by Demi Harper
‘What of the humans?’ I asked her. ‘Are they capable of destroying me, too?’
‘Sadly yes, but only through magical means. Those adventurers, for example, have a mage who would be capable of such a feat.”
‘Some god I am,’ I grumbled, feeling once more like I had at the beginning: powerless, disgruntled and totally trapped.
‘You’re in a tough position,’ said Ket, ‘but luck’s been on your side so far. Right?’
Grudgingly, I realized she had a point. What were the chances of that kobold raiding party encountering the human adventurers in the maze of tunnels within my Sphere of Influence?
‘Having my enemies run into each other was a huge stroke of luck,’ I admitted.
‘As was the fact that it happened inside your Sphere, allowing you to reap the benefits of the Circle of Life,’ Ket added.
She was right. Although I’d only gotten a very tiny portion of mana from the encounter, I’d gained it without having to lift a finger – so to speak.
It wasn’t long before I began to overthink the situation, though, and it was only a matter of time before suspicion – I refused to think of it as paranoia – set in.
‘Grimrock said we’d fall before him,’ I told Ket. ‘He sounded pretty serious about it, too. If that’s true, then why did he only send a dozen raiders? There’s no way that group would have got past the God-born in our tunnels – or the Sinkhole boulderskin, for that matter.’
Ket was quiet for a moment.
‘That was their first time entering your Sphere since the first raid,’ she said after a while. ‘Perhaps Grimrock didn’t realize the Grotto is so well guarded?’
‘Or maybe he’s so egotistical he genuinely believed he could accomplish it with such a small party,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘Regardless of all that, though: if what you said is true, and my gem can only be destroyed by magic or my own denizens, how is Grimrock planning on defeating me? Surely this means his threats are empty!’
‘He might not be able to destroy you with his warriors directly, Corey, but he could still annihilate your gnomes – or have his kobolds steal your gem, thus moving your Sphere until the gnomes are no longer inside it. Both of which would leave you powerless and alone. Isn’t that just as bad?’
I didn’t respond. The thought of being stuck in my gem with nothing left – no Sphere of Influence to survey beyond the Grotto, no gnomes to oversee, no god-born to guard me and no mana to make more – was pretty bleak, yes. But the idea of not existing at all – of being shattered into oblivion, just like the yellow Core – was, to me, far, far worse.
Reading my thoughts, Ket elaborated. ‘Remember your first moments here? A Core is brought into sentience by the needs of its denizens. When none remain…’
She didn’t finish. She didn’t need to.
I thought back to my eternity beneath the ground, before Gneil had found me. I had no real way of knowing how much time had passed in that black nothingness. It had felt like a million years, but could just as easily have been days. Basically, Ket was saying that if I allowed Grimrock to slaughter my denizens, I’d almost certainly return to that state of nightmarish almost-consciousness.
My options just keep getting better and better.
Before I could spiral into existential despair, though, I felt that now-familiar tugging sensation at the back of my mind.
More intruders.
Twenty-Six
Intruders
The kobold raiding party dogtrotted along the tunnel, as though they’d been summoned by my very thoughts. They were heading for the subterranean lake – the one where I’d placed my very first boulderskin – and were armed similarly to the previous group, with spears, daggers and obsidian-bladed swords.
Some of them also carried torches; the thought of them getting anywhere near my shroomwood buildings made me very, very uncomfortable.
Thankfully, there was no sign of Barka the whip-wielding commander this time, though there was a slightly larger kobold taking point who was clearly a leader of some kind.
Unlike last time, when the raiders had stumbled upon the human adventurers unexpectedly, I now had a short window of opportunity in which to summon reinforcements. Ket’s words about the consequences of failure had rattled me to my very core, and so I wasn’t taking any chances.
At my command, the forrel pack from the connecting tunnel made their way toward the lake cavern, lurking stealthily just beyond the entrance. I then had the whipfish – that sticky, spider-like beast – position itself on the ceiling in the entranceway, ready to engage its venomous, whip-like appendages to immobilize any kobold that tried to pass.
I looked on proudly as my god-born creations followed my orders flawlessly, moving quietly into position and then simply waiting for their next instruction. The boulderskin crouched stone-still in the lake’s shallows, and I sensed its eagerness for new prey in the coiled energy of its scaled limbs.
The kobolds’ leader crept into the cavern. It halted, surveying its surroundings with narrowed yellow eyes. Seeing nothing, the kobold growled something over its shoulder, and the eleven raiders accompanying it began to file warily into the cave. Just like the raiders in the Sinkhole, these kobolds stuck to the edge of the cavern, following the wall along to the other side and staying as far away from the lake as possible.
The moment the first raider reached the other side, the boulderskin attacked. The massive armored amphibian launched itself from the shallows on powerfully muscled legs and moved across the ground faster than a creature that size had any right to move. Its jaws closed on a kobold in the middle of the group – and pandemonium ensued.
The kobolds on the far side of the cavern yipped in panic and darted forward, jabbing at the boulderskin with their weapons as their commander barked frantic instructions at them. The boulderskin shook its head back and forth violently; the kobold in its mouth fell limp, and its death refilled my mana by a fraction of a globe – a barely noticeable gain, but a gain nonetheless.
The raiders’ single-file formation, initially such a prudent approach, now had them at a distinct disadvantage. Half of them were trapped on one side of the cavern, while the other half were suddenly finding themselves demolished by the thrashing amphibian in their midst.
From the far entranceway, their leader barked another command, and those caught on the other side immediately made a run for the tunnel that led up toward the Grotto – the tunnel where more god-born creatures waited with murder in mind.
The raiders never made it as far as the tunnel. The whipfish I’d stationed on the ceiling lashed out with its whip-like forelegs; once, twice, three times it attacked, and three of the kobolds staggered back. Their weapons clattered to the ground as they fell, their limbs already seizing with paralysis from the whipfish’s fast-acting venom.
The other three kobolds behind them paused, and unfortunately two of them had the presence of mind to fling their spears at the whipfish. Both projectiles found their target, and the now-injured whipfish began to ooze a bluish substance from its wounds.
Thanks to the incredibly strong suction on the fleshy underside of its spider-like body, it did not lose its grip on the ceiling. Nor did it lose its battle focus. The whips shot out once more, lashing violently against the two spear-throwing kobolds who’d dared harm the whipfish. They too dropped, paralyzed.
But the last remaining kobold on this side chose that moment to launch its dagger. The weapon – little more than a shard of black volcanic glass with one end wrapped in hide – spun end over end toward the whipfish, sinking point-first into its cluster of unblinking eyes with a sickening crunch.
The whipfish let out a high-pitched shriek and dropped like a stone to the cavern floor, curling its forelegs around in a belated attempt to protect its eyes. The dagger-throwing kobold drew another blade and leapt toward the felled arachnid. A few quick stabs later and my whipfish was dead.
Damn it!
I watched with morbid fascination as the whip
fish’s body sank into the stone floor and disappeared. As it did, my mana regenerated by the tiniest of fractions. Even in the middle of all this madness, I couldn’t help but feel a little irked; that whipfish had cost three entire globes of mana to create, and I’d barely gotten any of it back? That was just rude. As if the universe hadn’t tried to swindle me enough already!
The whipfish’s slayer yowled triumphantly, waving its blue-stained dagger in the air. With a single glance back at its fellow raiders – still battling unsuccessfully against the massive boulderskin – the kobold scurried for the passage to the Grotto—
—only to be jumped by a forrel pack waiting just beyond the entrance. After a few strategic lunges from three different directions, the kobold was brought to its knees, stabbing weakly at the air with its dagger as the forrels pounced again. Black blood gushed from the kobold’s neck, the deadly god-born creatures’ teeth piercing its skin as easily as their claws rent its leather armor.
The kobold collapsed, and the forrels surged into the cavern, quickly disposing of the five paralyzed raiders as well. Then they leapt into the fray with the boulderskin.
Just minutes later, most of the raiders were dead – as were two of the three forrels that had attacked, brutally hacked down by kobold swords. My boulderskin had emerged from the melee with barely a scratch, its armored hide having protected it from the worst of the raiders’ attacks.
The remaining forrel took off down the tunnel, chasing after the fleeing, limping kobold leader – the sole survivor of the attacking force. I was struck by the similarities to that first raid, all those days ago, when I’d created my first forrel – soon to become Ris’kin the avatar – and sent it after an injured straggler.
This time, though, we’d made sure none of the other kobolds escaped with their lives. Knowing that felt good; we’d sustained casualties this time, but not a single gnome had been lost to the unscrupulous raiders.
‘We’ve come a long way,’ I murmured.
‘You’ve come a long way,’ said Ket approvingly. I’d forgotten she was there; the battle had taken up all my concentration, though I hadn’t really needed to interfere at all.
‘Perhaps I should have stepped in,’ I said uncertainly. ‘Maybe we’d have lost less lives if I’d been giving orders the whole time.’
‘Or maybe you’d have lost more,’ countered Ket. ‘You’re not exactly a tactical genius, Corey. Leave the god-born to follow their own fighting instincts and keep your eye on the big picture.’
I huffed a little bit at the sprite’s blunt words, but knew she was right. My interference would probably only have made things worse, at least where the quick-moving forrels were concerned.
As with the whipfish, the fallen forrels had already dissipated into the stone. The whole encounter – along with the ambient mana that had flowed into me during the time it had taken – had regained me just over a globe of mana, bringing me up to four.
Concerned that more raiders would come this way in the wake of the failed group, I used my newly replenished mana to create two more forrels, mirror images of the ones I’d just lost.
My worries were not unfounded, though my precautions in this particular area were in vain. The pursuing forrel had scarcely finished bringing down the last fleeing kobold when I felt another twinge from a skelemander elsewhere. Another party of kobold raiders – again, a dozen or so strong – had entered my Sphere of Influence and were making their way along a winding passage that would eventually lead them toward the Heart, and from there, the Grotto.
Almost immediately, there was another pull indicating yet more intruders, this time in a different passage that would merge with the one the adventurers had taken to the Sinkhole.
‘They’re testing all the avenues into the Grotto,’ I realized with horror.
I hadn’t expected to find myself dealing with more than one party of invaders at once. I froze, suddenly uncertain. Which ones should I deal with first? What would I do if the two inevitable fights were to happen simultaneously?
To my relief, Ket snapped into action.
‘Move the two remaining whipfish from the tunnels into the Heart,’ she instructed. ‘With their help, Septimus should be able to hold his ground against the raiders. Keep your other forrels in the tunnels, though, just in case they break through. The forrels will be more effective in the enclosed space than out in the open, especially with the kobolds’ throwing spears.’
I did as she suggested; it took less than a second to contact the two existing whipfish and send them scuttling toward the Heart. I followed, temporarily abandoning the body-strewn lake cavern and zooming toward the site of the next battle.
The moment I arrived in the Heart, a dozen kobold raiders emerged from one of the many tunnels that opened out into the huge cavern, spilling out onto the ledge and looking down warily into the huge pit in the center. They edged closer to the pit, spreading out around its circumference, oblivious to the enormous spider lurking down there just beyond sight.
As the first kobold reached the edge and peered over into the blackness, Septimus struck, plucking the raider from its perch and tossing it over his shoulder – wait, do spiders have shoulders? – and down into the pit. Seconds later, the kobold hit rock bottom – literally – and my mana was a fraction fuller.
After a brief, shocked pause, the other raiders emitted yowling battle cries and threw themselves at Septimus, swords, daggers and spears bristling. Luckily, the pair of whipfish arrived at that moment, emerging simultaneously from two separate passages opposite the kobolds.
Both whipfish moved to the center of the ceiling and went to work, lashing out with their unnaturally long appendages from their position. Their strikes left paralyzed kobolds in their wake, living statues which were then easily turned into dead ones by Septimus.
By this time, the other group of raiders had almost reached the Sinkhole, and my mana had gradually filled by two globes. Septimus and the whipfish looked to have things well under control in the Heart, so I raced to oversee the Sinkhole, wishing I had enough mana to stack the odds in my evolved boulderskin’s favor.
As always, the evolved boulderskin was waiting in the water for the kobolds to arrive. After a moment’s consideration, rather than use my remaining mana to create a forrel to support the armored amphibian, I decided instead to evolve the boulderskin even further.
Both globes drained as I poured almost all my remaining mana into the creature – a price well worth paying, I thought, as I watched the boulderskin grow monstrously in size.
The already hulking creature became truly enormous – by gnome standards, at least – and now stood higher at the shoulder than even the tallest kobold warriors. The boulderskin’s armor had expanded and thickened; gray plates now coated every inch of its back and sides, including the muscles of its upper legs. Thick, horny ridges protruded from the shoulders to give extra protection to its neck, and spikes made from the same hard gray bony material jutted from its elbows and along its tail.
The tail itself was armored and heavily muscled, easily powerful enough to take down two or three kobolds with a single sweep, and the boulderskin’s claws were long and sharp enough to eviscerate an enemy combatant with a mere flick of its webbed feet.
The kobolds never stood a chance. Once they’d all entered the cave, the boulderskin surged from its watery lair and went to work. The raiders dropped like flies in a matter of minutes.
I admired my newly empowered god-born creature. Twelve kobold raiders dead at its scaly feet, and not a scratch to show for it.
The boulderskin shuffled its feet as though shrugging humbly, then trundled off back toward the flooded Sinkhole. I was tempted to wait and pour even more mana into it, keen to see whether it would evolve any further, but decided to be prudent for now.
Evolving the boulderskin yet again had already used up another of my precious Creation slots, leaving me with only five more, and chances were I’d need every one of those in the coming days.
Relieved not to have lost any more of my creations, I finally returned to the Grotto while Ket congratulated me on our victory. I tried to relax a little and focus on the positives.
We’d done it. We’d won!
For now.
Twenty-Seven
Shrine
Ket estimated it would be at least another day or two before the kobolds tried again.
‘Those last groups were just scouts,’ she advised. ‘They’ll certainly be better prepared next time.’
‘Is that supposed to make me feel better?’
‘No. It’s supposed to motivate you. Complacence is the enemy, Corey.’
‘I thought Grimrock was the enemy,’ I grumbled.
‘Yes, and Grimrock will make sure his kobolds are better prepared next time. It’s only fair we raise our defenses to match his strength, don’t you think?’
‘I do think,’ I conceded. ‘We need to evolve the rest of the god-born, and if we have time, create more to defend the outer tunnels.’
‘Agreed. But first, we should focus on bolstering the settlement as best we can – until the shrine is ready, at least.’
The imminence of another attack made it difficult to concentrate on managing my base. I almost found myself wishing I’d been reborn as a Dungeon Core instead of a God Core. From what Ket had told me, it seemed they had all the fun. It would certainly make my life easier if I were able to concentrate solely on defense rather than having to spend valuable time micromanaging my frustratingly dependent denizens.