Chapter 646

Chapter 646: Sticky Darkness

Anyone engaged in combat needed to assess their opponent’s motives and anticipate their movements. Yet the sword thrusting from the rotting sludge left Jesse clueless about what might happen next.

He knew a blade pointed at him by an unknown force spelled trouble. Instinctively stepping back to dodge a potential swing, he instead heard the sword whoosh past him as it was hurled through the air.

Had he not retreated, it would have sliced into his side!

"Ambush?!" Greed yelled, leaping barefoot to grab his axe. But after the sword flew, the water calmed, and the severed head vanished.

"What’s happening?" Vereesa demanded, twin daggers drawn as she stared toward Jesse. "Murlocs? Or something else?"

Before Jesse could ponder, Vereesa’s leg was yanked, dragging her into nearby water grasses. Greed lunged from the stone slab, seizing her arm while shouting into the foliage, "The water’s alive! It’s moving!"

After a brief struggle, whatever lurked in the grasses released its grip with a loud splash, scattering black debris. The dwarf and elf tumbled onto dry ground. As Jesse prepared to incinerate the grasses, something seized his ankle and dragged him backward…

A Mire Beast? No…

He resisted, stumbling forward, only to turn and see a broken sword flying at his face. Ducking narrowly, he felt the hilt graze his hair before losing balance and plunging into the muck.

"Master!"

Molofeel vanished from afar, reappearing beside Jesse to grip his arms. An imp scrambled from his pack, clambering onto him while shrieking spells behind them…

"Burn!"

The "living sludge" protruding from the stream erupted in sickly green flames under the imp’s sacrificial magic, screeching horribly. Jesse’s leg loosened as the succubus hauled him onto solid ground.

A suspicion flashed through Jesse’s mind—instantly confirmed.

Thick black shadows oozed from the pool behind the slab, hauling shattered bones, rotten cloth, rusted armor, and mangled weapons. The sludge slithered onto the stone, hoisting a twitching decayed skull atop its mass. The jaw rattled soundlessly, emitting only bone-clicking *clack-clacks*.

Greed buried his axe in the black ooze—to no effect. The sludge seized his arm and weapon, and when he finally wrenched free, his forearm bled from deep gashes left by embedded filth.

"Ooze!" the dwarf bellowed.

Vereesa’s arrow shattered the highest skull, but the ooze swelled undeterred, swallowing the slab and surging toward them. A new skull rose to the top, resuming its *clack-clack* chorus.

Skulls multiplied—below, within its depths, even crushed under its bulk. How many corpses had this thing devoured?

Far more beasts than humans!

If the imp’s flames hurt it, Jesse’s spells could too.

Seizing the moment as the Ooze pursued Greed, Jesse raised his wand, chanting Fireball. Gathering fire element here proved difficult. Mid-incantation, several skulls within the ooze swiveled toward him, dragging refuse as they lobbed weapons.

The sludge giant waved a sewage-formed "arm" gripping a rusted hook-sword. Jesse snatched it mid-swing with Gorefiend’s Grasp, slashing through the appendage. It splattered as mud at his feet.

With his other hand, he hurled the finished Fireball just before the mass crashed into him. Direct hit!

The blast flung Jesse backward. Burning black filth rained down as the ooze disintegrated, flowing into the pond.

Jesse marveled at simultaneously casting Fireball and Gorefiend’s Grasp—then froze. The sludge chasing Greed still advanced, only smaller!

The Ooze had split while pursuing them separately!

Though diminished, the chunk hunting Greed moved faster. The dwarf, barely freed, was snared again, struggling until Vereesa pulled him loose.

Vereesa fired an Arcane Arrow at a larger Ooze’s skull. The arcane fire pierced its mucus shell before fizzling inside, absorbed. Cursing, she shouted:

"Jesse, retreat!"

"We’re battling the whole swamp, Master," Molofeel warned.

Jesse agreed. He’d meant to aid Greed and Vereesa, but even magic barely slowed these Oozes. This felt less like fighting monsters and more like being devoured by the marsh itself. "Go."

He leaped over a pool toward Vereesa and Greed. Molofeel glided after as they navigated between black Oozes rising from the mire. Whenever someone sank, others hauled them out until the group converged, fleeing together.

The sun sank lower, staining the swamp crimson like a festering wound. From seething, bubbling pools, Oozes surged and fell—bone-clattering masses trying to drag down dwarf, human, elf, and demon, to meld them into indistinguishable sludge…