Monster Mansion 2 by Dante King (best way to read ebooks .txt) 📗

It took out one goblin with a blast to the chest that smashed him into a bloody splatter on one of the walls. Her second round took off the fourth goblin’s head.

The crossbow goblin screeched in fear as he raised his loaded weapon up and aimed it at Agent Fallon, but Astrid leaped forward and was on top of him before he could fire. She brought the battleaxe down on his arms, slicing the left arm off at the elbow. His crossbow clattered to the ground and discharged its bolt harmlessly into the side of an empty barrel in one corner.

The goblin, undeterred by the loss of his left arm, hauled a curved scimitar from his belt with his right hand and charged Astrid, blood spouting from his stump. Astrid let the battleaxe fall to the ground and deployed her wolverine claws; from between her knuckles on both hands, gleaming foot-long steel blades appeared.

With a roar like a raging wolf, Astrid leaped forward to meet the goblin. She swung her battleaxe upward to deflect his scimitar stroke, then punched the heavy head of the axe forward to drive its blade through his neck.

He fell, choking, to the ground.

“Woo! Yeah! I’ve not had a fight like that in ages!” shouted Amanda. Clearly, she was in need of a bit of excitement and had been missing out recently. She high-fived Belinda, who looked a bit surprised but went with it.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the half of it yet,” said Astrid, looking around. “Come on, let’s see about opening one of these doors.”

She walked over to the right-hand door. “See this symbol?” she said. “This means that we have to open this one first. The other two won’t open until we open this one.”

“But how do we open it?” said Belinda, following her over. Amanda also went up and stood with them, examining the closed door.

Little did they know, that was the trigger for the next mob.

The whole team of adventurers having their attention on the door triggered the second attacking mob of the dungeon, and I was particularly pleased with this one. There was a clattering, chittering noise, and a mass of writhing shapes appeared off at the other side of the hall.

“Spiders!” Agent Fallon yelped, scrambling for her gun. “Let me take ‘em!”

She raised her gun and fired into the writhing mass of the oncoming spiders. Lightning bolts and fireballs seared the air as she pumped rounds into the horrible monsters, but they were quick and nimble, and they came on in a zig-zagging pattern, avoiding the blasts of her weapon.

I decided to intervene. The spider mob had only three in it, and I thought I’d up the stakes a bit. When I checked for my summoning sphere, I was pleased to see not only that I still had it, but that I had access to the dungeon-specific monsters within my summoning sphere. I drew on it, concurring another five giant spiders in the main hall.

Amanda Fallon screamed in fear. She was pumping Fireball rounds into the spiders as quick as she could, but they kept coming. It struck me that Amanda had been a bit unimpressed with Belinda and Astrid so far, and I wanted to engineer a situation where they could show off their full abilities.

It worked.

As one, the two agents deployed their special abilities. Astrid roared and began to transform into a monstrous werewolf, six feet of rippling muscle and razor tooth and claw. Belinda, almost simultaneously, morphed into a tall, humanoid column of black smoke.

Belinda rushed forward, a terrifying black cloud, enveloping two of the giant spiders. When she released them, they flopped to the ground motionless, their many eyes dull and blank now that Belinda had burned through their minds.

Astrid, lightning fast in her werewolf form, surged forward, swinging her claws to left and right. Spider legs and guts flew everywhere as she smashed through them. The spiders moved so fast it was hard to tell how many were left, but Astrid and Belinda pressed them into a tight mass, pressing in on them from both sides.

Amanda, finding new courage as the enemies were defeated, raised her enchanted six-shooter again and charged in, blasting rounds of Fireball into the squirming mass of the spiders. Flames flew, and the monsters were incinerated.

Just as it looked like it was all over, one spider suddenly leaped from the mass and made a beeline for Fallon. I saw the flash of battle in her Drow eyes, and she crouched to lift a long spear from the ground. Shifting her gun to her left hand, she raised the spear in her right like a javelin. Then, letting out a guttural roaring battle cry in the native Drow tongue, she charged in and impaled the spider right through the brain with the spear.

I felt a satisfying stream of nourishment flow into me and remembered what Kyrine had said about the portal dungeons—the more the adventurers used the gear I left lying about the dungeon, the more I would get the chance to level up. I was feeling that effect now.

Amanda Fallon took two steps forward to where the dead spider was wriggling on the ground in its death throes. When she was in front of it, she raised her massive revolver and blasted a Storm Sphere right between its eyes. The monster gave a satisfying spasm as its brains splattered all over the ground, and then lay still.

The three women looked around as if tensed for new foes. Astrid, in her werewolf form, looked ready for anything. Belinda transformed back into her humanoid shape, but stayed wary, her pistol in hand.

“Is that all you’ve got for us?” Belinda called out. In my form as the dungeon, I heard her voice ring out throughout the vaulted hall.

I took a moment, then began to raise up something new