No Need For A Core? - 171: Showdown at the Wetlands Lake

171: Showdown at the Wetlands Lake

No Need For A Core? by Zagaroth

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Mordecai's core watched with some amusement as Gil cautiously approached the small, brackish lake at the end of the wetland's zone. The dungeon had shown them a selection of the challenges available but hadn't challenged Gil or Li as hard as they could have.

Li had at least had great fun chasing the shade tails about in a game of tag, and was totally oblivious to any reason why he should be suspicious about how easy the floor had been so far. When Gil came to a stop and frowned at the figure on the far side of the lake, Li simply waved cheerily, “Hi Mordi! You came all the way out here to say hi does this mean you are going to play with us I know you and Gil haven't had a chance to play in a long time that sound like fun what's the game going to be today?”

Mordecai's avatar smiled at Li, “I think this game might be best played by Gil alone, but to make up for it, the arena has snacks and a big illusion that is going to show the whole thing. You should head down the hall and hang out, I think you'll enjoy the show.” The doorway behind Mordecai had a tiny secondary door built into it now, and it was currently open.

As the ratling divinity happily scampered across the surface of the lake as easily as any monk, Gil's face deepened into a scowl, though the reality of his mood was given away by anyone who knew him well enough, “And what sort trickery do you have planned for me, dungeon?”

Hah, well, if it was melodrama Gil wanted, melodrama he would get, “I'll not reveal my plans so easily, invader!” Mordecai replied with a grin and downed a potion before tossing the bottle to join the rest of its empty brethren. As Gil's eyes widened slightly, Mordecai announced, “Have at thee!”

The potions were not the only buffs he'd been preparing, but for someone of Gil's caliber, enough of a warning had been delivered. Mordecai's form blurred as he dashed across the lake, and he shifted into his battle form mid-strike. Claws sharp and strong enough to bisect a bear were parried by Gil's forearm, and the warrior's counter strike was powerful enough to crack several of Mordecai's dragon scales.

But the parry and the counter came with a cost, as Mordecai had channeled a spell strike into his attack, which left ice biting at the shallow wounds he'd inflicted, and one of the elixirs he'd drunk had charged his body with electricity, creating a backlash when Gil had struck him.

None of these had harmed Gil in any significant way, which was why Mordecai didn't let up. Two of his tails whipped around to launch attacks as Mordecai stepped back. The first blasted Gil with a cloud of spores, while the second launched an explosive ball of foxfire that was only enhanced by the spore cloud.

The combo attack barely singed Gil, who came flying out of the cloud with a kick aimed at Mordecai's head. Mordecai ducked his head as he folded both wings over himself to protect against the attack, providing cushioning on top of his horns. The impact still hurt, but drawing Gil out to charge him had been part of the plan. The kick would have hurt worse if the man hadn't been forced to change his focus, using the moment of contact to change his momentum and dodge two streams of corrosive brine launched from beneath the lake surface that Mordecai was standing on, thanks to the floor bosses, Nezha and Ysi.

Mordecai wasn't surprised that the corrosive liquid barely touched Gil, but that hadn't been the only point of the attack. The two streams had been aimed to cross each other, and the collision had created a heavy mist of brine. “Gil,” he called out, “remember who you are actually fighting here,” and he rose from his crouch, revealing why he'd used his wings instead of his arms.

A crackling ball of charged lightning shimmered between his hands, and it flew at Gil even as the warrior touched the ground again from his second leap. The muck provided poor traction even as it tried to pull down on Gil's boots, and a weaker man might not have been able to move at all in time. Instead, Gil managed to throw himself most of the way out of the explosion, but with the brine mist in the air, it was nigh impossible to avoid every tendril of electric energy reaching out for him.

Which was when the first volley of arrows was launched from just over a hundred feet away. For the first time since he'd stepped foot inside of this dungeon, Gil drew one of his weapons, whipping a halberd in a fast circle as Gil himself spun, creating a whirlwind to deflect many of the projectiles and manually blocking or dodging the rest. But there was no time to rest for the wicked, for a gun volley had been fired immediately following the arrows, and were in turn followed by a smaller volley of ballista and small catapults.

Forcing Gil to adjust to the attacks gave time for several bunkin casters to cast healing and protective spells on Mordecai and the bosses involved in this fight, and for Mordecai to add another spell of his own. Gil focused his attention on the largest source of volleys, and swung his halberd in an arc, the sweep creating a cutting blade of air. Halfway to his target, the attack was interrupted by Kazue's core throwing up a wall of mud and stone from the swamp ground, the large distance from Gil's powerful presence allowing the dungeon to act directly.

Mordecai took advantage of Gil's distraction to throw himself back into the fight, space rippling with mana as he simply appeared behind Gil while slashing upward.

His claws were intercepted by Gil's nodachi, and Mordecai smirked at the small victory of having forced Gil to draw two of his weapons. The warrior's size had grown by over a foot more in response to the increasing danger, and both oversized weapons were being easily wielded in one hand each. Gil's answering thrust destroyed one of the illusory images Mordecai had conjured but still managed to slice through shoulder scales and pierce one of the wings beyond.

Mordecai took the hit and breathed out a cloud of energy-absorbing shadow around them, healing his own wounds while lightly touching the blazing source of vitality that was Gil. And in the moment it took for the shadows to dissipate, his two dragon bosses had flung themselves out of the lake and flanked Gil, attempting to rend with claw and fang.

Both were parried and dodged, Gil's weapons lacerating face and hands, which gave Mordecai's core a chance to act in concert with his avatar. The cores might not be able to directly interact with the environment near Gil, but he could always interact with his own avatar. And the moment that the two dragons were forced to step back, a blunderbuss loaded with a double charge and an over-capacity amount of shrapnel, including several small flecks of adamantine, fired at point-blank range. Not even a warrior this mighty was going to escape completely unscathed.

Gil roared in pain, and his blades turned into a whirlwind once more. The three of them were sent flying, their bodies covered in cuts and bruises and having lost several scales, along with some minor fractures. But it was not Gil's victory yet, as he was forced to dodge and parry several boulders dropping from above, his blades cutting through them as he knocked them aside. But the boulders themselves had been cover for three more attackers, as three wild-eyed women followed them down from the hole in the roof.

This wasn't part of their contract, and Mordecai hadn't asked; the Einherjar had insisted that they be allowed to fight this mighty warrior too. Swords, spears, and shields clashed in a mighty cacophony as Gil was forced to contend with another wave of attackers.

The ranged combatants had taken the time to adjust their positions, and as soon as the three women started pulling back, the next set of volleys was fired. When Gil began to move into another countering spin, one of his feet suddenly stuck to the ground, both of Enki's hands grasped tightly around it. With a growl, Gil planted his other foot and kicked upwards with his grabbed foot, and the power of his kick forced Enki out of the ground, sending him flying toward the arrows while his halberd and nodachi continued to weave a protective barrier around his body.

Kazue hastily deleted the arrows that would have struck Enki, and then manually moved the elemental back down to the ground.

By now, Mordecai and the dragons had been fully healed, but they held back from melee this time, casting spells instead. Lightning and Ice blasted around Gil, forcing him to either defend or take the hits if he wanted to attack.

Gil's halberd proved to be an effective spear when thrown with enough force, and Mordecai fell to one knee, an inch of steel protruding out of his back as red stained the water beneath him. Then a rune activated on the halberd, returning it to Gil's hand. More bunkin healers went to work even as his core gave him a healing potion and Mordecai activated his own reserves of healing power.

But before Gil could take the opportunity to try and keep Mordecai out of the fight or take out one of the dragons, Zushi landed, the hole in the ceiling having also been an exit for a tunnel from the very first floor. Gil managed to deflect most of that meteoric impact, but the blast wave of mud and soft earth still forced him back several yards. The cores hastily created a ring of stone that was sloped to force the wave upward, protecting the nearby combatants who had been pulling back already, and then dismissed the ring again.

During that time, two more figures had lept off of Zushi's back. Bellona and Xarlug looked a little shaken from their trip, but Zushi had absorbed any of the impact shock that would have hit them and they were already forcing themselves to get their weapons drawn. Xarlug fell in on Bellona's shield side, allowing her to cover either of them as needed, and allowing Xarlug to stay slightly behind and take advantage of any openings with the long reach of his Naginata.

Nezha and Ysi had the opportunity to rejoin the fight, the pair of them working side by side this time, forming a triangle with the two orcs on the second point and Zushi on the third. The battle raged for another hour as Gil's opponents continually rotated in, and even more joined them. Kulle and Jasi, the kelpie and naga bosses of the river zone, had enough time to recover from their encounter with Gil and Li, and Klastoria certainly wasn't going to miss the chance to get payback for having had to draw most of her body back together after Gil had shattered her hardest defenses.

Kazue and Mordecai's cores did their best to support everyone, especially the ranged attackers, but Gil started pulling out all the stops, cutting through the distance between him and the catapults before the collapsing space drew him directly to them, where he rampaged through the machinery. Nor could they block every ranged attack of Gil's in time, and the dungeon lost some of its inhabitants temporarily. Pushing him to the point where Gil couldn't hold back enough to not kill any of the bunkin was its own sort of victory too.

But in the end, Mordecai had to concede victory to Gil. The wetlands were shattered terrain in every direction and the only caster on the field who had any significant mana left was Mordecai himself, and even he was running low. Mordecai bowed his head as he shifted back to his normal form, “Victory is yours this time, warrior.” The handful of other figures still on their feet wavered and then collapsed, panting for breath

Gil started laughing, his voice booming through the floor, “Bwahaha, that is the most fun I've had in ages! You pulled out nearly every possible trick I think, shy of actually trying to kill me.” The man's clothing was a wreck, his hair a mess, and there was a mixture of mud and blood coating most of his body.

Mordecai chuckled, then groaned as he stretched slowly. Even without active magic, his body was healing slowly, but it was going to take a while. “I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I think everyone else had a good time too.”

Bellona halfheartedly threw a chunk of broken shield at him, “I'll admit no such thing, the bastard broke seven of these despite my reinforcing them with metal and earth.” The orc woman glowered at him in order to suppress the smile he could see twitching at the corner of her lips.

“And that's why we made sure to equip you guys ourselves for this fight.” Mordecai retorted with a grin. Bellona had done good work today, not only in the fight but in making sure all the delving parties had been willing to forgo any progress past the river for the rest of the day. Mordecai had been busy making sure he had all of his desired potions and elixirs ready, and he'd had to buy some from their visitors to make sure there were enough for all the other combatants as well.

Glowing mushrooms began sprouting near all the injured people, their auras promoting slow, gentle recovery. Sarcomaag would have had trouble coordinating with the rest of the attackers, but his ability to spread throughout the rest of the dungeon had other uses as well. Mordecai switched his attention back to Gil as the man returned to his normal size and put away his weapons, “You need to go get cleaned up for dinner, we've got some company you should meet,” well, meet again, but Mordecai kept that thought and smirk buried deep, “And part of your prize for victory is a new set of clothing. We made you really work for this win, you're getting some appropriate loot.” As Mordecai spoke, the boss door opened, but the tunnel beyond had a small branching corridor and a glowing arrow on the ground. “Follow the temporary side path and it will lead you to the door to your room.”

Honestly, they were all a mess, but getting Gil going first was important, the rest of them could take advantage of dungeon magic to still get there first, and be witness to Gil being ambushed for a second time. Which was another layer to this fight, a small bonus that Mordecai was taking advantage of. Gil would be a little tired and more emotionally open and off guard after the thrill of the fight and his victory. Everyone wanted to celebrate a hard-won victory with a celebratory party, right?