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

were able to accomplish that.  But now, it was time to see if some of her other contributions would be just as effective as the Burning Darkness and Mass Accelerators.

Half of the Defensive Force not operating the ballistae had climbed on top of the Haulers via a ladder, bracing themselves on the roof above; with practiced precision, 50 of them placed Ice Bombs in one of their long, curved, hand-held launchers and released at the same time, aiming for the advancing horde while the Accelerators reloaded.  The Bombs sailed through the air over the fence of darkness, landing among the Beasts and plants racing ahead.  As soon as they landed, long ice shrapnel shot out in all directions, impaling monkey-bears, boars, and wolves alike, as well as shredding the vines or foliage of different Flora-dungeon monsters.  They did more damage versus the flesh and blood creatures than plants, granted, but the next volley was just the opposite.

It turned out that absorbing all of the moisture from a plant that relied on the precious liquid running through its entire structure was extremely detrimental.  Everywhere the Absorption Bombs landed and enveloped one of the Flora monsters, even on one of their appendages such as a vine or a root, the water rushing through their entire forms was absorbed, as if the plants were just massive hoses where the fluid would flow through.  Absent moisture, even one of the large Mossy Ditches was dried out so completely that it withered and crumpled to dust.

Against the Beasts, the Absorption Bombs were still potent, but for some reason the larger and more powerful the Beast, the less moisture was absorbed.  One of the large hunting Panthers, for instance, had some visible scarring where it had been hit in the side, the water inside having been sucked away, but it barely slowed the Beast down as it ran around the perimeter of the Burning Darkness fence.

The casualties they inflicted on the horde in the first few minutes of engagement were significant, though it barely seemed to lessen how many of them there were.  There were thousands of monsters and they had killed a few hundred, barely a drop in the bucket when compared to what was still left.  At least there haven’t been any casualties on our side—

As if to mock that thought, one of the monkey bears ran up to the fence and leapt high into the air, clearing the darkness by a foot or two, landing on the other side.  Since the Defensive Force members couldn’t see on the other side of the fence and the attack was so sudden, they were wholly unprepared.  A fist the size of one of their heads slammed into two of the nearest Gnomes, flattening them into piles of unrecognizable body parts and bloody clothes.  Before the Beast could attack anything else, the Force finally rallied and used their Flame Thumpers; two of the flat metal heads on the end of their long poles were shoved into the monkey-bear at the same time, causing the explosive force to propel the monster backwards – right into the Nether-fueled barrier, burning it alive in less than a second.

That wasn’t the only Beast or even plant that decided to take their chances hopping or somehow making their way over the fence, but after the first disastrous attack, the Defensive Force was there to push them back into the highly effective Weapon of War protecting them.  Most of that was ignored by Violet, however, as she was watching the bulk of the fighting off to the left and right of the main group.

Unsuspecting monsters ran right into the spinning Shredder Cones, which were rotating at such high speed that the chains attached to them were acting as powerful blades, cutting into and living up to its name by shredding plant and animal alike.  Hundreds of monsters died in less than 30 seconds, before the dungeons controlling them finally learned to avoid the spinning cones of death.  The slowly shrinking horde reversed course, turning to go around them, where they ran into the more familiar War Machines.  Except that the Warmasters piloting them were ready for the onslaught, and fought with a ferocity that Violet had never seen before.

They held nothing back, pushing their constructs to the limit of what they could do as they cut, smashed, or stomped into those arrayed against them, racking up kills by the dozens in less than a minute.  Sadly, there were only 6 of them, and they could only do so much against such an onslaught; Violet held her breath as she watched one of them get knocked over as a Panther jumped and slammed into it, landing on top, ready to rip the pilot right out of his central internal cab.

A wood and metal bolt impacted the side of the Panther a moment before it bit down on the cage protecting the pilot, knocking it off and causing the monster to slam into the ground 20 feet away, rolling and doing even more damage as the bolt rotated against the ground.  The War Machines weren’t alone; the Gnomes knew how to take care of pesky cat problems.

Bombs landed amongst the horde as it was rebuffed by the War Machines, and Mass Accelerator bolts slammed into one monster after another.  Distracted by the continuing ranged assault and temporarily rebuffed by the War Machines, the hordes were unprepared when the Shredder Cones moved towards them, blocking off more and attacking those already there from behind.

It was a slaughter, to put it mildly.

Unfortunately, the Cones’ movements also left a gap where the dwindling masses of the horde could slip through – and they did so.  Racing around the perimeter, they came to the opened space, rushing into it as if they had found the weakness in the enemy and were planning on exploiting it.  Over 50 Panthers, Snaplings, and various other smaller monsters poured through in