[Select your mode for the Round Two: Dungeon Manifestation, Avatar, or Core (Unavailable - protected by Avatar)]

Dungeon Manifestation had worked well; Serenity decided to see if he could try out some other options. He hoped something would change; if they could both just keep doing the same thing over and over, all it had to do was not surrender. Surely that wouldn’t be allowed?

Dungeon Manifestation

[Phase 3 Combat: Avatar (Corn Maze) vs Dungeon Manifestation (Serenity)]

[Serenity:

A Rest from Death -

No monsters (item creation only): Unavailable (Out of Range)

Ancient Temple (Link) -

Nightmare Wraith: Unavailable (Out of Range)

Blue Line Enigma -

Runes: 0 available

Wisps: 1 available

Aki’s Dragons’ Lair (Ally) -

No monsters designated for Ally Dungeon Combat

Serenity Settlement Gardens -

Assorted mundane plants (+)

Chickens: 6 available

Goats: 6 available]

[Select which Dungeon to Manifest]

Serenity wasn’t going to be able to do much experimenting with runes, but it had definitely been worth trying; he’d learned that “dungeon manifestations” didn’t respawn. That made a lot of sense; it would prevent the scenario he’d worried about when the same options appeared.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know what the avatar would be. Perhaps another minotaur, since it had minitaurs for its boss? There wasn’t any way to know.

Whatever it was, chickens and goats seemed like a poor choice; he also didn’t want to strip Serenity Settlement of its food. He didn’t know if that would happen, but the fact that things didn’t respawn made it seem likely.

The wisp was more likely to be useful anyway.

Blue Line Enigma

[Lower Tier dungeon is Tier 1. Terrain modification not permitted for Tier 1 combat. Open Field terrain selected]

[Commencing Phase 3 combat]

An identical field appeared before Serenity and the green dungeon core. On his side there was only a single wisp; on the other side was something that looked like a giant snake with bat wings and a pair of black-furred arms with three long, sharp claws each. Its head was shaped like a viper, but the mouth was filled with fangs. It “stood” on its tail, several feet of “body” held more or less vertically, more like a naga than a true serpent.

Serenity didn’t see any good way for his wisp to counter that, unless it had no magic at all. Since the minotaurs had contained enough magic in their bodies to destroy the wisp on contact, that seemed unlikely.

It didn’t hurt to try. Serenity sent the wisp at the serpent-monster. It would try to shock the monster and he’d see what happened.

It was over quickly. The wisp did manage to shock the serpent twice; each time it left a small burnt patch. After the second time, the serpent’s slash in response hit the wisp and it dissolved in a shower of sparks.

[Phase 3 Combat complete. Results:

Corn Maze: Avatar: Mild Damage

Serenity: No remaining wisps]

[Do you surrender?]

No.

[Surrender rejected]

[Phase 4 initiated: Round Three]

[Select your mode for the Round Three: Dungeon Manifestation, Avatar, or Core (Unavailable - protected by Avatar)]

It was interesting that it still gave him all of the options. Serenity suspected that he’d find that he could only choose a different dungeon, and there didn’t seem to be any reason to do that. It pointed to an even larger advantage to controlling more dungeons than he’d first assumed.

There was only one choice, really.

Avatar

[Phase 4 Combat: Avatar (Corn Maze) vs Avatar (Serenity)]

[Lower Tier dungeon is Tier 1. Terrain modification not permitted for Tier 1 combat. Open Field terrain selected]

[Commencing Phase 4 combat]

Serenity’s viewpoint shrunk and he found himself standing on a field, facing the serpent-monster. He reached for his Quick Belt and pulled out his axe.

This was going to be fun.

Serenity stood and watched the winged serpent as he approached. There was plenty of time; what was it?

Father of Monsters

The avatar of the Corn Maze is a vastly weakened image of the Father of Monsters, Typhon.

Typhon, hm? That sounded Greek, which would make some sense with the other monsters in the maze. The maze of the Minotaur in legend wasn’t a corn maze, but it was a maze resident. The ramcorder was a bit of a stretch, but it was another manlike beast.

Serenity didn’t remember much about the Greek “Father of Monsters”, but Typhon sounded entirely too much like typhoon for his comfort. The battlefield was land without a body of water, but water, wind, or weather control could still be nasty. If it even had that ability; the body Serenity could see might well be all it had at Tier One. A strong physical attack was a very good choice at low Tier; magic came into its own at higher Tiers or when the mage could prepare.

As he thought about magic, Serenity felt for his Quickness enchantment, only to realize that he’d used it against the minitaurs and not replaced it. He wasn’t certain if it would have been available on the avatar anyway, but he made a mental note to replace his infused spells before confronting a dungeon core in the future.

The Corn Maze’s avatar was finally in range; at anything farther than about thirty feet, the axe took too long to return when he called it back. Throwing it accurately and with power that far was difficult, but it was a task he’d long since mastered.

Serenity threw the axe, aiming for the serpent’s midsection. This was only a probing attack, to see what the serpent would do.

The serpent dove out of the way of the axe and halted, staring at it.

That wasn’t a normal monster reaction. It was far more like the reaction of someone who’d never been in a fight.

Well, the dungeon core hadn’t ever been in a fight, had it?

Maybe there was still a way out of this. Serenity called his axe back to him; the serpent’s eyes followed the axe. Once the serpent’s gaze was fixed on him again, he tried. “We don’t have to fight. We can still reach a deal. All you have to do is agree to let us go.”

“WEAK!” The winged serpent charged towards Serenity once more. As nice as it would have been to come to an agreement, Serenity wasn’t surprised.

Serenity waited until the serpent was moving too quickly to easily get out of the way, then ran to the side and threw the axe at the base of the monster’s skull.

The monster tried to turn, but failed. It threw up its arm to stop the axe; instead of striking its vulnerable spine, the axe ripped through the serpent’s left arm. It didn’t cut all the way through the arm, but Serenity could hear the crack as the serpent’s arm broke. Not an instant kill, but it meant he’d taken out one of his opponent’s weapons. A good start.

Serenity didn’t call the axe back to himself immediately. He’d noticed something odd during that attack; the serpent had tried to change direction, but wasn’t able to. He wanted to see if he could get that to happen again, so he backed off a little ways towards the side. Once the snake seemed committed to his charge but well before it was at all close, Serenity jogged sharply to his right, towards the center of the battle arena.

The serpent’s charge took it past where Serenity had stood before it was able to notably change its direction.

That would be useful if he needed to knock it off the fighting space or something, but there was no reason to try that. No reason other than testing the rules of dungeon combat, at least.

No, that was a terrible idea. What if he slipped himself? He didn’t want to learn the hard way and, unlike the dungeon core, he didn’t have another body.

Serenity called the axe back to himself. Perhaps he could tire the creature out? It was using up a lot more energy charging him than he was using to dodge.

So Serenity tried that. For five minutes, he led the dungeon core on a merry chase, letting it get just close enough to think it might have a chance but never close enough to actually harm him. It was a beautiful example of what the lack of a ranged attack could mean.

He felt like Roadrunner being chased by a less-than-wiley coyote.

Serenity had lost count of how many times he’d dodged the dungeon core. It’d started to slow on the past few charges and Serenity was debating moving onto the next phase when it seemed to become fed up with the game, extended its wings, and flapped.

The wings looked far too small to carry it, but it rose into the sky anyway.

While it was concentrating on flying, Serenity threw his axe directly at its midsection. If it was distracted enough, he could get a good wound on it; he wouldn’t be able to kill it with a single hit since it was probably not a vital spot, but damaging its muscles would help.

The serpent didn’t even notice the axe until it hit. It screamed wordlessly in pain, then dove for Serenity. He ran to the side, but unlike being on the ground, the serpent could dodge in the air. Its tail thwacked into Serenity’s back and sent him flying.

Serenity rolled to his feet.

Nothing worse than bruises.

It dove at him again, but this time Serenity ran towards it, trying to get under it before it was low enough to hit him. It was a trick that would only work a few times, but he needed the moment’s reprieve to call his axe back.

More importantly, it would force the serpent to get in position for Serenity’s next attack.

The serpent dove at him again, coming in lower so that he couldn’t run under it again. Serenity grinned and threw the axe at its face, forcing it to make a choice.

The serpent blocked the axe with its already-broken arm and screamed, distracted for a crucial moment.

Serenity leapt into the sky, using his wings as much as he could. They didn’t help much, but even a little would help. He caught the serpent’s tail with his claws and dug in.

He’d done better than he’d expected; he’d caught it about halfway down, only slightly below where the tail had met the ground while it was charging.

They sank lower and lower in the sky with each moment; Serenity knew he would soon be able to stand. The serpent tried to shake him off its tail, but each time it did, it lost more altitude without any result. It couldn’t reach him without leaning far forward, but eventually it gave up on flight in favor of tearing him off itself.

The serpent’s right claw slashed down at Serenity; with his feet already on the ground, he shifted a little to the side and it grazed his armor instead of stabbing into his shoulder. Unlike the Traa’s beasts, it didn’t shred through the armor; while it did penetrate, the armor would have prevented any serious damage to a human, much less to Serenity’s scales. Serenity knew he’d been cautious, but caution was far less likely to cost him than overconfidence.

Serenity kept his left hand anchored in the dungeon avatar’s flesh while he met its right arm with his claws. Unlike the serpent’s attack, his attack ripped through his enemy’s claws and flesh easily.

With both arms out of action and its tail controlled by Serenity, the only way the serpent could still attack was to bite. Unfortunately for it, Serenity knew that; he kept control of its shoulder after shredding its flesh.

“Surrender or die.” Serenity pushed the surprised snake onto its wings to prevent it from flying again. If it was clever, it could use the musculature of its long tail to get out of the hold, but Serenity didn’t plan to permit it to live if that was its choice.

It simply dumbly snapped towards Serenity’s face repeatedly.

Serenity shifted the snake so that he was over it, pulled his right hand out of the ruin of its shoulder, turned his hand, and raked it across what would have been the serpent’s throat if it were a bit more humanoid. There had to be something vital there, and the immediate wheezing noises told Serenity he’d hit it.

Serenity held the dungeon’s avatar down until it stopped thrashing.