The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 3) Jonathan Brooks (read me like a book .txt) 📖

with many of the Scouts, jumped on the struggling figure and swarmed it with their bodies.  Weapons rose and fell in frantic slashes and stabs, breaking through the tough exterior of the invader, even while attempting to avoid the wild swings of the four remaining weapons.  At one point, Sterge saw at least 5 Raiders holding onto the red-skinned arms, locking themselves in place with their legs, in an attempt to keep them restrained.  It seemed to do some good, as the flailing had lessened to the point where very few were getting hit anymore.

Looking up at a victorious yell coming from one of their own, Sterge saw Anton – missing half of his armor that at some point appeared to have been ripped off – raise his sword above his head and stab downwards with all of his strength.  From his location, he assumed he was somewhere near the invader’s neck or mouth, but there were so many people in between them that he couldn’t tell.  Wherever the disheveled Raider had struck, however, seemed to do the trick; a moment later the body underneath Sterge spasmed violently once, and then lay still.

Is it dead?  Did we kill it?  We…won?

Stunned and in shock, with some pain along his arm and ribs that apparently hadn’t been automatically healed, Sterge raised his head up and looked around at the arena and stands.  They were filled with the absolute carnage left behind by the attack, with blood, body parts, and dead invaders lying in the middle of it all.  Not exactly a victory.  But at least some of us survived. 

Stumbling away from the corpse of the most frightening monster he’d ever seen, the exhaustion that he’d been trying to keep at bay while they were fighting finally caught up to him.  Falling to his knees, he felt arms surrounding him as he was gently laid on the ground, his head cradled by something soft. He smiled with his eyes closed as he felt fingers running through his beard, and he succumbed to the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted.

Chapter 32

Tacca had watched the red-skinned invader break out of the Light Cage she had placed around it with despair.  She had been hoping that she would be able to keep it contained long enough that the massive block of iron ore she frantically created high above the arena ceiling would squish the monstrous person, but her Assistant ability obviously wasn’t meant to contain something that strong.  With the help of the other Cores, they had Carved enough of a passageway for the block to be able to break through the thin covering they left over the chute they made for the cube; it had been at least partially successful, though, even if it didn’t squish the figure completely.

Still, the price had been quite high.  Thousands of Raiders had died, along with a few hundred non-Raiders, and the aftermath was horrendous to see.

“I…have no words.  I mean, I’ve seen death in my dungeon plenty of times over the last few centuries, but nothing quite on this scale or level of gruesomeness.  If I had a stomach still, I think I’d be throwing up in a corner.”

“I feel the same way, Kenzie.  I’ve watched hundreds of horror movies in my day, as well as action flicks, but nothing could prepare me for what we just witnessed.”

Tacca could agree with both Kenzie and Brandon, because she felt the same way.  If she could be physically sick, she would be; as it was, the level of gore and devastation had made her a bit overwhelmed.  During the battle, she had been focused on other things – like attempting to keep as many people alive and to figure out a way to defeat the invaders – but now that she had a chance to look around, she felt like crying.

“Tacca.  Do you understand what you just did?  You defeated a small army of these things, and you didn’t even have to blow yourself up this time.”

No, Shale; we defeated them, not just me.  If it hadn’t been for the help of the Raiders, you and the other Dungeon Assistants, and the other Cores that we’re connected to, we couldn’t have succeeded in this.

She made sure to communicate with everyone that was a part of their little family, to impart her seriousness in how they all had played a part.

“What was that you used earlier?  The shockwave that seemed to short-circuit their Personal Force Fields and whatever else they had brought with them?”  David asked.

Short…circuit?  I’m not even sure what that means, but it was a special ability that I acquired from my last Core Improvement.  It’s called Omen Charge, and I wasn’t sure what it did until that moment.  It was a complete gamble, but it thankfully paid off. 

“That’s my girl!” Patrick interjected, strangely pleased that Tacca had gambled on their lives for some reason.

“I think…and I could be wrong, mind you, but I think it has to do with what happened to you the last time you were attacked by them.”

“What do you mean?” Shale asked.  “What does that have anything to do with what happened?”  Tacca was curious, as well, because it was all a mystery to her; her new ability, the etching all over her Core that David said looked like something he knew, and even her miraculous survival when she blew herself up.

“Now, I’m not an expert on interdimensional physics or anything like that, but I’ve read a lot of books and played a lot of games – so I know a little bit of theory behind it.  Now, you said that when you were attacked before, you ended up blowing yourself up through a chain reaction with this ‘synergy energy’ and by rupturing the dimensional space in these bottomless bags the Raiders carry, right?”

Tacca wasn’t sure what half of what he said meant,