Cat Core 3, Chapter 12.

Chapter 12.

That big old alpha wolf was big enough to tear down the front door in only a couple of swipes. One of the splotches of fire fur, which Florence decided was the proper name for it, was on the alpha’s paw. When he whacked the door it burned a hole in it with each hit. The wolf didn’t wait for the paw strikes to burn the door down and once he had weakened it, the alpha charged knocking the door down and startling her defenders.

Startled or not, Bhargath and Midnight moved to defend their home. The alpha’s charge had not only busted down the door but also launched him into the living room. Her lovely couch started to smolder, the protective plastic melting where it came into contact with the fire fur. Bhargath and Midnight flanked the large beast, with Bhargath leaping on top of the alpha while Midnight slashed at its flanks. Her big kitty Bhargath screeched in pain as the fur atop the alpha wolf burned into her baby. Not one to shirk his duties, Bhargath ignored the pain, tearing into the big wolf.

Midnight got a couple of good slashes in with her claws, burning one of her poor paws in the process. Florence figured that Bhargath was going to be on his own for a bit as two of the wolf pack charged into the open doorway and latched their oversized jaws onto poor Midnight. Tater and Baxter saw this as their chance to enter the battle, leaping down from the ledge over to the door to slam into the wolves attacking Midnight. Her babies had lots of practice with fighting in the living room, and if they hadn’t been so outnumbered or didn’t have to deal with a fire fur wolf, they might have stopped the invasion then and there.

Bhargath lost his fight with the alpha, the fire fur was just too much for him to deal with, and Midnight hadn’t survived the initial charge from the two wolves. Baxter and Tater were able to kill one of the regular wolves and seriously injure another one before they too fell to that gall-durned alpha wolf. The alpha didn’t come out of things unscathed, Bhargath had done some damage, but not enough to hamper its movements. With the last living room defender down, the wolves started sniffing around the place, trying to catch the scent of Florence’s gem. They weren’t too smart like people are and didn’t understand how a house was laid out.

“Come on, just a little closer,” Doug said as the badly wounded wolf sniffed his way toward the fireplace and the trap inside it. With a whooshing sound, a burst of flame shot out of the fireplace as the wolf stuck his face inside. The blast turned the wolf into a crispy critter and washed over some of the others. It wasn’t much damage, given the low level of the trap, but even a few burns would make it easier for Florence’s babies to hold off the invaders.

“Oh dear, that wasn’t good,” Doug said, pointing toward the alpha who was standing there grinning as the scratch marks on his back healed over.

“Doug, your stupid trap healed that thing,” Florence chided, knowing it wasn’t Doug’s fault, but perhaps her dressing down of the kitty advisor would push him to do better in the future.

“How was I to know that misbegotten offspring of a hellhound was going to come into our home. It wasn’t a total loss, at least the trap dealt with one of the other wolves for us,” Doug said in his defense. It was true, the initial blast had finished off the one that triggered the trap, but he was already wounded pretty badly from the scuffle with her defenders.

“Yeah, we’ll have to see what the other kitties do, at least we don’t have any more fire traps,” Florence said. The wolves had figured out that the hallway was where they needed to go, and the alpha knocked that door down as well. Her home was going to need a lot of resetting before this was done. The alpha stopped at the doorway and sniffed, letting out a low growl and forcing another of the wolves out in front. Between the wolf that they had taken out on the front lawn and the pair of casualties inside the living room, they were down to four regular wolves and the big mean fire fur guy.

Buddy and Princess bided their time, like the patient kitties they were. The wolf sniffed around, growling as he smelled the two kitties, but was unable to get to them inside the walls where they hid. Just like Florence hoped, the wolf started sticking his snout inside the small openings, trying to track the kitties, and inadvertently triggered the spear trap. A sharp wooden stake, the trap at this level wasn’t so great, stabbed into the wolf’s snout, causing it to yelp and jump back. At that time, both Buddy and Princess jumped out of the openings in the wall to slash and bite the injured wolf before retreating into the walls.

The alpha was having none of this and charged into the room fur glowing with heat. He sniffed at one opening, dodging the spear trap, and then launched himself into the wall, collapsing one of the tunnels. He repeated the move until there were only a few openings left. Realizing that they were about to be trapped, Buddy and Princess launched their final attacks. The alpha snatched Buddy up in his oversized jaw, but Princess managed to slash him a few times in one of his front legs before the other wolves tore into her.

“One injured pretty badly, and the alpha picked up a minor scratch,” Doug said, recapping the action for some reason. Didn’t he know Florence was right there and watched the whole thing?

“We’re running out of rooms, and defenders, but I think Zeus, and his two buddies will do a good job,” Florence offered. She was confident in her kitty defenders but could help but give her cane a few test swings just to see if still worked as it should.

“Uh, Fizz, are you still with us?” Doug asked. Fizz had joined them in the core room but didn’t seem all that keen on doing much except for moping in the corner since his little gnome buddies were still locked away in her core somewhere.

“I’m fine, sorry, let me get something ready in case those wolves make it in here,” Fizz replied, pulling open his pack and rummaging around for crossbow bolts. His zapper thingy was still out of commission and the gnome didn’t seem to want to work on it, instead opting for the simpler crossbow. That was just fine with Florence, she didn’t trust that zapper and in her opinion, it was just as dangerous to them as it was to the enemy.

By now, the wolves had made it into the library and were already battling with Florence’s defenders. The injured wolf had been forced to lead the way and had eaten the first magic missiles from the pair of traps in the room. Fluff and Fluffy Jr. finished off the beast, but they were being hard pressed by the Alpha as the rest of the pack tried to slip by and get at poor Zeus. With electricity to make Fizz’s zapper jealous, her mage kitty unleashed his spell. The bolt slammed into the alpha, causing it to freeze up momentarily and allowing the two brawler kitties to get a free hit. Fluffy and Fluffy Jr weren’t looking too good though. That durned alpha was still burning them each time they attacked, and once he unfroze, a quick bite finished off Junior. Fluffy went into a rage, slashing and biting at the alpha while ignoring his own burning fur.

Poor Zeus went down to the rest of the pack, he was a good mage kitty, but they can’t stand up against three wolves in a melee fight. The alpha took out Fluffy with another bite, leaving only two rooms remaining before the core room. Florence changed out the baked goods in the kitchen, forming them into what should seem like irresistible dog biscuits, which she dosed liberally with poison. The trick never seemed to work out too well with evil adventurers, but everyone knew that wolves were sort of like dogs, and dogs were just plain stupid when it came to eating stuff they shouldn’t.

Down to three regular wolves and a lightly wounded alpha, the others approached the door to the kitchens. With a loud hum of building energy, the two magic missile wand traps were triggered for a second time. Their recharge rate was terrible at level two, but in this case, it had helped Florence because the wolves had forgotten about them during the battle with her kitties. Given they triggered the first time on the wolf that was leading the way, the others might not have even known they were there.

Both bolts slammed into the lead wolf, failing to penetrate its hide, but damaging important stuff inside if Florence were to guess, given the way it yelped and then seemed to have trouble moving and catching its breath. Like before, that bully of an alpha pushed the wounded one forward after knocking down the door to the kitchen. The wounded wolf limped into the kitchen, nose sniffing for any enemies. It turned its head suddenly toward the table, shuffling over to sniff the plate of cookies.

“Come on, you dumb, overgrown dog, you know you want them,” Doug muttered as they watched.

“Yes!” Fizz exclaimed as the wolf scarfed down the entire plate of cookies, not leaving any for the others. Upset, the other wolves charged in and howled in anger at their selfish packmate. The alpha held back, cocking his head and looking suspicious as the gluttonous wolf began to make horrible hacking noises. It was worse than when one of Florence’s kitties tried to cough up a hairball. The commotion went on for a minute before the wolf just keeled over and croaked, right on the linoleum floor.

The alpha seemed unphased, knocking down the door from the kitchen to the master bedroom and shoving one of the two remaining wolves inside. Zork and Chubbs were waiting, and this time they weren’t alone. George’s monkey champion, Crusher, jumped in front of the kitty defenders and started pummeling the lead wolf with his fists, hooting and a hollering like he was at the amusement park. The wolf tried to react but had trouble lining up a bite when the blows kept coming. Dazed, it collapsed to the floor which opened up enough space for the other normal wolf to charge. The wolf latched onto Crusher’s throat, which was about the worst thing that could have happened to the poor monkey.

Having Crusher stagger back and trying to pull the wolf free, finally gave Zork a clear shot. He had a pair of magic bolts hovering over his head, and with a thought, Florence’s kitty launched them at the wolf attacking poor Crusher. Chubbs made his move as well, rolling up into his giant, yet still adorable, kitty ball and slamming into the wolf that Crusher had initially attacked. The force of Chubbs’ attack launched the wounded wolf into the alpha’s face. Yelping as its fur burned from the alphas fire powers, the wolf collapsed, its whimpers fading out for good when the Alpha stomped on it in his haste to attack Chubbs.

“Crusher didn’t exactly put up much of a fight,” Florence complained. The wolf had managed to tear out the poor monkey’s throat, ending its defense of the master bedroom. It had bought Zork enough time to conjure up another pair of magic bolts which managed to finish off the wolf. He was almost out of mana now, and Florence figured that Zork was good for one more shot before the well ran dry.

“He was just getting warmed up, not to mention he did most of the damage to the first wolf,” Fizz argued, sticking up for George’s champion as he loaded a makeshift crossbow bolt into his weapon. The shaft of the bolt was kind of crooked and instead of arrowhead or whatever you called them things for a crossbow, it had a big old screw tied on. Sure, it was big and pointy, but that thing would be lucky to fly two feet before hitting the ground, let alone do damage to a big wolf.

“Oh, poor Chubbs,” Florence said. Her kitty was a scratching and biting the alpha something fierce, but he was also horribly burned with each attack. His frantic attacks slowed, allowing the alpha to grab ahold of her big boy of a kitty, and Chubbs’ crispy body didn’t have a chance against those powerful jaws. Dropping the lifeless Chubbs to the ground, the alpha lunged toward Zork, the last defender in the room. Zork fired off a pair of magic bolts both hitting the alpha in the face and even putting out one of its eyes.

“Get ready everyone, I shall endeavor to stop this fiend before he can lay a hand on your cores,” Doug said. What he thought that he was going to do against the alpha other than getting burned up was a mystery. He didn’t have the Deadly Doug ability yet, as far as Florence could recall.

The alpha, battered and wounded, but still formidable, charged into the core room. Doug leaped in the air, far faster and higher than a little fluffy kitten should be able to. Not one to pass up a free meal, the alpha snapped his jaws, plucking Doug from the air and swallowing him in one bite. Fizz shouted a gnomish war cry and fired his crazy-looking crossbow bolt, which actually seemed like it worked okay. The bolt slammed into the chest of the alpha and began spinning, driving the screw-tipped bolt deeper into the target. Ignoring the horrible-looking wound that the crossbow was creating, the alpha licked his lips and tried to swallow up Florence’s gem just like he had done to poor little Douggie.

“Not a chance, buster!” Florence shouted as she used her power to swing the cane. The weapon hit the alpha right on top of the head, stopping his lunge and causing the beast to collapse to the floor, stunned by the blow but still in the fight. Fizz dropped his crossbow and started laying into the alpha with the oversized wrench he used as a weapon. Florence was worried the little guy was going to get burned up by the fire fur patches, but it looked like the gnome had thought ahead, and had oversized gloves covering both his hands and a thick apron covering his chest.

“Nice work Fizz!” Florence said as her gnome buddy ended the threat to their home.

“No gnome worth his weight in components would be caught dead without a full set of crafting gear. These gloves and apron can keep me safe by the forge, I figured they’d do just fine against that fire wolf guy. What about Doug, can we help him somehow,” Fizz asked, looking concerned.

“Nah, he’s fine, I can still feel him inside my core. He’ll pull himself together in a day or so. Enjoy the quiet while you have it,” Florence replied. To be honest, she would miss her brave little companion, but that wasn’t going to stop her from giving him grief over his insane attack. When he had been a big tiger kitty, Doug was overly cautious, but when he was a tiny kitten, he thought he was a super kitty.