Dungeon Builder's Harem Book 03 Ch. 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

"We can't hold," shouted Zobens, the first orc I had made. "He's spotted us. FOR LORD LEO!"

"FOR LORD LEO!" the others roared in my mind.

I ran through the labyrinth in a full suit of armor summoned by Metalcoat. Static Aura crackled about my body, Revitalize suffused me with greater energy, Strength of Mountain gave me immense strength, and Granite Flesh made my flesh as hard as stone. I had every buff I thought I could use.

Then the next round of dying began.

Orka died first. I felt her vanishing.

"Fuck!" I snarled, racing through the labyrinth as fast as I could. The others were right behind me.

Snezhinka perished. The yuki-onna snuffed out by this monster that had invaded my dungeon. How could this be the work of one man? Moroz, Dzelzs, and Briesmoni died. He was cutting through my orcs and yuki-onna.

"KILL HIM!" Zobens shouted. "NO FEAR! FOR LORD LEO!"

"No," I groaned as Belyy and Sukkub died.

That left only Zobens in the fight. The rest of the orcs and all the yuki-onna were dead. My forces were getting so horribly reduced. I burst through the lightning trap room, racing past the ruined pillars towards the door that had been cut down.

"I hurt him!" Zobens cried out in my mind, such joy in her voice.

And then she died.

I roared my fury. I would murder this thing. I would kill it. Extinguish it. Whatever it was, it would not survive the day. I had come too far, learned too much, to let it end. I would not let my family perish. We were surviving today.

* * / *

Lana Fulmine fretted.

Leo was in the dungeon, but the attacker was almost to the Flooded Bridge Room. He would have to swim into the waters, raise the bridge, and turn it. All the quetzalcoatl, mermaids, and hippocampi would be there.

He would have to enter their element.

Please, please, stop him, She prayed. She didn't know to who. Lana couldn't remember the last time she had been in church. Not since she was a kid.

Lana Fulmine didn't want Leo to get anywhere near this monster. The more monster girls he killed, the more it scared her that Leo would perish if he faced the monster. The other deaths didn't matter. Even if Lana herself died, that would be a price worth paying to stop this creature.

She could come back to life.

The monster who had invaded the dungeon reached the Flooded Bridge Room. If he wasn't stopped here, Crystal would get her chance to fight. He would reach the throne soon. Unless he couldn't figure out that there was a concealed door and that he had to swivel the bridge. Leo didn't use any other hidden doors in the dungeon.

He didn't want his enemies to figure out that it was something he did. This was his best plan of trickery. If they could get this far, they were a dangerous group. He would rather have them enter the false labyrinth and deal with more traps.

The red dot burst into the room. Here he paused. The quetzalcoatls converged in to attack from the air while the mermaids and hippocampi were ready to pounce if the shadowy man jumped into the water. Lana rubbed her hands together.

Please, please drown him, she prayed. Stop him.

The dot moved. It was a two-dimensional map, so it was impossible to say what elevation he was, but he must be in the water. The quetzalcoatl circled while the mermaids and hippocampi surged in to attack.

Hope rose in Lana. Surely in the water, he would be at such a disadvantage, the mermaids and hippocampi could drown him. He had to be able to breathe. Almost everything breathed. Not Terra nor Hagane. But this monster had to breathe.

Skela's dot vanished.

"Just one," whispered Lana. Only a mermaid. Not a--

Kelpa the Hippocampus winked out.

Terra groaned.

"Fuck!" snarled Crystal.

Only three blue dots remained in the water. They could do this. Lana's wings trembled. They had to stop him here. This madness had to end.

But Pani, Mase, and then Ghoda all died. The waters were clear. Nothing to stop him from raising the bridge. He moved to the middle of the room where the activation switch lay. Lana trembled, fear rippling through her.

"The bridge is up," Gyvate reported. "And he's rotated it. He knows about the door. We'll try to hurt him!"

The circling dots converged. They would be over the shadowy form. He marched towards the door, moving at it. Lana imagined the flying serpent-girls firing their lightning from their eyes while their rainbow hair flowed behind them.

Gyvate perished first. Followed by Iaidas, Skale, Vaivory, and Sparnas. The red dot reached the door and breached it. All that stood between him and the throne room were a series of trivial traps that would only slow him down.

"Get ready," Baaghi growled. "Fan out. Mrs. Baldwin, restrain him with your roots. Lana, support us from the air."

Lana nodded, flapped her wings, and rose. Terra shaped her fist into a battering hammer while Crystal formed shards of ice that she could throw. They spanned out, Baaghi falling in a crouch. The dot moved down the hallway and reached the guard room where Usiku, Paanee, and Baaghi lived.

* * / *

I burst into the darkness room, able to see because it was my dungeon. The will o' wisps had thrown out their ropes with grappling hooks and left their alcoves, shimmying over the bridge. It took them time, but Zaibas, Svyte, and Kibir fell in behind me.

"He's at the throne room!" Lana shouted as I burst into the second labyrinth.

"Just hold!" I cried, fear beating through my chest as I ran the most direct path to get to the throne room. "We're almost there!"