Cat Core 3, Chapter 25+26.

I missed posting on Friday, so I'll drop two chapters today!

Chapter 25.

“Should we send it all, or leave some defenders here for an emergency?” Florence asked. She was torn, she would have limited control over her defenders when they ran off to attack, and her home was still open to the surface. If a random critter walked in and wanted to snack on her core, it would be tough to fight it off without a home full of defenders to wear them down. On the other hand, not sending enough and having them fail in their attack might give their opponent the mana needed to summon an overwhelming attack.

“Send them all, save for perhaps the room right in front of us,” George suggested. It would still be a powerful force, but it would leave her five kitties to help protect them. After thinking about it, she chose to leave Tachi behind as well, giving the defenders a minor champion to bolster their numbers. The entire first floor with champions and fourteen kitties from the second floor would be on their way soon. Well, they’d be on their way as soon as she could figure out how the durned interface for sending them worked.

Choose a mission type for your defenders.

1. Assault target. Select a specific target within one mile of your core that you wish eliminated. Your selected defenders will head directly toward that target, eliminating any threats on the way. When the target is destroyed, your defenders will return.

2. Assault area. Choose a specific area within 1 mile of your core and have the selected defenders move there and attack anything they find. This option requires a specific timeframe for the defenders to remain. It should be noted that any defenders out of your core’s influence will begin to degrade quickly.

3. Timed push. This option will have the defenders move in a single direction for a specified amount of time before returning. They will attack anything they come across during the assault but will avoid any engagements they can on the return trip.

4. Core destruction. Select a nearby hostile core and send the selected defenders to destroy it. While in a hostile core’s area of influence, your defenders will not degrade from a lack of mana, but any that are defeated will feed the opposing core.

Okay, the only thing she had to do was pick the defenders she wanted to send since it was obvious that she was going to use the core destruction option. The other options seemed dumb, except for assault target, which might be good to pick off some dopey adventurer that wasn’t behaving the way they should. Yep, that option would get a workout if she were to set up a permanent home again. It didn’t take long to pick all her kitties, but when she tried to select George’s defenders, Florence was blocked until George gave permission. Good, she agreed with the system and it was only polite to ask before ordering someone else’s defenders around.

“And away you go, get that core for mommy,” Florence said as the defenders charged across the lawn and into the tunnel linking the two cores. It was quite a sight, but she wished that she could put them in some kind of formation or something. As it stood the commando kitties were moving past the others, outpaced only by the minor champion Loki, the raider subtype made him move like greased lightning.

“This is a bit chaotic, but at least we can see what’s transpiring,” George said.

“You two can see, I’m stuck here with no idea of what’s happening,” Patricio complained. Florence thought about, using some knowledge from her old life on Earth, along with a healthy helping of mana, and a dollop of loot creation to make something for Patricio.

“There you go Patricio, defender vision is on channel one,” Florence said.

“What is this, how do I use it?” Patricio asked, walking over to the television set that she had created. Florence used the design from one of her first sets, a good old-fashioned tube television that weighed a bunch, especially when you added the wood cabinet. It might have been heavy, but she would like to see some of them newfangled flat screen TVs last half as long as that old television set lasted.

“Just pull gently on that knob in the front that says power. After that turn the dial to channel one. There’s no sound, I’m sorry to say, but the picture should be good enough,” Florence instructed, commanding the picture to follow the lead defender in the group.

“Amazing, is that our defenders? Yes, I see it is, that’s the one you called Loki and he’s about to enter the other dungeon,” Patricio said, plopping down on the floor, amazed at what he was watching.

“It is quite ingenious, Florence, how did you think of that?” George asked.

“We got something like it back home, everyone on Earth has at least one of these things. The ones back home don’t just show your pets running around, well, they can if you put a camera on your pets, I suppose, but most of the time, they watch shows for entertainment, like a play or something,” Florence said. It was hard to explain modern technology to some medieval place with magic, but she figured she didn’t do too poorly.

“Is this what you’re seeing right now?” Patricio asked.

“Sort of, when I’m transformed into my home I kind of see everything at once and I’m not locked into following one kitty like you are now. When I have some free time, I’ll get the other channels linked to the different rooms. That way you can keep tabs on things a bit easier,” Florence told the bard. Before now, the bard had been forced to hear snippets of the action from George or Florence, now he could watch it live and in color.

Patricio didn’t say anything else, engrossed in watching the events unfold on the screen. For a minute, Florence was worried he was sitting too close to the screen, but she figured that core-created TVs that ran on mana wouldn’t give off the radiation that real TVs did. Everyone knew that if you sat too close to a real TV for too long, you’d get radiation and go blind and whatnot. Ignoring Patricio and the TV, Florence tried to focus on the progress her kitties were making.

“No hostile defenders so far,” George said, bringing her up to speed. They were flying down the tunnels that Florence had explored in person on the first floor of the other core’s dungeon. Nothing had tried to stop them and even after descending to the second floor, she couldn’t see any threats, save for a few traps that Loki accidentally triggered. He was injured, and that slowed him down, allowing the commando kitties and George’s wolves to take the lead.

“I’m sure glad they know where they’re going, I’d be lost already,” Florence said as her team navigated the various passages of the second floor.

“There are only three floors there, right Patricio?” George asked.

“Uh, oh, yeah, three is what the dungeon was reduced to, but nobody’s been down that far since they closed the place, so who knows for sure?” Patricio asked, distracted from thinking too hard since he was busy watching the action. Florence noted that it seemed to be a universal truth that people got stupid when they gawked at a screen for too long.

“Well, we’re on the third floor with no challenges other than a few traps. Oops, I take that back, it seems the frost giant is back,” Florence said as the lead kitties and wolves charged into what must have been the dungeon champion’s room. It was a huge open cavern with a throne against one wall where the door to the core room waited. A great feasting table of normal human size was centered in the room, but the chairs there sat unoccupied. The only defender in the room was the giant, who stood from his seat and grabbed the axe that was resting against the throne.

“I can’t see, what’s going on?” Patricio asked. His view followed Loki and the cat had fallen behind and was being passed by most of the other defenders.

“Hush, I’m trying to watch. The cats are fighting the giant guy again,” Florence said.

“Are his knights there, or the hounds?” Patricio asked.

“Knights and hounds? Nope, just a big guy with an axe,” Florence replied.

“That’s good, the final champion room usually has a group of knights seated at a feasting table, and some war hounds that assist him in the battle,” Patricio said.

“He’s by himself, but he’s sure putting up a fight,” Florence said. The giant was swinging away with his axe, each blow taking out multiple cats and wolves. In the lead were the faster commando kitties and without a chance to attack from cover, they weren’t that powerful in a stand-up fight. The brawlers started to enter as well, which turned the tide. Florence’s kitties were much larger than your typical housecats, some getting closer to lion or tiger sized than they were to the size of regular kitties. Despite their size, they looked as small as newborn kittens compared to the giant they were swarming. He seemed even larger than she remembered, but then again, most of what she saw was him all shrunk down to fit inside her home.

“Big and powerful as he is, he’s no match for our numbers,” George commented. The hairy guy was right, her babies were mauling the giant good, more and more attacking and opening up wounds all over the behemoth. Blasts of magic joined the fight as the mage kitties arrived, and that was it for the dungeon champion, and, hopefully, that it was it for this fight.

Even George’s yeti got in on the act, smashing down the door to the core room. Florence wondered what she would be able to do with this core, before, she had touched the core and communicated with George, but she couldn’t be there now, so maybe a kitty needed to come into physical contact with it. As soon as she saw it through the link with her kitties, Florence lost hope that she could help this core. George had been flaking away from the influence of the lich, but this one looked like it was rotten, with the green glow of necromantic energy riddled throughout the gem. Still, she needed to make the attempt, and had one of her cats, the brawler Astrid, touch it with her paw.

As Astrid approached, Florence waited for some defenses to be activated, or fresh defenders to show up, but the core was in a pathetic state, hanging in the air by itself, without decoration, light, or anything inside the plain stone walls of the core room. The kitty reached out her paw, touching the stone. Immediately, Florence was connected to the other core, pain, rage, and fear poured into her from it, threatening to overwhelm her mind.

“No you don’t, Florence Valentine isn’t someone you should mess with,” Florence grunted back at the corrupted gem. Instead of overwhelming her, the intrusion into her mind just made her angry, not crazy with rage like the other gems were, nope, she was just good and old-fashioned irritated with the ordeal. She examined the gem; it was unable to resist her counter-intrusion and it gave up everything it had to offer.

Florence could see the corruption was almost complete, the lich had fed well off this poor core, and there wasn’t anything left but instinct and a few lingering emotions. She searched for some time, finding nothing of whatever being had once lived in this core. George had gone a little bonkers before she freed him, but there wasn’t anything left here to free.

“It’s gone, can you feel that, George?” Florence asked, inviting the fragment to help her examine the core. He was silent for a long time, searching, as she was, for someone to save.

“This could have been me, if you had arrived later, Florence. There is nothing we can do, save for granting what remains of the being that once occupied this core a bit of peace,” George confirmed. With a heavy heart, Florence ordered her babies to destroy the core. If she had eyes, she would have wept for the lost core. She couldn’t save this one and didn’t know if she had the energy to do this again. Cutting off Berikoz from his power and defeating him were her goals, but Florence didn’t know how many more times she could destroy an innocent core to do so. Some time ago, when she first became a core, emotions like this were suppressed, allowing her to function, but now, as a hybrid, she felt that she had retained a bit more of her humanity.

Congratulations, you have defeated another of the corrupted cores and will be granted enough experience to bring you to the next level. Seek the remaining cores to weaken the lich and open him up to defeat. You have 147 days remaining to complete your quest.

“Another level already, but it sure don’t feel like an accomplishment given what I had to do to get it,” Florence muttered.

“Do not despair, we freed a poor soul from torment and the power you gained is power denied to our foe. There are others, others that might not be too far gone for you to save, Florence,” George said.

“You’re right George. It doesn’t make this feel any better, but you’re right,” Florence replied.

Chapter 26.

“What did I miss?” Doug asked as he returned to the land of the living.

“Nothing much, you got pulled apart by an ogre and we took up the slack and defeated the other core,” Florence said, giving Doug grief for his rapid defeat during the battle. Bantering with her companion was the first spot of brightness in her day so far.

“I do recall someone distracting me at a critical moment, but really, what happened?” Doug asked.

Florence started to perk up now that Doug had come back. George had done his best to get her back on track and motivated, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she could have done something to get here earlier before the other core had been too far gone to save. She had reset her home, and the entire second floor was complete after reaching level five, but Florence hadn’t even bothered to review the other changes and improvements that had come with the new level.

George and Patricio took over, giving Doug the rundown on the battle and subsequent defeat of the other core. Her kitty companion picked up on her mood and tried to discreetly ask the others about her, forgetting that Florence heard everything that went on in her home. Still, she didn’t even bother to listen in, it wasn’t worth the fuss.

“So, Florence, as I see it, you were forced to take drastic action and had only two options. You could destroy the other core, gaining power and denying it to Berikoz, you know, the target of our quest, or you could just let the lich feed and grow strong enough to send forces into our home to destroy us. You’re better than this, Florence, the time for moping around like a fool is over. We have work to do, and as your assistant, I demand you follow my orders,” Doug said, with a tone she really didn’t like one bit.

“Hold up there, you jumped up kitten, what makes you think I’ll be spoken to in that manner. Imagine that, someone so rude that they would say horrible things to an elderly woman in her own home. Disgraceful, your mother, if you had one, would be rolling over in her grave at your behavior,” Florence replied, not one bit happy that Doug had taken this tone with her.

“I think…” George started to say before Florence interrupted him.

“Who said you got to think? This here disagreement is between me and Doug, so mind your own business. Oh, don’t think I don’t see you over there Patricio. I don’t want any jibber jabber from you either. Now, Doug, I expect an apology and I expect it now. To imagine, I brought you into my home, well, all of my homes, the one on earth and all my homes here on Aerkon. I brought you into my home and you respond by saying such hateful things, what do you have to say for yourself?” Florence demanded.

“Are you feeling angry, Florence?” Doug asked, mocking her further.

“You bet your furry behind, I’m angry, see if I ever give you any treats again. You can forget about me making you any of those fuzzy mice toys that you like, you know, the ones with the catnip in them. Nope, no toys for you, buster,” Florence said, happy with her punishment, but wishing she had something else she could do to the loudmouth kitten. If she were back on earth, she’d cut off the treats, but he didn’t eat here.

“And I do believe that our Florence is back,” Patricio said with a stupid smile plastered on his face. It hit Florence then, what Doug was doing, he was riling her up to break her out of the funk she had been in.

“Doug, did you do that on purpose?” Florence asked.

“Exactly, glad to see you realize my plan. I take it you’re ready to get back to work. I figured that you just needed a shock to snap you back into your old self,” Doug said, looking a bit too satisfied.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get to work, and you can cut off the sass,” Florence replied.

“Great, glad you’re back with us, Florence, I mean that,” George said.

“Sorry about snapping at all of you, it’s just that the other core could have been someone that joined our team and that we enjoyed being with. I’m worried that’s the fate that awaits me, a descent into madness and a loss of what I am,” Florence admitted. It wasn’t something she was keen to do, admit she was wrong, not that she was wrong all that often.

“Let’s dispense with all that, Florence. We need to see to our home’s defense and prepare our next move. Can you sense the other cores we need to track down? Oh, and what do we have to work with given our new level?” Doug asked.

First off, Florence had Patricio spread her magic map out on the floor, and she concentrated, not sure if the ability to sense the closest tainted core would work unless she was in hybrid form. At first, it didn’t, the map was just a map, but then she felt it, something in her connected, not to the map, but to the next core, and through that link, she was able to find what she was looking for. It was a good-sized city, a place called Darnglade, a kind of stupid name if you asked her.

“I think we have our next stop, some place called Darnglade. Why would there be a dungeon under a city? You’d think the folks living there would want it destroyed, just to be safe,” Florence said.

“I know this place, some great taverns, though there is a lot of competition for the services I offer. As far as why there is a dungeon there, what city wouldn’t want one? From what I know, the dungeon was sealed off for a long time, going dormant and only opening when the city above it began constructing its sewer system. They eventually figured out the source of the creatures that kept attacking them from the sewers and called the guild. Seeing the opportunity, the guild built a large keep right over the top of the dungeon and controls access to it,” Patricio told everyone.

“I sure don’t like the part about the guild being built on top of it, they’re the last people we want to deal with,” Florence said.

“It would be lovely if the guild were our only problem, I’m afraid this town is quite a ways from where we are now. Time is ticking down and spending weeks and weeks on the road isn’t going to improve our chances of completing this quest on time,” Doug said. Darn it, he was right, their journey from George’s dungeon to the one they had just destroyed had moved them in the exact opposite direction than they wanted to go.

“We don’t have much in the way of funds, not nearly enough to purchase a teleportation scroll, I figure. Nothing we can do but hoof it. The timer for me to turn back into my hybrid form is long since passed but let me check out my new stuff from leveling before we go,” Florence said. She was mostly out of her funk and getting moving, outside in the fresh air, would do her a world of good. Not wanting to be bombarded by a bunch of junk she already knew, Florence paired down her interface to show only the changes from the last level.

Florence Valentine, Hybrid Entity.

Core Gem/Catomancer (Domestic Housecat Subtype), Level 5. 1/12,000.

Health: 100%.

Mana: 500/500.

Core Shard Traits:

Indomitable Will: This ability can now be activated to grant any ally a significant boost to their willpower, greatly reducing the chance of them being dominated or controlled by another. This new aspect of the ability can only be activated once every hour.

Magic:

1. Kitten Storm: This spell conjures a whirling maelstrom of kittens that will bite and scratch any foe in reach. The spell duration is 30 seconds and requires 50 mana to cast.

2. Instant Dungeon (Hybrid form only): This ability has unlocked the chance of champion rooms being summoned.

Companion Abilities:

1. Summon Doug: Once per week, you can summon your companion instantly, despite any cooldown remaining on his respawn timer.

Combat Traits and Abilities:

1. Soulbound Weapon: Your cane can now be thrown as a ranged weapon while you are in hybrid form. The range is 15 feet and the weapon will return to your hand whether you hit or miss your target.

2. Soulbound Armor: Your armor has been integrated into your clothing, and currently provides the same protection as Chainmail.

4. Enhanced Durability. When in your hybrid form, you resist 8% of damage from all damage types.

The new ability seemed interesting, and it was one she had to try out right away. When Florence started to activate Kitten Storm, she found she could change the size and shape of it a bit and could target it anywhere in her home, and likely anywhere within line of sight when she changed back into a hybrid. At her command thunder sounded and a swirl of clouds, about the size of a person, began to form in the targeted area. Delightfully cute kitten mews sounded from the storm and occasionally, a tiny, furry paw or a cute kitten head would poke out from the cloud.

“Does that have any practical application, or is it just a big cloud of cats?” Patricio said skeptically.

“Why don’t you stick your head in there and find out?” Florence replied.

“I’ll pass and take your word that it will prove to be useful,” Patricio said after starting to walk toward the cloud. As he approached, the cute little paws began to extend their needle-like kitten claws and the adorable faces were now hissing and showing their sharp little teeth. The spell was supposed to know friend from foe, but it was a cloud full of kittens, and everyone who’s ever held a kitten knows they can’t always control their claws like a big kitty can, and to make matters worse, them tiny claws are as sharp as could be.

“Your mana had a nice bump, maybe we can expect the same sort of enhanced improvement with every five levels we gain,” Doug said.

“I’ve had a bit of a boost as well, quicker rage generation and I can summon more defenders when we’re transformed into our home,” George offered, sparing Florence the need to dig through all the data herself.

“All right, if everyone’s ready, let’s get transformed and on the road,” Florence announced. Confirming her change back to the hybrid form, Florence waited for the strange process to begin. Last time, it hadn’t taken long, but this time, her home was much larger, and to prevent a collapse of the hillside, the supports from her home were left behind, creating strange underground walls, but without any of the lovely décor elements remaining.

Since there was much more to reprocess with her home, Florence’s mind did blank out for a bit, but it wasn’t anywhere near as disconcerting as transforming into her home. Florence came back to her senses quickly, figuring only a few minutes had passed. Her vision was still a bit hazy and when she tried to stand, she found herself bound up in some weird glowing ropes. Looking around, she could see her companions were in a similar state and the whole place was crawling with people in armor, mage robes, and the like.

“Hey, what’s going on here? Somebody call the police, I’m being kidnapped!” Florence shouted.

“Silence!” A man that could only be a mage replied, moving his hands in an intricate pattern while a glow began to form.

“You’re a rude one, and a piece of fashion advice, it’s okay to not dress in robes if you’re a mage, it kind of gives you away,” Florence started to say, but the man’s spell completed, and a glowing band covered her mouth preventing her from speaking.

“Don’t do anything rash, Florence, let’s see where they take us. If they wanted to kill us, they could have done so already, so we’ll bide our time and then figure out a way to escape,” Doug said through their core link.

“I’ll open the portal, the keep should be ready to receive our guests by now,” the mage said.

“Well, that works out in our favor, chances are the guild keep will be closer to our objective than where we are now. They’re helping us to drastically cut down on the time we need for traveling,” George added, also able to communicate with Florence since he was a core fragment.

“Hey, where’s Patricio and Fizz?” Florence asked.

“No idea, we kind of blanked out when you transformed, and when we came to, these guys were here,” Doug explained.

“Think he sold us out? ”Florence asked.

“No, he is a bard, but with Fizz gone too, I think something happened to them, or they saw what was coming and escaped,” George said.

They didn’t have time for further conversation as a portal opened, and on the other side, Florence could see a dark stone room, with a heavy wooden door. Their abductors picked her up and heaved her through the portal, and before she could do anything, the portal snapped shut, leaving her alone inside what could only be described as a prison cell.