One of the bat-winged rabkin flew down in a slow spiral as his two bunkin cousins piloting the boat brought it to a standstill. “Mistress Moriko wishes to offer you a proposal. There are two options. The first is simply to tinue as things are, and she will call upon those reinforts as she deems necessary to provide the proper challenge. Alternatively, she proposes that Takehiko stand outside of the battle. If he does so, then she offers that her husband, Master Mordecai, will spar with Takehiko at a time to be determined iure, and she will only call upon the minimal allies she o duct the battle properly. Further material rewards would bee entirely depe upon the performance of the remaining party, but will treat all as having participated for that part of the calcution.”

  Takehiko frowned and looked back at his panions, who were lookiween him, the rabkin, and Moriko uainly. By the time he looked back at the waiting rabkin, a question had formed in his mind as he mulled over the exact w. “You said that Moriko has offered the opportunity to spar with Mordecai. You did not say anything about his opinion.”

  The rabkin fshed a fanged smile in response, which remiakehiko that some of the rabkin had been evolved from the vampire rabbats. “The master did tell his wife that she was free to duct this battle as she saw fit, and he would not interfere. I do believe he would sider himself bound by this offer, as she is ag on behalf of the dungeon.”

  The five-tail chuckled. “Devious woman. Hmm,” He g Moriko, who was still waiting atop her ice peak, “Though I have to say I’d rather have a private ‘spar’ with her – ow!” he hissed and grabbed his shin where Shizoku had smacked him with her staff.

  “Why do I have a pervert for a cousin?” She sighed. “Anyway, ign that, what do you think of the offer as it is?”

  Takehiko rubbed at his shin as he scowled down at her, the out a low breath. “I think that it might be best for both of us to take this offer. But you are in charge, so it is your decision to make.”

  The thirteen-year-old kitsune frowhoughtfully at her cousin. “We’ve had trouble with only a few creatures at a time. I’m fairly certain she is strohan me, but not as strong as you, so she’ll use o ter you again. But she likes a good fight, so she’ll probably be doing her best to take you on herself while being supported, while we will have to tend with a designated number of other creatures.” Shizoku sighed. “You raining the least and would get more out of a hard spar with Mordecai anyway. Fine, but I am hoping Mordecai doesn’t hold back more than necessary. He probably overheard you, you know.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “It really is for the best. We know that if there was a miscalcution, she’d be fine in the m, but I don’t think any of us would be happy seeing that result. Spells are less fiving than her bat style, so her having the power advantage is less likely to cause critical injury to one of us than you are to hurt her too badly. Off with you, and no tricks, we have enough help from what we already prepared.”

  Up on her perch, Moriko could not hear what was being spoken, but she could see them versing and could guess what sort of ent Takehiko had made that got him ed. Holy, it was a small part of the reason she didn’t want to deal with him in the fight. If she won, she wouldn’t be certain if it wasn’t because he was being ‘chivalrous’, and if she lost, she would have lost to someone who had that sort of attitude.

  Takehiko jumped out of the boat and started jogging out of the way while the rabkin flew alongside him and gave Moriko a thumb-up gesture. She frowned slightly as she noticed Takehiko had not cast an additional spell in order to walk on water, which meant that the spell robably already cast on everyone. She’d been hoping to see how they coped otherwise. Oh well.

  The monk took a moment to enjoy her husband’s mental grumble at the bargain stru his behalf, then raised her staff high in one hand and whistled sharply. Five pairs of eyes in the boat turoward her, and Moriko swung the staff to point at them. The battle was on.

  There was an immediate surge of water directly uhe boat as the rgest of the Axolotls rose up, ramming it with his head to tip the vehicle over violently. The two bunkin pilots were tossed suspiciously far with over-dramatic cries of “Aiyee!”, leaving the rest of the party to be spilled out onto the water’s surface.

  Now, if they’d had a boat of their own, thee would not have been so scripted. The right vessel might not have been tipped at all. But they did not have time to pin, because Moriko was charging toward her foes even as the giant axolotl was releasing its billowing cloud of mist and fog.

  Her feet smmed onto the water with suffit force, and just a touch of chi, to enable her to run across the surface of the water, but she had to keep moving, uh Takehiko’s spell. This is why she had made sure there were ice floes and now a nicely overturned boat, which was her destination.

  There was fusion as the scattered party tried to orient on their attackers. The axolotl was the easiest target to spot of course, its shadow looming rge over the party, and Nainvil was the first to e into tact with it, his great sword biting into the thick skin as the two guards fired their crossbows.

  Moriko wasn’t sure what Shizoku was doing, but Brongrim’s position was sooified as she heard the dwarf’s pistol firing from a fnking position on the axolotl. But the monk wasn’t idle either; she was crouched down low on the boat as her shadow reached across the water to grab where her memory and senses said one of the guards should be. While the dwarf or half-orc would have been able to see better in simple darkness, the sharp sehat the elven portion of Moriko’s ary gave her were well suited to this sort of enviro. Araining had only enhahat.

  The guard let out a shout as he felt cold, intangible cws sink to his flesh, and Moriko yanked down hard. His back spped against the surface of the water, initially buoyed by the water-walking magic that the party had been enspelled with, but she kept pulling him down t him below the water’s surface. She was less worried about this mahan she would have been if she hadn’t seen those weird air bubble things over their mouths.

  The uard shouted, “Man down, something’s got him!” And Moriko heard what sounded like a spear probing at the water. That was when she found out what Shizoku had been doing as a burst of wind exploded from the girl’s position, clearing a sphere of air near her, though not clearing all the fog.

  It was enough for her, the guard, and Moriko to all see each other clearly now. The kitsune’s eyes flicked over to Moriko, notig her position and the way her shadow stretched into the water, and hissed out. “Her shadow’s got him, you have to attack her!”

  The guard switched his focus smoothly, charging to close the distaween them, but Moriko’s bo staff was as long as his spear, and she was a touch faster. Her arm shot forward and drove the tip of her staff into his chest, her hand at the opposite end to give her more reapared to the guard’s, but extending the staff out of a defensive range.

  But her attack had rue, f air out of the guard’s lungs as a crack appeared on his chest pte. Moriko yanked her staff bato a better grip before he could recover enough to grab it, then shifted her attention to Shizoku, who was casting another spell. Moriko couldn’t interpret the casting itself, but she reized the maion of three darts of ford grimaced. She hated this spell because there was nothing she could really do about it except brace herself against the pain as they smmed home against her flesh. It was not a powerful spell, but the darts homed in unerringly unless you had the prics to defend against it.

  Which Moriko did have at her disposal now, but her attention was already divided by tinuing to hold her target uhe water, and she’d have had to have the shielding trip readied, so it didn’t do her much good at the moment.

  Really, there wasn’t much she could do about the white-haired witch at the moment; she had her hands full with the two guardsmen, matg staff against spear as the one below struggled in the grasp of her shadow. Moriko swore as she narrowly dodged an acid-infused ball of foxfire. At Shizoku’s strength, the spell-strike wouldn’t have been very dangerous to the monk, barring a hit to her face, but it would have hurt a lot until it could be healed.

  A log suddenly bobbed to the surfaearby with the word ‘Body’ etched on it, and with a sigh of relief Moriko released her shadow. “One down.” She said with a grin as the puard was dragged up to the surface several yards away, a bunyip carrying him to shore. Moriko shifted her stance as she tinued exging blows with the sed guardsman and ing out the better for it. He’d mao nd a thin slice against her arm, but her staff was battering past the man’s defenses and soon he was down, only vaguely scious and uo defend himself.

  As a bunyip grabbed the injured man t him away, Moriko let her full attentiole ba Shizoku, who had been building up a longer cast time spell. The monk only had a moment to react when the young kitsune jured a crag, unstable-looking ball of lightning and u at her.

  Moriko mao dodge the sphere itself, but it suddenly detonated near her as well. She grit her teeth as electricity traced across her skin, but there was more than one way to fight at range. Shiftiand focus, Moriko sshed at Shizoku with her staff, sending a flurry of wind bdes at the girl.

  Shizoku cried out in surprised pain, elig curses from the two men occupied with the giant axolotl, but they knew better than to turn their backs to a foe like that at such cle. She was on her own for the moment, though they were wearing the beast down faster than it was wearing them down. But the small prodigy was far from helpless, and even as she staggered, gasping for breath, she drew two of her alchemical vials out, hurling the little bombs at Moriko.

  The monk couldn’t pletely dodge them while remaining on the overturned boat, and even as she dodged to the side the spsh of one of them caught her side, making her wince. But she couldn’t stop to put out the tiny fire until she’d reached one of the ice floes. The boat was no longer a viable point of stability, as the alchemical attack had set it afme.

  Moriko gri the sight and called out, “Not bad, but not enough to stop me.” For the monk her options were fairly simple at the moment, she was going to tio use her staff to el her wind attacks, but the kitsune reparing another spell, and Moriko didn’t know what the tricky girl had up her sleeve now.

  Zagaroth