Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

The women kept a tight perimeter, not allowing any of the monsters to pass. But as the monsters all approached, the women were forced gradually back into a tighter circle. Despite their skill, they were outnumbered. And Ben knew he only had so much mana to use to pull out their strength. He focused, draining the power from another ghoul. Melody, seeing what was happening, promptly tackled the ghoul to the ground. Once it was down, she stomped its head in with a splat.

Ben’s mana was dipping now, and he was still full of strength he couldn’t get rid of. He still didn’t have anything like the martial abilities that Melody and Imogen possessed, despite his training. Giant stone ghouls were not a target he’d practiced against. He didn’t feel confident entering the fray himself just yet, so he would have to be content with feeding more strength into the women.

Ironically, Ben would have liked a way at this point to disperse his energy into the air, making room for more. That would allow him to drain the strength of more ghouls. Try as he might though, he couldn’t find a way to do it. And when he tried to push the energy into Melody, her body would not accept it. There just wasn’t enough room yet.

“Lulu,” he shouted. “I’m going to give you some strength, I have to get rid of it.”

Lulu glanced at him while casting another one of her spells. She appeared puzzled, but shrugged.

Ben took that as a green light to give her more strength. He could explain what he’d done to her later when they weren’t surrounded by giant stone killing machines. Lulu paused for a moment as the physical energy filled her body, but she didn’t allow it to distract her from casting her spell.

Ben managed to fully drain himself of the extra physical energy, allowing room to take more from another ghoul. His mana was still slowly regenerating. With any luck, he could keep doing this for a little while, weakening the giants enough to make things easier for the women.

He glanced down while he was summoning the mana for another Drain spell, and saw Nipper chewing on the soft, inner flesh of one of the fallen giants. The sight turned his stomach a little. Ben wasn’t entirely sure what his lynx child was supposed to be eating though, and he didn’t have time to find out.

With a shrug, he located the nearest ghoul and drained it of its energy. This time, he put the energy into Imogen. She didn’t exactly need it, but the result was spectacular. With a single flying kick, Imogen cleaved the stone giant in half, cracking its hardened outer layer and splitting its jelly torso into two big lumps that fell to the ground with a wet plop.

Only a handful of giants remained. Ben topped Melody up with physical strength again, and used some of his mana to drain one more giant, making sure he didn’t exhaust his mana supply completely.

Melody leaped into the air, bringing her elbow crushing down on a gravel ghoul’s skull. Apparently, her limbs had the strength of steel when he filled her up with this much energy. The ghoul collapsed under the blow. With a stomp, Melody squashed its brains out, the flabby, pink goo spraying up into the air. The tackle-stomp seemed to be a favorite move of hers, and Ben could see why.

Lulu’s water tendrils were wrapped around the torso of another ghoul, constricting him and causing fragments of stone to smash off and ping into the high ceiling above, until finally its whole torso snapped in two, bringing the monster crashing to the ground. The floor of the dungeons was quickly becoming covered in pulverized stone, globs of pink ghoul guts sprayed here and there.

Imogen danced like a mad woman, dodging heavy swinging blows from the giants. She moved with the finesse and practice of a trained martial artist, cracking knees, smashing torsos, and stomping in heads. Ben watched her, having a hard time keeping track of her as she zipped here and there.

At last, the women attacked the final standing ghoul together. Lulu bound its ankles together with her water spell. Imogen shoved the monster with her foot, toppling it to the ground, and Melody caved in its skull with a mighty stomp. A final splat sounded out, the guts bursting beneath her foot and getting up before plopping down onto the ground.

The silence after the fight was almost deafening, broken only by the heavy breathing of the exhausted women. Ben was worn out as well, having burned through nearly all his mana. He wished he’d been able to take part in the fight himself. For one thing, it would have been a more efficient use of the energy he drained.

He’d never wanted to be the sort of leader who gave orders from behind, never having the courage to face the enemy himself. For a little while longer, that’s what he’d have to do though, until he gained the strength and skill to go head-to-head with monsters like the others. But he couldn’t wait for when he’d be able to lead from the front, wielding powerful weapons and spells.

“Damn—nice work,” said Ben to his group, pride in his voice. He stepped over to his scimitar and picked it up from where he’d left it on the ground. A bit of monster goo was on the blade, and he wiped it off with a drag of the flat part of the sword against a patch of moss growing on the wall.

Nipper trotted over to Melody and rubbed himself against her, evidently happy to see her alive after that fight. She scratched his ears, then pulled out her wand and absorbed what remained of the ghouls to refine into mana crystal. This time the substance she pulled out was a pale white color.

The silence was