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

annoy the enemy; the decaying and rotten appendages on the larger beasts seemed to be held together by a stronger force than their smaller brethren, which resisted most of the tearing and ripping her Dire Wolves tried to inflict on them.

Not only that, but the bears and behemoths seemed to be physically much, much stronger and faster than she would’ve thought; a quick backhanded swipe by the bear tossed one of her Queens away so hard that it smashed up against a distant tree, snapping its spine and killing it in the process.  The behemoth wasn’t quite as quick, but a speedy shuffle-step by its enormous legs caught a Dire Wolf or two underneath its feet, pinning them in place while at the same time deforming the metal of her Mechanical construct like it was clay.  Overall, her Jaguar and Wolf constructs were doing quite a bit of damage to the larger zombie creatures, but it was going to take some time for their constant attacks to do enough to take one of them down.

Time, however, wasn’t something that they were going to have a lot of – especially when she considered the rest of the battle. Her Steelclad Ape Warriors had jumped straight into the fray against the two Ogre Skeletons – backed up by the Martial Totems she had just recently added to her forces – and started to smash apart the enemy Dungeon Monsters with great success.  Even after the hazy dark cloud enveloped both Ogres and sped them up, her Apes managed to break quite a few of their vital bones, while only taking minimal casualties.  The Totems were exceptionally well-suited for cracking and pulverizing the hard and thick bone of the massive Skeletons, though one of them practically folded in half – despite being made of something similar to Iron – when it was hit by an oversized bone club.

If it were just a matchup between her Apes/Totems and the Ogres, her constructs would’ve won handily; unfortunately, there were other Undead in the small clearing that negated any advantage they had.  While her constructs were attacking the skeletons and zombies – probably because Sandra had prior experience fighting them and they ultimately took their cues from her – they were in turn attacked by the new Undead she hadn’t fought before.

In the end, it was a slaughter…and it was an unusual – and disheartening – experience being on the receiving end of such an outcome.

The undead she thought were Ghouls of some sort jumped on the backs of some of her Apes and latched on with their ferocious strength; they immediately went to work scoring rents into the Steel forms of her constructs with their claws and teeth.  Given enough time, it appeared as though they would be able to tear through and get to her Steelclad Dungeon Monsters’ “power sources” to kill them – but her Apes didn’t even survive that long.  While a few Ghouls were punched off by the powerful fists of the nearby Martial Totems or a swing of a nearby warhammer wielded by other Ape Warriors, they were not the only threat.

The faceless undead that were wearing full suits of armor stomped up next, swinging their enormous claymores with deadly efficiency.  One massive sword swipe was enough to lop off an Ape arm or leg – or if they were really lucky, a head – or even partway shear through one of her Martial Totems.  Within a minute of the fight starting, half of her Apes and Totems that she had brought were down if not out from the unexpected assault…though they didn’t give up easily.

The undead inside the armor were just as susceptible to impact damage as anything else, perhaps even more so; half of them were destroyed in her constructs’ counterattack as powerfully swung warhammers and Totem fists slammed into the – remarkably sturdy, Sandra couldn’t help but notice – black-colored armor, breaking the bones of the undead creature inhabiting it, even if the armor wasn’t damaged overly much.  In fact, it almost looked like they were turning things around, when the last two unknown Undead entered the battle and took their toll on her forces in new and unexpected ways.

First, the mist-like Dungeon Monsters floating through the air descended on the combatants, primarily targeting her Ape Warriors.  Sandra wasn’t exactly sure what they would or could do, though; they didn’t seem to have any real form, so she didn’t think that they had any way to inflict damage on her constructs.  Her assumption was proven right as they came into contact with her Steelclad constructs and didn’t seem to do anything with their touch; in fact, upon the first contact, the mist seemed to recoil in pain.  A rime of frost appeared on her Dungeon Monsters where the mist creatures touched them momentarily, but even that didn’t seem to slow them down.

It was only when the Undead mist floated around her Apes for a moment and then stopped when it seemed to find something of interest that she became a little worried.  Quicker than she had seen them move before, Sandra watched the strange mist creatures condense their forms and shoot forward into the tiny joins of her Ape Warriors’ bodies; in less than a second, they were inside and gone from view – and then her Steelclad constructs started to fall to the ground one-by-one, like a puppet that had its strings cut.  As they dissolved into the ground, leaving behind their Monster Seeds, she saw the mists appear where her constructs died – though they were severely reduced in size, or else gone completely.

The loss of her 8 remaining Apes in the matter of seconds was bad enough, but the introduction to the last Undead Dungeon Monster was what put the final nail on the coffin of her eradication force’s destruction. The shadowy hooded figures hadn’t done anything so far during the battle,