A Demon's Core

Losing three imps is an unfortunate blow, but I will need to be prepared to lose more before we are through this. For now, I have the others move the injured out of the stairwell to the meeting room on the fourth floor. Most of the injuries are survivable and do not require immediate attention, some broken bones and bleeding lacerations, but there are two that are more concerning. One imp is fading in and out of consciousness with a profusely bleeding head wound and another who took a bullet to the abdomen, but shows no sign of an exit wound.

Rose starts healing the imp with the head injury first and I instruct another imp to tend to the one with the bullet wound, telling them to put pressure on the area in hopes of slowing the bleeding, despite the pained complaints from the patient. While I have little doubt that Rose will be able to save them, healing such grievous injuries will take a lot out of her, even with me providing her with mana. It will also take time to stabilise and care for them, so I am, unfortunately, not going to be able to rely on her for anything else.

While that will inevitably impact our fighting strength, the rest of this battle will most likely take place on the fifth floor where I will be able to participate more directly. Learning that Coal can apparently bypass mana shields with his teleportation is also quite a boon. I hope we can investigate the full extent of his abilities again, after we are done with these humans, now that we can understand each other a little better than the last time we tried to figure it out.

Coal is currently with River, still trying to comfort Violet who is crouched down in the corner. She is still distressed, but has calmed down significantly.

Are you okay? I ask her.

“I was scared…But I didn’t hide this time. I fought. I protected our home,” she declares.

You did and I am proud of you, but the fight is not over yet.

Violet takes a deep breath, exhales slowly and stands with a determined look.

“I’m ready.”

All of the imps who are uninjured move back up to the fifth floor to prepare for the humans. A few imps who only received minor injuries also insist that they can still fight, so I see no reason to stop them. With seven imps too injured to continue and Rose tending to them, that leaves thirteen imps ready to take up defence.

There are also four hellhounds, eager for their chance to strike at the humans and one gargoyle. I am actually a little surprised at Marble's willingness to participate in this fight, given that she has not even been here that long; I would not have forced her to if she had instead decided to prioritise her own safety. But she and Igneous spent a lot of time communicating with each other before he left; whatever he said to her during that time made her prepared to put her life on the line along with everyone else to defend this place.

When she had seen the imps fetching weapons from Room 7, she even went in there as well to see what was available and select some for herself. She came back wielding a fire axe in one hand and a sledge hammer in the other, both of which she was able to swing one-handed with ease. I have not had much opportunity to see it before, but gargoyles are apparently quite strong.

At my instruction, everyone is hiding within the first two rooms on either side of the hallway. The hellhounds are divided two each in Rooms 1 and 2, while the imps and Marble are similarly divided between Rooms 3 and 4. Violet is with the group in Room 4 so I can still signal them to attack at the appropriate time. And while I cannot contact the two hellhounds in Room 2, Noctis will be the one to give them their cue.

I also station an imp in each of the rooms with the hellhounds to open the doors for them. Though the hellhounds have figured out how to open the doors on their own by biting the door knob firmly and rotating their head, it is still easier and faster if an imp does it for them. Although the door to Room 1 only needs to be pulled open thanks to the damage caused by the Honey Badgers.

I considered having the hellhounds in the hallway ready to light the humans up as soon as the doors to the elevator shaft open, but I am also concerned that a long straight hallway would make anyone waiting in it an easy target for a human with a gun.

Up to this point, Calla has been hiding in the cabinet in Room 7 with my core. I send her down to where the injured imps are as her mother was one of those too hurt to keep fighting; not life-threatening though, just a broken leg and possibly some ribs. I am sure Lily will appreciate her daughter’s company and it will be better for Calla to wait this out with her mother than confined with a glowing pink orb that is too focused on other things to offer her any comfort or reassurance she might need. It will also hopefully keep her from trying to join the fight herself since she was already feeling indignant about being left out before.

The atmosphere is tense as we wait for the humans to make their move, but I am caught a little off guard when, instead of the elevator doors opening, I feel a presence in the stairwell, right in front of the door. The door opens just a little and a smoke-spewing cylindrical canister is thrown into the hallway. My first thought is that it is some kind of smoke screen to obscure their movements, but then I remember a conversation with William where he said he would have used tear gas to attack.

If that is what is happening now, then I am relieved that I did not have anyone in the hallway. I create mana shields around the canister in an attempt to prevent the gas from spreading and am satisfied when I have managed to contain most of it. When the door opens fully a few seconds later and the humans storm in, I create a gust of wind to send the gas back towards the humans and out into the stairwell.

Unfortunately, the humans seem unfazed as they walk through it and I am not surprised when I see the masks they are wearing. Covering their entire faces, appearing to cling tightly to their heads, leaving few, if any, gaps around the edges and cylindrical canisters on the sides; I assume they are designed specifically to protect the wearer from dangerous aerosolized chemicals. Other than that, their armour and weapons all seem similar to what the Honey Badgers who attacked us before were wearing, although I cannot see any signs of a logo or insignia on these ones.

Ten humans confidently stroll into the hallway and I create a mana shield just past the doors to Rooms 1 and 2 to block their progress. Two humans move forward to place their hands on the barrier and I can feel it starting to vibrate while the others watch the doors with their guns raised, on alert for any sign of attack. As I am about to give the hellhounds the signal to attack, a different idea strikes me; I should try talking to these humans. I reach out to all of them together but am careful to regulate the mana as I do not wish to hurt them, not yet at least.

Would you happen to be Honey Badgers?

Not only do the humans not respond, I do not even see any indication that they heard me at all. But I continue anyway.

Because if you are, I would like to offer you a deal that I am sure you will find quite appealing.

“Everyone halt!” One of the humans commands and the two who were working on breaking my mana shield step back and raise their own weapons. “What kind of deal?” Asks the man, who seems to be the leader. His voice is muffled by the mask he wears, but not enough to make his words unintelligible.

I want to know who sent you. If you agree to tell me everything you know about who you are working for and then leave peacefully, I am willing to offer you mana stones equal in value to double whatever your current employer is paying you.

The man sighs and shakes his head.

“As tempting as that sounds, once a job has been accepted, Honey Badgers never betray a client,” he refuses.

Is that so? That is more honourable than I expected, considering what I have heard about your organisation.

This elicits a chuckle from the man.

“Honour’s got nothing to do with it. It’s just business,” he says.

Turning down a higher paying client does not seem like a good business practice.

“Obviously, you are not a businessman. What you are offering may be good for short term gain, but not long term profit. In our line of work, reputation is everything. We have a reputation for getting the job done and being discreet about it. We don't discuss our clients; it’s pretty much our only rule. What do you think would happen if we developed a reputation for being willing to betray our clients as long as someone else offered more money? We would get far fewer clients and that would be bad for business. Besides, if mana stones were enough to entice us to break policy, we could just keep the dungeon core for ourselves after we take it and make our own,” he explains.

You are assuming that you will actually succeed in taking it.

“I’m quite confident,” he declares.

I would like to think that they are just underestimating us, but there are still two humans unaccounted for so they clearly still have more up their sleeve. Perhaps that is why he has been so chatty; he is stalling for time.

If you will not take my offer, then I can promise that none of you will leave this building alive.

“We’ll see. I’m sure we can handle anything you throw at us.”

The same could not be said for those you left in the stairwell.

Rather than waste anymore time talking, I give the hellhounds the signal to attack. The door to Room 1 opens and fire erupts into the hallway accompanied by a bellowing roar. The flames wash over the humans only briefly before one of them creates a mana shield of their own to fend off the assault. But a mere moment after that, the door on their other side opens to another fiery eruption. This time, one of the humans actually catches alight before the other magic wielder manages to block the incoming blaze. The others quickly converge on the one who is now on fire and work together to pat the flames out before they can cause any real harm.

Moving to the middle of their group, I release a mana shock wave in all directions. The two who were holding back the hellhounds’ flames must have sensed the mana charging for the brief moment before it was unleashed because they manage to block the shock wave from impacting them, but the other eight humans are thrown violently from the epicentre.

I command the imps and Marble to attack while the humans are down, but most of them are not as disoriented as I had hoped. One of the humans, seeing the imps coming, takes a grenade from his belt and throws it towards them. Much to his surprise though, the grenade bounces back toward him when it impacts the mana shield I had created earlier that I still had not dropped. At first, I assume it is another tear gas grenade, but when I see the humans all covering their eyes, I immediately instruct everyone to do the same. Unfortunately, not all of the imps are able to react in time before the hallway is engulfed in a bright flash of white light accompanied by a deafening bang.

While I am not susceptible to such an attack, the imps who did not cover their eyes are now stumbling blindly. As it turns out, the mana shield can slightly muffle sound, so that part of the attack likely affected the humans more than any of my creatures, though it did still cause Marble to flinch due to her much more sensitive hearing than anyone else. The imps that managed to shield their eyes continue their advance towards the humans.

As I am about to lower my shield so the imps can get to the humans, the sound of an explosion is heard, drawing everyone’s attention. They all turn to look in the direction it came from; one of the rooms at the complete opposite end of the hallway from where the humans are. Then, to my horror, I sense the presence of the two remaining humans appearing in the room where my core is currently hidden.

I create another shock wave to keep the humans down, though the two blocking the hellhounds’ flames manage to protect themselves from it again, and remove the mana shield so the imps can get to them.

Take care of things here while I go deal with that. I send to everyone.

I have no choice but to trust them to deal with the humans in the hallway while I turn my focus to a more imminent threat.

In Room 7, there is a large hole in the ceiling, which explains how the humans got in here and also how the others came in from the stairwell. The room is full of smoke, spewing from a canister on the floor like the one that was thrown into the hallway. One human is watching the door, while the other is walking around looking intently at a ball that he is holding out in front of him and moving from side to side. The one watching the door notices my appearance in the room and does not hesitate to punch in my direction, sending out a strong wave of mana, causing the smoke to swirl as it passes. It makes me feel fuzzy, but it is nothing compared to the shock waves I can create

“Hurry up and find the core so we can get this over with,” he demands.

“Yeah, I’m looking,” the other man replies.

The ball he is holding is made of a transparent material and appears to contain some kind of gyroscopic apparatus. It has a glowing needle that looks like it might be made, at least in part, from a mana crystal. As he moves the ball around, the rotating internal mechanism allows the needle to continue pointing in the same direction. It is obvious what the needle is fixated on as it points directly to the cabinet where my core is currently hidden. It seems these humans actually have a device that can precisely track the location of my core.

Immediately, I create a mana shield in front of the cabinet door and charge mana for a shock wave, lamenting the mess that it will create with everything we have stored in this room. Even though I have managed to reduce the charge time since I first developed this technique, there is still enough time for both of the humans to sense it and create mana shields of their own. This group has a much higher ratio of magic users than those that have come before and I am finding it terribly irksome.

“What the fuck was that!?” One of the men exclaims.

“No idea, but we need to get this done quick,” the man with the ball says as he drops his shield to reach for the cabinet door, but finds he is unable to touch it.

I try to hit him again with a shockwave while his shield is down, but he manages to create a new one just in time to protect himself.

“The door’s shielded,” he says as he steps back.

“I’ll handle it, you protect me,” the other man responds, but I have no intention of waiting to see what he is going to do.

While they made their shields around and above them, they neglected the floor beneath their feet where my mana filaments are spread, allowing me to easily project myself right inside his shield. I attempt to incinerate him in a blaze of fire, but before I can get more than a spark, he drops the shield and creates a new one that expands outwards, pushing me away. This new shield encompasses him fully, including under his feet, so I can not get in again.

“There’s something here that can get inside our shields. You need full coverage.”

The way these humans are able to quickly and effectively respond to everything I try suggests they are far more experienced than the previous Honey Badgers I faced. More mana shockwaves would not help at this point and I can no longer get inside their shields, so I instead try focussing my mana into thin solid points in hopes of piercing through it, but even that is unable to penetrate the shield.

Not seeing any way to get through, my only recourse left is to drain the mana from them. I focus on the one who said he will handle the cabinet and I can feel the shape of his shield; it is wrapped tightly around his body like armour and moves with him when he does. He jumps away from me as soon as I start draining his mana and I am immediately hit by a wave of mana that temporarily destabilises my body.

“Keep it off me,” he commands as he approaches the cabinet again.

He kneels down in front of it and pulls his arm back to punch the door. When his fist strikes the mana shield, it almost shatters instantly. It takes all my focus to hold it together and even the door behind the shield cracks and splinters from the force.

I create a shield around the other man to keep him from interfering while I go back to draining mana from this man who is punching his way through my defences. I do not even have time to contemplate how bizarre it is that he can do that as he continues to slam his fist forwards. He is not hesitating as I drain his mana, instead it seems to be motivating him to go faster

The shield withstands the second and third hits, but it breaks on the fourth and his hand goes right through the cabinet door. Pulling back, he rips what is left of the door right off its hinges, revealing my core and a treasure trove of mana crystals. He reaches in to grab my core so I create another shield to block him, prompting him to start punching again without any hesitation.

The only thing I can think of now is to move my core through the hole back into Room 5. Seeing the core start to move, the human looks in the directions it is travelling and spots the hole in the wall.

“No you don’t,” he declares and creates another mana shield of his own to block its escape.

A moment later he breaks through my shield again and lunges forwards to grab it. With my core in his hand, in a state of abject terror, I worry that this will be my end; I only hope everyone else will be okay. I then feel mana flowing into my core. I remember what Jenna said about how to claim a dungeon core, one needs to connect their own mana to it. I assume that is what he is trying to do, except I do not feel anything happening other than gaining mana.

Well, if the human is so eager to give me his mana, I will gladly take it. It is inefficient to drain mana through a mana shield, but this human has dropped his shield and is touching my core directly, perhaps believing that he has already won. I start absorbing mana from him and just like last time I did this to a human, he seems to have no resistance whatsoever and direct contact with my core making it even easier.

“What the…” The man slumps over unconscious before he can even finish speaking and my core slips from his grasp.

I turn my attention to the other man who is desperately trying to break out of the cage I trapped him in. The mana is wavering, so he is making progress, but he is clearly not as good at it as his companion. Now that I know whatever they had intended to do with my core, they apparently cannot, I am much more calm. I probably no longer have anything to fear from this human, but I would like to get this over with quickly so I can get back to helping everyone in the hallway.

I drop my shield as I see no need to keep him contained like that any longer, but when I try to touch him so I can take his mana, he still has his shield up around him. It is interesting that he was able to attack my shield while keeping his own intact. I hope I can figure out how to do that myself later.

When I try to drain mana from his shield, he immediately lashes out with a wave of mana that destabilises my form again. That is getting terribly annoying as it makes it difficult to focus my mana for a few seconds each time. The fact that he can continue to attack through his shield is also troublesome. I need to get past his shield, but every time I touch it to start draining it, he attacks with another blast of mana. He does not appear to have any means of actually harming me, but as a delaying tactic, it is frustrating.

He moves towards his companion, who is still slumped in front of the cabinet and pushes him out of the way. He looks down at my core suspiciously. After seeing what happened to his friend, he seems hesitant to touch it himself. While I am not as afraid as before, I cannot ignore the possibility that he might still have some trick up his sleeve, though I am also curious to see what he will do.

He tries to pick up my core by surrounding it with his mana and lifting it. Though not as effective as direct skin contact, surrounding my core with his mana like that still makes it a lot easier to absorb than pulling it from his shield. I need to exhaust his mana as quickly as possible so I take as much mana as I can from him before he drops my core and steps back.

I wish I could communicate with him, either to convince him to give up or to taunt him, depending on how he responds, but the way his mana shield covers him completely also blocks me from reaching him even just to speak.

Still attacking me with mana whenever I try to drain mana from his shield, he once again wraps his mana around my core and he tries putting some of his mana into it himself. Is he still trying to take control of it? Does he believe it is simply a matter of claiming my core before I can take all of his mana? I do not understand what he is thinking but I will gladly take all the mana he can give.

When he gives up on that plan, he drops my core and stumbles back. The next time he sends a wave of mana to get me off his shield, I can tell it is weaker than his previous attacks, indicating that he is finally running out of steam. Just in time for me to test an idea, I create another mana shield and press it right up against his. I may not have yet figured out how to attack through my own shield, but if the shield is in direct contact with his, I might still be able to drain mana from it.

The idea works, though the mana flow is even slower and my shield is a little less stable, but it is still strong enough to block his weakened attacks. He tries to step away, but I push forward to keep up, until I have him pressed up against a wall and there is nowhere left for him to go.

He still tries to put up a futile resistance, buffeting my shield with his mana, but all he is accomplishing is exhausting himself faster. I have him trapped now and am slowly draining his mana and there is nothing he can do but wait for his inevitable end.

As soon as his shield collapses, I push forwards with my shield with as much force as I can manage. The impact leaves a large dent in the wall and when I let my shield dissipate, he crumples to the floor. While he is attempting to push himself up, I charge a shock wave right above him, aiming all its force directly downwards. It crushes down into him and I am not sure if the cracking sounds I hear come from him or the floor, or perhaps both.

He does not move again after that, but he is not quite dead yet, so I create more solid needles of mana to stab through the gaps in his armour. I do not gain much mana from his death, but I suppose he probably did not have much left to give.

The unconscious man still needs to be finished off, so I quickly take care of that before heading back out to the hallway. I arrive just in time to see Marble swinging her sledgehammer into a human's face. It collides with a sickening crunch and knocks the man off his feet, sending him sliding across the ground.

Most of the humans are already dead. Noctis and Fire are in the hallway pouncing on any humans that move, but there is still one of the magic humans blocking the stream of fire coming from Room 2 and the hellhounds producing it.

He is the last human standing, but before I can step in to deal with it, Coal appears right behind him and digs his claws into the back of the man’s knee. The human loses concentration on his shield and is engulfed in flames.

Noctis’ eyes flare as she uses her power to prevent the fire from spreading further into the hallway where the other imps are. Fire charges and tackles the man into Room 2 where Scar and Fuzzy are waiting and the stream of fire abruptly ends.

I am initially worried about Coal being hurt by the flames, but he does not seem to be harmed in the brief moment that I see him before he charges after his prey that had been taken away from him.

Everything had gone terribly wrong. Davis had been informed by the client that this would be a difficult and dangerous mission and there had already been multiple failed attempts to capture this dungeon, including one team of Honey Badgers. So he not only assembled his entire team, but even recruited a few extras that were not a part of his regular crew. He had intended to use them as a distraction if the need arose, which it did, and sooner than he expected. But they served their purpose and they even had the courtesy to die in the stairwell, so he did not have to worry about giving them their cut.

It should have been easy after that. He would take most of the squad to keep the enemies' attention long enough for the other two to find the dungeon core, claim it and force the dungeon’s creatures to stand down.

When he heard a voice speaking to him in his mind, something he had never experienced before and that gave him a mild headache, he was delighted as it would give him an opportunity to stall for more time until the core was located. The voice, who he assumed was the dungeon controller, had made a tempting offer, but it was not the first time he had heard such an offer and would certainly not be the last. It still amused him to hear it every time though.

That was when things got serious. He had heard that the dungeon had creatures that could create fire so he was not surprised when the doors on either side of them opened to powerful jets of flame. They had two mages with them that could easily handle that.

What he was not prepared for was almost the entire squad, himself included, being knocked off their feet by an invisible force. He had considered the possibility that their opponents might also have magic users among them, but that attack seemed to originate from the centre of their group. Their opponent must be quite skilled to produce such an attack, but as long as his mages were still standing, they shouldn’t have had anything to worry about in the long run.

When he saw the little demons approaching, he took a flash bang from his belt and threw it towards them, only for it to bounce off an invisible wall back towards him. He knew his mages were too experienced to make a mistake like that, so it must have been the opposing mage, one of the demons perhaps, or the dungeon controller. He swore to himself as he covered his eyes.

They all had basic hearing protection so the sound of the flashbang didn’t affect them too badly, so he was able to hear the next explosion, which came from a room at the other end of the hallway, and he smirked, not that it could be seen inside his mask. Even if they had left something behind to guard the core, he was confident his guys could handle it. They would get the core and then it would be over, they just needed to hold out a little longer.

That was when the plan started to fall apart. He was knocked off his feet again as he was trying to stand up. The mages were both fine though, so he wasn’t worried, until a dark skinned demon appeared out of thin air right in front of one of the mages and started clawing at his face. That distracted him enough that he let his shield fall and fire flooded into the hallway. The last thing he heard from the mage was screaming.

He saw the little demon leap out from the fire towards another of his men and then other demons were upon them as well, in addition to a larger grey skinned creature swinging around a sledge hammer and a fire axe like they were toys. In the time it took him to get back on his feet, the enemies had gotten too close to shoot at and he already had a demon leaping at him. He was pretty confident in his close quarters combat skills, but he was not used to fighting opponents as small and fast as these.

It was then that the flames stopped coming in and two large beasts with spikes on their back and fire in their eyes appeared. He heard a few gunshots ring out, but he was busy dodging the little demons lunging at him to pay much attention to them.

He managed to kick one of the demons away and sent it skidding down the hallway before he felt another clinging to his back. He reached over his shoulder to try to pull it off only to feel the creature bite down on his arm instead. He let out a pained cry, but persisted in trying to remove the thing from his back. It actually let go of his arm when he pulled it over his shoulder and it landed on the floor in front of him and stumbled. He managed to take his pistol from its holster, but the demon was already moving before he had a chance to aim.

While fighting off the little demons, he wondered why his men hadn’t gotten the core yet. It shouldn’t be taking them this long. The longer this fight went on, the more of his men would die. Things had not gone according to plan at all, but that was always a risk in this line of work.

He remembered the words of the dungeon controller; the promise that none of them would leave this building alive. It seemed they would be keeping that promise. He could respect that.

That was his final thought before he saw the rapidly approaching head of a sledge hammer .