Once the conversation died out Peter went on a trading spree. He hit up a lot of cores he had traded with previously, including iron, bronze, lightning, crystal, and Eli the crustacean core. He got 2 of each, except for iron who had offered 5. Peter then revisited Emma and Fellete. He had only been joking about the bug zapper, but getting fire type cards was a must. He got 5 A tier and 50 B tiers from both Emma and Fellette.

  He then finally took Fellette up on a promise he had made a while ago to go and introduce him to the centurion beast group that both Garrett and he belonged to. Fellette spent some time checking in with each congregation, but apparently preferred the company of Emma. That or he figured he had slightly more protection with her around. She was 314 years old. Quite a bit older than the oldest beast core in the dungeon, Garrett who was 224 years old.

  There were a half dozen different beast type groups. They were actually a pretty strong faction normally, with a good showing in the intermediate division. Things changed in the centurion division. As a non millennial based faction, the beast cores found survival far more difficult. The survivors from the various groups all filtered into the one centurion group. Banding together with the other strongest beast cores for what little protection that would offer. Garrett was the current leader of the group, but he could not offer much protection despite being a total powerhouse. He was currently off by himself making his final preparations for his battle later.

  Peter glanced around at the few beast cores that had been able to survive the integration into the centurion division. There were 5 new cores for him to meet: Pachyderm, 204, Crow, 164, Canine, 164, Bear, 134, and Bull, 114. Fellette was the third oldest falling in between Pachyderm and the two from the year group behind him. Each of these cores looked as he would expect. The bull core was basically a minotaur. The bear core looked like an anthropomorphic bear. The canine core was the most human looking of them, just looking like some pudgy guy crossed with a bull dog. His neck and chin were flabby, but still human. Although his back teeth were exposed, they extended out unnaturally at the back of both sides of his mouth.

  The Pachyderm was similar with rubbery hairless skin and drastically elongated ears. His skin was just as flabby as a humanoid walrus with loose hanging skin. The crow core was a female, but only her face was not covered by the black feathers that the rest of her body was covered in. Peter’s curiosity could not help but to check out her form that was clearly more feminine than a rounded bird’s body. She had wings but her body was still that of a woman although covered in soft tuft feathers. Her face was basically human with a normal nose and skin. Did not do anything for him, but she would likely be a furry… feathery fetish person’s wet dream. Only the canine, bull, and pachyderm wore any clothes.

  “This is Peter, Clockwork’s most recent protégé,” Fellette said, introducing him.

  “Yes, we have all witnessed you taking him under your wing…care,” Crow amended.

  “Bringing him to trade, before the rest of us are targeted as well?” Pachyderm asked, with a clearly pessimistic flare.

  “This isn’t anything new,” Bull said. He had a harsh voice, similar to Garrett’s.

  Peter could not blame pachyderm. Other than the material, concept, and gollum factions few of the non millennial factions could get more than a century or two into the centurion division before they were taken care of. Similar to mowing grass that had gotten too tall the major factions actively worked to keep most of the other factions from getting too strong. It was not always the case, just a few hundred years ago the beast faction had been quite strong. Only the millennials could threaten their elite, but after a coordinated takedown they had become what they were today.

  Pachyderm had a right to be worried since after Garrett he was the second oldest. The factions likely would not seek to exterminate all the beasts, but a few from the top, which likely included the second oldest. Fellette may be safe as only the third oldest, or he may not.

  “His cards should be useful to any of you,” Fellette pushed the agenda.

  “Relax, we will each do a standard trade with him,” Crow said dismissively. “Sit down, join us. “Garrett should be fighting in a few hours. I don’t think any of these intermediate cores can hang on for much longer.”

  Peter did so, receiving 2 cards from each of the 5 beast cores. That put him at having spent just over 4 million of the essence haul that he had just received. He had obtained a lot of originals and six new type cards with the beasts and nightshade.

  The intermediate battles concluded in a matter of hours. Holy had once again lost. This time apparently it was for good, since Peter did not see him pop back up to the second floor. A shame, Peter would have loved to get some more holy cards, but then trading with the guy had not exactly been easy. He would have likely wanted more spare cores, which Peter was not sure if he would be willing to trade.

  A few minutes later the centurion battles began. There were a couple others, but Peter focused on Garretts. He likely would have anyway since Garrett and the mantis core were the oldest centurions battling.

  Garrett's first floor looked like it could be inside of a castle, the walls and floors covered with the typical large stones with a nice thick line of mortar holding them together. It was a large and apparently long hallway with smaller staircases up to second level, where units could fire from murder holes. It was like a gauntlet of death, but Peter could see lines of 7 or 8 feet tall humanoid tigers armed and armored for battle, with larger battle cats interspaced through their forces.

  The tigers were all C tier with a good number of B tiers in their midst. They were insufficient. Mantis came hot out of the gate. Dozens of Mantis A tiers and even a few S tiers led the charge, scything through the near helpless tigers they found awaiting them. Still several A tiers went down under a hail of magic attacks. A few more fell under magic traps attached to the ceiling. Magical blades came out from crevices cutting into the flyers. More dart type traps pelted the bug carapaces with hundreds of darts.

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  The mantis mages immediately worked to protect the rest. Incoming magic attacks were seemingly being tracked down by some anti magic or counter spells that launched out intercepting them. There were minor explosives along the walls and ceilings as others worked to either trigger or disarm traps. All while a yellow armored S tier mantis led the rest forward.

  Peter could see the obvious strategy being used by Garrett. It was obviously easier for weaker dungeons to hold off a narrow, or relatively narrow passage than a large room. Garrett had a whole long floor to engage the enemy. Normally one would expect the other dungeon to test the waters with weaker units, so this long hall floor would be perfect to test and gauge the enemy.

  There was however one obvious flaw as well. The mantis core had sent elites from the start and they were carving through Garrett's forces with ease. Garrett on the other hand had difficulty bringing his own elites to bear since they were trapped behind his own low tier forces and a long hallway. Some transported in, but they fell beneath the tide that was now hundreds of A tiers and a handful of S tiers.

  “Don’t worry,” Crow said, patting his arm. “Garrett has an answer to this.” she comforted.

  Peter just nodded and watched. In both the physical and alternate dimensions the tigers were falling under a wave of mantises. Then came the counter out of nowhere appeared a SS green, black, red, and white striped tiger. It appeared less than a hundred feet in front of the S tier yellow mantis.

  The SS tier tiger roared, sending visible yellow expanding circles of energy outward. A good hundred low tier tigers got caught in the waves, but so did hundreds of mantises beyond them. A fraction of a second after the waves passed, dozens of A tier tigers led by a few S tiers broke through fake walls that crumbled behind them as they streaked into the enemies.

  Peter watched as 3 S tiers and dozens of A tier mantises fell in rapid succession. The SS tiger had seemingly paralyzed them. Which Peter found extremely alarming. If used correctly, like here it was likely just as good if not better than his own Armageddon dragon’s void beam.

  “That's, got to hurt,” the Pachyderm chuckled, his flabs of skin and elongated ears shaking and jiggling.

  “His first floor is well known. If his opponent had come out like most do, testing the waters with their lower tiers, Garrett likely would not have revealed that trick. He’s been through at least 2 battles where he didn’t. Just goes to show that you can use intelligence gathering against someone. Losing 3 S tiers right off the bat for a bug core, has to hurt,” Crow said with a wink.

  Crow was extremely friendly and continued to give a bit of a play by play while the male cores all around just watched. Garrett quickly lost his first floor, likely along with nearly 4 to 5 thousand casualties by Boris’ best guess.

  Peter watched all aspects of the battle. He was supposedly facing an insect faction core next year, so this was good intel. The mantises only proved to be a large minority of the mantis core’s forces. Peter saw armies of all kinds based on various cores in the insectoid faction. Crow indicated that this was also typical. Unlike the standard 2 for 2 trades most core types conducted, the insect faction would make large trades acquiring large amounts from others in their faction. This led to most insectoid faction dungeons seeming quite similar, each just having its own flare.

  Peter was also watching Garrett’s forces with interest. It was amazing to see what they were capable of, but this war was not his first time witnessing a centurion battle. Most of the capabilities had been displayed for him before. Still each core had their personal flare. Garrett apparently loved magical traps. They were everywhere. The enemy would slam into what looked like a weak point, only to find their charge leading into a blender of magical energy. Garrett did not seem to mind putting his forces in there as bait, losing them in the process.

  Peter even witnessed Garrett sacrifice a few A tiers as a knot of A tier bugs attacked one of his stronger positions. Two A tier tiger mages completed a containment spell trapping several dozen A tier beetles, while Garret’s other A tiers ran for their lives. The containment spells lasted just long enough to keep the beetles from escaping before a magical explosion killed them all along with the two mages.

  It was ruthless. Peter would like to say that he was better than that, but there had been times when his field commanders, mainly Glenda, had ordered hundreds of lower tier units to stay behind to delay the enemy, while she retreated. Was that any better…? Still Peter doubted that he would go this far purposely sacrificing units… Well at least sentient units, he would have no problems sending in a beast with a bomb attached to it, if he thought it would kill a lot of enemies.

  Peter had to wonder about the Tiger’s dungeon inner workings. Peter’s dungeon units were basically like a real society with dark and moon elves living their lives normally in between congregations. Peter doubted the morale could be high for the units in Garrett's dungeon, when their master would so easily order them to death. For intelligent units a dungeon core could have very specific instructions that the unit would have the capability to follow to the letter. Dumber units could only be controlled to the limit of their cognizance with basic commands. Neither was better off being under someone like Garrett who did not hesitate to sacrifice.

  The battle lasted days, the insect dungeon attacked unceacisily. While Garrett’s own assault came in brief pushes mixed in with attrition warfare. By the end of day 2, Garrett’s assault had at first faltered, and then began to be pushed back. The mantis core’s assault already on the 80th floor continued on without interruption. Garrett had been confident that he would at least beat Mantis, but apparently he had misjudged. Less than five hours later, Garrett’s forces broke and the insects proceeded with little delay through the last 17 floors to reach the core room.

  It was the only battle to have lasted that long, so the congregation only lasted an hour afterwards. Garrett did not show back up. He was gone. Peter was still with the centurion beast group. They all were clearly disappointed, but not overly surprised. Peter saw that Pachyderm was the most visibly shaken. As the next oldest beast core, he was next if the insect faction decided to take some more off of the top.

  Peter soon dismissed himself back to his group. He had interacted with Garrett, far less than even Multiple or Magic, but in some ways this seemed like a bigger loss. The tiger core had just seemed a lot less vulnerable compared to other rookies like him. The reality was different. Garrett was reportedly the strongest core from his year group. The strongest from the beast faction, but even he had fallen to a core that was only a few decades older. Was feeling depressed at the end of congregations going to be standard from here on? His high of having toppled Tombstone was long gone.