The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) by Jonathan Brooks (e ink epub reader .txt) 📕

new Spirit-based undead soon after they appeared, and figured the best way to get rid of the problem was to eliminate the source.  She ordered a few dozen of the Iron Animated Shears to attack the cluster of Necromancers—but the constructs flew right through them, embedding themselves in the dirt.  The now-obvious illusions disappeared, and Sandra looked for the tell-tale sign of Spirit energy being used to conceal the source of those illusions, and finally found a trio of Necromancers hiding their actual presence behind another illusion that made them practically invisible.

Pulling the Shears out of the dirt, she redirected them into the concealed forms of the wily Goblins—only to have the constructs bounce off a shield of Spirit energy surrounding the Necromancers.  Blunted or destroyed from the impact, her Shears weren’t able to pierce through the shield, and efforts to reach them with any other defenders weren’t possible at that point, as they were currently fighting for their lives.  First against the Goblin horde, and then against an undead Goblin horde.

“There are too many!  Retreat and regroup; we can’t withstand them here,” the leader of their defenders shouted again, before methodically pulling back the constructs under his control, prompting the other Shieldmen with him to orderly retreat as well.  Then the unthinkable happened.

One of the newer Shieldmen was in the middle of decapitating another Goblin Scout that jumped towards him without the slightest hint of self-preservation, when he was hit from the side.  A Hobgoblin Brute – a much larger and powerful member of the Goblin horde – smacked into the Shieldman, knocking him off balance.  That was all the opening the undead and non-undead onslaught of Goblins needed, as they piled onto the poor Dwarf, eventually dragging him down to the ground.

“Pytar!  Hold on!”  With a surge of desperate aggressiveness, Delarthe and another Shieldman, who had arrived so recently that Sandra had yet to learn his name, tore their way through the incoming assault, utilizing and sacrificing numerous constructs to clear a path to their fallen comrade.  Through momentous odds, they managed to clear their way to the downed Shieldman…but it was too late.

As the armor protecting the Dwarven fighter crumbled to dust, the damage to it finally outweighing the regenerative properties of the Energy Orbs in the Shieldman’s palms, Sandra saw a hazy aura fall over the poor Dwarf just as his throat was torn out by the strike of a Goblin Scout.  Delarthe and the other Shieldman cried out in anger and frustration, before going on a frenzy that devastated those responsible for their comrade’s death.

“Pytar!  Hold on, maybe we can get one of the Repair Drones—Pytar?”  The fallen Shieldman twitched once, which Delarthe apparently took as a sign that he was still alive.  The Shieldman leader knelt by Pytar’s side, took his helmet off, and quickly leaned his head against the chest of the fallen warrior.

* Delarthe!  Get back!  I think Pytar has been turned— *

Sandra’s understanding of the situation and warning came a second too late.  From one of her Shears floating above the rapidly losing battle, she saw Delarthe’s eyes go wide as he listened to the Dungeon Core in his mind, before raising his body back up.  As he went to grab his helmet, Pytar’s hand abruptly shot up and his fingers buried themselves into Delarthe’s mouth, pushing through and out of the Shieldman’s neck in the back.  His spinal cord abruptly cut, Delarthe flopped to the ground, twitching uncontrollably as he quickly bled out.

The other Shieldman looked on in horror, eyes opened wide in shock; if she could see his mouth, Sandra probably would’ve seen that it was hanging open in sudden surprise.  The Dungeon Core looked around for a Repair Drone, but the closest one was at least 100 feet away – with a small horde of various living and undead Goblins in between.

As the now-undead Pytar got to his feet, the Shieldman still on his feet finally got ahold of himself.  With a strangled cry, he brought his battleaxe around in a powerful sweep, cutting through the undead Dwarf’s neck, sending his head spinning off into the crowd of Goblins.  Sandra wasn’t really looking, however, because she saw another hazy aura settle over Delarthe, just as his armor disintegrated and his body fell still entirely.

* You have to do it.  Before he turns into one of them. *

She hated having to say it to the Shieldman – especially since she felt horrible about not even knowing his name – but it needed to be done.  Delarthe wouldn’t have wanted to be a danger to his comrades.

The Shieldman started, prompted into action by her words.  He slowly nodded, stepped over to the fallen leader, and raised his weapon above his head.  With another cry, and tears streaming down his cheeks, the unknown Dwarven Shieldman struck down with all of his might, shearing through the neck of his twitching comrade with deadly efficiency.

It was then and there that Sandra knew that the Goblin-Classification Core was going to need to be stopped.  Not only were the Goblin Necromancers able to bring their dead back to life, effectively doubling the size of their horde, but they could bring any of the people they killed back to life to fight on their side as well.  She was fortunate that her constructs didn’t seem to be able to be brought back the same way, otherwise she would be in real danger about now.

Brief thoughts of horror flowed through her mind at the implications of this new threat.  Could they bring back the Golems?  No, for some reason, I think they are the same as my constructs.  But if they were to link up with the Beasts?  Having hundreds of undead Squirrels sounds extremely frightening.  And I guess all the rest would be pretty scary, as well.  The Slimes didn’t seem like they could be brought back as undead, either,