The Crafter's Dilemma: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (me reader TXT) 📖

“We have to evacuate the villagers!  Marleth, run back and—” the old Dwarf began.

One of the other Shieldmen wearily interrupted him.  “Marleth is dead, sir.”

“Fine, fighting retreat!  Let’s get in between the houses to present them a better line of defense.”  Putting actions to his words, Bregan started to back up, keeping the Undead at bay ahead of him with great sweeps of his axe.  The others followed suit and in less than a minute they were in a relatively narrow space between two buildings, with a much more cohesive line of defense.

Meanwhile, Sandra’s forces were attacking the Undead from the rear and were absolutely devastating them.  It wasn’t just that her Angels, Pegasi, and Apes equipped with Steel Warhammers were Undead-killing machines, it was also that none of the Monsters in the rear of the horde seemed to pay them any attention or defend themselves.  They were all so intent on reaching the Dwarves that they apparently had no orders to do anything but that.

Things were looking good before one of the villager Dwarves hiding in the large building in the middle of the village looked out the window at the approaching horde and screamed; it was apparently just loud enough that the Undead heard her…and when one of them heard her, all of them heard her.  Two wings of Undead broke off from the side of the horde pushing against the Shieldmen, Gerold, and Felbar, and started to circle around the buildings to either side.

“NO!  Drecker, you’re with me; the rest of you…HOLD THE LINE!” Bregan shouted, tapping another Shieldman next to him and disappearing with him back behind the defensive line, aiming for the large building’s entrance.  It was likely locked, but when there was a duo of Ogre Skeletons accompanied by two dozen ghouls on the way, a wooden door wouldn’t present much of an obstacle.

Their absence didn’t seem to make much difference, as the horde was finally starting to ease up a little from the Undead that had moved away and the pressure on them from behind.  Gerold and Felbar eventually told the others to fall back for a moment while they took over, knowing that the exhausted and nearly spent Shieldmen likely didn’t have much left to give.  Luckily, large sweeps of the double-bladed axe the War Machine was wielding was all that was needed to push the incoming Undead back, giving them some room to recover.  Shortly thereafter, her constructs and other Dungeon Monsters finally managed to work their way through, destroying the rest of the horde with ease.

For the rest of the Undead that had gone around the building to go after the Dwarven woman who had screamed, it was another case entirely.  Bregan and the Shieldman named Drecker arrived moments before the undead, and they immediately went to work slicing through the ghouls who had outpaced the Ogre Skeletons, but there were too many of them to handle easily.  Not more than 10 seconds after they started to slice up the Undead with amazing speed and technique – especially considering the age of the older Dwarf – Drecker fell to one knee, the armor already starting to deteriorate as the Shieldman was emptied of energy.  The wounded ghoul he was fighting immediately fell upon him and helped the armor finish falling away, ripping out hunks of flesh at the same time.

Bregan, apparently conscious of his co-defender falling, seemed to go berserk, moving faster and at one point actually spinning in a circle as he chopped three ghouls in half with one swing.  He appeared to be winning…but then the two Ogre Skeletons arrived with their heavy steps reverberating the ground beneath his feet.

* Gerold, the old Dwarf is in trouble— *

Sandra tried to warn Gerold, hoping that he or one of the others could get there in time; the pressure on them was easing to the point where all of them could help, but it was too late.  Ignoring a ghoul trying to claw through his armor, Bregan just stood there and held his axe out, as if he was daring the Ogre to strike him with its bone club.  So, naturally, the Ogre obliged.

As soon as the club swung downwards and impacted the axe the Shieldmen leader held aloft – which amazingly stopped the heavy weapon – Bregan emitted a shout that seemed to come from his very soul.  As his voice rose in volume and the Ogre continued to try to push downwards, a fire began in the middle of the Shieldman’s chest, building larger as the seconds ticked by, until finally it burst out of him, hitting the Ogre with a massive burst of intense fire.  The Skeleton cracked apart and practically melted as it fell to the ground, before dissolving and leaving behind an Onyx Monster Seed.

Bregan, unfortunately, suffered nearly the same fate.  The fire that had burst from him appeared to consume both him and his armor in a flash, leaving behind a small pile of ash where a Dwarf stood just a moment before.  He had given his life in a blaze of glory to save his people…but they were still in danger.

The explosive fire had killed off all of the other ghouls surrounding the Dwarf – whether that was intentional or not, Sandra figured she’d never know – but the remaining Ogre was completely unharmed.  As the Dungeon Core watched it turn its attention to the large building, she heard more screaming coming from inside; looking back at her Monsters and the remaining Dwarves, she could see that they were quickly making their way there, but the massive Skeleton would have more than enough time to destroy half of the building – and kill quite a few of the villagers inside – before they could stop it.

The Ogre took a single step forward…and then was knocked flat on its back as an explosion