There were no audio cues for the buildings being completed, so Estaria made her own. Not sleeping built up fatigue, but with her stamina, it barely rated a sidebar, so she just stayed up and explored the city, learning its warren of streets like the back of her own hand until the tick completed. She got a day’s work of spawn for it being completed, so the castle had a total army of little over 900, and emplaced artillery to boot. Unless a massive horde dropped, Filnon should be able to hold down the fort. So Estaria announced her desires for Filnon to hang around and protect the place against anyone who might want to come break everything, and then got down to making some more buildings.
Garrison Kitchen - while the Messroom will feed the men, there is nothing quite like a well equipped kitchen and skilled chef to keep the men’s morale up and inspire new volunteers. For the less fortunate, it is the only chance of a decent meal they will get. Increase Garrison from 800 to 1000
Improved Firing Range - Superior butts, better stands and a wider variety of weapons allow for the training of even more projectile soldiers than before, giving a great volume of fire on the field than before. Spawn 50 Handgunners a day for use in the expedition army or defense
Improved Emplacements - Larger cannons and attached Swivel Guns for more precise targeting of units, the walls bark with greater fury when the enemy comes to attack. Demi-Cannons improved to Field Cannons. Creates Swivel Guns.
Improved Swordsman Barracks - Increasing the size of the barracks, and upping the quality allows for a better class of swordsman than the peasantry pulled from the field and handed a sharp stick. Spawn 20 Trained Swordsmen a day for use in expedition army of defense
A few more upgrades and she’d be confident in besieging Norden with her men. That would be a thing. As a Captain, she led at most a hundred men, but if the upgrades kept coming, she’d lead at least a thousand. And wouldn’t that be cool? Last thing she did here, was buy a Dungeon Key and then use it, getting transported to the S-Rank dungeon, and finding herself standing in front of a great brass fortress. 10,000 Khornite Warriors stood in disciplined rank and file, lining the left and right with broad shield and long spear. Not….that they seemed to be what she was here for. They didn’t move to attack, or indeed try anything like that. Just stood there and watched her.
Taking the hint, she followed the line through into the brass fortress, and there, on the throne, was a cat girl. Not the monstrous Beastmen of Drakwald, but a beautiful woman with cute feline ears and a tail. Dressed in something that looked to be a facsimile of an Imperial Noble’s maid, but coloured in red and black, the woman seemed the epitome of demure service.
“Nyaha! A beautiful woman to play with!” the cat girl spoke, leaping up from her throne and speaking with a strange tone, like she had spilled so much blood it tainted the words she spoke.
“I feel sorry for you. One on One is a death sentence” Estaria replied, pulling her flails out and spilling them.
“D’aww, such a good looking woman in a good looking dress with some excellent weapons, and I have to kill them? Tsk, this place is the worst” The cat girl flirted with Estaria and flicked her tail in an irritated manner.
“Are…..you...sure you are a Khornite?” Estaria asked, not entirely sold on that fact.
“Slaanesh has certainly tried to bring me over to her side. But he doesn’t really put in that much effort. More like a token effort to let me know that she is well prepared if I ever want to go over to his side” the cat explained. There was certainly some confusing bits about this cat girl, but Estaria gripped her blades, ready for anything.
“Though, I will admit, I feel strange. Like I have been dragged from my Universe and copied for the sake of this place. I don’t remember existing before you arrived” the cat girl spoke. That, gave Estaria pause. Were these dungeon creatures self aware? Did they know of their own existence?
“Maybe it’s just the fact that they are copying an exceptionally powerful Daemon Prince that makes me think all this. Though I certainly lost some power in the change” the woman then looked to Estaria properly, and gave a broad grin.
“I am sorry, where are my manners? I am the First Executioner of Khorne, Daemon Princess Elouviana Zashira” Elou then gave a curtsey and flicked her tail. If the idea of self-awareness caught Estaria off guard, then the name had her recoiling back a step.
“Zashira?! But...that’s my name! Or, was before I married Filnon” Estaria’s exclamation rang through the hall, and stunned Elou in the same breath.
“Really? Hmm, cool” Elou recovered much quicker than Estaria did and broadened her grin. “Our universes seem similar, my dear Zashira. Maybe you are this universe’s me. That makes this fight even more exciting!” Elou then drew her greatsword from her back, and grasped it in both hands. The edge seemed to have some sort or shimmer, something tiny going up the edge of the blade. “Scarlet Rose. Or, a copy of Scarlet Rose, at least. I am weaker than I should be, and so the blade that is my soul has the same level of power. Still, should be fun” she slid her fingers up the sword, and then pulled it in, pointed it at Estaria, and charged at her, explosive speed and power ripping the floor apart and just missing Estaria’s chest, her Luck bar taking a large hit from that one blow.
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Estaria moved backwards, an action of extreme physical dexterity as she activated Witch Dance and her Divine Form. But there, she was shocked by what she saw. There were no lines of blood on the woman, and instead, a strange shroud of crackling energy surrounded her. It was like she couldn’t bleed - and it made some sort of sense, since Daemons of the Blood God Khorne probably weren’t all that susceptible to bleeding - and her dress was armour. 130% of armour. Estaria had no idea what she was going to do for this fight, even with all her penetration, she was fighting a powerful warrior who would soak 65% of all her damage...The only saving grace was that she had no luck bar, but that was a minor grace at best, given her strength.
Still, no point complaining! Estaria threw herself into the melee, and then twisted suddenly, an amazing show of bodily grace as she landed on her hands and lashed out at the cat-girl with bladed heels sub-targeted to the head. It was going to be a clean shot before something crackled and the blades scraped across some sort of invisible armour it could not penetrate. Letting herself collapse to avoid the incoming blow, Estaria rolled away and threw one of her chains at the cat. Who seemed to have as much dexterity as Estaria did. A helpful little popup informed her that Elou was using Exalted Blade Art - Shattering Specter and then the blade smashed into Estaria’s chest, damn near crushing it with the girl’s strength, and scraping against her dress. It felt like there were tiny blades moving very fast along the edge of the sword. Ingenious idea, she might see if she could find an engineer to work it, if any of them survived.
Not one to simply roll over and die, Estaria manipulated the chains of her thrown flail and threw the weighted handle of the flail into Elou’s head, landing with a satisfying crack, even as Estaria tumbled into a heap on the ground. No real health damage thanks to her luck trait, but she was now out of luck. Elou gave Estaria only enough time to stand, and was on her again, blade ready to bite deep. Estaria threw her Flails to the floor, and then manipulated them to ricochet into the cat girl. The result was Estaria losing the tip of her shoulder to the cat’s blade, and Elou having large gashes opened up in both sides. Quicksilver Viper was then coupled with Double Slash, and two blows into the cat’s chest kicked her away. Still, even though she had taken the woman off her feet, there felt a need to at least reciprocate the time that was given to her.
Elou recovered quickly, some catlike reflexes showing it wasn’t just how she looked but actual genetics. Hopping on the spot for a few seconds, she moved in, more subtly and gracefully this time, like a snake. Transformative Patterns in her movement making it impossible to track where she was going until she was right in front of Estaria. Blocking the Sword with her flails, she pushed with all her might, but the Cat Girl was obscenely strong and matched her, only giving ground when Estaria’s bladed heel opened up her shin. Losing the lock, Elou was pushed back and took a large blow to her health when both flails sliced her face up, two fatal cuts across her face ruining that innocent beauty. Though, they didn’t seem to be quite as fatal as they were meant to be on this Cat.
A wild swing of the cat’s blade made Estaria have to slide back out of it’s range, and gave Elou a few seconds to recover, and then give a new grin.
“Ohh, you are good, aren’t you? I haven’t felt this good since I fought that Grey Knight Killian” there was a laugh at the memory, and then two large red bat wings spread out from Elou’s back. Not wanting to give her any time to do any sort of form, Estaria used all her force to rush in and strike at Elou. The crackling forcefield blocked her blow, however, and she got another helpful popup as Elou opened Estaria’s chest from hip to shoulder with her sword and enough force to launch her off her feet.
Exalted Blade Art - Yang Sunrise
Critically Wounded
Crashing back into the ground as she took the blow, Estaria felt the cold, clammy claws of Morr as she took the critical wound. It was certainly not something she wanted to feel again.
“You’ve got good killing arts, my dear. But your true Skill is lacking. Just killing people might suffice for the simple creatures, but when you start to look above the mortal creatures, you’ll find you need a lot more than just that” Elou told Estaria. And then cocked her head a little. “Not...that this world seems to have anything above the mortals for the most part. Not like my home at least. That seems kind of unfair” Elou commented, shaking her head and returning her sword to it’s readied position and Estaria climbed up with some difficulty.
“Not even sure the system supports Blade Arts. I’ve never seen them” Estaria replied, a pained grunt evident in her voice.
She could use her summons to get the advantage, but there was a feeling that she didn’t want to do that, and instead fight by herself, whatever that might lead to. So instead, she made a plan, and in a few moments, executed it. Critical Wound took her down, but not below her stat-dependant traits, which was good. Human Exemplar and halving Critical Wound Penalties really did go well together. This woman in front of her had such a damage output it was insane, those Exalted Blade Arts crippling in their ability. There was only one hope. Estaria gave a sudden and reckless rush towards Elou, throwing one chain and then manipulating it so it wrapped around the sword. Dragging that out of the way, she threw her other flail and buried it deep into Elou’s chest. With that down, and her hands throbbing with the pain of holding a blade that was in constant vibrating motion, she yanked the cat towards her and opened her throat with her bladed heel, getting the damage to finish her off past her critical wound with Throat-Slasher trait of her shoes and Titan’s Arm damage increase of throwing weapons.
The cat rolled from the force of being dragged, and then with a last gurgled laugh, died.
S++ Dungeon complete. Noble Victory - Historical Dungeon Key obtained. 1,300,000 gold gained. Elou’s Memento Mori.
That was insanely difficult, as the dungeon receded around her and she got the Critical Wound cured. Though over a Million Gold was an incredible reward, it was sorely earned. SHe had no idea what the ++ meant, she hadn’t seen that in any other of the dungeons. So she opened her screen and tapped on the S-rank key.
S-rank Dungeon Key: The highest rank of dungeon, the Key randomizes on use between S, S+ and S++, each with increasing difficulty and rewards. S++ scale to the level of the user, and grant level-dependant gold rewards.
Staring at the screen for a moment, Estaria looked with her mouth wide open with shock. Elouviana was scaled to her level, which meant she needed to be Weakened to be a level 130?
“Nope. Just nope” Estaria exclaimed, at the idea of thinking how strong the real Elou would have been. Instead, she just went to bed. Sometimes her brain needed the rest, even if her body didn’t.