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

to crack and shatter, as well as tearing away zombie flesh.  She doubted they would do much good against something more powerful, but it was enough to save them – though they were destroyed in the process.

“I’m so glad to hear your voice, Sandra, I thought we were going to die down—”

* Less talking, more running!  You don’t have much time! *

Echo heard another *crack* coming from above, but instead of a Core cracking it was the ceiling of the room; another few seconds went by and a huge chunk of it broke away and fell, crashing with an ear-shattering explosion of stone chips as it hit the floor.  In addition, the dim light of the room was starting to become even dimmer, so Echo quickly joined the Gnome and Dwarf as they passed by her and ran for the other tunnel.

As soon as they got there, she could see Angels and Apes attacking another force of undead there, and they were ridiculously outnumbered.  Luckily, there were also eight Pegasi waiting for them there that flew over to the three.

* Are the Shieldmen behind you? *

Gerold said something that Echo couldn’t understand with a hitch in his voice.  Sandra didn’t translate, however, probably because there was entirely too much going on.

* Their sacrifice will not be in vain – but we have to get you out of here. *

The Pegasi folded their legs down so that even the Gnome and Dwarf could climb up on their own winged horses.  As soon as they were settled and were holding onto the mane of their flying mounts with a death grip, they took off towards the entrance.

Down below, the last of the Apes and Celestial Authorities were quickly overwhelmed by a horde of Undead, which then started rushing up the tunnel after the fleeing Pegasi.  Before they could get far, the Core Room and then the tunnel started to collapse, crushing the back ranks.  In a cascade of destruction, the rest of the tunnel fell apart just behind Echo and the others, coming so close to killing them all that one of the lagging Pegasi was smashed by a falling boulder from the ceiling and crashed to the ground.

Less than 5 minutes after the Core was destroyed, 7 Pegasi and three riders shot forth from the tunnel just ahead of its complete collapse and Echo looked around to see that they had emerged into a dark forest.  We must’ve been in there longer than I thought.

As the Pegasi burst through a small space in between the foliage above, she looked over at the others who appeared to have the same shocked expressions she was sure was on her own face.  We…did it?  We’re…alive?

It seemed impossible that they had both succeeded and were still alive – but it was completely and unequivocally true.  Unless I died and this is all a dream?

Almost as if on cue, the pain in her wrist decided to come back at that moment as if to prove it wasn’t all just her imagination.

Chapter 34

When the Undead around the forest and open areas started to make their way back towards the dungeon her friends were trapped within, Sandra had a feeling that Echo and the others were making some progress and making the Core nervous.  When they all disappeared at about 5 hours after the entrance’s collapse, she began to hope that they would succeed.

She had already been building up some more forces for an assault that she wasn’t sure would even be successful, so she cautiously began to send them towards the other entrance at that point.  Sandra wasn’t convinced that the whole pulling-back of the undead into the dungeon wasn’t another trick, so she sent them in separately, and from different directions, just in case there was something waiting for them.  If one or a few were attacked, then she could pull them all back at the same time, but if she had sent them as a full group it might be difficult to escape with all of them.

Her hopes rose as they arrived at the entrance without any trouble, though she was still cautious.  She was right to be cautious, too, because the few Shears she sent in to look around found a massive tunnel filled with undead.  She couldn’t make out the end of the tunnel from the entrance, but from underground and outside of it she could tell that it was all one long passageway that led directly towards what she assumed was the Core Room; it seemed a little crazy to Sandra to have it so open and vulnerable, but then again it might’ve been for some strategic purpose that she didn’t know about.

She briefly thought about just sending in thousands of her Shears to see if they could fly down and destroy the Core, but the sight of dozens or possibly hundreds of Specters in the tunnel floating around dissuaded her of that notion.  She still thought that if she sent enough they could probably get through, but then she considered what would happen to the others if she succeeded.  If they were still an hour or so away from the Core Room, then if she destroyed the Core they would be crushed with no way out when it collapsed afterwards.

It was another hard choice, because she wasn’t sure if she would have another chance like the one she was looking at, and while she had more Dungeon Monsters on the way, they would be hard-pressed to defeat what was already in the tunnel.  Eventually she decided to just bring in approximately 3,000 of her Shears in preparation of an attack if it seemed like the others had failed.

When 75% of the undead she could see from the entrance left the tunnel – she supposed they went further into the dungeon – she knew that her friends were likely close to