Shinobu was a quiet addition to any Dungeon. Most Elites made
themselves out to be a rather LOUD pain in the ass for keepers, but
Shinobu was one of the rare ones who didn't complain as often. Of
course, when she did complain, it was usually shortly before she got
fed up and left, so keepers had to be VERY careful about how quickly
they dealt with complaints and to be mindful of who they'd sent to
fight spontaneous battles.
Shinobu had a policy that those who did not complain right away
about the little things should have their larger problems dealt with
quickly. After all, the larger the problem, the more important it was.
So, complaining led to frustration. Frustration led to anger.
Anger led to rage. Rage led to a lot of broken doors and traps on her
way back to the portal.
Of course, there were always those keepers who tried to appease
her at the last minute. She allowed it once. If it got bad enough
that she began getting frustrated again, she simply left.
Not that Keitaro Urashima had much to worry about. He was very
responsible. He knew that some people, like Motoko and Shinobu,
couldn't move as fast as everyone else due to their armor, and often
moved everyone back to the dungeon proper after the battle.
Of course, strangely enough, there'd been a hero outpost near one
of Keitaro's portals, but it had been manned entirely by magical traps.
Keitaro had sent the Liddo and his fighters to destroy the traps and
claim the outpost, deciding that the outpost would be an excellent
place to try out his new super traps.
It had been mostly sentry traps with the occassional fear trap.
But the biggest surprise had been when Shinobu had smashed down the
steel door that led to the innards of the post. A bigger-than-average
sentry trap had been behind the door and had fired directly into her
face.
Had Shinobu been a normal fourteen year old girl, the magical
blast would have kept her down or possibly killed her outright. Her
armor had protected her somewhat, but it had been her training to dark
knight status that had saved her life, as she'd been struck in the face
with things more painful than a mere fireball.
Still, it hurt a lot.
It was then that Keitaro showed up, ON THE BATTLEFIELD, to make
sure Shinobu was truly okay. They hadn't destroyed the sentry trap or
even confirmed whether or not heroes might have been in the outpost.
Keitaro had threatened his own life to make sure Shinobu was okay and
to heal her quickly.
It had been _stupid_, yet endearing.
After all, no other keeper she knew of would dare come within
five feet of a battlefield unless the enemy was busting down their
doors.
If Keitaro cared that much about his minions, then it was obvious
that she would be working with him for quite a while.
Keitaro looked at a few of the trap designs. There were some
that couldn't be upgraded much at all, like the spike trap. It was
designed to flip over and lash out at enemies. The only things wrong
with it was that the blood usually caused the flipping gears to jam and
locked it in 'assault mode', which made it easy to notice and destroy.
The notes that came with the trap declared that it was ingenious, but a
nightmare to keep clean. Keitaro had no doubts about that.
Gina had managed to upgrade it slightly to a rapidfire style of
stabbing, meaning it could really tear into someone before they managed
to back off.
The gas trap was difficult. The design was efficient, a single
nozzle on a metal bell-shaped device that unleashed a lesser version of
the Bile Demon's Gas attack, meaning any upgrades would reduce the
efficiency. Adding four more release nozzles would increase the amount
of time the gas attack stayed in effect.
The fear trap was another tough job. The only things wrong with
it was that it smelled terrible even when you weren't triggering it,
it's range and duration weren't the greatest and the brave and/or
intelligent could hold their breath before destroying it.
The Nightmare formula that the trap used was potent. To such a
degree that whoever was manufacturing it had to wear gloves AND take
the antidote when adding in the slight amount that the trap required.
And the Nightmare formula was only a third of the power that the trap
used. The skeleton inside would release terrifying screams while
powerful illusions would cause further fear to any who ventured too
close.
The problem was that increasing anything the trap had or adding
in nozzles to increase the spread of the Nightmare would endanger his
own minions, there was no way to increase the skeleton's screams. The
only thing left to do was to increase the range of the illusions.
The freeze trap's modification was similar. It already did it's
function rather well.
The fireburst trap had some valves added so that the molted steel
could be poured onto anyone attacking it while it prepared for another
explosion spell.
The alarm trap... was annoying and useless.
The trigger trap... same deal.
The guard post trap was useful when Keitaro actually assigned
people to the guard post. It alerted them instantly of attackers. He
rigged it to also alert the Dungeon Heart. That was about all he could
do.
The doors needed very little in the way of upgrading. They
already served their function perfectly. Some easy bake molds for the
frames were about all they could do.
And finally, the wooden barricade. All he could do was treat the
wood so that it wouldn't catch fire or rot.
All that was left to do was wait and see if any heroes came to
test the fruits of his and Gina's labour.
Naru was still in shock. Seta had been .... well, he'd been her
first crush. And no one liked to see their first crush turned into a
skeleton.
But, there wasn't anything she could do. The only thing that
could restore him to life were the same artifacts that could do the
same to Haruka.
The problem was that they needed to work up a good sized and
highly trained team before heading out on the conquest circuit.
They'd already trained enough. It was a problem of personnel.
They had fifteen so far, but twenty-five more were possible before the
portals were to become inert for a while.
Then, a shockwave like force hit the dungeon's inhabitants.
Something or someone tremendously powerful had entered. Everyone in
the dungeon hurried to see the newcomer, save the chickens, who clucked
and hopped around.
As they arrived, the inky darkness that had filled the portal
room cleared, to reveal a girl with long bangs, a stray lock of hair
sticking straight up, but otherwise, her hair was rather short. She
wore a white long-sleeved shirt with an orange skirt, black leather
boots, and carried a rune-covered sword. From behind her, two feather
wings hovered, not quite attached, but obviously hers.
"KEI-CHAN!" the girl squealed, hugging Keitaro.
"HUH?!" came the nigh-universal response.
Seta glanced at Haruka, the only one not surprised at the girl's
reaction to Keitaro and began worrying as the unshakeable Haruka
Urashima was sweating bullets, "K-k-k-kanako!"
"Kanako?" Seta inquired.
"She's Keitaro's adopted sister." Haruka answered.
"Oh yeah, it''s been quite a while, Kanako..." Keitaro noted,
recalling the last time he'd seen her was well over ten years ago.
"I have been waiting to see you! Grandma Hina said that you
would take up her Dungeon Heart, so I've been checking out just about
every dungeon that has an open portal." Kanako responded.
"Um, yeah..." Keitaro began, unsure of why Kanako would do that.
Sure, they'd been close as kids, but...
The statement and mood was interupted when Keitaro turned
suddenly, "Someone's in the guard post."
Lord Kentaro Sakata snarled in frustration. Whoever had created
the traps that his giant and dwarf were bravely smashing apart had been
either a genius or a homicidal lunatic. The double-barrelled sentry
cannon could fire at a steady rate, wearing down attackers at an even
faster rate, while the strange-looking lightning trap was strong enough
to stun his fodder, er, men long enough for for them to have eaten a
meal.
Finally, his giant finished smashing the lightning trap into tiny
pieces, allowing them to continue forward. His dwarf suddenly keeled
over as a spike trap revealed itself and tore into his stomach and arms
while his giant fell to his back as a powerful gas trap unleashed a
hellish odor.
Kentaro growled in frustation. He didn't want to spend his time
getting all sweaty and dirty smashing traps. That was what minions
were for. However, it seemed that he would have to do just that.
He slammed his sword into both the spike trap and gas trap,
smashing both with one blow. Snorting triumphantly, he turned the
corner to head towards the evil keeper's Dungeon Heart...
And ran back towards the hero gate, screaming in terror.
Only to scream in terror again as he saw a band of keeper
creatures, all ready to pound him into the ground. Glancing behind
him, in the hopes that his minions might have been just stunned by the
traps, he saw nothing. No doubt some imps had already carried them
off.
"You'll never take ME alive!" Kentaro told them hysterically as
he pointed his sword at the group.
Kanako pointed at Kentaro's face and willed her disruption spell
into activation. Kentaro screamed in agony as searing acid began
burning at his face. He dropped his sword and fell to his knees,
clutching at his face, only to fly backwards as Kitsune blasted him
with a fireball.
Driven to a point of insanity out of pain, Kentaro blindly
charged the group, only to impale himself on Shinobu's sword. The
blue-haired dark knight huffed in contempt before drawing her sword out
of the Lord and turned away briefly.
Kentaro lashed out, hoping to hit something and make his death of
some value. Shinobu spun and beheaded him. Kentaro's body collapsed
forward as his head landed a few feet away.
"Pathetic." Shinobu huffed, kicking the dead Lord's body.
"Yes, Lord Kentaro wasn't exactly a brilliant or courageous
man." Motoko commented.
"That's Lord Kentaro?" Naru commented, as she removed the helmet
and quickly put it back on as the acid had done a very thorough job of
making his face a mess, "I'd heard rumors that he was supposed to be a
handsome and gallant man."
"Yes, when he was trying to woo you, he could be. Otherwise, he
was quite obviously a poster child for disreputable youth." Motoko
answered.
Haitani groaned. The last thing he recalled was being gutted
like a fish. Then, he recalled that he had been heading into a
keeper's dungeon. Since he wasn't rotting in the ground, that
obviously meant he was either in a prison or-
He opened his eyes to see a room filled with torture racks.
Yep, he had been captured.
He glanced to his left. His giant friend, Shirai, was bound to a
similar wooden wheel. His backside wasn't even warm, so that meant-
*DRIP*
Water torture. Probably mixed with some intensive pain-filled
torture sessions with a very attractive woman.
Mutsumi appeared above the dwarf and gave him a tiny wave before
raising a larger-than-normal nutcracker. Or bonecracker as it would
likely be used.
Haitani closed his eyes and hoped really hard that wanting to
avoid pain would be enough to count him as 'converted'.
Keitaro looked around the fortress. Haruka had been the first to
point out that Kentaro Sakata had only been respected for the fact that
his family possessed a portal gem.
With that knowledge firmly in mind, Keitaro had gathered his
minions and headed through the hero gate to Kentaro's keep.
The place was a dump.
Family banners, half-decayed with the surviving halves being
quite old and worn, dangled from the few flag posts that were clinging
desperately from the walls. The walls themselves looked almost caked
with moss. The doors had holes and anything metal had some level of
rust on it.
"How could he or anyone put up with such a dump?" Naru asked.
"It's quite amazing that he was respected as much as he was.
Geez, even all of my imps working for a month probably couldn't get
this place looking nice." Keitaro commented as he walked to a window
near the front of the keep and peered out.
And his jaw nearly shattered the foundation.
Whereas the insides were disgusting and wretched, the outside
looked to be scrubbed clean of even germs. The stones on the outside
of the keep were nearly sparkling in their freshness, the moat was
clean, the gates were well-oiled and the doors were polished.
"Uh, I guess he was... working on it...." Keitaro commented.
"Hmm, looks like he was more concerned with how the place
appeared." Haruka noted.
"This is almost a perfect reflection of him. Polished looks, but
everything else was rotten." Motoko addded.
"I was expecting the entire place to look like this." Keitaro
declared, shaking his head.
"I wouldn't put too much into it. He still wasn't much of a
man." Motoko told him.
Haitani and Shirai had been rather easy to convert. Both had
decided that Keitaro wasn't so bad the instant Mutsumi placed the
bonecracker over Shirai's 'little Shirai'.
Both were immensely pale and shaken, but they were firmly on
Keitaro's side, not desiring to find out what Mutsumi might do to them
if they ever thought to change sides. That or they hated Kentaro's
keep so much that they'd rather live in a place that was cleaned
regularly.
Shirai was very helpful in the workshop, as it turned out. He
seemed almost too eager to get Keitaro whatever he needed while
creating normal traps on his own.
Haitani for his part was helping the Liddo out in digging tunnels
and claiming land, which the dwarf found was a lot easier than it had
originally seemed.
Seta was directing a bunch of Liddo in cleaning up the interior
of Kentaro's... Keitaro's keep as it would be the first base of
operations that they'd have away from Grandma Hina's pre-constructed
Dungeon. Kitsune and Haruka were finishing up in the library and Ranma
was researching new training room designs.
Keitaro had just finished another one of his Super Traps when he
felt a strange presense. He hurried to the Dungeon Heart and activated
the magical map. Then frowned. Apparently, another Keeper had entered
his realm.
He would have to determine whether or not this new keeper was
friend or foe. If friend, then they'd trade ideas. If not, well,
Keitaro was already planning for that.
=======================================================================
Current Cast
Liddo-kun and friends as Imps
Keitaro as a Troll/Keeper
Kitsune as a Warlock
Motoko as a converted Knight
Kaolla as a Mercenary Fairy
Haruka as a Vampire
Naru as a Elite Monk
Mutsumi as a Mistress
Shinobu as an Elite Dark Knight
Tama-chan as a Mercenary Firefly
Ranma Saotome as a Monk
Brittany Diggers as a Fairy
Gina Diggers as a Troll
Cloud Strife as a Dark Knight
Pikachu as a Dwarf
Ryoga Hibiki as a Rogue
Seta Noriyasu as an Elite Skeleton
Kentaro as a Lord of the Land
Haitani as a converted Dwarf
Shirai as a converted Giant
OMAKE+_+_+_+OMAKE
"And now, Elite Dark Knights jumping on trampolines!!"
"WHEEE!!!!"
"And now, for something terrifying! Trolls and Bile Demons jumping on trampolines!"
"Our Dungeon Floor is lumpy, jump up and down.... Do it GIRLS!!"
"GO-GO-GO-GO-GO-GO-GO-GO!"
"LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA!!!!"
"Micro-piglets stalk our dungeon!"
*Glares intently*
"BEWARE!!!"
"Oh no, they're gnawing on Seta!!"
"Oh, hell yeah, this takes me back to junior high!"
Haruka glared at Keitaro, "Your nocturnal perseverence has earned you a hidden gaming tip: GO TO BED!"
"Micro-piglets stalk our Lord of the Land."
*Yawns loudly*
"WHO CARES!!!"
Kentaro Sakata as a Lord of the Land who gets killed falling out a twenty story building to land on a bicycle with no seat face first. After that, he's referred to as Bicycle Face or Nosejob.
(
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