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

her village she wasn’t so sure anywhere was safe anymore.  It had caught them completely unaware and unprepared; even if they had left the dungeon alone and stopped culling its monsters for years, it still wouldn’t have reached their village.  Felbar and the two other War Machine pilots had been culling in the forest when the attack started, in fact, and she was sure they were just as surprised as everyone else.

Thoughts of those that had died filled her with sorrow, but she tried to push it away as she took in where they were.  The time for mourning was for later, once they were all safe; being one of the few Apprentice Enchanters that had survived the destruction of the ELA meant that she was technically in charge of the well-being of the village, especially since Felbar was down.  She would’ve given anything for him to be there to help make the kind of decision she had to ensure their safety – he was a salty old War Master, but he always had their best interests at heart.

As the metal wolves slowed down to a walk, Violet realized they had arrived at their destination already.  And, if she wasn’t mistaken, she was staring at the entrance of a dungeon.

Chapter 18

As soon as the group had left the Gnome village, Sandra had pulled back the new constructs that had been heading there to reinforce them; they weren’t really needed anymore, especially when she saw the relatively slow speed of those chasing after them.  While some of the snakes and smaller lizards could move fairly quickly, the large crocodiles and giant turtles couldn’t.  And as for the two new Ancient Saurians, they traveled the slowest of all with their lumbering movements.

She was both pleased and saddened by how the Gnomes had been practically forced into coming with her constructs.  Sandra was glad that she had been able to convince them that she meant no harm, though when they learned the truth of the entire situation and that it was ultimately her fault that they had been attacked in the first place, she didn’t know how they would react.  Since the deaths of the Gnomes had likely fueled the creation of the first Ancient Saurian – as well as the additional two – Sandra didn’t think they’d take the news well.

Her remaining forces were easily able to keep far ahead of the reptilian army, which was now separated into two major groups, which she kept track of via her Shears above.  The first was comprised of the smaller reptiles like snakes and crocodiles and they stuck together instead of traveling at different speeds.  That alone showed that they were being controlled by another intelligence, because otherwise they would’ve been spread out and it was possible that some of the smaller-yet-faster lizards could’ve caught up; the fact that they were held back from doing that proved that the Core controlling them knew that attacking as a group was preferable to attacking alone.  While Sandra didn’t have much experience in the ways of battle and fighting, she knew that much at least.

One of her Repair Drones had stayed behind to continue repairing the one-armed Ironclad Ape still near the Gnome village.  She could’ve stopped it if she really wanted to and had it escape with the others even if the repair was only half-done, but she reasoned that it might be prudent to employ a small delaying force.  Granted, it would be a very small force comprised of a single Ape and a defenseless Drone, but every little bit would likely help.

The repair and “regrowth” of the Ape’s arm was complete only seconds before the Core’s reptilian army arrived.  As soon as it was done, though, she had her larger construct go wild, tearing into the enemy with flying fists and leaping from place to place, in an effort to do as much damage and cause as much disruption as possible.  Sandra knew that it wouldn’t be able to do much to stop them, but that wasn’t the point – they just needed to be delayed.

It worked…up to a point.  For more than a minute, her Ape jumped around and did its best to avoid attacks by the reptiles; it ended up killing a crocodile and a half-dozen smaller lizards while it was on its rampage, but it was eventually pulled down by another crocodile that was able to clamp down on her construct’s leg with its jaws.  Without the ability to jump away, her Ape attempted to free itself, but was quickly overrun and literally torn apart.  Even though they were weaker flesh-and-blood monsters in comparison to her constructs, they were powerful in their own right.

Her Repair Drone didn’t even try to fight or run, as it was incapable of defending itself and couldn’t move faster than the reptile army.  It was surrounded after Sandra’s Ape went down and with a quick clamp of a crocodile’s jaws, the white cylinder was crushed and destroyed.  Shockingly, however, the puncturing of its form caused something unexpected to happen – it blew up.  An explosion of multi-colored light erupted in all directions, which caused the jaw of the crocodile crushing her Drone to be completely blown apart.  With half of its head missing, the deadly reptile faded from view as it dissipated in death.

The surrounding reptiles were blown away as well, though none of them looked seriously hurt from the explosion.  Only the one that had destroyed her Drone had been killed, though even that was a surprise – she had no idea that her construct would do that, and she had to keep that fact in mind for the future.

Without anything else impeding them, the smaller-yet-more-numerous reptile force investigated the village for any survivors and then took off after Sandra’s constructs – and the Gnomes tagging along.  As she had stated before, they kept together in one large bunch, even though they