Alpha directed several [Wasp] drones to follow the group as they retreated toward the dungeon entrance. As expected, the Kigendoro, in its blind fury, followed closely behind. Thankfully, the creature’s rge size worked toward the group’s advantage. While the retreating Adventurers and goblins could easily weave through the forest, and thick brush, the ancient trees of the cavern were too rge and sturdy for a being of even the Kigendoro’s power to simply plow through.

  It had to pick a more careful and winding route after its prey. This allowed the group to keep their distance from snapping jaws and jagged spikes of jutting earth. Only the Kigendoro’s decaying beams of super-pressurized mud remained a genuine threat while the group retreated.

  Alpha’s antborgs harassed the creature just out of sight as well, falling on it from the high branches as it passed under or nipping at its body from the brush. Individually, the Alphantonso-model worker antborgs weren’t able to hinder the great beast. Even those equipped with weapon nanopoints didn’t have enough kick to really slow it. But as a whole, each minor attack was enough to buy the group a few heartbeats of time.

  Maybe the Antonio-model soldier antborgs would have been more effective, but they were still far too expensive to risk like that. Besides, Alpha wanted the Kigendoro to follow the group. They needed to lead the creature to the dungeon entrance.

  A drone nded on Boarsyer’s shoulder and connected to a special port built into the armor. While her armor could communicate wirelessly, Alpha could use the drone for more thorough system checks.

  Lucky for them, the damage to Boarsyer’s armor was mostly superficial. After all this, Alpha would have to bring it in for repairs, but it would still work for what came next.

  Alpha spoke through their comm link. “Boarsyer, once everyone is through the gates, I need you on top of the wall.”

  Boarsyer’s eyes narrowed. “Why?” she asked.

  Alpha chuckled to himself. It always amused him when his ‘helpers’ wised up to him enough to notice when he was scheming something.

  “Trust me!” Alpha responded. “You’ll like this one.”

  Boarsyer grinned. “Will I?” they said before yelling at the fleeing group. “The Dungeon Core will open the gates for us. Don’t stop! Everyone inside as quickly as possible!”

  The group acknowledged her words with a chorus of ‘ayes’ and ‘yes ma’ams’ between heavy breaths as they rushed forward. Behind them, the Kigendoro continued its pursuit, occasionally firing mud beams or earth spikes in their direction when gaps in the tree cover allowed it.

  Soon, the forest opened, and the imposing dungeon entrance appeared. Through heavy breaths, the group cheered and redoubled their efforts. Just in time, too, as the Kigendoro burst from the treeline shortly behind them, letting loose its own screeching victory cry now that it was free from the confines of the forest. The number of earth spikes and decaying mud projectiles aimed at its fleeing prey increased now that it had a clear line of sight.

  As the fleeing group neared, the gates rumbled and slowly opened. Possibly sensing its prey was about to escape, the Kigendoro put on a sudden burst of speed, slithering along the open ground with a serpentine motion. The distance between it and the Boarsyer’s group shrunk even further. For a moment, it looked as if they wouldn’t make it in time.

  Then, suddenly, beams of blue light erupted from the direction of the dungeon wall. They streaked through the air with the sound of chittering birds and smmed into the Kigendoro. Two rge objects had risen from their hiding spot on the wall to either side of the massive gates. The Adventurers who saw them would have no name for the strange artifacts, but any Federation soldier would have instantly recognized the constructs as standard model point-defense psma nces.

  The muddy beast screeched, this time in pain, as its charge was hauled, and the creature flopped to its back, filing wildly. Where the beams struck, they left rge bck scorched areas as if its muddy armor had been turned to carbonized ash.

  More chittering beams streaked toward the Kigendoro, but its writhing form suddenly wrenched out of the way, narrowly avoiding another direct hit. The eel-like creature coiled around itself, instinctively trying to reduce its profile as much as possible, and hissed at the turrets. Its prey was slipping away, but the new threat had proved itself worthy of its attention.

  Again, the psma nces fired, and the Kigendoro moved, its serpentine body twisting in unnature ways as it dodged the beams. The Kigendoro retaliated, opening its to-wide-jaw and shooting a wrist-thin beam of pressurized mud toward the left-most turret. Almost as fast as the psma nces, the beam of mud cut through the air… and smmed into a hexagonal shield.

  The Kigendoro roared in frustration as another salvo of psma shot toward it. It again dodged with unnerving agility and raised mud walls before sending a second mud beam toward the wall.

  At roughly the same time, the fleeing group finally reached the gate. The injured were ushered through without stopping while Bert, Boarsyer, and Robert paused at the threshold, turning to watch the fight behind them.

  “Was this the dungeon’s pn?” Robert asked. “Has it had such powerful weapons all along?! Why did it need our help, then?” he fumed.

  Bert frowned and shook his head, though his eyes never left the fight. “No. I don’t think this is it. These artifacts are powerful, sure, but they seem stationary. If the Kigendoro runs, they won’t be able to finish it. It’s a slippery beast. There has to be something else.”

  “They’re too slow,” a tired Maggy noted from Boarsyer’s arms. “These bsts are powerful. Even more than I can produce, the time between the bsts has a pattern to them, and the Kigendoro is learning.”

  Boarsyer was thinking simirly. “This isn’t what you wanted to show me, right boss?” she asked over comms.

  “Of course not,” Alpha responded. “Get to the top of the wall.”

  ——————————————————

  << Alpha Log -

  6952 SFY-Third Era, 8 standard months since Pnetfall.

  Final Day of Operation: Safari Hunt - Second Entry >>

  So I screwed up. The Mud Drake’s transformation into the creature called a ‘Kigendoro’ was unexpected, to say the least. Dr. Maria had warned me of metamorphosis such as this among spirit beasts before, but we had dismissed the possibility. After all, these changes only occurred in beasts near the peak of their current power level. The Mud Drake, while powerful, shouldn’t have been quite there yet.

  The spirit wine seems to have been the final push it needed to cross that line.

  On the one hand, the results speak to the wine’s potency and potential. I’ve already begun writing up drafts for future projects.

  On the other hand, I can’t help but feel like this might be partly my fault. After all, the Mud Drake, while a nuisance, shouldn’t have been a genuine threat. Even if the Adventurers hadn’t been here, between the goblins and my ants, we should have been able to handle the Mud Drake easily.

  That’s changed. This newborn Kigendoro is far more powerful than the Mud Drake, and its ability to reshape its environment threatens to destroy weeks of work.

  With that in mind, I’ve chosen to activate project ‘Guardian’ ahead of schedule.

  Schematics and research can be found attached to this report for reference.

  If you’re too zy to read that, then I’ll be brief.

  Project’ Guardian’, alongside Antoinette, is another long-term project I’ve been working on to help solidify my control over the goblin’s home cavern and the surrounding Deep areas. If Antoinette is my queen on the board, then Guardian is meant to be my knight.

  Getting the bloody thing to work properly has been problematic, however.

  My current manufacturing capability isn’t quite up to par with Federation standards, so I have had to jury rig many of the Guardian’s systems using more… native means. While not a perfect analogy, the system of runes, symbols, and lines that make up an Array act as both a programming nguage and a circuit board. That’s opened up a lot of possibilities, but getting them to py nice with Federation methods has been difficult. Garrelt’s expertise has been the st piece of the puzzle I needed.

  Guardian still isn’t complete. Not by a long shot. But if my calcutions are correct, it should be enough to stop our muddy friend.

  ——————————————————

  As the entrance door smmed shut behind them, most of those present colpsed to the ground while others began treating the injured. Only Boarsyer, Bert, and Robert stayed upright. The three of them gathered in a circle.

  “What now?” Bert asked. “You said the dungeon has a pn?”

  “Then we leave it to the dungeon. We need to move,” Robert responded. “We don’t know if the gate will hold against that creature.”

  Bert frowned. “Our people need a moment of rest. Most are injured, and the retreat pushed everyone hard.”

  Robert frowned back. “Then they need to push harder. This is a matter of life and death. Each moment we spend resting is one more that the Kigendoro grows stronger. We need to — Where are you going?!”

  Robert stopped mid-sentence and looked at Boarsyer as the armored goblin turned and walked away.

  Boarsyer paused and turned back around. “To the top of the wall. That’s where the Dungeon Core wants me, and I don’t have time to listen to you two argue.” She again turned away and walked toward a nearby wall. As she approached, the wall slid away to reveal a rge elevator.

  Robert suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist. “I didn’t say you could leave,” he rumbled, low and dangerous.

  Boarsyer narrowed her eyes and ripped herself from his grip with a jerk, causing the man to stumble forward, wide-eyed. Robert might have been half her size — less if you included her armor — but he was still several greater steps stronger than her. Under normal circumstances, Boarsyer should have been to Robert what the rest of them had been to the Kigendoro. Yet Alpha’s augmented armor evened the pying field, if only in raw power.

  The goblin woman smirked at the look on the man’s face before turning back to the elevator.

  Robert’s face reddened, and Boarsyer could almost hear the man’s teeth grinding. Before he could say anything else, however, a rge hand nded on his shoulder and held him in pce.

  Bert looked past Robert and called after Boarsyer. “Let us come along with you, ss. I don’t know what the Dungeon Core has pnned, but it’s safer than going alone.”

  Boarsyer again paused, though she didn’t turn around this time, only tilting her head to one side.

  “Sure, the more, the merrier,” Alpha told her through their comms.

  Boarsyer nodded, waved the two men forward, and continued into the elevator.

  Bert patted Robert’s shoulder, walked past the fuming man, and followed Boarsyer. Robert stood where he was, gring at the rge man’s back for a long moment before he, too, walked forward and entered the elevator.

  Once all three were inside, the door slid closed on its own and smoothly rose. When the doors opened again, the group no longer looked into the cozy entrance area but the sleek ramparts of the dungeon wall directly over the gate. At nearly ten meters wide, the ramparts were spacious enough to hold dozens of people defending the gate. The psma nces continued to fire to either side, while the Kigendoro roared just out of sight.

  With no hesitation, Boarsyer moved toward the wall’s edge.

  It was time to see exactly what Alpha had cooking.