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

Well, that’s not good.

Chapter 17

“Look, I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but I’m willing to bet that you aren’t here to try to kill us.  I do know that staying here is out of the question, unless you have another army of ‘friendly’ monsters nearby,” Felbar asked loudly, the pain in his broken leg he had been trying to ignore up till then now plain in his voice. Violet couldn’t help but wince whenever she looked at his bent-out-of-shape lower appendage – she knew that she would’ve likely passed out from the pain long ago.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’,” Felbar continued, when the strange…things made no indication otherwise.  She still couldn’t believe that they were monsters from a dungeon, despite their fantastical appearance; however, she couldn’t deny that she had seen them fade away just as quickly as those darn lizards and crocodiles, leaving behind some dungeon loot in the process.  Most of them that had been destroyed had been leaving steel behind, which was the village’s main purpose for being on the edge of the wasteland in the first place.  “Then, what do you suggest we do?”

Violet looked at the old Gnome in surprise; that was the first time she had heard Felbar ask someone – or something – else for advice.  He was the one in charge of their operation there in the village, and he always seemed to know or have an answer for everything.  She was glad that he had survived the attack, even if he was wounded.  Although, she knew he would probably blame himself for the deaths of everyone else, even if it wasn’t his fault and he did everything he could to save them – that was just the kind of leader he was.

The strange monsters obviously couldn’t speak, being made of metal and all that, so Violet wasn’t expecting any type of verbal response.  Before they could do anything else, however, something else arrived before they could react.  Six weird white cylinders floated in from beyond the village and parked themselves next to the metallic monsters.  Suddenly, as if from nowhere, two thin arms emerged from the cylinders with squarish metal pads on the ends.

Violet tensed up for a moment, before she saw them approach some of the strange metallic skeleton wolves, where they placed their pads upon the places most damaged.  Before her very eyes, a veritable rainbow of colors was transferred between the two, and the wolves’ bones repaired themselves quickly – almost like a miracle.  With a mental click in her head, she realized the cylinders were healing the others; the only elemental energy she knew of that could heal like that was Holy energy, so she reasoned that the monsters couldn’t be all bad.

And if they can heal their own like that, maybe they can heal Felbar.

Looking at him again when he didn’t speak anymore, she realized there was a small pool of blood underneath his broken leg.  It wasn’t a life-threatening amount yet, but unless he got some care soon, he was going to die.  She knew of a few runes that could be used to heal him, but she didn’t have any of the materials needed to place the enchantment on; there were a few in the village, but they didn’t have time to find what she needed and save his life before the new lizard monsters could arrive.

Stepping up and making the decision for him – mainly because he had gone super pale and appeared to be struggling to stay upright – she called out in just loud enough of a voice to carry to the strange monsters waiting below, “If you can bring us somewhere safe, we would be forever grateful.  And if you have some way of healing Felbar here, we would be even more grateful.”

“Girl, don’t worry about me – take everyone else and run.  Leave me here…I’ve not got long, but I’ll do everything I can to delay them,” the old Warmaster weakly told her, before collapsing back as his strength finally left him.

Violet ran to his side and checked him over quickly; she sighed in relief as it seemed that he had just passed out and hadn’t passed on.  Still, though, if he didn’t get help, she didn’t think he would last more than a couple of hours.  She didn’t know what kind of internal injuries he had sustained from the horrific crash his War Machine had undergone, so it could be even less.

Out of the corner of her eye, Violet saw a line of the metallic skeleton wolves who had been miraculously healed by the white cylinders bend down so that they were lying flat against the ground.  She counted them and saw that there were eight of them – exactly the same number of Gnomes that were still standing.

“But what about—?” she started to protest, before one of the metal monkeys – she thought it looked like it was made completely out of iron – patted its chest.  It ran over to the wall in front of her and jumped up, catching the edge of the roof and easily pulling itself up.

Everyone else but her pulled their knives again and held it towards the metal monster, but it ignored them and gently picked Felbar up in its arms, cradling him like a baby.  If he ever finds out this happened, I shudder to think how he’ll react, Violet couldn’t help but think.  Of course, he’s got to survive first.

The monkey jumped off the roof with Felbar still cradled in its arms and moved to the front of the column of skeleton wolves.  Knowing there wasn’t much choice, she jumped off the roof as well, tumbling forward as she hit the ground; she used to practice that move as a child when she was growing