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

less than 5 seconds as a group – and triggered the one-shot defense that was there to protect them if anything managed to break through the other defenses.

After learning about the moisture absorption abilities of the Absorption Bombs, Violet had come up with a last-ditch defense if they needed it.  Spread out unobtrusively along the ground was a net of over 100 of the Bombs, flattened into plates instead of round balls, and they covered all of the open space.  Unlike the balls, they activated as soon as something touched one, and their rate of absorption was much slower over a longer period of time – but their range above the plates was up to 6 feet.

As a result, as the monsters ran over the massive net of Absorption Plates, they started to have the moisture sucked out of them.  The first plates they passed over basically just made them severely dehydrated; the next few started to cause their skin and organs to shrivel from the loss of moisture; by the time they reached the end of the Plate net, each of the monsters collapsed from the lack of moisture through all or most of their bodies.

It happened slowly enough that those behind weren’t aware of the danger, and by the time they learned of it – it was too late.  One of the Panthers managed to jump over the last half of the Plates to avoid being sucked dry, but the crew of Defensive Force Gnomes was there with their Flame Thumpers to knock it back into the Absorption field.  Also unlike the Bombs that were chucked out at the rest of the horde, these Plates lasted for 20 seconds, which was more than enough time to kill everything that tried to invade their sanctuary.

The next minute was filled with the destruction of the remaining horde of Beasts and Flora, a few of which managed to make it to the back side of their fence again, but were impaled by a half-dozen Mass Accelerator bolts for their efforts.  Another member of the Defensive Force was killed when a Panther jumped over the fence from an unexpected direction and sliced her up with a swipe of its deadly claws – which was extremely sad and unfortunate – but overall, they had only lost 3 Gnomes and killed thousands of dungeon monsters.

Of course, the 4 Giants were still coming…and Violet wasn’t sure if their Weapons of War would be of any use against them.

Chapter 23

While the Giants moved slowly in comparison to the other monsters that had just been slaughtered, that didn’t make them any less deadly.  Their reach with the ripped-up trees they were using as clubs meant that they didn’t even have to be that close to cause some damage, and by the time the rest of the horde had been eliminated, they were practically within striking distance.

“Give it all you got!” Violet heard one of the leaders of the Force call out, to which all 60 of their Mass Accelerators sang out, aiming for the Giant in the lead.  The massive monster was only about 200 feet away from their front line, which was well within range of the powerful ballistae.  With such a large target, none of the bolts missed their mark, slamming into the chest of the 80-foot monstrosity within a second of each other with so much force that the Giant was actually knocked off its feet.  The ground shook from the impact of the multi-ton monster falling on its back, and Violet had to catch herself from falling.

When she stabilized herself and looked around, she saw that the others on the Hauler with her were doing the same, though one of the Accelerator crew had fallen off.  She doubted that he was seriously hurt, but it just went to show how powerful that minor quake had been.

Yet, for all of the damage done to the Giant from the bolts, it wasn’t dead.  Lying on the ground, a roar of pain echoed across the hilly grassland, causing the Journeyman Enchanter to cover her ears in response.  Looking at the injured monster, she saw that its chest was peppered with bolts, sunk so far inside its body that they could barely be seen sticking out, but that wasn’t enough to kill the massive creature.

It was going to take a lot more than that, though it was a good start.  Already, the Accelerators were reloading, and just as the Giant sat up from its fall, the same Defensive Force leader shouted, “Fire!”  Another volley of bolts shot out and hit the Giant again, this time aiming for something a bit more vulnerable: the Giant’s face.  Still yelling out in pain from the initial strike of bolts, it was afflicted further as a few dozen went directly up its maw, puncturing the back of its throat. Another 2 luckily aimed projectiles went into both eyes, piercing them and blinding the massive monster; more than half of the rest were embedded in its cheeks or nose, though a half-dozen had been aimed low – right into its throat.

That seemed to do the trick that 60 bolts to its chest couldn’t accomplish; the softer skin of its neck was practically ripped apart from the impact of 6 Accelerator bolts, tearing its throat and jugular arteries open in a gory display of purplish-colored blood.  The force of the impact once again knocked it back, though it was only a few feet that the enormous form slid backwards, slamming its head against the ground at the same time.  Then, thankfully, the Giant stopped moving, disappearing moments later – to the cheers of the Defensive Force.

Violet joined in, happy that they had a Weapon that could defeat the enormous Giant monsters, but their celebration was short-lived.

“EVERYONE OFF THE HAULERS!”

It was so unexpected that Violet whipped around to see what the leader was talking about, looking towards the remaining