Monster Mansion 2 Dante King (korean ebook reader txt) 📖

and let these fuckers in—they’re burning and destroying the suburb as they come up the hill, so we need to get them inside as soon as we can before they can do any more damage. Can you keep the adventurers occupied in the Castle Hall dungeon for now?”

“I can.”

“Then we’ll keep the Technomancer’s army occupied in the grounds.”

“But what will you do if the Technomancer breaks through to the mansion?”

“I fully intend that he will. When he and his forces get through, we’ll trap them in the Granite Cave dungeon and fight them there.”

“Got it. Jeremy, you should leave the dungeons to me for the moment. You’ll be needed outside.”

“When I say so, open the gates.”

We shared a moment’s affection—like the psychic equivalent of a hug—through our mental bond. Then, I extracted my awareness from the sentient dungeon mode and found myself back in my body, standing in the mansion’s main hallway.

Belinda was there with her gun in her hand, looking agitated. She had realized something was wrong, but she didn’t know what.

“The Technomancer is attacking. He’s brought a massive army!”

That was enough for her. I dashed to the armory in the main training area and grabbed a gun, then Belinda and I dashed out to the watchtowers. Belinda joined Amanda in her tower, and I climbed up to join Selena in hers. Astrid had the power of transforming into a mega-powerful werewolf, and though Selena was a good fighter, she had no such ability. I met Astrid’s eye from my tower, and knew she understood why I’d chosen to join Selena and not her.

“Kyrine,” I called. “Open the gates.”

She didn’t reply, and even from a distance I could feel her concentration as she divided her attention between managing the pocket dungeon and opening the gates.

They clanged back, and the Technomancer’s army flooded in.

They were cyborgs of all shapes and sizes. There were too many to count. Huge, lumbering ten-foot-tall robotic exoskeletons controlled by a wasted-looking, zombified human inside. Around their feet, smaller ones rushed. With their black outer shells, half rotten flesh and blinking eye lights, they reminded me of the Borg from Star Trek. The difference was that these guys were fast, quick as rage zombies, and they howled and roared as they poured in like a flood tide to the mansion’s grounds.

Hurrying around the feet of the cyborg army were rats the size of dogs, transformed by circuitry and wiring and black magitech casings. Each one had a gun mounted on their back, and huge metal teeth in their mouths. They didn’t move as quickly as actual rats, but they moved fast enough.

I called out to everyone in the towers. “Open fire!”

The crackle of Storm Spheres filled the air as the women unloaded on the monstrous host.

I turned my attention to the grounds.

When we were setting up the area for the monstrous creatures to come through the portal, we had sectioned it off from the rest of the grounds with high hedges. Now, I focused on the hedges and dispersed them. I concentrated on the lures, and then moved them away from the wilds and in toward the path of the army.

The Technomancer’s army was still pouring in, making a horrible screeching roar combined with the clank and rumble of the massive dreadnoughts.

I took aim with my gun and began to fire bolts of Storm Sphere down into the crowd.

Kyrine’s voice came into my head, sounding strained. “I can’t hold the glamor to shield the towers anymore, Jeremy, the strain is too much.”

“Lift it then,” I said. “We’re going to have to come down into the melee soon enough anyway.”

The glamor shimmered and vanished, and the host turned its attention on us immediately. The dreadnoughts seemed to be the commanders, and they roared out instructions in metallic voices, pointing at the towers. The massive rats charged the towers and began to gnaw at their legs with their giant teeth.

“Jeremy!” said Selena, sounding scared. “We’re going to fall, and I don’t even have a melee weapon!”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll be fine!” I wasn’t entirely sure of it myself, but she seemed reassured by my words at least.

There was a roaring noise and a whole host of wild beasts attacked the Technomancer’s army from the left flank. The smell of rotting flesh that came from the cyber-zombies of the Technomancer’s army egged the beasts on, and they attacked with more ferocity than I could have hoped for.

Moments later, I saw Astrid’s tower begin to topple. The massive rats leaped away, screaming, and I heard a thunderous roar as Astrid made her transformation into werewolf as she fell. She flung herself at them, jaws snapping and claws rending, and they broke and fled, charged again, then broke and charged again.

“Our tower is falling!” yelled Selena.

“Hold on to me!” I shouted. She grabbed me, and we waited until the very last moment before leaping from the tower into the crowd.

As we fell, I summoned a Force Barrier to cushion our fall. It worked, blasting a gap in the crowd and catching us so that we landed on our feet steadily, rather than crashing to the ground and breaking our necks.

Selena dropped into a crouch and began to squeeze off Storm Sphere rounds, but the army was massive, and they were still coming in. Every enemy we shot was replaced by two more.

“We can’t fight them from here!” I shouted. “Fight your way back to the mansion! Back to the mansion! Come on!”

On my right, Amanda and Belinda were fighting back-to-back. Belinda was fighting with her favorite weapon, a big heavy flail with a spiked head on the end of a swirling chain. Amanda was firing blasts with her rifle, then smashing in cyborg faces with it if they got too close. On my left, Astrid was