Museum Core Chapter 29: Horde Mode

Thomas had thought the jungle was insane before, but that had mostly been due to the fact that it had held a lot of big and nasty creatures. Lesser dragons, both in the sky and on the ground, magical rodents with hair that could turn razor sharp and be shot like arrows, lizardpeople, and the countless small but still magical critters he’d had his wyverns haul into the museum over the course of the night.

But something had really set the cat among the pigeons, because the jungle had really come alive, flooding the empty space between the trees.

It probably wasn’t a coincidence that this was happening right after an entire convoy had gone trampling through the jungle, though Thomas doubted that any of the people involved had known this would happen.

Even so, he needed to prepare because while he’d built up a solid series of defenses capable of tearing apart powerful singular enemies, but he had a ton of one-shot defenses that wouldn’t properly reset. Big cats leaping down from perches wouldn’t be able to get back up for another go in this situation, the slippery floors would eventually be covered in bodies and while blood might generally make marble slabs slippery, a carpet of guts and dead bodies might actually provide some semi-decent footing.

And it wasn’t like he had a ton of spare time to make a thorough plan.

So, what to fill his Dungeon with?

Snakes were out, they were largely one-hit wonders, far less useful once their venom was expended, he’d already decided why most big cats were less useful in the current situation, and anything that heavily relied on momentum would also be difficult.

Sabertooth tigers had the biggest physical power out of his various cats, and had a degree of mobility he needed, so he grabbed a bunch of those, then, he spawned in several more tyrannosauruses, whose immense jaws would be perfect for crunching down on small invaders, hippos to act as the dino’s bodyguards and protect their legs, a few more Giant Sloths, the F-Rank version with rubber physiology, alongside a few small bears to keep them from being swarmed, and finally, a second Landwyrm behind Cheshire’s room.

And that was the full extent of his command limit. He just hoped it was enough.

The first wave was pretty simple, a small horde of critters that looked like squirrel monkeys with white marbles for eyes that trailed mist.

It should have been easy to kill them, so easy.

But then it turned out that not only was that fog rather corrosive, but the monkeys could control it, hurling bursts of it at the Capuchins Thomas had hurled at them. He’d never gotten rid of any of the horde he’d summoned so he could train up the pattern to F-Rank, he’d just hidden it for the duration of the human delve.

The onrushing horde would have been the perfect opportunity for that, as long as he was careful when picking his monkeys’ fight.

… But he’d have to be a good judge of enemies’ strength to pull it off, which he apparently wasn’t.

Instead, puffs of mist blinded the initial attackers and while those monkeys might survive the initial strike, they’d be out of the fight.

The next wave of Capuchins tore apart the invaders, but that left the blinded monkeys as sitting ducks. Damnit!

In hindsight, it almost made sense that small prey animals would have abilities like that. Being able to blind predators was a pretty strong defensive power, and the threat of blindness might even serve as a terrifying protective reputation.

But what the fuck were small prey animals doing going into the Dungeon?

In fact, why were there so many creatures overall? The situation outside reminded Thomas of those videos of someone walking into a room with a whole bunch of dogs, shaking the kibble bag and promptly getting mobbed.

Except this time, it was his Dungeon that was getting swarmed, though the countless monsters were waiting outside the door, milling around. They weren’t calmly waiting their turn, of course they weren’t, but they weren’t tearing each other to shreds either.

Actually, it reminded him of something else. Watering holes, and how there were so many stories of predators and prey, somehow, drinking without preying on or fighting each other.

First, the smallest critters arrived and cautiously milled around the entrance, darting in whenever they saw an opening.

Later on, bigger creatures, ranging from cat- to pony-sized began to show up, snatching up the occasional critter but they were mostly sunning themselves, lunging in and tearing up targets of opportunity.

And the rest, another Landwyrm, a couple of wyverns, … just waited.

Herbivores calmly munched on leaves while throwing glances towards the entrance while carnivores were chowing down on the bodies of the few monsters that had died before things calmed down. Apex predators were playing dominance games, circling each other while glaring furiously at anything that caught their eye, yet they weren’t fighting, not really.

A situation that should have devolved into a bloodbath was more like … a blood puddle.

“Ok, what the fuck is going on out there?” Thomas asked.

“Monsters like to eat Dungeon Cores, and they’re not scared after getting dumped into a new place, not anymore at least. None of the things out there are at the point where they gain full intelligence, the kind the two of us have, but most of them are still capable of understanding that fighting anything other than Dungeon creatures right now would be a terrible idea.

“And now, the big ones are going to stay back, waiting for the smaller critters to open the way. The weakest are bullied in first, followed by whichever beastie is stupid enough to think it has a chance.

“Then, the apex predators are either going to eat whatever reaches you first, or they’re going to go for the prize.”

“Meaning me,” Thomas said hollowly.

“You’re a Dungeon Core and have the most terrifying unranked creatures I’ve ever seen as basic minions. You’ll be fine,” Elias shrugged. “As long as you’re smart about this, those things out there are already dead, they just don’t know it yet.”

Thomas wasn’t nearly as confident as the fairy, but he hoped his companion was correct.

He’d certainly been right on the money about how the smallest creatures had gone in first.

A constant flood of tiny creatures came through the door, ranging from various lizards that were barely magical to tiny mice that should have gotten shredded in seconds yet were able to unleash outsized powers that, on occasion, were able to destroy even tigers.

Five minutes in, half the Capuchins and all three of the entrance hall tigers were dead, and the ground was utterly covered in gore and viscera.

But Thomas had managed to take out most of the leading creatures. He could see a small flood of what was either large rats or gargantuan mice trying to escape, deciding that trying to get into the Dungeon wasn’t worth it, but that was when one of the attacking wyverns dove down in front of the retreating rodents, slamming down like a meteor, crushing several. The rest skittered back and finally fled into the Dungeon.

That … that was illuminating. And an opportunity.

Thomas had kept his own wyverns back, away from the entrance, preferring to save them for a good opportunity, but this was one of those chances he’d been waiting for.

While one of his strongest enemies was grounded, it couldn’t use any of its magic.

His wyvern was actually smaller than the monster it was targetting, but all it needed to do was tear off a wing, any damage it did after that was just a bonus. And if it could get away, well, that would just be utterly perfect.

Blood spattered across the ground as the invading wyvern roared in pain, its left wing in tatters, as Thomas’ creature got ready for another attack.

“Get back,” he snapped at it. The targetted monster still had both wings, but they weren’t both useable.

The other hostile wyvern began to circle around in what appeared to be the preparation for an attack, immediately prompting the injured creature to go diving into the Dungeon.

Aha, now that made a lot more sense, didn’t it? They were all there to prey on the Dungeon, but anything that made itself look weak became a secondary target.

Unfortunately, having a wyvern go tromping around the Dungeon right now was bad, it’d tear through the initial defenses like tissue paper.

The wyvern slowly marched into the Dungeon, driving lesser critters before itself but it didn’t stay put right at the entrance, likely afraid of its fellow chasing it.

There, at the far side of the entrance hall, stood the camarasaurus, tail turned towards the door and whipping back and forth, every strike sending crippled or dead invaders flying while three hippos and a couple of sabertooth tigers darted around its feet, biting or kicking anything that got past.

In the meantime, he sent the few remaining Capuchins after anything that got hit by the dinosaur and survived.

But the wyvern was in range all too soon. The dinosaur’s tail cracked across its face with a sound that made Thomas wince, a simple twist of the head followed by a chomp ripped off half of the offending appendage.

Oof.

A hippo tried to chomp down on the wyvern’s leg but received a deadly kick to the face … and then, the wyvern was sent flying when Cheshire tackled it, claws wreathed in energy punching through scales like kitchen knives through cardboard. The sabertooth tigers ripped them to the side as she backed away, laying open the giant reptile’s side.

And before anything could try to go after the new arrival, the big cat was already bounding away into her room.

After all, Thomas had designed that room to play to her strengths, having her die anywhere else would be a titanic waste.

That being said, however, he’d needed something that could quickly take apart the wyvern.

While the remainder of the entrance hall defenders were overwhelmed, the first of what Thomas considered to be the mid-tier predators came in. An entire herd of jungle cats barely smaller than cheetahs ran in and … jumped?

They tumbled through the air in a nauseating manner until they suddenly flew straight towards the ceiling after that tumble had stabilized. What … did they just fall in whatever direction their paws were pointing?

So now, he had a whole bunch of monsters running along the ceiling, casually evading most of his defenses.

In moments, they were in the corridor leading towards the dino section, seemingly getting way clean … until one of the giant sloths in there lashed out with an arm that elongated unnaturally, long claws impaling one cat and knocking a second off the ceiling with the first’s body.

As impressive as their power was, one needed solid control over one’s body and positioning to use it properly. Getting knocked around made a right mess of both of those.

The next cat took a nosedive off the ceiling as it entered the dino section.

Thomas had positioned a few Boomslangs in the decorative foliage and they lunged out at the exact right time to attack. Their venom might not kill particularly quickly, but their F-Rank power of bite force comparable to a hippo’s was enough to break bones. And when a highly mobile creature lost use of one of their limbs, that was usually a death sentence.

Two more went down to snakes further down, leaving him with just nine. Too many for comfort.

The tyrannosauruses near the back of the dino section snapped at the cats themselves but only caught a single one.

Eight left, now going past Cheshire, bypassing her room’s main defense with ease, but they’d made a fatal mistake in ignoring the lady of the house.

Her attacks might be far stronger when she wrapped her power around her claws, but her projected attack was nothing to sneeze at either as it cut the invaders down to size.

Four escaped her wrath, shooting past the Landwyrm in the next room. It tried to chomp at the area where the cats would have fallen if they’d detached from the ceiling in very the moment it had caught sight of them, then, when that failed, spat acid way too far ahead of the cats, which just leaped to the side and ran alongside the walls as though they were solid ground.

“Is it just me, or is that thing kinda dumb?” Thomas asked.

“What thing?” Elias responded.

“The Landwyrm.”

“I mean, I didn’t see what you’re referring to, but probably? The one who invaded earlier was a genius for its species.”

Shiiiiiiit.

Had that thing really been an actual monster or a transformed human? They’d tried to warn it off and it had attacked Elias, sure, but still … dumb people didn’t deserve to die just because they weren’t geniuses.

Then again, right now was the last time he could afford to take time to consider the repercussions.

The last four jungle cats shot through the mammal gallery, then reached the mezzanine and evaded the attacks from the bear up there, finally getting into the mammal hall where they, for the very first time, faced creatures that could walk on the ceiling as well.

Thomas had moved all the wolverines into the hall to make more space in the gallery for other creatures, and now, ten wolverines with what basically amounted to gecko feet hurled themselves at the invaders.

They were heavier than the cats and where they collided, they went tumbling off the ceiling as balls of teeth and claws.

And even where the Wolverines tried to actually fight instead of leaping in, they often went tumbling because their ability to cling to the ceiling was vastly inferior to what the cats had. Even with three out of four paws firmly planted on a solid surface, a single claw swipe was enough to dislodge them, but the cats were heavily outnumbered and only a single survivor scampered onwards … finding itself stuck on the ceiling After all, the way forward was a staircase on the floor, and getting to that would involve getting way too close to the monsters on the ground.

It stayed like that for a while, waiting … until one of the wolverines had managed to walk back up onto the ceiling and tackled it. They both pancaked on the ground a split-second later.

And yet, there were so many more creatures out there, and Thomas had neither knowledge of their abilities, nor the option to adapt his defenses to them.