The Dungeon's Worst Little Mistake

"Why. Won't. You. DIE!?"

"MmmeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaT!!!"

Stopping her onslaught of attacks, a step to the side and a slight turn has Bug avoiding the cleaver as it crashes into the ground, the massive blade becoming like a wall of grey metal pitted with red rust mere inches away from her face. Only letting this stop her for a moment, Bug turns and swings her bladed arm up and along the back of the cleaver, blood spraying as her own blade leaves a deep cut through the back of the Butcher's arm and very nearly severing his wrist.

With his grip slackening on the cleaver's handle, Bug jumps up slightly as she continues to turn and sends a kick into the side of the massive weapon, ripping it out of the fat man's weakened hand and sending it clattering across the hallway.

But, be it from not feeling any pain or simply not carrying, the Butcher doesn't stop in his own attack as he is disarmed. With his other arm, he tries to swat Bug out of the air with a backhand from his fat, meaty fist, his fingers like grease coated sausages.

With a flap of her wings Bug just barely manages to angle herself in the air for the Butcher's arm to go soaring harmlessly right over her head. Following up with a slap from her tail against his elbow, she sends herself crashing back to the ground, landing on six limbs and immediately jumps off to the side as she just barely avoids getting stomped on by a swollen and gangrenous foot, wrapped in stained rags, that is almost as big as her entire torso.

Turning in the air and latching onto a wall with her claws to stop her momentum, Bug takes a moment to look over her opponent as the wind is still carrying dust through the air from the fat man's attacks. Just the motions from his strikes are enough to kick up a small storm of wind, his speed being far, far greater than what anyone would expect from a guy that is easily as tall as an elephant, and nearly as wide just from the girth of his belly.

He heals almost as quickly as I do. Slashing attacks don't seem to be the answer, unless I can completely sever his limbs. But he is just too thick and doesn't even flinch as I cut him up. By the time I would get though hacking off an arm, he is already countering…

Jumping off the wall, a fist is suddenly occupying the spot that Bug just vacated. The sounds of bones crunching and breaking can be heard as meat fails to beat Dungeon stone, but if the self-inflicted harm bothers the Butcher any, he doesn't show it. Even before Bug can reach the floor, he is already turning and sending a kick her way. The moment she hits the floor, landing with her hands and feet like a cat, she kicks off the floor and jumps straight up, backflipping over the leg as it passes just beneath her. The force of the kick itself send a mighty gust of wind blowing down the hallway, forcing open doors to slam shut with a loud bang.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Bug lashes out with both of her bladed arms in midair, the limbs extending out like whips as they take on the form of tentacles. With the crack of a whip striking, they tear into the Butcher's outstretched leg and very nearly tear off his entire ankle, the serrated blades getting stuck as they saw into the now exposed bone.

Unfazed by nearly losing his foot, the Butcher pulls his leg back and tries to grab Bug's extended arms. Predicting that he would try it, Bug's arms are already transforming back to normal as they retract in midair, her feet only just now touching the ceiling. Still, the transforming flesh can only move so quickly, and the Butcher manages to catch them in his grip, his sausage-like fingers wrapping around Bug's elongated arms.

As he rips Bug off the ceiling and tries to swing her into a wall, a red blur dashes underneath the two of them and a shout can be heard.

"Dang it, Bug!"

With a slash of her sword, Susan removes the rest of the Butcher's foot where Bug had started, the infected looking thing tumbling through the air as the Butcher tries and fails to regain his balance. With fat arms flailing in the air as he starts to fall, the Butcher is somehow still able to try and fight even as he is falling onto his ass. With a swing of his arm, he attempts to smash Bug into the side of a wall, but just as she is at the apex of his swing, she severs her own captured arms and lets herself get sent flying down the length of the hall.

Tumbling through the air, a flap from her wings gets Bug upright as Susan continues to slash over and over again at the fat man's belly, her curved sword leaving dozens of lines crisscrossing across folds of fat and making them leak with thick syrupy blood. Before Bug can land, her missing arms already regrowing, Bug reaches down to her belt with her lower arms and pulls out a pair of throwing knives coated in poison. The moment she lands, she sends them flying like bullets shot from a gun, the blades burying themselves down to the hilt in the Butcher's flesh.

Not waiting to see if the poison will be effective or not, Bug is already kicking off the floor and sprinting back into the fight. Susan has to pull back for a moment as a kick from the prone Butcher very nearly takes her head off. With a shout calling out the use of a Skill, she lashes out at the extended limb with her blade glowing crimson like her hair.

"Thousand Kisses!"

Her figure blurs and the next moment, the Butcher's second leg is reduced to nothing but bone as all the meat and fat is flayed off by countless slashes, the bone is covered in so many slash marks that it looks like it had been sent through a mulcher and somehow managed to come out whole on the other side. But even with one foot severed and half a leg reduced to bone, the Butcher doesn't stop fighting and lashes out with his now meatless leg, kicking Susan in the gut and sending her flying back as her blade glows with heat and sizzles in the air.

Catching the flying Ghoul mid sprint by her hand, Bug spins on the spot and sends her flying right back towards the Butcher. Still on the floor and apparently unable to get back up yet, the fat man rotates on the floor and reaches for the handle of his cleaver. Grabbing it, he swings wide and tries to cut Susan in half in midair. Tucking in her limbs, Susan tumbles through the air and rolls over the blade as Bug continue to run just underneath of it.

At the same time, they reach the Butcher and they both strike. Susan, as she is flying past, spins and slashes down at his fat neck and leaves a long line flowing across his neck, her follow up slash cuts through the bag covering his face and leaves a nasty gash running from chin to ear that carves up through the nose and destroys one eye on the way out as Susan goes flying past. She just barely avoids getting grabbed by the Butcher's free hand as she goes flying past.

On the floor, Bug lashes out with her freshly regrown arms-turned-blades and finishes Susan's work by removing the rest of the Butcher's now skeletal leg as it is trying to regenerate. Not stopping in her attack, she moves up his body with a single jump and impales both arms into his stomach. Bug can feel as she pierces his guts through all the fat, and a quick twist and pull of her serrated blades turns everything inside into so much spaghetti.

Pulling out her blades drags out with them the smell of torn intestines, the smell of shit and blood filling the air as the Butcher roars with rage. Not wanting to slow her momentum, Bug kicks off his fat belly and makes for his chest, her bare feet trying not to slip on his greasy sweat as the claws growing from her toes dig into his man boobs.

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Bug tries not to think about how they are bigger than hers. She fails.

Stabbing down with the intent to run him through the heart, Bug stops as her ear twitches. Not a moment later, the cleaver is cutting through the air where she used to be as Bug is backflipping over the massive weapon. In midair, she pulls out even more knives laced with poison and sends them flying into his chest, aiming for the heart. The Butcher doesn't even bother trying to block the smaller blades and just lets them sink into his flesh.

With another angry roar that has the air shaking from the sheer force of the sound, he lashes out with his cleaver as Bug is descending. With another flap of her wings, she manages to pull herself up in the air just enough so she can get her body above the giant slab of rusted steel, her own blades sparking against the metal as she blocks the impact hard. She gets sent flying down the hall, tumbling head over tail as she tries to get her feet back under herself.

Behind the Butcher, as he is still occupied with trying to hit Bug in the air, Susan comes running up from behind and slashes at the back of his neck. Her blade slices through layers of fat and muscle like she is carving up a tuna, but when she hits the spine, her sword stops with a hard clang that leaves her hands shaking like she just hit a wall. She immediately attempts to pull the sword back out, but the moment she tries, the Butcher flexes the muscles in his neck and locks the blade in place.

"Fudge nuggets!"

Cursing out a non-curse because Bug still hasn't lifted her no curses order yet, Susan lets go of the sword and jumps away as the Butcher reaches back and tries to grab her in his meaty mitts.

For a short while, the fight continues as Bug continues to harass the legless Butcher, but without Susan helping to draw attention away from her, the amount of damage she can deal is becoming less and less.

Worse of all, all the wounds on the Butcher's body are gradually sealing up and healing away into a pristine state. Not even a scar is being left behind.

A few more passes and Bug lands next to Susan, the little Necromancer's eyes never leaving the Butcher as she lands.

"I lost my sword." Susan says simply.

"Yeah, I saw. Here, take one of mine for now."

Pulling a plain looking long sword out of her Inventory, Bug tosses it over to Susan without looking away from her target.

"Any thoughts?"

"Thanks. I'm not sure we can actually kill it. It just keeps healing. Is the poison working?" Susan answers and asks in turn.

"Doesn't look like it. Slowly maybe? I've already put about a dozen poisoned knives in it. I don't think it is immune, but it definitely has a resistance to deadly poisons." Bug answer as she watches the stuck skin around her daggers slowly turn black and green and rot away.

"Should we run and see if the poison will wear it down, kite it for a bit before trying to finish it off? Susan offers.

"We might have to. This fight is drawing out too long and I can hear other monsters already getting closer. If we don't hurry we'll be getting attacked for all sides." Bug says with her ears twitching.

Before them, the Butcher is already getting back up onto his feet as the lost bones and meat are steadily growing back, his ugly and scared face glaring down at the two women through his ruined bag as he becomes taller and taller. Eventually, he is towering over the two, his cleaver raising as he prepares to swing down at them.

Bug and Susan tense, readying to turn and dodge so they can start running as soon as he strikes. But just as he raises his massive weapon all the way, Bug looks up and blinks, surprised at what she finds.

Susan cries out, "Elaine!?"

At some point, her scorpion bone mount that is carrying Mimmie had worked its way up onto the ceiling.

Right above the Butcher's head.

Mimmie looks down from where she is stuck upside down on the bone mount's back, her hair falling like a golden waterfall around her head. With a huge smile down at Bug and Susan she happily waves her hands and then retracts into her shell, leaving nothing but an open treasure chest as it suddenly turns into an open maw full of drool coated teeth.

With a plop, her snail's foot detaches from the scorpion and the hungry little Mimic falls, long grey tongue flapping through the air with a line of drool trailing behind as she lands squarely right on the Butcher's head.

*SNAP!*

With an audible snap, the chest slams shut. Most of the Butcher's head is now suddenly inside of Mimmie's chest with rivers of blood flowing out from where treasure chest has become grey lips. Flailing around and clearly panicking, the Butcher tries to reach up for the Mimic currently munching on his head, tearing teeth into his fat cheeks.

But before his hands can reach the chest, Bug and Susan are already on him, their blades slicing into his arms and severing tendons. With the Butcher's arms falling uselessly by his sides, Mimmie opens up again and pulls.

Suddenly, seemingly impossibly, more of the Butcher's fat head is pulled into the depths of the little treasure chest.

*SNAP!*

Slamming closed again, teeth sink into the Butchers chin and jaw, more blood spilling down as its head disappears somewhere inside of Mimmie.

She opens and pulls again, the Butcher still struggling as he runs into a wall and tries to scrape the Mimic off of his head.

*SNAP!*

Teeth sink into his fatty neck next; the entirety of his head now impossibly stuck inside of a treasure chest that it should have never been able to fit inside of.

Mimmie opens and bites down again.

*SNAP!*

And again.

*SNAP!*

And again.

*SNAP!*

Until finally…

*Crunch!*

Something breaks inside of the Butcher's neck. His large body goes limps against the wall and stops moving. First the knees give out, and then soon after, his entire massive body is sliding down the wall, painting the white limestone with a trail of fresh, sticky blood like a fresh coat of paint.

With an impact that leaves the floor shaking, the Butcher's headless body collapses to the ground, Mimmie, her treasure chest shell now completely sealed shut, falls off from his severed neck and slides across the floor on a trail of blood.

The Butcher's neck now sits open with severed spine laying bare for all to see, Susan's sword sticking out of it just a little further down like a flag from a virgin hill.

Bug just blinks as she looks down at the headless corpse, poking it with the tip of one of her wings.

"Well… that's one way to do it."

Susan can't help but to gape at this for a moment before shaking her head and turning to run over to Mimmie. Quickly reaching the treasure chest, she sets it right and starts worriedly looking it over for any damage. But aside from being absolutely coated in blood, the shell doesn't appear to have been harmed in any way.

"Elaine, are you okay!? Please open up, please!" Susan pleads before she starts knocking on the lid like one might the front door to a house.

After a bit, the lid pops open and Elaine comes climbing out, her golden hair a bloody mess of tangles, but she looks uninjured. If anything, she looks like she is having the time of her life as she comes out with a full smile full of sharp teeth coated in blood, bits of fat stuck between her chompers.

"That was delicious!!!" The little girl cheers, her belly visibly and comically bulging out and jiggling as she laughs.

Susan let a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank the Goddess. Don't ever do that again! You had me so worried!"

"But I killed it?" The girl tries to argue back, but Susan gives her a bop on the head.

Bug comes walking over after she is certain that the Butcher isn't about to get back up.

"Susan's right; that was dangerous. That guy had more than twenty levels on you. One mistake and he could have crushed your shell. You do realize that, right?"

She pouts from being scolded, but perks up as Bug starts petting her blood soaked hair.

"Still, you did a good job. You did get the kill notification right? Probably got some level-ups?" Bug asks with a loving smile.

"Yup! Lots of levels! I got… SIX!" Mimmie declares as she counts them all out with her tiny fingers.

Bug's smile grows a little darker and Mimmie finds herself getting a little concerned. "Good… By the way, Leveling-up hurts. I can only imagine how much six whole levels will feel. Have fun with that, kill stealer~"

"Eh?"

Following the current rules of the System, only the person who delivers the final blow and gets the kill is the one that is rewarded with experience. On top of this, Leveling-up is only done following the conclusion of battle.

And now that that the fight is other, it is time for Mimmie's stats to get adjusted as her body is forcefully made to become six whole levels stronger all in one instant. What follows is quite unpleasant.

But as Elaine is squirming on the ground and heat is radiating off her little sweat-soaked body, Bug decides to make it worse with that evil smile still on her face.

"And don't forget, we still need to spend your new free Stat Points as well. At four per level, you should have twenty-four to spend. If we do it quick enough, the pain shouldn't last too long~"

"WAhhhhahaha, I'm sorry!"

"And don't forget spending your Skill Points. Learning new Skills can be quite the headache~"

"WAhhhhhhhhhhhhhahaha!"