Zagaroth

  Kazue tried not to fret as the dungeon waited for the arrival of their invaders. It took hours after the message arrived for the first group to cross into their territory. Without foreknowledge, and if their territory truly began where most thought it did, there would have been nothing to make this group stand out from others. They didn't even head directly to the town, they skirted well clear of the trading post and made their way down to the trail leading up from the main road, and then came back up along the trail to arrive from the same dire as roups did.

  The first notable anomaly was ihird group to arrive. Mordecai was examining magical auras very carefully, but even he missed it at first. One of the people in this group proved to have a new variation of the token that had been used previously to summon enemies deep into their territory, but it had been tucked away deep into their pack. But as they had to sign up for ary slot that started the day, they took rooms in the inn.

  And pced their bags down. Unattended. In a dungeon's territory.

  The entire tents of the bags were analyzed in an instant, and the odd magic of the talisman was noted. She watched as Mordecai crafted a physical replid imbued it with an aura that would look like the inal to most people. A skilled mage or are craftsman would be able to tell the difference if they exami closely.

  While he was doing that, Kazue stole all their potions and repced them with weaker variants, along with subtly sabotaging other items such as arrows.

  If they had dohis to normal delvers there may have been repercussions for ag against these people in peared to be a safe area. But both by their as and by carrying summoning tokens with the same traits as the previous enemies had used, these groups had shown themselves to be hostile to the dungeon.

  And there are no safe spaces for invaders.

  Letting these people enter both routes grated on Kazue's sensibilities and instincts; she khey were not truly here for any reason other than violence. But Mordecai had a pn, even if he was already modifying it with a new idea because of the tokens. The presence of so many hostiles was also rapidly finishing off their deficit and giving Kazue enough mana to expand their prison.

  The wist came shortly after a hundred invaders had eheir outer territory, and the first few groups had started doath. Cold fury bloomed in Mordecai, drawing Kazue's attention to the new group. As soon as she reized two of them, her own ire began to simmer.

  The oni was easy to spot, and they reized the bandit Akuma's face immediately. And walking beside him was a man that her of them had seen before, but whose likeness had been shown to them. Lord Antoine Demidov.

  Kazue wao cw their eyes out.

  She'd never felt so bloodthirsty before. When they'd been invaded before she'd been scared and angry, but she hadn't felt such a personal hatred of another person. It was hard to not order those two to be attacked immediately, but they o follow Mordecai's pn if they wao make sure they got everyone.

  By the day, the only groups on the signup boards were those of the invaders.

  The day after that, the dungeon began the stage of their pn.

  When the invaders irading post awoke that m, they found it deserted by everyo them and the towied of all supplies and merdise. The tents that beloo outsiders were carefully marked so that they could be returned, but they would give no spoils to these people.

  Antoihered a rger group together a in a few scouts followed by some heavily armored muscle, and slowly added mroups to iigate. The shrines were deserted, and the path sele chamber en, but the pedestal was gone. Instead, the third door was revealed, showing the path to hell.

  While the meraries scouted the entrao ehat no traps waited, the rooms remained quiet. It was only when Antoine and Akuma approached the sele chamber than the dungeon showed its hand.

  Two pedestals that fhe opening into the sele chamber activated, one of them being trolled by Mordecai to dispy his image. "Invaders. Killers. Murderers." Kazue's illusion hissed at them, eling her genuine anger into this performance.

  Mordecai pyed opposite to her, cool and unfling. "Last night, one of the groups you sent in made a slip of the tongue. Now that we know part of your pn, well, we 't prevent you from entering. But we make it unpleasant. As for the portion of your forces already ihe dungeon, we're going to be spending some time s them out from the proper delvers. Hopefully, no is will get caught in the way. You should find at least some of them joining you in the sewers, where there are no rules restrig groups. And no rules about fair py."

  Antoine sneered, "Do you think to trick me with paltry threats, demon spawn? We've e prepared to se the world of your filth, and we'll burn you and your whores to ash. We prepared for this, thanks to Akuma's reting of your previous enter. Men, begin!"

  They had obviously trained in this maneuver as various troops began unloading alchemical fsks that were rolled down the slope and into the awaiting darkness. Then an array of tower shields was erected before several mages unched fireballs down into the sewer depths.

  The results were less spectacur than they might have hoped, though there was still a multistage explosion. It did not, however, propagate down the sewer the way that the invaders had undoubtedly hoped it would.

  Mordecai smiled unpleasantly. "We've had time to prepare as well. Don't think we've ed to evolve some termeasures ourselves. Oh, and Lord Antoine Demidov, I kly who you are. Don't think of running away, or I will hunt you down. So e on little Tony boy, show me what you've got. One of my wives already beat you up once, maybe I should let the other one have a go at you too?"

  And with that provocation plete, both illusions cut off. Mordecai had fibbed a tou his parting words, his phrasing had implied that they'd evolved ice mold, infamous for its dangerous ability to e heat and fire to fuel its growth. In fact, the alchemical fsks had been part of Kazue's sabotage and his avatar had bee in the sewer in order to ter the bst of fire.

  Antoine's response was fairly predictable, ae Akuma arguing that they should cut their losses, the prideful young lord had to have his way and ordered his troops to make their way into the dungeo least let the professionals do their job, and they set about tering the slick slope before they actually desded. The dungeon couldn't interfere with the frame they put in front of and inside of the doorway or the ropes attached to the framework, at least, so long as any of it was attended. But eventually, the entire group made its way into the sewers, the deadly spikes carefully broken and a path cleared.

  While this was going on, the dungeon was dealing with its other hostile visitors. The various groups were either at the rest spot before the library, the rest spot at the entrance of the mushroom forest on the bat side, or otherwise spread throughout those two zones, as everyone from the day before had the time to clear the first three zones. At the same time that the initial sele room was set for the hell path, every entrand exit to the library and mushroom forest zones opeo the hidden paths they'd structed so many months ago. And much like the trading post, the floors were emptied of tents. However, their inhabitants remaihough they were hidden for now.

  Leaflets fluttered from the ceiling, all saying the same thing. [We know your iions, you have been separated and divided. Those who surrender will not be harmed. All others will be eliminated as threats. To surrender, gift the dungeon your ons and armor.]

  Most of the invaders in the dungeon were in rge enough groups that fidend peer pressure dominated. However, a couple of the groups were isoted enough that they chose to not risk being able to make it to anroup in time, and a handful of individuals were able to slip away to surrender privately. The tuhat had previously beeo ensure a healer was always nearby were now used to have the dungeon's warriors surround these groups and take the prisoners away. All told, they had eighteen people surrender. A nearly ten pert redu in enemy forces before they even engaged in bat.

  The forces on the non-bat path were ignored for the moment, to ence them to make their way into the sewers. The forces on the bat path and not in one of the designated safe spaces were engaged as soon as their iions were clear, and there was no longer any hint of fairness or enters meant to merely challehey were harried and harassed, stantly assaulted by carefully timed waves to give them no opportunity to rest. And their o was through the boss room, while they were still being attacked by the regur floor inhabitants. None of the groups that had been scattered through the forest made it past Saraag and Kstoria despite doing their best to simply fight their way through to the ope.

  Those scattered on the library level fared much better, but a little under half of them fell before they made it to the sewer. Biblios and Horace were injured during their participation in the running battle, but they would have fared much worse if the merged groups had made a stand. Of course, those groups would have lost more people too, and uhem, the dungeon bosses would be ba a ihan twelve hours. So fighting their ast was the wisest move.

  The twed groups in the safe zones both chose to ehe sewers through the entranear them, rather than fighting across the floor to skip part of the sewer. It was a rational seeming decision, but if they had fought across the floor, uniting with the small scattered groups might have cost them fewer casualties.

  The fighting in the sewers was a slog in more ways than one. In favor of the invaders, these groups were already gathered together inter forces, and their spellcasters could focus their defensive spells on acid, poison, and disease. But these sewers were hostile nds even to the dungeon inhabitants, and the presence of literal fresh meat attracted the attention of every single predatory sger in the sewers. Nothing was safe here; even the crystal flowers had bee explosive traps, and the crystal shards had to be removed quickly from any survivors for they acted as quick-growing seeds that would e the flesh they had been embedded i was much more nutritious than muck or the acidic bodies of slimes and oozes.

  The rgest group was the one fag the least resistance, ae the dey caused by making the entrance ramp safer, they were moving more quickly through the hell route than the groups further on. Which was when the stage of the trap rung.

  Such a rge group had attracted the attention of everything in the sewers, which also meant that they'd cleared out every signifit hostile creature in the sewers. The dungeon's inhabitants in the early zones were entirely unoccupied, so now Mordecai gave them something to do. They flooded into the sewers behind the small army and charged forward.

  The first waves were not terribly dangerous to the veteran meraries who were now formed up into proper ranks, but there were a lot of them and it now meant that the troops were fag a battle on two fronts. Additionally, as the army cleared the sewers of a particur zone, Mordecai could send in the inhabitants of that zoo join the earlier ones, and every twelve hours he had a new wave avaible.

  And finally, once Mordecai had sent in the first of their inhabitants, Kazue sent a rabkin to fly to their borders and signal the troops that had e from Riverbridge and Azeria in respoo their request for aid. These were the final backup pns if the invaders proved more dangerous than Mordecai had estimated. For now, the two sets of troops followed their guides, stalking the tail end of the army from the safety of the dungeon's normal paths.

  While the invaders slogged their way forward under stant assault, there was still the matter of the talismans to deal with.

  Zagaroth