Wondering why slime balls couldn't be more aerodynamic, Mack instinctively moved out of the way of the first fireball, only to realize he had put himself in the line of fire of the second. The fireball hit his calf and knee, and the boy watched the flame hit and the pitch black surface of his skin take on a pearly shine as it hardened. His nerves registered the pain just a second later, the slime slowing the transfer of heat to his skin. Still, it hurt, and the pores on his leg reflexively kicked into overdrive, creating as much slime as possible to distance the surface of his skin from the burning.<br/><br/>Mack lifted his leg and pulled off the hardened piece of slime that had formed on the back of his calf, much thicker than the piece that he had pulled off his face earlier. The scalding piece had hardened a lot of the slime that had formed underneath. His knee wasn't quite so fixable, the material had hardened around the entire thing, although there were some cracks where the slime could stream out and take out some of the heat. Mack took a step, his leg unnaturally stiff.<br/><br/>Great. There was no way he could run away this time.<br/><br/>He needed a weapon. Mack looked around, and then grabbed the branches of a nearby tree sapling with white flowers. With a strong pull, he ripped off a sizeable branch. Petals shook all over, sticking to him like glitter to a preschooler's paper mache project.<br/><br/>The damage to the tree was so huge that the plant would probably never grow flowers again. But that wasn't important to Mack, who was busy covering the branch with slime, starting at the jagged, but satisfiably pointy end where the branch had been ripped off.