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

leap, swiping out at a second Dire Wolf that dashed over to crush the Orc within its jaws.  The warhammer connected the side of those jaws with such force that the canine’s neck snapped in the process, practically detaching as the skin and muscle tore from the impact.  Owchet’s follow-through swing destroyed a third Wolf’s front foreleg, crippling it and causing the loping Monster to stumble and roll forward in a tangle of broken limbs – down, but definitely not out.

A burst of Fire energy through the Orc’s legs allowed him to jump high the next moment, narrowly avoiding being chomped into from behind by a fourth Wolf, and he landed on the back of a fifth Wolf.  He rode it for a moment before swinging his warhammer in a wide arc, obliterating the eye socket and snout of the Wolf as it investigated what was on its back.  Even as the dangerous Dire Wolf fell forward from the near-fatal injury to its head, Owchet leapt off and aimed for yet another giant canine, swinging his warhammer down again with energy-enhanced strength.  The Orc mercenary was a force of unending carnage.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he was invulnerable.  Even as he crushed the back end of the Wolf he was aiming for, the back legs of the beast kicked out involuntarily, smacking into the chest of the Orc and sending him flying.  Sandra could tell that he was bleeding from some additional scratch wounds caused by the kick, but the worst part was that he was flung into the mass of Wolves still trying to surround and devour the 25 members of the Orcish Warband.

A Warband that, despite its best efforts, couldn’t compete with the mercenary in terms of killing ability.  However, even if they didn’t have the ability to regenerate their energy, they spared none of it as they defended themselves.  Air energy was used to speed up a trio of Warriors, who danced around the Wolves with great alacrity; they weren’t fast enough to dodge a few bites that crunched into their leather chestpieces, tearing them up and leaving long lines of blood flowing in their wake.  Sandra couldn’t help but be glad that they were wearing the chestpieces she had supplied them; otherwise, those bites might have ended them.

Other Fire-element users struck back with enormous strength, carving their way through the Dire Wolves, but there was almost always one more behind the last.  The use of so much energy was taking its toll on them, and Sandra estimated that they couldn’t last that much longer.  The same went with the Earth-element Orcs, as they transformed their flesh into stone-like hardness, allowing them to take a few bites without much damage: They were also becoming extremely weary.

The others weren’t doing much better, though Palzerk was an exception.  A Water energy user, he was able to flow between attacks like a river meandering through the countryside, narrowly avoiding attacks as though he was at a dance instead of a battle.  His Titanium sword cut with efficiency, hamstringing a Wolf here or slicing a deep cut into a neck there, but he didn’t stop to finish them off.  Instead, he kept up his dance, and the few times Sandra actually saw him being bit on his shoulder, she could see what appeared to be ice covering his bare skin, though it disappeared almost as soon as it deflected a tooth.

Only 10 seconds into the battle, the first Warrior fell from being surrounded on all sides, and he was literally ripped apart, though 4 Dire Wolves near his ripped-apart body showed just how dearly he made them pay for his death.  Sandra felt Mana slam into her Core as the Orc’s death was absorbed by the Beast-Classification Core controlling the Dire Wolves, which she immediately used (along with some additional Mana she had recently accumulated) to create another High Peak Roc.  Moments after it formed in her dungeon, she sent it out of the Roc tunnel, with instructions to arrive at the site of the battle as soon as possible.

Just then, her Sonic Blademasters screamed out as their rotating blades reached a crescendo; waves of concentrated sound and air blasted into the massive grey-and-black forms below, tearing apart their bodies with ease.  Strafing their beams of powerful sonic energy across entire swathes of Dire Wolves, the Blademasters killed dozens within the first few seconds, and dozens more died within the next.  The tide was turning, but yet another Orc died against the press of Dire Wolves; she couldn’t see who it was, but she was relieved that it wasn’t Palzerk or Owchet.

Speaking of the mercenary, he had recovered from being flung into the heart of the Dire Wolf horde, and was laying about them with his warhammer, smashing heads and breaking bones with every hit.  The wounds on his chest were soon accompanied by even more wounds along his legs and arms, and the blood he was leaking out was weakening him extensively.  Another few moments, she judged, and he would become too overwhelmed to survive.

Those few moments, however, were enough for the Blademasters overhead to do their job.  A wide clearing was blasted around Owchet by their efforts, and the injured, exhausted Orc collapsed to one knee, held up by his warhammer as he looked at the disappearing bodies of the Wolves that had been within seconds of killing him.  Everywhere the Sonic Blademasters pointed, in fact, was another Warrior saved from certain doom, and within 30 seconds of constant attack, the Dire Wolves were down to fewer than 50.

Slow to react to the new threat in anticipation of more Orcish slaughter, the Dire Wolves finally turned their attention to the danger in the sky.  Standing 8 feet tall at the shoulder, the massive canines had quite the leaping ability – and they certainly showed it, leaping into the air towards the constructs only 20 feet above.  Half of Sandra’s airborne