Cat Core 3, Chapter 8.

Chapter 8.

The giant ape champion stood up tall and roared a challenge from both his mouths. It was an eardrum buster of a roar if Florence were to guess, but she and Doug weren’t affected, and Fizz just covered his ears with his hands and seemed to weather the ordeal well enough, another benefit of being associated with a core shard. With all four arms, it started beating its chest and Florence knew the monster was going to charge them after it was done with its showboating. She readied Instant Dungeon, hopefully, it would distract and wound the champion while they chipped away at its health. After a few beats of the chest, the craziest thing happened, one of its arms just dropped off. The champion looked as confused as the rest of them.

“I think it’s broken,” Florence said, making note that her mana was up to fifty-seven, giving her enough to cast a summons or Empower Beast twice.

“No, not exactly broken, it’s deteriorating just like it would if the champion was cut off from the core. There is something strange going on here,” Doug said.

“Strange or not, lost arm or not, that big old monkey is charging!” Florence screeched as the beast rushed at the trio. Fizz fired a crossbow bolt into the monster’s chest, which it ignored, and then the gnome ran for cover, trying to get behind one of the fallen pillars as he tried to reload. Doug was all crouched down like he was ready to run, and he was also hissing at the champion, drawing its attention away from Florence who was getting ready to fire off Instant Dungeon.

Before the ape slammed into Doug, he leaped to the side, her agile big kitty able to juke his way past the blundering monster of a champion. The champion slammed into one of the upright pillars, the impact giving off the sound of a meaty crack. With the ape stopped she activated her ability, watching as the ghostly double of one of her rooms took shape. It should have been obvious to the champion that the room was an illusion, given how he was bigger than the entire thing and half his body was sticking out of it, but it still had a dopey and confused look on his face.

The ability had summoned the laundry room and her little babies Arya and Q were already starting to cast their spells. While the champion was distracted, Fizz leaned around the corner and hit it in the back with another crossbow bolt. The champion felt this one and jerked one of his heads to look at his attacker. This was all the opening that her kitties needed, both having completed the casting of their first spells.

Arya was a fire mage cat, and a small ball of flame flew from her extended paw. It looked puny compared to the giant champion, but where it hit, the fur caught fire and the champion gave a yelp of pain. Quirigua or Q as Florence preferred, stupid Doug naming her babies weirdo things, well Q, she was a summoner and her first spell conjured up a dopey looking goblin with only a sharpened stick to use as a makeshift spear. She had to give the summoned creature credit, the little goblin saw its target and charged bravely toward the champion, only to get slapped by one of its remaining hands and go flying off somewhere.

Angry, the giant ape charged the two mage kitties while Florence used some of her mana to empower Doug. Given the size of the champion, her companion kitty was going to need as much buffing as possible. The only downside was that she needed more distractions, and began a summons with her remaining magic, watching the events of the Instant Dungeon unfold as she worked. The traps that were normally installed in this room of her home weren’t active, likely a result of her only being level one, so the champion wasn’t hampered in the least as he closed in on the two mage kitties.

With his three remaining fists, the champion pummeled Florence’s summoned kitties. Both Arya and Q were out of the fight, but they’d done their best and before the final blows landed, Arya hit the champion with another firebolt, and Q summoned another goblin. Florence also finished her Summon Beast spell and Cooper, her cubby long-haired black brawler kitty appeared. Unafraid, the big boy attacked the legs of the champion as the goblin jabbed it with his stick. Fizz fired again, hitting the champion in the shoulder. Despite all their attacks, the champion seemed to be suffering more damage from the deterioration effect it was somehow under.

More of the strange corrosion marks appeared on the champion's body, and in the time that it took for the champion to deal with Cooper and the summoned goblin, the monster was limping as one leg seemed to bear the brunt of the damage. Doug took advantage of the situation, leaping and clawing his way up the back of the ape, his empowered claws dishing out a lot of damage. Florence started to fall back, her mana was gone and there was no way she was going to go toe to toe against a beast that size, even if it was slowly disintegrating.

The fallen and still standing pillars in the room aided them. Fizz seemed to pop up randomly, fire his crossbow, and duck into cover. Florence just parked herself out of sight behind one of the pillars and tried to organize the battle. Except as a last resort, her cane wasn’t going to be of much use and her mana was only at ten points right now. The champion dropped to the ground as one of its legs gave way, the mounting damage preventing him from standing. That didn’t stop the ape, as it crawled its way with surprising speed on three hands and one leg. Doug kept the champion’s attention, leaping in to strike when he could do so safely, but otherwise kept kiting the monster around the room.

Thankfully, the whole jungle temple décor theme gave them a lot of room to work with, but Florence could imagine the champion would be a handful for an average party when it was fully mobile. They chipped and chipped away at the champion, and the battle went on long enough that she regained the mana needed to cast Empower Beast on Doug once more. It was just in time because, in his unenhanced form, Doug was having trouble keeping out of the clutches of the champion. Once it got ahold of her big kitty, he wasn’t going to last long.

It was kind of sad to see the champion’s state, slowly corroding away while trying to defend his core. Florence wasn’t sure what this dungeon’s problem was but was glad that the glitch was working in her favor. When the champion finally fell, it was anticlimactic, it just kind of kept getting slower and slower before it finally stopped and fully dissolved into the floor of the dungeon.

“That was exhausting,” Doug said. She didn’t correct him because while the both were immune to physical fatigue, the poor kitty had to have been straining his brain to keep one step ahead of their foe.

“You did good, Doug, sorry we weren’t that much help in this fight,” Florence said.

“Glad to be of assistance, now, give me a moment to recover and we’ll see how much more of this place we have to deal with,” Doug replied.

“I sure hope there’s not much left, I’m out of crossbow bolts, and the Fizzbolt 1000 needs a complete overhaul in a workshop before it’ll be ready to use again,” Fizz said. He too looked tired and was chewing on some of the jerky rations he had brought along.

“Let’s check out the room, if there’s another level to this place, I think we’re in trouble,” Florence offered. She hated to have to call it quits, but they were just not powerful enough for this dungeon if there was another floor of mobs and an even more powerful champion waiting for them.

“I don’t believe a retreat will be necessary, this door must lead to the core room,” Doug said as he patrolled the borders of the room. There, in the back corner was a normal-sized door. Given that each level typically ended with the champion fight, the odds of additional defenders were low, and unless that door led to a stairwell down to another level, they had reached their destination.

“Be careful, a core could defend themselves if they chose their abilities wisely,” Florence said.

“This one doesn’t strike me as a genius core, so he probably is the type that would waste an ability choice on a personal weapon or defenses of some sort,” Doug replied. He was still sore at her for protecting her core, and her cane and rocking chair had more than paid for themselves in their home. Fizz ended the potential argument by pushing the door open, announcing it was unlocked and apparently, without traps since the gnome was still standing there without poison darts or fireballs hitting him.

Florence peeked inside, it was a small room, and floating in the center of it was the dungeon's core gem. It was green and kind of sickly looking, the surface was rough and it looked like parts of the gem were chipped off. A small pile of green-colored sand littered the floor around the gem and to make matters worse, it didn’t have a chair or a podium or anything under it, the poor thing was just hanging there in a bare room on its own. It was hard to be angry at the core when she saw the state it was in, and she still had no idea what to do with it.

“Any ideas on what I should do, Doug?” Florence asked.

“I’m not sure, and since I have no warnings against it, I recommend touching it first to see if that accomplishes your task. As a last resort, you can simply smash it with your cane,” Doug offered.

She was a bit annoyed he didn’t have any insight, after all, he was supposed to be her advisor and have the knowledge of how to do all this stuff locked away in his noggin.

Without a better option, Florence reached out and touched the other core gem. Given the pain flaring through her body, it seems that this approach might be a mistake. Before the pain could overwhelm her, it began to abate and she found herself back inside the champion’s room. Doug and Fizz weren’t there, and the place didn’t feel quite real to her.

“Why are you here, did he send you to torment me further?” A deep voice asked.

“Torment you? I don’t even know you. Also, who’s this ‘he’ you’re talking about. If you want people to follow what you’re saying, splurge a bit more on the details if you don’t mind,” Florence replied. After her multiple deaths and returns, her tolerance level for disembodied voices was at an all-time low, especially when they were as whiny as this one was.

“The ‘he’ I’m referring to is your master, Berikoz. Control of my gem was taken by him, and I’m left with just this desolate place to call my own. My dungeon is a shadow of what it should be, and I can feel my life drain slowly away as your master sups upon it,” the voice said, only, it wasn’t just a voice, it turned out there was a genuine person speaking.

She spotted him, sitting behind a fallen pillar. His deep voice had echoed through the dungeon champion's room and made it sound like it was coming from everywhere as it did when someone or something was talking directly to her core. As the man stood, Florence was taken aback by the man’s size. It was a man, too, not a giant four-armed gorilla champion, thank goodness, though the guy was hairier than he should be.

“Berikoz is not my master, I’ll have you know. Now that’s not to say he didn’t’ try to be, but I fought him off. That no-good licking skeleton, Berikoz, knows better than to try and mess with Florence Valentine. Now, who exactly are you, buster?” Florence asked. How dare he think she was being controlled by Berikoz.

“I’m sorry, I meant no offense, I’m just not sure how you’re here. The only other person who was able to intrude on my core was the lich, so I assumed you were in league with him. My apologies, Florence Valentine. I’d introduce myself, but I seem to have forgotten who I was,” the man replied. For as big as the guy was, he sure seemed pitiful. This might have happened to her if she hadn’t resisted Berikoz. Having your core gem destroyed seemed preferable to moping around while your gem was sucked dry of all your power.

“Apology accepted, since you don’t remember your name, mind if I give you one to use until you can remember?” Florence asked.

“Sure, call me whatever you wish, my only question is how are you here, and why?” The guy asked.

“How I’m here is a bit complicated but let’s just say I was a core gem once but had a run-in with Berikoz that shattered my core. I’m kind of tough to kill so I came back as a core shard, which is kind of a person and a core all in one. I touched your gem and it teleported me here. As far as why I’m here, I need to stop Berikoz, and the only way to do that for good is to take care of all the gems he’s infected. As for a name, you remind me of George Klingman from the senior center. He was a big guy like you, but more fat than muscle, not quite as hairy, but close. How about I just call you George?” Florence asked.

“George will be fine. I take it you mean to destroy me in your efforts to defeat Berikoz. He has taken so much from me that I would almost allow you to do that, but I’ll not go that easily into the void!” George said, getting all shouty and loud. To make matters worse, his body got even hairier as he turned into a big ape. Not some champion-sized one, just a normal-sized one, which is big enough. The system that guided this world might be stingy with information, but it somehow conveyed that she wasn’t in any physical danger while they were in here.

“Cool it, Furious George, I can see you’re a real person and whatnot, so I’m not going to kill you unless you make me. There must be some way for us to work this out, I’m assuming you might want a crack at Berikoz as much as I do,” Florence said.

“I will rend and tear that undead abomination apart with my bare hands, or I would if I wasn’t trapped in here. Bah, it’s useless, my anger knows no bounds, but there’s nothing I can do with it,” George said. The fight just kind of went out of him and changed from a hairy ape back into a hairy guy before sitting down and covering his face with his hands.

“Why don’t you join me. I’ve got Doug and Fizz with me and they’re good people, well a good kitty and a gnome. I can sure use some help against the lich, and something tells me that you’d be good in a fight. So, what do you say George, ready to join the team?” Florence asked. It felt right, like this was the way she was supposed to go about dealing with the cores infected by Berikoz. She was sure some wouldn’t be willing to come on board with the quest, and those she figured would be the ones that her cane would have to deal with.

“If it is somehow possible, I will join you, Florence Valentine.