While Shizoku’s party readied their delve, Kazue, her family, and some of the most experienced bunkin commanders gathered in the War Room so that everyone could watch. While Kazue’s purpose in inviting the bunkin had been to have them study and learn, the demandingly loyal inhabitants insisted that they were going to take turns serving everyone snacks as well. Giving up on trying to convince them otherwise, Kazue made sure there was seating for everyone instead. She created three couches; The center one was the largest so that the small rabbit folk could pile about freely, then on one side she created a loveseat for her parents to snuggle on, and a slightly larger version where Kazue settled herself between Mordecai and Moriko. The monk didn’t need to take up her duties as sixth-floor boss immediately, so this was a good chance for her to learn how the opposing team worked as well.
While Shizoku was not the best suited to lead, this particular delve was also a training exercise for her, and leadership was what the young three-tail needed the most training in. Ideally, the leader would have been Takehiko, followed by Brongrim and Nainvil in no particular order, and Shizoku barely taking fourth due to her experience with magic.
The hedge maze of the first floor was an easy clear, even with the higher numbers of both normal and magic dire rabbits that Mordecai was throwing at the party. It did give everyone the opportunity to learn to trust each other's competency, however. Kazue was letting her husband handle that partly because he enjoyed it more and partly because she selfishly wanted to just be a spectator. While she did like Shizoku, the white-haired witch was often inclined to more than a bit of arrogance, and it might be nice to see her being rattled. That wasn’t the best thought process to have if you wanted to run things fairly.
The first-floor boss fight was a different matter. The moment that the party had started on the maze, an enhancing aura settled onto Ryohoho. Zushi’s aura didn’t change, which meant that their raid boss was already at least a fair fight for the party if he went all out. This was the dungeon ability that Mordecai had gained at the same time Kazue had gained a boon of sapience for all the inhabitants. Takehiko was now the most powerful individual in the party, instead of the second weakest as he had been during the first time he'd delved into the dungeon. It made a huge difference to their total power.
Kazue had been narrating details like this that the others wouldn’t be able to see, and upon her noting that this party wasn’t strong enough to trigger the buff on Zushi, Akahana smirked. “Aw, maybe I should have joined the group. I have to keep my daughter and her spouses humble after all.”
The younger redhead stuck her tongue out at her mother. “No need for that, thank you. If the group was all up to at least Takehiko’s strength, I think the boost would have kicked in for Zushi. Now hush, they are prepping.”
The spherical boss room gave the group enough room to spread out into their preferred formation, or at least as best as they could in the awkwardly shaped arena. The room was empty of course, and when Kazue looked for where Zushi was going to be coming in from, she found a slight surprise. “Oh! Look there! Mordecai, when did you install the slides?”
Her husband grinned. “A few days ago; people were getting too used to normal entrances. You were paying more attention to the other side.” From Zushi’s chamber, which was now even higher above the boss room, a dozen smooth tunnels spread out in a spiral that then curved sharply back in. This allowed the dense Void Rabbit to come in at an angle of his choice with a significant amount of speed.
So far Zushi had only used it to impact close to groups to create shockwaves, but Mordecai judged that a worse-case scenario would only leave Shizoku with some bad injuries instead of critically harming her. Much like her first time here, Shizoku was the frailest of the party, though not necessarily the weakest in terms of total combat effectiveness.
“Slide?” Moriko started to ask, but her question was answered as a fuzzy patch of darkness came hurling out from across the room, the dark ball of fur aimed directly at the crowded group. Shizoku and Takehiko reacted with personal barriers while the three guardsmen acted in unison to aim their spears at the target, angled so that their thrust tried to deflect Zushi rather than stop his mass.
It did work, but at some cost: all three of them were forced to their knees and the harsh flares of the spellcaster’s shields provided the last bit of momentum to throw Zushi off course. Two of them lost their grip on their spears as Zushi’s power drew the spears into his void. The third kept his grip and was yanked to the side, and when he scrambled back to his feet, he found himself holding a spear shaft with no head.
Ricardo whistled softly. “That’s an interesting ability your boss has there. He’s the one who doubles as a Raid boss, right?”
“That’s right!” Kazue said proudly. “And you can thank My Lady and her son for it, however accidentally. When they visited after Mordecai and Moriko arrived, I had to cram a lot of energy somewhere, and Zushi took a good chunk of it.” She hesitated a moment before admitting. “I’m still not entirely certain of the relationship between Darkness and Gravity, but it does seem to fit. My instincts say it’s right.”
Mordecai nodded. “I think I have more about it locked up in my memories, but unpacking that information is a low priority until we can create the pattern for his base species. Which we still can’t, to be clear.”
Akahana chewed on her lower lip as she watched two of the guards switch to sword and shield and the third switched to a crossbow, scanning the ceiling. “So he’s not yet as strong as a normal adult for this species you created?" she asked, "let alone being buffed by being a raid boss.”
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Zushi had started inhaling while the party was regrouping, but Takehiko had made sure they were all warded against draining effects before entering. It didn’t stop Zushi from gathering energy and strength, but it did greatly reduce the impact of his draining powers.
“Correct,” Mordecai replied. Brongrim fired his pistol as he closed in on one side and Nainvil closed in on the other while swinging a great sword. Both the ammunition and the sword flared with light in an attempt to negate the absorbing effects of the void rabbit’s fur and achieved a small amount of success. At the same time, small bolts of fire and lightning found their mark as the spellcasters went to work.
Finding his challengers to be more powerful than those he’d battled previously, the raid boss revealed a new tactic that would have been overkill against the earlier parties: He spewed back out a portion of the items he’d been collecting in the past several days. Notably absent were select items the dungeon had already decided to keep. With the dwarf and half-orc at his flanks, Zushi wasn’t able to include them in the cone of debris, but the rest were caught off guard.
The mages had already flared their shields for greater defense earlier, it would be a minute or so before they could restore them. This left them ducking behind the warriors and trusting the enchantments of their robes to take the worst of it.
Before the team could start to focus down on Zushi properly, Mordecai complicated the fight by releasing a dozen dire rabbits to charge the group, and then a few moments later a group of magic-imbued dire rabbits. This kept the guards and mages occupied which forced Brongrim and Nainvil to fight against Zushi alone.
And Zushi was absorbing a little more energy with every hit. The weapons were able to hurt him, but not as much as they should have. When enough energy had been transferred from Zushi to Ryohoho, the dracobit joined the fray, swooping down and strafing the larger group with a spray of acid.
Kazue was amazed at Shizoku’s composure when so many rabbits were dying around her, filling the air with those awful screams, but decided she did not want to ask about what sort of training Aia had subjected the poor girl to in order to inure her to the sound after she'd previously been so vulnerable to it.
Shizoku and Takehiko were using the lowest tier area spells that would get the job done cleanly, slipping briefly between two guards to fan their hands out and unleash cones of fire, then leaving any survivors for the guardsmen to finish off. Ryohoho was more dangerous, but they had to clear the swarm first.
When the dire rabbits were cleared enough, the crossbow-wielding guard switched to Ryohoho, followed by Takehiko, which left two guards and Shizoku to guard against any stragglers. The dracobit maintained his distance while harassing the pair, but a bolt of ice from Takehiko put a hole in one of his wings and left a swath of ice across his flank. So the boss simply dove, using one of the trap doors to cover his escape and leaving the sticky side of the panel facing up.
Zushi had been simply tanking the hits from his own opponents and using headbutts, bites, and kicks to return the favor, but once Ryohoho dipped out the void bunny decided it was time to do the same. His leap made the ground ripple, forcing Brongrim and Nainvil to focus on keeping their footing rather than trying to intercept him.
“Excellent,” Mordecai said with a grin. “I didn’t have them quite go all out, but having Zushi play raid boss instead of floor boss was an excellent test for everyone. The next two floors shouldn’t prove too hard, even with doubled bosses. Things will get really interesting again at the library. I think without a certain druid’s support, they’ll choose to take a rest beforehand and proceed more cautiously.”
Ricardo eyed his wife. “Why do I get the feeling you were even more reckless than our daughter-in-law let on? What I heard before already sounded like overkill.”
Akahana briefly blushed, then lifted her chin defiantly. “I know not of what you speak.”
Kazue smirked. “Mother, you know we were paying attention enough to create a perfect illusory recreation, right?”
“Lies, I tell you, lies!” She met Ricardo’s gaze with a challenging look. “You do believe your wife, don’t you?”
Ricardo snorted with amusement. “Yes dear, of course I do. And I am certain our daughter won’t feel the need to show me the entire thing later anyway.”
Kazue rightly interpreted that as a request, and her core began discussing with Mordecai how they might create something that could play the complete illusion on demand. While that went on in the background, and her parents continued to flirt, the kitsune avatar turned her attention back to the party who were patching up their wounds, assessing equipment damage, and collecting the projectiles that Zushi had sprayed at them earlier. It was mostly weapons, though Shizoku was delighted to find a few undamaged vials of alchemical mixtures. Zushi had rammed someone who was reaching into his pouch for a potion, then rolled over the items that had spilled, absorbing them easily.
“Oh, that’s why Shizoku didn’t use her own reagents!” She exclaimed when she saw the younger woman mixing together a tincture to treat an acid burn that was proving slow to respond to the dust that Takehiko’s eidolon was dusting over it. “They don’t have any dedicated healers, and Takehiko’s fairy doesn’t heal people quickly, just consistently.”
Moriko had been thoughtfully quiet since Zushi’s entrance via the slides, and once the delving party had gathered itself enough to head down to the second floor she focused on Kazue and Mordecai. “I have a question. How would Zushi interact with slamming into a lake that same way? Or maybe faster, a slide all the way down from the first floor?”
Kazue’s eyes widened at the thought, and Mordecai grinned evilly. “Oh, you do have a vicious streak. But no, not for this group. I can already tell that the interaction is too likely to outright drown someone from the party, probably the guards and maybe our ex-mercenary friends. I think the kitsune mages should be able to handle it with the right spells though. But I don’t know what they might have that could save the others quickly enough. Zushi's initial impact would create a cavity as the water was forced away, and then he’d start absorbing more water even before the waves rebounded to him. That could create a vortex too.”
“Aww," Moriko replied, slightly disappointed, then continued thoughtfully, "Hmm, Ryohoho needs Zushi’s boost to be effective at deeper levels. Well, maybe watching the rest of the delve will give me some other ideas that aren’t too over the top.”
The bunkin had been busy taking notes this whole time, but now they took a break to arrange food and drinks before the next round of entertainment began.