No Need for a Core?

“Well,” Moriko began as she stepped out onto the smooth, almost glass-like surface. “I was born in Riverbridge, a small city built around the southernmost crossing of the Crescent River, a little north of where it comes out of the Raincatcher Mountains.” She was certain Kazue knew this, but Mordecai probably did not. The floor wasn’t too bad by itself, even when dodging the occasional dive bomb of fluff. Moriko ignored the temptation to snatch one out of the air to cuddle it, she had a job to do. An ice-breathing rabbat swooped in front of her and left a patch of frost in front of her. She sighed and deliberately stepped onto the patch to test the results.

Okay, that was a lot worse, though still not enough to knock her off balance too badly. Years of training do pay off after all. “We’re a major trading hub between Kuiccihan and Danuana, the elven kingdom. Since our city spans both sides of the river that makes up our border, we have a special charter to be semi-independent, yet somewhat beholden to both.” She grinned as she wove through a series of dive bombs, ‘ramming’ attacks by hornless rabbats to make a challenge without actually attacking her. She didn’t even trip over any of the bumps or dips, though one dip almost caught her. Still, she had a lot of training with similar techniques, not everyone was going to be so agile.

“As you might guess by me, we’re full of half-elves, as well as humans, elves, and the occasional other species or mixed blood. It’s a lively place, and I loved growing up there, but I was always a rather passionate kid. Got me into all sorts of trouble.” And skills like this got her out of trouble, sometimes. Moriko leapt up before she quite got to the cliff face, covering the small gap and making it to the second set of outcroppings for climbing. The walking path was not enough of a challenge for her to even judge.

“I wouldn’t say I was a ‘tomboy’, I always liked dresses and pretty stuff, but I also liked getting physical and often found my way into places I wasn’t supposed to be, and occasionally got into fights with the boys. I usually won if we were close in size, but I got rarer wins if they were much bigger.” Now this was harder. When she was just climbing it wasn’t so bad, but when she had to jump a gap she had to make sure none of the flying fluffballs were in position to hit her. Huh, that jump needs to be fixed.

“Hey, this is only floor two. Once I clear this part, raise where I am jumping to. My training will let my body take this, but someone not reinforced could really hurt their arms. Never make downwards jumps for any area that is still supposed to be newbie friendly.” She made the jump, grabbing onto the rocks in question with only a small complaint from her shoulders, then continued her upward climb.

“Where was I? Ah, yeah, getting into trouble. Well, it was passion that guided me, whether for good or for ill, and my parents eventually decided to see if a bit of priestly intervention might help set me on a better path. It was a priestess of Sakiya they went to first, and she practically begged them to sign me up for temple training, fully intending to set me on the warrior-monk path. So it was that at the tender age of fifteen, I was sent off to the Sakiya temple outside of Ekuilance, the capital city.”

She’d reached the top, then made her way through the stalag-maze to the other end, where she first used the chimney for a controlled descent, then used it again to make her way back up. Yeah, it was about the right size, though any race much bigger or much smaller than humans would have trouble. “Maybe you should make a few of these, so different-sized folk can try this if they want.”

Moriko crested the top once more, then finally made her way to the other side. The rabbat swarms were annoying, and would potentially be bad in such a close area for unprepared groups, but since they weren’t actually attacking her they were only a little disorienting.

“I can’t say I was happy with this. In some ways, I got into even more trouble there. But the lectures, or punishments, were often less severe than one might expect. It depended on how much they believed I was acting on sincere passion rather than lashing out because I was angry or something. But they insisted that I learn to ‘moderate and guide’ my passions, rather than let them control me, and they eventually got those lessons into my thick skull. I was a stubborn brat,” she said with a bit of a smile at the memory. And now she arrived at the mud slope. Bah. It had that thick, slightly mossy scent that the riverbanks near her home had, and that gave her a good idea of how thick, sticky, and slippery the mud was going to be. “Hey, if you ever want to make this part just a game for someone, add some boards to let them sled down,” Moriko added, as another happy memory surfaced. But she had to do it the hard way. So Moriko sent herself skidding down the slope. It was harder to keep her balance than the not-glass flat land had been, but she managed it without falling, even if her dress and legs did get a thorough coating of dark brownish-green mud droplets. “Remember that bath!”

The winding paths were not much of a challenge for her, she’d been trained to fight on much narrower beams, but once more a decent challenge for people with less experience under their belts. “So it’s been about twenty years since then, lots of training, occasional forays if a monster managed to make its way nearby, and all of that stuff. Once I got over my bruised ego and realized how much I actually liked the place, I stopped ignoring my parents' letters, and was happy to travel back home and visit when I could take the time.” Of course, that wasn’t exactly why she was on vacation right now. Stupid Trionean nobleman. Ah hell, might as well tell them.

“Er, so, that kind of brings up something. This isn’t a normal vacation.” At least the story kept her mind off of how uncomfortable it was to be winding her way through these tight tunnels. She didn’t need to crawl, and walking while crouched was certainly faster, but it also made her aware of muscles that even her training didn’t cover this thoroughly. “I was in the city on a day off when a nobleman from Trionea, the empire to our north, noticed I wore a symbol of Sakiya, and decided to take a rather insulting interpretation of a woman following the Goddess of Passion.” Her teeth flashed in what was definitely not a smile or grin. “I was polite when I first corrected him that we all follow our own passions, and some of us are passionate about our combat training. He didn’t take the hint and tried to grab me when I started to walk away. Then I broke his arm and a few ribs before his bodyguards could intervene. Dodged them until we got to the local guards, who broke things up and took us all in.”

She was beginning to really hate this little cavern maze; it was hard to keep track of her direction and position, and she didn’t even know where the exit was. “I was willing to let it pass with that, but the twerp insisted on trying to charge me for assaulting a noble. So I insisted on submitting to a Zone of Truth.” One advantage of being a member of one of the temples, you generally didn’t have to pay for a priest to cast spells like that. “Seems he hadn’t gotten the message that The Empyreal Pillars take a really dim view of nobles who abuse their power, and the kingdom follows Their lead. So he was officially chastised and sent back home, and I was paid a small sum from his money in reparations.”

The funny part was, he had been handsome enough that she’d actually been considering flirting with him for a fling before he’d opened his stupid mouth. Moriko was indeed passionate in a lot of ways, but her passions were her own to decide. “Of course, that’s the official side, and I certainly wasn’t in trouble. But the temple thought it might be expedient if I took my vacation early this year, and I decided to take the long way around since I don’t know which direction his lot took out of the city.”

Oh finally. Moriko rolled out of the tunnel exit and rose to her feet to stretch as tall as she could, cracking her back and neck. Then she got a good look at the creature in the next room. “That’s Hildegard? She's adorable!” She tilted her head slightly. "Is that a gem in her forehead?”

Mordecai and Kazue's avatars had been waiting for her here since she'd begun the floor, and Mordecai had a rather satisfied expression at Morikos' reaction. Kazue was more enthusiastic, and bounced with excitement. “Yep! Mordecai showed me how to make a carbuncle! But that’s not all for our boss fight.” Giggling, the little kitsune pointed up.

Mordecai couldn’t resist a small chuckle at the expression on Moriko’s face as all the flying monsters on the floor came swarming out of various warren exits in the ceiling. “Part of the challenge of the floor. If you manage to run through everything just dodging the creatures, you have to face them here. But if you take your time and eliminate all enemies, then you face carbuncle with the few held in reserves. Not only does skipping fights make the boss fight harder directly, but carbuncles are primarily defensive, both protecting and healing allies. So the more there are to harry a party, the more they can swap out to be healed, making the fight even harder.”

His mud-speckled wife shook her head. “You and my masters would love trading notes on how to torture sweet, innocent young apprentices.”

He gave her a mildly dubious look, but chose the path of wisdom and said nothing about his opinion on her ‘innocence’, past or present, and changed the subject instead. “You said earlier you wanted to spar. We can do it here, Hildegard and her friends can sit on the sidelines and watch.” Moriko’s eyes lit up at the prospect.

“Oh yeah, you better believe it. I’m in the mood to work off some steam.”

It didn’t take long for the creatures to arrange themselves on the outskirts along with Kazue, who was curled up with Hildegard. “And three, two, one! Begin!” she shouted from the sidelines.

Neither of them charged, and instead slowly circled towards each other. The first couple of blows exchanged were tests, working out both skill and power. In part to judge how best to attack the other, and in part to get a feel for how much they needed to hold back. They quickly figured out it wasn’t much, each easily deflecting, dodging, or straight-up blocking those first few strikes.

Then it got much more serious. Mordecai read her first real punch and stepped at an angle to the outside of her blow as he brought his knee up into her gut. Moriko's muscles tense in time to lessen the blow, but the first 'point' was his. She recovered quickly and pivoted with a backhand strike aimed at his head followed by a kick using the same rotational momentum to carry through. Her style was a familiar rhythm to him, and one he could mostly match and counter, flowing with her attacks to avoid or mitigate them and landing in blows of his own, soon leaving her with a bloodied lip.

But despite the physical advantages of his avatar, Mordecai was still getting used to the finer points of this body and was limited in power by the strength of his core. Moriko's spiritual power and presence were not limited that way, and they proved sufficient to slowly overcome his innate physical advantages. Throughout their fight, Mordecai took more clean strikes than she did, though the sturdiness of his form greatly reduced their impact. His own strikes were mitigated by Moriko's body-hardening training and the reinforcement of her spiritual strength.

They left several bruises on each other, along with scrapes and dirt from the occasional opportunistic throw or trip. He was continually able to surprise her with a new technique, but so long as they kept to the purely physical realm he only had so many tricks, and Moriko was a fast learner. The same trick rarely worked twice, and eventually, the match ended with Mordecai on his back and Moriko’s knee against his throat.

“I win!” The half-elf announced happily, then removed her knee so she could lean down and kiss him, leaving a smear of her blood on his lips. “Nice fight. And you’re stronger than I thought, but your technique is awkward.”

Mordecai enjoyed the kiss for a moment, then sighed at her words. “Yeah, still trying to integrate everything. When the core is grown a little bit more, I’ll be able to give you more of a workout. Maybe even too much of one.” He finished with a smirk and refrained from mentioning that he'd not used any spells. It would sound too much like being a sore loser.

Kazue rolled her eyes as she walked up to the two of them. “Flirting over beating each other bloody. You’re both crazy.” Then she wrinkled her nose. “As well as dirty and smelly. I’ll meet you at the bath.” She pointed imperiously at Mordecai. “And you have to walk there to keep our lovely wife company.” Then with a wink, she was gone, off to prepare everything.

Moriko helped pull Mordecai to his feet, and once standing he used a little prayer magic to heal their wounds. Then the two of them walked together the rest of the way to the private chambers, arms around each other. It was a good day as far as he was concerned, and based on the warmth he felt across the bonds, both women shared that sentiment.