The Crafter's Defense: A Dungeon Core Novel (Dungeon Crafting Book 2) Jonathan Brooks (large ebook reader TXT) 📖

nearby – even if it has to sacrifice its own monsters to do that,” Winxa remarked after listening to Sandra get frustrated.

That’s…a very good point.  It seemed as though the Core was now so focused on the Gnomes just sitting there, ripe for the killing, that it was ignoring everything else.  And if that was the case, then maybe she could get it to pay attention to her…

Instead of her constructs trying to get it to turn, Sandra instead had them all attack its front: legs, chest, face, and neck.  Her Wolves and Jaguars latched onto its legs, ripping out chunks of skin little by little; her Basher Totems started pounding on its chest, doing their best to break something internal; her two remaining Blademasters went right up into its face and started attacking its vulnerable eyes and likely-sensitive nose; finally, her Apes jumped up and caught hold of its neck, where they secured themselves and started pounding away, using their Iron-fueled strength to try to rearrange the bones underneath them.

It worked – for better or worse, she wasn’t quite sure yet.  Sandra thought it was the spinning Blademasters aiming for its eyes that snapped the Core out of its single-minded pursuit of the Gnomes; the Saurian immediately snatched both constructs out of the air and bit down on them.  They were destroyed instantly, and though they probably ended up cutting the inside of its mouth in the process, the damage done to the massive lizard was superficial.

It then did something she hadn’t seen it do before.  The Saurian bent down its front legs momentarily, shaking a few Wolves off in the process, before extending them quickly, causing its entire front end to launch off of the ground and raise almost 30 feet into the air.  Most of her constructs were still hanging on through the use of their teeth or arms – in the case of her Apes – but her Basher Totems were still on the ground waiting for the large lizard to come back down.

And it did, though it extended itself slightly forward and sped up its descent with a bunching of its muscles; the impact when it hit the ground – and flattened her Totems – caused some of the village’s walls that were damaged previously to crumble apart.  Most of the Gnomes lost their footing as well, but her constructs had taken the worst of it.

All but one of the Apes were shaken off the Saurian from the impact, and her Mechanical Wolves and Jaguars were thrown to the ground and most of them were slightly damaged – but still able to attack.  Her Totems were completely destroyed and one of the Apes that fell off had one of its arms sheared away, exposing its vulnerable glowing light at the center of its chest.

Before they could climb back on, the massive lizard surged forward, displaying more speed than it had previously; Sandra suspected that the lizard was utilizing elemental energy for some sort of special ability.  It managed to move the remaining 40 feet to the village walls – and the Gnomes that suddenly stepped back in fright – within a couple of seconds, far faster than her constructs could plan for.  And, despite her remaining Ape pounding away at its neck – to only mild effect – it reared its head back to strike at the closest group of Gnomes…

…and it suddenly froze at the apex of its strike.  The Saurian’s eyes glazed over, and its neck fell forward, narrowly missing the house where the Gnomes were standing with their Steel knives out.  It hit the stone wall nearby, causing it to crumple under the weight of its neck, while the rest of the Saurian collapsed to the ground in death.

Within a few moments, the massive lizard had dissipated, leaving behind a remarkably small blue Monster Seed in its place – as well as a single damaged Steel Python where its belly used to be.  Unbeknownst to the Ancient Saurian, her three remaining Pythons had crawled inside its side wound while it was distracted by her other constructs. They were searching for its heart – which turned out to be a bit farther back in its body than she was expecting – though when the massive lizard reared up, the pressure and bones inside the Saurian rearranged themselves a little, which ended up crushing two of them and damaging the third.  Fortunately, it was able to continue its search and struck at its heart just in time to save everyone.

Well, save everyone who was still alive…all nine of them.

Nine out of just over eighty Gnome villagers (if she counted the bodies right) were still alive; not necessarily a good result, but at least some of them survived.  What made it worse for Sandra, however, was that she knew that her presence was what was ultimately led to that outcome, regardless of what she did to save them.  It was her connection with the other Core that allowed the reptiles to attack in the first place; she only wished she had known about the danger sooner, so that none of them would’ve died.

With the massive Ancient Saurian dead, the remaining Gnomes and her constructs stood staring at each other.  She hadn’t thought that far in advance, so she wasn’t sure what to do; she still couldn’t technically communicate with them, though she was hoping that her demonstration of their defense would do the talking for her.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), being unable to communicate didn’t matter in the end.  The one she thought was called Violet stepped forward to speak, but her eyes caught on something in the distance and opened wide.  Sandra turned her Shears’ attention to where the little female Gnome was looking, and her figurative heart dropped.

Standing on the edge of the forest were two more of the Ancient Saurians, as well