Nearly faster than she could follow, Palzerk zoomed across the distance, his sword held horizontally to the side as he passed by the Necromancer. No shield sprang up to protect the Goblin, and a brief moment after the Orc shot by like one of Echo’s bolts, the foul raiser of undead lost its head as it hit the floor with a satisfying *thump*.
“I’ve never seen something like that shield before,” her King said, watching the Goblin’s body dissolve and leave behind a small greyish gem as dungeon loot. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’m not sure we could’ve killed that thing.” Her King and Queen repeated this – in what Echo assumed was Orcish – as they bowed towards Palzerk, who only shrugged in response.
The Warband Leader said something in the same language, which the Queen quickly translated for them all. “We all have our roles to play in this. There are situations which require spells or arrows sent from a distance, while others require a more hands-on approach.” Echo thought that was an apt description, and very astute – especially coming from an Orc. They aren’t all brawn and no brains, even if some of them seem that way. I’ve really got to work on my preconceived notions of them.
As they moved on, Sandra suddenly interrupted their progress.
* You may want to hurry. The Dungeon Core you’re heading towards had recalled all of its Goblins from their assault on my dungeon almost immediately after you entered its dungeon, and they’re on their way. If you don’t get to it soon, you’re going to encounter a very angry horde of Dungeon Monsters. Fortunately, from what I can tell, you only have one more large room ahead of you. *
That was the first she had heard from Sandra since they entered the dungeon, but with the defense of her own dungeon a priority, it was understandable. The strain and frantic tone of the Dungeon Core’s voice from before was nearly gone, at least, in no small part because she had one less group of monsters to defend against. Granted, those same monsters were heading for Echo and her party, so it wasn’t all positive.
Her party looked at each other after Sandra’s announcement, and she nodded along with the rest as they understood what they had to do. They needed to get through this last room quickly, otherwise they would be attacked from behind. Therefore, without any other hesitation, they surged ahead through the tunnel, keeping to their formation they had intuitively established with those with the best defense out front.
When Echo got a look at the massive room they had to fight their way through, filled with so many Goblins that she could barely see the floor, she knew that Sandra had been right; if they had attempted to breach into the room from the long tunnel connecting the dungeons, they would’ve been overwhelmed almost immediately. As it was, they might still be overwhelmed, but there was at least a small space near the entrance where they could dig in and defend against the coming onslaught.
King Mynag shouted something and banged on his shield with his battleaxe, and though it wasn’t automatically translated for her by Sandra, she knew it was probably along the lines of, “Let’s do this!”
Let’s do this, indeed.
Chapter 47
Defending against so many Dungeon Monsters all at the same time had been relatively easy when her foes were separate, coming through the tunnels connecting the dungeons; at least, easy when compared to an assault that involved all of the dungeons attacking in a coordinated assault. She had seen it somewhat in Avensglen when the Beast and Slime dungeons had attacked the Elven village in concert, but this was so much worse.
They attacked in waves and large groups, both through her main entrance and through her Roc tunnel, at times overwhelming her defenses with pure numbers rather than through any particular strategy. Regardless, Sandra was prepared for the onslaught of Monsters; through everything that had happened lately, including her temporary loss of control, there was one thing she made sure to maintain: A fully stocked and defended dungeon. Occasionally she had needed to borrow some of her defenders for purposes aboveground, but she always replaced them as soon as possible.
There were some things that, as a Dungeon Core in form, were universal “requirements” – the maintenance of their dungeon being one of them. It was why, despite their insistence in throwing thousands of Dungeon Monsters at her constantly, the other Cores still had defended dungeons.
Therefore, for the first 20 minutes or so of the initial attack on her domain, she was holding firm. Her traps throughout her “main” dungeon route were absolutely devastating the enemy monsters, especially once they passed through the first half of the rooms, where she had redesigned them to include multiple elements. Goblins, Beasts, and Slimes by the scores were torn apart, burned, blinded, smashed, cooked alive, drowned, poisoned, or otherwise destroyed so thoroughly that Sandra thought the other Cores would eventually give up.
That was, unfortunately, far from the case. Having – for the most part – never seen her dungeon’s defenses before, the other Dungeon Cores didn’t know what to expect. Now that they saw it, they knew what a deathtrap it was – but that didn’t deter them in the least, contrary to what Sandra was expecting. Instead, they kept on coming – and they were starting to push through, deeper and deeper until she began to become very worried.
In her Roc tunnel, her defenses were doing much better, even against the Golems and the larger Dungeon Monsters that wouldn’t fit in her main entrance. Exploding Goblins of her own (at first some leftover Foremen and then Crafters when she ran out) created with Energy Orbs as Monster Seeds, absolutely devastated many of the larger Beasts that decided they wanted to eat them. An explosion in their unprotected mouths, throats, and stomachs was an effective tactic against them.
Against the Golems, the room containing the beams of intense heat tore them to pieces, as they were unable to move through the room without passing through them. When the trap ran out of Mana, they made it through unscathed, even from the bombs being dropped from above, but they were chewed up shortly thereafter in the subsequent rooms from heat or explosive attacks that shattered or melted them into slag.
The same could be said for the Slimes, especially many of the much larger ones that blobbed their way into her dungeon. Heat and explosions were enough to tear them up without fail, and they didn’t progress very far before dying. The few Goblins that joined in the fracas fared even worse, including the Goblin Commanders, who didn’t have enough of a defense against the traps she had in place.
Things started to change once the new Monsters started to show up, however.
Utilizing the Aerie and High Peak Rocs she now had outside, especially the 3 she had just recently regained from her friends returning, she had taken out most of the Slime Dragons that appeared, and two of her giant birds worked together to snatch up and tear apart the humongous bunny rabbit that had emerged from the Beast-Classification dungeon. She moved one of her Expanded Mobile Fortifications from Avensglen to near her Roc tunnel entrance, which helped to eliminate many of the larger Beasts and Slimes as well, but both types of her defenders could only do so much.
This was especially true when the first Magnetite Golem arrived on the scene. Sandra thought that her Fortification would be too large to be greatly affected by the magnetic Monster—but she was wrong. It only took 10 seconds for her powerful construct to be pulled into the Golem, and it wasn’t a delicate process; the twisted wreckage of the Fortification was piled up around the Golem, which seemed entirely unharmed. The best she could say was that it was rendered immobile, at least until another Golem stopped by and crushed the core of the Mobile Fortification on its exposed platform, and her construct disappeared.
If the magnetic Monster would’ve been able to fit inside of her main entrance, her defenses would’ve been devastated. As it was, it clomped inside of her Roc tunnel, which was primarily full of non-metallic Dungeon Monsters that she had unlocked via her Advancement Options. At that point, they were taken out by many of her traps, though they wreaked havoc on some of the other defenses – like her explosive bombs and Goblins covered in shrapnel.
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br /> The metallic Mercury Slime, on the other hand, was able to squeeze inside of her main entrance. Almost immediately, the inability of her constructs to harm the Slime was obvious, and it was able to progress all the way to her room filled with lava without any harm; at that point, Sandra’s Digger constructs were able to knock it into the superhot Fire-Earth trap, where it promptly melted. There wasn’t just one, though, which made her worried for when another one would reach that point and her trap ran out of Mana.
One of the giant bunnies also succeeded in outrunning her Roc force up above and managed to make it to her large tunnel, where it practically shot through her defenses as if they weren’t even there, knocking other Monsters aside in its rush to reach the end. Nothing seemed to harm it, and it was in and out so quickly that many of the traps barely had time to activate before it was gone. It was only when it reached one of the last rooms inhabited by her Animated Slabs that it finally got caught.
One of the Slabs slammed shut on the bunny’s right hind leg, stopping its forward momentum abruptly. Sandra heard a loud *snap* as it slammed into the floor, which was full of more Slabs. Unfortunately, the rabbit was so large that her Earthen Monsters couldn’t fully engulf the giant Beast, and it struggled mightily to break free. Before it could extricate its hind leg, Sandra decided to use what she had learned earlier to finish it off.
The Dungeon Core took 500 Fire Mana and 500 Water Mana, placed them just in front of the frantic bunny, and then attempted to combine them together. The resulting explosion from the opposing elements was enough to rip the rabbit’s head apart, but it also had the unfortunate side-effect of shattering over half of her Animated Slabs inside of the room. The entire room also shook hard enough that some of the Dwarven villagers near her Home room could feel it.
Oops. It was probably too much Mana that she had pumped into the explosion; but then again, she hadn’t wanted to use too little. That had been her one chance to stop the large Monster, as she hadn’t wanted to be forced to close her Roc tunnel to prevent it from reaching her Core.
The worst of it all, however, was when the Goblin Necromancers joined in the fun. Not only were there some near her main entrance, but they were also near the Roc tunnel, casting their undead-raising aura over all of the Beasts that went inside. Sometimes it was hard enough to kill some of the larger Monsters, such as the bear-monkey creatures, or the Elephants that charged through, but when they would just get back up after dying, some even missing limbs, that made it all that much more difficult to put them down for good. Only when their heads were destroyed or separated from their bodies would they stay down for good.
Luckily, if she could consider it luck, there weren’t a lot of Beasts that survived long in her Roc tunnel, as they were susceptible to many of Sandra’s own Monsters and traps. Her main entrance, on the other hand, was slowly becoming overwhelmed with undead. As they pushed farther and farther, the Mana in her traps constantly running out and having to recharge, it was all Sandra could do to keep creating constructs to stop them before they could reach her Core.
If it wasn’t for the fact that so many Monster Seeds were being dropped by the incoming hordes, she probably would’ve been destroyed within the first 20 minutes. Even with absorbing every Seed dropped, she was barely keeping up with her defenses, and the strain of watching every part of her dungeon was starting to wear on her. When a few of the Goblin Necromancers started to venture into her Roc tunnel, casting their aura on Sandra’s non-construct Monsters, she knew she was in trouble. While it didn’t really affect her own Goblins too much, since they were usually destroyed in the process of exploding, when they reached her room with the Wyvines, it started to become a problem.
When one of them died, she lost complete control of it as it rose back up as an undead Wyvine under the control of the Goblin-Classification Dungeon Core.
At that point, Sandra was forced to pull almost all of her constructs from her extensive connecting tunnels and send them to contain this new threat. She even contemplated creating and using another Gravitational Devastation Sphere to help slow the incoming tide of Monsters; however, even if she dared to risk it, it still wasn’t past its cooldown from the first time she had activated it to great effect versus the Undead horde.
Nevertheless, while it was a bit dangerous to leave the passageways leading to the other dungeons relatively unguarded, they still contained enough traps to stop any incursion from that direction – not that she expected that to happen. Fighting a war on two fronts was difficult for them to maintain, and the hostile Cores were having more success working together than apart.
It was at that time that the party of Royal Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and one Gnome arrived at their destination, and it was all she could do to hold everything together while she prepared them for their swift attack on the Goblin-Classification dungeon. Less than a minute after her Champion Totems broke through the last wall between her dungeon and the other dungeon, when the powerful party containing Echo and Gerold were fully engaged in their attack, Sandra finally gained a reprieve.
The Goblins were pulling out. Turning around and abandoning their allies, they raced back to their own dungeon to help defend it against the invaders – which was what Sandra had been hoping for. Thanks to Bonding with the Core soul fragment in her mind, Sandra had recently begun to really understand the contracts a Core had to abide by, as well as how a Core would react to a sudden threat to their dungeon; as a result, it made her fairly sure that such an outcome would present itself. Since their presence in the dungeon had prevented many of their normal abilities, the threat was something that couldn’t be ignored; an attack from Sandra’s constructs, alone, likely wouldn’t have the same sort of effect.
The Goblins had a lot of ground to cover to get back to their dungeon, naturally, but they were quick; the party of all four races needed to be quicker.
The beleaguered Dungeon Core finally obtained some breathing room ,as no more Goblins or Beasts were obtaining the aura that would raise them back from the dead, though those that already had them remained. Still, the sudden departure of 25% of her dungeon invaders allowed her to recover a little bit and start to push back.
Only 15 minutes later, with things becoming a relative stalemate – though Sandra was starting to gain the upper hand, with fewer and fewer Monsters emerging from the other 3 dungeons – she noticed that the group she had sent with her Resonating Prismatic Core weren’t yet to their destination, so she had to warn them of the impending danger. She was just glad that there wasn’t any sort of trap that would cut off her communication with them like what happened with the Undead-Classification Core; having the entrance collapse back then had nearly rendered death upon all who had entered. Since the frontal wave of Goblins were already filing into the dungeon, it wouldn’t be long before they smashed into the back of the group at what would likely be an inopportune time.
Without as much of a threat from the Monsters invading her dungeon at that point – though she kept 99% of her focus on them – Sandra was finally able to watch her friends fighting through the perspective of her Champion Totems and Repair Drones that had gone with them. To her surprise, the Totems weren’t even being utilized; instead, they were almost acting like guards for the Drones, and she didn’t even think they had seen any action.
But that was understandable, especially with what she was witnessing. Fear born from some deep-down Core instinct shot through her as she watched the complete and utter annihilation of the Goblins that attacked the front line of King Mynag, First-shield Parten, Princess Celeste, and Gerold. Palzerk and Owchet were savage killers that protected their flanks, smashing and tearing through everything that got close, though one of the Repair Drones was needed to heal Owchet a few times as he got sliced up by the sheer number of weapons surrounding him.
But the real fear came from watching the Elven Royal couple casting their spells. Waves of flames, showers of boulders, massive clouds of poisonous gas, and a number of other large area-of-ef
fect spells absolutely devastated dozens—hundreds—of Monsters at a time. Above them on her Pegasus, Echo pitched in by firing bolt after bolt into the incoming horde of Goblins. In short, they appeared unstoppable. All I can say is that I’m glad they aren’t trying to reach my Core.
But Sandra recognized that they were still mortal and expending a lot of elemental energy. She could see that they were starting to tire from the use of so much power draining through their bodies, and eventually they would reach a breaking point. They might be more powerful than almost anything she’d seen before, but there would be a time where they could only take so much.
Luckily, that time was not today.
“Go! Break through to the other tunnel!” Sandra translated the Elven King’s words to everyone, now that she had the focus to do it, and she watched as they all advanced as a group toward the far end of the massive room, rolling over anything in their way as if it were all an inconvenience. The small tunnel leading towards what Sandra assumed was the Core room seemed impossibly far away, but the party managed to break through everything in their way.
Standing in front of the tunnel were 4 Goblin Necromancers, safe behind their Spirit-based bubble shields, and Sandra wondered how they would get through—
At least, that was before she watched Princess Celeste, Gerold, Palzerk, and Owchet step up and quickly smash or slice the Necromancers apart, leaving them in pieces on the ground in no time flat. I guess they can’t really withstand melee attacks. She was wondering if they had a weakness, so that was good to know.
There were still dozens of Goblins trying to reach them, but the party ran through the tunnel to the Core Room with great speed. As soon as they entered, the other party members engaged those Goblins protecting the Core, which was a greyish-glowing crystalline shape floating in the center of the room.
The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Page 47
