Ritzy turned his gaze to the skeleton. No, he looked at the mass of flesh that had melted off the skeleton. He felt a connection with it. He hadn't failed! It just hadn't gone as planned.
"Yippe!"
Ritzy barely had time to exclaim before the formless, pink, bloody, fleshy mass moved and reached out for the closest assailant with a slimy tentacle.
"What is this?!"
'"What is that?!"'
Mercel's men, including the one with his ankle grabbed by Ritzy's summon, shouted in fright. The grotesque creature was scary and unsettling with its gurgling sounds and gory appearance. The flesh slime's first victim hurriedly slashed the tentacle with his sword, and he successfully cut it off.
The flesh golem's body showed no resistance against the sharp sword's edge.
"Aha!"
After all, it was just a corpse belonging to an ordinary man. Ritzy had just pumped it full of mana to try and reanimate it so he could defend himself against Mercel's men. How powerful could it be? It was also somewhat of a failure or something. No one understood why the flesh had separated from the skeleton or how it moved on its own, but it was clear that it wasn't what Ritzy had intended since he was almost as confused as the others in the small clearing.
"Damn."
Ritzy cursed in disappointment. Like usual, he hadn't failed with his necromancy. But something had gotten twisted again. Unfortunately, this time, it didn't get twisted in a good way as it had been with Mognog or Hotes and Fotes.
"Uh— Argh!"
However, just because Mercel's man had cut the tentacle, it didn't mean he had gotten rid of the piece of flesh wrapped around his ankle. The man hadn't killed the flesh slime with something as slight as cutting off a piece of the tentacle. He had just made it more difficult for himself.
Instead of one flesh slime, there were now two, one big and one small. The big squirmed around on the ground like a bag of warm, lumpy water. The small one, however, dug into the man's ankle continuously.
The nerves and stomach acid of the corpse that had become the Flesh Sllime hadn't just faded away or sunk into the ground. They became part of the Flesh Slime's arsenal.
After successfully suctioning onto the swordsman's ankle, the little Flesh Slime revealed those two weapons in a gruesomely painful way as it began sawing away at its victim using an acid-covered thread-like nerve.
The man yelped in pain and dropped his sword and his body to the ground. He brought his ankle up so he could try and peel the Flesh Slime off of him and get rid of the pain. But it was like trying to get rid of tar.
The little Flesh Slime stretched and stretched. The man tried to peel it off, but as soon as his fingers slipped under the Flesh Slime, they, too, became a victim of the acid.
"Aaiie!"
The swordsman yelped in pain and flinched as he retraced his hands. He stared in horror at the skin melting off of his fingers and revealing the glistening bone beneath.
"Oh, wow. That looks painful."
Ritzy stared at the man and the two Flesh Slimes with fascination. But he couldn't lose this opportunity.
He dashed forward.
"Let me help you with that."
Caught in panic and fear, the swordsman was incapable of defending himself. Fortunately, he had comrades who weren't being attacked by the flesh slime since it seemed the big one was slow and not very good at taking the initiative.
Unfortunately, they were just as shocked as the swordsman. The Flesh Slime was horrendous enough that they remained frozen in shock until Ritzy attacked the swordsman and stabbed him in the throat.
The swordsman's eyes quickly lost their light.
"Fucking get him! Don't just stand there, you damn idiots!"
Mercel was the first to regain his bearings, and he shouted at his subordinates. He had lost two men to a Novice brat. It was disgraceful.
"Don't worry, boss. I got this."
One of the two capable of using and sensing mana, the only one who had reached the Apprentice rank, stepped forward while holding a fancy sword. Ritzy felt a chill run down his spine, and he jumped back, narrowly avoiding a swing that cleaved right through the dead swordsman's corpse as well as the little flesh slime.
The little Flesh Slime became two even smaller slimes that were a fistful of flesh each.
But the fancy swordsman didn't stop there. He sliced the two small slimes, turning them into four tiny slimes. The four slimes were a lot less energetic than their parents. They barely moved. They didn't even manage to squirm a finger's width before the fancy swordsman lashed out with his sword again, turning them into eight minuscule slimes.
A final slash rendered the eight slimes into sixteen morsels of flesh. They were no longer slimes, and there was no longer a sign of life, or rather, undeath from them. They were too small and powerless to continue functioning, and they lost what little form they had had and turned into bloody, pink puddles on the ground.
The fancy swordsman turned his gaze to Ritzy. But before he could attack the white-haired necromancer brat of terror, the big Flesh Slime moved in the way like a dog-sized water balloon.
The fancy swordsman furrowed his brow before lacing his sword with a colorless mana that gave it a translucent sheen.
"Die, you wretched creature!"
The fancy swordsman with the fancy sword unleashed a fancy torrent of slashes toward the big Flesh Slime, rendering naught but a puddle of blood, desiccated flesh, and flaps of skin. But he still made sure to take a big step around it before closing in on Ritzy.
"Tell us where Little Specter is, and I won't kill you!"
"Just kill him, you idiot! Who gives a shit where it is!"
"But didn't you want that mana training method?"
The fancy swordsman didn't take his eyes off Ritzy as he spoke with Mercel.
"Fuck off! The tracking magic still works. Just kill the fucker before he does something creepy again!"
"Alright."
The fancy swordsman shrugged before pointing his sword at Ritzy.
"You heard the boss. Accept your fate."
"Hmph. How about you accept this foot in your ass?!"