That Core has been one step ahead of me this entire time; there’s no way it could coordinate all that before it started its upgrade, which means that whole thing with not absorbing the Monster Seeds was just a ruse. It’s been aware of everything this entire time, just waiting to strike.
She canceled her plans to send the diggers, instead keeping them safe back in her dungeon; she could always send them later, but she doubted they would live long enough to make it to the collapsed entrance in the first place, let alone being allowed to dig for hours in their excavation.
As she tried to develop some alternative plans, she hoped that everyone trapped down there was alright – because it was all up to them now…
Chapter 32
Echo watched as the others stumbled below her as the ground shook and the sound of rocks and dirt crashing together filled the tunnel behind them.
* The entrance is collapsing and I’m losing connection to my Monsters – they’re under your command now, Felbar! I’ll try to— *
The rest of whatever Sandra was trying to tell them was lost as Echo felt some unknown connection sever itself within her mind. The destruction behind them finally settled, and Echo turned her Pegasus Starlight around to see what happened – only to find the way behind was blocked.
“Is everyone alright?” she yelled out, as dust seemed to fill the tunnel and she coughed as she made her way to the second room again.
No one answered her and she got a little worried, until she realized that no one could understand her; the automatic translation that Sandra normally did for them was no longer there. She looked around and saw Felbar and the other Gnomes – including Gerold in his all-metal construct – and sighed in relief…before a little part of her mind started to panic.
We’re trapped! There’s no way out!
Elves weren’t very comfortable underground, and it had taken a while to get used to being inside Sandra’s dungeon – and she still wasn’t completely at ease. The only thing that had made it more bearable was the knowledge that she could leave at any time, and the exit was only a relatively short distance away; now, trapped underground in a dangerous undead-filled dungeon, Echo was starting to lose her nerve.
I should’ve never insisted in coming!
Her panic was only increased when she saw the way all of Sandra’s monsters were frozen in place – though they were staring at Felbar for some reason. The only one that wasn’t doing that was Starlight, which Sandra had specifically told her would follow her commands. Looking around some more, she also realized that they were missing some of the monsters that had come with them; looking back down the tunnel, she realized that at least a dozen of the metal monkeys, a handful of Pegasi, and nearly 20 of the strange beings made of light were still behind her in the tunnel – and were now buried under tons of dirt and stone.
“What are we going to do?! We’re all going to die!” she cried out, the panic now ramping up as she began to realize their situation. She hadn’t realized she had been relying on Sandra to coordinate everything, and without the Dungeon Core there she was feeling lost.
Luckily, no one could understand her, and they ignored her hysterical panicking; it’s all good for those Dwarves, she thought, because they’re used to living underground and probably don’t care, but I swear the low ceiling in this room is getting lower.
Felbar barked out something – which was completely foreign to her – and every monster in the room…except Starlight and the creepy Shapeshifter things for some reason…turned to the right. Another barked command and they all jumped, followed by another that made them all attack some invisible enemy ahead of them with their weapons – or hooves.
Well that’s good at least; if Felbar can control them, then maybe we have a chance. Though, without the Shifters following his commands—wait a minute! Sandra put me in charge of them!
The knowledge of her responsibility towards the others in commanding the Shapeshifters dampened her panic further, though it was still simmering under the surface of her thoughts. With her own barked command, “Begin!”, 10 of the multi-colored monsters morphed into a naked version of herself. She was beyond caring at that point, but the 10 that had shifted went to the backs of the nearest Pegasi and opened up the packs that were strapped there and pulled out some basic beige-colored cotton clothing. When they put on the outfit – more for her and the others’ sake of modesty than for any real protection – they unstrapped the bows and quivers as well, before climbing on top of the Pegasi.
A different command came from Felbar and it was obviously directed towards just the white flying horses, because they immediately turned towards Echo. She smiled in the Gnome’s direction, assuming that he had just given her control of them – or at least told them to listen to her commands. While Echo had originally been in charge of the Shapeshifters, apparently Sandra hadn’t made the Pegasi as part of that deal.
There were still 30 Shapeshifters and 6 Pegasi not being used – they were going to have to adapt without the extra mounts and supplies – because they were all going to be on a rotating “shifting” schedule. Since they could be in the form they were in for an hour, followed by an hour off, the plan was to start with 10 for 30 minutes, add another 10 for 30 minutes, and then when the original 10 shifted back, a different 10 would shift into Echo’s form. That way, except for the first 30 minutes, there would always be 20 shifted Echos riding Pegasi and following the Elf’s instructions. Of course, with 4 Pegasi crushed behind them, some of the Echos would have to be land-bound and only use their energy to cast spells – but it was better than nothing.
Sensing that they were as ready as they were going to be, Felbar somehow directed his commands to just a select few Apes and the beings made of light that Sandra called Celestial Authorities – but Echo had a feeling were actually Angels, which she had heard of but never seen before – to make their way through the tunnel ahead of them. After a few moments, everyone else followed behind them, starting with the rest of the Angels and Apes, then the Dwarves and, finally, Felbar. As he passed by her, his construct held its weapon up to its head in some sort of awkward salute…and she strangely felt a little better.
Echo took a deep breath to settle her nerves, before she too called out to the 10 Echos creepily facing her and waiting for orders. “Follow me and attack what I attack.” The other unshifted monsters stayed near the back of the pack, along with the 8 white cylindrical constructs that were acting as their healers. At least we didn’t lose any of those.
When she entered the third room, the battle against some large zombie bears was just concluding, with the last one being sliced apart by three separate Authorities at the same time with their longswords made of pure light. She felt a slight kinship with them because of their obvious Holy-element affiliation, and she was happy they were on their team against the vile undead that were infesting the dungeon.
There was a trap inside the room as well, though fortunately none of their constructs were…stuck…in it. Near the end of the room just off from the exit, there was a rectangle of a black so deep it seemed to suck in every bit of light around it – including the light being shed by the Angels in the room. An exact copy of the rectangle was on the ceiling right above the other one, and there were a dozen of Sandra’s strange metal ball constructs falling from it. As soon as they would hit the black rectangle on the ground, it would reappear a split-second later from above, before falling into the one below again.
She barely recognized the balls, though, because they were falling fast. Faster than Echo could run, and she thought that was pretty fast; those metal constructs, though, were moving so quickly that they were essentially a blur. The others stood around in fascination for a moment, before Felbar said something and everyone started to move towards the exit. As they were making their way around the strange trap, the rectangles suddenly disappeared, and the balls hit the ground with such speed that they hit the ground and exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere.
One even hit her
across the room in her shoulder and she hissed in pain and surprise; placing her hand on the wound, she saw that it was relatively shallow and not too serious, so she looked around at everyone else to see how they fared. Luckily, the only one to get seriously hurt by the shrapnel was one of the extra Pegasi, which practically had its right wing sheared off by a large metal fragment moving at high speed.
The healing “Drones” moved around to those wounded and automatically healed them with their strange, thin, padded arms and they were ready to move on. Note to self: stay away from traps still in operation, even if they seem relatively harmless.
The fourth room held a trio of large Ogre Skeletons, which were again dispatched by the monsters they had with them, though an Ape had its lower half smashed flat by the downswing smash of a massive bone club. The healing construct was able to repair it, but now they faced a problem. The previous rooms had been scouted out by Sandra’s smaller constructs, but this room hadn’t had that done yet; they had managed to kill the Ogres without triggering anything by staying near the entrance, but now it was difficult to determine how to go about either bypassing a trap that they didn’t know the location of, or sacrificing one of their more powerful monster allies to definitively find it.
No one moved as Felbar looked at the Dwarves and even Echo as if he was asking for her opinion. She shrugged and briefly considered offering to shoot some arrows to see if she could trigger it, but she didn’t want to waste what they had – especially since the other Echos would follow suit.
Gerold stepped forward unexpectedly, saying something to the other Dwarves and a single word to Felbar. Echo had no idea where he was going, but he seemed to be trying to find something as he looked at the floor, holding his arm out like some sort of dowsing rod. Finally, he stopped about two-thirds of the way through the room and knelt down awkwardly in his construct. A deep black essence flowed from where his hand would be underneath the metal arm of his “Deep Delver”, pooling along the ground until it seemed to concentrate and outline a large rectangular shape.
Echo knew he had access to Nether energy, which at first made her a little wary of him because of that fact alone, but she eventually ignored it. Now, though, seeing him do something she’d never heard of before surprised her – mainly because it almost appeared as if he was casting some sort of spell like she and others of her kind were able to. That’s very strange…but also very useful, if that is indeed where the trap trigger is.
The Dwarf stood up and waved everyone forward in a hurried gesture. Already she could see the smoky essence starting to dissipate, so it was obvious that it wouldn’t last long; now that they knew where it was, though, everyone avoided it on their way through to the next room. She gave him a thumbs up when she passed him, letting him know that she was appreciative of his help, despite it coming from a source of Nether.
His ability to locate the trap triggers wouldn’t have mattered in the fifth room unless he went first, because it was set off shortly after 5 each of the Apes and Angels entered the room. From what she could see from behind the crowd down the tunnel, dozens of large black orbs appeared from across the room and shot towards the entrance of the room where the trigger apparently was. They slammed into the unfortunate monsters who set the trap off at high speed, extinguishing the light coming from the Angels after 4 or 5 hit them one after another; the Apes were hit so hard that they were launched backwards against the near wall and were basically flattened, while one was sent down the tunnel again and collided with some other Apes, causing major damage to a half-dozen of them.
After everyone pulled back a little and they were able to fix the damaged Apes – including the one that was hit into the tunnel – Gerold walked forward cautiously and inspected the ground ahead of him. After a quick look, he boldly walked towards where the trap was likely triggered…and nothing happened.
Good to know it has been deactivated, but he better not get too cocky.
With the trap now used up for the moment, they were able to enter the room, which was large enough to hold them all easily and then some; there didn’t appear to be any undead in the room at all, which was strange, but it also gave the next round of Shapeshifters to shift into more Echos, though 4 of them were forced to stay naked and weaponless. Just as the 6 that actually did have clothes started to put them on as the Dwarves nervously hefted their axes, talking softly amongst themselves – probably at the lack of undead monsters in the room – when Gerold suddenly bent his Deep Delver’s head back enough to look up.
Echo didn’t have time to think, she just reacted instinctively as she pulled up her bow and nocked an arrow all in one motion and fired above her head without aiming. Her arrow released and she barely held on the bow as it snapped back straight, but her focus was all on where she had aimed. Barely visible in the dim light, dozens or maybe hundreds of Specters were starting to descend from the ceiling; it was hard to tell how many of them were there because they all seemed to blend into each other.
Her explosive arrow went straight through them because there wasn’t anything substantial to them, but the undead had barely started moving when it smashed against the hard stone ceiling. A large explosive fireball erupted from where it hit, enveloping the nearby Specters and burning them completely away. Less than a second later, another 10 arrows shot upwards from the Echo copies who did exactly what she did, though they fortunately didn’t aim exactly where she shot; instead they too shot straight upwards which meant that there was a painfully loud explosion that blanketed most of the ceiling in temporary flames.
Small shrapnel from the arrows fell back down at high speed, though fortunately no one was hurt – though she could hear some *pings* as some hit a few Apes and bounced off. When her vision cleared from the sudden brightness of the explosions, she saw that very few of the Specters were actually still alive, and they continued to descend. She didn’t bother to fire another arrow because it wouldn’t do much good, but before she could start to gather the Holy energy to launch a Lightstrike spell, Felbar and Gerold had already raised their left arms and blasted some quick flames in their direction, burning them out of the air.
When the rest of the Specters were dead, they all stood around in the deafening silence as they all tried to wrap their heads around the pure destructive power of the arrows Echo and her doubles had shot. It was one thing experimenting with them outside in the wastelands, but it was something else entirely to use them in a confined space – and so many at the same time.
She reached up to her ears as she felt something warm trickling down it; she briefly wondered if she was wrong about no one getting hurt from the shrapnel…when she realized it was coming from both of her ears. Those explosions certainly were loud, I guess.
The healing Drone stopped by her and the Dwarves to fix their blown-out eardrums, though it seemed as though the Deep Delver had protected Gerold and Felbar enough that they didn’t require help. When she could hear again, she looked around and smiled at all of the others, who hadn’t been expecting the destructive power of all of them shooting together. I don’t think I was either.
She shrugged as if to say, “What are you going to do,” before settling herself with a small smile. The panic that had set in earlier was all but gone as she realized she was doing what she had always wanted to do: be a part of an “elite” team of individuals that had the express duty to cull Monsters and destroy dungeons. It also helped that it was an undead dungeon that they were bent on destroying, as that would make success that much sweeter. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that they were trapped underground with no chance of escaping, she would say that she was having a good time.
Without further ado, the others turned toward the exit and Felbar ordered the monsters he controlled forward. Echo and her cadre of copies followed after, and for the first time since she stepped foot into this dungeon, she was actually looking forward to testing herself against whatever was upcoming.
* * *
Echo wasn’t having a good ti
me anymore, nor was she looking forward to destroying any more undead. She couldn’t be quite sure because she had lost track of how many times her Shapeshifters had switched forms, but she was pretty sure they had been making their way through the dungeon for at least 6 or 7 hours; it could be longer, but she was starting to get really hungry even after having a huge breakfast earlier – and no one had thought to bring food along in what was supposed to only take a couple of hours. Then again, her extreme hunger could be because she had to be healed a few more times and had used her entire reserve of Holy elemental energy reserve at least once, though fortunately it had been regenerated by the Energy Orb around her neck.
The others looked ragged as well from the constant stress of killing undead and worrying that the next room would have a trap that could kill them all. Luckily, through some sort of miracle, no one had died; well, that wasn’t quite true – no living person had died. Their force of monsters was now whittled down to a fraction of what it had been at the start. From a small army of powerful dungeon-created constructs and monsters, they barely numbered more than herself, Felbar, and the Dwarves.
She had the most left on her team, in fact; 10 Shapeshifters – whittled down from 40 – was all she had left, which meant that only 3 or 4 of them were in Echo form every 45 minutes, with a 15-minute overlap where there was more. The smaller number of them was probably good, because they only had 5 Pegasi left – including Starlight…actually Starlight “2” because the original Pegasus she had been riding had been killed by a trap a few rooms before. She was a good flying horse…
She didn’t have the opportunity to mourn, however, because their supply of Apes and Angels was also dangerously low. They only had 8 of the Apes wielding their special warhammers and 4 of the Celestial Authorities left, as they had paid the price for traps that were unable to be identified in time, or because of attrition due to fighting undead. In fact, the only one of Sandra’s monsters that had survived intact were the healing Drones, mainly because they always stayed at the back of the group and no one wanted to risk them not being there when they needed them.
The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Page 38
