The Crafter's Dominion: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 5) Jonathan Brooks (books that read to you txt) 📖

She scrambled to her feet even as she grabbed another bolt and released, impaling the Scout through the throat and catching in a bone, the force of the projectile so great it flung the monster back a few feet.  When it landed, she looked behind it to the back of the room, only to finally see what her Queen was talking about.

Dozens of Goblins were charging at them, hidden by a simple illusion.  She could see the trap now; rushing into attack the Brute and Scouts, those Goblins hidden by the Spirit-based illusion would quickly surround whoever got close enough and kill them.  With the trap nullified by the Queen, they had no other choice but to attack.

An arrow suddenly slammed into Echo’s shoulder, her surprise at there being so many Goblins in the room freezing her into inaction.  She felt the pain of the arrowhead piercing through her leather chest armor and into her flesh, but the force of the impact was worse than the sting of the arrow.  She immediately reached up to yank it out, not caring if it were barbed or not, which would rip her flesh – she didn’t want it ruining her aim.  She was pleasantly surprised to find that the arrow hadn’t penetrated that deep and practically fell out, only the tip of it showing a tiny smear of blood as she threw it away.

Stoneskin saves the day.

Finding the Goblin Archer along the back that had shot her, she immediately sent an explosive bolt at it, seeing that it was surrounded by 2 of its friends.  The bolt traveled nearly too fast to physically see it, let alone try to dodge it, and the Archers were quickly blown apart, pieces of them hitting a few other Goblins along the back of the charging line.  A dismembered arm smacked against what appeared to be a large Hobgoblin Mage, and the red-robed monster turned its attention towards Echo, flinging out a fireball at her, even as she suddenly felt ice forming at the bottom of her legs and feet, trapping her in place.

She tried to dodge out of the way, but she wasn’t going to be able to in time; instead, she fired another regular bolt at the Mage that was going to injure her severely, and she got satisfaction in seeing a bolt through its right eye just as the fireball hit her.  Or it would’ve hit her, if a thick sheet of ice hadn’t formed in front of her face, angled as to deflect the burning ball of flames off to her left.  The next moment, the ice around her legs seemed to melt and evaporate, and her King was there, giving her a wink before turning his full attention on the incoming horde of Goblins.

With everyone fully in the room now, and the monsters they were facing fully revealed, it was a slaughter.  Calling Starlight 3 down to pick her up, Echo barely got another bolt off to drill through the head of a stray Goblin Scout before it was all done.  King Mynag, First-shield Parten, Gerold, and Princess Celeste led the charge against the wave of Goblins, acting almost as a wall as they prevented anyone from passing by them.  Battleaxes sang out almost in unison, chopping through Goblin flesh, leaving headless and armless monsters in their wake.

Mynag and Parten had normal metal weapons, which were devastating in their own right, enhanced by whatever made their Shieldmen gear so powerful.  Gerold, on the other hand, had an axe made entirely from what appeared to be ice, and it left those he cut with it on the floor with frost forming over their wounds, which rapidly spread to the rest of the surrounding area.  It was actually beneficial for the Goblins for a few seconds because it numbed and stopped the bleeding of their open wounds, but their bodies soon froze up to the point where they couldn’t move.

In his left hand, he also had a shield made of what appeared to be shadow, which he used as a way to absorb damage from weapon attacks, almost like he was holding a large spongy pad; it didn’t allow him to bash at his targets or push them away like the other two Shieldmen, but it was highly beneficial, nonetheless.

The one thing the Nether-based shield couldn’t block, however, were hostile spells.  Instead, the armor, itself, helped to protect him.  Echo saw one of the Goblin Mages try to freeze his legs like one did to her, before sending a fireball in his direction – but that didn’t work out so well for the Mage, nor the Goblins he was facing off against.  The ice from the spell formed on his legs for less than a second, before it was broken apart and flung forward, deadly shards of frozen water impaling at least 2 Goblin Scouts and a Goblin Warrior in the process.  When the fireball hit his suit in the chest, he didn’t even bother blocking it; a layer of his own ice appeared to take the brunt of the heat, extinguishing the spell in the next moment.  It still staggered him backwards a step from the impact, but he was ultimately unharmed.

The Princess had a matching shield made from shadows, but instead of an ice-formed battleaxe, she had a smaller hatchet made of fire.  Or more precisely, flames that had been somehow solidified into a concentrated form, which made it very, very hot in a small area.  The pure heat of her hatchet was enough to slice through and cauterize flesh as quickly as it touched it, though the few hits on the metallic pieces of armor on the larger Goblins only managed to partially melt and warp the metal a little.  Echo wasn’t sure how it managed not to melt her Deep Diver suit, but it could apparently resist the heat with no ill effects.

The two Orcs were both