to signify her disappointment.

“Awww… Wanted to play more,” she mumbled. She did not continue however. Looking in the direction of where the guard had flown, the slime girl sensed something calling her. Her core flickered. “Hm…?”

A crowd began forming in the town’s western square. The small brigade of soldiers also noticed the well-organized, marching group.

“It’s Commander Lyland’s troops! Now all that’s left is the magicians!”

Cyril’s comrades cheered, but the captain remained silent, keeping an eye on the giant monster. She was not looking at the approaching forces. Rather, she was looking further to the left.

It was then that the gelatinous creature began to move. Her body headed forward in the direction she was looking. 

“She’s on the move. Move to support Lyland’s men! Get the civilians out of the way but don’t get too close!” the captain commanded but also warned. He ran forward with his remaining men, but the sight of the slime girl’s enormous body sliding through town, coating the city in a train of blue, made the color drain of his face. He could see innocent men, women, and children drowning in the monster girl’s fluids as she passed. Their bodies floated in the sticky ooze, suffocating slowly until Glau finally passed over their homes, leaving both the insides and outsides of the buildings covered in blue.

As Lyland’s men approached from the front and his own men attacked from behind, Captain Cyril took a winding path around the town. His target wasn’t the giant monster, at least not directly. He was certain the slime girl had another reason to be on the move. He dashed through alleyways and ran past fleeing civilians to take the shortest route to where he believed he could confirm his suspicions.

He did not need to move very far. Upon rounding the corner to the market people were fleeing from, the ground began to shake violently.

“W-What the-? Goddesses… It’s as I thought…,” the captain fought to maintain his balance. He plunged his weapon into the ground to help but was well aware the danger would not pass even if he managed to stand. In fact, the danger was about to grow even greater.

Pouring out of a crack that had formed in the middle of the marketplace was another pillar of blue slime. Another part of the slime girl was emerging. Captain Cyril watched as the blob of slime shot upward into an imposing pillar. The pillar then began to expand in all directions to take a familiar form. Legs many times taller than he was tall took shape. Another 10 mm tall slime girl had come to be. She looked identical to the first. But that wasn’t the end either.

“Two… four… six… How many are there?”

The entirety of the marketplace was plagued with monsters 10 times larger than them as they broke through the earth. There were over a dozen slime girls, all of them having captured innocents inside their viscous bodies. Some were sitting atop their buildings like small stools and others were actively hunting down civilians trying to flee with ease.

“Aaah! Help! She’s after us!”

“Our weapons are useless! And there’s too many of them!”

“The arrows can’t even get up to her waist! Where’s the commander?”

The slimes were all enjoying themselves playing around with their city like a toy set. Guards were swatted away like rag dolls or run over by their viscous bodies without any notice. This was not a simple monster appearance. It was a full-out invasion of their fair city.

“Tch… All men, evacuate the citizens immediately! Get them as far away! All the way to Fasti Village if you have to!”

But there was no time. To make matters worse, the new dangers began to converge together. When they touched, their bodies merged and combined, making the feminine-looking creature grow. 

“Oh Goddess… No...”

Glau shot up beyond the height of the Great Trees surrounding their home. The spacious plaza was now cramped with the gelatinous girl’s azure gel as she rose above them all, dwarfing their largest buildings which weren’t even able to measure up to the ankles she had formed.

The 15 cm Glau stretched her arms and neck. With more of her original body gathered, she had matured further. Going from a childish appearance to more of that of a teenager, much like the Captain’s niece. However, compared to his niece, the slime’s body was far more filled out. All of the fluid she absorbed contributed not only to her size but also her body proportions.

“Mmmm…. That’s… a bit better...” the red core in her chest vibrated as she spoke. Though she had still not fully recovered, she had gathered plenty of her fragments to be able to improve her consciousness. She looked down at the expansive human city she had started reforming in. It was a surprise to her that she had been able to hear them properly earlier. She must have been severely weakened when she was attacked by the forest elves.

Now, however, she was starting to see the humans as how she normally saw them again - like mold on the ground that she normally slid over and fed upon for nutrients. As usual, humans were not a very effective prey to feed upon. Even ants provided more nutrition to her than the millimeter sized beings and their structures.

At 15 cm tall, she was 150 times their size. They stood barely over 1 cm tall in proportion to her still incomplete body. Though they weren’t on the level of mold yet, they were on the level of bugs.

“All mages! Fire!”

And the bugs dared to bite. Launching their strongest spells of lightning, fire, and ice, the magic enforcers of Draone attacked the ankles of the slime girl from the roof of the guild office and the roof of the adjacent town hall. Fifty magicians released a volley of ice spells in an attempt to solidify and freeze the gelatinous creature while another fifty used lightning and fire to try and dry her up.

To say it was helpless was an understatement. The vibrations sent up Glau’s body registered in her core as less than itch. She glanced down to see something faintly bright near the puddle of goop her body extended from. What were the humans trying to do?

“We’re doing it!” the magic enforcer’s leader atop the guild office declared, seeing the liquid evaporate away from their barrage of flames and lightning.

“No… Sto-” Cyril knew otherwise as the enormous slime girl lowered her body. She did so not by bending down but by shifting her slime down into the puddle. Her ankles and shins sunk into the goop, causing it to spread out throughout the marketplace. He rushed to escape.

Unfortunately, while the captain was able to survive for a short moment longer, the same couldn’t be said for magic enforcers down at the guild office. 

“She’s coming! Increase power! Dry her body off and we wi-”

Crash!

The enormous slime’s hand descended slamming down on the guild building, not even registering their attacks before it plowed into them. In an instant, all fifty enforcers were engulfed. The structure collapsed under the weight of a slime girl’s palm, completely destroying it. Some guards were knocked away, others were flattened or crushed, and still others found themselves stuck to the slime girl’s sticky body. These were the most unlucky bunch as Glau brought her hand back up in front of her face.

“Hmmm…?” the slime squinted, narrowing her eyes as she looked at her palm.  She could see numerous at least eight men drowning in the swamp of her palm.

“You monster! Flame Burst!” one magician attempted to retaliate one last time, aiming at the girl’s head. However, the distance between them was too great. The miniscule spark never made it off of Glau’s palm. When he realized that, the man could only whimper in fear. “No… How can we even hurt her?”

The answer, of course, was that they couldn’t. Glau frowned as she saw the normally smooth surface of her palm filled with unsightly bumps caused by the humans. She brought her other hand closer and curled her index finger back.

The captured magicians paled when they realized what she was planning.

“Wait! No! I have a family!”

“Oh Goddess… she’s going to fl-”

She flicked them. In a single motion, three of the magic enforcers were hit by the viscous slime girl’s finger. They were freed from the sticky swamp of her hand, but in no way did they want to be freed in this manner. The sheer elastic force sent them flying out far out of the city, over the dense forest of ‘Great Trees’. Where they landed, Cyril couldn’t be sure, but the height at which they fell from guaranteed their demise.

And the slime girl continued this until all of the magic enforcers were gone from her hand. 

Captain Cyril ground his teeth. The valiant soldiers trained to protect the citizens and the powerful mages known to be the elites were all insignificant insects compared to this monster. What could they do? What could he do? He gripped his spear tightly. He had two options - to flee or to die fighting for his people. Against an impossible beast like the growing slime girl, neither choice had good odds of survival.

Of course, he was an honor bound man. He gripped his spear tighty, imbuing it with wind magic, the one magic element available to him. To flee when lives were in danger would be a regret he would take into the afterlife.

“You blue beast, even if I am to die, I swear I wi-”

Sploosh! 

Before the man could even finish his sentence, a geyser of slime gushed upwards from beneath him, destroying the very ground as it rushed upwards to the surface. The soldier found himself floating in a thick blue liquid as it rose higher and higher and higher up into the air. He saw the town through the translucent gel becoming more and more distant.

He also saw, however, another red orb - one the size of the city hall - floating right in front of him.

“Blagbl...” the man opened his mouth to speak, but it was a foolish move. The slime girl’s fluids immediately poured into his mouth. He struggled to use his wind magic to force it out and give him air - extending his life to avoid drowning for just as long as his reserves would last him.

This was more than enough time to realize the hopelessness of the situation.

“T-That’s… No!”

He was inside another identical copy of the slime girl that had attacked the town, one twice as tall at 30 cm. From his perspective, he could see the entire city and even the tops of the ‘Great Trees’ to the west. He could also see, however, even more of the creature.

Just like what had happened in the capital, the entire kingdom was plagued by the destructive slime girls. Six? Eight? Numerous of these slimes were converging on the capital city of Draone, but that did not stop them from destroying the cities along the way.

In the northern farming town, he could see a dozen or so 2 centimeter tall slimes still lingering around, lifting up houses and civilians between their stick fingers. Their damp bodies completely coated the fields and crops, destroying the farmer’s hard work after weeks of toil in mere seconds. 

That was the biggest issue, however. The smaller they were, the more immature Glau’s remnants were. While twenty times the size of the humans in the farming town, they found enjoyment in the panicked screams of the men and women of the farming town.

“Run! Into the forest! The Great Trees will hide us!”

Slam!

A slime covered hand slammed down on the millimeter sized villagers. Unlike with the version of her in the capital, these slime girls were so forceful, nobody caught underneath her hand was stuck to it. Instead, they were immediately flattened and crushed by the intense force. 

“Teehee~!” “So slow!” “My toy!”

They were encircled by the child-like slime girls, and there would be no escape. Until those girls had their fill, nobody in the farming town would be able to avoid being pulled into their rampage.

In the eastern fishing village similar destruction occurred, however only one slime girl was the culprit. This slime girl looked to be relaxing near the ocean the village settled by - a small pond in Glau’s eyes. She simply rested by the village, not even paying attention to it. Even so, there would be no survivors as she dipped her hand in the water.

Why?

Slimes were liquid creatures. So long as they were not overwhelmed by water to the point of dilution, they could absorb it to regain their strength and recover. This was precisely what she was doing as she pressed her body against the ground while absorbing water from the pond.

This was a nightmare to the fishing village. They had thought they were safe because the slime was not paying any attention to them and was still a fair distance away.

That was a false hope.

“T-The ocean’s draining…” It was terrifying to watch the sea level drop before their very eyes. Boats became stranded on now dry land, shell divers found themselves caught up in the current caused by the slime’s suction and pulled into her body where they remained without air or any chance to escape, and worst of all, the girl’s size grew immensely in their direction.  

“She’s coming this way! Everyone! Move! Mo-”

The town lookout was immediately bowled over along with his watchtower when an azure mass grew at an immense rate and tore apart the very land before slamming into him. This was Glau’s chest. As she absorbed more and more water, the 10 cm slime girl grew to 100 cm. She immediately matured, her body redirecting the water into her extremities, her hair, and her chest. A mountainous bosom ground the fishing village into paste, never to be seen again.

“Mmmmmm~” The slime girl stretched, enjoying every bit of the liquid she absorbed. Her body felt refreshed and cool. This made up for the contents in her body that spilled when she was attacked by the elves’ enchanted arrows.

Then came the southwestern village of Fasti, Cyril’s home town. This was the reason why the guard captain was in despair when he looked out from inside the slime girl.

“No… Oh Goddess… Why? They’re innocent! They did nothing wrong!”

The last slime he could see was incredibly tall compared to all of the others. Though to Glau, 140 cm was still an incomplete size, she was above and beyond understanding for the millimeter high humans. Cyril saw no traces left of his home town where the slime girl was. What had happened?

The answer came from the fact that there was no puddle of slime beneath this slime girl.  She had absorbed it all into her form, creating legs and feet that dripped goop. She was not accustomed to using those legs or feet however. The Blue Slime tripped backwards, slamming her twin moons of a rear end into the village below.

Fasti’s ruins were in the round indentation in the dirt left by the slime girl’s left butt cheek, if there were any structures to even call ruins left. All he could see were traces of slime hundreds of times larger than any village home. His family and friends were nowhere to be seen, either crushed immediately when she had fallen on them or forced to cling to her sticky form until they were absorbed into her.

This was the end of their world. Their kingdom’s towns and cities were destroyed entirely by gigantic slimes. What blasphemous sin had they committed to be smited so quickly and so cruelly? There was nothing remaining as the slimes began to gather together to fully reform the slime girl Glau.

Nobody but him. The last survivor, straining with the last vestiges of his magic power to remain breathing while inside the ocean of the titanic slime. All he could do was endure for the last few minutes he had in life. The slime girl fully back to her usual self, she stood at 170 cm even though her body was a puddle under where her knees would be. Absorbing over a quarter of their ocean, she had grown a bit more than her normal size. All of the extra slime and water, however, she redirected elsewhere.

Boing!

“Good. This is good,” smiled Glau. She redirected any excess water to her ‘hair’ and chest. In order to protect the red core inside better, she needed a stronger defense. To defend from behind, her long ‘hair’ now had the volume to resist an arrow. And to defend from the front, she redirected the liquids to her bosom. Two motherly orbs protected her core. This was her true form with a mature appearance that would make even the Silver Winged fairy queen want to use her as a bed.

It was a thing of beauty and fear to humankind. The sheer size and power of the slime girl was only comparable to her voluptuousness and thickness. Even the Goddess could be seen as modest compared to Glau proportionally due to how much water the slime had taken into her being.

This was the last thing the miniscule captain would see. Floating in the viscous goop, he had been pushed out into the very surface of Glau’s left breast when the fluid inside her body shifted around. He was able to breathe again.

“My… spear…,” the captain wanted to avenge his fallen people, but he had no strength remaining to grip his weapon and pull it out of the bog of slime. He had drained almost all of his energy just channelling his magic power to maintain his breath. His eyes were getting heavy and so was his body. Even so, he shouted up at the girl’s face. “Haven’t you done enough?! My people… You’ve massacred them all…”

Glau’s said nothing. She heard nothing. At her normal size now, his voice was insignificant to her. 

“I’ll avenge them. Everyone you killed. I’ll remember them and kill you, you mo-”

Whaaaaaaam!

All she did was shift her body forward and that was it. Despite having survived for so long in all of the chaos of Glau’s reformation, he was smothered flat between the slime girl’s sticky breasts. 

With that, the last human of the miniscule kingdom had been wiped out. The Blue Slime began to leave, thinking nothing of it as she returned to her life routine of wandering the forest. To her, the destruction of Draone and its surrounding towns was inconsequential and not even worth noting. She was a slime, all that had mattered to her was reforming. 

“How long has it been?” she mumbled as she slithered away. “Miss Fairy Queen will know.”

Humankind was unable to handle even a droplet of the Shared Realm’s weakest monster after it was already weakened. Now that the Blue Slime at its normal state again, its power was able to snuff out humans without a second thought. From the very beginning, there was no possibility they would survive facing Glau or any other slime for that matter.

This was the difference between two beings known as the ‘weakest’. Even against a magicless, powerless, and weakened slime, human kind had no chance.

Humanity was truly a feeble species.