by Dean Henegar
The war didn’t stop folks from entering the dungeon, even with him participating in it. He had just about finished up the placement of a few trap upgrades when the ground shook beneath him. Now what’s going on? Drake thought as he pulled up the dungeon viewer. The interface with the dungeon allowed him to view every part of it. Inside one of the main goblin mining chambers, a giant creature identified as a tunnel wurm broke out, dragging itself out using rows and rows of clawed feet.
“That is awesome. I definitely need to drag it into the dungeon after it’s dead. Hopefully I can copy its design. It would make an awesome mini-boss,” Drake said to himself. He loved his class in-game, but it did have a drawback in that all his content was solo. He could have visitors over, but they would be locked out of the dungeon for a considerable time once they looked at his creation interfaces. Yendys and the others liked to run his dungeon since it was so close to town, which meant his main interaction with his friends was inside the tavern. He had really liked showing Raytak around and hoped the others wouldn’t mind a short-term dungeon lockout in return for hanging out inside his sanctum sometime.
He refocused on his task as the dwarves and goblins responded to the incursion. A scattering of goblin guards and miners had been in the cavern when the monster emerged. After the creature ground up a few of the nearby miners, the guards in the chamber responded by ineffectively attacking the wurm. A line of armored dwarves emerged from a side tunnel, where their temporary homes had been placed. Crossbow bolts flew at the creature as the dwarven infantry tried to close in, hampered by the multitude of clawing appendages that lined the monster. Things were going bad for the dwarves even after a swarm of Chief Bugtug’s warriors joined the fight. It was time for him to pitch in.
After teleporting himself out of the dungeon, Drake ran as fast as his halfling-sized legs could carry him. The cavern that the tunnel wurm had emerged from was the next cavern over, and he could hear the combat building as he approached. Taking a small side tunnel that was rarely used, Drake was able to enter the contested cavern unobserved. Things had gone from bad to worse for his allies; hordes of enemies began to pour from the tunnel.
Drake had a weird game mechanic when he participated in battles. Instead of using mana, his abilities took part of his health pool away. Sadly, healing magic and potions wouldn’t work on him, so he had to carefully plan which creatures to summon. He pulled up his interface to look at what he had to work with, the game giving him a random roster of creatures to choose from.
Current Health: 100%.
Available Dungeon Summons:
Goblin Miners: Summon a band of 20–30 goblin miners from the first level of the dungeon. The cost of each summon is 5% of your health.
Goblin Overseers: Summon a band of 5–10 of these larger, stronger, and better-equipped goblins. The cost of each summon is 5% of your health.
Cave Spiders: Summon 5–8 cave spiders from the second level of the dungeon. The cost of each summon is 5% of your health.
Boss Kutrek: The boss of the first floor is a powerful combatant with several melee abilities and requires 25% of your health to summon. Boss Kutrek grants an attack, morale, and defense buff to all friendly goblin forces. Boss creatures can only be summoned once per battle.
Gul Dorg Drone: Summon 10–20 Gul Dorg drones to fight for you. Each summon requires 10% of your health.
Siren, Master of the Gul Dorg: Summon the powerful final boss of your dungeon. Siren grants attack and defense bonuses to nearby Gul Dorg and has several special abilities. Summoning Siren requires 50% of your health.
He didn’t have every creature in his dungeon, but the mix he had been offered this time should do the trick. Looking at the enemy troggs and other assorted creeps pouring out of the tunnel, Drake realized he needed to throw some numbers at them to slow the flow. He summoned two groups of miners and a group of overseers to join the fight. The dungeon mobs appeared nearby, awaiting his orders. With the wurm still in the fight and what looked like a few trolls now emerging, Drake figured he needed more muscle for his forces and summoned Boss Kutrek. He would have sixty percent of his health remaining, enough to bring out another swarm of creatures or even Siren if the situation required it.
Kutrek roared, granting a buff to the other goblins he had summoned. The force waded into the fray, trading blows with the invaders. The ogre boss’s roar also seemed to affect Chief Bugtug’s goblins, granting them the same buffs that his own goblins enjoyed. While his goblins were a lower level than the attackers, they had a series of additional bonuses that were conferred upon dungeon creatures, giving them a big boost to health and making them harder to kill than their normal kin. Kutrek was particularly impressive. His hammer, Skullpopper, slammed into any troggs in his way as he beelined toward the wurm. The dwarves were struggling to bring the monster down, but each of Boss Kutrek’s blows shattered a leg or pulped a section of the monster’s hide.
By the time the wurm was brought down, Drake had lost most of his miners and all but a pair of overseers. Relentless attacks by a myriad of creatures spewing from the tunnel’s mouth slowly ground away Boss Kutrek’s health. Drake’s arrival had bought his allies enough time to marshal their other forces, and a steady stream of dwarves and goblins entered the cavern to join the fight. The horde of enemies emerging from the tunnel never let up. There was quite the menagerie of creatures joining the fight, including waves of troggs, a few giant spiders, trolls, deep gnomes, and more.
He was about to summon more goblin overseers to help Kutrek when the next wave of enemies emerged. Behind a group of particularly nasty Ikbose elves came a swarm of Gul Dorg drones. Drake wasn’t sure where they had come from, but the enemy had made a big mistake in summoning them to this fight. With a cost of fifty percent of his health, Drake summoned Siren.
“Who dares to attempt to enslave my children? I alone am the master of the Gul Dorg. Look upon your doom and weep!” Siren bellowed as she entered the fight. As one, the enemy Gul Dorg switched their allegiance to their true master. There had been nearly two hundred of the monsters, and now they were on Drake’s side. Half the drones tore into their former allies as the others rushed to their master. Siren absorbed her minions, adding them to her body and increasing her power. The dungeon boss waded into the fight, her twisted limbs shearing away enemy creatures with each swipe.
The Ikbose elves that Drake had spotted earlier pulled back from the fight and tried to engage the Gul Dorg master at range, but the damage their arrows inflicted was outpaced by the health she was gaining from absorbing the drones. One of the elves, who Drake assumed was the leader, tried to cast some spell on Siren, which she appeared to shrug off.
“Ha, puny wizard, do you think your pain magic is of use against a being of my power?” Siren taunted as she continued to battle the enemies around her.
After that failure, the elf mage looked about the cavern, and Drake felt her gaze lock onto him. He had thought his diminutive form was well hidden, but somehow, she sensed him. An evil grin appeared on the elf mage’s face as she pointed at him.
You have been struck by Nharia’s Wracking Pain ability for 856 damage. You have died.
The magical attack dropped Drake to zero health, taking him out of the fight. At least his parents not allowing him to have any pain feedback prevented whatever nasty feeling the spell might have imparted. He was able to continue observing the fight, sad that he didn’t get to use up his last summon, but it looked like Siren had things well in hand. Drake didn’t pop to the respawn, content to watch the battle unfold before going back to managing his dungeon.
He was relieved that the dwarves somehow knew that the dungeon creatures were on their side. A hail of bolts from dwarven rapid-fire crossbows skewered the elf Nharia. The other elves were running out of ammo and drawing their melee weapons before rushing into the battle.
Now that the wurm was out of the fight, the armored lines of dwarves boxed in the invaders. Step by step, they pushed the foe back toward the tu
nnel’s entrance while on the other side Siren was able to kill several of the enemy with each blow, absorbing her drones for extra health when needed. The goblins of the Bugtug tribe swept around the melee, darting in for a strike whenever they found an opening. Even with Drake’s summons, the enemy had a numerical advantage, but their position didn’t allow them to exploit it, and they died in droves.
They would hold, at least for now.
***
Delling was observing what he could from the town management table. Messengers arrived regularly to advise him on the progression of the battle. They had defeated some kind of hydra monster before it even reached the gates, and the forces on the walls were preventing the enemy from using scaling ladders, inflicting terrible casualties on the foe, according to his most recent report. The town hall shook violently as the guards raised the alarm. He was under attack. Delling rushed from his office and toward the entrance, watching as the huge ogres that Raytak had assigned to help in his defense began swinging the building’s heavy doors closed.
“Hold a moment,” Delling said as he took a peek outside. A giant snake-looking thing was burrowing up in the courtyard. The pair of scorpions that had been assigned to the defense was already swinging toward it while his guards and the reserves rushed to meet the foe. In the distance, a group of militia ran to join the defenders as the ogres pushed the doors closed.
“Gux and his boys need ta keep da town hall safe, mayor man. Colonel Raytak’s orders. We’ll make sure nothing gets in,” the hulking ogre in charge of the detachment said with confidence. The ogres were in the process of tearing out the heavy benches in the main hall to build a barricade behind the main door. In addition to the squad of ogres, he had a couple dozen town guards inside the building, most of whom were firing crossbows through the building’s small window slits. While it was a civilian building, Delling had shelled out for defensive upgrades at Raytak’s request, including windows that were too small for an enemy to use as an entry point.
Delling could hear the battle outside escalating. The occasional clack of the scorpions ceased, and he moved one of the town guards aside to peek at what was going on. The window he chose on the second level was just high enough to give him a view of the action. A small knot of militia and town guard held out in front of the doors against a courtyard full of troggs. His men were being overpowered one by one, and he assumed that, since the tunnel wurm was alive, his scorpions had been taken out. Getting out of the guards’ way so they could continue to fire, Delling moved down to the first floor by the entry.
“We’ve lost the fight outside,” he informed the hulking ogre, who merely shrugged in response as if their potential doom was no big deal.
“Dey come in, we smashes ’em up good,” the ogre said as they continued to work on their makeshift barricade.
“The last of our troops are down,” one of the guards shooting out of the windows called out.
“The tunnel wurm is heading toward the door. Get ready!” another guard shouted.
With an impact he felt through the soles of his boots, Delling watched the huge doors sag inward as the tunnel wurm began to grind away at the iron-reinforced wood.
In the short time they had to prepare, the ogres had built up a stout barricade, and each of them spread out to find a position behind it, hefting up the spear-sized weapons they used as javelins. With a crash of splintering wood, the tunnel wurm broke through, its entrance met by ten javelins from the ogres. Propelled by the immense strength of the oversized legionnaires, the weapons struck deep into the wurm’s body. The creature had already taken a beating in the fighting outside; numerous scorpion and crossbow bolts protruded from it. Ten spears hitting it at the same time finished the monster, leaving its carcass to block the doorway.
The Hypogean forces wasted no time, and they made disgusting sounds as they began to chop away at the monster blocking the entrance. Tossing poorly worded insults, the ogres chuckled at their foes and formed up in front of the blocked entry. With shields the size of a door, armor rivaling that of a tank, and seemingly inexhaustible strength, the ogres wouldn’t have any trouble holding off the troggs for some time once the wurm was cleared away . . . but would they last long enough for Raytak to come to his aid?
Chapter 33
“Form up,” I ordered the remnants of my reserve company. Our numbers were too few; I needed to bolster them if we were going to hold out.
“Runner!” I shouted. A couple of privates fell in next to me, waiting for their orders. “Get the troops on the southern garrison wall over here. Leave a squad behind on watch but get the others here on the double. Get the even numbers from the western and eastern garrison walls to join in. The others are to stay up high, attack with javelins, and cover the scorpions. Whoever’s left on the northern wall can stay up there and use missiles to thin out the enemy.”
I spoke to the soldiers formed up to fight the enemy. “Extend the line, two ranks,” I said, extending our line at the expense of having only one rank of soldiers in reserve. The line stretched out as the enemy charged forward. I burned my last charges of Goon Squad to further delay our foes. The crazed prisoners rushed at the Hypogean forces, stabbing with their makeshift knives. I pushed our troops forward, trying to get as close to the tunnel’s opening as possible. If I could surround the opening, my men would have an easier time handling the limited numbers that could emerge at one time.
While strong, the troggs were no match for my disciplined soldiers, and we cut them down in droves as our force pushed toward the opening, our lines extending as the soldiers on the walls joined the formation. Those remaining on the wall concentrated their javelin and scorpion fire on the edges of the swarming troggs to keep them from spreading out. I sent another runner to guide the fifty militia that were posted outside the garrison to cover the breach in the northern wall. The rubble from the collapsed wall, along with the carcass of the tunnel wurm, made something of an obstacle, but I wanted at least some forces out there to prevent leakers from causing havoc inside the town if they managed to crawl over. For now, the enemy seemed totally focused on taking over the garrison, one of the keys to controlling the city.
We formed a concave arc around the tunnel’s entrance, the ends of our line anchored on the undamaged sections of the northern wall. I hadn’t been able to push our line to the edge of the tunnel since our advance had been bogged down by the sheer number of enemies that we faced. The men were holding well; this was our type of fight, and we had the upper hand. Unfortunately, as the enemy piled up, the massed corpses presented a problem. Troggs stood atop the mounded corpses and tried to leap past our line. For now, each time they tried, soldiers in the rear rank were able to put them down with little trouble. The second rank thinned as soldiers stepped up to replace losses or relieve exhausted soldiers.
“Runner, pull the last squad from our southern wall and only leave a squad on the east and west,” I ordered, pulling from the only source of troops I had left. The decision gave me fewer men on the walls to rain down fire but freed up another forty or so troops to flesh out our line.
“One step back, now!” I ordered. Our line extended with the move, but the piles of bodies were becoming too much of a problem. In the back of the enemy mob, I spotted a bizarre sight. Several troggs were boosting small imps into the air as far as their arms could reach. The imps began to chant and make strange arm motions before unleashing balls of fire at the same point in my line. Landing with a flash of heat, the small fireballs exploded. Magic resistance kicked in, reducing the damage and allowing many of my men to avoid any injuries at all. The imps looked shocked that their attack didn’t blow apart our line and began to cast again as the soldiers on the wall fired at them. The imps launched another round before being either killed or jumping down to hide among the press of bodies. This time, several men next to each other were taken out, creating a small breach.
At that point, the wall of troggs parted and a swarm of imps charged through. My men tried to
close the ring, but more and more imps forced their way in. Running toward the breach, I activated Honor Guard, ordering the elite squad to close the gap. The imps, which the system identified as imp warriors, continued to pour through, but my Honor Guard was able to close the breach for long enough that my men could seal up the line. Once formed up, the men easily cut down the weaker imps. Their light armor and twin dagger setup made me think they were more adept at surprise attacks than fighting against a shield wall.
The swarm of imps that had made it through our lines headed toward the command post in what I assumed was a bid to take control of the location. I didn’t know what would happen if they made it inside. Would taking that single building count as taking over the garrison? Would my defensive garrison forces suddenly despawn if they did? I didn’t know for sure, but I couldn’t pull anything away from our defense without risking the line being overwhelmed. My headquarters was fortified, and the few troops inside were well trained. I had to trust them to accomplish their mission as I fought to accomplish mine.
The soldier in front of me fell as an imp’s dagger found an unarmored gap in his leg at the same time as a trogg landed a heavy blow with his club. I stepped into the gap, thrusting my sword down at the imp while the soldier to my left dealt with the trogg. My men were as distracted as I had been, several shooting worried glances over their shoulders to keep tabs on the enemy loose in the rear of our army. I couldn’t have that. I needed to keep the men focused or the enemy would break our line once more.
“Who are we?” I shouted. My voice, somehow enhanced by the system, boomed across the garrison.
“We are the 1st Legion!” the men shouted back in unison.
“What are we?” I shouted.
“We are the rock upon which armies break!”
