With the sleeve-like boots of our proto-suits absorbing the shock of our bounding footsteps thanks to minimizing the weight of our equipment, Emilia and I ran all but casually down the tunnel. The strength of the soles of our suits also added some spring to our steps, increasing our average speed by a few feet per step. For this 'short' distance it only took us about seven second to meet up up a dozen or so yards from the next cavern.
Just from here we could see much more of the cavern to find the floor was actually recessed from this point onward. The crystal cluster in the middle turned out to be twice as tall as I originally thought when we finally learned the floor of the cavern was almost ten feet below us. That ten feet of height blocked off dozens of both slime and spider bodies that were hard at work 'digging' around the main crystal.
Half as many dead spiders as there were living had been piled up off to one side of the cavern, this was where a variety of large and small slimes were currently growing and breeding. Lying on curled arachnid legs on a bed of dying mana crystals and monster cores not far from the crystal cluster was a freak hybrid of both this portal's monsters. It looked like a giant king slime had decided to become a spider.
The creature had an opaque blue slime body with almost two dozen uneven legs encased in acid-melted spider carapaces and a two-portion body similarly encased. Whereas most of the spiders we had seen so far had heads the size of watermelons, this king slime spider had a head the size of a normal spider monster's body and a body encased in a patchwork of carapaces four times bigger than the largest whole spider in the cavern.
The giant slime spider's resting height was the same as the twenty-foot crystal cluster.
Considering the size of its body, the 'boss' of the cavern could not even leave the current cavern so my original retreat plan was unnecessary. However, there were more than five enemy bodies per person in our team besides the boss. In most fights I could comfortably account for five sub-intelligent monsters on my own.
When everybody on the team was facing even greater numbers than what I was comfortable with, however, options needed to be reconsidered.
Even if we bailed out or contacted the Bureau agents outside to support us, we would still receive all contribution and compensation up til this point. With the potential size threat from the collapsed tunnel, it would even be understandable to turn over the operation before now. However… that was a lot of money that could fit into the tunnel.
"Be honest," Emilia says softly and suddenly while surveying the revealed cavern. "What do you think our odds are?"
"The big guy can't fit in this tunnel, so our odds can be raised," I say optimistically. "If we drew the enemy into the tunnel, the spiders would leave the slimes behind due to natural speed and climbing ability. Most of the spiders are weak from being the main work and food source here, so even if ten of them make up a front line we can mow through them in two loads.
"Two loads, however, would not be enough to put even half of that dent in the slimes," I go on to calculate while spreading my attention over the enemies in the cavern. "They're big, too, so I would guess these guys were upper E grade and that boss is another C grade slime like the one from my last mission. Worse, yest, this boss wears armor and as our only remaining guns at that point, you'd spend most of your ammo just revealing its face."
"So we cull the lesser mobs and call for back-up on the boss?" She ask almost hopefully, having probably been thinking along the same lines I was.
"If the group really felt that we needed to rely on the higher rank muscles outside the portal, yes," I reply frankly while making my own reservations obvious. "They would, though, be bringing a resupply of basic munitions I could use. Even without it, though, my big sword and attack power would be equal to at least one of its legs. Taking the boss down by ourselves would not be impossible. Just close to it."
"We're the ones who have to make the call since we're the one's looking at it," She informs me briefly. "If you want the contribution, we can clear the pests and then call for support on the boss. We'll lose the boss rights but keep most of everything else."
I suddenly knew what it felt like to be in the position of the leader from my last team. Slime cores were a good source of contribution points that could either be converted into cash or goods. Maybe they were not just money grubbing assholes and simply bit off more than they could chew.
However, that guy and his buddy were dead, now, and had also becomes a valuable lesson to learn from.
"We'll see how the others feel about your idea or if we should just call it a day," I decide at last, smiling vaguely at the fact that it was now her idea. "Head back, I'll follow in two seconds."
Upon arrival back at where the others were waiting a few dozen yards beyond the reach of the cavern's lighting, Emilia had already started reporting the enemy numbers, boss, and the options we came up with. Something that seemed like a small issue to me turned out to be a big problem for the others. Ms. Gwyn's team had a spotless record of having controlled and completed all of their assignments for over a year.
If they took the easy way out now because I personally lacked supplies and they had used up too much of their mana to replenish, it would look bad on her record. I, personally, had suggested on my very first mission to seek help for an over-tiered boss. Somehow, all of the boss monsters I came across were more than just 'next-tier' like the academy preached.
The academy also preached that equipment and supplies could be replaced and lives could not, so they advocated putting tax dollars to use by having the Bureau's agents pick up slack.
Finally, I could only ask, "How long would it take everyone to be at one hundred percent? There's still more than a day before the portal re-stabilizes, we can camp the entrance and send someone for a resupply if it's this much of an issue. We won't have copped out and we'll all still get all marks even if they're not full marks. The reported estimates were only half of the actual values, anyway, so its understandable to use such means."
Nodding her head thoughtfully, Ms. Gwyn says, "We've got plenty of equipment out in the trunk and you don't live far away. You and Emilia are the specialists, so I'll ask up front. As we are now, what would you do to deal with the critters and boss, now? If you had to solo that particular boss, could you do it and how?"
One of the first things I had thought of when I laid eyes on the boss monster was how to fight it if I had nothing but myself to rely on.
With the grade of its slime compared to the grades of my suit and body, the suit would be gone in thirty seconds and my already irritated body would follow in a little less time. The weight of its tubular legs encased in mismatched segments of acid-fused carapace and the points of some of those legs packed enough destructive potential to cripple a limb.
Against that many legs I simply could not immobilize the monster fast enough to even start stripping the armor from its body to start searching for its core. Solo, I would only have the first load of my revolver and my big sword. Hopeful odds were half a chamber per leg.
I might had been able to take out a few legs that attacked me at first, but eventually my guard would drop from overextending myself. My big sword becomes useless without both arms and a body shout would take the fight out of me for a few seconds. With maybe five legs down, even if I was thrown I would not have time to return to combat before the spider finished me.
Even if I miraculously reloaded my revolver and took out two more legs from the most heavily injured side, I would have been better off shooting myself.
"Not possible," I say after playing out three different deaths in my mind while Emilia could only look down at her feet. "Even if I tried sniping it from the tunnel, my loadout could only account for half of its legs at best because of the distance and target sizes. When it came down to fighting it up close, I might take out five legs in a good situation. However, would not be enough. Once I turned my attention to working at its body after any level of exposure to its slime I would eventually take a hit and that one hit would change the game."
"I've only taken basic swordsmanship classes so all I could accomplish is sniping at it," Emilia says at last. "Even if I managed to take out all of its legs safely, I would never reach the core without dying. By the time I had the means to even see the core it would have redistributed its mass into a survival mode."
"We have a full team, so as long as you two can account for legs it doesn't matter," Ms. Gwyn says with a dismissive wave of her hands. "Now, answer the first question."
Smiling a little awkwardly, even a little cutely, after having been made to realize we were not actually 'solo', Emilia says, "The simplest way would be to kite the underlings into the tunnel. Spiders are faster and can climb, so the underlings will naturally be divided into two waves. But that would take out our current loadouts. I could give Malcolm another loadout, but that one would cost money."
"We'll cover the costs," Ms. Gwyn once again dismisses while I was still recovering from the sudden remark. "So, we kite the mobs and snipe the boss. let's say we take out half the legs before it gets in close, how do WE get in close?"
"Divide the tankers and swords to either side to keep it distracted while Leo and I deal damage under the kid's protection," Emilia decides quickly. "If we snipe with revolvers only for half legs, I can open the front of its body with a full magazine and Leo can keep it blinded with fire somehow."
"If everybody is in good enough condition..." I add while looking to Ms. Gwyn. "You could heal or buff me and I could go in right down the middle. If she opened a seam above and below that thing's head through all of its plating with that one clip while the old carapaces are being burned, as much as a fourth of its mass is going to spill. With continuous healing to negate the acid, I can go in with the big sword and find the core. If I can't make contact in ten seconds, I'll have at least emptied it enough to stabilize the situation so you can come pull me out."
"That's a no," Ms. Gwyn rejects immediately. "If this boss is upper tiered as much as upper D or even lower C, it has developed at least one extra layer of defense. The first barrage would only break through the armor and outer cell wall while entering the inner cell wall. Your sword would probably be what takes out that fourth of its mass behind the first magazine. If we can buy time for a reload and second magazine, we can finish this.
"After the first magazine, you'll move in on its weakest side and take out a few more of its legs," she goes on. "If you can take out at least three of its legs from the side to stabilize its position for the second barrage, then I'll send you in. The inner wall is D-rank hardened mucus gel and opening it to C inner mucus will shave off too much of your suit to go in. Ten seconds of healing is the most I can give you, so fifteen seconds and we're pulling you out."
Five seconds was enough for my naked eyelids to melt shut from my being a lower F grade. The last time I entered an upper tiered slime body it was only nearing D grade. Five seconds was enough to make me rethink my entire life.
There would even be a few seconds of being pulled where my suit broke down while I was not healing.
"I need to go back on the other side of the bend and dry my suit out, does anybody have a towel?" I ask hopefully, mostly hoping the others did not think I had wet myself.
*