That night, the beasts came earlier than usual well acting in a far more frantic yet controlled manner than either night before. It started as three different packs of beats throwing themselves at the walls simultaneously, wolves from the east, dogs from the north and something larger Chris couldn't identify from the south that looked like starved lizards with sharp spines. The Ents swung their branches in wide arcs, taking part in this attack as apposed to letting the various vines and bamboo handle it like they had previous nights, crushing bodies against the ground well the bamboo snapped straight, impaling anything that got too close rather than strangling and crushing as it had before. Even the mobile vines had taken part alongside the gympie plant, all of them slithered through the chaos, using the sweet scent of those along the walls making the beasts stumble into each other, giving the mobile vines and gympie vine the opening they needed.
That's when more came as a second wave. Chris stood on the vine hut's roof watching all of it, his staff tightly gripped in his hand as he watched the carnage. Sera stood below and within the gates, her sword drawn and ready to cut down anything that managed to somehow slip through.
The little world tree told him they weren't stopping, that it felt like a constant tide that kept flowing towards them, more guided this time, no fear or care for there life as they all but threw there life away without reason.
Chris could see exactly what it meant. how the wolves threw clogged the spike balls with their bodies, running across the fallen whose bodies became a path across the thorn bushes, making bridges for their pack mates out of their own bodies. Even the dogs had begun to try and leap over the bamboo spear by using the slop the fallen had begun to form, a few managing to land inside the walls before the vines could grab them only to be quickly cut down by Sera but more kept coming.
Another howl split the night—deeper this time causing both Chris and Sera to turn towards the sound, well he felt his blood run cold.
A flesh Minotaur stood at the back of the wave of beasts, the same one he had seen ages ago, easily managing to recognize it from the single eye fixed on the village. But it wasn't charging. It was watching and waiting. Behind it, Chris could make out more shapes. More Minotaur's barely restrained, but what drew his focus was something else, something with too many legs and a glinting chitin that faintly caught the low hanging moons light.
"Shit," Chris began as he cursed under his breath before calling out "Sera!"
She looked up at him. "We have some damn Minotaur's and something big and ugly behind them, I don't know how well the plants are going to manage, they will be breaching, do you think you would manage with the plants inside?" She didn't reply to his words; her expression didn't even change but her grip on her sword tightened.
"I could probably handle some of them." She finally said with a grunt, cutting down another wolf. "But all of them."
As he mentally urged the strangle vines to lower him to the ground to try and help, he heard the small world tree mention that the core was moving which took him by surprise, when he asked it to tell him more it told him it was pulsing, that it was calling its home and something was calling back as it tried to get it back. "Whatever is in that damn dungeon is doing this to get the core back…" he whispered before sprinting for Sera's hut, when he focused, he could feel the pulsing the world tree spoke of.
Behind him, he heard her shout something, maybe a warning but he didn't hear properly or care, he kept rushing forward.
The door flew open hard, easily finding the pack in the corner before all but ripping it open and pulling the leather-wrapped core out of it. He easily noticed that the leather had come loose at one corner and the stone beneath was glowing and pulsing steadily, he was all but sure it was securely wrapped though without a chance for any strips coming loose, before he could think on it the horrid thing began to reverberate as an echo through him now that he was so close, carrying with it a steady, hungry light that seemed to reach for him like fingers that caused his skin to crawl.
The world tree was all but screaming loudly in his mind now, telling him not to touch it, that it wanted him to touch it. Chris's fingers got closer, a temptation burning within him now to take the core, the little voice trying to scream over the world tree to grip it and use it.
He grabbed the leather instead, wrapping the stone back up as tightly as he could before shoving it back into the pack. It's light dimming but still faintly visible through the leather. He could still feel it as well as he rushed out the hut, an annoying pressure behind his eyes and a whisper at the edge of his hearing joined by the greedy whisper. He almost didn't catch the world tree telling him that it had just screamed as loud as it could, that everything would now be coming.
He hardly had time to make sense of its words when the first Minotaur hit the gate like a battering ram. The bamboo held, but Chris heard it crack, the sound making him morbidly think of bones breaking. The second Minotaur hit a heartbeat later and the gate splintered inward. The beasts had their opening.
Sera was already moving, ducking under the swinging arm of the first Minotaur that had stormed in before she drove her sword up into its throat and yanking it free before the body hit the ground only for the second one to catch her with a backhand that sent her skidding across the dirt, she turned the blow into a roll and had already began righting herself, her blade already swinging.
Chris refused to just watch this time, noting that the spider-thing that had begun scaling the wall had dropped onto its back from the scream flowers all letting out their cry at once as it landed on its back, its legs extending and flailing about with its mandibles clicking angrily. He raised his staff as he rushed over, not knowing what he was going to do just yet but refused to risk that thing entering his village.
That was when the bronze tower of a bamboo pole that had stood silent for so long suddenly twisted. Bending like a bow being drawn, its tip touching the ground behind it before snapping forward across onto the spider-thing's body, smashing through its center. The creature let out a wet, horrible shrieking as the gympie vines began to work their ways under its chitin, even the strangle vines took him by surprise as they extended over to it, feeding greedily as its movements began to slow and still.
His focus was drawn towards the Ancient Ent as the small world tree told it was keeping the rest going, guiding and instructing the others.
Chris looked toward the old tree and saw it clearly for the first time since the battle began. Its branches weren't just swinging anymore like it had been when dealing with the wolves and dogs. They now reminded him of a conductor in front of an orchestra. Pointing at targets and swigging steadily as it coordinated the other Ent's and plants.
The scream of the medical grass telling him to focus caused him to notice a third Minotaur was almost atop him, having broken through the gate's remains and already in full swing intending to strike him from the side. He barely had time to raise his staff in an attempt to try and block It as futile as he knew it would be.
He wasn't sure when it happened but Sera was already there, standing between them, having already caught the Minotaur's swinging arm on her blade well driving her shoulder into its chest making the creature stumble back as it let out a pained noise, taking full advantage of the opening the blow caused to give it two quick thrusts taking it down.
"Are you okay?" she asked, not looking at him but instead staring at the one eyed Minotaur trough the broken gate, its own stare burning with fury as it locked onto her.
"Yeah." His voice cracked as he slowly lowered his staff, still keeping it ready to strike if needed and far more focused now. "Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks."
He saw how the remaining beasts had begun retreating. The wolves first, then the dogs followed by the Minotaur's that were still standing behind their leader. The spider-thing was already being dragged over to the strange vine's bases, both letting out content purrs as they promised to savor this delicacy.
As Chris watched the Minotaur's go he shuddered slightly, one final pulse wracking his body not from the core but the dungeon, his hands where shaking, his breath coming too fast. He could still feel the core pulsing in Sera's pack, crying out to not be left behind. The dungeon's anger at not being able to retrieve its core.
"Tomorrow," he managed to get out through gritted teeth. "We will figure out what to do with that thing tomorrow. Either finding some way to destroy it or to be rid of it."
Sera wiped her sword on her pant leg and nodded slowly with grim determination. "Tomorrow."
He didn't allow himself to sleep that night, not due to adrenaline but rather forcing himself to listen to his plants well sitting against the cloud tree, listening to the plants whisper about the core screaming, calling and all but begging, now feeling the core's distant pulse through the ground as he knew what to look for. The world tree having placed a thick and long root across his lap, whimpering ever so slightly how whatever was answering was stirring and looking at them.
Chris simply closed his eyes and let out a tired sigh. "I know little one, but there's nothing we can do about that. Not now at the very least." He knew Sera was nearby, no doubt having heard his words, picking up on the plans intent and feelings, he knew she was no doubt trying to figure out a way to help him deal with the core in the morning.