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

up in the ELA – or better known as the Enchanters Learning Academy – but it stopped when her tutors found out she was jumping off of houses for fun.

Approaching with what she hoped was visible confidence, Violet walked up to the first skeleton wolf and placed her hands on its back.  Rather than feeling like old bleached bones like she briefly thought they would, it instead felt warm to the touch, though only on the side facing the warm sun; it was a hard-but-smooth metal that was unfamiliar to her, but she definitely knew it wasn’t steel.  She – as well as everyone else in the village of Glimmerton – knew their steel, and this certainly wasn’t the same metal.

Without thinking about it too much, she lifted herself onto the top of the skeletal wolf – though, now that she was closer, the “bones” were looking more and more like metal bars with gears connecting the joints – and settled onto its back, gripping on tightly to its ribcage for support.  She looked back over at the others still on the roofs looking at her with horrified expressions on their faces.

“C’mon, what are you waiting for?  If they wanted to kill us, they could’ve done it at any time.  Besides, I don’t know about all of you, but I don’t want to get eaten by those giant lizards over there,” she told them with a little admonition in her tone.  They were being ridiculous; they had been saved and were being given a way out, and still they hesitated.

Her words must have convinced them, however, because first one and then all of them quickly jumped down and ran towards the…mechanical? wolves.  Only a few of them hesitated more than a moment, but they were soon all on and as ready as they were going to be.  It was just in time, too, because the other monster army was almost upon them.

I wonder if that had anything to do with their decision to come.  She thought it was her words, but it could’ve easily been the sight of monsters out for their blood that spurred them on.  Regardless, they’re coming – that’s all that matters.

Without any type of signal that they were starting, the iron-looking monkey started to run, still holding the unconscious form of Felbar in its left arm – the right one was used to help the metal beast move and support itself, because it couldn’t run very well on just two legs.  The wolves followed immediately after it, and she was almost knocked off of the back of her strange ride when it stood up and sprinted forward at full acceleration.  Luckily, she had grabbed on tightly beforehand and was able to hold on – though just barely.

Settling herself into its surprisingly gentle stride, she looked back to see the others following behind, expressions of fear and wonder warring with each other on their faces.  She thought that the same was probably on her face as well, though she had to admit that wonder and even a little enjoyment was at the forefront of her experience.  She’d never moved that fast before – at least when she wasn’t sealed up in a safe Mover box back in the capital; the unique and handy people-transportation system utilizing the Movers – that the Master Enchanters had created centuries ago – were great, but they barely even felt like she was moving.  Here, though, the air from their passage whipped her long brown hair back and every which way, and the steady movement of the metal wolf beneath her was almost hypnotic.

Looking farther back, she saw the other strange metal monsters following after them, though they held back as if they were presenting a screen of safety against the lizards and crocodiles that had turned to follow after them.  Fortunately, those dangerous reptiles were quite slow when compared to their rides, as well as the steel snakes and metal monkeys joining them.  The white healing cylinders weren’t left behind, either, as they were either picked up by one of the monkeys or placed on the back of one of the metal cats, where they appeared ready to topple off at any moment.  Fortunately, none of them actually did, which was encouraging for their survival.

Even farther back, she saw the metal monkey that had gotten its arm ripped off and another white cylinder with its tiny arms pressed against it.  If she wasn’t mistaken, the arm was actually growing back, which was just…crazy awesome.  However, she realized that unless they moved in the next few minutes, they would soon be overwhelmed by the following horde of reptilian flesh.

There was nothing that she could do about it, and she wondered why she even cared.  They were dungeon monsters, after all…right?  Despite that reasoning, though, she couldn’t help but hope that they escaped before they were swarmed over and destroyed.  It might have been gratitude from being saved by them, or even that one of them seemed like primarily a healer and not a fighter; regardless of the cause, though, she didn’t want them hurt.

They were moving very quickly over the wasteland and none of the strange metal monsters seemed to have any difficulty navigating their way around the hills and valleys and devastated land.  In fact, they were so efficient that Violet didn’t even realize where they were going until they started to slow down; she had expected them to keep going, perhaps even into the Orcish-controlled lands of Orcrim, which was where it appeared they were going.

She was okay with that, if that was where they were going; the Orcs wouldn’t kill them outright for passing into their lands, though it would be difficult to stay safe there.  She had heard that the dungeons had expanded even farther there than they had in her own land of Gnomeria, though with the sudden expansion of the reptile dungeon back near