Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-One - Elemental

  "What the hell am I looking at?" I wondered.

  I settled down in a crouch on the edge of the roof and looked down into the inner courtyard and the monsters within. I counted about eight of them, just milling around and not seeming to be up to very much.

  They did react, however, when a stray cat wandered confidently through the yard. Two of the monsters turned towards it, then started to waddle its way. They glowed a little brighter as the cat paused to stare, obviously spooked by the sudden motion.

  Then both monsters vented a wave of... steam? No, it wasn't steam, it was more like that cloudy condensation that happened when you opened a freezer in a warm room. The puffy white smoke rushed towards the cat who leapt up, spun around, and zoomed out of the area.

  It left the ground behind a little white, the wet mud iced over and some blades of tough grass were covered in white frost.

  Ice magic?

  Did that make the monsters some sort of Fear-empowered thing? Terror? For that matter, they didn't look alive. Not in the traditional sense. I supposed that slimes also didn't have much by the way of organs and the like, so it was maybe not too unusual. Still, I kind of preferred my enemies to be nice and organic.

  I took a picture with my new eyes, then frowned as I tried to figure out how to upload the image onto a monster-identification site. The amount of random disclosures I had to agree to before I even started to get anywhere was concerning, but I wasn't going to keep this loop anyway.

  Eventually, I had the images up, and the site's shitty AI scanned them over. I stared at the result.

  Field Guide Entry – Ice Elemental

  Classification: Elemental, Cryotype

  Threat Rank: E (Minimal)

  Identification:

  Ice Elementals appear as tall, irregular columns of compacted ice or frozen mud, typically two to three meters in height with two to six uneven, stilt-like legs. Their bodies lack clear facial features or sensory organs, instead glowing faintly from within when agitated or preparing to attack. Movement is slow and awkward.

  Behavior:

  Ice Elementals are largely passive until a warm-blooded creature enters their detection radius. Response is usually slow. They show little coordination or pack behavior, even when gathered in groups, and will often lose interest once their target exits the area near them.

  Threat Assessment (E-Rank):

  Low mobility, short range, limited pursuit instincts. Dangerous primarily to unaware civilians. Minimal resistance to concentrated kinetic attacks; shattering of the main body collapses the entity instantly.

  Elemental Alignment:

  Cryo manifestation.

  Recommended Response:

  Engage at a distance or break line of sight and withdraw. Avoid close-quarters movement over freshly iced terrain. Standard melee or light firearms are sufficient for neutralization. Protective footwear recommended when operating in known Ice Elemental habitats. Thermal protective clothing is recommended when operating in known Ice Elemental habitats.

  Civilian Advisory:

  Do not approach. Ice Elementals are easily avoided and rarely leave their emergence zone unless provoked. Report sightings to local authorities.

  An ice elemental? When I thought of that specific combination of words, what came to mind was a moving ice storm, something huge and dangerous and intimidating. The elementals down there were kind of too pathetic to fit that mental image.

  I supposed that they were still kind of dangerous. They looked hard enough. No squishy organs. But they also looked clumsy as hell, and as flashy as their icy... mist attack thing was, it didn't look that harmful.

  I pulled out my revolver, carefully aimed down the sights, then squeezed the trigger.

  The top half of one of the elementals exploded.

  I lowered my gun. Huh... shooting was a bit easier. The lack of super-loud sound helped me not flinch as badly, and my eyes adjusted for the bright muzzle flash. It didn't do anything for my arms and the kickback, but still, every bit helped.

  The monster below that I'd hit was... kinda turbo dead. Bits of it had scattered across a chunk of the courtyard, and its entire middle was burst open and exposed.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  It looked like they really were made of ice. The muddy exterior wasn't too deep. The core was clear, crystally water, it was just that last couple of inches of their 'skin' that was muddy and filled with detritus.

  I backed up from the edge of the roof, keeping an eye on the others, but while they seemed a lot more agitated, they weren't doing too much about it.

  Okay, so that was one of the breached portals. It didn't look like the inhabitants were violently expanding out of there, though. It'd still need to be sealed. E-ranked ice elementals might be a bit of a joke, but once they hit D-rank they'd be a threat, and then if they reached C-rank... well, it might take a long time and require that the portal remain unsealed for weeks or months, but if it did happen, then the entire sector might be in for a bit of trouble.

  Kind of like that slime portal.

  I started to navigate my way across the rooftops. Speaking of slime portals reminded me that I hadn't found it yet.

  Not that it was particularly hard. When I reached the other side of the roof, hopped across a narrow alley gap, and climbed up to a slightly higher vantage, I found myself overlooking the same main road as last time.

  People were already moving, and it wasn't hard, from above, to trace where they were moving away from.

  Giant Hill Ltd.

  The factory was one of those larger, three-ish story tall buildings, with a sloped roof and, unfortunately, no buildings close enough to make a leap from one to another possible. The side walls were half-melted in a few spots, and I could make out some slimes... sliming their way out from the interior.

  Giant Hill Ltd was surrounded by several fences, and a few of these lead to other factories and warehouses which I might be able to reach with a bit of careful parkour.

  I decided to park myself on the edge of the roof I was on, legs dangling over the side. I was going to just watch and see how things progressed from here.

  It was at least somewhat entertaining to watch the slime's progress. They were kind of aimless, for the most part. They'd go this way, then that, and I wasn't sure if they could even hear anything.

  Eventually, a small scouting party of kobolds came from just across the street, a half-dozen of the weird bipedal lizard-dogs. They snuck over, then started to poke and prod the slimes with the ends of their spears.

  That got things moving. Seemed like the slimes were ambivalent about eating the kobolds, but when directed towards humans, they'd gelatin their way over with a bit more alacrity.

  When Seraph finally showed up and started to clean up, I just continued to watch. They were aware that I was here. I caught some of the C-rankers and D-rankers looking up my way, and I even gave their leader a cheeky little wave, but it seemed like as long as I wasn't interfering, they didn't have the time or energy to care.

  The force split up. Half of them, most of the D-rankers and all but one of the C-rankers, forming up before the Hill Giant Ltd. building. The rest formed two squads of mixed D and E rankers, with that younger C-ranker guy in the lead, and they ran off towards one of the other buildings nearby.

  I took note of it. It was a red building, not a factory, but an abandoned shop of some sort. Redlad Welding? That seemed to be where the kobolds were coming from, in any case.

  I looked into the place's history for a moment while still sitting on the roof. It looked like Redlad Welding had closed shop about six months back. The owner passed away, and now it was owned by his kids and there was a whole dispute going on about ownership and the like. Nothing too interesting, but if the place was shut down, then that left the place unsupervised, which was exactly what a portal needed in order to eventually breach.

  Weren't there sensors around to take in ambient mana levels and sound the alarm in case of a breach?

  The E-rank portal going unnoticed and even the kobold one... yeah, sure. They were low-magic portals and one was in an enclosed space. But the C-rank one? C'mon, those were noisy.

  "Do you intend to spy on us for the rest of the day?"

  I almost started, but managed to keep still. Turning, I glanced over my shoulder.

  Lyra Varrock was standing there, arms crossed, legs set, and face blank.

  "I mean, not the rest of the day, but at least the next hour or so," I replied.

  ***