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

they would be running out of energy soon; as they didn’t have a way to regenerate it through the use of Energy Orbs like Gerold did, they couldn’t get any of it back unless they got some sleep.  Fat chance of that happening in the middle of a battle.

“Master, we can’t last much longer.  Unless we can stem the flow of monsters and seal this entrance—”  Gerold was in the middle of slicing a Giga-bee out of the air as it dove toward his face, thankful that they didn’t seem coordinated enough to swarm and attack them from above or behind, when something interrupted his warning to Jespin.  A rumbling came from the monsters’ tunnel, and at first Gerold thought it was collapsing.  As if his words had made it happen, the stream of monsters stopped spilling out of the 15-foot-high opening, as though their numbers had finally run out and the dungeons were eliminating the way back to their dungeons.  He had heard that they had done that in the past when they had attacked, because there was too much danger in leaving a straight passageway to their Cores – so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

The rumbling continued, until it turned to shaking, and Gerold couldn’t help but smile in relief as it appeared as though he was correct: The tunnel must be collapsing if it was causing that type of ruckus.  The last of the final wave of monsters assaulted the entire line in a rush, as if they were making a final attempt to break through.  The knowledge that their efforts had been successful – and that they could finally rest as soon as the rest of the monsters were killed – gave the defenders a boost of determination, and they fought ferociously to eliminate everything that was in the room.

Gerold relaxed in relief as the last Giga-ant was killed by one of the civilians, and he looked around at the others, seeing the exhausted but relieved faces.  They weren’t exactly happy, because many of their friends and likely family had perished during the defense – but they had done it, they had survived when the odds seemed against them.  Now I just have to grab Master Jespin and get out of here.  He turned to the Master Blacksmith, but his head was tilted to the side as if he was worried about something, staring down the tunnel.

“We did it, Master—”

Jespin cut him off.  “I’ve never known any of the attacking dungeons to collapse their tunnel before all of their monsters were killed.  I don’t think—"

Recognizing what he was saying immediately, Gerold turned back to the tunnel just as the rumbling reached a crescendo, only to see a massive ball of dark-grey chitin rolling through the entrance, traveling so fast that he didn’t even have time to react with more than just raising his arms – as if that would protect him – completely forgetting about his Nether-based absorption shield.  The 15-foot diameter ball rolled right into him, and he felt as if someone had just punched him in the chest as he was flung backwards, slamming against the far wall with enough force to crack even the strong metal of the Deep Diver.

He collapsed on the floor, unable to move his suit after he recovered his wits from the impact.  Groaning in pain, knowing that he had likely cracked a rib or two, he pulled himself out of the destroyed Deep Diver, seeing the outside of it for the first time.  In addition to the scratches and dents he had endured during the frantic fight, there were giant cracks running all over it, likely breaking the enchantments that allowed Gerold to move the material.

Screams suddenly penetrated his ears as his concentration came back, and he looked up to see a scene out of a nightmare.

The Giga-pillbug that had rolled through the tunnel entrance had been deflected slightly when it crashed into Gerold, meaning that it had missed running over Jespin likely by a hair’s breadth.  Unfortunately, it didn’t miss over half of the civilians that were still assembled in their defensive line, and over 50 of them had been obliterated by the rolling Bug.  When it finally came to a stop, it had unrolled itself, and was now currently approaching the rest of the impromptu militia, using its deadly pincers on its front to literally cut people in half – through their armor.

The Shieldmen rushed to help, but the rumbling hadn’t stopped.  A second Giga-pillbug rushed through, this time aiming for the moving group of Shieldmen.  While they weren’t expecting it, the 29 remaining Shieldmen (including the King) braced for the attack behind their shields, but that didn’t seem to matter much; half of them were knocked aside or sent flying, though none had been hit as hard as Gerold had been.

And, luckily, the impacts ended up damaging the hard chitinous shell of the Bug.  Disgusting ichor leaked out of the outer shell of the second Giga-pillbug in various places, but that didn’t slow it down.  Ruthlessly attacking the Shieldmen that were still standing, it struck and maneuvered around them quite swiftly, its hulking form belying a swift ability to move around its multitude of legs under the chitin-armor shell on its back.

“They can take care of themselves…AARGH!” Gerold said to himself, grunting in pain when he started to move, bending down to pick up a fallen battleaxe from one of the dead civilians near where his broken Deep Diver suit had landed.  Holding his left arm against his chest to stop the pain of his cracked ribs, he waded into the fray around the first Bug, trying his best to kill the thing before any of the other civilians died.

Chopping downwards was extremely painful in the way it moved the muscles (and therefore, his ribs) in his chest, but he fought through the pain.  He struck down on the