Cat Core, Chapter 34.

Chapter 34.

The avatar roared in fury, it’s call pushing the rest of the cult onward. A half dozen of the cultists pushed open the door leading into the game room. They paused after entering, unsure of what they were seeing. The berserkers following behind weren't having any of it they pushed the cultists forward driving them further into the room, using the weaker ones as a shield to absorb any initial attacks. Her kitties were ready for them, Astrid and Jurgen charging out from underneath a table to engage the invaders, while Milk Tea climbed onto one of the high ledges near the ceiling to fire off spells. She had really wanted to unveil this room to adventurers and give them a chance to bet on the roulette wheel, but it looked like the invaders would be the first ones inside. There would be no holds barred, no bets, all her kitties and traps would be used.

As the line of cultists hit the defending brawler kitties, Milk Tea cast her first spell. A green glow surrounded Astrid and Jurgen, its effect on them unknown until the first blows landed. Her kitties focused on the leading pair of cultists, easily overpowering them, but in return, they took several blows from the others. Normally her brawler type kitties were tough, but whatever Milk Tea had done, made them even more durable. As the wounds from the makeshift weapons were inflicted, the green glow slowly healed up any damage. The spell was limited, the healing was slow, and the glow faded over time as its magic was expended.

As the berserkers entered the fight, Clementine made her appearance, the commando kitty leaped from behind a planter, her claws raking across the belly of a berserker before she ran to hide once more behind one of the gaming tables. As the unwounded berserkers turned to chase her down, the roulette table activated, the spinning wheel launched off the table, blades around the edges extended as it flew toward the berserkers chasing Clementine. The wheel landed with a meaty thwack, severing the head of one of the berserkers who turned to see what had happened just as Clementine renewed her assault.

The commando kitties did huge damage when they caught their prey unaware, and Clementine’s attack ripped into the back of the berserker. Roaring in anger and pain, the berserker dropped the huge club he had been carrying and reached behind his back to grasp the cat. Clementine hissed and dug into her prey as the berserker glowed red with a rage ability and squeezed. Her poor baby made a final squeal as the life was crushed from her, the berserker adding to his injuries as he ripped the cat away from his back, tearing his wounds further before hurling Clementine at Milk Tea who was trying to cast another spell.

“How is that creep still on his feet?” Florence asked, surprised the berserker that Clementine had tore up was still alive. From the amount of blood on the floor, the guy should have keeled over by now.

“I believe he will expire soon; their rage allows them to overcome horrible injuries, but only for a brief time,” Doug advised. The berserker reached down for his club, charging Milk Tea who managed to cast another spell just before the berserker caught up to her. Despite being up on the high ledge, the berserker with his oversized club was able to reach her, and a single powerful blow smashed the mage kitty.

Milk Tea’s last spell did affect her other babies. Both Astrid and Jurgen’s fur took on an orange glow, their hairs standing on end and becoming sharp as a porcupine’s quills. Whenever a cultist brushed up against them, the fur would dig into them, causing minor yet very painful wounds. Her brawlers finished off two more cultists as the rest poured into the room along with the hound handlers. The avatar seemed content to let her forces absorb any of the defenders’ attacks, more cautious now that its only way to heal had been used up.

Outnumbered, both her brawler kitties put up a good fight, taking out a berserker and another pair of cultists before succumbing to their wounds. Florence was pleased to see the last berserker finally fell as well, his rage wearing off and the damage Clementine had done finally doing its work. The game room had taken a high toll on the invaders, but there were only three more rooms before Florence had to face them directly.

Another group of cultists led the way into the kitchen, nervous and jittery as no cats emerged to attack them. Florence had finally set out the poisoned tea party, but the invaders didn’t seem interested in stopping for some snacks and instead, proceeded down the short hall to the dining room, their pace quickening as they neared their prize.

“Ha, just a bit further, and now!” Doug shouted. Florence watched as the cultists, the hound handlers, and finally, the avatar passed through the kitchen on their way to the dining room. Doug had been waiting for just the right time to drop his last trap, the barrel of rabid gnomes. A hidden cabinet opened, and the large barrel dropped down. The avatar must have sensed or heard it, easily dodging the heavy object.

While smashing in one of the Avatar’s head would have been a bonus, Florence knew the real threat was contained inside. The barrel smashed on the hard linoleum floor of the kitchen and a dozen little guys dressed in tattered clothing and sporting green conical hats emerged. They hissed and foamed at the mouth, looking around the room before settling their gaze on the avatar. The avatar seemed stunned over the appearance of the rabid gnomes, only shaking off her confusion when the horde of little creeps charged toward her.

“Why don’t they have any weapons? Someone thought to give them clothes and those stupid hats, but not even a kitchen knife or a club, or something for them to fight with?” Florence complained.

“I don’t think arming the infected gnomes was on the agenda when they were placed in stasis. In fact, I’m not even sure if they're real, I believe it is much more likely that they are summoned via magical means and weren’t actually stuffed inside the barrel. It doesn’t look like they would have the presence of mind to effectively wield a weapon even if they had access to one,” Doug said as the little guys ignored losing three of their number to bites from the Avatar’s heads. They could only get at the monster’s legs, but that didn’t stop them from trying to climb up, clawing with their fingers and gnawing on the avatar the whole time.

“Too bad they all are wearing green hats,” Doug commented.

“Why?” Florence replied.

“Well, it is widely known that gnomes with a red hat of command are much more powerful than the standard representations of their species. I assume this would be true even in their rabid state,” Doug answered. As far as Florence was concerned, this world was just plumb weird sometimes.

The avatar had little trouble plucking the little gnomes off her three at a time. Despite their ferocity, the gnomes appeared to do little more than annoy the three-headed dog monster. Florence couldn’t help but be disappointed with the trap that Bartleby had sold her. Were his other products as crummy as the gnomes were?

“Well, Doug, will that monster dog at least catch rabies from them gnomes?” Florence asked.

“No, the rabid part of their name refers to their actions, not to any actual disease. I don’t even think that someone with real rabies would act the way these gnomes had,” Doug replied. So, it was all some marketing gimmick, she figured. What Doug had said about summoned creatures seemed correct, as the gnomes didn’t leave a bloody corpse behind and instead just popped out of existence when they were chomped on by the avatar.

Back in the dining room, her babies were having almost as much trouble as the gnomes were. The first cultists had been cut down by the defenders, but after the initial wave, the hounds charged in, quickly overpowering Sasha and Kirabell. Cookie did manage to get a good shot in, some of her necromancer magic stuff rotted away one of the wounded hounds. The enemy was left with two hounds and eleven of them cultist folks. Of course, the avatar was still in the fight and had barely been scratched by the gnome assault.

“Now may be a good time to unleash your summons. There isn’t a whole lot of room in here for an additional four defenders and they should be very effective in backing up our champions,” Doug advised. It seemed like a good plan so Florence readied her summons as the cultists charged into the champion room.

Zork and Chubbs were waiting for the attack. A good dozen of the glowing ball magic missile thingies were swirling around Zork’s head and old Chubbs used some kind of champion ability to grow even larger, his claws and teeth were now the size of daggers and would give them invaders what for.

The charging cultists were met with a hail of magic missiles that seemed to appear from nowhere as the invisible kitty cut loose. His bolts of magic dropped cultist after cultist, thinning their ranks. The hounds waited for the spell to expire, charging in as Zork worked to cast another spell, and Chubbs was tied up with remaining cultists. Florence used this as her chance, summoning her defenders and watching as four kitties that looked like clones of Mortimer and Princess appeared around a surprised avatar and started attacking.

Unlike the other times that her commando-type kitties attacked, the first attacks against the surprised avatar weren’t fatal. The claws opened large wounds in the avatar’s legs and belly, but after the initial strike, her kitties were much less effective. The Avatar’s heads snapped forward, two of them landing on her summoned defenders. Just like the gnomes, when her summoned kitties died, they just popped out of existence, thankfully not leaving behind a mess.

“It was an unfortunate summons, we would have been much better off with a mix of defenders that included some brawlers and a mage,” Doug said. Florence was just about to give him a piece of her mind for criticizing her at a time like this when he continued. “Not any fault of your own, I assure you, it is completely a random ability that you had no control over,”

Florence watched her last two summons battle the avatar, landing a bite and a few more scratches before the lunging teeth of their foe caught her kitties. The monster dog then charged into the champion room where her final champion was putting up the fight of his life. Zork must have been caught by the hounds, as he was lying dead while a furious Chubbs finished off the oversized dogs. Her champion turned as the last hound went down, ready to face the charging avatar.

Facing a big old three-headed dog monster didn’t phase her brave cat, and Chubbs met the avatar’s roaring charge with a hiss and a countercharge of his own. The two slammed into each other, shattering the furniture in the room as they became a ball of fur, teeth, and claws.

Chubbs directed his attacks on one of the dog heads, trying to take apart the monster one head at a time. He was somewhat successful, the dog head howling in pain as his claws and teeth ravaged it. Sadly, the other two heads retaliated, and once locked into battle, Chubbs couldn’t dodge the other attacks. Her baby wasn’t a quitter though, he was her champion and a powerful one at that. Shrugging off wounds that would have felled even her brawler kitties, Chubbs continued his assault, leaving the first dog head hanging in shredded ruins as he turned his attention toward the second.

The creepy human face howled and shouted curses at Florence’s baby, the words doing as much damage as her long teeth. There was some kind of bad magic in them words, they hurt Florence’s head as she heard them. Chubbs’ attacks lost some of their power and as he clawed out one of the eyes on the dog head, it chomped down hard. A weak hiss escaped Chubbs as he expired. He had done a number on the avatar, one of the heads drug on the ground lifeless, and the other dog head was torn up good. The human-like head only had a few scratches and the avatar seemed to grin as it approached Florence’s core room.

“Uh, Doug, are you and Kyo ready to fight?” Florence asked as she cast Deadly Doug on her kitten assistant. Doug grew to lion size and let out a somewhat disappointing attempt at a roar as the avatar drug itself inside the core room.

Florence took a practice swing or two with her cane and readied herself for a fight. Kyo made some clanking sounds as the mechanical cat stood and clanked its way toward the final invader. It landed on the wounded dog head and began to bite and tear away at it, almost like a repeat of what Chubbs had done. The avatar wasn’t having any of that and began chanting again while chewing on the metal kitty. The horrible sound of teeth grating on metal was accompanied by cracks as some of the monster’s teeth broke against Kyo’s armored shell.

“Her magic is painful, Florence, but I shall do what I can,” Doug said as he joined the fight. As each blasphemous world was grunted from the avatar’s mouth, Doug cringed and bits of Kyo corroded off. Doug leaped on the avatar’s back, clawing and biting with reckless abandon. He was a tryin’ his best, but Doug just wasn’t very good at fighting, even if she had transformed him into a lion.

Sparks flew from Kyo as it malfunctioned, dropping the floor and twitching. The mechanical defender had done better than that stupid barrel of gnomes, though, having taken out the final dog head. Now, the avatar only had the disturbingly human head remaining. A head that kept on a shouting those horrible words that made Florence’s head hurt and Doug twitch in pain. Unable to reach Doug with its central head, the avatar rolled over on her back, trying to crush her assistant.

Doug lost his grip, and skid across the room. The avatar rolled back onto her feet and opened her mouth wider than it should have been able to, a stream of foul black goo shot out, splashing over poor Doug. Her advisor, her friend, squealed in pain as the liquid melted him down. Leaving him dead on the floor. Florence was overcome with first sadness, then rage as the avatar turned toward her. It was finally within range of her cane and she was going to give that monster what for.

“You just bought yourself a passel of trouble monster dog lady, nobody kills my friends and gets away with it!” She shouted as she unleashed the Shake the Cane ability. Moving on its own, her cane lashed out five times, each blow landing randomly on the avatar, causing it to howl in pain as bones were broken and old wounds reopened.

The monster fell as one of its leg bones cracked under the assault. Florence’s ability finished and she continued her attack, trying to aim her cane at any prior wounds that the avatar had. Despite its power, Florence could tell the monster was almost done it, the accumulated wounds had added up and her unrelenting strikes were finishing it off. Just when she thought she had it done licked, the avatar reared up and sprayed a stream of that black gunk at her core gem.

Her protective shield deflected the nasty gunk the avatar was spewing out, but Florence could tell it was about to give out. With a final death howl, the avatar lashed out with its creepy human head, the long teeth shattering the remnants of her shield before closing over her core gem. Florence continued her assault, the cane striking again and again as it tried to kill the avatar before the avatar killed her. Pain shot through Florence as the teeth bit down on her. The teeth creaked and skid off her gem, but some found purchase and caused the pain to intensify. Florence put all she had into a final strike of the cane, her weapon landing on the avatar’s head cracking through its skull and ending the monster.

Florence’s pain didn’t end with the monster’s death, in fact, things got worse as the avatar’s death throes caused its jaws to snap shut. A final intense burst of pain seared into her, and Florence could sense her gem cracking under the pressure. The sound of breaking glass filled the core room, and the pain began to fade. Unfortunately, the pain faded even as her vision did, Florence’s mind became fuzzy while she watched her beautiful gem break into a hundred pieces.

She couldn’t move her vision through the home, her sight locked into a single fragment of the gem. Her vision dimmed further; she watched as the collar around Doug’s neck gave off a glow of black energy. He transformed back into a kitten, seemingly unharmed as the little guy scurried over to her. Doug was saying something, but she couldn’t make it out. She was frightened as the kitten picked up the fragment of gem that Florence was in, but he didn’t try to harm her, instead, she felt motion as Doug raced off. Where was she going? Why was it getting so dark?