As he walked through the third floor, the group was making sure to proceed carefully. Until they reached the spot where Foster would split off of them to go take out the monster source, the only one that could do anything against the slimes was Foster.
And on this floor, they were actually rather troublesome to take care of. Sure, they were easier to hit wiht Aster's flames, but the nature spirit couldn't use that magic that many more times, so they had to be more conservative using that magic ability.
The moment that Foster seemed to see a glance of a monster, he got ready. This time, it was a death slime, "Stand back!" He exclaimed, warning the others. The shape that this slime took was that of a somewhat slender wolf. Those guys were particularly troublesome. They dodged his attacks surprisingly well, at least compared to the other slimes he faced before. If he wasn't careful, then they might rush past him and attack the others, and Foster certainly wouldn't let that happen anytime soon.
He knew that Lynol would chew his ear out for this, but he figured that he couldn't use that slow combat style perfectly right now, at least not against such an agile opponent. So instead, Foster used something that he had to use in the past to defend himself against stray dogs. It was a bit self-destructive, but it would probably be fine.
While the slime ran at him, Foster just kept standing there, unmoving. He slightly held his right arm in front of him, and somewhat squatting down while staring deep into the eyesockets of the skull created by the dungeon.
And then, the slime jumped at him. Luckily, the slimes acted like whatever being they were supposed to immitate as well. It bit down on Foster's arm with all its might. Luckily, his martial arts uniform seemed able to hold back the teeth for now. They were still noticeable, of course, but for now it didn't seem like they would end up piercing Foster's flesh. Usually, he would have his metal arm-guard there as well, but he slightly pulled it away to let the dog jump at him like that, since it wouldn't have been able to bite down onto his arm otherwise.
With a light smile, happy that the slime was trying to bite deeper into his arm even despite the holy aura still enveloping his body due to Kyla's efforts, Foster swung his body around and flung his arm toward the wall. The slime was thrown against it, and some of its bones were obviously broken.
The slime let go and was laying on the ground while trying to re-arrange the bones in its body to be able to move properly again, since some joints were pushed around in the impact, and Foster quickly used that chance to stomp down onto the bubble in the slime's center.
"Hell yeah." Foster grinned a little, and quickly turned around toward the others, "Let's-" He started, but stopped immediately as he saw Lynol's death-stare.
"Why would you do something rash like that? Are you hurt anywhere?" He asked, and Foster immediately shook his head, replying in a somewhat awkward tone, "I'm good... But well, it worked, so it's fine, right?"
Letting out a deep sigh, Lynol slightly motioned at the end of the hallway, "We will speak about this later. For now, we need to take those guys out." He said, moving up to Foster, as a group of skeletons approached them.
The skeletons on this floor were a lot more well-equipped than before, but everything they were using was still restricted to rusty and dull weapons and a little bit of armor here and there. Sure, they were a bit faster and stronger, but more than some scratched as the skeletons flung their weapons around while dying, the group wasn't injured in the slightest.
The same was the case this time, just that the group now had to split up again. They were getting quite close to the last room with a monster source, apparently in the whole dungeon, according to the map. But that also meant that the enemy here might be quite a bit stronger than the others, and the amount of slime in the room where he would fight it would be quite high as well.
"Be careful, alright? If you don't think you can manage it, come straight back." Lynol instructed Foster, who simply smiled back at his friend, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'm tougher than I look." He said with a wink, before quickly turning around.
"More importantly, you guys worry about yourselves. Don't get ambushed or something." Foster said as he started jogging down the hallway. He still didn't want to take too long for this.
In the hallway, Foster first encountered some more skeletons. As he was running past them, he dodged the swing of a sword and then proceeded to strike up against the underside of the skeleton's jaw, completely removing its head from its neck. Of course, this wasn't enough to kill it, so Foster caught the skull and continued running, "How're you doing, bud?" He smiled lightly, before he came across another death slime. Immediately, Foster threw the skull at said death slime. The thin layer around the slime beast's body halted the movement of the skull, and stopped the slime from moving for a second as the skeleton's head was flailing around. And while still running, Foster simply chose to jump over the confused slime, and kicked down at the skull that he threw at it.
Said skull itself broke apart and slowly faded away, while the bubble was pushed out uncomfortably close to the slime's skin. So for that, Foster quickly stopped after jumping, turned around, and kicked the slime beast into its stomach, managing to rupture the bubble quite effectively.
In a similar fashion, Foster managed to kill the other monsters that could still be found here in the hallway, until he finally reached the door. If it could still be called a door. The only things that were left were some scraps of wood where the top of the door was before.
Foster quickly moved through it by ducking underneath, and looked around to spot the source of the slimes on this floor. And then, he heard it. Something suddenly fell to the ground right behind him, and it caused an incredibly loud crash as it fell onto tables and chairs.
Immediately, he tried to turn around to see what it was, but right as he did, he felt an impact in his stomach. It was so strong that the metal of his armor was bent, and Foster himself was thrown halfway across the room. Luckily, some boneless version of those death-slimes halted his fall. They were rather useful, really.
But even then, the bent armor made it uncomfortable to move around. With an annoyed groan, Foster looked at what it was that had thrown him over here like that.
And there it was, the monster source in question. It seemed like this one had been stuck right above the door that Foster came in through, so he didn't see it.
To an extent, it looked like it might be easier to deal with, but at the same time... also not. It was a large figure, even taller than Octer. Its hands were tied behind its back with shackles, and it had two blocks of metal tied around its feet. Or rather... fused with its feet, as if someone had pushed it into two masses of molten metal and let it cool down.
And that thing was moving around with those blocks of metal as if it they were regular old houseshoes.