Cat Core, Chapter 32.

There's a few chapters left of Cat Core, by then, I should have the first Derelict 3 chapters ready to go. 

Chapter 32.

“Eureka, as your people say, I’ve finally worked out the bugs on Kyo here,” Doug said. She moved her focus over to him, watching as the mechanical cat contorted before opening up a small compartment inside.

“What did you do? Did you break it already?” Florence asked, she weren’t any good with anything mechanical, and it sure looked broken to her the way it was all contorted and whatnot.

“I had to reconfigure quite a bit, but the gnomish magic they adhered to their mechanical design is rather impressive. Perhaps they do use cats as guardians for their burrows after all,” Doug said.

War has been declared between the Followers of Kunrax and the dungeon core known as Florence Valentine.

“Uh, oh, I think we’re in trouble Douggie,” Florence said as she turned her gaze outside their home. It looked like part of the town was on fire and people were running all over the place.

“Oh dear, I figured they would be back at some point, but not so soon and not with a force big enough to fight the entire town. Perhaps we should see to our defenses, just in case they make it past the adventurers,” Doug offered. It seemed like a good idea to Florence.

“Yep, what did you have in mind, we’re capped out on defender expense.

“Let’s think about it for a moment. If they proceed as they have previously, they will make a beeline for our core room, avoiding any optional areas. Any of our defenders that are bypassed will eventually leave their rooms to hunt for intruders, but any traps in those side rooms will be useless if nobody encounters them. Perhaps it would be best if we relocate the traps in the bathroom and the garage,” Doug offered.

“Don’t waste any of our time, get to it, Doug,” Florence said, getting impatient as she absorbed the traps in the garage and bathroom.

“First off, this is an invasion, so we need to maximize the damage we cause. Perhaps we overload the first room? Hmm, yes, let’s make it a meat grinder and wear down the foe before they even get started,” Doug offered.

“Sounds good to me, but it looks like something out there is a howling away. That can’t be good, hurry up,” Florence said, somewhat unnerved by the creepy howling outside.

“Just a moment, first we defend the mailbox trap with a pit in front of it. That might buy the crossbow inside the mailbox enough time to fire more than once. I think a second pit trap in front of the stairway along with a flame burst trap on the doorknob itself. I can rig it to work with a new door knocker I keep forgetting to ask you to craft. Don’t worry, I can do it now that it’s part of a trap. There, with all these traps, Obi and Shadow should have a better chance at doing some real damage,” Doug said.

Florence looked over his work. If someone charged the mailbox to destroy the crossbow inside, they would fall ten feet into a nasty pit that Doug had lined with sharpened wood stakes. Normally that would be a little too aggressive for adventurers, but she didn’t feel bad at all for inflicting harm on anyone trying to invade her home. The second pit trap at the base of the stairs leading to the porch should work out the same. Her front door now had a beautiful cat door knocker on it, the open mouth of which would belch flame whenever someone tried to knock on it or even if they just tried to open or break down the door.

“Nice work, it looks like they’re heading our way, and there sure is a lot of them. What in tarnation is that thing!” Florence shouted, catching a glimpse of a giant three-headed dog thing stomping their way with a whole passel of folks gathered around it.

“It appears to be infused with divine magic of some sort, perhaps a summons from another plane of existence or possibly an Avatar of Kunrax. Yes, that does seem the more likely of the two. There is good news and bad news with an Avatar,” Doug said.

“Well, spill it, give me the bad news first,” Florence demanded. She liked talking with Doug, it kept her from worrying about the horde of bad folks heading toward the home.

“The bad news is that the creature will be very powerful, perhaps a match for our champions even by itself. The good news is that these types of Avatars cannot last for long in our world. Over time, the divine magic holding it together will dissipate, killing the monster. So, the longer we can draw out the fight, the better it will be for us,” Doug said. While the invaders approached, Florence got a more accurate count, it looked like just about a hundred were coming to attack her home, coming to kill her and Doug.

“Bring it on dog people, our kitty defenders are freshly leveled up and ready for you,” Florence said. The horde, led by the three-headed giant dog thing, walked into her home without pause, one of the creeps even kicked over her welcome sign on the way inside. She took a moment to contact Boss Chuck to get his goblins ready, Florence had a feeling she would need everyone in this fight.

“Eww, look at the middle head on that thing,” Florence said, noticing the dog monster had an almost human head in the middle.

“Yes, that confirms it, we are dealing with an Avatar of Kunrax. Creating such a monstrosity requires the melding of several beings and some of their individual characteristics, as we see with that middle head, are retained.

“Ha, take that you weirdo’s,” Florence said as the mailbox trap activated, the crossbow bolt it fired slammed into one of the crazy cultists, dropping him dead in his tracks.

“It does appear that many of their numbers are untrained cultists based on their weapons and gear. Several others are berserkers, powerful warriors who give little effort at defense and concentrate on attacking. The magic users are shamans like the one we faced earlier. Now these hound handlers appear a bit different from the other one we fought, their connection to their companion is strange,” Doug said. One of the hounds leaped away from its handler as Doug was talking, charging the mailbox.

“And that’s kill number two. Keep on a coming dog people, we got plenty more where that came from,” Florence taunted as the dog triggered the pit trap and impaled itself on the spikes below. While the dog was an evil thing coming to kill her and her kitties, Florence couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sympathy for the mutt when it whined in pain for a second before croaking.

“Interesting, it seems the hound and the handler are linked together,” Doug said, drawing Florence’s attention away from the pit trap. The goon that had released the dog was down on the ground convulsing a bit before keeling over for good. If she could kill the dogs, their handlers would die, a two for one bonus if they could pull it off.

A wave of the poorly armed cultists swarmed the mailbox trap, avoiding the pit and destroying the mailbox before its weapon could reload. More of the cultists charged the front steps, two of them falling victim to the second pit trap. The whole time, Obi and Shadow had been stalking the swarm of enemies, waiting for the right time to strike.

“Go, crush the abomination,” the middle head of the monster Avatar dog thingy shouted.

“Why that’s just wrong, a creepy three-headed dog shouting in my home,” Florence complained. She perked up as her pets launched their attacks, leaping into the swarm of cultists that had bunched up in front of the pit trap. Their special commando damage ability kicked in, dropping both their targets and pushing a third cultist into the pit. Another of the cultists, this was a biggen, swatted poor Obi down with a blow from the huge axe he wielded. Shadow tried to avenge her fallen brother, slashing the berserker badly before she succumbed to multiple attacks.

“Our poor commando kitties don’t last long once they get stuck into the fight, do they?” Florence asked.

“No, they are adept at taking down their first target, but after that, they are considerably weaker than our brawler variants. Still, if they attack from stealth, it is usually a guaranteed kill,” Doug said. Sadly, the cultist pushed into the pit was able to climb out, unhurt as far as Florence could tell. The spikes must have been all gummed up by the other two that fell in, giving the third guy a soft landing.

The attackers avoided the open pit, skirting around the side as they approached the front door. That there big fella that Shadow had scratched up was in the lead and looking to bust down her front door without even trying the handle. As his shoulder met the door, the flame trap triggered, the cat mouth door knocker spitting out flames directly into the face of the big guy. The man crashed through the door, but didn’t get up afterward, he was one crispy critter. Some of the other cultists looked singed a bit, but nothing fatal.

“It looks like that big fella wasn’t bothering to look for any traps,” Florence noted.

“Yes, the berserker class is typically very powerful but ignore the threats around them in their lust for battle,” Doug told her.

The first of the invaders charged through the front door, led by another of them berserker fellows. Tater and Baxter dropped down on him from their perch above the door as Midnight and Bhargath leaped over the sofa to attack the others trying to force their way into the house. With their combined weight, Tater and Baxter were able to topple the berserker and even with his fury-enhanced muscles, he couldn’t shake off the duo as they ripped him to shreds with their claws and teeth.

Midnight and Bhargath both stood at the doorway, a pair of cultists dead at their feet as they attacked anything trying to force its way in. Unfortunately for her kitties, a pair of huge hounds left their leashes and bulled their way past the duo. Midnight latched her teeth into the hackles of one of the hounds, her front claws gripping as her rear claws tore into the huge dog. Bhargath wasn’t so lucky, the hound attacking him got a grip on his neck and the level four upgrade couldn’t prevent the powerful jaws of the dog from clamping down and shaking him violently to the side, a sickening crack was heard above the sounds of battle as her poor kitty Bhargath died.

“Should I summon the reinforcements in there?” Florence asked.

“No, I think you should save that ability for our last resort weapon,” Doug replied. She was itching to use everything she could against the invaders, but she would have to be patient and play the long game if she wanted to wear them down.

Another blast of flame erupted from the fireplace, several of the cultists had wandered too close to it as they circled the room, trying to surround her babies. Midnight had won the fight with the dog, but it didn’t look good for her as other cultists, including several of the berserkers, stood around jabbing her with their weapons whenever there was an opening. Tater and Baxter engaged the horde around their sister, only to be slowly overwhelmed themselves. They fought to the bitter end, slashing and ripping at any cultist in reach

“We didn’t do too bad for them just being in the living room,” Florence said.

“True, our defenders fought well, but we have a long battle ahead of us still,” Doug replied.

While the fighting in the living room had been going on, a steady stream of invaders had bypassed the beleaguered defenders as they tried to push deeper into her home. In the hallway, her three commando kitties were having a field day, shooting out of compartments, and slashing deep wounds into anyone who passed by. The invaders for the most part ignored them, pressing forward and ignoring the side rooms.

One of the shaman’s made it to the hallway and cast a spell. Green tendrils of energy shot up from the floor and grasped at her kitties when they shot out of their hidden compartments to attack. Buddy and Princess were stopped in midair, the green tendrils constricted, crushing her little kitties as they struggled to escape. Mortimer somehow avoided the attacks and landed directly on the shaman’s head, claws, and teeth digging into the man who had killed his siblings. He finished off the dangerous shaman, only to meet his end from one of them berserkers with a big old club in his hands.

The attackers avoided the side rooms, which Florence was sure they would regret later when her kitties in there left to launch a counterattack. Her goblin allies had sorted themselves out for the coming fight. Boss Chuck was kicking, punching, and even biting a few of his people to keep them in some semblance of a formation facing the door. While the little fellas had been multiplying regularly, there were only about thirty of them in total, including a pair of the larger ones that split off from Boss Chuck. Florence altered her home, linking the hallway with the Home for Unwanted Goblins. The enemy would have no chance of avoiding this fight.

Cultists rushed into the goblin room, only to be met by a wall of spears. The goblins, surprisingly, held their ground, killing several of the weaker cultists before they could get themselves organized. They had expected a few of her powerful kitties but had instead been met with a swarm of goblins. A strange roar was heard over the sounds of battle, causing several of the goblins to drop their spears and run. Boss Chuck redoubled his efforts at smacking around his people, keeping them in the fight even as the Avatar monster entered the room.

With all three heads snapping, the Avatar killed goblin after goblin. Boss Chuck did what any brave goblin leader would have done in this instance, he threw down his spear and ran for safety. His tribe followed suit hurling badly aimed spears at the Avatar and running for the hills. While the spears weren’t designed to be thrown and goblins weren’t known for their accuracy, at least a dozen landed on the Avatar, digging into its flesh and causing it to howl in pain even as it tried to chase down the fleeing goblins.

“I’m not sure if that was a good effort or a pathetic performance,” Florence said. The goblins had done some damage, but there sure turned chicken fast when it came to a fight with the monster.

“I believe that would be categorized as a valiant effort as far goblin bravery goes. They killed several of the cultists and even damaged the Avatar a bit. Look, there’s even a few who haven’t quit yet,” Doug said. Florence could see little Gabsug leading another three goblins as they crawled down the small hidden passage that allowed access to the garage. Gabsug and Spud had become friends and she was sure he planned to ride the kitty into battle when her baby attacked the invaders. The other three goblins looked a bit spooked but had held onto their spears and shields which meant they might be willing to continue the fight. Turning her attention back to the goblin’s room, it looked like Boss Chuck and at least some of his people had made it to safety. The Avatar looked furious that some of her prey had escaped and seemed to take it out on one of the shaman’s, knocking him over and placing her paw on his chest.

“Look at this Florence, it appears the Avatar is able to pull the life and mana from the shaman to heal itself and keep it tied to our world for a bit longer,” Doug said. It did look like that shaman was shriveling up like a prune, and at the same time, the goblin spears were popping out of the Avatar’s body as it healed its wounds.

“There’s still four of them shaman’s left, that could be a problem for us if the Avatar can keep sucking the life out of them to heal itself,” Florence said. She had thought her defenders were doing well, but the new information on the Avatar healing itself might mean they were in more trouble than she thought.