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

a quick but not too fast of a pace.  She knew she could probably outrun them if she wanted to, but since they were all keeping together and regulating their pace to their slowest members, she didn’t want to take the chance that a few of them were much faster.  She had seen those metal snakes that came from the strange dungeon move nearly as fast as she could even when she used her Air elemental energy to boost her speed, and she didn’t want to risk a flesh-and-blood one having the same ability.

So, Echo maintained her constant speed ahead of the army and even managed to put a little distance between them before she arrived near the dungeon in the middle of the wastelands.  She had briefly considered running straight back to her village to warn them of all that she had seen but held off for fear that the reptiles following her would somehow be able to track her to her village.  The last thing she wanted was to lead them there; it was much better if they attacked the strange dungeon and destroyed it, making the incoming Elites’ job unnecessary.  Of course, it would probably result in all the Gnomes that had been taken being killed as well, but it was probably a better fate than whatever plans the dungeon had for them.

As she watched the lizards and the other reptiles get within 500 feet of the entrance, she watched them break formation and the fastest of them surged forward.  The smaller lizards reached there first, with the crocodiles and then the turtles entering next; the snakes were left behind, as they had difficulty slithering up and down the broken hills and valleys of the wastelands.

From where she was positioned, Echo couldn’t see anything inside the entrance, but she definitely heard the sounds of metal pounding against rock, frantic hisses from struggling reptiles, and the snap of crocodile jaws opening and closing.  She even thought she heard the cracking of what she presumed were the shells of the giant turtles, as there were multiple wet-sounding *cracks* echoing out from the tunnel leading in.  In a remarkably short time, the sounds stopped just as the snakes reached the dungeon, where they disappeared inside without a sound.

Silence descended upon the broken valley where she found herself at a loss of what to do.  On the one hand, she was exhausted and needed to rest; the best idea for her was to go back to her village and tell everyone what she had seen that day and let them decide what to do with the information.  On the other hand, she was curious whether or not the reptile monsters had managed to destroy the heart of the dungeon.  Either prospect involved moving, which was not something that she wanted to do at the moment.

Therefore, she decided to wait for a little bit to see if anything emerged from the entrance.  If some of the foreign reptile monsters ended up succeeding and destroying the heart deep down inside, then they would likely try to leave before the dungeon collapsed – or at least that’s what she heard happened when the dungeon heart was destroyed.  It usually took a few hours for it to fully collapse – from the stories that she had heard – which was why there were survivors in the first place to pass on the tales.

After about 30 minutes, nothing seemed to be happening; the reptile monsters’ success was in doubt, as nothing had stirred since the last snakes went inside the entrance.  Picking herself up with a weary sigh, Echo got ready to make the trek back to Avensglen; her Holy elemental energy was almost nil, but her Air energy was still relatively full – so she should be able to outrun anything that saw her without her active camouflage.  Though, she had to admit that the recent events had been extremely odd, and the verdict was still out – in her mind, at least – on whether or not the dungeon there actually posed a threat or not.

Elder Herrlot will know what to make of all this.  She’s older than dirt and she’s seen just about everything—

As Echo was thinking that she took a step out of the shadow she was hiding in and felt a piercing pain in her left calf.  Looking back, she saw a red/orange-colored snake latched onto her leg, the light and thin clothing she had borrowed providing very little protection against its fangs as they sank deep into her calf.

She involuntarily screamed louder than she had ever screamed before; whether it was from pain or from the sight of a snake so close to her, she couldn’t tell.  She grabbed the knife off her belt while still screaming and started to bend down to try to cut it off – but her vision started to swim, and she almost lost her balance.  Two quick whistling sounds followed by a *thunk* *thunk* sharpened her awareness as she looked for the source of the sound while trying not to fall down.

Two of the metal scissors that she had seen up in the sky had impaled the snake, cutting it in half down below before slicing through the bottom of its neck.  All three dissipated after a moment, leaving dungeon loot behind – but by that point, she was nearly incoherent with pain and didn’t even see what they were.  Echo finally lost her balance and collapsed onto her side, her prized bow tumbling away from her as she fell; she tried to rise, but she was having trouble even moving.  In fact, she was having trouble even breathing, as each breath was getting harder and harder to bring into her lungs.

The last thing her eyes saw before they closed – for what she feared was the last time – was a large shape emerging from the dungeon entrance.

Chapter 22

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