The walk to the back field took less than five minutes, but Cid used every second to prepare mentally.
Gerald's farmland stretched out in organized rows, the product of decades of careful cultivation. The soil looked rich and dark, the kind of earth that would grow anything you planted in it. Crops in various stages of growth dotted different sections. Some fields showed fresh green shoots just beginning to emerge. Others had plants already knee high, swaying gently in the afternoon breeze.
'This is good land,' Cid thought, understanding now why Gerald had been so desperate. 'Fertile. Well maintained. Losing this to an infestation would be a genuine tragedy.'
Regulus sat alert on his left shoulder, the cub's red eyes scanning the fields ahead with predatory focus. Despite his tiny size, despite the adorable appearance, there was nothing cute about the way the Lion Emperor assessed the approaching battlefield. Lightning sparked occasionally across his golden white fur, small discharges of barely contained energy.
Through their bond, Cid felt Regulus's anticipation. The lion was ready to prove himself. Ready to demonstrate that even in cub form, he was a force beyond anything these pathetic plant monsters could comprehend.
Rimuru wobbled on Cid's right shoulder with less obvious intensity but similar readiness. The tiny slime's simple consciousness focused entirely on the present moment. Fight soon. Help summoner. That was the extent of Rimuru's tactical planning, and honestly, that was enough.
'Keep it simple,' Cid reminded himself, going over the plan one more time. 'Identify the weeds. Engage carefully. Test their capabilities before committing fully. Deal enough damage to eliminate them but not so much burst damage that we trigger excessive division. And above all, finish this quickly before they have time to reproduce naturally.'
The eastern section of the back field came into view, and Cid immediately spotted the problem.
Two Killer Weeds rose from the earth like grotesque parodies of normal plants. Each stood roughly six feet tall, their main stalks thick as a man's arm and colored a sickly purple that seemed to pulse with faint inner light. Leaves sprouted at irregular intervals, serrated edges gleaming like knives. But it was the vines that caught his attention most.
Dozens of them extended from each main stalk, writhing and coiling with disturbing independence. The vines moved constantly, never still, searching and grasping at the air like blind serpents hunting for prey. They were perhaps two inches thick and covered in small thorns that looked sharp enough to pierce flesh easily.
'Definitely corrupted,' Cid confirmed, noting the purple coloration and the unnatural way the vines moved. 'Normal Killer Weeds are green or brown. This is demonic influence. Probably residual corruption from the Delevaro Forest spreading into cultivated areas. The demon slime we killed might not have been the only corrupted creature in the region.'
The weeds had positioned themselves about twenty feet apart, right in the middle of what should have been a pristine growing plot. The soil around them already showed signs of blight, the rich dark earth turning grayish and lifeless in a spreading circle around each weed's root system.
'They are poisoning the land,' Cid realized with growing anger. 'Spreading corruption through the soil. Even if we kill them, Gerald will probably need to treat this entire section before he can plant here safely. And if they had been left to spread, the corruption would have eventually ruined the entire farm.'
He stopped at the field's edge, maintaining a safe distance while he observed. The weeds had not reacted to his presence yet. Either they had not noticed him, or they were waiting to see if he would come closer.
'Time to announce ourselves,' Cid thought. He reached up and lifted Regulus from his shoulder, setting the tiny cub down on the ground. Did the same with Rimuru, placing the palm sized slime beside the lion.
Both familiars immediately began to change.
Regulus's transformation was subtle but significant. The cub's form did not grow larger, remaining the size of a house cat, but the way he held himself shifted entirely. The playful, adorable demeanor vanished, replaced by pure predator focus. His red eyes locked onto the nearest weed with lethal intensity. Lightning crackled more intensely across his fur, yellow white arcs that left afterimages in the air. The small fiery mane flared brighter, casting dancing shadows across the ground.
Even in cub form, the Lion Emperor radiated danger.
Rimuru's change was more obvious. The tiny slime began to expand, gelatinous mass swelling as the transformation ability released some of its compression. Within seconds, Rimuru had grown from palm sized to roughly the size of a large dog, maybe two feet in diameter. Still nowhere near the massive demon slime form from the forest, but substantially larger and more threatening than the cute blob that had been sitting on Cid's shoulder.
The purple haze around Rimuru thickened slightly, demonic miasma becoming more apparent as the slime's power increased within the limits of the partial transformation.
'Still small enough to pass as trained pets if anyone sees from a distance,' Cid assessed. 'But large enough to actually fight effectively. Good compromise.'
The moment Rimuru expanded, the Killer Weeds reacted.
Both plants turned toward them with unsettling speed, their vines whipping through the air in agitation. A sound emerged from them, something between a hiss and a rustle, completely unnatural for plant life.
Then they attacked.
The nearest weed's vines shot forward like striking snakes, easily twenty of them extending in coordinated strikes aimed at all three targets simultaneously. The speed was shocking, far faster than Cid had expected from plant based enemies.
Regulus moved first.
The cub activated Spark Pounce, his tiny form launching forward with explosive acceleration. Lightning trailed behind him as he covered the distance in an eyeblink, electricity crackling along his path. He went low, under the reaching vines, and slammed into the weed's main stalk with surprising force.
The impact point erupted with electrical discharge. The weed convulsed, its vines recoiling as shock damage spread through its system. Regulus's claws, small but incredibly sharp, raked deep furrows in the purple stalk before the cub kicked off and backflipped away, landing gracefully ten feet back.
'First blood,' Cid thought with satisfaction. 'And he made it look easy.'
But the damage was already healing. The furrows in the weed's stalk began to close, plant tissue regenerating at visible speed. Within three seconds, the wounds had reduced by half. Within six, they were completely gone.
'There's the regeneration,' Cid noted grimly. 'Just like the quest description warned. We need to deal enough damage to overwhelm the healing, or this will turn into a war of attrition we can't win.'
Rimuru engaged the second weed, approaching more slowly than Regulus but with equal determination. Vines lashed out at the slime, striking its gelatinous body with thorny appendages.
The vines sank into Rimuru's mass and stuck there, unable to pull free. The slime's Corrosive Body passive activated immediately, acid eating at the plant matter where it made contact. The weed's vines began to smoke and dissolve.
The Killer Weed tried to retract its vines, but Rimuru had them trapped. The slime surged forward, expanding slightly to engulf more of the reaching appendages, pulling itself along the vines toward the main stalk like a grotesque blob climbing a rope.
The weed thrashed violently, trying to dislodge the slime. More vines converged on Rimuru, attempting to pierce through the gelatinous body to reach whatever counted as the slime's core.
But slimes did not have cores in the traditional sense. Rimuru's entire body was both the creature and its defenses. Vines that penetrated the outer layer just got stuck deeper inside, exposed to even more concentrated acid. The Killer Weed was effectively attacking a blob of corrosive jelly that consumed everything it touched.
'Rimuru's a perfect counter for the weeds,' Cid realized. 'They are physical attackers with vine strikes and grapples. But you can't grapple something that just absorbs your attacks and melts them. The matchup heavily favors the slime.'
Cid was not idle during this. He circled to the side, looking for an opening, his hands clenched as he prepared to use Vital Hit if an opportunity presented itself. But more importantly, he was watching. Learning. Understanding how these enemies fought.
The Killer Weeds were not mindless. They coordinated their attacks, with one focusing on Regulus while the other tried to handle Rimuru. When Regulus darted in for another strike, the second weed would lash vines at him to force the cub to abort his attack. When Rimuru pressed forward, the first weed would attempt to aid its companion by targeting the slime from an angle.
'Hivemind coordination,' Cid confirmed. 'Just like the description said. They are fighting as a unit, not as individuals. That's what makes them more dangerous than their F rank would suggest.'
Regulus executed another Spark Pounce, this time targeting the weed that was trying to interfere with his attacks. The cub's lightning enhanced leap carried him directly at the plant's upper section, aiming for where the main stalk split into multiple branches.
His Volt Fang Strike activated mid flight. Electricity concentrated in his small jaws as he bit down on the stalk with devastating precision. The charged bite sent lightning coursing through the weed's entire structure, and this time the damage was severe enough that regeneration could not keep up.
A section of the stalk actually cracked, the purple tissue blackening from the electrical burns. The weed's movements became erratic, its coordination disrupted by the damage to its central structure.
'That's the key,' Cid realized. 'Concentrated electrical damage. It burns too fast for the regeneration to handle. Regulus's lightning is the perfect element for this fight.'
But before Regulus could press his advantage, something changed.
The soil between the two Killer Weeds rippled. Bulged. Then erupted as a third weed burst from the ground, its purple stalk already fully formed and vines extending aggressively.
'Reproduction,' Cid thought with alarm. 'We took too long. They have reproduced once already.'