Teth-Odin Dungeon:

“What’s the plan, Ingrid?” Kvaris said as they jogged past the level 4 Vault room.

“We’ll see if we can get Iohann to synthesize an antivenom to those Red Crawlers. They seem to be quite common so I want everyone to have an antidote.” Ingrid said as she led the way.

“Thinking of conscripting the calico mice?” Arek asked. Ingrid shook her head.

“It’s a long shot, I don’t think they’ll simply accept me as their own unlike SABER, and I don’t want them giving them undue influence either. It’s up to them if they want to return to their lives in the dungeon or go out into the wild.”

Arthur and Sully squeaked as if in agreement. The party took to the Escape Tunnels to quickly return to the surface.

“Shooters, watch the ceilings!” Ingrid said she took point. The creatures they met however were simply some annoyed bat-like creatures roosting or big moths that jostled for the crystal lights above. There were diagrams along the walls in regular intervals which they followed to bring them to the Inner Sanctum, a section of the maze that was mostly safe at least from the bigger monsters. A couple of adventurer parties were present. Some sat on the ground, resting and tending to their injuries, some huddled together discussing their plans while others were discussing amongst themselves regarding splitting up rewards.

“Hello! Did you see a felmoon riding a cockatrice pass this way?” Ingrid hurriedly called as she stepped into view.

“Yes!” One said, pointing up at the large spiraling steps in the center of the sanctum. “...went up those steps!”

“Good thing that cleric called out to us, I tell you that’s one hell of a cleric to tame a cockatrice.” said another.

“Figures, she’s a great friend!” Ingrid said as she and her team hurried up the stairs.

“Stairs…why does it have to be stairs!?” Arek said in mock dismay, but in reality his Gulan physiology made stairs less troublesome compared to bipeds due to his weight being distributed amongst multiple legs.

“Iroquois to Whales, we’ve reached the Rain Gate, we’re just finishing our declarations and then we’ll head out to take care of the mice. Over.” Cecil said over their earpieces. “Bless Cassie, he hates bureaucracy.”

“Bureaucracy has killed more people than disease, war, and famine combined.” Ingrid said, chuckling.

“Fact: if there was no bureaucracy, there’d be no wars, no disease, and no famine.” Arek added.

“True, true.” Siria chimed in.

“Now that we’ve tested Selphie’s floramancy” Ingrid began “We can just skip to the fourth level from here.” Ingrid said, noting at the poles that reminded her of what firemen use to quickly scale down to lower levels.

“And… hopefully Kaguya has synthesized some of those firestones for those underbarrel flamethrowers.” Arek said, causing Arthur and Sully to squeak excitedly.

Ingrid quickly stepped to the side and stopped, allowing the team to pass through. “Excuse me?”

“It’s an Aenorsian thing. They got these mini-flamethrowers that I’ve reconfigured for earthly firearms. Of course I ran out catalysts for them but the soulstones will do quite well.”

“Catalysts?” Siria asked.

“What’s a flamethrower?” Kvaris asked.

“It’s like a gun but it breathes fire.” Arek explained “normally for earth weapons, you need to carry a backpack full of liquid fuel, but Aenorisan flamethrowers use a beam of light to heat up the oxygen in the air to make the flames. If Ingrid permits it, I can attach them to some of our guns.”

“That means no bayonet.” Ingrid said as she jogged alongside Arek.

“Oh they can, it’ll just be mounted to the side of the barrel like certain laser optics. Though if you want to give the mice the Apport Ring then I can fit underbarrel shotguns onto Arthur and Sully’s guns. I just didn’t consider it at the time until that ring showed up.” Arek replied. Their conversation was through their earpieces so that all of SABER heard it too. The mice responded by squeaking happily.

Ingrid turned to Siria “What do you think? Will it work on all of SABER if one of them puts on the ring?”

Siria nodded immediately. “Cecil’s room can’t admit a single individual, then by that logic the apport ring should be able to work on all of them. That said, we’ll still have to try. The worst case scenario is that the ring gets bound to SABER and we’ll have to take it to an atelier.”

Iohann spoke through the earpiece “I don’t have any second thoughts about using the apport ring, though I may consider using a quarterstaff if it has decent enchantments, either way, I’m proficient with my mace for self defense.”

Viel spoke next “I’m not good with fighting at all, just running!”

“I should teach all of you how to use a handgun, just in case.” Ingrid said as they reached the second level. “Everything sounds calm here, let’s hurry up the pace! Iohann, how’s the mice?”

“We’re waiting at the hospital-”

“Huh, they’re called hospitals here too.” Ingrid said.

“Yes, for now one of the healers has given the mice some medicine to help further slow down the flow. They’re on the way to get some specialized slimes to take out the poison-”

“Cecil, you better not try that out!” Ingrid said over the line. “You’re only a little better than me at over-drinking tequila.”

“Yes, I’ve heard from Iohann.” Cecil said. “Just sucks that the one slimey thing I can do isn’t in my repertoire.”

“Oh shut it Cecil, you’re my number one shooter, if anyone tells you you’re useless I’ll twist them into a pretzel!” Ingrid said sternly. This wasn’t the time for anyone to feel self-pity.

___

Kaguya, Three hours later:

“You did the right thing, it will take me days to synthesize an antidote for this poison as I have no reference or any antibody samples.” Kaguya said. One of the calico mice was in her medical pod currently receiving further treatment. Two have finished and were resting, while Arek cradled the other mouse in his arms.

“And now?” Arek asked. The med-pod’s arms jabbed a needle into the mouse’s torso and took another sample.

“This should definitely help, I will provide you with a list of required materials from those apothecaries I can use as base material to synthesize further antidotes.

“Thank you Kaguya, you’ve saved lives again.”

“I always do.” There was a hint of mirth in her voice. “This toxin is different. It isn’t an Earth centipede or Genison crawler’s venom amped up to extra lethal levels. This one also doesn’t seem to be dealing the usual internal damage via necrosis although I’m guessing the mice’s radiation which you call mana was fighting it off. According to Ingrid, mana can be refined which means these mice were fending it off with their sheer will.”

“It would’ve been cool if you could do some magic yourself Kaguya.” Arek said jokingly.

“If.” Kaguya began “I’m registering all sorts of mana usage as either electrical or radiation signatures, in theory, even if I could, certain spells may irreversibly damage my circuits.”

“You’re already magical, Kaguya.”

“Har har, flattery won’t upgrade my functions, Arek. And I still need more of those monster stones to restore atmospheric flight.”

“Thanks a lot Kaguya,” Arek said, patting the floor. Eli and Brody waddled up from the ramp. Arek nodded and gently laid the calico mouse on the floor for the two mice to tend to. He then exited Kaguya, as he did so, the sounds of gunfire got louder.

Sammy, Iohann, Kinu, Kvaris, and Viel were standing side by side holding glock pistols. Across each of them were wooden training dummies.

Ingrid stood between them, walking back and forth as she explained the weapon to them.

“Now remember…” Ingrid said as she held up her desert eagle. She kept her index finger straight. “Keep your finger off the trigger unless you intend to shoot. Never point this gun unless you intend to use it. Pointing this gun is the equivalent of holding a blade to someone’s throat. Remember, this is like a bow where the arrow’s already drawn, and the string nocked. One pull from your finger and it looses the bullet.”

She held the gun to demonstrate how to safely handle it. “Notice as I’m explaining it to you, I have my gun pointed upwards where it’s the least likely to hit someone should I accidentally pull the trigger. Alternatively…” she then pointed the gun at an angle so it was aimed at the ground “you can also point it to the ground, preferably if it’s soft ground like this soil. Finally, before holstering your gun, always make sure the safety catch is on. Otherwise you can end up shooting yourself in the leg.” She demonstrated where the safety lever was.

“Also, if you’re reloading your weapon, it also helps the team to let others know you’re reloading. Riiiiiight, Cecil?” Ingrid turned to look at the slime who whistled innocently.

“Well… our mice need to find a way to vocalize it…” he said sheepishly. At once, Brody squeaked in a way that sounded like it. Everyone laughed. Cecil gave him a pat on the head and the mice joined by kneading him. “D’awwww thanks guys!” he said.

“Now” Ingrid said, turning everyone’s attention back to her “As fancy it is to shoot someone in the head, it’s best to just go for the center of mass. On Earth, we have a tactic known as the Mozambique drill, named after the country that invented it. You shoot twice at the body, which is easy to hit, and one attempt at the head. Alternatively, there’s the double-tap tactic where you simply shoot at the body twice. Now, dealing with monsters is a difficult case, you may need to shoot some more. Of course, these guns you’re practicing with right now are one the small side but…” She saw Arek coming down the ramp. “Hopefully Arek can supply all of you bigger pistols like this Desert Eagle here. Even better if we can get these guns enchanted in some way.”

“I thought that clerics would’ve shied away from a gun.” Arek remarked, but Iohann bleated with amusement.

“The bullets are blunt.” she said.

___

Dismantling House, City of Teth Odin

The ogre foreman looked at the cockatrice and Siria curiously.

“How did you tame a cockatrice?” He asked.

“I didn't,” Siria said. “Our human did, and I’m not sure how, she just hand fed Cassie here and now he follows us.”

The ogre made a growly amused chuckle. “Ingrid sure is full of surprises. First mice, now a cockatrice.”

“I’m quite surprised she didn’t try to make friends with Cluthas.”

Now the ogre laughed. “Imagine being friends with that giant worm! Maybe that’ll get him to pupate into a proper gloomwing already so he can move out!”

Siria sighed. Gloomwing moths were massive and helped pollinate the great flowers of the deep forests. They were however very rare, and some sages had wondered if great worms like Cluthas intentionally held back their development.

“We’ll be sad to see him go, but still, if he’s happy there then that’s that.” A yell from the dismantling crew then shouted over that their work was done.

Well, here comes the business part, Siria said, watching the ogre’s friendly face turn dour.

“Since you’ve shown me something interesting, Miss Siria, I’ll let you in on something extra.” the ogre said, but his expression still looked business-like.

Siria left the Dismantling House just in time to see SABER carting off another haul of fresh ammunition parts, squeaking happily as the cart bumped up and down the cobblestone path. Siria called over the mice, as she went to them. Everyone gave Siria looks of awe and curiosity as they saw an elf with so many familiars. She smiled to herself, I guess this is how it feels to be a human, she thought. Nothing but a walking bundle of curiosities.

Cassie had already been registered by Ingrid at the guild before she dismissed the team. It was also by her suggestion that Siria take him around so that the cityfolk wouldn’t be too alarmed to see a cockatrice walking around.

“I want to give Cassie a big scarf. You mice go ahead.” Siria said as they passed the market. She looked around for a big wrap that fit Cassie properly and he seemed to like it, no doubt as a bird with an impressive plumage he probably found the bold red complimenting his bold blue and green colors according to his avian sensibilities. That was all for now, later she had to remind herself to get Cassie properly armored if he was to adventure with the party.

____

A few days later:

A Bvalinn’s forge, Cassie would get himself some barding during the two days of rest and preparation. Ingrid learned that aside from using their beak and claws, cockatrices could also “punch” in the same way she saw pigeons do, though given his size and strength it would break a wooden shield and the arm behind it.

The barding however, was mostly decorative and helped mark him as a familiar. The dwarves at Bvalinn’s forge said that cockatrices are both birds and reptiles and underneath these impressive feathers was a strong layer of scales.

“It’s like wearing a gambeson o’er scalemail,” one dwarf said.

When they were finished, Ingrid nodded in satisfaction. Cassie had a metal “breastplate” over his chest, a saddle on his back with provisions for hooking up packs. These also helped protect his back. In addition to this was the large red scarf around his neck by Siria and some “Selceid goggles” by Arek. They looked like oversized bug-eyed goggles of multiple hexagonal shapes, and while it did not obscure his vision, nobody could now tell where he was looking and in a way it made him look only more intimidating. Cassie seemed to enjoy the goggles as well, nuzzling Arek affectionately as he tried it on.

SABER on the other hand were able to all make use of the apport ring. They first tested it on a set of throwing knives they brought into Cecil’s Room during their previous expedition. Satisfied, the mice then held up a glaive, indicating to Ingrid this was the weapon they wanted next. It was a spear-like polearm consisting of a longer blade for stabbing and slashing and featured a hook-like spike at the other end. Ingrid understood that this weapon would help in dispatching as well a good replacement for their bayonets and thus took the mice along to the city. After taking measurements and testing out similar-sized weapons, the dwarves got to work making them customized glaives that fit their size.

Meanwhile, Kinu, Kvaris, and Sammy also were present at the forge to get their weapons repaired and the ones they found in the Vault, refurbished and sharpened, Selphie also had given them her corseca polearm

Not present at the forges were Iohann, Siria, and Viel who were elsewhere. Iohann was currently at a temple doing priestly duties as well as taking her summoning stone to an atelier for a proper examination. The Nyx Fish was healthy and only required some proper socializing and feeding.

Meanwhile Siria and Viel in the spaceship studying the new spells in the books they found in the Vaults. Kaguya proved to be extremely helpful to her in solving some calculations. Among the more interesting finds was a spell that would definitely benefit Iroquois..

“A portal manipulation spell?” Ingrid said over the earpiece.

“You know the Rejuvenation Ward that Cecil put in his room? I can add the spell to it.” Viel replied.

“Oh right. That ward really helped the calico mice stave off the poison.” Ingrid said, remembering it.

“The spell works on a contingency basis, and it can just run off the Ward’s energy, which only has to be replenished rarely.” Siria said. “And right now that Ward is still brimming with lots of it.”

There was silence as Ingrid thought for a while “Okay, assuming it’s usage doesn’t cost much, what does this spell exactly do?”

“The spell was originally made for controlling certain portals that work erratically, such as Rifts found in the dungeons. I’m currently working with Viel and Kaguya to change the spell so that it can split off Cecil’s portal, allowing Iroquois to shoot in separate directions.”

“I like that idea” Ingrid said, the sound of the noisy forge was now muffled as she exited and hopped over to the roof.

“And there’s an interesting by-product of this portal as well.” Viel added.

“I’m listening.”

“When living things pass through this portal, the effects are temporary. One moment you’re through the portal, the next, you’re back where you started.”

“Are you suggesting if the mice leap out of that portal, spears in hand they’ll be back in Cecil’s room?”

“Yes.”

“By all means girls, and thank you again for your help.”

Selphie on the other hand was at the market buying more seeds, previously she had made a custom order at Plumburn’s woodworking shop for a large order of wooden marbles as well as a set of metal cylinder at Bvalinn’s (handled by the kobolds too along with her Corseca). Arek had come to the idea of 3D-printing a customized pellet gun for her and the mice (though he advised them to keep their slingshot as an emergency) to give them a better rate of fire. The wooden shots would be personally picked up by her later to infuse each and every one of them with mutated whip-crawler seeds.

Back at Kaguya, Selphie cast her spell and watched as the seeds grew walking roots, each finding a wooden ball to inhabit and neatly roll into a separate pile. She felt a little giddy, hoping soon to test out her new weapon against the enemies. She hoped that this time around, she could hold them back better.

When the rest of the party had returned, the calico mice looked healthy and happy, kneading Ingrid, Iohann, Cecil, and Cassie like cats. But to everyone’s surprise, the eleven mice fused into a single Ateroskar, its calico markings were more sparse which made sense given that one group was all white.

“Good thing I bought extra glaives.” Ingrid smiled as the Ateroskar broke down. “Calico, I should call your second group that.” the calicos squeaked happily.

“Calico will stand for… Charles, Aiden, Lester, Ian, Chris, and Oscar!” Ingrid said quickly.

“You were thinking of that all the time, weren’t you?” Cecil said, smirking.

“Of course!” she quickly replied.

“Oh and one more thing, don’t capitalize Saber anymore when you write it down.” Cecil added. “I know it’s an acronym but it’ll fit better with Iroquois and Calico while you scribble on Kaguya’s holoboard” Cecil was referring to the white-board like projection that Kaguya provided when she was discussing plans.

Ingrid shrugged.

It didn’t take long for Calico to get up to speed in assimilating Saber’s tasks of assembling ammunition and grenades as well as handling firearms. In addition, they also practiced sparring with their glaives (wrapped with a thick cloth of course) so they could learn how to take advantage of its long reach and their ability to quickly summon and unsummon it to strike from unexpected angles. Kvaris helped in this regard, using a practice sword to help train the mice fend off close-range attackers.

Charles and Oscar volunteered to be the “boots-on ground” alongside Arthur and Sully, prompting Siria and Viel to not only enchant their drum magazines, but upgrade everyone else’s magical drum mags to carry 400 rounds. A later trip to a nearby atelier with Ingrid had them outfitted with slots of a channeling gem for increased power as well as another trip to Bvalinn’s for two more guns needing retrofitting with mythril replacing the hardest-working metal parts and wood from enchanted trees replacing the polymer. Like Arthur and Sully’s guns, this resulted in a much lighter weight (both in the sense that they weighted less and were enchanted to be better balanced), a superior heat dissipation especially on the barrels, and an enhancement to the bullet’s velocity and striking power as they passed through the enchanted barrel.

Afterwards, Arek then retrofitted the four mice’s assault rifles with the Aenorsian flamethrower attachments. These went to the side of the barrel as mentioned and he demonstrated its use. The little attachment fired a short-ranged laser beam that reached thirty feet, as it did so it rapidly ignited the air around it. The catalyst inside was composed of soulstones which were cut up to fit the chamber inside. Meanwhile a set of batteries was left in Cecil’s room to be charged via solar. As a result, the “ground mice” were outfitted with an additional bandolier of batteries.

Replacing the bayonets were underbarrel shotguns. They resembled smaller Masterkey attachments but had a pistol grip, making it more ergonomic.

“These aren’t exactly Earth designs” Arek explained “but people in the galaxy are a sucker for anything that looks like pre-FTL weaponry. The number one giveaway? Check the magazine.”

Ingrid saw that the magazines went into the handle just like a pistol would, they looked small, just like a 9mm round yet the shell in the chamber was a full-sized shotgun round.

“Quantum shrinking thingy?” Ingrid wondered.

“You guessed it. And still they think it’s hecho a mano on Earth. Some people just don’t do their homework.” Arek chuckled, his mandibles chittering in mirth. “The fun part is that the magazines run off a tritium-based battery and it’s kept recharged by either motion or sunlight, or both. You’re looking at thirty rounds there, not fifteen.”

“What’s the significance of a tritium?” Kinu asked.

Ingrid turned to him “It’s a substance that takes a very long time to decay, we’re looking at around… hundreds of years. The glow-in-the dark parts on the guns’ sights incidentally are made of them.”

Arek nodded. “The funny part is that quantum shrinking doesn't even exist in Ingrid’s world yet her people have already imagined its existence. It’s quite an enigma.”

“How come you didn’t have those for the drum magazines?” Ingrid asked. Arek shrugged.

“Supply and demand.” he answered “Drum magazines in the intergalactic world are real spirals inside, more than sixty rounds because the mechanism is a complex machine, even without quantum shrinking you’re looking at easily over a hundred shots… so yeah, I wouldn’t be carrying those because you can easily get those at space ‘guns r’ us’.”

“I would say this is overkill” Cecil began “but considering what we’ve seen, this is just right.” he smiled. He hefted the gun and found it light thanks to the dwarves’ retrofitting and Siria and Viel’s enchantments.

“Let’s make it sixty shots.” Siria said, holding out her hand. “Ingrid, you’re just going to have to take a small team in the dungeon for a few days while we rest.”

“Fair deal” Ingrid said, handing her the magazines.

Meanwhile, Cecil inducted the four new members of Iroquois; Aiden, Lester, Ian, and Chris. The upgraded Rejuvenation Ward, now renamed “The Totem '' allowed the Calico team to create portals from any direction within five meters. They seemed to have a preference for melee attacks as they practiced leaping in from unexpected angles, then summoning their glaives to swing in a large arc. Siria’s upgrade to the totem had allowed the mice to recall themselves instantly. By default however, the mice had five seconds before the totem brought them back in.

Like Saber, Calico was also outfitted with matching red scarves and (obtained a day or two later) brooches bearing each other’s first letter of their name so it read CALICO, In addition, Ingrid bought the mice lamellar armor and helmets.

The next four days Ingrid, Cecil and the mice ventured mostly up to the second level of the dungeon. Viel and Sammy accompanied them along with Cassie. They kept their expeditions short, and on occasions, Ingrid would have them hide in one of the redoubts until she called them that the coast was clear. In one occasion, she set off one of the noisemakers, to draw in large amounts of low-level monsters, calling in Viel and the others once she had cleared them all. During that moment, only Iroquois accompanied her, leaving the four mice to accompany the two girls and Cassie.

During this time Iohann spent time in the temple of the Lady of Healing. As a healer she was invited to their services, and joined in during the healing part of said services, where the attending faithful were relieved of their pains. These proved helpful in helping Iohann top up her knowledge in healing magic by learning from others. Not that she was a novice in any sense, she started out in a mining town where workers trying to get a little extra on a side risked getting seriously hurt as well as curing the sick who had exposed themselves over a period of time to dangerous substances.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Her previous stints in adventuring with parties were usually done outdoors. She hadn’t done any dungeon expeditions and the encounter with Red Crawlers had made her realize she needed to gain more experience in dealing with various venoms and diseases. Thus, when the clerics of the Lady of Healing invited her, she had taken up the chance.

Ingrid and Cecil had attended their services twice. When asked, both answered they were expressing gratitude for being “restored to life” though neither was exactly which God brought them back.

Both were sort of expecting that by praying at a temple they would be transported to some white room to talk to the enshrined God or at least receive some kind of Oracle but nothing of the sort happened. Still, they did feel the presence of something in the temple and the feeling did comfort them.

Meanwhile, Saber and Calico working together were able to finish assembling a much larger cache of bullets and grenades in a shorter amount of time. This gave them more free time to earn extra money by performing low to medium-level jobs such as hunting pests like horned rabbits attacking crops or bringing down larger nuisance animals like bears that had been encroaching into the outlying farmlands. Cassie accompanied them and together with the mice they made quite a sight as they carted off their kills in town. Cassie would be pulling a cart dressed in his intimidating gear and shades, atop the cart rested the carcass of some large animal, be it an owlbear, a large nuisance bear, or a bunch of grass-lions, this and the armored mice marching along with their assault rifles slung on their backs and holding glaives made everyone give them a wide berth as they marched to the Dismantling House to get their rewards and paper of completion which they could present to the Jormungandr guild. Their association with Ingrid earned them a good price.

___

One Week after the Calico Mice Rescue:

“Let’s go through our team formation one more time.” Ingrid said.

All of The Whales were gathered in Kaguya, the usual holoboard hovering between her and the rest of the team. One of the board’s interesting features is that it autocorrected writing when read from the other side, so when Ingrid wrote, it automatically flipped the view so that it was easily readable.

“We’re composed of four sub-groups: Frontside, Center, Rearside and Iroquois. I lead the Front side, Siria leads the Center, Sammy leads the Rear, and Cecil leads Iroquois. Obviously I’m the overall leader and Siria’s my second-in-command but in the rare chance we get separated, these are the ones in charge.

Front side is composed of me, one of the kobolds, and Selphie as well as two mice Arthur, and Sully.

Rearside will be Sammy and the other kobold, accompanied by two mice which will be Charles and Oscar.

Center will be, Siria, Arek, Iohann, Viel, and Cassie.

Iroquois is composed of Cecil and the remaining mice: Brody, Eli, Ralph, Aiden, Lester, Ian, and Chris.

Now, thanks to Siria’s mastery of magic, Iroquois now has the ability to create sub-portals within 15 feet give or take, so while you only see our original team in there, the calicos are further in the room. I’ll call this team Kiowa-”

“That’s another helicopter name,” Cecil added.

“I’m seeing a pattern here.” Sammy remarked.

“The Vietnam war saw the first time helicopters were used in great numbers, it was a necessity since it was the only flying machine that could take off and land in relatively cramped quarters…assuming I got this right.” Siria said, recalling what she saw.

Ingrid nodded. “To prevent confusion, I’ll designate the original team as Apache. So in summary, Iroquois will now refer to everyone in Cecil’s room. Apache refers to the ones using the original portal; Cecil, Brody, Eli, and Ralph. Kiowa will be the calicos; Aiden, Lester, Ian, and Chris.”

As she spoke she wrote down their names.

“During movement, Iroquois will be hovering at the center. Apache and Kiowa will take turns covering each other’s blind spots. I want two Kiowa to be dedicated covering the sides.”

The team wrote down their notes.

“The mice on the ground will need a codename too I guess… collectively I’ll call them The 189-”

“IN THE SERVICE OF HEAVENNN” Arek and Cecil chorused. Ingrid nodded, smiling.

“...of the 189, Arthur and Brody will form Montesa, Charles and Oscar form Aviz.” Ingrid continued. “This will make calling for groups much easier.” Ingrid paused to let them write.

“The plan for fighting remains the same. Should enemies get past either of us, Siria you handle the side with more enemies, Cassie and Iohann the other. Arek, you got great aim so shoot accordingly. As for Iroquois, I suppose Kiowa can split up to two, one assisting the front and rear side battles.

When it comes to dispatching monsters after a fight, we now have more mice with hooked glaives. Cassie, if you see a monster still moving after a fight, kick it with your talons, like really hard.”

The cassowary-like cockatrice croaked, snapping its beak.

___

The Next Day, the Streets of Teth-Odin:

“This is so embarrassing, Ingrid!” Siria protested, blushing furiously.

“But the mice are enjoying it, Siria!” Ingrid replied, her voice muffled by what she was wearing.

The people in the street were treated to curious sights and sounds as The Whales marched towards the Rain Gate of the dungeon. Some strange music was playing out of nowhere using unknown instruments. It was very catchy, with everyone’s interpretation spells heard the lyrics going on about making a flashy entrance and being “larger than life.”

Eleven tixi mice wearing fancy lamellar armor, helmets, and red scarves with runed brooches marched ahead, their steps in perfect sync, with Arthur leading in the middle. They all carried M-14’s with bayonets and occasionally twirled around or marched in fancy, mesmerizing patterns such as moving in opposing circles or diagonally across each other while moving forward. As they did so they tossed their guns into the air and caught them perfectly.

Occasionally the mice snapped a salute to one side then the other. All the while, Arthur let out rhythmic squeaks which the rest of the mice responded to energetically.

The crowd was both amused and in awe of the mice’s precise actions, both young and old alike and especially to the tamers.

“I want to be a tamer when I grow up!” said one young girl.

“I wish I had swarm mice!” said a boy, causing his elders to laugh at the absurdity. Swarm mice were too smart to be tamed, so whoever got a group this big had to be really good in his craft.

Following them was Ingrid herself, she was wearing a fuzzy mascot suit (commissioned from a tailoring shop) of an Ateroskar with big googly eyes, a huge goofy smile and tongue hanging out. The costume was so ridiculous it was hard to not laugh and Ingrid was hamming it up for the crowd, a talent she had honed from working as a theme park mascot.

“Don’t question it” Cecil said stone-faced. “This is a human’s bizarre sense of humor.” But he wasn’t helping, as he had playing on speakers at full blast “Larger than Life” by the Backstreet Boys.

“I can’t believe this is what Ingrid did when she wasn’t fighting monsters in her world.” Siria remarked.

Aside from just being funny, Ingrid was also dancing as she marched on, frequently showing off her talent as she broke into complicated and acrobatic feats as well as the more technical motions one would see from pop legends.

The fact that Ingrid was breaking into jumping splits and breakdances while wearing such a bulky suit was nothing short of amazing. Even more puzzling and got everyone yelling in awe was when she started moonwalking to get ahead of the procession. As she did, the mice did another complicated marching maneuver where it looked like they would collide with Ingrid who’s back was to them but to everyone’s amazement, it didn’t happen. Not even Arthur as he had joined with the maneuvers, allowing him to dodge Ingrid by only a hair.

“Is that magic?” one said in wonder.

Ingrid stopped several feet ahead of the mice and started doing a janky robot dance while waiting for the party to catch up, causing many to wonder if there was someone in that suit or it was a golem.

“It’s got to be a golem” one said “No one can move like that!”

Once again, the mice performed another fancy marching maneuver where they shuffled ranks while moving opposing circles, allowing them to move around Ingrid while she continued her robot routine. The applause and cheers were deafening.

Behind Ingrid were Siria and Selphie, the latter was happily scattering petals and blossoms everywhere from a basket, as well as tossing flowers to the crowd. Siria was red on the face and she wished she had a hood on, why did it have to be like this?

Meanwhile Kinu and Kvaris had their tongues lolling out as they chuckled along at Ingrid’s antics, the suit just looked so goofy it was hard to imagine she was an army-killing fighting machine, her masterful dancing wasn’ helping either especially when she started moving like a poorly-built golem. They subconsciously tried to imitate it and then noticed how difficult it was.

“No, I think you do it like this…” Kinu tried moving his crooked arms but it didn’t look janky enough.

“You gotta put more heart to it! Like this!” his elder brother tried but it still looked too “natural”, nothing like how Ingrid was doing it.

Arek on the other hand was busy manipulating a drone with his lower arms. It was voice activated and possessed a great AI, allowing it to understand certain concepts, in this case, it was set to capture aerial shots of the procession as well as of Ingrid and the mice goofing around. He was also singing along to the songs, subconsciously moving himself in a dance of his own.

Iohann and Sammy followed behind him, smiling and shaking their heads at their leader’s antics, at the very least she was in high spirits and she should, for the team was now much better equipped. Viel rode on Cassie, croaking stridently and flaring his feathers in a show of dominance, imitating Ingrid’s showboating.

____

At the Entrance of the Rain Gate:

“Phew!” Ingrid sighed, taking off the fuzzy Ateroskar costume. Cecil and Arek doubled over laughing as they saw her wearing a Nickelback shirt.

“BWAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!” both of them roared “D-dammit Ingrid! You’re evil!” both chorused.

“Oh! Ooooh!” Ingrid said in mock dismay “H-how did I get this? How embarrassing!” The rest of the party were wondering what was so funny with the tunic she was wearing. It was in black, and bore a livery of some noble house at the top. Below was a rough-looking human with wild hair holding up a portrait. He wasn’t wearing a funny expression at all and the portrait was that of some boy.

Was that it? Some thought, a picture of someone holding a picture? Some kind of recursive absurdity?

The slime and the shrimp were rolling on the floor, laughing harder as Cecil lost control and a new song played on the speakers.

“Look at this photograph, every time I do it makes me laugh…”

“Somebody! He needs some water!” someone jokingly said.

Cecil and Arek were still in tears, the poor slime rolled along the floor clutching her discarded silly mascot costume and put it against one of the doors of the room.

As he did so, the mice that formed Kiowa and Apache hopped in, tossing to the 189 their “big guns”; SCAR assault rifles. Arek’s selling point to intergalactic customers was its odd history of being quickly adopted then just as quickly discarded for minor, easily fixable problems. These guns sported the 400 rounds in an enchanted magazine, the side-mounted Aenorsian mini-flamethrower and the not-so-terran underbarrel shotgun attachment, with the enchanted magazine carrying 60 rounds.

Another last-minute upgrade to their SCARs were hybrid sights, two sights were lined up, allowing the 189 to shoot more accurately from a distance. For medium-range engagements, the rearmost sight could be flipped away.

After checking their SCARs, they slung it over their shoulders and checked the rest of their gear, squeaking along with the other mice as they did so simultaneously.

First they adjusted the straps of each others’ lamellar armor, small backpacks, and helmets, a sight that struck quite a few as cute and endearing seeing the fluffy mice help each other. They then checked their earpieces then got to work assessing their weapons. Everyone was packing three pistols; two 9mm guns of differing models on their belts and a big magnum revolver behind them. They also had two combat knives, a wire garrote, and oddly enough a telescoping baton.

The mice of Iroquois took their places, each having a big bag of metal balls and pellet guns, made for them by Arek. Lying in each bag was a funnel with a long tube, allowing them to quickly reload their pellet guns wholesale. They also kept their slingshots just in case.

For submachine guns, team Apache checked their FN P-90s; Arek obtained these because of their novelty to the intergalactic community with their unique top-loading magazine, while team Kiowa did the same for their Bizons, again procured for resale to aliens due to their novelty helical magazines. Originally the mice used more conventional MP5’s but these were with Kaguya for maintenance.

For high caliber assault rifles, the motley crew of AK’s and AR’s were also with Kaguya so team Apache sported Swiss SG550’s, chosen by Arek due to its affiliation with “a strictly neutral country that had officially seen any wars for centuries.” Opposite Apache’s guns were Kiowa’s M-14 which he would tell his would-be alien customers were “ancient venerable arms still in use.” He wasn’t exactly wrong.

Ralph’s modified G3 sniper rifle and Brody’s Saiga-12 shotgun remained unchanged (picked because of its “oddity” of looking like a rapid-fire rifle, Ralph had marked it by wrapping blue duct tape around the buttstock.)

Adrian and Lester sat on the left side of team Apache, while Ian and Chris on the right side. Taking their places, their smaller portals opened up. Testing the totem’s powers they mentally moved both the Terragalia-side portals and the room-side portals and found them working just as well. Also overlaid their sub-portals were the enhancement lenses.

Outside the balcony, the solar powered devices were fully charged and running or ready for use. The Alien Refrigerator was humming along, it’s stores of frozen food for quick grilling or frying, cold drinks and some medicines all ready for use. Also present were spare anti-grav plates for Arek’s porter rig, a couple of drones, batteries for the Aenorisian flamethrowers, extra flashlights, and earpieces among others.

One of the newer additions to the room was part decorative and part utilitarian. The portal on either side had a forcefield that prevented things from entering “the wrong side” A simple 3D-printed caddy was then hooked to the “wrong side”, allowing the team to hang items directly onto the portal.

Outside of Cecil’s room was a lighting rig consisting of three remote-controlled and alien-modified flashlights as well as a set of cameras. Inside, the caddy was more elaborate, having provisions for Arek’s tablets that displayed camera feeds as well as that of any drones they might deploy. Above them were charms of blessed aim provided by Iohann and the inevitable fuzzy dice. The portals of Kiowa had a simpler caddy featuring a single flashlight and camera on the outside and a tablet relaying the camera rig.

Cecil, still having some giggles left in him, rolled back to his place in front of the coffee table, seeing all the mice were ready he switched off the music and said over the earpiece “Iroquois Ready.”

Kinu and Kvaris adjusted their brigandine armor then helmets and shields. Out of a force of habit, they also checked their original swords. Then one-by-one they apported their bastard swords, then spears, then finally their axes before dismissing them and checking their spare daggers, making sure they’re easy to reach. Finally they checked their pistols, going with Ingrid’s recommendation of heavy Desert Eagles, making sure the safety lever was on before holstering them.

“Kinu and Kvaris ready.” Kinu said over his earpiece.

Arek unshoulder his porter rig, letting it hover in the air and checked the packs, making sure they were all properly labeled and secured. Lifting the pack, he saw that the anti-grav plates were fully powered and functioning before pulling it down and securing the rig to his pack.

“Arek here, Cecil could you check if the spare anti-grav plates are charging? Over.”

“Checking. Over.” came Cecil’s reply, after a couple of seconds, he came back with “Everything’s fully charged. Over.”

“Alright then, Arek Ready. Over.”

Sammy set her halberd against the wall and checked her duregar war gauntlet’s folding shields and arm blades, seeing them work perfectly. She then checked her sword, dagger, and pistol strapped to her waist were in easy reach and for the firearm, the safety was still on. Then she made sure her armor was secured in all the right places before reaching into her halberd and plucking out the Guardian Sword, it was still there and brimming with power.

“Sammy ready.”

Viel and Iohann checked their bags to make sure everything they would need in the journey was present. Iohann checked her summoning stone and saw her Nyx Fish swimming happily in it’s distant ocean that it called home, while Viel jumped down Cassie.

“Iohann ready, now casting a Blessing on all.”

“Viel ready!”

Cassie cawwed loudly.

Selphie inspected her custom-made pellet gun by Arek. Unlike ones used by Iroquois, hers was bigger and a considerable amount of the mechanism was handled by her floramancy through the series of vines inside. The drum magazine was simply hollow and a vine acted as a spring pushing them up, where another pushed the wooden balls into the “firing chamber.” As a precaution she kept her old slingshot and a separate bag of wooden shots as a contingency. She also kept her firearms originally given to her; a Ruger Hunting rifle and an M1911 in case her floramancy wasn’t effective. Reaching out with her ring-hand, she summoned her Corseca polearm; a spear-like weapon with two projections resembling a half-moon. She tested it’s weight and finding it satisfactory, dismissed it.

Wiggling her shoulders to make sure her pack and armor were comfortable she touched her earpiece and announced.

“Selphie, ready!”

“Siria, Ready.” Siria said aloud as she approached the group, stuffing a document in her bag. As usual, she kept two wands on her belt, and a third on her back. Like everyone else (except Ingrid and Cassie), she carried a dagger and pistol on her belt as an emergency.

As Ingrid took off her funny and embarrassing Nickelback shirt, she looked over to some of the nearby adventurers, a few looks were made and seeing that some of them would want it, she threw it to them.

“See? It’s a good band!” Ingrid said jokingly as Cecil and Arek tried their best to not get into another giggling fit.

“I feel like a rockstar doing that,” She added. Then, focusing back to business, she flared her aura and noted with satisfaction her channeling gems were feeling just right. Tightening her pack straps just like everyone did, she announced to the team.

“Let’s go, Whales!” Ingrid smashed her fists together

“Let’s take the shortcut this time.” Cecil said, feeling giddy with excitement.

The 189 unslung their SCARs and set their sights to mid-range by moving the rear part of their hybrid sights away, Iohann took out her mace, the kobolds summoned their spears. The party took up their positions and marched into the Rain Gate, past the S-ranked gatekeepers, past the priests praying benedictions, past the throat-singing minotaur above bestowing his vocal blessings. Iohann touched her mace to her forehead in reverence and marched on.

___

The team climbed down the spiral staircases rather than go down the poles, just to be cautious. As they reached the second level of the Inner Sanctum they saw quite a few bloodied adventurers being tended to by healers, their party-mates shaking their injured comrades and telling them to hold on.

“Looks like their numbers went up again while we were away.” Iohann said quietly over her earpiece.

“True” Ingrid replied. “When I was doing small-time work in the dungeon it got quite busy as if the Red Moon just happened yesterday.”

“It’s likely that the monsters on the fourth level are getting restless and pushing more of them out.” Siria said.

“Iohann I know you’d want to help but…” Kvaris began.

“I know,” Iohann answered quickly. “They’re already being helped, all we can do is lower the monsters’ numbers.” A pitiful wail echoed across the Inner Sanctum as one of the adventurers expired before her party. The anguish could be felt reverberating across the walls.

“I’m in the mood for clearing out a whole nest of monsters” Ingrid said darkly. “A blood debt is owed.” as she said that some of the deceased adventurer’s teammates drew their swords and dashed back into the dungeon, shouting vengeance.

“A blood debt?” Sammy said “I didn’t know you had that thing in your world.” She looked to the side and noticed another party enter, some staggering arm-in-arm while others limped along.

“Well it’s not actually with Ingrid’s people per se, but yes there is a well-known culture in her world that has the concept of paying blood with blood.” Arek explained, he noticed Iohann beside him make what was probably her religion’s version of crossing oneself as they heard another party let out a cry of despair as another succumbed to his wounds.

___

Level Four, In front of Vault 4-1:

“Drones out.” Arek and Cecil said. At once, two drones in Cecil’s room took flight and went through the portal. As it carried multiple cameras it was able to peer through both sides of an intersection. Cecil’s drone on the other hand helped watch the rear.

“Iroquois, switch to guns. No taking chances.” Ingrid said. “Kiowa, do not stick your guns outside of the portal.” The mice squeaked in assent.

Kvaris took to the Front side team this time, sniffing around to make sure. Cassie, seeing that Viel needed protection the most, quickly sidled up to her, nuzzling her with his beak in assurance.

“Cockatrice’s are very social creatures, I’m not really sure why Cassie didn’t have a flock with him but he’s definitely recognized Viel as our most vulnerable.” Siria explained.

“Human magic” Cecil chuckled. “They’re the top of the pecking order.”

“Movement left.” Arek said suddenly.

“To the left.” Kvaris said at the same time.

The air was tense as they walked down the liminal space-like corridor. “Arek, get that drone higher in the air. Should be less noticeable that way.” Ingrid said quietly.

Cecil’s eyes constantly flicked up to the displays watching for anything amiss. His drone hung back as they rounded the corner, watching for anything that might follow them.

“Movement in the corner, several centipedes far away.” Arek said quietly. Ingrid tapped Selphie’s shoulder.

“Selphie and I will go ahead, she’ll take them out with her pellet gun, it’s quiet.” With that, the two of them jogged to the corner. Kvaris switched to his axe, in case he needed to throw it.

Peeking over the corner, Ingrid and Selphie saw a large pile of centipedes feasting on a large monster’s corpse.

“Yeesh.” Ingrid said quietly “it’s a feeding frenzy out there.”

“Start a food fight.” Cecil said evilly.

Nodding to Selphie, the dryad peeked over the corner and fired a volley of shots then quickly ducked back.

“They’re infighting.” Arek said in a low voice.

Selphie’s whip crawlers were immune to the venom of the centipedes and so was their own host body, however, their low-on-the-ground morphology and awkward positioning in the feeding frenzy made them less effective.

“Cecil, anything on your drone?” Ingrid asked.

“None.”

“Then I’ll take this group. Selphie retreat.” Ingrid said. To avoid detection, Ingrid moved very quickly, flinging herself against the walls repeatedly like a pinball before crashing into the melee like a bomb.

It worked and the ensuing melee had the centipedes all focusing on her. The explosive impact had killed all of the massive centipedes around her. She needed however to look like she could be taken down, so she put up her fists and charged further away from the team, another leaping ground pound crushed many and sent more flying into the air.

At once the remaining bugs rushed her from all directions but Ingrid was literally outboxing hundreds of them all at once. As each leapt at or reared up to bite Ingrid, her Nemea met their heads right on, striking like a high velocity round, obliterating the monster’s head and blowing a hole through everything else behind it. Those that crawled on the ground to bite her legs ended up getting stomped at the right moment, creating a shockwave that violently that didn’t just shove everything back but struck with enough force that two or three of it killed outright.

One quickly slithered around a bit Ingrid, activating her Automata precept, at once she quickly spun away before the bite connected and delivered a full-force overhead punch that not only generated another violent shockwave but also created a geyser of explosions in a chain, moving forward. At times Ingrid would rush past the mob in a blur, reappearing several feet away and then suddenly the area she passed through would ripple from the impact of hundreds of delayed attacks.

Soon the centipedes were retreating, Ingrid quickly leapt to cut them off and began driving them to the other side, she launched a series of swinging hooks and haymakers that generated volatile blasts of energy that exploded on impact, sending the remaining creatures to run to the opposite side. Ingrid simply repeated the process.

“There’s one left,” Ingrid said as she returned to the group. A giant centipede was latched onto her head, like a grotesque headdress, it took the Whales a couple of moments to realize her aura had literally caught it by the jaws. Ingrid then pulled it off of her and quickly struck it near the head and it crumpled to the floor, she had stunned it.

“Round two, Calico?” Ingrid asked, without any further prompting both Calico and Saber dropped their guns and rushed at the centipede, clubbing it with her telescoping batons, squeaking furiously.

Their anger was calculated, they rained blows on and around the centipede’s head before moving onto the rest of the body, not content to simply kill it but hurt it badly. The whippy steel rods splintered the exoskeleton and sent splashes of blue blood where the shards of its shell were hammered into the soft flesh underneath or from the lacerations of the thin rods striking the flesh at high speed. There were several sickening cracks as the calico mice bashed its many legs, some even breaking off completely at the joints. Charles kept watch at the head, nimbly dodging its ever slowing strikes and retaliating with a hard smash to the face, leaving deep cuts and several broken mouthpieces.

When the mice were done its entire back was a mangled mess of broken exoskeleton and deep cuts across the body. The centipede was still weakly moving when Arthur walked to its head and pulled his pistol but Charles shook his head. Squeaking happily, the mice picked up and resumed their posts, leaving the severely beat-up centipede to weakly crawl away with what little working legs it still had.

“Tell em’ Calico sends their regards,” Arek said in a fake Italian accent as the party moved to the scene of Ingrid’s fight.

“With these we should get a big reward from the study of their bodies and hopefully, the venom.” Iohann said. Ingrid had done a great job with her fight that barely any were still left alive. Viel’s telekinesis spell combined with the increased manpower allowed the team to quickly pack up the dead bodies for Item Boxing.

The monster that the centipedes were feasting was a large abomination lord, about thirty feet tall.

“You think the red crawlers are the reason the monsters are moving up?” Ingrid asked as she rolled the body to the pile.

“It’s a possibility. We don’t know what else could be lurking down here.” Sammy said. “For all we know they’re just scavengers taking advantage of all the infighting brought about by the Red Moon.”

Arek raised a hand “Drone’s got a reading about five intersections ahead, quite a big group of monsters, a mixed bunch and they seem to be working quite well together.”

The team crowded over for a look.

“They look like… well, in Earth Culture they’d be considered ‘demons’... overcompensating horns, mean looks and kicking around their own employees.” Cecil remarked, looking at the feed from one of the tablets.

“Arkoths” Viel and Sammy said in unison.

“You know them?” Siria asked.

“We ran into a few back then. Nearly got killed.” Sammy related, her face betrayed a slight look of worry.

“Well, looks like you need a part two as well.” Ingrid smiled. It was not a condescending one but rather, a strangely comforting bloodthirsty grin. Like an elder sister who just learned her cute little sibling got bullied.

“That better not be hubris talking, Ingrid.” Iohann said with concern.

“No, just a sense of duty to punish some Arkoths for hurting our Sammy and Viel.” Ingrid said. “Come, let’s hurry the pace so our duo can collect the blood debt they’re owed.”

“We don’t have any clubs though.” Viel said, and the party laughed.

With Cecil’s drone hanging behind and Arek’s focused on the group of Arkoths, Kvaris was sniffing ahead on the lookout for any encounters in between. As they got closer to Arek’s drone the sounds of monsters infighting were getting more distinct. The ambience was a double-edged sword as it would help obscure any fighting the team had to do but also made it difficult to hear if one was lurking nearby.

Kvaris held up a hand to the right side corridor. “Something heading this way.”

The thumping sounds were clearer now and it was clear that the Whales were detected first. Rushing through the corridor were a group of what looked like humans but their proportions were all wrong, probably mutated. They shuffled quickly on their knuckles, their long, muscular arms reached the floor like apes and their faces here elongated as if someone cartoonishly squashed it at the sides.

“I don’t know what those aberrations are!” Siria said as Selphie let out a burst of fire, causing the mutant neanderthals to focus on their now-corrupted companions.

“Monday morning hangover people!” Ingrid said, rushing towards the biggest, beefiest of the aberrations. A punch sent it flying back into the mass of aberrations which simply trampled it over. Their mutations varied, some having only one big arm, while others were “better proportioned” all the same they all looked like they were suffering some kind of skin disease.

Flaring her aura, Ingrid smashed her way into the crowd, cutting off as many reinforcements as possible by using her nemea’s high explosive punches and her kicks’ crescent-shaped shockwaves to cut through many of them.

“Rear drone shows all clear, Rear side, you’re clear to engage.” Cecil said as Iroquois engaged the enemy. Apache went full auto with their submachine guns, focusing on the thickest of the crowd. Aiming low, they used the muzzle climb to sweep their fire upwards and through the ranks. Meanwhile, Kiowa focused on point defense.

After Ingrid, The 189 was the first to advance, They fired in bursts as they closed in, then upon reaching flamethrower distance they let the flames spray on the incoming ranks of aberrations. Once they’ve made a wall of flaming bodies they stopped, letting the flames against the packed crowd do its work as unaffected monsters to stumble back to avoid the intense heat.

As they did so, Sammy and the kobolds kept throwing their choice weapons at the ones that looked the least burnt.

“Tempest Assault!” Siria conjured a dark cloud over tightly packed aberrations, lightning stuck down, which passed through many of the bodies. This caused the aberrations to push forward as they were now getting pincered. The 189 leapt backwards, and switched back to point defense with their primary fire using short bursts while Sammy, the kobolds, and Cassie got to work with tanking alongside Ingrid and Selphie’s whip-crawlers.

Kinu and Kvaris alternated with masterful usage of the thrown axe for short range, spears for mid-range, and swords for close quarters combat. The ability to dismiss their weapons allowed them to chop and thrust with all their might without worrying about it getting stuck, and the general ability to summon their weapon when needed allowed them to position their arms for the optimal leverage of the next strike.

Kvaris ran at full tilt towards the first aberration, his ring-spear going through its chest and the other behind it. Dismissing his weapon he continued running and brought up his ring-sword, running the blade through its stomach, before dismissing it and using his ring-axe to bite deep into its knee, causing it to stumble over. Jumping back he threw his axe and sword at two different targets before charging again with his spear, then rapidly dismissing, recalling, and stabbing at a rapid pace, driving back the aberrations and occasionally throwing his axe and sword to great effect.

After running one aberration with this spear, Kinu rapidly recalled his weapon to keep pushing it back. With three swift thrusts, his adversary crumpled, allowing him to keep pushing forward. His otherwise uninterrupted dash enabled him to maintain his forward surge and capitalize on the increased impact of his spear, delivering subsequent attacks against the mob in quick succession.

As Sammy rushed forward, she threw several spears at the necks and chests of the incoming mob before jumping towards one huge aberration and slicing it in two, at once, her guardian swords provided cover by striking twice; the first was a scissor-like cut as the swords sliced inwards in unison, before curving upwards in the opposite direction, switching places and slashing at opposite angles downwards in an X. By that time she had positioned herself for another strike and swung her halberd in a circle, disembowelling the taller humanoids closing in while the swords aimed higher, going for their necks. Jumping back as they keeled over, she threw more spears at the advancing mob.

The bodies were forming a defensive bulwark for her that allowed her to take advantage of the awkward positioning they were putting themselves in; cutting off their limbs and causing them to collapse and present their heads and necks for easy severance. One aberration was hooked in the back of the leg by her halberd and Sammy yanked it off its feet. As it collapsed on its back the Guardian Swords appeared and impaled its heart. At the same time she impaled another aberration in the chest and the Guardian Swords then pruned its head off like a giant pair of shears then performed another cross slash as another aberration pushed forward, cutting it open.

Behind them the 189 and Kiowa provided point defense, allowing Sammy and the kobolds more room to push into the rapidly thinning crowd. Combined with Apache shooting behind the aberration’s frontlines to keep the incoming numbers as sparse and manageable as possible, Siria’s localized thunderstorm hitting the thickest of the mobs, and Selphie’s whip-crawlers; to say nothing of Ingrid bashing away at the aberrations still hemmed in at the corner, the fighting ended in a few minutes.

The last aberration was starting to run from Ingrid and head towards the rest of the team. Ingrid ran at it at a “normal running pace” one arm seemingly cocked back and ready to throw a punch. Seeing Sammy, she tapped her bicep and she got the idea; Ingrid had shown her prowrestling after all.

“DOUBLE LARIAT!!!! Owwwh the humanity!!! That’s gonna be sore in the morning!” Cecil announced jovially as the Whales’ two tanks squashed its elongated head as their arms met with enough force to generate a whipcrack.