Once the young marauder wriggled free of his attacker's clawing grasp, he pushed through the second illusory wall and deeper into the dungeon, now at roughly the halfway point. In his wake he left the seething Schnupfen, bitter and frustrated as he drifted up from the ground and dismissed the arms he no longer needed. While he'd ultimately failed to stop the adventurer, his objective had only ever been to delay him while the more combat-capable dungeon keepers rallied to the core's defense. So even if he'd only managed to buy the others a couple minutes, the small success soothed the burning mark left on his pride by the brat's incorrigible nonchalance. Though tempted to continue clawing at him, however, ineffectually, Schnupfen decided to hang back and keep watch while the others worked their magic.

Oh. Oh no. It quickly became apparent that the situation was even more dire than Schnupfen first predicted. When Salbjorg sallied forth to put a stop to the boy's incursion, she cut quite an imposing figure despite Zoppy's presence, but things took a turn for the worse right away when she inadvertently took much the same tact as Schnupfen when it came to intimidation. She couldn't have known, of course, but retreading the same ground really did undercut her efforts. When she launched an attack using venom-drenched bone splinters, the shadow's spirits rose, but only for a moment. Despite appearances the adventurer barely seemed harmed, and that was just the beginning. Salbjorg threw herself at the boy, and despite being much bigger and tougher-looking than him, he stood as an unflinching oak, nonplussed by the large woman's very best efforts. She then suffered the indignity of her own attack turned against her, and to much greater effect, and was forced to retreat while calling out for help. The whole time Schnupfen watched in astonishment, his newly-manifested jaw increasingly slack.

After that the others tried their luck in sequence. Zogi distracted the adventurer for a moment, only to die on his wooden blade in Zoppy's defense. Schnupfen could only slap a clawed hand to his head; even if Zogi couldn't achieve much, he was surely more of an asset than that pitiable wretch. Considering that his death powered his killer up, his sacrifice was absolutely a net negative overall. Muste stepped up to bat next, his move discreet and tactical. Maybe [i]too[/i] discreet, in fact, since while Muste did manage to knock the boy down and not suffer any damage himself, his grease trap neither damaged nor stalled the would-be hero very much. Finally, the Oracle floated onto the scene. Visually speaking it very much resembled some kind of boss monster, a fitting last line of defense for the dungeon core, and to its credit it did do its job. Shrugging off blows thanks to its immaterial body, it kept the boy busy with bothersome curses and excessively warm light. Unfortunately, it wasn't too long before the enterprising lad figured out the Oracle's weakness and incapacitated it, leaving only Zoppy, Muste, and Kleine between Danny and the dungeon core.

By then, though, the summoning should've been complete. Schnupfen peered around the core chamber from afar, looking for newly-minted monsters and weapons, but he could see only one kobold outfitted with light armor and a basic polearm. Would that lizard be enough for the keepers to hang their hopes on? Before the team could find out, the wounded Salbjorg went back for more. For some reason both she and the intruder humored Zoppy, before launching into what could only be described as slip-and-slide jousting. Schupfen buried his face in his hands, stricken with second-hand embarrassment. The shahmaran's efforts had been pitiful before, but now they were just mortifying. "Ohh, this can't be happening." If anyone was going to do something about this hellion, it would have to be Schnupfen.

As quickly as he could, the shadow floated over, manifested four hands, and grabbed a rock from amongst the rubble by one of the walls. It was only about the size of a cantaloupe, and oblong in shape, though even that was hard enough for the shrimpy specter to lift and carry. By now, the adventurer had to be at least a little beat up. He'd gotten scratched, a stubbed toe, mildly poisoned by Salbjorg, mildly concussed after his grease-induced fall, hiccups, a sunburn, and jabbed with a high heel in the face. Even if the monsters were weak, a rock was a rock, and surely it would be enough to finish him? Or at least stun him long enough for everyone to enact a death by a thousand cuts. Unfortunately, Schnupfen couldn't float very fast with his rock, but Salbjorg had one final ace up her sleeve. This new ploy of hers was actually pretty clever, and even if the glamor didn't ultimately work, it gave Schnupfen the few moments he needed. As she reverted to normal and the adventurer began to crawl away, the shadow crossed directly over him and let his missile fall.