Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

The fire splashed against the stone torso. Flames washed over the armor, splaying out the other side. One of Lexi’s men was fried by the flames. His left cheek was scorched, and he dropped to the ground, howling as he clutched at his face.

Lexi erupted in rage, skewering the neck of the nearest ghoul. She put out a hand, casting healing at her foot soldier, and cut her way through ghouls to reach Uzax.

She stomped a foot into the Pyromancer’s gut, causing him to crumple to the ground. “They’re immune to elemental magic, you fool. Grab a weapon and use your hands, and don’t ever cast your spells so carelessly again.”

She speared another ghoul, as its foot nearly caved Uzax’s head in.

Ben let out a groan of disappointment. He’d been hoping that mage would be killed off.

Uzax glared daggers at Lexi and spat as he got to his feet, but none of them had time for petty squabbles. There were still fifteen ghouls left. Uzax’s and Adremor’s footsoldiers were being killed off fast.

The mages and the remaining soldiers fought madly. Ben could see desperation in their faces as they realized they were locked in a tight space with powerful monsters.

Lexi fought with ferocity however, and took out several ghouls on her own. She was a powerful warrior. And she was cunning too. Ben almost lamented having to dispatch her in such a way.

One of the gravel ghouls near her stepped in a puddle of spilled wine. Its leg buckled out from under it, and the foot crumbled to dust, exposing gelatinous flesh underneath. Lexi finished it off, a shrewd look on her face.

She tried luring another ghoul into the same puddle. Again, the monster was weakened where it touched the liquid.

“I think they’re vulnerable to water,” she shouted to her soldiers. “Throw any vessels of wine or other liquid you can find at them.”

Her soldiers were well trained. As they warded off blows from the formidable stone giants, they seized every wine flask or water pitcher they could find on the sideboard and hurled them at the giants.

The vessels smashed on their stony armor, causing huge chunks to crumble off. The monsters collapsed as they lost the support of their armor. The flesh underneath provided easy targets for swords and spears.

Within moments, the fight was over once more. The gravel ghouls were all smashed to pieces. Lexi’s foot soldiers were alive. Lexi quickly brought them back to full health with her healing magic. The other soldiers were all dead, and beyond her help.

“Maybe if you took better care of your men, we’d be in less of a mess right now,” she hissed at the other two mages. She was pragmatic, however, and still took care to heal both mages back as well.

“You speak so little on the journey here. Now you choose to find your tongue, and you use it to scold us as though we were children?” Adremor glared at the avian-like woman as she used her magic on him. “You will pay for this, beastkin. When we have dealt with this traitor, you will answer for your insolence.”

“I hear roast hawkgirl is a delicacy in the Sapphire Isles,” Uzax muttered as Lexi applied her glowing magic to the spot where she had kicked him.

Lexi seemed to have her earlier anger under control now because she didn’t respond to either mage. Ben almost felt like he would regret harming her, but he could see no way to deal with the mages without bringing the hawkwoman down. After all, injuring and weakening the mages meant little if she was there to restore their health.

“You take over for a minute,” Ben said to Sir Gallant the Younger, depositing him on the dashboard. “My mana is low. I’ll activate the screen controls for you.”

Ben absorbed all the gravel ghoul corpses, bringing the control limit back up to full.

Sir Gallant flashed a manic grin and set about indiscriminately summoning vine monsters and gravel ghouls all over the dining hall.

As the fighting began again, Ben checked a couple of notifications. The vine monsters had developed a minor amount of resistance to fire, and the Greater Stoneskin of the ghouls had increased defense around the joints. Judging by the speed with which the mages were cutting the monsters down, however, it wasn’t enough.

The monsters grew a tiny bit in strength each time the waves got mowed down and reabsorbed, but the mages were powerful. They cut swathes through their opponents.

Adremor and Uzax were both eventually forced to drink potions from their belts. Ben watched as they guzzled down the faintly glowing fluids, wondering what they were. Once the bottles were empty and cast aside, the wizards stood up straighter, casting new spells right away.

Mana potions, thought Ben. I wonder how those differ from the mana crystals that Melody has been preparing?

He put aside the thought as both mages quickly resumed fighting as fiercely as ever though. They did use some more physical attacks and save some of their mana, but Ben didn’t think there was much chance of wearing them out completely.

He had one shot left though. While Sir Gallant the Younger manned the control panel and was summoning monsters, Ben wanted to regenerate enough mana to summon a blade fiend. The fiend hadn’t done much against Imogen in the empty atrium, but according to the description, the monster could absorb blades and fight with them. If any monsters were powerful enough to face the mages, it had to be that one.

“Go easy on the summoning, Sir Gallant,” Ben cautioned. “You’ll run out of mana at this rate, and we don’t want any gaps in our summoning process. We have to keep attacking.”

“Are you telling me how to do my job?” the knight shrilled back as he danced between the glyph totem cylinders, summoning monsters furiously. “Where’s all the trust gone? You think I’m no longer up to the task?”

Ben thought to himself