Marianna blinked. Or, she tried to. But her psychic body wasn't actually capable of the action, so what really happened was that all of her viewports turned black, and then back to normal. She was once again able to see through them. It was a strange experience. But she supposed that's what you get when you intentionally blink with no eyes.

The entire scenario had only taken place due to the Ratman standing in front of her.

[Terash?] She asked, staring at the rat as he traced lines in the dirt wall, mumbling to himself. He looked up.

"My apologies, my lady, I hope you don't mind if I deface the walls with my battle plans a bit."

Mari hadn't realized this was what he'd been doing. She'd merely watched as the rat traveled through the new corridors she'd created, mumbling to himself. When he'd been informed that the serpopards were nearby, he'd instantly taken to collecting all the rats into a single room, requesting Mari seal off one of the connecting corridors before beginning to write on the wall.

She's also wondered why he had decided that the best dungeon layout for this defense would be a singular ending room with multiple rooms and tunnels leading to it. It confused her that she would not want all of the enemy's forces to flood down a central corridor. When she'd asked, he impatiently explained himself while gesturing towards the blueprints on the drawing scroll with his spear.

"Rule number one of winning a fight against a superior foe: divide and distract. If you can't split up the stronger force, how can you expect to defeat them?"

Mari nodded, her Overseer bobbing with the action. Terash had also suggested specific locations for the Overseers to be positioned in order to maximize the possible surveillance she could perform.

Unfortunately, Mari neither had enough energy nor enough time to create any more Overseers for his placements, so he'd grudgingly removed certain places from his chart, focusing on the "key" spots.

Miradeen hadn't given up her drawing scroll easily. But when Mari told her it was to defend her people, she'd nodded and let Terash use it, raising a clawed finger to his nose and saying, "If you lose it, I'll kill you myself."

The strategist simply smiled and backed out of the room slowly.

However, once he'd heard that the serpopards were on the way, he'd dropped the scroll with the dungeon map on it, and began furiously scribbling on the walls. Apparently, Terash wanted the battle plans to be visible to the community of rats at all times. The scroll was erasable, and he didn't want to lose any work.

So Mari had built various moving walls and floors, some in very innovative ways, to accommodate Terash's designs. She certainly wasn't going to develop the perfect defense, and with his experience, the warrior was the best for the job.

That was when she'd heard the explosion, followed shortly by an alert.

Overseer #1 (Smitty) Alert

Group of Serpopards has entered the dungeon.

Dang. I guess the walled-off entrance didn't work like I'd hoped.

[Terash!] Mari interrupted the strategist's speech to the rest of the rats. [They're here!]

The tactician nodded and waved his hands to the rest of the community.

"You know your jobs," he shouted. "Go perform them admirably, and with pride!"

The response he elicited was several grumbles, but then the rats remembered they weren't doing this for him, but instead for Miradeen, and their peers. The determined expressions crystallized on their grim faces, and the rats gripped their weapons, tools, and fists tightly.

Then Yeshi, Baruk, and Miradeen broke off from the rest of the rats. While Terash and Kifalin proceeded to a separate room, rigged with the strategist's designs, the other three would be staying near Mari's core until she deployed them to where they were needed.

Earlier, the Ratman genius had informed her of any situations she might need to send them out for. He also covered various potential conditions and circumstances that might arise, and she did her best to remember them.

Mari turned away from the viewports watching her rats and enlarged Smitty's view. She couldn't count the serpopards, since their heads wriggled around like snakes, making the horde seem like one huge organic entity.

However, Marianna noted the large dark brown serpopard speckled with black, green, and gold leading the pack. He was a separate entity, the horde flooding behind him seeming to be all his followers. As the pack flooded down the hall, with Marianna absorbed in the vicious attackers, she felt adrenaline running through her.

It couldn't have been real, though, so Mari simply chalked it up to her unique situation and her ability to pull off strange tricks with her mental body. However, the adrenaline did help her focus, and while her mental hands trembled, Mari waited.

The pack progressed further down the corridor, howling violently. And they approached the first of Mari's new traps. With a strange excitement, Mari sent some of her power into the moving wall she'd created.

And the ruby wall, only a few meters above the roof of the stone corridor, slid its fine point towards the ledge she'd made. The wall tapered like a wedge, from thick on top, to a bladed point. And it moved slowly, sliding towards the hole overhead the approaching serpopards, before tilting a bit, and dropping over the edge, down through the thin opening beneath it, and towards the pack below.

The ruby guillotine hit the ground with a loud crash, and exploded outwards, sending shrapnel into the serpopards nearby.

Somehow, the girl watched with gruesome pleasure as the guillotine cleanly sliced the head off of the serpopard directly behind the leader. She'd missed the one in charge, but she'd damaged the rest of them severely.

Mari minimized the viewport as her victims howled in agony and anger, turning her attention to the next critical viewport.

She watched as the serpopards entered her new view, bloodied and snarling. They approached quickly, but with more caution than they'd first had when they entered her domain. Clearly, they hadn't been expecting such a challenge.

They paused, glancing at the three-way fork in the hallway. Without seeming to consider much, the leader dashed down the middle path, while the rest of the pack split up. There were now six serpopards following the leader down the middle path, while a group of eight serpopards proceeded to the right: Terash's room.

She didn't bother focusing on his room since Mari was more concerned about the rats that would be fending off the group of four serpopards traveling to the left. Those rats were the citizens, and the female warrior freshly created by the Dweller Creation Pod: Trena. And that group only had bone tools as weapons. Plus, it wasn't even all of them. Some of the rats had the exceptionally dangerous job of traveling towards the decapitated serpopard and dragging its body away. Terash had insisted that removing the corpses was a requirement, but he hadn't specified why.

She turned her attention to the rigged room, remembering Miradeen's expressionless face as she sliced her hand and let the blood pool near the faux dead-end Mari had created at Terash's suggestion. The queen had ignored Mari's protests, insisting that her blood would be incomparable bait for Cordon's minions.

She watched as the four serpopards approached the fake wall, and waited for them all the be in position. As they milled around in the sand Mari had somehow been able to create from the dirt she had stored, one of them hissed.

The rest of the serpopards' heads went up, and they shot towards the wall, sniffing and tasting the air. Then Mari shouted to the rats behind the wall.

[Now!]

They slammed into the wall with a tree trunk, shattering the intentionally weak structure, and collapsing heavy stone down upon the invaders. As they stabbed and chopped with fearsome aggression, Mari nodded in satisfaction. Everything was working out exactly as Terash had predicted. They were winning! Against monsters that were far stronger in a straight fight.

And then she heard the voices, echoing faintly through the dungeon.

"Alright! Who's ready to slay some low-tier dungeon monsters?"

Mari instantly minimized the viewport in the sandy room and turned her attention back to Smitty's, her blood running cold.

Miradeen had mentioned it was likely that humans would invade the dungeon to slay the monsters within eventually, but Marianna hadn't expected it to be so soon. She watched in confusion as the blonde male that had shouted drew his sword and twirled it around effortlessly.

"Wales!" The red-headed female behind him hissed. "You'll draw attention to our presence!"

Behind her stood a massive man, with shining silver gauntlets donning his crossed arms. His long black hair was pulled into a ponytail away from his bearded face, and he laughed a booming laugh.

"Karla," he said jovially. "You worry too much! This dungeon is merely tier-two! If you're really that scared, ole Fergusson is here to protect ya!" He slapped her on the back with his massive hand and sent the girl stumbling forward. She spun, blowing hair out of her face and whipping her crimson cloak around her angrily.

"It never hurts to be cautious!" She retorted. The other girl, dressed in flowing white robes trimmed with gold, and wielding a long staff with a cryptic symbol atop it, stepped forward.

"Remember, both of you. A pack of serpopards is here, as well. We still don't know the situation."

Karla turned back to her, a grateful yet annoyed expression coloring her face. "Thank you, Sylvia."

Wales laughed, and the brawler chuckled with him, eliciting looks of irritation from the two girls.

They seem like reasonable people, Mari thought. Perhaps I can communicate with them!

She focused on the redhead, seeming to be the most amicable of the group, and spoke.

[Hello! I am Marianna. What are you here for?]

And she waited, as the party eyed the corridor. Karla didn't react at all to Mari's voice, and the group continued their conversation.

Hmm. Perhaps I can only communicate with things I've analyzed?

Overseer #1 (Smitty) Notification

Analyze unknown creatures?

Weird. Mari thought as she read the text. They're humans. I know that. I--

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shriek echoing through the dungeon, and Mari swiftly examined her viewports, searching for the source.

Then she found it. In Terash's room, he'd collapsed yet another faux wall on several of the serpopards, with Kifalin stabbing each of them in the eyes in rapid succession.

It seemed to kill one of the monsters, but the other six that had been struck simply howled and struggled free of the rocks. Terash calmly backed away, Kifalin beside him, and the rats prepared to strike the single serpopard that had managed to avoid the falling rubble.

The snaking head shot forward and nearly bit down on Kifalin, the source of its packmate's misery. Terash shoved him out of the way and leaped onto a boulder behind him. He'd designed the room and seemed to already know it like the back of his hand.

He pistoned off the rock, and shot towards the serpopard, targetting its eyes once again. Mari noticed it seemed to be the most common Ratman tactic against the monsters, and she watched as Terash speared the monster through and through, his wooden spear sticking out the monster's skull.

Marianna figured the two warriors were doing fine, with everything working just as the tactician planned, and turned her attention back towards the new obstacles.

But the party was gone. Frantically, Mari scoured her viewports, finding the four standing at the three-way fork in the dungeon, examining their options. She quickly requested that the Overseer, Fargo, analyze them.

The same green smokey gas shot from the Overseer's tentacle and coated the group. But when it cleared, the group seemed to look around in annoyance.

"There," Wales said boredly as he indicated the roof, where Fargo was located.

Karla swiftly drew a bow from her back, nocked an arrow, and fired it.

Then Mari's viewport went black. Her mouth dropped open in shock. They'd just killed her Overseer. And she hadn't even gotten to analyze them.

Mari immediately took control of Smitty, flying him down the dungeon hall, and watched the other viewports as she commanded him. Terash seemed to be doing fine against the serpopards, and down the center hall, the group of monsters was already dead. She hadn't even needed to send Miradeen's group out to fight them. That Dreadnought had brought the pain, and apparently, he was stronger than the Ratman, which contradicted what Mari had originally thought, and what the Dweller Creation Pod had told her.

She slowly flew Smitty down the hall and was grateful to see the party still standing in one spot and debating their course of action. Their voices grew louder as she slowly approached their position.

"I don't know, Wales," the redhead grumbled uncertainly. Mari tried to remember her name. Karla! She continued. "I'm very enthusiastic to slay some monsters, but I won't agree that splitting up is the best course of action. Not in this situation..."

The huge man chuckled dismissively but didn't say anything, and the priestess (Mari assumed only a priestess would wear clothing like that) replied with a grin.

"What, Karla? Afraid of a 'lowly tier-two dungeon', are we? We just effortlessly waltzed through this dungeon with not even a single trap springing! I doubt it's at all going to be a challenge."

"Exactly! And that's weird! Usually, there's at least one trap and--" Karla began before being interrupted by the warrior, Wales.

"Karla," he taunted. "If we all stay together, how am I going to win that bet with you? Our group would slaughter everything! Plus," He poked her nose, smiling flirtatiously. "Hyena just scouted, and there's not a single trace of the serpopards!"

Mari had no idea what to do, but she didn't want the group heading down any further, especially after what they'd done to Fargo. Not a single enemy had yet been able to even locate her Overseers, and they even killed him.

They aren't even taking the dungeon seriously... Mari realized, feeling nonexistent cold sweat run down the back of her neck.

"Fine," the crimson-cloaked woman spat, yielding. "We'll split up, but you're coming with me so I can count!" Wales nodded, laughing.

Sylvia slapped Fergusson's muscular tree trunk for an arm, brushing a long strand of her light blonde hair away from her face.

"Guess ole Fergusson will be protecting me now."

The big man laughed and waved his hand at the wall.

"Hyena by himself, as usual. But, I guess that's the best for a sneaky-deeky little thing like him."

Mari frowned. Hyena? Who were they talking about? She followed his gesture and realized that against the wall, leaning casually, was a short man completely covered in cloth. He seemed to blend into the shadows, and she had trouble focusing on him.

Then, the group claimed directions, about to set off further into the dungeon.

And Mari felt the blood run cold in her metaphysical body once more. Not because the group had chosen directions, but because of the howling and snarling she heard coming from the entrance of the dungeon.

She turned Smitty to look, and right at the edge of his vision, she could see that another group of serpopards had entered the dungeon.