Though the situation was swinging in the favor of the dungeon fast, they weren’t out of danger yet. A fireball flew toward Takehiko, the explosion killing three of the feathered serpents and burning the five-tail. At the same time, a st sphere of electrified sleet formed, tered on the doorway from the sixth floor. Mordecai sent out instrus redireg all ining inhabitants to approach via the warrens instead.

  It was also time for a shift in his own role and began by shifting to his Impressions form while tinuing to send dires for the battle, his sudden maion of feathered wings and a golden halo drawing eyes. “Luck is with us, for we have a new ally. Trust to the shadows.” He hesitated a moment, then added with a mental sigh. “The ally is effectively an adolest boy. ‘Damsels in Peril’ will undoubtedly get the highest priority for help.”

  The responses he got back were varied and iing, most of which should not be repeated in polite pany, and Moriko’s was borderline bsphemous. Mordecai gri that st, then began eling a burst of healing magilike Takehiko, he riest, and had experien trolling the flow of both vitalizing and eing energies. The burst swept out over his allies in the room while swirling around and avoiding those he’d mentally marked as enemies.

  bined with his transformation, this marked Mordecai as a primary target for the attackers. That was fine by him, as his ability to defend himself from harm was hard to beat. The reflexes of a monk, the scales of a dragon, and now he ed himself in the aura of a battle-rage, menace radiating from his presence. “Capture remains a priority, but these guys are tougher than I thought. Snipers, start pig targets. Support, prioritize keeping the guests healthy, but also heal Enki or anyone else who needs it.”

  The female mage had been bag away as Enki had pursued her, and both looked rather worse for wear a trail of blood and rubble marking their path. Gun-holes and arrow-slits were uncovered throughout the room, allowing both snipers and spell casters to begin their work.

  In the meantime, Mordecai called forth a blessing, and an aura to aid his allies formed around him that would slowly grow in radius as he fed it more mana, and then he began humming a dirge, imbuing it with magic that made it resoh the fears of his enemies.

  The woman who had lost her arm was down and being dragged away; she’d stumbled into the alcove where they had made a for Casey and now the angry cassowary was attag the scout who’d been paired against Shenlong, trapping him between drake and bird. That person wasn’t going to st much longer, and the dragon’s tail had already smashed into the downed heavy whose foot was still impaled with a knife.

  Ricardo’s oppo was down with Moriko’s help, and now both of them were helping to take out the two that Jasi and Kulle had taken on.

  One of the two heavies that had been attag Enki earlier had switched targets to Mordecai, and now the remaining two mages were fog on him as well. Mordecai respoo them all with a challenging snarl, ahem e at him. The bunkin snipers started firing at the heavies, and the healers were now pying their support role. And Kazue let him know that she and Akahana were returning, the druid had not found anyone nearby. Which meant that either they had cast the spells from further away, had bailed as soon as the sg sensor had been dispelled, or they were good enough to hide from the druid. And Akahana didn’t want to tangle solo with anyone in that st category.

  As the battle tinued, a mix of daggers and kit pots & pans assaulted the invaders from the shadows, and Kazue cast her first spell in anger, using semi-imaginary bdes of invisible force to attack the scouts that been trying to take down Zushi. Ryuhoho had followed the two women into the hall, now charged up by the energy that Zushi had absorbed, and attacked the mage who was dueling with Enki.

  And Mordecai maintained his position in the ter of the chaos, his eerie humming unnerving the invaders while his aura soothed and bolstered his allies. He only moved enough to avoid or deflect spells and attacks, and while he occasionally took the ce to atta opening, he rimarily ag defensively for the remainder of the fight.

  Whe of the enemy was down and captured, Mordecai sat down on one of the few undamaged chairs with a sigh a go of all the spell ws he’d been holding. “Kazue, e here please,” he said softly. The rush of battle had started to fade, and the kitsune was looking paler than normal for her. As soon as she was close enough, Mordecai pulled her into his p to give her a warm hug, and the dam broke. He spent a few moments calming her down and reassurihat she’d dohe right thing, and while he did so a few of the bunkin led Akahana to where the prisoners were bei, for some of them needed help beyond what anyone else was capable of.

  After bringing their slime boss into the fray, his core had switched to building the first actual duhey’d ever needed. It had taken Mordecai less than thirty seds to be certain that their side was going to win, and fident that they’d have been able to hahe invaders even without the help of their guests. It felt like only half a pn, really, at least for anyone who knew how to properly assault a dungeon. Being able to teleport to the general area of the core otential tactid waiting until after the final level’s boss had been worn down was a good idea, but there o be a rger invasion force, or the strike team had to be so overwhelmingly powerful that the dungeon’s other creatures couldn’t support the avatar and raid bosses in time.

  But he didn’t have time to sider that, for as soon as Kazue had calmed down, a new voice spoke up, his voice high and vibrating with energy. “Wow Mordi, that was intense! And that new form of yours was so cool, the way you started glowing like an ahen became a super scary angry angel! And this guy is way cute, but kind of scary. I think I like him.” The speaker was a small ratling sitting on top of Zushi’s head and giving the void bunny pats. This did not slow down his spee the slightest. “Hey, is she okay? No one hurt her right? These guys were mean. Oh! Did you see what I did when the guy with the axe tried to get you?” The ratling giggled. “He was so surprised! Then thwomp! Shenlong smashed him down.”

  The ratling didn’t seem to o breathe, tinuing to speak at an astonishing pace as he jumped down to ruo Kstoria. “And this crystal slime girl is so awesome! I don’t think you ever had any friends quite like her before. Hey, you form an actual girl shape? No? Well, you should keep trying! I am sure you do it! Hey, old man with the knives, you were super fast! I saw how you sliced those baddies right up! And then the pretty dy zoomed in and started hitting people with her staff, and the snake girl and the huy were having a tough time but then you two helped them out, and then the pretty fox girls ran in while all the bunny people started helping, and we smashed them all! It was a lot of fun. Oh, Mordi, this pce is even more fun than your st o’s not as big, but now you have fun slides, all these puzzles and games, and a huge mud pit for pying around, and instead of lizard people you have cute bunny people!”

  “I mean, the lizard people were fun with all the tricks they liked to py, but your rabbit friends are way cuter! Does this mean yoing to have more dracobits soon? I saw you had other flying rabbits, plus this guy who looks like he’s sort of defting now? Anyway, I hope you have some more dracobits soon cause they are really fun to py with, and did you know how fun the river area is? I went swishing and swooshing all over the pce there! And there are all these pretty gems you have stashed away.” While he talked, the little ratling tio wander about, gesturing wildly and spinning about, jumping on and over tables carelessly.

  “And food too! You didn’t have a kit like this in your st pce, and your bunnies were making great stuff when these meanies interrupted. I had to make sure it didn’t go bad of course, and it was really tasty! And the pans were great for hitting the bad guys in the head with! You have some really solid pans. These guys were chumps, they went down easy. Oh, hey Mordi, did you know there’s a new city near here? Well, a lot of new cities really, but only one really big o’s super big and hough there were a bunch of not-nice people beio kids, so I gathered them up and taught them a lesson. Gathered the kids I mean of course and taught the baddies a lesson. And then I got to py hide and seek and tag with this really tall woman with green skin, and were kept running all over the city, and then the bad people wound up broke and in prison cause they were meanies. And there is a whole tribe of pretty fox girls nearby! Well, there’s a few boys too, but it’s almost all girls! you imagine Mordi, nothing but pretty girls everywhere! That was really nid fun, and they had lots of tasty food too. And there was this one pretty dy who kind of made me think of you, because I think she actually saw me when I was running by and she smiled like she was suddenly really happy or something.”

  “And there’s a vilge built over the river too! Well, kind of on each side, but they have a huge bridge and a lot of stuff built on the bridge too! That wasn’t quite as much fun as the fox girls, but there was a lot of fun stuff there too. I got to race a bunch of fast fish up and down the river, they seemed to like swimming really fast but I won of course, and then we pyed a game where we started jumping up the waterfall. I still don’t know how that one is supposed to be won, but it was a lot of fun to just keep jumping up while the water kept trying t you down. You should make a level where everyone has to jump up a waterfall while giant fish are trying to eat them! Or maybe bunny-fish, I saw you have bunny-fish! That was awesome, I don’t think I ever saw a bunny fish before! Sometimes you really make the coolest creatures! Did you make the fuzzy bunoo? Cause that honey was super tasty, and it was fizzy and made my toingle, but it was such a beautiful golden color too. That reminds me, hey Mordi, why is your core all mixed with gold now too? I mean, it’s way cool and pretty looking all swirled together like that, but you were always all purple before. Did you decide to make it match your eyes as well as your hair? Though I don’t think it’s the right kind of gold for that.” Whearted asking Mordecai about his core, the ratling started ambling over to where he sat.

  Mordecai had been smiling as he watched his friend ramble, and the rest of the room had fallen into stunned, fused silence as they tried to figure out what was going on. But now he spoke up. “Hi Li, it’s good to hear you think so highly of my new home. But it’s not just my new home, I got married! The pretty dy who zoomed in and hit people with her staff is my wife Moriko, and this pretty dy in my p is my wife Kazue. She’s also a dungeon, and the gold part of the core is actually her core.”

  Li’s mouth fell open in surprise, but it was Kazue who reacted first. “Oh goddess he’s so adorable!” her delighted squee seemed to stun Li as the kitsune hopped off of Mordecai’s p to scoop Li into her arms for a tight hug. The perpetually adolest shattered god was squeezed firmly against soft, heavenly curves, and this little shard of divinity fainted, a small trickle of blood ing from his nose.

  Zagaroth