Push back.

Next when you swing your blade into hers, the wave of heat causes her to flinch, and she slides back closer towards the chair. Thing are turning around. The ants are still trapped, the cleric is still wresting with Rose, and you feel as if you can easily flip the situation with the ALICE using your superior swordplay. However, the slimes have entered the battle, and they make a move straight away.

Vivi and Mina hurry around the sinkhole and prepare for ranged combat. However, the black slime has a different idea. Not only is it big, but by the sounds it makes when moving, it's heavy as well. Somehow, it's also fast! It throws itself across the room like a cannonball, and thankfully, Vivi manages to dodge the attack, because when it collides with the wall behind her, it leaves a crater, and the ceiling shakes.

"These are incredibly rare," Vivi mutters to herself. "How could she--"

"Look out!" Mina cries.

Caught blindsided, the little mouse is tackled by one of the white slimes. It bursts upon contact. She tumbles back, now coated head-to-toe with a dripping, viscous, white liquid. It's in her hair, her eyes, and even when she struggles to wipe it off her face, she can't recover enough to see. Then right beside her, the same fate comes to Vivi. Because she's taller than her companion, it doesn't cover her entire form, but her face and chest are completely soaked by white goop. She covers her face and stumbles backwards, spitting and coughing as she tries to get it off herself.

Well, at least that's two slimes down already I guess. Turning your attention away from the ALICE for a moment, you slice right down through the nearest green slime. Your fiery strike easily melts the creature into a puddle, though you have no time to attack the other. Instead, you're **** to block another sword strike.

Then your eyes widen. Your heart beats faster. As the rumbling sound before becomes even louder than ever, you recognize the source the moment it becomes visible. Turning the corner, right behind Lynx on the other side of the sinkhole, is yet another familiar sight. It's a little bit smaller than the last one you saw back when you were rescuing Lalarin, but it's unmistakable. The creature is huge--barely able to fit through the hall--and it's made from dozens of metallic spheres able to roll together and form a modular golem. Right in the center is a glowing blue light like a giant eyeball.

No. This time it's different. The eye in the center protrudes out almost like a camera lens, and the last one would never have been able to fit through here. It's Elok's creation for sure, but I can't count on knowing what it'll do.

The eye flares up. A bright glowing blue light emits from inside. Energy builds up and up.

"It looks like Alice's magic arm cannon!" you shout out. "I think it's going to fire!"

Your guess is right on the money. Just like Alice, it fires a blast of pure energy into the room. However, Lynx is fast to react. She leaps into the air and holds out her hand. From it, an ethereal barrier appears, thanks to one of her Rite of the Sun markings. The laser bursts off her shield, causing a bright light to reflect in every direction, and the girl goes tumbling backwards straight into the mud.

This is bad, and the room is so damn small for a fight of this magnitude.

"Look out!" Mela shouts down from above.

With most of your party hindered in some way, the ghost above serves as a miraculous sentry for danger. You turn just in time to dodge the black slime which creates yet another crater in the wall right beside your head.

"Thanks!" you shout back before unleashing a barrage of rapid strikes. None of them cut her body, but you manage to push the ALICE back across the room until she bumps up against the wall beside the window. But when she strikes out in response, you take a few quick steps back again. "But we need to take out that golem before it can fire again."

Vivi wipes the slime off her face with her hat before she tosses it to the side. "Blech." She flicks some off her fingers. "My hat better come clean."

The fire slowly fades from your blade, leaving behind nothing but a faint rising smoke. "Lynx, can you--"

But she's in her own trouble. Surrounded by ants, they're grabbing at her in the mud. One tugs on her top, and the half-naked ant grabs her arm. The last one wraps herself around her lower torso. Unfortunately, Lynx can move much at all right now, and as she becomes more and more covered in mud, her top is slowly worked off as well. Finally, after a tearing noise, the ant's glove's claw tears it right off, leaving her just as topless as the other.

Flailing in the mud bath, she turns to curse out Vivi of all people, flushed in the face. "Look what you did! Get me out!" she cries.

"Me? I saved us!" Vivi barks back. "It's not my fault you're getting all wet and wild in there."

One of the ants giggles. "They aren't that big, but they're so soft."

"What do you mean?" Lynx replies. "They're not small either!"

Is that what you're worried about now?

Meanwhile, Rose and the cleric have made their way to the empty corner of the room. Now the cleric is armed with her shield and mace, while Rose stands ready with a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Vivi and Mina are recovering, while the ALICE stands next to... Meti is gone. She was right there, by the window, but she's vanished completely. You look around, but she's nowhere to be seen.

To make matters even worse, the golem is charging up again.

Shit. All right. I'll Bunny Hop... into the golem, to deflect the blow? I can't use my ring because it's still holding a spell that's kinda useless right now. Doing this might really fucking hurt, but if I don't, it'll be a lot worse for the one hit full-on. Flare Bolt won't do anything to it. Would Pleasure? Probably not, but you never know, huh? Entangle... I can set that before I hop maybe. Yeah.

Before you cast the spell, your attention is grabbed by yet another sound. It causes your stomach to sink--to think about even more going wrong. Though what you see is quite surprising. An arm has broken right through the wall next to the window and has grabbed the ALICE by her neck. To make things more strange, the appearance of the arm matches exactly. It takes a second, but your heart suddenly flutters with joy. It can't mean anything else.

"Make way!" screams the voice if Niki a moment before she throws herself straight through the window, shattering the glass to bits as she tumbles unharmed right to the edge of the sinkhole.