No Need for a Core?

The first sign that something was wrong was a giant raven landing in the upper branches of a tree just inside the dungeon's territory. Not only was it not one of theirs, it was a familiar and not even available to contact. The raven tugged at the cord tying a rolled parchment to its leg, letting the message fall free.

The parchment never reached the ground.

Mordecai frowned as he and Kazue analyzed the contents of the message. "I was vaguely hoping that it would take until next year, but it seems that it only took them a couple of months. This should be interesting. Kazue?"

"Take charge, let me know what you need."

"Thank you." They'd talked about it previously, but he wanted to be sure they were on the same page about him taking charge again anytime there was an emergency of this sort. "Moriko, feel free to listen in, but don't come charging home. Once I get a handle on their actual strength I'll let you know if we need you to try to assault them from the rear."

Moriko was fast, and if need be could just carry Kazue's avatar, but even so, it would take most of a day to get here and leave her tired. It was best to keep them in reserve and give them time to prepare themselves instead of rushing.

"We have some time, so let's start thinning out the guests who are upstairs. I want all noncombatants somewhere safe, and I don't want any trainees or novices around either. Other than that, try to make it appear like normal operations for now." As he spoke Mordecai was making his way to the war room, where their contractors and some of their more tactically inclined inhabitants were also headed.

The message had been from one of their kobold allies. [A force of over 200 armed people in the hills and mountains, broken up into groups of five to seven, heading toward your territory. The groups are spread out, some are still camped.] There was no speculation presented, and Mordecai appreciated being given pure facts and doing his own analysis, especially without personal knowledge of the kobold who sent this message. The most immediate thing to glean was that there was no legitimate reason for such a force to be marching through the mountains to them. This was an assault.

When he arrived, Mordecai gave Shizoku and Derek a hard stare. "You two are not participating in this at all. You have no safety net." Well, they did, but they didn't know that.

The teen witch was in fine form as she arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Then do you expect them to politely bid us be on our way?"

"No, I expect you to get escorted to the corner of our territory closest to the forest and make a run for home."

"So, the heir to the clan is supposed to abandon the clan's ally in their hour of need? I think not. And you don't need us as messengers, there is no way we are your fastest runners." While Shizoku seemed confident, Derek looked nervous. But his measure had been taken, Mordecai knew he'd not abandon the girl.

Also, Shizoku wasn't wrong. He'd already sent two usagisune off with messages, one headed for the clan and the other headed for Riverbridge. Both had been instructed to run directly for the forest and then parallel the road. And Bellona had dragged in her portable secretary table that could be used to contact the capital. "Fine, but only on your oath to not reveal any of the secrets that may be revealed to you. The two of you may observe and you can set up to support the main hall, but you are not to go forward of the main hall until the fighting is done."

Once each of them had given their oaths, Mordecai focused back on the planning. "It looks like they are planning on infiltrating by pretending to be normal parties. There's no reason for them to break up into such small groups otherwise, it only leaves them more vulnerable. So, I intend to let them think that they have successfully infiltrated. Initially, we'll let them sign up for slots on the same basis as everyone else and have friendly groups take their normal turns. But when they are out of sight, I want to redirect all our actual guests directly to the river zone. The river and the wetlands will be free to roam, but I am going to pull all of our combatants from those zones. All traffic past the wetlands will be routed into the arena, with the warning that anyone traveling past the wetlands will be considered a hostile invader and treated as such." The guests already in the dungeon would be allowed to progress normally through the earlier zones, that part of the alteration was only for people who hadn't started the delve.

Since he couldn't just seal off all access to progress, this was the best compromise he had available. "For the invading troops, I want to let them progress down whichever path each group decides upon, but no further than the mushroom forests. We're going to put in minimal effort and give them minimal rewards during this, which will give us time to study them and decide our exact actions. I intend to give them a chance to surrender at this point, but assuming that they do not surrender, all of the floor exits will be rotated to lead directly to the sewers instead of normal progression. This means that they will be broken up into smaller groups and forced to enter the sewers at different locations. Also, the combat path will have all restrictions pulled. I am hoping that this will eliminate most if not all of the groups on that side."

It was going to depend on the exact setup of the individual group, but he was hoping to take down a good quarter of them in the combat path. "Fortunately, we don't have to worry about offering a chance to surrender after that initial opportunity. But we need to start expanding our prison by a lot, as I am going to designate that as the safe zone for them to appear in after they die." He hadn't gotten around to explaining this bit to Fuyuko yet, and all three teens were exchanging confused looks.

"One of our most recent blessings is the ability to give any of our visitors an instant rescue from death. But it takes a full year before it can affect a person for a second time, and we have to be careful with it. It is a delicate thing in some ways, and can be easily broken." And this was why he had Shizoku and Derek swear that oath before he allowed them to stay. It was also the only reason he hadn't forcibly ejected them despite their protests; so long as the dungeon did not die, the two of them should be safe. Just to be certain, he set their safe zones to the far corner of the dungeon's territory.

"In the meantime, all training will cease. I want everyone rested, and I want to prepare the arena to make it our last line of defense. The last stage of the sewer involves climbing back up a path that leads to a hidden door into the arena. It's set between the two staircases that lead down from the last boss arena." It was part of the reason that he'd set the arena the way he had; Mordecai had wanted a better last-stand area than the main hall where guests might well be present.

"Shizoku, Derek; I am going to leave this display running to show enemy deployments. You may watch as you please, and if you have anything you want us to notice after the fighting has started, you may write it down and place it on that desk over there. I don't know how busy we're going to get, and that will be less distracting than you trying to talk to us. Everyone; this is only a rough sketch based on preliminary information and some educated guesses. Events may change, stay flexible."

With the meeting wrapped up, everyone attached to the dungeon set about their duties. Shizoku approached him with a question. "Mordecai, do you mind if Derek and I set up a position down the hall to your bed chambers? I imagine that they aren't in use much right now with your wives absent."

Her tone was too innocent and he looked at her suspiciously. "Why there?"

"Well honored ancestor, I can't help but notice that your bed chambers are at the furthest, deepest part of the dungeon and that in even the most surprising circumstances it would be hard to access anything hidden that way without running into the dungeon's final and strongest defenders."

Clever little girl. "You are too smart for your own good. Fine, do as you please, but that counts as one of the secrets you swore to protect." Of course, the core itself was high above the arched ceiling of the main hall, but the only traversable paths to it were accessed from the furthest rooms.

Shizoku seemed rather pleased with herself, and she went to work with Derek repurposing much of their furniture into barricades and barriers. With significant effort, Derek would be able to mold the walls enough to enable him to be able to embed the corners and sides of the tables into them. They would have to be destroyed to be cleared out, not merely pulled aside while under attack. Their work right now was arranging everything so that they could quickly pull the barriers into place, they didn't want to be trapped behind their own handiwork just yet.

Which left Fuyuko waiting for her assignment, as she hadn't been integrated into their contingencies yet. "Until the first hostiles cross into our territory, you may assist topside in getting everyone organized, whether they want to leave or if they want to be brought down and guarded. The moment the invaders are in our outer zone, I want you to come down." The girl started to scowl, but he didn't let her interrupt. "You can continue to assist anyone who needs it until it's time for the fighting to begin. You will then proceed to join the archery line of defense in the seating areas of the arena." Not that the seating was still going to be there, the tiers of benches were already being rotated out with barriers for archers and gunners to protect themselves with. The viewing area directly above the arena he cleared out as well, and then the entire floor slid to one side, replaced with an opaque floor with several trap doors that could only be opened from above. He didn't anticipate a need for them right now, but Mordecai did know how to prepare on the paranoid side.

Fuyuko growled. "I don't want a backline position."

"Too bad. I'd prefer to not have you fighting in earnest at all, so I'm already giving you a compromise. And part of the reason for that is your battle fugue. To be blunt, you are still too dangerous to have on the front lines. There's a good reason I only let you push yourself in spars with someone you can't permanently hurt."

Fuyuko looked down at that. She was still scowling, but he didn't feel as much resistance from her anymore. So he continued in a more gentle voice. "We all have our parts to play. If it comes down to it and you need to enter melee, then so be it. But right now, this is the best way to organize. Come on, let's go topside together, I don't need to keep my avatar down here right now."

Their bronze bats and other flying animals that they'd incorporated during their last expansion were perched as high as they could and remain hidden in the trees. Mordecai wanted as much warning as possible before the enemy crossed into his borders.