Her Dungeon Monsters and traps had done an admirable job of killing almost all of the intruders by the time she could focus on them again. Her thought about suffusing the trigger to each trap throughout the much larger rooms – which helped to prevent much of the negation the Elite casters could employ to shut the traps down – had worked well enough, though Sandra could see how it could be improved upon in the future. Her surprise Aging Fields inside of one of the tunnels had also worked beautifully, killing so many of the invaders that she was beginning to think about adding similar types of non-dungeon-connected traps throughout her entire dungeon.
The exploding suicidal Goblins filled with Large Energy Orbs as their Monster Seed had made her cackle in delight as they exploded, and their Tin and Nickel armor shot off in all directions killing more of the Orcs than she expected. The Wyvines, despite being exposed by the negation of the Nether-based shadow pillars, caused her to snicker as the Orcs died by the score, unable to see what was attacking them. Sandra also giggled insatiably when her Phoenix Monsters burned dozens of the invaders alive, and she only wished that they had let the reborn Monsters have another go at them – but they were unfortunately killed before they could emerge completely.
She was slightly disappointed as she watched her Echo copies fire their crafted bows with horrible accuracy, but afterwards she snickered because it didn’t matter too much since the invaders were packed so tightly together. Without Echo to lead them, they didn’t even get another shot off besides the first, though at that point it didn’t make that much of a difference – especially as some of her Animated Slabs surprised the Orcs and squished over a hundred of them in less than a second in the next room.
Her bloodlust calmed enough when the only invaders left were inside of her final “Boss” room, facing off against the two Aerie Rocs. There wasn’t much she could do other than watch, and she was surprised at how strong Kelerim’s father seemed to be. The sight of him, and the focus she put on the Orc Warlord, further fueled her insanity and she wanted to do everything she could to kill him. However, other than sending in additional constructs – which she did from behind, as she sent half of the constructs that were fighting outside racing through the Roc tunnel – there wasn’t much that she could do to directly influence the battle.
The Air trap worked beautifully, though it had been delayed from fully activating until one Orc happened to step just past the trigger she had placed; it had normally been set up to divide the intruders up on either side of the room so that they could be picked apart by the two Rocs, but that didn’t happen because one was already dead. The second one had just been beat down by the Warlord, with the Elite leader helping, when she finally activated the two Mobile Fortifications she had placed in there as insurance in case things went wrong.
After the remainder of the Orc Warriors, Elven Rangers, and Wyrlin were squished by the Fortifications, Sandra instructed her Automatons inside of the stone wall blocking most of the tunnel exit to drop their bombs. They exploded in spectacular fashion near the base, blowing out massive chunks of stone that Sandra was disappointed didn’t hit the powerful Warlord and Elite standing in the middle of the room, looking on in shock as the wall collapsed, sealing off the tunnel from her Home room.
Instantly, Sandra lost all connection to the tunnel and all of the traps in the previous rooms disappeared. She also nearly lost all connection to the final room where her Mobile Fortifications were, which she hadn’t even thought of when she put the fail-safe wall into place; she couldn’t really look outside the non-existent “eyes” of the Fortifications, and trying to do so for a second or more was painful. If it hadn’t been for the fact that one of her Hyper Automatons had survived being buried inside the wall, where it had been knocked to the edge and its lower legs pinned under multiple tons of stone, she would’ve been entirely blind.
As it was, she had an obstructed view of the room from up high, just enough for her to direct one of her cube-shaped constructs to turn and ram into the Warlord. She thought that would do it, but Kelerim’s father surprised her again as he managed to punch forward right as he was about to be rammed, which knocked the cube backwards in an uncontrolled roll with a massive dent in its side. When it settled to a stop, it immediately started its transformation, but Sandra could instantly see that something was wrong; only 4 legs extended out and lifted the Fortification off the ground, half of the swords that emerged from those legs were broken, and only a single sawblade arm extended out from its central platform. Even the power source up top was partially exposed and seemed cracked, showing that the powerful punch had done some serious damage to the cube of solid Steel. The hammer that seemed to be its “main” weapon was the only thing that seemed undamaged.
The Fortification walked unsteadily towards the Warlord, swinging its swords and spinning its sawblade, ready to take the Orc apart. Unfortunately, the powerful Orc wasn’t done, because he immediately closed with the powerful construct and leapt onto one of its legs, punching downwards and bending the steel enough that it caused the leg to fold nearly in half. The collapse of the leg sheared off the appendage at the point of impact even as the Orc ran up the upper leg of the falling Fortification, leaping again and landing on top of the central cube platform, where he pounded down on the power source a few times until it cracked – and then exploded with as much force as one of her bombs she had made for her Goblins in the second room to throw.
Even that didn’t kill him, but it did fling the Orc across the room, where he landed and rolled to a stop in a heap. Sandra knew it didn’t kill him for two reasons: one, she didn’t feel the surge of Mana from his death; and two, because he began to stir and pick himself up. She couldn’t allow him to recover too much, however, so she attempted to instruct her other Mobile Fortification to move and smash into him before he was ready, but her view of it was obstructed. When she thought she had her construct turned and lined up correctly, she had it move forward, but instead of hitting him, the Fortification hit and completely demolished the body of the Elven Elite woman, flinging her across the room so hard she practically adhered to the far wall.
Her large construct was then frozen where it was for 10 seconds before she could move it again, which gave Kelerim’s father the chance to get to his feet, shake his head, and then see the other cube of metal in the middle of the room. He rushed it and swung his fist out at it – but the construct wasn’t in the process of moving this time and it dodged out of the way like she’d seen it do before, immediately expanding into its other form. Steel spears shot in all directions but managed to miss the Orc somehow, but its other weapons would hopefully be more than enough. The Warlord was imbalanced as his punch didn’t land the way he thought it would and he turned halfway around as he tripped and fell to the ground.
The difference in him since he had been flung away by the explosion was staggering; Kelerim’s father looked exhausted, not only from the fighting, but she could see the tell-tale sign of elemental energy overuse. She was actually surprised that he hadn’t been knocked unconscious, because he looked exactly like her mercenaries looked when they used all of their energy in an attack.
He got to his feet quickly, though, despite his exhaustion, just in time to avoid a hammer that slammed down where he was just standing, only to take a sawblade to his upper left arm. Sandra’s Fortification was quick, but the Warlord was still quicker; after only digging into his skin about an inch, he twitched out of the way, reached up to the arm holding the sawblade, and ripped it off at the joint. The blade immediately stopped spinning, but the Orc just used it as a weapon then, knocking aside another sawblade that came at him as he flung himself backwards to avoid another slam by the hammer.
The Warlord tripped and fell on his back, but he was able to strike back at another sawblade arm that came down for him with his makeshift weapon, before rolling to the side to avoid the hammer again. On his front now, he jumped up with amazing athleticism and ran away toward the entrance of the room. Sandra brief
ly thought, who’s the coward now?, but realizing his run was only a ploy to approach one of the legs again, where he launched himself off the ground again, this time aiming for one of the swinging swords. His timing was impeccable as he landed on the upper portion of the sword connecting it to the leg unharmed, and then used the sawblade arm in his hand to shear the sword off, before jumping down to the floor with his new weapon in his hand.
Now armed with a giant sword nearly as large as he was, the Warlord jumped again and caught a hold of the leg and pulled himself up. He started to run across the leg, likely looking to repeat his performance from before and smash apart the power source of the Mobile Fortification. The construct tried to move around to knock him off, but the Orc was too agile to be lose his footing so easily because he easily stayed on top of the thin beam that made up the construct’s leg. When he was a few feet away from the central platform where the power source was located – but hidden behind some barriers from his position – he forced the last dregs of his energy into his muscles and jumped 40 feet nearly straight up into the air.
At the apex of his jump’s arc, he threw the sword straight down, which hit the power source below him with such force that it was destroyed, causing another explosion that destroyed the construct and barely even reached him other than a shockwave that pushed him further in the air.
Where he was caught by 5,000 Reinforced Animated Shears that Sandra had brought in from her Net above the wastelands and through her Roc tunnel. They hit him with the force of acceleration from almost a mile of straight tunnel, slamming into him all within a second of each other. Individually, they probably wouldn’t have done much to the powerful Orc other than be an annoyance. However, with his weakened state and use of pretty much all of his energy, after the first 200 or so hit him and bounced off his toughened and enhanced skin, the rest penetrated deep enough that his body practically disappeared under their onslaught. When he hit the ground, half of them were destroyed from the impact, but they were also pushed in deeper.
Sandra only stopped the other 10,000 Shears she had brought inside when she felt the Mana from his death infuse her Core, and she was surprised at how much it was; it was enough to fill up her entire maximum Mana at least 6 times, which was nearly unbelievable. It only made her want more.
The bloodlust that had infused her entire Core faded slightly at the death of the Warlord, but it was so infused in her mind that she couldn’t think of anything else but sending her constructs towards the other Cores and destroying them all, taking their Monster Seeds and the shards of their destroyed Cores to make her stronger. Expanding from there, she wanted revenge for the loss of one of her mercenaries, and the deaths of so many barely slaked her thirst for vengeance; it wasn’t just the Orcs that had participated in her slaughter, but the Elves as well. For all she knew the Dwarves and Gnomes were responsible somehow, and if they were, she would find out eventually.
She ignored all of the voices reaching out to her and calling her name, intent on the only thing that made sense to her. She needed to protect what was hers – be it her dungeon, her Area of Influence, or her Bonded people – and the only way to do that was to take the fight directly to them and end them once and for all.
It was the only way to see through the darkness that had shadowed her view of the world, and she would do almost anything to get there. Let’s see if they like it when I come barging in their back door…
* * *
Winxa fluttered around Sandra’s Home room, frantically trying to reach out to the Core but failing to get a response. Ever since the Orcish “mercenary” Sandra had employed was killed, the Dungeon Fairy couldn’t get through to her. This wasn’t the first time that Winxa hadn’t been able to coax a Core back from the edge, and memories of her experience of Wester flashed through her mind.
He had been such a joy to work with at first, because he seemed so curious and exploratory rather than instantly murderous like most of the other Cores she had worked with. He reveled in the creation of his dungeon, the development of his Dungeon Monsters, and the cultivation of his Advancements over time. Sure, he expanded his AOI and attacked natural creatures and all of the Orcs, Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes that culled his small Dragonlings that were part of his Monster Classification. That was normal and what he was contracted to do. Best of all, he never tried to absorb or attack her, so she stuck with him longer than anyone she had stayed with before.
That all changed when his dungeon was invaded and basically taken apart by a group composed of all the races nearby, who managed to get to his Boss room and were just barely defeated before they broke through. Winxa didn’t know if they were there to actually destroy Wester or just to loot all of the Monster Seeds left behind by all of the Monsters they slayed, but the incursion and near-destruction of his Core made Wester snap. He was never the same again, and from what little she could understand of his paranoid ravings, he was going to make sure nothing like that could ever happen again.
He started to hoard his resources and expand his dungeon, accumulating enough Advancement Points to develop some nasty Monsters. The differences didn’t stop there, as he started to attack settlements in the world above, which he had never done before, accumulating more and more Mana as he increased his AOI significantly. By that time, he was nearly unstoppable, no one dared to even come near his dungeon anymore – and yet he wanted more.
It took the combined might of all four races to stop him, and the result of that battle was what turned the once-lush forest into what it was today. Up until that day when his Core was finally destroyed, he never once talked to her again directly, though she stayed with him hoping that the old Wester would come back. Now, it seemed as though Sandra was doing the same thing, and as much as she knew she should just abandon the Core instead of watch as her charge destroyed everything they had worked so hard to build, she couldn’t help but stay there and hope that the Creator would grant some miracle and turn Sandra away from the course she was on.
As she was hoping for a miracle, Winxa couldn’t help but think, Where in the world are Violet, Felbar, Echo, and Gerold?
Chapter 42
Violet paced back and forth in the room where she was confined, restless with the need to do something, anything, to get back to Sandra and her dungeon. Looking down at the wooden floor she walked, she imagined that she was wearing a pathway into the floorboards, though she realistically knew that it would take a lot more time than just a few days for that to happen. Still, the ache in her legs as she continued to walk without anything else to do told her that if she kept it up, she just might see a change in the wood sometime sooner rather than later.
She passed by the bed for the umpteenth time that day, thinking not for the first time that she was glad that she had such a luxury. Back in Sandra’s dungeon, the beds that the dungeon core had made were serviceable – especially after she improved upon the pile of rancid leather skins that they had been previously – but they weren’t anything like the comfort of home. The bed she was given was much more comfortable in comparison, just like everything else in the room and adjoining bathroom. It was a richly appointed room in the palace, so she didn’t expect anything less…but it was also her prison for the time being. A genuinely nice, amazingly comfortable prison where she didn’t want for anything and could ask for just about anything to eat, but a prison, nonetheless. The only thing it lacked was a dose of freedom to continue her quest to help Sandra and her own people at the same time.
I wonder; is Felbar suffering from this same luxurious confinement? She hadn’t seen him since just after they arrived via the giant bird that brought them, and she worried about what was happening with him. He had been there for her to cope with the tragedy of most of her friends being killed in their village – once he woke up from his coma, of course – and always provided the greatest help with her projects, even though he wasn’t as knowledgeable about all of the technical enchantments she was used to. He had been the father figure she needed, and gave e
xcellent and timely advice whether she knew she needed it or not.
I could certainly use some of that advice now….
* * *
Echo sat back and stared at the branches swaying gently above her head, the roof of her “cell” comprised of multiple limbs woven together naturally, which left them free to move independently of her room. She could tell that they were naturally grown, because they were just slightly off from being perfectly aligned, which meant that they had been coaxed to grow that way over the years. It was an affectation she had noticed in the capital since she had arrived a few days ago; while growing the tree limbs could be done in moments with an application of Natural elemental energy, it was seen as much more prestigious to grow them naturally – as if that makes any difference whatsoever.
There were enough gaps in the roof that she thought she could probably climb out of them, though there would be no point. The door to her room carved into the Royal Family Tree wasn’t locked, so she could technically walk out at any time; however, there were guards out there that would politely but firmly ask her to stay inside. For her safety and all that, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she needed to be safe from. All the problems were happening back by the wastelands and the dungeons near there; there shouldn’t be anything here that could harm her. Well, maybe not anything, but perhaps anyone would be more accurate.
She hadn’t exactly been told why she was being confined, but she had her suspicions. No one would listen to her entreaties to be granted permission to leave, however, nor would any of the Royal guards outside of her room talk to her. She knew that for a fact, because she had tried incessantly at first with absolutely no response. They did allow one of the royal servants inside to bring her food, but even she wouldn’t talk to or even look at her.
The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) Page 45