~: The King Slime :~



[My take on the origins of the Miniboss~]







“What you can’t see can hurt you. Very, very badly in fact.”





This was a realization many came to in Terraria, but usually it was far too late to make use of the insight. It was known that Ninjas were present in that world, but little was documented of them as they were true to their natures and essentially invisible, mysterious, and sometimes ominous entities. It was said that the Traveling Merchant obtained the Gi he sold from a kunoichi he had dated once, but he’d only talk about it if incredibly drunk and steamed in a sauna nude with a plate of asparagus for five hours straight with no breaks. In an attempt to avoid this, the Traveling Merchant never stayed around civilization long and so his romantic past remained buried.





But as any true Shinobi knows - Ninjas aren’t born. They’re made.





As Terrarians built themselves from the ground up, occasionally far in the distance a small town or village might be glimpsed. It was from these towns that children would go missing in the dead nights of winter as zombies groaned and scratched the names of their old lives on locked and barred doors while demon eyes searched for dreams to devour. The pale light of the stars would twinkle worriedly in the night sky as they watched for strays: children who stayed out to play much too long and hadn’t gotten back indoors in time. There’d always be four or five a year. They could be spotted huddled behind barrels or outside sawmills, frightened breaths puffing into the air like clouds from a steam engine. If they were lucky they’d eventually fall asleep in the snow and never wake up; small souls frozen tight to their ribcages. If they weren’t lucky, the scratching at the doors would suddenly cease and a brief shrieking and rattling would ensue while frantic bloodthirsty eyes rushed in the overhead until all fell silent and sated.



The smart children, however, would run. They would abandon their hiding places and rush headlong into the night. Away from the families they held dear and away from ferocious following foe. These were the Lost Children, and it was from those that survived their first few nights in the wilds that the Ninja of Terraria would select to join their hidden clan.



This particular legend follows a Terrarian Ninja by the name of Suzume.



It has been nearly forgotten; a strange reality considering that while few know him or his tale: all have met him who have traversed Terrarian soil.



~:~:~:~:~



Two shadows slipped between the jungle vines with all the ease of a hot knife through butter. The foliage flew by in a myriad of colors, bright and varied as the rainbow trout’s scales, but not a single leaf flapped as the two bodies rushed onwards. They bounded down slopes, ricocheting off rocks and canyon walls as they slowly descended through the landscape.



“Suzume, fly fast.” Whispered one, a delicate voice like a single grain of rice balanced on the tip of a glistening needle.



“Hm.” He acknowledged, and they dove silently into a chasm.



The light of the sun became a speckled star shining high in the heavens as they sank deeper and deeper into the pit. It wasn’t long before they couldn’t see their own hands in front of their faces as they plummeted through the darkness.



“Brace.” Murmured Suzume. The kunoichi exhaled slowly. The next moment brought the end for a sleeping Jungle Slime. Suzume landed gracefully on its back, one gloved hand snapping out to forcefully tear one of its jutting pieces of cartilage from its gelatinous mass while his free hand struck a single piece of flint against the wall. Sparks briefly illuminated the ninjas’ freefall and the scene of the murder as the cascading beads caught the gel aflame and the slime puddled across the mud in its death throes.





Suzume launched from the small rocky outcropping and after his partner. Vines whipped against his face but he maintained his course until suddenly his teammate, Nami, rocketed up to meet him. He clasped her ankle and the two maneuvered midair, counterbalancing each other’s weight as Suzume was slung upwards. His boot landed squarely on her back as he pushed off of her and sliced through a curtain of vines. The Jungle Slime’s spike severed each delicate stalk and then straight into the approaching body of a Hornet.





Juices exploded from the entry wound and it screeched in fury. Dragged downwards by gravity once more, the Hornet blindly stabbed with its stinger in an attempt to free itself from Suzume’s grasp. The ninja grabbed hold of the joint of its wing which buzzed frantically and jerked it sideways. It tore free with an obscene pop. Opponent effectively paralyzed, Suzume pulled the spike free before driving it down directly behind the head of the Wasp. It pierced through the weak plates of its exoskeleton and Suzume grinned as the blade ripped directly into the back of the next Dragon Hornet he’d sensed earlier, and then another. Three hornets shish-kabobed on the spike, all hissing with their abdomens wildly curling as they shot poisoned stingers in dying desperation. He let them fall from his hand and they spiraled out of view.





He sensed Nami close ahead and heard the familiar rattling of a Man-Eater’s jaws, chattering like grinding bones as it pursued her through the tunnels. The ground was near. He focused. The ground was wet, slippery from rainfall that had slowly dripped down from miles above. He balled his fists gently and the air around him whirred noisily in a technique he’d developed known as Sparrow’s Rest. The rushing wind beneath his feet slowed his fall and a single pirouette brought him safely to the ground. He immediately ducked as a Man-Eater tore through the opposing wall and came within inches of his face snapping madly. A quick flick of his wrist sent several shuriken flying. The Man-Eater’s head flopped lazily to the ground, quartered into perfect sections like origami paper.





Suzume darted ahead, running up the tunnel walls and severing Man-Eater stalks as he went. He reached a smaller cavern and rejoined Nami who had just torn a Man-Eater apart by its mandibles. She brushed off jungle fauna while the dying stem trembled weakly.



“Everything alright?”



“No, Sparrow.” She muttered clearly annoyed, “I’ve managed to get dirt under my fingernails.”



Suzume grinned and patted her on the back. They evaluated their inventory silently. They had been sent by the Clan to retrieve bulbs which would later be harvested in order to summon Plantera, a regular training foe for the younger Ninjas. However, the deep tunnel which should have had at least a handful of bulbs scattered across its moist surface was empty and barren.



“Odd.” Remarked Nami, “Smells strange in here too.”



Suzume crouched and smoothed some of the mud between his thumb and fingers. It was slick with blue slime, not water. He frowned as the slime sizzled quietly against the leather of his gloves.



“It’s caustic. Almost like…”





The floor collapsed.





Terrarian Ninjas trained specifically to extend and improve their basic five senses to a master level that allowed them unparalleled foresight and perception at all times. In shaping those talents however, the ninjas left themselves vulnerable to one major symptom: overstimulation.



Suzume was assaulted by a wave of pain as his face was pelted with a wall of acidic mud while his flipping body was pummeled by gravel and rock. The falling strata produced a roaring thunder that only escalated into what sounded like the world tearing into two halves as a rock bashed into the side of his head and burst one of his eardrums. He tore his mask free as the rabid chemicals ate through the fabric and chewed at his skin. The next moment ended in his collision with a boulder. The wind was knocked out of him. His fall had been partially padded by earth. Nami hadn’t been so lucky. As his vision spun and his nerves continued to screech mad signals to his brain while the ringing in his ears soared to unprecedented heights, everything paused for a single moment when his partner landed beside him. Her back shattered on impact. He heard a single gasp fly from her lips before she lay perfectly still, bright blue eyes frozen wide open.



He tried to say her name but no sound emerged. The oxygen stuck in his lungs as though bound by cobwebs coated in honey. He grasped blindly in the dark and finally felt her wrist. He clutched at it, wringing it desperately, her name tumbling from his lips again and again like water droplets in the spring thaw. She didn’t answer.





Suzume panted uncontrollably. His eyes rolled wildly, searching for foes, the whites of his eyes revealing his panic. He forced his pulse to slow, commanded everything to be silent and still. He found his feet and grabbed Nami, throwing her over his shoulder. His senses began to stabilize as he felt her heart beating a warsong against her ribs. She was alive.



Her fingers gently clasped the back of his shirt. He began flinging shuriken in all directions, listening to their metallic pings and swishes and mapping the room despite the darkness. Nami’s grip on him tightened and he pivoted to peer behind them, suddenly conscious of a presence lurking nearby.





Suzume had seen Mother Slime many times. Despite their size they didn’t haunt his dreams or pose any threat to his skill level. Even in large numbers, Mother Slimes could be laughed off. This was no Mother Slime.



The mudslide that had been created when the floor collapsed beneath the two ninjas had created a long stretch of upturned muck. Throughout the entire length of earth, Suzume was suddenly aware of hundreds of Plantera bulbs as they peeked out from the sudden muddy onslaught. And resting at the other end of the room, surrounded by partially digested Planteras, was the biggest blue Slime Suzume had ever seen.





Suzume surveyed the distance between himself and the Slime. He had to get out quickly before it decided to demolish anything else moving like it had with at least five Planteras before they’d dropped in. He adjusted Nami over his shoulder and sprang to a higher ledge. A guttural gurgling sounded and as he made the leap to the next earthen platform, the boulder that broke Nami’s back was smashed into pieces as the Slime crashed into the wall like a battering ram. He was stunned by how swiftly it moved given its size and it clearly wasn’t bound to a single shape as it morphed hideously to slide itself up after them in rapid pursuit.



“Hang on, Nami.” Suzume hissed, and wrapped an arm tightly over her back as he focused on scaling the jungle pit.





As they ascended, jungle mobs launched aerial attacks only to collide with the pursuing Slime and be absorbed into its thick viscous skin where’d they’d dissolve into a watercolor image of their old selves, disintegrated by pungent acids. Suzume’s confident steps brought the two ninjas to a ledge where an old chest rested. Breaking it open revealed a few well wrapped Molotov Cocktails and a stashed Blizzard in a Bottle.



By challenge of the elders, Nin dispatched to retrieve supplies from the land weren’t allowed to bring weapons in order to prove the strength and cunning of their very bodies. Suzume used his flint to light one of the cocktails and hurl it downwards. It ignited against the oily sides of the Slime, but only seemed to aggravate it further. It shuddered, quivering back upon itself like violent waves at sea. Then with a single lunge, it exploded up through the earth in an eruption of wood, mud, and rock. Suzume and Nami were knocked high into the air. A Harpy soaring by was impaled by a shrapnel shard of trunk and sank from the sky screaming and shedding feathered frags. Suzume uncorked the Blizzard in a Bottle and rode the rageful storm upwards, silently praying. His fingers sank through the cloud banks in the sky and he caught the lip of a Floating Island. The Slime landed back on the ground at the same moment, shaking the entire surface of the Jungle. It had severely damaged itself in the upwards explosion, but now Slimes were piling into it from every direction and building it back up in stature.





“Like a king of Slime.” Nami grunted, blood dripping from the corners of her mouth. Suzume couldn’t answer through his clenched teeth as he heaved them up with one arm to the top of the island. After setting Nami down, he broke into the small house on the island. He threw open the chest inside in hopes of finding a health elixir for Nami. The first thing he found was a Lucky Horseshoe which he hooked to his belt. He found a weak vial and began to look for a stronger alternative.





“I’ve always hated Slimes.” Nami admitted quietly, “The night I became a Lost Child, I wasn’t the only one to escape. A little boy came with me. He was clumsy and kept falling down in the forest. The zombies heard us. They chased us all through the night. I didn’t think that we’d make it. We’d climbed a tree and were holding out for the morning, swatting at Demon Eyes with branches, shivering from the cold. I remember feeling the light fall across my face. ‘We did it!’ I screamed, and he lifted his arms to cheer. Down he toppled, the pool little fool. The zombies had disappeared already, driven by the sun. But then the Slimes came.”



Her long eyelashes fluttered once or twice before she shook her head and the memory away. “I hate Slimes.” She repeated and then fell silent for a bit. Suzume had combined several healing components and was stirring it up when she reached beneath the folds of her robe. “I don’t remember my home anymore, but I did keep a piece of it.” She clutched a small doll in each hand: a matching king and queen. She smiled sweetly and for a moment seemed relieved of her pain. Suzume had already deduced that she was paralyzed from the waist down but he was uncertain about the extent of her internal damage. He knelt by her side and guided her hand to hold the elixir.



“The others should be here soon.” He murmured, “They’ll have heard all the noise. It’s almost over, Nami. I’ll get you home.”



“No, Sparrow…” She whispered, “They won’t let me go back like this.”



The entire island shook violently. The ground lurched upwards, breaking into smaller fractions. The King Slime had recovered and was bashing itself up into the island, trying to capsize its tiny crew. The elixir slid from Nami’s hand and crashed to the ground, crimson droplets spraying the ground. She smiled at him as her island began to tip.



Suzume dove and grasped her elbow. The queen doll went flying into the open sky. Her island collapsed and the dead weight of her body nearly dragged Suzume off his own remaining piece. He lost grip of her arm and barely caught her wrist.



“Nami, don’t let go. I’ll leave the clan. You won’t be alone.”



Perspiration rolled heavily down his forehead as he strained to keep them both aloft. She lifted her free arm and slid the king doll onto the ground beside him. Sparrow feathers flapped from the crown where she’d tied them.



“Suzume,” She whispered, and behind her the giant mass of the King Slime grew larger and larger as it leapt up beneath them.





“Fly fast… for me.”





The King Slime smashed through the final pieces of the island and sucked Nami right into its core. Suzume could see her there, perfectly suspended, and then the Slime fell back to the earth and both vanished from view.



He snatched the last doll up and cradled it to his chest as he dove off the island remnants. As he broke through the cloudbank, a Reindeer glided up beside him that was mounted by another ninja. Suzume gently grabbed one of its antlers to guide his course, confident in his Lucky Horseshoe, and they descended back towards the ground.



“Where is Nami?”



“Gone.”



The other ninja tensed and reached into one of his saddlebags. He withdrew an ivory horn wrapped in thin ribbons of gold. It smelled of the sea during a storm. Suzume took it from him gravely; for it only had one purpose.



The Reindeer’s hooves clattered to the ground and it gracefully leapt again, bringing both ninjas to the head of a grassy hill. The other ninja dismounted and surveyed the land ahead. The King Slime could been seen wobbling and jumping back and forth as it was swarmed by a handful of dark shapes which occasionally were illuminated by magic and flame.



“I’ve never seen anything like this.” Muttered the ninja.



Suzume glanced at the glove that had been singed by the digestive slime, “It’s been living in a covered cavern underground. Without need to move and no enemies, it’s reached this gargantuan size with time alone on its side. The natural jungle toxins have made it formidable, but it can be defeated.” His grip tightened on the horn, “And it will be.”



The ninja nodded at him and drew twin Muramasas before phasing forward to join his fellows in combat around the King Slime. The wind began to whip the long grass back and forth in boastful gusts. Suzume could feel energy prickling through the very molecules in the air. He filled his lungs and then lifted the mighty horn to his lips. The call to arms sounded through every surface. The magical sound-waves did not lessen with distance but instead raced to to every end of the earth and then - out, out, out. Dimensions, time, and space yielded to the summoning. He blew another blast and the wind ushered in a huge front of storm clouds to shade and color the battlefield in swirling shapeless shadows. The wind roared in his ears and even the trained Reindeer danced and bucked beside him with anxious excitement.





The final crescendo of the horn’s song made every drop of blood in Suzume’s body tingle. As the ending note cascaded into silence, the wind hushed, and the world shuddered. Suzume stood proudly, backed by hundreds of Terrarian Ninjas. They arrived in the span of a breath and stood in small clusters across the stretching plane. Suzume ripped the sparrow feathers from the king doll’s crown and held them aloft. They glittered before transforming into a sparrow shaped short sword.



He pointed the sword towards the sky and yelled, “For Nami!”



The ninjas simultaneously unsheathed and revealed their weapons. They brandished them skywards with an echoing shout before rushing forward towards the King Slime.





A high ranked nin wielding a dire flail reached the King Slime first. A powerful swing sent a large chunk of gelatin flying. It separated upon impact into a handful of smaller slimes which were decimated by blade, bow, and bolt. The King Slime received such an onslaught from the direct side of the attack that it was knocked back onto its side which shook the ground heavily. Ninjas with able gear swarmed over the body without fear of sinking into its putrid goop. The others rained hell onto it from a distance. The ground became equal parts thick and slick with slime which proved deadly as the King Slime would reform itself quickly whenever any damage was dealt.



It rolled dangerously, devouring anything it passed over. The constant waves of damage continued with the ninjas working in perfect sync; their fighting technique evolving like a fluently spoken poem. As soon as any part of the King Slime was separated from the main body, it would be burned to cinders by magic or fire-based weapon. With a mighty leap, the King Slime crushed several Lost Children and absorbed their bodies into its own. This only boosted the morale of the remaining shinobi who believed the honor of their comrades could only be recovered upon the defeat of their foe. Their attacks were unceasing. The consistent battering lead the King Slime to resort to constant movement.



Seven grappling hooks were fired through the King Slime’s body at varying trajectories in an attempt to slow it down. It dissolved the components and rolled onwards. It fought containment and it began rapidly clear to all present that this would be necessary in order to achieve outstanding victory. The Ninjas formed a broad circle around the King Slime, thinning their assault but ensuring it was present from every side. When it lashed out in one direction, the strike intensified on the opposite side, forcing it to turn its attention once more. Aerial attacks proved to be the most effective of all and Suzume developed a plan that he shared with one of the attending Herbalists. “I won’t be needing this.” He smiled. She nodded, accepted the Lucky Horseshoe, and began to prepare six different potions to speed his path.



Word spread through the ranks that Suzume required all Ninjas equipped with Star Fury or Star Wrath to be at the ready for his signal. Suzume thanked the Herbalist and began to chug the potions, one after the other: Flipper, Inferno, Ironskin, Obsidian Skin, Rage, and Wrath.



“All Lost Children look to the stars on their first nights. The stars sit by idly and watch. They will not do so tonight.”



He held Nami’s king in his right hand and his Sparrow blade in his left. His insides burned with a heavenly strength. He greeted his friends as he sped past them, feet guided by the name of the wind; they knew they would not be meeting again. As he passed each group of ninja, they in turn pushed with more fervor until the King Slime was gathered in a tight bunch, acidic gel spilling in waves over the countryside. Up went Suzume, his feet scarcely touching the King Slime as he scaled its wounded side. Stars began to fall from the sky, hot and fast. They sang with their tremendous speed and light, slicing deep into the King Slime as their counterpart Ninjas swung their celestial blades. Suzume dodged their incoming missiles until he reached the head of the King Slime. He lengthened his final strides -



and jumped.





He soared upwards, driven by the same secret technique he’d used earlier to slow his fall. Up he went, and the King Slime jumped with him in an attempt to escape its assailants once more. Suzume’s air currents ran out and he began to fall back towards the King Slime.



“Fly fast, Sparrow!” The Lost Children chanted.





Surrounded by starlight, he called on the winds to wrap him in their bouquets of light. For every blow struck with Star Fury and Wrath, Suzume surrounded himself with the flaming spears. He wrapped and spun them so rapidly around himself that he vanished from view, a crashing comet. When his feet finally hit the King Slime’s head, he churned right through it. Down smashed the starry projectiles. They tore and burned straight through the monstrous gel, creating several small craters in the ground. The heat of their impact cleft the King Slime in several pieces which either exploded into the air causing a Slime Rain or were instantly covered in shinobi prepared to deal death blows. Suzume came to rest at the very bottom of the King Slime. In one of the smallest collective pieces of slime still untouched which was barely bigger than himself, he found himself trapped. He sank to its center while it devoured his beloved sword and the wooden body of the king doll. The tiny crown toppled from the royal head and the King Slime forced it back out until it rested on its own gelatinous brow. Suzume stood at its center, trapped forever.



As the rest of the ninja peeled apart the massive gel piles and extinguished all other moving parts, the slime containing Suzume slipped into one of the steaming craters. It found a hole and vanished underground. Secluded once more, it quietly gurgled and slurped to comfort itself. It hardened its core to protect its prize; Suzume the Sparrow Ninja. As its small golden crown gleamed in the darkness, the King Slime waited and wobbled. It would not be able to regain its massive size, but it would grow and return someday. It would bide its time until ready, and then rain down slime and revenge upon any living thing that got in its path.



It was only a matter of time.





When the Terrarian ninjas were unable to find Suzume’s body in the rubble of the battlefield, they retreated. The Slime King had been vanquished and the immediate threat to their world removed. In his sacrifice, Suzume brought honor to his name and the other Lost Children who fought to regain what Nami lost.





Years later, a Terrarian Hero would begin to gather fame and fortune in their shared land. The Ninjas would watch from nearby as said Hero battled through Corruption, Crimson, and Boss alike. When the Hero finally drew the King Slime out of hiding and the body of Suzume was revealed to still be intact, the Ninja Lord simply smiled, “It is a continuation of Sparrow’s Legacy in the battle against evil. Fly fast, Hero. Fly fast.”