Worthy Core

"Fredder, stay within the damn shadow! Tainz, there's two more of those damn archers up and to the right there, mind givin' em a jolt of lightnin' or two for us?"

As an axe-wielding dwarf rushes closer to a drider Mage standing at the center of their party formation, he grumbles to his team leader. "How the hells am I supposed to hit anything if I'm staying back here? I tossed both of my throwing axes ten minutes ago!"

Chuckling, another dwarf next to him mocks him slightly while she reloads her heavy-duty crossbow. "Not every single matchup's a perfect balance of roles, kid. You know how many times I gotta hold my shots while you frontliners get mixed up into a melee? Don't worry, you'll get your loot all the same." Sure enough, of the six members of the mixed dwarf-and-drider party, only three of them have much work to do as they whittle down the fae archers firing at them from the crystalline trees of Floor Seven. As one of those three is a drider Shadow Mage however, cloaking the entire party in a cloud of summoned darkness, the others have little to fear from the incoming shots given that most of them go far wide.

When the last crystal monster falls thanks to a blast from the team's drider Elementalist, the lead dwarf turns back towards his party. "Good work, Mountaineers! Looks like a clear shot from here to the boss arena, and there ain't a chance that a handful of slimes are gonna get the best of us! Anyone need to rest up? Get anything prepped? Now's the time."

While the dwarf Sniper sees to her ammo and the team's Mages take a moment to recharge their mana, another drider approaches the man, accompanied by the sound of snarling. Not from himself of course, but from the three dire wolflings following after him. The bipedal beasts are short, no more than two and a half feet tall each, but their sharp claws and mouthfuls of fangs were still more than enough to be intimidating to anyone who didn't know their master. Fortunately, Hammon Hardhead had spent the last five weeks working alongside the the follower of Garre, God of Monsters, and so the Monster Priest's beastlings warranted little more than a quick looking-over for wounds as they approach. "None of your pups take any arrows there, Nomanz?"

"No, they're far too agile for that. A little riled up though from not being able to do anything about enemies so high up, though. They should have better luck against the slimes, so long as they don't allow themselves to be engulfed."

Hammon nods. "Good, good." Before he continues, the dwarf lowers his voice a little. "The kids doing okay, y'think? Pushing this deep with a couple of Advanced is a risky business."

The drider cleric looks over Fredder, the dwarf Axeman, and Tainz, their drider Elementalist, but his answer comes quickly enough. "Fredder should have perhaps hung on to his axes better, but I think we're doing fine, and Tainz will be essential for countering the mana slimes. We might have been reliant on Yalizz's shadow magics to help us get past the Banshee Queen, but there hasn't been a Challenger casualty to the slimes yet. Ironically, I think Lollyp would actually be more dangerous were she on this floor, and went all-out."

The Shield Smasher chuckles at that. "Certainly would be if there were three or four of her, haha! Alright then, enough dawdlin', let's get our asses in gear before the dungeon decides to send that damn hoppy knight after us!"

The party does pick up quickly at that, not wanting a rematch with Trush and his squires. They'd had a run-in once before on Floor Four, taking a number of minor injuries in the process, and only actually cleared the floor on a later attempt when the man didn't reappear. As for this fight however, the six were feeling much more confident. While not many parties had gotten this far yet, the nobles who had were far less circumspect about hiding their discoveries compared to some professional teams and word had spread of the fight's mechanics. There did seem to be some randomization as to what kinds of slimes a party would have to fight, but the basic methods of killing a giant slime didn't tend to change very much regardless of their elemental aspect.

Despite that, the experienced Experts of the group were only confident, not over-confident, and so when they open the boss arena's crystalline doors Hammon steps inside slowly. It doesn't take him long to decide that something seems to be a little off compared to the information the team had acquired. "Where's the white one?"

Petal, the team's dwarven Siege Sniper, does a quick scan of the arena and its crystalline pillars herself. "They're supposed to be random, right? Guess we're not fighting the white one today."

Hammon shakes his head at that. "No - the white one's never random, it always finishes on that. And supposedly it always still has the crystals of even the ones it doesn't use, so - why's the white crystal missing?"

Standing at the man's side, Fredder gives a snort. "Why are you worried about fewer bosses? Besides, we're only the, what, fifth team through here? And not all of em talked about what they saw. Who's to say this ain't normal?"

"Instinct, kid. Instinct is tellin' me that - gah!" Sure enough, Hammon wasn't boasting as it's his instinct alone that tells him to raise his shield to cover his head. He doesn't see what it is that actually impacts him, but it lands on him hard enough to make his shield arm vibrate, and only a moment later a hard kick sends him flying into the wall of the arena. The Shield Smasher class is all about the manipulation of momentum, though, and he practically bounces off of the wall and onto his feet, ready to face whatever it was that struck him.

So it is that he gets an excellent view of Fredder's head as it goes soaring across the arena. Standing in front of the former Challenger is a monster unlike anything else on the floor, and which is very definitely not a slime. It's a woman, certainly, although all but her chin is covered in shining armor, including a winged visor sweeping back from her helmet. More notable are the large, functional metal wings extending from her back, reminding Hammon that he made one of the classic Challenger blunders. He'd forgotten to look up.

Before he can even shout out the order the party's ranged members are firing at the boss, despite the fact that most of them hadn't even properly entered the arena yet. The woman's large shield moves quickly to intercept Petal's crossbow bolt, but to their surprise even the wings move forward at lightning speed to protect against the actual lightning the Elementalist is firing at her. The energy doesn't seem to hurt her, or at least not as much as it ought to considering how much metal the woman seems to be wearing, but it does at least appear to root her in place momentarily while the attack plays out. Seeing that, Hammon decides to go on the counter-offensive.

"Nomanz! Have your beasties flank her, she can't cover every angle! Yalizz, blind her, Petal, try and restrain her before she can take back into the air! Use an ice bolt or something!" Despite his concerns however the guardian stays on the ground, even as Hammon and the trio of dire wolflings begin to surround her. A cloud of darkness attaches itself to her helmet, indicating the Shadow Mage's magics are in play, but as Hammon charges in he realizes that it appears to be having no effect. The helmeted figure snaps her attention to him, kicking at him once again the moment he comes into range. Hammon blocks it with his shield, but her strength still manages to take him by surprise, knocking him backwards once again.

The wolflings receive even less attention, as a few swings of the monster's sword quickly disables the whole lot of them - at least one immediately dead, its throat slit, and another failing to move after it falls to the ground. It would be an understatement then to say that Hammon is a little concerned as she starts to march in his direction, and even more when she begins to speak. "You - your soul is bright. You would make an excellent champion, dwarf. Prepare for the honor of - "

Whatever she was about to say, it's interrupted as slimy tentacles suddenly emerge from the rocky ground and grab on to her legs. Despite everything being flung at her, the woman's shield and wings seem to keep her well-defended with almost minimal effort, but the monstrous trap apparently manages to take her at least a little bit by surprise.

"You killed Rez and Fizzo! You'll pay for that, bitch!" As the Monster Priest of Garre shouts at her, the woman narrows her eyes at him in return.

"The - the beasts? You care little for the dwarf I slew, do you? ...You do care for your creatures though, I can see, so perhaps there's something to work with there." Rather than strike at the tentacles holding her in place, instead the boss scoops up the axe Fredder had dropped and flings it at the drider Priest. It's a heavy weapon, no throwing axe, yet it flies gracefully through the air as it passes right through the center of Nomanz's skull. With the death of their summoner the tentacles holding her in place begin to slowly dissolve once again, and while he has a moment free Hammon decides it's time to act.

"Retreat! This boss is at least a tier above the damn slimes! We'll need a whole damn new strategy for this one!" His remaining team members need no further telling, and the Sniper and Shadow Mage hesitate only long enough to try one final attempt at restraining their opponent. An ice-aspected bolt from Petal does ice up the guardian's wings, hopefully grounding the woman, while Yalizz summons tentacles of his own, shadowy forms to replace the monstrous ones now being torn away. He then begins to summon up a cloud of shadow to cover the party's retreat, but this second spell proves to be one too many.

Even as Hammon rushes back through the arena door, Yalizz's torso is sliced open next to him, his shadow magics apparently even less effective against the monster than the Priest's summons and wolflings. The last survivor of that monstrous trio does choose that moment to reappear though, snapping at the woman's ankle, and it's that distraction alone that saves Hammon as he runs with all the speed his class training and short legs can muster. "Back! We'll regroup at the previous chamber!"

While Petal and Tainz run on ahead, the Shield Smasher does spare a look back over his shoulder, and what he sees makes him grow pale. "She's - fuck! She's chasing us! Keep going til we hit the emergency portal!"

Smashing her shield against her wings, it only takes Opal a few moments to clear herself of the ice weighing her down. As she takes into the air of Floor Seven's main chamber though she's taken by surprise as one more obstacle gets in her way. Literally standing on air, Xenia's avatar appears before her and it takes all of her strength not to crash into her new employer. "Brightsky! Stop! Let them go!"

Under her helmet, Opal's brow furrows. "What? Why!? They're retreating! The rout is the ideal time to slay one's foes! Most casualties occur during the rout!"

"I've been a soldier since before you were born, you don't need to tell me that." Xenia's eyes narrow, but only for a moment. "Look - this is on me, I didn't explain it well enough. But this isn't a battlefield. Everything that happens in this dungeon is consensual, including the murdering. And 'ahhh, flee for your lives' means 'no'. Get it?"

Hovering in place, Opal gives an annoyed look as she glances past Xenia's floating form at the final drider and pair of dwarves as they escape the chamber. "But we need them! Well - perhaps not the drider girl, she's still young. But those dwarves, they're strong. They'd make excellent Heroes."

"Sure. But that's short-term. I know they didn't have dungeons back home, but trust me, there's not much that holds a Challenger back. Are they getting away today? Sure. But they'll be back in a week - and with reinforcements, more Challengers. And as long as we've got a reputation for playing fair, so will they. Hell, if they like the place, not only will they not try to crack the core open but they'll keep on giving you chances to kill them. There's dudes Lollyp's fought like ten times before she finally got them."

Opal takes a few deep breaths as her wings continue to flap, but eventually she nods. "Very well. I hope you don't expect me to go easy on those who actually put up a fight, however."

The dungeon master nods. "That's fine. Nothing wrong with having a flashy first appearance, either. I bet you they're gonna have a hell of a story to tell about you in the inn later. Well, you know...after they change their pants."