Fantasy The Last of Us Among the Cosmos

[Yaruzaru]

"If I didn't know any better, I would think that you're starting to feel bad about killing these creatures. Is my idea of capturing them instead starting to sound more appealing?"

He's not able to stop a suppressed chuckle from escaping his mouth in response to everyone's disgust, given how casual they'd been about venturing into the forest at the start. It was far too late to be having second thoughts, either they carve a path of blood through the forest or they turn back with their tails between their legs, the choices, at least to Yaru, were painfully obvious. It takes a short few steps back in any case for the mage to retrieve his wheelbarrow once more.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

- If by "feeling bad" you mean "disgusted by the mess they end up as when they die"... then yes.

Galaxy shivers as well, and literally holds her own tail in her hands so it won't accidentally touch that pool of blood, as she steps over the... corpse, of the thing. Same for Ragna.

- ... If they can die. I hope they can.

She can't help but corrects herself, obviously since she has next to nothing about such monstrosities that can defy the rules of nature in every shape and form like this. As far as she can tell, death has yet to be proved as applicable and possible to them. It'd not be out of the ordinary of the gigantic elephant abomination earlier is reanimated and resurrected back up, and continue to stalk the forest.
But she also tries to assure herself and the team, while holding her composition. In dark times like this, losing hope is about as fatal as getting a terminal illness.
If they don't have the mean to put an end to this... yet, then they need to stay alive until they do.
Jin gently pets the wolf's ears from behind :

- We'll get them, sweetie. I'm sure of it.

Passing the unidentified thing that is still unknown to them, other than how disgusting it is, the team moves on.
It's like a corridor, trees and bushes on the two sides nothing more than nests for the parasite flowers and fungi to take over. Any wild animal unfortunate enough to fall victim to them, would definitely be like the elephant monster earlier...

- We're near the clearing, just a bit more ahead...

Jin sounds a bit annoyed, and for good reason. His device is blazingly hot, and the battery is down to 68% now. Not to mention the slow and laggy performance of the thing.

 

[Yaruzaru]

Assuming now that they'd likely keep running into more trouble as they continued into the forest, Yaru would start to wonder how far they'd make it through the gauntlet before they realised how pointless the venture was. Despite thinking that though, he couldn't help but hold a slight hope for finding something interesting at the end of their scouting mission. It was hard to go out alone without risk of being overwhelmed by attacks from just about anything that was outside of town, giving Yaru an odd conflict of being both pleased and disappointed at the fact of having a group to travel with.

"Just for the sake of thought, since we have taken down a few of these monstrosities already, perhaps now would be a good time to discuss battle strategy for any future engagements? Unless you plan to continue waltzing blindly through enemy territory of course. Not that I mind, merely a suggestion."

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

Jin can't help but feel kind of bad when Yaru said that, but the slime one has a point. Jin put the team in this mess in the first place, indeed. If anything, he should have been more prepared.
They can definitely handle themselves against those monsters, sure, but it'd be pointless to, as Yaru put it, just blindly breach into the danger zone without any plan in advance.

- ... You're right.

He doesn't say it out, but he definitely sounds apologetic while subtly admitting his mistake, it's as clear as day and night.
Galaxy notices her father's tone of voice but doesn't really want to ask, when there are other people around. Instead, she gently nuzzles her nose in his palm. He returns with some pet on her ears, and gently nuzzles the tip of his trunk at her forehead too. The wolf smiles softly and swishes her tail while feeling Jin's trunk on her head.
Passing the "archway" framed by dead dried trees and branches, into the empty and blank clearing, Jin decides it's time to get a short break.
The clearing is like a miniature wasteland, littered with rocks, sands, dusts, and dried bones. The surrounding is the forest, the freakish dead zone delivered in the most nightmarish and horrifying shapes and forms of reanimated trees and parasite fungi and flowers.
At the epicenter of the clearing, however, is a dead tree.
Not a single tree stump anywhere else around. Just that one "corpse" of a tree, left.
Ragna takes a quick look at the thing from afar, tilting his head a bit, but doesn't pay too much attention to it.

- Alright, let's collect ourselves a bit. Can I see the map real quick ?

Jin gives Ragna the PDA. The dragon mumbles to himself a bit, then looks up. Not at the team, but seemingly towards the dead tree.
Colors are drained out of his cheeks.

- Jin... did you see anything strange on the map earlier ? Before we got in here ?

The mammoth shakes his head, just as worried and nervous.

- No... why ?

Ragna's response is only terror on his face, as he shows the team what's on the PDA screen.
An icon of a white skull with crossed bones, at the clearing the team is in. It has flashes of red light around, too.
It seems to come from the tree at the center of the clearing.
The top of the screen reads...

WARNING : ENTERING ECOLOGICAL DEAD ZONE
DATA ENTRY UPDATED : THE HALF-LIVING FOREST
DATA ENTRY ADDED : THE FLESH GARDEN
DANGER LEVEL : HIGH

 

[Yaruzaru]

"Are we in trouble again? You two always have this 'we're about to die' look on your faces, it's quite troubling."

Yaru just looks puzzled seeing the two of them gaze on apprehensively towards the centre of the clearing, the dead tree bringing forth an impulsive curiosity to advance further. He doesn't seem to take his own advice in regards to being careful, but the group seemed too preoccupied with whatever message was flashing on the device to focus on what Yaru had advised at the moment. Given that he had a little more confidence than the others, he uses himself as an investigative tool to push further into the area while everyone else collects themselves. If there was trouble, he could at least give the group fair warning before anything happened.

"I'll look ahead a bit, you guys can discuss battle strategy in the meantime for our next pleasant encounter."

It was clearly just another suggestion, there being no real urgency or seriousness in his voice as he waltzes ahead of the group, leaving the others to decide on how they wanted to proceed, while he acts as a scapegoat for any possible dangers.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

- Um, dude, you may not wanna stray off too far-

Before Ragna finishes, he is cut off by a loud burst that seems to come from the ground, the moment the dead tree springs into life.
Once, an inanimate object, harmless outside its vicinity.
Now, a half-living abomination that defies the rules of nature in every possible aspect.
In its true grotesque and repulsive form, the tree towers everyone as what it actually is : a massive "tree" thing that stands at around 10 feet, with pieces of flesh patched and stitched along the dried, waterless wooden barks. Its branches have been twisted into human arms.
Beneath the pieces of flesh are slight bulges that vaguely resemble... skulls.
And if that's not enough to make one vomit all the foods they've had in the last 3 days, there are tube-like things that come out of the skulls' mouths and go beneath the pieces of flesh as well. They seem to have a rhythmic pulse... like that of a beating heart.
Similar to that "worm" that the team saw earlier.
It wasn't a "worm" at all. It was a vein.
At the size of a cobra.
Same as the ones tangled outside and inside this thing now.
An amalgamation of wood, flesh, blood, fungi and flowers... and this clearing, its hunting ground.
The team, foods to feed the soils that it grows on and nests in.
The entrance into the clearing has been blocked off by vines and thorns.
Jin watches as everything transpires in front of him, and lets out a sigh. Not the hopeless and defeated type, though.
More so just fed up with it.
He thought he's seen it all, but surprises and shocks always came anew to catch him off-guard... until now. At this point, everything's just fair game.
He ties up the belts of his backpack tighter so it won't fall off, then prepares his hammer.
He has that kind of "kill monsters to gain EXP and loot" face, despite facing a kind of eldritch cosmic horror that is far worse than what he's ran into so far... and he certainly is about to go down like so, now.

- Kill this son of a bitch. Kill it with fire. That's my battle strategy.

Ragna is taken aback a bit by Jin's change of tone, but nonetheless welcomes the fact that he finally steps up. However, he still has to inform Yaru of his opinion :

- Seems like you ain't capturing this thing any time soon, buddy. Probably after this.

Then he also gets in position to have another fight. Galaxy also sticks to her father's "plan" in this situation ; her plasma burns along the colorful stardusts that come off her fur coat, as her eyes light up in an unusual illumination and coloration of cosmic blue.

- Let's make a torch outta it.

 

[Yaruzaru]

Having expected the lack of any real desire to formulate any plans, Yaru silently accepts that the party has no idea what they are doing and that they will likely continue to bash their heads against the obstacles the forest presents until they either fall in battle or make a discovery.

"The thought of capturing anything with you three around, has long since become a reoccurring joke and a distant fantasy I assure you."

Yaru would watch as the tree comes to life, being even less surprised than he was the first few times they had run into the monstrosities within the corrupted forest. He keeps his position ahead of the group though and works to get the creature's attention the moment it wakes to their presence by darting within close proximity, using his agility merely to taunt the beast. Even if he were to get captured or seriously injured by it, he'd be able to give the others time to commit to their usual amalgamation of uncoordinated attacks.

He doesn't make any moves in terms of directly attacking the verdant monstrosity though, simply devoting his reactions and focus to keeping the creature's attention for the moment by giving it a nearby target to attack.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

A low rumble stirs up in the air as Yaru gets in close range, but it feels like this entire forest is the belly of the beast, and this tree is its heart of sort.
The ground starts to split apart, as its roots break through and start to crawl onto the area.
It's hard to tell if it "sees" Yaru, due to the roots and vines seemingly coming to all four of them, not just him.
The sounds of crackling barks and the squelching flesh mix together are as disgusting as ever, but at this point, the rest of the team is just as used to it as Yaru.
You see one, you see everything. Even if you don't see it coming.
Thanks to that, it's not as difficult now to stay calm, even if in this situation. And Jin got a plan for this spawn of hell.

- Yaru, slime all of those vines and roots to hold them down. Ragna and Galaxy, burn them with fire and lightning ; if they're too fast, Ragna freeze them with ice, and Galaxy go with me. I'm going for the veins underneath its skin.

He'd be damned if this improvised plan of his does work.
But he'd be even worse if it doesn't.
Ragna and Galaxy hope for the former, but Galaxy knows her father is prepared for the latter too.
The dragon and the wolf charge up their power, their eyes lit up, the dragon a bright yellow and the wolf ice blue. The crackling flames and sparking thunder dance form an aura of intense power around them, so much that the air rises up and their clothes would slightly move along the flow. Ragna calls out to Yaru :

- On your signal ! Slime it and hold it down !

 

[Yaruzaru]

"It might have been in the spur of the moment, but I'm glad you came up with something. I guess you just needed a bit of motivation."

Yaru would say, quickly realising any attempts to taunt the creature were meaningless given the wide range it seemed to possesses in terms of attacking power. It was not something that could be easily defended against for long, so Yaru is more than glad that Jin had came up with some sort of attack plan, even if rushed.

"I hope you know, that this takes more effort than I'm usually willing to put in for an action as wasteful as killing."

He says in regards to the goal of dispatching yet another specimen of study, jumping back a good distance before slamming his palms into the ground on his landing. Blue slime would start to well up from the area beneath their feet, as if the entire place was a natural wellspring that had just been tapped in response to being disturbed. Again, it wouldn't impede the group, only slowing the movements of the vines and the creature itself. The area that they were trapped within would quickly become Yaru's personal territory with the large pool of slime spreading out along the ground, his magic aggressively sticking to and holding down any threat from the beast.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

As soon as the blue slime floods out to pin down the monster's vines and roots into a sticky, gooey mess. However, its resistance against the slime is still plainly problematic, as a few vines somehow dislocate and reallocate themselves to the top of the tree, thus not coming in contact with the slime much. While they're still noticeably slower, the full impact with those thorns along their lengths means really bad news to anyone on the receiving end.
Thankfully, Ragna and Galaxy can outspeed the thing, as they swiftly dodge the few vines still coming at them, and follow up after Yaru's slime with their attacks.

- I'm more on improvising, buddy. Waste it !

Following Jin's signal, the two clench and bring their fists to behind them, close to each other, the elemental energy of fire and lightning now coming to a singularity at their fists and merge together into a sphere that quickly heats up the air around them. Then they throw their fists forward at the same time and unleash the charged-up attack in union : a plasma blast that engulfs the upper half of the tree in fire and electricity, the former setting a number of upper vines alight, while the latter breaking some of the thorns off.
Jin takes his chance to go for what he hopes to be the turning point in this fight and really do the damage to the beast. He summons an entire arsenal of translucent, glass-like chakrams, and launches them at the tree.
The wooden barks are unusually resistant against the chakrams, bouncing them off too easily, almost like plate armors. However, the pieces of flesh patched all over the tree, get a pretty graphic treatment as the blades cut clean through-and-through.
And then, it happens. He'd be damned if it didn't, but it does, and he's just too glad he was right.
As the chakrams cut through the pieces of flesh and rips into the tubes underneath, the putrid blood of purple and green coloration splashes out everywhere like acid rain. The stench is like the insides of a beast, ripped open and torn out.
However, Jin's excitement is cut short before he could even utter any exclamation, as the tree shakes itself violently and desperately after the combination of elemental and physical attacks thrown at it in such calibur, its own version of "survival instinct" probably going like 500 heartbeats per second now, plainly noticeable by how it tries to break free from Yaru's slime, its roots and vines moving with such force that even though they're held down, there are still ripples on the surface of the slime. The beast is struggling for its "life" and it's going to make the team pay for their actions.

 

[Yaruzaru]

Lacking any real offensive power in such matters, Yaru can only watch as the others improvise an attack plan in order to take out the beast. He'd focus mainly on commanding his slime to continue impeding the creature, his magic being capable of moving fast enough to make the beast's attempt to break out a constant struggle. He's a bit perturbed by the lack of any consideration for how much effort has to be put in on his end, due to their lack of any real planning, but he couldn't very well leave the others to venture through the forest alone, mainly because of that very reason.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

- This fucker ain't stopping for no-one. Ragna, flash-freeze the slime, see if we can hold it down to buy some more time.
- On it.

Ragna steps up, following Jin's new idea on how to do this. The dragon throws his whole body weight on his two paws as he pushes them towards the ground, and unleashes his power of the cold element. First a ring of frost that comes off around him, then waves of translucent ice shards bursting up from the ground, but going through the slime as if they're merely visual projections and not actual physical objects. Nonetheless, as they pass through the slime, the temperature drops so abruptly and rapidly that the slime becomes semi-frozen, but even more dense and sticky now, almost like reinforced concrete. Once again, the tree is disabled so the team can stall for a while more.

- Let's finish this quick and call it a day. Galaxy, I need your plasma. Gonna rip and tear this apart from inside out and just nuke it to hell.
- Alright dad.

Galaxy moves her paws in a quick motion, but just as elegant and graceful, almost like dancing, as her fingers draw through the air and lets off trails of aurora waves and nebula clouds that slowly move inwards, like a spiraling sphere of energy. Fire and electricity start to crackle and spark as they come together, the fiery aura and electrical sparks merging together. Jin does the same with his hammer, moving it along the trails but in the opposite direction of Galaxy. The plasma-charged aurora waves and nebula clouds are rapidly conjured and forged into a gigantic double-bladed axe with the entire head alone roughly 3ft x 2ft, and the handle 3ft too.
Galaxy then moves her paws to behind her on her left side, and Jin moves his hammer to behind him on his right, as the two then do an overhead motion in sync, dropping the axe down the tree and cleaving it in half, followed up by a large burst of plasma as the axe detonates. The whole upper part of the tree, along with its vines, are reduced to nothingness...
... But the inside of it, not quite.
As the tree is blasted apart, from inside crawls out what looks like a worm, but the size of a python. Some of the fungi and flowers grown on its body have been burned, charred and broken off, and the thing itself severely injured with burn and electrocution marks. However, it's not dead yet...
Jin, Ragna and Galaxy do not see that coming at all, but then Jin just shrugs it off.

- Welp, there's one for you to capture. I'd love to off it myself, believe me... but yeah, that's yours.

 

[Yaruzaru]

The display of magic from the group, much like the monstrosities they had been facing, was becoming less surprising and more of a festival of sorts to be had with each fight they encountered. It would provide a good view for the mage while he kept the creature they were currently facing pinned down. Despite the fighting thus far being largely improvised, through some combination of luck and clumsy teamwork, it appeared as though they had found a working dynamic in terms of using their abilities together, not that Yaru didn't still have a few silent complaints.

He's very glad to be allowed to rest after seeing the main threat cleaved into parts in any case, the less imposing creature that crawls out of it not being much cause for alarm, or much reason for him to maintain the field of slime, which quickly dissipates once he relaxes.

"I would have preferred one... less tortured, but I suppose I can work with that."

The smaller monstrosity would be quickly wrapped in a containment bubble of slime, which floats over to Yaru and hovers a few feet away from him after making its way over. He considers using the chains he had brought along with him to reduce the burden on his deteriorating levels of magic, but came to a loss as to how he'd manage to chain a worm-like creature in any sort of effective manner. Thankfully, the sphere of slime he was utilising to contain and preserve the worm, would likely be enough given the creature's injured state, assuming it didn't recover and start sprouting extra appendages.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

When in full view, the worm at the size of a python still disgusts the other three pretty bad, but given how badly injured it is, they just have to trust in Yaru's magic to keep the slime sturdy enough so it can't break free, at least too easily.
They also see several gaping mouths along the length of the whole thing, with rows after rows of teeth behind, but looking like... deformed bones of the thing.

- So where you gonna "keep" it to study ? 'Cuz we ain't going back to town with it, that's for certain.

Jin asks Yaru while adjusting his glasses and putting his hammer away.

 

[Yaruzaru]

"I have other places more accommodating for such a venture, don't worry. Besides, I have had to camp out in the wilds before, you can't get much sleep out here but that could work in my favour while I'm doing my work. It's pretty cute though, don't you think? Just look at all those murderous rows of teeth!"

He'd poke at his containment bubble, causing the outside to ripple faintly to his touch. It wasn't so much that the slime was sturdy, it was simply that within the slime the creature had next to no ability to move given the control Yaru had within the sphere and how sticky his magic could become. It would be akin to trying to move around in a pit of sentient tar given that any struggling only worked to make it harder to escape, and even then, his magic was forcibly holding the creature in place. Even without the use of chains, it was highly unlikely it'd escape through any average methods, though he still had that option if a larger creature were to catch his attention.

"I'd still like to make use of these chains though, It would be a waste to have brought them all this way for nothing," he'd say, pondering on a solution that would ease the thought of possibly having done a trek's worth of heavy lifting for no reason.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

- I'm pretty certain you'd be totally fine with a python-sized worm, full of mouths and fungi on its body, wiggling around in chains. Not me though. Not anyone else though, that's for sure... besides, the chains might be tough enough to keep it pinned down, but, unless you literally plan on dragging the thing on the ground... I prefer to have it social-distance away from me like this, just fine. Thanks.

Galaxy replies, her ears flattened down a bit.
The team start to make their way back through the entrance of the clearing and backtrack through the forest again. Thanks to the backup battery, Jin's PDA is relatively OK now, minus the temperature of the device still rather worrying, given how hot it is.
Now that they got a clear path back to town, rather than going blind, it doesn't take them too long to finally see the daylight and breathe easier again, once they're out of that accursed forest. Of course, now with that python-sized worm captured.
Now that it's in clear view, under the sunlight, the team can see even a bit inside of all the mouths on its body. Needless to say, a complete freak of nature.

- Alright... so where do you plan to keep... THIS thing, to study ?

Jin isn't too freaked out by its appearance much anymore, but it's still about as gross and disgusting as a worm can be when dug out of the dirt and barely alive.

 

[Yaruzaru]

Yaru simply smirks to the notion that he'd like an even more monstrous looking beast as a study subject before going on to address the question of where he'd even keep the abomination in the first place.

"I'll probably just stay out in the forest for a while after you guys are done with scouting around. I can deal with guard duty and keep an eye on this creature at the same time technically. If anything goes wrong I'm nowhere near the town so it shouldn't be a problem."

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

Despite the team obviously capable of handling themselves against the monsters, Jin still feels that it's simply when the objective is to make them stop moving and/or kill them dead. Keeping them alive and studying them, on the other hand, is a different story. He doesn't want to judge a book by its cover, but the way he sees it, Yaru doesn't appear to have any sort of specialized equipment for such tasks... all things considered, he even had with him a wagon of chains to capture the monsters !

- I think we should take shifts while you do your studies... just in case. For me, if I can't learn anything new from those things, at least I can watch your back in case things go wrong.

Ragna and Galaxy nod in agreement. Jin then walks over to his daughter, petting her ears.

- As for now, I'd like to call it a day and get some break. Today is a rather special day and I don't wanna miss it.
- What is it dad ?
- It's a secret, pup. You'll see.
- Alrighty dad.
- OK, catch you later pal.

Ragna gives a goodbye gesture with two fingers pointing out. The father and daughter take their leave.
Now it's just the dragon, the lizard-monkey, and... the worm.

- So, what do you plan to do with it first ?

 

[Yaruzaru]

He gives an uncertain nod to the prospect of taking shifts to watch the creature, having planned to do all of the legwork himself and eliminate the risk of anything bad happening to anyone but himself by working alone. But a little assistance certainly wouldn't hurt, making it a hard offer to turn down. He starts on a reply to Ragna's question as he finishes thinking on how he planned to proceed, being somewhat surprised that he actually managed to capture one before it was torn to pieces by the group or some other wayward mercenaries.

"I plan to make explosives of course, the materials from these abominations works wonders with a bit of fine tuned-magic. It's the only way I'm able to do any real damage to these monsters, so I must remember to thank everyone for giving me the opportunity. As for studying the creature, I'm sure that with the an appropriate setup I can run some field tests. I'm hoping to figure out if they're connected somehow, or if they really are just a smattering of nightmares with nothing more to it. Honestly it's mostly curiosity, but if it leads somewhere fruitful, and helps us to survive who can complain?"

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

Ragna listens to Yaru, occasionally looking at the python-sized worm-like monstrosity. He's definitely not sure if he's hearing Yaru correctly, but he's rather certain that his ears are working just fine, all the loud noises of gunshots and explosives from the "scout" earlier in the forest didn't have much of an impact on his ears, thankfully. Still, he can't help but tilting his head when listening to Yaru's ideas.

- Explosives ? Out of that half-dead moving corpse ?

He shakes his head a bit, but not to disagree with Yaru, more so to say "you can't be serious".
But Yaru does sound serious to him. So he is curious.

- Never in my life have I ever thought that it's ever even remotely possible to fine-tune pieces of these decaying, rotting nut jobs, into explosives. How do you do that ?

 

[Yaruzaru]

"Ah, I used to have some... old friends, very good with magic, though there was a lot of non-nonsensical rambling mixed in at times... well, most times. I didn't pay much attention, but some things rubbed off on the corners of my mind, specifically using living tissue as a sacrifice for spells. Blood magic, necromancy and alchemy, that sort of thing. I don't really entertain the first two ideas, but alchemy sounded right up my alley, and all it required was an exchange of living, or in some cases non-living tissue with some of my own energy. Cutting pieces of skin off other people, or myself, didn't exactly get me friendly looks though, so I thought, why not try experimenting with the monsters everyone is fighting? No one likes them, so I wouldn't risk any more hostilities, at least not from the living. It was a lot harder to keep a supply going though I'll admit, those things put up much more of a fight. Anyway, seeing as most of them can regenerate, it's a constant supply for my craft. I only really learnt to make explosives though, I really should go back and learn more sometime."

As he nears the end of his explanation, he taps the crystal at his neck with a slight smirk, making a gesture with his hand where he balls up his fist before slowly unfurling his fingers, poorly imitating an exploding sound as he does.

"This is my last one... though, I don't plan on using it before my time. Maybe you'll learn something too from this creature? Or you could always take me up to that fancy palace of yours if this fails, that'd be interesting, I'm sure they have information on things we know nothing about down here."

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

Ragna slightly narrows his eyes as he proceeds through Yaru's explanation, while at the same time trying to pick up details that sound rather... significant, to him. Specifically the word "sacrifice".
It's so hard to keep a straight face when Yaru just says it so painfully, yet plainly, blunt.
Carving someone up to make explosives.
Can't be any worse than how nasty it sounds.

- The way you put it, I'm thinking of that Conclave in the underground... all that sacrifice and magic and whatnot.

He looks away a bit, his ears flattened to the side and his long tail just droops to the ground, as he tries to process all this.

- So, you had your problems with your old place, there. I had mine, with... my place, up there. And here we are, at this town in the middle of nowhere. The world is a pit of shit and our places are no better either, eh ?

He shakes his head and chuckles like when sharing tales and memories of good times with an old friend at a bar while having a drink.

- If you wanna chop up these pieces of dead waste to make explosives like some of the worst biological weapons you can think of... be my guest. As for the "palace" up there ? They're just a load of zealots that won't shut the hell up about their nonsensical "guides, lords and saviors". As far as I'm concerned, they don't use magic, instead relying on technology, mostly laser, to deal with these regenerating monsters. Just throw in fire, frost and lightning to make sure not a single cell survives. Another thing they have is some kind of crystal that can... collapse into itself ?... I dunno how to explain it. Anyway, when the crystal does that, it explodes like a supernova, basically a gigantic explosive with fire, frost and lightning to make sure the whole monster is pretty much engulfed in the blast and reduced to nothingness.

 

[Yaruzaru]

"Sounds excessive... why would they need an explosive that powerful when they clearly have no intent to do much other than sit in their castle in the sky? Though, they do strike me as a paranoid bunch, perhaps things are worse off up there than I'd like to think. All the more reason for us to visit though, you can settle old scores and I can borrow some information while I'm there, sounds like a better way to spend our time rather than killing monsters that will inevitably just multiply faster than we can cull them."

Yaru would say this while idly looking around for more trouble, seeing as everyone appeared to be done flailing around in the forest for the day. He couldn't return for the moment so in the least he could make sure the area he was staying in was safe enough for the time being. That and he hopefully might come across something larger to play around with. He'd carefully cut off a small piece of flesh from the subdued creature using the speared tip on the reverse end of his glaive, the weapon not appearing to be impeded by the slime keeping the creature contained in the slightest.

Without much pause for thought, he'd chew on the decayed flesh a little until it was more of a pasty texture, only a slight tingle of disgust in his expression during the process. When he's done, he'd pull out a small length of crystal from his pouch, using a thin cut within the material as an opening through which to insert the decayed mush of flesh. He'd do this by using his slime as a carrier to slither the chewed up contents into the thin gap within the crystal, the inside clearly filling up with the mixture of flesh and slime. From there it was simply a matter of focus, the combination of his magic, the alchemist crystal being used as a medium and the flesh offered as a sacrifice of sorts. The opening in the crystal would soon seal as the slime fills and bridges the gap, seemingly taking on the same material properties as the crystal it's repairing. When finished, it's not even notable that there was any flesh used for the experiment at all, the non-living tissue having dissolved into the mixture of slime and crystal, leaving a dim but ominous glow emanating from the hard material.

"Do you plan to stay out here too? You'll probably need rest if you plan on continuing with the others tomorrow you know. There's no way you'll get any sleep out here," Yaru would ask, placing the small crystal back into his pouch for now, his expression appearing to show a relaxed satisfaction from his work.

 

[Many Weapons Guy]

Ragna definitely did NOT see that coming.
Did Yaru just literally chew on a piece of that... that worm thing ?
He covers his mouth and feels all of his fur coat standing up. Almost turns around to vomit too. He manages to hold himself back, but looks like he's trying to pull himself out of a coma.
Even the foul stench of those things might be enough to knock someone out cold, but the thought of even getting a piece of them in his mouth... probably not even cannibals would go that far.

- I'm definitely not getting any sleep with what you just did, that's for sure. You just chewed that thing like it's bubble gum, for the love of... like, holy shit dude.

He shakes his head and shakes himself like a cat just got splashed with ice-cold water.

- You might wanna be REALLY careful with those... Last thing I want is you being infected and turned into an eldritch horror that can drown an entire city in corrosive, acidic slime.

 

[Yaruzaru]

Yaru simply offers a silly smile and a brief chuckle to seeing Ragna's reaction, having purposefully chewed a little more vigorously than he normally would have, simply to put on a disturbing show.

"I wouldn't worry about that, if I were to get infected, this crystal of mine will take care of me before I become an issue. Plus, you'll have witnessed first-hand that the abominations can infect and alter other people, I'd say my death for that sort of close-up information would be a fair trade, not that I'm in a hurry to disappear just yet. Besides, we strode out into the forest searching for monsters to fight, we're way past the act of being careful don't you think?"