Roberta's skill was overpowered, and that was apparent. Not even the large caimans stood a chance against her as she just tore them out from the inside by controlling their blood. But even that wasn't omnipotent as bloodless creatures weren't affected at all.
This is how they got into the current situation. "This is bad." Roberta jumped back with a deep frown on her face. "Stay back."
In front of her slithered a massive Ooze, a slime that was large enough to block their path and was thick enough that her dagger had no hope of reaching the core.
"Roberta! Take Beatrice and keep Leon safe!" Noel threw Beatrice down, unsheathed her sword, and rushed to the front to fight. Roberta immediately backed away. "Got it! Try to stab the core."
The slime twitched, and from its massive body, several tentacles burst forward like whips. "Careful!" Leon shouted, but Noel was fine as she danced between the tentacles, slashing them one after another.
It didn't matter how much Leon had trained with the sword as a lord candidate. His skills would have never reached the heights of someone wielding a skill, and watching Noel fight made that even clearer.
Each move, each step, and each swing carried far more grace, lethality, and an inhuman level of flexibility and power that was simply impossible to achieve naturally without a skill. It was said that a nine-year-old kid, with a Proficient skill in a job, with just a year of training, could defeat even the masters who dedicate their lives to the same job.
Dealing with the slime's endless tentacles wasn't a problem at all, and she eventually took a single step forward and thrust her blade toward the core. It was one perfect move that couldn't miss, and her sword was long enough to reach its mark.
The fight should've ended there, but the core suddenly moved back out of the stab at the last moment. "What?!" Noel gasped. Her sword was already hilt-deep into the slime, and she couldn't pull it out. The tentacles all swarmed her at once, and before anyone could react, she was already drowning in the digestive slime.
She threw a glance back at them with her twisting in pain. "Run!" She screamed with the last bit of air in her lungs. Once someone is captured by a slime, nothing can get them out unless the slime is killed, an now, no one can defeat this large slime. Noel then looked at them with a smile, pointing with her thumb to the side.
When slimes are digesting food, they never attack unless attacked. Leon and the rest can slip past the slime safely as it is eating Noel.
Leon also has the [Sword Master] Skill, but his mastery is nowhere near Noel's, who has had hers for years. She has failed to kill the slime, so he then has no chance. Roberta's skill is useless, and Beatrice can't even use hers... they have to run. If they stay and try to rescue Noel, they'll just end up dead...
"We need to move! We can't save her." Roberta was already moving with the crying Beatrice on her back, but when she looked toward Leon, he had disappeared. The fool was running headfirst into the slime.
"Get back!" Roberta shouted at him, and Noel waved her hand, trying to get him to stop. But Leon couldn't just leave Noel behind, the one who had been with him since he was young.
Since the slime was eating, it didn't attack Leon until he got too close and shoved his whole arm into it, grabbing Noel by her clothes. "GIVE MY MAID BACK!" He cried, clenching his left fist to the side.
The faint hair on his forearm tore off his skin, and the veins on his muscles bulged as the air crackled. [Shockwave]
Using all of his strength and boosted stats, he pulled Noel toward him using all of his boosted stats, and with his left hand, he swung a desperate fist forward with the full power of [Shockwave], causing a massive shockwave blast to explode forward and tear the slime apart as the entire sewer system rattled.
As the slime got torn into pieces by the shockwave and its core flew away, Roberta immediately dropped Beatrice onto the ground and rushed forward as fast as she could, stabbing the core mid-air with her dagger to finish it before it could start regenerating.
"HEY! Aughth!" Beatrice gasped, about to throw out as Roberta dropped her into the disgusting sewer water. "I'll kill you!"
Roberta didn't even hear her as she quickly rushed back to Noel. "What was that? Is she still alive?" Noel was coughing the slime out. "I'm... fine. I wasn't there long enough to start dissolving."
Leon looked at her, almost crying, but then quickly straightened his face and helped her stand up. "I'm glad you're fine." He then closed his nose. "But really, that thing smells worse than the sewers."
"Don't remind me..." Noel wasn't having a fun time being covered by the disgusting digestive fluids of the slime.
"HEY! Don't forget about me!" Beatrice shouted at them from the back. "That was my skill that killed the slime! Wasn't it?"
Leon looked at her, trying to wave his left hand, but... it didn't move. It hurt like hell, and even though he didn't break any bones, he had at least cracked them from the recoil.
"Yeah, it was yours. But even with my boosted stats, I might've busted my arm." He walked toward Beatrice. "I'm certain that if I punched something hard, my entire arm would've been torn to pieces."
"It blew my back just yesterday." Beatrice gasped. "Did you really think it was safe to use?" She shook her head, and he chuckled. "Well, I wasn't thinking at all. I just wanted to save Noel."
Roberta and Noel were already by their side. "We have to move." Roberta looked around. "That loud shockwave would have alerted the guards. They'll think a monster is here and would be swarming the place soon."
Without wasting any more time, Roberta carried Beatrice, and they all started moving again, even though exhaustion was already taking its toll on them. Not long after, they reached the sewers' dumping point at the edge of the river leading down to the swampy bogs east.
"We're finally out." Roberta looked around in the darkness. "Where should we go now?"
Leon could barely see anything, but they didn't need to see to find their path now. "We'll follow the swamp's edge alongside the river until we reach an old, collapsed stone bridge. We will cross it and enter the forest.
"Can't we wash this filth first?" Beatrice cried, and Leon shook his head. "The bog's water around here is filled with leeches and bugs. Believe me, you would rather swim in the sewers than touch the water here."
Roberta nodded. "He is right. Those leeches here can suck you dry, and they carry more diseases than any healer can deal with. We can wash ourselves at the stone bridge. The water there should be clear."
"Noel, are you all right?" Leon looked at her, and she was looking at her hands. "Yeah, just a bit more exhausted than I expected... that was the first time I almost died."