The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) by Jonathan Brooks (english readers txt) 📗

While Echo had originally been in charge of the Shapeshifters, apparently Sandra hadn’t made the Pegasi as part of that deal.

There were still 30 Shapeshifters and 6 Pegasi not being used – they were going to have to adapt without the extra mounts and supplies – because they were all going to be on a rotating “shifting” schedule.  Since they could be in the form they were in for an hour, followed by an hour off, the plan was to start with 10 for 30 minutes, add another 10 for 30 minutes, and then when the original 10 shifted back, a different 10 would shift into Echo’s form.  That way, except for the first 30 minutes, there would always be 20 shifted Echos riding Pegasi and following the Elf’s instructions.  Of course, with 4 Pegasi crushed behind them, some of the Echos would have to be land-bound and only use their energy to cast spells – but it was better than nothing.

Sensing that they were as ready as they were going to be, Felbar somehow directed his commands to just a select few Apes and the beings made of light that Sandra called Celestial Authorities – but Echo had a feeling were actually Angels, which she had heard of but never seen before – to make their way through the tunnel ahead of them.  After a few moments, everyone else followed behind them, starting with the rest of the Angels and Apes, then the Dwarves and, finally, Felbar.  As he passed by her, his construct held its weapon up to its head in some sort of awkward salute…and she strangely felt a little better.

Echo took a deep breath to settle her nerves, before she too called out to the 10 Echos creepily facing her and waiting for orders.  “Follow me and attack what I attack.”  The other unshifted monsters stayed near the back of the pack, along with the 8 white cylindrical constructs that were acting as their healers.  At least we didn’t lose any of those.

When she entered the third room, the battle against some large zombie bears was just concluding, with the last one being sliced apart by three separate Authorities at the same time with their longswords made of pure light.  She felt a slight kinship with them because of their obvious Holy-element affiliation, and she was happy they were on their team against the vile undead that were infesting the dungeon.

There was a trap inside the room as well, though fortunately none of their constructs were…stuck…in it.  Near the end of the room just off from the exit, there was a rectangle of a black so deep it seemed to suck in every bit of light around it – including the light being shed by the Angels in the room.  An exact copy of the rectangle was on the ceiling right above the other one, and there were a dozen of Sandra’s strange metal ball constructs falling from it.  As soon as they would hit the black rectangle on the ground, it would reappear a split-second later from above, before falling into the one below again.

She barely recognized the balls, though, because they were falling fast.  Faster than Echo could run, and she thought that was pretty fast; those metal constructs, though, were moving so quickly that they were essentially a blur.  The others stood around in fascination for a moment, before Felbar said something and everyone started to move towards the exit.  As they were making their way around the strange trap, the rectangles suddenly disappeared, and the balls hit the ground with such speed that they hit the ground and exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere.

One even hit her across the room in her shoulder and she hissed in pain and surprise; placing her hand on the wound, she saw that it was relatively shallow and not too serious, so she looked around at everyone else to see how they fared.  Luckily, the only one to get seriously hurt by the shrapnel was one of the extra Pegasi, which practically had its right wing sheared off by a large metal fragment moving at high speed.

The healing “Drones” moved around to those wounded and automatically healed them with their strange, thin, padded arms and they were ready to move on.  Note to self: stay away from traps still in operation, even if they seem relatively harmless.

The fourth room held a trio of large Ogre Skeletons, which were again dispatched by the monsters they had with them, though an Ape had its lower half smashed flat by the downswing smash of a massive bone club.  The healing construct was able to repair it, but now they faced a problem.  The previous rooms had been scouted out by Sandra’s smaller constructs, but this room hadn’t had that done yet; they had managed to kill the Ogres without triggering anything by staying near the entrance, but now it was difficult to determine how to go about either bypassing a trap that they didn’t know the location of, or sacrificing one of their more powerful monster allies to definitively find it.

No one moved as Felbar looked at the Dwarves and even Echo as if he was asking for her opinion.  She shrugged and briefly considered offering to shoot some arrows to see if she could trigger it, but she didn’t want to waste what they had – especially since the other Echos would follow suit.

Gerold stepped forward unexpectedly, saying something to the other Dwarves and a single word to Felbar.  Echo had no idea where he was going, but he seemed to be trying to find something as he looked at the floor, holding his arm out like some sort of dowsing rod.  Finally, he stopped about two-thirds of the way through the room and knelt down awkwardly in his construct.  A deep black essence flowed from where his hand would be underneath the metal arm of his “Deep Delver”,