Cat Core 3, Chapter 5.

Chapter 5.

“I better not get bit by anything in here. You know there are ticks and all sorts of creepy crawlies lurking in this mess. Doug, you remember Lulu Cramer’s boy, Joey, the one with the droopy eye? Yeah, well, he got bit by a tick and got the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I surely don’t want whatever the bugs in this place will give me,” Florence said as they blundered through the forest. Of course, Doug said he knew where they were going, but didn’t think about finding an easy path, the just trudged them off in the direction that he insisted he could “smell” the dungeon from.

“Enough with the whining, Florence, neither you nor I can be afflicted by ticks or any insect, arachnid, arthropod, or the like. There, look, I told you I’d find it,” Doug said with pride, pointing his paw toward a clearing they could just make out through the thick underbrush they were slogging through.

“I’m not whining, I’m merely pointing out potential problems. Quit spouting off all the fancy words for bugs and check if there’s been anyone in the dungeon recently. I assume your big cat nose can do that well enough.

“Using the correct titles for things is not ‘fancy’, it’s proper. As for the entrance, I shall endeavor to discover if there has been any recent traffic,” Doug said, trotting from the underbrush and into the clearing. It wasn’t fair, cats were just too agile to get tangled up, unlike her and poor Fizz, who was hacking a path for them with some kind of spinning knife on a stick contraption.

“Shush, we need to approach as quietly as possible,” Doug cautioned, slinking into the clearing, and pointing out what must have been the entrance. A trail led through the underbrush, just a few yards from where they were struggling. It would have been an easy enough path to walk on, but Doug insisted it probably led toward the town, exactly where they didn’t want to be.

“Now this dungeon just isn’t making any kind of effort, is it?” Florence said as Fizz finally cut through the last section, and they could see a bit better. Instead of a nice and welcoming entrance, like her home had sported, this was just a big hole in the ground with dirty skulls of people and beasts strewn about.

“It is a bit barren, but then again, our home had a certain something that I doubt any dungeon of comparable size could replicate,” Doug said.

“Well said, Doug, now, we got any people delving this place, or is clear for us to go in?” Florence said.

The closer she got, the more she could feel some kind of pressure forcing its way against her mind. At first, she started to panic, concerned that Berikoz was back and making another try at her core. Instead of the powerful mind of a lich, this feeling was something else, something weaker, it was the dungeon that was trying to force her away. The idiot should have known better than to try and boss Florence Valentine around, no siree, she wasn’t going to allow some two-bit dungeon that couldn’t even decorate properly to keep her out with some mind trick shenanigans. Harnessing her irritation, Florence hurled the dungeon from her mind, and the pressure against her relented.

“Hold on, let me get ready,” Fizz said, digging around through his pack. The gnome pulled a tattered leather vest with lots of straps for tools and whatnot on it.

It was sturdy enough to function as armor, and once he had it on, Fizz started adding various things to it. Florence never was good with tools, but she could tell a wrench from a screwdriver. The tools that Fizz kept adding to his vest didn’t look like anything she had ever seen in the home improvement store. One pouch in Fizz’s pact was stuffed to overflowing with junk, but it also contained a bright red, conical hat. It was one of them there hats the gnomes from the cookie packages wore, only this one had some kind of magic, if Florence’s core senses were correct. As far as weapons, Fizz had the dangerous electrical shooting contraption in his hands and a heavy, oversized wrench attached to his belt for when things got up close and personal.

“There’s plenty of traffic in and out of this place, but none of it is recent,” Doug advised.

“Ready,” Fizz called out, giving his contraption a few turns of the handle to get the sparks started. Florence followed Doug’s example and kept her distance from the crazy gnome.

“Doug, lead the way, I’ll get ready to summon when we need it and Fizz can, well, he can do whatever it is he does, so long as it doesn’t zap us,” Florence said, shooing Doug into the entrance against his protestations. Despite being such a big boy now, Doug just wasn’t cut out for the front-line fighting stuff given his somewhat timid nature. Until they found a way to add someone else to the party, he’d have to step up to the plate as their tank.

“And I thought the outside was miserable, this interior design is an insult to our profession,” Doug said.

“I agree, let me try to talk to this core, see if it’s willing to converse like an adult,” Florence suggested.

“Can you do that? Is there some kind of core code you get to know when you’re a core?” Fizz asked.

“Nope, nothing special, I’ll just try some old-fashioned hollering,” Florence said. She tried to get a big gulp of air in her lungs, but her body didn’t work that way anymore. Instead, she was able to bellow out at her loudest without any huffing and puffing.

“Hey core, can you hear me? I’m here to talk to you about that lich Berikoz and his shenanigans. I can help you to break his curse if you’ll just show me the way to your core,” Florence offered helpfully.

She wasn’t exactly sure what it was that she had to do to each core that was under Berikoz’s influence. It was even money that her class would unlock some hocus pocus ability that Doug would have to bring her up to speed on, or the other option was that she needed to whack the core gem until it gave up the ghost. Having had her gem shattered twice, she hoped that she could resolve things with a bit less destruction, but in the end, it was life and death for her and Doug. She was always going to choose their party over some dopey core that didn’t even know how to make a halfway decent home design.

“That doesn’t sound good. Fizz, you might want to start cranking, and Florence, we could use some summons,” Doug said as the place echoed with howling, growling, and what sounded like a laugh mixed with a bark. She could feel it, the hostility the core of this place was feeling at her presence. It was a primal desire to overcome the unwelcome core, a knowledge that only one dungeon or home could survive in the same space. Anger and rage began to well in Florence until she realized that wasn’t going to help any of them. The system seemed to agree, as it should.

Indomitable Will has activated, you have resisted the Core Rage associated with two dungeons occupying the same locale. Only one of you can occupy this area, defeat your opponent, and shatter his core.

“Here we go, the fights on boys, that other core was trying to make me fly into a rage, but I’m far too smart for that,” Florence said, pulling on her mana reserves as she formed her first cutie pie of a kitty summons, her mind calming as whatever tried to get her riled up was fought off by her considerable mental prowess.

“Smart isn’t the word Florence, it’s stubborn,” Doug said, as the kitty Zeus popped into existence, Florence ignored Doug’s ignorant comment as she focused on important things, like making more cats. Given the rumbling sounds coming at them from the passage that led deeper into the dungeon, Florence was going to need all the help that she could get. At least there was only one way in or out of the first chamber of the dungeon. It was a boring rectangular room, cut into the earth with a few clumps of plants struggling to survive being trampled over time and again by every party that entered.

The fluffy tabby Astrid joined them, her coat making the natural brawler physique of this kitty look more imposing than her level of one would suggest. Doug waited near the tunnel that led deeper into the dungeon and kept doing that annoying shoulder shrug to get her attention, moving his paws outward to mimic himself getting bigger. It was a poor attempt to tell her to empower him, but they needed numbers, not a single big kitty right now, and besides, Florence wasn’t one to give in to his bullying, she’d do things her way.

“Stand back!” Fizz shouted, and Florence did just that, leaping away from the gnome who had positioned himself a few feet away from her, which was far too close as far as Florence was concerned. Old Fizz had been cranking on that wind-up handle on his contraption this whole time, and it was sparking up good a fierce when he fired it off at the slew of mobs that were starting to spill into the room.

The bolt of electrical energy slammed into the mobs, which were a trio of big old hogs. Not the pink-skinned cute piggies that you’d see some weirdo's on television keep for pets, nope, these were scuzzy-looking ones with big old tusks and clomping hooves that Florence wanted no part of. Just like before, Fizz’s weapon didn’t do him any favors when it activated, the feedback sending bolts of electrical energy into the little guy. It was a bit different this time, though, this time, old Zeus was there to save the day.

Instead of the weapon leaving Fizz twitching on the ground from the feedback, the excess electricity flowed through him and into Zeus’ paw that the kitty had placed on Fizz’s leg. Fizz still took a walloping, but he remained on his feet. Zeus used that power to boost his mana, firing two, good-sized bolts of electricity at the attackers instead of the normal, single jolt that his level one body could produce. Fizz and Zeus’ attacks hit the leading trio of mean pigs, causing the three to squeal even louder as they stumbled to the floor and slid toward Florence. Astrid jumped to Florence’s defense, landing on and tearing into the one that would have slammed into Florence if she wasn’t already moving out of the way.

Giving it a whack of her cane finished off the closest pig, but the other two were trying to stumble to their feet, as Fizz frantically wound up his weapon for a second blast. Zeus slammed another jolt of electricity into one of the pigs, taking it out of the fight, but the last one stumbled to his feet and charged. Shaking its head as the charge connected with Zeus, the pig tore her baby to shreds. Thankfully, her summoned kitties didn’t suffer that much and Zeus just disappeared when he received lethal damage. Florence started another summons as Astrid finished off her target and shifted to the last pig, placing herself between it and Florence.

“Florence, we need to withdraw, there’s too many!” Doug said, her big boy was valiantly trying to stem the tide of beasts that were clogging the entrance. The fight was going to go south really quick when they pushed their way past Doug.

“Run for it, Doug, the summoned kitties will buy us time,” Florence said, jogging toward the entrance, which seemed to be her max speed after she grabbed the gnome and drug him toward the entrance. She could only hope that the dungeon creatures couldn’t pursue them outside. Her babies couldn’t go far from their home, or they would lose their connection to her mana and start taking damage.

Doug slashed at one more beast, this one a chimpanzee with glowing claws and the build of a weightlifter. The chimp mob took the slash, returning Doug’s blow with a double strike from his glowing hands. As Doug retreated, battered but still mobile, the horde of mobs poured through the narrow opening. Another four of the overgrown chimps with glowing hands led the way, followed by several more pigs, and to top things off, a gorilla with bits of armor strapped on it followed its smaller kin.

“Hey, that’s a champion mob. It’s bad form to throw your strongest creatures against a party in the entrance,” Florence protested. Just before she exited the dungeon, a presence, the core that ruled here, pushed his voice into her mind.

“Invaders are not due the same courtesy as adventurers. Leave this place or I will destroy you and consume your core,” a mysterious voice growled in her mind.

“Invader? I’m a guest of your home and should be treated as such. Just because you’re trapped in some core gem doesn’t mean you should be rude. How would your mother feel if she knew you were treating the elderly in such a manner,” Florence scolded as Doug and Fizz made their escape. She had summoned another pair of kitties as she had fled, adding Midnight and Princess to the fight.

“Invader, not guest, leave now or I smash you to goo!” The voice demanded. A pair of deer with metal antlers charged in to join the battle, and that was Florence’s signal to get out of there. She could feel the pressure in her mind recede as she crossed the dungeon entrance and the other core’s influence waned with each step.

“Can you believe that guy? He’s worse than those net deckers that are ruining the Dungeon Delve game, I’ll have you know,” Florence said, her eyes glued to the entrance as she waited to see if any of the mobs were willing or able to pursue.

“Uh, Florence, look over here, we’ve got more immediate problems,” Doug said. She turned to see the clearing wasn’t quite as empty as it had been when they’d entered the dungeon. There, standing with his glowing spear and rotten toothed grin was the hillbilly creep that had ambushed them earlier. Even worse, he wasn’t alone, and she could see at least a dozen of the losers scattered about the clearing, circling Florence and her party as they brandished their crummy weapons.