“Really? You’ll really let me do it!?” the Stalker exclaimed in obvious excitement whilst running across the field. She’d been in the middle of informing Eli about the captured mages when the Brutes appeared so it would take a few moments for her to reach me.

Pushing past the fleeing crowd, although it was clear no one had a true escape route in mind as the wooden monsters had seemingly sprung up everywhere in the colosseum, I yelled back “Yes! Get here fast people are dying!”

“You won’t change your mind later? Promise?”

I was forced to dive out of the way as a nurse’s corpse was hurled into the crowd behind me, “YES! Just do it already!”

“WOOHOO! Let’s run wild Master!” Mary cheered as her flat shadow form merged into my own shadow from below.

“N-not too wild right?” I managed to fearfully stutter as my shadow rose up and wrapped around my [Projection] before changing in hue from black to orange instantaneously.

Now completely deaf to my words Mary let loose a “LET’S GOOOOO!” before rushing toward the nearest Brute using my body as a puppet. My [Projection] now under Mary’s direct control I could only passively observe from our shared perspective as we ran, the whole time forced to let my limbs be yanked around without any input from my own mind. No matter how much I trusted the Stalker having another being control your every movement is an incredibly foreign and invasive feeling, especially when they’re a battle starved [Boss] monster looking to cause some mayhem. It was incredibly difficult not to resume control and resist Mary’s guidance, but fortunately we’d practiced this technique on several occasions before venturing outside the dungeon. Operation Eclipse was created in order that Mary could protect me while still keeping her presence a secret. If a situation grew dire enough I wouldn’t hesitate to let her reveal herself but she’s my ultimate trump card at the moment. Should a time come an attack is made on my life having the dungeon’s arguably strongest monster lying in wait would be a huge advantage. An advantage I opted to uphold for the time being.

With athletic movements I’d never known my [Projection] was capable of Mary fell under the nearest Brute’s powerful jab and sprang up into an uppercut. The force behind the blow would’ve ordinarily been completely inconsequential to the armored beast, but with Mary’s shadows fully wrapped around my body the full density of her amorphous body could be infused into every strike.

A mighty crack echoed from my knuckles as the Brute’s faceplate fractured, revealing the husk that had once been a mercenary still lying underneath. Sadly even one of Mary’s blows wouldn’t be enough to stop the living amalgamation of roots unfortunately, as both its hands came forward in a massive clap meant to crush my body. In her usual form such an attack would be utterly useless against Mary, who could simply dive into her shadow or shift her form around to avoid the attack. With my vulnerable [Projection] still inside her however Mary was forced to activate one of our defensive “skills”.

Moving my own jaw up and down involuntarily with her shadows, in a voice mimicking my own Mary yelled out for all to hear, “[Reinforce Core]!”, while hiding her own voice underneath it which whispered “[Bounce]”. The true and false skill activations were the key to Operation Eclipse’s illusion. To all those watching Sol the dungeon core had run headfirst into battle and begun using previously unheard of skills, revealing he could act as a combatant himself if the situation demanded it. In truth Mary is using her combat awareness to guide me around the battlefield, all while using real skills hidden behind our made up ones. Such a trick wouldn’t be possible if not for the fact no one knew what I was capable of. Sure me and my monsters know I can’t fight or use skills outside the dungeon but the general public doesn’t have those same preconceptions.

“[Create Creature: Bouncing Billy]!” Mary yelled in my voice, thrusting a hand forward with dramatic flair. From my outreached hand the familiar form of a Bouncing Billy flew out. Unlike the typical hairy and brown mountain goats this one was completely orange in color as it rammed into the Brute at a high speed, managing to tip it over.

Not one known for letting up Mary next called out “[Create Creature: Storm Spider]!” resulting in the appearance of a 2 inch orange spider on my arm. In moments the small spider’s form released enough thread to entrap the wooden monster to the ground.

Both these “skills” were how I chose to represent the pseudo Dungeon Core class to the public. Not knowing anything about a sentient core’s management skills left them clueless as to what I was capable of. Operation Eclipse was originally devised as a way for Mary to defend me without revealing her presence, and it does so quite well thanks to a Stalker’s skill set, but Mary can’t exactly fight with her usual techniques while puppeteering my body. At the time this meant we needed to devise a method for Mary to still practically use her skills all while pretending to be a dungeon core. Fortunately her ability to copy skills of both humans and monsters made Mary the perfect fit for the job. All we needed to do was rename her most commonly used skills to those that sounded “dungeon core like”. For example the common defensive skill [Bounce] was renamed to [Reinforce Core] and the enhancement skill [Decay] was replaced with [Malicious Absorption]. Any skills we hadn’t thought to rename Mary would simply replace with [Create Creature] followed by the creature whose skill she was copying. Mary would then use one of her clones, turned orange and shifted to mimic the desired creature, with which to carry out the technique. It had taken some time for her to nail the new form down, most of it spent unlearning the habit of yelling out skill names with her own voice. Skills in this world still require a vocal component to activate but the volume of one’s voice, or in Mary’s case voice spoken in, are irrelevant. I hope one day she can incorporate this double speak skill somewhere else in her move set. Combatants are used to their opponents yelling out their next moves after all, if she could somehow mislead her targets she could become even more dangerous.

“GRAAAAWWWG!” one of the other Brutes screamed as it leapt into the air with both arms raised over its head, aiming to slam both down onto my exposed head.

“[Reshape Core].” Mary responded as she formed a pair of wings on my back that took us out of the Brute’s range with a single beat. The enraged Brute made to lunge again but Noire, who was fighting nearby, severed the monstrosity in half at the waist with a crack of her whips of liquid poison.

Beating our wings a second time Mary flew directly above the largest cluster of Brutes, around 12, and rocketed down to save a young woman in one of their clutches. Summoning the shape of an Anomalous Anaconda around the monster’s arm, snapping it with a single brutal constriction, Mary released the woman from its grip and caught her. Still holding the woman Mary excitedly cast [Shade] under the false name [Claim Territory]. The ground underneath the 12 Brutes under her control Mary cast [Sprouting Spears] as [Create Creature: Honed Hawk], causing dozens of wing shaped blades to shoot up from the stands around us.

Allowing me a moment to hold back my nausea Mary turned to the woman and whispered in my own voice “Are you unharmed milady?”

“I do not sound like that!” I reprimanded, cringing at the phrase despite the circumstances.

“Hehehe...” my own creation mockingly laughed as the fearful woman only clung to Mary’s back in fear.

“Get me out of here! Please!”

Nodding in an effort to seem cool Mary answered with false bravado “Worry not ma’am, I shall see to it not a single hair on your head is damaged.”

“Stop it!” I silently screamed in protest as Mary stomped her right foot down, summoning an Inflatable Hippo to act as her shield and thrusting a right hand forward to send a school of Torpedo Fish flying towards an oncoming Brute in a practiced motion.

Setting the woman down for a brief moment Mary used [Manifest Aspect: Elemental Elk] and grew a pair of antlers out of my forehead. The small antlers audibly hummed as a pair of orange [Shadow Bolts] were released upon a Brute fixing to tear into a man’s neck with its fangs. Its meal interrupted the Brute cried out in rage, charging up the colosseum steps towards us. Manifesting another aspect of my creatures Mary shifted my arm into that of a Serrated Hawk’s blade and met the creature head on for a contest of strength.

“Are you done having fun!?” I cried in terror as I was forced to stare at the creature’s bloodied fangs and haunting yellow eyes up close, suddenly thankful I’d always watched battles from afar.

Enjoying both the battle and my fear equally Mary laughed “I suppose we don’t really have time for this do we?” before hopping back from the exchange just in time for Noire’s whip to split the wooden beast vertically in two.

Placing our back against Noire’s as panicked members of the crowd raced towards us as beacon’s of protection I could only hope the others were faring well.