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"GLOP, GLOP, GLOP…"
A huge, over three-meter-tall black slime appeared out of nowhere, suddenly extending its size and reaching the height the two girls saw it as it seemed to be glaring at them even if it didn't have eyes.
"A slime…" Harumi said. "Its presence is almost too small to notice, is this a miasma- Ah!"
However, Harumi's eyes widened, as the black slime suddenly released a much stronger Aura of Negative Energy from within.
In that second, she jumped with Erika away before the thing were to pounce at them, extending half its body towards them and smashing the floor.
BAAAM!
With enormous force, the black slime shattered the pavement into pieces, leaving behind several spiderweb-shaped cracks, as it quickly stood over the destruction, twisting and tilting its slimy body to appear innocent or harmless.
"How didn't I sniff that thing? Was its mana signature that low before?" Erika was surprised. "It stinks like hell now though! How can it hide its power like that?!"
"Seems like it's a special type of monster… or yokai," said Matsuo. "But I cannot recognize it as any Yokai I've seen before, so it's probably a monster. Slimes are fairly common low-level monsters. Although some can grow to be rather fearsome."
"So it's a slime! First time I see one outside of a game…!" Frank rushed forward, confronting the creature that rapidly expanded its body further, growing four black tentacles and sending them against the girls.
Erika and Harumi didn't evade this time, releasing their Auras, they clashed against the tentacles with their claws. Harumi's black nails grew long like blades, and Erika's hands were suddenly covered by blonde fur, her nails turning into huge wolf-like claws.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
The two of them attacked together, as the slimy tentacles were pushed back and sliced into pieces, splattering into the ground like a black, disgusting goo.
SPLAAAT!
"GLUP, GLUP…!"
The Slime stepped back in some sort of shock over the level of strength of the two girls. Indeed, the creature had severely underestimated them.
The creature then gathered energy into its upper body, firing small pieces of slime towards the girls as flying projectiles.
"The hell is this?!"
Erika got disgusted, slashing them apart and suddenly detonating them midair!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Ugh?!"
She and Harumi were pushed away by the explosions, as Matsuo and Frank caught up to them.
"Are you girls alright?" Frank asked.
"We're fine!" Erika said. "I don't want to transform with this small fry though, but I'll kill it!"
Erika stood up unscathed, the explosion, aside from the shockwave, didn't seem to even harm both girls.
This proved just how resilient they were as a werewolf and a vampire, and also how strong they had always been.
"Wait, Erika, don't be rash!"
Harumi tried to stop her, but Erika jumped towards the black slime, attacking it as her body was encompassed by a golden aura.
Frank felt an immense quantity of Ki emerging from her body! Not only that, but Erika's small stature changed, as she became twice as big.
Her legs became more muscular, her foot transformed into wolf foot, breaking her shoes, and she gained a bit more fur around her arms and legs, looking feral.
"RAAAARRRH!"
The slime confronted her fearlessly, firing several bullets her way. Erika responded by slashing them apart and letting the explosion cover her body, as she was unaffected by their low damage.
"You're weak!"
With a roar, she crushed the slime with her legs using her entire weight and the force of her charging attack.
CRAAASH!
The slime exploded into black slime everywhere, as it quickly began to dissipate, turning into black dust.
"Oh it's dead?" Frank wondered. "That was quick…"
"Of course it is, Erika's super strong," Matsuo said. "You shouldn't worry about her, Frank."
"She can handle herself," Harumi nodded.
"Heh, surprised? I'm pretty strong," the Gyaru Werewolf smiled at Frank, as she grabbed what her foot had crushed. "Hm? Look at this! Isn't this a Magic Crystal? Is it the slime's core?"
Matsuo, Frank, and Harumi walked to her side, checking it.
"It appears to be but… It's strange," Matsuo inspected it. "There's clearly a rune in here? This was man-made… At the same time, this Magic Crystal is not a slime-type core. They're like pearls. This one is a big crystal from a Yokai. I can sense the essence of some Yokai inside. It has been crystalized into a magic crystal and imbued with a rune to create that slime…"
"Wait, what? So someone else took care of the Yokai then?" Frank asked.
"No, I don't think there has been any reports of that," Matsuo remained calm even right now. "But we can assume that these are Magic Creatures created by a Magician of sorts…!"
As he said that, suddenly, the party found several more of these black slimes crawling around the surrounding buildings. There were dozens of them slowly moving towards them.
Each one was roughly three meters big, and when they saw them, they stretched their bodies and…
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Jumped right towards them!
Frank and his friends quickly leaped out of the way, as four Slimes had tried to crush them by jumping over their bodies.
"Hey, there's more! This place's infested by these little bastards," Erika said.
"There aren't any Yokai, they were used as materials for these Artificially Made Monsters…" Matsuo said. "This isn't what we thought it was. We are either being persecuted or we've fallen right into a trap. Or perhaps it's none of those and these are just rampant monsters a magician left behind…"
"Should we retreat?" Harumi wondered.
"Nah, they're easy enough we can handle them without any problem," Matsuo said. "Escaping this would also bring dishonor to my family. At least unless it escalates to the point of that Koga Saburo, we should remain here and confront the problem head-on. That'll net us more contribution points."
"I agree, I suppose we can't just go back to the clan right away. That would be boring anyway, we need to stretch our legs after all…" Frank nodded.
"Good idea I guess!" Erika giggled.
"Watch out, they're coming" Harumi cried.
As she alerted them, five more black slimes leaped towards them!
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