Mordecai had cleared his head now, and it was time to get back to work.

  To a certaient, this was the reason he'd let himself react sly. He knew he wouldn't be needed immediately, so dealing with the emotional backsh of having essentially ehe avatar of another dungeon had been a priority. He couldn't afford for it to distract him at an uable time.

  This didn't mean he had rid himself of the guilt, but he had processed the worst of it. He took a moment to indulge in the f mental presence of his wives and then tidied himself before walking back to the arena.

  The remains of the army were staggering to the sewer exit now and had to make their a slope of alternating water sluices and beyond-blue light to se them of the sewer before they made it and could expose others to the worst of what had been down there.

  The water also served to make the sun burns worse.

  It truly had been a hell route for the army. Wild and often mutated oozes, slimes, and other sewer dwellers mindlessly attacked them from the front, while from behind they were being assaulted by waves of dungeon inhabitants that had refreshed twice a day.

  Mordecai's final harassment had started ohey were all i zone of the sewer: fairies.

  Not as attackers of course, no, he had them py to their nature. Brightly glowing, eic fairies zoomed in and swooped around as they ughed and insulted the meraries. Other fairies who had darker coloration followed behind them, unlit and flying low. These ones were there to 'undo'. Buckles, ces, ties, ropes, and bindings of any sort. He had made sure all of them had several obsidiao help their work. Against soft targets, even dungeon-crafted metal bdes were not as good. The sharpness of gss could not be beat, and at best could be matched with great effort using materials that were less fragile.

  The dungeon's assault stopped ohe st of the meraries had started up the slope. The inhabitants waited at the base of the slope until the bedraggled group had cleared the first cyg chamber, and then they dispersed to the other exits from the sewers to begin their own sing process.

  This did give the iime tahemselves and use what healing supplies they had left. Forty-six stragglers ehe arena warily, spreading out into a formation as they observed the trap id out in front of them. Mordecai was slightly impressed that Antoine and Akuma had done well enough to still be in this group; by his measure, Akuma was clearly stronger and the noble must have takeraining seriously. While the Moriko of today could still take him easily, Mordecai wasn't certain that the Moriko he had first met would have found him a soft target anymore.

  Mordecai's visible inhabitants were not all of the trap. Behind the two closed staircases leading to the wetnds were the forces of Azeria and Riverbridge, to be called upon if things went poorly.

  Zushi waited in the chamber above, along with Ryohoho and a swarm of feathered serpents with shade tails upon their backs.

  The arena itself had been partially flooded, making the first line of batants a mixture of s drakes, crabbits, and hex wolves; all of whom were prepared to simply swarm the meraries.

  Behind them were the formations of bunkin, rabkin, and buzzkin troops. Most of them currently had ranged ons out but held their melee options at the ready. Bellona was at the front of the formations in the role of their ander. Xarlug had insisted on being by her side for this, so he had the role of being her guard and making sure her orders were carried out. With them stood the river ands zone bosses in their human forms, disguising their identities until the best time for them to strike was revealed.

  Fuyuko was with the dedicated archery units up iands.

  Off to the fnks were the cavalry units from the mushroom forests, and cirg above were their dracobit panions. The scouts, druids, and spiders from the forest had been part of the most ret waves of harassment in the sewers along with the river drakes, freeing up the troops to recover and fall into formation.

  And at the very front was Mordecai in his ambassador form, along with the three einherjar. Teically this was not part of their duties, but the trio were excited at a ce for a real fight.

  The other summoned tractors awaited in the main hall, along with Enki and a tinuous trickle of inhabitants who hadn't participated in the final waves of attack. Most of those exiting the sewers would be joining as well, though the river drakes were returning to the river and s.

  "In case you hadn't noticed," Mordecai said, his amplified voice filling the arena, "your talismans don't appear to be w. That's because we stole them and repced them with fakes. We have also activated them aed the troops that had been summoned, including the dungeon avatar who had taken on the appearance of a demon. If anyone wishes to surrehey merely o throw away their ons and y face down on the floor. I reend doing so well away from any fools who chose not to do so as any fighting here is liable to get chaotic."

  Mordecai wasn't expeg a surrender, not even now. When he and Kazue had first analyzed their gear, it had bee quickly obvious that they were professional meraries. While the quality of their gear had some variation, especially in on and armor entments, their load out was close enough to identical that every pad pouch was ahe same way. Additionally, the anders had ented sig rings that allowed them to pass orders silently, which was an excellent tool for assaulting a dungeon.

  That meant that they were not going to surrender uhe people they had been hired to follow surrendered. And while Akuma might have been willing to under different circumstances, Mordecai couldn't see the wild-eyed Antoine doing so. Holy, he wasn't eveain that the man was still sane.

  The momeected the seven remaining casters preparing spells, his core ordered the terattack. Arrows, bullets, and spells flew in both dires and Mordecai closed the gap only slightly behind them. He leapt, aiming for Antoine's head with a nine-ring bde. Akuma had been on the defensive and mao intercept Mordecai's bde with his greatsword while Antoiried to shoot Mordecai with a pistol a his rapier up in a guarded position.

  But Mordecai had started twisting right before his bde cshed with Akuma's sword. The ge in momentum allowed him to use that tact as a pivot point and he rolled forward over the locked bdes and shed out with a cwed kick that ripped open the side of Akuma's fad costing the oni an ear.

  He abahe nine-ring bde in the process, creating one more moving object for others to keep track of, and nded iween the pair. Mordecai thrust a spell-charged cwed hand at Antoine's heart and the noble barely deflected the strike. That only kept him from being killed as Mordecai's cws cut through the yers of pte and and sliced open the side of Antoine's ribs to expose bone. His spell strike left behind a small pool of aggressive acid in the open wound.

  Even as he screamed in agony, the brat mao thrust his fme-coated rapier at Mordecai's face, but Mordecai was already spinning out of the range of the attaeatly dodging the Akuma's strike from behind as well.

  Now Mordecai exhaled a cloud of void energy at the pair, sapping their vitality and that of any other meraries nearby. But the meraries behind him were ued and three of them had a moment to ssh at his seemingly exposed back.

  His avatar's extraordinary senses were enough to keep track of all the movement near him, and Mordecai stepped backward between two of the bdes, leaving himself well within their reach. Before they could recover from their attack Mordecai had grabbed the two closest heads and smashed them together.

  While those two bodies were still dropping, Mordecai had already begun casting a spell. A massive explosion of ice ripped out from a poiween Akuma and Antoine, who had both been starting a charge toward him despite their injuries. He hadn't wasted the time or energy to sculpt out an exception for himself, trusting in his own resiliend resistao withstand the bst.

  That initial bst had left behind a swirling vortex of sleet. bined with the mud, it left everyone around Mordecai barely able to stand. But he walked over the mire as easily as he could walk atop water. Akuma was still standing and mao swing wildly toward Mordecai as he approached. Mordecai leaned out of the way and swiped upward. The loss of his arm stuhe oni long enough for Mordecai to thrust the tip of a to the oni's heart. He held his hand there for a moment as he eled another spell, and a spurt of fire jetted out of the oni's back, leaving a charred hole.

  Any of the giant-kin could be ridiculously sturdy, and Mordecai wasn't taking the ce that Akuma could recover and heal from having his heart simply pierced.

  Now for the brat. Antoine had been ko the ground but had male to a kneeling position. His rapier y several feet away in the mud, but the franti had started pulling spare pistols from his bandoleer instead. Mordecai swayed as if guided by a gentle breeze, slidiween the desperate shots with ease. Suicidal desperation burned in Antoine's eyes as he yanked a pair of alchemical bombs out and triggered their fuses.

  Mordecai's form blurred into mist and shadow as he flowed past the noble. His cws sliced open the man's wrist and the bombs dropped into the mud in front of the noble while Mordecai tinued forward and shoved a pair of meraries into the cws and maws of the crabbits they had been desperately fighting.

  The bombs went off and Mordecai returo verify Antoine's state. Amazingly, the noble's ented gear had protected him enough to keep him alive, though the front of his body and face were in horrible shape. Mordecai e mercifully by taking off the man's head.

  The meraries had mao keep an impressive kill ratio ae their awful state had mao sy most of the crabbits, s drakes, and hex wolves who had swarmed them. But they had been inflicted with wounds and curses in the process, and several of them were dead in addition to the ones Mordecai had taken out.

  Two waves of cavalry smashed into the remaining meraries from either side, both ao cut across a er of the meraries rather than trying to charge directly through the formation of soldiers. Lightning ed across each cavalry formation before they could clear the range, and Mordecai shifted his attention to finishing off the enemy casters.

  It was clear that they were running out of spells; two of them had taken oal bat forms. Such spells were potent, especially in a prolonged fight, but that type of shape-ging generally made it impossible for them to tinue using spells.

  Mordecai approached the one who had taken on the form of a fire elemental first. The transformed mage shed out with a bolt of fme, but Mordecai spped the bolt while spinning to the side. His chi redirected the attack, letting it flow around his hand and body before ung into the earth elemental mage.

  He was now close enough for the fire elemental to punch, but it was no more difficult for Mordecai to dodge and parry these strikes than it would be for him to deal with the attacks of a giant of the same size. It had been long enough for his breath on to recover and he exhaled a e of icy shards charged with a water wave spell. The bination bsted through the fire elemental and its fmes flickered out, leaving behind the mage's remains.

  A boulder flew by just as Mordecai shadow-stepped away, appearing behind the earth elemental. Before the mage could adjust to the movement Mordecai leapt up into a spinning kick that cracked into the elemental's head with a boom of thuhat mage's headless body dropped into the mud as well.

  The remaining mages had taken on their bat forms as well, but Bellona had already ordered the zone bosses to ehem along with a troop formation. Mordecai looked to find the seventh o a moment ter he was able to verify that the fused man was now in one of the prison cells. He had been taken out by a well-pced shot from Fuyuko just as he had started casting.

  The -up didn't take much longer, and soon all of the invaders were trapped in their individual cells, dressed in a simple shirt and pants, though they were colored in diagonal sshes of hideous dark green and garish bright e. Kazue had chosen those colors out of spite.

  Zagaroth