Michael jumped in between them and drove his sword into the slime. If it was a spell or some type of magic that was preventing this slime from being cut, then his ego sword wouldn't be a problem.
He drove it deeper, twisting his blade around, trying to scramble as much slime as possible.
The slime violently hissed from the blade like it was in pain. It bubbled until finally turning into a dark green ooze and falling off.
"Ari!" Jule cried out again, swiping the slime off his face. "Ari, can you hear me?!"
Hoss dug inside his mouth and scooped away the slime. He turned Ari's body over and shook. He slammed his fist on Ari's back over and over.
Ari awoke with a disgusting vomit of green slop. He coughed over and over, crying like a broken whistle. His face was covered in fresh burns and his blonde hair was nothing more than red patches across his head.
Michael thought his heartbeat couldn't be any louder. He thought this was the hardest he ever gripped his sword.
Stefan turned to Mave and Ellis. "What the hell is wrong with you two?!"
"Thank you…" Jule sobbed to Michael as she held Ari. "Thank you…"
But their moment had been cut by the room's groan. The ground shook and the ceiling rained with thick dust. They looked around with the floating lantern's blue glow. The roots were moving. Those giant roots that covered the walls were moving to block the only entrance of the room.
Ellis and Mave quickly understood the situation. They both hopped out of the room. Hoss hauled Ari over his shoulder and followed after, right behind Dean.
Stefan stopped Michael before a slime dropped on his head. Jule bumped into him from behind, then tripping him into the slime. It didn't burn. Michael's body must have slammed into it so hard, it exploded instantly.
Stefan picked him off the ground, with one hand, and ran for the entrance. But it was too late. The few seconds they had hesitated, the roots had covered enough where they wouldn't even be able to squeeze through or else be crushed.
Michael wanted to ignore Jule's apologizing cries. He swiped the slime goo off his body and kept hearing the room groan. The roots were starting to squeeze in further.
Stefan looked around. "It's getting smaller, we have to—move!"
He pushed Jule away before a slime could fall on her head. It was raining slimes. They were going to be squeezed to death while being burned alive.
Jule crawled away, her words trembling as she couldn't even grip her sword correctly. It was like seeing her friend suffer had traumatized her.
"What do we do?" Michael wearily looked above. "It's not stopping."
Stefan kicked a slime away. "It's slow, we have a good time to think of something…but in the meantime, show these slimes who you are."
Michael nodded. He raised his sword and drove it into every single slime that was daring enough to enter in the same room as his magical sword. They hissed before turning into a dark mush. He didn't understand why there were so many of them. If everybody had slept here for a minute longer, they would've all been eaten alive by slimes.
"It has to be some type of magic," Stefan studied the moving roots. "Can you…you know?"
Michael stopped from his slime killing spree and thrusted his sword into one of the roots. It stopped moving, but the other three giant ones didn't have the same effect because they were separate.
Stefan chuckled. "I assume you don't have the muscle to cut through these."
Michael didn't understand how Stefan could laugh in a situation like this, let alone doubt the exercises he's done at home. But he shook his head. These roots were almost twice his height with no idea how thick it was. He pulled his sword away, trying to find a different solution.
Jule trembled behind them. "We're dead…"
Stefan sighed. "Kid, can you carry my body out?"
Michael looked at him confused. "What? What are you talking about?"
"Who do you think is saving us all?"
"Can a swordcast break through this again?"
Stefan ran his hand across his blade. This time, it was more formal, and more intense. He was pouring the remaining mana in his body.
"What should I do?"
He gave Michael a lasting smirk. "Turn around."
Michael turned around and shielded his body from the possible flying debris.
Stefan didn't slash his sword, he thrusted it directly onto the thick tree root. There wasn't a shout that he normally did. It was just a deafening explosion that clouded the entire room in smoke.
Michael coughed and waved the smoke away from his mouth. He turned and looked at the impact Stefan left behind. The hole was almost four meters big. The root was blown open so effortlessly that nobody would've believed it just came from a sword.
Stefan's body was laid on the ground right beside him, being flung away from his own swordcast. He was unconscious.
Michael quickly sheathed his blade and also Stefan's. The room groaned again, threatening to collapse from the lack of support from its roots. Stefan's body was definitely heavy. Michael didn't know how anybody would achieve this from just being a lazy drunkard.
Jule finally snapped out of her panic from that explosion. She was also staring at the damage that Stefan had done.
They carried the body away from the room as it crashed down behind them onto the leftover slimes. Luckily, the floating blue lantern was following Jule the entire time. With that short moment of relief of escaping the fate of being crushed alive, they were greeted again with the same persisting darkness on the outside with no means of direction.
Stefan, Michael, and Jule had strayed away while Ellis, Mave, Dean, and Hoss were most likely still on the main path. Michael didn't know where they were, even if this floating lantern illuminated the majority of the way.
He sat up, looking around as if he was imitating Ellis. What would Ellis think right now? Would he still try to look for mana beasts or would he abandon the quest just to look for them?
"Was that…" Jule studied Stefan's unconscious body. "Was that a swordcast?"
Michael didn't know if he should keep it a secret. He blankly shrugged in response.
"I didn't know Stefan could swordcast, why didn't he tell anybody about that?"
"Is swordcasting a bad thing?"
"No, it's the opposite. You had someone that could swordcast in your party?"
Michael thought she was sounding awfully surprised compared to before.
She suppressed a sigh, putting her back against the walls. "This is all my fault."
Michael thought it was totally her fault. He could imagine what she was thinking through this silence. It wasn't great watching a friend being killed, he knew that feeling well, and that must have shook her.
He dragged Stefan to rest on the walls alongside her, judging this hard ground was bad for his head. Michael stood, pacing back and forth, as if he knew what he was doing.
Was Ellis really going to save them? It wasn't like he knew this entire place that easily. Ellis was smart but he wasn't inhumanely genius. Stefan was the power of their party so finding him should be the priority. But, again, there could be mana beasts in between them ready to intercept their rescue.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "Do you know where to go?"
"Umm…no, not really. I'm just waiting for Stefan to wake up."
"Stefan has mana sickness. He must have expended every ounce of mana in his body, it wouldn't be for a while until he's awake."
"Mana sickness?"
"You pass out until your body restores the mana naturally. Have you ever trained your mana before?"
Michael shook his head.
"Then, how did you…never mind, I'm not going to ask you. But if you want to move, I can help carry him."
"I think it's best if we wait until he wakes up," he said again. "We need Stefan."
She nodded. "Yeah, okay."
They sat in silence, not together because the sword on Michael's back hummed whenever he got close to Jule. Stefan didn't wake up either by the time they've been waiting. From the blue glow of the lantern floating around, there was only darkness at the end of the passages.
Michael wouldn't say that he was angry at Jule for their little accident that cost them to be separated. Maybe it was the fear of the dark that was keeping Michael paranoid. Mave clearly pointed out they were being stalked. Just by the corners of these walls, is there really a mana beast waiting for them?
What's stopping them from completely mauling Michael alive? Their best fighter was knocked out, this was basically a free meal.
Jule looked at Michael. "You're mad."
"What?"
"I'm good at reading faces. Are you mad that I bumped into you?"
"I mean, I would have made it out. We all would have."
She mumbled something to herself in a low tone.
Michael looked away. "Sorry for what happened to your friend."
"The slimes," she said. "They stick to the walls and listen to the vibrations. When Dean was yelling, they must have heard his voice and came into the room. Their body can fit through just about anywhere."
"Are you blaming Ellis?"
"I'm not blaming anyone."
"Your friend made fun of Ellis's height. He doesn't like that."
"I can tell." she cracked a smile. "And Dean doesn't like it when someone punches his face either."
Michael kicked the rocks from his feet.
"Can we talk about him?" she gestured to Stefan beside her. "When's the last time you ever saw somebody swordcast?"
"I didn't know what a swordcast was before I met Stefan."
"Who would have thought he could do something like that, am I right?"
"Why are you making a big deal out of it?"
"Big deal?" she repeated. "It is a big deal. Not a lot of people can swordcast, it's extremely rare. Stefan must have trained his mana to the brink of insanity for that. Even across the kingdom of Wilmere, only a handful of swordsmen could swordcast. And, turns out, one of them is Stefan Jaegen in the Adventuring guild. No wonder your party is always on top."