"Are you hungry, Eiko?" Colette asked the Baby Slime, who was now perched on top of her head.
"Hungry!" Eiko replied.
"Good! I'm starving as well," Colette stated. "What do you want to eat?"
"Dreadnaught Core!"
"... Okay, let's have some beef stew instead."
"Un!"
Matty and the others, who were walking beside Colette, couldn't help but smirk because they thought that the Baby Slime was merely joking with them.
On the contrary, during the battle in the Ammarian Kingdom, Eiko and her Terrorist Squad managed to snatch one of the Dreadnaught-Ranked Cores that Prince Cyrus tried to sneakily get when Lux wasn't paying attention.
Eiko had even ordered one of the Hecatoncheires to slap the Second Prince of the Vahan Empire away since he was trying to get what rightfully belonged to her.
Of course, the Hecatoncheires held back, or else the Second Prince of the Vahan Empire would have turned into meat paste.
Diablo followed behind the children and walked beside Emma, whom Lux had intended to designate as the Secretary of Heaven's Gate.
This was similar to Alicia's position in Barbatos Academy, handling all the things that the Headmaster didn't need to personally deal with.
Like all Dungeon towns in the Kingdom of Gweliven, the town was built five hundred meters away from the Dungeon's Entrance.
It was done on purpose to serve as a defensive line just in case a Dungeon Outbreak occurred.
Fortunately, adventurers regularly visited the Dungeon in order to thin out the number of Monsters, preventing such a disaster from happening.
As the children and the two adults walked towards Wisp Tree Town, a Dwarf with blonde hair and blue eyes was watching Colette and her entourage from a distance.
He was making sure that the little girl didn't have anyone around her that could threaten him. After confirming that there were only two Initiates following behind the children, he deemed that it was safe to kidnap Colette then and there.
Although he was confident that he could still capture his target even if she were inside Wisp Tree Town, he didn't want to deal with the hassle of unnecessary risks.
'This is my first mission after joining the Slayers,' the blonde-dwarf assassin thought. 'Failure is not an option.'
He had just become an E-Ranker with the help of Twilight Rain, and everyone was looking forward to his future accomplishments. Just like Scarlet, the blonde assassin was a relative of one of the Elders of the Dark Guild, allowing him to receive preferential treatment.
After making up his mind, the Assassin walked towards his target in a carefree manner.
If someone were to look at him, that person might think that he was some ordinary adventurer who was about to take his chances inside the Dungeon.
Simply put, no one would think that he was an assassin of the most notorious Dark Guild inside the Kingdom of Gweliven whom the Royal Family was very wary of.
When the assassin was only a few meters away from Colette, he stomped his right foot on the ground and increased his speed exponentially.
A second later, he wrapped his right arm around Colette's waist before jumping high into the air, summoning his Contracted Beast, the Black-Crowned Vulture.
His movements were so fluid that Emma and Diablo didn't realize what happened until Colette had been abducted right under their noses.
Even the little Dwarf in question was surprised when she suddenly found herself being carried by someone and now flying high up in the air.
'Mission accomplished.' the Blonde Assassin smirked as he glanced beneath him, where Colette's entourage was looking up at him with shocked expressions on their faces.
Just as he was about to knock Colette unconscious with a strike to the back of her neck, he noticed a Baby Blue Slime that was looking at him with an amused smile.
'A Slime? Well, no matter,' the Blonde Assassin thought. 'Maybe it is this girl's pet. At the end of the day, it's not something that could threate–'
Before he could even complete that thought inside his head, something grabbed his right hand, which he was about to use to strike Colette.
This time, it was the Assassin's turn to be surprised. Standing on the back of his Beast Companion was a Skeleton who was wearing fighter's clothes.
Without any warning, Eiko's Skeleton Monk, Bam, jabbed the Assassin's jaw, causing the latter to briefly stagger.
With one swift motion, the Skeleton Monk pried Colette from the Assassin's hold and tossed her off the flying Vulture, making the Dwarf girl scream.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Eiko, on the contrary, giggled because she found this current situation very fun.
"Bomber!" Eiko called out another one of her Terrorist Squad minions, which was a floating Blast Bomb that was nearly two meters tall.
Bomber immediately caught Colette mid-air, which made the little Dwarf stop screaming.
"Whitey, Blackie, Cloud!" Eiko called out her Slime Army to help her Skeleton Monk fight against the Ranker in the sky.
The Angel Slime, the Devil Slime, as well as the Aero Slime, all flew upwards to gang up on the Black-Crowned Vulture, providing their comrade the help he needed to fight against the Ranker.
Similar to Eiko, Bam's rank was at the peak of the Initiate Rank.
He was weaker than the Ranker, but he was able to fight him because he was in an advantageous position.
The Blonde Assassin wasn't proficient in fighting in the sky because he was used to quick and deadly strikes that always caught his target by surprise.
Now that he was out in the open, he found the Skeleton Monk's aggressive fighting style very difficult to deal with even though he was a rank higher than Bam.
Since he was part of Eiko's Terrorist Army, Bam's punches and kicks had an exploding effect.
Whenever the Blonde Assassin was about to initiate an attack that made contact, Bam would stomp his foot, or punch the back of the Black-Crowned Vulture, creating an explosion, which made the poor giant bird cry out in pain.
This tactic made the Vulture's flight erratic, which even threatened to throw its own Master from its back.
The Blonde Assassin cursed internally because his opponent was fighting dirty, making him fear for his own life.
Although he was already a Ranker, dropping down from such a height could still potentially kill him. Because of this, he planned to kill his opponent as soon as possible so that he could recapture his target, who had escaped from his grasp.
Unfortunately for him, three slimes appeared and began to hurl spells at the Black-Crowned Vulture, completely enraging it.
Eiko watched this battle from on top of her Flying Blast Bomb with great interest.
As a battle junkie herself, she was very tempted to join the battle. However, she was also worried about Colette's safety.
Because of this, she hurriedly ordered Bomber to fly toward the ground so that Colette could be reunited with her friends.
Only after the leader of the Golden Slayers party had safely planted both of her feet back on the ground did Eiko and Bomber fly back to the sky.
Now that her fighting spirit had been fanned, the Baby Slime wanted a piece of the action and to end the battle with a Bang!
