The Moon's Shadow

Thin lines of light cut through the air, piercing right through the flesh of Sovereign Of Flesh and some of her slimes.

The biggest issue that laid with this minister was that she was a slime, but the sort that didn't conveniently have a core, otherwise, Cinla would have been able to kill her with a single wisp.

The monster could clearly make out Lolianth running amongst the mass of her smaller selves, delivering two slices to each of them in quick succession, her blade coated with her venom, the smaller flesh slimes stood no chances.

From further behind, Feuman was focusing his fire on her, curving his dense fireballs in perfect arcs.

Those were still regular fireballs and although they packed quite the punch, she didn't need to bother about evading them, finding no issue in regenerating burnt tissue.

'Mmh, there are only three of them, only one seems competent in close quarters combat, shall I-' her attention was diverged.

Despite concealing this one inside of a much larger sphere of flames, the sheer danger it radiated couldn't go unnoticed.

Sovereign attempted to jump back but found it be somehow impossible.

Nothing was stopping her from doing so, it was more like her mind and body weren't communicating with one another.

Before the heretical flame could reach her, she instead moved forward, barely avoiding the orange flames from touching her.

'I had no issue moving forward'

She tried to move backward again, it didn't work.

To the left, it didn't work either.

To the right, no luck.

Moving forward again, she was able to like normal.

She tried to continue forward, but this time, it was impossible.

Left, right...

This time moving backwards was available to her.

'Damn, she's already figuring it out...' Mart sweated a bit, the pumpking-shaped monster wasn't disoriented at all it seemed.

It was only a matter of time until she understood what the mandate he had imposed on her was.

Now that it was set in place, shaking this spell off wouldn't be simple even for a veteran mage, though, a veteran mage wouldn't have been affected in the first place.

This only functioned because Sovereign Of Flesh isn't a mage in the least.

Still, allowing her to adapt to it would mean more trouble.

The three adventurers had been told all about the young mage's spell, so the monster's movements alerted them and they kicked up the pressure by a notch.

Raising her left leg with great flexibility, Lolianth stomped the ground after a certain amount of seconds, this rather common battle art shook the ground with unnatural power considering how little strength she had put in the movement.

The smaller slimes were sent up in the air and tumbling back like round cheeses down a steep hill, allowing for the beastwoman to set herself up to freely make use of the non-basic skill the system had deigned gifting her with in all of her adventuring years.

Secreting some venom from her mouth, she spat out a ball of toxin that would fit perfectly in the hands of a small child.

Curiously, the orb remained in the air and maintained its shape as Lolianth held her spear up like a bat, swinging the flat side of her spear at it, she sent it flying in direction of the minister.

The ball gained velocity as it turned into something more reminiscent of a bolt.

Nearly perfectly sinced, the other two had also prepared something.

A bright magic circle manifested above Sovereign Of Flesh, quickly brightening up, whatever spell this was, it was certain to cause more than just a little bit of damage.

Raising his hand up with his palm facing toward him, Feuman clenched his fist, raising a circular barrier of heretical flames around the monster, the barrier reaching exactly up to Cinla's magic circle.

The fact that they weren't exactly in sync was exactly what was needed here, first, Lolianth sends her ball of toxin at the monster, forcing her to make a decision, whether to dodge or take it head on.

The obvious choice was to dodge, Sovereign may be a great monster, but she wasn't cocky enough to mess with toxins and such.

However, Mart mandate's acted as the perfect trap here, the rule he had imposed on the slime was simple but awfully effective.

Whenever she chose a direction to move toward, she would simply be forced to either take the opposite direction or remain in place for approximately five seconds.

If she tried to move in any direction, her only option would be to move the other way.

'She must have already realised the trick...' Mart was surprised but he had never casted this spell on a creature of such power before, it was to be expected that Sovereign would be quick on the uptake.

By having Lolianth throw her attack first, they would force her to pick a direction.

Then, Cinla's magic circle woud stop her from going up if that had been her decision, the light mage had already demonstrated how powerful her spells could be, so pushing through one of her circles could easily prove lethal.

Right after this, Feuman closes all of the other directions at once with the dreadful heretical flame.

Manipulating so much of it at once was draining, but thanks to Mart's second spell, the one of stagnation, he was forcing each of his companion's body's to remain in a perfect state, their stamina, mana and bodies couldn't be changed from the state they were in when the spell was casted.

At least, on the surface it seemed so, if enough damage was taken or if they severely overexerted themselves, the spell would break and leave them drained.

Mart wasn't omnipotent and neither was his bizarre element.

By throwing all of these attacks in quick succession but not rapidly enough that Sovereign Of Flesh could take in all three before making a decision, they had gotten her in a trap.

As it turns out, the monster had chosen to jump over the bullet of venom but not high enough to be caught up by the magic circle, the slime had had a plan since the beginning.

Understanding the strange rule imposed upon her, she was able to go the way she wished, just after jumping up in the air a slight bit, she fell right back down like an anvil, aiming to break through the floor.

To both the parties surprise however, she didn't break through and instead, bounced back up, right toward the magic circle.

'This-! Axiolypito!' she cursed out in her mind, unable to stop her momentum in time.