Emboldened by their [Commander’s] show of power the Unnamed Dungeon’s forces pushed on more determined than ever. Mary herself fell back to recover from her light skill strain. The battle had been a short one but using [Dodecagon] to maintain 12 clones each using their own skills really took it out of her. Normally the strain would be spread amongst the clones but after 6 fell to the centipede’s [Flamethrower] Mary prime took the brunt of it.

Loosing 6 clones worth of shadows wasn’t great either. Other than using her malleable body to dodge attacks Mary relied heavily on her stored shadows for skills. By sacrificing them she could recharge mana, absorb damage, or increase her density for extra damage; even creating a zone under her own influence was possible with enough shadows. The drawback of such versatility being shadows must be harvested from her environment. Mary couldn’t create them herself and without them her strength only amounted to that of a standard human woman. As she usually specialized in sneak attacks Mary had never had to worry much about her power supply. This drawn out war had taught the [Named] many of her own limitations and she was already planning ways to circumvent them in the future.

Megun seemed to have noticed Mary’s limitations and wasted no time drawing Mary into her next battle. Several Mortar Monkeys had been modified to fire an organic material different from the usual cannonballs. Instead they could release incredibly lustrous shrapnel meant to imbed within a target’s body and reflect light. At first Mary was confused as to why they’d be aiming for her with such a strange and not particularly effective weapon. And then she saw her opponent.

Originating not from the Dungeon of Fireworks but the Dungeon of Fairies the Oberon [Commander] was apparently on loan. As such Megun’s control over the monster was limited to blocking friendly fire and it needed to be controlled by other means. Mainly by using its own nature against it. Like all Oberons the [Commander] was obsessed with the concepts of nobility and wealth. So much so that anything shiny, expensive, or pretty would become a target of insatiable desire and anything living in possession of that desire would be attacked without mercy. Thus was why Megun ordered Mary to be covered in golden shrapnel.

So skinny and pale it could pass for a corpse the green haired Oberon unhunched would be over 10 feet tall. Seeing that massive height was a rarity though as it usually ran on all fours, occasionally beating its large blue butterfly wings to gain speed or glide. Atop its long oily hairs and pointy ears sat a crown of pure gold tilted to cover a crazed left eye. Tongue lagging behind as it jumped from pile to pile of glittering shrapnel the gold covered [Commander] was twitching in excitement as it ran toward the unnerved Mary.

Lunging once it had closed the distance the Oberon wept with both hands outstretched “GIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVV!”

Sidestepping to the right Mary shifted her right arm into a sword and swung downwards to decapitate the Oberon. But just as her blade was about to make contact the Oberon’s crown pulsed with yellow light and a barrier of light a few inches thick appeared in the air to block her strike. As she flinched from the recoil the Oberon flipped midair, summoned another barrier under its feet, and used it to leap towards Mary again.

‘Light magic! Shit!’ Mary internally screamed before morphing her entire left side into a tower shield to absorb the blow. If the Oberon was proficient enough it could neutralize any of her dark magic skills with ease. Mary could theoretically do the same but hadn’t had a good partner to practice the technique with.

From the other side of her shield the Oberon clawed, scratched, and chewed as it tried to clamber over to Mary. It wasn’t until she released a small number of [Sprouting Spears] on the shield’s face that the Oberon was repelled.

Realizing the danger the [Commander] posed to her troops Mary decided to kite him away from the frontlines and into the claustrophobic forest. Amidst the trees entombed in white ash she should be able to reduce the Oberon’s maneuverability.

Trailing behind her the Oberon let out a wild sob as its crown pulsed once again. From the gemstones imbedded in the gold 4 orbs of glowing light emerged and began homing in on Mary. Soon as they caught up to her each orb began firing beams of light magic at irregular intervals. She could dodge the attacks with relative ease but keeping her eyes on all 4 along with their owner amidst the forest would be a challenge.

Sliding behind a particularly large tree Mary activated [Dodecagon] and scattered her clones around the forest. Each appeared covered in the same glitter like shrapnel as Mary and the Oberon visible drooled in excitement as it dove for the nearest clone. Soon the forest was a stage for the orbs magic beams and 12 everchanging Stalker’s flashy dodges.

Pulling herself into the canopy with her hookshot Mary perched on a branch and overlooked the situation ‘How do I get in close? In terms of speed he had the advantage and my attacks won’t hit for shit. Use it now? No that’s my trump card for the last [Commander]. Besides I’d be out for a few hours and everyone would be left vulnerable. Time to play dirty.’

Using [Trace], a skill she’d picked up from a hunter, a trails of illuminated footsteps guided Mary through the forest after the Oberon. Currently it was dueling Mary #7 but she wouldn’t hold out much longer without backup. Sadly the clones were never as proficient as Mary prime at swapping weapons, opting instead to stick to just one or two. Making them easy picking for the greedy [Commander].

Taking manual control over Mary prime sent the nearby #4 and #11 to test how the Oberon handled multiple opponents. #4 activated [Vital Strike] + [True Strike] and aimed her twin dagger towards the Oberon’s neck and the bottom of his spine. Meanwhile #11 shot an arrow with [Shadow Anchor] to assist.

Keeping its eyes on #7 the Oberon lifted an arm and summoned a barrier of light to block the oncoming [Shadow Anchor] as its crown flashed yellow. Tucking in his large frame the Oberon wrapped itself within his wings before his crown flashed a light silver. As the light faded Mary realized the Oberon had somehow changed his wings into pure metal. Unfortunately Mary #4’s daggers could do little more than scratch the hardened appendages.

‘Metal magic too? This guy’s annoying...’

Having shaken off his disruptors the Oberon caught up to Mary #7, and after coating his arm in golden light, thrust his hand through the clone’s chest. Exploding into rage as the clone dissipated into shadows the Oberon began gliding from platform to platform in mad pursuit of #4 and #11.

As both clones produced hookshots and made for the relative safety of the canopy the fairy king let out an enraged sob before his crown flashed bright silver. The Oberon put both hands out to the side before gripping them tightly in the air. After grasping onto the material he threw both arms forward and 2 massive tendrils of silver erupted from the surroundings into the clones. One had come from an underground deposit of metal while the other had seemingly come from within a tree.

‘Megun laid those here for him. She predicted I’d lead him away from the frontlines?’

Crying on his knees as he grasped at the vanishing glitter flakes the Oberon began screaming into the heavens. To a creature who knew only greed the loss of his desire was tantamount to death. It was such a strange scene Mary lost herself momentarily and forgot her goal was to kill the sorry soul.

‘First step is to block him off from anymore of those traps. Then I need deal some damage before he can recover. [Vital Strike] would be good as it can’t be neutralized but getting through those wings will be tough. May need to use the big one...’

Calling the remaining 8 clones to converge on the Oberon’s location Mary prepared one of her higher level magic skills. Higher tier magics couldn’t be cast immediately but by relying on the clones Mary wouldn’t need to worry about being attacked.

“[Shade]...” Mary breathed out as the entire section of the forest around both her and the Oberon were wrapped in shadows. The ashy ground below, the tree limbs above, and even the leaves falling to the ground. All were engulfed in darkness.

The [Shade] skill itself did not deal damage. Nor did it create any status effects on its target. [Shade] is only an area skill that provides beneficial terrain for the caster. And for a monster capable of swimming within and manipulating shadows [Shade] is a wonderful tool.

Once the world around them turned to darkness every remaining Mary fell into the inky black forest beneath the still crying Oberon. Two minutes of suspenseful silence later 4 Mary’s leapt out of surroundings with weapons drawn. 2 fell from the canopy, 1 came from behind, and the last from the side of a tree. At the apex of their swings of lances, axes, and greatswords the crown flashed once again and the barriers of solid light appeared. Without ceasing those 4 fell into [Shade] and were replaced by another 4 who charged with their own weapons. It was Mary’s goal to make the Oberon resummons the barriers for long enough he either exhausted his mana or made a mistake. Soon as either occurred she would take over for the clones.

Her chance came sooner than expected when the [Commander] missed a kick off his own barrier and slipped towards the ground. He quickly got to work creating a new barrier but not before Mary prime burst from within the [Shade] and activated [Ghost Blade] on her double handed labrys. It was a technique she’d stolen from the bird and with it she managed to pass through the incomplete barrier and completely sever his right wing and a large chunk of the left. Leaving him stuck on the ground and exposed.

Seizing the opening before the Oberon could even scream in pain Mary #5 landed a [Vital Strike] with her pair of rapiers, followed by an [Uppercut] from Mary #7 and a [Snipe] from Mary #9. Each blow changed the direction in which the Oberon fell. With the recoil from Mary prime’s attack the Oberon couldn’t focus enough to cast new barriers.

“Ssss... cre... cree... SCCCREEEEEEEEE!” The Oberon bellowed as its entire body flashed with yellow light magic so strong the air audibly began to crackle.

The Oberon was likely dying from his injuries but had decided to take his attacker down with him. By releasing his entire treasury of mana into his surroundings and imploding. And as his mana would come out as light magic...

Under the intense glow of the light magic the clones began dissipating one by one. Not a few seconds after the last attack began Mary prime was the only one left standing and was taking heavy damage just by being in proximity to the Oberon.

Deciding she’d need to use it after all Mary screamed as the air cracked “DAMNIT! [BLACK HOLE]!” as she reabsorbed the [Shade] and put it all into her most expensive and powerful magic attack.

Directly in front of the Oberon a pitch black sphere of dark magic not too different in size from her master’s core appeared and began sucking in all nearby mana. Living beings wouldn’t be affected by [Black Hole] but all mana other than dark would be absorbed into the sphere and destroyed. It had limits as skills above a certain threshold couldn’t be absorbed but the Oberon’s mana was more than within its capacity.

All the light magic from the fairy was pulled into the small sphere and the Oberon was left on his knees, staring in disbelief and sadness as he died. The section of forest that had been a cacophony of magic cracks and zaps moments earlier had gone completely silent other than small gusts of suction as the [Black Hole] collapsed into itself and dissipated.

Worn out from her 2nd victory Mary didn’t bother trash talking and began immediately reabsorbing shadows from the forest of ash. Launching that chain attack with [Shade] active for several minutes had tired her out. The Oberon may have been insane but he was one hell of a fighter.

Dreading the arrival of the final [Commander] Mary fell under the roots of a large tree and entered a meditative trance. The troops knew to defend her and warn when the final opponent appeared. For now she needed a nap...

---

A Peryton burst from the battlefield to where Mary was sleeping and began beating his wings at her face to wake her. It had been a little under an hour since the Oberon [Commander] fell and her final opponent had been spotted.

Nuzzling the caribou’s wet nose Mary groaned “I’m up, I’m up.”

After her short nap Mary was back to 60% of her mana supply and about 80% of her shadow capacity was full. Most of the skill strain had left her system but it was still on the level of migraine or bad hangover. Definitely not at her best but considering she’d just fought two tough opponents back to back she couldn’t complain. Now that she didn’t need to save energy for another fight she could use her storage to the maximum limit without worry.

“There he is. Ivan the Immortal.” Mary whispered as she rode the Peryton across the battlefield.

Standing over 3 stories tall, with deep crimson fur with interspaced black patches on the chest, back, and legs, and a pair of massive organic metal arms ready to rain projectiles down on her the massive Mortar Monkey certainly looked like the last defender of a decades old dungeon. It wasn’t approaching the frontlines personally but had rather joined the other ranged attackers and had trained his rapid fire arms on the Unnamed Dungeon’s forces. Most of the projectiles could be blocked by the Vacuum Hippos or shot down by the Elemental Elk but many shells still managed to land true.

Despite the link being very distorted Mary heard her Master mutter “...Gatling Guns...?”

Patting the Peryton she was riding Mary asked “Could you manage a double burst? One to get me up there and a second to run. I’ll do my best to make it quick and then leave the stragglers up to you guys.”

Huffing with annoyance and understanding the blue and green Peryton fluttered his wings before breaking out in a run towards the enemy backline. He’d be left immobile and killed if this double burst failed but if this ended the battle it wouldn’t matter. To the dungeon monsters the idea of Mary losing after her earlier displays of force was impossible.

Readying to tap into her shadow storage as soon as she reached the [Commander] Mary let out a deep breath before giving the focused order “Go.”

“BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!” went the Peryton’s wings as it landed on the other side of the battlefield and immediately bucked the prepared Mary into the air before discharging another successful sonic boom in retreat.

Wind flowing through her red hair Mary ripped shadows out of her storage and increased the size of her body to match that of her opponent. Usually high density strikes in a small body would be better but hopefully her giant form would surprise the monkey and Megun.

As gravity took hold and the ape turned his massive arms towards Mary she sharpened her claws with [Lacerate] and left 5 massive gashes across the [Commander’s] chest. The attack seemed effective as the ape howled loudly before throwing a strong right hook at the Stalker. Raising her left arm to block the strike Mary went for another [Lacerate] but was knocked onto the ground when Ivan kicked her in the knee making her legs buckle. Whipping his massive left arm into Mary’s side Ivan sent her flying into the nearby dungeon wall and opened fire with his rapid fire right arm. Most of the shells damage could be minimized by filling her injuries with stored shadows but in an effort to dodge the fire more effectively Mary shrunk back down to her usual size. Those 5 massive gashes were worth it at leas-

As the ash settled back onto the ground around her Mary was shocked to see the [Commander’s] injuries all but healed! The ape was grinning down at her from across the field as the same ash she’d been fighting on rose from the ground and flew into his injuries.

Chiming in with an overjoyed tone Megun laughed “Sorry about that Mary! Were you not expecting Ivan the Immortal to heal or something? [Soot Stitch] is a bitch of a skill anyway but here in the Valley of Ash you can’t win!”

Saddened as the result of her efforts was healed Mary stood and began weaving in and out and around Ivan’s renewed barrage. The ape would run out of shells eventually but just how much ammunition he had was likely many times higher than a typical Mortar Monkey’s. [Black Hole] would’ve been the perfect skill to use against the barrage as a shield but unfortunately the shells were organic in nature. Further down the path of dark magic a version of [Black Hole] that worked on physical objects existed but Mary was far from achieving it.

‘I need to get closer first!’ Mary thought as she lowered her stance and ran towards the ape.

Hoping to ease the rate of fire even for just a moment Mary transformed into a perfect copy of Megun Yui she’d seen in a portrait. In all likelihood Megun was a few years older and different in appearance nowadays but to the ape the panic of potentially firing on his only master wouldn’t let him think about it too hard.

So while disguised as a 15 year old girl in an orange sun skirt Mary got directly underneath Ivan before activating [Shade] centralized on his location. Soon as she did so the ape got over his confusion and stomped his foot down towards the Stalker.

Dismissing her disguise as she jumped towards the ape’s face Mary aimed her lance towards his left eye. With an awful feeling creeping up Mary’s skin as it touched the inside of Ivan’s socket she was thrown off when Ivan threw his head back and let out a roar that echoed across the floor. And a decidedly different awful feeling appeared in her stomach when Mary landed and saw Ivan’s eye had almost completely healed already. It seemed the ash could still be absorbed through the effect of [Shade]. So much effort for nothing...

“Just surrender! In terrain like this Ivan can recover from any injury.”

Coinciding with his master’s taunting Ivan leapt from his position and with both hands clasped together bashed Mary down into the remaining [Shade]. Some of the damage was mitigated given she could freely morph into the substance but the force of the blow still required her to reshape most of her head.

“She’s not dead yet Ivan keep an eye out!”

Rising out of the [Shade] a ways away from Ivan slowly Mary cracked her knew neck and replied, “I’m not quitting just yet.”

Letting loose her pent up rage Megun screamed “You have no chance little shadow! Ivan can hit you unlike the others, is 5 times your size, and can heal any damage you deal! Against him you are nothing!”

“Who?”

“And that guy will be back one day. As the defender of the core room it would fall to me to defeat that monster if he ever made it past the others. So I have to be the strongest in the dungeon.”

“What are you even talking about?”

“But he did give me some advice after our first fight. So I hope you don’t mind if I use it.”

---

“Shadow girl.” Everest rumbled as he put down the drink the Master had given him next to his rocking chair.

“Yes?” Mary said with her elbows resting on the back of her master’s chair.

“Your fighting style, how would you define it? I have some notes after our little bout.”

“I copy the skills of people I’ve seen and switch between them to throw off my enemies. Adaptivity and unpredictability are my strong suits.”

Nodding with a hand on his chin Everest then said “Not bad, but you could go further. If you want to beat me one day think about the true nature of your abilities. You are on the right track but stop thinking so narrowly. Define what you can do in the simplest terms possible and then expand upon them.”

“True nature? What does that mean?”

Laughing joyously Everest said “What would be the point if I told you? I’ll leave that to you.”

A short while after Everest had left Mary asked her Master “Do you know what he meant Master? About the true nature of my abilities and all that.”

Not a combatant he only gave a small shrug in his new [Projection] “Maybe. Have you been able to answer his question differently?”

Shaking her head she sighed “No. I copy abilities that’s really it.”

“Half right. Your power is that of mimicry. How about I rephrase it. Mary who are you?”

“Do you mean my [Name]?”

“No.”

“Then... a Stalker?”

“More basic than that.”

“A monster?”

“Not just any monster. The very first monster of the dungeon and the one who’s seen everything be built within it.”

Flicking him on the back of the head Mary said, “Just tell me the point you’re trying to make.”

Rubbing the spot as he looked her in the eyes he answered “You’re a monster not an adventurer. So fight like one.”

---

Pumping all of her remaining storage out Mary felt the skill strain return with a vengeance as she manifested new body parts.

Sprouting from her back came two black wings. Similar to the feathery Peryton’s speed focused build these wings could activate large bursts of speed with a single beat. From her tailbone sprouted 4 long streaming tails from a certain bird tipped with dark scythes stolen from the Coal Cats. Her legs became jointed with springs from the Bouncing Billie’s above newly hooved feet. From her forehead sprouted a pair of long vertical antlers like those of the Kirin but possessing the powers of the dark magic Elemental Elk. Finally her clawed arms sharpened to match that of a Honed Hawks wings.

“What are you doing?” asked Megun curiously as she watched Mary morph her body into a strange chimera of several different dungeon monsters.

Needing deep focus to keep so many complex augmentations stable Mary didn’t respond. In challenge Ivan began barreling towards her on both arms, bursting with them as they tapped the ground to accelerate. It wasn’t until the [Commander] was right on top of her Mary moved.

Beating her black wings a single time Mary launched in between the apes legs, transferred the momentum into her hooved foot and shot herself into the commanders back. Raking her scythe tails and black claws against the monster’s back Mary dealt even more damage than [Lacerate] had done previously without using any skills.

Howling wildly Ivan attempted to spin and bash his arm into Mary again to get her away. Instead Mary wrapped her 4 scythe tails around the ape’s swinging arm, held it steady with her strength reinforced by the shadows, and using her claws sliced cleanly through the metal arm completely. Not letting up she fired twin beams of darkness from her horns into the ape’s eyes liquifying them, kicked off his chest with another boom of her wings leaving a hoof shaped imprint over his freshly cracked ribs, and finally flew herself down into the [Shade] with her wings.

“Heal Ivan you idiot!”

The [Commander] began kicking up the ash around its feet to generate material to patch itself with [Soot Stitch] as ordered. The amount of damage was intense but nothing he couldn’t heal given enough time and material. On most terrain types the skill would gain material with the ash from his own cannon blasts but here in the Valley of Ash he should have been truly immortal.

“I won’t let you.” Mary half whispered in concentration as she emerged from the [Shade] in front of Ivan.

Now seemingly a little afraid of the Stalker Ivan stumbled backwards to try and make some distance between himself and the small Stalker.

“[Dark Haze] + [Mana Anchor]” Mary said in the same calm, almost detached, tone.

Spewing from her horns first came dark clouds of sense depriving smoke that were quickly pulled towards the [Mana Anchor] Mary had placed at Ivan’s feet. Soon the ape was spinning around wildly trying to find Mary amidst the darkness with his ears as his eyes were still healing. But no footsteps, wingbeats, or words could be heard amidst the darkness. Even her smell had disappeared.

Standing outside Ivan’s small prison Mary cut off the flow of [Dark Haze] and readied [Dark Bolt] as she cracked her Peryton wings and passed through the darkness almost instantly. As she passed Mary used [Lacerate] with her claws and severed the stump of Ivan’s currently healing arm. Using her spring like legs to maintain momentum Mary jumped into the mist again, this time taking Ivan’s right leg while maintaining a steady stream of [Dark Bolts] from her horns.

It was only on the 23rd pass Mary dismissed the haze and the bloody pulp of Ivan the Immortal was revealed to the speechless Megun. He’d pushed [Soot Stitch] to the limit but Mary’s [Chimera Mode] as she’d dubbed it had a much higher damage output than he could counteract.

Not even stopping to watch the corpse dissolve Mary flew across the floor towards the core room silently. Upon reaching the large red door she kicked it open with her reinforced legs and walked straight towards the cowering form of Megun Yui, ignoring the sparking core beside her.

Older than her portrait Megun had let her hair grow down to her waist and overall had a more mature face. Before the Stalker though the young noble woman appeared little more than a sniffling child.

Megun fell on her back, crawling backwards with her arms in fear of Mary who simply let her horns hum with mana “Surrender or die.”

“YOU’RE A DEMON!” she screamed, fear swirling in her green eyes.

“No, I’m a monster.” Mary replied before using 2 of her tails to take Megun’s left leg and right eye with a thought.

“AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!! I SURRENDER! PLEASE STOP!” she wept in pain as blood began to pool around her lost leg.

*THE “UNNAMED DUNGEON” HAS WON THE DUNGEON WAR AGAINST THE “DUNGEON OF FIREWORKS” AND THE “DUNGEON OF FAIRIES”

*AS PER THE AGREED UPON TERMS BY THE AGGRESSORS ALL CORES OF THE LOSING SIDE WILL BE ACQUIRED BY THE WINNERS.

*SPECIAL DUNGEON WAR EFFECTS SUCH AS CREATURE CORE LIMITS WILL BE RENDERED INNATE IN 2 WEEKS TIME: 336:00