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

further than Violet thought possible, and then opened its hand up wide enough to completely flatten a dozen Gnomes of the Force – that had just thrown the Bombs at close range – with a powerful *smack* against the ground.  The Giant swept his hand to the side, sending another dozen Gnomes tumbling away, though how hurt they were was hard to judge.

Felbar and the other War Machine attacked again, just as the Shredder Cone arrived, turning the Giant’s attention away from the individual Gnomes.  Felbar was knocked away with an almost-casual smack by the Giant’s hand, though he wasn’t destroyed – only sent sprawling about 50 feet away.  The others were in danger of being killed, however, as the massive creature turned its attention on them.

“Attack!”

The diving attack hit the Giant unexpectedly again, this time to its face, and the impact was so great that it knocked the humongous creature on its back.  There were a few nicks to its nose and cheeks, but for the most part it was just stunned.

But not stunned enough to not shoot its hand up to grab the bird by one of its talons as it tried to fly away.  The Roc, caught by the powerful grip of the Giant, tried to peck at the creature’s fingers as it flapped its wings in an effort to get away, but the Giant’s grip was like a vise, not letting it get away.  The other hand raised up, and Violet knew what was coming next; while the Roc was technically bigger than the Giant in terms of length, it wasn’t nearly as powerful or durable – it would be squished between the hands of the enormous monster, like a large chicken would be helpless in the hands of a Gnome.

Violet watched in despair as the other hand managed to work itself around the neck of her Roc, despite its struggling to get away.  As it screeched out in pain, before being cut off from the hand around its throat, the Enchanter saw something that gave her hope: The Princess was at it again.

Having climbed up on the Giant’s throat during the confusion, Celeste used her hand-axes to cut into the throat.  However, before she had done more than begin the wound, the hand around the Roc’s neck let go of its stranglehold and swiped at the annoying Gnome on its throat.  The action caused the hand-axes already producing a wound to tear it open even further as she was flung away, opening up the artery and the throat worse than if she had been left alone.

The Giant let go of the Roc, which flew upwards at Violet’s direction, as it used both hands to try to stop the bleeding, but it was too late.  Not wanting to go without a fight, it sat up and kicked out at the approaching Gnomes on foot, catching 4 of them with an enormous foot, sending them flying back towards the main perimeter, where they sadly flew through the Burning Darkness barriers, frying to a crisp in less than a second.

That last bit of defiance at its fate was all that the Giant had in it, however, as it quickly bled out and collapsed backwards, dead before it hit the ground.  It disappeared moments later, leaving the remaining Gnomes on the battlefield stunned at what had just occurred.

The groans of the wounded still within the perimeter broke Violet out of her shock; shock at the carnage she had witnessed, and the shock of still being alive.  They had brought with them a few Healing Amulets, small silver circles that had been enchanted with Holy energy to speed up the rate of recovery in those that were injured, though they had a limited number of uses.  The Amulets could even repair broken bones if given enough time, but if there were too many injuries – or extremely serious internal injuries – the healing could end up killing them.

Without thinking, she grabbed one of them from the small case near the front of the Hauler and then slid down the ladder to start healing those that she could find.  It wasn’t hard to locate them, luckily, as all she had to do was listen for the moans or screams of pain.  She found one of the Defensive Force members buried under a plank of wood that originally belonged to a Hauler, and she pressed the Healing Amulet just below the shank of wood sticking through his upper shoulder.

“This is going to hurt,” Violet warned, but he just nodded.  Pulling the wood out of his wound caused him to scream out in agony, but the Amulet was enough to help stop the bleeding enough to keep him alive, and the wounds slowly started to knit itself back together.  As soon as the injury had repaired itself enough to keep him stable enough to survive, she took the Amulet away – though he was already unconscious.  The healing took a lot out of those who received it, which was why it would kill those with massive injuries.

Just as she was about to start on another wounded Gnome, one of those with massive injuries was carried back inside the defensive perimeter.  Violet rushed over to them, tears in her eyes as she looked down at the battered and broken form of Princess Celeste being gently lowered to the ground by a quartet of Defensive Force members.  Somehow, despite the broken legs, broken right arm, and what were likely multiple internal injuries, the Princess was still conscious.

“This is nothing, I assure you,” she coughed out.  “I’ll be back up in no time.  Did anyone grab my axes?”

Looking up at those near her, she could see the same thought she had reflected on their faces.  She wasn’t going to make it.  Based on the injuries she could see, she doubted the Royal Gnome would last more than a few hours, and she