The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2)

by Jonathan Brooks

  As she had figured, no amount of baiting could get the hydra-adjacent monster to move more than an inch or two; however, she did notice what seemed to be its drawback – when it did move, the body moved very slowly, which indicated that it couldn’t travel very quickly. It was quite possible that it could drag itself with its snake heads by grabbing onto something ahead, but if it were in an open field, it could probably only move a mile every day or two.

  Sandra managed to maneuver one of her equally fast Steel Pythons up to its side and a little underneath it, somehow avoiding a dozen strikes by the snake heads and hiding protectively underneath the bulk of the Dungeon Monster. She hoped to be able to bite into the side of the creature and find a way inside of it like what had happened when she killed the Ancient Saurian, but all her Python’s bites did was scratch the surface of the hydra-thing’s extremely tough skin. After about a minute of that, she was starting to make some progress as some chunks were being ripped away, but then the entire bulk shifted without warning and flattened her own metal snake like a piece of copper in a press. The enormous weight of the monstrous snake was, to put it bluntly, impossibly unreal – but the same could be said considering some of her own constructs, she supposed.

  Sandra and her constructs were running out of time. While she was doing all of those tests to see if there was an easy way past, her waiting constructs had been attacked by a small force of reptiles that emerged from somewhere behind them. It was a small force, thankfully, but she did manage to lose another Mechanical Wolf to a crocodile; if she didn’t hurry, her force would continue to be whittled down until there was nothing left. While the Core could easily provide unending waves of reinforcements, she couldn’t quite do the same at the moment.

  Therefore, it was decision time; should she attack all out and hope to be able to do enough damage to kill the massive monster, or should she keep trying out different scenarios to see if there was one that might end up being more effective? As she looked back in her dungeon to see that the Elves had just passed through the thirteenth room in her dungeon with only four more to go before they arrived at her Home room, she chose to go with option one – because she didn’t think she’d have enough time before it was too late to matter.

  The simple order to attack was the only one she needed to give as her constructs rushed forward, though she did try to get her Shears to aim for vulnerable spots like the snakes’ eyes and even their open mouths when they attacked. Either they were extremely unlucky, or the order didn’t really translate well, because all 246 of Sandra’s remaining Small Animated Shears impacted the same place on the lower “body” of the hydra-creature. Most of them bounced off harmlessly like they did against a turtle shell, when all of them hit the exact same spot at full speed – which even the snakes couldn’t match to try to snatch them up – they actually made a sizable hole through its tough outer skin. Greenish blood slowly spilled out of the wound, but on the whole it looked fairly superficial.

  And, unfortunately, she couldn’t communicate fast enough with her constructs to try to take advantage of the wound. She thought it would be perfect if one of her Pythons were able to crawl inside and wreak havoc on the hydra-creature’s internal organs, but they instead just slithered toward the body and tried to eat their way in from below. All but one of them was snatched up by the snake heads, crunched a few times, and then flung away to impact and get further destroyed by the nearby hardened dirt wall.

  Her Blademasters were snatched up next and discarded just as quickly as they were bent out of shape, disappearing into their Monster Seeds even before they hit the ground. Her Wolves and Jaguars managed to reach the body and climb up on its back, where they attempted to bite their way through the tough lower portions of the actual snake bodies – Sandra assumed it was in the hope that it would be like cutting its head off. With all of them managing to gather around the same spot, they went to work biting and clawing through the skin and were making some impressive progress – before they started to get snatched up as well. Before long, they too were crushed and sent to join their fellow constructs who had been destroyed before.

  Her Apes, on the other hand…didn’t have much luck, either. While their hard and heavy Iron bodies resisted being crushed and tossed everywhere, they could at least be marginally picked up and released to bounce and slide away to the other side of the room. After most of them had been picked up and shoved away, they were looking quite beat-up and even missing limbs. Sandra despaired as almost all of her constructs were destroyed, though she did notice that her last remaining Python had managed to circle around the side of the large bulk of the hydra-thing’s body. From what she could see, it was wedged into a small crack in the wall where it was in no danger of being crushed or picked up by the snake heads, though the bites it was inflicting still weren’t doing a lot of damage.

  Given an hour or more, though…

  She highly doubted it would be left alone for an hour, but it was at least a shot. Her remaining Apes struggled to attack again, even bent all out of shape, and were picked up and flung away another time. However, something unexpected happened; when one of the snake heads bit down on one of her Apes, its right fangs must’ve hit the hard Iron wrong, because they snapped off and flew away across the room, ending up near the room’s entrance.

  The Ironclad Ape that inadvertently caused the damage was flung away with impressive strength from the snake, where it was crushed and destroyed as it impacted the far wall with tremendous force. She was down to only two Apes now – and the hiding/biting Python, of course – and yet she began to see a glimmer of hope.

  A few minutes before, while the all-out attack was just starting, the trap that had grabbed her Ape up above finally ran out of Mana and collapsed, releasing her Ape that Sandra had been forced to abandon. She had been working it down through the dungeon, which was a whole lot easier now that there were no defending Monsters in the way, and she knew where all the traps were. The Ape still managed to take some superficial damage from those traps that couldn’t be avoided, but overall it was largely undamaged.

  She hadn’t even known that it would be released until after she started her attack, so she didn’t factor it into her plans. Now it was going to be an integral part of a new plan; as the other damaged Apes attacked again and Sandra forced the Python out of hiding in order to provide a distraction, her undamaged Ape ran into the room from the tunnel and picked up the large upper fang that had snapped off. Without pausing for more than a moment, it ran full-out towards the distracted hydra-variant; while the snake heads were flinging her other Apes away trying to catch her quick Python, the Ape managed to get close enough to the monstrous Dungeon Monster…and jumped.

  It came down with the venomous tooth clutched tightly in its hands, plunging the sharp fang directly into the still-bleeding hole made by her Shears earlier. The snake heads seemed to go berserk after that, knocking the Ape off its body with a snake headbutt and finally catching hold of her Python – which didn’t survive long. The two previously damaged Apes were flung away so viciously that they were destroyed upon impact when they hit the ground, rolled, and smashed into the wall.

  Sandra watched through her now-slightly-damaged remaining Ape as the snake heads on the hydra continued to flail about crazily in all directions. Fortunately for her, her last construct was flung far enough away that the heads couldn’t reach it, though they certainly tried. After a minute, the berserk flailing slowed dramatically until the heads finally stilled for about five seconds – and then they dropped to the floor, dead. A few seconds later, the giant Dungeon Monster dissolved into a Monster Seed, which appeared to be some sort of large Sapphire – much bigger than the one that the Ancient Saurian had dropped.

  Instead of celebrating, Sandra immediately had her Ape on the move. Its left arm was damaged enough that it wasn’t going to be winning too many fights with it, but she hoped that wasn’t going to matter. As her construct passed into the tunnel, it picked up speed and ran as fast as it
could into the Core Room. When it got there, she could see that it was another huge room – which only made sense if Monsters like the hydra-thing were created there. Of course, that also meant that the shining blue Core she was trying to destroy was floating at least 50 or 60 feet off the ground in the middle of the room.

  If she had even one pair of Shears left, it would’ve been easy to reach the Core and hit it – and hopefully hit it hard enough to destroy the shining crystal. As it was, she had a slightly-damaged Ape that couldn’t leap more than a dozen feet in the air – if it were lucky. Looking around the rest of the room, however, she realized that even if her Ape could get close enough it probably wouldn’t survive long enough to try jumping that high.

  Dozens of crocodiles and giant turtles were surrounding her Ape, cutting off the exit back to the rest of the dungeon as well. It looked like the end, so she gave the only order she could to her Ape, knowing that there was no hope for it – but she thought she’d try anyway.

  Destroy that Dungeon Core.

  The delay between when her order hit the Ape and when it was attacked by the reptiles surrounding it felt like an eternity, but her construct at least fought back on its own at first without needing instruction. First, it picked up a crocodile that tried to snap at its leg by the jaws and used it to smash into another crocodile sneaking up from behind; when those two were stunned by the sudden defense of her Ape, it kicked out and turned over a snapping giant turtle that sought to take a chunk out of the construct’s foot. Then it punched out at another crocodile that was getting too close, before kicking out again and crushing the skull of a second crocodile.

  She could see when her order hit her Ape, as it paused for a half-second and then jumped over to the over-turned turtle on its back. That half-second allowed the other reptiles to close in, unfortunately, and her construct was in danger of being overwhelmed. However, its orders took precedence over its instinctual need to defend itself and it picked up the giant turtle in its hands – and began to spin around in a circle.

  Crocodiles and giant turtles snapped at her Ape’s legs but couldn’t find purchase, luckily, which allowed her construct to pick up speed. It spun around and around so fast that the Core Room became a blur through the eyes of her construct, until she saw its hands let go of the turtle’s shell. Less than a second after the Ape released the giant turtle at high speed like a massive discus, it was swarmed by the reptiles surrounding it.

  As it collapsed under their weight, it kept its vision trained on the Core high up above – so Sandra was able to see the shell of its own Dungeon Monster impact and shatter the Core just as her construct was destroyed.

  Chapter 45

  I did it! I destroyed the other Core!

  Her celebration was abruptly cut off as her Shears above the advancing reptile army – including the two massive Ancient Saurians – showed no change.

  Uh…Winxa? Aren’t they supposed to, like, disappear or something?

  “Do you mean the Dungeon Monsters from the other Core? Why would you think that?” the Dungeon Fairy asked.

  You know, because I destroyed the Core…I thought they were tied to it and would cease to exist when it was no longer there.

  “Not exactly; they are still Mana-formed creations, and technically exist independently of the Core – though they are essentially mindless without a will of their own. What the Core does is absorb the Mana that is funneled to them from the Dungeon Monsters, it also allows them to have control over them. When that control is gone, the Monsters – in this case, the reptiles – will continue to follow their last order until they either succeed or are killed. If they succeed in their order, they will immediately stop and cease to do anything afterwards.”

  So…the village is still in danger of being destroyed? I did all of that for nothing?

  Before Winxa could respond, a notification surprised Sandra.

  Congratulations!

  You have discovered another Advancement Source!

  Dungeon Core Destruction:

  Receive AP for eliminating another Dungeon Core

  30 AP per Dungeon Core destroyed

  Current AP Earned: 30 AP (1X Reptile Classification Core)

  Wait a minute – I can earn AP from destroying Dungeon Cores? Sure enough, when she checked out the screen for her Advancement Point breakdown, it was right there at the bottom. There was still an unknown Source that had yet to be discovered, but that wasn’t really a concern of hers right now.

  “What? You got some AP from destroying another Core? I’ve never heard about that before,” Winxa said, shocked.

  If that isn’t a bald-faced admission from the Creator of what I should be doing, then I don’t know what is. The two unknown Sources that she had discovered as part of the Advancement system plainly pointed her in a direction that would help the nearby races stave off annihilation: bonding with sentients and destroying other Dungeon Cores. Luckily, she was already inclined to help them – though she didn’t know how she felt about targeting the nearby Cores.

  Sandra didn’t really have time to worry about that, though, because she had bigger problems to deal with – namely the Elite Elves that were just entering the very last room with her Iron-plated Behemoths. Porthel was looking absolutely ragged by that point, drained to the point where he appeared to be pushing himself forward by pure will alone.

  “Porthel, you need to rest for a while – maybe even take a small nap so that you can restore some of your elemental energy. You’re going to get yourself killed, otherwise,” Alanthia said concernedly to their leader.

  “No! We have to keep going, no matter if it kills me or not,” the drained Elf hoarsely replied with ragged breaths. “You’ve all seen what this dungeon is capable of, and if we let a little something like my life get in the way of destroying the heart of the dungeon, then everyone is in danger of being killed by a dungeon that has access to all the elements! We’ve gotten this far, and it can’t be much farther – I can feel it.” Porthel stumbled forward with misguided determination in his step.

  The other Elves just looked at each other in helplessness and followed after him. Porthel pulled out some more of his waning Earth energy and nullified the Air trap that Sandra had placed in the room, which wasn’t surprising by that point – but they were about to face something they hadn’t seen in the dungeon before: Sandra’s Iron-plated Behemoths. The other constructs they had encountered were pale shadows in comparison to the massive Monsters she had in the final room – and this time their main member that could easily kill them was on his last legs.

  The Elves stopped in surprise when they saw the Behemoth – all except Porthel; the leader stumbled forward drunkenly and activated what appeared to be the last of both types of his elemental energy. That boost was all he needed to pick him up as he dashed forward, avoided one of the flailing tails, and then jumped up into the air, crashing down sword-first onto the back of the Behemoth. The Earth-energy enhanced Titanium sword cut almost completely through her construct, though in the last couple of inches it stopped, the energy from the Elite leader’s sword spell having run out.

  Looking at it in surprise, Porthel tried to pull it out of the cut, but the blade snapped in half when he yanked on it the wrong way; fortunately for him, the damage he had done to the Behemoth was enough to destroy it, which meant that it dissolved seconds later, leaving behind a broken blade and a Tiny Dragon Glass Flake. The Elven leader looked at his half-a-sword in shock for a second, before collapsing to his knees in exhaustion.

  “I’m…done. I’ve got nothing left – you must…finish this without me,” he said breathily, before pitching forward onto his face as the continuous expenditure of elemental energy finally drained all of his strength. Alanthia rushed to his side and rolled him over, ensuring that he was still alive. Holy-based elemental energy poured out of her and enveloped his entire body, flowing through his armor and settling into his skin; Sandra assumed it was some sort of healing spell. There was no change in him, of co
urse – the exhaustion created from using too much energy too quickly wasn’t something that could be healed by anything but a good night’s sleep.

  “What do we do?” one of the men asked; Sandra still hadn’t found out their names, so she could only designate him as the one who had grey and green accents on his leather armor.

  The others were silent for almost a minute as they stared at Porthel on the ground, partially asleep but not full-on unconscious or in a coma like Sandra’s other visitors. Finally, Alanthia got to her feet and turned to the rest. “We go on, just like he said; we can’t fail now when we’re so close.”

  “But…how?”

  The Elf in white and red looked at the passageway leading to the next section where the Behemoths were in long hallways, eager to trample whatever invaded their domain.

  “We hold nothing back, that’s how. Use everything you have to get through; like Porthel said, if one of us falls, the rest have to go on even if it kills us all. One of us has to survive long enough to destroy the heart of the dungeon, even if it means using all of our energy to do it,” Alanthia said with determination and a scary look on her face, before heading immediately towards the passageway, a red glow enveloping her left fist and a white glow enveloping her right. The others followed afterward with equally determined looks on their faces.