Jaded Series (Books 1-2)

I can't believe I agreed to this, Hadia thought as she hefted on the makeshift backpack seat they had constructed—with a liberal amount of slime as glue. She squatted down to allow Liraz to climb up and sit in the seat before standing again.

The whole group looked out through the swamp at the torchlight in the distance of the goblin chief's moving base. They were positioned to the side of the route Rayyan had tried to recall from what he had seen and overheard. As well as what Clover had managed to scout out as the little dragon glided close to the ground.

"Alright, you got my boots for the water walking, and Li's got the mana and stamina potions we traded from the Workers. Don't forget those new pants of yours that have that double jump feature," Jin was listing off.

Hadia rolled her eyes. "You're acting like a worried parent seeing their kid off for a Sect transfer."

"Uh, excuse you, I'm acting like a team captain, which I'll have you know I was pretty good at between bouts of cancer," Jin retorted, placing her hands on her hips, which suddenly reminded Hadia of a scolding parent instead, but she kept her mouth shut that time. "You've got the route memorized, right?"

"Jin, you ask me one more prep question, and you're gonna lose the position of team leader, and Li's gonna take over."

"Sticky slime bed for Ray-ray is a go!" Li declared with a grin.

"Hey, I haven't even woken up during the little sleep time you crazy hunters allow for us," Rayyan retorted, crossing his arms over the darker camouflage cloak they had purchased from the shop for him so he wouldn't stand out so much when they were hunting. After the fifth time a monster had specifically aimed for him during an initial encounter, they realized his colorful silks were probably the reason. He kicked at a dirt clod with his newer boots, which they had found in a goblin camp they raided, and grumbled, "I swear you people have no appreciation for taking a break and simply relaxing."

"He's been sleeping like an elder every night, Miss Li," Karam confirmed, giving Clover a snack and a pat as the spoiled Familiar perched on his shoulder.

"Isn't the phrase 'sleeping like a baby'?" Jin asked.

"Have you met a baby?" Hadia retorted. "They are the worst sleepers. Cough wrong, and they'll startle awake. Then they're normally up every other hour for whatever reason they need to scream to the world about."

"Huh. Fair point. Never really thought about that phrase before," Jin replied, pausing in her pacing for only a moment. Turning back to look at the pair getting ready to be bait, Jin hesitantly added, "Are you sure you want to do this and not let me?"

There was no way that Hadia was going to admit at this point that no, she wasn't sure about risking their lives on a rushed plan to try and lure an army of goblins away from their leader long enough for the others to play assassins. Not when they had already come this far, and she had insisted that she was up to it the whole time. Instead, she simply smirked and said, "Don't worry, Sky Girl. I'm well versed in the subtle art of fleeing, so we'll be fine."

"I think that just makes it sound like you run away a lot," Jin pointed out with a snort of laughter. Her smile fell, and she added more somberly, "Well, I guess this is where I just say good luck and we'll see you and Li back at the base later."

"Yep. Now you can just worry about yourselves. You all have the actual hard part of taking out the floor boss while down your two best fighters," Hadia replied, readjusting the strap across her chest and belly to make sure the backseat stayed on with Liraz's added weight.

Jin narrowed her eyes at her and said, "I thought you said I was our best fighter, which is why I should be on the boss instead of running."

"Maybe sometimes I tell you what you need to hear so you'll move forward instead of pacing back and forth in the same place," Hadia retorted with a weighed-down shrug. Before Jin could snap back, she waved to the others and announced, "We're off. As Jin likes to say, 'Good luck; don't die.'"

Heading towards the distant torchlight, Hadia moved at a brisk jog, using her [From the Earth] Perception ability to help navigate the swamp, since she couldn't see in the dark very well. It had taken her longer than she'd like to admit to get used to the strange new sense.

It wasn't like the visual overlay Jin and Alim had described their Perception abilities to be like, nor like Rayyan or Liraz's, who had described theirs as more like a kind of hearing. It was closest to Karam's [Lifesense] that relayed information about the allies nearby without him needing to look, or listen, or smell them like his other Perception, [Aromatic]. She didn't see or hear the ground; she simply knew what everything around her was if she took the time to focus on it.

For this little sprint through the swamp, she would be very focused on what the surfaces in front of her were made of. Luckily, ever since Jin got stuck in the mud, she'd been getting more practice at exactly that.

As they got closer to the small army, Hadia got a much clearer sight of the giant tree carrying a small horde of goblins. She knew Jin and the others were already following behind them, ready to jump in when they had successfully broken off the group, but she was still nervous that this was going to be a very reckless and dangerous waste of time if they didn't manage to draw off enough of them.

"Ready to get the drop on them, Li?" Hadia asked over her shoulder, then realized the little girl was kneeling in the seat to look over her head instead, and shifted to look straight up.

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An adorable blue face looked down at her and smiled with a horrifying set of sharp pointed teeth, cheerfully replying, "Time for slime!"

Liraz was so excited for this next crazy plan of theirs. Those were usually the best plans, honestly. She wasn't really sure why Jin seemed to worry about making plans all the time when they would usually never go the way they had wanted to, but that was why Jin would argue for backup plans, too. Not like those went much better.

She didn't really like the planning part, but she'd listen in and try her best to follow it. When it all went crazy, though, that's when she got to have the most fun with more slime!

With the amount of slime Jin was already planning for her to use, she was pretty sure that meant this was the most crazy plan to date… which was awesome!

Li couldn't wait to tell Brother about all these crazy plans and fights they had done. Seeing him yesterday had been exciting, but she was annoyed that he still wouldn't join her with Jin, especially when he was the one who had said being with Jin was the safer plan. She was starting to think Brother was bad at plans, too.

Brother was the only person she had left that she felt she could trust before entering the Tower. She hadn't even known she'd be chosen as a Champion for the Workers until a quarterhalf before it happened. She should have guessed they would have wanted to cheat with her Natural Talent to store items in her body after they had found out about it, but she had been dealing with a lot of changes lately. Specifically, trying to get used to life outside of her parents' secret and completely illegal laboratory.

She hadn't even known she had a brother until Daddy's latest experiment on her went very wrong about half a year ago, making her a bit more slime-like and him and Mommy a bit more dead-like.

That's when she met Brother after learning they had the same dad. He was happy that Daddy was dead, but sad that he hadn't been there for her. She thought he worried too much about that, though. Liraz had learned a lot with her parents in the lab where she was born and raised. It was all she had ever known, and her parents would often bring her treats for being a good helper.

One boom later, she didn't have a home or parents, but did have a new older brother and a Sect she had to learn all about living in. The brother part was awesome, the Sect part not so much. Most people thought she was weird, but she was only doing what she was told… maybe that was the weird part?

Her new friends didn't seem to mind that. She could tell they thought she was weird, too, but they also thought they were all weird as well, so they were happy being weird together. They would all laugh, and argue, and lately be sad, but at least they weren't being those things alone. She was pretty sure that she was the slime keeping them all glued together at this point.

Now, she was going to show them that slime was usually the answer for the best results. This time wasn't going to be about keeping things together—that would come later. This time was about making things scream in agonizing pain, apologize for everything they ever did, beg for mercy from the gods, then wish for death, and she would happily grant that wish!

Setting the 'melting' factor to max for this next Spell, Liraz aimed for just in front of the stompy gobbies tree's path and quietly whispered her incantation, "Sticky, not icky, not rain nor shine. Stretchy and bouncy is going to come. Welcome a visit from some tons of fun. A drop on all of you."

She watched as the swirl of clouds gathered in the air, unbeknownst to the gobbies parading below, as a massive blue [Slime Drop] appeared within it to fall and burst all over that naughty tree.

The bad tree was not happy.

Perfect.

Liraz grinned, watching the vines flail around and chuck screeching gobbies through the air that had been swinging from them as it halted moving any further along its path. The bad tree also started kicking with its large roots, punting more goblins who were trying to follow it on the ground.

To try and get their attention, Liraz then started throwing as many [Dollops of Slime] as she could, with more melting and less sticking. "Some for you, and Some for you, and Some for you," she continued incanting, not worried about being overheard anymore.

"Alright, you got their attention, now sit your little butt down and try not to fall off while you keep them both pissed and slowed," Hadia told her, standing from her partial crouch and starting to run in the direction the caravan of gobbies had originally been coming from.

Liraz grumbled only a little as she paused her attack to sit, mainly because Hadia seemed to doubt how well she could stick to her it seemed. Like she would ever fall off something she didn't want to fall off of—her sticky slime pillow padding the seat was perfect proof of her capabilities.

It was a little harder to aim as she sat back-to-back with Hadia, running through the swamp as the yelling gobbies angrily chased after them. While her ability did help her magically propel the balls of slime further than she could normally throw things, she still had to aim them properly, and gobbies were the best to practice with!

Hadia kept running and dodging things that flew through the air towards them, which she thought was pretty impressive, considering Hadia never looked back. Liraz especially enjoyed it when Dia would trigger the double jump on her pants. Aside from getting a better view of the army of gobbies chasing them and getting stuck in her slime, it was awesome to feel like they were flying!

"Come, come, little one. Run, run, little one. Learn to share, show you care; Give the love, with a hug!" she chanted, then grinned at the little slime worm she summoned before tossing it at a large goblin basher carrying a heavy club. It only took a few seconds for her [Engulfing Slime] to zip along the ground and catch the gobbie, quickly growing to encase it in slime.

Whenever a gobbie got too close, she would use her [Slime Spray] instead to coat the ground and stick them up. "Have a dip, enjoy the stick!"

One of the best parts, though, was when there was a larger group that was trying to cut them off at a weird turn around some water. Hadia had just run across the water with Jin's borrowed boots, and she had sent Wiggles right into their midst. The Slime Kraken looked like it was having just as much fun as she was as it grabbed a gobbies head with two very stretchy tentacles, then snapped its body to the gobbies face, blinding and injecting a little poison into the flailing gobbie, while using its other tentacles to snatch and throw the others like they were little dollops of slime too.

Liraz laughed at the utter slimy chaos she and Hadia were creating.

This was one of the best days ever!