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

She shook her head. “I need to get a little bit closer.”

“Then we’ll get closer,” Ben said. He handed his torch to Imogen. “You take this, I need a hand free to use my Drain spell.”

Imogen took the second torch.

“I’m gonna cast my spell as soon as they get within reach,” Ben called out. “You three will need to draw them out. Get close enough to attack, then the vines will have to come closer. But be careful.”

“Don’t you worry about us, Benjamin,” Lulu assured him. “The vines will be no match for our strength combined.”

Ben simply nodded at her, and the three women advanced. He hung back, just outside the range of the vine monsters’ attack, but close enough to cast his spell as soon as the vines came closer. Nipper squatted on his haunches beside Ben, ready to attack.

The three women advanced a yard inside the range of the vine monsters, but still nothing happened. One footstep at a time, they advanced another yard.

Melody raised her wand, lightning crackling at the end of it. She took another step forward. Then with a loud screech, five of the monsters lunged.

All turned to chaos in front of Ben, as the women cast their spells and ducked and weaved, dodging great snapping jaws. Lulu yanked and strangled with her water noose. Melody zapped monsters with her lightning spell, and Imogen burned faces with her twin torches.

Ben quickly examined the vine monsters’ energy strands to see what he could extract. He was puzzled to observe that the monsters had no strands of mental or emotional energy whatsoever. How had they been learning from the adventurers’ behavior then? Perhaps that was all coming from the dungeon itself, which was rumored to be sentient.

Ben could still see strands of physical energy, however. This time, instead of taking all of the physical energy, he located a specific portion, one that vibrated and bounced like collections of neon green pinballs. It wasn’t clear what those would do, but obviously the Drain spell could still be used to extract energy, even from non-sentient beings.

Exactly what sort of creatures could he extract energy from, he wondered? And could he extract kinetic energy from a falling rock for instance? Or just from living beings? He made a mental note to research this later—but that moment wasn’t the time.

Ben hauled on the strands of green energy from the remaining two vine monsters within range. He was able to drain them almost completely before his body filled up. The monsters slowed right down to a crawl, lazily bobbing their snapping jaws up and down in the air.

The women turned to Ben to see what had happened. He took a step forward, and with lightning speed, he dashed right up to the women. His vision blurred as his feet sped along the stone surface so fast he could barely feel them moving.

He skidded to a stop in front of Melody and the nymphs, who stared at him for a moment with their mouths open.

“Uh, it looks like I can drain speed from the vine monsters.” Ben laughed. “And they seem to have a lot of it.”

Nipper scampered after him, giving chase, and nipped at Ben’s ankles when he caught up.

Melody turned back to the two sluggishly bouncing vine monsters behind them and zapped them both, causing their giant green heads to explode.

“Can you do that again?” she asked.

Ben looked inside himself, checking his mana. “My mana’s recovering quickly. I think I can give each of you a dose.”

Melody grinned. “Then let’s finish these monsters.”

There were still more vine monsters appeared, waiting out of range, ready to lunge and attack the adventurers.

Ben divided up the speed energy he had absorbed between the three women. He found he was able to give a tiny amount to Nipper as well, though the kitten’s capacity for energy was still quite low.

“Keep an eye on him,” Ben told the women. “I don’t want Nipper running in with super speed and getting himself killed.”

Melody smiled confidently. “Nipper is learning quickly. But yes, we will keep him safe.”

“Alright then, draw the monsters out, so I can absorb some more of their energy.” Ben waited a couple of paces behind the women.

Melody and the nymphs now took turns dashing toward the vine monsters and casting an attack, then dashing back out of range.

Ben had to be swift, but he’d had a lot of practice now. As soon as a monster came close enough, he drained as much of their speed as he could. The monster would languidly bounce about like a yoyo on the end of a string, and the women would finish it off.

The women used up their speed quickly doing this, and it was all Ben could do to keep them fully supplied. The monsters also recognized what was happening before long. With the monsters now aware of their ploy, the women had to start creeping slowly forward together, acting as though their speed was all used up. They had to kill some of the monsters before Ben even got a chance to drain them. They burned, zapped, decapitated, and stomped on monster heads.

Even Nipper joined the fight. He was cautious, but with his super speed he was able to dart inside the range of the monsters, who didn’t seem to consider him a threat. That is, until he sunk his tiny, razor-sharp teeth right into their vines, ripping through them like wet paper.

He managed to kill several monsters by getting right to their roots at the wall and severing their long necks before they realized what was happening. Of course, the monsters learned quickly and started targeting him, but he learned as well.

With a dose of speed from Ben, he was able to dart in and draw the attention of the monsters, then drag them back out, exposing them to the women’s attacks.

Finally, they got down to the last half dozen vine monsters at the end of