The Crafter's Darkness: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 4) by Jonathan Brooks (e book reading free txt) 📕

had been created before the assault on the Undead dungeon, and was apparently showing it off.  Sandra was a little worried about startling the Bonded Elf, so instead of interrupting her in mid-hunt, she just floated her Shears a little closer and managed to hear their whispered conversation.  It was a good thing that she didn’t interrupt, too, because there was a very large beast stomping through the trees without any thought of stealth.

“I have to use one of my special bolts now; I know you said to hold off on those for now, because it will draw everything out here to our location, but there’s no way we can kill that thing without it,” Echo whispered faintly, though even if she talked normally Sandra doubted the beast would hear her over the raucous noise it was making all by itself.

The Dungeon Core had to agree, because the Dungeon Monster stomping through on a parallel course to them was more than a bit dangerous-looking.  The beast was at least 6 feet tall at its shoulder, which put it at near the same height as the two Elves, but that was the only similarity. At 30 feet long, the Monster was a strange cross between a big cat and some sort of crocodile, with six pairs of legs that stomped down and crunched the foliage along the trees with abandon.

Its head was feline in shape, but also had a long mouth (similar to a crocodile’s) that hung open as it moved along, and Sandra could see that it was filled with dozens of sharp teeth that looked capable of rending apart the two Elves without difficulty.  Unlike a crocodile, the jaw opened downwards, which would allow it to snatch things below it as it moved along.  When she added in the knife-like claws on each of the feet, the tough-looking deep red furry hide along its outside, the…Cro-cat-ile…appeared to be extremely formidable.  Her name for it wasn’t completely accurate, because it didn’t appear to be actually reptilian in any form, but she liked it.

Either way, Echo and the Elder obviously hadn’t been hunting these Crocatiles earlier from what the Elf had said about finally using one of her explosive bolts – as well as there still being half a dozen still left in her quiver.  Sandra watched as Echo pulled out two, nocking one on the Spirit-energy string that appeared invisible to the Elf, while placing the other one nearby her location and within easy reach.  The Dungeon Core knew that Echo could easily pull and nock one from her quiver in quick succession, but placing it like that meant that it would be even faster – and it told Sandra that the Elf expected to need it.

The Elder nodded at her and whispered back, “Agreed.  There shouldn’t be any Agorphiers out here, and the fact that one is here means that the dungeon is certainly getting stronger.  I’ll back you up if you need it; let’s see if your new toy can take it down, though.”

Agorphier?  Is that what that thing is called?  I like Crocatile better. 

Without waiting any longer, Echo stood up from behind the bush they were hiding behind and loosed her explosive-tipped bolt that contained the Fireburst enchantment.  The Tiny Fire Energy Orb contained enough Mana inside to supercharge the explosion, and when the bolt easily crossed the distance in less than a second, Sandra inwardly cheered as it smacked into the side of the Crocatile and blew up spectacularly.

The Dungeon Core was also watching the Elder at the same time, and was able to catch the look of surprise and some other emotion as a chunk of the Dungeon Monster was blown away from its upper body.  Unfortunately, the Fireburst-enchanted bolts – which had been remarkably effective against the Undead – wasn’t quite as powerful against Beasts.  Oh, it blew a hole through its hide that was approximately 2 feet wide and half of that deep; that certainly hurt the Monster, causing massive bleeding and even disabled the nearby leg – but it was far from incapacitated.

A second explosive bolt flew out at high speed, slamming into the head of the Crocatile as it turned with a ferocious roar, only to cut it short as the explosive force of the projectile hit the Monster just under the eye.  The flash of fire and impact sheared off a large amount of skin, revealing white bone underneath, and the Crocatile’s eye was basically obliterated; despite those wounds, however, the large Dungeon Monster only got angry.

Moving faster than Sandra would’ve thought possible for something its size, the Beast ran toward the two Elves, agilely dodging a third Fireburst bolt that would’ve hit its head again and instead taking the hit on its lower neck area.  Even bleeding profusely from three different areas, the Crocatile kept running without seeming to feel or care that it had been wounded.  From what she had seen and knew of Dungeon Monsters, that was indeed the case; they would continue to attack until they couldn’t move anymore or were killed.

“Uh…Elder?  Now would be a good time to help!” Echo desperately called out as she nocked another bolt in her bow.

The Elder was already doing something, and she held out her hands toward the incoming Monster.  Streams of brown, green, and blue energy flowed out of the older Elf and shot into the forest floor in front of the Crocatile, disappearing to all sight – except for Sandra, of course.  She could see everything that happened underground within her Area of Influence, so she saw bands of Earth, Natural, and Water elemental energy wrap themselves around the extensive roots of the nearby trees.  In a literal eyeblink, the roots expanded and burst out of the ground in a spray of dirt, each root surrounded by a viscous mud-like substance.

The Crocatile was already running at full speed and couldn’t stop itself