Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 01 Ch. 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

My static aura spell zapped Garnet.

She screamed in pain as she knocked me to the side. Something whizzed past me and struck into Garnet. I stumbled and whirled to see a thick arrow had crashed into her chest. It was the size of my fist.

She stared at me with a huge smile on her face, her skin blackened in spots from the magical protection on me. "Gonna take a nap. You better wake me up with a kiss!"

"Garnet!" I shouted and reached for her, dismissing my protection spell.

But she fell back and then her body melted away into darkness. The last to go was that smile on her face. Despite the pain, she had joy. She had saved my life. That ballista bolt would have rammed through me.

I trembled as her cute face dissolved away, the smile gone. My hands shook. This powerful blow struck my stomach. I wanted to throw up. But she was alive. I knew that. She would come back. I just had to win the day. She slept in the Void Crystal.

"She is in there, right, Souleen?" I demanded, clutching my spear.

"Yes, she is," Souleen said. Concern in her voice. "They all are. Don't you worry. Their souls are fine. I'm watching over them."

"Good." I swallowed. My little sister had taken a blow for me. I should have protected her. "If you can make her feel relaxed or something."

"Or something," Souleen said, sounding amused. "I'll take care of them. You just take care of yourself."

"Little sis," Hela whimpered at where Garnet fell.

"She's fine," I croaked. I glanced down the hallway. I could see the ballista at the end of the corridor. It had not reloaded.

"Vicious trap," said Halia. "We need a thief."

"You need to let me go first," Hela said. "I'm your scout. I can take it. You'll bring me back."

"I don't want you monster girls suffering for me," I protested.

"I know." She smiled at me, her ears twitching. Then she grabbed my shoulders and licked my cheek. "And that's why we love you."

"You love me because you were made to love me," I muttered.

"I don't think so." She wiggled against me. "Do you think the monster girls of dungeon builders love them when they're forced to do dumb things like raid villagers? Do you think they don't know when their master has no regard for their lives? You love us all, Lord Leo."

"Yes," Zaibas said. "So don't worry about us. If we die, you'll revive us."

"So just let us protect you and Halia," Hela said and then scampered down the hallway. She paused and sniffed at the ground. "Trap!"

"Your monster girls are something else," said Halia. "I never thought of them as anything more than wild beasts. Things to be killed. But they have feelings, don't they?"

"Doesn't everyone?" I asked. "That's the problem. Humans, even dungeon builders, can do such harm by being selfish. The dungeon builders just have more power to cause more harm."

I headed down the hallway, stomach tight with caution. We moved deeper into the dungeon. If we were about on the same power level, then we must be nearing the end of this dungeon. Hela padded before us, her cute rump thrust up in the air, tail wagging. Halia walked at my side, Lana Fulmine behind us with Zaibas taking up the rear.

I glanced up at the ceiling. There were holes in it. I swallowed. Was there another level to this dungeon? I realized they were ooze holes. That was how they had gotten the drop on us, dealing the damage that they had.

Hela hit a T intersection. She stepped into it and turned to the right. Then she gasped. She leaped to her feet and stumbled back. She held the horns of a satyr who had tried to gore her. The satyr pushed her back across the floor. Hela strained against the monster girl.

I charged forward and thrust my spear at the satyr. Hela growled, fighting to stop being pushed down the left branch. My weapon rammed in the side of the satyr. She bleated out in pain and blood spurted.

With a mighty heave, she threw Hela back. The wildhound stumbled to regain her balance, her feet dancing. She stepped on a tile. A click echoed. Then the floor opened up and she vanished from sight, falling down a pit trap.

"No!" I screamed.

The satyr fell dead at my feet before she vanished, returning to her owner's Void Crystal. My hands clenched in fury. My heart pounded with such rage. Another one of my monster girls hurt and dead. I hated this. It was so barbaric.

"It's okay," Zaibas whispered. "I'll take the lead."

"Wait," I gasped. "What about you? You'll just get killed."

"But you'll save me." She smiled at me. "We love you, Lord Leo. We're all willing to die for you. Garnet. Big Sis Lana. All of us."

I swallowed against the emotion and nodded. I felt terrible, but they were right. They were magical creatures. Their souls were never gone. I could always rebuild their flesh. I hated how this made me think of them as disposable.

No one should ever be disposable.

I gripped my spear and we pressed on. The tunnels wound and twisted and turned. Zaibas took steps with caution. She braced herself for the traps that she expected to fall on her. The holes in the ceiling made my skin crawl. There had to be a few monster girls left. What if an ooze fell on us? Just engulfed one of us and suffocated us in gel.

Zaibas reached a door. She grabbed the handle, her back set. Then she flung it open. Steam billowed around her. For a moment, I expected her to scream, but then it cleared to show a bridge out over the water. It was a warm room. Tendrils of vapor rose from the water.

"What's the trap?" I muttered. "Rooms this big have traps."

"Always," Halia said. "Never trust a room that you can't touch both walls at once. Monsters or traps are there."

Zaibas ventured into the room. It was a square, the bridge going out to the other side. It ended at a wall. I frowned as we stepped out with her. I glanced down the side. The water was about ten feet below. A single pillar supported the bridge right in the middle. It had a ladder running down the side to climb out of the water. The pool was a deep blue. The depth was impossible to say. The only door out was to our left. Ten feet above the water, no way to climb up to it. The walls were a smooth blue. Everything was wet. Water dripped from the ceiling, condensing from the steam.

"The bridge rotates?" I asked. "Giving you access to the exit."

"That's annoying," Halia said. She peered into the water. "I guess someone has to jump in there and activate a switch."

"It's right there, Lord Leo," Zaibas shouted. She pointed to it. Then she dived over.

"Wait!" I shouted, but she had already plunged into the water. Her bluish form almost vanished into the background, impossible to see.

Shapes moved.

Figures rose out of the depths fast. I could see fishtails swishing and hair billowing. Mermaids with big breasts surged in and attacked Zaibas. She twisted in the water as they seized her. Lightning flared from Zaibas, lighting up the water. One of the mermaids spasmed, but they had tridents they thrust at my will o' wisp.

"Fuck!" I snarled and undid the buckles on my breastplate.

"Leo?" gasped Lana.

"Going in after her," I growled and then pulled open my robes. I dropped them to the floor. I snagged up my spear. My wrists throbbed from the vines, but I didn't care. I dove into the water.

The warmth engulfed me. It was like swimming in a hot spring. The mermaids liked it warm. Zaibas twisted in the water. She dodged a trident thrust at her. Her electricity crackled, but the water was so big, how far could it travel before it dissipated. I lunged my spear into the back of one mermaid.

She stiffened. Blood drifted from her. Two more twisted around to face me. They had purple and green hair that billowed about them, scales matching their tresses. They formed fresh tridents. Zaibas swam at one, hugging her by the neck. The trident buried into her flesh even as she fired her lightning into the mermaid.

The other drew back and threw her trident at me. The three-pronged spear hurtled through the water, a trail of bubbles behind it. I kicked hard to the right. It flashed past me. Bubbles burst from my mouth. I had to breathe.

She formed another one as if she hardened it out of the very water around us.

"Shadows flow and darkness sharpen, let the cunning of Lord Zuen stab!" I shouted, unleashing my magic.

A blade of night flew from me through the water. Not as fast as it normally did, but she was in the process of drawing back her trident to throw it when it took her in between the breasts. Her eyes widened. She stared down at it protruding from her tits. Then she dissolved away.

I spun around to help Zaibas but...

I was all alone in the water.

I kicked for the surface, my lungs screaming. Spots of darkness danced across my vision. I clawed at the water, reaching for the top. Then I burst out with a mighty gasp of air. I sucked it in. Lana and Halia stared down at me, relief on their faces.

"Zaibas?" Lana asked, her voice tight.

I shook my head and swam for the controls. It was beneath the ladder. A wheel. I grabbed it, my feet treading water. How many of the enemy monster girls had we killed? I'd lost track. Did he have more to unleash? I didn't know.

I twisted the wheel.

The entire structure swung with a grinding that rumbled from deep in the water. It was slow, a ponderous turn as it twisted the weight of the bridge. Lana and Halia both stumbled for a moment before catching their balance.

The bridge aligned with the other door now.

I climbed out, panting. I spilled over the top of the bridge. Halia held my robes for me. She didn't say anything, but I could see the pain in her face. She had such compassion in her eyes. She had changed so much from that first day I'd met her.

No, she hadn't changed. I was just seeing the other side of her. Not the adventurer, but the woman. I nodded to her in thanks and slipped on the robe. I knotted it closed. I donned my breastplate and, without a word, we marched to the door.

Lana opened it with a smile. She tensed as she jerked it open. I expected the click. The firing of a thick bolt into her chest. But nothing. We had another stone corridor. Vines draped down the walls here.

I groaned in resignation.

Lana Fulmine fired a sweep of lightning from her wings. It crackled down the hallway. Her hair crackled as she did. Vines crisped. Parts burst into flames. She stepped out into the hallway, tense, walking before me, head moving.

Nothing attacked her.

Halia and I followed her. My wet boots crunched on crisping plants. Halia held her sword low and ready to slash at them. We moved slowly, cautiously, down the hallway. Nothing attacked us. We reached the door.

Heavy. Metal. Reinforced.

It felt important. I swallowed. The throne room lay beyond. I could feel it. Lana seized the handle. She yanked it open. It creaked upon a large room. The floor was a swirl of green and blue, small mosaic tiles that danced around each other to form intricate patterns that could only be realized from above. Several columns thrust up to the high ceiling. Vines grew across, forming a verdant spiderweb.

A man sat on a throne at the far end. He wore bluish armor that appeared to be made of scales like a fish. He had a warhammer across his lap, water dripping from the end of it. He smiled, his face a swarthy brown. Black hair spilled down around his youthful features.

Two monster girls flanked his throne. A naga with the lower half of a blue snake with white bands. Her hair fell about her lush and vicious face, matching her scales. She had no arms, her human torso as serpentine as her lower half. The second was a lean and feline monster girl. She had a pale body with black tiger stripes across it. Orange hair spilled down around her haughty and gorgeous face. Long whiskers thrust from her cheeks. She smiled, fangs flashing. Cat ears thrust above her head, triangular and twitching while a fuzzy tail swished behind her. She licked her lips, her hand lovingly resting on the dungeon builder's shoulder.

In the back, a cage held a huddle of village girls all wearing slips that barely covered their bodies.

Anger boiled through me. "I'm here for the girls!"

"Welcome, welcome," the dungeon builder said. He stood up, tall and strong. "I am Jindag. What an honor to host you."