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

outer chitin of the Bug with all his strength, only to have the battleaxe rebound and nearly fly from his grip on its way back up.  He stood there, astonished at how little damage he did to the outer shell of the monster – only a tiny dent – and he realized that there was no way he could hope to damage this thing.  He didn’t have the same strength as his suit did, and he couldn’t filter his energy through the battleaxe to enhance the damage it did…or could he?

He had never actually tried it before, but as he quickly moved out of the way of the Bug as it hunted down another civilian, he considered how he might do it.  He had manipulated his Water energy before to break himself out of his cell earlier, but that had been largely unfocused and a horrid expenditure of his precious energy.  “But what if I just coat the outside of the blade with energy?  Will that work.”  He was talking to himself, he knew, but he found that it actually helped to work through his thoughts that way.

With a tremendous force of effort that seemed to hurt his ribs even more for some reason, Gerold managed to pull a small amount of his Water and Nether energy out from his body, holding it in his mind as he puzzled over what to do with it.  With his Shieldman armor and battleaxe, it was as natural as pumping the energy through the equipment, and his gear would automatically shape that energy to his will.  Here, though, he would have to try to do it on his own – and he had no idea how to do it correctly.

“So it might as well be incorrectly, or nothing at all.”

Rushing to the side of the Giga-pillbug, he raised his battleaxe again on a downward strike, but this time he concentrated on infusing his borrowed weapon with the Water and Nether energy he had pulled out.  As he swung it down, the axe seemed to swell with a blue and black glow, and he knew it worked – or thought it did, at least.  As he struck the Bug’s chitin armor, there was a sudden explosion of energy as what he had infused into the battleaxe exploded, destroying the weapon and sending Gerold flying backwards for the second time in the last few minutes.

He cried out in pain as he landed, rolling a few times as spikes of agony shot through his chest.  Luckily, other than the excruciatingly painful injuries to his ribs, he seemed to be alright.  After a moment, he sat up and looked around, only to see the Giga-pillbug – now quite angry at Gerold – charging at him, a 4-foot crater in its side where the injured Dwarf had hit him.  “Wow.  Did I do that?”  It was an inane question, considering that he was just about to die, but there was nothing that he could do.  His strength to get up and run basically spent, he closed his eyes, not wishing to watch his death coming for him.

Gerold was surprised when, instead of hearing his death approach, he heard a yell come from off to his left, followed by an impact and a bright light that shone through his closed eyelids.  Opening them up cautiously, he saw King Mynag standing where the front section of the Giga-pillbug used to be, shining brightly as whatever energy he used to entirely destroy the monster faded.

“Thank you, Your—”

Mynag suddenly fell to one knee, his battleaxe clutched in his grip the only thing keeping him upright.  He looked up at Gerold, and with a relieved smile, he collapsed in a heap.  “What—” Gerold started to ask, but then he saw the armor around the King start to fall apart, as if it was rusting away in a matter of moments.

“The King!  It’s time to retreat!” First-shield Parten announced as he knelt down by the King’s body, placing his hand on the fallen Dwarf’s neck.  “He’s still alive, but we need to get somewhere safe.”

Reverberating howls and an enormous roar echoed out of the tunnel, the deepness in them hinting at them coming from something big.  Gerold figured that if they were anything like the Giga-pillbugs, whatever was coming from the Werebeast dungeon meant they were in trouble.  He looked around at the room to take stock of who was left, and he despaired to see that there were only 7 civilians left, as well as 8 Shieldmen.  Fortunately, the Master Blacksmith seemed to have survived – if only they could get to somewhere safe before they ran into whatever was coming for them from the dungeons’ tunnel.

“Sir, there’s no way we can all make it to the connecting tunnel and through to Coppertine Hall before they catch up to us,” one of the Shieldmen asked Parten, before gesturing to himself and the other exhausted Shieldmen.  “Do you want us to stay and cover your retreat?”  Even in the face of likely death, Gerold couldn’t help but be proud of how willing his people were to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.  It was the same reason he had wanted to join the Shieldmen, because he felt the same way.

First-shield Parten hesitated for a moment, probably knowing that if he said yes, he was dooming them to death.  A worthy and honorable death, as they would be helping to save the King’s life, as well as the few remaining civilians.  If he said no, then there was a possibility that no one would survive, especially if the Werebeasts caught up with them.

Before he could respond, Gerold spoke up, though he almost regretted it as soon as he did.  “There might be another way.”

“What?  What do you know, Gerold?” Parten asked, his distaste for the former Shieldman plain on his face, but willing to grasp any option that presented itself.

“Gerry,