The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (free e books to read .txt) 📗

no need for that now.  In fact, it wasn’t until Ferryl, out front of the others, was told to trigger the final trap that he discovered – a third of the way into the room – that they moved.  The Slow Speed-inducing Enchantment trap triggered and caught all the Raiders inside the room. For all of a second – 2 seconds for the Healer – their movements were all slowed considerably, as if they were caught in some sort of dense jelly.

That was when the Mastiff in the middle of the room charged ahead, accompanied by 4 more from behind trees along the perimeter.  They were joined by 6 Branch Jackals jumping down from those trees, 6 Root Foxes emerging from their roots, 4 Frond Coyotes slinking out from the nearby ferns, and 4 Forest Wolves that raced out to accompany the others in a ferocious wave of Canine creatures.

The slowdown from the Enchantment caught the Raiders off-guard, but they recovered well enough. When the creatures were halfway to their assembled group, arrows from the Elemental Archer zipped through the air to hit one, two, and then three of the Branch Jackals out of the air. The spell-caster dropped the end of her staff and aimed it at two of the Wolves racing towards her. Two large green orbs the size of the creatures’ heads smashed into them with a powerful impact, flinging them away so powerfully that they smashed into the far wall with bone-crunching force.

A few more arrows and green orbs flew out from the Raider group, killing another Wolf and half of the Foxes; but the others were able to close with their intended victims.  The remaining Jackals, Coyotes, Foxes, and singular Wolf were much faster than the lumbering hulk of the Mastiffs and arrived first, throwing themselves at the nearest targets, Ferryl and Palter, without much thought of strategy.  After fighting them a few times, however, the Raiders had a fairly good idea of how to defend against them.  Ferryl ducked under some jumping Foxes and slashed at them as they flew by, while taking the fight to the Coyotes by pouncing on them individually.  Palter waded into the group of Canines with his shield, bashing away at them, while swinging his warhammer at anything that got close enough.  A few of the Jackals managed to get by both of them and attacked the Healer Gnome, but she fought them off deftly with practiced swings of her rapier, stabbing into their unprotected faces and eyes when she had the chance.

That would’ve been it, except that the Mastiff Dogs arrived. Two of them were killed by either elementally charged arrows or more green orbs flung out by the Elf before they arrived, but one of the remaining ones slammed into Ferryl as he was fighting another Coyote, knocking him 5 feet away to land awkwardly on his side.  He didn’t appear hurt from either the impact or the fall, but the remaining creatures took advantage of his current state and attacked the vulnerable Scout.  Luckily for him, before they could get more than a few bites and scratches on him, they were picked off by arrows that were methodically shot by the Elemental Archer.

The other two Mastiffs ran into Palter and his shield, who staggered back a few steps from the impact.  Instead of trying to bite him as they recovered from the Hill Dwarf wall they ran into, they instead decided that they would just hop onto the Raider and use their bulk to bury him underneath in an ungraceful-looking dogpile.  He wasn’t prepared for that and could only get his shield up to protect himself, which helped to keep himself upright – and covered by a few hundred pounds of dog flesh.

He started to push them away with his great strength, but there was no real need; the Elven spell-caster pointed at them with her staff and an enormous burst of sickly-green light erupted from the weapon.  The light shot across the space between them and hit the massive Dogs, barely knocking them both off of the beleaguered Palter.  That wasn’t the end of her spell, however, as the sickly-green light had another purpose: to eat away at the Mastiffs.  It was as if the light were some sort of fast-acting acid that started to rapidly dissolve the fur, skin, and bones of Tacca’s creatures, so that within 10 seconds, they disappeared on their own, leaving behind a reward.

Ah, so she’s an Organimancer.  I was wondering if she might be, based on the color of her robe and staff; that Acid Blast spell definitely confirmed it.

The cleanup of the remaining creatures was quite simple afterwards.  When they were all dead, the Raiders looked at each other in surprise, though with smiles on their faces.  “Wow, that was a lot more intense than I expected of a new dungeon,” Palter said.

The Elf was already back to sketching and recording the composition of the battle, though she looked up and said, “Exactly.  The first few rooms are going to be excellent for training new recruits, but only groups with a little more experience under their belts are going to be able to completely finish this last room.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, because it means that this dungeon will be viable for quite a few Raider Levels, not just the first two or three.”

“How do you know this was the last room?” the Gnome asked while healing Palter and Ferryl of their minor wounds.

“I’m pretty sure that treasure chest over there says it all,” the Elemental Archer responded, pointing towards the far wall where a small chest sat underneath some trees.

The Reward Tiers automatically came with a treasure chest option for use wherever it was needed; it cost a measly 10 DF to create, mainly because it was more of a “construct” rather than an actual container.  It