No Need for a Core?

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

To a certain extent, this was the reason he'd let himself react so strongly. He knew he wouldn't be needed immediately, so dealing with the emotional backlash of having essentially enslaved the avatar of another dungeon had been a priority. He couldn't afford for it to distract him at an unpredictable 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 comforting 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 way up a slope of alternating water sluices and beyond-blue light to cleanse 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 sunburns 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 once they were all in the last zone of the sewer: fairies.

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

The dungeon's assault stopped once the last of the mercenaries had started up the slope. The inhabitants waited at the base of the slope until the bedraggled group had cleared the first cycling chamber, and then they dispersed to the other exits from the sewers to begin their own cleansing process.

This did give the invaders time to reorganize themselves and use what healing supplies they had left. Forty-six stragglers entered the arena warily, spreading out into a formation as they observed the trap laid 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 than he had been and the noble must have taken some new training seriously as well. 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 wetlands 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 combatants a mixture of swamp drakes, crabbits, and hex wolves; all of whom were prepared to simply swarm the mercenaries.

Behind them were the formations of bunkin, rabkin, and buzzkin troops. Most of them currently had ranged weapons out but held their melee options at the ready. Bellona was at the front of the formations in the role of their commander. 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 and wetlands 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 in the stands.

Off to the flanks were the cavalry units from the mushroom forests, and circling above were their dracobit companions. The scouts, druids, and spiders from the forest had been part of the most recent 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. Technically this was not part of their duties, but the trio were excited at a chance for a real fight.

The other summoned contractors awaited in the main hall, along with Enki and a continuous 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 swamp.

"In case you hadn't noticed," Mordecai said, his amplified voice filling the arena, "your talismans don't appear to be working. That's because we stole them and replaced them with fakes. We have also activated them and defeated the troops that had been summoned, including the dungeon avatar who had taken on the appearance of a demon. If anyone wishes to surrender, they merely need to throw away their weapons and lay face down on the floor. I recommend 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 expecting a surrender, not even now. When he and Kazue had first analyzed their gear, it had become quickly obvious that they were professional mercenaries. While the quality of their gear had some variation, especially in weapon and armor enchantments, their load out was close enough to identical that every pack and pouch was organized the same way. Additionally, the commanders had enchanted signet 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 unless the 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. Honestly, he wasn't even certain that the man was still sane.

The moment he detected the seven remaining casters preparing spells, his core ordered the counterattack. Arrows, bullets, and spells flew in both directions and Mordecai closed the gap only slightly behind them. He leapt, aiming for Antoine's head with a nine-ring blade. Akuma had been on the defensive and managed to intercept Mordecai's blade with his greatsword while Antoine tried to shoot Mordecai with a pistol and kept his rapier up in a guarded position.

But Mordecai had started twisting right before his blade clashed with Akuma's sword. The change in momentum allowed him to use that contact as a pivot point and he rolled forward over the locked blades and lashed out with a clawed kick that ripped open the side of Akuma's face and cost the oni an ear.

He abandoned the nine-ring blade in the process, creating one more moving object for others to keep track of, and landed in between the pair. Mordecai thrust a spell-charged clawed hand at Antoine's heart and the noble barely deflected the strike. That only kept him from being killed as Mordecai's claws cut through the layers of plate and chain 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 managed to thrust his flame-coated rapier at Mordecai's face, but Mordecai was already spinning out of the range of the attack, neatly dodging 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 mercenaries nearby. But the mercenaries behind him were unaffected and three of them had a moment to slash 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 blades, 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 point between 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 resilience and resistances to withstand the blast.

That initial blast had left behind a swirling vortex of sleet. Combined 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 managed to swing wildly toward Mordecai as he approached. Mordecai leaned out of the way and swiped upward. The loss of his arm stunned the oni long enough for Mordecai to thrust the tip of a claw into the oni's heart. He held his hand there for a moment as he channeled 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 chance that Akuma could recover and heal from having his heart simply pierced.

Now for the brat. Antoine had been knocked to the ground but had managed to struggle to a kneeling position. His rapier lay several feet away in the mud, but the frantic man had started pulling spare pistols from his bandoleer instead. Mordecai swayed as if guided by a gentle breeze, sliding between 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 claws sliced open the man's wrist and the bombs dropped into the mud in front of the noble while Mordecai continued forward and shoved a pair of mercenaries into the claws and maws of the crabbits they had been desperately fighting.

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

The mercenaries had managed to keep an impressive kill ratio and despite their awful state had managed to slay most of the crabbits, swamp 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 mercenaries from either side, both angled to cut across a corner of the mercenaries rather than trying to charge directly through the formation of soldiers. Lightning chained 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 on elemental combat forms. Such spells were potent, especially in a prolonged fight, but that type of shape-changing generally made it impossible for them to continue using spells.

Mordecai approached the one who had taken on the form of a fire elemental first. The transformed mage lashed out with a bolt of flame, but Mordecai slapped the bolt while spinning to the side. His chi redirected the attack, letting it flow around his hand and body before launching 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 weapon to recover and he exhaled a cone of icy shards charged with a water wave spell. The combination blasted through the fire elemental and its flames 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 thunder. That mage's headless body dropped into the mud as well.

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

The clean-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 slashes of hideous dark green and garish bright orange. Kazue had chosen those colors out of spite.