No Need for a Core?

While the past several weeks had certainly done a lot towards boosting Kazue’s confidence that she had what it took to ‘sit there and look pretty’, namely that both her spouses seemed to think she was indeed very pretty, it was boring and her presence had already done what Mordecai needed to help reign in any overly enthusiastic bunny troops. So she mentally poked her husband. “While you spin up your little elite forces there, what do you want for the boss room?”

“Well, I know what I want to do to fix the traps situation, and I want to show you a couple of things, but I have to admit I am still coming up blank on a second boss. So if you have any ideas, I am open.”

Huh. Well, it was certainly something to work on. Kazue waved at the laganthro crowd with a smile to give them some final encouragement, then moved her avatar down a few rooms to hang out with Betty. The rabbit girl was looking rather bored and it only took a moment for Kazue to figure out why. “Oh, you’ve gotten used to sparring with Moriko every day. It’s been rather quiet today.”

“Ehehe, yeah.” Betty replied, scratching at her cheek. “And, well, no offense, but you two made me rather bigger than the others. It kind of makes it hard to socialize. And while I like training, solo training gets boring rather fast.”

“I see,” Kazue said as she thoughtfully swished her tails around. “Well, I’m here to fill our open second boss slot for the floor, so you should have some company soon. Not sure it’s going to be the right sort of company though, we are going to want someone different than you, to make things more challenging and give us some options. But I can make sure Mordecai comes by to practice with you since I’m not very good with that sort of stuff, and if you want you should come on down to the bottom floor and hang out. Oh! Or you could stop by the library and hang out with Horace. He’s not as tall as you, but he is rather strong and Mordecai set him up to be a good grappler.”

Betty perked up at the news, regaining a bit of her bounciness. “Oh, that should be fun. Do you know what you want to do or who you are giving the boost to?”

“Eh, not yet. Hubby is drawing a blank on ideas, though he did say he has some ideas to improve the traps. So I thought I’d hang here and see if I could think of something.” Kazue was looking around for inspiration but wasn’t finding much at the moment. “Hmm, speaking of grapplers, I suppose we could make a boss that specializes in staying close? Meh, that made me think of an owlbear, and Mordecai said Ozuran had some opinions on how many times those get made. Besides, they aren’t very cute. I mean, if you are going to mix a fluffy little owl with something, why not something else cute like a cat?”

Kazue paused in her musings and tilted her head to the side thoughtfully. Betty gave her a quizzical look. “Um, are you really going to do that? I mean, okay, that sounds cute, but, like, a flying cat sounds like trouble.” Now she paused. “Oh wait, we’re supposed to be able to cause trouble.”

“Exactly! Now, I have the idea, how do we go about making that a boss?” Betty shook her head and wandered off to let Kazue ponder her options. She didn’t think she wanted to make it bigger than a normal owl or cat. They’d done that a fair amount already. So what would a smaller boss bring to the table?

Well, spellcasting didn’t really require being big, and both owls and cats were good at hunting in the dark. Yes, that was it! A shadow-focused spell caster! She and Mordecai both followed shadow-related deities after all. So let's see, some shadow-blending abilities, some shadow creating magic, and some shadow-related spells. Oh! There was a spell for stealing shadows and attacking through them! Mmm, that was a little mean, and it made her nervous to think about it like that, but they had laganthros who knew how to heal, and they were being careful, so it shouldn’t be too bad. But she’d wait for Mordecai before actually beginning the transformation, Kazue didn’t want her own reluctance to affect their boss. She could still find a volunteer though.

Which did not take her long at all. Cats had been amongst the pets brought to them, and the idea of being a flying predator that could pounce from the shadows appealed to them. All of them in fact. Kazue’s selection problem was more of an issue of figuring out who to turn down with promises of something cool later.

Once that was done she started pulling her template together. They didn’t have any owls, but they did have other birds and some owl feathers. That was enough to get the concept together, and it was not going to be a true owl anyway. Now, she was hardly the expert on shadow magic that Mordecai was, but she could focus on ideas, of it sliding out of shadows silently to swoop down, of shadows writhing at its command, bolts of darkness flying from its claws. There, she felt that would do, but now it was time to wait.

Fortunately, Mordecai didn’t take much longer, and by the time he got there, Kazue was sitting against one of the walls stroking the purring feline. “Hmm, have a boss idea ready to go I take it, love?” he asked as she rolled to her feet with a grin.

“Yep! We’re going to make an owl cat, he’s going to have shadow magic, and his name is going to be Umbrowl!” Kazue did love to be able to throw Mordecai off balance now and again, even if he recovered quickly. His confidence had been a tiny bit intimidating at first, and being able to be the one to take charge now and again made her feel more sure of herself.

“That, hmm, that could work very nicely,” he murmured, getting lost in thought almost immediately. Even his return kiss was a touch absent-minded when she snuggled up against him. “Part of my trap adjustment could combine well with that if I change it a touch.” Mordecai shook his head, then focused back on her. “But we should wrap up your work first. Anything in particular you wanted me to add? It sounds like your idea is well fleshed out.”

“Um,” she hesitated a second, then shrugged. “I kind of mostly wanted to make sure that I didn’t accidentally hold back, keep him from being everything he can, but if you have anything else you can think of, feel free to add it.” she mentally handed over the concept she had built up, and tried to not be too nervous. It was the first one she’d built up by herself, and she wanted to do well, and it made her feel a little like when she was training to be a shrine maiden.

Kazue was aware that technically they crossed a ‘bad idea’ boundary with Mordecai being also her teacher, even if the senior/junior relationship was rather popular in some of her favorite books, but life was neither those books nor a perfect ideal of what one should do. And overall she thought they did a rather good job of keeping these two parts of their lives balanced. Though maybe that was because they kind of started with them mixed, instead of starting from one and adding the other in later.

“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with what you’ve designed. Between being flavored by you and using a former pet to build on, he’ll probably be a bit more playful than what I might have made, but that is most likely for the best here. I would add one small thing though, as a final backup here: A minor paralytic and muscle relaxant poison. You made him quite capable of pouncing out of the darkness, but his size keeps that from being as much of a threat as it could be. This sort of toxin should keep him able to disable opponents while keeping with our less-than-lethal theme. What do you think?”

The poison did make sense, and she liked that it wouldn’t be very risky for their guests. “Alright, let’s do that.” Part of her wanted to be annoyed that she had missed that, but she did her best to squash that self-criticism from being too loud. It was a backup for a creature that would be primarily a mage, it was not a major flaw in her design.

With that change made, they focused their thoughts and energy on the cat still cradled in her arms, and before long the reforged feline launched himself into the air on soft, silent wings, circling happily before finding a shadow to dive into. It didn’t take him long to start creating havoc in the warrens, pouncing on various unsuspecting creatures before diving back into the shadows. All with claws sheathed of course, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t having fun startling his fellow inhabitants.

Kazue couldn’t help but giggle, following his antics. “He looks like he’s having fun. Alright, why don’t you tell me about your trap alteration plans?”