The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 202: Shredder-Slimes

Lane was frozen on the spot for a second, staring at the weird creature. Semi-transparent, like a jellyfish, but moving on land, somewhat like slimes from the MMO game he played. Except that the color was different...

And they had a few rows of long, sharp, needle-like teeth. Hence, the blood.

It didn’t take long though for his self-preservation instinct to kick in, and he did the most reasonable thing he could have done at that moment - hide inside. He didn’t know how fast the creatures were, but judging from how they jumped on the woman - and now also two more people - they were FAST. Lane had zero confidence in trying to outrun them.

Thus, he barged back to the restaurant.

"Close the shutters!" he yelled at the employees and three customers, uni students trying to heal their hangovers with junk. "The monsters attack!"

"Wha?" a sleepy guy at the register let out a yawn, glancing at the calendar. April Fool’s Day had already passed!

It seems Lane wasn’t the only one to ignore the news. The people at the front were also blissfully unaware of the changes happening around the world.

Until the monsters reached the restaurant, that is, and one broke in, first bounding off the window, and then hitting the door, and successfully getting inside.

"Ah!" A choir of screams filled the restaurant.

"THE SHUTTERS!" Lane yelled once again, grabbing one of the chairs, and slamming it into the monster. Ghastly purplish, half-transparent mucus splashed everywhere, onto Lane, the tables, the floor, the customers and their food... But the monster remained mainly unaffected. Its size only shrank a bit, but it was gnawing on the chair all the same, devouring most of it in seconds.

Luckily, the employee behind the register finally snapped out of it. "The button on the right side by the window!" he called...

And then dipped into the staff-only area, leaving the rest to fend for themselves.

Well, not like Lane expected much, anyway. Slamming one more chair into the monster - and the monster shredding it right away - he quickly scanned the right side of the window...

And there it was, a brown square button.

Lane jumped onto the table, and leaped over the monster that was still busy with the chair, thus didn’t attack Lane immediately. In a few moves, jumping from table to table - and almost sliding on a spilled drink and pieces of mucus - he successfully reached the button, slamming his hand onto it.

The shutters creaked, and started lowering. Slowly. Way too slowly. So slowly, that it allowed another monster to barge in...

"Fuck!" Lane swore, and grabbed another chair to defend himself. It was hardly effective, but that was the only weapon within his reach. At least two of the students have now joined in, so it was three against two.

But as the shutters finally hit the ground, locking the rest of the monsters out (and them in, with those two ’lovable’ shredder-slimes), they were already starting to run out of chairs. While the monsters didn’t get any weaker, quite the opposite - having fed on the furniture, they only grew! Not to mention, any mucus they lost, they could reabsorb again!

Lane slowly backed deeper into the restaurant, and when he had an opening, jumped over the counter. If hitting the monsters didn’t work, then perhaps they could try some oil therapy? And in a fast food restaurant, there was plenty of that! All hot and ready to use!

With the monster chasing right after him, there was no time for hesitation. Lane grabbed the first container he could find, sunk it into the boiling oil, hissing as some of it splashed onto his skin... And then poured it all over the monster.

The monster let out a loud, hissing sound and withdrew, part of it melting.

It was working! Lane quickly treated it with a few more doses of oil, and not long later, the monster was gone, replaced by a massive puddle of purplish mucus mixed with amber yellow oil, with shredded chairs and needle teeth floating in it.

"Lure the other one here!" he called to the students, who were now feeding the remaining monster with cash registers. Tables were mounted to the floor, so they were unusable.

The students quickly caught on, and a few minutes later, they were all standing in the quiet kitchen, gasping for breath, all covered up in mucus, oil, and with one missing hand.

"You’re good," one of the students remarked, glancing at Lane with respect.

Lane only shrugged his shoulders though. "Oh yeah?" He didn’t get to say anything more, because at that moment, the other of the students gasped in a weak voice,

"Uh, h-hey? Any help?"

His arm was still bleeding from the severed wrist, and now that the adrenaline was gone, the pain quickly started flooding, his face so pale he looked like he was going to faint.

"A-ah, right! There must be a first aid kit somewhere!" his friend exclaimed, and rushed to the staff area to look for the missing employees. It would be best to go to the hospital, but with the situation outside, it wasn’t quite possible.

Meanwhile, Lane looked around, before approaching the fridges. His throat was completely dry, so he decided to treat himself to a drink. He opened the first door, and then the second, looking for some soda cans...

Just as he was about to reach out and grab one, a sudden pulse passed through his body. And the next he knew it, he was on the floor. DYING.

Or, well, at least that’s how it felt.

His whole body was burning, every single cell squeezing and twisting in agonizing pain. The hand-less student was screaming something, but it was all unclear, Lane’s brain couldn’t pick up even on a single word. He tried crawling, but he couldn’t make a move, too weak for that, even though his muscles seemed to be overflowing with unknown strength... He couldn’t breathe at all - well, probably he could, since minutes had passed, and he was not dead yet - and he was itchy all over... Terribly itchy, as if there was an army of ants biting on his flesh. He tried rolling around, or scratching himself, but nothing seemed to work...

He was moved at some point. Lifted by his arms and legs and transferred somewhere. He wanted to beg whomever was around not to touch him, or just to stab a knife through his chest, because as much as he wanted to live, he didn’t think he could actually survive such a pain... But he couldn’t utter a word, or he could do was to just... exist. Exist and feel every bit of suffering as something unknown was happening to his body. The change of cellular structure, as he later found out.

It lasted for hours, literally, and felt like an eternity. Lane head spun, suffering through it all, his consciousness refusing to fade and bring him any relief. He was awake right up to the point when the pain subsided, and a wave of coolness swept through his body, relaxing his sore muscles and aching bones.

Only then his mind finally went blank, and he fainted.